26.Apr.2022
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Emulator: vAmigaWeb v2.0 Beta 4
vAmigaWeb is an Amiga emulator for the web browser or a Progressive Web App (PWA) based on the Amiga emulator for MacOS, vAmiga. Parallel to the current update of the Amiga emulator, the developer 'mithrendal' has also updated his application with the latest vAmigaCore and implemented a new boarderless strategy regarding the automatic detection of the display area. (dr)
[News message: 26. Apr. 2022, 06:54] [Comments: 0]
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26.Apr.2022
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Video: 10 Minute Amiga Retro Cast #123 - Review of accelerator board A630
In issue 123 of his '10 Minute Amiga Retro Cast', Douglas Compton has reviewed the A630 accelerator board for the Amiga 600, developed by Archi-TECH. (dr)
[News message: 26. Apr. 2022, 06:00] [Comments: 0]
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25.Apr.2022
Cathal (ANF)
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Kickstart patch for using NTSC Agnus chips on PAL systems
At the title link, 'Cathal' has published his project, with the help of which the NTSC version of the 2 MB Agnus custom chip can also be used for PAL systems. However, patching the Kickstart ROM file requires Windows. He writes about it:
"In view of the scarcity of PAL 2 MB Agnus chips and their ever-increasing prices, I have written a small program that can patch a Kickstart ROM so that you can also use an NTSC 2 MB Agnus chip and it will automatically switch to PAL when the computer is switched on.
The patching itself is done under Windows and the patcher needs a current .Net runtime, which should be installed automatically by a current Windows if not available.
The programme is published with source code on my GitHub page. In the future, there will also be a GUI and other supported Kickstart versions. Currently, it is used via the Windows commandshell."
The following Kickstart ROM versions are supported for now:
- Kickstart 1.2, Rev. 33.192, checksum: $56F2E2A6
- Kickstart 1.3, Rev. 34.5, checksum: $15267DB3
- Kickstart 3.1, Rev. 40.63, checksum: $9FDEEEF6
- Kickstart 3.1.4, Rev. 46.143, checksum: $BE662BCF
- Kickstart 3.2.0, Rev. 47.69, checksum: $35D98F3
- Kickstart 3.2.1, Rev. 47.102, checksum: $4CB8FDD9
(snx)
[News message: 25. Apr. 2022, 10:27] [Comments: 0]
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25.Apr.2022
Willem Drijver (ANF)
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Video: ApolloBoot Omni R8 - Starting different operating system versions
At the title link, Willem Drijver undertakes a "journey through time" in his video in the form of different operating systems, which he starts one after the other in real-time on his Apollo V4 standalone.
For this purpose, ApolloBoot Omni was used in advance, a pre-configured utility for easier installation and start-up of the different operating systems from various AmigaOS versions to AROS, Atari TOS and Mac OS. (snx)
[News message: 25. Apr. 2022, 10:13] [Comments: 0]
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25.Apr.2022
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Video tutorial: How to program Wordle in AMOS on the AMIGA
In his latest video, Robert Smith shows how to program Wordle in AMOS on the AMIGA. He says the tutorial is suitable for beginners and includes an example of the binary search algorithm, which is very useful when searching for a word in the list. (dr)
[News message: 25. Apr. 2022, 06:52] [Comments: 0]
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25.Apr.2022
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Game announcement: Andrew Vaisey's puzzle game 'Spheroid
Andrew Vaisey is a very versatile and busy developer who describes himself as an "8/16bit graphician, musician & coder", but has always had a connection to the Amiga as well. He has been creatively active in graphics and music on the C64 since the 1980s. In the 1990s, he used Amiga-based software for pixelating (various versions of 'Deluxe Paint'), composing (various versions of MED, OctaMED, and Protracker), and coding (AMOS and Blitz Basic 2). Since the 2000s, he has used Windows PC-based cross-development software tools for pixelling and composing.
As a member of various demo groups he produced numerous C64 demos, but also games.
As Andrew told us, he had managed to bring his Amiga 1200 back to life some time ago and was thus able to transfer all the files previously thought to be 'lost' to his development laptop: unfinished AMOS games, some BLITZ BASIC 2 applications, and a lot of DPIII images and MED/OctaMED/ProTracker modules.
This included a game he had developed in AMOS on the Amiga about 27 years ago, whose origin was based on an earlier, simpler version for the C64 (circa 1990). When he recently restored all the data from his old HD, the AMOS version no longer ran. However, he liked the idea of the game and so he started to rewrite it from scratch in Blitz Basic 2 using the old graphics.
'Spheroid' is a puzzle game in which you move a metal ball through a maze of tiles to reach the exit within the given time and the maximum number of moves allowed. Different tiles have different properties and affect the ball in different ways. As long as you keep moving, the time does not count down.
This week Andrew will release a 10-level demo version, the final version should have around 50 levels. He kindly provided us with it in advance, so that we could get a first impression.
After a long loading time, the game greets us with a start screen that informs us about the different properties of the tiles. The main protagonist, the metal ball, rolls from the left edge of the screen into the center of the "O" of 'Spheroid' as a loving detail at the beginning. And the driving music that runs later in the game sets the mood for the tricky tasks ahead!
But the final version will have additional intro music and several level soundtracks as well. In the levels, the player is shown the colors of the tiles at the upper, right edge, which can be entered safely and without losing one's life. And so the first two levels progress quite quickly, as they are pleasantly clear:
However, the same applies here: Pride comes before the fall. If you are a bit too energetic and enthusiastic, the ball will run over the edge of the playing field and a life will be lost... The ball will also explode if you mistakenly enter a tile with an "illegal" color. Beside the normal tiles there are the special tiles explained at the beginning:
- voids - your ball falls into oblivion
- cracked - tile falls away after you move off it
- mine - tile explodes after you move off it
- transporter - transports your sphere to the other transporter on screen
- grooves - vertical & horizontal, can only move in the groove direction
- ice - slides your sphere in the direction you were moving
- conveyor - moves your sphere in the conveyor arrow direction
- bridge switch - activates the 'bridge' tile to cross any gaps
- colour switch - changes an unsafe colour tile into a safe colour tile
- wall - blocks your path
- exit - exits the level!
I bravely "rolled forward" to level five:
Here you have to use a bit more brainpower in advance, since you have to look closely at the tiles with the arrows and thus calculate in advance where it will ultimately land. But: mastered! I got stuck at level six for the time being...
Here there are "meanly" not only the blue slide fields, but also normal, blue blocks. Since the color of the fields that can be entered without danger changes again and again and blue did not belong in this level, this was the end for me.
The final version will also have a passcode system that allows you to continue tinkering in exactly the level you failed at last. And not only the game itself is a welcome, nice change for in between, also the lovely little details like the shadow of the spinning ball or the sound effects e.g. when displaying the next level show that Andrew was at work here with joy and mind.
The final version of Spheroid will have the following features:
- a raytraced loading screen
- loading music
- new title screen music
- between 50 and 60 levels
- 4 or 5 in-game tunes
- a passcode system to skip completed levels
- a ray traced ending screen
- available to buy on physical media
- available to download as a disk image
- compatible with all Amiga versions!
That's when we say: Thank you Andrew! And good luck for the final development. We'll update the message as soon as the demo will be available. (dr)
[News message: 25. Apr. 2022, 06:11] [Comments: 0]
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24.Apr.2022
Andreas Falkenhahn (ANF)
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Hollywood 9.1 released
Press release: Airsoft Softwair, the hardest working men in code business, are proud to announce the immediate availability of Hollywood 9.1. This is a maintenance release which contains mostly bug fixes amid a few new features. It is available free of charge for all customers who bought a Hollywood 9.0 license and can be downloaded from the restricted download area using the personalized user accounts.
Hollywood is the ultimate cross-platform programming language and multimedia application layer that can be used to create all sorts of games and applications. It supports over 900 inbuilt commands that are documented in detail on over 1000 pages. Furthermore, it features a wide variety of plugins that empower programmers to use all kinds of modern technologies like OpenGL, SDL, a true cross-platform GUI toolkit that uses native widgets, PDF import/export, SVG support, SQL support, SSL/TLS and extensive network protocol support and so much more. There really is hardly anything that Hollywood can't do it and Hollywood can do it on all platforms imaginable because it is available in native versions for AmigaOS3, AmigaOS4, MorphOS, WarpOS, AROS (x86), Linux (arm, ppc, x86, x64), macOS (ppc, x86, x64), Windows (x86, x64), Android and iOS.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hollywood in 2022 we even offer a special 20 euros discount on the full version of Hollywood for a limited time only. This is the perfect chance for all people who don't own Hollywood yet to grab their own copy and to explore the wonderful world of Hollywood and be fascinated by the gigantic functionality of this unique piece of software and all of the plugins that come with it! (dr)
[News message: 24. Apr. 2022, 18:56] [Comments: 0]
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24.Apr.2022
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MorphOS: Software collection Chrysalis 3.16
Yannick 'Papiosaur' Buchy's Chrysalis is a preconfigured collection of programs, games and emulators and now is available in version 3.16 for MorphOS 3.16.
Changes:
- SilkRAW 1.3 (Domenico Lattanzi)
- OpenTTD 12.2 (BeWorld)
- Symmetrix 1.0 (Matthias Böcker)
- UpTime 1.5a (Matthias Böcker)
- GrafX 2.8 (BeWorld)
- MouseEyes 1.4 (Matthias Böcker)
- Exutil 1.1.2 (Ulrich Beckers)
- MouseCoords 1.4 (Matthias Böcker)
- ModernArt 3.3 (Matthias Böcker)
- SDL2 (BeWorld)
- bePlayer 1.3 (BeWorld)
- Odyssey 1.26 standalone version (MorphOS Team)
- Blues R3 (BeWorld)
- AmiSSL 4.12 68k (Jens Maus)
- GenesisPlus 2.2 (Kelly Samel)
- FinalBurnNeo 1.0.0.3WIP (BeWorld)
- ScummVM 2.5.1 (BeWorld)
- Pixy 1.0a r3 (Tony Canazza)
- MUIBase 4.4 (Steffen Gutmann)
- WitchCleaner 2.20 (Templario)
- and more...
Download: Chrysalis_3.16.iso (1 GB)
(dr)
[News message: 24. Apr. 2022, 14:14] [Comments: 0]
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24.Apr.2022
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Email client: YAM development discontinued
The last Nightly Build is almost a year old: As the authors of the Amiga email client YAM now confirmed to us on request, the development has been stopped.
The reasons for this are manifold: Basically it became more and more obvious over the years how difficult it was to develop something for the Amiga platform. The lack of progress in the operating system itself makes it more and more difficult to make Amiga programs in general and YAM in particular fit for the current (security) standards compared to other systems (Linux, Windows, macOS). Almost every feature has to be developed for every platform (AmigaOS 3.x, AmigaOS 4, AROS, MorphOS) completely by oneself, because the respective operating system does not provide it. Thus one would have to port the complete SSL system in the newest version to all platforms. If UTF8 is to be supported as a universal standard for encoding any text, the complete conversion in both directions would have to be developed 100% in-house, because the operating system supports UTF8 only insufficiently, if at all. In return, however, the expectations of the users are linked to the progress of the other systems: An Amiga should still be able to do the same as other systems. This expectation can be fulfilled to a certain degree, but only with enormous development effort. This enormous additional effort, however, is in contrast to the ever decreasing number of developers. The remaining YAM developers have completely detached themselves from the Amiga and are now pursuing projects on other platforms.
In the past it had also not been possible to inspire new developers to work on YAM (and also on all other projects). Depending on that: YAM (like the other projects) is an open source project. If you like, you are welcome to create a fork of it and start developing immediately.
Finally, a brief summary of the history:
In our German database, there is a first entry about version 2 of the e-mail client 'YAM' from October 23, 1998. The original author Marcel Beck started the development of a first, very limited version already in 1995. The program was so popular that there was even a dedicated newsletter. In just such a newsletter the author then announced in October 2000 that he would give up development due to lack of time. Version 2.2 was the last one published by him. In June 2001 the YAM Open Source Team released his first version 2.3. (dr)
[News message: 24. Apr. 2022, 13:18] [Comments: 0]
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24.Apr.2022
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Aminet uploads until 23.04.2022
The following files have been added until 23.04.2022 to Aminet:
fd-kickthesofa.lha demo/aga 797K 68k Demo - GERP 2022
soul_strain.lha demo/aga 160K 68k Demo - Revision 2022
swaptro_v2_0.adf demo/disk 880K 68k Wild demo - Revision 2022
tek-transhuman_pachin... demo/disk 8K 68k Transhuman / Pachinkoland - G...
gloot.zip demo/euro 98K 68k Demo - Revision 2022
lax-extremeboost.lha demo/euro 513K 68k Demo - Revision 2022
APX-Blood.lha demo/intro 9K 68k 4k intro - Revision 2022
chickenstomp.adf demo/intro 880K 68k Intro - Syntax Society Easter...
desire-ramonticgetawa... demo/intro 97K 68k 40k intro - GERP 2022
hexjunkierc3.zip demo/intro 5K 68k 4k intro - Revision 2022
logicOS.zip demo/intro 306K 68k Intro - Revision 2022
nah_techno_insignia.zip demo/intro 15K 68k 4k intro - Revision 2022
notyetphonk.zip demo/intro 7K 68k Intro - Revision 2022
ukramiga32b_v2.zip demo/intro 4K 68k 32b intro - Revision 2022
Void-BunnyCracktro.lha demo/intro 163K 68k "Cracktro" for Feedback 12
Void-CircleUndercover... demo/intro 64K 68k Intro from Revision 22
dS_UP-A1.adf demo/mag 880K 68k Diskmag - March 2022
JP19.zip demo/mag 1.5M 68k Jurassic Pack #19
tek-crapbox-11.adf demo/misc 880K 68k Demopack - April 2022
Void-Dreams38.zip demo/misc 570K 68k Demopack - Revision 2022
Home-Coming.adf demo/sound 880K 68k Music Disk - January 2022
mst-mc1.lha demo/sound 115K 68k Mysterious Chips 1 by Mystic
Void-Feedback12.lha demo/sound 2.8M 68k Pack with music from GERP 2022
vbcc_bin_morphos.lha dev/c 2.7M MOS Optimizing ISO C compiler, PP...
vbcc_bin_powerup.lha dev/c 1.4M PUP Optimizing ISO C compiler, PP...
vbcc_bin_warpos.lha dev/c 1.2M WOS Optimizing ISO C compiler, PP...
vbcc_target_m68k-kick... dev/c 486K ISO C compiler, AmigaOS 1.2/1...
ld80.lha dev/cross 70K MOS L80 replacement linker
zmac.lha dev/cross 284K MOS Z80 Macro Cross Assembler
Fracman.lha game/misc 147K 68k The 'Arcade' game revisited
Gotcha199.lha game/think 56K 68k Pair two numbers to get the 1...
SilkRAW_AROS.lha gfx/misc 2.0M x86 GUI for Dave Coffin's program...
SilkRAW_MorphOS.lha gfx/misc 2.1M MOS GUI for Dave Coffin's program...
SilkRAW_OS4.lha gfx/misc 2.4M OS4 GUI for Dave Coffin's program...
AmiVms.lha misc/emu 3.3M 68k Simulates OpenVMS commands
cc1541.lha misc/emu 152K MOS Create Commodore 1541 floppy ...
australianlocale.lha util/sys 1K Modified country locale for A...
(snx)
[News message: 24. Apr. 2022, 07:05] [Comments: 0]
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24.Apr.2022
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OS4Depot uploads until 23.04.2022
The following files have been added until 23.04.2022 to OS4Depot:
vlink.lha dev/cro 174kb 4.0 A portable linker, written in AN...
arabic_console_device... dri/inp 3Mb 4.1 An arabic console device, line &...
silkraw.lha gra/mis 2Mb 4.1 GUI for Dave Coffin's progr...
(snx)
[News message: 24. Apr. 2022, 07:05] [Comments: 0]
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24.Apr.2022
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AROS Archives uploads until 23.04.2022
The following files have been added until 23.04.2022 to AROS Archives:
xmp_3_1_0.i386.zip aud/pla 715kb Xtended Module Player fixed and ...
silkraw_aros.lha gra/mis 2Mb GUI for Dave Coffin's progr...
aget.i386-aros.zip net/mis 12kb Command Line Tool similar WGet w...
(snx)
[News message: 24. Apr. 2022, 07:05] [Comments: 0]
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24.Apr.2022
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MorphOS-Storage uploads until 23.04.2022
Die folgenden Pakete wurden bis zum 23.04.2022 dem MorphOS-Storage hinzugefügt:
Jabber.module_2.0.lha Communication/KwaKwa A module for KwaKwa ins...
GG.module_2.0.lha Communication/KwaKwa A plugin for KwaKwa ins...
Kwakwa_1.10.lha Communication Multiprotocol, plugin b...
vbcc_0.9h.lha Development/C A highly optimizing por...
cc1541_3.4.lha Emulation/Misc Create Commodore 1541 f...
NMTM_Final.lha Games/Adventure No More Toxic Man!!! - ...
DevilutionX_1.4.0.lha Games/Adventure Diablo build for modern...
MCE_13.71.lha Games/Editor Multi-game Character Ed...
OpenTTD_12.2.lha Games/Strategy A clone of Transport Ty...
SilkRAW_1.3.lha Graphics/Misc GUI for Dave Coffin's p...
(snx)
[News message: 24. Apr. 2022, 07:05] [Comments: 0]
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24.Apr.2022
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WHDLoad: New installers until 23.04.2022
Using WHDLoad, games, scene demos and intros by cracking groups, which were originally designed to run only from floppy disks, can be installed on harddisk. The following installers have been added until 23.04.2022:
- 2022-04-23 fixed: Chaos In Andromeda: Eyes Of The Eagle (On-line) works with whdload v18.7+, blitter fixes added, access fault removed (Info)
- 2022-04-23 new: Sound Disk (Arcadia Team) done by StingRay (Info, Image)
- 2022-04-21 improved: Lethal Weapon (Ocean) trainer added, supports second button jump, music replay fixed (Info)
- 2022-04-20 new: Megademo (Arcadia Team) done by StingRay (Info, Image)
- 2022-04-19 improved: Attack of the PETSCII Robots (8-Bit Productions, LLC) added support for game version 1.2 (Info, Image)
- 2022-04-19 improved: XP8 (Weathermine Software) fixed crash at level 3, added trainer, fixed blitter errors (Info)
- 2022-04-19 improved: Ports Of Call (International Software Development) fixed crash after title screen (Info)
- 2022-04-19 improved: New Zealand Story (Taito/Ocean) fixed score display, allows to disable blitterwaits (Info)
- 2022-04-19 updated: Lure of the Temptress (Virgin) fixed another original game bug (Info)
- 2022-04-19 fixed: Kid Gloves (Logotron) fixed address error on 68000 (Info)
- 2022-04-19 improved: It Came From The Desert / Antheads: It Came From The Desert II (Cinemaware) supports another version, supports italian/spanish fanmade version (Info, Image)
- 2022-04-19 improved: Buggy Boy (Elite) minor changes (Info)
- 2022-04-19 improved: Black Dawn Rebirth (Doublesided Games) fixed install (Info)
- 2022-04-19 updated: Biing (reLINE) reassembled with latest kickemu (Info)
(snx)
[News message: 24. Apr. 2022, 07:05] [Comments: 0]
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24.Apr.2022
Amiga Future (Webseite)
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Do it yourself: Kickstart Flash ROM
At the title link, Oleg Mishin has published his project for creating a Kickstart Flash ROM oneself. Depending on the Amiga model, there are both a 40 and a 42 pin variant. (snx)
[News message: 24. Apr. 2022, 07:05] [Comments: 0]
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23.Apr.2022
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'Return to Monkey Island' announced, Interview with developer
Monkey Island is a five-part graphic adventure series based on an idea by Ron Gilbert. He was heavily involved in the development of the first two parts, which were also released for the Amiga, before leaving LucasArts in the early 1990s.
At the beginning of April, the developer announced another 'Monkey Island' part in his Blog. Initially interpreted as an April Fool's joke, it became certainty with the release of a first teaser: 'Return to Monkey Island' will be released in 2022.
In an interview with ars TECHNICA, the developer now gives first insights into the development and the history of the game. (dr)
[News message: 23. Apr. 2022, 17:31] [Comments: 0]
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23.Apr.2022
Twitter
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RTG driver: P96 V3.3.0 released
Jens Schönfeld (individual Computers) has released version 3.3.0 of his RTG driver P96 which among others offers "faster C2P/P2C (for CV3D even hardware-accelerated), new drivers for classic GFX cards like Retina Z2 (the very first one, don't confuse with Z3 version) and Visiona". Changes:
- This release of P96 adds one new feature, namely in-screen mode switches. This allows on advanced graphics cards mixing of high-color/true-color/true-alpha and chunky modes, depending on the flexibility of the hardware. This requires from the driver to implement extended interface functions.
- PicassoIV allows mixing high-color and chunky modes on the same screen. True color and true-alpha modes cannot be mixed with each other or any other modes. Hi-color modes mixed with chunky screens have pixels of twice the width.
- CVision3D supports very flexible mode switching as almost any modes can be mixed. The only exception is that double scanned, interlaced, double-clocked (very high resolution) modes or modes with more than 4095 bytes per line do not allow mode sharing. The pixel aspect ratio is not affected.
- As a side effect, the CVision3D supports now also draggable True-color screens. They could not be dragged before.
- The UAE emulator supports flexible mode sharing of all modes without any restrictions, leaving the pixel aspect ratio alone.
- P96 3.3.0 comes with a driver for the Retina (Zorro-II version) graphics card based on the NCR77C22E+ chip. Please do not confuse this card with the RetinaZ3BLT, which is a different card which was supported already. This driver requires mmu.library to be installed, because the Z2 version of Retina uses banked memory access.
- The Retina Z2 offers a hardware sprite, hi-color and true-color support, but no hardware acceleration. The sprite is not functional in true color mode (or rather, would only offer shades of grey as colors).
- If you receive the error "Direct MMU setup failed to work" from the MuEVD shapeshifter driver with the RetinaZ2, update MuEVD to release 47.1 or edit the ENVARC:MuEVD.Prefs file and include there the option "REF=Yes". This turns off remapping of the MacOs screen to the RetinaZ2 framebuffer.
- P96 3.3.0 also comes now with a driver for the Visiona graphics card based on the INMOS IMSG300 chip.
- Note that this card is notoriosly hard to configure and hard to use, as its output is not complying to the VGA standard, but rather to TV standards. Many LCD displays may not be able to show the signal generated by this card, though older CRTs should be able to show its signal. Your LCD may require to support either composite sync or sync on green, and it may be required to cut the "VSync" output of the card and connect HSync to the composite sync input.
- Visiona (and the IMSG300 chip on it) do not support a sprite nor offer a blitter, thus operations may be relatively slow. Neither does the chip offer panning, nor does the driver currently support interlace. The latter is due to a restriction of the chip which requires particular display width for interlaced screens.
- The Visiona driver is configured through the "SYNC" tool type, which can be either set to "tesselated" (default, recommended), "composite", "separate" or "green". The latter activates sync on green. Unfortunately, the "separate" sync signal is not VGA compatible and thus not suitable for most modern monitors.
- The S3 Virge chipset driver on the CVision3D has been extended again and now also accelerates planar to chunky conversion.
The vertical position of S3 based double-scanned views was computed incorrectly and doubled the vertical position. You may have to adjust your double scanned modes a little bit.
- The S3Virge allows unfortunately not to enable double scan on double-clocked modes. Thus, double-clocking is now kept disabled for double- scanned modes, which limits the resolution of double-scanned modes to approximately 1152x432. 1280x512 is not possible without overclocking, but 1280x1024 remains available as it can be double-clocked.
- The S3Virge stream processor is (at least for some steppings) not able to generate pictures wider than 4095 bytes. In this case, the stream processor is turned off and display generation is forwarded to the legacy VGA engine. This also requires disabling memory windows on such modes.
- The hardware overlays of the S3 and PicassoIV checked whether their apperture settings were consistent with the apperture setting of the screen they appear on. However, this check is no longer required as the 3.2.x release series supports on-demand apperture switching.
- Due to a missing bracked, the P-IV video window (e.g. for PalomaTV) was initialized incorrectly on the first pass, leading to incorrect clipping. Once the window was moved, everything was fine again. This problem has been fixed.
- Screen dragging support for the RetinaZ3Blt was broken, and probably never worked. This should hopefully work in this release now. The same problem goes for the Altais card which is based on the same chip driver.
- The CPU-driven chunky to planar conversions have been rewritten and as such got hopefully somewhat faster. The old roxl-based approach has been replaced by a "folding" algorithm.
- The CPU-driven planar to chunky or direct-color blitting algorithms have been rewritten and hopefully accelerated. The roxl-based algorithm has been replaced by a table-based algorithm.
- The CPU driven masked planar to chunky or planar to direct blitting has been rewritten and is hopefully faster than before. This code now also supports interleaved sources without kludges.
- The logic that re-enabled DMA when a previous RTG screen had turned it off as it wasn't still quite right. It did not turn on DMA if the new view to be loaded was non-NULL, but a native view, and it turned on the sprite DMA even though it should not.
- P96 now turns the display off when switching between planar and chunky modes. This avoids some color distortions while switching.
- If a task changed the colors of an off-monitor screen, P96 erraneously changed the colors of the front-most screen of the same board.
When double clicking on a mode in P96Mode, the mode now also becomes the active mode being edited, and all mode informations are updated accordingly in the gadgets below.
- When the display was switched away from a board with a flicker fixer such as the P-IV, though the target board was not in the display chain, the flicker fixer got disabled, even though it should have stayed on to mirror the native screen that then remains visible.
- When modifying or testing a mode with P96Mode, it could have happened that the mouse could not be moved within the entire screen. This was due to a defect in the rtg.library when creating a temporary mode.
- In case a board does neither provide a mouse cursor nor a blitter, but apperture mapping, P96 incorrectly passed the pointer to the mouse cursor through the aperture mapping algorithm, potentially damaging the mouse pointer colors, or even main memory.
- p96BestModeIDTagList() also delivered modes smaller than the requested view. While possible, smaller modes should be penaltized more and thus the algorithm was slightly modified.
- The cgxBestModeID() function did not handle modes smaller than the requested modes properly either because it worked with the dimension difference as unsigned rather than signed number.
- P96 now includes a substitute of the BestModeID() function of the Os which provides a suitable ModeID under constraints given by the caller. Unfortunately, the Os function makes assumptions on the suitability of a mode due to its pixel speed, which is irrelevant for the purposes of P96. Also, the Os function only allocates modes within a given class of monitor IDs, whereas P96 allocates a separate monitor for each resolution and thus would not find a mode of a size different from that of the monitor provided.
- The P96 guide has been reworked, the list of tool types monitor icons take have been extended and checked, and the list of environment variables have been extended and checked as well.
- The P96 guide contains now considerably larger section on the P96Settings program and how to create your own video modes.
- The P96 guide now also contains an FAQ (frequently asked questions).
It is explicitly pointed out that P96 is commercial software: Distribution via "warez" sites or file sharing is punishable and endangers the future of P96. Jens Schönfeld thanks all "members of the Amiga community who have stopped some violations even before they have been published." (dr)
[News message: 23. Apr. 2022, 08:23] [Comments: 0]
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23.Apr.2022
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Video test: A600/1200 CF2IDE adapter
In his latest video, Chris Edwards tests the new A600/1200 CF2IDE adapter released by RetroRewind, which claims to be "the world's first and only CF2IDE adapter with buffering, which separates a total of 24 signals from the rest of the system."
This improves the signals and thus contributes to the system's stabilization. A converter is also integrated, which prevents the HDD LEDs on some CompactFlash cards from litting permanently.
Furthermore, an additional drive is also supported, which can be connected to the 44-pin connector CN3. (dr)
[News message: 23. Apr. 2022, 08:00] [Comments: 0]
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22.Apr.2022
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Emulator: QEMU 7.0 released
QEMU is an open source computer emulator and virtualizer. QEMU is able to emulate a complete computer in software without the need of hardware virtualization. So it is possible to emulate Amiga operating systems like AROS, AmigaOS or MorphOS on QEMU. This support is provided by QEMU developer Zoltan Balaton, who gives lots of tips and info on a dedicated webseite (see also our Excursion of Amiga operating systems on non-native hardware).
As he tells us on request, he did not make any improvements in this development cycle that could have been included in version 7.0, which was released three days ago. A preliminary sound support for Pegasos2 does not work properly yet and he does not have the time for bug analysis. There had been some changes to the PPC CPU emulation by others, but whether that improved the emulation of the Amiga operating systems or not would just have to be tested. In any case, all supported systems would still boot. (dr)
[News message: 22. Apr. 2022, 15:12] [Comments: 0]
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21.Apr.2022
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Amiga emulator for MacOS: vAmiga 2.0 Beta 4
Dirk Hoffmann released the fourth beta version of vAmiga 2.0, his Amiga emulator for MacOS which is currently under development (amiga-news.de reported). Changes:
- Bug fixes:
- Fixed a bug which led to wrong geometry predictions for some HDFs (AdventuresOfQuik&Silva.hdf).
- The write-through image wasn't updated after attaching a new hard drive.
- Enhancements:
- User-settings are now managed by the core emulator and no longer by the GUI.
(dr)
[News message: 21. Apr. 2022, 18:33] [Comments: 0]
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21.Apr.2022
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Programming language: 'AMOS Professional Unity' project updates
Almost exactly one year ago we reported last time about Frédéric 'AmiDARK' Cordier's attempt to add new features to the classic BASIC compiler AMOS Professional with 'AMOS Professional Unity'.
In the meantime the project has been moved to a new website (title link) and restarted. Furthermore the developer announced on Monday to work on another project: the 'Grimoire Projekt'. The goal is "to provide a software development solution for Amiga computers which is at the same time unique, innovative, educational, scalable, and which is suitable for both beginners and experienced developers."
To achieve this goal, he explains, "GenAm" - the assembler compiler available in the "Devpac" series products - is used, and here in particular its macro system. This, he says, makes it possible to create macros that reproduce the operation of a basic language directly in the source code of the Motorola Assembler 68000.
He plans to first add Vampire SAGA Gfx/Audio support to the Grimoire project and later as a plugin to Amos Professional Unity as well. (dr)
[News message: 21. Apr. 2022, 06:42] [Comments: 0]
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20.Apr.2022
Artur Jarosik (Patreon)
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Real-time strategy: Vanilla Conquer V0.99a (update)
Artur Jarosik is known for various game ports like the platformer Hydra Castle Labyrinth or the action adventure Heart of Darkness besides his SDL implementation of the browser NetSurf. As a contribution for the AmiGameJam he started to port the first part of the realtime strategy series Command & Conquer to the Amiga and named it "Vanilla Conquer" (amiga-news.de reported).
Today he has released version 0.99 which now includes all videos. You have to re-download the game. Changes:
- Fixed NOD missions
- Fixed movies playback by converting them to mpeg1 (not on v4 atm)
The game is primarily intended for Amigas upgraded with an Apollo processor, especially the V4 series. However, as the author explained to us, it could also be playable on a 68060 processor with a graphics card with the music and sound effects turned off.
If you want to support the author, you can do so on his Patreon page.
Update: (26.04.2022, 19:03, dr)
Meanwhile version 0.99a is available. Changes:
- Avoid black screen on v4 in the menu
- Fixed movies playback on v4 (Unit 0 in AHI needs 2 channels)
(dr)
[News message: 20. Apr. 2022, 20:21] [Comments: 1 - 26. Apr. 2022, 19:08]
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20.Apr.2022
Void
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Demo scene: 'Void' releases Dreams #38 and Feedback #12
Void is an Amiga demo group that has been active since 1995. During the last days, the group has released issue 38 of its demopack 'Dreams' as well as issue 12 (YouTube video) of its music disk 'Feedback' for AGA Amigas. (dr)
[News message: 20. Apr. 2022, 11:33] [Comments: 0]
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20.Apr.2022
Amigans
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AmigaOS 4.1: DvPlayer V54.9 released
In early November 2021, version 54.7 of the DvPlayer video and audio playback program distributed by A-EON Technology was released, supporting the new hardware video acceleration standard introduced with Enhancer Software V2. Now version 54.9 is available via the updater tool which adds "a workaround to compensate for DTS/PTS difference in seeking when seeking is based on DTS (e-g- MP4 files)". (dr)
[News message: 20. Apr. 2022, 09:00] [Comments: 0]
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19.Apr.2022
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Amiga emulator: Amiberry 5.1
Amiberry is an Amiga emulator for ARM-based single-chip systems like the Raspberry Pi, the Odroid XU4 or the Tinkerboard from ASUS, which brings some newly developed features like a "WHDLoad-Booter" or support for controller configuration using RetroArch.
Yesterday, version 5.1 was released, which provides numerous bug fixes. Most important changes:
- Check if X position has changed also, when using auto-crop
- WinUAE: Reinitialize Floppybridge support if drive mode is changed on the fly.
- WinUAE: Read track zero when checking bootblock contents. Disappeared in previous update.
- Custom Controls: Use strings to parse custom control configs
- WHDBooter: parse H/V Offset settings from XML as well, if found (and we're not using auto-crop)
- Fixed #944: FloppyBridge: loading a config with FB enabled would not initialize it
- Updated amiberry.conf with missing default options
- Allow parsing of Display settings from XML, optionally
- Disable Horizontal Centering by default
(dr)
[News message: 19. Apr. 2022, 22:20] [Comments: 0]
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19.Apr.2022
McFly (ANF)
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German Amiga Podcast #4
The fourth edition of the "German Amiga Podcast" (GAP) deals with the FPGA turbo card IceDrake V4 for the Amiga 1200. Besides there are some surf tips again. (snx)
[News message: 19. Apr. 2022, 15:56] [Comments: 0]
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19.Apr.2022
Andreas Magerl (ANF)
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Print magazine: Amiga Future, issue 156
The English and German issue 156 (May/June 2022) of the print magazine Amiga Future has been distributed. It can be ordered directly from its editorial office and from Amiga dealers that stock the magazine.
Content of the current issue includes reviews about Ignition and the Unithor joystick as well as a special about the demoscene. (snx)
[News message: 19. Apr. 2022, 15:48] [Comments: 0]
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19.Apr.2022
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First teaser video: Arcade shooter 'Mision La Luna'
José A. 'Jojo073' Gonzáles (among others 1987 Rescue in Berlin, Furtum Sacrum) is a very active graphic designer who has been creating smaller games under the Iron Gate label for years with the help of various game construction kits like Backbone or GRAC.
Now a first teaser video of the arcade shooter 'Mision La Luna' has been released, which seems to be heavily inspired by Operation Thunderbolt. (dr)
[News message: 19. Apr. 2022, 08:39] [Comments: 0]
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18.Apr.2022
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Videos: Running Apple Macintosh 6 software on an Amiga using 'A-Max'
Almost at the same time, two videos were released, dealing with the use of the 'Apple Macintosh 6' operating system on an Amiga: In the late 80s, early 90s ReadySoft released their combination of software and hardware, called 'A-Max' and 'A-Max II' respectively, with which you could use Apple Macintosh 6 software.
The user 'intric8' has published a detailed article including a video on AmigaLove, which demonstrates the usage with an Amiga 1000.
The 8-Bit Guy' has also taken care of the topic and shows in his video the usage of the A-Max with an Amiga 500. (dr)
[News message: 18. Apr. 2022, 08:25] [Comments: 0]
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18.Apr.2022
Amiga Future (website)
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Free hardware: Joystick adapter JoyDivision updated
The USB adapter for classic joysticks by Stefan 'Develin' Blixth (amiga-news.de reported), which works without additional drivers, is now available in version 20220416. This one now also supports the minicomputer THEA500 Mini. (snx)
[News message: 18. Apr. 2022, 06:53] [Comments: 0]
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17.Apr.2022
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Aminet uploads until 16.04.2022
The following files have been added until 16.04.2022 to Aminet:
thttpd2.21b_working_p... comm/www 13M 68k THTTPd with PHP support + Big...
REDPILLGameCreator.lha dev/misc 2.3M 68k Game Creator with AGA support
F1GP2022Carset.lha game/data 7K 2022 Carset for F1GP
MCE.lha game/edit 3.3M 68k Multi-game Character Editor
MCE-MOS.lha game/edit 3.6M MOS Multi-game Character Editor
MCE-OS4.lha game/edit 3.8M OS4 Multi-game Character Editor
AmiDuke_RTG.lha game/shoot 622K 68k Amiga port of Duke Nukem 3D
Gotcha199.lha game/think 55K 68k Pair two numbers to get the 1...
WhatIFF1.04.lha mags/misc 674K What IFF? #1.04-March-2022
unshield.lha util/arc 126K MOS Extract/list InstallShield Ca...
TestProgram.zip util/misc 664K 68k Versatile Amiga Test Program
(snx)
[News message: 17. Apr. 2022, 07:21] [Comments: 0]
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17.Apr.2022
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OS4Depot uploads until 16.04.2022
The following files have been added until 16.04.2022 to OS4Depot:
arabic_console_device... dri/inp 3Mb 4.1 An arabic console device, line &...
mce.lha gam/uti 4Mb 4.0 Multi-game Character Editor
(snx)
[News message: 17. Apr. 2022, 07:21] [Comments: 0]
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17.Apr.2022
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AROS Archives uploads until 16.04.2022
The following files have been added until 16.04.2022 to AROS Archives:
whatiff1.04.lha doc/mis 674kb AmigaGuide format Magazine Mar/A...
atomiks.i386-aros.zip gam/puz 772kb 1990)
(snx)
[News message: 17. Apr. 2022, 07:21] [Comments: 0]
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17.Apr.2022
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MorphOS-Storage uploads until 16.04.2022
The following files have been added until 16.04.2022 to MorphOS-Storage:
AmiArcadia_28.5.lha Emulation A Signetics-based machi...
unshield_1.5.1.lha Files/Archive Extract/list InstallShi...
ADiffView_2.2.lha Text/Compare A graphical file compar...
(snx)
[News message: 17. Apr. 2022, 07:21] [Comments: 0]
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17.Apr.2022
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WHDLoad: New installers until 16.04.2022
Using WHDLoad, games, scene demos and intros by cracking groups, which were originally designed to run only from floppy disks, can be installed on harddisk. The following installers have been added until 16.04.2022:
(snx)
[News message: 17. Apr. 2022, 07:21] [Comments: 0]
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17.Apr.2022
Amiga Future (Webseite)
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Event: Amiga37 homepage online
On 15/16 October 2022 the Amiga37 will take place in Mönchengladbach, Germany (amiga-news.de reported). Now the corresponding homepage has been set up under the title link, but the list of participants is still empty and will be published bit by bit. Advance ticket sales are expected to start next week. (snx)
[News message: 17. Apr. 2022, 07:21] [Comments: 0]
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17.Apr.2022
Hackster
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Open Source 3D printer: SLS4All
Every now and then we report on do-it-yourself projects such as making your own joystick using a 3D printer. Not bad, you might say, but what's the point if I don't have a 3D printer? Especially not one that is even remotely affordable!
While not amiga-inspired, Tomas Starek may have had similar thoughts when he started his DIY project of his own affordable 3D printer. However, as he tells us, he was so surprised by the positive reactions from around the world that he decided to document his 'Open Source' project thoroughly and comprehensibly.
He chose the SLS printing process for this. As the portal hackster.io reports, there are currently no consumer SLS 3D printers on the market. The process involves beaming a laser at a bed of powdered polymer, which thereby melts it and turns it into a solid. As with other forms of 3D printing, the layers build up to form a three-dimensional object. Compared to other processes, it offers the advantage of generating bridges and overhanging geometry, he said. The print chamber is 175 X 175 X 200 mm in size.
For control, Starek chose a combination of BigTreeTech 1.4 Turbo control board and Raspberry Pi 4B, both running Klipper firmware.
The main goal of his project is to use the most "affordable" (initially: cheap) parts possible. The should be able to create complex prints and be user-friendly. We asked the developer what costs should ultimately be expected by an interested user who wants to build the 3D printer himself: he estimates about 2500 euros. At a later date, he could also imagine selling the printer as a finished, commercial product or as a kit for assembly. For now, however, it is a matter of finishing the development of the printer. And the current status looks like this:
- DESIGN: Generic & Fusion 360 design 100%
- Hardware Parts fabrication and Build: Frame & Moving Parts 98%
- Electronic equipment installation: Laser, Galvo system, step motors, heaters 100%
- Firmware And Software development: FW customization & F-e development 75%
- Testing: Partial Tests, Complex testing, 3D printing 65%
- Documentation: F3D, DXF & STL files, GitHub Repos, etc... 50%
(dr)
[News message: 17. Apr. 2022, 06:36] [Comments: 0]
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16.Apr.2022
Indie Retro News (Webseite)
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Jump'n Run: second playable demo of 'Creeping Me Out Hex Night'
Michael 'Mixel' Dawes provides another demo version of his jump'n run 'Creeping Me Out: Hex Night', created with the game construction kit Scorpion Engine. According to the developer, this second preview "adds a lot of improvements since the last time (no new levels or anything, just tweaks, graphical improvements, etc)". The game requires 2 MB of Chip and 1 MB of Fast RAM, and (presumably) a 68020 processor. (cg)
[News message: 16. Apr. 2022, 23:40] [Comments: 0]
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16.Apr.2022
a1k.org (Webseite)
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Hardware hack: A fifth audio channel for the Amiga
In an older blog entry, which can only be found in the web archive, a Norwegian describes how he uses the FBAS signal of his Amiga to output a fifth audio channel in addition to the four existing (stereo) channels. He uses the fact that bright and dark pixels are transmitted as different voltages on the video cable. A video demonstrates the principle in action. (cg)
[News message: 16. Apr. 2022, 22:29] [Comments: 0]
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16.Apr.2022
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Modern decompressor for Amiga data compression formats: Ancient 2.0
Ancient' unpacks files compressed with Amiga "crunchers" like Powerpacker or similar. The program, written in portable C, supports a variety of known compression formats - among others all that the regular XPK distribution can unpack, as well as disk images in DiskMasher format ("DMS") and LhA archives. Source code and Windows executables can be found on Github, a MorphOS version has been published on im Aminet.
(cg)
[News message: 16. Apr. 2022, 22:20] [Comments: 0]
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15.Apr.2022
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Easter Egg in AmigaOS 3.2.1 discovered
AmigaOS 3.2.1 contains an Easter Egg, that much had been hinted at by members of the team. A user has now discovered it: The disk image Update3.2.1.adf has a folder 'T', which contains a file called 'ed-backup'. This executable file is a small demo with bouncing boing balls and a small text scroller. The user who discovered the Easter Egg posted a small description of the process including a screenshot of the demo on os4welt.de (registration required). (cg) (Translation: cg)
[News message: 15. Apr. 2022, 23:50] [Comments: 0]
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14.Apr.2022
Twitter
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Sound card ZZ9000AX: PDF manual and fixed axmp3 version
The ZZ9000AX is the sound module for the multifunctional Amiga expansion card ZZ9000. The delivery of the first batch began at the end of March (amiga-news.de reported).
Now the developer Lukas F. Hartmann has released both a PDF manual including schematics (direct download) and a new version of the axmp3 tool (direct download), which should reduce the risk of screen scribbling (Z3 only). Also, there would be sound output problems on some 68060 configurations. He would take care of this after his vacation next week. (dr)
[News message: 14. Apr. 2022, 06:13] [Comments: 0]
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13.Apr.2022
Twitter
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Shoot'em Up: SkillGrid 1.2
About three years ago, Simone 'saimo' Bevilacqua (e.g. BOH, Huenison) released his abstract, vertical shoot'em up SkillGrid (amiga-news.de reported).
In the meantime, the second update has been released, which further improves the game and provides a special 'PRESS PLAY ON TAPE' variant: a special version whose soundtrack is the rockin' tongue-in-cheek song "Man with the Gun" by the Commodore 64 revival band PRESS PLAY ON TAPE. (dr)
[News message: 13. Apr. 2022, 11:15] [Comments: 0]
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13.Apr.2022
OSnews
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Raspberry Pi: Development status of free firmware
'Raspberry Pi' computers require partially closed source software to boot - the so-called raspi-firmware package. But since its release 10 years ago, there have been efforts to make it bootable with open source software only. In a recent blog entry Gunnar Wolf describes how free firmware for the Raspberry is progressing. (dr)
[News message: 13. Apr. 2022, 09:18] [Comments: 0]
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13.Apr.2022
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Print/PDF magazine: Komoda & Amiga plus #20 (English/Polish)
"Komoda & Amiga Plus" is dedicated to retro gamers and deals mainly with Commodore's 8-bit computers and Amigas. Among the topics of the current issue 20 (winter/spring) are game reviews on 'Shadowlands', 'Pacman', 'Incman', 'Dread' and 'Coco Banana' as well as the articles 'What is Amiga in 2022? Part 1' and 'A500 CPU replacement'.
The magazine is available in a printed edition inclusive Commodore 64/128 Coverdisk for 9,67 Euro (plus 5 Euro shipping), the price for the digital edition is 2,15 Euro. (dr)
[News message: 13. Apr. 2022, 06:53] [Comments: 0]
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12.Apr.2022
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Programming Contest: Results of the BASIC 10Liner Contest 2022
The "BASIC 10Liner Contest" is a competition for self-written BASIC programs that have to consist of exactly 10 lines and has been organized since 2011 (amiga-news.de reported). Traditionally, the winners are announced during a live show, the "NOMAM" ("Not only marvelous Atari machinery"), an annual gathering of enthusiasts of the home computer era, which took place last weekend.
Even though there was no entry for Amiga-Basic this year, we don't want to withhold the first place winners in the individual categories from our interested readers and present them:
(dr)
[News message: 12. Apr. 2022, 08:53] [Comments: 0]
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12.Apr.2022
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Playable demo of a commercial Arcade game: Yoomp
Just like Jump!, 'Yoomp' is a conversion of a Atari 8 bit release from 2007. A playable preview for OCS Amigas has been released a while ago, the game is going to be distributed commercially by RGCD. Further information about the project can be found in a thread on ppa.pl (machine translation).
(cg) (Translation: cg)
[News message: 12. Apr. 2022, 00:10] [Comments: 0]
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11.Apr.2022
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Italian print/PDF magazine: Passione Amiga, issue 6
The Italian magazine 'Passione Amiga' is available in digital (3 Euros) or printed (7.50 Euros) editions. The current issue has 36 colored pages (DIN A4) and covers the following topics:
- Videogiochi: Attack of the Petscii Robots, Jump!, Ermentrud, The Lone Ranger, Silverman y la Isla Esmeralda, Drag’n’drop Deluxe
- Parliamo con RetroGames Ltd a proposito di THEA500 Mini
- From Vultures to Vampires primo volume – edizione italiana
- Ian Hetherington (Psygnosis) e John Madden
- AmigaOS 4.1 su PegasosII
- Blender – transizioni audio e sottotitoli
- Interviste con: Mevlut Dinc (Vivid Image), Colin Vella
- E inoltre: Games news, Tech news, Scena demo, Nuovi Talenti, La Posta dei Lettori
(cg) (Translation: cg)
[News message: 11. Apr. 2022, 22:31] [Comments: 0]
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11.Apr.2022
a1k.org (Webseite)
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Scandoubler announcement: 'Medusa' converts video signals to VGA/DVI
The scandoubler Medusa accepts a composite, S-Video or RGB signal and converts it into proper VGA output, which is also converted into a digital signal available via a DVI-I connector. There is also an option to digitize an analog audio signal, combine it with the DVI output using an appropriate adapter and output the audio/video combination via HDMI.
Medusa is said to be much cheaper than the no longer manufactured 'FrameMeister' used to be, plus it accepts resolutions bigger than traditional PAL/NTSC - like the ones used by the Atari ST. In contrast to the Open Source Scan Converter, it supports composite and S-Video signals and is claimed to be easier to configure. The new scandoubler is supposed to be available for purchase starting in May, some dealers already accept preorders (RetroLemon,
lotharek.pl). (cg) (Translation: cg)
[News message: 11. Apr. 2022, 22:21] [Comments: 0]
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11.Apr.2022
Robert Smith
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Video: DrawBridge for MiSTer in development
Robert Smith's project 'DrawBridge' (Disk Reader and Writer Bridge) uses a microcontroller - in this case an Arduino board - to read and write Amiga floppy disks with a standard PC disk drive connected. After successfully implementing this project, the developer explores in his latest video the possibilities of transferring this to the FPGA Amiga clone MISTer as well. (dr)
[News message: 11. Apr. 2022, 18:45] [Comments: 0]
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11.Apr.2022
Carlos Peris (Mail)
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Game Construction Kit: RedPill 0.9.8 with WHDLoad support
RedPill, developed by Carlos Peris, is a game construction kit written in Amiblitz 3.9, which allows the development of games from various genres (see short tests of two Redpill games). RedPill is compatible with AGA and ECS, the "player" for playing the finished creations requires a total of 1.5 MB RAM.
The new version 0.9.8 mainly offers some improvements when creating the build: now it is possible to generate automatically a WHDload package which could make distribution easier and also allows the game running on the new THEA500 Mini (see YouTube video). Also, you can choose to compress the game assets, making the build smaller, more suitable when distributing it via floppy. Besides that some minor improvements and a lot of fixes are included. Full Changelog:
- WHDLoad support when exporting the game, creating a lha package (LHA and WHDLoad required in C:)
- Check instructions in the readme file to run games on The A500 Mini
- All image and audio assets can now be compressed when exporting the game (Build button)
- New action trigger Orbitate Parent to have and object orbitate another one
- Spritesheets and tilesets can be deleted if no longer used
- Improved IFF ILBM compatibility for compressed graphics
- A bit of rollback to some chip memory optimizations to make the games more stable
- In level edit screen scrolls will scroll twice as fast for faster navigation
- All exe's are now compiled using latest Amiblitz3.9
- HUD texts are using color 1 by default to avoid using the same default background colors
- In tileset screen when the tile image file is not valid it will be shown in red
- Fix in Autoslice
- Fix for projects not using any tileSet
- Fix for some random crashes
(dr)
[News message: 11. Apr. 2022, 06:07] [Comments: 0]
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11.Apr.2022
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Aminet uploads until 09.04.2022
The following files have been added until 09.04.2022 to Aminet:
Ghetto_Crew.lha demo/ecs 331K 68k Ocean Floor demo for GERP2022...
void-dreams37.zip demo/misc 537K 68k Demopack - April 2022
F1GP2022Carset.lha game/data 7K 2022 Carset for F1GP
Exult_RTG.lha game/role 50M 68k Amiga port of Ultima 7 (Exult)
CitadelRemonstered.lha game/shoot 3.9M 68k Citadel Remonstered
Gotcha199.lha game/think 78K 68k Pair two numbers to get the 1...
Oz_Game.lha game/think 27K 68k Logic game based on David Par...
WhatIFF1.04.lha mags/misc 674K What IFF? #1.04-March-2022
AmiArcadia.lha misc/emu 4.4M 68k Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiArcadiaMOS.lha misc/emu 4.7M MOS Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiArcadia-OS4.lha misc/emu 4.9M OS4 Signetics-based machines emul...
pccard.lha util/libs 56K 68k Library to parse PCMCIA infor...
ADiffView.lha util/misc 122K 68k Graphical ASCII file compare/...
WHDLoadMenu.lha util/misc 483K 68k A WHDLoad frontend
Anno.lha util/time 327K 68k Reminder and calendar utility
(snx)
[News message: 11. Apr. 2022, 00:18] [Comments: 0]
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11.Apr.2022
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OS4Depot uploads until 09.04.2022
The following files have been added until 09.04.2022 to OS4Depot:
amiarcadia.lha emu/gam 5Mb 4.0 Signetics-based machines emulator
jasspa-memacs.lha uti/tex 2Mb 4.1 JASSPA MicroEmacs under AmiCygni...
(snx)
[News message: 11. Apr. 2022, 00:18] [Comments: 0]
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11.Apr.2022
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AROS Archives uploads until 09.04.2022
The following files have been added until 09.04.2022 to AROS Archives:
nmtm.lzx gam/adv 26Mb Point and click adventure game
(snx)
[News message: 11. Apr. 2022, 00:18] [Comments: 0]
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11.Apr.2022
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MorphOS-Storage uploads until 09.04.2022
The following files have been added until 09.04.2022 to MorphOS-Storage:
MirrorCopy_2.5.lha Files/Tools A clone of MirrorCopy b...
Symmetrix_1.0.lha System/Ambient/Blankers Screen Blanker for MorphOS
Uptime_1.5a.lha System/Ambient/Screenbar Display Uptime in scree...
(snx)
[News message: 11. Apr. 2022, 00:18] [Comments: 0]
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11.Apr.2022
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WHDLoad: New installers until 09.04.2022
Using WHDLoad, games, scene demos and intros by cracking groups, which were originally designed to run only from floppy disks, can be installed on harddisk. The following installers have been added until 09.04.2022:
- 2022-04-09 improved: SAS Combat Simulator (Code Masters) 68000 quitkey support, manual included (Info)
- 2022-04-09 improved: Legend of the Lost (Impressions) keyboard problems on 68000 machines fixed, manual included (Info)
- 2022-04-08 improved: Dan Dare 3 (Speed Buggy) keyboard problems on 68000 machines fixed, manual included (Info)
- 2022-04-07 improved: Data Storm (Visionary Design) added joypad controls & trainer, fixed keyboard, 68000 quitkey, added manual (Info)
- 2022-04-06 improved: Dungeon Master 2: The Legend of Skullkeep (Interplay) AGA flag removed, use less memory, trainers and solution added, install script updated (Info)
- 2022-04-05 improved: Operation Harrier (U.S.Gold) CD32 joypad support added, byte write to volume register fixed, default quitkey changed to Del, interrupts fixed (Info)
- 2022-04-04 improved: Last Ninja 3 (System 3) level code can be entered with CD32 joypad buttons (REVERSE/FORWARD), latest joypad reading code used (Info)
- 2022-04-04 improved: Lure of the Temptress (Virgin) fixed spurious delay/button click, restart now works (Info)
- 2022-04-04 new: Green Beret (Dante Retro Dev) done by JOTD (Info)
- 2022-04-04 improved: Desert Strike (Electronic Arts) support for 512k chip, sound fixed (Info)
- 2022-04-03 improved: Second Samurai (Psygnosis/Vivid Image) 68000/NoVBRMove quitkey support (Info)
- 2022-04-03 updated: Ninja Remix (System 3) patch redone, trainer options added, CD32 joypad support, 68000 quitkey support, source code included (Info)
(snx)
[News message: 11. Apr. 2022, 00:18] [Comments: 0]
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10.Apr.2022
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Prototype: A-Pet - PET/CBM inspired metal case for Amiga or PC
An Amiga fan from England is working on a metall case inspired by the PET/CBM series from Commodore. Thanks to different backplates, the "A-Pet" will be able to house a generic PC motherboard or various Amiga models. While the proportions will be similar, the case is not an exact match of the original PET cases: It's not using a 9 or 12 inch monitor but offers a 14 or 17 inch display. And regular Amiga keyboards would be too wide for a standard PET case anyway.
Currently, the designer is working on a first prototype, he's reporting his progress in an Amiga forum regularly. The project's current state is also illustrated in a Video.
The A-Pet is laser cut from metal sheets which are then folded like a sheet of construction paper. The designer plans to sell finished, powder coated cases to end users. (cg) (Translation: cg)
[News message: 10. Apr. 2022, 23:28] [Comments: 0]
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09.Apr.2022
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AmigaGuide magazine: Issue 4 of 'WhatIFF?' published
WhatIFF? is an Amiga magazine in AmigaGuide format. Unlike other magazines or journals, WhatIFF? does not deal with games, but is mainly intended for users who want to be creative with their Amigas.
As Timo Paul, the creator of the magazine, told us, his original motivation for the magazine was to create something similar to Amiga World, Amazing Amiga and Amiga Report: "There is a lot of software that people want to use but the guides are not there and WhatIFF? offers a helping hand to those who want to use creative software such as Lightwave and Brilliance. As the magazine grows with writers I hope to offer more guides on other software. In addition each issue offers tutorials on how to fix your Amiga, update, or use in unique ways."
Topics of issue 4:
- Reviews: AmiGemini, AmiKit Pi, USB mouse adapters, firmware update of TerribleFire 1260 accelerator board
- Guides: Second part of Lightwave 3.5 tutorial, tutorial for Brilliance, tutorial for OctaMED, fixing an Invidision AGAMk2cr, creating a Gemini Capsule
- Interview: Chris Edwards (PiMiga)
(dr)
[News message: 09. Apr. 2022, 09:01] [Comments: 0]
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09.Apr.2022
Arne Urbaniak (E-Mail)
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Amiga disks on PC: Copy program G-Copy 0.2
After the release of A-Copy, a program similar to X-Copy for reading and writing ADF disk images under Windows using the ADF drive hardware, Arne Urbaniak now is in the process of writing 'G-Copy', a corresponding application for the Greaseweazle (amiga-news.de reported).
In version 0.2 the checking of DOSDISK and the determination of the name of the floppy disk is improved. In addition, minor bugs have been fixed and BAMcopy now works.
Download: gcopy.zip (30 MB) (dr)
[News message: 09. Apr. 2022, 07:54] [Comments: 0]
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09.Apr.2022
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Emulator: vAmigaWeb v2.0 Beta 2
vAmigaWeb is an Amiga emulator for the web browser or a Progressive Web App (PWA) based on the Amiga emulator for MacOS, vAmiga. Parallel to the current update of the Amiga emulator, the developer 'mithrendal' has also updated his application with the latest vAmigaCore and fixed a few minor bugs. (dr)
[News message: 09. Apr. 2022, 07:15] [Comments: 0]
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09.Apr.2022
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Amiga emulator for MacOS: vAmiga 2.0 Beta 3 (update)
Yesterday Dirk Hoffmann released the second beta version of vAmiga 2.0 of his Amiga emulator for MacOS which is currently under development (amiga-news.de reported). Changes:
- Bug fixes:
- Fixed a graphics bug caused by returning an erroneous value from DENISEID
- Several smaller GUI tweaks
- Enhancements:
- Added support for the debug board implemented by @mras0
- Improved HDF geometry prediction
- A new write-through mode makes hard drives persistent
- Added several new debugging features:
- Catchpoints (stops emulation on CPU exceptions)
- Software traps
- Copper breakpoints and Copper watchpoints
- Rudimentary callstack recording
The minimum system requirement is macOS 10.15.
Update: (11.04.2022, 06:28, dr)
Meanwhile beta version 3 was released.
- Bug fixes:
- Fixed a bug that caused the emulator to crash during startup on some machines
- Drag and drop was broken for drives other than Df0 and Hd0
- Enhancements:
- Hard drive controller is now compatible with Kickstart 1.2
- Status bar icon reports the initialisation state of the HD controller
- New app icon
(dr)
[News message: 09. Apr. 2022, 07:13] [Comments: 1 - 11. Apr. 2022, 06:30]
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08.Apr.2022
Void
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Demopack: Issue 37 of 'Dreams' released
Void is an Amiga demo group that has been active since 1995. Its members come from different parts of the world: United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Finland, United States, Greece, Switzerland and South Africa. Yesterday they released the 37th issue of their demo pack Dreams for AGA-Amigas. (dr)
[News message: 08. Apr. 2022, 09:37] [Comments: 0]
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08.Apr.2022
Indiegogo
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Illustrated book: 'Demoscene - The AGA Years' near completion
About a year ago, the first illustrated book about the demoscene, 'Demoscene - The Amiga Years', was completed, covering the years 1984 to 1993. The second part, 'Demoscene - The AGA Years', which is dedicated to the years 1994 to 1996, has also been crowdfunded. In an update published yesterday, the publishers announced that after some delay not only the content of the book has been written, but also the work on the layout and design of the 468 pages has been completed. Now the proofreading is still pending.
Those who did not participate in the crowdfunding can pre-order the book from the French publisher for 35 Euros. (dr)
[News message: 08. Apr. 2022, 09:12] [Comments: 0]
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08.Apr.2022
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Diskmag: Jurassic Pack #19, last issue for now
After a 12-year break, the 18th issue of the English-language diskmag 'Jurassic Pack', first published in 1995, was released in January 2021 (amiga-news.de reported). Editor Lars 'Ghandy' Sobiraj has now published the 19th issue and announces in the editorial that this might be the last one for good.
They would have spent more time chasing people and their promises in the last few weeks than getting creative themselves. This included two intros, several interviews, promised support in the form of articles and much more. And if there is no response even to multiple requests, he can only understand that as disinterest. He laments not only the waste of time, but also the demoralizing effect.
In addition, the three-person editorial team would crumble apart peu à peu. Likewise, he would not have expected the ever dwindling interest in Diskmags at the time of the relaunch. The fact is, however, that in contrast to 20 years ago, many people nowadays get their information from forums or podcasts. That's why they're now taking a break and we'll see if the joy and desire returns. The content of the 19th issue:
- three background songs
- Report on 'Deadline 2021 Party'
- Report on 'Polish Summer 2021 Party'
- Interview with the organizer of 'The Party'
- Introduction of musicdisk Cheesy Listening
- Interview with Jochen 'Virgill' Feldkötter (Amiga musician, programmer of scene intros for Windows, developer of demo tools like 'AmigaKlang'
- Interview with group 'Abyss' (demos, demo tools, games, e.g. Wong Way Driver)
- Interview with demo groups 'The Union' and 'Overlanders', creators of the demo 'FirST Love' (AtariST)
- Article on "Proper productions releases management"
- Interview with programmer 'Sim' about the Amiga demo 'Voyage', created by 'Razor 1911'
- Introduction of eleven everlasting music productions
- Report on the local demo scene in south Denmark
- Interview with the demo musician Peter 'Mr. Pet' Cukierski
- Interview with the British Amiga programmer 'Galahad' (Fairlight, Scoopex)
- Interview with Fredrik 'Gnilk' Kling, member of the demo group 'Noice'
- Article: "Why diskmags have totally gone out of fashion"
- Article: "Groups are redunant anno domini 2022"
- Artikel: "Are really all maineditors loudmouths?"
- Article: "This is why Sceners keep the Scene spirit alive"
- Article: "How the upgrading madness (nearly) killed the Scene"
- Article: "'Sofasceners'- Scening from home"
- Prologue
(dr)
[News message: 08. Apr. 2022, 05:43] [Comments: 0]
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07.Apr.2022
amigaworld.net (Webseite)
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Amiga Games, Inc. sells Amiga NFTs to fund blockchain development
"Amiga Games, Inc." (AGI) was a spin-off of Amiga, Inc. founded by Bill McEwen in 2013 to continue the last remaining line of business: selling (emulated) Amiga game classics for mobile platforms. AGI was taken over by the Writers Group almost immediately after it was founded - whose shares were already available on the stock exchange for a few hundredths of a cent at that time.
Although there was initially talk of hundreds of Amiga titles that were to be brought to various mobile platforms - the range of around a dozen titles and the Blackberry as the only supported platform never changed. Almost two years later, the offer had to be completely discontinued as the license received from the new owner of the Amiga rights expired at the end of March 2015.
AGI's official website has never featured much more than an animated boingball in all these years (Web Archive), but at the end of March, amigagamesinc.com was completely overhauled: There is talk of a "relaunch", the "resurrection of old games" and the "ultimate mobile platform for playing your favorite retro games". Interested parties can invest in this project in advance in order to have a "say" in the development of the platform and the selection of titles.
This investment is made by purchasing so-called NFTs. The tokens offered by AGI are graphics related to games such as Dune or Rocket Ranger, which are available at a unit price of USD 250. The income generated in this way will be used to finance the development of the "Retro Infinity Player" - i.e. the software engine with which AGI intends to bring retro classics to various modern platforms. The only information about the Retro Player that can be found on the website is the statement that it is "Blockchain based" und already in development.
There is no imprint to be found on the site, and according to the Terms & Conditions, which are over 60 pages long on our computer, amigagamesinc.com is an offer from Active World Club. The latter's website does not contain any content either and just announces an imminent "Reboot". According to the company's own Twitter channel, the cryptocurrency "Active World Rewards Token" (AWRT) currently appears to be AWC's main area of business.
Editor's note: "Blockchain", "NFT" and "cryptocurrency" are the very buzzwords that have been used for several years now in a constant attempt to entice investors and private investors to make speculative purchases. That someone at Amiga Games Inc. is really working on the development of a retro player can probably be ruled out - quite apart from the fact that an allegedly "blockchain-based" retro player makes no sense whatsoever. (cg) (Translation: cg)
[News message: 07. Apr. 2022, 16:33] [Comments: 0]
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07.Apr.2022
Indie Retro News (Webseite)
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New maps for a classic Dungeon Crawler: Blackest Crypt
Raven's 1992 Dungeon Crawler Black Crypt just got five new dungeons developed by a fan of the game. The mission pack is called "Blackest Crypt", changes only the levels while the story stays the same and works with both a WHDLoad install and the disk version of the original game.
Direct download: BlackestCrypt010.lha (74 KB) (cg) (Translation: cg)
[News message: 07. Apr. 2022, 02:16] [Comments: 0]
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07.Apr.2022
Andreas Magerl (ANF)
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Print magazine: issue 135 of Amiga Future readable free of charge
The German and Englisch editions of 'Amiga Future' issue 135 (November/December 2018) can now be read for free on the magazine's website.
Remainders of the physical issue as well as PDF files at a higher resolution are available from the publisher. (cg)
[News message: 07. Apr. 2022, 01:56] [Comments: 0]
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06.Apr.2022
Erik Hogan (Mail)
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Game Construction Kit: Scorpion Engine V2022.2, video series
The "Scorpion Engine" by Erik 'earok' Hogan is supposed to allow the development of games. The engine itself is closed source, but all included demos and demo games are open source. The editor itself runs under Windows. Graphics are imported as PNG files, for level creation the editor Tiled is used. For sounds, music and animations Amiga formats (mod, 8svx, anim5) are used.
Today version 2022.2 was released, which among other things adds the ability to create custom masks and provides improved string support and save and load functions.
In addition, the developer is working on a video series with Michael Parent from BitBeamCannon (e.g. DaemonClaw, Metro Siege). The game studio is currently developing a new game for the A500 with the help of Scorpion Enginee, using features such as parallax and translucency in four-bit plane mode. The collaborative video series about this game is not intended to be a tutorial for creating a game from scratch, but rather a documentation of the steps involved in creating this game, providing tips and tricks for Scorpion beginners and veterans alike. Michael Parent has released the first video, which shows the process of setting up a new project and implementing layer parallax. The second and third videos will follow in the next few days. (dr)
[News message: 06. Apr. 2022, 21:52] [Comments: 0]
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06.Apr.2022
Artur Jarosik (Patreon)
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Real-time strategy: Vanilla Conquer V0.98
Artur Jarosik is known for various game ports like the platformer Hydra Castle Labyrinth or the action adventure Heart of Darkness, besides his SDL implementation of the browser NetSurf. Now he is porting the first part of the real-time strategy series Command & Conquer to the Amiga and named it "Vanilla Conquer".
Since our last message, the developer has made some fixes to the game and yesterday released version 0.98:
- Replaced Speech.mix with one adding "Repairing" speech in Repair Bay
- Fixed memory trash with damaged buildings
- Fixed repairing of vehicles on Repair Bay
- Fixed : music wouldn't stop in some cases on v4
The game is primarily intended for Amigas upgraded with an Apollo processor, especially the V4 series. However, as the author explained to us, it might be playable on a 68060 processor with a graphics card with the music and sound effects turned off.
If you want to support the author, you can do so on his Patreon website. (dr)
[News message: 06. Apr. 2022, 06:18] [Comments: 0]
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06.Apr.2022
deadwood (Mail)
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Porting Amiga applications to Linux: AxRuntime 41.2
Krzysztof 'deadwood' Śmiechowicz's "AxRuntime" is a runtime environment for Linux which emulates the AmigaOS-API and therefore enables porting Amiga applications on Linux and developing applications which can be compiled for AmigaOS/MorphOS/AROS as well as Linux. Examples videos show the AROS desktop Wanderer (MP4) and gmPlayer (MP4) under Linux.
Now the developer has released version 41.2, which provides, among other things, the following changes:
- AROS-Shell, an AmigaDOS-compatible Shell, is now available for you as a native Linux program. You can write DOS scripts and use shell commands to interact with Linux filesystem.
- AxRuntime becomes a bridge between AROS x86_64 and Linux by allowing running native AROS programs as standalone Linux programs. In this function AxRuntime is similar to Wine. Wine allows running Windows programs on Linux, AxRuntime allows running AROS programs on Linux.
This release comes with 4 applications: AROS-Shell, MPlayer, WookieChat and Final Writer 7 (demo). Additionally AROS x86_64 applications like MUIbase can also be used. (dr)
[News message: 06. Apr. 2022, 06:00] [Comments: 0]
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