Which were the best software publishers that changed Amiga history?

[Phantom206]

My opinion is:

1. Psygnosis
2. Team 17
3. Cinemaware

[Tigger]

I cant name a product Team 17 did, so I definitely wouldnt put them on the list.  Though the other two were pretty important.

My list:

1) Newtek
2) Electronic Arts
3) Impulse

Honorable Mention for Nova Design & ASDG

      -Tig

[Roj]

Surely these are deserving as well:

Hyperion
Nova Design
SoftLogik

And in the "Did More Harm Than Good" department:

1. Microsoft for giving up on Amiga after AmigaBasic
2. id for their conscious effort to completely avoid the Amiga
3. Haage & Partner for the Amithlon fiasco

[meerschaum]

Newtek
Scala
AT&T (license)

the reason I say NewTek is because over here Amigas major market was video-editing and 3D wich was of course Lightwave and the Video Toaster to a lesser extent TV-Paint and Digiview

the reason I say Scala is another major selling point was the kiosk market wich amigas filled quite nicely... scala multimedia fit the bill perfect

and finally the reason I say AT&T was that Amigas biggest sale ever was to the US Government if I recall and they used amigas because they could run Unix and X...and where reasonably priced (considering) I believe it was 30,000 units in one sale? I'm not sure... alot of others deserve mention...but I dont think anyone contributed more then these three in terms of helping the platform and bringing us new technology.

[Plaz]

1) Newtek
2) Psygnosis
3) Blue Ribbon

[ltstanfo]

Best Software Publishers for AMIGA:
1. NewTek
2. Progressive Peripherals (DiskMaster II)
3. ASDG (ADPro)
4. Central Coast Software (CCS) for Quarterback Tools
5. Softwood (Final Writer, Final Calc)
6. Nova Design (ImageFX)

[Siggy]

Tricky question.

I'd have to agree with Tigger with NewTek and Electronic Arts. Making sure the Amiga was usable from the beginning (the entire Deluxe series was a great boost -- not to mention you could get 7 Cities of Gold from the get go was great too) - NewTek pretty much gave the Ami a huge push in the business world with their Toaster system (pity I couldn't get a PAL setup way back when I was in Aus.)

Gameswise there are sooo many to consider, but I'd probably go with Psygnosis and Cineware - their games were pretty early in the piece and were (for their time) visually stunning.

I think they both really 'set the standard' that a lot of people had to live up to.

Siggy.

[Tigger]

Roj wrote:
Surely these are deserving as well:

Hyperion

You can tell the newbies by there lists.    I think listing a company that was formed 5 years after Commodore went under as a software publisher that changed Amiga History is more then a little strange.
    -Tig

[Siggy]

And in the "Did More Harm Than Good" department:

1. Microsoft for giving up on Amiga after AmigaBasic
2. id for their conscious effort to completely avoid the Amiga

I'm probably going to get flamed out the yin yang for this... But I think #1 is false.

Microsoft didn't 'give up' on the Amiga - what did they have to 'give up' on? - they wrote Basic for it, thats it - and seeing how it was included with the A500 I bought (eventually), I think having a language 'out of the box' was a good thing.

After that, what did they have to do with the Amiga? They had MS-DOS for PC's before the Ami entered the scene.  And I saw a LOT of PC's in the business world pre-Windows.
If you want to point fingers at the PC taking over as a games platform (which was the Ami's main market -- like it or hate it), then your second choice was the beginning of the end.

But Microsoft -- honestly, what would they have done with the Ami in the pre-Windows world? My guess is next to bugger all. Instead they made their own OS for the platform that was their biggest market.
The fact that I personally don't like that OS, and that I would prefer not to use that platform doesn't change anything -- The success of games on that OS, on that platform, did put a nail in the Amiga coffin, but I couldn't say they were personally singling out the Ami at the time.

Siggy.

[SlimJim]

Tigger wrote:

Roj wrote:
Surely these are deserving as well:

Hyperion

You can tell the newbies by there lists.    I think listing a company that was formed 5 years after Commodore went under as a software publisher that changed Amiga History is more then a little strange.
    -Tig

 
Whereas I agree that many other companies (Electronic
Arts certainly being one of them) have shaped the history
of Amiga in the past, Hyperion can claim some fame, not for
their games, but for AOS4 - the only thing is that the
mention is a little premature, since it is not yet released...
(but maybe the very knowledge of them being in the
works of developing a new AmigaOS has shaped this
community and the Amiga future already? I'd say it has).
 
I would add Haage & Partner to the list since, despite the
Amithlon thing, they did put out AOS3.5 and 3.9 which breathed
new life into the Amiga (3.9 is very nice in my opinion).
.
SlimJim

[Kronos]

(only apps, no games here)

1.EA (duh)
2.SAS (without Lattice/SAS-C there wouldn't
be that much SW to talk about).
3.Maxon/HiSoft (eventhough their C++ sucked)
4.H&P (mainly for StormC, the 1st user-friendly
C++-compiler.
6.VGR/Phase5 (CyberGraphX was and is the best
RTG-SW, and without it GFX-cards would never have
catched on)


I also aggree with Tigger on Hyperion, as there
games are nothing to write home about (they are just
reducing the gap to the PC, nothing more).

OS4 has most certainly allready changed Amiga-history,
but sofar not to the better, and wether it will
when it is released is yet to be seen.

[chipper701]

Psygnosis .....yes
Cinemaware ....yes
EA ....yes, but they did not keep their promise to support Amiga.
I would also include Bullfrog for Flood, Populus, and Syndicate.
Newtek... goes without saying
Sensible Software

[Roj]

I think listing a company that was formed 5 years after Commodore went under as a software publisher that changed Amiga History is more then a little strange.

I must admit I was thinking of the potential of AOS4 and attributing that to Hyperion. I chose along the lines of "keeping the Titanic afloat" type efforts. Without them, the Amiga would be history. Otherwise I agree with several others listed.

My vote for the top five:

1. Newtek - probably had the largest impact

2. Electronic Arts - the IFF standard and, for me, F/A 18 had me hooked the minute I saw it.

3. Psygnosis - Many people over the years who knew nothing more about the Amiga knew about Lemmings

4. SAS Institute - The long-time standard C compiler

5. Ralph Schmidt along with Phase5 - made the first move to PowerPC

A few others worth mentioning:

Aminet/Urban Müller.
Fred Fish
William Hawes

You can tell the newbies by there lists.

P.S. I bought my first Amiga in 1987, and my first PC in 2001. ;-)

[carls]

NewTek
Electronic Arts
Fred Fish

[Aegis]

1. Cinemaware - made me buy an Amiga

2. Electronic Arts - made me start painting with DPaint

3. NewTek - got me into 3D (my current profession)

Honourable mentions to:

GPSoft (DirOpus)
Nova Design (ImageFX)
ASDG (Art Department Pro)
Digital Creations (Brilliance)

And of course Cloanto for great software and excellent support of UAE/Amiga Forever