The future is looking bright again for the long-lost Amiga OS as it looks to resurrect itself in a revolutionary new product: AmigaDE.
Now that we have discussed the perils of porting and managing QA under Linux, it is time to look at some solutions. One of the ideas currently being floated, is to design a media layer so that developers can have one standardized OS platform to target, instead of having to target Macintosh, Windows, and the many shifting sands of the Linux distributions. With a media layer consumers also benefit because, ideally, it allows them to forget about the complexities of the underlying operating system and focus on playing games or using productivity tools.
There are several players in this market, but none have a name as well known as Amiga. Many people remember Amiga as that crazy little computer company whose computers produced amazing graphics and sound while Apple and Microsoft still struggled to deliver color and realistic sound. In the early years, it looked as though Amiga was the future. Several years later however, this bright future was nearly forgotten as the big boys gained increasing market share.
Now, Amiga is working on a comeback. Their new product, the AmigaDE promises to fix many of the problems that gamers and developers have run into while running Linux.
Currently there is no one Linux distribution vendor that is focusing on supporting games at the OS level. Loki is doing a great job at porting games and exploring Linux as a platform for running advanced multimedia applications, but they don't have the resources to actually modify the OS and maintain a new distribution. So the job is left to the major Linux distribution vendors who are rapidly improving the interface and the quality of their various distributions. Unfortunately, the process is also leading to discrepancies and incompatibilities between the various distributions, which only makes it harder for developers to support and users to use.
Enter Bill McEwen, president and CEO of Amiga, Inc, and the new Amiga Digital Environment...
GameSpy: The Amiga name has been around for many years, and many gamers remember the name quite fondly because it introduced us to advanced visual and sound effects not found on Mac or PC at the time. Is the current Amiga a new company, or is it the same one we remember but with a renewed focus?
Bill McEwen: It is the same with a renewed focus on the future of computing. The Amiga was the leader in bringing multi-media to the everyday person, and to the desktop. Now we have taken the next step in being the leader in multi-media for the next series of emerging platforms.
GameSpy: Is Amiga still making hardware as well as software?
Bill McEwen: Amiga does not manufacture hardware. We create reference designs that other OEM's will use to build Amiga machines. It is very similar to what other companies do. They develop an operating system, and then use reference platforms so that OEMs can build systems to sell to the end-user. When a user purchases a computer from Compaq, HP or Gateway they are really purchasing a Microsoft Windows machines.
GameSpy: What direction are you taking Amiga in today?
Bill McEwen: Towards a solid future. With new devices and new consumer demands there is no clear leader in delivering multi- media content to these varying devices. With Amiga there is an opportunity for hardware OEM's to have choices and for consumers to have compelling content they can use, and developers are able to embrace a new technology that will allow them to create applications that can run on multiple platforms.
GameSpy: One of the areas that has been focused upon quite recently is the emerging Linux gaming market. What plans does Amiga have for that area?
Bill McEwen: AmigaDE applications run great on Linux, and we are able to offer some great gaming content for all different flavors of Linux. Not only desktops, but the embedded Linux offerings can run AmigaDE in most cases so they can use some of this great fun gaming content also.
GameSpy: What do you think of the progress that Linux gaming has made in the past year?
Bill McEwen: It's still in its infancy stages, but many of the games coming out for AmigaDE are being written by Linux developers.
GameSpy: Does the Amiga DE and SDK help to reduce the driver problems that Linux gamers still experience, or is it focused solely on ensuring that the application can run on multiple platforms as long as the appropriate hardware and drivers are already installed on the system?
Bill McEwen: It will be both. We have companies that we are working with to get drivers written, and these are focused on leading manufactures of cards in these emerging markets. Once an application is written for AmigaDE it will run wherever AmigaDE is running, that is as long as it can fit and run in the space available on the target system.
GameSpy: On your Website, it says that the SDK is $99, are there any price breaks for non commercial developers or students?
Bill McEwen: We will have some student pricing breaks up on the site soon.
GameSpy: Your Website also says that it requires RedHat Linux 6.1. Is there something specifically important about Red Hat, or can a developer using Debian, or SuSe use the SDK as well?
Bill McEwen: Our Linux SDK is being run on many different versions of Linux. I would suggest that interested parties check with the Amiga developer site, and learn more about all of the flavors of Linux that the AmigaSDK supports.
GameSpy: What does the end-user need to have to play games developed with the SDK in Linux? Does this cost the user anything?
Bill McEwen: They would need AmigaDE on the target machine.
GameSpy: Could you describe the end-user experience once they decide to play a game developed with the Amiga SDK?
Bill McEwen: It depends on the target machine, and the desires of the developer of the game. The end-user could simply load the program, they would see a short splash screen, and then they would play the game. Or they could run the complete AmigaDE environment, and run the game from our GUI.
What the future brings Linux gamers will certainly be interesting. Developing a media layer or secondary operating system that resides on top of Linux or other platforms, in concept, will solve some of the major issues that currently slow the adoption of Linux. How well this solution works, and which solution succeeds, remains to be seen.
The rise of several similar products to AmigaDE, such as Rocklyte Systems' Athena OS, indicate that a new product category is beginning to emerge that will provide common work and development environments in the PC+ era. As the Windows PC OS monopoly continues to erode, I expect to see more and more products like these appear.