From: admiral@m-5.Eng.Sun.COM (Michael Limprecht @Sun Micro Mt View. )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games
Subject: Re: Amiga's game market
Date: 19 Dec 92 00:10:15 GMT
Reply-To: admiral@m-5.Eng.Sun.COM
Organization: Sun Microsystems
NNTP-Posting-Host: m-5

In article 1397@Virginia.EDU, mlc9g@Virginia.EDU ("Matt Condon") writes:
>whangj@aix.rpi.edu  writes:
>>      A good reason why many previous & current Amiga owners would
>> not buy AGA machines is due to spectre of orphaning of Amiga.
>> Add to that lack of any marketing by CBM and what you have is Amiga
>> userbase evaporating like a uncapped cup of water on a hot, dry day.
>> 
>
>That's why I'm afraid to do any Amiga upgrading right now...
>From the looks of it, the market (at least here in North
>America) is dropping out from under us.  I've been a dedicated
>Amiga user since 1987 or so (whenever the 500 first came out --
>I bought mine one month after and went through all of the power
>supply, etc. problems of the time), but, unless something major
>happens soon (and I don't think AGA by itself will cut it), my
>next machine is going to have to be something else...

I feel the same way. I've had an Amigas since '86 (or was it 85?) and
I'm real hesitant to put any more money into it. And I'm not 
going to "upgrade" by buying a whole new machine. Maybe if they
had a real juicy trade-in deal. But it would have to be real good.


>
>Quite frankly, at the time I bought my Amiga, it was really
>something special.  It filled all of my friends who owned IBMs
>with graphics envy.  That's just simply not the case, now.  The
>current technology in other markets is running at 20mhz
>minimum, have had graphics for quite some time that are almost
>if not as good as those just finally coming out with AGA, and
>is no longer nearly as cost prohibitive as it once was.
>Meanwhile, we're still stuck at 7mhz with an "advanced chip
>set" that, while it was once a technological marvel, is now
>almost an embarassment since we can't upgrade it nearly as
>easily as changing a graphics card, rather limited four voice
>sound, and a small market that keeps the prices up.
>

Right again. I recently upgraded my old PC/XT to a 386-40. Next is a
nice 16 Bit sound board. You can guess what's comming next... I will
but my first PC game. Probably Falcon 3.0 or something else that isn't
coming out on the Amiga. It all comes down to price and selection. If
it wasn't for HT Electronics in Sunnyvale I might have given up sooner.
I can imagen what it's like for those without someplace that sells
Amiga stuff. As it is, I can go to dozens of places and get PC games at
discount prices that play as good or better than it's Amiga counterpart
being resonably sure I can get updates and sequel games. 
Not to mention all the new PC/DOS CD games comming out. Where's the
CD player stuff from CBM for the computers??
 
At the bottom line, isn't that what it comes down to? 

>Commodore's big mistake was to push both the 64 and the
>"business" aspects of the Amiga way too far.  While they should
>have been working on moving the Amiga into the mass market
>position held by the 64, they were instead whining about just
>how serious a computer the Amiga was (a computer that was
>originally DESIGNED as a game machine, for god's sake...) and
>trying to squeeze every last bit of life out of their old
>technology.  Now, with an IBM in every Sears store, the Amiga
>is fighting an uphill battle to even get into the market at
>all, let alone the mass market.

I think CBM went wrong in continuing the C64 stuff at all. It marked
the Amiga as only a machine from a game company which help to keep it
out of the business market. 
Actually CBM's tight fisted policy on paying for popular ports is what
has and will continue to drive the Amiga into obsurity. No one I know
of bought PC's just to use for games. They bought them to do
spreadsheets, word processing, database work, code work and so on. PC
games where purchased for spare time. If CBM had helped shell out for
ports of 123, DbaseII, Borland compilers and Microsoft anything it might
have been a different story. They are now paying the price for their folly.
Unless something is done to stem the tide, more and more software houses
will be leaving the Amiga market due to "Falling sales".
>
>It's time for Commodore to either get it in gear or stop
>bothering.

I have really stopped bothering except for some special video
things. And the way that is going, it won't be long until that
will be available for PC's at a cheaper price. 

Don't get me wrong. I would like to see the Amiga succeed. I have to
much time and money already sunk into it. I just not sinking any more.

Mick
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