Dickson@HIS-PHOENIX-MULTICS.ARPA (Paul Dickson) (11/18/86)
The following are rumors about the Amiga. All, some, or none of it may
be true. Believe at your own risk.
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I've been to two different Amiga User's Group meetings in the last two
days. One in north Phoenix and the other in Mesa/Tempe. Lot's of info
was covered, especially from the developer's that went to the
developer's conference last week.
A lot of the software and hardware that was discussed is supposed to be out
"real soon now". Actually the major problem is that C-A can't seen to be
able to get out all of the bugs of Kickstart/WorkBench 1.2. Once they
do, all the software that depends on its features will likely be
released. The release date for 1.2 is now consider to be in two or three
weeks (rather than next week).
[Dealers had 1.2 final release (with documentation) at the MARCA show
on Saturday, 11/15/86. I guess that means it's out now! --Bob]
There was a hardware discussion about the Amiga's disk controller. Level of
discuss was such that you would have a good start at accessing data directly
from disk (by-passing track disk).
There was one piece of software demostrated that really stood out. Defender of
the Crown had excellent graphics. A good cross between a real life picture and
a television cartoon quality. The jousting was impressive (you view it from
the horse's back complete with the jitter from your horse's movement). You
really have to see this software to believe the quality. The rest of the game
is somewhat similar to Risk, so I heard.
Gen-Lock is scheduled to be released towards the end of this month with
it reaching the stores by Dec 5th. Its price should be the same as the
external drive ($295).
The Sidecar is another story. The rumors for this cover just about
everything. One story is that it hasn't passed the FCC, while another
(from the developer's conference) is that it has passed the FCC tests
and is now waiting for the paper work from the FCC. There is also
rumored to be problems with the software, but no one will say what the
problems are. Three other rumors deal with the hard disk you can put in
the Sidecar. One is that the Amiga can't access it, that only the PC
software can. Another is that you can partition the hard drive for PC
software and Amiga software. The third rumor is that you can access PC
software directly from the Amiga. Mix and match for your rumors. It
looks at though it will be out around mid-December.
Some information about the memory map of the Amiga has come out of the
developer's conference. The developer's are now allowed to burn ROMs of
the Kickstart program and install them in the Amigas. Also with some
modifications, the WriteStore memory that used to be for the Kickstart
data can be made into 256K of extra working memory.
Also, C-A has announced that the maximum expanded memory of the Amiga
1000 is now 10 Meg bytes instead of 8.5 Meg bytes. This is because of
the Ranger (the newer Amiga that's coming "real soon" [next year?] will
have 2 Meg of CHIP memory instead of only .5 Meg. This means that the
extra 1.5 Meg of reserved space on the Amiga 1000 can be used as FAST
memory. [Has it really been ``announced''? Or still a rumor? --Bob]
If you want to get a copy of KickStart/WorkBench 1.2 right now, you can
purchase Zing!. Zing! is a directory utility type program that requires
1.2 in order to run. Because C-A has been pushing back the release of
1.2 so much, a lot of companies are getting hurt. With special
arrangements, C-A allowed Zing! to go to market with the Developer's
version of 1.2.
[ I heard that this was 1.2 gamma-1, not the final 1.2 release --Bob]
Talking about rumors and getting hurt, the reason Turbo Pascal for the
Amiga hasn't come out is because Borland loss something like $400,000 in
a deal with C-A about a year ago. This cause Borland to drop the Turbo
Pascal for the Amiga. Rumors now have it that Borland and C-A have
patched together some kind of agreement but no one has said what its
about. Turbo Pascal for the MAC should be out sometime have the release
of Turbo Pascal 4.0 of the PC. Turbo C does exist and has been in beta
testing for well over a year. (I wonder what they are waiting for.)
Expansion units is a very messy area. Nobody seems to want to talk about
it. A lot of the companies with the earlier ones have just disappeared.
But expansion unit that seems to be one of the best is the PAL Jr. It
can a SCSI port on the back. Details in this area are a little difficult
to find. [They are advertising it, did you talk to them? --Bob]
I seem to have run out of facts (and rumors, for that matter). I'll
enter more if I come across them. Have you heard any rumors lately?
-Paul
Dickson%pco at HI-MULTICS
Dickson at MIT-MULTICS