A fully size Amiga clone with a mechanical keyboard would be awesome and a must-buy. My preference would be the A1200 form factor as it's the nicest Amiga IMHO. Having the proper input devices is the key.
The A1200 makes sense, as it's the smallest 'wedge' Amiga that sports a numeric keypad. Not many games used it, apart from flight sims and the like, but that could be a deal-breaker for some hardened fans of such games. It surprised me (as an Amiga user from the A1000 onwards) that the A500 was the best-selling model; I thought it would be the 1200.
@@MarkTheMorosethe Amiga (Commodore) was on its knees by the time the A1200 came out and the 16-bit consoles were starting to take over the gaming market and the PC was taking over the home computer market.
@@bombjack2413 And well I know it; I bought an A4000/030 rather than the 1200, and enjoyed my time with it ('92-'95). But it was clear that after Commodore UK finally went under, there would be no future for the Amiga. I got my first PC that year, tempted by Doom, Rise of The Triad, and Little Big Adventure.
@@MarkTheMorosethe A500 was the cheapest model, the "computer for the masses". I'm a bit ashamed that I've never done much else than playing games with it. But I guess that it was the same for most people who owned it. Cartridge games were horribly expensive, so I guess that the bulk of the A500 public was composed of people who wanted to be able to play videogames without spending a fortune.
As an Atari ST owner back in the day, I never owned an Amiga. I've always wanted one though. I've been waiting patiently for the Amiga maxi to be announced, thinking that it could be an ideal solution for me to finally get onboard the Amiga train and it seems my prayers have been answered. I'll definitely be getting one.
I think an Atari Mini (either ST or Falcon) would be greatly welcomed. For the Amiga Maxi, I would love it if it had the A1200 form factor over the A500, I know the A500 is more iconic, but the A1200 looks so much better
@@arnuph1s Yeah, and you don't even need to necessarily make an Amiga Maxi as necessarily as big as the original A1200 either - something around 80% of the original A1200s size would allow for a working keyboard whilst minimising desk hogging (IMO)
@@EnjoySynthSounds not sure what you mean, isn't an A600 HD the same size as an A600 anyway? Unless you mean it will look like an A1200 but at the equivalent size of an A600?
Best of luck to Iain with his podcast - Thumb Candy was a masterpiece. It's now 15 years since I used to drag myself up a long country lane to a radio station situated in deepest West Sussex, surrounded by open fields (and an open prison) to present my show for one channel with Iain in the studio opposite having much more fun on his. Play Radio. RIP. ;-)
On the Spectrum in BASIC, I used to write a game where you were the Holy Roman Emperor and you could go to Italy and beat up the Pope... and then go on Crusade!
Being of a similar age, and seemingly similar ideals, figured I point a finger at CoinOPS, frontend for emulation, basically an all in one wrapped up curated nostalgia trip, just the good stuff, no filler, all working as it should, and completely free for pc, just that nostalgia hit is what got me involved, the feeling of being in front of a console, or in an actual arcade, the mini's are ok, but the same as your odroids and pi's, text lists of text lists, there's a disconnect, you have an ugly middle man to get through, emulation is only good, if you don't have that middle man, when the GUI is more an important factor, seamless and adds to the feeling you're supposed to get, without being overwhelmed. Good to see you on a screen again Iain
Retro is the point where the device has crossed the chasm of e-waste. The lifecycle being new, upgraded from & stored, given to e-waste because nobody wanted it. Once a lot of them have been trashed a little time passes and nostalgia kicks in. That's the retro point, and it is a moving target. It also varies by system since the Amiga skipped the e-waste step, and the Kaypro has never left the e-waste step.
My first thought was.. those are different generations. I did check wikipedia which lists the lifespan of consoles and PS3 is 2006-2017, whilst WiiU is 2012-2017. So going by that both consoles "died" the same year.
The End of the PS3 is interesting as it also corresponds loosely with the end of service for Windows XP, which is pretty much the last PC OS I would consider retro.
Great podcast guys and Iain Lee is such a brilliant guest. I remember playing Granny's Garden in the school computer club which had a load of BBC Micro's connected together using Econet although the most played game of the time by us snotty school kids was a MUD called Cave (typing "*I am Caver 11" would launch the game), we'd then proceed to traverse said Cave hoping to come across a dagger or flamethrower etc to kill our fellow players. The teacher who ran the club would then enter the Cave as the highest level Wizard and either proceed to ZAP us all or summon us into the room with the dragon etc. Good times!
Any device that remains fully functional without an Internet connection qualifies to eventually become retro. Anything that requires access to a distant server is a future doorstop.
Dave 👍 depending on if there is a keyboard that is what I will do. The modern shell and keyboard is $150-250 USD. The mini for me is just emulation and it takes up space, another power point, more cables etc etc and then it costs more whereas WinUAE / FS-UAE and WHDLoad does not.
Ah ha! I knew I had seen Iain from somewhere! When I worked in Gamestation in Slough, he used to pop in. Got a feeling I might have sold something to him too. Good memories :)
All I can think was how the The Vic20 and the The C64 were the same remade plastic with different stickers. If the new full size Amiga is reused to make a new full sized Atari ST by just a logo change. I think Dave might implode.
My definition of Retro is anything up to when I finished school as that’s when I gave everything away and went over to the PC. So retro is 8 bit and 16 bit to me. Anything newer is modern 😀
The Saturn was massive for me in my teens. It was a brilliant escape from a dire school life. Glad I kept my games as they stupid on after market. Was big in Japan shame it wasn’t here.
I was fortunate with my Sinclair Spectrum back in the day. I did not have to fake using it for homework or whatever because I bought it myself with my saved paper round money so my mother had no say in what I did with it! lol
52:01 You're right, someone will correct you. Granny's Garden has been available continuously for 40 years and is still on sale for iOS, Windows and Mac from its original publisher 4Mation.
I bought one of those super console emulator boxes and have been enjoying Amstrad 464 and Amiga games.....just completed 2 dizzy games and am half way through head over heels amiga version. But it has now made me want a actual full sized amiga again
Retro for me is before it all went 3D. There is some crossover (the Amiga had 3D games, and the later consoles had 2D), but generally I think of the PS1 as the modern era, and Amiga and earlier as retro. The only thing that's changed is that I didn't think of the Amiga as very retro (I was using one every day until 2001), though I can accept that now.
Interesting. I think it depends on your age. But, I started playing with microprocessors in the 70’s, so to me “true” Retro is anything using an 8-bit processor, but general Retro would extend to 16-bit computers and early 32-bit consoles as well. Anything beyond that I really just class as “old” (but not Retro). 🤔
Retro to me is a scale comprised of two points. Near retro, and Far retro. Near-retro is something whose ultimate form is something you can slide into without having to relearn anything. As an example I could grab an NES or original gameboy or an old win 3.1 PC after not touching them for decades and not skip a beat. Their familiarity is seared into childhood core functionality and survives in us until we croak. Far retro is the stuff before your/my time that takes time and patience to understand, as well some tutorials from people for whom the hardware or software is Near Retro. Everything that has survived to this point is someone's Near Retro and someone else's Far Retro. Neat!
iain totally nails nostalgia, satisfying the 14year old, having those items we never got to have.. quite remarkable that he never had an Amiga - he's the same age as me, what was he playing on in 1989-90 when we were all loading X-Copy and drooling over Shadow of the Beast??
I’ve just finished watching the latest video from Commodore Computer Museum and he has some very interesting information about Retro Games Ltd and their plans. Well worth watching
For me, retro is everything that came out before 2000. That means any consoles before the PS2, GameCube, and Xbox. My reasoning is simply that the year 2000 marks the point where Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo became the big three console makers anybody cared about, which is how it still is today. In other words, I think of 'retro' as being the time when you could still get new consoles from companies like Sega, NEC, Atari, etc. Also, in terms of technology, the Gamecube and Xbox marked the point where pixel shaders were introduced to console graphics, tech which is still relevant today.
thanks gents , enjoyed that one . nice to see Iain again , didn't know he as a retro gamer . the point for me about what's retro would be any system no longer supported or sold as new . so ps3 is about right
I think Id actually love a CD32 remake. That would mean its AGA (centric/)compatible. Yeah, I'd buy that. By the time the actual CD32 came out we had more games that would allow more than 1 (interaction) button. It's just a shame it wasnt more popular.
I'm hoping the product update thats out by the end of this year is a new firmware update as RGL did say in an interview a few weeks ago they were working on new ones for current products. RGL did say they used the word Console generically to describe a pending product and it will have a working keyboard on the full sized Amiga
I'm not quite sure exactly when it changed, but there was a time where "a console" just meant a screen and a keyboard (or any other form of human input), in the sense of both being one unified device for communicating with humans. So for instance both a "dumb terminal" and one of our old retros would be considered a console. And then obviously those solely meant for gaming, would be called "gaming consoles". Take good old "@ECHO OFF" from DOS-batch scripts. The first @ means "do not ECHO this command" and then "ECHO OFF" would obviously mean "do not ECHO the following commands". In the sense of 🐬"to echo or not to echo" 🐬a command coming from the console right back to the console, before executing the command. And "ECHO Hello World" would PRINT (or echo) "Hello World" back to the "screen" of the console. 😉
For that Amiga, I would appreciate a size reduced version of an A1000 or a big box Amiga (2000-4000) with an external keyboard with the original layout. I hope it’s not the A600, because that lacks the numpad, which is used by some games like Prince of Persia or Mercenary III. For one of the following full size computers I would love to see an Atari 8-Bit (XL or XE).
I would like the A500 but as many stated here, it's really a huge computer in dimensions. Considering there would be a tiny orange pi board inside and little else...maybe they could do something extra...maybe make it compatible with a real Amiga board? Else an A1200 would be fine as it's smaller. Currently i am getting my Amiga kicks fully from a Raspbery Pi 400...a perfect format for retro computers emulation...small in size with a keyboard and mouse capability. It's no bigger than my Logitech K400 media keyboard. I run PiMiga 4.0 for the modern/retro Amiga experience and loves it. And i also have a separate micro SD card with a retropie Amiga setup (Tomato Amiga Retropie)...which has 750 games, superb UI (which easily beats the Amiga mini), which i mainly use it to play games (except mouse driven games which has some problem accessing the keyboard with retropie and i would use the PiMiga in these situations). Between these 2, i basically have everything Amiga covered. Before i have this setup, the Amiga Maxi is a must buy for me, however, with this setup already in place, a bulky empty box with a small ARM board is not really so desirable except for the full sized keyboard. I will wait and see what RetroGames came up with before deciding to buy one.
I think it's absolutely right to say retro is a personal thing. Yes I very much believe the ps3 is retro. I think back 10 years to when the PS4 came out at the end of November 2013 and so much seems to have happened since then. So I'm gonna say that if it feels like a lot has happened in your life since the release date, it's retro.
Your answer to being overwhelmed what unit and what game to play, your answer is getting a mister and have a look using a NFC reader and card. You can create NFC cards that launch specific games and you could also create a card that chooses a game randomely for you.
The definition of "Retro" will move move over time. Mine is really simple. You have the current generation, the last generation and then everything older is retro. Which pretty much lines up with what you said there. When the PS6 comes out the PS4 will be retro.
mini console needs the full library plus indie games made for it but to stop the overwhelming aspect needs the addictive front end with box art change backgrounds and sound plus genre and developer sort and filter options
I wouldn't be shocked if they did it as an a1200 or a600 maxi for simple logistical reasons if nothing else. The Amiga 500 was a really deep device, making for a bigger box, more expensive manufacture/shipping/warehousing etc. I really hope its not a CD32 - that'd be a massively wasted opportunity. If we get a 500/600/1200 with proper keyboard etc, then I'll 100% be ripping the ARM out and swapping in a Mister set it to direct boot.
If Ian has choice paralysis on the C64, use the maxi tool to edit the carousel. You can add or delete games at will. I’ve deleted all the originals and added my own, mostly my faves and home brews. You don’t need thousands of games.
Whilst an A500 Maxi would make the most sense from a marketing perspective, I think it's just as likely to be an A600 Maxi. Smaller keyboard + smaller case = lower production cost and a better profit margin (assuming RGL's market research suggests that they could sell an A600 Maxi for a similar price to an A500 Maxi and still achieve their sales targets).
Great episode guys. Talking about an Atari ST or 8bit mini/maxi, do you think Retro Games, LTD would be able to get the license from Atari? I feel like since Atari is an active company they would want to release something like that themselves just like they have done with the 2600+
I say that 20 years and older is retro. So close enough for sure. The reason for 20 years is that in the guitar industry or the 80s we said that 20 years is considered vintage. So my definition is as arbitrary as anyone else’s.
Kind of a coincidence that the first Tomb Raider game was in the Sega Saturn because Paramount pictures did both the live action video game movies of Tomb Raider in 2001 and Sonic the Hedgehog in 2020-2022.
I collected loads of 360 and PS4 games recently but I think it was just a hunter gatherer instinct to be honest,as well as actually wanting to play them
I’m 49 and my high school had a computer lab with computer classes. Everybody had a BBC Micro (and there was one Archimedes). I thought this was normal, but I guess not. Makes me wonder how a community high school surrounded by council estates managed to get a nice lab.
i started senior school in 1986 and the computer room had a mixture of computers from spectrum, bbc, commodores, loads of obscure 8 bit machines. we had one lesson a week in there, and you could join the computer club and use the machines once a week during lunch.. It was amazing..
At my Primary school in a tiny village in Somerset we had one BBC in final year 1989 which we were allowed to play The Hobbit on as a reward. In Secondary school, there were a few computer rooms mostly Nimbus and the art department had one Amiga that everyone used to play games on when we could get in the room at lunch time and no teachers were around.
I'm in my mid fifties. First experience with computers at secondary school was with a single Research Machines 380Z which we had to book time on. By the time I got to sixth form we had a full computer lab with BBC Micros. So yours was not the only school that did this. Very glad mine did, it got me into computers for university and then for a career.
I suppose in reality it's subjective. Retro will be whatever is twenty years or so in their own past. That's why I always found it funny what superlatives they used to describe processors and graphics chips in graphics cards and consoles back in the day or even today. Over time those bleeding edge tech chips become perceived as ancient and slow. So being called 'screamer' or 'emotion Engine' or other silly names sound daft. I mean, if a chip or graphics card is desribed as 'screamingly fast' where do you go from screaming? lol. @@laupert9021
16:56 A mini Packard bell PC? Isn't there another company who is under the name "Unit-e" that is still working on a 486 to Pentium PC mini retro console called the "PC classic mini?" If it's really a Packard bell PC mini console, then Retro Games would have use x86 emulation on their ARM chips or get either Intel or AMD to contribute ways to emulate 386 to Pentium III. Also if a mini Packard bell PC is on Retro Game's roadmap please let it have a USB-C port for us to connect a eGPU so we can have our original PC games we still have to run better on this mini console if it's really going to be a mini Packard bell PC.
*Game Preservation* I suspect that a big reason corporations have been going after abandonware recently, is because they know that if people remember older games, they might remember what has been taken away from them. Remember when ANY online multiplayer game would come with a server program for people to run their own servers at home? I do. Remember when all the unlocks in a game were just included in the game, and the amount of work required to get them was balanced for the players fun and not to try and neg you for more money? I do. Games form 2010 - 2017 basically play as good as anything out today and don't nickel and dime you.... for the most part. The nonsense starts to creep in after 2015 or so. People now seem to be largely ok with microtransactions and it's *STILL* bullshit in my opinion.
That would surely push the price up a lot, but it’s only a matter of time before the right chips come along for the right price. And then they can do it again 🤣
Right, PS3 is definitely "modern", technologically speaking. 64-bit multi-core CPU with multiple SIMD units, GPU with unified shaders, high speed mass storage, Internet connected (Ethernet/WiFi). There was no big leap between the PS3->PS4 from a technological point of view, except for commodification since the PS4 used much more off-the-shelf type components with a custom AMD PC APU, instead of an architecture designed for video gaming. PS2 was really a different era.
