Amiga 500
The Amiga 500 was Commodore’s breakthrough into the home market, packaging the revolutionary Amiga technology into an affordable, all-in-one design that competed directly with the Atari ST.
Custom Chips Revolution
The Amiga’s custom chipset was years ahead of its competition:
- Agnus: Blitter and Copper for advanced graphics operations
- Denise: Display generation with HAM mode
- Paula: 4-channel stereo sound and disk controller
- Gary: System address decoding and bus control
Gaming Powerhouse
The A500 became the gaming platform of choice in Europe, with titles that showcased abilities impossible on other home computers:
- Smooth scrolling and sprite handling
- 4096 colors in HAM mode
- Sampled sound effects and music
Demoscene Legend
The Amiga 500 became the primary platform for the demoscene, with groups pushing the hardware far beyond its intended limits, creating effects that still impress today.