Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

• A M I G A S C E N E •
W memory. it was the Pet
Show. H With the popularity of
E
the 64k machine it became
the Commodore Show. Per-
N
haps the 13th Commodore
Show 1 should have been
called 6 the Amiga Show.
k Downstairs bore a
wresemblance
to a Far Eastern
street market as masses
a
bartered for everything from
El s mouse holders to E650
a A2000s. Shows have always
lbeen
a good place to buy
o
blank discs. At the Novotel
t 70p each bought good quality
double sided discs if you
o
shopped around.
f Whatever your interest or
budget there was something
to be picked up. Power
Computing was doing some
good deals on its range of
hard drives which offer
super fast Quantum units as
an option.
The 25Mhz 68030 cards
which should speed up an
Amiga tenfold spent the
show stuck in customs. Even
I dug into my pocket to buy a
1.3 ram.
C OMMODORE announced an entire itself new
range of merchandise, which
in non - salesmanspeak
means gifts with the Commodore
logo - from a Commodore
teddy to key rings and
mugs. In true computer company
fashion the wallets
were not yet available. No
doubt they are still writing
the manual.
Still, if you really want to
snuggle up with a little teddy
contact Commodore on 0628
770088. In all other respects
the Commodore stand was a
disappointment. No machines
with the Enhanced Chip Set,
no hi-res A2024 monitors
(the Commodore version of
the Moniterm reviewed last
April).
The nearest anything got
to being new was the A590,
reviewed last month. This
succeeded in frustrating me
since they are not on sale yet
and I want to buy one.
The show saw the public
announcement of the Amiga
Computing cover disc,
which led to a rush for subscriptions
at the old price. If
you filled in a survey form to
tell us what you want on the
to ..1.%liCA COMPUTING August 1989
Bargain hunters'
delight
C
K
C
o
m
m
o
d
o
r
e
corn purer 5how
Simon Rockman reporting
Commodore will sell you something MIMI to snuggle
up to - no, not an A500 power supply
Bargains galore tar shout visitors
disc, thanks. If not send us a
letter - we'd love to know.
Thanks to Fred Fish and
some like-minded followers,
the Amiga has more, and
better organised, public
domain software than any
other modern computer. A
sign of this is the flourishing
club run by 17 Bit Software.
This was one of the busiest
stands as Amigaphiles
queued to see what was new
and fi ll gaps in their PD
collection.
Two products from ASAP
had a low-key launch. The
Amidrive was shown. hut
having only just gone into
production was not for sale.
The first shipment had been
sent to people with outstanding
orders.
Aminet. which is a lowcost
network developed for
use in schools, was the
second ASAP product to
make its debut.
Hi Tension is classed by
Commodore as a VAR,
which stands for Value
Added Reseller, and sells
Amigos as part of a package
by adding its own custom
add-ons. Demonstrated at
the show was an incredibly
powerful video card capable
of animating a 1024 x 1024
pixel display in colour. For
more details contact Hi
Tension on 0252 344454. If
your pocket is not too deep
have a look at its 16 colour
desktop utility. Icon Paint.
While the Amiga leads the
field in many areas it lags
behind in one, accounting
software. Equinox Business
Systems aims to fill this gap
with Small Business
Accounts, a comprehensive
package with balance sheet,
profit and loss, budgets,
VAT, a full audit trail and
quick ways of checking profitablity.
There are extra modules
for more advanced users and
a E30 personal version for
controlling day-to-day
finances. For more details
contact Equinox on 01-729
0990
9
- was Amiga Centre Scotland
which always has inter-
1
esting hits and bobs. Among
H
them was a high resolution
E 24 bit colour graphics card
mrunning
through the PC
oBridgeboard
to display
Sculpt Animate 4D images.
s
They were of television qua-
t
lity and "only took about 15
ehours
to render on an '030
xmachine".
Make that over a
cweek
(just calculating) on a
standard Amiga.
i
Amiga Centre Scotland
talso
had Digiworks on sale
ifor
the first time and a new
nstatic
ram board which
g retains its memory even
when the Amiga is switched
s
off so vou can auto-boot
tfrom
the ram disc. No price
ahas
yet been fixed. Amiga
nComputing
w
direviewing
l l it soon.
I was really impressed by
b e
Rob Munday's Hologram.
Produced at the Royal
College of Art where Rob is a
lecturer, it gave a 3D view of
an image from Sculpt 3D.
The fi rst ever home
computer-produced hologram.
it kvill be very important
as this technique will
lead to colour holography.
For more details on any of
the Amiga Centre Scotland
attractions contact 031-557
4242.