Interview with the creator of AmigaDOS

[@gbraadnl]

I still remember sending an email to Tim King. I was young and eager to know more about Tripos and all related things. I was so amazed to receive a reply. He was very patient and helpful. Thank you for the reply.

[@johnwiesen4440]

I still use a Amiga A500 and two Amigas A1200. All I can say is "Long Live The Amiga"

[@Checkmate1500]

Thank you for making this video, as a developer this part of history is unknown to most of us. It is time this man got more recognition, just like the others.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Totally agree Stephen, and it was fortuitous that a chance meeting has allowed me to help rectify that.

[@Checkmate1500]

@@TheDigitalOrphanage They seem like lovely people and were probably surprised by the comeback of the Amiga. I hope we can all do the legacy he was involved in creating justice.

[@TheOoblick]

Absolutely fascinating. Thank you for this interview Dr King for giving so much history to Exec and the Amiga, and TRIPOS.

[@ProtekNickz]

This was a great talk about some of the people who where behind the Amiga and its greatness, Amiga was a machine that inspired a lot of people to do more with their computers in its simplistic design with amazing fundamentals, Thanks for the Talk guys!.

[@vcv6560]

"Tuned abound, the whole company was standing behind watching me.." What a moment 👌. Dr. King has always been a mystery, just finding this interview. Thank you for securing this account of the Amiga development.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

You're welcome, it was a pleasure, and an opportunity I couldn't let pass by.

[@otmarfoehner4578]

I have very fond memories of my Amiga 1000, and then 2000 a few years later. Thank you for this fantastic interview - you did a great job with the questions, and I loved hearing Tim and Jessica telling their stories. What a wonderful couple, and how generous of them to provide their time and the Amiga 1000 to enlighten all of us. Thank you all for this, for almost 90 minutes of going back in time and allowing me to remember my early adolescent years.

[@remaincalm2]

It's amazing to learn 35 years later that one key part of the Amiga was British! That must be why it absorbed tea so well during an accidental spill. 😀 Great interview and wonderful story. Thank you.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Thank you, it was a pleasure to interview the Kings.

[@ddniUK]

Amazing, new stories from the world of Amiga! Thanks.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

It's great to hear these stories direct from the people who lived them.

[@Amigowiec]

I don't know how I missed this material. Thanks for new interesting stories related to the best computer in the world - Queen Amiga rulez ..

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

You're welcome, thanks for watching.

[@NorthWay_no]

That was simply great. Intelligent, well researched, excellent subjects, no hurrying along, a great story to tell, and somebody who still takes pride in their former work. Thank you.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Thank you for watching and giving such nice comments! I could have chatted with Tim and Jessica all day about their achievements and experiences. It was fascinating hearing their first-hand accounts and an honour to present them to the community.

[@mikedefoy]

The Amiga was instrumental in launching my film and music career. I'm deeply indebted to an incredible machine that was years ahead of its time.

[@KONEY.INDUSTRIAL]

This guy and his wife are some living gold-mines of informations about inception of the Amiga! Thank you

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

You're welcome. I could have chatted all day long to them, lovely couple.

[@rjd324]

This is such an important interview for Amiga history. Thank you so much.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Thank you, it was a pleasure to make.

[@rjd324]

@@TheDigitalOrphanage I think you were at SWAG 2021. It was my first time going and I was not aware of this channel. Wish I had said hello. Hopefully I will see you again at SWAG at some point.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Yes, I was at the September 2021 SWAG. If Workbench 2020 goes ahead in May I'll be there trying my best as compère! Come say hello!

[@thromboid]

How interesting to see the connections between Cambridge and the Amiga - not only the TRIPOS/BCPL link, but also I'm thinking of Keir Fraser's wonderful contribution of Amiga Test Kit. Keir I believe co-developed Xen during his PhD at Cambridge.

[@dls2684]

Very educational background discussion! Thank you so much. What a nice couple and great insight into the early days of the Amiga. It’s nice to be able to put a face to the creator of Amiga dos. Loved the bit about the lack of an mmu and why it didn’t/couldn’t have memory protection. Well done all.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Thank you, it was a pleasure to record their history with the Amiga and more for everyone to hear.

[@MQsto]

Really marvelous stories, thank you very much.

[@vix_in_japan]

Great interview Keith thank you for posing those questions. A very interesting interview. Regarding Dale's question re: del/delete I'm sure he knows but you can do "alias delete del" to create a phantom del command. Pop it into s:user-startup :) You can also do "cd /" for the parent dir in Newcon or 2.0+ or "cd :" to go to the root of the current drive.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Thanks Vicky, I thought you'd find it an interesting interview.

[@TheSudsy]

Ha I was whirring my brain processing exactly that ..... "I am sure you could ALIAS commands as well as paths..........I am sure that the commands in C: were just files that could be renamed......." and the randomly what was AREXX? I need to buy a book and fire up my a1200.

[@AndrewAlanDavidson]

Excellent interview - and amazing to here from Dr Tim and Jessica King! Amazingly talented, knowledgable and great memory!

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Thank you, the Kings made it an easy interview and it was fascinating to hear their stories.

[@ChrisMcDonough]

Thanks for capturing this history!

[@0xTJ]

This is a great video! Love hearing these personal perspectives.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Thanks Thomas, I totally agree about hearing these stories directly.

[@tekk9995]

Taking a deep bow

[@thromboid]

12:59 I was doing some things with my Amiga recently and was amazed when reminded how small the executable files were!

[@nneeerrrd]

This interview is an instant History gem 💎

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Cheers Franko, I really wanted to do well by the Kings in capturing their story for everyone.

[@nneeerrrd]

@@TheDigitalOrphanage and you did it great, Keith!

[@nneeerrrd]

@@TheDigitalOrphanage thank you!

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Aw shucks ☺️

[@winsomehax]

Fantastic. So much stuff I remember hearing in passing as an Amiga owner at the time.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Me too, fascinating to hear first hand.

[@runcmd8851]

On the best interview I've seen all year.. Fantastic and thank you.. Great for the archives.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Thank you for watching and glad you found it as interesting as I did.

[@GraphicalRanger]

This was awesome! Very interesting and enjoyable interview; many thanks.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

You're welcome, I'm happy you enjoyed it. 🙂

[@arongooch]

Wow! This is absolutely amazing and to hear all this history. I love the Amiga and still have one running KS 1.3. Love it.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

That's great to hear. It's was an honour and a pleasure to be able to record and share for you all to enjoy.

[@SledgeFox]

Sent from the cave, I love this! Thank you very much, new subscriber! Amiga was just amazing, almost too good for it's time!

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

The cave is great, and you are very welcome! Amiga was amazing for the time, and affordable by us mere mortals too!

[@DrDavesDiversions]

This is just great to have captured. Thank you. Favorite bit: 31:26 Tim King (under contract) visits Amiga and first demonstrates that he's ported TRIPOS "stuff" to a prototype Amiga

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

I agree that must have been a very special moment.

[@DruggedBunny]

That was great, remember reading about Dr King and Metacomco in the late 90s, but they always remained a bit of a mystery! Many thanks to all involved.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

You're welcome, thanks for watching.

[@gerasmus]

Whenever I see interviews like this, especially with charracters involved in projects from 30/40 years (or longer) ago, I think 'wow blessed the peope are still with us!' The amount of dedication, effort and expense required to find and contact the people (in this case the Kings) is admirable. The expense and effort required to arange for interview, travelling to the meeting, having good sound lighting equipment, ensuring all equipment works. Plus, the post production mixing and editing! Thank you :)

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Thankfully it was my volunteering at the museum that put me in just the right place to receive the email from Tim offering to donate his A1000 to the museum. It was an opportunity to ask that I couldn't let pass by, and I'm grateful that they agreed.

[@timothyp8947]

Loved this video - great to hear the history of this part of Amiga's OS history from key people involved 'at the sharp end'. I have a real soft spot for the Amiga and although I’ve known of the Metacomco and Tim King influence on its OS from the contemporary reviews in the likes of PCW, this is a fascinating historical snapshot. It’s also interesting to hear a little about Helios too and perhaps ponder how that might have evolved if the (rather torturous) history of Transputer had taken a different route. Thanks to Digital Orphanage for organising such a key interview and to the Kings for taking part.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

You're welcome, I too have a soft spot for the Amiga and it was a pleasure to interview the Kings and hear their stories.

[@VincentGroenewold]

Wow, that is a sudden surprise! Very nice interview and thanks for sharing!

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Thanks, I've been editing it since October 😉

[@ChristopherNelson2k]

What a delightful chat. Kings really painted a fascinating story of the very early days.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

The Kings made this, my first interview, very easy and it was fascinating to hear their stories.

[@estrayk]

This is amazing! thank you very much for this interview

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Thank you, as a fan of the Amiga I enjoyed making it.

[@PATTHECATMCD]

Oh wow. I never met Tim King but I did have the privilege of studying some of his 6502 code for dedicated fuel monitors. Little did I know how much AmigaOS would affect my life, that happened a few years later.

[@o1i33]

Thanks for the video. The world of computers and software was small back then. Nice to listen to the small details, which evolved into problems years later or could have changed everything.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Thank you for watching, I agree.

[@gerasmus]

Excellent interview, an absolute jewel 💎 Sound, lighting and camera excellent! Interviewer very smartly dressed 👍🏻👍🏻

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Thank you, I tried my best to capture their stories as best I could so your words mean a lot to me. The Kings made my first interview, a pleasure to make.

[@gerasmus]

@@TheDigitalOrphanage This interview was amazing, thank you. I will respond in the main thread. Feeding the KZbin algorythm!

[@alexanderaxglimt3945]

Very interesting! Love hearing about the Amiga's and Commodores past.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Me too, the opportunity to make this interview was something I couldn't pass up.

[@woodand]

great video. thanks.. please create more content !

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Thank you, it means a lot to hear that, I'll try! 😀

[@AzagXul666]

Very cool chat, thanks for this.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

You're welcome, glad you enjoyed it.

[@Turrican]

Thanks for this. And Hello fellow Amigans!

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

👋 Hello! You're welcome fellow Amigan!

[@77slevins_video_channel]

Very much enjoyed this interview. It just makes me think: What if? Amiga Workbench became mainstream and competed with MacOS and Windows.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Thank you, it was fascinating hearing their stories. When I switched from Amiga to a Windows 3.11 PC in early '95 it felt like such a step backwards.

[@77slevins_video_channel]

@@TheDigitalOrphanage absolutely agree. It was Win95 for me and it truly felt unpolished and clunky. A

[@TheSudsy]

If Tim King really was the saviour of the Amiga, then he is my hero. Was his signature inside my Amiga A1000? And I even used UK Online my first email address - which i may still own !!!!!

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Tim said they weren't around in the US when they did the thing with the signatures.

[@MRCAGR1]

In 1984-86 or thereabouts I was working at a Marconi company in Fleet, Hampshire on a project for Singapore designing and building a device that was meant to have multiple capabilities. It was meant to work as a computer, a data terminal using the teletext protocol, a video telephone and an interactive video on demand system all based on the extended teletext protocols. This was to be based on a 68000 family processor and Metacomco were to provide the operating system based on Tripos/Amigados as this would have provided the facilities needed.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

What happened to the project?

[@MRCAGR1]

@@TheDigitalOrphanage I left the company in 1986 and I don’t know what happened to it. I found this on Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_Teleview

[@martinevans1206]

Fascinating!

[@jeremyholt4740]

Wonderful Well done Keith

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Cheers Jeremy!

[@crtalbot1]

Really interesting interview

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

It was great to have the opportunity to record their stories for the everyone to hear.

[@-NiEr]

Finally! Better late than never... 👍😎

[@cartayno]

Love the Battle Chess Vs Harry Potter comment. Spot on 👍😎

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Who knows, maybe there was an Amiga fan on the production crew. 😁

[@stuaxo]

Lots of good info, I would have liked to have heard more from Jessica.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Yes, lovely lady, they make a great team.

[@hamrdeye8927]

Thanks for asking my question :) Now I feel silly for not just renaming the file in C: named delete lol

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Yes, but it took the creator to tell us 🙂

[@rakido7388]

I used to go past Metacomco on my way out of Broadmead. Even my demo coding mates didn't know the significance of it :-D My first gig after uni, was at a small company which made Transputer products.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Nice, what did they have the Transputer working on?

[@rakido7388]

The company made their own PC ISA boards, with 1-17 transputers each. Another product had video capture, also with transputer links. The products were aimed at universities etc, so were supplied as a package with API's and 3L parallel C compiler. The main use case was realtime image processing for robotic vision, manufacturing quality control, stuff like that. My job was to write a front end in Visual C++ to control their image processing software.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Fascinating work, thanks for sharing.

[@michalp.1484]

oh my God! Tim, Jessica! thank you for your work! Keith thx for doing this video! In Poland in the early '90s, the borders were already open, but we were still so far away from the western world. I mean it was so hard to find popular tech knowledge. There was no internet, we didn't know foreign languages - specially in small towns like mine. My Amiga was like a spaceship to me. Full of secrets I wanted to dicover. It took me half a day to translate with a paper dictionary how to copy a floppy disk in workbench. And finaly I knew enough to solder modifications to its motherboard. Also to my friends :D At the time, I couldn't imagine that one day I would see an interview with the guy who wrote AmigaDOS. The world has changed so amazingly. (but there are still some people who try to destroy it, Putin, иди на *yй)

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

It was a pleasure making Tim and Jessica's spoken history available for all. I can only image what it was like to have this box of secrets for you to unlock, armed with only a paper translator. What an adventure!

[@michalp.1484]

Yes, it was an adventure indeed 🙂I had to sell my modded A500 in '95, to buy my first PC when I started studying computer science. I remember it was a 486SX25MHz. I set it up to 40MHz and it was still stable (sic!) - no fan, no even heat sink, just a naked chip! Today this would be sold as 60MHz with a heatsink and fan - with doubled price. Marketing rules the world 😅But anyway - the PC was not what the same that Amiga was.

[@sandeeproy1327]

Awesome! 4:25 I know!! Even saving a 10 line of program took some effort those days 😂

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

I know :-) I started out with a ZX81 with a RAM pack and if I wobbled it while trying to save the programme to tape it reset!!!!

[@michalp.1484]

as for transputers, I remember when I studied computer science we had one transputer in a concurrent programming classes. Of course, there was no chance to have access to it, so to pass the subject we had to understand the transputer idea and learn Occam language without access to the hardware. This was really hard because the idea of a transputer was completely different and the Occam language reflected that. My colleague and I managed to write an algorithm of sorting by merging on a piece of paper and got a pass. 🙂Now it is obviuos that transputers were like a dead end in the development of parallel computing. Not long after, the first multicore processors appeared on the market.

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

Well done, that must have been very difficult to learn without being hands-on with one. Does the concept of networked compute modules working together on a problem not live on in supercomputers (even those networked Raspberry Pi farms)?

[@michalp.1484]

@@TheDigitalOrphanage yes, indeed, nowadays almost every device gives parallel computing capabilities - but I guess that real parallel computing is not widely used because decomposing a problem into parallel algoritm is a difficult thing to do

[@DavePoo]

So at the launch event, the ballerina appears on the Amiga and everyone is asking "What's this?", to which the answer was, "it's what all computers will be able to do once they catch up with the Amiga"

[@ThomasConover]

The magic computer that connected me directly into The Matrix. ❤❤❤

[@kosmodromkk]

A M A Z I N G !

[@davesharp7315]

Linux vs Windows arguments are just boring, there is only one choice for operating system... AmigaOS

[@Jamal_Tyrone]

ED SYS:s/startup-sequence

[@Jamal_Tyrone]

Nice to know I'm not the only person who says Line-ux!

[@TheDigitalOrphanage]

I find it 50:50 how people pronounce it but here is the creator with the definitive pronunciation: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e2qteINjfcqCbtk