Early in 2019, it became apparent that the retro-industrial complex had reached new highs of innovation and productivity. It was now possible to create entirely new Commdore 64s from scratch, thanks to the combined efforts of a series of disparate projects. It seems as if the best selling computer of all time may indeed live forever.
Naturally, this raises questions as to the C64’s proud successor, the Amiga. Due to a variety of reasons, it’s less likely we’ll see scratch-build Amiga 500s popping out of the woodwork anytime soon. Let’s look at what it would take, and maybe, just maybe, in a few years you’ll be firing up Lotus II (or, ideally, Jaguar XJ220: The Game) on your brand new rig running Workbench 1.3.
The Case For A Case
The first part you’ll need for a replica build is a case to put everything inside. This is at once the easiest or most difficult part to source, depending on your taste for authenticity. Unlike the C64, one can’t simply jump online and order a near-factory reproduction off the shelf. A project to produce lightly upgraded replica cases hit Indiegogo back in 2018, however, as yet, parts have not shipped to backers.
This leaves the budding builder to find a solution of their own. For the individual, creating injection molds and doing a production run is likely out of the question, but if you’ve got a spare million laying around, have at it. 3D printing is an option, of course. This would require the construction of an accurate 3D model, and would probably need to be printed in somewhere between many parts, depending on the size of your 3D printer. Significant work would be required in finishing too, to get a good-looking final result. Still, this is where we’d place our bets.
Another option could perhaps be doing a very large silicone cast to produce a copy of an original case. To achieve good results would require advanced skill, lots of experience, and high-end tooling. We personally haven’t seen this technique used on parts of such size, particularly with large flat surfaces which can be difficult to replicate. But if you felt like doing a run of a few cases at your home workshop, and have a year or two to spare, it could be a fun project.
The Motherboard
Next, you’ll need a motherboard. In this case, things are looking up – it’s possible to source a new A500+ PCB off Tindie, thanks to the hard work of [Bob’s Bits]. Called the A500++, it packs a few minor updates that improve the design for modern builds. This includes nice touches like having provision for a regular round DIN power connector instead of the original square part, and extra breakouts for pins often used with modern expansions. Others have done similar work in the past, albeit in limited private runs. There’s also a raw A500 board on PCBWay that is untested and seemingly missing some important routing, if you’d like to give it a shot.
Unfortunately, things get harder from there – and it’s all due to the magic that makes the Amiga great. Both the Commodore 64 and the Amiga relied heavily on custom silicon to give them a performance edge over their rivals in the marketplace. The former had its famous SID audio chip, along with a bunch of glue logic for peripherals and of course the VIC-II chip which handled video output. The Amiga, developed entirely independently by a startup bought out by Commodore, had Agnus, Paula and Denise, along with a smattering of others. These were broadly in charge of DMA, audio and video respectively, though in reality other functions were handled by the chips as well.
Being purpose-designed silicon ICs with a single application, these parts went out of production along with the computer itself. Some chips, like the VIDIOT IC, have been replicated by the community, and there are rumblings that Gary may have been replicated on a CPLD, too. For the big stars of the machine – Agnus, Paula, and Denise – the only viable source is harvesting chips from old machines or dwindling supplies of “new old stock”. This remains a major stumbling block for those attempting a new build.
These projects bring new power and capability to the Amiga platform, but tend to stray from the feel of the original machine due to their major differences in design. Nevertheless, work by [Jeri Ellsworth] as far back as 2004 suggests that implementing the OCS chipset in FPGA form is achievable. Her prototype hooked a single FPGA into a stock A500 motherboard, replacing all the custom chips except for Paula’s disk interface and the original 68000 CPU. The work was intended to lead to a follow up of the C64 DTV, but was abandoned to create a Williams arcade emulator instead. Snatching failure from the jaws of defeat – how very fitting for the Amiga story!
Peripherals
If you’ve got a new Amiga, you’ll need some peripherals, too. Mice are easy, with new, albeit anachronistic devices readily available. USB adpaters exist too if you simply can’t do without your 5000DPI Razer full of flashing LEDs.
Keyboards are a different story, and things get a little hazy. [Amiga On The Lake] has pre-orders open for a new Cherry MX-based keyboard that looks great, though we’re unsure how close the project is to shipment. It reportedly comes complete with keycaps and a USB interface for using it with alternative hardware, too. [A1200.net] have also shown off a prototype device, though again, it does not yet appear to be publically available. Their keycap color configuration tool for the A1200 is pretty boss, but actual product seems hard to come by.
As far as storage goes, original floppy drives are rare and getting rarer. Your best bet is instead to use something like a GoTek emulator instead. Alternatively, if you’ve got a SCSI interface lying around, the SCSI2SD is a great option, but this relies on more old hardware. Things will have to go pretty far before people start recreating the A590, we imagine.
In Summary
Overall, the idea of building a brand new Amiga 500 is a reach for even the most dedicated enthusiast. Before it’s easily doable for the average fan armed with a credit card, as it is with the C-64, there remains much work to be done. A reliable source of cases is needed, and significant holes in the supply of important parts need to be filled in.
There are a multitude of reasons why this is the case. The Amiga 500 never sold in the same numbers as the Commodore 64. The Amiga ecosystem is far more split, with the 500, 600, 1200, and even 2000/3000/4000 each having their own distinct fanbases. Thus, there are many smaller groups working on different projects, versus the Commodore 64, which has its whole community focusing its effort on recreating just one machine.
Achieving the feat is not impossible by any means. However, it will likely require the dedicated effort of a skilled few, along with a great deal of money to accomplish. It may be such that the Amiga fanbase is not quite strong enough to support the same level of aftermarket as the C64, but we remain hopeful. May those gorgeous 16-bit-ish machines once again rule the world!
Anyone else see that case in the top picture and think Tandy 1000?
My first two computers were a Tandy 1000 EX and then a Commodore Amiga 500. That case does not look like a Tandy. Tandy 1000 EX cases were much bulkier with rounded edges.
To be honest I never really liked the design of the A500. It was a bit of a boring colour, the plastic was really creaky and the drive didn’t fit quite right (depending on the actual brand of internal drive) so disks would get stuck sometimes.
I really loved the understated scifi look of the Atari ST, and the fit and finish was better too. However in terms of OS and custom silicon the Amiga was way ahead. Full pre-emptive multitasking when the PC was still on DOS and early cooperative Windows versions. And the games… Such a shame Commodore failed so badly in the end.
So, I had an Amiga even though my 8-bit was an Atari XL. Because specs matter, not looks :)
And the Amiga was the real spiritual successor to the XL thanks to Jay Miner leading both products
I guess I’m not the only one that misses the “click” after inserting a floppy.
I miss the sound of the plastic disks sliding together with the shuffle the 11 monkey island disks.
Also, nothing quite like getting far into beneath a steel sky only to have a read error on disk 15.
I HATE that damn clicking sound. Drives me nuts. As do scan lines. Ugh
Then you’re in luck. On Amiga emulators for PC you can add this drive clicking back with a menu click.
Actually, the click after inserting a floppy happens on all 3.5″ floppy drives.
The Amiga, however, kept stepping the head back and forth if no disk was inserted. Sound was more like *dk*…*dk*…*dk*…*dk*…*dk* until you inserted a floppy. Then it would go *dk*dk*dk*dk*dk*dk*…*groaak*grak*grak*grak*grak*grak*grak*…etc.
I have a very audual mind. :P
I used to think of it going, disk yet? …. disk yet? …. disk yet? … ddddiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSsssskkk!!!
oh but that allowed them to save 30 cents per every computer sold, what ingenuity!!1 … :/
” This would require the construction of an accurate 3D model, and would probably need to be printed in somewhere between many parts, depending on the size of your 3D printer. Significant work would be required in finishing too, to get a good-looking final result. Still, this is where we’d place our bets.”
Something like the Amiga 4000T would be easier.
I am thinking that accurate 3D models might have existed for a long time. Might need converting from Imagine, Cinebench or Lightwave format though. Amigas were THE 3D platform through the 90s, users would make models of what they liked. Of course all the internal structure stuff would need to be done to make it a 3D printable model, but the external shapes should be pretty good.
This is true. Imagine was available for both Windows and Amiga as abandonware for quite some time.Looks like the forum that hosted it is gone now. Back in it’s heyday I used it first on Amiga, then DOS, then finally Windows 95. Back then you could call software CEOs like Mike Halverson of Impulse and Martin Hash of Hash:Animation Master on the phone and have a good chat with them. I even helped write the user manual for the Windows version of Imagine. Also of interest, before the Video Toaster, Impulse made a consumer level personal animation recorder, and the first consumer level 3d digitizer which used Imagine for Amiga or DOS as an interface.
If anyone finds .iob or LW objects of Amiga cases I still have all those softwares to export them to objs . Hit me up.
There is definitely some available on Thingiverse, but I don’t know how correct scale or details are.
If you want some to play with, there’s A3000 and A4000 on the first page here.. https://aminet.net/pix/3dobj then page 3 in the Cs there’s C64, CD32 and Computers object collection with A1000 and A2000 and “Amiga” which may be a 500 or not.
There is an A4000 clone designed to fit an ATX form factor.
http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?101477-A4000TX-ATX-Amiga-motherboard
We built a completely custom case for a Amiga x000 motherboard a few years back out of a Telco systems box (closer match for it than ATX… 2000 maybe?)
If I ever get the last few bits installed I’ll shoot a video and do some pictures of the build. It does look pretty unique.
This might not be as big a deal as many think. There are so many people in the 3D printing world now that have CAD experience that with an organized effort it could probably be knocked out in less than a month by hobbiests.
Someday I hope to have a full Amiga shrine set up. I’ve got the hardware, it’s just the damn stuff seems to spread on a plane when you set it up so you need acres of desk/table. Last time I had it out was when I got half a solid wood barn door set up on some trestles in the basement… which I think I only got a month out of before I had a vehicle blow a head and needed to pack it away to use that as a bench for rebuilding a cylinder head… then a beltsander kind of arrived and a rack of hardware drawers and somehow it was workshop now.
Anyway, one of my A500s was barely clinging to life due to some acid damage from a leaked RTC battery, that had got into the PCB, removed the source of course, but you never know if it’s gonna get warm enough, humid enough or whatever it needs to eat that last sliver of copper. So that one might be a candidate for a repro PCB… However, I’m more of a mind to get an A2000 PCB and use most of it’s chips on that.
One thing about Amigas though, apart from the early years “bad habit” bare metal programming of a few games, they were never really tied to a particular clock speed. Faster was always better, so you stuck in an ‘030 accelerator and an ‘060 if you had the coin a few years later. So emulation doesn’t really feel that odd. People will be all “Oh yeah, you can say it’s good enough because you can always go on your original machines if it frustrates you or doesn’t feel quite right.” I can, but I find I don’t, emulation of the Amiga is damn good, it started very soon after Amiga went out of production, 25 years of refinement.
its failmulation
You missed CNC for case fab, which I think may well be the best option. Titanium case, anyone?
I’ll take one in Corian.. y’all don’t know this, but you want it heavy as heck so it don’t scoot around in intense keyboard games.
There was some a4000 front plates made out of aluminium, seen the pictures on FB Amiga pages….
I am guessing the Indiego guy never purchased an injection mold in a prior engineering life. That is one very expensive mold. An article on injection molding would be great.
He know what he does.
The A500 cases are the 3rd project of the A1200.net team.
2nd were the new Amiga Keycaps.
The 1st project were A1200 cases, that were delivered long ago.
There is a lot of information on it, and videos of moulds and injection on YouTube, here are some :
https://youtu.be/thl_vnPsWlA
https://youtu.be/oxDd3NsfhWk
https://youtu.be/oNX0aCYq-vw
Bad subject but I ordered my 1200 case and keycaps and I’m still waiting over a year plus now, so let’s not get all matter of fact about their products. They are also still on back order on the retail outlets. So let’s curb that enthusiasm with a healthy dose of reality. They may finally get delivered to those who paid, but until all the back orders have been fulfilled, I would not recommend anyone else throwing money at it.
I’m optimistic without evidence.
The same people ran the A1200 case repro so yeah they did already have a go around before running the A500 and failing to deliver that or the keycaps…
To be fair, the A1200.net team are keeping us backers up to date with regular status updates. As I understand it, the cases are almost done, and are now waiting final checks before they do the first batch. The Keycaps are in a similar situation. COVID has of course, brought the whole thing to a halt for the time being.
Still waiting for the 1200 case, pretty excited about it
You’ve guessed wrong. If you had bothered to check out the links, Philippe Lang who is making the A500 cases, also made the A1200 cases (a successful project; I have two from him) and before making A1200 cases was heavily invested in the injection molding industry, with many years of experience. Perhaps in future you should at the very least do a google search, before making disparaging remarks.
There are a couple of projects that aim to provide alternatives to the original chips:
Agnus chip:
https://www.exxoshost.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=2828
KB chip:
https://www.exxoshost.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=2914
Probably there are more, otherwise they will probably be made when needed.
The Amiga is a very nice machine however back then all I could afford was an Atari 520ST.
My hobby project right now is to interface an electric typewriter to act as a keyboard for a raspi stuffed inside running an Amiga emulator. “Boo raspi case mod!!” I can hear you say. Well if someone wants to buy me an Amiga then please let me know!
I have a Pi running amibian in an Amiga 600 case. It’s fantastic. So worth doing. Amazing Amiga experience except for fpu performance but what really used it anyway.
Yes!! This is a very valid Amiga experience and one I wish more people would take a look at. It would increase our user base, reduce the current hoarder culture, and stabilize the prices of existing machines. Do it.
I have the vampires, 060s, and more but bang for the buck, the Pi is a solid solution.
Amiga’s had more comebacks than some sports teams.
“The Amiga ecosystem is far more split, with the 500, 600, 1200, and even 2000/3000/4000 each having their own distinct fanbases.”
You forgot the Milf of all Amigas, the Amiga 1000, aka the original Amiga. One of the sweetest case designs of the time.
Totally agree! The keyboard garage was a great feature, and the overall slim design is beautiful. Wish I still had mine!
I still have mine. It came with the extra 256K module for chip ram, and I upgraded it to either 2 or 4MB of fast ram, and I added a mod that sat between the 68000 and the motherboard that gave me IDE and a socket for the 2.0 Kickstart ROM, which all booted off a laptop hard drive.
Having just come from the 8-bit world, it really felt like it was this way more powerful and advanced machine. It’s incredible how far we’ve come in what seems like a REALLY short amount of time.
Do not forget to pump up your beloved A500 with Vamipre 500 V2+ CPU accelerator and show Id Software that even Amiga 500 can run Quake too😎 ps. Did I mention that Diablo reaches over 70 FPS with that beast…?
If someone wants to tackle large size silicone molding and resin casting, I can provide advice, tips and tricks. Time to get your mold made and first casting? A couple of weeks, if that long. Depends on if each piece of the case can be done with a simple 2 part mold.
One essential piece of equipment extremely unlikely anyone will have laying around is a large pressure vessel with a big lid. The trick is to find one rated to a pressure far higher than you’re ever going to use. I have a big one made from a domestic well pressure tank that was rated to 110 PSI. In use it was never pumped up that high, and for what I use it for, I keep it to even less. I have a large mold in it right now, at just 20 PSI.
I had it cut into two tanks, 1/3 and 2/3 of the height. I had a hefty band welded around the cut open ends and had lids made of 1/4″ steel plate with a ring welded around the outside, and a shorter ring on the bottom face spaced in a bit. I cast a thin layer of urethane resin into that trough to seal it. Then I cast a silicone gasket in place. Ten screw clamps connected to the ring welded to the tank hold the lid on, with their screws hooked over the edge of the ring welded around the outside of the lid, which projects above the top face a bit. There’s a safety popoff valve in the lid, a gauge to directly read the tank pressure, and a pressure regulator with its own gauge to read the pressure it’s putting into the tank. Between the regulator assembly and the lid is a 1/4 turn ball valve.
Massively over built and drastically understressed make for a safe pressure tank. I have a couple of old deep drawn pressure tanks, one with a data plate that says it’s rated for some crazy high pressure at a temperature north of 200F. (It’s not in a location convenient to go look at it for the exact numbers.) I run it at 50 PSI at a comfortable room temperature so no chance of that one ever popping, especially not with the pop off valve adjusted to waaayyyyyy below what’s on the data plate.
For the more theatrical evil geniuses, into moustache twiddling and white cat stroking, do not forget to add a dry ice injector for the satisfying choooossssshhhh release accompanied by billowing vapour from within, when you’re playing to an audience.
After recently looking at the open-sourced scan of the A1200 motherboard, I realized these projects have driven up prices of even broken Amigas out of reasonable range. Of course I could just use it as a connector template and add a FPGA running any of the Minimig/Mister/other SoC re-implementations. But that’s just not as interesting.
Rather than salvaging OCS parts from dead (or especially working) Amiga machines, an interesting project would be to adjust the pinouts and footprints on the re-scanned PCBs to allow for discrete implementations of each chip in several small FPGAs per OCS chip. Would be different than trying to adapt a modern FPGA to the original footprints of each chip.
Certainly a project I’d be willing to help out on.
In such case, I would recommend that you join us via IRC over at #a314 on EFNET. There you will find like-minded, who see this option as a not too far-feched goal.
We have already boosted the Amiga with Raspberry power, and who knows, maybe making drop-in replacements for original ASICs would be fun too? :)
Thats along the lines I’ve been thinking, however I just don’t have that level of electronics skills! Could even lead to improvements to the chipset as each FPGA could be upgraded with new features relevant for the task it is doing.
Paula could be upgraded to allow 16bit samples and more voices. Gayle could be upgraded to use SATA. Alice and Lisa might be improved to allow real 24bit resolutions. (I am more familiar with the A1200 than the A500).
But as I say this is way beyond my skill level and I could be thinking of things thay just arent possible.
all those upgrades to run sysinfo? :0)
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Minimig-AGA_MiSTer
so aga fpga only exist in vampire, I think not rofl
I wished the original Amiga, A1000, or the A1500/A2000 would get the same love eventually.
Don’t get me wrong, I value projects like this, but..
The A500 was the Gameboy of the Amiga line.
Replicas of vintage computers are always scaled down, miniaturized versions.
Never true 1:1 replicas of the real thing.
Using them as development systems for
new retro hardware/software is out of question.
Just look at the IMSAI 8080 or Altair “clones”.
They are barely more than the emulator boxes
in the same spirit as the NES Mini or the recent
Sega GameGear handheld.
What’s also depressing, replicas of
vintage systems are almost always considered as
gaming devices. If you’re a tinkerer that has
higher demands, you’re often left standing in the rain.
Just look at these C64 clones..
None of them has the original interfaces (cassette, serial etc).
Not even “virtual” (mapped to modern ports,
such as Centronics or USB-Serial adapters).
So if you’re a ham who likes to use/rebuild
an old RTTY interface, you’re out of luck.
Same goes for musicians or model train lovers.
The new machines are no good for this.
I’d rather a reimagined Amiga along the lines of the ZX Spectrum Next than just a replica of the past. Backward compatibility with software and hardware but also new modes and features too.
Thats kinda what the Vampire is trying to do. Keep compatibility, but improving on it.
“However, projects thus far have focused on reimplementing the entire Amiga 500 in a single FPGA, rather than discrete chips to plug into an original motherboard.” – not quite true. Over a decade ago, Jens Schoenfeld (of Individual Computers fame) was reverse engineering every one of those chips and creating in situ FPGA replacements – he even demonstrated it on one of the Breakpoint demo parties in Bingen am Rhein. If I’m not mistaken the project was named “Clone-A”. He unfortunately had to abandon it due to reasons, but it definitely was a “project focused on reimplementing discrete chips to plug into an original motherboard”.
I thought the reason for doing each chip individually was just for dev/testing purposes so each reimplementated chip could then be tested in a system with original chips to help narrow down any problems and then merge it all to a single FPGA once they’d all been verified.
But as you say, it was a decade ago, could have remembered it wrong.
Actually the Denise FPGA replacement is still available. It is sold as “Indivison ECS V3”, an ECS Denise replacement with flickerfree VGA output (but still generating the classic output in parallel). I am not sure if it works with genlock and it does not support A2024 screen mode, but everything else is working well. So “new ECS Denise” is no problem (exept for your bank account).
What would be extremly nice: Gayle FPGA to Gerry socket. As an upgrade for Gerry, to add IDE and PCMCIA. While there are other solutions for adding IDE to A500 or A2000, I would realy like PCMCIA in my A500, A500+, A2000 and esp. for the CDTV, as it is a very nice solution to add Cf-Cardreader (for DOS-formated CF-Cards to easyly transfer big data) or Network. For a CDTV it would also solve defect CD-Drive problems, as you could attach a notebook slot-in CD/DVD drive to get a working drive again (not for CDTV titles, but still).
There’s also the UnAmiga A500 header, which is a drop-in FPGA-based motherboard replacement fitting a 500 case:
https://www.arananet.net/pedidos/product/unamiga-a500-header-compatible-with-a500-and-checkmate-1500-cases-pre-order/
There’s the new checkmate cases aimed to fit whatever Amiga motherboard you can throw at it:
https://www.checkmate1500plus.com/
But yes: these are niche products often produced in tiny batches and you have to really keep your finger on the community-pulse to be able to buy one.
But then again – the Amiga hardware community was never more active then now. New projects are popping up everywhere.
Good times!
I’m surprised this article doesn’t mention the main hurdle though: nobody has jumped on the “new amiga ready to buy” wagon because – believe it or not – the kickstart roms needed to run the Amiga and the Amiga name itself is still under copyright and in a bit of a legal limbo with some companies still fighting over it …
Lot’s of VERY cool projects have been tanked because of this and that’s why there are lots of bits and pieces but not a single united “new amiga” project.
En castellano:
Hay una carcasa para A500 que puede conseguirse en plástico acrilico que no es excesivamente cara para el A500, de la empresa plexilaser (en alemania):
In english:
There is a case for A500 that can be obtained in acrylic plastic that is not excessively expensive for the A500, from the company Plexilaser (in Germany):
https://www.plexilaser.de/Acrylgehaeuse-fuer-Amiga-500-Teilesatz
En castellano:
también tienen otro tipo de productos para varios modelos de amiga, y algunas ampliaciones. Yo compré la de ACA500+ y tiene muy buen acabado y me vino con varios extras adicionales de piezas para poder elegir la que necesitaba en mi configuración.
In english:
They also have other types of products for various friend models, and some extensions. I bought the ACA500 + and it has a very good finish and it came with several additional parts extras to be able to choose the one I needed in my configuration.
En castellano:
El proyecto Checkmate 1500 case, es una “caja” en sobremesa en el que se puede albergar varios modelos de placas de Commodore Amiga, entre ellos el A500, pero es un proyecto costoso para el usuario:
In english:
The Checkmate 1500 case project is a desktop “box” in which several models of Commodore Amiga boards can be housed, including the A500, but it is an expensive project for the user:
https://www.checkmate1500plus.com/
Sure you can:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HZXM6cLVUg
The answer is “yes” by the way.
But it’s a different question.
The Captain Lowbuck version is the $20-$30 R69 Android box, which will install OrangePi distributions including RetroOrangePi. But for your $20 you get a case, PSU, barebones remote, and possibly a HDMI cable with it also, which is $20 worth of pi accessories anyway. Then plug in any usb keyboard and mouse. Also you can boast about the CPU being 100Mhz faster than a Pi 4
However, I would recommend that you get licensed ROMs by buying the AmigaForever package Amigaforever.com which will also give you OS and games.
“However, I would recommend that you get licensed ROMs by buying the AmigaForever package Amigaforever.com which will also give you OS and games.”
But what about authencity ?
I thought the Amiga/C64 scene was all about piracy! ;)
(Just look at these wonderful Cracktos found in cracked games..)
You know, sharing games with “friends” at school almost daily,
giving backup copies to colleagues, selling cracked copies in
computer magazines and in computer clubs and so on.
Wasn’t this also, -in part-, the true reason why Commodore went bankrupt
and why the Amiga as a platform fell out of favor so quickly ?
I mean, weren’t Commodore users also the ones to blame,
since they gave the Amiga platform that -uhm- questionable reputation ?
Sure, other platforms had piracy too, no question-
But the Commodore/Amiga people really made an art of this, I think.
The actual reason for Commodore’s bankruptcy is that all the profits were sucked out by a financial group centered around Bear Sterns — of later infamy in the 2007-2008 financial crisis. This meant there was never money spent on significant chip improvements, only developing cost reducing chips. Most specially display resolution and power requirements at a time when PCs and Macs were reaching 1k x 800 displays and laptops were a necessary part of any non-gaming product line.
It was financial the blood suckers who killed Commodore & the Amiga.
Commodore made plenty of missteps of their own. They share a portion of the blame, but you’re absolutely right about the myopic, fast buck money grubbing idiots that played a significant role as well. The one you forgot to mention was the one who put the last nail in their coffin. The patent troll who sued them over the “XOR algorithm” they “invented”. That patent should have never been issued in the first place. You can’t patent a mathematic operation.
So what happens when Bob’s Bits get tired of selling the replica mainboards? And what if the new keyboards never see the light of day (it’s been almost 2 years, after all).
How can’t anybody understand that the only true way to preserving the Amiga (and any other platform’s) legacy is Open Source? I really can’t see how this article missed to mention this Open Hardware remake of the Amiga 500 mainboard that was released a couple of months ago: https://github.com/SukkoPera/Raemixx500. And no mention of the TerribleFire Open Source accelerator boards, either: https://www.exxoshost.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=65. These, and all the other open source projects out there are those that people should support and spread the word about, as they will be the only way to build new, maybe even better and faster, Amigas in the future, when the platform becomes no longer economically viable and will need to be supported by volunteers and enthusiasts only.
Really, please support this kind of projects if you really care for the long-term survivability of the platform.
When will someone get around to offering an Amiga Maxi ala C84 Maxi (TheC64) with keyboard using emulation, something which is entirely possible since a Raspberry Pi 3 can emulate even an A4000 at 4x native speed?
I suspect even the cheap, lower spec SOCs in the various game system Minis already released may be able to emulate an A1200 at full speed. If not, spend a bit more on a more powerful one. An Amiga Maxi with a functional keyboard might be able to be manufactured for close to the cost of the C64 Maxi [TheC64]. To reduce costs, make it in the Amiga 600 form factor with its smaller case and no keypad.
I’m quite surprised that nobody here mentioned John “Chucky” Hertell’s ReAmiga project. He has been reverse engineering the Amiga PCBs and makes replica PCBs, like the A500++. BOM, Sprint and Gerber files are all available.
Please have a look. He cloned the A1200 and A3000 boards, and is currently working on the A4000 board afaik. Also reverse engineered the A3640 turbo card and has upgraded it to accept a 68060.
http://www.reamiga.info/?page_id=36
Give this guy the credit he deserves!
There are much more impressive motherboards done by other people even though you “quite surprisingly” have not mentioned that.
Honestly we need to have the custom Amiga chips re-implemented in FPGA adapter boards, preferably using FPGAs that have more resources than required for 100% compatibility, the idea being we could then implement extra features not present on the original like for example Video/Audio Codecs on the ECS/AGA and Paula chips, additional RAM capacity, improved PCMCIA support and so on. Paula in my opinion would also benefit from a DSP as to speed up and add audio processing capabilities.
That said, the main objective is to have 100% compatibility AND keep the machines alive and kicking! The fact this approach could give the machine capabilities it never had is just the cherry on top of the cake!
Why would you need to do that? The Viper Boards already do that on one FPGA bypassing everything or just do the CPU. From what I’ve read it is impractical for a commercial product(s) to do each chip because of the levels shifters needed and other issues. Maybe for educational / testing purposes it would be worthwhile.
You can now get a USB mouse adapter for Amiga that support wireless Logitech models