![]() |
![]() |
#5081 | |||
Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: Hastings, New Zealand
Posts: 2,713
|
Quote:
Quote:
Today I watched a new YouTube video by Zeusdaz of the motorcycle game Prime Mover, released in 1993. I started viewing it before reading the description and was trying to decide if it was OCS or AGA. With that smooth animation and all those colors it must be running on an at least an A1200, right? Wrong. Stock 1MB A500! [ Show youtube player ] We didn't need a 50MHz 030 with FPU and 4MB RAM and 120 MB hard drive to play awesome games like this (or AGA games which promised to be even better). All we needed was a stock A1200 at £369 including VAT. Quote:
In that same advert we also see the Amstrad Mega Plus 486DLC-33 (386DX with 1k cache and 486 instructions), here priced at £899 + VAT = £1056.83 with 4MB RAM and a 130MB hard drive. However according to Wikipedia this machine was never actually released. On page 40 of that magazine we see another advert with prices including VAT. The Commodore DT486SX-25 with 4MB RAM and 80 MB hard drive is priced at £980 (incl. VAT). Of course it didn't come with a sound card and speakers, so add another £100 or so if you want any more than a few weak chirps from the tiny onboard sounder. AFAIK it had an onboard Western Digital WD90C30 ISA VGA chip - not exactly ET4000AX level performance. Last edited by Bruce Abbott; 13 June 2024 at 09:44. |
|||
![]() |
![]() |
#5082 |
Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2020
Location: Sydney/Australia
Posts: 1,021
|
From https://websrv.cecs.uci.edu/~papers/...LES/060803.PDF
CD32's FMV module's $50 C-Cube CL450 SoC includes a licensed MIPS-X RISC CPU with 40 Mhz clock speed . You're looking at 40 million instructions per second (MIPS) RISC-based CPU i.e. it's like parts of PS1's CPU or Rendition Verite v1000's MIPS-like RISC CPU. The PS1 can be characterized as "half-software" because the geometry transforms are done through a CPU-like coprocessor, then sent to a mostly 2D GPU capable of filling in the gaps with affine transformations. Last edited by hammer; 13 June 2024 at 15:25. |
![]() |
![]() |
#5083 | ||||
Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2020
Location: Sydney/Australia
Posts: 1,021
|
Quote:
Page 4 of 132 A1200 Dynamite Pack's 349 UKP made no mention of VAT inclusive. Look in the mirror. Irrelevant. Quote:
[ Show youtube player ] Amiga OCS's Super Hang on (Europe) in 1988. It was a good port for its time. [ Show youtube player ] SNES Street Racer with Mode 7. [ Show youtube player ] "32-bit" 3DO's Crash and Burn released in 1993. [ Show youtube player ] "32-bit" gaming PC's IndyCar Racing released in 1993. [ Show youtube player ] Amiga AGA's VirtualGP released in 1999. This game needs a fast "32-bit" 68030 CPU in the 40 to 50 Mhz range! The result is similar to "32-bit" gaming PC's IndyCar Racing. There's no change in AGA display capability, A1200/CD32 needs higher math power. [ Show youtube player ] Amiga AGA's Flyin High with 68040 class CPU. There's no change in AGA display capability, A1200/CD32 needs higher math power. For 1993-1994 Amigas, Amitech/Commodore Canada's A2200 config2 clone (68030 @40 Mhz) and A4000/040 (68040 @ 25 Mhz) can run VirtualGP. Quote:
Quote:
https://segaretro.org/Mega_PC "at the time of release the machine was unsuccessful due to its high retail price" Amstrad 'Mega PC' includes extra items: 1. A higher-cost multisync VGA monitor with 15 kHz and 31 kHz video input capability. This is similar to the Commodore 1942 monitor. Typical lower-cost VGA monitor clones will not display a 15 kHz video source. 2. Actual Sega Mega Drive hardware. 3. Amstrad Mega PC Control Pad. 4. Yamaha FM sound chip is shared between Mega Drive and PC's AdLib. 5. Amstrad 'Mega PC' has a custom PC motherboard. https://segaretro.org/Teradrive Sega Teradrive has IBM's PS/2 Model 30 286 (IBM DOS J4.0/V) base and Mega Drive. The Teradrive was developed jointly by Sega and IBM Japan. Sega attempted to enter the PC business via partnerships. This is like an A2000 with a full PC bridgeboard card in reverse. Last edited by hammer; 13 June 2024 at 15:20. |
||||
![]() |
![]() |
#5084 | |
Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Scunthorpe/United Kingdom
Posts: 2,084
|
Quote:
Sure I could have bought a SNES for cheap but I couldn't code on that. Or hook up my old printer and do some document work. You get the idea. And all for £300. Why would I be disapopointed with that? ![]() |
|
![]() |
![]() |
#5085 |
Alien Bleed
Join Date: Aug 2022
Location: UK
Posts: 4,418
|
All I can say is, if you bought an A1200 and it was a disappointment, you didn't do your due diligence. It's not as if the specification was a secret.
I loved mine so much I bought another two over the years. |
![]() |
![]() |
#5086 | |
Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2020
Location: Sydney/Australia
Posts: 1,021
|
Quote:
|
|
![]() |
![]() |
#5087 | |
Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2020
Location: Sydney/Australia
Posts: 1,021
|
Quote:
AGA is fine, it just needs low cost higher math power (object manipulator). |
|
![]() |
![]() |
#5088 | |||||
Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: Hastings, New Zealand
Posts: 2,713
|
Quote:
From Brian Bagnall's book Commodore The Final Years:- Quote:
However... Quote:
So in what way might Eggebrecht have 'crafted the A1200 better' if he was brought in earlier? Quote:
But... Quote:
What the market really needed was a successor to the A500 with the AA chipset and a 68EC020 at a price similar to the A500. This is effectively what we got with the A1200, which was the realization of the AA500 that Porter and Rubin originally planned to have ready by mid 1992. Lew Eggebrecht clearly favored producing a low-end Amiga with AA, but he didn't actually do much to achieve it. Instead he opened the door for a wide range of models to be produced - which Commodore didn't have the resources to realize. Commodore's aspirations crashed into the reality of its weak financial state, with the unfortunate result that development of AA Amigas was delayed while management figured out what they could afford to produce. So the A500 was replaced with the ECS A500 Plus 'as planned', and the 'lower-end' (but not) ECS A600 was produced soon after, when the A1200 should have filled both roles. If anything, Lew Eggebrecht did more to cause that debacle than prevent it. In the end though, the A1200 came out only a few months after it was originally planned to, and with more stuff in it. Considering how Commodore almost never managed to release a model on time anyway (a problem many companies have), the A1200 wasn't far off the mark. (BTW just so you know, I had to type those quotes from Brian Bagnall's book out by hand, and I am not a fast typist. This post took over 2 hours to create!) ![]() |
|||||
![]() |
![]() |
#5089 | |
Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: Hastings, New Zealand
Posts: 2,713
|
Quote:
IMO the practice of showing retail prices without VAT/GST was borderline fraud. In that advert I clipped the price from for example, the inclusion of the actual price only in fine print in a magazine catering to consumers would not be acceptable today. |
|
![]() |
![]() |
#5090 | ||||||||
Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2020
Location: Sydney/Australia
Posts: 1,021
|
Quote:
2. The PC's partitioned graphics architecture allowed the PC platform to evolve. This factor benefits the customer. 3. IBM's imposed second source insurance (e.g. AMD) allowed X86 to continue against Intel's IA-64. Second-source insurance works as intended and reduces platform-ending risk. This factor benefits the customer. 4. There are good ideas from IBM PGC i.e. 256 colors 640x480p use case and VGA-like monitor. The development for IBM PGC is helpful for its designer to gain experience and continue SUN GX R&D and ultimately, co-founded NVIDIA. With minor tweaks, a PGC monitor can used as a VGA monitor. VGA monitor standard was cloned. 256 colors use case was resued for 1986 MCGA, 1987 VGA, and 8514. IBM has a solid 256-color use case. IBM PGC has a 4096 color palette like NEC's ?PD7220 for PC-98 (1982). The Amiga's 4096 color palette wasn't original. Jay Miner has a "workstation graphics for the masses" approach. 5. IBM EGA tried hardware C2P experience led to VGA's chunky pixels. VGA standard was cloned. Quote:
A3000's four TTL bridge chips were integrated into Bridgette and Budgie. Gary evolved into Gayle, AA Gayle, and Akiko (which includes Budgie). Gary evolved into Fat Gary. Quote:
Quote:
AA Lisa's double pumps (64-bit memory access on the 32-bit bus) 3.5 Mhz which is 140 ns read/write cycle and about 7 Mhz effective. With 4X bandwidth for Lisa, double scan resolution modes like 640x400p/640x512p 256 colors are similar to entry-level SVGA's 640x480p 256 colors. AA Alice is for backward compatibility with DSP3210 as a new object manipulator. The 32-bit memory controller is Ramsey and it was subsumed into Budgie. 68020/68EC020, 68030/68EC030, and DSP3210 have hardware barrel shifters. CPUFastBilt can exceed Alice's legacy Blitter (3.5 Mhz 16-bit, 7MB/s, roughly equivalent to 7 MIPS 8bit or 3.5 MIPS 16bit or 1.75 MIPS 32bit). Stock A1200's 68EC020 has 1.35 MIPS. Bilt workload, stock A1200's gimped 68EC020 is 47% of Alice Blitter. https://techmonitor.ai/technology/mo...eap_68000_line Date: April 24, 1991 Motorola releases 68EC020-16 for $15 and 68EC020-25 for $19 for lots of 10,000. Samples in April 1991 and volumes in the next quarter i.e. June-Aug 1991. AA500 with 68EC020-16, AGA, Ramsey, Fat Gary (8 address lines wouldn't be used), 4 TTLs bridge (combined as Bridgette) chips could be configured quickly. Not factoring the Amiga, no other post-16 bit games bias platforms will be depending on Motorola's 68K math power e.g. Sega rejected 68030 and selected SuperH2, 3DO selected ARM60, Sony selected MIPS and Nintendo selected MIPS. For CD32's FMV module, Commodore selected CL450's MIPS-X CPU in a limited use case. Quote:
VideoToaster has 24-bit graphics and it wasn't general purpose for the Amiga. Due to the PC's partitioned graphics architecture, VGA's 256 colors become the baseline standard. PC VGA clones acted like Commodore's cost reduction team for IBM. IBM was fabricating ET4000 chips. Quote:
A Buster-like function needs to be included due to PCMCIA (via Gayle) and needs byte-swap. This leads to Budgie and AA Gayle results. Quote:
Quote:
1. Lew Eggebrecht wasn't in the hot seat. Bill Sydnes has the hot seat. Who demanded for IDE? Hint: Commodore Germany. 2. You're forgetting that the year 1992 was a large financial blow due to double debacles from A600's release and A500 cancellation. This is Bill Sydnes factor! 3. Fact: Bill Sydnes is the person who was fired by Ali, NOT Lew Eggebrecht. 4. AA3000+ and A1000+ AA projects were frozen for "more than 6 months" to focus on the ECS adventures i.e. A1000Jr and A300(A600). This is the Bill Sydnes factor! AA3000+ revision 1 reached surface-mounted chip design before being frozen. "A1000Jr" refers to Bill Sydnes. "More than 6 months" wasn't used to complete AA machines. AA3000+ is the prototype AA. "A1000Jr" did NOT include Gayle or AA-Gayle and Budgie since they were NOT completed in 1991. AA-Gayle is dependent on A300's Gayle R&D. Last edited by hammer; 14 June 2024 at 17:59. |
||||||||
![]() |
![]() |
#5091 | |
Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2020
Location: Sydney/Australia
Posts: 1,021
|
Quote:
For gamers, you're selling "dreams". Commodore's Amiga platform either delivers the "full 32-bit, texture mapped 3D" gaming experience or competes against low-cost SNES's strong 2D. Commodore's bad actions caused the Amiga to be pushed out of the gaming market and the Amiga didn't have Apple's business (non-gaming) customer size to remain economically viable. There's no sugarcoating this fact, but it didn't stop Raspberry Pi from creating its semi-custom ARM-based platform and establishing a new customer base. There is no Michael Abrash-like advocate for the Amiga's optimized C2P advocacy from 1991 to 1995 time period. I can name names who didn't open-source their recent open-source ports. PS; Emu68 with RPi3 has its 1st 3D accelerated Warp3D library. Last edited by hammer; Today at 05:05. |
|
![]() |
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 2 (1 members and 1 guests) | |
Locutus |
Thread Tools | |
![]() |
||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
A1200 RF module removal pics + A1200 chips overview | eXeler0 | Hardware pics | 2 | 08 March 2017 00:09 |
Sale - 2 auctions: A1200 mobo + flickerfixer & A1200 tower case w/ kit | blakespot | MarketPlace | 0 | 27 August 2015 18:50 |
For Sale - A1200/A1000/IndiAGA MkII/A1200 Trapdoor Ram & Other Goodies! | fitzsteve | MarketPlace | 1 | 11 December 2012 10:32 |
Trading A1200 030 acc and A1200 indivision for Amiga stuff | 8bitbubsy | MarketPlace | 17 | 14 December 2009 21:50 |
Trade Mac g3 300/400 or A1200 for an A1200 accellerator | BiL0 | MarketPlace | 0 | 07 June 2006 17:41 |
|
|