Organization: Institute for Study of Wombats and Lemurs
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.i-amiga
Date:         Sun, 26 Jul 1992 10:09:03 CDT
From:         David <DMCGHEE1@UA1VM.BITNET>
Subject:      Amiga Dead...NOT!

I got this off of GEnie last night...thought you guys might want the whole
article.  (It has already been mentioned here.)


I'll post Commodores Reply, RSN.  It kind of got mangled when I on my disk
when I brought it in to the lab to upload it.  I figure best to wait and
post the whole reply later this afternoon.   Here it is:

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
--------------------  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'sbut 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 withcolor.  It offered more colors and more
graphics programming than the PC. It had stereo sound in its
heart, where the Mac could only produce simplesounds 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.

{end}
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  DMCGHEE1@UA1VM.BITNET   "Just another nail in the big blue's coffin..."  
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  DMCGHEE@SSS.CBA.UA.EDU                                                   
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