The first Amiga owner: 1982 - 1984
Like the ghost of Christmas past the first Amiga Corporation
reveals itself. The 1982-94 is often romanticised as a period when
the "true" Amiga ideals were founded, before Commodore butchered it
and sold it as a gaming machine. Little is known about this period
of the Amiga history apart from a few documents. Famous interviews
from the likes of Jay Miner and RJ Mical only wet the appetite with
stories of "Joe Pillow" and long bouts of meditation. This page
presents a few of the items that remain.
The computer that would become known as Amiga was conceived by
Jay Miner while he was working at Atari. He envisioned it as a next
generation product that would utilise the Motorola 68000 CPU to
produce unparalleled graphic displays. When he approached Atari
with the idea it was rejected as to expensive to create and Jay
Miner left.
In 1982 he was convinced by Dave Morris to join the newly setup
video game company, Hi-Toro. The company, funded by three Florida
dentists, combined the talents of a motley group whose eccentricity
was well known- Miner himself refused to go to work without Mitchie
his dog. The Amiga team included Carl Sassenrath (creator of the
Amiga EXEC), R.J. Mical, (Amiga Intuition), Dale Luck, and a number
of other hardware & software developers. For the next two years
the group would develop the project in absolute secrecy, hiding
behind their Atari 2600 joystick & games business.
Hardware
 Amiga Joyboard
Joyboard Box &
Instructions
Power Module
Power Stick
Hardware Adverts
Joyboard advert from the
October 1983 issue of Enter(86.4k)
Another ad for the Joyboard against a
black background (88.6k)
Joyboard catalogue ad showing the
retail price. (10k)
PowerStick advert from the October
1983 issue of Enter(94.3k)
Atari 2600 Cartridges
While Amiga Corp. were developing the Lorraine they attempted to
gain a reputation in the video game market by developing games for
the popular Atari 2600 system. Many of these games were not
released to the public but were instead picked up by collectors and
video game fanatics. Here is a complete list of the games that were
produced during 1982-1983.
Power Module 3-D Ghost Attack/Depth Charge
Power Module Scavenger Hunt
Power Module SAC Alert
Power Module 3-D Havoc
Power Module Strafe
Power Module Mogul Maniac
Power Module Surf's Up
Power Module Off Your Rocker
Power Play Arcade 1
Power Play Arcade 2
Power Play Arcade 3
Apart from Mogul Maniac, Surf's Up and Off Your Rocker these
games were never released. The three games mentioned were developed
in very small numbers and are extremely rare. For example,
there are only two "Surf's Up" cartridges that are known to be in
existence. James L. Boyd has
written a brief review and rated the games that were produced or
licensed by Amiga. The archive also contains ROM images for use
with an emulator. Amiga users are recommended to use Stella
or v2600.
Non-Amiga retrogamers will have to find their own emulator ;)
Download Amiga 2600 Games
(49.4k)
Miscellaneous
What is the spiritual ancestor
to the Amiga?
Unsolved Mysteries: Who currently owns
the rights to the Atari 2600 games by Amiga?
Bouncing Back- The origins of the
Boing Ball
The Atari-Amiga agreement
The history of the Amiga and
Atari
The Lorraine prototype
Who was Joe Pillow?
Amiga Corp. Photo Album
Historical Documents
Commodore to buy Amiga (24th
August 1984)
Amiga Patent
Jay Miner Interview Pasadena,
September 1992.
RJ Mical on the Amiga, Commodore and
everything in between
Amiga business card
- Greg Lee
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Last Update: 11/03/2003
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