pete%slack.uucp@cs.utah.edu (Pete Ashdown) (05/06/90)
This is, without a doubt, possibly the *weirdest* thing I've seen in a long time. What follows is the exact copy of an article in the April issue (do they do April fools stuff in England?) of Computer & Video Games, a UK games magazine. These guys _always_ come out with the news before any of the American mags get around to it, and they are always pretty reliable. They promise more info on this hardware device in the future, but all I know about it is what follows: A-MIGA-DRIVE What seemed like just another humdrum fax quickly became one of the hottest news pieces to come our way for a long time. DevTek Co, a Japanese hardware firm have revealed a brand new device which lets Megadrive [Sega Genesis] owners download Amiga software to their machine using special battery backed D-RAM cartridges. The A-migaDrive which slips comfortably into the expansion port of the Amiga [they show it with a 500] consists of two custom chips and a special translational maths coprocessor which converts the Amiga 68000 code into a form which the Megadrive's own 68000 processor can understand. To get this amazing piece of hardware to work, the user simply has to plug it into the Amiga, switch on, let it boot into the operating system (it takes about 3 seconds), then, when prompted, place a game disk (only games on one or two full disks work - anymore than that and you get a memory overflow error) into the Amiga - AmigaDrive does the rest by pulling the code off the disk and squeezing it into a 2-Meg battery backed RAM cartridge, which can then be plugged into the Megadrive and played - just like any other Sega cartridge. The sound is the same (both machines use FM sound chips), and the graphics are virtually spot-on, apart from some degradation on HAM mode pictures. This means that if you have an Amiga-owning friend, you can increase your collection of Megadrive software from dozens to as many games as you can get special cartridges. And the price? Not absolutely confirmed as yet, but DevTek are hopeful that the Amiga-Drive will retail at 42,000 Yen, around 165 pounds, and the special cartridges cost around 3200 Yen - about 13 pounds. We've been promised a finished model for a full review, hopefully by next month. Keep your fingers firmly crossed - this one's going to be enourmous! [Pictures shown, the A-miga-Drive itself, the A-Miga-Drive plugged into a 500 with the caption "The A-migadrive, in all its colour co-ordinated glory. A small switch on the front of the casing locks the special cartridge into position, while a button on the back begins the dumping process." Then two pictures of TV Sports Basketball with the caption "Even the latest software can be transferred from the Amiga to Megadrive! Notice the slight change in picture quality, from this... to this. Because of the difference in video outputs between the two machines, the converted game appears stretched and, in some cases, colour is distored slightly."] Now, this all seems slightly believable. However, they make a few boo-boos in their article. The bit about "translational math coprocessor" makes me wonder as well as the idea that the Amiga and the Genesis having the same sound chips (the Amiga handles digitized sound MUCH better than the Genesis). The part about a memory overflow error for more than two disks sounds hokey too. If they don't want you to download more than two disks, why do they prompt you for them? Anyway, I thought it was an interesting article, I know everyone here will too. I'll post if I manage to get anymore info on it. --- Pete Ashdown
gilmore@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Neil Gilmore) (05/07/90)
In article <1990May6.103142.10138@hellgate.utah.edu>, pete%slack.uucp@cs.utah.edu (Pete Ashdown) writes... >This is, without a doubt, possibly the *weirdest* thing I've seen in a long >time. What follows is the exact copy of an article in the April issue (do >they do April fools stuff in England?) of Computer & Video Games, a UK games >magazine. These guys _always_ come out with the news before any of the >American mags get around to it, and they are always pretty reliable. They >promise more info on this hardware device in the future, but all I know about >it is what follows: O.K. It's weird enough, all right. (lotsa stuff deleted) >This means that if you have an Amiga-owning friend, you can increase your >collection of Megadrive software from dozens to as many games as you can get >special cartridges. And the price? Not absolutely confirmed as yet, but I hope this isn't saying what I think it is. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Kitakaze Tatsu Raito Neil Gilmore internet:gilmore@macc.wisc.edu | | Jararvellir, MACC, UW-Madison bitnet: gilmore@wiscmac3 | | Middle Kingdom Madison, Wi DoD #00000064 (no ints here) | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
uzun@pnet01.cts.com (Roger Uzun) (05/07/90)
Yes this was an April Fools article from England, looks like
they got at least one :-)
-Roger
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INET: uzun@pnet01.cts.comrobin@sabre.austin.ibm.com (Robin D. Wilson/1000000) (05/07/90)
In article <1990May6.103142.10138@hellgate.utah.edu> pete%slack.uucp@cs.utah.edu (Pete Ashdown) writes: >A-MIGA-DRIVE >What seemed like just another humdrum fax quickly became one of the hottest >news pieces to come our way for a long time. DevTek Co, a Japanese hardware >firm have revealed a brand new device which lets Megadrive [Sega Genesis] >owners download Amiga software to their machine using special battery backed >D-RAM cartridges. Uh... wouldn't this be software piracy? +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |The views expressed herein, are the sole responsibility of the typist at hand| +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |USNail: UUCP: | |2323 Wells Branch Pkwy., #G107 cs.utexas.edu!romp!ibmchs!auschs\ | |Austin, TX 78728 !sabre.austin.ibm.com!robin | |Home: (512)251-6889 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^<-MUST BE INCLUDED| +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+