Hyperspeed wrote:
Do you think an Amiga owner with a UAE laptop is going to rush out and buy the excellent Hollywood multimedia package if there's already a dusty old copy of Powerpoint already bundled with the Windows install?
Realistically, no... I think most people, when faced with a choice of creating documents or presentations using native Windows/Linux tools vs classic Amiga tools under emulation are going to pick the former. Especially when the likes of OpenOffice are free, feature-rich and compatible with Microsoft's so-called "standards".
And no, I don't think many UAE users would be registering classic Amiga software either... but they *could*...
UAE is doing nobody any favours in my opinion and the frequent reports of things going wrong, apps/games/demos not working properly doesn't do the legacy any good either.
I've not personally experienced things going wrong with UAE, especially with recent revisions of WinUAE, but then again I mainly use it for playing classic games or for experimenting with things before trying them out "for real" on my actual hardware. I have a duplicate copy of my A1200's hard drive contents running fine under UAE, including demos, games, applications (OctaMED, Final Writer, etc).
The AmigaOne won't run classic Amiga software natively - it too has to work through emulation unless running native OS4 apps. UAE's compatibility is very good - and gives more scope than "real" hardware (e.g. UAE will emulate from an A500 with 68000, OCS and KS1.x right up to an A4000-class machine with graphics card, and no "real" piece of classic Amiga hardware will achieve that range of compatibility, despite the use of degrader software and the like).
Admittedly running Workbench, DOpus and my favourite utilities on a laptop is a wonderful, tempting idea...
So... give it a go! You'll be pleasantly surprised by the speed at which a modern PC can emulate a classic Amiga...
but because things are so shaky in terms of new AmigaOS revisions and new AmigaOne machines the emulation scene could well be the death sentance.
But the classic Amigas had their death sentence many many years ago. OS3.x is extremely unlikely to see further revisions, and that classic hardware isn't getting any newer.
The AmigaOne machines will benefit from continued UAE development by allowing non-system-friendly software to be run. The combined might of all of the UAE developers will produce a much more compatible classic hardware emulation than if it was left to the developers of OS4 alone.
"Need is 9/10ths of Invention" or whatever they say... so do we NEED a new Amiga, new apps if the whole WinXP catalogue is just a window behind Workbench?
Well... the need for continued investment in new hardware and software is debatable... An A500 with basic dot matrix printer and word processing package will still let you produce letters, etc, but most people would prefer to be doing it on a more modern machine with better printer and software.
You eliminate all the cool, native video capability, all the super-optimised hardware banging demos, all the gadgets and gizmos that made the Amigas so cool and you're left with a zombified skeleton running RTG apps on a 3GHz 68020!
I agree - the classic Amigas were great for the hardware-banging demos. But these won't be running on an AmigaOne unless it's via emulation, and that'll be UAE...
Any piece of modern hardware lacks what made (and still makes!) the classic Amigas cool. From the click of the floppy drive to the classic WB1.x "hand", running on real hardware is definitely the best way to get the nostalgia going, but how long will all this old hardware last?
UAE will run the majority of demos and other software that bashes on the hardware - it's able to do very much more than just running RTG applications quickly and emulates the whole custom chipset, be that OCS, ECS or AGA, and a variety of CPUs and RAM configurations.
- Ali
