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24.Apr.2022
Andreas Falkenhahn (ANF) Hollywood 9.1 released

Press release: Airsoft Softwair, the hardest working men in code business, are proud to announce the immediate availability of Hollywood 9.1. This is a maintenance release which contains mostly bug fixes amid a few new features. It is available free of charge for all customers who bought a Hollywood 9.0 license and can be downloaded from the restricted download area using the personalized user accounts.

Hollywood is the ultimate cross-platform programming language and multimedia application layer that can be used to create all sorts of games and applications. It supports over 900 inbuilt commands that are documented in detail on over 1000 pages. Furthermore, it features a wide variety of plugins that empower programmers to use all kinds of modern technologies like OpenGL, SDL, a true cross-platform GUI toolkit that uses native widgets, PDF import/export, SVG support, SQL support, SSL/TLS and extensive network protocol support and so much more. There really is hardly anything that Hollywood can't do it and Hollywood can do it on all platforms imaginable because it is available in native versions for AmigaOS3, AmigaOS4, MorphOS, WarpOS, AROS (x86), Linux (arm, ppc, x86, x64), macOS (ppc, x86, x64), Windows (x86, x64), Android and iOS.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hollywood in 2022 we even offer a special 20 euros discount on the full version of Hollywood for a limited time only. This is the perfect chance for all people who don't own Hollywood yet to grab their own copy and to explore the wonderful world of Hollywood and be fascinated by the gigantic functionality of this unique piece of software and all of the plugins that come with it! (dr)

[News message: 24. Apr. 2022, 18:56] [Comments: 0]
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24.Apr.2022

MorphOS: Software collection Chrysalis 3.16
Yannick 'Papiosaur' Buchy's Chrysalis is a preconfigured collection of programs, games and emulators and now is available in version 3.16 for MorphOS 3.16.

Changes:

SilkRAW 1.3 (Domenico Lattanzi)
OpenTTD 12.2 (BeWorld)
Symmetrix 1.0 (Matthias Böcker)
UpTime 1.5a (Matthias Böcker)
GrafX 2.8 (BeWorld)
MouseEyes 1.4 (Matthias Böcker)
Exutil 1.1.2 (Ulrich Beckers)
MouseCoords 1.4 (Matthias Böcker)
ModernArt 3.3 (Matthias Böcker)
SDL2 (BeWorld)
bePlayer 1.3 (BeWorld)
Odyssey 1.26 standalone version (MorphOS Team)
Blues R3 (BeWorld)
AmiSSL 4.12 68k (Jens Maus)
GenesisPlus 2.2 (Kelly Samel)
FinalBurnNeo 1.0.0.3WIP (BeWorld)
ScummVM 2.5.1 (BeWorld)
Pixy 1.0a r3 (Tony Canazza)
MUIBase 4.4 (Steffen Gutmann)
WitchCleaner 2.20 (Templario)
and more...

Download: Chrysalis_3.16.iso (1 GB) (dr)

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24.Apr.2022 Email client: YAM development discontinued
The last Nightly Build is almost a year old: As the authors of the Amiga email client YAM now confirmed to us on request, the development has been stopped.

The reasons for this are manifold: Basically it became more and more obvious over the years how difficult it was to develop something for the Amiga platform. The lack of progress in the operating system itself makes it more and more difficult to make Amiga programs in general and YAM in particular fit for the current (security) standards compared to other systems (Linux, Windows, macOS). Almost every feature has to be developed for every platform (AmigaOS 3.x, AmigaOS 4, AROS, MorphOS) completely by oneself, because the respective operating system does not provide it. Thus one would have to port the complete SSL system in the newest version to all platforms. If UTF8 is to be supported as a universal standard for encoding any text, the complete conversion in both directions would have to be developed 100% in-house, because the operating system supports UTF8 only insufficiently, if at all. In return, however, the expectations of the users are linked to the progress of the other systems: An Amiga should still be able to do the same as other systems. This expectation can be fulfilled to a certain degree, but only with enormous development effort. This enormous additional effort, however, is in contrast to the ever decreasing number of developers. The remaining YAM developers have completely detached themselves from the Amiga and are now pursuing projects on other platforms.

In the past it had also not been possible to inspire new developers to work on YAM (and also on all other projects). Depending on that: YAM (like the other projects) is an open source project. If you like, you are welcome to create a fork of it and start developing immediately.

Finally, a brief summary of the history:

In our German database, there is a first entry about version 2 of the e-mail client 'YAM' from October 23, 1998. The original author Marcel Beck started the development of a first, very limited version already in 1995. The program was so popular that there was even a dedicated newsletter. In just such a newsletter the author then announced in October 2000 that he would give up development due to lack of time. Version 2.2 was the last one published by him. In June 2001 the YAM Open Source Team released his first version 2.3. (dr)

[News message: 24. Apr. 2022, 13:18] [Comments: 0]
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24.Apr.2022

Aminet uploads until 23.04.2022
The following files have been added until 23.04.2022 to Aminet:

fd-kickthesofa.lha       demo/aga   797K  68k Demo - GERP 2022
soul_strain.lha          demo/aga   160K  68k Demo - Revision 2022
swaptro_v2_0.adf         demo/disk  880K  68k Wild demo - Revision 2022
tek-transhuman_pachin... demo/disk  8K    68k Transhuman / Pachinkoland - G...
gloot.zip                demo/euro  98K   68k Demo - Revision 2022
lax-extremeboost.lha     demo/euro  513K  68k Demo - Revision 2022
APX-Blood.lha            demo/intro 9K    68k 4k intro - Revision 2022
chickenstomp.adf         demo/intro 880K  68k Intro - Syntax Society Easter...
desire-ramonticgetawa... demo/intro 97K   68k 40k intro - GERP 2022
hexjunkierc3.zip         demo/intro 5K    68k 4k intro - Revision 2022
logicOS.zip              demo/intro 306K  68k Intro - Revision 2022
nah_techno_insignia.zip  demo/intro 15K   68k 4k intro - Revision 2022
notyetphonk.zip          demo/intro 7K    68k Intro - Revision 2022
ukramiga32b_v2.zip       demo/intro 4K    68k 32b intro - Revision 2022
Void-BunnyCracktro.lha   demo/intro 163K  68k "Cracktro" for Feedback 12
Void-CircleUndercover... demo/intro 64K   68k Intro from Revision 22
dS_UP-A1.adf             demo/mag   880K  68k Diskmag - March 2022
JP19.zip                 demo/mag   1.5M  68k Jurassic Pack #19
tek-crapbox-11.adf       demo/misc  880K  68k Demopack - April 2022
Void-Dreams38.zip        demo/misc  570K  68k Demopack - Revision 2022
Home-Coming.adf          demo/sound 880K  68k Music Disk - January 2022
mst-mc1.lha              demo/sound 115K  68k Mysterious Chips 1 by Mystic
Void-Feedback12.lha      demo/sound 2.8M  68k Pack with music from GERP 2022
vbcc_bin_morphos.lha     dev/c      2.7M  MOS Optimizing ISO C compiler, PP...
vbcc_bin_powerup.lha     dev/c      1.4M  PUP Optimizing ISO C compiler, PP...
vbcc_bin_warpos.lha      dev/c      1.2M  WOS Optimizing ISO C compiler, PP...
vbcc_target_m68k-kick... dev/c      486K      ISO C compiler, AmigaOS 1.2/1...
ld80.lha                 dev/cross  70K   MOS L80 replacement linker
zmac.lha                 dev/cross  284K  MOS Z80 Macro Cross Assembler
Fracman.lha              game/misc  147K  68k The 'Arcade' game revisited
Gotcha199.lha            game/think 56K   68k Pair two numbers to get the 1...
SilkRAW_AROS.lha         gfx/misc   2.0M  x86 GUI for Dave Coffin's program...
SilkRAW_MorphOS.lha      gfx/misc   2.1M  MOS GUI for Dave Coffin's program...
SilkRAW_OS4.lha          gfx/misc   2.4M  OS4 GUI for Dave Coffin's program...
AmiVms.lha               misc/emu   3.3M  68k Simulates OpenVMS commands
cc1541.lha               misc/emu   152K  MOS Create Commodore 1541 floppy ...
australianlocale.lha     util/sys   1K        Modified country locale for A...

(snx)

[News message: 24. Apr. 2022, 07:05] [Comments: 0]
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24.Apr.2022

OS4Depot uploads until 23.04.2022
The following files have been added until 23.04.2022 to OS4Depot:

vlink.lha                dev/cro 174kb 4.0 A portable linker, written in AN...
arabic_console_device... dri/inp 3Mb   4.1 An arabic console device, line &...
silkraw.lha              gra/mis 2Mb   4.1 GUI for Dave Coffin's progr...

(snx)

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24.Apr.2022

AROS Archives uploads until 23.04.2022
The following files have been added until 23.04.2022 to AROS Archives:

xmp_3_1_0.i386.zip           aud/pla 715kb Xtended Module Player fixed and ...
silkraw_aros.lha             gra/mis 2Mb   GUI for Dave Coffin's progr...
aget.i386-aros.zip           net/mis 12kb  Command Line Tool similar WGet w...

(snx)

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24.Apr.2022

MorphOS-Storage uploads until 23.04.2022
Die folgenden Pakete wurden bis zum 23.04.2022 dem MorphOS-Storage hinzugefügt:

Jabber.module_2.0.lha     Communication/KwaKwa      A module for KwaKwa ins...
GG.module_2.0.lha         Communication/KwaKwa      A plugin for KwaKwa ins...
Kwakwa_1.10.lha           Communication             Multiprotocol, plugin b...
vbcc_0.9h.lha             Development/C             A highly optimizing por...
cc1541_3.4.lha            Emulation/Misc            Create Commodore 1541 f...
NMTM_Final.lha            Games/Adventure           No More Toxic Man!!! - ...
DevilutionX_1.4.0.lha     Games/Adventure           Diablo build for modern...
MCE_13.71.lha             Games/Editor              Multi-game Character Ed...
OpenTTD_12.2.lha          Games/Strategy            A clone of Transport Ty...
SilkRAW_1.3.lha           Graphics/Misc             GUI for Dave Coffin's p...

(snx)

[News message: 24. Apr. 2022, 07:05] [Comments: 0]
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24.Apr.2022

WHDLoad: New installers until 23.04.2022
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 23.04.2022:

2022-04-23 fixed: Chaos In Andromeda: Eyes Of The Eagle (On-line) works with whdload v18.7+, blitter fixes added, access fault removed (Info)
2022-04-23 new: Sound Disk (Arcadia Team) done by StingRay (Info, Image)
2022-04-21 improved: Lethal Weapon (Ocean) trainer added, supports second button jump, music replay fixed (Info)
2022-04-20 new: Megademo (Arcadia Team) done by StingRay (Info, Image)
2022-04-19 improved: Attack of the PETSCII Robots (8-Bit Productions, LLC) added support for game version 1.2 (Info, Image)
2022-04-19 improved: XP8 (Weathermine Software) fixed crash at level 3, added trainer, fixed blitter errors (Info)
2022-04-19 improved: Ports Of Call (International Software Development) fixed crash after title screen (Info)
2022-04-19 improved: New Zealand Story (Taito/Ocean) fixed score display, allows to disable blitterwaits (Info)
2022-04-19 updated: Lure of the Temptress (Virgin) fixed another original game bug (Info)
2022-04-19 fixed: Kid Gloves (Logotron) fixed address error on 68000 (Info)
2022-04-19 improved: It Came From The Desert / Antheads: It Came From The Desert II (Cinemaware) supports another version, supports italian/spanish fanmade version (Info, Image)
2022-04-19 improved: Buggy Boy (Elite) minor changes (Info)
2022-04-19 improved: Black Dawn Rebirth (Doublesided Games) fixed install (Info)
2022-04-19 updated: Biing (reLINE) reassembled with latest kickemu (Info)

(snx)

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24.Apr.2022
Amiga Future (Webseite) Do it yourself: Kickstart Flash ROM
At the title link, Oleg Mishin has published his project for creating a Kickstart Flash ROM oneself. Depending on the Amiga model, there are both a 40 and a 42 pin variant. (snx)

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23.Apr.2022 'Return to Monkey Island' announced, Interview with developer
Monkey Island is a five-part graphic adventure series based on an idea by Ron Gilbert. He was heavily involved in the development of the first two parts, which were also released for the Amiga, before leaving LucasArts in the early 1990s.

At the beginning of April, the developer announced another 'Monkey Island' part in his Blog. Initially interpreted as an April Fool's joke, it became certainty with the release of a first teaser: 'Return to Monkey Island' will be released in 2022.

In an interview with ars TECHNICA, the developer now gives first insights into the development and the history of the game. (dr)

[News message: 23. Apr. 2022, 17:31] [Comments: 0]
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23.Apr.2022
Twitter

RTG driver: P96 V3.3.0 released
Jens Schönfeld (individual Computers) has released version 3.3.0 of his RTG driver P96 which among others offers "faster C2P/P2C (for CV3D even hardware-accelerated), new drivers for classic GFX cards like Retina Z2 (the very first one, don't confuse with Z3 version) and Visiona". Changes:

This release of P96 adds one new feature, namely in-screen mode switches. This allows on advanced graphics cards mixing of high-color/true-color/true-alpha and chunky modes, depending on the flexibility of the hardware. This requires from the driver to implement extended interface functions.

PicassoIV allows mixing high-color and chunky modes on the same screen. True color and true-alpha modes cannot be mixed with each other or any other modes. Hi-color modes mixed with chunky screens have pixels of twice the width.
CVision3D supports very flexible mode switching as almost any modes can be mixed. The only exception is that double scanned, interlaced, double-clocked (very high resolution) modes or modes with more than 4095 bytes per line do not allow mode sharing. The pixel aspect ratio is not affected.
As a side effect, the CVision3D supports now also draggable True-color screens. They could not be dragged before.
The UAE emulator supports flexible mode sharing of all modes without any restrictions, leaving the pixel aspect ratio alone.

P96 3.3.0 comes with a driver for the Retina (Zorro-II version) graphics card based on the NCR77C22E+ chip. Please do not confuse this card with the RetinaZ3BLT, which is a different card which was supported already. This driver requires mmu.library to be installed, because the Z2 version of Retina uses banked memory access.

The Retina Z2 offers a hardware sprite, hi-color and true-color support, but no hardware acceleration. The sprite is not functional in true color mode (or rather, would only offer shades of grey as colors).
If you receive the error "Direct MMU setup failed to work" from the MuEVD shapeshifter driver with the RetinaZ2, update MuEVD to release 47.1 or edit the ENVARC:MuEVD.Prefs file and include there the option "REF=Yes". This turns off remapping of the MacOs screen to the RetinaZ2 framebuffer.

P96 3.3.0 also comes now with a driver for the Visiona graphics card based on the INMOS IMSG300 chip.

Note that this card is notoriosly hard to configure and hard to use, as its output is not complying to the VGA standard, but rather to TV standards. Many LCD displays may not be able to show the signal generated by this card, though older CRTs should be able to show its signal. Your LCD may require to support either composite sync or sync on green, and it may be required to cut the "VSync" output of the card and connect HSync to the composite sync input.
Visiona (and the IMSG300 chip on it) do not support a sprite nor offer a blitter, thus operations may be relatively slow. Neither does the chip offer panning, nor does the driver currently support interlace. The latter is due to a restriction of the chip which requires particular display width for interlaced screens.
The Visiona driver is configured through the "SYNC" tool type, which can be either set to "tesselated" (default, recommended), "composite", "separate" or "green". The latter activates sync on green. Unfortunately, the "separate" sync signal is not VGA compatible and thus not suitable for most modern monitors.

The S3 Virge chipset driver on the CVision3D has been extended again and now also accelerates planar to chunky conversion. The vertical position of S3 based double-scanned views was computed incorrectly and doubled the vertical position. You may have to adjust your double scanned modes a little bit.
The S3Virge allows unfortunately not to enable double scan on double-clocked modes. Thus, double-clocking is now kept disabled for double- scanned modes, which limits the resolution of double-scanned modes to approximately 1152x432. 1280x512 is not possible without overclocking, but 1280x1024 remains available as it can be double-clocked.
The S3Virge stream processor is (at least for some steppings) not able to generate pictures wider than 4095 bytes. In this case, the stream processor is turned off and display generation is forwarded to the legacy VGA engine. This also requires disabling memory windows on such modes.
The hardware overlays of the S3 and PicassoIV checked whether their apperture settings were consistent with the apperture setting of the screen they appear on. However, this check is no longer required as the 3.2.x release series supports on-demand apperture switching.
Due to a missing bracked, the P-IV video window (e.g. for PalomaTV) was initialized incorrectly on the first pass, leading to incorrect clipping. Once the window was moved, everything was fine again. This problem has been fixed.
Screen dragging support for the RetinaZ3Blt was broken, and probably never worked. This should hopefully work in this release now. The same problem goes for the Altais card which is based on the same chip driver.
The CPU-driven chunky to planar conversions have been rewritten and as such got hopefully somewhat faster. The old roxl-based approach has been replaced by a "folding" algorithm.
The CPU-driven planar to chunky or direct-color blitting algorithms have been rewritten and hopefully accelerated. The roxl-based algorithm has been replaced by a table-based algorithm.
The CPU driven masked planar to chunky or planar to direct blitting has been rewritten and is hopefully faster than before. This code now also supports interleaved sources without kludges.
The logic that re-enabled DMA when a previous RTG screen had turned it off as it wasn't still quite right. It did not turn on DMA if the new view to be loaded was non-NULL, but a native view, and it turned on the sprite DMA even though it should not.
P96 now turns the display off when switching between planar and chunky modes. This avoids some color distortions while switching.
If a task changed the colors of an off-monitor screen, P96 erraneously changed the colors of the front-most screen of the same board.
When the display was switched away from a board with a flicker fixer such as the P-IV, though the target board was not in the display chain, the flicker fixer got disabled, even though it should have stayed on to mirror the native screen that then remains visible.
When modifying or testing a mode with P96Mode, it could have happened that the mouse could not be moved within the entire screen. This was due to a defect in the rtg.library when creating a temporary mode.
In case a board does neither provide a mouse cursor nor a blitter, but apperture mapping, P96 incorrectly passed the pointer to the mouse cursor through the aperture mapping algorithm, potentially damaging the mouse pointer colors, or even main memory.
p96BestModeIDTagList() also delivered modes smaller than the requested view. While possible, smaller modes should be penaltized more and thus the algorithm was slightly modified.
The cgxBestModeID() function did not handle modes smaller than the requested modes properly either because it worked with the dimension difference as unsigned rather than signed number.
P96 now includes a substitute of the BestModeID() function of the Os which provides a suitable ModeID under constraints given by the caller. Unfortunately, the Os function makes assumptions on the suitability of a mode due to its pixel speed, which is irrelevant for the purposes of P96. Also, the Os function only allocates modes within a given class of monitor IDs, whereas P96 allocates a separate monitor for each resolution and thus would not find a mode of a size different from that of the monitor provided.
The P96 guide has been reworked, the list of tool types monitor icons take have been extended and checked, and the list of environment variables have been extended and checked as well.
The P96 guide contains now considerably larger section on the P96Settings program and how to create your own video modes.
The P96 guide now also contains an FAQ (frequently asked questions).

It is explicitly pointed out that P96 is commercial software: Distribution via "warez" sites or file sharing is punishable and endangers the future of P96. Jens Schönfeld thanks all "members of the Amiga community who have stopped some violations even before they have been published." (dr)

[News message: 23. Apr. 2022, 08:23] [Comments: 0]
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23.Apr.2022 Video test: A600/1200 CF2IDE adapter
In his latest video, Chris Edwards tests the new A600/1200 CF2IDE adapter released by RetroRewind, which claims to be "the world's first and only CF2IDE adapter with buffering, which separates a total of 24 signals from the rest of the system." This improves the signals and thus contributes to the system's stabilization. A converter is also integrated, which prevents the HDD LEDs on some CompactFlash cards from litting permanently.

Furthermore, an additional drive is also supported, which can be connected to the 44-pin connector CN3. (dr)

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22.Apr.2022 Emulator: QEMU 7.0 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).

As he tells us on request, he did not make any improvements in this development cycle that could have been included in version 7.0, which was released three days ago. A preliminary sound support for Pegasos2 does not work properly yet and he does not have the time for bug analysis. There had been some changes to the PPC CPU emulation by others, but whether that improved the emulation of the Amiga operating systems or not would just have to be tested. In any case, all supported systems would still boot. (dr)

[News message: 22. Apr. 2022, 15:12] [Comments: 0]
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21.Apr.2022

Amiga emulator for MacOS: vAmiga 2.0 Beta 4
Dirk Hoffmann released the fourth beta version of vAmiga 2.0, his Amiga emulator for MacOS which is currently under development (amiga-news.de reported). Changes:

Bug fixes:

Fixed a bug which led to wrong geometry predictions for some HDFs (AdventuresOfQuik&Silva.hdf).
The write-through image wasn't updated after attaching a new hard drive.

Enhancements:

User-settings are now managed by the core emulator and no longer by the GUI.

(dr)

[News message: 21. Apr. 2022, 18:33] [Comments: 0]
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21.Apr.2022 Programming language: 'AMOS Professional Unity' project updates
Almost exactly one year ago we reported last time about Frédéric 'AmiDARK' Cordier's attempt to add new features to the classic BASIC compiler AMOS Professional with 'AMOS Professional Unity'.

In the meantime the project has been moved to a new website (title link) and restarted. Furthermore the developer announced on Monday to work on another project: the 'Grimoire Projekt'. The goal is "to provide a software development solution for Amiga computers which is at the same time unique, innovative, educational, scalable, and which is suitable for both beginners and experienced developers."

To achieve this goal, he explains, "GenAm" - the assembler compiler available in the "Devpac" series products - is used, and here in particular its macro system. This, he says, makes it possible to create macros that reproduce the operation of a basic language directly in the source code of the Motorola Assembler 68000.

He plans to first add Vampire SAGA Gfx/Audio support to the Grimoire project and later as a plugin to Amos Professional Unity as well. (dr)

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20.Apr.2022
Artur Jarosik (Patreon)

Real-time strategy: Vanilla Conquer V0.99a (update)
Artur Jarosik is known for various game ports like the platformer Hydra Castle Labyrinth or the action adventure Heart of Darkness besides his SDL implementation of the browser NetSurf. As a contribution for the AmiGameJam he started to port the first part of the realtime strategy series Command & Conquer to the Amiga and named it "Vanilla Conquer" (amiga-news.de reported).

Today he has released version 0.99 which now includes all videos. You have to re-download the game. Changes:

Fixed NOD missions
Fixed movies playback by converting them to mpeg1 (not on v4 atm)

The game is primarily intended for Amigas upgraded with an Apollo processor, especially the V4 series. However, as the author explained to us, it could also be playable on a 68060 processor with a graphics card with the music and sound effects turned off.
If you want to support the author, you can do so on his Patreon page.

Update: (26.04.2022, 19:03, dr)

Meanwhile version 0.99a is available. Changes:

Avoid black screen on v4 in the menu
Fixed movies playback on v4 (Unit 0 in AHI needs 2 channels)

(dr)

[News message: 20. Apr. 2022, 20:21] [Comments: 1 - 26. Apr. 2022, 19:08]
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20.Apr.2022
Void Demo scene: 'Void' releases Dreams #38 and Feedback #12
Void is an Amiga demo group that has been active since 1995. During the last days, the group has released issue 38 of its demopack 'Dreams' as well as issue 12 (YouTube video) of its music disk 'Feedback' for AGA Amigas. (dr)

[News message: 20. Apr. 2022, 11:33] [Comments: 0]
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20.Apr.2022
Amigans AmigaOS 4.1: DvPlayer V54.9 released
In early November 2021, version 54.7 of the DvPlayer video and audio playback program distributed by A-EON Technology was released, supporting the new hardware video acceleration standard introduced with Enhancer Software V2. Now version 54.9 is available via the updater tool which adds "a workaround to compensate for DTS/PTS difference in seeking when seeking is based on DTS (e-g- MP4 files)". (dr)

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19.Apr.2022

Amiga emulator: Amiberry 5.1
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.

Yesterday, version 5.1 was released, which provides numerous bug fixes. Most important changes:

Check if X position has changed also, when using auto-crop
WinUAE: Reinitialize Floppybridge support if drive mode is changed on the fly.
WinUAE: Read track zero when checking bootblock contents. Disappeared in previous update.
Custom Controls: Use strings to parse custom control configs
WHDBooter: parse H/V Offset settings from XML as well, if found (and we're not using auto-crop)
Fixed #944: FloppyBridge: loading a config with FB enabled would not initialize it
Updated amiberry.conf with missing default options
Allow parsing of Display settings from XML, optionally
Disable Horizontal Centering by default

(dr)

[News message: 19. Apr. 2022, 22:20] [Comments: 0]
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19.Apr.2022
McFly (ANF) German Amiga Podcast #4
The fourth edition of the "German Amiga Podcast" (GAP) deals with the FPGA turbo card IceDrake V4 for the Amiga 1200. Besides there are some surf tips again. (snx)

[News message: 19. Apr. 2022, 15:56] [Comments: 0]
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19.Apr.2022
Andreas Magerl (ANF) Print magazine: Amiga Future, issue 156
The English and German issue 156 (May/June 2022) of the print magazine Amiga Future has been distributed. It can be ordered directly from its editorial office and from Amiga dealers that stock the magazine.

Content of the current issue includes reviews about Ignition and the Unithor joystick as well as a special about the demoscene. (snx)

[News message: 19. Apr. 2022, 15:48] [Comments: 0]
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19.Apr.2022 First teaser video: Arcade shooter 'Mision La Luna'
José A. 'Jojo073' Gonzáles (among others 1987 Rescue in Berlin, Furtum Sacrum) is a very active graphic designer who has been creating smaller games under the Iron Gate label for years with the help of various game construction kits like Backbone or GRAC.

Now a first teaser video of the arcade shooter 'Mision La Luna' has been released, which seems to be heavily inspired by Operation Thunderbolt. (dr)

[News message: 19. Apr. 2022, 08:39] [Comments: 0]
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18.Apr.2022 Videos: Running Apple Macintosh 6 software on an Amiga using 'A-Max'
Almost at the same time, two videos were released, dealing with the use of the 'Apple Macintosh 6' operating system on an Amiga: In the late 80s, early 90s ReadySoft released their combination of software and hardware, called 'A-Max' and 'A-Max II' respectively, with which you could use Apple Macintosh 6 software.

The user 'intric8' has published a detailed article including a video on AmigaLove, which demonstrates the usage with an Amiga 1000.

The 8-Bit Guy' has also taken care of the topic and shows in his video the usage of the A-Max with an Amiga 500. (dr)

[News message: 18. Apr. 2022, 08:25] [Comments: 0]
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18.Apr.2022
Amiga Future (website) Free hardware: Joystick adapter JoyDivision updated
The USB adapter for classic joysticks by Stefan 'Develin' Blixth (amiga-news.de reported), which works without additional drivers, is now available in version 20220416. This one now also supports the minicomputer THEA500 Mini. (snx)

[News message: 18. Apr. 2022, 06:53] [Comments: 0]
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17.Apr.2022

Aminet uploads until 16.04.2022
The following files have been added until 16.04.2022 to Aminet:

thttpd2.21b_working_p... comm/www   13M   68k THTTPd with PHP support + Big...
REDPILLGameCreator.lha   dev/misc   2.3M  68k Game Creator with AGA support
F1GP2022Carset.lha       game/data  7K        2022 Carset for F1GP
MCE.lha                  game/edit  3.3M  68k Multi-game Character Editor
MCE-MOS.lha              game/edit  3.6M  MOS Multi-game Character Editor
MCE-OS4.lha              game/edit  3.8M  OS4 Multi-game Character Editor
AmiDuke_RTG.lha          game/shoot 622K  68k Amiga port of Duke Nukem 3D
Gotcha199.lha            game/think 55K   68k Pair two numbers to get the 1...
WhatIFF1.04.lha          mags/misc  674K      What IFF? #1.04-March-2022
unshield.lha             util/arc   126K  MOS Extract/list InstallShield Ca...
TestProgram.zip          util/misc  664K  68k Versatile Amiga Test Program

(snx)

[News message: 17. Apr. 2022, 07:21] [Comments: 0]
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17.Apr.2022

OS4Depot uploads until 16.04.2022
The following files have been added until 16.04.2022 to OS4Depot:

arabic_console_device... dri/inp 3Mb   4.1 An arabic console device, line &...
mce.lha                  gam/uti 4Mb   4.0 Multi-game Character Editor

(snx)

[News message: 17. Apr. 2022, 07:21] [Comments: 0]
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17.Apr.2022

AROS Archives uploads until 16.04.2022
The following files have been added until 16.04.2022 to AROS Archives:

whatiff1.04.lha              doc/mis 674kb AmigaGuide format Magazine Mar/A...
atomiks.i386-aros.zip        gam/puz 772kb 1990)

(snx)

[News message: 17. Apr. 2022, 07:21] [Comments: 0]
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17.Apr.2022

MorphOS-Storage uploads until 16.04.2022
The following files have been added until 16.04.2022 to MorphOS-Storage:

AmiArcadia_28.5.lha       Emulation                 A Signetics-based machi...
unshield_1.5.1.lha        Files/Archive             Extract/list InstallShi...
ADiffView_2.2.lha         Text/Compare              A graphical file compar...

(snx)

[News message: 17. Apr. 2022, 07:21] [Comments: 0]
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17.Apr.2022

WHDLoad: New installers until 16.04.2022
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 16.04.2022:

2022-04-16 new: Megademo (Sargon) done by StingRay (Info, Image)
2022-04-14 new: Blastaball (Mastertronic) done by StingRay (Info)
2022-04-13 improved: Bundesliga Manager Professional / The Manager (Software 2000) Italian and English version (The Manager) supported (Info)
2022-04-12 improved: Round the Bend (Zeppelin) keyboard problems fixed, interrupt fixed, 68000 quitkey support, source code included (Info)
2022-04-10 improved: Crime Wave (U.S.Gold) patch works on 68000 machines, keyboard routine fixed, 68000 quitkey support, manual included (Info)
2022-04-10 improved: The Patrician / Der Patrizier (Ascon) runs with 512k chipmem (Info)
2022-04-10 fixed: Second Samurai (Psygnosis/Vivid Image) CD32 joypad support for AGA version fixed (broke in 1.3 update) (Info)
2022-04-10 improved: Assassin Special Edition (Team 17) jump with fire button 2 (Info)
2022-04-10 improved: Assassin (Team 17) jump with fire button 2 (Info)
2022-04-10 improved: Second Samurai (Psygnosis/Vivid Image) problem with sample player in OCS version fixed, fire 2/blue button defaults to jump, can be changed with CUSTOM5 (Info)
2022-04-10 improved: Operation Harrier (U.S.Gold) 68000 quitkey support (Info)

(snx)

[News message: 17. Apr. 2022, 07:21] [Comments: 0]
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17.Apr.2022
Amiga Future (Webseite) Event: Amiga37 homepage online
On 15/16 October 2022 the Amiga37 will take place in Mönchengladbach, Germany (amiga-news.de reported). Now the corresponding homepage has been set up under the title link, but the list of participants is still empty and will be published bit by bit. Advance ticket sales are expected to start next week. (snx)

[News message: 17. Apr. 2022, 07:21] [Comments: 0]
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17.Apr.2022
Hackster

Open Source 3D printer: SLS4All
Every now and then we report on do-it-yourself projects such as making your own joystick using a 3D printer. Not bad, you might say, but what's the point if I don't have a 3D printer? Especially not one that is even remotely affordable!

While not amiga-inspired, Tomas Starek may have had similar thoughts when he started his DIY project of his own affordable 3D printer. However, as he tells us, he was so surprised by the positive reactions from around the world that he decided to document his 'Open Source' project thoroughly and comprehensibly.

He chose the SLS printing process for this. As the portal hackster.io reports, there are currently no consumer SLS 3D printers on the market. The process involves beaming a laser at a bed of powdered polymer, which thereby melts it and turns it into a solid. As with other forms of 3D printing, the layers build up to form a three-dimensional object. Compared to other processes, it offers the advantage of generating bridges and overhanging geometry, he said. The print chamber is 175 X 175 X 200 mm in size.

For control, Starek chose a combination of BigTreeTech 1.4 Turbo control board and Raspberry Pi 4B, both running Klipper firmware.

The main goal of his project is to use the most "affordable" (initially: cheap) parts possible. The should be able to create complex prints and be user-friendly. We asked the developer what costs should ultimately be expected by an interested user who wants to build the 3D printer himself: he estimates about 2500 euros. At a later date, he could also imagine selling the printer as a finished, commercial product or as a kit for assembly. For now, however, it is a matter of finishing the development of the printer. And the current status looks like this:

DESIGN: Generic & Fusion 360 design 100%
Hardware Parts fabrication and Build: Frame & Moving Parts 98%
Electronic equipment installation: Laser, Galvo system, step motors, heaters 100%
Firmware And Software development: FW customization & F-e development 75%
Testing: Partial Tests, Complex testing, 3D printing 65%
Documentation: F3D, DXF & STL files, GitHub Repos, etc... 50%

(dr)

[News message: 17. Apr. 2022, 06:36] [Comments: 0]
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16.Apr.2022
Indie Retro News (Webseite) Jump'n Run: second playable demo of 'Creeping Me Out Hex Night'
Michael 'Mixel' Dawes provides another demo version of his jump'n run 'Creeping Me Out: Hex Night', created with the game construction kit Scorpion Engine. According to the developer, this second preview "adds a lot of improvements since the last time (no new levels or anything, just tweaks, graphical improvements, etc)". The game requires 2 MB of Chip and 1 MB of Fast RAM, and (presumably) a 68020 processor. (cg)

[News message: 16. Apr. 2022, 23:40] [Comments: 0]
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16.Apr.2022
a1k.org (Webseite) Hardware hack: A fifth audio channel for the Amiga
In an older blog entry, which can only be found in the web archive, a Norwegian describes how he uses the FBAS signal of his Amiga to output a fifth audio channel in addition to the four existing (stereo) channels. He uses the fact that bright and dark pixels are transmitted as different voltages on the video cable. A video demonstrates the principle in action. (cg)

[News message: 16. Apr. 2022, 22:29] [Comments: 0]
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16.Apr.2022 Modern decompressor for Amiga data compression formats: Ancient 2.0
Ancient' unpacks files compressed with Amiga "crunchers" like Powerpacker or similar. The program, written in portable C, supports a variety of known compression formats - among others all that the regular XPK distribution can unpack, as well as disk images in DiskMasher format ("DMS") and LhA archives. Source code and Windows executables can be found on Github, a MorphOS version has been published on im Aminet. (cg)

[News message: 16. Apr. 2022, 22:20] [Comments: 0]
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15.Apr.2022 Easter Egg in AmigaOS 3.2.1 discovered
AmigaOS 3.2.1 contains an Easter Egg, that much had been hinted at by members of the team. A user has now discovered it: The disk image Update3.2.1.adf has a folder 'T', which contains a file called 'ed-backup'. This executable file is a small demo with bouncing boing balls and a small text scroller. The user who discovered the Easter Egg posted a small description of the process including a screenshot of the demo on os4welt.de (registration required). (cg) (Translation: cg)

[News message: 15. Apr. 2022, 23:50] [Comments: 0]
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14.Apr.2022
Twitter Sound card ZZ9000AX: PDF manual and fixed axmp3 version
The ZZ9000AX is the sound module for the multifunctional Amiga expansion card ZZ9000. The delivery of the first batch began at the end of March (amiga-news.de reported).
Now the developer Lukas F. Hartmann has released both a PDF manual including schematics (direct download) and a new version of the axmp3 tool (direct download), which should reduce the risk of screen scribbling (Z3 only). Also, there would be sound output problems on some 68060 configurations. He would take care of this after his vacation next week. (dr)

[News message: 14. Apr. 2022, 06:13] [Comments: 0]
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13.Apr.2022
Twitter Shoot'em Up: SkillGrid 1.2
About three years ago, Simone 'saimo' Bevilacqua (e.g. BOH, Huenison) released his abstract, vertical shoot'em up SkillGrid (amiga-news.de reported).

In the meantime, the second update has been released, which further improves the game and provides a special 'PRESS PLAY ON TAPE' variant: a special version whose soundtrack is the rockin' tongue-in-cheek song "Man with the Gun" by the Commodore 64 revival band PRESS PLAY ON TAPE. (dr)

[News message: 13. Apr. 2022, 11:15] [Comments: 0]
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13.Apr.2022
OSnews Raspberry Pi: Development status of free firmware
'Raspberry Pi' computers require partially closed source software to boot - the so-called raspi-firmware package. But since its release 10 years ago, there have been efforts to make it bootable with open source software only. In a recent blog entry Gunnar Wolf describes how free firmware for the Raspberry is progressing. (dr)

[News message: 13. Apr. 2022, 09:18] [Comments: 0]
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13.Apr.2022 Print/PDF magazine: Komoda & Amiga plus #20 (English/Polish)
"Komoda & Amiga Plus" is dedicated to retro gamers and deals mainly with Commodore's 8-bit computers and Amigas. Among the topics of the current issue 20 (winter/spring) are game reviews on 'Shadowlands', 'Pacman', 'Incman', 'Dread' and 'Coco Banana' as well as the articles 'What is Amiga in 2022? Part 1' and 'A500 CPU replacement'.

The magazine is available in a printed edition inclusive Commodore 64/128 Coverdisk for 9,67 Euro (plus 5 Euro shipping), the price for the digital edition is 2,15 Euro. (dr)

[News message: 13. Apr. 2022, 06:53] [Comments: 0]
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12.Apr.2022

Programming Contest: Results of the BASIC 10Liner Contest 2022
The "BASIC 10Liner Contest" is a competition for self-written BASIC programs that have to consist of exactly 10 lines and has been organized since 2011 (amiga-news.de reported). Traditionally, the winners are announced during a live show, the "NOMAM" ("Not only marvelous Atari machinery"), an annual gathering of enthusiasts of the home computer era, which took place last weekend.

Even though there was no entry for Amiga-Basic this year, we don't want to withhold the first place winners in the individual categories from our interested readers and present them:

Expert's rating PUR-80: Snake Temple
Expert's rating PUR-120: Super Zombie Apocalypse Simulator
Expert's rating EXTREM-256: Dokoban
WILD: AlexK. Rock-Paper-Scissors
SCHAU: 8-bit Sunset
"PUBLIC'S CHOICE" 80: Tuneup
"PUBLIC'S CHOICE" 120: Bert
"PUBLIC'S CHOICE" 256: STOP THE micro EXPRESS

(dr)

[News message: 12. Apr. 2022, 08:53] [Comments: 0]
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12.Apr.2022 Playable demo of a commercial Arcade game: Yoomp
Just like Jump!, 'Yoomp' is a conversion of a Atari 8 bit release from 2007. A playable preview for OCS Amigas has been released a while ago, the game is going to be distributed commercially by RGCD. Further information about the project can be found in a thread on ppa.pl (machine translation). (cg) (Translation: cg)

[News message: 12. Apr. 2022, 00:10] [Comments: 0]
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11.Apr.2022

Italian print/PDF magazine: Passione Amiga, issue 6
The Italian magazine 'Passione Amiga' is available in digital (3 Euros) or printed (7.50 Euros) editions. The current issue has 36 colored pages (DIN A4) and covers the following topics:

Videogiochi: Attack of the Petscii Robots, Jump!, Ermentrud, The Lone Ranger, Silverman y la Isla Esmeralda, Drag’n’drop Deluxe
Parliamo con RetroGames Ltd a proposito di THEA500 Mini
From Vultures to Vampires primo volume – edizione italiana
Ian Hetherington (Psygnosis) e John Madden
AmigaOS 4.1 su PegasosII
Blender – transizioni audio e sottotitoli
Interviste con: Mevlut Dinc (Vivid Image), Colin Vella
E inoltre: Games news, Tech news, Scena demo, Nuovi Talenti, La Posta dei Lettori

(cg) (Translation: cg)

[News message: 11. Apr. 2022, 22:31] [Comments: 0]
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11.Apr.2022
a1k.org (Webseite) Scandoubler announcement: 'Medusa' converts video signals to VGA/DVI
The scandoubler Medusa accepts a composite, S-Video or RGB signal and converts it into proper VGA output, which is also converted into a digital signal available via a DVI-I connector. There is also an option to digitize an analog audio signal, combine it with the DVI output using an appropriate adapter and output the audio/video combination via HDMI.

Medusa is said to be much cheaper than the no longer manufactured 'FrameMeister' used to be, plus it accepts resolutions bigger than traditional PAL/NTSC - like the ones used by the Atari ST. In contrast to the Open Source Scan Converter, it supports composite and S-Video signals and is claimed to be easier to configure. The new scandoubler is supposed to be available for purchase starting in May, some dealers already accept preorders (RetroLemon, lotharek.pl). (cg) (Translation: cg)

[News message: 11. Apr. 2022, 22:21] [Comments: 0]
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11.Apr.2022
Robert Smith Video: DrawBridge for MiSTer in development
Robert Smith's project 'DrawBridge' (Disk Reader and Writer Bridge) uses a microcontroller - in this case an Arduino board - to read and write Amiga floppy disks with a standard PC disk drive connected. After successfully implementing this project, the developer explores in his latest video the possibilities of transferring this to the FPGA Amiga clone MISTer as well. (dr)

[News message: 11. Apr. 2022, 18:45] [Comments: 0]
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11.Apr.2022
Carlos Peris (Mail)

Game Construction Kit: RedPill 0.9.8 with WHDLoad support
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.

The new version 0.9.8 mainly offers some improvements when creating the build: now it is possible to generate automatically a WHDload package which could make distribution easier and also allows the game running on the new THEA500 Mini (see YouTube video). Also, you can choose to compress the game assets, making the build smaller, more suitable when distributing it via floppy. Besides that some minor improvements and a lot of fixes are included. Full Changelog:

WHDLoad support when exporting the game, creating a lha package (LHA and WHDLoad required in C:)
Check instructions in the readme file to run games on The A500 Mini
All image and audio assets can now be compressed when exporting the game (Build button)
New action trigger Orbitate Parent to have and object orbitate another one
Spritesheets and tilesets can be deleted if no longer used
Improved IFF ILBM compatibility for compressed graphics
A bit of rollback to some chip memory optimizations to make the games more stable
In level edit screen scrolls will scroll twice as fast for faster navigation
All exe's are now compiled using latest Amiblitz3.9
HUD texts are using color 1 by default to avoid using the same default background colors
In tileset screen when the tile image file is not valid it will be shown in red
Fix in Autoslice
Fix for projects not using any tileSet
Fix for some random crashes

(dr)

[News message: 11. Apr. 2022, 06:07] [Comments: 0]
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11.Apr.2022

Aminet uploads until 09.04.2022
The following files have been added until 09.04.2022 to Aminet:

Ghetto_Crew.lha          demo/ecs   331K  68k Ocean Floor demo for GERP2022...
void-dreams37.zip        demo/misc  537K  68k Demopack - April 2022
F1GP2022Carset.lha       game/data  7K        2022 Carset for F1GP
Exult_RTG.lha            game/role  50M   68k Amiga port of Ultima 7 (Exult)
CitadelRemonstered.lha   game/shoot 3.9M  68k Citadel Remonstered
Gotcha199.lha            game/think 78K   68k Pair two numbers to get the 1...
Oz_Game.lha              game/think 27K   68k Logic game based on David Par...
WhatIFF1.04.lha          mags/misc  674K      What IFF? #1.04-March-2022
AmiArcadia.lha           misc/emu   4.4M  68k Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiArcadiaMOS.lha        misc/emu   4.7M  MOS Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiArcadia-OS4.lha       misc/emu   4.9M  OS4 Signetics-based machines emul...
pccard.lha               util/libs  56K   68k Library to parse PCMCIA infor...
ADiffView.lha            util/misc  122K  68k Graphical ASCII file compare/...
WHDLoadMenu.lha          util/misc  483K  68k A WHDLoad frontend
Anno.lha                 util/time  327K  68k Reminder and calendar utility

(snx)

[News message: 11. Apr. 2022, 00:18] [Comments: 0]
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11.Apr.2022

OS4Depot uploads until 09.04.2022
The following files have been added until 09.04.2022 to OS4Depot:

amiarcadia.lha           emu/gam 5Mb   4.0 Signetics-based machines emulator
jasspa-memacs.lha        uti/tex 2Mb   4.1 JASSPA MicroEmacs under AmiCygni...

(snx)

[News message: 11. Apr. 2022, 00:18] [Comments: 0]
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11.Apr.2022

AROS Archives uploads until 09.04.2022
The following files have been added until 09.04.2022 to AROS Archives:

nmtm.lzx                     gam/adv 26Mb  Point and click adventure game

(snx)

[News message: 11. Apr. 2022, 00:18] [Comments: 0]
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11.Apr.2022

MorphOS-Storage uploads until 09.04.2022
The following files have been added until 09.04.2022 to MorphOS-Storage:

MirrorCopy_2.5.lha        Files/Tools               A clone of MirrorCopy b...
Symmetrix_1.0.lha         System/Ambient/Blankers   Screen Blanker for MorphOS
Uptime_1.5a.lha           System/Ambient/Screenbar  Display Uptime in scree...

(snx)

[News message: 11. Apr. 2022, 00:18] [Comments: 0]
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11.Apr.2022

WHDLoad: New installers until 09.04.2022
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 09.04.2022:

2022-04-09 improved: SAS Combat Simulator (Code Masters) 68000 quitkey support, manual included (Info)
2022-04-09 improved: Legend of the Lost (Impressions) keyboard problems on 68000 machines fixed, manual included (Info)
2022-04-08 improved: Dan Dare 3 (Speed Buggy) keyboard problems on 68000 machines fixed, manual included (Info)
2022-04-07 improved: Data Storm (Visionary Design) added joypad controls & trainer, fixed keyboard, 68000 quitkey, added manual (Info)
2022-04-06 improved: Dungeon Master 2: The Legend of Skullkeep (Interplay) AGA flag removed, use less memory, trainers and solution added, install script updated (Info)
2022-04-05 improved: Operation Harrier (U.S.Gold) CD32 joypad support added, byte write to volume register fixed, default quitkey changed to Del, interrupts fixed (Info)
2022-04-04 improved: Last Ninja 3 (System 3) level code can be entered with CD32 joypad buttons (REVERSE/FORWARD), latest joypad reading code used (Info)
2022-04-04 improved: Lure of the Temptress (Virgin) fixed spurious delay/button click, restart now works (Info)
2022-04-04 new: Green Beret (Dante Retro Dev) done by JOTD (Info)
2022-04-04 improved: Desert Strike (Electronic Arts) support for 512k chip, sound fixed (Info)
2022-04-03 improved: Second Samurai (Psygnosis/Vivid Image) 68000/NoVBRMove quitkey support (Info)
2022-04-03 updated: Ninja Remix (System 3) patch redone, trainer options added, CD32 joypad support, 68000 quitkey support, source code included (Info)

(snx)

[News message: 11. Apr. 2022, 00:18] [Comments: 0]
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10.Apr.2022 Prototype: A-Pet - PET/CBM inspired metal case for Amiga or PC
An Amiga fan from England is working on a metall case inspired by the PET/CBM series from Commodore. Thanks to different backplates, the "A-Pet" will be able to house a generic PC motherboard or various Amiga models. While the proportions will be similar, the case is not an exact match of the original PET cases: It's not using a 9 or 12 inch monitor but offers a 14 or 17 inch display. And regular Amiga keyboards would be too wide for a standard PET case anyway.

Currently, the designer is working on a first prototype, he's reporting his progress in an Amiga forum regularly. The project's current state is also illustrated in a Video. The A-Pet is laser cut from metal sheets which are then folded like a sheet of construction paper. The designer plans to sell finished, powder coated cases to end users. (cg) (Translation: cg)

[News message: 10. Apr. 2022, 23:28] [Comments: 0]
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09.Apr.2022

AmigaGuide magazine: Issue 4 of 'WhatIFF?' published
WhatIFF? is an Amiga magazine in AmigaGuide format. Unlike other magazines or journals, WhatIFF? does not deal with games, but is mainly intended for users who want to be creative with their Amigas.

As Timo Paul, the creator of the magazine, told us, his original motivation for the magazine was to create something similar to Amiga World, Amazing Amiga and Amiga Report: "There is a lot of software that people want to use but the guides are not there and WhatIFF? offers a helping hand to those who want to use creative software such as Lightwave and Brilliance. As the magazine grows with writers I hope to offer more guides on other software. In addition each issue offers tutorials on how to fix your Amiga, update, or use in unique ways."

Topics of issue 4:

Reviews: AmiGemini, AmiKit Pi, USB mouse adapters, firmware update of TerribleFire 1260 accelerator board
Guides: Second part of Lightwave 3.5 tutorial, tutorial for Brilliance, tutorial for OctaMED, fixing an Invidision AGAMk2cr, creating a Gemini Capsule
Interview: Chris Edwards (PiMiga)

(dr)

[News message: 09. Apr. 2022, 09:01] [Comments: 0]
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09.Apr.2022
Arne Urbaniak (E-Mail)

Amiga disks on PC: Copy program G-Copy 0.2
After the release of A-Copy, a program similar to X-Copy for reading and writing ADF disk images under Windows using the ADF drive hardware, Arne Urbaniak now is in the process of writing 'G-Copy', a corresponding application for the Greaseweazle (amiga-news.de reported).

In version 0.2 the checking of DOSDISK and the determination of the name of the floppy disk is improved. In addition, minor bugs have been fixed and BAMcopy now works.

Download: gcopy.zip (30 MB) (dr)

[News message: 09. Apr. 2022, 07:54] [Comments: 0]
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09.Apr.2022 Emulator: vAmigaWeb v2.0 Beta 2
vAmigaWeb is an Amiga emulator for the web browser or a Progressive Web App (PWA) based on the Amiga emulator for MacOS, vAmiga. Parallel to the current update of the Amiga emulator, the developer 'mithrendal' has also updated his application with the latest vAmigaCore and fixed a few minor bugs. (dr)

[News message: 09. Apr. 2022, 07:15] [Comments: 0]
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09.Apr.2022

Amiga emulator for MacOS: vAmiga 2.0 Beta 3 (update)
Yesterday Dirk Hoffmann released the second beta version of vAmiga 2.0 of his Amiga emulator for MacOS which is currently under development (amiga-news.de reported). Changes:

Bug fixes:

Fixed a graphics bug caused by returning an erroneous value from DENISEID
Several smaller GUI tweaks

Enhancements:

Added support for the debug board implemented by @mras0
Improved HDF geometry prediction
A new write-through mode makes hard drives persistent
Added several new debugging features:

Catchpoints (stops emulation on CPU exceptions)
Software traps
Copper breakpoints and Copper watchpoints
Rudimentary callstack recording

The minimum system requirement is macOS 10.15.

Update: (11.04.2022, 06:28, dr)

Meanwhile beta version 3 was released.

Bug fixes:

Fixed a bug that caused the emulator to crash during startup on some machines
Drag and drop was broken for drives other than Df0 and Hd0

Enhancements:

Hard drive controller is now compatible with Kickstart 1.2
Status bar icon reports the initialisation state of the HD controller
New app icon

(dr)

[News message: 09. Apr. 2022, 07:13] [Comments: 1 - 11. Apr. 2022, 06:30]
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08.Apr.2022
Void Demopack: Issue 37 of 'Dreams' released
Void is an Amiga demo group that has been active since 1995. Its members come from different parts of the world: United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Finland, United States, Greece, Switzerland and South Africa. Yesterday they released the 37th issue of their demo pack Dreams for AGA-Amigas. (dr)

[News message: 08. Apr. 2022, 09:37] [Comments: 0]
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08.Apr.2022
Indiegogo Illustrated book: 'Demoscene - The AGA Years' near completion
About a year ago, the first illustrated book about the demoscene, 'Demoscene - The Amiga Years', was completed, covering the years 1984 to 1993. The second part, 'Demoscene - The AGA Years', which is dedicated to the years 1994 to 1996, has also been crowdfunded. In an update published yesterday, the publishers announced that after some delay not only the content of the book has been written, but also the work on the layout and design of the 468 pages has been completed. Now the proofreading is still pending.

Those who did not participate in the crowdfunding can pre-order the book from the French publisher for 35 Euros. (dr)

[News message: 08. Apr. 2022, 09:12] [Comments: 0]
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08.Apr.2022

Diskmag: Jurassic Pack #19, last issue for now
After a 12-year break, the 18th issue of the English-language diskmag 'Jurassic Pack', first published in 1995, was released in January 2021 (amiga-news.de reported). Editor Lars 'Ghandy' Sobiraj has now published the 19th issue and announces in the editorial that this might be the last one for good.

They would have spent more time chasing people and their promises in the last few weeks than getting creative themselves. This included two intros, several interviews, promised support in the form of articles and much more. And if there is no response even to multiple requests, he can only understand that as disinterest. He laments not only the waste of time, but also the demoralizing effect. In addition, the three-person editorial team would crumble apart peu à peu. Likewise, he would not have expected the ever dwindling interest in Diskmags at the time of the relaunch. The fact is, however, that in contrast to 20 years ago, many people nowadays get their information from forums or podcasts. That's why they're now taking a break and we'll see if the joy and desire returns. The content of the 19th issue:

three background songs
Report on 'Deadline 2021 Party'
Report on 'Polish Summer 2021 Party'
Interview with the organizer of 'The Party'
Introduction of musicdisk Cheesy Listening
Interview with Jochen 'Virgill' Feldkötter (Amiga musician, programmer of scene intros for Windows, developer of demo tools like 'AmigaKlang'
Interview with group 'Abyss' (demos, demo tools, games, e.g. Wong Way Driver)
Interview with demo groups 'The Union' and 'Overlanders', creators of the demo 'FirST Love' (AtariST)
Article on "Proper productions releases management"
Interview with programmer 'Sim' about the Amiga demo 'Voyage', created by 'Razor 1911'
Introduction of eleven everlasting music productions
Report on the local demo scene in south Denmark
Interview with the demo musician Peter 'Mr. Pet' Cukierski
Interview with the British Amiga programmer 'Galahad' (Fairlight, Scoopex)
Interview with Fredrik 'Gnilk' Kling, member of the demo group 'Noice'
Article: "Why diskmags have totally gone out of fashion"
Article: "Groups are redunant anno domini 2022"
Artikel: "Are really all maineditors loudmouths?"
Article: "This is why Sceners keep the Scene spirit alive"
Article: "How the upgrading madness (nearly) killed the Scene"
Article: "'Sofasceners'- Scening from home"
Prologue

(dr)

[News message: 08. Apr. 2022, 05:43] [Comments: 0]
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07.Apr.2022
amigaworld.net (Webseite) Amiga Games, Inc. sells Amiga NFTs to fund blockchain development
"Amiga Games, Inc." (AGI) was a spin-off of Amiga, Inc. founded by Bill McEwen in 2013 to continue the last remaining line of business: selling (emulated) Amiga game classics for mobile platforms. AGI was taken over by the Writers Group almost immediately after it was founded - whose shares were already available on the stock exchange for a few hundredths of a cent at that time.

Although there was initially talk of hundreds of Amiga titles that were to be brought to various mobile platforms - the range of around a dozen titles and the Blackberry as the only supported platform never changed. Almost two years later, the offer had to be completely discontinued as the license received from the new owner of the Amiga rights expired at the end of March 2015.

AGI's official website has never featured much more than an animated boingball in all these years (Web Archive), but at the end of March, amigagamesinc.com was completely overhauled: There is talk of a "relaunch", the "resurrection of old games" and the "ultimate mobile platform for playing your favorite retro games". Interested parties can invest in this project in advance in order to have a "say" in the development of the platform and the selection of titles.

This investment is made by purchasing so-called NFTs. The tokens offered by AGI are graphics related to games such as Dune or Rocket Ranger, which are available at a unit price of USD 250. The income generated in this way will be used to finance the development of the "Retro Infinity Player" - i.e. the software engine with which AGI intends to bring retro classics to various modern platforms. The only information about the Retro Player that can be found on the website is the statement that it is "Blockchain based" und already in development.

There is no imprint to be found on the site, and according to the Terms & Conditions, which are over 60 pages long on our computer, amigagamesinc.com is an offer from Active World Club. The latter's website does not contain any content either and just announces an imminent "Reboot". According to the company's own Twitter channel, the cryptocurrency "Active World Rewards Token" (AWRT) currently appears to be AWC's main area of business.

Editor's note: "Blockchain", "NFT" and "cryptocurrency" are the very buzzwords that have been used for several years now in a constant attempt to entice investors and private investors to make speculative purchases. That someone at Amiga Games Inc. is really working on the development of a retro player can probably be ruled out - quite apart from the fact that an allegedly "blockchain-based" retro player makes no sense whatsoever. (cg) (Translation: cg)

[News message: 07. Apr. 2022, 16:33] [Comments: 0]
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07.Apr.2022
Indie Retro News (Webseite) New maps for a classic Dungeon Crawler: Blackest Crypt
Raven's 1992 Dungeon Crawler Black Crypt just got five new dungeons developed by a fan of the game. The mission pack is called "Blackest Crypt", changes only the levels while the story stays the same and works with both a WHDLoad install and the disk version of the original game.

Direct download: BlackestCrypt010.lha (74 KB) (cg) (Translation: cg)

[News message: 07. Apr. 2022, 02:16] [Comments: 0]
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07.Apr.2022
Andreas Magerl (ANF) Print magazine: issue 135 of Amiga Future readable free of charge
The German and Englisch editions of 'Amiga Future' issue 135 (November/December 2018) can now be read for free on the magazine's website. Remainders of the physical issue as well as PDF files at a higher resolution are available from the publisher. (cg)

[News message: 07. Apr. 2022, 01:56] [Comments: 0]
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06.Apr.2022
Erik Hogan (Mail) Game Construction Kit: Scorpion Engine V2022.2, video series
The "Scorpion Engine" by Erik 'earok' Hogan is supposed to allow the development of games. The engine itself is closed source, but all included demos and demo games are open source. The editor itself runs under Windows. Graphics are imported as PNG files, for level creation the editor Tiled is used. For sounds, music and animations Amiga formats (mod, 8svx, anim5) are used.

Today version 2022.2 was released, which among other things adds the ability to create custom masks and provides improved string support and save and load functions.

In addition, the developer is working on a video series with Michael Parent from BitBeamCannon (e.g. DaemonClaw, Metro Siege). The game studio is currently developing a new game for the A500 with the help of Scorpion Enginee, using features such as parallax and translucency in four-bit plane mode. The collaborative video series about this game is not intended to be a tutorial for creating a game from scratch, but rather a documentation of the steps involved in creating this game, providing tips and tricks for Scorpion beginners and veterans alike. Michael Parent has released the first video, which shows the process of setting up a new project and implementing layer parallax. The second and third videos will follow in the next few days. (dr)

[News message: 06. Apr. 2022, 21:52] [Comments: 0]
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06.Apr.2022
Artur Jarosik (Patreon)

Real-time strategy: Vanilla Conquer V0.98
Artur Jarosik is known for various game ports like the platformer Hydra Castle Labyrinth or the action adventure Heart of Darkness, besides his SDL implementation of the browser NetSurf. Now he is porting the first part of the real-time strategy series Command & Conquer to the Amiga and named it "Vanilla Conquer".

Since our last message, the developer has made some fixes to the game and yesterday released version 0.98:

Replaced Speech.mix with one adding "Repairing" speech in Repair Bay
Fixed memory trash with damaged buildings
Fixed repairing of vehicles on Repair Bay
Fixed : music wouldn't stop in some cases on v4

The game is primarily intended for Amigas upgraded with an Apollo processor, especially the V4 series. However, as the author explained to us, it might be playable on a 68060 processor with a graphics card with the music and sound effects turned off.

If you want to support the author, you can do so on his Patreon website. (dr)

[News message: 06. Apr. 2022, 06:18] [Comments: 0]
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06.Apr.2022
deadwood (Mail)

Porting Amiga applications to Linux: AxRuntime 41.2
Krzysztof 'deadwood' Śmiechowicz's "AxRuntime" is a runtime environment for Linux which emulates the AmigaOS-API and therefore enables porting Amiga applications on Linux and developing applications which can be compiled for AmigaOS/MorphOS/AROS as well as Linux. Examples videos show the AROS desktop Wanderer (MP4) and gmPlayer (MP4) under Linux.

Now the developer has released version 41.2, which provides, among other things, the following changes:

AROS-Shell, an AmigaDOS-compatible Shell, is now available for you as a native Linux program. You can write DOS scripts and use shell commands to interact with Linux filesystem.
AxRuntime becomes a bridge between AROS x86_64 and Linux by allowing running native AROS programs as standalone Linux programs. In this function AxRuntime is similar to Wine. Wine allows running Windows programs on Linux, AxRuntime allows running AROS programs on Linux.

This release comes with 4 applications: AROS-Shell, MPlayer, WookieChat and Final Writer 7 (demo). Additionally AROS x86_64 applications like MUIbase can also be used. (dr)

[News message: 06. Apr. 2022, 06:00] [Comments: 0]
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05.Apr.2022
pikewerfer (forum) MorphOS: Free fonts package (also for AmigaOS)
Monotype employee 'pikewerfer', with permission from his superiors, has put together a free font pack that can be "bought" for 0 Euros under the title link. The "MorphOS Value Pack" contains ten different types, including their variants (italic, bold, etc.) there are 27 fonts.

The license of these OpenType fonts also includes AmigaOS, as far as their use is technically possible there. The creator would be pleased about feedback. (snx)

[News message: 05. Apr. 2022, 22:01] [Comments: 0]
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05.Apr.2022

Introduction video: Checkmate displays 1089s and 1087s
Following his two Kickstarter campaigns to fund the Checkmate A1500 Plus- and Checkmate 1500 Mini cases, Stephen Jones is now planning a third campaign to fund monitors for retro computers.

In a video, he introduces his project showing prototypes. Key data:

Size: default is 19", if second stretch goal is reached then there will be a 17"
Ratio 5:4 (1280x1024 panel)
Ports:

Input: HDMI, VGA, composite video, interlace component input, AV1 and AV2
Output: speaker, composite (streaming)
Front panel: Front USB only if you add a front panel and wire them up, default will be a blank user panel waiting for customisation

3D printed prototypes, later injection molded version (reason for Kickstarter campaign)
side speakers
Using the Gbscontrol firmware for the 'GBS-8200' video converter as optional add on, not standard.

(dr)

[News message: 05. Apr. 2022, 12:03] [Comments: 0]
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04.Apr.2022
McGeezer Preview video: Kung Fu action 'Devil's Temple'
Devil's Temple features 10 stages of intense arcade kung fu action based on the classic Irem games Kung Fu Master and Vigilante. Over 300 frames of animation were packed into the game and every cycle of performance was used on the Amiga A500. The game will adapt to upgrades, so additional chip ram will result in better music, AGA will provide additional colors and a greater variety of enemies in the game.

Today a new preview video for the game was released which is in development. It can already be pre-ordered as a boxed edition. A demo version of the first stage is also available on itch.io. (dr)

[News message: 04. Apr. 2022, 22:26] [Comments: 0]
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04.Apr.2022

MorphOS: Symmetrix Blanker V1.0
Yesterday the #amigazeux team has released the Symmetrix screenblanker for MorphOS. It draws shapes like circles, stars and ribbons across symmetry-axes all over the screen producing (most times) multicoloured art. MorphOS 2.0 or higher and TinyGL required.

Download: Symmetrix.lha (71 kB) (dr)

[News message: 04. Apr. 2022, 20:01] [Comments: 0]
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04.Apr.2022
Prince (Mail) Video tutorial: Episode 29 of assembler coding course
'Prince', founder of the demo group 'Phaze101', is currently streaming the assembler programming course "Corso completo di programmazione assembler in due dischi" in English on Twitch and uploads the respective episodes time-delayed to YouTube. Now episode 29 was published. (dr)

[News message: 04. Apr. 2022, 17:08] [Comments: 0]
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04.Apr.2022

AmiGameJam 2022: The winners
Last night, during a live show at AmigaBill, the winners of this year's AmiGameJam contest were chosen:

1. 1st place: the amiga port of Konami's vertically scrolling shooter Knightmare written by 'Hoffman' and Toni Gálvez.
2nd place: Jean-François Fabre's Pacman clone MsPacman 500.
3rd place: 'Dante's' conversion of Konami's arcade classic of the same name, Green Beret.

Congratulations! (dr)

[News message: 04. Apr. 2022, 06:17] [Comments: 0]
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03.Apr.2022
(ANF) Pre-order: New Amiga mechanical USB keyboard
Simulant Systems Ltd is a computer hardware, software and online IT support service provider based in York, United Kingdom. Today it was announced that production of Amiga USB mechanical keyboards will be started.

Amiga Corporation's first officially licensed mechanical USB PC keyboard features Brown Cherry MX keyswitches, Amiga-style sublimation printed keycap characters, green LED status indicators and injection-molded case. With limited availability, the keyboard can be pre-ordered for around 120 Euros plus 38 Euros for the corresponding international keycaps. (dr)

[News message: 03. Apr. 2022, 17:04] [Comments: 0]
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03.Apr.2022 Video: All about MiSTer FPGA
The YouTube channel 'My Life in Gaming' has published a video that goes into detail about the MiSTer FPGA board: what is needed, how to set it up, which consoles, computers, handhelds or arcade cores are supported. Supposedly worth watching even for long-time users. (dr)

[News message: 03. Apr. 2022, 16:22] [Comments: 0]
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03.Apr.2022
OSnews Overview: The world of non-C operating systems
As an online portal, The Register provides news and analysis from the world of technology companies. In a recent article, the authors explore the question of what current commercial operating systems exist that were written before C was invented or that do not use the C programming language at any level or layer.

They explain that the Basic Combined Programming Language (BCPL), a compiled, system-oriented programming language developed by Martin Richards in 1966 and first implemented at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the spring of 1967 (cf. Wikipedia entry) , was by no means just an insignificant transitional step, since it was used in two famous operating systems: so also in the TRIPOS operating system, which was later used as the original basis of AmigaOS.

Furthermore, an overview of programming languages and OSes based on them is given, for example Lisp with the OS Mezzano, Interim or ChrysaLisp. (dr)

[News message: 03. Apr. 2022, 16:04] [Comments: 0]
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03.Apr.2022

Programming language: AmiBlitz 3.9.1
A week ago, version 3.9.0 of the programming language AmiBlitz was released. Now version 3.9.1 fixes some bugs:

fixed crash when no source was loaded by default
fixed crash when trying to open a second instance of AB3 with "clone wb"-option
fixed Enforcer hits when inserting a new source line
fixed crash on MorphOS when loading a source
fixed misworking FPU-detection on 68060 systems

(dr)

[News message: 03. Apr. 2022, 10:27] [Comments: 0]
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03.Apr.2022
Patrick Nevian (Mail)

Chris Hülsbeck songs: Album "Piano Collection II" released
Patrick Nevian is a hobby programmer responsible for games like Ambermoon Arcade or the 'Tales of Gorluth' series. He first combined his hobby and his profession as a music producer and pianist in 2008, when he interpreted songs from various Amiga games on the piano and released them as a free album.
The musician Chris Hülsbeck, well-known for his soundtracks for the Amiga games Apidya, Turrican or Rainbows, among others, became aware of this and released the album 'The Piano Collection' with the pianist in 2015 after a successful Kickstarter campaign.

Following a survey conducted in 2020 as to which Huelsbeck titles should be included on another album, Patrick Nevian has now released Chris Huelsbeck The Piano Collection - Volume II: The Players Choice, which can be ordered as a CD for €29.00 free shipping. Title List:

Apidya: War at Meadow's Edge
The Great Giana Sisters: Ingame music
X-Out: Main theme
Z-Out: Main theme
Jim Power: Main theme
Gem'Z: Credits
The Apprentice: Main theme
Turrican: Victory
Turrican II: Freedom
Grand Monster Slam: Main theme
Tunnel B1: opening music
Rock N Roll: Music from level 1
Turrican I bis III: Medley of main themes
Turrican II: The Wall
Turrican III: Medley from level 1 and 2
Madness: Main theme
The Adventures of Quik & Silva: Ingame medley
Two bonus tracks

(dr)

[News message: 03. Apr. 2022, 07:47] [Comments: 0]
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03.Apr.2022

Aminet uploads until 02.04.2022
The following files have been added until 02.04.2022 to Aminet:

Artstate-Loopback.zip    demo/sound 24K   68k 32Kb executable music for GER...
vbcc_PosixLib.lha        dev/c      366K      POSIX compatibility library f...
zlib_S1212.lha           dev/c      1.0M  WOS ZLib 1.2.12 StormGCC link lib...
BeebAsm.lha              dev/cross  733K  MOS Assembler with BBC Micro styl...
atto.lha                 dev/gg     302K  MOS Atto Emacs is inspired by Mic...
MuManual.lha             docs/misc  945K  68k mmu.lib: examples, includes, ...
SAGADriver.lha           driver/oth 289K  68k SAGA Driver Package
spacecadetpinball-aos... game/actio 5.1M  OS4 SpaceCadetPinball
spikedislike.lha         game/actio 41K   68k Endless disliking of spikes
Exult_RTG.lha            game/role  50M   68k Amiga port of Ultima 7 (Exult)
PrBoom.lha               game/shoot 848K  68k Amiga port of PrBoom (DOOM)
webptools122_a68k.lha    gfx/conv   2.4M  68k encode/decode images in WebP ...
webptools122_aros.lha    gfx/conv   3.6M  x86 encode/decode images in WebP ...
AmiArcadiaMOS.lha        misc/emu   4.7M  MOS Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiVms.lha               misc/emu   3.3M  68k Simulates OpenVMS commands
MuEVD.lha                misc/emu   150K  68k MuLib driven ShapeShifter vid...
ptplayer.lha             mus/play   31K   68k ProTracker player w/ support ...
JFIFdt44.lha             util/dtype 674K  68k fast JFIF (JPEG) picture data...
IconLib_46.4.lha         util/libs  1.1M  68k free icon.library in optimize...
MMULib.lha               util/libs  747K  68k Library to ctrl the MC68K MMUs
exutil_68k.lha           util/wb    1.3M  68k Batch renames picture files b...
exutil_AROS.lha          util/wb    1.5M  x86 Batch renames picture files b...
exutil_MOS.lha           util/wb    1.5M  MOS Batch renames picture files b...
exutil_OS4.lha           util/wb    1.8M  OS4 Batch renames picture files b...

(snx)

[News message: 03. Apr. 2022, 07:44] [Comments: 0]
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03.Apr.2022

OS4Depot uploads until 02.04.2022
The following files have been added until 02.04.2022 to OS4Depot:

vasmm68k_mot.lha         dev/cro 237kb 4.0 Portable and retargetable assembler
vasmm68k_std.lha         dev/cro 231kb 4.0 Portable and retargetable assembler
vasmppc_std.lha          dev/cro 197kb 4.0 Portable and retargetable assembler
vbcc.lha                 dev/cro 3Mb   4.0 Optimizing ISO C compiler, PPC/A...
vbcc_libs.lha            dev/cro 188kb 4.0 Compiler target AmigaOS 4.x PowerPC
vbcc_posixlib.lha        dev/lib 366kb 4.0 POSIX compatibility library for ...
spacecadetpinball.lha    gam/act 5Mb   4.1 SpaceCadetPinball ported to Amig...
nmtm.lzx                 gam/adv 26Mb  4.0 Point and click adventure game
devinfosng.lha           uti/mis 1Mb   4.1 Nearly all about the aos4.1 hard...
exutil.lha               uti/mis 2Mb   4.0 An exif based batch renamer
jasspa-memacs.lha        uti/tex 2Mb   4.1 JASSPA MicroEmacs under AmiCygni...

(snx)

[News message: 03. Apr. 2022, 07:44] [Comments: 0]
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03.Apr.2022

AROS Archives uploads until 02.04.2022
The following files have been added until 02.04.2022 to AROS Archives:

breaker.i386-aros.zip        gam/mis 548kb Arkanoid clone
exutil_aros.lha              gra/mis 2Mb   An exif based batch renamer pict...

(snx)

[News message: 03. Apr. 2022, 07:44] [Comments: 0]
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03.Apr.2022

MorphOS-Storage uploads until 02.04.2022
The following files have been added until 02.04.2022 to MorphOS-Storage:

vbcc_PosixLib_3.0.lha     Development/C             POSIX compatibility lib...
BeebAsm_1.09.lha          Development/Cross         Assembler with BBC Micr...
Atto_1.22.lha             Development/GeekGadgets   Atto Emacs is inspired ...
AmiArcadia_28.4.lha       Emulation                 A Signetics-based machi...
GrafX2_2.8.lha            Graphics/Draw             GrafX2 version 2.8, SDL...
Exutil_1.1.2.lha          Graphics/Tools            A small MUI based utili...
FFmpeg_4.4.1.lha          Multimedia                FFmpeg is a collection ...
MouseEyes_1.4.lha         System/Ambient/Screenbar  Displays Mouse Eyes in ...
Uptime_1.5.lha            System/Ambient/Screenbar  Display Uptime in scree...

(snx)

[News message: 03. Apr. 2022, 07:44] [Comments: 0]
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03.Apr.2022

WHDLoad: New installers until 02.04.2022
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 02.04.2022:

2022-04-01 updated: Second Samurai (Psygnosis/Vivid Image) patch redone, annoying control bug in main menu fixed, 24-bit problems fixed, lots of trainer options added, CD32 joypad support, highscore load/save, source code included (Info)

(snx)

[News message: 03. Apr. 2022, 07:44] [Comments: 0]
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02.Apr.2022
Twitter

Graphics card ZZ9000: New firmware version 1.10
Lukas F. Hartmann's ZZ9000 is a graphics card with additional features and ports (network, USB, SD cards), which can be preordered in different versions (amiga-news.de reported).

Yesterday the new firmware version 1.10 was released providing the following improvements and new features compared to version 1.9:

Adds support for the ZZ9000AX audio expansion with native 48000Hz, Stereo s16i playback and capture. Capture is not yet supported by driver/tools.
Adds AHI driver for ZZ9000AX. Please note that only very fast Amigas can mix 48kHz audio through AHI. If you have a 020 or 030, it's best to use 24kHz for AHI.
Adds MP3 decoding support on an ARM core of ZZ9000 powered by minimp3.
The tool axmp3 in the drivers package demonstrates direct MP3 playback at 48kHz, with very low Amiga CPU usage (not using AHI). The tool is Open Source.
C code refactor splits out many modules from ZZ9000OS main.c for better maintainability

According to the developer "the plan is to ship out the bulk of ZZ9000AX batch 1 orders next week, which is supported by this firmware." (dr)

[News message: 02. Apr. 2022, 17:45] [Comments: 0]
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02.Apr.2022
Discord

Amiga emulator: Amiberry 5.0
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.

Yesterday, version 5.0 was released, which, among other numerous bug fixes and improvements, improves the auto-crop function. The most important changes:

Updated Display panel help, with info about Auto-Crop
Updated version date
Auto-Crop: Only change Height in DMX approach, to avoid possible problems with width
Updated version date
Auto-Crop: improved minimum width calculation, for both LowRes and HighRes modes
Remove floppydrivebridge library from pipelines, as it's now part of Amiberry
Updated version date
Fixed Auto-Crop assigned to custom control
Fixed #923: when auto-crop is enabled, auto-fix options that cause trouble
Fixed incorrect Aspect Ratio when using Auto Crop

(dr)

[News message: 02. Apr. 2022, 06:28] [Comments: 0]
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01.Apr.2022

MorphOS: Screenbar-Plugin MouseEyes 1.4
The #amigazeux team has updated the screenbar plugin 'MouseEyes', that displays eyes in the screen title looking at and following the mouse pointer, to version 1.4 for MorphOS. Changes:

The pupils of the eyes are now only shown on the active screen. On all other screens running an instance of Mouseeyes, the pupils are hidden. This also has the side effect that one can easily spot the active screen based on existing pupils in case of a multi-monitor setup.
Now comes with a real Installer script courtesy of InstallerGen by Rob Cranley.

(dr)

[News message: 01. Apr. 2022, 06:13] [Comments: 0]
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31.Mar.2022
Amiga Future (website) Do it yourself: A500KB - a mechanical keyboard for the Amiga 500
Henryk Richter's project A500KB is a mechanical keyboard for the Amiga 500 which can be mounted with either the original keys of the Amiga 2000/3000/4000, the A1200.net replicas or keys from Mitsumi, Cherry and KailH, respectively.

For Power, Drive and Caps-Lock LEDs he uses RGB LEDs, with their colour being configurable by an AmigaOS programm. (snx)

[News message: 31. Mar. 2022, 14:36] [Comments: 0]
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31.Mar.2022
Amiga Future (website) Do it yourself: MicroSD interface for the Parallel Port
Based on the design concept by Niklas Ekström, 'RetroNynjah' has published his "Retroninja Amiga Parallel SD" project at the title link. It allows to use microSD cards via the Amiga's Parallel Port. Since the latter does not include a power source, this has to be supplied using a USB connector. (snx)

[News message: 31. Mar. 2022, 14:25] [Comments: 0]
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31.Mar.2022
Amiga Future (website) Emulator: vAmigaWeb 2.0 Beta 1 Update 3
The Amiga emulator vAmigaWeb is based on vAmiga for Mac OS and runs in the web-browser and as a Progressive Web App (PWA) on mobile devices, respectively (amiga-news.de reported).

Despite the rather small update suggested by its version number, its current release now also supports Amiga harddrive files (.hdf), which also works when they are compressed in a ZIP file. Besides this, bugs in ActionButtons have been fixed. (snx)

[News message: 31. Mar. 2022, 14:01] [Comments: 0]
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31.Mar.2022 Chip-Ram expansion for Amiga 500, 2000, Commodore CDTV: RAMesses
Developer Andrew Hutchings reports on his website LinuxJedi about his latest development 'RAMesses': this board upgrades an Amiga 500, 2000 or the Commodore CDTV to 2MB chip RAM without soldering or cutting the motherboard. It is based on the board developed by Matt Harlum, which converts an 8375 Agnus to work in a normal Amiga 500, adding 2MB of chip RAM. However, this required craftsmanship and soldering experience.

So Hutchings decided to design a board that solved this problem. The RAMesses board uses a PLCC connector that plugs into the Amiga's Agnus socket, and an 8375 Agnus that plugs into the bottom of the board. Additionally, there is an adapter that fits under the Gary chip and provides some additional signals. The Gary chip overwrites all motherboard and expansion RAM, so it is easy to install regardless of the motherboard and configuration. This means that no modifications need to be made to the Amiga's motherboard.

Additionally, there is a jumper on the top of the RAMesses board. As the developer writes, some games state that they need 1 MB, but actually mean 512 KB chip and 512 KB Slow RAM. This jumper reconfigures the board to provide Slow RAM. From 2MB Chip RAM this will change to 1MB Chip and 512KB Slow RAM.

It should be noted that the board requires an 8375 2MB Agnus chip. In the first batches there was still the possibility to get the RAMesses together with an 8375, but this is now unlikely. Thus, the chip has to be purchased separately. Likewise, he recommends a PLCC extractor tool for removing the Amiga's Agnus before installing this board, specifically Piergiacomi's PLCC-84 extractor tool .

RAMesses is available in his new 'Retro Supplies' store for about 90 Euros. (dr)

[News message: 31. Mar. 2022, 06:44] [Comments: 0]
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31.Mar.2022
Twitter

Shoot'em up: Sixth demo version of Jackal
NeesoGames has released the sixth demo version (YouTube video) of its game Jackal, created with the Scorpion Engine. Changes:

Level 1 boss has an indicator to show where the tanks will spawn
New enemy in Level 2 (Jeep throwing 'nades)
Level 3 preview (fully navigable but no boss fight yet)
New explosion graphics
Animated exploded turrets
Fixed foreground issues with fort walls and pillars
Enemies have been rebalanced
Memory optimizations, bugfixes and more!

According to the developers, this version might be a bit unstable because of a lot of things have been refactored. A complete third level including the boss fight has been announced for the seventh update. (dr)

[News message: 31. Mar. 2022, 06:05] [Comments: 0]
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31.Mar.2022
Arne Urbaniak (E-Mail)

Amiga disks on PC: Copy program G-Copy 0.1
After the release of A-Copy, a program similar to X-Copy for reading and writing ADF disk images under Windows using the ADF drive hardware, Arne Urbaniak has now written 'G-Copy', a corresponding application for the Greaseweazle.

This is currently available in version 0.1 and is intended for testing. Unlike A-Copy, which was written using Microsoft's free and open source software platform '.NET', G-Copy, as the author writes to us, was completely new and written in Python. Basically, the two applications are to be merged as time permits, though there would be many more Arduino-based controllers, all with their own configurations and command parameters. In addition, there would be many requests for implementation of other systems and formats (Atari, Apple, TI99).

Features of version 0.1:

Doscopy: ADF file -> disk and Disk -> ADF file
Nibblecopy: SCP file -> disk and disk -> SCP file (incl. copy protection)
DMS2Disk: HD-DMS file -> disk
DMS2ADF: HD-DMS file -> HD-ADF file
IPF2Disk: HD-IPF file -> disk
Delete, format, QFormat

Tasks still to be done:

Bamcopy
Copy start-end from the hard disk to the correct place of the file
Copying the correct part of the file to the floppy disk
Writing to several destinations
better troubleshooting

Download: gcopy.zip (30 MB) (dr)

[News message: 31. Mar. 2022, 04:47] [Comments: 0]
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30.Mar.2022 Connector board for FPGA Amiga clone: MiSTress ITX
Recently we reported about an expansion for mounting the FPGA Amiga clone MiSTer into an Amiga 1200 case, called MiSTress 1200. Now there is also a conversion kit, MiSTress ITX, for mounting the MiSTer FPGA into an ITX/Micro ITX PC case. The MiSTress ITX board offers all connectors that the official MiSTer Analog I/O 6.1 board has, plus an integrated USB hub with six available ports and a selectable I2S Audio DAC output.

The board implements also a dual function front button header to plug the front button of your case: short press access MiSTer OSD, long press calls USER button function (core dependant). Further information under the title link. (dr)

[News message: 30. Mar. 2022, 07:14] [Comments: 0]
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30.Mar.2022

MorphOS: Screenbar plugin Uptime 1.5a
The #amigazeux team has updated the Screenbar plugin 'Uptime' for displaying uptime - the time the computer system is running and functional - for MorphOS to version 1.5. Changes:

Added a savety requester when trying to reset the uptime record.
Uptime records can be reported via MagicBeacon now with configurable frequency.
Now comes with a real Installer script courtesy of InstallerGen by Rob Cranley.
Text can now be rendered off-center by specifying a pixel offset.
It's now possible to have the gauge frame drawn around or over (default from previous versions) the gauge itself at the edges (see settings).
Cycle gadget for adjusting the frame type now shows a small preview image.

Update: (04.04.2022, 17:48, dr)

Thanks to a hint from Guido Mersmann a bug in the installer has been fixed with version 1.5a released yesterday, which now copies the MagicBeacon images correctly to SYS:Prefs/Applications/MagicBeacon instead of MOSSYS:Data/MagicBeacon. (dr)

[News message: 30. Mar. 2022, 06:40] [Comments: 1 - 04. Apr. 2022, 17:52]
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29.Mar.2022 History: Commodore's 'ChessMate'
In its latest blog entry, the 'Commodore International Historical Society' has reported on the history of Commodore's 'ChessMate'. (dr)

[News message: 29. Mar. 2022, 07:21] [Comments: 0]
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29.Mar.2022 Sound module: First batch of ZZ9000AX is delivered
The ZZ9000AX is the sound module for the multifunctional Amiga expansion card ZZ9000 (amiga-news.de reported). Yesterday it was announced that the first batch is shipping now, which was originally planned for January already. Interested users who order now will be part of the second batch, which is expected to be shipped in June 2022. (dr)

[News message: 29. Mar. 2022, 07:13] [Comments: 0]
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29.Mar.2022
Robert Smith Video: Introduction on Artificial Intelligence
In his latest video, Robert Smith shows the basics of artificial intelligence (AI) using neural networks. He elaborates on how to develop them using genetic algorithms and confronts them with various problems to see if they can solve them (see also MIT's introductory lecture on this topic). (dr)

[News message: 29. Mar. 2022, 06:50] [Comments: 0]
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29.Mar.2022
Martina Hřebcová (Mail) Analysis: PPC architecture evolution in Amiga world (Czech)
Martina Hřebcová is known for her detailed reviews and analyses of Amiga hardware, for example about the use of graphics cards under the Sam440ep-flex or the Pegasos I. Now she takes Amiga users on a discourse about the PPC architecture used in AmigaNG systems: Czech original text, machine translation. (dr)

[News message: 29. Mar. 2022, 05:57] [Comments: 0]
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28.Mar.2022
Apollo Team (ANF) Apollo-Team: Maggie 3D Chip - preview video
The Apollo team shows a preview of the Apollo Maggie 3D chip, which is already included in all V4 models, in a short YouTube video. This Maggie chip is also intended to make the Amiga 3D capable. This first early preview video demonstrates basic 3D modeling as dungeon demo. (dr)

[News message: 28. Mar. 2022, 06:59] [Comments: 0]
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28.Mar.2022 Blog: Installation of AmiKit on Windows/macOS and Raspberry Pi
The blog Epsilon's World shows in its latest entry how to install the recently released AmiKit XE 11.6.1 on Windows 11 and macOS Monterey. In a previous article the author already described how to install AmiKit XE 11.5 on a Raspberry Pi 4 and Pi 400. (dr)

[News message: 28. Mar. 2022, 06:23] [Comments: 0]
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27.Mar.2022

Aminet uploads until 26.03.2022
The following files have been added until 26.03.2022 to Aminet:

nfs3.lha                 comm/net   10K   68k Mount NFS3 shares using bsdso...
less-mos.lha             dev/gg     661K  MOS Viewer program similar to "more"
MuManual.lha             docs/misc  944K  68k mmu.lib: examples, includes, ...
keymap_espanol.lha       driver/inp 2K        Keymap for Spanish PC keyboards
StarDriveSCSI.lha        driver/med 56K   68k Microbotics StarDrive SCSI dr...
cybergraphx_espanol.lha  driver/vid 1K        CyberGraphX spanish catalog (...
F1GP2022Carset.lha       game/data  7K        2022 Carset for F1GP
AttackPETSCIIRobots.lha  game/demo  6.6M  68k Attack of the PETSCII Robots ...
AttackPETSCIIRobots_i... game/demo  880K  68k Attack of the PETSCII Robots ...
Exult_RTG.lha            game/role  50M   68k Amiga port of Ultima 7 (Exult)
jfduke3d.lha             game/shoot 1.3M  68k JFDuke3D Amiga Port
ZDOOM_AGA.lha            game/shoot 21M   68k Amiga port of ZDOOM (DOOM)
ZDOOM_RTG.lha            game/shoot 21M   68k Amiga port of ZDOOM (DOOM)
perfectpaint_espanol.lha gfx/edit   8K        Perfect Paint spanish catalog...
AmiArcadia.lha           misc/emu   4.4M  68k Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiArcadia-OS4.lha       misc/emu   4.9M  OS4 Signetics-based machines emul...
W4R_HM2B.lha             mods/anaki 42K   68k Hit Mouse 2 Beta 2008 MED Mul...
W4R_HM2B_SideB.lha       mods/anaki 121K  68k Hit Mouse 2 Beta Side B MED M...
ancient.lha              util/arc   668K  MOS Decompression routines for an...
avalanche.lha            util/arc   64K   OS4 ReAction unarchive GUI for xf...
MMULib.lha               util/libs  746K  68k Library to ctrl the MC68K MMUs
DevInfosNG.lha           util/misc  1.2M  OS4 All about the aos4.1 hardware
TestProgram.zip          util/misc  665K  68k Versatile Amiga Test Program
kingcon_espanol.lha      util/shell 1K        KingCON spanish catalog (1.8)
ScreenTime.lha           util/time  63K   68k Screen clock, configurable wi...

(snx)

[News message: 27. Mar. 2022, 09:11] [Comments: 0]
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27.Mar.2022

OS4Depot uploads until 26.03.2022
The following files have been added until 26.03.2022 to OS4Depot:

arabic_console_device... dri/inp 3Mb   4.1 An arabic console device, line &...
amiarcadia.lha           emu/gam 5Mb   4.0 Signetics-based machines emulator
igame.lha                emu/uti 318kb 4.0 Frontend for launching WHDLoad g...
d3gnop.lha               gam/mis 193kb 4.0 THE Pong clone in MiniGL
sopoblock.lha            gam/puz 83kb  4.0 Cute tiny MiniGL puzzler
avalanche.lha            uti/arc 64kb  4.1 Simple ReAction GUI for xadmaster

(snx)

[News message: 27. Mar. 2022, 09:11] [Comments: 0]
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27.Mar.2022

MorphOS-Storage uploads until 26.03.2022
The following files have been added until 26.03.2022 to MorphOS-Storage:

EMagicBeaconModules_0.... Development/E             MorphOS MagicBeacon mod...
EReggaeModules_0.1.lha    Development/E             MorphOS Reggae modules ...
EMUIModules_0.4.lha       Development/E             MorphOS MUI modules for...
Less_590.lha              Development/GeekGadgets   A paginator similar to ...
Ancient_2.0.0.lha         Files/Archive             Decompress ancient formats
ScummVM_2.6.0GIT.lha      Games/Adventure           2D Point-and-Click adve...
MUIwake_0.4.lha           Network/TCP               Wake On Lan with MUI gui.
Wayfarer_3.2.lha          Network/Web               Wayfarer is the latest ...
Collection-JeuxVideo_1... Office/Database           Collection-Jeux video e...
ModernArt_3.3.lha         System/Ambient/Blankers   Screen Blanker by Matth...
MouseCoords_1.4.lha       System/Ambient/Screenbar  Display Mouse coordinat...

(snx)

[News message: 27. Mar. 2022, 09:11] [Comments: 0]
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27.Mar.2022
MorphZone (website) MorphOS: Web-browser Wayfarer 3.2
By version 3.2 of Jacek 'jacadcaps' Piszczek's web-browser Wayfarer, support of WOFF/WOFF2 fonts has been implemented and, besides fixes of a few minor quirks, the support of ligatures has been improved. Wayfarer requires MorphOS 3.16 and at least 1 GB of RAM. A CPU with 1.5 GHz or more with Altivec is recommended.

Download: wayfarer.lha (26 MB) (snx)

[News message: 27. Mar. 2022, 09:11] [Comments: 0]
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27.Mar.2022
Prince (Mail) Video tutorial: Episode 28 of assembler coding course
'Prince', founder of the demo group 'Phaze101', is currently streaming the assembler programming course "Corso completo di programmazione assembler in due dischi" in English on Twitch and uploads the respective episodes time-delayed to YouTube. Now episode 28 was published. (dr)

[News message: 27. Mar. 2022, 08:38] [Comments: 0]
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27.Mar.2022

ReAction-GUI for XAD: Avalanche 1.5
In the course of reporting on updates of various tools from Unsatisfactory Software, we had also mentioned Avalanche for the first time, a graphical user interface created with ReAction for the unarchiving tool XAD. Now Chris Young has released version 1.5. Changes:

Add option to use xvs.library to scan the extracted files for viruses
Fallback to xfdmaster.library if file not recognised
Support encrypted archive entries
Installer no longer overwrites existing icon on update
Add Archive Info menu option - currently shows the filetype only

(dr)

[News message: 27. Mar. 2022, 08:32] [Comments: 0]
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26.Mar.2022

Amiga Addict available from newsagents in England, Irland, USA, Australia soon
Print magazine Amiga Addict is anouncing on Twitter that the English publication will soon be available from more than 300 newsagents in the United Kingdom as well as in selected stores in the USA, Irland, and Australia.

The current 11th issue features a review of THEA500 Mini plus the following topics:

Interview with Amiga magazine legend Nick Veitch
A personal look back at Amiga Power
Talking about Buffee with Renee Cousins
The legendary Scorched Tanks with its creator Michael P Welch
h0ffman's new game Knightmare reviewed
The second part of our walk through the Cinemaware back catalogue
AA's Top 100 Best Amiga Games Ever!

(cg)

[News message: 26. Mar. 2022, 23:49] [Comments: 0]
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26.Mar.2022 THEA500 Mini: 'Citadel' and user manual available
Starting April 08, interested users can purchase the THEA500 Mini (in North America only on May 31).

If you want to shorten the time until then, you can already study the user manual. Furthermore, the first game of the Bonus USB Games Pack has been released with Citadel, which we reported about a year ago, and can already be downloaded. According to Saberman's YouTube video, this is version 1.3, in which some bugs have been fixed, gameplay and player controls have been improved, and the game's graphics and level design have been updated. The game is basically intended for the THEA500 Mini, but was here tested on an A1200 with 8MB FAST-Ram. (dr)

[News message: 26. Mar. 2022, 21:34] [Comments: 0]
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25.Mar.2022 A-EON confirms lack of an AmigaOS 4 license
A few days ago, Alinea announced that the X5000 was back in stock. Their listing of a complete system includes a digital copy of AmigaOS 4, but according to a former Hyperion manager, A-EON no longer has a valid AmigaOS 4 license - which brings up the question where Alinea is purchasing X5000 motherboards bundled with an AmigaOS 4 license. Approached by amiga-news.de, Matthew Leaman from A-EON and Amigakit confirms that "there are no active OEM agreements for A-EON hardware". According to him each reseller makes "his own arrangements for any third party software they resell".

Since Alina claims (German) to be purchasing hardware and software from the same source, that means there has to be another layer in the distribution channel - somebody who has access to valid OS4 licenses, bundles them with motherboards purchased from A-EON and then sells them to Alinea and maybe other dealers.

Neither Matthew Leaman nor Simon Neumann from Alinea wanted to discuss details of the current distribution model with amiga-news.de. Leaman only confirmed that the boards currently on sale are not new production runs, they are supplied from existing stocks. We asked both Ben Hermans (Hyperion) and an entrepreneur who is rumoured to be the middleman described above for a statement, but have not heard back from either party so far.

Note from staff: In his original statement (German) at os4welt.de, Simon Neumann explains that one of the reasons for the new price of a X5000 system - 2400 Euros instead of 2100 Euros - is the substantially higher wholesale price the German dealer has to pay. An additional middleman between A-EON and dealers selling to endusers would explain that, since the middleman obviosly has to generate profit as well. (cg)

[News message: 25. Mar. 2022, 13:02] [Comments: 0]
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25.Mar.2022 Blog: 'Tables' and 'Strings' in programming language COBOL
Carl Svensson, author of the ARexx tools RxEnv, deals in his latest blog entry with 'Tables' and 'Strings' in the COBOL programming language in response to a corresponding article on The Craft of Coding.
A (no longer maintained) compiler is also available for AmigaOS, along with syntax parsers for GoldEd 4.7 and GoldEd 5.0. (dr)

[News message: 25. Mar. 2022, 07:30] [Comments: 0]
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25.Mar.2022

Programming language: AmiBlitz 3.9.0
The latest version 3.9.0 of the programming language AmiBlitz contains some major changes and a few optimizations:

Adjustments to libs handling: To be able to reduce the amount of loaded blitzlibraries at startup, I divided the former to biglib-files ACIDLIBS and DEFLIBS into four biglib files that are organized according to their purpose:

baseLibs: base libraries everyone needs or other libs depend on
utilLibs: libraries that contains several useful functions
csLibs: libraries that make use of the custom chips hardware
osLibs: libraries that are wrapper libs for standard amigaos libraries

So if you don't use oslibrary functions or don't do graphics an sound stuff, you can just disable that file from being loaded.

Major internal changes:

converted tons of code from asm to basic

Minor adjustments:

added tooltype DISABLE_HIGHLIGHTING to improve performance on lowend machines
added tooltype DISABLE_LOCALIZATION to reduce needed of memory on lowend machines
removed tooltype STANDARDEDITMODE, only the new behaviour is supported now
removed tooltype OLDSEARCH, only the new behaviour is supported now
removed tooltype USE_ASLDIMS
renamed tooltype NO_DISPLAYBEEP to DISABLE_DISPLAYBEEP
renamed tooltype NO_WELCOME to DISABLE_WELCOME
renamed tooltype TOKENBOLD to BOLD_TOKENS
added menu entry "Autolayout" to perform an auto arrangement of all open windows per menu call
added wrapperlib for gadtools.library to osLibs
reorganized settings window
added new iconify gadget for source window (OS3.2+)
updated GlowIcons for all icons in the AmiBlitz3 drawer

Adjustments to tools:

AB3LibsManager: implemented the new biglibs handling with 4 biglibfiles
AB3LibsManager: added new column to commandlist table that shows dependencies to other libs
AB3LibsManager: added shortcuts for some buttons

(dr)

[News message: 25. Mar. 2022, 06:16] [Comments: 0]
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