Tomas wrote:
Games, plain and simple. It was a game machine that at the last minute was made into a full blown computer.
The a1000 did not look like a plain gaming computer to me.. But i do think that the a500 was probably most meant for gaming purposes.
The project began as a games machine at Hi-Toro, later become Amiga, later bailed out by Commodore. But their "games machine" was always a little different; as I understand it, a good faction of the team wanted things like a multitasking operating system from the start, plenty wanted it to be expandable into a full computer whatever the initially shipped form. (Something that, IIRC, Atari tried or failed at, at least in terms of price points, with the 7800 or somesuch thing.)
Think of it as a sort of Neo Geo that grew legs and learned to walk upright. The more it became obvious that 'ridiculously killer console' would be a stifling niche even if the market weren't weak, the more it became a full-fledged computer; anyone have Jay Miner's 'tax write-off' quote?
