The Checkmate A1500 Plus: A Beautiful Tribute to the Amiga 3000

As I began building my A1200, I couldn't help but feel a sense of disappointment. The case, designed specifically for the Amiga 500's keyboard, left me feeling like I was missing out on the fun. The top-right corner, where an LED display would have added a touch of elegance to the design, remained blank and unadorned. It was as if the creators had overlooked this crucial element in their haste to bring forth a product that catered to the Amiga 500 crowd.

The case itself is a masterclass in design. Much like the classic Commodore wedge, it exudes a sense of nostalgia and retro charm. The overall aesthetic is fantastic, with clean lines and a rugged texture that speaks to the machine's utilitarian roots. However, despite its many merits, the A1500 Plus has its fair share of quirks and design choices that leave one scratching their head.

One such quirk lies in the placement of the LED indicators on the case. While they work nicely, their positioning is a bit wonky, leaving me to wonder why this decision was made. The creators seem to have prioritized form over function, resulting in a design that doesn't quite feel cohesive. And yet, I must admit that even with its questionable quirks and odd design choices, the A1500 Plus wins me over.

The price tag of £179 or around $220 for the case alone is steep, but it's not unreasonable considering the quality of materials used and the limited batch production. After all, this isn't a mass-produced PC case; it's a bespoke creation made by a small company in small quantities. Pricing reflects that, and I find the cost reasonable, especially when compared to other Amiga cases on the market.

The A1500 Plus is, of course, geared towards the Amiga 500 crowd, but I'd argue it's not exclusive to them. The case is versatile enough to accommodate a variety of configurations, making it an excellent option for anyone looking for a high-quality, custom-built PC. As it stands, there simply aren't many options available in beige colors schemes, and this creation fills that gap admirably.

In the end, I'm happy with my A1200 build, as long as it runs Fire & Ice and Another World smoothly. I plan to make some changes and upgrades, including installing a custom USB mechanical keyboard with Amiga keycaps, replacing the keyboard cable with a right-angle USB-B connector, and adding networking and CompactFlash adapters. Perhaps I'll even find room for a CD-ROM drive, ROM upgrade, or accelerator card that fits within the case's design constraints.

As I look to the future, I'm excited about the possibilities the A1500 Plus presents. With a little creativity and some TLC, this machine can be transformed into something truly special. For now, though, I'll just enjoy the process of building it out and exploring its capabilities.

For those interested in joining the Amiga community, I'd highly recommend checking out the homebrew scene. It's an exciting world filled with talented individuals pushing the boundaries of what's possible with these classic machines. If you have any ideas or suggestions for my A1200 build, please don't hesitate to share them in the comments below.

As always, thank you very much for watching, and I'll catch you all in the next video!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enGreetings, and welcome to an LGR Amiga thing!Specifically we’re gonna be dropping a CommodoreAmiga 1200 into this fantastic-looking case,the Checkmate A1500 Plus.A self-proclaimed “stylish, versatile, expandable”computer case that’s built to house anyone of half a dozen different systems, fromAmigas, to PCs, to Raspberri Pis and beyond.Aesthetically, it’s based on the classicCommodore Amiga 3000 from 1990, but its rootsactually go back even further than that tothe Checkmate Digital A1500 in 1989.A topic nicely-covered in this video on theRetroManCave YouTube channel, so check thatout if you wanna know the full story.But the gist is that Checkmate made a nicedesktop case for the Amiga 500 back in ‘89and Commodore was like “nope!”Proceeding to spitefully release the Amiga1500 in 1990, thoroughly raining on the paradeof both Checkmate Digital and one of its designers,Stephen Jones.And this brings us to the modern CheckmateA1500, courtesy of iMica Limited and MisterSteve Jones himself, who sent over this specialLGR review unit.That being said, this is not sponsored andthere’s no revenue sharing going on.Steve offered this review unit out of theblue and I said yesbecause dude, just look at it!An off-white horizontal desktop computer casemanufactured in the current year, this kindathing just doesn’t happen anymore.And while I considered putting an MS-DOS PCinside, eh, I’ve done plenty of those andI was in the mood for something different.So today we’re gonna be building a customAmiga 1200 computer system using an assortmentof both new and vintage components.A PAL region system, no less, since many ofmy favorite games are designed for it andswitching over from NTSC anytime I wanna bootsomething up gets annoying.Enough with the contextual foreplay though,let’s go ahead and dive into this lovely package.First up we’ve got a flyer advertising thecase, showing off an aspirational exampleof a complete Amiga setup.And down below that we get right to the good stuff.The Checkmate A1500 itself, wrapped in plastic,begging to be unsheathed and put into action.On top we’ve got another couple sheets displayingthe black version of the case and some orderinginfo that is now unfortunately out of date.More are being built at the time of recording though,with new batches taking 10 to 12 weeks to produce.Then there’s this delightful spiral-boundmanual chock full of tasty info,but we’ll come back to that.Because right now, ahh, just look at thisbeige beauty!One that’s made with UV resistant materials,so hopefully it won’t yellow with age.I can’t remember the last time I saw a brandnew horizontal desktop form factor case, muchless one so delightfully beige and relativelycompact.For comparison, this is what it looks likesitting next to an IBM AT built in 1988,it absolutely dwarfs the Checkmate.Of course, by the mid 90s most desktop PCswere shrinking in size, like this PackardBell Legend 486, but the Checkmate is stillnoticeably smaller.That doesn’t mean it skimps on slots anddrive bays though, with two 5.25” bays upfront, a slot for PCMCIA on the side, andall manner of cut-outs and openings aroundback, with mine being preconfigured for usewith the A1200 and 600.And this is a big part of the case’s modularity,since this entire back plate can be replacedto fit the I/O needs of differing systems.Speaking of which, the case isn’t the onlything that arrived here.Also sent over were these additional rearpanels for the Checkmate, with one for theAmiga 500, a PC motherboard with verticalslots, and PCs with horizontal slots.The latter two being made to fit half heightexpansion cards, with the case itself tooledfor Micro ATX and Mini ATX motherboards.And these last boxes include an array of excellentextras: a drive bay assembly with some wiringand such, two front drive bay covers, onefor housing 3.5” devices and one for a slot-loadingLG optical drive, and one of my favorite featuresof the case: the keyboard risers.Yes indeed, screw these onto the bottom ofthe case to raise the whole thing upso a keyboard can nestle in underneath.Something I’ve always admired about theAmiga 1000 and yeah,having it on a brand new case is just fun.One item we won’t be using in this buildis this A500 ATX power and Zorro 2 interface card,but it was included anyway so here itis.Kinda wish I was installing an Amiga 500 boardjust so I could make use of this.Instead, all we’ll need for the A1200 isthis ATX power adapter kit that’s alreadyinstalled in the case.Oh and one more thing, check this out!Also available from them are these keyboardhousings, letting you use the original Amigakeyboards inside a metal case that matchesthe Checkmate.So all you need are the guts of the keyboarditself, some adapters and cabling to connectit to the motherboard, and yeah this is gonnabe awesome.I love a big metal keyboard housing.As for the Amiga parts themselves, that’sup to me to supply, and I have a few spareparts and systems to choose from.I’ve got a nice A1200 keyboard assembly,a very yellow Amiga 1200 parts system from France,and an accelerator card.I’m not entirely sure which of this I’llbe using yet, but there are definitely a numberof promising components to try out here.Namely this Blizzard 1230 Mark IV from 1995,an addon that connects to the trapdoor slotand provides a real time clock, up to 128megs of RAM, a 50 megahertz 68030 CPU, andin this instance a 68882 FPU as well.This was all generously donated by a viewer named Maximillien,so thank you again for these and the other Amiga things you sent in!And just in case the parts machine doesn’twork, I’ve also got this spare A1200 motherboard.Like the other machine, this too is a PALsystem, only from the UK instead of France.It was fully recapped a couple years ago too,so it’s a solid standby if I run into problems.In terms of power supplies, we’re gonnabe using a 300-watt BeQuiet SFX Power 2.And yep, the Checkmate case needs an SFX form factor PSU or smaller,full-sized ATX supplies are too bulky.And finally, I’ve got some mice, adapters,cables, and other spare parts and doodads.Some of this will be necessary, like a KeyrahV2b and Sum 1200 USB keyboard adapter forthe external keyboard, but others are moreoptional or just kinda fun.Stickers, badges, spare ROM chips, disk labels,an Amiga ruler.Yeah I dunno, I was getting a package importedanyway so why not.Right, so let’s take a look inside the caseitself,which is opened by removing these two screws here.The top of the case simply slides off and...Well, this is different.You can’t just continue sliding, you haveto angle the thing over an edgeand slide it downward.If it’s flat on a desktop, there’s noway to open the case lid, and the same goesfor putting it back on.According to the manual this so-called “feature”is due to the modular design, though thatdoesn’t make it any less irksome to dealwith.Once you are inside though it is quite pleasant,with ample space and all kinds of standoffsready for mounting things.And with this review unit, it came preparedfor my particular build with this PSU controlboard for connecting the SFX power supplyto the A1200 motherboard.And up front is a little PCB for connectinghard disk and power LEDs,with both PC and Amiga system support.I appreciate the embossed names in there too,with “Father of the Amiga” Jay Miner andCommodore engineer Dave Haynie emblazonedwith respect.So yeah, at this point we’re about readyto start building!But before we start screwing things in, let’stest the hardware first, cuz it’s been yearssince I last booted this up and you just never know with these things.Yeah so that’s promising!After a little DeoxIT on the power connectorit started right up.The hard disk is spinning and the floppy driveis getting power, although both are makingsome concerning clicky noises here and there.Still, it managed to boot into Scalos,a desktop replacement for the usual Amiga Workbench OS.This was something already set up and runningon the hard drive back when I got this machinehowever many years ago, filled with all kinds of applications and games.Copyright 'Satanic Dreams Software.'Gotta love that ‘90s edge.And yeah, while it appeared to be workingat first, I quickly ran into problems wherethe system would stop reading files from the hard drive,eventually leading to a Software Failure that required a reset.The floppy drive fared even worse, refusingto even move the read/write head, much lessrecognize a single disk.And considering the age, dirtiness, and unknownwear and tear on these drives,I can’t say I was too surprised.Thankfully, I’ve also got this IDE to CompactFlashadapter I can use, something I’d actuallyplanned to upgrade to anyway so this savesme a step later on.It plugs into the same 44-pin header as thehard drive since it’s pin compatiblewith IDE, doesn’t get much easier than that.And yep, this works even better, at leastso far!This time it’s running Classic WorkbenchGreen Amiga Alien Edition, an optimized versionof Amiga Workbench, filled with WHDLoad drawersto make loading floppy disk programs fromthe hard drive darned simple.I don’t even know how many games are onhere but it’s absurd, with around a gigabyteof games and demos ready to go.Excellent.Unfortunately though, I wasn’t able to getmuch of anything to actually run, with orwithout any memory boards or accelerator cardsinstalled.Most either started loading and then frozethe system, or refused to open entirely.So I set that to one side for the moment andwhipped out the spare UK motherboard, installedan eight megabyte memory board and there we go!Success!Great Giana Sisters loaded first try thistime around, no freezing or crashing at all.And yes I’m using an Amstrad Mega PC gamepadhere, with B mapped to fire and C mapped topress the up direction for jumping.To do that I’ve got this little Mega Driveadapter that allows safe usage of the padson Commodore machines, along with button remapping.Highly recommended, especially for... well,the majority of Amiga platformers,like Shadow of the Beast here.Pressing up to jump on a little joystick justnever felt right to me, gimme a gamepad anda jump button any day.Anyway yeah, last thing I tried on here wasGods since the other A1200 board refused toboot this one whatsoever.And again, it’s running perfectly, whilelooking and sounding as great as expected.Man this game, I swear. Bitmap Brothers magic is pure sorcery.Right, so!Before I get carried away with quote unquote“testing” every Amiga game I own, let’sget down to business and build the Checkmate!Thankfully the manual is rather comprehensive,guiding users through each step of the processfor each of the intended systems and configurations,and even more exotic stuff like water coolingand PCI-X GPU placement.But the first step for the A1200 board hereis removing the metal shielding underneath,as it’s completely unnecessary and willonly get in the way.To do this, all these little guys need tobe unscrewed from each port, one by one, sincethis is where the shielding is attached tothe mainboard.With that done I can now place the board inside the caseto see where the standoffs need to be screwed in.Turns out there are only a couple of mountingholes, so that’s not too complicated.You could screw in more standoffs to providea little extra support, but if you do it’sbest to use plastic ones so as not to shortanything out underneath.Besides, those I/O port screws around back end up doing a lot of the workkeeping things in place.The board is quite loose in there before that,but once it’s all screwed in against themetal back plate, the A1200 is safe and snugwhere it needs to beand won’t be flopping around.Next up is the power situation, somethingthat was a little jankier than I imagined.The Checkmate uses this adapter cable to connectthe Amiga’s 5-pin power socketto the PSU board inside.This plugs in externally, strings througha hole above that, and just kinda rests thereon the back of the case all exposed.It’s a pretty hacky solution, but I honestlydon’t know how else you’d do this withoutdesoldering the old power connector and addingsomething new inside.And while there is a 3D printed cover available,I don’t yet have that so I’m just gonnaput some electrical tape on here and moveon for now.Next up are the front panel connections, withthe power button plugging into the PSU controlboard here, and the LEDs for power and floppy drive activityconnecting to the mainboard here.And now it’s time to get the SFX power supply installed.A full modular PSU would be better since you don’t need 90% of these cablesfor an Amiga 1200, but eh, this’ll do for now.Four screws screw in screwingly right hereand that’s that.It doesn’t rest on any kind of ledge oranything, so I had to kind of awkwardly holdit in place while screwing, but it’s solidonce installed.Now it’s just a matter of connecting the24-pin ATX connector to the PSU board andthat’s the power sorted.Keep in mind that not all SFX power supplieshave cables this long though, I’ve seenreports of other Checkmate owners needingan extension cableto reach the other side of the case.Another thing to keep in mind is that withall this set up, installing a trapdoor expansioncard becomes difficult.Or even near-impossible in the case of thisBlizzard card, sadly, since there’s no trapdoor underneath anymore, just solid metal,so you have to either install it beforehandor from above.If the Checkmate was like, an eighth of aninch wider it’d be doable,but as it is it’s too tight.Other cards, like this eight meg memory board,have just enough space to squeeze in there.But still, makes easily swapping trapdoorboards unfeasible in the Checkmate.Another minor annoyance is the floppy drivesituation.Or more accurately, the floppy drive cable,which totally slipped my mind until it was too late.Not only is the original ribbon cable fartoo short to reach the front of the case,but the connector on the mainboard is directlyunderneath the new power supply.Poop.Oh well, the floppy drive needs work anywaybefore I install it, so for now I’m justgonna boot straight from the CF card and see if we’ve got a working system!Hrm.So it’s nice that it’s powering on andall, but I can’t get the CF card to bootanymore, it just goes straight to the Workbenchfloppy screen.In fact, the LED on the adapter board doesn’teven turn on now.Actually, neither do the front panel LEDson the case itself, weird.Thankfully the latter was an easy fix,turnsout the cables to the LED panel were installed in reverse.But the CF card?Yeah, turns out the old ribbon cable had comeapart, shearing in half after years of use.Annoyingly, I don’t have a direct replacementon-hand, so while I wait for one to arrivein the mail I’m using the cable from theold 2.5” laptop hard drive seen earlier.And yeah, works just fine now, albeit withgobs of extraneous cablingthat perturbs my very soul.Other than that, everything’s looking greatand seems to be functioning perfectly!Well, everything but that poor floppy drive.This thing has never worked as long as I’veowned it,so it’s high time I do something about it.For one thing, the drive is just nasty insideand out, filled with decades of enough dirt,dust, and grime to have any driveon its knees begging for relief.Relief that graciously comes in the form ofcleaning, and lots of it.There’s no guarantee this was the problemof course, but it can be surprising how oftenthis is all a dead floppy drive needs.A little isopropyl alcohol on the read/writeheads, a modicum of magically erasing theplastic eject button, a little lubricationon the rails and other metallic mechanisms,and there ya go!I also noticed the extension spring on toplooked somewhat tired,and I mean, don’t we all.But the result was that the disk ejectionwas weaker than it should be.So I replaced it with a brand new spring ofthe same general size andyeah, much better indeed.And since I still don’t have a long Amigafloppy cable I’ve gotta plop it down nextto the floppy drive header back here, justfor a few minutes to test things out.And whadduya know: success!Workbench sees floppies no problem now, and I was able to read, write, and formatlike it was a new drive.It still makes the occasional cranky noiseof irritation, but who can blame it?Functionally it’s a hundred percent betterthan it was before so I’d call that a win.Regrettably, getting the thing screwed intothe drive tray isn’t quite so enjoyable.You have to flip the entire case over andunscrew the tray from underneath in orderto reach the mounting holes.It wouldn’t be so bad if I did this earlieron, but I was following the manual step bystep and this part was listed as one of thefinal instructions so, uh.Yeah, maybe do this a little earlier in theprocess.And then once I got the floppy drive screwedinto the tray?It ended up sitting too low, not fitting intothe front of the case!I triple checked the manual to make sure Iwasn’t being an idiot, but nope.I assume that certain drives aren’t theright height for the drive covers,unlucky on my part.So I added some standoffs between the driveand the tray to raise it higher, hopefullyto the point where it fits the case.And after far too long fiddling aroundwith trying to screw everything back in underneath sideways, yeah!It came together decently in the end.Still not exactly in the right spot, but Isuppose that’s what you getwith a “one size fits all” case design.And with that, the Checkmate build is complete!Or like, 98% complete,I’m still waitingon those replacement ribbon cables for the different drives.And naturally, the keyboard still needs tobe assembledso lemme take care of that real quick.Mercifully this is quite the straightforwardprocess, even with the Amiga 1200.My Checkmate kit included a number of cablesand connectors for the A500, but with the1200 here we won’t be using any of these.Instead, I needed a couple of homebrew devicesI bought online: the Keyrah V2b from IndividualComputers, which converts Commodore keyboardsover to USB, among other things.And the Sum 1200 adapter from 7-bit, whichadds USB keyboard support to the Amiga itself.The Checkmate keyboard case has a precut opening for the Keyrah,pleasantly screwing into place right here.And now it’s just a matter of plopping inthe keyboard!I’ll be using this spare A1200 board here since it’s in such good shape,all things considered.Yes the keys are starting to yellow at thatpredictably unpredictable rate all Amigasdo, but it’s a far cry better than the othersI have.Ahh, the warm marigold hue of stale urine.So until I can Retrobright that, I’m stickingwith this one.The whole assembly slides neatly onto therails on the sides of the case, and a couplenuts and screws hold it down from the top.Then the top of the case plops down righthere lookin’ all fancy.There are four white plastic screws that goin each of the four corners, an interestingchoice I thought, considering how fiddly theyare to work with.I’d prefer metal screws painted the sameOyster White as the rest of the Checkmate,but eh, it still looks okay and it holds thingsin place as needed.Next up is the Sub 1200,which is a tiny little PCB that plugs in to piggyback off the U7 controller chip.Then the USB interface plugs into that, withthe port itself left dangling,there’s nowhere specific to put it.Gotta wonder why the A1200 back plate has a spot for the A500 keyboardsince it doesn’t use it.And the screw holes don’t line up with the Sum 1200 either.So for now I’ve taped it inside, strunga USB cable through, and brought it ‘roundfront to the keyboard.And it looks pretty good!Though I wish it had a set of LEDs on thetop-right because otherwise it’s just blank.The case is really designed for the Amiga500’s keyboard, so once again, my choiceof building a 1200 means I’m left out ofthe fun.I’d have to cover up or remove one of theLEDs in order to fit the two cutouts on the case.And even then, there’s no mounting areainside to screw in this PCB, so until a betterthird party solution comes along, I’ll justdeal with the empty holes.Besides, the LEDs on the case work nicely!And despite the wonky setbacks, I think theoverall aesthetic of this case is fantastic.Much as I enjoy a classic Commodore wedge,I’ve always lusted after their desktopslike the Amiga 3000.So having something reminiscent of that designwhile also giving new life to some old A1200 components?Ah it’s a beautiful thing, and the CheckmateA1500 Plus does a great serviceto the hobbyist community by its very existence.Now, the asking price is currently £179 oraround $220 for the case with a single backplate, with additional plates, covers, adapters,and the keyboard case all costing extra.So would I recommend buying one?Even with its questionable quirks and odddesign choices here and there, absolutely.Even more so if you’re putting an Amiga500 in there, it seems geared towards thatmore than the 1200.Sure, it costs a premium over mass-produced PC cases,but I mean, it’s not a mass produced PC case.It’s made by a small company in limitedbatches, so pricing reflects that.And considering all the possible configurationsand the quality of materials being used, Ifind the price reasonable considering thecost of other Amiga cases on the market.And in the end, there simply aren’t manyoptions to choose from when it comes to brandnew horizontal desktop cases in a beige colorscheme.Personally I hope that enough of these sellfor the price to come down in the future,and for a 2.0 model to be developed that addressessome of its less-than-ideal design aspects.As for this particular build though,as long as it runs Fire & Ice and Another World I’m pretty happy.I do plan to change some things around andinstall a few upgrades though.For one thing, I didn’t use the keyboardgaragesince the A1200 board is too tall and wide to fit underneath, so it’d be fun tobuilda USB mechanical keyboard with custom Amiga keycaps.I’m also gonna replace the keyboard cablewith a right angle USB-B connector,this lanky long one just doesn’t do it for me.I’d also like to make use of the PCMCIAport,with both a networking cardand a CompactFlash adapter.On that note, I’ve also got a cable-freeCF adapter board on the way so I don’t haveto worry about IDE cables.A CD-ROM drive might be nice to have too,although it’s not a necessity for me, notwith an A1200 anyway.A ROM upgrade is definitely on the agendathough, probably the 3.X upgrade so I cantake advantage of more software.I’d also like to make use of this littlearea up front along the bottom, maybe I canadd a USB port or a memory card slot or Idunno, something cool since it’s already there.And a physically smaller memory board wouldbe nice,perhaps one with an FPU and a real time clock.Or just an accelerator card that actuallyfits in the case, like the ACA-1233n.Much as I appreciate the Blizzard 1230, it'ssuch a tight fit and runs so hot that I’mnot comfortable using it here.And lastly, I really want an Indivision AGAMK2 if it’s ever back in stock.Or some other internal flicker fixer so Ican use other monitors.I’ve been using this awesome MicrovitecCRT I imported from the UK, specifically soughtout since it supports 15kHz horizontal aswell as 31.But I’d love the choice of being able tomore easily use slightly newer CRTs and LCDswithout relying on external video adaptersand scaler boxes.Anyway yeah, I’ve got ideas, but pleaselemme know in the comments if you’ve gotany ideas yourself!I am no Amiga expert, but the homebrew sceneexcites the crap outta me and I love hearingabout what’s possible.If nothing else, I hope that you enjoyed seeingthis project come together.If ya did then maybe check out my other buildvideos of the past, or stick around, thereare new videos on all kinds of stuff eachweek here on LGR.And as always, thank you very much for watching!\n"