New classic boards

[InTheSand]

Heh! The 1907 Amiga PCI card!

Purchase now for two pounds, five shillings, elevenpence and a farthing! You'll only need to wait another 86+ years before you can buy a PC that will accept it!

 :-)

 - Ali

P.S. No, I'm not old enough to have used pre-decimal currency! Just about missed the switchover!

[amigadave]

guru-666 wrote:
@amigadave
When all the second hand amigas run out.... then we have third hand amigas ( I think that already happend)
BTW don't you have 21 amigas? (and a massive winUAE/amigatholon) station  that should last you the rest if your life BRO!  Where do you stash them?

Yes, I am guilty of having 21 Amigas and just today I was working on installing AmiKit on the monster Dell XPS 700 tower.  I do have plans to cut down on the number of Amigas I keep, but I have to finish tweaking the ones I want to keep before I sell any that I don't want anymore.  I won't be selling that many, as I plan to keep a bunch of them networked together for rendering LightWave animations with Screamer Net and doing video editing, and of course I must keep one or two lower end models for playing all those old OCS/ECS games on.  After spending many of the last 8 years seriously adding to my collection, now is the time to really start enjoying them more.  I keep informed to what is happening new in the computer world, but it does not excite me as nothing really revolutionary has happened for a long time.  I don't intend to spend any money on new PC gear for a long time.  I'll just get by with what I have purchased over the last two years and concentrate on using my Amigas and hopefully programming for them for fun (certainly not for profit).  I might make a few bucks doing video editing, but won't count on it.  As for where do I stash them, I just moved into a huge house in the mountains that has lots of room.  As soon as I get settled in, I will unpack and set up as many Amigas as I can without the wife wondering what kind of nut case I am.  You all are invited to visit, just give me a week or two prior notice.   :-D

[guru-666]

sweet arent you in the LA area?  I am.

[AmiKit]

AJCopland wrote:
I don't see Clone-A being any different to MiniMig, or did i miss the point?

http://www.totalamiga.org/issue25.html#extract

[Mucker]

Rob wrote:
@Mucker

There is also NatAmi.

From what I can tell it is intended to be more of an evolution of the classic hardware than an exact clone.
At the moment it is being developed on the CommodoreOne board but I think the end product will be a completely new board.

Comodore One??? Whats that? I must have been sleeping  :-?

[CLS2086]

it's a C64 enhanced clone

[bloodmoney]

I must have been sleeping on the NatAmi project announcement.
First I have heard on that one. Deserves its own thread.

[songoku]

Yes, I am guilty of having 21 Amigas and just today I was working on installing AmiKit on the monster Dell XPS 700 tower.

I've been off of the board for so long I don't know if I even qualify as a n00b anymore.  heh.  I've got a couple of questions for ya, Dave, so bear with me.  I tend to ramble in explanations.

I'm what you would consider an original Commodore owner.  Started with a VIC-20, toyed with friends' C64s, 128s etc...moved up to an Amiga 1000, and stayed with them from 86 until roughly 98, off and on. At one point I had 2 1000s and a 1200 along with the 486 I sold out and bought from a friend in 1993. Sadly, when I considered "should I get a 4000 or 1200?" brand-new (this was in 1994, I think) I watched Commodore finally go pffffffffffft.  But nothing could compare to the Ami's grace and elegance, at least for me.  So I've always been looking to replace it.

Here's the thing.  Replace it with the speed and power of modern hardware.  That being said, the easiest way would be with an emulated system; but not with WinUAE. I've tried it, and I'll admit it doesn't do much for me.  I found AmiKit the other day and since I've got a free week or so, am trying to install it.  I get to the point of "Please choose your ROM source" and it won't get any further.  I have AmigaForever, an Amiga XL CD and AmigaOS 3.9 (whch is admittedly at home, not much help to me here on campus).  I pop in the XL CD, it loads the ROM file and then goes no further.  I get a "RAM:XL/Workbench3.9/C/Execute: Command not found" error followed by my absolute favorite of prompts, "1>"  :-P

Any ideas how to get past that?  I've completely uninstalled AmiKit (including wiping the directory) and am planning on re-installing AF6 on C:\  instead of my boot drive F:\.  I also tried the "AF installed" button and got nada.  So I suspect the program's looking on C:\ for it.

I got a ton of emulators, all of which I bought!  Woulda been cheaper to get another 1200, which by the way I did last year (classic, not tower) but sold it to a friend of mine who had more time to mess with it.  Also tried getting XL/Amithlon to work, and boot a dual system but I'll be damned if I can follow the directions I downloaded from somewhere.  And I'm an engineer!  go figure.

If you want to email me, the best one to reach me at is tackett.94@osu.edu;  I check it daily.  Now then..... 21 Amigas?  DAMN am I ever jealous!  I'm trying to convince my fiancée that the Amiga isn't dead.  She remembers the platform but is trying to talk me "back into reality" as she puts it.  Doesn't like fine Italian leather, either (at least not on Maseratis). Heh.  Women: go figure.

[amiga92570]

Sounds like me, except I would never settle for an emulator. And I still have all the commodore gear Vic's, 64's, sx64's, 128's and many amigas. I enjoy the classic systems. I also have a couple mediator setups, mainly for going online. If Amiga or commodore actually ever produce some good original hardware again, I will be there. But, if not I will remain satisfied with my present hardware.

[jahc]

Yep I'll still keep my originals but I don't see Clone-A being any different to MiniMig, or did i miss the point?

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that Minimig is based on UAE source code, while Clone-A is a perfect "cycle exact" (thats the phrase they keep using) reimplementation of the custom chips.

They're sick of testing games apparently, because they cant find any that dont work. They use scene demos for their testing.

[songoku]

YEah that's the real trick, isn't it?  Amiga, Inc is not Commodore.  And I've heard Commodore is working on another machine under CommodoreGaming?  anyone know anything?

But yeah, I'd give my right arm for a 1200Tower system.  In fact, that's what I originally had in mind for my 1200 I bought last year.  Was gonna get a case, strip the 1200 from its desktop, transfer everything, put in a Mediator, USB/PCI, ethernet card, video card, the works, y'know?

But at the moment we've got a wedding to save for.  

[stopthegop]

Warning:  Philosophical Rant ahead!  Proceed at your own discretion.  

I'm with Amiga92570 & Amigadave.  I don't plan on ever parting ways with my Amiga systems.  Never.  The Amiga is that once-in-a-lifetime product that changed the world--and was so far ahead of its time its almost scary.  The words "modular design", "innovative", "fast", "multi-tasking" and "multi-media" -- liberally abused by peecee companies to oil up their false advertising--all accurately describe the Amiga.  I don't think there is ever going to be another machine like it.  The Amiga, I believe, was the pinnacle of a design philosophy that embraced elegance, grace, speed, efficiency, responsiveness, and the highest respect and regard for user; a philosophy that is regrettably dying, crushed under the weight of the Amiga's  monopolistic polar-inverse: the "certification"-happy world of Windows.  I don't think there will ever be another computer like the Amiga because the design philosophy that led to its creation has also seemingly died.  MHO

[motorollin]

Here's my opinion.

Much of the fun of the Amiga is its modular nature (think multiple expansion possibilities though Zorro/clockport, which then offer further potential through PCI/USB/IDE etc cards). A clone which is a stand-alone board just wouldn't be the same. If an A4000 clone was created which was compatible with the A4000 case and still had a slot for the daughterboard and a CPU slot, then I would definitely buy one as a backup should my A4000 motherboard ever die.

Of course the board should also be improved upon, with SATA ports etc.

--
moto

[songoku]

stopthegop wrote:
Warning:  Philosophical Rant ahead!  Proceed at your own discretion.  

Even longer one here  Someone's got me on my soapbox now.  hehe  

I'm with Amiga92570 & Amigadave.  I don't plan on ever parting ways with my Amiga systems.  Never.

A position I held in college with my A1000.  I even used it in a couple of classes, one for video production!

The Amiga, I believe, was the pinnacle of a design philosophy that embraced elegance, grace, speed, efficiency, responsiveness, and the highest respect and regard for user; a philosophy that is regrettably dying, crushed under the weight of the Amiga's  monopolistic polar-inverse: the "certification"-happy world of Windows.  I don't think there will ever be another computer like the Amiga because the design philosophy that led to its creation has also seemingly died.

Ok let me rephrase something or flat-out state it in case I led people astray here.  [color=800080]I HATE MICROSOFT with a purple passion[/color]!!  :pissed:  :pissed: Always have, for just those reasons stated.  They've been a monopoly for decades, and I'm not one of those people who just roll over when I'm told. I don't like being forced into using something just because everyone else is using it. I like to have choices, and make my own decisions.  Unfortunately, that thinking almost cost me a marriage when I bought my first Maserati without consulting the now-ex wife.  Shame I don't even have that anymore, either.  The thing is, she woulda stopped me.  And she should have.  More detail later.

I only wish I could find... wait does AmigaWriter SAVE in Word format as well?  I've got 2 copies of that one.  What I'd love to find is an office suite for my beloved platform that for once is compatible with everyone else.

I love the Amiga's style, poise, charm, and ability to do things that the peecee just couldn't do at the time.  It was truly haead of its time.  Faster than anything else of its day, and honestly because of Agnes, Denise and Paula, I still think it could be on par with an AMD chip today that has to do all of that processing itself.  No wonder my CPU is overloaded and spends roughly half of its time at 100% capacity.

And I want it back.  Call it a project.  Like restoring a beat-up car to showroom quality.  (which is what happened with the Biturbo I bought; saw it restored, not what it was).  It'll take time, but I want it back.  That ought to appease Jen.  not spending all of that at once.  A case here, a motherboard there... cheap enough.  Now if I Can only find a dreml to use for the 1200... no wait, a 4000.  I want another Toaster card too.  heh :-D

[MskoDestny]

songoku wrote:
Faster than anything else of its day, and honestly because of Agnes, Denise and Paula, I still think it could be on par with an AMD chip today that has to do all of that processing itself.  No wonder my CPU is overloaded and spends roughly half of its time at 100% capacity.

Guess what. Modern PCs have all kinds of hardware to offload tasks that the Amiga custom chips take care of. PCs have had 2D blitters for ages now and even 3D accelerators have been standard for years. Sound cards with DSPs that can do what Paula does and a whole lot more have been around for ages as well (though they haven't exactly become standard issue in large part because mixing a few audio channels together takes a trivial amount of processor time on a modern PC).

The Amiga was a great piece of hardware in its day, but many of the things that made the hardware special have long since been replicated on boring old x86 PC hardware.

If your CPU is seriously pegged at 100% half the time it's probably because your PC is stuffed to the gills with spyware.

As for the Minimig vs. CloneA they should be more or less functionally equivalent from the sounds of things. The Minimig should be more or less cycle accurate from the perspective of software running on it, it's just that the internal operation of the CloneA is closer to the real hardware. The Minimig isn't based off of UAE so much as the UAE sources were occasionally fill in gaps about hardware details the official hardware manuals don't cover.

[stopthegop]

Guess what. Modern PCs have all kinds of hardware to offload tasks that the Amiga custom chips take care of. PCs have had 2D blitters for ages now and even 3D accelerators have been standard for years. Sound cards with DSPs that can do what Paula does and a whole lot more have been around for ages as well (though they haven't exactly become standard issue in large part because mixing a few audio channels together takes a trivial amount of processor time on a modern PC).

The difference is that these DMA co-processors were central elements in the design of the Amiga since its inception.  The Amiga was designed around this concept.  The PC was originally designed (and sold as) a drab tool for "business", its numbing green and black screen only reinforcing the point.  All of the multimedia razzle-dazzle of "fast" PCs today comes from contrived bolted-on sub-systems that, impressive as some of them might be, were antithesis to the original design and intention of the x86 PC.  The Amiga was a truly integrated system.  PC makers love to abuse the word "innovate" to describe whatever they happen to be selling at the moment.  I've never heard anyone who knows the definition of "innovate" use it to describe their PC.  Mostly I hear profanity when people talk about their computers.        

many of the things that made the hardware special have long since been replicated on boring old x86 PC hardware.

Key word "boring".  The Amiga was (and is) a revolutionary machine.  I fail to see the point in spending a lot of money on a "modern" PC.  New PCs are just next year's trash.    

If your CPU is seriously pegged at 100% half the time it's probably because your PC is stuffed to the gills with spyware.

Why is it that only "fast" PCs are afflicted by this problem?  I use my Amiga online everyday.  It is just as fast now as the day I bought it.  I do an occasional disk defrag and it runs fine.  Why is so much time and effort needed with PCs to "remove spyware"?   Why is "spyware" on my PC in the first place?  Isn't Windows "secure"?