Ramble 63 - Is The Amiga Uncool!?

[@xeroniris]

When I was at school from around 1989 to 1993 or so, you had to have an Amiga to be one of the cool kids.

[@nickwallette6201]

Meredith Gray and Dr. Shepherd are characters on the TV soap opera, Gray's Anatomy. Unless you're really into the hospital drama genre, you can probably leave it at that. Ego struggles, love triangles, baggage ... you get the gist.

[@hardlyworgen71]

Rees, there was also a Jazz Jackrabbit version for Gameboy Advance.

[@monolalia]

That was such a strange article. We loved it, it was the coolest computer around, and it wasn’t in any way a consolation prize for those who could not afford a PC (have you *seen* the PC games of the 80s?)

[@dgmt1]

PCs came in a lot of different configurations and at the budget end were priced similarly to a C64 or 128 with a disk drive. Amigas actually tended to seen as a expensive gaming option for better-off families. For example using prices listed in both Byte and PC Magazine; in 1987 the amiga 500 was US$699 while a 8mhz turbo XT clone with EGA sold for around US$550. By 1989 a 16mhz 286 clone was only slightly more expensive than an A500. So it's more that budget PCs were a great option for families who couldn't afford so much on something that was almost purely for gaming.
As for PC gaming, in the first half of the 80s there was basically no home market for PCs so CGA games tended to be low quality. However during the EGA and VGA eras, the PC started to excel more and more for RPGs, simulations, adventure, strategy and 3D games due to generally having faster cpus, more memory and/or better storage. It definitely wasn't a fashionable platform for kids but it was well suited for catering to the growing adult (18-30+) gaming market. The amiga gets a ton of love in the retro community and honestly I would put the pre-Doom era PC gaming as the most under-appreciated as there were so many classics released during that period that basically established modern gaming genres.

[@monolalia]

@@dgmt1 The first PC clone that made any inroads into the home here was the Amstrad PC 1512 in 1986. It cost almost twice as much as the Amiga 500 that would come out the following year.
For that price it came with a b&w monitor (the PSU was inside the monitor; you couldn’t buy it without an Amstrad monitor), no soundcard (but a volume knob for the beeper, thank God), CGA graphics, 512K RAM, one 360K disk drive, and an oddly-shaped mouse. It had a 16-colour 640x200 mode but nothing much outside the included GEM desktop was using it. So what I saw was CGA. When you had games likes Starflight, Tracker, or Wizball… those really weren’t a joy to behold or listen to.
I’m guessing EGA and Tandy graphics were a more common sight in the US.
There was the improved PC 1640 but of course that was pricier still.
I agree there was (eventually) a wealth of excellent PC games like Ultima 6+ or (later) Ultima Underworld, etc., that *could’ve* been ported to high-end/upgraded Amiga models but most gamers stuck with the cheapest Amigas as floppy-based games consoles and then abandoned the platform for the Mega Drive and SNES and PC. Sad but what can ya do, eh? :(

[@datassetteuser356]

Love everything around NASA keeping Voyager in service. It's just amazing what they do. Also reminds me of the first Star Trek movie 😂

[@MarkTheMorose]

"V'ger is that which seeks The Creator."

[@paul_boddie]

Infogrames didn't immediately make you think of Alone in the Dark? Their involvement with SimCity is intriguing, and it seems they must have been commissioned to make ports to various systems or licensed the game to be able to sell the ports themselves. It certainly got everywhere: Superior Software even licensed the game from Infogrames to port it to the Acorn Electron. Superior also licensed Hostages, which was an original Infogrames title, porting that to Acorn's 8-bit and 32-bit systems.

[@ShishakliAus]

I think yall might have got successfully rage baited

[@Beerfloat]

The Amiga was a pretty cool system. But what wasn't quite as cool were Amiga owners, who couldn't.stop.fkng.talking.about.it.ever.
And they still do, really. When another Mr. 'I used to have an Amiga' shows up I know it's my cue to start slowly backing out of the room.

[@Choralone422]

I wouldn't call the Amiga uncool. But I would call the Amiga painfully overlooked and forgotten, especially here in the US.
Growing up back then I always thought the Amiga, it's flexibility and wealth of add-ons was very cool. However, I only knew one person that owned one. That's the complete opposite of all kids and adults that I knew back then that owned a C64/C128, NES, Game Boy, SNES or other similar games console and even IBM compatible PCs. Not to mention Apple had a stranglehold on the public schools market here in the Midwest with the Apple II, IIgs and Macs well until the early 90s.

[@Jon867]

The Amiga was the height of playground cool in the late 80s. Anyone remember the Batman Pack, which sold like hot cakes at Xmas 1989? I would admit the Amiga fell out of fashion as the Megadrive and SNES started dominating the market and the potential of PC VGA games became obvious with the likes of Wing Commander and X-Wing. So in summary I'd say the Amiga was cool from roughly 1985 to 1991 but falling out of favour by 92. The AGA machines were nowhere near enough of an upgrade to generate any renewed excitement around the platform, and it was clearly dying in 93/94.

[@freddyvretrozone2849]

I see a PicoMEM on the table

[@thepirategamerboy12]

Wow, an unexpected different view.

[@jst6502]

Much better view! We get to see all your fun things. Great stickers too.

[@HappyCodingZX]

I really got a lot out of my Amiga during my student days - as well as playing games I enjoyed making music, doing graphics, coding games and even actual essays. For me that was cool - it was a cool computer, but in the eyes of most gamers it really wasn't. Sonic was cool, Castlevania 4 and Contra 3 were cool, and Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter 2 were very cool. Not much later, Doom was cool. Console owners laughed at the Amiga's attempts at doing games like that (they still do), and whilst Lemmings and Worms were good family fun, they also weren't cool. Speedball 2, Sensible Soccer and Lotus were really the exceptions rather than the rule I'm afraid. Don't shoot me, it's just how i remember it at the time.

[@thepirategamerboy12]

It does really bother me how some people just look at some poor platformers and assume that all retro European developed games from before like the PS1 era suck and bad European platformers is all the Amiga ever had.
Not all European platformers are bad at all imo, and the Amiga had far more to offer than just that from both Europe and America. I really don't see how anyone could say anything bad about games like Lemmings for example, it's just a fantastic game imo.

[@HappyCodingZX]

@@thepirategamerboy12 there's a difference between 'cool' and 'good'. My point was that the Amiga was never very fashionable - I enjoyed Lemmings and Worms but they weren't 'cool'.
I have to say though, speaking as someone who had both an Amiga 500 and then a 1200 and experienced a lot of the library before getting to know consoles better, the 16-bit consoles have a far better selection of truly brilliant games that still stand up today - and it's hardly surprising given that is the one and only thing they were built for. I mean, Zool and SuperFrog aren't bad, some might say they are half decent, but Super Mario World is one of the greatest games of all time. There's no competition in my book.

[@joysticksnjukeboxes]

For anyone who's curious, there's a recent documentary about the NASA staff who operate the Voyager probes called "It's Quieter in the Twilight."

[@JenniferinIllinois]

No, the Amiga is not uncool. 😁

[@Robeight]

The Guardian is not a newspaper.

[@sidsuspicious]

So what is it then, do tell?

[@Robeight]

@@sidsuspicious toilet paper

[@danielktdoranie]

No.

[@paulahaunt]

Hell no, the Amiga is cool as fuck.