Vampire 500+ Pre-orders now being accepted

[Samurai_Crow]

Regarding the price difference between the A600 version and A500/1000/2000 version: The A600 doesn't include an IDE controller because it is already on the motherboard.

[grond]

And there is no IO for a wifi module in the v600.

[neozeed]

Come on 300 euros to take the dog Amiga, the 500 into the fastest Amiga ever with HD support??!!

Cone on, back in the day a 68030 would be orders of magnitude more!

This is frankly bloody amazing!

I'm still waiting on the line for a 600 upgrade, now I'm wondering if I should get a 500, or even better a 1000!

My only hope is that eventually Apollo team delivers a 100% FPGA machine so I don't have 30 year old tired parts.

[PortuguesePilot]

Originally Posted by neozeed

(...) My only hope is that eventually Apollo team delivers a 100% FPGA machine so I don't have 30 year old tired parts.

It will happen. By either the Apollo Team or someone else. That's the only long-run future for the Amiga software platform. Hardware, like most physical things, dwindles with the passage of time. To avoid complete emulation, eventually new hardware will be needed. Some folks advocate that FPGA is a form of emulation (physical emulation) and, thus, will never be as pure-bred as the real thing, which - IMO - is true. These new FPGA based accelerators that are implemented on our beloved Amigas use the original hardware to some extend while greatly enhancing them. If our Amigas were living things, these FPGA boards would be making cyborgs out of them, which is sort-of cool. But, as stated before, the hardware won't last forever, no matter how many times we recap it. There will be a time that all the original Amigas will be "dead" (probably long after the last original owner has died, but that's another story).

I sense, then, that the MiST, the ARMiga, the MiniMig, etc... they're all representations of what the future will be. My money? I'd put it into "close replicas". They'll be all-new hardware (most probably FPGA based) with all new 3D-printed cases and new custom-made keyboards looking almost exactly like an old A500 or A1200 or whatever model you want but with nice little modern features like native USB, SSD disks and HDMI outlets. The FPGA will enable the new Amigas to do unthinkable things (like the Vampires allow and probably much more), paving the way for future Amiga software development while retaining 100% retrocompatibility (a very important thing in the Amiga universe). We all cried - figuratively - when Commodore folded in 1994 and many of us yearned for a reboot, a renaissance, a resurgence, a comeback with a vengeance. It never happened. But, now, in the mid 2010's, maybe we're in the verge of seeing something of the sort...

There's a catch, though. The Amiga legacy lives within us. The most technically-savvy of us are the ones that are still pushing forward with this. They're the ones coming up with all the FPGA cores, with all the accelerator boards and neat new software. But, much like our own Amigas, we too wither with time. I fear that once the last amigan is gone, so will the Amiga. If time would be given to the platform to expand via FPGA, I bet we would see the Amiga legacy break-through the 32bit onwards into the future... Play Doom in the Amiga at full-speed? Hah! Why not play GTA V in the Amiga in full speed? (I already see many of you shout: "why do you even want that? Get a PC or a PS4!" Heck, I could say the same to you. "Wanna play Doom full-speed? Get a 486. They're cheaper than an A500 now-a-days").

Sorry for the long off-topic ramble, but a man is allowed to share his day-dreaming, isn't he?

[kipper2k]

With Windows 10 bloatware and all associated nagware, spyware, virii and all other commercial crap that is contained within, the Amiga OS is a breath of fresh air, with increased speed, renewed interest and a 68K instruction set that is being upgraded the future i think looks bright.

To be able to put an OS on a 64MB CF card, and still have lots of room left is great, mabbe you cant do as much as Win10 but for everyday usage it is getting much better

[Omolungo]

@kipper2k

Please make all you can do to make the V500+ CDTV compatible

[kipper2k]

Originally Posted by Omolungo

@kipper2k

Please make all you can do to make the V500+ CDTV compatible

Physically it will fit with adapter, core would need to be done to get full CDTV capabilities

[Omolungo]

You can think to the adapter, Gunnar and Majista to the core

CDTV is too a beauty machine to leave it unsupported

[grelbfarlk]

Realistically the only thing not working is the CD drive, no reason you can't replace the lousy 1x CD drive with an IDE one. Or a SCSI one if you have the SCSI adapter. You'd need to use a slot load drive but it could be done. I had planned to do this but got caught up with other projects.

[utri007]

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

Realistically the only thing not working is the CD drive, no reason you can't replace the lousy 1x CD drive with an IDE one. Or a SCSI one if you have the SCSI adapter. You'd need to use a slot load drive but it could be done. I had planned to do this but got caught up with other projects.

It is not that simple. You can't boot from CD, you can't listen Audio CDs without OS, remote controller woun't work with IDE CD, frontpanel buttons woun't work, etc.

So it is NOT just CD wich doesn't work.

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by utri007

It is not that simple. You can't boot from CD, you can't listen Audio CDs without OS, remote controller woun't work with IDE CD, frontpanel buttons woun't work, etc.

So it is NOT just CD wich doesn't work.

You are incorrect. With the CDTV ROM disabled the remote still works including Power On/OFF. Yes the Play/stop buttons will not make the CD start/stop playing nor will the front panel buttons for this.

Maybe it's possible to make the CDTV stop/start buttons work with an OS level CD player, I don't know about that, do the CD controls get interpreted at an OS level?

There are ways to make the system boot off of a CD, I haven't tried them myself, but I believe IDEFix has such an option among others. But if you have a bootable HDD in the system, when are you going to see the CDTV splash screen anyway? And besides most of the CDTV titles are in WHDLoad anyway. There are some CDTV titles that won't work that's for sure, but are they going to work on the Vampire anyway? Lemmings for instance has screwed up sound with the 3.1 ROM. CDTV titles are really sensitive to any upgrades. So what you lose out on is the really nice looking CDTV CD Player at boot time, which I don't think is ever going to work if there's a bootable HDD anyway. I realize it's an agonizing wait for the Vampire to boot , but you have to make compromises in life and especially in Amigaland.

It would be nice if the Vampire team got the CDTV ROMs working, but it's still a fine system, it's just a waste of a 5 1/4" bay to have a drive that doesn't work at all. Adding a fast IDE CDROM would negate that to a large extent.

[Omolungo]

It would be simpler to write a core for the V500 compatible with the CDTV roms or modify the CDTV roms in order to recognize properly the V500?

V500+ is only a 68000 at 100+ mhz

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by Omolungo

It would be simpler to write a core for the V500 compatible with the CDTV roms or modify the CDTV roms in order to recognize properly the V500?

Yes but as someone said no one on the team has a CDTV. Maybe someone could test an A2000 with an A2091 or better yet an A500 with A570. If the A570 works the CDTV should work. Or if someone has an A570 they are not using maybe donate or loan it to someone on the team.

[Omolungo]

I have only one CDTV otherwise I'd donate one to Apollo Team

[Arnie]

Just to add that if you disable the CDTV CD-Rom you also disable the SCSI HD module. So in effect you'll have to use the Vampire on board IDE.

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by Arnie

Just to add that if you disable the CDTV CD-Rom you also disable the SCSI HD module. So in effect you'll have to use the Vampire on board IDE.

Not necessarily so. Though I can't loadmodule the SCSI driver from the CDTV ROM, since that also causes lockup on boot, I have the binddrivers version of the SCSI driver working with the Vampire.

[Arnie]

I can't comment, I haven't a clue what you mean. Also I don't have a Vampire.

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by Arnie

I can't comment, I haven't a clue what you mean. Also I don't have a Vampire.

Rather than using the SCSI.device in the CDTV ROM, you put the driver in Sys:Expansion and binddrivers loads the driver and makes the SCSI work. Which works with the Vampire.

This is similar to how if you had an A2091 and it had old ROMS on it. If you couldn't burn a new ROM then you could disable the old ROM on the A2091 and put the newer one in sys:expansion and binddrivers would load the driver instead of using the one on the ROM.

[tin]

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

Yes but as someone said no one on the team has a CDTV. Maybe someone could test an A2000 with an A2091 or better yet an A500 with A570. If the A570 works the CDTV should work. Or if someone has an A570 they are not using maybe donate or loan it to someone on the team.

Useful for someone in Apollo team to have a CDTV? If so who and where?

[majsta]

To rewrite core to support this is easy. Only I don't have CDTV, some people offered me to give it for the test purpose but I just don't have the time for that now, in the other hand I have no idea how much people is interested into this, maybe only few I think.