It's a GForce 8400.

Cheers,
Nigel.

Everything pretty much finalised for the show aside from the bit of issue with laptop for the presentation mentioned elsewhere. The demos will be:

i7 desktop running 32 bit native - simultaneously showing Cube 2, Hollyman (Pacman clone) and a DVD on a big-screen TV. Not just to show 3D capabilities and CPU grunt but also how flexible Trident is - I've mapped the Cube 2 controls to a wireless USB game pad and the Hollyman ones to a classic digital joystick (connected via an Amiga 2000 keyboard converted to USB via a Keyrah) so that both games can be played simultaneously through their respective controllers.

i5 HP laptop 64 bit native - showing OWB and internet radio (just hope the wifi at the venue is good).

Sansung netbook - showing the sort of productivity software I use for work, each program running on its own screen, the use of touchscreen on AROS and the ability to transmit a chosen screen to a second display (via an ASUS 4G surf running 32 bit native); second screen will be a 17" TV. (This has been incredibly useful at work this week; the college PCs have been particularly problematic so I've needed to transfer my presentation to my Samsung several times).

ACER Aspire - showing 'What is AROS' presentation. Looks like being on standard 64 bit so no USB which is a little tricky as the keyboard on this laptop has stopped working. However, if I boot from hard drive and start the presentation from user-startup this will be OK for the show (the presentation just runs in a loop).

Computer spec sheets and demo explanatory panels have all been produced, I just need to print and laminate those. Lukily I've been allocated a 6 foot table so there will be plenty of room for all the machines.

Cheers,
Nigel.

Very nice! Good luck Nigel!

We'll be cheering you on from afar.

Hi I want to ask don’t you have Gpu bottleneck with this combination ?

Wow @ntromans that's a great setup and thank you for all the time you put into preparing that!

Looking forward to watching any video reports or reading regular reports from the show. Please shere them when they are available. And post any photos you take. Keeping my fingers crossed for good attendance!

If you can, please gather the following information from visitors:

- Did you know that AROS is migrating to a 64-bit system?
- What would be needed to make you use AROS / use AROS more?

Because the 8400 is quite old? Probably but it works well with the current driver on 32 bit. I originally bought it a part of a pre-built AROS system back in the 2000s, and the i7 is the third motherboard it's been in; the first from the pre-built system died, I have the second but the CPU is a little old for 64 bit and the i7 I had for free as it was being thrown out at work because Microsoft wouldn't allow it to run Windows 11...

Anyway, on CUBE 2 lowest fps seems to be 17, highest as peasked at 71, typically around 25-40, and that's with running the other game and DVD playback simultaneously.

Cheers,
Nigel.

Thanks :-) I think the show is sold out so should be quite busy all day (runs 9:30 to 6). I'll definitely be pushing 64 bit and try to gather some 'customer research'.

Cheers,
Nigel.

May I ask if there is a download for CUBE 2 I only see windows mac linux versions

It's in the AROS archives along with CUBE adn Assaultcube - Deadwood ported all those a few years ago when the 3D drivers came out.

Cheers,
Nigel.

Opps, sorry - double post.

Inspired by the questions above, I thought it might be an idea to do a bit of customer research at the Zzap show as to just what potential usres might wish from AROS, just of course with those people who are happy to do complete it.

I've created a BeeBase form to record this feedback (please see image); is there anything else I should be including here?

Cheers,
Nigel.

Edit: Typos fixed, I've added a section asking about interest in native, hosted and portable, plus I've added more information about each option in the bubble help, i.e. explaining what currently exists in AROS and what does not.

Sow report:

It was a busy day. The show was pretty packed from opening to the public at 10 am through to takedown at 6 pm. Several rooms were filled with a variety of 8 bit and 16/32 bot machines, with our room (the Commodore one) being the biggest, sharing the sapce between C64s and Amigas. Just behind my table was, all next to each other, an A4000, CDTV and an A3000. I don't recall ever seeing any of these machines 'in person' before, so that wa quite special.

Although a lot of the machines were 'enhanced' (PiStorm etc.) all were classics, mine were the only 'NG' systems there. Indeed the organisers had said something along the lines of wanting to keep it a retro show, so I was quite lucky to get a space through being part of MAE.

Unfortunatly due to some late-joining exhibitors my space was a bit smaller than expected, and whilst I did manage to squeeze in all the demo machines I didnt have room for the one running the survey, although ngiven the room was quite noisy and very packed I doubt anyoie would have wanted to stop and complete it anyway. However, I did have a lot of conversations, so here's the feedback from those...

In hindsight I probably should have kept a tally, but 20+ people were intersted enough to talk about AROS. Most were of the generation who grew up with a choice in computing in the 80s and 90s, a few younger though. Probably not much should be read into this though as that description covered the vast majority of the attendees.

They broke down into three roughtly equal groups:

• People who hadn't used Amiga's in the past and so unsurprisingly hadn't heard of AROS.
• People who had used Amiga but currently did not (typically having displosed of their machines back in the 90s or 2000s); some recognised the AROS name but nothing more than that, others had not heard of it at all.
• People who have tried AROS in the past but were not regular uses, typcially siting not having the time. Aside from one person they had not heard of the 64 bit version.

Given news is regularly posted on other sites (Amiga.org etc.) about AROS development, this indicates these groups are not using Amiga sites and it would be worth investigating other sites to inform on development e.g. Hackaday or general retrocomputing sites. YouTube is difficult; people here have have posted many videos but how to get them put up on people's feeds? I get a lot of Amiga content on mine but almost never AROS.

However, all of those are talked to were interested in an open source OS that's free (both in terms of cost and development) that rus on modern machines without all the baggage of Windows et.al., and that includes the people who hadn't used Amiga in the past, so there is a potential audience 'out there'. In addiiton, quite a few said they had machines similar to mine currently doing nothing (particulaly the netbooks) and that it would be good to get them running again.

What impressed:

• As noted above, just the existence of the system at all and being able to use old machines usefully again; the idea of sustainabiloty and avoiding e-waste was one that resonated. Following on from the points above, just today on my feed I've a video showing Linux being installed on my model of Samsung netbook; I can gurantee AROS runs quicker and more efficiently but it's how to get that message across?
• Previous Amiga uses liked the idea it worked just like an Amiga and the support of modern standards (wifi, USB etc.) was a pleasant surprise to some.
• Speed as illustrated by boot times and general system resposiveness especially in comparison to Windows or Linux on similar hardware (e.g. one person has the same ASUS 4G Surf as mine with a Linux install and had been unable to play videos smoothly on it even with a lot of fromat processing; they were pretty impressed when AROS ran a unedited vob file flawlessly).
• Efficiency of the system, particularly the 4G Surf and the Samsung N130 both running nippily with relatively limited resources (quite a few remembered how slow Windows 7 was on such machines). Also the i7 demo with Cube 2, a Hollywood game and a DVD running simultaneously and smoothly grabbed the attention.
• Ability to easily live boot from USB or optical (I made sure to explain the existence of AROS Portable too).
• Being able to install on as many machine as you wish and being in control of the OS (again unlike Windows et.al) appealed too.
• One unexpected selling point - I mentioned a few tiimes that you could take the SSD from one machine, put it in another and it would just boot and run fine gained attention, with several again comparing it to the Windows experience.
• That, depending of course on your needs, it is possible to run AROS as a 'daily driver' and indeed use it for work.

As to what might encourage users to try AROS or use it more regulalry:

• Most actually said they'd like to give it a try now; I made sure to say AROSworld should be the first port of call for advice and links to downloads, with AROSOne or Portable AROS being highlighted as the best way for a new user to try the system. For those using Linux (quite a few) I also explained AROS could be hosted there.
• There were questions on how well classic software was run and the idea that 68k programs might be eventually integrated as 32 bit has been on 64 bit was quite popular, although this question was often in relation to games so that would of course still need full chipset emulation (Janus and Amiberry were explained here). Maybe if you coud click on the game adf and the emuation would just run automatically; does that already exist in AROSOne? I very rarely play games...
• Not much specific software was mentioned but one person said 3D design would be valuable (something like Lightwave, which I guess would need to be a port of Blender).
• One request that might not be so good to hear; there was from some an interest in 32 bit continuing as an option (I guess driven by Linux distributions dropping 32 bit support) One person also mentioned they'd like to see AROS on RPi.

In addiiton to the above, I think if people are coming to AROS with no Amiga experience some guides to the fundamental working of the system (libraries, devices, preferences etc). would be useful.

In conclusion, it was lovely to tak with like-minded poeple who too wish for computing as it should be rather than what the big-tec companies force on us. I genuinely think there's an interest and appetite for AROS out there but it's letting them know it exists as an option is the difficulty.

Cheers,
Nigel.

P.S. I also heard my first AROS article will be published by Amiga Active and I can send in ideas for the next. From the above I was thinking focussing on hardware and how to get and install the various distributions.