Commodore Amiga 500

The Amiga was a machine years ahead of its time. Arriving in 1985 with the high-end A1000, it stunned onlookers with custom co-processors that delivered gorgeous graphics, smooth hardware animation and four channels of sampled stereo sound, capabilities its rivals simply couldn't touch.

It was the more affordable A500 of 1987 that turned all that brilliance into a phenomenon. It became the must-have machine for games and creativity for a whole generation, especially across Europe, where it utterly dominated bedrooms and inspired a fiercely talented demoscene that pushed the hardware to places even its designers hadn't imagined.

Backed by a deep games library and that famous multimedia flair, the Amiga commanded a devotion that endures to this day. Ask anyone who owned one and they will light up. For a glorious stretch of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Amiga 500 was simply the most exciting computer you could put on a desk.