Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!lll-winken!taco!hobbes.catt.ncsu.edu!kdarling From: kdarling@hobbes.catt.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: Give The Amiga Some Credit Already! Message-ID: <1991Jun22.022139.12083@ncsu.edu> Date: 22 Jun 91 02:21:39 GMT References: <30189@know.pws.bull.com> Sender: news@ncsu.edu (USENET News System) Organization: North Carolina State University Lines: 38 > Why can't you give your machine a little credit [...] Hey, if everyone was willing to give their own machine (and others!!) a little credit, then c.s.a.advocacy would die. Tho that might be good. > I mean, what machines have those features at a comparable price [...]? > A good example of this being the < $1000 price range. If the Amiga is > so old then show me one machine under $1000 that has all the features > of the Amiga. Atari? Not even close, and that's why Atari sales are dead. > Mac Classic? Don't make me laugh! Fact is people that nobody comes close. Systems that "come close" _do_ exist. But they're from small companies who simply use today's nice off-the-shelf hardware and software components. For example (the actual name isn't germane to this discussion), there's... Machine "X" - 15Mhz 68070. Multitasking/user. NTSC interlace and overscan. Hires same as the Amiga; but lores is 256 colors/pixel. A 24-bit palette. Simple copper. Pixel logic in hardware. Multiple screens and simple windows. DMA high density floppy port. DMA SCSI port. 1Meg ram -> 9meg using SIMMs. Also clock, 2 parallel ports, 5 serial ports (cheap MIDI adapter optional), analog joystick port, and DMAable stereo line-level output AND input ports. Basic, C, uucp, intermachine networking, and various tools come standard. In a low-profile 4-drive case with one 3.5" 1.4meg drive included, (you add inexpensive PC keyboard/mouse of your choice), it's just under $1000. That sounds pretty "close", assuming it fits your needs. At the best street prices I could find, a fairly comparable A2000 came to about $3K. What's especially relative here about the above machine and its cousins, is that they were all created _because_ an expanded Amiga cost too much. The target buyers had all indicated their desire for certain base features, and no 68K system had fit the price/ports profile, altho Amiga came closest. Still, they're not perfect either. Who's found anything yet that is? ;-) But they may prove that a _little_ bit of criticism isn't unwarranted... regards - kevin PS: you also asked "Who sets these standards?" The answer is: you ask yourself what you would pick as standard in a brand new model machine.