Vampire 600?

[mrmoonlight]

What happened to the Vampire 600 is it still being produced ? only I put my name down for one and that was a long time ago and I have heard nothing, any info please best wishes Brian.

[som99]

What happened to the Vampire 600 is it still being produced ? only I put my name down for one and that was a long time ago and I have heard nothing, any info please best wishes Brian.

Hello friend, have you payed for it or just signed up for interest? I have not heard anything for a while but got mine like a year ago :S

[XDelusion]

I'd done the same, I was told that someone in canda would be ahold of me soon after the UK users got their shipment, but alas, no one ever got in touch with me either.

[magnetic]

Guys
Majsta no longer manufactures the boards. His old list is pointless ( I was on it and never heard back as well) Kipper2k has made some (I have one see my sig) but not sure how many he has left or will continue to produce. This board is recommended for advanced users only.

* I will be creating a semi in-depth review of the board on aorg soon*

[mrmoonlight]

Hello friend, have you payed for it or just signed up for interest? I have not heard anything for a while but got mine like a year ago :S

Hi hope you are well my friend and the family are ok,and no I never
heard nothing and did not even get as far as being asked too pay, it also seems any interest I showed on his web site has been deleted which is a bit disappointing but not to worry as I do have one of Kipper2k ACA620EC Accelerator fitted and that works a treat so thanks my friend, best:) wishes Brian.

[mrmoonlight]

Guys
Majsta no longer manufactures the boards. His old list is pointless ( I was on it and never heard back as well) Kipper2k has made some (I have one see my sig) but not sure how many he has left or will continue to produce. This board is recommended for advanced users only.

* I will be creating a semi in-depth review of the board on aorg soon*

Hi that's a shame but I suppose with the Amiga we have to accept a little disappointment as the best people we have strive to push her forward and keep the dream alive, thanks for the info best wishes Brian.

[matthey]

Guys
Majsta no longer manufactures the boards. His old list is pointless ( I was on it and never heard back as well) Kipper2k has made some (I have one see my sig) but not sure how many he has left or will continue to produce. This board is recommended for advanced users only.

There is an agreement for kipper2k to finish and support the boards for American customers (time consuming process with hundreds of boards). I don't know why majsta has not been better at keeping track of customer interest but kipper2k is reliable and honest if anyone wants to contact him about getting an accelerator. There are a couple of caveats with the accelerator.

1) The clip on part of the accelerator has a better connection on some Amiga 600s than others. Indivisions had a similar style attachment and some problems also.

2) Only the 68000 TG68 fpga core without caches works reliably. I expect this is what most owners are using and it's a big upgrade over the 68000. The TG68 68020 core with caches has problems. It's possible this core could be updated when the fpgaArcade releases it's sources. The Phoenix core for majsta's accelerator could be the fastest core but is still being worked on and doesn't fit well in the small fgpa. The 68020 TG68 core with caches or Phoenix core would need to be flashed, maybe several times to fix bugs. It's not too difficult but probably not for beginners either.

The TG68 68000 core and plenty of fast memory are enough to make the accelerator a good value. If that is the only expectation and there are no problems with the clip on part, then there is a good chance of a satisfied customer.

[mrmoonlight]

There is an agreement for kipper2k to finish and support the boards for American customers (time consuming process with hundreds of boards). I don't know why majsta has not been better at keeping track of customer interest but kipper2k is reliable and honest if anyone wants to contact him about getting an accelerator. There are a couple of caveats with the accelerator.

1) The clip on part of the accelerator has a better connection on some Amiga 600s than others. Indivisions had a similar style attachment and some problems also.

2) Only the 68000 TG68 fpga core without caches works reliably. I expect this is what most owners are using and it's a big upgrade over the 68000. The TG68 68020 core with caches has problems. It's possible this core could be updated when the fpgaArcade releases it's sources. The Phoenix core for majsta's accelerator could be the fastest core but is still being worked on and doesn't fit well in the small fgpa. The 68020 TG68 core with caches or Phoenix core would need to be flashed, maybe several times to fix bugs. It's not too difficult but probably not for beginners either.

The TG68 68000 core and plenty of fast memory are enough to make the accelerator a good value. If that is the only expectation and there are no problems with the clip on part, then there is a good chance of a satisfied customer.

Hi thanks for the info and I am afraid probably not for beginners either knocks me out of the running and it would have been nice if majsta had sent me a quick email speaking of the problems as I did email him and receive some feedback on his web page, best wishes Brian.

[matthey]

Hi thanks for the info and I am afraid probably not for beginners either knocks me out of the running and it would have been nice if majsta had sent me a quick email speaking of the problems as I did email him and receive some feedback on his web page, best wishes Brian.

I believe the Vampire still comes with the 68000 TG68 core which works out of the box, even for beginners. Your ACA620EC is pretty nice and the Vampire with this core would not offer much if any performance gains (the 68020 is much stronger than the 68000 TG68 without caches per clock). Your ACA620EC supports 68020 compatible code which is a large advantage for applications and games. The Vampire has significantly more memory which may be worthwhile if you are trying to use larger applications but offers little for games. I wouldn't bother upgrading (or should we say side-grading for now) if I was you unless a better core is released.

[mrmoonlight]

I believe the Vampire still comes with the 68000 TG68 core which works out of the box, even for beginners. Your ACA620EC is pretty nice and the Vampire with this core would not offer much if any performance gains (the 68020 is much stronger than the 68000 TG68 without caches per clock). Your ACA620EC supports 68020 compatible code which is a large advantage for applications and games. The Vampire has significantly more memory which may be worthwhile if you are trying to use larger applications but offers little for games. I wouldn't bother upgrading (or should we say side-grading for now) if I was you unless a better core is released.

Hi matthey and thank you truly grateful for your info and I have to agree my ACA620EC is a really nice board and works exceptionally well I cant fault it and it was hell of a good upgrade for my humble 600 and is unbelievably quick to respond so I will stay with what I have and thanks again, very:) best wishes Brian. here's my Amiga 600 stats with the  ACA620EC  fitted
html][/URL]

[majsta]

Hi ppl,

I m sorry about complete situation, let's say that I don't have working Vampire 600, not a single one so I can used it.

I explained on various places what happened. First of all no one believed that demand for this card will be so high. I expected to sell about 40 of them. Now when we look all the facts production of 400 of them will not be enough, trust me.
My last order was captured by the customs and I had lot of problems to get it, at last chance I provided papers that this project was supported by the Government of my country and on customs finally said that I can have the shipment. Those papers was valid only one time so I can't use them more because Government supported me financially 3 years and according to law they can't support one project more than that.

So situation where I was is to open a company so I can import things like FPGA or to give up. Opening a company is huge task for me so I will need a find another way.

I open sourced complete project to give everyone a chance to build board for personal use. It is not huge task and I will help. In fact when someone builds it I can try to debug it using teamviewer or something.

Kipper2k is the honest man, but since he had some personal problems he didn't build much boards.

Regarding the cores, all of them will be fine just wait for apollo-team to finish, just be patient. From my side I hope that I will find a way to order more parts, after all I don't own any single board I produced.

Regarding money, orders etc... I entered Amiga scene to stay, not to be remembered as a person who made a fraud taking ppls money and not delivering the product. That's the reason why I didn't ask anyone to send money before I know I have working board for him.

[Jose]

@Majsta

Why don't you just order the parts in smaller quantities in 3 or 4 batches. Hard to believe customs didn't want to give you the parts, what country are you from ?

[Lord Aga]

Oh believe me Majsta is right about the customs' customs around here
I had to pay a 90 EUR ransom (yup) for a 60 EUR package a few months ago.
So, if you want to do something legally you will be hammered in many ways.

We have to be sneaky

[amiman99]

I think @majsta's contribution is indispensable in proving that FPGA accelerators will work.
Others like here: http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=67716
are continuing the project using of the shelf FPGA CPU boards with adapters for 68000 (and I hope more adapters will come for other Amiga models.)
Which make things easier to upgrade the "CPU Module" in the future.


As far as cutoms, in some countries it's unbelievable how much the extort from individuals. At least here in USA it's pretty generous $400 duty free per person in your household and So far I did not pay any customs ever.

[biggun]

I like Majsta's Vampire 600.

In my opinion Igor / Majsta did prove a couple of things:

a) A single dedicated person can archieve a lot

b) that an FPGA based AMIGA accelerated with the right fpga-image
can reach both a better perfomance than many existing accelerators
and that to a better price.

This is great!
Well done Igor!


Maybe the marketing side of the whole project is missing so far.
The value for the money of the Vampire600 is great.
One would expect that the card would be advertised all over the place and that all AMIGA shops would sell them like crazy.