Hey guys, I'm a proper beginner - haven't actually even started yet.

I've been on a bit of an Amiga binge, and I've been playing with Amikit (bought the new Amikit X) and Amiga Forever. But I feel like I want to use dedicated hardware to get my fix :)

Looking around, Morphos looks to be the best solution to get up and running with an Amiga like experience, with support for Amiga software on relatively cheaply available hardware.

So I've bit the bullet and ordered a G4 Mac Mini to play with.

I wasn't surprised to see that Morphos was proprietary, but my immediate gut reaction to 79 Euros was that it seemed a bit steep.

What's the story, is it worth the 79 Euros? Is the license lifetime with upgrades covered? How many people just use the demo and reboot every 30 minutes? It's not that it's unnafordable, and if it's worth it, I'll cough up, I just wanted to get some thoughts before I pay up. It'll be a few days till the G4 turns up, and likely a day or two of playing with demo to see what I think... then plunge

The truth is... Nobody can tell for you is it worth your money or not. Go, tinker a bit, play with your new hardware ant decide. 79 EUR may seem steep, but well, back in 2008 I've payed 100 EUR for a license for Efika 5200B (call that a bargain!). So far every update since 2.0 was free of charge for all registered users. And thats nearly 10 years now.

P.S. I hope your Mini is a 'silent upgrade' 64 MB VRAM one. It will give you a much better experience than the 32 MB version.

Thanks! Yeh, I'll just have a play.

And I've no idea on the VRAM..

Get your self a good hardware! because your licens is bound to your Hardware and not to your person.
To just play around a cheap mac mini G4 is quiet ok. For me a Power mac G4 with at least 1,25GHz is
the minimun you need to have fun. A Power Book G4 with 1,5GHz would be quit good as well.
What ever Mac you buy it has to have an ATI Radeon with at least 64MB Ram.
If you like something fast - go for a G5 Powermac (with a Radeon that has full support)
Take a look here:
http://www.morphos.de/hardware

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Actually MorphOS2.0 was released at a reduced price of 111€ but by the time the Efika got supported it was back to 150€.

Looking at the processor spec, the mac mini is almost certainly a 32MB VRAM model.

Just watched a youtube video with a guy pushing it to the limit until music starts stuttering.. With my main aim just playing old amiga games on dedicated hardware, am I going to be OK?

The most of the amiga games with RTG support can work on MorphOS if they have no special Hardware dependencies:

http://obligement.free.fr/articles/listejeuxamiga.php

Morphos has no nativ aga or ecs/ocs chip support nor a cia
those games need to be emulated with e-uae.


[ Editiert durch defender 28.05.2017 - 21:01 ]

Thanks!

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Just try it out, you can use it for 30 minutes before it slows down, and rebooting is really quick.
Initially, I ran it on a 733 MHz G4 Quicksilver PowerMac that I eventually upgraded to 933, then 1 GHz.
And now I've backed down from a G5 to an MDD G4.

The 32MB of vram on the Mac Mini is not THAT big a problem. Its the same amount of vram I have in my iBook, and that runs fine.

For initial experimentation, your Mac Mini is fine.
The others here are just questioning it because most of us are using video cards with at least 128MB of memory.

Your processor is actually quite a bit faster than my first systems (and they were entirely adequate).

However, if you like it, you might want a G4 or G5 PowerMac (or even a PowerBook, one with 64MB of vram) when you register instead.
It will be more satisfying as a long term acquisition.

The size of it has a lot to do with it.. I'm not sure that I'd want to dedicate the space needed for a G5 Powermac..

We'll see how I get on - not exactly an expensive gamble on the Mac Mini :)

As several others have suggested, play around with your 32mb VRAM G4 MacMini, without registering it, to see if you like MorphOS. You will need to use the Amiga Kickstart ROM file(s) from your AmigaForever/AmiKitX emulation, copied to your MorphOS hard drive, to run EUAE, so you can emulate the majority of Amiga games that need the Amiga custom chipset and CIA chips to run properly. Otherwise, you will be limited to only running games that are "system friendly", which is probably only about 10% of all available Amiga games out there.

Make sure you will be satisfied with your 32mb VRAM MacMini, before you register it, as you cannot transfer registrations to another computer, unless your existing registered MorphOS computer breaks down for some reason.

Most of us here obviously think it is well worth the purchase price to register MorphOS, and many of us, if not most of us, have purchased registrations for 2, 3, or more MorphOS computers. When you think about what we have gotten over the past almost 10 years, for the single purchase price of the original registration, it is very economical as computer OSes go. You should also know that continued support for PPC computers is not guaranteed, as the Dev. Team has announced that they are working on porting MorphOS to x64 architecture some time in the future (not known how long it will take, but likely could be many months, if not several years).

That new version for a different architecture might, and I would expect most likely will, be a new OS that must be purchased, considering the huge amount work required to complete such a porting project, and the aim of the project to also include more advanced features, which will also break backward native compatibility with Amiga software. So, most likely the license you pay for on what ever PPC hardware you decide to register now, will not be transferable to the new MorphOS for x64 hardware, when and if it is ever completed and released.

Until then, our current MorphOS3.9 is a great OS, and 3.10 is expected in the near future, with new features, and support for the new A-Eon X5000 computer with PPC 5020 CPU (pricey, but the only new computer hardware that is supported by MorphOS, unless you can find a SAM460 for sale new somewhere).

So, have fun, and think carefully before you register your computer, as the registration is tied to which specific computer you register it for, not to your name, or anything else.

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Depends on the monitor's resolution. On the ibook you are @ 1024*768 pixels, but on a full HD monitor with 1920*1080 you have about 2.6 times the pixels to keep in VRAM. The 64 MB VRAM of the silent upgarde mini are rather lowest requirement for this resolution. It hapens not rarely that I run in low VRAM situations on full hd with enhanced display and double buffer on my mini silent upgrade. With 32 MB VRAM these settings would not work smoothly.

But apart from that the mini is IMHO a pretty excellent machine. Tiny, relatively fast, energy efficient and not too loud. I like mine very much and it serves as my main MorphOS machine (It followed my Pegasos 1 and kept its position # 1 against Powerbook and Efika) since eight years (was it 2009 when mini suppt was introduced?) now. The EURs I spent on registration (111 or even 150 dunno, too long ago) were pretty well spent.

My suggestion: Just play with the Mac mini and MorphOS for a while (no need to hurry) and if you somehow feel comfortable with it, get a silent upgrade Mac mini and register MorphOS for it and have some fun.

Thanks for all the advice everyone - I'm looking forward to the mac mini showing up now :) And as you all seem to recommend, I'll make sure I'm committed and consider switching machines to at least a 'silent upgrade' mini. And if I'm totally hooked, then I make space for a G5...

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As others said, please observe that the OS gets licensed for the particular machine (license locked to that particular individual) from which you run the registration software.

Try the free demo on various machines, and if you find any of them to be a keeper (and worth the OS licensing cost), then go for it!

> most likely the license you pay for on what ever PPC hardware you decide to
> register now, will not be transferable to the new MorphOS for x64 hardware

Yes, the same way it is not transferable to another PPC hardware right now (unless the original hardware breaks).

I'm quite surprised about a port to x64 to be honest, I always (maybe incorrectly?) thought of MorphOS as the OS of PPC :)

These are more rumors and not officially confirmed by the team - no one knows neither if , nor when it will happen........
So be sure that MOS IS a PPC-OS for the next future....

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There is one: http://www.a1k.org/forum/showthread.php?p=1075596#post1075596

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It is as all MOS hardware was and is PPC now.

But they are also first PPC only AmigaOS to go x64 and its a bold idea.

Only "problem" (if you wish to keep current hardware) is how long
PPC32/PPC64 hardware will be supported (PPC64 being G5 and x5000 CPU)

What is known "at best" is that transition is planned
and that few boards and not "all x64" will be supported,
so even x64 joy might mean a new hardware in the future.

But lets enjoy today.
I have just been offered a local source of PPC laps suitable for MOS
for under 80e. So I might become a MOS user sooner then I expected.

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It has been confirmed numerous times by several different members of the team.


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There will still be a PPC version AFAIK. Noone has said different.

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It is, and has always been a PPC only OS, since it was first created, but given the fact that PPC CPUs for desktop computers are most likely to never be created again in the future, and the currently available PPC CPUs are aimed at high end servers (very expensive), or embedded machines, usually for some kind of communications application, and with an uncertain future lifespan, the MorphOS Dev. Team has decided (confirmed by several members on several occasions) to move MorphOS to x64 some time in the future.

As I previously stated, it is unknown how long this port to x64 will take, but estimates are a minimum of several months, and the maximum time estimated as years, or a possibility that the task will be too difficult, or the team members will lose interest, and the project will never be completed (but I hope not, and I have faith that enough of the members are dedicated enough to stick with the project long enough to finish it).

The MorphOS Dev. Team members are some of the most talented programmers I have experienced, so I believe they will create a fantastic x64 version of MorphOS within the next couple of years. I believe the challenge will be how many existing users will decide to make the switch to x64, when a version of MorphOS for x64 is finally available, and Amiga compatibility is only available through EUAE emulation, because the current MorphOS Amiga translation layer will no longer be built into the x64 version of MorphOS. I will certainly make the switch, while also keeping at least 1 or 2 of my current PPC MorphOS systems, and I think most of our current users will do the same.

Looking forward to getting home tonight.. Just got a delivery at work :D

r14vG6Y.jpg

[ Edited by CraigE 05.06.2017 - 11:09 ]

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Very clean looking Mini, can't see any scratches on it. Wish my 1.5GHz Mini looked that good.

I bought an old 15" Powerbook G4 for around $230....worth every penny for MorphOS, great platform.