General 68000 hardware inquiry

[Aniway]

In a word, no. In the last couple of years, Commodore was run by thieves. Why Gould and Ali were never prosecuted is beyond me....

I thought the beauty of the corporate model -- I presume C= was a corporation -- was that the stockholders hold regular elections and can vote out anyone who does a bad job. If Gould and Ali did such a bad job, why not vote them out "next election" and hire more popular leadership?

But of course it's too late for that. Still, I gotta wonder why the corporate model failed.

[psxphill]

I thought the beauty of the corporate model -- I presume C= was a corporation -- was that the stockholders hold regular elections and can vote out anyone who does a bad job. If Gould and Ali did such a bad job, why not vote them out "next election" and hire more popular leadership?

Gould was the major stock holder & he liked Ali, because he said all the right things to him.
 
Jack Tramiel wasn't the nicest person, but he had a vision and managed to screw people to achieve it. I don't think that Gould ever appreciated how much he needed Jack, money from the c64 was rolling in and he could afford to pay for some yes men to massage his ego.
 
The problem with stock holders is that all they have brought to the table is money, they don't necessarily know if someone is doing a good job or not.

[freqmax]

Because Gould likely believed he had hired a competent manager and stuck with it until it was too late.

Money doesn't equal good judgment, though they may coincide. He might still be smart but in this case it failed.

[carls]

Gould was the major stock holder & he liked Ali, because he said all the right things to him.
 
Jack Tramiel wasn't the nicest person, but he had a vision and managed to screw people to achieve it. I don't think that Gould ever appreciated how much he needed Jack, money from the c64 was rolling in and he could afford to pay for some yes men to massage his ego.
 
The problem with stock holders is that all they have brought to the table is money, they don't necessarily know if someone is doing a good job or not.

In fact, when the bodily excrements really made contact with the air circulation device, Commodore had moved the company to the Bahamas. Mainly for taxation reasons, I guess, but it was also an efficient way to stop shareholders attending any kind of election. IIRC a small group of shareholders raised money for one person to go there and voice their complaints, which was of course ignored.

Also, the downfall went fast and not all of it is to blame on Gould/Ali. In 1992 things might have looked bleak but Amiga was still the leading games/home computer (in Europe at least). Buying a PC was not only seen as weird but rather downright irresponsible - they were too expensive. Then in 1993, Doom came along and changed everything. By 1994, PCs were so cheap and powerful that custom hardware simply couldn't compete. Not only C= but also Atari went bust. By 1995, my friends had at least 66 MHz 486 boxes while I bought a 28 Mhz 030 card for my A1200 which cost more than the computer itself. Except for Apple (arguably - they have made the switch to X86 and what really turned their luck was the iPod), there hasn't been a single successful maker of "custom hardware" home computers since the mid-1990s.

Still. With better marketing and sounder R'n'D desicions, the classic Amiga as we know it might have lasted a few years longer as a fringe element for the already initiated. But then again, it kind of did anyway. If it would have been around today, it would probably be kind of like a Mac or Linux box: A PC with another OS (Much like the AmigaOne actually is).

[psxphill]

Also, the downfall went fast and not all of it is to blame on Gould/Ali. In 1992 things might have looked bleak but Amiga was still the leading games/home computer (in Europe at least). Buying a PC was not only seen as weird but rather downright irresponsible - they were too expensive. Then in 1993, Doom came along and changed everything.

That was their lack of vision. They thought that they could keep repeating the same success without the right r&d.
 
It all started going wrong after the a500 was released, before it even became successful. That was when they should have been designing the A1200 & it should have had chunky video modes.
 
AAA was never going to make them the same kind of money.
 
With the correct management they had the people to build it. In the end it was Sony that designed the next great games machine hardware.

[freqmax]

Maybe FPGA:s is the "new Amiga". In the sense that they offer custom power. NOT in the sense that they can implement the original Amiga.

Thought the PS2 analogy is interesting.