{"id":8,"date":"2011-01-26T14:34:17","date_gmt":"2011-01-26T14:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.binarydevotion.com\/?p=8"},"modified":"2011-05-04T19:54:51","modified_gmt":"2011-05-04T19:54:51","slug":"retrohomage-amiga-1000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.binarydevotion.com\/?p=8","title":{"rendered":"Retrohomage: Amiga 1000"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Amiga 1000 is the machine that, for me, really started “it” all. Originally just called the Amiga as, like Highlander, there can be only one, Commodore thankfully realised having model numbers might allow a little more flexibility and christened their first machine in the range the 1000…\u00c2\u00a0 In this article, I try to explain why I believe it was such an important milestone in personal computing history.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Launched in the USA in 1985 with atypical marketing extravagance, pizazz, and celebrity demonstrations that included the likes of Andy Warhol and Debbie Harry, I find it impossible to explain the revolution that this machine delivered to the personal computing marketplace. Take your pick of features from contemporary expectations and it was mind-blowing in what it delivered at the price point and, in some genres, at any price point. Base OS? Pre-emptive multi-tasking core. GUI? Rich WIMP interface. Graphics? up to 4096 colours on screen at a resolution of 320×256 through to 640×512, or even 768×576 with full overscan, plus sprites, coprocessor and blimmer (a blitter on steroids). Sound? Four independent 8 bit channels configured as a stereo pair. Processor? 7.x MHz 68000 from Motorola. Ports aplenty, including a comprehensive 86-pin expansion port that brought the 68000 bus and extra bits to the user.<\/p>\n

It’s also worth mentioning that typical launches had been at CES, or some other similar show: the big launch was, for Commodore, a new thing.<\/p>\n

The previous Commodore machine was the 128, which was basically a 64 and another, more powerful 8 bit machine capable of 80 column graphics, more memory, and improved BASIC in a single box. The Amiga, developed by a small team with funding from Atari, was brought into the Commodore fold with a raised middle digit to Jack Tramiel, and then wisely left mostly alone and allowed to flourish.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>First thing that grabs me is the look: the 1000 aesthetic design is well executed. A slender box with separate keyboard, and space underneath for the keyboard to park overnight. The 128D had taken this approach, but the base unit had to be lifted up to store the keyboard… I have never understood that.\u00c2\u00a0 A small concealed hatch at the front of the 1000 took a RAM expansion, a blanking plate covered the expansion port on the side…\u00c2\u00a0 It all works remarkably well.<\/p>\n

I am, you might conclude from this introduction, rather a fan.
\n<\/p>\n

It’s funny what you remember.\u00c2\u00a0 I remember seeing the Juggler for the first time in the windows of Tandy’s, in th\"\"<\/a>e Coventry precinct.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, it’s that small animation running in this article.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, it’s 12 frames.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, the resolution was 320×200.\u00c2\u00a0 Put in context as seen by a young lad who had just watched Tron and been blown away, it was utterly intoxicating.\u00c2\u00a0 As exposed in my 3D Roundup, you could see reflections of reflections in the balls…\u00c2\u00a0 Proper ray tracing.<\/p>\n

And then Robocity.\u00c2\u00a0 And, of course, the boing ball…\u00c2\u00a0 which could be dragged down to show magic multitasking happening!<\/p>\n

There was no way on earth that an Amiga 1000 was affordable for my family in 1985, but that didn’t stop me devouring every piece of literature and information that I could find.<\/p>\n

Any magazine mentioning the Amiga would get my pocket money.\u00c2\u00a0 Any brochures left around in a computer shop would be devoured.\u00c2\u00a0 Any chance to actually use the Amiga was taken.\u00c2\u00a0 The Commodore Computer Fair at Novotel Hammersmith was attended, mostly for 64 stuff, but really to find out what was going on with the Amiga.<\/p>\n

But back to what made the Amiga special.\u00c2\u00a0 Arguably, it was the custom chips and arguably this could only ever have been delivered economically by a company with obsessive vertical integration that Commodore had back then.\u00c2\u00a0 Their utter devotion to in-house control of their products has been adopted as modus operandi by Apple who, at the time, were not in the same league.\u00c2\u00a0 I can only imagine the pain that buying in the 68000 processor must have caused to the company!\u00c2\u00a0 But those custom chips brought magic to the Amiga: four channel sampled sound that took no processor time (Paula), graphics that likewise required little processor intervention (Denise), a blitter (block image transfer, or more accurately a block image manipulator in the Amiga) to copy, fill and draw lines rapidly, ‘copper’ coprocessor that could manipulate resolutions and graphic features on the fly (Agnus)…<\/p>\n

And everything could be synced with an external video source, via a genlock.\u00c2\u00a0 The Atari ST had its midi ports and became big in music, the Amiga had its genlock capability and became big in video.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Let’s consider the contemporaneous competition.\u00c2\u00a0 Apple had the Macintosh launched in 1984.\u00c2\u00a0 Atari had the ST launched in Summer 1985, just before the Amiga 1000.\u00c2\u00a0 The history of the Amiga and ST is utterly gripping, and the ST was developed in an unbelievably short period of time following Amiga Corp’s rescue by Commodore: given the time constraints, the machine is deserving of high praise.<\/p>\n

Compared to the Apple Macintosh, the Amiga was fast, colourful, musical, with a proper pre-emptive multitasking OS for $1295, and a colour monitor with stereo speakers was $300….\u00c2\u00a0 The 128Kb Macintosh with its integrated monochrome monitor and single channel digital audio was $2,500.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s difficult to think of any single advantage the Macintosh had.<\/p>\n

The Atari ST was a different beast for a different market, and Jack Tramiel was playing his ace card of setting a price that he thought no-one else could compete at: $799.\u00c2\u00a0 For that outlay, you got 512Kb, colour graphics, decent sound and – crucially – midi ports.\u00c2\u00a0 The OS was GEM in name, but not in use: it was not as sophisticated as the Macintosh OS, and nowhere near the Amiga’s Workbench.\u00c2\u00a0 But that price made the Atari tempting, and it was a success despite being rushed and not having the graphical power of the Amiga.\u00c2\u00a0 Max resolution was 640×480 in monochrome, compared to the Amiga’s 720×568 at 16 Colours…<\/p>\n

Of course, the 500 was born to take the fight to the ST: but that’s another article!<\/p>\n

Summing it up…<\/p>\n

Those custom chips really were astonishing at the time.\u00c2\u00a0 The progress made in 2 years from the Commodore 128, or even the Macintosh, really is quite astonishing.\u00c2\u00a0 This sounds hyperbolic, but I believe the designs were and still are quite beautiful: they have a real elegance, simplicity and power.\u00c2\u00a0 The way they work together is inspiring still.<\/p>\n

The Hardware Reference manual, along with RKMs, gave developers the information they needed to start making things that Commodore could not have envisaged.<\/p>\n

What amuses me somewhat is that there is now a growing clamour to get rid of SDKs and allow game developers for PC to hit the hardware directly.\u00c2\u00a0 Does that sound familiar at all?<\/p>\n

So, I give you my views on the Amiga 1000: the most important computer in the Amiga range in my view, and the pinnacle of the revolution that Commodore never quite managed to repeat…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in June 1985, Commodore launched the Amiga. Why was it important, and why is it still relevant? Read on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,8,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amiga","category-binary-history","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.binarydevotion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.binarydevotion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.binarydevotion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.binarydevotion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.binarydevotion.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.binarydevotion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.binarydevotion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.binarydevotion.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.binarydevotion.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.binarydevotion.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}