pouët.net

So, what are the thoughts of the mighty amiga coders here about this?
To me it seems like a rather great piece of kit with lots of potential to breathe new life into the amiga scene (esp. once the A1200 version pops up) - much faster than 060, great graphics modes, a lot of ram, etc.
Any chance to allow this platform in standard amiga demo competitions soon?

The hardware is nice, but the people making the apollo-core are doing it all wrong.

The day this one is let into the amigacompos is the day I stop making demos for said compos

Indeed it turns the old A600 into a new platform. Not oldskool computer anymore.

I'll continue to check my code on 060/50Mhz though.

I agree. I definitely wouldn't target any FPGA accelerators but could perhaps release a version for them if they ended up being somewhat popular and it's not too much work (like compile a non-FPU version or something).

That's what the wild compo is for.

It's even less of a standard amiga than a1200/060.
It's nice that people build new things and have fun, but as an amiga demo coder I have *absolutely* no interest in it whatsoever.

Looks like a nice accelerator notheless. Just plug it onto the CPU and it stays there. No open trapdoor and heat problems like on the A1200. I'd love one of these for the A1200 to replace my 030 card and finally watch some 060 demos... \o/

Is that an HDMI connector?

raer: provided the 060-demos actually run on the apollo-core ;)

I guess I'll watch the page... *fingers crossed*

Would love to see someone do stuff on this. See what could be done.
But also agree that it would defiantly need to go in the Real Wild compo.

Has anyone tested any demos on it? Only seen Games, typical WB apps and Shapeshifter tested on it. Since it has the Picasso output I guess 68K demos that support Gfx cards are something worth testing, as there are very few non-AGA demos that have "slow" routines.
Can't think of any at least. In anyone can come up with some demos that should run on this in theory, the guys making these DOOM videos could test some demos instead.

It doesn't have FPU support yet so that's another issue for 060 demos.

I would be happy if someone came up with an alternative to those insanely rare and expensive 060 cards for 1200 so I could finally watch some TBL demos...

Sorry, i don't understand this point of view: With that same reasoning back in the days GUS demos would have also been a no go.
PowerPC Amiga demos also participated in the standard amiga compo.

And isn't allowed to participate anymore, for a good reason

Just this.. why is it people making these things don't realise that is all us Amiga users really want! A direct replica in FPGA I think would be fair game I reckon.

debatable.

(referring to britelite above)

I had an Amiga CDTV for a bit last year. I figured it would be a fun alternative system for tracking.

I paid $200 for the machine itself. Once I priced out all the scattered, only-somewhat-compatible, impossible-to-find bits I'd need to upgrade it, I figured it would be another thousand dollars before it could even run OctaMed. It left my ownership pretty quickly after that.

You guys who have been into Amigas for decades don't really realize this, but it's just about an impossible platform for someone new to get into. If you want any possible Amiga scene to exist in the future the cost of entry HAS to come down.

exactly. I can get a used A600 for some bucks + 150 EUR for the Vampire and I have a top-notch amiga system. Finding a similar 060 system is not only difficult, but also costs roughly twice as much (likely even more).

Obviously anyone is free to use whatever hardware they want for watching or developing demos. At least the point I was trying to make is that it wouldn't make sense to have something like the Vampire 2 as the compo machine.

Let's see in a couple of years but my guess is that finding a Vampire 2 then will be pretty difficult as well.

Of course the best thing would have been if the Vampire 2 team had cared to make it compatible with running existing 060 demos so it would be a viable alternative for people that wanted to do that.

The most active part of the amiga scene in recent years has been the OCS/A500 part. The cost of entry there is just an A500 (of which there are *tons*) and some sort of transfer hw / floppy emulator.

Wat? I know of numerous high-quality 060 AGA productions in recent years, but OCS rather few (rink-a-dink and then some). yes, it's been revived lately, but i doubt it comes anywhere close to the number of AGA releases..

What's incompatible about it? Lack of FPU?
It says (S)AGA is a planned update coming soon on the website.

It was very recently discussed over on ADA: http://ada.untergrund.net/?p=boardthread&id=972&page=0#msg9552
I haven't doublechecked the numbers but Bonefish seems kinda reliable.

The fact that you personally like 060/AGA stuff better is a completely different matter. :)