What killed off the Amiga?

[Epyx]

I would have to say that ultimately games are what killed off the amiga.

Ironic isn't it? (warning*** some brutal honesty below...)

Multimedia and particularly games are what gave the Amiga its foothold...thousands upon thousands of C64/Atari and Apple gamers saw what the Amiga could do and wanted..nay drooled for an Amiga (circa 1986-1990).

While video editing provided an alternative market for the Amiga, games were (imo) the primary driver of Amiga sales during this period. Businesses in general did not adopt Amigas because of the already mentioned lack of business titles and tended to go with IBMs and clones, schools generally went with Apples (at least in North America).

Then around the end of 1990 three things happened that made gamers begin to doubt their Amiga as a games machine.

- VGA Card becoming an adopted standard
- Ad Lib card
- 386DX

Now of course the Amiga's sound was still far superior to the Ad lib card...but its market share wasn't. Now all those serious IBM business users had kids or they themselves could just run out and purchase a relatively cheap graphics and sound upgrade for their machine. Within just a year the market share for IBM and clone game machines swung in their favour.

I am sad to admit it...but you guys on this board who stayed with the Amiga were the true diehards (some of you gamers but most not)...loyal and true...

It was the gaming mutineers like myself that got greedy after seeing...

- Wing Commander
- Ultima 6
- Wolfenstein 3D

I know that all of my Amiga friends at the time were converted just based on one of these three games (and yes this was before Doom...).

So while many of you true loyalists stayed...us mutineers left...in droves...with much shame I admit we abandoned ship.

Now game publishers saw this emerging and growing (remember this game market share grew almost overnight for IBM and clones) market and began to abandon the Amiga themselves...

First Origin Systems abandoned the Amiga (although many would argue they did with Ultima V). Ultima VI was programmed from the ground up for IBM and clones as was Wing Commander. ID Software members developed on clones.

What Amiga gamers were left were treated to abysmal ports...has anyone tried playing Ultima VI /Wing Commander or Kings Quest 5 on an Amiga 68000?

Terrible...and utterly disgraceful...they straight ported most of it, failing to take advantage of the Amiga's strengths.

Kings Quest could have been done in Extra Half bright mode as most of it is static (64 colours as opposed to 32)

Wing Commander used bitmaps and could have been much better had it used the blitter as opposed to CPU intense drawing like the IBM version (which has not native bitmap or sprite support in 320x200x256 mode).

So games which first made the Amiga, eventually killed it.  Again hats off to you diehards and true loyalists...you did what I couldn't. You used your Amigas for so much more than just games..or you simply believed that things would get better...

Most of us didn't...and it is hard to sail a ship with 2/3 of your crew leaving...

sniff...

[Epyx]

As in my above argument I think the formula might have looked more like this...

VGA+Adlib+386DX+Millions of upgradeable clones = Attraction for publishers

Attraction for publishers+Sloppy ports+abandoning gamers = diminishing amiga market share

Really don't think piracy was to blame...it was the games themselves and a market share that was created almost overnight by IBM/clones.

[Epyx]

Imo too many of us left and bought IBM/Clones for them to not be considered a factor...

They just didn't keep up with technology and had too much invested in proprietary technology. Almost every clone machine was upgradeable and come 1990 for very cheap. The only way most Amiga500 users (the majority of owners) could upgrade their machine was to buy a new one which wasn't always compatible...you could get accelerators but they didn't change graphics and cost an arm and a leg back then.

What was easy (on the wallet at least) was selling your A500 (the shame of it all) and having half the money needed for a 386dx 40 with 105mb hard drive, vga card, sound blaster etc.

Had I been able to upgrade my amiga 500 as cheaply and had the quality games been there I would have stayed and so would millions of others.

[Epyx]

Ultima 6 did come out for the Amiga but here is the rub....

IBM

256 Colour
Fast..did I mention fast?

Amiga

32 Colour
Slow...as in molasses slow on a 68000 amiga

A shameful port that did not take any advantage of superior blitting on the amiga...it basically ported the CPU intense blitting routines of the IBM version. Which brings us to the other game Wing Commander...

It is also pitiful if compared to the IBM version...slow slow slow slow and again could have been soo much better.

Wolfenstein is crap by todays standards but at the time thousands upon thousands of Amiga gamers saw the drop dead gorgeous 3D (albeit pseudo 3d) 256 colour gameplay and sold their amigas. It can not be underestimated how this game (two years before doom) changed the gaming industry.