3 Days to Amiga Big Bash 3 (UK)

[Mikey_C]

The Moment has almost arrived and Amiga Big Bash 3 will be occuring this coming Saturday, 24th September 2005

We are happy to announce that Amiga Retro Experience and Amber Inc have joined our list of Exhibitors at this event.
From the latest Amiga hardware, to some of the finest retro software  and hardware available on the Amiga platform, Amiga BigBash 3 has it all!

To Recap, here's what's happening on the day....
--------------------------------------------
See and Do
Troika - New Amiga MotherBoard (Prototype B)
Come and See all the latest news on the second revision motherboard before final Production.

A1 4 U - Build it Area. (Cancelled - Due to lack of Available A1 Boards)

Amiga Medic Area. (Free Service)
Got a hardware or software problem on your existing Amiga? Be it Classic or AmigaOne, our Amiga medic area, manned by experienced volunteers will do their best to fix that long standing issue you may have. Just bring your Amiga, relevant software etc, we will have the monitor, leads, keyboards, mice etc ready and waiting.

AmigaOne Fix it (£15 to cover cost of parts and time required to do the work)
We are proud to announce that AmigaOne Productions will be at hand on the day to repair existing problems on AmigaOne XE/SE boards. Please note that the fix is done at your own risk and prebooking in advance is required.

Amiga OS4
We are proud to announce that Amiga OS4 Betatester Ryu and M.A.G will be attending the Demonstrating AOS4 Running on PPC based Classic A1200T and A4000 Machines

Live Webcast and Webcam
Sounds, commentry and live images from 1:30pm

Dealers
AmigaKit.
We are proud to Announce that AmigaKit will be attending the show selling a range of Amiga wares, from games to applications, hardware and consumables.

Stellar Dreams.
The Only UK AmigaOne Dealer will be in attendance selling a wide range of Amiga Goodies.

Total Amiga Magazine
The Worlds Biggest Selling, English Language Amiga Magazine will also be in attendance on the day.

Amiga Retro Experience.
Does what it says on the name. Buy titles of Amiga software from yesteryear.

Amber Inc.
Pegasos Dealer.

Bring and Buy Area
Come and find a Bargain in our bring and buy Area, from PPC based Amiga 1200's to Plain A500's etc. Loads of Software, hardware and peripherals available from Amiga users who are having a clear out, their loss, could be your gain!
(Note: One Free Table still remaining)

Plus!
* AmigaOne's/AOS4
* Classic Amigas
* Morphos
* AROS
* Refreshments
* Cheap Bar.

After Show Banquet
Don't wonder out, stay in, pay an additional £10 on the admittance charge and you can join, exhibitors, organisers and volunteers for a meal in the main hall after 6:45 pm.

We look forward to seeing you at the event, head to Peterborough this Saturday

Admittance is £3.50. Doors Open at 1:00pm and Close at 6:00.
Venue: Stafford Hall, Hampton Court, Westwood, Peterborough, PE3 7LD

For more information, please check our website http://www.amigabigbash.net

[InTheSand]

Re: the Troika motherboard, hopefully this will materialise and someone who attends can report back on it!

[Argo]

Yeah, that should be an interesting developement. Just abit more waiting.

[TheMagicM]

Note to whoever goes:

please take GOOD pictures..none of that blurry crap.  Get closeups of the mobo...etc.

[Karlos]

I think I should get myself down there. Might rekindle the old interest once again :-)

[Jethro_Tull]

Having just read the specifications and projected price for the 'Troika' mainboard on their site, with a heavy heart I must say this is a cruel joke on the remaining Amiga user base.  The way I see it, practically there isn't anything positive about this board, despite being a very basic minimal design, without any I/O ports except for USB and LAN, without Video on Board, and having a basic CPU soldered on, its' makers are still projecting a price higher then the Micro-A1 which, apart from USB2.0, has a socketed CPU and is fully featured, including on-board video.  Who in his right mind would choose the Troika board over the superior Micro-A1 if it costs as much (or more)?  I confess to having high hopes for this  new product when Troika compared it to the A1200.  A cheap entry level new generation Amiga, to make OS4 affordable and practical, heh, I was dead wrong it seems.  At Stg200, this board would have rekindled the interest in a lot of ex-Amigans currently sitting on the fence, and would have bought a (much needed) surge of sales of OS4 to Hyperion.  But at Stg400, it's a joke!  Troika themselves would have noticed this when compiling the comparison chart on their website!

[odin]

SturmGeschutz?

[Elektro]

Jawohl!

[billchase]

Agreed,
If the final cost doesn't come in much lower, then there is
little point of the Troika compared to the microA1. I will try
to hold judgement until a final product is shipping.

C Snyder

[KThunder]

a1 build it thing cancelled due to a lack of a1 boards huh? that isn't encouraging.
even selling this things for as much as they are they cant make enough to satiisfy even a small market. will troika be any better?

[Lemmink]

Sure it would have been nice if the Amy would be mnuch cheaper then the MicroA1, but I guess that is just not possible with so small productionbatches. To bring down the prices conciderably you have to increase the numbers by 100 times and there aren`t that much potential buyers anymore.

Anyway even at the same price as the MicroA1 the Amy is in advantage:

USB 2.0
GBit Ethernet
Sil onboard
no GFX onboard (yes, I count that as a pro, as on the MicroA1 the GFX is practically nonupgradeable. Though you can waste the only PCI-slot it has with a GFX-card, if there isn`t allready a Sil sitting in there)

The only con would be the soldered in CPU, but with no CPU-Module available for the MicroA1 now (and probably in the future) it really doesn`t make a difference.

Troika sure didn`t start to design the board to underbid the MicroA1 price but to deliver an OS4 compatible board at all, as there was doubt for a long time if we would ever see something from Eytech again.

[JoannaK]

"Troika sure didn`t start to design the board to underbid the MicroA1 price but to deliver an OS4 compatible board at all, as there was doubt for a long time if we would ever see something from Eytech again."

Sorry.. I just have to ask...

1) Does this thing really exisits.. There's been numerous boards announced (and having photos of them) during last decade and essentially *none* of them ever made to production so IMHO it's valid quesiton to ask how come this woudl be one of the Few making it.

2) *HOW* can you be sure this board will be compatible (and able) to run OS4??? IIRC There's been no official (nor inofficial) confirmation of them getting 'the license' or board been tested by Hyperion coders.

[Herewegoagain]

Sure it would have been nice if the Amy would be mnuch cheaper then the MicroA1, but I guess that is just not possible with so small productionbatches. To bring down the prices conciderably you have to increase the numbers by 100 times and there aren`t that much potential buyers anymore.

Hmmm... I seem to recall that a certain other board is sold for $499 with a 1GHz G4, or a complete system for $799, including a G4 @ 1GHz, 80MB Hd, Radeon 9250, Dual Layer DVD R/RW, and 512MB DDR.

Now if they can do it, others should be able to do the same, especially when using much lower specced parts.  The better question is why is someone higher up going out of their way to keep this lower priced, better specced machine out of the hands of Amiga users who want to run OS4 on it, even after there was an attempt to purchase a license/port for it?

[Lemmink]

Hmmm... I seem to recall that a certain other board is sold for $499 with a 1GHz G4, or a complete system for $799, including a G4 @ 1GHz, 80MB Hd, Radeon 9250, Dual Layer DVD R/RW, and 512MB DDR.

That`s quite easy to explain. First they save a littel in production cost by using one of DCEs assemblingmachines for free (that is something you can either belive or not), but the major point ist volume.
The Peg II is mainly sold as an ODW now. The few machines that are delivered with MorpOS don`t hurt but they are neglectable.
I belive that the monthly production of Peg II is today as high as the total of all MicroA1 build ever. That`s exactly what I said, the economy of scales. Genesi found a way to increase numbers by selling the machine somewhere else then solely to the tiny to non existant amigamarket. Eyetech failed at that and Troika can hardly try to make any business contacts without even the board being finished.

And as for the license. I belive they (as no one else) will ever get a lizence as long as AInc. is involved. I still think it will go that way that the board and OS4 are sold seperately and the enduser will have to perform the "illegal task" of installing the OS on the machine.

[Herewegoagain]

But they were selling them cheaper long before they were sold in a "higher volume" ODW environment, if I remember right.  And no, I don't believe that they use someone's assembly machines for free.  Nothing is free in this world, much less something like that.