Mike Jones Digital Basin
cinematic media rinse cycle

History of the Amiga, Commodore and Atari

Try as they might modern computer manufacturers will never be able to replicate the sheer excitement and dynamism of the early computer age - the age of Commodore, Amiga and Atari.



This is not simply nostalgia but rather stems from the sort of excitement and promise that comes from the shock of the truly 'new'. The seemingly limitless possibility that derives from when things 'begin'. To understand the modern concept of the computer as media production platform one needs to look at that inception of gaming, music and graphics on systems such as the Commodore Vic20 and C64, Amiga 500 and Atari ST.

What makes this history all the more fascinating is the complex interrelation of these three companies as they vied for dominance in the computer age. Ars Technica has a fabulous series of articles that explore this history in fascinating detail.

The irony however is not lost that despite the sheer magnitude of innovation and forward thinking from all three, all three ultimately vanished as computer companies.

In the end it was Microsoft/Bill Gates that had the grander vision. Whilst Amiga, Atari, Commodore and Apple were all focused on selling 'Computers' as physical products, it was Bill that had the much bigger and bolder concept of selling an operating system - MS DOS - to all computer manufacturers. Whilst I'm yet to find anyone who has any love for Microsoft there is an undeniable bravery to the vision which was to effectively sell something you could not hold, touch or feel and of itself didn't actually do anything.

The rest is history and Microsoft's system of OS lisencing to any and all computer makers dominates the world. But the same vision that Bill displayed, that shirked the traditional economic model of selling a 'product' in favour of licensing an operating system' may ultimately be the same vision that reshapes Microsoft dominance. Open-source and alternative 'service' based software systems present the same paradigm shift as Bill's original OS concept. Microsoft is facing a future where its economic structure of bulk licensing of OS's and software for premium product fees is undermined by a culture of free lighter, more efficient free software fuelled by service subscription.

Can Microsoft re-invent itself? Or is it to monolithic to change?

Posted at 12:00AM Nov 13, 2007 by Mike Jones in moving image theory  |  Comments[2]