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Grex Amiga Item 3: Why I bought an Amiga
Entered by lkt on Tue May 16 05:04:34 UTC 1995:

Why did you buy an Amiga?  What model Amiga(s) do you currently
have and what hardware/software are you using?

7 responses total.



#1 of 7 by lkt on Tue May 16 05:35:38 1995:

I've been a professional videographer since 1972.  One of my guiding
philosophies has long been "If it can't be used in a video production,
what good is it?"  As a result, it's not surprising that it took me
so long to become involved with personal computers.

I had been hearing about the Amiga for several years, but paid
little attention to it, assuming it was little different from other
PCs I had seen -- i.e. totally useless for video.  Early in 1989,
while shopping around for a character generator for the video
production company I own, Tucker Video, I decided to take a closer
look.  I discovered that the Amiga could do anything a dedicated
character generator could do, plus a lot of other things -- desktop
publishing, music, animation, etc. -- and it cost considerably
less than a box that could _only_ overlay text on video.

My first system included an A2000 with 105M hard drive, 8M RAM,
SuperGen 2000S, DPaint III and Pro Video Gold.  At the going-out-
of-business auction for State Street Computer, I picked up dealer
demo versions of the Oxxi/Aegis VideoScape and Modeler 3D, Video
Titler and Lights! Camera! Action!  Soon after that, I added DigiPaint
and DigiView.  Around the end of 1989, I bought a second A2000 and
became the first kid on my block to own a Video Toaster (serial
number 2993 -- to give you an idea of how early I jumped on the
Toaster bandwagon).  A few months later, NewTek shipped another
manual to me, since the one that came with my Toaster had been one of the
early releases that had blank spots where the pictures were supposed
to be.

Tucker Video now owns 3 A2000 Amigas, each equipped with 2M Agnus,
Workbench 2.1, GVP G-Force '030/40MHz accelerators, 8M 16-bit and 4M
32-bit RAM and hard drives of various sizes.  One still uses my
original SuperGen 2000S, another has an external SuperGen,
and the third (the one I gave to my lady's kids to play with) has
an OpalVision card.  We also have 2 A4000 Amigas which, as I write
this, are on the bench at Slipped Disk being upgraded.  They're
both being installed into tower cases and will have:  Toasters
running 4.0 software, Warp Engine accelerators (one is a 28MHz
version, the other 40MHz), 1 G SCSI II hard drives (in addition to
smaller IDE drives), 32M fast RAM, TBC-IV, Personal Animation
Recorder and 4x internal CD-ROM drives.

When the '060 chips become available, I intend to upgrade both of
the Warp Engines.  If Escom comes up with an '060 or, better yet,
RISC-based Amiga, you can bet I'll be one of the first in line to
get it.

Even after years of mismanagement by Commodore and a long year
out of production, when it comes to computer video, Amiga _still_
does it better.


#2 of 7 by matthew on Sat May 20 19:20:44 1995:

I was looking to get a home computer to experiment with. Try some 
drawing and writing, start venturing out onto the net (this was
about 3 or 4 years ago before net wading became the "in thing" to do)
A friend of mine who'd had an amiga for years demo'd what it was capable
of and I was hooked.


#3 of 7 by cicero on Sun Jun 4 07:37:46 1995:

I used to be a C-64 user.  It seemed logical to stay with Commodore when I
moved up.  Also early on I had learned about the Amiga and that it was supposed
to  be a great machine.  In those days I didn't know about multi-tasking, but
to me the amiga seemed to b "like a macintosh, but in color!!!".  Once I had my
A500, I was hooked.  I had both loyalty and software invested.  So I bought  an
A1200.  In September, we are going to have to buy a second computer.  If 
they're available that will probably be an A4000/40 or 4000/60 because thatway,
I can stay with the amiga (the best personal computer ever made bar none), but 
also get compatability with mac or windoze through emplant.


#4 of 7 by matthew on Mon Oct 16 16:49:32 1995:

Well after having owned, operated and enjoyed my A500, I'm now selling
it away <sniff  :( >.  It's a nice little system and if anyone is interested,
or or know some one who might be drop me some email or call 761-1762.
(I apologise to those who believe these types of replies should be
kept in the classified conf, but AMiga fans are the best place to start
when dealing in our beloved machines. There is a classified item on this)


#5 of 7 by rushfan on Sun Dec 24 20:44:54 1995:

h
I bought an A11200 last year and it's great. I had always used C64's and 128's
in the past, so I bougght an A64 emulator. THe Amiga is a great machine, and
I hope it survives this BS.


#6 of 7 by jefftoy on Sat Jul 4 22:35:26 1998:

I'm not too familiar with Amigas in the sense that I've never owned one or
even used one but I've heard and read some very good things about it. I've
used Power Macs, PC's and yes I owned(and still own) a Commodore 64. But what
I was wondering about for all of those who surf the web with Amigas is what
kind of Graphical browsers are available and what kinda system do I need to
browse the web with? I know it's more preferable to have at least an A4000
but would I be able to use a graphical browser say on an A500? Also, where
is the best place to still buy an Amiga hardware? Please forgive me for all
of these questions but I'm very curious about the Amiga. If anybody can help
me out I'd greatly appreciate it.


#7 of 7 by lkt on Tue Jul 7 17:09:41 1998:

Two of the more popular Amiga web browsers are AWeb and IBrowse.  I believe
that both require the AGA chipset, found in the A1200 and A4000.  I don't
think that they work with older Amigas, like the A500, since they require
a deeper palette than pre-AGA machines can provide.

Aside from the numerous mail order businesses you'll find in magazines
such as Amazing Computing/Amiga, there are a couple of stores in the
Detroit area that carry Amiga hardware.  One is Computer Link, 6573
Middlebelt, Garden City, ph. (313) 522-6005.  The other is Slipped Disk,
170 E. 12 Mile, Madison Heights, ph. (810) 546-DISK.

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