Beta-testers needed

[Hyperspeed]

BOOOOOOO!

Down with Amiga emulation!

;-)

[Hyperspeed]

It must suck emulating a machine that so many coders hit the metal with. However I can see the advantages of having portable versions of RTG software and demonstration software like Scala and Hollywood.

So can anyone list all the Amiga emulators out there now? There's about half a dozen right!?

:-)

Is AGA supported and '040/'060/PPC etc.? How are 880K disks handled by the PC, what about PCMCIA devices and laptops, SCSI addressing and how does a TCP/IP stack talk through emulation?

[Hyperspeed]

I really begrudge the promotion of UAE and suchlike on Amiga.org...

If the sole reason is to run Amiga software on a laptop then why doesn't someone make a bloody Amiga laptop!

I think it's fine to emulate a C=64 or say Megadrive/Genesis but a machine that brand new commercial software is still being released for? The promotion of classic Amiga emulation on the x86 format is killing the unique selling point that the AmigaOne has of emulating all old Amiga software.

Recently Sony has succesfully stopped UK importers from using so called `mod chips' to bypass copy protection and so the sale of them has now become illegal here. Given a good lawyer, Amiga Inc. could effectively argue that by emulating a classic Amiga a coder is basically removing the requirement to buy their unique new hardware thus undermining their business. Not only that but the competition from more refined PC-based web software competing with the like of the recent IBrowse 2.3/2.4 could effectively strangle all hopes of a minor comeback.

In a world where retro is coming back into fashion, where joysticks are being made with old Megadrive/Genesis and C=64 games, I think it's essential that sites like Amiga.org and their users keep the faith and promote classic hardware sales, AmigaOne/Pegasos sales and give impetus to the ressurection of a dormant platform that could hail the future for community dreams and business.



;-)

[Hyperspeed]

Well, all the points you make are good ones and valid, however I doubt very much that by emulating the Amiga any PC user is going to rush out and buy IBrowse2.4 or the latest FryingPan, TurboPrint or Pagestream.

Do you think an Amiga owner with a UAE laptop is going to rush out and buy the excellent Hollywood multimedia package if there's already a dusty old copy of Powerpoint already bundled with the Windows install?

UAE is doing nobody any favours in my opinion and the frequent reports of things going wrong, apps/games/demos not working properly doesn't do the legacy any good either.

Admittedly running Workbench, DOpus and my favourite utilities on a laptop is a wonderful, tempting idea...  but because things are so shaky in terms of new AmigaOS revisions and new AmigaOne machines the emulation scene could well be the death sentance.

"Need is 9/10ths of Invention" or whatever they say... so do we NEED a new Amiga, new apps if the whole WinXP catalogue is just a window behind Workbench? You eliminate all the cool, native video capability, all the super-optimised hardware banging demos, all the gadgets and gizmos that made the Amigas so cool and you're left with a zombified skeleton running RTG apps on a 3GHz 68020!

What about PowerPC software anyway...

:-D

[Hyperspeed]

But what if AmigaOS 4 finally makes it to PowerPC equipped classic Amigas? And AmigaOne is using classic emulation built into OS4 isn't it?

I'm sure there was also a rival OFFICIAL emulator package from Amiga Inc themselves. Making things freeware, as with MP3, really didn't do the music industry much good. I have said in the past though that UAE would be the saviour if only Amiga Inc started an iTunes style download shop for classic games. Do they listen? NO!

;-)

I must say I'm mildly curious about PSP UAE - the Amiga emulator for the Playstation handheld.

:-D

Just how you'd operate Workbench with a D-pad and 4 fire buttons I don't know, let alone writing a letter on Wordworth!

So does WinUAE run Spaceballs `State of the Art' and things like CD32 Super Stardust? If UAE is still being developed for Linux to the same standards as WinUAE then I might give it a shot, it'd be keeping some of the free spirit going...