19 May 2024, 04:01 | #4481 |
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The important thing is that the A1200 was not MPC compatible. Even if you could make the argument that it's MPC1 at least for sound, though this kind of skips the fact that CD Audio would probably be 16bit 44100. Levels MPC Level 1 The first MPC minimum standard, set in 1991, was:
MPC Level 2 In 1993, an MPC Level 2 minimum standard was announced:
MPC Level 3 In 1996, MPC Level 3 was announced:
But nope, even for MPC1, you needed a 386SX. Again A1200 fails. |
19 May 2024, 04:12 | #4482 | |||||
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Jack Tramiel pulled another "Plus4 vs C64" product segmentation with the Atari TOS platform. Jack Tramiel doesn't understand 3rd party games software development. The record speaks for itself, Atari ST/MegaST/STe/TT/Falcon has about 2 million install base and this is on Jack Tramiel! Quote:
The nature of Amiga is governed by Commodore's Amiga AutoConfig. Quote:
AMOS The Complier was released later. Quote:
Amiga's 68060 experience started in 1995. Without the 68040 socket being mass-produced for the baseline Amiga, the 68060 had an uncompetitive platform price. $100 68EC040/68EC060 with a working 68030-style cache control would be nice for the Amiga. For Motorola, the BOM cost is the same for 68EC060 and the full 68060. Motorola made MMU a premium product segmentation while the X86 competition has MMU as a guaranteed standard. ARMv4T integrated MMU has a very low cost. For PalmOS 5 handhelds, ARM925T (ARMv4T) CPU has integrated MMU with 120 to 144 Mhz clock speed displaced Freescale's 68000-based Dragon Ball @ 33 Mhz. Motorola/Freescale lost the smart handheld market to ARM. Quote:
When Amiga's best revenue years are in 1990 and 1991, managing the next-generation hardware switch is very important. This is balanced with criticism against A3000's aging ECS hardware during its 1990s release. The key question is, how would you manage this situation? ------------------------------- According to Dataquest November 1989, VGA crossed more than 50 percent market share in 1989 i.e. 56%. http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/c...lysis_1989.pdf Low-End PC Graphics Market Share by Standard Type Estimated Worldwide History and Forecast Total low-end PC graphic chipset shipment history and forecast 1987 = 9.2. million, VGA 16.4% market share i.e. 1.5088 million VGA. 1988 = 11.1 million, VGA 34.2% i.e. 1.51 million VGA. 1989 = 13.7 million, VGA 54.6% i.e. 3.80 million VGA. 1990 = 14.3 million, VGA 66.4% i.e. 9.50 million VGA. 1991 = 15.8 million, VGA 76.6% i.e. 12.10 million VGA. 1992 = 16.4 million, VGA 84.2% i.e. 13.81 million VGA. 1993 = 18.3 million, VGA 92.4% i.e. 16.9 million VGA. PC owners with full 32-bit X86 CPU who didn't have VGA, they have the option to upgrade to a cost-competitive VGA card. Last edited by hammer; 19 May 2024 at 04:50. |
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19 May 2024, 04:14 | #4483 | |
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Meanwhile the Amiga had 4 channel PCM sound from day one in 1985. The release of the Ultimate Sound Tracker in 1987 gave Amiga music a big boost in quality and variety. By 1990 when the Sound Blaster was starting to become popular on PCs, the Amiga was already blowing it away. Paula didn't receive any updates in 1992, but it didn't need any. The A1200's extra Chip RAM and faster CPU could do more with it. More importantly it maintained the standard sound format so users of older Amigas wouldn't miss out. None of the 'awesome sound but only if you have an MT-32' (which cost $550.00 in 1988) nonsense that occurred on PCs! |
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19 May 2024, 04:21 | #4484 | |
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MPC recommendations are for X86 PC clones. Apple roughly follows it. 1993 released CD32 roughly follows the 1991 MPC Level 1 i.e. 2 years late. During CD32's development, Commodore UK MD and Psygnosis wanted to upgrade CD32 with a "minimal marginal cost increase". CD32's FMV module wasn't designed as a CPU/DSP accelerator for Amiga 3D games. Commodore had made sure that no out-of-the-box A1200/CD32 configuration would step on Commodore's full 32-bit PC's price and performance market placement. Last edited by hammer; 19 May 2024 at 05:02. |
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19 May 2024, 04:23 | #4485 | |
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Your New Zealand's weak currency experience sucks. FYI, I selected the A500 in 1989 for "bang per buck" relative to 1989 PCs. A1200 is in the 1991 to 1994 context. Major Commodore national subsidiaries survived Commodore International's April 1994 bankruptcy. Last edited by hammer; 19 May 2024 at 04:32. |
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19 May 2024, 04:24 | #4486 | ||
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So any argument that starts with 'MPC compatibility' is silly. But then, Quote:
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19 May 2024, 04:30 | #4487 |
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My A4000 is somewhere between MPC2&3.
It can run dos stuff somewhere between faster than a 486x and close to a Pentium. It has a DVD drive, it doesn't have MPEG-1 hardware playback but it can play MPEG-1 in software at full speed. 16-bit 44100 audio, yada yada. Video system that can show 352×240 at 30 frames per second, 16-bit color, pshaw, when it was just an A4000/040 stock, it could do that at 18-bit color. |
19 May 2024, 04:33 | #4488 | |
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19 May 2024, 04:40 | #4489 | |
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19 May 2024, 04:57 | #4490 |
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I'm pretty sure it wasn't only NZers who thought paying US$550.00 just to get reasonable sound was outrageous. Maybe rich Americans could afford it, but that uncovers another unpalatable fact - the majority of Americans couldn't. Only the huge population (compared to countries like New Zealand) made it look like PCs were a more popular household item there.
During the 1990's income inequality in the US increased. In 1990 the bottom 50% only earned 17.5% of the total (compared to 22% in Europe). By 1999 that had decreased to 15.5%. In 1992 over 20 million Americans needed food stamps to survive. They probably couldn't even afford $199 for an SNES. |
19 May 2024, 05:05 | #4491 | |
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If my family was a single platform focus, it would be 486 gaming PC just like my many other school friends' PCs. https://i.ibb.co/0QfMNRb/APC-Nov-1993-prices-ET4000.png Sound Blaster 2.0 has $135 AUD retail price. Sound Blaster Pro has $220 AUD. Sound Blaster 16 has $360 AUD. Last edited by hammer; 19 May 2024 at 05:13. |
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19 May 2024, 05:21 | #4492 | |
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But why would you do that when there was a native Amiga version? I think they did a pretty reasonable job of converting the colors from 256 to 32. Unfortunately the game itself sucked, both on the Amiga and the PC. |
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19 May 2024, 05:25 | #4493 | |
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19 May 2024, 05:37 | #4494 | |
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For even more 'fun' try it on a 386SX-16 with no sound card. I am going to do that as soon as I figure out how to get Doom onto my retro PC. Doom with PC speaker sound [ Show youtube player ] |
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19 May 2024, 05:46 | #4495 | |
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MT-32 was a luxury solution, same as GUS, and 98% of PC users were perfectly content with Soundblaster-level quality. Nobody was "outraged" about it. |
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19 May 2024, 05:56 | #4496 | |
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In fact, I played multum of awesome Amiga games such as Monkey Island, EotB, BaSS, Neuromancer etc with minimal sound too. Trying to make out as if it's an absolute deal breaker is just silly. |
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19 May 2024, 07:23 | #4497 | |
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The diagram you refer to isn't exactly 'wrong', but could be misinterpreted. The two DAC channels sharing a stereo output are wired in parallel so their currents add. The output signal is the sum of currents in each of the two DACs. That's what this diagram is supposed to show, though it is somewhat ambiguous. However on page 13 it says:- Audio Block: - 4 channels - each channel has its DMA, DATA, FREQ, VOL REGISTERS - D to A CONVERTER If I was designing Paula, and assuming I had 2 pins spare, I would bring out each channel separately so they could be mixed externally. However the original Paula did not have any spare pins, in fact it didn't have enough - which is why an external MUX was used on the joystick ports. PLCC Paula (used in the A600/A1200/A4000) does have spare pins, but redesigning the chip to make this minor change would not have been easy since it was laid out by hand. Rumour has it that they were working on an improved Paula for the A1200, but couldn't get it finished in time. I'm guessing the improvement had to do with something else though, perhaps a buffered serial port and/or HD disk data. My solution to the 'Paula is outdated' complaint would be to give the Amiga what the Sound Blaster had that it lacked - a synth chip. Adding an OPL chip would have been a piece of cake. I am thinking of doing this myself via the clock port or even the parallel port (since I don't use a printer anymore). I see someone has already done it for the PC! |
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19 May 2024, 07:28 | #4498 | |
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19 May 2024, 07:42 | #4499 |
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19 May 2024, 07:55 | #4500 | ||
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But hey, "reason #15 that I was disappointed with the A1200, more people had PCs!" Quote:
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