Classic Amiga Hardware Projects for 2014

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I'd love to see more graphics cards for classic big-box systems. Recent prices even for "low end" Picasso II-level graphics cards have been fetching over $200 USD, and Cybervision64/Picasso IV-level cards over $500 on Ebay. I'm no hardware engineer but would think for that kind of money wouldn't it be possible to design some kind of bridge for a PC video chipset to Zorro, and write CGX/Picasso96 drivers for it?
 
In other words, I can buy Radeon HD cards for $50-$75 that offer outstanding performance, they could be bridged ala the old "Domino" style Amiga video card, that was basically just an interface for a PC graphics card, right?
 
http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/domino
 
Also I'm still waiting to hear when more X-Surf 100 cards will be available? And when will the USB be working on those cards? No offense to the builder but the Thylacine's they're selling over on Amibay are terrible-slow on Zorro II. I want to see what Jens can do!
 
Thanks for all your hard work! :pint:

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

PS - what is this AmigaOS Boing Ball Plush?  I want a bigger one!  Like, beachball size!  :hammer:

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Also not a hardware project but probably cheap to produce: how about some Amiga socks? C'mon, I do roller derby, us derby folk love to show off our socks, I'd order some for sure!

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Natami was a dream, Minimig is great...

Natami was the only "post-classic" Amiga system that I was ever really excited about.  There we go, since we're asking for the sky, why not just pick up whatever the pieces of Natami were and complete that project?  :lol:

On a side note, it's interesting how many things on this list that people are asking for already exist.  Maybe in some cases it's just a matter of "connecting sellers to buyers", i.e., making the interested party aware of the product.  This could be done perhaps on some level by AmigaKit picking up marketing/distribution for products that (for example) are only available on Amibay or those German A1K forums.  In other cases it seems like just churning out another production run of already existing hardware.  For products that have been designed/manufactured within the past decade that shouldn't be too hard to accomplish, right?  :lol:

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Hey, here's another idea that would cost almost nothing and provide free advertising:  stickers!  Print up a batch of AmigaKit stickers and throw one in with each order, or each order over a certain price point, something like that.  I know I'd love to rock one on the back window of my truck (or possibly on my Amiga, LOL).  :mickeymouse:

Oh, and thanks for this post, it reminded me of about $150 worth of bits I needed to get from you guys.  Order placed!  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Well bring him over here! I don't have an account there because I do not agree with their terms of service.

And some people don't like amiga.org. Go figure! :angry: That's why I suggested AmigaKit look into commercial distribution of these type of products, rather than through forums. Other good hardware that might benefit from commercial distribution might be everything made by Kipper2K, the Ratte monitor switch, the Protein von Botfixer accelerator, the new "Vampire 600" accelerators, etc.
 
Guess it's a question of margins? Could the larger distribution channel AmigaKit would provide offset whatever cut the actual builders of this hardware would take? And how would warranties be handled? Board goes back to AmigaKit, and if they can't fix it back to the designer? It's a lot of logistics that would have to be worked out.
 
FYI about the Thylacine, he makes two models: a single port and a four port model. They're not bad priced, I have the single port, but they don't work very well on Zorro II equipped Amigas. Supposedly rock on A3000/A4000's, however.
 
Here's a couple pics from his threads:

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I think the only thing that gets me that excited is being able to pimp out an old Amiga with all the modern amenities (ethernet, audio, video, usb, faster CPU, etc). I'd love to be able to sidecar something like an FPGA Replay or UltimatePPC to my Amiga 1000, just for the pure giggles of being able to have a 1985 computer still be kicking butt. Ideally it would be available for any Amiga model. You have 11 months and 29 days, better get crackin' .

LOL.  At this point the Amiga would become the "sidecar".  Basically just a keyboard interface at that point, haha.  

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I was thinking along the same lines as you but then I saw this.
 
I've placed a pre-order. Unfortunately I think it sticks on the side of the A500, and I'd prefer it to be internal like the Derringer you mentioned. But it satisfies your requirements by the sound of it.

That thing is a kludge, sticks out the side of the case where it could be damaged and needs you to make your own case for it.  A new internal A500 accelerator would hit the biggest market.  Closest thing to that requirement is currently Kipper2K's board now in production, but it doesn't include a faster processor (unless you stick a 68010 or something else on top of it, I suppose an AdSpeed might work...).

Here's a pic for people unfamiliar with this board:

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Such a solution already exists for big-box Amigas (with A2000 being the exception), and it's called the Mediator bus board. Yes it may cost a lot, but I think it gives better value for the money than old Amiga graphics cards at insane prices (like you mention here).

I'm familiar with the Mediator. What I was suggesting was something more like an updated version of the old Domino card, only with a PCI or PCI-E slot instead of ISA, that would be usuable on all Amiga's. It fits in a Zorro slot and acts as a "bridge" to a PC graphics card. For reference here is a picture of the Domino:

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

could you place a derringer on top of that?

Good question.  Although in an A500 you probably wouldn't be able to close the case, and in an A2000 maybe issues with interference with the bottom of the drive sled?  I'd ask here, where many purchasers are:

http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?t=51339