First Look at Commodore's Amiga - Ahoy! Magazine

Originally published February 16th, 2017
*Next article
*Previous article
*Alphabetical list of writings

Sadly while moving I trashed much of my father's enormous collection of Amiga/C64/PC magazines. While I was wise enough to go through them all and tear out pages of interest, I can certainly tell you that is a collection I wish I still had. Of the few individual magazines I kept, there was an issue of the Commodore 64 magazine Ahoy! with a look at the "yet to be released Amiga". I put that in quotes simply because the article was written in July of 1985, before the release of the Amiga, but this issue of Ahoy! was released in October of 1985, after the release of the machine. I scanned these at 1200 dpi, screwed with them so they match what I see in person, and then resized/compressed for viewing here. I imagine this one is already out there somewhere, but I also imagine this is the best it's going to look.

The first page focuses on the unveiling of the Amiga, with stories you've probably heard before; Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry. It then goes into the specs of the machine, comparisons with PC/Apple hardware, and notes this sucker must be designed to go after the big boys.

Page 2 notes the sound, built in speech, and MIDI capabilities in comparison to PC and Apple hardware. "Wow!" The kickstart being supplied via a floppy disk? "Wow, again!" The multitasking? "No wow - utterly speechless this time!"

Page 3 has the author (Tom Benford) take a stab at the New York Times, who had implied nobody really cared based on the crowed. The author noting said Times reporter must have never attended a computer show in his life. A great example of how history can be destroyed both in the long term, like the internet loves to do, as well as right then and there! The New York Times, with its readership, may have forever tainted the Amiga as a machine nobody cared about based solely on the ignorance of the man covering the story.

The rest of the article contains a fascinating list of confirmed software releases for the Amiga. It strangely ends there, no real conclusion to it all.

*Next article
*Previous article
*Alphabetical list of writings

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amiga 8 Color Workbench 1.3 Icons - Written Guide and Collection

Image
8 Color Icons Amiga Workbench 1.3 Guide (Can be used in WB 2+) *My video guide for 8 Color Workbench 1.3 Icons -Download my icons collection in the following formats- *LZX download *LHA download *ZIP download *ADF floppy download *Next article *Previous article *Alphabetical list of writings "Old Blue". My affectionate pet name for the original color choices from Amiga Workbench up to the official version 1.3 (as well as early builds of the unreleased 1.4). Having grown up with an Amiga 500 using Kickstart/Workbench 1.2, I've always felt quite at home with its simple but effective four color Workbench look. Blue was the first color, labeled as such from the computer's perspective, but more importantly adhering to your mind as the color you'll see the most, the background color. Rounding out the four color classic look was white, black, and orange. Some claim disdain for the look, though it was carefully chosen as a setup that could look goo
Read more

Installing An Amiga 500 GVP Hard Drive

Image
My video guide for installing an Amiga hard drive My video guide on installing Amiga games to a hard drive My written article concerning the death of my Amiga hard drive My video concerning the death of my Amiga hard drive Music for the Basic Demo *Next article *Previous article *Alphabetical list of writings I've often heard that the reason people don't cover a certain game released on the Amiga is because it is simpler for them to use DOS. I scratch my head and can't help but think that none of them have actually used DOS. There are a great many games that if not outright better on the Amiga, are more often than not deserving of coverage from all manner of people who show off these games online. Nothing is simpler in DOS. I imagine this false idea is put in their head based on buying or stealing games which often come from GOG, which pretty much only offers DOS games. These games often times come with all the correct settings in order for the game to
Read more

Microsoft Word 5.5 And 6.0 In-depth DOS Review With Pics

Image
Word 5.5 and 6.0 Microsoft, 1990, 1993 MS-DOS $450 *My video review for Word 5.5/6.0 *Next article *Previous article *Alphabetical list of writings *This review entirely written using Word 5.5/6.0 for DOS A new apple tastes sweet, rots at home (A history)             1983 would see the humble beginnings of a word processor that proved quite unpopular for the longest time. Microsoft Word started out on the Xenix and MS-DOS operating systems. It would be touted as a "what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG)" word processor, although it was not. From what I can gather, Microsoft was willing to make this claim simply because the ASCII environment they used allowed for bold and italic text changes to be seen on screen. This was not a true indication of what would be seen when printed, nor did it offer variable fonts and sizes. A tiny little white lie told to disparage the most popular text based word processor at the time, WordStar.            
Read more

Amiga 500 NTSC/PAL Toggle Switch - Written Guide With Pics

Image
Amiga 500 NTSC/PAL Toggle Switch Guide *My NTSC/PAL Switch Video Guide *Next article *Previous article *Alphabetical list of writings Why would anyone want to switch between PAL and NTSC video modes on an Amiga? After all, weren't all the best games for this platform made in Europe? I mean, American's should just out right chuck their computer into the trash and acquire one from overseas, correct? Well the answer to the last two questions is a resounding no, actually. As far as I'm concerned, it at least depends upon your point of view, and is certainly not as clear cut as some people online would lead you to believe. I full heartily believe that the best Amiga games were made in America, but unfortunately most people simply do not have any clue what is actually an American Amiga game, or what makes for a game that is best experienced in NTSC mode. ^Left, PAL; Stretched fake wide screen, not proportionally correct. Right, NTSC; As designed Have you ev
Read more