I had a fascinating conversation with an online connection of mine on Twitter today, Raymond Negron.
He shared a photograph with me and AmigaBill of The Guru Meditation that shows a very clean looking 1010 Amiga floppy drive.
At first glance it looks fairly unremarkable - until you notice the logo. My neck nearly cracked as my eyes snapped to attention. The logo isn't the classic Amiga checkmark we've all grown to know and love. It's actually the iconified logo of the legendary boing ball demo, which was shown to the world at CES in Las Vegas in January, 1984, after a late night of feverish coding.
According to Amiga lore that I remember having read, the boing ball logo was a favorite of the original Amiga team - and it was one of many logos that had been considered for the official final version. But the logo was changed to the rainbow checkmark after Commodore acquired the company in August of 1984. I don't believe any products were ever sold to the public with the boing ball logo.
Another interesting twist for this prototype boing ball logo is the coloration, as it it black and red, not white and red, as seen in the demo.
What's also interesting is a sticker found on the drive stating it to be the property of Commodore, and that it was not for retail sale as it had not yet been FCC approved. That's how early this piece of hardware is - pre-retail Amiga days. I love the rainbow checkmark. But damn, this boing ball mark is really cool!