Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

I the PC card and it's driving me
mad trying to find the correct software.
so I was wondering if you
could help me in my quest?
The PC card is a product
PowerPacker. I hope either
you or a fellow reader may
be able to help me.
Julian Sortfeet,
13 Kershaw Avenue, Little
Lever, Bolton 8L3 10S
Hopefully there's a kind reader
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help Mr Sorfleet out as KCS seem
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Helping hand
I am a newcomer to the Amiga having
recently purchased a second-hand
Amiga 500 Plus in 'as new' condition
and in its original packaging.
The machine came with a RocGen
gentock with a test disk. However, when
this tesVdemonstration disk is inserted
after Workbench 2.04 all goes well with
the colour bars test, but every time I try
the SCRIPT icon' get the message
'Software failure.'
I arn unable to refer back to the original
owner who has moved house, so
Mild you please inform me who the
agents are for the RocGen genlock
andi'or where I could obtain another
tuncornipted) demo disk.
Also with this kit, there is a strip of
Amiga fax cards, all with the suffix 3. On
the Music 3 card it states that other fax
cards were issued with the June and
July issues of Amiga Computing and
i5C0M adult
While it is good news that the Amiga has finally
tome out of limbo (having finally been bought out
by German company Escom) I have some fears
which I would like to voice:
1. Once Escom begin producing the Al200
again. I hope they will take their time to do so
instead of just rushing it out. After all, look at
what happened when Sir Clive Sinclair attempted
to meet demand with his Spectrum in the 1980s
— they were not even tested before hitting the
; Shelves and consequently, many machines
included serious faults.
2. Will many of the software developers who
decided to quit the Amiga when they believed it
.10 be a lost cause actually come back to it again?
Some of them seem to have made up their minds
already and just don't give a damn about the
Al200's future any more.
3. How can we be sure that Escom don't make
the same mistakes Commodore did with regard
leters please
You asked for more letters pages.
but what you don't seem to realise
is the fact that you have to write Into
us. To give you a further incentive,
we will offer E50 from *Om
Phillips* wages to the beet letter
written. But please keep quiet
about it, as Adam doesn't
know...
Yep, I've just checked Silica's ad and it does still say that. I expect the best that
can be hoped for is that you get the refund and that other people can learn from
your example.
I
that back issues are available. Could
you tell me if that is still the case and if
so what the price would be.
A E Lott. Reading
Again, any readers who can help Mr
or Ms Lott with their problem should
write into me and I'll pass the information
on. As to the Amiga fax
cards, they were printed a fair while
ago and I'm afraid our back issues
don't go back that far.
I have recently purchased an Amiga
600 upgraded to 2Mb. My problem is
with expanding the system. I was originally
planning to fit a hard drive and an
external floppy, modem and printer.
However, every time I go to the local
computer shops they keep stating that I
would be wasting my money and that I
should buy a PC. What I would like to
to the launching of new machines and keeping its
customers informed? I hope they do not intend to
blitz the market with a fleet of 'super machines',
as a more sensible option would be to just create
one and let it be the basis of all future developments.
The original A500 is a prime example of
this and even today it is still a grand machine — I
know, a friend of mine still has one!
4, Do Escom intend to fully support the Amiga
with a vigorous advertising campaign and perhaps
show it as a 'serious' computer and not just
something for the kids to play on?
David 0' Conner,
Dinnington, South Yorkshire
We will undoubtedly continue to get a lot of
mail about the Escom situation, so let's go
over David's points one by one.
1. Escom are a very large company with massive
manufacturing resources unlike Sinclair
LETTERS
111u5i(al in5trument doe5n't interfam
I have spent a lot of time, effort and money trying to get a good Midi kit
together, only to find that the device meant to run it all is incapable of the
task by design. I don't know if any of your readers has had similar problems
with the CD32/SX-1 but I would like to make them aware that the
CD321SX-1 module is not compatible with MIDI interfaces and does not
come with any Workbench disks.
The advertisement placed by Silica states quite categoncally that the SX-1
turns the CD32 into 'a fully functioning Amiga 1200 compatible computer.'
This is not the case. I have asked for a refund from Silica and I will get back
to you if I encounter any problems.
Mg wife won't
It me
Amiga Computing
OCTOBER 1995
Roy Sharp, Liverpool
know is whether this is true and if not,
what size hard drive would you recommend
as a minimum. Also, is the
Internet accessible to my computer and
Workbench 2.
If you recommend buying an Al200,
that would unfortunately be out of
the question as my wife is already nagging
me about wasting money on the
A600.
Andrew Brooks, Rochdale
It might have been better for you to
have bought an Al200 in the first
place, Andrew. but no you don't
need to ditch the 600 and buy a PC.
The minimum size for a hard drive is
whatever you can afford, but try to
get as large a drive as possible — it'll
soon fill up.
Once you've got a hard drive and a
modem (preferably 14,4k or 28.8k)
you will have the minimum setup
necessary for Internet access.
although to be able to use Mosaic to
browse the World Wide Web properly
you will need Workbench 3.x.
46:1Y
Research in the days of the Spectrum. so I
think it's unlikely that you'll ever see Amigas
with as many problems as those early
Spectrums. However, I do agree that Escom
shouldn't just rush things through. They
need to pay attention to bundling deals,
packaging and advertising to ensure the
Al200 and A4000T regain their place in the
computing hierarchy.
2. Certainly you will see the re-emergence of
Amiga developers, distributors and retailers.
As mentioned in this week's CM, retailers
are crying out for all things Amiga, but they
can't get new games or serious software to
meet the demand.
3. I think that Escom actually do need to
diversify the Amiga range in order to capture
the niches left for it. The A500 was a great
machine as you say, but it's time to move on.
4. We'll just have to wait and see.
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