Release date: 1986, 1987

Shipped with: Amiga 500, 2000, available as update

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

Major enhancements:

• Added: "V1.2" version number added to the Kickstart screen (as of v33.180).
• Added: AutoConfig^TM (although the on-card driver ROM feature remained broken until Kickstart 1.3).
• Added: Expansion drawer allowing use of supplementary hardware through drivers.
• Added: GraphicDump, allowing printing of frontmost screens.
• Added: Kickstart could now identify and use the correct frequencies/screen resolutions for either a 50 Hz PAL or 60 Hz NTSC-based Amiga system (the internal clock changed accordingly), and Workbench adapted to the new higher resolutions.
• Added: Multi-selection of icons.
• Added: Setmap, allowing different national character sets.
• Added: Support for a battery backed-up clock via the "Date" command (as of v33.56).
• Added: The RAM: disk.
• Changed: Disk icons from plain white to color (as of v33.61).
• Changed: The blue horizontal bars in disk and folder windows were reduced from four to two.
• Improved: Overall OS stability.

Example diskette(s):

The Trashcan icon gained some detail, icons were now visible when dragged, and the RAM: disk appeared.

Kickstart Screen

The following messages appear in the titlebar of Workbench, if the given keys are pressed together with both Alt and both Shift keys. Note that to view the messages that appeared in the titlebar, and still have enough time to note them or snapshot the screen, simply 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

Hidden messages extracted from Workbench v33.43 Preferences (for the Amiga 1000—rumour has it there are 10 of them):

Caryn and =3DRJ=3D Love 4 Ever =

INTUITION by =3DRJ Mical=3D  Software Artist Deluxe
 Preferences  written by Barry Walsh and Jon Prince. =

Dedicated to Penny Ridell with all my love Jon Prince. =

Watch out for more software from Barry Walsh.
Carl  EXEC  Sassenrath reminds: All things are in Flux!
Luck Trucking Dale, We are the Champions.
To the original Amiga crew! We ARE the busy guys! We win.
Salute to the Commodore-Amiga folks who made this machine.
=AB ( RidelMany thanks to Judy Braddick for Diskcopy & Info.
ns. To the...=

Following these steps for more messages:

1. Run Preferences.
2. On the preferences screen, near the mouse speed and double click timing gadgets, you will see two pictures of a mouse. The buttons on these mice are actually gadgets. For ease of explanation, let's number the buttons from left to right. (1, 2, 3, 4).
3. Click on the mouse buttons in this order:

  1 2 3 4   1 2 3 4   1 2 3 4   1 2 3 4



4. Select "Change printer"
5. Scroll the printer driver list downward with the up arrow gadget. When you reach the top, click the up arrow once more. Read the message in the title bar. All together now, say "Awwww".
6. Click on the mouse buttons in the following order:

  3 2 4 2   4 3 2 2   3 2 4 2   4 3 2 2



7. Select "Change printer", then select OK, then select "Reset Colors".
8. Read the message in the title bar.

There is a small mystery on the Preferences screen. Directly to the left of the date, there is a hidden gadget, one pixel wide, eight pixels high. It can be activated by clicking on it. The only effect I know of so far is that after clicking on it, the date will increment or decrement by strange amounts.

The following messages can be found in the 1.2 Kickstart ROM (v33.180) at the following addresses:

• ROM address FC6FF8: "The Amiga Wizards bring this power to you"
• ROM address FE0DC6: "Brought to you by not a mere Wizard, but the Wizard Extraordinaire: Dale Luck!"

The following message appears, while the disk.info of a disk which has been inserted is read and one of the above key combinations is pressed:

• (WB 1.2D): "We made Amiga, They f------ it up"

1. Kickstart 1.2.1 (v34.4) and 1.3 (v34.5) had the AutoConfig^TM bug fixed and autoboot (via romboot.library) was added.
2. The first two releases of 1.2 were in 1986, and most early Amigas (Amiga 1000, 2000, 500) shipped with this release.
3. Timo Weirich notes that, unlike v33.180, Kickstart v33.166 doesn't show "V1.2" on the boot screen.
4. Scott Lawrence notes: "I also have an oddity from Amigo Business Computers; a single floppy called "Kickwork." It was a tool we bought back in the day that was both Kickstart and Workbench 1.2 on a single disk—no need to swap them. It was very convenient back in the day.""
5. Kickstart 1.2 (v33.180) did not have autoboot capability. Although it contained AutoConfig^TM code, it was broken due to a simple bug: the AutoConfig^TM init code jsr had a wrong a6 register (the base register at the jsr time should be expansionbase but is execbase instead). Robert Miranda adds that: "Hardware AutoConfig was functional (related to Note 3). The loading of the I/O PIC's ROM driver was what was broken in expansion.library (the register issue). Hard disks (among others) needed to therefore use a Binddrivers-loaded driver from SYS:Expansion off a floppy boot, and then transfer the system assigns to the (now) loaded hard disk interface/environment. (Side Ref: That's the purpose of the FastPrep Kickstart 1.2 boot floppy option, and also the original GVP Impact boot floppy v1.0 (scripted) setup routine.) I recall that it was (later) reported as internally fixed at Commodore, but they never released it to a ROM (or maybe was the 1.2.1 Kickstart?). It later made it into official Kickstart 1.3 release."
6. Version 33.56 was the first AmigaDOS release to support a battery backed-up clock via the Date command.
7. Rodney Hester notes that: "All releases prior to v33.59 have the plain white disk icons; the color disk icon was added in v33.61."
8. 1.2 ROM Part Number (A500/A2000): 315093-01 (33.180)