From: dkt@uniplex.co.uk (dkt News Reader)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.introduction,comp.sys.amiga.marketplace,comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: I am about to buy an A500, this is a request for advise.
Keywords: A500 Buying Advise
Date: 16 Dec 92 19:32:08 GMT
Organization: Uniplex Limited, Hemel Hempstead.


INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY
------------------------
The first time I saw an A500 was about a year ago (Nov 1991) and I was
stunned by the graphics, sound and general usability.

About one month ago a work colleague lent me his A500 and has now
offered it for sale.

I am enjoying using the machine but I haven't a clue about the Amiga
nor the range and so am looking for advise, both general and from a
technical viewpoint also.  I have found shops not to be very helpful
and fairly biased towards sales.

Please e-mail me and I'll summarize.  E-mail address:
dkt@uniplex.co.uk


THE PACKAGE BEING OFFERED FOR SALE
----------------------------------
Hardware
--------
Amiga A500 with 1.2 chip set.
512Kb trapdoor RAM expansion with battery backed-up clock.
Amiga 1010 3.5" external drive (a piece of history as someone put it??).
Joy-stick.
Amiga mouse.
Amiga 1081 colour monitor with SCART lead.
(It's probable that he will include a wide carriage Epson LX100 in the price)

Software
--------
(*loads*, but includes:)
Aztec C compiler
AMOS-The Creator development package (is this good? It looks powerful.)
AMOS 3D (Upgrade to AMOS 1.3 plus Object Modeller)
Workbench 1.2 and 1.3 bootables
(many, many games, magazines' disks, public domain software)


THE ASKING PRICE
----------------
He's asking 480 Pounds Sterling for the lot.  The power supply broke whilst
I had it so add 35 Pounds Sterling onto the price.  Before you Americans
reach for your calculators:
480 * 1.57 = $754
515 * 1.57 = $810


DETAILS ON THE REQUEST FOR ADVISE
---------------------------------
Is this a good deal?  Would you take his hand off?  Or is the machine
so old that it would be a waste of money.  (Is it going in the same
direction as my Spectrum +3 with 128K and internal 3.5" drive!!).

I've spent quite some time reading recent Amiga magazines and carefully
watching these USENET newsgroups including "advocacy" but I still cannot
find the information that would say whether this is a good buy or not.

Skip Sauls fills me with confidence that the Amiga is the machine to
have and to hear that it's used commercially is encouraging (SLU ASPIKS
has also filled me with confidence ;) )  and I would be interested to
read Marc Barrett's comments...

There still seems to be a lot of software available for the A500
and the 1Mb seems to be the machine which nearly all software will run on
and which all the software is designed around.
It would seem that it would be a wise move to upgrade to 1.3 ROMS, what
do you think?

I know you're probably thinking "It depends what you want a computer
for" - difficult to answer in short bandwidth but:  I like games but the
novelty may wear off and I would be looking to program the
thing - I'd like to develop on a machine hence my highlighting the C
compiler and AMOS - I am learning C aswell so would this be a good
machine to practise on and enjoy the results of my work?

Also, I would be considering writing software on the machine and looking
at getting the machine to pay for itself through Shareware - is this
still a viable option in the current market trend of the Amiga sales?

On the subject of development, I am looking at developing Educational
Software for my computer orientated (just like daddy!) 20 month old
daughter - would it be viable to consider making a polished product and
marketing this through Shareware also?

In closing: should I spend 480 pounds on this package or would the money 
be better spent on the A1200 c/w 32-bit 68020, etc., or even the A600?

Anyway, I'll stop there otherwise I'll only ramble on for another several
paragraphs and I know you're besieged from all sides at work.


ABOUT ME (if it helps in the style/content of your reply)
---------------------------------------------------------
I am a senior support engineer currently supporting a world-wide
Office Automation package.  The majority of my support work is under
the various flavours of Unix and MS-DOS 3 and 5.  I work under a
Unix environment, am fully conversant with X and mwm and am
currently learning C at night school.


Regards,
DARREN THATCHER
dkt@uniplex.co.uk
PS:  I'm fairly new to the net and this is my first posting.  I've
read all the new.announce.newusers + news.answers stuff on Net Usage,
please tell me if I'm on the right track with the above posting.