Portal:Amiga

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Amiga Portal

The 1987 Amiga 500 was the best-selling model.

pre-emptive multitasking operating system called AmigaOS
.

The

Amiga 500 Plus, and Amiga 600 in March 1992. Finally, the Amiga 1200 and Amiga 4000
were released in late 1992. The Amiga line sold an estimated 4.85 million units.

Although early advertisements cast the computer as an all-purpose business machine, especially when outfitted with the Sidecar IBM PC compatibility add-on, the Amiga was most commercially successful as a home computer, with a wide range of games and creative software. It also found a niche in video production with the Video Toaster hardware and software, and Amiga's audio hardware made it a popular platform for music tracker software. The processor and memory capacity enabled 3D rendering packages, including LightWave 3D, Imagine, and Traces, a predecessor to Blender.

Poor marketing and the failure of later models to repeat the technological advances of the first systems resulted in Commodore quickly losing market share to the rapidly dropping prices of IBM PC compatibles, which gained 256 color graphics in 1987, as well as the fourth generation of video game consoles.

Commodore ultimately went bankrupt in April 1994 after a version of the Amiga packaged as a game console, the Amiga CD32, failed in the marketplace. Since the demise of Commodore, various groups have marketed successors to the original Amiga line, including Genesi, Eyetech, ACube Systems Srl and A-EON Technology. AmigaOS has influenced replacements, clones, and compatible systems such as MorphOS and AROS. Currently Belgian company Hyperion Entertainment maintains and develops AmigaOS 4, which is an official and direct descendant of AmigaOS 3.1 – the last system made by Commodore for the original Amiga Computers. (Full article...)

Selected article

demo scene group LSD. The first eight issues each came on a single floppy disk
, but as the magazine became more popular and more articles were submitted by its readers, it required two to three disks per issue after that point. The editor of Grapevine was known as Parasite, later PaZZa/LSD. The magazine was originally coded by Monty Python, and then re-coded with a mouse driven interface later in the series by Shagratt.

Grapevine existed at a time when Internet use was not widespread in its native UK or abroad, and hence editions of the magazine were hotly traded amongst the demo scene. LSD sent out hundreds of floppy disk copies on each release, and most PD libraries at the time were keen to include the latest issues as soon as they were released. As a result of this, 17Bit PD library cut a deal with PaZZa to ensure distribution at a fair price, they were "paid" a box of 50 floppy disks per issue for this, which were used by LSD for file distribution (the days before modems for many people). (Full article...)

Selected biography

David Whittaker (born 24 April 1957 in Bury, England) is known for numerous video game music which he wrote in most of the 1980s and early 1990s, for many different formats.

He is known for the large quantity of his works. The first games that featured his music were also designed and programmed by him, such as Lazy Jones.While making music, he often programmed music directly, instead of using any music composition tools, using just a "machine code monitor"—and then an 'assembler' system/program—including SuperSoft's and then Commodore's tools. Commodore 64 was the format that he composed for most frequently. He was more impressed with the Amiga's more developed technical sound capabilities, but used a few of the same instrument sounds, in several of his works, for Amiga. Thus, his Amiga music is often easy to recognise. (Full article...)

Categories

Category puzzle
Category puzzle
Select [►] to view subcategories

Selected picture

Commodore Amiga 1000
Commodore Amiga 1000
Credit: Kaiiv
Commodore Amiga 1000 personal computer with 1081 RGB monitor.

Did you know...

... that the Amiga became one of the first widespread 3D development platforms?
Other "Did you know" facts... Read more...

Related portals

Topics

Pen & Earth
Pen & Earth


WikiProjects

WikiProjects
WikiProjects


Things to do

  • Create articles: There are many articles that have yet to be started... Pick your favorite and start researching!
  • Find photos for articles: Many Amiga–related articles would be substantially better with the addition of photographs.
  • Expand articles: There are many Amiga stubs which could use extensive updates and development.
  • Find sources: Many poorly sourced articles could use better citations.
  • Wikify: Add {{Portal|Amiga}} to the See also sections of Amiga-related articles.

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Discover Wikipedia using portals