27 April 2019, 16:23 | #1 |
AmigaLover
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Seattle, WA USA
Posts: 75
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The Amiga Development System (a new one found in the USA)
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. |
27 April 2019, 17:06 | #2 |
Bit Copying Bard
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: Kelty, Fife, Scotland
Age: 41
Posts: 1,293
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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!
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27 April 2019, 18:09 | #3 |
AmigaLover
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Seattle, WA USA
Posts: 75
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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. Last edited by intric8; 27 April 2019 at 22:58. Reason: just in case |
28 April 2019, 02:47 | #4 |
AmigaLover
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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. |
28 April 2019, 06:00 | #5 |
Registered User
Join Date: May 2018
Location: Delta, Canada
Posts: 192
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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? |
28 April 2019, 07:12 | #6 |
AmigaLover
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Seattle, WA USA
Posts: 75
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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. |
28 April 2019, 13:44 | #8 |
Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: finland
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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". |
28 April 2019, 14:03 | #9 |
Registered User
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Location: finland
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And this is still a little older sister (software + KS versions): http://scacom.bplaced.net/Collection...t/velveten.php
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28 April 2019, 14:49 | #10 |
Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Chicago, IL
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Cool find!
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28 April 2019, 16:16 | #11 |
Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location:
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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.)
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29 April 2019, 16:05 | #12 |
10MARC
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: Tucson, AZ, USA
Posts: 214
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What a great find and a fantastic piece of Amiga history! Thanks for sharing this, Intric8!
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30 April 2019, 09:21 | #13 |
Registered User
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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.
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30 April 2019, 23:03 | #14 |
Global Moderator
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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).
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01 May 2019, 02:32 | #15 |
Re-loading. Please wait.
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Perth, Australia & England
Age: 49
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That is so cool!
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01 May 2019, 03:17 | #16 |
Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: San Antonio, USA
Posts: 76
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Will WINUAE run any of those ancient Kickstarts?
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01 May 2019, 09:05 | #17 |
Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: UK
Posts: 109
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Very nice find. Great to see this in good hands and preserved
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01 May 2019, 09:36 | #18 |
Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2019
Location: Scotland
Age: 45
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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.
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05 May 2019, 10:52 | #19 |
Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: New Sandusky
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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.
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05 May 2019, 20:02 | #20 |
Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: USA
Posts: 365
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I have a Supercard pro setup if you need access to one.
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