You may have encountered Squigs for the very first time as an iPhone or iPad app, but like all great retro games, it has had a long and interesting history. Long before Jon (Hibbins) developed the iOS version which was released on the App Store on 7 November this year, he created the first version of Squigs for the Commodore Amiga microcomputer.

The game was first released on a cover disk for Amiga Power Magazine back in September 1993. For the Amiga 500 (A500). Though by that time Commodore had already launched the Amiga A4000/030 – a hugely impressive home computer of its time and seemingly light years ahead of its A500, A2000 and A3000 predecessors. But just how advanced was this powerful desktop system compared to the throwaway smartphones of today?

We thought it might be fun to compare a few facts and figures to see how a trusty 1993 Amiga would stand up in 2011.

Processors:
Amiga A500: Motorola 68000 microprocessor running at 7.15909 MHz (NTSC) or 7.09379 MHz (PAL), 32-bit
iPhone 4S: Dual-core Apple running at 800MHz

RAM:
Amiga A500: 512 kB of Chip RAM upgradable to 1024 kb
iPhone 4S: 512MB

Storage:
Amiga: 880 kB standard Amiga disks
iPhone 4S: Up to 64GB HDD and no removable media

Graphics:
Amiga A500: PAL mode: 320 × 256, 640 × 256, 640 × 512 (interlace), 704 × 576 in overscan.
NTSC mode: 320 × 200, 640 × 200, 640 × 400 (interlace), 704 × 484 in overscan. from a palette of 4096 colours.
iPhone 4S: 3.5” retina display with 940×640 pixel resolution at 326ppi, SGX 543MP2 dedicated GPU producing 30fps HD video

Operating system
Amiga: AmigaOS 1.2+
iPhone 4S: iOS5

Connectivity:
Amiga A500: Two DB9M sockets for joysticks or mice (as popularized by the Atari 2600),A parallel port (DB25F).Analogue RGB 50 Hz PAL and 60 Hz NTSC video output,A floppy drive port (DB23F) and Stereo audio
iPhone 4S: WiFi, 3G, Bluetooth, Stereo Audio, Video Output, GPS…

Dimensions:
Amiga: 390mm(L) x175mm(W) x360mm(H)
iPhone 4S: 4.5 x 2.31 x 0.37”