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Omnipresent on Amiga forums and a true star of OS4Depot, Roman 'kas1e' Kargin has become, over the years, an essential figure in our community. Where others give up, Roman tirelessly compiles, tests, tweaks, and ports. Notably, he is involved in projects such as the Odyssey web browser for AmigaOS 4, and the recent project to rebuild the Pegasos 2 ROM.
Hello Roman.
Could you introduce yourself to our readers?Hi! I am 47 years old and live in Saint Petersburg, Russia. I have a computer-related business that gives me quite a bit of free time to spend on Amiga things and family.
Since I was about 15, I've been into punk rock, and it's stayed with me to this day. I'm still playing in a hardcore punk band, without pretending to be anything I'm not. :)
I have two children: a 10-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter. I also dance with brown bears, play the balalaika, and have vodka in my blood. :)
Roman Kargin readings From Vultures To Vampires
Where does
your nickname "Kas1e" come from?Everything started on the ZX Spectrum with all those very hardcore games. All my friends and I had to hack those games with "Poke" things, and the whole Russian ZX Spectrum scene was full of cracking (hello, Bill Gilbert). Everything we had was illegal and "free" for us, so we had to be crackers of all sorts.
Then, when I was 16 years old, I watched the Hackers movie, which absolutely turned me to the dark side, so I had to have a "cool nickname," and I chose <snip> at first. By that time, I already had a PC 286 and a modem, and I started hacking local BBSs with my friends, as well as every network we could connect to from our modem (which weren't many in ex-USSR Russia at that time - just some X.25 networks and a few TCP/IP ones). After a while, this nickname became too connected with those hacking activities (at that time there weren't any laws or rules about it, but problems starts), so after a few years and just to hides, and to stop all hacking activity, I simply generated something neutral with no reason behind it and which meant nothing: I randomly chose "kasie" (probably from some movie I was watching at that time), but I still couldn't resist adding some "hacking" number in the middle to make it look "cool," as I thought at least when I was a child :). Yeah, today it all sounds funny, but that's how it was.
What was
your very first computer, and how did you discover the Amiga?The first time I encountered computers, I was 12 years old. The machines were ZX Spectrum 48Ks in local computer clubs, where we spent our time playing games like Soldier of Fortune, Zynaps, and Flying Shark.
After playing those games for a while”and hacking them in every way, I could think of”I started wanting to create games myself. I began learning BASIC, but soon realized that if I wanted to make smooth, fast games, I would need to learn assembly language. That was simply too hardcore for me at the time. We had no books, no teachers who knew the subject, and barely anyone even understood what compilers were. So I put programming aside and went back to playing games.
Around that time, consoles such as the Sega Mega Drive II became popular. While I was still a kid, I started working in computer shops that sold Dendy consoles (illegal NES clones popular in Russia) and Sega Mega Drive IIs. Once again, I found myself thinking that simply playing games wasn't enough... I wanted to create them. To do that, I needed a computer, but it couldn't be a ZX Spectrum anymore. Its games looked primitive, and the sound was awful compared to the Mega Drive.
I started looking at the alternatives. PCs were beginning to appear everywhere...”286s were common, and 386s were already on the horizon. Then one day a man named Sergey Pisarev, probably around 25 years old at the time, came into our shop. We started talking about computers, and he said: "Why do you need this damn PC? There's the Amiga. Not only can you program on it, but it also has games on the level of the Sega Mega Drive II. PC games are ugly, badly designed, and PCs are just business machines for suckers." He invited me to his apartment, where for the first time in my life I saw an Amiga 1200 equipped with a hard drive, a 68030 accelerator, and 8 MB of RAM.
There was a proper monitor instead of a television, and a high-end sound system because Sergey was also a musician. He showed me Deluxe Paint, tracker software, and games like Superfrog, Aladdin, Brian the Lion, and Lionheart. I was completely blown away. Literally. That moment pulled me over to the Dark Side for the next 35 years of my life. For example, Aladdin on the Sega Mega Drive only had music on the title screen, but on the Amiga it actually featured digitized vocals. That alone sold me on the entire platform.
On top of that, Sergey worked for a local TV channel. Every two weeks he hosted a 30...“40 minute program called "World of Computer Games", where he covered the Amiga and ZX Spectrum scenes, showing games, demos, and discussing new developments. Sadly, most of the archive was recorded on VHS tapes and has been lost. We were fortunate enough to preserve one of the later episodes, which still contains some Amiga-related content before the show eventually switched its focus to consoles and PCs.
From 1999: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V3LZi9lMmk.
Highlights:
- 9:50...” Max Rally on the Amiga.
- 22:30...” Venus Art demo and Everything Dies for PowerPC.
After a year of working in the shop, I finally managed to buy an A1200, only to discover that without a hard drive and relying solely on floppy disks, it was very limited. I spent a year playing all the classics...”Brian the Lion, Lionheart, Aladdin, The Chaos Engine, Entity, Shadow of the Beast, and many others. I watched demos like 9 Fingers and Technological Death endlessly.
But eventually I started asking myself: what next? How do I actually work with this machine rather than just play games? How do I program on it? How do I connect a printer and make it work like it does on my friend's PC? After spending another year fighting all kinds of limitations and problems, I finally sold the Amiga and bought a PC. PCs were cheaper, available everywhere, printers worked out of the box, monitors could be purchased in any store, and the platform looked modern. CD-ROM drives, Sound Blasters, and Gravis Ultrasounds were becoming standard. Demos like Second Reality and games like The 7th Guest proved that PCs weren't as boring as I had once thought.
But despite all that, I still dreamed of owning a fully equipped Amiga. I visited Sergey many times at his apartment. He and his older friends would play Amiga games, discuss technical topics, and read German Amiga magazines that somehow found their way into Russia. It was there that I first saw a CD32 running Microcosm, and once again I was completely sold. Still, a PC was necessary for work and everyday life, and I couldn't afford both a PC and a fully upgraded Amiga at the same time. So I kept saving money year after year until, at around twenty years old, I finally owned both: an A1200 with a hard drive, 68030 accelerator, and monitor, alongside a modern PC.
After a while I realized that I wanted PowerPC hardware, largely because of graphics cards and because of Planet Potion. Eventually I upgraded my A1200 into a monstrous PowerPC machine: 68040 in BlizzardPPC were replaced on 68060, overclocked, added FastATA from Elbox, scandoubler, Mediator with Voodoo3, PCMCIA network card, PS2 adapter, A3000 keyboard, big tower, and I even made a double combo with BVisionPPC and Mediator/Voodoo3 at the same time (so to be able to run PlanetPotion at last!), but it was of course unstable and messy.
Amiga 1200 (external view)
Amiga 1200 (inside the monster)
Amiga 1200 (Workbench)
Which Amiga
models do you currently own?I currently own a Pegasos II, AmigaOne X1000, AmigaOne X5000, and Sam460. Some time ago, the AmigaOne X5000 was my primary machine, but these days it depends entirely on what I'm working on. When I'm developing CFE patches for the AmigaOne X1000, that becomes my main system. Right now I'm working on a replacement ROM project for the Pegasos II, so the Pegasos II is my primary machine again.
Over the years, I've built up quite a collection of hardware around them. For example, I use a TESmart KVM switch that allows me to control all four Amiga systems from a single keyboard, mouse, and monitor setup. All of the machines are connected through a local network, giving them access to the Internet as well as local FTP servers for uploading and downloading files.
More recently, I've added QEMU on my laptop to the mix. It has become another useful development platform where I can work on Amiga-related projects before moving on to testing them on real hardware. My heavily upgraded "monster" A1200 was sold many years ago. At the time, I hoped that would finally be the end of my Amiga obsession and that I could move on. But somehow the Pegasos II has managed to keep me hooked right up to the present day.
You are
well known in the Amiga community for your numerous ports. What is your response to users who consider
some of your ports to be incomplete or buggy?Some ports will always remain incomplete if the original project is still actively developed. Keeping them fully synchronized with upstream takes a lot of time, and if there isn't much interest from users in receiving updates, they tend to stay outdated or incomplete.
However, when it comes to games or other software that doesn't require constant feature updates, but simply has bugs that need fixing, I would definitely like to improve them. The problem is that users first need to report those bugs. If nobody reports issues, it's often difficult to know what needs attention.
Could you
present/explain your Pegasos 2 ROM reconstruction project? What is its goal, and what is the current state
of development?Since the Pegasos II was my first AmigaOS 4 PowerPC machine, and because it turned out to be exceptionally well-built hardware (it is still running perfectly after more than 20 years), I've always wanted to modernize it a little...”at least by Amiga standards.
The Pegasos II has always lacked a number of features: it cannot boot from USB, cannot boot from external SATA controller cards, lacks firmware output support on modern graphics cards connected through PCI bridges, and only supports UHCI and OHCI USB controllers. For years I dreamed of fixing all of that, and now the time has finally come. I started by experimenting with the AmigaOne X1000 firmware (CFE), writing patches to extend its functionality. For example, I added USB boot support and made it work with Radeon RX graphics cards. Rather than creating a complete replacement firmware image, I implemented everything as binary patches. The original firmware starts as usual, loads a small patch file, and the patch modifies the firmware in memory.
AmigaOne X1000 with many SATA
After that, I started thinking about doing something similar for the Pegasos II. However, this machine required much more than simple patching...”it needed a major rewrite. With the help of Zoltàn Balaton, the author of the Amiga PowerPC support in QEMU, I discovered that the Pegasos II ROM consists of two separate parts:
- The original bPlan bootstrap code, which performs low-level hardware initialization.
- The open-source SmartFirmware, along with bPlan-specific modifications such as graphics and USB support.
The biggest challenge was testing. Testing in QEMU was relatively easy and allowed me to verify that things worked at a basic level. However, the real goal was always to run the firmware on actual Pegasos II hardware. The question was: how do I test firmware changes without repeatedly reflashing the ROM? The answer turned out to be the IKARUS console. This is a feature that bPlan added to the firmware years ago. If you press "ESC" during boot, you enter a special environment that allows low-level debugging before SmartFirmware starts. Even more importantly, it contains a primitive upload protocol that lets you transfer code into memory and then execute it. The feature was completely undocumented, so I spent several days reverse-engineering and documenting it.
Once I understood how it worked, I was able to upload my own SmartFirmware build. Instead of transferring control to the original SmartFirmware, the bootstrap now jumps into my replacement firmware. Effectively, this behaves almost like a fully reflashed ROM, except that the bootstrap code itself is still the original bPlan implementation.
The long-term plan is to finish the remaining development, implement proper flashing and recovery procedures, verify everything using a hardware programmer, and eventually replace the bPlan bootstrap with my own open-source implementation. At that point the result should be a completely open-source Pegasos II ROM that anyone can flash onto their machine...”and potentially turn it into a brick if something goes wrong. :)
You can see how the progress going on on my YouTube channel, for example there: youtu.be/t78FpG6JV-w.
So far I have implemented and fixed quite a few things:
- Added DMA support for disk reads. On SATA-to-IDE adapters this speeds up module loading by roughly ten times.
- Added support for several popular PCI SATA controller cards, allowing the system to boot from them.
- Added support for still-available PCI USB controller cards, such as those based on NEC chipsets.
- Added USB boot support, including booting from USB flash drives and USB CD-ROMs.
- Added support for many additional filesystems, including all common Amiga filesystems, FAT16/FAT32, NTFS, and most Linux filesystems.
- Added EHCI USB support and fixed several bugs in the original UHCI and OHCI implementations.
- Updated the x86 emulator used by the firmware, allowing RadeonHD and RadeonRX graphics cards to display firmware output correctly.
- Fixed numerous firmware usability issues while keeping the overall behavior as close to the original as possible.
Once that work is finished, I will be able to release a new SmartFirmware build together with a script that automatically:
- Takes an original pegasos2.rom image.
- Splits it into its individual components.
- Preserves the original bPlan bootstrap.
- Replaces the SmartFirmware portion with the new version.
- Rebuilds a complete ROM image.
You uploaded a
new version of the Directory Opus Magellan 5.91
desktop in April 2026. Who is working with you on this project? Is a MorphOS version available or planned? What
new features are you planning to implement? Dimitris Panokostas is also developing his own version of
Directory Opus 5.
Will you collaborate and share ideas or source code?Oh, that kind of misunderstanding. The issue was that I saw someone starting to update DOpus 5, and it was obvious that most of the work had been done with the help of AI. The updates were mainly aimed at AmigaOS 3, with no proper testing on the AmigaOS 4 or MorphOS versions. In fact, that was even stated in the README.
That's fine by itself...”I don't really care how someone develops software. But then that version was uploaded to OS4Depot and replaced the version that we had maintained and tested for years. That bothered me, because it meant users could no longer easily access the stable, properly tested version that we had spent so much time working on.
Directory Opus 5
AI can definitely be useful, and I have nothing against using it. But you still need to review what it produces, understand the changes, and, most importantly, test the results.
So, in short, no...”I didn't do anything new regarding DOpus 5. I simply wanted to make sure that the original, tested version remained available on OS4Depot.
Of course, I have always hoped to continue improving the work we left behind with DOpus 5. However, after seeing how far Dimitris's version has progressed, I feel that he is perfectly capable of adding everything that is still needed. My only hope is that the changes will be properly tested on AmigaOS 4 as well, so that the AmigaOS 4 version remains as stable and reliable as possible.
A few
years ago, you undertook porting the Odyssey web browser to AmigaOS 4. Could you tell us a bit about what
went on behind the scenes of this port, from the early days with Fabien Coeurjoly to the version on OS4Depot?Oh, that was a painful project. Fabien Coeurjoly helped me tremendously with understanding the codebase, while Thore Böckelmann was adding missing features to our MUI implementation, which eventually evolved into MUI 5 on AmigaOS 4. Daniel Westerberg from OnyxSoft also helped with some particularly difficult programming problems along the way.
An enormous amount of time was invested into it, but once we reached a decent level of MUI compatibility, things became much easier. On top of that, I reused some AmigaOS 4-specific code from the original OWB port, which was initially done by Andrea "AfxGroup" Palmatè and later maintained and updated by Joerg Strohmeyer.
It was actually a lot of fun getting everything working and later extending it with features such as YouTube support and other modern web functionality. However, the web evolves at an incredible pace...”and not always in ways that favor smaller platforms. Everything in the computer world moves so quickly that maintaining a browser eventually becomes exhausting. No matter what you implement, it is already outdated by the time you finish it. You add support for a new web feature, and the standards change. You implement YouTube playback, and Google changes the API. It is a constant race that never ends. In the end, it becomes difficult to stay motivated when you know that the project will always be somewhat incomplete and somewhat buggy, no matter how much work you put into it.
Just look at Jacek Piszczek and Wayfarer on MorphOS. I honestly feel sorry for him sometimes, because the amount of work he has invested must be enormous. Maintaining a modern web browser is a full-time job in itself, especially when the result serves only a relatively small number of users. Of course, having a modern web browser would be a huge benefit, and Andrea Palmatè is currently making some very good progress in that area. However, we also need to be realistic about the challenges involved.
Whatever browser eventually arrives will almost certainly be incomplete in some areas, buggy in some way, and lack certain features compared to mainstream browsers. That doesn't diminish the achievement, though. Even an imperfect modern browser will be better than none, of course.
Do you plan
to update your version of Odyssey? Or will you directly support Odyssey 3.00 by Andrea Palmatè ?Andrea Palmatè is a very capable programmer in his own right. He does not really need much help from anyone, and at this point the main challenge is simply the amount of time required to do the work.
The technical information is already available and open. My Odyssey port is on GitHub, the AROS version is available as well, and Jacek Piszczek's MorphOS port can also be used as a reference. The knowledge and source code are there; what remains is the effort needed to study, adapt, implement, and maintain everything.
In projects like this, success is usually determined less by technical obstacles and more by how much time a developer is willing and able to invest.
You were
heavily involved in testing and providing feedback on Hans de Ruiter's graphics drivers (Warp3D Nova, OGLES2).
Where does 3D stand on AmigaOS 4 today for developers? Has it become a strength of the system?It has certainly become one of the strengths of the system, although it is not progressing as quickly as many of us would like. Some benchmarks show performance comparable to PCs of the same era, while others suggest that there is still room for optimization and improvement.
When Hans de Ruiter created Warp3D Nova and Daniel Müssener developed ogles2.library, I ported GL4ES, which provides support for OpenGL 2.x and parts of OpenGL 3.x on top of ogles2.library. In turn, ogles2.library operates over Warp3D Nova. This gave us access to faster and more modern versions of many games that had previously been available on the platform.
As a result, we gained ports of titles such as Quake III Arena, several Star Wars games, Heretic II, Doom 3, Quake 4, and others. Yes, these are old games by modern standards, but Amiga itself is a retro platform, so having them available is still a significant improvement over not having them at all.
As for the graphics drivers themselves, I think they have reached a fairly mature state. At this point, extracting significantly more performance from them would likely require major rewrites or substantial architectural changes. For everyday use they are stable and functional, and, most importantly, there are no serious bugs preventing people from using them productively.
Years ago,
you planned to port the Ambient desktop to AmigaOS 4. What is the current status of this project?I eventually stopped because people started complaining from both sides. On one side there were those saying, "We don't need it," and on the other side there were comments like, "Look, he's taking our code again and porting it to that damn AmigaOS 4." It was that kind of atmosphere.
For me, the project was mainly a personal challenge. I wanted to see if I could do it, and to prove to myself that it wasn't nearly as difficult as many people claimed. I still think that maybe one day I'll return to it.
But then I started asking myself: what is the actual benefit today? We already have Workbench, we have Filer, and we have DOpus 5. Users already have multiple choices. Of course, having more options is generally a good thing, but it no longer feels like something critically important that the platform is missing. To be honest, I also found that Ambient wasn't quite what I had hoped it would be when I spent some time using MorphOS. I'm not saying it's bad, and I'm certainly not saying that Workbench is objectively better. It's simply different. Whenever I tried to use Ambient as my primary desktop for an extended period, I would eventually run into behaviors that either felt buggy to me or were intentional features that I personally didn't like. Maybe that's just because I've spent so many years using Workbench and have become accustomed to the way it works. So in the end, I think it's mostly a matter of personal preference. Ambient has its strengths, Workbench has its strengths, and after all these years I simply feel more comfortable with the Workbench way of doing things.
But yes, one day I'll probably do it anyway...”precisely because nobody wants it :). That's always been part of the fun of Amiga development for me. Sometimes the best projects are the ones that nobody asked for, nobody expects, and nobody thinks are worth doing. Then you go ahead and do them anyway, simply because you can.
Punk rock ! :)
What are your
other projects on the Amiga?Currently:
- Pegasos II ROM reconstruction: This is my top priority. I want to finish it at least to the point where I can release the new SmartFirmware, so users can build their own QEMU-based ROMs.
- NVIDIA driver: I already have a fully working driver for the ancient AGP-based GeForce2 MX400 running in software mode, and I'm currently working on adding hardware-accelerated blitter functions. The point is simply to have an NVIDIA driver, that's all, even ancient one. Maybe someday I'll add support for a PCIe-based card with a newer NVIDIA chipset, but whether that happens and when is still unknown.
The NVIDIA GeForce2 in use on AmigaOS 4
- X1000 CFE reconstruction: Currently I only have binary patches, but it would be better to have a complete image that can be flashed directly. The AmigaOne X1000 has two flash chips, so it's much safer to experiment with and there is less risk of ending up with a brick. I have hardware programmers for both the Pegasos II and AmigaOne X1000 flash chips, so everything will be tested and retested on my own machines first. I will also prepare instructions explaining how to recover and reprogram the flash chips with a hardware programmer if something goes wrong.
- Update the X1000 onboard SATA driver: While it already works well enough, some performance improvements certainly wouldn't hurt.
- Scout updates.
- DumbPad (a tabbed text editor).
- Snork (a debugging tool for tracing OS calls).
- A PDF viewer.
- Some 3D games that are already mostly done and just need to be finished and released.
- Various other small projects.
DumbPad
Users are
eagerly awaiting AmigaOS 4.2. Do you know where its development stands and what new features we can expect?All I know, and all I can say, is that after Ben Hermans was pushed out and Timothy De Groote and Costel Mincea took over, the project ended up in the right hands, at least in my opinion, and things have been moving forward.
Yes, progress may not look very fast from a user's perspective, but I can say for sure that development is continuing. Things are being updated, people are working on the system, and progress is being made. Of course, it's not like it was 10 or 15 years ago. We simply have fewer users and fewer developers now for natural reasons: people get older, some pass away, some become ill, start families, or simply move on as the world changes around them.
If you were
the head of the AmigaOS 4 development team, who would you recruit to successfully lead this project?I think that some areas should be paid work. For example, I don't see professional-quality documentation being written when someone can only spend a day on it every few weeks.
Beta testing can continue as it does now, because we still have many beta testers on the team who test things once they become available. As for graphics, today there is essentially only Hans De Ruiter, and he has probably already done most of what can reasonably be done with the Radeon drivers. For further work on graphics.library and related components, somebody would need to be properly paid and employed by Hyperion. Whether that is possible, given the well-known circumstances, I don't know, but perhaps Timothy De Groote and Costel Mincea have some ideas.
As for leading the project, I personally like the way Costel Mincea is doing it. Of course, others may have different opinions, but he genuinely cares about AmigaOS 4. He has always tried to create high-quality software and solutions, he is a skilled developer, and he has a very Amiga-oriented mindset. He wants to keep the system clean, efficient, and elegant, rather than following the modern trend of "quick, let's add another language or framework that consumes gigabytes of memory just because PCs can handle it." So I don't think leadership is the problem.
Developers, on the other hand, are a different story. We definitely need more of them, and ideally more developers who can work on a paid basis. Hobby development simply isn't enough to move the platform forward quickly anymore. We already have good developers on the team, but they all have jobs, families, and real-life responsibilities. If Hyperion were ever in a position to pay developers properly...”enough that they could replace their regular jobs with full-time AmigaOS work...”then things could move much faster. But that's just my opinion, of course.
Maybe the main issue is simply the age of the platform and the overall level of interest in Amiga-related technology in today's world. I can't say for sure.
In your
opinion, what are currently the strengths and weaknesses of AmigaOS 4 compared to MorphOS and AROS?For me, AROS has always felt like anarchy and chaos. Yes, there are distributions, and yes, a lot of work has been put into them, but without a clear vision and without a "dictator" figure deciding what should be done and setting deadlines, it ends up being an open-source Amiga-like OS where everyone does whatever they want for the sake of it. At least that's my opinion.
Anarchy and complete freedom can be appealing, especially when you're younger, but the older I get, the more I see that without someone who knows where the project should go, what goals need to be achieved, and who pushes people toward deadlines, things rarely reach a truly professional level.
MorphOS is a different story. I like their logic, their clean design, their generally reasonable approach, and the fact that there is much less political drama involved. I like how they design their website and how they handle releases.
What I don't like is the tendency of some people to act elitist, constantly point fingers at AmigaOS 4, and behave as if MorphOS always does everything first and better. That's simply not true. For example, the MUI 5 port that Thore Böckelmann worked on fixed a number of bugs that existed in the MorphOS version and, as far as I know, may still exist there. Yet nobody talks about that. Instead, people keep repeating that MorphOS MUI is superior and that the AmigaOS 4 version is some kind of "Frankenstein" implementation. In reality, both are based on the same Steffan Stuntz source code, and our version includes fixes for bugs that I discovered while testing both implementations.
The same thing happens with game ports. Sometimes when a game appears on both AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS, certain people immediately start claiming, "Look, MorphOS did it first and AmigaOS 4 stole it." In reality, it often goes both ways. Sometimes the AmigaOS 4 version appears first, sometimes the MorphOS version appears first. It's nowhere near as one-sided as some people try to portray it.
Why does this happen? I don't know. Maybe it's because some AmigaOS 4 developers have behaved badly over the years...”and yes, some certainly have. Maybe it's because when it came time for clear communication, some of the people involved completely messed things up. A good example is the whole AmigaOne X5000 firmware situation, where Trevor Dickinson and Matthew Leaman seemed unable to explain to the MorphOS developers for years who was working on what and what was actually happening. But a few individuals don't define an entire platform.
As for AmigaOS 4, I simply like it more because it was my natural step forward from AmigaOS 3.x. I liked the way it was presented, the documentation, the tutorials, and the overall design. I also liked the way things such as hooks and callbacks were implemented, without "too much 68k still" code.
You were
also somewhat active in the demoscene (with the magazine The Vague and a few intros). Are you still active?
What do you think of today's demoscene?After the diskmags, I didn't really do anything particularly noteworthy, apart from some ports of open-source demos and diskmags such as Hugi and Eurochart.
I've always dreamed of creating a really good demo, and honestly, I still do. The problem is that I'm simply not good enough as a coder to do everything myself, and I can't create high-quality music or graphics either. One thing I would like to do at some point is revisit the Panorama engine that I got from Chris Dragan and optimize it a bit. It was used in Hugi and Eurochart, and I think there is still room for improvement there, but that's a project for another day.
As for today's demoscene, I've always been more interested in the AGA and PowerPC scene. All in all, my first Amiga was an A1200, and by then the Amiga platform was already overdue for a proper update. I was never much of a fan of the ECS/OCS scene. Nowadays, however, it feels like the scene is heavily focused on ECS/OCS productions.
When I look at some of the demos and intros that win parties today, and then read the comments and praise they receive on YouTube or Pouêt, I often find myself thinking: "Well, that's not really my cup of tea." I've always preferred stuff like the later works of TBL. I was a huge fan of Michal "Kiero" Wozniak's MadWizards demo, the Cruel Karma Force productions, Planet Potion, Potion, and similar releases. For me, they was like "The Gates To The Mind Eyes" (animation computer movie from 199x).
Don't get me wrong: classic productions from groups like Melon Dezign, Spaceballs, and others are great, no doubt about it. I was just more drawn to the later AGA and PowerPC-era productions.
What is
your opinion on artificial intelligence in the field of software development? Do you use it for your Amiga projects?I think AI is the next great tool we have available today. Before it, there was raw machine code and HEX editing. Then assemblers appeared with their mnemonics, followed by compilers. Then C became widespread. Each step gave developers better tools and allowed them to be more productive. AI is simply the next tool in that evolution, and like any tool, it needs to be used correctly.
I'm not talking about "vibe coding," of course. Although even if someone does use vibe coding, if the end result is well-tested, small, fast, and relatively bug-free, then who really cares how it was created?
That said, AI can save a tremendous amount of time. For tasks that require quick analysis, research, or mathematical knowledge that I simply don't have, I use it regularly. It also helps not only with fixing endian-related issues, but with identifying places where code can be optimized. In that sense, it's an excellent tool...”but only if you understand what you're using it for and how to use it properly.
Even vibe coding can be useful, but you still need to be logical, organized, and capable of evaluating the results. Otherwise, you won't be able to build anything reliable from it. Though I do think there is a possibility that AI could eventually become too expensive for casual users, or that governments may impose restrictions on it to some extent. Some of the things it can already do are impressive enough to make people a little uneasy.
What are
your thoughts on the buyout of Commodore by Christian Simpson and the easing of tensions between Amiga Inc.
and Hyperion? Does this have a concrete impact on your daily life as a user/developer?To be honest, I haven't followed it at all. For me, nothing change.
What is
your opinion on Apollo/Vampire cards and the latest one to date, the A6000?I'm not really into it anymore, to be honest, as I'm not very involved with classic Amigas these days. It's not that they're bad or anything; I simply prefer to focus on what I enjoy more, which is AmigaOS 4.
For me, AmigaOS 3 and the hardware associated with it feel like a step backward (in compare with AmigaOS 4), even though the platform continues to progress and improve.
We see
you everywhere (on Amigans.net, OS4Depot, compiling, testing, and responding to bug reports). How many
hours a week do you dedicate to the Amiga?Do you see new developers arriving, or does the average age of the community worry you for the future?
Some weeks I spend almost all my free time on Amiga-related projects. Sometimes it can last for two, three, or even four months non-stop. Days, nights, whenever I have time. Of course, it's never truly full-time. There is work, family, household responsibilities, and all the usual real-life stuff. But sometimes my whole mind becomes focused on Amiga projects, and I simply can't stop. It's almost like a narcotic...”and I am probably in one of those periods right now.
Then eventually comes a bit of burnout. That can last for weeks, a month, or even longer. After that, a new wave of motivation arrives, and the cycle starts again.
Interestingly, new developers still keep appearing from time to time, which is surprising in itself.
As for the future, I don't worry about it too much. In another 20 or 30 years, many of us will probably no longer be around, or at least won't be as healthy and active as we are today. That's just the reality of life. So I prefer to enjoy it here and now, while I still can.
Have the
international sanctions imposed on Russia had an impact on your Amiga-related activities?I definitely lost one good Amiga friend after the war started. Maybe he wasn't really a friend after all, but I still feel sorry about how things turned out.
I also have strained relationships now with some Amiga users from the EU because of different opinions about the origins of the war, who is responsible, and what Russia should or should not do. With users who live outside Europe, I generally don't have such issues, but that's probably to be expected since they are not directly involved.
As for the sanctions themselves, they don't really make things impossible; they just make everything more difficult. For example, before all this, I could simply visit an Amiga-related website, buy something using PayPal, and have DHL deliver it within a week. Now I need a virtual credit card, a proxy or VPN, and often a third-party shipping address. As a result, instead of taking one week, it can take three weeks and cost twice as much because of all the extra steps involved.
Just yesterday I tried to buy Radon Break, a high-quality AmigaOS 4 game from EntwicklerX. I couldn't complete the purchase because the store only accepted PayPal...”which is no longer available to us... or a credit card. My payment was initially rejected because I was connected through a VPN in one country while my card was registered in another. I would have needed to switch everything around just to make the payment work.
In the end, I simply gave up. Instead, I'll probably contact the developers directly and ask whether I can send them some cryptocurrency as payment or perhaps as a donation.
Of course, all of these problems are solvable. Spending five dollars more isn't a big issue. The real problem is that every simple task now takes more time, more effort, and more patience. Sometimes I... and probably many other Russians as well...”simply give up and buy something else instead, often from China, because it's easier.
So things are still possible, just more time-consuming and frustrating.
Another issue is the Internet itself. Sadly, it feels increasingly fragmented. It's now common for some websites to block access from Russian IP addresses, forcing me to use a VPN. At the same time, other services are blocked by the Russian authorities, which again forces me to use a VPN.
Sooner or later, I expect the situation to become even more restrictive. The government is already capable of blocking protocols such as VLESS, SOCKS5, and others. They have not enabled those restrictions on a nationwide scale yet, but they are clearly moving in that direction. I suspect it's only a matter of time. Of course, I'll find ways around it. Most technically minded people will.
But I increasingly feel that the Internet is becoming fragmented across the world. The war has simply accelerated a process that was already underway. The EU and the US may end up with one Internet ecosystem, China already has its own, and Russia may eventually have another.
Ironically, no sanctions, no foreign government and no continued war have affected ordinary Russians as much as our own government has by restricting access to services such as YouTube and by spending enormous amounts of money trying to block VPNs. If you ask me, that has been one of the most shortsighted decisions made on our side. The long-term consequences may end up being far greater than many people currently realize.
Is there
a question I didn't ask that you would like to answer?Don't blindly believe propaganda, no matter which government or country it comes from. The purpose of propaganda is to convince you that only one opinion is correct and that there is no room for questioning or doubt.
Even if you feel that everything is crystal clear and that you are unquestionably on the "right side," it's worth stopping for a moment and asking yourself who benefits from you thinking that way, and why.
Try to think critically, question information from all sides, and make up your own mind. Don't let yourself become a puppet for people who want to use you as a piece in their larger political games.
A final
message for the Amiga community?Don't keep telling yourself that you didn't do something because of family, lack of time, or whatever other excuse comes to mind. Sometimes the real reason is simply that you were lazy.
Once you admit that to yourself, you can start thinking differently. Life is short, and alongside all the important things in life, it's worth making time for your hobbies and passions too. Do something. Create something. Learn something.
Don't just sit on the sofa like an old man who wishes he had done something but no longer can. Right now, you still can. So do it.
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