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Archive 09/2002


10.Sep.2002
Jochen Abitz (ANF)


Event: Amiga-Events with Apple iCal
For all Amiga devotees working also on a Mac with MacOS X and iCal (now available) I offer the subscribable iCal calendar. Only follow the title link to "subscribe" and iCal gets all Amiga events. (ps) (Translation: gf)

[News message: 10. Sep. 2002, 23:25] [Comments: 0]
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10.Sep.2002
Patric Klöter (ANF)


Amiga - Mein Leben - Ask Petro...
Patric Klöter wrote:
For the memoirs of Petro Tyschtschenko is a chapter planned where Amiga fans can ask Petro questions and he will answer them.

I do not think, that there is anybody who does not know who Petro is. But for the ones who never heared of him here a short history of his Amiga curriculum vitae:

"Petro was working since October 1982 at the Commodore Büromaschinen GmbH and has seen the birth of the Amiga in 1985. After the bankruptcy of Commodore 1994 he was chief of Amiga Technologies, a branch of ESCOM, which bought all rights of Commodore and the Amiga in April 1995. As ESCOM also got into bankruptcy 1996 Petro tried everything from the survival of the Amiga and became chief of Amiga International, Inc. after Gateway 2000 bought the rights in 1997. He put himself in to the further development of the AmigaOS, then released in version 3.5. In April 2001 he retired officially from AMIGA Inc.. He has not left for all instances and is taking a boo on Amiga events to talk with Amiga fans who were customers and are now friends."

Now I call the Community to ask Petro interesting questions dealing with his life and the Amiga. Sure there are people who want to know some special things about Petro. Now here is the opportunity for that.

I will create a catalogue of questions for Petro he will answer and it will be a special chapter in the book. This will be unique in an autobiography.

I will administrate these questions I want to make sure you note this: Please send the question to me NOT personally to Petro. The address is mail@commodore-amiga.de.

I will forward the questions to Petro. Please for now only one question per person. I do not know how many question are taken up into the book, so maybe not all question are answered.

Petro has been informed about this event and so this is not a joke.

I thank you in advance for your interest and wait for your questions. (ps) (Translation: gf)

[News message: 10. Sep. 2002, 23:20] [Comments: 0]
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10.Sep.2002
Gerd Frank (E-Mail)


AmiATLAS 6 Update Info
Gerd Frank writes:
It really lasts a very long time, but now there are some updates to AmiATLAS 6 available. Sorry for the really long delay, but we had some strange personal and technical problems over the last months...

A few users already got several of the older update archives some months ago, others obviously nothing. So now within several eMails (spreaded over some days to avoid overfilled eMail accounts) you will receive all the available updates again. But remember, only for registered users and some selected beta testers with an NDA release!

The distribution will be done in several packed archives in LHA format. There are normally no installation scripts included, it is enough to unpack the archives and copy the directories directly into your installation of AmiATLAS 6. If you are not sure with such procedures, just send an eMail!

You should receive the following updates:

- AmigaAUTO v1.06
- AmigaKONTO v1.06
- AmiATLAS v6.38 (ony an internal but stable release!!!)

- map denmark v6.50
- map benelux v6.50
- map germany_special v6.50

All these maps were done by Manfred Rohde in many many sacrifying hours of absolutely hard work. Kind regards to him and thank you very much!!!

Possible a new enhanced map for Italy, done by Fabio Miscia, will follow in the near future too! But again please be patient...

To the programs I can only say these are mainly bug fixed localized versions, the main changes and enhancements are done inside and by now are mostly not visible to the user. This will follow with the updates in the future. So please don't be disappointed or even expect miracles.

In future releases the following maps won't be supported or enhanced anymore, because it needs too much time to do all the work on nearly the same maps for one country. It's even possible some maps will only be renamed so don't panic!

  • austria (these three will be joined to one "austria")
  • austria_plus (map with highest capacity, choosable with)
  • austria_special (the travelguide and a map of europe)
  • belgium (included in the new BeNeLux)
  • D_CH_A (old stuff...)
  • germany (now only "germany_special" is supported,)
  • germany_global (same conditions as austria and switzerland)
  • germany_small (dito)
  • netherlands (included in the new BeNeLux)
  • switzerland (these three will be joined to one "switzerland")
  • switzerland_special (map with highest capacity, choosable with)
  • switzerland_standard (the travelguide and a map of europe)


What we will do with the maps in "germany_prof" was still not decided finally.

Within the travel guides and hotel guides are very extensive changes in progress, but because of the amount of data of course it needs some more time. In the future you can use a database as known from similar products on other systems. Btw AmigaGuide files wont be used so extensive in the future as it is currently done, but you will get powerful possibilities e.g. for searching. By request you can get the actual beta release and have some fun...

The tools AmiAVON and AmigaPLZ should follow soon (I hope so!). The problem is I have to recode these tools now already four times because of technical problems with the old hardware.

And don't forget:

Anybody who had already done own enhancements on towns, streets or other things, surely knows about the long time to wait for new updates. In most cases this is really underestimated.

Last not least a request to all users:

The whole project AmiATLAS lives from the contributions of its users. A short eMail with new ideas or bug reports would be really great and of course very useful for future releases of this product! Thank you!!!

I would note this because from hundreds of users there are only about ten enthusiastic guys with ideas and bug reports from time to time, what I think is very a pity.

Best regards,
Gerd Frank
AmiATLAS Development Team (ps)

[News message: 10. Sep. 2002, 19:46] [Comments: 0]
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10.Sep.2002
Mariusz Wloczysiak (E-Mail)


Elbox releases MM CD UP 1.15
The MM CD 1.15 update for the users of Mediator PCI 3/4000T, Mediator PCI 4000D, Mediator PCI 4000, Mediator PCI 3000D, Mediator PCI 1200 SX, Mediator PCI 1200 and Mediator PCI ZIV busbords, who are registered owners of the Mediator Multimedia CD has been released today.

The update includes new versions of the following drivers:
  • FastEthernet.device
  • sb128.audio
  • tv.library
  • Voodoo.card
The changes were made as follows:

FastEthernet.device ver.1.5
- driver completely rebuilt,
- optimisation for MiamiDX

sb128.audio ver.4.6
- AHIsub_Update() procedure changed

tv.library ver.1.11
- I2C support for developers added

Voodoo.card ver.4.15
- clipping procedure improved

The current developer documentations for tv.library and mixer.library are enclosed in the MM CD 1.15.

Current versions info is available in DOWNLOADS | Mediator section. (ps)

[News message: 10. Sep. 2002, 12:17] [Comments: 0]
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10.Sep.2002
Mariusz Wloczysiak (E-Mail)


Elbox releases MediatorUP 3.1
The MediatorUP 3.1 update for Mediator PCI 3/4000T, Mediator PCI 4000D, Mediator PCI 4000, Mediator PCI 3000D, Mediator PCI 1200, Mediator PCI ZIV and for the newest Mediator model--Mediator PCI 1200 SX has been made available today.

The update includes new versions of the following drivers:
  • pci.library
  • MediatorNET.device
  • Voodoo.card
The changes were made as follows:

pci.library ver.5.4
- changed support for multifunction PCI cards
- added emulation mode

MediatorNET.device ver.2.5
- driver completely rebuilt,
- optimisation for MiamiDX

Voodoo.card ver.2.15
- improved clipping procedure

Current versions info is available in DOWNLOADS | Mediator section. (ps)

[News message: 10. Sep. 2002, 12:17] [Comments: 0]
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10.Sep.2002
IOSPIRIT (ANF)


VHI Studio 5.7 and IOUSB DigiCam Package available
We're proud to announce you the availability of a new and expanded version of VHI Studio today.

New features/improvements in VHI Studio 5.7:
  • USB-support (digital cameras, webcams)
  • new, integrated FTP-client for the webcam-functionality
  • completly newly written .mov-animationexport
  • automatic framerate-recognition
  • an ARexx-port has been added
  • heavily advanced webcam- and timelapse-functionality
  • example-webcamfiles with elegant design in the archive
  • extended PPC-support (e.g. JPEG-decoding)
  • now uses fxWARP 9 technology
  • native CPU-modules for PPC (PowerUP, WarpUP, MorphOS) and x86 (Amithlon)


Along with the availability of the new version we also have relaunched our VHI Studio-pages.

VHI Studio is the award-winning software for video boards, digicams, webcams and other video sources on the AMIGA with the broadest hardware-support. Functionality includes recording and cutting of video clips, download of images from digital cameras, still-picture-grabbing and their optimization, watching TV on the Workbench, a full-blown webcam-software (besides, this feature also works with video boards, digicams, etc!) and the easy creation of timelapse-animations. (ps)

[News message: 10. Sep. 2002, 11:59] [Comments: 1 - 10. Sep. 2002, 18:30]
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10.Sep.2002
Matthias M. (ANF)


Meeting: Amiga Inside Part II

Matthias M. reports: Amiga Inside - Part II is finished and we would like to thank all the visitors and our sponsors. It was once again a very successful party, even if the number of Amigas has declined. On all three days we tinkered, screwed, socketed and explained.

The use of projectors was a complete success. Many films were shown and so the nights passed without much sleep. Steffen Häuser of Hyperion came and showed us the current version of Quake 2, and it made a very good impression in terms of playability and stability, and the networking functions were able to be extensively tested. The weather also cooperated and we were able to have a barbecue on Sunday evening.

A few pictures have been uploaded to the homepage, and more will follow. I hope we all get to do it again next year! -greetings, Matthias

(ps) (Translation: dm)

[News message: 10. Sep. 2002, 11:56] [Comments: 0]
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10.Sep.2002
Korodny (ANF)


Interview with Thomas Frieden: OS4 questions and answers
Korodny writes: A few weeks ago, the amiga-news.de community collected a bunch of questions related to OS4 and forwarded them to Thomas Frieden, in the hope that he may answer some of them.

Guess what? Not only did he answer all of them, he even answered them in English, for you poor souls outside of Germany ;-). The interview in German.

1. ExecSG, 68k-Emulator, WarpUP

Amiga-News: Please describe the Memory-Protection implementation and how this works with pre-OS4 software?

Thomas Frieden: Free memory will always be protected against reading or writing. Some critical memory areas, like the base page (address 0) will also be protected, to allow software to find NULL pointer bugs (which is an extremely common form of bugs).

Old software (68k programs that are emulated, and old PPC software) will run in a different MMU setup. This will not protect anything else but the stuff mentioned above, so even if the program behaves badly, it will be allowed to do so.

New software, OTOH, will have to be written in such a way that memory protection will work. Initially, the protection will be minimal (see above), but with later revisions, we're moving to completely isolated address spaces.

Exec SG already provides for this possibility.

Amiga-News: How is Virtual Memory implemented? What has been changed in the implementation compared to your original plans?

Thomas Frieden: The original concept was similar to VMM, i.e. a partition mapped into memory, leaving the original memory system untouched. However, the new plan is to include a virtual addressing scheme at the core. This will allow lots of additional features such a different memory allocation schemes, automatic stack elargement etc.

Amiga-News: I don't like Virtual Memory, can I disable it?

Thomas Frieden: You can turn of swapping of memory to disk, yes. However, there's actually no need to do that. It seems a lot of people are judging virtual memory by it's implementation in Windows. Windows uses it's swapping feature even though there's physical memory available.

OS4 will not do that. Even if you have swapping turned on, you will not notice it if enough memory is available. However, when you would normally get a requester telling you that you ran out of memory, the pager will kick in and free some memory. That's all. As long as you do not use enormous amounts of memory, the pager will not become active, and no swapping will occur.

Amiga-News: Are there up-to-date Benchmarks from Petunia (68k emulator)?

Thomas Frieden: You will have to check that out on the authors website...

Amiga-News: Is Petunia completed now (all CPU commands, FPU, MMU emulation)?

Thomas Frieden: FPU emulation is being finalised right now. MMU emulation is not planned and is really of quite limited interest.

Amiga-News: Is Petunia already integrated with Exec SG?

Thomas Frieden: No, not yet. The integration of emulation into OS4 is one of the reason why we are going for a virtual addressing scheme.

The emulation integration concept is already designed by an expert in the field and is about to be implemented.

Amiga-News: When will there be a new scheduler (as already announced)?

Thomas Frieden: Hmm, I don't think this was announced.

ExecSG uses the same scheduling scheme as the old Exec, that's a prioritized round-robin scheme. It's one of the most efficient schedulers, and most of all, it allows near-realtime behavior. This near-realtime behavior is a critical point in the whole Amiga design: it ensures the responsiveness that we all like about the Amiga. Other schedulers have been available for the Amiga in the past, but while for example 'nice' type scheduling is suited for applications, it isn't suited for drivers.

What we *will* add in future version is real threading: Right now, the only possibility for threads is to use multiple tasks, but this limits the usability (especially since an application consisting of 30 tasks will receive a lot more time compared to an application consisting of just one task).

Amiga-News: When will the GCC cross compiler be available for 68k Amigas (as a Linux cross compiler already exists)?

Thomas Frieden: We're currently working on that, with low priority, though. The compiler is also not available publically, because we want to be able to change certain aspects of the ABI on short notice yet.

Amiga-News: Will there be "Gurus" again?

Thomas Frieden: Probably.

Amiga-News: How much faster will existing PPC applications be under OS4?

Thomas Frieden: We don't have numbers yet but the PPC is already a lot faster when the 68k CPU is turned off. Context-switches will also be substantially faster.

Considering the fact that key components of the OS will be PPC native, we can expect a nice performance gain.

Amiga-News: Will games like WipeOut 2097 or Heretic II run under OS4?

Thomas Frieden: We want to have full WarpUp compatibility, so theoretically, they should work. It has to be tested, though.

Hyperion will remaster all of its titles for OS 4 for superior performance.

Amiga-News: In theory, it should be possible to catch direct access to custom chips registers and emulate the custom chips using UAE code, right?

Thomas Frieden: In theory, yes. However, it's doubtful that this is actually something that would be beneficial. UAE will do a good job emulating old stuff, and with UAE, you'll have full control over the environment, i.e. the CPU used. As most programs that directly access the chipset are unlikely to work reliably in an environment so completely different from old Amigas, I'd say that UAE is by far the better solution.

Amiga-News: Will there be something like "PuhDerBaer" für OS4?

Thomas Frieden: Uh, WTF is PuhDerBaer?

2. Boot process, File systems, AmigaOne BIOS

Amiga-News: Will the annoying "Disk not validated"-Problem be cured with the new implementation of FFS?

Thomas Frieden: No.

Amiga-News: Can I press both mouse buttons to enter the early startup menu?

Thomas Frieden: Yes.

Amiga-News: What will be in the early startup menu?

Thomas Frieden: It will remain the same for now, maybe some additional options (for selecting the kernel configuration...)

Amiga-News: Early startup menu is in no way related to the motherboard BIOS, correct?

Thomas Frieden: Yes.

Amiga-News: What about filesystems? Can I connect my Classic Amiga HD to the A1 and access the contents? Will we still have an RDB or will we get that "trendy" MBR?

Thomas Frieden: The disk format will not change. Definitely no MBR.

Amiga-News: Will it be possible to boot from external sources?

Thomas Frieden: This might be possible, but is not planned right now.

Amiga-News: What will be the boot time?

Thomas Frieden: Similar to what it is now, hopefully faster.

Amiga-News: What will be the floppy disk format? Will the AmigaOne be able to read my 880k Amiga disks?

Thomas Frieden: No, that's a limitation of the floppy controller used in the A1. The Amiga has much more control over it's floppy, which is not available in non-custom controllers.

Amiga-News: Will OS4 automatically recognise if a floppy disk gets inserted?

Thomas Frieden: As this is not yet implemented, I can't really say. However, floppy support is becoming more and more unimportant right now, so I don't think too much energy will be wasted on such a dead medium.

Amiga-News: How will a Classic Amiga boot OS4? A classic Amiga can't boot from a PPC filesystem, how will that problem be solved?

Thomas Frieden: As there's still a 68k on the classic (which can't be removed due to some signals that are still generated in the 68k), the first boot wil always be done using the 68k. There's no reason why the file system structure can't be used from 68k and PPC alike...

3. Supported Hardware, USB, Firewire

Amiga-News: What hardware will definately be supported by OS4 (Gfx,Sound,NICs,USB,etc. ...)?

Thomas Frieden: All of the above.

Amiga-News: What USB drivers will be available?

Thomas Frieden: Currently, the most important things to cover are keyboards, mice, and HUBs. Other drivers will follow later. Third parties like IoSpirit already have access to our USB stack and will provide for support for devices such as scanners.

Amiga-News: What will the USB stack look like? Will it have a GUI?

Thomas Frieden: With a limited GUI.

Amiga-News: Will OS4's USB stack be compatible with "Poseidon"?

Thomas Frieden: Doubtful.

Amiga-News: What about drivers for printers, scanner, CD-ROM etc.?

Thomas Frieden: This will remain in the hands of third parties for now with the exception of the CD-ROM drivers.

Amiga-News: Are you working on a driver for PCI-Firewire?

Thomas Frieden: No. Firewire is low priority. It's scope is rather limited, therefore it's not considered an essential feature. Support will probably follow later, but it's our firm believe that right now, other stuff is far more important (USB, IDE, SCSI).

Amiga-News: Do you have access to documentation for the 'All In Wonder' Radeon 7500 and 8500 too?

Thomas Frieden: The chips on these cards are practically the same as on the other variants.

Amiga-News: If yes will there be drivers supporting the additional functionality of these cards?

Thomas Frieden: No, at least not initially.

Amiga-News: Would there be AHI support for the audio functionality of these cards?

Thomas Frieden: See above.

Amiga-News: Will 3D drivers for ATi Radeon 7500 be shipped with OS4.0?

Thomas Frieden: Not initially. The idea is to release OS 4 for the Cyberstorm PPC first where there is no need for such a driver (These boards are AGP only, AFAIK).

Amiga-News: Will 3D drivers for ATi Radeon 8500 ship with OS4.0?

Thomas Frieden: This will need to wait for the new version of Warp3D.

Amiga-News: Does OS4 run on the Pegasos?

Thomas Frieden: We don't have a Pegasos. Theoretically it would be very easy to get OS 4 to run on the Pegasos considering the very limited technical differences between the AmigaOne and the Pegasos.

Amiga-News: What about hardware companies supporting OS4 (wrt scanners, printers)?

Thomas Frieden: None confirmed yet. However, we've been approached by hardware manufactureres about support for OS4. I can't tell any details yet, though.

Amiga-News: Will the BlizzardPPC be supported?

Thomas Frieden: Most likely.

Amiga-News: Will the BlizzardVision / CyberVisionPPC be supported?

Thomas Frieden: Yes.

4. Other OS4 modules

Amiga-News: What's the finalised feature list for OS4?

Thomas Frieden: See Amiga's web page.

Amiga-News: What new features will Intuition have?

Thomas Frieden: I'm sorry, but that question is too complex to answer within the scope of this questionnaire.

Amiga-News: How much of the new features is finished already?

Thomas Frieden: The new intuition is about 95 % finished, last I heard...

Amiga-News: What's IBrowse's status?

Thomas Frieden: Ibrowse 2.3 has been in beta-testing for a while now.

Amiga-News: What's the status of MUI 4.0?

Thomas Frieden: We have built a complete version of MUI using the latest source-code.

Amiga-News: Will there be a new Ed?

Thomas Frieden: No, no new Ed. There are people that use vi, and there are people that use emacs. I use GoldEd. Most people have their favorite editor already. The system's editor is meant for small changes, like changing startup-sequence... most user will still want to go on using their existing editor, though...

Amiga-News: How much is DOpus Magellan integrated? Will it be just an external Tool?

Thomas Frieden: That has not yet been decided.

Amiga-News: What new shell commands will be available?

Thomas Frieden: There will be a new shell, yes. This isn't really the place to start listing individual shell commands.

Amiga-News: What's ARexx's future?

Thomas Frieden: Arexx will be preserved but we are looking at alternatives as a replacement down the line.

Amiga-News: Will there be multi-user support? Password protection?

Thomas Frieden: No, at least not in the initial version.

Amiga-News: Will Screen-Dragging be possible (again)?

Thomas Frieden: Such a feature is technically "challenging" on anything but the classic hardware. If you run OS4 on a Amiga native mode, it will be possible. But different resolutions at the same time on a standard graphics chip are impossible.

Amiga-News: Will OS4 stay video compatible? Will it still be possible to display the Workbench on a TV (as long as the gfx card has TV-out)?

Thomas Frieden: If the driver supports it, yes. After all, this is just a matter of the driver.

Amiga-News: How secure is the TCP stack? What about Firewall software?

Thomas Frieden: I think a firewall is integrated. There's also the possibility for IP forwarding, which requires some firewall functionality...

Amiga-News: Will openening a Workbench window (and rendering the icons) still block the rest of the system?

Thomas Frieden: Sorry, don't know. AFAIK, this wasn't even the case on the latest Workbench. but I could be mistaken...

5. Misc. Stuff

Amiga-News: Could you explain the various delays? What difficulties did you encounter? What unexpected problems had to be solved?

Thomas Frieden: It would take us too far to discuss all the reasons for the delays here. The main reason is that we decided to fold most if not all of the functionality originally planned for OS 4.2 into OS 4.0. Plus there's the fact that we needed to develop the AmigaOne Bios after the original development company (completely unrelated to the Amiga market) failed to come up with the goods.

Amiga-News: What will we have to pay fo OS4? Will OS3.5/3.9 owners get a discount?

Thomas Frieden: Pricing has yet to be decided. No price-cuts are planned for OS 3.5 and 3.9 buyers. OS 4.0 is the most comprehensive OS update since 2.x to 3.0 and the targetmarket is quite small. This leaves little room for discounts.

Amiga-News: How can I become beta tester?

Thomas Frieden: Beta-testing will initially be carried out by selected and trusted individuals who are known to the 30+ OS 4 developers.

Amiga-News: Will there be real manuals as PDF,HTML and AmigaGuide documents?

Thomas Frieden: Time permitting.

Amiga-News: Who will handle customer support (bug repots, requests)?

Thomas Frieden: This has yet to be finalised. Let's start with actually releasing OS 4.

Amiga-News: What are the long term plans (AmigaOS5)? Will AmigaOS become CPU independant or run on multiple CPUs (IA32, IA64, MIPS, SPARC...)?

Thomas Frieden: Sorry, you'll have to ask Amiga about this. Hyperion is currently only interested in moving OS 4 forward and ensuring its survival on a new and modern hardware platform. Basically, the system has been "cleaned" a bit of CPU dependencies.

However, I don't really see a good chance to run on little endian CPUs... this doesn't only affect the system, but all user code as well, and I would definitely think that a lot of code will fail. Apart from that, chances to run on IA64 are much smaller than anything else (32 bit systems do no port well to 64 bit systems, at least not when you want to use the extra 32 bits...)

Overall, all code working on a system wich also includes little endian CPUs will have to take care about the endian. This is not a problem in itself, but I'm willing to predict that a lot of people will not care about this. They will code for one specific CPU, and this will lead to a real mess.

Amiga-News: What are the chances to get JAVA for AmigaOS?

Thomas Frieden: Better than before when AmigaDE can run hosted on OS 4.x.

Amiga-News: When will Quake2 be available for AmigaOS?

Thomas Frieden: Hopefully soon.

Amiga-News: Will there be Easter Eggs?

Thomas Frieden: If I'd tell you, I'd spoil the fun ;) (ps)

[News message: 10. Sep. 2002, 11:50] [Comments: 14 - 17. Sep. 2002, 11:44]
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10.Sep.2002
Markus Heinemann (ANF)


New website about the Amiga by 'Redhorse'
Dear Amigans!
I want to present my new website: http://www.amigatoday.de.tf. The site is extended regurlarly and new ideas are welcome, send an email to me. (ps) (Translation: gf)

[News message: 10. Sep. 2002, 11:14] [Comments: 1 - 12. Sep. 2002, 17:57]
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10.Sep.2002
(ANF)


Music: New Up Rough Release Out
Super Sharp Shuriken EP feat. Samuel aka Substance & Nasley is out! (This is a music disk!). Four jazzy d'n'b tracks. This one also includes a brand new and STUNNING paperdoll by Royal. Get your copy today here. (ps) (Translation: gf)

[News message: 10. Sep. 2002, 11:10] [Comments: 0]
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09.Sep.2002
Amigan Software


Game: Worm Wars version 7.2
Version 7.2 of Worm Wars has been released. The game requires OS2.04+ and PAL/DblPAL as well as an MC68020+.

Download: WormWars.lha (625 KB) (ps)

[News message: 09. Sep. 2002, 16:26] [Comments: 2 - 10. Sep. 2002, 18:25]
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09.Sep.2002
Elwood on ANN


AmigaOS4 Status Update
As shown at the French Amiga show this week-end, here is the status update of the AmigaOS4 project.

  • Exec will be finished this week.
  • Ramlib is done.
  • DOS is done.
  • Intuition is 95% done. The new sys-i class still needs to be added. Work scheduled for completion end of the month. The prefs program is done at 80%.
  • Graphics is done.
  • Layers is done.
  • Utility is done.
  • Iffparse is done.
  • cia.ressource, audio.device and timer.device done at 99%.
  • keyboard.device done at 99% (a few lines of ASM code left)
  • input.device done.
  • keymap.library done.
  • lowlevel.library done.
  • utility.library done.
  • clip handler
    This is the very first release of the cliphandler, i.e. the CONCLIP: device, that provides clipboard support on the level of the dos stream I/O. It also provides a simple library for applications that cannot call the dos.library directly.
  • Queue handler done.
  • Shell, features added, bugs fixed.
  • CDFS is done.
  • FFS2 is done. Plugin feature added allowing (plugins can be added to some partitions for encryption, caching, mirroring....) i.e. you can write a plugin that allows you to encrypt automatically all files copied into a partition.
  • AmiDock is done. One of the so many features are the Dockies. These are plugins that allow the user to add active content into the dock like a running clock or a lens that displays the area under the mouse pointer, or ... whatever you want ! Who will write a demo in a Docky ? :-)
  • GhostScript is added. It allows to create/display PostScript or PDF. Also a port of xPDF will be added.
  • USB stack (with Subway/Highway/Thyclacine support)
  • Soundblaster Live drivers!
  • MUI
  • IBrowse 2.3
  • PPC native datatypes
  • Reaction (95% finished)
  • MediaToolbox
  • PartitionWizard
  • ft2.manager, diskfont.library. You'll now be able to open all sort of font formats...
Items still outstanding for OS 4:
  • SCSI driver
  • Remaining Intuition/Reaction work (5%)
  • Roadshow GUI completion
  • 2D driver completion (5% remaining)
  • 68K emulation integration
  • AmigaInput (nearly done)
Best regards,
Ben Hermans
Managing partner Hyperion Entertainment (ps)

[News message: 09. Sep. 2002, 16:16] [Comments: 2 - 23. Sep. 2002, 00:02]
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09.Sep.2002
amos factory


Programming language: Mattathias becomes Open Source
Mattathias BASIC, a programming language written in ANSI C, has become Open Source under "GNU General Public License (GPL)". After six weeks of planning and checking, there is already a first pre-alpha version. The official project pages and further information can be found at Sourceforge. (ps) (Translation: cb)

[News message: 09. Sep. 2002, 15:52] [Comments: 0]
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09.Sep.2002
WHDLoad


Installer: WHDLoad - New packets (until 11.09.2002) (Update)
With WHDLoad you can install games you only can play on disks on your hard disk. The following games are added or updated:

  • 11.09.02 new: Static Chaos (Silents) done by Psygore
  • 11.09.02 new: Garfield: Big, Fat, Hairy Deal (The Edge) done by Codetapper
  • 09.09.02 new: Pro PowerBoat Simulator (Codemasters) done by Codetapper
  • 09.09.02 new: Coala (Empire) done by JOTD
  • 08.09.02 new: Giddy (Phil Ruston) done by Codetapper
  • 08.09.02 new: Thug Life (Essence) done by Psygore
  • 08.09.02 updated: Dogs of War (Elite Systems) loader optimised
  • 07.09.02 improved: Chromagic (Dual-Crew Shining) interrupts fixed for 040/060 processors
  • 07.09.02 improved: Sonic Attack (Dual-Crew Shining) interrupts fixed for 040/060 processors
  • 05.09.02 updated: Axel's Magic Hammer (Core Design/Gremlin) supports another version
  • 04.09.02 new: Axel's Magic Hammer (Core Design/Gremlin) done by Codetapper
  • 04.09.02 improved: 4D Sports Boxing (Mindscape) various improvements
  • 03.09.02 new: Drip (Art Skiles) done by DJ Mike
  • 03.09.02 new: Steigar (Screen 7) done by DJ Mike
  • 03.09.02 new: Multi Megamix 3 (Kefrens) done by Psygore
(ps)

[News message: 09. Sep. 2002, 15:22] [Comments: 0]
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09.Sep.2002
Jürgen Schober (E-Mail)


Event: Pegasos and AmigaOne at O.A.S.E.
For the first time in Austria, Pegasos and AmigaOne G3SE will be shown at next weekend's O.A.S.E. in Graz.

The Pegasos will be demontrated by DYXS GmbH, a Thendic France partner.

The current AmigaOne G3SE Board has arrived at the organisers PointDesign already in Rev. B, so at least they'll be able to show a current version of the BIOS.

Besides MorphOS on the Pegasos, parts of AmigaOS 4 will be demonstrated. Furthermore the USB cards Thylacine and Highway will be presented with USB devices. You will also be able to see the Norway Ethernet module, Mirage 4000T, and much more.

For the first time in Austria: Linux on Playstation 2, as well as 2 Gamecubes with current games for the gamers.

The O.A.S.E. Open Amiga Southeast Europe Show will take place on 14th and 15th September 2002 in the Hotel Europa in Graz, Austria. Further information about this event can be found on the O.A.S.E. web site. (ps) (Translation: cb)

[News message: 09. Sep. 2002, 13:08] [Comments: 5 - 10. Sep. 2002, 18:28]
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09.Sep.2002
Andre Pfeiffer (E-Mail)


Tool: TWINKICK-GENERATOR / Amiga1000 Kickdisk with OS1.3 and OS3.1
This tool from Andre Pfeiffer generates a Kickstart-Disk for the A1000-Amiga with OS1.3 and OS3.1 on 1 Disk.

Download: twinkick.lha

The tool requires a disk with two files:
  • OS1.3 (V34.5) named "KICK13.ROM" (A500/A1000/A2000)
  • OS3.1 (V40.063) named "KICK31.ROM" (A500/A600/A2000)
  • (You can generate this files with the "GRABKICK"-Tool from Aminet)
  • Don't forget to rename the files!
Execute the tool "TKG.EXE" and follow the instructions. That's all! Turn on your A1000 and insert your new Kickstart, during the boot process you will see a short instruction.

IMPORTANT:
This Kickstart requires an A1000 with 2MB or more FastMem located at $200000 (works with AutoConfig and NonAutoConfig-Expansions). (Does not work with more than one external MemoryExpansion!)

EXTRAS:
  • OS3.1 works with NonAutoConfigMemory
  • OS1.3 includes a "Game-Mode", better PAL-Check, Virus-Checker and some bugfixes
(ps)

[News message: 09. Sep. 2002, 12:52] [Comments: 0]
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09.Sep.2002
WinUAE.net (ANF)


Emulator: WinUAE 0.8.22 Release 1 (08.09.2002)
Since yesterday, the Amiga emulator WinUAE 0.8.22 Release 1 by Toni Wilen for Win95, Win98, WinME, Win2K and WinXP has been available in the download area of the WinUAE home page. (Unfortunately, winuae.net currently seems to be down, please write any known mirror addresses into the comments!).

The following changes have been implemented:

  • UAE 0.8.22 merge, bumped version number (but most changes were already included in R4)
  • 68000 CHK-instruction fix (Days of Thunder) and exception 3 handling update
  • real 68000 prefetch emulation ("100 most remembered C64 games" and more)
  • some custom chipset fixes (sprite-playfield collisions, graphics corruption)
  • keyboard fix (some key presses were missed when pressing multiple keys)
  • A1000 emulation fixes
  • AVIOutput update (Sane)
  • input-tab updates
  • vsync works properly in interlaced screen modes
  • sound updates/changes (DirectSound, uses UAE timing in non-JIT/vsync modes and more...)
  • filesystem bug fixes
  • CD32 pad numeric keypad emulation works again
  • fixed joystick bugs in compatibility mode
  • fast RAM state save fix
  • bsdsocket fix (Stephan Riedelbeck)
  • disk emulation fixes
New features:
  • full harddisk image support (hdtoolbox, RDB, custom filesystems, SFS and PFS3 confirmed working)
  • uaescsi.device improvements, confirmed compatible with CacheCDFS, AmiCDFS and AsimCDFS (disk change support added and use of direct scsi-mode is not needed anymore)
  • Action Replay 1 support (but breakpoints don't work)
  • CPU idle (tries to detect use of STOP-instruction, may not be complatible with all Amiga software..)
  • floppy speed slider is back
  • new AHI code and driver (Bernd Roesch)
  • Amiga <> Windows clipboard support (Bernd Roesch)
  • on the fly switching between OpenGL and DirectDraw mode
  • on the fly switching between vsync and non-vsync mode
  • compressed Kickstart ROM image support
  • build-in screenshot function, shortcut key: F11 (Sane)
  • experimental (and much slower) cycle-exact cpu and blitter emulation mode.
    WARNING: requires at least 50%+ more cpu power than "regular" mode.
    Athlon XP/Pentium IV + DDR/RAMBUS RAM highly recommended!
    WARNING2: Frameskip must be set to 1.
    WARNING3: very experimental, timing is quite far from perfection.
  • wkeykill.dll support (disables Windows-keys)
  • OpenGL scanline brightness slider added
  • and more..
(ps) (Translation: cb)

[News message: 09. Sep. 2002, 12:21] [Comments: 5 - 17. Sep. 2002, 08:43]
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09.Sep.2002
CD32-Allianz (ANF)


CD32-Allianz web site temporarily inaccessible
As some might already have noticed, the home page of the CD32-Allianz is currently inaccessible. The reason for this is not that we are giving up, but rather that we have exceeded our server space, and have thus been shut down (Arcor has halved the web space to 25 MB). Some cover scans have now been deleted, and we hope to get activated again soon. Of course there will be another announcement on amiga-news.de when that happens! Regarding the increasing need for web space we will then think of a solution. (ps) (Translation: cb)

[News message: 09. Sep. 2002, 12:00] [Comments: 0]
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09.Sep.2002
ANN


Instant-Messenger: AmiComSys V2.3
On 8th September 2002, Håkan Parting has published version 2.3 of the instant messenger 'AmiComSys'. This version contains a.o.t. various bug fixes and introduces some new features (see readme).

The program works similar to the well known ICQ (Who is online? Private chat. Public chat. Posting of files.).

AmiComSys needs AmigaOS 3.0+, CPU 68020+, amarquee.library V54+ (included) and MUI.

In addition to the AmiComSys archive, the MUI custom class NList V20.106+ is required.

Download: (sd) (Translation: cb)

[News message: 09. Sep. 2002, 00:06] [Comments: 0]
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08.Sep.2002
Markus Lunk (E-Mail)


ComputerPartner: Amiga reports back
ComputerPartner Nr. 35 of 5th September 02 writes on page 16:

'Amiga reports back - namely in the form of a software platform for the newest Smartphone by Sendo. The english mobile phone manufacturer will provide the "Z100" with "Amiga Anywhere". This will contain among others Amiga games - new as well as well known ones. Furthermore the mobile phone will offer business applications and messaging services.

www.sendo.com.' (sd) (Translation: cb)

[News message: 08. Sep. 2002, 23:29] [Comments: 0]
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08.Sep.2002
Martin Heine (ANF)


Event: Pictures of Alchimie 2 and Amiga Expo in France (Update)
Martin Heine writes:
According to first reports, Thendic demonstrated 10 Pegasos computers with the current if not yet finished version of MorphOS.

On show were a.o. 'Ambient' (the MorphOS workbench), which sports a.o. 24bit PNG icons and a lister a la Magellan 2. (sd)

Update 09.09.2002:
here you will find other picture von this event. (ps) (Translation: cb)

[News message: 08. Sep. 2002, 23:24] [Comments: 0]
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08.Sep.2002
Carsten Schröder (ANF)


Magazine: AMIGA aktuell 09/2002 published
On 9th September 2002, Carsten Schröder has published the German language September issue of the magazine 'AMIGA aktuell': This issue contains a.o.:
  • a review of the new internet strategy game 'Tales of Tamar',
  • a review of the likewise new economic simulation 'Software Tycoon',
  • an extensive special on the game 'BabeAnoid',
  • the fourth part of the workshop about using Ghostscript 6.50,
  • an article about programming a monthly calendar in PHP,
  • a summary of the newest announcements by Thendic-France,
  • (alas) an explicit word or two about the lack of participation,
and much more

AMIGA aktuell 09/2002 can be read as well as downloaded in HTML or AmigaGuide format on the web site.

The graphics are located in a separate file: 'Aakt0902GFX.lha' and belong in the same directory as the Guide version or in the 'img' directory within the HTML version.

Download: (sd) (Translation: cb)

[News message: 08. Sep. 2002, 23:13] [Comments: 0]
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08.Sep.2002
A.D.A.


A.D.A.: Kheshkhash (PPC demo)
On 8th September 2002, the PPC demo 'Kheshkhash' has been added to the Amiga Demoscene Archive (A.D.A.). This demo was created in cooperation of Encore and Scenic and ranked 5th on the Mekka Symposium 2002. It is presented with 29 screen shots on its A.D.A. page.

System requirements: PPC, graphics card (8MB or more), WarpOS, CyberGraphX, Warp3D, StormMESA, AHI.

Download: scenic_encore_-_kheshkhash.zip (8.3M) (sd) (Translation: cb)

[News message: 08. Sep. 2002, 18:49] [Comments: 0]
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08.Sep.2002
Amiga Future


Mailer: SimpleMail V0.17
On 7th September 2002, version 0.17 of the eMail client 'SimpleMail' has been published. The following changes have been made as compared to the previous version:
  • New: Now shows user@popserver in show single account submenu.
  • New: Recipient's address may be entered later.
  • New: Added search function.
  • Changed: When closing the message composition window, the message is now not saved instead of deleted.
Download: simplemail.lha (390K) (sd) (Translation: cb)

[News message: 08. Sep. 2002, 18:04] [Comments: 0]
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08.Sep.2002
Amiga Community


Mac-Emulator: Basilisk II for 68k Amigas
On 7th September, SixK published his port of Macintosh emulator 'Basilisk II' for 68k Amigas.

According to SixK, this emulator is currently not as fast and compatible as Shapeshifter.

It has been successfully tested with MacOS 7.0.1. On SixK's Amiga it didn't run with MacOS 7.6.1.

This port has so far not been tested with MacOS 8.0.0.

Download: BasiliskII-1.0.lzx (sd) (Translation: cb)

[News message: 08. Sep. 2002, 16:47] [Comments: 0]
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08.Sep.2002
AMIGAplus


Amiga-Emulator: UAE V0.8.21 for 68k Amigas
Already on 30th August 2002, SixK published his port of version 0.8.21 of the Amiga emulator UAE for 68k Amigas.

This version is a bit slower than version 0.8.8 beta 1 by Sam Devulder, but it runs games like Speedball 2, and, according to SixK, seems to have better sound support.

Further information about this port is available through the title link.

Download: uae-0.8.21.lzx (sd) (Translation: cb)

[News message: 08. Sep. 2002, 16:46] [Comments: 0]
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08.Sep.2002
AMIGAplus


Spiel: Space War 3 by Inutilis revised
On 6th September 2002, Inutilis have published a revised and AGA compatible version of their own action game 'Space War 3' (of 1995).

Download: spacewar3.lha (399K) (sd) (Translation: cb)

[News message: 08. Sep. 2002, 16:45] [Comments: 0]
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08.Sep.2002
GFX-BASE


GFX-BASE: Workbench competition
In the course of the workbench competition, three new screen shots have been added to the WB-Gallery on GFX-BASE. So now there have been 27 workbench screenshots received.

The competition is running for a further 5 days until 12th September 2002.

First prize will be 'Earth' or 'WipeOut', and second prize 'PuzzleBOBs' (all games support graphics cards). (sd) (Translation: cb)

[News message: 08. Sep. 2002, 16:45] [Comments: 0]
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08.Sep.2002
Christoph Gutjahr (ANF)


Mac: Mac-On-Linux supports MacOS X
The newest version of Mac-On-Linux now also boots MacOS X (incl. v10.1 and 10.2). (sd) (Translation: cb)

[News message: 08. Sep. 2002, 15:40] [Comments: 0]
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08.Sep.2002
amiga.org


Amitopia: Test - MediatorPCI 3000D
Paul Rezendes has published a review of the MediatorPCI 3000D daughterboard for the Amiga 3000 on Amitopia. (sd) (Translation: cb)

[News message: 08. Sep. 2002, 14:31] [Comments: 0]
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08.Sep.2002
Amiforce (ANF)


Amiforce: PacMan.style for dynAMIte now completed
As of now you can also find a new version of the PacMan.style for dynAMIte in the download section on Amiforce. Thus both dynAMIte.styles are now fit for the newest version.

Note: The old styles don't work with the newest version of dynAMIte anymore. They are now not a single graphics file anymore, but a whole directory. The graphics have been split.

dynAMIte is a networkable Bomberman clone.

Download: PacMan.lha, Screenshots (sd) (Translation: cb)

[News message: 08. Sep. 2002, 14:06] [Comments: 0]
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