mikeitstop
Well-known member
- Joined
- 20 Jun 2021
- Messages
- 75 (0.06/day)
I may not be qualified to write this, but I'll give it a go and beg forgiveness if needed. Vampire standalone is what's troubling me. Quite a few years ago, a talented engineer called Jerri Ellsworth, made a version of the beloved Commodore 64 computer, as a handheld, tv attached gaming console. It sold like hot cakes. She even ensured that it could be expanded by eagle eyed hobbyists, thanks to various crucial IOs broken out on the circuit board. Then the inevitable question came to the fore: If this could be done with the 8 bit C64, how long before the 16 bit Amiga? We're talking about the 68000 models such as the A500 here, at least to begin with.
Well thanks to incredible work done by some passionate Amiga fan engineers, devices like the Vampire Standalone have been introduced within the last couple of years. Starting as an FPGA based super accelerator for our beloved miggy machines, the ultimate offering is a device which requires no Amiga to work. Because the original device is emulated in hardware, it is functionally exact - just like Jerri's C64 joystick, years earlier.
But wait, even better, this device isn't hampered by cost of components like the old days - it can emulate an Amiga like you could never own as a 1990s nerd. Wonderful stuff with one minor drawback leading to another - the market and therefore, the price. The increased complexity of hardware emulation of a fast Amiga, compared with the C64, notwithstanding, the price increase is formidable. This is not the successor to Jerri's joystick, not a fun toy to connect to the family telly to show todays kids what it was all about. It is niche and expensive and only for the die hard fans. It is unlikely to ever reach mass market sales figures. That doesn't mean it isn't brilliant either, just that this old cheapskate would love to eventually see an alternative.
When a sub £100 device appears, in a case modelled on an original Amiga model, my money will be waiting to jump out of my pocket like a great Giana Sister.
Whether you agree or not, I'd love to hear your point of view on the matter.
Well thanks to incredible work done by some passionate Amiga fan engineers, devices like the Vampire Standalone have been introduced within the last couple of years. Starting as an FPGA based super accelerator for our beloved miggy machines, the ultimate offering is a device which requires no Amiga to work. Because the original device is emulated in hardware, it is functionally exact - just like Jerri's C64 joystick, years earlier.
But wait, even better, this device isn't hampered by cost of components like the old days - it can emulate an Amiga like you could never own as a 1990s nerd. Wonderful stuff with one minor drawback leading to another - the market and therefore, the price. The increased complexity of hardware emulation of a fast Amiga, compared with the C64, notwithstanding, the price increase is formidable. This is not the successor to Jerri's joystick, not a fun toy to connect to the family telly to show todays kids what it was all about. It is niche and expensive and only for the die hard fans. It is unlikely to ever reach mass market sales figures. That doesn't mean it isn't brilliant either, just that this old cheapskate would love to eventually see an alternative.
When a sub £100 device appears, in a case modelled on an original Amiga model, my money will be waiting to jump out of my pocket like a great Giana Sister.
Whether you agree or not, I'd love to hear your point of view on the matter.