The ultimate Amiga One (what it should be)

[BigBenAussie]

You're going to hate me for saying this........Sorry in advance.....
If I was AmigaInc or KMOS.... I would be licensing XBox2 technology, porting OS4 to it and slapping in an Amiga box like the Amiga Fantasy. Problem solved..... All the games you could want on cheap powerful hardware, as well as the ability to load up AmigaOS if you want. Just like the original Amigas, slap in a DVD Game and go, they never used to hit the OS anyway.... Of course the bootscreens would be Amiga specific......and boot you straight into OS4.

Maybe we shouldn't be fighting MS but merging to survive?
If you can't beat'em join'em.... At least in terms of hardware...which they make a loss at.... AND you would get your ultimate games machine too.. All in one box...OK... if you license the hardware you can't sell it at a loss like MS... but at least you'd have the specs, and the games compatability, and you could always increase the specs too. What you have is an emerging computing architecture.

AmigaInc/KMOS wins by selling OS4. Lets face it... Its a lot more than we're going to get today, so what is the harm? License the hardware technology and buy into their XNA.. It can only help the platform...So what if its a schizophrenic system.... Most Amigans loved the Amiga because it was a kick ass console come microcomputer.... Added to this.... Imagine the homebrew games that could be developed on top of AmigaOS on the same hardware... Awesome....

The only problem would be convincing MS that this is a good move....
Maybe, they're so dead against their main rival Linux, that they may allow it....

You know, if you failed to woo MS.....maybe Sony would be interested in developing such a licensing scheme to keep up. They don't have an OS, but they did actually produce a Linux derivative for their hardware. Imagine convincing them to allow an Amiga derivative....They may be able to head MS off at the pass... OK.. they'd probably only go with Linux.....

What does Amiga gaming mean? If you use the hardware and don't touch the OS is it still an Amiga game? Most of the games in Amiga's heydey probably never touched the OS and hit the hardware, which is reticent of the current batch of consoles... In an odd way, converging with a console manufacturer and producing a compatable kick ass console come computer, is kinda going back to roots.....

The more I think of it... the more I think that Sony would go for it.... They too, only make money off the games, and they've never wanted those games to run on a PC. So now you have the situation where MS is attempting to flood the console arena with XBox compatables to outnumber Sony. They'll be releasing first for the same reason. If Sony did the same an licensed out PS3 production then we'd have AmigaOS on cutting edge technology(for a while) and even be able to up the specs on our own version. OS4 has HAL and could keep up with subsequent console releases.

Obviously, the XBox is a trojan horse for Windows. Sony has everything to gain by supporting a rival OS..... Frightens me if they went with Apple actually..... But Amiga has always been THE game system..

Let's face it....we are unlikely to get ANY major games as it is.... OS4 on consoles, does not come with the "oh, I'll just dual boot into Linux or Windows" problems of an OS4 port to PCs. Going this route does not preclude games development for an Amiga necessarily either. When are we going to realise that the Amiga is a hobbiests machine/OS and that it will never be number 1 again? We can only get more market recognition by becoming a parasite(OK.. value add) on another system. PCs are distasteful and unhip..... Lets go with a console manufacturer and back to ROOTS!!!

I would like to say that the A1 board is a required step for the OS and fairly safe for now... However going forward, wouldn't it make the most sense to try and license established console hardware and go from there? C'mon, they'll even be HDTV compatable out of the box... WTF....

Eyetech will do a sterling job, but lets face it, THEY WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO KEEP UP WITH OUR EXPECTATIONS. Only a console company driven to keep up their specs could possibly sustain us. We don't even know if Eyetech have any future plans...OR even what their current plans are for that matter.

If Eyetech owns all the rights to hardware for the Amiga platform..then....Well, they've shown that they can work with MAI so why couldn't they go work with MAI with Sony's specs rather than VAI specs. I mean, they gotta realise by now, that no one if their right mind is going to license Amiga specs from them when MS is doing the same, and probably offerring incentives to do so...not to mention XBox compatability.

Hell, I completely forgot that Nintendo is another possibility....

My suggestion of licensing console technology from an established console player would solve all the problems you are listing....and provide your wish list.

Their specs are better and evolve faster than ours do....
Everything about the final Amiga that would be produced by such a means would be awesome...
Where is the flaw in the plan?? Except convincing a console manufacturer...

Your future Amiga should be a highly specced console... with either the basic XBox2 or PS3 or Nintendo next gen as its base hardware configuration.
The Amiga brand would be the Supercharged console/computer of their line-up, with more RAM and HD and maybe a higher clock rate.

If you can't beat'em join'em....
How do they lose? How do we lose?
Eyetech, KMOS, Hyperion and AmigaInc would all win with this.
MS might not like it, but Sony and Nintendo might go for it.... if they could be bothered.

OK...... I'll go back and hide in my happy place now..

[BigBenAussie]

ALTERNATIVELY!!!!

You know, if Eyetech could somehow make the hardware stackable then your specs would be as high as you could pay. People would purchase multiple A1s for the speed they feel they require. More A1 boards would be sold and the price therefore would come down.

Incidentally, it appears that Commodore was considering a similar approach for the original Amiga but dropped the idea because it was too expensive. I think they were going to be stacking peripherals though rather processor boards but the idea is the same.

I would like to see the microA1, which is decent enough, as a brick in an Amiga cluster. Of course you would have to modify the OS to take advantage of symmetric multiple processing(did I get that right?). But its the coolest way to bridge the specification gap at the moment, and its innovative in the sense that no other PCs are doing it, at least in the mainsteam. Its a press worthy item also. Perhaps the 3d on the boards are decent enough to effectively work together also, rendering a part of the screen. There may be issues with the means of doing this but they are not insurmountable.

Imagine boasting about this machine!!! We'll start measuring speed in units of A1s.
"I'm going 5 A1s what are you?"

Is this really such a difficult thing to accomplish? Isn't it also what the embedded market might appreciate? Creating such a board is a "get out of jail" card free in terms of specifications. Really, Eyetech should really be looking into providing at least the capability of SMP for multiple MicroA1s, and we'll get the support in the OS at a later date.

If you can't make them stackable, then just create a big box Amiga with slots for all the A1s to talk together. Then WE WOULD HAVE SOMETHING TO BOAST ABOUT!!!

Then we could take on practically every platform on earth!!!!!!!!
Mahahahaha!!!!

Quick!!! Do it before the Wintel world hears about it.

We should petition Eyetech to do it!!!
Even if the microA1 is the last Amiga we would be able to keep up with other platforms forever. Eyetech simply wont be able to keep up with the PC platform speed increases and this will prevent us from falling behind if we don't want to.

Who's with me on this.... We really should bring this to Alan's attention. A little effort now could go a long long way for the Amiga's future.