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CL9:     HALF OF THE NEW AMIGA SCENE?
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CL4:           By Darkhawk/IRIS

CL0:If you haven't already, I would kindly
ask  you  to  read my article entitled
'Hired  Demoscening',  before you read
this one.  In here, I will try to look
at  the  Pegasos2 and MorphOS in terms
of its demoscene viability.  If we are
to survive as a scene, we must upgrade
our  Amigas  to  either the Pegasos or
the  AmigaOne, computers that are very
related  to  eachother  and  the older
Amigas,  computers  that  can both run
all  the  old Amiga software, and that
will  also  be able to run each others
programs  somewhat  easily  with  some
recompilation.

CL1:So,  I  got  myself a Pegasos2 shipped
via mail the last days of 2003.  While
this   was  a  pleasant  surprise,  it
wasn't as easy as that.

CL0:Before  I  go  into  more  detail, you
should  know  that  the  Pegasos2 is a
motherboard,  designed  to  fit into a
microATX    cabinet,   sporting   some
special  North and Southbridge, aswell
as  a  slot  for  a  PPC processorcard
(much  like the A4000 for instance, so
that   future  expansions  are  rather
easy).   Apart  from what I mentioned,
the  board  is  fairly standard and in
places below standard.  Thus, there is
an  AGP  slot,  but only at 1x.  There
are   3   PCI  slots,  one  with  RISE
compability  (some thingie..), 2 slots
for  RAM,  2  ULTRA  DMA (I think) IDE
slots (meaning you can connect up to 4
IDE devices), there is USB (only 1.x I
think),   PS2   mouse/keyboard,   AC97
audio, Firewire, 100mbit aswell as 1gb
ethernet.    Especially  the  last  is
nice,  and  about  the only thing that
makes   the   board   better   than  a
medium-priced  PC HW featurewise.  The
RAM slots are annoying though, as they
only  accept DDR 200 or 333 modules in
128, 256 and 512mb formats.  Still, if
you  bought  such a board, I guess you
make sure to get the right HW for it.

CL1:The  issue  of  what gfxcard to use is
the  most  annoying thing here though,
especially for demosceners who want to
do  hardwareaccelerated  3D  (and  who
doesn't?    It   would   be   a   huge
disadvantage   not  to  have  your  3D
effects  run  hardwareaccelerated,  if
other  demos did).  This is partly the
reason why we haven't gotten the beast
up  and  running  yet.  First off, the
Pegasos2  does  not  accept  just  any
gfxcard,  just  like it doesn't accept
just  any  RAM  module.  Gfxcards that
work  with Pegasos2 are the ATI Radeon
line  of  cards,  aswell as Voodoo and
SiS  cards.  Fine, you can get a cheap
and  fast  (especially  compared  with
Amiga  Permedia  based  gfxcards, heh)
ATI  Radeon.   But no, for demosceners
it  HAS  to be either a Voodoo 2, 3 or
4.    How   come?    Because   the  3D
developers  of  MorphOS,  the  OS  for
Pegasos   (it   can  also  run  Linux,
naturally)  have  only  worked  on  3D
API's  for  those  cards  so far.  The
team  is  working  on writing the code
neccessary  for  ATI's cards, but they
have  been  doing that for over a year
now.  Thus, if you want to do demos on
your  Pegasos2  system right away, you
need  one  of  these cards.  Sadly for
us,  we  seem  pathetically  unable to
find  even  one  person in Denmark who
still  has  one  of  those cards.  Yes
well,  I still believe it is possible,
naturally, especially from other Amiga
users,  who might have gotten a Voodoo
themselves  once upon a time for their
classic  Amiga  extensions.  Still, to
date  we  have  not  procurred  such a
card,  and if you have one, we're very
interested  in  buying  it  indeed, so
that we can finally get started on the
demo.    Find   my   address   in  the
editorial section of the mag.

CL0:So,  my  first  tries  in  getting the
bugger up and running failed somewhat,
because  of  me  missing  one  of  the
compatible   gfxcards.   Therefore,  I
only   got  to  see  a  frozen  screen
telling  me  the name of the gfxcard I
had  put  in,  and  did  not  get  the
opportunity  to  actually  install and
test MorpOS 1.4.

CL1:MorphOS  is  the  OS that is developed
specifically for the Pegasos computer,
and  both  the Pegasos and MorphOS can
be   seen  as  the  adversary  of  the
AmigaOne  and  AmigaOS  4.0,  as  both
solutions  basically  target  the same
audience.   Thus,  there  has  already
been heavy wars between loyalists from
either camp, with the obligatory lies,
accusations   and  attacks  from  both
sides,  as will always happen when two
conflicting  interests  clash  because

    PIC:budgie





they  share  the  same  space.  People
buying  the Pegasos computer are seens
as   traitors   to  the  'true'  Amiga
succession   with  the  AmigaOne,  and
people  touting  the AmigaOne are seen
as  hopeless  fossils backing amateurs
who  haven't even produced an OS after
all  these  years  yet.   I  certainly
don't  want  to  get  involved in that
'discussion'  myself,  both  computers
and  OS'es (when OS4 finally gets out)
have  their  strengths and weaknesses.
For me it is of much bigger importance
that  the  Amiga  scene  does not fall
into  this  trap  of supporting one or
the  other  platform.  We're too small
for   this,  and  if  we  want  to  be
consistent, whole and as big as we can
get,  we  would be wise to produce our
demos  for  both  computers, aswell as
for   PPC   equipped  classic  Amigas.
Everything  else would really be a big
folly,  as  I see it.  Let the fanatic
(and  desperate, understandably) users
bicker about what is best and who lied
to  whom, while we establish the Amiga
scene    on   both   Amiga   successor
computers.   It  is  quite easy, as it
will  'only' take a recompiling of the
C-source  of  the  demo  for  each OS,
aswell  as  adjustments  according  to
their   respective   3D   API's.   The
benefits  should  clearly outweigh the
added trouble of recompiling the demos
for each OS.

CL0:So,  no matter which computer you get,
you  should  keep in mind that you and
your   group  MUST  work  to  tie  the
systems together by releasing for both
and  making  sure  that people see you
treat both systems as one scene.  This
is  very  important,  and  it  will be
something  I  will  do  what  I can to
promote.    We   need   no  small  and
pathetically  irrelevant borderwars at
this point, we must be a scene for all
Amigas,  68k and PPC.  With that said,
the  decision  about which computer to
get is still left unanswered.

CL1:As   a   democomputer,   I  guess  the
Pegasos2  is  as good as the AmigaOne.
The  Pegasos2  HW  is smaller, faster,
cheaper  and  richer  in features than
the  AmigaOne  HW.   This  is not that
surprising,   as   the   Pegasos2  was
designed  later than the AmigaOne was.
However,  that  isn't  as important as
the  OS,  since  the HW differences do
not  mean too much.  In that regard, I
can't  say  anything, as the one OS is
not out yet and I haven't been able to
test  the other.  Demoscene wise, both
computers  and  OS's  should  be  fine
though,  the  most  important  in this
regard   is  the  software  available,
aswell  as  the  drivers available for
the needed HW.  In the first case both
OS's  have backwardscompatibility with
classic  AOS, and so sceners will have
access  to a broad range of tools from
the  outset.   Naturally,  most  Amiga
sceners work on their PC's anyway, and
then convert the work to the Amiga, so
I guess this is also irrelevant, hrmm.
I  do  not  know  what C-compilers are
available,  which  might  be  the most
relevant   program   to   use  on  the
Pegasos/AmigaOne,  but  it  seems like
MorphOS  has  a  growing  community of
softwaredevelopers     working    with
porting many Open Source things, and I
guess  the  same will be true with the
AOS 4.0 when that time comes.  What is
more  important is the inclusion of 3D
API's,  and  here we have already seen
that  MorphOS  has  not come very far.
This  is  likely  the  most irritating
point  for  sceners,  but  as  stated,
people are working on this.  I have no
idea   what  3D  API's  AOS  4.0  will
support,   but   I   would   be   very
disappointed  in the OS if they didn't
support  more  than  MorphOS  do right
now.

CL0:Thus,   it  really  does  not  matter,
demoscenewise, what you choose, unless
some catastrophe hits one of the firms
behind  the HW and OS's, or unless one
of    the    computers    manages   to
outdistance  the  other  in  sales and
popularity   to  such  a  degree  that
programs  are  not  made  available on
both.   There  is  no saying what is a
'safer' bet in this situation I think.
It  is  likely  that Amiga Inc.  is in
litigation    now,    and   close   to
bankruptcy  (substantiated  rumours it
seems), but the clever thing this time
is that they are not producing neither
the   AmigaOne   nor   the   AOS   4.0
themselves,  and  thus,  even  if they
went  under,  the AmigaOne and the new
OS  might still run, although it would
probably never get very big saleswise.
Genesi  on the other hand, will likely
never  ever  get  big  in any case, it
being  a  very  small  niche  computer
(motherboard   rather),   but  on  the
positive side, it looks to be way more
stable  than its opposition.  It has a
supported  OS,  and it manages to both
produce  and  sell ok niche quantities
of  motherboards.   It  would be best,
perhaps  vitally  important,  for  the
Amiga scene if both systems flourished
and gathered users to them.  The scene
could  then  be  a  bridge between the
systems, where users of both computers
could meet.  More than that, the scene
could  then  be  twice as big and this
will probably be needed in any case.
        PIC:df1





CL1:So,  buy what you want, I can't really
tell,  since I haven't seen either OS.
Speaking  from  my  limited  viewpoint
right now, I'd say that HW and support
wise,  the Pegasos2 system is the best
buy  these days, but that might change
quickly,  and the most important thing
is  a  comparison of the two OS's.  In
any  case  you might also wait and see
what  will  happen,  I can't hold that
against   you,   since  Amiga  history
proves that things seldom go as people
hope.   When  you  see that there is a
hope  for  a  new scene and one or two
new  Amiga  inspired  systems however,
you  should stand up and do your part,
if   you  want  to  keep  our  scenish
community alive.