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  • Commodore bought Amiga because it was worried about the QL

    From Duncan Snowden@21:1/5 to All on Thu Nov 24 18:43:11 2022
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3drKG-CsIs

    About 9 minutes in. My subject line might be a slight exaggeration, but
    Andy Finkel (long-time Commodore guy) says that the European
    subsidiaries were worried that they didn't have anything to compete
    with Sinclair, and Engineering was too busy with other projects (C128,
    the TED series, the LCD machine, and a PC clone), so they set about
    looking to buy something in. Later on he reiterates that even once
    preliminary talks had started, "the QL was still the target".

    I don't suppose they were so bothered after the QL's teething troubles,
    but it's still pretty amazing. I think most people just assumed it was
    either the Mac or Atari.

    --
    Duncan Snowden.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Volker Bartheld@21:1/5 to Duncan Snowden on Thu Nov 24 21:42:35 2022
    On Thu, 24 Nov 2022 18:43:11 +0000, Duncan Snowden wrote:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3drKG-CsIs
    About 9 minutes in. My subject line might be a slight exaggeration, but
    Andy Finkel (long-time Commodore guy) says that the European
    subsidiaries were worried that they didn't have anything to compete
    with Sinclair [...] "the QL was still the target".

    IMHO the two built-in Microdrives were the final nails in - pun intended
    - Sinclair's coffin. They already were shit with the IF-1 and the ZX
    Spectrum and they were big pile of s* in the QL.

    Wished there would have been an affordable alternative back then when I desperately needed (semi) quick external storage. But OH BOY was the
    DISCiPLE expensive in Germany. The Opus Discovery? Unobtanium. The
    Timex? Unheard of.

    And here I go again with a bunch of cartridges that need foam/felt
    replacement to be usable again. And having arrived there, I found out
    the hard way about the BASF Superchrome's magnetic print-through issue.

    Volker

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Damian Murphy@21:1/5 to Duncan Snowden on Sat Nov 26 09:50:32 2022
    On Thursday 24 November 2022 at 18:44:51 UTC, Duncan Snowden wrote:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3drKG-CsIs

    About 9 minutes in. My subject line might be a slight exaggeration, but
    Andy Finkel (long-time Commodore guy) says that the European
    subsidiaries were worried that they didn't have anything to compete
    with Sinclair, and Engineering was too busy with other projects (C128,
    the TED series, the LCD machine, and a PC clone), so they set about
    looking to buy something in. Later on he reiterates that even once preliminary talks had started, "the QL was still the target".

    I don't suppose they were so bothered after the QL's teething troubles,
    but it's still pretty amazing. I think most people just assumed it was
    either the Mac or Atari.

    --
    Duncan Snowden.

    Nice bit of history there!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From OldbieOne@21:1/5 to Volker Bartheld on Mon Nov 28 14:52:27 2022
    "Volker Bartheld" <news2022@bartheld.net> wrote in message news:18d3veiwbhk6d$.dlg@news.bartheld.net...
    On Thu, 24 Nov 2022 18:43:11 +0000, Duncan Snowden wrote:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3drKG-CsIs
    About 9 minutes in. My subject line might be a slight exaggeration, but Andy Finkel (long-time Commodore guy) says that the European
    subsidiaries were worried that they didn't have anything to compete
    with Sinclair [...] "the QL was still the target".

    IMHO the two built-in Microdrives were the final nails in - pun intended
    - Sinclair's coffin. They already were shit with the IF-1 and the ZX
    Spectrum and they were big pile of s* in the QL.

    Wished there would have been an affordable alternative back then when I desperately needed (semi) quick external storage. But OH BOY was the
    DISCiPLE expensive in Germany. The Opus Discovery? Unobtanium. The
    Timex? Unheard of.

    And here I go again with a bunch of cartridges that need foam/felt replacement to be usable again. And having arrived there, I found out
    the hard way about the BASF Superchrome's magnetic print-through issue.

    Those microdrives were beyond unreliable. I used them in the ham shack with
    my daddy, and when they worked, they worked well. But the trouble was they rarely worked without tinkering with the catridges.


    --
    OldbieOne

    The One Who Tells It Like It Is (TM)
    Brought to you by RetroPC Build Windows v4.0.950B-2

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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