02.Sep.2022
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AmigaOS 4: C runtime library clib2 v1.0.0 beta 7
Andrea 'afxgroup' Palmate has created a fork of the official clib2 library, included in adtools. This library is exclusively for AmigaOS 4 to make it easy to maintain and to be able to add all the missing clib2 functions that are hard to add on 68k Amigas. The goal is to make it POSIX compliant and also fix any C++ problems that exist with newer compilers (amiga-news.de reported).
Yesterday he has released the seventh beta version with the following changes:
- Added new open source pthread library (and removed the old one)
- Fixed ncurses/termios problem
- Fixed non-blocking stdin when used with socket and poll
- Changed DOS library requirements to v52 instead of v54
- Added misc folder to SDK installation and package that contain terminfo entries
- Fixed a bug in spawnv function was causing a bad exe filename and a memory leak
- Added flock function. Fixed a problem on record_locking was not allocating memory correctly
- Added stdio_ext functions (except __freadptr)
- More bug fixes and improvements
(dr)
[News message: 02. Sep. 2022, 05:43] [Comments: 0]
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02.Sep.2022
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Floppy disk images on PC and Mac: Greaseweazle Tools 1.3
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. Yesterday version 1.3 of the Greaseweazle Tools was released providing the following changes:
- gw: New formats ibm.800 and ibm.2880
- gw: New image format *.MGT
(dr)
[News message: 02. Sep. 2022, 05:33] [Comments: 0]
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02.Sep.2022
David Brunet (ANF)
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New articles on Obligement website
The articles below have been added to the website of the French Amiga/MorphOS magazine Obligement during the last two months. All translations are welcome. Please contact David 'Daff' Brunet for more information.
- July/August 2022 news
- News: The big Commodore brand heist
- Old Joystick articles 49 to 54: News: Aladdin - Disney and Virgin amaze us, Report: Hollywood in the digital age, Review of Elfmania, Interview with Sid Meier, Review of The Ultimate Pinball Quest, News: Team 17 - team spirit, games for everyone, Interview with David Lester, Review of James Pond 3: Operation Starfi5h, Review of Sexual Fantasies, Report: European Computer Trade Show of April 1994, Review of Arcade Pool, Review of Disposable Hero [CD32], etc.
- Interview with Daniel Jedlicka (musician and developer on AmigaOS 4)
- Interview with Anthony Rosbottom (graphic designer)
- Review: AmiKit XE 11.8.0 for Windows
- Hardware: Furia S628
- File: Hidden messages and Easter eggs in AmigaOS
- File: The history of Trecision (first part)
- Tutorial: Presentation and use of Reggae
- Point of view: The development of Rave (part four)
- DIY: Reducing the size of an HxC SD and adding a small LCD screen
- Special quiz on Amiga video game characters (act 2)
(dr)
[News message: 02. Sep. 2022, 05:29] [Comments: 0]
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02.Sep.2022
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Demo scene: "Nano Gems" offers selection of the best intros
The "Nano Gems" page, a subpage of the demo platform Demozoo, gives a curated selection of the best small intros from the demo scene. It aims to give a quick overview of what kind of small intros exist in different size categories and platforms. The intros are sorted by date and alphabet, which in no way reflects a ranking. The productions in this list are curated and suggested by members of the "Sizecoding Discord". Additional productions may be suggested.
The "Oldschool" category also includes four Amiga demos:
(dr)
[News message: 02. Sep. 2022, 05:25] [Comments: 0]
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01.Sep.2022
Reddit
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Newspaper: Guardian article with Amiga 500 picture
In the Guardian article "Why Japan’s war on disks could prove to be another flop" published today, a picture of an Amiga 500 opens the report about Japan’s Minister of Digital Affairs, Taro Kono, who after abolishing the fax now wants to banish the floppy disk as well - but meets resistance from bureaucrats in the process. (dr)
[News message: 01. Sep. 2022, 16:37] [Comments: 0]
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01.Sep.2022
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Emulator: QEMU 7.1.0 released
QEMU is an open source computer emulator and virtualizer. QEMU is able to emulate a complete computer in software without the need of hardware virtualization. So it is possible to emulate Amiga operating systems like AROS, AmigaOS or MorphOS on QEMU. This support is provided by QEMU developer Zoltan Balaton, who gives lots of tips and info on a dedicated webseite (see also our Excursion of Amiga operating systems on non-native hardware).
According to Zoltan Balaton, the now released version 7.1.0 (changelog) fixes a potential incomplete DMA on the Sam460ex, which only affected AmigaOS 4. (dr)
[News message: 01. Sep. 2022, 11:58] [Comments: 0]
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01.Sep.2022
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THEA500 Mini: Pandory500 firmware V2
"Pandory500" is a "cross-loading" firmware for the THEA500 mini that allows many other emulators and programs to run (YouTube video). It is installed in the form of a WHDLOAD package and exploits a hidden feature of the Amiberry emulator to run native code. It runs completely from the USB stick and is 100% removable.
Among other things, version 2 now supports firmware 1.1.1 and more gamepads than the original firmware. More free memory is also available. (dr)
[News message: 01. Sep. 2022, 08:41] [Comments: 0]
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01.Sep.2022
Puni / AmigaOldskooler (ANF)
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AmigaOS 4: Blog summary of month August
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 August. (dr)
[News message: 01. Sep. 2022, 06:31] [Comments: 0]
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01.Sep.2022
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Self-made project: Parallel port to SPI adapter
The goal of this project initiated by Niklas Ekström is to develop a cheap and easy to build SPI adapter that can be connected to the parallel port of an Amiga. In addition, the performance of the adapter should be as fast as possible.
There exists many SPI peripherals that can be connected to this adapter. The SPI adapter comes with a source code library, spi-lib, that is used to perform reads and writes to the SPI peripheral. For each kind of SPI peripheral, however, a separate driver needs to be written that uses spi-lib, and exposes the functionality of the SPI peripheral to the operating system using some suitable interface.
In the directory examples/spisd an example of how an SD card module can be connected to the SPI adapter, and a driver is provided that lets AmigaOS mount the SPI card as a file system.
Version 2.1, released yesterday, fixes a bug in the SD card device driver of version v2.0, which did not work correctly with the Amiga 3000 or 4000. (dr)
[News message: 01. Sep. 2022, 06:29] [Comments: 0]
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31.Aug.2022
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Programming language: Amiga Blitz Basic 2 Visual Studio Code Ext. 0.7.0
Just a week ago we first reported about Youen Chéné's fork of the Visual Studio Code Extension of 'MickGyver', which provides support for Amiga Blitz Basic 2 (and Amiblitz). In the article the developer indicated to us that a merge of both extensions was the goal. This was put into action today with the release of version 0.7.0, integrating Chéné's fork into the 'MickGyver' extension.
Users who have Chéné's extension installed must uninstall it and install the new joint one. Version 0.7.0 introduces a big new feature: it is now possible to generate bootable ADFs from the current project, without external dependencies. The full documentation for this can be found on GitHub. (dr)
[News message: 31. Aug. 2022, 20:21] [Comments: 0]
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31.Aug.2022
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Programming language: Amiga C/C++ Visual Studio Code Extension 1.5.5
Bartman', member of the demo group 'Abyss', provides with 'amiga-debug' a 'Visual Studio Code' extension for "compiling, debugging and profiling Amiga C/C++ programs compiled by the bundled gcc 11.2 with the bundled WinUAE" (YouTube video). Yesterday version 1.5.5 was released. Changes:
- NEW: VASM assembler with debugging support
- GAS keeps the .s extension; VASM uses the .asm extension.
- VASM has been modified to provide valid DWARF section names to make the extension debugger to work (although you can debug using the official version prefixing code section names with .text).
- The assembly language provider has been updated to validate assembly sources against either GAS or VASM depending on the source code file extension.
- Syntax highlighting, symbol search and error squiggles support.
- NEW: DMA Control shows BltPri
- NEW: assembly: hover over custom register name to get documentation
- NEW: assembly: hover over status register bits to get more info
- FIX: assembly: Find Ctrl+F now case-insensitive
- FIX: screen: fix sprites over HAM
- FIX: copper: improve performance
- NEW: copper: Find Ctrl+F
Parallel to this original expansion there is a fork by David Cañadas Mazo, which focuses less on stability and more on additional features (amiga-news.de reported). Many of his changes flow back into the original extension. Version 1.5.6 was released here yesterday. (dr)
[News message: 31. Aug. 2022, 19:37] [Comments: 0]
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31.Aug.2022
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SCSI-SD adapter: ZuluSCSI firmware 1.0.7
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). The firmware needed for this has been updated several times in the last days.
Changes in v1.0.7:
- Disable raw fallback when image is specified through .ini
- Only print warning about unevenly-divisible image sizes when host queries disk with relevant SCSI commands
- Fix pauses during transfer in PIO mode / Avoid SysTick interrupts during transfers, including with the Akai MPC60 and Kurzweil K2000R, when running firmware version 3.87J
Changes in v1.0.6:
- Fix timing violation in 10MB/s synchronous mode
- Perform reads in whole sector blocks by default - this addresses a significant issue with reliable operation on classic Macintosh computers.
Changes in v1.0.5:
- Added easier-to-use SCSI floppy emulation support. File names beginning with FDxx will be automatically configured as a removable floppy device.
- Added EXPERIMENTAL raw pass-through mode (without FAT filesystem), commit . If no image files are detected on the SD card, the whole SD card is presented as a single SCSI drive, the size of which will be the entirety of the SD card. Raw pass-through can also be manually specified in config file.
(dr)
[News message: 31. Aug. 2022, 05:25] [Comments: 0]
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30.Aug.2022
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Platformer: Update for "Bomb Jack Beer Edition" available
"Bomb Jack Beer Edition" was the first game written by Graeme 'McGeezer' Cowie in 2017/2018 and is a remake of Bomb Jack, developed by Tehkan in 1984. As the author writes, in addition to the original version, which is still available, there is also one whose audio is closer to the style of the arcade. In the process, the "Jarre MF2" arrangement has also been removed. Likewise, some changes have also been made to the gameplay, such as the speed at which Jack moves, which is now closer to the arcade game (YouTube video). (dr)
[News message: 30. Aug. 2022, 21:49] [Comments: 0]
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30.Aug.2022
MorphZone (Webseite)
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MorphOS: Email client Iris 1.4
Jacek 'jacadcaps' Piszczek has released version 1.4 of his email program Iris for MorphOS. Among the innovations are the updated WebKit base and the time-shifted sending of emails.
Changes:
- Implemented message send scheduling
- Added 'Edit as New Without Attachments...' to menus
- Added 'Attach File(s)...', 'Remove Attachments' to the writer window's menu
- SVG images may now be directly embedded into the email / signature
- Fixed folder list sort order when adding/enabling accounts
- Added a check against trying to send an email with no recipients set
- Brings up an account online when trying to view a message that isn't locally cached
- Subject line and mail address text encoding fixes
- Fixed Show/Hide all headers menu state after reloading a message in the same view
- Added a workaround for broken Subject headers (GMail likes to send them as raw UTF8)
- Updated WebKit and other base libs
Download: iris.lha (21 MB) (snx) (Translation: dr)
[News message: 30. Aug. 2022, 12:40] [Comments: 0]
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30.Aug.2022
Amigaworld.net (Forum)
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MorphOS: Web browser Wayfarer 4.0
Jacek 'jacadcaps' Piszczek has released version 4.0 of his web browser Wayfarer for MorphOS. This is now based on WebKitGTK 2.36.3 and also cURL and other libraries have been updated. Furthermore, the HLS stream quality can now additionally be accessed from the media menu.
Download: wayfarer.lha (26 MB) (snx) (Translation: dr)
[News message: 30. Aug. 2022, 12:36] [Comments: 0]
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30.Aug.2022
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Video: Installation of an Amiga 500 in a Checkmate 1500 Plus
In his latest video Jan Beta introduces the "Checkmate 1500 Plus" case and shows how to install an Amiga 500 in it. (dr)
[News message: 30. Aug. 2022, 07:22] [Comments: 0]
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29.Aug.2022
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Farming simulation: New beta version of Farmiga available
The Polish developer 'Tukinem' is writing a farming simulation in AMOS, called 'Farmiga' (amiga-news.de reported). Yesterday a new beta version (28.08.2022) was released. Changes:
- Full game time is 16 fiscal periods
- New start screen and main menu of the game
- When saving and reading, half-crop states are remembered, so you don't lose your crops after saving the game
- Removed some bugs
Hardware requirements: 1,5MB ChipRAM bzw. 1MB Chip + 0,5MB FastRAM. (dr)
[News message: 29. Aug. 2022, 07:13] [Comments: 0]
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29.Aug.2022
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Video: How FloppyBridge works
In his latest video Robert Smith explains how his project FloppyBridge (amiga-news.de reported) works exactly, by which the emulators WinUAE and Amiberry can work with real floppy disks.
You can support the developer, for example, on his Patreon page. (dr)
[News message: 29. Aug. 2022, 05:42] [Comments: 0]
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29.Aug.2022
Tim Lenke (ANF)
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USB stick/keychains in Amiga-1200 and A500 look
Tim Lenke offers USB sticks in retro design on lavago.de, which can also be used as keychains. Currently available is, among others, a "Mini Amiga 500", at the Amiga 37 (October 15 and 16, Mönchengladbach) an A1200 version will then celebrate its premiere, which will also be available in the web store after the event.
According to Tim Lenke, the disks, officially licensed by Amiga Corporation, will be injection molded, not 3D printed. There will also be a special "Amiga 37" variant of the A1200 stick that will only be available at the event - Lavago is one of the sponosors of the meeting. (cg)
[News message: 29. Aug. 2022, 00:04] [Comments: 0]
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28.Aug.2022
Seiya (ANF)
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PDF magazine: REV'n'GE 137 (Italian/English)
Besides the Italian original issue, the PDF magazine REV'n'GE ("Retro Emulator Vision and Game") is also available in English. The magazine's reviews compare the different ports of classic games to the various platforms of their time. The latest issue among others is about the Amiga game Elfmania and the multimedia CDTV software "Hutchinson Encyclopedia". (dr)
[News message: 28. Aug. 2022, 17:20] [Comments: 0]
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28.Aug.2022
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AmigaOS 4.1: SDL 2.24.0 Release Candidate 1
Juha 'capehill' Niemimaki provides the first release candidate 1 for version 2.24.0 of the multimedia library SDL for AmigaOS 4.1, which should 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. The general changes:
- New version numbering scheme, similar to GLib and Flatpak.
- An even number in the minor version (second component) indicates a production-ready stable release such as 2.24.0, which would have been 2.0.24 under the old system.
- The patchlevel (micro version, third component) indicates a bugfix-only update: for example, 2.24.1 would be a bugfix-only release to fix bugs in 2.24.0, without adding new features.
- An odd number in the minor version indicates a prerelease such as 2.23.0. Stable distributions should not use these prereleases.
- The patchlevel indicates successive prereleases, for example 2.23.1 and 2.23.2 would be prereleases during development of the SDL 2.24.0 stable release.
- Added SDL_GetPointDisplayIndex() and SDL_GetRectDisplayIndex() to get the display associated with a point and rectangle in screen space
- Added SDL_bsearch(), SDL_crc16(), and SDL_utf8strnlen() to the stdlib routines
- Added SDL_CPUPauseInstruction() as a macro in SDL_atomic.h
- Added SDL_size_mul_overflow() and SDL_size_add_overflow() for better size overflow protection
- Added SDL_ResetHint() to reset a hint to the default value
- Added SDL_ResetKeyboard() to reset SDL's internal keyboard state, generating key up events for all currently pressed keys
- Added the hint SDL_HINT_MOUSE_RELATIVE_WARP_MOTION to control whether mouse warping generates motion events in relative mode. This hint defaults off.
- Added the hint SDL_HINT_TRACKPAD_IS_TOUCH_ONLY to control whether trackpads are treated as touch devices or mice. By default touchpads are treated as mouse input.
- The hint SDL_HINT_JOYSTICK_HIDAPI_JOY_CONS now defaults on
- Added support for mini-gamepad mode for Nintendo Joy-Con controllers using the HIDAPI driver
- Added the hint SDL_HINT_JOYSTICK_HIDAPI_COMBINE_JOY_CONS to control whether Joy-Con controllers are automatically merged into a unified gamepad when using the HIDAPI driver. This hint defaults on.
- The hint SDL_HINT_JOYSTICK_HIDAPI_SWITCH_HOME_LED can be set to a floating point value to set the brightness of the Home LED on Nintendo Switch controllers
- Added the hint SDL_HINT_JOYSTICK_HIDAPI_JOYCON_HOME_LED to set the Home LED brightness for the Nintendo Joy-Con controllers. By default the Home LED is not modified.
- Added the hint SDL_HINT_JOYSTICK_HIDAPI_SWITCH_PLAYER_LED to control whether the player LED should be lit on the Nintendo Joy-Con controllers
- Added support for Nintendo Online classic controllers using the HIDAPI driver
- Added the hint SDL_HINT_JOYSTICK_HIDAPI_NINTENDO_CLASSIC to control whether the HIDAPI driver for Nintendo Online classic controllers should be used
- Added support for the NVIDIA Shield Controller to the HIDAPI driver, supporting rumble and battery status
- Added support for NVIDIA SHIELD controller to the HIDAPI driver, and a hint SDL_HINT_JOYSTICK_HIDAPI_SHIELD to control whether this is used
- Added functions to get the platform dependent name for a joystick or game controller:
- SDL_JoystickPathForIndex()
- SDL_JoystickPath()
- SDL_GameControllerPathForIndex()
- SDL_GameControllerPath()
- Added SDL_GameControllerGetFirmwareVersion() and SDL_JoystickGetFirmwareVersion(), currently implemented for DualSense(tm) Wireless Controllers using HIDAPI
- Added SDL_JoystickAttachVirtualEx() for extended virtual controller support
- Added joystick event SDL_JOYBATTERYUPDATED for when battery status changes
- Added SDL_GUIDToString() and SDL_GUIDFromString() to convert between SDL GUID and string
- Added SDL_HasLSX() and SDL_HasLASX() to detect LoongArch SIMD support
- Added SDL_GetOriginalMemoryFunctions()
- Added SDL_GetDefaultAudioInfo() to get the name and format of the default audio device, currently implemented for PipeWire, PulseAudio, WASAPI, and DirectSound
- Added HIDAPI driver for the NVIDIA SHIELD controller (2017 model) to enable support for battery status and rumble
- Added support for opening audio devices with 3 or 5 channels (2.1, 4.1). All channel counts from Mono to 7.1 are now supported.
- Rewrote audio channel converters used by SDL_AudioCVT, based on the channel matrix coefficients used as the default for FAudio voices
- SDL log messages are no longer limited to 4K and can be any length
- Fixed a long-standing calling convention issue with dynapi affecting OpenWatcom or OS/2 builds
Amiga specific changes:
- Add screensaver control using application.library. Screensaver is disabled by default.
(dr)
[News message: 28. Aug. 2022, 17:09] [Comments: 0]
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