Thu Apr 11 05:15:46 2002

I mean, is it not an interesting enough story?  The collapse of a multi-billion dollar company that owned computer technology years ahead of its time?  

The only problem is, I could write the story but probably never get it published because I have no credentials and am not an industry "name".

But on the other hand, Bob "X" Cringely lied about his background, so...

I'd love to delve deep into the personalities of the strange people who invented and mismanaged the Amiga.  I could give it a catchy title like: "Amiga: The story of the greatest computer that ever was, and the company determined to kill it" or some crap like that.

So, what do you think, sirs?

PS I am up to page 48 and Chapter 5 of my novel.  w00t!

Thu Apr 11 05:34:03 2002

as for industry names, don't sell yourself short.  You seem to be rather infamous in Mac versus PC circles. :)

Pimp yourself, pimp your site, and tell the world about the Mighty AYB!

Thu Apr 11 05:37:33 2002

you shouldn't leave 9600man out of it, he feels neglected.

Thu Apr 11 09:29:36 2002

It was a fucking good computer for it's time.

It was killed by some idiotic assholes.

Some people try to keep it going.

End of story.

Thu Apr 11 13:27:45 2002

:EVILKING:

Thu Apr 11 13:31:29 2002

Thu Apr 11 15:15:27 2002

I thought it was teh funney.

:EVILKING:

Thu Apr 11 17:33:28 2002

How about:

AMIGA:  How the owners of the greatest personal computer in history snatched defeat from the jaws of victory

I'll need a copy of the Deathbed Vigil video.  I wonder where I can get one?

Thu Apr 11 17:33:55 2002

It's trite.  It's been used far too often and in many different situations, so I don't think it would make an eye-grabbing line when it's sitting on a bookstore's shelves.  Sorry, that's just what it "says" to me.  And after all, we want Jeremy to sell books here. ;)

Now, if JR were to instead use something like the old Amiga-employee maxim: "We made it, they f*cked it up" -- I think that would be a better attention-getting device.

As would a pic of Ali & Gould with a big crosshair over their heads. ;)

But seriously, I'd like to offer any background/info that I can, JR.  I have all my old issues of Info magazine (the BEST Amiga mag) stored in a friend's basement, and they're probably a good source of information.  And I have my own memories and knowledge to fall back on.

Thu Apr 11 17:37:16 2002

from Jeremy Reimer posted at 1:33 pm on April 11, 2002I'll need a copy of the Deathbed Vigil video.  I wonder where I can get one?

/me raises hand

I already told you I have it and will VCD it for you.  :biggrin:

Mailing address would be nice.  Depeding on the final file size, I may be able to make it available for one-time downloading from work's FTP server.

One more thing: I was recently in contact with a friend and former co-worker who used to work at Commodore.  I could ask him if he'd like to offer his two cents, if you're interested.

Thu Apr 11 17:38:14 2002

"We made it, they f*cked it up"

That's eye-catching, but no publisher on the face of the planet would print a book with profanity, even starred out, in the title.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Thu Apr 11 17:42:55 2002

Though I thought I recall seeing stuff like *&^%$ before.  Maybe it was just on magazines.

One of the quotes I recall from the DV tape, a former employee commenting on Medhi Ali: "I'd like to cane the brown fucker."

Words to live by.

Thu Apr 11 19:40:17 2002

former employee commenting on Medhi Ali: "I'd like to cane the brown fucker."

Thu Apr 11 19:41:22 2002

All the cool swearing and stuff is great within the text itself, though.

Thu Apr 11 22:23:56 2002

I've come up with a tentative list of chapter titles, please see if I've left anything out:

Amiga chapter titles:

Introduction:  The Deathbed Vigil?

The Dream  (the founding of the amiga)

The Dreamers (Jay Miner, RJ Mical, etc)

The Computer (The Lorraine, and what it did)

Commodore (The company, in all its g(l)ory)

The Demo Groups (how the Demoscene led to great games)

The Gamers (the greatest games of their time)

The Toaster (the story of NewTek)

The Death of the Dream  (Commodore folds)

The Dreamers Move On (Atari Lynx, 3DO, etc)

Life After Death  (Endless resurrection rumors)

Epilogue: The Curse of Great Technology

What do you think, sirs?

Thu Apr 11 23:03:43 2002

What do you think, sirs?

i like it.  

Fri Apr 12 05:06:20 2002

Fri Apr 12 15:15:13 2002

from Jeremy Reimer posted at 3:41 pm on April 11, 2002

Yeah, the "we built it, they fucked it up" made it into an About box on one of the AmigaOS releases, didn't it?

FWIR, it's an easter egg that you get by holding down a 4-key combination plus a function key.  I recall looking at all of 'em back in the AmigaDOS 1.2/1.3 days on the A1000 -- I don't recall if they made it to v2.0, but I don't think they survived cuz C= was doing all the work by then.

What do you think, sirs?

If I could think of a relevant MST line that would answer that, I would include it.

But I don't have one handy.

However, those chapter titles are tasty indeed, and I would buy such a book of it ever hit shelves (or webpages).

Fri Apr 12 15:24:11 2002

Seriously, and not sucking up. The content doesn't matter one iota to me so long as it retains his wordplay and humor. But yet, here the content is interesting, so that's a plus.

:sagrin:

Fri Apr 12 17:07:22 2002

Methinks he's had access to many test subjects over the past few years. ;)

Fri Apr 12 23:07:49 2002

Fri Apr 12 23:27:31 2002

from Jeremy Reimer posted at 7:07 pm on April 12, 2002

Does anyone know how I can get a copy of the Deathbed Vigil video, besides shelling out $59 US + shipping for Amiga Forever 5.0?

*sigh*

Must I repeat myself?!

:tongue:

Sat Apr 13 01:59:38 2002

/me raises hand

I already told you I have it and will VCD it for you.  

Mailing address would be nice.  Depeding on the final file size, I may be able to make it available for one-time downloading from work's FTP server.

I'll email you my address, and the ftp server thing would be AWESOME.

One more thing: I was recently in contact with a friend and former co-worker who used to work at Commodore.  I could ask him if he'd like to offer his two cents, if you're interested.

COOL!  Very much so.

Sun Apr 14 11:15:34 2002

Must include Shadow of the Beast, the apex (and nadir, inexplicably) of the Amgia vs the PC.  Plus how completely crazed with jealousy  the Amiga games community became over Doom.

Book cover has to be the Lorraine prototype. There's something so wonderfully cathedrelish about those breadboard fans.

Sun Apr 14 17:08:00 2002

Mon Apr 15 05:31:12 2002

Commodore just didn't update it properly.

I have to get Shadow of the Beast working on WinUAE so I can figure out what was so great about that game...

Mon Apr 15 06:56:05 2002

I can walk around for about one minute and then it crashes with a Guru Mediation error :rolleyes:

I suppose it's neat.  It's no DOOM though.

Mon Apr 15 13:25:09 2002

Keep in mind that these games were released in the late 1980s -- Doom wasn't released until 1994, right?  (Maybe 93?)  On Doom, though, I have to give 'props' to id because a game like that was basically written using "brute force" graphics: plain ol' VGA, no special gfx chips to help things along.

I had already built a 486-33sx by that point and C= was already on its way out.  Doom was what really made my upgrade to a 486-66, thus starting the vicious cycle of upgrade-so-I-can-run-the-latest-games that we all enjoy so much, and has become SOP. ;)