When Commodore bought the rights to the Amiga technology back in 1985, they brought into the world a new level of quality in computers only now beginning to be matched. Amiga had a full color multi-tasking, multi-threaded GUI-based home computer before anyone else. Thousands of colors, photo-quality video, and digital sound introduced the world to "multi-media" even before the term had been coined.
The view of most Amiga fans is that the Amiga was the right computer at the right time. The penacle of achievement, and the world was ready. Unfortunately, Commodore never could figure out how to market this machine; and the Amiga was unfairly niched early on. Unfortunately, further Commodore ineptness prevented it from ever emerging from that niche, leading to Commodore's demise.
Fans of the Commodore 8-bit line see it another way. For them, the coming of the Amiga marshaled the ringing of Commodore's own deathnell. "Computers for the masses, not the classes!" was no longer the rallying cry at the Tramieless Commodore. The $200-$400 mutually compatible computers that sustained the low-end computer market were replaced by the $1000-$2000 Amigas. Commodore decided to play with the big-boys. They abandoned the market they had created, yet couldn't hold up to the more dynamic PC clones. Commodore's demise was inevitable it seemed...
Either way, it all started in 1985 with the release of the original Commodore Amiga, model 1000.
CPU: Motorola 68000
Ports: CSG "Paula/Portia" chip
Personal Note: Yea, well, it's an Amiga 1000. I hated this machine when it came out. Since I've become a regular Amiga user, I merely dislike what it represents. I got the dern thing off an eBay auction.
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