Doom Didn't Kill the Amiga (2024)

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Hardware & Architecture Limits

  • Amiga’s “secret sauce” was tightly timed custom chips sharing memory with the CPU, optimized for 2D, planar graphics and direct hardware access.
  • That model worked brilliantly early on but became an anchor once CPU speeds, caches, and memory hierarchies advanced and “bitplane” layouts became a poor fit for 3D/Wolfenstein/Doom-style engines.
  • Lack of widely used high‑level graphics APIs meant most games banged the hardware, complicating evolution and compatibility.
  • Comparisons are made to Atari ST (with VDI and TRAP syscalls) and PCs, which could swap graphics/sound cards while keeping the platform stable.

OS Design & Memory Protection

  • AmigaOS used JMP-based calls and pointer-rich message passing across a single address space, making robust memory protection “research-level hard.”
  • The lack of an MMU on common models hindered protected memory and virtual memory, though later 68k CPUs supported these features.
  • Some other 68k systems (Atari/MiNT, later ST extensions) experimented with protection, but often with compatibility pain.

Business, Strategy & 68k Collapse

  • Many argue Commodore’s financial mismanagement and lack of investment in engineers and new chipsets (e.g., AAA, Hombre) mattered more than any single game.
  • The end of mainstream 68000 usage hurt multiple platforms (Amiga, Atari ST, etc.) simultaneously, pushing others to migrate (PC clones, SPARC, PowerPC).
  • Amiga’s non‑modular, console‑like hardware meant that upgrading graphics/sound often required a whole new machine, unlike PCs.

Games, Doom/Wolfenstein & PCs

  • Several commenters think Wolfenstein 3D and then Doom/Quake were “final nails,” exposing Amiga’s 3D weakness and accelerating user migration to PCs.
  • Others say Amiga’s decline was already underway: mid‑90s PC CD‑ROM “talkies” and multimedia titles (adventures, FMV, Doom-era shooters) made PCs overwhelmingly attractive.
  • Wing Commander and similar titles highlighted that Amiga could technically run them, but too slowly or late.

Consoles vs Home Computers

  • One camp: cheap games consoles killed home computers primarily used for games; PCs survived by anchoring in business.
  • Counterpoints: in many regions (e.g., parts of Europe/Eastern Europe), consoles were rare, expensive, or culturally “for kids,” while computers were multipurpose and heavily pirated—so PC competition, not consoles, mattered more.
  • Commodore UK, which leaned hardest into gaming bundles, actually held up relatively well, complicating the “consoles killed Amiga” story.

Non‑Gaming & Professional Use

  • Despite the “games machine” image, Amigas saw significant use in video production, titling, digital signage, 3D/graphics, BBSing, music, and education.
  • Products like the Video Toaster and bespoke signage software kept Amigas in studios, broadcasters, and even NASA systems into the 2000s.