Hi Guys,
I'm a newby here. Excuse my rambling but it may give you some insight into where a lot of the less hardcore Amiga enthusiasts are coming from.
I left the Amiga world in the early 90s and I want to come back in from the cold.
I had an A1000 back in my 10th year at school with an IBM XT compat sidecar(which I upgraded to a 286 8mghz Woohoo:) which allowed me to use a PC hard-disk for the Amiga back when they were hideously expensive and terribly low capacity. Using a PC on an Amiga was also something to boast of as was the Mac emulator I had at the time.
To me the Amiga, and all the kick ass graphics and sound made me excited about technology in a way no PC has since. It was the logical successor to the C64 which I also adored.
That A1000 was such a cool little machine I bought it 'used', over an A500 of the same price. I didn't notice any difference in capabilities really, although booting kickstart from disk was a pain. Years later I bought a second A1000 cheap just to get a memory upgrade. Hey, doesn't everyone do that?
The Amiga name itself conjures up memories of how all my PC and ST friends were envious as hell at the terrific looking games, music and graphic apps I had. And I never had to modify a config.sys file. It was an all in one turnkey system that inspired some ####iness on my part due to costing a third of most PCs at the time. (Funny that the tables are turned and a decent PC will probably cost a third or less than the A1.)
Those demos showing off the hardware and music capabilities of the system are what knocked everyone's socks off at the time. I wonder if the demo scene will ever re-ignite.
I am not sure if hardware speed alone can inspire that kind of elation. If speed is your thing, I can guarantee that a similar priced PC will kick an Amiga. 3D graphic cards are the 'in' thing and we're going to share that with the PC, if we're lucky. While you obviously need decent hardware you need decent software as well.
I think the main problem we are facing is one of software. The hardware is really irrelevant except to the most hardcore of people who have maintained an ongoing investment in Amiga products. I commend you for keeping the spirit alive, and hope you don't mind that some of your investments may take a backseat to the developments at Amiga Inc.
But the fact remains, that the killer app for the Amiga was the games. With the new bunch of consoles and the 3d capabilities and software base of the PC, I would think it impossible to reclaim the throne. But I guess we don't need to.
However, what is the most exciting prospect about the Amiga One and AOS 4 is the potential to re-ignite the passions of people who once had an Amiga. I see many people returning to an Amiga for sentimental reasons. Admittedly its all in the fondness for the name. You can't call something a PegasOS and get the same effect, no matter what the price. No one comes back to a Pegasos!!!! They will come back to an Amiga though. I know I will. People grew up with them and now, almost ten years later have the greater disposable income to purchase a brand new Amiga system regardless of its exorbitant cost. Pegasos, may be better and cheaper, and you may end up arguing that until you're blue in the face, and even proving it, but your starry eyed new Amiga owner won't even give it a second thought. Its the official Amiga, the Amiga One, all the way and any other talk could be considered sacrilege(?).
But, like everyone, I want to know what configurations A1s come in and how much it will cost. Personally, I haven't the patience to stuff around trying to get things to work for more than 2 minutes. Kinda the reason I wiped Linux. With dedicated hardware I wanna see it work first go. I want the official turnkey solution with the official case and the big Amiga Logo before I can take it seriously. Without that, its just another motherboard in some bodgey case and I might as well stick to my BORG PC. Did you hear that Alan Redhouse!!!!! And the case better look as cool as the MAC ones if we're going to pay the premium!!! Love that new stainless steel look!!!
I gotta say, Morphos looks beautiful, and I love that Ambient UI, but I might as well be running Beos for the good it will do me.
Having an Amiga was like being the underdog. Its probably still the case, with the Wintel alliance. It now looks like we may have finally gotten something better. Having a Pegasos is like being the underdog to Amiga. Effectively an underdog to an underdog. But that's your choice and I respect that.
I wonder, could the two systems, both A1 and PegasOS prop eachother up and create a broader community rather than two disparate ones. I am hoping we're all on this newsgroup for the same reason.
I have checked some of the profiles and it seems that a few of you are intending to develop for both. I am wondering if there will be any kind of compatability between apps for AOS and Morphos? If there is, and they are similar to program, perhaps someone can develop a toolkit or even a guide to converting apps not only from Morphos to Amiga and back, but from PC to Amiga systems and back. I'd buy that book!!!!
I have now been a software engineer writing serious windows and internet business apps for almost a decade, and although I never programmed anything except a little AMOS game on the Amiga it kind of died before I had the skills to do something decent.
I am eager to get my hands on a completed fully fledged system and add some decent apps and maybe even a little game to the community. Everything old is new again, and we have the chance to reinterpret the world in the Amiga image.
It just occurred to me that it was the one-upmanship within the developer community that propelled the original Amiga. Both within the Amiga community and with the other platforms. Something that is sorely lacking in these days of Blockbuster budget games.
I really hope that Amiga Inc never make a closed system like PS2 or Nintendo(should they make a console) and that the Amiga community of enthusiasts can begin in earnest to create new and innovative apps and games even if the audience is limited. Back in the early nineties it seemed like anyone could write a game or app and you didn't need a crew of 20 or more. I hope we return to this, as that is where all the innovation came from. Hell, OS4 is being written by only 2 or 3 guys and its in the same league as Windows!!!!
These are exciting times for us, and all the enthusiasts and hobbyists out there. But I'm willing to wait for my dream system. Please, please, don't release it with bugs. I would hate for the Amiga One to become a laughing stock. Hey, but don't wait so long the hardware is dated either!!!
Ben
