@All It is clear that Haynie sees Amiga as solely being custom chip-sets (probably because that's what he did) while Carl Sassenrath might be more prone at considering the OS part too. The problem for Haynie is that he fails to understand that you don't do things the "complicated" way for the sake of it, you do it when that complicated way allows you to achieve things not possible earlier, assuming you do it in time! That was the spirit of what JMiner was creating in 1983, but it didn't end up being what Haynie did sadly. Both AGA and AAA were too little too late (with the latter being soo late it actually never saw the light of day). What next? He stated PA-Risc was never meant to be the CPU of the next generation Amiga (it was there as part of Hombre' graphics subsystem and not as a CPU) as things evolved it seems quite clear that PPC was the only option as a CPU and that the Hombre Sub-System could have been used as a Graphic card (on a modular system, NO fixed chipsets anymore) using his "Acutiator" system architecture, but it is also clear that at the speed things were moving, that GFX slot (in a potential NG Amiga) would have been soon fitted with a competitor's graphics solution as there was at least 1 new GFX card coming out in those days, every 3 months! (ie:the evolution speed of those things was impossible to cope with, the world had changed forever).
That IF they finished "something" in time, however nor AAA nor Hombre were ever close to completion (the latter in particular was almost at vaporware early stage) when competitor's solutions were already coming out steadily, so, in the end, Haynie's doings would have been ditched for something made at ATI or Nvidia (too far ahead very soon), all on a modular system featuring a PPC CPU...(sounds familiar?). Indeed for Demo sceners that loved to program the way they used to on classic Amigas Natami is the way to go (I hope it will offer something for me too, read second part) but for those that were using Amiga as their personal computer (not gaming console-not demo scene) that bought expansion cards and were using it "sans chip-set" for years, the solution is to be found elsewhere.
This second crowd wants to replace their home PC with an Amiga system that while not bowing to Wintel doesn't force you to renounce to anything (more or less). We are still far from it of course but that's the goal.
As for Natami: I love Natami!
The only hurdle I see in for it, is that it will have to prove itself as being something "more" than an Amiga compatible HW, specially if it will cost 800 eur as I've heard. For something more I mean the actual availability of software and games that truly take advantage of its "new stuff", simply being able to run legacy software won't be enough as that side of the road is very crowded with cheaper solutions. Without mentioning eventual MiniMigAGA or ArcadeFGAs, it is sufficient to mention THIS coupled with THIS and for only ¤248 I'm all set for retro-compatibility (and I could use my original floppies too, something I heard in a Natami's forum thread, could be problematic to implement, so much so that some suggested to ditch support).
Of course if the natami guys (and demo scene programmers) do contact artist at Pixeljoint and start creating awesome games featuring pixel art, that would not only give classic lovers more of what they love (done with new advanced modes and effects of course) but also make a dent in the global 2D gaming dimension. which between retro-gamers and modern 2D gamers, it VERY vast (bigger than Amiga communiy even if you join all flavors, Classic+NG, together).
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