RE: Amiga users didn't upgrade

[lmimmfn]

Originally Posted by TCD

Found this in Amiga Format issue 61 about the CD1200:


Not sure if it is a sales pitch or a warning

What a confusing mess of a message buying a CD32 to have access to CDs from an A1200 using a £30 interface cable, really?.

I remember back in the day the whole situation was confusing you could connect IDE CD Roms using IDE, but if you had an internal harddrive you needed additional cable supporting 2 IDEs but also it was a messy solution with that IDE cable tethering your A1200 to the drive(at the time i was moving between uni and home carting my A1200 around and that type of solution wasnt great for mobility). The latter PCMCIA solutions were much tidier.

Also the solution for A500/A600 owners was to get a CD32?

They should have just:
1. Dumped the Akiko solution for existing A1200 owners and release a nice PCMCIA CDROM drive for A1200 and A600. I didnt realise the CD1200 would prevent the use of accelerators that's an awful solution.
2. A500 users already had a Commodore CD solution
3. Revise A1200 mobos and include an Akiko so moving forward the A1200 and CD32 were aligned.

Back in 1994(end of) i had:
A1200 with Blizzard 68030/50 with FPU, 4Meg RAM, harddrive(cant remember the size, maybe 60 or 100Meg), external floppy, multisync monitor, bubblejet printer, Tecnosound Turbo, Vidi 12 Digitizer.
Also had an A2000 with 286 bridgeboard, 8 Meg Fastram expansion, 20Meg HD.

Even when i had my A500 i had it with 2Meg expansion, and with external floppy.

Maybe im not the average user but i loved the audio/video capabilities of the Amiga and playing with all that, i would have loved an A4000 but that was well beyond the capabilities of a student

[TCD]

Originally Posted by lmimmfn

They should have just:
1. Dumped the Akiko solution for existing A1200 owners and release a nice PCMCIA CDROM drive for A1200 and A600. I didnt realise the CD1200 would prevent the use of accelerators that's an awful solution.

But then you wouldn't be able to play Microcosm on your A1200 (sorry, couldn't resist )

I agree that a simple and cheap CD drive should have been the goal and not going for CD32 compatibility.

[lmimmfn]

Originally Posted by TCD

But then you wouldn't be able to play Microcosm on your A1200 (sorry, couldn't resist )

lol, the hype in AF for that game was at Rise Of The Robot levels , at the time, i welcomed the FMV revolution from the magazines, but i saw it in Boots several months later and though meh, is that it?

Putting Akiko in the CD1200 made no sense if CBM thought FMV was the future(remember Sega were also toying with the same thing the the Mega CD), either include the FMV also or drop the whole thing and just release basic PCMCIA ROM drive.

[sokolovic]

Originally Posted by TCD

But then you wouldn't be able to play Microcosm on your A1200 (sorry, couldn't resist )

I agree that a simple and cheap CD drive should have been the goal and not going for CD32 compatibility.

I remember playing Microcosm on my A1200 with an IDE CD ROM and IDEFix.
Not sure Akiko was involved here.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by sokolovic

I remember playing Microcosm on my A1200 with an IDE CD ROM and IDEFix.
Not sure Akiko was involved here.

I honestly have no idea about that It's just 'interesting' that instead of putting the Akiko in the A1200 too Commodore thought it was a better idea to include it with the CD drive with all the aforementioned caveats.

[TCD]

Just a few minutes later I find this in Amiga Format issue 62 (test for the Zappo CD drive):


And look at which game they used for the screenshot

[lmimmfn]

Was there any other game other than Wing Commander which used Akiko?

[sokolovic]

Originally Posted by lmimmfn

Was there any other game other than Wing Commander which used Akiko?

Gloom maybe ?

[TCD]

Another interesting response to a reader letter by Mr. Pleasance in Amiga Format issue 65:


I guess it should mean 'Please be patient, the CD1200 will do what you want and will be released soon', but it reads just a tiny bit passive aggressive. Not really surprising in October/November 1994 though.

[lmimmfn]

Originally Posted by TCD

Another interesting response to a reader letter by Mr. Pleasance in Amiga Format issue 65:


I guess it should mean 'Please be patient, the CD1200 will do what you want and will be released soon', but it reads just a tiny bit passive aggressive. Not really surprising in October/November 1994 though.

Wow, very negative reply by Mr P.

Originally Posted by sokolovic

Gloom maybe ?

Ahh yes, Gloom did, based on the 'uptake' of use of Akiko and that even stock A1200 with fastram would be as fast as Akiko it makes 0 sense to have it included in the A1200(preventing accelerator usage).

[Megalomaniac]

Being able to boot from CD drive (and to have both CD-ROM with FMV and acceleration) should have been a design priority for Kickstart 3, if not 2. By that time it was clear that CD-ROM would replace floppies for distributing software.

Were there workarounds for the incompatible CD32 titles which didn't use Akiko, at least? Lotus Trilogy not working is slightly ironic considering the history of compatibility issues with those games- Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious, I think it stood for?

Microcosm was a logical screenshot to use as an example though, as it was a CD32 exclusive, and seen as a killer app and a sign of the future of gaming. Only Amiga Power saw through it at all.

By late 1994 David was probably under a lot of stress, trying to get the management buyout done while placating existing customers, when he may deep down have believed that Commodore's issues were not his fault (he approved the launch of a lower-cost A300, and it mutated into the A500+-replacing A600 without warning, and he was left to sell and market it, and deal with complaints from flight sim people and hardware manufacturers, while probably unable to explicitly say "the A1200 will be here in 6 months" to reassure people).

[sokolovic]

And I wouldn't blame either DP for believing in the infamous FMV extension. He wasn't alone in that case. Philips and their CD-i were also deeply engaged in that path.

But yes, the Akiko problem could have been solved in software, as it was ultimately solved.

[TCD]

To be clear I don't blame DP for anything. That year between Commodore filing for voluntary liquidation and the buyout finally happening was for sure a very difficult time for both the users and everybody at Commodore. I'm just pointing out that during that time the communication towards the 'future' technology CD and which way to go as a A1200 owner wasn't optimal.

Yesterday I found an interesting advert: https://hol.abime.net/1929/miscshot

[TCD]

The editorial of Amiga Format issue 67 (January 1995) is quite an interesting read about the events in 1994:

[TCD]

Now for a more positive letter from Amiga Format issue 69 (March 1995):

[OlafSch]

it is understandable that the management was under heavy pressure and also not knowing what will happen. But the users that still cared (and even moaned) were the better users because most people simply left at that time without saying anything.

[duga]

Originally Posted by lmimmfn

What a confusing mess of a message buying a CD32 to have access to CDs from an A1200 using a £30 interface cable, really?.

I remember back in the day the whole situation was confusing you could connect IDE CD Roms using IDE, but if you had an internal harddrive you needed additional cable supporting 2 IDEs but also it was a messy solution with that IDE cable tethering your A1200 to the drive(at the time i was moving between uni and home carting my A1200 around and that type of solution wasnt great for mobility). The latter PCMCIA solutions were much tidier.

Also the solution for A500/A600 owners was to get a CD32?

They should have just:
1. Dumped the Akiko solution for existing A1200 owners and release a nice PCMCIA CDROM drive for A1200 and A600. I didnt realise the CD1200 would prevent the use of accelerators that's an awful solution.

But with a SIMM slot you could double the performance by adding a 1 MB SIMM though.

[TCD]

I didn't realise it until now, but for one and half years there were no new Amiga (1200/4000) being made. After Escom bought the rights it took them until October 1995 to have new machines ready for sale. That's one month after the PlayStation launched.

[sokolovic]

Originally Posted by TCD

I didn't realise it until now, but for one and half years there were no new Amiga (1200/4000) being made. After Escom bought the rights it took them until October 1995 to have new machines ready for sale. That's one month after the PlayStation launched.

Ready for sale at the same 1992/93 price and with the same base configuration. Nice move !

[TCD]

Originally Posted by sokolovic

Ready for sale at the same 1992/93 price and with the same base configuration. Nice move !

Yep. Don't forget the HD drive that made older games/software incompatible.