Amiga Back From The Dead?

Published on April 26, 2007 By Zoomba In WinCustomize News

I want everyone to take a moment and reflect back on the year 1985. A year after the launch of the first Macintosh, and the year that Commodore launched the Amiga 1000 personal computer. During its lifetime, the Amiga series of machines were relatively popular and were used in a wide variety of different industries (they still run some of the sound systems at amusement parks such as Universal Studios and Disney World). Since the demise of Commodore in 1994, the Amiga brand has been kept alive mostly by enthusiasts, and bolstered by periodic updates to AmigaOS.

Well, it looks like the platform that was considered long dead (no hardware is produced anymore that AmigaOS can run on), has a bit more life left in it. Today, Ars Technica has a story about Amiga Inc, the company that purchased the rights to the Amiga brand in 1999, finally has something to show for its time and money. They will be launching two systems initially, both based on PowerPC architecture. One will be a $500 consumer focused system, the other a $1500 "professional" system.

Details of availability expected to come next week.

Comments

Jafo

on Apr 26, 2007

Stories about Amiga being revived come out regularly....usually on days ending in 'y'...

Though it'd be nice if one day it/they came to BE ...

Uvah

on Apr 26, 2007

I are the first...Ok...ok...now I have the WC browser. Used it to surf through the site.
Cool...until, and this article reminded me of it, I ran across a WB called Amiga OS4. Tried to DL it but the download failed. No big deal though but now I'm curious to find this skin.
The update was in February 200? the year was not visible. This article to me is new news because back during that time the closest I got to a computer was in a store window. It'll be interesting to see if this really takes off and if it will be able to compete with the PC market.

Uvah

on Apr 26, 2007

Jafo beat me by two minutes

ZubaZ

on Apr 26, 2007

The ressurection of a brand name that appeals to nerds is an OK marketing pitch but not much more.

Uvah

on Apr 26, 2007

OH...

warreni

on Apr 26, 2007

Well, I, for one, think this is pretty cool. I remember the Amiga quite well, as the proud former owner of an A2000 system with dual-floppy drives. The article seems to indicate that people don't expect this revival to actually happen, but it would be cool if it did. Frankly, the Amiga was way ahead of its time, with graphics and sound capabilities far in excess of any personal computer of its generation. My Amiga kicked ass! Sadly, it didn't garner much support in terms of hardware and software, and, as a proprietary system like the Mac, it was relatively expensive. Unlike Apple, Commodore was never able to create a stable niche market for its Amiga computers. So after being a diehard Amiga enthusiast for years, I made the switch to PC-compatibles when the writing was on the wall, and the next generation PCs with new graphics and sound cards were meeting the level of multimedia capabilities that the Amiga had built-in. Of course, there are technologies that were unheard of in those days now, with 24- and 48-bit sound through 7-speaker systems and realistic physics engines and shader effects. But there's still a place of affection in my memory for my old Amiga. If there are any other geeks that remember Amigas fondly, you should visit the Amiga Forever website: Amiga Forever. One of these birthdays or Christmases, I'm going to pick up the Premium edition.

BerserkerPup

on Apr 27, 2007

Does this mean I should dig my Commodore 64 out of the closet?

Jafo

on Apr 27, 2007

Does this mean I should dig my Commodore 64 out of the closet?

Only if you have a second one.....matching bookends.

The graphics[CGI] in Babylon 5 was done on Amiga 3000s ...

nightbirdsf

on Apr 27, 2007

Only if you have a second one.....matching bookends.

I might pick up one of THESE.

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums.
Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
It's simple, and FREE!