Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uupsi!grebyn!ckp
From: ckp@grebyn.com (Checkpoint Technologies)
Subject: Re: Lemmings - a tutorial Part IV
Message-ID: <1991Mar29.230632.7066@grebyn.com>
Organization: Grebyn Timesharing
References: <MWM.91Mar27123712@revelwood.pa.dec.com> <mykes.0440@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG> <MWM.91Mar29122810@revelwood.pa.dec.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 1991 23:06:32 GMT

In article <MWM.91Mar29122810@revelwood.pa.dec.com> mwm@pa.dec.com (Mike (My Watch Has Windows) Meyer) writes:
>In article <mykes.0440@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG> mykes@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG (Mike Schwartz) writes:
>   >The point I am trying to make is that game machines are game machines
>   >and workstations are workstations. The Genesis and Nintendo are game
>   >machines. Shutting them down to run a game is acceptable; that's all
>   >they do. The Amiga is a workstation. Shutting it down means saving the
>   >state of and haltingany running servers, ditto for any ongoing
>   >computations, disabling UUCP dialins, and the like. Shutting it down
>   >to play a game isn't acceptable.
>   >
>
>   The Amiga 500 is not a workstation.  It is a game machine just like the
>   Nintendo or the Genesis.  90% of people who have Amiga 500's just stick
>   floppies in and reboot.
>
>Sorry, the Amiga 500 is as much a workstation as the Amiga 2000. The
>only difference between the two is that extra 512K and the built-in
>expandability on the 2000. I know people who develop productivity
>software on A500s with two floppy drives. It's a workstation.

The Amiga 500 is a game machine.  This has nothing watever to do with
the machine's technical capabilties, or what some minority of users does
with it.  It is a game machine because of the mentality of the typical
user (remember that no one reading this message is a typical Amiga
user), because of Commodore's stillborn marketing efforts (at Christmas,
Commodore itself was comparing the A500 to the Nintendo), and only at
the last because of the original design goals.

I too saw the original Amiga 1000 as a poor man's workstation, only
the market did not pan out.  So now, while I'll grant the A2000 is a
video platform, the A500 is just a game console with a disk drive and a
keyboard.  And nothing more.
-- 
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                                                ckp@grebyn.com      \\ / /    
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