Hi from the Velvet guy, nice find. Your unit is called "ZORRO", there is another one in existence. The ZORRO slots were named after this unit, as "no one suggested a better name" and (probably/maybe) the slot had it's final revision with this unit, so they just kept the name. Maybe they mean the "expansion bus" which later went to the inside in A2000's design, keeping the name of the prototype because the spec was finailized here. At least, that is what I heard about it.
Fantastic find. Interesting that its a development machine yet retail specification. Also that glossy front is cool. I'd love a big box Amiga but the wedges will have to do for now. Subbed and I look forward to hearing more about it !
Eric, that is really fantastic! What a tremendous find! It is great being able to hold a piece of history like that. I feel similar about my A2200 board - it is just something special that only a few people on Earth even have. Amiga Forever, my brother!
Wow! That's something special in the Amiga's history for sure. Amiga is probably the saddeest example and proof, that rarely the best technology succeeds in the long.
100%. That whole experience I had meeting him and going over that machine was surreal and unforgettable. It's still hard to believe I'm looking at the thing on a near-weekly basis.
Awesome video.. I'm a Linux user since 2014, but I started on an NEC PC running Windows 95. Since getting into Linux I have spent a lot of time learning about the other operating systems available. The Amigas caught my attention because of their use in the Video Toaster, as I do graphics, video, and audio. Amiga OS seems to be very special. I'd like to get ahold of one of the the modern ones, but they are pricy.
There is no modern Amiga's. The true Amiga's are the machines released by Commodore and had such hardware made for them as the video toaster. Dont be fooled by the delusional groups who will tell you the Amiga one is a Modern Amiga. These are underpowered and overpriced hobby boards made to run a specific OS. This OS being Amiga OS 4x. Because of this, they believe the crazy prices asked for this garbage are justified. Believe me, you would be getting high end Pentium 4 or Pentium D performance if that. I dont think you could watch a youtube video at higher than 480p without it stuttering. A real step backwards from what the original Amiga was back in the day. On top of that, if you wanted to run those classic Amiga games or software on one of these hobby boards, you have to emulate the original Amiga to do so. You might as well buy OS4 which you can use on a PC via emulation. It will be a lot faster and you save thousands. Or better still, download MorphOS and get a compatible G4 or G5 mac if you really want to enjoy the Amiga experiance not using a PC.
That's a hell of a find! The A1000 is my favourite Amiga (closely followed by the A1200). One of my A1000s has a Vampire V2 fitted - its just an incredible machine.
So true. Then again, would we be as in love with the Amiga if it had come to globally dominate the computer scene like Windows did? Maybe. But it's tragic death probably gives it martyr status to some degree, too. There's a lot to unpack if we want to ponder all the reasons why the business world and business software developers mostly ignored the Amiga. Think about this, though. Had Microsoft thrown Commodore a software or financial bone (like they did Apple in 1997) it might have provided some sort of lifeline. But even if Gates had done such a thing, Commodore lacked the leadership at the time and likely would have totally squandered such a gift on the C-level suits. Imagine having MS Word for Amiga back in 1985, though! We could play the What If game all day. These days I truly do enjoy playing with these old computers and creating things with them. It's like walking into the past to see a future that never materialized, which is a pretty interesting perspective. Thanks for watching!
My first Amiga was a A500 with Word Perfect in 1990. I loved it and upgraded it over the years. The scsi hd was the best upgrade Supra made 2 meg of fast memory and a 40 mb hd. That was lightning fast compared to the floppy. You earned a new sub today! Thanks for the great video.
Jerry thank you so much for the kind word! The 500 is so iconic - next to the A1000 I think it's easily the most iconic. They sold more 500's than any other Amiga for a reason. Awesome machine, easy to upgrade, total pleasure to use. And yeah - upgrading to a HD is a life-changing experience on these machines. Cheers
Really nice video! Getting that dev machine is finding pure nerd gold. I wouldnt bright it, the yellowing is like getting gray hair. Might look old, but still gets respect
I have 3 amiga500s and a c64c...one of my amiga500s is literally brand spanking new and has never been used..i dare not use that one but have a working amiga i use regularly.
Whilst I would never put liquid on that case or any kind of retrobrite cream/paste I would for the love of all that is Amiga reverse the yellowing with the gas based method, which means the computer is not taken apart beyond seperating the chip ram expansion front panel.
I hear ya - it's REALLY tempting. Have you seen that new hypothesis where just putting yellowed plastic in direct sunlight can reverse the effects? It's slower, but no chemicals, no mess. The only thing we don't know is if it slowly reverts back to being yellow again or not. But if, say in a year, results are good - I might just do that. Set it out for a couple hours while drinking a beer - voila! Almost sounds too good to be true, but I did test a keyboard over the weekend and was shocked to see how its color normalized.
@@AmigaLove Basically the same thing, O-zone gas + UV light on a sunny day and a single sunny day outside would be done. Thought about if I was ever offered a heavily yellowed but undamaged and functional Commodore 65 prototype whether I would put the colour back to original. I think I would, it's like restoring a classic car with very fine detailing shop.
The B52s theme was something Commodore West Chester had, not the CA-based original Amiga team. I believe the engineer who used this signature was George Robbins
the case should have following differences, e.g. no "riffles" on the outside keyboard garage stands, no text description below the ports, no signatures inside. I also have a detailed comparision video of the keyboard on my channel if you are interested in that.
@@MrKurtHaeusler I deleted all Amiga content after problems with a Crowdfunding project/creator. My information and homepage is not accessible any longer. Sorry.
My first model was an A500, purchased in the fall of 1988, but I have a multitude of models...my question though is regarding A1000 upgrades. You were investigating a plethora of time into this...have you hit a wall regarding this or is the upgrade still a future possibility?
Dave Needle tells a story (vimeo.com/228734859 37:36): "We had something like 100 or so black-box Amigas -- I think they were called 'Zorro' ..." Commodore wanted to *sell* them to developers, so Dave stole four out of the lab and gave them to Electronic Arts.
I used to have a 1000... Then C= came up with a trade in gimmick when the 2000 came out and I like a dummy traded my 1000 in... still kicking myself for that.
To be fair, the 2000 (my 2000) is probably one of the best machines I've ever owned. It. Just. Works. Every damned time. I love it! But yeah - the 1000 was pretty ... pretty ... and a great machine, too. Definitely 100x more elegant and iconic. But the 2000 does get the job done way more easily most of the time.
The 2000 is a nice machine and I still have it. But I wish I had just spent the money I saved on the trade and kept the 1000 for nostalgia. I also have a 4000 which I pulled out of storage about a year ago and have running down in the basement. Such promise the Amiga had only to fail because of management disputes.
@Amiga Love Those bare copper patches you mention at around 11:52 are probably grounding points for an RF shield to make the production machines FCC compliant. I can see why they would have omitted them on the dev machines in order to save a bit of money when they didn't have to follow the FCC rules so strictly. Just a hypothesis though. Anyway, very interesting piece of Amiga history. Take good care of her, will you?
Love this video and the topic, but PLEASE normalize the audio levels in videos. Most video software will let you do that per-clip. I had it down for the intro, then turned it way up to hear you, and then you did a big boomy sound that my sleeping kids upstairs could hear. :P
Sorry about that, Pete. I'll definitely look into this for the future. I really appreciate you sticking with it - and sorry about the levels! I picked up the lavalier mic, which seems to really help a ton. But I can see I need to go one step further. Thanks for your comment!
@@Psychlist1972 I hear ya 100%. I grew up with the C64. I couldn't afford an Amiga back in the day, but I have quite the collection these days. I also have a primo C128D, which I plan to be the focus of my next (audio normalized) video! It's got a "brand new" 1571, JiffyDOS, and a really innovative custom switch that allows me to take the internal drive off of ID 8 (so I can use expansion carts as drive 8 instead). Anyway - off-topic. I appreciate your advice and will definitely fix things going forward. Have a good one
@@SuperVstech Maybe it has to do with the type of plastic involved? Amazing how in 2019 we still don't really know wtf is going on, and how to consistently deal with it.
I don't think it had anything to do with it not working. It was more he was just such a massive fan - he also wanted the "official" version of the retail version (and the support that came with it when you bought one from Commodore).
Every time an Amiga is brought back into use an angel gets its wings. Good find!
Hi from the Velvet guy, nice find. Your unit is called "ZORRO", there is another one in existence. The ZORRO slots were named after this unit, as "no one suggested a better name" and (probably/maybe) the slot had it's final revision with this unit, so they just kept the name. Maybe they mean the "expansion bus" which later went to the inside in A2000's design, keeping the name of the prototype because the spec was finailized here. At least, that is what I heard about it.
Thank you SO much for that information - I really appreciate it! Is the Velvet that was photographed extensively in Austria yours?
I have posted your comment to the article on amigalove.com to keep that history in one place. SO cool!
@@AmigaLove yes, I own one VELVET unit, its the one in Vienna you refer to in your Video - you can use the comment if you like.
The front bezel is probably shiny because the injection mold is not final. You add texture as a final step when the tooling is done, and not before.
Makes total sense.
I was just coming here to comment the same. The tool was probably just milled out, and the spark-eroding step hadn't been carried out yet
Fantastic find. Interesting that its a development machine yet retail specification. Also that glossy front is cool. I'd love a big box Amiga but the wedges will have to do for now. Subbed and I look forward to hearing more about it !
Thanks, CRG!
Eric, that is really fantastic! What a tremendous find! It is great being able to hold a piece of history like that. I feel similar about my A2200 board - it is just something special that only a few people on Earth even have. Amiga Forever, my brother!
Thanks, Doug! It's a humbling, other-worldly feeling. No doubt
I played a lot on the Amiga 500 as a kid. The Amiga was super popular in the UK, so it has a decent number of games developed in the UK on it.
Wow! That's something special in the Amiga's history for sure.
Amiga is probably the saddeest example and proof, that rarely the best technology succeeds in the long.
and somtimes egos and stupid business decisions ruin the thing, as is the case for BeOS in 2000s
Interesting content.
Perhaps normalize the sound on your next video.
An amazing piece of computer history! Thanks to Larry for preserving it.
100%. That whole experience I had meeting him and going over that machine was surreal and unforgettable. It's still hard to believe I'm looking at the thing on a near-weekly basis.
Awesome video.. I'm a Linux user since 2014, but I started on an NEC PC running Windows 95. Since getting into Linux I have spent a lot of time learning about the other operating systems available. The Amigas caught my attention because of their use in the Video Toaster, as I do graphics, video, and audio. Amiga OS seems to be very special. I'd like to get ahold of one of the the modern ones, but they are pricy.
There is no modern Amiga's. The true Amiga's are the machines released by Commodore and had such hardware made for them as the video toaster. Dont be fooled by the delusional groups who will tell you the Amiga one is a Modern Amiga. These are underpowered and overpriced hobby boards made to run a specific OS. This OS being Amiga OS 4x. Because of this, they believe the crazy prices asked for this garbage are justified. Believe me, you would be getting high end Pentium 4 or Pentium D performance if that. I dont think you could watch a youtube video at higher than 480p without it stuttering. A real step backwards from what the original Amiga was back in the day. On top of that, if you wanted to run those classic Amiga games or software on one of these hobby boards, you have to emulate the original Amiga to do so. You might as well buy OS4 which you can use on a PC via emulation. It will be a lot faster and you save thousands. Or better still, download MorphOS and get a compatible G4 or G5 mac if you really want to enjoy the Amiga experiance not using a PC.
Just subscribed as a first year Amiga user! You rock man! Thanks for sharing this
Thank you so much, man. And welcome to the party! :)
That's a hell of a find! The A1000 is my favourite Amiga (closely followed by the A1200). One of my A1000s has a Vampire V2 fitted - its just an incredible machine.
Imagine the global productivity difference if Amiga won instead of Windows. We'd be decades ahead of where we are now.
So true. Then again, would we be as in love with the Amiga if it had come to globally dominate the computer scene like Windows did? Maybe. But it's tragic death probably gives it martyr status to some degree, too.
There's a lot to unpack if we want to ponder all the reasons why the business world and business software developers mostly ignored the Amiga. Think about this, though. Had Microsoft thrown Commodore a software or financial bone (like they did Apple in 1997) it might have provided some sort of lifeline. But even if Gates had done such a thing, Commodore lacked the leadership at the time and likely would have totally squandered such a gift on the C-level suits. Imagine having MS Word for Amiga back in 1985, though!
We could play the What If game all day. These days I truly do enjoy playing with these old computers and creating things with them. It's like walking into the past to see a future that never materialized, which is a pretty interesting perspective. Thanks for watching!
Oh wow, what a fantastic find! Thank you so very much for sharing this valuable piece of Commodore Amiga history with us all!
Thanks for this, I thought Id seen all Amigas, amazing.
Interesting piece of Amiga history. Thanks for sharing!
amazing video!
Thank you MVG!
hi mvg
What a thing of beauty.
My first Amiga was a A500 with Word Perfect in 1990. I loved it and upgraded it over the years. The scsi hd was the best upgrade Supra made 2 meg of fast memory and a 40 mb hd. That was lightning fast compared to the floppy. You earned a new sub today! Thanks for the great video.
Jerry thank you so much for the kind word! The 500 is so iconic - next to the A1000 I think it's easily the most iconic. They sold more 500's than any other Amiga for a reason. Awesome machine, easy to upgrade, total pleasure to use. And yeah - upgrading to a HD is a life-changing experience on these machines. Cheers
Great find. Thanks for sharing it with us.
It's my honor and privilege to do so. Thank you!
I sort of have a connection to this machine. My great uncle worked at that HP office at the time.
Very cool!
This is really good. Thanks for posting this.
It was my pleasure, sincerely. And thanks for the kind words - I love your work as well!
Amazing find and glad all this early history is being documented.
That was one totally rad video, enjoyed that immensely, that system is in great hands :)
Thanks so much, Pixel Vixen. So glad you liked it and I really appreciate the kind words. Cheers!
My first Amiga was a 1000 with WB 0.9 (It shipped with a prerelease OS)
Just amazing! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks SO much, @commodore cave! I really appreciate your comments.
Very nice mate. I'd love to put my hands on it. Very interesting piece of hardware.
Great video! Congratulations for the acquisition!
Thank you SO much!
How cool is that?! You're a lucky man :)
Really nice video! Getting that dev machine is finding pure nerd gold. I wouldnt bright it, the yellowing is like getting gray hair. Might look old, but still gets respect
Interesting piece of the Amiga history.
I have 3 amiga500s and a c64c...one of my amiga500s is literally brand spanking new and has never been used..i dare not use that one but have a working amiga i use regularly.
great vid and awesome amiga, would love to stumble across a velvet.
every model is uniquely rare now days as they are no longer produced so keep collecting everyone
Whilst I would never put liquid on that case or any kind of retrobrite cream/paste I would for the love of all that is Amiga reverse the yellowing with the gas based method, which means the computer is not taken apart beyond seperating the chip ram expansion front panel.
I hear ya - it's REALLY tempting. Have you seen that new hypothesis where just putting yellowed plastic in direct sunlight can reverse the effects? It's slower, but no chemicals, no mess. The only thing we don't know is if it slowly reverts back to being yellow again or not. But if, say in a year, results are good - I might just do that. Set it out for a couple hours while drinking a beer - voila! Almost sounds too good to be true, but I did test a keyboard over the weekend and was shocked to see how its color normalized.
@@AmigaLove Basically the same thing, O-zone gas + UV light on a sunny day and a single sunny day outside would be done. Thought about if I was ever offered a heavily yellowed but undamaged and functional Commodore 65 prototype whether I would put the colour back to original. I think I would, it's like restoring a classic car with very fine detailing shop.
What is the B52 Album title track that is printed on the Motherboard of the COMMODORE AMIGA A1000 Development unit.
The B52s theme was something Commodore West Chester had, not the CA-based original Amiga team. I believe the engineer who used this signature was George Robbins
the case should have following differences, e.g. no "riffles" on the outside keyboard garage stands, no text description below the ports, no signatures inside. I also have a detailed comparision video of the keyboard on my channel if you are interested in that.
Which channel? If I click on your profile it says there is no content. Do you have a link?
@@MrKurtHaeusler I deleted all Amiga content after problems with a Crowdfunding project/creator. My information and homepage is not accessible any longer. Sorry.
Hey, I love the nice “Back to the future“ Litho poster behind you. Where dit you get it from?
wallsneedlove.com/products/robert-farkas-time-traveller-poster
“Amiga Love” thanks really a nice one.
My first model was an A500, purchased in the fall of 1988, but I have a multitude of models...my question though is regarding A1000 upgrades. You were investigating a plethora of time into this...have you hit a wall regarding this or is the upgrade still a future possibility?
Do you mean the Rejuvenator reverse-engineering project I launched ages ago? Or something else?
This is really nice :-)
Dave Needle tells a story (vimeo.com/228734859 37:36): "We had something like 100 or so black-box Amigas -- I think they were called 'Zorro' ..." Commodore wanted to *sell* them to developers, so Dave stole four out of the lab and gave them to Electronic Arts.
Wonderful piece of history, mine is a german Pal a1000
Is yours the Velvet edition or Zorro, Stephen? Very cool!
Or do you mean you have an A1000?
Mine is standard production A1000 but made in Germany with UK layout. My video is on TH-cam about her and I got her in 1987
@@Checkmate1500 Ah - gotcha. Very cool.
I used to have a 1000... Then C= came up with a trade in gimmick when the 2000 came out and I like a dummy traded my 1000 in... still kicking myself for that.
To be fair, the 2000 (my 2000) is probably one of the best machines I've ever owned. It. Just. Works. Every damned time. I love it! But yeah - the 1000 was pretty ... pretty ... and a great machine, too. Definitely 100x more elegant and iconic. But the 2000 does get the job done way more easily most of the time.
The 2000 is a nice machine and I still have it. But I wish I had just spent the money I saved on the trade and kept the 1000 for nostalgia. I also have a 4000 which I pulled out of storage about a year ago and have running down in the basement. Such promise the Amiga had only to fail because of management disputes.
great video!
Thanks, Ron!
Wonder what a program like WhichAmiga would say about this machine?
Does WhichAmiga work in 1.3?
fascinating :)
@Amiga Love
Those bare copper patches you mention at around 11:52 are probably grounding points for an RF shield to make the production machines FCC compliant. I can see why they would have omitted them on the dev machines in order to save a bit of money when they didn't have to follow the FCC rules so strictly. Just a hypothesis though.
Anyway, very interesting piece of Amiga history. Take good care of her, will you?
Great video, appreciate your passion for Amiga and your attention to detail. +1 LIKE, +1 SUBSCRIBE
Thanks a lot MoosesValley. Really glad you enjoyed the video, and I look forward to seeing you around again. Cheers!
Sooooo.....did you do any development on it :-)
Love this video and the topic, but PLEASE normalize the audio levels in videos. Most video software will let you do that per-clip.
I had it down for the intro, then turned it way up to hear you, and then you did a big boomy sound that my sleeping kids upstairs could hear. :P
Sorry about that, Pete. I'll definitely look into this for the future. I really appreciate you sticking with it - and sorry about the levels! I picked up the lavalier mic, which seems to really help a ton. But I can see I need to go one step further. Thanks for your comment!
@@AmigaLove Thanks. Love the content. I was an 8 bit commodore guy (never had an Amiga), but I love *all* the old Commodore stuff.
@@Psychlist1972 I hear ya 100%. I grew up with the C64. I couldn't afford an Amiga back in the day, but I have quite the collection these days. I also have a primo C128D, which I plan to be the focus of my next (audio normalized) video! It's got a "brand new" 1571, JiffyDOS, and a really innovative custom switch that allows me to take the internal drive off of ID 8 (so I can use expansion carts as drive 8 instead). Anyway - off-topic. I appreciate your advice and will definitely fix things going forward. Have a good one
I'm confused. This says Commodore. Shouldn't it say Hi Toro or an Amiga logo of some sort? The Amiga predates the Commodore aquisition.
Not with this machine. This development machine was from a time immediately pre-retail, but post acquisition.
to un-yellow, 72 hrs in sun light de-yellows easily and dosn't destroy plastic in any way like chemicals.
I just watched a video this weekend about this very science. I might just pop it out in the sun here in a bit.
Amiga Love I placed my A1200 keys in the sun for 4 days, in NC and can see no improvement...
@@SuperVstech Maybe it has to do with the type of plastic involved? Amazing how in 2019 we still don't really know wtf is going on, and how to consistently deal with it.
Subbed.
8 Atari users didn’t like this video 😀
Hah!
Why did he buy a retail unit - did the dev unit not work with retail programs?
I don't think it had anything to do with it not working. It was more he was just such a massive fan - he also wanted the "official" version of the retail version (and the support that came with it when you bought one from Commodore).
@@AmigaLove Getting the Production edition was an "upgrade" and there were so few ways to get anything at that time.
Kick 1.3 is A500 / A2000 Level and was seldom used vor an A1000
Kickstart and workbench 1.3 out after the A1000 had stopped being made, however it was easy enough to buy the 1.3 disks for the A1000
And here's the paperwork for a system like that: t.co/n4JclcSIIR
Very cool. And that disk drive sound always makes my heart warm.
So true. It has the best little gindy sound.
👍🥂
Only Amiga.
You need to retro bright it