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[NovaCoder]

I always thought the the Natami scope was way too large, better to aim for something like the FPGA Arcade (and because it's FPGA based, expand it after it is released).

Talking of the FPGA Arcade....are we there yet????

[Digiman]

I can't spend £400-450 on an FPGA Amiga.

The reason is classic 2D Amiga games all run the same whether you have an 060 or a 7mhz 68000.

I'm not even sure how much FPGA Arcade or Minimig costs but to be honest this whole FPGA thing is a dead end unless Jeri Ellsworth mass produces her system for the equivalent of £50 it's just not worth it.

Probably be a better idea to make this 68050 FPGA softcore into an accelerator and sell it for £150-200 for high sales volume.

(Sorry if this offends people, just my opinion given how good WinUAE is)

[darkage]

Originally Posted by Digiman

I'm not even sure how much FPGA Arcade or Minimig costs but to be honest this whole FPGA thing is a dead end unless Jeri Ellsworth mass produces her system for the equivalent of £50 it's just not worth it.

Amiga is a bit more complex than a C64 in a joystick... Im sure the higher costs involved reflect alot of R&D time, etc... I think FPGA Arcade is around the $500USD markish cant remember.. but at least its not a CUSA $2000 jobbie which is just a regular PCcceee!

Just my thoughts..

[psxphill]

Originally Posted by darkage

Amiga is a bit more complex than a C64 in a joystick... Im sure the higher costs involved reflect alot of R&D time, etc...

Jeri had already done alot of the work for the C-One before the DTV. So most of the R&D time had already been paid for or written off. It probably wouldn't have happened if they'd had to pay her for all her time up front.

The C64 was a much better known computer than the Amiga, so the cost of hardening the design into an ASIC and mass production was worth it. I don't think we'll see the situation repeated.

[persia]

Personally I don't need hardware based emulation, I'd rather put all my money in one powerful machine and run other systems virtually.....

[desiv]

The interesting thing is that now, with smart phones and tablets and the WEB all over, I find myself using my "computers" less and less (not counting work of course).

I still watch videos and such, but my tablet does that.
I'm not a serious FPS gamer, so that doesn't bother me.
I don't do anything that requires a graphics/sound/video workstation.

So, I've found that with my tablet sitting by me, I use my older computers much more than I use to...

It's funny too, one of the things I use my tablet for most (or the laptop, I haven't even turned on the desktop in months and months) is Amiga forums.

Honestly, if there was a 68k Amiga fast enough to support a decent web browser, I'd do that much more. I'd rather use my Amiga for browsing rather than the tablet.
In fact, I do going to Aminet and eabmobile. The Amiga.org proxy is OK, but not quite good enough on my 1230/28.

So, a 68k Amiga running near 100Mhz, especially with Picasso emulation and more CHIP RAM, I could see being very useful..
The Natami extras sound really great, but I'm not sure they'd be worth much more to someone like me....

Ideally, a really fast FPGA Arcade that fit inside an Amiga case using an Amiga keyboard and floppy, but with some expanded graphics... That would be very very very tempting... ;-)

I can see Natami doing that perfectly also, but the cost might be too much for me..

desiv

[koaftder]

Natami is a monumental waste of time. Nerd trophy at best, monument to the square wheel at worst.

[arttu80]

Originally Posted by koaftder

Natami is a monumental waste of time. Nerd trophy at best, monument to the square wheel at worst.

A square wheel with wings so it might fly, so no use for that square wheel. It's quite clear, by the way, you don't need one, but some of us will love to use that "old" new piece of technology which resembles true Amiga. Not all of computing needs are based on MIPS and FPS stuff, I think.

[OlafS3]

it is a waste time as all the PPC based systems are. It is a fun thing and some would have liked to use it. Hobby, perhaps nostalgic to a certain degree. If we all would be "rational" we all would not be here :-).

[B00tDisk]

Originally Posted by arttu80

A square wheel with wings so it might fly, so no use for that square wheel. It's quite clear, by the way, you don't need one, but some of us will love to use that "old" new piece of technology which resembles true Amiga. Not all of computing needs are based on MIPS and FPS stuff, I think.

...which is an odd thing to say, since the Amiga has had accelerator cards from day one, and since 1993 and the release of DOOM, Amigans have been saying "We can do that! We can do that!"

[wrath of khan]

the thing is that it's all very vague over on the natami forums.Are the rest of the team still involved in the creation of the natami or is it just thomas the hardware guy working completely alone? can one man however skilled realistically develop such a system on his own?I ask cos I don't know.A little clarity would go a long way about such matters.Obviously the team don't have to divulge anything private just some clarification as to what is happening.

[commodorejohn]

Originally Posted by koaftder

Natami is a monumental waste of time. Nerd trophy at best, monument to the square wheel at worst.

Yeah, so? Plenty of enjoyable things in life aren't useful in a strict efficiency sense, doesn't make them not worthwhile, unless you're a joyless loser who thinks of "fun" as a waste of time.

[billt]

Originally Posted by wrath of khan

can one man however skilled realistically develop such a system on his own?I ask cos I don't know.

Minimig was done by one man working alone, I think that serves as some sort of proof that yes this is possible and past-tense. MikeJ Is doing yet another FPGA board all alone, and working on various cores to put into it. Natami is any different? Yet another another FPGA board with yet another Amiga core in it... Didn't Jens pretty much complete Clone-A, but wasn't satisfied that AI could legitimately license him to sell it as a full system? These guys are not Mick Tinker...

[B00tDisk]

Honestly, if it's a faster Amiga blitter with more chip-RAM you're after, WinUAE is the way to go. If it's all that plus you want "the feel of hardware on real 68k processors" FPGA-Arcade is the way to go. If you've gotta have all of that and don't want to spend the bank, Mini-Mig.

I think Natami may wind up going the way of Mick Tinker's project(s), which while a shame is just kind of the way it goes.

[haywirepc]

After years and years of teases,updates, changes, still no release date. I don't think it will ever happen. I was interested in this, until I realized I could simply remove windows shell and boot straight to os3.x with winuae.

That 3ghz pc cost me 30$ on ebay. And its here right now.