David Pleasance loves "what if" threads too!

[dreadnought]

So much he's writing a big ol' WHAT IF book with David Haynie, apparently...


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...nd-amiga-today

[lilwshu]

This forum will implode on itself upon release.

[pixie]

Originally Posted by lilwshu

This forum will implode on itself upon release.

lol, my thoughts exactly! xD

[Minuous]

I would imagine that the main problem would be trying to extrapolate 30 years of history from a roadmap which would have covered a very small fraction of that.

[TCD]

I guess it is the style of the time...

Edit: "Sadly, less than 48 hours before the auction, we were cheated out of it *(full story in the new book)." Oh boy! I can't wait to read about how the evil world destroyed poor David's plans.

[Amigajay]

Originally Posted by TCD

I guess it is the style of the time...

Edit: "Sadly, less than 48 hours before the auction, we were cheated out of it *(full story in the new book)." Oh boy! I can't wait to read about how the evil world destroyed poor David's plans.

How many books did you pledge for?!

I must admit i did cringe with the Amigarians or what ever the term is and ‘my fans’ comment in the video.

The Kickstarter doesn’t even state anything regarding the book itself other than it’s a ‘hardback’. Could be 12 pages A6!

Some of the info might be interesting esp Hombre stuff and a few bits we might not have learnt over the years, but i agree the fill a whole book of ‘what if’s’ is stretching it.

My take is IF Commodore UK won the bid, they were then already £50 million in debt, to then somehow find millions to complete Hombre on budget and on time even for a late 1995 release as a console which they said was confirmed with the CD64 against the PSX was commercial suicide, even a Hombre based A1400 (or whatever) for 1996 would have struggled to gain traction when consoles were at their peak and Amiga wedge computers like it or not were bought primally to play games on, publishers had already started to leave the Amiga scene like the ST scene before it, a 2 year gap is plenty enough for them to not think it worthwhile coming back.

[dreadnought]

Well, IF only you ungrateful sods paid the 50 quid subscription and the Amazing AGA didn't collapse, perhaps there would be no need for fantasy scenario book writing, but as it is, one must soldier on...

It's all a bit silly, but I'm not hatin'. Let the ol' trooper have fun and get a few bob in while at it.

[Bruce Abbott]

Originally Posted by TCD

I guess it is the style of the time...

Edit: "Sadly, less than 48 hours before the auction, we were cheated out of it *(full story in the new book)." Oh boy! I can't wait to read about how the evil world destroyed poor David's plans.

You scoff, but that is what happened. Not just the world, the entire Universe wanted Commodore dead.

Dave Haynie says Commodore was going in the right direction. I'm curious to know how he thinks it could have panned out in an alternate universe that didn't have it in for the Amiga.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Amigajay

My take is IF Commodore UK won the bid, they were then already £50 million in debt...

Yes. Let's not forget that all the 'Commodore UK was by far the strongest subsidiary' talk comes from the same guy that bet that the CD32 would save the company. Mr Pleasance is a sales guy and a good one at that, but I don't think (<- personal opinion) that he would have saved whatever was left of the Amiga in Commodore's hands. Escom clearly just wanted to turn the Amiga assets into a profit (and failed), but the damage done from 1991 on would have required somebody well versed in salvaging a company, but a sales rep.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Bruce Abbott

You scoff, but that is what happened.

Indeed. The universe said 'The Amiga is not to be' and *poof* David's money is gone. True story, no cap.

[Seiya]

Originally Posted by TCD

I guess it is the style of the time...

Edit: "Sadly, less than 48 hours before the auction, we were cheated out of it *(full story in the new book)." Oh boy! I can't wait to read about how the evil world destroyed poor David's plans.

conspiracy theory: What if the CD32 was made on purpose to bankrupt itself, perhaps at the suggestion of a third party involved in that chaos.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Seiya

conspiracy theory: What if the CD32 was made on purpose to bankrupt itself, perhaps at the suggestion of a third party involved in that chaos.

Oh, I like that angle. "Look David, we really need you to push the CD32 out as quickly as possible."

[Amigajay]

Originally Posted by Seiya

conspiracy theory: What if the CD32 was made on purpose to bankrupt itself, perhaps at the suggestion of a third party involved in that chaos.

They didn’t need the CD32 to go bankrupt! They were perfectly adequate going bankrupt long before.

I have a feeling myself this Czech ‘Xor’ fella had a hand in it

[sean_sk]

Originally Posted by Bruce Abbott

I'm curious to know how he thinks it could have panned out in an alternate universe that didn't have it in for the Amiga.

How bout I head into my trusty ol' Shrodinger box and superposition myself over there and let you know what I find out.

[CCCP alert]

Commodore tanked same year before PS1 hit Japan, once people had seen PS1 Ridge Racer nobody was buying any £400-500 computer without knowing their gaming options were Neolithic in comparison.

Money is not enough to make a 3D chipset worth a crap in 1994/95 vs PS1 Giant Killer GPU. Massively complex Hombre chipset vs dirt cheap PS1 chipset comments from Haynie are signs of dementia lol and David Pleasance didn't have a clue when he was at C= UK as it was lol

What if threads are usually by people unhappy with what we ended up with vs the revolutionary times of change in desktop computers in the 80s.

PS5 has the only APU in the world that can do HD real time raytracing and that is exclusive to Sony, that is as close as you are going to get to 1987 £500 A500 vs 8086 Amstrad CGA PC for £500.

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by lilwshu

This forum will implode on itself upon release.

Implode? No.

Ground Hog Day timeloop? We're in one right now.

[Megalomaniac]

Turning the A1200's spec into a CDROM-based console, with a multi-button controller and some new chips, while also expandable into a full computer, seemed like such a good idea. Done well, it could have at least tided them over until Hombre or even AAA was ready - the Playstation would ultimately have killed it off. Some of the stuff planned for it, from Lost Eden to Megarace to Biosphere, might have got some notice. With nearly 200 games, it did better than the MegaCD or 32X or Jaguar CD, despite a very short shelf life - had Commodore lived to Christmas 1994, who's to say it wouldn't've got twice as many games, including those I mentioned? Unfortunately though, you can see why the CD32 was a relative failure.

Akiko did very little the way it was implemented, the battery backup for saving was just too small, I'd argue that adding a little fastRAM would have given enough performance boost to justify the extra £50 tops on the RRP, and the issue with freeing up the full 2Mb memory also held it back.

Most games released were just Amiga games with some new music, often A500 games making no use of AGA, often full price despite being quite old by then, and often lazily converted (e.g. Sensi making no adjustment for joypads, Theme Park not being able to save the actual park, Super Skidmarks losing the linkup, and not having enhanced graphics despite a demo having them (I may be misremembering here, LemonAmiga is down as I speak so I can't check), Shadow Fighter still only supporting one button). Bundled games were often either rubbish (Dangerous Streets, Oscar) or unconsoley (Diggers, Wing Commander). The US companies weren't tempted back, and not being able to launch it in the US was the final straw.

[d4rk3lf]

Do I get a free copy because of my Aga subscription?

[BSzili]

I hope the book will have an entire chapter dedicated to PC specs.

[eXeler0]

I pledged ( when I saw Haynie is co-writing. )