Although Gateway 2000 haven't unveiled any 'new Amigas' at the moment, things aren't as bad as they could be. We have plenty of companies giving us computers and bundles based around A1200s and A1200Ts. And we have companies preparing to bring us completely new Amigas, in some form or another.
If someone gave me a wadge of money to spend on a computer (ooh, that'd be nice), it would be a difficult choice. They'd I'd be, building up my custom built A1200T with 603e card and PicassoIV card, but at the back of my mind, I'd be thinking 'A\BOX. In '98, Phase 5'll come along, release their A\BOX, and where would I be then?' It would be like buying an A3000 just before Commodore halved its price and released the A4000/040.
There is at least plenty of scope in upgrading an A1200, whether you keep it in it's desktop case, add a 'sidecart' PC case, or stick it in a tower. A machine with an '060 or PPC, with graphics card, fast hard disk and CD ROM, maybe a sound card, is very reasonable by today's standard - hardly outdated technology as some might suggest. The price may not be as low as PCs, but reasonable compared to Macs.
It will be good if companies start offering complete systems as opposed to base units, like Direct have done. And even better if Gateway 2000/AI get in on the act. New Amigas may take time to produce, but surely souped up A1200/A1200Ts are better than releasing basic A1200s?
Talking of new Amigas, we have the PIOS ONE soon to be released, and the A\BOX due in 1998 (well, there's also the machines from Index Information, but there not really aimed at the home user). Although many have viewed this as a split in the Amiga's future, for me, the decision on what to get is clearer.
Consider backward compatibility with existing Amigas. It seems that the A\BOX will do this much better, where as the PIOS machine will likely have very little. Does backward compatibilty matter? Some people seem to think it doesn't matter in the slightest, where as other people take the opinion that the A\BOX and PIOS won't be Amigas if they can't run every bit of today's software.
Of course, the answer probably lies in between - some backward compatibility must be sacrificed, in fact, quite a bit with PowerPC. But there should be the ability to run older 680x0 software by a specifically dedicated emulator, like with the PowerMac, and not attempting to use something like UAE!
Both the A\BOX and PIOS will be PowerPC based, and so only able to run existing Amiga software by emulation. Phase 5 have stated that there will be a 'virtual Amiga machine' to run existing 680x0 Amiga binaries. I don't know if there is anything on the PIOS machine like this. Even if there is, there are two things which will make emulating on the PIOS harder. Firstly, the operating is pOS; although AmigaOS compatible (hence the reason why we are considering it as an Amiga at all!), it isn't a direct descendant of the existing AmigaOS, and compatibility problems will be introduced. Okay, that isn't really fair, as presumably the modified AmigaOS in the A\BOX will have problems.
The biggest problem (apart from PPC) is using graphics cards that find performing Amiga-like qualities (such as bitplanes, screen swithing/dragging, copper tricks) very difficult. It's why even though a Pentium running UAE can achieve many times A500 speed, it becomes much slower on anything with custom chip activity. As far as the A\BOX is concerned, the best thing will be if it's backward compatible with AGA - but even if it wasn't, it will emulate far better than a PC graphics card would. As well as being as good as modern day graphics cards, Caipirinha retains all those Amiga graphical abilities - and improves them greatly.
Maybe I am being too harsh on the PIOS though - that's not to say I don't like it! Even if it won't cope with existing Amiga software very well, it does have a 100% PPC native OS, taking the best bits of the AmigaOS, and improving the, er, not so good bits. Assuming it gets a decent amount of commercial software as well as PD/shareware (and games!), running current Amiga software won't be a concern. And the specs look excellent value:
Mark