Ok, again no Camera, but I spent the day working on my A2000HD. I first removed the rubber feet on the bottom and used Fantastic to remove the glue residue. Commodore marked out Circles where the fet should go so I put the felt Pads there. I also put alot more felt on the bottom, as I don't trust the dollar store felt, and I suspect it will fall off over time.

I then proceed to tear the A2000 down and removed the old floppy drive and installed the 2 new one from Amiga kit . com. They have sequential serial numbers (like anyone really cares) and they are not as high , so there will be a gap when all is back together between the top of the drives and the case. I also took this time to inspect the battery. it is just starting to leak, so I removed it befor any damage could be done to the motherboard. The problem today is I could not remove the motherboard because of the screws again. It seems that over time, the screws that Comodore used seem to become soft, and the simple fact that Commodore torked the scews down really tightly, leads one to easily strip the heads with just one turn. Looks like I need the dremal for this project, and this is getting old and frustrating. Untill i find a satifactory solution or get an "Easy out" I may just have to leave off replacing batteries for the time being.

It's Thursday, Day 2 of the "NEW" United States, and guess what? Everything is just the same as it was last week. With all the Hoopla go on on Tuesday, you would have thought that the sun would shine brighter and the Whole world would be in hand in hand in peace and harmony.
Not much new on the Amiga today, I have to go pick up a package at the Post Office because I was working yesterday morning shift. This is my software packages for the online store, so not all that exciting. No hardware arriving today that I know of.

I want to share this letter from Failblog. org. I imagine this is the rejection letter HP/Voodoo WANTED to send me, but were too politically correct to word it this way. The truth is always better than fluff people.

I especially love the line "quite frankly you scare us". This was actually said by one manager at HP/ Voodoo, he also suggested I get "professional Help" for a psychiatrist.
BTW, I would NEVER call the HR rep a Skank Ho (to her face anyway) even though most HR reps are useless wastes of meat.
And now you know why I am not working for HP/Voodoo.

Well today is just great!
I installed Windows 7 yesterday, because we all know Vista sucks ass! Well, Windows 7 has some good and bad points on this machine . It runs faster then Vista, but that being said, the ONLY thing I can do is access Firefox and surf the web. Windows explore does not work at all. I can't even access my pictures and load them up today. I cant even access the control panel, really nothing works.I did do an "upgrade" not a clean install. Just goes to show that I should practice what I preach and back up and do a format and clean install. I think on Sunday will be that day, and I will put XP back on this darn machine, then I can shut the frigin touchpad off and type properly on this keyboard. Either that or I will Rip this laptop apart once and for all and distroy the frign touchpad once and for all. You really have no Idea how much I dispise it. Words can not describe the depths of my hatred of touchpads on laptops. I have dreamed up all sorts of ways to kill the inventor of the touchpad, as it is the bane of my existence on this laptop. I would switch to an external keyboard, but I paid so much money just to have a full size keyboard on my laptop.
I do not hate anything else as much as I hate touchpads on laptops, it is the only thing that keeps me swearing like a sailor on laptops. Not even linux, mac's or Vista ever and I mean ever! has boiled my blood as much as my touchpad has on my (and any)laptop. It is they first thing that usually gets turfed.

I had a bunch of nice pictures to upload today, but because of Windows 7 not accessing Windows explorer, I can't even download the pictures from my camera to to laptop.

Amiga news
I have a A3000 supposedly on its way!! I also got another A1000 unit. The Fed Ex website says I should have my parts from AmigaKit here by Monday, and I have procured the right tools, to take apart the CDTV. It looks like Commodore used Philips 0 or 00 screws for most of the CDTV's internals. I have hunted down a good screwdriver for this as it looks like they torqued the screws down really really tight, so a regular Philips would just strip the heads. I pick the tools up on Sunday.
I also got a torx 10 driver as the A500 originally came with these screws in the outer shell.
So it looks like the next week is my Amiga projects week, once I get the package from Fed Ex.
Too much to do, so little time.

As of noon Yesterday (January 12 2008), the old Iboughtavoodoolaptop.com has been redirected here. HA HA, clear your caches kitties, it's dead! I have been getting numerous E-mails wanting my opinion on the new HP Firebird PC and other going's on at Voodoo. I will not comment on the Firebird, because I know next to nothing on it, nor do I really care too at this time. I didn't even keep up with anything at CES. So the only conclusion I can draw at this time is stated in the photo below, due to lack of any real data on the machine (and I don't wish to get into ANOTHER debate with Ryan, in which I end up eating crow again). (Also, to be fair, Voodoo had this on the design board 15 months ago), but it does look rather suspicious, especially from a company that is suppose to value innovation, not piracy.

Ok, Back to the Amiga. I got my new CDTV in today and boy is it sweeeeet looking (photos to come later- camera issues again). I am ALMOST afraid to rip it down to put the new power supply in as it is so minty looking. I also have gotten a hold of some NOS software packages and will be posting them up in the online store once they arive and it is ready to go.

Another day off, and another day of waiting for Amiga hardware. According to the Canada Post tracking web-site, My new CDTV should be here tomorrow.
In preparation, yesterday, I tried to remove the Power supply from the old CDTV, but that lasted Approximately 2minutes, because my drill bits broke almost immediately after trying to drill out the screws. NEVER buy drill bits at the dollar store, because there is a reason they are there. I guess I will have to break down and ether track a tap and die set or get a hold of a Dremil tool.
I also contacted Amiga kit yesterday to find out the status of my order. I had ordered a bunch of parts, including a half a dozen battery holders on December 27, and so far the order has not been shipped. Due to the Christmas Holidays, they are a bit behind in their orders, and they said it should be shipped Monday, so I will be waiting until Next Monday (Jan 19,) before I can continue on my A 2000HD system. I ordered 2 replacement floppy drives and Also another bottom shell for a A500. Once that shipment comes in, IF the shell survives shipping, I will be able to get all 3 A500 nice, All that will be needed is another A500 floppy drive (I think).
The reason I have not touched the A500's yet, is simple. I want to paint the shells a nice eggshell white. The biggest hurtle is the weather. Up until yesterday, the average daytime high temperature here in Edmonton has been -25 C. I have to paint out side, so I will be waiting for a warm day (at least 0) to do this. Again, a ton of stuff to do and just have to wait for parts or summer time.
But, that doesn't mean nothing is being done. I am still Scanning manuals in converting to PDF.s and working on the website slowly. By now most have you have seen the old website is officially down. I have deleted everything from the server, but I am keeping the domain name (and my paypal address is still set up there). I will not be letting the name lapse, but it is for sale for anyone that wants it. (you can email me there: voodoo (at) Iboughtavoodoolaptop.com)Although I will be commenting on some blogs in general about the computer industry, I wont be commenting specifically on Voodoo anymore. That chapter of my life is closed (unless, by some miracle Voodoo (or HP) contacts me and makes me an offer I can't refuse- like that will happen)

The Amiga CD32 was the first 32-bit CD-ROM based video game console released in western Europe and Canada. It was first announced at the Science Museum in London, United Kingdom on 16 July 1993, and was released in September of the same year. The CD32 is based on Commodore's Advanced Graphics Architecture chipset, and is of similar specification to the Amiga 1200 computer. Using 3rd-party devices, it is possible to upgrade the CD32 with keyboard, floppy drive, hard drive and mouse, turning it into a personal computer. A hardware MPEG decompression module for playing Video CD was also available. The CD32 managed to secure over 50% of the CD-ROM market in the UK in 1993 and 1994, outselling the Sega Mega-CD, the Philips CDi, and even PC CD-ROM sales.
The CD32 was released in Canada and was planned for release in the United States. However, a deadline was reached for Commodore to pay a patent royalty to Cad Track for their use of their XOR patent. A federal judge ordered an injunction against Commodore preventing them from importing anything into the United States. Commodore had built up CD32 inventory in their Philippine manufacturing facility for the United States launch, but, being unable to sell the consoles, they remained in the Philippines until the debts owed to the owners of the facility were settled. Commodore declared bankruptcy shortly afterwards, and the CD32 was never officially sold in the United States.[2] However, imported models did come over the border from Canada, and many stores in the United States (primarily mail-order stores) imported units for domestic sale. During the long bankruptcy proceedings, Commodore UK also provided some hardware components and software for the American market, including production of the MPEG Video Module that was not officially released by Commodore International.
On its release, the CD32 was marketed by Commodore as 'the world's first 32-bit CD games console'. Although it was indeed the first such machine released in Europe and North America, the FM Towns Marty, a console released exclusively in Japan, beat it to market by two years.
Ultimately, Commodore was not able to meet demand for new units because of component supply problems. Sales of the CD32 in Europe were not enough to save Commodore, and the bankruptcy of Commodore International in April 1994 caused the CD32 to be discontinued only months after its debut.[ During it's short life the Amiga CD32 shifted approximately 100,000 units.
Contents

Standard Specifications

Case Type: Custom Console
Processor: 020@14.7Mhz
MMU: None
FPU: None
Chipset: AGA (with additional Akiko chip)
Kickstarts: V3.1
Expansion Slots: 1 x 182pin Expansion Slot.
Standard CHIP RAM: 2MB
RAM sockets: None
Hard Drive Controllers: None, however the system does have a custom CDROM controller.
Drive Bays: None
Expansion Ports: 1 x S-Video 4pin mini DIN
1 x RF
1 x RCA Composite
2 x 9pin Joypad/Mouse
2 x RCA Audio (Left/Right)
1 x 3.5mm Headphone Socket
1 x 6pin DIN AUX (Serial)
1 x 182pin Expansion Slot
Floppy Drive: None
Motherboard Revisions: Rev 1 (Developer Board)
Rev 2 (Developer Board)
Rev 3 (First Public Release)
Rev 4
Rev 4.1
Battery Backed Up Clock: None

The CD32 was Commodore's attempt at entering the console market. The CD32 is fully Amiga compatible and with the addition of other hardware such as a floppy drive or hard disk can also play games intended for more conventional machines such as the A1200. It does however have a chip called Akiko, which as well as handling some functions of the CD-ROM (twin speed) is also responsible for handling chunky to planar conversion. Many CD32 games are also compatible with other Amigas, providing they don't rely on Akiko (although there are Akiko emulators available). The CD-32 has a rather unique kickstart screen. Unlike most other Amiga models which show a simple hand holding a disk (Kickstart 1.3 and earlier) or an animated disk being inserted into a floppy drive (Kickstart 2 to Kickstart 3.1) the CD-32 has a fully animated intro with a spinning CD, glorious colours and an intro sound. It also has built-in software for playing audio CDs. The CD-32 can also boot from CD-ROMs unlike more conventional Amigas. At the time of release, the CD-32 was probably the only console in the world with a 32bit pre-emptive multitasking operating system. There are several expansions for the CD32 which can effectively turn it into a fully expanded Amiga with hard drives, extra RAM and faster processors. The CD-32 was supplied with either one or two joypads which are also compatible with all other conventional Amigas.

During the development phase of the CD32, Commodore provided registered Amiga developers with the development versions of the CD32. These versions usually contained a Rev 1 or 2 motherboard. The first public release of the CD32 used a rev 3 motherboard. Apparently the developer versions may also have been supplied with a "debug" card which gave the CD32 much of the standard ports that the A1200 had. This was intended to help the developers port software to the CD32.
Accessories and third party devices
The CD32 can be enhanced using these devices: ProModule, Paravision SX-1 and DCE SX-32 (which optionally includes 68030 CPU).
Those devices extend the capability of Amiga CD32, allowing it to utilize hardware such as an external 3.5" floppy disk drive, hard disk and IBM PC keyboard. An Amiga CD32 can be turned into a de facto Amiga 1200 via the addition of 3rd party packages. The SX-1 appears to have been designed around Commodore's mechanical specs and not the actual production units – it did not fit very well and requires an internal 'modification' to fit properly. Consequently, the SX-1 can be jarred loose if the console is not handled gently. The upgraded SX-32 expansion pack (which included a 68030 25 MHz processor) solves these problems.
In addition to its own special controllers, the Amiga CD32 is also compatible with most 9-pin D-Sub controllers from the 80s and 90s, including the SEGA Megadrive/Genesis controllers, SEGA Master System controllers, and all Amiga/C64 joysticks as well as Amiga mice and paddles.
CDs created for the CD32 conform to ISO 9660 level2, mode1; although the Rock Ridge and Joliet extensions are not compatible.
Software
If the system is turned on without a CD, a splash screen with scrolling colours will appear and a tune will play. After this tune ends, the user can press the blue button on the game pad to enter a language selection menu. The user can also press the red button to access a menu where they can view the contents of the internal Flash ROM. Unlike most game consoles, this menu does not allow the user to delete items. Instead, the system will automatically overwrite the oldest entries when memory runs out. The menu allows the user to "lock" files to prevent overwriting.
At launch, the CD32 was bundled with two games, Diggers, a new game from Millennium Interactive, and Oscar from Flair. A later pack included the one-on-one fighting game Dangerous Streets, a move by Commodore that was met with derision by the press. Many reviewers had given Dangerous Streets terrible scores (Amiga Power rating it just 3%) and were surprised that with a slew of powerful rival consoles about to hit the market, Commodore would choose to show off the abilities of its machine with a poor game.
The CD32 was capable of running most of the titles developed for the Amiga CDTV multimedia device (differences in CPU speed and Kickstart version prevented some of the earlier CDTV titles from running). Many of the games released for the CD32 were simply ports of games that were already available for Amiga computers. One benefit of this is that, when appropriate, many games retain the ability to use an Amiga mouse (in port 2) or Amiga keyboard (plugged into the AUX port).
Like all later Amiga computers, the CD32 has a hidden boot menu that can be accessed by plugging an Amiga mouse into port 2 and holding both buttons down while turning the system on. Most of the options in this menu are not useful on a CD32, but from this menu you can choose to boot in either NTSC or PAL mode. This is important, as there are some games that will refuse to work if the system is in the wrong mode, since most games don't advertise what video mode they were developed for. It should also be pointed out that despite the naming, the menu really only allows a choice of 60 Hz or 50 Hz video output; a PAL system booted in NTSC mode will still output a video signal using PAL color encoding, which will usually result in a black and white picture when connected to an NTSC television.While the console was fairly successful during its lifespan and managed to be the best-selling CD format console in 1993, it was not able to sustain its growth, with Commodore filing for Chapter 11 just a year after its release after not being able to secure additional CD32 shipments for the holiday season. It was speculated that the holiday season could have kept Commodore afloat for another six months. Another problem was the lack of original games, which had also plagued the CDTV before it.The CD32 arrived at a time when new, technically demanding genres such as the first person shooter were becoming popular. While the console was capable of handling some or all of these new types of genres, games developers saw more profit in shovelware—taking an older game and either adding an FMV intro or even (in some cases) just directly transferring the floppy game onto CD. A few pieces of original software did appear and some were well received but by and large the CD32 found itself with a software library mainly containing titles that were up to five years old and which much of the machine's target audience already owned. Given that, along with the fact that 'hot' games like Doom and Virtua Fighter were planned for release on the CD32's competitors, many observers blamed shovelware for the machine's relative failure.However, a large fan base carried over from the success of other Amiga computers, and several notable titles, such as Microcosm, Liberation: Captive 2, Simon the Sorcerer and Super Stardust prevented the console from sliding into total obscurity.
Uses of the CD32
In 1993, 109 CD32s were installed to run the interactive exhibits at the London Transport Museum, Covent Garden. They provided information, animations, pictures, sound and text available in several languages, as well as a London Underground simulator. The systems were produced by the Odiham, Hampshire-based company Index Information, utilising their CD32x interface units.In 1995, an Italian company named CD Express used the CD32 as a basis for an arcade machine called "CUBO CD32". Inside these machines, stock CD32s were hooked up to an external circuit board which essentially acted as a converter to route all the input and output into a standard JAMMA connector for use in an arcade cabinet. The software was provided on CD-ROM. Nine games are known to exist, all of which are original games created by CD Express.

In the mid to late 1990s, some vehicle registries in Canada utilized CD32 systems for interactive multimedia testing for drivers license applications.
Fun Facts
Even though it was the first console launched in Canada, It is widely over look and ignored. On a recent Discovery Channel show they mentioned the first was Sega, but The CDTV was launch over a year ahead of Sega.
Ebay Auctions.
There is a few companies in China that sell NOS NTSC CD32 units. Expect to pay about $99 USD for a new one.

My Collection
No, I have not even tried to get one yet, to many other Amigas to come first.

Photos removed due to hotlinking

The Commodore CDTV- Way ahead of its time

So When is a Amiga 500 not an Amiga 500?

All Photos removed due to hotlinking


In 1986-87 Commodore realized that the A500 and A1000 would not fit the needs of the high end business and graphics markets. They needed an machine that was the essentially the same as the A500, but had the "industrial" look and expandability of a PC. They also knew that Unix was needed on a business machine and luckily they had a "Unix" division that had recently been working on a Unix machine called the C900 and was canceled. They even took the box from the Unix machine and called it the A2000.

Amiga 2000
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Commodore Amiga 2000
Type Personal computer
Release date 1986
Discontinued 1991
Operating system Amiga OS 1.2/1.3 ~ 2.0
CPU Motorola 68000 @ 7.16 MHz 7.09 MHz (PAL)
Memory 512 KB (9 MB maximum)

The A2000, also known as the Commodore Amiga 2000, was released in 1986. Although aimed at the high-end market it was technically very similar to the A500, so similar in fact that the A2000B revision was outright based on the A500 design. What the A2000 had over the A500 was a bigger case with room for five Zorro II proprietary expansion slots, two 16-bit and two 8-bit ISA slots, a CPU upgrade slot, a video slot, and a battery-backed clock.
It should also be noted that, like the Amiga 1000 and unlike the Amiga 500, the A2000 came in a desktop case with a separate keyboard. The case was more PC-like than the A1000 - taller to accommodate the expansion cards and lacking the space beneath for the keyboard.
The A2000 was eventually succeeded by the Amiga 3000 in 1990.

Technical specifications


Model A (Revisions 3.0-4.0)/ B (Revisions 4.1-5.0) - 1986

* CPU: Motorola 68000 (7.16 MHz NTSC, 7.09 MHz PAL)
o The CPU can be upgraded with CPU cards
* Chipset: OCS (Original Chipset)
o Audio (Paula):
+ 4 voices / 2 channels (Stereo)
+ 8-bit resolution / 6-bit volume
+ 28 kHz sampling rate
+ 70 dB S/N Ratio
o Video (Common resolutions):
+ 320×200/256 with 32 colors, 64 colors in Halfbrite or 4096 in HAM-6
+ 640×400/512i with 16 colors
o Battery-backed clock
* Memory:
o 256 KB ROM for Kickstart code.
o 512 KB (Max) / (1 MB Max) of Chip RAM.
o 512 KB Fast RAM in MMU slot (in some Model As only) / Soldered on motherboard
+ Practical limit of 8 MB total Fast RAM memory without the use of a CPU expansion card, due to the 24-bit address bus.
* Storage:
o 3.5" DD Floppy drive, capacity 880 KB
o SCSI Hard drive in A2000HD systems.
* Input/Output connections:
o Composite TV out (Black & White, not present on Model A)
o Analogue RGB video plug (Male DB23)
o RCA audio plugs
o 2 x Game/Joy/Mouse ports (Male DE9)
o Keyboard port (5 pin DIN)
o RS232 Serial port (Male DB25)
o Centronics Parallel port (Female DB25)
o Port for external floppy drive (Female DB23)
* Internal connectors:
o 5 Zorro II slots (16-bit, AutoConfig)
o 2 16-bit ISA slots (Inactive per default, only usable with a PC emulation bridgeboard or bus bridge installed)
o 2 8-bit ISA slots (also inactive, some models could be fitted with extension edge connectors, upgrading these slots to 16 bits)
o 1 32 Pin Internal floppy connector
o 1 MMU / CPU Slot
o 1 Genlock slot in Rev A models.
o 1 video slot connector in model Bs for genlocks, flicker fixers, Video Toaster etc
* Casing:
o 200-205 Watt switching power supply
o 2 3.5" drive bays for 3.5" floppy drives or other peripherals
o 1 5.25" drive bay for 5.25" floppy drive or other peripherals
* Software (Bundled):
o AmigaOS 1.2 / 1.3 operation system.
o Kickstart 1.2 / 1.3 (In ROM)
o Voice synthesis library


Model C (Revisions 6.0-6.5) - 1991

Also known as the A2000+ it is for the most part identical to its forerunner.

* Chipset: OCS in Revisions 6.0-6.2, ECS (Enhanced Chip Set) in revisions 6.3-6.5
o Video (New resolutions for ECS):
+ 640×480 with 4 colors (Productivity)
+ 800×600i with 2 colors (Super72)
* Memory:
o 512 KB ROM for Kickstart code.
o 1 MB of Chip RAM, (2 MB Max) with third party adaptors
* Software (Bundled):
o AmigaOS 2.0 operation system. (Kickstart 2.0/Workbench 2.0)

Commodore UK sold a variant of the A2000, the A1500. The A1500 shipped with dual floppy drives, and 1MB of RAM as standard, along with the ECS chipset and Amiga OS 2.04. The A2500 was an A2000 sold with either an A2630 (with 25MHz 68030 and 2 or 4MB RAM) or A2620 (Motorola 68020 @ 14MHz) accelerator, A2091 SCSI controller and in some models an
A2320 VGA card (flicker fixer).

Amiga 2500


The Amiga 2500, also known as the A2500, was not a distinct Amiga model, but simply a marketing name for a Commodore Amiga 2000 bundled with a Motorola 68020 or 68030-based
accelerator card. The accelerator cards used by the A2500 (the A2620 and A2630) were also available separately as upgrades for the A2000.Because the A2500 had a Motorola 68000 on the motherboard that was otherwise unused, the design was not very cost-effective. A cost-reduced version omitting the accelerator board was proposed but never got past the prototype stage. Also, because the A2500 was not a fully 32-bit machine, its performance was slower than an A3000 running at the same clock speed.The A2500 remained in production after the release of the A3000, however, because the original Video Toaster would not fit in an unmodified A3000 case. Until the release of the Video 4000, the A2500 was the fastest computer available for use with the Toaster.


Cool Facts
The A2000 is the best (IMHO) machine for a hardware junkie to start out with. The base units are relative inexpensive, and you can add Zorro Cards to customise the machine to your needs. With literally thousands of expansion cards. The possibilities are endless, and you can run all the old software/games on it.
Most A2000's are very common, although A2000UX and tower systems are quite rare (there was never an "official" Commodore A2000 T or Tower system, but many aftermarket tower kits. All the A2000 variants (A2000HD,A25000,etc) are quite easily (the 2500 is a bit harder) to get.
The "Video Toaster" is more rare, but pops up from time to time -all the difference is stickers on outside of case, and has a toaster card.
Can be hooked up to a regular TV again with a A520 or B&W with just an RCA cable.
There are in fact 3 Versions, the older "German" designed version and the 2 newer US versions designed by legendary Amiga Guru Dave Haynie


Ebay Auctions
A2000's regularly go for as low as $50 USD for base units, to the sky's the limit for what cards are included.
Ver. 6x motherboards are the ones that are worth more money.
Be warned, the battery is a barrel battery and is more likely to have exploded and caused corrosion. Make sure you check on this when bidding on one, or list it when selling one.


My Collection.
I have had 2. An A2000 with a rev 4.6 Motherboard, and My baby the A2000HD with a version 6 Mobo. I am no where near satisfied with the hardware cards I have yet.

Hello, welcome to the first ever Amiga lounge post. I plan to make the Lounge very similar to the old CoCo lounge Website I did. Eventually, this site also will have an online store with Amiga stuff you can purchase, A whole history section of each Amiga ever made, and, of course, my ongoing Amiga projects. Due to lack of time though, you will just have to settle with this Blogger site until then.
Questions and comments are always welcome, and you can get a hold of me at amiga(at) Amigalounge.com.
Be FOREWARNED:
I AM NO EXPERT at the Amiga (NOR do I claim to be). If you notice something moronic or wrong, let me know, and I will correct it.

For those of you that are relatively new to the Amiga (or as some call it the miggy) and because I am waiting for parts to come in, I will start off these first few blogs with a bit of history on each machine. Eventually, these will be turned into pages on the site. Even though there are literally thousands of third party peripherals for the Amiga (the BIG BOOK OF AMIGA HARDWARE is a great resource) there were only officially 9 computers and 2 non-computers made by Commodore.

To full appreciate the history of the Amiga, you have to know a bit on the history of Commodore Computers first. Lets face it, Commodore was a fish out of water in the computer game and did not know how to be a computer company (not that many knew how to back then). Commodore had a huge success with the C64 because of price and sat back and let the money come in, they did not know how to market computers and had huge rivals at the top of the Company. The 2 owners Jack Tramiel and Irving Gould. Jack was eventually let go from the company he started and went over to head Atari Computers.

Meanwhile, back in 1980, Jay Miner was working for Atari on the 8 bit systems (Atari 400,800, 2600) and is board with 8 bit systems and begins to plan work on a system based on the 6800 processor. Atari passes on on the idea. In 1982 Jay and Larry Kaplin from Activision start a small company called Hi-Toro, assembling a rag-tag group of people to work on his 68000 design, People think it is a lawn mower company, so they change the name to Amiga incorporated. During this time Dave Morse is recruited as Chief Executive Officer, who leaves his role as vice-president of marketing at Tonka Toys to take the job. Amiga Inc. secretly design a computer called Lorraine (after Dave Morse Wife) . The aim of the Lorraine protoype was to create a monster Gaming machine with a 3.5 inch floppy drive and a keyboard.

In an attempt to finance the project, the Lorraine was shown to several interested investors at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago on January 4th, 1984. However, the custom chips weren't finished and the entire project was still held together by four breadboards. During the show RJ Mical and Dale Luck wrote a bouncing ball animation - a demo that showed a red & white sphere bouncing around the screen. The 'Boing Ball' soon became a symbol of the Amigas technical prowess and was later adopted as a symbol of rebellion against the Commodore management. Although there was considerable interest in the hardware, the show did not produce any conclusive results.

By this time debts were piling up and the Amiga team were forced to place all they owned on the line, Dave Morse took out a second mortgage on his house. In an attempt to gain outside funding Amiga Inc. made an appeal to Sony, Apple, Silicon Graphics, Atari, and many others. Although these companies expressed an interest in the Amiga, they did not provide a suitable offer. Steve Jobs of Apple made the excuse that there was too much hardware, even though the newly redesigned board consisted of just three chips. Only Atari Inc. (managed by Warner at the time) made a serious offer for the Amiga custom chips, loaning $500,000 to keep the company alive while a license agreement was constructed. In a 1992 interview, Miner indicated the deal was a last ditch attempt:

"Atari gave us $500,000 with the stipulation that we had one month to come to a deal with them about the future of the Amiga chipset or pay them back, or they got the rights. This was a dumb thing to agree to but there was no choice."

The tentative plans between Amiga and Atari incorporated terms that Atari would purchase one million preferred shares of Amiga at $3 each by September 1st. However, Atari knew that Amiga, Inc. could not pay back the money and started to play dirty, reducing the amount offered to just 98 cents per share for the company. To make matters worse, Atari only wanted the Amiga technology in an attempt to get into the 16 bit market before Commodore (who were working on a Unix box) and had no interest in the team that created it. Amiga grudgingly accepted the offer. However, the Atari deal soon turned sour. On Tuesday July 3rd, Atari employees were informed all 8-bit projects have been canceled and the Amiga project was on hold. Facing cancellation the Amiga team began to look around for other options in an attempt to find a buyer.

While these events are being played out, Jack Tramiel leaves Commodore with half of the engineering staff and is sued by the company for breach of Commodore's propietary secrets. Just a few days later Tramiel purchases Warner's Atari Consumer company to take advantage of its existing manufacture and distribution channels and renames Tramiel Technologies to Atari Corp. He subsequently discovers the original Atari/Amiga agreement and files a $100 million suit in the Santa Clara County Superior Court on Monday, August 13th against Commodore & Jay Miner individually, charging a breach of contract. Atari suggest that Amiga fraudulently dealt with other potential buyers after agreeing to negotiate licensing specific microprocessors to Atari Inc. in return for the $500,000 advance payment. In an attempt to gain revenge on his old company for suing him, Tramiel sought damages and an injunction to prevent Amiga from delivering or selling chips to any other company.

Fortunately help is at hand and Commodore decide that the Amiga is worth the potential cost. Two days later, on August 15th, Commodore International Ltd. announced they would purchase the cash strapped Amiga Inc. In a moment of rebellion, the Amiga team persuaded Commodore to raise its bid to $4.25 a share and give them $1,000,00 to pay their Atari debts. A few weeks the Amiga hardware and its creators moved to the newly created subsidiary, 'Commodore-Amiga Inc.' and continued to develop the newly renamed Amiga computer with 27 million dollars of extra development money.

While Commodore were focussing their resources into the Amiga, the Tramiel-owned Atari had not abandoned their goal of 16-bit domination. Through the use of off-the-shelf hardware and software the company constructed their own 16-bit platform - the Atari ST - in record time. This used a 68k port of the CP/M operating system, which was integrated with the GEM user interface. The result was a single tasking OS that required a love of the colour green to be used over a long period. However, its quick design made it significantly cheaper and easier to manufacture, appearing several months before the Commodore AMIGA. In spite of their initial defeat, Jack Tramiel demonstrated a willingness to dominate his former company in the market place.

Just 11 months after Commodore had bought the ailing Amiga Inc, they unveiled the product of that union. The Commodore Amiga (the initial name of the Amiga 1000) was unveiled at the Lincoln Centre in New York on July 23rd in a media frenzy. For the launch Commodore had hired Andy Warhol & Debbie Harry (lead singer of Blondie) to demonstrate the Amiga's graphics capabilities using Island Graphics Graphicraft. This was accompanied by a full score synthesized by Roger Powell and Mike Boom, author of Musicraft.

The Commodore Amiga was officially launched in September 1985 for $2,500. The world's first Amiga magazine - Amiga World - was launched soon after. At the time this price was a major detractor that placed it in the high-end region occupied by the Apple Macintosh. In comparison, the Atari ST was selling for less than half the price. It was later recognized that this was Commodores' first mistake. Rather than promoting the Amiga as a professional machine, they sought to replicate the success of the Atari ST. However, the Atari ST had built a steady market since its launch that made it a difficult adversary, with the Amiga playing second fiddle to the ST regarding game releases. It is difficult to indicate just how advanced the Amiga was compared to other systems. Apple had a graphical interface but was largely restricted to the black and white monitor display, whilst PCs were still horrible text based systems. The Amiga also had an ace up its sleeve by the fact that it was TV compatible and could be used for editing footage. A task that even now the Mac and PC cannot do as standard. The Juggler demo, consisting of a character juggling reflective balls in a 3D environment, attracted customers to the graphical capabilities. This spurred Electronic Arts to rewrite their IBM PC package, Prism (which was an enhanced port of Doodle for Xerox machines) and release it for the Amiga during September. The rewrite was christened Deluxe Paint and the rest is history.

(some of this information is from www.amigahistory.co.uk)

Thus, the Amiga was born. Later, Commodore would change the name to the Amiga 1000