Amiga Vampire

Apollo Vampire Stand Alone V4

I came across the Apollo website while scouring the internet searching for where the Amiga stood today in 2022.  I gave up all my commodore equipment back in 2009 when I remarried.  Lol, I so should have kept it all.  I had a nice SX64 and a Amiga 1200 with tons of disks!

The Vampire is very intriguing in my humble opinion.  Its a mostly Amiga dedicated project, even if it does run Atari and other cores.  I have seen Apollo taking a lot of flak for their efforts, however, after taking a few weeks to think it all over, I have to agree with their approach.

First as Amiga diehards we have to acknowledge that a new Amiga hardware platform with modern hardware doesn’t make a lot of sense!  When the Amiga first arrived on the scene it had distinct hardware advantages.  Two of the foremost advantages were graphic and multitasking.  I distinctly recall thinking just how much more ahead of the PC the Amiga was in its ability to multi-task.  It goes without saying the graphics were mind blowing as well!

A new Amiga today would need at minimum to compete with the best PC and Mac hardware specs, graphics, sound ect.  And even if you did that, you would need a new software base to go with it.  That would be a significant goal to harness the support and build something that competes.  

If the new hypothetical  Amiga were to be used as a business and general home machine, then it would need all kinds of new productivity software, or ports of the best in class offerings.

As a game machine it would be competing against the latest game consoles.  The sheer effort required to become a competitor in either space is mind boggling, not to mention the resources and funding that would be required.

Where does the realization and acknowledgement of this leave us?  It leaves us understanding that the development efforts of current Amiga businesses needs a focused plan.  IE, let’s get the 68080 processor, get it all working and as far as core apps go, allow them to be what they can on a faster version of the legacy architecture.  Then target new development where it will be most valuable to the remaining amiga community as well as enable that community to enjoy the nostalgia and legacy of their early computing days!

I have high hopes for this device, we will just have to see how this goes and it may take a while to dig in now that its all working!

Stay Tuned!