ScuzzBlog: Diaries August 2018
Entry 24th August 2018: Post 01: A500 - Contents may vary
A500 - Cartoon Classics - Contents may vary
Following on from my post regarding the Amiga Format special edition
included with the Cartoon Classics collection and the A500, it
is interesting to note that Commodore shipped the A500 Plus not
telling anyone beforehand that they intended doing so. The first
that sellers knew of this was when they received their Cartoon
Classics supplies and discovered they included the A500 Plus and
not the original A500 as specified on the box. The way Commodore
got round this is by including on the box the wording ...
Contents may vary from those shown
So for some that Christmas they got a little more than they had
anticipated. So I have put together what I believe the contents of
the two boxes for you to view. First though that change of product.
AMIGA FORMAT: Issue 29 Dec 1991: The Worlds Best Selling Amiga Magazine
INSIDE THE NEW AMIGA:
You`ve heard the rumours: here`s the facts! Read our hands-on review
of the A500 Plus and find out if the arrival of Workbench 2 and the
ECS has the power to change your world...
A500 PLUS: Brings Workbench 2 and ECS at no extra cost.
New Amiga surprises everyone including Commodore. In the first week
of October, dealers opened new batches of Cartoon Classics packs
and found a surprise. Instead of the standard A500 inside with A501 RAM
expansion that they were expecting, there was a new Amiga inside:
The A500 Plus, featuring 1Mb RAM on the main circuit board, the
new Enhanced Chip Set and Workbench 2.
The A500 Plus wasn`t expected to reach dealers` shelves until after
Christmas, but it has unexpectedly arrived causing concern over software
and hardware compatibility.
INSIDE THE A500 PLUS: Those changes...
On first appearance, the A500 Plus looks just like an ordinary Amiga
A500. The case is exactly the same size, colour and design.
You notice the A500 Plus badge and a subtle change to the keyboard:
an extra blank by the shortened Return key, matched by another blank
key on the left hand side by a shortened Shift key.
... Now you get the first real idea of what it is that makes an A500 Plus:
this A500 has Kickstart 2.04 with a new animation to replace the boring
old hand-holding-disk screen.
... This A500 has Kickstart 2.04
... This A500 is fitted with the new Denise chip
The give-away is that the motherboard has A500+ in big letters across
the board. This is , in effect, not just a revision to the normal
A500: this is a completely new machine. Notice the small, oblong chips
in a row along the bottom. And if you look closely, you can see the
clock chip and its back up battery clearly labelled.
Also changed is the trapdoor slot expansion connector.
WHAT'S NEW FOR WORKBENCH 2:
It's been around on the A3000 for over a year but now the latest version
of the operating system is finalised, encoded on a Kickstart ROM chip
and appearing right across the Amiga range...
The Windows menu is one of the most exciting developments of Workbench 2.
It now becomes a proper graphics interface, because even if a file doesn`t
have a proper icon, it can be displayed in a window with a pseudo-icon`.
New Drawer: `Thank Goodness for that` .. Amiga users up and down the
country will be saying. At last there`s the ability to create a new
drawer in any active window.
Format Disk: The icon menu will now find an option that is called Format.
... Outline Fonts..
....Commodities: AutoPoint, Blanker, Clicktofront, Fkey, Ihelp, Nocapslock
....Extras: Memacs, Iconedit, Calculator, CMD,Colors, Graphicsdump,
Initprinter, Keyshow, Printfiles, Commodities.
... What you won`t find on the Extras disk however is AmigaBasic
- Yes I`m afraid that old workhorse has been put out to grass. And
probably about time too.
Words from Amiga Format. [ not mine ]
And so to the contents of the two distinct but same boxes. Excluding the
ZipStik which also has a subtle difference between models omitting or
including the tiny corner switch.
Contents may vary
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