I've just uploaded my first episode of my new podcast The 3 Amigas.
In this episode I am introducing myself and the podcast and also giving a very brief look at the computer that set me on a path to IT that I spent 18 years of my life working in.
The Amiga was the machine that truly changed the computing world but so very few people know about it. It is sad because it changed the movie and music industry, it changed the way we use computers, even more so than Apple.
Sadly, due to the world of inept CEOs, backstabbing, corporate espionage, and the death of its creator, the Amiga lives only on life support of those who truly love it.
Arstechnica wrote an amazing series on its history which takes you through its development right through to its inevitable demise. Sadly, unlike Apple, the Amiga never had a Steve Jobs. If they had, who knows what computing would look like today. I do know that Microsoft would be a bit player in the market though.
From a personal standpoint, the Amiga formed my childhood. Dad purchased the Amiga 2000 around 1986. It cost $4000NZD and it had a full colour monitor and a Star dot matrix colour printer.
The things I could do with that computer in 1986 were only pipe dreams in the PC world. The Amiga was so advanced that even Mac users mocked us and hated us. I guess they're feeling what we felt with the world mocking and hating Mac users. What goes around I guess.
At one point I had 16 applications - one of which was a Blender style app called Imagine running a 3D ray trace in the background - in 2MB of RAM (yes you read that right 2 Megabytes of RAM).
The Amiga was the system behind Babylon 5 and Star Trek Deep Space 9 and kicked off a true rethink of CGI in TV and movies.
The Amiga was also the revolution behind Virtuality gaming system that was the first true virtual reality system developed for the market. Subsequent versions used Intel based systems but that was because by 1993 the Amiga was facing a tumultuous time with the ruling powers at Commodore.
The Amiga is not entirely dead though. It's such a beloved system that a few fans have taken it upon themselves to build their own system boards that will run as an Amiga. One example can be found here at the Amiga 2000 EATX page. I'm excited by this but at the same time weary. I'd love to get my hands on something like this or even better, an old Amiga 4000 so that I can give it a complete run through and see how it compares to today's computing environment. Given that it's over 30 years old I'll say not well but it will still be interesting none-the-less, even just for nostalgia sakes.
