Amiga.org

Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Gaming => Topic started by: Phantom206 on May 29, 2003, 03:58:13 AM

Title: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the Amiga?
Post by: Phantom206 on May 29, 2003, 03:58:13 AM
The best: Superb hardware of Amiga.
The worst: Commodore didn't gave licenses to third group companies to produce Amigas (Amiga Compatibles)
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: Siggy on May 29, 2003, 04:11:44 AM
Quote

Phantom206 wrote:
The best: Superb hardware of Amiga.
The worst: Commodore didn't gave licenses to third group companies to produce Amigas (Amiga Compatibles)


Technically C= had very little (if anything) to do with the original hardware. So I'd have to say the best thing C= did was work with Amiga so they could release the machine to the public (as opposed to harvesting the technology for other things).

The worst - after doing that, letting that hardware 'fall behind the curve' .

They made some bad business decisions, and they eventually paid the price for it (shrug) hindsight is always 20/20.

Siggy.
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: downix on May 29, 2003, 05:02:37 AM
I agree with Siggy.

Rather than persue the AAA when first proposed ('87) they let it
languish for years on the shelves.  If they had kept pace with how the
market evolved, AAA would have arrived in '91 and made the Amiga the
top dog for quite awhile.

Of course Hombre is when they learned these lessons, but they were on
life support at that point.  If completed, Hombre would have
revolutionized Commodore's business, as well as open up new markets
for them.
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: Psy on May 29, 2003, 05:05:47 AM
Best: Preventing the Amiga from falling into Atari's hands.

Worst: Poor book keep that lead to the downfall of Commodore and diverted funds away from the Amiga.
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: B00tDisk on May 29, 2003, 05:10:44 AM
Quote

Phantom206 wrote:
The best: Superb hardware of Amiga.
The worst: Commodore didn't gave licenses to third group companies to produce Amigas (Amiga Compatibles)


Good question.

Firstly, in reference to your answer(s), the superb Amiga hardware had nothing to do with Commodore - it was an outgrowth of the Lorraine/Hi-TORO/Amiga hardware.  C= had the devils' luck in that they had people like Haynie et.al. who could take said stuff and improve on it.  C= corporate's mistakes are legendary, and their shorting the engineering people is the stuff of corporate horror stories.

WRT Amiga "clones", this would have killed the Amiga faster.  The Amiga was, after 1987, a niche computer in a shrinking niche.  Look at the divisiveness (some call it "competitiveness", I call it stupidity) just over the A1 and the Pegasus.  Sheesh!

Now, as to what I think Commodore did, best and worst, for the Amiga?

Best:

When they marketed, believe it or not, they did it well.  Look at the Amiga's premier.  WOW.  I recall reading multi-page ads in U.S. magazines (Time, Newsweek etc.) talking about what the Amiga could do, with people from the Mayo clinic talking about it's superior displays and how it helped them in medical research, with BB King talking about the Amiga as an invaluable music tool...

However...

They never marketed enough.  I saw those ads in like two or three magazines, ever.  Buying ad space in AmigaWorld, Antic's Amiga, .info and so on was USELESS.  It's like calling me up and asking me if I want to buy a 1997 Honda Civic.  I ALREADY HAVE ONE!

Those ads should've been in Computer Shopper, newspapers, oh the list goes on.

Those two things.  Marketing.
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: chipper701 on May 29, 2003, 09:38:26 AM
Best was purchasing Amiga and giving it to us.

Worse was not keeping up with technology and expanding the Amiga AND bad book keeping...

BTW I wonder what Gould and Ali are doing now. How about we all pay them a little visit! :whack:
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: Aegis on May 29, 2003, 09:45:42 AM
Best: releasing a cut-down, low-cost home/hobbyist Amiga (A500) which got the platform widely adopted on the strength of its market for games.

Worst: releasing a cut-down, low-cost home/hobbyist Amiga games machine (A500) which decimated the Amiga's reputation as a professional hardware platform.

Oh, and spending all that moolah on setting up a PC division when they could have been finishing AA/AAA was sheer madness...
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: xeron on May 29, 2003, 09:59:10 AM
The reason AAA was left to languish is simple; Commodore originally made their money in the computer industry in an era where you could make a computer and keep selling it year after year with little or no changes, like the C64.

The late 80's were a totally different market place; the PC world being flooded with clones meant that every few months something faster came along. You just couldn't compete if you kept releasing the same thing year after year.

But Commodore thought they could just follow the C64 approach; cost reduce and refine the same basic design. A500, A500+, A600.
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: JurassicCamper on May 29, 2003, 10:03:08 AM
Quote

Phantom206 wrote:
The best: Superb hardware of Amiga.
The worst: Commodore didn't gave licenses to third group companies to produce Amigas (Amiga Compatibles)


Best.... A4000T but i could never afford one.

Worst.... Poor Marketing & PC Clones

I just hope Amiga Market the A1 & OS4.X properly.

I want to walk into dixons / PC world and see it onsale. A1 Needs an official case.

No point in putting adverts in Amiga Mags / Websites as we know about it already.

I'd love to see a huge billboards with a picture of an A500 and KS1.3 and next to it an A1 in a realy snazzy case TFT and a gorgeous OS4 WB.

Slogans something like

In 1989 you thought this was $#!+ hot

Relive your childhood

Retro...... this ain't retro.

Somethings never die...... Amiga
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: Floid on May 29, 2003, 10:24:45 AM
Thinking about it, some of the more specific/less-obvious 'worsts' that come to light, after the fact... though as I scrape my brain, I'll just drop the one concrete event.

-Botching the deal with Sun.  I *still* haven't seen Deathbed Vigil, but done right, this would've solved many credibility issues, whether it was a cloning license or a way to shift 3000UXen.

The 'most ambiguous' awards go to:

-~640x200.  From what I gather, chipset support for 'delaced' resolution was a possibility early on in the game, while the chipset was still being finalized, but Commodore nixed it based on CRT (and RAM) prices, and, I'd imagine, their existing inventory.  Had the option been demoable- even if not affordable- at launch, or perhaps included for the 2000, would things have been taken more seriously by the DTP market?

-The 900.  The A1000, as shipped, was most definitely a 'Personal Computer,' albeit mindblowingly advanced; the 900 was most definitely a 'Workstation.'  Could focusing on a multitiered strategy- 900 for corporates, Amiga for the 'midrange,' and legacy inventory/terminals for the low-end have prevented the death spiral later in life?  Or would it've just created a mess worse than the menagerie of almost-compatible 8-bits?

-All-In-One casings.  A boon to the users who could get a capable machine cheap, but a surprisingly lasting image problem (which, coupled with the default NTSC resolution and WB1.3 color scheme, led a friend to remark that his garage-sale 500 appeared 'more primitive' than a IIgs.)  Would Commodore have crumbled without the (-or with a delayed, e.g. OCS at the launch of ECS) 500, or would holding off have forced the community into sync with the normal world's disdain for 'little boxes?'

-CAOS.  What if, somehow, some way, the vision was fulfilled?  Would it have meant nirvana, pricing out of the market, or performance/memory issues that would've been crippling in 1985?

-Telecom.  Online services were outrageously expensive in the day, but from my memory, they could really put lipstick on a pig.  Had the Amiga been stronger in this point (through the dealer network- Radio Shack certainly played a role in selling us an unaffordable Compuserve account back in the day with our 1000SX), and/or if, say, some effort had been made to lure Steve Case back to the fold near the endgame, could things have somehow been made to pull through?  At least any of the later STB ventures might've been left with an obvious partner.

(I seem to remember reading Compuserve access was part of the demo at the launch... but through the early-'90s era, was there any sustained initiative on the order put forth by clone dealers?  What if they'd offered a promo with the CDTV?)
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: Agafaster on May 29, 2003, 11:46:34 AM
The Best: have to agree- hardware (and OS) years ahead of its time
The Worst: marketing, and trying to do PCs at the same time. (ie: marketing years behind its time !)

the PC thing: CBM tried to get into the PC market as that was what was percieved as what the business community wanted. IIRC the PCs were (to put it succinctly) crap.

They could have pushed their one true gem (Amiga) into that market, and perhaps Commisioned a half-decent office suite to be put in a business orientated package.

at the time, a well kitted A3000/4000 was as good as the concurrent Macs, which were running M$ Orifice.
 :-D
IMO an A3000 probably could have done as good a job with well written office products (not necessarily M$) as the Apple's equivalent offering the Mac II (ie: the IIci/vi/fx/etc)
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: KingTutt on May 30, 2003, 03:37:43 AM
There are so many what if stories with regard to Amiga. To the avid fan, its sheer heart ache reliving the what if scenarios. What if Amiga got marketed right. What if they released AAA and then Hombre. What if C= was more profitable and never went under. What if this and what if that.

Well times change, sure these what if cases, really did matter at some point. But right now Amiga should focus on the here and now. It finds itself in interesting times. On the one hand, one might say that in a time when pc sales are at its lowest and the IT industry is again suffering a slump, why would you launch another platform? Others might argue, with Palladium around the corner, and free computing being encroached more and more... why not? 64bit computing is just around the corner and Amiga would be wise to jump onto the PPC 970 chipset as soon as it can. OS5 should also be Amigas primary focus after the OS4.xx finish their run.

True 64 is the way to go for the long run. In a time when Intel and AMD are painfully trying to make the transition to 64bit chips, Amiga has the advantage of coming into the fray unhindered by legacy support issues.
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: T_Bone on May 30, 2003, 03:43:23 AM
Best: They tried to market the Amiga.

Worst: They tried to market the Amiga.
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: Roj on May 30, 2003, 08:15:19 AM
@T_Bone

Yes. You've hit the head on the nail. :-D
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: boglo on May 30, 2003, 08:54:09 AM
Best: Hire Dave Hayne
Worst: Hire Medhi Ali
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: duesi on May 30, 2003, 12:11:50 PM
Best:
Selling AMIGA's , superb quality of the Hardware and OS

Worst:
Selling Copyrights to Escom

I still hate them (Escom) because they assembled PC's they couldn't sell ... and let the AMIGA die !
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: MikeB on May 30, 2003, 12:15:38 PM
The Best: "Saving" Amiga from Atari.

The Worst: Focussing on IBM compatibles.
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: commodore_jim on May 30, 2003, 12:53:30 PM
@MikeB

Yes I think one of Commodore's main weaknesses was concentrating too much time and money on PC clones - time and money that would have been better spent on Amiga technology.

I don't think Commodore's PC clones were ever very highly rated. It's a pity they didn't realise this sooner and focus more on the Amiga from an earlier stage.

Still it wasn't all bad under Commodore. The themed packs were a great idea - the Batpack alone helped to shift more Amigas over the Christmas '89 period than you could shake a stick at and established it as the home computer of choice in Europe.

Plus, if Atari had bought the Amiga originally, they'd have consumed it whole. There would have been no ST and hence no clash of the titans for the remainder of the 80s and early 90s - a clash that led to some truly spectacular software being developed for both machines and which made owning a home computer truly exciting. Unlike today.
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: Atheist on May 30, 2003, 01:39:00 PM
I really, really, hate xp. It keeps reloading the page, and I lost my post twice. I don't know how to turn it off.

There are SO MANY worst things they did, it's rediculous!

A1000, A2000, A1500, A500, A500+, A600 (the worst), CDTV (too expensive and underpowered, therefore, late.)
They were all THE SAME machine!

Discontinue A1000 then.
1) The A2000 and A500 should have had chip AND fast ram.
2) A 68020 @ 14MHz and OCS or ECS @ 14MHz.
3) WHat about a midi port?
4) A500 and A2000 should of had simm sockets on the motherboard for upto 32 megs of ram. All the rest below here as well.

Discontinue A2000, A500 then.
1) The A3000 should have been 25 MHz or higher.
2) ECS @ 21MHz.
3) And they should have kept the A2000 case!!!
4) They should have made a A500 version of it.
5) More blitter registers.

Discontinue A3000, A3500 then.
1) A4000 040 and A1200 030 @ 25 MHz and AGA @ 28 MHz.
2) Chip and fast ram.
3) At this speed , CD32 would have been feasable.
4) More blitter registers.
5) 32 megs chip ram.

They absolutely wasted their time with the PC compatables they made.

AmigaOne! Release AOS4.0 before it's ready = mistake.
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: BouncingAyatollah on May 30, 2003, 01:49:59 PM
Best:    Acquiring Amiga tech., releasing A500.
Worst: Dropping A3000+ for cutdown A4000, killing a winning formula (with A500+). The A600.
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: Atheist on May 30, 2003, 01:58:59 PM
Spent money on incorporating the "bridge board" feature onto the motherboard and then selling the bridge board for the same amount that it cost to buy a 286 with ram and monitor and hard drive and controller and second floppy and video card and internal modem and not an os.

Also, the PCs they sold were like 300 hundred dollars less than an IBM branded computer. WAAAYYYY too expensive. Why bother? And no-name clones were 600 less than Commodore's.

AmigaOne! Behind the 8th boing ball!
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: Paul_Gadd on May 30, 2003, 02:01:54 PM
@Atheist

Quote
really, really, hate xp. It keeps reloading the page, and I lost my post twice. I don't know how to turn it off.


It is not the operating system to blame but the user.

How to Stop Pages Automatically Refreshing

Some websites seem to enjoy automatically refreshing every couple of minutes (so you can get the latest ad banner). To stop them in their tracks, Double-click the Internet Options icon in the Control Panel, flip to the Security tab, press the Custom Level button, and disable the option "Allow META REFRESH"

 :-)
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: bloodline on May 30, 2003, 02:06:03 PM
This thead is old..... old as Commodore is dead.

So I shall repost the best response I have ever heard on the subject:

Best thing Commodore did for the Amiga:
Buy it.

Worst thing Commodore did for the Amiga:
Buy it.



 :-D
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: Kronos on May 30, 2003, 02:46:25 PM
@Atheist

SIMM-sockest on the A500/2000 ?

And where do you expect to have gotten them in 86/87 ?

Hint: Up to 1989 EVERYBODY was using single-IC DRAM.
Between 89 and 91 some used single ICs, some single ICs in ZIP-package (like the A3k) and
others used SIPPs. 8/9bit SIMMs were introduced somewhat later and IBM started using PS/2-SIMMs,
but those didn't catch on till 93/93, and since 95(or 96?) we had DIMMs (SDR). Now DDR-DIMMs are
the hot thing, but just wait another year or two ..


Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: AmiGR on May 30, 2003, 02:47:26 PM
Theres many who tried to prove they were faster
But they didnt last and they died as they tried.....
Hell Bent - Hell Bent For Leather !
Hell Bent - Hell Bent For Leather !
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Judas Priest RULE! :-D
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: Floid on May 30, 2003, 03:03:27 PM
Quote
bloodline wrote:
This thead is old..... old as Commodore is dead.
Indeed, but the fun of making a lot of noise (over lesser-known things, perhaps) is that, sometimes, it makes DH or others appear with the background on *why* it didn't play out that way, whether Engineering had a strong opinion on the matter, and so forth.

You've got my agreement on the best comment in the thread!
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: bloodline on May 30, 2003, 03:55:04 PM
Quote

Floid wrote:
Quote
bloodline wrote:
This thead is old..... old as Commodore is dead.
Indeed, but the fun of making a lot of noise (over lesser-known things, perhaps) is that, sometimes, it makes DH or others appear with the background on *why* it didn't play out that way, whether Engineering had a strong opinion on the matter, and so forth.

You've got my agreement on the best comment in the thread!


Yup, sorry, I didn't mean to sound so hostile. This is a great thread, and thus is the reason why I felt compeled to post  :-)
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: JoannaK on May 30, 2003, 04:17:21 PM
Quote

MikeB wrote:
The Best: "Saving" Amiga from Atari.

The Worst: Focussing on IBM compatibles.


Agree 100% ..
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: Tomas on May 30, 2003, 08:54:01 PM
Quote
The best: Superb hardware of Amiga.

Actually, comodore had nothing to do with developing the hardware  :-) They bought it cheap from some other people... If i recall right, there was a couple of persons who made the first amiga in they garage... but sadly they did not have the funding to go on with the project... so comodore bought it.

All comodore did was basicly milk this... they added some new upgrades now and then... but as you see now, they definitely didnt do enough... Amiga fell behind PC after a while  :cry:
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: alx on May 30, 2003, 09:15:20 PM
Best thing: Believing in the potential of the platform at first.

Worst thing: Loosing faith in the platform towards the end.
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: bloodline on May 30, 2003, 09:19:46 PM
Quote

alx wrote:
Best thing: Believing in the potential of the platform at first.

Worst thing: Loosing faith in the platform towards the end.


They never lost faith in the A500... that's why they didn't upgrade the chipset!!!!
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: alx on May 30, 2003, 09:30:38 PM
Quote
They never lost faith in the A500... that's why they didn't upgrade the chipset!!!!


They certainly never lost faith in Paula (and when someone did want to replace her on one of the A4000 prototypes, they made sure that it never happened :roll: )

---edit---

Although I'd agree that they seemed too attatched to OCS/ECS generally.
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: Nick on May 30, 2003, 11:00:13 PM
Best: Having something to do with the Amiga (to save on arguments).

Worst: Not using their brains when it came to anything, not software or hardware related. In other words marketting etc. They would try to sell a front wheel from a Ferrari Daytona to a Martian if they had the chance. Not a clue! The engineers etc didn`t get the chance to see their pride and joy go anywhere (at least under C=`s "command").
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: iamaboringperson on May 30, 2003, 11:04:16 PM
good:
producing amigas that were compatable with different models of amiga(unlike binaries for the c= 8bit machines)
producing expandable amigas(zorro II/III)
and producing faster amigas(ie not always using the 68000) as in the A3000(probably the best amiga)

bad:
no advertising anywhere but in existing amiga magazines

the whole marketing department should of been fired and a new marketing department hired

the advertisments were useless!
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: iamaboringperson on May 30, 2003, 11:07:58 PM
BTW... why is this under the games section?
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: WarPiper on May 30, 2003, 11:09:32 PM
I think the worst thing they did....
they put the name commodore in the amiga logo and case badges

its kinda looked at like nintendo making a games computer

I can not mention the name Amiga with out having to explain what it is, then when people see the commodore name and icon next to the title, they all go "oh its a commodore" remembering back to the 64 days
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: iamaboringperson on May 30, 2003, 11:53:42 PM
@WarPiper

yep that was another problem

people would look at the amiga and think 'commodore 64'

or it was just a games machine

if i were in charge of commodore during those days - we would all be using amigas now not 'ibm-pc's or macs
90% of the world would be amiga  ;-)  hahahahh
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: Im>bE on May 30, 2003, 11:58:49 PM

best: developing Workbench.

worst: leaving amiga to herself when she needed it the most.
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: PMC on May 31, 2003, 12:04:38 AM
Best thing:

Releasing high end/low end machines based around the Amiga architecture thus claiming the high end workstation and low end games machine markets (B2000 & A500)  

Worst thing:

Investing millions in PC clones whilst not knowing quite what to do with Amiga, until it was too late.  That and hiring Medhi Ali.

Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: YttriumOx on May 31, 2003, 12:07:35 AM
If Amiga had dominated the market right from the start and continued to do so to the present day, I probably wouldn't be an Amigan today...  for one simple reason:  Microsoft Operating Systems and Applications.

MS would have made their Operating Systems and Apps for the Amiga.  Right now, there'd be two groups of people - those running AmigaOS on their Amigas and those running WinXP Pro on their Amigas.  Both groups would be using Internet Explorer, MS Office and Outlook Express.
Our community which has fostered so many great pieces of software would not exist, and we'd be stuck with the mainstream crap that gets pushed out as hard and fast as possible at the expense of quality.

The Amiga hardware would probably be years ahead of todays PCs, but that doesn't matter, because the software would be garbage (plentiful and easy to get, but still garbage)

Regards,
Ben de Waal
AKA Yttrium Oxide
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: iamaboringperson on May 31, 2003, 12:11:27 AM
actually i want to change my choices if i may:

best:
the PET!!! that is really what started it all!(i dont care too much for typewriters and electric calculators)

worst:
couldnt handle their finances and died :-( that was sad because one of their favorite machines(the Amiga) didnt do to well after that and wasnt developed(we are still wating), and lots of good software developers left that particular platform(even though there were plenty of users still) it all went down hill from when commodore died :-(

Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: YttriumOx on May 31, 2003, 12:12:40 AM
But, to expand on my previous post:
While it's been good for developing an "Amiga way", we certainly don't need to remain the underdogs of the computing industry.  We now have a unique style that isn't dominated by the mainstream, and with careful management and active participation by what remains of the present community, if we WERE to become a large mainstream player in the computer industry again, I think we could pull it off without being sucked into "the bad way of doing things".

Regards,
Ben de Waal
AKA Yttrium Oxide
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: YttriumOx on May 31, 2003, 12:14:34 AM
Oh, and to be on topic:

Best: Releasing a wide range of Amigas to suit all walks of life.

Worst: Not listening to the hardware designers when it came to good ideas but instead listening to the accountants (who were morons anyway) that certain features would be too expensive.

Regards,
Ben de Waal
AKA Yttrium Oxide
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: Aegis on May 31, 2003, 02:24:57 AM
MS would have made their Operating Systems and Apps for the Amiga. Right now, there'd be two groups of people - those running AmigaOS on their Amigas and those running WinXP Pro on their Amigas.

You really think anyone would have bought Windows for the Amiga? Nah - Microsoft would've been writing Amiga Visual Basic, Digita would have the premiere office suite (or maybe Wordperfect) 'cause Microsoft wouldn't have made enough moolah to buy Excel and Access and Motorola would've made so much cash we'd all have 3ghz PPC's (or Coldfires or 68100's) in our Porsche designed aluminium anniversary "Boing" ball Amigas. Adobe would be writing plugins for TVPaint and ImageFX, Jay Miner would have been cryogenically frozen so that Amiga technology could bring him back to life in the future AND received a posthumous oscar picked up by NewTek for services to the motion picture industry and of course there'd be world peace 'cause we'd all be playing Bitmap Brothers games in universal harmony...

Gawd - reality sucks...
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: Plaz on May 31, 2003, 04:08:26 AM
Wasted all the time money and resources on the PC Colt project. Pitiful.

Plaz
Title: Re: In your opinion which was the best and the worst thing that Commodore did to the
Post by: DonnyEMU on May 31, 2003, 09:04:04 PM
Worst thing Commodore ever did (too many of them picking two):

 Releasing the A500 because they couldn't market the A1000 as a business machine. This was because they had all these commodore 64 home computer games dealers that didn't know how to sell a video/productivity machine.

The Amiga dealer program originally (like the macintosh) was not availalble to "C=64 dealers" and you had to have special certification as a business dealer.

2nd Worse decision: Not releasing the A3500 which was an A3000 with the AA chipset..

Best Decisions:

Releasing the Amiga 3000UX. Even the great University of Michigan saw these machines and liked them as cheap alternatives to sun boxes (too bad they didn't donate any, like sun did so sun got the contract).

Releasing AmigaVision: the first authorware like visual programming language for integrated video/computer software..