Amiga 500 & Amiga 500+

Commodore Amiga 500The Commodore Amiga 500 was the successor of the Amiga 1000. Commodore designed this computer so that it could beat the Atari 520 STf. The Magnetic Media of this computer was a 3/12 Floppy disk drive which you could save 800KB on it. Amiga used an operating system called Workbench V1.3, in which also included GWBasic & a speech synthesizer program. The 512KB Chip Ram was easily upgradeable by changing the chip to 1MB. The A500+ was the same machine except that it could be upgraded to 2MB and could display a higher graphic resolution picture. The limitations for this feature is that you need an RGB monitor or a TV equipped with Scart Plug RGB inputs. Although these two machines were the same some software was not compatible due to the Dos Rom installed on the computer. Some machines had even a switch to change from A500 to A500+. Today the A500 is still alive, some users managed to get the machine on the internet and also to run IBM emulators. Although this machine was great the public was not interested at all to buy it. The People had the idea that the machine is a toy, but still they asked for these type of features that the Amiga had. This forced IBM computers to evolve quickly and to be more interactive with the user.

 
A500 – A500+
1987 $595(USA) – £599(UK)
1990 £395(UK)
Boxed Value Pack A500+ 1990: 017148
Amiga 500 1987: 399759
Amiga 500+ 1991: 1081043, 164317
1986 & 1988
Motorola MC 68000 16 BIT running at a frequency of 7.16 Mhz NTSC or 7.09 Mhz PAL
256 KB Rom (multitasking Amiga OS V1.2 later V1.3) & 512 KB Ram expandable to 9MB ( 512 KB Chip Ram + 512 KB Slow Ram + 8mb Fast Ram).
The Shape is very similar to the C128 with a light beige colour. Full QWERTY AT style keyboard with 93 keys.
The graphic capabilities of the Amiga 500 was handled by a custom chip called Daphne. In text mode display the computer is able to display a 60 X 32 & 80 X 32 resolution display. While in graphic Mode 320 X 256, 320 X 512, 640 X 256, 640 X 512 resolution display. The Amiga has a palette of 4096 Colors + 2 special modes. In 320 X x Mode it was capable of displaying 32 Colours, while in 640 X x mode it could display 16 Colours. The special modes are EHB 64 Colours and HAM 4096 colours on static display. These 2 special modes could display and digitize a photo into the computers memory and save it to disk. The A500+ resolution is the same as the A500 with an additional mode in NTSC of 1280 X 400 interlaced resolution and 1280 X 200 non interlaced mode.
The Amiga is also equipped with a 4 Voice 8 bit PCM Stereo sound chip ( 2Channels on each side) that could produce an infinite of sounds and music. This custom chip code named Portia was also controlling the I/O ports of the machine. This helped to produce devices that could digitize sound into the computer, for later playback.
1x Centronics Printer Port
1x RS232 Port
1x Mouse/Joystick Port
1x Joystick Port
1x RGB Monitor Connection
1x Composite Monitor Connection
2x Phono Plugs for External left & right Audio Connectors
1x Bus Port.
1x Expansion Port
1x Disk Drive Port for external Drives
The usual Commodore external power supply very similar to the C128. Connector is the same as the C128, but voltages and pinouts totally different, lighter & auto switching mode with an output of 23 Watts.
Weight & dimensions for the Amiga 500 or Amiga 500+ are 3.4Kg, 470 x 325 x 55 mm, (W x L x H).
more than 4 Million units around the world.

The club currently owns two Amiga 500. the First Amiga 500 is not boxed but we have all the manuals that the computer was shipped with, a power supply, the A520 RF modulator and an RGB cable. The system is in good working condition, and although the colour of the keys are a bit yellow the casing is still in it’s original colour. We also managed to get a sound Digitizer for this system, still boxed with manuals. The system is also equipped with a 512MB memory Ram card with a Battery onboard for date & time. The clock works fine but the date is not displayed correctly due to the Millennium Bug (The year is showed as 19100). To solve this problem I managed to get a software to fix this problem and it worked fine, but only on workbench. The second Amiga500 is a 500+ with two Kickstart version 1.3 & 2. It’s not boxed but we have all manuals. It also has a Memory upgrade with built in clock & an Action Replay cartridge.

 

Control Port 1

9 Pin D-Sub Male
Pin Name Dir Desc
1 JOYA0 IN Joy UP
2 JOYA1 IN Joy DOWN
3 JOYA2 IN Joy LEFT
4 JOYA3 IN Joy RIGHT
5 POT AX IN Horz Pot
6 BTN A IN Fire
7 +5V OUT +5V 100mA
8 GND N/A Grnd
9 POT AY IN Vert Pot
 

 

Control Port 2

9 Pin D-Sub Male
Pin Name Dir Desc
1 JOYB0 IN Joy UP
2 JOYB1 IN Joy DOWN
3 JOYB2 IN Joy LEFT
4 JOYB3 IN Joy RIGHT
5 POT BX IN Horz Pot
6 BTN B IN Fire
7 +5V OUT +5V 100mA
8 GND N/A Grnd
9 POT BY IN Vert Pot
 

 

Expansion Port

86 Pin EDGE
Pin Name Dir Desc
1 GND N/A
2 GND N/A
3 GND N/A
4 GND N/A
5 +5V OUT
6 +5V OUT
7 EXP IN
8 -12V OUT
9 EXP IN
10 +12V OUT
11 EXP IN
12 /CONFIG IN
13 GND N/A
14 /C3 IN
15 CDAC IN
16 /C1 IN
17 /OVR IN
18 XRDY IN
19 /INT2 OUT
20 /PALOPE OUT
21 A5 OUT
22 /INT6 OUT
23 A6 OUT
24 A4 OUT
25 GND N/A
26 A3 OUT
27 A2 OUT
28 A7 OUT
29 A1 OUT
30 A8 OUT
31 FC0 IN/
OUT
32 A9 OUT
33 FC1 IN/
OUT
34 A10 OUT
35 FC2 IN/
OUT
36 A11 OUT
37 GND N/A
38 A12 OUT
39 A13 OUT
40 /IPL0 IN
41 A14 OUT
42 /IPL1 IN
43 A15 OUT
44 /IPL2 IN
45 A16 OUT
46 /BERR IN
47 A17 OUT
48 /VPA IN
49 GND N/A
50 E IN
51 /VMA OUT
52 A18 OUT
53 /RES IN
54 A19 OUT
55 /HLT IN/
OUT
56 A20 OUT
57 A22 OUT
58 A21 OUT
59 A23 OUT
60 /BR IN/
OUT
61 GND N/A
62 /BGACK IN/
OUT
63 PD15 IN/
OUT
64 /BG IN
65 PD14 IN/
OUT
66 /DTACK OUT
67 PD13 IN/
OUT
68 /PRW IN
69 PD12 IN/
OUT
70 /LDS IN
71 PD11 IN/
OUT
72 /UDS IN
73 GND N/A
74 /AS IN
75 PD0 IN/
OUT
76 PD10 IN/
OUT
77 PD1 IN/
OUT
78 PD9 IN/
OUT
79 PD2 IN/
OUT
80 PD8 IN/
OUT
81 PD3 IN/
OUT
82 PD7 IN/
OUT
83 PD4 IN/
OUT
84 PD6 IN/
OUT
85 GND N/A
86 PD5 IN/
OUT
 

 

External Drive Port

23 Pin D-SUB Female at the Computer
Pin Name Dir Desc
1 /RDY IN/
OUT		 Dsk Rdy
2 /DKRD IN Dsk Rd Data
3 GND N/A Grnd
4 GND N/A Grnd
5 GND N/A Grnd
6 GND N/A Grnd
7 GND N/A Grnd
8 /MTRXD IN Dsk Mot Cntrl
9 /SEL2B IN Sel Drv 2
10 /DRESB IN Dsk Reset
11 /CHNG IN/
OUT		 Dsk rem from drv
12 +5V OUT +5V DC 250mA Max
13 /SIDEB IN Sel Disk Drv
14 /WPRO IN/
OUT		 Dsk is wr prot
15 /TKO IN/
OUT		 Drv hd pos
16 /DKWE IN Disk wr ena
17 /DKWD OUT Disk wr data
18 /STEPB IN Step the hd pls
19 DIRB IN Sel hd dir
20 /SEL3B IN Sel Drv 3
21 /SEL1B IN Sel Drv 1
22 /INDEX IN/
OUT		 Dsk ind pls
23 +12 IN +12V DC 160mA max
 

 

LightPen

9 Pin D-Sub Male
Pin Name Dir Desc
1 —– N/A
2 —– N/A
3 —– N/A
4 —– N/A
5 PEN PRS IN Light pen touch Scrn
6 LIGHT PEN IN Capture Beam Pos
7 +5V OUT Grnd
8 GND N/A
9 —– N/A
 

 

Mouse Port

9 Pin D-Sub Male
Pin Name Dir Desc
1 MSE V IN Vert Mouse
2 MSE H IN Horz Mouse
3 MSE VQ IN Vert Quad
4 MSE HQ IN Horz Quad
5 MSE BTN 2 IN Mouse Btn 2
6 MSE BTN 1 IN Mouse Btn 1
7 +5V OUT +5V 100mA
8 GND N/A Ground
9 MSE BTN 3 IN Mouse Btn 3
 

 

Parallel Port

25 Pin D-SUB Female at the Computer
Pin Name Dir Desc
1 /STRB OUT Strobe
2 D0 IN/
OUT		 Data Bit 0
3 D1 IN/
OUT		 Data Bit 1
4 D2 IN/
OUT		 Data Bit 2
5 D3 IN/
OUT		 Data Bit 3
6 D4 IN/
OUT		 Data Bit 4
7 D5 IN/
OUT		 Data Bit 5
8 D6 IN/
OUT		 Data Bit 6
9 D7 IN/
OUT		 Data Bit 7
10 /ACK IN Acknow
11 BUSY IN/
OUT		 Busy
12 POUT IN Paper Out
13 SEL IN/
OUT		 Sel Shared with RS232
14 +5V PULLUP OUT +5V 10mA
15 NC N/A No Conn
16 /RESET IN Rst Cold Start
17 GND N/A Grnd
18 GND N/A Grnd
19 GND N/A Grnd
20 GND N/A Grnd
21 GND N/A Grnd
22 GND N/A Grnd
23 GND N/A Grnd
24 GND N/A Grnd
25 GND N/A Grnd
 

 

RGB Monitor

23 Pin D-SUB Female at the Computer
Pin Name Dir Desc
1 X CLK IN Ext Clk
2 X CLK EN IN Ext Clk Ena 47Ohm
3 RED OUT Anlg Red 75ohm
4 GRN OUT Anlg Green 75ohm
5 BLU OUT Anlg Blue 75ohm
6 DI OUT Dig Intens 47ohm
7 DB OUT Dig Red 47ohm
8 DG OUT Dig Green 47ohm
9 DR OUT Dig Blue 47ohm
10 C SYNC OUT Comp Sync 47ohm
11 H SYNC OUT Horiz Sync 47ohm
12 V SYNC OUT Vert Sync 47ohm
13 GND RTN N/A Dig Grnd X CLK EN
14 ZD OUT Gen lock overlay 47ohm
15 C1 OUT Clk out 47ohm
16 GND N/A Video Grnd
17 GND N/A Video Grnd
18 GND N/A Video Grnd
19 GND N/A Video Grnd
20 GND N/A Video Grnd
21 -12V OUT -12V 50mA max
22 +12V OUT +12V 100mA max
23 +5V OUT +5V 100mA max
 

 

Serial I/O Port

25 Pin D-SUB Male at the Computer
Pin CBM RS
232		 Dir Desc
1 GND GND N/A Frm Grnd
2 TXD TXD OUT Trans Data
3 RXD RXD IN Rec Data
4 RTS RTS OUT Req To Snd
5 CTS CTS IN Clr To Snd
6 DSR DSR IN Data Set Rdy
7 GND GND N/A Sys Grnd
8 DCD DCD IN Carr Det
9 +12V —– OUT +12V Carr
10 -12V —– OUT -12V Carr
11 AUDO —– OUT Audio Out
12 —– S.SD OUT Speed Indic
13 —– S.CTS OUT
14 —– S.TXD OUT
15 —– TXC IN/
OUT
16 —– S.RXD IN
17 —– RXC IN/
OUT
18 AUDI —– IN Audio In
19 —– S.RTS IN
20 DTR DTR OUT Data Term Rdy
21 —– SQD IN/
OUT
22 RI RI IN Ring Indic
23 —– SS N/A
24 —– TXC1 IN/
OUT
25 N/C N/C N/A No Conn