07.Oct.2022
RetroWiki
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ACube Systems: Sam460LE boards available (update)
In a press release from mid-August, ACube Systems had announced the delivery of the Sam460LE boards for the end of September (amiga-news.de reported). Now the board is offered in the in ACube's store for 962.58 Euro including taxes and AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition but excluding memory modules.
Update: (09.10.2022, 13:48, dr)
Acube Systems has just informed us that the information that the board is listed as "In stock" in the store is misleading. Currently, the boards are still in production, the published image is from pre-production. They had to be built to make sure they work as intended. According to the current status, the boards will be finished at the beginning of November. (dr)
[News message: 07. Oct. 2022, 06:42] [Comments: 0]
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07.Oct.2022
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Emulator: WinUAE 4.9.2+ beta 1
Originally Toni Wilen, the author of the well-known Amiga emulator WinUAE, had already planned to jump to version 5 with the next release in July 2021 (amiga-news.de reported). However, in February 2022 he first released version 4.9.1 and as he now reports with the start of the beta series for version 4.9.2+ (the version number can still change), the next release will not have version number 5 either.
As he explained, there is a "huge amount of low level changes". And he continued:
"Main reason for delay is 68000 IPL timing testing. The last important part of cycle-accuracy. So far there has been 3 attempts this year, initial plan was to use serial port interrupts to generate cycle-accurately timed interrupt (connect TX to RX pin, send byte, when byte gets received, interrupt is generated). This didn't work because Paula serial port internal delays were unknown and I had no idea how to test it properly. Next plan was to use external hardware (microcontroller that pulls IPL lines). It worked but it wasn't fully cycle-accurate because of async clocks and it was annoying to use (I also didn't like requiring external hardware), it would have needed more hardware and I wanted to be it to be as simple as possible. Then we (me and ross) finally run out of weird display and CIA related tests and decided to analyze serial port timing. It took few more weeks (and also helped to confirm Paula interrupt timing). Finally serial port interrupt was usable for IPL testing. Still some tester software updates and testing to do before real work starts. This probably takes at least 1-2 months (it is soo boring..) which is the reason I plan to start beta series before IPL updates are done."
Now he has released the first beta version for 4.9.2+ under the title link. Main changes:
- Added "Ultra extreme debug" overscan mode. Complete raster is fully visible, horizontal and vertical blanking disabled (including borderblank). COLOR0 changes are always visible.
- CPU chipset bus access cycle allocation was not fully accurate. Basically addressing part of cycle and data transfer part of cycle was swapped. Has been wrong since CE mode was introduced. Fixes for example Batman the Caped Crusader. (Single cycle difference was all that was needed to fix it..). This can break some older state files.
- 68000 STOP emulation rewritten, cycle usage and interrupt start timing is fully cycle accurate now.
- If all bitplane start conditions were active except vertical DIWSTRT and DIWSTRT was written later with vertical value == current vertical, bitplane DMA started immediately but there should be 2 cycle delay. If bitplane DMA was disabled but all other conditions were already active and then DMACON was written to enable BPL DMA: DMA started 1-2 cycles too late.
- If (quite short) bitplane DMA ends before all sprite slots have been processed, remaining sprite slots can still work normally (sprites are only inhibited when internal bitplane activity signal is active). This can also trigger very nasty (previously unknown?) chipset bug: when last bitplane DMA fetch happens, sprite DMA is not anymore inhibited by bitplane DMA (sort of off-by-one bug) and if same slot has active sprite, it will conflict with bitplane DMA. It can cause unexpected DMA write to another custom register (instead of BPLxDAT), possible range is from 0x100 to 0x11E. For example if it happens to be BPLCON0 (0x100), display can get corrupted or monitor can lose sync (or shows "No signal" message) if ERSY bit gets set. (Guess how this bug was found.. It was quite confusing when very innocent looking test program suddenly caused display to lose sync only on real hardware). This is now accurately emulated and DMA debugger will log conflicts.
- Bitplane refresh slot conflicts are accurately emulated (see below)
- Added monitor sync method configuration. Default is "Combined" (matches previous UAE versions that basically combines both modes), C-Sync: use composite sync signal as sync source, HV-Sync: use separate horizontal and vertical sync signals (VGA). Some programmed modes can have differences between sync modes or only work in HV sync mode or only in C sync mode in real world. For example ECS Denise can't generate both valid C-sync and programmed horizontal blanking simultaneously. AGA does not have this limitation.
- Emulated display is now blanked if programmed display mode settings are impossible (real display would lose sync, become blanked or show "no signal"), for example really too short or really too long sync pulses, BPLCON0 ERSY set without genlock, BEAMCON0 BLANKEN or CSYTRUE and CSYNC monitor setting selected etc.. If old statefile is loaded with ERSY set without genlock: enable genlock to prevent unexpected blank screen.
- Optional display resync blank screen added to Display panel. (Simulates "modern" display mode resync delay). If not enabled, OSD FPS counter will temporarily show "---"
- DMA debugger had wrong address shown for second copper WAIT/SKIP cycle. (was same as previous read cycle)
- Hires resolution and hires BPLCON1 bit set (or shres and shres BPLCON1 bit): single pixel horizontal offset may have appeared in right side of screen. AGA and non-subpixel mode only. (Skidmarks II in hires mode)
- RTC is automatically enabled if chipset extra= and system has fast ram, slow ram or chip ram expansion.
- Higher 68000/010 integer clock multipliers (4x+) in CE mode: chipset access timing was not accurate.
- A1000 Denise bug emulated: sprites end horizontally 1 lores pixel later than bitplane horizontal window end. Currently enabled when A1000 Agnus is selected.
- Replaced internal 32-bit cycle counter with 64-bit counter, simplifies internal logic because annoying counter wrap around handling is not needed anymore.
- Playfield to playfield collision (full collision) only worked when same line had at least one active sprite. (4.9.0)
- Sprite to playfield collisions didn't work correctly (4.9.0)
- Horizontal blanking was missing if programmed screen mode was active without programmed horizontal blanking (hardwired blanking should have been active)
- CIA emulation refactored, fully cycle-accurate now. See below.
- Max allowed programmed mode non-interlaced vertical line count is now 800 (from 592), special 700+ line programmed modes are possible and compatible with real SVGA monitors.
- Statefile restore didn't restore static BPLxDAT values correctly (only affects OCS/ECS programs that use "7-plane" mode and only update BPLxDATs at startup). (broke in 4.1.0)
- Copper zero cycle special cases updated, odd/even line length difference emulated. Copper list that "overflows" to beginning of next frame special case timing emulated, if copper has pending DMA request when COPJMP happens, COPJMP startup gets delayed by 1 copper cycle. Previously copper state was reset at cycle 0 and delayed start was queued which is not correct because first line's cycles 0 and 2 are still normally available for previous frame's copper list.
- Blitter startup sometimes had extra idle cycle (4.9.0)
- Blitter line mode with blit width != 2 is now accurately emulated and draws correct strange looking "lines" (previously it didn't do anything or line was normal looking)
- Blitter interrupt started 1 cycle too late. (+1 was added long time ago becase it fixes one demo but actual bug was following INTREQ register handling)
- If Paula internally sets INTREQ bit (not by writing to INTREQ with CPU or Copper): IPL line changes 1 CCK earlier, before INTREQR read returns new bit set.
- Starting emulation or loading statefile before emulation has been started: vblank state variables was not initialized correctly, first field enabled sprite DMA too early. (4.9.0 or .1). Hardreset started was not exactly same as initial boot, CPU started few cycles later if hard reset.
- Mid screen resolution changes are now pixel perfect (AGA fully implemented, OCS and ECS Denise only partially correct)
- Save MSM6242B RTC model control registers to RTC file if they are modified. Previously only RF5C01A control registers (and NVRAM) was saved.
- Serial port interrupts and SERDATR are now cycle-accurate. (Only if CPU memory cycle exact enabled)
- Serial port transmit interrupts and SERDATR transmit related bits are now emulated even when serial port = none.
- Serial port optional loopback mode added. TX->RX. RTS->CTS. DTR->DSR+CD. This is also cycle-accurate (for cputester IPL timing testing without extra hardware, only need TX to RX jumper wire)
- Second 1M extended ROM bank is now internally split to two 512k banks. Non-aligned bank start and size caused problems in some configs.
- uaegfx Picasso96 v3.0+ mixed mode screen dragging is enabled by default. 4.9.1 required "-p96test 1" command line parameter.
- 4.9.1 uaegfx Picasso96 screen dragging without ""-p96test 1" command line parameter crashed emulated Amiga.
- uaegfx new Picasso96 features are now optional (all enabled by default). Config file only.
- uaegfx all Picasso96 functions are now fully "hardware accelerated" (uses host side native code), excluding line draw. Previously some functions only supported common minterms/mask operations, unsupported operations were handled by Picasso96 software. Minterms that read and invert destination do not anymore invert unused/alpha bits if mode has them (15bit/32bit). Always use RGBFormat parameter in D7 if available, instead of RenderInfo RGBFormat variable.
- Chipset programmed display modes (again) use horizontal blanking timing to calculate display positioning. It has been confirmed that at least some early/mid 1990s multisync SVGA monitors (for example Microvitec 1438) do also use blanking timing to calculate display size and position instead of only relying on hsync/vsync timing.
- Hardware emulated RTG boards that have physically swapped red and blue output (Spectrum, Piccolo, Piccolo SD64) had wrong colors in 24/32-bit modes.
- Piccolo Z3 and Piccolo SD64 Z3 had wrong autoconfig board logical size (which crashed the driver).
- If hardware emulated RTG board VRAM was immediately (no gap in address space) after any RAM/ROM region and JIT direct was enabled: first 4096 bytes (host CPU page size) of VRAM was not fully JIT direct compatible and any direct read or write to first 4096 bytes would not access VRAM correctly, causing unexpected graphics glitches.
- Simplified JIT direct exception handler, win32 exception context structure can be used to directly read and modify any host CPU registers, there is no need for trampolines and self modifying code.
- Chip RAM and Slow RAM initial power up pattern emulation is enabled by default (checkbox in advanced chipset). Now matches my real hardware (A500 OCS/A500 ECS/A1200) but modified configurations like ECS Agnus in rev5 (or older) mainboard don't create correct patterns. Random set/cleared bits are not generated, only all ones/all zeros repeating pattern. Pattern depends on ram chip type and manufacturer. Other chips can have different patterns.
- Disk data read returned random data even when no drive was selected (should return zeros only). Fixes corruption in original Nitro Psygnosis screen. Also fixed another related bug when no selected drives and disk sync matches side-effect that caused Juke Box 2 / Dreamdealers to hang at boot.
- Switched to Visual Studio 2022.
- Larger default GUI size and slightly larger font if Windows desktop is large enough (at least 1600*1024)
- Finally removed huge amounts of compilation warnings (excluding PCem).
- Quickstart panel initial UI element is now DF0: image selection button. Too many accidental Amiga model changes..
- DirectDraw support removed, added GDI (win32 basic GDI API) support. Function differences: exclusive fullscreen is not supported (switches to D3D11/9 if attempted), all basic scaling modes and uaegfx hardware cursor supported.
- Box art window screen shot rightmost pixel column and bottom pixel row was not visible.
- Crash dump dialog close button usually didn't do anything.
- ROM scanner dialog didn't use correct GUI size and fonts.
- CyberStorm MK I update: Accelerator and SCSI has been split. CyberSCSI module is now expansion board and has separate ROM image (works similar to Blizzard SCSI Kit). Main ROM should be only configured if CPU is 68060 because it will crash if CPU is 68040, it is only needed to disable 68060 FPU. Real CSMK1 had empty ROM socket(s) if installed CPU was 68040.
- Visual DMA debugger shows conflicting cycles as blinking red pixels.
- DMA debugger (both console and visual) better support for variable/toggling horizontal and vertical line counts.
- It was not possible to enter debugger anymore if CPU was stuck in stopped state after entering and exiting the debugger once.
- Added OR, AND and XOR operators to debugger calculator (|, &, ^)
- Debugger v command does not anymore crash if hpos or vpos is out of range.
- Debugger v command now (at least temporarily) shows Chip RAM row and column (RAS and CAS) addressing values. Very important for REFPTR and refresh/bitplane conflict behavior.
- Debugger sp command parsed attached sprites incorrectly (since the beginning).
- Changed CTRL+F12 fullscreen/windowed switch: If already switched from full-window to window. Next CTRL+F12 will return back to full-window, not fullscreen.
- Quickstart panel floppy bootblock check used current track of drive (not track 0). Broken when FloppyBridge support was added.
- Reset FloppyBridge state when changing floppy drive type to/from FB drive type to some other drive type. Fixes uae-configuration on the fly floppy drive type change to/from FB.
- Memwatch break point that crossed 64k "bank" didn't map last 64k "bank" if it was only partially needed.
- Self modifying code (smc) debugger feature now clears detected modifications if 68020+ instruction cache is flushed.
- Do not add CPU instruction history entries when CPU is stopped.
- Horizontal and vertical position is now included in debugger history output (H/HH)
- Added CPU STOP state information to DMA debugger (| = STOP idle cycle, + = STOP idle cycle and higher IPL detected = STOP ending soon)
- DMA debugger decimal horizontal cycle counter value removed, replaced with current IPL (interrupt level) line state.
- DMA debugger shows CPU opcodes in basic form ("NOP", "MOVE" etc), vertically. It looks a bit weird but didn't have better ideas..
- Advanced chipset CD32 NVRAM or C2P without CD32 CD was not fully supported.
- CD32/CDTV Quickstart mode "remembered" previous DF0: setting and didn't disable it by default (even if Quickstart panel showed it as disabled)
- CD32/CDTV Quickstart panel DF0: was not possible to select/enable.
- uaegfx automatic integer scaling supported (chooses max fully visible integer scaling multiplier), manual filter panel horizontal/vertical multipliers supported.
- END+F9 monitor switching is not anymore hardwired and can be changed using input panel. (END+F9 debug colors when in lagless vsync mode is still hardwired)
- CD audio is now always mixed with Paula audio. Separate CD audio output support removed.
- CD audio was not resumed if WinUAE was unminimized and minimize was configured to pause emulation.
- Z2 RAM configuration was unreliable. (4.9.0)
- Some American Laser Games didn't have ROM descrambling support. Added missing ROM variants.
- Added American Laser Games Quickstart support.
- If Quickstart ROM based Arcade hardware config (Arcadia or ALG) is selected, NVRAM file name is automatically set to ROM name. Genlock video file path is also set if ALG ROM is selected. Config files are not affected.
- Added all 3.1.4+ official KS ROMs to ROM scanner.
- ROM file list sorting changed, added grouping, sort by group priority first (KS ROMs, extended KS ROMs, freezer ROMs etc..), then alphabetically.
- Integer scaling had scaling artifacts that depended on window size and other variables. (Old bug)
- Added NVRAM path to Paths panel. (Arcade/CD32/CDTV hardware NVRAM files default to this path)
- Sometimes old graphics was temporarily visible in RTG modes if RTG had visible black borders (depends on scaling mode) and screen was switched and new screen had larger size/resolution.
- CTRL+C in console window does not anymore close WinUAE. (CTRL+C in newer Windows versions can work as a Copy operation)
- Added video recording file select inputevent. This also starts recording if file was selected.
- Window border FPS counter value has "R" appended if recording is active.
- Creating directory filesystem soft link didn't work (returned "object not found") in relative path mode (Windows needs absolute path when creating shortcut files)
- Directory filesystem soft links only resolved if directory containing link was listed first or if softlink was created in same session (softlink was "cached" by filesystem emulation).
- Added "Slow" flag to RAM panel. If set, selected memory bank has Chip RAM timing but is not Chip RAM capable. Advanced chipset panel "C00000 is Fast RAM" removed, it is not needed anymore. (Only affects CPU speed in cycle exact modes)
- ECS Denise Genlock features can be enabled manually: genlock_effects= or p. "brdntran" can be used to force enable BPLCON2 BRDNTRAN bit, "brdrblnk" to force enable BPLCON2 BRDRBLNK bit. Separated by comma. (for example "genlock_effects=3,15,p7")
- Genlock sprite color selection bug fix.
- Genlock ECS Denise BPLCON2 BRDNTRAN emulation fixed. Not real HW tested but I think it is supposed to make border look normal even if color 0 is genlock transparent.
- Genlock ZCLKEN BPLCON3 bit emulated, if set, genlock transparency video out pin (PIXELSW) starts outputting 14MHz pixel clock. Emulation creates alternating hires pixel size toggling transparency if enabled and genlock is configured. (Which probably is what happens in real world too when genlock is connected. Originally it probably was supposed to be pixel sync signal for external video devices)
- Added Output panel optional 256 color palette indexed png screenshot support. If screenshot has more than 256 unique colors, 24-bit png is created like previously. It also tries to keep original palette order: first screenshot's unique colors are collected, then custom color register values are collected (values at the end of previous field), screenshot colors are matched with custom colors, if match found, color is marked as allocated. Then all remaining colors (copper color changes, EHB, HAM, on screen leds, blanking black etc..) are added to palette. If total is more than 256, 24-bit png is created. 256 color mode also tries to preserve first 32 color palette entries. (Preserved = color is not overwritten by another color even if color is not used in screenshot)
- Optional IFF screenshot support (-screenshotiff or screenshot_mode=2 registry/ini). IFF mode does not attempt to preserve first 32 color palette entries to keep image depth as small as possible. IFF is not (yet) compressed.
- Debugger 's' and 'W' quoting support improved, for example "W xxx "ab'c" works as expected....
(dr)
[News message: 07. Oct. 2022, 06:22] [Comments: 0]
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06.Oct.2022
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Preview video: Robocop (AGA)
Daniel Allsopp is working on a port of Data East's classic Arcade game 'Robocop', he's trying create a better Amiga version than the official port from 1989. Allsopp has now released a new preview video of his AGA game which is developed in 68k assembler (amiga-news.de reported). (dr)
[News message: 06. Oct. 2022, 09:36] [Comments: 0]
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06.Oct.2022
Twitter
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Preview video: Beat'em Up 'Metro Siege'
In the latest preview video of the side-scrolling beat'em up Metro Siege (amiga-news.de reported) the developers show the latest changes and also give a first glimpse of an action platformer in development called "Scorpion Boy", which is written with the Scorpion Engine. (dr)
[News message: 06. Oct. 2022, 09:31] [Comments: 0]
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06.Oct.2022
Twitter
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Rogue-like game: Roguecraft announced
Budger Punch has so far released games for the Commodore 64, including Rogue64. As in Roguelike games, you have to go through a cube-shaped tentacle-terror maze in search of treasures and glory. Now one of the developers, Ricki Sickenger, has announced an Amiga version of it with improved graphics and adapted features:
As he explains to us, "Roguecraft will not be a 1:1 conversion of Rogue64. It will contain a lot of the same gameplay, but with some of the enhancements we wanted to have in the C64 version, and some new things that use the Amiga capabilities."
It was their first Amiga game, he said. He and his fellow used to be active in the Amiga demo scene, and they wanted to make an Amiga game to relive the joy of developing on this great machine. The game is announced for early next year. (dr)
[News message: 06. Oct. 2022, 06:28] [Comments: 0]
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06.Oct.2022
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Video: Short tutorial for AMOS Pro
In another part of his series of short tutorials about AMOS Pro (amiga-news.de reported) the retro and Amiga fan 'Yawning Angel' explains how to open windows. (dr)
[News message: 06. Oct. 2022, 05:44] [Comments: 0]
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05.Oct.2022
Christian Zigotzky (Mail)
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Linux: Billy Frontier ported
After Cro-Mag Rally and Otto Matic, Christian 'xeno74' Zigotzky has now compiled a third game for Linux PowerPC (32-bit), Billy Frontier, which had just been ported to AmigaOS 4 (amiga-news.de reported). The game should work under the AmigaOne X1000/X5000 Linux distributions Fienix, Void PPC 32-bit and MintPPC.
Download: BillyFrontier_1.1.0-linux-powerpc.tar.gz (80 MB). (dr)
[News message: 05. Oct. 2022, 20:27] [Comments: 0]
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05.Oct.2022
George Sokianos
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AmigaOS 4.1: Software Development Kit V54.16 released
Press release: October 5, 2022
Hyperion Entertainment is pleased to announce the immediate availability of a very substantial and comprehensive update of the Software Development Kit (SDK) for AmigaOS 4.1 54.16.
New functionality includes but is not limited to:
- the inclusion of different versions of the GCC compiler starting from the old 6.4.0, to 8.4.0, 10.3.0 and 11.2.0 which can be selected during installation including the option to install multiple versions
- the addition of a tool added to set the default gcc version
- SPE optimized binaries can be generated by using GCC 6.4 for maximum performance on systems equipped with an SPE
- vbcc compiler is once more included in the SDK, configured to work “out of the box”
- Simplegit and Subversion are now included
- Profyler 1.1 added and Hieronymus updated to 0.50 version
- Updated the include headers and the autodoc documentation
- Added extended documentation for all the GCC versions included
- AmiSSL 5.3 SDK is included
- Latest AutoDocViewer 1.4 is included
- newlib and clib updated to the latest versions
- ExecSG SDK updated to the latest version
- Many code examples were updated to reflect the newest changes, removing obsolete API calls
- Updated the "AmigaOS 4.1 SDK.pdf" with new sections and format
- Many more tools were updated to their respective latest versions
Hyperion Entertainment wishes to extend its special thanks and appreciation to George Sokianos as well as the AmigaOS 4.x development team for making this happen!
If you want to support our efforts further, please head over to our AmigaOS merchandise store. (dr)
[News message: 05. Oct. 2022, 14:36] [Comments: 0]
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05.Oct.2022
MorphZone
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MorphOS: Fourth beta version of TinyGL
MorphOS team developer Mark 'Bigfoot' Olsen had offered a bounty project for improved OpenGL support as well as drivers for more Radeon graphics cards under the title link, which has been successfully funded (amiga-news.de reported). Now the developer has released the fourth public beta version of his TinyGL update.
Among other things, shaders on the Radeon R500 graphics card are now supported, various shader-related bug fixes and optimizations have been made, and the ShaderBoy tool for testing and playing around with shaders has been included. (dr)
[News message: 05. Oct. 2022, 13:03] [Comments: 0]
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05.Oct.2022
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Feature test in AMOS: Minigame None Of Us
The group 'ELECTRIC BLACK SHEEP', known among other things for the fantasy shooter Project Quest, which is currently in development, has today released a minigame called "None Of Us", which is intended to test how to obscure the player's opponents with light and shadow in AMOS Pro (YouTube video). It is explicitly not a game under development.
An Amiga with ECS chip, 2MB chip RAM and a fast CPU are required. (dr)
[News message: 05. Oct. 2022, 10:55] [Comments: 0]
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05.Oct.2022
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Game Construction Kit: RedPill 0.9.14
RedPill, developed by Carlos Peris, is a game construction kit written in Amiblitz 3.9, which allows the development of games from various genres (see short tests of two Redpill games). RedPill is compatible with AGA and ECS, the "player" for playing the finished creations requires a total of 1.5 MB RAM. Jens 'Farbfinsternis' Henschel has written a tutorial.
Changes of the new version 0.9.14:
- Added condition Contains Tile that checks all tiles colliding with a big object.
- In AGA black borders hidin copper are back.
- Compatibility with Kickstart 1.3 is back.
- Added Collisions in the profiler screen.
- Levels can be exported in TMJ format in order to be used in Tiled.
- When using level properties music, the music will not restart if it is the same as before.
- Level properties screen layout has changes in preparation of some new cool features.
- WHDLoad slave names changed to make them easier to understand.
- Fix in Level Properties screen.
- Fixes when building projects.
- Fixes for some gfx gliches.
- Some small optimizations.
(dr)
[News message: 05. Oct. 2022, 08:37] [Comments: 0]
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05.Oct.2022
Christian Zigotzky (Mail)
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Linux: Kernel 6.0 for AmigaOne X1000/X5000
Right after the release of the final Linux kernel 6.0, which is the successor of version 5.19, Christian 'xeno74' Zigotzky has compiled it for the AmigaOne X1000 and X5000 and offered it for download in the corresponding thread of the Hyperion forum. There you can also find a screenshot showing the Fienix distribution using the current kernel. (dr)
[News message: 05. Oct. 2022, 06:20] [Comments: 0]
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04.Oct.2022
Claude Schwarz
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PiStorm32: lite variant announced
Claude Schwarz' PiStorm connects a Raspberry Pi to the CPU socket of an Amiga via adapter and uses the British single-board computer to emulate a fast m68k processor. The variant for the Amiga 1200 is called "PiStorm32".
Now the developer has announced a PiStorm32-lite variant in a Tweet from yesterday, which should mainly take into account the current component shortage problems and is supposed to become cheaper. As the developer explained to us, the goal is to run identical firmware on both models as far as possible. The project is still at the beginning. (dr)
[News message: 04. Oct. 2022, 06:20] [Comments: 0]
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04.Oct.2022
Markus Tillmann
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Amiga37: Schedules published
The Amiga37 will take place on October 15 and 16, 2022 in Mönchengladbach (information about some exhibitors). Now Markus Tillmann has published the schedules for Saturday and Sunday:
(dr)
[News message: 04. Oct. 2022, 05:50] [Comments: 0]
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03.Oct.2022
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Developer tool: vasm 1.9a
Frank Wille has updated his portable and retargetable assembler vasm to version 1.9a. AmigaOS 3, 4 and MorphOS are supported. Changes:
- Reads the input from stdin when no source file name is given.
- Small performance improvements. Tuned hash table sizes. Reduced memory allocations and deallocations.
- Do not ignore the path from the main source when looking for a file.
- Can build low-memory version of vasm with minimal hash tables, by compiling with -DLOWMEM.
- Do not allow exporting equates which are based on imported symbols.
- Search for include files in the current work directory first, then in the compile directory.
- New option -maxpasses to adjust the maximum number of passes while resolving a section.
- New option -nocompdir to disable compile directory based include file lookup completely.
- New option -v to print version and copyright.
- m68k: -no-opt option really ovrrides all "opt o" and "opt a" directives from the source now.
- m68k: Fixed 68030/68851 PMOVE issue with TC and MMUSR, caused by a conflict with MOVEC control registers of the same name.
- m68k: New Apollo instructions DBcc.L and MOVE2.
- m68k: Fixed Apollo MOVE immediate addressing mode to vector register.
- m68k: Fixed Apollo SUBI banked instruction (one word missing).
- m68k: Added Apollo banking prefix support for MOVE.L Bn, and MOVE.L ,Bn.
- m68k: Apollo LSLQ and LSRQ default to a .W operation size when missing. The remaining AMMX instructions should be .Q.
- m68k: Make sure AMMX 64-bit constants are parsed with full precision.
- m68k: Added missing Apollo FMOVE addressing modes.
- 6502: Added support for the WDC 65816 and 65802 8/16 bits instruction set, including some new directives for selecting Accumulator and Index width.
- z80: Fix for GBZ80 "ld (c),a" and "ld a,(c)".
- mot-syntax: ASSERT directive.
- mot-syntax: macro arguments within <..> allow additional '>' characters inside a string without terminating the argument (vasm default mode only, not for Devpac-compatibility).
- std-syntax: New option -gas for stricter GNU-as compatibility.
- std-syntax: Supports one-digit temporary labels, where the nearest previous label may be referenced by Nb and the nearest following by Nf.
- oldstyle-syntax: New directives SYMDEPEND and NEEDS. They define a dependency of the current section from an external symbol, which must be resolved by the linker.
- oldstyle-syntax: Anonymous labels may be defined with a single ':' and referenced by ':+' or ':-'.
- hunk-output: Converts NONE-relocs to 8-bit ABS with a warning.
- hunk-output: Improved short-reloc output and work around AmigaOS LoadSeg() limitations/bugs.
- o65-output: Check bad addends for 8-bit relocations.
(dr)
[News message: 03. Oct. 2022, 21:28] [Comments: 0]
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03.Oct.2022
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Sokoban conversion in Ultimate Blitz Basic 2
Our readers might know the Polish developer 'Tukinem' by his farm simulation 'Farmiga' which is in development (amiga-news.de reported). Last year he learned AMOS and his first game implemented with it was a Sokoban conversion of a 53 level game originally released for MS-DOS. Yesterday, he added a Sokoban prototype for it, which he wrote in Ultimate Blitz Basic 2. (dr)
[News message: 03. Oct. 2022, 15:33] [Comments: 0]
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03.Oct.2022
Hollwood-Forum
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Hollwood application: Lyrics Jukebox
Ralf Gruner has written Hollywood, a music player that was originally intended to be the basis for a built-in device for historical jukebox wallboxes.
As the author writes, the program was originally only supposed to play music and text, and control would have been via the buttons on a wallbox. Instead, it now has a full GUI that is optimized for small touchscreens, but also works with large screens. The GUI elements are built entirely with Hollywood.
The program displays synchronized lyrics in parallel with the music playback, which must be in LRC format. Besides playing playlists or shuffling the files, it can also be used in jukebox style, offering the user the tracks in the form of jukebox title strips.
The author actually released the program only for Linux and Windows, but added implementations for AmigaOS 3, 4, MOrphOS and AROS on request. These then however untested. The Hollywood plugins Avcodec and Svgimage are required. Screenshots and more info are available under the title link.
Download: Lyrics_Jukebox_0.9.60.7z (main archive, 5.3 MB)
Download: Lyrics_Jukebox_0.9.60_untested.zip (Amiga executables, 16 MB).
(dr)
[News message: 03. Oct. 2022, 12:30] [Comments: 0]
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03.Oct.2022
Christian Zigotzky (Mail)
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Linux: Otto Matic ported
After Cro-Mag Rally, Christian 'xeno74' Zigotzky has now compiled a second game for Linux PowerPC (32-bit), Otto Matic, which had just been ported to AmigaOS 4 (amiga-news.de reported). The developer has tested the game under the AmigaOne X1000/X5000 Linux distributions Void PPC 32-bit and MintPPC.
Download: OttoMatic_4.0.0-linux-powerpc.tar.gz (137 MB). (dr)
[News message: 03. Oct. 2022, 08:25] [Comments: 0]
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02.Oct.2022
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AmigaOS 4: "Otto Matic" and "Billy Frontier" ported
Roman 'kas1e' Kargin has ported two other games to AmigaOS 4:
Pangea Software's "Otto Matic" (YouTube video) was first released for Mac OS 9 and X in 2001 and was included with some Mac models of that time. Kargin further writes about it:
"The game was eventually ported to 32-bit Intel Macs, but it stopped working when macOS 10.15 discontinued 32-bit support. Pangea Software allowed Iliyas Jorio to update the original game to keep it running on today's major desktop platforms. This update aims to be faithful to the original. Elements of the presentation and handling were slightly updated. AmigaOS 4 port is based on Jorio's work and compiled with GCC 11.3.0 and latest GL4ES and SDL2. Video recorded on X5000 with RadeonRX 560 and all latest beta components."
"Billy Frontier" is also from Pangea Software and is an arcade-style action game with a "cowboys in space" theme (YouTube video). The player fights in duels, shootouts and brawls. The game was released in 2003 for PowerPC Macs, the port to AmigaOS 4 is also based on Iliyas Jorio's work.
Both games can be downloaded from OS4Depot. Downloads:
billyfrontier.lha (82 MB)
ottomatic.lha (144 MB)
(dr)
[News message: 02. Oct. 2022, 20:29] [Comments: 0]
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02.Oct.2022
Alinea Computer (ANF)
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Amega 32 adapter: Wireless Mega Drive gamepads are now supported
The Amega 32 is an adapter for the AmigaCD 32 to use SEGA Mega Drive gamepads (DB9) with 6 or 3 buttons (amiga-news.de reported).
Now Alinea Computer has updated the firmware of its Amega 32 adapter. Version 1.4.2 now also supports wireless Mega Drive gamepads in 6-button mode. All who want to update their adapter or want to update it themselves, please contact Alinea Computer. (dr)
[News message: 02. Oct. 2022, 18:22] [Comments: 0]
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02.Oct.2022
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Tool: identify-library 40.1
At the end of last year, Richard Körber released the source code of his identify.library on GitHub. He also he took the opportunity to go through the source code again, reformatted it and translated the comments from German into English. The identify library is used to recognize Zorro cards by their manufacturer and product ID, provides information about the system (CPU, FPU, memory, clock frequency etc.) and to decode guru codes and function offsets. These functions can also be used via the included tools, as well as in ARexx and installer scripts.
Under the title link he now has released version 40.1 which includes more manufacturers and boards. Both a developer and user package are available. (dr)
[News message: 02. Oct. 2022, 11:26] [Comments: 0]
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02.Oct.2022
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Aminet uploads until 01.10.2022
The following files have been added until 01.10.2022 to Aminet:
CloudDav_1.6.lha comm/net 501K MOS A WebDav client
Dzon_Demo_Compilation... demo/disk 880K 68k Dzon Demo Compilation Disk 1 ...
Dzon_Demo_Compilation... demo/disk 880K 68k Dzon Demo Compilation Disk 2 ...
tek-transhuman_pachin... demo/disk 2.0M 68k Transhuman / Pachinkoland - G...
wla_dx-mos.lha dev/cross 3.4M MOS 8-bit CPU Cross Macro Assembl...
OsGrind.lha dev/debug 30K 68k Configurable Os argument checker
PatchWork.lha dev/debug 48K 68k Validate library calls with A...
device-streams.lha disk/misc 87K 68k Copy block devices and stream...
device-streams_src.lha disk/misc 33K Copy block devices and stream...
WormWars.lha game/actio 897K 68k Advanced snake/Tron game
WormWars-AROS.zip game/actio 701K x86 Advanced snake/Tron game
WormWarsMOS.lha game/actio 944K MOS Advanced snake/Tron game
WormWars-OS4.lha game/actio 1.1M OS4 Advanced snake/Tron game
F1GP2022Carset.lha game/data 15K 2022 Carset for F1GP
MCE.lha game/edit 3.6M 68k Multi-game Character Editor
MCE-MOS.lha game/edit 3.8M MOS Multi-game Character Editor
MCE-OS4.lha game/edit 4.1M OS4 Multi-game Character Editor
Amdrum.ACEpansion.lha misc/emu 8K MOS ACEpansion plugin for ACE CPC...
AmiVms.lha misc/emu 3.4M 68k Simulates OpenVMS commands
MirageImager.ACEpansi... misc/emu 17K MOS ACEpansion plugin for ACE CPC...
LN4Lv7.lha mods/misc 2.6M LN4Lv7 4ch MED track by HKvalhe
hippoplayerSource.lha mus/play 1.3M HippoPlayer source code
Vim_9.0-ppc-amigaos.lha text/edit 14M OS4 The ubiquitous text editor
Vim_9.0-ppc-morphos.lha text/edit 14M MOS The ubiquitous text editor
Reqtools-Wide.lha util/libs 44K 68k Double Width Reqtools
VATestprogram.zip util/misc 1.9M 68k Versatile Amiga Test Program
UHCGUI-Current.lha util/wb 58K 68k GUI frontend for the UHC-Tool...
(snx)
[News message: 02. Oct. 2022, 09:12] [Comments: 0]
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02.Oct.2022
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OS4Depot uploads until 01.10.2022
The following files have been added until 01.10.2022 to OS4Depot:
vlink.lha dev/cro 176kb 4.0 A portable linker, written in AN...
amoskittens.lha dev/lan 2Mb 4.1 Amos the kitten is amos basic in...
dungeonofchess.lha gam/boa 13Mb 4.1 Simple game written with usage o...
cromagrally.lha gam/dri 125Mb 4.1 Wildest racing game since man in...
devilutionx.lha gam/rol 11Mb 4.1 SDL Port of Diablo and Hellfire
mce.lha gam/uti 4Mb 4.0 Multi-game Character Editor
libsfml.lha lib/mis 5Mb 4.1 Simple and Fast Multimedia Library
litexl.lha uti/tex 1Mb 4.1 A lightweight text editor writte...
vim_mui.lha uti/tex 14Mb 4.1 The ubiquitous text editor
(snx)
[News message: 02. Oct. 2022, 09:12] [Comments: 0]
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02.Oct.2022
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AROS Archives uploads until 01.10.2022
The following files have been added until 01.10.2022 to AROS Archives:
dosbox.i386-aros.lha emu/com 2Mb Dosbox a PC Emulator
wormwars.i386-aros.zip gam/act 701kb Advanced Tron/Snake-style arcade...
sdlscav-145.4.i386-aros.zip gam/pla 384kb Lode Runner clone
drawer-app.lha gra/ico 171kb Collection of Drawer Icons for A...
icongamegorillazdrawer.lha gra/ico 352kb Collection of Drawer Game Icons ...
arzip.i386-aros.zip uti/arc 153kb arZip zip file archiver
(snx)
[News message: 02. Oct. 2022, 09:12] [Comments: 0]
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02.Oct.2022
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MorphOS-Storage uploads until 01.10.2022
The following files have been added until 01.10.2022 to MorphOS-Storage:
Re2c_3.0.lha Development/GeekGadgets Scanner generator f. re...
SSA-1_1.1.lha Emulation/ACEpansion SSA-1_1.1.lha
Willy_1.1.lha Emulation/ACEpansion Plugin for ACE CPC Emul...
Dandanator_1.0.lha Emulation/ACEpansion Dandanator_1.0.lha
DKTr-Speech_1.1.lha Emulation/ACEpansion DKTr-Speech_1.1.lha
MirageImager_1.1.lha Emulation/ACEpansion Plugin for ACE CPC Emul...
Nova_1.1.lha Emulation/ACEpansion Plugin for ACE CPC Emul...
TMPI-Speech_1.1.lha Emulation/ACEpansion Plugin for ACE CPC Emul...
Amdrum_1.1.lha Emulation/ACEpansion ACEpansion plugin for A...
WormWars_9.3.lha Games/Action Advanced snake game by ...
DevilutionX_1.4.1r2.lha Games/Adventure Diablo build for modern...
LiteXL_2.0.3r3.lha Text/Edit Lite XL is a lightweigh...
Vim_9.0.583.lha Text/Edit A highly configurable t...
(snx)
[News message: 02. Oct. 2022, 09:12] [Comments: 0]
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02.Oct.2022
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WHDLoad: New installers until 01.10.2022
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 01.10.2022:
- 2022-10-01 improved: Turrican 2 (Factor 5/Rainbow Arts) 3-button joystick support (Info)
- 2022-10-01 improved: The Quest For The Time Bird / Auf der Suche nach dem Vogel der Zeit / La quête de l'oiseau du temps (Infogrames) support for Italian version added (Info)
- 2022-10-01 improved: Obitus (Psygnosis) fixed 68000 problems, hints added (Info)
- 2022-09-28 improved: Joe & Mac (Caveman Ninja) (Data East) interrupts fixed, manual protection correctly removed (Info)
- 2022-09-27 improved: Venom Wing (Thalamus/SoftEyes) rewritten, 68000 quitkey, ssp relocated, load/save to external file, uses less chip memory, new install script (Info)
- 2022-09-27 improved: Tip Off (ANCO) rewritten, fixed freeze on title screen, keyboard fixed, manual added, new install script (Info)
- 2022-09-27 improved: Purple Saturn Day (Exxos) fixed to run on NTSC, fixed some random crashes (Info)
- 2022-09-27 fixed: Ooops Up (Demonware) crash of second version on 68000 fixed (Info)
(snx)
[News message: 02. Oct. 2022, 09:12] [Comments: 0]
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02.Oct.2022
Erik Hogan (Twitter)
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Preview video: Shoot'em Up Hyperblaster (Inviyya 2)
At the end of last year, we reported about Michael 'Tigerskunk' Borrmann's announcement to write a successor for his shoot'em up 'Inviyya', released in spring 2021. Now he has published a new preview video of the Amiga 1200/Amiga 4000/CD32 version. As he wrote, "collisions are off, it's still a bit glitchy, no sound at the moment, but you can see where this is heading to". He is going to demonstrate the game at Amiga37. (dr)
[News message: 02. Oct. 2022, 08:37] [Comments: 0]
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02.Oct.2022
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MP3 player: Reel Deck V0.60
After Atris, his Tetris clone for RTG Amigas, and AB_Template, his programming assistance for AmiBlitz 3, Sami Vehmaa has now released another project: Reel Deck is an MP3 player for Amigas with graphics card written in AmiBlitz 3 (YouTube video). You also need a fast CPU, AmigaOS3.x, AHI and at least 20 MB FastRAM. Reel Deck costs 3 Euro. (dr)
[News message: 02. Oct. 2022, 06:19] [Comments: 0]
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01.Oct.2022
Christian Zigotzky (Mail)
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Linux: Cro-Mag Rally released
Two days ago we reported about Roman 'kas1e' Kargin's port of the racing game Cro-Mag Rally for AmigaOS 4. In the process, he and the original developer also solved some big endian issues. Christian 'xeno74' Zigotzky could now compile the game for Linux PowerPC (32-bit) and thus make it available for the AmigaOne X1000/X5000 Linux distributions Void PPC 32-bit and MintPPC.
Download: CroMagRally_3.0.0_linux-powerpc.tar.gz (123 MB). (dr)
[News message: 01. Oct. 2022, 21:27] [Comments: 0]
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01.Oct.2022
Puni / AmigaOldskooler (ANF)
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AmigaOS 4: Blog summary of September
The blog Gaming on AmigaOS 4 has published an illustrated summary of the developments and releases from the areas of hardware and software for AmigaOS 4 in the month of September. (dr)
[News message: 01. Oct. 2022, 11:54] [Comments: 0]
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01.Oct.2022
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Amiga emulator: Amiberry 5.4
Amiberry is an Amiga emulator for ARM-based single-chip systems like the Raspberry Pi, the Odroid XU4 or the Tinkerboard from ASUS, which brings some newly developed features like a "WHDLoad-Booter" or support for controller configuration using RetroArch. For example it is used in the Workbench distribution AmiKit for the Raspberry Pi 4/400.
A few moments ago, version 5.4 has been released. Changes:
Bugfixes
- whdbooter settings were not all parsed correctly
- Fix CD audio not resuming after unminimize
- 32bit to 64bit clock counter missing update
- fixed macOS compile errors regarding uaeserial
- always use mouse 0 for mice, until SDL2 supports > 1 system mouse
- settings from XML db were not always parsed correctly
- fixed flickering in native modes when Fast copper was enabled
- copy all prefs when doing a hard reset
- Fixed some memory leaks
- Hard reset CPU startup was not identical to initial power up
- WHDbooter game paths with commas would not work
Improvements
- implemented Screenshot to file custom event
- Added the possibility to compile with a version of GCC older than 8.0
- P96 - Implement all previously implemented blitter operations
- Save also MSM6242B RTC model control registers to RTC file
- added uaeserial implementation from dev
- merged OpenGL experimental version from dev
- Make sure hardware emulated RTG boards don't have barrier at the start of VRAM space to fully support JIT direct
- merged CIA rewrite from dev
- Optimize compiler code generation for 'strlen()'
- Fix disk read handling when attempting to read from non-selected drive
- use double fields line mode by default
- brought statusline drawing closer to WinUAE method
Chors
- moved variable closer to scope
- minor sync from dev branch
- removed obsolete variables
WIP
- merge diffs from dev into master
- bring custom chip emulation closer to WinUAE
- synced gfxboard.h with dev
(dr)
[News message: 01. Oct. 2022, 11:49] [Comments: 0]
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01.Oct.2022
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DIY project: ATX power adapter for Amiga 500 tower project
'wiretap-retro' has developed an adapter for its Amiga-500 tower project, which is attached to the motherboard or another suitable place in the case via two spacers. It allows the connection of a standard ATX power supply and provides a 4-pin molex connector (for the Amiga 500 power connector) and 3 standard fan connectors for 12V fans. The project is open source and can be modified as desired. (dr)
[News message: 01. Oct. 2022, 06:49] [Comments: 0]
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01.Oct.2022
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Block-oriented copying: Device Streams 2.0.0
Roc Vallès i Domènech has updated the Amiga tool "Device-Streams" for block-oriented copying, similar to UNIX command dd, which was originally developed and released by Christian E. Hopps in 1993. AmigaOS 2.04+ is required. Changes:
- Cleaned up code.
- Removed SAS/C-isms and updated to build in modern toolchains.
- Use of 64bit offsets throughout.
- Safeguards added against 32bit overflow wraparound.
- Use dos.library for file I/O.
(dr)
[News message: 01. Oct. 2022, 06:39] [Comments: 0]
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