AVD Pre-Release

While stompering around on Jamie's website I discovered this one:

http://bitbybitsoftwaregroup.com/fdsp/newpaymentplans.php

Never heard of a "Pre-Release" scheme for AVD. Did anyone really spent 200 bucks here? And what did someone get for that? A working development environment or a coupon?
While his presentation of AVD at AmiWest looked rather nice and the screenshots show potential I suppose development has ceased since 2006...on the other hand he claims to be a X1000 betatester which would be a perfect playground for his toolings...sigh. Reminds me of the PageStream 5 debacle.

He went off with AmigaInc for years. He's just recently back into OS4.

Yes, I'm one of the suckers...I guess. I signed up for the monthly pledge deal and gave I think probably around $100 or more towards the cause...the programs he was developing were excellent....but alas, he was bushwacked by Amiga Inc and vanished from the world of reality for several years.
I hope he comes back and finishes his work and I get what I paid for eventually!

Scott

@ScottCabit
I'm not sure you can blame all (or even any?) of his problems on AmigaInc. AFAIR his failure to deliver was (by his own admission) due to him simply not getting enough people willing to subscribe/donate. Plus I think development took longer than he expected (but I could be wrong on that).

IIRC, the only affect AmigaInc employment had on him was that he avoided working on AVD (while employed) so as to avoid any possibility of a legal claim on AVD. I don't think he has ever bad-mouthed Amiga Inc (although you do have to wonder if they paid him what they promised - enough people certainly advised him against taking a job at Amiga Inc).

@cha05e90
Contrary to many of the Amiga "scams" (*) that have occured over the years (and in some cases still continue, e.g. PageStream 5), he was at least honest enough to tell us as soon as he realised things weren't working out, rather than stringing people along with promises for years. I think he even offered to refund people, if they really wanted, although he has always said he hopes to try finish it in his spare time (although I have seen no concrete evidence that is happening).

(* = please note that I think very few of them started with the intention of scamming people, so calling them "scams" might be a bit harsh)

@ChrisH

This is why I said "debacle" (and not "scam") because I never ever assumed they did things on purpose. Regarding PageStream I can at least say I got a full working copy of PageStream 4 Pro and a more or less stable native 5.0.3.3 beta, which is actually usefull to some extent. Some report that specific later versions are working as well (but I haven't tried them).

I was only astonished about that pre-pay scheme - and I am/was really curious whether someone really got his hands on a - at least partly - working release of AVD. I use his SDKBrowser often and really like it. We have CodeBench already - nevertheless it would have been nice to see another feature rich IDE beneath Cubic and CodeBench.

@ChrisH

Yes, that's why I say he was bushwacked by Amiga Inc. You are correct, he did acknowledge that the workload was greater than he expected and was up front about it with everyone when he realized AVD would take a lot longer than expected. But once Amiga Inc lured him away, he was unable to work on AVD at all anymore. I was very sad about that.
I did get a sketchy sort of semi working version of the AVD suite. I'll see if I can find it on my AmigaOne, or if I ended up just deleting it. I was really looking forward to this program...but Codebench seems to do the job well enough!

Scott