Apollo Team announces the Vampire V4

[jbilander]

Originally Posted by sokolovic

It would be nice to see a new Amiga case (Amiga 1600 ?) with the Vampire standalone in it, sold all together.

I mean a real new wedge case with the Amiga logo on it, specially designed for the VS.

I would prefer a smaller case (similar to a mac-mini case) for the v4 standalone, something like this Vampire V4 Acrylic Case, but solid colored, and then be able to use a mechanical filco usb keyboard with it.

[SvladJelly]

Is it too soon to sob about the many years I've been waiting for my Vampire A1200?
Sniff...
:-(

[Samurai_Crow]

Originally Posted by SvladJelly

Is it too soon to sob about the many years I've been waiting for my Vampire A1200?
Sniff...
:-(

The V1200 will come after the stand-alone board anyway. I'm hoping for a V500 because A500 models are more serviceable than A600 or A1200. Pin through soldering is a piece of cake. Surface mounted devices are considerably more difficult to service.

[jbilander]

Originally Posted by Samurai_Crow

The V1200 will come after the stand-alone board anyway. I'm hoping for a V500 because A500 models are more serviceable than A600 or A1200.

Looks like there will be a V4 for A500

[ Show youtube player ]

[Samurai_Crow]

Yes, there will be. I just hope I can afford it.

[jbilander]

Good news!

Vampire V4 cards to be shipped to official beta testers...

https://www.generationamiga.com/2018...-beta-testers/

[pcotter]

more videos from the V4 in action:

[ Show youtube player ]

[ Show youtube player ]

[ Show youtube player ]

[Hiddenevil]

While they are developing these new boards, are they still working on supporting the A600 vampires? A friend of mine owns one and says he's been waiting them to update the core and improve support for various features that were promised ages ago. TBH it put me off buying one :-/

[Samurai_Crow]

Originally Posted by Hiddenevil

While they are developing these new boards, are they still working on supporting the A600 vampires? A friend of mine owns one and says he's been waiting them to update the core and improve support for various features that were promised ages ago. TBH it put me off buying one :-/

Version 1 is not supported any more. Version 2 gets constant updates but will likely stop at Gold 3.0 .

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Hiddenevil

While they are developing these new boards, are they still working on supporting the A600 vampires? A friend of mine owns one and says he's been waiting them to update the core and improve support for various features that were promised ages ago. TBH it put me off buying one :-/

They released Gold 2.10 only a few weeks ago so yes, V2 is clearly still being maintained. They never promised to add any specific feature within a certain time frame which is why they say that you should buy it only for what it can do right now, not for what you expect it can do in the future.

[sean_sk]

Originally Posted by demolition

they say that you should buy it only for what it can do right now, not for what you expect it can do in the future.

Yep and what it can do now is pretty darn sensational. Really looking forward to GOLD 2.11 that will hopefully bring some improvements to WHDLoad compatibility for stodgy old farts like me.

[Nickman1200]

Get the 2.11 beta here if you can flash .jic
http://www.apollo-core.com/releases/

[sean_sk]

Originally Posted by Nickman1200

Get the 2.11 beta here if you can flash .jic
http://www.apollo-core.com/releases/

Cool thanks! I didn't even think to look there since they have never released beta's there before, not until 2.10 at least. Will have to try it out over the next couple of days.

[kolla]

Originally Posted by demolition

They never promised to add any specific feature

Does it say anywhere that fast IDE is only for V500 variants?

[Hiddenevil]

I dont own a vampire card, but my friend has a black edition and I'm sure he said that his A600 doesn't output everything through HDMI. He still has to output some stuff (amiga games) through the composite port. When he said it, I couldn't help think it sounded a little nuts. Has that been solved?

[Marlon_]

Originally Posted by Hiddenevil

I dont own a vampire card, but my friend has a black edition and I'm sure he said that his A600 doesn't output everything through HDMI. He still has to output some stuff (amiga games) through the composite port. When he said it, I couldn't help think it sounded a little nuts. Has that been solved?

The Amiga chipset is not in the FPGA yet, that will come with Gold core 3.0, thus all Amiga chipset banging games will go through the RGB port on the Amiga until then.

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Hiddenevil

I dont own a vampire card, but my friend has a black edition and I'm sure he said that his A600 doesn't output everything through HDMI. He still has to output some stuff (amiga games) through the composite port. When he said it, I couldn't help think it sounded a little nuts. Has that been solved?

I'm sure that when he bought it, they did not promise that it could output ECS/AGA modes through the HDMI port. It was probably an incorrect assumption on his part. It works like any Amiga RTG card and can be used to get high resolutions and 16/24 bit colors in Workbench.

[Hiddenevil]

I have to admit when he said it couldn't do it, I was a little surprised and disappointed. The A600 has a vampire, now so does the A500, soon there will be a stand alone unit and if we are lucky one for the A1200. With all these cards coming out, you'd have thought they might have got functionality all sorted out by now. Especially with how much they cost. I dont know how I'd feel about buying a Vampire for my A1200 and it only half working :-/

[Mr.Flibble]

By the time the A1200 version is available you'll have full functionality.

It's not far off now tbh, it was always known it was going to be a gradual process with card sales funding further development.

Don't forget that any existing card can have all the new features as and when the cores are updated.

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Hiddenevil

With all these cards coming out, you'd have thought they might have got functionality all sorted out by now. Especially with how much they cost.

For an accelerator which is faster than the fastest 060 with 128MB RAM, a fast IDE controller and RTG with digital output, I think the price is a bargain. Getting PAL+NTSC through the digital video output as well is just a really nice bonus since they don't charge anything for firmware updates.

Originally Posted by Mr.Flibble

It's not far off now tbh, it was always known it was going to be a gradual process with card sales funding further development.
Don't forget that any existing card can have all the new features as and when the cores are updated.

Yes, it is a small team so things take time. But don't expect all new features to become available on the V2 Vampires. The FPGA on that one is pretty much stuffed as far as I can understand, so they probably won't be able to fit all those new features into the same core. Maybe they will release several versions so you can choose whether you want the chipset (for PAL HDMI out) or the FPU. The V4 has a much larger FPGA so it should be able to fit everything. I would expect that once the V4 is launched, we will probably start to only see minor updates for the V2 as it doesn't have room for anything but smaller things.