Never before had gone to a RetroMadrid, that is, a fair retrocomputing with a small exhibition, lectures and other activities where Spectrums, Commodore C64, old retro consoles and other paraphernalia permeating a central role forgotten. When I saw some of the most revolutionary personal computers of all time, which went unnoticed at the time too and then his legacy has been unjustly forgotten. I speak, of course, the Commodore Amiga.
I knew of the existence of this computer and video game magazines, namely the MicromanÃa magazine (yes, I had regular size) and since then I was impressed by his ability to chart (and that he never had come to see in motion!). However, the first time I finally sit down in front of an Amiga computer, specifically an Amiga 500, was in August of 1994. I had purchased a few months earlier, in late June, a 486 DX2 66 Mhz with 4 MB RAM and 340 Mbytes of hard disk and the computer of the 80 did things that my brand new computer could not do (I had no card sound yet.)
So here is my tribute to the Commodore Amiga. Since it is a bit long I'll have to divide it into 3 different items. Hope you like it, and you know, if you have any comments or questions do not hesitate to write.
A company in trouble
The story of the birth of the Amiga platform consists of a set of circumstances and converging forces. One was, of course, Commodore, the company that eventually released the computer.
Commodore was founded by Jack Tramiel in 1958, engaged in the manufacture of mechanical typewriters. In 1966 a Canadian investor Irving Gould called the company bought keeping in front of it to Tramiel. But now that Irving was Commodore, it decided to focus on the emerging business calculators. the 70 already entered the competition in this market (electronic calculator) was terrible, with manufacturers like Texas Instruments or HP monopolizing the Japanese market and pulling the price (and, therefore, profits) down. As a way to compete, Commodore bought MOS Technology 1976, the company, which had a strategic product for Commodore: MOS 6502 microprocessor.
is possible that many this processor you are familiar, for he was wearing, for example, the Apple I. However, the initial idea of \u200b\u200bJack Tramiel was, of course, use this chip on their calculators, but since before the acquisition by Commodore MOS was already working on the construction of a new computer using the 6502 as a processor, the KIM-1. Using this computer as a model, in 1977 came the Commodore PET, Commodore tucking at the top of the personal computer business. In the 70's had three major manufacturers of personal computers. On the one hand, this Tandy with Radioshack, who was the top-selling computer. On the other hand, we had Apple, which was the fastest growing and knew best how to invest your advertising, but of the three was, until the arrival of VisioCalc, the least selling. And then we Commodore, the number 2 in sales by focusing on home computers and economic, as also deduced from its slogan "Computers for the masses, not classes."
Al Commodore PET was followed by the Commodore VIC-20 in 1981, a computer that cost about $ 299 and offered all he could offer a home computer over a high capacity for video games. The following year came the Commodore 64 computer for some time became the world's best selling computer. While in some respects was even slower than the Commodore VIC-20, thanks to its "huge" capacity of 64 kbytes and to be particularly well endowed time graphics and sound and a smart sales strategy in Europe (especially Germany) was auparon the first in the world of home computing.
Tramiel In 1983 Jack decided to focus on the domestic market and sharply cut the price of the Commodore VIC-20 and C64, thus starting a price war that swept away many computer manufacturers. However, while the Commodore's market share increased with this strategy, the price cuts had also associated with reductions in the margins of the company, which its owner, Irving Gould, was not willing to tolerate, so it began a small proxy war that ended in giving Commodore Jack and his men out of it. What's more, just to exploit the market bubble of the game. Since the birth of Atari in the first half of the 70 to 1983, the video game business had done nothing but grow and grow uncontrollably.
Atari was by far the number one worldwide in this area, but a myriad of home computers and platforms have emerged to tow several Atari and took advantage of the stunning fashion and the golden future that seemed to promise this business just emerging .
But as happens in all markets who can only grow exponentially, at one point around 1982/1983 that the situation was untenable. Famous is the expression of one of the directors of Atari boasting how good they were selling video games if cagaran crap game in a box and put on sale probably would remove it from the hands.
To all who have witnessed the explosion of several bubbles already know what that is. The bursting of this is considered the release of the game ET, of which was paid an exorbitant amount for those then in respect of operating licenses ($ 200,000 at the time plus a trip with all expenses paid to Hawaii) and was a failure monumental. Atari games and consoles manufactured both sold assuming that everyone would want to play this game and, while not sell as many games, it sold more than half of expectations. However, the game was so bad and had so many failures that triggered an avalanche of returns, so that Atari came across a stock of millions of cartridges occupying site and not likely to use them for anything. To say I had to eat is not enough, Atari decided to go middle of the desert of New Mexico and buried. In a hole in the ground game would take place not in a warehouse to be paid monthly. This was the starting signal for the crisis of video games so that the fall of Atari (with huge losses the next year) dragged the whole market and have games left this halo of modernity and attraction that had until that time. And, by the fall of the games, also stopped selling consoles of course, but also home computers where the main attraction was the ability to run games attractive. So if we sell fewer computers and also sell them cheaper ... for that, good crisis.
Commodore tried to go through with what I had and was duped in the development of a new computer, the successor to the Commodore 64. Finally, in 1985, Commodore 128 came to light, with a more powerful processor, double the memory and many more improvements, such as the incorporation of the operating system CP / M 3.0 (although it was a very fine implementation) and the ability to run in C64 mode sure (ahem) 100% compatibility, then not so very high. Unfortunately for Commodore, the C128 was not a sales success as it was at the time the C64, and indeed was the old model that still kept the company afloat. Had to do something and had to do it now, because if not paint a very black future for the company ...
(continued)
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