The DraCo/Dracovision, the first "true" Amiga clone

[number6]

@terminator4

I don't see that as a fair comparison since the Draco was a non-linear editor and the Toaster was not.
I think you mean a Video Toaster/Flyer system, and it was quite easy to spend a small fortune on those. 5-10 grand not uncommon. After all, certified 9gig SCSI drives were almost a grand alone back then and you needed several..

#6

[ChaosLord]

I mean it could run AmigaOS

Draco does not and cannot "run AmigaOS" as you claim.

Draco runs "part of AmigaOS" and it just fails on all the parts of AmigaOS 3.1 that it doesn't feel like being compatible with. :ExplodingComputer:


@Kronos
We need a smiley of an exploding computer

[Kronos]

Draco does not and cannot "run AmigaOS" as you claim.

Draco runs "part of AmigaOS" and it just fails on all the parts of AmigaOS 3.1 that it doesn't feel like being compatible with. :ExplodingComputer:


@Kronos
We need a smiley of an exploding computer

And what am I supposed to do about that ? Actually I can't find a single smiley right now....

Back to topic:
Offcourse it does run AmigaOS.

[amigadave]

Agreed.  And the price was way too high.  I don't think Toaster cost that must.  I could look back at my Amiga magazines...  But if you (Gulliver) are in love with it thats fine.  Whatever makes one happy.

I remember the Draco was expensive, but don't think it was any more than a complete A4000 w/accelerator and NewTek Video Toaster & Flyer cards installed in it.  Actually, I think it was a good deal cheaper, but both were out of my price range back then.  

I know for sure that the VLab Motion card was much cheaper than the Toaster & Flyer card combo and the VLab Motion claimed to work without the need of any TBC's to work with VCR inputs, so that would have been another savings.  

The biggest advantage of the VLab Motion and the Draco was that they could work with both NTSC and PAL video formats, which the Toaster/Flyer could not.  NewTek made a huge mistake by not making a PAL version of the Toaster & Flyer cards.  After all, the number of Amiga users that live in areas that use the PAL video standard out number the Amiga users in areas that use NTSC and NewTek could have possibly almost doubled their sales, which would have helped them even now, as the number of LightWave users would be much greater as well.

Edit:  It is a bit of a stretch to call the Draco a "true" Amiga clone, as it did not have the Amiga's three custom chips and could NOT run most of the Amiga software and games available then, or now.  I wonder what happened to most of those Draco systems after the EU TV stations stopped using them and moved on to something more advanced?

[number6]

@amigadave

Regarding differences between classic and Draco...I would sometimes get software on a Draco DRDD or DRHD formatted disk. All I had to do was run the Draco driver on the A4000 to access the disks.
Most of the dedicated graphics packages of software for Draco were backward compatible with the A4000. In fact, that was part of what I tested. At the time they were looking at making some of the Draco software available for the 68k machines running Movieshop, but I think the thrust had already changed to focus on Casablanca by then.
Dunno if the general public saw most of these addons like Monument Designer and such for classic Amiga, but they were quite advanced for their time, imo.

Added: Yes, the Time Base correction with VlabMotion worked quite well actually.

#6

[amigadave]

@amigadave

Regarding differences between classic and Draco...I would sometimes get software on a Draco DRDD or DRHD formatted disk. All I had to do was run the Draco driver on the A4000 to access the disks.
Most of the dedicated graphics packages of software for Draco were backward compatible with the A4000. In fact, that was part of what I tested. At the time they were looking at making some of the Draco software available for the 68k machines running Movieshop, but I think the thrust had already changed to focus on Casablanca by then.
Dunno if the general public saw most of these addons like Monument Designer and such for classic Amiga, but they were quite advanced for their time, imo.

Added: Yes, the Time Base correction with VlabMotion worked quite well actually.

#6

I don't disagree that much of the software for the Draco could run on an A4000 with a VLab Motion card and Toccatta card, but for the Draco to be considered a "true" Amiga clone, I would expect the Draco to be able to run most Amiga software, certainly much more than just the software that does not access the Amiga's custom chips.

So, to compare the Draco to the MiniMig as the original poster did and claim that the Draco was the first "true" Amiga clone, is not accurate in my point of view.

I think the Draco and Casablanca were both great products and sold well in their time, but their focus was video production and an early kind of TIVO, not being an Amiga clone to run Amiga software.

[Rob]

I think Amiga compatible would be a better description.

[yakumo9275]

Despite what we believe nowadays, about Minimig being the first true available Amiga clone,  there was a very old Amiga cloning development which actually materialized in a commercial and successfull way, the so called "DraCo" or sometimes "Dracovision", named after a later model.
It all happened around 1994,

Nice but Amiga 1000 compatible phoenix motherboard was shipping in late 1990... so beats it by at least 4 years.

[stefcep2]

@amigadave

Regarding differences between classic and Draco...I would sometimes get software on a Draco DRDD or DRHD formatted disk. All I had to do was run the Draco driver on the A4000 to access the disks.
Most of the dedicated graphics packages of software for Draco were backward compatible with the A4000. In fact, that was part of what I tested. At the time they were looking at making some of the Draco software available for the 68k machines running Movieshop, but I think the thrust had already changed to focus on Casablanca by then.
Dunno if the general public saw most of these addons like Monument Designer and such for classic Amiga, but they were quite advanced for their time, imo.

Added: Yes, the Time Base correction with VlabMotion worked quite well actually.

#6

I have Monument designer here somewhere, and also Movieshop.  I ran monument designer on A4000 with CV 64 ages ago, but Movieshop complained that I had no VLab, which I didn't.

[amigadave]

Nice but Amiga 1000 compatible phoenix motherboard was shipping in late 1990... so beats it by at least 4 years.

Good point!

[ChaosLord]

And the Phoenix actually did run AmigaOS unlike the Draco.

[cv643d]

IMHO some of you guys are ridiculous.

How can you say the Draco is just a hardware Amithlon? Draco runs AmigaOS 3.1 on a real 040 or 060 68k CPU, it runs Workbench on a Retina graphics board connected to a special bus, it has Zorro slots and runs all system friendly software.

Macrossystem created the Toccata 16-bit soundcard, the Warp engine turbo board and the Retina gfx-board. Those are essentially the different parts of the Draco.

The Phoenix ran AmigaOS and the Draco did not? Care to explain?

Remember that back when the Draco was released there was a move in the industry to RTG/AHI based applications, this was viewed as the future of the Amiga. By not integrating custom chips the Draco could be made much faster than any Amiga 4000 with RTG/060 could ever be.

Draco was so fast a Swedish magazine even recommended a Draco if you where to purchase a new A4000 with 060/RTG and if you primarily wanted to run sys friendly applications.

There are some Draco systems from time to time on german ebay.

[bloodline]

Well, given the fact that the Draco runs AmigaOS, but not hardware hitting programs... And this is a feature of the "NextGen" Amiga machines... Perhaps te Draco should be considered the first of the NextGen machines?

[cv643d]

Yes, that was what some people considered the Draco to be back in 1997.

In their point of view, the Draco was the future. They took modern (1997) hardware from the Amiga world and created a new computer from it without being stuck in C= Amigas, too bad the idea never spread out to normal Amiga users though.

[salax54]

Hi there, if interest still exists and if there are people out there with Draco's and Casablanca's i'd be glad to share thoughts with you in the group i started a few weeks ago! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Draco-Casablanca/?yguid=345414320
I just hope this isn't considered a show-off.. :-) Strangely enough, nobody seems to have visited!

[aperez]

Thanks, I've joined. I'm looking to figure out how to get to the workbench on my Draco Casablanca. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions