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Apollo Computer Press Release

Mirijam Wagner
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 18
19 Jul 2022 17:27


Warning Against Unlicensed Vampire V2 Series Accelerators
   
We regret to inform the community that our Apollo-Core licensing negotiations with Igor Majstorovic (former Apollo-Team member) were unsuccessful. Unfortunately, he chose to break off negotiations and published conversations out of context. Therefore, we want to clarify some important facts:
   
Background Info:
The Vampire2 (V2) cards from Igor Majstorovic are based on 10 years of CPU and chipset development by the Apollo- Team. The 68080 CPU core and the SAGA chipset are the legal intellectual property of Gunnar von Boehn/ Apollo Computer. Igor Majstorovic himself has no rights to the logic on the cards, he owns only the PCB design. During his tenure with Apollo-Team his membership Igor always was a licensee of the CPU/chipset.
   
After Igor Majstorovic left the Apollo-Team in Q2 2021 he violated the license agreement with Apollo-Team and sold a significant number of unlicensed cards.
All these cards are unlicensed! Each card has a unique ID number inside the core.  The Apollo Team developed 68080 Core can detect unlicensed cards.
   
What’s the Problem?
Resellers and end customers bought the cards in good faith believing that the core was officially licensed and legal. When asked by resellers, Igor Majstorovic also claimed the cards would be legally licensed. Customers/ Resellers who bought these cards have a huge problem, as the unlicensed cards cannot be updated to new core releases. Our upcoming Core (2.16), slated for release later this year, will not work on these cards.
   
What’s the Solution?
   
1. For customers who bought the V2 before Igor left the team:
  ==> Don’t worry your Card ID number is in the Database and you will be able to update in future.
   
2. For customers who bought the V2 in the last year:
==> Please get in touch with your Reseller to check if your card is licensed. If not, we will all together find a solution for this problem. We are in close contact with the resellers and want to help the customers and the resellers to get get along with this topic.

3. For customers wanting to buy a V2 in future:
==> Apollo- Team is working together with Resellers to develop an official Apollo-Core License Sticker. Customers can herby identify legal cards.
   
Apollo Computer and all our team members apologize for the inconvenience caused to resellers, customers, and friends by these events. Our goal is to find solutions for everybody.
If you have further questions do not hesitate to contact us.
   
With sincere greetings from the whole Apollo-Team!
Miri and Gunnar

   
P.S to V4 customers: No worries! Not only do you have the most advanced Apollo Core based accelerator card, the V4 Accelerator cards and V4 Standalones are licensed, fully legal and not affected by this problem. 
   


Darren Eveland

Posts 96
19 Jul 2022 18:15


An unfortunate situation.  I bought my V1200 in December 2020, so I guess I am ok, but those who bought later would be affected.  Hopefully there will be a resolution for those customers.

Nice to hear 2.16 is coming for V2.




Havard Spring

Posts 18
19 Jul 2022 21:12


So for those of us who bought a card directly from Igor last year - we have no recourse to getting the core licenced and will never be able to update our cards? 

Surely the Apollo team can help us out as plainly the situation between Igor and Apollo will mean that we can't get our cores licenced by going back to Igor?



Darren Eveland

Posts 96
19 Jul 2022 21:48


Havard Spring wrote:

  So for those of us who bought a card directly from Igor last year - we have no recourse to getting the core licenced and will never be able to update our cards? 
   
    Surely the Apollo team can help us out as plainly the situation between Igor and Apollo will mean that we can't get our cores licenced by going back to Igor?
   
 

 
  It looks to be a tricky situation.  It may depend on what was included in your purchase - like what did it say exactly? Did it say it comes with ApolloOS or  the 68080 core?  If you paid full price for that and the license portion was a part of that, you may be entitled to get either a) a license provided to you, or b) a refund for that portion of the price.  The problem is that without the Core the card is just a paper weight.  Did you purchase from Igor via eBay?
 
  I think your first step would be go back to whoever you bought the card from, in your case Igor.  One would hope the Apollo Team and Igor can work out a resolution on this, otherwise it's the customer that is the loser and that could sour future sales.  It reminds me of what happened to Amithlon... :(


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6197
19 Jul 2022 23:52


Havard Spring wrote:

So for those of us who bought a card directly from Igor last year

 
If you need help, or have any question always contact us.
As support email I would propose to use :: shop@apollo-computer.com  To contact us email is good or Discord also a good contact option.
If you are already a vampire /apollo user then you are probably on our Discord support channel already?
 
Contact us and we show you how to read out your card ID  and we can immediately tell you the status of your card.
 
As said there are several options for you to get this cleared.

For us the customer are most important.
Always come to us if you need help, or have questions.
Come and we will help you and we will find a way to solve this for  you.

Of course you can also always go  to your seller.

In case that you bought directly from Igor.
Asas he sold you with full price and if you got no licence, this then means you overpaid.
I think that you can ask for refund or to get a license.
Also there might be the option to open a paypal case and get money back.

In case you consider to upgrade to a V4, please contact the shop and discuss the options for this. You might get a good offer.




Havard Spring

Posts 18
20 Jul 2022 19:31


Darren Eveland wrote:

Havard Spring wrote:

    So for those of us who bought a card directly from Igor last year - we have no recourse to getting the core licenced and will never be able to update our cards? 
   
    Surely the Apollo team can help us out as plainly the situation between Igor and Apollo will mean that we can't get our cores licenced by going back to Igor?
   
   

   
    It looks to be a tricky situation.  It may depend on what was included in your purchase - like what did it say exactly? Did it say it comes with ApolloOS or  the 68080 core?  If you paid full price for that and the license portion was a part of that, you may be entitled to get either a) a license provided to you, or b) a refund for that portion of the price.  The problem is that without the Core the card is just a paper weight.  Did you purchase from Igor via eBay?
   
    I think your first step would be go back to whoever you bought the card from, in your case Igor.  One would hope the Apollo Team and Igor can work out a resolution on this, otherwise it's the customer that is the loser and that could sour future sales.  It reminds me of what happened to Amithlon... :(

You're confusing me - Apollo OS is not relevant.  Gunnar was talking about the core on the card I think?

I purchased from Igor directly when my name came up on the waiting list - nothing to do with Ebay.  As far as I was concerned, I was buying from the Apollo team as I had registered and just had to wait.



Havard Spring

Posts 18
20 Jul 2022 19:34


Gunnar von Boehn wrote:

Havard Spring wrote:

  So for those of us who bought a card directly from Igor last year
 

 
  If you need help, or have any question always contact us.
  As support email I would propose to use :: shop@apollo-computer.com  To contact us email is good or Discord also a good contact option.
  If you are already a vampire /apollo user then you are probably on our Discord support channel already?
 
  Contact us and we show you how to read out your card ID  and we can immediately tell you the status of your card.
 
  As said there are several options for you to get this cleared.
 
  For us the customer are most important.
  Always come to us if you need help, or have questions.
  Come and we will help you and we will find a way to solve this for  you.
 
 
  Of course you can also always go  to your seller.
 
  In case that you bought directly from Igor.
  Asas he sold you with full price and if you got no licence, this then means you overpaid.
  I think that you can ask for refund or to get a license.
  Also there might be the option to open a paypal case and get money back.
 
  In case you consider to upgrade to a V4, please contact the shop and discuss the options for this. You might get a good offer.
 
 

Thanks I will go on to Discord when I have a moment.  Out of interest, what is the price of a licence?

And if I were to buy a licence, what would this mean as my understanding from your previous posts is that V2 is not going to be supported going forward?

I am perfectly happy with my card as it is to be fair - still think it's a great device!



Richard Statham

Posts 49
21 Jul 2022 19:54


Oh my is there no platform in Amiga word that is not going through some legal ballshit at the moment why cant all the different sides just get along and build the ultimate AMiga instead of moaning about who owns what. All this does is slow down developement.


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6197
21 Jul 2022 22:55


That Igor left the team is sad.
 
But to prevent misunderstandings, Igor never had a development role in the Apollo-team. Igor role was layouting of the cards, and organization of production e.g. driving to solder-house and pick up soldered cards and doing a final test on them.
 
The development of the content of the cards is about what make the cards to accelerators is the content of the FPGA.
 
These are the 68080 CPU, the Super-AGA chipset, the is the Fast-IDE controller, the very fast memory controller.
Igor used what was developed by the Apollo-Team but he never participated any development of any of this.
 
 
 
 
Richard Statham wrote:

  All this does is slow down developement.
 

   
   
  Is development really slow?
   
 
  The Apollo-Team did bring out two new accelerators just a few month ago, and as you know the third accelerator is currently in development. When was the last time 3 new Amigas came out in 1 year?
   
 
  And as you know the Apollo-Team added 3D-Acceleration core to the Amiga chipset.
 
 
  You might have seen the new Amiga 3D games in development?
  And there is a number of new 2D games for 68080 and SAGA currently in development. Have you seen and tried their DEMO.exe that are posted on the discord channel?
 
   
  Does this really looks like slow development to you?
  I think the development is alive super vivid right now.
   


Mirijam Wagner
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 18
22 Jul 2022 08:38


Hey Richard, you spreak out of my soul!
I hate the fight going on here and it was never our intension to fight with anyone. The main goal should be and is to revive the wonderful AMIGA.
Gunnar and the Apollo Team did a huge huge step with developing the CPU and the Chipset (that was not Igors affort). And after the seperation it was ok for the Team to get a license fee, so that Igor can go on with producing and selling his stuff....there would be no problem if Igor would pay the license fee!
You will agree that going futher in developement needs not only smart brains like we have in Apollo-team, but also money.
And in my opinion it is beneath questions of money, simply not fair to sell cards and make big money, without paying Gunnar/ Team a fee of 100€. Maybe we have to make it more clear: Apollo-team existed before Igor joined and also CPU and Chipset did exist before Igor joined the Team...he brought the PCB for the V2 cards...nothing more!


Francesco Paoli

Posts 9
26 Jul 2022 11:19


So what hapen if someone has a card sold by Igor not on shops? It works?


Francesco Paoli

Posts 9
26 Jul 2022 11:19


How much cost a licence?


Roy Gillotti

Posts 517
26 Jul 2022 12:45


If you bought it before second Quarter 2021, it should be fine.


Mirijam Wagner
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 18
26 Jul 2022 14:37


Dear Francesco,
thanks fro your questions.
If you bought the card before April 2021 it should be fine, but please write me an Email to shop@apollo-computer.com and I will research if your card is licensed.

The license costs 100 Euro for resellers. If a customer wants to license his card this is surly possible aswell.
We currently produce license stickers, so that it is easier to see if a card is licensed or not.
If we have the stickers we will offer the license for download in the Apollo-Computer shop.

best regards Miri


Alexander Gent

Posts 75
28 Jul 2022 03:54


Dear Mirijam,
I purchased an Amiga 600 Vampire 2.2 in January 2022 from a 3rd party supplier in Sweden.
No luck in the supplier contacting me regarding the licensing of my card.

Is there a simple method to check the licensing status of my vampire card?

It's probably a task and a half, but could an online serial number check be implemented to validate licensing of vampire cards?

Companies like Seagate, Western Digital etc. have this online check for warranties and it would help in the processing of complaints?


Gunnar von Boehn
(Apollo Team Member)
Posts 6197
28 Jul 2022 06:21


Alexander Gent wrote:

No luck in the supplier contacting me regarding the licensing of my card.

Did you contact your reseller?

Alexander Gent wrote:

Is there a simple method to check the licensing status of my vampire card?

Yes please email Mirijam. Email to shop@apollo-computer.com


Alexander Gent

Posts 75
04 Aug 2022 01:08


Alexander Gent wrote:
No luck in the supplier contacting me regarding the licensing of my card.

 
Gunnar von Boehn wrote:
Did you contact your reseller?

 
Alexander Gent wrote:
Is there a simple method to check the licensing status of my vampire card?

 
Gunnar von Boehn wrote:
Yes please email Mirijam. Email to shop@apollo-computer.com

I have sent 3 emails to Mirijam at the email address you provided with no response.
My email software stated that your email server has received all 3 emails.
When should I expect a reply?

Thank you.

posts 17