#Real Vision
4 messages in this thread
The big question is, which one has a real vision for the future of the
Amiga. If the one that wins thinks that a 1 or 2 meg machine with an 800K
floppy is all that is needed for the base market, then the Amiga is doomed
to sink back beneath the waves in a short while.
The "Base" Amiga needs to be on the order of a 25 Mhz 486sx in performance
(walk through any computer dealer, and you'll find 386's getting scarce,
and base 486sx's for under a grand), and have at least a 100 meg hard
drive. There has to be a melding of the lines so that the "real" Amigas
can add a CD Rom, and play CD32 titles. They should also be able to go
beyond CD 32 so that there is a reason to graduate to the "real"
computers, after you outgrow your CD 32. Naturally the CD 32 should have
keyboards and drives available to become useable computers for those who
want to add more capability to their game machine.
The problem lies in funding and developing such projects. I'm not sure
that either group has those kinds of dollars. The high end Amigas must
continue, because the graphics and video are what kept Amiga going, and
kept software other than games, coming.
I'm not real certain that either group, or both groups together could pull
it off. I tend to have a gut feeling that it would take somebody on the
order of IBM/APPLE/HP/SONY, to give the project the funding, and clout
that it would need. Money isn't the only issue. Just because you are
going to restart production, have some nice plans, and a few bucks in your
pocket, doesn't mean that Gold Disk, Word Perfect, Byte By Byte, Sierra,
and a whole host of others are going to rush out and rehire Amiga
programmers. Nor will it mean that Microsoft, Lotus, Borland, Aldus, and
Correl, will suddenly discover that they need to find some Amiga
programmers.
Basically I see it as an uphill battle to do much more than produce a game
machine. I feel that it will be odds about the same as C= faced when they
were trying to make a go of it. (Yes we *ALL* can market better than C=,
but they really did try, and any new group will also face the doubts of
developers who got burned once, and will hesitate before committing money
to development again.)
I give the Amiga about a 20% chance of being around in 5 years.
And I *REALLY* *REALLY* hope I'm wrong.
Alex,
>> I give the Amiga about a 20% chance of being around in 5 years.
>> And I *REALLY* *REALLY* hope I'm wrong.
20%? I think you are being REALLY REALLY generous. I'd guess 20% in two
years and next to nada in five years. I think the window of opportunity
has been long lost, unfortunately. But I too hope I am wrong.
Andrew
ICAM — ActiveMedia Development / IICS "InforMedia" Newsletter Editor
Gliding in from Toronto on AutoPilot…
Andrew,
From mathematics i learned changes can not be calculated on cases like this,
just like you can't tell anything about whether there's live on Mars or not.
There is or there's not.
:>)
Hans Keesom Amsterdam
Alex,
I think both of the candidates (or I should say either) will be more
likely to listen to their customers and to respond to the market place
better than C=. I also have faith that the lesson of C= willnot be lost
on either of them, tho as a professional user I would favor the one that
will put the A4000T in production and the A5000 (whatever that may be) on
a priority track. And I think both groups probably have a better
understanding of the Amiga machine, and will accept it as a niche machine
and build a solid market in its niche. If they don't, it will be apparent
early on, and then it will be time to get serious about a platform switch.
wmc – via Autopilot!