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| My updated AmigaOne 500 aka SAM460ex |
This time, I'll like to give my AmigaOne 500 aka SAM460ex a well deserved celebration. 7 years ago, from this very day, I bought my AmigaOne 500 aka SAM460ex from GGSData in Sweden.
Since then, it has been updated and upgraded with a Samsung 500GB internal SSD harddrive. The fastest possible harddrive one can get. In addition, it has been updated with the very latest AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition Update 1 and latest Workbench Enhancer 1.5 bundle from A-EON Technology. My AmigaOne 500 also has a Radeon HD 6670 PCIe graphic card from Sapphire. 1GB of GDDR5 RAM and the very best audio card out there - a 24-bit ESI@Juli XTe PCIe audio card with MIDI support.
My AmigaOne 500 7 Years Anniversary Celebration
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| My AmigaOne 500 Summer Workbench |
I certainly can't help feel impressed about how my Amiga system works, even today. It works just like it did when I bought it 7 years ago! It's the longest time I have ever had an Amiga, and it still works perfectly!
Speedwise, my AmigaOne 500 might not be the fastest you have experienced, but for me it is a pretty solid and stable system. The SSD drive with latest update of the SFS2 file system, allows my Amiga to boot into my Workbench setup somewhere between 5-10 seconds. That's certainly not bad, considering how modern PCs usually spend more time loading into Windows! But as you all can see, having a SSD drive with your OS to boot has a lot to say, and it really makes quite a difference! SSD is the fastest harddrive you can ever get! So you see, even AmigaOne 500 can impress greatly!
Continuing making music on my AmigaOne 500
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| Noche De Tacos Mexican Slinger in OMSS v1.03c |
As several already might be aware of, I'm still making Amiga music. I really enjoy making music on the Amiga. With 16-bit stereo samples and playing the mods in best possible quality, it's just beautiful, especially when the mods are beautiful themselves. My Amiga mods vary in quality from average to pretty good. Some not as good, but all in all, improving and continue to improve. I suppose these are just normal results that happens to anybody doing music. There will always be good and bad music, and people really feel different about music. Nobody necessarily like or hate the same. We're all different.
These days, I'm mostly doing 18 Amiga mods for my Samplicity collection. You can take a close look on the screenshot below here, to learn what the title of these are and will be.
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| Using MultiEdit to create my song list |
The next Amiga track I'm going to work on now is "Little Child. I plan to make it a happy, dreamy track. Something children will love to listen to before falling asleep.
Children are beautiful the way they are. Their innocense and unawareness of their surroundings when being little. The dreams they might have. The happiness. It's beautiful that way. You surely agree.
From an adult's perspective, looking at how children might be so happy and full of life, make you feel younger, looking at your own childhood. It's an interesting perspective and certainly much to learn from.
Some might wonder why I bother making Amiga music as late as 2019. Allow me to answer with a question. Why not? Amiga always had excellent music capabillites, and the Amiga continues to impress, even today. I think I have already proven with a great numbers of my Amiga mods what you still can do with a multi-tracker like that of OctaMED SoundStudio.
For me, personally, it's not just about showing what I can do, but rather to show the world what the Amiga STILL can do, and how important it will be to improve OctaMED SoundStudio and the Amiga itself. That's mostly why I'm doing all this. Because I care.
The bloody mess of the Cloanto
Well, what to say? The rumours about Cloanto yet again involved in what to happen with the future of the Amiga, is all true. As several points out, it has become quite a bloody mess for the Amiga and its' community. Already around half a year of 2019 has gone into wondering about what Cloanto is up to. The argument is so annoying that it overshadows the great things that are actually happening to the Amiga, including the great things the Vampire systems created by Apollo are doing for the Classic Amiga, to not mention the 68080 accelerators boosting new life to all classic Amigas!
In the end, I hope this evil circle of mess ends and that the Amiga will have the bright future it deserves. At least there are good news to know that A-EON and Hyperion will discuss the future of ExecSG development. The very core of the AmigaOS. We already know that AmigaOS 4.2 is to have SMP multi-core support and hopefully OpenGL graphic subsystem, among the things. And now that the classic AmigaOS 3.1.4 is out, perhaps better intergration of Classic Amiga emulation could be implemented in future updates of AmigaOS4, for better compatibility and speed emulating the classic Amiga? Who knows?
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| The Updater from Workbench Enhancer 1.5 |
While waiting, I'm doing the best I can with my Amiga system. Workbench Enhancer 1.5 is great to have on my AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition Update 1, all running on my AmigaOne 500 aka SAM460ex.
Since I paid for this update of Workbench Enhancer when I bought the Radeon HD V3 Upgrade Pack, I received the version 1.5 update for free, as a discount.
Version 2.0 of Workbench Enhancer should come later this year, with even more improvements and a new Archiver, where you can both unpack and pack files in more than just the LHA format!
The Updater tool (seen from the screenshot above) is very useful, which allows you to update both the system files, games, apps and tools you bought through AmiStore. A very nice addition to the already AmiUpdate. Makes the Workbench feels quite modern!
That ends this blog for now. Hope you enjoy the read. Thank you all for your support.
Written by
Helge Kvalheim
