Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!ut-sally!utah-cs!utah-gr!stride!l5comp!scotty From: scotty@l5comp.UUCP (Scott Turner) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Amiga's Worst Enemy Message-ID: <119@l5comp.UUCP> Date: Sun, 10-May-87 10:25:53 EDT Article-I.D.: l5comp.119 Posted: Sun May 10 10:25:53 1987 Date-Received: Wed, 13-May-87 01:31:18 EDT References: <18006@sun.uucp> <857@sputnik.COM> <1640@sphinx.uchicago.edu> Reply-To: scotty@l5comp.UUCP (Scott Turner) Distribution: na Organization: L5 Computing, Edmonds, WA Lines: 54 Keywords: Developers programmers comercial software Summary: Amiga's worst enemy is COMMODORE! Xref: mnetor comp.sys.amiga:4716 comp.sys.ibm.pc:3941 In article <1640@sphinx.uchicago.edu> abg1@sphinx.UUCP (andrew brian gross) writes: >There has been a fair amount of speculation recently, both on the net and in >Amiga-orientated magazines, about the lack of Amiga software. In particular, >it has just been suggested that PD/shareware may be partly responsible for >commercial software companies' failure to develop for the machine. Blaming shareware and the PD for the commercial sectors problems it a load of bull manure. As an Amiga software/hardware developer AND software/hardware consumer I think the following has more to do with the general apathy towards commercial software: 1. A lot of it is RUBBISH! EA is king of the rubbish pile. I WILL NOT purchase anymore EA gameware. I shelled out bux for SkyFox, and not only can I not load it onto my winnie it doesn't work with my expanded memory and 1.2!!! Their non-gameware stuff I just barely tolerate. I own both DeluxePaint and DeluxePaint II. I found DeluxePaint next to useless and DeluxePaint II is VERY prone to crashing on my system. As for DMCS, I've worked with the Amiga sound system, I know what it can do. DMCS doesn't even come close to making it work it's heart out. DMCS seems to be more of a MIDI tool than anything else. 2. Pricing is wild. I really love paying $120 for a paint program. Or $50 for a game. Makes me want to run out everyday and snap up these bargains . Don't get me wrong, I'm not impoverished, you should see my CD collection! I just will not buy something when I know I'm being shafted on the price. But I can and WILL pay top dollar for top dollar programs. I've shelled out over $100 to MetaComCo for their toolkit and shell and I don't regret it for a second. I've shelled out $400 for Dynamic CAD and gotten the worst pile of bugs next to EA-ware. My shelves are lined with commercial software, with the exception of the MetaComCo products I find myself using very little of it from day to day. Which depresses me when I think about it, I've got $$$ tied up in that bookcase pile of rubbish! 3. C-A. With good ol' "Crazy" Commodore as a reason what more reason could a company want for avoiding the Amiga market? C-A has failed to let all of us in on where they are going with this machine. One day they're headed one way, next month the SideCar is all but scrap and we have the A2000. Such instability at the top makes companies nervous and for damn good reasons! 4. Lack of distribution. Due to C-A's miss-handling of the Amiga there aren't that many dealers out there selling the machines. Being an Amiga dealer is a true nightmare thanks to Commodore. Without piles of dealers to buy from distributors the distributors can't keep their volumes up. In short the commercial sector has piles of troubles without anyone trying to peg it on PD/shareware. If anything it's been the PD/shareware that has kept the Amiga alive. Which C-A is now attempting to rectify with their new developer program :-). Yep, squash the people that keep the Amiga on top and hand it to the likes of EA, works for me. :) Scott Turner -- L5 Computing, the home of Merlin, Arthur, Excalibur and the CRAM. GEnie: JST | UUCP: stride!l5comp!scotty | 12311 Maplewood Ave; Edmonds WA 98020 If Motorola had wanted us to use BPTR's they'd have built in shifts on A regs [ BCPL? Just say *NO*! ] (I don't smoke, send flames to /dev/null)