Chris2005
Banned
I know nothing about Amigas. Are they still useful for anything these days? I read somewhere online that the 600 was no slouch, not inferior to the 500 anyway.
- VCF South West - June 14 - 16, Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas at Dallas
- VCF West - Aug 2 - 3, Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA
- VCF Midwest - Sept 7 - 8 2024, Schaumburg, IL
- VCF SoCal - Mid February 2025, Location TBD, Southern CA
- VCF East - April 2025, Infoage Museum, Wall NJ
-
Please review our updated Terms and Rules here
what is this Amiga 600 going to do for me and my longevity?
- Thread starter Chris2005
- Start date
vic user
Veteran Member
i know very little about amigas.
from what i gather, there is still a huge amount of people all around the world that use them.
you might want to try amiga.com and go from there.
always wanted one myself!
chris
from what i gather, there is still a huge amount of people all around the world that use them.
you might want to try amiga.com and go from there.
always wanted one myself!
chris
Terry Yager
Veteran Member
I knew a guy (now deceased) who ran an Amiga BBS all the way up into the late ninties, long after all the other BBSs had disappeared. His large membership was world-wide, and none seemed to mind the LD charges to log-on, probably because it was a "pirate" board where you could obtain any Amiga program you wanted, commercial or otherwise.
--T
--T
Jorg
Veteran Member
AFAIK there is still a huge amiga community around
http://www.amiga.org/modules/mylinks/viewcat.php?cid=12
http://www.amiga.org/modules/mylinks/viewcat.php?cid=12
Do a google search for EAB (English Amiga Board), its very active in the Amiga comunity.
As far as the A600 goes, not too many people like that model. The A500 is better for playing non AGA games plus it has a full keyboard.
As far as the A600 goes, not too many people like that model. The A500 is better for playing non AGA games plus it has a full keyboard.
Chris2005
Banned
personally I'd prefer a 500 also, or a 2000. But one thing the 600 does have going for it...it's the latest model, and not likely to have as much use.
carlsson
Veteran Member
Two things going for the Amiga 600: it has a PCMCIA slot and if I recall correctly, also a 2.5" IDE interface. On the other hand, it has one fewer external expansion possibilities than the A500+ and no numeric keypad. Compatibily wise, the A500+ (ECS chipset) and A600 should be close to identical.
Just like the Commodore 16, the Amiga 600 is a model I never quite liked or understood the motives behind. Surely people have found use of it, and probably it was a test bed for the upcoming AGA enhanced Amiga 1200, but considering how soon after the Amiga 500+ model it was released, with no ground breaking improvements, it only confused a potential buyer.
Just like the Commodore 16, the Amiga 600 is a model I never quite liked or understood the motives behind. Surely people have found use of it, and probably it was a test bed for the upcoming AGA enhanced Amiga 1200, but considering how soon after the Amiga 500+ model it was released, with no ground breaking improvements, it only confused a potential buyer.
Chris2005
Banned
I thought the 500 also took 2.5" ide drives. :?:
Chris2005
Banned
In terms of logical progression, a Macintosh is the next step after an Amiga. But then there's the SGI stuff. Has any of you old Amiga users moved on to something like that? Hey this is a vintage forum. And the SGI stuff is getting pretty cheap these days. Keep in mind though, Linux (if anyone wanted to know) won't run on the Purple IMPACT 10000 Indigo 2 systems. You're stuck with IRIX. Whether or not it'll ever be ported, who knows.
I just thought I'd ask because I picked up a heap of old SGI stuff. Don't quite have an operating system yet though. Need IRIX - anyone got it for sale?
I just thought I'd ask because I picked up a heap of old SGI stuff. Don't quite have an operating system yet though. Need IRIX - anyone got it for sale?
Kaptain Skitzo
Experienced Member
Unknown_K said:
Actually, there was a card you could plug onto the A500's motherboard called "Ad-IDE" and replace the internal floppy drive with an IDE Hard disk. I picked it up on the cheap, but never actually installed it...so I really don't even know if mine works.
Personally, I think the A600 came out much too late to be of much use. I heard there are some compatability issues, but since I never used one...I can't verify that.
carlsson
Veteran Member
Yes, the 600 came too late, or put in other words: the 1200, 4000 and CD32 should have come when the 500+, 3000 and 600 came. It may have been technically impossible (unless development of a new graphics chip was not initiated earlier), but imagine such a market leader the 1200/CD32 could have become in early winter 1992, or at least for the summer.
As far as I'm concerned, Commodore Amiga once was the market leader around 1986-89. Then came more powerful Intels, VGA, SoundBlaster, Windows etc and Amiga sadly fell behind. When the AGA generation was ready to be introduced in 1993, the rest of the world were moving to 486DX or better, SVGA and so on. Only Amiga owners would be really thrilled with new Amigas. CD32 had competition from CD-i, Sega Mega-CD and so on, and one and a half year later Sony PlayStation killed them all. Maybe another year on the market for the Amiga console would not have made a difference, given that Commodore was going down by then.
As far as I'm concerned, Commodore Amiga once was the market leader around 1986-89. Then came more powerful Intels, VGA, SoundBlaster, Windows etc and Amiga sadly fell behind. When the AGA generation was ready to be introduced in 1993, the rest of the world were moving to 486DX or better, SVGA and so on. Only Amiga owners would be really thrilled with new Amigas. CD32 had competition from CD-i, Sega Mega-CD and so on, and one and a half year later Sony PlayStation killed them all. Maybe another year on the market for the Amiga console would not have made a difference, given that Commodore was going down by then.
Kaptain Skitzo
Experienced Member
Yeah, Carlsson....the more powerfull intel machines were rolling out sporting their faster processors...but the OS helped bog the machine down so badly that they actually ran about 1/10th of their touted clock speed....at best. The problem was partially in the American consumer(I can honestly say that...since I am one 
)...Americans saw "200 Megahurtz" and thought, "WHOA! That's FAST! Why should I buy this expensive 25 Megahurtz machine, when I can get a 200 Mhz machine for SO much less money!?" Functionality didn't matter worth a damn. I know people who owned BOTH systems(a moderately stocked Amiga 3000 or 1200 and a fully loaded 266 Mhz P-I with Windows 95)...and they swore that the Amiga still had the speed advantage....and had run benchmark tests to prove it.
Something else that helped kill the Amiga, was some rather dirty tactics from M$. I know for a fact that some deals were made with computer stores(chains, of course) to "buy" shelf space for M$ compatable software only. Of course, this was done "legally"...but it amounts to the same thing.
It left little shelf space for Mac and Amiga software to be displayed/sold...the lower the margin for the "competition", the higher the "payoff".
BTW- I've been meaning to ask you, do you use a translation program to read the forums, or are you fluent in English? I'm curious, because I know that most European countries have moved to bi-lingual...so it's a toss up. It doesn't matter, I'm just the curious type. :D
)...Americans saw "200 Megahurtz" and thought, "WHOA! That's FAST! Why should I buy this expensive 25 Megahurtz machine, when I can get a 200 Mhz machine for SO much less money!?" Functionality didn't matter worth a damn. I know people who owned BOTH systems(a moderately stocked Amiga 3000 or 1200 and a fully loaded 266 Mhz P-I with Windows 95)...and they swore that the Amiga still had the speed advantage....and had run benchmark tests to prove it. Something else that helped kill the Amiga, was some rather dirty tactics from M$. I know for a fact that some deals were made with computer stores(chains, of course) to "buy" shelf space for M$ compatable software only. Of course, this was done "legally"...but it amounts to the same thing.
It left little shelf space for Mac and Amiga software to be displayed/sold...the lower the margin for the "competition", the higher the "payoff".
BTW- I've been meaning to ask you, do you use a translation program to read the forums, or are you fluent in English? I'm curious, because I know that most European countries have moved to bi-lingual...so it's a toss up. It doesn't matter, I'm just the curious type. :D
x86 machines cost less then the Amiga and Apple machines of the day. There were dozens of companies developing hardware and software for x86 (open platform), much more then for Apple and Amiga.
Dominance in computers comes about by a large user base, not from better technology or OS.
Dominance in computers comes about by a large user base, not from better technology or OS.
Unknown_K said:
The main reason for this, and the thing that Apple forgot, is that an open architecture is the easiest way to get a lot of folks making stuff for your platform and a lot more folks using it.
E
A completely open architecture is a good way to lose your platform to some other company (like IBM lost out to Compaq and a long line of others).
Apple would have beat out IBM if their prices were lower even if they kept the hardware proprietary. The IBM PC did not realy catch on untill the cloners came about and started dropping prices because of competition. People love Mercedes but most buy Fords.
Once the buying public has made clear the winning platform (simple sales distributions), everybody else (hardware and software venders) jumps on board.
Apple would have beat out IBM if their prices were lower even if they kept the hardware proprietary. The IBM PC did not realy catch on untill the cloners came about and started dropping prices because of competition. People love Mercedes but most buy Fords.
Once the buying public has made clear the winning platform (simple sales distributions), everybody else (hardware and software venders) jumps on board.
Unknown_K said:
IBM still did fine against Compaq and others. If anything the clones helped IBM sell more machines.
It wasn't until they came out with the PS/2 line and closed the architecture of the MCA that they started slipping. In the end they got burned by the same bad idea.
Unknown_K said:
But enough buy Mercedes to keep them in business, right? Not that the analogy follows through that strongly.
But you do remind me of another Apple failing (followed again by IBM) - overcharging for machines. There's something to be said for charging a premium for quality, but overpricing will always kill you in the end.
E
Terry Yager
Veteran Member
IBM may have screwed up badly with the whole MCA thing, but they redeemed themselves in the 90's with the best-selling line of laptops ever. They have made a pretty good comeback, but may have blown it again by selling off the ThinkPad business, only time will tell.
--T
--T
Kaptain Skitzo
Experienced Member
It's still sad though, because back in the day, Commodore ruled the roost in home computers. The C=64 is STILL listed as the top selling model computer of all time....and given the state of advancement these days, will remain so for the foreseeable future. I really wish someone would take a poll and find out how many of the units are still in use today. That would be a pretty interesting statistic, don't you think?
Especially given the fact that many programmers took it way beyond what was thought(by the designers) was possible.
Especially given the fact that many programmers took it way beyond what was thought(by the designers) was possible.
carlsson
Veteran Member
Not until 1995-96, if my memory serves me right. By then, there was no Amiga anymore.Kaptain Skitzo said:
Feh. It would take ages to use a translation program. Maybe if I encounter some important message in German, French, Spanish etc. Sometimes I use a dictionary to look up words I don't know, forgot spelling or are unsure if they mean what I think they mean..
We study English in elementary school for seven years (when I went there, today it is nine years IIRC) plus up to three years in gymnasium, which is something inbetween high school and college. Of course you can continue with language studies in the university too, but I only took one course in Technical English from which I didn't learn so much other than getting exercise in writing e.g. technical reports.