Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: AmigaClassicRule on April 16, 2014, 12:52:37 AM
-
I know to many this may seem like a far fetched and silly project, but I am trying here. I think it would be super cool to have a portable Amiga console with new custom chipset that provide equal quality graphics as say of PS 2/PS 1 with 1 GB of CHIP RAM and fast processor speed and custom workbench OS and kickstart with backward capabilities of AGA/ECS/OCS. It also allows you to run directly Amiga classic software and application into the portable console. More about it over here:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/amiga-portable-console/x/6382309
If you guys think this is a super cool idea and think it is worth it, then you can proof it by donating to this project. If you guys believe it is a waste of time and there many reasons why this wouldn't work I love to hear it also.
I think myself it would be super cool to have a new portable console that is 68k Amiga with it's own new build in custom chipset, have WiFi, browse the net, able to use youtube and have new games developed for it and also allows you to play the old Amiga games and apps without emulator.
-
What you really want to do is put UAE emulator on some real hardware. Most of that would be programming.
Instead of booting into the OS, you boot into UAE and configure the speed and chips first. Then boot into Workbench (or game).
You could pick an ARM chip to run the emulator side, and not worry about a non-existent 233mhz 68k core.
Approx what size will it be?
-
What you really want to do is put UAE emulator on some real hardware. Most of that would be programming.
Instead of booting into the OS, you boot into UAE and configure the speed and chips first. Then boot into Workbench (or game).
You could pick an ARM chip to run the emulator side, and not worry about a non-existent 233mhz 68k core.
Approx what size will it be?
I was thinking of along the line everything real not emulated. Maybe the UAE side will be customized not to feel emulated and it will be part of the OS and that is the one which would be running classical Amiga. But my real intention that the original Workbench 3.1, kick31.rom part the actual classical Amiga software and OS and kickstart would take advantage of the new hardware advantage such as the new real custom chipset AGA-II, the 1 GB CHIP RAM, etc. It would be like the new Amiga 8000 for example but in a portable console.
-
I think you are shooting for too low of audio quality speccing a 32-bit Paula chip, why not just go 64 or 128 bit ... should be plenty of money in that $20,000 budget to afford useful features like that right? :rofl:
-
With 20k you wouldn't even be able to design one custom chip. Btw. nice drawing :rofl:
-
It would have been great, if you had done some more work, than just an image in paint.
-
btw. Why don't you install Oracle Virtual Box. You can fiddle with an OS all you want without breaking anything.
I'm setting myself to make an extra lean XP install. I've read more bad things about Windows 8 and want to stay well clear of it.
We do have powerful hardware nowadays that you are fully locked away from by horrible operating systems.
-
Nice idea, but real products don't come from MS Paint drawings and dreams.
Look at the time that has been put into products like the FPGA Arcade to even get compatibility with AGA in hardware. This is being done by many people who are effectively doing the dev work for free because they love the platform.
Is there a market for a version of the FPGA Arcade that connects to a LCD and is housed in a PSP-style casing? Maybe, but I think that potential customers of this would just buy an existing handheld console that supports UAE (GP2X, etc, do IIRC).
That IndieGogo project is going to stay at $0ยท00.
-
(https://images.indiegogo.com/medias/1351651/primary_pictures/full/20140415164614-Console.png?1397605578)
WOW, based on this design I'm in! :rofl:
-
Id rather someone came up with an affordable PPC motherboard capable of running AmigaOS4. All of the current ones are pretty dated now, and fairly expensize. the new AmigaONE is lovely and all that but so far out of the range of my disposable income that I cant consider it.
Nick
-
Id rather someone came up with an affordable PPC motherboard capable of running AmigaOS4. All of the current ones are pretty dated now, and fairly expensize. the new AmigaONE is lovely and all that but so far out of the range of my disposable income that I cant consider it.
Nick
Yes, what happened to the limePC (or some netbook) that was supposed to get os4 support? That would be a better plan.
-
The Limebook was a nice idea, but it had one major drawback:
the makers of it stopped making it.
That tends to be a pretty major flaw. :)
The initial investment required to restart production would have been huge, and the resulting price point too high for its specs.
-
Yes I would also much rather see a new and cheap(ish) ppc mobo.
-
How does this end up in the news section? Is there no screening process or are all the moderators idiots?
-
I suspect the idea was that the news was the indie-go-go bounty being started.
-
In theory it sounds good but starting a campaign based on no actual research or work to show...bad idea.
The sketch is poor and silly. I have been thinking about the same thing recently though, a portable amiga computer/console.
Its surely doable but such a thing takes ALOT of work.
See the dragonbox pyra, its being made for I believe 40,000 euros and that's just the prototype. Mass production will be funded with pre-orders.
http://www.pyra-handheld.com/specs.html
A portable amiga is a pipe-dream of mine too but just that.
Too many people don't seem to understand the amount of work that goes into such an undertaking. It ain't all roses.
I have a small games company and am working on a commercial title but god knows how that will work out in terms of profits.
-
I suspect the idea was that the news was the indie-go-go bounty being started.
Is it considered newsworthy what some dude dreams up and then wants to trick people out of their money for just because it's part of an indiegogo campaign? Anyone can set up a campaign there, and I don't think it should be treated as something newsworthy whenever someone makes their pipe dreams public.
No wonder Amiga has been plagued with vaporware and false hopes if people actually take this campaign seriously. You all deserve it!
-
Is this April fools day?
i think ill stick with a real Amiga or cd32 console, at least I know the joypad looks better than that drawing lol..
-
With 20k you wouldn't even be able to design one custom chip.
He wouldn't need to go ASIC. Use an FPGA, and none of it is impossible. Basically a console shaped Minimig board with a PowerPC upgrade slot from the sounds of things. FPGA-Arcade may already satisfy the majority of all that. For a livingroom console, for a handheld console then he'd have to do a new board, and it might not fit a PPC addon.
-
Amiga console with new custom chipset that provide equal quality graphics as say of PS 2/PS 1
Well, on the graphics front the possibilities I'm finding start with OpenGraphics, OpenShader, GPGPU and potentially Number9 Graphics cores.
OpenGraphics seems to have been in the freezer for quite a while. The team lead there claims to have been distracted and helping to work on GPGPU.
The Number9 core has quite a ways to go to meet its kickstarter goal to make the core open-sourced. Interesting though.
Any would take up quite a bit of space in an FPGA implementation,
http://wiki.opengraphics.org/tiki-index.php
http://sourceforge.net/projects/openshader/
https://github.com/jbush001/GPGPU
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/725991125/open-source-graphics-processor-gpu
I understand that the Manticore is essentially long gone.
http://icculus.org/manticore/links.php
I haven't found anything else mentioning 3d support, but a variety of 2d VGA controllers out there.
-
See the dragonbox pyra, its being made for I believe 40,000 euros and that's just the prototype. Mass production will be funded with pre-orders.
http://www.pyra-handheld.com/specs.html
And they're just taking off the shelf components and putting them together, with some firmware.
FPGA based designs include the physical aspect, the FPGA implementation, and firmware.
This is just an idea or dream. Most people don't go from idea to kickstarter, there's not even any details of how skilled the team* are at this type of work. There is no way this should ever be considered news.
* okay, the team of one.
-
And they're just taking off the shelf components and putting them together, with some firmware.
FPGA based designs include the physical aspect, the FPGA implementation, and firmware.
This is just an idea or dream. Most people don't go from idea to kickstarter, there's not even any details of how skilled the team* are at this type of work. There is no way this should ever be considered news.
* okay, the team of one.
Yep the pyra is using off the shelf components, even the nubs are off the shelf this time unlike the pandora. The housing is custom designed though.
Its path to market should be a good case study for a potential amiga handheld computer at least.
An amiga handheld, if built needs cash, knowledge, pragmatism and careful meticulous steps.
-
Sorry guys but it seems this has been discussed like a zillion times.
There's a no-go with an implemented core using the actual FPGAs that could outperform a plain 020 with AGA.
There's a no-go with real native hardware fully compatible with AGA, see the S-AGA on the Natami.
At the end nothing like a new Amiga portable hardware will be made.
FPGA's can't achieve (for now) what we want at an affordable price.
Design new native compatible chips and bake them is stratospherically expensive.
However, i'm not sure if someone came with this idea so far.
What about using a low-cost PPC as CPU, and have the video and audio implemented
in two different FPGAs?
PPC as a CPU will grant a limited 68K backwards compatibility, plus it would be able to run MOS or OS4.
The PPC CPU could even be set to run in two different modes, native PPC, in case OS4 or MOS decide to add support, or an emulated 68K core.
As for the implemented audio and video, as long as they would be implemented in two different chips, the overall performance would improve quite a lot.
As long as they would be implementations, extra features or extra operation modes controlled by software would be possible.
However, as long as i'm not an expert, i don't know the drawbacks of this idea.
-
There is also the MCC 216. Multi Classic computer. Check out some of the reviews on that.
I'd like one. Perfect if you mostly play games.
-
There's a no-go with an implemented core using the actual FPGAs that could outperform a plain 020 with AGA.
I thought the FPGA arcade replay (whatever it's called) and the vampire 600 was doing better than plain 020 already & they are using relatively old and cheap FPGA's.
There's a no-go with real native hardware fully compatible with AGA, see the S-AGA on the Natami.
Natami is not a good example. Once you have AGA fully compatible then some extensions would probably not be too hard. You have to be pragmatic to ship something like that, which is something they weren't particularly good at. The same problem the AAA team at commodore had.
At the end nothing like a new Amiga portable hardware will be made.
FPGA's can't achieve (for now) what we want at an affordable price.
Design new native compatible chips and bake them is stratospherically expensive.
I can't see there being anywhere near enough demand that baking would be cost effective. It also takes away some of the benefits, as you can't ever make it do anything different.
I think a laptop/netbook version of the FPGA Arcade is much more likely to happen. Once the standard version has shipped then mikej should look into crowd funding that.
-
There's a no-go with an implemented core using the actual FPGAs that could outperform a plain 020 with AGA.
No. The fpgaArcade TG68 CPU with small caches and minimal pipelining is equivalent to a mid speed 68030 already. AGA performance has been surpassed in the fpgaArcade and Natami prototypes.
There's a no-go with real native hardware fully compatible with AGA, see the S-AGA on the Natami.
There were supposedly issues with the Natami design but it was an aggressive design that would have provided a huge speedup to AGA+. Improvements in AGA performance are achieved in fpga without even trying. Some things may even need to be slowed down to improve AGA compatibility.
At the end nothing like a new Amiga portable hardware will be made.
FPGA's can't achieve (for now) what we want at an affordable price.
Design new native compatible chips and bake them is stratospherically expensive.
It depends on what you consider affordable. An fpga can only be cost reduced so much but prices are constantly dropping while sizes and features are increasing. It should be possible to produce an fpga based board that will outperform any classic 68k Amiga for less than 500 Euros.
However, i'm not sure if someone came with this idea so far.
What about using a low-cost PPC as CPU, and have the video and audio implemented
in two different FPGAs?
Most low cost PPC chips are for embedded systems and limiting. The cost is not so low without large quantity purchases also. Separate video and audio fpgas would increase cost and complexity. I doubt there would be any speed advantage to separate fpgas either.
There is also the MCC 216. Multi Classic computer. Check out some of the reviews on that.
I'd like one. Perfect if you mostly play games.
I believe the MCC has an fpga that is smaller than the fpgaArcade. The fpgaArcade fpga is even too small for the Apollo CPU or an FPU with the Amiga chipset. The fpgaArcade should get the 68060 expansion board but I believe this would not permit the original handheld gaming design (if a proper case, LCD screen and controls were ever made). The newest version of the Mist fpga board (Cyclone III with 25k LE) has a larger fpga than the fpgaArcade. It should be large enough for a 68k CPU, FPU and advanced chipset with some cramming but has other limitations. All other retro computing fpga boards I know of are handicapped by too small of fpga including the MiniMig+.
-
The tablet and smartphone have made handheld consoles a niche product. With competition from Nintendo 3DS/2DS, Sony PS Vita and Nvidia Sheild (Sheild 2 with Tegra K1 chipset is currently rumoured too) at the high end and Pandora/Pyra covering the homebrew/hobby/retro area there's very little room for an Amiga specific handheld console. It would be hideously expensive, underpowered and unsupported by 3rd party developers even if you could put one together.
An FPGA Arcade Replay type handheld with modest 68k softcore performance and slightly improved AGA graphics, LCD screen, battery and a housing with some buttons/joysticks might be technically achievable but doesn't have a market like the actual FPGA Arcade Replay does.
Talking of the Replay and mobile technology a Slimport transmitter IC would make a nice AV output option since you can't have HDMI directly due to the high annual licensing fees.
Suggesting a PPC based 'Amiga' handheld is an even more out there idea than a 68060 based one.
-
Another attempt to scam amigans?
-
What I would prefer over a handheld console, would definitely be a PPC or 68060 based laptop. Even better, from what I've read, a lot of the 68060s didn't even need active cooling. Get one of those, an SSD and you'd have a nice cool silent system.
I mean if you want a console that plays Amiga games, just go pick up an old original Xbox and hack it.
slaapliedje
-
I've just designed a new Amiga:
(http://people.kzoo.edu/k10ua01/computerSketch.jpg)
Can someone send me 20K dollars please.
-
There is also the MCC 216. Multi Classic computer. Check out some of the reviews on that.
I'd like one. Perfect if you mostly play games.
I got one and it's not that great, I can't even get WB to run. I would say it runs 50-60% of the games.
If it was an open source box, it could have potential, I mean, the hardware is there, but it just needs better firmware.
Back on topic:
To be honest, It's not going to happen. Is $20000 enough? It's better to invest in portable AROS or MorphOS.
I think most of us would be very happy to upgrade our Amigas to a faster processor. I'm not talking 68030s anymore, I'm talking ColdFire CPUs with a library emulating missing instructions. Most applications would benefit greatly from the upgrade.
My 2c.
-
I believe the natami board would have been suitable for a handheld in terms of size. Natami is dead but the natami forum members have heavily alluded to the fact that Thomas is still working on a revised natami with a different name. Still I will believe it when I see it. I won't be getting my hopes up this time.
Also marcel verdasdonk is working on a new amiga chipset, progress can be followed at amigacoding.de. At least Marcel seems to be just 'getting the work done'.
Any portable amiga should be a computer too, somewhat like the pandora with its mini keyboard. An amiga console is not enough.
Oh well we can dream.
-
Yeah, I'll probably end up buy one of those LPGA boards when they come out...
-
I know to many this may seem like a far fetched..
Hi
Where is this full description of the requirements for the project ?
I assume this was created when you set up a job proposal to EG Elance.com ?
Which website did you use to post your proposal and what quotes did you get ?
For example an FPGA engineer on Elance.com, how much experience in FPGA design ?
I asked a company once to reverse engineer Amiga chipset but it was a quote of 25,000 USD.
How many developers ? fulltime or part time ?
has the developer seen Minimig core or he will create own ?
I was thinking myself to hire a FPGA developer into creating an Amiga system with limited budget/constraints it would take time.
-
I believe the MCC has an fpga that is smaller than the fpgaArcade. The fpgaArcade fpga is even too small for the Apollo CPU or an FPU with the Amiga chipset. The fpgaArcade should get the 68060 expansion board but I believe this would not permit the original handheld gaming design (if a proper case, LCD screen and controls were ever made). The newest version of the Mist fpga board (Cyclone III with 25k LE) has a larger fpga than the fpgaArcade. It should be large enough for a 68k CPU, FPU and advanced chipset with some cramming but has other limitations. All other retro computing fpga boards I know of are handicapped by too small of fpga including the MiniMig+.
That all may be true, so the MMC is more slim, streamline and efficient - at least it is out the door and making $$, funding MMC II no doubt.
Oh and you can get cheap PPC processors, goto the freescale website to get a few 1 ghz PPC processors for around 30 USD.
-
Hi
Where is this full description of the requirements for the project ?
I assume this was created when you set up a job proposal to EG Elance.com ?
Which website did you use to post your proposal and what quotes did you get ?
For example an FPGA engineer on Elance.com, how much experience in FPGA design ?
I asked a company once to reverse engineer Amiga chipset but it was a quote of 25,000 USD.
How many developers ? fulltime or part time ?
has the developer seen Minimig core or he will create own ?
I was thinking myself to hire a FPGA developer into creating an Amiga system with limited budget/constraints it would take time.
The handheld system proposed in the indiegogo campaign is just wishful thinking with no actual research done.
Its a beautiful dream but still a dream.
-
If you had put the boing ball in the middle, I would have signed up! :laughing:
slaapliedje
-
Does it come with a pre-release T-Shirt?
Sorry couldn't resist.
-
The Limebook was a nice idea, but it had one major drawback:
the makers of it stopped making it.
That tends to be a pretty major flaw. :)
The initial investment required to restart production would have been huge, and the resulting price point too high for its specs.
What is the LimePC Z9 listed on their website -is that similar to it? The site states it has a 800mhz PowerPC MIPS processor, which I find somewhat confusing.
-
These fly by night, "dreamer projects" are a plague on the Amiga community.
So many people promising the world, and most of them don't have a single clue what it actually involves.
I'm honestly surprised it hasn't been reported on Indiegogo in regards to the Amiga checkmark on the mock up.
I appreciate dreamers as much as the next guy, but these completely unrealistic projects batter the morale of what's left of the community.
For $20k, I'd be surprised if you could even get the casing designed and molded, much less the rest of the project.
-
Why no $50 vouchers?
-
Back before the crash in 2000 my brother and I were talking to a bunch of people in various industries including Fleecy over at Amiga Inc. about a portable Amiga games console, kind of like a SD32. This was just before the GameBoy Advance was released but it was announced and expected soon.
Amiga Inc. were open to it and were very reasonable on the licensing. The highest cost component at the time was the screen as we wanted to be compatible with the existing games library and unlike Nintendo and Sega we could not buy the cheapest screen and tell developers to work with it. Also, Amiga games were not designed to be displayed on a 2 inch screen so we played around with different sizes and 4 inch 4:3 LCD from SHARP was the only screen that fit the bill as there were no lines dropped when displaying the various games resolutions.
The second challenge was the keyboard mapping system. Amiga joysticks had only a single (logical) button. Many games would use other keyboard keys for added functionality, stats, maps, views, etc. and they did not use the same sets of keys. Making the key-mapping function work without needing to modify the original game is what we aimed for as most of the developers were no longer contactable.
The BoXeR style compiling of all the custom chips + 030 into a single low-power ASIC was the third challenge. The low-power was more of a challenge than the single-IC part.
Today I'd imagine most of the tech has come down in price and emulation has improved drastically so $20k could fund the prototype. Though if a single developer worked on the software bits full time it would take 12 months to get all those things done and what's left over from the $20k isn't going to be enough.
Its a nice dream and more than that it is a product that would sell if it could be developed (read: funded). It would require more like $250k to get it to production. The unit price should not be more than $299 and you'd start making a profit after selling 2,500 units.
-
For a laugh I occasionally check how close this project is to reaching its funding goal. Expecting to see $0 raised as usual, I was shocked to see it has now raised $20. I expect it might be from the project promoter, but if it is somebody else, I sure feel sorry for them. The project is set up such that it will receive all funds, even if the goal is not reached. Really that's pretty much criminal, because there is no way in hell this project can be completed.
-
Its a nice dream and more than that it is a product that would sell if it could be developed (read: funded). It would require more like $250k to get it to production. The unit price should not be more than $299 and you'd start making a profit after selling 2,500 units.
$250k is seriously not a lot of money - especially if it's coming from and driven by someone that's enthusiastic and believes in the potential of the Amiga platform as a viable niche contender to mainstream OSs.
I guess to some extent Trevor Dickinson fits that bill- I'm sure he took on some financial risk setting up A-Eon and commissioning production of the X1000.
-
No Amiga effort would make a lot of money. AROS is the best effort because you will get a lot more people.
-
This is so exciting! Can't wait for this to happen :)
-
This is so exciting! Can't wait for this to happen :)
You are right! There is nothing more exciting than the LPGA or PBA!!!
-
I've just designed a new Amiga:
(http://people.kzoo.edu/k10ua01/computerSketch.jpg)
Can someone send me 20K dollars please.
Only if you pretend that it is going to have a 233 mhz 68060. Then the idea will be nice enough for me to abandon all logic and reason.
-
$250k is seriously not a lot of money - especially if it's coming from and driven by someone that's enthusiastic and believes in the potential of the Amiga platform as a viable niche contender to mainstream OSs.
I guess to some extent Trevor Dickinson fits that bill- I'm sure he took on some financial risk setting up A-Eon and commissioning production of the X1000.
Yes, in the scheme of things $250k is not a lot but it is nevertheless a gamble.
Trevor is indeed one of those individuals. The core issue with his approach, and I have stated this before, is that he was too conservative. A product like the X1000 needed more. Products are like fire, and money is like oxygen; You don't feed it enough oxygen and you get a slow burn. Though I'm sure if he had the millions to spare he would have put them in and we would have seen a more rapid development of hardware and software.
If I had a spare $250k I would certainly do it. I'd use Kickstarter to make sure there's enough interest; Reduces the risk somewhat.
-
Only if you pretend that it is going to have a 233 mhz 68060. Then the idea will be nice enough for me to abandon all logic and reason.
"First I think of a computer, then I remove all reason and accountability" -- Melvin Udall
-
Yes, in the scheme of things $250k is not a lot but it is nevertheless a gamble.
Trevor is indeed one of those individuals. The core issue with his approach, and I have stated this before, is that he was too conservative. A product like the X1000 needed more. Products are like fire, and money is like oxygen; You don't feed it enough oxygen and you get a slow burn. Though I'm sure if he had the millions to spare he would have put them in and we would have seen a more rapid development of hardware and software.
If I had a spare $250k I would certainly do it. I'd use Kickstarter to make sure there's enough interest; Reduces the risk somewhat.
If you were serious about this then I would join you in a heartbeat.
I don't have much money though, what i have is going towards funding a commercial indy game atm. Fingers crossed I can make a profit.
I have been idly thinking of this exact idea for a while now but it needs money, pragmatism and meticulous planning, no fluff, bs or false promises, like so many other amiga projects.
I think it could be potentially more viable than say the armiga campaign at indiegogo, it looks like they won't be funded.
The armiga is not a very exciting proposition anyhow imo.
-
Won't MorphOS and AROS (once the Kernal and other issues are resolved) pretty much the solution for this? Once MorphOS switches over to ARM or x64 I'd say the sky is the limit...
...considering that those G5's, though Apple's most powerful PPC offering, are also the ones with the most hardware faults and short life spans.
Likewise, if and or when AROS becomes a reletively bug free experience, I'd say that it, along with Magellan II are set to prepare furtile soil for all sorts of next gen Amiga development.
The idea of creating all new custom hardware sounds intriquing and fun and all, but then if you consider how many open source and or free to develop for handheld game systems have been coming out from China and what have you, and then consider how small the homebrew scene is for each of them, the likely hood of all new Amiga hardware getting much more support than they currently are is nill.
So again, I think in the long run the best we are going to get in regards to a new portable Amiga, would be MorphOS or Amithlon running on a laptop with a decent graphics and audio card. In the mean time we can all keep our fingers crossed for the FPGA offerings as they are the closest thing we are going to get to a real next gen Amiga any time soon.
-
Won't MorphOS and AROS (once the Kernal and other issues are resolved) pretty much the solution for this? Once MorphOS switches over to ARM or x64 I'd say the sky is the limit...
...considering that those G5's, though Apple's most powerful PPC offering, are also the ones with the most hardware faults and short life spans.
Likewise, if and or when AROS becomes a reletively bug free experience, I'd say that it, along with Magellan II are set to prepare furtile soil for all sorts of next gen Amiga development.
The idea of creating all new custom hardware sounds intriquing and fun and all, but then if you consider how many open source and or free to develop for handheld game systems have been coming out from China and what have you, and then consider how small the homebrew scene is for each of them, the likely hood of all new Amiga hardware getting much more support than they currently are is nill.
So again, I think in the long run the best we are going to get in regards to a new portable Amiga, would be MorphOS or Amithlon running on a laptop with a decent graphics and audio card. In the mean time we can all keep our fingers crossed for the FPGA offerings as they are the closest thing we are going to get to a real next gen Amiga any time soon.
Stuff running on a laptop is just stuff running on a laptop imo. meh.
Fpga amigas are an option yeah and I guess its not impossible to put one in a portable device... but its just fluffy cloud dreaming now of course...
-
Stuff running on a laptop is just stuff running on a laptop imo. meh.
Fpga amigas are an option yeah and I guess its not impossible to put one in a portable device... but its just fluffy cloud dreaming now of course...
I agree, I'm all for an actual portable Amiga as opposed to some touch pad or a laptop, but alas it would seem like a pipe dream. I mean after all, if there were a ton of people out there with fingers itching to code for an Amiga based platform, they'd have been hard at work at it a long time ago. At most we'd see ports of all the current offerings that have been ported to the various Amiga OS', or ports of things that were coded specificially for the Amiga or related platforms, not much else. Same as all the other hand held game systems out there that have been hacked or are open by default.
-
Honestly, a decent tablet (not a cheap $79 one still running Gingerbread) running an Amiga emulator in combination with a good controller setup (like the Moga controllers) is pretty hard to beat.
I've got a Moga Pro Power that I use with my Android tablets (mainly my Nexus 7, though) that works a real treat. Even has an onboard 2200 mAh battery pack that lets you charge the tablet or phone you are using with it.
Tablet (the 7) was $180 and the controller $50 on sale.
-
Am I missing the joke?
-
Honestly, a decent tablet (not a cheap $79 one still running Gingerbread) running an Amiga emulator in combination with a good controller setup (like the Moga controllers) is pretty hard to beat.
...
Yes, today the UAE emulation is really good and mobile SoC parts are fairly inexpensive and high performing. Though the key would be to have the controller and the screen as a single unit. I would make it more like a PS Vita. I especially like the rear touchpad as it could make it possible to play mouse-driven Amiga games. Touchscreen support in Rev. 2.
But unlike the PS Vita the device could not be sold at a loss or with cut-throat margins whilst making profit on the games. One must assume that for the large part the users will be using "freely" available adf or RP9 files. One would need to make the device itself profitable.
The device would also need to have a secondary and tertiary use; the primary use being Portable Amiga Games Console. In 2000 having a camera in it was out of the question, but in 2014 it is almost a given. And web browsing, email, IM, and twitter are pretty much a given.
I wouldn't bother with native 68k + AGA silicon. UAE running on Atom or ARM would be fine; Parts are readily available and it would make it easier to get the secondary and tertiary uses. Plus, getting someone to write the key-mapping application for ARM or x86 is a lot easier than on 68k.
One of the issues is that about 99% of all LCD screens rolling of the production lines around the world are 16:10 or 16:9*, Amiga games are designed for 4:3 so what's to be done with the extra pixels? Is it just black bands on the sides of the Android emulator?
*Currently Apple still gets 4:3 parts for their iPad mini, iPad and iPad Air but the supply chain economic pressure will soon make them move to a 16:10.