03.Dec.2023
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Mastodon client: Amidon 1.3
Dimitris 'MiDWaN' Panokostas, author of the Amiga emulator Amiberry, has released version 1.3 of his Mastodon client Amidon for AmigaOS 3 (amiga-news.de reported). This version fixes a bug, where Amidon's Settings window would stop responding if opened on a non-RTG screen.
Download: Amidon_v1.3_OS3.zip (1,83 MB) (dr)
[News message: 03. Dec. 2023, 20:35] [Comments: 0]
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03.Dec.2023
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Aminet uploads until 02.12.2023
The following files have been added until 02.12.2023 to Aminet:
REDPILLGameCreator.lha dev/misc 4.8M 68k Game Creator with AGA support
f1champ.lha docs/misc 74K Statistics of Formula One 195...
anaiis_massive.lha driver/oth 46K 68k Massive release 1.23
P96Prefs.lha driver/vid 85K 68k P96 Preferences Editor
Capitan_Trueno_v1.1.lha game/actio 1.0M 68k El Capitan Trueno
CapitanTrueno_v1.1_WH... game/actio 1.0M 68k El Capitan Trueno
LAbbayeDesMorts.adf game/actio 880K 68k L'Abbaye Des Morts
F1GP2023Carset.lha game/data 11K 2023 Carset for F1GP
BackdPattGener.lha gfx/edit 55K 68k Create your own backdrop patt...
AmiArcadia.lha misc/emu 4.9M 68k Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiArcadia-OS4.lha misc/emu 5.4M OS4 Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiVms.lha misc/emu 3.7M 68k Simulates OpenVMS commands
ataruita.lha mods/midi 34K Urusei Yatsura GM italian song
mdx2wav.lha mus/misc 541K 68k Convert MDX music files to PC...
vgm2wav-gme.lha mus/misc 1.0M 68k Convert console music to WAV ...
hippoplayerupdate.lha mus/play 400K 68k Updated HippoPlayer
Image2PDF.lha util/conv 19M ALL convert images to PDF and vic...
MMULib.lha util/libs 787K 68k Library to ctrl the MC68K MMUs
VATestprogram.zip util/misc 16M 68k Versatile Amiga Testprogram
(snx)
[News message: 03. Dec. 2023, 08:20] [Comments: 0]
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03.Dec.2023
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OS4Depot uploads until 02.12.2023
The following files have been added until 02.12.2023 to OS4Depot:
nallepuh.lha aud/mis 494kb 4.1 Nalle Puh (Paula,CIAA,CIAB emula...
amiarcadia.lha emu/gam 5Mb 4.0 Signetics-based machines emulator
xrick_sdl2.lha gam/pla 3Mb 4.1 Rick Dangerous SDL2 port
pintorweb.lha gra/mis 15Mb 4.0 An easy program to handling pict...
amigagpt.lha net/cha 795kb 4.0 App for chatting to ChatGPT
omanko.lha uti/fil 2Mb 4.0 web tool made to get the MD5 and...
image2pdf.lha uti/tex 19Mb 4.0 Convert JP(E)Gs and PNGs to PDF
(snx)
[News message: 03. Dec. 2023, 08:20] [Comments: 0]
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03.Dec.2023
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AROS Archives uploads until 02.12.2023
The following files have been added until 02.12.2023 to AROS Archives:
f1champ.lha doc/mis 74kb Statistics of Formula One 1950-2023
pintorweb.lha gra/con 14Mb Handle your pictures to use on y...
iff_icon_data_decoder.zip gra/ico 175kb Iff Icon Data Decoder snippets a...
omanko.lha uti/fil 2Mb web tool made to get the MD5 and...
(snx)
[News message: 03. Dec. 2023, 08:20] [Comments: 0]
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03.Dec.2023
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MorphOS-Storage uploads until 02.12.2023
The following files have been added until 02.12.2023 to MorphOS-Storage:
WitchCleaner_3.05.lha Network/Web A little and easy progr...
Omanko!_1.20.lha Files/Tools A tiny web tool made to...
AmiArcadia_30.60.lha Emulation A Signetics-based machi...
Image2PDF_2.4.lha Graphics/Convert Convert JP(E)Gs and PNG...
Easy2Install_1.0b46.lha Network/PackageManager A package manager to do...
PintorWeb_4.00.lha Graphics/Tools A little and easy web t...
(snx)
[News message: 03. Dec. 2023, 08:20] [Comments: 0]
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03.Dec.2023
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WHDLoad: New installers until 02.12.2023
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 02.12.2023:
- 2023-12-02 improved: Foundation's Waste (Exocet Software) supports another version, customs option added (Info)
- 2023-11-30 improved: S.D.I. (Cinemaware) supports another version (Info)
- 2023-11-30 fixed: Super Hang-On (Sega/Electric Dreams) highscore/laptimes incompatibility introduced with 1.7 update fixed (Info)
- 2023-11-30 improved: Wings of Death (Thalion/Eclipse) freeze on exit in NTSC mode fixed (Info)
- 2023-11-29 updated: Hellrun Machine (Amiga Fun) patch rewritten, editor is now supported, control problems fixed, blitter wait patches can be disabled with CUSTOM1, new install script, source code included (Info)
- 2023-11-26 improved: Time Bandit (Microdeal) supports another version (Info)
- 2023-11-26 improved: Alien Legion (Pegasus) install script updated (Info)
(snx)
[News message: 03. Dec. 2023, 08:16] [Comments: 0]
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03.Dec.2023
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AmigaRemix: Further files added
AmigaRemix collects remixes of well-known soundtracks of Amiga games. Since our last news-item, the following mp3 files have been added:
- Apidya (Highscore)
- Urban Ferret (Afterburner Final Take Off)
(snx)
[News message: 03. Dec. 2023, 08:16] [Comments: 0]
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03.Dec.2023
Sascha Kirschgens (ANF)
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Amiga38: Video of PiStorm panel held by Michal Schulz
At Amiga38 Michal Schulz gave a presentation about the Amiga extension PiStorm, which uses the minicomputer Raspberry Pi as an 68k emulator. You can find a video recording of it at the title link. (snx)
[News message: 03. Dec. 2023, 08:16] [Comments: 0]
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03.Dec.2023
Sascha Kirschgens (ANF)
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Amiga Graphics Archive: Article on t3n.de (German)
The "Amiga Graphics Archive" is dedicated to all kinds of pixel graphics created with the Commodore Amiga between 1985 and 1995 (amiga-news.de reported). Outside the Amiga media, it now also received an article yesterday at the title link on the site of the digital magazine t3n, which belongs to Heise. (snx)
[News message: 03. Dec. 2023, 08:16] [Comments: 0]
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03.Dec.2023
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Emulation: BBoot boot loader v0.5 now supports AmigaOne in QEMU (update)
In our Simplified installation guide for AmigaOS 4.1 under QEMU published in mid-August and written by Rene Engel (in German), the bootloader "BBoot" written by QEMU developer Balaton Zoltan was already used, which can now load the AmigaOne as well as the Pegasos 2 model in version 0.5.
Balaton Zoltan wrote: "BBoot is replacing the second level boot loader (amigaboot.of on pegasos2 and slb_v2 on amigaone) and makes booting AmigaOS on QEMU simpler and without needing a firmware ROM. Because BBoot runs without firmware it does not load files from disk but expects an initrd with the kickstart files in zip format loaded in memory and boots from that. This not only allows BBoot to remain simple but may also be more convenient to work with in an emulated environment and boot faster. The initrd should be a zip archive of all boot files within a Kickstart directory that can be created with "zip -r Kickstart.zip Kickstart/" for example. BBoot will look for Kickstart/Kicklayout file in the zip and boot the first config (LABEL) found in it. Currently BBoot takes no input and does not provide a boot menu so other than 1st config defined in Kicklayout cannot be chosen, but one could have different zip files for different configs and choose on the QEMU command line by using different Kickstart.zip.
BBoot can also configure PCI devices that is normally done by the firmware. Linux and MorphOS don't need this as they scan and configure PCI devices themselves during boot but AmigaOS relies on the firmware to do this so BBoot implements this too. While configuring PCI, BBoot prints debug messages that can be useful to check how these devices are configured, which can help in debugging PCI pass through or even when using newer graphics cards on a real PegasosII as BBoot can also patch 64 bit BARs that the Pegasos2 version of AmigaOS kernel cannot handle."
Balaton Zoltan has published a little guide on how to use BBoot. At least QEMU 8.1 is needed for the -initrd option on Pegasos 2 and QEMU 8.2 for the AmigaOne machine. (dr)
[News message: 03. Dec. 2023, 07:13] [Comments: 0]
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02.Dec.2023
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Text adventure: The Ghosts of Blackwood Manor
After The Curse of Rabenstein and Hibernated 1 (Director's Cut), Stefan Vogt has published another text adventure with graphics: "The Ghosts of Blackwood Manor" (YouTube video). Here, the player takes on the role of writer Thomas King and his wife Cora, who move into a remote Scottish manor house a few days before Christmas 1986. In search of inspiration for his next book, Thomas begins to research the history of Blackwood Manor and discovers a dark secret that goes back to the time of the great Scottish witch hunts.
The Ghosts of Blackwood Manor was written in Infocom's Z-machine format XZIP. The game has three different endings, a bad ending, a neutral ending and a good ending, depending on the player's choices. It is very likely that the player will not reach the good ending on the first playthrough, even though it is possible. Reaching the bad or neutral ending is part of the experience and helps the player to understand the true intentions of some of the protagonists and the consequences of the decisions made, so that these can be reconsidered.
A physical version will be available soon and can be pre-ordered from poly.play. The box will resemble Infocom's original packaging from back then. (dr)
[News message: 02. Dec. 2023, 18:08] [Comments: 0]
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02.Dec.2023
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Chat software: AmigaGPT V1.3.1 for AmigaOS 3 and 4
Cameron Armstrong has written AmigaGPT, a chat program for AmigaOS 3.2 that uses the power of the chatbot ChatGPT (amiga-news.de reported). Originally written for AmigaOS 3.2, the programme meanwhile also supports AmigaOS 3.9, Cloanto's Workbench 3.X and AmigaOS 4.1. Changes:
- Fix pasting into chat input textbox (AmigaOS 3.2 and 4.1 only for now)
- Remove trailing newline from user messages
- Enclose all user lines in asterisks to make bold
- Fix memory leak that was present in downloading responses from OpenAI
Direct download: AmigaGPT.lha (795 KB)
(dr)
[News message: 02. Dec. 2023, 14:45] [Comments: 0]
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02.Dec.2023
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AmigaOS 4: Extended audio emulator "Nallepuh" 1.7
"Nallepuh" or "Nalle Puh" is the Swedish name for Winnie the Pooh and is a hack that intercepts some custom chip register accesses and converts them into AHI function calls. The project, originally started by Martin Blom and now continued by Kjetil Hvalstrand and Damian, initially only emulated the Paula chip, which is responsible for audio and disc control.
With the resumption of development, the emulation of the Complex Interface Adapter (CIA-Chip), which manages serial, parallel, keyboard and other Amiga input and output activities, and the Blitter, an Amiga coprocessor with its own DMA channel, which is responsible for copying data and line drawing and can manipulate images, have also been added. The latter is based on Peter Gordon's Blitzen project: a blitter emulator for AmigaOS 4, which attempts to implement enough of the functionality of the classic Amiga blitter to allow more old programs to run on OS4 systems without the classic chipset. Blitzen has been integrated into the project by converting it into an Amiga library, libblitter.library. The following is currently being emulated:
Ascending and descending copy operations with shift
- Descending mode fill operations with shift
- Line mode (not tested)
- End of DMA interrupt for apps using SetIntVector()
- The 68k "WaitBlit" function is patched to wait for the emulated blitter
As Kjetil Hvalstrand tells us, the additions were necessary because some audio players use so-called "scanline synthesis" (see Marko Ciciliani's essay (PDF file) or the example FORMULA MINUS ONE): a translation of pixel data from a digital image or film into a graphic waveform.
Basically, the Nallepuh project tries to support system-friendly 68k software by "hijacking" the exception handler and thus giving it a higher priority than the OS exception handler. The following software has currently been successfully tested:
- HippoPlayer
- Dpaint4 (starts, you can do simple drawings, most of the tools are broken)
- Payback (game sound now works)
- SamplitudeOpus Light 3.5
- Myst playable demo (CGX)
- Symphonie Pro player (Some sound quality issues, 15bit playback not supported.)
- Symphonie Pro Editor (works partially can be unstable, some sound issues.)
- Electric Ocean - (use NewMode to set correct screen), Ignore DSI error, and it starts, crashes after.
- ASnake - Workbench game
- MiniArcanoid - Workbench game
The ptreplay.library, powerpacker.library and reqtools.library are required.
The author assumes that the problems can be solved with DPaint. There are many other interesting programmes and he is always happy to receive small unit tests: small programmes that test a function in the chipset. Bug report are highly appreciated.
(dr)
[News message: 02. Dec. 2023, 12:01] [Comments: 0]
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02.Dec.2023
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Image and PDF converter: Image2PDF 2.4 for all Amiga systems
At the end of August, we reported on Bernd Assenmacher's PDF2JPG tool, which can be used to convert the images contained in PDFs into JPG images. As the author has developed further tools, Image2PDF (converts images into PDFs) and PDF2PDF (converts PDFs into copy-protected PDFs), there was a request in the subsequent comments to the news article to bundle these tools into one. This has been realised with the present Image2PDF version 2.4, which is available for AmigaOS 3, 4, AROS and MorphOS. The author has kindly provided us with a few explanations of the new version:
"The new version can do even more, such as "PDF2Image" (i.e. convert PDF not only into JPG or PDF format, but also into other formats such as PNG, BMP, GIF or ILBM/IFF). PDF2Image" also includes options such as "scaling" and "PDF2JPG" allows you to set the compression quality of the JPG image.
As another feature I have added an image scaling function "Image2NewSize", which can scale images to the desired resolution while maintaining the aspect ratio. (The result is of course highly dependent on the source image used). All other functions known from "Image2PDF V2.3" are of course still available. With "Image2PDF", you can now also scale the images at the same time by setting "ImageSize" as the format. I am already working on "Image2PDF V2.5", where the whole thing should be a bit more intuitive and where a function for converting images into other image formats will be added.
The beta versions can be downloaded from my my website and tried out. I am well aware that there are good tools that offer such functions, but since "Image2PDF" is all about images and PDFs, I try to include as much as possible.
I hope that many people will enjoy the tool and that it can help with tasks involving scans, images and PDFs.
I would be delighted to receive feedback by e-mail. Everyone who writes to me will receive his/her personal key." (dr)
[News message: 02. Dec. 2023, 10:04] [Comments: 0]
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02.Dec.2023
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Creating Amiga Reaction GUIs: ReBuild 0.4.0 (beta version)
In mid-November, we introduced Darren 'dmcoles' Cole's "ReBuild" in detail, with which it should be possible to write graphical user interfaces for ReAction, the evolution of ClassAct. With version 0.4.0 now released, his project has reached beta status: all planned features have been integrated.
Now the author asks you to test ReBuild extensively and report any bugs to him. (dr)
[News message: 02. Dec. 2023, 06:49] [Comments: 1 - 02. Dec. 2023, 12:30]
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01.Dec.2023
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Platform game: Update for Amiga port of Electro Man
Paweł 'tukinem' Tukatsch is porting the game Electro Man, originally published in 1992 by Polish programmers Maciej Miasik and Janusz Pelc for MS-DOS, to AGA Amigas (amiga-news.de reported). This update adds the final eighth level. (dr)
[News message: 01. Dec. 2023, 21:49] [Comments: 0]
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01.Dec.2023
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Platform game: Abbey(s) of the Dead
About two weeks ago, the developer 'UltraNarwhal' released a demo version of his extended port of "Abbey(s) of the Dead" (YouTube video) which is now followed by the full version, available for about three Euro.
(dr)
[News message: 01. Dec. 2023, 06:06] [Comments: 0]
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30.Nov.2023
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Preview video: Temptations port for CD32
The developer 'S0Y' is working on his CD32 port of Temptations, the platform game originally released for MSX-1 in 1988 (amiga-news.de reported) and now has published another preview video showing the first draft of the sixth level. (dr)
[News message: 30. Nov. 2023, 22:02] [Comments: 0]
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29.Nov.2023
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Visual Novel: Mansion of Madness for Apollo V4
In mid-September, Sami Vehmaa released his first Visual Novel game, "Mansion of Madness" (YouTube video). He has now added a version for the Apollo V4 accelerator cards. (dr)
[News message: 29. Nov. 2023, 11:51] [Comments: 0]
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29.Nov.2023
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Pseudo chunky screens on AGA Amigas: PED81C updated
With PED81C ("Pixel Elements Dots, 81 Colors") by Simone 'saimo' Bevilacqua there is an approach to work on AGA Amigas with pseudo-native chunky screens without performing the known chunky-to-planar conversions when displaying 3D graphics or any other slowing down additional calculations by CPU or custom chips (Copper, Blitter) at all (amiga-news.de reported). Now he has added a Voxel engine to his project and demonstrates it in a YouTube video. Other changes:
- Fixed some palette values in a table in the documentation.
- Added formulas for calculating DIWSTRT, DIWSTOP, DIWHIGH, DDFSTRT and DDFSTOP to documentation.
- Replaced fixed values with the aforementioned formulas in the AMOS Professional source code example.
(dr)
[News message: 29. Nov. 2023, 09:19] [Comments: 0]
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29.Nov.2023
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Video: Repairing an Amiga 2000
In his latest video, Robert Smith shows how he gets a non-working Amiga 2000, which he received for his birthday, up and running again. (dr)
[News message: 29. Nov. 2023, 09:06] [Comments: 0]
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29.Nov.2023
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Game development: Color Palette Mixer for Aseprite
Two weeks ago, we reported on a script that converts graphics created using Aseprite into an IFF/ILBM file. In the German comments, Thomas 'imagodespira' Claus pointed out that "Aseprite always works in 24 bit." As a result, "Prismatic Realms" has now published a second script with which you only have 4096 colours to choose from.
When executed, a dialogue window presents a retro colour palette and a mixer, an RGB slider known from the Amiga with 4-bit granularity (i.e. values from 0 to 15 for each colour component). The palette mixer supports 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 (Extra HalfBrite) colour palettes without alpha channels and ensures that all colours on the palette conform to the Amiga's 16-bit colour palette restrictions. There is also a button that resets the colour palette to Deluxe Paint V's default palette. (dr)
[News message: 29. Nov. 2023, 08:52] [Comments: 0]
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29.Nov.2023
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Mod player: HippoPlayer 2.59
Kari-Pekka Koljonen, the developer of the Amiga-MOD players HippoPlayer, has released an update to version 2.59. Changes:
Fixes:
- Patternscope and AHX modules: Fix bug which caused track 0 sometimes not being
displayed.
- Info window: Fix PSID song speed information sometimes showing wrong values.
- Prevent jam when receiving no results from recent stations search.
- Allow MS-DOS line changes in playlist/module program files.
- Info window: Allow mousewheel to work with scrolling the content.
- Commandline parameters: If started with "QUIT" and there is no
existing HiP instance running, do not start a new one.
- Keep list on exit: when starting HiP with commandline/icon modules
as parameters do not lose the kept list, instead append to the end.
New features:
- Scopes: When paused display the paused contents instead of the Hippo gfx.
- MED/OctaMED: Display song length and channel count for multichannel modules.
- Patternscope now supports MED and OctaMED modules, up to 18 channels visible.
"mini4" font is needed to display more than 8 channels as before.
- STIL support added for use with the High Voltage Sid Collection.
- PSID improvements with the updated playsid.library v1.6:
- SIDBlaster support upgraded by Erique, now faster and much less
likely to cause jams. A 68020 should be enough for normal
playback, previously a faster CPU was needed.
- reSID mode now supports playsid-style digisamples, as heard for
example in tunes like "Skate Or Die" and "Arkanoid".
- "Prefs/Play-2/reSID boost" can be used to boost the volume
in reSID mode.
- The library also now works on kickstart 1.3 in the original
playback mode, no need to have a separate kick1.3 lib version.
- Improved configuration with environment variables, if not using
with Hippo.
- MIDI file playback support:
- "Prefs/Play-2/MIDI mode" setting chooses which mode is active.
- Serial output mode using Alastair M. Robinson's "delimidi" player.
This will use MIDI equipment connected to the serial port for playing.
- Paula/AHI output mode using either Timidity Amiga port by Philipp
Grosswiler or GMPlay by Christian Buchner.
- Scopes, song end detection, AHI output supported.
- Console music playback support using the "vgm2wav" application
(dr)
[News message: 29. Nov. 2023, 06:08] [Comments: 0]
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28.Nov.2023
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PDF magazine: Commodore Free, issue 97
After a break of more than six years (issue 96), the English-language PDF magazine "Commodore Free" is back: as editor Nigel Parker reports, the original website was hacked via a PHP script and all files were deleted. "Scopperdive LTD" has restored the original website and updated it so that it is easier to read on mobile devices and smaller screens. Even though he suffered numerous strokes of fate during the long hiatus, he decided to revive the magazine, also encouraged by countless emails, and offers a colourful bouquet of topics on Commodore and Amiga computers in this issue. (dr)
[News message: 28. Nov. 2023, 09:28] [Comments: 1 - 30. Nov. 2023, 05:16]
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27.Nov.2023
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Frogger clone: Frogger500 v1.24
Frogger500 (YouTube-Video) is a 1:1 conversion of the 1981 Konami game (amiga-news.de reported). Since our last news item, an MMU error has been fixed and the highscore can now be saved and loaded in both the ADF and WHDLoad versions. (dr)
[News message: 27. Nov. 2023, 21:35] [Comments: 0]
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27.Nov.2023
Patreon
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Game Construction Kit: Scorpion Engine 2023.4
The "Scorpion Engine" (video of development of vertical scroll demos) by Erik 'earok' Hogan enables the development of games. The engine itself is not open source, but all included demos and demo games are. The editor itself runs on 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. Changes of version 2023.4:
- Improved copper rainbow support on Amiga, including being able to set any of the 256 colors and at 24 bit color depth
- Support for VGM music on Mega Drive (XGM driver from SGDK)
- Support for saving on Mega Drive (SRAM)
- Ability to support more than 32 active actors at one time
- Improved Cut/Paste/Undo/Redo functionality
- Support for byte arrays - this will be expanded in future with word array support
In addition, Scorpion Engine now includes the previously exclusive Bullet Hell 2 (Amiga) and Real Time Scaling (Amiga/Mega Drive) demos.
(dr)
[News message: 27. Nov. 2023, 14:29] [Comments: 0]
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