Which were the best software publishers that changed Amiga history?

[Siggy]

Tricky question.

I'd have to agree with Tigger with NewTek and Electronic Arts. Making sure the Amiga was usable from the beginning (the entire Deluxe series was a great boost -- not to mention you could get 7 Cities of Gold from the get go was great too) - NewTek pretty much gave the Ami a huge push in the business world with their Toaster system (pity I couldn't get a PAL setup way back when I was in Aus.)

Gameswise there are sooo many to consider, but I'd probably go with Psygnosis and Cineware - their games were pretty early in the piece and were (for their time) visually stunning.

I think they both really 'set the standard' that a lot of people had to live up to.

Siggy.

[Siggy]

And in the "Did More Harm Than Good" department:

1. Microsoft for giving up on Amiga after AmigaBasic
2. id for their conscious effort to completely avoid the Amiga

I'm probably going to get flamed out the yin yang for this... But I think #1 is false.

Microsoft didn't 'give up' on the Amiga - what did they have to 'give up' on? - they wrote Basic for it, thats it - and seeing how it was included with the A500 I bought (eventually), I think having a language 'out of the box' was a good thing.

After that, what did they have to do with the Amiga? They had MS-DOS for PC's before the Ami entered the scene.  And I saw a LOT of PC's in the business world pre-Windows.
If you want to point fingers at the PC taking over as a games platform (which was the Ami's main market -- like it or hate it), then your second choice was the beginning of the end.

But Microsoft -- honestly, what would they have done with the Ami in the pre-Windows world? My guess is next to bugger all. Instead they made their own OS for the platform that was their biggest market.
The fact that I personally don't like that OS, and that I would prefer not to use that platform doesn't change anything -- The success of games on that OS, on that platform, did put a nail in the Amiga coffin, but I couldn't say they were personally singling out the Ami at the time.

Siggy.