| Reprinted (with permission) from todays VNS...
Well done Wes !
Commodore International - Lost opportunity?
{Forbes, 13-Nov-89, p. 288}
Sometimes an innovative technology falls into the hands of weak or erratic
management. Commodore International seems to be just such a management.
...
Commodore? Doesn't Commodore make videogames? It does, but it also makes
computers with considerable graphic power. The $5,100 Amiga 2500 can, for
instance, capture video images from a camcorder or a VCR and then overlay
text, graphics and sound on computer screens and on its four-channel stereo
speakers. The machine is excellent for training and business presentations.
This style of so-called multimedia computing has become a buzzword among
computer marketers of late. Commodore was one of the first to offer it.
...
Commodore International - Seven-page ads for the Amiga computer
{Time, 30-Oct-89, pp. 9-15, also Newsweek and Life}
{Time, 13-Nov-89, pp. 5-11}
{Contributed by: Wes Plouff}
[This is the ad from the 13-Nov. Time - TT]
"Remember?
Computers (the personal kind) were going to set the world on fire. You were
going to be able to attach them directly to your brain, to your emotions, and
fly.
Well, it's happening. Finally. And the one that's doing it, the Amiga, has a
passionate following, not surprisingly.
Brain surgeons, musicians, writers, artists, video/graphics designers,
astronomers - in other words, people who need computers to express, search,
capture, embody, to explore concepts, and who don't want to wait another 50
years to do so - have found the Amiga. And the Amiga has found them.
You are next.
<page>
He's using it as an underwater "dashboard."
Graham Hawkes, Co-Founder, Deep Ocean Engineering, Inc., San Leandro,
California
[Photo of man in scuba gear. On computer monitor, digitized photo of fish
with depth, heading and date info in title bar.]
Deep Ocean Engineering is a company that makes the sort of things you expect
to see in a James Bond movie: Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) for underwater
exploration and "hostile" environments.
In fact, Hawkes' ROVs are in use worldwide; for research, for military
applications (mine detection), for police search and recovery, for pipeline
surveys, dam and oil-rig inspection, for use in nuclear power facilities, and
for recreation.
Hawkes is presently working on a new system he calls Deep Flight, a
"portable, autonomous submersible that moves swiftly underwater over a wide
area in the manner of a small aircraft."
Its performance characteristics will relate more to small fixed-wing
aircraft than to conventional underwater vehicles. At a depth of 4,000 feet,
it will do startling things.
As for James Bond, the connection is not entirely imaginary. Graham Hawkes'
resume actually includes piloting an underwater MANTIS in combat with 007 in
the film "For Your Eyes Only." (Hawkes, of course, was also the engineer who
created MANTIS.)
Hawkes holds the world record for the deepest solo dive: 3,000 feet, near
San Clemente, California, in 1985.
And _how_, you're wondering, during all these underwater explorations, does
the ROV report to the operator up top, at the other end of the umbilical cord,
such mildly interesting things as depth, heading, time, date, umbilical turns,
etc., etc.? By using an Amiga, of course.
Graham Hawkes, the "underwater revolutionary," and his team, have more
engineering and design experience with manned and robotic underwater vehicles
than anyone else in the world. When they needed a computer that wouldn't fall
short, nobody was surprised that the choice was Amiga.
Amiga. THE COMPUTER FOR THE CREATIVE MIND. (tm)
<page>
She's using it to express feelings.
Janice Miller, Kassondra Miller, Oceanside, New York
[Photo of mother and daughter. On computer screen, a "Happy Birthday,
Grandma" card in color. In daughter's hand, the same card on paper.]
Mrs. Miller and her daughter don't expect to put Hallmark out of business,
but the cards they create on their Amiga computer are not less professional in
quality and appearance, and considerably more personal: you'd have to be there
in person yourself to feel the impact of a card not only from your
granddaughter but entirely _created_ by her as well.
Although the Amiga _is_ a home computer, it's too good to use only at home
for a lot of people - people who use it to run businesses making posters and
signs and movie titles ("real" movie titles, not just "real" home movie
titles; and quite a few other things you may have been noticing that the Amiga
is awfully good at doing).
Even small children can use the Amiga to paint, and although that can make a
wonderful card, say, to send to a relative, the ability to paint, started
young enough, can also make a wonderful _life_ for someone; it's been known to
happen.
The Amiga may very well be the greatest paint brush ever invented; thousands
of colors that do what you want them to do as soon as you think the thought.
And none of those colors _ever_ spill on the floor, never need cleaning up.
Bet you hadn't thought of that.
AMIGA. THE COMPUTER FOR THE CREATIVE MIND.
The Amiga allows you to fly. Faster than you thought you could. Without
spending a lot of money. Without waiting around another 50 years. Amiga from
Commodore. Why not give us a call at 800-627-9595.
[logo] Commodore
<page>
He uses it to create a legend.
B.B. King, jazz guitarist
[Photo of King with electric guitar. On monitor, musical score editor
screen. ]
B.B. King didn't finish high school. But he is one of the great ones. He
plays a guitar he calls "Lucille" and he plays it like nobody else.
"I don't know computer talk like a lot of people." But he knows computers.
B.B. King has an Amiga. "I heard the Amiga was going to be the computer of
tomorrow. I tried it. It's so much easier than other computers, I took it
home.
"I learned I could sit in my room. Didn't have to call in musicians to
rehearse something. It'll play 4 voices or 60 or 70 voices. I could take my
guitar and _create tunes and not have to wait._ It would do it for me.
"Then I play with live musicians; I play the whole arrangement completely
worked out. Now _this_ is what I want."
B.B. King also plays chess on his Amiga.
"I'm one of those funny 64 year olds. I like to know what's going on."
AMIGA. THE COMPUTER FOR THE CREATIVE MIND.
<page>
If this is only a "game," why is your heart beating so fast? Richard
L'Hommedieu, computer philosopher, Smithtown, New York
[Photo of 11 year old holding joystick. On monitor, a flight simulator
game.]
The hottest games are created by the hottest talents on the hottest
computers.
It's just a simple fact.
And the Amiga is that computer. People who design games do it on Amigas and
Amigas are the computers you should see them on if you want to scare yourself
as intended.
There are computers that _claim_ to offer "arcade quality"; some even come
close. But the Amiga _is_ arcade quality for real; Amigas are the actual heart
of many arcade machines.
You could truly say that many arcades are "Amiga quality."
Quality and realism and color and speed and resolution aren't everything,
however. Almost, but not quite. "Falcon," the game being played by Richard,
above was created by people who use Amigas to design _on_, and _for_; see
Amiga Case Study No. 412 [another ad - NWP] for details.
Richard likes the Amiga because "it's easy to use... even programming
_programs_ is not as hard as you might think. Anybody can do it: kids my age,
from 6 to 30 to about 100 years old."
Maybe the way to sum up the genius of the Amiga is that it makes it
extremely easy to create things that are extremely difficult to ignore.
AMIGA. THE COMPUTER FOR THE CREATIVE MIND.
The Amiga allows you to fly. Faster than you thought you could. Without
spending a lot of money. Without waiting around another 50 years. Amiga from
Commodore. Why not give us a call at 800-627-9595.
[logo] Commodore
<page>
He uses it to do what he does because otherwise he couldn't do it. Reichard
Von Wolfsheild, Silent Software, Inc.
[Photo of man sitting with monitor on his lap. On monitor, title screen from
"Who Framed Roger Rabbit" game.]
Wait a minute. Does that mean what you think it means?
Yes.
Reichard Von Wolfsheild is a visionary. (He would never say that about
himself, but other people would, and they do.)
When Reichard talks he talks so fast that at first you're sure you're going
to miss something except that you _don't_ because you're interested and the
only thing odd is that he's pulling you into something new _faster_ than
you're used to but it seems to be working fine and you are suddenly aware that
you are thinking new things and you may also feel like you've been on some
kind of vacation.
Reichard says he couldn't operate without a computer. He happens to use an
Amiga and when you ask why, he says "it would be impossible to do what I do
without it."
But what does he do? What _does_ a visionary do?
Half of what he does is famous, the other half is secret, hush, hush; things
done for the Department of Defense, etc.
Doubts may enter your mind. But then he goes on to explain that he uses the
Amiga to do things like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (tm) (the computer game) and
to design other computers, and to capture ideas before they escape, and to
design movies, and you're thinking, yes, yes, but...
Then suddenly you're on another trip. Reichard is explaining that education
is what really interests him more than anything and he describes a pair of
"gloves" you put on which enables you to feel and touch and test and measure
and weigh things that don't exist, actually, except inside a computer.
Reichard is describing a sort of alternative universe to be fully explored and
where exploration is infinitely more rapid and informative than "real" life...
oops, you're on vacation again.
AMIGA. THE COMPUTER FOR THE CREATIVE MIND.
<page>
She's using it to write novels.
Pam Rothman, Novelist, Central Islip, New York
[Photo of woman, with books and pencil cup stacked on top of computer. On
monitor, word processing program with menu active. ]
Pam tried IBMs. "Too slow," she said. "I'm a novelist." Then she tried an
Amiga. "Loved it instantly... it's so fast."
Pam also likes the Amiga's ability to multi-task, which sounds, at first,
like something you could do without, until you do it. In English,
multi-tasking means not waiting around for one thing to finish up before you
start something else. No waiting around on the Amiga.
Period.
Says Pam: "...while I've got ideas cooking, I can go back whole chapters in
my book, I can open up chapter 9, say, where I've got `Cassie felt the whole
world was ending'... and anything I want to put in that chapter I can put in
it; I don't have to close down anything else."
Pam says the Amiga "opened up a whole new world." A trick she likes on the
Amiga, based on its arsenal of color, is being able to change the color of a
whole paragraph to, say, blue, a nice light blue; that signifies to Pam that
she should come back later for another look; something may not be quite right.
Or a different font, if she likes. A different type style can force you to
take a whole new look at what you thought you felt. But do you still?
The Amiga is there to give you plenty of friendly editorial nudges; but
it'll never betray a word to anyone about those thoughts you decided to
delete.
AMIGA. THE COMPUTER FOR THE CREATIVE MIND.
The Amiga allows you to fly. Faster than you thought you could. Without
spending a lot of money. Without waiting around another 50 years. Amiga from
Commodore. Why not give us a call at 800-627-9595.
[logo] Commodore
Commodore and the Commodore logo are registered trademarks of Commodore
Electronics, Ltd. Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc.
Pro-Write - trademark of New Horizons Software.
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