Amiga

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Commodore's 16 bit home computer AMIGA is one of the best known and loved of its generation.

It was maybe the first real Multi Media home computer long before Apple's Mac.

Superficially similar to the Atari ST, using the same 68000 processor and similar memory and screen modes, but it had a lot of co-processor and sweet architecture tricks making it a powerful computer, with excellent sound hardware for its time. Many early releases were lazy conversions from the ST that did not fully exploit the above (rather like what the Amstrad suffered with Spectrum ports) but later releases largely did exploit the system.

The A500 was perhaps the most well known emblematic model. Famous Amiga originals released for the CPC include Lemmings, Defender of the Crown, Sim City, Shadow of the Beast and Pinball Dreams.

Although it was great, it was eventually left behind by the PC standard thanks to Commodore's Corporates non sense and failure to develop the design further. The ECS chipset offered minimal improvements over the original, and even the AGA chipset was underwhelming. This is a kind of sweet vengeance for Amstrad users (who suffered the same thing, thank you Lord Sugar...).

Fun fact: the Amiga engineers left an hidden message in some Amigas, triggered by using some key combination, that said: "We made Amiga, They fucked it up". Source

4.85 million units sold.

Range

  • A1000 (1985): Technically an avant-gardiste multimedia PC. Has the OCS chipset.
  • A500 (1987): The first mass-market Amiga model, the most successful, and the one the most games were designed around. The case is the Combo style shared with Atari ST or even Amstrad Plus range. All but the latest models use the OCS chipset
  • A2000 (1987): Like the A1000, a PC style professionnal machine. In 1990, Commodore UK sold the A1500, a variant of the A2000 with 2 floppy drives and no hard drive. Like the A1500, the A2500 is not a distinct model but an A2000 equipped with a 68020 or 68030 accelerator card.
  • A3000 (1990): A workstation system aimed at productivity users, using a 68030 processor and the new Kickstart 2 and Workbench 2.
  • A3000T (1991): An A3000 in a tower case.
  • A500+ (1991): Features the updated Kickstart 2 and Workbench 2, 1MB internal memory and the ECS (Enhanced Chip Set).
  • A600 (1992): a compact A500 with no numeric keypad, looks a lot like the newer C64 (not the bread bin ones). Similar internal hardware to the A500+, though with space for an internal hard drive.
  • A4000 (1992): A replacement for the A3000, has the AGA chipset and either a 68030 or 68040 processor.
  • A1200 (1992): Intended as a long-term replacement for the A500, with 2MB memory and the new AGA chipset.
  • A4000T (1994): An A4000 in a tower case, released shortly before Commodore folded in 1994, rare.

Links


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