28.Apr.2022
|
Programming language: AmiBlitz 3.9.2 / 'Amiga Blitz Basic Game Jam' announced
At the end of March the new major release 3.9.0 of the programming language AmiBlitz was made available. Today with version 3.9.2 a second bug fix release was added. Changes:
- fixed some enforcer hits
- fixed drawing problem with text cursor
- updated several guide files
- added a new blitzlib "crc.obj" by Ray Brooks (@rayui) to the distribution
At the same time, indie game developer Dan 'zooperdan' Thoresen (Wheel of Fortune implementation 'YAWoFFA') has announced the Amiga Blitz Basic Game Jam: From June 1 to September 1, 2022, Amiga developers are invited to write and submit games in AmiBlitz or Blitz Basic. The idea behind this contest is to increase the number of programmers and the knowledge around the Amiga and the use of Blitz Basic and AmiBlitz to create games. This means that all games submitted must include source code so that beginners have examples to study and learn from.
So if you always wanted to deal with a new programming language or apply your knowledge, you now have the opportunity to do so. Only games for 68k Amigas with AmigaOS are allowed: MorphOS, AmigaOS 4 and AROS are excluded. Also, submissions requiring Vampire cards, graphics cards or other special hardware will not be accepted. More details at the link above. (dr)
[News message: 28. Apr. 2022, 22:19] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
28.Apr.2022
MorphZone (Webseite)
|
MorphOS: Web browser Wayfarer 3.5 (2nd update)
Jacek 'jacadcaps' Piszczek has released version 3.3 and then as a bugfix version 3.4 of his MorphOS web browser 'Wayfarer'. Changes:
- HTTP HEAD requests to resources would poison the Curl disk cache with 0-byte files, leading to websites failing to load/work correctly
- Minor speed improvements in JavaScriptCore and timing code
- Improved refresh speeds when typing text on websites showing animated contents as you type
- The HLS player will iterate through all streams of the master playlist now if a selected sub playlist fails to play
- Re-worked post-seeking playback restart to avoid auto-start of streams that start playback from non-0 position
- Fixed audio buffer under-run handling
- Invisible video streams fixed not to enable overlay
- Improved invalid certificate error handling UI flows
- Disabled touch events support
- minor fix for HTTP AUTH regression
Download: wayfarer.lha (26 MB)
Update: (29.04.2022, 06:48, dr)
According to the developer, some mis-compilation has crept in that negatively impacted stability of recent builds in some situations. Hi has fixed that by releasing verion 3.5.
Update 2: (01.05.2022, 07:38, snx)
The author informs there are additional problems that seem to have been introduced with version 3.3 and recommends to revert back to Wayfarer 3.2 (wayfarer3.2.lha, 26 MB) for now. (dr)
[News message: 28. Apr. 2022, 06:08] [Comments: 1 - 01. May. 2022, 07:48]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
28.Apr.2022
Seiya (ANF)
|
PDF magazine: REV'n'GE 133 (Italian/English)
The PDF magazine REV'n'GE ("Retro Emulator Vision and Game") is available in English and Italian editions. The game reviews of REV'n'GE compare the releases of classic games on different computer systems with each other.
The current edition features the Amiga games 'Dune' (Amiga CDTV), 'Green Beret', 'Gunship 2000', 'Scramble' and 'World Championship Speedway'. (dr)
[News message: 28. Apr. 2022, 05:55] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
28.Apr.2022
Gunnar (ANF)
|
Apollo Team: Deluxe remake of Menace in development
Already in August last year Kevin Saunders, graphic designer, artist and game designer (Boss Machine and RESHOOT PROXIMA 3), announced the HD conversion of the Menace game for Vampire Amigas with an animated end boss on his homepage (amiga-news.de reported). As Gunnar von Boehn reports, the Apollo team has now started working on the Amiga shooter and published a first demo video. The features of the remake:
- true smooth 50 FPS scrolling
- High resolution
- truecolor with alpha blending
- dual player cooperate fun
- stereo 16bit music in combination with 16bit game soundFx in CD-quality
The final game is supposed to contain all six original levels and fully animated end bosses. The game requires over 200 MB of FastRAM as well as a 68080 CPU and Super-AGA chipset. The game will be released as a commercial title with box. The source files including all data files of the first level will be published as part of the programming series "Amiga Homeschooling" to demonstrate to interested people how to program games for Amiga and Saga. programmieren kann.
Download of the preview demo: MENACE4.exe (103 MB)
(dr)
[News message: 28. Apr. 2022, 05:39] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
28.Apr.2022
Twitter
|
Graphics card ZZ9000: New, experimental firmware for 'Zorro 3' systems (update)
Lukas F. Hartmann's ZZ9000 is a graphics card with connections beyond that (network, USB, SD cards), which can be pre-ordered in different versions (amiga-news.de reported). Now he provides an experimental, new firmware for 'Zorro 3' systems, which fixes fixes spurious register write misses. All those who encountered graphics and audio glitches should test this 'BOOT.bin' and report.
Download: zz9000-fwpack-110-20220502b.zip (1 MB)
Update: (30.04.2022, 22:11, dr)
Meanwhile a new test version of Zorro 3 firmware for ZZ9000/ZZ9000AX is available with improved resampling and DSP lowpass filter. Download link updated. (dr)
[News message: 28. Apr. 2022, 05:15] [Comments: 2 - 03. May. 2022, 10:03]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
27.Apr.2022
(ANF)
|
Event: Ticket sale for Amiga37 started
On October 15 and 16, 2022 in Mönchengladbach (Germany) the Amiga37 will take place (amiga-news.de reported). Now the ticket sales have started. Tickets can be bought on a separate website (title link). (dr)
[News message: 27. Apr. 2022, 06:03] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
26.Apr.2022
|
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]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
26.Apr.2022
|
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]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
25.Apr.2022
Cathal (ANF)
|
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]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
25.Apr.2022
Willem Drijver (ANF)
|
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]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
25.Apr.2022
|
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]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
25.Apr.2022
|
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]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
24.Apr.2022
Andreas Falkenhahn (ANF)
|
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]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
24.Apr.2022
|
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]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
24.Apr.2022
|
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]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
24.Apr.2022
|
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]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
24.Apr.2022
|
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]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
24.Apr.2022
|
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]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
24.Apr.2022
|
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]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
24.Apr.2022
|
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]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
24.Apr.2022
Amiga Future (Webseite)
|
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]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
23.Apr.2022
|
'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]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
23.Apr.2022
Twitter
|
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]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
23.Apr.2022
|
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]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
22.Apr.2022
|
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]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
| |
| Recent Discussions |
 |
|
|
|
| Latest Top-News |
|
|
|
|
| amiga-news.de |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
