Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

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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 AMIGAAmiga their work c for the m age ell the tough compe tition
id "T - tTle a tts rid )h d on lairt out s e Ors have had to tolerate Windows 3.1 for so long." Vulcan Software's Lisa Tunnah agrees: "The PC has a habit of doing really scary things when you least Med it, whereas the Amiga sits there dsolaying a very friendly looking workbench environment. Running software on the Amiga is so easy, whereas you reed a degree in computer sc taile just to install Windows i OnyOur average PC." - The Amiga has many other positive factors and having a good tudget market certainly helps matters. As well 'as those available for around E10. the full price titles are also competitively priced With cartridges ind PC CD-ROM titles still rollat There 15 a worrying trend in the fimiga games market with fewer titles being IPIPd5P11 lidthRtt inLIP5NatE5 whether anything ha5 (hanged now 15T11177 haue unuelled their fi1d175 at some of the bad-quality games being released that are giving the machine a bad name. Jolly believes: "I think Amiga owners are fed up with paying out for poor quality software and are only willing to buy quality. For instance, Skidmarks 2 sold twice the number of the top console games in its first month." costing around the E40 mark, However, distribution always plays a crucial part and if the retailers aren't convinced. then the software companies' hard work will go down the drain. Vulcan Software have found a way around this by distributing their games themselves through mail order. "We have decided to distribute our own products for several reasons. One is the declining and with full priced Amiga titles averaging around Dyson; "Any compa ny developing for the Amiga confidence in Amiga products at wholesale and • but isn't doing CO3 2 stuff is retail level. Vulcan . vide value for money on out of its mind" couldn't change this sad 1Pat score. A triple A title on the Amiga fact so we simply adapted." 2can still sell in abundance, and some Neil Boote, Head of Non. 5developers are ready to point the finger MusicProduct at Virgin , Our Price. defended the t retailers by saying: h "Virgin Retail is commit- e ted to all games formats A and as such, we stock m Amiga products in the i Megastores. Amiga was a very g strong format three years ago and a recently had a very successful w Christmas in 1994. Demand has cumin i ished since then, and as such we l are keeping a close eye on the l Amiga market and any develop- s ments that might affect it. We are tMary Eme tions, de ve lope rs of Spa rk ilegacy, be lie ve tha t Amiga owne rs a re aware that the Amiga still has over 1.5 million machines in lIN up of buying poor-qua lity softwa re l p r UK households, and any deci- OCTOBER 1995 FEATURE sion we make will take this into consideration." Simon Reynolds for Special Reserve is rather more pessimistic: 'The demand for Amiga products is dwindling down to the fact that there has been no new hardware sales for a year, and after a year out of the market, and with the Saturn and Playstation looming, Escom are going to have to do something really special to succeed." This time factor is also seen as a major problem that Escom will have to overcome. A year out of the market is a long time and in its absence the PC has taken the major foothold in the home computer market. Simon Jeffery. Vice President of Marketing at Virgin Interactive states: "Those who require a future-proof computer for education and a bit of gaming will be driven towards a DOS-based PC. Intel and Microsoft have increased the profile of the PC to the nonhobbyist consumer to the extent that people equate the term computing with the names of those two companies. This delimits the Amiga to the hobbyist and design sectors, plus niche areas like video. So pricing Afte r a me e ting with Escom, has to be extremely Virgin I nte ra ctive will aggressive." continue to de ve lop The Amiga is also Ion the Amiga limited by being mainly a European platform - the Superconsoles will be international: "Their problem will be that the other platforms are truly international whereas the Amiga will be very much a British/European platform," said Michael Crook of Guildhall. Jeffery believes, too, that the Amiga will never be seen as a serious business machine: "DOS and Windowsbased applications rule this area. Sixty million PCs will be sold Will othe r pla tform. prove too much compe tition for the Amiga ? this year - and kr , 65
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