Compilation of bugs in Vampire Standalone V4

[terriblefire]

Fun review of a lot of bugs (some pretty terrible) in the Vampire V4 core.



I'm particularly impressed with it randomly missing instructions with its branch logic. Its clearly not ready yet.

[sporniket]

wow, a stark contrast with the enthusiasm I can encounter sometime.

[terriblefire]

wow, a stark contrast with the enthusiasm I can encounter sometime.

I'm sure it will eventually get these issues solved. My biggest issue with the technology side is the lack of an MMU. Means no full fat Linux.

[Karloch]

Although I own a Vampire V2 in an Amiga 600 and I am quite happy with it, as a UNIX fan I really miss the MMU. I recorded this video of NetBSD/amiga 9.2 on my Amiga 1200 + TF1260 that is just not possible without on the Vampire.

[mfro]

I'd say it's something completely different if you complain about a missing feature (MMU) you knew upfront (i.e. before buying) it wouldn't be there (because the Apollo team constantly said they won't implement it) or if you complain about buggy basic functionality that makes the thing completely unfit for purpose.

If this guy is right (no idea personally but the hype around the Apollo appears to tell differently), it would make the V4 an utterly overpriced, unusable fake.

On a different matter: if you ask me, yet alone the fact that NetBSD needs close to 5 minutes to take you to the boot prompt on a 50 MHz '060 makes me feel they are right in the decision to *not* implement the MMU.

[mrbombermillzy]

Hmm...

This seems to be a personal vendetta. There was a similar video a while back.

Either that, or all the other V4 users havent noticed the 30% games not working, or randomly crashing of code all over the place. (Not sure they can cover up or explain away the problems to that degree :lol: ).

I have to agree with mfro; would rather they keep improving the AMMX/080 instead of diverting the manpower into creating a full scale MMU from scratch.

There is some sort of 'MMU type' system in place (the Apollo Shield app uses it). I think that's as far as they're going to go in that direction, seeing as Gunnar's personal philosophy towards *NIX systems is literally considering them as 'PrisonOS'. :)

[terriblefire]

I have to agree with mfro; would rather they keep improving the AMMX/080 instead of creating a full scale MMU (which I wouldn't really use).

There is some sort of MMU type system in place (the Apollo Shield app uses it). I think that's as far as they're going to go in that direction, seeing as Gunnar's personal philosophy towards *NIX systems is literally considering them as 'PrisonOS'. :)

I dont see any point in AMMX. I do see the point in having a cheap to reproduce 060 drop in that machines can use. But I think FGPA tech is too slow for that. It kinda made sense around 2010 but compute tech has got so much better since then. Something like Buffy or PiStorm is the way forward now. Or Mister.

Given the speed difference between a modern PC and an Amiga its Pointless to invent this new system. What drives any retro computer scene is the nostalgia factor and you lose that with a new system. If this new system was fast enough to compete with a modern PC then i'd say go for it. But modern tech is adding more than the compute power of a vampire to it every day.

For me the Vampires are a bit like modern built reproductions of classic 60s sports cars. They dont have the production volumes to be reliable, the development of them is hand to mouth, the refinement is poor and there isnt much nostalgia because they arent the original thing. And since they're not built from Carbon fibre they can never compete with modern sports cars. I kinda dont get the market they're aiming at.

EDIT: I'd ordered a Spectrum Next because my friend had been doing dev work for it.. But since he's quit the scene and the machine is so late I think i'll cancel my order.

[PaulJ_2.0]

For me the Vampires are a bit like modern built reproductions of classic 60s sports cars. They dont have the production volumes to be reliable, the development of them is hand to mouth, the refinement is poor and there isnt much nostalgia because they arent the original thing. And since they're not built from Carbon fibre they can never compete with modern sports cars. I kinda dont get the market they're aiming at.

Fantastic analogy and perfectly sums up my reason for having no desire to own one.
I do however own a PiStorm and a MiSTer and really enjoy both.

[sporniket]

What drives any retro computer scene is the nostalgia factor.

Yes, guilty.

And a bit of chûnibyô in my case (I have hidden xHDL powers waiting to be awaken, that will allow me -someday- to write a 64/128-bits multi-core compatible with the legacy 32 bits ISA of the 68k family :D )

[exxos]

IMHO some stuff just isn't in the spirit of retro computing, Probably would have been easier to slap a pentium CPU in there and have instruction translation tables than trying to reinvent the wheel.