Most Amiga like experience on modern hardware

[gertsy]

That's true, but you'll still need AROS to run it... Unless you have the original
Amiga ROMs from someplace

Oh yes well there is that sure.  But apart from that what have the Romans ever done for us....?

Ohh! that's right; Amiga Forever : http://www.amigaforever.com/system/

[redfox]

@tclay9214

If your Mac desktop hardware is compatible with MorphOS, I would suggest MorphOS.

Otherwise, one of the many fine choices for your pc.

AmigaOS4 is another option if you are willing to purchase the required hardware.  A new SAM460 is approx $1000 US (plus shipping and handling fees) for the motherboard and OS4 CD.  Used SAM440 systems are less expensive.

---
redfox

[yester64]

Since we were all at one point Amiga users with a real Amiga computer we recognize what gives the best experience which is, the actual hardware.

From a financial point it seems a emulator can do the same for a fraction of the cost and without worrying about limitations or hardware failure.

Personally, i would go for the antique hardware since emulators are only so good. This is especially true when you want to play games. Sometimes timing is an issue etc...

I want to get back myself right now, just did not see the perfect fit for me.

[XDelusion]

Fpga?

No, not UAE, not by a long shot.

[Heiroglyph]

The one thing that bothers me on all these solutions is modern screens.

Without proper v-sync, those old games and demos look like crap.

Without CRT pixel blur, they look blocky and show all the hard edges that the original artists saw smoothly blending together to fake higher resolutions.

I haven't seen a solution yet that really solves the problems.

The best game experience is still a real Amiga and crappy old CRT.

But for productivity software, emulation wins hands down IMHO.  Unbelievably fast, high capacity and dirt cheap.

[WeiXing3D]

I'm not anywhere near as experience as the other people posting answers, but only a rusted Amiga fan who made a come back just a few weeks ago.

I currently own an A1200, A3000 (with DENEB controller which gives me access to modern peripherals) and a Mac Mini running MorphOS. Based on my short experience, I can say that I love the lightning speed of MorphOS and the "Amigaish" handling, but because of my inexperience I guess, I haven't been very successful running Amiga applications or games. I have so far only run ports of Amiga games and TVPaint (a DPaint kind app).

I must say that there's nothing like the real thing, the "real, good ole Amiga," BUT you must find a way of getting one to which you can add Internet connectivity to make it easier for you to download and use adf files, patches, apps to mount and manipulate files. If this becomes unaffordable, then make sure you have a PCMCIA cf adapter, making sure of course that you can use cf cards in a PC or Mac, to download and transfer what you need.

Just in recent days I learned about the Minimig and I must say that it looks very cool, but I am not sure it can close the gap well between old tech and new tech (for peripherals). I do have an interest in systems running OS4.1 such as SAM or A-AEON; for instance I like the sam440epflex. One thing I don't have very clear though is how the systems using PPC tech are better or closer to a real Amiga than the CUSA's Amigas.

I hope my comments as a rookie make sense.

[KimmoK]

One thing I don't have very clear though is how the systems using PPC tech are better or closer to a real Amiga than the CUSA's Amigas.QUOTE]

CUSA HW has Amiga in name, nothing else.
PPC Amiga HW can run  real AOS, that has become PPC native.
Thats the main difference, IMHO.

[KimmoK]

What do you think offers the most Amiga like experience?

Perhaps AmigaForever gives the shortest path to get Amiga experience. (you can easily enchance it via AmigaSYS or Amikit package)
Then upgraded real A1200 might be nice to tinker with real state of the art Classic Amiga.

MOS and AROS will enable to test modern stuff easily.
For AOS4 you need extra HW, but perhaps it most resembles AOS3.x.

I have some experience of AOS68k,AROS,MOS and AOS4.
I still need real 68k Amiga for things like fully working Deluxe paint, genlockable output etc. (I have A4000D/T, A600HD etc...)

About next gen:
I've tried to use AOS4 as my main system, but so far it has required too much work to make it work perfectly (ok, if you have the time to just to tinker with it, but if you need to produce something...) AOS4 ships also with real 68k kickstart files and it's the first varian to head to multicore support. AOS SW development community seems very active, but perhaps it's just more visible. I have SAM440ep-mini and it's a little feels a bit too slow for serious use, but I think it's most mature platform for AOS4.
MOS seems the most mature NG variant. I believe that with it you end up faster in doing things rather than just trying to set it work perfectly. I definitely should use it more (I have MacMini HW).
AROS, when I last tried it, felt raw. I think with AROS you need most work to make it nicely running. But also for AROS, I should install latest version to try it more. For AROS I have 1.7Ghz sempron setups (desktop and laptop, but for laptop I need to figure out how to get AROS back on it, after DVD drive is broken and it does not boot from USB). AROS seems to need most HW performance to run OK.  AEROS (broadway X ?) might one day prove to be very interesting AROS distribution, it should enable running lightningly fast AROS+AROS apps+linux apps+68k apps, just via clicking on any of those application icons (it runs hosted on linux kernel, other NG variants are fully native).

For any NG OS you should get above 1Ghz CPU.

[OlafS3]

"AROS, when I last tried it, felt raw. I think with AROS you need most work to make it nicely running."

When you want to install it you need supported hardware (the same problem as Linux) so best you ask on aros-exec what to use. For start you can install and use it in a "controlled" environment like VMWARE. There are three big distributions (Icaros, AspireOS and Broadway X) to choice. So no excuse to not trying it out. When you are only interested in 68k I can offer you my distribution based on Aros 68k. It is based on Kickstart Replacement and reprogramming of 3.1. (Aros 68k). Not all old software works, but much (and improving)

http://www.natami-news.de/html/aros_vision.html
http://www.natami-news.de/html/distribution_download.html

[dammy]

CUSA HW has Amiga in name, nothing else.
PPC Amiga HW can run  real AOS, that has become PPC native.
Thats the main difference, IMHO.

There is no real reason to spend that much money on a OS4 PPC system and get so little for the money.  There are cheap used Macs that will run MOS.  AROS will run on the new Commodore Amiga systems as well as any x86 system and it's free.  Going x86 route, that leaves him the option to multi-boot into main stream OSs as well as having an Amiga like environment which he really won't have as an option going PPC.

[TomJ]

If you have the right hardware already I would choose aros it loaded nice on a dell inspirion 6000, but not my toshiba satelite. If you don't I would go with amiga forever or a uae download. Haven't tried morph os so can't comment on it really.

[KimmoK]

There is no real reason to spend that much money on a OS4 PPC system and get so little for the money.....

If person already owns compatible x86, sure, one should try AROS.
If person owns compatible PPC Mac HW, sure, on should try MOS.

Getting AROS system from 0 costs perhaps 300eur. (new or partially new HW)
Getting to MOS from 0 costs perhaps 400eur. (used HW)
Getting AOS4 system costs perhaps about 1000eur. (new HW)
So, yes, AOS4 experience is pricey for now.

But if one really wants to try & use "AOS" on above 100Mhz HW natively, only PPC Amigas can do it. That's the reason why I have SAM. I want to see where AOS is and where it goes.

[dammy]

If person already owns compatible x86, sure, one should try AROS.
If person owns compatible PPC Mac HW, sure, on should try MOS.

Getting AROS system from 0 costs perhaps 300eur. (new or partially new HW)
Getting to MOS from 0 costs perhaps 400eur. (used HW)
Getting AOS4 system costs perhaps about 1000eur. (new HW)
So, yes, AOS4 experience is pricey for now.

But if one really wants to try & use "AOS" on above 100Mhz HW natively, only PPC Amigas can do it. That's the reason why I have SAM. I want to see where AOS is and where it goes.

Via UAE you can achieve running AOS on multi GHz level.  If you are referring to the AmigaOne series, they are not an Amiga nor Commodore Amiga, just AmigaOne and nothing else.

[Motormouth]

I have a Turbo chameleon 64 with and 1.1 miming core on it.

It actually does a pretty good job emulating an a500.  Even the 31.5 khz scan rate matches a flicker fixed signal.

And it is new with a May 2012 production date.

[smerf]

Hi,

@tclay9214,

Remember, if you are going to get an emulator on modern hardware, I would go with Cloanto's Amiga Forever, it runs good on your most up to date PC machines, gives the least trouble running adf software and is probably the best.

Other would say that MorphOS running on an old obsolete Mac is the best, but, you have to jump throught hoops playing a game on this system and as for being the "True Amiga" it is the biggest bunch of BS I have ever heard. The only thing it is, is a very poor emulation of the Amiga. As far a being a new Mac OS, I would go with that, it shows promise.
AROS another emulator for PC's, way behind Amiga Forever, but it shows promise for running on new modern up to date hardware unlike one OS that has you locked into a tired bunch of hardware that should have been buried a long time ago.

smerf

[smerf]

Hi,

@yester64,

[Personally, i would go for the antique hardware since emulators are only so good. This is especially true when you want to play games. Sometimes timing is an issue etc...]

Been with the Amiga since 2 weeks after it came out. To tell you the truth Amiga Forever is way better than any of my Amiga's. As far a timing, the only games both the Amiga and Amiga Forever have trouble with are the companies like Electronic Farts, which really banged the hardware. Case in point Arctic Fox, ran on Amiga OS 1.0 on the A1000, after that it wouldn't run on Amiga OS 1.1 up. So far using Amiga Forever, I have found very few programs it wouldn't run. Electronic Farts programs are the worst but then again that is why I own serveral different Amiga's.

smerf