I have been a user of Commodore computers since 1982 -- I have C64 Cartridges, Cassettes, and 5¼" Disks still occupying drawer space!
My first Amiga, an A500 with KS1.2, cost over $900AUD and the
only software bundled with that was WB1.2! The A2000, at $2995AUD, was out of my financial reach in 1988.
About '90 I was able to purchase my present A2000HD at a
World of Commodore section which occupied two rooms at the Brisbane Computer Show. The price had been dropped to about $1499AUD and I fairly jumped at THIS opportunity.
In mid-'91, I travelled 1000km to attend
World of Commodore in Sydney. This was an all-Commodore weekend event that had stands which included local CBM dealers, CBM-Australia, GVP products, OpalVision, Software stands, Amiga Format (UK), and others. There were seminars also.
I went back to Brisbane with a GVP G-Force 030/40/4 accellerator, the WB2.05 Install, various software, a Pen-mouse (which turned out to be bloody useless), and an A600HD with a 30Mb Hard Drive!
NOW I had an 030 A2000 with Hard Drive, 4Mb FAST & WB1.3 & WB2.05 -- an A600HD -- and an A500. I had a Hand Scanner which would NOT install to Hard Drive and was used with the A500. I had my second video-framegrabber (VidiAmiga+VidiRGB) which was attached to the A2000's parallel-port via a switchbox. I used a SVHS Camcorder for colour with the framegrabber while the Hand Scanner dealt with B&W.
When I acquired my second Hand Scanner, which was HDD installable, I sold-off the A500 along with the first Hand Scanner.
In 1992(?) the A1200 was released and I bought an A1200HD (40Mb HDD) for $1400AUD in a strange local pricing-deal in which I traded-in a manual typewritter! Not long after that, the A4000/030 was announced!!!
Graphics Cards were fairly coming along in the Amiga scene. I had my eye on a 32bit Card from GVP which could be fitted in my A2000 - the awesome
Spectrum 110/24!
RAM can be expanded up to 8MB; allowing 1600 x 1280 at 24bit and 80Hz. It has a pixel clock of 110Mhz.
THIS was a very
expensive GFX Card!
But this was not to be for, when I had saved some cash and phoned a US dealer, I found that this Card was no longer sold! I made a quick (on-phone) switch to the
Picasso II.
I decided to:
° Expand the CHIP RAM to 2Mb.
° Expand FAST RAM to 8Mb.
° Buy a Samsung SyncMaster 15GLi (which cost near $1000AUD)
When I put it ALL togather I think that OS3.1 was included at THAT time. THIS A2000 became quite different. I'm
STILL using the Picasso II and Samsung monitor, although the A2000 is 060 and 64Mb presently. I use a HP ScanJet, TVPaint, and ImageFX.
WB from 2001Screen sizesFlatbed, SCSI-tower and A2000The Picasso II turned out to be a good choise as that GVP Spectrum 110/24 remained locked to the older EGS display standard. I've not found the need to buy a WinTel system. . . . . . . just
waiting now for the AmigaOneG4XE, and OS4!
