What will be the endgame for the Amiga?

[r.cade]

The Amiga was an amazing computer and amazing time to live through.

Unfortunately the endgame already happened, in 1994. Some say, long before that.

Now, we keep the memory and the ghosts in the machines alive.

[klx300r]

I don't know how many times people said the Amiga is dead, was dead, will be dead and it's 2022 dammit and we're still here with NEW hardware and software coming out SOOOOO enjoy your Amiga today and tomorrow and yes ....Amiga forever

[PortuguesePilot]

I have a sense that most of you are right to some extent, both the pessimists (realists?) and the optimists.

The realistic approach, the one that I think is most plausible is that, as a whole, the Amiga will die with its users and in 20/30 years it will be mostly a forgotten computer, just another footnote on some pages of the books that deal with the subject.

BUT I also predict that some rare, odd individuals that were born after the Amiga had already died (and some aren't even born yet) will praise it far more than we do. They will overvalue it (and other contemporary stuff) to stratospheric heights in a quasi-religious fervour and consider it the stuff of legends and the sign of unmitigated genius. They'll delight themselves with the technicalities, the quaintness, the oddity, the "what ifness" that characterized basically every early computer in general and the Amiga in particular in a similar way to how we "ooh" and "wow" at Leonardo da Vinci's doodles. A somewhat similar phenomenon to what happened in our time with Marvel comics or with classic cars. But these will be rare individuals with a sort-of fetish for old tech. Most normal, regular people won't know and won't care to know (as they already don't know and don't care to know now-a-days).

[Bruce Abbott]

Originally Posted by r.cade

Unfortunately the endgame already happened, in 1994. Some say, long before that.

Some say the game was over before it began, others say the Amiga (that should have been) never really existed. But for some of us it never left the game.

35 years after I got my first Amiga, I am just now getting into doing stuff on the Amiga that I didn't have the time, money, or skills to do back then. I intend to keep playing this game until I die. And when I do, others will snap up my machines to keep the game going. I know people who have Amigas in their cupboards that they want to get going again some day. Once this pandemic is over I hope to help them with that.

The Amiga's real endgame hasn't even started yet. It may have lost the desktop computing game, but not the home computing game. And now it's in a new game - the retro-computing game. But unlike other retrocomputers of its time the Amiga is still being actively developed. Its future is brighter and more focused today than it was in 1994!

[Bruce Abbott]

Originally Posted by PortuguesePilot

But these will be rare individuals with a sort-of fetish for old tech. Most normal, regular people won't know and won't care to know (as they already don't know and don't care to know now-a-days).

Screw 'normal, regular people'.

But a lot of 'regular' people are into stuff you wouldn't suspect just by looking at them. As a teenager I was into model railways in a big way. But I wasn't into rock music, booze and sex, so I would have nothing in common with Rod Stewart, right? Turns out he was an avid model railway enthusiast, spending much of his free time on the hobby. His impressive 23 ft × 124 ft HO scale layout modeled after the New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroads was featured in Model Railroader magazine. In the article Stewart said that it meant more to him to be in a model railroad magazine than a music magazine. Anybody who has built a model railway knows the enormous amount of time it take to create a large layout with custom-made buildings etc. All that time I thought Rod Stewart was just a 'don't know and don't care to know' drunken slob, he was actually a dedicated master modeller!

[sparhawk]

Originally Posted by saimon69

That is one of the reason i try to advocate for new ports: to change the mind of many and show "ok we screwed up this one but was doable, look here!" Like the new McGeezer ports

Back in the days, this might have been a good idea. Today, why would I want to have yet another port? If I want to play an arcade game, I run it in MAME with the original ROM set and can play it as I were in the aracade. No need to get some dumbed down port just to play it on an Amiga.

As a tech demo, this might be nice, but for players sake it doesn't make sense to me to create a stream of ports just to have something that is already available anyway.

Just my 2 cents.

[Adropac2]

I think the thing that people may be missing here is that history is itself fascinating just about no matter what it is. People and gamers looking back at the generations will be quite fascinated with the Amiga especially for it's games which many will still be playable no matter how far into the future so there will always be interest. I mean just the idea of looking back through hundreds of generations of machines is in itself a glorious thought even now and the idea that you could also play them in the exact ways will be magical and interesting but also a new hobby for some. I really just can't see the Amiga or any of these machines being forgotten quite honestly

Same for comics which people will likely find as an oddity some 500 years from now but then understand and enjoy the experience for being unique and just as meaningful as any story telling medium

[saimon69]

Originally Posted by sparhawk

Back in the days, this might have been a good idea. Today, why would I want to have yet another port? If I want to play an arcade game, I run it in MAME with the original ROM set and can play it as I were in the aracade. No need to get some dumbed down port just to play it on an Amiga.

You forgot the ego factor

[gimbal]

When there are no more people alive that have love for the machine I guess

Once Upon a Time in the West and Kelly's Heroes are two of my more or even most favourite movies because my dad loved them to bits and thus shared them with me with much enthusiasm from a very young age. If he hadn't, I might have seen them but they likely would not have imprinted on me in the same way.

You see younger people who were born after "the demise" that still show an interest in and even develop for the Amiga. I can only guess that this is the same kind of transference of enthusiasm going on, they have a relative that opened their mind to it. Of course everyone is different, there will be differing motivations to want to program for or play on old hardware. But having played on an Amiga on your dad's knee or even seeing their creations on it is an unbeatable motivation.

But that is where I personally draw the line. That transference is not going to happen to the next generation or at least not with the same amount of success as it has happened from our generations to the next. At some point the Amiga platform is going to be purely something for the museum. But not yet. Not for a long while I'll bet.

[desiv]

Originally Posted by Shatterhand

The fact that Amiga users still celebrating how great shitty games like Xenon 2 or Project-X are.

If people like those games, then they are great to them.
And if a lot of people like those games, maybe there is a reason?

[ESC]

As tech moan said during his minidisc video "tech history is written by Americans", the Amiga will be forgotten because the Americans don't remember it.

I was talking to a young relative of mine at a family gathering after his dad tipped him off that I like video games and he asked me a lot of questions about retro games and if I was a Sega guy or a Nintendo guy growing up. When I answered him that I had a Sega but I mostly played on Amiga he gave me a confused look, he had never heard of that machine, he apparently watches a lot of American let's players/streamers that play retro games and youtubers that talk about retrogames and all that but he's never heard about what was going on here in Europe because all of the truly big names on youtube are Americans.

Thankfully that's changing a bit as of late but I don't think Amiga will be remembered in the end, younglings have no problem with playing Super Mario, Sonic, Zelda or any of the other big name games or consoles but when it comes to Alien Breed, Lemmings, Superfrog or anything else on Amiga they just don't bother because they don't know anything, thanks to Americans winning the culture war.

It also doesn't help that Amiga emulation is a hassle compared to retro consoles, you need the kickstart roms and if you don't get the WHDLoad versions of games you have to wrangle several disks in the emulator, especially those games that don't recognize a second disk-drive. With a Snes/MD emulator all you need are the games and you're good to go.

[gimbal]

That hassle complaint does not only apply to the youngsters. My parents would love to play some of the old games still but as soon as they see WinUAE they go pale. The Amiga used to be a machine where you shoved a disk into the drive and it just... went Something tells me that if WinUAE had some kind of drag and drop interface where you drag a disk onto the picture of a disk drive, they'd get it.

So yeah, now they play poor excuses for games on their iPads instead.

[Robbie]

There will always be interest in computers. The students of the future who are interested in computing, and learning programming etc will always be fascinated by the older machines.

I have a friend who was studying programming at university, he hadn't grown up with Amigas but was so excited when I lent him one of my old machines.

If your interest lies in computers, Amigas will always be held in high regard.

[ESC]

Of course it will not be completely forgotten, there will be historical records and there's always people that love old tech even though it's a hundred years old. I meant more in a general sense.

For each generation that passes the Amiga will be more and more obscure, historians will look back at this forum and wonder why we kept hanging on to this old tech.

Hello there future historians! Hope you have a lovely day!

[Heywood]

The Amiga if its remembered may be considered a bit of a stepping stone on the evolution of computing - maybe like the gramaphone is in between wax cylinders and compact disk players for audio.

Most people if they consider it at all will think of it as an interesting curiosity and move on with the lives while hipsters may say that they can only handle Hybris on an original 68000 with genuine Paula audio and moan about Medhi Ali sinking something really special.

[mahen]

When we are all dead, I guess !
And, well, that sounds good to me - we'll continue to enjoy it as long as we need to.

New generations will probably have other stuff to be concerned about.

[sparhawk]

Originally Posted by saimon69

You forgot the ego factor

I didn't forget that. Doing this for "selfish" reasons is quite valid. But IMO it's not a real argument for keeping the Amiga alive anymore because those ports will compete with current games, and are only interesting to a few people who want to see if it is even possible.

[klx300r]

Originally Posted by Robbie

There will always be interest in computers. The students of the future who are interested in computing, and learning programming etc will always be fascinated by the older machines.

I have a friend who was studying programming at university, he hadn't grown up with Amigas but was so excited when I lent him one of my old machines.

If your interest lies in computers, Amigas will always be held in high regard.

well said

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by Robbie

There will always be interest in computers. The students of the future who are interested in computing, and learning programming etc will always be fascinated by the older machines.

I have a friend who was studying programming at university, he hadn't grown up with Amigas but was so excited when I lent him one of my old machines.

If your interest lies in computers, Amigas will always be held in high regard.

Old computers are still the best tool to learn about computer architectures. Or maybe I should flip it: it is easier to teach it through them.

[d4rk3lf]

I am on optimistic side here.

Love for retro stuff "explodes" from time to time, and Amiga was pretty important computer in the past... and very awesome... as we all know.

With increasing population, the small percent of people with interest in retro stuff will also increase.
In 50 years, it might be several thousands of them.. in 200 years, maybe tens of thousands... probably more, then we have now.

Only if some nuclear war happen, or some asteroid... but then again, even after global catastrophe, if humans survive, after recovery, there will be again interest in retro stuff... and no catastrphy could wipe out all the Amiga (and other) traces, unless it's biblical Judgment Day.

So.. al in all.. I am pretty optimistic.