Anyone seen/got this (Armiga project)

[Welshieinnz]

So, I just came across this and was wondering if anyone here has actually bought and used one.

http://www.armigaproject.com/

If so, any thoughts?

[Amiga1992]

Just get a Raspberry Pi.

[LuMan]

Hmm.. While I quite like the idea, it seems a bit pricey for what it is. Like Akira says, you could just get a Pi. Plus, you'd also have a whole host of other beloved computers emulated, too.

I also couldn't see from the website* whether you could boot to OS from SD/USB. It would be nice if it could be set up as a 'proper' Amiga.

I'm interested in hearing (or reading) what owners have to say about it.

*I'm using my work laptop, from my work's office, so some stuff doesn't get through the firewall...

[beanz]

Interesting, a search on youtube shows several reviews of it, I'll check those out tonight when I'm not at work

[EugeneNine]

It was posted on one for the forums before, it looks like someone took a RPi installed rasbain and an emulator and made a fancy 3d print case and is selling it.

You can download armbian or retropi and do the same thing.

[Welshieinnz]

Hmmm, I like the idea of the pi. Thanks guys!

I'd still be interested in hearing user thoughts on the Armiga.

[jediknight]

i see this ages ago , but basically its raspberry , but remember peeps , asus got the new tinkerboard out same as rasp but faster and more memory 55 quid on cpc , i defo want that to run amiga on it.

[eXeler0]

While I'm not that interested in emulated Amiga clones, its not really fair to say its *just* a Rasp Pi + 3d printed case.. It actually reads your old Amiga Floppies.
If that's a "thing" for you (or if you wanna create ADFs from your floppies) then it might be interesting..

[kriz]

Seems like all the versions with floppy of theArmiga is Out Of Stock

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by eXeler0

While I'm not that interested in emulated Amiga clones, its not really fair to say its *just* a Rasp Pi + 3d printed case.. It actually reads your old Amiga Floppies.
If that's a "thing" for you (or if you wanna create ADFs from your floppies) then it might be interesting..

It actually makes an image (ADF) of your floppies the first time you put them in - doesn't really read from them. So the floppy drive is there mainly to cheat people to think that it really uses it!
It's pretty useless since there's no write support either...

If you exclude that "feature", then it's just a Pi with UAE4ARM (which is free!) preloaded on it.

Much better to buy a KryoFlux + Pi for that much money, at least you can also write back with the KryoFlux!

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by eXeler0

It actually reads your old Amiga Floppies.

If it used floppies normally I would be interested, but as it is, it only is a disk ripper that converts to ADF.
Good luck trying to image to ADF any originals, it just won't work.

Again, if it wasn't clear: this device is a waste of anyone's time and money, and it might even be infringing a license or two.

[Mark36]

I did message the owner of Armiga on facebook a while back and asked if he sold the cases seperate so I could use it on my rasp pi 3. He replied its not a raspberry pi inside the case so I assume its an odroid or similar.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Mark36

He replied its not a raspberry pi inside the case

Of course he would say that. Whatever it is, it runs Ubuntu or some distro by Linaro.
Now this is something that would actually be useful. If ANYBODY actually bought this thing, open it up and show us the guts.

I cannot believe nobody did this already to be honest.

[clebin]

Originally Posted by Akira

Of course he would say that. Whatever it is, it runs Ubuntu or some distro by Linaro.
Now this is something that would actually be useful. If ANYBODY actually bought this thing, open it up and show us the guts.

I cannot believe nobody did this already to be honest.

http://emulate.su/2015/armiga-2015/

Unless it's changed since, it's a Cubieboard 2:

http://cubieboard.org/model/

Never heard of it, but apparently it's open-source and pre-assembled go for about £50:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cubieboard-A20-x/dp/B00ED1PS22

[Amiga1992]

Nice one, thanks clebin!!

So here's the specs:

Cubieboard 2
CPU: AllWinnerTech SOC A20，ARM® Cortex™-A7 Dual-Core
GPU: ARM® Mali400 MP2 Complies with OpenGL ES 2.0/1.1
Memory: 1GB DDR3 @480M

Raspberry Pi 3
CPU: 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARMv8 CPU
GPU: VideoCore IV 3D graphics core
Memory: 1GB RAM

Sorry, I had posted thw CB4 specs before.
This seems slower or lower spec'd than a Raspberry Pi 3.

[warfalcon]

I got one in my possession. If you need to know anything in particular, shoot your shot.

[Pat the Cat]

Originally Posted by Akira

Nice one, thanks clebin!!

So here's the specs:

Cubieboard 2
CPU: AllWinnerTech SOC A20，ARM® Cortex™-A7 Dual-Core
GPU: ARM® Mali400 MP2 Complies with OpenGL ES 2.0/1.1
Memory: 1GB DDR3 @480M

Raspberry Pi 3
CPU: 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARMv8 CPU
GPU: VideoCore IV 3D graphics core
Memory: 1GB RAM

Sorry, I had posted thw CB4 specs before.
This seems slower or lower spec'd than a Raspberry Pi 3.

Assuming single core usage, the DDR3 will allow for much faster execution. It's an issue with Pi, they went for affordability for schoolkids, rather than "best possible" performance. Even with more cores, the PI does not run so fast, as each processor still has to read and write to comparatively slow memory.

You see this a lot on Pi forums. "Why isn't my Pi as quick as XYZ system". Answer is, it was built for affordability and flexibility, not raw performance. SDRAM is cheap, but it ain't that quick.

AROS on Pi sounds interesting, as does OS4 on PI. Real OS, not emulators.

Nice thread on the subject of PI Aros, including an attempt at a Walker;-

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/v...8215&start=100

[Retro-Nerd]

It uses UAE4all, pretty much outdated these days.I would put a Raspi 3 into an old Amiga 500 case together with Keyrah. Amibian maybe as software (which includes the newer UAE4arm).

I bought one and returned it. The compatibility was shockingly poor - about 40% of games ran on it, images/games that ran 100% perfect on Amiga Forever.

Lotus 2 - fail 80% of the time on the second/third race track.
Super Cars 1 and 2 - 100% crash all cracked versions.
Mega-Lo-Mania - 13 minute load time for one cracked version - two other versions failed.
Theme Park - the versions I tried all failed.
Populous - fail.
Xennon 2 - fail.
Sensible Soccer - most versions fail.
Player Manager - fail.

The music ran slow/totally out of sync on about 60% of all games.

They advertise it as now being AGA compatible, but in A1200 mode almost every single AGA game failed - The Chaos Engine 1 and 2, Alien Breed 2 - everything I tried.

It has a fast load option that sometimes runs slower than regular loading options - but all games take far, far longer to load than original Amiga discs on an A500.

Mine came with a sticker on the bottom said prototype not for resale - this was despite the fact that the word prototype was nowhere to be seen in terms of the shop. There is also a video doing the rounds of a supposedly independent review. It refers to "everything working" with the Armiga in terms of game pads, mouse, games etc. As far from reality as one can imagine.

All the crashes, game fails, crazy loading times, wrecked sound etc. Some games dying on crack screens, some games running slowly and dropping frames, some with bad lag, other games running way too fast. In terms of hardware compatibility it is riddled with plug and play issues. Logitech keyboards don't work, no mouse will work in any of the menus. They claim mice work fine in games, but my Microsoft lazer mouse did not work. Other keyboards have issues as other customers have complained. I tried two other keyboard which both failed.

In terms of pads/controllers/joysticks:

They say that they do not support traditional Joysticks. Although you can connect via a retrofun usb to 9pin connector, that then introduces horrific lag that makes playing Kick Off utterly unplayable, Sensible Soccer too, when I could get that to run. This is lag that does not exist when using the same device on a laptop and Amiga forever to control the same games. As for other devices...Xbox One controller doesn't work, neither does a PS4 controller or a PS3 controller or a WiiU controller, or a Hori fighting stick. Other customers also complained about issues with quite a few more/other pads. This included wireless devices where connection sometimes dropped out. There is also bugs relating to having two pads connected to the device.


I could have written the above up properly and in excruciating detail, but it's not my job to do so. I've just dropped the above very quickly onto the page to give people the idea. That said I did used to work in the games industry in a variety of roles including that of games tester for Sony and games designer for Gremlin, so as haphazard as the above may appear - people can trust me when I say this device is not currently fit for purpose and possibly (sadly) never will be.

P.S

I'm sure the people behind the project had good intentions, but it tells you a lot when in private correspondence they speak about the device as being one of the best emulators out there - just delusional. Equally they spoke of certain versions of games being "the problem", of certain cracked games being the problem. I explained to them that the games, including those cracks pre-date the existence of their device by 20 years plus, but I'm not sure that was something that particularly resonated with them. Oh well.

[clebin]

Originally Posted by Chris CC

I'm sure the people behind the project had good intentions, but it tells you a lot when in private correspondence they speak about the device as being one of the best emulators out there - just delusional. Equally they spoke of certain versions of games being "the problem", of certain cracked games being the problem. I explained to them that the games, including those cracks pre-date the existence of their device by 20 years plus, but I'm not sure that was something that particularly resonated with them. Oh well.

Thanks for the review. That's disappointing but I wonder if your experience is universal, or whether there's something wrong with the device you received? That "Prototype - not for resale" badge suggests that something is wrong immediately - either an early version of the hardware with known problems, or an early/experimental version of the software.

This thing will be running a version of UAE, which however old or customised, should have no problem with the games you listed. I'm not trying to discount your evidence but it would be nice to get some corroborating experiences. To me, it sounds like you just got a duff unit.

My first MiST box continuously crashed doing the lightest of tasks. It turned out to be a hardware fault with that unit and the second one I bought has been great.

That said, the Armiga doesn't appeal to me in any way. The price is high but it's a cheap, generic hardware running UAE in a cheap & nasty 3D printed case (don't know why the site tries to make a positive of this) and it doesn't even have proper 9-pin joystick ports. The disk drive model is more interesting and maybe points to a better version 2, but for now I'm unconvinced even if the compatibility were perfect.