Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!giza.cis.ohio-state.edu!erd From: erd@giza.cis.ohio-state.edu (Ethan R Dicks) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Is there something wrong with AMAX? Message-ID: <64803@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Date: 5 Oct 89 01:46:09 GMT References: <46507@bbn.COM> Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Reply-To: Ethan R Dicks Organization: Ohio State University Computer and Information Science Lines: 67 In article <46507@bbn.COM> denbeste@BBN.COM (Steven Den Beste) writes: >It is a sure sign that a product is in trouble when you start seeing used ones >for sale shortly after the product is introduced, and in the last month I must >have seen at least 5 AMAX's being offered here. >It almost feels like some people tried using it for a few days, decided it was >crap, and are trying to get out from under before the word spreads. >Am I paranoid? Why are so many people selling almost-new AMAX's? Let's have >some testimonials here... A testimonial, you ask? Here is my $0.02 I have an AMAX and do not use it much. I paid ~$170 for it at a local dealer (I know it is available for under $150 mail order) and pulled a set of 64k ROMS out of a defunct 128k MAC. I aquired a 400k outboard floppy with bad heads and a 800k floppy with a bad analog board. A friend of mine works at an Apple dealer and will try and find for me a good analog board on a bad drive and swap it out for some unspecified cost (below $170 for a core exchange) Soooo... I have a working AMAX with Amiga drives only for under $200. What have I used it for: creating files with editors to take to a local copy shop and laserprint directly, playing PD games like RISK and showing off the capabilities of the machine. It flickers maddeningly, but it serves my needs. I have found the documentation accurate as to the limitations: they do not tell you that it will do something that it will not. They describe the ideal system (1Mb Chip RAM, 2 amiga floppies and a MAC floppy) and they describe how to use the product on a less than ideal configuration. I am looking forward to the rumored enhancements of Version 2: local talk support (probably AALAP - asynch AppleTalk) and HARD DRIVE SUPPORT! The TrumpCard already supports the AMAX, but I have heard of strange gyrations needed to implement it, including formatting the drive on a MAC first to get the filesystem and SCSI driver on it. I have also heard that the FIRST (not necessarily the only) drives to receive support from ReadySoft will be the Commodore controllers and GVP products. I hope that if anyone from ReadySoft is reading this message that they contact Dave Allen at RSI to add the WEDGE to their list of supported drives...nothing like one Canadian company supporting another, is there? In short, I do like the AMAX. It does the things I need done, word process, draw and play some games (no flames, please) I do not own a Macintosh, I do not intend to buy one. I also feel that MAC-2-DOS is too expensive. For the cost of a file transfer product, plus a little more, I can have an emulator as well. Is this the kind of posting you were looking for? -ethan >Steven C. Den Beste || denbeste@bbn.com (ARPA/CSNET) >BBN Communications Corp. || {apple, usc, husc6, csd4.milw.wisc.edu, >150 Cambridge Park Dr. || gatech, oliveb, mit-eddie, >Cambridge, MA 02140 || ulowell}!bbn.com!denbeste (USENET) -=- Ethan R. Dicks | ###### This signifies that the poster is a member in Software Results Corp| ## good sitting of Inertia House: Bodies at rest. 940 Freeway Drive N. | ## Columbus OH 43229 | ###### "You get it, you're closer."