01.Nov.2022
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Encryption protocol: AmiSSL 5.5 (AmigaOS 3/4)
The open source encryption protocol AmiSSL has been updated to version 5.5 and is now based on the latest OpenSSL 3.0.7, which was also released today. This fixes a security problem that has existed since OpenSSL 3.0.0 and is now classified as high: a buffer overflow could be triggered when checking X.509 certificates. Thus, all users who have installed a version 5 of AmiSSL (based on OpenSSL 3) are recommended to update. The changes:
- Updated OpenSSL backend to full compatibility with the latest OpenSSL 3.0.7 (1.11.2022) version, which includes:
- Added RIPEMD160 to the default provider.
- Fixed regressions introduced in 3.0.6 version.
- Fixed two buffer overflows in punycode decoding functions. ([CVE-2022-3786]) and ([CVE-2022-3602])
- Improved and simplified random number seeding routines.
- The AMISSL_NO_STATIC_FUNCTIONS preprocessor symbol has been added to the SDK, mainly for use with VBCC
Download AmigaOS 3: AmiSSL-5.5-OS3.lha (3,3 MB)
Download AmigaOS 4: AmiSSL-5.5-OS4.lha (3,1 MB)
Download SDK: AmiSSL-5.5-SDK.lha (2,3 MB) (dr)
[News message: 01. Nov. 2022, 21:25] [Comments: 2 - 02. Nov. 2022, 08:16]
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01.Nov.2022
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Point'n Click adventure: NEONnoir
The Point'n Click adventure 'NEONnoir' (Video) was developed with AmiBlitz for the Amiga Blitz Basic Game Jam. As a down-and-out private eye, the player has to track down a drug addicted daughter from a wealthy family.
'NEONnoir' requires at least an Amiga 1200 with a harddisk. The game can be downloaded for free, but users can name their own price before downloading. A walkthrough is offered on the official website and the game's BASIC sourcecode is available as well: Either as a LhA download from the official website, or in the author's Github repository. (cg) (Translation: cg)
[News message: 01. Nov. 2022, 18:56] [Comments: 0]
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01.Nov.2022
Indie Retro News (Webseite)
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Turn based strategy: playable preview for "Settle the World" (update)
Christian 'TheoTheoderich' Wiegel has released a first playable preview of his turn-based building and trading game 'Settle the World' - refer to our extensive preview for more information. The author points out that this is an early development version and many gameplay elements are not implemented yet: For example, the happiness of your citizen currently has no effect at all on game progress.
'Settle the World' is primarily intended to be played with multiple human opponents, but it does include a single player campaign. The game requires 1 Megabyte ChipRAM and 4 Megabyte FastRAM, a harddisk and at least a 68020 CPU. A version that should run on Kickstart 1.x is provided as well, but is untested as of now.
Update: (05.11.2022, 14:05, dr)
The developer has published a short tutorial on YouTube on how to start his game. (cg) (Translation: cg)
[News message: 01. Nov. 2022, 16:21] [Comments: 0]
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01.Nov.2022
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Games for RTG systems: Sky Tower, Last Space Raider, Dungeon Escape, Börd
Sami Vehmaa has written several Arcade games for Amiga systems that have a graphics card installed:
The games were written using AmiBlitz, they require a fast Amiga with a graphics card and AHI installed. Each game can be purchased for one Euro, the AmiBlitz sourcecode for each game is included in the download. (cg) (Translation: cg)
[News message: 01. Nov. 2022, 15:31] [Comments: 0]
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01.Nov.2022
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Blog: Restoration of an Amiga 1000, part 3
In the third part of his documentation about the restoration of an Amiga 1000 (amiga-news.de reported), Richard "Shred" Körber explains how he replaced the floppy drive with a Centuriontech "GOEX on pills" floppy simulator. (dr)
[News message: 01. Nov. 2022, 08:54] [Comments: 0]
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01.Nov.2022
MorphZone (Webseite)
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MorphOS: Password manager PastePass 1.9
Stefan 'Kronos' Kleinheinrich's PastePass is a password manager for MorphOS.
Version 1.9 is a complete reimplementation using the cryptostorage.library. The code has been reworked, many security checks added, and the entire GUI and program flow streamlined. The author's initial tests went well, but he requests further testing and explicitly marks this release as a pre-release. The changes in detail:
- changed databas to use cryptostorage.library
- entries will always be part of a group
- a group can be protected by a 2nd password
- PassTool functionality has been intregated into PastePass, allowing you to store your password in a seperate databae which will be opened by the name you used for registering MorphOS
- added the option to set a default user name
Download: PastePass.lha (77 KB) (dr)
[News message: 01. Nov. 2022, 06:30] [Comments: 0]
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01.Nov.2022
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Linux tutorial: Using the Fienix distribution on the X5000, part 2
In the first part of the instructions for using the Linux distribution "Fienix" on the X5000, Amiga-News.de editor Daniel Reimann reported how to prepare a USB stick under Windows for this purpose. Here now the continuation:
Starting Fienix
After the USB stick has been plugged into a free USB port, we can boot up the X5000. As soon as the Boing Ball starts spinning, it is best to press the "M" key twice. With the first press we get into the "AmigaOne Early Startup Control" menu...
...and with the second keystroke into the command line menu. Now, we the following line:
usb reset
Among other things, it is searched for storage media. I have the following (special?) case: my tower has several USB ports at the front, but only two can be used. In order to have one free for the USB stick, I have connected my Mac keyboard to the other one and my USB mouse to it. But I have to disconnect it before running "usb reset", otherwise it will be recognized as another storage medium. Now enter the following lines:
setenv bootargs root=LABEL=FIENIX-DISK
fatload usb 0:1 1000000 uImage-6.0
fatload usb 0:1 1c00000 cyrus-p5020.dtb
fatload usb 0:1 2000000 uInitrd-5.10
bootm 1000000 2000000 1c00000
The kernel is loaded and Fienix is started. After the input, several columns of numbers rattle across the screen, but finally the login window should appear:
Here's what we enter:
Username: fienix
Password: fienixPW
Looks good! Let's see if there is a tool for capturing screenshots. Yes, there it is, "Accessories"...:
Synaptic Package Manager
By default, no word processor is included. You have to install that, and of course many other software, via the package manager "Synaptic Package Manager". It can be found under "Administration":
Right-click on the first AbiWord entry and select "Mark for installation":
You will then be asked if you want to install any other package dependencies associated with it. We do, which also marks the two entries below:
Now go to "Apply" at the top and the packages will be installed. Before we reboot, we want to see if it worked and look under "Office" for the corresponding entry. Perfectly: "AbiWord" is listed:
After restarting, we test AbiWord briefly: works!
In the third part of the tutorial, we will look at how to make the printer ready for use and how to configure the Linux button in the "AmigaOne Early Startup Control" menu so that we can save ourselves typing the instructions in the future. (dr)
[News message: 01. Nov. 2022, 05:57] [Comments: 0]
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01.Nov.2022
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Platformer: Ami-Tower
The Polish developer 'Tukinem' (farm simulation "Farmiga") has ported Icy Tower in Blitz Basic 2 to the Amiga. The game principle is to let the main character climb a tower by jumping to different heights.
The levels are created randomly. You can jump over two platforms and then have more points and bonus jumps. After every 50 platforms, the time to the end of the game is restored, so you have to jump up as quickly as possible.
The game requires a standard Amiga 500 with Kick 1.3 and 500 KB. The game is still in development, the end of the game and the game menu (options and highscore) are missing. (dr)
[News message: 01. Nov. 2022, 05:47] [Comments: 0]
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31.Oct.2022
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Programming language: Amiga C/C++ Visual Studio Code Extension 1.6.5
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 11.2 with the bundled WinUAE" (YouTube video). Three days ago, version 1.6.4 was released and today version 1.6.5. Changes:
- FIX: libintl issue in ARM-based Macs #145
- FIX: 'Profile File Size' broken since last version
- FIX: Vasm fixes
- CHG: Better stack unwinding for assembly code
- FIX: GDB Mac exe without libintl dylib dependency
(dr)
[News message: 31. Oct. 2022, 06:20] [Comments: 0]
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31.Oct.2022
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Doom clone: "Dread" becomes "Grind"
The developer and demoscene member Krzysztof Kluczek had worked on the Doom clone "Dread" in his spare time and so far regularly published videos documenting the progress of his work (amiga-news.de reported). As he now reports in a Patreon post, he hands over the project to John 'Tsak' Tsakiris, who will continue it under the new name "Grind" (introduction on the new Patreon page). Kluczek will continue to work on "Dread" alone, as long as his new commitments allow him to do so: as non-commercial project.
(dr)
[News message: 31. Oct. 2022, 06:07] [Comments: 0]
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31.Oct.2022
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Workbench distribution: AmiKit XE 11.8.2 for Raspberry Pi 4/400
The update to version 11.8.2 (changelog) of the Workbench distribution AmiKit XE for the Raspberry Pi 4/400 includes the recently released version 5.4 of the Amiga emulator AmiBerry. In addition, the WHDLoad database and the Linux system has been updated. (dr)
[News message: 31. Oct. 2022, 05:49] [Comments: 0]
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31.Oct.2022
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CPU and RAM monitor: NewMeter 1.332
Thomas Rapp's "NewMeter" is a monitor showing on the Workbench screen the utilization of CPU, RAM and several partitions with a bar chart. The program is configured using tooltypes, (amiga-news.de reported).
In the latest version 1.332 configurable custom gauges have been added, whose values are read from env variables. This allows now to display the values of AmigaKit's Real Time Clock und Sensors Module. Also support for i2cs sensors has been added. (dr)
[News message: 31. Oct. 2022, 05:42] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
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Aminet uploads until 29.10.2022
The following files have been added until 29.10.2022 to Aminet:
CloudDav_1.71.lha comm/net 559K MOS A WebDav client
nfs3.lha comm/net 10K 68k Mount NFS3 shares using bsdso...
ApolloExplorer.zip comm/tcp 32M 68k Apollo Explorer
COP.lha dev/debug 165K 68k Low Level Debugger
RawIO2Parallel.lha dev/debug 9K 68k Redirect debug output to para...
anaiis.lha driver/oth 205K 68k ANAIIS USB Stack Release 1.22
anaiis_boot.lha driver/oth 255K 68k ANAIIS USB Boot disk Release ...
OlivettiJP.lha driver/pri 14K 68k Olivetti JP WB Driver 40.5
OlivettiJP790.lha driver/pri 13K 68k Olivetti JP 790 (HPDJ560C) WB...
AmiQuake_AGA.lha game/shoot 6.0M 68k Amiga port of WinQuake
AmiQuake_RTG.lha game/shoot 6.0M 68k Amiga port of WinQuake
2nd-Albireo.ACEpansio... misc/emu 21K MOS ACEpansion plugin for ACE CPC...
Albireo.ACEpansion.lha misc/emu 43K MOS ACEpansion plugin for ACE CPC...
ptripper.lha mus/misc 18K 68k Protracker module ripper
AmigaAMP3.lha mus/play 1.9M OS4 Multi format audio player wit...
AmigaAMP3-68k.lha mus/play 406K 68k MPEG audio player with GUI
gwimport.lha util/conv 5K 68k GeoWriteImport
DisLib.lha util/libs 19K 68k A library based MC68K disasse...
IconLib_46.4.lha util/libs 1.1M 68k free icon.library in optimize...
ReportPlusMOS.lha util/misc 796K MOS Multipurpose utility
VATestprogram.zip util/misc 2.4M 68k Versatile Amiga Test Program
newmeter.lha util/wb 27K 68k Shows free RAM and storage as...
(snx)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
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OS4Depot uploads until 29.10.2022
The following files have been added until 29.10.2022 to OS4Depot:
ht.lha aud/edi 964kb 4.0 Multichannel chiptune tracker, b...
amigaamp3.lha aud/pla 2Mb 4.1 Multi format audio player with GUI
drawing_dt.lha dat/ima 380kb 4.0 Vector superclass + DR2D/SVG Dat...
spotless.lha dev/deb 9Mb 4.1 Your favorite debugging tool
mednafen.lha emu/gam 10Mb 4.1 Mednafen Emulator
deark.lha uti/arc 6Mb 4.0 Extracting data from various fil...
sacrificiopagano.lha uti/mis 6Mb 4.0 Magic Tool
(snx)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
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AROS Archives uploads until 29.10.2022
The following files have been added until 29.10.2022 to AROS Archives:
libglew.i386-aros.zip dev/lib 195kb The OpenGL Extension Wrangler Li...
libglfw.i386-aros.zip dev/lib 615kb libGLFW
hollywoodsp.lha dev/mis 776kb Catalog in Spanish for Hollywood 9
supertux2.i386-aros.zip gam/pla 69Mb SDL Jump-n-run game inspired by ...
sacrificiopagano.lha uti/mis 6Mb Magic Tool
(snx)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
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MorphOS-Storage uploads until 29.10.2022
The following files have been added until 29.10.2022 to MorphOS-Storage:
ENCORE_Morphever_1.0.0... Demoscene/ENCORE Demo for MorphOS PowerPC
Albireo_1.5.lha Emulation/ACEpansion Plugin for ACE CPC Emul...
2nd-Albireo_1.5.lha Emulation/ACEpansion Plugin for ACE CPC Emul...
AmiArcadia_29.12.lha Emulation A Signetics-based machi...
Woof!_10.4.0.lha Games/Shoot3D Woof! is a continuation...
SacrificioPagano_1.80.lha Misc A special app to people...
ReportPlus_8.41.lha Misc A Multipurpose utility ...
CloudDav_1.71.lha Network/Streaming A WebDav client
Wayfarer_4.3.lha Network/Web Wayfarer is the latest ...
(snx)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
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WHDLoad: New installers until 29.10.2022
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 29.10.2022:
(snx)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
Amiga Future (website)
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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:
- Flashback End Theme (Live Performance)
- Silkworm / Turrican Mashup (BIT Live 2022)
- Turrican II - Freedom (Wish I was in Bergen Remix)
- Vixen
- Wings of Death (Introduction)
- Viz: The Computer Game
- Seven Gates of Jambala
- Turrican 3 (Credits)
- The Secret of Monkey Island Theme (Live Performance)
- Nearly There [Fullmoon Endpart]
- Citadel - Main Menu [OST Remix]
(snx)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
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MorphOS: U-Boot warning regarding AmigaOne X5000 still valid
Two years ago Mark Olsen, who maintains the official firmware for the distribution of the AmigaOne X5000 by A-EON Technology, had pointed out in great detail that the work of Steven Solie's team on their own U-Boot version could lead to unpredictable problems and thus also to data loss, which is why especially users of operating systems other than AmigaOS 4 are strongly advised not to install newer firmware versions on the X5000 unless they originate from him.
After it was stated again on the occasion of this year's AmiWest that Solie had created his own U-Boot versions for the AmigaOne X5000, among others, which would be distributed "soon", Andreas Wolf inquired at the title link with Mark 'bigfoot' Olsen whether that warning from 2020 would still be valid. This was confirmed. (snx)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
Amiga Future (website)
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AmigaOS 4: HivelyTracker 1.9
HivelyTracker is a tracker based on the AHX format. AHX was developed in the nineties to be able to write music tracks that resemble the typical chip sound of the SID (sound chip of the C64).
In the update released after a good nine and a half years, several improvements were made to the original fidelity, details can be found in the changelog. (snx)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
McFly (ANF)
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German Amiga Podcast: Issue 9
The ninth edition of the "German Amiga Podcast" (GAP) reports what moved visitors and exhibitors at the Amiga37 fair in Mönchengladbach.
The episodes of the podcast initiated in January by the former Boingsworld presenter 'McFly' can now be found not only at the title link but also at Apple podcasts. (snx)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
Andreas Magerl (ANF)
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Shoot'em Up: Reshoot Proxima 3 to be released in March
The next version of the Reshoot series by ex-"Amiga Joker" editor Richard Löwenstein, Proxima 3 (amiga-news.de reported), is to be released on March 15, 2023, as APC&TCP informs at the title link. Users who don't want to miss the release date can also register for an e-mail notification. (snx)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
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Guest article: Trevor's personal review of the Amiga37
Trevor Dickinson traveled from New Zealand to present A-EON and AAA Technology at Amiga37, which took place two weeks ago. We asked him for his impressions of his stay in Germany and the event, which he has described to us below. Many thanks to Trevor.
Amiga 37 Germany - The show of the Century!
I have just arrived back in New Zealand following my attendance at Amiga 37 in Mönchengladbach. What can I say about Amiga 37? Wow, what a show! With over 1400 registrations it’s certainly the biggest Amiga event of the 21st Century so far.
It was my first international flight since Covid-19 locked down New Zealand in early 2020 and my first Amiga show since Amiga Ireland in January that year. Apart from sponsoring Amiga 37 on behalf of A-EON Technology, I gave a joint presentation with Enrico Vidale of ACube on the Amiga Next-Generation scene. I’m sure there will be numerous reports and updates from people who attended the show, so I am only going to highlight some of my own personal experiences of Amiga 37.
In the hope of overcoming some of the inevitable jetlag, I arrived in Dusseldorf on Thursday a couple of days before the main event. I met up with Matthew Leaman at the airport before taking the train to Mönchengladbach. We had booked into Hotel Leonardo which was recommended by Markus Tillmann. After a few drinks in the hotel bar, we retired to our room to sample some scotch whisky I had brought with me. Although we got to sleep reasonably early just after midnight, I woke up a few hours later and could not get back to sleep. The next day I did a little work on my presentation for the show and in the evening, we attended the Amiga 37 pre-party and enjoyed free pizza and an open bar. It was great meeting up with all my Amiga friends after almost 2 years of isolation due to international travel restrictions. I even made some new ones. Everyone was in a celebratory mood which was boosted by a generous open bar and servings of soup and pizzas. At the end of the night, Matthew and I went back to our hotel room with Dave Haynie and Costel Mincea to finish off the whisky. It was 4:00 am before Costel and Dave left. :) What was that comment about overcoming jet-lag?
After 3 hours sleep, we got up, had breakfast and made our way to the Kunstwerk centre which was a 25-minute taxi ride away. A-EON Technology, Amiga Kit and Amedia Computer were sharing a joint display stand under AAA Technology, a joint venture company they formed to sell Amiga hardware and software in Europe. Laurent and Frank from Amedia had brought along a large selection of Classic Amiga hardware and software as well as X5000 computer systems for sale. Two X5000 systems were set up running the latest versions of AmigaOS 4.1 and MorphOS. A-EON resident Linux expert and beta tester, Christian Zigotzky supplied his MorphOS hard drive, and he and his wife Nadine helped with the AAA Technology display. It was good to see both next-generation operating systems running on the X5000.
Amedia had a busy two days and ended up selling one X5000/40 system at the show and another online. At one point over the weekend Christian had an issue with his MorphOS hard drive and with assistance from Frank Mariak and the MorphOS team they helped to fix the problem and get the X5000 system back up and running. The MorphOS team also had an X5000 running MorphOS powering a wide screen display on their stand. They also showcased a beta version of MorphOS Power-Up v3.13 running on an A4000D equipped with a Phase5 Cyberstorm PPC accelerator running at 420MHz with G-Rex 4000D PCI bus, 4dfx Voodoo 3 graphics card and X-surf Ethernet card.
The Amiga Future stand, supervised by Andreas Magerl, was close to the AAA Technology display area and included Petro Tyschtschenko as a special VIP guest. I had a nice chat with Petro and he proudly showed me a large selection of photos from the time Commodore Germany sponsored Bayern Munich football club. He said Commodore sponsored the team for ~16 million DM during the period 1984-89. He presented me with a signed copy of the Bayern Munich team photo.
The Apollo team had an extensive and impressive stand with a variety of Vampire V4 and accelerator cards on display. Having recently become a new owner of a V4 system they gave me a replacement battery module to take back with me to New Zealand.
I had a long chat with Sean Donohue of My Retro Computer Ltd who was demonstrating his C64 & VIC20 ‘breadbin’ inspired PCs running the latest version of the Linux based Commodore Vision OS. Following the death of Barry Altman, Sean purchased many of Commodore USA’s assets, acquiring the case moulds, website and some stock. We discussed his recent successfully completed Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns which raised a massive £157,078 from 564 backers to create officially licensed Commodore branded C64 PCs supplied in the C64 breadbin case, smashing his initial funding goal of £25,000. If you followed his Kickstarter campaign, you would know that it was temporarily suspended due to Intellectual property dispute claim lodged by Commodore Industries (also known as Commodore Engineering). However, following an intervention by Eugene Van Os of Commodore Corporation BV, who confirmed that My Retro Computer was licensed and authorised to use the Commodore brand, Kickstarter allowed the campaign to proceed. Unfortunately, according to Sean, it is not the end of challenges from other third parties who object to his C64 case design.
In addition to Costel, Timothy De Groote, another former Hyperion Entertainment director turned up at the show on Saturday. We had a brief chat about the future of Hyperion and took the chance for a photo opportunity. Hey, who said 3 wise monkeys? ;) Ben Hermans, the main Hyperion Entertainment shareholder also attended the show. He and Matthew Leaman had a discussion covering several key issues. I encouraged Ben to meet with Michael Battilana of Amiga Corporation/Cloanto to see if they could find any common ground to resolve their legal impasse. They had a long face to face meeting on Saturday afternoon which I attended as an observer. Again, many issues were discussed. I'm not sure if it will produce any positive results but at least they agreed to keep on talking.
There was so much cool and interesting hardware and software projects on display including some excellent retro classic machines for sale. The Akiko 32, a mini-ITX hobby development motherboard was on display along with a portable version build into a laptop case. Marvin Droogsma, the mercurial MC of Amiga 30 Amsterdam had an amazing collection of boxed retro Amiga systems for sale, many of which I have never seen before. Unfortunately, I was travelling from New Zealand with hand baggage only so could not take any of them off his hands!
Of course, Amiga 37 was not just about the vendor display area. A continuous programme of presentations ran throughout the weekend with such luminaries as original Amiga developers Dave Haynie and Ron Nicholson along with Jon Hare, Tim Wright, Mike Clarke from the gaming industry and many others. David Pleasance, the former Joint MD of Commodore UK and my co-author of the ‘From Vultures to Vampire’ trilogy revealed plans for his Commodore Amiga Global Alliance (AGA) initiative, his ambitious plan to provide a centralised resource and information database bringing together the whole Amiga community of enthusiasts, developers, retailers and magazines. Please visit his provisional website for more information.
Apart from the displays and presentations, Amiga37 is also a chance for Amiga enthusiasts to socialise and enjoy some triple-A fun. The buffet dinner on Saturday evening was very well attended with plentiful food and good German beer. Before we tucked into our dinner, I had the privilege of making a short address to thank Markus and his team for organising Amiga37 and to thank the community for keeping the Amiga dream alive.
After dinner it was off to the Retro Party at Projekt42. I must admit, suffering from a combination of jetlag and lack of sleep, I sneaked away with Ron Nicholson just before midnight with Mike Clarke escorting us back to our hotel. I still woke up at 3 am.
My presentation with Enrico was the last event of the show on Sunday and I was surprised how many people were still around to hear our talk. We talked about our respective Amiga Next-generation journeys and outlined our joint plans for release of the A1222 Plus, Enrico alsotalked about the final Sam460 LE production run and revealed details of a PowerPC notebook ACube were developing for the GNU/Linux Open Hardware PowerPC project. During our presentation I made a throwaway comment about not wanting to see AmigaOS 4 running on a PC. I truly believe that any computer that aspires to carry the Amiga name should be a whole system complete with branding. Personally, I don’t care whether it is running on 68k, PowerPC, ARM or even x86 but it must look and feel like an Amiga system. Simply running AmigaOS 4 on any PC hardware does not make it an Amiga IMHO. If you don’t agree with me that is your prerogative and we will have to agree not to agree. At the end of the show, I had the privilege of presenting Markus with a special commemorative Amiga37 framed poster signed by all the VIP attendees. It was a hectic few days but I still had time to be interviewed by Andy Caulfield of Bedrooms to Billions for his latest filming project.
After Amiga37 closed a group of us, including Dave Haynie and Ron Nicolson, met up for a farewell dinner and after the meal we ended up in the lobby of our hotel for a few drinks before saying our last goodbyes.
There are too many Amigans to mention in this short update but here are a few who I remember talking with: Stephen Leary – Terrible Fire accelerators, Stephen Jones – Checkmate Digital, the incomparable Dan Wood & Ravi Abbot, Marcel Franquinet – A1200.net, John Hertel of ReAmiga fame, Jan Zahurancik – Amikit, Dimitris Panokostas - AmiBerry, Adam Spring – Remotely Interested podcast, David ‘Skateman’ Koelman OS4 & Linux tester, and George Sokianos – OS4 developer, Steven Fletcher – The Commodore Story, Tomasz Marcinkowski – Warp/Pixel Magazine, Jens Schönfeld – Individual Computers, Daniel Müßener – Golden Code - plus everyone else who I talked to but can’t remember your name! You know who you are. ;-)
Finally, I want to thank the Amigan who presented me with a small bottle of Jagermeister to help with my throat. You will be pleased to know that Dave Haynie helped me finish it off. Also, many thanks to Tony Schiffbauer from Pittsburgh who gave me, Michael Battilana and Ravi Abbot a ride back to Dusseldorf airport on Monday morning.
Amiga37, what an event! (dr)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 05:27] [Comments: 2 - 21. Nov. 2022, 05:05]
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29.Oct.2022
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AmigaOS 4.1: Introduction to Software Development Kit V54.16, part 2 (update)
Tree weeks ago we had published the first part of the introduction to Hyperion Entertainment's recently updated Software Development Kit (SDK) V54.16 written by Josef Wegner. Now the second part:
"AmigaOS 4.1 SDK 54.16 - How to install it?
In the second article I will show how to install the SDK. Since I unfortunately cannot go into every individual configuration, I assume that AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition Update 2 is already installed. However, it is irrelevant whether further software or the Enhancer 2.2 is installed.
What is required for the installation?
As mentioned in the first paragraph, update 2 of AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition should be installed. Besides that you need:
- enough time; on a PPC Amiga the installation takes 10 - 20 minutes
- 200 - 920 MB free space on a NGFS or SFS drive (preferably another drive besides the system drive) for the installed SDK
- 350 - 400 MB additional free space on a (different) drive for unpacking the archive
- the installation archive
Are there things I should do before installing?
Yes, there are one or two things you should do before you install the SDK
installed:
The first thing you should do is make a copy of your S:User startup. Apparently
there is a bug in the installer program or installer script, that the
last line is deleted from the user startup. After the installation compare both
files, and make sure that nothing is missing.
The second thing is, if you have an older SDK installed, you should remove or comment out the old one from your s:User startup file or comment it out. The lines in question are the following ones:
;BEGIN AmigaOS 4.1 SDK
assign SDK: Work:SDK
execute SDK:S/sdk-startup
;END AmigaOS 4.1 SDK
Delete these lines or comment out the assign/excute with a ;. As
next you should reboot the Amiga and finally delete or rename the old
SDK directory, move it or rename it.
Now it is best to download the installation archive from Hyperion's website and
transfer it to the Amiga if necessary. The second step is to unpack the archive to a destination where you have enough space: this can be done with the standard program Unarc of AmigaOS 4.1 or Archiver from the Enhancer 2.2 or the command line tool "LhA". Depending on what is installed. I personally prefer the command line, so I run the following:
13. > Temp: > lha -a x SHARE:SDK-54.16.lha
The option "-a" tells LhA to restore the attributes (date, permissions). "x" stands for extract the files with full path. The
last part tells LhA where the installation archive is stored.
Unpacking the installation archive alone takes 3-4 minutes.
Enough time to get a coffee for the next step.
The next step is to start the installer "Install SDK" in the freshly unpacked
directory "SDK_Install":
And then select the components of the SDK:
A full installation with all four GCC versions requires
a bit more than 900 MB. On a NG system (SAM, X1000, or X5000) there should be no space problems. On a Classic system you should limit yourself to
one of the four GCCs. This saves about 500MB and some time during the
the installation. A complete installation with all four GCCs takes about 10 minutes on my X5000. On Classic systems or WinUAE it takes
significantly more.
After succesfully installed it...
...you should check, if Startup file is fine and if these new lines have been added:
;BEGIN AmigaOS 4.1 SDK
assign SDK: Work:SDK
execute SDK:S/sdk-startup
;END AmigaOS 4.1 SDK
Then you can reboot and skip the following chapter. In the chapter after next we will test the SDK and compile the first program.
What do I do if it didn't work?
Not enough disk space? The safest thing to do is to delete the SDK that you did not finish installing. Then you can either install the SDK with fewer options, install it on a different drive, or clean up the drive and then try again.
Archive error?
I had this during an installation. Solution was as above, delete failed attempt and try again.
Error unpacking the installation archive or writing the files?
Please make sure that the SDK is installed on a local drive, preferably formatted with SFS or NGFS. Also, please do not use a shared drive in (Win)UAE. If this is already the case and there are still errors, you should check the drive for errors. With NGFS this can be done with the command:
NGFCheck Work:
"Work:" stands for the volume name or the drive.
SDK was installed. What comes next?
Now we can finally use the SDK. In article 1 it was said that the SDK comes with several GCCs and the VBCC. So let's see if all of them work. If at least one GCC is installed, we can see with the following command if the GCC is found and which version of the GCC is currently used:
gcc -v
....gcc version 8.4.0 (adtools build 8.4.0)
The SDK provides several GCCs. How can I change the GCC?
Use the tool "set_defGCC" in SDK:Tools for this. This directory is not in the search path, so you have to open it either with the Workbench or the full path.
sdk:Tools/set_defGCC
A small window appears where you can choose between the four GCC versions. But you can also specify the version directly in the Shell. To do this
appends the desired version after the command. To select GCC 11, enter the following in the Shell:
4. > Workbench: > sdk:Tools/set_defGCC 11
4. > Workbench: > gcc -v
...gcc version 11.2.0 (adtools build 11.2.0)
But be careful, you can also choose a GCC that is not installed. In this case the Shell will not find a GCC anymore. To solve this, call the tool again and select an installed GCC. If VBCC is also installed, you can test it with the following command:
vc -v
vc frontend for vbcc (c) in 1995-2020 by Volker Barthelmann
No objects to link
Now we can run the first test program. As usual, we write a HelloWorld program in standard C, which would also compile and run on another system without code changes.
Enter the following lines in the editor of choice and save them somewhere as "hello.c". Please leave out the line numbers!
RAM Disk:Shared/Sources/hello/hello.c
1 #include <stdio.h>
2 int main(void)
3 {
4 printf("Hello World!\n");
5 return (0);
6 }
To compile and start in a Shell, run the following:
For the GCC:
3. > RAM Disk:Shared/Sources/hello > gcc hello.c -o hello
3. > RAM Disk:Shared/Sources/hello > hello
Hello World!
With the VBCC:
3. > RAM Disk:Shared/Sources/hello > vc hello.c -o hello
3. > RAM Disk:Shared/Sources/hello > hello
Hello World!
What have I done?
I don't want to dive too deep into the structure and peculiarities of C here. But I'll try to explain briefly which line does what in the program.
- Line 1: This is not a C command but a command for the C preprocessor to include another file called stdio.h. The preprocessor prepares the program code for further compilation steps and improves the functionality, spelling and readability of the entered code. Besides including so-called header files, the preprocessor can define constants and replace them later in the code, remove comments, or show and hide code parts (conditional compilation). The file stdio stands for "STanDard Input Output" and contains the function definition for the "printf" method. This method outputs the passed string on the command line. The program would compile and run even without this preprocessor command. However, the compiler would issue warnings.
- Line 2: This is the declaration of the entry function. So that C knows where the program begins, one must define this differently than with script languages. In C it is done by defining the main function (=main). This must have either the form
int main(void)
or
int main(int argc, char **argv)
The first form ignores the parameters when calling the program, the second one passes the number of parameters (int argc) and an array of the parameters as C strings are passed to the method.
- Lines 3 and 6: The curly braces define a code block. With this we tell the compiler that everything in between (line 4 + 5) is part of the function.
- Line 4: Here we call a method of the C standard library that prints the string on the Shell.
- Line 5: The keyword "return" sets the return value of the function. A return statement terminates the execution of a function and returns control to the calling function. The value 0 means: okay! You should always set a return value, but it is not required like in Java.
Not everything is needed for an executable program. If you want to have (and ignore) many warnings from the compiler, you can write the program much shorter:
main(void) { printf("Hallo Welt!\n"); }
If C lacks the return or variable type, C simply takes int (integer type).
Known problems
- I get a GrimReaper when starting the compiled program!
Try to compile the program on a different drive. This happens for example when you compile the program on a shared host drive under WinUAE. Linking the generated object files fails without any message. What comes out is not a real program, and pretty quickly an invalid PPC assembler command is executed, which brings up the GrimReaper.
- I tried to debug the test program but get a weird SIGBUS error:
3. > RAM Disk:Shared/Sources/hello > gcc -gstabs hello.c -o hello
3. > RAM Disk:Shared/Sources/hello > hello
Hello World!
3. > RAM Disk:Shared/Sources/hello > gdb hello
....Starting program: /RAM Disk/Shared/Sources/hello/hello...
...Program received signal SIGBUS, Bus error.
0x00000000 in ?? ()
(gdb)
This is not an SDK or GDB problem, but a bug in the X5000 kernel. There is a beta kernel where this problem is fixed, but it is not publicly available.
What can I do until the third article is published?
First of all, I'm glad you made it this far. The following links might be interesting:
We are done! In the third part we will go a little deeper into the syntax of C."
Update: (29.10.2022, 19:50, dr)
The main developer of the SDK, George 'walkero' Sokianos, has read the tutorial with interest and expresses his thanks for Josef's commitment. He also has three additions that we would like to add here:
- A lot of information on how the SDK is set up and how the compilers can be used is mentioned in the introduction pdf file that can be found in the installation folder. It would be good for people to read that document if they are not familiar with the SDK.
- Different GCC versions can be used by using the binary based with the specific version added at its name, i.e. gcc-11 or gcc-6.
- If AmiCygnix is installed the user must make sure that the lines that are added in user-startup must are before the AmiCygnix lines, so to avoid problems with its software.
(dr)
[News message: 29. Oct. 2022, 06:59] [Comments: 1 - 29. Oct. 2022, 20:10]
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29.Oct.2022
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Motorola68k emulation: Emu68 tests and driver development for Compute Module 4
Developer Michal Schulz regularly provides background information and status updates on his Motorola68K emulation Emu68 for the ARM architecture on his Patreon page. In his latest entry he not only reports about the experiences on the Amiga37, but also announces that due to the still to be developed firmware for the PiStorm32-lite variant he will use the time to make all necessary improvements and corrections to Emu68 and the low-level drivers, which are necessary to make them work properly with Compute Module 4. These are specifically intended for use in proprietary electronic hardware (see heise.de article). If successful, this would give us another variant that could be used in the A500 or A600. (dr)
[News message: 29. Oct. 2022, 05:47] [Comments: 0]
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28.Oct.2022
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Workbench distribution: AmiKit XE for Raspberry Pi 4/400 as Amiga37 edition
As AmiKit had announced in advance (amiga-news.de reported), the Workbench distribution AmiKit XE for the Raspberry Pi 4/400 is now available as a physical product in the Amiga37 Limited Edition: it contains a bootable 64GB microSD card with preinstalled AmiKit (and DevPack) in a branded case (with slots for up to 24 microSD cards). (dr)
[News message: 28. Oct. 2022, 20:27] [Comments: 0]
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28.Oct.2022
MorphZone (Forum)
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MorphOS: Web browser Wayfarer 4.3
Jacek 'jacadcaps' Piszczek has released version 4.3 of his web browser Wayfarer for MorphOS, which now includes the full WebKit WebInspector. Detailed changes:
- Implemented the full WebKit WebInspector
- Deprecated Eruda
- Enabled anchor's download attribute
- Implemented download support for data blobs and data URLs
- Fixed BigInt64 types in TypedArrays
- Optimized some TypedArray operations
Download: wayfarer.lha (29 MB) (dr)
[News message: 28. Oct. 2022, 07:56] [Comments: 0]
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28.Oct.2022
Seiya (ANF)
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PDF magazine: REV'n'GE 139 (Italian/English)
Besides the Italian original issue, the PDF magazine REV'n'GE ("Retro Emulator Vision and Game") is also available in English. The magazine's reviews compare, if available, the different ports of classic games to the various platforms of their time.
Amiga-related, the current issue is about "Street Fighter II: The World Warrior" and "Fiendish Freddy's Big Top O' Fun". (snx)
[News message: 28. Oct. 2022, 07:32] [Comments: 0]
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28.Oct.2022
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Programming language: Amiga C/C++ Visual Studio Code Extension 1.6.3 (update)
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 11.2 with the bundled WinUAE" (YouTube video). Today version 1.6.2 has been released. Changes:
- Linux, MacOS is now supported thanks to Peter Mackay and Graham Bates.
- Please do report any problems here
Update: (28.10.2022, 18:08, dr)
Today, version 1.6.3 was released, which restores the lost file permissions on Linux and macOS. (dr)
[News message: 28. Oct. 2022, 05:31] [Comments: 0]
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27.Oct.2022
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Feature test in AMOS: Update for mingame None Of Us
The group 'ELECTRIC BLACK SHEEP', known among other things for the fantasy shooter Project Quest, which is currently in development, had released a minigame called "None Of Us" three weeks ago, which is intended to test how to obscure the player's opponents with light and shadow in AMOS Pro (YouTube video).
In an update released two days ago, a slightly different design of the graphics and the map has now been implemented, so that the demo looks more like a cartoon. Likewise, there is now an editor version for testing, which can be used to create your own maps - which the authors explicitly encourage. (dr)
[News message: 27. Oct. 2022, 21:08] [Comments: 0]
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27.Oct.2022
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Tech-Demo: Last update for "Street Fighter 2" port
"Street Fighter 2" is the attempt to recreate the well-known beat'm up on the Amiga using the Scorpion Engine in a better way. The author is not going to develop a full game but hopes to inspire other developers. Now he has released a last update. The source code is supposed to be released soon on the Scorpion Engine Unofficial Demos repository. Changes:
- Added Shoryuken move and sound to Ryu
- Special moves are mapped to "Forward + C" (Shoryuken) and "Backward + C" (Hadouken)
- Added more energy to Ken to have more fun
- Added some grace time after Ken dies before playing the winning stance
- A bit more accurate parallax scrolling values
- Fixed bug where punch and kick animation could be performed mid air
- Fixed initial camera position jump after fade in
(dr)
[News message: 27. Oct. 2022, 20:36] [Comments: 0]
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27.Oct.2022
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Report: The AmigaOne XE, second part (Czech)
In the first part, Martina Hřebcová devoted herself to the AmigaOne XE in its entirety and subjected it to various tests. In the now published sequel she deals in detail with the use of various graphics cards and prepares test results and correlations in this very detailed article with elaborate graphics and screenshots. (dr)
[News message: 27. Oct. 2022, 14:42] [Comments: 1 - 27. Oct. 2022, 14:49]
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27.Oct.2022
Amigaworld.net (Webseite)
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Event: Amiga Apollo Meetup in Alkmaar (NL)
On November 19, the "Amiga Apollo Meetup" will take place in Alkmaar, the Netherlands. Hosted by the Dutch Apollo Vampire user group, all other Amiga and AmigaOne systems are also welcome. Social exchange is the main focus, but there is also enough space and tables to bring your own devices. Several Vampire cards will be on display and the current release 9 of ApolloOS will be shown.
The entrance fee of 15 Euros includes the cost of food and drinks, registration is by e-mail to party@amigascene.nl. More information in Dutch can be found at the title link. (snx)
[News message: 27. Oct. 2022, 11:27] [Comments: 0]
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27.Oct.2022
Thomas Wenzel (ANF) (ANF)
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Audio player: AmigaAMP 3.32 released
Thomas Wenzel wrote: After the code has been developed for a long time, I dared to release AmigaAMP 3.32 into the wild. With the 68k version, the use of decoder plugins (so-called "engines") specially adapted to AmigaAMP is possible again. So far, however, there is only one engine for WarpOS. Here is the complete list:
- Bug fixes:
- Loading whole directories now automatically expands playlists found in these directories.
- Fixed wrong behaviour when double clicking on a playlist stream entry while another stream is still in connecting status.
- Fixed handling older visualisation plugins which use an early version of the API.
- New Features:
- Each playlist entry now has its own error status.
- More detailed documentation about AmigaAMP's settings.
- 68k: Support for coprocessor plugins a.k.a. "engines". The .engine files go into the Plugins directory and can be enabled in the Decoder tab of AmigaAMP Preferences.
- 68k: Support for 10-band equalizer settings according to MHI spec v1.2
However, according to initial findings, this new version probably unfortunately triggers a still unknown bug in the ZZ9000AX MHI driver on some systems, so that playback simply never starts but stops at 0 seconds. Prisma Megamix and other MHI drivers do not seem to be affected. (dr)
[News message: 27. Oct. 2022, 10:59] [Comments: 0]
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27.Oct.2022
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Video review: "Apollo Icedrake - The fastest Amiga accelerator ever made?"
In a video, the YouTube channel 'Odd & Obsolete' presents the Apollo Icedrake accelerator card for the Amiga 1200 and describes his experiences and impressions. (dr)
[News message: 27. Oct. 2022, 07:56] [Comments: 0]
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27.Oct.2022
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Linux: Stable long-term kernel 5.10.149 for AmigaOne X1000/X5000
Parallel to new kernels (amiga-news.de reported), Christian 'xeno74' Zigotzky also provides the latest version of the stable long-term kernel for the AmigaOne X1000 and X5000. It is suitable for old Linux distributions that do not work with the latest kernels, such as Ubuntu 10.04, or if users have problems with the latest kernels.
Download: linux-image-5.10.149-X1000_X5000.tar.gz (71 MB) (dr)
[News message: 27. Oct. 2022, 06:44] [Comments: 0]
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27.Oct.2022
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AmigaOS 4.1: NovaBridge V54 available
As announced at last weekend's AmiWest 2022 (see our summary of the event), Nova Bridge is now available separately via the AMIStore for about 50 Euros (plus taxes and fees).
NovaBridge allows all 3D applications written under the old Warp3D and MiniGL to work on modern RadeonHD graphics cards (Southern Islands or Polaris). The current version of Warp3D Nova from Enhancer Software 2.2 is required. After purchase, NovaBridge is available for download in the form of the w3d_novabridge.library in the update tool and must be copied to SYS:Libs/Warp3D/HWdrivers (cf. Wiki entry on NovaBridge). (dr)
[News message: 27. Oct. 2022, 06:04] [Comments: 0]
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26.Oct.2022
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AmigaOS 4.1: SDL 2.24.0 Release Candidate 2
At the end of August, Juha 'capehill' Niemimaki had published the first release candidate for version 2.24.0 of the multimedia library SDL for AmigaOS 4.1 (amiga-news.de reported). The library is intended to make it easier for programmers to develop portable applications and is used by numerous open source games. SDL requires AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition and optionally OpenGL ES 2.0. Today he has published the second release candidate with the following changes:
- Add more game controller mappings
- Add SDL_GetPreferredLocales support, currently hard-coded to en_GB
- Fix a crash issue due to missing nullptr check
(dr)
[News message: 26. Oct. 2022, 20:47] [Comments: 0]
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26.Oct.2022
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Dock: QDock V0.98 released
Sami Vehmaa not only tries to simplify programming in AmiBlitz 3 for others using his programming aid AB_Template, he also develops various applications and games himself like his Tetris clone for RTG-Amiga's Atris or his MP3 player Reel Deck. His latest project: a dock similar to WBDock 2 or AmiDock, which he named QDock and released the first version 0.98 of it today (YouTube video).
As he writes, QDock comes closest to his idea of a dock - in terms of programming skills. QDock requires some CPU power because animated graphics are permanently active. When it's not in use, CPU requirements are reduced to the point where it still feels responsive. A maximum of 25 icons can be arranged in the GlowIcons format, with a minimum of ten icons to keep the menu and text visible. QDock has an integrated user manual for ease of use.
The tool is available for three Euros or more and is primarily intended for emulators or Apollo cards due to the high CPU requirements. It requires AmigaOS 3.2 (3.1 might work as well, but not tested), graphics board and 22 MB RAM. (dr)
[News message: 26. Oct. 2022, 18:29] [Comments: 0]
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