- Jim Combs deliver the Chipset to Atari, Amiga Commodore. They felt a feeling of Deja
would have to forfeit and close.” Jack Vu and thought they would be treated
Amiga, world famous for their com- tried to use this to his advantage but the same as they were when they were
puters and joysticks, was founded in Commodore had already bought Amiga with Atari. Other Amiga employees were
1982 by Jay Miner, a former Atari em- which should have voided any contracts either laid off or fired from Commodore.
ployee. He and other Atari employees between them and Atari. Jack Tramiel Commodore continued producing com-
who sought more creative freedom in sued Commodore and Amiga anyway, puters all the way up until 1994 when
their work environment formed Hi-Toro, trying to stop Commodore from being the company had to file for Bankruptcy.
the company's original name before it able to use their Lorraine chipset tech- Escom, a German PC Manufacturer,
was change to Amiga (which is the nology. This lawsuit delayed the purchased all of Commodores' assets
Spanish word for "friend"). The former Lorraine project for the summer. By the and created a subsidiary called Amiga
Atari team had plans for a new gaming Fall of 84, Commodore gave the green Technologies. Under this new name,
console, code named “Lorraine”. The light and moved forward with the Escom re-released the A1200 and
new console was designed around the Lorraine project. A4000T models. Escom also brought to
Motorola 68000 16/32 bit CISC micro- the market a new 68060 version of the The Lorraine technology was, finally,
processor. And with upgrades, would be A4000T line of computers. Amiga was fully implemented in July of 1985. Com-
able to turn into a complete computer about to live again, but in 1997, Escom modore released the first Amiga per-
system, Thus the story of Amiga com- filed for bankruptcy, ending the short sonal computer, the Amiga 1000 as a
puters begins. comeback. successor to the Commodore 64. The
Amiga began by developing games and A1000 featured the Amiga Operating Gateway 2000, another PC Manufac-
third party accessories for major compa- System 1.0 with a Motorola 68000 ture, bought and acquired Amiga after
nies like Atari and ColecoVision. This processor clocking in at 7.16MHz and Escom’s bankruptcy. Gateway had
allowed Amiga to raise money for their 256-512 KB of memory, which could be some promising ideas with their new
“Lorraine” project. One peripheral that upgraded to a maximum of 8 MB. As a Amiga division, but they sold Amiga in
Amiga is famous for is their Joy Board fun bit of trivia the Amiga 1000 is the 2000 before any of those ideas came to
(similar in fashion to Nintendo Wii’s only model that contains the signatures fruition. As of now, Amiga Inc. is being
Balance Board). Mogul licensed to make hardware
Maniac was the only for a computer vendor in the
official game released for UK, Eyetech Group, LTD.
the Joy Board. Two other In the 21st century Amiga
games, Off Your Rocker seems to have found its way
and Surfs Up were an- back to its origins. Eyetech
nounced but never re- was founded by former UK
leased. employees of Commodore
By 1983, Amiga was International and from 2002
struggling with finances to 2005 was selling the new
and sought aid in Atari. AmigaOne Power PC inter-
They struck deal and nationally. The Amiga OS 4
Amiga agreed to give stands as one of the newest
Atari a one year exclu- Amiga Operating Systems.
sive to the Lorraine Amiga truly has and will be
technology in return for
financial aid. for time to come, a power
house in personal com-
In 1984 Amiga got word puters and operating sys-
that Jack Tramiel, foun- The original Amiga 1000
der of Commodore Inter- tems. From 1985 to 1996,
national, was looking into buying Atari of the Amiga designers etched into the there have been several classic models
and was going to fire most of the Atari inner casing, including Jay Miner’s of the Amiga personal computer, includ-
and subsidiary staff. Amiga quickly took signature and his dog Mitchy’s paw ing the: 1000, 2000, 500, 1500, 2500,
action and went to Commodore looking print. Owners quickly became attached 3000, 3000UX, 500+, 3000T, CDTV,
for an investor since Jack Tramiel was to their A1000 even when newer Amiga 600, 4000, 1200, CD32 and 4000T.
leaving to buy Atari. Commodore de- models where released. Owners did not
cided to buy Amiga out right. This move Following these models was the Ami-want to give up their A1000s, and due to
voided all contracts and in return Com- high demand Commodore continued to gaOne Power PC. The most popular
modore sent Atari $500,000 to pay off make upgrades for the A1000. The Amiga Model, even more so than the
the price of the undelivered Lorraine A1000's main competition was the Atari infamous A1000, was the Amiga 500.
chipsets. This is where the situation got ST Family computer also released in The A500 was the best selling model for
a little sticky. 1985. As a side note, in 2006, PC World Commodore and was replaced by the
rated the Amiga 1000 as the 7th greatest Representatives
PC of all time. 500+ which was soon replaced by the for Tramiel un-
A600. Looking back, it all started with earthed the con-
The original team that founded Amiga former employees of Atari, a vision and
tract between had an amazing vision for the company
Atari and Amiga the codename Lorraine. The rest as but due to finance issues, the Crash of
that stated “if by 83 and the issues between them and they say ladies and gentleman and
June 30th , 1984 Atari, most of Amiga’s original employ- especially in classic gaming, is history.
Amiga did not ees left when they where acquired by
Amiga JoyBoard
29 | Video Game Trader Magazine | #8 | www.VideoGameTrader.com
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