22.May.2023
Thomas Wenzel (ANF)
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Audio player: AmigaAMP 3.34
Thomas Wenzel has released an update of his audio playback program AmigaAMP at the title link. Version 3.34 includes the following bugfixes:
- MHI is only released when it has to be. Volume settings are now restored correctly when reassigned
- Stuttering of visualization with 48 kHz MP3 files via mpega.library fixed
- Minimum intuition.library version for OS4-style IDCMP port sharing set to 52 to avoid collisions with VampireOS
- Fixed ScanTask crash when playlist window is closed
(snx)
[News message: 22. May. 2023, 21:44] [Comments: 0]
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22.May.2023
Michael Kafke (MEDIA-X) (ANF)
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Graphic adventure about computer game magazine "ASM" announced (German)
A text-graphic adventure for the Commodore Amiga will soon be released about the German computer games magazine "ASM - Aktueller Software Markt" (1986 - 1995). The player slips into the role of editor-in-chief Manfred Kleimann and experiences the everyday madness in the editorial office.
The game was essentially created in the 90s and has now been reworked and finished in cooperation with some former ASM colleagues. Details such as screenshots are being withheld by the distributor, APC&TCP, for the time being, the official presentation is planned for an upcoming ASM special.
Therefore one can only register for a newsletter at the title link so far. However, Michael Kafke had already shown the game at ARC 2023 in Duisburg, so it can already be seen on some videos recorded by visitors. It will also be demonstrated at Amiga38 in October. (snx)
[News message: 22. May. 2023, 21:35] [Comments: 0]
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22.May.2023
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Juggler Encore: Real-time hologram of the 1986 ray-traced animation
Milan Pollé, the author of the graphics software "Candy Factory (Pro)" (interview from 2002, Aminet demo version), won first place in the "Wild Competition" category at the Outline Demoparty held last weekend in the Netherlands with his real-time hologram imitation of the Juggler raytracing animation from 1986. In the linked video, he explains his procedure and presents the result. (dr)
[News message: 22. May. 2023, 06:48] [Comments: 0]
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22.May.2023
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Preview video: Forest of Illusion
The programmer 'DomKid' has published a first preview video of his platformer "Forest of Illusion" developed with the Scorpion Engine. (dr)
[News message: 22. May. 2023, 06:47] [Comments: 0]
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21.May.2023
Andreas Falkenhahn (ANF)
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Hollywod: Updates for 6 Plugins
Press release: Airsoft Softwair, the hardest working men in code business, are proud to present updates for the following Hollywood image and animation plugins:
- APNG 1.2 (load and save APNG animations)
- FLIC 1.2 (load FLI/FLC animations)
- JPEG2000 1.2 (load and save JPEG2000 images)
- PCX 1.2 (load PCX images)
- TIFF 1.2 (load and save TIFF images)
- YAFA 1.2 (load YAFA animations created by Wildfire)
The plugins now support several new features of Hollywood 9 and 10 such as loading and saving images and animations in palette mode, file system adapter support, user tags, and support for the arm64 platform on macOS (Apple Silicon).
All plugins are now available for free download from the official Hollywood portal under the title link. Thanks to Hollywood's cross-platform plugin system versions for AmigaOS3 (m68k), AmigaOS3 FPU (m881), AmigaOS 4, MorphOS, WarpOS (m68k/ppc), Linux (ppc, arm, x86, x64), macOS (ppc, x86, x64, arm64), Windows (x86, x64), Android (arm, arm64), and iOS (arm, arm64) are provided. (snx)
[News message: 21. May. 2023, 17:53] [Comments: 0]
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21.May.2023
Twitter
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Datatype: WarpDTPrefs 45.12
Oliver Roberts has updated the preferences program WarpDTPrefs for his Warp datatypes. Changes:
- Fixed the default background checkboxes being disabled incorrectly due to the re-ordered alpha channel mode lists in the previous release.
- Increased minimum stack size to 16K, for safety.
- OS3 and MorphOS versions recompiled with VBCC 0.9h.
- OS4 version recompiled with GCC 11.2.0.
(dr)
[News message: 21. May. 2023, 14:38] [Comments: 0]
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21.May.2023
itch.io
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Platform game: Hotfix for tech demo "Space Cavern Blaster" V0.13
In version 0.13 of the cross-system platformer "Space Cavern Blaster" (amiga-news.de reported), which was released a few days ago, the developer made a mistake when implementing a new feature that made it impossible to use moving platforms because the player always slid through them. This bug has been fixed with the present hotfix. (dr)
[News message: 21. May. 2023, 14:21] [Comments: 0]
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21.May.2023
itch.io
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Music: Soundtrack of Boxx 4 available
For the Jump'n Run "Boxx 4" (amiga-news.de reported), the developer has released the soundtrack on Bandcamp. (dr)
[News message: 21. May. 2023, 14:15] [Comments: 0]
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21.May.2023
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Aminet uploads until 20.05.2023
The following files have been added until 20.05.2023 to Aminet:
neatmail.lha comm/mail 70K MOS Neat mail client
PureBasicItaCat.lha dev/basic 19K Italian catalog for PureBasic...
oscar64.lha dev/cross 1.4M MOS C Compiler Assembler and Runt...
cdp505.lzh disk/misc 96K 68k Upgrades CrossDOS Plus 5.0x t...
TSGuiItaCat.lha disk/misc 24K Italian catalog for TSGui v2....
DSKSL142.lzh disk/salv 34K 68k DiskSalv 1.42 for AmigaOS 1.3
Programming_Docs.zip docs/lists 3K Programming Manual URLs Listing.
anaiis.lha driver/oth 248K 68k ANAIIS USB Stack Release 1.23
anaiis_boot.lha driver/oth 262K 68k ANAIIS USB Boot disk Release ...
GvpPatch_17.lha driver/oth 5K 68k improve reliability of serial...
RescueLander.lha game/actio 48K 68k Land on Earth, Moon or Mars t...
MCE.lha game/edit 3.6M 68k Multi-game Character Editor
MCE-MOS.lha game/edit 3.9M MOS Multi-game Character Editor
MCE-OS4.lha game/edit 4.2M OS4 Multi-game Character Editor
ball.lzh game/misc 135K 68k Precursor to MegaBall
Gotcha199.lha game/think 80K 68k Pair two numbers to get the 1...
ham_convert.zip gfx/conv 5.2M HAM graphic converter
mednafen.lha misc/emu 12M OS4 Mednafen
MoonlightWaltz.lha mods/8voic 4.9M 16bit 6ch Ballroom Waltz by H...
2D_ATcad_AIAB.jpg pix/misc 1.2M ATcad Workbench
2D_ATcad_HELP.jpg pix/misc 760K ATcad Screenshot
Acadia5.jpg pix/views 255K Picture of Acadia National Pa...
Vim_9.0-i386-aros.lha text/edit 14M x86 The ubiquitous text editor
Vim_9.0-ppc-amigaos.lha text/edit 15M OS4 The ubiquitous text editor
Vim_9.0-ppc-morphos.lha text/edit 15M MOS The ubiquitous text editor
LHa_4U4A-i386-aros.lha util/arc 64K x86 LHa for UNIX for AROS
LHArchiver.lha util/arc 5.1M MOS create lha archives intuitively
lhasa.lha util/arc 4.1M MOS Free Software LHA implementation
iGame.lha util/misc 427K 68k Front-end for WHDLoad
VATestprogram.zip util/misc 11M 68k Versatile Amiga Testprogram
InstallerLG.i386-aros... util/sys 120K x86 Commodore Installer replacement
InstallerLG.ppc-amiga... util/sys 208K OS4 Commodore Installer replacement
InstallerLG.ppc-morph... util/sys 159K MOS Commodore Installer replacement
getwbinfo.lha util/wb 5K 68k Display/save to env WB screen...
(snx)
[News message: 21. May. 2023, 09:13] [Comments: 0]
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21.May.2023
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OS4Depot uploads until 20.05.2023
The following files have been added until 20.05.2023 to OS4Depot:
mce.lha gam/uti 4Mb 4.0 Multi-game Character Editor
sdl2.lha lib/mis 7Mb 4.1 Simple DirectMedia Layer 2
merlin_browser.zip net/bro 3Mb 4.0 A simple web browser
lharchiver.lha uti/arc 5Mb 4.0 Create LhA archives intuitively
igame.lha uti/mis 427kb 4.0 Front-end for WHDLoad
installerlg.lha uti/mis 208kb 4.0 Commodore Installer replacement
litexl.lha uti/tex 2Mb 4.1 A lightweight text editor writte...
vim_mui.lha uti/tex 15Mb 4.1 The ubiquitous text editor
mickjt-mplayerrx.lha vid/pla 27Mb 4.1 MickJT-MPlayer for RadeonRX
(snx)
[News message: 21. May. 2023, 09:13] [Comments: 0]
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21.May.2023
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AROS Archives uploads until 20.05.2023
The following files have been added until 20.05.2023 to AROS Archives:
vim_9.0-i386-aros.lha dev/edi 14Mb The ubiquitous text editor
installerlg.i386-aros.lha uti/wor 120kb Commodore Installer replacement
(snx)
[News message: 21. May. 2023, 09:13] [Comments: 0]
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21.May.2023
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MorphOS-Storage uploads until 20.05.2023
The following files have been added until 20.05.2023 to MorphOS-Storage:
hURL_2.0.lha Development/Hollywood/... A plugin for Hollywood ...
HollywoodSDK_10.0.lha Development/Hollywood Plugin development kit ...
HollywoodCubicIDE_10.0... Development/Hollywood Hollywood add-on for Cu...
Iris_1.15.lha Email Iris, the MorphOS email...
LHArchiver_1.10.lha Files/Archive Create lha archives int...
dRally.lha Games/Race Open Source Engine / De...
fheroes2_1.0.4.lha Games/Strategy fheroes2 is a recreatio...
Wayfarer_5.3.lha Network/Web Wayfarer is the latest ...
WarpPNG_45.27.lha System/Datatypes PNG image datatype V45.22
ADiffView_2.4.lha Text/Compare A graphical file compar...
(snx)
[News message: 21. May. 2023, 09:13] [Comments: 0]
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21.May.2023
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WHDLoad: New installers until 20.05.2023
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 20.05.2023:
- 2023-05-16 improved: Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (Origin Systems) DMA wait in replayer fixed (Info)
- 2023-05-16 improved: Wizkid (Sensible Software) Wizardoids mini game works now, more disk accesses removed and Bplcon0 color bit fixed added, access fault fixed, Wizardoids game can be run with CUSTOM2 (Info)
- 2023-05-14 improved: Big Time Sensuality (Axis) fixed/final version of the demo is now supported, new install script (Info, Image)
- 2023-05-14 improved: Wembley International Soccer (Audiogenic) ButtonWait support for title picture (Info)
(snx)
[News message: 21. May. 2023, 09:13] [Comments: 0]
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21.May.2023
Andreas Magerl (ANF)
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Amiga Future: Subscription campaign ended - More pages starting with issue 163
In April, the print magazine "Amiga Future" advertised for additional subscribers to increase the number of pages of the magazine: With 24 new subscribers to the magazine, the number of pages should have been increased by four, with 48 by eight pages.
However, the target was not met. Nevertheless, the number of pages in the magazine will be increased by four to 56 starting with issue 163 - the difference in costs will be borne by APC&TCP as the publisher. (snx)
[News message: 21. May. 2023, 09:13] [Comments: 0]
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21.May.2023
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Apollo team: Comparision of Vampire accelerator boards
Under the title link, the Apollo team has created an overview (PDF file) that compares the features of the different Vampire models. (dr)
[News message: 21. May. 2023, 08:54] [Comments: 0]
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20.May.2023
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Video tutorial: Programming assistance for AMOS
In another part of his series of short tutorials about AMOS Pro (amiga-news.de reported), retro and Amiga fan 'Yawning Angel' explains in the current video his programming assistance which he wrote for AMOS and which can be downloaded from his homepage. It helps to find out the screen co-ordinates, hardware co-ordinates, available colours, and colour hex values. (dr)
[News message: 20. May. 2023, 06:09] [Comments: 0]
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20.May.2023
Michael Bosshard (Twitter)
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Minimig: Source codes and gerber files published
Developer Ranko Rodic has made available the source codes and production files for the various revisions of the Minimig parallel to the release of revision 1.97itx (amiga-news.de reported). The production files contain the necessary schematics, PCB layouts and other resources that are needed to build the Minimig board and that also allow modifications and extensions. (dr)
[News message: 20. May. 2023, 06:02] [Comments: 0]
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19.May.2023
Amiga Future (website)
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Java program: ham_convert 1.9.1
Sebastian Sieczko's Java-based program ham_convert converts modern graphic formats into the Amiga's HAM format and is now available in version 1.8.7.
New features besides bug fixes are further options for HAM6 and support for very small pictures, i.e. with less than 300 pixels in total. (snx)
[News message: 19. May. 2023, 08:27] [Comments: 0]
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19.May.2023
a1k.org (ANF)
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Card game: Poker Nights - "Tropical Heat"
As part of the strip poker series "VTO - Poker Nights", a second data disc "Tropical Heat" was released yesterday at the title link. (snx)
[News message: 19. May. 2023, 08:21] [Comments: 0]
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19.May.2023
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Video: The SMB2/SMB3 network filesystem under MorphOS 3.18
With the latest release of MorphOS 3.18, the new Smb2FS handler was integrated, which provides an SMB2/SMB3-capable network filesystem. The video above demonstrates the new feature. (dr)
[News message: 19. May. 2023, 07:28] [Comments: 0]
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19.May.2023
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Floppy disk images: Disc Image Manager V1.46 for Linux, macOS and Windows
Gerald J Holdsworth's Disc Image Manager is an application used to load a retro disc image, read the catalogue and output any required files. In addition, it will also add files to the image, delete, and rename files and directories. On the Amiga side, reading and writing of AmigaDOS disks and hard disks with OFS and FFS formatting are supported (not fully tested with FFS). Support for directory cache and international characters is still missing.
As the author reports, the Disc Image Manager was originally a Delphi class written for inclusion in the Repton Map Display to read Repton data files directly from disc images. To test whether the class worked well, he wrote a GUI front-end for the class called Disc Image Reader, but it was only available on Windows.
When someone asked about accessing Acorn DFS images on macOS, he decided to port his application to Lazarus. The first thing he added was write-back to the disc images, which turned Disc Image Reader into Disc Image Manager.
Changes in version 1.46:
New or improved features
- Image report now lists the free space map for ADFS.
- Add Partition button now works for DFS single sided images to add a second side.
- Exporting files now includes a date/time stamp field in the *.inf file if set.
- Importing files, where the *.inf file has a date/time stamp field, updates the date/time for the file.
- The ADFS interleave can now be changed without re-organising the data. This method then re-reads the file using the new method.
- Can now save a BASIC file to the host system as a text file.
- BASIC file viewer now uses smaller text and no longer bold, unless it is a keyword. Text in quotes is now in italics.
- Image report now checks every file and directory on an image and reports details of files with CRC32 error or broken directories (ADFS).
- When importing a file to an image, it no longer complains if the selected node is not a directory. Now, it just selects the selected node's parent before importing the file.
- The BackSpace key is now a shortcut for deleting files or directories.
Bug fixes
- When deleting directories, the internal directory references were not getting updated.
- When deallocating free space on a New Map ADFS, the wrong idlen was sometimes being used.
- The New Map ADFS free space map was not getting read correctly.
- Renaming an ADFS file in a ADFS/DOS hybrid image could crash the application on Windows. Renames on the DOS or Acorn FS side could also fail.
- Broken ADFS directories were getting displayed with the 'Not Read' colours.
- A corrupt 'JesMap' sector, on Acorn FS, can cause the application to crash. Additional checks have been put in place.
- An ADFS Old Map, with no free space, would hang when trying to delete a file.
- In ADFS, when selecting a sub-directory the image details status bar would sometimes report no image title, 0 bytes used and 0 bytes free.
- When an ADFS New Map zone is close to capacity (i.e., not enough space for a fragment id to be written in), the free space was incorrectly reported. This would cause files and directories to fail to being written but the catalogue information would still be.
- Deleting an ADFS directory which is the penultimate directory in the catalogue would result in the last one being deleted from the internal references. This then caused confusion with the front end GUI and resulted in a crash. In addition, deleting everything from the image would leave the free space map not correctly updated.
The author also provides a detailed PDF manual. (dr)
[News message: 19. May. 2023, 05:53] [Comments: 0]
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19.May.2023
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Editor: MUI-Vim V9.0.1546 for AmigaOS 4, AROS and MorphOS
MUI-Vim is a port of the editor Vim. This editor is intended for editing programs as well as plain text files. Multi-level undo, syntax highlighting, command line history, block operations and scripting are some of the features.
Ola 'sodero' Söder has now ported
version 9.0.1378 of VIM and released it for AmigaOS4, AROS and MorphOS. Additionally, he has updated syntax highlighting for Hollywood 10.
Downloads:
Vim_9.0-ppc-amigaos.lha (15 MB)
Vim_9.0-i386-aros.lha (14 MB)
Vim_9.0-ppc-morphos.lha (15 MB) (dr)
[News message: 19. May. 2023, 05:18] [Comments: 0]
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18.May.2023
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Minimig: Revision 1.97itx
Revision 1.97itx of the Minimig - a reimplementation of an Amiga 500 in a FPGA - is available.
This board was designed to fit into any MiniITX case and is compatible with standard ITX power supplies. It features an added LED and button header, allowing you to easily connect necessary buttons and LEDs to your MiniITX case. One of the major improvements is the addition of 2MB of FastRAM, bringing the total onboard RAM of the Minimig to 6MB. Furthermore, enhancements have been made in the Verilog, enabling Minimig to automatically configure the 2MB of fast RAM in hardware. The board has undergone thorough testing with various components, including the TF030 accelerator, MC68000 and Pistorm. (dr)
[News message: 18. May. 2023, 20:08] [Comments: 0]
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18.May.2023
MorphZone (Forum)
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MorphOS: E-mail client Iris 1.15
Jacek 'jacadcaps' Piszczek has pushed an update a few days after the release of version 1.14 of his e-mail program Iris for MorphOS.
Changes are mainly for a NetStack bug in MorphOS versions 3.14 to 3.18, which already led to Wayfarer 5.3, and, as there, cURL and sqlite were also updated on this occasion. (snx)
[News message: 18. May. 2023, 08:18] [Comments: 0]
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18.May.2023
Robosaurus Spielothek (ANF)
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Video report: Amiga Ruhrpott Convention 2023 (German)
Dominic Ortmanns visited the Amiga Ruhrpott Convention in Duisburg-Rheinhausen, Germany, on May 6, 2023 and recorded his impressions in a video at the title link (Camera: Jürgen Weißenfels, Graphics: Jan Reineke). His summary of the "small but nice Amiga fair, from fans for fans":
"This event is the first of its kind. That makes it especially interesting to see what the organizers around 'T!nomania' [and CZ-Tunes] have done here. I can already tell you that I was very impressed.
I could meet many nice people from the Amiga community and had some very interesting conversations.
This was definitely the hard core of Amiga hardware and software enthusiasts. You could play, buy, drink, chat with developers, YouTubers, podcasters and other organizers, and there was even a raffle of exquisite prizes.
So in my opinion, especially for the first attempt of an own Amiga convention, a precision landing.
But if you want to know all the details of my opinion, you should still watch the video." (snx)
[News message: 18. May. 2023, 08:07] [Comments: 0]
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18.May.2023
AmigaSource (Webseite)
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Browser extension: AGuide Viewer 0.1
AGuide Viewer is an open source reader for AmigaGuide documents implemented as a browser extension. It works with Firefox and Chromium on all platforms.
Under Firefox the installation takes place automatically with the corresponding consent. For Chromium, unpack the file aguide-0.1.xpi into a folder. In Chromium, go to "Extensions" > "Manage Extensions" and activate the developer mode there. Then select the previously created folder using "Load unpacked extension".
The extension automatically recognises files that have a .guide file name extension or begin with the '@database' sequence. AmigaGuide documents downloaded from the internet are automatically rendered in the browser. Viewing local files is also supported by starting the AGuide Viewer by clicking on the AGV icon in the browser toolbar. The user interface is similar to that of AmigaGuide or MultiView.
As Firefox blocks direct links to local files in the extension, the author recommends opening such a link in an AmigaGuide document by using the right mouse button and "Link in new tab".
The author plans to submit future versions to the Chrome Store for signing, which will simplify installation on Chrome/Chromium. Since Mozilla's signing process is somewhat simpler and it is the author's preferred browser, he had focused on it with the first version of the AGuide Viewer.
(dr)
[News message: 18. May. 2023, 06:44] [Comments: 0]
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18.May.2023
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Preview videos: 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 two further preview videos showing the complete third and first sequences of the fourth level. (dr)
[News message: 18. May. 2023, 05:50] [Comments: 0]
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17.May.2023
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Video player: Amos Anim Player V2023.05.16
The "Amos Anim Player" of the group "ELECTRIC BLACK SHEEP" is a very simple IFF-ANIM player that runs on any Amiga. It can play compressed IFF-Anim formats synchronised with a separate IFF Audio Sample (or MOD). Not much RAM is needed, as the anim frames and audio are streamed directly from the hard disk. If there is enough RAM, the sound is streamed directly from RAM.
The Amos Video Player, also provided by the "ELECTRIC BLACK SHEEP", uses its own file format. The conversion takes a long time and only works on WinUAE with acceptable speed. The "Amos Anim Player", on the other hand, uses the standard IFF animation format, which is much easier to convert and can be used on real hardware.
The AMOS source code is included and can be used freely. Feedback on usability on faster computers is welcome. (dr)
[News message: 17. May. 2023, 21:30] [Comments: 0]
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17.May.2023
Amigaworld.net (forum)
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AmigaOS 4: Survey results regarding usage of PowerPC emulation
Hans de Ruiter has now evaluated his recently started survey about the usage of AmigaOS 4 on a PowerPC emulator. According to this, almost 55 % of the 447 participants use real hardware and a good fifth exclusively emulation. At the title link more details can be found. (snx)
[News message: 17. May. 2023, 13:13] [Comments: 0]
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17.May.2023
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Reverse Engineering: Speedball 2
In terms of games (software), reverse engineering is the process of analysing the code and content of the game to understand how it works. A GitHub page provides software tips and learning materials for interested developers. In this case, Simon Frankau has taken on the Amiga classic Speedball 2.
Based on his previous analysis of the Sega Megadrive version, he used the reverse engineering tool Ghidra for the disassembly. Below, he described to us how he followed the boot process to obtain a memory image:
- Disassemble the boot block (first couple of sectors of the ADF) to find how it loads the second-level loader. The boot block uses ROM routines, so I had to learn about how to call the OS from assembly.
- Once I knew where the second-level loader was in the disk image, I could disassemble that. This loads the main binary. The second-level loader has its own disk routines, so I got to learn about the sector encoding of Amiga disks (with MFM) and the blitter.
- From there, I learnt where the main binary was, and could extract it from the ADF. It's compressed, so I reversed the compressor and wrote my own implementation to decompress the binary.
- At this point, I had a memory image representing the game after loading and decompressing. I loaded it into Ghidra and worked through it, understanding it and giving names to all the functions and variables, and adding comments.
- I also built tools to extract and the graphics and sounds and make them accessible.
As he goes on to describe, the copy protection (although the game has been cracked) uses Rob Northen's Copylock, a kind of trace vector decoder. To undo this, I used FS-UAE's debugger to track what it was doing.
Overall, this project would have helped him immensely to learn a lot about the Amiga, as the game makes good use of the hardware:
- It uses the copper for scrolling and palette management.
- It uses the blitter to render sprites and do disk decoding.
- It uses the sound hardware and vertical blanking interrupt for a mod-player-like sliced player.
- It uses the CIA and other i/o for keyboard and joystick.
- Some graphics resources were embedded IFFs, so I learnt about them.
The code would have been pretty good, in his opinion - he could usually figure out what the developers were up to, even though there were no symbols or comments, and he discovered few bugs. He found it amusing that the copy protection routine, despite its complexity, only changes three memory locations.
Despite the hardware differences, the code is very similar to the Megadrive version, which would a) show how easy it is to port it to 68000 platforms and b) make decoding the Amiga version easier.
The binary would contain a few pieces of dead code, such as a team-selection menu, but unlike the Megadrive version there are not cheat codes.
The AI was pretty simple, given how well it plays! The AI doesn't cheat: it interacts with the rest of the game by writing to the variables that would otherwise be written to by the joystick routine for a two player game. (dr)
[News message: 17. May. 2023, 06:05] [Comments: 0]
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17.May.2023
itch.io
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Platformer: Tech Demo "Space Cavern Blaster" v0.13
As entry to the Retro Platform Jam #6, 'dotmos' has released a cross-system platformer for Amiga 500, Atari ST, C64, DOS and Sega Megadrive as a proof of concept (amiga-news.de reported, YouTube video). Version 0.13 now provides support for joysticks. (dr)
[News message: 17. May. 2023, 05:53] [Comments: 0]
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17.May.2023
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Space Invaders clone: Skinvaders
Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot'em up originally programmed by Tomohiro Nishikado and distributed by Taito. The group "ELECTRIC BLACK SHEEP" - among others, the mini-game None of Us - has now published a simple variant written in AMOS, whose graphics can be exchanged in the enclosed source code independently of the programme code. The background and the enemy images can have a maximum of eight colours, but must in any case have the same colour depth. (dr)
[News message: 17. May. 2023, 05:25] [Comments: 0]
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16.May.2023
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Programming language: Amiga C/C++ Visual Studio Code Extension 1.7.2
Bartman', member of the demo group 'Abyss', provides with 'amiga-debug' a 'Visual Studio Code' extension for "compiling, debugging and profiling Amiga C/C++ programs compiled by the bundled gcc 13.1 with the bundled WinUAE/FS-UAE and GDB." (YouTube video). Today version 1.7.2 has been released. Changes:
- NEW: update gcc to 13.1.0, binutils, GNU gdb (GDB) 14.0.50.20230511-git
- CHG: replaced MicroKnight debug font with Topaz
(dr)
[News message: 16. May. 2023, 19:16] [Comments: 0]
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16.May.2023
Frank von LogicalByte (ANF)
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Strategy game: "Virtual Enemies" in development
LogicalByte, the developer of the logic game Connect, yesterday introduced the next game for the Amiga 500 (and higher). The title is "Virtual Enemies".
The player lives in an alternative timeline in the 80s. The earth is already suffering enormously from the severe climate changes caused by the unchecked overexploitation of the last decades. States and their rulers have become irrelevant. Large corporations, which have control over all important raw materials, are the true rulers. On their orders, entire armies of hackers embark on an electronic war of information gathering and sabotage. The player is one of them, a novice, a noob who has yet to find his place.
So the player's central task is to penetrate foreign computer networks. He does this with his computer, which can be upgraded by money received. Software tools have to be written, improved and expanded in order to complete the tasks even more efficiently. Those who now inevitably think of Hacknet or Uplink can rest assured: it is not a clone that copies the game principle, but has its own sophisticated game mechanics.
The game can be played alone or, if the Amiga is connected to the Internet, together with other players. Some missions are so complex, difficult and thus glorious that they can only be completed together. A ranking list brings the possibility of worldwide comparison. We are aware that cooperative playing is only fun if fellow players are available. Therefore clients for Windows, Linux and Mac will be available shortly after the Amiga release (probably end of 2024). This should generate a player reach that the Amiga has not seen for a long time.
The first prototype will be playable at Amiga38 in October. (dr)
[News message: 16. May. 2023, 05:27] [Comments: 0]
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16.May.2023
MorphZone (Forum)
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MorphOS: Web browser Wayfarer 5.3 (update)
Jacek 'jacadcaps' Piszczek has released version 5.2 of his web browser Wayfarer for MorphOS 3.18 which is required. This version fixes high CPU load with github.com, updates easylist adblock data and introduces a user script to remove some youtube gradients (changes).
To install the user script, open User Scripts from the Debug menu. Hit Import and load the Scripts/yt-no-gradients.json file from Wayfarer's directory. Select the script, make sure Enabled is checked (it'll be off by default) and hit Apply.
Update: (18.05.2023, 05:19, dr)
Meanwhile, version 5.3 is available which fixes handling of local files, adds a workaround for a NetStack bug in MorphOS 3.14-3.18 and includes updated cURL and sqlite.
Download: wayfarer.lha (29 MB) (dr)
[News message: 16. May. 2023, 04:57] [Comments: 0]
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