Don't Forget Your (Amiga) Roots

For all the gamers out there, you may have more in common with the Amiga then you thought.  Like industry phoenixes (sp?), several video companies raised from the ashes of Amiga and grew to be very popular and successful.  So pause your game and let's explore a couple of those companies.

Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts was contracted by Commodore International to produce Amiga's standard file format.  They also created Deluxe Paint - which became Amiga's standard graphics and animation editor.  If you were to trace Photoshop, Illustrator, and even Flash on a computing family tree, you'd find that Deluxe Paint is their very influential great grandfather (or grandmother, if you prefer).







"Move Your Feet" (Junior Senior, 2003) music video done entirely by art collective Shynola using Deluxe Paint


Psygnosis

Chances are you don't know who the hell "Psygnosis" is.  I know I didn't.  But, you probably know the Sony Playstation.  Psygnosis was bought by Sony as the development team for the Playstation.

Psygnosis' (and Amiga's) influence doesn't stop there. A sub-set of Psygnosis became DMA Design, which would later become (drumroll please) Rockstar Games.  That's right, the developers that created the Grand Theft Auto series along with countless other great video game franchises is only three degrees away from good ol' Amiga.

Ross Herosian was the proud inheritor of Zach Weddington's original Commodore 64.  He's involved with "Viva Amiga" because it's about computers and because Zach was always cool to him (even when Ross was husky).  By day, Ross works at SiriusXM Radio.  By night, well, that's none of your business.  
You can find him online at RossHero.com