Amiga Vampire A500 V2 Review - 10MARC Episode 74

10 Minute Amiga Retro Cast Episode 74 - The Vampire A500 V2 Review
This week on 10MARC, I am reviewing the awesome Apollo Vampire V2 accelerator for the Amiga 500. This little guy is going inside my Checkmate 1500 Case, and is attached to my Rev 6 A500 with 2 MB of CHIP RAM thanks to my MegaChip board. Join me as I review this great liitle unit and we learn more about what it can do, and how it does it.
Want to buy a Vampire?
www.apollo-accelerators.com/
Learn all about them here:
wiki.apollo-accelerators.com/...
Whats this Amiga Art Contest? Glad you asked...
www.amigaartwork.com
What awesome music! How can I find out more about Joe Jencks?
www.joejencks.com
Visit me at
www.10marc.com
Join me on Patreon
www.patreon.com/10marc
Follow me on Twitter
@10marc1

[@antjarvis]

Great video Doug. Nice to see some balanced coverage on this great device.

[@10MARC]

Thanks so much. There is honestly not much to complain about besides the the things I covered. This is a great device for sure.

[@larsenmats]

What a delicious setup you have there :P Thanks for the video :)

[@10MARC]

Your welcome! Yes, this is the culmination of 32 years of collecting Amiga's!

[@franckraccah1354]

Very understandable like always, thanks a lot

[@10MARC]

Glad it was helpful!

[@jamesbellegarde2893]

Great video absolutely hilarious and it takes three years before I get to see it but great video.👍😎

[@10MARC]

Glad you enjoyed it! I need to do more Vampire videos I suppose

[@mark12358]

Nice video. Today I received my Vampire A1200 v2, finally! Let's go. Cheers, M

[@10MARC]

Oh that is exciting! I have been reading that it really needs to have the 2.13 Core on it to enable things like the IDE channel. Be careful updating it, and get a USB Blaster for sure!

[@magicalsynthadventure3216]

Sometimes I just load this video up to listen to Joe Jencks' Wonderful "Ripple in the Water" ☺

[@10MARC]

It is one of my favorite songs he has done. I think I might have a couple copies of that cd. Be happy to send you one.

[@magicalsynthadventure3216]

@@10MARCsure! Pop it in with the mag/One Stop package if it hasn’t already been sent 😊

[@xxxfreshman]

Nice song, Hope the Vampire Projekt gets 1 Milion € than they could produce the CPU with Ghz and than its lightyears more than any CPU. AMIGA RULEZ

[@CaptainRaveman]

Nice review! :) I have V500, V1200 and V4SA, but I love the V1200 the most, because the A1200 is my favorite machine! :) Have fun with your Vampire! // Marlon Beijer (AmigaDev Team & Apollo-Team)

[@10MARC]

Sweet! The A1200 version would be incredible for sure! Having that power in such a tight little package.... Nice!

[@CityXen]

Vampires rock! Some people say it isn't a "real" Amiga, but hey it runs Amiga software. #EmbraceFPGA

[@10MARC]

I agree! It is as real as any Accelerator I have ever used.

[@jerrylees]

Look for the hate to vaporize once TerribleFire releases his ReAgnus. ;-)

[@10MARC]

@@jerrylees did he decide to only make that a 1MB chip instead of a 2 MB? I thought I read that

[@rkadowns]

The Vampire lets us enjoy the classic Amiga experience in 2020 with a bit of the modern conveniences of today, making the Amiga useful for daily use by content creators wishing to use legacy software. Such an amazing product form a fantastic group of wonderful people. I don't have any classic hardware so I am enjoying this experience with the Standalone V4, but for anyone with classic hardware, this is hands down the best addition to breath life into your beloved computer without sacrificing the heritage that makes Amiga Amiga.

[@10MARC]

So glad you are enjoying your standalone! I hear they work quite well. Any problems with yours?

[@paulklasmann1218]

After seeing this video and working on a similar project with a V2+, I got the micro SD extension to bring it to the front but before trying it I carefully sanded a slight chamfer at the end of the extension pcb so that it would not damage the connector contacts. It worked great.. Thanks!

[@10MARC]

That is an excellent idea! I may have to do that.

[@roartjrhom4932]

10minutes have grown to 40minutes! :-P LOVE IT! ;-)

[@VK2FVAX]

:%s/10MARC/40MARC/g .. indeed!

[@fsphil]

His episodes are shorter on the inside. 10ARDIS

[@10MARC]

Yes! I love that!

[@10MARC]

Anything beyond 10 minutes is free bonus content!

[@CityXen]

You must be new here... LoLz

[@stefanobriccolani3407]

Great!!! You'll love vampire a lot!!!!

[@10MARC]

Yes, I have been having a very good time with it so far. Which model do you have?

[@stefanobriccolani3407]

@@10MARC i have 3 vampires - v600 - v1200 and V4 SA

[@VK2FVAX]

I'm still scared to flash my vampire.. should just bite the bullet.

[@10MARC]

Get the USB Blaster. It is a lifesaver if things go south on you

[@ridiculous_gaming]

I have not even opened my check mate case shipping box yet. I too ordered it to go with my AGA500 Plus that won't work with it...oh well. Regardless, I had to show support for the work Steven put into designing such a nice case.

[@10MARC]

Yes, very frustrating that it will not work properly, although people have had better luck after the mod to the ZORRO and CPU slot adaptor recommended recommended by Stephen. It adds some additional grounding, apparently. You will find abuse for the case, I am sure

[@RETROCENGO]

Hi Douglas, great video as always, the most important part is, that you like the V2 card, seems like you fully enjoy it, peoples bashing this card doesn’t really matter. My Vampire didn’t catch my interest, but someday I’ll give it a go again. Keep it up😁

[@10MARC]

It is a wonderful piece of hardware, but then again I love most Amiga hardware!

[@JS-wl3gi]

Amazing to see the classics being expanded, from the Gunnar interview on the Sept. 7th they are moving up the chain of Amiga models adding features right and left. There is even a stand alone with the Apollo OS. The speed, lots of games, apps, what is there not to like. Vampire is for modernizing your machine to use it for everyday computing. Its more than that, your paving the way for the future of the Amiga community to be independent from hardware to software. The 2020s are going to be amazing.

[@10MARC]

The Vampire is an amazing piece of technology. I have not jumped on board the Apollo OS train yet, as I am a "Classic" guy, but it is exciting

[@XXXXXX-dy5fs]

I hope I have better luck with the V2 that I just ordered than I had with the TF534 that didn't seem to get recognised properly or work with the 68030 library.

[@IRTheBorg]

Great video, most entertaining to be sure. I have been following your videos for awhile now, but I never subscribed, I just changed that :-) Keep them coming, and have a good one! -Larry

[@10MARC]

Well thanks for subscribing! I also have a few things I follow but don't sub too. Not sure why.

[@jimmystew1049]

Wow the vampire is incredibly fast just wow.

[@10MARC]

Yes it is! I am doing a new video soon featuring my 060 Amiga 4000, my Vampire and a piMiga and having them go head to head.

[@VK2FVAX]

I love my vampire. I'd dearly love an MMU because I use NetBSD and used to use Linux. Also AMIX on the 3000UX or an A2500UX ..and you have it. The A2500UX would be great to gank the accellerator, feed it the vampire and run AMIX or NetBSD. So there is some things that use the MMU, but on AmigaOS ..not many people are running with Enforcer enabled that's true. There is a good amount of development for Amiga happening over on NetBSD. Anyway.. one day it would be wonderful to have a working 68851 or better for those of us that use it :)

[@10MARC]

I suppose if you are using Linux on an Amiga an MMU would be important... But then we get into the discussion of if you are running a Unix variant, you are not so much in Amiga territory any more and might be better off with a different Accelerator. The Vampire plays to the Amiga and Amiga OS strengths (and variants of the Amiga OS like AROS) Cool that you are running UNIX, though. I was not aware that community was very active with Amiga hardware.

[@VK2FVAX]

@@10MARC Not so much the linux crowd.. but NetBSD is a modern O/S that centers on portability to many platforms with very weird hardware. There's a lot of people using it, because it's really a hoot to fiddle around with the code that supports all the different Amiga hardware bits and bobs. Linux on it is n't so great as linux is very very bloaty and heavy where as NetBSD is a very different beastie. It's just "different Amiga Universe". If you love UNIX, you love fiddling with code, you want something modern and actually usable, then it's worth the look. I do still play around with Commodores UNIX for the Amiga3000UX (and 2500UX), but it's a much quieter scene. But yeah.. Vampire for this guy.. would be heaven. MMU definitely required here. If your curious just how much work has been done on this over the decades, check out the supported hardware list: wiki.netbsd.org/ports/amiga/ BSD UNIX Junkies fun! :>

[@MattiKoleman]

@@VK2FVAX Hi , couse English is not my native , what does „hoot” mean in this sentence with fiddle around with sth? Regards

[@MixelsLab]

Great video and thanks for a good look at the sort of performance you get multitasking! I love that the Vampire exists, and maybe in the distant future will get one. Right now I’m keeping things relatively classic though. (an 030 A1200 here..) I don’t think I really need a super fast Amiga? Just one with enough ram/speed to run the usual suspects. 🙂 That hdmi port/RTG is definitely the most exciting part for me. I wish there was a gizmo that added those and didn’t use the card slot. 😕

[@10MARC]

Oh yes, an 030 for an A1200 is good enough for many things. I do mainly work with photos and videos, so I push my Amiga harder than a lot of people, but for regular use the A1200 is a perfect machine!

[@a500]

Wow 4 episodes in one go, awesome. Again another great review. And yes I am a fan of the Vampire. The RTG is awesome the ethernet adapter cheap and great, The SD slot is useful. Oh and it's fast very fast. Whats to dislike?

[@10MARC]

Ya... The SD slot... I kinda miss mine... D'oh!

[@mrsilverstrings]

Thanks for the video! :-) I own three vampire cards. One for my A500, one for A600, and recently for my A1200 (not yet installed). I managed to brick one, but fixed it with USB Blaster. I can tell you that they all work excellent. I use a 32Gb fast CF card for the Amiga OS 3.1.4.1 and the internal SD card slot with a 64Gb card for backup and misc. I use PFS 3 filesystem with up to 16k block size on larger partitions for speed. This will however break Sysinfo 4.3 when testing speed on those partitions, causing a reboot. But other tests show really fast 12-15Mb / sec. :-) Using max speed with vcontrol command. I'm really satisfied with the product and happy to see that you like it too.

[@10MARC]

It certainly performs quite well in every test I have put it thru. I am looking forward to testing out some of the custom OS's for it, bit I suspect I will end up staying with AmigaOS 3.1.4

[@XXXXXX-dy5fs]

I thought I recognised that bandana! 🤘 Just ordered my V2 for the A500++ in a checkmate case.

[@ridiculous_gaming]

My checkmate arrived like a year ago, but I have not cracked open the box yet. I also purchased the checkmate to go with my aca500 upgrade and was quite disappointed to find out after ordering that it would not work. The Vampire I never bought, for I wanted to be more of a purist, but I sort of kick myself for not purchasing one years ago when they were like $200.

[@10MARC]

I could not wait that long to crack mine open! I have had like three or four iterations of machines already installed in it! It will stay a Vampire, though. Beautiful hardware, and worth the $350!

[@FernandoelChachi]

Hi. Why is it better to use a Disk on Module instead of a Compact Flash or a fast SD card inserted inside a Type I CF adapter?. And also, how do you connect a Disk on Module to your PC to import/export info?. I tried a Disk On Module and my only problem was to connect it to my PC.

[@10MARC]

I don't know if I would say it is better, but it is a nice option and fits right on the header. They also tend to be fairly fast and they are often rated for more read/writes than CF Cards (which were not quite meant to be used as hard drives) You can get a 44 pin IDE/USB adapter for like $20 on Amazon - they usually have SATA and IDE headers as well.

[@paulklasmann1218]

Does anyone know if the new Buddha IDE interface can be used on the Zorro II PCB in the Checkmate 1500 plus case with the A500 and Vampire V2+?

[@10MARC]

I suspect it works just fine, but not sure why you would need a Buddha with a Vampire. For a CD-ROM perhaps?

[@paulklasmann1218]

@@10MARC Yes, I'd like to use it to interface to a CD ROM. I have yet to try it but if it doesn't work I may replace the CD ROM with a Gotek drive at the expense of spoiling the appearance of the front of the 1500 plus case.

[@xxxfreshman]

You are right its still a real Amiga, and now give us a amiga 4000 Vampire please :-)

[@10MARC]

That would be slick - a nice one that uses the A3000 & A4000 cpu slot would be great! Since it would be for high end Amiga's, throw on 256 MB of memory!

[@XXXXXX-dy5fs]

Can the V2 be set to run at original Amiga 500 speed in case it's too fast for games or demos or causes compatibility issues?

[@10MARC]

You can set it to "turtle mode" which slows it way down. That works pretty well.

[@lowpolysaurus]

I wish they would put all of this information on the website. I wish i knew about putting kickstart files on the sd card a long time ago...

[@10MARC]

Yes, the documentation is a bit scattered. You can piece things together by reading the forums and by looking through the FAQs, but having a concise place with all the information would be really helpful.

[@MadPeteST]

Great video man, I love my V1200 and I can't wait to try out the new performance core for it! Oh and BTW Doug, whatever you do don't use an SD card extension because I heard they break the.... Oh...erm... so this is awkward :-)

[@10MARC]

Nobody told me that I could not use a hammer to insert the card. That was no place on the instructions!

[@MadPeteST]

@@10MARC 😆 Ahhh this is where it all went wrong, always with the hammer 🤦‍♂️ I believe the team have now created a specialist hammer for the installation of Vampire's in future called the "Hamm-Pire"... This will reduce the chances of the user damaging the card during install to only 89%! 😂

[@jimmystew1049]

hi Doug, love your channel. Just wondering have you heard of the Amiga buffe accelerator project. It has a 1 ghz arm cpu which fots into the amiga 500 cpu soclet with either 512mb or 1gb ram on chip and can run upto 1000 mips in sysinfo. At least thats whay they claim. If true then this will be amazing. Greetz from the UK

[@10MARC]

This should be an interesting product for sure! With no hard drive controller or RTG, it is certainly no vampire killer, but it will have a place in the community without a doubt. This would work well in an Amiga 2000 with an existing hard drive controller and maybe a ZX9000 card. For a stock A500 it seems like it would be less useful, as other Accelerators add some type of mass storage. Pentium class performance on a floppy system would be... Awkward.

[@JS-wl3gi]

Great review, amazing that you can run diablo 1. More choices we have the better for the industry.

[@10MARC]

Much obliged! Glad you liked it.

[@rkadowns]

I agree with the USB blaster. I happened to get one with my UnAmiga, but they all should ship with one. However, given the price sensitivity of the community, perhaps it was smart to keep it out, but at the same time, give people the choice at order time.

[@10MARC]

Good point. Don't bundle it, but offer to sell it at the time of purchase. I like that idea even better. They should bundle the Ethernet, though.

[@jamesbellegarde2893]

If you were going to make one Amiga purchase, with the idea of future Vampire upgrade. Would you recommend the socketed a500 for its socketed simplicity or a1200 For the easier upgrade slot?

[@10MARC]

The A1200 for sure. Access to the real AGA modes is important to me. The pseudo AGA Emulation on the new A500 version does not excite me

[@jamesbellegarde2893]

@@10MARC thanks for the input. It’s really appreciate it. Yours is one of the only channels I really trust for this kind of Amiga lover inside info.

[@johandenhertog6878]

Hear great things about the Vampire 500/600/1200 V2. Like the real deal for a 68060 Rev6 CPU and waiting for the ACA1260.

[@10MARC]

It really is a powerful and nice setup. I have been running my Vampire side by side against my A4000/68060/66 Mhz. Both seem to be very close in day to day use in Workbench, but I will be testing and comparing them in a video soon

[@stephenkennedy6358]

what is that board 2:55 min. into your video

[@10MARC]

That is the UnAmiga - an FPGA Amiga that runs as a 68020 with 20 MB RAM and AGA. I did a video on it a few weeks back you can find on my channel. Edu Arana sells them.

[@MrLukealbanese]

Great video Doug. Can you do a little video on setting up the V2 Ethernet? Cheers Luke

[@10MARC]

You bet! Next in the series is the setup tutorial video

[@MrLukealbanese]

@@10MARC Doug - I'm looking for the right cable for the ethernet to V2 header - can you recommend one?

[@10MARC]

Yes - I will get you the info on the one I use with mine. I forgot to take pictures of it on the video like I wanted to!

[@MrLukealbanese]

@@10MARC thanks for this Douglas

[@franckraccah1354]

I will receive ma A500plus 2Mo Ram Chp vith Vampire 2+, coffinOs, in one week. When I see this video, i am so understand of my choice and so in hurry ;-)

[@10MARC]

Oh how nice! You have some cool hardware coming in! Enjoy it for sure!

[@gentoolive]

Sounds like it was a nightmare, bricked it then tore up the usb port? Glad i went with the ACA500plus instead, had zero issues with my setup.

[@10MARC]

Ya... I blew up my ACA500+, too. But to be fair I usually switch my equipment between multiple machines all the time for testing. The Vampire itself has gone in and out of the 68000 socket at least 20 times on two weeks...

[@flashgordonsonerecordatati7591]

I just got a email my Vampire V2+ ready. I will be buying one. Can someone tell me what is needed in addition to a A500? Does it come with a SD?

[@10MARC]

It does not come with an SD card, but can use most sizes as long as you use a more modern Amiga OS. If you are sticking with 3.1, I would stick with a 4 Gig SD card. It really is a good idea to pick up a USB Blaster. They seem to be almost a requirement if you do much core flashing

[@johnwiesen4440]

For me If I want a very fast Amiga I use my Raspberry Pi 4 4Gb. I do own 1 A500+ with some upgrades ACA 500+ with a ACA 1232 and a Indivision ECS, I have got a A1200 with ACA 1233n I have fitted a FPU and a Indivision AGA MK2. I an thinking to get the AGA MK3. I don`t do a lot of CPU intensive work, so for me this set up is nice. Like many of us we have to go to work (shame). I am having a go at using the Mister DE10 nano set up but this is work in progress. I is good to see that there is new hardware comming out using modern tech, it shows the Amiga is not dead and has got many years to go.

[@10MARC]

That is some nice equipment! You are correct - even a nice 68020 or 030 with some RAM makes for an awesome Amiga, and is good enough for 90% of anything! The MK3 looks tempting, but I need proof as to why it is so much better than my MK2

[@tiannaumann]

I never understood the hate-on this board gets, functionally it's no different than a Warp 1260 except for the FPGA implementation of the 68080 and the AMMX extensions, all of our friends Gary, Denise, Paula, etc. are all invited to the party. The notion that the rest of the system is 'dormant' on the current stable Gold core is pure lies. It's also nice to see they now have a manufacturer building the boards and the stock is filling up on some retailers sites. The only real thing holding it back in the past.

[@10MARC]

There is a tremendous amount of misunderstanding with the vampire. I've also discovered that the people who dislike the vampire are not really going to have their minds changed. It leads me to believe that they know exactly what the vampire is, and they just choose to hate it anyways. No worries. Their loss. I've been having a blast with mine, it works just great in my Amiga 1000 and my Amiga 500.

[@danielson9579]

Have you tried encoding mp3s at all using lame I used to use my ppc Amiga 1200 to encode mp3s🙂 I still think the Amiga needs a better browser now though.

[@10MARC]

Huh. Never tried on an Amiga, but I suppose it would work. I could try it on my A4000, but I have no CD for my Vampire

[@SteveGuidi]

14:37 - Argh! Tiny surface-mount solder pads! You're "supposed" to be able to de-solder components like that with hot-air (and solder too with solder paste), but I wouldn't risk the DIY with such a lovely device.

[@10MARC]

For sure! I just don't know if I should risk it myself. I have the tools... But do I have the skills?

[@brostenen]

I am really torn between stock config or vampire for a500. It is like the a500 with 512k trapdoor, are such a dear config to me. That I do not know if I should get a V2-500.

[@VK2FVAX]

Get a second machine. Do both! Enjoy both! :)

[@brostenen]

@@VK2FVAX I already have two 500's in original cases. (Rev 5 and Rev 8a.1) and then the 500 in desktop case that I have made a video about, on my channel. Then one a600 that have Furia accelerator and scandoubler plus more.

[@10MARC]

I get it. I have an A500 with an A570 running Amiga OS 1.3 and I consider keeping that intact. But boy I really love pushing my Amiga's!

[@VK2FVAX]

@@10MARC I have USB Subway on my A500 with the clock-port adapter. Fun! :) It's not very usable..but it works. ns4.reboot.net.au/hardware/A500Crimes/

[@10MARC]

I am tempted to put my Thylacine USB ZORROII card in my Vampire, since it has the Checkmate 1500 case ZORRO adapter. It runs great on any of my 68040 Amiga's, so it might fly on this one.

[@amimandk4568]

Hey Doug! If you think the V500 is Good, you got to try the V1200 Dont think it will get any better ;)

[@10MARC]

Oh I am sure it is wonderful. AGA makes everything better!

[@trydowave]

i got the usb blaster with my vampire v2 back in 2015 (i think... ages ago now) but i have no plans on using it. Mines on 2.11 and its staying there :) too much headache. If i want aga i fire up one of my a1200s.

[@10MARC]

2.11 is stable, but you are right - no sense in upgrading unless it fixes a problem you are having. I have been happy with 2.12 X12.

[@CaptainRaveman]

The Gold 2 series of cores won't have the AGA stuff. So updating to a more recent Gold 2 core is beneficial as it removes bugs and improves the RTG. :) Personally I'm looking forward to the Gold 2.13 core for V1200. It will enable PCMCIA, A1200 IDE and V1200 IDE + gives chip ram speeds of 7mb/s

[@sacredbanana]

Please decide for me. For my A1200 do I cause it to undergo vampirification or do I get a Warp 1260? Nobody in the history of humanity has had to make such a hard decision

[@10MARC]

Oh I do understand! If you already have a nice 060 you can't go wrong with the Warp... If not, you are looking at $300 for the chip and $500 for the board. That's a whole lot more than the Vampire, and performance of the Vampire is actually better. Decisions, decisions, decisions...

[@stephenbruce8320]

NICE!!!! YEA VERY NICE! Hey I been on that Vampire 500 Waiting List coming up on a year now. I do have one in an A600 and its wicked awesome. Unlike you I am in no hurry to update the Core but I have the toys to do it should the need arise. It works and I am extremely happy with it just the way it is so I am in no hurry to change the Core but should I need to I have the toys to get the job done. FPGA is the way to go. Sourcing CPU's is becoming a PITA because they clean off the etchings and re-etch them with a label that's known to sell better. I have somewhat given up on the Vampire for the A500 but several times a day I check my email to see if I get a Merry Christmas Message from Igor. I have seen them on eBay from time to time but I never bite but you never know. People complain about the cost or claim its emulation when its not its FPGA with the same code used in the 68080 and the Amiga does not know the difference. It's blazing fast and no worries on over heating that puppy. What matters is the Amiga Experience! The only Amiga's I do not own are the Towers, CDTV and CD32 so I have the hardware but I also do emulation on a PC, Pi and I even own a MIST but I never use it but I got one because AOTL shipped me one in error and I told them about the error and I said no worries I will just buy it. To me its all about the Amiga Experience and how you get it be it emulation or on Classic Hardware it matters not and the last thing these so called purists need to be doing is criticizing others for what they use because in the end it matters not because in the end its all about the Amiga Experience. Next new card about to come out is the WARP Cards for the A500 and A1200 very nice and I would love to jump on one of those BUT you need to source your own processor and with so many re-etched 68060's out there its going to be difficult to find a Legit Rev 6. Now if someone would do a board with an FPGA you could attach to the WARP Card then I would be all over it but the safe bet right now is the Vampire if you can get one.

[@10MARC]

Yep - Igor is waiting for several parts for the A500 version. I hope he gets them in soon. That new 060 card looks so wonderful, but I decided on the Vampire instead - it was about 1/2 the price considering how fast '060 chips are going up in price now.

[@honx4amiga]

how did you manage to blow up your aca500plus? :D

[@10MARC]

An Evil Gnome broke into my studio, and plugged the ACA500+ the wrong way into my Checkmate case.

[@honx4amiga]

@@10MARC ouch! :(

[@10MARC]

Yes it was very painful. I thought I had the thing turned the correct orientation, but nope... The Checkmate flips them upside down

[@eebuckeye]

Is it true a Pii setup is faster than the Vampire? I much prefer the Vampire but a little surprised it measured faster in a video I watched.

[@10MARC]

My good friend Chris Edwards made that. In some ways, the Raspberry Pi could be faster. While they are not competitive with the A500/600/1200 vampires since they are stand alone and not accelerators, they would give the Vampire Standalone some serious competition.

[@eebuckeye]

@@10MARC That just makes it hard to justify the Vampire stand-alone due to price.. crazy how cheap the Pii is and how well it does with software emulation. That said, I still want the Vampire but makes it harder to buy.

[@10MARC]

I cannot say I disagree. I don't have a Vampire Standalone on my radar, but I may buy a second Vampire 500 V2 for my A1000 or maybe my A2000.

[@sacredbanana]

I always assumed the Vampire for the A500 would provide it with 2mb chip out of the box. I guess not

[@10MARC]

Nope. She still uses whatever CHIP RAM you have. With RTG graphics CHIP RAM is used much less, though.

[@Bulletstop75]

So the vampire doesn't allow use of the standard kickstart roms, the ones you suck to the original board?

[@10MARC]

Oh sure you can. It can use the ROMS on the motherboard without an issue - it is just MUCH faster to use a ROM flashed to the card - ROM access speeds that way are many times faster

[@Bulletstop75]

@@10MARC cheers! Also, I thinki meant "stuck" not "suck" 🤣

[@10MARC]

@@Bulletstop75 I did a double take on your original post, but did figure out what you meant! 🤣😉

[@Bardenfleths]

@@10MARC Great videos from You :) How can i flash kickstart 3.14 to the Vampire? I have a USB Blaster, and Quartus II 13.1 Programmer. Did You make a how-to video, as You said in the video, regards Henrik

[@stefanobriccolani3407]

Now that you had time to test it I suppose you come to the conclusion that the FPU on your V500 is by far the fastest FPU ever!

[@10MARC]

The FPU gets a solid C+, but It it's better then no FPU!

[@stefanobriccolani3407]

It scores more than 80 mflops on sysinfo (x12 core) . I think no 060 reaches that speed even if hard-overclicked. The only problem is that V500 fpu have 52 bit precision instead of 80. But in real life applications 80bit precision is normally not needed. You had some compatibility issues with Vampire fpu?

[@10MARC]

It honestly does not feel as fast to me when it is in use. My 68060 feels faster with Image FX renderings, and I assumed it was the FPU. Maybe it is faster .

[@stefanobriccolani3407]

@@10MARC you have you installed the jpeg datatype AMMX enabled? aminet.net/package/util/dtype/JFIFdt44

[@LeftoverBeefcake]

I must try not to be jealous... I must try not to be jealous... I must try not to be jealous... I must try not to be jealous... I must try not to be jealous... I must try not to be jealous... I must try not to be jealous... aww heck, I"M JEALOUS! Filled with envy even! :D And btw a good use for an MMU is virtual memory. There was a software package called Gigamem that allows you to allocate up to 1 gig of hard drive space as a swap file for those hungry programs like ADPro. I plan on giving Gigamem a whirl as soon as my IDE-2-CF adapter arrives so I can plug my TerribleFire card back in and see if it helps loading big ol' JPG files and other stuff. Truth be told though, those folks with gobs of RAM on them fancy emulator cards really don't need virtual memory, now do they?

[@10MARC]

There are always exceptions, but in general there were not enough MMU's out there for people to code for them. With 128 MB of RAM, hopefully the Amiga won't need much virtual memory!

[@FrankColonier64]

Have you ever used Lightwave to render scenes with the vampire? On Aminet there is the (original?) Babylon5_Raumstation as a scene. I would be really interested in how fast the vampires can render in comparison to a 68060 CPU or the videotoasters. aminet.net/package/pix/3dobj/b5lw

[@10MARC]

Nope. I only have Lightwave loaded on my A2000, and she is just a 68040/33 MHz. I suppose I could find a way to try it out, though

[@FrankColonier64]

@@10MARC Rendering was also a big topic at that time with the Amiga. At that time I worked with Lightwave and MaxonCinema. I would be really interested in this topic of yours.

[@10MARC]

Good idea. One of my future projects is rebuilding an Amiga 2000 - may I will vampirize that and stick Lightwave on there and we can do some speed comparisons.

[@tiemanowo]

Oo, I see that comment message has changed in SysInfo. It's not "Call me!" any more.

[@VK2FVAX]

I think we need to be told to CALL HIM when we get a Vampire ;)

[@garyhart6421]

Wot no Video (FFPlay) ? If it plugs into Amiga (without a Pi/Linux) then I can accept it as an Real Amiga.

[@huhummmmmmm]

Ordered in June, came in July.. man, I signed up for a v1200 in January, still not even close to getting one. The production speed is sub par.

[@10MARC]

You can 80% blame that on COVID. It has caused all kinds of parts delays.

[@CaptainRaveman]

@@10MARC The production speed of the entire V2 line is sub par due to covid. :/ So closer to 99% blame there. Majsta nowadays get most components placed at factory, but solder connectors and tests each card himself. 1h testing per card to make sure every user get a quality product. :) he's but one man doing all of the V2 cards, so can't do anything but applaud him for his efforts!

[@huhummmmmmm]

@@10MARC Maybe, I just can say that I have ordered other very niche non amiga products from e.g. 1 person operations since and they have all arrived within max half a year. The other thing ofc is communication. The waitng list for all i know is arbitrary as you won't get told your spot in the queue. At this point it would've made more sense to open sales in batches of actually available cards.

[@10MARC]

That maybe true that other non-Amiga products came in faster... But do they sell a few items or get orders for hundreds pet month? Did they have an inventory of items in stock? Hard to say. I spoke with the owner of Irix Labs who makes the awesome Classic 520 accelerator and he is beyond frustrated because he can get almost no parts at all for his products

[@huhummmmmmm]

@@10MARC Good question, the numbers on sales are low that's for sure. On the inventory I don't know, that might be a difference.

[@stefanobriccolani3407]

This is an x13 core for v500 www.apollo-core.com/downloads/V500_7319_x13.jic It's fast as hell

[@10MARC]

My pal Chris Edwards mentioned it was a touch less stable, I think. I may try it anyway, that should bump the speed up a notch. Have you tried the new 2.13 yet? It came out yesterday, but I did not want to risk it before I put my video out!

[@stefanobriccolani3407]

@@10MARC nope, I'll wait for v1200 one. I use an x13 core on my v600 and is stable axactly as an x11 core.. .

[@10MARC]

This is good to know!

[@stefanobriccolani3407]

If you want to setup a 1080p display you can watch my video here kzbin.info/www/bejne/i3KmlpKQZ8prpK8

[@10MARC]

I have heard it was doable but requires a special monitor? I will check the video out my friend.

[@stefanobriccolani3407]

Almost all TV set supports 1080p 24hz as is's a Bluray Movie standard, monitors are usually more strict on resolutions

[@RetroGameCoders]

Great video but ... Oh dear my poor wallet 😂

[@10MARC]

Yes this is true. Why could we not find an inexpensive hobby like restoring vintage cars! It never stops!

[@RetroGameCoders]

@@10MARC I guess there are less damaging addictions, and retro computers are a good fit for the pandemic ;)

[@Harp00nX]

The Amiga for me these days is the software, a real Amiga has nothing to do with original hardware anymore (as great as the real stuff is). If one company got the OS back and an Arm or x86 version was created I would still call it an Amiga. Commodore should have seen that inevitability coming decades ago and switched to x86 hardware to compete with Windows.

[@10MARC]

Well they sort of did when they were working on Hombre back in 94 - it was going to also appear as a PCI Add-on card for PC's. And remember 68K was a perfectly viable and powerful platform, and superior to x86 in many ways up until the 486/66 MHz. PC Architecture only caught up to the elegance of the Amiga through brute force, not through quality.

[@stefanobriccolani3407]

Another thing you have absolutely to try is Riva video player. I made a short video just a couple weeks ago kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZbNqqyim5ybotE

[@10MARC]

For sure! I have the Riva .53 for the Vampire, I just need to move some of my MPG videos over. I have heard it does a great job!

[@andreaskarlsson7954]

Hade one but sold it. Was nothing for me. I will forever stick with my Bppc 060@50mhz PPC@240mhz and I use FPU and MMU with my system so that's one thing why I think Vampire fails. So for me it have alot of compatibility problem. Thats my opinion 😉 Othetwise great video as always 😀

[@brostenen]

True to some extend. I think we need to look at the Vampire, as a sort of future way to use classic Amiga. I dont see it as a backwards compatible upgrade. It is for modern and or new software, not old software. Sure it can run some old software and it is incompatible with some old software. However the point is to give the classic Amiga a way to run better and newer software that require more beef. If we look at the past, then upgrades have always posed and gave incompatibility. Most fameous was the kick 2 in a500-plus. Yet the issue with incompatibility was just as big an issue between kick 1.2 and 1.3 just that nobody remember that, because kick 1.3 held up that long and for so many years. If you start remembering back in time, then you can recall these issues we had back when kick 1.3 was introduced. I sure can remember that. It is not just on the Amiga upgrades posed tons of issues. XP posed issues with software back in 2001. And upgrading from a 386sx25 to 486dx2-66 broke compatibility with titles that was not clock frequency locked. Any upgrade on any platform breaks compatibility. Even Playstation2 are not compatible with all Playstation1 games.

[@10MARC]

Well if you have a PPC card, I can see why you might stick with that. Although I honestly don't think that would be more compatible with software than the Vampire. What software do you use that failed with the Vampire? I have yet to find much of anything besides games, and I have issues with those on my '060 too.

[@10MARC]

True, but I still find it quite compatible. What software failed for you on the Vampire So I can check it out?

[@stefanobriccolani3407]

@@10MARC Good question Doug. People that complains about Vampire compatibility usually don't have a Vampire.

[@kjetilhvalstrand1009]

@@10MARC There are some WarpOS / PowerUP only software, but most stuff is PC games ported over, with PPC he run Linux PPC, early MorphOS, or AmigaOS4.1 Classic, with AmigaOS4.1 classic he run a lot software is not available on 680x0, but it’s at low end spectrum for AmigaOS4.1. The MMU is good for BlitzBasic2 and development tools for C/C++ for finding bugs, this way MMU is so important. You don’t need a MMU if you write code in AMOS. Some how write code on Windows/PC and copy it over to Amiga is kind of wrong. Sort defats the point my option.

[@PintzAmigaGameNight]

So sad some diehard amiga people still thinks the vampire is emulation . Crazy

[@10MARC]

It just seems to be a lack of understanding, really. We just need to edjumacate them! 🤣😂😉

[@PintzAmigaGameNight]

Lets do it

[@XXXXXX-dy5fs]

More fool them.