bloodline wrote:
No, the Boxer was Chipset emulation on an FPGA, it did not use the original design, but was a new chip to the same specifications, which is a much better idea and a lot cheaper than trying to rework old chip designs.
Ok then, there is nothing to be gained from the boXer for this idea. "Cheaper" is not spending $4 million + trying to emulate the original chipset (boxer history) and build a new PC out of it. Cheaper is using the exact old chipset design and miniaturizing it into a single chip for a game device.
Also, I think no one would buy it or a C64 "game unit". but if you used an XScale with software emulation, that could emulate an Amiga, an Atari, a C64 etc... in a single box... that would sell to the retro gamer. As mentioned, I have no idea how you would emulate the functionality of the floppy based games in a user friendly way.
I think you're totally wrong.
I couldn't care less about making a new Amiga computer that 10,000-15,000 people want. That's bad business sense. I am interested in a retro gamer device that retails for around $50 and would be scooped up by millions of consumers for what it is -- a game device that plugs into their TV or VCR and lets them play 10 games. Easy, cheap, 100% accessible to everyone. It would be a pure winner.
The magic line is $49.95 - the "impulse shopper" price is $19.95 with some success at $24.95. But, twenty bucks or less = hundreds of thousands of extra units sold to people who couldn't care less what the tech was behind it -- they just see a $20 game unit they can shove in the Christmas stocking or in a birthday wrapper for little Johnny or Suzie.
If there was an advanced version that had cartridges it would be more in demand for people who were moderately aware of the history or technology (10 Amiga games per cartridge - the cartridge slot would add to the expense of production, but it would also allow for various other neat little expansions). But, it all comes down to what your cost-of-production would be. If you can bang out the self-contained versions for $10 or less a pop, and retail them at $24.95 it would be a roaring success. The cartridge version would be acceptible if the cartridges cost $9.95 and the game unit itself was around $49.95 -- cheap is the key - nobody cares about the Amiga technology outside the diehard community. People just want something fun, for a low price.
An Amiga RetroGamer would be precicely that. It has everything the Atari and Intellivision GamerTV's have but the games are better, the graphics are better, and the sound is better.
I am not interested in the Amiga community that currently trades ADFs of all the software, or the community that wants a PowerPC version of an Amiga so they can put new video cards and whatnots - there is no money in either of those. I want Joe Public to buy a game device! A "toy"! :-)
If it can be done - then there will be a new Amiga RetroGamer company that has a lot of cash... that company could then perhaps start building new Amiga computers. But, I highly doubt I could convince anyone that there is a business model that is profitable doing such a thing. (Sad but true.)
