Overview

The first Amiga computer model, the A1000, was released in 1985 by Commodore Inc. The design team was headed up by Jay Miner and development of the system began in 1982 under the Amiga Coporation company. Commodore acquired Amiga Corporation in the summer of 1984, snatching the Amiga chipset from under the nose of Atari, who originally funded the project. Commodore filed for bankruptcy in 1994, despite the success of the A1200 and CD32.

Hardware

The Amiga range was based on the Motorola 68000 chipset, but made use of proprietary graphics and sound co-processors (codenamed Denise and Paula respectively), which took the load off of the CPU and allowed the Amiga to process gaming graphics extremely efficiently. Over the lifetime of the computer, three chipsets were used: OCS (Original ChipSet), ECS (Enhanced ChipSet) and AGA (Advanced Graphics Architecture).

Models

The most popular Amiga models were as follows:

• A1000 (1985) $1,295

          OCS, 256k Chip RAM, 256k "Slow" RAM, AmigaOS 1.0

• A2000 (1986)
  

          OCS, 512k Chip RAM, 512k "Slow" RAM, AmigaOS 1.2

• A500 (1987) $595.95

           OCS, 512k Chip RAM, 512k "Slow" RAM, AmigaOS 1.3

• A1500 (1990) £999
  

          OCS, 512k Chip RAM, 512k "Slow" RAM, AmigaOS 1.3
             The A1500 was virtually identical to the A2000 apart from a 2nd Floppy drive that replaced the Hard Disk.  Released in UK only

• A3000(1990)
  

         ECS , 1MB Chip RAM, 1MB "Fast" RAM, AmigaOS 1.3

• A500 (1991)

           ECS, 512k Chip RAM, 512k "Slow" RAM, AmigaOS 2.0

• A600 (1992)

           ECS, 1MB Chip RAM (upgradeable to 2MB), "Fast" RAM upgradeable to 6MB. AmigaOS 2.0

• A1200 (1992) $599

          AGA, 2MB Chip RAM, "Fast" RAM upgradeable to 8MB. AmigaOS 3.0

• CD32 (1993)

           Commodore's attempt at making a console. Basically an A1200 with a CD-ROM drive and no built-in keyboard. The first 32-bit CD-ROM based games console.

Operating System

AmigaOS is the native operating system for the Amiga family of home computers.

Amiga - Recent Games

		Name	Platforms	Developer
		Triad Volume 1 released on Feb. 20, 2008	AMI, AST, C64, PC
		Ninja Spirit released on May 14, 2007	AMI, CPC, AST, C64, SPEC, TG16, WSHP	Irem Corp.
		Bonanza Bros. released on Jan. 29, 2007	AMI, GEN, SMS, CPC, AST, C64, SPEC, TGCD, ARC, WSHP
		The Settlers released on Jan. 1, 2007	AMI, DS, PC	Blue Byte Studio GmbH
		Tail Tale released on Nov. 21, 2006	AMI	FumiFumiKICK
		Colossal Cave released on April 1, 2006	AMI, MAC, PC	Intelligent-Digital
		Desert Racing of BarDos released on Dec. 20, 2005	AMI
		Battle for Wesnoth released on Oct. 2, 2005	AMI, MAC, PC
		The First Mile released on July 15, 2005	AMI, PC	Malinche Entertainment
		Amiga Classix 3 released on March 29, 2005	AMI, MAC, PC	Darkage Software
		Magocracy released on Oct. 1, 2004	AMI, AST, PC
		Endgame released on Aug. 19, 2004	AMI	Malinche Entertainment
		Greystone	AMI, PC	Malinche Entertainment
		Revive: C64 Classics	AMI, PC
		Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood	AMI, MAC, PC	Spellbound Entertainment AG
		Noiz2sa released on Nov. 3, 2002	AMI, PC
		Fish Fillets	AMI, MAC, PC	ALTAR Games
		Earth 2140: Mission Pack released on Nov. 22, 2001	AMI	TopWare Interactive
		Blobula released on Oct. 22, 2001	AMI	Pagan Games
		dynAMIte released on March 12, 2001	AMI

Amiga - Upcoming Games

		Name	Platform	Developer
		Golden Axe expected release 1989	AMI, GEN, SMS, CPC, AST, C64, SPEC, SCD, TGCD, WSC, ARC, XBLM, WSHP, PC	Sega, U.S. Gold Ltd., Aspect Co. Ltd.