Interview, Kermit Woodall, Nova
Design
For the first of our special interviews with Amiga
Developers, we spoke to Kermit Woodall at Nova Design. Here's
what he said.
WOA> What was the first Amiga you owned?
An Amiga 1000 - by the time I was ready to move on from it, I
had tricked it out with more RAM, many internal modifications,
and had lots of cool things like Digiview and Perfect Sound on
it.
WOA> What first attracted you to the
Amiga?
I'd always owned Commodore products since the days of the
VIC-20 computer. I've never forgotten my first look at the
Amiga though. A local dealer came to our Commodore users group
and demo'ed the Amiga's multitasking, Boing! ball demo and
other graphics, and as a final showed how indestructible
(mostly) 3.5 inch diskettes were by sailing one across the room
before inserting it into the Amiga. However, at the time it was
too expensive and it took a while for me to save up the money
for it.
WOA> Why have you stuck with the Amiga when so
many others have left it?
90% or more Amiga developers who left the Amiga had their
companies eventually fail. The reality is that it's far easier
to make money on the Amiga, even in these uncertain times, than
it is to make money in the PC/Windows market. While the PC
market looks like an vast pot of gold, it's actually so much
more expensive to develop and market there, and so difficult to
reach your audience, that recouping your money is chancy.
WOA> What do you see happening to the Amiga in
the near future?
Only time will tell...
WOA> And, what do you think SHOULD happen to the
Amiga in the near future?
The plan that Amiga and QNX put forth at the Koln show has us
all at Nova very excited. This is the future we want to
see!
WOA> Thanks