What is the most difficult thing on the Amiga?

[Crom00]

The flicker...
I think the flickering screen is the single biggest wrecking ball to hit the Amiga. Why? well I remember seeing the A4000 setup next to a PC and Mac display in NYC years ago. It was sad and funny to watch folks using the A4000 and saying thing's like "what the f*ck is up with this flicker" lol... 4 folks said the same thing...

How are you going to attract new users with a flickering display like that. Shows how out of touch Commodore were. Hey Let's remove the flicker fixer chip to validate to the outdated technological claims our competitors are making.

[Crom00]

Stick the PC monitor on the Amiga and - surprise, surprise - the flicker disappears.

Scratches head.... HUH? really how do you figure that... Actually what happens is you need to SET the screenmode to VGA compatibility mode, turn off the machine, connect the PC monitor...and reboot.

So now you're stuck in WB or screens that can open in VGA compatible screens if you want to use that PC montiror.

 Wanna play a game? too bad...(oh that's right I have to have a TV around... WTF?) work with any mode higher then 600X200 prepare for mind numbing flicker, your logic of blaming the display is strange becuase... the AMIGA is feeding the display with a low freq flickering display.

Hence the need for buitin Flicker fixer. Hence the laugh out load reactions from anyone who had used a $800 386sx clone in 1992 and see's the Amigas flckering display.

[Crom00]

Or even used the monitor that Commodore recommended for the Amiga 4000, like the Commodore 1960. No flicker then!
QUOTE]

What? So if I run NTSC mode in hires you still get flicker....actually the system I saw demo'd had an 1960 running dpaint IV aga in hires mode. Two high school kids were going through NTSC modes (casual users don't know or care about NTSC vs "productivity")

Actually everything was fine they just were totally put off by the flicker... they actually said "it cool ya know feels like its faster dan da PC but man... wassup wif dat flicka (NYC accent)"

That's when I thought... Commodore.. bunch of F'n amatuers...

Try and sell an IPAD with a flickering display and see what happens, this creates the most annoying user experience in computers or entertainment devices... I can't think of a worse way to destroy the user experience (other than slow 286 and win 3.1) You may as well ship the computer with a smelly fat guy who farts and flings boogers at you while trying to use the machine...at least you can have the fat guy run errands in exchange for candy.

[Crom00]

Also commodores excuse of reducing costs by removing the flicker fixer chip is strange... So let's lock folks into expensive to make multiscan monitors that cost us tons of cash to produce and support logistcally.

Lets do this  instead of selling AGA machines with FFD that can use abundant off the shelf VGA monitors and thus increasing user base due to ease of use and compatiblity with modern standards.

Explain the flicker to a principal or office manager who would have to spend 12 hours a day with the mind numbing display...

[Crom00]

but the ability that you could connect the Amiga directly to a TV set or a VCR was also one of the strong features of the Amiga.

Yep but a cool thing about the A3000 was that you could connect it to VGA and Amiga RGB. Would have been cool to see that carried over into the A1200 A4000, the A1200 did come with RF, composite, RGB and the *Ability* To do VGA modes. I wonder if a PC style bios setting could have enabled the option to turn on flicker free modes at all time, something where you can early startup control option to turn that VGA on or off similar to NTSC or PAL switching.