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{subhead} The Alternative Amiga{def}{p}
Article by M.Emrah Oral
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 Hello fellow Amigans.
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  While the seemingly endless "future of the amiga" discussions go on in
discussion forums, computer shows, mailing lists, etc. many people seem
to forget the point that they still have an Amiga, and instead of, or
while, waiting for what the future has to bring, they may still have a
lot of fun with their old and faithfull miggy. A bare AGA Amiga might be
limited to 256 colours, 8 bit audio, and outdated architecture, and it
might be a clear fact that the new machines (mainly the Wintel PCs) might
be able to outperform these very easily but is it also not a fact that
there are and will always be jobs for which even an unexpanded Amiga's
capabilities would be more than enough? I have been thinking about a few
projects and alternative uses for our beloved miggy and I decided I would
collect them in this article and share with the other Amigans from around
the world. If any of you decide you are interested in the following
ideas, or if any of you decide he would put these theories into practise,
please do.
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    A few alternative uses for an Amiga.
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  I remember having a ZX Speccy when I was a teenager, and one day I
realized that it was no longer a desirable computer as it once was (in
the early 1980s). Now there were better machines: Amigas, Atari STs, PCs.
But one person, my father reminded me that the ZX Speccy did not have any
of its funtionality removed. It could still perform as perfect as the
first day; anything I used to do on it could still be done. He was
right. Definitely it was not a good reason to avoid buying a new
computer, but it was good idea to remember that every computer was
useful, and had capabilities that will never be out of date. The simplest
one of these, for instance, would be math. Say you had a Speccy, and a
new modern machine like the Amiga (for the late 1980s). And you do some
sines, cosines, and similar math calculations at work but that is the
only thing you would need a computer for. Would you say, the Amiga has
spreadsheets, greater memory, etc. etc. and buy an Amiga for that task?
What about the cheap alternative.
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Personally I am interested in all sorts of video-arts, and video editing
is one of the hobbies that I won't change with anything. This hobby
requires a lot of video titling, which involves scrolltexts, subtitles,
even wipes. The little wonder Amiga already has a built-in PAL/NTSC
compatible output with quality sufficient for amateur home video. It even
has programs to allow the controling of VCRs using SONY's industry
stadard LANC protocol. One can easily setup a A/B Roll editing suite with
an Amiga, genlock, a VCR, and a handycam. SCALA is still a very good
program, almost unrivalled in some aspects, and the PC/Unix counterparts
of SCALA are way less affordable and suitable for home use.
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Ever realized that an A1200 with an ethernet adapter (such as PCMCIA
ethernet cards) would make a great server? First of all it is quite
compact. Nowadays 3.5" HDs are quite affordable and they can be put into
the case of an A1200 using the well-known hack. In fact one might want to
include a CD-ROM drive too. After a few hours work on software
installation, you have a cheap, versatile, and relatively secure server.
Remember, I am not claiming that this rather humble setup can replace NT
servers, SGI machines, etc. but you would have as much space for WWW as
you like on your very own HD. You may even give WWW accounts to friends.
APACHE, the well known web server software (www-daemon) is now available
for the Amiga for free. Consider also FTP; WU-FTPd, LS-FTPd, etc. are all
ftp-daemons available for the Amiga, and they are very good pieces of
software. WU-FTP is what Washington University Archive, WUSTL (or Aminet)
is using. Setup an IRC daemon, where you make the rules. Bring your
friends together on your own machine.
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If you are handy with electronics and you have a fast Amiga with a 060
processor (or even PPC....I say "even" for most people would not use
their Amiga for a single purpose like the one I am going to talk about if
they have a PPC machine), then for the following project you need:
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- A fast amiga (fast enough to play MP3s at decent quality){p}
- A storage space (HD) of a few gigs. (4 ?){p}
- A CD drive (optional){p}
- A car!
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By the time you have read the last item you probably have had a spark in
your mind about what I am going to discuss. Yes. Imagine a computerized
car. Now that we have Microsoft's autoPCs, we can guess how driving can
be a real pain in the head too, so lets bring our own response to
Micro$oft's auto PC! (Imagine a software failure while you are cruising
at 90Mph!) Ever wanted to connect one of those new 20 CD changers to your
car audio ? What about showing to everybody that you are not just one of
these ordinary people by installing your Amiga1200 in the trunk and
playing MP3s ? Impossible ? Nope it is not! You can feed an A1200 off a
car's battery,. There are schematics for this. You already have an audio
setup (amplifier/speakers, etc) in your car. All you need to do is fill a
HD with HOURS AND HOURS of your favorite music, connect the audio output
of your miggy to the aux input of your car audio, and run a wire from the
joystick port to the dashboard, to connect up to 5 push buttons for.. you
guessed, play and selection.
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So far we have been discussing two projects. The first one is more down
to earth, and is very pracical indeed. The second one is more of a
fantasy but again PERFECTLY possible! Both of them are tasks that would
be interesting to a lot of people. And my point is : For none of them
(and for none of a thousand alternative uses) you need 32 bit colour,
hi-res graphics (these projects don't even need one pixel!), 16 bit 32
channel super acoustic 3D audio, 300Mhz CPUs, and modern operating
systems.. But you would still have a lot of fun. Now for the next month,
I have two more alternative use projects for the Amiga, together with a
new article on a completely different miggy subject. Until then, why not
write your own ideas for alternative uses of an Amiga to me at
{bold}memrah@usa.net{nobold}, and I will add these to my article too, together with
your names.  Never forget.. An Amiga is never going to be outdated as
long as it manages to make you smile.. So give it a chance...