What happened to the AAA chipset?

[Bloodwych]

An interesting fact was that Jay, the farther of the Amiga who passed away in 1994, was actually disappointed in Commodore when they brought out the AGA chipset. He thought they didn't push the boundaries enough.

He commented they should have added 16bit improved sound, better blitter and going from SCSI to the inferior IDE was a huge mistake.

They told him that this was definitely coming in the AAA chipset, along with other major improvements. Shame we never got to see a working model.

The fact is the custom chips in the Amiga were revolutionary at the time, but others soon caught up. Custom chips in the consoles for instance, trounced the Amiga in certain 2D arcade style games, although they still weren't as versatile all round as the Amiga.

The AAA chipset needed hardware scaling, stronger 2D support to match consoles, chunky display modes (or a way to accelerate games like doom), a fast 030 as standard, digital audio processor, standard hard drive etc just to remain cutting edge. I really don't think Commodore could have pulled that off for a reasonable price and stay competitive against PC's in the computer market and consoles in the game.

It's a shame, because such a machine would have been awesome and had a fantastic home scene following had it been able to compete. Atari tried to go that step with the Falcon, but commercially it wasn't viable anymore.

The golden era of computing, with all the different custom machines and models, died at that point in my opinion. Revolution was over - all that remained was evolution - mainly CPU's and GPU's.

Now the closest thing we have are the major console brands.

[Zetr0]

Not a truer word spoken Reverend Bloodwych!

[Harrison]

"Classicamiga.com - The golden era of computing"

A new strap line for classicamiga?

[Bloodwych]

No problem brother Zetro - go forth and spread the word my good friend.

Reading in detail what Buleste linked and Harrison wrote, the AAA vs the Falcon would have been an interesting round to experience. We lost something once the industry became standardized and generic.

Yes it became more convenient and cheaper to have power, but the magic was lost. Thank goodness we still have sites like this to keep it going a little longer.

[Harrison]

I think had the AAA Amiga actually appeared it would of also helped the Atari Falcon. The problem with the Falcon was that it was floating around alone once released, with little support. Had another generation of Amiga been released to directly compete with the Falcon I believe the industry for the two machines would have continued along the same path with the fans of both the ST and Amiga continuing to buy into the new generation of hardware. Developers would have had two platforms to cross develop for and felt secure about the possibility of profit from software development. Instead the Falcon wasn't popular because of a lack of support, but also because it didn't really fit in anywhere and the PC hardware was quickly moving forward at a fast rate (all be it much more expensive).

I never thought I would come to the conclusion that the existence of the Amiga help the sales of the ST! But it is true. Competition in the marketplace always goes this. If a system is alone in the marketplace it tends to stagnate and not generate interest.

[Quagmire]

It's sad to see what might have been, but great read all the same

[v85rawdeal]

Now the closest thing we have are the major console brands.

And I dont see them generatuing the same amount of interest that the Amiga has 20 years on!!!

[Bloodwych]

So true v85rawdeal, so true.

[woody.cool]

What do you reckon the Amiga would have been like if the AAA chipset had successfully been released?

[v85rawdeal]

So true v85rawdeal, so true.

See, wit and wisdom in one handy package!