Welcome to Chez`s Amiga Computer Page...
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The introduction...As you might be aware, I have several Amiga computers ranging from :-- A500, my first real computer,
- A1200, my next computer, even better than the A500
- CD32 Commodores CD based console
- A4000 and my favourite Amiga.
- And finally, some of the software used on my Amiga`s.
Amiga A500...
 | The A500 was my first real computer which I bought back around 1989/90. I had previously bought myself a video camera and was looking for a means to create titles and graphics effects for when I eventually got around to editing my footage.
At the time, the A500 was probably the best home computer available and was ideally suited to video work. At a cost of £400Uk, it was also a lot cheaper than anything else on the market and could also be used straight out of the box with your existing TV set - no monitor required. |
Add to that the accessories available like genlocks and you had an easily accessible DTV system for very little outlay, compared to professional systems.
It ran on a Motorola 68000 chip with Workbench1.3 (- the forerunner to Windoze on the PC) and ran entirely from one floppy disk - no hard drives in those days! It also run on only 1Mb of memory and I believe it was the first multitasking home computer available.
The A500 is now mainly used for creating titles for my video productions and "genlocking" them (superimposing) them over the video footage.Amiga A1200...
The A1200 is the lower of the two keyboards, and is an integral part of my video edit suite.
Anyway, a few years later, Commodore decided to release thier latest computer, the A1200, which was bigger and better than the older A500.
The A1200's main advantage was that the operating system had been upgraded to WB3.0 and the processor had been changed to the newer Motorola 68020 chip, and preferred to run on 2Mb of RAM. This also meant that the new layout allowed easier fitting of things like hard drives, CD drives, SCSI interfaces and plug-in RAM and processor upgrade boards without having to open up the case of the machine. |  |
WB3.0 also introduced a system called Datatypes which was a means of writing little conversion hacks that allowed almost any other non-Amiga file to be read by the computer - regardless of which computer the file had originated from. The Amiga thus made great use of JPEG, GIF, BMP and TIFF picture files, as well as WAV sound files too.
The A1200 is now part of my video edit suite and is used for titling and graphics and for this I mainly use a program called Scala MM400, which is the Amiga's top multimedia authoring program available.
The A1200 is fitted with an extra 4Mb RAM expansion card and also an Archos plug-in 420Mb hard drive.Amiga CD32...
 | Next I bought the CD32 which was Commodores venture into the CD console market. The idea was that it would run games direct from CD, but with extra accessories like a mouse and keyboard, it could easily be turned into a "normal" computer. Sadly there werent that many decent games available and the accessories were expensive so it never really took off. |
The CD32 was based on the A1200 with similar hardware specifications but without the mouse or keyboard. Commodore were concentrating on selling the CD32 at the time and so A1200 accessories were not readily available.
However, the CD32 could be connected via its serial port to any other computer and like many other people, this is how I "added" a CD drive to my existing A1200. This allowed me access to the many PC CDs that were available featuring lots of sound and picture files to use with my A1200 as well as my video camera.Amiga A4000...
My last Amiga was the A4000 '030 (Motorola 68030 processor), which had 6Mb of RAM and was my first computer with a hard drive of 130Mb. Believe it or not, because of the way the Amigas operating system (Workbench) worked and the way software was written, it took me years before filling that hard drive!
I have since upgraded the memory upto 18Mbs, added a CD drive and also increased the hard drive capacity to around 1.3Gb with two HD's. |  |
Also fitted is a SCSI interface which allows me to use my Iomega Zip drive which has the advantage that I can easily transfer upto 100Mbs of data easily across to either of my PC's.
One of the last big accessories I bought for my A4000 was an Epson GT5000 A4 flatbed scanner which is used with Art Department Porfessional software.Recent history...Commodore have since gone out of business and were eventually bought out by the German Escom company. It seems that the Commodore curse lives on and Escom too eventually closed down leaving the Amiga technology to fall behind the rest of the market.
I believe Gateway2000 still have the rights to produce new Amigas since they bought the remainder of the Escom company, but Im not too sure whats happening these days.
There has been talk of a new model Amiga appearing but since all but one of the Uk Amiga magazines have finished, it is difficult to get any update on the latest news and events.Software used...This is a brief list of software used on all my Amiga computers...- Softwood`s Final Writer 5 for all my DTP projects - a PC version is also available
- Photogenics2 and Deluxe Paint 4 two programs used for all my ART projects
- Scala MM400, MM300 and MM100 for creating video titles and graphics - this is also available for the PC
- The Big Alternative Scroller 2 also for creating video titles used with the A500
- Diskmaster2 similar (but better) to Filemanager on Windoze3
- Art Department Professional software used to run my Epson scanner
- MaxonMagic which is a brilliant program that introduces sounds to various mouse clicks and key presses, as well as when individual programs are started!
- ToolsDaemon, which is a program that introduces a user definable menu onscreen
- And finally, Studio which is a print manager that improves printouts from bubblejet printers
And heres some system tools you might find helpful...- AmigaNCP used to connect with my Psion palmtops
- Soopdos used to interegate system events, like which files have been called on to run
- Disksalv used to recover files from damaged discs
- NoClick a program that will stop the floppy drives from clicking
Links to other Amiga related sites...Main pageAbout MePets pageMotorcycling page
Cycling pageMy Computer pageMy Video pageDrag Racing page
Entertainment pageSwansea pageMy Links pageLegal info page
And for a limited time only, my PageThis version of the site was created during December 1998 and last updated on 1 January 2000.
© 1996-2000 Chez / Bad Arsed Biker Productions.
Paul@chez.demon.co.uk
