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Amiga

Pictures of the New Amiga 142

Posted by CmdrTaco from the lookin-good dept.
Stace writes "Pictures exist of the new Amica MCC. to check them out. I dunno if it's excitement over something new, or the fact that I'm an old Amiga user, but I can't wait to get my hands on one of these! " Very smooth design from those shots. Looks a little bulky, but very nice.
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Pictures of the New Amiga More

Pictures of the New Amiga

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  • I'm tired of ridiculous hardware design, particularly involving screens. The iMac, for example, gives me gas. It's like a big, multi-colored buttoc. And the mouse is like a breast, so you can fondle as you hack.

    You make that sound like a bad thing... The iMac's "desirablility" plus the new "free PC" thing could put the entire world's teenage male population "banging away" on the Internet.
  • Ive never really read up on these (considering how the Old Amigas were way before my time), but what kind of hardware architecture do they use?



    --
    Dave Brooks (db@amorphous.org)
    http://www.amorphous.org
  • There is a BIG difference between an Amiga (what you claim in your

    "Pictures of the New Amiga
    from the lookin-good dept.
    posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday July 27, @03:44PM (amiga)
    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/07/27/154520 5"

    and what is presented in the article. Time to get that prescription changed on the reading glasses, guys...

  • Well, now that Solaris is starting to get some business back thanks to the Linux revolution; making IS managers pull their heads out of their asses and realize that UNIX was the solution all along.

    They're getting cocky...AGAIN. Man the more things change the more they stay the same.
  • The pictures look like foam design prototypes, perhaps done by frog design. They look like they have been rolling around in the trunk of someones car. That makes me question if they are rejects that were thrown in a dumpster. Perhaps the date back to the Escom days? The designs aren't bad though. It appears to be a pizza box with a monitor set on top. I see nothing to indicate that it's a one piece(iMac like)box.

    I still like my Amiga 1000 better! :)
  • OK, I'm wrong. There was a link that sent me to some better pictures on the amiga.com site.

    interesting...
  • Wonder what that could be.. 256k memory expansion slot?

    The upgrade'll include a real, battery-powered clock, I bet.

    While it's still not to my taste, I think that the mockup in the pictures [funtime-world.de] you've pointed us to is much less ugly.

    Hmm. The monitor [funtime-world.de] looks suspicously like an NEC model I've seen, with the huge square front, integrated speakers (?) and then the long, barrel-shaped back.

    The main case [funtime-world.de] looks more like a VCR than ever.

  • Having seen a SPARC lunchbox or two, I really like *that* form factor. Why, oh, why can't good FAST systems be built like that anymore? Those were nice, sturdy pieces of hardware that looked cool and were quite functional.

    OTOH, I want to build a nice wood PeeCee (or
    maybe an Alpha, instead) case/rack.

    --Corey
  • ...where's the "Transmeta Inside" sticker??

    --John Riney
    jwriney@awod.com
  • ...but I like the orignal Amiga 1000 with the keyboard "garage". It was plain, but functional.

    Of course these are just mockups; the final design will likely be quite different.

    TedC

  • My first "real" computer was the good old Amiga 500, way back when it was brand new. Kickstart 1.3 had just been released, and all my friends had C64s or TRS-80 CoCo 2s. When I see some sort of evidence that the nextgen Amigas aren't just vapor, it gets me real excited. Even though I sold my Amiga 3000 to buy a 486, the Amigas still have a very large piece of my heart. I'll be first in line to buy one of the new Amiga desktops!

    Vivarium.
  • They'll probably use either rambus or PC132 (which AMD is pushing now.)
  • It's those curving extensions on the base that give me the creeps. Like something you'd find on a desk in a Geiger painting...

  • Cool (Score:3)

    by rde ( 17364 ) on Tuesday July 27, 1999 @06:50AM (#1780842)
    Except for the hardware and the software, it's just like the old amiga.
  • . . . so if the hardware AND the software are both different, what's the same? ;-)

    Seriously though. It looks pretty :-) Much more so than an iMac OR a penguin tower case!!!
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • fuzzy? (Score:1)

    by aqua ( 3874 )
    Maybe it's just the limited light and high-compression jpegs, but they look, well... stuffed; like grey amiga-shaped teddy bears or something texturally similar. :)

  • Camelot! (Score:3)

    by Squid ( 3420 ) on Tuesday July 27, 1999 @07:03AM (#1780849) Homepage
    "It's only a model..."

    Amazing how nice styrofoam looks when you paint it, isn't it?
  • But wait! They HAVE an OS! And it's called QNX.. no wait, Linux.. no wait, CP/M.. no, wait, QDOS.. no, wait..

    - A.P.
    --


    "One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad

  • but what does an amiga do anyways??? i didnt' ask that question when those iMacs came out, i didn't ask when those "computers on a simm" were on /., but what the stink is an amiga going to do for me that an x86 won't? keep in mind how egocentric that statement was.

    i mean, what are they hyping it up to be? is it just a cool box with a familliar name on it and we are all getting excited, or does it actually have a funcation? let's skip the "another alternative to intel" line, it's getting kind of dog-eared.
  • LOTS of RAM? But the Amiga's OS footprints have always been very minimal and the libraries very efficient so the PC type of RAM requirements have never been an issue. I could multitask 25 programs easily in 10M, while on my PC 3 or 4 brings my 64M machine to it's knees.
  • It may not have an operating system yet, or hardware to run it on, but IT'S GOT A COOL BOX!

    Let's face it: The Amiga is vaporware. It's not going to be out this year, probably not next year either.
  • Yeah, what will the Amiga do that can't already be done? Graphics and multimedia? Hmm?, we've got Apple, SGI, BeOS. Business, no We have a whole gaggle of OS's in that market niche. Home, yeah right, lets see you go up against the marketing might of Apple and others. Just where does the Amiga fit in? The Server market? No, we have enough testosterone in that market.

    Amiga, you were a sweet machine, but that was yesterday, give it up.
  • No, of course not. Besides the fact that they're
    partnering with Sun, ATI, and Transmeta, it
    really looks like this will never happen! No
    way! Even though Sun is really shaking like
    a piece of angry candy right now, and Transmeta
    is just about ready to pop up, there's no
    chance that all you folks will put two and two
    together and see that it's this new Amiga which
    is the product. It's not vaporware. There's way,
    way too much going on right now for this to be
    vaporware. Too many big forces have too much
    interest in this for it to amount to nothing.

    You just wait. You might not want to be one of
    the people using it, but there could be 2 or 3 million
    other people who will.

  • Sorry buddy. Atari no longer exists. It was
    bought out by JTS, a hard drive manufacturing
    company, and now it seems that its most important
    intellectual property has been sold to Hasbro.
    Hasbro might do something with the Lynx technology
    in the future.

    The ST technology, still quite popular in Germany,
    was bought by a company named Milan Computer. They
    have updated TOS (the Atari ST's operating system)
    and re-engineered the ST's pretty basic system architecture
    and have released a new system. I believe it's based
    around the 68060 and also is PowerPC capable. It has
    PCI slots and other nice things.

    You can check it out at http://www.milan-computer.de
  • >Why such a big fuss? isnt it like 10 years since >the last version was released?

    More like 7. ;`)

    >andit runs only on m68k's?

    True for the 'classic' systems, but this is a whole new hardware/software architecture here bearing the Amiga name.
  • The iMac is probably the most extreme example... Those little tiny speakers sound absolutely horrid, and there's nothing you can do about it short of buying new separate speakers, which sort of seems equally silly. I imagine this Amiga - if it ever ships in my lifetime - will sound yucky too.

    - A.P.
    --


    "One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad

  • Wake up... Amigas are being redesigned, the new ones
    are not going to be at all like the old ones. They
    will, though, likely be able to run non-hardware-intensive
    software from the old (current) Amiga lineup. The new
    machines are going to use a chip from Transmeta, which
    will be very powerful.

    Old Amigas still can do things that any Unix-based system
    would be terribly jealous of.

  • That's exactly what the Amiga community has been asking Amiga Inc. ever since the Linux kernel announcement.

    It seems little more than some cool gadgetry without a point. Now, granted, the original Amiga was cool gadgetry, but it was an enabling technology - you had a list in your head of groovy things you'd do with it if you ever owned one. This new Amiga, despite its cool technology and AmigaObject buzzword, seems more like a solution waiting for a problem.
  • Who really cares about the box?
    Where's the software?
    Where's the specs?
    Where's the Operating System?

    Have we all turned into Mac enthusists, ladies and gentlemen?
    Since when did the box that the damn thing comes in mean anything?!?!?!!?
    argh.. I had to talk a friend down from buying an iMac "because it looked cool"..
    I dont care if it looks like the best thing ever made in all time, if it's only got the power of a calulator inside, who the hell would want it?
    (yes, i know calculators are getting quite powerful now, no need to go there :-)
    Argh... Looks are not only not everything, they are NOTHING.
    We need a new poll. How many people here would buy a computer based entirely on looks?
    And how many people here would buy a computer based entirely on power/price, and then buy a box to put it in that looks the same as the good looking box?

    Honestly... sheesh..
  • It looks like a mutant NEC-iMac. I think the thing is totally unexciting.

    And the low-profile thing looks like a VCR-PlayStation-N64.

    Uninspiring to the highest degree.

    -awc
  • AmigaOS had a nice OO part (called BOOPSI),
    it had a lightweight library-based structure
    instead of a kernel. The hardware sucked IMHO,
    but then again I used to have an A1200.

    And MUI kicks ass. Wish I had that in Linux.
  • That's cause that's pretty much what they are... foam mock-ups. Wanna see some more realistic pics (of an actual metal-and-plastic model)?

    http://www.funtime-world.de/beri cht/woa240799.html [funtime-world.de]
    --
    - Sean
  • I was at WoA, and I saw it there.. It looked more like metal and plastic than styrofoam.. But the only connector it had was a USB-port in the front..

    The pictures on that page are really bad.. Too bad I forgot to bring my camera to WoA.. I'm sure I could have gotten some much better pictures of it.. Anyone else here who was at WoA and got some pictures of it?

  • Well, considering that most PCs ship with a shoddy mono speaker (yes, just one) that goes "beep" or "blip".. the iMac sounds pretty good. Don't most computer owners who want better sound go out and get externals anyway? So if you're not impressed with the stock iMac's SRS Surround stereo speakers, just go to CompUSA and get some other ones to add on!

    -----
    Linux user: if (nt == unstable) { switchTo.linux() }
  • The monitor, a rip off of the 20th century Mac, the box, a rip off of the Apple Media Player.
    Old and discarded designs, rewarmed for the Amiga. Yawn!
  • They still are the only machines round that can do 2D scrolling smoothly.

    Smooth 2D scrolling is possible with a VGA; see 'Zen of Graphics Programming' by Michael Abrash for details. You're right, though; the original Amiga was quite impressive in 1985.

    TedC

  • Me like black boxes *drool*

  • I was not impressed by those preliminary photos at all. The design looks terrible. However, I'll wait until I see the real deal and most of all what kind of capabilities it has. I'm looking forward to the launch.

    Does anybody know when that will be?

    --ralphieboy
  • I wasn't impressed with the monitor either, though.

    - A.P.
    --


    "One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad

  • Actually yeah I'm sorry... I remember hearing about the Hasbro thing and the Milan thing before... Never paid much attention as well... it was Hasbro and the Milan thing was all in German and I didnt feel like waiting for a translation...

    Good to see some people remember things though...

    :)
    Cheers...
  • Pictures are great, but how about hardware specs? What good is the box if it's just an Amiga 4000 repackaged?
  • Mouse like a breast? Fondling? Damn, I wish my computing experience was so sensual.. it sure would make work more interesting. At the very least, good industrial design from the iMac and this Amiga prototype make for more compelling computers.. more so than for plain boxes that only look good next to your grandmother's beige undergarment collection.

    I'm a former Amiga fan and now I'm a Mac fanatic (got a 7600/G3 with snowboarding stickers all over it, a curvaceous black PowerBook G3, and a Strawberry iMac). I think it would be awesome if the Amiga came through as a smoky gray or navy.. something to signify power, speed, or performance -- as most car makers do. Hopefully the new 550 MHz G3 minitowers (to be announced on Thursday) will sport some dark, sporty colors.

    -----
    Linux user: if (nt == unstable) { switchTo.linux() }
  • gargoyles would actually be REALLY cool. i'd buy it then...

  • Re:Cool (Score:1)

    by Squid ( 3420 )
    The fact that its parent company doesn't quite take the market seriously?
  • I thought that the "monitor" was covered with carpet =) I guess the fact that these are styrofoam mock-ups is the reason they're not smooth, though I do like the fuzzy computing look.

  • Guys, this isn't significant. (Score:3)

    by Rick_T ( 3816 ) on Tuesday July 27, 1999 @07:06AM (#1780913) Homepage
    Like in the subject line - this isn't significant. We've seen cool Amiga cases before over the years. and they've contained nothing but vapor.

    Until there's actually something there *in* the box, it's not news and it certainly doesn't matter.

  • CD32? (Score:1)

    by Flynn ( 10827 )
    Looks kind of like the old CD32's from Commodore...
    Who knows though right? Maybe we'll actually see a running one in the next five years.... probably about the same time Atari tries to resurrect the ST....
    Seriously though, even with Transmeta supposedly on board, I can't say I'm really excited about this. Too many companies and too many people have tried to hype the Amiga back into reality and its all getting a bit tiresome. Ooh... another cool looking case design... still say the BeBox looked nicer....
    Just my one and a half cents worth....


  • I guess they're not so bright after all. When
    will companies learn the following equation :

    Speakers + Monitor = Bad

    That pretty much goes for any 2 components which
    are 'naturally' seperate, being put together. I
    think we all know the lovely Packard Bell all-in-
    one videocard/modem/sound card/ide controller
    monstrosity... yikes.
    ...dave
  • I'm tired of ridiculous hardware design, particularly involving screens. The iMac, for example, gives me gas. It's like a big, multi-colored buttoc. And the mouse is like a breast, so you can fondle as you hack. A decent software interface is where it's at. This new Amiga looks like something you'd find in the batcave.

    While I was once a big Amiga fan (like in 87 or so), I'm turned right off by overly curvacious plastic. Give me one of those new, 18" flatscreens and a box hidden somewhere under the desk, and cool software.
  • The amiga is rather perty, but it IS styrofoam. That just can't get my mojo going. However if they gave me some specs on it i just may start to get excited.
    P.S.:To the folks at amiga...
    Think LOTS of ram!!!
  • I think this is one of the most attractive computer cases I have ever seen. It has none of the gaudiness of an iMac and all the mod-style. From these pictures, it looks sturdy and well designed, those black boxes from Acer, etc, eminate cheapness. Its two tone dark grey reminds me of a high-end brushed aluminum appliance or stereo, ever seen high end audio gear from a company known as krell [krellonline.com]? Very cool. Hopefully they won't screw up the keyboard/mouse as much as Apple did on their new machines, thats a major dissapointment to me, esp. on the G3, tho a petite female friend of mine loves the keyboard/mouse on her iMac. Unfortunately for us computer geeks, the old Amiga is dead, this is clearly a consumer product, aimed at the same people who buy iMacs and cheap PCs, but it still looks great, I would love to have one for web surfing and light takes, and leave my ugly, mostrous and beige box for Linux.

    Spyky

  • What a great idea! (Score:3)

    by tgd ( 2822 ) on Tuesday July 27, 1999 @07:11AM (#1780919)
    That's a fanstastic idea! Felt covered foam computer cases! You can knock 'em over, kick them, poke at them, and stick velcro to them!

    The RF emmissions must be huge, but man, what a great idea!

    Bet they soak up coffee (beer, tequilla, etc) pretty well though. Oops. That'd suck.

    I'm going to go buy some carpet padding and felt and make my computer cases look just like those!
  • Why am I using an amiga as desktop workstation in stead of a freenix box? Good question, one simple answer is that X11 with all it's glorious toolkits and windowmanagers dont have the "instant" feeling I have when I use amigas. Also, no real screen concept as on amiga, no good animation programs as on amiga, no nice and simple to use paintprogram, no consistancy in the user interfaces, no autodetection and automounting of devices, no full screen video playback (with genlocking) etc. No unix has a real GUI, X11 and whatever you run on top doesnt know much about the OS kernel, and doesnt communicate much with it anyways. And the kernel doesnt know about X, so you can never expect the OS to give you f.ex error requesters, you'll have to build stuff like that yourself using various toolkits, perl and whatever.. *yawn* Well, that was only a few points, I could go on, but I dont see the point, as noone will take notice anyways.
  • Cool.. I'm glad I'm not the only one that uses theirs as a TV....
  • You know guys, amiga released some design images of the new amiga before as well. That was over a year ago. It looked more like your standard (well, a rather curvy) tower case, with polk speakers and a 17" monitor. A year later, we've got a couple mockups of a set top type box to show for it. Now, a year ago I was rather enthusiastic about the new amiga. It *did* really sound like they were getting thier act together and were going to come out with something rather neat. Even now, it *may* work. The thing is, that this has been promised for quite a while, and while we get nice box designs, a couple faked OS "designer" images, and some vague specs, there has virtually been no hard information you can trust. It took me about a year to loose any faith I had in Amiga inc. Others have lasted a lot longer, and I don't honestly know how you do it. I'd *like* to believe this thing will become a great system, but I just can't these days. I hope they prove me wrong.
    Otherwise, it's not a bad looking little box, reminds me a bit of the CD32, which someone else mentioned. I wonder what the upgradibility will be for one of these? Even the 3000s had some problems with the longer cards.
  • I agree. Macs have great hardware, but the software selection sucks. I think it is a little more stable than M$, but who would actually run System# on it anyway? Put Linux on it, and compile or port all the software yourself. BTW, I like those iBooks, just the hardware. The case looks too poofy.
  • HDTV's are actually better than most monitors (about 1980x1200 if memory serves me right)so the quality should be up there with the best of them.

    hmm I'm just waiting for the local HDTV network stations to apear in WA......

    seya

  • I always thought that Starbridge was a hoax or some guy who was full of himself. Has anyone seen their webpage? He tries to make himself sound like a genius. Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE for them to be able to deliver according to all their hype, but I won't be a believer until I see it work as advertised.
  • If I have a big enough place to put them under the desk I like towers, lots of space to fiddle around in when you are adding or swapping hardware.

    If I don't have space for a tower I like a monitor connected to the video out of a laptop that is sitting on a shelf over or next to the monitor. I also like a full sized ergonomic keyboard plugged into the laptop.

    Those netwinder boxes approch the "laptop" footprint although the laptop can also travel.

    I think that for non-tower desktop machine a netwinder type box sitting next to a 15 - 19 inch lcd screen is much more stylish then anything else.

    When will LCD screens become affordable!
  • Uh... Aren't they already?
  • I don't know. When I looked closely at the monitor image, there were artifacts, signs of digital manipulation. I think it's a fake.

    http://ugn.amiga.org/events/proto/tvfront.JPG

  • . . . so if the hardware AND the software are both different, what's the same? ;-)

    The trademark.

  • | This new Amiga looks like something you'd find
    | in the batcave.

    I was thinking that I could fix some popcorn in it.
  • Linux, yes, Transmeta no. And ignore the rumors of the word Transmeta flashing on a screen during the show - it's a red herring.

    But then, Amiga Inc. lack the professionalism and drive that will be necessary to make a product like this succeed. It will be neither first nor fastest when it ships. Compound this with Amiga Inc's habit of blowing off developers, and their inability to do public relations worth a damn, and you're looking at a genuine successor to the original Amiga. Force to be reckoned with? Not until Amiga Inc. learn to play hardball.
  • No, the photos arent faked - that's genuine styrofoam.

  • Some of you need cheese with your whine. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I'm sure those who thought the case was interesting were aware that it was a model. It gets rather redundant to hear 30 of you saying "But its Styrofoam!(tm)".

    It was a demonstration of how it will look. They didn't say "This is what we're going to use as a case" (Although that would be cool, remember the guy using styrofoam and mineral oil to overclock?)

    Frankly, I've pretty much ignored anything about the Amiga since the start of their downward spiral. But now it seems they are working, and trying to do more than just show off vaporware. At least their news is coming more and more often now.

    Is it that necessary to whine? I'd complain less if I was forced to use NT the rest of my life :P. Either the machine will rock, or suck. I'd rather wait and see for something solid before complaining about it, unlike most of you self-proclaimed couchside geniuses.
  • Right...

    The original A1000 could multitask with 256k.

    Sweet.
  • You do know whos selling the system don't you? Amiga is owned by one of the best PC Clone manufacturers, Gateway. I'm not sure about the Amiga name, being too young, but lets hope that Gateways standards are there!
  • Amiga Inc have put up some official pictures on their web site [amiga.com].

  • [formerly Gateway 2000] purchasing the rights to install Amiga on their systems? I still do.

    I don't mean to imply that I have any devotion to Gateway (even though they WERE my first Phone tech support job, AND my first desktop), but these pix are definitely an interesting development for Gateway, no?

    OK, OK, truth be told, I HAVE been looking for an excuse to add an Amiga to my home LAN; and if Gateway is willing to purchase on of these mama's ...

  • While I was once a big Amiga fan (like in 87 or so), I'm turned right off by overly curvacious plastic. Give me one of those new, 18" flatscreens and a box hidden somewhere under the desk, and cool software.

    Amen. What good is a computer you can't stack stuff on?

  • Screw the foam mockups - here are REAL pics (Score:3)

    by Count Fragula ( 67767 ) on Tuesday July 27, 1999 @07:30AM (#1780960)
    Of NON-foam mockups.

    http://www.funtime-world.de/bericht/woa240799.ht ml

    Well, anyway at least the image quality is better.
    Note front-mounted USB ports, and the slight concave indentation above them - almost looks like the whole light-grey part can slide out of the case. Also, the improved shape of the monitor over the foam models. Still bulky, though. Case has DVD/CD drive on top and ???? on the bottom. Wonder what that could be.. 256k memory expansion slot?

    These pics are from the World of Amiga 99 show in London, the one where the Transmeta logo was shown in the "Amiga Partners" video or whatever it was called.

    -The Count
  • This new Amiga looks like something you'd find in the batcave.
    I was thinking that I could fix some popcorn in it.

    Looks like all of those ugly "interactive multimedia" CD boxes from several years ago (though I hope it has a keyboard and not just an overgrown remote control).

    Or maybe it looks like some kind of alien death machine -- but not in a good way.

  • It looks a lot like the old unified Compaq Presarios (the ones with CPU, monitor, and speakers in the same box). The difference here is that the monitor+speakers are detached, and the finish has a different colour and a grainy, sandy appearance (guessing by the pictures). When you put the monitor on top of the CPU, it looks astonishingly like those bloody Compaqs.

    I just want a SPARC-like pizza box. Nothing else.
  • WE WANT GREEN and not iMac green but nice shades

    we cant you simply say what colour you want your box like you do with a car ?

    Your prayers have been answered [krylon.com].

  • Shouldn't lots of RAM should be up to the user?

    They'll probably use their own hideously expensive proprietary memory, though, like the SGI PCs...
    /El Niño

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