🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4jd4uc$8qr@utaipx02.uta.edu>, NEK7660@utarlg.uta.edu (Nicholas E Kovach) writes:
|>O.k. heres the situation, I obtained an Amiga 1000 and 500 from a friend and no
|>software was included.  So, I am lost.. without a manual or software.. I would
|>really like to try a few things out with the Amiga and could use some good
|>advice.  
|>
|>1st. What is "Kickstart"? is it amiga's DOS?  
|>2nd. Can Kickstart be transferred to a disk (Is it like a system disk?)
|>3rd. How do I get it and how expensive would it be?
|>     From what I have seen, I will also need workbench.. How do I get that?
|>
|>Neither of the Amiga's has a hard drive.. So I'm not sure how useful they will
|>be.. I am somewhat interested in upgrading them for as cheaply as possible.
|>
|>Anyhew.. Please send me an suggestions.. I could use a bit of guidance.
|>
|>Nick
|>                [ sjard drg dh (junk)
|>

  Nick,
    Depending on what you will do on the computer, you need to buy some stuff.
By all means you first of all need an atari-style joystick for the games, that
the A500 can play direct from the disk because it already has "kickstart" - 
the collection of programs that makes the system -  in its  ROM.  If the
"hand" asks for 1.3, you probably have a later-type which gives less trouble
(on upgrading) than the older, which would have a "1.2".  Probably not a hard
& fast rule.
    For the A1000 you need a disk to load the "kickstart" portion of the OS.
You can also use for this a ROM with an adaptor board that plugs on top of the CPU
chip.  The total memory of the A1000 is usually 512k including the first
"mandatory" expansion; for the A500 it should be 1Meg.
    Of course you can't do anything without a display.  Are you using an amiga
monitor, or trying to hook up to the TV?  You need a 1080 or 1084 display
before even thinking of reading text from it.

    After that, you haven't mentioned enough of yourself to offer advice.  If
you're already well exposed to the geek arts you should just set loose with
some old magazines, download from the FF disks and scrounge through 
comp.sys.amiga.marketplace to buy some old software (games, mostly: there's
enough development stuff as freeware).