The lack of MIDI didn't kill the Amiga. Atari ST had MIDI and it didn't last as long (and where is the current ST community now? laff at it all you like, and it sure as heck is to all intents and purposes IS dead, but the Amiga *community* stumbles on).
The PC + the console killed the Amiga. The Amiga was a computer that could play games. The PC was better at being a computer (better at "BEING a computer", not a "better computer") in that it was just like your computer at work (and could share files with it etc).
And the consoles were better at playing games. Again, not better games machines themselves perhaps, but undeniably better for playing games. Whack in a cartridge or disc and seconds later - boom, you're playing a game. No faffing around with "is this compatible?" joysticks... just plug and play.
So sure, you paid more, but what you got was two separate boxes that were better suited to their respective tasks than the technically superior and downright cheaper box in the middle that tried to be both.
Sadly by the time A4000 and CD32 came along the game was already over.
And then of course there were the viruses. Interesting to note that the Amiga (and the ST to a lesser extent I think) were the virus writers target of choice back in the day, when PC's were largely blissfully ignored.
Who wants a virus prone compromise of a computer/games machine?
Memory Management.... uh, the OS absolutely had memory management. What it didn't have was any concept of memory protection... you could get yourself a pointer into any old bit of memory and fiddle to your hearts content, whether that memory belonged to you or not.
Perhaps you meant that it had no *virtual* memory? True enough, but to do virtual memory you have to have protected memory. And the crucial thing that was missing from the Amiga was any form of hardware memory management unit that would have provided that.
iirc the MMU *was* present on the A3000/4000, but NOT on the A500, A600 or A1200 etc because they used cheap versions of the 68000 processor, but since the OS and all apps had to run on all Amiga's, lowest common denominator prevailed. So no protected memory and no virtual memory.
I LOVED my Amigas (an A500, an A500+ and an A1200). I learned C, C++ and Pascal on it and to this day wish that the Windows was as productive and as much downright FUN to work with as Intuition and Exec were.
But that was then. This is now.
Console yourself with the thought that the PS3 is arguably descended from the same spirit of Amiga, not to mention the silicon (Cell is iirc begotten from PowerPC which was begotten from M68K), but of course those who bemoan incompetent corporate handling of a technological marvel are also those most likely to bemoan the remarkably efficient (i.e. profitable) corporate handling of one just as much, if not more.
Mine's the one with 20 year old OS and hardware platform in it that current "state of the art" hardware is just about able to emulate in it's pocket.
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Just to tidy up a few points...
The lack of MIDI didn't kill the Amiga. Atari ST had MIDI and it didn't last as long (and where is the current ST community now? laff at it all you like, and it sure as heck is to all intents and purposes IS dead, but the Amiga *community* stumbles on).
The PC + the console killed the Amiga. The Amiga was a computer that could play games. The PC was better at being a computer (better at "BEING a computer", not a "better computer") in that it was just like your computer at work (and could share files with it etc).
And the consoles were better at playing games. Again, not better games machines themselves perhaps, but undeniably better for playing games. Whack in a cartridge or disc and seconds later - boom, you're playing a game. No faffing around with "is this compatible?" joysticks... just plug and play.
So sure, you paid more, but what you got was two separate boxes that were better suited to their respective tasks than the technically superior and downright cheaper box in the middle that tried to be both.
Sadly by the time A4000 and CD32 came along the game was already over.
And then of course there were the viruses. Interesting to note that the Amiga (and the ST to a lesser extent I think) were the virus writers target of choice back in the day, when PC's were largely blissfully ignored.
Who wants a virus prone compromise of a computer/games machine?
Memory Management.... uh, the OS absolutely had memory management. What it didn't have was any concept of memory protection... you could get yourself a pointer into any old bit of memory and fiddle to your hearts content, whether that memory belonged to you or not.
Perhaps you meant that it had no *virtual* memory? True enough, but to do virtual memory you have to have protected memory. And the crucial thing that was missing from the Amiga was any form of hardware memory management unit that would have provided that.
iirc the MMU *was* present on the A3000/4000, but NOT on the A500, A600 or A1200 etc because they used cheap versions of the 68000 processor, but since the OS and all apps had to run on all Amiga's, lowest common denominator prevailed. So no protected memory and no virtual memory.
I LOVED my Amigas (an A500, an A500+ and an A1200). I learned C, C++ and Pascal on it and to this day wish that the Windows was as productive and as much downright FUN to work with as Intuition and Exec were.
But that was then. This is now.
Console yourself with the thought that the PS3 is arguably descended from the same spirit of Amiga, not to mention the silicon (Cell is iirc begotten from PowerPC which was begotten from M68K), but of course those who bemoan incompetent corporate handling of a technological marvel are also those most likely to bemoan the remarkably efficient (i.e. profitable) corporate handling of one just as much, if not more.
Mine's the one with 20 year old OS and hardware platform in it that current "state of the art" hardware is just about able to emulate in it's pocket.