Hello all.
Ive decided to tell a little story, about how I might have been the catalyst behind
the Amiga AGA / Amiga CD32 systems. I didnt fully realize it, until much much later...
I grew up using a Commodore 64, that my grandfather had passed down to our family,
when he upgraded to the c128. I spent many hours playing games, learning some "Basic"
programming. Made a few simple programs to move custom made sprites around the
screen, from example code. That was about all my brain was capable of.
Years later, I had moved to Florida, and worked my tail off in 60 to 80 hr work weeks.
I ended up entering a computer shop, that sold Amiga computers. The demo of
Shadow of the Beast was playing on it... and I was quite blown away by it. Furthermore,
they had programs like Digi-Paint, which would allow you to do Digital art... on a level
that no c64, let alone any other PC... was capable of. (4096 colors on-screen)
This sold me.. and so I walked out of the store with a new Amiga, CRT Monitor, SOTB,
Digi-Paint, and a high cost surge protector (Florida lightning protection, was strongly suggested)
I played Battle Squadron on it (Excellent Vertical 2player Shooter), as well as doing some
digital artworks on it. Eventually, I found a short-form programming language system,
called AMOS. I spent a lot of time trying to wrap my brain around the programming
books, and digital code examples.
The More that I learned about the language, the more I found out about the Limitations
of what the Amiga was capable of. This made it even more difficult, trying to figure out
how to overcome these things... and how these pro-programmers were able to do it.
I had a certain Naive mindset... and should have known that I was not cut out for that
level of capacity... especially since I lacked enough math skills to do anything worthwhile.
This was proven to me, when I made a very simple game framework. I had tried to make
a wizard that walked, shot fireballs..etc. But the thing was so dreadfully slow... that it
was unplayable. I had found an Amiga magazine article, where one of the publishers
posted his home phone number, to be able to call him for coding help.
I called him, and he was kind enough to send me a program for custom tile editing,
and also, spent way too much time chatting with me about my digital "dreams", rather than
hitting me with dose of reality. I feel bad, when I look back on this. Anyway.. in one
of our conversations, I told him about the game I was trying to work on... and stated
the slow performance. He then told me about using the MOD function, to speed up the
animation cycling. I was kind of ticked off... because 1) I couldnt understand that level
of math... and 2) Why was the Amiga so underpowered, that it needed such a thing, just
to be able to function at a decent state of performance?
In addition, I had long since realized, even from the C64 days.. that for anything
worthwhile... the programmers needed to use pure Assembly code (not basic)
Somehow, I has Assumed that the much more powerful Amiga, was different.
And while some of the AMOS demos were OK... they seemed far from the commercially
polished games capabilities. Also, I believe many of them had some custom Assembly code
inserted into parts of them.
I had this Fantasy, that the Commodore company could make a hardware upgrade for
the Amiga, that would allow for faster Basic programming, as well as to vastly increase
the Amigas Limitations... such as having a lot more Hardware sprites to work with.
(instead of trying to manipulate Background objects / Bobs)
One day, I stupidly called the phone number of Commodore, was transferred to the
UK? offices... and was excitedly describing the ideas of a hardware add-on card, that
could be created, and sold.
The guy on the other end was very cool, and asked me if I would not mind repeating
my ideas to another guy, named "Jack". I said sure... and I happily waited transfer...
despite the long distance charges, from the landline call, from the USA!
I basically told him that I grew up on my C64.. and that I loved my Amiga 500.
That IBM PCs of the time could not compare.. but for some reason, the Amiga scene
was not that widespread in the USA. I spent time telling him that if the Amiga had an
Add on card to enhance the Amigas capabilities (even if partially a video Pass-Through).. and
potentially a CD system to boot... that the kinds of games that the programmers
were strongly stressing to create, would become far more easy, and far more
impressive... and thus, far more likely to take off in Amiga Sales + Compete with Game Consoles.
I believe some of these ideas were in relation to the concepts of the Sega CD,
(not sure if it had been released at the time) as well as the plug-in expansion memory module
I had seen for the Amiga.
Anyways... I had completely forgot about the call.. and quite some time rolled by..
before I realized that Commodore actually created an upgraded Amiga computer,
and game system. At the time, Im not so sure that I recalled my previous
phone call... nor fully recognized the impact of it... But I do know that I was a bit
disappointed that it was not a simple add-on expansion card, as I had hoped for.
Also.. I never knew that "Jack" was the "Commander" of Commodore! I didnt
realize this, until decades later... when watching some documentary's about the
company.
Either way... by that time, I had given up on trying to program. I knew that I lacked
the math skills, and likely, the cranial power, to be able to fully learn, grasp, and
apply it correctly.
I realized that my time was spent better, on designing the actual game-designs
more fully... on paper. Character / Ship Sketches, Control schemes, enemy types,
environments, level editor function ideas, and more. I used to spend entire
days / nights racking my brains for ideas + drawing sketches. Id often wake up with a
pencil still in my hand.. resting on the paper.
Over the years, I had tried to working with a few different programmers. I kept
finding that they wanted to do their own thing... and that the ones I ended up
working with lacked a high enough ability to finish their projects, to a decent
level of Functionality (Such as poor AI programming, bad physics...etc).
Still, I do not regret it. It forced me to learn more about graphics programs like
photoshop. Made me a better digital artist. Learned a small amount about
3D modeling. Became faster and better with my game design abilities. And since
I spent so many hours communicating with others (programmer and other superior
artists + 3d modelers) ... that I ended up going from being a two-finger
hunt-and-peck typer... to a standard two-handed typer, with a decent
word-per-minute output.
Eventually, I kind of of gave up on the idea of creating a game. But occasionally,
I still make some designs + concept art sketches + digital mockups.
Anyway... TLDR = My naive mind.. coupled with my extreme passion, may have
helped to Inspire Commodore to get the ball rolling on the Amiga AGA + CD32 Systems.
Data Look Up:
OK... according to Wiki, Jack Tramiel left the company, far before I had made such a call...
so either I recalled the name of the person I had spoken to incorrectly... or it was a
different "Jack"... or that Im from another time-line (Mandela Effect).
Anyways... believe me or not... doesnt really matter. Just wanted to share.