Classic Amiga cases - demand for fresh replacements?

[Digiman]

Yeah, kind of looks more like an Archimedes.  I think for me the Amiga's keyboard layout is a big factor in its looks.  The A1200 is that much different from the A500 but still recognisable on account of the keyboard, and the LEDs.  Not sure why he decided to put them in the middle, weird.  And the drives are on the wrong side.  Never did much like those Mac-style keyboards either, but they seem to be the fashion right now.

I'm pretty sure plastic should be cheaper than metal, but I'll see if I can get a quote.  Also bear in mind that requirement #1 is that it's a replacement for original A1200/A500 cases (i.e. fits classic Amiga motherboards), not a new case for a standard PC mobo.  Mini ITX/Flex ATX compatibility would be a bonus.

Bin there done that. The first thing you will need is a CAD document to within 0.1 mm accuracy to supply to a company who does suitable injection moulding or custom plastic work. If you are making cases for X86 motherboards that look like Amiga exactly including keyboard you will also need to contact a manufacturer of bespoke design keyboards too and also redesign the original case to account for PC motherboard block type connector at the back and also work out how to cool a PC motherboard in that case and add some way of securing the keyboard to the underside of the top half of the case (best way is to do it just as the Commodore 128 or the 64C does really).

And then brace yourself for the costs they will quote you.

At this point you will see immediately why Commodore USA made one and only one bespoke computer that looks anything like the original model it was based on.

[Digiman]

3D printers are just not suitable for this sort of project, believe me I have investigated this thoroughly last year

If you committed to 1 million units sure it would be damned cheap to produce, but even $10 each x 1 million = 10 million dollars up front. If there was some radical new hardware to put inside the machine (like FPGA based 060 speed A1200 motherboards etc) cool but you would be hard pressed to sell 10,000 cases of a single design to our retro community let alone 1 million.

There are other options but you won't like them lol