FPGA Replay Board

[espskog]

I have to ask though, if your running a 680x0 machine then what advantage does AROS give you over Amikit or ClassicWorkbench installation of a "real" workbench?

I was also asking myself that very same question. It seems like the biggest selling point is that you can boot it without a valid licensed copy of the original Workbench. However, when that is said, I am 100% sure that absolutely nobody really cares about that. I am pretty sure that everyone here owned/owns a classic Amiga and therefore already have payd the licensing fee to Commodore at one point -- therefore it does not matter if you DL the kickstart/wbdisks from the net at a later point. In my opinion.

I mean -- we're in 2011 now. Nobody makes money off WB anymore. It's a retro thing now. It's for fun.

:afro: :afro: :afro:

[espskog]

If someone makes a AROS 68K Hardfile which works for MiniMig or for Replay boards, can they please post links to where others can download and try ? It'd be nice :-)

//Espen

[espskog]

I'm gonna pick up a Samsung HDTV "monitor" of 23" and be a happy-camper with that one as it will have inputs for all my retro stuff, plus that it is 50Hz compatible. And it costs next to nothing...oh, and it has a tuner aswell -- which I ironically won't use ;-)

[espskog]

Hmm..a LED/LCD TV which does not accept 50Hz on its VGA / DVI inputs ? Now that is very strange. I am not saying it is wong, but it just sounds weird

Ayway, I am gonna go back to the store if the monitor does not work. Or better, I will bring the replay board (now in it's rather fancy mini itx black cabinet) to the store and just plug and test until I find one funky screen that handles my digital demands

[espskog]

Can we see some pictures of your Replay in the new case?

Sure. Let me snap some pics of it when I get back to work on monday.

Espen

[espskog]

Maybe someone wants to buy my board (in a black mini itx case) -- all working and very cool ...do I hear ...hmm...€300 ? )))))))

[espskog]

..or maybe someone rather like a rare MiniMig -- the special and very rare ITX V2 version which has svideo/composite tv-out plus remade power regulator and faster memory. Everything in a sexy little white Amiga colored 17x17 cabinet with all ports available from the back.  

[espskog]

Here is a good idea (IMHO):

1. Make Minimig being able to autoboot an ADF file (e.g. autoboot.adf) from root at sdcard -- if the file is there. If not, it continues as usual to the WB-Hand screen.
2. Then this ADF boots a menuloader using the startup-sequence of the adf "diskette"
3. That menuloader can be quite nice and show all games and demos on the sdcard and
    maybe also show with thumbnails and have lots of nice info on the game like
    screenshot. PLus maybe some nice screenshots of the game + gameinfo. And the
    trick is then to be able to select the game you want, and have the minimig boot it

Would be nice to have kind of like a MediaCenter type of presentation of the games on the card --- more "LivingRoom" friendly

Espen

[espskog]

How about it just renames the selected adf file to "autoboot.adf" and restarts the replay

[espskog]

Oh, the world would be a better place if everything was running on unix In my mind, there is no doubt -- however, I know there are split feelings on that matter. Hehe, but let's not fire up a OS-War kind of discussion (Although I miss the old days when we used to fight PC vs. Amiga OS wars on the BBS's ---- man, good days....good days)

Anyway, what you say about having an entry in minimig config which points to a ADF file and boots that first (if a autoboot=true) flag is set -- I support you on this.

But how are we going to access the minimig config file from the amiga os when that file resides on the root of the sd card ?

Espen

[espskog]

So what we need is:

1. Someone to program an interface for Amiga OS -- preferably one with Joystick selector or Mouse support so that it is easily navigateable (!).

2. Bundle it on a ADF + a startup-sequence so it autoboots

3. Beta testers...well, aren't we all that

Alternative A
I think that it would be cool if ADF format also had a small section inside itself (e.g. 64kb) to hold: Info on the adf-contents, a screenshot, +++
This info could then be shown in the selector.

OR


Alternative B:
Put a .adx file in parallell with the .adf file where x stands for "eXtra" so that if the adf file has such a daughterfile, the amiga selector uses this for displaying extra info on the adf file -- and he .adx file can hold e.g. a jpeg + text etc...

OR: One could just hardcode the selector with gameinfo, but that would not be cool as you could have to compile the selector every time you change the SD CARD contents...

[espskog]

Thanks for taking time during your vacation, Mike.

Just wondering -- Would it be able to have one SD card that we can have directories on, e.g. one for Amiga, one for each Arcade, one for C64 and one for VIC20 ..etc, and then when you power up the Replay, it boots a custom "root" menu where you can first choose which Core to use, and from there you can get a sub menu where you have predefined core-setups (i.e. A500, A1200 etc etc) for the Amiga, and if you e.g. wants to boot a Arcade Core, you can choose from any core-bin on the "Arcade" folder of the SD card to boot up PacMan or the Arcade core you prefer.

Is this doable or are there limitations ? I think that the presentation of the Replay from the time you power on to the time you can interact as a user, is important so that you can either have a "interface for dummies" or a more complex and manual OSD interface for more experienced users. That would have been awesome!!!


Espen

[espskog]

I can hear the world wide cheering already :-)

[espskog]

How much of the boards are finished on your side. All connectors and stuff, or is everything done at the plant so you get a 100% ready-to-power-up board in return ?

[espskog]

Thecrow, Interesting!

@MikeJ, How many boards are taken out those 50 ?

+1.
I am also interested in hearing this, as I know of people who wants to buy if there are boards available of the current batch.

Espen

[espskog]

That is cool. You probably have a feeling how many Replay board you can send (based on how much feedback you've received and pre-orders etc). Do you know if there are plan to have third party re-sellers aswell ? I think that now that the electronics is more or less done, the big thing is to make this Replay board into a kick-ass product (even better than it is now...if possible) by expanding the software side of it.

Have you had some talks with other Arcade  dudes to use the Replay board inside pre-made Arcade boxes ?


I hope you can sell heaps of the board and make big bucks from it. That would be very very awesome. I for sure hope that the Amiga community can help out by buying as many boards as possible

It's a very natural upgrade from the current MInimig owners to go to the Replay board. It's the closest thing you can get to go from upgrading from A500 to A1200 :-)...only, it's WAY cooler and better