The Amiga 1500 Story | Commodore Vs Checkmate Digital

[@RMCRetro]

UPDATE: There is now a Q&A with Stephen here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l2iQioqQj6iFrdk 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]

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

[@VulpisFoxfire]

...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]

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]

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]

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.

[@Checkmate1500]

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]

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

[@thepenultimateninja5797]

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).

[@RetroJay1974]

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]

Would love to see some pics of that setup

[@Checkmate1500]

So would I

[@RetroJay1974]

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]

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

[@GetJesse]

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

[@HisVirusness]

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.

[@somecoder3054]

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.

[@amerigocosta7452]

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]

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]

This interview explains a lot - kzbin.info/www/bejne/jGTIl2uopNOtb6c 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]

@@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]

@@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.

[@jean_mollycutpurse_winchester]

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]

Brilliant anecdote.

[@dmathesonfvg]

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

[@BillAnt]

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

[@STriderFIN77]

@@BillAnt and Babylon 5, Terminator 2 ..

[@BillAnt]

​@@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.

[@an2qzavok]

Ah, good old Commodore management, pissing off everyone.

[@6581punk]

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]

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]

@@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]

@@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]

@@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.

[@danwood_uk]

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.

[@philscomputerlab]

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

[@pkf4124]

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.

[@kevincozens6837]

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.

[@firsteerr]

i remember back in the day i was making a choice , did i want the amiga or the Amstrad or the Archimedes , i wanted business stuff and a bit of fun , so realistically it was either the amiga or the acorn i went acorn because i wanted to buy British , but amigas still intrigue me today having said that looking at prices on the e bays i wish i had kept my acorn AND changed the battery

[@JasonStevens]

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

[@PJF62]

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.

[@MarkTheMorose]

5 ex-Commodore employees disliked this video... I've been following Stephen's KZbin 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.

[@trekintosh]

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

[@reallybrokenalways]

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

[@RMCRetro]

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

[@RMCRetro]

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

[@Checkmate1500]

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

[@paulie5706]

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

[@BillAnt]

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

[@ukmk3supra]

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]

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.

[@Checkmate1500]

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]

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]

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

[@Checkmate1500]

Ten51on # keyboard case only for A500 for now.

[@KarlHamilton]

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]

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

[@RacerX-]

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

[@StuffWePlay]

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

[@rars0n]

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!

[@stevedaly1440]

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.

[@Mmmm_tea]

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]

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

[@randywatson8347]

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.

[@wahswolf88]

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

[@richardlincoln886]

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.

[@danskmacabre]

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. :)

[@jrherita]

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!

[@Lucidleo-li8yu]

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!!!

[@AndyBanner]

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.

[@Charlie-Cat.]

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..

[@mitchherriot853]

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

[@DAIadvisor]

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]

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]

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

[@BillAnt]

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]

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.

[@krnlg]

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!

[@pelgervampireduck]

what an interesting story. I can see both sides: the guys were buying from commodore so it's not like they were stealing or hurting their business, commodore was selling stuff. BUT, from commodore's point of view some random people were repackaging and selling THEIR product withour proper authorization.

[@DansModelBench]

Yeap and most likely by then the A500 was on very slim margins, just to get and keep market and mind share and justify to the software development community to continue to support Amiga. The A2000 and above is what probably paid the bills as far as funding hardware development and returning a profit to Commodore. Undercutting the A2000 market and using low profit A500's to do it, wouldn't have been seen very kindly I would imagine.

[@p1xMU51c]

@@DansModelBench so they did the entirely logical thing and botch rebadged their flagship and undercut themselves??? Um... nope, not feelin it.

[@paulie5706]

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.

[@jbdragon3295]

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.

[@bazza5699]

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

[@paulchambers3788]

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

[@sorcerykid]

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.

[@LightTheUnicorn]

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

[@tuberworksjones]

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

[@phils9333]

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

[@Checkmate1500]

Thanks :-)

[@gamesessions]

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]

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

[@gamesessions]

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]

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

[@mark12358]

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 🤞🏻

[@vix_in_japan]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[@Rabennase3]

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...

[@jbloodwo]

I love this design. Would make a cool workstation case

[@TheLemminkainen]

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 :)

[@MrSEA-ok2ll]

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.

[@osgrov]

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. :)

[@psyolent.]

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

[@elmosexwhistle]

Agh it’s a new video!!! And at the moment I’m busy making a commercial Synthesizer soundbank. Oh well, the work can wait...

[@RobotnikPlays]

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

[@jochenblacha7241]

The case looks great, though I'd prefer it either all black or all "A3000" white-ish. That white/black mishmash doesn't look too gorgeous. The design is a superb modernization of the classic A3000 style. If only Amiga's wouldn't be so hard and expensive to come by these days; I'd totally get one and slap a decked-out 1200 into it. On a side-note: I didn't even know the A1500 was a thing (the rebranded A2000 that is) - okay, not totally surprising given that was a UK market only thing. Also, the A2000 (I owned one) didn't come with a hard drive controller / hard drive by default. The base model was exactly as portrayed by the A1500. If memory serves the only "A2000" model to ship with in such a configuration was the A2500 (a normal "B" A2000 with the A2620 pre-installed) which was only a US market thing.

[@RMCRetro]

The mixed colours is an early prototype owing to 3D printing etc but the final model will be a consistent colour. The website has some nice examples

[@Checkmate1500]

I only have one front at the moment and did not want to paint it, but they will be all one colour unless people ask to mix

[@jochenblacha7241]

If I may ask: The "demo machine" you showed in your part of the video, you said it had an (Intel) Atom board inside. What was the Amiga thing running on there? Amiga Forever / WinUAE / FSUAE on Windows? icaros Desktop? AROS? Only asking because I'm somewhat curious. Building a system with such an case based on some matching PC motherboard could be great fun and would be even better if it could be turned into a somewhat decent Amiga Emulator machine or boot into a AmigaOS-ish environment (like AROS or icaros).

[@Checkmate1500]

I was running AROS on an Intel Atom based D945GCLF2, this board has full driver support for Aros as I paid for all the drivers originally.

[@MatSpeedle]

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!

[@obsoletepowercorrupts]

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]

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]

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.

[@kimlebrocqu692]

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]

Thanks Kim

[@superamario6464]

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

[@reeseyme9613]

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

[@Horzuhammer]

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]

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

[@esseferio]

As usual, you had me at "The" :) Barely heard about this A1500, and, as a perfect froggy, never heard about Checkmate"s adventures. I love the initial story, really, and I'm not that much surprised from the stab in the back from Commodore UK. This new case is intriguing, though I agree with one comment saying this needs to be beige. I might add: or full black, or full white, but I'm really not a fan of the b&w take on it. Although given an hypothetic choice, I'd rather have an original Amiga, whatever version (as a former A2000 owner, I kind of miss the massive case and subsequent hours of joy :)). I guess one of the possible usages I could see, is in "restoration", if an original case was in a really bad shape and far too damaged for repair. At least this is a case that won't need retrobrighting in the future :) Amicalement, Serge

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you 😁 what you're seeing is 3D printed prototypes. Check the website for better images, and a cream/biege model is confirmed by Stephen which I agree will be my choice too

[@mcbpete]

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

[@RMCRetro]

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

[@phillvowles3894]

Stomping good video RMC - Well done.

[@RMCRetro]

Cheers Phill

[@nicholas_scott]

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!

[@C6438911]

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]

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).

[@ILOVESTARK]

Tasty! Always nice to see more Amiga content :)

[@RMCRetro]

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

[@manuel-xax]

Brilliant idea, so well done Checkmate : the A500 had loads of hardware (quite cheap) expansions ! That was an Amiga that Commodore should had done, the exact same way: a bit tweaked A500 motherboard into a bigger case allowing internal HDD, as such. As a owner of various Amigas (in buy order : A500, A2000, A1000, A4030), I would have bought one of Checkmate's A1500 ! Quite decent (reminds me about some Archimedes) case (the A1500+ is simply superb), room for things I was looking for, it had most boxes checked ! Thanks for this excellent video, and the links, Q&A, etc.

[@immortalsofar5314]

My first Amiga was an A1000, cheap after the A500 came out. I never got into the games, the graphics were great but the gameplay seemed kind of boring). However, I loved programming in 68K assembler and the OS (once I'd written a reliable intermediate layer to handle resources) was a dream to use. I wish I were still in the system so that I could support you in this.

[@terraspent]

thoroughly interesting and insightful episode

[@williamfalconer4289]

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.

[@Wazoox]

This is oh so British a story, mate :)

[@RMCRetro]

Cheers mate 🍺

[@philipcooper8297]

As always, great stuff!

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

Commodore just needed a simple reminder that their A2000 pricing was just too high in comparison to what you get for the money versus an A500. Likewise, they kept their other prices too high for too long. By the time they completely realized this, it was too late.

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

Yep. Jack Tremiel was a jerk, but one thing he knew how to do when he was the head of Commodore was build a machine for as little as possible and sell it at a price that competitors would find hard to match. The management that replaced him when he left had forgot about this concept. Yes, the Amiga had capabilities that the competition didn't have, but they were catching up quick! They should have realized this and priced accordingly.

[@alphabetaxenonzzzcat]

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

[@curiousottman]

I can understand why commodore was upset at checkmate passing themselves off as a commodore product. It’s a confusingly similar product and to the average person it looks like a commodore computer. If checkmate had called it something else I’m sure it would have been fine by commodore.

[@curiousottman]

A Nother : Doesn’t matter. It had a confusingly similar format. That’s what “passing off” refers to whether it is intentional or not. The name, colour and even the a1500 font are just like commodores. Could commodore have handled it better? Sure. Imagine you create a product that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to get market share and after some success someone comes along and releases a confusingly similar product that infringes on your efforts. That’s what this a1500 is doing, no question. I’m sure that they didn’t intend to infringe but to the law it doesn’t matter.

[@Doobie3010]

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.

[@midwaytheone]

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

[@carslayer]

Great video, as always!

[@Kerveros1904]

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".

[@bertjilk3456]

The fellow sounds like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth, but I’m sure he knew exactly why they were upset (using a1500 to resell Commodore products was more than “a little bit cheeky”). Frankly, I’m not at all surprised with Commodore’s actions. It’s a wonder they didn’t end up in court with a massive fine. They certainly would today!

[@KennethScharf]

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.

[@ssmedia]

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

[@EdwinNoorlander]

Nice, I’ll buy one.

[@leebrewer1190]

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.

[@g.h.c855]

Great video as usual, very interesting.

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you

[@bmmcwhirt]

Oh yea, I have an A1200 just begging to go in a case like this! Then connect a keyboard using my TrueRetro SA PetscII keys to just drive everything home! It will be interesting to see this running with a Vamp600 or Vamp500 fully loaded. I don't own a 500 or 60 so I'm still waiting on an A1200 Vampire board to be made.

[@KarlHamilton]

THAT 1500 PLUS!! TAKE MY MONEY!!!

[@fabiStgt]

The only thing that keeps putting me off from buying one is the keyboard he is using with it. I think at least some sort of "mechanical" keyboard in a A3000 style keyboard case with Amiga keycaps for the Meta ("windows") keys would go a long way.

[@Checkmate1500]

Keyboards are a large part of if, but search for "Vintage Mechanical Keyboard" for idea :-)

[@fabiStgt]

You are right, of course - I will look into that. Thanks for taking the time to reply, always appreciated - keep up the good work! :)

[@mark12358]

Yep, take my money too! Great idea to let it be again!

[@teemofie]

I've got into the terrible habit of seeing a RetroManCave video come into my feed, clicking on it and immediately clicking like before I watch... Then I'm left with a hollow empty feeling at the end of watching as I can't click like again without unliking it!

[@simant5361]

I'll never buy one, But what a cracking idea good luck Stephen

[@EduArana]

Awesome review like always :)

[@RasVoja]

Check Mate! For Vampire v4sa

[@danyoutube7491]

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.

[@Orlor]

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.

[@Lane42]

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

[@PixelsAtDawn]

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

[@RMCRetro]

You're welcome and thanks for watching Pixels!

[@prismvisualproduction3105]

Great video, thank you so much

[@tectorama]

I had the Amiga 500, great graphics... I even bought the 20Mb hard drive for............£400 !!

[@apostolosfilippos]

Ι have the A600 and back then a store asked me for abour 300€ of 1993 money equivalent to up my ram by 1MB. I 'm so glad I thought it was too much and didn't do it.