Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!emory!ogicse!pdxgate!eecs!bairds From: bairds@eecs.cs.pdx.edu (Shawn L. Baird) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer Subject: Re: Lemmings - a tutorial Part IV Message-ID: <2144@pdxgate.UUCP> Date: 30 Mar 91 02:14:12 GMT References: <1991Mar29.230632.7066@grebyn.com> Sender: news@pdxgate.UUCP Lines: 50 ckp@grebyn.com (Checkpoint Technologies) writes: >In article mwm@pa.dec.com (Mike (My Watch Has Windows) Meyer) writes: >>In article mykes@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG (Mike Schwartz) writes: >The Amiga 500 is a game machine. This has nothing watever to do with >the machine's technical capabilties, or what some minority of users does >with it. It is a game machine because of the mentality of the typical >user (remember that no one reading this message is a typical Amiga >user), because of Commodore's stillborn marketing efforts (at Christmas, >Commodore itself was comparing the A500 to the Nintendo), and only at >the last because of the original design goals. The Amiga 500 is not a "game machine". It is, however, quite effective at doing so, just like the rest of the members of the Amiga family. It doesn't matter what 90% or even 100% of A500 owners do with the machine. My machine serves as a terminal, a platform for programming, a platform for productivity and a platform for game playing. I think you'll find that a lot of the people who own Amigas were attracted by its game playing ability, but that is neither here nor there. Game players don't need the expandibility of an Amiga 2000 and hence have no reason to purchase one. I would much rather have an expandable 2000 or 3000 but my budget doesn't allow for one. My Amiga 500 has proven much more expandable than I thought it would be thanks to several third party hardware developers who see A500 owners now realizing the advantages of expandibility. For example, the GVP Series II A500+ HD (in my opinion, the one and only hard drive worth purchasing for the A500 if you want the most bang for your buck), the ATonce card, the Hurricane accelerator boards, the Bodega Bay, etc. I don't think these companies would be expending their precious resources on developing these sorts of peripherals for the Amiga if there wasn't at least a moderate market for it. >I too saw the original Amiga 1000 as a poor man's workstation, only >the market did not pan out. So now, while I'll grant the A2000 is a >video platform, the A500 is just a game console with a disk drive and a >keyboard. And nothing more. Funny, my A500 has two disk drives, a 40 Mb Quantum SCSI, 3 Mb of RAM, a 2400 baud modem and a 24 pin printer. I'm kind of shocked that more of my "games" don't use the printer though. >-- >First comes the logo: C H E C K P O I N T T E C H N O L O G I E S / / > ckp@grebyn.com \\ / / >Then, the disclaimer: All expressed opinions are, indeed, opinions. \ / o >Now for the witty part: I'm pink, therefore, I'm spam! \/ --- Shawn L. Baird, bairds@eecs.ee.pdx.edu, Wraith on DikuMUD The above message is not licensed by AT&T, or at least, not yet.