1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,160 Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 2 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:13,920 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 3 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:17,000 Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan's Trickling. I'm an executive producer here 4 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:20,200 Speaker 1: at how Stuff Works and love all things tech. And 5 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:23,119 Speaker 1: while my producer Tari chortals on the other side of 6 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:26,079 Speaker 1: the glass laughing at something, I can only guess as 7 00:00:26,120 --> 00:00:30,440 Speaker 1: to the reasons why we're going to go back and 8 00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:33,920 Speaker 1: pick up on our story about Amiga. Now. I left 9 00:00:33,960 --> 00:00:37,560 Speaker 1: off in the last episode about talking about the simulated 10 00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:41,520 Speaker 1: hardware of the Amiga chips set with the Motorola sixty 11 00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:47,280 Speaker 1: eight thousand processor and the breadboard simulated chips. These enormous 12 00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:51,520 Speaker 1: circuits that would represent the teeny tiny chips that would 13 00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:54,200 Speaker 1: be on the motherboard in the future Amiga. But what 14 00:00:54,320 --> 00:00:57,440 Speaker 1: about the operating system? You really need an operating system 15 00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:01,480 Speaker 1: in order to do anything useful with a computer. Developers 16 00:01:01,480 --> 00:01:04,880 Speaker 1: would need an application programming interface or a p I 17 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:08,600 Speaker 1: in order to build programs to run on this machine, 18 00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:12,000 Speaker 1: and users would need some sort of method to navigate 19 00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:16,000 Speaker 1: the computer system. So for Amiga, that task fell to 20 00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:20,360 Speaker 1: the team that was led by a man named Bob Parizo, 21 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:24,800 Speaker 1: the chief of software engineering and Perizo had previously worked 22 00:01:24,840 --> 00:01:29,080 Speaker 1: on mainframe computers with a company called Tandem, and Tandem 23 00:01:29,080 --> 00:01:33,640 Speaker 1: made giant computer machines for the banking industry. That Prizo's 24 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:37,679 Speaker 1: background was in machines that could handle multitasking, and so 25 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:40,920 Speaker 1: he set out to create an operating system that would 26 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:44,959 Speaker 1: take advantage of the hardware that J Miners team was 27 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:48,080 Speaker 1: building over on the other side of Amiga, and he 28 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:52,640 Speaker 1: wanted to be able to run multiple applications simultaneously. This 29 00:01:52,720 --> 00:01:56,160 Speaker 1: was in stark contrast with all the other home computers 30 00:01:56,200 --> 00:01:58,480 Speaker 1: at the time. They were all designed so that they 31 00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:02,120 Speaker 1: would run a single program at anyone given time, generally speaking, 32 00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:04,480 Speaker 1: and that if you wanted to launch a second program, 33 00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:07,320 Speaker 1: you first would have to shut down the program you 34 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:10,240 Speaker 1: were in, or at least have it go into kind 35 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:14,040 Speaker 1: of a sleep mode. But Pariza wanted a machine that 36 00:02:14,080 --> 00:02:18,760 Speaker 1: could truly run multiple applications side by side, so he 37 00:02:18,840 --> 00:02:22,520 Speaker 1: hired on several people to join his team, including Robert J. 38 00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:27,360 Speaker 1: Mical Or r J, Carl Sassin, rath Dale Luck, and 39 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:32,000 Speaker 1: Dave Needle. All joined the Amiga team over the course 40 00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:34,960 Speaker 1: of the next year or so. M r J had 41 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:39,600 Speaker 1: previously worked as a software engineer at Williams Electronics and 42 00:02:39,680 --> 00:02:42,480 Speaker 1: worked on video games and Amiga. He would build out 43 00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:46,720 Speaker 1: many of the system's basic routines for the OS that 44 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:48,920 Speaker 1: that made it all possible. He was also known for 45 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:52,160 Speaker 1: building a game for the Amiga that made use of 46 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:55,280 Speaker 1: the joyboard peripheral that I mentioned in the last episode. 47 00:02:55,639 --> 00:02:58,840 Speaker 1: That was that balance board peripheral that acted kind of 48 00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:02,640 Speaker 1: like a joystick. This game was called Zen Meditation, and 49 00:03:02,680 --> 00:03:07,480 Speaker 1: the goal was to sit perfectly still the high stress 50 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:09,799 Speaker 1: environment of building a new computer system, and a lot 51 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:12,480 Speaker 1: of folks would kind of give this a world try 52 00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:15,200 Speaker 1: and calm down. And when it came time to create 53 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:18,920 Speaker 1: an error message for the Amiga that would show in 54 00:03:18,960 --> 00:03:21,080 Speaker 1: the event of a system crash, you know, you would 55 00:03:21,080 --> 00:03:24,160 Speaker 1: get that message kind of like the blue screen of 56 00:03:24,200 --> 00:03:28,120 Speaker 1: death known in the Windows Circles. Well, for the Amiga, 57 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:31,079 Speaker 1: it was cheekily decided that they would call it the 58 00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:34,600 Speaker 1: Guru Meditation error, and that was kind of a nod 59 00:03:34,639 --> 00:03:37,200 Speaker 1: to this game that r J had made. Carl Sassin 60 00:03:37,240 --> 00:03:40,160 Speaker 1: Wrath had worked as a television cameraman when he was 61 00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:42,400 Speaker 1: a teenager and then would go on to get a 62 00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:45,360 Speaker 1: degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University 63 00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:48,720 Speaker 1: of California at Davis and began working with Hewlett Packard 64 00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:51,760 Speaker 1: as a programmer and system designer, including heading up a 65 00:03:51,800 --> 00:03:55,680 Speaker 1: project team to develop a mouse driven graphical user interface 66 00:03:55,880 --> 00:03:58,280 Speaker 1: or g u I, also known as a gooey. He 67 00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:03,320 Speaker 1: became Amiga's manager of operating Systems. Dale Luck got a 68 00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:06,360 Speaker 1: degree in computer science from Michigan Technological University and would 69 00:04:06,440 --> 00:04:10,120 Speaker 1: join Amiga as the manager of graphics Software, and Dave 70 00:04:10,160 --> 00:04:13,840 Speaker 1: Needle worked not just on software but also on chip design, 71 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:17,160 Speaker 1: and all four would go on to do big things 72 00:04:17,200 --> 00:04:21,400 Speaker 1: outside of Amiga later on. Carl Sassin Wrath was already 73 00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:24,119 Speaker 1: working on ideas for an operating system that could handle 74 00:04:24,200 --> 00:04:28,400 Speaker 1: multitasking before he had ever met Prizo. That fell right 75 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:31,000 Speaker 1: in line with what Bob Aarrizo wanted to do with 76 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:34,719 Speaker 1: the Amiga system. So the challenge was figuring out how 77 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:40,039 Speaker 1: to do multitasking without overtaxing the CPU and chip set 78 00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:43,440 Speaker 1: and memory capabilities of this machine. They had to build 79 00:04:43,440 --> 00:04:45,919 Speaker 1: out a system that would make efficient use of the 80 00:04:45,960 --> 00:04:49,680 Speaker 1: resources of the computer would have Assassin Wrath developed an 81 00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:53,320 Speaker 1: approach that would later be called a microkernel. This is 82 00:04:53,360 --> 00:04:56,680 Speaker 1: the collection of features that are needed at minimum to 83 00:04:56,800 --> 00:05:00,120 Speaker 1: implement an operating system that includes stuff like in her 84 00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:04,720 Speaker 1: process communications, low level address space management, thread management, that 85 00:05:04,800 --> 00:05:07,360 Speaker 1: kind of thing. The concept of the micro colonel actually 86 00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:12,040 Speaker 1: pre dates Assassin Wrath's work, but his was a notable 87 00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:15,919 Speaker 1: early example. In the home computer space. Herrizo and his 88 00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:20,160 Speaker 1: team were determined to incorporate a graphical user interface with 89 00:05:20,279 --> 00:05:24,240 Speaker 1: this operating system. This g u I or gooey, and 90 00:05:24,279 --> 00:05:27,839 Speaker 1: this is how we access pretty much all consumer computer 91 00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:32,120 Speaker 1: systems these days. Files are represented as icons. Clicking on 92 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:34,880 Speaker 1: an icon can execute a file. I know what I'm 93 00:05:34,880 --> 00:05:36,960 Speaker 1: saying is all old news to you guys. This is 94 00:05:37,080 --> 00:05:40,479 Speaker 1: the stuff you use every single day. But for the 95 00:05:40,520 --> 00:05:43,800 Speaker 1: programmers out there, and also for old folks like myself, 96 00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:49,080 Speaker 1: we remember the days of command lines. And in a 97 00:05:49,160 --> 00:05:52,480 Speaker 1: command line computer system back in the day, the way 98 00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:55,680 Speaker 1: you would run a program is you wouldn't type the 99 00:05:55,720 --> 00:05:59,880 Speaker 1: word run, typically followed by the file name that you 100 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:02,680 Speaker 1: wanted to execute. You actually had to type all this 101 00:06:02,720 --> 00:06:06,000 Speaker 1: stuff in. You had to navigate file trees and systems 102 00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:11,200 Speaker 1: using typewritten commands, had to change drives this way, and 103 00:06:11,240 --> 00:06:14,359 Speaker 1: it wasn't really complicated to get the basic commands down, 104 00:06:14,760 --> 00:06:17,200 Speaker 1: but it acted as a barrier to entry. It was 105 00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:22,120 Speaker 1: something that intimidated people because it was rarely intuitive. It 106 00:06:22,200 --> 00:06:26,200 Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily hard once you learned the basics, but the 107 00:06:26,240 --> 00:06:30,320 Speaker 1: basics themselves seems so foreign, so alien, that a lot 108 00:06:30,320 --> 00:06:33,280 Speaker 1: of people felt that that meant computers were for quote 109 00:06:33,320 --> 00:06:36,960 Speaker 1: unquote smart people or nerds or something. The g U 110 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:41,120 Speaker 1: Y made interacting with a computer much more easy, much 111 00:06:41,160 --> 00:06:43,479 Speaker 1: more intuitive. I mean, we've seen this over and over 112 00:06:43,480 --> 00:06:47,840 Speaker 1: again the Mac Os, Windows, all of these different graphic 113 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:51,720 Speaker 1: user interfaces that carry over today into things like smartphone interfaces. 114 00:06:52,240 --> 00:06:55,000 Speaker 1: They show that they're much easier to understand than those 115 00:06:55,040 --> 00:06:59,120 Speaker 1: command lines, and in nine three they were largely unheard 116 00:06:59,160 --> 00:07:04,359 Speaker 1: of outside of specific spheres within the computing community. The 117 00:07:04,440 --> 00:07:07,200 Speaker 1: model had actually been in development for years at other places, 118 00:07:07,480 --> 00:07:11,320 Speaker 1: such as Xerox's Park facility, but it hadn't really made 119 00:07:11,320 --> 00:07:15,560 Speaker 1: its way into consumer computers yet. Meanwhile, r J was 120 00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:18,480 Speaker 1: getting to work building out the Application Programming Interface or 121 00:07:18,520 --> 00:07:21,360 Speaker 1: a p I. J Minor once said that r J 122 00:07:21,520 --> 00:07:24,080 Speaker 1: had done this by locking himself in his office for 123 00:07:24,320 --> 00:07:28,040 Speaker 1: three straight weeks and emerged only once to get up 124 00:07:28,080 --> 00:07:31,920 Speaker 1: some clarification from Sassain Wrath on something the a p 125 00:07:32,080 --> 00:07:35,760 Speaker 1: I that he eventually built was given the name Intuition, 126 00:07:36,400 --> 00:07:39,520 Speaker 1: and because it was the product of one person, it 127 00:07:39,560 --> 00:07:43,000 Speaker 1: was fairly uniform and straightforward. A lot of other a 128 00:07:43,080 --> 00:07:45,040 Speaker 1: p I s are the products of teams that are 129 00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:49,160 Speaker 1: working sometimes at different times. Something work might get started 130 00:07:49,200 --> 00:07:51,440 Speaker 1: by one team and then finished by another team, and 131 00:07:51,480 --> 00:07:55,360 Speaker 1: so sometimes those sort of interfaces can be a little 132 00:07:55,880 --> 00:07:59,000 Speaker 1: clunky to work with because different people with different perspectives 133 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:02,120 Speaker 1: were working on it. But Intuition was the product of 134 00:08:02,200 --> 00:08:05,880 Speaker 1: one person at Amiga, So as long as you understood 135 00:08:05,920 --> 00:08:08,200 Speaker 1: how r J thought, you could figure out how to 136 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:11,960 Speaker 1: build applications for the Amiga. So you had these two teams. 137 00:08:11,960 --> 00:08:14,280 Speaker 1: You had the hardware team, you had the software team, 138 00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:16,760 Speaker 1: and they were both working very hard to create what 139 00:08:16,760 --> 00:08:20,560 Speaker 1: would become the first Amiga computer, and the company planned 140 00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:26,239 Speaker 1: to demonstrate something at the Consumer Electronics Show or ce 141 00:08:26,600 --> 00:08:31,760 Speaker 1: S in January nur in Las Vegas, Nevada. Now they 142 00:08:31,800 --> 00:08:35,560 Speaker 1: knew they were not going to have the full prototype 143 00:08:35,600 --> 00:08:38,640 Speaker 1: Amiga computer to show off something that would look like 144 00:08:38,720 --> 00:08:41,040 Speaker 1: a production model, they would have to rely on the 145 00:08:41,080 --> 00:08:44,520 Speaker 1: simulated chips they had built on bread boards. So these 146 00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:49,880 Speaker 1: enormous bread boards that would represent tiny, tiny chips They 147 00:08:49,920 --> 00:08:52,360 Speaker 1: knew the operating system was not going to be finished 148 00:08:52,360 --> 00:08:55,599 Speaker 1: in time for this demonstration, but the team wanted to 149 00:08:55,640 --> 00:08:58,600 Speaker 1: show off their work and the capabilities of their chips 150 00:08:58,640 --> 00:09:02,120 Speaker 1: set design, and this would hopefully bring in more investors 151 00:09:02,480 --> 00:09:04,520 Speaker 1: and pull in the money they would need to keep 152 00:09:04,520 --> 00:09:09,720 Speaker 1: operations going and move towards a production model because their 153 00:09:09,760 --> 00:09:14,440 Speaker 1: revenue generating process. You know, they had been making stuff 154 00:09:14,480 --> 00:09:17,360 Speaker 1: for the video game industry, the home video game industry, 155 00:09:17,360 --> 00:09:20,960 Speaker 1: but that industry had collapsed, so now they were desperately 156 00:09:21,040 --> 00:09:24,400 Speaker 1: trying to get work done and get investment money into 157 00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:28,119 Speaker 1: the company to keep it going until they had a 158 00:09:28,160 --> 00:09:32,360 Speaker 1: consumer ready computer they could put on the market. Money 159 00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:35,520 Speaker 1: was already tight. The team didn't have any idea of 160 00:09:35,559 --> 00:09:38,280 Speaker 1: how they were going to ship their prototype to the 161 00:09:38,320 --> 00:09:41,040 Speaker 1: trade show without endangering it. I mean, you had these 162 00:09:41,120 --> 00:09:44,400 Speaker 1: enormous bread boards with thousands of wires connected to them, 163 00:09:44,640 --> 00:09:48,160 Speaker 1: and disconnecting any of those wires would make the simulated 164 00:09:48,240 --> 00:09:52,880 Speaker 1: chips not work properly. So r J and Dale took 165 00:09:52,920 --> 00:09:56,280 Speaker 1: it upon themselves and they booked an extra airline seat 166 00:09:56,320 --> 00:09:59,640 Speaker 1: in between them so that they could put the prototype 167 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:03,160 Speaker 1: in an airline seat and make sure that it was 168 00:10:03,200 --> 00:10:10,520 Speaker 1: protected in addition, they completely covered this prototype in pillows. Now, 169 00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:13,760 Speaker 1: to book a seat, they had to give a passenger name. 170 00:10:14,080 --> 00:10:16,959 Speaker 1: This is again this is in the old days when 171 00:10:17,240 --> 00:10:19,920 Speaker 1: it was pretty easy to go through an airport, but 172 00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:22,320 Speaker 1: you still needed to have a name on a ticket 173 00:10:22,480 --> 00:10:25,080 Speaker 1: if you wanted to book a seat. So the name 174 00:10:25,320 --> 00:10:30,360 Speaker 1: they gave their passenger this prototype computer was Joe Pillow. 175 00:10:31,760 --> 00:10:35,839 Speaker 1: The engineers, perhaps giddy from working so hard for so long, 176 00:10:35,960 --> 00:10:38,160 Speaker 1: even drew a face on one of the pillows to 177 00:10:38,200 --> 00:10:40,920 Speaker 1: give Joe Pillow a face, and apparently he wore a 178 00:10:40,960 --> 00:10:44,280 Speaker 1: tie to Legend has it that Dale and r J 179 00:10:44,520 --> 00:10:46,160 Speaker 1: even tried to go so far as to get an 180 00:10:46,200 --> 00:10:49,320 Speaker 1: airline meal for Joe, but the flight attendants drew the 181 00:10:49,400 --> 00:10:53,280 Speaker 1: line there and said no dice. At c E S, 182 00:10:53,320 --> 00:10:56,360 Speaker 1: the Amiga team had a booth with a backstage area 183 00:10:56,600 --> 00:10:59,760 Speaker 1: where they kept their prototype, and this would keep the 184 00:10:59,800 --> 00:11:02,679 Speaker 1: computer away from prying eyes and allow the team to 185 00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:06,320 Speaker 1: control who could actually see it. They would hold demonstrations 186 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:10,040 Speaker 1: in this backstage area. They would approve people, bring them 187 00:11:10,080 --> 00:11:13,199 Speaker 1: back there, and then show off this prototype. It was 188 00:11:13,240 --> 00:11:17,640 Speaker 1: still working from those simulated chips, and it was enormous. 189 00:11:17,720 --> 00:11:20,199 Speaker 1: It was sitting on top of a table, and more 190 00:11:20,240 --> 00:11:22,679 Speaker 1: than a few onlookers would actually snoop around to make 191 00:11:22,720 --> 00:11:25,800 Speaker 1: sure that the bread boards were in fact acting as 192 00:11:25,800 --> 00:11:28,720 Speaker 1: a chip set and that there wasn't some other computer 193 00:11:28,800 --> 00:11:32,559 Speaker 1: system hiding out of view that was creating the effects 194 00:11:32,600 --> 00:11:35,920 Speaker 1: that they were seeing. Uh, it was not running the 195 00:11:35,920 --> 00:11:39,360 Speaker 1: Amiga operating system, because, as I said, the operating system 196 00:11:39,720 --> 00:11:42,760 Speaker 1: was not finished at that point. So r J and 197 00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:45,640 Speaker 1: Dale had built in some demo software that would run 198 00:11:45,679 --> 00:11:47,880 Speaker 1: directly off the chip set to show off what the 199 00:11:47,920 --> 00:11:51,120 Speaker 1: computer could do. One of the demos that they built 200 00:11:51,640 --> 00:11:54,480 Speaker 1: was a large ball, and the ball had a checkered 201 00:11:54,520 --> 00:11:57,080 Speaker 1: pattern on it, and the ball would bounce up and 202 00:11:57,200 --> 00:11:59,720 Speaker 1: down on the bottom edge of the screen, and every 203 00:11:59,720 --> 00:12:02,760 Speaker 1: time it would appear to hit that bottom edge, it 204 00:12:02,840 --> 00:12:07,200 Speaker 1: would produce a booming noise and stereo. And it was 205 00:12:07,240 --> 00:12:10,720 Speaker 1: a hasty demonstration, but that checkered ball would become an 206 00:12:10,840 --> 00:12:15,120 Speaker 1: iconic symbol and would stand as the symbol for Amiga 207 00:12:15,200 --> 00:12:18,280 Speaker 1: going forward. I've got a lot more to say about 208 00:12:18,360 --> 00:12:20,920 Speaker 1: the birth of the Amiga, but first let's take a 209 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:32,000 Speaker 1: quick break to thank our sponsor. The demonstrations at that 210 00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:37,199 Speaker 1: January c e S where success and the team got 211 00:12:37,280 --> 00:12:39,560 Speaker 1: back to work. They had a new goal that they 212 00:12:39,559 --> 00:12:42,560 Speaker 1: wanted to meet, because back in those early eighties there 213 00:12:42,559 --> 00:12:46,559 Speaker 1: were actually two c e S shows every year. There 214 00:12:46,600 --> 00:12:48,840 Speaker 1: was one that would take place in the winter and 215 00:12:48,840 --> 00:12:50,880 Speaker 1: one that would play take place in the summer. The 216 00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:54,120 Speaker 1: winter ones would take place in Las Vegas, and the 217 00:12:54,160 --> 00:12:57,080 Speaker 1: summer ones tended to move around a little bit, but 218 00:12:58,720 --> 00:13:01,960 Speaker 1: that second show would happen in June in Chicago, Illinois. 219 00:13:02,600 --> 00:13:04,920 Speaker 1: So the Amiga team had set a goal. They wanted 220 00:13:04,960 --> 00:13:07,760 Speaker 1: to do more demonstrations of the Amiga, but this time 221 00:13:08,200 --> 00:13:13,040 Speaker 1: they wanted to use prototype silicon chips, not the simulated 222 00:13:13,120 --> 00:13:16,160 Speaker 1: chips on bread boards. They wanted to actually produce the 223 00:13:16,240 --> 00:13:19,640 Speaker 1: silicon chips and create a motherboard where they could run 224 00:13:19,920 --> 00:13:22,959 Speaker 1: demonstrations off that show that they had made some progress 225 00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:26,120 Speaker 1: and that they would soon be able to move into 226 00:13:26,280 --> 00:13:30,480 Speaker 1: fabrication and production stages, though at the time they would 227 00:13:30,520 --> 00:13:33,079 Speaker 1: only really be able to do this for a prototype 228 00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:35,439 Speaker 1: because again they were running short on funds at this point. 229 00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:38,560 Speaker 1: The Chicago ce S show was another success from a 230 00:13:38,600 --> 00:13:44,240 Speaker 1: technological standpoint, but Amiga was out of money. They were 231 00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:46,160 Speaker 1: not going to be able to stay in operation without 232 00:13:46,160 --> 00:13:51,080 Speaker 1: a significant investment, and the CEO of Amiga. Dave Morse, 233 00:13:51,280 --> 00:13:54,600 Speaker 1: who had come from Tonka Toys to head up Amiga, 234 00:13:55,200 --> 00:13:59,680 Speaker 1: sought out potential investors and partners, including at very established 235 00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:03,720 Speaker 1: company's stuff like Sony and Hewitt, Packard and Phillips, as 236 00:14:03,760 --> 00:14:07,000 Speaker 1: well as Apple, which was younger but had been doing 237 00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:11,720 Speaker 1: quite well. But none of those seemed particularly interested in 238 00:14:11,720 --> 00:14:17,080 Speaker 1: investing in Amiga. One company, however, did offer up a 239 00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:20,880 Speaker 1: pretty cutthroat deal. It was a five hundred thousand dollar 240 00:14:21,040 --> 00:14:25,200 Speaker 1: loan and the company was Atari, the same company that 241 00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:28,640 Speaker 1: Amiga co founder j Minor had worked for in the 242 00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:35,000 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, and he had left Atari for another company 243 00:14:35,080 --> 00:14:39,920 Speaker 1: before starting Amiga. Well, he left Atari because he had 244 00:14:40,160 --> 00:14:44,760 Speaker 1: had disputes about bonuses and the direction of projects. Attari 245 00:14:44,880 --> 00:14:46,920 Speaker 1: was the same company that had been rocked by the 246 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:51,080 Speaker 1: video game crash a year earlier. And here was Atari saying, yeah, 247 00:14:51,120 --> 00:14:53,680 Speaker 1: we can loan you half a million dollars. But the 248 00:14:53,720 --> 00:14:56,520 Speaker 1: deal was a really tough one. According to the agreement, 249 00:14:56,960 --> 00:15:00,920 Speaker 1: Amiga would get that half million dollar loan, but it 250 00:15:00,920 --> 00:15:04,120 Speaker 1: would have to repay Atari by the end of June, 251 00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:10,280 Speaker 1: otherwise Atari would end up owning all of Amiga's technology. 252 00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:12,840 Speaker 1: And this was a draconian deal, but at the same time, 253 00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:17,800 Speaker 1: there weren't really any other options available, and Morse really 254 00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:20,440 Speaker 1: had no other lifeline, so he signed this deal because 255 00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:24,960 Speaker 1: it was either this or dissolve. Now it could have 256 00:15:25,080 --> 00:15:28,160 Speaker 1: unfolded that Amiga was never able to pay back that 257 00:15:28,240 --> 00:15:31,400 Speaker 1: loan and it would have become part of Atari, and 258 00:15:31,480 --> 00:15:34,280 Speaker 1: maybe that would have saved Atari, though I doubt it. 259 00:15:34,800 --> 00:15:37,520 Speaker 1: But at any rate, it's all a moot point because 260 00:15:37,560 --> 00:15:41,640 Speaker 1: another company swooped in and kind of sort of rescued 261 00:15:41,680 --> 00:15:46,280 Speaker 1: Amiga from being devoured by Atari, and that company was Commodore. 262 00:15:46,840 --> 00:15:50,880 Speaker 1: I've done episodes about Commodore, but here's a quick overview 263 00:15:51,040 --> 00:15:54,840 Speaker 1: of its history. Commodore had started off as a typewriter 264 00:15:55,000 --> 00:15:58,560 Speaker 1: repair and assembly company back in nineteen fifty four. It 265 00:15:58,600 --> 00:16:02,040 Speaker 1: was founded by a guy named i Deck Trammilski, who 266 00:16:02,160 --> 00:16:06,000 Speaker 1: changed his name to Jack Tramiel. He immigrated to the 267 00:16:06,120 --> 00:16:09,680 Speaker 1: United States after he had been rescued from a Nazi 268 00:16:09,760 --> 00:16:12,640 Speaker 1: work camp during World War Two, and he founded the 269 00:16:12,640 --> 00:16:17,040 Speaker 1: company Commodore in the nineteen fifty four. In nineteen sixty five, 270 00:16:17,560 --> 00:16:21,440 Speaker 1: he secured money from an investor named Irving Gould, and 271 00:16:21,520 --> 00:16:26,040 Speaker 1: Irving Gould will play another important part in our Amiga story. 272 00:16:26,120 --> 00:16:30,800 Speaker 1: In the nineteen seventies, Commodore would diversify and start making calculators, 273 00:16:31,360 --> 00:16:35,440 Speaker 1: largely relying upon chips from another company called Texas Instruments. 274 00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:39,840 Speaker 1: But then Texas Instruments began building its own calculators and 275 00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:44,080 Speaker 1: started competing with Commodore, and that taught Tramiel a lesson. 276 00:16:44,400 --> 00:16:47,840 Speaker 1: He decided they didn't want to depend upon some other 277 00:16:47,920 --> 00:16:51,680 Speaker 1: companies products, only to have that company enter into direct 278 00:16:51,800 --> 00:16:56,200 Speaker 1: competition with him further down the line, and so Commodore 279 00:16:56,280 --> 00:16:59,680 Speaker 1: decided to get into another business and they acquired another 280 00:16:59,680 --> 00:17:03,440 Speaker 1: company called Most Technology. Most Technology was the company that 281 00:17:03,560 --> 00:17:07,080 Speaker 1: made the Most six five O two chip, and that 282 00:17:07,200 --> 00:17:11,119 Speaker 1: chip powered many early computer systems and video game consoles. 283 00:17:11,840 --> 00:17:14,600 Speaker 1: Commodore had been one of the early players on the 284 00:17:14,640 --> 00:17:19,439 Speaker 1: personal computer scene. They introduced the pet or PET in 285 00:17:19,560 --> 00:17:23,240 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven, the VIC twenty in nineteen eighty one, 286 00:17:23,320 --> 00:17:27,240 Speaker 1: and in nineteen eighty two, Commodore introduced the best selling 287 00:17:27,280 --> 00:17:32,240 Speaker 1: computer of all time, the Commodore sixty four. But then 288 00:17:32,640 --> 00:17:36,560 Speaker 1: Commodore went into kind of a scorched earth policy against 289 00:17:36,560 --> 00:17:40,800 Speaker 1: competitors like Texas Instruments and tried to drive them out 290 00:17:40,840 --> 00:17:44,880 Speaker 1: of the industry and become the dominant player. To do that, 291 00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:49,400 Speaker 1: one of the big tactics was cutting prices, and they 292 00:17:49,400 --> 00:17:52,119 Speaker 1: cut prices on their their products to the point where 293 00:17:52,400 --> 00:17:55,880 Speaker 1: the company was eating into its own reserves. And that's 294 00:17:55,920 --> 00:18:01,119 Speaker 1: when Gould, the investor and Tremiel the founder budded heads. 295 00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:05,280 Speaker 1: Gould wanted his investment protected, Tramuel wanted to be the 296 00:18:05,359 --> 00:18:09,840 Speaker 1: dominant force in personal computing. In late nineteen eighty three, 297 00:18:10,040 --> 00:18:12,560 Speaker 1: Gould would go to the board of directors and they 298 00:18:12,600 --> 00:18:16,640 Speaker 1: decided to force Jack Tramiel to resign from the company 299 00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:20,520 Speaker 1: he had founded. But while Tramuel wasn't in charge when 300 00:18:20,520 --> 00:18:24,400 Speaker 1: Commodore would approach Amiga, he still plays an incredibly important 301 00:18:24,400 --> 00:18:27,440 Speaker 1: part of this story. And this is really where things 302 00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:31,640 Speaker 1: get Games of Throne ish arelthough with the players in fold, 303 00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:34,880 Speaker 1: maybe I should call this video game of Thrones. So 304 00:18:36,080 --> 00:18:38,440 Speaker 1: Jack Tramiel, he gets pushed out of his own company 305 00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:41,000 Speaker 1: at the end of nineteen eighty three, and while the 306 00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:44,000 Speaker 1: folks over at Amiga, we're still getting ready for their 307 00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:47,680 Speaker 1: first prototype debut at C E S the following January. 308 00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:50,760 Speaker 1: So at this point Amiga is an independent company and 309 00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:54,200 Speaker 1: they're building up for C E S night four, Jack 310 00:18:54,240 --> 00:18:58,040 Speaker 1: Tramiel gets kicked out of Commodore. He does not go 311 00:18:58,119 --> 00:19:04,119 Speaker 1: into retirement. Instead, he saunters over to Warner Communications. Warner 312 00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:10,199 Speaker 1: Communications was the parent company of Atari. Now, this was 313 00:19:10,400 --> 00:19:15,000 Speaker 1: in the fallout of the video game crash of nineteen 314 00:19:15,080 --> 00:19:19,399 Speaker 1: eighty three, and at that point Warner Communications really was 315 00:19:19,400 --> 00:19:23,199 Speaker 1: trying to find a way to dump the personal computer 316 00:19:23,320 --> 00:19:26,320 Speaker 1: and video game console division of Attari. The only part 317 00:19:26,359 --> 00:19:29,560 Speaker 1: of Atari the company still wanted to hold onto was 318 00:19:29,600 --> 00:19:32,879 Speaker 1: Atari's arcade division because it was still making money. But 319 00:19:32,920 --> 00:19:35,680 Speaker 1: in the wake of the video game crash, the console 320 00:19:35,800 --> 00:19:39,120 Speaker 1: and personal computer arms of Attari felt like an anchor. 321 00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:42,560 Speaker 1: So Jack Tramuel comes over to Warner Communications and says, 322 00:19:43,040 --> 00:19:45,119 Speaker 1: I'll take that off your hands, and he's able to 323 00:19:45,160 --> 00:19:48,000 Speaker 1: take over the company without even making a down payment. 324 00:19:48,080 --> 00:19:52,639 Speaker 1: It was one of the biggest craziest deals in tech 325 00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:57,280 Speaker 1: history where Jack Tramuel essentially took over control of Atari. 326 00:19:57,920 --> 00:20:00,439 Speaker 1: So now Jack Tramuel's in charge of Atari. And you 327 00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:03,720 Speaker 1: remember that five hundred thousand dollar loan deal I mentioned 328 00:20:03,720 --> 00:20:07,399 Speaker 1: from Atari, the one that would force Amiga's technology to 329 00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:10,879 Speaker 1: become Atari property if Amiga failed to pay back that 330 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:14,280 Speaker 1: loan by the end of June that was put together 331 00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:18,639 Speaker 1: by Jack Tramiel, formerly of Commodore, and the company that 332 00:20:18,680 --> 00:20:22,880 Speaker 1: would rescue Amiga was Commodore, so in a way, Amiga 333 00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:25,800 Speaker 1: was put in the middle of a really ugly custody 334 00:20:25,840 --> 00:20:31,440 Speaker 1: battle between an entrepreneur and his former company. Originally, Commodore 335 00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:34,520 Speaker 1: was going to enter into a licensing agreement with Amiga 336 00:20:34,600 --> 00:20:37,720 Speaker 1: to use the company's chip set in return for four 337 00:20:37,760 --> 00:20:41,800 Speaker 1: million dollars, but ultimately Commodore executives decided that what made 338 00:20:41,840 --> 00:20:45,600 Speaker 1: the most sense was to acquire Amiga outright, and so 339 00:20:45,720 --> 00:20:50,960 Speaker 1: Commodore would acquire Amiga for the princely sum of twenty 340 00:20:51,080 --> 00:20:55,919 Speaker 1: four million dollars, which obviously allowed Amiga to payback that 341 00:20:55,920 --> 00:21:00,560 Speaker 1: five thousand dollar loan, and Amiga would become part of Commodore. 342 00:21:01,280 --> 00:21:05,119 Speaker 1: Jack Tramiel must have been pretty steamed to have his 343 00:21:05,240 --> 00:21:09,840 Speaker 1: former company come in and rescue Amiga, so under his leadership, 344 00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:13,320 Speaker 1: Attari got to work designing a new personal computing system, 345 00:21:13,640 --> 00:21:18,760 Speaker 1: one that would compete directly against Commodore's Amiga computer. The 346 00:21:18,840 --> 00:21:22,080 Speaker 1: official name for this other computer, the Atari computer, was 347 00:21:22,119 --> 00:21:25,840 Speaker 1: the Atari st that. Some people would jokingly refer to 348 00:21:26,160 --> 00:21:29,800 Speaker 1: this as the jack Intosh because it seemed to eight 349 00:21:29,920 --> 00:21:33,560 Speaker 1: Apple's Macintosh platform, and it was rushed into production by 350 00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:38,520 Speaker 1: Jack Tramiel. Ultimately, this feud would be really harmful to 351 00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:43,400 Speaker 1: both companies spoiler alert. They spent so much time facing 352 00:21:43,400 --> 00:21:47,200 Speaker 1: off against each other that other companies like Apple, IBM 353 00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:50,000 Speaker 1: and later Microsoft were able to get a firmer foothold 354 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:53,760 Speaker 1: in the personal computer marketplace. They fought a fierce battle 355 00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:56,560 Speaker 1: against each other while a larger war was going on. 356 00:21:56,800 --> 00:21:59,600 Speaker 1: But I am getting ahead of myself, so we'll rejoin 357 00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:04,600 Speaker 1: that discussion later on. At first, Commodore was pretty darn 358 00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:07,760 Speaker 1: awesome to the Amiga team. The group got the resources 359 00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:10,760 Speaker 1: they needed to keep developing their first computer system, and 360 00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:13,720 Speaker 1: while there was an initial fear that Commodore was going 361 00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:16,040 Speaker 1: to require the Amiga group to pick up stakes in 362 00:22:16,119 --> 00:22:20,360 Speaker 1: California and moved to Westchester, Pennsylvania, which is where Commodore 363 00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:25,040 Speaker 1: headquarters were, those fears were initially quelled. The team did move, 364 00:22:25,280 --> 00:22:28,320 Speaker 1: but they moved into larger offices about ten miles away 365 00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:30,800 Speaker 1: from where they had been working, so it wasn't that 366 00:22:30,840 --> 00:22:32,679 Speaker 1: big of a change, and it meant that they were 367 00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:35,800 Speaker 1: no longer in a very cramped working space. Amiga was 368 00:22:35,840 --> 00:22:38,359 Speaker 1: able to get more equipment and able to hire on 369 00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:41,760 Speaker 1: more engineers to get back at it, and things were 370 00:22:41,800 --> 00:22:47,240 Speaker 1: looking up. But nothing lasts forever. I'll tell you more 371 00:22:47,440 --> 00:22:49,760 Speaker 1: when we get back after this quick break to thank 372 00:22:49,760 --> 00:23:00,239 Speaker 1: our sponsor. As the hardware had been taking shape, so 373 00:23:00,359 --> 00:23:04,640 Speaker 1: was the operating system. The microkernel named Exact served as 374 00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:07,639 Speaker 1: the core for this OS. The g u I or 375 00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:11,240 Speaker 1: Graphical User Interface was coming together, but the OS would 376 00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:13,959 Speaker 1: still need a way to handle the file system and 377 00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:17,000 Speaker 1: some of the other tasks that neither EXACT nor the 378 00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:19,360 Speaker 1: g u I would touch on. There are some things 379 00:23:19,400 --> 00:23:21,560 Speaker 1: that the OS needed to do that neither of these 380 00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:25,120 Speaker 1: components could do now. At first, the solution to this 381 00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:29,160 Speaker 1: was going to be creating code called the Commodore Amiga 382 00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:35,440 Speaker 1: Operating System or c a O S CHAOS. That might 383 00:23:35,440 --> 00:23:38,959 Speaker 1: have been a little prophetic. Carl Sassin Wrath wrote up 384 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:43,119 Speaker 1: the design specifications for CHAOS. What CHAOS was supposed to 385 00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:46,920 Speaker 1: be able to do. This would include some advanced operating 386 00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:51,080 Speaker 1: system task management capabilities, like the ability to take the 387 00:23:51,160 --> 00:23:54,480 Speaker 1: resources that were used by one application and then free 388 00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:58,399 Speaker 1: those resources up if that application should crash. Since the 389 00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:01,080 Speaker 1: Amiga was being built as a mole t tasking machine. 390 00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:04,640 Speaker 1: That was a really important feature because without it, computer 391 00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:08,320 Speaker 1: resources could get locked up in a crashed application while 392 00:24:08,359 --> 00:24:11,359 Speaker 1: other applications are still working, and eventually that means you 393 00:24:11,359 --> 00:24:14,480 Speaker 1: would run out of computer memory or processing power if 394 00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:16,199 Speaker 1: you couldn't get to those, and you would have to 395 00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:18,600 Speaker 1: do a hard reboot of your system in order to 396 00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:22,800 Speaker 1: free them all up. Again. Design was falling behind, and 397 00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:27,200 Speaker 1: so the team chose to outsource some elements of Chaos 398 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:31,800 Speaker 1: to third party developers. But despite pulling long hours and 399 00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:35,320 Speaker 1: despite putting outsourced work in there, it became evident that 400 00:24:35,359 --> 00:24:37,560 Speaker 1: there was no way the team was going to get 401 00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:40,840 Speaker 1: everything done and be ready to launch the Amiga on time. 402 00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:44,439 Speaker 1: And while Commodore was being really helpful, that was not 403 00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:48,480 Speaker 1: going to fly. The Commodore did expect results. So in addition, 404 00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:52,200 Speaker 1: the third party that was working on parts of Chaos, 405 00:24:52,520 --> 00:24:55,840 Speaker 1: they found out that Amiga had been bought out by Commodore, 406 00:24:55,880 --> 00:24:59,040 Speaker 1: and suddenly this third party was demanding a whole lot 407 00:24:59,119 --> 00:25:03,080 Speaker 1: more money of that outsourced work, which is kind of 408 00:25:03,119 --> 00:25:05,439 Speaker 1: like if you won the lottery and then all of 409 00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:07,800 Speaker 1: your friends and family started hitting you up for cash 410 00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:10,200 Speaker 1: because they know you've got deep pockets. That was what 411 00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:13,680 Speaker 1: felt like was going on with this third party. Commodor 412 00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:16,200 Speaker 1: tried to negotiate with them, but it all fell apart 413 00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:19,840 Speaker 1: and it became pretty clear the Chaos just had fallen 414 00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:24,720 Speaker 1: into some sort of orderless state of being, if only 415 00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:27,840 Speaker 1: there were a word for that. Anyway, the team would 416 00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:32,119 Speaker 1: pivot and seek out a new solution for their operating system, 417 00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:36,160 Speaker 1: and they chose to use an existing operating system as 418 00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:38,520 Speaker 1: their foundation. It was one that had been developed at 419 00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:42,320 Speaker 1: the University of Cambridge for the PDP eleven computer system. 420 00:25:42,359 --> 00:25:45,320 Speaker 1: It was called trip Os. It was developed by a 421 00:25:45,320 --> 00:25:48,800 Speaker 1: guy named Dr Tim King, and he created a new 422 00:25:48,840 --> 00:25:54,560 Speaker 1: company called MetaComCo specifically to work with Amiga. He took 423 00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:58,000 Speaker 1: the code of trip Os and then began to adapt 424 00:25:58,080 --> 00:26:02,840 Speaker 1: it so that would work on Amiga's chip sets and capabilities, 425 00:26:03,040 --> 00:26:07,040 Speaker 1: and this new code was called Amiga Doss. Amiga Doss 426 00:26:07,119 --> 00:26:10,480 Speaker 1: could do basic operating system functions, but it was not 427 00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:14,360 Speaker 1: going to do everything that the design spec for Chaos 428 00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:17,600 Speaker 1: had called for. It had no resource tracking, which meant 429 00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:21,680 Speaker 1: that if an application crashed, the resources being used for 430 00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:24,879 Speaker 1: that application when it was working might get locked up. 431 00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:28,159 Speaker 1: So that was a bummer. One other battle that was 432 00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:31,760 Speaker 1: taking place before the computer would launch would revolve around 433 00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:36,200 Speaker 1: computer memory. J Minor had really wanted this Amiga computer 434 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:40,280 Speaker 1: to ship with five kilobytes of RAM because he knew 435 00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:43,680 Speaker 1: that the operating system the graphical user interface would both 436 00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:46,639 Speaker 1: require a decent amount of memory just to work on 437 00:26:46,680 --> 00:26:50,359 Speaker 1: their own before you ever launched an application. But he 438 00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:53,760 Speaker 1: wanted developers to be able to make good programs for 439 00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:58,200 Speaker 1: this computer system. However, RAM was kind of expensive, and 440 00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:00,720 Speaker 1: adding that much RAM would dry up the price of 441 00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:04,080 Speaker 1: the system, and Commodore was worried that that would price 442 00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:07,520 Speaker 1: the computer out of the market. Commodore wanted to ship 443 00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:11,120 Speaker 1: the computer with two fifty six kilobytes of RAM. They 444 00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:14,359 Speaker 1: fought over this. Eventually they made a compromise. J Minor 445 00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:17,800 Speaker 1: essentially threatened to walk away from the company, and the 446 00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:20,480 Speaker 1: compromise was that the computer would ship with two d 447 00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:23,480 Speaker 1: fifty six kilobytes of RAM as a standard, but it 448 00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:27,360 Speaker 1: would also feature an expansion slot or expansion cage as 449 00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:29,440 Speaker 1: it was called, where it would be very easy to 450 00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:34,520 Speaker 1: plug in additional RAM. Finally, the pieces were in place, 451 00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:38,000 Speaker 1: The chip set and motherboard were finalized, the operating system 452 00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:41,880 Speaker 1: was finished. The team then began to design the case. 453 00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:45,080 Speaker 1: They even added their signatures to this design so that 454 00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:47,800 Speaker 1: their signatures would all be on the inside of the 455 00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:50,480 Speaker 1: Amiga computer case. This was something that a lot of 456 00:27:50,840 --> 00:27:54,320 Speaker 1: early personal computer manufacturers did, where they had the designers 457 00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:57,000 Speaker 1: signed their work, but it was all on the inside 458 00:27:57,000 --> 00:27:58,760 Speaker 1: of the case, where you would not see it unless 459 00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:02,720 Speaker 1: you opened up the computer. Every single team member at Amiga, 460 00:28:03,119 --> 00:28:06,600 Speaker 1: including those who joined after Commodore had purchased were part 461 00:28:06,680 --> 00:28:10,440 Speaker 1: of this. Plus j miners Dog, which was a cockapoo 462 00:28:10,560 --> 00:28:13,719 Speaker 1: named Mitchie, had a signature in their pop print. Oh 463 00:28:13,800 --> 00:28:16,960 Speaker 1: and one other valuable team member had a signature in 464 00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:22,880 Speaker 1: this Joe Pillow. Joe Pillows signature is inside the original Amiga. 465 00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:26,240 Speaker 1: Dave Morse, who was the CEO of Amiga he was 466 00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:29,640 Speaker 1: now kind of the the head of Commodore Amiga, even 467 00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:32,200 Speaker 1: had a little bit of input on this case designed. 468 00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:35,640 Speaker 1: The Amiga computer, which was now called the Amiga one thousand, 469 00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:39,120 Speaker 1: would have a raised section on the bottom of the 470 00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:42,560 Speaker 1: machine that would allow the user to kind of slide 471 00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:46,960 Speaker 1: the keyboard in, so it's kind of nestles underneath the 472 00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:49,480 Speaker 1: computer case a little bit, and that way you could 473 00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:51,480 Speaker 1: move the keyboard out of the way whenever you're not 474 00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:54,800 Speaker 1: using the computer. And it was now time to unveil 475 00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:57,680 Speaker 1: the Amigo one thousand to the world, and so Commodore 476 00:28:57,760 --> 00:29:01,120 Speaker 1: decided to make it a big media event. The company 477 00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:04,160 Speaker 1: rented out the Lincoln Center in New York City and 478 00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:08,080 Speaker 1: every Commodore employee in attendance got to wear a tuxedo. 479 00:29:08,200 --> 00:29:12,000 Speaker 1: They were given tuxedos by Commodore. They hired out a 480 00:29:12,120 --> 00:29:15,440 Speaker 1: full orchestra to provide music before and during the event, 481 00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:20,080 Speaker 1: and Bob Parizo was chosen to present on behalf of Amiga. 482 00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:23,080 Speaker 1: He was joined on stage by a computer operator who 483 00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:26,760 Speaker 1: was working on an Amigo one thousand. Cameras would show 484 00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:30,240 Speaker 1: both Bob Barrizo up on stage as well as the 485 00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:34,440 Speaker 1: screen of the Amigo one thousand, and that would be 486 00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:37,360 Speaker 1: projected onto large screens behind the stage so that people 487 00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:41,120 Speaker 1: in the audience could see what was happening in real time. Pariso, 488 00:29:41,200 --> 00:29:44,000 Speaker 1: by the way, came out as an incredible presenter. The 489 00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:47,120 Speaker 1: presentation is actually available on YouTube if you want to 490 00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:50,160 Speaker 1: watch it. I did watch it. It's pretty entertaining. The 491 00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:54,440 Speaker 1: computer capabilities are obviously primitive by today's standards, but you 492 00:29:54,520 --> 00:29:57,840 Speaker 1: have to think back in terms of nine five. They 493 00:29:57,920 --> 00:30:02,000 Speaker 1: were revolutionary back then. Parizzo and the operators showed how 494 00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:05,920 Speaker 1: the Amiga could handle graphics including animation, how it could 495 00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:09,719 Speaker 1: display more colors than other computers on the market, how 496 00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:13,720 Speaker 1: the graphical user interface worked, how the computer could multitask, 497 00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:16,280 Speaker 1: how you can use the same sets of data in 498 00:30:16,360 --> 00:30:19,560 Speaker 1: a spreadsheet to generate multiple graphs and charts and different 499 00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:23,040 Speaker 1: formats at the same time in different windows, how the 500 00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:26,200 Speaker 1: sound system on the computer would work, and more. To 501 00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:29,280 Speaker 1: make sure that the business crowd was appeased and would 502 00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:31,560 Speaker 1: have something to talk about, he also showed off how 503 00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:35,200 Speaker 1: the Amigo one thousand could run an IBM PC emulator. 504 00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:39,360 Speaker 1: They used a program called Amiga Transformer, and the operator 505 00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:42,600 Speaker 1: showed that using that program you could then put in 506 00:30:42,680 --> 00:30:46,320 Speaker 1: a PC doss disk into the system, boot into PC doss, 507 00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:50,280 Speaker 1: then you could load in any software meant for the 508 00:30:50,360 --> 00:30:53,360 Speaker 1: IBM PC and run it. And they showed off Lotus one, 509 00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:56,200 Speaker 1: two three, which was developed for the IBM PC, And 510 00:30:56,280 --> 00:30:59,560 Speaker 1: the argument here was you can use this device to 511 00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:03,360 Speaker 1: run all your IBM business stuff, but it also does 512 00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:06,840 Speaker 1: all this incredible sound and and visual stuff that the 513 00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:12,440 Speaker 1: IBM PC can't do. The presentation also involved an appearance 514 00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:15,560 Speaker 1: by two celebrities. One was Deborah Harry, who was the 515 00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:19,400 Speaker 1: lead singer of an awesome musical group called Blondie. My 516 00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:21,920 Speaker 1: fellow children of the eighties know what I'm talking about. 517 00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:25,560 Speaker 1: Blondie was a super cool music group. Go check them 518 00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:27,120 Speaker 1: out if you haven't heard of him. And the other 519 00:31:27,240 --> 00:31:31,040 Speaker 1: celebrity was the pop artist Andy Warhol, known for his 520 00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:36,840 Speaker 1: counterculture take on iconography. Now. During this demonstration, a camera 521 00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:40,880 Speaker 1: took a photo of Deborah Harry and a digitizer converted 522 00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:44,400 Speaker 1: the photo into a monochromatic image on the Amiga screen, 523 00:31:45,080 --> 00:31:48,160 Speaker 1: and Andy Warhol used tools in a program called pro 524 00:31:48,360 --> 00:31:52,600 Speaker 1: Paint to add color. Pro Paint was in prototype form, 525 00:31:53,360 --> 00:31:56,280 Speaker 1: so it's amazing, but the whole thing worked, and that 526 00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:58,480 Speaker 1: was a big shock to the programmers who had been 527 00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:03,160 Speaker 1: struggling with pro Paint because as it was frequently crashing 528 00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:06,560 Speaker 1: in the weeks leading up to this demonstration, so I'm 529 00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:11,640 Speaker 1: sure everyone backstage was hoping against hope that it would 530 00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:15,520 Speaker 1: stay stable, and it did. The Amigo one thousand left 531 00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:19,360 Speaker 1: a great impression. Lewis Wallace, who wrote about tech, said 532 00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:22,200 Speaker 1: that it took the best qualities of the Macintosh. It 533 00:32:22,280 --> 00:32:25,360 Speaker 1: took the processing power of an IBM computer, and it 534 00:32:25,560 --> 00:32:29,200 Speaker 1: drastically cut the price tag, which seemed fairly accurate. A 535 00:32:29,320 --> 00:32:35,240 Speaker 1: Macintosh would set you back about two thousand four dollars, 536 00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:39,640 Speaker 1: and the Macintosh had one kilobytes of memory. The Amigo 537 00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:42,400 Speaker 1: one thousand had two versions. It had a two hundred 538 00:32:42,440 --> 00:32:45,760 Speaker 1: fifty six kilobyte version that was priced at one thousand, 539 00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:48,600 Speaker 1: two hundred dollars, and even if you got the full 540 00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:53,400 Speaker 1: five d twelve kilobyte version that was one thousand four dollars, 541 00:32:53,440 --> 00:32:57,800 Speaker 1: that was still a grand cheaper than Apple's Macintosh and 542 00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:01,960 Speaker 1: had way more memory and had way more capabilities. But 543 00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:05,440 Speaker 1: while the reaction to the Amiga was positive, the computer 544 00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:08,480 Speaker 1: wasn't yet available for purchase, and there were other things 545 00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:11,400 Speaker 1: going on at Commodore that would complicate matters for both 546 00:33:11,720 --> 00:33:14,960 Speaker 1: the parent company and for Amiga. But we're gonna save 547 00:33:15,040 --> 00:33:18,160 Speaker 1: that for the next episode, and that next episode we'll 548 00:33:18,200 --> 00:33:22,720 Speaker 1: talk about changes at Commodore that caused issues with Amiga. 549 00:33:23,040 --> 00:33:26,640 Speaker 1: We'll talk about how Jack tramiel Over at Atari kept 550 00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:31,840 Speaker 1: on the fight against Commodore and Amiga, and talk about 551 00:33:31,880 --> 00:33:34,720 Speaker 1: some of the cool stuff that actually was developed with 552 00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:38,480 Speaker 1: the Amiga systems and what happened. So join me for 553 00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:41,120 Speaker 1: that so we can continue this story in the meantime. 554 00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:43,440 Speaker 1: If you guys have any suggestions for future episodes of 555 00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:46,840 Speaker 1: tech Stuff, whether it's a company, technology, person in tech, 556 00:33:47,360 --> 00:33:52,000 Speaker 1: some other technologically adjacent topic that would be appropriate for 557 00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:54,080 Speaker 1: the show, send me an email let me know what 558 00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:57,920 Speaker 1: your suggestion is. The addresses tech Stuff at how stuff 559 00:33:57,920 --> 00:34:00,080 Speaker 1: works dot com. You can drop me a line on 560 00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:02,080 Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter. The handle of both of those is 561 00:34:02,160 --> 00:34:06,440 Speaker 1: text Stuff H s W. Don't forget stopped by t 562 00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:09,800 Speaker 1: public dot com slash tech Stuff. 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