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81 Year Old Commodore Amiga Artist – Samia Halaby [video]

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Re: 81 Year Old Commodore Amiga Artist – Samia Halaby [video]

#12
post #5

It’s too bad Microsoft didn’t port their apps to the Amiga. It probably would be alive today but people bought computers for the apps.

I dunno, MS ported the Mac version of Word to the Atari ST but by the time it got there (late, and buggy, and overpriced) indigenous ST developers had made their own superior products. Interlace video for hi-rez modes on the Amiga also made it non-ideal for office type applications. Maybe if Commodore had bothered to include a scan doubler by default?

It's competition was PC of that time which was worse in every regard including price. However, it did not have an image of being a game machine which helped a lot.

I am old enough to remember having these kind of discussion with people buying more expensive PCs because they were for serious work.

Re: 81 Year Old Commodore Amiga Artist – Samia Halaby [video]

#13
post #5

It’s too bad Microsoft didn’t port their apps to the Amiga. It probably would be alive today but people bought computers for the apps.

I dunno, MS ported the Mac version of Word to the Atari ST but by the time it got there (late, and buggy, and overpriced) indigenous ST developers had made their own superior products. Interlace video for hi-rez modes on the Amiga also made it non-ideal for office type applications. Maybe if Commodore had bothered to include a scan doubler by default?

> Maybe if Commodore had bothered to include a scan doubler by default?

They did in the Amiga 3000; It has a VGA 15pin d-sub connector on the back. Only works with modern LCDs if the Amiga is in NTSC mode though.

Re: 81 Year Old Commodore Amiga Artist – Samia Halaby [video]

#14
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno, MS ported the Mac version of Word to the Atari ST but by the time it got there (late, and buggy, and overpriced) indigenous ST developers had made their own superior products. Interlace video for hi-rez modes on the Amiga also made it non-ideal for office type applications. Maybe if Commodore had bothered to include a scan doubler by default?

Amiga had quite a few cool office type applications like Pagestream. The video wasn't an issue when using Commodore monitors.

Man, this brings back memories. I spent many sleepless nights using it to format friends' school work.

Re: 81 Year Old Commodore Amiga Artist – Samia Halaby [video]

#16
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno, MS ported the Mac version of Word to the Atari ST but by the time it got there (late, and buggy, and overpriced) indigenous ST developers had made their own superior products. Interlace video for hi-rez modes on the Amiga also made it non-ideal for office type applications. Maybe if Commodore had bothered to include a scan doubler by default?

Amiga had quite a few cool office type applications like Pagestream. The video wasn't an issue when using Commodore monitors.

There was a WordPerfect port, but at least the initial versions were slow and did not feel like they took advantage of the OS. In other words, it was a bit of a rush job.

Re: 81 Year Old Commodore Amiga Artist – Samia Halaby [video]

#18
post #9
post #5

It’s too bad Microsoft didn’t port their apps to the Amiga. It probably would be alive today but people bought computers for the apps.

Amiga died thanks to Commodore mismanagement, Microsoft was still not that strong back then. PCs were still a mix of MS-DOS, Windows 3.x or Novell Netware when the downfall begun around 1994, Windows 95 was still around the corner.

They stopped innovating.

The A1000 was released in 1985, the same year as the NES was released in America. It was a huge leap in capabilities over it's contemporaries.

But their massive lead was slowly whittled away by technology improvements. In 1992 they released AGA, which was barely twice as good as the original A1000 chip-set, while the IBM PC had innovated all the way from 4 color CGA, though EGA to VGA/SVGA with CPUs which were fast enough to any 2d (and increasingly 3d) effects in software.

Commodore really needed to get AAA out the door by 91 to hold onto their lead.

Doom was probably the final nail in the coffin, you simply couldn't implement it on the Amiga chipset due to it's planar graphics.

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