It's all in the title really :)

I'm wondering what "makes" the Amiga 500 chassis (not the OS, not the interaction, just the overall look)? The first thing that comes to mind in the logo, but what else is really striking about the design of the chassis?

@thekapsule

The later Amiga 500 (Plus) badge and the green power LED.

@duga

I have to say that the floppy drive noise and the led lights caught my attention. The slanting function key and grill of the Atari ST made a nice first impression too (and the price won over my parents) but the overall design of the A500 especially if demoed in a computer shop would have really made the difference. Sadly it took until the A1200 before I saw a shop demo of the Amiga i.e. Walker = awesome!

The CD32 made quite an impression in a shop window just with the CD spinning though the lid window! I can't even remember seeing any game footage or TV display! I guess Microcosm's intro on loop may have sold some machines!

Last edited by BigD on 10-Feb-2020 at 05:39 PM.

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@thekapsule

The best part was the price and more RAM than a naked A1000.

The rest of the design was more pain than feature.

@thekapsule

Almost nothing, really.

I liked the price. I couldn't justify the high cost of the A2000.

As far as wedge Amigas, I like the A600, due to its smaller size.

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@bison

Quote:

bison wrote: @thekapsule Almost nothing, really. I liked the price. I couldn't justify the high cost of the A2000. As far as wedge Amigas, I like the A600, due to its smaller size.

I agree! I bought my first Amiga shortly after the A500 was released, so I had the choice to buy a used A1000, or a brand new A500. I went with the A1000 even though I knew that there would be more expansions that would come out for the A500, and that the expansions would probably be cheaper than the same ones for the A1000. It was the looks of the A1000 that sold me, plus the fact that I got a 1080 monitor, 512kb RAM and a 2nd floppy drive with the used A1000, for just a bit more than the bare A500 would have cost me from a retailer.

So for me, the A500 never has been a case design that I preferred, or liked, but I guess that the wedge shape, computer in a keyboard design, does hold fond memories for many Amiga and Atari users.

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@thekapsule

It was way larger than our C64.


And of course...


Welcome!

@thekapsule
I just love the total computer.
The all in one concept ... just top.
for me it was nice

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@dirkzwager

Is there anything specific you remember about the case? You know, some design feature like, say, the angles on the floppy drive plate?
I've asked a few people and quite a few answered the 2 lights for power and drive

@thekapsule

I think this image sums up the clean lines and the Power lights, although the A500 didn't have the third HD light did it?



Thinking about it I prefer the whiter and larger A1200 keeping the same Amiga font but adding the HD access light. Nice

... I guess having the C= badge, the Amiga font and the power lights all on the right is cool compared to the A1200 which put the C= badge on the left.

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@thekapsule

What bit really stands out? The disk eject button, surely...

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@thekapsule

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@thekapsule

The caps lock light on the key. Not many keyboards have that feature. My hp envy laptop does though much better than having crappy message flash up on the screen

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