Amiga 500 (A500) Computer History

The Amiga 500: An Icon of ‘80s Home Computing

Introduced in 1987, the Commodore Amiga 500 helped shape the direction of personal computing and left an indelible mark on the world of video games. While it may not have achieved the same level of mainstream success in North America as contemporaries like the Apple II or IBM PC, the A500 developed a devoted following, especially in Europe, and pushed the boundaries of what was possible on a home computer at the time. For many, the Amiga 500 was a gateway into a new era of immersive, interactive entertainment and creative expression.

The Origins of Amiga

The story of the Amiga began in the early 1980s with a startup company called Amiga Corporation, founded by Jay Miner, the designer of custom chips for Atari‘s gaming consoles. Their ambitious goal was to create a new kind of personal computer—one with advanced multimedia capabilities that could be used for creative pursuits like video editing and computer animation, not just productivity and gaming.

However, financial troubles forced Amiga Corp. to seek out a buyer, and in 1984 Commodore International stepped in, acquiring the fledgling company for $25 million. Commodore was riding high on the success of their 8-bit computers like the Commodore 64, and they saw the Amiga technology as key to making inroads into the burgeoning 16-bit market.

After some additional development and refinement, Commodore was ready to unveil the first Amiga computer, the Amiga 1000, in 1985. Although a capable machine, the $1,500 price tag limited its appeal for home users. Commodore needed a more affordable model to truly bring the Amiga to the masses. Enter the Amiga 500.

Under the Hood

The Amiga 500 shared the same basic architecture as the earlier Amiga 1000, built around the Motorola 68000 microprocessor running at 7.16 MHz. But to reach the target $699 price, some features were reduced or removed, like the amount of RAM (512KB vs 256KB) and the number of expansion ports.

But the A500 retained the core elements that made the Amiga a standout platform. Perhaps most notable were the trio of custom chips — Agnus, Denise, and Paula — that handled graphics, audio, and I/O. These allowed the A500 to produce visuals and sound that outclassed most other personal computers of the mid-to-late ‘80s.

The Agnus chip, in tandem with the Denise chip, could display up to 4096 colors and handle arcade-quality sprite-based animations. Programmers could choose from multiple graphics modes, from 320×256 pixels up to 640×512 interlaced. The Paula chip offered four-voice stereo sound, a huge leap over the monotone beeps common to PCs of the day.

These impressive specs made the A500 a natural fit for creative types and gamers. Bundled with 512KB of RAM, an 880KB 3.5-inch floppy drive, and the intuitive AmigaOS, it was an appealing package for the price. And the case design, with its integrated keyboard and sleek lines, looked appropriately futuristic compared to generic beige-box PCs.

"The A500 was sexy," recalls game designer John Romero, co-founder of id Software. "It looked different than everything else and had this vibe to it that definitely said ‘not a normal computer.‘"

Gaming on the Amiga 500

The Amiga first made a splash in the world of gaming in 1986 with the release of Defender of the Crown from Cinemaware. Featuring detailed graphics, fluid animations, and even voice-acted cutscenes, it was a taste of things to come on the platform.

As the Amiga 500 proliferated, it gained a reputation as a premium gaming machine. Groundbreaking titles took advantage of its audiovisual prowess:

• Shadow of the Beast dazzled with multi-parallax scrolling and up to 12 layers of background graphics
• Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe was a frenetic, futuristic sports game with crisp visuals and fast action
• The Secret of Monkey Island typified the kind of rich, engrossing point-and-click adventures that became an Amiga staple
• Lemmings showcased the A500‘s ability to display large numbers of smoothly animated sprites
• Psygnosis pushed the hardware with graphical showpieces like Shadow of the Beast, Obliterator, and Blood Money

Superior arcade ports also helped establish the Amiga 500 as a top gaming platform. Adaptations of coin-op hits like Bubble Bobble, Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, R-Type, and Strider were more accurate and playable than those on other home systems or computers. And PC owners looked on with envy at the console-quality visuals the Amiga versions offered.

The Amiga 500 was undoubtedly a more potent gaming system than the 8-bit consoles and computers that dominated the first half of the decade. Its main 16-bit rival was the Atari ST, released in 1985. The two machines were quite similar in terms of CPU power and memory.

Where the ST had the edge was in raw processing speed, with a faster clock rate that gave it a small advantage in applications like music sequencing. But the Amiga‘s superior graphics and sound gave it the lead when it came to multimedia and gaming. The Amiga could display more colors, more sprites, had smoother scrolling, and better audio. Many gamers considered it the ultimate 16-bit computer.

Compared to PCs of the era running MS-DOS, the Amiga 500 was in a league of its own. The custom chips provided a gaming experience that the PC couldn‘t match until the early ‘90s with the advent of dedicated sound cards and VGA graphics. Interestingly, a number of PC classics from developers like id Software, Epic MegaGames, and Apogee began life on the Amiga, or were developed concurrently for both platforms.

Amiga Love in Europe

While the Amiga 500 struggled to carve out a significant chunk of the U.S. market against stiff competition and confusion over whether to market it as a business machine or game console, it found much greater success across the Atlantic. In Europe, and especially in the U.K., the A500 established itself as the premier home computer of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.

Precise sales figures are hard to pin down, but estimates put the total number of Amiga 500 systems sold at around 6 million units, with the lion‘s share in European countries. It handily outsold its chief rival, the Atari ST, by nearly 2 to 1.

Part of the appeal was the A500‘s advanced graphics and sound, which made it particularly well-suited for gaming. But it was also a capable general-purpose computer for the home, with a friendly graphical user interface and the ability to run productivity software and connect to the early internet via dialup.

Demo scenes and the cracking communities that removed copy protection from games also contributed to the spread of Amiga 500 systems, particularly in Eastern Europe where incomes were lower. Groups would add flashy intros to pirated games to show off their skills, distributing them on the copying-friendly floppy disks.

As the ‘80s gave way to the ‘90s, the Amiga 500 was in its prime. An expanded version, the Amiga 500 Plus with 1MB of RAM and an updated Kickstart ROM, was released in 1991. The next year, Commodore launched the Amiga 600, a compact redesign with a built-in IDE controller for an optional hard disk drive.

The Beginning of the End

As capable as the Amiga 500 was, it began to show its age as the 1990s progressed. The same year the A500 Plus debuted, Commodore released the Amiga 3000, a major step up with a 32-bit 68030 processor, enhanced graphics, and built-in hard drive support. It signaled a shift toward the high end of the market as Commodore sought to promote the Amiga as a serious computer for professionals.

The A500‘s 68000 CPU was starting to look outdated next to 32-bit CPUs and the sheer processing might of the Intel 486 found in new PCs. A planned successor dubbed the A1000 was scrapped. Instead, the next major entry in the budget line was the Amiga 1200 in 1992, sporting a faster 68EC020 CPU and the new AGA graphics chipset.

Despite the new models, the Amiga line was losing ground rapidly to PCs and the Apple Macintosh. The video game market was also changing, with dedicated game consoles from Sega and Nintendo stealing away gamers. Commodore reported losses of $356 million in 1993, and in April 1994 the company filed for bankruptcy.

The Amiga‘s Future

After Commodore‘s demise, the Amiga technology changed hands several times in the late 1990s and 2000s. Companies like Escom, Gateway, and Amino tried to resurrect the platform and give it new life, but nothing caught on commercially. The last official Amiga computer, the AmigaOne X1000, was released in 2012 by A-Eon Technology to little fanfare.

Yet a devoted community has kept the Amiga flame alive. Enthusiasts continue to use vintage Amigas, including the A500, for both nostalgia and creative pursuits. An annual event called the Amiga 30 celebrates the platform‘s legacy and lasting impact. And in recent years, there‘s been a surge of interest in Amiga and retro computing in general, with an active demoscene and even new games being developed for the classic hardware.

The Amiga 500 remains a vital part of that legacy as the system that brought the Amiga experience to the masses. For many users in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, the A500 was the first computer they owned. They have fond memories of playing groundbreaking games, experimenting with digital art and music, and diving into the larger Amiga community. While Commodore and the Amiga platform are sadly no longer with us, the Amiga 500 will always hold a special place in the history of personal computing.