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Archive 08/2018


15.Aug.2018
Amiga Future (Webseite)


PDF magazine: REV'n'GE 89 (Italian/English)
The PDF magazine REV'n'GE ("Retro Emulator Vision and Game") is available in Italian as well as in an English-language translation. REV'n'GE compares and reviews games on vintage computers.

Among others the latest issue includes articles about the Amiga games "9 Lives", "Fun School 3: Over 7's", "Swooper" and "Worthy".

Download sites

English: SendSpace / Mega
Italian: SendSpace / Mega (cg) (Translation: dr)

[News message: 15. Aug. 2018, 17:33] [Comments: 0]
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15.Aug.2018
Andreas Magerl (ANF)


APC&TCP and Amiga Future at Gamescom (August 22 to 25, Cologne)
Press release: APC&TCP and Amiga Future will once again have a booth at at Gamescom this year. On more than 70 m² we will be exhibiting about 20 Amiga models, hoping to win over some new users for our hobby. Around a dozen users, all volunteers, will be manning the booth and answer questions about the Amiga. Just in time for Gamescom, the Amiga Future Archive 4 DVD will be available to buy directly from us at the show.

You will find us in hall 10.2 in the retro area. Of course, we will keep you up to date on Gamescom via the Amiga Future Facebook and Instagram pages. There will certainly be many interesting photos from the event yet again. As we will be quite busy at Gamescom, the Amiga Future News page will only get updated regularly after we get back from Gamescom.

Of course, you can still leave your orders in our online shop, but we will only be dispatching them after the 28th of August (the same applies to online goods). It may take two or three days to dispatch the entire the backlog of pending orders. Of course, the same applies to any e-mails you might send to us. (cg) (Translation: cg)

[News message: 15. Aug. 2018, 15:48] [Comments: 0]
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15.Aug.2018



Pascal compiler: Source code of PCQ Pascal released
PCQ Pascal is a Pascal compiler for the Amiga which was released at the end of the 80s. The author Patrick Quaid now has released the source code of the compiler at Github including runtime library, includes and diverse utilities like optimizer and make. (cg) (Translation: dr)

[News message: 15. Aug. 2018, 00:19] [Comments: 0]
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14.Aug.2018
Amigaworld.net (Forum)


Sonnet.library: Network card as PowerPC accelerator board
The SonnetAmiga project makes it possible to use PowerPC-based PCI cards as accelerator board for WarpOS programs in the Amiga by means of a mediator board (amiga-news.de reported). The Sonnet Crescendo 7200 included, already five PCI cards are supported:
  • Sonnet G3/G4 with max. 192 MB
  • Rapture G4 7410@450 MHz with 256 MB
  • Apocalypse G4 7410@450 MHz with 256 MB
  • Ragnarok G3 750FX@800 MHz with 256 MB
  • BigFoot Killer NIC M1 e300@400 MHz with 64 MB
Last mentioned card has few memory but with about 30 Euro should be the cheapest PowerPC extension for the Amiga. Actually it is a network card and its Network Processing Unit (NPU) is a PowerPC processor - a MPC8343E. It is said that the game Quake would run twice as fast as on a CyberStorm PPC.

Ragnarok is not officially supported but according to the SonnetAmiga-Wiki it already is running smoothly. Note that of each of the cards there are different versions and it is not clear if all of them work. Lists of compatible software can be found in the Wiki. (snx) (Translation: dr)

[News message: 14. Aug. 2018, 22:54] [Comments: 0]
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14.Aug.2018
Radiosity (IRC)


The AGA-A3000: Amiga fans equip boards of the Commodore prototype AA3000
The AA3000 and A3000+ have been further developments of the Amiga-3000 mainboard which for the first time should use the new AGA chipset. Additional to the AGA chipset, the revised board should contain a digital signal processor which was supposed to be used for 16-Bit audio and floating point operations. Altogether only few prototypes were produced before the project was abandoned in favour of the A4000.

In spring 2018 Matthias 'Matze' Heinrichs succeeded in getting five blank AA3000 boards. The boards looked pretty fine and the schematics were included as well. The source codes for the PALs can be found in the Dave Haynie archives - so the idea was born to equip the boards of their own. Both Heinrichs and Christian 'Scrat' Euler have succesfully equipped a board and thus have a working AA3000.

Euler - who points out that Heinrichs did the "pioneer work" and thus made his own project possible - has documented his work and took several pictures. He wrote:

"... so we invested time und used the soldering iron. Matze completed his board a little bit earlier therefore he could give me some hints. It took about two months for assembling and launching my board (including longer breaks), I had to reorder components three times and to steal the delayline of one of my two A3000 boards.

Unfortunately the DSP cannot be bought at reasonable prices any longer so we had to improvise. The Commodore guys used a different RTC component for this board which via I2C bus is connected to the DMAC chip. This feature is not available in any of the DMAC revisions so Matze made an adapter board for a common RTC.
Some pictures of the assembly...

The (almost) blank board:


...which is getting equipped...


The CPU I took from an old Apple Powerbook (which was a victim of the gravitation and beyond remedy...)


Soldering THT a lot is not that fun...


It is actually an AA3000!


Almost completed!


Testing...


Is it really working?

As I launched it for the first time nothing happened. After a lot of measuring it turned out that the CPU was active for a short time and then sank into a "long sleep". Clocks were active, the chipset produced SYNCs... then I recognised that an IC in the clock section was not properly equipped - instead of a F type, a LS type was installed.

I did exchange the IC, afterwards the CPU worked fine. Then I found out that the EPROMs with the Chucky-DiagROM were broken. New ROMs installed and then at least the Power-LED started flashing. Okay, the CPU lives!

But the screen kept dark...what else could be wrong? Eventually it turned out that the pins on the DAC did not properly got the tin...soldered again, first attempt:


Second attempt: Tadaaaa!


Kickstart-ROMs installed, switched on, worked. Party!


Now CS Mk2 installed, Picasso IV installed, Deneb installed...worked! Starstruck had to be.


What's next...?

Currently the experimental setup is still standing on the table. Some components of the board are still missing...the parallel port and the SCSI port as well. I also have to build the RTC adapter. Afterwards the board will be tested in detail and then integrated into my main A3000. Matze is going to build a new busboard. Currently the daughterboard of the A3000 is used (the one from the A4000 does not fit). Therefore the video output only has 12 Bit RGB. So the AGA looks a little bit strange via the PIV-FliFi."

Downloads:

Schematics: AA3000_Rev2_Schematics.pdf
System specifications: AA3000_System_Specs.pdf (cg) (Translation: dr)

[News message: 14. Aug. 2018, 01:25] [Comments: 0]
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14.Aug.2018
Andreas Magerl (ANF)


Print magazine: Amiga Future 134 - preview and extracts
A preview and extracts of issue 134 (September/October 2018) of the Amiga Future have been released today. Among other things, this issue features reviews on Worthy and Bomb Jack Beer as well as a preview to the Gold3 AGA Apollo core ("AGA on the Amiga 600"). (cg) (Translation: dr)

[News message: 14. Aug. 2018, 00:28] [Comments: 0]
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14.Aug.2018
Amiga Future (Webseite)


Interview with Andreas Magerl (Amiga Future)
On occation of the 20th anniversary of the Amiga Future, AMIcast has interviewed its chief editor Andreas Magerl. (cg) (Translation: dr)

[News message: 14. Aug. 2018, 00:28] [Comments: 0]
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13.Aug.2018
Amiga Future (Webseite)


Kids Jump'n Run: Elfie the Unicorn as purchase version on disk
"Elfie - The Unicon" (trailer) is a classic jump'n run for kids which is available for free on Aminet. In order to fulfil an old dream, the author now offers a "commercial" version of the game on disk:


This issue is limited to 20 copies. If you are going to purchase a disk for 10 Euro (including shipping in a cushioned envelope) then please write a mail to the author. (cg) (Translation: dr)

[News message: 13. Aug. 2018, 23:05] [Comments: 0]
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13.Aug.2018



Free hardware: RS232-WLAN adapter "Virtual Modem for ESP8266"
By using the RS232-WLAN adapters computers which do not have an Ethernet or WLAN controller can be connected to modern networks. Mainly the adapters are used as telnet servers or clients for old computers, e.g. for mailboxes.

Additionally, Daniel Jameson's "Virtual Modem" also can send HTTP requests and is the first adapter which consists of free, open source hardware ands software. An Arduino microcontroller with two modules (for RS-232 and WLAN) as well as the Arduino development environment. (cg) (Translation: dr)

[News message: 13. Aug. 2018, 00:46] [Comments: 1 - 20. Aug. 2018, 13:10]
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13.Aug.2018



Harddrive images under windows: HstWB Installer
By using Henrik Nørfjand Stengaard's "HstWB Installer" under Windows you can build bootable harddrive images which then can be used with an emulator or written on an Amiga harddrive. AmigaOS 3.1 or 3.9 and Worbench distributions like BetterWB or ClassicWB are supported. Extension packages can add e.g. graphical game menus for choosing WHDLoad games. (cg) (Translation: dr)

[News message: 13. Aug. 2018, 00:21] [Comments: 0]
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13.Aug.2018



Documentation: The Commodore Story at Amazon (Update)
After The Commodore Wars, From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years and Viva Amiga, "The Commodore Story" is the fourth documentation about Commodore. For some time the crowdfunded film (trailer) can be watched at Amazon, iTunes and Netflix.

Update: (15.08.2018, 15:30, cg)

Feedback from our readers shows that despite the film maker's announcements, the documentation is not available on Netflix or iTunes. It can be purchased on amazon.com though. (cg) (Translation: dr)

[News message: 13. Aug. 2018, 00:20] [Comments: 0]
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