From: doiron@starpt.UUCP (Glenn Doiron)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: I DID give up on the Amiga!
Date: 25 Jul 92 16:53:37 GMT
 <33044@cbmvax.commodore.com> <mykes.09ag@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG> <hgm.711390476@fbi.cc.ncsu.edu>
Organization: 68K Software Development
X-NewsSoftware: Amiga GRn V1.16b 5/26/92 by Mikes Schwartz & Smith

In article <hgm.711390476@fbi.cc.ncsu.edu> hgm@ncsu.edu (Hal G. Meeks) writes:
>mykes@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG (Mike Schwartz) asks:
>
>>Why hasn't CBM ported the AmigaOS to the Mac hardware?  (How's that for
>>a wierd idea? :)  Anything worth porting would be ported (QUICKLY) and
>>there likely might be a significant amount of software that would work
>>right away...  Your users are QUITE adaptable.
>
>And here's an equally strange thought -- how about porting AmigaDos to the
>Genesis? 
>
>How's this for a wierd scenario:
>
>Commodore is spending a portion of their R&D budget on CDTV, which isn't
>taking off. Meanwhile, Sega is getting ready to introduce their CDROM player
>for their Genesis. Over in the other camp, Nintendo is readying their CDROM
>drive, which is rumored to be CD-I compatable at some point. 
>
>A CDTV emulation mode for Sega's CDROM device (which actually contains a bit
>more than just a CDROM drive) would help out CDTV developers by giving them
>a larger installed base of users. It would also attract more developers, who
>would hopefully write more attractive titles, which would lead to more CDTV
>sales. God only knows, CBM could surely learn a thing or two from Sega and
>Nintendo's marketing, if they want to concentrate on the home market.

You see, the problem with this, is that Sega, like Nintendo, operate
monopolies with the licensing/development info on their machines.  If they
ever did such a thing they could kiss all their -charge-me-up-the-butt-
for-writing-software-for-your-system- income goodbye.  It will never happen.

>How would Sega benefit from this? At some point, the video game market is
>going to cool off some. It already has to some extent, compared to a few
>years ago when everyone was Nintendo-crazed. Sega needs to make the leap
>from just being a video game manufacturer to being an entertainment system
>manufacturer. The difference is one of scope -- moving from just video games
>to interactive media (the stuff that CDTV is supposed to do). Commodore has
>a small, fast, multitasking OS that is custom made for "multimedia" (I hate
>that word) applications. It's been debugged, there is a nice, mature
>development enviroment set up for it. 

Wrong, Sega has everything to lose:  Their income from absolute control over
the market.

>This is all a pipe dream, I know this. But I think that CDTV's chances
>really do hinge on some sort of compelling piece of software -- a Sonic, if
>you will. I suspect that it's not even possible to do what I've suggested --
>moving the multitasking kernel to the Genesis. And even if it was, I doubt
>that CBM has the farsightedness to go into some sort of agreement with Sega.
>They would rather like to be like Apple, which has tried to lock the OS and
>hardware to one another (where are the Mac clones?). 

I'm very sure that right now the folks at CBM aren't too happy about the OS
being locked into the hardware.

>This is indeed another low point for Amiga owners. I almost hope the
>repeated takeover rumors are real this time, that's how bad it is. 
>
>--hal

Don't say that.  Things could be much, much worse...

Glenn Doiron
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