New Kickstarter

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/469255657/from-vultures-to-vampires

"Hello and welcome to my new Kickstarter for the book that is going to tell it all!

Starting from the day when Escom were the highest bidder at Commodore's liquidator’s auction in New York (I was there), how their attempts to relaunch the Amiga spectacularly failed, then the troublesome years when our beloved computer bounced around from company to company, Viscorp, Quickpack, Gateway 2000, etc. and beyond.

This book leaves no stone unturned in revealing how the Commodore-Amiga assets became the target of a multiple of companies and individuals, some of whom were seemingly only interested in what they could gain out of it financially, and not even interested in supporting any of the many devotees who were trying to keep the dream alive.

In fact there was so much underhand and sometimes vicious activity with “Cease and Desist” orders and lawsuits aplenty (some still ongoing!) it was bringing a cloud over our erstwhile “happy go lucky” community.

However, all throughout this, what some people may call, “dark period” and almost in spite of it, there have been some genius individuals and legitimate companies who have produced and brought to market some of the most technologically advanced software and hardware ever seen.

This book exposes those companies and individuals who brought negativity and celebrates those who have against all odds prevailed and are now ensuring the Amiga not only “lives on”, but improves the potential to expand our community.

- David John Pleasance"

Great Interview with David John Pleasance & Trevor Dickinson on Retro hour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Sg1OLTrACA&t=1894s

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@amigang

Awesome!! I've been asking for years for a book on all the post-Commodore shenanigans, and here it is at last. Although I suspect some stories will have to be left out given certain litigious parties (ahem), no doubt with Trevor involved it will be a great read. I've joined the Kickstarter, and highly encourage everyone else to as well.

-- eliyahu

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@amigang

Yeah, another "I would have done so much better cos everyone else sucks" book.


Exactly what we needed!!





-> hard pass

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@eliyahu

Quote:

when you consider that the custodians of Commodore and Amiga after Commodore... they've really ehm...excuse my expression but they've crapped all over the users and the followers. They've treated them with such disdain...."

(followed by uncontained laughter)

Well, no need to say more about the years 2000-2020. That sums it up well. heh.

btw, with David's own admittance he only became re-involved in the last few years and with Trevor (you can check AW posts and prove this) initially returning as a user and a fan...
I don't see where any juicy 2000-2020 expose would come from here. I'd be curious who might be supplying any information from this time period intended for inclusion in the book.
I understand the desire to not give away content before publishing, but could we see the names of some of the contributors? (evil grin)

#6

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Pledged. I had the pleasure of meeting David and collected my book from him at the Museum for Computing History in Cambridge. Such a nice chap. I haven't seen Trevor since the Big Bash Days. You can say what you like about A-EON but Trevor himself a hobbyist, its a hobby for people who back the machines he releases so you cannot expect the same as buying a computer from Dell or HP. Unless people are still expecting someone to take the Amiga name and take the world by storm so Windows and Mac become the "also ran" to the Amiga platform. No one is still expecting that, right?

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Amiga A1200, 3.1 ROMs, Blizzard 1230 MKIV 64MB & FPU, 4GB DoM SSD, Workbench 3.1

@Kronos

Quote:

-> hard pass

Same here. The Reader's Digest version is bleak enough; I don't really care to know the details. I'm more interested in who prevails in the current lawsuit.

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@eliyahu

Quote:

no doubt with Trevor involved it will be a great read

The guy who's co-financed Hyperion's first lawsuit and refuses to end them for the last five years despite claiming Ben Hermans stole half a million bucks from him is now writing a book about evil, litigious Amiga companies?

Yeah, "great read" for sure.

@amigang
Pledged with gusto.

I really enjoyed David's first book. And that Dickinson character seems to know a few things about what goes on behind the scenes...

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ExecSG Team Lead

Quote:

and that Dickinson character seems to know a few things about what goes on behind the scenes...

That Dick Behind You! ®


Sincerely,
MEGA_RJ_MICAL, MRJM 2.0 Team Lead VP and CTO

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Quote:

cgutjahr wrote: The guy who's co-financed Hyperion's first lawsuit and refuses to end them for the last five years despite claiming Ben Hermans stole half a million bucks from him is now writing a book about evil, litigious Amiga companies?

You forgot about Trevor bailing out Hyperion when they were in financial trouble. Trevor could be more of a victim in his dealings with Hyperion though. Imagine investing a bunch of money in Amiga hardware only to have no AmigaOS 4 available. It's easy to imagine the conversations.

Ben: Amiga Inc. is trying to cheat us and take back the AmigaOS 4 source. They can't develop anything or wouldn't have licensed us to do it. AmigaOS 4 will not be available for your new Amiga hardware.
Trevor: ! What can we do about it?
Ben: We could fight them in court if we had some more money. I'm a great lawyer!
Trevor: Doh!

Trevor: Hey, I'm missing an extra half million from the account I paid you from last time. Any idea where that went?
Ben: I thought everything in the account was given to us to speed up development.
Trevor: I should call the police.
Ben: If we have to stop development, you won't get AmigaOS 4 for your hardware. If you sue us, I'm a great lawyer!
Trevor: Doh!

Ben: We ran out of cash and are being forced into involuntary bankruptcy. There won't be anymore AmigaOS 4 for your hardware.
Trevor: ! What can we do about it?
Ben: If we had enough money, we may be able to avoid bankruptcy in court. I know a great lawyer!
Trevor: Doh!

A tell all book would be very interesting but is highly unlikely.

@Topic

Would love to back this, I really enjoyed the first book by Pleasance for he is pretty good writer, so definitely want to get this at some point.

However, right now need to keep my finances tight at least for now.

Quote:

...there have been some genius individuals and legitimate companies who have produced and brought to market some of the most technologically advanced software and hardware ever seen

I understand the need to balance this book with a few feel good stories but let's be truthful... this segment has seen very little movement in close to three decades while other contemporary technologies are enjoying a renaissance.

The most prolific elements of the modern Amiga are books and lawsuits.

Quote:

cgutjahr wrote: The guy who's co-financed Hyperion's first lawsuit ...

Maybe I missed something, are you talking about lawsuit Hyperion vs. amiga Inc about the ownership of AmigaOS4 ?

There where so many lawsuits so I might mix up some details.

Addenum, I found it:
Quote:

This is the same person who in 2007 gave more than $100,000 to Hyperion, to finance the war against Amiga, Inc.! That money made the robbery of the AmigaOS possible (for amiga-news.de: Overview of comments on 'Hyperion attacking Cloanto'... http://www.amiga-news.de/en/news/comments/thread/AN-2017-05-000... a robbery it was, since Hyperion was paid for the port, and Amiga, Inc. should have received the rights for that, yet Hyperion made a crazy case, paid for by Dickinson, about some missing $250 which neither Amiga nor Itec nor Hyperion had noticed when they paid them the agreed $25,000, and then some more). And now he is propelling Hyperion (as a co-owner, lender and client) again in a new war against Amiga and Cloanto! https://docs.google.com/file/d/1SYOLRqYIEFE-WSobi-2n6RyrSa5qGMDk/edit

So Trevor is not the harmless honest Amiga fan he seemed to me. Until now I thought he was the only honest person in the whole AmigaOS4 theatre ...

Last edited by OneTimer1 on 14-Jun-2020 at 08:14 PM.

@OneTimer1

Quote:

So Trevor is not the harmless honest Amiga fan he seemed to me. Until now I thought he was the only honest person in the whole AmigaOS4 theatre ...

It is time, friend OneTimer1, to dust off the theories of Lombroso!.

The vacant, vaguely reptilian eyes.
That predatory grin that looks like a steel trap, ready to snap!

Facial features never lie, I can perceive the dread radiating from each and every picture of him.

I wouldn't be surprised if the SG in ExecSG actually meant SLIT GORGE.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

MEGA RJ MICAL, PHD

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@OneTimer1

Quote:

So Trevor is not the harmless honest Amiga fan he seemed to me. Until now I thought he was the only honest person in the whole AmigaOS4 theatre ...

You must have forgotten about how he hyped/over-hyped the Xena chipset on the X1000. Looking back now, it was about 2007, so yeah, long time ago. The Xena chipset was supposed to be the end-all of co-processors for PPC Amigas. Turns out it was just a cheap ploy to get weak minded buyers to opt in and buy an X1000 and it was even less than useful because all it did was take up space on the motherboard in spite of the promises made as to the chipset's capabilities. The promised developer library to take advantage of the "massive" power it promised never appeared either. Turned out that an Arduino Nano was more powerful, infinitely more programmable/flexible and cheaper too. Thankfully I didn't buy an X1000 but this has always been in the back of my mind

@ferrels

Xena wasn't supposed to be the be-all-and-end-all of co-processors but more a new type of user-programmable chip and output slot to extend the capabilities of the board, in a similar vein to the way the CIA chip in a C64 was used, even before the C64 came out. The hope was obviously that people would come up with new ways of extending the X1000's capabilities. There were clear examples and quite a bit of information around about how to use the XMOS chips but take up was obviously limited.

As the X1000 was intended to be released in 2010, decisions on what to include were obviously made several years earlier, when Arduino was in its infancy and using less powerful processors.

Developers were consulted as to what to include on the new board, so not solely Trevor Dickinson's choice.

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Fred Booth
========================================
A500, A600, A1200 c/w Mediator and 030
AmigaOne and OS4.1
Mac LCII, G4 Powermac running OSX + Amigakit and MorphOS 3.0
Dell Mini 10 Netbook running IcAros and AmigaForever+Amikit+AmigaSys
2006 Macb

Is it me, or our common friends Ferrels and OldAmigan, look a lot like each other?

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@ne_one

Quote:

ne_one wrote: [quote]The most prolific elements of the modern Amiga are books and lawsuits.

And this one has a twist, as it’s a book that very well may have potential to end up as a lawsuit.

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B5D6A1D019D5D45BCC56F4782AC220D8B3E2A6CC

@MEGA_RJ_MICAL

That would be ironic, as one of them is tirelessly accusing others of having fake accounts to conduct trolling.

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B5D6A1D019D5D45BCC56F4782AC220D8B3E2A6CC

@MEGA_RJ_MICAL

Uncanny resemblance!

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