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- Here is,as promised,My review of the Amiga Plus which has now been with
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- us for 6 months.I have delayed this article for quite some time in the hope
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- that I would receive replies from Commodore and the Software houses,but as
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- yet,these have not arrived.This being the case,We must therefore presume
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- that They can not,or will not comment on this machine which was going to be
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- "The Best Amiga Yet" and was going to replace the old faithful 1.3 version
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- Etc,Etc..
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- I can understand Commodore wanting to improve the Amiga in order that
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- They may 'Keep up' with improvements being done on other Machines that are
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- supposed to be in the same class as 'Amy',what They should have done in My
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- view was to perhaps upgrade the 1.3 to 1 Meg.of Chip Ram but what They did
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- was to change quite a few of the chips,so making the new A500P a complete
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- waste of time and money for those of Us who have supported Commodore and
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- the Amiga machines for some years now,and during this time have slowly got
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- together collections of programs which have not been cheap to buy,what do
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- Commodore and the Software Houses want Us to do now that most of Our old
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- programs will not run on the new machine.Do They expect Us to re-format all
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- the disks in Our collections,scrap 'Amy 1.3',and go out and spend between
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- £400:00 and £500:00 on a 'Plus' and start again from scratch???
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- Anyway,let's get down to some facts.as I said,I have been collecting
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- bits of info.from various sources for quite some time now,so here goes.,
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- When the new Plus arrived on the scene,We were told that there may be a
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- few of the 'Older' programs would not run,but not many. Next We saw adverts
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- in the Computer Mags saying that if You had problems loading"a few"of Your
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- programs,then what You should buy was a "Rom Sharer".This would cost You in
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- the region of £60:00 and if You fitted it Yourself,would void Your warrenty
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- so You had to pay Someone to fit it for You. Having spent about £100:00 to
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- have this item fitted to Your new Amiga,You would think that now You should
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- be able to run all programs for both the 2.04 and the 1.3...Not so,sorry to
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- say that the Rom Sharer will only give You some 15% more programs that will
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- load,and these are mostly Utilities.
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- One Supplier who the Club deals with claimed in the begining,that only
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- about 10% of available programs would not run on the Plus, recently though,
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- They have admitted that the figure is between 60% and 80% that wont run...
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- The Plus has also been a real pain to P.D.Houses. They had no more idea
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- than the rest of Us which program would or would not run,so They had to run
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- test EVERY SINGLE DISK in Their catalogue,then They had to list programs as
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- Plus compatable or not.Just imagine what You would think if,having bought a
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- new Amiga Plus,You then decided to send for a Catalogue Disk from Thingy's
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- P.D.House,if You had read all the stuff in the mags about only a small few
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- programs not working on the Plus,You would'nt think much of the P.D.Guys
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- when Their Catalogue Disk would'nt run...We too are having the same problem
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- with Our P.D.Library,at the moment,I am in the process of buying a Plus for
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- £150:00 from a rather Hissed-Off would-be "Amigan" Who say's He will be"Glad
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- To Get Rid Of The Bloody Thing",but it will be worth the money just so that
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- We can supply programs to Members who have a Plus.(There are only about 14
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- of Them thankfully) but We do Our best to give the best service possible.
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- To be fair to Commodore,the Plus is a very good machine,much better in
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- many ways than the 1.3,BUT in order to be certain of good results every time
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- You must be prepared to buy the original programs,don't get Me wrong,We are
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- not saying that people should subscribe to Software Piracy,infact as a Club
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- We preach just the opposite,but when You look at some of the prices of the
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- programs,You must think that Someone is making a great deal of money out of
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- Home Computer Users,and I would say the same but I can tell You that it is
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- not the folks who write the program Who are getting fat on Your hard earned
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- cash. I would say that if the Fat Cats with the flash cars in the Software
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- Business were prepared to take less profit,this would cut down on the vast
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- ammount of pirating that goes on because people would be able to afford the
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- originals,this in turn would mean that Commodore would spend less time and
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- money "cocking up" machines that WERE market leaders (Amiga 1.3 & C64) and
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- more time and money on keeping ahead of Their rivals (Tha Atari is now in
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- front of the Amiga in sales,and all because of the Plus!!!)
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- ONE FINAL WORD TO PLUS OWNERS
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- ALWAYS when You buy ANYTHING for Your Amiga from ANYONE,make sure that You
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- tell Them that You have a PLUS model.if You don't You could find Yourself
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- stuck with some item that is no good to You at all.The Amiga Plus does what
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- it was designed to do,the software runs on the machine that it was written
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- for so the only loser has to be the poor sod who trys to use it,just make
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- sure that it's not YOU..
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- If You have any comments or questions regarding this review of Mine,
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- please contact the Editor of this Mag Disk.also,watch out for My next bash
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- at what looks like the replacment for the Amiga Plus...The A600..????
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- MAY ALL YOUR BITS COME IN EIGHTS...RADAR
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- P.S. I'm sorry that there was'nt much tech talk in this review,but I'm just
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- a bit thick when it comes to technical stuff,but I do know the value
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- of money,and how hard it is to come by these days...
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- MAY YOUR R.A.M.ALWAYS BE BIG ENOUGH..RADAR
- """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
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- ********* STOP PRESS ********
- ===============================
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- WE HAVE NOW BEEN INFORMED THAT COMMODORE WILL NO LONGER BE SUPPORTING THE
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- AMIGA A500 RANGE,AND THAT THE A1500 AND A2000 WILL BE DISCONTINUED AT THE
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- END OF THE YEAR,THEY INTEND TO PUSH THE A600,AND EXPECT TO SELL 250000 OF
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- THIS NEW MACHINE BEFORE CHRISTMAS 1992.
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- IN THE VIEW OF P.A.C.IT IS VERY PROBABLE THAT THIS NEW MACHINE WILL BE
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- AS BAD IF NOT WORSE THAN THE "PLUS",SO WE WOULD ADVISE ANYONE WHO IS ABOUT
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- TO BUY AN AMIGA TO GET A A500 WITH KICKSTART V1.3 YOU WILL PROBABLY BE
- ======================****
- TOLD THAT THIS MODEL IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE,BUT THAT'S A LOAD OF RUBISH,
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- IF YOU CAN'T GET A 1.3 THEN GET IN TOUCH WITH ME AND I'LL TELL YOU WHERE
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- TO GET ONE FROM.
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- I will do a review of the A600 as soon as I get enough info.on it so
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- PLEASE avoid this machine like the plague at least until I can give You
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- the correct info.on it. (And remember,I have no financial interest at all)
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- THE V1.3 GOES ON FOR EVER!!!!
- ============================= RADAR ==
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