The date was Saturday 14th. of March, the place was St.Louis and the event was Amiga98.  Perhaps the real event was in fact on IRC, where 150+ Amiga-fans gathered to
interrogate and aggravate any 'Stars' who happened to wander in.  #Amiga98 was the scene of absolute chaos as the Ops tried to herd Amiga-fans from all parts of the
globe. Any regular IRC user will know that 150 people in one room is quite impressive.  Even the most degenerate channels, such as a '#Warez' channel, will rarely have even half that number.  So what on earth was everybody there for ? The answer is simply "News".  This, unfortunately, was exactly what we didn't get.  So why did I think the event was a complete success ?  In short, it was wonderful to see so many realistic Amiga owners in one place.

The Users

I don't know what I expected to hear when I first joined the channel.  Perhaps I was expecting to hear arguments of the past, arguments about how bad the PC is, the things that always made us feel justified in our dedication to Amiga.  Instead of the legions of 'hobbyists', I found that everyone had somehow matured and was ready to 'move on'.  It occurred to me that, in all the time we have been waiting for the new Amiga, everyone has changed.  Ex-Amiga owners now run companies, support networks, Engineer software, have children or are just simply a lot more educated.  The minority were talking about new ways to bolt-on cards to their ageing A1200.  The majority were looking for a machine more geared towards professionals, a more powerful solution with cost not being so important as it used to be.  People were throwing around terms like 'parallel-processing', 'Linux', 'PCI', 'PPC', 'Alpha' and 'no more 68XXX series !'.  These were hardly the sentiments of people stuck in the past, but people with a vision for the future.  For the first time in 3 years I was beginning to think the Amiga really had somewhere to go.  Visions of the Amiga being a real computer users choice were coming thick and fast.  If it was managed right, if the right hardware was chosen, if the right software was concentrated on and if people worked together towards a common goal then maybe, just maybe……

The Interviews

All of a sudden the debate was halted and the Ops took control to give the minions news from the show.  We all waited with baited breath only to be told absolutely nothing interesting at all.  The Ops either didn't understand what everyone wanted to hear about or there was simply nothing to say.  After a lot of confusion the head engineer of Amiga Inc. was dragged to the channel to take questions.  About 8000 questions were given to the Ops but only around 15 were asked, which is fair enough.  The first bit of real news that came up on my IRC client was his announcement that the minimum spec Amiga would be an '030/50'.  My heart sank.  Wasn't that exactly what they said 2 years ago ? Wasn't that the 'Walker' ?  It seemed like a reasonable spec then, not mind-blowing but certainly reasonable.  In real terms that specification is something like a good 386 PC, hardly what we needed to hear.  You only have to walk into Dixons (hardly at the forefront of technological advances) to know that 386s don't even exist anymore.  In fact, you probably couldn't even buy a 486.

The next few questions were rather frustrating and not the sort worthy of the Head of Engineering.  Somewhere in the confusion came a question about answering machines.  Answering Machines ? This was a joke, right ?.  #Amiga fell about in a fit of laughter as the comedy of 150 people waiting for news and then being told their prize computer was going to be an 'Answering Machine' sunk in.  I found out that they had no plans to develop a SoftAmiga (emulator to solve backward compatibility cheaply).  A more direct question from somebody revealed that they weren't interested in creating a 'standard' for new Amigas from the clone makers (like Phase5).  His faith that 'The best would win' translated as 'I couldn't be bothered to think about it'.  The rest of the questions were about PCI and stuufffff…..*yawn*.
 Eventually somebody asked the question we all wanted to hear 'Where do you see the Amiga going in the next 5 years ?'.  The answer was something akin to a politician dodging allegations of fraud.  He foresaw 'gradual change' (sob) followed by a 'sudden step' (better) and eventually 'exponential growth'.  To be quite honest, that was the only really interesting statement from him.  What does it mean?

After the Head Engineer left we were left waiting with the promise that a representative from Newtek (Video Toaster, Light Wave) would talk to us shortly.  He was a lot more amiable but also couldn't give us much solid information.  You got the feeling that Newtek had an affection for the Amiga in a big way but that they wouldn't let that cloud their judgement.  You have to feel sorry for companies like Newtek. We expect so much from them but their loyalty has to come in the form of serious cash, something many Amiga owners don't seem to want to spend much of...

It does seem that Newtek would still like to support the Amiga but I think they want to see something a bit more serious than a minimum 030/50, and who can really blame them? They also seemed interested in PPC developments such as Phase5s pre/box and the PowerUp development kit.

The Aftertaste

Once the interviews were over and people got the chance to talk again, the mood was understandably downbeat.  It was apparent that Amiga Inc. had nothing new to report.  What was more depressing was that they had……nothing.  Any readers of Edge (an industry-based games magazine) will know how engineers speak about their work.  They generally have enthusiasm littered with their own visions and opinions of the future.  I saw no evidence of this, in fact, I've never seen any evidence of this from Amiga Inc..  Increasingly it seems like owning the license for Amiga is more about R&R than R&D.  What have Amiga Inc. done since they became part of Gateway2000 ?  In the last year we have seen Phase5 develop Graphics cards, PowerPC cards and announce their intention to release seriously powerful new Amigas.  Even if this never happens (and I don't see why it shouldn't) at least Phase5 have shown us something…..anything.

The question remains, what did Gateway2000 buy the Amiga License for ?  They don't seem to be doing enough R&D to make a set-top box feasible.  Selling 1500 units to India is hardly going to get their money back (roughly $40 million, if I remember correctly ?).  The problem is that Gateway aren't loaded with money anymore.  A(nother) slump in the PC market has left them with a few financial worries.  Are Amiga Inc. getting any funds at all ?  Whether we like it or not, we would be the first to suffer from any cut-backs Gateway have, surely?

What I learnt from the IRC conference is that there is still a great deal of injustice about the whole Amiga affair.  The Amiga spawned such an impressive number of dedicated enthusiasts.  Enthusiasts who are productive, creative and very resourceful.  How, then, does it always seem to end up in the hands of people who produce nothing, create nothing and have no resources at all?

If I could present Amiga Inc. with any one question it would be this:  The damage has already been done,  I have had a PC for a year.  At the end of this year I am going to want a new computer because my P166 will be out of date.  What are you going to do to persuade me to buy a new Amiga instead of a P300 ?

The truth is, for all my dedication to the Amiga and for all my hatred towards Wintel systems, If all they can offer me is a 68k series Amiga, I will laugh in their face.

Come on Amiga Inc. - Tell us something new! Jonathan Withey