Amiga dates
Angus Manwaring
the approximate dates of Amiga hardware launches. I got a few from the
excellent 15 years of Amiga article in the last issue of Amiga Active, but
I'm still missing a few, like the 500, 2000, 2500, 1500, 500+ CDTV, 3000
...erm, well most of them actually. I thought I had an old Amiga Format
with all these dates in (sometime around issue 100? - maybe a CU Amiga?)
but I don't seem to have it anywhere. Anyway, if anyone can help me with
this info or point me where I could get it I'd appreciate it. Cheers.
P.S.
I'd also be interested in dates of rival machines like the Atari
ST, Archimedes, various PC developments (SVGA) as well as the various
consoles. Thanks.
All the best,
Angus Manwaring. (for e-mail remove ANTISPEM)
I need your memories for the Amiga Games Database: A collection of Amiga
Game reviews by Amiga players http://www.angusm.demon.co.uk/AGDB/AGDB.html
Joachim Froholt
Angus Manwaring wrote:
> I'm working on new page for the Amiga Games Database, and I need to find
> the approximate dates of Amiga hardware launches. I got a few from the
> excellent 15 years of Amiga article in the last issue of Amiga Active, but
> I'm still missing a few, like the 500, 2000, 2500, 1500, 500+ CDTV, 3000
> ...erm, well most of them actually. I thought I had an old Amiga Format
> with all these dates in (sometime around issue 100? - maybe a CU Amiga?)
> but I don't seem to have it anywhere. Anyway, if anyone can help me with
> this info or point me where I could get it I'd appreciate it. Cheers.
The July 1997 issue of CU Amiga have a feature on the history of the Amiga.
It's titled "What went wrong", and it starts off in 1982, when Hi-Toro was
formed. I believe that there are some dates to be found there.
According to the article,
The A500 was launched in March 1987 - in the UK it came out on the 12th June.
The A2000 was also launched this year. The Amiga 3000 was lauched in 1990. I'm
not sure about the CDTV, the article says it was launched in 1990, while a time
line at the end of the same article says it was lauched in 91. The A600 came in
1992, the A1200 and 4000 came in 93 and finally, the CD32 was launched in 94.
Have you visited the Amiga interactive guide? It's chock full of information,
and I'm sure you can find the answers to most of your questions there. It's at:
(and it's recently been updated with, amongst other things, a large section on
The One)
Joachim
Gregory Roberts II
> I'm working on new page for the Amiga Games Database, and I need to find
> the approximate dates of Amiga hardware launches. I got a few from the
> excellent 15 years of Amiga article in the last issue of Amiga Active, but
> I'm still missing a few, like the 500, 2000, 2500, 1500, 500+ CDTV, 3000
> ...erm, well most of them actually. I thought I had an old Amiga Format
> with all these dates in (sometime around issue 100? - maybe a CU Amiga?)
> but I don't seem to have it anywhere. Anyway, if anyone can help me with
> this info or point me where I could get it I'd appreciate it. Cheers.
>
The A3000 was released in Aug or Sep of 1990, I'm pretty sure. (I got one
of the first ones in Sep 1990, so there! :-) Still my main Amiga, too!)
I think it was Sep, but I put Aug just to C.M.A.... (cover my ...)
I think the A500 and A2000 were released at the same time and I think that
was sometime in 1987, but don't quote me on that.
Hope this helps a little,
Greg
--
gr...@en.com
Developing for Ami (Amiga OE)
"So the World May Know"
d'Amiga, A3000, A2000, A1200, A1000x2
Peter Olafson
The CDTV was first shown in 1990, but not released until 1991.
The A1200 (and, I think the A4000) were released in 1992.
Peter
"Joachim Froholt" <jfro...@c2i.net> wrote in message
news:39CB367B...@c2i.net...
>
>
> Angus Manwaring wrote:
>
> > I'm working on new page for the Amiga Games Database, and I need to find
> > the approximate dates of Amiga hardware launches. I got a few from the
> > excellent 15 years of Amiga article in the last issue of Amiga Active,
but
> > I'm still missing a few, like the 500, 2000, 2500, 1500, 500+ CDTV, 3000
> > ...erm, well most of them actually. I thought I had an old Amiga Format
> > with all these dates in (sometime around issue 100? - maybe a CU Amiga?)
> > but I don't seem to have it anywhere. Anyway, if anyone can help me with
> > this info or point me where I could get it I'd appreciate it. Cheers.
>
Angus Manwaring
>Angus Manwaring wrote:
>> I'm working on new page for the Amiga Games Database, and I need to find
>> the approximate dates of Amiga hardware launches.
>The July 1997 issue of CU Amiga have a feature on the history of the Amiga.
>It's titled "What went wrong", and it starts off in 1982, when Hi-Toro was
>formed. I believe that there are some dates to be found there.
>According to the article,
Thanks for the info, Joachim. So that's where the pesky article was
hiding. It's a bit duff though, isn't it. It says the AGA Amigas were
released in '93. I need some slightly more specific dates. I'll try the
link you kindly supplied.
>(and it's recently been updated with, amongst other things, a large section
>on The One)
Cool! :)
Any further advice on the Sega Megadrive, Super Nintendo, PC hardware
launches etc kindly appreciated. I need to show what the competition was
up to.
Scott Kurtz
68040 based 4000 came out in the autumn of 1992, a very short time after the
US launch of the A600. If I am not mistaken, the A600 came out in the UK
before it was released in the US. The 1200 came out either in January 1993
or it might barely have made it to initial release between Christmas and New
Year's of 1992. Several months later, the first 68030-based A4000 was
released. It is probable that the UK launch of the 1200 may have preceded
the 4000. A couple of other dates might be useful: in the fall of 1989 the
Amiga 2000 first shipped with a 1 MB Agnus. (Previously it had a 512KB
Agnus.) Some months later in Spring or Summer of 1990, the Amiga 500 in the
U.S. split into two models: the A500C (consumer) and the A500P
(professional; packaged with the first version of AmigaVision). I don't
think the C and P designations were used in the UK, and the 1-MB A500's were
oddly considered by Commodore as "too advanced" for the UK market. In a
curious about-face, soon thereafter Commodore adopted an exactly opposite
attitude about the market potential of the A500+. Initially the A500+ was
only released in the UK and Europe. I'm not sure if there was ever an
official US launch of the A500+ (this was the Amiga 500 with a 2MB Agnus,
no?) Also, the A1500 model number was never used in the US., although it was
possible to obtain an A2000 with no hard drive or with two internal hard
drives.CDTV came out in the US well before it came out in Europe, whereas
the CD32 came out in Europe before it was to have been launched in the US.
Just as CD32 was being launced in the US, Commodore went belly up. CDTV was
horrendously unsuccessful; CD32 did better but did too little too late.
Several things I'm not sure about: the date of release for the A500+, the
date of release of the A1500, the date of release of the A2500 (1988 or
early 1989?), whether the A2500 ever shipped with a 512K MB Agnus, and which
Amiga was the first to ship with the 1-MB Agnus (the A2000 or the A2500).
One other thing: was the 68020 that shipped with the A2500 more powerful or
less powerful than the 68020 that shipped with the first A1200? One thing is
very clear about Commodore's mismanagement: they took too long to release
the AGA machines (and WAY too long to release the 386 bridgeboards), they
discontinued the A500 a bit too soon, and they released too many new models
in rapid succession in 1992-1993.
Angus Manwaring <angus@angusm_ANTISPEM_.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1193.300T540T11874151angus@angusm_ANTISPEM_.demon.co.uk...
Angus Manwaring
>Angus Manwaring wrote:
>Have you visited the Amiga interactive guide? It's chock full of information,
>and I'm sure you can find the answers to most of your questions there. It's
>at:
>(and it's recently been updated with, amongst other things, a large section
>on The One)
In many cases it has the year of release but is not more specific.
However, what a truly awesome Amiga site. I'd not seen it before. Very
cool indeed.
Richard Pike
> U.S. split into two models: the A500C (consumer) and the A500P
> (professional; packaged with the first version of AmigaVision). I don't
> think the C and P designations were used in the UK,
The America A500P was the actually the same as the A500+ released a year
later in Europe.
Red Moose
section on
> The One)
The One after ACE was awesome. I will never forget that issue when some guy
wrote in declaring his love for one of the female staff and even sent in a
photo. Last item in the magazine was "Next Month at The One: We're not a
bloody dating agency, and remember, we still have that photo". Funny as
fuck, especially when it really went to shit in the final months and it was
basically a slagging match between the staff. I bought it for the humour.
The only thing to match it IMHO was the "AP2" site after Amiga Power went
under. Ah well.
Red Moose
I Am Falling I Am Fading
No it's not. I have one.
It's definitely a standard late-revision A500 motherboard. It has a 1M
Agnus (disabled into 512k mode, you had to change jumpers to set it
to the 1M chip setting) and a regular Denise. It is, in fact, exactly the
same as the A500C except it came with a trapdoor A501 512k slow-RAM
expansion pre-installed. The C and P difference was strictly a packaging
issue, determining whether it contained the A501 and the larger
productivity/presentation software package that included AmigaVision.
The A500+ came with the 2M Agnus and the Super Denise. It had 1M onboard
and a different trapdoor slot that allowed you to add another 1M of chip
RAM.
----
James Sellman -- Hyperion Entertainment Software |"Lum, did you just see
---------------------------------------------------| a hentai rabbit flying
sk...@anime.net | // A4000/604e/60 128M| through the air?"
sk...@inconnu.isu.edu | \X/ A500/20 3M | - Miyake Shinobu
Eelke Blok
I Am Falling I Am Fading <sk...@inconnu.isu.edu> wrote in message
news:8qmqt3$jkt$1...@inconnu.isu.edu...
> The A500+ came with the 2M Agnus and the Super Denise. It had 1M onboard
> and a different trapdoor slot that allowed you to add another 1M of chip
> RAM.
And of course OS 2.
Cheers,
Eelke
Angus Manwaring
>I Am Falling I Am Fading <sk...@inconnu.isu.edu> wrote in message
>news:8qmqt3$jkt$1...@inconnu.isu.edu...
>> and a different trapdoor slot that allowed you to add another 1M of chip
>> RAM.
>And of course OS 2.
And the ECS.
Richard Pike
idea it happened before the machine saw the light of day in Europe.
Richard Pike
> >> The A500+ came with the 2M Agnus and the Super Denise. It had 1M
onboard
> >> and a different trapdoor slot that allowed you to add another 1M of
chip
> >> RAM.
>
>
> And the ECS.
>
Surely the 2M Agnus and Super Denise *is* the ECS.
*
> > >> The A500+ came with the 2M Agnus and the Super Denise. It had 1M
> onboard
> > >> and a different trapdoor slot that allowed you to add another 1M of
> chip
> > >> RAM.
> >
> > >And of course OS 2.
> >
> > And the ECS.
> >
>
> Surely the 2M Agnus and Super Denise *is* the ECS.
1M Agnus is ECS as far as i am aware.. 2M would be AGA then.. i'm not sure
about the other custom chips.. i always thought there wasn't enough
difference between OCS and ECS except for the newer ROM and 1 meg chip..
still enough to cause lots of nagging compatibility probs.. but AGA brought
on the BIG changes..
y'r pal -kK
I Am Falling I Am Fading
>Richard Pike wrote:
>
>> > >> The A500+ came with the 2M Agnus and the Super Denise. It had 1M
>> onboard
>> > >> and a different trapdoor slot that allowed you to add another 1M of
>> chip
>> > >> RAM.
>> >
>> > >And of course OS 2.
>> >
>> > And the ECS.
>> >
>>
>> Surely the 2M Agnus and Super Denise *is* the ECS.
>
>1M Agnus is ECS as far as i am aware.. 2M would be AGA then..
No... ECS Agnus came in both 1M and 2M varieties. Later 1M varieties were
actually based on the 2M die but had one of the pins disabled somehow. I
don't know why.
>i'm not sure
>about the other custom chips.. i always thought there wasn't enough
>difference between OCS and ECS except for the newer ROM and 1 meg chip..
First of all the ROM is really indepenent of the custom chipset. It's just
firmware. You can run 1.3 on AGA or 3.5 on OCS. Obviously earlier
revisions won't know about later features, but the OS really isn't
considered part of the chipset because it is just firmware (or software if
you softkick.)
Second ECS did a few more things than that. ECS added features with the
introduction of the Super Denise. Most notable was the programmable
pixel clock allowing different horizontal refresh rates. This was
accomplished by varying the rate of DMA fetches. This had the side effect
of speeding up other things that were tied to pixel clock, like the
audio. This improved Paula's audio quality allowing sample rates of above
50Khz, where they had previously been limited to approximately 28Khz.
Because the bus speed stayed the same, there was still a hard limit on the
amount of data that could be fetched in the DMA transfers. Thus, for
higher pixel rates, the maximum number of bitplanes was reduced. This was
actually achieved by an interesting hack of only updating half of the data
in each register. Thus, you were limited to 2-bit (4 color) screens and
6-bit (64 color) rather than 12-bit (4096 color) palette registers.
Thus you could run in 31Khz modes like Productivity, or any of the
tweakable variable pixel-clock modes that were introduced with 3.x like
Super72 etc. You were just limited to 4-colors out of a palette of 64. :-)
A lot of people never saw much of this, however, because the ECS Agnus was
compatible with the OCS Denise. A huge number of late-model 500's and
1000's were shipped with 1M ECS Agnuses (which in the 500s were set to a
512k crippled mode to preserve compatibility with games that demanded
slow-RAM at $C00000). Thus a lot of people thought they had ECS systems
when they really only had ECS Agnuses. ECS Agnus did three things: It
enabled you to address more CHIP ram. It allowed double the amount of data
to be copied with a single blitter operations. Finally it allowed you to
vary the vertical refresh rate, which allowed you to swap between 15Khz
modes like PAL, NTSC, and later introduced ones like Euro72. This didn't
actually make your machine a PAL or NTSC or whatever machine like some
people thought, the slight differences in pixel clock were still handled
by varying the speed of the system bus, which actually slightly affected
CPU speed and memory performance... This only affected VERY
poorly-designed software.
You COULD add a Super Denise to these systems since it was pin-compatible
with the OCS Denise... Most people didn't however.
Systems that shipped with full ECS capability were the A3000, A500+, and
A600.
>still enough to cause lots of nagging compatibility probs.. but AGA brought
>on the BIG changes..
AGA actually didn't implement many changes at all. In fact it had only
three notable changes.
1) It increased the bus rate, allowing more data to be transfered via
DMA. To take advantage of this variable fetchrates were implemented.
2) It increased the color register sizes to 8 bits per gun. It
allowed fetches of 8 data bits per plane. It also increased the number
of palette registers to an 8-bit value (256). These changes were all
related.
3) The hardware sprite handler got bigger fetches.
In fact enlarging the allowable number of bits per plane was a rather
trivial exercize and had been done before. This change was added to the
earliest OCS revisions in the A1000 when EHB mode was added, increasing
allowable bits per plane from 5 to 6. There were still only 32 color
registers though. It halved the colors with a simple bitwise shift. In
fact if arbitrary bitwise shifts could be done with the hardware, this
minor modification could've conceivably been extended even more to allow
8-bit color under OCS without any other changes... Sort of an "Extra Extra
Halfbrite" mode with 3-bit divisor rather than a 1-bit one. However since
the color registers were only 6-bits per gun, there would be very poor
accuracy with the bitwise divisions, yielding anything less than 1/8th
brightness in a given gun as pure black when the top 3-bits were all set
to high on the divisor. 6-bit EHB was a good freebie to add and worked
well without much noticeable rounding error to the naked eye.
Anyway there has really been very little evolution in the core chipset
besides bigger registers, variable clock rates, and faster system
buses. Just thought you should know that. :-)
I'm sure a real EE could elaborate on the changes better than I can (Dave
Haynie anyone?) and I make have gotten a couple things wrong but this is,
to the best of my knowledge, accurate.
-----
Richard Lavey
in <39CFA18D...@ulster.net> that...
> Richard Pike wrote:
>
> > Surely the 2M Agnus and Super Denise *is* the ECS.
>
> about the other custom chips.. i always thought there wasn't enough
> difference between OCS and ECS except for the newer ROM and 1 meg chip..
> on the BIG changes..
2M *Agnus* IS ECS as well...AGA is Alice and Lisa...completely different.
The version of KS ROM has nothing to do with OCS or ECS (you can run OCS
under 2.x and ECS under 1.x)
--
I think I'm paranoid and complicated. I think I'm paranoid, manipulate it.
Richard Lavey : richard(a)startide(d)demon(d)co(d)uk
Richard Pike
released for the classic Amiga circa 1991?
Angus Manwaring
>Forgive me. When was the A500+ released in the States? I had a definite
>idea it happened before the machine saw the light of day in Europe.
>> >The America A500P was the actually the same as the A500+ released a year
>> >later in Europe.
>>
>> No it's not. I have one.
>>
I've been researching my old Amiga mags, and in the UK the A500 Plus just
appeared in place of the standard Amiga (with 512 add-on) in the pack that
was being sold at the time. It was hit and miss for a while which Amiga
you ended up with. I don't think anyone out side of Commodore was aware of
the A500 Plus before this, or atleast I don't think it had surface
anywhere.
Angus Manwaring
>> >> The A500+ came with the 2M Agnus and the Super Denise. It had 1M
>onboard
>> >> and a different trapdoor slot that allowed you to add another 1M of
>chip
>> >> RAM.
>>
>>
>> And the ECS.
>>
>Surely the 2M Agnus and Super Denise *is* the ECS.
Is that right? Sorry, Richard, I didn't appreciate that.
P.S. Don't call me Shirley. ;)
Stuart Wilson
"Angus Manwaring" <angus@angusm_ANTISPEM_.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> I've been researching my old Amiga mags, and in the UK the A500 Plus
just
> appeared in place of the standard Amiga (with 512 add-on) in the pack
that
> was being sold at the time. It was hit and miss for a while which
Amiga
> you ended up with. I don't think anyone out side of Commodore was
aware of
> the A500 Plus before this, or atleast I don't think it had surface
> anywhere.
In an AF Special edition feature on the history of the Miggy it simply
says the A500+ was phased in during the Christmas '91 period with no
specific release dates or background on its development. Unfortunately
the AFS doesn't list the specific release dates of any of the Amigas in
the UK.
Stuart
--
'We had no use for the policy of the Gospels: if someone slaps you,
just turn the other cheek. We had shown that anyone who slapped us on
our cheek would get his head kicked off.'
-Nikita Khrushchev (1894 -1971)
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Angus Manwaring
>In article <39CFA18D...@ulster.net>, * <ke...@ulster.net> wrote:
>>Richard Pike wrote:
>>
>>> > >> The A500+ came with the 2M Agnus and the Super Denise. It had 1M
>>> onboard
>>> > >> and a different trapdoor slot that allowed you to add another 1M of
>>> chip
>>> > >> RAM.
>>> >
>>> > >And of course OS 2.
>>> >
>>> > And the ECS.
>>> >
>>>
>>> Surely the 2M Agnus and Super Denise *is* the ECS.
>>
>>1M Agnus is ECS as far as i am aware.. 2M would be AGA then..
>No... ECS Agnus came in both 1M and 2M varieties. Later 1M varieties were
>actually based on the 2M die but had one of the pins disabled somehow. I
>don't know why.
Okay, I'm a bit confused now. :)
I've found an old Amiga Computing article, (Nov '91) and they're talking
about the US A500P which they say comes with 1 meg, the ECS; Super Agnes, Super
Denise, and WB 2.0. Assuming AC had their facts straight, does this mean
the A500P was an A500 Plus. Sorry if this was covered but I've lost some
of the articles.
P.S. Thanks for the guided tour of chip sets, James. I've stored your
article for future use.
Scott Kurtz
2MB Agnus. The 500P package included Amiga Vision while the 500C package was
more oriented toward gamers. (P=professional; C=consumers). The funny thing
is I don't think Commodore did much to promote Amiga Vision or use any
advertising (other than in Amiga magazines) to try to drum up enthusiasm for
potential "professional" users.(Commodore's one and only fling at network
television advertising came in the Christmas 1989 season. 500P and 500C
packages came out for Christmas 1990, when Commodore ran no US TV ads at
all. The 500P package was not released in the UK. Later, when they released
the 2MB Agnus equipped Amiga 500 Plus, it came out in the UK and Europe but
not in the US (except via direct import from high-volume mail order stores
like Creative Computers, Tenex, and Computability). This strategy made
absolutely no sense whatever! The subsequent abrupt replacement of the Amiga
500 with the Amiga 600 and the release of the Amiga A1200 when very, very
few AGA game ports had appeared, hastened an already evolving mass exodus of
US games companies from the Amiga market. The first signs of a decline in
the US market began with the Christmas 1990 season. (If it hadn't been for
the sudden U.S. ascension of the Video Toaster, Commodore probably would
have gone belly up a couple of years earlier than they did.) Back in the
late 1980s Commodore should have recruited Arthur C. Clarke to do some ads
for them rather than the likes of the Pointer Sisters etc in those perky but
feeble 1989 commercials. I also remember with loathing those magazine ads
showing a Dagwood-like character with fork and knife settling down in a
chair, apparently ready to eat a brand-new Amiga computer.news:1399.308T2628T5726039angus@angusm_ANTISPEM_.demon.co.uk...
> On 26-Sep-00 06:07:34, I Am Falling I Am Fading said
> >>Richard Pike wrote:
> >>
> >>> > >> The A500+ came with the 2M Agnus and the Super Denise. It had 1M
> >>> onboard
> >>> > >> and a different trapdoor slot that allowed you to add another 1M
of
> >>> chip
> >>> > >> RAM.
> >>> >
> >>> > >And of course OS 2.
> >>> >
> >>> > And the ECS.
> >>> >
> >>>
> >>> Surely the 2M Agnus and Super Denise *is* the ECS.
> >>
> >>1M Agnus is ECS as far as i am aware.. 2M would be AGA then..
>
> >No... ECS Agnus came in both 1M and 2M varieties. Later 1M varieties were
> >actually based on the 2M die but had one of the pins disabled somehow. I
> >don't know why.
>