The thing is that if we only stopped griping and whining we would soon see that we need to tell the world we want to move on, so it can help us. Imagine Netscape, Word, Lotus 123, etc. on the Amiga. It can happen if we want it to.
Finally, sorry there's no 'great mag' and all that, but you don't need me to tell you what you already know.
Kevin Anderson, Waltham Abbey
A combative stance there from Kevin, and one I think a lot of people in the Amiga community now share. Unfortunately, it often seems as though the people who were upgrading their machines are now the people who have left the Amiga and gone onto the PC, or other platform, while those that never spent a penny on their machines now form the main body of Amiga users and can be justly accused of being moaning minnies.
I have had people telling me that they are disappointed that their favourite Doom clone only runs sluggishly on a quarter screen on their machine, but when I ask about an upgrade, they shrug it off as being too expensive to play games. Any Doom game is going to be expensive - a lot of processing power is needed to generate all those 3D graphics - but people would rather bemoan the fact that AB3D2 is too slow, or that Breathless looks rubbish. I waited until both Eye of the Beholder 1 and 2 were at £13.99 instead of £30 before making a purchase, and the games themselves did not diminish one iota in the meantime. The same can be said of more recent games as well, both Gloom and Alien Breed can now be bought for under £20 and neither can be described as expensive at this price. I have purchased them both from Special Reserve Mail Order at £19.99 and must say that they are a bargain. Most game prices will fall after the initial release to a very acceptable price, so let's have no more of this 'games are too expensive' crap.
My next point arises from the review of the PD effort Deluxe Pacman A1200 and the comment that the programmer deserves the fee he asks for. I agree with this and indeed I did so back on 13 December last year when I sent the required fee (by registered post) for the registered game with its extra levels, etc. to Mr Vigdal. I then heard nothing for two months, so sent a letter to Mr Vigdal asking for confirmation as to whether he had received my payment or not. It has now been over a month since I sent my last letter and, as yet, I have had no reply. Even allowing for the shortcomings of the postal service (which are few and far between - Ed), this is a sad state of affairs.
All things considered, I would be reluctant to send money to another PD programmer in light of this experience and would urge all programmers to honour their commitments if they wish to continue with their trade.
I must admit, however, that I was not very impressed with your response to Mr Jose Ferreira's letter in issue 7 of the US edition (that's issue 96 - February for European readers). While I agree that Amiga Technologies is facing an uphill battle trying to convince users that the Amiga is a better choice for them than other computers on the market, I very much disagree that this could be accomplished by making future versions of the Amiga more like other computers.
I cannot vouch for the European market, but I do know that if the new PowerPC-based Amigas are not better at processing graphics and animations than Windows or PowerMac systems for the same cost, it will fail miserably in the US. I am so certain of this that I am willing to put money on it right now.
You might disagree with me, but removing the custom graphics chips from the system to make way for a slower PCI bus graphics solution hardly seems like an advancement for the Amiga architecture. Adding third-party graphics confusion would not help the situation, unless Amiga Technologies very carefully wrote the standard library routines that these proposed graphics cards used. If you doubt me, pick up any box for a game written for Windows systems and read the system requirements section of the cover. If you don't have a degree in computer systems management, don't expect to understand what you are reading.
A much better solution would seem to be redesigning the custom chips and placing them on the system bus, with a slot added to the motherboard for an upgrade card as better versions of the chip become available. This would probably be similar to the CPU slot on the A3000/4000 machines.
As for the idea that the A1200 currently is a good bargain, again I cannot vouch for the European market, but here in the US it should be possible to put together a 486DX2 66MHz system with 16Mb RAM, 64-bit SVGA graphics (VLB), a 1Gb hard drive, a 16-bit sound card and Windows 95 for only slightly more than an A1200 with a 130Mb hard drive (less than $100 difference if you shop around). You might have to assemble the system yourself, but at least you would have a decent idea of how to fix it if it ever broke down. You would also have the advantage of a larger software base to choose from. It might not be the killer graphics system that an A4000T is, but it would be considerably less expensive and more versatile overall.
Apple Computer has recently discovered the problem with trying to market cheap, low-end computers in a high-end market by posting a $68 million loss for the last quarter of 1995. Apple has mostly blamed this loss on expecting the Macintosh Performa line to be the better selling system during the Christmas shopping season. In fact, they are now backlogged on orders for their A/V PowerMac systems and overstocked on their Performa range.
For many people a Windows-based computer is probably better than an Amiga as they will be certain to have support for their computer for some time to come, and seldom have to worry that they will only have one dealer in town (if that) who might go under at any moment. In all of Silicon Valley I have been able to find just one Amiga dealer, and they seem to be phasing out their Amiga stock. Even small towns in California usually have at least one place where people can get Windows software.
If Amiga Technologies expects to survive in an American computer market, they will have to build a computer that can handle graphics and animation significantly better than other computers on the market, and do it at the same price. This is what the Amiga has always been best at, being a cheaper solution to an SGI Indigo series, not a Mac clone.
I have owned an A3000 almost since they came out and quite admire the little machine's powerful graphics abilities, but if Amiga Technologies think they can convince me to purchase a PowerMac clone with an obscure operating system and a small software base, they had best rethink the situation.
'Adding third-party graphics confusion', as you say, will be the only way the Amiga will be able to catch up with these other platforms. After all, how long do you think it would take to design this killer graphics chipset? The people who work for companies like Cirrus Logic, Trident, Diamond and others have spent the last six or seven years purely concentrating on graphics chipset design. You then say that the A4000T has a killer graphics system, when in fact, it is no better than the A1200's and falls far short of any current VGA chipset. In short, the best thing the Amiga has going for it is its operating system, and it is this that drags its graphics kicking and screaming into the Õ90s and gives it some sort of edge over the competition.
In my opinion, the only way the Amiga can survive is as a top-notch multi-platform operating system that offers proper multimedia functionality for programs like Scala, etc. on any platform. AT could still make machines, but they should license any custom hardware to other companies who would then be able to make more specialised machines for specific purposes like video editing, network computing, POI displays, 3D modelling and the like. The only way to do this is to make sure the OS can handle every eventuality in terms of libraries for graphics, sound, and pretty much every other operation that can be updated or even replaced by individual manufacturers. There is still an awful lot of work to do to achieve this, but Amiga Technologies have made a start and I can only hope, for all Amiga users' sake, that they succeed in their endeavours. I really hope the A1200+ will be a world beating machine with a new Workbench and Kickstart on flash ROM for easy upgrading. It could even be called Workbench 96!
Ditching the AGA chipset and going for an emulation of it in a VGA-type system would also be a good idea because it would allow for easy painless upgrades, for example to 24-bit graphics, 16-bit, studio quality sound with more channels, 3D manipulation and more.
Why not ask AT to sign a deal with RBF software to bundle the forthcoming OctaMED pro Soundstudio package and include the complete set of high quality samples from Walkabout Music with the A1200+? Including the new Doom clone 'Breathless' in the A1200+ bundle would also be an excellent idea, and all at a low price!
Still, it's a start on the way to the PowerAmigas of next year and we can all hope for an Amiga renaissance!
I own an Amiga 500 with 1Mb RAM, one external floppy drive and an A570 CD-ROM drive, but no hard drive. Obviously, I need to upgrade in order to utilise most of the software products reviewed in Amiga Computing. But I do not know enough about upgrade items such as additional RAM hardware, hard drives and interfaces listed in the ads of the dealers. So I wrote a letter in mid-November asking the folk at Software Hut, Sharon Hill, PA, which of the upgrade units listed in their ad would fit my machine. My intention was to order such items once I received the needed information. This would have amounted to a sizeable order.
To date, I have received neither a reply to my letter, nor the letter itself returned by the Postal Service as undeliverable. (In other words, I must conclude it has been ignored.)
Other dealers have been about as unhelpful as Software Hut. So where do I have to go for upgrade hardware? No dealers near here; I would have to order out of the area. How do I support dealers like that?
Sure, I could use the telephone to obtain the needed information. But do you like paying long distance charges for 20 or 30 minutes of being on hold until you give up in frustration? I am not about to use the phone any more.
Most of the information reviewed or published in AC is for units of greater capability than mine. So what good is that information to me right now?
The last reason for my hesitancy is not crucial, but I mention it to complete the picture. The crucial reasons are the obvious uselessness of the adverts since dealers are apparently not too interested in selling Amiga products - at least not the ones needed to upgrade an A500. And crucial, too, is the uselessness of information and reviews for products which will not work on the A500, so for all practical purposes, I have been shoved out of the market.
I have decided to wait and see what Escom does. Wait and see if the Amiga does, indeed, make a comeback. I do like my A500. But if I can't obtain needed hardware or information, why should I buy a magazine which will only add to my discouragement as I read it and realise that none of it is for me.
I would welcome a comment or reply. If I don't hear from you, I will add AC to the same list on which I have put Software Hut and their kind. If in the future, I find a practical use for AC, you will hear from me. And I do thank you for the service I have received from your branch of IDG.
There is an early comparison between various models with a graph showing how the price of 'the micro' has fallen since the Apple II which in 1978 cost £995, down through the various machines until the Commodore 64 which was quoted as 'Approx. £200' in 1984. At the end of the introduction to that particular graph, the book said: 'these are selling prices from dealers of the most competitively priced computers with at least 16K of RAM' Wow! One of the comments in the review of the 64 was enlightening Ð 'the User's Guide is of the low standard associated with Commodore manuals' Ð they never learned, did they? Most of the problems I had as a beginner were directly associated with the unclear instruction manual I received with my A1200.
I won't bore you with any more, but it serves to highlight the current debate between Amiga users in all their varieties and the current preference being shown towards the PC in certain quarters. I read, for instance, in the leading PC magazine, that the reason the 486 was being offered complete at only £499 (including VAT!), was certainly that PC users must 'now consider the Pentium 100 with at least 16Mb RAM as the entry point...'. I would only comment from a personal viewpoint, that as far as I am concerned my Amiga 1200 with 4Mb RAM and a 170Mb Hard drive, plus my lovely Zip drive, all working happily through my HiQ Workstation via the Squirrel SCSI interface does all that I ask of it, or need it to do. And when using FastView, I can view all the pictures I need in glorious colour as near to instantly as makes no difference Ð so who needs to spend much more than £1500 to get a Pentium 100?
This will surely be the end of computer civilisation as we know it because with only one producer of software still existing, having bought out everyone else, Microsoft will be so huge it will take them forever to produce new software, and they will only want to make programs for the PC. Already many companies who produce innovative software for other platforms have been absorbed into the Microsoft monster like Blue Ribbon Bakery and Wavefront, and where are their products now? You'll probably see them again under a different name with the same bland Microsoft interface and with features you have to pay extra to get over the Microsoft Network which will drive the Internet underground because everyone will have it as standard on their machines.
Excuses, excuses
I would like to make two observations arising from articles in the March issue. Firstly, with regard to the article on piracy, any person that uses the cost of games as an excuse to buy pirated games (or indeed any software) is being a touch cheeky. The quick answer to this rather lame postulation is to wait for a while and the price will almost certainly fall to a lower level.
Neil Adams, Cromer
I guess it's a bit like the conversation you can have about books. Do you buy the hardback for between £10 and £20, or do you wait for the paperback version to come out at half the price. I know most of my book collection is softback, but then I suppose there isn't the hype over new books that there is over new games. As for PD programmers, the vast majority, in my experience, are extremely quick to reply to any mail or e-mail and are very happy to receive any sort of payment for their program, so I wouldn't let one bad experience put you off.
Better solutions
I have been reading your magazine's US edition since the demise of Amiga World here. I have been impressed overall with the quality of your magazine, even with only limited coverage of goings on here in the States.
Edward K. Smallwood, Scotts Valley, California
I hate to pick you up on some of the more contradictory statements you have made in your letter to us, Mr Smallwood, but we really need to settle the issue. First you ask for Amiga Technologies to redesign the Amiga graphics chipset to be better than the current standards for the PC, and then you deride the A1200 for only being marginally cheaper than a 486. The reason the A1200 is so expensive now is purely because of its custom chips. If it used a cheap VGA chipset, I'm sure the cost could be practically halved when in conjunction with other, more standard, parts.
My sister was bitten by a moose once...
Hi, I'm a 20-year old Amiga fan who is going to buy the forthcoming A1200+ in summer/early autumn this year. This new machine is believed to be powered by the new Motorola Coldfire hybrid Risc processor with user-accessible SIMM sockets on the motherboard and should be bundled with a Plug and Play Internet bundle. Do you have any further information on the A1200+ and what its features will be?
Helge Kvalheim, Flaktveit, Norway
Nice to hear from our Norwegian readers. If you've read last month's piece on CeBit 96, you'll know a lot more about the A1200+ or Walker, as it is known in development. It is unfortunate that the ColdFire processor hasn't been used for the new machine, but at least it is a whole lot faster than a base A1200. As for Workbench, it would appear that it will be updated, but perhaps not as much as we would all like for this machine. The idea of having Kickstart on a flash ROM might also be scuppered by the fact that Kickstart will now require a 1Mb ROM to sit in, and flash ROMs of that size might be extremely expensive.
Renewal quandary
I recently received notice that my subscription to Amiga Computing is due for renewal. AC is a fine magazine - no question about that - but I am most hesitant to renew. Why? Because in several past issues, columnists and editors have urged readers 'to support Amiga product dealers, especially during this difficult time of transition between the demise of Commodore and the establishment of Escom.' I think that you, as AC, need to know what's happening 'out there' with such dealers.
Wilfred L Ziekert, Branson, MO
While I sympathise with your attempts to contact Amiga dealers to help you upgrade your machine, I think the general consensus of any dealer hearing your tale of woe would be that you would probably save yourself a whole heap of cash if you just put that ageing A500 to one side and bought yourself a new or second-hand A1200 with a hard drive. You would need to replace that A570, but other than that you would have a far superior machine to the one you currently have, even if you do manage to find the remaindered upgrades that are still out there. You would also then have a use for 95 per cent of the material we publish in AC, and have a pretty decent home computer to boot.
Ancient History
I was rooting about in a little used cupboard over the weekend and discovered a book entitled 'Choosing and using your home computer, an introductory course.' It was published by Orbis in 1984 and to be honest I have never before read it in any depth. Fascinating stuff, mostly basics about what and how to do it, as you would expect, but some of the comments make fascinating reading in 1996, particularly in context with the on-going Amiga vs. PC saga.
Ian Aisbitt, Hunton, N Yorkshire
Nice to hear from you again Ian. As Kevin Anderson said, people should get whatever best suits their needs, and it looks like you've found your ideal machine, so why worry? Even in five years your Amiga will still be doing all it is today, which might just still be enough for your needs.
Today the world, tomorrow the universe!
As an Amiga owner of long standing, I feel I have to point out that not only is the Amiga going down the drain, but so are Macintoshes, Archimedes and every other independent platform. With the might of Microsoft behind it, can it be long before the only machine anyone will be able to buy will be a PC clone and Windows 95, 96, 99, whatever.
Barry Mangon, Chingford
Blimey Barry, stay off the coffee for a while will you, it's making you paranoid! All the same, Microsoft are now in a position where they not only control the operating system of the world's most widespread platform, but also produce the major software packages on that platform. We can but hope that market forces will stop Microsoft from taking over the entire range of computing products before it's too la +++Microsoft regrets this broadcast cannot continue. Regular service will be resumed soon +++
© 1996 IDG Media