The Story Of The Commodore Amiga In Pixels_

292 Pages·2017·458.762 MB·English

by  Chris Wilkins, Roger M. Kean

The Story of the
Chris Wilkins
Roger M. Kean

2 The Story of the Amiga in Pixels
The Story of the
Chris Wilkins
Roger M. Kean
FusionRetrobooks
First published 2017 by Fusion Retro Books
Fusion Retro Books, 51 Dencer Drive, Kenilworth, CV8 2QR
http://www.fusionretrobooks.com
Copyright © Fusion Retro Books 2017
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Printed and bound in Slovenia
ISBN: 9780993131592
n o n n o n
Acknowledgements
Thanks and gratitude go to the following who helped to make this book:
Andrew Fisher and Roger Kean for writing the history of the Commodore
Amiga and Roger for laying out the pages; Steve Day for another great
cover design; Oli Frey for being an artistic genius and giving permission
for us to reproduce his art – who can forget the covers Oli created for
The Games Machine and Thalamus Games?; Stuart Williams & Retro
Computing News for permission to quote Jay Miner;
Kieren Hawken for
the game reviews; Adrian Mogg (Mole), Robert Brammeld and Andrew
Wilk (Artstate Digital) for supplying photos for the Anarchy feature and
Matthew Simmonds (4-MAT) for his contribution; Johnnathan Taylor
and elettroLudica (photography by Marco Di Gennaro) for providing
the double page Commodore imagery; Martyn Carroll for writing
the feature on AGA games; Sven Harvey for looking at how Public
Domain and Shareware became part of the Amiga scene; the guys and
gals from Anarchy and Scoopex for keeping the Amiga demoscene alive;
Gareth Perch, Christopher John Payne and Andrew Fisher for proofing
the book; each programmer, artist and musician who took the time to
those who gave up their time to talk about the
write personal memoirs, and
golden days of Amiga computing; and last but not least my wife Nomita,
daughters Amber and Sienna and son Milan, who are always there helping
and providing suggestions on how to make my books better and better.
Thanks so much guys.
Foreword David Pleasance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
History of the Amiga Andrew Fisher & Roger M. Kean 8
Amiga Creatives & Graphics —
PD & Shareware Sven Harvey . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Anarchy & the Demoscene Mark Hellewell . . . . 70
Scoopex & the Demoscene Photon . . . . . . . . 82
AGA – too little too late? Martyn Carroll . . . . . 90
The Games
K ieren Hawken reflects on a bunch of the most popular
(and perhaps the greatest) Amiga games . . . . . . 100
The Memoirs ........ 190 Stoo Cambridge ....... 236
Glenn Corpes ............ 192 The Oliver Twins ....... 240
Simon Butler ............. 202 Jon Hare .................... 244
Mevlut Dinc .............. 206 Peter Johnson ........... 250
Allister Brimble ......... 210 Gari Biasillo ............... 254
James Sachs .............. 212 Mark Knight ............. 258
Alex Trowers ............. 216 Phil Boag-Butcher ..... 262
Anthony Ball ............. 220 Raffaele Cecco .......... 268
Barry Leitch ............... 224 Archer MacLean ....... 272
Tobias Richter ........... 228 Lutz Osterkon ........... 280
Ash Hogg .................. 232 Christopher Payne .... 283
Foreword by David Pleasance
must say that I felt incredibly
Ih onoured when I was asked to write
this foreword and also delighted,
for two reasons. First, I am a huge fan of
publisher Chris Wilkins’ work. He has
this amazing ability to capture the spirit
of his books’ subjects – be it software,
developer or hardware – and presents the
content in a way that all readers easily
relate to, digest and thoroughly enjoy.
This in itself is a profound and unique
talent.
Second, of course not only is the
Amiga a computer around which
I centred an immense part of my it to my biggest customers such as
career but the Commodore Amiga Dixons, Comet, Currys, Laskys and the
4
also changed so many people’s lives rest. It was very frustrating, particularly
considerably, all round the globe. at computer shows and other similar
0 For me, when the first Amiga – the events, which we attended regularly.
A1000 – was launched in 1985, it really I remember vividly the occasion
was a bitter-sweet moment, and why when we were showing off the A1000
9
was that? At the time my responsibility for the very first time at the Personal
within Commodore Business Machines Computer World show, London’s
UK Ltd was National Sales Manager of highest profile annual event, which was
6 4
the consumer products division so when held in September at Olympia. We had
Commodore positioned the Amiga 1000 a large screen on which we displayed
0
as a business and productivity machine it thirty-two different windows and we
meant it was not within my portfolio. had different programs running in each
Grrrrrr… simultaneously! Admittedly there were
9
Can you imagine how that felt? To some fairly modest programs among
have a computer with revolutionary them, but it was nevertheless a truly jaw-
6 capabilities within touching reach but dropping demonstration, and it made us
unable to market it, sell it, or even show the star exhibit of the show.
6 The Story of the Amiga in Pixels
Well, one day my wish was granted
in the form of the Amiga 500. At last a
computer with all the same incredible
features (in fact more) than its big
brother but at a price we could offer to
the mass market.
Many things came into play over the
next period, including the launch of the
Batman Pack in association with Ocean,
which elevated the A500’s profile. The
resulting sales grew to an incredible
level and we were able to maintain such
substantial sales on a regular basis.
The next model to be released was
the Amiga 2000, closely followed by
the awesome A3000 and A3000T.
(Eventually, I set myself up a
professional music recording studio
at the heart of which I had an A4000
controlling all the equipment, a task it
performed flawlessly.)
Within the consumer products
division we launched a few models of
Amiga, but the Amiga 1200 was by
far and away the most popular and
successful. It cemented our position as
the number one home computer product
of the 1990s.
So here we are so many years later
and the Amiga has spawned a generation
of computer savvy individuals, many of
whom are now in high-profile positions
in leading corporations around the
globe. I am certain you will thoroughly
appreciate The Story of the Commodore
Amiga in Pixels and it will stir up lots of
your warmest memories. Enjoy!
Amiga – ‘the first aesthetically
satisfying PC’
The History… by Andrew Fisher
additional reporting: Roger M. Kean
lthough earlier computers existed in
isolation from the world, requiring
A
their visuals and sound to be
generated and live only within
their memory, the Amiga was of the world,
able to interface with it in all its rich
analog glory.
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the then present, from idea to market, Battilana
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biggest computer companies of the Over thirty years later the computer and
1980s – Commodore and Atari. its custom hardware live on in emulation.
It is the story of unique ideas, At the heart of the Amiga story is
management failings and the rapid the man credited as ‘the father of the
growth of both the gaming industry and Amiga’, Jay Glen Miner (1931–1994).
the everyday use of computers. From After a background in electronics with
bedroom to office, from business to TV the US Coastguard and a decade in
Nolan Bushnell,
studio, the Amiga had a loyal following. industry designing chips for calculators
below, in a 1980s
television interview and computers, Miner joined Nolan
and, right, in 2013.
Bushnell’s fledgling Atari, Inc. in 1974.
Once settled in – Jay regularly went to
work with his dog Mitchy (she even
had her own id badge) – he was tasked
with developing a chipset for the new
Atari Video Computer System or vcs,
later known as the Atari 2600. A vital
Miner-designed component of the 2600,
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8 The Story of the Amiga in Pixels