Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

FEATURE
poi a t games so long market ago, was the Amiga awash
0 with high-quality, innovative
titles that sold in abundance. But after
the collapse of Commodore. software
companies unsurprisingly became very
cautious when it came to releasing
Amiga games. Some, after years of
supporting the machine, were only too
ready to abandon it and desert to the
PC camp, others took a toe-dipping
policy, releasing a couple of titles or
even worse - second-rate PC portovers
while many titles were 'put on
hold.' .
But now, the latest news from Escom
is that the Amiga is going back into production
and an Al200 is promised for
September. But with a higher than
expected RRP announced at E399, a
lot of people are going to take a fair
amount of convincing that developing
for the Amiga is once again going to be
a viable option.
And, not only have Escom got their
work cut out for them in this respect,
but the vicious circle of developers not
making the games until retailers stock
them, and retailers not making shelf
space available until they see widespread
commitment, must be broken
GENERAL CONSENSUS
64
Amiga Computing talked to key
industry sources to get the general
opinion about the future ot the Amiga
games market and what they'd like to
see from Amiga Technologies.
The Amiga has always been the
cheap, yet quality horns computer that
not only could you buy the latest
games for, but you could also create
music on, compile a database and
write a letter The PC has always been
priced over three times as much as the
Amiga. The consoles, while available
for the same price, were merely toys
that could do no more than play
games. But after a year off the market
has it still got what it takes?
As it stands, the Amiga still has
IP(11 5PRE
There has been a lot of speculation about what the new Amigas
will be like and the price at which they will retail. Incidentally,
the interviews were conducted before Escom announced the
price of the new Al200, and at Eng, it's a lot more than everyone
was hoping for.
Marcus Dyson, Team 17: "Al200 with an 030. 4Mb RAM (2
fast, 2chip) and a 120Mb hard drive for E299. This may sound a
little unrealistic, but PC's are now so well specified and so
cheap that Amiga has to really offer good value for money."
Andy Jolly, Binary Emotions: "The Al200 has to be around
the t200 price range."
Michael Crook, Guildhall: lt the Al200 can re-enter the market
at E349.99 or less they will immediately grab a healthy
chunk of consumer spend this Christmas."
Simon Reynolds, Inter-mediates: I would like to see a
cheap (sub-E200) Al200 in the marketplace, to kickstart interest
in the Amiga."
Amiga Computing
OCTOBER 1995
many strengths which the supportive
software developers are only too keen
to point out. A strong and loyal user
base already exists and Escom need to
cultivate this. As Chris Warrender from
Grandslam points out: "Escom must listen
to the users, both past and present,
and give them what they want in relation
to the machine rather than telling
them what they need. They have a
ready-made installed base to start from
- they should not ignore these users,
but should foster the relationship
between user and developer and this
base will, undoubtedly increase.
- Amiga users have proved themselves
extremely loyal, especially with
a generation who have grown up
the machine. Marcus Dyson, he
Multimedia at Team 17 states:
great thing about the Amiga was
taught a whole generation of ga
players the bun of graphics, music
ing arid coding." Dyson also poi
the Amiga being a user-fri
machine that is easy. even to
novice to use.
'The Amiga comes out of a bo
is ready to run in seconds. No tire
and troublesome sound cards, gr
accelerators, I/O cards and mous
vers to install, And Workbench 3
superior to Windows '95, which is
being steeped in praise becaus
Technologies
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their work c
for the m age
ell the tough
compe tition