Twenty years ago today Commodore introduced the Amiga 1000.
The Amiga has long been my favorite computer. It’s amazing to look back at what the Amiga could do as compared to other computers of its time. For example, check out the images on the right. The top right image is an actual graphic from the original Amiga 1000 from 1985. Now that might not seem like much. But think about it. The Amiga was doing those graphics twenty years ago!

The Amiga was capable of displaying 4096 colors, while an IBM PC from the same era could display only 16 colors. The images to the right prove my point. The Amiga was far superior in the graphics department!

It doesn’t end with the incredible graphics. The Amiga was the first home PC which had stereo sound. Until the Amiga, home PC’s and game consoles were limited to beeps and static explosion sounds. The Amiga on the other hand could reproduce 4 channel stereo 8 bit, 9 octave audio!
Let’s compare.
The IBM PC graphics seen to the right were from the same era. Not exactly eye popping graphics. Needless to say it was difficult to get a photo realistic image with only 16 colors.
How about gaming consoles?
The third and forth images are from the Atari 7800 game console which was released in 1986, a year after the Amiga. These graphics were much better than those found in the IBM PC game above, but still couldn’t match the quality of the Amiga.

Check out the technical specs of the Amiga at Old-Computers.com.

Happy 20th Birthday Amiga!