--- title: Commodore Amiga 500 categories: - Computers types: - Home Computer origins: - U.S.A. years: - '1987' cpus: - Motorola MC68000 params: name: Amiga 500 company: /companies/commodore company_name: Commodore specs: - label: NAME value: Amiga 500 - label: MANUFACTURER value: Commodore - label: TYPE value: Home Computer - label: ORIGIN value: U.S.A. - label: YEAR value: April 1987 - label: END OF PRODUCTION value: '1991' - label: KEYBOARD value: Built-in keyboard, 95 keys - label: CPU value: Motorola MC68000 - label: SPEED value: |- 7.09379 MHz (PAL)\ 7.15909 MHz (NTSC) - label: CO-PROCESSOR value: 'OCS based chipset: 8370/8372 Fat Agnus (memory controller and blitter), 8362R5/8362R6/8362R8 Denise (video control chip), 8364 Paula (sound & I/O), 5719R2 Gary (I/O)' - label: RAM value: '512 KB Chip RAM (expandable to 9MB : 512 KB Chip RAM + 512 KB Slow RAM + 8 MB Fast RAM)' - label: ROM value: |- Kickstart 1.2: 256 KB (Early models)\ Kickstart 1.3: 256 KB (Later models) - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: 320x256, 320x512, 640x256, 640x512 - label: COLORS value: |- Palette: 4096\ On screen: 16 in 640 modes, 32 in 320 modes, 64 in EHB, 4096 in HAM - label: SOUND value: 4 channel 8 bit PCM, stereo output - label: SIZE / WEIGHT value: Unknown - label: I/O PORTS value: RS-232 serial port, Centronics parallel port, external disk interface, 2x RCA audio, cartridge interface, expansion interface, 2x Atari joystick/mouse ports - label: BUILT IN MEDIA value: 3.5'' floppy disk drive - label: OS value: |- Workbench 1.2 (Early models)\ Workbench 1.3 (Later models) - label: POWER SUPPLY value: External PSU - label: PRICE value: £599 (UK, 1987), $595 (U.S.A., 1987), £369 (UK, 1990) tabs: - photos - adverts - hardware - emulators - links - videos photos: - title: BOX subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: 'BOX #2' subtitle: '' text: '' image: null adverts: - title: UK ADVERT subtitle: '' text: |- November 1987 ...This elegant little machine takes family computing into new dimensions of creativity, excitement and productivity. It outruns and outguns office PCs as a business multi-tasker, performing a deskful of different jobs simultaneously at over 7 million steps per second in realtime... image: null - title: FRENCH AD (DEC. 1987) subtitle: '' text: '' image: null hardware: - title: 520 - RF MODULATOR subtitle: '' text: Amiga A520 RF Modulator for the Amiga 500 RGB Port. This device enables an Amiga 500 to run off an ordinary TV. It also comes with the audio cable, which enables audio through the TV as well. image: null - title: KCS POWERBOARD subtitle: PC emulator text: Hardware PC emulator for the Amiga 500 (NB Not A500+, which has its own version). Includes battery backed up clock, 1MB of RAM and Soundblaster/Adlib emulation. 512K of RAM is accessible by the Amiga with the other 512k only being available as a recoverable ram disk. image: null - 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 - title: FLYER HARD-DRIVE subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: EXTERNAL HARD DISK subtitle: GVP 8 MB text: '' image: null 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' comments: - author: Dom date: Friday 28th August 2020 text: To be slightly pedantic, should point out that if I remember correctly, the Amiga actually had superior MIDI capabilities but the Atari ST applied common sense and actually built in the MIDI ports, which was a winner over needing a separate dongle for the Amiga. - author: Niels Roskam (Australia) date: Monday 4th April 2016 text: My 2nd computer which lasted me for many and took me through my Computing Science Uni from 1988. Living next to the German border I had access to the active German after market for Amiga equipment. Had a kickstart 2.04 chip upgrade, 2MB RAM upgrade, an external (non-Commodore) 20MB Seagate harddrive... great machine it was. - author: Jamie (Uk) date: Monday 16th March 2015 text: I loved my Amiga 500, I used to make music on mine with a program called"Octomed". I wish I still had it, it was awesome. - author: Gavin (Plymouth, England) date: Monday 27th February 2012 text: 'I loved the Amiga 500. Had a friend who did amazing artwork on Deluxe Paint. My fave games were Gods and Lotus Turbo Esprit (2 player) also Kick Off 2 and Player Manager. Best of all I remember Geoff Crammonds F1 GP, used to go round a mates house and get drunk turn all the AI cars white and race a few mates against them (WARNING KIDS: DO NOT DRINK AND DRIVE!)' - author: Rui Sousa (Porto/Portugal) date: Saturday 17th September 2011 text: Amiga is the best computer ever, me and my brother own 2 A-500 and 2 A-1200 all fully working these days, my favourite games on the amiga are, Sensible world of soccer, Dune 2 "the battle for arrakis", napalm, F1 GP, Gods, The Duel test drive 2, Rodland, Arkanoid, Great Courts 2, Cannon Fodder...we just love our good old AMIGA - author: Trish (USA) date: Friday 15th July 2011 text: My favorite game for my Amiga 500 was ... LEISURE SUIT LARRY. I felt like the coolest kid on my block when I got my amiga. Oh memories. - author: Ugo Capeto date: Thursday 4th November 2010 text: it was a tough choice for me between the amiga 500 and the atari st. Yes, the amiga is probably better overall but the atari st had the MIDI ports. Anyways, i ended up getting neither and was stuck with a Commodore 64 (not a bad machine for a music maker, mind you). - author: Sakuri Rainne (Michigan, USA) date: Friday 26th March 2010 text: I was born in 1991, so the Amiga was a big centerpiece in my household all the way up till 1997 when we FINALLY got ourselves a PC. Even then, the Amiga stayed in the family room next to our Amiga 500 for another year or so. The finally-retired machine is in my bedroom connected to a flat-panel TV. Boring story, I know, but it certainly speaks for the longevity of the Amiga 500. I remember my mom connecting to a BBS named "The Ruthless Gameboard" and download a lot of .lzh files... Many of them are still laying around on the desktop, ready to be expanded. Before I went off to college, I plugged the Amiga into my laptop and recorded ALL of the music. A few tracks find their way into my party playlist. - author: Dean (Arizona/USA) date: Sunday 7th March 2010 text: 'Need: QUARTET music software - for the AMIGA 500 $ or an IBM version if there is one! OR an alternate music program that has POLYPHONIC sound...help please!' - author: brian (kent) date: Wednesday 15th July 2009 text: Have you looked @ ebid.net for amiga bits - author: Damian (UK) date: Thursday 14th August 2008 text: |- Wow, that's what I thought when I first saw an Amiga back in 1989, truely ahead of it's time, what other machine could produce the sound and graphics of an Amiga. And lets not forget, the first OS to be fully multitasking. I've still got my Amiga 500 up in the loft, bit yellowed now but it still works. Ahhh memories... I remember when I bought my A570 CD drive for it, was blown away with the idea you could get 600 floppy disks on a CD!!! - author: Gwion (Wales) date: Wednesday 10th January 2007 text: I have a Amiga 500 and i'm twelve years old i love my amiga i thinl its better than microsoft (well it is really) I play all my games on it and if people ask me what pc do i have i say my Amiga 500 its fully updated with a 8meg fast ram and I do everything on it even my homework AMIGA IS THE BEST!!! - author: JJ (MONTEVIDEO/URUGUAY) date: Saturday 23rd July 2005 text: |- I had an A500 (ntsc with 1 meg of ram).\ I remember those days like something special.\ The first time a opened the blue box with the machine inside.\ ....\ I couldn't believe the posibilities of this creation in the graphics and multimedia ground.\ Real advantage hardware for those times. - author: tomm (u.k) date: Wednesday 22nd June 2005 text: i own a amiga A500 plus but i cant get it to load up , it just goes red - author: everton sebben (brazil) date: Friday 17th June 2005 text: SPIRIT. Amiga 500 was the revolution. It captured our minds. REMEMBER THE SOUND CAPTURE device? STUNNING. I need help. IM desperate to find the game SUPREMACY and MILENIUM. Man, help out here cuz i am really sick about it. My amiga times were the best ever. The sound. Remember QUARTET SOUND? Was really impressive, the software design and machine possibilities exploration. Man, good times...i wish i could live it again... - author: Darren (UK) date: Friday 8th April 2005 text: |- Guru Meditation....and programming the machine in Shell - grrrrrrr! and that ticking disk drive! Excellent! - author: Bruce Balling (USA) date: Thursday 30th December 2004 text: I have a Amiga 500 and a lot of extras and software the monitor does not work but that was all. I have been for years trying to find a way to get the music or mod ripped from a game made by Mindscape of the UK called Captive, not captive II, Please help me I would love to have that music, and would like to set up the Amiga again or sell it. Thanks Bruce - author: Jeff (Baltimore, MD) date: Tuesday 16th November 2004 text: |- Hi. I loved my Amiga 500, it was so advanced for it's time. It had a 'soul'.\ Does anyone remember a game called Stunt Car Racer, or a game called Pinball Fantasies, or a game called Micro Machines, or... I could go on and on.\ I used mine back in the day for WWW3 (bulletin boards), gaming, and desktop publishing. I remember the OS shell had a steep learning curve, and I never had a hard drive, but it was a powerful OS with true pre-emptive multitasking. I wish computers like this were still made, machines with passion and soul. I have yet to come across a better computer that I can call 'the best'. The cool thing about the Amiga was it was truly way better than anything at the time, but only a handful of people knew about it or had one. It was like a secret club. - author: Alan Goodwin (UK) date: Wednesday 8th September 2004 text: |- Yay! The Amiga 500! I still have one of these in the bottom of my wardrobe. One of my richer college friends got one of these for xmas, and after I had a play with it, I had to have one. Saved, begged, stole and borrowed the ridiculous 600 quid and never regretted a penny of it. There were so many games for it, bu the best innovations were in the prolific underground scene. I had stacks of disks with some quite stunning and technically astonishing demos on by various geek groups (mostly from the netherlands, if I remember correctly). I mainly used my "girlfriend" (Amiga is spanish for girlfriend...so very, very saaaad!) for music composition on various "trackers" which were freeware and circulated faster than a joint at a student party. I ended up with literally thousands of samples (taken directly from tape and CD through a sampler which plugged into the serial port on the back which I acquired for 30 notes) and exploited the midi capabilities (another add-on...the only reason anyone had to get the rival Atari machine was the built-in midi port). I only stopped using it recently in this capacity when I got a 10 track digital recorder and mixer. Man, I still love my Amiga! - author: Ken Sayer (Dexheim, Germany) date: Friday 3rd September 2004 text: |- I have acquired a few Amiga 500s the past few months and have been learning much about hardware and software applications for the A500. I would suggest if anyone needs help in the upgrade or operation of their A500, search the internet for your questions. Just be sure to mention the 'Amiga 500' in your search inquiry. You will be surprised how much good information is available from many U.S. and Euro websites. Enjoy your Amiga 500, they are fantastic!! - author: rafal (poland) date: Wednesday 1st September 2004 text: A500 is just the best stuff. - author: kris coll (scotland fife) date: Monday 7th June 2004 text: |- hi just got an a500 plus of ebay its good to have my old frend back am just wondring what i can get of the net in terms of software through my pc and is there anything i can buy to supe it up software wise or hardware wise thanks email if u have any tips cheers kris - author: Fahed Al Daye (Canada, Montreal, Quebec) date: Friday 29th August 2003 text: AMIGA 500 is the best computer in the planet, it have the coolest spirit in the world. First off all the graphics of the amiga 500 is so superb I was not surprised to hear that the amiga 1200 compare to macintosh if not even better in terms of graphics. I love my baby and I can hardly wait to enjoy every single game in it. AMIGA ROCKS AND RULES. Amiga 500 is the DA computer and I just wished it remained alive for both business and entertainment. ARRRGHH!! Damn you bill gate \* waves fist in the air \* - author: Pedro Jorge Reduto G. Ariz (Portugal) date: Sunday 10th August 2003 text: Hi!I've got an Amiga 500 that isn't working properly. When i try to start with any game or other software program, after inserting the floppy disk on the respective drive, the system blocks and reboot after 5 seconds moreless. Can anyone help me and tell me what i can do to solve this problem? Thanks. - author: brad duval (australia WA) date: Sunday 27th July 2003 text: Hi Would you please be able to help me I have a commodore AMIGA 500 given to me for my children and I need all the Instructions about assemabling, what cable goes were plus other Instruction on how it works. regards bradley. - author: Glyn Cowan (Paisly, Scotland) date: Thursday 10th April 2003 text: Help please can anyone please copy for me the set-up, fonts and utilities disc that were supplied with the commodore 500 when new. I have searched loads of market stalls and second hand shops, I've found lots of games but not these particular discs. I can supply the discs and I am more than willing to pay postage if you can help contact glyncowan@hotmail.com - author: JCSid (Athens) date: Thursday 6th March 2003 text: |- I just got an Amiga 500 from a friend and would like to start with it. Any idea where I could get any piece of OS which could do something, taking into consideration that no HardDisk is installed on this computer.\ Thanks - author: RICK (netherlands) date: Wednesday 19th February 2003 text: |- who is have some datasheets for my amiga 500?\ pleas send them to my email. - author: Daniel Blackburn (Lancashire, England) date: Sunday 2nd February 2003 text: |- Hiya, just purchased an Amiga 500 off Ebay from someone in London, and as I live in Lancashire it will need to be posted. Trying to work out how much this is going to cost me, but does anyone know how heavy the Amiga 500 is? I had one years ago, however it broke, hence buying a new one...an excellent piece of equipment, you can't beat the old ones! hehe. I would appreciate if anyone could let me know so I can work out how much the postage will cost me. Regards,\ Dan Blackburn - author: John (Utrecht, The Netherlands) date: Monday 27th January 2003 text: I just love my Amiga 500. - author: paul (Europe) date: Wednesday 15th January 2003 text: I agree with Czarl Amiga OS is one of the best operating systems I have ever used and compares will to today’s versions of M$ Windows and the UNIX family of operating systems. As far as I know both Amiga OS and new Amiga hardware is still under development and the new generation of Amiga with a new version of Amiga OS and IBM Power PC hardware should be available soon / now. - author: James (Australia) date: Sunday 10th March 2002 text: I aggree with you Domenic, the amiga is still my favourite computer system, I have a PC now that has the works and the games are great but the amiga is an amazing machine and still on the top of my favourite list. I had an amiga about five years ago and regret ever getting rid of it, I am currently planning on getting one again and fixing it up. - author: Czarl (Victoria, British Columbia) date: Saturday 9th March 2002 text: |- Amiga OS was the best OS of its time. It was a multi-tasking OS when M$ was running Win3.1. M$ has finally caught up to Amiga for multi-tasking capabilities. Imaging where AmigaOS would be today, some 15 years later !! Unfortunately Amiga's demise came when businesses where mainly IBM machines and therefore most software got developed for it. That's my 2-bits worth. - author: Domenic S. (Asia) date: Thursday 24th January 2002 text: The Commodore Amiga 500 is by far one of the most spirited computers ever to grace this planet. Elements of the graphics and sound capabilities are still unparalled today. Even taking the hardware of the Amiga 1000 and compacting it into a keyboard shell didn't effect its expandability. Many accelerators were developed to fit right inside the casing. Harddisks and ram could be easily added via the simple expansion slot on the side. In terms of software and hardware performance, the Amiga 500 leaves a tremendous gap for which other computers should fill and which "PCs" may never be able to attain. related: - /museum/commodore-amiga-1000 - /museum/commodore-amiga-1200 - /museum/commodore-amiga-1500 - /museum/commodore-amiga-2000 - /museum/commodore-amiga-2500 - /museum/commodore-amiga-3000 - /museum/commodore-amiga-4000 - /museum/commodore-amiga-500-plus - /museum/commodore-amiga-600 - /museum/commodore-amiga-600hd - /museum/commodore-cdtv oc_id: 65 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230605232441/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=65 date: '2023-06-05' --- Commodore's Amiga 500 was the low-end version of the [Amiga 2000](/museum/commodore-amiga-2000/) and the main competitor of Atari's 520/1040 ST range. The A500 was superior in almost every area, apart from its MIDI capabilities and the disk drive, which was not only slow but very noisy as well and a bitter feud quickly developed between owners of these rival machines. Hardware wise, the A500 is very similar to the [Amiga 1000](/museum/commodore-amiga-1000/), the main internal differences being an increase in memory fom 256 KB to 512 KB and the addition of another custom chip named "Gary" (the only Amiga chip with a male name). This is a new I/O chip that controls the disk drive and also performs address decoding. This chip is also used in the high-end A2000. The A500 was easier to upgrade than both the ST and big box Amigas, thanks to an expansion port located in the bottom of the case. Owners could simply insert a small board which contained an extra 512 KB of Ram and a battery-backed clock. The popularity of this upgrade meant that more 1 MB software (both 1 MB versions of 512 KB software and 1 MB only software) was released for the Amiga than the ST, which had to be taken apart to expand the memory. Over the course of the A500s lifespan several different packages were available, the most basic of which included only the computer, TV modulator and Workbench disks. A number of bundles were also sold, such as the best selling "Batman Pack" which was released in 1989 and included 3 games and Deluxe Paint 2. The A500 was discontinued in 1991 and replaced by the short lived [Amiga 500 Plus](/museum/commodore-amiga-500-plus/). **Pandy** comments:\ The Amiga 500 is a "cleaned" A1000, "cleaned" means plenty of TTL glue logic was replaced by custom IC which was named Gary. A500+ it is a new generation of custom IC's so called ECS (A500 have OCS). A500+, A3000, A600 have new graphics modes (1280 dots in line without overscan and 31Khz scanning similar to VGA - limited to 640 pixels in line with 4 colors).