mike_myke_schwartz@cup.portal.com (11/08/90)
It is true that we at Sega do use the Amiga (actually an ethernet network of several Amigas) to do our Genesis products. We choose the Amiga because it is a native 68000 machine which means that good software development systems for the Amiga work equally as well for the Genesis. Also, the Amiga and the Genesis are very similar in terms of graphics display modes so DPaint makes an excellent graphics tool. There are also Midi programs for creating music available for the Amiga. And unlike a PC, the Amiga can support large quanties of usable RAM. To further help in your discussion here, I worked for Electronic Arts last year and was one of the people who pioneered their Sega research. SSI is an affiliated label (EA distributes their software) so they use what EA gives them. EA definately uses the Mac to do its development and Sega Technical Institute uses the Amiga. Neither one of these machines is a bad choice for a host system, but the Amiga is MUCH easier to program and is much cheaper per machine (and has much better performance) so it is the best price/performance machine for our purposes. Our ethernet network is oustanding. We use AmigaNet from RCS systems in Ontario. The network software is a true peer-to-peer network and is a great implementation of a network. Unlike a Sun network, the Amiga network is a joy to use. And every machine on the network can share all the resources of any other machine on the network (like mount hard drive volumes, RAM disk, and serial/parallel ports). We have 7 workstations and a dedicated amiga as a file server. We have over a gigabyte of hard disk space available. And each Amiga is a 4MB 68030 machine with its own 105MB hard disk. And each machine costs 1/2 the price of a similar Mac II. And yes, we are looking for at least one Amiga programmer to just write network software and maintain the network. We are always looking for good game programmers, especially with Amiga experience because it relates so well to the Genesis. Please see the ad in AmigaWorld for more details.
daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) (11/09/90)
In article <35722@cup.portal.com> mike_myke_schwartz@cup.portal.com writes: >Our ethernet network is oustanding. We use AmigaNet from RCS systems in >Ontario. The network software is a true peer-to-peer network and is a >great implementation of a network. Unlike a Sun network, the Amiga network >is a joy to use. Just a footnote here. The AmigaNet system is marketed by RCS systems, and now by GVP as well in the USA. It's based on software and hardware created by Hydra, Inc. in England. I played with this a little during the "hush hush" days of the A3000, when the Hydra board (a DMA driven Ethernet, apparently) and the A3000 had a disagreement. The networking software is Amiga specific, so you can't hook it directly into a Sun or DEC network, but it seems to be very good for Amiga-only networks. -- Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests" {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: hazy BIX: hazy Standing on the shoulders of giants leaves me cold -REM