Hyperion Entertainment and the Amiga OS 4.0 development team announced that after nearly 30 months of painstaking development the Amiga OS 4.0 Developer Pre-release has gone gold and will be sent to the duplication plant on Monday, April 19, 2004.
AmigaOS 4.0 Developer Pre-release Goes Gold
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Eugenia Loli
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Congratulations to the entire Coding Crew (Including the 140 Betatesters).
Reminds me of Steve Harley singing ” Here comes the Sun, Its been a long – Cold – lonely winter”.
Definitely a time for congratulations. It shows what a small bunch of determined people can accomplish on a very small budget.
This has been a good month so far in the Amiga world.
Catweasel 4 announced (works on Mac, Windows and Linux too)
Pagestream gets a PDF import filter (as above)
AmigaOS 4 pre-release
Designer GUI for Hollywood presentation software (ideal for kiosk applications where the Amiga has traditionally been successful)
Amiga Forever 6 released
There’s a long way to go, but this is surely the end of the beginning of the revival of this platform.
do the old games work on the new os?
Shure they do, if you use an emulator, chipset emulation would bog down the OS and “cost” more then it’s worth. Besides it’s suposed to be a step into the future, not the past.
/Regards
Eric
This is great news! Way to go Hyperion and AmigaInc! All we need now is for developers to actually use this thing and create some great new software.
Thumbs up, Amiga! Long live the Amiga!
AmigaInc!
Amiga Inc do not owe AmigaOS. KMOS dose. 😉
If you mainly want to play old games, I think Amiga Forever is a better bet.
@Don Cox:
Actually there’s nothing stopping you from using Amiga Forever on OS4
There is only one platform that could EVEN hope to tear me away from the G4 DA (and MacOS X Panther)… and this is it! WHOO-HOO!
However, need it be said, if Atari were in AmigaOne’s shoes, it would be an Atari, but as “Atari” (i.e. Infogrames renamed) isn’t doin’ the hardware thing anymore, this is the next best thing.
Just bring on the games and demos and applicatons and I’m gonna see about gettin’ back with that ol’ familiar 80’s feelin’!
It’s all about being being a niche player, going against the grain, fighting against MS, Intel, etc. That’s what makes die-hard computer platform users… not multi-GHz computers for the masses, running an OS that forces everyone towards “activation”.
Amiga users are the breed and type they are, today, because of what they were in the 80’s/90’s. A fierce band of users that wouldn’t go down without a fight. Who hoped against hope through all the trials and tribulations the name “Amiga” was dragged through… over and over.
And it looks like it is *finally* paying off…
But it was a close call. I was pretty convinced that the Amiga, Inc. sell-off was another “screw the Amiga” scenario playing out YET AGAIN! But it looks like it’s turning out better than that. Whew!
Latre!
Luposian
Yes, but it’s hard to justify buying a whole new computer simply for playing old games, when he could stick a CD into his PC. Maybe add a Catweasel card too.
The PPC Amigas (and Pegasos) are not intended to be retro games computers. If that is what people expect, they might be disappointed. There is no emulation of the old chipset graphics (it might come later) unless you run UAE.
I fail to see why anyone would wish to pay the prices shown on the Amiga dealers pages when they can get a much better PC, or MAC for the same price?
I had an a600, a1200 etc but changed to a pc when the machines were no longer supported.
I want to get an AmigaOne, but the prices are just so expensive as to be laughable really.
I know of at least three dealers who have said they have chosen to stop selling amigaones etc as the things just don’t sell.
“I want to get an AmigaOne, but the prices are just so expensive as to be laughable really.
I know of at least three dealers who have said they have chosen to stop selling amigaones etc as the things just don’t sell.”
It was never expected that more than a few hundred hard core Amiga users would buy at those prices. In practice, sales have been higher than expected. Everyone knows the price is too high for general consumer sales – these are really prototype boards, aimed primarily at developers.
It is hoped that larger numbers of the new smaller board can be sold for industrial uses, which would then allow a much lower price. Economies of scale have a big effect here.
Nobody has the capital to order thousands of boards on the off chance that they might sell.
That’s interesting, I have not heard of any companies that has stopped selling A1’s, on the conterary here in Sweden we have just got a new A1 reseller. http://www.gurumeditation.se
About why people buy theese now computers, well it’s a computer for hobbyists, entusiasts and developers who belive in the core values of the platform atm and as for me I don’t really care what it costs, it does what I need and and I have fun while doing it and that’s good enough for me.
Plus if you check back in 1-6 months time a new Amiga that might interest you will most likely have been released, the mini-ITX formfactor Micro A1, wich will be considerably cheaper.
@ Eric..
Indeed.
It boils down to ..
If you want it …Buy it !! If you dont … Dont !!
Same as anything really. I WANTED a new Amiga .. So I bought one ( A1 G4-XE)…
Reminds me of an old saying
Why eat Frosties when I want Weetabix ?
Not quite… Amiga OS4 is not going gold, the Developer pre-release of OS4 is going gold. If this were Microsoft Windows, that would mean looking for an RC in another six to nine months.
I am waiting for the price of the hardware to come down. Also, because it requires different hardware I have to wait and see if it will be able to replace Windoze. At least for me. I don’t require MS Office or such. I am just glad to see that a public version is finally going to be relased. At least there should be anymore “it is vaporware” claims anymore.
I’ll look into Amiga Forever.
I don’t know of any good Amiga games other than the ones that were popular back in the day which offered a great mix of simplicity, playability, and fun.
Most modern games for any platform are far too complex for momentary fun.
It boggles the mind as the innovative/fun/simple games often seem to be big sellers — in modern times, Dance Dance Revolution comes to mind.
“It boggles the mind as the innovative/fun/simple games often seem to be big sellers — in modern times, Dance Dance Revolution comes to mind.”
Another good example is the game Rez – excellent fun.
or Chuchu Rocket
on topic:
does someone know an A1 reseller in Austria?
because I know next to nothing about the new Amiga OS, but is it designed simillarly to the old one or is it just a whole lot of new code with the same name?
Yes, except that many parts are rewritten for PPC and functionality has been added. Old software can be run with integrated emulation or UAE.
See http://os.amiga.com/ for some articles.
http://www.pointdesign.at/
> http://www.pointdesign.at/
Jürgen is just about to migrate out of the country, so if you are unsuccessful contacting him, I suggest you try the good German AmigaOne dealer KDH Datentechnik instead:
http://www.kdh-datentechnik.com/
I might even be tempted to buy a copy. however, the hardware is a bit expensive, and AROS is looking great. Either way, im sure i’ll be using some form of an AmigaOS soon enough.
You’re willing to pay upwards of $800 to try an OS? (remember, it only runs on the AmigaONE hardware, or on CyberstormPPC’d Amiga4000’s, neither of which are inexpensive)
AmigaOS 4 is based on AmigaOS 3.x code – which has been ported and enhanced. Hope that answers your question.
It also runs on BlizzardPPC’d Amiga A1200 machines.
Um… where are you getting your information there Jon, because according to Hyperion, there is no BlizzardPPC version of OS4. They state that they might try for one in the future, but at this time, no such beast exists. Even the Cyberstorm version has been shelved for the foreseeable future. So, if you want to run this pre-release, you must own a Mai Teron^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HEyetech AmigaONE.
“Um… where are you getting your information there Jon, because according to Hyperion, there is no BlizzardPPC version of OS4. They state that they might try for one in the future, but at this time, no such beast exists. Even the Cyberstorm version has been shelved for the foreseeable future.”
There is a bad habit around of using the present tense for something that might happen in the future. Lots of people do this, not only Amiga enthusiasts.
It goes with the habit of pre-announcing an announcement, then making an announcement, then holding a launch, and finally actually selling the damn thing a year later.
The Pegasos Blades might be one example of many.
Speaking of BPPCs, I’d be eager to try MOS on it but it’s been quite quiet on that front lately. There was some talk that it would be released for free for the classic Amigas.
Actually, AFAIK, there are people who are running OS4 beta on BPPC’s
The pre-announcement problem is to be found on all fronts here. it is a bad habit that I am going to be trying my hardest to avoid.
However, I will still cry out when the emperor has no clothes.
Nathaniel, aren’t you supposed to stop doing the FUD and false propaganda on online forums now that you people stopped getting paid by Bplan^HPhase5^HThendic^HGenesi. Or are you doing your own personal vendetta too? Gee…
Congratulations!
How many A1 were sold to run the thing?
Last I heard the number was somewhere around 1314 pre-orders according to:
http://www.amiga-anywhere.com/main.php?PS=1
Is that enough of a sustainable userbase?