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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: CD32Freak on October 27, 2012, 07:06:15 PM
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Does anyone know who designed the Amiga 500 case? I know the A1000's case was designed by Howard Stolz (Senior Industrial Designer at Commodore), but he left the company in 1985.
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Does anyone know who designed the Amiga 500 case? I know the A1000's case was designed by Howard Stolz (Senior Industrial Designer at Commodore), but he left the company in 1985.
I realize this is an old post, but did you ever find out who the Amiga 500 case designer was? I believe they were the same designer of the Commodore 128 case, as well -- someone Wong or Long? I would like to know.
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I remember reading an article years ago that those hideous ones with the bubbles and the tiremarks (I think it was called "tiger") were designed by "someone famous". My google-fu is telling me that that person was "German Designer Stephanie Tücking". Perhaps googling that name will help you find a more general history? Good luck! :)
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I remember reading an article years ago that those hideous ones with the bubbles and the tiremarks (I think it was called "tiger") were designed by "someone famous". My google-fu is telling me that that person was "German Designer Stephanie Tücking". Perhaps googling that name will help you find a more general history? Good luck! :)
Well, Stefanie Tücking is not really famous for design. She was host of a rather popular pop music show on German television (Formel Eins). A bit like top of the pos (_way_ beyond, German tv in the 80ies... oh dear!). Boys like me liked her of course (well, it was the age)...
But I don't think there is a relation between Stefanie Tücking and the original case designer.
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I realize this is an old post, but did you ever find out who the Amiga 500 case designer was? I believe they were the same designer of the Commodore 128 case, as well -- someone Wong or Long? I would like to know.
Well I googled "Amiga Industrial Designer"
and this came up
https://www.quora.com/Who-was-the-industrial-designer-for-the-Amiga-500-and-Commodore-128-computers-and-the-1571-disk-drive
The answer is from someone going by the name of Dave Haynie, with a couple of pictures and then:
"That would be Commodore's own Herb Mosteller."
He's listed on the CD-32 patent
https://patents.justia.com/patent/D356835
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Dave Haynie himself in an interview said he wasn't part of the 500 project as that was the baby of Bob Russell. George Robbins and Bob Welland were the lead engineers. Dave worked on the high end models first with the 2000. Jeff Porter was in charge of product development. Interestingly in designing the 500 there was a decision not to use the designers from Los Gatos responsible for the 1000 but to use the core designers from the Commodore group. Haynie was with Commodore at the time working on the C128.. think he was their lead engineer at the time. He wanted to work on the 500 but moved to the 2000 team.
The motivation behind the 500 was a low cost model. Not surprised it has a C128 flavour so most likely a Commodore old hat designer and not an Amigan in truth.
The actual case was designed by Herb Mosteller who also worked on the C128 case. There are some that believe the case was designed by an outside company. Difficult to say.
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AMIGA 500 case was designed by Yukiya Ito.
It is described in Commodore: The Amiga Years.
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Interestingly in designing the 500 there was a decision not to use the designers from Los Gatos responsible for the 1000 but to use the core designers from the Commodore group.
This came purely because commodore wanted to cost reduce the A1000 and Jay said it was impossible to move a load of discrete components from the motherboard into Agnus while George Robbins was very vocal about how it should be done.
Whether Jay believed that or he was using it as a political way to get funding for Ranger is something we'll never know, but it was his mistake IMO. George Robbins had a back up plan to have the "Fat" in a separate chip if it couldn't be pulled off, but it worked out ok.
Haynie was with Commodore at the time working on the C128.. think he was their lead engineer at the time.
Bil Herd was head engineer on the C128 and he resigned when it was complete. Dave Haynie was then head engineer for low end products.
He wanted to work on the 500 but moved to the 2000 team.
Not only did he want to, but it was his job to work on the 500. George Robbins refused to let it go.
George Robbins managed to repeat this with the A1200, started under the Pandora project. Again it was very controversial, AAA was the official way forward for the company so there wasn't much support from the start and then it got cancelled and subsequently resurrected.
The motivation behind the 500 was a low cost model. Not surprised it has a C128 flavour so most likely a Commodore old hat designer and not an Amigan in truth.
The C128 doesn't look like an old commodore product though, it got it's influence from elsewhere. Supposedly the keyboard layout was "stolen" from the vt100 terminals they were using on the mainframe.
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I know it's an old topic of mine, but thanks to Himitsugusa we finally got a name! Thanks a lot! :)
Apparently, the internal diskdrive gave the designer a headache: https://twilog.org/POKEPEEK2011/month-1802 (https://twilog.org/POKEPEEK2011/month-1802)
:D
Google translate:
(https://i.imgur.com/4FwI1CP.png)
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I know it's an old topic of mine, but thanks to Himitsugusa we finally got a name! Thanks a lot! :)
Apparently, the internal diskdrive gave the designer a headache: https://twilog.org/POKEPEEK2011/month-1802 (https://twilog.org/POKEPEEK2011/month-1802)
:D
Google translate:
(https://i.imgur.com/4FwI1CP.png)
What country is he from then? I love the A500 case design. Lot's hate it, but they have no taste for fine lines. ;)
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Apparently he was from Commodore Business Machines in Japan. Now it makes sense, the design of the A500 always reminded me of the fluid shapes of the Sony HB-201 from Japan :-)