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09.Dec.2022



ReAction-GUI for XAD: Avalanche 1.8 for AmigaOS 3 and 4
Chris Young has released version 1.8 of his ReAction-based graphical user interface Avalanche for the unarchiving system XAD, which also supports the xfdmaster.library and can search for viruses using the xvs.library. The developer has written his tool explicitly for AmigaOS 3.2, but has also been tested under AmigaOS 4. Since it uses a new window.class, it might not work with older OS3 versions. Changes:
  • Some very hefty internal changes!
  • Multiple windows supported internally. Limitations:
    • Commodities events only operate on the main (first) window
    • Does not spawn new process, so cannot use other windows whilst one is busy
  • Simple ARexx port added.
  • Config options moved to separate prefs window
    • Note the options to snapshot the current window and change the default destination are currently not available. They can still be manually set through tooltypes.
  • Config window
(dr)

[News message: 09. Dec. 2022, 20:32] [Comments: 0]
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09.Dec.2022



Advent Calendar: Door 9 - Jérôme Senay
Jérôme 'Glames' Senay is the patron of our ninth advent calendar door.

He is the manager of and programmer for Boing Attitude and a few days ago could celebrate the tenth anniversary of the quiz game AskMeUp at the beginning of December, which was first available for Android, Windows and Linux, and shortly afterwards also for AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS and has been constantly expanded. To mark the occasion, the game is currently available at half price.

The story of Boing Attiutude and Glames - the nickname is borrowed from the hero of the game "Operation Stealth" and was the first video game he was able to finish - starts much earlier though: so he published an interview with Ben Hermans about AmigaOS 4.0 at the beginning of 2002 (still available and certainly interesting to read). In early 2008 he published the game "Word Me Up XXL" for AmigaOS 4 (and a little later also MorphOS), which combines arcade and puzzle elements.

Since 2021 he publishes the French print magazine BOING, of which the fifth issue was recently announced. By the way, with the publication of the magazine a friendly cooperation between him and Amiga-News began: so we are allowed to provide our German-speaking readers with translations of interesting interviews, for example with Mike Parent (Metro Siege) or the Apollo team. For this, as well as for your many years of commitment, a heartfelt thank you, Glames!

His thoughts on the Advent season:

"(Christmas)Time is running out !

Ahh Christmas! Family, friends, gifts... A good time in perspective! Well, unless you're a coder. Because yes, this event can quickly become a nightmare for us Amiga developers. How indeed not to offer on this occasion a gift to all the players and users of our games and applications?

Remember, some game publishers even made Christmas editions of their games! For example, Psygnosis and its "Christmas Lemmings" with its little creatures dressed as Santa Claus for the occasion but also its Christmas decorations with fireplaces, garlands, ... More recently, the most striking example is the game "Turbo Tomato" and its "Turbo Santa" which is even more than a special edition, a real new game that uses the engine of its model.

In short, you will understand, the pressure weighs heavily on the shoulders of developers, including those of operating systems. We have indeed become accustomed to having a new version of AmigaOS (3 or 4) or MorphOS every winter. Some teams even choose to only release one version per year, just before this family celebration day.

For me, the challenge gets harder every year! In 2008, I only had one game that could possibly receive an update, Word Me Up XXL on AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS. But since then I've added a few new games and apps and... Android and Windows as platforms. I chose not to make a Christmas version but rather to deliver a new update just before Santa's visit.

The first choice to be made is therefore to select the application or the game for which an update will be delivered at Christmas and this should not be done at the last moment to allow time to do this update. Real Cornelian choice! Sometimes in good years, I even managed to update several productions. But I have to admit that in recent years, I'm already happy when I manage to deliver one.

Last year (2021) almost saw no updates delivered by Boing Attitude. As you may know, I launched a magazine (in French) dedicated to the Amiga in the summer of 2021, BOING. And when I released issue #2 in October, I thought it would be great to have a number #3 just before Christmas. But what an idea! As a reminder, I am independent in IT, so I had my 8 hours to do with my main client at the moment, a smaller simultaneous project to manage for another client and... the writing and design of the magazine ! I worked more than 50 hours for 6 weeks, sometimes more than 60 hours or even 70 hours the week of wrapping up! But the hard work paid off and BOING #3 was released on December 16, just before Christmas. The bad news is that I couldn't update my apps or games...

Alright, I need to leave you! I have a Christmas update to prepare! ;)" (dr)

[News message: 09. Dec. 2022, 06:38] [Comments: 0]
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08.Dec.2022



Blog: Review of the UltimatePPC Expansion Card
The blog "Amiga alive" not only presents own, partly older projects, but also reports about other software and hardware products. In the latest blog entry, the developer once again traces the development and the missed opportunities of the UltimatePPC board for Amiga 3000/4000 that was announced but never went into production. (dr)

[News message: 08. Dec. 2022, 20:17] [Comments: 0]
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08.Dec.2022



AmigaOS 4.1: Update of Excel addon for spreadsheet ignition
With the release of the spreadsheet ignition 1.21, Achim Pankalla had also provided the xlsx-AddOn for reading MS-Excel files for the first time (amiga-news.de reported). For this he has released a small update to version 0.11 today:
  • now it handle "empty" marker
  • corrects two errors in shared formulas-handle
  • now changes %-values, that ignition handles they correct
(dr)

[News message: 08. Dec. 2022, 14:55] [Comments: 0]
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08.Dec.2022



Video: Building a new Amiga 2000 - part 2
The YouTube channel "Casual Retro Gamer" (CRG) is dedicated to repairing and building retro hardware (amiga-news.de reported). The recently launched video series (part 1) shows how a new Amiga 2000 is assembled. The board used is the EATX form factor version reworked by developer 'jasonsbeer' (amiga-news.de reported). In the second part, the slots are installed and the bluster chip. It also deals with the keyboard and the case. (dr)

[News message: 08. Dec. 2022, 05:38] [Comments: 0]
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08.Dec.2022



Advent Calendar: Door 8 - Daniel Müßener
For the 8th door of our Advent calendar, we were able to win Daniel 'Daytona675x' Müßener.

Who would like to play "Battle Squadron" again? :) Originally developed by Cope-com in 1989, the game was re-released for AmigaOS 4 (and iOS, Android, Windows, OS X) by the makers together with Daniel at the end of 2013.
At the end of 2015, a port of the game "Wings! Remastered Edition" for AmigaOS 4, AROS and MorphOS was announced and a first preview was published. A new demo version was then available at the beginning of 2020.

In addition, Daniel released the AmigaOS 4 version of the arcade shooter Tower 57, which was crowdfunded in the summer of 2015, in early 2018. Likewise for AmigaOS 4 on behalf of A-EON, he is developing the OpenGL ES 2 wrapper, first announced in 2016, which is part of the Enhancer software.

The developer is currently working on two projects: Atomic Bomberman Fan Rewrite is a revision of the eponymous Bomberman variant for Windows from 1997. The improvements include that it runs again on current Windows versions in addition to Amiga systems, USB input devices can be used, up to ten players can be active on one device and the game modes have been revised. There is also network support for online competitions. Version 2.15 is currently available on his website.

Finally, Daniel regularly informs about the development status of his football game in 3D optics, "Souverän Soccer", whose target platform is an Amiga 1200 in delivery condition, by means of preview videos. And quite "incidentally", his CV also includes the Amiga Future honorary offices of "translator" and "Gamescom man for everything"!

Thank you, Daniel, for your commitment to the Amiga and of course for your Advent story which now follows:

"It was neither during the contemplative Christmas season nor Easter, New Year's Eve or Carnival, although a corresponding overkill of red wine, eggnog or Kölsch would have been an explanation for my mental derangement, which I would like to tell you about now, my dear children.

Not so long ago it happened that I was desperately tinkering with the serial-link feature of my Amiga soccer game. It was already late at night and the rain was pattering on the office window, the sound of which could hardly be distinguished from the clicks of the maltreated keyboard.

Unfortunately, our Amiga's serial isn't something she can brag about. But if you stuff her slowly so that she can look at each bit three times and from all sides, then she can swallow'em just fine. The protocol for the game is very compact so as not to overwhelm the ladies. If initialized with the same random seed then the game is fully deterministic, the outcome only depends on the player-input sequence being applied over time. Therefore, it turns out that fortunately a meager 2 bytes per machine must be transmitted per frame. That's a good thing because there's not enough performance remaining for more, at least on a naked A1200 running "Souverän Soccer", where you're already at the extreme limit and absolutely must keep 50 fps with minimal latency.

Anyway, all joystick and key commands, implicit synchronization and error correction information are contained in these 2x2 bytes. But it was a rocky road until I got there, and the protocol's evolution consisted out of many repeating circles of trying out, crying and throwing away again. And of course, at the beginning there was a much simpler protocol.

First it was merely a proof-of-concept. For that Amiga #1 (let's call her "Santa") simply sent 1 byte with its current joystick bits to Amiga #2 ("Rudolph"). Rudolph, on the other hand, sent 2 bytes, namely his own joystick data and the last one received from Santa. Exactly this input pair was then used by both for the calculation of the next simulation step.

And here we are, back in that night outlined above. Team "Santa" and team "Rudolph" were finally about to show on the pitch what they had rehearsed in theory. But apparently our two minions were conspiring against me or some Poltergeist in the machine was involved:

If you moved Santa's active player, then Rudolph's focused player would also run in the same direction - and as if that wasn't wrong enough, they only did that on Rudolph's screen, on Santa's both player objects didn't move at all! And when you used the joystick attached to Rudolph, the same thing happened, only from his mirrored perspective!

That cannot happen! Every programmer knows this sentence well enough, but it has rarely been more appropriate than in this case. This behavior simply could not and should not occur, completely impossible! Nevertheless, it happened. But even after two more terribly long hours, all I managed to do was to make things even worse.

At one point I felt like Tom shredding up Jerry's diary. But before the poor Amigas or Competitions had to die an undeserved death, I preferred to pull the plug and leave my workbench with a shuffling gait and sagging shoulders towards bed.

But even there I was not allowed to rest: in my dreams I found myself in the middle of a storm on a greasy, sodden soccer field. With each flash of lightning, the outlines of spaghetti-code-text-fragments shimmered through the clouds, forming ludicrous sigils. Tens of thousands of morbidly bloated zeros and worm-like squirming ones cavorted in the grandstand. My ears were ringing not so much from the cracking thunder as from the deafening fan chants, which most closely resembled a C64 tape played on the stereo. After a moment of dizziness and disorientation, I realized I was standing in one of the two goals. Then a very sharply shot apple hit me at the skull! The shooter used my near knockout, followed up and converted the rebound all too confidently. The fact that all players were two-dimensional pixel men was not particularly remarkable. But what caught my eye were the team shirts: while my team's jersey featured a & ampersand, the opposing team showed a simple vertical line, much like a pipe symbol. But before I could wonder any further, I got a ball in the stomach - and another - and another. When I got my hands on the last one, I saw that it wasn't a classic football, but a green, round, shriveled something, which stared at me with two teary eyes and said with a grin: "Get up, stupid dad!".

After waking up in a sweat and stopping my daughter from continuing to bounce on my stomach, three things revealed themselves to me with absolute clarity:
Firstly, years of C64 and Amiga gaming definitely left some marks, secondly, children give you so much in return, and thirdly, there was something about those nasty pipe strokes and the ampersands, my subconscious had noticed something that had escaped the higher-level part.

All right, cat bath, coffee, morning stool, freshly back to work! And lo and behold, it took less than a minute to discover and correct the cause of the problem. So, what had happened?

Within the whole game logic there is a variable that stores various on/off states as bits. Among many other things, there's one bit indicating whether a serial link match is currently running and another one which determines if the respective Amiga acts as Santa in that case. Accordingly, there are locations where these bits are tested to decide which code path to take. In C this looks like this, where gf_Santa simply represents this specific bit:

if(gameplay_flags & gf_Santa) {
// Santa-stuff comes here
} else {
// Rudolph-stuff comes here
}

And right here a tiny but mean typo had crept in. Instead of this & (binary AND) there was a | (binary OR):

if(gameplay_flags | gf_Santa)

In contrast to the desired bit test, this is just crap, unfortunately syntactically completely legal crap which doesn't even trigger a compiler warning here. I could also have written if(true) here, the effect would have been the same, namely that only the Santa code was ever executed - even if running on a Rudolph :P This typo can only be explained with temporary mental derangement. To crown it all, as a programmer you are lazy by nature. Which is why this error had doubled because I had copied the wrong line to another place, so this quirk was in both the receive and the send logic.

Ultimately, this is what happened if you pushed Santa's joystick to the left:
  • Santa sends his joystick data, "to the left"
  • Rudolph sends his joystick data, "idle"
  • Santa wants to receive 2 bytes, but so far there is only 1, so nothing to do
  • Rudolph wants to receive 2 bytes, but so far there is only 1, so nothing to do
  • Santa sends his joystick data, "still to the left"
  • Rudolph sends his joystick data, "still idle"
  • Santa has now received 2 bytes and interprets them as "Player1: nothing, player2: nothing"
  • Rudolph now has 2 bytes and interprets them as "player1: to the left, player2: to the left"
Argh! Of course the whole serial-link construct didn't really work properly after the & correction, but the penny had dropped and a first test match was successfully held on the same day.

And the story's moral? Never underestimate your own routine-blindness and goofiness, stupid dad! Well then, good night, dear little children!" (dr)

[News message: 08. Dec. 2022, 04:15] [Comments: 1 - 08. Dec. 2022, 09:32]
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08.Dec.2022



RTG Solitare: Demo version of "Solitare match"
Sami Vehmaa has released a demo version of his graphics card Solitare conversion "Solitare match" (YouTube video), which is primarily intended for Amiga emulators or Apollo cards due to the high CPU requirements. The demo version contains five levels. Those who want to encourage the developer to continue working on his game can buy the game for around three Euros and currently receive ten of the intended 100 levels in return. (dr)

[News message: 08. Dec. 2022, 03:17] [Comments: 0]
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08.Dec.2022



Print/PDF magazine: Amiga Addict, issue 17
The seventeenth issue of the British magazine "Amiga Addict" is now available as a digital version for about 5.20 Euros. The printed version of the Christmas issue (from 15 December) including shipping costs about 11.50 euros. The current issue contains the following topics:
  • A free Xmas game made for us by Amiga Drawbridge genius Rob Smith
  • A pull out poster with suggestions on what you might want to play with the family when you've polished off Christmas dinner
  • Ravi reports back from the biggest Amiga event of the year, Amiga 37 in Germany
  • Reviews of brand new games Devil's Temple, Minky and None of Us
  • A look back on some classic Christmas games, like Fire and Ice and Xmas Lemmings
  • Getting animated with Cinema 4D in The Creative Revolution
  • Demoscene at Christmas with h0ffman
  • Special guests AmigaLove, Andrew Korn and Chris Winter tell us about their connection with the Amiga
  • And much much more!
(dr)

[News message: 08. Dec. 2022, 02:36] [Comments: 0]
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07.Dec.2022



Amiga emulator for MacOS: vAmiga 2.2
After developer Dirk Hoffmann released the first beta version 2.2 of his Amiga emulator vAmiga for MacOS in mid-November (amiga-news.de reported), he has now released the final version 2.2. Changes:
  • Fixed a bug that caused the emulator to crash when a Copper list was viewed in RetroShell.
  • Fixed some minor GUI issues.
  • Cleaned up some code.
The minimum system requirement for the emulator is macOS 10.15. (dr)

[News message: 07. Dec. 2022, 19:56] [Comments: 0]
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07.Dec.2022



Advent Calendar: Door 7 - Christian Zigotzky
Door 7 of our advent calendar is filled by Christian 'xeno74' Zigotzky.

You could almost say: he is the fairy godmother for everything to do with Linux on PPC Amigas. However, his "amiga-news.de career" began with the port of SuperTuxKart to AmigaOS 4. In the following years, he diligently published not only new Linux kernel versions for the various PPC Amigas, but also entire Linux distributions: for example, Lubuntu 13.10 for Sam440ep at the end of 2013, openSUSE 13.2 for the AmigaOne X1000 in May 2015 or afew months ago Void 5.1 for AmigaOne X1000/X5000 (for which we published an installation guide). Recently, there have also been various game ports for Linux PowerPC, such as Billy Frontier.

Please read his advent anecdote:

How I joined A-EON...

It started quite harmlessly in 2010. I needed a cable and was looking for it in my boxes in the attic. I found the cable, but also my old Amiga 4000D in another box. To this day, I don't know what had driven me there, but I simply took the Amiga down to the flat. On my journey of discovery through various Amiga websites, I noticed that the development of hardware and software had continued and was on fire.

After buying an Indivision AGA MK1, I was able to start my A4000D (CPU Motorola 68040 with 25 MHz, 16 MB Fast-RAM) with a connected TFT monitor without any problems. I was totally impressed by the Indivision AGA MK1 because of the tapping of the data from the Lisa chip and the processing and output via VGA. It whetted my appetite for more.

As a Linux fan, I then installed Debian Linux 3.1r8 m68k on the 4000D (screenshot). Which worked so well that I always wanted to continue with Linux on the Amiga.

After a while, the desire to buy an Amiga 4000T arose. That was a dream that I didn't fulfil at the time. So I looked for advertisements and found someone who wanted to sell his A4000T. I went there and was totally disappointed about the condition of this A4000T.

But I had already heard about the X1000 at that time and was totally excited. Only the price put me off a little and availability was still a problem. However, a dealer had a used ACube Sam440ep-flex (trade fair exhibit) on offer. I thought, why don't I buy a more powerful and cheaper NG-Amiga instead of an expensive A4000T? So I took the plunge and bought it.

The Sam was just great, so I quickly forgot about the Amiga 4000T. I used OS4.1 with all my m68k games and suddenly didn't need my A4000D anymore. I also installed Linux (as befits a Linux fanatic) and was very happy with the result.

But I couldn't get the desire for the X1000 out of my head, and in a rush I ordered it at the end of 2012 and got it at the beginning of 2013. I used it just like the Sam and also installed Linux again (what else?).

I was super happy except with the hardware 3D acceleration under Linux. There were problems when I played SuperTuxKart, which frustrated me.

The problem was fixed in newer kernel versions but these were not yet available for the X1000. With the help of Markus, I was able to compile a new kernel that solved the problems. I then also released it.

After the release of another kernel, Trevor asked me if I would like to join the A-EON Linux support team. And so fate took its course, with visits to trade fairs and many new contacts to other Amiga enthusiasts. A development I wouldn't want to miss and which I hadn't expected.

Well, that's what happens when you look for a cable in the attic and rummage through the treasure chests. So think twice about looking in boxes of computer stuff in the basement or attic, because memories and dreams might be awakened. ;-)" (dr)

[News message: 07. Dec. 2022, 06:18] [Comments: 0]
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06.Dec.2022



Module player: NostalgicPlayer 1.9.0 for Windows
NostalgicPlayer is a program for playing Amiga music modules under Windows, based on APlayer. The development of the player had been started by the author Thomas Neumann in 1993 on the Amiga, later continued on BeOS and now on Windows (amiga-news.de reported).

Today, version 1.9.0 has been released, providing the following changes:
  • Several players show 0 as volume in the Sample Information window instead of 256.
  • The sub-song detection change in last version contained several bugs. The module could stop too early if you changed the position. When looping is on and the module loops, if you then stop the loop, the module ended the next time it changed its position. Also some modules timed out when the duration was calculated. All this should be fixed now.
  • The Unreal Music File loader was broken by a change a couple of versions ago, so the modules could not be loaded.
  • The piano visual did not show anything when opened while a module is playing. It only worked if already opened when a module starts.
  • Fixed a critical bug in the Spinning Square visualizer. When stopping or switching modules, there was a potentical risk for memory leaks or even a crash.
  • Added tooltips to the sample information window, so it is now possible to see what the different icons means.
  • Updated Krypton.Toolkit and Krypton.Navigator to version 70.22.11.312.
  • Updated libsidplayfp to version 2.4.0.
  • Added these new module formats: Game Music Creator, Quadra Composer, Delta Music 1.0, Delta Music 2.0.
An installation package can be found on Microsoft Store. (dr)

[News message: 06. Dec. 2022, 20:54] [Comments: 0]
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06.Dec.2022



AmigaOS 4.1: SDL 2.26.1 Release Candidate 1
At the end of October, Juha 'capehill' Niemimaki had published 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 first release candidate for version 2.26.1 inclusing the following Amiga specific changes:
  • Compile with GCC 11.2
  • Fix shaped window alpha bitmap creation
  • Enable virtual joysticks
  • Add a workaround for game controller detection (AmigaOS 4 GUIDs are unfortunately broken)
  • Add 2in1 game controller
  • Update installer: delete old libSDL2.so soft links
(dr)

[News message: 06. Dec. 2022, 20:40] [Comments: 0]
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06.Dec.2022



Programming language: Amiga C/C++ Visual Studio Code Extension 1.6.8
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 1.6.8 has been released. Changes:
  • NEW: update gcc to 12.2.0, binutils, GNU gdb (GDB) 13.0.50.20221127-git
  • FIX: WinUAE/FS-UAE: don't enable "Full stack frame tracking" (caused WinUAE to crash due to stack overflow in certain situations)
  • NEW: assembly: View memory for symbols in assembly
  • NEW: assembly: Support other Motorola assembly language providers
  • FIX: assembly: Cycle count was missing on last line of source
  • NEW: assembly: Cycle decoration improvements
  • FIX: assembly: Async parsing
  • CHG: disassembly: New CPU cycle count implementation with improved accuracy
  • NEW: disassembly: Tooltip improvements
  • NEW: debugger: Disassembled memory view
  • NEW: debugger: Add symbol offset labels to registers
(dr)

[News message: 06. Dec. 2022, 20:31] [Comments: 0]
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06.Dec.2022



Advent Calendar: Door 6 - Matthias Böcker
For St. Nicholas Day and the sixth door, Matthias 'UltraGelb' Böcker has something special for all MorphOS users: especially for our Advent calendar, he has written a wintry Screenblanker module.

Already in the early days of amiga-news.de Matthias was also in the headlines with his ingenious FTP client AmiTradeCenter (ATC): On March 27th 2000 we reported about his first prerelease of ATC. He continued to develop the client until version 1.4 from 2010. As an industrious developer especially for MorphOS he has published over the years for example the fun program ShapeShow, the digital clock ClockToy or from more recent times and also for AmigaOS 3 and 4 the utility for automatic updating of version, revision and build numbers RevFlex or the magnifier tool Lupe.

We say thank you for his commitment and of course for the nice surprise and hand over to Matthias:

"This is my contribution to the amiga-news.de advent calendar. In keeping with the festive theme, it is a screenblanker module for MorphOS that sprinkles the active screen with snowflakes that accumulate on windows and at the bottom of the screen.

Many thanks to the team of amiga-news.de for the good work! I wish all users a wonderful Advent season and a Merry Christmas! :-)"

Download: Snow.lha (55KB) (dr)

[News message: 06. Dec. 2022, 18:52] [Comments: 2 - 06. Dec. 2022, 20:12]
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06.Dec.2022



SCSI-SD adapter: ZuluSCSI firmware 1.1.5
ZuluSCSI is a new generation of file-based SCSI hard disk and CD-ROM drive emulators. ZuluSCSI emulates a SCSI-I or SCSI-2 hard disk using an SD memory card (amiga-news.de reported). Version 1.1.3 of the firmware was released today. Changes since 1.1.3:
  • Report proper termination on ZuluSCSI mini v1.0
  • Fix reporting time of firmware version
  • Dont show ROM drive log messages when platform has none - for ZuluSCSI V1.x boards
  • Add compressed file suffixes to exclusion list
(dr)

[News message: 06. Dec. 2022, 06:15] [Comments: 0]
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06.Dec.2022



Floppy emulator: GoFloppy
Andrew 'LinuxJedi' Hutchings had already reported about his new floppy emulator project "GoFloppy" on Twitter some time ago (Tweet 1, Tweet 2) and now also found the time to report about it in more detail on his blog: the "GoFloppy" drive is a floppy drive emulator, similar to "Gotek", in the form of a 3.5 inch floppy (short YouTube video), which uses the same FlashFloppy firmware.

However, when reverse-engineering the Gotek drive, the developer made some changes:
  • An SD card is used instead of a USB stick
  • A jog dial to control the device
  • A 1.3" OLED display
  • Much simpler hardware configuration (slide switch for drive ID selector for example)
There are many other internal differences too, but these do not affect users so much.

On his website Retro Supplies, he offers the GoFloppys for around 70 Euros plus shipping, but they usually sell out quickly, as they do currently. If they are no longer in stock, you can sign up for the list on the product page so that you will be notified as soon as new ones are available. (dr)

[News message: 06. Dec. 2022, 06:12] [Comments: 0]
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05.Dec.2022



Sokoban clone: LazSokoban for AROS, MorphOS and AmigaOS 4
During his work on the Pascal-based Lazarus Component Library (LCL) for AROS, in April 2016, Marcus 'ALB42' Sackrow had also tested some third-party LCL applications to compile for AROS. One of these was the Sokoban clone LazSokoban, written by Ukrainian programmer Vadim Vitomsky. Sackrow released an AROS version of this (amiga-news.de reported).

Now he has revised this version, backported the recent Halloween update of the game and compiled it with the latest LCL. Since this now also offers the possibility to compile programs for MorphOS and AmigaOS 4, the developer has provided versions for all three systems on his website. As he writes, it seems to work well except for a few missing button images. An implementation for AmigaOS 3 is also possible, but according to his tests it is much too slow. (dr)

[News message: 05. Dec. 2022, 20:37] [Comments: 0]
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05.Dec.2022



Advent Calendar: Door 5 - David Brunet
Our new Advent calendar week begins with the fifth door and David Brunet.
David Brunet is inextricably linked to his French AmigaOS and MorphOS magazine Obligement. The long history of this magazine starts in the mid-1990s: inspired by Christian, a friend at high school who owned an Amiga 1200, David switched from his Amiga 500 to this Amiga with hard disk and 68030 card.

Both were interested in word processing, graphics, etc. and exchanged documents created with Wordworth every week for fun. These documents were called "Obligement", a made-up word that came from one of their friends. This term, which basically means "obligatory", basically marked the birth of the magazine.

This gave rise to the idea of producing a printed Amiga magazine: the first issue left the "editorial office" on 1 January 1997. It was written with Wordworth 6 and the graphics were done with Personal Paint. It had 15 A4 pages, stapled by hand and all in colour, coming straight from Christian's printer.

As the circulation never exceeded 15 printed copies, David suggested that they discontinue the paper version (after six issues) and start a digital version produced with Scala. In the following years they then switched to Blitz Basic 2 or Blitz Basic 2 RTG and the AmigaGuide format. Obligement 37 (January/February 2003) was then the first issue in HTML.

From issue 51 onwards, the magazine exists as a direct online version. Due to time constraints, the magazine's articles were henceforth published directly on the Obligement page. The bimonthly issues were no longer produced, the magazine was from then on a purely online magazine. Instead of the traditional issues there is - and this is how we have known and reported on amiga-news.de for a very long time - a newsletter every two months to summarise new articles and updates.

Equipped with this rich history and wealth of experience, David shares a few tips on how to "successfully" run an Amiga project for such a long time. His contribution for the fifth door:

"There have been many Amiga volunteer projects in the past and some of them are still present, stronger than ever, like Obligement and Amiga-News.de. In this cold weather and with Christmas approaching, it is always comforting to see websites like these that do not let their readership down.

I have witnessed the end of almost all Amiga fanzines/magazines. Their demise has allowed me to increase my experience so that I don't do the same thing. There is no miracle formula to perpetuate a magazine in a voluntary activity. I can simply state these few points:
  • You should neither do too much (overwork is harmful)...
  • ...nor do not do enough (you get used to doing nothing and in the end, you don't move forward).
  • You have to know how to surround yourself with a few reliable people.
  • You should not always do the same thing and vary the subjects/activities.
  • You have to be open to criticism while rejecting unconstructive negative judgments.
  • Don't forget that this is only a hobby.
  • Projects motivated only by money do not last in time, especially on the Amiga.
Believe in yourself and have a wonderful Advent and Christmas season!" (dr)

[News message: 05. Dec. 2022, 06:38] [Comments: 1 - 05. Dec. 2022, 09:37]
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05.Dec.2022



Aiostreams V1.7.6: Scripts for Streaming Twitch.tv and Mixer.com videos
George 'walkero' Sokianos has created Python scripts and bundled them in aiostreams ("All In One Streams") for viewers of the Amiga and other retro streams on Twitch.tv and Mixer.com, so that they can also watch the videos under AmigaOS 4, AmigaOS 3, MorphOS and AROS instead of on the PC.

Yesterday, version 1.7.6 was released. Changes:

Added
  • Added some extra info in the amigaguide file for the youtube script
  • Added pagination to youtube script with the new argument -p/--page
Changed
  • Updated the scripts to work with python3
  • Now the -x argument in youtube and twitch script prints out the extra info but doesn't start the video playback
Removed
  • Removed the skaitv, lbry and dlive scripts as they are not working and they need a rewrite
Download: aiostreams-v1.7.6.lha (228 KB) (dr)

[News message: 05. Dec. 2022, 05:27] [Comments: 0]
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04.Dec.2022



Text editor: Amiga Source Editor 2.0
At the end of 2020, author Alain Fontanin resumed the development that had originally started in 1989 by releasing Version 1.2 (2019) of his text editor "Amiga Source Editor" (ASE). The author continues to work on his editor and has now released version 2.0 (2019) with the following changes:
  • Integration of BOOPSI 'scrollbar' gadgets;
  • Possibility to number the lines
  • Possibility to define the default size and position of the document window
  • Possibility to define the scrolling speed with the wheel
  • Possibility to move one page with the wheel (CTRL key)
  • Optimization of 'Copy/Cut/Paste' functions
  • Integration of the 'Redo' functionality
  • Improved compatibility of ASE2019 with AROS
  • Added 'Count occurrences' function
  • Ability to repeat the last used menu item
  • Improved documentation
(dr)

[News message: 04. Dec. 2022, 20:09] [Comments: 0]
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04.Dec.2022



Floppy disk images on PC and Mac: Greaseweazle Tools 1.4
Keir Fraser's "Greaseweazle" does - similar to Kryoflux - read the magnetic information on a floppy disk independently from the format used and saves as much information as possible to generate a so-called "Flux Level Image" in Supercard format (SCP), which enables reading and back-writing of copy-protected disks (amiga-news.de reported)

The adapter gets connected between a floppy disk drive - e.g. a standard 3.5" PC one - and a USB port of the PC or Mac. A few moments ago version 1.4 of the Greaseweazle Tools was released providing the following changes:
  • Read support for DIM, FDI, HDM, XDF, and D88 image formats: primarily used with Japanese computers
  • Renamed pc98.hd and pc98.dd formats to pc98.2hd and pc98.2dd
  • Fixed head count on pc98.2hd and pc98.2dd formats
  • Support pc98.2d format (used e.g. by PC-88 and X1)
  • Support pc98.2hs format (used primarily by late PC-98)
(dr)

[News message: 04. Dec. 2022, 19:25] [Comments: 0]
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04.Dec.2022
Andreas Falkenhahn (ANF)


Hollywood: XML-Plugin 2.0 and APK Compiler 4.3 released
Pressemitteilung: Airsoft Softwair, the hardest working men in code business, are proud to announce the immediate availability of version 2.0 of the XML plugin for Hollywood. This plugin, previously known as XML Parser, was one of the first Hollywood plugins and has now received a major update with many new features. The biggest new feature in version 2.0 of the Hollywood XML plugin is that you can now serialize Hollywood tables to XML documents with just a single function call. In the same way you can also deserialize XML documents to Hollywood tables with just a single function call. This is made possible by Hollywood 9's new serialization plugin interface which is why the XML plugin now requires at least Hollywood 9.0. Further new features include lots of new callbacks to handle advanced XML features like namespaces, entities, attlists, and more. Finally, the XML plugin now includes a comprehensive documentation that describes all features and contains many examples.

The plugin is now available for free download from the official Hollywood portal. Thanks to Hollywood's cross-platform plugin systemversions for AmigaOS3, AmigaOS4, MorphOS, WarpOS, AROS (x86), Linux (arm, ppc, x86, x64), macOS (ppc, x86, x64), Windows (x86, x64), Android and iOS are provided. Note that Hollywood 9 is strictly required by the XML plugin 2.0.

Besides, Hollywood APK Compiler 4.3 has just been released. This fixes a major bug that was introduced in version 4.2 so everybody using version 4.2 should definitely update. The update is provided free of charge for all existing APK Compiler customers and can be downloaded in the restricted download section. (dr)

[News message: 04. Dec. 2022, 14:13] [Comments: 0]
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04.Dec.2022
Christian 'TheoTheoderich' Wiegel


Turn-based strategy: River update for "Settle the World"
Christian 'TheoTheoderich' Wiegel has released a river update for his turn-based building and trading game "Settle the World" - see detailed introduction on amiga-news.de (YouTube developer video).

Compared to the playable preview from the beginning of November (amiga-news.de reported) there are many improvements:
  • Rivers wind through the landscape and can be navigated by small sailing ships
  • There is a new terrain type that is good for planting tobacco
  • A button for unloading units from ships
  • The F1 key shows an overlay in the map and city view with the most important shortcuts and explanations of icons
  • Warnings when leaving a city, e.g. if no production has been set, or the city does not produce enough food
  • Dozens of bugfixes
As the author explains, the game is far from finished and this update is just another small step on the way to the full version.
You can load "Save-Slot 1" in the game and see what a slightly advanced game state looks like. Furthermore, the developer recommends to save frequently and to use different save-slots, because the game still contains a lot of bugs. Some of these bugs - such as units that suddenly appear twice - could be solved by saving and reloading. Also the game music would sometimes run too fast and can then be turned off and on again via the game options.

"Settle the World" is primarily intended as a duel between human opponents, but can also be played alone. The game requires 1 megabyte of ChipRAM and 4 megabytes of FastRAM, a hard disk and at least a 68020 processor. (dr)

[News message: 04. Dec. 2022, 13:56] [Comments: 0]
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04.Dec.2022



Aminet uploads until 03.12.2022
The following files have been added until 03.12.2022 to Aminet:
apccomm.lha              comm/misc  196K  68k transfers files between Amiga...
brainfuck.lha            dev/lang   1K        "Urban, it's coming home!"
anaiis.lha               driver/oth 208K  68k ANAIIS USB Stack Release 1.22
F1GP2022Carset.lha       game/data  15K       2022 Carset for F1GP
AMCommand.lha            game/shoot 90K   68k Arcade Missile Command
pcexhumed.lha            game/shoot 674K  68k Exhumed / Powerslave Port
AmiArcadia.lha           misc/emu   4.6M  68k Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiArcadiaMOS.lha        misc/emu   4.9M  MOS Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiArcadia-OS4.lha       misc/emu   5.1M  OS4 Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiVms.lha               misc/emu   3.4M  68k Simulates OpenVMS commands
LN4Lv9.lha               mods/misc  3.1M      4ch LN4 Lv9 MED track by HKvalhe
SoftIEEE.lha             util/libs  57K   68k math lib&881/882 FPU emulator...
ScreenTime.lha           util/time  66K   68k Screen clock, configurable wi...
(snx)

[News message: 04. Dec. 2022, 09:33] [Comments: 0]
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04.Dec.2022



OS4Depot uploads until 03.12.2022
The following files have been added until 03.12.2022 to OS4Depot:
amiarcadia.lha           emu/gam 5Mb   4.0 Signetics-based machines emulator
hode.lha                 gam/pla 2Mb   4.1 One of best cinematic platform v...
quickstarter.lha         uti/wor 322kb 4.0 Quick program start menu
(snx)

[News message: 04. Dec. 2022, 09:33] [Comments: 0]
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04.Dec.2022



AROS Archives uploads until 03.12.2022
The following files have been added until 03.12.2022 to AROS Archives:
portable.lha                 dev/lan 13Mb  E Compiler
aros_one_x86.zip             uti/mis 232b  Aros One x86
(snx)

[News message: 04. Dec. 2022, 09:33] [Comments: 0]
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04.Dec.2022



MorphOS-Storage uploads until 03.12.2022
The following files have been added until 03.12.2022 to MorphOS-Storage:
Iris_1.5.lha              Email                     New email client suppor...
AmiArcadia_29.32.lha      Emulation                 A Signetics-based machi...
BootClock_1.30r1.lha      Misc                      A little and easy progr...
Wayfarer_4.5.lha          Network/Web               Wayfarer is the latest ...
(snx)

[News message: 04. Dec. 2022, 09:33] [Comments: 0]
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04.Dec.2022



WHDLoad: New installers until 03.12.2022
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 03.12.2022:
  • 2022-12-03 fixed: Flashback (Delphine Software) chipmem size increased, color text in in holocub seq can be changed (Info)
  • 2022-12-03 improved: Fate: Gates Of Dawn (reLINE) slave uses fastmem, mouse buttons delay patched, manual and solution added (Info)
  • 2022-11-30 improved: Killing Cloud (Vektor Grafix) fixed a crash, added an option to speed up logo (Info)
  • 2022-11-30 improved: Dogs of War (Elite Systems) supports another version (Info)
  • 2022-11-29 improved: Kick Off 2: The Final Whistle (Anco) support for another version added (1.9f), minor problem in keyboard patch fixed, WHDLoad v17+ features used (Info)
  • 2022-11-27 improved: Killing Cloud (Vektor Grafix) fixed keyboard fix (Info)
  • 2022-11-27 new: Megademo (Brainstorm) done by StingRay (Info, Image, Image)
(snx)

[News message: 04. Dec. 2022, 09:33] [Comments: 0]
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04.Dec.2022
ANF


Analogue Pocket: Video shows Amiga core under development
The handheld game console Analogue Pocket (Wikipedia) is FPGA-based and as such supports modules from Nintendo, Sega, the PC Engine or the Atari Lynx.

According to a video at the title link, 'Ultra FP64' is working on the adaptation of an Amiga 500 core, which is currently still in the alpha stage. According to the developer on Twitter, he wants to release it as soon as he has added keyboard and mouse to the current joystick-only support, improved the speed and tidied up his program code. (snx)

[News message: 04. Dec. 2022, 09:33] [Comments: 0]
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04.Dec.2022
ANF


AROS distribution: AROS One 1.9 (x86)
The distribution "AROS One", based on the AROS binary interface ABI v0, is now available in version 1.9 for x86 computers. It can be downloaded as a DVD ISO file or as a USB flash image at the title link, where video recordings can also be found.

In addition to updates to the included programs and games, this version of AROS One features visual additions such as a new "white" set of drawer icons that can be switched between and the updated "blue" one, a new background image for walkers, and various design "themes".

Changes in detail:
  • Update AROS One System
    • AROS One English Manual in PDF, GUIDE, HTM, DOC format
    • AROS One Italian Manual in PDF, GUIDE, HTM, DOC format
    • New "White" Folder Icon Set (to be installed)
    • Update "Blue" Folder Icon Set
    • Updated Application Icons Set (better quality)
    • Installer Icon Set White or Blue (Folder Extras)
    • Fix "DiskInfo"
    • i8042.hidd (fixes Touchpad problems on some PCs)
    • Update Dopus4 Config (add Mount/Eject ADF/DMS)
    • Dopus4 Preset Palette Skin (Gray,White)
    • Update Wanderer (add def_Icons Mount/Eject ADF/DMS)
    • Auto Mount from Icon ADF, DMS and IMG (MS-DOS Floppy) Image File
    • Auto Mount from Icon ISO CD/DVD Image File
    • Icon to install NTFS-Handler For Mount Disks or Partitions NTFS (Read and Write)
    • New Backdrop ArosOne created by "Damir"
    • Added Theme by "Damir" PixBlue (Tab resize)
    • Added Theme by "Damir" Pills (Tab resize)
    • Added Theme Style AfA OS
    • Shell-Color (Shell-Black, Shell-White)
    • CLS 1.0 (Compiled by me for AROS x86)
    • libglfw.i386-aros
    • libglew.i386-aros
    • Added RNOTunes.catalog (Italian)
  • Updated Apps
    • Amitube 1.3
    • PerciMan 0.7.5
    • Vim 8.2.4424
    • PintorWeb 3.20
    • BeeBase 1.0
    • uCommander
    • Murks IDE 0.6.1
    • WebpTools 1.2.4
    • UHCTools 1.6
    • HWP AVCodec 1.5
    • TextMio 0.2
    • AnimWebConverter 5.00
    • PortablE r6b
    • RNOEffects 1.4
    • RNOTunes 1.0
    • RNOInfoScreen 1.8
    • Image2PDF 1.2
  • Updated Games
    • SuperMarioWar
    • Beret
    • Gilbert
    • GianaReturn
    • SuperTux
    • SuperTux 2
(snx)

[News message: 04. Dec. 2022, 09:33] [Comments: 0]
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04.Dec.2022
Puni (ANF)


AmigaOS 4: Blog summary of November
For the month of November 'Puni' has again published a news summary in the areas of hard- and software for AmigaOS 4 at the title link. (snx)

[News message: 04. Dec. 2022, 09:33] [Comments: 0]
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04.Dec.2022



Advent Calendar: Door 4 - The Apollo team
For the fourth door and thus for the second Advent, the Apollo team contributes an anecdote. Their approach of FPGA-based turbo cards for Amigas represented a new alternative in terms of upgrading aged hardware besides the accelerator boards carrying a real 680x0 processor. The history started with a presentation of a NatAmi developer board in 2008. Announced in 2011, there was a first stable running version of the Vampire 600 for the Amiga of the same name in 2013. In 2016, Vampire variants for the Amiga 500 and 2000 followed, all of which used the V2 Apollo core.

In 2017, development work was already underway on the Apollo V4 FPGA accelerator board, including a standalone variant. The following versions are currently available: Yesterday, Gunnar von Boehm announced an update of the Apollo core that provides 16 DMA Amiga audio channels instead of the four available on the standard Amiga. Each of the 16 channels provides stereo sound. In addition, one can position the sound from each individual channel to the left or right.

The anecdote for the fourth door written by the Apollo team:

"Back in the days of Silver core for V2, we used to put an Amiga video game character in the boot image. At that time, the war between the team TuKo "Simon the sorcerer is better than Monkey Island" and the team guibrush "Monkey Island is of course superior to Simon the sorcerer" already existed.

A discussion in the team took place to decide which character between Simon and guibrush should be used for, I believe the Silver 5 release (I'm not sure anymore if it was the 5 of the 6). In the end, as it was TuKo who was doing the releases, he decided to put Simon, against any democratic decision.

He was well punished, since this core was replaced in a few days by the next one because of a bug that made it unusable on several machines, which made it the core with the shortest lifespan in the history of the Vampire." (dr)

[News message: 04. Dec. 2022, 08:13] [Comments: 0]
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04.Dec.2022
Dimitris Panokostas


Mastodon client: Amidon in development
After the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk, one or the other Amiga and retro enthusiast is thinking about either using the microblogging service only to a limited extent or, as for example announced by Jan Beta, leaving it altogether: either to set up his own website like him or, as for example Jens Schönfeld is thinking about using the alternative service Mastodon as well.

The author of the Amiga emulator Amiberry, Dimitris 'MiDWaN' Panokostas, not only already has his account there, he is also developing a client for AmigaOS 3. Currently he is using Hollywood for this, but he is thinking about using C as an alternative. So far the biggest problem is that the HTMLview MUI class on OS3 is old and buggy and does not work with MUI versions higher than 3.9.

If you would like to support the developer, then you can do that, for example, by buying him a coffee on his Ko-fi website. (dr)

[News message: 04. Dec. 2022, 06:49] [Comments: 0]
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04.Dec.2022



Puzzle game: Wood Block Puzzle
The Polish developer 'Tukinem' - known among others for his platform game Ami-Tower or the farming simulation Farmiga - has written a conversion of the game Wood Block Puzzle (online variant) for Amiga in BlitzBasic:


In terms of design, the game is reminiscent of Tetris: full horizontal or vertical lines must be formed by means of the wooden blocks so that they disappear. However, the blocks do not fall from above, but are grabbed from the bottom player edge, but can not be rotated. (dr)

[News message: 04. Dec. 2022, 05:20] [Comments: 0]
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03.Dec.2022



Advent Calendar: Door 3 - Joerg van de Loo
For the third door of our advent calendar, developer Joerg van de Loo took a lot of time. His main Amiga-side project is the text editor BareED. Unlike other editors, BareED is a RAM-based and pixel-oriented (not character-oriented) text editor for the Amiga. This means it can display proportional fonts (characters can vary in width) and use real tabs. Also it supports syntax highlighting, which requires a fast CPU (68040 CPU or better).

Furthermore he writes tools like RTF-Riddle for converting RTF files into the HTML5 format. Always worth reading and of great help for other developers are his comments to various software news on amiga-news.de. A big thank you for that at this point. His anecdote for the third door:

Police - Friday, December 23, 1988

I arrived home late in the evening (at night!) after two weeks of work and immediately ask my girlfriend if she got the necessary cables to connect the monitor, because at the moment everything is only in black and white and also silently. At first, I had operated the Amiga on the TV, but now I am the proud owner of a 1084S monitor, but the accessory pack was not included...

She denies it, and my mother agrees that they both tried everything to get these cables in a hurry, but it was impossible. Bummer. I call a friend, who I know is still sitting in front of his Amiga late at night. He has these cables, but he can't spare them. Again crap. He gives me a phone number of an Amiga hardware developer with a store in the area - I should try there.

I can't sleep in today, it's the 24th of December - but not because I'm preparing for Christmas Eve, but because I can hardly sleep, as I'm racking my brains to find a way to connect the old 1084 S monitor to my A2000(B), because the right cables weren't included. I actually want to call the hardware developer at 7:00 am, but refrain from doing so until 9:00 am. A friendly woman's voice answers and I ask if they have these cables. She refers me to her son. He answers and points out that today is 24 December. Yes, yes, yes, I know. I ask if he has the cables he needs. "Of course," is his reply. My next question is when I could pick them up. He means on the 27th, his mother calls in and says they are closed until the beginning of January. Ouch. I'm about to hang up in frustration when he says he'll be in the shop for another hour. Hmmm, might well be a bit more than 40 kilometres - I could manage that. I agree to hurry and leave a little later.

My Opel Manta with its tuned engine and balloon tyres (but without the foxtail and wiggly wiggly!) doesn't mind this rainy weather, and neither do I, because as a frequent driver who works in southern Germany, I have to cope with completely different weather conditions. Here on the Lower Rhine, however, the drivers are apparently already overwhelmed by this rain. I'm just overtaking and set the guide speed to something above that of motorways. At a junction with a stop sign, I make it a priority eight-way road. Three kilometres further on, a lorry turns left into my subordinate road, so I ignore the stop sign and turn right. The 70 zone is quickly behind me and then it's just straight ahead - so I have to overtake all the time.

Then I am close to my destination and have to turn left. After fifty metres I stop on the right and take out the folding map (yep, there were no sat navs back then). I orientate myself - and it doesn't take long, because I've had a lot of practice at that. As I turn left, I suddenly see blue lights behind me - oh, police on duty - I'll just let them pass. So I put the indicator back and wait for the police car to pass me. 1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds - nothing. I look in the rear-view mirror - they are now right behind me! Do they want something from me? I am not aware of any guilt!

A policeman gets out and immediately gets wet because of the rain. He knocks on the window and says "General vehicle inspection". Man, does this have to be now - I'm in a hurry. I open the window and he asks for my papers. I hand them over. He asks me if I know why they stopped me. I answer in the negative. He lectures me: excessive speed, inappropriate driving, running a stop sign twice and if they hadn't switched on the flashing lights, they would have lost the connection. Ouch.

He asks me if I hadn't seen the blue light. I again answer in the negative. I suddenly realise that I am threatened with a driving licence suspension and a fine without the policeman having to point it out to me. I get out - and get wet too. I explain to the policeman why I am in such a hurry - workplace southern Germany, primary residence Lower Rhine, computer, monitor, no matching cables, Christmas, shops closed, black and white, no sound - and all because of the missing accessory pack - and that the shop where I bought this monitor would not be able to supply the missing accessory pack until the middle of next January.

He tells me that this is no reason to disregard the traffic regulations. I point out that I can prove that I drive more than 110.000 kilometres a year and that I don't have any points in Flensburg (at that time this institution still existed), so that my current driving style would be an exception and I would realise that I had screwed up. He just says: "Wait here". He goes to the police car with the papers and gets in.

A short time later he comes back and opens the instruction with: "I have consulted with my colleague. Since today is Christmas Eve and you are reasonable, do you agree to a warning fine of 20 DM?". I can't believe my luck! Of course, I agree! I have already mentally parted with my "rag". I pay the 20 DM and listen to his instructions - although we both get soaking wet. He hands me my papers and wishes me a good trip and a Merry Christmas - I wish him the same, and I mean it! They turn around and I continue my journey.

Soaking wet, I press the bell of the private entrance. The mother of the hardware developer opens the door - and takes good care of me, handing me a towel to dry off. Then she leads me into the actual shop, which is closed today but where her son assembles electronic things. We get acquainted and he has already picked out the cables I need and laid them on the counter. As I look around, I discover floppy disk drives, memory cards and much more. We start talking and after a while, during which his mother interrupts us and urges us to leave, I leave the shop with the necessary cables and a 2 MB loaded 8 MB memory card as well as a second drive.

I drive back, deeply relaxed and looking forward to the coming Christmas. (dr)

[News message: 03. Dec. 2022, 14:24] [Comments: 1 - 03. Dec. 2022, 16:38]
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03.Dec.2022



Video: Building a new Amiga 2000 - part 1
The YouTube channel "Casual Retro Gamer" (CRG) is dedicated to repairing and building retro hardware (amiga-news.de reported). The recently launched video series shows how a new Amiga 2000 is assembled. The board used is the EATX form factor version reworked by developer 'jasonsbeer' (amiga-news.de reported). The chipset comes from a battery-damaged A500+. (dr)

[News message: 03. Dec. 2022, 05:58] [Comments: 0]
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