Fusion Forty Plug'N Go ROMs V3.4!

[Motormouth]

@TjLaZer

I would love to get Fusion Forty Plug'N Go ROMs V3.4.  Could I get a set of 4 chips burned?  I would be willing to help pay for the burn run and EPROM chips.   I would Pmail you, but I don't know what Pmail is?  perhaps Phonemail, or Pegasus mail (look at www.pmail.com)?

@Everyone

As for the copyright issues, I would be happy to pay RCS or whoever else owns these ROMs, at reasonable price (10 or 20 dollars US) after all this is 15 year old hardware.  I have been looking for these ROMs to no avail since about 2001 when I bought an A2000 with a Fusion Forty in it from an e-bay auction.

For those worried about the copyrights check out an article:
Pete Loshin, "Abandonware:  Welcome to the Netherworld of Gaming Software Limbo" Computer Power User Magazine p 81 Vol. 6 issue 4, April 2006.

In this article, Mr. Loshin is speaking about old roms for MAME and MESS that publishers abandon.  I will quote from the article, "Unlike free/open-source software, abandonware has no legal standing; it's a matter of economics that games publishers abandon their older games rather than maintain a backlist of titles like book publishers do.  When a game's owner does assert copyright and request an old game be taken down (referring to any website), the gamers must comply."

I would definitely put Fusion 40 ROMs in the abandonware category.

As for the Fusion Forty itself,  the V 3.4 Plug’N Go ROMs will allow the Fusion 40 to boot amiga 3.1 os roms , but will these rom’s allow the use of AmigaOS 3.5 or 3.9?   I remember there is some issue with the 68040.library in AmigaOS 3.1 and the Fusion Forty.

Does anyone have experience getting 3.5 or 3.9 working with the Fusion Forty?  I am interested as I have an A2000 with Fusion Forty with 32 megs of ram, a Picasso II+ and an hardcard.

[Piru]

For those worried about the copyrights check out an article:
Pete Loshin, "Abandonware: Welcome to the Netherworld of Gaming Software Limbo" Computer Power User Magazine p 81 Vol. 6 issue 4, April 2006.

In this article, Mr. Loshin is speaking about old roms for MAME and MESS that publishers abandon. I will quote from the article, "Unlike free/open-source software, abandonware has no legal standing; it's a matter of economics that games publishers abandon their older games rather than maintain a backlist of titles like book publishers do. When a game's owner does assert copyright and request an old game be taken down (referring to any website), the gamers must comply."

I would definitely put Fusion 40 ROMs in the abandonware category.

There is no such thing as abadonware, at least not on amiga.org.

Do not post links or requests for warez.
Warez in our definition is illegal software up to and including "abandonware". The exception is if the person is KNOWN to have the legal right to distribute said software. This is not debatable.

From: Amiga.org posting guidelines

Again, let me reiterate: As long as there is permission to redistribute the ROMs I have no problem. I am not trying to make trouble.

[Motormouth]

@Piru

Sorry, I didn't mean to break the rules.

I definitely understand your desire to protect the integrity of amiga.org

I would not want to see anything bad happen to amiga.org or a temporary shutdown like what happen to the big book of amiga hardware.

I have been reading amiga.org for years anonymously.  
The though of being able to get my good old fusion forty to properly boot 3.1, that is with out software tricks, was enough to get me to actually register and post with amiga.org.

[TjLaZer]

@motormouth,

Sure I will gladly burn you a set send me a private mail from this site.  Pmail is the private mail on Amiga.org.  Top left corner it says Private Messages.

Yes with the 3.4 ROMs you will be able to use Kickstart 3.1 and Workbench 3.5 or 3.9!  This is a must have upgrade for any Fusion Forty owner as it allows the board to work with the revision 3 and above Operating System!

[TjLaZer]

*sigh*

Anyway, I have had this board for a while and could not get it to work with Kickstart 3.1.  I know there are lots of other users who are in the same boat.  They need the latest ROM to use Kickstart 3.1.  If they want to use Workbench 3.1, 3.5 or 3.9 they cannot without the 3.4 ROMs.  Is it really that wrong to allow these users to get the latest ROM?  I understand Copyright, but in this case I dont think it matters any more.  If I were offering the ROMs in 1993 and RCS was offering them for sale, that would be a different story.  But you cannot get the ROMs from anywhere at this time.  Even the author is not responding to requests from users.  I emailed him a few months ago and never got a reply.  Other have also!  So to date I am the only one that is offering the ROMs!  

In any case, if anyone is concerned, I contaced the author of the ROM and Software to ask if it is ok to offer it to Fusion Forty owners.  He has a website that says if anyone wants the ROM images to email him.  So again, I do not think it is a problem regarding this ROM.

All I am trying to do is help Amiga users here!  I know how hard it is to get these ROMs and I am trying to do the community a service here, not break the laws.  But if I am breaking the laws then it is reduculous and the laws need to be changed! 15 year driver code for a piece of hardware should be freely available as it is needed to use the hardware.  It is not a game ROM or disk image we are talking about here!  There is a difference!  These ROMs are essential to getting my Amiga 2000 computer running with the 68040 card and my kickstart 3.1 ROM.  That Marble Madness ADF file on planetemu is not essential!!!

[Piru]

@TjLaZer

Is it really that wrong to allow these users to get the latest ROM?

Of course not. This is not the point.

But if I am breaking the laws then it is reduculous and the laws need to be changed!

Unfortunately the copyright laws have just gotten stricter recently. :-( Consumers have less and less rights.

You still don't seem to understand that I agree on the moral ground. I certainly would love to see the ROM Images available for everyone who needs it.

But, until you have the permission, it's not legal to distribute them. To avoid amiga.org getting into trouble, you should IMHO not offer the files here (amiga.org could be held accountable).

[TjLaZer]

Well I emailed the author asking permission, we shall see...  And I am not offering them on here, I removed the link!

Thanks for your moral support!

[alenppc]

Motormouth wrote:

As for the Fusion Forty itself,  the V 3.4 Plug’N Go ROMs will allow the Fusion 40 to boot amiga 3.1 os roms , but will these rom’s allow the use of AmigaOS 3.5 or 3.9?   I remember there is some issue with the 68040.library in AmigaOS 3.1 and the Fusion Forty.

Does anyone have experience getting 3.5 or 3.9 working with the Fusion Forty?  I am interested as I have an A2000 with Fusion Forty with 32 megs of ram, a Picasso II+ and an hardcard.

Yes, OS 3.9 can work quite nicely with it. It's not very straightforward getting it to work, it is true that the board is very picky about its 68040.library, but with a little bit of patience it can be done.

After all, this board was produced in 1991... And rembember what an average PC was like then: 8088/8086 was normal, a 286 was "fast" etc... Imagine a 68040 in those days!

The only thing I was never able to get working with a FF040 is WHDload: the machine reboots every time... :-(

[Motormouth]

@alenppc


Thanks for the info.  It may be interesting to get OS 3.9 working on a FF040 equipped a2000.  This configuration is faster than my A3640 equipped Amiga 3000 with 16 megs of fast ram in processor intenstive and memory transfer tests.

[TjLaZer]

Great news!  I got an email from Mattias and he said it was ok to redistribute the ROMs and he even wanted a copy to place on his website!!!  Woot!

Apparently Mattias has the ROMs but they are installed in his A2000 packed away so he was not able to send anyone that emailed him the ROMs.  He was going to get around to it but you know how that goes, so now he has the images!  He will be putting them on his site sometime.

[Jeff]

Congrats!

[Piru]

Excellent news!