Thirty years ago the Amiga computer, and the godfather was Andy Warhol – The Republic

Rome – On 23 July 1985, during an event in New York, from a camera connected to a computer – a revolutionary technology for its time – Andy Warhol drew a portrait of the singer Debbie Harry, Blondie leader. First he took a picture to Harry and then modified it using special software. That event was the launch of the Amiga 1000 computer and the software was one of the potential of the PC who wanted to challenge the giants of the time. As Apple that the previous year had launched in grand style popular MacIntosh, with a spot of Ridley Scott inspired to Big Brother.

Amiga was a computer platform originally invented by a small US company called Hi-Toro, formed by a group of computer scientists and engineers. Initially this team wanted to create a gaming machine from large capacity graphics and sound. But as the project advanced, Hi-Toro he incorporated in the pioneering ‘console’ games for the features of a personal computer: multimedia capabilities coordinated by an operating system, the AmigaOS. Thus was born the platform dubbed Advanced Multitasking Integrated Graphics Architecture, which stands for Amiga. The Hi-Toro was later acquired, along with the Amiga, a famous manufacturer of personal computer, the Commodore (which at that time enjoyed the success of his computer model C64), and marketed the product since October 1985.

platform picked up the enthusiasm of experts and enthusiasts computer science but some errors and the lack of interest of directors led to the bankruptcy of Commodore Amiga which went into voluntary liquidation in April 1994, resulting in sales of technology to a number of companies specializing in PC. In fact, however, in 30 years, the platform has been kept alive by a number of programmers and users, also loyal to the games created ‘ad hoc’ as Civilization, The Settlers, Wings, Arabian Nights, Monkey Island and Sensible Soccer.

An example for everyone. Even today there is an Amiga computer that coordinates the air conditioning systems of 19 schools in the district of Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States. 30 years on and off boilers, compressors and fans, and all repairs are made by a student-programmer. And in coincidence of the anniversary of the Amiga, the Computer History Museum has organized a series of initiatives and there are dozens of events around the world. In early 2000 the platform began a slow revival thanks to the efforts of Amiga Inc., the company that currently holds the rights. And just two short of the 80 myths as Commodore and Amiga relive smartphone ‘Pet’, that is the work of the group of Italian engineers.

A little curiosity. Pictures taken and ‘worked’ by Andy Warhol with the Amiga computer – digital reworking of his famous works like the can of Campbell’s soup, banana of the album cover of the Velvet Underground, the portrait of Marilyn Monroe – have been forgotten for years. He has unearthed a year ago an artist from Brooklyn in the floppy disk in the museum devoted to the Pittsburgh Warhol. They are among the latest creations of the genius of American Pop Art, who died two years after the arrival of the Amiga 1000 in 1987.

Arguments:

Hardware

computers

amiga

Commodore

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Starring:

Andy Warhol

Debbie Harry

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