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Poster | Thread | soft
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Perhaps interesting question, hypothesis on an alt amiga future Posted on 1-Dec-2024 21:46:32
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Regular Member |
Joined: 11-Mar-2003 Posts: 214
From: Derbyshire, UK | | |
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| If those responsible for Commodore's downfall instead were all pro-amiga, giving the machine the listening to every part of the machine and providing the exact funding and support that it needed, where would the computer be today, from Windows-conquering, to living in its shadow as an alt-OS like Linux and Mac presently do to as obsolete curio as it has become anyway? |
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| | soft
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Re: Perhaps interesting question, hypothesis on an alt amiga future Posted on 1-Dec-2024 22:08:46
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Regular Member |
Joined: 11-Mar-2003 Posts: 214
From: Derbyshire, UK | | |
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| @soft
perhaps give your own answer BEFORE reading the below, here is mine:
1 2 3 4
t h i s
i s
what
spoiler space is for
The words just enter my head sometimes. "Ya just don't understand the ways of the world mate." "That machine was doomed." "We gave it as painless a death as possible."
Draw whatever conclusions you please from that. |
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| | agami
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Re: Perhaps interesting question, hypothesis on an alt amiga future Posted on 5-Dec-2024 23:59:12
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Super Member |
Joined: 30-Jun-2008 Posts: 1858
From: Melbourne, Australia | | |
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| @soft
I've often written on this topic, here on AW.net and elsewhere.
I would have to say that if CBM were all in on the Amiga, I'm talking passion project, something which would be a point of pride for the company. Then I would postulate that after a more prolonged existence as the pre-eminent multi-tasking multi-media computing platform throughout the '90s, it would eventually get out of the personal computer market by the turn of the millennium.
Based on CBM's IP trend, and the skills and talents, I would project that they could've survived up until today as a producer of specialised hardware for niche segments. Perhaps in an alternate 2024 all the best YouTubers or Twitch streamers would be managing their production pipeline and live streams with Amiga hardware and software systems, as add-ons to their Windows and macOS personal computers. Kind of like Blackmagic and Elgato in our timeline.
Maybe popular games consoles and VR headsets would use Amiga video effect chips in conjunction with game engines such as Unreal, to render realistic game worlds. And Amiga audio effects hardware and software is a favourite with podcasters and karaoke machines.
_________________ All the way, with 68k |
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| | bhabbott
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Re: Perhaps interesting question, hypothesis on an alt amiga future Posted on 6-Dec-2024 15:27:11
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Regular Member |
Joined: 6-Jun-2018 Posts: 488
From: Aotearoa | | |
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| If those responsible for Commodore's downfall were all pro-amiga, where would I be be today?
Posting this message from a 68k Amiga instead of a Windows 10 PC.
Oh wait... I am!
Your scenario is silly. The people most responsible for Commodore's downfall are all the users who bought a PC instead of an Amiga for 'reasons'. In the 1990's I sold Amigas in my shop. I would demosntrate the Amiga to customers, showing them all its wonderful features, and they would respond with 'But is it IBM compatible?". Eventaully I stopped trying - if that's what they wanted...
In a market like that, what chance did Commodore have of surviving? A reasonable one actually, if it went all in on PCs instead of trying to go against the tide with the Amiga. So top of the list of individuals responsible for Commodore's downfall would be Jay Miner for developing the Amiga and pitching it to Commodore at a time when they could ill afford to produce yet another non-IBM compatible computer line.
Also at the top of the list is Jack Tramiel, who broke up Commodore when Gould objected to his nepotous plan to install his sons in top positions in the company. Tramiel also tried to bankupt Commodore by producing home computers that looked like a C64 but weren't compatible with it, encouraging development of a business system using the Zilog Z8000 instead of an Intel 8086, and screwing over retailers with his price war against Texas Instruments etc.
Then there were the Commodore engineers who didn't do a proper job of designing PC clones. They had an opportunity to get in on the ground floor when they licenced the 8088 from Intel. But it seems nobody was interesting in putting much effort into designing a Commodore PC, because they started by buying another clone maker's design instead. This is weird considering that IBM published the full design specs of the PC in the technical reference manual, and there was nothing proprietary in it execpt for the BIOS code (which they also published).
Cloning the PC should have been a piece of cake for an experianced computer maker like Commodore. The only reason I can think for screwing that up is that the engineers were more interested in pushing the C64 etc., which altimately killed the company.
If Commodore had agressivly pushed PCs from the start they could have become a household name like HP is today. Or they could have stuck to making furniture and become the Ikea of Canada. Either way their chances of survival would have been much higher than if they wasted billions trying to push a non-IBM compatible home computer line in the 90's. What were they thinking?
Last edited by bhabbott on 06-Dec-2024 at 03:36 PM.
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| | amigang
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Re: Perhaps interesting question, hypothesis on an alt amiga future Posted on 6-Dec-2024 16:13:53
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Elite Member |
Joined: 12-Jan-2005 Posts: 2092
From: Cheshire, England | | |
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| I think even if Commodore Amiga had the right idea of what the Machine was, it still would of been a tough market, as people pointed out, the industry and schools were really being taken over by the PC and having to be IBM Compatible was a must for a lot of business.
It why in the Amiga launch they demoed, that the Amiga could run Dos and run Lotus 123. They should have made a bigger deal of this and kept it updated. Plus Shapeshifter it often said sometime, the best 68K Mac was an Amiga, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Jph0gxzL3UI&t=225s&ab_channel=RMC-TheCave) so would have been really smart to promote Amiga of this fact.
I always felt the Market is big enough for another platform. I think it pretty clear Amiga should have targeted two areas, one the Home computer, IBM & Apple both had no interest in making a sub $600 computer, I think having two low cost options would been good too, the A600 should have been the A300 a sub $200 computer really cut down and then the slightly more powerful option at $600. the platform/spec of these home computers upgraded every 3 years to the best spec they can be in them price ranges.
The Second market is multimedia, the high end Amiga should of really focus on that area, just like the Mac kinda corned the Desktop publishing market, it should have been the same focus of the high end, Apple kinda moved into this area with programs like Final Cut Pro, that where the Amiga should have really tried to corner, maybe even buying NewTek and integrating its hardware more into the high end Amigas.
Both are not big/huge markets, but I think Amiga could have easily claimed 20% of the Computer market if it just focus on these two areas, Like people point out, it could of been the platform of choice for home video production. Last edited by amigang on 06-Dec-2024 at 06:18 PM.
_________________ AmigaNG, YouTube, LeaveReality Studio |
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| | OneTimer1
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Re: Perhaps interesting question, hypothesis on an alt amiga future Posted on 6-Dec-2024 19:54:50
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Super Member |
Joined: 3-Aug-2015 Posts: 1112
From: Germany | | |
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| @soft
Imagine C= did every thing right, they would still have run into problems. The 68k was at the end of its life, C= alone couldn't have save it they would have to switch to another CPU.
ARM was weak and only usable for handheld devices, MIPS was used in PS1 but I don't know if the CPU was widely available PPC was used by Apple who did the same switch around the time. i386 would have been another possibility.
PPC would have been best for emulators and a bit of backwards compatibility, the AIM initiative promised a market for Mac, IBM and maybe Amiga-PPC compatible systems. i386/Pentium would have been useful, if you don't want to produce your own hardware any more.
With a market share smaller than Apple and lack of money for new hardware developments, they might have given up their own desktop hardware, going into the console market they would have end up like Atari or Sega.
Today it looks like i386/Pentium with Amiga branded standard hardware or by selling an AmigaOS/Gaming system for standard hardware would have been a solution, I don't think any of it would have worked in the long run. |
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| | minator
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Re: Perhaps interesting question, hypothesis on an alt amiga future Posted on 6-Dec-2024 21:43:24
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Super Member |
Joined: 23-Mar-2004 Posts: 1007
From: Cambridge | | |
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| @OneTimer1
Quote:
Imagine C= did every thing right, they would still have run into problems. The 68k was at the end of its life, C= alone couldn't have save it they would have to switch to another CPU. |
If they had done things right we would have had the Hombre with an Amiga-on-a-chip for backwards compatibility.
If that had been successful they could have continued on doing everything from games consoles to workstations. If they could get into and keep solid markets niches it might have worked well enough to keep going for quite some time.
Hombre would have used HP PA-RISC so that would provide a natural progression going forward from 68K.
Now, how long the custom chips would have been feasible is anyone's guess and I expect they'd have eventually been dropped for ATI / Nidia at some point.
PA-RISC itself ended life in 2005 so then they'd have to do a CPU switch, x86 would have been an obvious choice at that point but you might have had IBM try to bring them across to PowerPC in which case it might have been around longer using cut down POWER processors and in that time frame, also possibly some Cell processor related tech.
Of course somewhere in the middle of all that they would have had to switch OS. It might have been to a super enhanced AmigaOS but they would have had to have added memory protection, multi-core support and 64 bit.
If they were still around today the Amiga would look very different, probably more like a PC than a Mac._________________ Whyzzat? |
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| | Hammer
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Re: Perhaps interesting question, hypothesis on an alt amiga future Posted on 6-Dec-2024 22:07:56
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Elite Member |
Joined: 9-Mar-2003 Posts: 6058
From: Australia | | |
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| Quote:
@bhabbott,
Your scenario is silly. The people most responsible for Commodore's downfall are all the users who bought a PC instead of an Amiga for 'reasons'. In the 1990's I sold Amigas in my shop. I would demosntrate the Amiga to customers, showing them all its wonderful features, and they would respond with 'But is it IBM compatible?". Eventaully I stopped trying - if that's what they wanted...
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This is why Apple has a first-party-exclusive software lineup, similar to the first-party-exclusive software approach of Japanese game consoles.
Steve Jobs made an effort to make "next-gen" GUI business applications to be available on the Mac's baseline high business resolution offer. Commodore marketing for A1000 focused on Andy Warhol's artwork.
With Steve Jobs's Apple return, He secured MS's commitment for the MS Office Mac edition.
Under Henri Rubin's administration, Commodore wasn't serious about delivering high business resolution for the masses on time. 5000 units for a kitbashed A2024 monitor is a joke. A similar problem for Atari ST's high-resolution mode that required a special monitor or expensive MultiSync monitor.
VGA applies hardware double scan feature on its 200 line mode 13h. VGA cloners made it cheap.
Commodore wasted HR resources on AMIX.
By 1990, the Australian Personal Computer's A3000 review criticized ECS. Other mainstream reviews have criticized A3000's aging 030 CPU when 040 was already released.
Commodore engineers had an A3640 card in 1990 and Commodore management delayed it.
From Commodore - The Final Years Quote:
A3000 Launch Event
The Amiga 500 and 2000 both had a lackluster launch into the North American market in 1987. Now, in 1990, the new Amiga 3000 would get a proper launch. And even better, RJ Mical believed an anti- Microsoft sentiment at the time could help the computer. “There was a window when the Amiga could have grabbed a lion’s share of that market if things had gone right,” he says. “People were looking for an alternative to Microsoft and we represented that alternative.” Harold Copperman, president of Commodore US, and his VP of marketing, Lloyd C. Mahaffey, created a splashy event to launch the A3000. Both men came from Apple, and predictably they would do their best to copy Apple’s launch events.
Prior to the show, a Commodore engineer had completed an A3640 accelerator board using the new 68040 processor from Motorola. “Scott Schaeffer was developing the original, never released, high-performance 68040 board alongside the A3000 development,” says Dave Haynie.
Bryce Nesbitt had hurriedly completed a software demo for the board, as well as a benchmarking app. “The 68040 was the hot new chip, and we had an add-on card for the Amiga 3000 that used the 68040 and ran blazingly fast,” says Nesbitt. “It was the fastest personal computer available and the demo was finished.” Motorola had been so impressed by the engineering efforts that, the prior Monday, they couriered the latest revision of the chip, codenamed Queen Bee, to Commodore. “We got the 68040 booting our operating system and we could run benchmarks that blew everybody else away,” says Nesbitt. “There wasn't a PC or Mac or Atari or anything that could run that fast and that well. Plus it had a memory management unit. We worked super hard and finished this demo in time to be introduced with the Amiga 3000.”
(skip)
Unfortunately, the moment passed and the 68040 board was not revealed. A marketing employee named Keith Masavage decided Commodore had too many unfinished expansion products, namely the A2232, A2410, A2350, and didn’t want to announce more vaporware. “Management chickened out at the last moment and left it in a box under the stage,” says Nesbitt. “I believe that they didn't want the 68040 board to compete for attention with what they were actually announcing, which was the Amiga 3000.” Once again, the engineers accused Commodore’s marketing of shooting itself in the foot.
After the show, Jeff Porter was as busy as ever, doing double duty in marketing. He managed to convince Byte magazine of the importance of the A3000. “I personally made sure we got that cover story,” he says. Byte ended up putting the A3000 on the front cover
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Since Commodore USA's marketing droids were incompetent, Jeff Porter was pushed to cover the marketing roles.
A3000 Plus with AGA was supposed to be the 2nd A3000 revision addressing PC press criticism on the aging ECS.
Henri Rubin's administration made Commodore like a weaker version of GVP! Henri Rubin didn't focus on Amiga core graphics and the best CPU delivery.
Last edited by Hammer on 06-Dec-2024 at 10:10 PM.
_________________ Amiga 1200 (rev 1D1, KS 3.2, PiStorm32/RPi CM4/Emu68) Amiga 500 (rev 6A, ECS, KS 3.2, PiStorm/RPi 4B/Emu68) Ryzen 9 7950X, DDR5-6000 64 GB RAM, GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB |
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| | Hammer
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Re: Perhaps interesting question, hypothesis on an alt amiga future Posted on 6-Dec-2024 22:36:24
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Elite Member |
Joined: 9-Mar-2003 Posts: 6058
From: Australia | | |
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| @minator
Quote:
Hombre would have used HP PA-RISC so that would provide a natural progression going forward from 68K.
Now, how long the custom chips would have been feasible is anyone's guess and I expect they'd have eventually been dropped for ATI / Nidia at some point.
PA-RISC itself ended life in 2005 so then they'd have to do a CPU switch, x86 would have been an obvious choice at that point but you might have had IBM try to bring them across to PowerPC in which case it might have been around longer using cut down POWER processors and in that time frame, also possibly some Cell processor related tech.
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Without mass-producing 3rd party OEMs using PA-RISC, HP can't solo PA-RISC support.
This is why HP allowed a PA-RISC license for Commodore and was willing to fabricate the Amiga Hombre chipset.
Other PA-RISC partners are Hitachi (workstation market, PA/50 PA-RISC clone), Mitsubishi (workstation market, HP workstation rebrand), NEC (workstation market, based on HP OEM reference designs) and OKI (workstation market, HP workstation rebrand).
Hitachi wasn't fully committed to PA-RISC since it has an in-house SuperH CPU family e.g, Sega's Saturn game console.
Commodore PA-RISC clones targeted mass-produced game consoles and the home computer market.
------------------ Desktop PowerPC died when Apple switched to Intel 64 CPUs. IBM's CPC925 chipset wasn't a mobile-friendly chipset.
IBM doesn't have a comparable solution against Intel Centrino.
_________________ Amiga 1200 (rev 1D1, KS 3.2, PiStorm32/RPi CM4/Emu68) Amiga 500 (rev 6A, ECS, KS 3.2, PiStorm/RPi 4B/Emu68) Ryzen 9 7950X, DDR5-6000 64 GB RAM, GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB |
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| | gonegahgah
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Re: Perhaps interesting question, hypothesis on an alt amiga future Posted on 7-Dec-2024 4:51:16
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Regular Member |
Joined: 5-Dec-2008 Posts: 169
From: Australia | | |
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| I know that hardware capability is very important but my interest has always been more in what the OS was for users and the things that it allowed them to do. So to me the more interesting spirit of the Amiga were things we didn't know before that what we could do that it gave to us. Things like effective multitasking (albeit only on a single CPU at the time), inter-operability between apps (via ARexx), a RAM: disk (which was very useful at the time), an interesting variety of OS preferences, an interesting, useful and used take on workspaces and pixel resolutions (screens), and commodities (to insert into the input chain). I would have liked to see what the operating system could have become and by virtue what new ground that it may have broken... Last edited by gonegahgah on 07-Dec-2024 at 04:52 AM.
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| | agami
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Re: Perhaps interesting question, hypothesis on an alt amiga future Posted on 8-Dec-2024 0:46:16
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Super Member |
Joined: 30-Jun-2008 Posts: 1858
From: Melbourne, Australia | | |
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| @gonegahgah
Quote:
gonegahgah wrote:
I know that hardware capability is very important but my interest has always been more in what the OS was for users and the things that it allowed them to do. |
I agree, and especially in the current era of computing hardware is less important than software for personal computing.
I wish Amiga were in equal measure a software company as they were a hardware company, but that wasn't the case. Throughout the '80s and early '90s, to be a computer company meant to be (predominantly) a computing hardware company, and Commodore was no different. While they did some market leading things with Amiga OS, the skills and talent pool was skewed toward hardware. Which is why I think that in the fictional scenario where they are fully committed to Amiga, I can see how their initial leadership in operating system concepts would diminish throughout the '90s, and disappear altogether by the turn of the millennium and the releases of Windows XP and MacOS X.
Throughout the '90s they would've given up on Zorro in favour of PCI, with AGP undoubtedly to follow. From a hardware perspective, where they originally had an add-on card to allow an Amiga to run DOS, they might have initially developed a PCI add-on card for Windows PCs and Macs to run Amiga OS/Hombre-level games. And as Windows gaming became dominant, and the rest focusing on consoles, I can see the how a multi-media hardware focused CBM/Amiga would focus on 3D GPUs and game development hardware/software. In such a world, I see "Amiga software" mostly surviving as extensions and overlays to Windows and macOS in concert with their hardware add-ons.
All things considered, if I can't have a complete and competitive modern AmigaOS, then a world in which Commodore/Amiga survived as a rich ecosystem of multi-media hardware add-ons, applications, and quality-of-life extensions and overlays to Windows and macOS, and maybe Linux; could still be a very profitable and successful business, and something I would welcome.
Instead I live in this version of reality where I'm reduced to contemplating and postulating how my technology life could be that little bit better if it weren't for the current duopolistic hegemony.
Last edited by agami on 09-Dec-2024 at 12:35 AM. Last edited by agami on 08-Dec-2024 at 12:50 AM.
_________________ All the way, with 68k |
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| | manga303
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Re: Perhaps interesting question, hypothesis on an alt amiga future Posted on 8-Dec-2024 3:00:11
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New Member |
Joined: 3-Aug-2023 Posts: 4
From: Unknown | | |
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| @soft
wrting this on my upgraded amiga 1200
@soft
1994 Commodore invest in a young company, two dudes that just quit silicongraphics to do there own cheap 3D Hardware. 3DFX
1995 Sony release PS1, Commodore tell the market to wait just a little longer. First Pictures of the new Amiga leaks plus a Secret Project that will be something never seen before.
1996 Commodore release the CDFX a upgraded CD32 console with 3dfx voodoo chips and more RAM. Now 3D is a deal, Doom, Wolfenstein and Quake are no Problem for this beast.
1997 Commodore release an Amiga XT,A New Amiga with AAA 16million color Desktop 1200x780 Mode & a 3DFX Chip that takes over the Display when a Game comands it. For the Video market it can Render 3D Objects in realtime over the Picture, A Genlock build in and Midi ports. The Chips are compatible to the CDFX so it takes not long "that a Emulation Software" make CDFX Titles run on the Amiga XT. Audio is a Adlib Gold with 32 Voices, Stereo and Midi Interface. The new CPU is so strong it can just Emulate an Amiga500 for backward compatible.
1998 Commodore set new record sales on both Console and Desktop market. Sega want a coroperation for a "Arcade" Board, as return they want to develop exklusive Games for CDFX on the EU and US Market.
1999 Commodore build a new modern C64 - The C66 for all the classic C64 lovers and to greet there roots. New C64 Boards with Trible SID chips for 12 Voices, upgraded Color and Resolution. Zip Drives build in, 16MB Ram and many modes to directly code into the chips. The Demo Scene is burning for this Computer.
2000 Commodore leak about the CDFX2 the first Console with DVD-Rom, 2x Voodoo2 in SLI. Never seen before 3D Games with Texture mapping, Commodore buy Apple.
The follow years Commodore release the "Apod" and the "Aphone" breaking new devices. Today 50% of people own a Aphone the newest Aphone16 can directly put into a Amiga XT5000 Computer slot and people can direcly edit 10Bit RAW Video on the APhone over the XT5000. The Music industry set already long on the Amiga XT but today people can create songs easy themself over AmigaBand and then Release them on Amify or Amitube as Video. The World get a new creative flow of many artists on there Amigas, People Understand that War is meaningless and so the World is in World Peace since 20 Years. Since Computers get slowly absolete people use there Apad or APhone for nearly everything. |
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| | Hammer
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Re: Perhaps interesting question, hypothesis on an alt amiga future Posted on 8-Dec-2024 8:59:52
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Elite Member |
Joined: 9-Mar-2003 Posts: 6058
From: Australia | | |
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| @manga303
Quote:
1995 Sony release PS1, Commodore tell the market to wait just a little longer. First Pictures of the new Amiga leaks plus a Secret Project that will be something never seen before.
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Q4 1993, Sony demonstrated PS1 running Ridge Racer for 3rd party developers. Q4 1994, Sony released PS1 for the Japanese market. Q3 1995, Sony released PS1 for US and EU markets. Q4 1995, Sony released PS1 for the ANZ market.
Sony has two years to build a strong games library for the H2 1995 release.
Consoles like the Atari Jaguar and 3DO suffered low sales due to a lack of developer support, prompting Sony to redouble their efforts in gaining the endorsement of arcade-savvy developers.
A team from Epic Sony visited more than a hundred companies throughout Japan in May 1993 in hopes of attracting game creators with the PlayStation's technological appeal.
Sony found that many disliked Nintendo's practices, such as favouring their own games over others. Through a series of negotiations, Sony acquired initial support from Namco, Konami, and Williams Entertainment, as well as 250 other development teams in Japan alone. Namco in particular was interested in developing for PlayStation since Namco rivalled Sega in the arcade market.[60] Attaining these companies secured influential games such as Ridge Racer (1993) and Mortal Kombat 3 (1995).
Namco's research managing director Shegeichi Nakamura met with Kutaragi in 1993 to discuss the preliminary PlayStation specifications, with Namco subsequently basing the Namco System 11 arcade board on PlayStation hardware and developing Tekken to compete with Virtua Fighter. The System 11 launched in arcades several months before the PlayStation's release, with the arcade release of Tekken in September 1994.
In 1993 when Sony acquired the Liverpudlian company Psygnosis (later renamed SCE Liverpool) for US$48 million, securing their first in-house development team. The acquisition meant that Sony could have more launch games ready for the PlayStation's release in Europe and North America.
In the months leading up to the PlayStation's launch, Psygnosis had around 500 full-time staff working on games and assisting with software development.
Sony strived to make game production as streamlined and inclusive as possible, in contrast to the relatively isolated approach of Sega and Nintendo. Phil Harrison, representative director of SCEE, believed that Sony's emphasis on developer assistance reduced most time-consuming aspects of development. As well as providing programming libraries, SCE headquarters in London, California, and Tokyo housed technical support teams that could work closely with third-party developers if needed.
Sony did not favour their own over non-Sony products, unlike Nintendo; Peter Molyneux of Bullfrog Productions admired Sony's open-handed approach to software developers and lauded their decision to use PCs as a development platform, remarking that "[it was] like being released from jail in terms of the freedom you have".
Another strategy that helped attract software developers was the PlayStation's use of the CD-ROM format instead of traditional cartridges. Nintendo cartridges were expensive to manufacture, and the company controlled all production, prioritising their own games, while inexpensive compact disc manufacturing occurred at dozens of locations around the world
---------- Reference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_(console)
My point, software sold the hardware, and Sony has 2 years to polish their launch game titles.
PS; Sony's tactics to gain 3rd party software are similar to Steve Jobs's.
During CD32's development, Mehdi Ali insulted Psygnosis and Bullfrog during the meeting. Psygnosis' Ian Hetherington pushed for improved CD32 specs with minimal cost increase.
Last edited by Hammer on 08-Dec-2024 at 10:56 PM. Last edited by Hammer on 08-Dec-2024 at 09:07 AM.
_________________ Amiga 1200 (rev 1D1, KS 3.2, PiStorm32/RPi CM4/Emu68) Amiga 500 (rev 6A, ECS, KS 3.2, PiStorm/RPi 4B/Emu68) Ryzen 9 7950X, DDR5-6000 64 GB RAM, GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB |
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| | ppcamiga1
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Re: Perhaps interesting question, hypothesis on an alt amiga future Posted on 8-Dec-2024 11:48:39
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Cult Member |
Joined: 23-Aug-2015 Posts: 935
From: Unknown | | |
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| @soft
it is simple today amiga os will be unix based with Amiga gui and graphics
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| | Rob
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Re: Perhaps interesting question, hypothesis on an alt amiga future Posted on 8-Dec-2024 14:44:45
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Elite Member |
Joined: 20-Mar-2003 Posts: 6392
From: S.Wales | | |
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| @amigang
Quote:
t why in the Amiga launch they demoed, that the Amiga could run Dos and run Lotus 123. They should have made a bigger deal of this and kept it updated. |
The Transformer software was very slow compared to the real thing. Even if it had been as fast as a base level IBM PC, I'm not sure going for PC emulation is as sound a business idea as you might initially hink. Sure, you can run the back catalogue of IBM compatible software but it may have sent out negative messages at the same time. Firstly, Commodore don't believe in the own OS and secondly, if you're a software developer you don't need to support Amiga because it run the IBM version anyway.
Instead of messing about with emulators and sidecars they should have put more effort into getting software houses on board. Priority should have been to get the market leaders on board and give them as much assistance as necessary to port their software. Once you've got the market leaders on board their competitors are more likely to follow for fear of losing out on the new emerging platform. Imagine if the Lotus 123 demonstration had been a native version with mouse control, a far better looking GUI and also compatible with files from the PC version. |
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| | kolla
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Re: Perhaps interesting question, hypothesis on an alt amiga future Posted on 8-Dec-2024 16:12:51
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Elite Member |
Joined: 20-Aug-2003 Posts: 3275
From: Trondheim, Norway | | |
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| @ppcamiga1
Did you decide on which unix yet?! _________________ B5D6A1D019D5D45BCC56F4782AC220D8B3E2A6CC |
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| | Rob
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Re: Perhaps interesting question, hypothesis on an alt amiga future Posted on 8-Dec-2024 21:17:35
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Elite Member |
Joined: 20-Mar-2003 Posts: 6392
From: S.Wales | | |
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| @OneTimer1
Quote:
Imagine C= did every thing right, they would still have run into problems. The 68k was at the end of its life, C= alone couldn't have save it they would have to switch to another CPU. |
If Commodore had done everything right they'd have been the big player deciding the fate of 68k. |
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| | Hammer
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Re: Perhaps interesting question, hypothesis on an alt amiga future Posted on 8-Dec-2024 23:01:22
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Elite Member |
Joined: 9-Mar-2003 Posts: 6058
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| @Rob
Nope. In 1989, Commodore already knew 68K was being EOL'ed with a shifted focus on RISC-based 88000.
88000's cost wasn't cheap enough for A500 price range.
Motorola didn't release a cost-reduced 88000 to displace 68000, hence Commodore was looking for a RISC core replacement at around 68000's price range.
Other 68K (big-endian) workstation vendors replaced 68K with RISC-based CPU designs e.g. HP big-endian PA-RISC, SUN's big-endian SPARC, SGI's big-endian MIPS, and 'etc'.
SGI used MIPS in big-endian mode.
Commodore's RISC idealogy is "cheap RISC", similar to ARM's or LSI Logic's MIPS. Last edited by Hammer on 08-Dec-2024 at 11:20 PM. Last edited by Hammer on 08-Dec-2024 at 11:20 PM. Last edited by Hammer on 08-Dec-2024 at 11:18 PM.
_________________ Amiga 1200 (rev 1D1, KS 3.2, PiStorm32/RPi CM4/Emu68) Amiga 500 (rev 6A, ECS, KS 3.2, PiStorm/RPi 4B/Emu68) Ryzen 9 7950X, DDR5-6000 64 GB RAM, GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB |
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Re: Perhaps interesting question, hypothesis on an alt amiga future Posted on 8-Dec-2024 23:35:27
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Elite Member |
Joined: 9-Mar-2003 Posts: 6058
From: Australia | | |
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| @Rob Quote:
Instead of messing about with emulators and sidecars they should have put more effort into getting software houses on board. Priority should have been to get the market leaders on board and give them as much assistance as necessary to port their software. Once you've got the market leaders on board their competitors are more likely to follow for fear of losing out on the new emerging platform. Imagine if the Lotus 123 demonstration had been a native version with mouse control, a far better looking GUI and also compatible with files from the PC version. |
Apple wasn't interested with #metoo tactics. Steve Jobs partnered with Microsoft to design "next-gen" GUI MS Excel for the "next gen" Mac.
Microsoft gained GUI experience and ported Mac's GUI Excel to Windows 2.x.
With Compaq's 386 project, MS's Excel group kept Windows 2.x development alive.
Microsoft recycled Mac's GUI use cases to beat PC's DOS establishment.
Steve Jobs ensured the Mac focused on high resolution for business at the expense of color. Other teams at Apple started color Mac R&D in 1985.
Apple gained multi-millions of Mac install base that are focused on business. Apple's userbase can spend 1.2 million PowerMacs from 1993 to Jan 1994. For a multi-million install base, the Amiga doesn't have Mac's user base demographics.
The Amiga is not Mac i.e. Phase 5 and Petro Tyschtschenko (ex-Commodore Germany, Escom's Amiga Technologies GmBH) are ignorant fools.
For Amiga's demographics majority, the Amiga is closer to the RPi's "cheap RISC" idealogy with gaming bias.
Last edited by Hammer on 08-Dec-2024 at 11:38 PM.
_________________ Amiga 1200 (rev 1D1, KS 3.2, PiStorm32/RPi CM4/Emu68) Amiga 500 (rev 6A, ECS, KS 3.2, PiStorm/RPi 4B/Emu68) Ryzen 9 7950X, DDR5-6000 64 GB RAM, GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB |
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| | Hammer
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Re: Perhaps interesting question, hypothesis on an alt amiga future Posted on 8-Dec-2024 23:57:32
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Elite Member |
Joined: 9-Mar-2003 Posts: 6058
From: Australia | | |
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| @manga303
Quote:
In 1994 Commodore invest in a young company, two dudes that just quit silicongraphics to do there own cheap 3D Hardware. 3DFX
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For Amiga Hombre, Commodore license OpenGL from SGI.
Hombre reached the software simulation stage with middleware libraries before Commodore International's bankruptcy.
Hombre supports both four-sided and three-sided (triangles) polygons with hardware-accelerated texture mapping fills.
Hombre's Nathaniel chip supports 32-bit FP DRAM with 32-bit/64-bit VRAM.
Nathaniel contains PA-RISC CPU/MMU with custom 3D bias SIMD, hardware-accelerated texture mapping fills and 'etc'. Nathaniel chip is closer to AMD's APU concept.
Amiga "CD3D" was labeled.
Price was the important factor for PA-RISC clone selection over Motorola's 88000 RISC CPU.
3DFX Voodoo 1 is expensive. Last edited by Hammer on 09-Dec-2024 at 12:09 AM.
_________________ Amiga 1200 (rev 1D1, KS 3.2, PiStorm32/RPi CM4/Emu68) Amiga 500 (rev 6A, ECS, KS 3.2, PiStorm/RPi 4B/Emu68) Ryzen 9 7950X, DDR5-6000 64 GB RAM, GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB |
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