I’ve written quite a bit AROS lately and the reason is that there is so much happening in relation to that OS these days.
The AROS Research Operating System is a lightweight, efficient and flexible desktop operating system, designed to help you make the most of your computer. It’s an independent, portable and free project, aiming at being compatible with Amiga OS at the API level, while improving on it in many areas.
The hottest news is that a brand new AROS compatible computer has been released. It is called the AresOne 2012 and it looks awesome. Please have a look for yourself:
It’s worth mentioning that this computer has been specifically assembled to be used with AROS. According to Vesalia, the hardware components were selected to get the most out of the current version of AROS, as well as making it ready for future improvements. They say that the AresOne 2012 is suitable for Amiga enthusiasts, friends of light HTPC systems and experienced users in general. They point out the fact that AROS is still in development.
Before we take a quick look at the hardware specifications, here’s a video about the AresOne 2012 with the AEROS r3 distribution installed.. have fun!
There is a lot of configuration options available at Vesalia.de, so that you can upgrade certain components. These basic specs will make AROS fly anyway, since it is a very efficient OS.
In addition to AROS, the AresOne comes with a special OEM version of Amiga Forever, the Amiga emulator system. This package is helpful for UAE, as it contains the required Kickstart and Workbench images, as well as 50 games and 50 demos. You’ll also get the AMC software package, which is a powerful media center, Cinnamon Writer and Frying Pan. Vesalia also states that you can get the machine with Debian GNU/Linux and/or Windows pre-installed if you want.
A portion of the price you pay for the computer will go back to fund the future development of AROS. Thumbs up for that!
So, what does this AROS machine cost? One bundle I saw at Vesalia would set you back 309.89 EUR (including German VAT).
Personally I’m still looking to buy a suitable motherboard for my AROS mini-ITX project. That reminds me that I should post a “want to buy” advertisement at AmiBay.
Have a good weekend everyone and thanks for reading!
Today I’ve got some news concerning a hardware upgrade for the Amiga 1200. It turns out that a new accelerator card will be available for purchase shortly. Vesalia, which is a popular Amiga shop in Germany, estimates that it will arrive on the 1st of March 2012.
This new turbo card has been developed by Jens Schönfeld of Individual Computers in Germany. He’s famous for creating quality hardware such as the Indivision scan-doubler/flickerfixer series, the 68030 accelerator for the Amiga 600 and the recently released Chameleon.
I must say that the specifications of the new Amiga 1200 accelerator (the name is ACA-1231/42) looks juicy.. please have a look below, and I’m sure you’ll know what I mean..
I sincerely wish I had the cash for something like this!
ACA-1231/42
Amiga 1200 Accelerator Card w/ 68030 CPU incl. MMU
The new ACA-1231/42 offers everything a retro gamer wants:
Speed:
Although the ACA-1231/42 features less MHz than the Blizzard 1230-IV card (42 MHz* vs. 50 MHz), it actually achieves more MIPS (Million Instructions per Second). The reason for this efficiency is the high clock speed of the on-board memory (25 x 3.333 MHz = 83.325 MHz, 2-1-1-1 Burst).
Memory Aplenty:
The ACA-1231/42 comes with 64 MB RAM, 1 MB of which are reserved to map the Kickstart into the fast memory. With Kickstart 3.1** there are 63 MB FastMem available to applications when you switch the A1200 on (1 MB is always located at address 0x00C00000 to gain compatibility with old or badly programmed software; 62 MB are available en bloque).
On Time:
The ACA-1231/42, unlike its predecessor ACA-1230, always comes with an RTC (Real Time Clock) chip installed. You only have to add a battery.
Hardware Compatibility:
The ACA-1231/42 is more tolerant towards different revisions of the A1200 board than the ACA-1230 was. Immunity against fluctuations of old power supplies has been improved while the power consumption has been reduced.
Software Compatibility:
The ACA-1231/42 sports a fully featured 68030 processor, which also includes a functional MMU (Memory Management Unit). The MMU can not only be used to map a Kickstart ROM image to FastMem, it’s also crucial for WHDLoad. The ACA-1231/42 is 100% compatible with WHDLoad! The MapROM function supports Kickstarts of 1 MB size.
* The exact clock speed is 41.6625 (25 x 3.333/2) MHz.
** Kickstart 3.0 users must add the memory with the ACATune software.
Are any of you going to purchase this new accelerator? If yes (or no), please leave a comment below. Would love to hear what you think.
If you’ve got an Amiga 1200 without a decent turbo-card, then I’d recommend taking a look at this one. Don’t think you’ll get a better 68030 card for your Amiga 1200 than the ACA-1231.
If you enjoy listening to Amiga music, then I’ve got some good news for you. When I visited Amiga.org earlier today, I noticed a news item concerning a new Amiga music album.
The album is called Immortal 4 and was produced by Jan Zottman. It comes on two CD’s and contains a whopping 35 songs of pure Amiga goodness.
The songs are from a wide range of Amiga games, including Cannon Fodder (hi Coder!), Flashback and Ultimate Body Blows. All tunes have been re-arranged using the latest studio technology.
Here’s the full description of the album from Vesalia.de, which the news on Amiga.org linked to.
The double-CD Immortal 4 is the 4th strike of the popular Immortal series. Once again producer Jan Zottmann managed to gather the celebrities of the golden homecomputer age of the Commodore Amiga and to let them re-arrange the unforgettable music of legendary computer games using all the latest studio technology. The catchy melodies once played by a handful of 8 bit samples now experience their rebirth in a colorful mixture ranging from a complete rock band to a fully-fletched synthesizer setup.
The two filled-to-the-brim CDs feature no less than 35 newly arranged songs (about 158 minutes) of Amiga videogame music. Most of them have been created by their original authors – trademark of the Immortal series. We couldn’t even stop them to play live instruments, you’ll become earwitness when Al Lowe himself (Leisure Suit Larry) is playing the saxophone, Jon Hare (Cannon Fodder) being back at the microphone and Dave Govett (Wing Commander) hitting the drums.
Numerous classics have been rearranged, such as Lemmings (Tim Wright), Turrican 2 (Chris Hülsbeck), Flashback (Jean Baudlot), Gauntlet 3 (Tim Follin), F17 Challenge (Nicola Tomljanovich) and many more. Exklusive new versions were contributed by well-known demoscene musicians, such as Romeo Knight and Jogeir Liljedahl.
In order to provide consistently brilliant audio quality the CD mastering was done by Pauler Acoustics again, just as the predecessor. That’s the very same studio Chris Huelsbeck used to master his legendary ‘Turrican’ album back in 1993
Looks good to me. Would love to listen to the different tunes, but I’ve got other cash-priorities at the moment. If some of you out there have bought it or listened to it, I’d love to hear your opinion.
Some of you might have read my post called My Amiga 500: Back from the Shadows. If you haven’t, you can find it by clicking on this link. The article is basically about the fact that my Amiga 500 has lived in the shadows of my Amiga 1200 and not seen any use for a long time. I therefore got the idea to give this computer a nice make-over, which I believe it deserves.
This make-over has now officially started and in this post you’ll get to see the first “before and after” photos of the machine.
Before: My Amiga 500 before the start of the make-over. (photo by Old School Game Blog)
Before: Here’s another one.. (photo by Old School Game Blog)
The machine doesn’t look too bad on the photos. I’ve kept it clean and it hasn’t been exposed to much sunlight either. I’ve therefore managed to avoid the dreaded yellowing of the plastic.
Let’s open the lid and see what’s inside..
Before: The metal shielding has taken some hits and there was dust in some places. Removed the dust. See that floppy disk drive? It’s not working properly and has something that looks like rust-spots. (photo by Old School Game Blog)
I’m ready to remove the floppy disk drive and install the brand new one I ordered from Vesalia (thanks guys!).
There.. the disk drive has been removed. (photo by Old School Game Blog)
For those of you who are interested, here’s a quick snapshot of the old drive. It doesn’t look nice at all. This one has loaded its last game of Badlands, that’s for sure.
Here’s the old bugger! (photo by Old School Game Blog)
Now I need to install the new drive. Here’s the result!
After: It’s a “winner”! (photo by Old School Game Blog)
The disk drive is one of the most important things on the machine, as I can’t really do anything without it. I don’t have a hard drive for my Amiga 500 yet, so I’m stuck with floppies. Fortunately I’ve got a hard drive for Amiga 1200.
Now for a little surprise..
Remember that KCS PowerPC card I bought from Flip at AmiBay? Well, I popped that one in before the floppy disk drive..
Before: The card that’s already installed is a 512KB memory expansion. The KCS PowerPC board does include more memory, so I’ll still be able to play games requiring 1MB of RAM. (photo by Old School Game Blog)
After: There.. the KCS is in place and ready to run old-school PC software. (photo by Old School Game Blog)
If the Amiga 500 could talk, I’m sure it would be satisfied with this make-over. Not only has it received a brand new drive, but also a nice retro emulation card.
Want to see the machine after this little make-over? Here it is!
After: My Amiga 500 with the KCS diskette (photo by Old School Game Blog)
The make-over is not complete though, as I’ve got a Kickstart ROM switch waiting to be installed. I’m also on the prowl for some cool add-ons for the machine. Part three will be coming up in he near future! Then we’ll also get to see it in action on my TV!
