Vampire V4 - A Guided Tour
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- Опубліковано 8 вер 2024
- This is a short preview of Vampire V4's hardware and capabilities. This video is for those wanting to know the answer to question "Should I buy one?". The answer is a resounding YES! This Amiga is simply stunning and in this video I give my reasons why.
There are so many more things that could be demonstrated. If you want something covered in detail, please leave a comment below.
Please note, that I have a development board which is missing the LEDs for Power and HDD. This would be visible from the front of the case.
I bought my first Amiga 500 in 1988, never thought I'd live to see this. This is what I always wanted. Great Job Guys!
That bit when CD and floppy disk with Workbench are being thrown away - prophetic literally🙂 Great and very informative video!
Finally a quality video for a quality product! Congrants Ronnie ;)
Very well done. While I am not a gamer, I used my A500 for productivity, it shows what the Vamp is capable of. I am looking forward to my purchase later in '20. For my productivity needs I will run an x server on it and connect to one of linux machines or possibly Google docs
Well done Ronnie, thanks a lot :-)
Great job, wonderful edits and creation of this video.
Awesome Video Buddy! , Great job!, grettings Ronnie continue with the great work :)
Got mine a few days ago and love it. Have some issues but overall works great!
Where did you get it from?
Great video Ronnie, can't wait to get one, might even sell the A1200 and X5000 for one :)
Or get the A1200 Vampire when it is released and keep the A1200 ;)
I need a V2 for my A500 and I need a 1200 as well with 030 and Scandoubler. My 500 is one of them revision 8a1 that have been upgraded/modded to be a 500-plus without the clock and battery. And then I pimped it with an TF530 card and more. (Not to be confused with my a500 desktop case project.)
OH MY GOD I HAVE THE SAME CDTV T-SHIRT!!!!!!
Somewhere, probably in my parents loft.
Great video, thank you for creating it.
Superb video!
I can't wait till I get mine
The new Vampire V4 is nice but they don't make enough of them in a timely fashion.
Nice video, thank you !
Very nice Video, thank man!
I go for the ACA1260 and the Blizzard 1260. Have the ACA1233n-55 IDE Speeder on the ACA500Plus V1 and a Blizzard 1230 IV with 50MHz FPU and 128MB on the A1200. The Vampire 1200 V2+ and the Vampire 4 Standalone is great but i want a classic A500 and a A1200. The 68030 is great for WHDLoad and the 68060 for AMIGA CD games and new AGA demos.
Out of curiosity, what does a "classic" Amiga mean for you? Is it only classic if the CPU is an old Motorola part? I don't think there could ever be consensus on what "Classic Amiga" really means, because everyone has his own definition. And that's cool. In a broad sense, it is an Amiga designed by Commodore, running a 68k based processor and Amiga OS 1-3. This statement "Vampire is great but I want a classic Amiga" is for me a bit strange. The A500 is a classic Amiga. Adding an accelerator made by iComp is the same as adding a Vampire accelerator, except the Vampire has a value proposition which is 3 fold. In both cases it is still a classic Amiga. 060 Accelerators are unjustifiably expensive. I can however understand the desire to take an A1200 instead of a V4 for reasons of nostalgic pleasure (I also love my A1200, primarily for the form factor). But to buy an ACA1260 over a Vampire V1200..............The 060 is second hand, expensive and slow. If you "must" have an overpriced, under performing, second hand 060 processor, why not a Warp 1260 accelerator? The guys at CS-Labs have done a spectacular job in redefining what an 060 accelerator can be. Simply stunning what they have created. iComp by comparison have churned out the same old tired designs from 20 years ago, for a premium price. The ACA1260 looks to be the same dull design as all their other accelerators. No thanks. We should expect more in this day and age. Classic (whatever that means), or not.
As for WHDLoad........all processors are good for this because the processor is irrelevant for the vast majority of Amiga games. Even the A1200's on-board 14Mhz 020 CPU is good enough. It is a poor argument for say one accelerator/CPU is "more classic" than another.
It may sound stupid but I would like to join the discussion with my definition of "classic Amiga". With the help from amiga demo-scene. There are only two Amigas on active demo-scene: OCS (512kB chip/512kB (fake)fast, kick1.3, 68000 7.14MHz) or AGA (2MB chip, any reasonable amount of fast, kick3.0/3.1, 68060 50/66MHz). And that's it. The problem is with the latter. As you mentioned yourself: 68060 processors and turbo cards are overpriced. For me personally, I wish I could have an affordable turbo card on par with old faithful blizz1260. I don't need this monstrosity with some "68080" CPU and "SAGA". Or even better, I wish I have a standalone computer (like Vampire V4) which would be 100% HW compatible with AGA machines equipped with blizz1260 and downgradable to OCS/ECS. Oh that would be so great! When I look at 8bit Atari or C64 scene, their "turbo cards" added nothing - people don't use them for anything productive. But it is just me...
Awesome review
Is there a compatable printers list available? The Amiga was originally intended as a buisness machine but became a games machine after thousands of games where written for it. The the IBM PC came along and blew it out of the water. Other than nostalgia, is there a real good reason to own an Amiga OG or modern Vampire V4 anymore?
Looks great but can it output midi to a Roland sc55 or other crazy niche midi devices of the era, or have as low latency as an interrupt based input device, or be 100% compatible with any and all games in Amiga history through an easy quick-menu switch between every flavor of 68k or GPU on the fly, or output raw analog video signal without the added digital latency of HDMI? All the other FPGAs like the Minimig, Mist, or the DE10 based MiSTer can do all of that easily(and those cost around £400-500 less than this) Then there's the fact that something like the MiSTer also supports every other console up to the end of the 32-bit era reproduced perfectly cycle accurate, and this is a pretty hard sell. I still really want one of these though... Would be really cool to run a 2048x1536 (or 1600x1200 if that's impossible) TrueColor AmigaOS to front-end whd-load and mess around in. Not to mention to play some titles like F/A 18 Interceptor that freakin' fast.
Nice product! But I think two thing missing from board (at least for me): an analog audio output, and a DisplaPort (or DVI, doesn't matter). I want to use this thing with monitor (and with a speaker), not with TV.
The board has HDMI. So there is not really an advantage to DisplayPort/DVI. There was at some point an adaptor to give you analog audio out: wiki.apollo-accelerators.com/doku.php/vampire:vsa-v4:peripherals#i2s-capable_expansion_port
@@RonnieBeck Yes, thanks, I know HDMI Audio Extractor exist, but that's an another device. (Missing DP/DVI is the smallest problem.)
Very nice video!
İ love Amiga..forever.
I would like to buy it but i still can not ... Is no stock available ..
Place preorder at Vesalia or Amedia, it will be in a few months for sure
@@RasVoja Done that long time ago ..
Great video man.
Was looking just something like that.
Thanks.
Doom on A1200 and 68030@50 mhz are 14 fps, on 68040@40 more 20 and fps and on 68060@50 Mhz 35 fps with AGA. Right to give real numbers!! Other "real 3D" engine are very slow on Vampire
Thanks for your input! It is good to get hear about someone else's experience. What version of Doom is that? Those numbers sounds like they are in the right ball park to me. I don't know what you mean by "real 3D" and "slow". Quake on the Vampire 2 and Vampire 4 is in the region of 23-25fps. That is hardly slow. DukeNukem3D is super fluid. I think it is a misnomer to link the slowness to the Vampire and not say that generally on 68k Amigas such software is slow. In every test I have done, the Vampire outperforms everything else outside of emulation (in the 68k world at least). In the end, the point of this video was not to benchmark Doom. It was to demonstrate the features of the V4. I don't know why so much focus has been placed on Doom or why people are so vocal about this. Were they really so upset?
love this review... :)
Would definitely buy a Vampire V4 if I knew that I could resurrect my old 3.5" hard drives that was connected (one actually "inside") and one outside my Amiga 1200.
They have not turned since 1996-97 I think... and have been moved around a lot... I did try to find a solution to actually make WHD's of them to run/load with UAE but I'm too scared that everything is going to be lost just by trying to connect them and all my work (from my Amiga 500 to A1200 to a A1200 with a 030/882 card) will be lost... but again if I'm not trying it will be lost... It was (as I remember it) one 80 Mb drive and a 120 Mb drive but with streaming compression (XPK something) that you could change (compression algoritm) per device/catalog it probably stored 4x that amount of data which was just amazing stuff back then.
So I would buy one if I knew these drives still booted with data on it... I don't want to start again from scratch sort of... it's a catch 22 I guess...
Great video!
You can mount Amiga formatted hard disk on Linux if they are fast file system. This is handy because you wouldn't be trying to boot a system from them, just access them to copy files off.
If they use pfs or sfs, mounting them on an Amiga emulator or a Vampire V4 are your best bets next to real hardware.
(The system doesn't need IDE ports, you could use an IDE-usb adapter and connect them that way).
Window system, you HAVE to use an emulator. Although not necessarily boot from it.
If they are scsi rather than IDE, you would need a scsi controller on he reading machine. If an emulator can use the card, usually the case, then again you could access the drives contents.
@@PATTHECATMCD Thank you for the information!
@@alexanderwingeskog758 No problem. xpk is still on Aminet. You will need to power the 3.5" drives with a Molex connector if using a usb-ide adapter. Amiga emulators handle the task pretty well, I think Amiga Forever had this in mind as it has been developed. If you get stuck, English Amiga Board or Amiga.org are good places to ask for help.
@@PATTHECATMCD Ok I have now searched everywhere for my 2 disks and found a couple of suspects but after checking them they were either empty or some PC OS (Win2000, Win95 and so on)... So these disks are either overwritten or with my ex-wife (and that's a no-go zone). So have given up on getting my data back. But I have found most of the stuff to rebuild my Amiga except my PCMCIA network card which is crucial part. I have also cannibalized a harddrive from a working IBM T40 (40 GB 2.5 IDE/ATA drive). Also found 2 accelerator cards one GVP A1230 40 Mhz with 882 FPU (which I used) and my friends giveaway Blizzard 1230 IV 50 Mhz but without a FPU my card (as I remember) was 4 MB RAM and he's was 8 MB (or maybe even 16).
So the problem now missing PCMCIA Network card (this can be bought cheaply though I think, or are there other nice ways to get Ethernet nowadays?) and missing the 44 pin IDE cable (mine have a 44 pin to 40 pin converter for 3.5 drives, but I want to use the 40 GB drive preferably) this cable is also pretty cheap I guess.
But I really want to try it out "today" (even though I will have to use a 3.5 drive) but the problem is that neither of my computers (the ones up and running that is) have the older 40 pin IDE/ATA connector...
And if I'm going to build one (I have old AMD K6-300 with 256 MB memory) my guess is that I can not install UAE on that old thing just to create a real HDD that I can swap into my Amiga A1200 just to get something running. Another plan would be to dismantle my NAS that is the newest computer I have that still has 1 IDE/ATA connector. It has 2 GB ram and Intel dualcore. Now that I i'm thinking about it, this would be the easiest fastest option to get stuff running I guess, but I don't want to install anything on the NAS (the reinstallations is such a pain) so best option would be if there where a LiveCD/USB that has FS-UAE so I can create a "real" Amiga HD that will boot on my real A1200...
Then maybe I'll sell both Accelerator cards so I can by a Vampire I guess...
@@alexanderwingeskog758 , pity the hard disks have gone AWOL..
... Amiga network PCMCIA cards come in 3 different types; Wired NEC2000 compatible; 3com 359 chipset compatible (these are sometimes sold quite openly without the seller realizing they are do have Amiga drivers, if they do catch on the price triples); and for wireless, Prism 2 chipset cards. These can be a bit hit and miss, because they were built without WPA2 TKIP. Flashing them to use the newer protocol requires a very old laptop that can take the old school 16 bit PCMCIA cards.
aminet.net/search?query=PCMCIA%20network
If you decide to go PCMCIA- compact flash adapter to transfer files - get a complete kit. Only about 3 out of 10 CF cards work with Amigas at all that way. You can even get PCMCIA-Compactflash-sd card adapters. Max partition size is 2GB unless you change the CF0 mountlist entry to use 4096 (up to 16GB) or 8192 (16-32GB) sector size.
If you've setup your own network, I guess that's what you want. But, Amigas do not transfer quick on a network. You'll probably get about 70KB a second. More reliable though, if you've got the background.
People do sell the special GVP 64 pin simms on amibay, so that's a possibility if the Blizzard doesn't work. (New simms are being made for it, there used to be a 16MB seller but I'm told they stopped recently. The 4GB size even have a PCBWay "build it yourself" option.
Amikit have a selection of 2.5 - 3.5 IDE adapters. No problem there really. When setting up a drive, you HAVE to stick to boot partition no greater than 4GB. Even then, old installer software will barf if they can see 2GB or more of free space. 2GB is a "guaranteed" compatible partition size without upgrading ROMs to higher Kickstart.
You CAN just boot from a pre-formatted compact flash card (3.1) with workbench already installed if you are in a hurry. Nowadays you can also get sd-ide adapters and preset sd cards for Amiga. Even if you have original 3.0 ROMs, the new preset drives for 3.1 will boot.
As for formatting on an emulator and transferring the drive to the Amiga - there's no gurantee the system will boot on a real Amiga, even though it works on the emulator. Honestly, I'd stick to getting a hard drive cable and setting up the Amiga from floppies if possible.
There is a "boot Amiga emulator from usb" option called Amilator but I've never tried it. Also "Amithlon" is kind of emulator without Windows for old PCs, like a replacement operating system.
WINUae will crawl on a 300MHz machine. I think about 800MHz for a realistic A500 emulation. Although either of the above 2 methods might just give you something usable on K6. Booting Linux from a usb stick or CD would also give you a chance to partition and format a drive in AFFs as Linux calls it.
Oh... you don't need an IDE port on a host computer any more. Chinesium usb-IDE(plus sata) adapters work very well, typically 10 bucks or less. Just so long as the drive is powered via molex.often you get a little Psu for that with the adapter.
I am very curious if serial and parallel ports are emulated. (Jestem bardzo ciekaw czy emulowane są porty szeregowy i równoległy.)
I wonder if the Vampire V4 is able to run MacOS without resorting to Shapeshifter?
I look forward to SAGA chipset the most. But why only 11.5 MB for CHIPRAM ? Where the textures will be stored ?
Check the screen shot at 2:49 and compare that with the memory map:
amigacoding.com/index.php/Amiga_memory_map
If you extend the chipram range much further you will start colliding with chip registers. IMHO, 11.5Mb of chip ram is a nice upgrade but if you really want something more graphically intense (hence the need for more chip ram), you should consider using RTG anyhow. For audio stuff, you can shift chunks of memory in and out of chip ram fast enough for almost any conceivable audio application. But that is just my opinion.
When a decent browser is made for the Amiga and UA-cam can be used ppl will flock back to the Amiga if a phone can do it then surely a vampire can 🙂
So, seeing development is super cool and this thing looks like what should've been the road Amiga took and come to the scene in, I dunno... 2005. Not 2020. I understand how good people feel seeing this but using this as an actual daily driver? For what type of work? Or do you mean a nostalgia mind jail?
I don't think anyone genuinely use an amiga in any form as daily driver. This is a hobby. Yes fueled perhaps by nostalgia and the wish for simpler computing. You would need to ask the owners themselves why they bought it and what for them was the deciding factor. For me, I like to develop for it. It is simple and pleasurable. It cannot replace my real Amigas, which in my case are the real nostalgia jail (as you put it). But horses for courses. I like seeing the Amiga platform re-imagined by highly motivated people who devote their time, energy and talents into something like this.
How is that Mist and Vampire are so different in price as they use the same Altera V and how is the performance so different, 12 vs 140 mips? Do we pay extra for R&D of the Vampire?
I think you mean the Mister. The MIST is built on a much older FPGA. The MISTer is built on generic hardware (DE-10 Nano) which is designed for students or engineers wanting to learn FPGA. The parts are cobbled together and The project offers emulation for just about every platform imaginable. They might not have the fastest 68k processor but they more make up for that by being an all-rounder. The Vampire V4 is purpose built hardware with a high performance processor and chipset. This has just one purpose: to make the best 68k Amiga ever! You want the best, you pay the big $$$$$ :-D Nah it isn't that expensive really. The same money will buy you an 060 accelerator if you lucky. Then you have to buy the Amiga and RTG card as well. You could easily spend 3 times the cost of a V4 and still not get the same performance. The development effort that went into this board (not just the CPU but the chipset and all) is huge. The V4 is a very acceptable price compared to buying an existing amiga and all the upgrades. Much much more acceptable.
Ronnie Beck Then sorry, i was wrong. Thanks very much for detailed explanation!
Nice video. Which core version are you running?
The core version was SA_7116.
Very good video!
well.. I'm an atari st (the war is over.. we have lost for many years now....) ... It's nice to see that Amiga is still alive.
What I don't really understand is who is the target here for this product....
ok, it's cool to have a "continuation" with old Amiga hardware (IDE, etc.) but why no SATA port ? It's not really easy , nowadays to find IDE HDD....
I can see FGPA.. ok good .... but even if it's a "super powerful" Amiga clone, is a Mister not enough to run Amiga ?
For me, this platform is aiming... developers and not "anonymous consumers, who likes to play some old but good Amiga games.... Nice beast... but when I look at my Mister, we can develop some pretty nice "emulator" from the past in 2020...
Some good questions. So there is a history behind this project. Amiga fans have always had a hard time finding reasonably priced accelerators for our old machines. Even the slowest 030 processor, which is a very weak processor, sold for around 300 € second hand. If you wanted the fastest, an 060 accelerator, you are looking to pay 600 € or more. The CPU at the heart of all Vampire hardware is created by a former IBM engineer and his collaborators. The design is highly modernised bringing modern CPU design techniques to this old processor. The result is a very, very, VERY, fast processor. And being on an FPGA means that is is very cheap to make (compared to ASIC). So the target market is anyone who wants a high performance Amiga, without having to pay a fortune. The V4 expands on that. Being a complete system, it allows new people to enter the Amiga scene, without having to over pay for a 35 year old machine. It also continues off where Commodore/Motorola stopped. You could imagine that the next geration of amigas, should Commodore have survived, might have been something like the V4 in configuration, if not in form. So it is focused on Amiga enthusiasts specifically.
Why not SATA instead of IDE? You know, I don't really see a reason why IDE is there and not SATA. There are no SATA drivers for Amiga AFAIK but a sata-to-ide bridge could have been used instead. There is a practical advantage to the old IDE. CF-to-ide adapters are dirt cheap. CF cards are still easy to work with. It is still easier to work with CF/IDE on the Amiga than SATA. But your point still stands and this is solvable with development effort. So why not? Maybe with the V5? :-)
Mister is a different take and targets a more general retro audiance. It might not perform as well as the Vampire but it sure makes up for that by being able to do so much and run so many different platforms. The Mister is an awesome product. Especially if your interests lay beyond just Amiga. If all you want to do is play the old games, Mister is great. You are right, you don't need more.
Ok ! thanks for the information ! :-)
It's good to see some true fans of a specific platform !
ok, fairplay here : Amiga rules !!!! :-)
@@RonnieBeck I agree on SATA, if its a 'NEW Amiga' then it should have SATA or at least some form of SSD support, maybe even nvme M2.
People seem to be using PATA through the old IDE connector at least. Compact Flash is not really reliable, fast or modern for a main drive.
It seems strange to complain about lacking drivers, when you seem to expect new software to be created for Vampire custom CPU and chipsets.
How close is this to actual historical hardware and could it be considered as authentic as possible? Would this be considered outside of obvious hardware enhancements, like ram and SAGA, a replacement product? What about an Amgia 2000? Do they compare? Is this more a modern product not to be compared to Classic hardware?
It's a modern FPGA computer that out of the box is setup for Amiga emulation. It has literally nothing to do with any of the original hardware.
As a proud strong member of the Amiga community, I speculate that a 69mhz 029, special edition is faster than the 080, and the fpu, if ran through a spectrograph generates photos of naked ladies, and steak sandwiches. 68k till I Lady-Di'.
Good video R-Dawg. Keep up the hard work.
There are a lot of people outside with great ideas and invention, get together and build a new strong and powerfull AMIGA, i hate microsoft and definitely not going with the rotten apple, its time to resurrect the real beast.
Well said!
WAOOOOOOOO NICE
Can someone please update after 1 year ' curious about compability and Amiga OS
Any tips on where I can pick one up?
I got my V4 SA a few weeks ago. Is ethernet port active yet? How do access it? What device? Thanks
The ethernet port is active. You can get the drivers from wiki.apollo-accelerators.com/doku.php/saga:updates
The device is known as v4net so the device that is installed is v4net.device.
how to get Amiga OS on to the machine? Anyway to hook up an Amiga floppy drive and or cdrom drive?
I mentioned how you can install Amiga OS in the video. There is currently no way to connect a floppy drive but you can use a virtual floppy drive (Aminet has software for this) and ADF files. ADF files are far more practical IMHO. As for a CDROM..........there is an IDE interface. You can connect CD Drives to that.
Why is it so much slower than a Raspberry Pi 3 doing the same thing?
Well, the RPI is doing something else. The V4 is it's own hardware while the RPI (with UAE is presumably what you meant) is emulating the original Amiga. The RPI has 4 super fast 1.2Ghz processors which are some 15 times faster than the V4's CPU. So it should come as no surprise that a RPI emulating an amiga is faster (emulation often is) despite being emulation. But consider also that 1 tick of the ARM processors clock doesn't translate to 1 tick of the emulated M68k CPU. The RPI will not create the same performance of an Amiga with 1.2Ghz. The V4 has, depending on which core you have, an 85Mhz CPU. 1 Tick of the 68080 clock is exactly 1 Tick of the.....well.....680808 clock. So on a per clock bases, the 68080 outperforms the RPI. However this isn't enough to overcome the near 1.1Ghz clock frequency deficit.
I wouldn't generally compare emulation (RPI + UAE) with V4. The V4 isn't just recreating the paste. It is re-imagining the platform. Perhaps I could even say, it is one theoritical architecture that could have followed the last of the official C= Amigas? It is real hardware with real performance which exceeds anything the M68k based Amiga's ever had. Plus the super fast RTG graphics and tons of CHIP and FAST RAM. It is the Amiga I wished commodore had produced. This is the appeal and for me what I love about the V4.
But if you just want an emulator, RPI is a great option. If you want a real hardware, the V4 is simply awesome! There is nothing else out there like it!
But what do you run on it that you can't on a regular pc
can this think run amiga 32 games?
Amazing. I like it... BTW I'm curious for what is the average age of potential buyers ?
Because of
Equality Act 2010 I believe it is better to move to another set of questions;P
Where can I get free or paid software to run on the V4?
In general you can find software for the Amiga at www.aminet.net or buy it at one of the many online stores which cater for Amiga.
why i have to pay 300 or 400 euro (i can imgine that this will be the cost) for a single board computer with all emulated instead winuae in a mini itx motherboard with a ryzen 3400g, ram, ssd etc that costs not more then 200 euro? it's not a critic it's an ask! I have this mini itx and all amiga software in winuae run perfectly, all operating system, alla games, all utilities, all! In my opinin the Amiga hardware should go in another direction: a real compatibility of a new os with x86 system, after we can make all nostalgy operation we want!
Nostaligic needs can easily be met by software emulators. I agree with you. But the V4 is something completely different. It isn't just trying to reproduce the past, but instead continue where commodore stopped. If the V4 were an emulator (just software running on some raspberry pi or cheap PC), there wouldn't be much point to paying 300+ €. But the V4, like all vampire cards, is real hardware. The board consists of a real CPU and chipset, implemented in an FPGA. But the V4 is so much more. It adds new capabilities which the Amiga hardware didn't really have. if you have seen my video on the A500, you will see that the Vampire 2 accelerator transforms the Amiga 500 into some truely amazing. 3D games, mpeg video playing with HD graphics. This is not what the Amiga did by default. The V4 does.
If you just want to have a cheap emulator, WinUAE and the like are great. And they are cheap. If you want to experience real amiga hardware, the Vampire V4 is a awesome (I would say the best) option.
The thing is.... It is not emulation. It is hardware recreation. You basically get real hardware and not an emulator. And if you eventually get an x86 version of AmigaOS, then how will you get original software to run native on that system? Not possible to do that. Like trying to run SNES games on a Playstation4 natively. Ohh... And by the way. You already have something a bit like what you are looking for. It is called Aros.
It is like saying why I should bother with Amiga when I can get a cheaper PC... Real Amiga fan knows the answer😊
Is it really an emulation? Not at all. This is all hardware.
But it is FPGA! So what? Even modern CPUs like Intel or AMD have micro-code that can be downloaded by BIOS to fix issues with the CPU hardware.
@@RonnieBeck Sorry to say this, but this is hardware emulation. An FPGA doesn't make it real hardware. For it to be real hardware it has to actually be built.
@@thorham1346 Sorry to say this, but it is built.
How to you mount a virtual floppy?
What do you mean by "Virtual Floppy"? Do you mean an ADF file? This is an amiga compatible, so just use the same tools you would use on a traditional amiga.
8:13 I miss that flight simulator!
Want!
i don't get it.
Why not create these modern spec full-overhaul expansions for the commodore PET or the ZX80 ? Why not get a 4090Ti working on an Atari2600 ? They override every aspect of the old machine, with the option of retaining little functional aspects of the original hardware for decoration. It seems pointless.
This is a standalone FPGA board, though.
they are working on a 68030 at 3.2ghz 1k bogo mips now lol
Wonder if with this NTSC region considerations even come into play.
NTSC region??
@@Kppot Hehe.... Someone is young. When not knowing about NTSC and PAL. 😎
@@brostenen Someone totally messed the point. HELLO? There is NO pal or NTSC with HDMI output. Anybody home, hello???
@@Kppot I know. Yet you need a PAL machine, if you want to play PAL games and the same with NTSC. That you must know.
@@brostenen not really. Any Amiga with ECS and at least Kickstart 2.x will switch between NTSC and PAL in about two seconds. Just reboot and hold both mouse buttons down, and choose NTSC or PAL. I use my NTSC on PAL mode all the time, including my 1988 A500 with a Vampire V2
Cool. This is new news for me. So this way better than the Armiga? And can replace my original A1200. I guess there's a way to copy my stuff from hdd to the Vampire?
V4 have IDE port. Or copy files to SD Card. Or use network (AMIGA HDD can use in PC with WinUAE or other AMIGA emulator). Better than AMIGA? At present time... maybe. Working old AMIGA hws are expensive and rare, especially what have "comparable" performance and setup (eg. CPU speed, RAM size, screen resolution etc.) with V4. Edit: but some games(/programs?) currently(?) running weird speed on V4. Eg.: Elite II, Xtreme Racing. I have a Blizzard 1240@50 in my A1200, and run much smoother this programs what i seen in an other V4 presentation video - actually i think an unexpanded A1200 performance comparable to those speeds).
@@brdfsz9142 Armiga. ua-cam.com/channels/VVasEzSQE-dotm3fhKN3YQ.html
@@AmigaVR Thx, not bad, looking good, but any project without at least AGA compatible and 68060@66MHz like CPU performance is actually out of my interest.
Atari jaguar does 25 MIPs
Is it possible to downgrade Vampire V4 so it behaves like 68000/7.14, 020/14, 030/50, 040/40 or 060/50 running on OCS/ECS/AGA?I was searching for that info and it seems to me that on Vampire cards you either have all (080/SAGA) or nothing.
There is a mode known as "Turtle Mode" which drops the speed down to that of a 68k/7Mhz. This increases compatibility. It is turned on/off with a simple command. I believe some people use it in conjunction with WHDLoad to play games that work best/only on an A500.
! E X C E L L E N T !
And nearly a year after this video you still can't get hold of a Vampire V4 or even find out how much one would cost at places like Amigastore.eu.
Why show the high price of card not sold on ebay?
It does not represent the reality at all!
I just sold on eBay a 68060 80mhz for 380 € with great difficulty to find a buyer
And why not compare power with a 68060 ?
"And why not compare power with a 68060 ?" For the reasons explained in the video. 380€ sounds like a more realistic price to me. Shame I missed it.
if hshowing power compared to a 060 (especially modern 060 cards) the 080 will not stand as impressive. (even if it actually will be faster) then suddenly the vampire isn't THAT impressing anymore,.. that's why
@@ChuckyGang Really ?
ua-cam.com/video/AlvRFTBsi4I/v-deo.html
Beside the CPU frequence, can you remember me what is the access speed of the RAM on your favorite 060 board ? And then, compare it to the 670 MB/s of the V4. The memory speed is a BIG speed improvment factor, but you already know that.
his goal was to compare with another available solution with a similar price range on the market. As the 060 board are more expensives than the the V4 and hard to find, this is not a stupid way to compare, as long this is explained why. And this is what Ronnie did in his video, he clearly explained why. I agree that a test beside a 060 is good to see too, but Ronnie don't have a 060, so....
@@ChuckyGang Looking forward to your review. :-)
no stock available
Is RS232 USB emulation possible?
Technically it would be possible via the SPI. But someone would need to write drivers (shouldn't be too hard though). There are also a few people interested in connecting Midi to the V4. So maybe something in this direction might happen. But for now, nothing is planned.
@@RonnieBeck I understand. I really care about connecting MIDI.
Without RS232 Vampire is incompetent and not useful.
@@tvpro-mok262 There will be a solution eventually, I am sure. But it is still early days. I don't think calling the V4 incompetent is quite fair. And the V4 is for sure useful. In your case, you could say it is functionally inadequate. That would be fair for now. But if your core requirement is serial, the an A600/A500/A2000/A1200 with a Vampire might better serve your purposes.
The ACA1233n-55 and the Blizzard 1230 IV are the real deal for the A500 and the A1200. For the A500 the ACA500Plus is a must with a fast ACA such as ACA1233n-55. For my the Blizzard 1260 and the coming ACA1260 is a AMIGA than a Vampire. A Vampire feel more a PC than a AMIGA. If the Vampire 1200 V4 or the 500 V4 come out i will test it. But a Standalone without a AMIGA motherboard that’s not the way to enjoy. Nice to look but useless for a AMIGA user.
"The ACA1233n-55 and the Blizzard 1230 IV are the real deal for the A500 and the A1200"
Those accelerators are only for A1200.
make it like the raspberry pi 400 put it inside a mini keyboard
Excellent short preview Ronnie! The Amigans had been asking for this long ago. I posted the video on our Vamped Amiga channel on Telegram: t.me/vamped_amiga/5674
I don't understand why I should pay this much for an item that can be emulated on a system for a 10th of the price
Ok, long answer. This isn't emulated. It is real hardware, all be it in an FPGA, and not a software emulation that depends on another OS to run underneath it. Purists will tell you that even the best Amiga emulations will have input lag when playing games etc. Which is true. Amiga emulators such as WinUAE only run on one core of a multicore processor, and emulate several Amiga chips sequentially. A real Amiga runs it's various chips in parallel, as does the Vampire, with the required communications happening with millisecond accuracy. Ideally, an emulator would emulate each Amiga chip on a different core, but latency issues prevent this, mostly down to the underlying OS (Windows, Linux, MacOS etc). Personally, I find emulation to be more than satisfactory, but I do appreciate that real hardware is somehow more desirable.
Very nice video :) I think the Vampire is interesting, but boring at the same time. I think it's fun to tinker with hardware. get different kinds of expansion cards and such. The vampire is so complete, you get one and that's it. It's also very small, and that makes it more like this "thing", and not a full blown computer. So if I get the vampire, I thought about installing it in a checkmate 1500 case. But is it possible to attach a floppy drive and cd-rom to the vampire? What reasons could there be to have an excuse to use the 1500 case?
You can of course attach a CDROM. It has an IDE connector. It is also has 3 ports for expandability. But there isn't a floppy drive for the V4. A full blown computer doesn't necessarily have to be physically large but rather functionally complete. And the V4 has most of the modern features people want in a modern Amiga. As for floppy disk, you can always put ADF files on the SDCard. This is far more practical than floppy drives as owners of gotek drives will tell you. But if you really want to have expandability (zorro slots?) you can always put a Vampire2 in an A2000. Or do what RMC did. Check out his video here: ua-cam.com/video/4EsRI-5fblM/v-deo.html His Checkmate 1500 + A500 + Vampire is an amazing setup.
Well.... You can say the same things about a smartphone and a RaspberryPI. And at the same time, they are a full blown computer, just as any other computer. Yes. It is a computer. Yes, it does away with old storage media's. And all the time, it is still a full blown computer. Just as any other computers. You have a CPU and you have RAM. You have a chipset, and everything else on one board. You still need to add a storage media, yes, however that is the case with the Amiga500 as well and that was a full blown computer too.
@@brostenen Yes, you are right. I should have added the word "feel". It feels more like a full blown computer to me if it is physically bigger. And we might get that, because I read somewhere that it was going to evolve into more like a motherboard I think. I couldn't find the article now though.
@@UncleAwesomeRetro As far as I understood them, then there should be a non-standalone version as well. Basically without some of the ports, yet the same thing. Just that it would recuire a real amiga to be able to run.
@@UncleAwesomeRetro I get what you are saying. I have an A2000 at home and I must say, despite its low performance in comparison to the V4, it is still a special feeling to use it. The sound of it booting, the feel of the big case. Somehow, it feels very different. One doesn't get the same feeling when using a raspberry pi. The A2000 fills one with a wonderful nostalgic feeling. You can't replicate that. So I can understand why the V4 doesn't appeal to all fans of the original Amiga. But the goal of the V4 isn't to stoke internal nostaligic fires but rather answer the question "What if Commodore stuck around and made an even faster Amiga? What could have been possible.". The V4's answer to that question is very exciting.
But if your thing is to appreciate the original models for everything they were, then I understand your view point. You are not alone in your appreciation for the original Commodore Amigas. They are for sure special. You can't recreate that specialness.
Give us at least a price range.
030 doom performance is incredible. as in, literally not credible. You should be getting at least 20fps, not this screen-visibly-redrawing nonsense.
Ok, can you detail what exactly I need to do? I have a copy of Doom for Amiga. I run the executable. I get a screenmode selector to select a screen mode. I select 320x256@8bit. The game runs. Maybe there is some configuration somewhere that would make it run faster. If you know about this "20fps" configuration option, please detail it here. I don't doubt that there could be configuration optimisations. Just with zero information about said configuration, your comment is little else than speculation.
@Robert Cosgrove Thanks for the info! That's great and now I have something I can look into. My thinking behind these tests were to simply run the same software on all machines in the same resolution and see which machine game the best experience. I still believe this is a fair approach. But Doom Attack is better optimised then it is worth looking at that again. But I don't really expect the outcome to be different. i.e. I still expect the V4 to outperform. However, the A1200's honour is worth defending! Thanks for commenting and backing Kyle up on this.
Obviously the Vampire will be faster than an 030. But to use a totally unoptimized doom just makes the comparison totally exaggerated. It reminds me of the sort of "comparisons" Acorn used to do where they'd show someone writing in Amiga ED and then compare it to an Archie running something like impression.
Doomattack, NTSC 320x200, the 020+ C2P routine, and maybe a small border. That's a realistic experience to compare to.
insert disk 736... good riddance
A good promotional video, but the details that saddle sworn amiga enthusiasts are missing from reality.
A couple of months ago, I and my friend were enjoying unboxing one of the first Vampyre V4 Standalone.
As this and other promotional videos show all the benefits, it remains to list the main disadvantages regarding the relationship between the manufacturer and the seller and the end user.
We start our journey to the country of modern marketing and engineering ..:
1. Package liquid for such a dream computer for 600 € (yes 300 € probably if you pay directly to the manufacturer ..)
2. The unit packaging itself is damaged.
3. The lack of a user manual surprises you. Even the almighty google doesn't help with the OS, two experienced computer and electronics professionals.
4. PCB designed improperly, extra clock module plate, just physically shortened by inserting Vampyre motherboard into cheap Chinese box.
5. The IDE PATA 40pin connector declared on the sales portal and on the manufacturer's site remained somewhere on the manufacturer's desk.
6. USB interfaces. As there is no user manual included in the kit and on the Internet, it is not known how to use USB connections. After a while, it turns out that the common USB interface on this computer these days is not what you think of when buying a computer engineered by genius engineers. Turns out Vampire has special USB connectors. One for the mouse, another for the keyboard.
It's been a while since you can buy an Amiga USB HID adapter for a penny on eBay or any Amiga store that supports most input devices.
7. Includes cables, CF cards, PC with relevant software and UAE emulator in the collection. After trying out different keyboards and mice, after a few hours of testing, we finally build our dream computer. However. Where is SAGA graphics, TRUE color desktop and other benefits advertised / declared? Is this the first higher-end processor after the ACA1233 accelerator board? Where to find drivers, for video, where to install, other info .. ??? Okay, if enthusiasts have long had in their collection 68060 or so processor cards with graphics cards, they already have the necessary software, experience. What is more, the software is completely unprepared for new hardware.
The list could be continued, but it is a pity to spend so much time waiting, trying to launch a new miracle ...
The most unfortunate thing was that the dream device had to be returned to the sellers for some defective and additional financial loss that no one promises to compensate .. And where else is the moral loss?
Some valid points here. But for much of this I can answer with more or less the same answer: You didn't do you home work. A single unboxing video is poor preparation (such vidoes are pointless anyhow). Much of what you wrote is just too poorly written to understand. I have the impression you are dissapointed and I am sorry that you are. But I also have the impression you were trying to be cheeky and overly clever in your complaints. But you were unsuccesful and you lost my sympathy. Stick to basic English next time and keep your points factual. Then maybe we will understand you better.
But to address your questions point for point.
1. No idea what this sentence means. Maybe write it also in your native language and google translate will help us understand.
2. Sorry to hear that.
3. You didn't google hard enough then. You found somehwere to oder the V4. You found other videos on the topic. You found my video so you could complain. How could you not find the Official Vampire Wiki? It isn't possible. If I type "Vampire V4" into google, the official web page with a Wiki is in the top 3 results. The wiki page details what you need to know. This is being updated continuously. This is a key benefit over paper based manuals. The board gains new features regularly and the wiki keeps pace with that. A manual isn't super helpful here.
4. The board is designed well. The rest of your sentence is incompehensible.
5. Yes, this was removed but I don't understand the reasons why. But since most amiga users today work with CF card (the adapters for this work best with the 44 pin connector), it isn't really a big loss. But if you bought the V4 with the expecation that a 40 pin header would be there, I can understand your disappointment.
6. It was explained in my video and on the wiki that these are currently for the mouse and keyboard only. Since the video was published support for joy pads was added. I don't know what USB interface you can buy on eBay for a penny that supports "most devices". There is only one I can find anywhere and it costs 100€: icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/shop/product/rapidroad-usb.html. The only cheap USB interfaces that I have seen support only mouse or keyboards. So even less than the V4. And the USB interface is built-in to the V4. Again, you didn't do your research.
7. You didn't look very hard. Again. The Wiki details this. And there is support via the forums, IRC and Slack. IF you had reached out for help via any of the 3 methods to get help, then I would partially accept your point. But you didn't. You clearly didn't ask there for help. You clearly didn't read ANY information before purchasing. You clearly didn't look for any information after purchasing. And you clearly didn't put ANY effort into helping yourself. Sorry, but you have only yourself to blame. The rest of your point here is incomprehensible. I don't know what you are trying to say.
@@RonnieBeck
First, thank You for answer. Second, I accidentally watched this video and it triggered a sad adventure about buying a Vampyre standalone. My comments are not directly related to your video. I'll try to explain it simply.
@@RonnieBeck
1. Vampyre V4 Standalone was poorly packed by the seller. The package itself for this or similar type of electronic device should meet at least the minimum requirements for mailing to another country. This is a supplier issue.
2. Vampyre V4 original packaging not new and damaged.
@@RonnieBeck
3. There are no installation, startup instructions, links. The device is not a regular Amiga computer and requires special plug-ins to take advantage of it.
@@RonnieBeck
4. Suppose the Vampyre PCB itself is properly designed. Then why does the RTC module plate rub against the inner walls of the metal box, which in turn shortens the RTC module itself?
why bother with this when you can just get a mister for much less and with more functionality
They are not the same. So you can't really compare.
"did a 68k based amiga ever offered 512MB of ram. do not think so" well .. well. why not actually factcheck before doing a review that actually looks professional done? yes. 2GB have been offered since A3000 sure not superfast but still yes. 2GB!
Compare with 030 with a lame "price" thing. you CAN get 060s cheaper than ebay 800eur prices..
run doom on RTG and compare to A1200 with 030 instead of a 060 with RTG?
compare apples and peas... damn I need to get my capturemachine up and do a more proper show of the FPGA Arcade with 060. aprox same price as Vamp..
Is the FPGA Arcade currently available to buy?
Was this an accelerator of some kind that allowed 2G of RAM on the 3000? When the 3000 came out putting 16M of Fast ram in the system was a big deal, much less 2G. A few years later (mid 90s) I got the biggest Amiga accelerator I ever owned for the 2000 that allowed up to 128M Fast RAM. That was pretty darned big at the time and I actually needed it for rendering gigantic DEM maps. But, I'm not aware of anything at that time that would go up to 2G. (The 3000 allowed 2M (Megabytes, not Gigabytes) of chip RAM if that is what you're thinking of.).
@@Chrisst1961 sadly some parts are EOL so they are designing R2
@@SyntheToonz nah but you could put 128MB on most cards and then you could have more memory on the Zorro3 bus. would cost alot YES.. but it sure was possible. I had 128+128 in my main machine. 128 on the 060 and 128 on my Z3
Basically, it's true that one can add 256 MB on one Zorro slot with a Bigram or a ZorRam, but as those boards come with 256 MB each and because we have 4 Zorro port in a 3000/4000, in my understanding the maximum amount one can reach is 256x4 on the Zorro bus and 128 additional more on the accelerator board. How do you achieve 2 GB ? Even if it's possible, you are comparing 1 or 2 GB accessed on a slow bus (12 MB/s max on the Zorro) with 512 MB on the Vampire at 670 MB/s. I don't know for you, but between the both I choose the 512@670 MB/s one :-) For the comparaison with a 030, well this make sense, has this is the only one widely buyable solution for the Amiga right now. Ordering a 060 on Ebay to put it on a FPGA board or something else is saddly not a widely buyable solution. If you can reach 100 units it's already a miracle. The main goal of the Vampire is to bring on the market a widely available solution, not only 100 units.