AMIGA NEEDS YOUR HELP

[alewis]

But who would buy it?

No one. Literally. Does it run PC software? Nope, then thats that crowd gone. Does it run PS/xbox/ninetendo games? Nope, no interest there then.

"so what", asks the potential chain-store buyer, "does it run?" Answer: nothing, because there is practically no software in existence for it. So the retailers will not stock it. Even if they did, the customer will ask the same question, get the same answers, and walk away.

A new Amiga is a pipedream. The market is limited to those of us who have an Amiga (real or emulated) and perhaps those with fond memories who could be tempted back. At best a few thousand, probably only a few hundred, and out of that how many would actually pay cash for one...

IMHO the best anyone can do with the licence is make a limited production run of "nice" classic Amigas, such as 68030 based A1200's, A4000Ts, and some "desirable" hardware such as 060 and PPC cards, Picasso IV cards, and scandoubler/flicker-fixers, for those who still need/dream/lust over such equipment.

Even that limited Amiga market shrinks year on year.

Or perhaps a Amiga PCI card, cram as much as possible on a PCI card (030/040/060/PPC, custom chipset, CIAs and floppy, video-out, and a gfx chipset such as Cybervision or Picasso IV used so the cgx/p96 support is in place). Would it sell, probably in small numbers. It can be done, look at minimig et al. Provided it runs classic OS, so the apps, games, etc are all in place.

[alewis]

Keep dreaming. Aint going to happen.

How many people bought an A1 etc... ie any "amiga" hardware platform post Escom...  millions? hundreds of thousands? tens of thousands? Obviously they flew off the shelves in such quantities that the manufacturers are still in business today, developing new hardware, upgrades, etc etc.

or not. As is the case.

[alewis]

Yes, as well as (until recently) several Amigas. But if I was going to pay £1400, it wouldnt be on a system with slow memory, ancient gfx card, and no very limited memory and nil expansion. One can buy a lot of toys for that amount, or a seriously specced PC.

Millions of bugs? Go on then, list them...

[alewis]

er maybe not. Have OS3.9 here on an A4K/CSPPC/PIV, and its not as stable as my WarpEngine rig was. Which in turn had more problems than my old B2000/KS2.04/OS3.1 .... and a PC was just so much faster at doing anything, such as word prcoessing, DTP, DTV, *printing* (oh, and can actually use the features of modern printers), etc etc.

dont get me wrong, but there simply isnt the market to make it commercially attractive any more. There are not enough Amiga users.

[alewis]

@starke

Can I have a pint of whatever you are on? I dunno what it is but it seems to make reality go away.

So come on, how is Amiga going to rise again?

How are they going to "overrun the home scenario"?

"if we manage for any... to play it smart" - and how, exactly, could you do that? several million Amiga users couldn't when C= had it... and that was when the IP rested with one company. What can a few hundred users achieve now, even ignoring the on-going feud between god knows how many companies.

As for last comment, well, there is precisely one way and one way only you could help. Invest £hundred million; to acquire all IP, establish R&D, bring products to market, and then hope. Sadly, I doubt you have the abillity.

Sorry to shatter your illusion. Reality sucks.  And as a one-time Amiga evangelist, it hurts. That is how it is, rather than a dream.

[alewis]

Sunshine, if I could actually understand some of your ramblings, I might have a clue what you are on about.

fatigue... let me see, I don't feel fatigued. Please elaborate.

They have a good OS - opinion. make it better than the rest? Perhaps you could define that.

Why would I be - presumably - deluded? "But Mucker said it" - so that makes it definite, does it. If Mucker said "jump off a cliff, you can fly", would that be 'reality".

People want to live in a dream world of classics? No. Have you seriously considered just what an Amiga is? It *is* the clasic Amiga. Simply because there is nothing else in existence. There is no guarantee that "bigger and better" would be nothing more than a Linux-type environment, ie a multi-tasking OS running on x86 hardware.

It isn't transfering to our brains? No, its *you* who doesn't listen, or rather, does not want to hear anything other than "Amiga will rise, rah-rah-rah".

Anythign is possible in this world? Bollocks. I will never be able to play basketball for the Harlem Globetrotters, save goal for England, or have babies.

The comment re Bill gates... Ok, here's a challenge for you. For once, instead of avoiding answering questions, exactly was it that "Bill Gates know... that every one thought he wasn't in reality".

What was it. Where did he "evangelize" it, and define "everyone" and their refutations, publications/media such scorn was published.

[alewis]

@coldfish

Maybe Starke only needs go back to 2002, when Bill McEwen published an update newsletter that said it "was just around the corner".

@Starke. back then, 2,500 was an optimistic number of untis to sell. I've no idea if they acheived that limited run. 5000 was hopeful. 10,000 would have been wonderful. 50,000 well... I don't see 10,000 Amiga users on *all* the Amiga sites. Let alone the 50,000 that Amiga Inc hinted would have been enough to have a major retailer come on board.

Whats different now? An even smaller community of Amiga users.

Anyway, still waiting for you to answer some questions from earlier.

[alewis]

So it only has to compete against the $100 laptop... which despite a lot of big backing hasn't been the fastest "innovation" to market.

And it needs some apps to run. And java/activeX compatibility. And the abillity to render .jpg and .pdf files. And to be honest word/opendoc compatibillity.

Its not so much the hardware anymore, as the abillity to access, display, and manipulate data.

Cheap hardware is great. But you need to be able to do something with it.