A brief history of the Amiga

Another development twist

Amino Development Corporation, based in Maple Valley, Washington, had announced the purchase of Amiga International from Gateway, Inc. Gateway continued to own the Amiga patents, but Amino acquired the right to use those patents, as well as all existing licenses, trademarks and logos, Amiga OS, and Amiga International. When Gateway acquired Amiga from the bankrupt Escom, it had the intention of developing and marketing Internet devices that would have included PDAs, set-top boxes, and other Internet appliances. After Gateway made several public announcements that they were going to bring the Amiga computer back to the marketplace, they stunned the Amiga community by shutting down all new product development and folding all the ongoing development into their Intel product line.

Amino changed their name to Amiga Corporation and announced an alliance with the Tao Group as the new content platform foundation partner for the new Amiga. Bill McEwen, Amiga Corporation President and CEO at the time, stated that Tao had the greatest similarities and strengths to match Amiga's vision, and the capabilities to bring a new level of capabilities, portability and scalability. The skill sets of the Amiga community, combined with the power and flexibility of Tao's software infrastructure, meant that the new Amiga could create compelling content for the then-emerging digital services and content marketplace.

Sadly, Gateway decided to shut down all Amiga operations. This resulted in a severe rippling effect throughout the Amiga community, causing the loss of several major Amiga resources. Most hard-hit was The Amiga Web Directory, which shut down on January 1st, 2000. The Amiga Web Directory was the prime on-line resource for Amiga users the world over. Also, "Amazing Computing for the Amiga," the last remaining magazine devoted to the Amiga in North America, ceased operation and filed for bankruptcy. Paxtron, the authorized Amiga service center for North America, also shut down and sold its remain hardware to Centsible Software. These resources will be forever missed by the Amiga computing community.

Continued: Final Thoughts

• Introduction
• The Beginning of a New Era
• Year of the Dream Machine
• Amiga 500 / Amiga 2000
• Amiga 500+ / Amiga 3000
• The rise and fall of CDTV
• Amiga 600 / Amiga 1200 / Amiga 4000
• The Rise and Fall of CD32
• Bidder after Bidder after Bidder... (or is that "Bitter?")
• Gateway buys the Amiga technology
• Amiga Continues
• Another development twist
• Final Thoughts