> Hardware banging is allowed on NatAmi but, obviously, if you access the
> 3d core by banging the hardware, then there's no way you'll be able to run
> that on a Classic with a graphics card.

I know that. That's what I've been saying in this thread all along. What I was explicitely asking about was *non*-banging software that you said could be "recompiled for [...] SuperAGA".

> SuperAGA will be backward compatible to the non-hardware banging via
> the programming API

Yes, that's exactly what I meant. So there's no need for non-banging software to be "recompiled for [...] SuperAGA". After all, abstracting from specific hardware components is the whole point of using higher level APIs.

> What I meant about recompilation, was that the apps that were compiled
> for OS 4 and MorphOS that used SDL and OpenGL could be recompiled
> for NatAmi to run under AROS 68k.

So the "recompiled for [...] SuperAGA" part of your statement was just there to cause confusion. Thanks for clarification :-)

> N68070

...is now called Apollo:

http://www.apollo-core.com

Andreas_Wolf,
Quote:

But don't believe the numbers and graphs posted to that site just yet. They're just placeholders. When everything is official there will be news posted to the NatAmi forums to that effect.

As for the name change, it has to do with the 68k related trademarks that Freescale would try to defend in court. Trademarks last a bit longer than patents do.

Yes, and who would want to use a designation that has already been used by Signetics for a processor that performed slightly worse than a 68000.

@Jim

True.

I guess all Natami skeptics will just have to wait until after it is released and available for about a year to really know how many Natami's will get sold and how many "ex-Amiga" users and/or programmers will want to buy one and do some coding on it.

It is taking a long time to complete, but that is understandable, since it is a very ambitious project.

Personally, I think it is a great project and I am looking forward to it's completion and final sales to the public. My guess is that the popularity of the Natami will be much greater than itix might be anticipating. Only time will tell which one of us is closer to being correct and how successful the Natami will become.

I prefer to trust that the objectives of the Natami team can be accomplished, until they announce that they are giving up, or they make new announcements that change their objectives.

> I prefer to trust that the objectives of the Natami team can be
> accomplished, until they announce that they are giving up, or
> they make new announcements that change their objectives.

New announcement about them kind of changing their objectives:

http://www.natami.net/knowledge.php?b=1¬e=46729&x=1
(6th post from top)

Just started following that thread, since that statement was made that you are referring to.

Although no one will explain exactly what happened, it appears that there was some disagreement between team members and Thomas Hirsch has decided to go into seclusion, separating himself from the rest of the Natami team members to work on his original vision of what the Natami was/is supposed to be.

From what my limited understanding might be, Thomas will work on the SAGA (Super AGA) code, while the rest of the team will continue working on other parts separate from Thomas, plus they are working on other projects at the same time, some of which are related to parts of the Natami project and some of which are not.

I guess that most of the disagreements between one or more Natami team members and Thomas were related to the "unrealistic time line expectations" of one or more Natami team members, that were reported in that thread. Disagreements were not reported, just the "unrealistic time line", or some other phrase that means the same thing.

The possibility of a name change confuses me and I have not seen any explanation that would justify why the name must be changed. It is this name change possibility that worries me more, well not really the name change itself, but rather the possible reason(s) behind why the name might need to be changed that worries me a little.

I still hope that the Natami project will be completed some day, but this latest series of statements by people who know the team members, or team members themselves, has raised some doubts.

I guess we shall just have to wait and see how long it takes for more information about the Natami's progress. Two more weeks?

I was quite interested in this project, occationaly checking their website, I was thinking of maybe picking one up, if the cost was alright.

But just how many years has it been now? Actually, just checked 2005 apparently, that's 7 years to produce, errr. That's about the same time scale as the release of the Amiga 500 and the end of commodore.

Yes its part time/hobby thing, but for flips sake get on with it, or shut up about it.


Maybe they could just convert their work into a custom core for the Chameleon? :insert troll face here:

> how many years has it been now? Actually, just checked 2005 apparently

2003 according to this page:

http://www.natami.net/blog/comments.php?y=11&m=03&entry=entry110312-215920

stephen_robinson,
Quote:

When you have produced something as difficult as they are trying to do with as few people as they have working part time, then maybe I will listen to your opinion on this topic.

Feature creep had something to do with the delays and a complete design change at least once, if not 2 or 3 times. There were several people that said what was trying to be done could not be done at all (and maybe they are right, but we won't know for sure, until the project is completely canceled).

Too much has been completed and works for this project to die now. If the team members are just sick of each other (which could be the case since some of them have been working on this project for several years), then just take a break and then come back to it in a few weeks and continue to finish the project. Different personalities can get on each others nerves after a while, even if they are the best of friends. I have no idea if this happened, or not, but when one person says that they want to go off and be alone without any distractions, it makes me think that maybe one or two people on the team are not getting along with one or more other people on the team.

There was enough work done to release a product if they wanted to, while they continue to work on completing the rest of the features, but that is not what they wanted to do (and I don't blame them), so we all will have to wait for a while longer to see what happens with this project.

I still hope that it is completed some time in the future, because it is an interesting project and there are hundreds, if not over a thousand users who would like to purchase a Natami system.

Quote:

maybe 5 years ago but today this is highly over rated.
i don't think they can hope to sell more than 50/100 units.