Day 5 - I now really feel the fatigue of an Amiga User in the mid 1990s

Wow. As I read and scan through these magazines, I can really see the promise of the Amiga, the loyal customer base and the overall optimism being destroyed through the comical collapse of Commodore, the protracted sale, the sale to ESCOM, the subsequent collapse and now the optimism of being purchased by VISCorp, followed by the collapse of that sale and then the mantle being passed on to Gateway. Little did the people know at the time that the future under the promise of a seemingly successful company like Gateway was as fraught as the previous owners.

I was a PC user in the mid 1990s - running IBM OS/2 at this point and loving the multitasking and object oriented operating system. Granted, Windows 95 had come out late 1995 - but I was a OS/2 advocate and PC advocate. I could not understand at the time the feelings coming from the Amiga users in the computer club at the time. Reading these magazines I understand now. The frustration of an advanced system developed in the mid 1980s gaining NO traction and floundering under incompetent owners. Almost the same story as IBM's OS/2 really - a fantastic product that the owner didn't know what to do with.

Yesterday you would be pleased to know that the 3rd Commodore 64 was brought back to perfect condition - all keys on the keyboard worked with cleaning of contacts. I also re-capped a Mac 512k and it's happy again.

The first scan today took me the longest. This magazine shows the latest advancement from ESCOM - the Walker. And in the same magazine it announces the sale of Amiga Technologies to VIScorp. This of course was the death of the Walker and really the spiral into the abyss. This issue was also in bad condition but it is readable.

Volume 12, Number 9 - May 1996 - 8:52am - The Sale of AT from ESCOM to VISCorp and Bankruptcy in sight for ESCOM

Volume 12, Number 10 - June 1996 - 9:20am - VIScorp statements of intent, why they purchased AT

Volume 12, Number 11 - July 1996 - 9:54am - VIScorp seems to be ducking and weaving and not committing to a pathway

Volume 13, Number 1 - August 1996 - 10:24am - lots of VIScorp propaganda, lots of questions about the future of the platform, rumblings from Dave Haynie and Wolf from phase 5 - it doesn't look rosy.

Thats it for scanning for today. You can find these magazines here :

https://archive.org/details/@abeckett

Only 6 magazines left to do!