Amiga users, Are we the only hardcore followers?

[itix]

@Tomas

Try Windows 95. It flies on my Pentium 90 and doesnt require much RAM. I think it is faster than my old A1200 was.

[KThunder]

try aros
linux started out with one guy linus and grew to a very respectable alternitive os it isnt very useful for home use since it is unix.
there is no reason why aros cant be like or even better than linux.
aros on practically any modern hardware is very fast good looking and is becoming more functional all the time
os4 is stagnant wainting for hardware that likely will never materialize at any reasonable power/price point if at all
try aros, it is a free download, the iso will burn easily ask for help if you need it, and try it. it will probably work on you pc

[Troika]

@redrumloa

>>No, the kommunity is poisoned. I can possibly see a resurgence in classic usage, but there will be no comeback for a NG system.<<

you should never say never redrumloa :lol:

some very good people are working hard to make it happen.

[InTheSand]

tonyvdb wrote:
Are there other user groups like us from the 80's that still hang on to our trusty old computers (not people that are colecting them but still using them), or are there lots of others out there like us?

There are a few other groups - the Sinclairs (expecially the ZX Spectrum and the QL) still have an active and loyal following on comp.sys.sinclair, and new QL clones plus various bits of Spectrum-related hardware are available new. I'm not quite sure how many of the old 8-bit micros are still in actual use though, I'd say it was less than the Amigas, as at least you can still do something useful aside from games with an Amiga!

KThunder wrote:
linux started out with one guy linus and grew to a very respectable alternitive os it isnt very useful for home use since it is unix.

I disagree there - a recent Ubuntu Linux distribution that includes OpenOffice is more than adequate for casual computer use (e.g. emailing, web browsing, printing stuff, creation of documents and spreadsheets, etc). Things there have progressed loads since the early Linux days, and such users would have no need or requirement to use the command shell as everything can be controlled graphically.

 - Ali

[mr_a500]

Are there other user groups like us from the 80's that still hang on to our trusty old computers (not people that are colecting them but still using them), or are there lots of others out there like us?

I was surprised when I saw that some people are still playing with TRS-80 Colour Computers. A quote from one site - "The Tandy Color Computer 3 may well be the ultimate hobby computer." When I read that, I almost laughed milk out my nose. My first computer was a Colour Computer 2 and I still have a Colour Computer 3, but I have to admit they are absolute crap compared to other computers of the time.

It's funny, the "CoCo" fans dream of what it would have been like if they released the Colour Computer 4 - similar to the AAA dreams of Amiga fans.

Edit: You could say that CoCo2->CoCo3 is like A500->A1200, with better graphics, more colours, backwards compatibility, but absolutely no upgrade to the sound whatsoever. (...and released too late to avoid total failure)

[drewz21]

I'm waiting Troika...I'm waiting.

[InTheSand]

mr_a500 wrote:
It's funny, the "CoCo" fans dream of what it would have been like if they released the Colour Computer 4 - similar to the AAA dreams of Amiga fans.

Hehe! And the Speccy fans dream of what it'd have been like if the ZX Spectrum Loki had been released in a similar way! This was supposed to have had Amiga-style graphics and sound (blitter plus custom chipset) and a 48K Spectrum compatible mode, all controlled via a 6MHz Z80, for under £200 in around 1986.

History note: A couple of the engineers working on the Loki project left Sinclair Research, set up a company to market a new machine and this eventually appeared as the Atari Jaguar.

 - Ali

[karel]

I have only 1 Amiga1200+mediator.
BlizzardPPC-040/210
I have no PC.!

[Marco]

InTheSand wrote:

mr_a500 wrote:
It's funny, the "CoCo" fans dream of what it would have been like if they released the Colour Computer 4 - similar to the AAA dreams of Amiga fans.

Hehe! And the Speccy fans dream of what it'd have been like if the ZX Spectrum Loki had been released in a similar way! This was supposed to have had Amiga-style graphics and sound (blitter plus custom chipset) and a 48K Spectrum compatible mode, all controlled via a 6MHz Z80, for under £200 in around 1986.

History note: A couple of the engineers working on the Loki project left Sinclair Research, set up a company to market a new machine and this eventually appeared as the Atari Jaguar.

 - Ali

And again with the C64/128 fans' dreams of the C65, though that at least was pretty much finished when it was canned by Gould. It's a shame really, the C65 looks like a very nice piece of hardware for an 8bit swansong...

[Fransexy_]

There is also the MSX 8 bit computer community.they have even new software and new hardware (like ide hardisk controlers and others), and have made an unix for MSX.
And like the Amiga they are waiting for ages for  a new MSX system (the so called MSX3) that has been promised several times throughout the years by several companies

you can take a look in MSX resource center and other related pages

[Lando]

The Atari / TOS (and even Atari 8-bit) and Acorn / RiscOS groups are still quite active.  

A new announcement I noticed on the Atari 8-bit scene this month was a new graphics card for the Atari XE - it plugs into the socket where the original GTIA chip was.  Hi-res modes, 256-colour hardware sprites, 65536 colour palette, Quite amazing that developments such as this are occurring in 2006 for an 8-bit computer whose chipset was designed in 1978 (by Jay Miner while he was at Atari).

One big difference I have noticed is that they seem quite ready to admit their machines are not going to have a 'comeback' but are happy to keep using them, upgrading them, and developing for them simply because they enjoy it and they like the computers / OS.

It just seems to be certain people (albeit a minority these days) of the Amiga community who for some reason need to believe that Amiga will miraculously make a comeback, and are oblivious to all logic as to why this won't happen.

[InTheSand]

Marco wrote:
And again with the C64/128 fans' dreams of the C65, though that at least was pretty much finished when it was canned by Gould. It's a shame really, the C65 looks like a very nice piece of hardware for an 8bit swansong...

At least the C65 got as far as the prototype stage - the nearest thing to a completed ZX Spectrum Loki was one made of chocolate and given away in a magazine competition! The design was too over-ambitious and could never have been produced in the timescales or at the projected cost.

Lando wrote:
...they seem quite ready to admit their machines are not going to have a 'comeback' but are happy to keep using them, upgrading them, and developing for them simply because they enjoy it and they like the computers / OS.

Realistically, that's the only reason I still use the Amiga - because I enjoy it! Tinkering with old hardware and software is a fun (though sometimes expensive!) hobby, for me at least!

But it's nice to have a dream of a new Amiga! The problem nowadays being that even if by some miracle, a company was to produce a world-beating computer with the word "Amiga" stuck on it, unless it was PC (or perhaps Mac) compatible, it wouldn't stand much of a chance regardless of specs or capability and would be relegated to an expensive low production run hobby item... So no world domination there!

 - Ali

[mikrucio]

Well i for one am waiting for an amiga comeback.
it would be grand. alas it will probably never happen.
but thats negative thinking. so as many of us here do,
i check for amiga news everyday.

and amiga.org is the first place to look.
GO Amiga. you can do it.

[AmigaMance]

At this point, there's not much that can be done with NG AOS or AOS like OSes, unless you are a developer. Classic AOS can equally not provide anything useful, however at least it offers retro-gaming through WHDLoad, by using the native chipset.

I don't mean to sound negative, but it's reality.

 But you do sound negative, way too negative and you are exaggerating.
You are saying that a classic Amiga can only be used as a pure, retro game-machine, which is simply not true. You remind me of those pc users back in the Amiga-glory days. They were saying exactly the same thing and they still do..
 I'm not suggesting that Amigas are up to date computers/OSes but there are plenty of serious things that you can do with them.

[HellCoder]

For me the amiga still provides me that what I need. And my needs are not limited to the capabilities of the Amiga. For some unknown reason sitting behind the Amiga adds something hard to explain, but pleasure surrounds it. For this reason I decided to stash away my pc somewere out of sight and control it using VNC (wireless). For browsing and developing I don't need anything more.

 ;-)

[darksun9210]

yeah, i ended up giving my PC to my dad (ultimate PC death! giving it to your parents!) as all i used it for is games.

when i think of the money i spent on it, and what i've gotten out of it, kinda an £1800 time wasting device. i don't really have the time to get involved in games anymore. so the odd hour or so here and there during the week tinkering with my amiga i find much more productive.

i agree with HellCoder,

For some unknown reason sitting behind the Amiga adds something hard to explain, but pleasure surrounds it.

just like when i get hardware through for it now - its still exciting... unlike PC hardware which is just another comodity "thing" with more this and faster that... nothing actually interesting lets be honest...