What was the Amiga 500 good for?
Although popular with hobbyists, arguably its most widespread use was as a gaming machine, where its graphics and sound were of significant benefit. It was followed by a revised version of the computer, the amiga 500 plus, and the 500 series was discontinued in 1992. Why was the amiga so good? Based on the motorola 68000 microprocessor, the amiga differs from its contemporaries through the inclusion of custom hardware to accelerate graphics and sound, including sprites and a blitter, and a pre- emptive multitasking operating system called amigaos.His conclusion is that what really killed the Amiga was that the CPU price reductions which defined the x86 world at that time never came to 68k or PowerPC lines, and that along with the architecture zealotry of the fan base meant that there would never be the much-longed-for revival.
How many Amiga 500 sold?
The A500 became the most popular Amiga, selling 6 million units, and was widely viewed as a gaming computer, not just a machine for graphic hobbyists. The Amiga 500 remained in the line until mid 1992, when it was replaced by the Amiga 600. Big box Amigas are fairly rare and hence rather expensive. They also often seem to be in an alarming state of decay when sold, unless refurbished by the previous owner. They were mostly used as TV and video industry workhorses and have often suffered rough handling and bad storage conditions after being decommissioned.