Evolution of design: The Amiga A600 case

In January of 1985, Commodore released the C128 in a sleek wedge shaped enclosure and then followed it up with a similarly styled compact 64C which was a re-release of the Commodore 64 bread-bin that had served so well for so long.

In late July of the same year, the very first Amiga (the A1000) was released. It was dressed in business-serious casing and its capabilities were serious business.

By year-end, Commodore proper had borrowed a page from the Amiga design-book and released the C128D for European markets:

It would take another year (not until late 1986) for North America to see a C128 in a traditional enclosure, and only as the C128DCR which was the cost reduced model. The CR used a metal case (similar to PCs of that era) rather than the custom injection moulded case. Other efficiencies found their way onto the C128DCR circuit board.

Meanwhile Amiga was heading in the other direction and by April of 1987, parts of Europe had received a *new* Amiga that strangely resembled the original wedge-shaped C128.

This more accessible machine, nearly 1/2 the cost of the A1000 @ $699.99 USD was the Amiga A500 and it became their best seller by volume.

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… which brings us to the model you see in front of you… the Amiga A600.

Of course, Commodore didn’t move directly from the A500 to the A600. It took 5 years to get there across several iterations of increasingly more expensive models. Here is a partial list (not including upgrades):

• A2000
• A2000HD
• A2500
• A2500/30
• A3000
• CDTV
• A3000UX
• A500 Plus

The A600 was intended to be a low(er) cost model and was to be named the A300. It was the LAST Motorola 68000 system produced by Amiga, ended up costing more than its predecessor and was incompatible with some titles and demos. But it sure looked nice !!

The design, with side-loading floppy borrowed from the Apple IIc and a few other compact computers, was visually striking and offered an ‘HD’ variant that came with a 2.5″ ATA hard drive.

It also had a PCMIA slot on the left side and was the first Amiga to be manufactured with surface mount technology.

Commodore’s Europe-based marketing was disappointed with the unit. For as many strides made across the more expensive end of the product line, this model missed the mark.

Amiga A600 – Slow, incompatible, and too expensive… but beautiful

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