News Extra
This is a new section for any snippets of Amiga related news that we have heard, as well as rumours that may well turn out to be completely false...
Please Note that the dates are when I wrote the items, not when the events happened.
News!
- 3 Feb '98
- Amiga International have announced PowerPC as officially the new processor for the Amiga!
- HiQ have announced their plans to port the Amiga to the Alpha
processor, making use of their Siamese Alpha RTG, and the forthcoming InsideOut from Index Information.
- Despite Almathera going bust, Photogenics may not be dead. Paul Nolan is working on an all new image processing program, currently under the name Photogenics NG.
- 19 Jan '98
- Quake is coming out for the Amiga! ClickBOOM hope to have it ported for 680x0 and PPC for February. Before N64, before Playstation...
- Doom is now available on the Amiga! ID released the source code, and several Amiga ports have sprung up (totally legal, unlike the unofficial Quake ports...) They said it couldn't be done blah...
- Myst has been released, and it's excellent! Look out for a review in DoubleClick 6.
- Opera is a new browser that may be ported to the Amiga if enough users vote. Go to Opera Software and register your vote!
- A message posted at the main Aminet site sparked a rumour that the Aminet had been deleted! That is not true, there are just a few hard disk problems.
- Rumour update: Phase 5 have indeed announced that multiprocessor PowerPC cards are planned... but the MIPS based Amiga looks very much like a hoax (see Rumours, below).
- 11 Dec '97
- Micronik have a new version of their Infinitiv 1500 Amiga clone which can now use standard PC PCI cards. Expected price is £699. Matrox Millenium, anyone?
- 29 Nov '97
- Computer '97 passed with no great announcements from Amiga International, but was a great success nonetheless. Haage & Partner showed Quake running on PowerPC Amigas which they had recompiled with their StormC, and it was reportedly running at 'Pentium beating' speeds.
- Amiga International have said that Gateway 2000 have approved
their plans for the next five years, and that they will be spending 'millions' on marketing and advertising. OS 3.5 is planned for Spring '98, and OS 4.0 later in the year. New machines from them are planned for Christmas '98.
- Amiga International are handing out Amiga licences like Father Christmas... Gateway 2000 announced that there are over 400 companies seeking Amiga licences.
- Amiga International have announced a deal with Epson. All new
Epson printers will be shipped with Amiga printer drivers, Amiga documentation in the manuals, and Amiga logos on the packaging.
- Nova have released a range of high-end Amigas primarily for video and 3D work. They are equipped with '060s and PPC 604s.
- Index have released their Access machines, for multimedia use, targetted for businesses.
- DCE / Power Computing have released two new Amigas, the A5000 and A6000. Features are: 030/040/060 CPU, 16MB RAM, IDE HD and CD
ROM, HD Floppy, Zorro 2 slots, and scan doubler.
- A new Amiga motherboard has been released by Index and Blittersoft. Named the BoXeR, it features: 040/060 CPU slot, 4 SIMM sockets for up to 2GB RAM, IDE interface, 4 Zorro 3 slots, ISA slots. A 'very cheap' PowerPC card is planned for the CPU slot.
- Micronik have annouced they are working on an Amiga-based set-top box / network computer.
- Intrinsic Computer Systems have released the Amigo PC range of A1200T clones, including the Hurricane equipped with 200MHz 603e.
- Cyberstorm PowerPC boards for A3000/A4000 are shipping, and Blizzard PPC and Cybervision PPC are to follow shortly.
- Phase 5 have announced the BlizzardVision PPC for the A1200. Similar to the Cybervision PPC, it is a graphics card that will plug into the A1200 PPC card. Both cards are stated as being far better than any existing Amiga graphics card, and superior to most PC cards.
- Clickboom have annouced the voting for their 'Conversion Wishlist'. Top Three are: Monkey Island 3, Quake and Red Alert.
- Cloanto have announced 'Amiga Forever', an Amiga emulator for
the PC based around UAE.
- PC emulator PC Task will now support Windows '95, if you really must run shit operating systems. An '060 is 'recommended'...
- DoubleClick, issue 5 has been released! The best Amiga e-zine
around. er...
Rumours...
- 29 Nov '97
- Phase 5 are to manufacture a new PowerUP board containing 4 350MHz 604e PowerPC processors! Newtek are said to be very interested.
- LucasArts are interested in porting Monkey Island 3 to Power Amiga. There are also rumours that Sunsoft are interested in producing Riven, sequel to Myst, for PowerAmiga.
- A company is to release a new Amiga based on the MIPS processor for under $500.
- Rumours of 'big companies' returning to the Amiga on the basis of PowerUP.
- A 'Quake-beater' for PowerAmiga only is planned.
This page is adapted from the Amiga News and Rumours Web page found on Mark's homepage at https://members.tripod.com/~Mark_Harman. Please check it out for the latest happenings.