The Amiga was developed by Amiga, Inc. in the beginning of the 1980s. The name (Girlfriend in Spanish), was chosen mainly because the name was earlier in the Alphabet than Atari and Apple and thus in the Yellow Pages. One of the designers was Jay Miner, who was involved with the first Macintosh and later with the Atari Lynx as well. Commodore bought the company because it couldn't produce a successor to the Commodore 64 by itself.

In 1985 the Amiga 1000 was lauched, followed by the Amiga 500 and 2000 in 1987. The A500 was the largest succes. During its heydays, 1990-'92 the Amiga had a marketshare of around 40% in the games market in the United Kingdom and Germany. The computer was not just a game machine, but a pioneer on the digital video and presentation market as well (Scala). alternatetext

After 1993 everything ended. Commodore wasn't able to update the Amiga fast enough and had financial troubles. More and more publishers left the Amiga. It was taken over by Escom, then Viscorp and Gateway. There are still people waiting for the Ultimate OS and who are updating their Amiga's. More on the Amiga's history on the Amiga History Guide