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Forums - Gaming - The big System X *versus* System Y internet debates, 22 - 23 years ago...

Soleron said:
The Amiga was more like a 'computer' than a 'console'. It was competing with the IBM PC... and lost. No computer since the PC has quite as successful - we still use MS-DOS/Windows derived systems, x86 CPUs and for some reason PS/2 ports.

 

back at the time home computers were still a small market compared to the business computer market. Since comodore & atari both failed entering the business segement they had no real chances. also comodore died cause of their pc segement, and the companies buying up the amiga rights never really did release anything.

From system design point amiga was the far superior hardware design when compared to the pc back at that time, even the os had a relatively modern microkernel architecture which allowed preemptive multitasking on a computer with a 7mhz cpu and 512 mb ram,  the system architecture was very open so also allowed easy additions of new upgrades.

The open system architecture allowed Amigas to be among the first computers with cd rom /cd writer addons,  video cards for realtime video editing....

Personally if i look back on all computers and game systems that i ever owned i still think the amiga was the one that i liked most. and i was in the middle of these platform wars, a good friend had an atari st, at school we had pcs (mostly dos, but at end early windows versions, i was allready finished with school before windows 95 entered market).

I also learned programming in that time, being forced to programming with turbo pascal at school, but additionally learned assembler at home on my amiga. (with friends in the demo/cracker scene assembler was a must)



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MSDOS vs Amiga games:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cETl8PhUy_E

Notice: The PC games were usually released much later, often many years later and often required PC upgrades. The Amiga shown versions all run on the low spec entry model Amiga 500 home computers. PC games required a harddrive.

Lemmings Amiga version (February 1991, unlike other version supported two players using two mice):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7SgDS-16UFA

Lemmings PC version (July 1991):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PV1ivJcmtrw

Lemmings NES version (1992):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=g7ccvmKKldo



Naughty Dog: "At Naughty Dog, we're pretty sure we should be able to see leaps between games on the PS3 that are even bigger than they were on the PS2."

PS3 vs 360 sales

Mac fans take notice, an interesting quote with regard to the Amiga after Commodore went out of business.

Jean-Louis Gassée, head of Macintosh development (1981-1990):

"When the Amiga came out, everyone [at Apple] was scared as hell." (Amazing Computing, November 1996)."

Of course he couldn't say the truth before the danger had past.

Also note that through a simple software "emulator" and running MacOS, my Amiga was able to run Macintosh software faster than the fastest Apple Mac around that time could. This while multi-tasking back to AmigaOS (MacOS was still a single tasking operating system at the time).



Naughty Dog: "At Naughty Dog, we're pretty sure we should be able to see leaps between games on the PS3 that are even bigger than they were on the PS2."

PS3 vs 360 sales

@ RolStoppable

Because it should remind you of what is happening today, but apparently you didn't understand what he was getting at. Some PS3 and 360 fans are debating the specs of their systems over and over again while it's an absolutely meaningless fight, because another system (Wii) is winning the market.


Currently it's selling much faster, but that by itself is not really unexpected everything considered. The PS2 also sold over 28 million units for Sony's FY2006 and FY2007 (ended March 2008). Although the Wii's performance is amazing for virtually anyone's standards, some of it has to do with pricing and the market situation of today (transition period of SDTV to HDTV, new movie format, new services, etc). However the market demands will change over time and likewise what will be provided in terms of quality software and services. And that's why the specs discussion is still very relevant today, despite the Wii doing so great right now. IMO a new Wii owner isn't per se a lost future PS3 user.

I just thought looking back at the past may help to widen people's perspectives a bit. Most may not have been around at the time as a gamer.



Naughty Dog: "At Naughty Dog, we're pretty sure we should be able to see leaps between games on the PS3 that are even bigger than they were on the PS2."

PS3 vs 360 sales

darklich13 said:

IMO the system wars were more fun back then. The difference in graphics and sound was much more pronounced than it is today.

Agreed.

This thread also reminded me of the C64, Spectrum and CPC system wars back in the 8-bit home computer era. That was fun.



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Both the ST and Amiga were "fringe gaming platforms" compared to the NES (and Genesis/SNES which both arrived and replaced the Amiga/ST).

Arguing otherwise is comparable to the MS exec's saying "360 is the leading HD platform".

If that's what you want to argue, fine.



Teoulas said:
darklich13 said:

IMO the system wars were more fun back then. The difference in graphics and sound was much more pronounced than it is today.

Agreed.

This thread also reminded me of the C64, Spectrum and CPC system wars back in the 8-bit home computer era. That was fun.

 

Initially the differences between Amiga and Atari ST games weren't that great:

New Zealand Story (1989 Amiga version, using the Atari ST's limited pallette and 16 color selection)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1rEJCa_Ztz4

IK+ (Atari ST)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wXMQvuqtsts (mostly the music just sucks)

IK+ (Amiga)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4Xkx4cIm7Ps

Xenon (1988 Atari ST, identical to the Amiga version, Xenon 2 later in 1989 introduced much superior audio on the Amiga)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WbZNdwSFtf8

Xenon (Amiga version, identical)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5TBt9CQd6tg

 



Naughty Dog: "At Naughty Dog, we're pretty sure we should be able to see leaps between games on the PS3 that are even bigger than they were on the PS2."

PS3 vs 360 sales

montrealsoon said:
Both the ST and Amiga were "fringe gaming platforms" compared to the NES (and Genesis/SNES which both arrived and replaced the Amiga/ST).

Arguing otherwise is comparable to the MS exec's saying "360 is the leading HD platform".

If that's what you want to argue, fine.

In terms of game quality overall the Amiga 500 (1987 lowest end model) could keep up well with the introduction of the Snes (April 1992) and Megadrive (November 1990) game consoles in Europe. From a gamers perspective this of course matters the most.

Desert Strike (Amiga 500 version, better than Snes and MegaDrive versions)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7POlttlLfT4

Desert Strike (Snes version)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_seq2VLWEvg

Lemmings (Snes version)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=glZLreUYiUc



Naughty Dog: "At Naughty Dog, we're pretty sure we should be able to see leaps between games on the PS3 that are even bigger than they were on the PS2."

PS3 vs 360 sales

Sign post ( i'm interested but busy now )



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Battle Squadron (released 1989, low end A500 from 1987 or Amiga 1000 from 1985)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q4LnzE8Ea3g

Battle Squadron (MegaDrive version from 1990, music sucks though):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LyFGvAVfXA8



Naughty Dog: "At Naughty Dog, we're pretty sure we should be able to see leaps between games on the PS3 that are even bigger than they were on the PS2."

PS3 vs 360 sales