Do you consider Amiga a console?

[TCD]

It's a computer that was designed to act and look like a console. But it is a computer, and a hell of one
Okay must of use it like a console and that's perfectly okay, the Amiga can be use in so many ways that it's pure blasphemy to ask such a question

[discomeats]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

I suppose the definition of a console is an non-expandable static gaming construct.



heres one... only comes with a few games and you cannot buy any more games for it.

I actually used to have one of these

Ooo I got one of those, "With three realistic sounds" (beep, beep and of course, the unforgettable 'beep'), if you are feeling adventurous/insane you could mod it for colour (probably easier to pop the chip out and make a new board up of course)

And in amigaland, to me an amiga is a computer

that just happens to be rather good at games.

though if you rip off the keyboard and the floppy drive and stick it in an arcade cabinet you got an arcade machine, as has been done on more than one occassion.

[Mr B]

Doesn't both Microsoft, and Sony claim there last generation of consoles "computer"? Mainly to avoid being classified as a higher taxated item when imported to Europe perhaps, but still...

Sorry about pulling up a long dead thread.
B!

[Amiga1992]

What the...
It's got a keyboard.
End of "argument"
:P

The *original* idea intended it more as a gaming machine, but when it got bought, plans changed. I don't see it aimed at be a console, at least not in its final, release form.

[Hungry Horace]

my response to topic:

"do i f**k"

[DrewPee70]

I agree with the above post, no way is the amiga a console apart from the CD32.
so . . . do i f**k!

DrewPee

[Techx]

no way in hell an amiga is a console..

[boing_1000]

Computer, through and through. It's upgradable. Though one could make the argument with gaming consoles that they're upgradable through the use of modchips (which I actually did with my Wii recently). But yeah definitely not a console.

[Madcrow]

All the visual effects for the first season of Babylon 5 were designed and rendered on an Amiga. Could a console do that? I think not.

With that said, the latest generation of consoles, most notably the PS3, but to a lesser, more controlled extent, the Wii and X360 as well, have blurred the line between computer and console. You can install software, connect third-party add-ons (through USB) and in the case of the PS3, you can even install operating systems and use it as a real computer. Heck. It would literaly be a week or two's worth of work to port Amiga OS4 or MorphOS to the PS3 (it uses what amounts to a very souped-up PPC chip, after all) thus turning the PS3 into an Amiga and making it, by definition, a computer :P

[klx300r]

anyone that voted Amiga computers are consoles are

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by Madcrow

All the visual effects for the first season of Babylon 5 were designed and rendered on an Amiga. Could a console do that? I think not.

The PS2 was used in a supercomputer, handling science calculations, and high resolution visual renderings based on them. ClusterX proved the same could be done with a set of Xbox'es. The later was pretty much a P3/Celeron PC, we all know the hardware i assume?

Originally Posted by Madcrow

With that said, the latest generation of consoles, most notably the PS3, but to a lesser, more controlled extent, the Wii and X360 as well, have blurred the line between computer and console. You can install software, connect third-party add-ons (through USB) and in the case of the PS3, you can even install operating systems and use it as a real computer. Heck. It would literaly be a week or two's worth of work to port Amiga OS4 or MorphOS to the PS3 (it uses what amounts to a very souped-up PPC chip, after all) thus turning the PS3 into an Amiga and making it, by definition, a computer :P

Again, both the PS2 and Xbox were there. Fully functional linux enviroments existed for the both of them. Actually, a running kernal and a small enviorment was available for the PSX allready. So, by those definitions, everything is a PC, and not a console i guess?

Amiga = PC
PS2-3, Xbox-360, Wii... = Consoles
But i'm not really certain as to what IS the actuall difference.
B!

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Madcrow

All the visual effects for the first season of Babylon 5 were designed and rendered on an Amiga. Could a console do that? I think not.

Ah, one of the archetypical Amiga Zealot arguments that might have been OK in 1993, but ttoday are laughable.

The Amigas (high end ones at that, not your stock A500 or A1200 for sure :P) weree used ONLY in the pilot and first chapters (lack of budget), for visual effects.

"Babylon 5 was also one of the first television shows to use computer technology in creating visual effects, using Amiga-based Video Toasters at first, and later Pentium and DEC Alpha-based systems.[23]"

End the myth and stop the zealotry.
Value the Amiga for what it is and stop putting these strange god-mighty halos around it.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Mr B

Amiga = PC
PS2-3, Xbox-360, Wii... = Consoles
But i'm not really certain as to what IS the actuall difference.

And to kind of end this pointless debate...

Any computer. can be used for whatever the fuck you want.
A games console is in fact a computer. So is a calculator, and so is even your microwave, or at least, has one inside.

What defines one computer device to be called videogame console, home appliance opr merely "computer"?

The focus is.
Video game consoles are computer devices created with the maion focus in videogaming.

Plain "computers" have been made with a more varied spectrum in mind, you can use them for games, but also for home accountancy, the internet, your homework, etc. "Computer" defines the most generic, multiaspect use of these machines.

That doens't mean you can't use a Wii to check the internet, word processing, etc.

[Hungry Horace]

when is a console not a console? (but a computer)


when it's an expanded CD32 of course!



i agree the topic is silly and pointless, although amusing.

/me waits for the 'anti-cd32 brigade'

[Graham Humphrey]

Originally Posted by Hungry Horace

i agree the topic is silly and pointless, although amusing.

And that's good enough for me!

[Mr B]

Well, for what it's worth, they had a couple of Amigas for the local television network here until a few years back. I know, i cant tell how many times i saw the "insert disc" graphics on a TV somewhere. Usually on the ferry station, train station or alike while waiting for transportation. I also found out they still used an Amiga to do text overlays on the "Media" highschool classes. I actually were walking around in there and had to stop and ask why there was a mix of A500, A1000, A1500, and A2000 Amigas in a editors booth. Not sure if either is still in use, but 3-5 years ago, they were.

I have to agree with Akira tho. A console is a PC wrapped up so it's easier to use. Also, it's hardware is monolithic, so "everyone" can make software that more directly uses the hardware and hence is more optimized, producing a better result then what is possible when programing for a generic PC. However.. This kind of optimizations seams to have been completely neglected lately.
B!

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Mr B

A console is a PC wrapped up so it's easier to use. Also, it's hardware is monolithic, so "everyone" can make software that more directly uses the hardware and hence is more optimized, producing a better result then what is possible when programing for a generic PC. However.. This kind of optimizations seams to have been completely neglected lately.
B!

Hardware constrains used to be the NORM in the 80s and a bit in the 90s as well.
You have a Commodore 64/Atari 2600/Amiga 500, with whatever was the STOCK config, and you HAD to make software running for it, otherwise, big fail.

Nowadays, if the software doesn't run, tyou are prompted to waste your cash in an upgrade.

Hardware milking is an art only remaining in the oldschool demoscene (the PC demoscene doesn't have as much milking because they always get new hardware to try on AND THEY USE IT)


<grumpy balcony muppet mode=off>

[Mr B]

I was more thinking about the optimizations made on current console games. Or lack of rather.
B!

[Paul_s]

Amiga isn't a computer or console. She's the perfect partner who can multitask and asks for nothing in return apart from electricity & some food i.e. floppy disks ...

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Mr B

I was more thinking about the optimizations made on current console games. Or lack of rather.
B!

Most game producer try to keep the engines easy to convert to other platforms, so it can be released at the same with less effort. There still some 'showing off' games that are highly optimized for one platform, but since I'm not into the current console generation the only one that comes to my mind now is Halo 3 (and that might be converted for the PC aswell ).