▚ computopedia.com

An archive of vintage computing — grounded in the actual documentation.

COMPUTOPEDIA / HOME COMPUTERS / COMMODORE / AMIGA 500+

Commodore Amiga 500+

The Amiga 500+, released by Commodore in the early 1990s, was a minor revision of the Amiga 500 aimed at bridging the gap to the upcoming Amiga 600, featuring increased RAM and Kickstart 2.04 as distinguishing upgrades.

Commodore amiga-500-plus, archival photo
Photo: Ajne01, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. source

Marketed in German-language materials as Der creative Homecomputer, the Amiga 500+ carried forward the lineage of the Amiga 500 with minimal changes16. It shipped with increased RAM standard, a notable increase over the base Amiga 500’s 512 KB configuration, and included Kickstart 2.04 in ROM, enabling compatibility with newer software revisions that required this updated firmware16. The machine retained the built-in 3.5" floppy drive and came bundled with a mouse, reinforcing its positioning as a ready-to-use creative platform out of the box16. Notably, it was sold without a monitor, consistent with regional distribution practices of the time16.

Priced at 857,- DA for single units, the Amiga 500+ was offered at a slight discount of 780,- DA when purchased in lots of ten or more, suggesting targeted availability for educational or small business channels16. The same source lists two alternate single-unit prices: 857,- DA and 792,- DA, possibly reflecting regional pricing tiers or promotional adjustments within Austria16.

The Amiga 500+ occupies an awkward position in the product timeline. It was explicitly succeeded by the Amiga 600, which one contemporary source describes as the offiziellen Amiga-500-Nachfolger (official Amiga 500 successor), while noting that the Amiga 600 itself differed from the Amiga 500+ in only a few points16. This suggests the 500+ was less a full model refresh and more a transitional stopgap, likely intended to clear the way for the 600’s integrated design while maintaining backward compatibility.

Expansion options remained consistent with earlier A500 models. An 8/2 MB-RAM Box A 500 / A 500Plus was available as an external memory expansion, offering users a path to increase system RAM beyond the internal configuration67. Additionally, a MINI-TOWER-Gehäuse mit Netzteil, für A 500 und A 500 Plus was offered, allowing users to repurpose the motherboard into a more expandable desktop form factor67. Memory upgrades were generically labeled as geheugen voor Amiga 500/500+, indicating shared compatibility at the component level12.

Software support acknowledged the 500+ as a baseline platform. One 1996 title specified compatibility (ab Amiga 500+), implying that the Kickstart 2.04 firmware and increased RAM configuration had become a recognized minimum threshold for newer applications11. This threshold likely excluded earlier Amiga 500 units without ROM and memory upgrades, cementing the 500+ as a quiet but meaningful inflection point in software expectations.

Despite its transitional role, the Amiga 500+ received no fanfare in contemporary English-language periodicals included in the source set, and surviving documentation offers no details on CPU specifications, display capabilities, sound hardware, or I/O ports. Its physical dimensions, weight, and exact release window remain unrecorded in the available materials. The machine appears primarily through a single German-language source from mid-1992, with accessory references extending into 1993 and software mentions as late as 199616611. Whether it was ever officially released outside German-speaking markets is not confirmed by the surviving documentation.

References

  1. TheEverythingBookForCommodoreAndAmigaComputersholidayEdition
  2. TheEverythingBookForCommodoreAndAmigaComputersmid-summer1992 (1992)
  3. Amiga World Issue 058 1991 07 IDGC I (1991)
  4. Amiga World Issue 058 1991 07 IDGC I (1991)
  5. TheEverythingBookForCommodoreAndAmigaComputerssummer1989 (1989)
  6. Amiga Joker 1993 12 (1993)
  7. Amiga Joker 1993 12 (1993)
  8. Amiga World Issue 059 1991 08 IDGC I 300dpi (1991)
  9. Amiga Computing Issue 042 Nov 91
  10. TheEverythingBookForCommodoreAndAmigaComputersfall1992 (1992)
  11. Amiga Joker 1996 06 and 07 (1996)
  12. Amiga Magazine-25 met Cognition en Metins Software Story
  13. ACs TECH For The Commodore Amiga Volume 3 Number 4 1993-11 PiM Publications US (1993)
  14. Amiga Computing Issue 013 Jun 89
  15. Compute Issue 104 1989 Jan (1989)
  16. Power.Play.N052.1992.07-kultcds (1992)