CompuServe Messages

VJ >>When you describe the attributes of each chip it's easy to imagine a story –maybe entire adventures– to complete the picture.<< Adventure? ok… :> Once upon a time, there were seven healers from the east. They had great wealth, and looked to spread it upon the land, and reaper the rewards. They found that many of the people, gained enjoyment through dreams found inside a one-eyed creature. The people could control, and guide the dreams by using magic boxes. They sought to use their wealth to make their own magic boxes to sell to the people. They found a group of master weavers, that desired to weave a great magic box of many colors. The weavers worked many moons, creating the box of dreams, which they had blessed with the name Lorraine. Within Lorrine, there were placed three special stones that held great powers of binding. They were Agnes, Daphine, and Portia. But a great mists seemed to shroud the land, and people no longer looked to there magic boxes for pleasure, and many forgot the dreams. The Healers became fearful, for the their magic box had not yet been finished. The Weavers said, 'Fear not. For this box holds the power of the greater magics, the people have discovered.' But the Weavers needed more time, and the Healers had not the wealth. The Weavers sought wealth from another House. Many turned to glance, but few listened until the House of the Atari. The Weavers had shadows grow upon there hearts, for they had weaved for the Atari before. There was fear that Lorraine would be cast aside, and her three stones — Agnes, Dephine, and Portia, would be enslaved to another magic box. The House of Atari had cast a powerful spell. While the Weavers talked with them, the Atari lent wealth to the Weavers. If the Weavers did not return the wealth, the Atari could take the three hearts of Lorraine as payment — the stones themselves. But then a great Captain sailed down from the north, called the Commodore. He looked upon Lorraine, and saw her power. He lent his wealth to the Weavers, who in turn gave it to the House of Atari. This greatly weakened Atari's spell, and made it not. Soon, the Weavers banded together with the crew of the Commodore's ship. And the power of the Lorraine was released. But having neared death, she had changed. She was given a new name, the name of Weaver's shop — the Amiga. The binding of her stones was made solid, and they became Agnus, Denise, and Paula. After a time, Amiga had taken several forms, and been given many new stones. Many of these stones grew and changed. Agnus, grew into a jewel called Alice. Denise merged with a stone called Amber, and they took a form called Lisa. But in these latter years, the mists had returned — reshaping the dreams of the people — blinding some, while opeing the eyes of others. New magic boxes of different weave spread from many Houses, growing in great numbers throughout the land. The Commodore was old, and his wealth was no longer as great. Many feared he lacked the power to wield the forces of the Amiga. The Commdore grew ill, and his purse low. But he had many children in far lands, that yet may have power & wealth to follow in their fathers steps, knowing merchants of wealth. And the Amiga had brushed with death before, and yet may have the power to escape it again… — VJ >>Do all the different computer platforms have chip and ram stories like the Amiga? Are they similar or very different?<< On yes. The IBM/Clones had a 640K 'conventional' memory area, for running software, and a 384K 'upper' memory area for adding hardware. But they didn't have an easy way to add more memory for software. At least if you were using MS-DOS. We haven't gotten to start using 'cutie names' yet, for there chips, but we have converted them into WIMPy (windows, icons, menus, pointers) users. The Atari ST system have a simular CHIP vs. FAST memory system, but with different problems. Amigas & Atari STs, seem to look at each other as their evil (or pale) not-so-identical twin. The Commdore 128, had the ability to support 512K using eight 64K banks, but shipped with only two banks (128K). The REU (RAM Expansion Units), for the C64/128 could be expanded to 2-megs of memory. There was even a hack to allow the C64 to be expanded to 1-meg, (internally). And I believe the Atari's Jaguar, has custom chips named Tom, & Jerry. — Vj >>What is the name of the "small board containing a 'more enhanced' ECS Agnus"?<< The MegAchip 500/2000, by DKB. They have an area in the AmigaVendor forum. The board allows either the #8372b, or the #8375, version of the ECS Agnus to be plugged into the older Agnus socket. Some refer to these Agnus as the 'Super Agnus' or the "2-meg Agnus'. — VJ >>I can't understand why you compare the Amiga (or is it yourself) to a weasel when it's such a marvelous machine (or you –when remarkably adept at teaching).<< In found it the saying in someone else's tag-line. It reminds me, that sometimes — reguardless of how others look at you — its best to dig your feet into the dirt and hold on, instead letting yourself get sucked into something bigger than you because you had your head in the clouds. Ron. – ap'ing with AP. (Eagles may fly, but weasels aren't sucked into jet engines.)