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The Future Was Here: The Commodore Amiga
Long ago, in 1985, personal computers came in two general categories: the friendly, childish game machine used for fun (exemplified by Atari and Commodore products); and the boring, beige adult box used for business (exemplified by products from IBM). The game machines became fascinating technical and artistic platforms that were of limited real-world utility. The IBM products were all utility, with little emphasis on aesthetics and no emphasis on fun. Into this bifurcated computing environment came the Commodore Amiga 1000. This personal computer featured a palette of 4,096 colors, unprecedented animation capabilities, four-channel stereo sound, the capacity to run multiple applications simultaneously, a graphical user interface, and powerful processing potential. It was, Jimmy Maher writes in The Future Was Here, the world’s first true multimedia personal computer.
Maher argues that the Amiga’s capacity to store and display color photographs, manipulate video (giving amateurs access to professional tools), and use recordings of real-world sound were the seeds of the digital media future: digital cameras, Photoshop, MP3 players, and even YouTube, Flickr, and the blogosphere. He examines different facets of the platform--from Deluxe Paint to AmigaOS to Cinemaware--in each chapter, creating a portrait of the platform and the communities of practice that surrounded it. Of course, Maher acknowledges, the Amiga was not perfect: the DOS component of the operating systems was clunky and ill-matched, for example, and crashes often accompanied multitasking attempts. And Commodore went bankrupt in 1994. But for a few years, the Amiga’s technical qualities were harnessed by engineers, programmers, artists, and others to push back boundaries and transform the culture of computing.
Maher argues that the Amiga’s capacity to store and display color photographs, manipulate video (giving amateurs access to professional tools), and use recordings of real-world sound were the seeds of the digital media future: digital cameras, Photoshop, MP3 players, and even YouTube, Flickr, and the blogosphere. He examines different facets of the platform--from Deluxe Paint to AmigaOS to Cinemaware--in each chapter, creating a portrait of the platform and the communities of practice that surrounded it. Of course, Maher acknowledges, the Amiga was not perfect: the DOS component of the operating systems was clunky and ill-matched, for example, and crashes often accompanied multitasking attempts. And Commodore went bankrupt in 1994. But for a few years, the Amiga’s technical qualities were harnessed by engineers, programmers, artists, and others to push back boundaries and transform the culture of computing.
328 pages, Hardcover
First published April 13, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
November 23, 2025
Follows in the footsteps of “Racing the Beam” as the second book in the MIT’s Platform Studies series, this time talking about the maligned Commodore Amiga. Again, a terrifying read, even for those never particularly familiar with that platform. There’s some technical details here, a lot of levelheaded insight about its weaknesses and strengths, and just the right amount of nostalgia.
November 26, 2014
The series returns to form. The Amiga, though a general-purpose PC in the end, started its design phase as a video game console, and retained many idiosyncratic features in its final form. Maher examines how these features helped the Amiga make such a tremendous impact on image editing, video processing (both commercial and in the demoscene), and gaming.
The focus is mainly on the hardware, and its features are mostly revealed piecemeal over the course of the book, as the discussion reaches userland software that makes use of them; I feel like an upfront discussion of its abilities, including a few diagrams (everyone enjoys a good diagram), would have painted a clearer picture. The OS itself is barely addressed, except to say that most iconic software just tended to bypass it to access the metal directly. When it is, Maher often overestimates how innovative certain features were compared to (especially) Unix.
On the whole, though, The Future Was Here is a very solid book that works well as a nostalgia piece, a PC history primer, and—fortuitously—an entry in the platform studies series.
The focus is mainly on the hardware, and its features are mostly revealed piecemeal over the course of the book, as the discussion reaches userland software that makes use of them; I feel like an upfront discussion of its abilities, including a few diagrams (everyone enjoys a good diagram), would have painted a clearer picture. The OS itself is barely addressed, except to say that most iconic software just tended to bypass it to access the metal directly. When it is, Maher often overestimates how innovative certain features were compared to (especially) Unix.
On the whole, though, The Future Was Here is a very solid book that works well as a nostalgia piece, a PC history primer, and—fortuitously—an entry in the platform studies series.
November 9, 2017
I discovered the field of Platform Studies with Super Power, Spoony Bards and Silverware on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), and couldn't resist the earlier entry in the same series, The Future Was Here, which examines the Commodore Amiga.
I had an Amiga 500 at home at the same time as working with IBM PCs at work, so this was a fascinating trip into the past for me. Unlike Dominic Arsenault in the SNES title, Jimmy Maher chooses to focus far more on the technology, plus a fair amount on the culture, but doesn't give the same business insights. We are repeatedly told how disastrous the Commodore management was (though occasionally this is is presented as a biased view from the Amiga fans), but don't get a feel for what was happening at the Commodore end. This story is driven by the technology, those who created the technology and those who used it.
Apart from anything else, it was interesting to discover the US viewpoint. Apparently, the US end tried to position the Amiga as a business machine to rival the IBM PC and the Mac, while the European end of the market - the one I directly experienced - focused far more on the Amiga's capabilities as a games machine. And for its time, it was a superb one. If you aren't familiar with the Amiga, it was displaying impressive colour graphics and high quality sound at a time when Macs had tiny monochrome screens and IBM PCs were lucky if they could handle four colours and did little more than beeping. The Amiga's graphics capabilities meant that, while the US version couldn't get a foothold in business, it did become a standard for TV effects generation.
Maher presents the Amiga fairly, I think, as a machine that was ahead of its time and pointed to many of the directions for the future, but implemented its capabilities in a way that was difficult to continue evolving. It did not have the flexibility of the open hardware development for IBM PCs, nor was it made by a company with the drive to keep improving in leaps as Apple did. As a result, the Amiga was an outstanding machine for about five years, but once were were into the 1990s it was rapidly overtaken and left behind.
In part, the enjoyment of the book was a degree of nostalgia, particularly when Maher talked about the game Defender of the Crown, which was an Amiga must-have. As well as more on the business aspects, I would have liked to see more on the operating system and applications from the user's eye view. Instead, Maher focuses particularly on the developer's viewpoint. So we have pages of description of how the different parts of the operating system and the hardware chips functioned, and lengthy breakdowns of how, for instance, graphics demos interacted with the Amiga hardware. Of course we need to know what, for instance, its oddly named chips Denise, Paula and Agnus*, and the copper and blitter coprocessors did, but there was rather too much information for me.
Overall, I'd say this was an even more specialist read than the SNES title. But if are interested in the workings of computer hardware and software, or you were an Amiga owner, I can recommend this book to fill in a lot of the detail from behind the scenes... and take you on a nostalgia trip in the bargain.
* I've always been puzzled that the chips were supposedly given girls names, but 'agnus' is a male Latin word. I can only assume it was a misspelling of Agnes.
I had an Amiga 500 at home at the same time as working with IBM PCs at work, so this was a fascinating trip into the past for me. Unlike Dominic Arsenault in the SNES title, Jimmy Maher chooses to focus far more on the technology, plus a fair amount on the culture, but doesn't give the same business insights. We are repeatedly told how disastrous the Commodore management was (though occasionally this is is presented as a biased view from the Amiga fans), but don't get a feel for what was happening at the Commodore end. This story is driven by the technology, those who created the technology and those who used it.
Apart from anything else, it was interesting to discover the US viewpoint. Apparently, the US end tried to position the Amiga as a business machine to rival the IBM PC and the Mac, while the European end of the market - the one I directly experienced - focused far more on the Amiga's capabilities as a games machine. And for its time, it was a superb one. If you aren't familiar with the Amiga, it was displaying impressive colour graphics and high quality sound at a time when Macs had tiny monochrome screens and IBM PCs were lucky if they could handle four colours and did little more than beeping. The Amiga's graphics capabilities meant that, while the US version couldn't get a foothold in business, it did become a standard for TV effects generation.
Maher presents the Amiga fairly, I think, as a machine that was ahead of its time and pointed to many of the directions for the future, but implemented its capabilities in a way that was difficult to continue evolving. It did not have the flexibility of the open hardware development for IBM PCs, nor was it made by a company with the drive to keep improving in leaps as Apple did. As a result, the Amiga was an outstanding machine for about five years, but once were were into the 1990s it was rapidly overtaken and left behind.
In part, the enjoyment of the book was a degree of nostalgia, particularly when Maher talked about the game Defender of the Crown, which was an Amiga must-have. As well as more on the business aspects, I would have liked to see more on the operating system and applications from the user's eye view. Instead, Maher focuses particularly on the developer's viewpoint. So we have pages of description of how the different parts of the operating system and the hardware chips functioned, and lengthy breakdowns of how, for instance, graphics demos interacted with the Amiga hardware. Of course we need to know what, for instance, its oddly named chips Denise, Paula and Agnus*, and the copper and blitter coprocessors did, but there was rather too much information for me.
Overall, I'd say this was an even more specialist read than the SNES title. But if are interested in the workings of computer hardware and software, or you were an Amiga owner, I can recommend this book to fill in a lot of the detail from behind the scenes... and take you on a nostalgia trip in the bargain.
* I've always been puzzled that the chips were supposedly given girls names, but 'agnus' is a male Latin word. I can only assume it was a misspelling of Agnes.
April 5, 2020
Originally ahead of its time, this multimedia machine didn't grow with the market. This book focuses on the software far more than the hardware, including a chapter on the cracker and demo "scene". I wanted more about the customer chips that defined and ultimately limited this PC.
That hardware and some of the software was pretty amazing for the time. This book also details how Commodore did next to nothing for the platform, which eventually couldn't compete with CD-ROM, 3D graphics and an open architecture. The machine was far more popular in Europe than the US. Of the many software chapters, I was glad to see the OS and then Cinemaware and Psygnosis highlighted.
The amount of time spent on the first demo (the juggler) was also good, but the book really bogged down talking about deluxe paint and other demos. Some editing would have helped, along with a few color plates - this was a multimedia PC! The author has a website with visuals and downloadable options for the UAE emulator, but the moving visuals mostly require Flash animation, disabled by default on modern browsers. Those images and movies are all in the Amiga resolution also - quite small on a modern laptop.
Recommended if you were an Amiga fan or if you want completeness - there are chapters worth reading here.
That hardware and some of the software was pretty amazing for the time. This book also details how Commodore did next to nothing for the platform, which eventually couldn't compete with CD-ROM, 3D graphics and an open architecture. The machine was far more popular in Europe than the US. Of the many software chapters, I was glad to see the OS and then Cinemaware and Psygnosis highlighted.
The amount of time spent on the first demo (the juggler) was also good, but the book really bogged down talking about deluxe paint and other demos. Some editing would have helped, along with a few color plates - this was a multimedia PC! The author has a website with visuals and downloadable options for the UAE emulator, but the moving visuals mostly require Flash animation, disabled by default on modern browsers. Those images and movies are all in the Amiga resolution also - quite small on a modern laptop.
Recommended if you were an Amiga fan or if you want completeness - there are chapters worth reading here.
May 16, 2017
One of those books that's an interesting read because of its uniqueness, even if the execution lags at times. I found myself quoting it and referring to it a lot despite the fact that I didn't necessarily enjoy reading it, if that makes sense.
Written by classic computer game blogger Jimmy Maher, The Future Was Here is, at least to my knowledge, the only comprehensive history of the Commodore Amiga computer, and one of very few books in total about the golden age of the personal computer in the 1980s, when suddenly almost every middle-class home included a computer for the first time in history, but, because the PC wars hadn't run their course, that computer could be an IBM PC, or an Apple II, or a Macintosh, or a TI-99/4A, or maybe a Timex Sinclair or BBC Micro, or a Commodore VIC-20 or 64 . . . or Amiga.
The book goes into great detail about the initial origin of the Amiga, the system hardware architecture, graphics modes, OS, software, and fan culture, along with its place relative to other home computers of the era and in history, including its popular demise. As you could guess, the relative interest of each section to any one reader will vary a lot. Never having been an Amiga owner myself, I found the in-depth sections about its graphics modes, etc, kind of a slog, but then was fascinated with the sections on Max Headroom, the Amiga hacker scene, etc.
In short, your mileage may vary.
(Lastly, on an admittedly trivial and snarky note, Jimmy Maher *really* needs to learn the difference between "exasperated" and "exacerbated." I don't know how the editors didn't catch this and just do a Ctrl+F / Replace All.)
Written by classic computer game blogger Jimmy Maher, The Future Was Here is, at least to my knowledge, the only comprehensive history of the Commodore Amiga computer, and one of very few books in total about the golden age of the personal computer in the 1980s, when suddenly almost every middle-class home included a computer for the first time in history, but, because the PC wars hadn't run their course, that computer could be an IBM PC, or an Apple II, or a Macintosh, or a TI-99/4A, or maybe a Timex Sinclair or BBC Micro, or a Commodore VIC-20 or 64 . . . or Amiga.
The book goes into great detail about the initial origin of the Amiga, the system hardware architecture, graphics modes, OS, software, and fan culture, along with its place relative to other home computers of the era and in history, including its popular demise. As you could guess, the relative interest of each section to any one reader will vary a lot. Never having been an Amiga owner myself, I found the in-depth sections about its graphics modes, etc, kind of a slog, but then was fascinated with the sections on Max Headroom, the Amiga hacker scene, etc.
In short, your mileage may vary.
(Lastly, on an admittedly trivial and snarky note, Jimmy Maher *really* needs to learn the difference between "exasperated" and "exacerbated." I don't know how the editors didn't catch this and just do a Ctrl+F / Replace All.)
June 27, 2018
The Future Was Here is an attempt to put into context why the Commodore Amiga has such a legendary status among personal computers of its time. Indeed, the title couldn't be more apt. The Amiga truly was ahead of its time, but Commodore managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and the Amiga is now just another "failure" on the road to modern computing in the early 21st century.
This book dives deep into what made the Amiga great: its unique hardware architecture and the software. The author goes into depth to dissect a number of killer apps that contributed to the Amiga legend. From the original Boing Ball demo to Deluxe Paint, to the Video Toaster, Maher breaks down how the applications managed to take advantage of the Amiga's unique architecture. The black-and-white pictures and screenshots in the book do not do the Amiga any justice. Most of these applications need to be seen in action to be fully-appreciated, and Maher created a companion website to host copies of the Boing Ball demo, some artwork made on Amigas, and other Amiga-generated content. Unfortunately, that website is in serious need of updates to work with modern web browsers in 2018. YouTube will probably be your best friend if you want to see Amiga software in action.
Maher also dedicates a couple of chapters to a few special Amiga games, such as those developed by Cinemaware and Psygnosis. Another chapter is dedicated to the demoscene that sprung up around the Amiga.
As for as the history of the Amiga itself, you won't really get a straight account from this book. Maher sprinkles historical context throughout the book while discussing the software, but the reader will really have to piece things together for themselves. Those looking to see historical accounts of the politics at Commodore in the 1980s, or to see a linear retelling of the Amiga's history, will probably be better off reading Jeremy Reimer's long-running series of articles on Ars Technica.
Overall, this is a great book for computer enthusiasts who are curious about the Amiga and why it evokes such reverence from its fans. Stay for the art, but look elsewhere for the history.
This book dives deep into what made the Amiga great: its unique hardware architecture and the software. The author goes into depth to dissect a number of killer apps that contributed to the Amiga legend. From the original Boing Ball demo to Deluxe Paint, to the Video Toaster, Maher breaks down how the applications managed to take advantage of the Amiga's unique architecture. The black-and-white pictures and screenshots in the book do not do the Amiga any justice. Most of these applications need to be seen in action to be fully-appreciated, and Maher created a companion website to host copies of the Boing Ball demo, some artwork made on Amigas, and other Amiga-generated content. Unfortunately, that website is in serious need of updates to work with modern web browsers in 2018. YouTube will probably be your best friend if you want to see Amiga software in action.
Maher also dedicates a couple of chapters to a few special Amiga games, such as those developed by Cinemaware and Psygnosis. Another chapter is dedicated to the demoscene that sprung up around the Amiga.
As for as the history of the Amiga itself, you won't really get a straight account from this book. Maher sprinkles historical context throughout the book while discussing the software, but the reader will really have to piece things together for themselves. Those looking to see historical accounts of the politics at Commodore in the 1980s, or to see a linear retelling of the Amiga's history, will probably be better off reading Jeremy Reimer's long-running series of articles on Ars Technica.
Overall, this is a great book for computer enthusiasts who are curious about the Amiga and why it evokes such reverence from its fans. Stay for the art, but look elsewhere for the history.
January 26, 2022
This is the 3rd book from MIT's Platform Series that I've read and, like the others, it was a fascinating dive into computing history. The Amiga will forever live in my heart, as it was the first computer my family every owned and I have many fond memories of it.
This book starts out with a few chapters discussing the hardware specifics which really underscores how innovative and forward-thinking the platform design was. The rest of the book's chapters go into high-level designs (sometimes into the code) for popular Amiga software packages that include graphic design, 3d modelling, music, the AmigaOS, and of course games.
What I loved most about the book was reading about the clever programmers who were able to push the Amiga to do things that the hardware engineers never foresaw, extending the computer's lifespan long past what it's normal shelf-life should have been.
Note: The book does delve into the platform's demise & gross mismanagement by Commodore, but it's only covered lightly and more of an afterthought -- make no mistake, the book is about the platform & the engineers/developers who brought it to life.
This book starts out with a few chapters discussing the hardware specifics which really underscores how innovative and forward-thinking the platform design was. The rest of the book's chapters go into high-level designs (sometimes into the code) for popular Amiga software packages that include graphic design, 3d modelling, music, the AmigaOS, and of course games.
What I loved most about the book was reading about the clever programmers who were able to push the Amiga to do things that the hardware engineers never foresaw, extending the computer's lifespan long past what it's normal shelf-life should have been.
Note: The book does delve into the platform's demise & gross mismanagement by Commodore, but it's only covered lightly and more of an afterthought -- make no mistake, the book is about the platform & the engineers/developers who brought it to life.
January 12, 2020
Before actually reading the book, I was afraid it would be just another variation of the story of how the Amiga barely made it to production, and while there is *some* of that in the book, The Future Was Here provided a lot more information about the platform itself, in a technical sense, than I was expecting. For those engaging in platform studies, I'd highly suggest this book; it does a good job balancing between the technical (which doesn't bother me) to the academic (which doesn't bother me either). The audience is definitely a scholarly one, but you should know that already if you're reading this series of books.
May 11, 2017
This was just an amazing an tremendously fun read. Aside from the history stepping through demos applications, and concepts, on a semi-technical level gives distinct insights into the platform. The authors tone is inclusive and the content is comprehensive. Read if you love technology, tech history, or are looking for inspiration on how to solve technical problems in what are now unconventional ways.
September 27, 2017
Pretty good and gave me a wider perspective of the history of the Amiga platform than I had before, which is very valuable information for retro-computing with that platform. I had a few gripes though. Describing Amiga internals or the like in purely narrative format is clunky and probably no one's going to read that. Also use of "she" in contexts which historically were mostly "he" is a little irritating; use "they" if you want to be gender-neutral.
January 12, 2020
Some wonderful details, but in need of some copious editing
June 2, 2012
The Future was here (2012) by Jimmy Maher is an excellent book about the wonderful Amiga computer. If you are an Amiga enthusiast or someone who remembers the Amiga fondly you can stop reading now and simply go and order the book for yourself. You won’t regret it. The book isn’t perfect but it offers a very welcome in depth study of an amazing computing platforms.
The Amiga was designed in the early 1980s by a team lead by Jay Miner . The Amiga was based around the Motorola 68000 chip that was also the CPU for the technologically less advanced and considerably more expensive Apple Macintosh. What was special about the Amiga is that it had a chipset that enabled much of the graphics and sound processing to be handled by something other than the CPU. Agnes, Denise and Paula that formed the original chipset. Sprites, blitting and sound were vastly superior on the Amiga to other contemporary systems. The Amiga wouldn’t really be outclassed as a computer for 6-7 years after its release. Today, such a leap forward is unthinkable.
The book covers the Amiga’s creation, the chipsets and the operating system the Amiga used., Next the release of the machine and the ‘Boing’ demo are described. The details of why the Boing demo was impressive and some of the tricks that were used is well described. Then there is a chapter on ‘Deluxe Paint’ which was one of the most famous Amiga painting programs that could create color art that was not possible on other systems of the time. The Amiga’s contribution to 3D modelling - SSG and Sculpt-Animate are then described. There is then a chapter on NewtTek and the HAM system for using all of the Amiga’s 4096 colors. Following a look at the Amiga’s OS there is a chapter on the Amiga demo scene that describes how clever hackers produced clever short bits of art on the system. The penultimate chapter describes Cinemaware and Psygnosis and some of the games on the Amiga. Finally there is a chapter on why the Amiga died in the 1990s.
The book is a little disjointed. It jumps around a bit in time and from subject to subject. It’s also a little haphazard in what it covers. The detail in some areas is deeper than the detail in others. There is also not enough thought given to how the Macintosh managed to survive while the Amiga floundered. The explanation is probably that the Macintosh managed to find an application that it was ideally suited for that worked for many businesses, desktop publishing, while the Amiga’s great abilities never found a similar market that was large enough. In addition the Amiga failed to improve the technology substantially to keep it ahead of the competition. The failure to develop new chipsets is, however, covered well by the book.
Maher has written an excellent account of a wonderful computing platform that is now largely a memory. He manages to capture just how it felt to use a computer that did give a glimpse of the future and describe many of the features that made it so outstanding.
The Amiga was designed in the early 1980s by a team lead by Jay Miner . The Amiga was based around the Motorola 68000 chip that was also the CPU for the technologically less advanced and considerably more expensive Apple Macintosh. What was special about the Amiga is that it had a chipset that enabled much of the graphics and sound processing to be handled by something other than the CPU. Agnes, Denise and Paula that formed the original chipset. Sprites, blitting and sound were vastly superior on the Amiga to other contemporary systems. The Amiga wouldn’t really be outclassed as a computer for 6-7 years after its release. Today, such a leap forward is unthinkable.
The book covers the Amiga’s creation, the chipsets and the operating system the Amiga used., Next the release of the machine and the ‘Boing’ demo are described. The details of why the Boing demo was impressive and some of the tricks that were used is well described. Then there is a chapter on ‘Deluxe Paint’ which was one of the most famous Amiga painting programs that could create color art that was not possible on other systems of the time. The Amiga’s contribution to 3D modelling - SSG and Sculpt-Animate are then described. There is then a chapter on NewtTek and the HAM system for using all of the Amiga’s 4096 colors. Following a look at the Amiga’s OS there is a chapter on the Amiga demo scene that describes how clever hackers produced clever short bits of art on the system. The penultimate chapter describes Cinemaware and Psygnosis and some of the games on the Amiga. Finally there is a chapter on why the Amiga died in the 1990s.
The book is a little disjointed. It jumps around a bit in time and from subject to subject. It’s also a little haphazard in what it covers. The detail in some areas is deeper than the detail in others. There is also not enough thought given to how the Macintosh managed to survive while the Amiga floundered. The explanation is probably that the Macintosh managed to find an application that it was ideally suited for that worked for many businesses, desktop publishing, while the Amiga’s great abilities never found a similar market that was large enough. In addition the Amiga failed to improve the technology substantially to keep it ahead of the competition. The failure to develop new chipsets is, however, covered well by the book.
Maher has written an excellent account of a wonderful computing platform that is now largely a memory. He manages to capture just how it felt to use a computer that did give a glimpse of the future and describe many of the features that made it so outstanding.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 29, 2016
The Amiga is an inspiration of a design given the technology of its time: preemptive multitasking without memory segmentation, a message-passing OS, and hardware-assisted 2D graphics. Its advantage was in being a platform of both hardware *and* software, sort of a console-meets-PC, which gave it a great technical boost at its birth but ultimately shortened its lifespan as the hardware advantages became obsolete.
This book should be the go-to guide for what an entry in the Platform Studies series should be. First it introduces you to the platform and what makes it unique with an appropriate technical level of detail. Then it dives you through a few case studies of end-user applications and how they're enabled by the platform. Then finally it takes you into the social context, explaining the demoscene and how people were actually using Amigas out in the real world.
I hope we see more great platforms learning the lessons of the Amiga in the future, and more Platform Studies of the great platforms of the past. I'm hopeful to see something maybe come out of the IoT/Maker-movement that shows that hardware can be part of a great platform design again.
This book should be the go-to guide for what an entry in the Platform Studies series should be. First it introduces you to the platform and what makes it unique with an appropriate technical level of detail. Then it dives you through a few case studies of end-user applications and how they're enabled by the platform. Then finally it takes you into the social context, explaining the demoscene and how people were actually using Amigas out in the real world.
I hope we see more great platforms learning the lessons of the Amiga in the future, and more Platform Studies of the great platforms of the past. I'm hopeful to see something maybe come out of the IoT/Maker-movement that shows that hardware can be part of a great platform design again.
July 5, 2014
Maher's "The Future Was Here: The Commodore Amiga" is a volume in MIT's Platform Studies series and does a good job illuminating the Amiga platform. My major criticism of the work is that spends comparatively little time talking about the development of the hardware and spends a great deal of time detailing the development of the Amiga's software. The development of the custom chipset at the core of the Amiga both defined the platform and, ultimately, limited it. I wanted to learn much more about the team that put the hardware together. Commodore's criminal mismanagement of the Amiga guaranteed its marginalization and failure in the marketplace. "On the Edge: the Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore" is an excellent look at the meta issues that killed Commodore.
February 3, 2016
ok, i think i get amiga. some of the bits and pieces i picked up:
- demo scene. i heard the term before, but finally i found out what it is all about
- bitplane graphics. damnest thing, but it seemed to work well for some time
- ray tracing
- mod music. i distinctly remember playing those files on my pc
- sprites supported in hardware
- it's funny how c programming was considered slow in late 80s
- game level workings of one particular game (side scroller)
all in all. amiga was one huge hack, and it worked pretty well for couple of years, but inability to extend hardware and keep backward compatibility sealed it's fate.
- demo scene. i heard the term before, but finally i found out what it is all about
- bitplane graphics. damnest thing, but it seemed to work well for some time
- ray tracing
- mod music. i distinctly remember playing those files on my pc
- sprites supported in hardware
- it's funny how c programming was considered slow in late 80s
- game level workings of one particular game (side scroller)
all in all. amiga was one huge hack, and it worked pretty well for couple of years, but inability to extend hardware and keep backward compatibility sealed it's fate.
December 28, 2012
The book is well-written but rather technical at times. As it nears the end it sadly becomes more sloppy with both typos and factual inaccuracies. If you are interested in the Amiga, the technology behind it and its userbase it is, however, an intriguing read.
September 24, 2016
I'm a big fan of personal computing history, and this book did not fail to disappoint. Excellent overview of the development of the Amiga, and why it eventually failed. My one complaint is that the coverage of the demoscene was kind of boring.
October 4, 2012
Maher’s book is not an easy read, but for those motivated enough to see it through, it’s a thoughtful, well-detailed examination of the history of the Amiga and computing in general.
January 20, 2013
Computer chips with people-names, signatures inside the case... Truly the Amiga put the "personal" in personal-computer.
June 24, 2013
Nice overview and history of the Amiga from a slightly different perspective; some demonstration applications are explained and describe what made the graphics look like 'magic'.
March 30, 2015
Excellent reading, very in depth technical analysis of some software, giving complete insight into how sown games came about
April 30, 2017
I didn't do as much outside research into the Amiga hardware or attempt to create a simple graphical demo to run in an emulator as I did when reading I Am Error, so some of the technical explanations here seem inadequate. Regardless of that the number of special graphics chips in the Amiga and their apparently overlapping responsibilities seem more confusing than the Nintendo PPU and deserve more explanation.
All the pictures are in black and white, but many are intended to illustrate different color graphical effects, which seems pointless. The author suggests that readers go to the book website for color versions.
Lacks the academic verbal garbage and need to end every other paragraph with a mildly witty summation of the previous text that plagues I Am Error, which is a good thing.
All the pictures are in black and white, but many are intended to illustrate different color graphical effects, which seems pointless. The author suggests that readers go to the book website for color versions.
Lacks the academic verbal garbage and need to end every other paragraph with a mildly witty summation of the previous text that plagues I Am Error, which is a good thing.
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