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mattsoft

Posted Wed Dec 13, 2017 8:57 pm

My 2 cents -- I just don't get it.

Retro is cool because it's retro. When I use the Amiga, I'm "reliving" what it was like to compute back "in the good 'ol days". A modern reinterpretation of Amiga OS and hardware gives me nothing that Windows, Mac OS, or Ubuntu on x86-64 hardware doesn't already provide.

When the Amiga came out, it was truly revolutionary and special as a home computer. The graphics, the sound, the pre-emptive multitasking OS. All of that is standard (AND MORE) today.

So if you're going to make a modern Amiga and recapture imagination, it needs to be truly novel, not just some PPC pumped-up PC from 2005. Otherwise, I'll stick with my MacBook Pro for day-to-day computing, and my classic Amiga for weekend retro benders.

User avatar
pgovotsos

Posted Wed Dec 13, 2017 10:44 pm

The complaints about the high price of the new machines is something that never really made much sense to me. Sure, by today's standards it's a relatively wimpy system for the price but there are understandable reasons for it. The small production runs are never going to result in a low price. Small runs are all there can ever be these days. There aren't enough Amiga enthusiasts to even be called a niche community. It's a niche of a niche populated by the lunatic fringe. Sales in the hundreds and low thousands of each model is all there probably will ever be now. That's no way to achieve cheap systems.

Amigas, except for possibly the 500 to some degree, have always cost a lot of money. You got a lot for the money and in some cases more than you could get on other systems at any price in the days when PCs and Macs didn't have the features available at all.

I think some of us might have short memories of what it was like in the day. The desktop systems like the 3000 and 4000 are the comparable systems of the time. I just double checked the prices of them. The 3000 was $3,999 USD and the 4000 was $3,699 USD. At the time I was quite happy to pay that price for what I got. The price I paid today for an X1000 and X5000, to me, is just as much of a good deal. Obviously not everyone agrees with that :)

User avatar
ptyerman
Worksop/ UK

Posted Thu Dec 14, 2017 3:14 pm

I think a lot of it (calculated from what I've read over the years) comes down to most Amiga users don't agree with or want the PPC architecture. It always has been a expensive route to go down even though there wasn't much of a choice back then. Personally, I would have preferred a shift to MIPS back when it all happened because it was a much better CPU architecture than PPC, but I don't think it would have made any difference to the current price of things.
PPC is a dead end and who knows how long they will be available for? The choices shrink each year. It all boils down to what is left, x86 which MorphOS has stated it will move to, ARM which a lot are calling for, and a continuance of the 68k through FPGA.

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icbrkr
Particles! BBS

Posted Sat Mar 03, 2018 12:33 pm

I have a x5000, and I don't regret it.

I already have a high powered PC, Mac.. and now Amiga. The cost was a bit high, but at the same time, it's a pretty impressive piece of kit. I also have a thing for real hardware, not emulation, so this was the way to go for me.

Now normally if I went up to the wife and said .. hey, can I have $2k to build a machine? Well I know how'd that'd go. So I just went through my Attic Full of Crap (tm) and Ebay'd it. Had the money in a few weeks. I think I had over 100 auctions going.

It's $1500 for the board, $2000 for a case, 4GB of RAM, 2GB video card, a SSD drive, NIC, sound card and software - I loaded the thing up because I was only going to do this once.

At first it was pretty rocky since the included sound card was a buggy piece of crap. Then it was rocky again, because some keyboards don't work right. But 9 months in, its fun to use. I have it running on my 4k monitor, currrently at 2560 x ... 1440? I don't remember.

I also have a Amiga 4000T, but honestly, that probably cost me more in the long run than this thing. A 4000T isn't cheap, then I have the Cybervision 68060/66 in it... a Mediator board, Radeon card, USB, etc etc... trying to get all those drivers working right is a lesson in pain which is why I went this route.

User avatar
A1-X1000
Toronto, Canada

Posted Sat May 19, 2018 9:38 am

The Dhel wrote:....

This, A-EON, is NOT how to revive the AMIGA brand. This how you make a fool of yourself. And while I understand you want to be different and do your own thing, at that price only a very small percentage of computer buyers will be interested in your machines. But it seems there are those who do have way too much money to throw away… Good for you!
I'm sure you've heard about the funny things about 'opinions' ;) ..'make a fool of yourself' you say :roll:

A-Eon produced brand new hardware for amigans like me who had been waiting for many years for new dedicated PPC hardware to run my favourite OS. I was more than happy to purchase my AmigaONE X1000 when it came out and have used it every day since. The 'very small percentage of computer buyers' are AMIGA users and are spread all over the world and guess what...A-Eon sold out all the X1000's produced and there was still demand for more and that's why the X5000 series were made and yes sold.

Perhaps you're too young to remember the sad history of the many companies that promised to infintiy and never produced anything (or even when produced were plaugued with problems) after Commodores demise?

A-Eon produced and still produces quality dedicated hardware for AmigaOS and not to mention they sponsor many Amiga shows and support many developers world wide...I'm very happy and proud that they do this FOR US the Amiga users and community <3

User avatar
A1-X1000
Toronto, Canada

Posted Sat May 19, 2018 10:26 am

icbrkr wrote:I have a x5000, and I don't regret it.....

I also have a Amiga 4000T, but honestly, that probably cost me more in the long run than this thing. A 4000T isn't cheap, then I have the Cybervision 68060/66 in it... a Mediator board, Radeon card, USB, etc etc... trying to get all those drivers working right is a lesson in pain which is why I went this route.
+ 1 and I hear ya loud & clear :D My X1000 was dirt cheap compared to my souped up A4000 and 1200T !...I still have and love both of them but if I tallied up the bills to get them where they are today I'm pretty sure I could have taken a few good vacations and maybe bought a used car too :o BUT I had and still have fun with them and it was money I was more than happy to spend <3





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