CompuServe Thread

At least twice a week, I visit this forum on CIS, desperately hoping for good news on the Amiga. The news was hopeful back in the Spring when COMMODORE folded, but things have really degenerated. What we seem to have is a lot of speculating and some "facts" that state far less than they promise. Some interesting characters, who really should know better, are spouting piles of B.S. about their abilities to deliver on the Amiga platform. Meanwhile, reality is settling in…. My Pentium is increasingly doing what my Amiga did and is doing it better. Say what you will about the Pentium, but it is powerful… …and cheap. Yet, when I turn on my Amiga, a wave of anguish overwhelms me to think that this wonderfully simple, yet powerful system is fading away. So, I started to play a game. Using what we, as Amiga fans, know, lets try to CRITICALLY look at the reasons why a revival of this system will either succeed or fail. I was a bit distressed at how many negatives I came up with….. REASONS THE AMIGA RESURRECTION WILL SUCCEED: 1. No computer platform can beat the ease with which you can output a high quality NTSC signal as from the Amiga. 2. Too many Cable stations have invested in the Amiga to walk away. Too many Toasters are out there to ignore. 3. Still an amazingly simple system to use. 4. Powerful video output. REASONS THE AMIGA RESURRECTION ARE DOOMED: 1. The Power PC and Pentium are faster than any current Amiga model. After you do raytracing/rendering on one of these, no one will want to go backwards. 2. NTSC Video is no longer a novelty on the PC and MAC. 3. Software was once cheap on the Amiga and relatively expensive on the PC and MAC. Now, amazing 3-D and animation software is available on the PC and it is very cheap! Who wants to go backwards to port products to the Amiga for the same low prices Amiga fans had grown to expect. Impulse and other developers may give some residual support to the Amiga, but the sounds I detect are a shuffling away from the Amiga in favor of the PC. 4. Lightwave is available on the PC. 5. When the Amiga returns, it will essentially be a new platform, requiring a "re-recruitment" of vendors and software developers. Except for those of us with a substantial investment of time and money in our Amigas, who are also likely now investing in PC/MAC platforms, who will be interested in this "new" technology? I think the average person is going to say: We don't need a new platform in this crazy field! Even those of us with Amigas are going to be a bit worried about "throwing more good money after bad…." 6. "Doom" and "Doom II" on a Pentium. 7. Speed was of the essence in any attempt to revive the Amiga. All of us here were not kidding when we emphasized this fact. Well….. the revival has not been speedy. The Amiga is still dead. Every week that goes by is another nail in the coffin of the Amiga. 8. What can I do on my Amiga that I cannot do on a PC? 9. Worse, what can I do on my PC that I cannot do on my Amiga? Answer: A heck of a lot! 10. Looks like Video Toaster User has bitten the dust from what I can see. We Amiga fans have been burned by so many publications going belly-up that we don't dare invest in lengthy subscriptions to magazines that even appear to be "on the brink." Ironically, of course, we kill off the very voices that we need. IN SUMMARY: I am horrified at how easily the negatives flowed and how tough the positives were to crank out. Somebody PLEASE tell me why I am wrong…