ScuzzBlog: Diaries June 2024 Entry 2nd June 2024: Post 1: Amiga 060 gaming - I'm not buying it. Amiga 060 gaming - I'm not buying it. Before I start on my little Amiga rant tonight can I just say that I applaud anyone prepared to make and sell new kit for the Amiga. From a personal view I would prefer if there was a focussed single company promoting, selling and encouraging the development of all Amiga third party products, so that there was genuine progression of the platform. In truth where the Amiga is failing its community is in the production of new software and games in support of these hardware upgrades. Sadly we don't have a controlling company with a structured plan on how the product can be promoted. Most of the last few decades have been spent arguing over the rights of the Amiga. OK that said I just want to stress that I am never going to knock anybody who wants to make new stuff for the Amiga. So what is my point. I am constantly bewildered by the claims of some that there are new cards available for the Amiga 1200. I am aware of some of the products but the one that always troubles me is the 060 range of cards using the 68060 and or variant. The other day a forum poster was encouraging an Amiga user to buy an 'new' 060 card to play Alien Breed 3D. A contradiction in terms I thought given that I wasn't aware of anyone making 68060 processors, or there being some version of Amiga game that warranted such a power boost. I decided to finally take a look at what was going on here. First what is the 68060 .. The Motorola 68060 32-bit superscaler CISC processor made by Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector. It was never adopted by Apple who moved over to PowerPC. Introduced in 1994 initially for the Amiga 4000T running at 50MHz. To my knowledge I have not been aware of any new manufactured runs of this CPU since 2009 Though a company called Freescale may have sold some legacy chips it is not clear how commercially available they were. The ones I see are definitely the Motorola type. . The one I have dates from the beginning of the new century. I assume current cards being sold have pulled old chips. Alien Breed 3D dates from around the same period though there was a later version developed more mid 1990s. Both games look very similar and are Doom clones, more like Duke Nukem. I did track a few 68060 on Ebay with one specifically selling as brand new stock. Possibly brand new old stock. Thing was the ones being sold were the MC68EC060 50MHz for 85 quid. These are the EC variants of the chip. EC stands for Embedded Controller a microcontroller located on the motherboard to manage aspects of the system not handled by the Central Processing Unit. Designed to work in different systems such as mobile devices. There were two variants to the 69060.. the EC and LC. I also discovered another more standard 68060 for 310 quid. The Terriblefire or TF1260 appears to vary in price from 290 quid second hand to 630 quid new. At no point does anyone seem to discuss the age of the 68060 processor or its history if it was pulled from another system i.e its origin. I am talking from total ignorance in truth cus I wasn't able to track down any new product being manufactured. Therefore I drew my own conclusions. My main issue here goes back to the development of software and hardware that is being commercially supported. It really is no good having faster new kit if there isn't any suitable games or productivity software. If the Amiga is to have a future it needs new readily available stocks and of consistent supply. You can't build a business on a hope that old abandoned kit is going to come onto the market. In respect of those games, for me I stopped playing Doom clones back in the mid nineties. If all I have to look forward to playing on my 600 quid accelerator is Alien Breed 3D then seriously I'm like never going to shed out for one of these cards. My biggest issue is with second hand kit, if that is in truth what the 68060 is. Like I say I could be wrong on that one. But my biggest hang up with retro for gaming is just that, it's retro. At the core of the Amigas problems is the retro tag. It's old stuff. More of a novelty than serious use. I mean for 500 quid I could get me a new PS5 and a copy of Stellar Blade and I would be having a modern blast. Yet if you are up for pimping out an A1200 and sticking in a TerribleFire plus all the other bits and pieces just so you can treat yourself to Alien Breed 3D, dood .. you gotta get a life. It really isn't worth it. I'm not sure where the Amiga market is right now. I bought my Apollo 060 at the beginning of the century so I could boost a brand new, yes brand new , Amiga 1200 with a CD player and maybe get online. The Amiga 1200 is still in its box and the Apollo 060 which I tested today sits on a shelf , glass cased, as a tribute to high end 1200a. Basically I am more happy using the 030 accelerators cus they are just a touch more expendable. An 060 is rare, for me historically. So suggesting I could buy a bit of history as my main workhorse kinda flies in the face of what I do here. The 68060 was the highest performing processor in the 68000 series for Motorolla. It represents the final last great celebration of what was a truly remarkable processor. The Amiga used the chip to the full and at its demise was about to launch its most powerful A4000T using the 060 CPU. So ask yourself a simple question how is it possible in 2024 for a 68060 chip driven component to be classed as new. Sums up the bonkers way the Amiga twisted and turned to get where we are today. By the way I am aware of Freescale Semiconductor and ColdFire 32-bit Microprocessors and legacy stuff but was unable to find a link on their site to the 68060 family. A company called Rochester Semiconductor holds the Motorola archive and is evidently intent on reviving the legacy chips including the 68060. There is no stock number or price though the 68040 is available. The cost of these things are not cheap. Like I keep saying for me the Amiga has and always has been an expensive hobby post the demise of Commodore. To breath life back into the beast to warrant shelling out large sums of cash I really would want to see a real commercial structure in respect of development of new games and software. I did switch on the Apollo 060 A1200 and she was working just fine. I better not say how much I paid for my Apollo back in 2003. Amiga 060 gaming - I'm not buying it.

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Last updated 2nd June 2024

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