Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    I remember those days too! When I bought my Amiga everyone laughed
    at me.The only mag was amiga World,for software I got Textcraft,and
    Graphicraft.Everyone else was buying the Atari ST.The other day
    I was in System Eyes when a couple came in looking for software
    for their atari.They could not believe their eyes as they looked
    over the software selection.Last I knew they were going to drop
    their ST off at computer exchange,and buy a 500.This week I buy
    my 100 meg drive,and some software for Xmas.I have never regretted
    buying my 1000,and sold it to someone that has placed it in shop,
    so I still use it for file transfer.(wishing it was on MY DESK.)
    Maybe someday I'll have a 2000 here also.I look around,and can see
    many,many ways it would make my job easier.
    							bill 

I stopped in a couple computer stores in a mall this weekend.

They had Amiga stuff (I was quietly checking out Apple IIc stuff for my
girlfriend's nephews). A salesman asked was passing out flyers of their
"today's specials". I gave it a quick pass and handed it back to him.

"Nothing there for me", I said, "It's all IBM and MAC stuff". 
"oh", he replied, "I see your into Apple anyway".  
"No, Actually Amiga. This stuff's for gifts"
"Amiga?", he puzzled as he perused the Amiga shelf's (which were just next to the
Apple section. "Yeh, there some stuff for that. Not much though".
"Why not?", I inquired, "Are you getting more in?"
"I doubt it. There isn't much available for the Amiga" ...


The mall was PACKED. I was too tired to argue.

This was Software Etc in the new Emerald Square Mall (N. Attleboro Ma.).

John

    I bought my 1000 back in winter of 1986. My brother took me over to	
    the house of a friends and showed me some of the graphics capabilities
    the Amiga had.  I was impressed enough to go with him that day to
    MicroWorld in Allen Park, Michigan and buy one.  I soon disillusioned
    with the limited availability of decent database and spreadsheet
    programs.  The only saving grace was Scribble for word processing. 
    Plus the thing seemed to Guru at the most inopportune moments.  I had
    wanted to transfer my database, spreadsheet and word processing files
    over from the Apple IIe (couldn't justify 2 computers) but the lack of
    software prevented that at the time.
    
    Within a year, the 1000 was history.  All the word processing files
    that I created with Scribble had to be transferred back to the IIe.
    Well, I figured that I would never be interested in an Amiga again. 
    Within a year, they came out with the 500 (which, of course, my brother
    bought).  Re-examining the software that was available now and the
    ageing of the Apple II line, I decided to get a 500.  I really did like
    Scribble compared to AppleWorks word processing capability.
    
    Now the Apple is long gone and the amiga has grown to 2 mb (with another
    meg due in this week), and a A590 hard drive plus a growing software
    library. I don't miss the apple one bit (except for some of the early
    programs like Spare Change, Threshold and the like) and am a complete
    Amiga convert.  Once you understand the screen and window environment
    and add enough memory to do some real multi-tasking, the power of this
    machine is just unbelievable for the price.  I would love to have a
    2000HD or even a 2500, but the 500 has all the capabilities I will need
    for a long time. SuperBase professional and VIP professional solved the
    database/spreadsheet problems.
    
    Here's to long and prosperous life for the Amiga.  Thanks to the
    moderator (and system manager) for the time and disk space required for
    this conference which has saved countless hours of frustration for so
    many.
    
    Ken
    
    

    I started out with a atari 2600 in 1980 and had more cartridges than
    anybody around me. Then my dad took me to toys'r'us in about 1982 and
    got the TI/99/4a but I wanted to get a atari 800 because it was
    popular. Then for the christmas of 1985 I got a atari 800xl with a 1050
    drive. I could not beleive the amazing graphics of it. The donkey kong
    for the 800 was just like the arcade. In 1986 I got a nintendo with
    about 6 games so I started using my 800 for programming. In 1987 I got
    a sega system and got 2 games for it. In september of 1988 I got a
    amiga 500...I came very close to getting a GS cause thats what my dad
    also wanted. He told me commodore was going out of business.
    
    Today I only use a amiga. The 2600 has been sold years ago. The 800 was
    sold a year ago. I destroyed the sega with a hammer a couple months
    ago. The nintendo sits upstairs. I took the TI apart and could not put
    it back together so we had to throw it away. I still have a vectrex
    (ever hear of it?) which I let little kids use.
    
    I might be getting a kawai k-1 for christmas so I will start using my
    amiga for a MIDI sequencer. I have a sound and picture digitizer to
    play around with.
    
    matt
     

    
    What strikes me as most interesting about the Amiga's development over
    the years is how well the system has maintained backwards
    compatibility.  I have most of the very first titles released back in
    December of '85.  Scribble!, Online!, One-on-One, Artic Fox, Archon, etc
    all still work, having survived three OS upgrades and three different
    CPUs (68000, 68010, 68020).  Most of the credit goes to the 'good'
    developers who followed Commodore's rules.
    
    I was speaking with a manager in my department who has a MacIIcx and I
    asked him how the compatibility picture looked... he replied that
    software that followed the rules would work across all the various
    Macintii platforms, then added "...but Apple keeps changing the rules
    on the fly."
    
    I'm also amazed at how well the 4 year old Amiga has held it's own
    against the new 16-bit game consoles, which I feel are abominations;
    young people should be allowed to use a computer for more creative
    pursuits than mindless shoot-em-ups.  They should be busy trying to
    take over NORAD or the Department of Defense. :^)
    
    Ed.
    

    	Come on, Ed. How many kids are interested in really using a
    computer ?  Of those, how many want to get inside their machine?
    We're talking small percentages here. The best most of us can hope
    for is that they will eventually - sometime in high school or college,
    perhaps - decide that using a computer is the path of least resistance.
    Then "Surprise! Your toy is also a tool." Unless, of course, the
    toy is a game system with no keyboard or printer port. It always
    amazes me how some kids take to the critters while most shun them
    like a plague. Those kids that get "stuck" with a C=64 or Apple][,
    instead of the Sega or Ninnie they wanted, stand a much better chance
    of migrating when they feel the need. 
    	About backwards compatibility, how would you like to be on a
    Mac+ platform these days, looking at color and other plug-in options?
    Think they might wish they'd bought an A1000 ?

    Caught the bug with a borrowed ALTAIR 680.
        
    Then picked up a COLECOVISION (the game part only - not the terrible
    computer) because they were smart and made a machine that would also
    play the old 2600 cartridges. Picked up the 2600 adaptor quickly
    because I feared it would be pulled from the market.
    
    Bought an ATARI 800 with disk for (sigh) several hundred dollars
    when it first came out. Great hacking machine for those days. Got
    real sad when the price dropped real low.
    
    Was interested in the Amiga, but scared of COMODORE going bye bye.
    When the 2000 got announced, with XT ability available, I thought
    "this is it - I'll still be PC compatible if COMODORE fails", so
    I got on the waiting list for the newly announced AMIGA 2000, and
    received it when they first shipped in the U.S. (before stores even
    had them). Dedicated my ATARI as a MIDI system for my musical
    equipment. Finally, picked up the XT bridgeboard when it came out;
    giving me the XT system as well. Haven't gone back since! Finally-
    a system that I can upgrade rather than replace.
    
    I still have the COLECOVISION (boy are cartridges cheap now) and
    use it once or twice a year.

    
    Oh yeah, almost forgot, I sometimes use VAX computers also ;-)
    

Well, here it is the last work day of the decade, so I'll reminisce for a
bit. I bought my first Amiga in late 1985, and it came with operating 
system 1.0. I had the introductory manual and ABasic, and that was it.
The Apple ][ was still running in another room. I had 256K: that was im-
pressive enough for me. The Apple ][, a used machine from 1976, had been
upgraded to 64K earlier that year. There was VERY little software. I
started writing little ABasic programs. For a while, I didn't even know
what the CLI commands were, even though they were on the machine. By doing
a directory of df0:C, I started using CLI. Almost everything crashed.
I added 256K, then an external floppy. Everyone was picking up Atari ST's,
Commodore was going down the tubes, things looked bleak. 

Then I saw the first demo pictures from Deluxe Paint (King Tut and Boticelli's 
Venus). Bought DP on the spot, took it home, and it crashed. Upgrade to 1.1.
Then I found this NOTES file, and got the original developer's kit from
Commodore, including Lattice C and a full set of manuals.

Things got better fast from there on. Last year, I upgraded to a 2000. Now
I invite my less fortunate friends over and let them drool over DP3 graphics/
animation, frame-grabbed images, DMCS music, Falcon, SimCity, and so on...
It's cruel, but they once laughed when I sat down at the Amiga. :^)

I'd like to thank the originator of this conference, and all the contributors 
who have helped me and many others. This kind of support is great! Thank you
all!

John O.

    As a new Amiga owner, I'd like to thank you guys who got in early
    and believed in this machine from its infancy (I always wanted one,
    but 4 years ago didn't have the need for a home PC). I only wish
    that 2 years ago when I finally decided to buy a PC, that I'd taken
    the advice in this conference and gotten the 500 rather than the
    128 I bought (although the 128's a fine low cost home computer, I just
    wanted more). Hopefully, the new influx of Amiga owners during this
    Christmas season will boost Commodore's Amiga sales enough to make
    other 3rd party s/w developers stand up & notice that we're out there
    and not to be ignored. Am I hooked? You betcha!

    My greatest pleasure so far in owning this machine? Showing it off -
    especially to my PC owning friends :-). I love watching their jaws
    drop when they see the graphics in one of the NewTek demos. Or when
    they realize that I'm running multiple applications simultaneously, easily
    popping back & forth between multiple windows. After seeing my Amiga, 
    a PC-owning friend wasn't at all happy to have to go home & use his 
    "boring MS-DOS machine" (his words). His wife simply told him he should 
    just go out and buy an Amiga to make him happy - so maybe I've influenced 
    at least one potential sale. 

    The only problem with owning an Amiga? It interferes with my sleep :-).

						-Dom


    p.s. Hey Matt, I sure hope your Amiga doesn't guru on you very often,
    or at least your hammer's under lock & key ;-)