been away for a while.. need an amiga now! what do i get?

[rod_stewRt]

After being baited away from my amiga with all the hype of pcs, now, a few years later (yes.. about 5 or so) i turn on my a1200 with cm8833 monitor! wonderful!! i rediscovered the amiga, alas.. maybe too late! But I disagree!!

I have become quite talented at programming in c and arm assembly and am now considering buying a completly new amiga (upgrade my old one?? no!!). aha! but times have changed!! i need a spec of a really good amiga.. an amiga to be proud of and also, an amiga i can actually buy!! lol, i dont really want to get anything secondhand, and dont mind assembling stuff myself but id rather it all be plug and go as much as possible.. dont want linux, will go with whatever workbench versions current or whatever everyone uses.

I want to do my bit to make the amiga great again! im fed up with windows xp, im fed up with mac os X (although that zoomy thing is rather nice), i want to help mould a machine that will satisfy me and all of you, so come on! invest in me with a few tips and i will help u all i can

thanks
nick

---
new machine.. new me!
love the skin you're in!

[blobrana]

Hum,
sounds like exciting times ahead for you then...

Best to check these guys out first...

Good luck on your mission...

[rod_stewRt]

now that was a speedy response!

aah, i remember eyetech advertising in amiga magazines and i remember drooling over the power computing stuff, circling all the stuff i would so love to buy!.. well, is an a1200 with tower a good place to start then? looking at that eyetech site, that seems the way to go.

im not worried aboutcost, i just want a kickass amiga to develop on that'll be as standard as possible as amigas go. I already have a few 120g drives and an 80g drive so i hope (fingers crossed) to set up a raid on whatever i get, its just the beans really.

what stuff do u think i should get? ie, whats your dream amiga as far as whats available?

added--

ooh! just noticed these amigaOne thingies.. they sound like pcs running linux and uae.. hmm.. has anyone used one? does it work well? i didnt have much luck with uae on my laptop, but thats just my laptop really lol. Am so desperate to get an amiga now but dont know what to get.. i remember a lot of mucking about with scanoublers and flicker fixers to display high resolutions on pc monitors.. is this still a problem? I really dont know where to start.. i really have been away too long!

[cgutjahr]

The current Amiga computers (or clones) are standard PPC computers (just like Apple Macs) that don't have any custom chips anymore.

That's why you'll have to make an important decision first, *then* pick the system of your choice:

If you're intersted in developing and using up-to-date (*cough*) applications, playing today's games (the few that are available), browsing the net etc. you should buy a NextGen Amiga. Disadvantage: Doesn't have custom chips and won't run old games or very old applications. Will run most of the stuff you remember from 1997/98 just fine though (basically, everything that supports gfx and sound cards will work on these machines).

If you want to play old games watch old demos, stick with a classic (AGA) Amiga. Upgrade it with a 68030 CPU, some fast RAM and a HD. Disadvantages: Hideously expensive to upgrade, stops working if it doesn't like the color of your socks, feels slow no matter how much money you spent on upgrades and won't run newer versions of the OS (unless you're willing to sell your car to buy a PPC accellerator).

The next generation Amiga is called "AmigaOne", and is distributed by Eyetech. It currently comes with the pre-release version of AmigaOS 4.0 (incomplete beta version with GCC based dev kit), full version of AmigaOS 4 is scheduled for release sometime later this year. Now go and check the A1 prices. If they don't make you run away, come back here to get more info ;-) http://www.intuitionbase.com is a good source for information regarding the A1 and OS4.

An alternative to the A1 would be the Pegasos. It's a PPC based motherboard, pretty similar to the A1. It's a lot cheaper, but it doesn't run AmigaOS. It runs MorphOS, an AmigaOS clone that can run AmigaOS 3.x applications (just like AmigaOS 4).

MorphOS will not run AmigaOS 4 programs, neither will MorphOS software work on AmigaOS 4. MorphOS will not run on Eyetech's AmigaOne and AmigaOS 4 will not run on the Pegasos.

Therefore, your options are:

- upgrading a classic Amiga
- AmigaOne with AmigaOS 4
- Pegasos with MorphOS

[downix]

In addition to the Pegasos and AmigaONE, there is also AROS, an AmigaOS clone that runs on a standard PC.  

[Seehund]

rod_stewRt wrote:

im not worried aboutcost, i just want a kickass amiga to develop on that'll be as standard as possible as amigas go. I already have a few 120g drives and an 80g drive so i hope (fingers crossed) to set up a raid on whatever i get, its just the beans really.

what stuff do u think i should get? ie, whats your dream amiga as far as whats available?

The most kickass Amiga setup would IMO be something along the lines of an A4000 tower with a CyberstormPPC accelerator and whatever PCI-expansion card that's the best available, plus whatever the best PCI graphics card there is which has AmigaOS drivers.

RAID? I dunno if there is a controller for Amigas.

But I think you'll have a hard time finding everything if you insist on only buying *new* stuff.

ooh! just noticed these amigaOne thingies.. they sound like pcs running linux and uae.. hmm.. has anyone used one?

Well, basically the Teron motherboards (also sold as "AmigaOnes", to AmigaOS users, see link in blobrana's post) are PCs, but with a PowerPC CPU. Of course they run Linux, but they're a target platform for the upcoming AmigaOS 4. Yes, people are using them as we speak, and they're currently getting a "pre-release" of AmigaOS 4 in their mailboxes.

If you can stand the wait for AmigaOS4, I think it would be more cost-efficient to buy an "AmigaOne" instead of an Amiga. At least it's cheaper than a new kickass Amiga. Then again you weren't worried about cost. There's also the cheaper and arguably better Pegasos motherboards, which run an Amiga-like and Amiga API-compatible OS called MorphOS. And Bloodline here will kill me if I don't mention AROS, which is a freely donwloadable open-source AmigaOS "clone" that runs natively on your PC, if it's got the supported components.

i remember a lot of mucking about with scanoublers and flicker fixers to display high resolutions on pc monitors.. is this still a problem?

On Amigas, yes, but not on relatively modern hardware like AmigaOnes or Pegasoses.

[Floid]

RAID? I dunno if there is a controller for Amigas.

Well, it depends if you want hardware RAID or software RAID.

If you find a "fully" hardware RAID controller (usually ludicrously expensive, but I was trying to help someone who fell into owning one a while back) -- usually sold as part of a 'RAID enclosure,' I'm talking a piece of hardware that takes a chain of SCSI disks on one side, and presents a 'virtual' SCSI disk on the other, transparent to any platform that might be plugged into it, controlled/set up over a RS-232 link or similar -- then it should work as well as any large disk does.  However, that sort of thing is getting rare (no, not every 'RAID enclosure' includes a truly standalone controller like that), and as far as price is concerned, you're probably better off using a software (or cheaper-hardware) setup on a 'popular platform,' and exporting the filesystem over the network to the Amiga or whatever else somehow.  (Hrrm, how do I put this... that sort of design *is* putting a small embedded machine between you and the disks, but you probably won't be able to build the SCSI-to-SCSI, high-performance/high-transparency equivalent yourself with a Linux or *BSD box and two SCSI controllers... unless you write all the software needed to make the second interface 'spoof' being a SCSI target yourself.  I think.)

Midgrade solutions (Hardware-accellerated RAID-on-PCI-card) will require specific drivers that no "Amiga"-related platform has yet.

The low-end IDE "hardware" solutions (like the HPT370 you started to get free on your x86 motherboards a few years ago) are basically software solutions anyway, so there's not really a reason to freak out and crave support for them.  (Call those regular IDE controllers that, on x86, load a fancy BIOS and some compatible Windows soft-RAID drivers... or at least, I think that's what's going on there.  Just like you don't really need a wheel on your mouse to 'autoscroll.')

When it comes to that level of thing, someone's crafted a Universal Raid Device for AmigaOS that provides roughly the same functionality as the BIOS/driver bundles that come with the cheap PC-land controllers, and, assuming it's stable, should be plenty good for most users' purposes.  (Unless that was an April Fool, anyway... If it was, I've fallen for it!)

[rod_stewRt]

interesting! well, i've just about made up my mind to try this aros thing for starters (seeing as i have a pc already and dont wanna waste it) and also an amigaone thing ive been looking at amigaOS 4 and kinda well.. hmm.. how to put it?.. now, i dont wanna make any enemies but it looks a bit of a mess to me. it looks like workbench more than it looks like it feels like an amiga if u catch my drift.. but this is all speculation as i havent tried it of course!

(breaks down and sobs) the amiga was all about being here before anyone dreamt them being here.. like dipping your toes into the future and then living the future.

Yes, Ill get an amigaOne then workbench was as expandable as extra-stretchy socks with sock extensions so I assume OS4 to be the same expect lots of plugins from me!

cheers for the raid info, am gonna check at uni to see if they have any old raid controllers knocking about i got my projector from there! woo hoo!!

i may upgrade my a1200 too but have been worried that some stuff wont run on it anymore, exactly the same reason why i never got 3.1 roms for it either. maybe i oughtta get another a1200 and expand that

+ im not rich, im insane and it helps to be lucky too! + anyone fancy working on an update to turrican 2? am very sure we'll end up with millions of versions of it at the end based on the same engine due to conflicts in ideas, but hey! i believe in giving people a choice

join me!! we can bring the amiga back from the alledged ashes!!

PS. I know its only turrican 2, but its a start esp if we can get similar (or indeed the same!!) talent to write the music! hmm, music that changes as u play too!! thatd be cool! heads brimming with ideas! wheres the paper!! wheres the paper!! so far ive just been playing with milkshape on the pc (groan) and darkbasic (made by amos people apparently) to make a prototype character that, well yknow when u held down the fire button in t2 the 360 gun thing, well i thought nick the streams off ghostbusters and its looking ace, just polishing the characters look tand trying to build a team and jot down lots of ideas

party on dudes!!

[blobrana]

Wait!

i forgot to plug WinUAE!


(It`ll plug straight into your pc, and its free!)



(BTW ,  i just downloaded the Aros iso and it is starting to look really good)

[Plaz]

I've chosen to do some cross compiling developement on a linux athlon system using UAE for Linux for now. Just one more possibility on the list. And watch out for the red and blue "pot holes". You might like to cruise at aw also. Some more message boards and users chomping to talk things amiga.

Plaz

[Amiga1200PPC]

There are plenty options.

Most advanced is the Pegasos.
MorphOS is very promising and the most advanced Amiga style  OS running on the Quark kernel which is similar to QNX.
Regarding Linux the Pegasos is also leading with newest kernels available.
It also can run MOL OS-X.

The AmigaOne is similar to the Pegasos, only behind in all aspects.

AROS also looks very interesting.

Upgrading classic Amigas with PPC cards is much too expensive and they not classic anymore when upgraded. An AmigaOne or a Pegasos would be the better solution in this case IMHO.