Moooo! Grrrrr! Smash! Crash! That's the sound of a curmudgeonly cash-cow being dragged out of retirement to see whether there's a drop or two of milk left in her wizened udders. The name of this cash-cow: Amiga.
Amiga's maker Commodore -- remember them? Congratulations on being as old as me, but bad news: it's not the same company, it just owns the name -- has reintroduced the Amiga brand, slapping it on a high-end gaming PC which looks suspiciously like a Mac Mini. It's even called the Amiga Mini -- so Apple's lawyers are presumably getting ready to fire forth a barrage of cease-and-desist letters claiming it patented smallness.
The Amiga Mini bears no relation to the Amiga home computers of the 1980s -- which were weak imitations of the infinitely superior Atari home computers (discloser: Atari rules! Amiga is lame! etc etc). The Amiga brand has merely been slapped on a high-end gaming PC which in turn has a whopping $2,495 (£1,580) price-tag slapped on it.
Inside this very expensive aluminium box you get a 3.5GHz Sandy Bridge Core i7 CPU, a 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 430 GPU, 16GB of RAM, a Blu-ray drive and a 1TB hard drive. It runs Commodore's Linux-based OS Vision. The rebirth of the Amiga brand as an overpriced Apple-aping bauble was spotted by the folks over at The Verge.
If you don't care for expensive internals and just want to pretend you've travelled back in time to the 80s by having a box with AMIGA stamped on it, Commodore will flog you the branded case with just a Blu-ray player inside for the not-exactly-cheap $345 (£220).
Or you could ring them up and ask if you can buy the empty case for a tenner -- and then use the gutless box to relive all those great Amiga memories. (You lamers.)
Asked about alternative uses for the Amiga Mini, a member of an Atari fan forum on Facebook said: "Can you cook on it? I really fancy a bacon and egg sandwich! And all those electronics in a small box might generate some heat! Nice to see they left a clear cooking surface on top..."
Are you mad enough to spend £1,500 to rekindle your love of Amiga, or would you rather pelt it with eggs? Let us know in the comments or continue ye olde tech fanboy war over on our Facebook wall.
Android App 
RSS Feeds 
iPhone App 
Newsletters 
Comments 13
Add your comment
TechnoMo 22 March, 2012 21:21
I really do like this computer! A bit too expensive though!
anonymous 22 March, 2012 22:32
Finally... :-)
A site that actually dares speak the truth about this whole grave robbing scam that is CUSA and their fake non Amiga products... thank you... :-)
Been an Amiga user for 26 years and still use them everyday, CUSA and Barry Altman it's owner & CEO have been spamming the Amiga forums for two years now insulting folk and along with his CTO Leo Nigro telling us "We better like it or else"... WTF !!!
Nice to see someone finally say it like it is and point out that CUSA have sod all to to with the original & real Commodore or the original and real Amiga... :-)
These products are nothing more than off the shelf PC parts, in a case you can purchase from Bay, running a free Amiga emulator under a free OS (Linux) that CUSA try to pass of as a new Amiga OS they call "Vision" (all overpriced of course)... ;-)
tom719co 22 March, 2012 23:44
1. What the new Commodore is doing is kinda cool. Their new Linux is shaping up to be pretty good. They could almost have potential to "bring Linux to the masses". It is too expensive though.
2. Not trying to start a flame war here - Seriously. But please check your facts. Regarding Amiga vs Atari, you got it exactly opposite. I am a longtime Commodore/Amiga fan but also like and have Atari and other systems as well. The Amiga's of the 80's where capable of pre-emptive multi-tasking, which the mainstream didn't get until Windows 95. The graphics and sound capabilities where top of the line at the time, and where even used for professional video applications. The effort to develop the custom chips is impressive. The Atari licensed other companies for most of the parts and operating system. There was nothing really remarkable about the Atari's, except that they competed as a low cost Mac, and eventually got up to par with Amiga. Some of the later machines may have surpassed the Amiga in some ways, but it was very late in the game.
No other old computer brand has the amount of people dedicated then that of Commodore and Amiga.
anonymous 23 March, 2012 02:50
The writer is probably correct about this current "Amiga" farce, but to say the 'Amiga' of the 1980's and early 90's cowed in Atari's shadow is about as truthful as saying the earth is flat and we could fall off the edge. I think the author of this article spoils his credibility and raises real questions about his ability to think rationally and write intelligent articles. Did he never use a 'real' Amiga or just decided to sling crap on a wall and see what sticks? Just for the record, I've seen and used just about every computer from the late 80's, and the one I still have running on the desk next to this Windows laptop; an Amiga 1200.
Natasha Lomas 23 March, 2012 10:32
Anon @ 02:50 -- the writer of this article is not a 'he'
anonymous 23 March, 2012 11:48
Pretty nice looking box. Would fit well in any home theatre or as a home PC. The price is outrageous though. They better get competitive or this will not be around long. Gez!
anonymous 23 March, 2012 19:04
I had a ZX81, Atari 800XL, C64 & Amiga500.......The best days of my life.kerLans 442
anonymous 23 March, 2012 22:16
@anonymous 22 March, 2012 22:32
Hi Franko!
-tone007
anonymous 25 March, 2012 07:45
Atari ST fanboys will be Atari ST fanboys....obviously still stinging from the AMIGA's supremacy after nearly 20 years.
The Commodore AMIGA mini is merely the first in an increasingly powerful line-up of high-performance home computers for creativity and entertainment.
Commodore OS Vision, which comes pre-installed on our machines, comes with the best assortment of free open source software around, that covers almost every conceivable use case, as well as heaps of games providing hundreds of hours of entertainment value in their own right. And it will run a lot of Windows software through WINE. GNU/LINUX is awesome!!!!!
As to the eggs comment. Of course things get warm, like on a lot of devices, but certainly nothing like frying eggs. There are fans on both sides of the unit that do a great job of pumping the heat out.
Also the price for the aforementioned configuration has dropped to $1995 and there are other lower configurations available bringing the price of entry down to a more affordable $1495.
The best is yet to come.
Warmest Regards from Commodore USA.
anonymous 26 March, 2012 04:55
Hi tone007... :-)
How the frig do you post with your name on this site !!!
Was dissapointed to see "anonymous" up there... :-(
PS: Hi Barry or is it Leo, Spammy or Middleman who posted the lame CUSA reply to this article... ;-)
Have the decency to tell folk waht the crap your selling realy is for once...
An off the shelf parts PC, running a free Amiga emulator, under a free OS (Linux) which you try to palm off as a new OS called "Vision" in a non custom case that can be purchesad cheaply on eBay but of course all overpriced by CUSA... :-)
anonymous 29 March, 2012 17:52
Amiga rules! Always will.
anonymous 23 June, 2012 20:27
I love my Amiga 1200, don't think I would like one of these newer amigas though since they are pc's in a dress. Hardly call those an Amiga... Deffo big no from me.
anonymous 13 August, 2012 09:56
Gawd, I wish someone would come out with a revolutionary computer. I've been bored to death since my original A1000 and Amiga user group buddies (Amiga Friends, Orange County, Calif.) I guess we aren't ready for something beyond a flat screen, a mouse and keyboard.