A new Amiga Book from Microsoft Press

Pyromania · 13 May 2003, 11:41

http://www.jamesalanpatterson.com/Mi...essAmigaAd.jpg

Shocking but true.

fiath · 13 May 2003, 12:15

Perhaps not that surprising since wrote Amiga BASIC...

manicx · 15 May 2003, 08:54

Not only that... They also did a lot of things for the 8bit Commodore computers...

Chuckles · 15 May 2003, 09:03

Actually, that book is hardly new. I have a copy of it sitting on my bookshelf, and it was first printed in 1986. The cover on my copy has only minor differences from the picture, with the primary difference simply being that in the lower right hand corner on mine it says "ENDORSED BY AMIGA", with the old Amiga checkbox emblem. The subtitle on mine also says "Images" instead of "Image" and "Sounds" instead of "Sound".

As for the book itself, it's not that informative. It walks you through doing a few things with Deluxe Paint, Deluxe Music and Deluxe Video, but mostly it focuses on Amiga Basic without going into any great depth at all. If you actually see the book for sale anywhere, I can't say I'd recommend buying it as anything more than a historical curiousity.

Chuckles · 15 May 2003, 09:12

Quote:

Originally posted by manicx
Not only that... They also did a lot of things for the 8bit Commodore computers...

They also wrote almost all of the floating point Basic that was included in ROM in all Apple II machines from the II Plus onward - Applesoft Basic. Apple modified it somewhat to add support for some of the Apple's graphics features, but at the core it was all Microsoft. Even then they pretty much had a monopoly when it came to being the supplier of the Basic interpreters that were found in virtually all of the computers then being made for the home market.

fiath · 15 May 2003, 09:22

And boy was that Amiga BASIC slow

Shatterhand · 18 May 2003, 14:08

Yes, they also made the MSX Basic and MSX-DOS .

But MSX-DOS 2 was made by Ascii and it was WAAAY better

Unknown_K · 18 May 2003, 17:01

Way back when microsoft wasnt tied to a single platform, they did alot of the 8bit OS basics, and even had their own unix (I believe that everything they developed up until and maybe including win3x was developed on their unix boxes). I think they also did alot of other programming languages for other systems. The MSX computer was made up to be a platform like the PC is today with multiple hardware makers making machines that are compatible with a single OS and software spec. Back when MSX came out they didnt have the will to offend IBM in the US so they never tried to move the MSX standard here.

Shatterhand · 18 May 2003, 18:34

The difference between the PC and the MSX is that if you run a software in an MSX 2, you can be sure it will run in the very same way in any other MSX 2, whoever have manufactured it. They had standards, and they respected the standards. And the only deal that Microsoft had with the MSX was programming MSX-DOS (Which I have to admit isn't that bad

), and Basic MSX (Which I have to admit, it's the best Basic I ever used), they didn't do anything else. The MSX was supposed to be a japanese computer for the japanese people (Actually, from what I understand, most japanese products are made for japanese people, they don't care to make it good for other people), so Ascii (The guys who REALLY made the MSX standard) never cared about the market outside Japan. Thank God some people were smart enough to understand that the MSX would be popular OUTSIDE the Japan too

And MSX is no "MicroSoft eXtended", this was the way Microsoft wanted to be

13 May 2003, 11:41	#1
Pyromania Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 3,375	A new Amiga Book from Microsoft Press http://www.jamesalanpatterson.com/Mi...essAmigaAd.jpg Shocking but true.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Amiga BASIC written by Microsoft??	DDNI	Amiga scene	77	27 June 2013 08:51
A new Amiga book?	andrew_rollings	Retrogaming General Discussion	34	23 January 2011 13:05
Trade book "The Amiga Guru Book" for Amiga stuff	copper38	Swapshop	6	31 January 2009 14:17
Microsoft pays $6.1M for opensource Amiga program	alexh	Amiga scene	2	20 June 2006 16:34
Now have a look at this. It is a Microsoft book about the Amiga. Seeing is believing.	Tolismlf	Nostalgia & memories	13	25 November 2004 12:42

13 May 2003, 12:15	#2
fiath Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: South East / UK Age: 46 Posts: 1,930	Perhaps not that surprising since wrote Amiga BASIC...

15 May 2003, 08:54	#3
manicx Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Athens, Greece Posts: 991	Not only that... They also did a lot of things for the 8bit Commodore computers...

15 May 2003, 09:03	#4
Chuckles The Ancient One Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Kansas City/USA Age: 68 Posts: 685	Actually, that book is hardly new. I have a copy of it sitting on my bookshelf, and it was first printed in 1986. The cover on my copy has only minor differences from the picture, with the primary difference simply being that in the lower right hand corner on mine it says "ENDORSED BY AMIGA", with the old Amiga checkbox emblem. The subtitle on mine also says "Images" instead of "Image" and "Sounds" instead of "Sound". As for the book itself, it's not that informative. It walks you through doing a few things with Deluxe Paint, Deluxe Music and Deluxe Video, but mostly it focuses on Amiga Basic without going into any great depth at all. If you actually see the book for sale anywhere, I can't say I'd recommend buying it as anything more than a historical curiousity.

15 May 2003, 09:22	#6
fiath Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: South East / UK Age: 46 Posts: 1,930	And boy was that Amiga BASIC slow

18 May 2003, 14:08	#7
Shatterhand Warhasneverbeensomuchfun Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Rio de Janeiro / Brazil Age: 41 Posts: 3,450	Yes, they also made the MSX Basic and MSX-DOS . But MSX-DOS 2 was made by Ascii and it was WAAAY better

18 May 2003, 17:01	#8
Unknown_K Registered User Join Date: May 2002 Location: Ohio/USA Age: 55 Posts: 1,380	Way back when microsoft wasnt tied to a single platform, they did alot of the 8bit OS basics, and even had their own unix (I believe that everything they developed up until and maybe including win3x was developed on their unix boxes). I think they also did alot of other programming languages for other systems. The MSX computer was made up to be a platform like the PC is today with multiple hardware makers making machines that are compatible with a single OS and software spec. Back when MSX came out they didnt have the will to offend IBM in the US so they never tried to move the MSX standard here.

18 May 2003, 18:34	#9
Shatterhand Warhasneverbeensomuchfun Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Rio de Janeiro / Brazil Age: 41 Posts: 3,450	The difference between the PC and the MSX is that if you run a software in an MSX 2, you can be sure it will run in the very same way in any other MSX 2, whoever have manufactured it. They had standards, and they respected the standards. And the only deal that Microsoft had with the MSX was programming MSX-DOS (Which I have to admit isn't that bad ), and Basic MSX (Which I have to admit, it's the best Basic I ever used), they didn't do anything else. The MSX was supposed to be a japanese computer for the japanese people (Actually, from what I understand, most japanese products are made for japanese people, they don't care to make it good for other people), so Ascii (The guys who REALLY made the MSX standard) never cared about the market outside Japan. Thank God some people were smart enough to understand that the MSX would be popular OUTSIDE the Japan too And MSX is no "MicroSoft eXtended", this was the way Microsoft wanted to be

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)