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A new Amiga in 2019? Looks like it!

T

Thanati

Member
I'm a huge Amiga fan. Always have been, always will. From my A500 to the A1200 with a kick-ass accelerator, it's safe to say that this is my favorite computer of all time. So, what gives? Well, it looks like those amazing people who created the Vampire series of accelerators have gone and done it again with the Vampire 4.

https://hothardware.com/news/commodore-amiga-reborn-as-vampire-v4-boots

This does two amazing things.

1 - It's an accelerator for your A500, A600, A1000 and A2000 (with A1200 to follow)
2 - It's a standalone Amiga that plugs into HDMI and so forth, with a Motorola 68080 CPU

OK, so it won't replace the PC and current consoles etc, but for enthusiasts (like me and others), it's a big deal and yup, I cannot wait to get my hands on one! :)
 
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Redneckerz

Redneckerz

Those long posts don't cover that red neck boy
COOL SOMEONE ELSE LIKES AMIGAAHHHHHHHH

Yeah i know of this project for a long time, the standalone version is like the size of a Raspberry Pi but basically an expanded Amiga. It runs on an Cyclone FPGA, and Apollo has implemented a softcore to enable a new CPU and SAGA graphics.

Purists will say its not a real Amiga, and they are right in the sense that Vampire V4 does not use a geniune 68k based CPU core. But the softcore in the Vampire is very much 68k compatible, plus, original parts are getting more and more expensive. People are making new CPU/accelerator cards more and more with overstock/left over CPU's or sometimes even ARM processors.

Vampire V4 Standalone is an Amiga i would want to have. Its small, it might not be completely original in the sense of parts, but it provides far more oomph than a top end classic Ami could, and its still 68k classic Amiga compatible.
 
bad guy

bad guy

as bad as Danny Zuko in gym knickers
Sounds dope. I grew up on an Amiga500 with a buttload of games. But I can emulate them all on my computer and see no need to buy another piece of electronics to clutter up my room. Still interested to read what this is about though.
 
T

Thanati

Member
Redneckerz said:
COOL SOMEONE ELSE LIKES AMIGAAHHHHHHHH

Yeah i know of this project for a long time, the standalone version is like the size of a Raspberry Pi but basically an expanded Amiga. It runs on an Cyclone FPGA, and Apollo has implemented a softcore to enable a new CPU and SAGA graphics.

Purists will say its not a real Amiga, and they are right in the sense that Vampire V4 does not use a geniune 68k based CPU core. But the softcore in the Vampire is very much 68k compatible, plus, original parts are getting more and more expensive. People are making new CPU/accelerator cards more and more with overstock/left over CPU's or sometimes even ARM processors.

Vampire V4 Standalone is an Amiga i would want to have. Its small, it might not be completely original in the sense of parts, but it provides far more oomph than a top end classic Ami could, and its still 68k classic Amiga compatible.
Click to expand...

I agree 100%. Sure, it's not a completely new Amiga, but it's close enough and will run better than WinUAE for example. But yeah, I can't wait to get my hands on one :)
 
petran79

petran79

Banned
Amiga OS 4.1 and Amiga One X5000 does compete with newer PCs at the cost of 1800 GBP

https://amigakit.amiga.store/product_info.php?products_id=1303

IMG_5293.JPG
 
petran79

petran79

Banned
hariseldon said:
For that money I want more than 2gb RAM!
Click to expand...

Just like the old days, you can do here with 2 gb things Windows 10 would require 8 gb! But since they have their own proprietary technology infrastructure and do not have mass market appeal, price will be steep
 
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H

hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
petran79 said:
Just like the old days, you can do here with 2 gb things Windows 10 would require 8 gb! But since they have their own proprietary technology infrastructure and do not have mass market appeal, price will be steep
Click to expand...

Oh absolutely I get that - hell my little Atari 520STFM (sorry to bring an ST to an Amiga thread) with a poxy 0.5MB RAM was an amazing music machine, desktop publisher, word processor and of course gaming machine so I know the efficiency that comes from the pared-back OSs and architecture on these older machines. The tricky bit is that in a world of marketing bullshit they'll struggle to sell something like that outside of the hardcore of enthusiasts.
 
T

Thanati

Member
hariseldon said:
Oh absolutely I get that - hell my little Atari 520STFM (sorry to bring an ST to an Amiga thread) with a poxy 0.5MB RAM was an amazing music machine, desktop publisher, word processor and of course gaming machine so I know the efficiency that comes from the pared-back OSs and architecture on these older machines. The tricky bit is that in a world of marketing bullshit they'll struggle to sell something like that outside of the hardcore of enthusiasts.
Click to expand...

Absolutely agree. It’s way too overpriced.

No worries on bringing in the ST to an Amiga discussion :) There’s a Star Trek game on the ST that never came to the Amiga and I was always so jealous. It was really awesome.
 
Redneckerz

Redneckerz

Those long posts don't cover that red neck boy
Thanati said:
Absolutely agree. It’s way too overpriced.

No worries on bringing in the ST to an Amiga discussion :) There’s a Star Trek game on the ST that never came to the Amiga and I was always so jealous. It was really awesome.
Click to expand...
Atari ST is better than puny Amiga. :p :p :p
 
Kharnivore2099

Kharnivore2099

Member
I'd be all over this if it were not for the price.

I'd love to keep using the original hardware, but WinUAE has made everything so much simpler.
 
H

hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
Kharnivore2099 said:
I'd be all over this if it were not for the price.

I'd love to keep using the original hardware, but WinUAE has made everything so much simpler.
Click to expand...

WinUAE really is an absolute joy isn't it. That and Steem have allowed me to keep on enjoying the absolute classics from my childhood and damn they hold up well today. Retro gaming is the best gaming.
 
Kharnivore2099

Kharnivore2099

Member
It really is a fantastic emulator. The disk swapping feature has been a real time saver and using modern sticks makes everything far more enjoyable.
 
petran79

petran79

Banned
hariseldon said:
WinUAE really is an absolute joy isn't it. That and Steem have allowed me to keep on enjoying the absolute classics from my childhood and damn they hold up well today. Retro gaming is the best gaming.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately WinUAE is not good at decrypting some cracked games. Eg I wanted to play a favorite childhood game, Mike the Magic Dragon, but protection by Kingsoft can only be cracked when played on a real Amiga. On WinUAE game restarts at the first level if you collect all items. WinUAE author does not have the time to test each and every cracked game.
 
dopey

dopey

Member
Well, this is clearly for _serious_ fans rather than making any sense in terms of price/power, and it's even worse when you take the poor software availability into account.

Can't help but to think it's awesome though, and I kind of want one. It's like a tech unicorn, it shouldn't exist in todays market, yet here it is!
 
H

hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
petran79 said:
Unfortunately WinUAE is not good at decrypting some cracked games. Eg I wanted to play a favorite childhood game, Mike the Magic Dragon, but protection by Kingsoft can only be cracked when played on a real Amiga. On WinUAE game restarts at the first level if you collect all items. WinUAE author does not have the time to test each and every cracked game.
Click to expand...

Didn't know about that tbh, I've never found anything I couldn't run so that's a surprise.
 
captainraincoat

captainraincoat

Banned
As someone who came from an old tapedeck c64 playing mission impossible and super loader/boulderman (I think that’s what is was called) and upgraded to an amiga it was a computer ahead of its time and home to some of the closest arcade ports you could get at the time...I’m actually looking forward to this
 
dopey

dopey

Member
captainraincoat said:
and upgraded to an amiga it was a computer ahead of its time and home to some of the closest arcade ports you could get at the time...
Click to expand...
I thought the same thing at the time until I was invited to a friend who had gotten a X68000 for christmas.

His dad went back and forth to japan for work and had brought it home for him. At first I was like 'meh', it was this ugly 'tower' design and I thought it was going to be some EGA PC .

Then he booted up absolutely arcade perfect (except for loading times) ports of 'Ghouls'n Ghosts', 'Final Fight', 'Super Streetfighter II' and some other non-arcade stuff which was also impressive. I remember being quite shocked as I felt I was almost humoring him in checking out his new 'japanese computer' which I just knew would be inferior to my Amiga. It's a shame these machines never made it to the west.
 
petran79

petran79

Banned
dopey said:
I thought the same thing at the time until I was invited to a friend who had gotten a X68000 for christmas.

His dad went back and forth to japan for work and had brought it home for him. At first I was like 'meh', it was this ugly 'tower' design and I thought it was going to be some EGA PC .

Then he booted up absolutely arcade perfect (except for loading times) ports of 'Ghouls'n Ghosts', 'Final Fight', 'Super Streetfighter II' and some other non-arcade stuff which was also impressive. I remember being quite shocked as I felt I was almost humoring him in checking out his new 'japanese computer' which I just knew would be inferior to my Amiga. It's a shame these machines never made it to the west.
Click to expand...

For those arcade games Sharp was the better choice, though it was more expensive. For the same price you could buy an A2000, add an accelerator and RAM and it would easily surpass the Sharp.
 
L

Liftplus

Member
I miss my amiga 500... But those load times were terrible, i remember i had a game on two disks and it took around 40 min to load.
 
M0G

M0G

Member
I'm assuming this isn't an "official" or affiliated Amiga product. Which would be a shame because I feel this is exactly the corner of the market the Amiga companies could have focused on. Small Raspberry Pi style machines that can run the Amiga OS would be fantastic. It would really open up the platform to some actual innovation and possibly some kind of future. I check in on Amiga every once in a while and see what's happening but all I ever see is the brand being passed around companies arguing over the name and ridiculous concepts for hardware that'll never see the light of day. This could show promise though :)

I've still got my A1200 PPC tower next to my TV but gave up on investing vast amounts of money on it, just to get USB, PCI etc. IF this thing is cheap and gets that dream kicking again I'll soon be spending more time with my old friend hehe.
*edit* Oh wow, at upwards of £300 it's not quite what I was hoping for but still interesting none the less. Still something to consider but I don't consider this £300 worth of gear considering what you can buy for that in this day and age.
 
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