ScuzzBlog: Diaries August 2019
Entry 25th August 2019: Post 01: Power Computing 4-way IDE.
Power Computing 4-way IDE.
1998 and well entrenched in Windows 95 using a Colossus machine
for surfing the web. I had finally conceded that I was never going
to get a stock Amiga flying on the Net. Remember that before the
internet came along life on the computer for your average user
was pretty much a solo affair. My only contact with the outside
Amiga community was through the pages of the Amiga magazines.
I know that many users had upgraded and even converted their
A1200s into towers, but for me, my A1200 was sacred. I had been
very hopeful that the external CD-ROM for the 1200 would have been
released, but it never surfaced. The bigger issue was the graphics
card suitable for image processing on the web. Again I could have
shelled out the cash for an A4000, but sadly I was under no
illusion that things were never going to be the same again with
Commodore, and or a new buyer, and it was looking very unlikely
that a new Amiga was on the horizon any time soon.
I never gave up with the Amiga. I still had two Amiga 1200s and a
600 hooked up all the time and I sat with the A1200 on a desk to my
rear that I worked on for various projects. But I was using the
Windows machine for the internet, and more importantly for CD support.
With each month the gap between the Amiga and the PC grew ever larger.
So when I ever got the chance to buy CD-ROMs and external drives for
the Amiga I would give it a shot. Trouble was that as inviting it
was to fit the various interfaces it really was never going to be
a comparable machine to the PC without transferring to a tower and
spending a load more cash on hardware that was for the most part
inferior to what I already had.
This box arrived at the house at some point and I no doubt simply
shelved it along with similar items when I couldn't face splitting
the 1200 up and inserting the interface and ribbons. I do have a
converted A1200 with a slot out the back, and I am glad I never
did that to my beloved A1200.
And so today when I uncovered this box it brought back all the
memories of my struggling with coming to terms accepting that
the Amiga as a state of the art current machine was over. Worse
was the realisation that the Amiga was likely to be mothballed
at some time as the OS became archaic. Technology has never stood
still and whilst it is admirable what many have done to try and
engage the Amiga into modern ways, it is sad that even in the
short span of developing new kit to meet modern demands, the actual
current state of the art computer gear was moving on again. For
even as I struggled then with CD, the PC was already being expanded
with Zip drives, massive hard drives, network adaptors, internet,
scanners, video capture and music sampling. File sizes were
growing also and processor speeds necessary to handle large amounts
of data were also developing. Throw into the mix games and video
then the Amiga was falling behind so fast, and it was always way
way easier to find a PC alternative.
One last point and that is about access to technology. By 1998
there were no Amiga retailers of any form in my area. I recall
visiting PC World and finding only a disk box that I could use
with the Amiga. And yet the computer store was bursting at the
seams with PC kit. A far cry from just 1993 when the local store
had easily 60% Amiga stuff in comparison to other platforms.
By 1998 the store no longer supported any Amiga products.
The CD-ROM here from 1998 is a brave gesture to a world that was
sadly shrinking ever faster with each year. Only the very very
optimistic would have bet on the Amiga becoming main stream again.
Such a sad story. So sad.
Power Computing 4-way IDE.
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