UPDATE: There is now a Q&A with Stephen here: kzread.info/dash/bejne/k2thu7mTiqa4p9o.html Thank you for watching, do you remember seeing Checkmate's adverts in magazines? Did you own an A1500 or A2000? What are your memories. If you'd like to find out more about the 1500+ project you can find links below. Neil - RMC ●A1500+ Website: www.amigasystems.com ●A1500+ Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/checkmate1500plus/ ●Stephens Patreon: www.patreon.com/imicaltd

@dennislindqvist5461

6 жыл бұрын

RetroManCave I actually remember those cases:) But as I had an A1200 by then I never purchased a case.

@VulpisFoxfire

5 жыл бұрын

...I have an A2000 in the closet. Never heard of Checkmate *or* the A1500, though. Edit: After watching, this question makes more sense. What I have is an actual A2000, not one of the rebranded ones.

@BillAnt

5 жыл бұрын

The UK market was much more vibrant than the US, I remember the myriad of accessories like the Action Replay carts, accelerators, etc were mostly coming from the UK. Hey mate, check out the Check Mate! he-he

@ForOdinAndAsgard

5 жыл бұрын

I have an Amiga 2000 and 1200 still working. The 2000 is as good as new and the 1200 though used intensively still looks ok since it almost had no direct sunlight. There is a little damage on the printed letters because they are pushed so much and I had to replace three springs. I used the 2000 for about 2 months when I bought it but my father which I did not know bought a 2500 for me for Christmas 2 months later. The 2000 went back into its box and I used the 2500 till it died about one and a half year ago. I as thus took the 2000 back out of its box and transferred all that was still working from the 2500. 3.x Kickstart, 8 Mb fast memory, Bridgeboard, IDE and SATA (all Zorro II) plus a 40 Gb SATA SSD for data and a IDE interface to Compact Flash 4 Gb for the Workbench (now running 3.1 but I can change on the fly to 2.0, 2.1, 3.0 by just changing the CF), Optical CD-drive and ZIP 100. I also replaced the 68000 of the 2000 for the 68020 from the 2500. The 1200 has 8 Mb of fast ram, 4 Gb HD, Gotek and its wonderful PCMCIA slot and as thus internet. Saving for the Vampire 2+ in my Amiga 2000 and a network card.

@BillAnt

5 жыл бұрын

Nice setup mate, I've never had a 1200 only a 500, 1000, and 2000, maybe I'll get a a 1200 soon till they all disappear or the price goes through the roof.

This is going to sound a little childish, but really pleased to have my history make it into the Retro Man Cave popular videos group :-)

@Ratteler

2 жыл бұрын

I wish you would make these again. I have a 1500plus, but I always lusted after one of these.

I am a proud owner of one of the original Checkmate 1500's, complete with an A500 board, keyboard etc. But the original owner of mine went further! They created a custom power supply. Fitted an A590 inside, created all sorts of little clever ways of holding things up and together etc. They really went to town on it and afaik! it was used for serious work.

@RMCRetro

6 жыл бұрын

Would love to see some pics of that setup

@Checkmate1500

6 жыл бұрын

So would I

@RetroJay1974

6 жыл бұрын

I wont be long guys! Not had much time for projects of late, refurbished the keyboard recently but that was it. I was going to ask, did all of the prebuilt-checkmates have a green sticker on the keyboards spacebar?

@scotttait2197

3 жыл бұрын

@@RetroJay1974 no the green sticker came on the amiga 500 keyboard...I've owned 2 that have had it (only owned 3)

@GetJesse

Жыл бұрын

Years later now, but I would like to see this custom machine too!

Honestly, with Commodore having buggered off, it'd be a good time to come up with a case based on the 1500/2000/3000 cases for whatever unit or project you want.

As an American, whose first computer was a Commodore 64, in 1992, at the age of 6, I love learning more about micros and the scene in Europe that revolved around them in the past. I love your channel. Please, do not stop making these very informative videos.

Ah, good old Commodore management, pissing off everyone.

@6581punk

6 жыл бұрын

Tramiel kept things in order. Once he went they only had accidental successes. The A600 and the Plus 4 were two of their biggest mistakes. I sometimes wonder if the Amiga would have been better if Atari had put it out?

@alexatkin

6 жыл бұрын

Its such a shame as the A600 was actually my first Amiga and its small form factor was great after coming from the Atari ST which was massive. Cheap computer desks were never big enough to fit both the computer and mouse until the A600 came along.

@gwenynorisu6883

5 жыл бұрын

@@alexatkin ... Not really the ST's fault though is it... you just need to get a bigger desk ;-) The 500 and 1200 were just as large if not slightly bigger. And they had pizza-box-and-separate-slimline-keyboard models available if you really wanted one, same as with the Amiga. What they didn't do (other than in the ST Book) was copy Commodore's mistake in doing away with the numeric pad... which quite a lot of software, including some games, kind of relied on. Compact PC keyboards and even Amiga's own A1000 keyboard show you could reduce the width whilst still retaining the numpad. Though really they weren't specificially intended to even go on desks, the all-in-one form factor is largely for convenience (not having to faff with a separate keyboard - and, with all but the earliest STs, power supply) when using them in a similar way to a console... on the floor, or bodged in a corner somewhere that you've got a portable TV plugged in, and the keyboard is largely an irrelevance if you're playing arcade type games which predominantly use just the joysticks... the fact that home computer games quickly started becoming more sophisticated than their arcade roots, especially on the 16-bits, and incorporated more complex control than just direction + fire (even those which started life on consoles generally needed 2 or 3 discrete action buttons), is probably the only reason the 600 even had a keyboard at all, otherwise it's a pretty decent attempt at shrinking the Amiga hardware down to the Master System-ish console form factor that it always should have been available in from the start, but we never really got, other than the hopelessly late CDTV... We didn't bother with a specific computer workstation with our ST anyway, just used a regular table, loads of room. Had to make sure to get something fairly sizeable when moving up to a multimedia PC of course, thanks to how massive the CDROM-revolution 486 cases were. The box alone probably wouldn't fit on a computer desk barely large enough to fit an A600 and a mouse... :-) .... nowadays it's just laptops placed wherever (mine is currently hooked up to the TV by HDMI, balancing precariously on the hifi stack on the far side of the room, whilst I type this with a wireless keyboard resting on a tiny coffee table), and when the old computers come out to play... they go on the floor, as the designers intended :D

@przemekkobel4874

4 жыл бұрын

@@6581punk Well, somehow an opinion persists, that they were the major a-holes, despite being a cool guys on a personal level. And despite stories like this here.

@6581punk

4 жыл бұрын

@@przemekkobel4874 Depends on the individual. Some people like weak management that lets you fail. Others like fair management that pushes you hard and holds you to your word. Somewhere between the two is a good balance. Jack would expect results, if you didn't deliver you had broken your promise.

Oh my, that third case / machine shown right at the start, it looks really lovely. What an interesting machine, I had no idea there even was a 1500 :O

I think Commodore should have bought these guys company or hired them. But then I remember why there is no Commodore anymore, and it all makes sense.

@greggv8

5 жыл бұрын

The meeting should've been an offer to buyout Checkmate and hire them to design a proper mid level Amiga model. Instead Commodore slashed their profits on a stripped down 2000 to drive Checkmate out of business.

@KarlUKmidlands

5 жыл бұрын

This interview explains a lot - kzread.info/dash/bejne/iGeZyJqrn9Hgaag.html it was total mismanagement by the head guy, no investment in the right areas and wasting a fortune on fruitless projects, they setup an entire PC hardware department at one stage when they could have just bough all the parts off the shelf from Japan!

@gwenynorisu6883

5 жыл бұрын

@@greggv8 - yeah, the Checkmate team obviously knew what they were doing and had a good eye for design (the 1500 case looked much better than the 2000, and if you didn't need space for a million full-size expansion cards, why not go slimline?), as well as a supply line for the cases and internal conversion parts already. It could have been easily converted to an official Commodore model with their input, using 500-level hardware and the adaptors or coming up with a new low-end motherboard that incorporated some of those tweaks (perhaps having just one Zorro slot and a riser card for it that offered maybe three expansion slots, vs the A2000's seven/eight), cutting out the middle man by not bothering to make the wedge cases at all or bundle the licensed games, using regular A1000/2000 keyboards, etc. Perhaps employing them as consultants to help out the main designers. So on and so forth. But, no... crush, kill, destroy! Atari were about as bad, though. So many missed chances, abandoned projects, hare-brained ideas etc on both sides, without even the full benefit of Jack's business experience running Commodore as he'd had enough of being involved in the detailed operations and preferred to take a back seat as a passive owner, handing the actual reins of the company over to his son, who by all accounts was far less competent (thus, if they'd got hold of the Amiga, it probably would have had to have been _without_ the console crash, company split / part purchase by Warner, and the takeover of the computer division by JT). Though they did at least make a reasonable job of offering their own IBM-compatibles... just missed an open goal in not making them compatible with the ST line's peripherals, which were generally cheaper than the PC equivalents, and if those plus the adaptors were sold on the open market could have been a nice little sideline. I think they _did_ do the "buy parts off the shelf from Japan" thing that RetroCable mentions, in fact, and added just enough of their own parts to make the machines unique and somewhat attractive at the price...

@greggv8

5 жыл бұрын

@@gwenynorisu6883 Apple did the same with Unitron in Brazil. Rather than seeing their brilliance and bringing the company into the fold to absorb their skill to make Apple a better company - Apple chose to destroy Unitron and hand the Brazilian computer market to PC clones. Until 1992 Brazil didn't allow imports of computers. That's why the biggest sellers had been locally manufactured apple ][ clones. Apple's management was mad about that and blinded themselves to the opportunity to convert Unitron to an authorized Macintosh factory and development partner.

I did work experience at Birmingham university in the early 90s. One of the people who worked there used a computer, which if I recall correctly was an Acorn Archimedes. It must have originally been one of the all-in-one models, because he had re-cased it in a homemade desktop case to make it into a workstation. He had done a very neat job of it, with indicator leds and toggle switches on the front of the unit, and legends made using Letraset transfers to show what each one did. I think he said that he had re-cased it to allow some internal upgrades, but this was a long time ago, and I don't remember what they were. One thing that did really stick in my mind though was the fact that it had a cooling fan. Most computers have fans now, but at the time, I was very excited and impressed at the idea of a computer with a cooling fan. I got all fired up with the idea of doing the same thing with my Atari ST, but a quick look through the Maplin catalog when I got home soon put paid to that idea. They had enclosures and fans that would have worked, but I couldn't afford them. I guess this is all a roundabout way of saying that the idea of rehoming all-in-one computers to make them into more 'mature' workstations was seen as quite a desirable thing back then. I can certainly understand why there would have been a demand for products like the Checkmate (and, as I later found out, similar aftermarket cases for the ST).

I used an A500 to make the video animation graphics for the film, Murder by Moonlight (TV Movie 1989 with Brigitte Nielsen) Great machine.

@johnknight9150

5 жыл бұрын

Brilliant anecdote.

@dmathesonfvg

5 жыл бұрын

I saw that movie. The Amiga was all over graphics on numerous low budget SF productions in the 80's and 90's

@BillAnt

5 жыл бұрын

And even used on some high budget StarTrek animations too (so I've read).

@STriderFIN77

3 жыл бұрын

@@BillAnt and Babylon 5, Terminator 2 ..

@BillAnt

3 жыл бұрын

​@@STriderFIN77 < Saw it in the news that recently they found a bunch of artwork by Andy Warhol made on an Amiga up for auction as an NFT's. Who would have thought.

Great to have the gaps in my history filled. Back in the day my local computer stockist had the Checkmate kits in stock. I managed to scrape up the cash to get one, arrived at the store to see the last one they had walking out the door with its new owner. They never did get any more. It was that one kit that got me into case modding building at first my own knock off and now putting PC's into all sorts of cases and boxes. It lead to where I am today working in IT. Its a shame to see that the Commodore squash them like a bug tactic is still in use in the computer and electronics industry today.

Another fantastic video Neil, I've always found the story of the 1500 fascinating so it's great to see you covering it. Stephen is an awesome guy too, and great to see his passion for the Amiga continuing.

My first Amiga computer was an A1000. One of the things I liked about it was how the keyboard could be slid underneath the main box. I later updated my A1000 with an add-on board which changed the CPU running the machine to a 68020. I eventually sold my A1000 and bought an A2000. It was eventually updated with a bridgeboard and an add-in 68030 based CPU board. I still have the A2000 main hardware but not the monitor or most of the software.

I didn't know that Stephen was part of the A1500. His continuing dedication to the platform is nothing short of Amazing.

roars into commodore car park in a black Porsche turbo "commodore thought we were selling thousands, we weren't" wonder what gave them that idea ? ^~^

@kristianTV1974

5 жыл бұрын

Yeah, I thought he probably didn't do himself any favours there...

The colour of the case needs to be in that beige/cream...would really throw it back to the good old days.

@RMCRetro

6 жыл бұрын

Maybe Stephen can chime in here as to the colours that will be available?

@RMCRetro

6 жыл бұрын

I just asked him and he says yes! Cream will be an option

@Checkmate1500

6 жыл бұрын

Sorry for delay, to be accurate it is to be RAL1013 or Oyster white or black :-)

@paulie5706

6 жыл бұрын

I like it in it's current black and white design, it is modern and vintage at the same time.

@BillAnt

5 жыл бұрын

Maybe even give it a slightly yellowing patina at manufacturing, so we don't have to wait a decade .. tsk tsk

Awesome that this guy is sort of reviving his original concept. I might back one of these once the case finalized.

I remember the days when I was 11, in computerstores with huge Amiga boxes bundled with many games. Pricewise it was more expensive and capable than a gameconsole but cheaper than a pc, a great bargain. Also the Amiga magazine with demodisks were so tempting.

Just a small point I met with one of the Sumner brothers at Commodore, shame I did not meet David Pleasance as things may have gone very differently. Hopefully people will buy David's book and learn more :-)

@RMCRetro

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing your story with us Stephen, looking forward to hearing David's tales from inside Commodore and pleased to hear the 1500 will get a mention.

@KarlHamilton

6 жыл бұрын

When can I get an A1500+ case? Will there be an external A1200 keyboard case? This is the most exciting thing in years:)

@Checkmate1500

6 жыл бұрын

Ten51on # keyboard case only for A500 for now.

@KarlHamilton

6 жыл бұрын

That's a shame. Never really understood the attraction of the A500 since the A1200 is so much better in every way. I worked my way up to an A4000T, then sold everything a few years ago to buy a house. Big mistake. Bought an A1200 last year and it's great for all I use it for (OctaMED Soundstudio only these days). But if there was some way to put the A1200 in a cool desktop case and have the MIDI ports built in, that would tempt me back into the custom cases. Good luck with everything!! :D

@Checkmate1500

6 жыл бұрын

Problem is the A500 keyboard has the electronics and so we can make a connecting cable

I remember these things. I really wanted one back then but didn't have the money. I did have the A500 and later the A1200.

What a fantastic video! The research.... the putting it all together.... amazing stuff sir! Looking forward eagerly to your next video.

Awesome. Nice job covering the system we never really got to see here in the USA. Looking forward to the Kickstarter.

Another fantastic, fascinating video. I was never aware that there were three types of A1500s, just two of them until this video

Omg I drove to London to where they made those checkmate cases to get mine.

@Checkmate1500

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks :-)

Love it! Was great to see it in person, and even more fascinating to find out that Checkmate Digital are still going and producing what look like fantastically well thought out and designed products.

@Checkmate1500

6 жыл бұрын

Checkmate Digital ltd was closed down over 20 years ago, but I resurrected the Checkmate name just for the memories and I was a director of that company.

Great video Neil. I followed Stephens channel for a while now and it's been fascinating watching this unfold..

Amazing video from an amazing individual Neil This really needs to be viewed multiple times to truly enjoy this gem of a video. Really top notch for sure. I had to see it three times to really be amazed on what was done. Nice work Neil. This made my day. 8^) Anthony..

The Commodore A1500 was my first home computer. By the time I had upgraded to the A4000/030, it hardly resembled the base machine that came out of the box. Infinitely expandable with enough room in the case to set up a kiddies play park, it was destroyed in a fire only a few years back. It was one of my treasured possessions so I will be following the new project with interest. Great video this.

Some great history as always from the RMC! These new cases look very neat indeed! I've been wanting to spruce up my 500 for sometime and this looks just the job!

A1500+ Case + A500 board + Vampire = one bad ass classic Amiga with tons of room for expansion options....oh i think yes

what an awesome story. thanks for sharing neil & stephen. looking forward to the a1500+

Amazing. I always thought that I had learned about the Amiga 1500 in a dream...but was real!

thoroughly interesting and insightful episode

Super interesting story, and that A1500 Plus looks great! Wonderful stuff.

Seems like Commodore was slitting their own throat in more ways than one by refusing to work with people who created peripherals and cases.. Too bad.

@TheZorch

5 жыл бұрын

The story of the Amiga personal computer is a warning, just because you have superior technology doesn't mean you can "bollocks up" your business decisions and still be a success.

@DAIadvisor

5 жыл бұрын

So unfortunate... All wasted due to bad business decisions.

@BillAnt

5 жыл бұрын

Much respects to Stephen ... sadly the moral of the story is (and this goes for pretty much any other business), "don't mess with the big boys, cuz they will crush you like a cockroach", which of course will only stifle innovation. They could have nicely co-existed, unfortunately Commodore didn't see it that way. But the chess game wasn't over yet, and Checkmate may have had the last laugh. :)

@3dmaster205

5 жыл бұрын

Oh, yeah, and then some; with the IBM PC being an open hardware system, and hardware companies making use of it when users and video game programmers realized it's potential; the only shot the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga had was to become an open hardware system themselves. One little company isn't going to out compete, every other hardware company on the planet combined; it's just not gonna happen. Combine that with the different culture on the PC of constantly upgrading your hardware to play the latest games that weren't designed with weaker systems in mind, but with the intent of breaking the more powerful systems down and making them cry; you're just not going to last long. They would have needed to become more of a software/OS developer with maybe a main system release themselves, but leave the rest up to the competition and make them pay for your OS. Similar to the route Apple went, only make the hardware far more open. No doubt the ST and Amiga would have migrated to the x86 processors, because I don't think Motorola would allow for free competition with 68000 clone systems the way 90x x86 processor competition rapidly pushed onward, so the CPUs wouldn't be able to compete without shifting to the x86. And what a world we would live in; if there was genuine competition on the OS market.

5 ex-Commodore employees disliked this video... I've been following Stephen's KZread channel for a while, where he champions the AROS operating system, and only a few months ago did I twig he was behind Checkmate. Before the Amiga 4000 came out, I was briefly interested in the Commodore A1500, and did get one in recent years. Sold it on a few years later, though, as I had no need by that stage. I started off my Amiga ownership, though, in November 1986 with the sleek Amiga 1000. If you ever lay hands on one, open it up to view the signatures (and paw print) inside the lid.

Stephen's desk looks pretty awesome. I'm kind of in love with this case. I feel compelled to buy one and either put an Amiga into it or to just build a whole new machine. It looks pretty awesome. I want a beige option for the metal cover though! This was also a really great story to tell, definitely one that I (as a person who grew up in the US and had little exposure to computers at this time) really appreciate hearing. What an interesting time!

What a fascinating story and very excited to see the release of this new case! Thank you for this and all your videos, I have greatly enjoyed your channel. In particular, the production value of your work is exceptional. My only suggestion would be addressing the rare times when the audio sounds a little too much like camera-mic. Of course, this is something the general viewer probably doesn't consciously notice. It's just me, being a sound mixer, and unable to separate that from my viewing.

Did exactly that with the Commodore A1500 back in the day, I think mine ended up with a GVP 68030 accelerator/HD card. Sort of mix and match A2000 built up in stages. Good machine.

Great video and these history in making videos are amazing :) All the best to Steven and his projects! After his video A1500 Checkmate prices are even higher :)

I'm glad the Checkmate folks are having the last laugh. With Commodore belly up, it's very pleasing to see that Checkmate has revived and is serving the thriving Commodore Amiga community. With the advent of new hardware such as Vampire v4 standalone and the ability of the Raspberry Pi to effectively emulate a fast Amiga, Checkmate cases offer a great way to expand these systems further. Also, old-timers such as myself who have their original Commodore Amiga 500s, 600s or 1200s can now upgrade them to a Checkmate case and gain the Zorro slots as well as a host of potential expansions. Great job Checkmate!!!

Our secondary school had one hiding in the art department in the early 90's. We only ever had time to use Deluxe Paint but managed a few times get a game of sense and Elite 2.

Stomping good video RMC - Well done.

@RMCRetro

6 жыл бұрын

Cheers Phill

Can’t wait for this to start, will be buying one for sure 😬

Great video, as always!

Brings back memories...... I have one of these somewhere and Steve and I used to chat often. I would a journo with Popular Computing Weakly (sic) and others at the time and I was quite keen on the A1500 case. Interesting to see this progress into modern times.

I love this design. Would make a cool workstation case

Tasty! Always nice to see more Amiga content :)

@RMCRetro

6 жыл бұрын

With an Avatar like yours I'm not surprised by this comment :D

Wow very interesting story! Much more indepth than I expected! It's sad what commodore did to the A1500 but it's awesome there was at least a period where Stephen enjoyed success!

As always, great stuff!

Great video. I have one of those Commodore 1500s. I remember thinking this is basically a 2000 at a knock down price but I didn't realise why Commodore had released it. A bit mean, but that's business. Hope the new Checkmate 1500 plus goes well. Must check it out, now that I'm back into the Amiga.

Awesome! I'm not from the UK but always read english/uk magazines. Thank you for the research about it. very interesting! Do you happen to know or could find information about the amiga 2500 (twenty-five hundred) ? I owned a amiga 500 and 1200 AGA myself but sadly never kept them when I started to use a PC. I wish I did keep them, but back in the day I wasn't very concerned about preserving or collecting computers.

@johnklumpp7901

4 жыл бұрын

The A2500 by CBM was simply a factory A2000 with a factory 68020 or 68030 accelorator card in the first slot. The HDD may have been mounted on the rear of this card just like it would have been on the back of the A2091 card in a plain A2000HD (that last was the name of the A2000 in Australia, as here there was a plain A2000 model without a HDD).

Fascinating story! I never got to see the Checkmate case in person, though I do remember seeing an ad or two somewhere. If it had been distributed more widely and not shut down like it was, I may have ended up owning one to be honest. I had the Amiga 2000 which was a lovely machine except it was a bit too large for my taste. The Checkmate looks much more compact! Looking forwards to the Kickstarter campaign, and hoping it'll turn out well. It sure looks interesting from where I'm at. :)

Wow cool! This happens just as I'm trying to find a sensible way of having a hardware Amiga 500+ with some modern conveniences. I'm not sure how I can go about that yet but I'm sure there's a lot of resources. That case might be just what I need. Great video as always.

Nostalgia and emotionalism: talking about all Amigas and cases designed for Amigas. Reality and 'cold logistics' then kick in: "inside the case i have installed an INTEL ATOM".

Funny coincidence - I just come across your channel and subscribed and was watching the video of your a500 restoration, and then up pops this video of my very own Amiga, the A1500, still have mine in my Dad’s loft, still boxed and in original Commodore carriage carton. However, even though the packaging is good, it has definitely taken some beatings over the years as I used it as my main computer until 1998.

@mark12358

6 жыл бұрын

gamesessions Hope you managed to remove the vicious varta battery inside the A1500 of yours! Cheers, M

@gamesessions

6 жыл бұрын

Mark D I haven’t seen or touched it in 20 years, though I did pop up in the loft about 10 years ago to make sure it was still there. Perhaps I should go on a rescue mission soon and see if corrosion has indeed occurred.

@RMCRetro

6 жыл бұрын

Yes get that varta snipped out at the very least... fingers crossed

@mark12358

6 жыл бұрын

The best: you get the A1500 saved and working after minor or major reparations. The worst: you still have a beautiful system well boxed, who never will get powered on again; however, an A2000 mobo is always available on the market for a future replacement. Just give it a try if you can! Fingers crossed 🤞🏻

Awesome review like always :)

This was a great video. I thought I knew everything about the A500. I loved my to death, but this was new to me. Great story!

A 500 was my first computer, fond memories of playing Giana sisters and road rash

Great video as usual, very interesting.

@RMCRetro

6 жыл бұрын

Thank you

Great video, thank you so much

Wow that case looks really sleek props to Steven, I'll have to see my eye out for that kickstarter 😊

Great video (as always) but absolutely loving the Doug Maxwell tracks you've used - Incredible music beds !

@RMCRetro

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Yes I love his tracks, they really do add a great layer to any video

1:18 that's the first issue of amiga format I ever Bought!!!!

This new case looks sweet. I'd buy one. Will you be doing a followup when the Kickstarter goes live?

I bought one of the Amiga 1500s (The Commodore one) years ago. I remember when I was in the shop and I was just gonna get an Amiga 500. The sales guy said it was essentially an Amiga 2000 minus the HDD. So I bought it and it was awesome. Many 100s of great gaming hours on that machine. :)

Wow, I always just assumed the A1500 was a standard model with no particularly different history to, say, the A2000. Very interesting, and the Checkmate A1500+ looks really nice (actually so does the original) - it's brilliant to see new stuff made for old hardware!

Early 90's I worked for an Atari dealer. Back then we put Falcon030s in PC Cases, so you where able to uses internal SCSI drives and other stuff. In fact my first computer ever was the flopping Falcon030... I only had it for a few months and then changed for an 486. I would love to have it back...

I remember the Checkmate Digital 1500 being reviewed in Amiga Shopper. Interesting product.

Steven absolutely with you the 3000 is gorgeous the best amiga I ever had. And sold it in 2001 or 2002 for £150 in Huddersfield.... c'est la vie mais j'espère que je peux acheter une amiga 1500+.... great video Neil :) I always rated the checkmate 1500 vs the ugly as hell bodega bay!! There was an excellent market in the 90s for metal workstations for the wedge amiga so had one for my A500+ which was quite neat

@6581punk

6 жыл бұрын

A3000 would have been even better if the DSP planned for it was added. I've got a prototype A3000T as well, it has A3500 written on the PCB. I used it as a main machine for years, I had to rewire the serial port breakout cable as it was incorrectly wired.

@vix_in_japan

6 жыл бұрын

6581punk I thought the dsp was for the unreleased A3000+? Still it did end up in the Quadra Macs! I think the DSP would have been useful for a music workstation imagine an Amiga 3000+ with Cubase that DSP, built in midi and AGA with amber flicker fixer and decent SCSI.... could have been a good workstation. Could definitely fill the niche the Atari ST occupied.

@6581punk

6 жыл бұрын

My memory is hazy, I always thought the A3000 was originally destined to have 16-bit sound and a DSP. The DSP stuff was for the 3000+. Never knew it had the AGA stuff either.

Neil I've enjoyed every minute of this vlog the new a1500 case is a thing of beauty. A great review on a great machine....Kim😀😀😀

@RMCRetro

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks Kim

6:04 Yeah the a1500 (checkmate) did some cool things like add the FPU standard. Having an FPU is of massive significance to the homebrew scene (and demoscene too actually) since it changes the coding style. However, having a 50MHz FPU with a 33MHz CPU is questionable (as would having any FPU faster than the CPU). It is understandale though for cost if the company selling the rig would have a load of 50MHz FPU chips with pertaining oscillators and yet might only have 33MHz 68030 CPU chips for the price. Sure they could probably have gone for a 40MHz but any higher might have affected stability. One importance in the a500 with the FPU and CPU combo (in the a1500) is that even though the memory bus of the a500 is 16bit, the CPU can communicate wit the FPU in 32bit. This means that it is no longer always pointless to have a 32bit word (float) go to the CPU along a 16bit bus (using two interrupt request cycles). Once you have the 32bit going between the CPU and FPU in 32Bit, could can process the mantissa from the exponent in 32bit. So you might for example have multiple exponents in a polynomial be that for something you are doing in calculus (such as the fill tool in an art package), or perhaps as a spline or 3D spline. With the latter (3D spline) the FPU can also help discard the information you do not wish to display as per the Z-Buffer (before going to the CPU and blitter to draw, and the blitter could reduce the cycles needed to memory for its part). As an aside, you also get that redundant register which could be handy. As for the 32Bit amigas, the FPU and CPU communicating in 32Bit is obvious on account of the 32Bit bus for the memory.

@Cybergorf

5 жыл бұрын

No this is not at all "questionable". You need to understand the asynchronous nature of the RAM-interface back than and the way the 030 calls the FPU - and that the FPU usually needs many cycles to produce a result... And the memory-bus is of course 32-bit on the turbo card (FastRAM) - only ChipRAM is still 16-bit (and occupied by the custom chips half of the time...)

@obsoletepowercorrupts

5 жыл бұрын

Cybergorf, I like your comment. Thumbs up. :) Although I do still think the FPU to CPU ratio can be questioned. Like I said, the cost for is an issue where some might prefer to spend less on an FPU and more on a CPU (or maybe better RAM at some point). Look at the video and you can see it mentions networking multuple machines (and users were sometimes using a business environment or were using gaming). I agree that there are instances in which it would work well. I'm really just saying back in the day for some users, that the scenarios in which the FPU would be used like that would be questionable for their usages, for one reason because some people would want the CPU to exceed the FPU because of the price one is paying (in Britain anyway). Considering the software base at the time (especially 2D gamers who sometimes play 3D and otherwise only dabble a little in FPU programs like Graph software or 3D landscapes). So the question at the time might be _"Why spend money on FPU when it could go on something else like CPU or RAM etc?"_ My comment is not limited to the mega-midget racer, so do not misunderstand it, if that is what it sounded like. That said, it is possible (well theorectically depending on the amiga) to be having a (PGA) 030 CPU ranging from 16Mhz, 20MHz to 50MHz in that and an FPU ranging from 20MHz to 50MHz FPU. I think people would start to question ratios at some point. But sure a 33MHz CPU to 50MHz FPU is not that extreme. The megamidget racer btw did not support DMA access to its 32bit memory. Also It's memory configuration required software and was not supporting autoconfig (although you could choose ZIPs DRAM, or DIPS DRAM). Do remember that a person might have looked at the static RAM as an option (512k or 1meg or meg) instead of the 8Meg DRAM. They may have simply opted for keeping their a500 RAM they had already. Thye might only want RAM for remapping the kickstart ROM. Or they might go for a590 RAM later. A small thing to not about the video is the mentoin it makes of the launch of the a3000. You could get the 16bit (memory) a3000 with a mere 16MHz to begin with (before they made them faster and also opened it up to 32bit). Questioning that ratio? It depends really. Buyer confidence has something to do with it. Chicken-and-egg software or hardware catch22's were an intertia potential amiga customers faced, especially if there were the type of people to expect some sort of "upgrade" to be possible in their future buying habits be that a upgrade accelerator card or an entire new amiga computer (which might not occur and they maybe go for IBM PC one day). They might worry about throwing old money after new. I think part of the problem a little later on back then was the fact that the 040 (which was year 1990 and after all the a1500 in the video mentions 1990 about 6minutes in) started becoming a hope and dream for many amiga users (and actually after a while it did end up in an amiga, such as the a4000, irrespective of FPU). The trouble with the inability to handle transcendentals without severe penalty is that it inclines people to expect a scenario of needing to know what their FPU is doing. Really a lot of people did not. They wouldn't always be aware that their FPU would be better at say processing an equation satisfied as a polynomial (in their 040). A cyclic redundancy check could use that, but would they care? Maybe, or maybe not. So people might wish to upgrade to an 040 eventually but fell they could not really on their existing 030 with FPU to run a software base that would not get the best out of the 040 (for its speed) when applying the same calculations (like say transcendentals in FFT - an example of which might be increasing the speed of an IO interface). Some people (a little more into their amiga hardware at the time) might worry about the heritance too. The efficiency of the types of calculation they are doing will be affected by how the multiplier tree uses the FPU. As it happens, they might actually discover for their purposes that having a top heavy FPU is great! And so they go for that fast FPU and small CPU combo. If they are comparing the work they are doing on a big endian versus little endian, then I think some people might try and find ways their niche application can overcome the multiplier tree issues if it is slow and inefficient. So they might simply want a better CPU. Or maybe multiple amigas instead. It does however become a bit of a cheat when FPGAs came to tie some acclerator cards together (array circuit architecture vs tree circuit architectures). So for example, in an a500, people are not going to have been using a video toaster, although I will concede that they may have anticipated upgrading to on in future in a a200 or the like (with toaster kit acclerators etc). It could be done now though with an FPGA. An a500 can be made to use a different 'space' for zorroIII, but it will run slower like old zorro. It is also worth considering that sometimes people would not have RAM on the (equivalent turbo) card at the time. They might make do with their existing 16bit RAM situation. I'm referring to accelerator cards in general and not limiting my above comment to merely the brands used in upgrades by Checkmate. My comment is about the specs of CPU and FPU in general on the amiga (especially a500 but not merley the a500). The Cartoon classics could be used and it could have a 2meg Amiga a500plus at the time with sluggish a 16bit situation for the RAM, and yet one might make do with that and sling a CPU and maybe FPU in it. Good comment by you btw. I'm simply explaining why some might find the combinations questionable merely for _"each to their own"._ You make a good point btw: The scenarios you example have a point and the polynomial is a good example of how a FPU could (as you say) need many cycles to produce a result, especially because it has more than one exponent, (even if it could have the same mantissa). Actually, in the mid 90's the heritance of PowerPC (from 680x0) really had to look at the IEEE for array vs tree multiplier architectures for the pertaining topologies, pertaining to the FPU. I should also add, I'm not bashing the 040 either. Sure I know later some cards allowed for the maths library to be patched. However, even just as it is, the 040 with its stifled FPU, I've grown to like it (although I'm still ambivolent some days about if a I "love" the 040). I think the 040 without any FPU is a hidden wonder because it forces people to think about the other goodies it offers such as fancy IEEE (e.g. for parallel port etc., if done right). There are still examples whereby the custom chips would not necessarily be using the chip RAM as heavily most of the time though, if you think about it (and if it is the only RAM anyway). And an example could be for a person transferring data over an IO whereby it is compressed (and maybe subject to checksum) or even simply bit twiddled out of the IO to wherever it was going. Mind you'd they probably benefit from what you suggest with the faster FPU. But then again, if the money can be spent on a faster CPU instead, a more efficent implementation of the CPU for that (with FPU) might be achieved. We have both said (or hinted) something similar in the part where the FPU would want cache friendly routines. I mean, even with 32bit RAM, back then it was sluggish RAM and you'd a want cache friendly routines (if you had the luxury of having the code for your needs written that way). A faster FPU would love that. I that is where we are mostly on the same page. We aren't really disagreeing if you think about it. As an side with buyer confidence some amigans were really just megadrive users who may have even merely got an a500 (or a500plus) on account of the fact their mate had one, and they may have only dabbled with the notion of an acclerator upgrade in the way a person might have a 32x in their sega. And yet they may have also consider the outcome they maybe they would have become one of those people who simply did not use computers after they flung out their megadrive or a500. This was (as you would presumably know) back in the day when you could actually survive by doing all the essentials in life on paper or with a typewriter and postage stamps. So what money went on upgrades was affected by all these things. As an aside, I think I have spotted a small "error" in the video although I'd be delighted to discover I am incorrect and that it is not an error. The video implies the "Cartoon classics" pack was used for the a1500checkmate. The thing is though that the a1500checkmate presumably ended being made (aside form the DIY upgrades) by august 1990. However the a500plus was 1991. That said you can still put the DIY-checkmate upgrade in it later. The video refers to "cartoon capers" but I think he means "cartoon classics" since that was a500plus. You could still mod a a500 for the extra RAM though. The "Cartoon Capers" was a Yogi Bear game which was on system like, for example the AtariST, I think.

I remember the ads for the A1500 before taking the first leap to pc,thought it was an upgraded A500,seems it was even a little more Intresting than that,in retrospect.Nice design.

Just as DEC used an LSI-11 computer as the 'front end' for their early VAX computers (IE: a logical front panel), Gould CSD used the Amiga 1500 and 500 computers as a front end for one of their supermini computers.

Wow I own a commodore A1500 but had no idea about the story behind it!

Looking at the comments it's comforting to see I'm not the only one who didn't know there even was an A1500. :D That stuff looks seriously neat. Any plans to make a matching housing for an A500/1200 keyboard to go w/ the new case like in the old model?

@Checkmate1500

6 жыл бұрын

Horzuhammer A500 one but 1200 is much more complex for now but maybe soon.

Interesting facts! One thing though which was incorrect when opening the A1500 and comparing it to the A2000: The A2000 never had a HD controller in it as a standard. That was the A2000HD or the A2500

Where did you get that amazing plexi stand for the A500?

how is this channel only 43k subs with such quality content?

Sadly, Commodore hammered their own nails into their own coffins...this story was an example. You take true Amiga fans that promote your hardware with love and simply shut them down without getting all the info... wonderful.

this is a nice concept- I was looking for something like this the last time I build a pc and saw what is on the pc case market...... a case in the style of the PET would be really nice also!

I had an amiga 1500 and a 500 in a1500 case, at some point I went fully windows pc and all my amiga stuff went into the loft then later it all got skipped, regrets? i have a few :(

It's amazing to hear stories like these about how different the 80s home computer market evolved across the pond compared to what we got in the U.S.

Fascinating stuff.

Love that monitor

Nice, I’ll buy one.

I could've done with one of these when I was at uni for my A1200 + Blizzard board. Would've been even better if you could also extend it with a Picasso II at the time.

Interesting story on that bouncing ball demo you see in the background. Back when the Amiga was just a bunch of breadboards at CES, they displayed that demo and people's jaws hit the floor when they saw it. They didn't believe that it was running in real time and were convinced that Amiga Inc was pranking them with a pre-recorded video.

Great video. Thanks 👍

@RMCRetro

6 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching

Sold! I want one of those. Will you update us when it comes to Kickstarter? I was always an Atari ST person, but I have to say partly because of the rather emotional story and partly because it's well, just cool. I want one.

@RMCRetro

6 жыл бұрын

I'll be following it closely. Best way to get updates is to follow the Facebook group in the video description but I'm sure I'll make some noise when I get hold of one if the Kickstarter works out for Stephen

I owned a Commodore 1500 here in NZ, I don't recall how I came to own it though, it's possible it was imported grey-market by some previous owner, but I do have a vague feeling that the Commodore agents in NZ, or at least here in Christchurch, sold them. Also had an actual A2000 (as opposed to B2000), it had a 10 Meg MFM or RLL drive from memory, which often required a whack from a screwdriver to get it turning in the mornings.

Well I just learned a lot I didn't know. Thanks Neil!

@RMCRetro

6 жыл бұрын

You're welcome and thanks for watching Pixels!

When retailers get back to the idea that they need to sell with less profit per sale to make a lot more sales and therefore a lot more profit then things like this will take off. I remember the A1500 advert and it was way to expensive back then for a college student (which I was at the time). I really wanted one - but there was no I could have afforded it at the price they were asking. The US economy was at its highest levels when people were out to make something great at the cheapest price possible. This is how Commodore originally worked before Tramail left - and is why the X-64 was the largest selling machine ever.

This is oh so British a story, mate :)

@RMCRetro

6 жыл бұрын

Cheers mate 🍺

Where can I get the original A1500 case for my A500 ? Never find one anywhere...

The new Checkmate case, inspired by the A3000, looks great. I love the original one too; such a nice sleek, smart case, especially compared to the rebadged A2000 behemoth that Commodore passed off as their own A1500 product.

An Amiga, a Raspberry Pi and a watercooled PC all rolled into one? Shut up and take my money! :o

@krashd

5 жыл бұрын

I thought you were setting up a joke there :P

Tandy did something simmilar in America. I have a Tandy 1000 HX, and a Tandy 1000 RSX. One is an Intel 8088-2 and the other is an AMD 386. The Tandy 1000 series was quite popular, and they still pop up on eBay now and then.

Thank you

Great story. I really wish there was a way of getting molds made much cheaper. If there was I could sell my retro Pi cases at mainstream prices.

@Checkmate1500

6 жыл бұрын

I wish they were cheaper as well :-)