CompuServe Messages

Your A2000 must be used; otherwise, if you bought it recently new, it should have come with Workbench 2.1. If not, upgrading the OS will greatly improve your Amiga and will only cost 80-90 bucks. As a confirmed PC and Amiga user, I have to say that the substitution in AmigaDOS of "#?" for the asterisk wildcard is neat but confusing. There are utilities out there you can run that will restore the asterisk to its rightful mission, if you insist. AmigaDOS other big confusing difference from MS-DOS command line lingo is that subdirectory slashes are backwards; that one confused me for a l-o-n-g time! Barring a 24-bit card, such as Opalvision or the like (or the hoped for AGA card upgrade, which may never happen), the single best investment you can make in your A2000 is in a flicker fixer to take care of the interlace flicker. Commodore's A2320 fixer really turns out nice video, is easy to install in the video slot and can be had mail order for under 150 bucks. Flicker is essential for video applications (you need interlace mode for output to NTSC composite video) but it's annoying for desktop publishing or other stuff. Flicker fixer cards typically require a multisync or VGA monitor, usually. If you have a Commodore 1084s or something similar, they probably won't work. The alternative is to wear polaroid shades or get a smoked screen or tune your colors to minimize flicker. A lot of folks, me included, own a DCTV graphics board, which lets you paint and digitize video in about 4 million colors on a composite monitor. It's rock cheap, too: around 300 bucks. Comes with a great paint program, DCTV Paint. However, it won't let you run games or applications or the Workbench in that mode, just imagery. Super for handling animations in real time. Stick with it; I did, and found the Amiga to be a great computer.