The Vampire is compatible with all AmigaOS versions intended for m68k Amigas, from 1.1 to 3.9. Of course, to get the most modern features and maximum compatibility with Vampire components, you should use the latest version, which is 3.9. If you do not have access to 3.9, you could try 3.5, 3.1.4 or 3.1 as well.

In classic Amigas, the bootstrap firmware (Kickstart) is stored in ROM. The Kickstart contains many core components of AmigaOS, such as the kernel, the windowing environment, basic DOS functionality and critical drivers. Its purpose is to initialize the hardware and boot from disk. Because the Kickstart is stored in ROM, its functionality is available immediately at power-on, without having to load anything from disk. If the user needs any AmigaOS components that are not included in the Kickstart, they need to be loaded from disk.

The Vampire follows the same approach. On Vampire boards, a flash memory location in the Core is reserved for a Kickstart ROM. In addition, at power-on, the Kickstart in the Core is copied into fast RAM. Thanks to the speed of this RAM, accessing Kickstart functions is much, much faster compared to a Kickstart that remains in ROM.

• In a Vampire Standalone, by default, the Core contains an AROS Kickstart ROM.
• In a Vampire 500 V2+ or a Vampire 600 V2, by default, the Core contains a licensed Kickstart 3.1 ROM (rev. 40.63).
• In a Vampire 1200, by default, the Core contains a licensed Kickstart 3.1 ROM (rev. 40.68).

If you want to use a different Kickstart, please see Installing Kickstarts.

• Special considerations for AmigaOS 3.1.4
• Special considerations for AmigaOS 1.3

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