Developer: Blittersoft/Weird Science
Year: 1998 |
In 1998 Blittersoft and Weird Science jointly announced a unique
solution to the drought of Amiga hardware - an Intel PC. The
Cerberus was a Pentium 2 300MHz PC bundled with Windows 98 that was
advertised in several Amiga magazines. To justify the promotion of
the Intel platform, Blittersoft included a copy of the 'Amiga
Forever' emulator. This allowed the Amiga emulation to access the
PC graphics card through the use of Picasso 96. Mac emulation was
also promoted as a feature through the use of Fusion. If the
machine had been successful, there were plans to distribute a
follow-up Cerberus bundle that offered Amiga compatibility through
the Siamese PCI card.
While many Amiga users objected to its promotion, indicating
that Blittersoft were falsely advertising a WIntel PC as an Amiga,
their views were an exaggeration. In an interview, Blittersoft
admitted that the Cerberus was not the perfect solution if the user
desired a fast Amiga. The emulation was only capable of emulating a
68020 processor and lacked a real Amiga floppy disk interface.
Instead it was aimed at Amiga owners who were considering
purchasing a PC, while supporting Amiga retailers. In a failing
market based upon vaporware, the Cerberus represented a method of
using products that Amiga users had been waiting for. Under the
rallying cry of "Digital Convergence Now!", it was seen as the only
way that Classic Amiga systems were ever going to take advantage of
the latest developments of DVD, SDRAM, and USB. Although they were
heavily criticized, Blittersoft's reasoning was not based upon a
hidden agenda to get everyone to use Windows but attempts to expand
the Amiga market in areas that would be costly for real Amigas.
"First of all, we feel it is impossible to take the view
that there is nothing out there other than the Amiga. At this
moment in time, the vast majority of leading edge games and
applications are simply not available for the Amiga. The same is
true for technologies such as DVD. Whilst the Amiga is striving to
catch up, we cannot ignore the fact that we can take advantage of
all these options and still support the Amiga."
View Cerberus Advert
(230K)
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A Workbench 3.0 screen running in 16.8 million colours under
emulation using the PC Mpact graphics card.
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A Windows 98 screen running DVD video and the latest games.
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All specifications are taken from the Blittersoft website.
Cerberus Mark 1
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Processor
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Intel Pentium II 300 MHz
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Graphics Card
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Mpact 2 graphics card running at 125MHz
RAMDAC 230 MHz, Onboard AGP
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System Memory
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64Mb SDRAM (More can be added for an additional sum)
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Graphics Memory
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8Mb 1.3 GB/sec Rambus DRAM
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Drives
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4.3 Gig UDMA EIDE Hard Drive
2x DVD / 20x CD-ROM
1.44Mb High Density Floppy
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2D Graphics
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Maximum 1280 x 1024 24bit colour
Maximum 1600 x 1200 16bit colour
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3D Graphics
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500 MFLOP set up engine supporting
1 Million triangles per second
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DVD Video
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Fully compliant MPEG-2 Video Playback
720 x 576 full screen resolution
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Video Out
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Composite / S-Video Output for DVD
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Digital Audio Out
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S/PDIF Digital Audio Output
Dolby Digital (AC-3) & PCM Sound
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Audio
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AudioStorm 3D positional audio
Mpact Forte Advanced Wavetable Synth.
64 Simultaneous Hardware Voices
8Mb 16-bit General Midi Samples
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Onboard PCI IDE
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2 x PCI Bus Master IDE Ports
Support UltraDMA/33:33MBSec
PIO Mode 3,4 : 17MB/Sec DMA Mode 2
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Onboard I/O
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1 x Floppy Port, 2 x Serial Ports
1 x Parallel Port (EPP/ECP), 2 x USB Ports
1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port, 1 x PS/2 Mouse Port
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Expansion Slots
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3 x PCI, 1 x PCI/ISA, 1 x ISA (Used)
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Modem
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Internal 56K Fax, Voice Modem
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Other Ports
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Analog Audio Stereo Output & Input
Microphone Stereo Input, Standard MIDI and Gameport
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Monitor
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14" Digital Monitor 0.28 Dot Pitch
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Input Devices
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Windows 98 Keyboard & Mouse
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Operating System
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Microsoft Windows 98 & Workbench
3.0
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Software
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Custom bundle according to individual choice.
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Price
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£999.99 (including VAT and next day delivery)
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Additionally it is also possible to order other items to be
included with the system such as a copy of Fusion PC, allowing
Macintosh 68k emulation for an additional price.
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Last Update: 28/7/2002
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