Release date: 1988

Shipped with: Amiga 500, 2000, available as update

Media: New ROM (256 KB, or Kickstart disk for A1000) and software

Major enhancements:

Officially entitled the Amiga Enhancer V1.3, its new features included (see the full list):

• Added: Autoboot from hard disks, and other non-DF0 media (except CD-ROMs).
• Added: Memory AutoConfig^TM; "Addmem" commands no longer needed.
• Added: The recoverable RAM: drive, called "RAMB0:".
• Added: The Shell.
• Fixed: The bug in AutoConfig^TM (see Notes/comments section).

Front

Back

An Amiga user's summary of the changes is also available.

Example diskette(s):

A lot more software was included on this Workbench disk, and the disk had a new, colorful icon.
There were separate preferences icons which jumped to different parts of the preferences program.
All icons were redesigned, with a not-2.0-yet-3D-look.

Kickstart Screen	Rare V1.3 compatible logo

On the top right of the 1.3 Printer Prefs screen are two mouse buttons: one for speed, and one for delay. If you click on these buttons in series—starting at top left to bottom right—(four times each for a total of sixteen clicks), then go to "Change Printer" and highlight "Custom" (or "Generic", I forget which one), then look at the title bar for a hidden message.

The following messages appear in the titlebar of Workbench, if the given keys are pressed together with both Alt and both Shift keys:

Note: To view the messages that appeared in the titlebar, and still have enough time to note them/make a screenshot, just select "Last Error" from the Workbench menu.

• F1 System Software: Carl, Neil & Kodiak
• F2 Graphics Software: Dale, Bart, Jimm & =RJ=
• F3 QA: Jon, Bruce, Stan, Kim & Jerry
• F4 LG Support: Caryn, Dave, Victor, Terry, Cheryl & Nancy
• F5 CBM Software: Andy, Barry, Dave & Eric
• F6 Pics: Sheryl & Jack
• F7 Docs: Rick, Mitch, Peggy & Bob
• F8 Chips: Jay, Akio, Glenn Edwin, Mark & Dave
• F9 HW: Dave, Bill, ChrisR & Josh
• F10 Moral Support: Joe Pillow & The Dancing Fools

The following message appears, if a disk is removed or inserted while one of the above key combinations is pressed:

• "The Amiga, Born a Champion"

The following messages can be found at the given addresses in the Kickstart ROM:

• (ROM address FE09DA, v34.5): "Brought to you by not a mere Wizard, but the Wizard Extraordinaire: Dale Luck!"

1. Dr. Tim King (Metacomco CTO and developer of AmigaDOS) notes that: "RJ Mical, last heard of by me at Electronic Arts, was/is a larger-than-life character who did Intuition "his way" and it didn't follow the "official" Amiga guidelines; for example intuition.h was huge, and the guidelines said to keep header files small and to the point. RJ spent a lot of time with his girlfriend/wife Caryn who also worked there. Carl Sassenrath wrote EXEC, and Dale Luck wrote the graphics library—all three very early employees. Carl invented the "Guru meditation number" and Dale's business card described his job as "wizard." Bob Pariseau was the manager in charge of the development team. The Neil mentioned is Neil Katin (possibly Catin) and Jimm is Jim Mackraz. Sheryl and Nancy did the graphics—I remember one of them was married to the guy who invented the original text game called Adventure which was then re-written as "Colossal Cave". Jay was of course Jay Miner. Dave is Dave Needle. And Joe Pillow? At one point an early Amiga prototype was taken to be shown somewhere, and they didn't trust hold baggage, so they booked an airline seat for the Amiga as well as the couple of employees looking after it. The airline insisted on a name for the "passenger" so Joe Pillow was born."
2. Kickstart 1.3 (v34.5) and 1.2.1 (v34.4) had the AutoConfig^TM bug fixed and autoboot (via romboot.library) was added.
3. Harry Sintonen notes the differences between Kickstart 1.2 and Kickstart 1.3:
• AutoConfig was fixed (the AutoConfig init code jsr had a wrong a6 register; the base register at the jsr time should be expansionbase but was execbase instead).
• "The Amiga Wizards bring this power to you" text was removed.
• Kickstart 1.3 shows '1.3' and Kickstart 1.2 shows '1.2' on the boot picture.
• Different ROM version and revision number at $FC000C.
4. According to the Amiga Developer CD 2.1, Workbench 1.3o6 (Workbench 1.3 Omega 6) called the Recoverable RAD: drive "CARD:" (Commodore Amiga Ram Drive) and it was apparently called "RD0:" in earlier betas. At least for a short while (when 1.3 was speculated about by magazines) CARD: seemed to have been the name for RAD: and the device was named "carddisk.device".
5. Robert Miranda notes that: "Memory AutoConfig already worked without AddMem. But, maybe this is related to A1000 extended Ranger ($C00000) range above $C80000? being auto-detected? It was popular to add RAM up here with the Insider 1000 and another under-CPU RAM card. AddMem was (optionally) needed in some mode settings, but OS detected in all other settings. I don't think that happened in Kickstart 1.1. Ref: My GVP SCSI+RAM 2/0 had 1 MB then 2 MB RAM under Kickstart 1.2 AutoConfig. Worked fine."
6. 1.3 ROM Part Number: version 34.5 - 315093-02