Cleaned Basement - Original Amiga Prototypes
(Updated 23:17)
I cleaned out the basement recently and came across all kinds of original Amiga prototypes, including an original A1000 black box (what I used to develop the Amiga Multitasking kernel, 1984) and original CDTV prototype (what I used to develop the Amiga CD-ROM set-top box, 1990.)
I should mention that the main reason I was keeping most of this was for prior-art computer HW/SW patent proofs (because Amiga and CDTV were ahead of the curve.) If I were a collector, I'd probably sell on EBay, but who has that kind of time?
I'm going to pack it all up into my Chevy and take it over the AmiWest tomorrow (Sacramento, CA). I'd be happy to autograph, certify it, date it; you decide. I've kept all this stuff buried for almost 20 years. It's time for someone else to do something with it.
Some of what's included:
- Original Amiga prototype (With Exec 23.002 ROMS and write-protectable RAM expansion board), but NOT functional because does not have the Amiga chips in it.) Although Dale and RJ have the first running Amiga prototypes with wire-wrapped towers, this box was the first to say "hello world" when I got a very early prototype "Exec" (kernel) to boot on it for the first time in 1984.
- An original Amiga prototype keyboard in a black wooden box (hand made by the hardware team.)
- Some original prototype Amiga chips... that Jay, Dave, Dave, and Glenn worked on, but had a few problems.
- My original CDTV development board (1990) that I used to build and test the CDTV OS, drivers, libs, etc. Although it does not look like much, oddly, this is one of my most valued possessions because it represented a solid year of my life where we had so much fun building CDTV. This card plugged into the side of an A500 and was originally hand built by Don Gilbreath, hardware designer of CDTV.
- Various prototype CDTVs... in various stages of splice and hack.
- Three Amiga CDTVs, brand new in the box. Factory sealed.
- A CDTV/CR ("Cost reduced"). One of very few ever made.
- One CDTV Professional (CD1500) new in the box, and one with a box that's opened. This is a kit containing extra features to enhance your CDTV. Not sure how many were made.
- The original CDTV prototype wireless mouse (the pre-production proof, ~1991.)
- A CDTV wireless trackball/controller. I'm not sure if these were ever sold.
- One CDTV Genlock card (that fits in the video slot). Extremely rare. I don't know if I'm the only one that has one of these or not!
- Several DCTV CDTV Video cards (fits in video slot). This rare card produced higher quality video output for CDTV when encoded using Digital Creations video encoding technique. This (along with CD-XL) was the secret to how we could show full color NTSC motion video running off a CDTV around 1991! I'll never forget the first CD-ROM multimedia show where Intel Corp. was showing NTSC black and white video, and we were running beautiful color.
- An Amiga Spellbound (CD32) hardware prototype system on plywood board. Includes the debug board.
- An AA3000 (A4000) hardware prototype system on plywood board.
- Two of my Amiga 500s, signed for collectors. One of these I used for testing the CDTV OS by plugging in the card above to the side bus.
- A pile of Amiga Guru's Guides #1, Interrupts (the only issue), that I'm willing to autograph.
A lot of other stuff too, but I've got to figure out what I've got here...
PS:
- Very sorry about the late notice... I just decided this morning. Like I said, I'm not much of a collector and I need the space for my ham radio station (KB6ZST).
- I'll be keeping my first Amiga A1000. Now that I cannot part with. What a great computer!
- I've got several boxes of old SigGraphs, SigPlans, and OOPSLA publications (ACM) from the 1980s and 1990s. I left ACM in mid-90's. Not sure what to do with all this stuff.
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