49 ms·
The Amiga isn't remembered as a technology. It's the ancestor of "Mac vs PC". It's the little computer that could. Where indies would hack cool stuff. It had a
by tetrisgm 3y ago
The Amiga isn't remembered as a technology. It's the ancestor of "Mac vs PC". It's the little computer that could. Where indies would hack cool stuff. It had a well understood spec that didn't change so much, so you could push the metal to its limit.
It's from a time where if you wanted games and you were a kid, you most likely pirated them. Wanna learn to code? Start messing with your game's files and hex editors. The demoscene was where the cool kids came up with ways to push the limits, beyond commercial software. Beyond that oh so lame Microsoft PC.
It's remembered fondly because it's a way to congregate the people who were there. I never had an Amiga as a kid, my parents had a PC. But I still care about that community. It feels like my people, when I started computers.
Much like music has genres and some might be nostalgic, so does the demoscene. It just doesn't get as many releases as on Spotify.
Respect to all the groups still making content for it. I'll share my favorite recent one, by TheBlackLotus https://youtu.be/W5_NMxW5UfE https://youtu.be/W5_NMxW5UfE
- kstrauser 3y agoIf you haven’t seen Black Lotus demos yet, stop what you’re doing and click that link. It left me speechless.
- tetrisgm 3y agoI remember when it came out and I was like oh neat demo. Is this a 64k or something? Then it clicked. Madness. It's not just beautiful code, it's stylish too.
- HumblyTossed 3y agoThe Amiga was a hotrod to eveyone else's sedan, basically.
- falalalala 3y agoAn all-Ford comparison: While IBM PC was an Econoline, Apple Macintosh was an Escort and Commodore 64 a Pinto, but Amiga was a flashy Mustang.
- technothrasher 3y ago> It's the ancestor of "Mac vs PC". I don't know if I'd call it an ancestor. When I first saw the Amiga 1000 introduction articles in the computer magazines in 1985, the Mac vs PC wars were already well entrenched and I had both a Mac and a PC. It didn't stop me from getting an Amiga 2000 in 87 when I'd saved up enough money though.
- tetrisgm 3y agoI hear you. I needed an analogy that most of the people here would be familiar with and it's the best I had. Agreed it's not the best :)
- Lio 3y ago> It's the ancestor of "Mac vs PC". That's an odd turn of phrase considering that both the Mac and the PC predate the Amiga. If anything surely the Mac's Ridley Scott directed launch Super Bowl ad was the start of "Mac vs PC". People loved the Amiga because it had a lot of modern features for the time and was reasonably priced. You're definitely right, it's the little computer that could. The demo scene loved the Amiga because a lot of hardware features were left undocumented ready for you to discover and wow your friends with. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zfqw8nhUwA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zfqw8nhUwA
- tetrisgm 3y agoI'm referring to the I'm a Mac ads, which came much later.
- zozbot234 3y agoThe Atari ST was even more reasonably priced, but of course it lacked the Amiga's custom hardware chipset so it was a lot more boring on the gaming and multimedia front.
- pjmlp 3y agoAnd did not support properly colour on its first iterations.
- sillywalk 3y ago> The Atari ST I remember these commercials, because they were on a VHS recording I had of Back to the Future, along with a brief news clip of the only Soviet Shuttle flight. Amiga 500 commercial (1988) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2KiNpqATUY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2KiNpqATUY Atari 1040ST Computer Commercial 1988 With 1 Megabyte Of Memory! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdumpLhvqMU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdumpLhvqMU
- kstrauser 3y ago> That's an odd turn of phrase considering that both the Mac and the PC predate the Amiga. Technically true. The PC definitely predates both, but the first Mac launched in 1984 and the first Amiga in 1985. They were very much contemporaries.
- pjmlp 3y agoWe had Amiga vs Atari vs PC instead. :)
- tetrisgm 3y agoExactly. Sure you guys has the better color palette, but we have cd rom. sweeps config.sys under the rug