With a Buy It Now price of 45 pounds and some of the most reasonable (international too) shipping prices around, this boxed Amiga 500 is a great chance to own the historic 16-bit micro. The computer comes complete with all necessary cables, the PSU, the mouse, the Amiga 500 and Basic manuals, Deluxe Paint II, 20 disks filled with software and quite a few boxed games.
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Funny this came up so soon after the legendary Jack Tramiel passed away.
ReplyDeleteHe actually tried twice to acquire the Amiga after he left Commodore. The first time, as with a holding company he set up called Tramiel Technology. The Amiga team, having spent their development capital, came to Tramiel to see if he was interested in investing some money. He was - in fact he wanted to buy the whole company, but apparently was quite up front in only wanting the technology, and had no interest in keeping on staff.
The Amiga team then turned to Atari - still owned by Warners at the time. They recognised the immense potential of the Amiga, and that the Amiga team didn't have many options still open to them (this was 1984, the height of the video game crash in the US, so I imagine getting investment to launch a new high-end computer/console was akin to selling leprosy-flavoured ice cream). That led to Atari offering the fledgling company the necessary money to complete their design, with a completely unreasonable deadline for return of the cash, or face being bought out.
Around this time, Tramiel Tech bought out Atari from Warners, promptly sacked most of the staff and went through their acquisitions and portfolio to see what was most profitable - including Atari's deal with Amiga. With Amiga's deadline fast approaching, it looked like Tramiel would get his hands on the tech after all.
However, knowing that Tramiel was likely to sack the development team, Amiga turned to Commodore - who, as it turned out, were looking for a new computer to superseed the C64. Trouble was, when Jack left, their chief computer designer left with him.
CBM paid off Atari, and released the Amiga. Jack Tramiel was furious at being beaten to the punch by his old company, and instead released the Atari ST - developed by CBMs old chief engineer.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
You know something? If I had the money I'd hire you to write for Retro Treasures dear Bob...
ReplyDeleteDo you sell the above Amiga? My mail is shipping36@email.it
ReplyDeleteNo, sadly not. Just discovered the thing online and thought I'd share it with everyone else :)
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