Was anyone else disappointed with the A1200?

[nobody]

Originally Posted by Thorham

I'm very happy that the A1200 doesn't have the same specs. Amigas don't need the limited specs of consoles. Amigas are full blown computers. If you want console specs, buy a console.

Yet you bought it to play games and you have worse than them.

[Daedalus]

Originally Posted by nobody

Yet you bought it to play games and you have worse than them.

What makes you think that? He didn't specify what he did with them, though speaking repeatedly about the computer aspect would hint that it wasn't just about the games, but also about the productivity. Yes, maybe some games were better on console, fair enough, but so many games simply weren't available on console at all, particularly the Jaguar and 3DO, both of which had pretty dismal libraries.

[BrooksterMax]

For me, I was more disappointed with some of the games that I saw in magazines. I just didn't see enough of a leap to warrant moving up from the A500 back in 1992. I never saw a A1200 for real back then, only prints of screenshots and reviewers comments. It never seemed to me (purely a personal reflection) that it was a massive revolutionary leap from the previous generation based upon what I could access and learn.

However I now have a A1200 and do fire up the AGA versions of Zool, Theme Park etc. and it is one of the best models to have as a retro gamer!

[Amigajay]

If it didn't have backwards compatibility then i think it would go down as a bigger failure, but if you upgraded or bought one outright, you had the best of both worlds at the time.

I guess the closest thing you can compare it too now would be the PS4 and PS4 Pro in terms of not being a big leap in tech but being backwards compatible meant a lot back then, well it still does.

I think people tend to forget that the main console generation in 92 was the 16-bit MD and SNES, that didn't change in Europe until 1995 with the PS1 and Saturn, heck the SNES carried on until late 96 (Q1 1997 in EU) being Nintendo's flagship model!

The industry was alot different back then to how it is now, its not so b&w, sadly its predictable and boring hardware wise with even consoles heading to minor upgrades every few years.

[TEOL]

I'm disappointed the ARM based AMIGA didn't come out at all as well as the AGA Micro & AGA PC editions not having 3 buttons like it's CD32 version.

Not so much the hardware as some good stuff could and should have come out like an evolution of the crap arcade ports on the A500 like Outrun and Double Dragon being made into good hit arcade perfect versions on the A1200 which wasn't to be until now if someone could be bothered to make it happen.

The ARM powered one would have worked now with Octocore being invented and Android being one of the top of the food chain brands of hardware now because this real ARM PC by AMIGA would smash Android so now it's the perfect time to revive it but also let it be sponsered by Colento so we can have a new mode for current hardware stuff but also load the real old hardwares kickstarts up on it using the highest spec every hardware can handle on it's titles which means Vampire type speed on everything old hardware configs on startup and even higher in new OS 5 mode.

The key thing being able to load every kickstart and workbench and configs for old games from a menu as well as the new ARM kickstart 4.0 with OS 5 which is your main mode and to change it you have to hold the button down and change your old hardware kickstart and RAM on the menu like an A1200 but it loads new mode by default.

It will come with a CD/DVD/Blu-Ray drive for AMIGA CD Rom titles but you can run old floopy games like a GOTEC would on it in the old modes like any other modern retro hardware although this would be a legit new computer with real hardware backwards modes on it provided by the software kickstarts by Colento officially and legally and legal games already on it but you can back up your own games into an ADF on your old hardware AMIGA's and use them too via SD cards.

It would be awesome if the ARM AMIGA came out now that there is a legit market for ARM based computers again and also be able to upgrade the processor and RAM like past AMIGAs and current PC's which you can't do a smartphone or tablet ARM hardware because AMIGA would be customizable ARM hardware including upgrading prosessors to the latest Octo and above cores and RAM to 16GB and above PC levels and that would be the difference between ARM AMIGA & ARM Android if ARM AMIGA existed now.

So yeah it's a shame the idea was around but it never went into existence then or now where quite honestly it's required as AMIGA is popular again in the retro underground and a hardware that can do the old and new 100% perfection from real kickstart files during the hold button boot screen not emulation in OS 5 the default plus finally getting PS4/X-Box One pad amount of buttons for playing on the new titles with this machine could become king of the ARM world bar none and also bring AMIGA back from death to a legit brand again on par and even above Android if you can use an ARM phone or tablet as a control on the move with the hardware displaying on the screens of the less powerful hardware as the only thing your other device will be is display and play whilst the ppowerhouse pimped up hardware 16GB RAM Octocore AMIGA is still doing the processing which gives you the option of playing on holiday as long as you don't mind leaving the AMIGA on like a SKY Box.

[Locutus]

wut mate?

[idrougge]

I was not disappointed with the A1200, but the games did. We waited for a long time for proper AGA games.

[Thorham]

Originally Posted by nobody

Yet you bought it to play games

No, I didn't

Originally Posted by Daedalus

speaking repeatedly about the computer aspect would hint that it wasn't just about the games, but also about the productivity

Indeed.

[dirkies]

if the A1200 was released instead of the A500+ in 1991, it would have been a worthy successor. But first the A500+ & then the A600 were stupid decisions sapping away potential A1200 buyers.
And the A1200 should have been called the A600, while the actual A600 should have never existed.

[E-Penguin]

A1200s are rubbish, you should send me any that you have so that I can dispose of them for you.

Also any PPC / 060 cards. They're the worst.

[snowfire]

Originally Posted by E-Penguin

A1200s are rubbish, you should send me any that you have so that I can dispose of them for you.

Also any PPC / 060 cards. They're the worst.

Don't listen to him. PPC / 060 cards are actually pretty nice.

[nobody]

Well fact is if you don't have any good games then bye bye. It was like that from the very beginning. The best games sell systems, people want to get some entertainment too from the system not only click a mouse here and there or type. Or else they would have bought a typewriter.

[Amigajay]

Originally Posted by dirkies

if the A1200 was released instead of the A500+ in 1991, it would have been a worthy successor. But first the A500+ & then the A600 were stupid decisions sapping away potential A1200 buyers.
And the A1200 should have been called the A600, while the actual A600 should have never existed.

Well I hindsight it's easy to say.

I don't think the A500+ was a stupid decision, extra memory and built in tv modulator were welcomed extras that saved money,

The A600 was renamed from the A300 thanks to Commodore Germany, and should have been a heck of a lot cheaper.

But the A500 was just hittting it's stride in 1991, if anything the A1200 killed the whole brand in one fell swoop, the A500 and A600 were outselling the A1200 through 92-93 proof that people wanted budget computers with the best games more than a few more fancy colours, and is why the bigger developers stayed with OCS machines until the end.

[idrougge]

The A500+ didn't have a built-in TV modulator.

The A1200 was launched December 1993, so naturally the A500 and A600 outsold it in 1992. The A500 was cancelled in the summer of autumn of 1992 and not sold at all by 1993. The A600 was also quickly cancelled, and if it ever outsold the A1200, it did so by virtue of being a cancelled, dirt-cheap machine (in Sweden, it sold at 2 000 SEK in 1993).

[Thorham]

Originally Posted by nobody

Well fact is if you don't have any good games then bye bye. It was like that from the very beginning. The best games sell systems, people want to get some entertainment too from the system not only click a mouse here and there or type. Or else they would have bought a typewriter.

What a nonsense

[nobody]

Originally Posted by Thorham

What a nonsense

Yeah ok, go trolling some place else now.

[Thorham]

Originally Posted by nobody

Yeah ok, go trolling some place else now.

People have bought and still buy computers just for productivity software. Not everyone plays games, you know.

What do you think the biggest use case for peecees is? That's right. Productivity software. It's part of the reason why Commodore went under. Market your computer as a games machine, and you're bey bey.

Really, you couldn't be more wrong.

[nobody]

So the A500 was popular because it was a productivity machine? No it wasn't. It was popular because it had the best games at a given period.

[Thorham]

Originally Posted by nobody

So the A500 was popular because it was a productivity machine? No it wasn't. It was popular because it had the best games at a given period.

Yes, and no one is arguing against that. The point is, where is the Amiga now? The peecee won, and you know just as well as I how the peecee started off. As a boring business machine. Not everything is about games.

[Amigajay]

Originally Posted by idrougge

The A500+ didn't have a built-in TV modulator.

Yeah got mixed up with the A600

Originally Posted by idrougge

The A1200 was launched December 1993, so naturally the A500 and A600 outsold it in 1992. The A500 was cancelled in the summer of autumn of 1992 and not sold at all by 1993. The A600 was also quickly cancelled, and if it ever outsold the A1200, it did so by virtue of being a cancelled, dirt-cheap machine (in Sweden, it sold at 2 000 SEK in 1993).

The A1200 launched in 1992.
The A600 did outsell the A1200, and being cancelled machine doesn't automatically mean people will buy it, people didn't buy the A1200 because it wasn't a big enough leap.