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[Rant] Amiga/Elate programs on other platformsANN.lu
Posted on 13-Feb-2000 10:00 GMT by Christian Kemp14 comments
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Troels Ersking sent a mail which might start an interesting discussion. Basically, he's taking the idea of Amiga games shipping with UAE and therefore running on almost all platforms to the next level... Click below to read his opinion and leave any comments you might have. I remember a guy who some time ago suggested to ship new games with WinUAE so that it could be played on every PC and by that way create a larger market for the Amiga developers. Most people (including me) said it was a crazy idea as WinUAE was running to slow/unstable and needed diffrent configs on diffrent systems.

I have been thinking of it for a while now and if the new OS Elate (or whatever it will be called) is stable and fast enough, why not ship all new Amiga software with the "hosted" version of it on the CD (with some auto install software).

Lets say Amiga Corp. gave the hosted version away for free to registered developers (or got a small royalty:-), then developers would suddenly be able to do a real multiplatform program with a huge potential userbase and increased sale.

At the same time we would have more attention at the new native version of Elate/Amiga and hopefully lots of good software.

The basic thing is that (I guess?) Elate is so small that a normal PC owner would not even notice it was installed with this new multiplatform program/game he just bought.

Could this be a way to get Amiga software to sell in large numbers, from the local shop once again??? What do you think?

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Comment 1Colin Wilson12-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Comment 2Not me12-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Comment 3Mark Olsen12-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Comment 4Tony Gore12-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Comment 5Troels Ersking12-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Amiga/Elate programs on other platforms : Comment 6 of 14ANN.lu
Posted by Mike Bouma on 12-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
> I remember a guy who some time ago suggested to ship new games with WinUAE so
> that it could be played on every PC and by that way create a larger market
> for the Amiga developers.
That would have been me.. I suggested this regarding to the Classic 68k AmigaOS. There is a huge legacy of good 68k Amiga software. Modern computers have such fast processors they can actually be fast enough to emulate an Amiga at good speeds regardless of their inferior architectures, Bloatware operation systems and a relative slow (to assembly) C based UAE.
> Most people (including me) said it was a crazy idea as WinUAE was running to
> slow/unstable and needed diffrent configs on diffrent systems.
Depends upon what kind of requirements these games have. For instance any A500 game could easily be emulated at full speed on any modern desktop computer. And UAE is stable enough for playing A500 games. The stability of more demanding games will improve as well. A top specs system together with Picasso drivers for 68k AmigaOS is even very usable for doing stuff with Workbench and give acces to the many cool stuff on aminet. Bundle UAE with 68k AmigaOS3.5+ (open sourced?) and you would have a great product for people with Nostalgia and others that want value for their money and like to investigate: "what was so good about the Amiga platform?".
> I have been thinking of it for a while now and if the new OS Elate (or
> whatever it will be called) is stable and fast enough, why not ship all new
> Amiga software with the "hosted" version of it on the CD (with some auto
> install software).
I think it will be stable (and fast) enough, Amiga/Tao Group are first targetting x86 and PPC based platforms. But remember it`s a huge task to fully support all diferent graphic chipsets, so Amiga will probably give some recommendations for a new platform that has already been tested or that we can test ourselves and help them to make it super stable.
Including a hosted version is a good idea for as long as Amiga and Tao can make enough money from it. This looks alot like my original idea, to include a classic kickstart ROM with 68k Amiga games/UAE, but the difference is that if AmigaOS would be open source and freely available, it wouldn`t cost developers a dime.
> Lets say Amiga Corp. gave the hosted version away for free to registered
> developers (or got a small royalty:-), then developers would suddenly be able
> to do a real multiplatform program with a huge potential userbase and
> increased sale.
How about if these developers also include a :"Only Amiga makes it possible! www.amiga.com" sign on the box. And adding some preview commercial MPGs explaining the benefits of using the new AmigaOS on the CD/DVD. :)
Sincerely, Mike Bouma.
http://www.stormloader.com/amiga
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List of all comments to this article (continued)
Comment 7XDelusion12-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Comment 8XDelusion12-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Comment 9XDelusion13-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Comment 10SClarke66@AOL.com14-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Comment 11Mike Bouma14-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Comment 12Phill14-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Comment 13Tummy15-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
Comment 14Troels Ersking15-Feb-2000 23:00 GMT
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