Consumers will be able to play graphically rich, high-performance Amiga content on U3 powered USB smart drives. AmigaAnywhere is the digital environment that enables and simplifies access to the same applications from a variety of devices. Amiga lets consumers enjoy rich-media content featuring extraordinary audio-visual quality, high-speed interactive gaming, education and entertainment, all playing on a diverse universe of devices. Click here to read the full article.
AmigaAnywhere: Now Available with all U3 Powered USB Smart Drives
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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28 Comments
2005-06-14 7:53 pm
2005-06-14 8:11 pm
2005-06-15 6:09 am
2005-06-15 8:43 am
2005-06-15 12:58 pm
But what does it do?
Back when it was first announced, when it was still called AmigaDE, it was supposed to be a next gen Java VM. It was supposed to compile the byte code into native code on any of several dozen processesors at run time. The original documentation showed that it would even compile different classes to different target processors at run time within the same application. This would in theory let you put two totally different processors in the same machine, and have each do what it does best. Or, you could just run the same application on any supporting device (which was supposed to be a lot). And, of course having the Amiga name on it, it was supposed to be very graphically oriented.
In practice, the only “AmigaAnywhere” software that has been released is a few titles that somehow only work on WinCE devices, and a few titles that play in a Windows VM. There were development kits for Windows and Linux, but as far as I know, there has never been an end user VM for Linux.
So much for Anywhere….
Ever since Amiga got bought up, we got OS 3.9, OS 4.0, and a bunch of 2600 style video games….
…now it seems that Amiga can care less about the Amiga One and OS 4.0 for that matter, so am I to take it that Pacman is the answer for Amiga’s future?!?!
I’d rather have a Gameboy.
But, who cares about this DE/???
@ Scott Skaife
AmigaAnywhere’s core is based on Tao Group’s Intent multimedia engine, which was originally developed by an oldtime Amiga games developer. Intent is currently used in many millions of devices around the world, often completely tranparent to the user.
http://tao-group.com/solutions/solutions.php
> So much for Anywhere….
AmigaAnywhere software can potentially (provided sufficient specs) run on any platform where AmigaAnywhere is available (currently millions of WinCE /PocketPC smartphones & PDA and millions of Windows powered desktop PCs, but has been publicly demonstrated on Linux powered desktops and Zaurus PDAs as well).
For instance ZeoNeo’s AmigaAnywhere game Invasion comes supplied with a transparent copy of AmigaAnywhere, to the user the game will look as just any other WinCE game.
The game is pretty cool, have a look at this video done by me:
http://webring.amigaworld.net/Invasion.mpg
http://webring.amigaworld.net/invasion.png
https://www.zeoneo.com
> So much for Anywhere….
Similar as Sun’s “Java Everywhere” slogan, “Everywhere” only includes the platforms for which JVMs are available (currently not AmigaOS). For instance I have a cool Samsung SGH-D500 cellphone (J2ME), but I am pretty dissapointed with the backwards compatibility with older Java games. Most of older games don’t run and most of those which do run without sound.
Anyway does anyone know a good Java MIDlet player/mobile emulator? Can’t seem to find anything. Would come in handy for doing easy software comparisons like I do with my AmigaAnywhere games.
@ Pacman is the future?
> so am I to take it that Pacman is the answer for Amiga’s future?!?!
Personally I like Pacman and so I wouldn’t mind if a good clone like Edgar M. Vigdal’s ‘Deluxe Pacman’ would become part of Amiga’s future strategy ! For instance I would love to buy a Java version for my Samsung mobile (same goes for Edgar’s Galaga clone Warblade). 🙂
Anyway I already own a decent AmigaAnywhere Pacman clone, called MazeMonster:
http://www.stormloader.com/amiga/DE/
If there is any computer platform that has gotten less love for all its apparent and abundant qualities than the Amiga, I’d like to know which one that is.
There was nothing like it on the planet when it was first released and it would have been a contender if the absolutely clueless idiots at Commodore hadn’t totally and completely destroyed the best thing they ever made [not counting the C64] because they wanted to make PCs so badly.
Jack Tramiel, you are one such idiot.
I don’t care about PacMan clones. Nothing beats an Amiga when it comes to BlazeMonger. Nothing at all.
I’ll cuddle my two Amigas tonight.
@ucedac: Mike does, that’s at least one
don’t think it’s enough for a market though !
Leo.
@ The flying boolaboola
> completely destroyed the best thing they ever made
Originally Amiga was an independent company, which later became a Commmodore subsidiary.
> I don’t care about PacMan clones. Nothing beats an Amiga
> when it comes to BlazeMonger. Nothing at all.
Yep, Blazemonger rulez! 😉
But Edgar’s Deluxe Pacman (#85) and Deluxe Galaga (#19) have been voted into Amiga Report’s “Top 100 Games Of All Time” and the Warblade forum has 1551 registered users, so I am not all alone in liking his games. 🙂
http://www.warblade.as/feature01.html
@ Leo
> @ucedac: Mike does, that’s at least one
don’t think it’s enough for a market though !
Who should care and why:
1) Developers – For instance people who care to create advanced multi-platform games or multimedia, without having solely Java solutions as an option. (on AA also C, C++, VP, etc)
2) Solution providers – They want content. The more content becomes available for the Intent and/or Amiga Anywhere, the more they will care about offering Intent / Amiga Anywhere support.
http://www.u3.com/presshome.aspx?ID=151
You are probably thinking from a customer point of view, but AmigaAnywhere and its underlying foundation Intent were designed to be as transparent to the user as possible, so ideally they shouldn’t have to care! They should care about the actual game or application and not the enabling technology. 🙂
I just don’t see any room for this Amiga Anywhere, so many other applications (or layers) do what it is trying to achieve, and it just uses the Amiga name for no apparent reason.
The only thing of use coming out recently in relation to Amiga is
1. Amiga OS 4 – but you need to be a complete system.
2. AROS (Amiga Research OS).
@ Nii
> and it just uses the Amiga name for no apparent reason.
The reason is that the company which owns Amiga’s assets, including AmigaOS is named Amiga Inc. 🙂
Of course for all that I care people can be upset that during the early 80s Amiga Inc released some Amiga branded Atari games and joysticks. Or that Infogrames bought and later renamed itself Atari Inc. 😉
> Amiga OS 4
Interestingly according to a poll I did at AmigaWorld.net a vast majority of people would buy Amiga Anywhere software in addition to AmigaOS4 native software, if available. 🙂
This is a press release, specifically one of a dozen empty form-fill press releases from U3 on the same day.
What do U3 have today? A web site full of empty rhetoric and a promise (same promise they had months ago) that there will be SDKs and other stuff available soon.
It’s too late to actually deploy U3 as a real cross platform solution anyway, due to the incremental improvement problem. U3 is (if we believe their minimal technical informatiom) a little better than USBMS but isn’t supported out-of-box by any systems at all, and won’t be for the foreseeable future. This means in the eyes of consumers it’s actually worse than USBMS, as well as more expensive.
A noteworthy press release would be “Microsoft commits to U3 in Longhorn” or “Apple includes U3 in Tiger refresh”. So long as it’s a logo and a bunch of ISVs there is no reason U3 should ever be more than the dull “clunk” noise of a failed project.
“But what does it do?”
Sound good, nothing, the usual, wastes intrests, never resurrects the amiga, … and so on.
>Developers – For instance people who care to create advanced multi-platform games or multimedia, without having solely Java solutions as an option.
Most mobile/embbed devices come with Java and no such thing as Tao. Why would developers write apps/games for it when they may target way more customers by developing WinCE/Palm/Java apps ?
I really don’t see where they want to go… and why they keep on promoting their pseudo “universal” layer and seeing the (little) success of it it seems I’m not the only one. What serious app/game has been developped for it ? how many PDAs/CellPhones/… come bundle with “Amiga”DE ?
They have people contacting them offering to *pay* for an OS4 licence for the Pegasos and they just ignore them…
I really don’t see where they want to go and was Buying (some of) Amiga’ assets needed for that ? I don’t think so.
Amiga, Requiescat In Pace…
Leo.
> it would have been a contender if the absolutely clueless idiots at Commodore hadn’t totally and completely destroyed the best thing they ever made [not counting the C64] because they wanted to make PCs so badly.
Well, actually, C= didn’t make the Amiga… Amiga was independant (formerly named Hi-Toro) and had no money to produce the machine but the Loraine prototype was nearly completed. After a very bad deal with Atari, they were bought by Commodore.
> Jack Tramiel, you are one such idiot.
Jack was no longer part of Commodore, as he resigned in 1984. He became CEO of Atari after buying it… AFAIK, Irving Gould lead C= at that time.
“1) Developers – For instance people who care to create advanced multi-platform games or multimedia, without having solely Java solutions as an option. (on AA also C, C++, VP, etc)”
I wouldn’t call java as much multi-platform. Maybe if it becomes open more platforms will have java and have the latest and complete versions, but not currently. Currently it seems more like a windows, solaris, linux thing.. Someone said 1.5 was available for macos x to, but they ship 10.4 with 1.4.
@ Leo
> I really don’t see where they want to go… and why they
> keep on promoting their pseudo “universal” layer and seeing
> the (little) success of it it seems I’m not the only one.
Tao’s intent already comes bundled with more devices than the millions of classic Amigas sold in the past alltogether.
Also developing innovative and useful technologies takes lots of time and effort. Some Amigans behave as if the original Amiga 1000 computer took the world by storm and was swimming in software abundance since day 1 of release!
> Why would developers write apps/games for it when they may
> target way more customers by developing WinCE/Palm/Java
> apps ?
My guess, because they prefer the development tools and see a potential market developing. There many interviews available with Amiga Anywhere developers addressing this question. Google is your friend.
> They have people contacting them offering to *pay* for an
> OS4 licence for the Pegasos and they just ignore them…
Yes one user send them an email… But AFAIK no company has in recent years approached them with regard to Pegasos support. Seriously without a proper 3rd party Pegasos/OS4 support network, I don’t think any company would take an email from sole Pegasos user seriously. Try Microsoft and Apple instead, maybe they will officially support the Pegasos with a Windows and MacOS X version. 😉
@ Johan Krüger-Haglert
> I wouldn’t call java as much multi-platform.
Well, “multi-platform” merely means “more than 1 platform”… 😉
Isn’t tramiel dead?
and way, way, way too late.
Who should care and why:
1) Developers – For instance people who care to create advanced multi-platform games or multimedia, without having solely Java solutions as an option. (on AA also C, C++, VP, etc)
2) Solution providers – They want content. The more content becomes available for the Intent and/or Amiga Anywhere, the more they will care about offering Intent / Amiga Anywhere support.
I’m sure that 4 years ago, when this was 1st announced, and they supposedly had contracts with MS and others, that a lot of developers did care. At this point, I’m sure most of those developers have jumped ship, and came around to the same realization that former Amiga users have (myself included), which is that Amiga’s a pipe dream. They’re good at releasing press releases, and they’re good at talking up its potential, but when it comes right down to it, Amiga doesn’t deliver, and hasn’t for quite some time.
Yes, they’re getting closer and closer to releasing OS4, but it’s already way overdue, and getting more and more out of date as time goes by.
The fact that Apple is jumping off the PPC bandwagon almost assures that Amiga compatible hardware will not be around for long. If you buy the officially supported motherboards, you pay an arm and a leg for a woefully underpowered PPC setup, and if you go the Pegasos route, then you get a better hardware setup, but it’s not compatible with OS4. Not to mention that the status of MorphOS continually seems to be in a state of flux, which leaves you with Linux, if you want a lot of updates, and/or modern hardware support down the road.
I don’t want to turn this into a typical Amiga bashing thing, but when it’s this obvious to the casual observer that the Amiga is a dead end, insanely positive viewpoints, such as Mike Bouma’s regular feedback, come across much like Bill Gates insanely positive speeches (you know… “IE is the best browser on the market”, “Tabs are not wanted by most of the people we surveyed”, “Security is our number one priority”, and so on).
I realize that there are people who still like the Amiga… But trying to put a positive spin on every non-positive comment is not going to change the facts of the matter.
@ Mr. Banned
> They’re good at releasing press releases, and they’re good
> at talking up its potential, but when it comes right down to
> it, Amiga doesn’t deliver, and hasn’t for quite some time.
Yes deals with Nokia, Sharp, Sendo and Infomedia Network did not yield the positive results as expected.
For instance, yes Sendo did announce that they would ship Amiga content with their Z100 smartphone.
http://www.sendo.co.uk/news/newsitem.asp?ID=58“ rel=”nofollow”>http://web.archive.org/web/20030222080452/