The Amiga Book from Retro Gamer covers the Demoscene
category: general [glöplog]
An IMHO wouldn't have changed they way I read it. If you would have said "_FOR ME_ the Demoscene was much, much more important to the Amiga than any amount of games", then it would've made more sense :)
Fair enough ;)
Many games certainly were ST ports, publishers at the time welcomed the small developers that could code it for the ST with a bonus Amiga release at minimum effort and cost. For most of these that meant 16 colors, choppy scrolling, and other ST specifications. That's one reason to hate ST if you're an Amiga user, though I think mostly it was mobbing the underling as teenagers do.
Some blockbusters were written specifically for the Amiga though, and they would have convinced youths to buy an Amiga when they saw them. But one thing that couldn't be just ported to Amiga from ST was the sound, and sound is half the game. ;) So even all the ST ports would have persuaded boys to buy an Amiga.
But for me, it was the whole package, and demos were the absolute major factor for me - or rather, cracktros. The cracktros and some of the games directly told me as a programmer that the Amiga had much better specifications that people had just started to tap.
As for getting upset at the top 5, I would have a hard time selecting only 5, even if it was just for OCS. Probably Desert Dream and Hardwired would be near the top of OCS for me too, but with so many good demos released over the years, the top would be crammed with demos that everyone would agree were all-time greats.
Some blockbusters were written specifically for the Amiga though, and they would have convinced youths to buy an Amiga when they saw them. But one thing that couldn't be just ported to Amiga from ST was the sound, and sound is half the game. ;) So even all the ST ports would have persuaded boys to buy an Amiga.
But for me, it was the whole package, and demos were the absolute major factor for me - or rather, cracktros. The cracktros and some of the games directly told me as a programmer that the Amiga had much better specifications that people had just started to tap.
As for getting upset at the top 5, I would have a hard time selecting only 5, even if it was just for OCS. Probably Desert Dream and Hardwired would be near the top of OCS for me too, but with so many good demos released over the years, the top would be crammed with demos that everyone would agree were all-time greats.
It would seem that some youths who ended up with an Atari ST were hell-bent on "dissuading" others to go for an Amiga, like my friend in college at around 1991-94:
1. He had a ZX Spectrum and Atari ST background, which I assumed meant he would go for cheap machines or at least ones with mostly off-the-shelf parts, no liking for custom chipsets. Later on, his family would get a Multimedia PC.
2. I had an Atari ST myself but switched to an Amiga about a year before I met him, but he would mercilessly taunt me about my "Crappy Amiga" whenever he could. If I'd met him before then, I would probably have never gone down the Amiga route.
3. He told me that he and his gang (I think he had one) would hang around the local computer shop and "dissuade" people from considering the Amiga - he said it was dodgy hardware with a buggy OS, so I remember.
4. He once stated that he thought the C64's SID chip was simply the best sound chip out there for the home computers, including the Amiga.
5. I seemed to inadvertantly cheer him up one day when I told him that the Amiga was harder to develop software for.
This guy just had a totally, almost irrational hatred for the platform. Maybe it was that he couldn't afford an Amiga and had to make do with what he had, but then my parents had gotten me the ST then the Amiga as well (I sold the ST a while later).
Up until I got the ST, I'd been using an Atari 800XL for many years and it was starting to fail, so my parents said they would get me a new computer, but I made the mistake of choosing the ST as I had no knowledge of either platform and the history behind them. I'm really fond of custom chip hardware and was a fan of the A8, so I thought the ST was a continuation. I was lucky enough to convince them to get me an A500 just a few months later.
Make of that what you will.
1. He had a ZX Spectrum and Atari ST background, which I assumed meant he would go for cheap machines or at least ones with mostly off-the-shelf parts, no liking for custom chipsets. Later on, his family would get a Multimedia PC.
2. I had an Atari ST myself but switched to an Amiga about a year before I met him, but he would mercilessly taunt me about my "Crappy Amiga" whenever he could. If I'd met him before then, I would probably have never gone down the Amiga route.
3. He told me that he and his gang (I think he had one) would hang around the local computer shop and "dissuade" people from considering the Amiga - he said it was dodgy hardware with a buggy OS, so I remember.
4. He once stated that he thought the C64's SID chip was simply the best sound chip out there for the home computers, including the Amiga.
5. I seemed to inadvertantly cheer him up one day when I told him that the Amiga was harder to develop software for.
This guy just had a totally, almost irrational hatred for the platform. Maybe it was that he couldn't afford an Amiga and had to make do with what he had, but then my parents had gotten me the ST then the Amiga as well (I sold the ST a while later).
Up until I got the ST, I'd been using an Atari 800XL for many years and it was starting to fail, so my parents said they would get me a new computer, but I made the mistake of choosing the ST as I had no knowledge of either platform and the history behind them. I'm really fond of custom chip hardware and was a fan of the A8, so I thought the ST was a continuation. I was lucky enough to convince them to get me an A500 just a few months later.
Make of that what you will.
could you post bibliographic data or at least a link to that book? that'd be great.
Thanks!
I should point out that it's not as thick as shown in the picture.