Dickson@his-phoenix-multics.arpa (Paul Dickson) (06/07/88)
This past weekend (June 4th, 5th), various Commodore user's groups here
in Phoenix sponsored a User Group Expo. It was a great deal of fun.
Commodore was there a long with some dealers (it wasn't a HUGE expo)
like Bill's Boards.
Commodore was at the Expo and did give some projected plans for the
future of the Amiga, C-64, and C-128D. WB 1.3 is planned to be shipped
this month (June), but that they'd have to rush to complete all the bug
fixes by that date. WB 1.4 is projected for Jan. or Feb. of next year,
but that that date is probably too optomistic.
We were given some general ideas of what would be in 1.4, but I didn't
have any pen or paper to note this stuff, and it was covered before 1.3
was covered. WB 1.4 will be shipped with the new chips. There was some
question that 1.4 required the new chips and that the new chips required
1.4. This was unresolved, but if true would mean an end of the Amiga
1000. (Personally I don't believe it was true, mainly because of the
technical level of the presentation was prtty low).
The prices of the Amiga 2000 and 500 are going to be increased by 10% on
July 1st, because of the rising prices of DRAM chips. The Amiga 2500
and 3000 don't exists, but the stuff that were supposed to go in these
machines will be based as kits for the Amiga 2000. The '020 card is
planned for Sept.
The MIDI demonstration was very good. I missed the one on the second
day, but shortened on on the first day was very good. Several musical
pieces were played, with questions answered from the floor in between.
One of the activities that took place at the Expo was the dogfight
between the West Phoenix and the East Phoenix User Groups using Jet.
This was an imprompt activity which was done after Top Gun was played
through an Amiga genlock device.
-Paul Dickson
Arpanet: Dickson%pco @ BCO-Multics.ARPA