lord_zar@ucrmath.ucr.edu (wayne wallace) (10/20/90)
Heya. I was up around midnight last night and while channel-flipping, saw a demo of the Amiga 500. There was the host, and two VERY knowledgable C= reps, or at least Amiga dealers who KNEW what they were talking about. The Amiga 500 was advertised at $599.99, and came with a free RF modulator, so you can use your TV set if you couldn't afford the 1084S (yes, Stereo! they made a big point of this!) for $300. Yes, $300!!!!!!!! They also offered a A1010 (??) floppy for $200 more, and I forget how much they charged for the 512K RAM expansion. Software included was Textcraft (Plus ?), Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, and Tetris (probably Spec-Holo's version, although they didn't show it.). They went on to describe Multi-Tasking, how pointing and clicking works, and yet expressing the usefulness of the keyboard for wordprocessing when the stupid host asked if the mouse totally replaces the keyboard. I supppose it was a smart move for them not to show the CLI in action, because that would just remind people of USER-HOSTILE MS-DOS. They stressed how the Amiga is THE CREATIVE COMPUTER and lightly mentioned once that the Amiga was centered around entertainment and games. They forgot to show the Amiga doing animation, but mentioned it several times, and did show the STEREO Sound the Amiga is capable of. I missed the first part where the host was surprised to see the Amiga SPEAKING to him. (What a computer-illiterate host!!) I suspect the public would feel good seeing this presentation on the Amiga, as they don't bother, or even need to mention Macs or IBMs the entire time!!!! All in all, a quite favorable review. Oh, before I forget, they mentioned that higher models of the Amiga were used by DISNEY to do a lot of the animation in Roger Rabbit!!!!!!!!! They even mentioned Disney's new (I hope I am remembering the name right) software, The Disney Production Studio (?). Yet another plus, associating Amigas with a big-name company, doing a complex task. They were even kind enough to mention that the Amiga can have 4096 colors on the screen at any one time. Truly a great 15-20 minutes of fame for Commodore. They also stressed that, unlike other computers (I inferred Macs and IBMs here), the Amiga 500 won't grow obsolete because of its easy expandibility. I truly wish C= had WB 2.0 ready for the A500 because then the A500 would have really blown your socks off. As it was, it was only running 1.3. Now if I only knew if that section is repeated during the day.....I just hope Commodore gets more coverage like this! JC Penney is big enough, like Sears, to help truly make a dent in the sales of IBMs and MACs, and displace those old antiques :-) Just a bit of news for everyone. Now if they'd just had the NewTek demo or something with REALLY cool animation (Carmen Sandiego & Tetris are not very good examples, and Tetris was never shown! A great leap for the Amiga as "not a game machine" (although I'm a game addict myself :-))!!!!!! Wayne -- * // Only /\ |Lord Zar,Commander Of All He Surveys|Stay Alert! Trust * *\\ // /--\MIGA |(and hater of spaces near commas.) |No One! Keep--AHHHH* * \X/ Internet: lord_zar@ucrmath.ucr.edu QuantumLink & Portal: Lord_Zar * * I'm a Purple Hearts & Yellow Moons kinda guy; I'm vay-teeng for you, dahlink*