ESP, Amiga Computing, Media House, Adlington Park, Macclesfield, Cheshire, UK, SK10 4NP or e-mail us: esp@idg.co.uk
| Well, well. You lot have certainly been busy in writing and telling us what you think of VIScorp as the new owners of the Amiga. It's a very mixed response as you can see, but if you want to get it off your chest write to the usual address. You never know, you could be the lucky prize winner of £50 |
For quite a long time Amiga Computing has, of course, tried to figure out how the Amiga could and should get back for the future. The discussions that have taken place are mostly about PCs which I find will be the beginning of the end for the Amiga, just trying to stand up to the standard of the PC.
Using a PC at work, I am very familiar with the computer and its drawbacks. One important drawback is the need for very detailed computer knowledge just to install hardware or even software. This is no problem when you have access to programmers and other PC-educated staff, but at home this normally means that a PC bought for home use will never be upgraded, because even though the owner might buy new hard or software once or twice, he/she will find out that they are not able to install it.
On the Amiga, home installations of new hard and software are as easy as you can ever dream of. Another point where the Amiga is years ahead of the PC is in the ability to upgrade easily. When I bought my A1200 in February 1993, the normal PC was a 286 and today I am still able to get improved programs, handle Photo-CDs and so on with my Amiga, but what could I have done with a 286 today? Almost nothing.
If you want a home computer and not a business machine then there is no better choice than the Amiga. Where do you see the market in the next ten years? Exactly in home computing and that is also what the PC companies have seen, trying to get the PC more user friendly - but still the Amiga is years ahead.
And another thing. I don't need 24-bit photos on the screen - the screen can't show them anyhow - as long as I have HAM8, but I do need 24-bit photos in printing and that is precisely what Studio II and my Amiga are capable of doing.
Sometimes when I need it, I can even use my Amiga to do some home-work and connect it to the PC at work without any problems because of the flexibility of the Amiga. Thanks to this flexibility, I can even bring files home from Aminet which have been downloaded on the PC and use them on the Amiga.
What more would you like a home computer to do and still be sold at a competitive price? Well, that was just my opinion, but I missed it in your magazine.
Gert Johansen, Denmark
Yes, quite right. In our opinion, the Amiga is far more user-friendly than the PC. It's also true that PCs are evolving so quickly and you get the situation where what is the latest technology one day is deader than a dodo the next. Perhaps, though, the Amiga is guilty of resting on its laurels in failing to keep up - a new operating system and faster processor to name but two. It's user friendliness and price would make it an ideal home computer but a computer in the home has to be suited to leisure use, i.e. for playing games. After all, you can't play Duke Nukem on the Amiga - that's the bad side.
However, the future for the Amiga does look a lot brighter in the hands of VIScorp who not only knows the machine inside out but has a vision of a worldwide plan to get the Amiga into the home again. Now, that's a home computer.
I think things are finally looking up for the Amiga, with Escom selling Amiga Technologies to VIScorp, who actually really knows and cares about Amigas. Escom never really cared about the Amiga and this showed in the attitude of its sales staff, and their lack of commitment. Perhaps in the hands of somebody who actually cares about the Amiga, things will be different with, hopefully, a more aggressive advertising policy and a more realistic price range for the A4000 and the Q-Drive, and a redesign of the Walker's case. However, the Amiga must be improved if it is to survive. This is down to VIScorp and the users of the machine.
The main thing VIScorp needs to do is improve the now much-dated OS and Workbench. Networking and better printing facilities are a must. It must also contact companies that use the Amiga in the work place and find out what they want and need from the OS, then work closely with companies such as Digita so that the OS will provide the things they need. Finally, it should improve the look and feel of Workbench. Only today, I had a PC owner tell me that his PC was better than my Amiga 1200 because Windows looked better! If these improvements are followed the Amiga will have a killer OS.
An area for hardware development is again networking. For businesses to use Amigas they are going to want a relatively cheap but quick way to network their machines. Ethernet is ideal but so expensive on the Amiga, so if there was a cheaper Ethernet with support from the OS we would see more Amigas in offices. VIScorp also desperately needs to get software companies such as Digita to produce killer applications, even help them with production, and make sure all software companies (productive and games) do not leave the Amiga.
It is not all down to VIScorp though. Existing owners need to upgrade so that killer application software can be written that will run at decent speed. The first step is for non-AGA Amiga owners to upgrade. I know that some people say they cannot afford to upgrade, and I know that is true, but who says the computers have to be brand new. I got my A1200 for a very reasonable price second-hand.
VIScorp can also help by running a similar scheme to Escom with the cheaper upgrade price and exchange. Existing A1200 owners need to save up and buy hard drives, accelerators, more RAM, and CD-ROM drives, ultimately to power the AmigaÕs status so that it is easier for the companies to produce killer software.
Don't just settle for the Amiga you have. Spread the word about the Amiga, explore Workbench and shell, get the most out of your Amiga. We have a great machine, let's keep it that way, let's help VIScorp produce a PC beater. Most of all, don't be persuaded by PC owners that your machine is crap and that a PC could lick it any day. If this was true, how come the Amiga is still around and fighting, and kicking the PC in many fields?
David Simmons, Herts
As a fairly regular writer to Postbag I hesitate to say 'Didn't I say so?', but I have a 'gut feeling' that the exit of Escom and Amiga Technologies from the Amiga scene will, in the long run, prove to be the best thing that has happened to the Amiga in a fairly stormy existence. I always thought that Escom had bought the Amiga for the wrong reasons and was neither able nor willing to properly exploit its potential.
But the new owners, being a relatively small company who knows what the Amiga can do and what it is best at, together with its own 'on-board' expertise in the ex-Amiga personnel will, unless I am much mistaken (and I am quite prepared to put my money where my mouth is!), license the technology so that they derive a substantial income therefrom if they do not have the resources in-house.
So the current rush to sell basic A1200s by those uneducated people prepared to sell a really good base computer at the stupid price of £150 will, in the long-term, backfire on them. At a personal level, I have been slowly but surely upgrading mine. Currently, it looks like this: an A1200 working through a nice new Surfing Squirrel connecting it to my HiQ Workstation with my CD-ROM (isn't it nice to listen to music whilst you are working?). The Squirrel also runs my Zip drive which I use mostly for backup to my recently acquired Seagate 5018a 3.5" 1.1 Gig hard drive which, thanks to those nice people at Eyetech, now sits snugly inside the casing of my A1200. And to top it all off, I managed to find a 16Mb SIMM from my friends down at First Computer at an excellent price, so I treated myself to a Blizzard 1230/4 68030 accelerator Trapdoor extension. Finally. it all connects to my Project Printer with which I am well pleased.
I used to think my machine was pretty good before I upgraded, but boy, you should see it go now! It was interesting talking to the lads at Gordon Harwood (the distributors in this country for the German Blizzard board). I had to wait because they were sold out and awaiting a fresh delivery from Germany - apparently there is great difficulty keeping up with the demand. If, as it was stated, the boards are ordered in batches of 50 at a time just for this country, it doesn't take a genius to work out that there are a lot of dedicated Amiga users around?
So take heart, oh ye of little faith (and I don't mean Amiga Computing). It will all come right in the end!
Ian Aisbitt, North Yorkshire
There are obviously a lot of dedicated users still out there - why else would there be so much support for a machine that was off the shelves for more than a year? VIScorp will be tapping into a whole new generation of Amiga users who will hopefully see (and want to fully exploit) the benefits of the machine.
It seems that VIScorp has put the final nail in Amiga's coffin. With the recent announcements about the plans it has for the future, I feel too disappointed (I know I'm not the only one) and tired to blame anyone, even if I should. After all, the Amiga is not the only quality machine that loses the market war. NeXT machines and Archimedes are distinguished examples of brilliant computers that vanished under the weight of stupidity and mass-delusion.
Yes, I might be over-reacting but the end of the Amiga is clearer now, more than ever (don't fool yourself that I'm a pessimist).
No RISC? No AGA updating or replacement? No 16-bit sound? Yes I agree with you that Amiga has an excellent OS, but can this be the only feature to save the machine? As an owner of an A4000 with CyberVision 64, I know there is little room left for AGA chipsetÉWhat's next? They're going to make Amiga a PC-style computer? Put-any-card-you-like-in-the-box-and-let-the-drivers-do-the-rest? A solid and fine-tuned machine is far better and workable than any silicon-salad mixture. After all, other solutions are already given out there, and they offer more tempting options than a set-top box (yes I mean BeBox among others).
So analysing the situation, discussing and exchanging personal views is not going to help. You know something dear Ezra? The one thing worse than the Amiga's future at the present moment is the loss of any hope. VIScorp has killed all our hopes. What else can be said?
Sorry for the grumbling. I can't help it.
Yiannis Maragakis, Hellas
A certain amount of cynicism in dealing with the Amiga's current situation might be in order, but when one of its primary proponents begins to sound worse than the worst Amiga bashers, something is clearly not in order. There are many examples, but I would first cite the ESP section of Issue 11 of the US Edition (Issue 100, UK). Now, nitpicking generally won't do much good, but I'll gladly resort to it as a response to the same.
Yes, the Amiga line is underpowered and overpriced in many ways. The A1200 is an excellent computer but costs too much for the power. The Walker...ugh, I'm not going to even get into that. The A4000T is an excellent machine, comparable to Pentium PCs when equipped with a 68060. And while AGA might not be on the forefront of technology, I dare not so easily dismiss is.
Why? Of course, one can't deny that it's limited in resolution, is slow due to the planar display, and can only display the whole 24-bit palette in HAM8 mode, but there are some capabilities of the custom chipset that are NOT as outdated as some people would like to say, for example the 8-bit sound, which continues to surpass many PC sound cards, and animation speed. Now, certainly a very high-end PC is going to just outstrip your average Amiga in animation, considering it's had a four-year period in which to fly out ahead (only after catching up from a vast deficit, of course). But when you're talking about most computers, the majority of PCs just can't compare at animation speed, DESPITE the planar display of the chipset.
Over here in power-hungry America, I have had plenty of opportunities to see some nicely configured PCs, and the results can be pathetic at times. The best graphics chipset design can't do much if the computer itself has a fundamentally poor operating system and hardware design, as the PCs (and to some extent, the Macs) do. So a third-party chipset would probably perform well on the Amiga, but why?!
I will promptly LAUGH in the face of an argument that cites cost as an excuse for dumping the chipset philosophy. The Amiga has always had a custom chipset and, until now, was always well-priced. The A1000 cost about 1/2 as much as an IBM XT, and the A1200 and A4000 continued this general trend. Now suddenly, Escom comes along and overprices the life out of the Amigas, and suddenly people want to blame the custom chipset for it! It's absurd. And for that matter, the ECS can still outperform many modern PC graphics systems for some purposes (again, consider high-end versus the technology of the masses), not to mention how much better AGA is than that, and how much better AAA would be!
Yes, I said AAA! This chipset was nearly completed before Commodore died. And it was going to bring 1280x1024 screenmodes, 24-bit graphics, chunky pixel graphics modes, 64-bit hardware, a newer and faster blitter (with byte movement capability) and copper, and 16-bit 8-channel sound. Even three years later, this would still be an incredible update to the Amiga and would give the competition quite a challenge, considering the power and speed of the Amiga's OS. The AAA chipset would be very easy to integrate into the Amiga due to backwards compatibility with hardware and software, and the Amiga needs to get up and running again as soon as possible if it is to have a dream of succeeding. The AAA chipset would allow thatÉand expense would not be such a consideration, as I outlined above.
I'm beginning to think the Amiga was better off with Commodore. Management and marketing may have been pathetic, but at least Commodore, as a whole, was able to produce powerful Amigas at reasonable prices, and had a competent idea of where the Amiga was heading.
Michael Webb (a.k.a. MRW)
When the Amiga 1200 was relaunched, for example, it was very disheartening to see it appear £100 more expensive than it was when it left the market - not a great incentive, especially if it was meant to attract those who'd never even heard of the Amiga.
The Amiga is supposed to be the entry level computer but when you'd added the price of the monitor, it was hardly surprising that new buyers continued to opt for the PC. Although the software pack was very impressive, it was not enough to tempt people into buying an Amiga.
For the future, we would hope that VIScorp will continue to support the existing models and sell them at a price that will generate interest from new owners, not just the die-hard Amigans who know what the machine is capable of.
© 1996 IDG Media