Strange Take from The Guardian

[intric8]

This morning I awakened to an email inbox alerting me of a new Amiga-related article that had been published somewhere on the internet. I set that service up a long time ago and it hits interesting things from time to time.

On this occasion, to my surprise the source was none other than the renowned publication The Guardian. Anxiously curious I clicked the link and dropped into the newspaper's website.

Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images/Bettmann Archive

Interestingly, the article written by Dominik Diamond, "My undying love for the painfully uncool Amiga," was categorized in the Games section. Of course, I thought. But then I re-read the title. UN-COOL?? WTF is this all about?

Then the tagline, with yet another slap to the face:

It may have looked like something you’d see a bank teller use, but it withstood heavy battering. And it ran the coolest games

The basic premise of the article is about Diamond wanting to get a "Mini Amiga" aka The A500 Mini by Retro Games.

Diamond:

I read the reviews and was surprised at the appearance of two words I never associated with the original Amiga: cool, and love. It might seem strange to say the Amiga wasn’t loved, because a lot of people bought and used one. But people use things every day that they don’t love: electric shavers, patience, door handles, the train.

He continued:

As someone who was actually there for the 80s and 90s, the Amiga just didn’t enjoy that kind of love. Why? Because it looked uncool.

...

The Amiga looked like something you’d see a bank teller use. And not for the cool bank stuff, like foiling a robbery.

It was around this point when I realized the first half of the article seemed to be crafted entirely for the purpose of trolling the Amiga community. The 2nd half of the article is all about how great the machine was but it's sort of like insulting someone to their face, laughing, then saying, "Just kidding old chap! I love you."

Well done, Mr. Domink Diamond. At least you have a cool sounding name.

[Shot97]

I saw the headline for that one, and had no trouble passing it by. Don't engage with garbage journalism, that headline is the definition of clickbait. I keep laughing at all the AI stuff popping up, how people actually think that it will take people's jobs at this stage, because for me it's clear when it's AI. From the headline and of what you've described it's nothing I feel a need to read, but it's the exact type of writing that AI is capable of reproducing, and that it might take the jobs of these types of writers is okay with me!

[fxgogo]

This was a strange article to say the least. Dominic Diamond used to be a host on computer game show back in the 90’s. He was interviewed on The Retro Hour podcast. The Guardian themselves have obviously found they have hit gold with vintage computing and gaming articles.

So it very disappointing for our community to see this article pop up. Not only was it inaccurate, but it was extremely poorly written. I think Dominic was clearly wanting to poke the bear just for the fun of it. The paper clearly does not have editors who know this subject matter either, so inadvertently let through a shoddy piece of work that tarnished their pedigree.