From: wgkramer@cs.vu.nl (Ewout Kramer)
Subject: Re: Attn Commodore: You are making a Big Mistake (Hardware Manual)
Keywords: hardware reference manual
Organization: Fac. Wiskunde & Informatica, VU, Amsterdam
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 10:44:38 GMT

amc@wucs1.wustl.edu (Adam Costello) writes:

>One of the things I loved most about my old C-64 was the custom
>hardware.  It was documented, so I could program it, experiment with
>it, and play with it.

>One of the main reasons I chose to buy an Amiga was that I was
>impressed by the hardware.  I knew that there was much less useful
>software for the Amiga, but that's not what turns me on.

This is exactly what is the problem right now. Look, a MAJOR part of the
Amiga owners bought their Amiga to be the successor to the C64.
Hacking registers, getting the max out of the hardware etc. etc.
To them the Amiga should be a game machine. That's it.

However, it should be clear that those days are over. Commodore has
to look at the future. If Commodore wants to avoid being known as
"game machine company nr. 1" forever , they'll have to enhance the OS
to meet the needs for advanced system layers like RTG.

>For people who want their computers to be productive and don't want to
>have to think too hard, there's Apple and IBM.  For people who want to
>enjoy their computers, and especially for people who want to enjoy
>programming their computers, there's Amiga.

"Enjoy programming" stands for hitting the hardware, playing games,
use optimized gfx routines etc. etc. To be fair, I did that too and
I really enjoyed it. However you can't blame Commodore for dropping support
for that. If they don't, Commodore will be faced with Super-Nintendos,
NeoGeos etc. Clearly NOT the market Commodore wants to be in. They make
computers, not game machines. Plainly said, Commodore has to drop the
home-computer like machines.

>If Commodore refuses to release a hardware manual for future Amigas,
>they will be betraying their most loyal customers, the very customers
>for whom IBM and Apple were never even an option.  Commodore should

This is the big dilemma. What should Commodore do ? Trying to keep the
hacking clients happy will doom them to make computers adapted to
game-programming, however trying to get in the market of IBM's and MAC's
will surely betray about 80% of the Amiga owners, so that's not the
solution too. 

>compete by striving to be different from its competitors, not by trying
>to mimic them.  Compatibility has always been one of the strengths of
>IBM and Apple.  Capability has always been the strength of Amiga.  The
>Amiga can do things other computers simply cannot do, but only if
>programmers know how the machine works.

Not for too long. PC's are getting faster and faster at doing graphics.
To stay in the race, Commodore has to produce new GFX cards, faster machines
etc. However, when we keep doing access at HW level we'll get at the same
rotten position PC's have been in for years: You'll have to support
all $%^#%^$#%^# graphics cards available. Do you really think game
companies will do that?  The Amiga is not such a big market for them anyway
so wasting time on adapting games for multiple cards will be out of 
the question.

>If the OS is documented, programmers can choose to use it for
>compatibility.  If the hardware is documented, programmers can choose
>to use it for capability.  If both are documented, the programmer has a
>choice.  It's a trade-off that is best evaluated by the programmer on a
>per-program basis, not once-and-for-all by Commodore.
>If Commodore fails to document the hardware, lots of Commodore's paying
>customers will suffer.  They may even desert.

No. I foresee chaos. When Commodore doesn't do something for the
C64-style users, other manufaturers will release faster graphics boards,
thus creating even more confusion and incompatibilities.

Commodore will go on doing 3.0, 4.0 etc, advancing the OS even more
and the HW-ers will stay as a HUGE subgroup, producing faster and better
games. In fact, you'll have the Amiga I and Amiga II. 
Commodore has noticed you can't go on expanding the C64-like type of machine,
only meant to be used as a toy ("Look I can do 1000 32x32 bobs in less that
2 scanlines!"). 

I love the OS, and as long as it's fast enough to let me play NetHack,
I'm satisfied :-). I would never have upgraded my 2-floppy A500 otherwise if
I just wanted to play games.

>And if none of the above is convincing, consider this: hackers will
>figure out much of the hardware anyway, but not all of it, which is an 
>even more dangerous situation than the one Commodore is afraid of.  If

Hackers will, game companies won't. What this means is that unlike games,
not all demos will work on newer systems, or maybe on none of them.
I don't think anyone at Commodore cares about that.



Regards,

Ewout