What's up with the legacy platforms?

[bobdevis]

I am wondering why people still bother to keep porting ScummVM to long time dead platforms like the Amiga or Dreamcast.

This is NOT a flame. I am genuinely curious. I fully understand why it is cool to have legacy hardware in working order or why it is cool to hijack some platform to run stuff on it that is wasn't intended for. I also understand why people may want to boot the old stuff for the classic game feel, but to keep porting new software to it... isn't that going a bit far?

Running ScummVM on something newer seems more logical in every way.
More energy efficient (assuming a phone or a netbook/laptop)
More processing power (probably even on phones now)
Better display (on anything that is better then an old TV)
No risk of damaging your prised classic machine.

If I had a classic console that was dear to me, I wouldn't risk running it often, since getting it replaced should be hard.
I basically only had DOS myself in my childhood, so maybe I am missing something. Since DOSBox exists, I wouldn't boot an old pre-pentium for anything else then ripping floppies or maybe some testing.

[hippy dave]

die-hard enthusiasts, basically. i can't quite work up that much enthusiasm for it myself, tho i've had my moments, and i love that people do it.

there was something special about the amiga i've never felt quite the same thing about any computer since.

[clone2727]

I am wondering why people still bother to keep porting ScummVM to long time dead platforms like the Amiga or Dreamcast.

Why not? Ports are made when porters come forward with a port.

[Red_Breast]

The world's made up of all sorts. It only takes one (porter).
It would be interesting to see how many times some of them are downloaded.
But to give an example. When I done some IT courses at college in the early 90s they had lots of IBM clones and Macs and a few one-offs like an Amiga and a BeOS.
I liked toying with the BeOS. I even loved the look of the machine.
It was only about a year ago that I read about Haiku OS and it's connection to BeOS.
I collected a few parts (IBM clone/x86) to get a basic PC up and running and installed Linux and virtual box and then the Haiku vm images that they host.
Recently they released the first .iso image, Haiku Alpha, so Linux and virtual box are gone. It boots straight into Haiku.

I guess a lot of it comes down to how a person can really enjoy using a certain console or OS. I really liked the BeOS and I even use the Wasp theme on my Debian PC as it's icons are similar to BeOS.
Well enough of my sad life...

Although this thread reminds me of something I wanted to ask clone2727/anybody
Do you not have a porter anymore for BeOS/Haiku. There is no 1.0rc release for either.

[bobdevis]

Well in this aspect you are at least less boring then I am . I only worked with DOS, Windows and Linux. I did experiment with a virtual Solaris and OSX (don't ask) in VMWare and VBox.

I guess I'll try a virtual Haiku......just for kicks But yeah, since there are no apps I'd actually need to use, it will basically be just like a trip to the museum.
I guess the world is not big enough for more then the current desktop OS trio. It seems impossible for a 4th party to get passed Linux at this point it time.

[Morden]

I am wondering why people still bother to keep porting ScummVM to long time dead platforms like the Amiga or Dreamcast.

I guess it's mainly because they can. I'm actually surprised that Dreamcast is still getting new releases and old Xbox isn't.

The main reason I liked to have ScummVM on a console was so that I could play the games on a TV, which has a considerably bigger screen than my PC.

Some years back, when Beats of Rage mod scene was more active, I used ScummVM for Dreamcast because I liked it, the DC version was still maintained unlike the Xbox one and I could back-up my savestates. The only downside was, the process required me to burn discs.

I sit in front of a computer all day at work, so nowadays I generally prefer handheld devices, especially the PSP, since it has a large screen and it can run basically anything.

I am however supportive of ScummVM for Dreamcast and other platforms. No one can deny the popularity of Amiga, even today, so I'm not surprised that this version is still maintained as well. Besides, it's cool to get something new for your old platform and I'm glad there are people who still bother.

If I had a classic console that was dear to me, I wouldn't risk running it often, since getting it replaced should be hard.

The only console that's getting new ScummVM releases that could be considered classic is Dreamcast. PlayStation 2 is still getting new games, so the console is still on the market. And it's not that hard to get a Dreamcast.

I basically only had DOS myself in my childhood, so maybe I am missing something. Since DOSBox exists, I wouldn't boot an old pre-pentium for anything else then ripping floppies or maybe some testing.

That's a question of convenience. I play my NES games on emulators sometimes, simply because I can't be bothered to dig the console and a certain game up to play for 30 minutes. I have two old PCs, but I can't imagine connecting them just to play something unless it's some special occasion.

So again, I'm happy to see that people still bother, especially with Dreamcast. It's a fairly powerful and homebrew friendly console, so why not? New homebrew games are still being released on Dreamcast, so why not have an up to date ScummVM?

[fingolfin]

People usually port stuff to arbitrary systems for two very simple reasons: To prove themselves that they can do it, and because it's fun.

Anything else (like actually having other people use it) really is only sugar on the top.

[Raziel]

I am wondering why people still bother to keep porting ScummVM to long time dead platforms like the Amiga or Dreamcast.

The Amiga is not dead!!!

The 68k line is, even "long-time" as you say, but the switch to PPC hardware has been made since and now the heart of the Amiga, the OS (whoa, i KNOW people WILL hunt me for that ) is being worked on and updated again.

Long live Amiga!!!

Heh

...plus, to a lesser extent, i LOVE Adventures and ScummVM is the ONLY way for me to get the pearls on my platform, even in grand playability (such thing the studios denied back when they dropped Amiga support, then again, we hadn't PPC back then )

[Red_Breast]

Top of my wishlist for a long time has been a new Amiga. But as soon as I start getting the money together for one another expense hits me and I'm back to zero.
There doesn't seem much difference in price if I build my own with the Sam mobo as a basis or pre-built from AmigaKit.

Bob I'm not sure if trying Haiku would be a good idea for you. Like I said for me a lot (all) of it is memories. Similar to how somebody plays music which reminds them of something special.
Haiku's browser is only at Firefox 2.0 level.
The PC I have Haiku on actually uses compact flash cards as hard drives (CF to IDE adapter) which I can swap out easy and I have CF cards with:
Haiku, BeOS, Zeta, Icaros/Aros and Open Solaris.
One I keep meaning to try is Atari/Freemint. Again because I have memories of using an Atari Stella at college.
I think it's a shame that Windows is so dominant. As much as I don't like Microsoft I feel I'm being totally objective when I say it's OSs are so boring and computers like BeOS and Amiga were/are so much more fun to use.
When MS started to become so dominant I seem to remember a lot of people saying it's good for compatibility. Rubbish I say. All that was needed was standards for all OSs to stick to and it would of been fine.

Oops I seem to have totally hijacked your thread Bob. Sorry.
I hope I've helped answer your original question though.

[bobdevis]

Nah it's allright.
But it is very natural that a small number of OS-es eclipse everyone else after a while.
-An OS has the tendency to be popular because it's popular (easier to get help).
-Writing software that is easy to port to anything requires extra discipline. Discipline that most will be to lazy or tight budgeted to stick to.
- Platform independent DRM that is not a complete joke is impossible for any offline content.

Personally, I'm just happy when I don't feel I am owned by a company (with Linux) and when I have options, starting with the silly stuff as choosing where the _[]X buttons are on the window decoration (with KDE).

Anyway, is there any other decent way to run the new PPC Amiga then those (EXPENSIVE!!!) Sam boards?
The PPC emulator I know (PearPC) doesn't mention Amiga support at least.

[hippy dave]

people almost got amigaos running natively on a particular old model of ppc mac, but i don't think it ever actually worked to a useful degree.

[Raziel]

Anyway, is there any other decent way to run the new PPC Amiga then those (EXPENSIVE!!!) Sam boards?
The PPC emulator I know (PearPC) doesn't mention Amiga support at least.

You may just have to wait "two more weeks", at it seems

[Red_Breast]

Sounds interesting Raziel but I get
"Database Error: Unable to connect to the database:Could not connect to MySQL"

I get the same when googling for hyperion and clicking Google's links.
Hopefully it's just a temporary thing.

[bobdevis]

When Raziel made that post, the (then not dead) link took you to an announcement about Hyperion finally settling long dragging lawsuit about the rights to the OS.

Wikipedia was also updated with this news;

n 30 September 2009, Hyperion Entertainment and Amiga, Inc reached settlement agreement where Hyperion is granted an exclusive, perpetual, worldwide right in order to use, develop, modify, commercialize, distribute and market AmigaOS 4.x and subsequent versions of AmigaOS (including without limitation AmigaOS 5). Hyperion has assured it will continue the development and the distribution of AmigaOS 4.x (and beyond) as it has done since November of 2001.

I'm not quite sure how this would make it easier or less expensive to run Amiga though. I'm guessing Hyperion is now free to roll out support for lot's of other PPC hardware, or something like that....


edit: Ah I think I know what happened. Slashdot is running this story so the Hyperion web server was probably crushed with traffic.

[Red_Breast]

Thanks Bob.