Conference hydra::amiga_v1

535.0. "A Shopping Trip" by TLE::RMEYERS (Randy Meyers) Fri Jun 05 1987 22:10

Recently I visited the Memory Location and saw several interesting things:

First, as was mentioned in a previous topic, was the Amiga 500.  It replaced
one of the 1000s they had on display.  Evidently, the Memory Location have
taken order's for several 500s, and expect to deliver the 500s to their
new owners late next week.

They has the new owner's manual on display for the 500.  I am happy to say
that Commodore added a lot of new material to the manual.  It now includes:

    1.	A mini-manual on the CLI

    2.  How to use multiple selection to move a group of files under
	the Workbench.

    3.  How to use multiple selection to open, discard, etc a group
	of files all at once under the Workbench.

    4.  How to use the left mouse button to make multiple menu selections.

    5.  The new editing Amiga keys supported for string requesters.

    6.  The new retry/cancel Amiga keys for system requesters.

I was pleased that Commodore decided to document more of the user interface
in the user manual!  However, the manual still didn't explain how to use
multiple selection to run a tool with multiple arguments or to process a
project with a tool rather than its default tool.

Another interesting thing is the Sidecar: The Memory Location has them in
stock, but the price was a whopping $900.  The U.S. sidecar delays are
thus explained--Commodore is protecting the Amiga 2000 market.

I also saw a demonstration of Prism, a new HAM paint program.  I never
really appreciated the idea of a HAM paint program before.  In addition
to just painting pretty pictures (a la Deluxe Paint) with a lot of colors,
you can load a digitized HAM picture and alter it.  Ever wonder how you
would look with a third eye in the center of your head: digitize your
picture, grab a copy of your eye as a brush, and plop it down in the
center of your forehead.  Prism supports loading and converting non-HAM
IFF pictures, so you can put your nose on King Tut's face.  I was
impressed with the concept.

The Memory Location's phone was ringing off the wall with inquires about
the 500 and 2000.  I also overheard one of the salespeople explaining
their 1000 to 2000 upgrade policy.  If you give them a Amiga 1000 with
512k and  $1000, they will give you a Amiga 2000.  Note that this is
the upgrade policy that was thought up by the local Commodore distributors,
the official Commodore upgrade policy is still under wraps.

They had a huge stack of Supra hard drives on display.

I saw a copy of ASDG's new program Facc.  This program is provides a
extended buffering scheme for floppies that speeds up read and write
times tremendously.  I was amused that the program comes packed in a
Compact Disk "jewel box."