I'm not a particulary clever amiga user in that programing and such techy type things fly over my head, occasionally getting caught in my hair. Therefore, for me to say that the current Amiga status doesn't worry me a bit would be a lie. While it's true that all of the current upgrades in the form of PPC boards and graphics cards do produce excellent results in games like Quake and Napalm and in the fields of NET sites and the musical and graphical capabilities of the Amiga, it is a very (very, very) expensive ideal.

To me the whole point of the Amiga 1200 was the fact that it was a much cheaper alternative to PCs (which make hopeless home computers anyway) that you could play games and do all the techy stuff your heart desired but at a fraction of the price of the mindless drones with Microsoft burned into their brains. While I understand that progress is required with regards to the abysmal state of the platform (Every one goes on about the resurgence of the Miggy but be realistic - The ABC figures show around 50,000 Amiga Magazines get sold a month compared to 205,000 + for the Official Playstation Magazine alone. And how many shops near you sell Miggy software,never mind hardware? - Exactly - mail order is the only option especially if, like me, you live miles from any major city.) the way things are going in respect of the current price of all the upgrades by the time you have got everything from the PPC to the hardrive you've spent enough to get a low end PC. While the Miggy package is obviously going to be better than the PC it is, however the same cost as a PC - Oh dear. It should be remembered that very few people can afford that sort of expense (unless you're rich/steal/spoiled etc) and the current small user base of Amigas surely can't justify that kind of expense. The companies creating the hardware are pretty brave anyway!

The current news of a new Amiga in 2 years or so is obviously a good idea but although we've heard all the promises that the old machines will be supported etc - let's be realistic, A1200s and A4000s will be made completetly obsolete by all this as the hard and software companies get making new stuff for what will obviously be the new and no doubt excellent Amiga (doubtless very expensive as well).

So it looks like those of us who were in the Amiga game to enjoy the fairly cheap nature of the software and PD etc will be left to carry on by ourselves until all of the old style Miggys have burned out while the Amiga name will disappear into the quagmire of PCs.