ScuzzBlog: Diaries June 2025 Entry 25th June 2025: Post 1: Amiga 1000 - ABasiC Shell by MetaComCo. Amiga 1000 - ABasiC Shell by MetaComCo. First version 16th December 2020 I received a request for details of the file structure to the Amiga 1000 Workbench 1.0 Extras disk. Sadly I have neither the original Workbench disk or the Extras disk. I do have the 'ABasiC' manual and first Workbench manual for the A1000 and I may well have disks trapped in various boxes. That is possible. However I did spend some time on this matter back in 2020 and the best I could find at the time was a copy of a disk specifically for 'ABasiC' shipped with version 1.0. I also have a disk with the 'SHELL' on it which was created by the same person who created 'ABasiC'. I have checked the file size and it is exactly the same as on WB1.0. In addition to 'ABasiC' there is a copy of the 'Amiga Tutor' which I would guess is the same as the one on Workbench 1.1. There are some subtle additions and changes to the WB1.0 and WB1.1 versions and you can read the full blurb on that on the Greg Donner site. It's not just a simple case of creating your own 'Extras' disk from the files I have. Anyhoo that would be cheating. And so, sorry, I don't have Workbench 1.0 or the Extras disk. I'll add that to my list of Amiga stuff to get, and keep my eyes open. In the mean time this is what I wrote back in 2020. In the beginning there was the Amiga 1000 and whilst the development of the computer itself was all but ready in the year leading up its launch the Commodore operating system or CAOS was anything but. And so enter MetaComCo (MCC) a British company who had developed Tripos and won the contract to provide the very first AmigaDOS. In addition to AmigaDOS they also produced ABasiC which kinda upset the team at Commodore given that MCC had also produced ST BASIC for the Atari. The guy behind all this was a man called Dr Tim King who was the creative mind behind 'The Shell'. OK that's the history part. ABasiC lasted all but one Workbench and and was replaced on Workbench 1.1 with the Microsoft product. And so to enjoy the very wonderful ABasiC you have to dig out the Extras disk for the very first Amiga Workbench version 1.0. In respect to 'The Shell' this is a little more tricky to find but when you finally open the software you will find 'A Shell' an actual water based shell. Dunno why I was surprised. ABasiC came with its own manual and uses a line numbering system unlike AmigaBASIC. It also has all the flavour of every BASIC you will have used prior to 1985. I do have the manual and it has many corrections and notes stapled to pages and written next to code. Given that it lasted such a short time I really don't think much was used incorporating the language. It wasn't surprising that at launch the Amiga had such few programs to accompany it. Amiga World at the time reported that the launch software would be ..AmigaDOS, Tutorial, ABasiC, Amigascope and Speechcraft. I have never been able to find Amigascope or Speechcraft. I was able to run version 1.1 on the 1.3 emulator, albeit Workbench seemed to think it was 1.2 for some reason. It really wasn't very inspiring I have to say. I do like the artwork in the original A1000 manuals. Certainly made the computer look very professional. I have never been able to track down much in the way of boxed A1000 software. Textcraft is one and Amiga Logo was certainly another though it was shipped for some time after the 1000. Would have been nice to get more. My Amiga 1000 collection is all generally loose disks though I do have a considerable few stacks of the software. As for MetaCompCo their name, unlike Microsoft, does not appear in documentation with ABasiC being credited to Commodore. AmigaDOS was rewritten at the time of 2.0 so the timeline of the MetaCompCo era is pretty short. I think they did make a substantive contribution to the Amiga and it's a shame they are not better honoured. I do believe that Mr Haynie joined MetaCompCo for a while. Amiga 1000 - ABasiC Shell by MetaComCo.

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Last updated 25th June 2025

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