spencer@usc-oberon.UUCP (05/25/86)
Well, they just had a demonstration of the new Amiga Sidecar at my
local dealership. I was pretty impressed, to the point of knowing
that I *will* be getting one, however, the software to use it had
gotten corrupted by setting the disk next to a speaker magnet (how
come when you want to do this on purpose it never works?) They also
had the Amiga GenLock there. Sachs and Rel were there showing off the
art work they do, and running it through the genlock and over a
picture of the crowd looking at the sidecar. Not the greatest
applicaton for it, but fun until "they" write a good Dragon's Lair for
the Amiga (the mysterious "they"). I really like the design. If you
haven't seen a picture of it yet it is really nice. It will fit under
the Amiga in back, bet you always wondered what all that space was
for! just enough of it shows its head to allow it to plug into the
RGB port. It has just a ton of connections on the back, finally, my
Amiga looks like the rest of my stereo set-up. Well, 'nuff said, on to
the sidecar:
The case is not as large as some have said, after seeing the
microforge, I figured that that might be the scale that we are
talking. It looks to be just smaller than if you had taken your pcjr
and backed it up to the side of the Amiga. The cover was off and I
got to poke my nose around. It is quite a good looking little machine
inside, the card slots got my mouth watering, I am really excited
about the project. The drive is a nice little half height, the case
is metal, looks almost better than the Amiga. Someone asked if it
could be run off a ribbon, though looking at the expansion port I
don't want to see a ribbon cable that wide. The guy said that they
get too much radio interferance that way.
I had just purchased the Amiga transformer and the salesman was
setting people (who had done the same things)'s mind at ease by
telling them that the 5 1/4 inch drive was useful as a second drive
for the sidecar. I didn't care, I was more interested in getting the
5 1/4 because Randy at West Chester said that v1.2 would support it as
a drive, so I ran out to get it and put my c: directory on it. I
consider it sort of like getting a free 3 1/2" drive, heck the price
was right, now after the introduction of the sidecar. But, and (as
Pee Wee would say) this is the BIG but, the man says that if you
already have the 5 1/4" drive you will probably be interested in
getting the sidecar with the 3 1/2" 720K format drive on it. IBM
compatable, and you can then go absolutely crazy trying to figure out
which of the 5 1/4's and which of the 3 1/2's go to which of the
drives!!! Well, as soon as I can get a C128 with the CP/M that will
read and write many CP/M format disks, plus C64, plus DS C128 disks,
and combine that with Kermit and my multidrive Amiga, I will pretty
much have all formats covered :'). By the buy, does anyone have
shipping dates on the developers's release of v1.2?
I realize that with the sidecar probably as far off as Christmas for
me it doesn't make much sense to start asking what I should buy for
it, but I wondered if Randy Weiner knew (so I ask) what kind of
periferal (?) sharing I might be able to look forward to. People
talk about puting in turbo cards to speed up the IBM processor,
hardcards that the Amiga can speak to and save stuff to, graphics
boards so that the sidecar can have it's own seperate monitor. I know
that the product description says that the sidecar will allow up to 2
meg upgrade for the Amigas memory, but is that communial memory with
the IBM or is that just contained in the same case? If I can get a
monitor board for the sidecar is there going (I know that no one would
think of it but me) to be a way to attach a keyboard to the sidecar so
that one person can be running wordstar on the IBM and you can be
running emacs? I know, I know, the side car is supposed to augment
the Amiga, but since they say it can end up costing between $500 and
$1000, and for that (in there somewhere) you can get a pc compatible
w/ a keyboard, it could make you think. Not me of course, I know that
I am going to be getting the sidecar, this is just an idea presented
to me by a customer that thought I was running the demonstration.
Sachs and Rel (remember the golden porsche at your Amiga dealers) are
working on a program of some kind of jousting match. I don't care
what it is, it is going to look great!! I saw lots of the artwork,
though they only had the same demo disk that I got from my Fish
connection, they also had photos of more of their work and I was
amazed. Enlargments look so much better than just the monitor, I am
going to have to hook up the 25" in the living room, if I would just
get around to building the cable.
One last question for those of you who are still with me, has anybody
thought of a way to write a program that will dim the screen after
so many minutes of inactivity? I hate switching it off when I leave
the Amiga on all the time, I mean heck, I got it for free, but I still
would like to pretend that I have a Xerox Star and have a little key-
board flashing at random places around the screen.
Aloha to Bruceb and the gang, I have been in morning for a week. Let
us hear from you (got a compuserve subscription?).
AlohaRandyWeiner() also, good to be getting to know you. Everyone get
get the referance? --
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....I disclaim everything, I had nothing to do with it, it's not my fault!....
Randal Spencer - DEC, {amiga} Consulting - University of Southern California
phone: (213) 743-5363 Arpa:Spencer@USC-ECL,USC-Oberon Bitnet:Spencer@USCVAXQ
UUCP:...up to you!{{decvax,ucbvax}!sdcrdcf,scgvaxd,smeagol}!usc-oberon!spencer
Home: 937 N. Beverly Glen Bl. Bel Air California 90077 (213) 470-0428
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