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Markdown

---
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/).
<table> <tr> <td></td> <td>We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system, please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.</td> <td></td> </tr> </table>