Hi all, my first post since i found this site a week ago. In my 40's now and going through a retro phase of my life with cars, music, records, furniture. etc :)

I grew up with the Commodore64 until my first Amiga500 in 87. Purchased and copied many C64 and Amiga games over those years with friends and had a great time. Most memorable Amiga games were MULE, ZORK, Pool of Radiance and a few others I cannot recall. I actually taught as a teachers assistant that paint program in college to the students back in 1990. Used it for video graphics. Since then, Doom came out for Win95 and I never looked back. Played games games and games. All of them. Until the MMO's came out. Everquest, EQ2, Dark Ages of Camelot, Stwarwars Online, Conan Online, Aion Online, AD&D Online, Lord of the Rings Online, etc etc.

I realize I am rehashing alot of what you all know, but only doing so to make a point hoping to see if my train of thought is in the right direction for the future of Amiga. As you all know, games these days is produced much like a movie...no risks taken...no imagination...genre's have completely disapeared..etc etc. Actually, I'm getting sick of playing online MMO's and first person shooters. Really missing the old games we used to play. Miss some of those old companies with brilliant imaginative programs and story writers. Lord British!

My current project is to find an Amiga1200 and play those old games again like Ultima III and Pool of Radiance. Cancelling all my online accounts. Im done with all that. Well, until the new StarWars online comes out next year ;p

My question is, If Amiga came back in a good way, wouldn't alot of these companies from the past that fell to the wayside of these large cooperations like Sony and Blizzard be able to program for Amiga? Be a much more cost effective project to produce those kind of games that Amiga's users would favor that would not be cost effective on Windows7? Like what another poster mentioned on these forums, to distribute software much like STEAM does? I'm not a big fan but it seems to be a smart idea for software companies. (I do want my lovely printed artwork and maps!) Thinking along these lines, wouldn't it be interesting if old titles were re-released and updated for the new Amiga platform? Not only for games (which I would love to play again) but also productive software like Paint and word processing software.

Now if Amiga could really focus their platorm for multimedia online content and Blu-Ray. We may have something.

@StylinLP

Welcome aboard




It'll take some thought for a reply.

@StylinLP

Quote:

to find A1200

May I point you to http://www.amigaforever.com/ -- it's as good as A12K when it comes to games, unless you desire "original experience" with hardware. But for nostalgia reasons emulator is as good and won't take up valuable desk space.

Quote:

be able to program for Amiga?

Knowledge about AmigaOS APIs is dead. There are few that can do something amazing with it. Nowadays it's all in the frameworks, OpenGL, DirectX, XNA and so on. AmigaOS lacks everything that is needed to attract game company.

Amiga can't even count on indy games anymore. iPhone, XBOX Live and PS Network consumed this market.

Quote:

Now if Amiga could really focus their platorm for multimedia online content and Blu-Ray. We may have something.

Sorry, but this line sounds like something that a suit would say in last bubble of 2000. What the hell is "platform for multimedia online content"?

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@StylinLP

Define "if Amiga came back in a good way".

Back in the days those people/companies were producing games in teams of 1-5 people for a (potential) market of a few million Amiga-owners.

Assuming you can sell enough "Amigas" to actually create a market worth developing for (lets say 100000 users minimum) would you be prepared to pay 50Euro for a game that has a similar quality as 1000s of old games that can be downloaded for free (most of them even legally ) ?

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@StylinLP

Welcome!

yes, you are welcome and in a good spirit, wae saw people like coming back slowly but surely to the amiga, and i think if the new amiga has marketing , good hardware there will be more and more people will buy an amiga x1000 the way will be long with many if if if !!!!!!
but remember the song from the eighties : only amiga make it possible....
Why more people could come back to the amiga ?
1 windows is boring
2 the computers these days are boring nothing new from a long time...
3 amiga has the fastest os in the world

But, amiga haven't new games for the moment but who knws what could happen, but first amiga needs firefox and open office, and cross fingers...
We will see what happens, but i keep the faith, that cost me nothing...

@turrican33

Quote:

We will see what happens, but i keep the faith, that cost me nothing...

Exactly.


...and of course... Welcome!

@pavlor

Thanks pavlor but in fact i'm not really new here i read many posts for years...
I was the amigaworld's ghost

Last edited by turrican33 on 08-Mar-2010 at 10:37 PM.

@StylinLP

Welcome to AW.net. While a system like STEAM for distributing software might be nice and convenient, it's not hard to set up an online shop for direct download. With a community such as the one that we have here, people will find out what's available and where in no time.

Hans

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"I keep the faith, that cost me nothing"...

@StylinLP

They have a couple of great old titles out on the iPhone including an update to Monkey Island I that you might want to check out. Dragon's Lair looks awesome too (although not an Amiga game).

I'm here much like you are in search of that 80's fix. As far as Amiga's future, IMO the X1000 should take a retro approach to being new. It should play all the old games, run all the old software (from the HD innately) and still have the ability to do everything that a netbook can do (flash, java, etc.). I would love for it to have the Commodore beige case (but modern) with the boing ball and AMIGA etched into it.

I also think if they came out with something like Blitz Basic (the current version) for OS4.1 then you would see new games. They could market it as a "game creator's" machine having Blender now working. That's a stretch though.

@StylinLP

Welcome friend to Rebel Alliance. Well about the games Amiga systems have the same problem that Linux systems, the games developers only work for get money and it is possible with Windos and the video consoles PSP, Wii, Xbox etc. the only option is the free people that program these different games and there are in Amiga but the things go slow because it depends the free time of the people.
For you can enjoy the Amiga classic games you have several ways, Amiga Forever by Cloanto, WinUAE, or the best choice instead to buy one Amiga 1200 classic to buy the Minimig with the option to connect this new Amiga 500 hardware in modern monitors or wating for NatAmi proyect that when this board will be available? or to buy a new PPC Amiga board the Sam or waiting the X1000.
There are many possiblities you can choose the best for your likes or money available, patience, etc.

Welcome!

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@opi

Quote:

Nowadays it's all in the frameworks, OpenGL, DirectX, XNA and so on. AmigaOS lacks everything that is needed to attract game company.

It's not the richest platform to develop for in terms of development tools and libs, but we do have OpenGL and SDL, and the current hardware is good enough for non-hardcore types of games. What keeps game developers away is simply the small user base, not the platform itself.

Quote:

Amiga can't even count on indy games anymore. iPhone, XBOX Live and PS Network consumed this market.

I still think there would be some room to attract the indy devs specifically, which would be the handheld Amiga, if someone had the muscle to pull that off. In any case, I'm looking forward to see how the OpenPandora does.

@StylinLP
Hello and welcome

@amigakit

Thank you all for the speedy replies! You all really do lurk these boards vigerously. heh. I spend alot of time on vinyl audio, home theater and wood working forums and am surprised how popular this board is. After lurking these forums for a few weeks and these reponses I have some questions and concerns.

First reponse was
Quote:

Knowledge about AmigaOS APIs is dead. There are few that can do something amazing with it. Nowadays it's all in the frameworks, OpenGL, DirectX, XNA and so on. AmigaOS lacks everything that is needed to attract game company. Amiga can't even count on indy games anymore. iPhone, XBOX Live and PS Network consumed this market.

This doesn't look good. Looks like all those indy programers got jobs now. Unless they are a big Amiga fan they might or can't port updated versions for the new AmigaOS. One thing I would like to point out. Those particular games that the iPhone scooped up are simple, like GODS, Frogger, Lemmings and ALLADIN. What about the large elabrate games like Ultima III/IV? Those boxed games shipped with maps, books, quick key cards, etc. Even games like that are playable on an iPhone? (I know WoW could be *joke*)

Then there is strategic games that are even now available for the PC but are not that graphic intensive that need a full keyboard and mouse to play.
Entire genre's of games that are just not popular in the last 10 years. Example of this is the AD&D roleplaying PC game called Icewind Dale. Just picked it up from a yardsale for $5. Copyright 2000. Im amazed how many maps are in that box and how large the instruction book is. I would have payed $20 just for that! A download of that game would be a shame. But the buying kids these days only want to play First Person Shooters with shallow storylines or MMO's. So games like that are not being made anymore. It's a shame.

Speaking of which, I read a magazine article not long ago that over 300 games are made each year. Only a dozen or so actually make it to market! Seems to me that there is alot of resource out there that could take to Amiga as a market. Some of you talk like the Unix crowd, but we must remember, Amiga came about with gamers in mind. Gamers is what made the Amiga popular in the 1st place back in 1985. If Amiga could support the lost game genre's in adventure, roleplaying and strategic there would be many more interested buyers. I know one such friend that will ONLY play turnbased games. Period. He is in his 40's and wants to be able to play at his own pace. In other words, no current games on the market will ever see his money. Let the PC have the twitchy DDD 1st person shooter players and bring back the mature smart players to the Amiga! Just my thoughts...

The last poster I read is that US AMiga online store. I went there and did not see any Amiga1200's for sale. Maybe i missed it.

@turrican33

Quote:

turrican33 wrote: 3 amiga has the fastest os in the world

It has?

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@ruben

Quote:

ruben wrote: @opi Quote: Nowadays it's all in the frameworks, OpenGL, DirectX, XNA and so on. AmigaOS lacks everything that is needed to attract game company. It's not the richest platform to develop for in terms of development tools and libs, but we do have OpenGL and SDL, and the current hardware is good enough for non-hardcore types of games. What keeps game developers away is simply the small user base, not the platform itself.

The good old chicken or egg problem.

Hans

EDIT: Fixed the URL tags

Last edited by Hans on 09-Mar-2010 at 12:39 AM.

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@StylinLP

I'm with you, I miss clever adventure games in particular.

With Hollywood 4.x, Blender, python, miniGL, etc, there's plenty of ways to create nice games, not to mention plain 'C' programming.

At this time the current user base is probably too small for established game companies to consider devoting any resources to our platform so any new games is going to come from bedroom coders who do it out of passion more than anything else.

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@Hans

Quote:

The good old chicken or egg problem.

It is, but in small community where developers resources are spare it should be resolved by delivering tools first. You know how hard is to grab developer from cubicle, separate him from his IDE, libraries and additional tools, UI designers and ask him to go back making Makefiles.

Not that Makefiles, GCC or Python is somehow bad. World has changed, programmers are not hackers in same ratio as it was before. One need to make them comfortable.

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i remember that we have great games and the amiga community was really tiny:
napalm, t-zero, shogo, wipeout 2097 etc .....
Perhaps hyperion will ports some games themselves and you know there are coders and artist who continue to love our computer perhaps they will give it a chance perhaps doing a fast ports.
But one thing is sure for me if a miracle happen it will take time to happen.
PS: who owns psygnosis for the moment ? If aeon have enough money perhaps they tried to call them who knows what could happen ?????
I don't know if i will continue to post here because i'try to be optimistic but i don't know if you are, you can call me even a dreamer. But i would like to say if a pc owner in the 80's told me that the pc is the future of the video game, let
me laugh. All of that to say that the future can change, in the 80's the pc was ridiculous in video games and really expensive and it wins (for the moment )
We just need 2 things to succeed hyperion and aeon have to belive it's possible and we have to.

sorry to be so long