I read with interest the article in the May 1998 issue of Amiga Format about the PC Tower which also has a flatmate - An Amiga A1200.
For many years, Amiga users have been in envy of the sheer amount of PC peripherals that have been available. Having the same stuff run on your Amiga, however, has been a bit of a problem, mainly due to drivers, and different plugs etc.
The ideal solution would be to have one computer which could run as the two systems, encased in the one box, and share the same resources.
Now, this, until now has been half acheived. You were able to connect a PC to an Amiga, and transfer data between them for many a year. This has meant that you have had to have the two different computers set up, which meant two keyboards, two CPU cases, two monitors, and two power supplies. This meant that the space needed was indeed massive.
Now, Eyetech have managed the near seeming impossible. Now, don't get me wrong - this is not a shoddy software patch - this is the real thing. You have to send them your A1200, which they then dismantle to squeeze into the PC. Either that or they give you the PC side of things, and you have to try and put it all together - not an easy task for any man. Still costs you just short of a grand, though.
With this, you get all the ethernet network cards which enable you to connect the two computers.
All in all, this monster weighs in at about 19 kilos, which is about 10000000 million times heavier than your guilt at having bought a PC (oops, I own a PC as well as an Amiga - Sorry). Never fear, as this is not the sort of machine you will want to move about.
As for software, well Windoze is extra (and you thought Bill Gates would not dominate the Amiga - just you wait!!).
When you boot up the EZ, you start in PC mode, and the Amiga mode kicks in soon after. Why you have to start in PC mode beats me, as I think that you should have a menu, that you can choose from, although I have not actually seen one of these monsters running.
Upgrading is going to be a problem, as this requires some pretty major surgery to try and cram any extra cards into your tower. As PC users upgrade pretty regularly, this could be a bit of a problem. Most Amigas run in quite standard form for ages, and any upgrades that you wish to do are usually pretty simple. This will changes things quite considerably though.
All in all, I don't think I would shell out the dosh. I already have a pretty good Amiga set up, and I also have a pretty good PC now (don't worry, as I am typing this on my Amiga, although, I confess, I shall be e-mailing it on my PC to Mark). I really do not have much use of sending software to my PC from the Amiga, and even if I did, I am sure that I would probably just set up a small network. As it is, All I do is copy files onto PC Disks on my Amiga, and take them upstairs to the PC, and then load them onto that. Obviously, this limits me to 720K, althoug I can split up Lha files of a larger size, and save it in chunks, and compile them back together on the other computer. This works in either direction, although I admit, this is a lot of work.
It is nice however to see that the tower has a very large Amiga sign on it. Nice to see Eytech have got their priorities right.
Whether this will affect sales of the New Amigas due out soon will be doubtful, as most die hard Amiga fans will be probably holding off until then.