Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!pollux.usc.edu!papa From: papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: PRODIGY HATES AMIGA -- Says wont do port! Keywords: prodigy amiga hatred Message-ID: <26846@usc.edu> Date: 29 Aug 90 03:45:52 GMT References: <191@coplex.UUCP> Sender: news@usc.edu Organization: Felsina Software, Los Angeles, CA Lines: 70 Nntp-Posting-Host: pollux.usc.edu In article Joseph P. Hillenburg (joseph@valnet.UUCP) writes: >dannie@coplex.UUCP (Dannie Gregoire) writes: >> The person I spoke with gave me some bunk reasons about it being near >> impossible to port the software to the Amiga due to its difficult >> programming environment, and the "hellatious memory requirements that it >> would require for the graphics" (over the IBM and MAC). If they port their >> cheesy IBM-ish graphics (as seen in their Information Guide) it should be >> no problem at all. This is all a bunch of B.S. >> The person I spoke with at Prodigy knew absolutely NOTHING of the AMIGA, >> eventhough he seemed to think otherwise. I think that the Programming >> staff at Prodigy must be a group of ex-UNIVAC programmers from the 40's, >> or a near equivalent. ;-) >> PLEASE stand up for YOUR computer. Call Prodigy TODAY and complain about >> this lack of intelligence and information on their part. Enough inquiries >> might change their mind. I doubt this (see my story later). >Why? Who needs Prodigy? People/Link beats it easily for it's files base >(for any computer) and BIX beats it for information. If we want graphics, >why not use SpyPix? (On JR-Comm, not SkyTerm, which is BLAH!) SkyPix is >so much better and faster. About a month ago, a Prodigy saleswoman calles >my house wanting me to sign uo for it. I said I mighr get a subscription >if they made an Amiga version, then I saw it ona friend's Mac...too many >ads, too slow, (The one thing a TRS-80/300bps modem can beat) and not >worth be bucks. Heck, BIX'es rate is extremely worth it, especially >considering you get access to CATS as well... The point is not what is good or bad, but the fact that Prodigy already has a vary large installed base, the backing of IBM and Sears and a VERY large advertising budget. Simply put, having the Amiga support Prodigy will make it a more "mainstream" computer than it is now. And now my story. I evaluated Prodigy back in 1987. Did a little of reverse-engineering on the IBM CGA/EGA version and came to the conclusion that an Amiga version would be fairly easy to do and MUCH faster than the CGA/EGA version that are the "norm" for Prodigy. Prodigy uses very few things for its screen: fonts, line drawing and filling reagions with hatch styles. that's it. When this is done on an EGA/CGA it is abismally slow, since neither card has these features in firmware: it is all done in software. On the Amiga, all of this is done by the custom chips, and therefore can be done at a speed to blow away such IBM implementations. We went all the way to contact Prodigy Marketing Development at Prodigy headquarters back in 1988. We proposed to do the port for them back then. We also indicated that the Amiga 500 was being sold in the same outlets (Software Etc.) that sell Prodigy to the consumer market. Their response was that they "had no money left from their budget, since they were funding a Mac and an Apple II version of Prodigy". We never heard from them again. I think the Mac version did come out eventually. I don't know about the Apple II version. Subsequently we received word from a reliable source that one of the reasons NOT to do the Amiga version was that it would have been so fast that it would have blown away the versions running on IBM hardware. I have no hard proof that this is true, and so I offer it just as a rumor. Another rumor at last DevCon was that CBM itself was going to be involved in a Prodigy port, but again I have no real hard facts on this. IMHO, it would be GOOD for the Amiga to have a version of the Prodigy software running on Ami. -- Marco -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "Xerox sues somebody for copying?" -- David Letterman -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=