I know this sounds like a bizarre thing to ask, being that we have plenty of phyiscal and historical evidence that the Amiga is a real computer with all of us being winesses to the fact! But, in the outside world, it doesn't seem to exist!

I was watching this three-part TV series on technology called Electric Dreams, where a familes life is transformed by being backdated to the 70's ,80's and 90's for a month. Now I was watching the Australian edition, but missed out on the 80's episode, and later managed to see the orginal UK version of the 80's episode. They showed the C64 and even had a Plus/4 in their storage room. So certainly wasn't skipping on popular and obscure computers.

But, I half expected it, and was disappointed when the 80's came and went without the Amiga in sight. No sign, anywhere. Now, AFAIK, the Amiga was quite big in the UK. Was I wrong? The popular Amiga magzimes came from the UK. So what happened? Is this one of those typical documentaries where they are historically ignorant and purposely miss out on history? Perhaps funded to be inaccurate.

They had the boring PC and a couple versions of Windows and even the Mac. But no Amiga. Now, if the Amiga was so significant, why does no one else care about multitasking and realistic sound and video? Common today but not so much of a big deal when the Amiga came out? Did the Amiga only last a few years before it's features were cloned and so easily glossed over? Since it's impact was short lived and computers would have ended there eventually like they did?

It just annoys me that no one in the computer world or any historians seem to officially acknowledge the Amiga! Having that Commodore name tag also doesn't do it favours as people mention that and think the Amiga was an 8-bit computer! . But why is it you don't see the Amiga recognised as a major contribution to the history of computers? In documentaries and movies!

It just drives me nuts!

Last edited by Hypex on 24-Dec-2009 at 03:06 PM.

I think it's got something to do with aliens. And space time continuum.

Last edited by Ancalimon on 24-Dec-2009 at 02:56 PM.

@Hypex

What channel and what show, if the BBC I will use it.

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@Hypex

Quote:

Perhaps funded to be inaccurate.

Yes, it's a vast conspirasy to keep Amiga in the shadows! Now that you know we're going to kill you.

Quote:

They had the boring PC and a couple versions of Windows and even the Mac. But no Amiga. Now, if the Amiga was so significant, why does no one else care about multitasking and realistic sound and video?

Because most of Amigas where used as a game consoles. What good mutltitasking did in AmigaOS if nine time out of ten Amiga was booted with NDOS disk that had Lemmings, Prince of Persia or Moonstone?

IMHO AmigaOS was rediscovered when Commodore died, stream of games dried up and gamers moved to other platforms. That left Amiga with powerusers that shifted our perception from "awsome game console" to "best operating system in the world".

Quote:

But why is it you don't see the Amiga recognised as a major contribution to the history of computers?

Other computers contributed much more to history of computing.

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@opi
Quote:

Other computers contributed much more to history of computing.

Yes, Amiga invented the multimedia computer but what's that compared to monochromatic green text and the world famous arrow shaped keys of the plus 4 !!!

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@DAX

Quote:

Yes, Amiga invented the multimedia computer but what's that compared to monochromatic green text and the world famous arrow shaped keys of the plus 4 !!!

Bah! No! Opi was obviously referring to the Atari 800.

#6

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@DAX

Quote:

Yes, Amiga invented the multimedia computer but what's that compared to monochromatic green text and the world famous arrow shaped keys of the plus 4 !!!

I'm not talking about C=4+ (or C=16 for that matter). "Multimedia computer" was a unexplored coolness factor. It was to early, there was no need for that in daily life. Later, PC explored that area and got some attention. Both CDTV and CD32 where failures in terms of doing something with interesting with CDs. In terms of "introducing computers into your daily life" C64, Atari, Mac and PC was much more than Amiga. At least that's my perspective.

When I talk with someone that had Amiga he always go about Pinbal Fantasies, Lemmings, how many joysticks he broke while playing SWOS. He never goes about Scala, Lightwave, nice OS or how he loved the PowerPC.

I can see why people don't regard Amiga as a milestone, and while I think it was a milestone in hardware and software (A500) later iteration where rather poor and never got heads turning like old A500 did.

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@number6

Quote:

Bah! No! Opi was obviously referring to the Atari 800.

I could. I would guess that Atari introduced more people to computing that Amiga did.

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@opi
My collegues always mention Deluxe Paint and Sculpt 3D and the VideoToaster (maybe because I'm into graphics). Amiga was quite a pioneer in many fields (Desktop Video being another one), but alas, that TV program did not mention Amiga out of pure incompetence since they had a C=+4 and did not have a much more significant machine.

Your explanation for how reasonable (up to a certain extent) it might be, probably had nothing to do with it.

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@opi

Quote:

I could. I would guess that Atari introduced more people to computing that Amiga did.

I suppose I'd really have to go back even further to the Atari VCS and the attachment of Jay Miner to the product which put millions of games (and the name) into so many people's homes.
Also, I recall that whilst the geniuses at IBM were letting software proceeds drift into the hands of a fledgling company called Microsoft, Atari learned the lesson YEARS earlier (with Star Raiders), that software was key to selling computers. After all, it was credited with the big bump in sales of the Atari, and I must admit...it sold ME, as well.
Who'd a thunk it?

#6

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@Hypex

Quote:

Hypex wrote: But why is it you don't see the Amiga recognised as a major contribution to the history of computers? In documentaries and movies! It just drives me nuts!

History is written by the victors. And read and spread blindly by the masses.

Best regards,

Niels

It's interesting to see how the Mac, which had no impact what-soever in the UK outside of magazine production or something, now has such a key part in the history of the home computer.

See also life on the edge Commodore book where the author is righty dismissive of the impact of Apple.

As they say it's the winners that write the history books.

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@DAX

Quote:

My collegues always mention Deluxe Paint and Sculpt 3D and the VideoToaster

Sure, all my friends where heavy Amiga nerds. If I'd based statistic of Amiga's importance it would be somewhere around thier below thier birth and above electricity. But be honest: Amiga sold because it had cool games and thus it's regard as toy by quite a few people in the field.

Quote:

that TV program did not mention Amiga out of pure incompetence since they had a C=+4 and did not have a much more significant machine.\

I can't judge this TV show as I haven't seen it. Maybe there was a reason to show it (it was director's favorite computer?) and now show Amiga. We're talking about times when computer industry where like a jungle. There's no fair and unbiased way to portray it.

What if any of you guys made a show about computer history? I'd bet it would be Amiga-heavy, with mythos like "Amiga had first OS with multitasking", "even now it boots faster than Windows 7" and so on.

Computer history is too short to be handed to real historian and too long to not be personal for everyone involved. Now I can say that Atari was important piece of computer but back in my brain there's a tiny voice that says "Atari? MEH. Commodore was so much better".

Sometimes I dream that I'll put my version of home computing history into book form.

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@nbache

Quote:

History is written by the victors. And read and spread blindly by the masses.

You call me mass? I may be fat, but please, that's just rude!

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@thread

If it's "history" you want from the early days (which does include Amiga), then go no further than Computer Chronicles
I still remember the days when all platforms were covered.
One amazing episode showed the Amiga multimedia prowess at the time vs the IBM "pancake". (me still falling off chair laughing at that)

Some of these old episodes are still available and worth a look.

#6

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@Hypex

Commodore ran into this paradox when trying to market the Amiga. There were loyal Amiga users and then a vast world that was totally unaware of it and seemed to be determined to remain that way. The same is going on today. I never understood it.

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@Hypex

Amiga was just a beautiful dream.

Last edited by DiscreetFX on 24-Dec-2009 at 07:58 PM.

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Quote:

History is written by the victors. And read and spread blindly by the masses.

This is a truth...

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@thinkchip

Quote:

Commodore ran into this paradox when trying to market the Amiga. There were loyal Amiga users and then a vast world that was totally unaware of it and seemed to be determined to remain that way. The same is going on today. I never understood it.

Some of the above discussed in this recent thread.

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Amiga was the best for the people that really think and offcourse half of them played only games but usually over here everybody was really creative! I ordered the main UK magazine(s) to here and when living in Spain and had DigiViewGold,music,Animations, friends did Demos and Games all the time and we sent disks in mail as there was no net at those times. Oh, those times:)

For now this AmigaOne for me is just waiting, crashing the newest OWB... Should I go back to DPV and Octalyzer etc. to the Classic? No, the platform and os should be ready so shall the nice times come back again.

I can see the point as the Amiga really was mainstream for a while but is forgotten as people tend to see the todays things and count a bit back and some are just ignorant (or just not no the word o that) 100% over here remember it as I have made sure of it and they remember the Amiga as I was the only one to actually do something with a computer back then and people asked to do this or that and wow, it happened. Now everybody can do stuff with ready-made things in wordprocessors etc. but we just need new and better and the point is to get an all-compatible, reliable, fast Amiga with ease of use. VIRUSFREE!!! NEW.!!! VIRUSFREE!!! (See the selling point as every second I know are frustrated with their slowing new pc's)That's the Most Ambitious P.. OK Bye.