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4. Reflections about the Future of Amiga PowerPC and Games (by Andreas Volkmann)

You are always on about the Mac. But what about a reasonable emulation for PPC Amigas? There's not much on Aminet for emulation that you have not tested already.

I bought WarCraftII and played it to the final level, but that's a long time ago, and how much new stuff has appeared since for the PPC? And if I wait for a Fusion upgrade will 604e boards be sufficient?

We are all are waiting for games and applications for the Amiga, but especially the latest games (if possible). I am not a games nut, but like real-time or round-based strategy games like Napalm, Warcraft, Ufo or Age of Empire.

The rest don't interest me, but there are many others who might like to play new games. :-)

I have got myself all the current emulators because I'm not just a games nut, I need to run other programs to swap other data, but I'm stuck with a 68k Mac emulation. I can't afford to lash out on a PPC in the hope someone will write an emulation to take advantage of its power.

You guys get the test programs, you may say the game or the program runs in one or other configuration, but you don't seem to have anything new. I can only hope that a PPC emulation will pop up and I will be able to buy a good PPC board, but I fear this will never happen.

I could upgrade my A1200 to PPC, just to run an emulation on it, or I could buy a PowerMac - and as it looks like there will be no boards for my A4000 and A3000. All I can say is: What a shame! There are certainly more 1200s out there, but will they all be upgraded to PPC? I don't think so, but I get the impression that a lot of A4000 or A3000 owners would buy a G3 or G4 board. I would probably buy two boards right away.

I just can say: It's a pity. I'm sure, there have been sold more A1200 , but are all of them expanded? I don't think so, but I'm sure, that those, who operate an A4000 or A3000 and is currently waiting, would buy a G3 or G4 board. I would do that and it is very likely, that I would buy 2 boards.

Andreas Volkmann <Andreas-V@gmx.de>

Chief editor's note: I do not see a future for the Amiga PowerPC market. New PowerPC boards will not be here before 2001, if they arrive at all. You have to ask who will buy these products if a new Amiga has been released by then. The same applies to the BoXeR, promised for years, but never delivered. If the cost of a full spec BoXeR is more than 2000 DM (1000 Euro), it won't sell. The Mediator PCI extension might be a hit - but only if it is bugfree and up to spec. But if only old 4 or 8 MByte graphic boards can be used with it, as rumor has it, this project looks lame as well.