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◈ALB Atlas

Amiga 1000 Dead

Amiga 1000
KindMachine
Introduced1985
Discontinued1987
StatusDead
ManufacturerAmiga Corp. / Commodore
ClassHome computer
PlatformMotorola 68000 + custom chips
Sourcebitsavers.org ↗

Multimedia a decade early — preemptive multitasking, 4,096 colors, sampled sound, custom Agnus/Denise/Paula silicon. The demo scene's mother and a generation's favorite machine.

Created by Commodore International Amiga Corporation
Hosted AmigaOS

Jay Miner's Lorraine design — Amiga Corporation's skunkworks project — became the Amiga 1000 (July 1985): preemptive multitasking OS, 4,096 colors in HAM mode, sampled stereo sound, and custom chips that offloaded the CPU.

It was multimedia when that word didn't exist — the Video Toaster made it a broadcast machine, the demo scene made it art, and Psygnosis made it games. Commodore mismanaged the lead; the scene never forgot it.

Sources

  1. bitsavers.org/pdf/commodore/
  2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_1000