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By Steve Duff, Contributing Writer, sduff@wolfenet.com
As I write this, I'm buoyed by the news that Gateway has finalized their purchase of Amiga Technologies. There is talk of broad licensing agreements, which I take to mean clones. I hope so, because with clones comes competition, and when companies compete for your business they must try to distinguish themselves from the others. One way they can do this is by offering a better spec and software bundle than the next guy, and another way is through customer service and professionalism. It's this latter method that concerns me now, given what has recently happened with my miggy.
Fear not, it still works -- better now than ever before -- but it was a pretty rough road getting there.
You may remember that in my last article I was very frustrated with my default 8MB Workbench partition. As a new Amigan, I feared repartitioning my drive and re-installing the OS. I put it off as long as I could, but was finally forced into it when an attempt to install the PictDT43 Datatype resulted in a violent crash, a Checksum Error, and the invalidation of my Workbench partition. I hadn't backed up my Workbench, and once the volume was invalidated this became impossible. This was the first of many sharp lessons.
From there I went ahead and repartioned my drive along with doing a low-level format of the Workbench partition. Amazingly, I did it right the first time, but low-level formatting turned out to be a mistake. Why? Well, when I re-installed the OS from floppy (a surprisingly easy procedure), it turned out I didn't have all the necessary files. What I had was a plain vanilla OS 3.1 install -- the files relating to the 68060 accelerator were absent. As a result, the machine would not boot off the hard drive.
In raw panic, I called Jim Boydston of the local AMUSE user-group. At this point I wasn't sure if I'd done the repartition and re-install correctly. He kindly came over the next day and worked on the problem, verifying that what I needed was the '060 libraries along with the modified Startup-Sequence. He also said that if I hadn't done the low-level format, we might have recovered all that material by using DiskSalv. Another lesson.
On that day (Friday, May 9th), I called QuikPak's tech support number to see if I could get the missing libraries. This put me into a voice-mail system where I had no idea what to enter. I then e-mailed tech support with a description of the problem plus the serial number and build date of the machine. As I write this on Friday, May 16th, QuikPak has yet to respond. From what I gather, the Amiga has a long history of lousy tech support, so I doubt that many people reading this would be surprised by what happened. This is, however, a very different experience from what Mac owners are used to. For instance, when my PowerMac's Sony monitor up and died, I called tech support at Power Computing and had a new monitor two days later. Not only was it new, but it was a better version of the original model. Power Computing is the largest Mac clone supplier and has been slagged for lousy tech support, yet I've never had a problem with them. At the very least, they had someone to answer the phone.
Luckily, Jim Boydston was able to obtain the missing files from an A4060T owner in Virginia. He brought them over on a couple floppies since I couldn't get the files from the Mac to the miggy (PC0: was not recognized by the Worbench 3.1 disk), and within minutes the machine was back in business. I'm very grateful for the effort Jim Boydston extended on my behalf, and to Amiga user groups in general. Without the user group network I'd have had a dead miggy, and may have been forced into such drastic measures as having to purchase a Cyberstorm II accelerator.
At this point, and forever more, it's unknown whether QuikPak simply failed to ship the '060 disk with my machine, or whether the disk was mislaid at Zipperware when they worked on the system. I can't apportion blame for that, but can state with confidence that QuikPak's failure to respond to my e-mail is =extremely= aggravating. Had the disk been available to me I wouldn't have needed to contact Jim Boydston, but in the end I'm glad I had a chance to meet him, learn more about user groups, and talk about his Toaster/Flyer system. That's what I want when I grow up. :>
Another problem occurred on Jim's first visit. This is when the AT M1764 monitor died before our very eyes. I hooked it up to the Mac to confirm that it was the monitor and not the Cybervision64/3D that died. As you may recall I noted the sub-par fit and finish of the monitor when it arrived, and now it appears the problems went deeper than that. Luckily, I'd already purchased a Toshiba TIMM and was running a two-monitor system when disaster struck. Luckily, I also had access to a spare 17-inch Viewsonic monitor from the PC I sold, so everything is fine, except for the M1764. With a chance to re-install the CV64/3D software on my own, I was able to choose the correct modefile and now get a rock-solid 800x600x16 screen at 71Hz.
The nightmare wasn't quite over at this point, though. I really wanted that V43 datatype on board. The original picture datatypes were slow and seemingly old, and resulted in image corruption on CGX screens. Moreover, 24-bit images could not be viewed system-wide. So, with my new 104MB Workbench partition I loaded them again -- and crashed again, and got a Checksum Error again. The precise moment when it happened was the same as before -- the installer script detected an older JPEG datatype and asked if it was okay to move it into Storage. I said 'yes,' it got busy, and the rest is history.
So back to square one. This time a new wrinkle was added when I made a change in HDToolbox and didn't click 'Save Changes To Drive' at the proper time. Enter Guru, now with an image on screen saying OS 3.1 ROM and an animation of a floppy being inserted into a drive. That was pretty scary to this newbie, and I figured I'd really done it this time, but as you readers know, miggys are pretty damned tough. On booting with the Workbench 3.1 disk, the only drive recognized was DF0. I then used HDSetup, which at last identified my drive, but yet another repartition followed.
Fortunately, I'd suspected a Checksum Error might happen, so I had all the needed files on floppy, but because I had them in a drawer, I was forced to copy file by file into RAM and then re-copy file by file into a Tiny Troops demo disk that I'd formatted from the Icons menu. I must confess, I thought that was pretty clever on my part, given my lack of experience. So the day was saved again.
But as you may have guessed, I still wasn't ready to give up on that V43 datatype. This time, knowing that disaster was certain if I tried it the same way, I moved every Datatype into Storage and rebooted. The installation got all the way to the end before it crashed, but thankfully, no Checksum Error, no invalidated Workbench.
The PictDT43 datatype is the one I downloaded off Aminet, and aside from the rocky installation it's working superbly well. Multiview can now draw large images to screen about as rapidly as Graphic Converter on my PowerMac, and at least as fast as the supplied Windows 95 viewers on the P-166 PC. That's incredible performance for a 50MHz machine with a 25MHz system bus. Even better, I've loaded ArtEffect 1.5, my latest fave-rave software, and this one draws images as fast as the PowerMac and with stunning clarity. This is an amazing package and highly recommended. Another current joy is the performance of the CV64/3D. With the latest beta drivers installed it's working extremely well and very fast, delivering scalding performance on the game Nemac IV: The Director's Cut.
However, a short, final segue into the world of negativity is called for. First, Amateur Hour strikes again in the world of Amiga. This time it was with Termite TCP, which I purchased just before Zipperware closed its doors. I went about a month before opening the shrinkwrapped box, and inside I found a catalog, a manual, and no software. I looked around for the receipt and discovered I'd tossed it. Another lesson learned. Also, installing Magic Workbench 1.2p will =always= dismount your CD-ROM if you use AsimCDFS as I do. Right now I'm trying out some pen-lockers to see if I can keep using this beautiful system or will have to resort to NewIcons. In any case, it is necessary to re-install AsimCDFS and use SCSI Inquire after installing MWB 1.2p.
There are other complaints I could make, such as how the lack of disks caused me to lose ScalaMM 300 in the whole process. I do take full blame for the many errors I've made in my clueless newbie stage, but it certainly isn't my fault if I spend 40 bucks on an empty software box, or if QuikPak doesn't see fit to respond to tech support mailings, or if by chance they 'forget' to supply all the proper installation disks, or if Microvitec makes valuable but perhaps low-quality monitors, or if my CV64/3D card arrives with a corrupt installation floppy. These things have all happened in the few short months I've owned and operated my Amiga. Would you care to guess how many similar things have happened in my two years of Mac ownership? If you guessed zero, you would be correct. The point here is, from my perspective as a new owner, it seems as if the Amiga market is in the hands of the Three Stooges. The lack of professionalism is absolutely stunning. How is the Amiga market to move forward in such an environment? How many new owners would be willing to put up with all this aggravation -- at least when you don't have that wonderful certainty of the first-time buyer that Windows compatibility is absolutely essential for a 'safe' investment? Why have I kept going in the face of all this?
The answer to the last question is simple -- I've 'felt the power.' The Amiga is the most exciting computer I've yet encountered. There are many reasons for this, including such relatively mundane ones as the sheer power of the 8-bit audio blasting Baby Dee's 'Get Your Hands Off!' mod through my three-piece Yamaha set. There is also the joy of playing demos, animations and games full-screen on the amazing 20-inch Toshiba TIMM. Then there's the speed of this thing. Running Workbench on a 256-color CGX screen, it's as fast as my 132MHz PowerMac and =faster= than the P-166 PC. Given the weaker CPU and the relatively slow system and Zorro buses, this is flat-out mind-blowing. If under Gateway's ownership we get a PPC-native OS and hardware equivalent to the mainstream systems, it is very clear that this machine will leave them in the dust. I also have it on good authority that simply adding a high-speed serial card will give me Internet power exceeding that of Macs and PCs. I've also conducted some low-level real-world performance tests of the Amiga vs. the Mac. For instance, at raytracing, Cinema 4D was roughly equivalent in speed to Infini-D 3.5 on the Mac, at least on the small objects I worked with. At fractal rendering, ChaosPro embarrassed Color Fractal Generator on the Mac. Not only did it seem three times as fast, but the speed did not decrease by even a jot with three fractals rendering simultaneously while playing a mod and running AMountains at the same time. On the Mac, Color Fractal Generator slowed down pathetically if drawing two images at the same time, and to top it off, it produced boring, relatively monotone images quite inferior to the vivid, colorful fractals of ChaosPro. One of the quantified Amiga-specific tests was a VistaLite render. With Image Quality at Ultra, pixel depth at 0, and Gouraud Shading, Shadow and Blend on, it calculated a mountain with 583,000 polygons in 83 seconds on a 640x480x256 color screen. I have no idea how good that is since I never tried the original PC version on the P-166, but it was certainly fast enough for hobbyist work, and inspired me to order VistaPro.
So what we have is a great machine, a great OS and great software. What we need now is equally great system vendors. And what they need to do to attract new users (whatever the numbers might be) is to offer great 'out of the box' systems. I said this before and I'll say it again -- you don't attract an audience by forcing them to search for compatible monitors and 24-bit datatypes. It's a much better idea to offer one-stop shopping and have all the necessary ingredients installed. It's a good idea to offer tutorial videos and large Workbench partitions, and it's vital to offer professional customer service. Keep in mind that before long DR9 of BeOS will be bundled on most PowerMac clones. There are 6,000 developers behind BeOS and reports on the early apps are indicating impressive performance. BeOS itself is already known to bury MacOS on systems with equal hardware. It's therefore conceivable that within two years the number of BeOS users will exceed that of Amigans, and BeOS will basically be aimed at a similar slice of the 'enthusiast' market. So I really do think it behooves Amiga system vendors to go the extra mile for their customers the way most mainstream vendors do. Otherwise, we can all stand around and watch a great thing shrink away to nothing.
Having said all that, I'll confess that my troubles have been valuable in learning the Amiga itself. As one of my most valued advisors, the programmer Udo K. Schuermann of KingFisher fame has said, it's good to learn things 'the hard way.' If nothing else it's boosted my confidence and I expect far fewer troubles in the future. Also, as a result, this rather long-winded article will be the last of this series. Next time you see me it'll be a game review or something along those lines. While it's true that I still have a long way to go, now that I've been bloodied on the field of battle I'm no longer 'becoming' an Amigan, I AM an Amigan. Now let's hope that we'll always have something new to look forward to on our platform. :>
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