amiga-news.de - Archive

Archive 12/2022

`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] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`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] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`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] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`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] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`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] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`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] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`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] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`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] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`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] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`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] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
`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] [Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]

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