Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: GreggBz on August 01, 2006, 09:07:02 PM
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From the Wikipedia article about Star Trek IV.
"The model of Apple Macintosh computer shown in the Plexicorp office scene is the Mac Plus. According to rumor, it was intended to be an Amiga, but Commodore required the producers to purchase a computer while Apple was willing to lend them the machine shown. Amigas were used to produce the screens of the Vulcan computer used by Spock to re-train himself in logic."
:getmad: :cry:
I wonder how many Star Trek fans bought a Mac Plus instead.
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Commodore made good computers, but they were total w@nkers when it came to marketing.
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moto
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When someone asks to put your product in a movie, especially in a good light, you say YES!
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DOH!
More stupidity.. Nowadays you have to pay for product placement in movies. Companies like Coke and Pepsi pay big bucks for air time in movies. :roll:
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Just think, if it had been an Amiga... When Scotty said "hello computer", it could have spoken back via the SAY command! :-)
- Ali
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Commodore made good computers, but they were total w@nkers when it came to marketing.
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moto
Amazing that after all these years we can still discover new ways in which Commodore marketing could be total morons.
"Double Dumb A$$ on you".... Kirk, quote from the same movie.
Plaz
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I remember there was a Commodore Pet (http://www.commodore.ca/gallery/promo/PET_shatner.jpg) in Kirk's apartment in the first Star Trek movie. Never saw an Amiga in Star Trek though :-( Commodore had the best computer in the world, yet didn't seem to want to tell anyone about it :-?
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@InTheSand
That would have propagated the notion that Star Trek was unrealistic.
I mean, talking computers? HAHAHA in 1986!
Whatever.
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Hehe! Well perhaps the Mac was more in line with people's expectations... Monochrome graphics and beeps for sound! :-D
- Ali
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If this is true Commodore really f-ed up!!! What a bunch of morons!! I guess they were so stuck on themselves from the popularity of the Commodore 64 they thought they didn't need to markey at all. ID10Ts
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Hum,
There's going to be a giant, official Star Trek auction featuring lots from every Star Trek series and movies.
The memorabilia up for grabs includes a pair of phaser guns, a detailed model of the Starship Enterprise, and a replica of Captain Kirk's chair built for an episode of Deep Space Nine.
There was no mention of the apple computer used to demonstrate the molecular structure of transparent aluminium.
Indulge yourself (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4994564.stm)
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To be honest, while I think it was a bad decision for Commodore not to jump at the chance to have an Amiga in Star Trek, I have to wonder how much difference it would have made in the long run.
Put it this way: How much of Apple's current success do you think can be attributed to having a Mac II in Star Trek? Not much really. It may have caused a boom in sales of Mac IIs at the time, but Apple still ended up in financial trouble despite this, and had to be bailed out. Apple are successful now because their products are good and are marketed well, not because one of the products was in Star Trek once.
So how much difference would it have made if an Amiga had been on Star Trek instead? In my opinion none, unless the decision to do this would have spurred Commodore on to market their products better, and maybe not make some of the bad decisions they made.
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moto
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motorollin wrote:
To be honest, while I think it was a bad decision for Commodore not to jump at the chance to have an Amiga in Star Trek, I have to wonder how much difference it would have made in the long run.
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moto
maybe none but this was in effect a symptom of the underlying problem with commodore at the time. i mean damn their last push at advertisement(in amiga magazines :crazy: ) was in effect a generic 50's style drawing of a man hawking a computer with little or no graphics in the ad.
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Every little bit ....
Adds up to geat big bit !! ( or a byte .. to a kilobyte etc)
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Well, if nothing else it serves as an illustration of their flawed mentality.
It was also a fantastically memorable scene, especially for all of us computer geeks.
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Yes, one has to marvel at the stupidity and incompetence of Commodore Marketing. Besides the PET in the first movie, William Shatner had done some Commodore Vic 20 advertisements a couple years earlier. So you think it would have made sense to continue the Star Trek association - and it only would have cost the price of one Amiga. This is just one small example of the many stupid screwups of Commodore Marketing.
I don't think it would have had much long term impact though. Seeing the computer in the movie didn't make me want to buy a Mac at the time - even though I was obsessed with new computers back then. I didn't even notice it was a Mac until 10 years after first seeing the movie. It's not like Scottie spent half an hour with it and said "Gee, this computer's a fine thing... much better than the flashing crap-boxes we got on the Enterprise. What's it called again? A Mac... what a bonny name! I'll tell you what... throw in a couple Macs with the deal and I'll also give you the secret to 'edible underwear'."
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Well, it is marked as rumour and I think it is just that, a rumour (although Commodore Managment fu**ed up other stuff as we know)
I mean, they obviously had allready Amiga Computers on the Set (they say so) and than have to buy another for demonstrating?
Unlikely. No imho the better explenation (and iirc this was also stated elswhere) might be the Scene itself where this computer
was to be demoed, Scotty says something along "What a keyboard? How antiquated!" (Note I've never seen the english original, but
I guess it was something like that ;)) and my guess is that Commodore simply didn't like the Idea to have their Flagship called
"antiquated"
BTW, in other areas, Commodore was quite cooperative, in some of those "Nasa interviews" it was said that one of the reasones
for the Engeniers going Amiga was that they simply got all neccesary documents for the hardware and such, thus making it
easier to modify the system (iirc the first 68020 for the A1000 actually was made by the NASA), while Apple did have no
interest to share their docs
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I'm with Blade. Back in the days when C= was C=, PET's were often appearing on the screen, more often the 8000-SK/PET-200/700 series with the "Porsche Design" body kit - lots of curves, as opposed to the boxy angular design of the 2/3/4/8k series - though istr a fair number of the original 2001 PET's appearing, complete with inbuilt cassette and micheal mouse keyboard.
C= *were* pretty good at promotion, at least until the early 90's, they had learned marketing, branding, and "selling what we dont yet have" very very well in the late 70's and early 80's; they were not stingy about donating equipment if it appeared prominently in public.
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Commodore PETs are shown in the English televsion series 'The Fast Show', this was originally aired between 1994-2000. The 'Professor Denzil Dexter' sketches.