>> ^Croccydile:

>> ^LarsaruS:
Ahhh, the Amiga... Some of the best games ever made were on that system. When the Amiga died computer science and capability lost ~10 years. True multitasking, AGA graphics, sound which didn't only go blip and a lot of other awesome features which the PC took ages to get. Heck Windows, afaik, still only fakes multitasking.

Wait... what? There is no doubt that the machine had great capabilities when it was first released, but this statement is a tad off.
When the Amiga died, everything else had superseded it. I seriously doubt the industry lost 10 years. At its release the machine (1985) was in a league of its own, the problem was they didn't really advance the design along as the rest of the industry caught up. When you talk about "fake" multitasking you are describing Windows, MacOS, Linux, etc... task switching is now trivial on modern processors even in software. Hell we have hardware virtualization on modern CPUs now! Switching resolutions on the Amiga between scanlines was pretty cool in 1985 but by the time it died this was no longer necessary as well as video architecture in general rendered this obsolete. Amiga was stuck on the legacy implications of the OCS and its greatest strength became its greatest weakness to advancing by the early 90s. Even AGA was actually a step backwards compared to emerging 16-bit and 24-bit colour PC video cards. Hold and Modify (for HiColor on the Amiga) required use of the CPU for displaying static images when Hi/True Colour PC cards did this simple task in hardware. Ugh!
It didn't matter in the end anyways. Gross mismanagement along with a seemingly trivial patent case on the CD32 put the company under for good. Really a good example at why software patents can be insanity at times. http://xcssa.org/pipermail/xcssa/2005-February/002587.html
Don't get me wrong as I don't mean to pick on you in particular. I just wanted to point out at the end of its life the Amiga was not all roses and unicorns. I would still personally like to have an Amiga 1000 to play with at home sometime


I guess you really do learn something new every day. I hadn't heard of the XOR patent issue. Also, no hard feelings on my side. I tend to get nostalgic when it comes to old systems.

>> ^LarsaruS:

Ahhh, the Amiga... Some of the best games ever made were on that system. When the Amiga died computer science and capability lost ~10 years. True multitasking, AGA graphics, sound which didn't only go blip and a lot of other awesome features which the PC took ages to get. Heck Windows, afaik, still only fakes multitasking.


Wait... what? There is no doubt that the machine had great capabilities when it was first released, but this statement is a tad off.

When the Amiga died, everything else had superseded it. I seriously doubt the industry lost 10 years. At its release the machine (1985) was in a league of its own, the problem was they didn't really advance the design along as the rest of the industry caught up. When you talk about "fake" multitasking you are describing Windows, MacOS, Linux, etc... task switching is now trivial on modern processors even in software. Hell we have hardware virtualization on modern CPUs now! Switching resolutions on the Amiga between scanlines was pretty cool in 1985 but by the time it died this was no longer necessary as well as video architecture in general rendered this obsolete. Amiga was stuck on the legacy implications of the OCS and its greatest strength became its greatest weakness to advancing by the early 90s. Even AGA was actually a step backwards compared to emerging 16-bit and 24-bit colour PC video cards. Hold and Modify (for HiColor on the Amiga) required use of the CPU for displaying static images when Hi/True Colour PC cards did this simple task in hardware. Ugh!

It didn't matter in the end anyways. Gross mismanagement along with a seemingly trivial patent case on the CD32 put the company under for good. Really a good example at why software patents can be insanity at times. http://xcssa.org/pipermail/xcssa/2005-February/002587.html

Don't get me wrong as I don't mean to pick on you in particular. I just wanted to point out at the end of its life the Amiga was not all roses and unicorns. I would still personally like to have an Amiga 1000 to play with at home sometime

Ahhh, the Amiga... Some of the best games ever made were on that system. When the Amiga died computer science and capability lost ~10 years. True multitasking, AGA graphics, sound which didn't only go blip and a lot of other awesome features which the PC took ages to get. Heck Windows, afaik, still only fakes multitasking.

Wonderful stuff here. I was a c64 user but pretty much jumped off it to a 486 pc, I knew about the amiga and used it in school a few times but never really owned or "used" it. My only time in really abusing one was we were supposed to make a slide show animation in school on amiga 500's, and we had a normal paint utilitie as well as the ability to digitize to black and white using video toster that was setup on an amiga 2000.

Well I digitized so many objects and people that I had to export my project from the 500 to the 2000 cause I ran out of memory.

Its a shame this video didn't show to much of the programs that run on the amiga.

>> ^gwiz665:

I played UFO: Enemy Unknown (aka X-com UFO defense) all the way through when I was little. Which was awesome, but when I got to terror from the deep, it was basically just more of the same with a new skin. I was a little meh about that.
Apocalypse made a lot of things different, but most of the changes were forthe worse - the aliens were now dimensional shifters and was a lot less cool, and they introduced real-time fights which were poor, I think.
I bought the whole X-com package on steam last year and I've been wanting to do a remake of the first one since forever (along with another Warhammer: Dark Omen and Fragile Allegience). Hell, that's why I develop video games!
>> ^LarsaruS:
I have never been able to get into X-com apocalypse myself. I own it but i just can't be bothered to play it when I have Xcom 1 & 2 to play instead.
>> ^gwiz665:
Feels sorta more like X-com apocalypse to me (which was shit). Still, looks interesting.
>> ^darkrowan:
I like how this works, but I refuse to consider this part of XCOM canon.





You sir have an impeccable taste in games.

I got the package on steam too although I must say that I prefer Terror from the deep as you don't have the laser rifle in it (And it was the first X-com I played on the Amiga). Also fighting underwater is cooler than fighting on land. - Fact -

>> ^rebuilder:
I have to say, I wonder where the PC beeper / tandy examples came from. Of all these I actually kind of prefer those versions, but I also think it sounds way better in this video than it ever did from my beeper back in the day... Where's all that bass coming from, for one?


He probably just recorded the signal directly using an emulator like DOSBox. Some PCs had some pretty decent speakers but most used a tiny piezo.
The PC can generate a square wave anywhere between 18.2Hz and way into the ultrasound range, if the physical loudspeaker can play it is another question.

Speaking of PC sounds, I remember the first time I played Pinball Fantasies on a PC without a sound card... I couldn't believe my ears! Back in those days all you got from the speaker was some "beeps" and "boops" but using PWM and a lot of wizardry the guys at Digital Illusions made it sound like a proper sound card and were playing MODs on it straight from the Amiga version.

Is it bad that I recognized almost every game in the video?
Am I really that old? I mean everyone has played on the C64 and Amiga right? right?! please...

>> ^Kreegath:

This looks just like a computer game I played quite a bit in the 90's. You were a fish or seal, and you could extend yourself to reach stuff high up. Can't remember much more, but the graphics were very similar and the music was chipper and upbeat just like here!


You are probably thinking of James Pond another great platformer...

Opening an Amiga from 1992 would be much more exciting

Computer Chronicles FTW! Loved that show when I was younger. Does anyone know where I can get its theme song?


Oh and I used that program on Amiga in the 1997/1998 for a video editing class. Man, it was hard to use!

Holy shit, I haven't seen that screen in a LOOOOOOONG time. We had an Amiga 3000 with a Video Toaster, Lightwave, DTV and Deluxe Paint III. Sadly, our video production business never got off the ground, but it did get me into a career doing computers. Thanks mom!

Well, off the top of my head, how about Computer City, Packard Bell, Circuit City, SCO, SGI, DIVX (not the codec), Commodore, Amiga, XM Radio (with Sirius XM following closely behind), Atari, 3DO... most of these are companies who were once dominant until their consumers took their dollars to greener fields.

Oh, wait... You didn't want me to answer that, did you? You just wanted me to concede the point? My bad.

As for building schools and bridges; that's a different topic and one which I think is totally suited to government. I'm not anti-government across the board, I just think it ought to be kept in check and that it's not the miracle cure to all problems.

The federal government is too big for my tastes at the moment. I have an infinitesimally small influence on the federal government because my one vote is a molecule in a drop in the bucket. I have no real choice or say in any matter. All I can do is pick the preselected candidate whose lies I find most comforting. They're going to do whatever they want once the election is over.

If the local governments were the focus of power, at least the people would have more influence. There my one vote is a far bigger portion of the pie and it's not even unrealistic for me to run for office myself if I really don't feel represented. If power were more distributed it would be more difficult for lobbyists to buy power.

I like the idea of moving an hour away and having a drastically different government if I'm unhappy with how things are run where I live. Moving from state to state can give you a little bit of that nowadays, but I think it ought to be taken further.

I agree that neither smaller == better and larger == better are universal truths and that there's a happy medium to be found, but it sounds like my happy medium is smaller than yours. I guess that's why you're so popular with the ladies.

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
Can you give me a meaningful example of consumers bringing down a corporation by "wallet voting"? Of course not, because it is a ridiculous notion. Consumerism doesn't challenge corporate power, it increases it. At best, consumerism has the power to stop Coca-Cola from marketing a new cola that tastes like ass. Consumerism doesn't build schools or bridges. Consumerism is reactive, not proactive.

In a democracy, the power rests in the hands of the people, by way of 1 person: 1 vote. It was a populist response to older forms of government based around wealth, power and nobility. It is a testament to the success of democracy that so many now can take it for granted. Government power is people power (read=your power). Limiting the power of government limits the power of the people, and if you are interested in stopping corrupt corporations, public government is the only thing big enough and powerful enough to get that done.

It is very true that our democracy has been subverted in many ways, but through democracy, we can change this. I agree with you that apathy is one of the big enemies here, but I see much reason for hope. With increased access to information, the public has become much more aware of corporate abuse, and has become much more politically involved. Despite what Obama may or may not do in his 4-8 years in office, I think it is significant that he was able to break through the corporate propaganda and win on a very pro-people platform.

Last point, one of the great red herrings in this debate is that of 'size'. Notions about 'big' or 'small' government are completely arbitrary and meant to distract you from the more important qualities that you wisely mentioned: efficiency and effectiveness.

Government should not be shoehorned into some arbitrary concept of big or small. Government should be just the right size in needs to be, to be both efficient and effective. Getting rid of valuable social services in order to make the government smaller only makes the it less efficient and less effective.

When I was on Amiga "Guru Meditation" was the equivalent of the BSOD. It came up in red text, and then the machine would hang.

Any other former Amiga users get a shot of adrenaline on seeing the words "Guru Meditation?"

This video screams "Amiga 500".