amiga-news.de - Interview: Matthew Leaman (Amiga Kit, A-EON) about the A600GS

11.Oct.2024 Interview: Matthew Leaman (Amiga Kit, A-EON) about the A600GS
About a year ago, the first photos of the ARM-based "Games System and Classic 68K compatible computer" A600GS were shown at AmiWest 2023. Since August 2024, the console is officially available (amiga-news.de reported) and we regularly report on updates and new games or software that is provided for the A600GS. Time to talk to Matthew Leaman, Managing Director of A-EON and Amiga Kit, about this project and possible effects on AmigaOS 4 software such as the Enhancer Software.

Amiga-News (AN):Matthew, we've been reporting a lot lately about the latest project from you and Amiga Kit: the A600GS. How satisfied are you with the sales launch?

Matthew Leaman (ML): Sales have had a encouraging start. We hope to recuperate our two years of development costs as we sell more units. We are continuing to develop new software for the A600GS every few weeks so we are hoping this will encourage more sales.

AN: Perhaps you should introduce our readers to the computer a little more. GS stands for Game Station. So is it primarily intended for gamers? What can a buyer expect?

ML: "GS" stands for two things: primarily it stands for Games System. However you may know that the The B-52s had a song called "Good Stuff". To keep in tradition with motherboards having B52 song titles printed on them, the A600GS board has "Good Stuff" on the silkscreen.

AN: Reading the forums, there seems to be some confusion about what the system is based on: many think it's AmigaOS 3 or WinUAE, but it's actually AROS, right? Why did you choose it?

ML: For the last 6 years we have been working on projects called System Release V46 and System Release V54. They share the same code base, V46 is compiled for 68K and V54 is compiled for PPC. System Release V54 components have been released as part of the Enhancer Software for PPC machines such as the X1000, X5000 and A1222 Plus.

System Release V46 is installed on the A600GS and has a high degree of OS3 compatiblity. It features a new DOS command set written from scratch, a brand new datatype library, picture datatype and AK-Datatypes added. Quite a few system classes are added to enhance the programs. Our developers have also recreated a few System, Utilities and Prefs tools from the ground upwards. On top of SystemV46 sits AmiBench desktop running in 32bit 1080P screen resolution with it's AB-Dock, Clock and Calendar. Your readers can find out more by visiting the Wiki.

As you can expect to develop all of this software has taken many years. To make it a completely bootable system we used AROS 68K components to supplement the original software we have made.

AN: Now I'm not an AROS expert, but when I want to test games via the Amiga emulator vAmigaWeb and then use the AROS ROMs, many of them don't run. Did you have to test all the games and then adapt them?

ML: The A600GS user is free to install any ROMs they have legal licence to in the ROM section. You can achieve the maximum compatibility by doing this. Remember how games did not run on your Amiga 500 and you had to use a Kickstart ROM switcher to play the older games? This is the same principle but instead using software.

The A600GS also allows users to alter the individual game settings for Chip, Fast and Slow Memory. Some old games did not like memory expansions. I remember in my Amiga 500 having a trapdoor expansion with a switch to disable it. A600GS users can do this easily in the software.

AN: We recently reported not only that there is a new Final Writer version for AROS, but also that a special edition of the word processor is installed on the A600GS: did this also contribute to your decision in favour of AROS?

ML: We were very grateful to Timothy Deters for contributing Final Writer for pre-installation on our product. All of the credit goes to him and his team of developers. We have not had any hand in the development of that application. He has invested a lot of time and resources in modernising the application. It is looking great for fans of Final Writer to get a new 2024 edition. Using AROS ROMs enabled us to use his software without a lot of development work.

AN: And what about support for current printers? Is it possible to print directly from A600GS?

ML: You can print directly using Postscript printers or alternatively print to PDF.

AN: In addition to Final Writer, an updated version of OctaMED is also installed and a new version of PPaint has been announced: were these applications planned from the outset? Or did you decide during the project that the A600GS should become more than just a gaming computer after all...?

ML: From the outset we planned to bundle these A-EON software applications. It gave us an excuse to invest more development into them. The expanded user base from the A600GS will hopefully make development of OctaMED and PPaint financially sustainable.

AN: How did the idea of the new computer come about in the first place?

ML: As you know our beloved computers are getting older and sometimes they need recapping and maintenance. The cost of retro computers on auction sites such as Ebay has gone to very high levels. There is not a low cost way of introducing our community to new users. We hope that the A600GS will be the low priced computer system that shows that our community likes gaming but also being creative with applications such as OctaMED and Personal Paint. AmiBench also lets A600GS users install their own applications. We recently added the famous YAM application to AmiBench (amiga-news.de reported) so now you can send and receive your emails on the A600GS.

AN: Did you realise that there was a gap in the market or was this an idea that had been in the drawer for a while?

ML: We first pitched this idea a couple of times since 2012 to see if we could obtain ROM licences. We emailed the concept pictures and description of the project to parties who we thought could help us. Unfortunately we had no feedback. Presumably the lack of response was due to the ongoing legal problems. The original hardware idea was slightly different: we were going to put the new system in one of our Arcade Evolution Joystick cases and call it A1200GS. It would have a joystick built in and plug directly into the television. The software idea would be exactly the same as the A600GS with an integrated AmiStore App Store. Of course since 2012, ARM hardware has improved substantially so the A600GS is now a far more rounded computer system with features such as WiFi and Bluetooth. The delayed release has let us develop our own system software so we did not to partner with other third parties to launch the A600GS.

AN: Matthew, you are not only the managing director of Amiga Kit, but also of A-EON: the new Enhancer version should have been released some time ago, right? Has further development there suffered from the A600GS project? Or was it worth the wait and the Enhancer software benefits from the A600GS project? What is the status?

ML: We had a software contribution given to us for the Enhancer Software 2.3 which would have represented a key element of it. Unfortunately the contribution was withdrawn so we have had to remove it. This held the Enhancer Software 2.3 update back for a short time. There are lots of nice fixes and small updates in the current development version of ES 2.3, some of which are developed concurrently for the A600GS. We are polishing it for release in the near future.

AN: Are AmigaOS 4 and its users still on the priority list?

ML: A-EON always has it's hardware and software customers as a priority. We are not responsible for OS4 development of course, this is the domain of Hyperion Entertainment.

AN: Is the "LibreOffice" project still being pursued in principle?

ML: This is still an active project and has not been cancelled.

AN: Thank you very much, Matthew! We will continue to follow the various projects with interest. (dr)

[News message: 11. Oct. 2024, 07:08] [Comments: 1 - 11. Oct. 2024, 13:39]
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