Classic Amiga Design Pet Hates

[KThunder]

Hi,

Did you ever hear of the program called noclick.

I believe it came on some of the old Software Hut disks when you purchased something from them in the old days.

smerf

There are ways around many of the pet annoyances we have; the point is you have to use a program or work around for something that shouldn't be annoying in the first place. A1200 pcmcia cards do stick way out the side. You can tower your 1200 and use a right angle adaptor, but really commodore should have made the slot deeper into the machine like most laptops had.

My big pet peeve was always the wires. on a c64, or 500, 600, or 1200, you have a minimum of what 3 or 4 wires connected just for a functional machine. Yeah nice compact case but it is tethered with a web of cables

[KThunder]

actually commodore should have tested all their materials for 25 years to make sure they aged well. they should have realized their machines would still be in use in 2010

[KThunder]

Hi,

@Kthunder,

The reason Commodore had the disk drive constantly running was to recognize the insertion of a disk, then it would automatically load. Thanks to a smart programmer he was able to shut down the drive, and still have it determine if a disk was inserted. Workaround emmm yes, but then when you reload the Amiga Os the machine was really fast because you didn't have to hit the OK on the Insert disk 2 question like you did on other machines.

smerf

we all know the reasons behind a lot of these things, it doesn't make them any less annoying. we are all pointing out minor annoyances to our favorite computer and you are out on attack. relax geeze...

[KThunder]

@haywirepc

Scandoubler... you're absolutely right. I had two a1000's a 3000 and a 1200 and one of the reasons I chose the 3000 and 1200 and liked the 1000's is that the 1000, and 1200 could output composite video and the 3000 output vga.

We have discussions all the time here on Amiga.org about scandoublers, lcd tvs and other display related headaches.

[KThunder]

With amiga owner track record with upgrades, commodore should have realised most people would go with the 1200 and given it a better sized trapdoor. they gave the slot some pretty impressive capabilities but not enough space in the trapdoor to fit a device to use them all.

Imagine a card with 060, two simm slots, clock, pentium pc emu or ppc, fast buffered ide or scsi, sound chip, and rtg video. the slot could handle it (with a psu upgrade) but there is noway you would fit anything like that in there.

at the time i wondered why noone built an almost flat case filled with goodies that the 1200 could sit on top of, that would connect with a cable throught the trapdoor.

[KThunder]

cost was a huge thing but commodore had the 1200 selling for way under what anything else was and the 4000 selling for way above anything else.

If they had gone more for middle ground they could have added features to the 1200 and sold more 4000s

[KThunder]

commodore diversified their product in the 80's by taking one basic system and building variants of it. The 1000, 500, and 2000 are very similar hardware wise. the 3000 and 600 were different of course but the focus then was on the 3000 powerhouse.

in the 90's they made two completely different systems. they should have made a slightly beefier 1200 with an 030 and 2megs chip 2megs fast for a little more money. And the 4000 should have been a 1200 with a bus controller and slots, in a big box case, for a bit more.

they would have sold a few less 1200s and probably quite a few more 4000s and then with the 4000t they could have added scsi more slots and other goodies.

[KThunder]

@mingle
"7: Did I mention the ugly A4000 case?"

i think with the 3000 they were trying to make a case as cool as the 1000's and with the 4000 they were trying to make one as ugly as the 2000

i think all the wedge cases looked really cool but were very impractical, once you got all the wires connected.