Introduction

[barcrawler]

Well, I might as well introduce myself. My names J and I'm from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I was an occasional Amiga user back in the day but never got very advanced, mainly playing games etc. However, a few months back I had the opportunity to go to an old Commodore facility that a friend of mine had purchased salvaging rights to. He asked if I'd like to take a look and told me to feel free to grab anything I wanted. The building itself was in bad shape, water in the basement, boxes upon boxes of old documents, odd hardware etc. however most was thoroughly trashed. I did manage to salvage a few pieces, like a Tank standup arcade unit (just the boards, controllers, coin-door), a couple of Commodore PC's (8086's and maybe a 286).. I also came across a few Amiga's which I quickly packed up. I posted some pictures and perhaps someone might be able to help me identify some of these pieces. I'd love to be able to get a working machine pieced together..

Here's a flickr link to the photo's.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46733007@N02/

[barcrawler]

Finding any Amiga computers in an old Commodore facility after all these years is amazing.  The treasure hunt would have been worth ten times the actual finding of the Amigas.  If only those walls and floors could speak!  How cool it must have been for any older Amiga lover to have the opportunity to search around that facility and then to actually find something with the name Amiga on it after at least 15 years.  And then to actually have it work when you plug it into the electrical outlet.

I took pictures with my iphone while I was going through the place.. perhaps I'll dig them off my mac and post them. Very interesting trip. I'm having problems with the Amiga's I found though.. most just post to a white screen - I believe the a1000 is probably my best candidate to get working, I at least get the Hand when powering it up. I'll strip them down and do some trial by error - who knows? The power supply's are still working, not sure about the hdd, floppies or anything else.. I do have a working (if I can find the power supply/ video breakout) a500. Again, if anyone feels like posting some info on how I might go reviving these beasties I'd be happy to try it out.

-J

[barcrawler]

Wonder what was on the wafers?

The wafers appear to be chip negatives.. there were literally thousands upon thousands of them there.. I may have a hundred or so, just picked them up for the curiosity, the rest are probably landfill by now.. I just feel honored for having the chance to explore the place, once in a lifetime chance of being in the right place at the right time - my only regret is that I didn't think to take my video camera..

-J

[barcrawler]

Were you at their former West Chester, PA facility?

Cool story and amazing there was still remnants of Commodore after all this time.

it was the commodore facility located here http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.123865,+-75.417109&num=1&sll=40.089275,-75.396021&sspn=0.03415,0.06403&gl=us&ie=UTF8&ll=40.123813,-75.417141&spn=0.001142,0.00284&z=19&iwloc=A

not much more I know of it.. outside of west chester, but only by a few miles.. I think they did research, but I'm unsure..

-J