The Commodore Amiga 1000 was introduced on 23 July 1985 as the first Amiga, with a 68000 processor, custom chips for graphics and sound, and an operating system loaded from floppy disk every time you switched it on.
Why it matters
The A1000 combined a 4,096-colour palette, four-channel stereo sound and a multitasking operating system in one box. It cost $1,285 at launch and was replaced by the Amiga 2000 and the cheaper Amiga 500. It is the machine every later Amiga is measured against.
What to check before you buy
- Check that Kickstart disks are included; the operating system loads from floppy at every power-on.
- Test the keyboard, which is a separate unit and often has dead keys.
- Ask about the memory daughterboard and whether it works.
- Look at the case for yellowing, which is common and hard to reverse.
- Check that the floppy drive reads and that the monitor lead is the right one for the display.
