February 11th, 1999

A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed

  But one with breasts and all the rest is better. Umm, maybe I'd best first warn that the following is going to be a rant related to the Amiga computer, although parallels can be drawn to other situations and hopefully it will become apparent by the end as to what the title has to do with anything. Anyway, here goes...

  I read a fair few computing magazines. Admittedly I don't subscribe to any, nor do I simply have to have every issue every month. But I do tend to look over publications such as Australian Personal Computer, Australian PC User, and Australian PC World. What I must have, however, is Amiga Format from the UK - the only Amiga magazine available from there. I used to also read (when they were still in print) magazines such as Amiga User International, CU Amiga and Amiga Computing (amongst others). Some (but probably not many) of you would know that Amiga Computing was, and PC World still is, a publication of one company - International Data Group (IDG). Considering this link, it's awfully nice of PC World to mention the Amiga sometimes. Perhaps not.

  Take a look at the following quotes from the February 1999 issue of Australian PC World:

""This picture is obviously for Commodore/Amiga's latest foray into the home PC market. This product launch was staged to highlight their new "Christmas Pack", which includes a games bundle of Summer Games XXI and International Karate 17! For the first 100 buyers a special "Balloon program" was included for budding graphic designers (the Commodore Balloon flying into the top left hand of the screen)!" - Mauricio Maldonaldo"

"COMPUTERS
AMIGA WEB DIRECTORY
www.cucug.org/amiga.html
When I think of the eighties I think pastels, Swatch Watches, BMX Bandits and the Amiga 500. My parents didn't have a clue how to use it, so my brothers and I pioneered uncharted waters, installing games, games and more games. (It still works by the way - long after the monitor died, it's now hooked up to a TV for still-perfect gameplay.)
As this site demonstrates with a monster list of Amiga links on the Net, the Amiga hit a chord, the Amiga community (members of which are known as "Amigans", I gather) is still going strong. The Amiga Web Directory splits a hug number of links into categories like shareware, programming and development tools, games software, sound and music software, Amiga magazines and Amiga, the company."

  Well those are rather misguided and slightly offensive comments, I think many Amiga users will find. Firstly Mauricio's entry for captioning the picture, there are many incorrect things in this. Firstly, Commodore and Amiga have been separate entities for some time now. Last I heard, the Commodore name was being used to badge PCs by a clone manufacturer in the Netherlands. Amiga, on the other hand, is now a subsidiary of American company, Gateway. The latest Amiga software packs featured a word processor , paint package, database, and SCALA MM300. I'm sorry, Summer Games and International Karate was not bundled. Heck, I doubt International Karate existed. Where as those comments were rather misinformed on Mauricio's part, the "Commodore balloon" program has me utterly lost.. Perhaps I am ignorant. I didn't know Commodore had a balloon, much less a programme on the Amiga which displayed it. Weird.

  Well perhaps that first one wasn't entirely PC World's fault, as it was sent in by a reader. However the web site review was all courtesy of them. Sure, it's nice to get some Amiga coverage in the "mainstream" press, but what's this about the Amiga 500? Come on you people, the A500 is over a decade old now, of course it isn't going to stack up against the computers of today. That's why no serious Amiga enthusiasts use them these days - definitely not in the unexpanded state most people have them, anyhow (a half meg RAM in the trap-door doesn't count as "expanded", either). These condescending scribbles are bad enough, but there is one thing that really gets to me. Almost every copy of a PC magazine you may pick up will have at least one instance of someone within complaining about the Microsoft domination of the market and the fact that they want an alternative. These same people regard Amiga users as fools for doing exactly that - using an alternative. Why, if they're so eager to use something else, do these people continue to use Windoze? Either switch to something else or shut up about it already. Then there's the image problem - it shouldn't be needed to be pointed out, but people, the Amiga 500 no longer reflects the Amiga user base of today.

  Finally, isn't it great how the UK arm of IDG was glad to take money from so many Amiga users for so many years, but as soon as Amiga Computing became unprofitable, Amiga users (PC World has ruined the term "Amigans" for me) became useful only as a target of poorly constructed jokes?

Copyright � February 11th, 1999.
Opinions expressed here are purely those of Adam Smolarczyk.