! ! HELLOOOOOO ! !
I'm Thierry from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
I post in most places as "Atheist".
Was on Amiga.Org and AmigaWorld.Net. Currently on Apollo Core (Vampire) and Amigans.Net messageboards. Also on face(palm)blech (a Mad ref.
).
Started using Amigas back in 1989,...... LOVE THEM TO DEATH!!!!!
I saw an advertisement comparing Amiga side-by-side with Atari ST in a magazine ~1986-87. Probably Byte.
Knew that I HAD TO HAVE one of those two computers!!!!!!
But, which one?
In about 1987-88 I was lent an ST for a week, and could not do ANYTHING with it! The person that lent it to me wasn't into games (I don't think I've ever played a game on an Atari ST!!), and was wondering how to access the file system. I couldn't find a way to do it. No dos shell??? Really don't care now (or back then), was effectively a dagger in their chances of me getting it.
Later on, in 1988, I went to one of the FEW (about 8 stores) that carried the Amiga line of computers for a demonstration.... and IMMEDIATELY fell in LOVE with AMIGA!!!!
They showed me 2 or 3 of the NewTek Demo Reels and a glossy photograph of a strawberry that was raytrace generated on an Amiga (at least, I chose to believe it was
). Hey,
even if they duped me with that picture, I found out that it was 100%
possible for an Amiga to do that, a couple of years later!!!!
I bought an Amiga 2000 in 1989 for $2000 and a 1084 monitor for another $500. For $50 more, could have got a 1084S. Bought a stereo with AUX input, never attached it to this day.
The Amiga 2000 had 1 megabyte of Chip RAM.
In 1990 I bought the GVP Impact A2000-HC+8 Series II, a SCSI and 8 meg. RAM expansion card. I also got a 180 meg. Fujitsu SCSI hard drive and 2, 4 megabyte SIMMs (they were 70 ns, and they said they were going to send 60. I bought it by mail order and it was going to be near impossible to get what I had paid for, so settled for what I had. Well, it DID work, at any rate). In 1990, I had a full 9 megabyte computer, and ALL the RAM was seen by the OS..... PCs were a JOKE compared to THAT! "Power user" PC owners MAY have had 4 (clunkily accessible) megabytes in their computers, and hard drives for them were, was it a choice of RLL and MFM? Most had 1 or 2 megabytes in their computers.
The only accelerator I've had and used was the Turbo 28 MHz 68000. Can't remember who that was made by. I had to remove my 68000 CPU and put the card into it's socket. Every time I went to 28 MHz mode, it would CRASH right after I accessed the hard drive. I used it close to zero % of the time.
That Amiga 2000 is the only Commodore computer I've owned, set up and used from brand new. A friend gave me their Commodore 64, but I don't have space to set it up. Who knows if it even still works???
Unfortunately, haven't used my A2000 since about 2002. Again, it's a space issue. By now, though, it also probably HAS TO HAVE it's caps replaced. A cost I can't manage!!
(I had the battery removed around 1999 or 2000, I think. It slightly leaked, but my 2000 still worked fine. Caught it
just in time.)
I plan to get the Vampire standalone and want to then start some HEAVY DUTY AMOS Pro coding!!!!!!
P.S. While it seems contradictory to claim "I can't get my Amiga 2000 up and running", and at the same time want a Vampire, there's a considerable amount more involved with working on the A2000. It needs finding a trustworthy repairer, shipping, reverse shipping, probably even customs on MY PROPERTY, and then facing the possibility of other repair expenses beyond that, and eventually having (I regretfully say this) a rather slow computer to use.
Yes, Vampire, my friends, is "THE FUTURE of AMIGA".
I see a future where, compiled AMOS runs on the standalone Vampire motherboard as fast as, even assembler that is hand coded for a 14 MHz 68020 CPU can!!!!!!
GOOD TIMES ARE AHEAD!!!!
(Sorry for the excessive rambling. I tried to limit myself, but had lots to say.)
