potential PPC Amiga REAL CHEAP

[Louis Dias]

I already own 2 SD cards.  An 8MB and a 256MB.

Ok, so why doesn't Hyperion open source the HAL as well?  Then it could get ported to recognize GC hardware independently of the OS then maybe someone could send them a compiled HAL with some headers and request an install with this HAL and sell that.  Theoretically they never need to stay that the HAL is for the GC.

Then it could work on the Mac Mini as well...

@BillT
If I were an Amiga user and I could get OS4 on hardware that costs $200 or hardware that costs $900, what would be easier?  I'll wager there are more Amigans with Gamecubes then there are Amigans with A1's.

Also you ignore the face that I own a $12 adapter that plugs into the GC's controller port that gives me a keyboard/mouse ps2 port and there is already a linux driver for it.  So 2 of these in the GC's 4 ports give me keyboard, mouse and 2 controllers.

The SDL library is already ported to the GC(linux) and there are already homebrew 3d games running on the GC, including DOOM.

There is already a SEGA Genesis emulator on the GC: http://projects.sappharad.com/gcn/genplus/

a gcc port: http://www.devkit.tk/

...

So yes, I see a complete lack of interest in running homebrew software on a Gamecube.  I mean isn't the reason this stuff already exists because there is no market for it?
[Remove Sarcasm Cap]
Give these people a cool alternative and maybe you have a bigger market than exists than the current ever-shrinking market of Amigans.

-No more hardware(A1) that's expensive and always on back order because there isn't enough demand to justify a new batch...um because it's expensive...hmmm chicken or egg?

Gamecubes are a dime a dozen.

Since Nintendo sells licenses and not necessarily kits (alternate dev-kits are available from Metrowerks) this means that homebrew code should run on Revolution in GC emulation.  Since Revolution will support all GC software and hardware, any software that runs courtesy of SDLoad will run on Revolution.  Now depending on how it will be emulated is what will cause homebrew apps that can 'self-clock' to run faster or not and possibly even with better 3d graphics(more poly's) than on a real GC.

[Louis Dias]

billt wrote:

How many of these have your qoob and other gizmos?

Obviously enough to justify development of 2 mod chips (Viper and Qoob), Action Replay products (memcard-to-usb and memcard-to-SD), not to mention cube controller-to-ps2 port adapters... and keep these 'gizmos' in the $12-$50 price range.

GC enthusiasts aren't bickering Amigans.  Aleast not for another 10 or 15 years.

[Louis Dias]

billt wrote:

In my own case I'd also have ATI's lawyers on my back for your Linux proposition. My contract with them says no open source drivers for their stuff, so even if I had the interest and free time, I'd still get sued and bring down my employer with me. I ain't gonna do that. Right or wrong, I certainly don't personally have enough money to out-lawyer these guys, so I follow the rules I'm bound to.


>Gamecubes are a dime a dozen.

Didn't you just say they were $50 for a single used unit or $99 for a new one?

LOL, I mean a dime a dozen as far as where to get them.  but cheap too and you get a killer free game @ $99.

Anyway, what is stopping you from releasing an official linux ATI FLipper driver for the GC?  You obviously have the skills and contacts.  Just because Linux is free doesn't mean everything you install on it is.  Maybe you could bundle the driver with an optimized SDL library and sell that package.  Somehow it must be possible to make money off of linux products.  Heck, I remember Id selling Quake 1 or 2 for linux back in the day.

[Louis Dias]

DrBlue wrote:
There is a reason the GC is so cheap and that is because anyone wanting to develop for the system must stump up a considerable amount of money (as opposed to a licence developers must buy the media (optical discs/cartridges etc) from Nintendo).  The system itself is sold at a loss.

Nintendo are renowned for being particularly ruthless towards anybody developing unlicensed products for their systems and do not hesitate to take legal action against anyone doing so.

This would have to be taken into consideration for anybody seriously considering porting OS4 to GC.  What would people rather have: a legitimate, licensed product endorsed by the manufacturer of the hardware it is to be used on or an illegal  hack? That isn't the way to see Amiga products on the shelves of your local PC World.

While I agree that the A1 board is expensive it is also equally true that if Eyetech had produced millions of units they would have been relatively cheap.  But would they have sold?  I know I wouldn't have taken that gamble.

After all is said and done, and if everyone is honest, we would have to agree that the A1 has been a wonderful and remarkable experiment which has been powered by peoples love of the Amiga and their refusal to see it die.  Given the choice of buying Nintendo hardware or Amiga hardware to run OS4, I'd rather give my money to Eyetech.

Hey, I'm all for a licensed product.  If you read the whole thread, I've previously mentioned how Eyetech could develop an I/O expansion device similar to Nintendo's GBA Player that gives the Gamecube IDE, usb, etc...(maybe even more ram for a ramdisk) connections.  It's all possible.  That hi-speed serial port supports an 81MB/s transfet rate.  Such a device could be made inexpensively because there is no CPU & socket (which seems to be the big expense on the A1) to supply.

Nintendo makes money off of third parties by selling licenses.  Licensing is a contract and no 2 are the same.  Licensing can be a flat rate or based on units sold or some combination.

I'm all for a licensed OS4 for GC bundled with an Eyetech GC I/O Expander for $200.

[Louis Dias]

If you read the forums, which I've glanced at, one user has gotten 100Mbit at half duplex to work.

how's the porting going

Well, I don't have the A/R usb or SD card adapters yet.  The latest version of PSO_Load doesn't even require PSO and can have you booting homebrew code in 10-15 seconds.

Keep laughing, btw, do you own an A1?

[Louis Dias]

Tripitaka wrote:
$200, :-o you jest sir. This is the Amiga marketplace after all. would you pay more? The chances are it would cost more than that if OS4 was bundled with it,maybe even without. I'd pay about £250 UK for such a product if it ever happens.

Yes, I/O chipsets are cheaper than dirt.  Don't you remember Alan R.'s ramblings about that (cpu + socket) being the main factor in the costs.  Figure $100-120 for OS4 and $80 for a relatively low volume southbridge (I'm sure adolescent will correct me if it's a northridge) chip and some sort of communications protocol for the Nintendo hi-speed serial bus and a plastic case like the GBA player with connector openings.  Heck, just 4 usb ports would be great.

[Louis Dias]

adolescent wrote:

I believe you'll still need PSO to do the initial install on the SDCard, unless they've figured out the format.  (Or, if you have a mod chip of course...) But, good luck.  Make sure to set your PC to 10mb/s half duplex.  :-D

Stop speading misinformation.

Keep laughing, btw, do you own an A1?

No.  But I'll keep laughing.  Spending ~$250 to get GC-Linux running on your GCN is enough entertainment...

[/quote]
my net expenses will be ~$120 because I already own a GC w/Broadband adapter (BBA).  BTW I noticed you are selling this:

CSMK2 060/66MHz w/128M RAM $300
A2065 Ethernet NIC w/10bt transceiver $85

LOL!  You could just about have 2 full GC systems setup ready to run OS4/AROS/Linux with that money.  Funny, the GC has about 10 times the processing power of that accelerator at 1/6 of the cost.  Now I see where the bitterness comes from.  You have Nintendo-envy.    Oh goodness, I can't believe you'd run only a 10bt NIC, the horror! LOL

People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

[Louis Dias]

adolescent wrote:

I already have 2 full GC systems (one black GCN, and a Q), with BBA, SD, PSO, etc.  But, I use them for playing games (and/or MP3, VCD, DVD on the Q), not for some fantasy of making them into a computer.

As for the price.  You can do so much more with a big box classic Amiga than you can with a GC running Linux.  

Anyway, good luck.  I'm sure you'll find your Linux experience is worth the $$$.   :lol:

Ah, so you own a gamecube (2 even) and not an A1...imagine that and how many other Amigas own GC's and not A1's...

The Q is way overpriced.  A GC is $99, a DVD player is $40, a Q - $3XX.  Insane.

Anyway, I work in IT again.  I've got 0 experience in Linux.  If I can get Linux on the GC, that's positive experience for me.  My PC's already got 2 1/2 verions of Windows on it not to mention all my emulators and db server, web server and development packages.  Offloading Apache and maybe MySQL and PHP to the GC will be nice for testing without slowing down my PC for everything else (IM, iMesh, email, etc...)  $120 for invaluable experience.  That's a steal.

[Louis Dias]

billt wrote:

A lot of companies already do. But those are for things running on PC hardware. Look at Sony, they used to sell a Linux kit for PSX2 but they stopped. Why? Maybe it didn't pay off in the case of a games console.

Well, we all know Sony is trying to get US Customs to consider the PS line as computers in order to pay less tariffs on importing them.

It's fine to release a Linux kit, but what could anyone do with it?  Did it include a PS2 optimized gcc compiler?  No apps = no sales.  I don't care for the PS2 and for all I know, the people who bought the Linux kit are surfing the web with their PS2's.

[Louis Dias]

Animagic wrote:
Can someone PLEASE LOCK THIS FORUM?

Look at the date it is created :
Posted on: 2005/1/31 15:22   :-o  :-o  :-o

GOD HAVE MERCY!!!!

I AM REALLY TIRED TO SEE IT ON THE FROND PAGE ALL THE TIME !!!!! :pissed:


PLEASE!!!!

thanx  :-P    

then don't post in it

I intend to keep doing status updates.  I'll turn my gc into some form of PC by the end of the summer.

[Louis Dias]

TheMagicM wrote:
if the arguing keeps up there wont be a post to read.

does this forum support locking out individual users from a thread?

[Louis Dias]

I'm no fan of censorship, however, trolls suck.

My next update should be in a couple of weeks when I've ordered the Action Replay Max Drive or something similar and the case mod and possibly a mod chip (qoob).

[Louis Dias]

Update!

I should have my qoob Pro and case mod in a day or 2.

Nice article: http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/04/01/warp_pipe.html

verifies whay I said about the 'Cube's rudimentary bios and being very open like programming a c64/128 or Amiga and yes they even mention Amiga in the article.

they've come a long way

how to install Linux, SNES9X, mfe, network drives: http://modthatcube.pxn-os.com/content/linux/index.html

realworld review of said modchip:
http://iso420.pxn-os.com/ngc/qoobprov1/index.htm

debunks some myths like the 10 MBit limit and 1.4GB limit on DVDs

[Louis Dias]

yeah my math made is come out to 5.2Mb/s but I've never dowloaded anything off the internet faster than that either.

On a forum, an I forget which one, but I believe I've posted it before, some user has configured it to run much higher between the PC and the GC.

Anyway, even if it was limited to 10Mb/s, 1.2 Megabytes per second is about a 8 speed CDROM and at 27Mb/s it's a 24 speed, which as I've stated before is fast enough to run networked drives from and with much less average seek time (hd vs. cdrom).

There is also a patch that allows the GC gameport connected ps/2 keyboards to work.  Hopefully it will become a standard part of the linux build.  I'm sure with a hair more of effort, a ps/2 mouse driver could be written.

This is really a NON-ISSUE unless you want to stream high-res video to the GC.

[Louis Dias]

Quit the bullpoo.

10Mb/s is 178 times faster than a 56K modem.
The average broadband internet connectio is 20-50 times faster than 56K.

Stop your trolling.
The only thing you are succeeding in doing is stopping an uninformed noob from gaining any interest in the possibility of AROS or OS4 on GC.

Too bad this product http://www.planetgamecube.com/news.cfm?action=item&id=2292 never saw the light of day.

[Louis Dias]

MskoDestny wrote:
Well 10Mb/s may be fast for internet access, but it's incredibly slow for pulling files of any consequence over the network.  Even 100Mb/s feels slow compared to a local disk.

Honestly - have you ever worked in an office environment with a LAN and accessed applications from mapped network drives?  You are telling me that moving 1.2 MEGABYTES per second is too slow?  :roll:  And just how big are the files that you are playing with?  10Mb/s is equivalent to an 8 speed CDROM but without spin up times or long seek times - so effectively much MUCH faster.

Oh and they do have Gamecube keyboards as well as adapters for ps/2 keyboards/mice through the controller port.

I don't see the advantage of a DC port as it's got less memory and inferior capabilities and uses CDs as opposed to DVDs.