Recreating the Amiga Walker Case

[darkage]

Has anyone attempted to recreate the Amiga walker case?

[odin]

Nope, in fact even the Walker cases themselves were far from finished. Very rough and ill-fitting (at least the one I saw at a show some years ago).

[murple]

God, why would you want to? I remember when it first showed up in magazines I thought it was a joke of some sort. If they'd finished the machine, I hope they would've put it in a more Amigoid case. That thing looked too weird in all the wrong ways.

[McVenco]

murple wrote:

That thing looked too weird in all the wrong ways.

No way! I think it is/was a pretty nifty design. Once you get over the whole vacuumcleaner/Darth Vader thing it's actually a pretty machine. Maybe not too practical, but it was in no way resembling any other computer at that day (which perfectly suits the Amiga).

[B00tDisk]

Yes.  Rubbermaid makes them for use in kitchens and bathrooms across the world.

[darkage]

I think the walker case would have been a major symbol of recognition for Amiga.  Either that or best known for the non-open standard case where you cant fit standard cards into.. lol.  But then again it could be looked at being ahead of its time?   People modding their cases to resemble all sorts of things have only became mainstream from 2000 onwards me thinks.

The SGI O2 was released  around the same time the Walker was being developed, maybe that was the start of rethinking case design.

[alexh]

The walker design was sold off to someone many years ago... I was expecting to see it... and then the first iMAC came out and killed any chance it had

[mingle]

I guess there are plenty of pics and drawings of it. Wouldn't be too hard to have a go (using plasticard, or something similar) if you're really keen...

But...

As a few others have stated it was a hideous-looking thing - half hoover/half bread-bin. I'm glad it was never released!

Just have a look at some of the other cases around at that time (Sparc, SGIs, etc). The walker was an especially ugly lump!

Cheers,

Mike.

[darkage]

For some reason it reminds me of an car that I first thought was ugly but I grew to like it.  

I cant for the life of me recall which car though.  :-?

[jj]

You couldnt sell them, there would be copyright infingement i think.  Didnt mercarnia or whatever buy the rights to the case design etc ?

[downix]

JJ wrote:
You couldnt sell them, there would be copyright infingement i think.  Didnt mercarnia or whatever buy the rights to the case design etc ?

You mean Merlancia, and yes, he did, and to the Gateway case design as well.  However, before proclaiming infringement or the like, you should first check with a lawyer (no Ben Hermans jokes guys).

[koaftder]

I would prefer to drink a glass of my own urine or perhaps dine upon my own feces before I would put something as hideous and stupid looking as the walker prototype on my desk.

[Fester]

I took a look at it online. It looks like a kitchen appliance from the 50s. This said, I don't find it ugly. It's very different. I kinda like it.

Fester

[hamtronix]

I imagine you could find an old toaster that you could gut that would be very close tot he walker. just add little feetsies.

[Matt_H]

I thought the designs eventually ended up with some of the Pegasos/bPlan/Genesi guys? Weren't drawings for several tower variants presented at a Pegasos show a few years ago?

I think it's a nice design for an art installation, museum, or kiosk terminal, but its large footprint and the inability to stack anything on it makes it very impractical for home/office desktop use.