amiga-news.de - Archive

Archive 12/2022

`13.Dec.2022`	Kickstarter campaign: Update on the Checkmate 19" IPS Retro Monitor About three weeks ago, Stephen Jones launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund monitors for retro computers (amiga-news.de reported). Five days remain and so far 138.938 of the required 239.785 Euro have been funded. Jones has taken this interim status as an opportunity to publish a condensed version of the video presentation of the project. On the other hand, he is now offering a so-called "Festive Placeholder Deposit": here, all those who cannot afford the full contribution can still reserve a monitor for a minimum amount of around 117 euros. However, supporters who pay the full amount will be delivered first. (dr) [News message: 13. Dec. 2022, 15:39] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`13.Dec.2022` Dimitris Panokostas	Mastodon-Client: Update on Amidon development status The author of the Amiga emulator Amiberry, Dimitris 'MiDWaN' Panokostas, is in the process of developing a Mastodon client for AmigaOS 3 (amiga-news.de reported). In a blog entry published on his Ko-fi page he now reports about the current state. Among other things, an "anonymous" avatar is now included by default and is shown until the user logs into the server. (dr) [News message: 13. Dec. 2022, 14:41] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`13.Dec.2022`	Advent Calendar: Door 13 - Richard Körber ust in time for lunch break, the 13th door of our Advent calendar opens. We may introduce: Richard 'Shred' Körber. This could be a record so far: Already on 04 May 1999 we reported (in German) about Richard Körber's newly established website "Palmiga", which was aimed at Amiga users who wanted to connect their computer to a PalmOS PDA. In mid-2001 he was kindly asked by Palm Inc. to rename his site because "Palmiga" and "PalmLink" would infringe trademark rights. So Amiga-PDA was born, which was originally part of his homepage which already existed since 1998. For all those who are still interested today, please refer to his PdaLink library and the corresponding GitHub project. The developer is probably best known for his identify library, which recognises Zorro cards by their manufacturer and product ID, provides information about the system (CPU, FPU, memory, clock frequency, etc.) and decodes Guru codes and function offsets. Originally, in early 2003, he announced (in German) on our site that he had to stop development due to lack of time and published the source codes of the project on Sourceforge. More than a year ago, however, he not only published the source codes on GitHub, but also resumed development and made the current version 40.2 available for download in mid-October. He also wrote his own driver for the internal sound card Maestro Professional, developed YAMI, a mouse interface that makes it possible to use serial PC mice on Amiga or ATARI ST computers, and resumed work on his debugging tool PatchWork. His articles in the Retro Blog of his site are definitely worth reading, for example about the restoration of an Amiga 1000 or the problem of the right mouse button on the Amiga 1200. Many thanks for your development work, Richard! He remembered the following anecdote for us: "It was in 1998, at a time when the Internet was massively growing. As a young professional, I was working in the web department of a startup in Cologne and felt like a pioneer in a new country. After weeks of work, our team had completed a new website. The design template had been created by an external advertising agency via Photoshop. We manually converted the designs into individual web pages, which was common practice at that time. In the late afternoon, everything was finally finished, the launch was imminent and the press had already been informed. The other colleagues had already called it a day, and I was just about to pack my bag, too, when an email from my boss popped up in my inbox. 'The agency has asked us to make one last small change to the layout', was his comment. Below that I found a forwarded email with the details. I looked at the request and groaned. I would have to change all one hundred pages by hand for that. Those are the tasks you love. I could forget my plans to leave in time. It would probably even take until late at night. With an Amiga, yeah, this would have been a piece of cake. I would have opened the web pages in GoldEd, and would have let it do the changes automatically, remote controlled by a quickly crafted ARexx script. With my Windows computer at work this was unthinkable. There was no possibility to control programs with a script language. Oh, if only I had my Amiga here now, I thought to myself and sighed. Then I remembered that I had installed an Amiga emulator on my work PC a few weeks earlier because I wanted to try it out. But that was just for fun. Now I have a job to do. Is that professional? Is it even possible to do that? Why not! I transferred the web pages to the virtual Amiga hard disk, programmed an ARexx script and let GoldEd apply the changes. The plan worked. After less than an hour the change was completed. So the Amiga saved the launch date. And I made it home in time." (dr) [News message: 13. Dec. 2022, 13:46] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`13.Dec.2022` Cloanto (ANF)	Cloanto: Amiga Forever and C64 Forever 10 Press release: December 12, 2022 - Cloanto released today version 10 of Amiga Forever and C64 Forever, the official Commodore/Amiga preservation, emulation and support suites for Windows. The new editions are the result of almost two years of development since the previous major version 9. Cloanto's RetroPlatform framework is the result of a lot of effort to make Amiga and CBM 8-bit features and interfaces appear effortlessly unified. The two packages now encompass more than 700K lines of code written by Cloanto, integrating with a collaborative endeavour of emulation plugins and content preservation. Before adding visible features, a priority of this version consisted in the removal of speed and space constraints. Some of the old barriers may have been out of sight before, but the result after upgrading is a satisfying sensation of increased freedom and power: the title editor opens and closes in an instant, large media files are handled with more ease, while windows and other elements that used to be fixed can now be resized. Content folders can be added anywhere under Amiga Files and CBM Files, while new personal playlists and improved content shortcuts offer more ways to rapidly access titles and folders stored on any disk. Amiga Forever 10 includes direct support for FloppyBridge-compatible floppy drive and controller devices (e.g. DrawBridge, Greaseweazle, SuperCard Pro, Waffle). Whereas previous versions only supported floppy disk images, now physical floppy drives and disks can be accessed by the emulation. No additional software is required. New and improved features: Revamped Amiga Files: custom folders, subfolders and folder shortcuts can be added anywhere to better organize titles and to handle massive content collections Improved player, including personal playlists, pervasive Rename, Cut, Copy and Paste commands, and intuitive resize of preview area and emulation window Faster title editing and application responsiveness: quick opening and closing of the title editor (asynchronous content extraction, differential compression) and runtime optimizations when working with large media images Direct support for FloppyBridge-compatible floppy drive and controller devices like the DrawBridge, Greaseweazle, SuperCard Pro and Waffle (drives work in Amiga emulation, no additional software required) Hayes-compatible "internet modem" to access your favorite BBS systems Improved Windows File Explorer and Search integration: enhanced thumbnail provider to preview screenshots and box shots, and new details in property handler to view and index RP9 title properties Support for new features introduced in Windows 11 and Windows 10 versions up to 22H2 Hundreds of other new features and refinements Amiga Explorer 10 has already been released a few days ago. As always, we are grateful to the many friends who supported this project and our Amiga passion, vision and hope. Special thanks to Toni Wilen. Current and soon-to-be Amiga serial and print integration features would not have been possible without his help. (dr) [News message: 13. Dec. 2022, 07:09] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`12.Dec.2022`	Advent Calendar: Door 12 - 'Prince' The Amiga-News.de Advent Calendar starts with 'Prince' and the twelfth door into the new week. 'Prince' is the founder of the demo group 'Phaze101' and an incredibly busy Amiga developer: he might be best known to our readers for his assembler coding course. Between 1994 and 1996, Fabio 'Randy' Ciucci, a member of the demo group RamJam, wrote the assembly programming course "Corso completo di programmazione assembler in due dischi". With Ciucci's permission, RamJam published this programming course as a book in 2016. 'Prince' is currently streaming this course in English on Twitch and then uploading the respective episodes to YouTube. Almost in parallel, he recorded his 16-part Let's Make an Amiga Game Tutorial and also published it on YouTube. The resulting game "Mr Poo's Journey" is available on itch.io for a price that you can choose yourself. Among other projects, he also regularly organises "Game Jams" with the aim of expanding knowledge and awareness about retro computers. Recently, for example, there was the Retro Trex Game Jam, which resulted in his version Dino Run or also DRex by another developer. The Racing Cars Game Jam will run until 31 January 2023. His anecdote: "When I look at the source codes I wrote 30 years ago and more, I am totally fascinated. I love them! As a teenager, I didn't think twice about what I was writing! Mainly I had written demos and tools at that time, and I must confess that these source codes are often a mystery to me as well. On the one hand, I realise how little I knew back then. On the other hand, I still somehow managed to get programmes to work. Some of these source codes were also written for experimental purposes. They contain all kinds of errors! Mistakes that I wouldn't make now. I have improved my programming skills over the years. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for my memory. On the contrary: sometimes I have the feeling that it is going steeply downhill! There is one thing that is all over my sources back then that I can't remember. Most of the sources begin with comments that has something like this: "Dedicated to the one ______ I love". Who was her, "the one I love" back then? Memory is playing tricks on me and this is something that didn't improve :)" (dr) [News message: 12. Dec. 2022, 13:58] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`12.Dec.2022`	Demo tip: "Batman Rises" It does not often happen that amiga-news.de publishes a recommendation for a demo, but this production of the Batman Group is more than worth it: "Batman Rises" ranked first on the Posadas 2022 Autumn Edition which took place last weekend and only requires an Amiga 500 with 1 MB RAM. Very impressive demo! (dr) [News message: 12. Dec. 2022, 06:12] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`11.Dec.2022`	Analogue Pocket: Amiga core V0.0.6 Alpha 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. The early version 0.0.6 Alpha of the Amiga core mentioned in our last news item has now been released: some interlaced games have been fixed, and the floppy controller speed has been increased. (dr) [News message: 11. Dec. 2022, 15:09] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`11.Dec.2022`	Aminet uploads until 10.12.2022 The following files have been added until 10.12.2022 to Aminet: ign-AddOn-XLSX.lha biz/spread 303K OS4 ignition addon for access xls... plm80.lha dev/cross 273K MOS C port of Intel's ISIS-II PLM80 HWP_XML.lha dev/hwood 387K ALL Hollywood plugin for parsing ... Fussball-WM-2022.lha docs/misc 11K TurboCalc Spreadsheet WM-2022... nblood.lha game/shoot 1.0M 68k Blood Amiga Port dMagnetic.lha game/text 353K MOS Interpreter for Magnetic Scro... dvdauthor.lha gfx/conv 1.8M OS4 Set of tools for authoring a DVD 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... ASE2019_2.0.lha text/edit 188K 68k Text editor avalanche.lha util/arc 96K OS4 ReAction unarchive GUI for xf... aiostreams.lha util/batch 228K Stream video from major onlin... png16_lib.lha util/libs 235K OS4 Shared library based on libpng16 HexSee.lha util/misc 55K 68k Hex File Viewer HexSee_OS4.lha util/misc 336K OS4 Hex File Viewer (OS4 version) VATestprogram.zip util/misc 2.7M 68k Versatile Amiga Test Program (snx) [News message: 11. Dec. 2022, 07:42] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`11.Dec.2022`	OS4Depot uploads until 10.12.2022 The following files have been added until 10.12.2022 to OS4Depot: libpsem.lha dev/lib 176kb 4.0 POSIX semaphore implementation libwprintf.lha dev/lib 32kb 4.0 Wide char printf functions glsnoop.lha dev/uti 198kb 4.1 Trace and profile OGLES2 and W3D... amiarcadia.lha emu/gam 5Mb 4.0 Signetics-based machines emulator fpcmines.lha gam/puz 2Mb 4.0 A classical mine sweeper clone lazsokoban.lha gam/puz 1Mb 4.1 Clone of the classic Japanese pu... pixman_lib.lha lib/gra 315kb 4.0 Pixman-1 as an AmigaOS shared li... png16_lib.lha lib/gra 235kb 4.0 Shared library based on LibPNG16 hwp_xmlparser.lha lib/hol 387kb 4.0 Hollywood plugin for parsing XML... ign-addon-xlsx.lha off/spr 303kb 4.1 Ignition addon for access xlsx-f... avalanche.lha uti/arc 96kb 4.1 Simple ReAction GUI for xadmaster avalanche_ita.lha uti/arc 5kb 4.0 Italian translation for Avalanche hexsee.lha uti/fil 336kb 4.1 Hex File Viewer muiplot.lha uti/sci 905kb 4.0 Simple function plotter dvdauthor.lha vid/con 2Mb 4.1 Set of tools for authoring a DVD aiostreams.lha vid/mis 228kb 4.1 Stream video from major online p... (snx) [News message: 11. Dec. 2022, 07:42] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`11.Dec.2022`	AROS Archives uploads until 10.12.2022 The following files have been added until 10.12.2022 to AROS Archives: lazsokoban.i386-aros.lha gam/puz 2Mb Puzzle Game multiview.i386-aros.zip uti/wor 29kb Utilities Viewer (snx) [News message: 11. Dec. 2022, 07:42] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`11.Dec.2022`	MorphOS-Storage uploads until 10.12.2022 The following files have been added until 10.12.2022 to MorphOS-Storage: plm80_0.2.9x.lha Development/Cross C port of Intel's ISIS-... HWP_XML_2.0.lha Development/Hollywood/... The XML plugin allows H... AmiArcadia_29.33.lha Emulation A Signetics-based machi... dMagnetic_0.34.lha Games/Text Interpreter for Magneti... LazSokoban.lha Games/Think A Sokoban clone with skins AIOStreams_1.7.6.lha Network/Streaming Stream online video fro... (snx) [News message: 11. Dec. 2022, 07:42] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`11.Dec.2022`	WHDLoad: New installers until 10.12.2022 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 10.12.2022: 2022-12-10 improved: Dragon Strike (Westwood/S.S.I) added joypad controls (Info) 2022-12-10 new: Cobra (Bytec) done by Psygore (Info) 2022-12-10 improved: The Settlers / Die Siedler (Blue Byte) intro bugs fixed, a slave for low memory config included (Info) 2022-12-06 improved: Cadaver (Imageworks/Bitmap Brothers) re-enabled 512k expansion memory (Info) (snx) [News message: 11. Dec. 2022, 07:42] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`11.Dec.2022` Amigaworld.net (Forum)	Video: Beth Richard disassembles an Amiga CD 1200 (English) The CD 1200, which was only produced in a few copies as a prototype, was not only to equip an Amiga 1200 with an external CD-ROM drive, but also to ensure compatibility with Commodore's game console Amiga CD³². In the video at the title link, Beth Richard, who was involved in its development as lead engineer, opens the specimen in the British Retro Computer Museum (amiga-news.de reported) - 28 years after she last saw a CD 1200. (snx) [News message: 11. Dec. 2022, 07:41] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`11.Dec.2022` Amigaworld.net (Webseite)	Print magazine: Boing #5 (French) "Boing" is a French print magazine by Boing Attitude (among others Dir Me Up and Word Me Up XXL) for all Amiga systems and contains 52 A4 pages in colour. The fifth issue contains among other things an interview with the musician of numerous Amiga titles Barry Leitch (e.g. Lotus Turbo Challenge 2, Silkworm) as well as reviews of THEA500 Mini and the Apollo Core R9 for the Vampire V4. (snx) [News message: 11. Dec. 2022, 07:41] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`11.Dec.2022` Amiga Future (Webseite)	Java program: ham_convert 1.8.7 Sebastian Sieczko's Java-based program ham_convert converts modern graphic formats into the Amiga's HAM format and is now available in version 1.8.7. New features include bug fixes for resizing and an improved HAM8 output in non-CIE94 colour mode. (snx) [News message: 11. Dec. 2022, 07:41] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`11.Dec.2022`	Advent Calendar: Door 11 - Alain Fontanin For the third Advent and the eleventh door, we asked Alain Fontanin for an anecdote. Alain and his text editor "Amiga Source Editor (2019)", of which he has recently released version 2.0, is on the one hand a wonderful example of how nostalgia and the "memory of the good old days" can give rise to active software development in the here and now, and on the other hand how the Amiga community can help each other and other readers and developers can advance projects through feedback. In our introductory news item to the new edition of his editor almost exactly two years ago, Alain reported that development had originally begun in 1989. Then, when he watched the documentary "Viva Amiga" in 2019, he was reminded of what was for him a "wonderful time". Since he was no longer programming for his Mac, he decided to pick up where he left off in 1991 with the development of his text editor. This was driven forward by feedback from our readers, especially in the early days, and now you can see the current state of his project for yourself. In an interview with Alain conducted by David Brunet (French Amiga magazine Obligement) you can learn more about him. Among other things, he has promised implementations for other Amiga systems. We continue to keep our fingers crossed for his editor and now look forward to his anecdote: "When Amiga-News.de proposed me to participate in this project, I found it very interesting. Then while thinking about what to tell, I was afraid of "Grandpa tell us the war", well kids sit down, grandpa will start the story! I participated in only one professional development project on the Amiga, it was during my military service in an electronic squadron in 1992 (my military diploma says C programmer on PC and Amiga!). Why should I tell you about this? Well, this is the only computer project in my career for which I could neither exchange with the users nor visualize the final result (security reasons). The project consisted in managing through an Amiga 2000, the display of the video network of the electronic operations center. I had to exchange on the specifications, the evolutions and the bugs with a non computer scientist correspondent, who did not have access to the operational center (!) and I had only an Amiga 500 with a color screen (whereas the display of the video network was monochrome). The first deliveries were catastrophic: nothing worked properly, I was ashamed when I reported to the IT manager. I tried at first to improve my code (without success), before understanding that my salvation lay in the collaboration with the correspondent, I trained him in the use of the Amiga system, I fully integrated him in my development project. He was thus able to exchange more efficiently with the users and to give me reliable information. Finally, in 6 months (part-time, because I was also developing on Windows 3.0), I had a functional product for my return to civilian life. What I learned from this experience is that it's not enough to be technically competent, you have to be able to interact with all the stakeholders and this is often the most complex thing for a developer to do. This has served me well since then!" (dr) [News message: 11. Dec. 2022, 07:00] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`11.Dec.2022`	Motorola68k emulation: Emu68 graphics driver development In his latest blog entry, developer Michal Schulz reports on the work he has started with the P96 VideoCore driver and in particular with the VPU (Vector Processing Unit). In a short Video he demonstrates the VideoCore driver for the P96 RTG subsystem, which is somewhat accelerated thanks to the VPU unit, using a 2560x1440x32 screen with a moving window, loading a large JPG image in MultiView and scrolling the image in the rather large MultiView window on an Amiga 600. Claude Schwarz, on the other hand, reports in a tweet that the PiStorm32-lite beta boards (amiga-news.de reported) have passed the smoke test and also boot as expected in the Amiga 1200. (dr) [News message: 11. Dec. 2022, 06:29] [Comments: 0] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]

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