Minimig or Clone-A ?

[John1]

I want to get an FPGA Amiga. How compatible are they?

[amigakit]

Welcome.

Neither project is available yet.

However Clone-A is a cycle-exact reproduction of the Amiga so it should offer best compatibility.

[amiga_3k]

For me it is an easy question to answer: With no doubt it should be the Minimig.

If it's going to be released as OpenSource it should open loads of possibilities and probably a neat user-base hacking the last bit out of it.

[derringer3]

Both one is an interesting project, but both project locked on amiga500 technology. The ultimate amiga project will be the following:

new motherboard with custom chips in an fpga.
Integrated sound,VGA,Lan,USB cards/ports
PPC CPU (Not surface mounted)
Fits in a standard atx case.
Os4 compatibility.
PCI/PCI express slots (or AGP at least)

I think Sam440 is the nearest project of this list, however sam440 has a lot of disadvantages too.

[skurk]

derringer3 wrote:
new motherboard with custom chips in an fpga.
Integrated sound,VGA,Lan,USB cards/ports
PPC CPU (Not surface mounted)
Fits in a standard atx case.
Os4 compatibility.
PCI/PCI express slots (or AGP at least)

I agree wholeheartedly.  IMO, integrating everything on a board makes it..

- ...more relieable and predictable behaviour
- ...easier and more challenging to program for (hardware banging anyone?)
- ..more precise for classic emulation (68k)

Users may of course use, say, a different AGP VGA card instead, but then knows the risk and can switch back if necessary.

I have no interest in joining the hardware race going on in the PC/Vista world.  I don't need 6 GHz, 256-bit surround or 2048x1536 32 bit resolution.  I want a computer that's useable and fun to play with.

So someone, please build it.  I'll buy it.

[Methuselas]

skurk wrote:

I have no interest in joining the hardware race going on in the PC/Vista world.  I don't need 6 GHz, 256-bit surround or 2048x1536 32 bit resolution.  I want a computer that's useable and fun to play with.

So someone, please build it.  I'll buy it.

True that. I'm doing help desk again, while I'm inbetween graphic jobs and f*ck if that isn't the *BIGGEST* POS I have *EVER* had to deal with. It's dodgy, has driver support like ME and it's the most resource hungry OS I've ever seen. I find it ridiculous to have to upgrade a PC to run the "newest" version of Windoze.

The *ONLY* thing they did right, was dump the registry.  :lol:

[Ral-Clan]

Both one is an interesting project, but both project locked on amiga500 technology.

Yes, but this is just a stepping stone.  Right now I just want the MiniMig and Clone-A 500s produced and in "our" hands, then I'll take a sigh of relief and look forward to further FPGA developments based on what the developers learned from these products.

[alexh]

You're all fooling yourselves. No-one would ever make a fully featured board with everything. There is no money there.

Minimig is fun, pure, retro-gaming with the main feature over original classic hardware being it's form factor.

However will there be enough people prepared to pay higher than eBay prices for what is effectively a mini A500 (and one with slight compatibility issues at that)?

I dunno.

I felt that the floppy disk emulator project had a much higher chance of being a commercial success both in the Amiga and other Retro gaming circles.

[Kronos]

derringer3 wrote:


new motherboard with custom chips in an fpga.
Integrated sound,VGA,Lan,USB cards/ports
PPC CPU (Not surface mounted)
Fits in a standard atx case.
Os4 compatibility.
PCI/PCI express slots (or AGP at least)

Sounds like PPC-Mac hacked to directly boot into UAE  :-o


Honestly I want something "clean", read when i want Nextgen-HW the last thing I would like to see it is being cluttered with retro-stuff.

On the other side when I want retro-stuff I want retro-stuff, so nothing but a 680x0 an OCS/AGA-compatible GFX-system (maybe faster and with higher resolutions).

Adding small fry like USB or 1 Zorro-Slot (maybe inlined with 1 PCI-slot) ain't bad, but thats exactly where it should stop.

[Darrin]

I'll be watching the Cloan-A development with interest as it has the potential to produce a true classic kick-ass Amiga, however I'd like to have one of those Minimig Rev 1.0 boards now for some classic gaming on my living room TV.

The Minimig is the ideal Amiga games machine, having a small footprint and the ability to store all of your favourite programs on a single SD card.  The alternative it to leave a larger real Amiga hooked up along with a huge box of (unreliable) floppy disks on your coffee table.

Minimig now please.  :-)

[Marco]

I don't really like the Minimig for the same reason I dislike the C64DTV - it's a technological marvel no doubt, but I use my Amiga as a computer, not just a games machine, In fact since my Speedball 2 and Turrican II disks got corrupted my games playing on the miggy has declined quite a bit and now it gets more serious use than my PC, what with so many new games out for Windoze.

The idea that IC had about using their Clone-A to build an Amiga clone is much more my kinda thing, basically an updated Amiga like the Phoenix was to the 1000 only, much much more. I wrote up a 'wishlist' based around such an idea that I'd have built if I were ueber-rich and could afford such an extravagance as to finance a one-off Amiga clone. But that's very unlikely...