The History Of The

Computer

A Brief History of the Amiga

For five years, however, Commodore left advertising to the users, caring next to nothing about bringing the Amiga to the attention of the computing masses and the corporate world. In all honesty, the corporate world would probably not have understood what the Amiga could offer: Sound? Graphics? Ah, yes, a game computer. <Bzzzzt!>

Despite this attitude, the Amiga made silent inroads into the video industry. Equipped with NewTek's Video Toaster to handle the special effects for TV studios, the Amiga established itself as a real multimedia powerhouse computer and made possible the low-cost and high-quality effects seen on television shows such as SeaQuest, Startrek, Babylon 5, etc.

By the early 1990s, however, Commodore's upper managment had still no more clue about the nature of the Amiga than does your average slime mold: Irving Gould, Mehdi Ali, and fiends [sic] canceled advanced hardware projects, stopped production of the best-selling Amiga 500 in favor of an inferior and more expensive design, and finally succeeded, by April 1994, to run Commodore Business Machines straight into the ground.

The Amiga Guide to the Galaxy refers to Commodore's management as "A bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first to be lined up against the wall and shot when the revolution comes."

A year later, the Amiga was bought by the German PC manufacturer ESCOM AG for a mere $10 million. ESCOM, was just entering a huge expansionist phase but when the entire computer industry suffered economic setbacks in early 1996, ESCOM quickly stumbled and crashed after financially overextending itself with massive store purchases and other expansions (contrary to popular belief, the purchase of the Amiga was a relatively minor contributor to the problem; ESCOM had much more serious debts.)

Almost a year later, in May 1997, the American computer manufacturer Gateway 2000 acquired all assets of Amiga Technologies and created Amiga International, Inc. This new company is currently (as of June 1997) focusing on reconnecting the many exciting resources and technologies that have continued to develop during the years of uncertainty.

If the Amiga will ever rise again to recover the technological edge that it once held against the other platforms is something to be read in the future. One thing for sure: With Gateway 2000 as a parent company, the industry has looked up, sometimes in confusion, but usually with respect for the Amiga. Perhaps this, above all other signs, says that the Amiga is far from dead, and is getting another lease on life.