On 10 April 2011 01:27, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote:
On Sat, 9 Apr 2011, Cameron Kaiser wrote:
I'd rather have the Chameleon. Neat, and
isn't vapourware.
When the Chameleon 325 (perhaps the only machine to ever use 3.25" drives
(that Dysan bet the companyt on)) was announced, it WAS vaporware for a
while, as exposed by Infoworld?. ?(Being made in Bawlmer (Baltimore), it
was "vaporware", not "vapourware")
But, you are probably not talking about the original classic "Chameleon".
Real C64 drives have been connected to PCs in several ways, ranging from
IEEE-488 to parallel port hacks. ?Why COULDN'T this new attempt have an
adapter made tfor 1541 drives? ?Why isn't there a USB adapter for old C64
drives?
What he said!
It's not really a C64, no. But the handful of people still interested
in an actual C64 of some form probably have one. In fact they probably
have several each.
It's a generic x86 PC, the bog-standard commodity computer of the 21st
century. (Not even a particularly good one. Atom chips are rubbish.
I'd rather have an AMD Fusion chip or something, myself.) In other
words, it's what people expect and want when they buy a computer
today. An /actual/ C64, no matter how much enhanced, would be a
paperweight for most people.
But it will run C64 software. That's a triumph in the circumstances.
Don't knock it. It's just a 64-shaped PC for nostalgics. It has more
chance of selling than an actual C64-compatible ever would.
As for their Amiga range - just case designs at the moment - well,
that's different. AmigaOS is still alive (just) and has a tiny tiny
shred of a chance.
I'd do 2 or 3 machines if it was me.
A cheap Minimig in a desktop case, for nostalgic gamers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimig
A Hackintosh-compatible PC (i.e. a cheapo clone specified to be
compatible with Mac OS X via an EFI dongle.) Run AROS on it, out of
the box, vaguely justifying claims of Amiga name.
http://aros.sourceforge.net/
Icaros is a somewhat usable distribution of AROS:
http://www.icarosdesktop.org/
And possibly a cheap PowerPC box with AmigaOS 4.1
http://hyperion-entertainment.biz/
... for real Amiga enthusiasts - but since they've done a deal with Bill McEwen:
http://www.amiga.com/news/2010-08-31-commodore-amiga-aio.php
... then I doubt that will happen.
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