--- title: Commodore Amiga 1200 categories: - Computers types: - Home Computer origins: - U.S.A. years: - '1992' cpus: - Motorola MC68EC020 params: name: Amiga 1200 image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_system_1.jpg company: /companies/commodore company_name: Commodore specs: - label: NAME value: Amiga 1200 - label: MANUFACTURER value: Commodore - label: TYPE value: Home Computer - label: ORIGIN value: U.S.A. - label: YEAR value: October 1992 - label: END OF PRODUCTION value: '1996' - label: KEYBOARD value: built-in keyboard, 96 keys - label: CPU value: Motorola MC68EC020 + MC68881 FPU - label: SPEED value: |- 14.18758 MHz (PAL)\ 14.31818 MHz (NTSC) - label: CO-PROCESSOR value: 'AGA based chipset: 8374 Alice (memory controller and blitter), 4203 Lisa (video control chip), 8364 Paula (sound & I/O), Gayle (I/O, IDE interface), 391425 Budgie (bus controller)' - label: RAM value: 2 MB Chip RAM, expandable to 10 MB max (2 MB Chip RAM + 8 MB Fast Ram) - label: ROM value: 'Kickstart 3.1: 512 KB' - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: 320x200 to 1280x512 max - label: COLORS value: |- Palette: 16.7 million\ On screen: 256 in normal modes, 262144 in HAM-8 - label: SOUND value: 4 channel 8 bit PCM, stereo output - label: SIZE / WEIGHT value: |- 9.5" deep × 18.5" wide × 3" high / 8 lbs\ 25cm deep x 49cm wide x 7cm high / 3.1 Kg - label: I/O PORTS value: RS-232 serial port, Centronics parallel port, external disk interface, 150 pin local expansion port, Clockport, 2x RCA audio, PCMCIA/JEIDA card interface, IDE hard drive interface, composite video out, RF out, 2x Atari joystick/mouse ports - label: BUILT IN MEDIA value: 3.5'' floppy disk drive - label: OS value: Workbench 3.1 - label: POWER SUPPLY value: External 23 watts PSU, 220-240V/50Hz (PAL), 110 volt/60Hz (NTSC) - label: PRICE value: |- £399 (UK, 1992)\ £329 (UK, 1995) tabs: - photos - hardware - connectors - emulators - links - videos forum_thread: 615 photos: - title: LEFT SIDE subtitle: '' text: Note the PCMCIA cards slot image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_leftside_1.jpg - title: RIGHT SIDE subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_rightside_1.jpg - title: 'KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP #1' subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_keyboard_1.jpg - title: 'KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP #2' subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_keyboard_2.jpg - title: REAR CONNECTORS subtitle: '' text: |- **(1)** Expansions trap door\ **(2)** Mouse or Joystick-1 DB9 connector\ **(3)** Joystick-2 DB9 connector\ **(4)** External disk drive DB23 connector\ **(5)** Serial DB25 connector\ **(6)** Parallel DB 25 connector\ **(7)** Stereo sound output RCA plugs\ **(8)** RGB video output DB23 connector\ **(9)** Composite video output RCA plug\ **(10)** RF/TV modulator output\ **(11)** External power supply unit plug image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_back_1.jpg - title: INSIDE A1200 subtitle: '' text: |- **(1)** A metallic shield prevents magnetic field from being emitted by the computer\ **(2)** 170 MB 2.5" hard disk drive\ **(3)** 512 KB ROM chips holding Kickstart 3.0\ **(4)** 68030 accelerator card\ **(5)** 3.5" internal floppy disc drive image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_inside_1.jpg - title: A1200 MOTHERBOARD subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_motherboard_1.jpg - title: MOTHERBOARD CLOSE-UP subtitle: '' text: |- Hard disk connector area.\ All the passive components are miniaturized versions\ The Sony chip is a video RGB encoder image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_mboardcloseup_1.jpg - title: LAPTOP PROTOTYPE subtitle: '' text: |- One of the numerous attempts in designing a portable version of the Amiga system. Same design was applied to the Amiga 600 version. Thanks to **Moshe Elmashali** image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_laptopproto_1.jpg - title: 3.5" HDD subtitle: '' text: |- 3 1/2" drives did also fit into an A1200 case.\ **Steve Green** who sent us this photo specifies:\ The harddrive is a 3 1/2" 1.6 GB Samsung drive. It is attached to the main board via a 3 1/2 inch vide cable connected to a 2 1/2 inch ide cable via a convertor. image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga1200_fdd35_s1.jpg hardware: - title: GVP ACCELERATOR CARD subtitle: '' text: |- This card is connected to the internal expansion connector of the Amiga 1200. It features: \- A Motorola 50 Mhz 68030 microprocessor\ \- Up to 16 MB of additional RAM\ \- An internal clock with battery back-up\ \- A fast SCSI port image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1200_68030board_1.jpg - title: VIPER ACCELERATOR CARD subtitle: '' text: |- **Steve Green** who sent us this photo says:\ The Viper card is an 68030 expansion card. This particular model was a 28mhz 68030 with FPU. Also added was a 16 MB dimm (which I bought from the states for 115 dollars in early 96!). Together these quadrupled the speed of a standard A1200. You could also get a 50 mhz 030 card, but this was one of the earliest. image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1200_vipercard_s1.jpg - title: MIDI GOLD 500 subtitle: by Golden Hawk Technology text: |- This is a MIDI interface for the Amiga 500, 2000, or 3000... It features :\ \- one MIDI In\ \- two MIDI Out\ \- one switchable Out/Thru\ \- one MIDI/Serial Switch\ \- one Out/Thru Switch image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga_golden-hawk-midi-interface.jpg - title: AMIGA 1300 subtitle: Genlock text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1000_1300-genlock.jpg - title: MEMORY EXPANSION BOARD subtitle: '' text: 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 MB expansion card here fitted with 2 MB. image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1500_memboard_1.jpg - title: VIDEO BOARD subtitle: '' text: This board featured 2 MB of RAM and allowed the Amiga to be connected to a standard VGA monitor. All the video modes could be displayed, including the interlace one. image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1500_videoboard_1.jpg - title: A570 CD-ROM subtitle: '' text: Thanks to David Griffith for this picture image: /media/museum/hardware/amiga_cdrom_a570_1.jpg - title: HARD DISK CARD subtitle: '' text: |- 40 MB SCSI card from SUPRA CORP. Additional SCSI devices could be connected in chain trough the back connector image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1500_hdboard_1.jpg connectors: - title: PARALLEL PORT CONNECTOR subtitle: 25 pin D-SUB female text: |- 1 - /STROBE OUT : Strobe\ 2 - D0 : Data Bit 0\ 3 - D1 : Data Bit 1\ 4 - D2 : Data Bit 2\ 5 - D3 : Data Bit 3\ 6 - D4 : Data Bit 4\ 7 - D5 : Data Bit 5\ 8 - D6 : Data Bit 6\ 9 - D7 : Data Bit 7\ 10 - /ACK IN : Acknowledge\ 11 - BUSY : Busy\ 12 - POUT : Paper Out\ 13 - SEL : Select (Shared with RS232 RING-indicator)\ 14 - +5V PULLUP OUT : +5 Volts DC (10 mA max)\ 15 - n/c - Not connected.\ 16 - /RESET OUT : Reset\ 17 - GND : Signal Ground\ 18 - GND : Signal Ground\ 19 - GND : Signal Ground\ 20 - GND : Signal Ground\ 21 - GND : Signal Ground\ 22 - GND : Signal Ground\ 23 - GND : Signal Ground\ 24 - GND : Signal Ground\ 25 - GND : Signal Ground image: /media/museum/connectors/commodore_amiga1200_parallel-db25.jpg - title: DISK DRIVE PORT CONNECTOR subtitle: 23 pin D-SUB female (at the Amiga) text: |- 1 - /RDY : Disk Ready\ 2 - /DKRD IN : Disk Read Data\ 3 - GND : Ground\ 4 - GND : Ground\ 5 - GND : Ground\ 6 - GND : Ground\ 7 - GND : Ground\ 8 - /MTRXD OC : Disk Motor Control\ 9 - /SEL2 OC : Select Drive 2\ 10 - /DRES OC : Disk Reset\ 11 - /CHNG IN/OUT : Disk Removed From Drive-Latched Low\ 12 - +5V OUT : +5 Volts DC (250 mA max)\ 13 - /SIDE OUT : Select Disk Side (0=Upper, 1=Lower)\ 14 - /WPRO IN/OUT : Disk is Write Protected\ 15 - /TKO IN/OUT : Drive Head position over Track 0\ 16 - /DKWE OC : Disk Write Enable\ 17 - /DKWD OC : Disk Write Data\ 18 - /STEP OC : Step the Head-Pulse, First low, then high\ 19 - DIR OC : Select Head Direction (0=Inner, 1=Outer)\ 20 - /SEL3 OC : Select Drive 3\ 21 - /SEL1 OC : Select Drive 1\ 22 - /INDEX OC : Disk Index Pulse\ 23 - +12V OUT : +12 Volts DC (160 mA max, 540 mA surge image: /media/museum/connectors/commodore_amiga1200_dd-port.jpg - title: JOYSTICK / MOUSE PORT subtitle: 9 pin D-SUB male (at the computer) text: |- **MOUSE :**\ 1 - V-Pulse\ 2 - H-Pulse\ 3 - VQ-Pulse\ 4 - HQ-Pulse\ 5 - Button 3(M)\ 6 - Button 1(L)\ 7 - +5v\ 8 - GND\ 9 - Button 2(R) **DIGITAL JOYSTICK :**\ 1 - /FORWARD\ 2 - /BACK\ 3 - /LEFT\ 4 - /RIGHT\ 5 - n/c\ 6 - Button 1\ 7 - +5v\ 8 - GND\ 9 - Button 2 image: /media/museum/connectors/commodore_amiga1200_db9.jpg - title: SERIAL I/O PORT CONNECTOR subtitle: 25 pin D-SUB Male (at the computer) text: |- 1 - SHIELD : Shield Ground\ 2 - TXD OUT : Transmit Data\ 3 - RXD IN : Receive Data\ 4 - RTS OUT : Request to Send\ 5 - CTS IN : Clear to Send\ 6 - DSR IN : Data Set Ready\ 7 - GND : System Ground\ 8 - CD IN : Carrier Detect\ 9 - +12V OUT : +12 Volts DC (20 mA max)\ 10 - -12V OUT : -12 Volts DC (20 mA max)\ 11 - AUDO OUT : Amiga Audio Out (Left)\ 12 - n/c : Speed Indicate\ 13 - n/c\ 14 - n/c\ 15 - n/c\ 16 - n/c\ 17 - n/c\ 18 - AUDI IN : Amiga Audio In (Right)\ 19 - n/c\ 20 - DTR OUT : Data Terminal Ready\ 21 - n/c\ 22 - RI IN : Ring Indicator\ 23 - n/c\ 24 - n/c\ 25 - n/c image: /media/museum/connectors/commodore_amiga1200_serial-connector.jpg - title: VIDEO PORT subtitle: 23 pin D-SUB male (at the Amiga) text: |- 1 - /XCLK IN : Extern Clock\ 2 - /XCLKEN IN : Extern Clock Enable (47 Ohm)\ 3 - RED OUT : Analog Red (75 Ohm)\ 4 - GREEN OUT : Analog Green (75 Ohm)\ 5 - BLUE OUT : Analog Blue (75 Ohm)\ 6 - DI OUT : Digital Intensity (47 Ohm)\ 7 - DR OUT : Digital Red (47 Ohm)\ 8 - DG OUT : Digital Green (47 Ohm)\ 9 - DB OUT : Digital Blue (47 Ohm)\ 10 - /CSYNC OUT : Composite Sync (47 Ohm)\ 11 - /HSYNC OUT : Horizontal Sync (47 Ohm)\ 12 - /VSYNC OUT : Vertical Sync (47 Ohm)\ 13 - GNDRTN : Digital Ground (for /XCLKEN) Don't connect with pin 16-20.\ 14 - /PIXELSW OUT : Genlock overlay (47 Ohm)\ 15 - /C1 OUT : Clock out (47 Ohm)\ 16 - GND : Video Ground\ 17 - GND : Video Ground\ 18 - GND : Video Ground\ 19 - GND : Video Ground\ 20 - GND : Video Ground\ 21 - -12V OUT : -12 Volts DC (10 mA max) (A500/A600/A1200),\ -5V OUT : -5 Volts DC (10 mA max) (A1000/A2000/A3000/A4000)\ 22 - +12V OUT : +12 Volts DC (100 mA max)\ 23 - +5V OUT : +5 Volts DC (100 mA max) image: /media/museum/connectors/commodore_amiga1200_videoport.jpg emulators: - title: Amiga Forever url: http://www.amigaforever.com/ platform: Windows text: Complete but commercial Amiga emulator - title: AMIthlon & AmigaXL url: http://amigaosxl.haage-partner.de/index-e.html platform: Windows text: Powerful commercial emulators - title: WinFellow url: HTTP://FELLOW.SOURCEFORGE.NET platform: Windows text: Probably better at some games than UAE, but not as versatile. - title: WinUAE url: http://www.winuae.net/ platform: Windows text: The best Amiga emulator ? :-) - title: Max UAE url: http://maxuae.de/ platform: Apple text: UAE for Mac OS X - title: AmigaSYS url: http://amigasys.fw.hu/ platform: Unix / Linux text: AmigaSYS is a pre-installed full Amiga OS for WinUAE - title: Pocket UAE url: http://pocketinsanity.sourceforge.net/ platform: Other platform text: Amiga Emulator for Pocket PC - title: Experimental UAE url: http://www.rcdrummond.net/uae/ platform: Multiplatform text: Standard UAE enhanced with features from WinUAE. - title: MESS url: http://www.mess.org platform: Multiplatform text: MESS now emulates the Commodore Amiga - title: UAE url: http://www.freiburg.linux.de/~uae/ platform: Multiplatform text: '(Ubiquitous Amiga Emulator) for BeOS, Mac OS, Linux, NextStep, MSDOS, OS/2 and Win95/NT : Homepage.' links: - title: Amiga animations url: http://www.randelshofer.ch/animations/ text: A collection of Amiga Animations. This is the only site where you can see them online! - title: Amiga Interactive Guide url: http://amiga.emugaming.com/ text: Excellent site ! A lot of very interesting infos there. - title: Amiga Island url: http://www.virtualpast.de/ text: Excellent site with ROMs to download! - title: Amiga Web Directory url: http://www.cucug.org/amiga.html text: '' - title: AMIGART.COM url: http://www.amigart.com text: Nice site with Amiga news - title: Back to the Roots url: HTTP://WWW.BACK2ROOTS.ORG/ text: Amiga culture, guides, huge collection of legally downloadable software, and much more. - title: Lex Site - Amiga Hardware Database url: http://amiga.multigraph.com/ text: The website title says it all! - title: NetBSD-Amiga url: http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/amiga/index.html text: '' - title: Old Computer Mags url: http://www.old-computer-mags.com/ text: Scans of old computer and videogames magazine - title: Recorded Amiga Games url: http://www.recordedamigagames.org text: Speedrun, longplay and misc videos of Amiga games and more. - title: RetroPack url: http://www.retropack.co.uk/ text: Website dedicated to selling original Amigas, CD32s and Amiga/CD32 Games. - title: The Amiga Monitor url: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/MikeWebb/amhome.html text: '' - title: The Big Book of Amiga Hardware url: http://www.amiga-hardware.com/ text: Pics & info (pinouts, jumpers etc.) for just about every piece of Amiga related hardware there is - title: The English Amiga Board url: http://eab.abime.net/ text: Community site for Amiga fans - title: World-Wide Amiga - Online!! url: http://www.amiga.org/ text: '' - title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com text: Reviews of Amiga software, hardware videos: - title: Commodore Amiga commercial - EXIT url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=8721405286052618769&hl=fr text: 'Length: 41 s' - title: Commodore Amiga 500 commercial url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=5737538578208665725&hl=fr text: 'Length: 29 s' - title: Commodore Amiga 1000 commercial url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=5356507595228759374&hl=fr text: 'Length: 32 s' - title: Commodore Amiga 600 italian commercial url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-768109352967297990&hl=fr text: 'Length: 19 s' - title: Commodore Amiga packs commercial url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdaMq8JLyHA text: 'Length: 21 s' - title: Commodore Amiga TV Ad - Celebrities url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEFoj6sbDjU text: 'Length: 29 s' - title: Commodore Amiga 500 promotional video url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=9038863557655975739&hl=fr text: 'Length: 15 min 06 s' - title: 'Computer Chronicles: Amiga & Atari (1985)' url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=8978343825632445107&hl=fr text: 'Length: 29 min 18 s' related: - /museum/commodore-amiga-1000 - /museum/commodore-amiga-1500 - /museum/commodore-amiga-2000 - /museum/commodore-amiga-2500 - /museum/commodore-amiga-3000 - /museum/commodore-amiga-4000 - /museum/commodore-amiga-500 - /museum/commodore-amiga-500-plus - /museum/commodore-amiga-600 - /museum/commodore-amiga-600hd - /museum/commodore-cdtv oc_id: 628 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230329001433/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=628 date: '2023-03-29' --- In October 1992 the Amiga 1200 was launched. This machine took the A500 approach to computing with the "distinct" Commodore case, but including the AGA chipset present in the A4000, 2 MB RAM, and the PCMCIA slot from the A600. At the price of £399 it sold like hot cakes and is seen as one of the best Amigas to date. It appears to have been rushed to launch for the Christmas period with manuals claiming to give you the opportunity to upgrade from 1mb to 2mb chip ram with FPU. It is, however, a darn fine machine that can be easily upgraded for most of your needs. After Escom bought the Amiga during 1995 it was relaunched to mass outrage. The machine still cost £399, £150 more than it had done a year previously and was not enhanced in any dramatic fashion. It was released in two versions- the Amiga Magic pack and the Amiga Surfer bundle. Unfortunately, the former was never released due to Escoms financial situation. The Escom Amigas were also struck by incompatibility problems due to a different disk drive being used, it was actually a PC high-density drive mechanism that had been altered to allow compatibility with the Amiga file system. Unfortunately, some games that hit the hardware directly would not run. A circuit upgrade was released free of charge that allowed users to fix the drive problem. Source: [Amiga Interactive Guide](http://amiga.emugaming.com/) --- More information from **Chris Green**:\ We got our A1200 in about 1995.It was part of a part exchange deal I think from Escom. You had to bring in an old A500 and then you got the A1200 for £199. I think it was the Magic pack (it had a spaceman on the box). The hard drives you could add were internal 2.5" drives as the 3.5" were too big for the case. You could also add any amount of external floppy drives, we had 2. We had a Reno 2X cd rom which fitted onto an SCSI adapter. You could also have an ATAPI-IDE drive if you threaded the IDE cable out the back of the case.