5 ms·

Apollo Team Announces the (Amiga) Vampire V4

59 points by erickhill 9y ago

amiga-workbench 9y ago
Always nice to see new hardware development for the Amiga, but I really do wonder what everybody is running on hardware that powerful. Personally I don't have any interest in the newer OS's and software and I have my A1200 running 3.1 with a Blizzard 1230 IV accelerator, it handles the classics flawlessly and I've got enough RAM for WHDload now.
- ZenoArrow 9y ago
  There are quite a few videos on YouTube showing people doing different things with Vampire accelerators, just search for "Vampire Amiga". So far the most technically impressive is probably the video player (technically impressive considering the hardware it's running on). Also, whilst the A1200 had a decent range of accelerators released for it, it wasn't the same for the A500 and A600. My personal favourite demo is this Cannnonball video. Cannonball is basically an open-source engine for Outrun. Aside from needing to create an Amiga version of the soundtrack, the game runs fairly smoothly without modifications: http://youtu.be/NWLztVtxJuU http://youtu.be/NWLztVtxJuU For comparison, this is the original Amiga port: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eOGxxYm4z5I https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eOGxxYm4z5I The best Outrun-style games for the Amiga before now was probably the Lotus series: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SUoVoCc04GA https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SUoVoCc04GA
- rasz 9y ago
  SYSINFO, that is the sole purpose of Amiga hardware accelerators these days.
ZenoArrow 9y ago
To anyone unfamiliar with previous releases of the Vampire, they're the fastest Motorola 68K compatible accelerators for the classic Amiga (there were some PowerPC-based accelerators for the classic Amiga, not sure how they stack up against the Vampire in terms of performance). The main news here is the standalone Vampire board (previous versions of the Vampire would need a classic Amiga to plug into, the older versions sat on top of the existing CPU, intercepting the power and data intended for the existing CPU, the name 'Vampire' is a play on this parasitic approach).
- LordKano 9y ago
  I have wanted to get and setup an Amiga to play some old games again on real hardware but I can't bring myself to pay that much money.
  - ZenoArrow 9y ago
    Looking on eBay it seems you can get an A500 for about £100. If you were looking for a machine on the cheap you could stick with the 0.5MB expansion that most of them have, or perhaps go for a cheap accelerator. The cheapest I know of is the TerribleFire range, which are all open-source (self-assembly required unless you can find someone to build one for you). The TF530 would be a decent upgrade, not would you have an 030 for playing some of the more demanding OCS games you'd also be able to store your games on CompactFlash storage: https://github.com/terriblefire/tf530 https://github.com/terriblefire/tf530 Talking of the TerribleFire, the developer posts video blogs of their development on YouTube, it's fun to follow along if you're into retro hardware. His latest board is a CD32 expansion he designed the PCB for in a weekend! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu4uiUtALy1ILAxNh7TGsmQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu4uiUtALy1ILAxNh7TGsmQ
  - erickhill 9y ago
    For the highest compatibility and lowest $, a 500 running 1.3 is really the best bet. If you really get into it, there are harddrive options (including somewhat modern ones) that make life a lot easier. But it doesn't have to be expensive.
    - LordKano 9y ago
      I was introduced to the Amiga 2000 back in high school. That's where I have always started my search but the 500 might not be a bad re-introduction.
wmf 9y ago
GraphQL adoption has been really held back by the lack of Amiga support, so this is the final... wait.
protomyth 9y ago
68080? had to look that up: http://www.apollo-core.com/ http://www.apollo-core.com/
- ZenoArrow 9y ago
  Yeah, they've got their own 68k-compatible CPU design.
kingmanaz 9y ago
Find it amazing that my thirty-year old A2000 is still being developed for, both software and hardware. Here's hoping AmigaOS 3.1 developers somehow get Firefox (or another HTML5 browser) ported once these FPGA accelerators become more common. Would love to watch Netflix with my son from my childhood Amiga.
- erickhill 9y ago
  > Here's hoping AmigaOS 3.1 developers somehow get Firefox (or another HTML5 browser) ported once these FPGA accelerators become more common. I think the honest problem is 3.1 is locked down, really. It's not ever been open sourced, just reverse engineered (see AROS, MorphOS, AmigaOS 4.1). I've not heard of a single instance where the 3.9 or 4.1 users feel they have a viable, modern system they can realistically use. 4.1 works on PPC hardware for goodness sake. How old is that? Just being real. Much of this has to do with software support (lack thereof) as well as driver support. Hang on to that 2000. And enjoy it. But I wouldn't try and push it into "modern" daily driver use. Ideally I think the OS(es) in dev today would all work together with the hardware teams and go the route Linux took. Let Hyperion et al continue to package up software and sell it commercially (like RedHat). But open source the Amiga OS and let the community run with it. Make it a "real" and a viable alternative. It's just a complete and utter mess in the meantime. And getting all of the current parties to talk and work with each other...
  - rvense 9y ago
    3.9 and 4.1 are actually based on the real Amiga sources AFAIK.
    - cable2600 9y ago
      I heard there was some lawsuit between companies over AmigaOS. The AROS is based on AmigaOS 3.1 API calls and some version of AmigaOS 3.x or 4.x used source code from AROS etc. I am not 100% certain of that, the websites that reported it are down. The guy who wrote the AmigaOS 3.x API calls got upset that someone scanned his book into a PDF file and pirated it. So he didn't make an AmigaOS 4.x API calls and without knowing them it is hard to make Amiga 4.x apps. AROS made their own Kickstart ROM for Classic Amigas to run AROS on Classic Amigas. Since AROS supports networking it is possible to rig up some sort of Internet connection and port a web browser to it. Amiga Forever is worth it for the ROM images and Kickstart disks to run Workbench and other things.

59 points by erickhill 9y ago

Always nice to see new hardware development for the Amiga, but I really do wonder what everybody is running on hardware that powerful. Personally I don't have any interest in the newer OS's and software and I have my A1200 running 3.1 with a Blizzard 1230 IV accelerator, it handles the classics flawlessly and I've got enough RAM for WHDload now.

ZenoArrow 9y ago
There are quite a few videos on YouTube showing people doing different things with Vampire accelerators, just search for "Vampire Amiga". So far the most technically impressive is probably the video player (technically impressive considering the hardware it's running on). Also, whilst the A1200 had a decent range of accelerators released for it, it wasn't the same for the A500 and A600. My personal favourite demo is this Cannnonball video. Cannonball is basically an open-source engine for Outrun. Aside from needing to create an Amiga version of the soundtrack, the game runs fairly smoothly without modifications: http://youtu.be/NWLztVtxJuU http://youtu.be/NWLztVtxJuU For comparison, this is the original Amiga port: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eOGxxYm4z5I https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eOGxxYm4z5I The best Outrun-style games for the Amiga before now was probably the Lotus series: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SUoVoCc04GA https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SUoVoCc04GA
rasz 9y ago
SYSINFO, that is the sole purpose of Amiga hardware accelerators these days.

ZenoArrow 9y ago

To anyone unfamiliar with previous releases of the Vampire, they're the fastest Motorola 68K compatible accelerators for the classic Amiga (there were some PowerPC-based accelerators for the classic Amiga, not sure how they stack up against the Vampire in terms of performance). The main news here is the standalone Vampire board (previous versions of the Vampire would need a classic Amiga to plug into, the older versions sat on top of the existing CPU, intercepting the power and data intended for the existing CPU, the name 'Vampire' is a play on this parasitic approach).

LordKano 9y ago
I have wanted to get and setup an Amiga to play some old games again on real hardware but I can't bring myself to pay that much money.
- ZenoArrow 9y ago
  Looking on eBay it seems you can get an A500 for about £100. If you were looking for a machine on the cheap you could stick with the 0.5MB expansion that most of them have, or perhaps go for a cheap accelerator. The cheapest I know of is the TerribleFire range, which are all open-source (self-assembly required unless you can find someone to build one for you). The TF530 would be a decent upgrade, not would you have an 030 for playing some of the more demanding OCS games you'd also be able to store your games on CompactFlash storage: https://github.com/terriblefire/tf530 https://github.com/terriblefire/tf530 Talking of the TerribleFire, the developer posts video blogs of their development on YouTube, it's fun to follow along if you're into retro hardware. His latest board is a CD32 expansion he designed the PCB for in a weekend! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu4uiUtALy1ILAxNh7TGsmQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu4uiUtALy1ILAxNh7TGsmQ
- erickhill 9y ago
  For the highest compatibility and lowest $, a 500 running 1.3 is really the best bet. If you really get into it, there are harddrive options (including somewhat modern ones) that make life a lot easier. But it doesn't have to be expensive.
  - LordKano 9y ago
    I was introduced to the Amiga 2000 back in high school. That's where I have always started my search but the 500 might not be a bad re-introduction.

wmf 9y ago

GraphQL adoption has been really held back by the lack of Amiga support, so this is the final... wait.

protomyth 9y ago

68080? had to look that up: http://www.apollo-core.com/ http://www.apollo-core.com/

ZenoArrow 9y ago
Yeah, they've got their own 68k-compatible CPU design.

kingmanaz 9y ago

Find it amazing that my thirty-year old A2000 is still being developed for, both software and hardware. Here's hoping AmigaOS 3.1 developers somehow get Firefox (or another HTML5 browser) ported once these FPGA accelerators become more common. Would love to watch Netflix with my son from my childhood Amiga.

erickhill 9y ago
> Here's hoping AmigaOS 3.1 developers somehow get Firefox (or another HTML5 browser) ported once these FPGA accelerators become more common. I think the honest problem is 3.1 is locked down, really. It's not ever been open sourced, just reverse engineered (see AROS, MorphOS, AmigaOS 4.1). I've not heard of a single instance where the 3.9 or 4.1 users feel they have a viable, modern system they can realistically use. 4.1 works on PPC hardware for goodness sake. How old is that? Just being real. Much of this has to do with software support (lack thereof) as well as driver support. Hang on to that 2000. And enjoy it. But I wouldn't try and push it into "modern" daily driver use. Ideally I think the OS(es) in dev today would all work together with the hardware teams and go the route Linux took. Let Hyperion et al continue to package up software and sell it commercially (like RedHat). But open source the Amiga OS and let the community run with it. Make it a "real" and a viable alternative. It's just a complete and utter mess in the meantime. And getting all of the current parties to talk and work with each other...
- rvense 9y ago
  3.9 and 4.1 are actually based on the real Amiga sources AFAIK.
  - cable2600 9y ago
    I heard there was some lawsuit between companies over AmigaOS. The AROS is based on AmigaOS 3.1 API calls and some version of AmigaOS 3.x or 4.x used source code from AROS etc. I am not 100% certain of that, the websites that reported it are down. The guy who wrote the AmigaOS 3.x API calls got upset that someone scanned his book into a PDF file and pirated it. So he didn't make an AmigaOS 4.x API calls and without knowing them it is hard to make Amiga 4.x apps. AROS made their own Kickstart ROM for Classic Amigas to run AROS on Classic Amigas. Since AROS supports networking it is possible to rig up some sort of Internet connection and port a web browser to it. Amiga Forever is worth it for the ROM images and Kickstart disks to run Workbench and other things.