The Amiga Development System (a new one found in the USA)

[intric8]

Hi Guys,

I wanted to share something that has come into my possession recently: one of only half a dozen known Amiga Development Systems.

This machine was created before a single Amiga was ever sold in the U.S. in either 1984 or early 1985. It was sent to Hewlett Packard in the hopes they would support the future platform by creating software and tools. They decided not to invest, and a gentleman purchased it from HP in the spring of 1985. We was quite likely the only non-Commodore employee to ever own an Amiga at that time.

In any case, I created a 17-minute video about the machine and the obvious differences between it and the earliest Amigas.
[ Show youtube player ]

I also wrote a longer explanation of the machine and posted it here with several more photos:
https://amigalove.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1031

The key differences (in my mind) are:
- The logo is not an Amiga/Checkmark logo. It is an embossed Commodore logo instead.
- The keyboard doesn't have the Amiga red "A" keys - it has Chicken Lips
- There are no signatures under the top shell.
- It has really early custom chips: Portia (instead of Paula) and Daphne (instead of Denise) as well as a very early Agnus.

There are lots of other details, too.

[indigolemon]

Very cool find indeed! Interesting to see what changed as it went into production. I've been comparing your photos with my A1K, and mine has those diamond chamfers on the sides of the front panel too - not sure what that means (if anything) though!

[intric8]

UPDATE:

According to gehtjanix1 on YouTube, my Development System does indeed have a name: ZORRO, and that only one other quite like this is known to exist. "The ZORRO slots were named after this unit, as "no one suggested a better name" and (probably/maybe) the slot had it's final revision with this unit, so they just kept the name. Maybe they mean the "expansion bus" which later went to the inside in A2000's design, keeping the name of the prototype because the spec was finailized here. At least, that is what I heard about it.?"

It's worth pointing out that this information I was given is currently unconfirmed. Would be nice to know for sure.

[intric8]

It turns out I found the original Kickstart disk, too. It has a very unique version:

v29.11

I've successfully created an ADF of it, and have contacted both Greg Donner as well as BBoAH.

This beta Kickstart - which seems to be entirely unique - appears to be around the .9 version pre-1.0.

[hth313]

Very nice find!

But, did Commodore send this to HP, I would assume for evaluation free of charge, and HP .. went and sold it?

Why did they not send it back to Commodore if they were not interested?

[intric8]

No clue how any of that went down.

I bet HP paid for the Dev System up-front in order to get one (or more). I doubt they were freebies. Usually it's up to a dev house to decide to invest in a platform. And a lot of times those Dev Systems are not cheap.

[malko]

Very beautiful find
You should do the necessary to add the kickstart disk to TOSEC

[zipper]

Re Greg D: Workbench Beta ?, Beta phase: August 1985 (Kickstart 0.6 (versions 26.1, 26.7); 0.7 (version 27.3); 0.9 (versions 29.2, 29.11)) The only known samples available for study are Kickstart versions 27.3 and 29.11, and AmigaDOS v27.5
Btw, 27.3 has lingered into my collection years ago. Well, Timo Weirich found the following message in Kickstart v0.7 (27.3) at offset $010055: "The Amiga Wizards bring this power to you".

[zipper]

And this is still a little older sister (software + KS versions): http://scacom.bplaced.net/Collection...t/velveten.php

[Pyromania]

Cool find!

[mark_k]

Originally Posted by intric8

It turns out I found the original Kickstart disk, too. It has a very unique version:
v29.11

It will be worth running DiskSalv or similar on that ADF to see if any files can be recovered. (I remember that at least some official/release Kickstart disks contained old files that could be recovered.)

[Dynamic_Computi]

What a great find and a fantastic piece of Amiga history! Thanks for sharing this, Intric8!

[demoniac]

Originally Posted by mark_k

It will be worth running DiskSalv or similar on that ADF to see if any files can be recovered. (I remember that at least some official/release Kickstart disks contained old files that could be recovered.)

I wouldn't run DiskSalv on the original. I would make a backup using X-Copy and then run DiskSalv. Otherwise, you may cause permanent data loss.

[lilalurl]

Originally Posted by demoniac

I wouldn't run DiskSalv on the original. I would make a backup using X-Copy and then run DiskSalv. Otherwise, you may cause permanent data loss.

Good advice. But in this case since intric8 made an ADF, the ADF itself is a backup copy (and that was what mark_k wanted Disksalv to be run on).

[005AGIMA]

That is so cool!

[hiho]

Will WINUAE run any of those ancient Kickstarts?

[MikeyG]

Very nice find. Great to see this in good hands and preserved

[livewirerocks]

Fantastic find. Interesting to see and find out about rare early machines like these. Glad to see something like this being preserved and well kept for all to see.

[AmigaHope]

Originally Posted by lilalurl

Good advice. But in this case since intric8 made an ADF, the ADF itself is a backup copy (and that was what mark_k wanted Disksalv to be run on).

Would be even cooler to get a raw flux dump from a Supercard or Kryoflux so the bad bits could be analyzed and inferred, potentially allowing for a pristine restoration.

[Magic]

I have a Supercard pro setup if you need access to one.