1982, in the beginning......
 A small development team, named Hi-Toro, chose the code name "Amiga" for a games console that will beat the Atari. The team responsible 
 for the development of the "Amiga" had 4 founding members: Mr Jay Miner, Mr  R.J. Mical, Mr Dave Morse and Mr Carl Sassenrath.

 In the beginning they sold other products to win the respect of their customers and to earn them some money while developing the Amiga. 
 One of their first productions was "Joy board"a controller that you used by sitting on it !  There were many games for that, but the best was 
 "Zen Meditation" in which you have to stay absolutely still. ( Does the word "Meditation" means something to you? Guru Meditation? ..YES ! 
 They used to say that if anything goes wrong the only way to relax was by playing Zen Meditation! )

  The code name "Amiga" was not chosen by luck. ( Jay Miner didn't like that name at the beginning ) A story tells us that the team didn't 
  want to have a computerized name, such as SCOA16/II, because they didn't want to be easily identified as a computer development team.  

  The code name "Amiga" was the Spanish name for girl friend. They continued this tactic and to the custom chips that they made (Agnus,  
  Portia, and Daphne). For the main CPU they used a Motorola 68000 ( 16/32bit ), the best CPU available in 1982. It out-performed the rarther 
  dull Intel 286 and,  slowly their games  machine was getting shape.  The C64 was selling exceptionally well as it was the "Bread and Butter"
  stable "earner machine" that brought dollars into the company for the Amiga R & D research team from this good solid C64 income stream.

  1983,...... moving forward......
  Rumors about a super-computer, with the code name Lorraine ( the first Amiga, named for the Hi-Toro president's wife) were traveling  
  across the USA. 1983 was the year that all the custom chips were built.  R.J. Mical (the coder of the intuition) wanted a cheap games
  machine, but the others wanted the best computer. And wghy not, their collective efforts were in designing something unique, an Amiga.

  Jay Miner was dreaming about a machine like the Amiga A2000, one with lot of expansion slots. Jay Miner co-operated with Ron Nicholson  
  who gave the idea of the blitter. HAM (Hold And Modify) was Jay Miner's idea after a visit to some flight simulators (there was a chance to 
  leave HAM option outside of the first Amiga). US$ 7,000,000 had already been spent on research and development of the Amiga project.

  1984 January...... time is taking its toll..........
  C.E.S. (Consumer Electronics Show) took place at Chicago, USA. The team introduced an Amiga (well... a huge pile of chips and wires...) 
  with the hope that they would find someone to invest in their project. On January the 4th Dale and RJ Mical made the first Amiga Demo ever, 
  the famous "Boing" demo, a sphere with red and white rectangles on it, bouncing on the screen. 
  The "Amiga" was only shown to selected "customers" and all the processing was continued very secretly. Loose lips sink ships !

  1984 June........
  The Amiga Inc. team was trying to find a company to buy their technology and to employ them, since they had run out of money. 
  Many companies were interested in the custom chips of the Amiga, such big names as Sony, Apple, Philips, HP, etc. all were interested.

  Atari's president, Jack Tramiel, who had just left C=, because he purchased Atari secretly, was trying to get his revenge by buying Amiga Inc.
  He lent Amiga Inc. $1,000,000, to be paid back one month later. When the month was almost up, it became apparent that Amiga Inc. would
  not be able to pay him back, so he offered 98 cents per share for the company. Amiga Inc. thought that this was unacceptable, so they 
  looked for someone else to buy them. Just 2 days before the deadline, C= came in and began to talk to Amiga Inc.

  They managed to get C= to raise its bid to $4.25 a share, and just before the deadline ended C= gave them $1,000,00 to pay back Atari, 
  on the condition that they would get to buy Amiga Inc.

  1985 July 23rd............
  The year that the "dream machine"came out when Amiga 1000 introduced in Lincoln Center at New York. Many people say that this was the  
  date that changed the whole future of all computers.(Multi media machine the Amiga A1000.. back in 1985 ! ). Multi-Media a New Buzzword.

  1985 September............
  The Amiga A1000 is released and shipped to its first customers, but where is the RAM you told us all about and when will that be a reality ?  

  Notes: [(*): The Very First Amiga used 128k of RAM (Random Access memory)  !] [(*): Later it was expandable to 8.5 MB ! ]

-===- Amiga 1000 -===-

Processor : Motorola 68000  7.14mhz (less than 1 mips) : 16/32 bit :

Custom Chips (3): Portia, Daphne and a dual inline 40 Pin 1/2 Meg Agnus.

RAM : 256k Ram (*) / 512k Maximum chip ram (*2)

HD : Optional ( US$ 1,000 = 20MB (!) )  In 1985 !

FD : 1 x 3.5" - 880kb

  It was the FIRST computer to use more than 16 color output as a standard feature ( 4096 colors / HAM6 [Hold And Modify] ).  It was also the 
  first computer with a full Pre-Emptive Multi Tasking OS. It already had 4 channel digital stereo sound and the first computer to ship with 
  a two button, "rolling ball" mouse as a standard (  and no - Apple Mac was not the first - It was in fact the Amiga ! ). 
  True 100% Pre-Emptive Multitasking is achieved when the flow of data can be used (addressed and understood) by several chips at once, 
  thus being able to run several programs seamlessly all at once. This feature is totally unique to the Amiga architecture. PCs don't multitask. 

  The kickstart was loaded from floppy. The price was about US$ 2,000 in the days where single tasking PC's ( 286's ) cost about US$ 4,000.

  It only had one external 86 Gold Finger Expansion slot (on the left side when using it) because Commodore wanted to keep costs down.

  At the same year the first issue of "Amiga World" made its debut. It was the first Amiga magazine.......

  1986
  The Amiga A1000 was finally launched in the UK.  The team began working on a new Amiga model.  They wanted it to be far more  
  expandable, with a lot of slots and they wanted the slots to be AutoConfig. They had to argue with C= once again, because the autoconfig     
  slots cost 50 cents more. You have got to admire accountants. The success of a computer product largely depends on its add-ons. Fact !

  Two prototypes of the new model were developed. One in the Los Gatos (USA) and one in Braunschweig (Germany). C= also wanted
  IBM compatibility, so both teams tried to do the best to emulate an IBM 8088.  Jay Miner didn't like the idea.  He thought it unwarranted.

  Finally, the emulator came out from Germany. The "SideCar" was a US$ 1,000 product, basically an IBM XT without a keyboard that   
  was plugged into the left side 86 way bus of an Amiga A1000.  The product that Los Gatos was producing it was a US$ 200 accelerator,
  for an IBM PC software emulator. Los Gatos helped the German team a lot with the emulator's software.  The Los Gatos began working 
  on a new "dream machine", no one knew exactly what at that point.

  1986........ The rot starts here......
  The very same year, Mehdi Ali was employed at Commodore as a consultant for Dillon Reed by Irving Gould.  
                           (seen pictured below - left)                                                                    (seen pictured below - right)    

  1987......... A New Amiga emerges.....
   Finally the new Amiga model was on production The name was just the simple as A2000. The Amiga A2000 was bigger than the Amiga    
   A1000 and extremely expandable, with 5 Zorro II slots [ 5 ] ( Zorro II ) plus a real video slot.

-===- Amiga 2000 -===-

Processor : Motorola 68000 7.14mhz ( less than 1 mips ) :  16/32 Bit :

Custom Chips : 84 pin PLCC Agnus, 48 pin DIL Denise, 48 pin DIL Paula, 48 pin DIL Gary (Gate Array).

1mb Ram / expandable to 9 Mega Bytes. Five ( 5 ) Slots to use.

HD : Optional ( US$ 1,000 = 20MB ( ! ) ) in 1987 !

FD : 1 x 3.5" - 880kb

  1987........ the metal box is here....
 It was launched in the UK for LStg £3,200 ( later Lstg £3,150). The kickstart was finally in a 40 pin DIL ROM. A2000 was a base 
 for other Amigas, being released on various world markets, as the A1500 [A2000 with two 3 1/2" drives], A2000 HD, A2500/ 020, 
 A2500/ 030, A2000HDA/ 100, A1500 plus and A2000 Plus.

 Later the same year, the Amiga 500 was launched ( Lstg 3,599 in the UK ). It was the same as the Amiga 2000, with a compact 
 design (keyboard and cpu in the same box) and no internal slots. 
 Both the machines had a new graphics mode, the EHB ( Extra Half Bright ), that gives 64 colors on screen. The operating system 
 was KickStart 1.2 with Workbench 1.2 on a set of floppy disks.  The 1/2 MB Amiga A500 was the first really affordable machine.

  Scala founded in Norway. Scala is famous for its Desktop Video software using a Genlock connected to an Amiga

  1988.......... Trouble brewing........
  Jack Tramiel returns, as Atari takes Commodore to court, by claiming that it had given money to research the Amiga. The judge 
  supported Commodore, however and Jack was out of pocket for litigation and court expenses.

  1988 -1989................Improvemements and enhancements to Custom Chips

Minor changes, to the chip sets. Agnus became Fat Agnus, and later, Fatter Agnus, which can control 1MB chip (Graphics) Ram.

  1990.........
  The first fully 32bit system, with a 68030 and the ECS chip set (Enhance Chip Set) ( Fatter Agnus), named the A3000, 
  was later launched in the UK at Lstg £3,300 ( later selling for LStg £3,200 ) and sold out within 7 weeks.

-===- Amiga 3000 -===-

Processor : Motorola 68030 / 68881FPU ( later 68882 Maths Co-Processor) 16mhz ( later 25MHz )

Custom Chips : 2MB Fatter Agnus,  Denise,  Paula,  Gary (newer Gate array)

RAM : 2mb Ram / expandable to 18mb [ 2mb chip - 16mb fast ]

HD : 40 MB as standard

FD : 1 x 3.5" - 880kb

  1990 or thereabouts.............
  The Kickstart was 2.0. It had an onboard SCSI controller and Zorro III slots. It was also available on a tower model, the A3000T
  and a UNIX model, the A3000UX.  A flicker fixer was also included so that the A3000 could easily be plugged in a VGA monitor. 

  A few months later, the A500 Plus was released. It was a European model, with ECS ( Enhanced Chip Set ), 1MB Ram and fully
  ( expandable to a massive 10MB of Fast Ram ) and sporting the new Workbench 2.0.  The price was about LStg £3,399.

  Both the systems had graphics mode of up to 1470 x 580 ( 4 colors ). Kickstart 2.0, was a step forward. It occupied 512kb ROM 
  (1.3 was just 256KB), but there wasn't very much backwards compatibility with 1.3. The compatibility problem was not a fault of
  Commodore, but it was in fact the fault of bad programming by coders. We assume these coders went to work for you know who.

  1991............new things in the pipeline........
 The first multi media CDRom system, CDTV, was launched in the UK for £3599. The CDTV was an A500 and kickstart 1.3 with a 
 CD-Rom drive. CDTV was the shortened version of Commodore Dynamic Total Vision ( code name: "babe" as they were designing
 it for 9 months ) - Interesting code name for its gestational period. 

Commodore hoped to sneak it into the homes of computerphobes. Commodore also didn't put the Amiga logo, anywhere on the 
CDTV. As a result of this, CDTV failed to catch the public's imagination, partly because it was LStg £3,200 more expensive than 
an A500, and partly because the software was disappointing. Software supporting a platform such as CDTV is paramount to the 
platform's climb towards success.

 This year, 1991 no more than 50 CD disks went on sale, but the games were no better than the floppy disk versions. The CDTV 
 was operated by a user-friendly infra-red remote control. Later the same year the option of turning the CDTV on a full AMIGA A500 
 computer was available. Maybe the market was not ready yet for that multi media revolution. Truly in 1991 it was ahead of its time.

 The A570 CDROM drive for A500 was released in 1991, before the end of the year. The major problem was that all these years,  
 Commodore had a stable system. They had to do a major system upgrade and this cost in time, money and engineering reources.

  1992 March...............

 The Amiga A600 was launched in the UK for UK£399.  The CPU was still the Motorola EC68000. 7.14MHz So what's the difference 
 between A600 and A500? First of all it had a surface-mount technology ( lower cost for Commodore ). An RF and Composite output
 were also added. It was the first Amiga with an IDE controller ( 2 1/2" ) and a simple (slow) PCMCIA slot.  The major disadvantage 
 was that it did not have a numeric keypad. An A600HD was launched later that year. Not want Commodore engineers envisaged.

 Rumors about a new Amiga in the pipe line, with an advanced chip set, able to support up to 16.7 million colors, were true ! 
 Commodore announced  the release of the new AGA chip set ( Advanced Graphics Architecture ) and it was a hit ! Great graphics.

  1992 September...............
 At the world of Commodore Show ( Pasadena California ) in September 11, 1992, Commodore introduced the first machine with 
 the AGA chip set. As Commodore announced it was "the company's most significant new technology advancement in its Amiga 
 line since the product's introduction in 1985." and living up to the hype, it was. Amazing graphics with velvet-smooth scrolling.

  At the W.O.C. ( World Of Commodore ) they also announced AmigaDOS TM Release 3 Operating System and "AmigaVision TM"  
 a Professional Authoring System.

  1992 December................More AGA !.........

 The first machine with the new AGA technology was the A4000/040 EC68040 25MHz launched in the UK for £2,100. (USD$ 3,699). 

-===- Amiga 4000 / 040 -===-

Processor : Motorola 68040 / 25Mhz  EC68040. The EC chip stands for "EConomy".
The CPU slot could be expanded up to 68060 66MHz via 3rd party products.

Custom Chips : Super Gary, Super Ramsey, Super Amber,  Lisa,  Alice,  Paula.

RAM : 6mb Ram [ 2mb Chip/ 4mb Fast ] Expandable up to a huge 48MB with 3rd party products.

HD : 120 MB 3.5" 5400 Seagate IDE H.D.

FD : 1 x 3.5" - 880kb

  1992 September ~ October...............
 They replaced the SCSI controller with an IDE one ( they C= included a Seagate ST3144A 3.5" 120mb HD - The Hard Drive was 
 pre-formatted, with an 8 MB Workbench 3.0 partition and a 116 MB Work partition ).The floppy drive was a dual speed high
 density 770KB or 1.44MB Chinon unit. They also used the SIMM technology for the memory upgrades, but all fast ram simms
 must be on the same type. ( Commodore used a 4MB SIMM for the internal with a 4MB non-parity RAM in the card card )

 At the Christmas of 1992, the low-end AMIGA 1200, an A500 like Amiga with the AGA chip set, was released as a low-cost
 machine, with full 32 bit technology and 2mb Chip RAM. The machine nearly missed the vital Christmas season and although
 it did just make it, not enough parts had been ordered to build an adequate number. Christmas 1992 was a disaster.
 Commodore-Amiga motherboards were made in a variety of location, Hong Kong, Phillipines, Germany, USA and U.K.

 All A600 and A1200 Motherboards were made and assembled by Pick-n-Place robot machines in either in Commodore's 
 Hong Kong Surface Mount Technology ( SMT ) plant, or teh Phillipines plant . SMT was used to seriously overcome 
 failures in the field ( at consumer's homes and offices ) and as a bonus, reliability went up and costs went down. Cheaper. 

 No one wants an ECS machine in an AGA world and few can get one of the new "AA" systems, (now called "AGA")". 
 David (Dave) Haynie, an ex-engineer at the Pennsylvania production plant, states at his movie, named "The Deathbed Vigil".
 Available in PAL (Phase Alternating Line) or NTSC. ( Never Twice (the) Same Color ) :-)

 The AMIGA 1200, was one of the most successful AMIGA computers. It launched in the UK for £399 ( USA: $599 ). 
 It also had the IDE controller and the (slow) PCMCIA slot of the A600, plus a 32-bit trap door expansion. It included 
 Amiga Dos Version 3.0.1. On the A1200 motherboard, there were two ROMs these two formed the Kickstart ROM.

-===- Amiga 1200 -===-

Processor : Motorola 68EC020 / 14Mhz This is the EConomy EC68020 Processor.
Cards from 3rd Party suppliers contained anything from 68020 to 68060 60MHz, a 68881 Maths Co-Pro and 32 MB Ram.

Custom Chips : Super Gary, Super Ramsey, Super Amber,  Lisa,  Alice and Paula.

RAM : 2mb Chip Ram , expandable to 16MB Fast Ram + 2MB Chip Ram  or 32MB Fast Ram+ 2MB chip Ram.

HD : 40MB 2.5" Seagate IDE

FD : 1 x 3.5" - 880kb

 Both Amiga 4000 and Amiga 1200 used the AGA chip set, able to display 256 colors on hi-res displays, from a palette of 16.7
 million colors. There is also a HAM-8 mode able to display 256,000+ colors ( very close to 24 bit display ! ). Compared to the 
 old ECS chips ( chalk and cheese ) the new AGA chips are very fast, even on 256 colors ! Speed and color was quicker.

 Both Amiga 4000 and Amiga 1200, make use of AmigaDos V3.0 ! AmigaDos 3.0 adds CrossDos as standard (a useful 
 commodity that helps you read and write on PC disks). It supports all the new AGA graphic modes. W.B. 3.0 also supports
 "datatypes," a new facility that allows programs to access data in an unlimited number of formats, as long as you install a 
  datatype that understands the format. Another useful addition is the Localization, so WB3.0 and programs using it can 
  easily be on multiple languages. Finally something we could all be very happy with, it did not get any better that that !

 A lot of useful programs such as Multiview (a viewer for every datatype) and an Installer (a easy to use install utility), are also 
 supplied. A new filesystem is also included, the DCFS. ( Directory Caching File System ). You could also  now use what 
 ever picture you like for a window or workbench background. This made interesting backgrounds.

 The A4000 with the Motorola 68040 wasn't so cheap that everyone could afford it. So, a little bit later, Commodore launched 
 the cheaper-version of the A4000 / 040, the A4000 / 030, with a Motorola 68EC030.  Some called it the EC or El Cheapo.

 Commodore was a very profitable company, especially in Europe and it had a major power in computing, especially in 
 Germany. But what happened these years on the story background ? Commodore wasn't producing any hardware
 (except the basics) and they also cut the production of the Amiga A500 plus and later the Amiga A600. Why ? 
 Well, no one really knows..........

  1993...........The rot has really set in.......bad decisions....
  Well... early in 1993, the first issue of Amiga Report, became an online magazine ! :)

  1993 September
 The very last machine of Commodore-Amiga, the AMIGA CD32, a games machine, launched in the UK for £299. It was the 
 world's first fully 32 bit console. It had a double speed CDRom Drive, 2mb Chip memory, AGA chip set and the option of a 
 FMV (Full Motion Video) module. But once again the machine didn't make it.  It had many sales but not as many as they 
 were needed to save the financial problems of Commodore. Most of the games released were just CD conversions of the 
 original AGA or worse, ECS games and not really A1200 / 4000 ones, with no extra CD music, or FMV. 
 
 The Commodore situation was awful. It is interesting to note that big names like SONY and NINTENDO and a few others
 were watching the AMIGA CD32 with great interest, letting Commodore-Amiga be the "Canary in the mine" regarding 
 future ventures into a CD or for that matter, a DVD launch into the marketplace. DVD was not even invented yet, 
 however it was in developement by Philips and Sony and few others interested in creating a market for a new CD player.

 The AMIGA CD32 was the first ( and the last ) machine using as standard, Kickstart 3.1 ROMs ( a Pair of ROMs).

 Kickstart 3.1 was released later as an upgrade for all Amiga machines. Purchasing new ROM pairs and removing the old
 3.0 ROM pairs and then installing the NEW 3.1 operating sytem, Workbench 3.1 was quite revolutionary at that time.
 

  1994...............Tales of woe............
 Commodore had a financial damage of USD$ 107 Million dollars by the end of 1993. But the Amiga was still a very popular 
 machine. In 1992, Commodore sold about 800,000 Amigas ( 17% more than 1991 ) and in 1993, it sold 20% less.

So, what happened and why did it happen ?

 Big problems made Commodore lose all that money : Fall of Amiga peripherals sales ( Monitors, Printers etc. ), the 
 USD$ Dollar and its price fall on the major economic markets) and ... Me*di  A*i ( President of the Commodore ).
 

  1994 March........... Chapter 11.....anyone....
 Commodore- Amiga has announced that they were having financial difficulties which might result in bankruptcy or liquidation. 
 Commodore had lost $8.2 million. The stock fell to a measly  0.75 per share !. The New York stock exchange halted trading of
 Commodore stock ! It was basically junk bonds. This also impacted upon the dedicated engineers, Electronics and software.

  1994 April
 Until the middle of April, Commodore-AMIGA was still producing A4000s, A1200s, and CD32s, and the engineers continued
 development of the new AAA chip set. AAA was meant to be a big improvement over AGA. 24bit Graphics [ resolutions up to
1280x1024], 16 bit CD quality audio and other interesting things. AAA was never truly finished, which was a shame. So much lost.

 During the second half of April the production of Amigas stopped. The Philippines factory closed, but left behind a big stock
 of Amigas. The Scotland assembly factory also stopped the production. Many employees were told by the management to
 hunt for new jobs...

  April,22 1994*
 Fifteen ( 15 ) people were dismissed from West Chester ( PA ), and the Commodore Semiconductor Group was closed. 
15 people were also dismissed from the Norristown factory. So, there went the chip manufacturing facilities. Not good !

  April,26 1994*
 Engineering closed. No Chips. The site in West Chester, once supported by 1,000 employees now had only 22 people left.

  April,29 1994 (Friday)......Chapter 11 looms.....
 Commodore International filed for liquidation in order to be protected from its creditors Friday April 29, 1994, at 4:10 P.M.

 Commodore's official statement follows:

  "Commodore International Limited announced today that its Board of Directors has authorized the transfer of assets to 
   trustees for the benefit of its creditor and has placed its major subsidiary, Commodore Electronics Limited, into voluntary 
   liquidation. This is the initial phase of an orderly liquidation of both companies, which are incorporated in the Bahamas, 
   by the Bahamas Supreme Court." ............ Is that a tax haven still ?

  "This action does not affect the wholly-owned subsidiaries which include Commodore Business Machines (USA), 
  Commodore Business machines LTD (Canada), Commodore/Amiga (UK), Commodore Germany, etc. Operations will 
  continue normally."

  But how can the branches work without the head, of engineering that designs and builds the new hardware and software ?

  Few of the staff knew about the bankruptcy, till the next day when they arrived at West Chester (PA).

  April,30 1994..........
 CEI announced that they would still supply and distribute Amigas and should be able to meet demand, something that 
 today seems wrong, as there wasn't any stock available during the next months.

  May 1994

  Rumors, rumors and more rumors. Samsung was interested in buying Amiga, but they dropped when they found out 
  that other companies interested offered less money than they did to purchase the whole "box and dice".

  June 1994*

 Jay Miner, often called the "Father of the Amiga" passed away June 20, 1994 at the El Camino Hospital In Mountain View. 
 The actual cause of death was heart failure, but it was the result of kidney complications from his struggle with Diabetes.

 Many ex-Commodore employees moved to work for other companies such as Scala ( for example Dave Haynie that did 
 oversee all computer related hardware research and development activities in Scala offices ). Keeping on keeping on.

  CEI placed its bid for Commodore.

  July 1994
Amiga Convention 1994, took place in Quebec, Canada.

 The liquidators had finally received four proposals to buy Commodore, Those being Amstrad, Philips, Samsung and 
 Commodore UK headed by David Pleasance and colin Proudfoot.  But the Bahamian court rejected the proposals to 
 move the proceedings to New York City, that was closer for any company interested in acquiring Commodore-Amiga.

  August 1994
 Commodore sets up two ( 2 ) phone numbers for getting information about the current proceedings of the liquidation.

  September 1994 - October 1994 - November 1994
  Rumors about, Nestle, Atari, Sony and other companies willing to buy Commodore.
  More rumors for the day that the date of the liquidation will commence.

 This day is continuously jumped from month to month.

 CEI seemed to be more interested than any others and that is represented by the online conferences held by Amiga Report,
 on Portal, BIX, and Delphi. CEI finally offers a big amount of money as long as the liquidators give Commodore to them 
 right away.

  December 1994.........The show must go on........
  World Of Amiga Show held in the Wembley stadium in UK. C= UK claimed that they are prohibited to talk about the 
  buy out publicly. David Pleasance informed everyone that CEI had lost their financial backing-up status. CEI 
  never confirmed that.

  January 1995*

 Rumors in UK magazines that C= UK got the highest bid. CEI again gives a new bid to the liquidators.

  February 1995
 CEI announced that they were signing an agreement with IBM to have them manufacture Commodore products, 
 for them if they win Commodore. However, German Computer Co.  Escom seems to be interested in Commodore.

  March 1995
 UK Company Techmedia Publishing, stopped the publishing of Amiga World, the world's first Amiga Magazine. 
 The primary reason was the 11 months Commodore liquidation and the magazine's low circulation. The last 
 issue of Amiga World was April 1995. The cancellation came after the issue was completed so you will not find 
 any goodbyes and things like that on April's issue.

On the date that Amiga World's death is announced, the first issue of Amiga Link online magazine is released.

  Escom (a German based PC-clone maker) and the liquidator had reached an agreement to make their bid the 
  contract bid. The contract bid was for USD$ 6 million, not counting the $1.4 million they have paid for 
  getting the Commodore's Logo from Commodore Germany. Other offers were made for other parts of Commodore.

  At last the judgment day of Amiga (or the auction date), was set. It was April, 20th 1995. The companies that 
  made it till that day were Commodore UK, CEI and Escom.

  April 1995....... My, how time flys.........
 One year after the liquidation...Escom finally made it !  But it would prove to be another reasonably stupid idea.

 In the auction on April 20 1995, only two companies had a bid, Escom and Dell. Escom was the German computer 
 retailer, and Dell is a big American computer company. CEI, long thought to be a bidder, had thrown in their hat with
 Dell, so that Dell would work with CEI on the Amiga, although CEI would be the ones running the show in respects to 
 the Amiga.

 Escom's bid was the starting bid of approximately 5 million dollars, as well as the money they spent on the C= ™
 trademark, approximately 1.3 million dollars. Dell made a bid at 2 PM of an undisclosed amount. However, that bid was 
 rejected for Escom's bid, because it had conditions attached to it, whereas Escom's bid was unconditional. Go Figure !

 After the auction ended, and Escom's bid was accepted, Dell continued to work on, trying to make a more suitable bid. 
 Their second bid was a USD$ 15 million bid, with the condition that they be allowed a 30 day waiting period to look at the
 Amiga and decide if they wanted to keep it. If they decided not to keep it, they would forfeit their USD$ 1 million deposit, 
 and the whole process of getting another bidder would have to go on again. This madness went on and on and on.......

  In the hearing on Friday, April 21, the Creditor's Committee wanted to accept Dell/CEI's bid. However, Escom felt that 
  was unfair, because Dell's bid was placed after Escom's bid was accepted.  There was much legal wrangling, but
  finally, the judge asked that during the recess the parties try to work out an agreement. After 3 long tiresome hours, the 
  court re-adjourned, and Escom said that they would agree to raise their bid by $6.5 million, to 12 million dollars. 

 Although that was less than Dell/CEI's bid of USD$ 15 million dollars, the Creditor's agreed to drop the objection to stop 
 Escom winning the Amiga, because Dell could back out of the deal and then they'd have to go through the process again.

 Escom has sales of approximately 2 billion dollars last year in 1996.

 Commodore UK (David Pleasance and Colin Proudfoot) did not place a bid at the auction, apparently because their 
 backer dropped out. However, David Pleasance, Colin Proudfoot of C= UK and Escom have  both stated that in two
 weeks they will be holding talks as to Escom either licensing  Amiga Technology to C= UK, or, more likely, buying 
 C= UK. Don't hold your breath !         The plot thickens.........

 Escom has said that they will work with Amiga developers, user groups, and the Internet to support the Amiga. One can 
 only wonder if they will do anything. The feeling at that time was that ESCOM seriously did not have a clue what they had.

 The Philippines plant and stock in it wasn't included in the auction, but it will most likely be sold to Escom for USD$1 million 
 soon, because it may actually be illegal to sell it to anyone other than Escom or carved up for some use.

Comments and commentary by: Joshua Galun Editor-in-Chief of Amiga Link Magazine U.K. at the time 1996.

  May 1995......... Going back one year....
  Escom held a conference in May 30th.
  Escom announced the beginning of a new era for Amiga machines. First of all Escom created a new division, called 
  Amiga Technologies. Their first priority is to resume the production of the machines. They are expecting the new 
  Amigas to be out on September 1995. Here again, they have absolutely no idea what they have nor what to do with it.

 They announced the production of an Amiga 4000/060 in a brand new Tower case and the A4000/040 in tower also. 
  In October they will produce Amiga 1200s. They have also signed contracts with Scala, so with every Amiga you 
  can get for free a Scala MM300. The RISC technology should be researched in 1996, perhaps in the last quarter.

 "Well... let's hope to see our Amigas back again on the top" says one optimist.  
  "Lets' hope that Escom will make the right movements and correct management and to not copy the Commodore's mistakes.

   Yes, that comment was a throw-away-line if ever we have heard one.  They simply do not have any clues what they have.

  Amiga, Inc. ( Extracts from Wikipedia ™)
  After Commodore filed for bankruptcy in 1994, its name and IP rights, including Amiga, were sold to Escom. 
  Escom kept the Amiga products and sold the Commodore name on to Tulip. 
  However, Escom went bankrupt in 1997 and sold the Amiga IP to Gateway 2000 ( now only Gateway ). 

  On 27 December 1999, Gateway sold the Amiga name and rights to Amino Development,  who changed the 
  company name to Amiga Inc once the assets had been acquired. Stay with me here folks.............
 
  The 'Amino' Amiga Inc and the 'KMOS' Amiga Inc are seen by Hyperion as legally distinct entities, contracts to 
  one are of no relevance to the other. Hyperion's OS4 project

  Hyperion Entertainment has released AmigaOS 4 ( OS4 ) to the public in 2004. With me so far ?

  The five year development process led to accusations of vapourware and producing a modern PowerPC OS, 
  given that Hyperion claimed that they had the original AmigaOS 3.1 source code to reference (a claim later 
  proven accurate).  This was made worse by the apparent much more rapid progress and maturity of competitor
  and alternative AmigaOS clone MorphOS, which had been begun several years earlier. 

  Perhaps the most important feature of OS4 as regards the legal dispute is the presence of an entirely new PowerPC 
  native kernel.  ExecSG replaces the original Amiga Exec is claimed entirely the work and property of Hyperion's 
  subcontracted developers Thomas and Hans-Joerg Frieden.  Neither Amiga Inc. nor Hyperion actually own ExecSG, 
  so technically cannot demand or hand it over, leaving the OS with fragmented and confused ownership. Puzzled ?

   The supposed re-birth of Amiga AmigaOne X1000 running AmigaOS 4.1....
  In 2007, the Inquirer reported  that the Amiga was inching closer to a re-birth with the long-awaited release of the
  AmigaOS 4.0, a new PowerPC-native version of the classic AmigaOS ( Motorola 68000 ) from the 1980's.
 
  This new PowerPC OS would run on the AmigaOne machines, now out of production, which could only run Linux 
  while waiting for the new PowerPC OS to be released. The year after, Amiga Inc also announced a new AmigaOS 4 
  compatible system that would be available shortly.[6] The new machine was neither Genesi's Efika, nor the project 
  codenamed Samantha, ( now known as the Sam440ep from ACube Systems ). The new hardware was from
  a new entrant, the Canadian company ACK Software Controls, and would have consisted of a budget and advanced 
  model. Confused so far ?.........

   The dispute..........
  Four days after Amiga Inc announced the new Amiga OS4 (OS4) compatible machines, they sued Hyperion 
  Entertainment (Hyperion). Amiga Inc stated that it decided to produce a PowerPC version of AmigaOS in 2001 
  and on November 3, 2001, they signed a contract with Hyperion (then a game developer for the 68k Amiga platform 
  as well as Linux and Macintosh). Amiga Inc. gave Hyperion access to the sources of the last Commodore version, 
  AmigaOS 3.1, but access to the post-Commodore versions OS 3.5 and 3.9 had to be purchased from the third party 
   responsible for their development since Haage & Partner (developers of OS 3.5 and 3.9) never returned their AmigaOS 
  source code to Amiga Inc.

  Amiga Inc. also said that its contract allowed Hyperion to use Amiga ™ Trademarks in the promotion of OS4 
  on Eyetech's  AmigaOne and stipulated that Hyperion should make its best efforts to deliver OS 4 by March 1, 2002, 
  a port of an elderly operating system ( 68000 ) for an entirely different processor architecture (PowerPC) in four months,
 an optimistic target that Hyperion failed to meet. No surprise there. Software take months to test, beta test and final test.

  According to Amiga Inc, the contract permits the purchase of the full sources of OS4 from Hyperion for USD$ 25,000. 
  The court filing says that Amiga Inc paid this sometime in April–May 2003, to keep Hyperion from going bankrupt, and 
  that between then and November 21, 2006, Amiga Inc paid another USD$ 7,200, then USD$ 8,850 more which it says 
  Hyperion said was owing.

  Furthermore, in the filing, Amiga Inc., President Bill McEwen revealed that Amiga Inc still hasn't received the sources
  for AmigaOS 4, that he's discovered that much of its development was outsourced to third-party contract developers 
  and that it is not clear if Hyperion has all the rights to this external work.   Eventually, after five years and USD$ 41,050
  on 21 November 2006, Amiga Inc told Hyperion it had violated the contract and gave it 30 days to sort it out,
  eg:  To finish the product and hand over the sources. 

  That didn't happen, so the contract was terminated  on 20th December 2006. Hyperion claims in its defense that Amiga Inc 
  rendered the contract null through dealings with KMOS, a company which acquired the Amiga assets and renamed itself 
  Amiga Inc over 2004– 2005. 

  Four days later, on 24th December 2006, Hyperion released the final version of OS4 – although according to Amiga Inc, 
  Hyperion claims that this was merely an update of the developers' preview version of 16 April 2004. Since the contract
  ended, Hyperion had no rights to use the name AmigaOS or any Amiga intellectual property, or to market OS4 or enter
  into any agreements about it with anyone else. Nevertheless, AmigaOS 4 was still being developed  and distributed. 
  Furthermore, ACube Systems released a series of Sam440ep motherboards, which run AmigaOS 4.   Confusing ?

  For a time, the case seemed deadlocked with neither side being apparently able to prove the point either way. 
  Without Amiga Inc's permission, Hyperion Entertainment could not use the AmigaOS name or related trademarks. 

  Hyperion's defense centered around the potentially contract-voiding nature of the Amiga Inc/KMOS handover, the 
  problems they faced in acquiring the post-Commodore OS 3.x source code which Amiga Inc claimed to own and 
  have access to, and the presence of new work and open components in the new operating system.
  Hyperion Entertainment and Amiga, Inc finally reached settlement agreement after much negotiation and anguish.
  So, who were the real winners here?  The Lawyers who made a motza of $$$$$. 

  On 30 September 2009, Hyperion Entertainment and Amiga, Inc reached settlement agreement where Hyperion 
  was granted, "an exclusive, perpetual, worldwide right to AmigaOS 3.1 in order to use, develop, modify, commercialize, 
  distribute and market AmigaOS 4.x.

  Hurray for logic, lawyers and Attorneys. 

   LONG LIVE AMIGA! Only Amiga Makes It Possible!

we would like to thank the following :

 Mr Joshua Galun - for helping on this article! Jason Compton - For Amiga Report and for the things he did for the 
 Amiga Community.

 The late Jay Miner,  RJ Mical,  Dave Haynie ( We really liked your Deathbed Vigil ! sad but cool ! ) 

 Thanks for your great work all this years on the Amiga [ AIKIDO! :) ],

 Acechan, AK, chelt, CISC, davereed, lauraaa, logiXs, madboy, rauper, shitlips,  ( Ok, who is shitlips again ?)

 Frank Livadaros, Aggelos Poulakis, Lucas Sorotos, Pantelis Christoforidis, Spyros Paraschis, Nikos Sardelianos
 and Sotiris Varotsis.


 Disclaimer :  Whilst the text of this article is for public viewing, credit for this text must go to Mr. Konstantiniadis Manos 
  konem@prometheus.hol.gr, also to his helpers, who made this interesting to read document possible and full credit to the   
  person who made the AMIGA Inc article possible on and to Wikipedia™.  This certainly made for a long winded and a 
  stranger than fiction read.   Try typing it all out with the HTML codes.

 Copyright © Konstantiniadis Manos email: konem@prometheus.hol.gr 

January , February , March , April , May , June 1995 - Manos Konstantiniadis

email:konem@prometheus.hol.gr , IRC: Guybrush Sysop Of Odyssey BBS - Greece - 301-4123502