Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

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onto Amiga," Thurston explained. "Which
says an awful lot for AmigaDOS as an
operating system."
"What that means for us: he continued,
"is that cross compatibility between
scripts will be easier, and it's highly likely
that our next generation of Amiga products
would be based around MMOS,"
Which, he went on to point Out, will fit in
very nicely with RISC Amigas that can
emulate MS DOS.
The question remains, however, of
what will give the Amiga an edge over
PCs already running the system, but
Thurston is Confident. "It will be superior
because it'll run AmigaDOS as well, and
from that there will be a whole new
range of products that are smoother,
faster and more fulfilling."
It appears, then, that creative tools
are still the key to Scala's vision. Now
they're involved in the PC market,
however, you'd think they might move
If Scala can take almost sole credit for
inventing the multimedia software environment
on the Amiga, Don Gilbreath has an
equal claim on pushing the hardware in a
similar direction. Now Chief Executive of
the American-based Viscorp, the inventor
of the CDTV and CD32 is back with high
hopes.
Following a deal struck shortly before the
Frankfurt press conference, it is Viscorp
that stand to benefit first from Escom's lib-
eral approach to licensing by incorporating
Amiga technology into a new set top box,
Interactive TV in the US is at a far more
advanced stage of development than in
Europe. Like his numerous rivals. Gilbreath
is hoping to bring video on demand, home
shopping and interactive entertainment into
the family living room all under the control
of a TV top unit. Unlike his competitors,
however, he thinks he can do it at an
affordable once — thanks to the Amiga.
Gilbreath explained that using Amiga
Elegant inte rfa ce s a re the ke y to informa tion a cce ss
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cala's record of success has put
he Amiga home computer at the.
. art of some of the world's biggest
rportions:
Ford, Esso, Trust House Forte, S
International Hotels and Co-op
Supermarkets.
aMinim.
In on the supposedly booming interactive
CD scene as well. Thurston,
however, is nonplussed by most PC
CD-ROM
'Somebody hit upon the idea of sticking
a CD-ROM drive in the PC and
including a sound card, and they said
that was multimedia: he said. 'Now, if
ever there was a killer application that
was it, because it's made an awful lot of
Ba rry Thurston, M D of Sca la U K,
outlines his vision for the future
technology would cut down costs thanks to
the way it used and encouraged writers to
use memory economically. "What happened
was that a lot of the entertainment
writers didn't have the luxury of 16Mb main
memory like you got with a PC,
In - ha way e it sforced a i d them . to write efficiently
and it forced applications to be efficient."
He continued: 'That helps us because
memory is the highest component cost in
any set top box. You look at some of the
set top offerings in this country: There
were requests for bids for machines to be
made at a certain price, but people were
coming up with units that needed a crazy
amount of memory — ten times what the
Amiga would need! Which, of course, just
killed the whole thing."
In general, it seems the whole issue of
price could be the decisive factor in terms
of who wins the race to bnng multimedia to
the masses. Outside the set top box field.
Apple Mac's Pippin is just another example
of an impressive spec machine that's
been indefinitely delayed because they
can't deliver the goods at an affordable
level for home use.
The lesson is clear to Gilbreath. 'To be
successful the initial cost is the key. We
companies an awful amount of money.
"But in truth it isn't multimedia,"
continued. "It just means you've gol
large storage device that you c
retrieve information from and you
play sound files but — oh, by the wa
while you want to access informat
your sound is going to stop becau
your PC can only do one thing at a ti
I think the general public on the PC
been cheated from true multime
because of what various manufactu
have done."
Thurston does concede that the
has certain advantages, the main
being the quality of games from which,
his view, the PC owner gets their
taste at true multimedia But it's still r
tively expensive. "The Amiga is still
best machine affordable on the mar
Thurston emphasised. "It's multime
for the masses, if you like. Hopetu
Amiga Technologies will be able
maintain that."
feel that with the Amiga we can rea
these target costs."
In Europe, the concept of the set
box is largely unheard of, so what codli
purchasers of Viscorps model expect!
According to Gilbreath, the TV-bas
technology will incorporate a you
phone, a fax, Internet access, plus an
in-one access point to a variety of di
ent network services with everything
trolled using icon-based menus via
remote control.
Clicking on one icon will allow the
to jump into a multimedia, potentia
graphical, vivid world. Since it's Ami
based, Gilbreath also forsees the pa
bility of incorporating CD and authori
synchronised CD-based games,
Up to this point, however, the pr
sounds like an extension on typical c
puter-based product's technology. In f
the project is rather more radical th
that. "We see a computer wodd which
well versed in interactivity.
- GilbrcTc
-
"Sca ta iota us promote re a dre o•use multi.
media solutions, Escort, now turns from a
PC ma nufa cture r a nd re ta ile r into a multi-
media compa ny.. we se e this a s a ke y to
succe ss." M a nfre d Schmitt a t the Fra nkfurt
Press confe re nce