What is an Amiga?

In computational terms this should be a very easy question but, to me, its a little more complicated than it first appears. Firstly, which Amiga? Even in ‘classic’ Amiga models where we avoid the more exotic models there are three main systems, all varying in power and abilities but still retaining a common ancestry. The A500, the A600 and the A1200. To the more knowledgeable user they may often be described as the OCS, ECS and AGA chipsets. Original (500), Enhanced (600) and Advanced (1200). All are roughly compatable with some 500s able to run some ECS but never AGA, though AGA can run most ECS and OCS. There are always some games and software that refuses but this is mostly a small amount and it gets even smaller if you add extra memory etc.

Now, to me an Amiga is really the classic A500. I own one, I prefer it as it hits that nostalgia boner that we all feel towards something but I do run one that is accelerated via a device called an ACA500+, this enables me to run a perma 42mhz which makes a blindingly fast OCS computer that runs the software at far more accomodating and fluid framerates. To me the A500 with an accelerated 68000 CPU is the perfect Amiga and how it was meant to be compared to the much slower original. It is though still what I would call an Amiga due to using the same chips, audio, graphical etc as a non-ACA version. Not all software works as intended but that is honestly more down to the way the software was locked into the old hardware than the hardwares fault. The original A500 has some issues that made it struggle compared to its later line-ups and other computers. You can now “fix” this with add-ons to enable HDDs etc much easier and cheaper than it used to be, this is due to how all classic Amigas, the so called “low-end” systems were built with one circuit board and everything soldered onto it with very little in practical expansion ports with no need for expensive Squirrels etc (I will let you look that one up if this article sparks an interest).

Taking the models out of order, for reasons, my next classic Amiga is the much vaunted A1200 with AGA chipset. Whilst the A500 might be my “perfect” model the reality is the A1200 was just better in everyway. Faster default CPU, its advanced GPU, a standard IDE and space for a 2.5HDD and the ability to “Tower” up the system, again with various expensive extras and add banks of HDD and CD-RW etc. It was just better, faster and smaller with a new design and a sexier feel. Mostly backwards compatible 020 CPU and at the time it felt like we finally got the sequel we deserved. Back in the day my 1200T was my most used computer, my daily driver. Until the heady days of 1997 I never really felt the need to use anything else. It was a computer designed to be played with, its software (like DOPUS4) was originally better than anything on other systems as personalising it was easy and expansion, whilst expensive. was more than any Commodore before it (in the low-end bracket). My favourite software for Amiga are still the AGA versions of certain games.

OK. Its time to address the Elephant in my room, maybe not everyones. The A600. The line of Commodore computers that in its day nobody wanted, nobody cared for and was mildly useless? I am sure some will disagree but let me remind you that this was released AFTER the A1200. It had issues playing OCS games. It could not run AGA. It had less memory but did have a nice upgrade route for HDD etc and came ready to roll out the box. It was also small. Today that “small” is often a deciding factor in purchasing one because it seems as we got older we bought more crap and have less room or so everyone tells me and is my own experience. Accelerating an A600 is easy stuff today so you can get quite the powerhouse but for me, its still that annoying little nobody that I had but never used compared to my 500 and 1200. If you were going for an Amiga today I would probably suggest a deep dive into the A600 regardless of my personal choices and preferences.

Now there are many more models that I am not going to talk about because these “Desktop” Amiga whilst nice are not really what I call an Amiga. Don’t get me wrong, they are but they are also more business oriented originaly even though everyone mostly just plays games on them now. The A1000, A2000, A3000, A4000 and various models that are basicaly the same internally but have more abilities in some areas. We also have the CDTV and CD32. The CDTV being nothing more than an interesting find if you love collecting retro and the CD32 being a consolised version of the A1200 therefore lacking by default everything that made the 1200 such a good computer. You can however expand a CD32 to be a powerful yet stunted 1200 with money and time.

Of course this is all a personal opinion studded with some facts about system power etc and the following is also a personal opinion. The PPC Amiga models are NOT Amigas except in a vague named way. Firstly they are all post Commodore, secondly none are hardware compatable with the original models and honestly, just buy a frikking PC and a classic Amiga for cheaper than one PPC model and get the absolute best of both worlds? Again, people with have differing views on this but this is my post not theirs so thats that.

Whatever your opinions of all the Amiga models I noted above I will say this to answer my original question, what is an Amiga? The Amiga is a portion of retrocomputing and gaming that we shall never get back where we saw the future for a very short time. That future soon died as the IBM compatibles offered up cheaper and better upgrade routes and much more power and bang for your buck but it should never be forgotten as premier days of Home Computing that taught many of us how to build, play, modify our computers. Like the ZX Spectrum before it, we buried ourselves in our bedrooms and created wonderful things and often gained huge success doing it.

What is an Amiga? Its lovely, thats what.