[rescue] Amiga videos online for your enjoyment

[Mark]

On 23 May 2007, at 20:04, Magnus wrote:

> Ethan O'Toole wrote:
>> Hahaha! "But... the new one is going to have a power PC, and  
>> support VGA!"
>
> See that's part of the problem.
>
> The original Amiga was a ground breaking machine.  In the  
> mid-1980's, it
> bundled in so many technologies that were completely absent in the PC
> and underdeveloped or absent in the Mac.

There's no such thing as a new Amiga. I've said that to the Amiga  
community over and over again. Anything that came out now that I'd  
class as a 'new Amiga' would simultaneously have blow Apple,  
Microsoft, NVIDIA and ATi/AMD, maybe even Intel off the map. Such was  
the impact of Amiga the first time around. No-one will ever make it  
that great again.

I have to say that from a non-Amiga standpoint the specs they put out  
for the $1500 'Power' systems were actually pretty impressive, and  
were based around dual core PA Semi PWRficient chips which are new  
out this year. It's a shame that even if they could get hold of the  
Amiga OS, it doesn't even support SMP ;)

> To try to build a completely new computer and slap the "Amiga" name on
> it, and to do it with hardware more deserving of a cable tv set-top  
> box,
> just goes to show you.  There is nothing "Amiga" about this, except  
> for
> the name, which apparently gets some people feeling pretty randy.  It
> had better, because without the name you don't have much of  
> anything there.

These 'new' systems probably won't see daylight, or even get off the  
back of the cigarette paper ACK copied 'em down on from PA Semi and  
Freescale's developer docs. They are just there to add leverage  
against Hyperion Entertainment in the suit to rob the people who  
spent 6 years of hard work on close to zero resources and support  
actually writing Amiga OS 4.0 of their rightful ownership of their  
work, oh and also while they are at it to nail them for using a name  
they owned a license for until they had the rug pulled out from under  
them.

Just look at 'Commodore' games PCs. Exactly what does that have to do  
with the C64, Amiga etc. EFF all, that's what. Amiga Inc. are exactly  
the same. They exist purely to horde all the IP associated with  
Amiga, and screw anyone else who goes within 1000 miles of it (I have  
personal experience of this too).

I'm sorry if I seem like I am living in the past. I'm not I assure  
you - I just, from time to time, feel that at a huge number of  
junctures along the line the Amiga seems to have ben a victim of it's  
human user's and owner's self-destruct mechanisms. It's just sad...  
When I use my old classic Amiga machines and realise what they could  
have done had they continued to be successful... And when you look a  
the sheer volumes of talent and enthusiasm of the people in the  
Deathbed Vigil, and other AmigaForever videos, those people Commodore  
dumped on... It's all lost now because of repeated short-sighted  
selfishness and deceit. Of course this doesn't keep me awake at  
night, those of use with sense have moved on. I'm sitting writing  
this on a Mac Pro with OS X (IMHO the closest (and it's not *that*  
close) modern equivalent to the Amiga as it was in 'the day') But it  
still sits in the back of my mind. That's why we need things like  
AmigaForever. It brought a lot of people together to produce a truly  
savorable memorandum of all this.

The fact is man learns from his mistakes, and if we forget those that  
didn't make the grade we will forget the mistakes they made, and  
might repeat them in the future. I guess it's just a sense of regret  
mixed with nostalgia. Give a man a break for trying to be human... :o)

"And all that could have been..." as Trent Reznor would no doubt  
express it...

-- 
Mark Benson

My Blog:
<http://mdblog.68kmac.org>
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Visit my Homepage: <http://homepage.mac.com/markbenson>

"Never send a human to do a machine's job..."