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Author Topic: I have the A3000 system. What software to try on it ? besides games ?  (Read 1856 times)

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Offline SanDisk78Topic starter

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Ok, people, I have a working Commodore Amiga 3000 with 64 megs of ram expansion and SCSI->SD device so I can exhange data with a modern pc. What nice software can you advice me to use on it ? I downloaded hundreds or even thousands of programs, but their names tell me nothing. I picked randomly Amiga Vision and installed it but have no idea how to use it and what it was made for. What soft can  you advice me to take maximum of that machine - if Amiga was known as a computer for an artist - lik music making, 3d modeling, movie making, etc ? Also what kind of expansion do I have to order - like what kind of graphic cards, accelerators and so on to make it a real multimimia monster ? )
« Last Edit: January 12, 2020, 07:42:09 PM by SanDisk78 »
 

Offline TribbleSmasher

Re: I have the A3000 system. What software to try on it ? besides games ?
« Reply #1 on: January 12, 2020, 07:12:25 PM »
First you should locate a keyboard diagnostic tool. There is something horribly wrong! :P
 

Offline dschallock

Re: I have the A3000 system. What software to try on it ? besides games ?
« Reply #2 on: January 12, 2020, 08:55:10 PM »
The Amiga 3000 is an amazing machine.
The Amiga itself had software and hardware for almost any interest you might have.
It's true that as a vintage gaming platform it excels.  However as a creative machine it excelled in so many more ways.
Which direction to send you hunting in really depends on your interests.
What would you like to pursue on the Amiga?
 

Offline SanDisk78Topic starter

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Re: I have the A3000 system. What software to try on it ? besides games ?
« Reply #3 on: January 12, 2020, 09:50:11 PM »
I know it was used for 3d modeling and music making. I ould like to see soft for that...
 

Offline TribbleSmasher

Re: I have the A3000 system. What software to try on it ? besides games ?
« Reply #4 on: January 12, 2020, 10:00:22 PM »
The A3000 workstation was meant to target science & education, imho. Quite different from the workhorse A2000.
So you could focus on educational apps, mathmatics, laboratory, chemistry, even Unix, if well equipped.
 

Offline darksun9210

Re: I have the A3000 system. What software to try on it ? besides games ?
« Reply #5 on: January 13, 2020, 11:55:26 AM »
personally, i think the A3000 was one of the last Amigas that received true attention from the development team as a "pro" machine, and a step towards a true next gen amiga at the time.
and i think that shows in the aesthetics too, instead of a re-purposed PC case.
true 32bit architecture from the ground up. scan doubler built in. fast sram. scsi onboard. yadda yadda yadda you know the drill.

mines fitted out pretty much as good as you'd want.
Cyberstorm3 cpu card, indivisionECS video adapter, X-Surf100 Ethernet card, Rapid Road USB, Cybervision64/3D, ZorRam256, acard scsi2IDE + CF card adapter, 2+16meg zipram on the mainboard.

though i've yet to do the int2 mod to enable the cyberstorm scsi, and i've a jerry rigged 5volt feed for the keyboard port - mines seen some tough times in her life. (pre my ownership of course ;D ) but i almost prefer the dents and scrapes and dead onboard scandoubler. shows the old war horse has seen some life.

first thing i'd say hardware wise is get your ram maxed out on the mainboard so you're not left hanging in that regard.
as soon as you start doing anything a bit more serious like running an IP stack, USB stack, etc as well as any software, it's going to impact. a megabyte here, and a megabyte there soon adds up in amigaland.

i had some good fun with Real3D - the early versions were pretty easy to pick up and play with, imagine3D was a bit more complex interface wise but still workable, and vista for 3D landscapes was good too. your 030 machine is going to be much nicer to work and play on than any 020 or 000 based amiga. but as soon as your machine takes a breath with any faster cpu, you're not going to want to go back!  :D

A500 Vampire2/minimegachip/lazarus/indyECS
A600 Vampire2/604n/subway/IndyECS
A1200 PiStorm32+Pi4/subway/IndyAGA
A1200 PiStorm32+Pi4/subway/IndyAGA
A1200 PiStorm32+Pi4/subway/IndyAGA
A3k C=040/CV64-3D/Xsurf100+RRoadUSB/Zoram256/acard scsi-ide-CF/IndyECS,
A4k CSMk3-060/CV64-3D/Xsurf100+RRoadUSB/Bigram256/IndyAGA, mediator+pci cards
CD32 TF360/IndyAGA
Plus an SGI O2 & consoles.
 

Offline Pentad

Re: I have the A3000 system. What software to try on it ? besides games ?
« Reply #6 on: January 14, 2020, 04:25:50 PM »
I could not agree more. I have always felt the Amiga 3000 was the apex of Commodore producing a true professional workstation computer. Nothing before or since had the total level of commit from Commodore. What really impressed me about the Amiga 3000 era:

-The books/manuals were hardbound, well written, colorful, and looked (and felt) professional.
-AmigaOS 2.0 actually looked good while offering new features above and below the hood.
-Unix!  I was at university during this time so I had a 3000 UX (and then a TUX). AMIX was amazing and really impressed people who thought of Commodore as a home/games computer. People's jaws would drop when I would dual boot effortlessly. They were also very cheap Unix boxen compared to others. Many Us offered them to students alongside NeXT/SUN/Apple
-They offered a great professional warranty service. A friend had his 1950 die and Commodore had a new one to him in 24 hours.
-The hardware was really geared for the professional environment with a fast CPU/FPU, 24 bit board for AMIX, flicker fixer, SCSI, etc.  I LOVED my three button pregnant mouse BTW.
-Heck, the computer just looked professional.

I remember fellow students and professors who saw Commodore as a niche/games/home computer really being impressed with the Amiga 3000. It earned a lot of respect as an entire package especially with AMIX. The cost was very reasonable for all that it did and Commodore went all out...and it showed.

When the Amiga 4000 came out, I sold my Amiga 3000 and bought one. The world was different by that point (fall of 92) and Commodore was falling behind. AGA offered more colors but was slow. Competitors offered better and faster systems for much less. I thought the 4000 looked cheap. The manuals were cheap and even the mouse seemed cheap. Goodbye, AMIX. I get it, Commodore did not have the money to do the same kind of roll out they did for the Amiga 3000. The world was turning to Windows so the market was becoming smaller for them.

My 4000 (decked out) was put up for sale six months later and I jumped to a PC because of my career.

Please know, I am not trying to criticize the Amiga 4000 or anyone that loves them. However, I think you saw a level of effort put into the Amiga 3000 that did not take place with any of the other Amigas that came out. For a time, it was a true viable competitor in the workstation market.

Good memories!  :-)
-P
Linux User (Arch & OpenSUSE TW) - WinUAE via WINE
 
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Offline CBH

Re: I have the A3000 system. What software to try on it ? besides games ?
« Reply #7 on: January 14, 2020, 09:16:31 PM »
He wasn't asking for your feelings about the change in commodore's direction. He asked for interesting programs to run.
 

Offline dschallock

Re: I have the A3000 system. What software to try on it ? besides games ?
« Reply #8 on: January 15, 2020, 11:02:00 PM »
For music I used Deluxe Music 2 for many years.  My goal was to work in a music notation environment and control midi synth devices and it did an amazing job of that.  A graphics card enabling a larger display breathed new life into it as well.
I know through fame that protracker is an amazing tracker, which is another way to make music and if that is more the style of music you want to make you should check that program out for sure.

On the 3D art side, there are many programs to choose from, the most famous of course being lightwave.  I spent several years dedicated to leaning Real3d and I thought it was a great program.  I saw some amazing stuff done in Aladdin4D which might be good program to get into because it has a new owner now and we should be seeing a new version in the future I would guess.

On the 2D art side, check out Personal Paint as it still being developed, and check out ImageFX for image processing and manipulation.

Those are very brief starting points.  The Amiga's library of software in these and other areas in vast to say the least.
 
 

Offline my_pc_is_amiga

Re: I have the A3000 system. What software to try on it ? besides games ?
« Reply #9 on: January 27, 2020, 05:26:24 AM »
A few non-game programs come to mind:

1) Digital Universe (http://www.digitaluniverse.org.uk/)  except not sure how a buy a 68k version now.

2) Multiplot:
http://aminet.net/package/misc/sci/multiplot
 

Offline pyrre

Re: I have the A3000 system. What software to try on it ? besides games ?
« Reply #10 on: January 27, 2020, 12:50:00 PM »
LightWave - 3D modeling, if you can find it.
Scala MM(200-400) - Presentation software, beats the crap out of powerpoint :D
Deluxe paint (I, II, III) - a wery powerfull graphical software... For its time.
Turbocalc - spreadsheet

Browse the aminet database to find other interesting software....
Amiga 1200 Tower Os 3.9
BPPC 603e+ 040-25/200, 256MBram, BVIsionPPC, Indivision AGA MK2.
Amiga 2000 (rev 4.0) Os 1.2/1.3
2088 bridgeboard, 2MB ram card, 2091 SCSI.
Amiga 500+ Os 2.1
Derringer 030, 32MBram, Buddha in sidecar, Indivision ECS.
Amiga CD32
Video decoder
 

Offline paul1981

Re: I have the A3000 system. What software to try on it ? besides games ?
« Reply #11 on: January 29, 2020, 12:43:10 PM »
LightWave - 3D modeling, if you can find it.
Scala MM(200-400) - Presentation software, beats the crap out of powerpoint :D
Deluxe paint (I, II, III) - a wery powerfull graphical software... For its time.
Turbocalc - spreadsheet

Browse the aminet database to find other interesting software....

HAM mode wasn't supported until Deluxe Paint IV though. Version V was the last version, so grab that if you can.