SAM460 OK for old Amiga games?

[Surf's Up]

OK , been googling to my heart's content and unable to find anything fairly quickly so maybe here is a better bet.

I have a number of old Amiga systems here and quite happy with them , but as age gets to us all eventually , is the new Sam460 system worth considering as a new replacement?

Does the new OS run the old Amiga games and applications or is it only good for new software? Would like to know before investing money in a new system. Maybe it contains an emulator for the old Amiga stuff?

Thanks.

[Fats]

Does the new OS run the old Amiga games and applications or is it only good for new software? Would like to know before investing money in a new system. Maybe it contains an emulator for the old Amiga stuff?

AFAIK on all amiga OSes applications that use the amiga hardware directly have to be run in UAE. And for running UAE WinUAE is the most advanced version.
Applications that don't access hardware should run both on MOS and AOS4. Here MOS seems to be more compatible as it implements the side effects of the OS3.x functions more strictly than AOS4. On AROS such applications can be run in a special configuration of UAE where the windows appear on the normal AROS screen.

greets,
Staf.

[Dwyloc]

OK , been googling to my heart's content and unable to find anything fairly quickly so maybe here is a better bet.

I have a number of old Amiga systems here and quite happy with them , but as age gets to us all eventually , is the new Sam460 system worth considering as a new replacement?

Does the new OS run the old Amiga games and applications or is it only good for new software? Would like to know before investing money in a new system. Maybe it contains an emulator for the old Amiga stuff?

Thanks.

If you have an expanded big Box Amiga or A1200 Tower than a sam460 is a good replacement, but if you are looking or a good hardware solution to play your old games your best option is probably a Minimig, as its basically a 1.5MB or 3.5MB A600 with a built in scan doubler and the floppy drive replaced with an SDcard that alows you to load your games from SSD card.

These days WinUAE is also a very good way to pay old Amiga games and software the only down side is that you cant plug in your old Amiga joysticks without purchasing extra hardware and it can be a little daunting to configure at first.

[klx300r]

@ Surf's Up

First off, welcome aboard:)

The Sam460ex should have no problem playing most old ECS/OCS and most AGA games (as well as running many 68k apps) as my old Sam440flex@800 played them fine under glUAE.. also heard others have had success with RunInUAE (find them at http://www.os4depot.net) seamlessly & transparantly under OS4.1u2.

There are quite a few youtube videos of the Sam460 in action for you to check out..have fun exploring

[Duce]

Dammy, you are wrong about SAM's needing UAE for legacy programs across the board.  Don't let your love for C-USA obfuscate the truth that OS4 can indeed run older Amiga apps just fine in some cases with no emulator required.

Don't mean to pick nits, but comparing a SAM/OS4 to a C-USA EmuMiggy is apples and oranges to some extent.  Unless C-USA has done something remarkable in a matter of months, you're looking at 100% emulation.  SAM's and OS4 can run old SW natively, to some extent - sans addon emulators.  The C-USA boxes are commodity/emulator x86 stuff, and C-USA have never claimed otherwise, to their credit.

The SAM's can run a fair chunk of older legacy Amiga programs without ever touching or installing UAE.  I've never had to bother with UAE on my SAM, but I am not much of a gamer on it.  I run a BBS off my SAM using an oldie BBS program designed for 68k systems with very few issues, no emulation involved.  As a SAM owner (440, however) - I have not tried too many games, but I've had very, very few problems running utils/programs (non games) natively unless it bangs hardware, which it obviously won't find on a SAM.  There is some native support for older programs on OS 4.x without the need for UAE, the same cannot be said about the C-USA machines unless they have banged out a native, legacy compatible OS in a matter of months.

That being said, I would not under any circumstances buy a SAM if you are looking for something to use for running oldie games.  They simply are too expensive, and commodity x86 hardware and UAE can do a far better job running old games.  Or A1200's are cheap.

[Matt_H]

OK , been googling to my heart's content and unable to find anything fairly quickly so maybe here is a better bet.

I have a number of old Amiga systems here and quite happy with them , but as age gets to us all eventually , is the new Sam460 system worth considering as a new replacement?

Does the new OS run the old Amiga games and applications or is it only good for new software? Would like to know before investing money in a new system. Maybe it contains an emulator for the old Amiga stuff?

Thanks.

To clarify: a modern Amiga (be it OS4, MorphOS, or AROS based) is not a drop-in replacement for old games.

All your old software will run through some form of emulation. System-friendly stuff (i.e., you can still multitask while it's running) should work transparently on OS4 and MorphOS although MorphOS is better on the compatibility front. Nearly all games (i.e., programs you would boot from) will only work under UAE. None of the Amiga UAE ports comes anywhere near the level of WinUAE.

AROS now has a fork of UAE largely integrated into the system in a manner similar to OSX's Classic mode. OS4 has some partial integration of E-UAE through a series of scripts. These scripts should work on MorphOS, too, but they're not specifically targeted for it.

Also note that your old floppies won't work without a Catweasel floppy controller.

[klx300r]

Also note that your old floppies won't work without a Catweasel floppy controller.

good point! btw, the Catweasel MK4+ is an awesome card

[takemehomegrandma]

To clarify: a modern Amiga (be it OS4, MorphOS, or AROS based) is not a drop-in replacement for old games.

While *this is* a very true and correct statement, I still remember the joy from reading MorphOS users reporting playing Hyperion "OS3" games (and using Magellan 2, etc), while OS4 users couldn't! (I mean - Oh! The Irony! ) Maybe they have corrected this by now? Or "fixed it" by releasing specially OS4.1.2 recompilations of their games?

[klx300r]

@ spirantho

good points Ian

@ All

Ian has made us many great drivers for the CWMK4+ to be enjoyed by AmigaOS4.x users..thanks again mate:)

[takemehomegrandma]

Although given CommodoreUSA "Amigas" are very expensive for what they are

Questions:

1) Exactly *what* are they?
2) Exactly *how expensive* are they?

(And they are (read: *will be*) *Amiga*(TM), no need for ironic quotation marks )

[amigadave]

Does anyone know how many gates the FPGA on the SAM460 has?  Is it 484k?  I tried to find out on the ACube site, but could not find it and there appear to be many different versions of the Lattice XP2 FPGA chip with different densities and maybe different number of gates.

I'm just trying to find the information to answer the question of "can the SAM460's FPGA run the MiniMig core?", which was asked elsewhere.  If the SAM460 can run MiniMig cores and also access parts of the ports and slots of the SAM460 while doing so with a modified MiniMig core design, it makes the SAM460 a much more interesting product.

[Surf's Up]

Well , looks like this forum is certainly alive and very active - so many responses so fast.

Looks like from what I read that the Minimig is probably the best solution for me - as in new hardware to run the old games for when my existing Amigas die from old age or whatever.

Thanks for all your inputs and ideas.

[Darrin]

Well , looks like this forum is certainly alive and very active - so many responses so fast.

Looks like from what I read that the Minimig is probably the best solution for me - as in new hardware to run the old games for when my existing Amigas die from old age or whatever.

Thanks for all your inputs and ideas.

You can't go wrong with a Minimig, but if you go for the ECS v1.1 Minimig then make sure you get the 4MB version or wait for the FPGA Arcade (Mike will be releasing the next batch soon).

[Kesa]

Well , looks like this forum is certainly alive and very active - so many responses so fast.

Looks like from what I read that the Minimig is probably the best solution for me - as in new hardware to run the old games for when my existing Amigas die from old age or whatever.

Thanks for all your inputs and ideas.

I also think you shouldn't overlook the possibility of Morphos. I've seen PPC Macminis on ebay in Australia for less than $100.

For example:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Apple-Mac-Mini-1-4g-w-Deluxe-Wireless-Keyboard-Mouse-/260795006767?pt=AU_Computers_Apple_Desktops&hash=item3cb897ff2f

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Apple-Mac-Mini-G4-1-42GHz-512MB-memory-80Gb-disk-/110695487855?pt=AU_Computers_Apple_Desktops&hash=item19c5f7196f

[Iggy]

I also think you shouldn't overlook the possibility of Morphos. I've seen PPC Macminis on ebay in Australia for less than $100.

Yeah, but unless you buy a 1.5 Ghz model, you only have 32MB of video memory which can cause problems running some software.

I've got some cool games running on my Powermac. Hopefully we'll see some more ports in the future.