Even with all my memories of using an Amiga 1000 gone.....

[ImmortalA1000]

It's still the nicest, and more importantly best designed and built, Amiga of all time. More importantly it doesn't develop any stupid faults like the A600/1200/4000/CD32 bullshit SMT motherboards with their 1 out 4 sound channels going AWOL etc.

I unpacked two Amiga 1000 systems and after a bit of manic searching for the Kickstart 1.3 disks(!) everything worked perfectly.

The keyboard is better than the keyboard on the most expensive PC/Mac millennials blow thousands on, the fan is so well engineered it is near silent and the build quality is far in excess of any computer on sale in PC world today.

Sadly I don't really remember much about when I owned an Amiga 1000 in the late eighties but that little melody the A1000 plays to test that both left and right phono outputs are connected to your TV/speakers I do remember and is just one of those things that make it charming.

I am beginning to see exactly why the Amiga 1000 was the best computer ever sold to the general public, there is nothing else like it, no other Amiga comes close to this combination of build quality, design excellence, the most powerful computer Joe Public could ever get his hands on let alone spastic machines like Mac 512 or IBM PC AT doorstops of 1986. Commodore dropped the ball big time, by the time the A500/2000 machines went on sale after 9 months of Commodore abandoning the Amiga 1000 the Acorn Archimedes was here, that powerful elegant diminutive machine is the spiritual successor to the A1000 as a concept and it cost less than a 1mb A500 in 1987.

It's a bit like when I say "I watched Star Wars yesterday" obviously I am talking about 'Episode IV:A New Hope' ditto with "I unpacked my Amiga yesterday" means I unpacked my 'Amiga 1000'

I wish they weren't so expensive, every Amiga fan should have the opportunity to own an Amiga 1000.

[mikeboss]

Originally Posted by ImmortalA1000

that little melody the A1000 plays to test that both left and right phono outputs are connected to your TV/speakers

full ACK, the 1000 was the best ;-)

https://soundcloud.com/user-56866764...-rom-audiotest

[ImmortalA1000]

That 'related track' that started playing straight after the A1000 sound test was a bit weird lol.

I forgot to say that neither of these two Amigas are the original Amiga 1000 I bought in 1987/88, I had to sell that 1.5mb machine in 1993 when I went to university (I kept my 9mb Amiga 2000). I sold it for £175, seems so stupid now! I sold most of my stuff but because I kept my A2000 (that stopped working later due to battery leakage corrosion!!). Bit like when I sold my 1988 BMW 325i Sport to fund the repairs of my 5 years old 1998 BMW 318is Coupe when some loser of a car thief hit my car and ran off into the block of flats. I always seem to sell the wrong thing and keep the rubbish replacement!

There is a great story with that machine though.....

I used to buy a magazine, well more like a newspaper type material, called Compumart which was full of adverts for all sorts of things. I had wanted an Amiga 1000 since early 1985 when Teletext page had some specs on a new computer rumoured to be coming out in the Summer by Commodore. Now that the Amiga 500 had come out for 500 quid I was always looking out for somebody in London with an A1000 to sell. I actually had to settle for a 520STM at 800 quid less! (still better then every other 16bit computer at any price that wasn't an Amiga 1000...I just didn't have that sort of 'second hand top end BMW' money to spend on a computer in 1986 and the Commodore 128D was a duff idea at 500 quid with a disk drive or 300 quid for a disk drive and a mouse for my C64)

I saw an advert for an Amiga 1000 for £275 100-200 miles from me, it was a private advert too but hell I still rang up. When I called I was put through to a doctor's office and the receptionist who answered put me on the phone with the G.P. at the surgery who was selling the A1000. I asked him about the machine and why he was selling it. He told me it was all working fine (it wasn't but I'll get to that) he had tossed the box as it was a year old and he was selling it to upgrade to the 'more powerful Amiga 500' (!!). £275 + £10 for postage I think is what we agreed. I only sent of a cheque to a stranger because it was a doctor I guess. I phoned him to say I had posted the cheque and asked him to ring me and let me know when he posted it.

Anyway it arrived a few days later in a big brown cardboard box, it came with the original Kickstart 1.0, and 1.1 folders along with copies of KS/WB/Extras 1.2 and 1.3 disks. It had the original first generation manuals, they were proper hardback folders like the sort of thing you got with very expensive PC DOS packages back then. Sadly I don't have those manuals now, I have the later ringbound cost reduced manuals. It did have 'Commodore' on the case but I think only the very first NTSC Amiga 1000 units with no extra halfbrite mode had no Commodore branding?

I thought it was working fine until I tried to print something one day (probably when I borrowed a printer from college over the Summer to do my A Level project along with a Research Machines Nimbus 80186 PC compatible. It took two trips to the computer shop to get it repaired....one of the repairs involved replacing the blown PAL chip(s) which I think are like CIA chips inside the C64 nothing to do with PAL TV standard. Anyway I was told probably because somebody connected up a printer incorrectly to the A1000. I think it needed the PAL(s) replacing AND something else which was causing them to blow again hence the second trip to the shop which they did for free. After that it worked perfectly, and the only game I could never get to work on it was Ghosts n Goblins which needed 1mb and it didn't like my Zorro side expansion equipped A1000 so I had to play that on my A2000. Of course Ghouls n Ghosts worked (but it's crap on Amiga, seen better looking BlitzBASIC or even NES/SMS games ffs)

I used to play Lotus II all the time on my A1000, loved playing the fog level in the Winter months when it was foggy outside as my desk was right in front of the window, very surreal. Lotus II and Beast 1 (wore out the T-shirt within a year lol!!), Sword of Sodan and It Came from the Dessert were probably my fav game purchases. I bought two external disk drives so I could play ICFTD and Sodan with no disk swapping I was a little disappointed with the frame rate of Lotus III on OCS/ECS but ho hum I purchased a launch day A1200 at 9.01am in 1992 and that sorted out that issue (took 1 minute to grab one off the shelf and take it to the check out and pay for it lol as the shop was empty!!)

Probably should have investigated getting 8mb Zorro 1 RAM expansion, internal 4mb 32bit Fast RAM equipped 020 or 030 and an addIDE + 2.5inch hard disk internal upgrades for it and selling the A2000 but A2000 dropped in price very quickly once the much nicer looking A3000 came out lol

Anyway the Amiga 1000 is out on the desk now because I need to remember my pre-smoking life and it will fill the 2-3 hours I spent a day picking out all the stems and other crap from the tobacco to make my smokes. Feels really odd not smoking.....probably one of the reasons why my brain is so frazzled at just half a century old. I wouldn't smoke whilst sitting at my Amiga anyway, ladies should not stink of tobacco, that's only for when I am using my PC....using Windows is a toxic life shortening experience after all

[gimbal]

I'm pretty much the exact opposite, I'm so stuck in the past that I can still remember every little moment I had playing with the A500. The first time I saw it, every time we got new games for it, trips to the shop, getting each and every issue of Amiga Action and reading them for the first time, playing with my family and friends, that "WTF" moment when after a month of being stuck I finally spotted the nearly invisible key on the floor in Dungeon Master. Sounds, smells, the layout of the desk, the labels on the floppies, everything is still in my brain.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by ImmortalA1000

It did have 'Commodore' on the case but I think only the very first NTSC Amiga 1000 units with no extra halfbrite mode had no Commodore branding?

All PAL machines had the Commodore branding, all NTSC machines were without.

[ImmortalA1000]

Originally Posted by gimbal

I'm pretty much the exact opposite, I'm so stuck in the past that I can still remember every little moment I had playing with the A500. The first time I saw it, every time we got new games for it, trips to the shop, getting each and every issue of Amiga Action and reading them for the first time, playing with my family and friends, that "WTF" moment when after a month of being stuck I finally spotted the nearly invisible key on the floor in Dungeon Master. Sounds, smells, the layout of the desk, the labels on the floppies, everything is still in my brain.

Well the thing is when I got my Amiga 1000 I was working full time now (in a job I hated and very long hours) but when I had a VCS, C64, 520STM I wasn't working I was just a school kid or college student I do remember some things, my setup for Digi-view along with that awesome Panasonic CCTV monochrome video camera I bought and the bright red angle-poise lamps etc with special phillips natural cool temperature lightbulbs. I just don't remember stuff as much as the VCS or C64 era, I can still remember as a kid going to get my 6 switch woody from Argos in Edmonton with my Dad and holding this enormous (for a 10 year old kid!) box whilst crunching on the autumn leaves on the floor on a dry but cold partially cloudy day with the smell of freshly cut timber in the air (we parked next to a timber yard). Remember the disappointment of finding out Combat is a two player only game as soon as I got home as nobody else in my house was interested in video games and my best friend was visiting relatives that Saturday so I just had "1 player games" of Tank and Planes lol.

When you're younger you only have to worry about making your pocket money go further by walking home from school and saving the bus fare to put towards another C64 tape game....not quite the same for me when I had an Amiga....there was work work work and a bit of It Came from the Desert on my only day off (Sunday) etc. I do remember the utterly crap shitty Tesco Value quality office chair I used to sit on when using my Amiga 1000 lol but I do remember when I worked in Cyprus for a year I used to play Highway Patrol II on my Amiga 1000 on Sundays and then go and drive through the desert roads in the afternoon.

I do remember visiting my friend and having stacks of disks on an external disk drive and copying wares off each other for an hour or two followed by hours of Kick Off II or Speedball II two player fun. I should point out that after buying a couple of duff ST and Amiga games that were so shit they should have been removed from sale by law I NEVER bought a game without making sure it was up to the Shadow of the Beast 1 development standard and not the pathetic Deep Space standard. I was in no mood to waste my wages from a job I hated and had to go to 6 days a week so that US Gold/Activision/Domark/Ocean could get rich selling shit 16 colour games to me as they were protected by the law in the UK which prevented you demanding a store refund for lemon products! I only bought great games after 1987 I still have many of the originals I did buy and they are worth a fortune because I looked after them, my copy of Lionheart and Antheads looks brand new. I also have a full set of mint boxed Deluxe Paint packages from the first release to the final CD-ROM release of Dpaint V (as well as the FDD release of Dpaint V). Remember spending ages doing the 2.5D canyon level bonus stage of Afterburner in Dpaint III using animbrushes from graphics I made after coming home from the arcade one Sunday. Did the same with Gradius and Salamander on my 520ST using Neochrome. My first pixel art was a landscape martian scene with rocks and the last thing I did on Dpaint II was a copy of the CD cover artwork for Enigma's first album after working out a hacky way to do photoshop style smudgy airbrush.

A brand new breadbin Commodore 64 and VIC-20 smelt exactly the same as that self adhesive vinyl wrap stuff you get Couldn't tell you what a brand new 520ST, Saturn or PS1 smelt like though lol my Amiga 1000 smelt like used plastic because that's how I bought it...used

Problem is I did actually remember everything in a sort of video/movie playback style memory but the stress of being 99% lethally affected probably by COVID has kind of f^$ked with my mind and mental health. The C64 has been out of the box on a desk since 2019 so those memories got re-enforced. I only powered on an Amiga for the first time in 8 years the other day. CD32 doesn't count because I never bought that crap console back than that cost more than the combined cost of Megadrive + SF2 Champion Edition AND SNES + Starfox and all the AGA games on my A1200 never passed the 'try before you buy' test except for Super Stardust (and the CD32 version of that has rubbish me-too wannabe no-talent soundtrack which is vastly inferior to the FD tunes)

[ImmortalA1000]

Originally Posted by Jope

All PAL machines had the Commodore branding, all NTSC machines were without.

I never knew that! Maybe Commodore only ever did 1 production run for the US market

[aeberbach]

The A1000 was the machine that got me into computers. I was in a different degree at the time but as soon as I saw the Amiga I dropped out and started down the long path to computer science.

If I could find a good A1000 I would probably seriously consider swapping my ReAmiga A1200 with SSD, gotek, mechanical keyboard and A1230 for it!

[Jope]

Originally Posted by ImmortalA1000

I never knew that! Maybe Commodore only ever did 1 production run for the US market

My understanding is that USA wanted the Amiga to be its own thing and stand on its own legs, but in Europe Commodore was more of a household name, so European divisions wanted the branding.

In the recent Andy Finkel / Dave Haynie interview it also came to light that Commodore's purchase of Amiga was a bit of a one-off thing anyway, they were going to continue with their own thing and the Amiga was originally purchased just to satisfy a sudden requirement from higher up.

[phx]

Originally Posted by ImmortalA1000

I think only the very first NTSC Amiga 1000 units with no extra halfbrite mode had no Commodore branding?

I have a german PAL Amiga 1000 with Piggyback Board and american keyboard, which has an older Denise (Daphne?) without Extra Halfbrite. But there is a Commodore branding on it.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by phx

I have a german PAL Amiga 1000 with Piggyback Board and american keyboard, which has an older Denise (Daphne?) without Extra Halfbrite. But there is a Commodore branding on it.

Out of interest, do you remember any date codes on the chips? No need to take it apart for this. :-)

[ImmortalA1000]

Originally Posted by Jope

My understanding is that USA wanted the Amiga to be its own thing and stand on its own legs, but in Europe Commodore was more of a household name, so European divisions wanted the branding.

In the recent Andy Finkel / Dave Haynie interview it also came to light that Commodore's purchase of Amiga was a bit of a one-off thing anyway, they were going to continue with their own thing and the Amiga was originally purchased just to satisfy a sudden requirement from higher up.

Irving Gould was scum and only bought Amiga to spite Jack Tramiel and prevent him getting it, no plan for it and stopped marketing it after about 1 year in the USA. The Amiga Los Gatos guys also despised Jack and didn't know how toxic Gould and his clueless managers would be for Amiga in the long term and that as they say is that. I am sure Jay was working on his own Amiga 1000 successor along the lines of the more expandable ethos of the A2000 but Commodore canned that (and his fully functioning Ranger chipset)

It's true in Europe, especially in the UK, circa 1983/84 time frame there were as many Commodore PETs in use in govt/big corporation/science labs as DOS compatible PCs and they did have a good reputation in the business/scientific community.

I am just glad these were designed so well that both my A1000s are working just fine.....wish I could say the same for my only copy of Shadow of the Beast 1 (crappy Sizzlers budget re-release as my relative junked all my stuff while I was working abroad including a whole load of boxed Amiga games like the full price launch month version of Beast1!)

[ImmortalA1000]

Originally Posted by phx

I have a german PAL Amiga 1000 with Piggyback Board and american keyboard, which has an older Denise (Daphne?) without Extra Halfbrite. But there is a Commodore branding on it.

Germany I believe was the first EU country to get the PAL A1000, the UK didn't get any stock until late May 1986 I think from memory.

[phx]

Good opportunity to get my A1000 out of the closet again and open it, as long as we have nice weather for a photo.
Unfortunately I noticed that I must have replaced Denise at some point. The 8362R8 from 1989 is definitely not original! Probably got it from an A500 donor board.

But Paula (date code 4485) still looks like I remembered my old Denise. Maybe it's in a replacement chip box, somewhere...

CIAs are also from 1985. Most chips on the board have 85/86 dates. I bought the machine in the first half of 1987.


Ignore the red wires on the piggyback board. At some point they were meant to implement a WOM expansion for loading OS2/3 from kickstart disk. (Never worked.)

[ImmortalA1000]

Originally Posted by aeberbach

The A1000 was the machine that got me into computers. I was in a different degree at the time but as soon as I saw the Amiga I dropped out and started down the long path to computer science.

If I could find a good A1000 I would probably seriously consider swapping my ReAmiga A1200 with SSD, gotek, mechanical keyboard and A1230 for it!

The more yellowed of the two I have I purchased in 2003/2004 and needed a new internal drive so it cost me about 40 quid (and another 10 quid for an Amiga 1010 I already had to use as a donor for the replacement drive).

The second one however was the last bit of retro gear I ever bought, and that was in 2019 and cost me 700 quid and didn't even have kickstart 1.2 or 1.3 disks with it.

I didn't buy expensive retro gear really after about 2017 when I bought an 040 A4000 and a new old stock A2000FD but I wanted a 'nice' A1000 and I just paid what a reseller who lived 2 miles from me was asking and went and picked it up (to avoid damage by couriers). I haven't stumped up the courage to plug in the Zorro 1 side expansion RAM board intended for an A500 into either of my A1000s yet The loose CDTV with keyboard/mouse/FDD was the last bit of kit I bought a couple of weeks after the A1000 (already bought the huge multimedia CDTV boxed bundle but the CDTV drive is mechanically a bit fuxxored and the warranty seal is intact on it so I just bought another CDTV in case I could bodge some sort of fix without opening it!).

I did however find my original A1000 Digi-view unit I bought in 1987 (along with 2 spare Digi-view gold A500/2000 port versions) and if I can find the composite video cables for my digital camera I would love to put some R/G/B/ split pictures onto the camera and mess about with digi-view (you get crap HAM fringing due to uneven/amateur hour lighting of source, with professional lighting and hi resolution monochrome CRT tube type cameras I got hardly any HAM fringing in Digi-view 4.0 back in the early 90s).

[ImmortalA1000]

Originally Posted by phx

Good opportunity to get my A1000 out of the closet again and open it, as long as we have nice weather for a photo.
Unfortunately I noticed that I must have replaced Denise at some point. The 8362R8 from 1989 is definitely not original! Probably got it from an A500 donor board.
Attachment 75611
But Paula (date code 4485) still looks like I remembered my old Denise. Maybe it's in a replacement chip box, somewhere...

CIAs are also from 1985. Most chips on the board have 85/86 dates. I bought the machine in the first half of 1987.
Attachment 75612

Ignore the red wires on the piggyback board. At some point they were meant to implement a WOM expansion for loading OS2/3 from kickstart disk. (Never worked.)

I dread taking stuff out and trying it these days, the CD32 worked fine until about 60 minutes later....and that wipes off value from stuff! Then again I have no plans to sell my A1000, not this one with the less yellowed case and less yellowed box so it's out on the desk

I remember I opened up my A1000 within days of getting it back in 1987/88. I used to open up everything from toys as a kid to my VCS/C64 and Atari ST. I put a 68010 in my A1000 back then....loaded up Wings....it ran no faster on the 3D section....put back the 68000 to retain compatibility lol.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by phx

CIAs are also from 1985. Most chips on the board have 85/86 dates. I bought the machine in the first half of 1987.

Cool, properly early. :-)

[ImmortalA1000]

I found my proper A1000 intended RAM board and plugged it in.....

The good news is that it is a 2mb board so I have a 2.5mb Amiga 1000.

The bad news is when the expansion is plugged in you get a feint sort of diagonal lines of interference.

Still, with Zkick etc type tools I can use it with Kickstart/Workbench 2 and still have well over 2mb RAM once Workbench has loaded.

[r.cade]

I love the 1000 design, but if it has one fault, it's that the case is a little too flimsy. With a monitor sitting on it, it stresses the plastic some and bends a little out of shape over time.

[ImmortalA1000]

Originally Posted by r.cade

I love the 1000 design, but if it has one fault, it's that the case is a little too flimsy. With a monitor sitting on it, it stresses the plastic some and bends a little out of shape over time.

The Sony Trintron KV-14 mid 1980s TV I used back then weighed nearly half as much as my 1701 or 1084D (not the boxy 1084S but the 1081 lookalike) Mine was fine after 8 years

I am trying to think of other 3 box designs like A1000 or PCs of the era and can only think of 2, the Atari MegaST1-4 cases and the Commodore 128D (which I presume the identical looking Commodore PC-1 also has the same plastic case).

In the case of the Amiga 1000 it probably had to be like that to make the keyboard 'garage' possible....which is a godsend for deskspace (then and now).