After much delay, the first 2 Amiga Gamecards (offering 4 games each) are currently selling at CompUSA stores. This was shared in latest of the weekly held AmigaWorld Q&A sessions with Amiga’s CTO. Some of the most notable games were written by the AmigaDE/AmigaOS software development house Zeoneo Limited.
Although these gamecards were developed specificly for PocketPC powered devices, the fundamental technology is platform independent. The engine which allows this content to be run on PocketPC devices was derived from the AmigaDE technology.
This technology allows developers to write platform independent software in C, C++, Java or any other language supported by the AmigaDE. An engine for Linux was also finished for Sharp, but this deal including several other deals with for example Nokia eventually did not make it, mainly due to market conditions.
The AmigaDE will also be integrated into the new AmigaOS4 desktop operating system. To get an idea of this technology there’s an older TechTV demonstration video available:
http://www.aminet.net/pix/mpg/BillTechTV.mpg
I have been monitoring the Amiga DE for a while now. It’s great technology but appears to have had a very painfull birth.
I’m please to see new products becoming availabel for sale.
Do you know if they will also be selling them as .AMI files that can be played with the AmigaAnywhere content viewer?
Regards
Darren
I heard that Virtual Processor, is the language of choice for small footprint apps on AmigaDE. Why are we then still pushing for bloatware 3gl, 4gl languages like C, C++. Thats ludicrous. Give me Amiga assembler anyday! Altho VP is aimed at giving the same results but using a more friendly OO based programming method.
Wake up ppl, the m$ way isn’t necessarily the best most efficient way. Amiga coding has proven already that small footprint code is still very relevant today, as seen in Pocket devices. Not everyone computes with a 3Ghz winblows machine these days.
C/C++ bloatware? You are clearly no programmer.
Size-optimized code are still relevant today even on the desktop (not for conserving memory but to get better caching of the hotspots) but coding in Elate “assembly” will not get you nonbloated code, smart programmers are…
[Please: If you have an IQ higher than 85 drop the M$/winblows as it makes you look less intelligent.]
There’s more important factors than size and execution speed nowadays. Correctness, development cost and development time are some of them. Considering the high project failure rate and general bugginess of software today moving to assembler is insanity. Ludicrous. In many cases, “even” C (a portable assembler) is considered too low level and C++, Java or higher level languages is more appropriate.
Wake up ppl, the m$ way isn’t necessarily the best most efficient way.
The MS way? What are you talking about? Btw, no one is claiming that C/C++ produces the most efficient code. And again, best does generally not equal most efficient.
Not everyone computes with a 3Ghz winblows machine these days
Tip: Using phrases like M$ and winblows makes you seem like an idiot and removes any trace of credibility.
Sorry, I didn’t see your reply
@ Darren Thompson
Yes that is planned and those same .AMI files should then work with Amiga Anywhere engines for PDAs/celphones as well. The gamecards have a priority a though, as even the top selling online sold PDA/cellphone games generally only sell a few thousand copies.
@ Jay, Megol, danlu
Just to keep in mind that most of AmigaOS itself is written in C. Only the most time critical parts were written in assembler.
I do understand what you mean by bloatware though, as many AmigaOS software products are a factor 10 smaller in size than rival OSes’ equivalent (offering the same or less features) software efforts and perform better with less powerful hardware (CPU, Memory, etc).
Most programmers tend to become lazy when there have much resources available to them, however this is generally not the case when dealing with cellphones. Also many programmers don’t see much point to proper optimizations due to current mainstream OSes being so incredible inefficient and bloated themselves.
I’m all for addictive 2D games. I hope this catches on beyond the PocketPC realm. Do we have any reviews of these games?
“Indeed, the first appearance of Amiga product in a mainstream computing channel has also witnessed our old friend, piracy, returning to the platform. Dean Brown, our hardware guru found three of the Gamecard packs in the Bellevue CompUSA and someone had cut one open with a scalpel and stolen the Gamecard!”
——–
hahha
Desperate geek! I hope that means they’re good.
Piracy, how bad it may be for the business is a sign of a growing market, and that people want the applications/games.
If I may get technical with AmigaDE, VP and C/C++ compilers:
It is the case with AmigaDE programs written in VP assembly, that they are much smaller than their C/C++ counterparts mostly because of Elate’s tool based structure of the system which allows assembler written programs to load only needed functions of a specific library, where you load the entire library in a C application.
An example would be the printf() function, which requires the entire stdio library. The VP counterpart only loads this specific little function (tool) because it is stored as a separate tool in the system, reducing load times by factors of 10-20 as well as saving memory. Overall Elate takes many shortcuts where traditional systems result in “bloat” by doing a lot of unnecessary things. This is why VP programs are very small and load very fast compared to C programs. Elate does things mostly only when they are necessary, and doing things through fine grained tools is a brilliant way to achieve that.
A program executable to open a window with a couple of buttons takes up about 800 bytes… and the memory footprint of the running executable is only a few kilobytes. I don’t think you can build programs this small in most other operating systems, even embedded ones. 🙂
That’s really a pity…
Please stop posting these things to OSNews: please wait for REAL news about the Amiga to post something…
(ie.: AmigaOS 4 Released/Previewed (maybe you’lle have to wait a long long time for that
,…)
Regards,
Leo.
> Please stop posting these things to OSNews:
The AmigaDE is an interesting technology and in terms of potential, IMO even more so than AmigaOS4. However you can be sure that new screenshots and details regarding AmigaOS4, etc will be coverered here on OSNews as well.
the amiga, while revolutionary for it’s time has certainly been obsoleted. Video Toaster has been superceded by DV, Lightwave by Maya and now finally, the last reason to have an Amiga, the games, are available for pocket pc.
good game, amiga.
Video Toaster has NOT been “superceded by DV.” Have you BEEN to NewTek’s site lately? They are selling the Video Toaster 2 currently, are about to release the Video Toaster 3 quite soon and I believe that you will find the Video Toaster IS Digital Video. It is available on the PC, by the way.
Lightwave has NOT been “superceded by Maya,” as Lightwave is STILL available (for Windows and Mac OS) and still kicks butt. It is at version 7.5b currently. It is less expensive than Maya BY FAR and has comparable capabilities (with lots of third party plug-ins to provide anything missing from the central package). No doubt, Lightwave 8 will be out by this time next year.
Listing products that started on the Amiga as an example of how dead the Amiga is indicates that you’re hard up for material with which to bash something that you have no connection to whatsoever and have no reason whatever to bash. Troll elsewhere.
Well imagine that – Amiga Inc releasing new products that obsolete the Amiga of ten years ago. And would you say that games on PocketPC mean we should no longer “give a fuck” about desktop PCs?