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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Sat Apr 27, 2019 5:46 pm

Is there a corresponding Workbench version, or just 1.0?
Great question.

I'm not sure yet.

User avatar
bwldrbst

Posted Sat Apr 27, 2019 5:51 pm

intric8 wrote:As was pointed out to me by Paulo Alves on Facebook, the sides of the fascia are unique, too. I'd noticed it before but for some reason it never really clicked.

You'll notice a subtle diamond shape on the sides on both sides.
I have two A1000s, both PAL, one is an earlier version with daughterboard and the other without and I can see that pattern on both.

Unlike your development version, the controller ports are labelled as 1 and 2 on both cases.

Andrew

User avatar
Leffmann

Posted Sat Apr 27, 2019 11:00 pm

Interesting find. I'm surprised the serial number is so high and that so many developer systems were made. Assuming one or two machines for each, that would be enough machines for a few hundred recipients. Were there even that many software houses back in 1985?

I'm thinking Commodore may have been overly optimistic about early adoption, and one reason yours is one of maybe 10 surviving systems (?) is that many of them were never delivered, and most developers got into the Amiga later on with the regular consumer machines.

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wbsander84

Posted Sat Apr 27, 2019 11:11 pm

I have two Amiga development computers myself, one Zorro (D-611) and one Velvet (D-120) with 128k RAM expansion. I purchased them from a scrap dealer in Alabama about 4 1/2 years ago. He was cleaning out a warehouse and found them on a pallet outside. He had two Velvet machines and one Zorro and I bought them all sight unseen. Surprisingly they still worked but he didn't have any of the original keyboards. I sent one of the Velvet machines to Computer Collection Vienna back in late 2014. The business that used the space had long since disappeared so I have no idea who originally owned them.

Here are links to some photos of the underside of the two machines I have, the 128k RAM expansion, and the piggy backed ROM stacks in the Velvet.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=16d-sS ... rAqTqDRenN
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xMJ9f ... KetNXazJSV
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LlY6o ... PNPxLJItpY
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CV3O_ ... num3ePalfW

The Velvet only has 128k of ROM and it's far from a working operating system. It only outputs to the serial port and doesn't have any screen output except for a crude pixel map representation of the memory contents. I did a dump of the ROM and sent it to Cloanto back in 2015 to add to their archives. I believe it was more of a hardware development platform whereas the Zorro machine was more for developing software. The plastic used in these cases is quite fragile, I would not recommend using any retr0brite techniques on them.

User avatar
alt_

Posted Sun Apr 28, 2019 7:55 am

intric8 wrote:I have successfully created an ADF of the beta Kickstart! Whew! I've not been able to find this particular version anywhere online, fwiw.

Also, I looked back in the box and found two more disks I'm certain came with the Development System based on the black and white stickers.

I will make some ADFs of these this afternoon, too.
IMG_0899.JPG
Would you make these ADF available anywhere for archival purposes?

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Sun Apr 28, 2019 8:58 am

I'm planning on it. I'm working out the best place(s) to do that.

Some folks have been saying I should use archive.org, but they really don't have much of anything - not even readily available files that anyone could provide (e.g. 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 2._+, 3.0, etc.). None of it. And there's EAB, but most average folk have zero clue how to find EAB's FTP repository. It's completely hidden (on purpose).

But I'll get these somewhere soon for sure.

User avatar
LocalH
Kingsport, TN

Posted Sun Apr 28, 2019 11:02 am

EAB probably also wouldn't appreciate distribution of a Kickstart ROM, however non-public. The rest of the internet would, though :D

I *have* managed to locate what appears to be a 29.3 Workbench ADF along with an ABasic and a Demos ADF to go with it.

User avatar
EzdineG
Springfield, MO

Posted Sun Apr 28, 2019 3:09 pm

wbsander84 wrote:The Velvet only has 128k of ROM and it's far from a working operating system. It only outputs to the serial port and doesn't have any screen output except for a crude pixel map representation of the memory contents.

I believe it was more of a hardware development platform whereas the Zorro machine was more for developing software.
This bit of information is absolutely fascinating. Thank you for sharing!

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Sun Apr 28, 2019 6:10 pm

Tragic news, folks.

I used the Kickstart v29.11 on a bare-bones A1000 this afternoon. I was shocked to discover that back in 1986, the Larry apparently wrote KS 1.2 on top of the demo version.

I stood staring at the screen in shock for at least a minute. In hindsight it's completely understandable, but I was definitely disappointed the code is gone.

I did go ahead and hi-res scan the disk front and back (dated 1985), and sent those to Greg Donner as well as BBoAH.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Sun Apr 28, 2019 9:37 pm

@wbsander84 thank you SO much for sharing your story and those amazing photos.

Did you happen to have any original manuals or disks with any of yours?

You said you sent one to Austria. Yet the one online in Vienna has a keyboard. Is this your machine?





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