Some history: One Christmas my parents bought me a Sinclair ZX80, which at the time I thought was an amazing little machine. Prior to owning that, I had very little knowledge of what a computer was and a very, very vague concept of how to program one! Thanks to Sinclair Research, this little machine was at a price that many could afford and thus gain a great deal of knowledge about what a computer was and how to use one. I only had that machine a little while when I upgraded to the ZX81, and had many happy hours playing with this much improved system. Then I wanted something better and for this the Commodore64 fitted well. In 1982 it had very good specifications at a competitive price. Other machines I considered, but were too expensive for my pocket were for example the BBC Micro and Atari800. I remember well the day Dad drove me to the shop where I had ordered the C64, an important day to remember! I had just started in my first job and Dad lent me the money to buy this amazing machine. I have fond memories with my C64, but when the Amiga500 came out I decided to go for this dream machine. The C64 took a back seat when the Amiga was delivered, and I didn’t get much sleep that day or for several days :-) I remember where I worked at the time, a small electronics company, the sales manager thought Amigas were just games machines (Commodore’s poor marketing) so I took my A500 into work and demonstrated it. Compared to the lowly PCS’s of the day, this machine in contrast was way ahead and the Sales Manager was extremely impressed. I can still remember his words “You get all this as standard!?”, “Yes!”, I proudly replied. It’s a shame that Commodore did not know how to go further with it, but this is a story we are all familiar with. Alas, in the end I had to succumb to the land of the Intel PC or be left behind in my career. However, Amiga has not died, the spirit has lived on and re-materialised in different forms over the years, albeit not always in the best form, but that could just be my opinion. I think software emulators running on PC’s and Macs etc. are very clever pieces of software and I do use them, but to me, I only get some of the original joy of the Amiga or whatever machine is being emulated. There is something missing for me, sat in front of my PC that’s pretending to be an Amiga, it seems a little soul less. All that has now changed with the Amiga’s spirit fully restored in the form of the Vampire V4. Not just restored but enhanced in a way that’s in-keeping with it’s heritage. Now, I’m not just sitting yet again in front of my PC with an emulator, I’m now sitting in front of my real Amiga; a distinction which is important to me. As I’ve always had the Amiga spirit in me, I very much appreciate the efforts of the Apollo team, their spirit has kept this machine alive in the best way. No silly legal issues destroying what Amiga was, and still is all about, I’m not interested in that. Here we have a machine which has very good hardware, that performs better than any previous Amiga and can offer so much more. I’ve not experimented with all the Amiga OS variants available, I may give coffin a try but now that the Apollo team have branched away from AROS and developing ApolloOS, which I think makes perfect sense, I’m going to make this my main one. I’ve recently updated to the latest Core and ApolloOS and can see huge improvements. Yes, I still come across programs that won’t run, which could be because I don’t know the correct settings to make, or just glitches. However, the system seems much more stable and enjoyable. The current ApolloOS provides a great range of pre-installed applications and games that I’m going to be kept amused for some time to come, and I now have that feeling of sitting in front of a real Amiga, because that is exactly what it is, and it’s only going to get better.
|