• Tag Archives Amiga 500

  • Commodore Amiga 500, 1000 & 2000 (1987)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment



    https://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/190612229973/yodaprod-commodore-amiga-500-1000-2000-1987



    The Amiga 1000 was first introduced in 1985 around the same time as the Commodore 128. It contained a Motorola 68000 CPU clocked at 7.16 MHz and 256Kb RAM. It had graphics and sound capabilities unlike any other computer available at a time at a price that was quite low given the features. The Amiga’s closest competition was the Atari ST which shared virtually the same CPU. While the Atari ST was a good bit cheaper, it had less sophisticated graphics and sound capabilities and a less sophisticated OS. Amiga was ahead of its time with all of these things.

    Two years later in 1987, Commodore introduced two successors. The cost reduced Amiga 500 and a more expandable Amiga 2000. The Amiga 500 was an all-in-one unit with the keyboard and a 3.5″ 800k disk drive built-in. It was almost half the price of the original Amiga 1000. Though it was less expandable, it contained double the memory of the Amiga 1000 when it was first introduced and was in every other way just as capable. This is the model that competed most directly with the Atari ST and would me the most popular Amiga model and the spiritual successor to the Commodore 64.

    The Amiga 2000 on the other hand was very expandable with a total of 9 expansion slots as well as 2 3.5″ and 1 5.25″ drive bay. It also came with 1 MB of memory instead of 512k. With the addition of a Video Toaster and the appropriate software, tt would become a very popular video editing platform.

    The ad above is from 1987, probably shortly after the release of the Amiga 500 and Amiga 2000 as the Amiga 1000 was discontinued later the same year. I’m not sure the origin of the ad (I found it on Tumblr) but I suspect it is from Canada or Australia as the dollar amount doesn’t match what the cost was in the U.S. An Amiga 2000 with 1MB of RAM and a monitor was $2395 at that time in the U.S. and the Amiga 500 was $699. By comparison, a complete Commodore 64 system (which is what I had) was about half the price of the less expensive Amiga 500.


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  • The Commodore Amiga 500

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    The Commodore Amiga 500

    http://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/171818081060/retrocgads-usa-1988-amiga-500

    The Amiga 500 was the second and by far the most popular computer in the Amiga line. It was released about two years after the original Amiga 1000 but at a significantly lower price. When the Amiga 1000 hit the market, it retailed for $1,285. The Amiga 500 was only $699 when it arrived.

    While the Amiga 500 was considered the first low-end Amiga Computer, it had most of the same abilities of the Amiga 1000 and even a few advantages. Instead of 256K like the Amiga 1000, the Amiga 500 came stock with 512K of RAM. It had the same CPU and custom graphics and sound chips as the Amiga 1000. The biggest differences between the Amiga 500 and the Amiga 1000 that preceded it were the form factor and boot method. Whereas the Amiga 1000 had a more traditional desktop design with a separate CPU/disk drive unit and keyboard with the ability to place the monitor on top of the CPU, the Amiga 500 was an all-in-one design with the keyboard built into the case as with the Commodore 64. Also, with the Amiga 1000, the core of AmigaOS (Kikstart) was booted from disk as it was still considered too buggy to include in ROM. By the time the Amiga 500 came out, this was included in ROM. Otherwise, the Amiga 500 and Amiga 1000 had pretty much the same hardware including:

    CPU: Motorola 68000 @ 7.16 MHz
    Graphics: Custom “Denise” chip
    Sound: Custom “Paula” chip
    Disk: 880k 3.5″ floppy
    Ports: 2x DE9M Atari joystick ports, RS-232 serial, DB23F floppy and Centronics parallel port

    Arguably, the Amiga 1000 had more room for expansion but the truth is there were tons of expansions and upgrades available for both machines. Capability wise they are virtually identical.

    While there were other more expensive and expandable models (i.e. the Amiga 2000) that were popular in the professional video world and certain other places, because of its relatively low price, the Amiga 500 was the model that was most popular with hobbyists and home users. Because of its excellent graphics and sound capabilities, it made for a very good games machine. However, it’s true multi-tasking OS and available scripting language (AREXX) among other innovations made the Amiga line machines that were truly ahead of their time and it could be had at a bargain price with the Amiga 500.





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  • Amiga 500

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Amiga 500 magazine ad from 1987

    http://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/162092710546/retrocgads-usa-1987-amiga-500

    The Amiga 500 was not the first Amiga model but it is probably the most well known and best selling model and is the one that ensured Amiga’s success. When the first Amiga model was introduced nearly two years previously (the Amiga 1000), it was well ahead of its time. It was a high end machine credited with being the first multimedia computer and it was sold only in computer stores at a cost of $1295 which is the equivalent to about $3000 today.

    When the Amiga 500 was released, things were different. While it had all the power of the Amiga 1000 and some improvements as well, prices had come down on components and Commodore had cost reduced it in some other ways. It was introduced at nearly half the price the Amiga 1000 was at only $699 (though the intent had originally been to price it even lower at $595). The Amiga 500 had a similar form factor to Commodore’s previous big success, the Commodore 64 in that the computer and keyboard (and disk drive in the case of the Amiga) were all built in to one unit. Also like the Commodore 64, it was sold at various department and toy stores in addition to computer stores. The Amiga 500 was produced from 1987 until 1992 which while not quite as impressive as the Commodore 64’s longevity, is still pretty impressive. By the end of production, more than 6 million units had been produced.

    The Amiga 500 competed directly with the Atari 520ST (and its immediate successors) which had been released around the same time as the Amiga 1000 in 1985. While both used the Motorola 68000 (as did the original Macintosh), the Atari ST did not have the same class of dedicated video hardware nor a true multi-tasking operating system making the Amiga 500 a clearly superior machine. Having said that, the Atari ST was generally cheaper and was popular for MIDI related tasks. Like the Atari ST, the Amiga was probably used for games more than anything else but it was a popular hobbyist computer and higher end models were often used for professional video work (the TV series Babylon 5 comes to mind).

    The Amiga 500 contained:

    • Motorola 68000 CPU @ 7.16 MHz
    • 512 kB RAM (expandable up to 9 MB via 3rd party add-ons)
    • Max resolution of 736×483
    • 4 8-bit channels PCM at up to 28 kHz
    • Built-in double-sided, double-density 3.5″ disk drive (880 kB)
    • Side and trap-door expansion slots, plus socketed upgradeable chips
    • etc.





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