Unreleased Amiga chipset better than anything today?

[TCD]

Wait, they expected customers to buy three new consoles in three years?

[Promilus]

I guess they were. It only shows how they lost connection to reality. Not to mention console needs few but REALLY good titles to move on. And they forgot to make it happen!

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Promilus

Not to mention console needs few but REALLY good titles to move on. And they forgot to make it happen!

The 'funny' thing is in one of the Amiga Formats from late 1993/early 1994 David Pleasance says that 'games sell hardware'. He then goes on to mention several games that would come out 'soon'.

[Thorham]

Originally Posted by TCD

The 'funny' thing is in one of the Amiga Formats from late 1993/early 1994 David Pleasance says that 'games sell hardware'.

He probably meant business software.

[TCD]

While looking for that quote I found something maybe even more interesting in Amig Format 50 (September 1993):

That's right under the CD32 release article.

Edit: Two pages later.

They are nearly bankrupt but reduce prices to make the A1200 a 'mass market product'

Edit 2: Next issue answer to a reader's letter by DP.

[TCD]

And here we go (Amiga Format 54, Christmas 1993):

"We all know that software drives hardware and the shortage has caused us a few problems."

[lmimmfn]

Do you think he saw it coming?

1993



1994

[TCD]

Originally Posted by lmimmfn

Do you think he saw it coming?

1993



1994

[Cris1997XX]

Originally Posted by TEG

CD64-3D
- PA RISC @50 MHz
- RISC +3D, 2 Chips
- 2 MB VRAM
- 2 MB ROM
- 32 KB NVRAM
- 4x Speed CD
- FMV In Software

Wait wait wait, FMV in software? What the hell were they thinking? Early CD-based consoles struggled with this for years, mainly because of their weak CPUs and low bandwidth, and here comes the CD64 showing 'em how it's done...

[pandy71]

Originally Posted by Cris1997XX

Wait wait wait, FMV in software? What the hell were they thinking? Early CD-based consoles struggled with this for years, mainly because of their weak CPUs and low bandwidth, and here comes the CD64 showing 'em how it's done...

HP PA-RISC introduced as one of the first CPU ISA'a multimedia dedicated instructions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multim...useskin=vector

[sokolovic]

Originally Posted by TEG

Why not ? The first system wasn't selling. So you stop it and re-use the technology packaged in a better system. What was wrong, was the initial move, the CDTV idea.

And what about the customer ? You buy an expensive piece of hardware in 1992 and learn one year after that Commodore would not only doesn't support it anymore but selling a CD system more powerful, cheaper and not compatible with the one you bought .

Bruce would probably tell us that this was the fault of the people that bought a CDTV and that Commodore weren't to blame at all for spiting on their customers like that.

[MigaTech]

All this article displaying is just proving how big the cluster f*** was at Commodore during 1993/94.

They had the answer on the table with the CD64 and AAA. If all of us know this now, then why didn't they, then?

[Pyromania]

I like todays PA RISC equivalent system, the Amiga Vampire V4.

[AestheticDebris]

Originally Posted by MigaTech

They had the answer on the table with the CD64 and AAA. If all of us know this now, then why didn't they, then?

Did they? Or was that just the next iteration of the exact same clusterfuck? I'm not sure there was a clear and viable strategy at any point. Half the problem was not being ready with anything vaguely AGA-esque by about 1989, which they might have been if they'd had a clear vision of where to go. They needed to have the new chipset available in high end machines when the low end versions were at their peak, ready to be in the next low end one a few years later.

[Bruce Abbott]

Originally Posted by sokolovic

And what about the customer ? You buy an expensive piece of hardware in 1992 and learn one year after that Commodore would not only doesn't support it anymore but selling a CD system more powerful, cheaper and not compatible with the one you bought .

Bruce would probably tell us that this was the fault of the people that bought a CDTV and that Commodore weren't to blame at all for spiting on their customers like that.

What the hell are you talking about?

The CD32 was no more incompatible with the CDTV than the A1200 was with the A500 (actually better in general, since fewer CDTV titles banged the hardware). Our CDTV multimedia title worked better on the CD32 - twice as fast without even activating AGA and double speed CD drive!

If you think Commodore 'spat on their customers' every time they brought out a new model, you have no idea of the efforts they made to maintain compatibility. Of course titles that insisted on using the CD32's more advanced features wouldn't work on the CDTV, but that was up to the producers of those titles - not Commodore. And let's be honest - nobody was expecting otherwise - that would just be silly.

[Bruce Abbott]

Originally Posted by MigaTech

All this article displaying is just proving how big the cluster f*** was at Commodore during 1993/94.

They had the answer on the table with the CD64 and AAA. If all of us know this now, then why didn't they, then?

Did they? Some specs on paper do not equal a product ready to ship.

We don't live in an alternate universe so this is pure speculation, but If Commodore hadn't gone bankrupt in 1994 I think we probably would have seen those things. And I for one would be very happy to see any new Amiga products, even if they didn't meet the expectations of Amiga fans (which of course they wouldn't).

If Commodore had lasted longer it would just have been more fodder for the detractors, so I'm glad they didn't. The whinging was bad enough already, and still hasn't died down much in 30 years. What a sad bunch you are!

[grelbfarlk]

I like my UAGA A4000. It's past what was available in 1998 and better than anything today and is still a classic Amiga.
Sure I could talk about the NG Amigas which are far faster but they are also 10 years newer. If my Amiga was like the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 running a triple core PPC and a 3.2GHz PPC Cell processor with six SPEs in 2015, 10 years newer than that would be better still.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Bruce Abbott

If you think Commodore 'spat on their customers' every time they brought out a new model, you have no idea of the efforts they made to maintain compatibility. Of course titles that insisted on using the CD32's more advanced features wouldn't work on the CDTV, but that was up to the producers of those titles - not Commodore. And let's be honest - nobody was expecting otherwise - that would just be silly.

Yeah, it's the producers and of course the customers fault that Commodore had zero idea where to go with their 'upgraded' machines. It certainly wasn't a problem of developing multiple dead end machines in a short amount of time each time losing money and making producers question if they should continue to support the platform. Solid logic that

[sokolovic]

Originally Posted by Bruce Abbott

What the hell are you talking about?

The CD32 was no more incompatible with the CDTV than the A1200 was with the A500 (actually better in general, since fewer CDTV titles banged the hardware). Our CDTV multimedia title worked better on the CD32 - twice as fast without even activating AGA and double speed CD drive!

If you think Commodore 'spat on their customers' every time they brought out a new model, you have no idea of the efforts they made to maintain compatibility. Of course titles that insisted on using the CD32's more advanced features wouldn't work on the CDTV, but that was up to the producers of those titles - not Commodore. And let's be honest - nobody was expecting otherwise - that would just be silly.

I'm saying not compatible because most of the CD32 games didn't works on the CDTV. There was some dual standards CD like Labyrinth of Time or Sensible Soccer but they weren't the norm. Even Q&D ports of OCS games on the CD32 didn't works on the CDTV.
Ideally, putting a CDTV version on the same CD even for AGA games that had an OCS version (like Heimdall 2, Simon the Sorcerer etc) would have been nice. It would have also benefited to A570 users . Beneath a Steel Sky would have fitted perfectly these machines. The game isn't even AGA but still don't works on it. You will told me that wasn't Commodore fault but publishers one but Commodore should have pushed them to do so.
So your fancy expansive set top box CD Rom quickly became obsolet. Not only that it was a waste of money for the consumer but it was also a waste of money for Commodore.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by sokolovic

So your fancy expansive set top box CD Rom quickly became obsolet. Not only that it was a waste of money for the consumer but it was also a waste of money for Commodore.

I'm still curious what Bruce thinks about the reason for the 366 million loss in 1993