Is the A2200 machine a hoax?

[CatHerder]

Matt_H wrote:
CatHerder here on AO has said he has one. I'm hoping he posts some pictures.

Doomy also claims (claimed) to have one, but we know that can't be true. :-D

It is 100% impossible for anyone else to have an A2200. I have the only working prototype in existence and I also have all the Agent-88 prototype boards (every version) for it. Anyone out there that claims to have an A2200 is simply lying for the sake of conversation I suppose.

I've been working on the A2200 story, and history, but just haven't gotten around to finishing it to post here.

Ten myths to put to rest:

#1 -- it was NOT a Commodore developed computer or product line
#2 -- the primary motherboard WAS a Commodore developed pcb (Fact: it used the Spellbound PCB)
#3 -- it was NOT anything to do with the post-AGA chipset
#4 -- it was NOT a predecessor to the A1200 or A4000
#5 -- it was NOT a "stepping stone" between any Amiga models
#6 -- there were NOT any of these shipped to developers or distributors or retailers (although there were 2 distributors waiting to place orders and a dozen retailers waiting to sell A2200 units)
#7 -- it did have OS 3.1 on a single ROM
#8 -- it did have expansion capabilities including accelerators, RAM, hard drives, IDE devices (but no native scsi)
#9 -- it was NOT a ready-for-distribution product when it was abandoned due to Commodore's bankruptcy (and more importantly the seizure of assets, including 65,000 motherboads destined for these A2200s, in their warehouses by creditors)
#10 - it used a standard PC slimline case, including a standard AT slimline case power supply (a very common varient at the time, with a single bezel change to "brand" it, to keep cost of production down) and it used a Sony high density (PC) drive that could read Amiga/Mac/Atari/PC DD and HD floppies (again keeping costs down and going with the one remaining supply channel that guaranteed to supply drives).

I get a real kick out of some of the websites out there that post information (quite often citing "sources") about the A2200. A good chunk of what they post is correct, but 100% of the additional information provided by other people is invariably something made up (I guess some folks want to look "cool" by pretending to know something others don't?).

Like I've said to quite a few people on here, and out there... when people finally understand what the A2200 was (is) they will be disappointed for various reasons. Other than it's an interesting peice of Amiga history, it's nothing earth shattering (although it could have single-handedly kept the Canadian and UK Amgia markets alive for an additional year or two ...or more). The biggest "bummer" in the whole A2200 story is, to me anyway, that it never got to market because of the seizure of Commodore's assets -- otherwise there could have been over one hundred thousand A2200s out there in 1994-95. The A2200 was NOT a product manufactured by Commodore, but it's primary motherboard was; motherboards that were already manufactured and according to Commodore Canada and Commodore UK "virtually unlimited in supply".

I hope to get the whole A2200 story done sometime this month, including photos of the prototype I have, it's internals and some screen shots (or photos of it working).

[CatHerder]

Commodore Germany may have had an internal marketing idea called an A2200 but there was never a Commodore engineered A2200 or Amiga 2200.

The reason the A2200 was called an A2200 (as advertised by Computer Answers (AMITech)in Amiga World and Amazing Amiga) and not an Amiga 2200 was entirely because it was not a Commodore product. Naming it "A2200" did not break any copyright laws. This was confirmed and encouraged by Commodore Canada at the time: they saw the A2200 as a saving grace for their market -- there were over 100,000 CD32's in the pre-distribution channel including unassembled Spellbound motherboards. The additional $1.5-$2 million in sales to CA/AMITech (who, at the time were already >60% of Commodore Canada's sales channel) was viewed along the lines of "we all will have jobs at Commodore Canada for another year" (Commodore Canada never had a year in the red, even when C=USA went bankrupt Commodore Canada was still making money).

As somebody else noted, Spellbound is the name of the CD32 motherboard (I hoped somebody would pick up on that). The A2200 was designed entirely around the Spellbound motherboard, and thus it has the AGA chipset (the Akiko varient and the single "3.1" ROM).

The Agent-88 board was designed to attach directly to the expansion port of the Spellbound (there were also a couple other physical post-factory changes made to the Spellbound, but it didn't include chip changes). The Agent88 literally turned the Spellbound motherboard into a new motherboard that was 1.75 times as wide, it attached and then both boards were mounted as one single motherboard in the case. (The Agent-88 was similar in regards to an SX-32 or an SX-1 but with additional expansion capabilities including an accelerator slot, optional scsi module, etc. The big difference was it wasn't a CD32 game console expansion product, it was an actual new "Amiga clone" inside a real desktop case with the ability to expand it -- it would have been considered an AGA 3000 with CDROM market-wise).

The brilliance behind the A2200 was in its focus on a segment of the Commodore inventory that had the only available Amiga product supply channel that wasn't, as far as Commodore Canada knew, threatened by the bankruptcy of Commodore USA. While all other Amiga product lines had already been halted due to bankruptcy and frozen assets by creditors, the Spellbound (CD32) motherboard had upwards of 100,000 units sitting complete in a warehouse -- a warehouse that was not yet frozen by any creditor. Sadly, when Commodore filed for complete chapter 7 in Bahamian courts this last remaining invetory became lost.

The Spellbound (CD32) motherboards were built in one factory and then shipped to an assembly plant where the cases and other parts (shields, cd drives, controllers, packaging etc) were finally assembled into a CD32. From what I understand, the company that held the motherboards eventually recycled them for scrap (copper & other rare earth elements, etc). The vast majority of those motherboards could have ended up inside A2200 units, but like everything else the Commodore curse prevailed.