Difference between revisions of "Amiga Corporation"
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| − | Amiga was founded in 1982 as Hi-Toro by a group of investors from the Midwest. [[Jay Miner]] recalled how the new name was chosen, "The name they wanted was actually Amica, which someone had found in a Latin dictionary. It means friend or friendliness. But it turned out the name Amica was already licensed, so they simply changed the C in Amica to a G. I don't think they had thought of the Spanish word Amiga; it just | + | Amiga was founded in 1982 as Hi-Toro by a group of investors from the Midwest. The story begins that Summer when Activision co-founder Larry Kaplan met with Doug Neubauer, then working as a game programmer for 20th Century Fox. Although the Atari VCS was a lucrative platform, it was becoming yesterday's technology. Both wanted a new game console. Larry had seen a prototype of the Nintendo Famicom at the June CES and felt they could create something better. |
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| + | Larry then called Jay Miner and asked him if he wanted to make a new video game company. Jay agreed on the conditions that he would get to design the chipset and be Vice President. | ||
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| + | They found Dave Morse, then Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Tonka Toys. Larry wanted someone with more experience in the video game industry and suggested getting Nolan Bushnell on the board. Upon Meeting Nolan, he talked Larry into joining him to start a new company to design their own game console and hire ex-Atari employees. However, this plan never materialized. | ||
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| + | By 1983, Larry Kaplan had returned to Atari, a company he had left four years earlier. It was also by this time Hi-Toro was renamed Amiga. | ||
| + | [[Jay Miner]] recalled how the new name was chosen, "The name they wanted was actually Amica, which someone had found in a Latin dictionary. It means friend or friendliness. But it turned out the name Amica was already licensed, so they simply changed the C in Amica to a G. I don't think they had thought of the Spanish word Amiga; it just | ||
turned out that way." Jay initially thought that a Spanish name would not be well received for a computer but eventually warmed up to it. [1] | turned out that way." Jay initially thought that a Spanish name would not be well received for a computer but eventually warmed up to it. [1] | ||
Revision as of 17:54, 28 May 2023
Amiga was founded in 1982 as Hi-Toro by a group of investors from the Midwest. The story begins that Summer when Activision co-founder Larry Kaplan met with Doug Neubauer, then working as a game programmer for 20th Century Fox. Although the Atari VCS was a lucrative platform, it was becoming yesterday's technology. Both wanted a new game console. Larry had seen a prototype of the Nintendo Famicom at the June CES and felt they could create something better.
Larry then called Jay Miner and asked him if he wanted to make a new video game company. Jay agreed on the conditions that he would get to design the chipset and be Vice President.
They found Dave Morse, then Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Tonka Toys. Larry wanted someone with more experience in the video game industry and suggested getting Nolan Bushnell on the board. Upon Meeting Nolan, he talked Larry into joining him to start a new company to design their own game console and hire ex-Atari employees. However, this plan never materialized.
By 1983, Larry Kaplan had returned to Atari, a company he had left four years earlier. It was also by this time Hi-Toro was renamed Amiga. Jay Miner recalled how the new name was chosen, "The name they wanted was actually Amica, which someone had found in a Latin dictionary. It means friend or friendliness. But it turned out the name Amica was already licensed, so they simply changed the C in Amica to a G. I don't think they had thought of the Spanish word Amiga; it just turned out that way." Jay initially thought that a Spanish name would not be well received for a computer but eventually warmed up to it. [1]
The company's original offices were located at 3350 Scott Boulevard #7 in Santa Clara, CA until August, 1984 when they were sold to Commodore. They then became known as Commodore-Amiga.
References
- Needle, Dave. The History of Amiga - Personal Computing, August 1985 - p. 90
- Bagnall, Brian. Commodore: The Amiga Years
