The Amiga 500 is the first low-end Commodore Amiga 16/32-bit multimedia home/personal computer. It was announced at the winter Consumer Electronics Show in January 1987 – at the same time as the high-end Amiga 2000 – and competed directly against the Atari 520ST. The Amiga 500 represents a return to Commodore’s roots by being sold in the same mass retail outlets as the Commodore 64 – to which it was a spiritual successor – as opposed to the computer-store-only Amiga 1000, as well as being another computer whose keyboard is included just above in the same case.
The original Amiga 500 proved to be Commodore’s best-selling Amiga model. Although popular with hobbyists, arguably its most widespread use was as a gaming machine, where its advanced graphics and sound were of significant benefit. Amiga 500 eventually sold 6 million units worldwide.
| Manufacturer | Commodore International | CPU | Motorola 68000 @ 7.14 MHz |
| Year Introduced | 1987 | RAM | 256KB, expandable to 8MB |
| Introductory Price | $1,285 $1,790 w/RGB Monitor | Storage | 3.5" Floppy Disk (880KB) |
Additional Resources
| Wikipedia | Commodore Amiga 500 |
| oldcomputers.net | Amiga 500 |