Amiga 500 - Vintage Hardware
Commodore's 16-bit Amigas: The Amiga 500
Date Range: 1987 - 1991
Release Price: US$595.95
The Amiga 500 was Commodore's best-selling Amiga model worldwide. In fact, it was discontinued while it was still a popular selling model. It was popular and gamers alike, though it was also popular as a business tool in Europe.
Product Specs:
- 16/32 bit 68000 cpu
- 7.15MHz
- 640 x 400 video
- 4096 colours
- 4 voices, 2 channel stereo
- 512KB RAM
- 256KB ROM
- 3.5 880KB floppy
- Pre-emptive Multitasking
Commodore-Amiga 500
 In 1987, Commodore released the Amiga 500. It was designed as a low-end Amiga to compete directly against the Atari 520ST. It offered the same graphics and sound capabilities as the Amiga 1000 with the exception of adding a new mode called extra-half bright. The Atari ST had outsold the Amiga by a factor of two to one due mainly to cost and lack of software.
The Amiga 500 also featured a 32-bit multitasking operating system, which was more stable than version 1.2. Version 1.3 offered improved stability, some refinements and extra features. The Amiga 1000 had a kickstart disk, which was replaced by a ROM for the A500.
The Amiga 500 was a great success. It succeeded in competing against the Atari ST. However, with a price of US$595.95, the Amiga 500 became a top seller and eventually beat out the Atari ST in sales. While not as popular as the Commodore 64, it became Commodore's next big selling computer.
However, in Commodore's infinite wisdom, the A500 series was discontinued in mid-1992 while still being a top selling model. Commodore made a lot of mistakes in it's final years: this is considered to be one of them. The machine that would replace the A500, the Amiga 600, cost more to produce while not offering any technological benefits.
The Amiga 500 had a great deal of support from software and hardware vendors. There were thousands of software titles along with hardware accelerators, memory expansion devices, SCSI hard drives, multimedia devices, scanners and the list goes on.
It was a great computer for students and Amateurs alike. We at VintageAmiga still have one!
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