--- title: Commodore Amiga 500 Plus categories: - Computers types: - Home Computer origins: - U.S.A. years: - '1991' cpus: - Motorola MC68000 params: name: Amiga 500 Plus image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga500plus_1s.jpg company: /companies/commodore company_name: Commodore specs: - label: NAME value: Amiga 500 Plus - label: MANUFACTURER value: Commodore - label: TYPE value: Home Computer - label: ORIGIN value: U.S.A. - label: YEAR value: '1991' - label: END OF PRODUCTION value: '1992' - label: KEYBOARD value: Built-in keyboard, 96 keys - label: CPU value: Motorola MC68000 - label: SPEED value: |- 7.09379 MHz (PAL)\ 7.15909 MHz (NTSC) - label: CO-PROCESSOR value: 'ECS based chipset: 8375 Fat Agnus (memory controller and blitter), 8373 ECS Denise (video control chip), 8364 Paula (sound & I/O), 5719R2 Gary (I/O)' - label: RAM value: 1 MB Chip RAM - label: ROM value: 'Kickstart 2.04: 512 KB' - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: 320x256, 320x512, 640x256, 640x480, 640x512, 1280x200, 1280x256, 1280x400, 1280x512 - label: COLORS value: |- Palette: 4096\ On screen: 4 in 1280 modes, 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, 2x Atari joystick/mouse ports - label: BUILT IN MEDIA value: 3.5'' floppy disk drive - label: OS value: Workbench 2.04 - label: POWER SUPPLY value: External PSU - label: PRICE value: 799 DM (Germany, end of 1991) tabs: - photos - hardware - emulators - links - videos photos: - title: AMIGA 500+ subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga500plus_1.jpg hardware: - 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 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: Speedy-san (Netherlands) date: Thursday 19th May 2011 text: I have one of these, but it came with dual kickstart roms that are switchable. I''ve noticed that the floppy drive is a bit more quiet than the original A500 drives. Sadly the battery is indeed dead and decayed, having left a white crust on the motherboard which I think is oxydized lead. I do have a spare battery but I have to look into how I can best remove the encrusted lead without damaging the motherboard. The thing still runs beautifully and puts out a better videosignal quality than my A1200''s! - author: Kalle (Finland) date: Tuesday 14th December 2010 text: The A500+ does have a battery for real-time-clock. If you find these babies please check it, because almost 20 years old batteries do leak and destroy the motherboard! New battery is very cheap and it''s easy to change (only 3 legs to solder)... - author: Mr Two (Germany) date: Monday 14th June 2010 text: |- When i bought it, the Price was (end of 1991) 799DM. You could change the 2.04 - Kickstart-Rom by a 1.3 - Kickstart-Rom and make it fully compatible with a standard A500. 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 - /museum/commodore-amiga-600 - /museum/commodore-amiga-600hd - /museum/commodore-cdtv oc_id: 1260 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230601222818/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1260 date: '2023-06-01' --- After the huge success of the [Amiga 500](/museum/commodore-amiga-500/), Commodore launched a new version of the machine called the Amiga 500 Plus. Some small changes were made to reduce costs and a few hardware changes were also made. It featured 1 MB of memory, the new ECS chipset and a new version of AmigaOS which wasn't 100% compatible with software written for older versions. While not officially introduced until 1992, the A500+ made a covert appearance late in 1991. Commodore apparently sold out of A500s towards the end of the year, so an unusual step was taken. The new A500+ motherboards were already in production and were placed in the old A500 cases and sold as A500s to meet demand before the launch of the new model. The only problem was that Commodore didn't tell anyone what they had done and many new users were left wondering why some Amiga software wouldn't run on their new computer. The A500+ has the shortest lifespan of any Amiga ever made, it was only on sale for around six months. One way to describe the A500+ is as a mass market prototype, due to the incredibly short lifespan and the fact that the brand new version of AmigaOS was updated so quickly for its successor, the [Amiga 600](/museum/commodore-amiga-600/).
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