From: John.Carver@launchpad.unc.edu (John Carver)
Subject: Re: Exodus
Organization: University of North Carolina Extended Bulletin Board Service
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 05:11:14 GMT

In article <kennys.32m0@terapin.com> kennys@terapin.com (Kenny Sequeira) writes:
>Can I ask a simple question, why is it CBM's or the Amiga communities 
>fault every time a game developer drops Amiga support.  These companies

Ken,

I agree strongly with your point about copy protection.  However, I
don't agree with your point about why game developers are dropping Amiga
support.

I beleive the reason they are dropping Amiga support is very simple. 
There are very few Amigas in the world compared to PCs.  This is, IMHO,
one of the biggest disappointments of modern day, and I think clones and
MS-DOG and Windows and whatever have set the personal computing world
back almost 10 years.  But like it or not, the clones have won the PC
war.  Plain and simple, they won, we lost.

Its usually at this point that somebody pops up and says, "Hey, not in
Europe!  Amigas sell well there!"

Well, folks, Europe is irrelevant!  USA is irrelevant.  Japan is
irrelevant.  All that is relavent is the number of machines worldwide. 
Look at the numbers: there are 4+ million Amigas worldwide.  Hell,
let's call it 5 million - it won't matter.  There are 100 million
clones in just the USA ALONE!  And lord knows how many there are
worldwide - probably over 200 million.  All that matters is the number
of machines out there, and hence the potential sales.  If they can sell
10 million copies of a software product in PC land, but only 2 percent
as many in the Amiga market, they just won't bother to port to the
Amiga.  Its not worth their effort.  The fact that we've got a better
operating system, a generally superior and more elegant computer, etc,
doesn't matter.  It takes effort to port something, especially to port
it well.  If it doesn't pay off, they won't do it.

Clones have won the war.  Europe don't make diddly-squat difference if
there are only 4+ million Amigas worldwide.  We ain't got the mass
market they do.  It doesn't matter *WHERE* the machines are - it matters
how *many* there are.

Of course, that's just for games.  For utilities, there is the added
issue that you can sell any damn fool utility for clones and charge gobs
of money for it.  Look at Norton Desktop!  There is nothing there which
isn't either built into the Amiga operating system, or available public
domain.  Yet they sell the thing for gobs of money.  That would never
fly in the Amiga market, for obvious reasons, just like you couldn't
sell a screen blanker to Amiga users to save your soul.

Like I said, clones set back personal computing by 10 or more years. 
They are just NOW, in 1993, getting CLOSE to where the Amiga was in
1985.  (MS-DOS *STILL* doesn't have long filenames, a fact I found it
about recently, much to my dismay). In a few areas they have surpassed
us, but in most they haven't yet.  But as much as I loath clones, they
did win the personal computer war.  Apple will probably cling to some
corner of the market (even though it is the largest PC vendor, Macs
have a tiny market share compared to clones).  I hope the Amiga stays
around for a long time, because I like them a lot better than clones.
(a LOT better - kinda like comparing a Calloway Twin Turbo Corvette to a
Volkswagen Rabbit).  But I fear the Amiga market will loose more and more
software vendors, as they jump ship and go to where the money and the
mass market is.

As long as there is enoguh software of the right type that I want to
run, I'll stay with the Amiga due to its overwhelming superiority over
PCs.  (And in fairness, the sort of software I use is available sooner
for the Amiga than the PC and is of better quality and more
functionality).  But if the day ever comes when I just can't get the
soft of software I need ever stops being available, there won't be any
choice but to go with the clueless masses into clone land.  Even now,
the Falcon 3.0 temptation has been great.

   John

--
   The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
     North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
        Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
           internet:  laUNChpad.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80