Viva Amiga is a new documentary (available on iTunes) about the Commodore Amiga computer from 1985 (and on). It’s a relatively short documentary and doesn’t go into nearly enough detail and then spends the final fifteen minutes or so talking about how the computer is still alive. This final segment felt more like an advertising campaign for getting into the market than it was informative.
I don’t have any personal affinity for the Amiga. It was a computer I was fairly jealous of in the 80s, as a PC guy with a green and black CGA screen. It was ahead of its time graphically and audibly but that’s about all I knew about it (besides the fans were insufferable when they would come into the software store I worked at in the late 80s and 90s). So I appreciated the history and the behind-the-scenes this doc presented but, like I said, it didn’t go into enough detail.
They did a lot of interviews with the justifiabley proud and justifiabley annoyed developers (and superfans) of the machine. They covered its troubled history as it was bought and sold numerous times until it basically died from lack of interest by its buyers.
It’s a decent documentary. People with fond memories or who actively love the computer to this day may get more out of it – people who have never heard of the Amiga probably won’t get as much or even consider renting it.
Score: 76