5 ms·

Agreed, the computing landscape would be so much more colourful if the Amiga won the day. The BBC did a fun retelling of the rivalry between Sinclair and Acorn

Agreed, the computing landscape would be so much more colourful if the Amiga won the day. The BBC did a fun retelling of the rivalry between Sinclair and Acorn a few years ago. Worth a watch if you haven't already seen it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Men https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Men

digi_owl 10y ago
I think the only way it could have won was if they never released the 500, 600, 1200 lineage, and perhaps moved their chipset onto a expansion board.
- ZenoArrow 10y ago
  Eh? The 500 was their most successful model, and the 1200 was the second most successful IIRC. The 600 was a mistake, it was meant to be cheaper than the 500 but ended up more expensive to produce. If anything, the 2000 should've used a new chipset instead of being the same as the 1000, and there should've been a much bigger jump in performance on the 3000 and 4000. By offering different chipsets on the high end models and the low end models, they could have captured both the high end and low end markets. As it was, the high end models were useful for the Video Toaster and not a lot else.
  - digi_owl 10y ago
    What in the end sold the PC was that you could buy a barebones model and over time add all manner of functionality via its internal expansion slots (imo, soundblaster got big on selling combo kits of soundcard and CDROM drive). In comparison the A500 had one expansion slot on the side.
    - ZenoArrow 10y ago
      The move to PC had very little to do with expandability and a lot more to do with available software and performance. For many Amiga fans it was Doom that drew them to the PC. Most PC users weren't in the habit of building their own rigs.
      - Razengan 10y ago
        Ah yes, Doom. The game that made it socially acceptable to be a PC gamer.
        digi_owl 10y ago
        Heh, given the controversy about violent games (with Doom being way up there on the list) i suspect you were going for sarcasm.
        Razengan 10y ago
        Well among gamers it was definitely embarrassing to be a PC user. Doom made it cool. Arcades had Street Fighter and all the action. Consoles had the most faithful arcade ports as well as all the JRPGs. Amiga/ST had the better sound, less configuration hassles, and for a while, better graphics. PCs had...flight simulators and spreadsheets and yuck, MS DOS.
        digi_owl 10y ago
        While at the same time mom and dad could use it for work, because of that IBM thing. As a personal anecdote, i got into the PC world by buying a second hand 486 (DX luckily, i had not the first clue at the time). No sound card, F if i recall what the HDD was (but just having one was a step up from floppy shuffling), and maybe 4MB of ram. By the time i was done with using it, i had added a sound card, replaced the graphics card, added a CDROM, doubled the ram (if not more), and gotten a whooping 1GB HDD in there. For the life of the A500 it stayed the same. I did borrow an extra floppy for a while, and that allowed me to speed up the games loading for a while, but it was pretty much a sealed unit for me over those years.

digi_owl 10y ago

I think the only way it could have won was if they never released the 500, 600, 1200 lineage, and perhaps moved their chipset onto a expansion board.

ZenoArrow 10y ago
Eh? The 500 was their most successful model, and the 1200 was the second most successful IIRC. The 600 was a mistake, it was meant to be cheaper than the 500 but ended up more expensive to produce. If anything, the 2000 should've used a new chipset instead of being the same as the 1000, and there should've been a much bigger jump in performance on the 3000 and 4000. By offering different chipsets on the high end models and the low end models, they could have captured both the high end and low end markets. As it was, the high end models were useful for the Video Toaster and not a lot else.
- digi_owl 10y ago
  What in the end sold the PC was that you could buy a barebones model and over time add all manner of functionality via its internal expansion slots (imo, soundblaster got big on selling combo kits of soundcard and CDROM drive). In comparison the A500 had one expansion slot on the side.
  - ZenoArrow 10y ago
    The move to PC had very little to do with expandability and a lot more to do with available software and performance. For many Amiga fans it was Doom that drew them to the PC. Most PC users weren't in the habit of building their own rigs.
    - Razengan 10y ago
      Ah yes, Doom. The game that made it socially acceptable to be a PC gamer.
      - digi_owl 10y ago
        Heh, given the controversy about violent games (with Doom being way up there on the list) i suspect you were going for sarcasm.
        Razengan 10y ago
        Well among gamers it was definitely embarrassing to be a PC user. Doom made it cool. Arcades had Street Fighter and all the action. Consoles had the most faithful arcade ports as well as all the JRPGs. Amiga/ST had the better sound, less configuration hassles, and for a while, better graphics. PCs had...flight simulators and spreadsheets and yuck, MS DOS.
        digi_owl 10y ago
        While at the same time mom and dad could use it for work, because of that IBM thing. As a personal anecdote, i got into the PC world by buying a second hand 486 (DX luckily, i had not the first clue at the time). No sound card, F if i recall what the HDD was (but just having one was a step up from floppy shuffling), and maybe 4MB of ram. By the time i was done with using it, i had added a sound card, replaced the graphics card, added a CDROM, doubled the ram (if not more), and gotten a whooping 1GB HDD in there. For the life of the A500 it stayed the same. I did borrow an extra floppy for a while, and that allowed me to speed up the games loading for a while, but it was pretty much a sealed unit for me over those years.