From: barrett@iastate.edu (Marc N Barrett)
Subject: Re: Would someone
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 15:00:33 GMT

In article <209koB2w165w@bluemoon.rn.com> adrake@bluemoon.rn.com (Andy Drake) writes:
>Would someone please re-post the Amiga Obit? I'd love to re-read it after 
>the response from Commodore. Thanks in advance,
>
>                        -Andy
>
> This is from
>     adrake@bluemoon.rn.com
>who doesn't have his (or her) own obnoxious signature yet

   Sure...

From: thad@btr.btr.com

The premiere newspaper of Silicon Valley just dedicated half a page to the
following two items.  From the San Jose Mercury-News' COMPUTING section,
Sunday, July 12, 1992, page 4F:

                       [ ITEM 1, SIDEBAR ]

AMIGA, from Commodore Business Machines, Inc., 1200 Wilson Drive, Westchester,
PA 19380.  (800) 662-6442

SUMMARY: The Amiga once had a great future, with special chips for slick
handling of graphics, video and sound and basic software more powerful than on
the Mac or PC.  But obsolete hardware, few new programs and malignant neglect
from the parent company have killed the Amiga.  Users already hooked on it can
stay for some years (though with increasing envy of PC and Mac owners), and
anyone interested in digital video will love the Amiga-based Video Toaster from
NewTek.  But all others should avoid the Amiga.

                        [ ITEM 2, ARTICLE ]

``		 COMMODORE LETS AMIGA DIE SLOW DEATH

			   Phillip Robinson


The Amiga is dead.  It's sad but true.  But we shouldn't be surprised.  The
poor Amiga has been at death's door for several years.  It managed to live
because of its potent basic design and thousands of rabid Amiga fans who would
rather switch to a typewriter than a PC or Mac.  The Amiga died because
Commodore denied it growth, support or even respect.  And I watched this
eight-year-long execution, hoping a reprieve would come and marveling at how
much abuse the computer with the cute, friendly name could take.

Back in 1984 I was one of the first to write about an exciting new computer
that had special chips for sound, video and other "multimedia" work.  Except
that back then no one said "multimedia" about computing.  In fact, the slick
abilities with sound and images convinced many that the Amiga was aimed too
much at game players and not at serious computing types.

The Amiga appeared just as the Macintosh was failing, losing sales after the
initial enthusiasm.  The PC was conquering corporate, word-processing and
spreadsheeting America.  But the PC was laughably slow and clumsy with
graphics, sounds and other such creative elements.  There was clearly room for
a machine that could live at first as an entertainer while building its chops
to tackle the more prosaic types of computing.  A group of refugees from
companies such as Atari designed the Amiga, and then, needing money for
marketing, sold it to Commodore.  Commodore needed the Amiga because its
phenomenally popular Commodore 64 home computer was faltering, unable to jump
to a new generation of computing power.

In those early days, the Amiga had a graphic interface like the Macintosh's but
backed up by a true multitasking operating system.

This computer was built to run more than one program at a time, something the
Mac and PC are only now growing into.

The Amiga also had the high-resolution graphic display of the Mac but with
color.  It offered more colors and more graphics programming than the PC.

It had stereo sound in its heart, where the Mac could only produce simple
sounds and the PC could only beep or buzz.

Finally, the Amiga had video in its soul.  Those special chips let it naturally
and easily overlap its images with standard TV and VCR images.  To add titles
or special effects to a video, you could use an Amiga, or you could add
thousands of dollars of hardware to a Mac or PC and pray.

So what went wrong?

First, Commodore took too long to get the Amiga operating system software out
the door.  It was always near completion, getting debugged, almost there.
Without stable system software and programming tools, no one could create good
software for the Amiga. (In retrospect, the Amiga's trouble attracting software
developers shows just how historic Apple's quest for Mac software was.)

Then Commodore waffled and missed its commitments to Amiga pheripherals.  A
card was promised that would give the Amiga PC-compatibility.  That would tide
you over, the story was, until Amiga software appeared.  You could run your PC
programs from 1-2-3 to WordStar.  This card was delayed and delayed and
delayed.  Anyone who bought Amigas with that card in her plans looked pretty
foolish.

Next, Commodore didn't release timely Amiga upgrades.  As PCs and Macs kept
leapfrogging in processor speed and random-access memory and disk drives, the
Amiga just waddled along.  Eventually, the Amiga 1000 (the original model) was
succeeded by the 2000 (with more memory and a hard disk) and the 3000 (with a
68030 processor chip and more disk and memory).  Even in graphics and sound,
where the Amiga was once the world's best, the Mac and then later the PC added
more colors, more resolution, more sound, while the Amiga stood still.

The Amiga 500 appeared as a sort of Amiga Jr., with less power and memory but a
$500 price.  Too expensive to compete with Nintendo as a game machine, it was
too weak for serious computing, especially for the one kind of computing the
Amiga was best at: multimedia.

Commodore repackaged an Amiga as the CDTV (which stands for Commodore Dynamic
Total Vision, I think, though you can read pages of CDTV hype without finding
that expression).  This "interactive multimedia" machine is supposed to be the
perfect tool for hooking to a television to play interactive video discs for
games and education.  It competes with the Philips CD-I player (similar price,
less graphics and sound capability), and MPC systems (PC systems with added
multimedia hardware, which costs four times as much).  Interactive multimedia
is still a questionable market, with more interest from sellers than from
buyers.  But maybe the Amiga will have a future there.

The final insult to the Amiga has been Commodore's consistent lack of concern,
attention and contact with Amiga dealers, developers and owners.  It's still
true today.  I read in a local computing magazine how the loyal Amiga columnist
is giving up, unable to bear another year of prying information from Commodore.
I walk into a store that specializes in Amigas and ask about the latest
Commodore news, and the staff admits that "it's strange, we know, but" they
never get news from Commodore.  All they know of plans and announcements is
what they read in the magazines.

But they're not much better off!  The first article I read in the most popular
Amiga magazine is about a new "A570 CDTV Adapter" that converts an Amiga 500
into a CDTV machine.  This is the lead article, the one hyped on the cover,
and the editors are humiliated by having to add this note: "Just as this issue
was about to go to press, AmigaWorld learned that Commodore officials were
expressing some doubts about the scheduled release of the A570 this summer and
about its suggested retail price of $499.99."  I'll bet it wasn't even
Commodore that told them!

I know, too, that both times Commodore offered to send me an Amiga for a while
to review Amiga peripherals and software, the promised machine never arrived.

There's only one kind of life left for the Amiga: toasting.

NewTek's Video Toaster is the best way to build an inexpensive video effects
studio, and the Toaster requires an Amiga.  In fact, the new Toaster models for
Mac and PC are really just a Toaster and Amiga that you connect to your Mac or
PC.  You can see the popularity of the Toaster from the general computer
magazines -- where it is the only Amiga product mentioned -- to the Amiga
specialty stores -- where digital video and Toasters take up half the space.

If you have an Amiga, don't fret about this news.  You've adapted to living in
the dark, being fed biodegradable stories about new models and upgrades.  There
will be some new games, a few new accelerator boards and fellow enthusiasts to
club with for another five years at least.

If you're an Amiga owner in Europe, you have more company than in the United
States -- Commodore always has had a larger presence there.  But the hardware
hasn't kept up to date any more than in the United States.  You should consider
buying a mailorder PC or sneaking some Mac time to see what you're missing.

If you want to work with digital video, the Toaster is good enough to warrant
buying an Amiga.  But don't think of it as your computer; consider it just a
power supply for the Toaster.

But if you're not already hooked on the Amiga or fascinated by video toasting,
don't even think of buying one.  You'll be getting into a relationship full
of heartache and promises not kept.  Maybe at least other computer companies
will learn a lesson of caring and respect from this sad affair.


Phillip Robinson analyzes and writes about computers from Sausalito.  You
can reach him at (415) 331-3973 or at P.O.Box 1357, Sausalito CA 94966 or
on the MCI e-mail service as "probinson" at mailbox 327-8909.



---------------------------------------------------------------
From: torrie@cs.stanford.edu (Evan Torrie)

  After Matthew Leeds wrote his last column on the Amiga for Microtimes, 
Phil Robinson writes in today's San Jose Mercury about the fate of
the Amiga.

  Here's a few quotes:

"The Amiga is dead"...

"The Amiga died because Commodore denied it growth, support or
even respect."

"The final insult to the Amiga has been Commodore's consistent lack
of concern, attention and contact with Amiga dealers, developers and
owners."

"If you want to work with digital video, the Toaster is good enough 
to warrant buying an Amiga.  But don't think of it as your computer;
consider it just a power supply for the Toaster.
  But if you're not already hooked on the Amiga or fascinated by
video toasting, don't even think of buying one.  You'll be getting
into a relationship full of heartache and promises not kept.  Maybe
at least other computer companies will learn a lesson of caring and
respect from this sad affair."
===

  Robinson does give high marks to the Amiga for its original technical
capabilities.  His beef seems to be mostly with Commodore.
  I must say that I've been reading this newsgroup since its inception, 
and the Amiga seems to be at its lowest ebb ever.

Evan Torrie.  Stanford University, Class of 199?       torrie@cs.stanford.edu 
Embrace rationalism, reject superstition.           Break away from the past.

Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy