General / Off-Topic Amiga stuff

TiberiusDuval

T
Old Amigist here, got some new stuff for my old Amiga 500, RGB-SCART cable so I could throw away that awfull TV-modulator. And GOTEK USB-floppy emulator replacing internal floppy drive. Now I got on loan external floppy drive, so I can now store all my old files on USB-stick, and from there to PC's harddrive. Well at yesterday I was doing some preparation work for that file transferr, when I suddenly realised I was using that old machine like modern computer. Running virus scan on external drive, formattin disk-image on usb-drive, and reading documentation of some old software. All at same time. Yeah that is nothing special when done with modern computer, but try to do such in nearly any other 1980's era home computer and it is just not possible. Probably you could with some rare machines like Acorn Archimedes, but on Mac, Atari, PC, just forget about it. Then I got idea of testing some tricks. Got a pic from my ED screenshot folder. Cut it so that I got 4:3 pic. Scaled down resolution, and run it through jpeg->HAM6 ILBM converter. Saved that to diskimage. And yes it opened up in old Amiga in its 4096 colour glory :D
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
Well, the company is kaput and the line of machines is no longer being produced. The OS that had real multitasking before it was even a dream in Windows is not in use anymore (with the possible exception of some slot machines or airport schedule boards). I don't call that a win.
 

TiberiusDuval

T
metatheurgist said:
Well, the company is kaput and the line of machines is no longer being produced. The OS that had real multitasking before it was even a dream in Windows is not in use anymore (with the possible exception of some slot machines or airport schedule boards). I don't call that a win.
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It was kind of miracle after all that Commodore mismanagement that it lasted even as long as it did. Most sad part of story was how it all went to drain by Commodores successors.
 

TiberiusDuval

T
Funny part was when I saw this about Mehdi Ali
In 2013, Mehdi Ali and his son run Stone Ridge Partners, which is a private equity firm that buys struggling companies. He also sits on the “advisory board of “American Industrial” which is another private equity firm. These types of firms are nearly always focused on short term gain with a 6 month to two year time horizon. Oddly, Mehdi took ‘credit’ for his time at Commodore on his site:


Mehdi has been a principal of the firm since its inception in 1996. Mehdi’s background includes more than twenty years of operating experience. His prior experience includes serving as the President of Commodore International, where he accomplished a major operational turnaround.
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Well one can certainly say that :D Major operational turnaround, LOL
 
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starman

starman
metatheurgist said:
Well, the company is kaput and the line of machines is no longer being produced. The OS that had real multitasking before it was even a dream in Windows is not in use anymore (with the possible exception of some slot machines or airport schedule boards). I don't call that a win.
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I sold a bunch of highly collectable commodore 64 games to a guy in Australia.
 

TiberiusDuval

T
starman said:
The op was about adding a 'modern' storage solution to an amiga computer so this post are off topic.
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In fact I had in mind more general Amiga discussion. And well last CEO of Commodore is kind of relevant in that regard.

But when it comes to modern storage solution, I can warmly recommend that gotek drive, especially one sold amigastore.eu. They made 3d printed parts to drive so that it will fit inside Amiga 500 case, no need to permanently mutilate case (just remove floppy drive, and attach new usb-drive..).
 
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Manticore

Manticore
metatheurgist said:
Great machines. Proof that being good is no measure of success.
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metatheurgist said:
Well, the company is kaput and the line of machines is no longer being produced. The OS that had real multitasking before it was even a dream in Windows is not in use anymore (with the possible exception of some slot machines or airport schedule boards). I don't call that a win.
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Damn straight.

They were great machines. I now regret junking mine two decades ago.
 

Juniper

Juniper
metatheurgist said:
Well, the company is kaput and the line of machines is no longer being produced. The OS that had real multitasking before it was even a dream in Windows is not in use anymore (with the possible exception of some slot machines or airport schedule boards). I don't call that a win.
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Maybe not as Commodore, but the many of the ideas that were pioneered back in the Amiga/C64 days - such as custom specialised chips taking load off the CPU to perform tasks, the PC is only in the last few years starting to catch onto & is a chief reason why PCs are now so powerful for games especially.

Or a fully pre-emptive multitasking operating system, which didn't appear on the PC until Windows 95 - a full 10 years later.

In terms of innovation, the Commodore design team's ideas still win.

Commodore would have carried on had it not been for terrible mismanagement at board level. I'd love to be locked in a room for just 5 minutes with Mehdi Ali. I'd show him a major operational turnaround... 😈
 
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Leper Messiah

Leper Messiah
Ah the Amiga....I loved mine, it was a miracle because I was a speccyhead so anything "commadore" was the spawn of satan. ;) originally I had an Atari ST, also good but very quickly it was apparant the Amiga was superior and next crimbo I had one. I especially loved the Cinemaware games....although I could never take off in Rocket Ranger :(
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
Juniper said:
Maybe not as Commodore, but the many of the ideas that were pioneered back in the Amiga/C64 days - such as custom specialised chips taking load off the CPU to perform tasks, the PC is only in the last few years starting to catch onto & is a chief reason why PCs are now so powerful for games especially.
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Was funny how the amiga was ridiculed as a "games" machine. Now if you can't play games it's not worth mentioning, how times change.
 

TiberiusDuval

T
Well, 90's were bad time for non-PC-compatible computer manufacturers, even nowadays mighty Apple was near of going down. So maybe Commodore would have gone to bankcruptcy regardless of who would have been running the company. But decisions made by mr Ali certainly did not help. Like eliminating R&D in company working on fastly advancing field. That really is prime example of completely moronic decision.And when they finally got new models on market it was too little too late.
 
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