News Amiga set for re-launch

I started out with a C64, then moved to an Amiga 500. Sold that, and got an Amiga 2000. I still have it in its original box somewhere. Good times, good times...

The Amiga OS had some good original ideas that I would have liked to see on a Windows desktop. Like how when you fed it a disk it would instantly appear as an icon on the desktop, ready to click and open. Like having four independently functioning desktops on top of each other that you could pull up or down like a blind (how's that for multitasking?).

I have an Amiga emulator on my PC; and my favorite game: Mindwalker (originally it came out with the Amiga 1000 only). There was also Carrier Command, Starglider I and II, Damocles... ah, the memories.

 

I started late with the Amiga, with the 600 and then the 1200. I later picked up my cousin's 500 when he decided to go with the consoles. I loved the Amiga, and still do. I used to have a favourite game, Gunship, and played it for many hours. I would definitely buy into the new Amiga, if everything pans out well. There have been no end of "relaunches" though that didn't come to much, so fingers crossed this time

 

Damocles, wow that brings back some memories. Flipping awesome game, I got it free when I bought my A500.

The amiga brings out your creative side, programming, art, music, I think this is why it holds a place in many peoples hearts. I've tried to make music on my PC, but it just doesn't have the same appeal as using octamed...

In a moment of insanity I threw my C64 + floppy drive and A500 with gvp hard drive and 2meg ram and all my 100s of games, into the dustbin. One of the biggest mistakes of my life.

If anyone found above items in said dustbin in Slippers Place Estate in London SE16, it's all my stuff you lucky barsteward!

 

@dire_wolf

The x1000 will be more compatible with old Amigas than any Amiga so far.
(and I have experience (and I own) almost every official Amiga there was/is)

I have been "in love" with the AmigaOS way of doing things since 1989 when I got a high end Amiga.
AOS has delivered some unigue experiences and usability during all these 20+ years, even though I have used other OSs as well.

From my experience of AmigaOS4, it acts just like one expects AOS to act, it has the same familiar directory structure, simple enough to learn (unlike the mainstream), same speed. + it has more features than the previous AmigaOS versions.

 

@thread

Correction to the article, re:
"The last - a modified PCI Express x8 slot - will require some explanation: designed to provide additional input output lines to the system bus, the Xorro slot can be equipped with an add-on programmable co-processor to keep multi-core software ticking along nicely. As standard, the Xorro slot will be populated with a programmable 500MHz board dubbed Xena."

That is incorrect.
Xena is on the motherboard of the computer and xorro slot (that is inline with one of the PCIex1 slots) is free for expansions, like more xcore chips, I/O adapters, etc...
Xena is connected directly to the PPC chip local bus and to CPUs GPIO lines, so it can be totally controlled and reprogrammed on the fly by the SW on the PPC SoC.

 

"ohh bring back the amiga so that I can play all my old games that I haven't been able to let go of"

For christ sake people, do you not get it, its moved on, it died, PC is too well dug in, and its not just the hardware, most people who use a computer dong give a damn about what ATI board is producing children with which version of USB, it's the software, there is nothing on the Amiga that comes close to what is available on the PC or the mac.

The reason the Amiga couldn't compete with the PC the first time round was because the Amiga got lumbered with the title of it being a games computer and not a serious contender, hence why it never did that well in the business sector, that was always a PC area, the Amiga Came with a modulator, so that it could be hooked up to a TV, and it wasn't so that you could do your work in your "budget home office", it was to play games, and now with the potential to actually get an Amiga back what's one of the biggest discussion points... Games, and before anyone questions my right to complain, I used to own an amiga 500, a 600 a 1200 a 1500 and a 4000 (sadly not for as long as I would have liked), I used music X, Turbo Silver, Imagine, Soundtracker, Directory opus sculpt animate 4D but never did I own one game, that's why we have consoles, what I would have expected to see would be the whole community getting together to push forward a computer that works logically has the best software and rivals both the pc and the mac, but I have a feeling that wont happen, more than likely what will happen is the "so called Amiga community will sit and wait, probably emailing forums and each other about how they cant wait to get a computer back that was in its hey day a groundbreaking piece of technology so that they can play mindwalker or gunship or spaceinvaders, and then let it fade into insignificance, that sickens me, one of the most amazing part of the original amiga computers was the fact that the community back then actually did act like a community, there were games programmed in bedrooms, one song created on the Amiga actually got in the charts, people were doing things with the amiga that promoted better and better things to be created, what does the amiga community consist of now? A bunch of people sat on PC, griping about how bad their pc is, how great the Amiga was and how they cant wait to get the new Amiga, no one designing new interface designs, new ways of operating the computer, nobody doing anything as a community to push the X1000 as far as it will go, nothing, why do you people even want an Amiga back I think for the most part its a nostalgia trip, I don't think it will break any, ground, not with the current mentality, not with the way that all the ex owners of Amigas have become Sheep hearded by the apple and microsoft sheepdogs.

 

I don't see anyone moaning about PCs in here. I love PCs, but I'd also love to see an up to date Amiga with backwards compatibility. I used to have a A4000/060, which at the time beat pretty much any PC around. I used it for games and for rendering with Lightwave... NOT business use, so no idea why you mentioned that. Even at the time, no one really considered it for business use - that's what PCs were for. It was used creatively with video, 3D, and music.... and of course, games.

No one is suggesting it will compete with PCs... or would even want it to. It would however, be a great creative platform if Newtek developed Lightwave for it again. The OS was brilliant as well.

I don't know what your problem is with people liking the idea of a new Amiga.


...and Hello by the way

 

@photoncepts

So because we enjoyed gaming on the Amiga, we shouldn't be allowed to say that we would welcome the platform's return? I used my Amiga almost exclusively for gaming, and enjoyed every minute of doing so too. So does this mean that I should keep my mouth shut when the mention of the platform is made? Just because you didn't play games doesn't make your point any more or less valid. It sounds like you seem to hold yourself in higher esteem because you didn't play games. If you truly loved the Amiga, then you would realise that there were many reasons for people feeling this way, and one of them was indeed the gaming aspect. I suggest you come down from the high horse you stepped on

As for Amiga owners becoming sheep, you seem to hold a large portion of ex Amiga owners in contempt. For what? For now using PC's and Mac's? So did you stay with the Amiga, and never have your platform of choice evolve? If you did, then are you not one of those "sheep" too?

 

Some news:
- revision2 of the board is being manufactured & sent to the crew of ~150 AmigaOS beta testers.
- revision2 is rumoured to have XS1 L2 xcore
- CPU has been accidentally detected to be a 2Ghz PA6T, being run at 1,8Ghz max (clock rate can be changed from the OS command line)
- final consumer release is pushed to Q4/2010 and full x1000 system price is going up :-( (€1800+)

Also another AmigaOS compatible HW is progressing. SAM460ex might be available Q3 for end users.
More info: http://www.acube-systems.biz/index.php?page=hardware

In the meanwhile MOS is heading to G5 PowerMacs and AROS based x86 HW has got new drivers etc....
Amiga News site: www.amigaworld.net

BONUS:
The history of AmigaOS code files can be seen here: http://www.hyperion-entertainment.b...141:twenty-five&catid=36:amigaos-4x&Itemid=18

 

This whole X1000 is just a hoax. They announced it at the start of the year and claimed it would be available before Summer 2010. It never appeared.

Then they went to a vintage computing show at Bletchley Park and piggybacked on that venue to pitch the X1000. They did have a case with what appeared to be an X1000 board in it, but a sealed box was also wired in off to one side. When the sealed box was discovered, A-eon tried to play it off as a debugging system of some sort!

At later shows a printed paper cutout of an X1000 board has been spotted inside an open case:
http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/5403/x1000goodonpaper.jpg

These are just the highlights of their shenanigans over the past year. I won't even get into the beta program where users are expected to purchase a board for $1778 and give it a spin. No warranty and also no test plan, you figure out what they're about with that scheme.

 

@BenJammin
"This whole X1000 is just a hoax..."

LOL! You have no clue.


PS. Get a life.

 

And here it is 2011, the A-eon website still reads “Available late 2010″ and still no X1000. The betatesters who deposited upwards of $700 still haven’t even heard anything. Nevermind hoax, this is turning out to be a full on scam!

 

I believe the deposit is 750 Great British Pounds, not $700 US Dollars. Retail costs for the A1X1K should be very close to $3,000 USD, if not over. Yes, it's delayed but so are many projects by small companies.