Howdy Amibay!
I want to tell you that there is not far from my place in Paris an old music store which still has that Atari logo on the front door, obviously a remnant of the Atari days of MIDI music from the late 80's/90's.
One day i was driving my car with my young daughter on board, i stopped just in front to a red light.
That's the moment she puked all over the car because she was ill.
It took me 3 hours to clean everything afterwards.
Such an event is never forgotten and we often joke about it while driving past the same spot.
Today, again at the same red light, she told me it was because she is allergic to Atari because it is the nemesis of the Amiga.
Then conversation continued with me telling the Amiga could have been the Atari Amiga, should Amiga guys have carried on with the initial contract with Atari without dropping it to sign for the money of Commodore.
So i have asked my favorite AI to elaborate a credible story of what would have happened if the Lorraine had become an Atari computer.
Probably it could have been much better. Read here :
"
**What If Atari Had Acquired Amiga?
A Plausible Alternate History of Personal Computing (1985–Today)**
The Point of Divergence — 1984
In 1984, Amiga Corporation was financially fragile and urgently needed backing to complete its revolutionary multimedia computer, code-named Lorraine. Two companies were in play: Atari, led by Jack Tramiel, and Commodore, which ultimately won with a last-minute higher offer.
In this alternate timeline, Atari signs the deal first.
The Lorraine project becomes the Atari Amiga.
This single decision reshapes the next forty years of computing.
1985–1987: The Birth of the Atari Amiga
Atari releases the Atari Amiga 1000 in late 1985.
Technically, the machine is identical to the real Amiga:
Motorola 68000 CPU
Custom chipset (Agnus, Denise, Paula)
True preemptive multitasking
Advanced graphics and sound far beyond anything on the market
But strategically, everything changes.
Atari integrates AmigaOS concepts with its existing TOS/GEM ecosystem, producing a hybrid operating system that combines:
real multitasking,
a refined GUI,
strong developer continuity with Atari’s existing 68000 platform.
As a result:
the Atari ST never exists in its historical form,
there is no Amiga vs ST rivalry,
Atari consolidates all 16-bit creative computing into one dominant platform.
1987–1991: Atari Becomes the Anti-IBM
Unlike Commodore, Atari understands positioning.
The Atari Amiga is not marketed as a toy, but as:
a creative workstation,
a multimedia computer,
an affordable professional system.
Key sectors fall rapidly:
music production (native MIDI, Cubase, Notator),
video and broadcast graphics (genlocks, Video Toaster-like ecosystems),
game development and animation (Deluxe Paint becomes an industry standard).
IBM PCs dominate offices.
Apple defends desktop publishing.
But Atari owns multimedia.
1992–1996: The Mistakes Commodore Made — That Atari Likely Would Not
Here lies the most critical divergence.
Where Commodore historically stagnated, Atari—under Tramiel’s cost discipline and competitive paranoia—has strong incentives to evolve.
Plausible strategic decisions:
early adoption of 68040 and PowerPC CPUs,
abandonment of dead-end chipsets before technological stagnation,
a modernized AmigaOS evolving toward a microkernel,
cancellation or re-engineering of console projects (no Jaguar disaster).
The Atari Amiga line becomes the default creative alternative to Windows.
1997–2005: A Different Tech Landscape
The ripple effects are profound.
Apple
Steve Jobs’ return still happens—but Apple is no longer the sole creative icon.
Macintosh loses exclusivity in music, video, and design.
Microsoft
Windows NT and Windows XP succeed in enterprise and general use, but:
multimedia latency,
real-time audio,
graphics pipelines
remain weaker than Atari’s platform for years.
Linux
Linux grows primarily as a server OS. Desktop adoption is slower without the vacuum left by Commodore’s collapse.
2005–Today: The Surviving Lineage
In this timeline, Atari never disappears.
Today, we plausibly have:
Atari Amiga OS: a UNIX-derived, real-time, multimedia-centric operating system,
a hardware ecosystem comparable to Apple, but more open,
Atari positioned as a creative-first company rather than a nostalgia brand.
The computing world is:
less Windows-dominated,
less Apple-centric,
more diverse in desktop philosophies.
Final Assessment
Commodore saved Amiga financially — and killed it strategically.
Atari might have done the opposite.
The Atari Amiga timeline is not utopian — but it is technically, economically, and culturally plausible."
And a visual proposition of the Atari Amiga first computer.
Now, of course the Amiga is my favorite computer ever, but i personally don't really care so much about Commodore. I own a couple of Commodore 64 and a Commodore 128D, but they are not my favorite computers at all, even though i like the SID very much.
I feel that an unified Atari Amiga would have suited me perfectly.
And at the same time, happy new year to everyone.
I want to tell you that there is not far from my place in Paris an old music store which still has that Atari logo on the front door, obviously a remnant of the Atari days of MIDI music from the late 80's/90's.
One day i was driving my car with my young daughter on board, i stopped just in front to a red light.
That's the moment she puked all over the car because she was ill.
It took me 3 hours to clean everything afterwards.
Such an event is never forgotten and we often joke about it while driving past the same spot.
Today, again at the same red light, she told me it was because she is allergic to Atari because it is the nemesis of the Amiga.
Then conversation continued with me telling the Amiga could have been the Atari Amiga, should Amiga guys have carried on with the initial contract with Atari without dropping it to sign for the money of Commodore.
So i have asked my favorite AI to elaborate a credible story of what would have happened if the Lorraine had become an Atari computer.
Probably it could have been much better. Read here :
"
**What If Atari Had Acquired Amiga?
A Plausible Alternate History of Personal Computing (1985–Today)**
The Point of Divergence — 1984
In 1984, Amiga Corporation was financially fragile and urgently needed backing to complete its revolutionary multimedia computer, code-named Lorraine. Two companies were in play: Atari, led by Jack Tramiel, and Commodore, which ultimately won with a last-minute higher offer.
In this alternate timeline, Atari signs the deal first.
The Lorraine project becomes the Atari Amiga.
This single decision reshapes the next forty years of computing.
1985–1987: The Birth of the Atari Amiga
Atari releases the Atari Amiga 1000 in late 1985.
Technically, the machine is identical to the real Amiga:
Motorola 68000 CPU
Custom chipset (Agnus, Denise, Paula)
True preemptive multitasking
Advanced graphics and sound far beyond anything on the market
But strategically, everything changes.
Atari integrates AmigaOS concepts with its existing TOS/GEM ecosystem, producing a hybrid operating system that combines:
real multitasking,
a refined GUI,
strong developer continuity with Atari’s existing 68000 platform.
As a result:
the Atari ST never exists in its historical form,
there is no Amiga vs ST rivalry,
Atari consolidates all 16-bit creative computing into one dominant platform.
1987–1991: Atari Becomes the Anti-IBM
Unlike Commodore, Atari understands positioning.
The Atari Amiga is not marketed as a toy, but as:
a creative workstation,
a multimedia computer,
an affordable professional system.
Key sectors fall rapidly:
music production (native MIDI, Cubase, Notator),
video and broadcast graphics (genlocks, Video Toaster-like ecosystems),
game development and animation (Deluxe Paint becomes an industry standard).
IBM PCs dominate offices.
Apple defends desktop publishing.
But Atari owns multimedia.
1992–1996: The Mistakes Commodore Made — That Atari Likely Would Not
Here lies the most critical divergence.
Where Commodore historically stagnated, Atari—under Tramiel’s cost discipline and competitive paranoia—has strong incentives to evolve.
Plausible strategic decisions:
early adoption of 68040 and PowerPC CPUs,
abandonment of dead-end chipsets before technological stagnation,
a modernized AmigaOS evolving toward a microkernel,
cancellation or re-engineering of console projects (no Jaguar disaster).
The Atari Amiga line becomes the default creative alternative to Windows.
1997–2005: A Different Tech Landscape
The ripple effects are profound.
Apple
Steve Jobs’ return still happens—but Apple is no longer the sole creative icon.
Macintosh loses exclusivity in music, video, and design.
Microsoft
Windows NT and Windows XP succeed in enterprise and general use, but:
multimedia latency,
real-time audio,
graphics pipelines
remain weaker than Atari’s platform for years.
Linux
Linux grows primarily as a server OS. Desktop adoption is slower without the vacuum left by Commodore’s collapse.
2005–Today: The Surviving Lineage
In this timeline, Atari never disappears.
Today, we plausibly have:
Atari Amiga OS: a UNIX-derived, real-time, multimedia-centric operating system,
a hardware ecosystem comparable to Apple, but more open,
Atari positioned as a creative-first company rather than a nostalgia brand.
The computing world is:
less Windows-dominated,
less Apple-centric,
more diverse in desktop philosophies.
Final Assessment
Commodore saved Amiga financially — and killed it strategically.
Atari might have done the opposite.
The Atari Amiga timeline is not utopian — but it is technically, economically, and culturally plausible."
And a visual proposition of the Atari Amiga first computer.
Now, of course the Amiga is my favorite computer ever, but i personally don't really care so much about Commodore. I own a couple of Commodore 64 and a Commodore 128D, but they are not my favorite computers at all, even though i like the SID very much.
I feel that an unified Atari Amiga would have suited me perfectly.
And at the same time, happy new year to everyone.
