State of computer graphics when Amiga was born...

[Vascillious]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

You've been handled more than adequately.

I'm not complaining. It's just sad you're doing exactly what all people who don't have no defence for their position do. You've stopped talking about the subject, which is a comparison using blow-by-blow technical comparisons between the PC platform and the Amiga platform, and just started sniping at me.

Why not try sticking to the subject and start bringing some more technical comparisons between the two platforms instead?

[lilalurl]

Thread locked for a day or two. Time for people to work on their arguments (or take a break...)

[lilalurl]

Thread re-opened. On probation.
I advise potential participants to check it only every one hour (or even less often) in order to avoid the discussion getting too heated again and therefore locked once more.

[Weaselrama]

Former participants on this thread might want to check the following thread first. Several of us discussed a reasonable definition of what multimedia looked like between 1985 and 1992 and whether the Amiga met the definition. It did and does, particularly with the inclusion of the CDROM.

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=104138

[saimon69]

@Weaselrama
You assume that our polemic mate want to do a rational discussion, i assume he want to just bash our ego, therefore not even the second coming of Jesus and Jay Miner with angelic choir is going to convince him...

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by saimon69

@Weaselrama
You assume that our polemic mate want to do a rational discussion, i assume he want to just bash our ego, therefore not even the second coming of Jesus and Jay Miner with angelic choir is going to convince him...

[Weaselrama]

Well, if he is unwilling to look at videos and photos showing examples of what the Amiga could do - and insisted on some sort of intangible "proof" in a format he couldn't define - what, he wants a live demonstration? Then you're right, there's no way to persuade him. I think we did a pretty good job with the definition though on the other thread linked above.

[Amigajay]

Its what trolls do guys, post argumentative stuff, demand evidence that even if you give will never be enough for them and keep repeating, and repeating etc

Just ignore the troll

[lilalurl]

This thread is not the place to discuss about Vascillious being a troll or not, so enough with that and follow Amigajay's advice if you believe Vascillious is a troll.

@Weaselrama: the " Reasonable definition of "Multimedia" 1985-1992" thread seems like it could belong to the main board (not the off-topic section). I can merge it with this one. Or - I believe it would be a better choice - import it to Nostalgia and memories. Your link in post #144 would still work.
Or I can leave it in off-topic. I let you choose.

[Weaselrama]

Originally Posted by lilalurl

This thread is not the place to discuss about Vascillious being a troll or not, so enough with that and follow Amigajay's advice if you believe Vascillious is a troll.

@Weaselrama: the " Reasonable definition of "Multimedia" 1985-1992" thread seems like it could belong to the main board (not the off-topic section). I can merge it with this one. Or - I believe it would be a better choice - import it to Nostalgia and memories. Your link in post #144 would still work.
Or I can leave it in off-topic. I let you choose.

If you want to import it to nostalgia, I think that's fine. I think it will continue to generate informative comments from other EAB folk. Thanks!

[d4rk3lf]

"Definition of multimedia", is only part of the discussion.
I think it's best to have a new thread with name: "Was Amiga that great"? or: "Is Amiga overrated", or something along these lines, and all post from Vascillious first reply moved there.

And this thread should remain where people give link to early renders, videos and animations.

[Paul_s]

Originally Posted by Weaselrama

Well, if he is unwilling to look at videos and photos showing examples of what the Amiga could do - and insisted on some sort of intangible "proof" in a format he couldn't define - what, he wants a live demonstration? Then you're right, there's no way to persuade him. I think we did a pretty good job with the definition though on the other thread linked above.

Does anyone know Vascillious' physical address as it seems to me someone has p1$$ed in their cornflakes?


I'd like to buy them an Amiga Calendar 2021 (https://cmaiolino.wordpress.com/amig...calendar-2021/)


p.s. I'm being sincere/serious. PM me Mr/Mrs Vascillious

[fxgogo]

So this thread started out as a lovely nostalgia trip for me. It was lovely to see some clips I have not seen for decades. I used to record all manner of cg that I could and watch it over and over and wonder at it all.

The big point that everyone is trying to make, those amazing clips were part of academic institutions, high end effects studios and exploratory art installations. They were either bespoke tech or extremely expensive kit. As a kid in his teens in the eighties, it was way out of my league.

The tech existed before the Amiga for sure, but what the Amiga did is usher in the 'DESKTOP VIDEO REVOLUTION'. It allowed me to save up and buy my own computer and software to start making 3D graphics. It was flexible and easy to get into. The Amiga exposed the masses to a world they previous thought was magical or unapproachable.

And it invited us in.

You are not wrong Vascillious, there were bigger and better things out there before the Amiga arrived. But the Amiga did to desktop video and animation what the Mac did to desktop publishing. And I say the Amiga and Mac, but it was really thousands of talented people making the software and hardware around these platforms as well.

I certainly would not be a motion graphics designer were it not for the Amiga.

[amiman99]

Personally I was not aware of the "Paint Box". It looks like it did graphics stuff years ahead of everyone, even Amiga.
Did it use 68000 CPU? I would like to learn more about it.

[Pyromania]

Quantel Paintbox Was cool but it was 150,000 dollars per machine. I’m afraid that was a little more expense than an Amiga.

[amiman99]

Originally Posted by Pyromania

Quantel Paintbox Was cool but it was 150,000 dollars per machine. I’m afraid that was a little more expense than an Amiga.

I understand, so mostly TV stations got it.

I would like to know in what resolution the screen was rendered, how long it took to render a frame, how fast the CPU was, etc.

[Weaselrama]

Originally Posted by fxgogo

You are not wrong Vascillious, there were bigger and better things out there before the Amiga arrived. But the Amiga did to desktop video and animation what the Mac did to desktop publishing. And I say the Amiga and Mac, but it was really thousands of talented people making the software and hardware around these platforms as well.

I certainly would not be a motion graphics designer were it not for the Amiga.

Agreed. He pointed out a $5,000 video card was available in 1984/85 that turned the "PC" as it existed (x8086 or x8088 - the ill-fated x286 was on the horizon and the x386 and x486 were just a few years away) into an incredible graphics machine.

Uh, ok. That made your investment in your PC anywhere from $7,000 to $10,000. What could YOU do with it? The ROI of buying such a card to begin with would have been - you damned well better have a job in the graphics industry or just have money to burn. The software that supported that card? I bet there were very few titles.

The Amiga brought multimedia as it was understood in those days to the rest of us and it did it better than anything else available for that "$2,500" sweetspot and for the 7 years of the latter days of Commodore and into the late 90s when it was finally outclassed by the PC before we relegated it to "retro-computing/gaming" status. CDROM multimedia, including audio CDs, was available to us by 1991 as noted on the other thread.

[grond]

The Amiga is probably to computers what the Ford Model T is to cars. There were cars before and after it that could do what the Model T could but still it was the Model T that made it available to the common man (and woman).

The Amiga had many features combined for each of which you can find an example in the prior art. However, I still doubt there are many examples of a computer with comparable graphics and sound abilities that features a 32 bit multitasking OS at the same time. I wouldn't be surprised to learn about some multitasking OS running on PC or any other hardware (multitasking clearly wasn't invented on the Amiga) but I doubt that that same computer could also take a graphics card like the one mentioned and an 8bit DMA sound card and make use of all that in that multitasking OS.

Could the Paint Box do more than beeps?

[LezRed]

RMC looked at the PaintBox last year.

[ Show youtube player ]

This thread is weird, the Amiga was mostly a home computer that found a niche in some professional applications. It should be compared with its contemporaries of a similar ilk - to me that is the Atari ST line and the Acorn Archimedes series not professional workstations/components never designed with any home use in mind.

I remember my dads mate who back in 1989 or so had an expanded Amiga 500 with a hard disk, extra RAM, a genlock, a sound sampler, and a MIDI interface. At 10 years old it blew my mind and to this date was what I always thought of when that horrible term ‘multimedia’ was banded about.

I remember 10 years later in 1998 helping my then girlfriend who was studying marketing at Uni. She needed to make an advert and record it onto VHS. She had made some graphics on her Pentium 90 but was stumped at how to animate them or record them to tape. After looking into it her options seemed to be to spend money on hardware and software... instead my A1200 was dusted off, images imported, some new stuff scanned in, DPaint Animations created and the whole thing recorded to VHS. She got an excellent grade for that piece of work and her tutor thought she had access to very expensive kit

Make of that what you will.

[khph_re]

I'm basically sitting in the house my Amiga 500/1200 helped to buy.
I spent 15 years as an artist in the games industry, and it all started when I sent my Amiga artwork on PC formatted disks to Interactive studios in Leamington Spa.


At that point, they still had A4000's on every artist's desk. Nearly all of my art and design side co-workers also got their start on the Amiga.


Even when I started using a PC for rendering at home, I had to pass the 24bit file to my A1200 to see it in a decent resolution and colour depth.


Like a lot of others on here, I bought my A500 for games, but it could do so much more.