04.Nov.2022
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Programming language: AmiBlitz 3.9.8
After two pre-releases, today version 3.9.8 of the programming language AmiBlitz has been released. Changes:
new:
- (compiler) can send his own log data to PED's log
- (compiler) added an error-requester in case the exepath is not set correctly (settings in Sourceproperties "ExePath")
- (compiler) current include is shown in compile status window
changed:
- (PED) rewritten Find and Replace-Routines in BASIC
- (PED) minor improvements to intellisense
- (project) moved some examples into other subfolders
fixed:
- (compiler) removed vbr-detection from code that starts compiled executable, as it is now inside the debugger
- (PED) fixed misspelled tooltype "USE_INTELLISENSE_COMMANDS"
- (PED) fixed bug in routine to set current dir that led to problems when AmiBlitz3 was located in a longer path
- (PED) fixed intellisense that did not work anymose
- (PED) fixed bug that localization was not turned of completely when tooltype was enabled
- (PED) fixed crash when loading old bb2 source file
- (PED) fixed bug in displaying a sourceline when scrolling out of the window
- (include) fixed bug in image_include that used a wrong Minterms in image_BlittPattern{} that led to wrong display with newer P96 versions
Download: AmiBlitz398.lha (11 MB) (dr)
[News message: 04. Nov. 2022, 20:58] [Comments: 0]
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04.Nov.2022
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AROS: Further development of the emulator Janus-UAE 2
Blitter Studio, which is also responsible for the Amiga emulator Amiberry, has started to continue the development of the emulator Janus-UAE 2.
In contrast to version 1.x, which was based on Richard Drummond's emulator E-UAE V0.8.29 WIP4, is part of the AROS distribution Icaros Desktop, for example, and thus is based on the ABI-v0 developer branch, the original author Oliver Brunner had already started porting WinUAE 2 to AROS in 2011 with Janus-UAE 2, which uses the ABI-v1 branch. By the end of 2015, he had brought Janus-UAE 2 up to the level of WinUAE 3.2.0 and subsequently finished work on it.
The Amiberry developer 'MiDWaN' has now cloned the sources from SourceForge to a Github repository, including all his changes so far, among other things so that he has write permissions. His goal is to bring Janus-UAE 2 to the latest WinUAE and SDL 2 (instead of SDL 1). He also wants to add some features from Amiberry. (dr)
[News message: 04. Nov. 2022, 09:50] [Comments: 0]
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04.Nov.2022
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Music tip: Protracker track "much"
'no9' has been working in the audio section for years and also occasionally composes music for games. On his YouTube channel, he also publishes his own compositions from time to time, like the piece "much" most recently. He uses the ProTracker 2 clone for Windows by Olav Sorensen for this. As 'no9' writes, he would have tried to use the original Amiga for it, but the constant data exchange between Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) and Amiga would have been very time consuming, as there would sometimes be a lot of copying back and forth for sample data. The Amiga Protracker compatibility was mandatory for him, though. (dr)
[News message: 04. Nov. 2022, 06:37] [Comments: 0]
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03.Nov.2022
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Video: Often unknown Amiga operating systems
Ravi Abbott, known for his documentary "Downfall Amiga, after Commodore" (amiga-news.de reported), introduces often unknown Amiga operating systems for 68k Amigas, such as p.OS or UNIX. (dr)
[News message: 03. Nov. 2022, 09:24] [Comments: 0]
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03.Nov.2022
Twitter
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Workbench distribution: AKReal 9.1
AKReal can already works with 16 colours and is the inofficial adaption of the Workbench distribution AmiKit to real Amigas (video). After five years, the distribution was updated and now version 9.1 is available. The changes are listed in the changelog. (dr)
[News message: 03. Nov. 2022, 06:47] [Comments: 0]
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03.Nov.2022
OSNews
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Developer tool: GNU Make will drop support for AmigaOS (Update)
GNU Make is the implementation of the in the Unix world often used program make for the operating system GNU. It automatically builds executable programs and libraries from source code by reading files called Makefiles which specify how to derive the target program. (Wikipedia).
As OSNews now reports, support for OS/2 (EMX), Xenix, Cray and also AmigaOS will be removed in GNU Make starting with the upcoming version.
Update: (03.11.2022, 19:30, dr)
Obviously triggered by our article, discussions have developed especially in various Discord servers which have led to some "protest mails". The maintainer of GNU Make, Paul Smith, responded to one of the mails and asked to stop writing mails:
"While it's good that AmigaOS as an operating system is still under
active development, what I care about is whether anyone is maintaining *GNU make* on AmigaOS. I have not received a single patch for an AmigaOS problem with GNU make since 1996. I haven't received a single response from anyone on AmigaOS to any request for anyone to test a release candidate, or a new release, in I don't know how many releases....But if AmigaOS is not updating to newer versions of GNU make, then I don't want to maintain the (not insignificant amount of) special-case code currently existing to (not really) support it, in future releases. Fundamentally, for non-traditional operating systems it's not enough to just ask for it to be maintained. Someone has to volunteer to actively participate in the maintenance effort." (dr)
[News message: 03. Nov. 2022, 05:44] [Comments: 2 - 04. Nov. 2022, 19:52]
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03.Nov.2022
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Programming assistance: "AB_Template II" V0.58 offers templates for AmiBlitz 3
In contrast to "AB_Template" which is meant to support the development of games, "AB_Template II" is meant to help developing applications with AmiBlitz3. Here Sami Vehmaa published now the first version 0.58. (dr)
[News message: 03. Nov. 2022, 05:20] [Comments: 0]
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03.Nov.2022
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AmigaOS 4: Video about history and usage of AmigaOne X1000 (Update)
Roman 'kas1e' Kargin has published an extensive video about the AmigaOne X1000, which was officially announced by A-EON at the beginning of 2010. Kargin informs - with English subtitles and background music - about the history of the board, the installation in an unusual case, the installation of AmigaOS 4.1 and much more.
Update: (10.11.2022, 15:00, cg)
After the video had to be taken offline due to a copyright complaint, Kargin now provides an updated version with the disputed parts replaced with new footage. (dr)
[News message: 03. Nov. 2022, 04:35] [Comments: 3 - 12. Nov. 2022, 15:01]
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03.Nov.2022
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AmigaOS 4.1: Tutorial on installation of 3D graphics driver
Roman 'kas1e' Kargin has published a detailed tutorial on Amigans.net in which he describes the correct installation of Warp3DNova, NovaBridge, MiniGL, Ogles2, and WarpOS-Emu so that everything that has to do with 3D runs best with RadeonHD or RadeonRX graphics cards. Eventually, you should be able to run games, applications and demos written for WarpOS or 68k. (dr)
[News message: 03. Nov. 2022, 04:21] [Comments: 0]
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03.Nov.2022
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DIY project: Building an Amiga 2000 (part 5)
'Drygol' is a member of the demoscene group Lamers and basically deals with retro computers in the form of restorations, upgrades etc. On his site Retrohax.net he not only offers various retro articles, but also runs a blog. Among other things he describes there his project 'Tesseract', the building of an Amiga 2000 from scratch with all maximum modifications. His project is based on the GitHub project of 'Floppie209', a replica of the Amiga2000 motherboard with Sprint layout. After the first four reports (1, 2, 3, 4) he published the fifth blog post of the series yesterday which amongst others is about adding a DVD drive. (dr)
[News message: 03. Nov. 2022, 03:56] [Comments: 0]
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03.Nov.2022
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Programming contest: AmiGameJam 2022 launched
After the Amiga Blitz Basic Game Jam, which just ended with numerous entries, the next contest for game programmers is already starting: At this year's edition of the "AmiGameJam" the motto is "Sword and Sorcery". Those who want to participate must submit a newly developed game with this theme to the organizers by April 30 at the latest.
The participants will again be divided into the two categories "OCS/AGA" and "AmigaOS 4/MorphOS/AROS", voting will again be done by both the community and a group of official judges. The jurors and prizes will be announced as soon as last details are clarified. (cg)
[News message: 03. Nov. 2022, 01:30] [Comments: 0]
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03.Nov.2022
Twitter (ANF)
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Tutorial: Wake on LAN Client under AmigaOS 3
Matthias Münch describes in a short tutorial how an Amiga can "wake up" other devices in the network from wait mode with the help of the Wake on LAN client hpwake. (cg)
[News message: 03. Nov. 2022, 00:51] [Comments: 0]
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03.Nov.2022
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Playable previews: 'My Life Sucks' and 'My First Shooting Game'
Two more games developed for the Amiga Blitz Basic Game Jam are not yet finished, but the developers already provide playable pre-release versions. To what extent the titles will be developed further is currently unclear.
My Life Sucks (video) was supposed to be a dungeon crawler in the style of Dungeon Master, with the difference that the player controls an autonomous vacuum cleaner whose AI has taken on a life of its own. The game is described by the developer as a "tech demo", as it was not finished in time for the contest deadline. They say it is solvable, but still has plenty of bugs. Main reason for the release them the disclosure of the source code for interested Blitz-Basic programmers.
My First Shooting Game is an "experimental project" according to the author - the vertical shooter is his first Amiga and Blitz Basic project. The game currently runs only on NTSC computers and must be controlled with the keyboard. It is distributed as source code, which has to be compiled by the user himself with Blitz Basic. (cg)
[News message: 03. Nov. 2022, 00:46] [Comments: 0]
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03.Nov.2022
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Flip-Screen-Shooter: Shuriken
Phil Grenways 'Shuriken' (video) is a Berzerk-inspired flip-screen shooter with a ninja theme. The title was developed for the Amiga Blitz Basic Game Jam, the Blitz Basic source code can be found on bitbucket.org. (cg)
[News message: 03. Nov. 2022, 00:33] [Comments: 0]
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03.Nov.2022
Indie Retro News (Webseite)
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Simulated pub crawl: Weegie Nights
In 'Weegie Nights' (video) you have to wander through Glasgow by night and maintain the right alcohol level, in addition the consumption of food and alcoholic beverages as well as various "sources of income" want to be well organized. The title was developed for the Amiga Blitz Basic Game Jam and requires an Amiga with 2 Megabyte Chip RAM and a 68020 processor. (cg)
[News message: 03. Nov. 2022, 00:28] [Comments: 0]
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03.Nov.2022
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Arcade clone: Megafrog
'Megafrog' (video) is a variant of the arcade classic Frogger, in which the playing field is significantly larger than the current screen section. The frog here can mutate into the titular Megafrog by eating a certain amount of dragonflies, which can then also attack cars. The gAME was developed for the Amiga Blitz Basic Game Jam and requires an Amiga whose processor is clocked with at least 14 Mhz. (cg)
[News message: 03. Nov. 2022, 00:27] [Comments: 0]
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02.Nov.2022
Indie Retro News (Webseite)
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SimCity for animals: Microtopia
'Microtopia' (video) is described by the developer as a "prototype of a city-building simulation", in which a city for crows, beavers and moths is to be built on randomly generated maps. Numerous features that are still missing are to be added in later versions. The title was developed for the Amiga Blitz Basic Game Jam and requires an Amiga with one megabyte of RAM. The game also runs on a 68000 processor, but here it occasionally runs a bit halting. (cg)
[News message: 02. Nov. 2022, 23:40] [Comments: 0]
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02.Nov.2022
David Brunet (ANF)
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New articles on Obligement website
The articles below have been added to the website of the French Amiga/MorphOS magazine Obligement during the last two months. All translations are welcome. Please contact David 'Daff' Brunet for more information.
- September/October 2022 news.
- Old articles from Joystick 55 to 65:
- Interview with Jérôme Bonaldi and David Gonner
- Review of All New World Of Lemmings
- Review of Flink CD32
- Interview with Stéphane Picq
- File: And if piracy was essential
- Review of Pinball Illusions
- Review of Sim City 2000
- File: Music in video games
- Review of Alien Breed Tower Assault
- Review of Cannon Fodder 2
- News: Atried Concept my new name is Pearson
- Review of Fields Of Glory
- Review of Super Stardust, etc.
- Report: Amiga 37.
- Interview with Jérôme Senay (editor of Boing magazine).
- Interview with Matt Gray (musician).
- Review: Wrong Way Driver.
- Review: BePlayer 1.4.
- Hardware: Furia EC020.
- File: History of Trecision (part 2).
- Tutorial: Building an AmigaOS 4 cross compiler (Binutils 2.23.2 & GCC 8.3.0) on MSYS2.
- Tutorial: Installing MorphOS (update).
- DIY: Mounting an HxC SD and a floppy drive in an Amiga 600.
- Misc: Irving Gould's villa.
- Special quiz on MUI.
(cg)
[News message: 02. Nov. 2022, 22:59] [Comments: 0]
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02.Nov.2022
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Top-Down-Racer: Zebra 3
'Zebra 3' (video) is a top-down racer with four different courses. The title was developed for the Amiga Blitz Basic Game Jam, Kickstart 2 and a "fast Amiga" are given as minimum requirements. (cg)
[News message: 02. Nov. 2022, 22:36] [Comments: 0]
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02.Nov.2022
Indie Retro News (Webseite)
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Playable preview: Capacitor's Revenge
In the shooter 'Capacitor's Revenge' (video) you have to defend the Amiga's m68k processor against attacking capacitors (amiga-news.de reported). The title is being developed for the Amiga Blitz Basic Game Jam, the author now provides a first playable preview version. (cg)
[News message: 02. Nov. 2022, 22:31] [Comments: 0]
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02.Nov.2022
Indie Retro News (Webseite)
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Platformer: Daredevil Dennis Remix
'Daredevil Dennis Remix' (video) is a conversion of the 8-bit title Daredevil Dennis for the Amiga, developed for the Amiga Blitz Basic Game Jam. The game features 25 with increasing difficulty. (cg)
[News message: 02. Nov. 2022, 22:24] [Comments: 0]
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02.Nov.2022
Indie Retro News (Webseite)
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Vertical Scrolling Shoot'em Up: ACE Battle Over The Sea
The vertically scrolling shooter 'ACE Battle Over The Sea' (video) was developed for the Amiga Blitz Basic Game Jam. The title, inspired by classics like 1942, offers four missions and runs on any Amiga with at least one megabyte of Chip RAM. The download is free, but if you wish you can give the author a small obolus during the download. (cg)
[News message: 02. Nov. 2022, 22:14] [Comments: 0]
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02.Nov.2022
Indie Retro News (Webseite)
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Arena shooter: Blower
'Blower' (video) - developed for the Amiga Blitz Basic Game Jam - is an arena shooter in which up to four human players use firearms and flamethrowers to get at each other. Computer-controlled "bots" are also available for training purposes, but the developer says they are "pretty dumb".
'Blower' runs on all Amigas with at least one megabyte of Chip RAM, it supports a parallel port adapter for connecting two additional joysticks and offers seven different levels, various bonus items. The download is free, but if you wish you can pay the author a small fee. (cg)
[News message: 02. Nov. 2022, 22:06] [Comments: 0]
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02.Nov.2022
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MorphOS 3.17: openssl3.library November Hotfix
The MorphOS developer team has announced: "New vulnerabilities have been identified and fixed for the version of OpenSSL that is included in MorphOS 3.17. Two discovered issues, namely CVE-2022-3786 and CVE-2022-3602, were found to potentially affect MorphOS users.
A fixed OpenSSL library will be bundled with a future MorphOS release. Meanwhile, you can download the following replacement openssl3.library that fixes the problem for MorphOS 3.17. To install it, copy the file to MOSSYS:Libs and reboot." (dr)
[News message: 02. Nov. 2022, 06:39] [Comments: 0]
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01.Nov.2022
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Encryption protocol: AmiSSL 5.5 (AmigaOS 3/4)
The open source encryption protocol AmiSSL has been updated to version 5.5 and is now based on the latest OpenSSL 3.0.7, which was also released today. This fixes a security problem that has existed since OpenSSL 3.0.0 and is now classified as high: a buffer overflow could be triggered when checking X.509 certificates. Thus, all users who have installed a version 5 of AmiSSL (based on OpenSSL 3) are recommended to update. The changes:
- Updated OpenSSL backend to full compatibility with the latest OpenSSL 3.0.7 (1.11.2022) version, which includes:
- Added RIPEMD160 to the default provider.
- Fixed regressions introduced in 3.0.6 version.
- Fixed two buffer overflows in punycode decoding functions. ([CVE-2022-3786]) and ([CVE-2022-3602])
- Improved and simplified random number seeding routines.
- The AMISSL_NO_STATIC_FUNCTIONS preprocessor symbol has been added to the SDK, mainly for use with VBCC
Download AmigaOS 3: AmiSSL-5.5-OS3.lha (3,3 MB)
Download AmigaOS 4: AmiSSL-5.5-OS4.lha (3,1 MB)
Download SDK: AmiSSL-5.5-SDK.lha (2,3 MB) (dr)
[News message: 01. Nov. 2022, 21:25] [Comments: 2 - 02. Nov. 2022, 08:16]
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01.Nov.2022
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Point'n Click adventure: NEONnoir
The Point'n Click adventure 'NEONnoir' (Video) was developed with AmiBlitz for the Amiga Blitz Basic Game Jam. As a down-and-out private eye, the player has to track down a drug addicted daughter from a wealthy family.
'NEONnoir' requires at least an Amiga 1200 with a harddisk. The game can be downloaded for free, but users can name their own price before downloading. A walkthrough is offered on the official website and the game's BASIC sourcecode is available as well: Either as a LhA download from the official website, or in the author's Github repository. (cg) (Translation: cg)
[News message: 01. Nov. 2022, 18:56] [Comments: 0]
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01.Nov.2022
Indie Retro News (Webseite)
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Turn based strategy: playable preview for "Settle the World" (update)
Christian 'TheoTheoderich' Wiegel has released a first playable preview of his turn-based building and trading game 'Settle the World' - refer to our extensive preview for more information. The author points out that this is an early development version and many gameplay elements are not implemented yet: For example, the happiness of your citizen currently has no effect at all on game progress.
'Settle the World' is primarily intended to be played with multiple human opponents, but it does include a single player campaign. The game requires 1 Megabyte ChipRAM and 4 Megabyte FastRAM, a harddisk and at least a 68020 CPU. A version that should run on Kickstart 1.x is provided as well, but is untested as of now.
Update: (05.11.2022, 14:05, dr)
The developer has published a short tutorial on YouTube on how to start his game. (cg) (Translation: cg)
[News message: 01. Nov. 2022, 16:21] [Comments: 0]
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01.Nov.2022
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Games for RTG systems: Sky Tower, Last Space Raider, Dungeon Escape, Börd
Sami Vehmaa has written several Arcade games for Amiga systems that have a graphics card installed:
The games were written using AmiBlitz, they require a fast Amiga with a graphics card and AHI installed. Each game can be purchased for one Euro, the AmiBlitz sourcecode for each game is included in the download. (cg) (Translation: cg)
[News message: 01. Nov. 2022, 15:31] [Comments: 0]
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01.Nov.2022
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Blog: Restoration of an Amiga 1000, part 3
In the third part of his documentation about the restoration of an Amiga 1000 (amiga-news.de reported), Richard "Shred" Körber explains how he replaced the floppy drive with a Centuriontech "GOEX on pills" floppy simulator. (dr)
[News message: 01. Nov. 2022, 08:54] [Comments: 0]
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01.Nov.2022
MorphZone (Webseite)
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MorphOS: Password manager PastePass 1.9
Stefan 'Kronos' Kleinheinrich's PastePass is a password manager for MorphOS.
Version 1.9 is a complete reimplementation using the cryptostorage.library. The code has been reworked, many security checks added, and the entire GUI and program flow streamlined. The author's initial tests went well, but he requests further testing and explicitly marks this release as a pre-release. The changes in detail:
- changed databas to use cryptostorage.library
- entries will always be part of a group
- a group can be protected by a 2nd password
- PassTool functionality has been intregated into PastePass, allowing you to store your password in a seperate databae which will be opened by the name you used for registering MorphOS
- added the option to set a default user name
Download: PastePass.lha (77 KB) (dr)
[News message: 01. Nov. 2022, 06:30] [Comments: 0]
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01.Nov.2022
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Linux tutorial: Using the Fienix distribution on the X5000, part 2
In the first part of the instructions for using the Linux distribution "Fienix" on the X5000, Amiga-News.de editor Daniel Reimann reported how to prepare a USB stick under Windows for this purpose. Here now the continuation:
Starting Fienix
After the USB stick has been plugged into a free USB port, we can boot up the X5000. As soon as the Boing Ball starts spinning, it is best to press the "M" key twice. With the first press we get into the "AmigaOne Early Startup Control" menu...
...and with the second keystroke into the command line menu. Now, we the following line:
usb reset
Among other things, it is searched for storage media. I have the following (special?) case: my tower has several USB ports at the front, but only two can be used. In order to have one free for the USB stick, I have connected my Mac keyboard to the other one and my USB mouse to it. But I have to disconnect it before running "usb reset", otherwise it will be recognized as another storage medium. Now enter the following lines:
setenv bootargs root=LABEL=FIENIX-DISK
fatload usb 0:1 1000000 uImage-6.0
fatload usb 0:1 1c00000 cyrus-p5020.dtb
fatload usb 0:1 2000000 uInitrd-5.10
bootm 1000000 2000000 1c00000
The kernel is loaded and Fienix is started. After the input, several columns of numbers rattle across the screen, but finally the login window should appear:
Here's what we enter:
Username: fienix
Password: fienixPW
Looks good! Let's see if there is a tool for capturing screenshots. Yes, there it is, "Accessories"...:
Synaptic Package Manager
By default, no word processor is included. You have to install that, and of course many other software, via the package manager "Synaptic Package Manager". It can be found under "Administration":
Right-click on the first AbiWord entry and select "Mark for installation":
You will then be asked if you want to install any other package dependencies associated with it. We do, which also marks the two entries below:
Now go to "Apply" at the top and the packages will be installed. Before we reboot, we want to see if it worked and look under "Office" for the corresponding entry. Perfectly: "AbiWord" is listed:
After restarting, we test AbiWord briefly: works!
In the third part of the tutorial, we will look at how to make the printer ready for use and how to configure the Linux button in the "AmigaOne Early Startup Control" menu so that we can save ourselves typing the instructions in the future. (dr)
[News message: 01. Nov. 2022, 05:57] [Comments: 0]
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01.Nov.2022
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Platformer: Ami-Tower
The Polish developer 'Tukinem' (farm simulation "Farmiga") has ported Icy Tower in Blitz Basic 2 to the Amiga. The game principle is to let the main character climb a tower by jumping to different heights.
The levels are created randomly. You can jump over two platforms and then have more points and bonus jumps. After every 50 platforms, the time to the end of the game is restored, so you have to jump up as quickly as possible.
The game requires a standard Amiga 500 with Kick 1.3 and 500 KB. The game is still in development, the end of the game and the game menu (options and highscore) are missing. (dr)
[News message: 01. Nov. 2022, 05:47] [Comments: 0]
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31.Oct.2022
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Programming language: Amiga C/C++ Visual Studio Code Extension 1.6.5
Bartman', member of the demo group 'Abyss', provides with 'amiga-debug' a 'Visual Studio Code' extension for "compiling, debugging and profiling Amiga C/C++ programs compiled by the bundled gcc 11.2 with the bundled WinUAE" (YouTube video). Three days ago, version 1.6.4 was released and today version 1.6.5. Changes:
- FIX: libintl issue in ARM-based Macs #145
- FIX: 'Profile File Size' broken since last version
- FIX: Vasm fixes
- CHG: Better stack unwinding for assembly code
- FIX: GDB Mac exe without libintl dylib dependency
(dr)
[News message: 31. Oct. 2022, 06:20] [Comments: 0]
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31.Oct.2022
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Doom clone: "Dread" becomes "Grind"
The developer and demoscene member Krzysztof Kluczek had worked on the Doom clone "Dread" in his spare time and so far regularly published videos documenting the progress of his work (amiga-news.de reported). As he now reports in a Patreon post, he hands over the project to John 'Tsak' Tsakiris, who will continue it under the new name "Grind" (introduction on the new Patreon page). Kluczek will continue to work on "Dread" alone, as long as his new commitments allow him to do so: as non-commercial project.
(dr)
[News message: 31. Oct. 2022, 06:07] [Comments: 0]
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31.Oct.2022
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Workbench distribution: AmiKit XE 11.8.2 for Raspberry Pi 4/400
The update to version 11.8.2 (changelog) of the Workbench distribution AmiKit XE for the Raspberry Pi 4/400 includes the recently released version 5.4 of the Amiga emulator AmiBerry. In addition, the WHDLoad database and the Linux system has been updated. (dr)
[News message: 31. Oct. 2022, 05:49] [Comments: 0]
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31.Oct.2022
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CPU and RAM monitor: NewMeter 1.332
Thomas Rapp's "NewMeter" is a monitor showing on the Workbench screen the utilization of CPU, RAM and several partitions with a bar chart. The program is configured using tooltypes, (amiga-news.de reported).
In the latest version 1.332 configurable custom gauges have been added, whose values are read from env variables. This allows now to display the values of AmigaKit's Real Time Clock und Sensors Module. Also support for i2cs sensors has been added. (dr)
[News message: 31. Oct. 2022, 05:42] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
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Aminet uploads until 29.10.2022
The following files have been added until 29.10.2022 to Aminet:
CloudDav_1.71.lha comm/net 559K MOS A WebDav client
nfs3.lha comm/net 10K 68k Mount NFS3 shares using bsdso...
ApolloExplorer.zip comm/tcp 32M 68k Apollo Explorer
COP.lha dev/debug 165K 68k Low Level Debugger
RawIO2Parallel.lha dev/debug 9K 68k Redirect debug output to para...
anaiis.lha driver/oth 205K 68k ANAIIS USB Stack Release 1.22
anaiis_boot.lha driver/oth 255K 68k ANAIIS USB Boot disk Release ...
OlivettiJP.lha driver/pri 14K 68k Olivetti JP WB Driver 40.5
OlivettiJP790.lha driver/pri 13K 68k Olivetti JP 790 (HPDJ560C) WB...
AmiQuake_AGA.lha game/shoot 6.0M 68k Amiga port of WinQuake
AmiQuake_RTG.lha game/shoot 6.0M 68k Amiga port of WinQuake
2nd-Albireo.ACEpansio... misc/emu 21K MOS ACEpansion plugin for ACE CPC...
Albireo.ACEpansion.lha misc/emu 43K MOS ACEpansion plugin for ACE CPC...
ptripper.lha mus/misc 18K 68k Protracker module ripper
AmigaAMP3.lha mus/play 1.9M OS4 Multi format audio player wit...
AmigaAMP3-68k.lha mus/play 406K 68k MPEG audio player with GUI
gwimport.lha util/conv 5K 68k GeoWriteImport
DisLib.lha util/libs 19K 68k A library based MC68K disasse...
IconLib_46.4.lha util/libs 1.1M 68k free icon.library in optimize...
ReportPlusMOS.lha util/misc 796K MOS Multipurpose utility
VATestprogram.zip util/misc 2.4M 68k Versatile Amiga Test Program
newmeter.lha util/wb 27K 68k Shows free RAM and storage as...
(snx)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
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OS4Depot uploads until 29.10.2022
The following files have been added until 29.10.2022 to OS4Depot:
ht.lha aud/edi 964kb 4.0 Multichannel chiptune tracker, b...
amigaamp3.lha aud/pla 2Mb 4.1 Multi format audio player with GUI
drawing_dt.lha dat/ima 380kb 4.0 Vector superclass + DR2D/SVG Dat...
spotless.lha dev/deb 9Mb 4.1 Your favorite debugging tool
mednafen.lha emu/gam 10Mb 4.1 Mednafen Emulator
deark.lha uti/arc 6Mb 4.0 Extracting data from various fil...
sacrificiopagano.lha uti/mis 6Mb 4.0 Magic Tool
(snx)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
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AROS Archives uploads until 29.10.2022
The following files have been added until 29.10.2022 to AROS Archives:
libglew.i386-aros.zip dev/lib 195kb The OpenGL Extension Wrangler Li...
libglfw.i386-aros.zip dev/lib 615kb libGLFW
hollywoodsp.lha dev/mis 776kb Catalog in Spanish for Hollywood 9
supertux2.i386-aros.zip gam/pla 69Mb SDL Jump-n-run game inspired by ...
sacrificiopagano.lha uti/mis 6Mb Magic Tool
(snx)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
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MorphOS-Storage uploads until 29.10.2022
The following files have been added until 29.10.2022 to MorphOS-Storage:
ENCORE_Morphever_1.0.0... Demoscene/ENCORE Demo for MorphOS PowerPC
Albireo_1.5.lha Emulation/ACEpansion Plugin for ACE CPC Emul...
2nd-Albireo_1.5.lha Emulation/ACEpansion Plugin for ACE CPC Emul...
AmiArcadia_29.12.lha Emulation A Signetics-based machi...
Woof!_10.4.0.lha Games/Shoot3D Woof! is a continuation...
SacrificioPagano_1.80.lha Misc A special app to people...
ReportPlus_8.41.lha Misc A Multipurpose utility ...
CloudDav_1.71.lha Network/Streaming A WebDav client
Wayfarer_4.3.lha Network/Web Wayfarer is the latest ...
(snx)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
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WHDLoad: New installers until 29.10.2022
Using WHDLoad, games, scene demos and intros by cracking groups, which were originally designed to run only from floppy disks, can be installed on harddisk. The following installers have been added until 29.10.2022:
(snx)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
Amiga Future (website)
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AmigaRemix: Further files added
AmigaRemix collects remixes of well-known soundtracks of Amiga games. Since our last news-item, the following mp3 files have been added:
- Flashback End Theme (Live Performance)
- Silkworm / Turrican Mashup (BIT Live 2022)
- Turrican II - Freedom (Wish I was in Bergen Remix)
- Vixen
- Wings of Death (Introduction)
- Viz: The Computer Game
- Seven Gates of Jambala
- Turrican 3 (Credits)
- The Secret of Monkey Island Theme (Live Performance)
- Nearly There [Fullmoon Endpart]
- Citadel - Main Menu [OST Remix]
(snx)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
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MorphOS: U-Boot warning regarding AmigaOne X5000 still valid
Two years ago Mark Olsen, who maintains the official firmware for the distribution of the AmigaOne X5000 by A-EON Technology, had pointed out in great detail that the work of Steven Solie's team on their own U-Boot version could lead to unpredictable problems and thus also to data loss, which is why especially users of operating systems other than AmigaOS 4 are strongly advised not to install newer firmware versions on the X5000 unless they originate from him.
After it was stated again on the occasion of this year's AmiWest that Solie had created his own U-Boot versions for the AmigaOne X5000, among others, which would be distributed "soon", Andreas Wolf inquired at the title link with Mark 'bigfoot' Olsen whether that warning from 2020 would still be valid. This was confirmed. (snx)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
Amiga Future (website)
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AmigaOS 4: HivelyTracker 1.9
HivelyTracker is a tracker based on the AHX format. AHX was developed in the nineties to be able to write music tracks that resemble the typical chip sound of the SID (sound chip of the C64).
In the update released after a good nine and a half years, several improvements were made to the original fidelity, details can be found in the changelog. (snx)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
McFly (ANF)
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German Amiga Podcast: Issue 9
The ninth edition of the "German Amiga Podcast" (GAP) reports what moved visitors and exhibitors at the Amiga37 fair in Mönchengladbach.
The episodes of the podcast initiated in January by the former Boingsworld presenter 'McFly' can now be found not only at the title link but also at Apple podcasts. (snx)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
Andreas Magerl (ANF)
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Shoot'em Up: Reshoot Proxima 3 to be released in March
The next version of the Reshoot series by ex-"Amiga Joker" editor Richard Löwenstein, Proxima 3 (amiga-news.de reported), is to be released on March 15, 2023, as APC&TCP informs at the title link. Users who don't want to miss the release date can also register for an e-mail notification. (snx)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 0]
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30.Oct.2022
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Guest article: Trevor's personal review of the Amiga37
Trevor Dickinson traveled from New Zealand to present A-EON and AAA Technology at Amiga37, which took place two weeks ago. We asked him for his impressions of his stay in Germany and the event, which he has described to us below. Many thanks to Trevor.
Amiga 37 Germany - The show of the Century!
I have just arrived back in New Zealand following my attendance at Amiga 37 in Mönchengladbach. What can I say about Amiga 37? Wow, what a show! With over 1400 registrations it’s certainly the biggest Amiga event of the 21st Century so far.
It was my first international flight since Covid-19 locked down New Zealand in early 2020 and my first Amiga show since Amiga Ireland in January that year. Apart from sponsoring Amiga 37 on behalf of A-EON Technology, I gave a joint presentation with Enrico Vidale of ACube on the Amiga Next-Generation scene. I’m sure there will be numerous reports and updates from people who attended the show, so I am only going to highlight some of my own personal experiences of Amiga 37.
In the hope of overcoming some of the inevitable jetlag, I arrived in Dusseldorf on Thursday a couple of days before the main event. I met up with Matthew Leaman at the airport before taking the train to Mönchengladbach. We had booked into Hotel Leonardo which was recommended by Markus Tillmann. After a few drinks in the hotel bar, we retired to our room to sample some scotch whisky I had brought with me. Although we got to sleep reasonably early just after midnight, I woke up a few hours later and could not get back to sleep. The next day I did a little work on my presentation for the show and in the evening, we attended the Amiga 37 pre-party and enjoyed free pizza and an open bar. It was great meeting up with all my Amiga friends after almost 2 years of isolation due to international travel restrictions. I even made some new ones. Everyone was in a celebratory mood which was boosted by a generous open bar and servings of soup and pizzas. At the end of the night, Matthew and I went back to our hotel room with Dave Haynie and Costel Mincea to finish off the whisky. It was 4:00 am before Costel and Dave left. :) What was that comment about overcoming jet-lag?
After 3 hours sleep, we got up, had breakfast and made our way to the Kunstwerk centre which was a 25-minute taxi ride away. A-EON Technology, Amiga Kit and Amedia Computer were sharing a joint display stand under AAA Technology, a joint venture company they formed to sell Amiga hardware and software in Europe. Laurent and Frank from Amedia had brought along a large selection of Classic Amiga hardware and software as well as X5000 computer systems for sale. Two X5000 systems were set up running the latest versions of AmigaOS 4.1 and MorphOS. A-EON resident Linux expert and beta tester, Christian Zigotzky supplied his MorphOS hard drive, and he and his wife Nadine helped with the AAA Technology display. It was good to see both next-generation operating systems running on the X5000.
Amedia had a busy two days and ended up selling one X5000/40 system at the show and another online. At one point over the weekend Christian had an issue with his MorphOS hard drive and with assistance from Frank Mariak and the MorphOS team they helped to fix the problem and get the X5000 system back up and running. The MorphOS team also had an X5000 running MorphOS powering a wide screen display on their stand. They also showcased a beta version of MorphOS Power-Up v3.13 running on an A4000D equipped with a Phase5 Cyberstorm PPC accelerator running at 420MHz with G-Rex 4000D PCI bus, 4dfx Voodoo 3 graphics card and X-surf Ethernet card.
The Amiga Future stand, supervised by Andreas Magerl, was close to the AAA Technology display area and included Petro Tyschtschenko as a special VIP guest. I had a nice chat with Petro and he proudly showed me a large selection of photos from the time Commodore Germany sponsored Bayern Munich football club. He said Commodore sponsored the team for ~16 million DM during the period 1984-89. He presented me with a signed copy of the Bayern Munich team photo.
The Apollo team had an extensive and impressive stand with a variety of Vampire V4 and accelerator cards on display. Having recently become a new owner of a V4 system they gave me a replacement battery module to take back with me to New Zealand.
I had a long chat with Sean Donohue of My Retro Computer Ltd who was demonstrating his C64 & VIC20 ‘breadbin’ inspired PCs running the latest version of the Linux based Commodore Vision OS. Following the death of Barry Altman, Sean purchased many of Commodore USA’s assets, acquiring the case moulds, website and some stock. We discussed his recent successfully completed Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns which raised a massive £157,078 from 564 backers to create officially licensed Commodore branded C64 PCs supplied in the C64 breadbin case, smashing his initial funding goal of £25,000. If you followed his Kickstarter campaign, you would know that it was temporarily suspended due to Intellectual property dispute claim lodged by Commodore Industries (also known as Commodore Engineering). However, following an intervention by Eugene Van Os of Commodore Corporation BV, who confirmed that My Retro Computer was licensed and authorised to use the Commodore brand, Kickstarter allowed the campaign to proceed. Unfortunately, according to Sean, it is not the end of challenges from other third parties who object to his C64 case design.
In addition to Costel, Timothy De Groote, another former Hyperion Entertainment director turned up at the show on Saturday. We had a brief chat about the future of Hyperion and took the chance for a photo opportunity. Hey, who said 3 wise monkeys? ;) Ben Hermans, the main Hyperion Entertainment shareholder also attended the show. He and Matthew Leaman had a discussion covering several key issues. I encouraged Ben to meet with Michael Battilana of Amiga Corporation/Cloanto to see if they could find any common ground to resolve their legal impasse. They had a long face to face meeting on Saturday afternoon which I attended as an observer. Again, many issues were discussed. I'm not sure if it will produce any positive results but at least they agreed to keep on talking.
There was so much cool and interesting hardware and software projects on display including some excellent retro classic machines for sale. The Akiko 32, a mini-ITX hobby development motherboard was on display along with a portable version build into a laptop case. Marvin Droogsma, the mercurial MC of Amiga 30 Amsterdam had an amazing collection of boxed retro Amiga systems for sale, many of which I have never seen before. Unfortunately, I was travelling from New Zealand with hand baggage only so could not take any of them off his hands!
Of course, Amiga 37 was not just about the vendor display area. A continuous programme of presentations ran throughout the weekend with such luminaries as original Amiga developers Dave Haynie and Ron Nicholson along with Jon Hare, Tim Wright, Mike Clarke from the gaming industry and many others. David Pleasance, the former Joint MD of Commodore UK and my co-author of the ‘From Vultures to Vampire’ trilogy revealed plans for his Commodore Amiga Global Alliance (AGA) initiative, his ambitious plan to provide a centralised resource and information database bringing together the whole Amiga community of enthusiasts, developers, retailers and magazines. Please visit his provisional website for more information.
Apart from the displays and presentations, Amiga37 is also a chance for Amiga enthusiasts to socialise and enjoy some triple-A fun. The buffet dinner on Saturday evening was very well attended with plentiful food and good German beer. Before we tucked into our dinner, I had the privilege of making a short address to thank Markus and his team for organising Amiga37 and to thank the community for keeping the Amiga dream alive.
After dinner it was off to the Retro Party at Projekt42. I must admit, suffering from a combination of jetlag and lack of sleep, I sneaked away with Ron Nicholson just before midnight with Mike Clarke escorting us back to our hotel. I still woke up at 3 am.
My presentation with Enrico was the last event of the show on Sunday and I was surprised how many people were still around to hear our talk. We talked about our respective Amiga Next-generation journeys and outlined our joint plans for release of the A1222 Plus, Enrico alsotalked about the final Sam460 LE production run and revealed details of a PowerPC notebook ACube were developing for the GNU/Linux Open Hardware PowerPC project. During our presentation I made a throwaway comment about not wanting to see AmigaOS 4 running on a PC. I truly believe that any computer that aspires to carry the Amiga name should be a whole system complete with branding. Personally, I don’t care whether it is running on 68k, PowerPC, ARM or even x86 but it must look and feel like an Amiga system. Simply running AmigaOS 4 on any PC hardware does not make it an Amiga IMHO. If you don’t agree with me that is your prerogative and we will have to agree not to agree. At the end of the show, I had the privilege of presenting Markus with a special commemorative Amiga37 framed poster signed by all the VIP attendees. It was a hectic few days but I still had time to be interviewed by Andy Caulfield of Bedrooms to Billions for his latest filming project.
After Amiga37 closed a group of us, including Dave Haynie and Ron Nicolson, met up for a farewell dinner and after the meal we ended up in the lobby of our hotel for a few drinks before saying our last goodbyes.
There are too many Amigans to mention in this short update but here are a few who I remember talking with: Stephen Leary – Terrible Fire accelerators, Stephen Jones – Checkmate Digital, the incomparable Dan Wood & Ravi Abbot, Marcel Franquinet – A1200.net, John Hertel of ReAmiga fame, Jan Zahurancik – Amikit, Dimitris Panokostas - AmiBerry, Adam Spring – Remotely Interested podcast, David ‘Skateman’ Koelman OS4 & Linux tester, and George Sokianos – OS4 developer, Steven Fletcher – The Commodore Story, Tomasz Marcinkowski – Warp/Pixel Magazine, Jens Schönfeld – Individual Computers, Daniel Müßener – Golden Code - plus everyone else who I talked to but can’t remember your name! You know who you are. ;-)
Finally, I want to thank the Amigan who presented me with a small bottle of Jagermeister to help with my throat. You will be pleased to know that Dave Haynie helped me finish it off. Also, many thanks to Tony Schiffbauer from Pittsburgh who gave me, Michael Battilana and Ravi Abbot a ride back to Dusseldorf airport on Monday morning.
Amiga37, what an event! (dr)
[News message: 30. Oct. 2022, 05:27] [Comments: 2 - 21. Nov. 2022, 05:05]
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29.Oct.2022
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AmigaOS 4.1: Introduction to Software Development Kit V54.16, part 2 (update)
Tree weeks ago we had published the first part of the introduction to Hyperion Entertainment's recently updated Software Development Kit (SDK) V54.16 written by Josef Wegner. Now the second part:
"AmigaOS 4.1 SDK 54.16 - How to install it?
In the second article I will show how to install the SDK. Since I unfortunately cannot go into every individual configuration, I assume that AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition Update 2 is already installed. However, it is irrelevant whether further software or the Enhancer 2.2 is installed.
What is required for the installation?
As mentioned in the first paragraph, update 2 of AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition should be installed. Besides that you need:
- enough time; on a PPC Amiga the installation takes 10 - 20 minutes
- 200 - 920 MB free space on a NGFS or SFS drive (preferably another drive besides the system drive) for the installed SDK
- 350 - 400 MB additional free space on a (different) drive for unpacking the archive
- the installation archive
Are there things I should do before installing?
Yes, there are one or two things you should do before you install the SDK
installed:
The first thing you should do is make a copy of your S:User startup. Apparently
there is a bug in the installer program or installer script, that the
last line is deleted from the user startup. After the installation compare both
files, and make sure that nothing is missing.
The second thing is, if you have an older SDK installed, you should remove or comment out the old one from your s:User startup file or comment it out. The lines in question are the following ones:
;BEGIN AmigaOS 4.1 SDK
assign SDK: Work:SDK
execute SDK:S/sdk-startup
;END AmigaOS 4.1 SDK
Delete these lines or comment out the assign/excute with a ;. As
next you should reboot the Amiga and finally delete or rename the old
SDK directory, move it or rename it.
Now it is best to download the installation archive from Hyperion's website and
transfer it to the Amiga if necessary. The second step is to unpack the archive to a destination where you have enough space: this can be done with the standard program Unarc of AmigaOS 4.1 or Archiver from the Enhancer 2.2 or the command line tool "LhA". Depending on what is installed. I personally prefer the command line, so I run the following:
13. > Temp: > lha -a x SHARE:SDK-54.16.lha
The option "-a" tells LhA to restore the attributes (date, permissions). "x" stands for extract the files with full path. The
last part tells LhA where the installation archive is stored.
Unpacking the installation archive alone takes 3-4 minutes.
Enough time to get a coffee for the next step.
The next step is to start the installer "Install SDK" in the freshly unpacked
directory "SDK_Install":
And then select the components of the SDK:
A full installation with all four GCC versions requires
a bit more than 900 MB. On a NG system (SAM, X1000, or X5000) there should be no space problems. On a Classic system you should limit yourself to
one of the four GCCs. This saves about 500MB and some time during the
the installation. A complete installation with all four GCCs takes about 10 minutes on my X5000. On Classic systems or WinUAE it takes
significantly more.
After succesfully installed it...
...you should check, if Startup file is fine and if these new lines have been added:
;BEGIN AmigaOS 4.1 SDK
assign SDK: Work:SDK
execute SDK:S/sdk-startup
;END AmigaOS 4.1 SDK
Then you can reboot and skip the following chapter. In the chapter after next we will test the SDK and compile the first program.
What do I do if it didn't work?
Not enough disk space? The safest thing to do is to delete the SDK that you did not finish installing. Then you can either install the SDK with fewer options, install it on a different drive, or clean up the drive and then try again.
Archive error?
I had this during an installation. Solution was as above, delete failed attempt and try again.
Error unpacking the installation archive or writing the files?
Please make sure that the SDK is installed on a local drive, preferably formatted with SFS or NGFS. Also, please do not use a shared drive in (Win)UAE. If this is already the case and there are still errors, you should check the drive for errors. With NGFS this can be done with the command:
NGFCheck Work:
"Work:" stands for the volume name or the drive.
SDK was installed. What comes next?
Now we can finally use the SDK. In article 1 it was said that the SDK comes with several GCCs and the VBCC. So let's see if all of them work. If at least one GCC is installed, we can see with the following command if the GCC is found and which version of the GCC is currently used:
gcc -v
....gcc version 8.4.0 (adtools build 8.4.0)
The SDK provides several GCCs. How can I change the GCC?
Use the tool "set_defGCC" in SDK:Tools for this. This directory is not in the search path, so you have to open it either with the Workbench or the full path.
sdk:Tools/set_defGCC
A small window appears where you can choose between the four GCC versions. But you can also specify the version directly in the Shell. To do this
appends the desired version after the command. To select GCC 11, enter the following in the Shell:
4. > Workbench: > sdk:Tools/set_defGCC 11
4. > Workbench: > gcc -v
...gcc version 11.2.0 (adtools build 11.2.0)
But be careful, you can also choose a GCC that is not installed. In this case the Shell will not find a GCC anymore. To solve this, call the tool again and select an installed GCC. If VBCC is also installed, you can test it with the following command:
vc -v
vc frontend for vbcc (c) in 1995-2020 by Volker Barthelmann
No objects to link
Now we can run the first test program. As usual, we write a HelloWorld program in standard C, which would also compile and run on another system without code changes.
Enter the following lines in the editor of choice and save them somewhere as "hello.c". Please leave out the line numbers!
RAM Disk:Shared/Sources/hello/hello.c
1 #include <stdio.h>
2 int main(void)
3 {
4 printf("Hello World!\n");
5 return (0);
6 }
To compile and start in a Shell, run the following:
For the GCC:
3. > RAM Disk:Shared/Sources/hello > gcc hello.c -o hello
3. > RAM Disk:Shared/Sources/hello > hello
Hello World!
With the VBCC:
3. > RAM Disk:Shared/Sources/hello > vc hello.c -o hello
3. > RAM Disk:Shared/Sources/hello > hello
Hello World!
What have I done?
I don't want to dive too deep into the structure and peculiarities of C here. But I'll try to explain briefly which line does what in the program.
- Line 1: This is not a C command but a command for the C preprocessor to include another file called stdio.h. The preprocessor prepares the program code for further compilation steps and improves the functionality, spelling and readability of the entered code. Besides including so-called header files, the preprocessor can define constants and replace them later in the code, remove comments, or show and hide code parts (conditional compilation). The file stdio stands for "STanDard Input Output" and contains the function definition for the "printf" method. This method outputs the passed string on the command line. The program would compile and run even without this preprocessor command. However, the compiler would issue warnings.
- Line 2: This is the declaration of the entry function. So that C knows where the program begins, one must define this differently than with script languages. In C it is done by defining the main function (=main). This must have either the form
int main(void)
or
int main(int argc, char **argv)
The first form ignores the parameters when calling the program, the second one passes the number of parameters (int argc) and an array of the parameters as C strings are passed to the method.
- Lines 3 and 6: The curly braces define a code block. With this we tell the compiler that everything in between (line 4 + 5) is part of the function.
- Line 4: Here we call a method of the C standard library that prints the string on the Shell.
- Line 5: The keyword "return" sets the return value of the function. A return statement terminates the execution of a function and returns control to the calling function. The value 0 means: okay! You should always set a return value, but it is not required like in Java.
Not everything is needed for an executable program. If you want to have (and ignore) many warnings from the compiler, you can write the program much shorter:
main(void) { printf("Hallo Welt!\n"); }
If C lacks the return or variable type, C simply takes int (integer type).
Known problems
- I get a GrimReaper when starting the compiled program!
Try to compile the program on a different drive. This happens for example when you compile the program on a shared host drive under WinUAE. Linking the generated object files fails without any message. What comes out is not a real program, and pretty quickly an invalid PPC assembler command is executed, which brings up the GrimReaper.
- I tried to debug the test program but get a weird SIGBUS error:
3. > RAM Disk:Shared/Sources/hello > gcc -gstabs hello.c -o hello
3. > RAM Disk:Shared/Sources/hello > hello
Hello World!
3. > RAM Disk:Shared/Sources/hello > gdb hello
....Starting program: /RAM Disk/Shared/Sources/hello/hello...
...Program received signal SIGBUS, Bus error.
0x00000000 in ?? ()
(gdb)
This is not an SDK or GDB problem, but a bug in the X5000 kernel. There is a beta kernel where this problem is fixed, but it is not publicly available.
What can I do until the third article is published?
First of all, I'm glad you made it this far. The following links might be interesting:
We are done! In the third part we will go a little deeper into the syntax of C."
Update: (29.10.2022, 19:50, dr)
The main developer of the SDK, George 'walkero' Sokianos, has read the tutorial with interest and expresses his thanks for Josef's commitment. He also has three additions that we would like to add here:
- A lot of information on how the SDK is set up and how the compilers can be used is mentioned in the introduction pdf file that can be found in the installation folder. It would be good for people to read that document if they are not familiar with the SDK.
- Different GCC versions can be used by using the binary based with the specific version added at its name, i.e. gcc-11 or gcc-6.
- If AmiCygnix is installed the user must make sure that the lines that are added in user-startup must are before the AmiCygnix lines, so to avoid problems with its software.
(dr)
[News message: 29. Oct. 2022, 06:59] [Comments: 1 - 29. Oct. 2022, 20:10]
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29.Oct.2022
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Motorola68k emulation: Emu68 tests and driver development for Compute Module 4
Developer Michal Schulz regularly provides background information and status updates on his Motorola68K emulation Emu68 for the ARM architecture on his Patreon page. In his latest entry he not only reports about the experiences on the Amiga37, but also announces that due to the still to be developed firmware for the PiStorm32-lite variant he will use the time to make all necessary improvements and corrections to Emu68 and the low-level drivers, which are necessary to make them work properly with Compute Module 4. These are specifically intended for use in proprietary electronic hardware (see heise.de article). If successful, this would give us another variant that could be used in the A500 or A600. (dr)
[News message: 29. Oct. 2022, 05:47] [Comments: 0]
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28.Oct.2022
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Workbench distribution: AmiKit XE for Raspberry Pi 4/400 as Amiga37 edition
As AmiKit had announced in advance (amiga-news.de reported), the Workbench distribution AmiKit XE for the Raspberry Pi 4/400 is now available as a physical product in the Amiga37 Limited Edition: it contains a bootable 64GB microSD card with preinstalled AmiKit (and DevPack) in a branded case (with slots for up to 24 microSD cards). (dr)
[News message: 28. Oct. 2022, 20:27] [Comments: 0]
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28.Oct.2022
MorphZone (Forum)
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MorphOS: Web browser Wayfarer 4.3
Jacek 'jacadcaps' Piszczek has released version 4.3 of his web browser Wayfarer for MorphOS, which now includes the full WebKit WebInspector. Detailed changes:
- Implemented the full WebKit WebInspector
- Deprecated Eruda
- Enabled anchor's download attribute
- Implemented download support for data blobs and data URLs
- Fixed BigInt64 types in TypedArrays
- Optimized some TypedArray operations
Download: wayfarer.lha (29 MB) (dr)
[News message: 28. Oct. 2022, 07:56] [Comments: 0]
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28.Oct.2022
Seiya (ANF)
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PDF magazine: REV'n'GE 139 (Italian/English)
Besides the Italian original issue, the PDF magazine REV'n'GE ("Retro Emulator Vision and Game") is also available in English. The magazine's reviews compare, if available, the different ports of classic games to the various platforms of their time.
Amiga-related, the current issue is about "Street Fighter II: The World Warrior" and "Fiendish Freddy's Big Top O' Fun". (snx)
[News message: 28. Oct. 2022, 07:32] [Comments: 0]
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28.Oct.2022
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Programming language: Amiga C/C++ Visual Studio Code Extension 1.6.3 (update)
Bartman', member of the demo group 'Abyss', provides with 'amiga-debug' a 'Visual Studio Code' extension for "compiling, debugging and profiling Amiga C/C++ programs compiled by the bundled gcc 11.2 with the bundled WinUAE" (YouTube video). Today version 1.6.2 has been released. Changes:
- Linux, MacOS is now supported thanks to Peter Mackay and Graham Bates.
- Please do report any problems here
Update: (28.10.2022, 18:08, dr)
Today, version 1.6.3 was released, which restores the lost file permissions on Linux and macOS. (dr)
[News message: 28. Oct. 2022, 05:31] [Comments: 0]
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27.Oct.2022
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Feature test in AMOS: Update for mingame None Of Us
The group 'ELECTRIC BLACK SHEEP', known among other things for the fantasy shooter Project Quest, which is currently in development, had released a minigame called "None Of Us" three weeks ago, which is intended to test how to obscure the player's opponents with light and shadow in AMOS Pro (YouTube video).
In an update released two days ago, a slightly different design of the graphics and the map has now been implemented, so that the demo looks more like a cartoon. Likewise, there is now an editor version for testing, which can be used to create your own maps - which the authors explicitly encourage. (dr)
[News message: 27. Oct. 2022, 21:08] [Comments: 0]
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27.Oct.2022
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Tech-Demo: Last update for "Street Fighter 2" port
"Street Fighter 2" is the attempt to recreate the well-known beat'm up on the Amiga using the Scorpion Engine in a better way. The author is not going to develop a full game but hopes to inspire other developers. Now he has released a last update. The source code is supposed to be released soon on the Scorpion Engine Unofficial Demos repository. Changes:
- Added Shoryuken move and sound to Ryu
- Special moves are mapped to "Forward + C" (Shoryuken) and "Backward + C" (Hadouken)
- Added more energy to Ken to have more fun
- Added some grace time after Ken dies before playing the winning stance
- A bit more accurate parallax scrolling values
- Fixed bug where punch and kick animation could be performed mid air
- Fixed initial camera position jump after fade in
(dr)
[News message: 27. Oct. 2022, 20:36] [Comments: 0]
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27.Oct.2022
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Report: The AmigaOne XE, second part (Czech)
In the first part, Martina Hřebcová devoted herself to the AmigaOne XE in its entirety and subjected it to various tests. In the now published sequel she deals in detail with the use of various graphics cards and prepares test results and correlations in this very detailed article with elaborate graphics and screenshots. (dr)
[News message: 27. Oct. 2022, 14:42] [Comments: 1 - 27. Oct. 2022, 14:49]
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27.Oct.2022
Amigaworld.net (Webseite)
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Event: Amiga Apollo Meetup in Alkmaar (NL)
On November 19, the "Amiga Apollo Meetup" will take place in Alkmaar, the Netherlands. Hosted by the Dutch Apollo Vampire user group, all other Amiga and AmigaOne systems are also welcome. Social exchange is the main focus, but there is also enough space and tables to bring your own devices. Several Vampire cards will be on display and the current release 9 of ApolloOS will be shown.
The entrance fee of 15 Euros includes the cost of food and drinks, registration is by e-mail to party@amigascene.nl. More information in Dutch can be found at the title link. (snx)
[News message: 27. Oct. 2022, 11:27] [Comments: 0]
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27.Oct.2022
Thomas Wenzel (ANF) (ANF)
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Audio player: AmigaAMP 3.32 released
Thomas Wenzel wrote: After the code has been developed for a long time, I dared to release AmigaAMP 3.32 into the wild. With the 68k version, the use of decoder plugins (so-called "engines") specially adapted to AmigaAMP is possible again. So far, however, there is only one engine for WarpOS. Here is the complete list:
- Bug fixes:
- Loading whole directories now automatically expands playlists found in these directories.
- Fixed wrong behaviour when double clicking on a playlist stream entry while another stream is still in connecting status.
- Fixed handling older visualisation plugins which use an early version of the API.
- New Features:
- Each playlist entry now has its own error status.
- More detailed documentation about AmigaAMP's settings.
- 68k: Support for coprocessor plugins a.k.a. "engines". The .engine files go into the Plugins directory and can be enabled in the Decoder tab of AmigaAMP Preferences.
- 68k: Support for 10-band equalizer settings according to MHI spec v1.2
However, according to initial findings, this new version probably unfortunately triggers a still unknown bug in the ZZ9000AX MHI driver on some systems, so that playback simply never starts but stops at 0 seconds. Prisma Megamix and other MHI drivers do not seem to be affected. (dr)
[News message: 27. Oct. 2022, 10:59] [Comments: 0]
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27.Oct.2022
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Video review: "Apollo Icedrake - The fastest Amiga accelerator ever made?"
In a video, the YouTube channel 'Odd & Obsolete' presents the Apollo Icedrake accelerator card for the Amiga 1200 and describes his experiences and impressions. (dr)
[News message: 27. Oct. 2022, 07:56] [Comments: 0]
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27.Oct.2022
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Linux: Stable long-term kernel 5.10.149 for AmigaOne X1000/X5000
Parallel to new kernels (amiga-news.de reported), Christian 'xeno74' Zigotzky also provides the latest version of the stable long-term kernel for the AmigaOne X1000 and X5000. It is suitable for old Linux distributions that do not work with the latest kernels, such as Ubuntu 10.04, or if users have problems with the latest kernels.
Download: linux-image-5.10.149-X1000_X5000.tar.gz (71 MB) (dr)
[News message: 27. Oct. 2022, 06:44] [Comments: 0]
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27.Oct.2022
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AmigaOS 4.1: NovaBridge V54 available
As announced at last weekend's AmiWest 2022 (see our summary of the event), Nova Bridge is now available separately via the AMIStore for about 50 Euros (plus taxes and fees).
NovaBridge allows all 3D applications written under the old Warp3D and MiniGL to work on modern RadeonHD graphics cards (Southern Islands or Polaris). The current version of Warp3D Nova from Enhancer Software 2.2 is required. After purchase, NovaBridge is available for download in the form of the w3d_novabridge.library in the update tool and must be copied to SYS:Libs/Warp3D/HWdrivers (cf. Wiki entry on NovaBridge). (dr)
[News message: 27. Oct. 2022, 06:04] [Comments: 0]
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26.Oct.2022
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AmigaOS 4.1: SDL 2.24.0 Release Candidate 2
At the end of August, Juha 'capehill' Niemimaki had published the first release candidate for version 2.24.0 of the multimedia library SDL for AmigaOS 4.1 (amiga-news.de reported). The library is intended to make it easier for programmers to develop portable applications and is used by numerous open source games. SDL requires AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition and optionally OpenGL ES 2.0. Today he has published the second release candidate with the following changes:
- Add more game controller mappings
- Add SDL_GetPreferredLocales support, currently hard-coded to en_GB
- Fix a crash issue due to missing nullptr check
(dr)
[News message: 26. Oct. 2022, 20:47] [Comments: 0]
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26.Oct.2022
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Dock: QDock V0.98 released
Sami Vehmaa not only tries to simplify programming in AmiBlitz 3 for others using his programming aid AB_Template, he also develops various applications and games himself like his Tetris clone for RTG-Amiga's Atris or his MP3 player Reel Deck. His latest project: a dock similar to WBDock 2 or AmiDock, which he named QDock and released the first version 0.98 of it today (YouTube video).
As he writes, QDock comes closest to his idea of a dock - in terms of programming skills. QDock requires some CPU power because animated graphics are permanently active. When it's not in use, CPU requirements are reduced to the point where it still feels responsive. A maximum of 25 icons can be arranged in the GlowIcons format, with a minimum of ten icons to keep the menu and text visible. QDock has an integrated user manual for ease of use.
The tool is available for three Euros or more and is primarily intended for emulators or Apollo cards due to the high CPU requirements. It requires AmigaOS 3.2 (3.1 might work as well, but not tested), graphics board and 22 MB RAM. (dr)
[News message: 26. Oct. 2022, 18:29] [Comments: 0]
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25.Oct.2022
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Programming language: AmiBlitz Pre-Release 3.9.7
A few moments ago, Pre-Release 3.9.7 of the programming language AmiBlitz has been released. Changes:
new:
- environmentlib: added command to check, move and clear the vbr (works only with 68010+)
- added the possibility to the debugger to move the vbr (only on 68010+ systems)
- added documentation for AsmExit (Docs/Blitzlibs/SYSTEM1.guide)
changed:
- compiler directives "SYNTAX" and "OPTIMIZE" are now capitalized tokens
- operand sizes for assembler instructions (.b, .w, .l) can now be entered capitalized (.B, .W, .L)
- the compiler understands now shift-operators "<<" and ">>"
- the compiler now allows ROL/ROR instructions to be used in basic code, e.g. test.w = $F0 ROL 2
- rewrote loading of source files other than "ab3"
fixed:
- crash when moving lines to top via ALT+CURSOR up/down
- crash when trying to copy a single line selection, if it had been selected from right to left
- holding SHIFT-CURSOR up/down did not work continously, just once
- the vbr-chcking of the debugger did not work correctly
- fixed bug in function to display standard (not tokenized) text
- crash when loading text files other than ".ab3"
- crash when undeleteing a line
- autoindent of cursor did not work
(dr)
[News message: 25. Oct. 2022, 20:18] [Comments: 0]
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25.Oct.2022
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SCSI-SD adapter: ZuluSCSI firmware 1.1.1
ZuluSCSI is a new generation of file-based SCSI hard disk and CD-ROM drive emulators. ZuluSCSI emulates a SCSI-I or SCSI-2 hard disk using an SD memory card (amiga-news.de reported). Version 1.1.1 of the firmware was released today. Changes:
- Add support for FAT filesystem without partition table
- RP2040: Fix reading very last SD card sector
(dr)
[News message: 25. Oct. 2022, 20:12] [Comments: 0]
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25.Oct.2022
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Video: Lets Make a Halloween Game in AMOS
In his latest video, Robert Smith explains how to program a fun Halloween themed puzzle game in AMOS. (dr)
[News message: 25. Oct. 2022, 06:39] [Comments: 0]
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25.Oct.2022
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Linux: "Pale Moon" browser V31.2.0
After Christian 'xeno74' Zigotzky recently compiled version 40.0 of the Artic Fox browser for Linux PowerPC (32 bit), which is based on the Pale Moon browser (amiga-news.de reported), he could now compile version 31.2.0 of the "Pale Moon" browser for Linux PowerPC (32 bit), which was released in August 2022, and make it available for the AmigaOne Linux distributions MintPPC, Debian Sid, Fienix, and Void. He also recommends installing the Palefill add-on to improve compatibility with many websites such as GitHub.
Downloads:
palemoon-31.2.0.linux-powerpc-gtk2.void.tar.gz (Browser, 55 MB)
palefill-1.23.xpi (Add-On, 50 KB) (dr)
[News message: 25. Oct. 2022, 06:15] [Comments: 0]
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25.Oct.2022
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Module player: NostalgicPlayer 1.8.0 for Windows
NostalgicPlayer is a program for playing Amiga music modules under Windows, based on APlayer. The development of the player had been started by the author Thomas Neumann in 1993 on the Amiga, later continued on BeOS and now on Windows. Besides numerous improvements, version 1.8.0 now includes a ProWizard agent that can convert numerous formats. (dr)
[News message: 25. Oct. 2022, 05:56] [Comments: 0]
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25.Oct.2022
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Bitmap graphics program: GrafX2 V2.8
Artur Jarosik has updated his port of the DPaint and Brilliance-inspired, SDL-based pixel graphics program GrafX2. This version 2.8 includes the following changes:
Port improvements:
- Window mode by default
- Better path handling
Amigaspezifische Änderungen:
- Amiga icon (in .info files) loading
- Amiga Extra Half Bright palette support
A graphics card is required. (dr)
[News message: 25. Oct. 2022, 05:41] [Comments: 0]
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25.Oct.2022
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Action adventure: Demo version of "SNAKY - The Mysterious World" available
Yoz Montana is developing a new action adventure called "SNAKY - The Mysterious World" (YouTube video). As part of an "Early Access" promotion, you can support this and other game developments of the studio by buying the demo version for the equivalent of about five Euros or more. An Amiga with 030 processor and AGA are required. (dr)
[News message: 25. Oct. 2022, 05:26] [Comments: 0]
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24.Oct.2022
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Trading simulation with RPG elements: download version of 'Aquabyss' available
The trading simulation 'Aquabyss' (screenshots, video), which was released at Amiga 37 a week ago, is now also available in the developer's web shop for just under 30 euros . The one-week delay was caused by problems with payment provider Paypal, which have not yet been completely resolved.
Payments can be made by traditional bankwire or manual PayPal payments. In both cases, the e-mail address used for registration in the shop must be specified as the intended purpose. If PayPal is used as the payment method, the amount due must be entered manually when paying. After the purchase, you have to look up the information 'ID' and 'Key' required for playing in the provider's shop, the programmer tried to illustrate the process with a simple sketch.
When sales started a week ago, the developer warned against playing the game on Vampire cards because they were simply "not 100% Amiga compatible". He is now retracting that statement (German, registration required). Users of the Apollo Discord channel apparently figured out that the problem was caused by the illegal workbench distribution 'Coffin OS': After disabling some (unspecified) commodities, the game works fine on the FPGA hardware. (cg) (Translation: cg)
[News message: 24. Oct. 2022, 19:11] [Comments: 0]
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24.Oct.2022
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Print / PDF magazine: Amiga Addict, issue 16
The sixteenth issue of the British magazine "Amiga Addict" is available. The current issue contains the following topics:
- We feature the masters of adventure point-and-click games, Lucasfilm Games in our six-page cover special.
- A new Amiga laptop solution for taking miggy software out and about!
- Ben Vost was one of Amiga Format's most passionate and dedicated editors - he was also the last! We catch up with Ben in an exclusive interview.
- 3D Amiga rendering artist Paul Kitching captures our hearts with his amazing scenes and backstory.
- Classic Amiga gaming with reviews and articles on DreamWeb, Sink Or Swim, Stardust and Lemmings 2 The Tribes.
- Hollywood v9 programming language and suite of development tools is reviewed.
- Get your WHDLoad game emulation rig working properly with our setup tutorial.
- Blackpool Play Expo show report.
- AmigaRemix joins us to discuss his passion for mods and remixing chiptune music.
- One of the best image processing systems on the Amiga is put through its paces as we test ImageFX.
- Amiga Addict regulars including user groups, news, readers letters and Stoo Cambridge of Sensible Software fame.
Amiga Addict can be ordered as print edition or as a PDF download, each as a single issue or as a subscription. (dr)
[News message: 24. Oct. 2022, 06:12] [Comments: 0]
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23.Oct.2022
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Amiwest: A-EON, Amigakit and ExecSG presentations
Traditionally, representatives of the AmigaOS 4/AmigaOne camp are attending AmiWest to give presentations about the current state of affairs and announce the next releases being worked on. This year, Trevor Dickinson and Matthew Leaman from A-EON/Amigakit were videoconferencing into the show while Steven Solie from the ExecSG team gave a presentation on site. We have briefly summarized the most important points from both presentations; the associated slides can be found at the end of this news item. A recording of the entire first day of AmiWest - including the presentations discussed here - is already available online.
A-EON's next PPC motherboard 'A1222 plus' (originally: 'Tabor') is scheduled to be shipped to end customers early next year. Dickinson considers Enrico Vidale's (ACube) statement from Amiga 37, that endusers might receive their boards in January "typical Italian optimism", he believes delivery in February or March to be more likely. The final price hasn't been decided yet - but they're trying to stay as close as possible to the original goal of offering the cheapest possible entry-level system. However, global bottlenecks in electronic components and the resulting higher prices have increased production costs significantly. Initially, 200 motherboards are to be produced, of which 100 are reserved for participants in the Early Adopter program.
Due to a shortage of P5020 CPUs, the X5000 motherboards currently being shipped by A-EON are already equipped with a P5040 quad-core processor. The price for these machine is therefore a bit higher, but the final pricing is set by the respective dealer. Said dealers would also take care of bundling the hardware with a properly licensed AmigaOS 4 (editor's note: A-EON no longer has OS4 licenses itself).
Version 2.3 of the in-house software bundle Enhancer Software will be a free an update for existing customers, it will contain "new components" in addition to an update of the 3D driver system Nova. A new version of 'Enhancer Core' will be released in October. The latter is a free compilation of the most important libraries and system modules from the enhancer package, which is intended to ensure better acceptance of the corresponding components by third-party developers and users.
A-EON's attempt to establish an operating system that has no ties to Hyperion is apparently called "Enhancer Software V54" currently and is described as a "self-booting distribution that requires an AmigaOS 4.1 license". The project now also has its own TCP stack: A PPC port of AmiTCP that also supports DHCP. However, according to Dickinson, publishing the distribution will require "6 to 9 months" of additional development time.
Novabridge, which supplements Nova with the old Warp 3D interfaces and thus makes old applications run on systems with modern graphics cards not supported by Warp 3D, was originally planned as an exclusive component of Enhancer Software V54. But due to significant interest from customers, it will also be sold separately via the in-house app store AMIStore. A price or a release date were not announced.
The second and third parts of the book series From Vultures to Vampires, originally planned as a single volume and now expanded into a trilogy, have now also been completed. Dickinson expects the second part to be released "early next year", the digital release will probably come first. The last volume will then be published shortly thereafter, that book's layout is still being worked.
Dickinson has now received a video showing the current state of the LibreOffice port from the responsible programmer Hans-Jörg Frieden, which he will publish as part of his next blog entry. The AmigaOS 4 implementation has been "completely revised" again, the betatesting will start "soon".
For ExecSG - which Dickinson expressly presents as his personal property, not that of A-EON - project manager Steven Solie explains that there are currently two variants of the kernel: Firstly, a single-core variant, which has received numerous optimizations and improvements, and which he intends to publish as soon as possible. Agreements or negotiations with Trevor Dickinson and Hyperion are still necessary here in order to clarify the exact procedure. He wants to offer ExecSG for free for "as long as possible".
Secondly, a version of the kernel with multi-core support already exists. The operating system always runs on the first core, while other tasks are currently randomly assigned to one of the available cores - in later versions, a scheduler will of course always select the currently least utilized core. However, the multi-core variant of the kernel is still very prone to crashing and is difficult to debug. A demonstration of the multi-core kernel can be seen at A-EON's AmiWest booth, but Solie describes it as "not very exciting because it keeps crashing".
In addition to minor improvements to the kernel (refer to the slides below), work is currently being done on porting the multi-core variant to A1222 plus, after which an adaptation to the AmigaOne X1000 is being planned. Solie hopes that porting the multi-core kernel to the other systems will provide new insights, since other processors are used there.
In addition to working on the kernel, Solie is also responsible for firmware updates. The U-Boot versions for X5000 and A1222 plus not only received various bug fixes, but will now also correctly initialize the additional cores of the multi-core CPUs used in these machines. Firmware updates will be distributed "soon" via A-EON. Once they're installed, the respective computers will then be "multi-core ready".
The X1000 also requires a firmware update for multi-core support. According to Solie, the problem here was that the sourcecode for the 'CFE' firmware used in that particular machine was lost - fortunately it was found again in the meantime. However, the system is so old that it can no longer be compiled with current compilers - which is why Solie is currently trying to set up an older system with the help of a virtual machine, which will then hopefully produce executable binaries.
All slides of the A-EON/Amigakit presentation (Trevor Dickinson, Matthew Leaman)
All slides from the ExecSG presentation (Steven Solie)
(cg) (Translation: cg)
[News message: 23. Oct. 2022, 22:57] [Comments: 0]
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23.Oct.2022
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Aminet uploads until 22.10.2022
The following files have been added until 22.10.2022 to Aminet:
HollywoodSP.lha dev/hwood 776K Hollywood 9.1 spanish catalog...
PyPlayer.zip dev/src 1.1M 68k Audio Player for Python 1.4.0...
device-streams.lha disk/misc 88K 68k blkcopy RDB part <> file/stre...
mhimasplayer.lha driver/aud 34K 68k MHI driver for MAS-Player (st...
FlashMandelNG_OS4.lha gfx/fract 32M OS4 Mandelbrot & Julia fractals AOS4
AmiArcadia.lha misc/emu 4.6M 68k Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiArcadiaMOS.lha misc/emu 4.9M MOS Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiArcadia-OS4.lha misc/emu 5.1M OS4 Signetics-based machines emul...
NAFCYI1991S1-B25.zip text/bfont 2.1M NAFCYI Spring 1991 (BMP Fonts)
NAFCYI1991S1-B26.zip text/bfont 2.5M NAFCYI Spring 1991 (BMP Fonts)
NAFCYI1991S1-B27.zip text/bfont 2.4M NAFCYI Spring 1991 (BMP Fonts)
NAFCYI1991S1-B28.zip text/bfont 2.3M NAFCYI Spring 1991 (BMP Fonts)
NAFCYI1991S1-25.zip text/pfont 1.6M NAFCYI Spring 1991 (PS Fonts)
NAFCYI1991S1-26.zip text/pfont 2.0M NAFCYI Spring 1991 (PS Fonts)
NAFCYI1991S1-27.zip text/pfont 1.8M NAFCYI Spring 1991 (PS Fonts)
NAFCYI1991S1-28.zip text/pfont 1.8M NAFCYI Spring 1991 (PS Fonts)
deark.lha util/arc 3.2M 68k Extract data from various fil...
IdentifyDev.lha util/libs 67K 68k Identify hardware and more
IdentifyUsr.lha util/libs 98K 68k Identify hardware and more
ReportPlus.lha util/misc 637K 68k Multipurpose utility
ReportPlus-OS4.lha util/misc 805K OS4 Multipurpose utility
Lupe.lha util/wb 388K 68k The magnifying glass program
SteMarRegDOSScripts.lha util/wb 11K 68k 7 AmigaDOS scripts by Stefano...
(snx)
[News message: 23. Oct. 2022, 08:19] [Comments: 0]
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23.Oct.2022
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OS4Depot uploads until 22.10.2022
The following files have been added until 22.10.2022 to OS4Depot:
spotless.lha dev/deb 3Mb 4.1 Your favorite debugging tool
amiarcadia.lha emu/gam 5Mb 4.0 Signetics-based machines emulator
flashmandelng.lha gra/mis 32Mb 4.1 Mandelbrot & Julia fractals ...
reportplus.lha uti/mis 805kb 4.0 Multipurpose utility
lupe.lha uti/wor 388kb 4.1 The magnifying glass program
(snx)
[News message: 23. Oct. 2022, 08:19] [Comments: 0]
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23.Oct.2022
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AROS Archives uploads until 22.10.2022
The following files have been added until 22.10.2022 to AROS Archives:
cls.i386-aros.lha uti/mis 4kb CLear Screen command. just like IBM
(snx)
[News message: 23. Oct. 2022, 08:19] [Comments: 0]
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23.Oct.2022
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MorphOS-Storage uploads until 22.10.2022
The following files have been added until 22.10.2022 to MorphOS-Storage:
Deark_1.6.3.lha Files/Archive Extracting data from va...
CloudDav_1.7.lha Network/Streaming A WebDav client
TinyGL-Update-2022-10-... System/Update This is the fifth publi...
(snx)
[News message: 23. Oct. 2022, 08:19] [Comments: 0]
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23.Oct.2022
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WHDLoad: New installers until 22.10.2022
Using WHDLoad, games, scene demos and intros by cracking groups, which were originally designed to run only from floppy disks, can be installed on harddisk. The following installers have been added until 22.10.2022:
- 2022-10-22 improved: Thunder Blade (Sega) imager fixed (Info)
- 2022-10-22 improved: Ambermoon (Thalion) added support for improved Ambermoon version 1.17 (Info)
- 2022-10-22 improved: Thunderhawk (Core Design) supports another version (Info)
- 2022-10-22 improved: Batman the Caped Crusader (Ocean) supports another version, fixed freeze on fast CPU (Info)
- 2022-10-22 updated: Streetfighter 2 (Capcom/U.S.Gold) imager fixed (Info)
- 2022-10-22 improved: Projectyle (Eldrich the Cat) splash window support, new imager, manual added, new icons and install script (Info, Image)
- 2022-10-22 improved: Oriental Games (MicroStyle/MicroProse) 68000 quitkey, new install script (Info)
- 2022-10-22 fixed: Castle Master 2 - The Crypt (Incentive/Domark) install script (Info)
- 2022-10-22 fixed: Cardiaxx (Electronic Zoo/Team 17) 'highs' file creation if trainer is used (Info)
- 2022-10-22 improved: Awesome (Psygnosis) 68000 quizkey (Info)
- 2022-10-20 improved: Night Breed (Action) (Ocean) supports another version, less chip memory required, trainer enhanced, 68000 quitkey, new install script (Info)
- 2022-10-20 improved: Castle Master 2 - The Crypt (Incentive/Domark) using fast memory, adjustable speed regulation, 68000 quitkey (Info)
- 2022-10-20 improved: Cardiaxx (Electronic Zoo/Team 17) imager updated, trainer improved, high score saving, new install script (Info)
- 2022-10-20 improved: Awesome (Psygnosis) 2nd button remap, int fixed, trainer added (Info)
(snx)
[News message: 23. Oct. 2022, 08:19] [Comments: 0]
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23.Oct.2022
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Handheld console: Blaze Entertainment announces Amiga games
Evercade (Wikipedia entry) is an ARM-based handheld console from the British manufacturer Blaze Entertainment. According to Mike Battilana's announcement at Amiga37 (video), also Blaze now announces at the title link that they have entered into an agreement with Amiga Corporation to bring Amiga games from various publishers, which have not yet been named, to the Evercade starting next year. (snx)
[News message: 23. Oct. 2022, 08:19] [Comments: 0]
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23.Oct.2022
Andreas Magerl (ANF)
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Print magazine: Amiga Future, issue 159 - preview and excerpts
Preview and excerpts of Amiga Future issue 159 (November/December 2022) have been published online meanwhile at the title link. Contents include Playfield as well as reviews of "Riamel - Black Prophecy" and the Freeway clockport version.
Amiga Future magazine is available as an English and a German printed magazine and can be bought directly from the magazine's editorial office as well as several Amiga dealers. (snx)
[News message: 23. Oct. 2022, 08:19] [Comments: 0]
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23.Oct.2022
Passione Amiga (ANF)
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Italian print/PDF magazine: Passione Amiga, issue 10
The Italian magazine "Passione Amiga" is available in digital (3 Euro) or printed (7,50 Euro) form. Its current issue consists of 48 A4 color pages and includes the following topics:
- Videogames reviews: Athanor 2 AGA - The legend of the Birdmen, River Raid Reloaded, None of Us, Minky
- Books reviews: Darkage Software - the story, A Hobbyist's Guide to THEA500 Mini
- Reportage: Passione Amiga day 2022, Amiga 37
- Amiga CD³² special
- Blender course, part 2
- Uncompromising rendering
- AmigaOS 3.2.1 update guide
- Interviews with: Jon Hare (Sensible Software), Federico 'Wiz' Croci (Simulmondo)
- Plus: Games news, Tech news, THEA500 Mini news, Demo scene, New Talents, MailBox
(snx)
[News message: 23. Oct. 2022, 08:19] [Comments: 0]
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23.Oct.2022
Thomas Wenzel (ANF)
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Updated MHI drivers for MAS-Player (standard/pro)
Thomas Wenzel writes (translated): Some time ago, in the course of the MHI revision, I also fixed a bug in the MAS player driver. At that time, however, I had only published the new driver in the developer archive mhi_dev.lha, which meant that it could hardly be found on Aminet and the old archives mhi_MASPro.lha and mhi_MASStd.lha still appeared in the search. Therefore, I have now uploaded the new drivers - both versions together - in the archive mhimasplayer.lha. (snx)
[News message: 23. Oct. 2022, 08:19] [Comments: 0]
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23.Oct.2022
Andreas Magerl (ANF)
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APC&TCP: IncaMan & Emotiworld as boxed version available
APC&TCP offers the games IncaMan and Emotiworld (amiga-news.de reported) now also as boxed version, consisting of the floppy disk, a booklet and an A3 poster.
While IncaMan is about collecting diamonds, EmotiWorld is about collecting hearts. Both games require at least an Amiga 500 with 512 KB Chip- and as much Fast-RAM, the latter one also includes an AGA version. (snx)
[News message: 23. Oct. 2022, 08:19] [Comments: 0]
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23.Oct.2022
Scene World Podcast (ANF)
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Scene World Podcast Episode #150 - Floppy Totaal
In the 150th edition of the Scene World Podcast, Jörg Dröge and Arthur Heller talk to Niek Hilkmann and Thomas Walskaar from "Floppy Totaal", the authors of the recently mentioned book "Floppy Disk Fever". The interview starts at minute 19:08. (snx)
[News message: 23. Oct. 2022, 08:19] [Comments: 0]
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22.Oct.2022
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Linux tutorial: Using the Fienix distribution on the X5000, part 1
Amiga-News.de editor Daniel Reimann has taken on the topic of Linux on his AmigaOne X5000 and reports:
Preface and introduction
When I bought my AmigaOne X5000, I did not intend to test Linux on it. I wanted to take a closer look at AmigaOS 4, which I only knew by playing around with WinUAE (see manual in the forum), and at MorphOS, which I got to know for the first time under QEMU (experience report) .
The reason, why I approached the topic Linux at all, were quite practical nature: neither AmigaOS 4, nor MorphOS offer at present a current writing program. And: even if you switch to one of the existing editors, you still can't print for a long time. At least not me with my Canon Pixma MP640, which has already many years on the hump, but unfortunately is not supported. My intention when buying the X5000 was to be able to use a computer that is as complete and suitable for everyday use as possible, without having to use the Windows laptop again for this or that application. Otherwise, the invested high sum would not have been justifiable in my opinion. In this respect, I see it as an absolute advantage to be able to run three different operating systems on the AmigaOne X5000 and thus to exhaust and combine all application possibilities.
Linux itself was and is completely new territory for me. That's why I was looking for a simple and uncomplicated way to try out the OS. So-called live installation images are a good way to do this: an image is created from an existing Linux installation on the hard disk, which is written back to a USB stick or SSD card using a tool and is bootable. No installation is necessary.
Four distributions are basically possible on the X5000 (and X1000): besides Fienix (versions 3 and 5.1), the independent distribution Void (Mate 1.26.0), there is also MintPPC (version 3 "Cindy") and Ubuntu Mate (version 16.04). As Linux and Amiga expert Christian 'xeno74' Zigotzky - many thanks at this point for the great support - explains, the maintainer of Void PPC will discontinue this distribution at the end of the year. Mint PPC is currently not being developed further and some repositories of Ubuntu Mate have been removed, making it impossible to update. In his opinion, Fienix is therefore the only sensible and, above all, future-proof distribution for the AmigaOne. It is based on Debian Sid, but only includes packages from Debian that work. Additionally, some programs are added that Debian does not have, such as various web browsers, games etc.
Fienix
Therefore, I chose Fienix. I had been running version 3 successfully for a while, but for this article and of course for myself I wanted to use the latest available version 5.1. However, this turned out to be more difficult than I thought: to write the image back to a USB stick, a tool is needed. For Windows users like me the USB Image Tool is the first choice. In contrast to the image of version 3, the image of version 5.1 contained until a few days ago only the Fienix partition, but no boot sector and no boot partition. The mandatory boot partition had to be created by the user, but then the write back with the USB Image Tool in "Volume Mode" did not work. Alexander Beug, the developer of the tool, provided great support here, but in the end the problem could only be solved by asking the creator and maintainer of the Fienix distribution, Casey Cullen, to provide a complete image, which was done now. Many thanks, Casey!
So how exactly do we go about creating a USB stick with Fienix 5.1?
On the download page of the distribution select the appropriate computer system, in my case the AmigaOne X5000, which takes you to the U-Boot page. There download the archive ("fienix_5.1-spark-fulldisk.img.gz", 2.4 GB) and unpack it.
Only recently version 1.90 of the USB Image Tool was released, which we also download ("usbit.zip", 822 KB), unzip and start:
The "Device Mode" is already preset. By means of "Restore" we select the just unpacked image of the Fienix distribution:
If writing back the image has been successful, then two drives are available under Windows after completion:
- "FIENIX-BOOT" with the required files "cyrus-p5020.dtb", "uImage-5.10" and "uInitrd-5.10"
- and another drive which cannot be accessed
The "uImage" file contains the kernel. There is already version 6.0 available, which we download and copy the file "uImage-6.0" from the unpacked directory "X5000_and_QEMU_e5500" to the "FIENIX-BOOT" partition (and delete the old uImage file if necessary).
The "uInitrd" file contains the initial ramdisk. It is best to take it from the long-term kernel 5.10.149 archive. Done!
In the second part we will look at how to start Fienix.
(dr)
[News message: 22. Oct. 2022, 06:06] [Comments: 1 - 01. Nov. 2022, 09:21]
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21.Oct.2022
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Programming language: Amiga Blitz Basic 2 Visual Studio Code Ext. 0.8.0
At the end of August we reported on the merging of Youen Chéné's fork of the Visual Studio Code Extension created by 'MickGyver', which adds support for Amiga Blitz Basic 2 (and Amiblitz), and the first joint release of version 0.7.0. Today version 0.8.0 has been released, adding experimental support for CDTV and CD32 and fixing a bug that prevented the file from opening in the BB2 editor. (dr)
[News message: 21. Oct. 2022, 12:21] [Comments: 0]
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21.Oct.2022
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Kung Fu action: "Devil's Temple" released
After numerous preview videos (amiga-news.de reported), Geezer Games has just released "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.
"Devil's Temple" can be purchased as a digital version for at least 19 pounds sterling, the equivalent of around 22 euros, on itch.io and is available as an adf, CD32.iso, hard disk, WHD and A500 mini file. A demo version is also available.
Furthermore, the game can be purchased as a boxed edition for the equivalent of around 40 Euros plus shipping. You can get an impression of the boxes under the news tab. (dr)
[News message: 21. Oct. 2022, 12:07] [Comments: 0]
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21.Oct.2022
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Block-oriented copying: Device-Streams 2.2.0
At the beginning of October, Roc Vallès i Domènech had updated the Amiga tool "Device-Streams" for block-oriented copying, similar to UNIX command dd, which was originally developed and released by Christian E. Hopps in 1993 (amiga-news.de reported). In the meantime, versions 2.1.0 and 2.2.0 have been released adding support for Trackdisk 64 and NSD.
Download: device-streams.lha (88 kB) (dr)
[News message: 21. Oct. 2022, 05:59] [Comments: 0]
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20.Oct.2022
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Event: AmiWest 2022 starts / Question submission
AmiWest 2022 starts today at the Holiday Inn Express in Sacramento, California, as a combined online and on-place event. The highlights should certainly include the question and answer session with Trevor Dickenson, Matthew Leaman and Steven Solie (A-EON). Interviews with David Pleasance, Jens Schönfeld, Hans De Ruiter and Jacek Piszczek are also planned, all of which will take place on Saturday and Sunday respectively (see schedule).
As in previous years, there will be a live stream via Youtube, which will again be hosted by Bill Borsari. He will also conduct the interviews and has invited the readers of Amiga-News.de to submit questions for the interviews in the comments section. (dr)
[News message: 20. Oct. 2022, 06:47] [Comments: 2 - 22. Oct. 2022, 05:37]
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20.Oct.2022
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Video: Short tutorial for AMOS Pro
In another part of his series of short tutorials about AMOS Pro (amiga-news.de reported) the retro and Amiga fan 'Yawning Angel' explores if it is possible for an AMOS program to open and read from a Text file created in a text editor under Workbench, treating it as a Random Access file. (dr)
[News message: 20. Oct. 2022, 06:12] [Comments: 0]
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19.Oct.2022
Twitter
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Graphics card ZZ9000: New firmware version 1.12.1 (update)
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 1.12 was released with the following new features:
- MP3 streamed decoding support (via MHI)
- 10 band DSP EQ (via MHI)
- New p2d_rect implementation
- copy_rect_nomask fix
- NEOR minterm fix
- BlitPlanar2Direct() fix, enable BIF_BLITTER support
- Z2 RTG driver speedup by caching blitter registers
Update: (20.10.2022, 09:22, dr)
In the meantime version 1.12.1 is available, which fixes a slowdown bug of the Ethernet task. Many thanks to our reader 'TomSoniq'for the hint. (dr)
[News message: 19. Oct. 2022, 22:14] [Comments: 0]
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19.Oct.2022
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Temptations port for CD32: First demo version available
The developer 'S0Y' is primarily dedicated to converting games to the Amiga platform using the game construction kit RedPill. After his Abu Simbel Profanation project, he had begun converting the Jump'n Run Temptations, originally published for MSX-1 in 1988. The basis for his conversion is a port for Android, which graphics he uses with the author's permission, but modifies some of them (amiga-news.de reported).
Today, the developer has not only released a new preview video, but also a first, early demo version of the first level. (dr)
[News message: 19. Oct. 2022, 21:15] [Comments: 0]
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19.Oct.2022
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Jump'n Run: Minky V1.2
Minky (video) is a Jump'n Run in the style of Super Mario or Giana Sisters, which requires an Amiga 500 with one megabyte RAM (amiga-news.de reported). With the now released update to version 1.2, the sound should be heard on all ACA turbo cards. The author has also removed some code glitches. (dr)
[News message: 19. Oct. 2022, 06:04] [Comments: 0]
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19.Oct.2022
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Fantasy shooter: Third level for "Project - Quest"
A third level for the fantasy shooter "Project - Quest", which is currently in development (amiga-news.de reported), has now been published under the title link (video). (dr)
[News message: 19. Oct. 2022, 05:59] [Comments: 0]
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19.Oct.2022
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Tech-Demo: Update for "Street Fighter 2" port
"Street Fighter 2" is the attempt to recreate the well-known beat'm up on the Amiga using the Scorpion Engine in a better way. The author is not going to develop a full game but hopes to inspire other developers. The update for the playable demo version includes the following changes:
- Screen mode changed to EHB allowing perfect sprite coloring
- Background replaced with the SNES version (more accurate proportions)
- Added copper sky
- Optimized panels palettes
- Optimized sounds
(dr)
[News message: 19. Oct. 2022, 05:55] [Comments: 0]
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18.Oct.2022
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Event: Review of Amiga37
Last weekend the Amiga37 took place in Mönchengladbach. We would like to summarize here for our readers what there was to see for news, but also interesting observations at the fair:
- according to ACube and Trevor Dickinson the A1222 boards (Tabor) will be produced at the end of the year and should be available at the beginning of next year
- price will be similar to the Sam boards, so it should be around 900 Euro
- an A1222 board was shown on site, but not in operation
- ACube's laptop is supposed to be an open source laptop with a T2080 PPC CPU and upgradeable GPU, which can also run AmigaOS 4
- The MorphOS team showed a beta version of MorphOS on an A1200 and A4000 (with PPC cards)
- The Apollo team is working on baords for the A3000 and A4000
- also working on the possibility to boot (and play) from ADF
- in addition, a cable is being developed to connect a floppy drive to the V4 so that you can boot from floppy instead of ADF
- Ben Hermans was also at Amiga37 and talked to Mike Battilana, Matthew Leaman and Trevor Dickinson
- Alinea Computer presented their new Subway 2021 USB card: up to four USB interfaces are provided on the Amiga with clockport. These interfaces are compatible to USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 specification (no high-speed mode)
- a Subway Power Adapter for the old Subway was shown as a prototype, which can provide more power for USB devices like hard disks or cell phones (up to 800 mA are possible). The card also has built-in overload protection and will also be available for the Subway 2021.
- Nico Barbat and Simon Neumann introduced their new publishing company Look Behind You and presented two news:
- the card game Amiga Duel: 32 Amiga models have been lovingly illustrated and researched, printed on cards and now compete against each other by features such as year of manufacture, innovation, computing power or kickstart. The card game is available for around 13 Euros
- the book Die Geheimnisse von Monkey Island (The Secrets of Monkey Island) is a homage to the adventures of the ingenious pirate and has been published in a German first edition for about 25 Euro
- Daniel 'Daytona675x' Müßener showed the latest version of his soccer game in 3D look Souverän Soccer:
- in addition to bug fixes and engine tuning, features such as kicking in, fouls, free kicks, penalties and a jumping goalkeeper have been added
- Triace, member of the group Desire, has composed two great pieces of music for the game
- all this can be seen in his latest preview video, recorded live at Amiga37
Those who would like to get an impression with the help of videos:
- Video by Jörg "Torque" Klopsch and McFly
- Video by "Alles Spielkram": DAS war die AMIGA 37
- Video of the live stream from 16.10.2022
Last but not least: On the occasion of Amiga37 Amiga Kit has published a detailed second blog entry. (dr)
[News message: 18. Oct. 2022, 21:44] [Comments: 0]
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18.Oct.2022
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Developer diary: Inspired by Powermonger, part 2
n the first part of his developer diary Daniel Bratton reported how he started to reprogram the board of the game Powermonger with the intersecting lines (amiga-news.de reported). In the second part he now publishes the complete code for generating the map and the polygon, which is also available on GitHub. (dr)
[News message: 18. Oct. 2022, 06:20] [Comments: 0]
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17.Oct.2022
Andreas Falkenhahn (ANF)
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Hollywood APK Compiler 4.2 released
Press release: Hollywood APK Compiler 4.2 has just been released. This is a minor update which adds support for the latest target API requirement for uploading apps to the Google Play Store. This update is provided free of charge for all existing APK Compiler customers and can be downloaded in the restricted download section. (cg)
[News message: 17. Oct. 2022, 21:58] [Comments: 0]
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17.Oct.2022
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Trading simulation with RPG elements: Aquabyss
The game 'Aquabyss', first announced in 2018 with a teaser video, was released on Amiga 37 last weekend in a pre-release version. The game is a trading simulation in the style of Elite - without 3D sequences, but with various RPG elements. The game is set in a steampunk underwater world at the beginning of the 19th century.
Aquabyss is delivered on a floppy disk, which downloads the rest of the game data from the Internet during installation. However, an Internet connection is not necessary to actually play the game, it only makes some comfort functions available, such as saving game scores to the game server. Updates can be downloaded and installed directly from the game or - if the Amiga is not connected to the net - manually. Aquabyss can be installed on any number of computers, but only one computer can connect to the server at a time.
At the Amiga 37 a floppy disk version was available for just under 37 Euros, at the same time the distribution of the digital version for 30 Euros was supposed to start - the latter, however, failed due to a server problem, which the provider wants to fix as soon as possible. Aquabyss requires 2 megabytes of chip and 8 megabytes of Fast RAM, and the computer must also be connected to the Internet during installation. Theoretically, Aquabyss is compatible with a 68000 processor, but a 68030 is recommended for smooth gaming.
What is currently being distributed is explicitly still a pre-release version of Aquabyss: Users report crashes and program errors, saving game saves did not work at first and the German translation still has various gaps. However, the game is constantly being worked on, the faulty save function was corrected during the Amiga 37, for example. Known problems are minor incompatibilities with OS 3.2.1 - which is already being worked on - or with Apollo-based turbo cards.
As for the Apollo problems, the vendor refers to the developers of this FPGA-based processor replica: The number of problems varies from one version of the Apollo core to the next, there is no possibility to intervene - the Apollo core is simply "not 100% Amiga compatible".
Editor's note: We would like to thank 'Endee' from the a1k forum for kindly allowing us to take his screenshots. (cg)
[News message: 17. Oct. 2022, 21:57] [Comments: 0]
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17.Oct.2022
Prince (Mail)
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Video tutorial: Episode 33 of assembler coding course / Racing Cars Game Jam
'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 (amiga-news.de reported). Now episode 33 was published.
Furthermore he started the Racing Cars Game Jam. As with the Retro Trex Game Jam (amiga-news.de reported), the idea behind this jam is to expand the knowledge and awareness of retro computers. This time consoles are also allowed. The challenge is to create an identical, cloned or original version of a car racing game. Some examples are listed on the website. At the end of the contest, there will be a live stream showing all the games. The contest will run until December 18, 2022. (dr)
[News message: 17. Oct. 2022, 06:07] [Comments: 0]
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17.Oct.2022
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Magnifier tool: Lupe 2.1 for AmigaOS 3, 4 and MorphOS
At the end of June Matthias "UltraGelb" Böcker released version 2.0 of his magnifier tool for MorphOS and AmigaOS (amiga-news.de reported). Now he has released version 2.1, which also supports AmigaOS 4. The changes:
- Added italian AmigaGuide documentation translated by Samir Hawamdeh.
- Added an TEXTFRAMETYPE option to change the type of frame that is to be drawn around the coordinates and RGB displays.
- The window can now also be moved around by using the cursor keys or the numeric key pad. The 'immovable' option has no effect on this. For details/qualifiers please see the documentation.
- 68k version now uses z.library (http://aminet.net/util/libs/zlib.lha) for PNG saving. The z.library that comes with MUI5 also works.
- Added support for application.library/ringhio on OS4 to notify the user when an image was saved.
- Added native support for OS4 intuition screen notifications when WB wants to close/reopen.
- Added native support for iconify and jump-screen gadget if OS4 is detected.
- There is now an OS4 native compile of Lupe.
- Added a 'Pause' mode that can be activated either by Project menu and its menu key, just pressing space when the Lupe window is active or by a definable hotkey (see PAUSEKEY argument/ToolType).
- The 68K version of Lupe now checks for zlib.library at program start and if there isn't it will disable the 'Save PNG' menu item.
- There is now a bonus drawer which at the moment only contains an alternative glow icon by Luca (thanks for the icon :-))
- Double-clicking the Lupe window while holding the SHIFT key will move the Lupe window to the back now if it's not set as a frontdrop window. Useful when set to borderless.
- Double-clicking the Lupe window will bring it to font now if it is not set as a backdrop window.
- Added glow icons done by Mikhail Malyshev which will be used from now on for the 68K version of Lupe.
- Added HORIZSLIDER option to have the zoom-slider in the bottom border of the window instead of the right border.
- FRONTDROP option is now simulated on classic AmigaOS and does a timed WindowToFront() every now and then.
- Added BACKDROP and FRONTDROP options to have the window either always stay in the background or in the foreground respectively.
- Added WINDOWBORDER option.
- Added padding for RGB and and coordinates texts between frame and text. Use XTEXTPADDING and YTEXTPADDING to change the padding horizontally and vertically respectively.
- Added 'Open Icon-Info' menu item to the 'Settings' menu to open the icon info window on the workbench of Lupe's icon. This mostly makes sense with the ICONNOTIFY option to have another way to edit all options without the need to restart Lupe.
- Reworked the menu structure. Instead of having just the 'Project' menu, screen related items are now in the new 'Screen' menu. Settings related items were moved to a 'Settings' menu.
- Improved scaling/blitting so that there are no small black borders anymore on the right and bottom sides.
- Lupe will now try to use the systems default font (gfxbase.defaultfont) before using topaz.font as a final fallback.
- You can now specify your own font Lupe will use to display Coordinates and RGB using the UserFont argument.
- Fixed broken error handling for the PNG saver in the Amiga68k version.
- Coordinates and the RGB pixel value are no longer drawn in the window border but instead are drawn in the window itself now.
- Added russian catalogs by Mikhail Malyshev.
- Added italian catalogs by Samir Hawamdeh and Luca Longone.
- Added visual prefs Iconify gadget support, so Lupe now also sports an iconify gadget on OS3.x if visual prefs is running or the standalone 'tbiclass' (aminet/dev/gui/titlebar_ic.lha) is installed.
- Mouse wheel zoom can now be inverted by tooltype or CLI argument INVERTWHEEL.
- Lupe will now open its AppIcon at 0,0 when iconified.
- Added some missing localisations in the about requester.
- Lupe now displays its name and version in the screen title when the window is active.
- Fixed an enforcer hit when parsing CLI arguments that are defined as /K/S.
(dr)
[News message: 17. Oct. 2022, 05:54] [Comments: 0]
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16.Oct.2022
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Aminet uploads until 15.10.2022
The following files have been added until 15.10.2022 to Aminet:
HWP_AVCodec.lha dev/hwood 5.9M ALL Hollywood plugin for FFmpeg c...
WhatIFF1.07.lha mags/misc 48K What IFF? #1.07-October-2022
AmiVms.lha misc/emu 3.4M 68k Simulates OpenVMS commands
WarpJPEGdt.lha util/dtype 328K 68k JFIF-JPEG datatype V45.17
WarpPNGdt.lha util/dtype 160K 68k PNG image datatype V45.26
WarpWebPdt.lha util/dtype 298K 68k WebP image datatype V45.3
AmiSSL-5.4-OS3.lha util/libs 3.3M 68k OpenSSL as an Amiga shared li...
AmiSSL-5.4-OS4.lha util/libs 3.1M OS4 OpenSSL as an Amiga shared li...
AmiSSL-5.4-SDK.lha util/libs 2.3M AOS OpenSSL as an Amiga shared li...
VATestprogram.zip util/misc 2.4M 68k Versatile Amiga Test Program
UHCGUI-Current.lha util/wb 58K 68k GUI frontend for the UHC-Tool...
(snx)
[News message: 16. Oct. 2022, 08:47] [Comments: 0]
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16.Oct.2022
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OS4Depot uploads until 15.10.2022
The following files have been added until 15.10.2022 to OS4Depot:
warpjpegdt.lha dat/ima 328kb 4.0 JFIF-JPEG datatype V45.17
warppngdt.lha dat/ima 160kb 4.0 PNG image datatype V45.26
warpwebpdt.lha dat/ima 298kb 4.0 WebP image datatype V45.3
ced_pro.lha dev/ide 1Mb 4.0 Professional IDE for AmigaOS
ced_pro_demo.lha dev/ide 528kb 4.0 Professional IDE for AmigaOS
amissl-sdk.lha dev/mis 2Mb 4.0 SDK for AmiSSL
hwp_avcodec.lha lib/hol 6Mb 4.0 Hollywood plugin for AVCodec
hwp_rapagui.lha lib/hol 7Mb 4.0 Hollywood plugin for GUI creation
amissl.lha lib/mis 3Mb 4.0 OpenSSL as an Amiga shared library
litexl.lha uti/tex 2Mb 4.1 A lightweight text editor writte...
(snx)
[News message: 16. Oct. 2022, 08:47] [Comments: 0]
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16.Oct.2022
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AROS Archives uploads until 15.10.2022
The following files have been added until 15.10.2022 to AROS Archives:
hwp_avcodec.lha dev/lib 6Mb Library Plugin For Hollywood App...
whatiff1.07.lha doc/mis 48kb Magazine in AmigaGuide
snakeme.i386-aros.zip gam/mis 3Mb Snake game with many options.
blobwars-1.19-i386-aros.zip gam/pla 65Mb Platform shooter. Rescue blobs. ...
kens_icons_v2.lha gra/ico 3Mb Glow Icons Style By Ken Lester
(snx)
[News message: 16. Oct. 2022, 08:47] [Comments: 0]
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16.Oct.2022
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MorphOS-Storage uploads until 15.10.2022
The following files have been added until 15.10.2022 to MorphOS-Storage:
IMP_3.382.lha Audio/Players Play modules from inter...
DAPlayer_1.14.lha Audio/Players Digital audio player mp...
HWP_AVCodec_1.5.lha Development/Hollywood/... Hollywood plugin for FF...
MCE_14.02.lha Games/Editor Multi-game Character Ed...
Lupe_2.1.lha System/Ambient/Utilities The magnifying glass pr...
LiteXL_2.1.0r1.lha Text/Edit Lite XL is a lightweigh...
(snx)
[News message: 16. Oct. 2022, 08:46] [Comments: 0]
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16.Oct.2022
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WHDLoad: New installers until 15.10.2022
Using WHDLoad, games, scene demos and intros by cracking groups, which were originally designed to run only from floppy disks, can be installed on harddisk. The following installers have been added until 15.10.2022:
(snx)
[News message: 16. Oct. 2022, 08:46] [Comments: 0]
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16.Oct.2022
Amiga Future (website)
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Java program: ham_convert 1.8.6
Sebastian Sieczko's Java-based ham_convert converts modern graphics files into the Amiga's HAM format. Meanwhile version 1.8.6 has been released, featuring improved multithreading that should work better with big.little configurations. (snx)
[News message: 16. Oct. 2022, 08:46] [Comments: 0]
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15.Oct.2022
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Tool: identify-library 40.2
At the beginning of October Richard Körber published version 40.1 of his identify.library (amiga-news.de reported). He has just updated to version 40.2 with the following changes:
- Added more boards
- Added French translation
- Reduced file size of library and tools by using short relocation tables
- Alert strings can now be up to 100 bytes long. The previous limit of 50 bytes was too short for some detailed strings. IdAlert() still uses a default limit of 50 characters, to maintain compatibility. Use the IDTAG_StrLength tag to extend the strings to full 100 bytes. Identify's own Guru tool uses the new limit already
Downloads:
IdentifyDev.lha (67 kB)
IdentifyUsr.lha (98 kB) (dr)
[News message: 15. Oct. 2022, 11:15] [Comments: 0]
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15.Oct.2022
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Obligement: Review of game "Wrong Way Driver"
The Obligement news site published a review of the arcade game Wrong Way Driver, which was released in 2021. The original is in French, but machine translations are provided. (dr)
[News message: 15. Oct. 2022, 08:46] [Comments: 0]
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15.Oct.2022
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Scorpion Engine: Introduction of the new positioning feature
In a recent video, Erik Hogan, developer of the Scorpion Engine, introduces a new, innovative feature of the Scorpion Engine that allows exact X/Y positioning of actors in the map as well as overriding actor variables, events and control ports.
The feature will be included in the upcoming stable version 2022.8 and is already available in the experimental branch of the Scorpion Engine. (dr)
[News message: 15. Oct. 2022, 08:33] [Comments: 0]
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14.Oct.2022
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Developer diary: Inspired by Powermonger, part 1
Developer Daniel Bratton had been "fascinated with what appeared to be a living breathing world – and that world looked like a gaming tabletop", ever since the game Powermonger came out in 1990. Since then, he said, he's always wondered how that was programmed. That eventually motivated him to learn how to program the Amiga so he could recreate it.
In the first part of his developer diary, Daniel Bratton now reports on how he reprogrammed the game board with the intersecting lines - with the help of the Visual Studio Code Extension, which he will discuss in more detail in later entries. (dr)
[News message: 14. Oct. 2022, 06:39] [Comments: 0]
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13.Oct.2022
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ACube Systems: Delivery of Sam460LE boards in November
Press release: We would like to thank all our customers for their support and patience.
Despite all our efforts to deliver the new Sam460LE by the end of September, we suffered some delay in the production and, unfortunately, the boards are still not ready for delivery.
Unfortunately, we had to make a last-minute change of some components (connectors) that are no more available and this has delayed (again) the production as we had to test the pre-production boards one more time.
After this last-minute modification, pre-production boards passed every test and are ready to go. We are expecting to be able to ship all the boards to our customers in November.
At Amiga37 in Mönchengladbach we will show the pre-production boards on which are based the final boards we will send to customers. We will update our customer as soon as we have news. See you in Mönchengladbach! (dr)
[News message: 13. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 0]
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13.Oct.2022
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Linux: Browser Artic Fox V40.0
Christian 'xeno74' Zigotzky has compiled version 40.0 of the web browser Artic Fox for Linux PowerPC (32 Bit). Basically it runs under the Linux PowerPC distributions Void PPC, MintPPC, Fienix and Ubuntu 10.04 (which are also available for AmigaOne X1000 and 5000. Mainly, the browser is meant for older resp. slow systems (e.g. G3 with Ubuntu 10.04) because it is using an older version of the Goanna engine which has a good performance on slower systems. As a result, certain pages like GitHub cannot be fully displayed.
Download: arcticfox-40.0.linux-powerpc.tar.bz2 (40 MB) (dr)
[News message: 13. Oct. 2022, 06:17] [Comments: 0]
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12.Oct.2022
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SCSI-SD adapter: ZuluSCSI firmware 1.1.0
ZuluSCSI is a new generation of file-based SCSI hard disk and CD-ROM drive emulators. ZuluSCSI emulates a SCSI-I or SCSI-2 hard disk using an SD memory card (amiga-news.de reported). Today version 1.1.0 of the firmware was released. Changes:
- Removed Apple quirks from defaulting to right-aligned strings
- Akai S1000/3000 read delay in SCSI-1 mode
- Limit drive capacity to actual file size
- Initiator compatibility fixes (RP2040 specific)
(dr)
[News message: 12. Oct. 2022, 20:35] [Comments: 0]
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12.Oct.2022
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Tetris clone for RTG Amigas: Atris V0.50
A month ago, Sami Vehmaa released a Tetris clone called Atris for Amigas equipped with graphics cards (amiga-news.de reported). This update to version 0.50 adds an easy and a hard mode, each of both with highscore. Additionally, the game now can be completely controlled with the keyboard. (dr)
[News message: 12. Oct. 2022, 18:21] [Comments: 0]
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12.Oct.2022
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AmigaGuide magazine: Issue 7 of 'WhatIFF?' released
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 (amiga-news.de reported).
Now issue 7 is available providing these topics among others:
Reviews:
- Classic Amiga Programming Book
- FastATA 4000 MK-VII
- AmiKit 8MB Expansion
- AGAClouds
- AmyTree 2022
Tutorials:
- Installing AmigaOS3.2 on AmigaOS4.1 via E-UAE
- Lightwave 101 - Editing MOD config file
- Brilliance 101 - Morphing
- Bringing IFFs over to PC/Mac
Interviews:
- AmigaLove.com - Eric Hill
- Last year`s Amiga Art Contest Winner - Hernain
(dr)
[News message: 12. Oct. 2022, 07:00] [Comments: 0]
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12.Oct.2022
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Encryption protocol: AmiSSL 5.4 (AmigaOS 3/4)
The open source encryption protocol AmiSSL has been updated to version 5.4 and is now based on the latest OpenSSL 3.0.6, which was also released yesterday. The changes:
- Updated OpenSSL backend to full compatibility with the latest OpenSSL 3.0.6 (11.10.2022) version, which brings security and other bug fixes.
- Updated root certificates to latest Mozilla-based bundle provided by https://curl.se/docs/caextract.html dated 11.10.2022.
- Added a proper Amiga-specific ossl_sleep() function, replacing the default fallback busy wait function.
- Consolidated all routines that individually open timer.device to instead use a single unified thread-safe solution.
- File locks on the OS4 libraries are released during initialisation and no longer held until reboot or expunged from memory.
- Handle setting of Roadshow TCP/IP stack type on OS3.
- Removed unnecessary multiple openings of dos.library, some of which were mistakenly never closed.
- Reworked SDK macros for split API functions to better handle when __USE_INLINE__ is not defined.
Download AmigaOS 3: AmiSSL-5.4-OS3.lha (3,3 MB)
Download AmigaOS 4: AmiSSL-5.4-OS4.lha (3,1 MB)
Download SDK: AmiSSL-5.4-SDK.lha (2,3 MB) (dr)
[News message: 12. Oct. 2022, 06:41] [Comments: 0]
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12.Oct.2022
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DIY: Remake of audio digitiser AP420
The AP420, released by Phoenix Microtechnologies in 1991, is an audio digitiser that can take a microphone or line-level input and is connected to the parallel port of an Amiga. 'wiretap-retro' has posted an updated schematic on GitHub that matches the one in the official PDF manual, with the addition of a second RCA jack so you can connect stereo audio. Likewise, he has upgraded the microphone jack, which now features a 3.5mm TRS jack. The selector switch on the board can be used to switch between the RCA input and the microphone input. (dr)
[News message: 12. Oct. 2022, 06:21] [Comments: 0]
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12.Oct.2022
English Amiga Board (Webseite)
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Commercial puzzle game: Connect
In the puzzle game "Connect", you have to connect a series of ICs in such a way that each chip receives exactly the number of connections printed on its package. The game offers over 4 billion possible board variations and can be played alone, in cooperation or against each other.
A physical version of Connect can be purchased exclusively next weekend at the "Amiga 37" in Mönchengladbach. From next week, a digital version can then also be obtained from the developer's itch.io site. (cg)
[News message: 12. Oct. 2022, 01:53] [Comments: 0]
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11.Oct.2022
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MP3 player: Reel Deck V0.71 (update)
After Atris, his Tetris clone for RTG Amigas, and AB_Template, his programming assistance for AmiBlitz 3, Sami Vehmaa had released Reel Deck, an MP3 player for Amigas with graphics card, a few days ago (amiga-news.de reported). With his update to version 0.63 he made some corrections, so that you can now move the window without problems, among other things. Required are a graphics card, a faster CPU, AmigaOS3.x, AHI and at least 20 MB FastRAM. Reel Deck costs at least 3 Euro.
Update: (12.10.2022, 18:22, dr)
In the meantime, version 0.71 is available, which should now use less CPU power: 80% less when idle and 20% less when playing. Likewise, the control keys have been revised, which should now be closer to reality. (dr)
[News message: 11. Oct. 2022, 08:06] [Comments: 1 - 12. Oct. 2022, 18:56]
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10.Oct.2022
Ko-fi
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Editor: Lite XL 2.1.0r1 for AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS released
George 'walkero' Sokianos has just released version 2.1.0r1 of the editor Lite XL for AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS (amiga-news.de reported) and explained:
"Hope you are all ready for one more release of LiteXL editor, for both AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS. This release is one of the best I made because there are a lot of new features and fixes.
This release brings the code more up-to-date with the official repository and closer to the v2.1 release, which is still in development. This means that we have the latest code as it is created by the original team, which will make future releases easier to be ported unless a huge change will happen.
Some of the included fixes are the locale problem on MorphOS, which I thought I fixed in the previous release, but I didn't. But now I hope I nailed it, but it remains to be proven. Also, fixed issues with regex selections and with some plugins that used it to recognise parts of the code, like the Markdown and PHP files.
Now, if the user right click on a folder or file at the treeview on the left side of the editor, and selects the "Open in System" option this opens at the Workbench or Ambient screen. If it is a folder a new window opens showing the contents of that folder, but if a file is selected this opens with the default tool. Even binaries can be executed that way.
Since it is the latest available code, all the plugins were updated with the latest versions, something that is necessary because the supported version changed. That means that the old plugins are not working with this one anymore. I also added extra plugins in the add-ons folder, which are tested and working fine.
One of the features I enjoy in this version is the filesystem synchronisation, which means that if a file changes outside the LiteXL, i.e. a file/folder is added/deleted/renamed, this will be reflected in LiteXL as soon as it gets the focus. Even if you change the contents of a file, a requester in LiteXL will inform the user about it. That is really useful, but it is still experimental, although it seems to work quite well.
A lot of people complained about the scrollbar at the side, that it is too small. Now, when the mouse pointer goes close to the edge of the window, the scrollbar gets bigger and it is easier to grab and move it. Hope you people like it.
This ninth release of the editor for AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS is one of my beloved and possibly the best to give you. You definitely need to try it out, if you haven't done that yet. And if you love it and find it useful please consider supporting my work here in ko-fi, as my Top Supporters do.
I highly recommend you do a new installation and do not use old configuration files, since a lot changed and this might not work well for you. Also, please read the readme file that comes in the archive for more information." (dr)
[News message: 10. Oct. 2022, 21:08] [Comments: 0]
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10.Oct.2022
Bartos Lisowski (ANF)
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C64 music emulation: PlaySid.library updated
SID (short for Sound Interface Device) is the name of the sound chip used in the VC 10, C64 and C128. (see C64-Wiki). The Playsid.library allows music players like HippoPlayer and DeliTracker to emulate this chip under AmigaOS 3.
Kari-Pekka Koljonen, developer of HippoPlayer, has forked the GitHub repo of the Playsid.library published a few days ago and modified it, so that the PlaySid.library now uses the very accurate reSID instead of the original SID emulation. A minimum of a 68060 processor is required, although the 68040 has not been tested. An FPU is not needed.
Download: playsid.library (28 kB)
(dr)
[News message: 10. Oct. 2022, 08:12] [Comments: 0]
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10.Oct.2022
Andreas Falkenhahn (ANF)
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Programming language: AVCodec plugin 1.5 for Hollywood
Press release: Airsoft Softwair are proud to announce that version 1.5 of the AVCodec plugin for Hollywood has just been released. This plugin allows Hollywood scripts to load all kinds of video and audio formats supported by FFmpeg. Version 1.5 is a minor update which introduces support for parametric stereo and contains some fixes.
Version 1.5 of the AVCodec plugin is now available for free download from the official Hollywood portal. Thanks to Hollywood's cross-platform plugin system versions for AmigaOS3 (m68k, m881), AmigaOS 4, MorphOS, Linux (ppc, arm, x86, x64), macOS (ppc, x86, x64), Windows (x86, x64), Android (arm, arm64), and iOS (arm, arm64) are provided. (cg)
[News message: 10. Oct. 2022, 00:43] [Comments: 0]
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09.Oct.2022
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AmigaOS 4.1: Introduction to the Software Development Kit V54.16, part 1
A few days ago, Hyperion Entertainment released the Software Development Kit (SDK) V54.16 (amiga-news.de reported). Our reader and AmigaOS 4 user Josef Wegner has kindly agreed to introduce us to the new SDK and its possibilities in a series of articles. We say thank you very much and hand over the scepter for the first part to Josef:
"After a break of about half a year, there is a sign of life from Hyperion Entertainment again. The company has made a new SDK available for download. But what is it? And what do you need it for? This and other questions will be answered in this and other articles. Developers or readers who have already installed and used one of the previous SDKs may now skip this article, there will probably be nothing new mentioned here.
What is this SDK?
SDK stands for Software Development Kit. Translated, it is a software development package. Developers from the classic (m68k) Amiga will instead know the term NDK – Native Development Kit. Native stands for the fact that development takes place on the Amiga itself. In contrast to cross compiling, where the development takes place on another computer and only the finished code is transferred to the Amiga and then started. For this you also need the SDK, but only certain components, and goes beyond what I want to discuss in these articles.
What can you do with the SDK?
You can compile programs in the programming language C on the Amiga and then run them. So roughly sorted by difficulty, the following is possible with the SDK:
- writing small programs in C
- learning the programming language C
- porting old Amiga programs to AmigaOS 4.1
- porting C programs from other platforms (e.g. Linux) to AmigaOS 4.1
What does the SDK include?
It contains everything to translate C source code into executable Amiga programs. More precisely there are:
- different version of GNU C compiler (gcc)
- the VBCC, also a C compiler
- documentation about the functions provided by the AmigaOS
- so called header files, which tell the compiler what the functions of the operating system are called and which parameters are expected
- a POSIX compatible environment to compile Linux/Unix/POSIX programs
- a debugger
- and other tools.
The GCC is the standard compiler on Linux and most programs on the Linux world can only be compiled with this compiler without changes. Different versions can be installed in the SDK, in the current SDK the versions 6.4, 8.4, 10.3 and 11.2 are available for selection. Usually a higher version means that the compiler has more features and is "better". But sometimes possibilities are dropped, e.g. a better support of the (still to be released) A1222 plus (Tabor), which is only included in GCC up to version 6.
The VBCC is a slim, small (compared to the GCC) compiler that supports a variety of targets, e.g. Amiga with a 680x0, MorphOS, AmigaOS 4.1, but also Atari, ARM, 6502, just to name a few. But in the SDK there is only a version for AmigaOS 4.1. If you want to program on AmigaOS 4.1 also for the classic Amigas, you need further packages from VBCC.
Very important are the so-called Autodocs, which describe all public functions of the operating system. If you want to look up the name of a function, which parameters it needs or how exactly it works, you will find it in the AutoDocs. In order to be able to read and search them better, there is a program called AutoDocViewer, which takes over these tasks.
What does SDK include not?
The SDK does not contain an IDE (integrated development environment), it is almost exclusively command line tools. If you expect an environment like Visual Studio or Eclipse, you will probably be disappointed. And there is no tutorial to help you get started.
What do you need in addition to the SDK?
To use the SDK, the command line („Shell“) and a text editor (e.g. NotePad) are required. Both are included by default with AmigaOS 4.1. However, it would be helpful to use a better text editor that has the following features:
- auto indent
- colored syntax highlighting
- scripting or calling programs directly from the editor
Depending on your preferences and budget, there are various options:
If you need even more functions, you could have a look at the following Amiga IDEs:
Unfortunately, both IDEs are not that up-to-date anymore and especially CubicIDE needs some adjustments to make it work on AmigaOS 4.1 with the current SDK.
In the further articles I will dedicate myself to installing the SDK, writing small programs, explaining the difference between standard C and Amiga programs and how to compile Linux/Unix libraries and use them on AmigaOS 4.1."
(dr)
[News message: 09. Oct. 2022, 13:44] [Comments: 0]
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09.Oct.2022
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Aminet uploads until 08.10.2022
The following files have been added until 08.10.2022 to Aminet:
SoS_robots.lha demo/aga 10M 68k Robots by System of Sound
wla_dx_v10.3.lha dev/cross 6.6M 68k WLA DX - 8-bit CPU Cross Macr...
REDPILLGameCreator.lha dev/misc 2.7M 68k Game Creator with AGA support
device-streams.lha disk/misc 88K 68k blkcopy RDB part <> file/stre...
tanx_fetser.lha game/2play 159K 68k Artillery duel for 8 players ...
MCE.lha game/edit 3.6M 68k Multi-game Character Editor
MCE-MOS.lha game/edit 3.8M MOS Multi-game Character Editor
MCE-OS4.lha game/edit 4.1M OS4 Multi-game Character Editor
OpenDUNE_AGA.lha game/strat 393K 68k Amiga port of Dune 2 (OpenDUNE)
OpenDUNE_RTG.lha game/strat 394K 68k Amiga port of Dune 2 (OpenDUNE)
DOSBox_AGA.lha misc/emu 931K 68k Amiga port of DOSBox
DOSBox_RTG.lha misc/emu 931K 68k Amiga port of DOSBox
MultiPlay.ACEpansion.lha misc/emu 14K MOS ACEpansion plugin for ACE CPC...
PlayCity.ACEpansion.lha misc/emu 16K MOS ACEpansion plugin for ACE CPC...
abcm2ps.lha mus/misc 534K MOS Convert music tunes from ABC ...
DAPlayer_68k.lha mus/play 837K 68k Digital audio player mp3, cdd...
DAPlayer_mos.lha mus/play 703K MOS Digital audio player mp3, cdd...
DAPlayer_os4.lha mus/play 1.1M OS4 Digital audio player mp3, cdd...
imp3.lha mus/play 40K ALL Do stuff on Amiga!
IdentifyDev.lha util/libs 67K 68k Identify hardware and more
IdentifyLib_FR.lha util/libs 11K French catalogs for identify....
IdentifyUsr.lha util/libs 92K 68k Identify hardware and more
ColorPicker.lha util/wb 10K 68k tool for get color from Workb...
newmeter.lha util/wb 25K 68k Shows free RAM and storage as...
(snx)
[News message: 09. Oct. 2022, 08:35] [Comments: 0]
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09.Oct.2022
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OS4Depot uploads until 08.10.2022
The following files have been added until 08.10.2022 to OS4Depot:
daplayer.lha aud/pla 1Mb 4.0 A digital audio player for Amiga
imp3.lha aud/pla 40kb 4.0 Do stuff on Amiga!
vasmm68k_mot.lha dev/cro 240kb 4.0 Portable and retargetable assembler
vasmm68k_std.lha dev/cro 234kb 4.0 Portable and retargetable assembler
vasmppc_std.lha dev/cro 199kb 4.0 Portable and retargetable assembler
billyfrontier.lha gam/act 82Mb 4.1 an arcade style action game
ottomatic.lha gam/adv 144Mb 4.1 Robot who is given the job of sa...
cromagrally.lha gam/dri 126Mb 4.1 Wildest racing game since man in...
virtualvoodoojob.lha gam/mis 2Mb 4.0 This black magic tool to do evil...
augustus.lha gam/str 3Mb 4.1 Open Source Enhanced port of Cae...
mce.lha gam/uti 4Mb 4.0 Multi-game Character Editor
(snx)
[News message: 09. Oct. 2022, 08:35] [Comments: 0]
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09.Oct.2022
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AROS Archives uploads until 08.10.2022
The following files have been added until 08.10.2022 to AROS Archives:
uhctools.i386-aros.lha uti/mis 48kb A collection of programs and scr...
virtualvoodoojob.lha uti 2Mb This black magic tool.
(snx)
[News message: 09. Oct. 2022, 08:35] [Comments: 0]
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09.Oct.2022
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MorphOS-Storage uploads until 08.10.2022
The following files have been added until 08.10.2022 to MorphOS-Storage:
abcm2ps_8.14.13.lha Audio/Tools Convert music tunes fro...
wla_dx_10.2.lha Development/Cross 8-bit CPU Cross Macro A...
SDL_2.24.1_Libraries.lha Development/Library All Libraries SDL2 : SD...
PlayCity_1.1.lha Emulation/ACEpansion Plugin for ACE CPC Emul...
MultiPlay_2.0.lha Emulation/ACEpansion ACEpansion plugin for A...
SpaceCadetPinball.lha Games/Misc Decompilation of 3D Pin...
TinyGL-Update-2022-10-... System/Update This is the fourth publ...
(snx)
[News message: 09. Oct. 2022, 08:35] [Comments: 0]
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09.Oct.2022
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WHDLoad: New installers until 08.10.2022
Using WHDLoad, games, scene demos and intros by cracking groups, which were originally designed to run only from floppy disks, can be installed on harddisk. The following installers have been added until 08.10.2022:
- 2022-10-08 fixed: Tintin on the Moon / Tim und Struppi auf dem Mond (Infogrames) prevent access fault on 68000 (Info)
- 2022-10-08 improved: Thunder Burner (Loriciel) 68000 quitkey, new install script (Info)
- 2022-10-08 improved: The Quest For The Time Bird / Auf der Suche nach dem Vogel der Zeit / La quête de l'oiseau du temps (Infogrames) made 68000 compatible (Info)
- 2022-10-08 improved: The Oath (Attic) supports another version, trainer added, 68000 quitkey, new imager and install script (Info)
- 2022-10-08 improved: Streetfighter 2 (Capcom/U.S.Gold) supports another version (Info)
- 2022-10-08 improved: Rambo 3 (Ocean) trainer added, high score saving added, 68000 quitkey, manual and icons added (Info)
- 2022-10-08 new: Postman Pat III (Alternative) done by CFou! (Info)
- 2022-10-08 improved: Grand Monster Slam (Rainbow Arts) supports another version (Info)
- 2022-10-08 improved: Godfather (U.S.Gold) access faults fixed, trainer added, 68000 quitkey, manual added (Info)
- 2022-10-08 improved: Bombjack - Beer edition (McGeezer) supports another game version (Info)
- 2022-10-05 new: Face Off / Ice Hockey (Anco) done by CFou! (Info)
- 2022-10-05 updated: Venom Wing (Thalamus/SoftEyes) default quitkey changed (Info)
- 2022-10-05 improved: Stormball (Millennium) new imager, 68000 quitkey, new icons and install script (Info)
- 2022-10-05 fixed: Harricana (Loriciel) access fault removed, new icons (Info)
- 2022-10-05 improved: Armalyte (Thalamus) splash window config, 68000 quitkey, new imager, manual added (Info)
- 2022-10-03 improved: Workbench 3.1 (CBM) minor fixes (Info)
- 2022-10-03 improved: Workbench 1.3 (Amiga Inc.) minor fixes (Info)
(snx)
[News message: 09. Oct. 2022, 08:35] [Comments: 0]
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09.Oct.2022
Amiga Future (website)
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Event: Amiga Ireland 2023
On January 13/14 the next Amiga Ireland will take place again as a regular event. The venue for the meeting, which is regularly also attended by more prominent members of the Amiga community, is as usual the Sheraton Hotel in the town of Athlone, located in the heart of the island. Tickets can already be purchased. (snx)
[News message: 09. Oct. 2022, 08:35] [Comments: 0]
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08.Oct.2022
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Amiga Kit launched Blog
Today Amiga Kit has launched his blog. Among others, these are the topics of the first entry:
- PiStorm 600
- Amiwest and Amiga37 Shows
- Floppy Disk Switcher
- Alien Breed Killing Grounds Development
- V46 commands
- AMIGA.org server update
(dr)
[News message: 08. Oct. 2022, 18:55] [Comments: 0]
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08.Oct.2022
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Jump'n Run: Minky released (update)
Minky (video) is a jump'n run similar to Super Mario or Giana Sisters, which requires an Amiga 500 with one Megabyte RAM (amiga-news.de reported about the pre-release version). Now the developer 'Matze1887' has released the full version, which offers 28 levels, each of which can be accessed directly by password. The game is available from 5.99 Euro on itch.io.
Update: (12.10.2022, 18:05, dr)
The developer has released a little update which fixes a level map glitch in Level 4 and which now shows the final picture. Please note: If you use up to 2 external drives on standard Amiga 500, then download the Add21k variant which frees some more Chip-RAM. (dr)
[News message: 08. Oct. 2022, 18:19] [Comments: 1 - 12. Oct. 2022, 18:13]
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08.Oct.2022
Martina Hřebcová (Mail)
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Report: The AmigaOne XE (Czech)
Martina Hřebcová is known for her detailed reviews and analyses of Amiga hardware, for example about the Graphic cards for Sam440ep-flex, the Pegasos I or PPC architecture evolution in Amiga world.
In her latest article, she describes her impressions and reports on various tests of an AmigaOne XE she received from a colleague in America in the spring of 2022.
(dr)
[News message: 08. Oct. 2022, 12:10] [Comments: 0]
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08.Oct.2022
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Hymn: File manager Directory Opus 4
Carl Svensson is well known for his detailed reflections and assessments on topics around the Amiga: be it the buying guide The Amiga Buyer's Guide - Edition 2022 or his philosophical reflections on the Sustainability of the Amiga.
In his latest essay, he focuses on the file manager Directory Opus 4 (DOpus, Aminet link to version 4.16), originally developed by GP Software, and discusses its advantages and especially its configurability. By the way, the successor version 5 is also freely available on Sourceforge. (dr)
[News message: 08. Oct. 2022, 08:54] [Comments: 0]
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07.Oct.2022
RetroWiki
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ACube Systems: Sam460LE boards available (update)
In a press release from mid-August, ACube Systems had announced the delivery of the Sam460LE boards for the end of September (amiga-news.de reported). Now the board is offered in the in ACube's store for 962.58 Euro including taxes and AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition but excluding memory modules.
Update: (09.10.2022, 13:48, dr)
Acube Systems has just informed us that the information that the board is listed as "In stock" in the store is misleading. Currently, the boards are still in production, the published image is from pre-production. They had to be built to make sure they work as intended. According to the current status, the boards will be finished at the beginning of November. (dr)
[News message: 07. Oct. 2022, 06:42] [Comments: 0]
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07.Oct.2022
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Emulator: WinUAE 4.9.2+ beta 1
Originally Toni Wilen, the author of the well-known Amiga emulator WinUAE, had already planned to jump to version 5 with the next release in July 2021 (amiga-news.de reported). However, in February 2022 he first released version 4.9.1 and as he now reports with the start of the beta series for version 4.9.2+ (the version number can still change), the next release will not have version number 5 either.
As he explained, there is a "huge amount of low level changes". And he continued:
"Main reason for delay is 68000 IPL timing testing. The last important part of cycle-accuracy. So far there has been 3 attempts this year, initial plan was to use serial port interrupts to generate cycle-accurately timed interrupt (connect TX to RX pin, send byte, when byte gets received, interrupt is generated). This didn't work because Paula serial port internal delays were unknown and I had no idea how to test it properly. Next plan was to use external hardware (microcontroller that pulls IPL lines). It worked but it wasn't fully cycle-accurate because of async clocks and it was annoying to use (I also didn't like requiring external hardware), it would have needed more hardware and I wanted to be it to be as simple as possible. Then we (me and ross) finally run out of weird display and CIA related tests and decided to analyze serial port timing. It took few more weeks (and also helped to confirm Paula interrupt timing). Finally serial port interrupt was usable for IPL testing. Still some tester software updates and testing to do before real work starts. This probably takes at least 1-2 months (it is soo boring..) which is the reason I plan to start beta series before IPL updates are done."
Now he has released the first beta version for 4.9.2+ under the title link. Main changes:
- Added "Ultra extreme debug" overscan mode. Complete raster is fully visible, horizontal and vertical blanking disabled (including borderblank). COLOR0 changes are always visible.
- CPU chipset bus access cycle allocation was not fully accurate. Basically addressing part of cycle and data transfer part of cycle was swapped. Has been wrong since CE mode was introduced. Fixes for example Batman the Caped Crusader. (Single cycle difference was all that was needed to fix it..). This can break some older state files.
- 68000 STOP emulation rewritten, cycle usage and interrupt start timing is fully cycle accurate now.
- If all bitplane start conditions were active except vertical DIWSTRT and DIWSTRT was written later with vertical value == current vertical, bitplane DMA started immediately but there should be 2 cycle delay. If bitplane DMA was disabled but all other conditions were already active and then DMACON was written to enable BPL DMA: DMA started 1-2 cycles too late.
- If (quite short) bitplane DMA ends before all sprite slots have been processed, remaining sprite slots can still work normally (sprites are only inhibited when internal bitplane activity signal is active). This can also trigger very nasty (previously unknown?) chipset bug: when last bitplane DMA fetch happens, sprite DMA is not anymore inhibited by bitplane DMA (sort of off-by-one bug) and if same slot has active sprite, it will conflict with bitplane DMA. It can cause unexpected DMA write to another custom register (instead of BPLxDAT), possible range is from 0x100 to 0x11E. For example if it happens to be BPLCON0 (0x100), display can get corrupted or monitor can lose sync (or shows "No signal" message) if ERSY bit gets set. (Guess how this bug was found.. It was quite confusing when very innocent looking test program suddenly caused display to lose sync only on real hardware). This is now accurately emulated and DMA debugger will log conflicts.
- Bitplane refresh slot conflicts are accurately emulated (see below)
- Added monitor sync method configuration. Default is "Combined" (matches previous UAE versions that basically combines both modes), C-Sync: use composite sync signal as sync source, HV-Sync: use separate horizontal and vertical sync signals (VGA). Some programmed modes can have differences between sync modes or only work in HV sync mode or only in C sync mode in real world. For example ECS Denise can't generate both valid C-sync and programmed horizontal blanking simultaneously. AGA does not have this limitation.
- Emulated display is now blanked if programmed display mode settings are impossible (real display would lose sync, become blanked or show "no signal"), for example really too short or really too long sync pulses, BPLCON0 ERSY set without genlock, BEAMCON0 BLANKEN or CSYTRUE and CSYNC monitor setting selected etc.. If old statefile is loaded with ERSY set without genlock: enable genlock to prevent unexpected blank screen.
- Optional display resync blank screen added to Display panel. (Simulates "modern" display mode resync delay). If not enabled, OSD FPS counter will temporarily show "---"
- DMA debugger had wrong address shown for second copper WAIT/SKIP cycle. (was same as previous read cycle)
- Hires resolution and hires BPLCON1 bit set (or shres and shres BPLCON1 bit): single pixel horizontal offset may have appeared in right side of screen. AGA and non-subpixel mode only. (Skidmarks II in hires mode)
- RTC is automatically enabled if chipset extra= and system has fast ram, slow ram or chip ram expansion.
- Higher 68000/010 integer clock multipliers (4x+) in CE mode: chipset access timing was not accurate.
- A1000 Denise bug emulated: sprites end horizontally 1 lores pixel later than bitplane horizontal window end. Currently enabled when A1000 Agnus is selected.
- Replaced internal 32-bit cycle counter with 64-bit counter, simplifies internal logic because annoying counter wrap around handling is not needed anymore.
- Playfield to playfield collision (full collision) only worked when same line had at least one active sprite. (4.9.0)
- Sprite to playfield collisions didn't work correctly (4.9.0)
- Horizontal blanking was missing if programmed screen mode was active without programmed horizontal blanking (hardwired blanking should have been active)
- CIA emulation refactored, fully cycle-accurate now. See below.
- Max allowed programmed mode non-interlaced vertical line count is now 800 (from 592), special 700+ line programmed modes are possible and compatible with real SVGA monitors.
- Statefile restore didn't restore static BPLxDAT values correctly (only affects OCS/ECS programs that use "7-plane" mode and only update BPLxDATs at startup). (broke in 4.1.0)
- Copper zero cycle special cases updated, odd/even line length difference emulated. Copper list that "overflows" to beginning of next frame special case timing emulated, if copper has pending DMA request when COPJMP happens, COPJMP startup gets delayed by 1 copper cycle. Previously copper state was reset at cycle 0 and delayed start was queued which is not correct because first line's cycles 0 and 2 are still normally available for previous frame's copper list.
- Blitter startup sometimes had extra idle cycle (4.9.0)
- Blitter line mode with blit width != 2 is now accurately emulated and draws correct strange looking "lines" (previously it didn't do anything or line was normal looking)
- Blitter interrupt started 1 cycle too late. (+1 was added long time ago becase it fixes one demo but actual bug was following INTREQ register handling)
- If Paula internally sets INTREQ bit (not by writing to INTREQ with CPU or Copper): IPL line changes 1 CCK earlier, before INTREQR read returns new bit set.
- Starting emulation or loading statefile before emulation has been started: vblank state variables was not initialized correctly, first field enabled sprite DMA too early. (4.9.0 or .1). Hardreset started was not exactly same as initial boot, CPU started few cycles later if hard reset.
- Mid screen resolution changes are now pixel perfect (AGA fully implemented, OCS and ECS Denise only partially correct)
- Save MSM6242B RTC model control registers to RTC file if they are modified. Previously only RF5C01A control registers (and NVRAM) was saved.
- Serial port interrupts and SERDATR are now cycle-accurate. (Only if CPU memory cycle exact enabled)
- Serial port transmit interrupts and SERDATR transmit related bits are now emulated even when serial port = none.
- Serial port optional loopback mode added. TX->RX. RTS->CTS. DTR->DSR+CD. This is also cycle-accurate (for cputester IPL timing testing without extra hardware, only need TX to RX jumper wire)
- Second 1M extended ROM bank is now internally split to two 512k banks. Non-aligned bank start and size caused problems in some configs.
- uaegfx Picasso96 v3.0+ mixed mode screen dragging is enabled by default. 4.9.1 required "-p96test 1" command line parameter.
- 4.9.1 uaegfx Picasso96 screen dragging without ""-p96test 1" command line parameter crashed emulated Amiga.
- uaegfx new Picasso96 features are now optional (all enabled by default). Config file only.
- uaegfx all Picasso96 functions are now fully "hardware accelerated" (uses host side native code), excluding line draw. Previously some functions only supported common minterms/mask operations, unsupported operations were handled by Picasso96 software. Minterms that read and invert destination do not anymore invert unused/alpha bits if mode has them (15bit/32bit). Always use RGBFormat parameter in D7 if available, instead of RenderInfo RGBFormat variable.
- Chipset programmed display modes (again) use horizontal blanking timing to calculate display positioning. It has been confirmed that at least some early/mid 1990s multisync SVGA monitors (for example Microvitec 1438) do also use blanking timing to calculate display size and position instead of only relying on hsync/vsync timing.
- Hardware emulated RTG boards that have physically swapped red and blue output (Spectrum, Piccolo, Piccolo SD64) had wrong colors in 24/32-bit modes.
- Piccolo Z3 and Piccolo SD64 Z3 had wrong autoconfig board logical size (which crashed the driver).
- If hardware emulated RTG board VRAM was immediately (no gap in address space) after any RAM/ROM region and JIT direct was enabled: first 4096 bytes (host CPU page size) of VRAM was not fully JIT direct compatible and any direct read or write to first 4096 bytes would not access VRAM correctly, causing unexpected graphics glitches.
- Simplified JIT direct exception handler, win32 exception context structure can be used to directly read and modify any host CPU registers, there is no need for trampolines and self modifying code.
- Chip RAM and Slow RAM initial power up pattern emulation is enabled by default (checkbox in advanced chipset). Now matches my real hardware (A500 OCS/A500 ECS/A1200) but modified configurations like ECS Agnus in rev5 (or older) mainboard don't create correct patterns. Random set/cleared bits are not generated, only all ones/all zeros repeating pattern. Pattern depends on ram chip type and manufacturer. Other chips can have different patterns.
- Disk data read returned random data even when no drive was selected (should return zeros only). Fixes corruption in original Nitro Psygnosis screen. Also fixed another related bug when no selected drives and disk sync matches side-effect that caused Juke Box 2 / Dreamdealers to hang at boot.
- Switched to Visual Studio 2022.
- Larger default GUI size and slightly larger font if Windows desktop is large enough (at least 1600*1024)
- Finally removed huge amounts of compilation warnings (excluding PCem).
- Quickstart panel initial UI element is now DF0: image selection button. Too many accidental Amiga model changes..
- DirectDraw support removed, added GDI (win32 basic GDI API) support. Function differences: exclusive fullscreen is not supported (switches to D3D11/9 if attempted), all basic scaling modes and uaegfx hardware cursor supported.
- Box art window screen shot rightmost pixel column and bottom pixel row was not visible.
- Crash dump dialog close button usually didn't do anything.
- ROM scanner dialog didn't use correct GUI size and fonts.
- CyberStorm MK I update: Accelerator and SCSI has been split. CyberSCSI module is now expansion board and has separate ROM image (works similar to Blizzard SCSI Kit). Main ROM should be only configured if CPU is 68060 because it will crash if CPU is 68040, it is only needed to disable 68060 FPU. Real CSMK1 had empty ROM socket(s) if installed CPU was 68040.
- Visual DMA debugger shows conflicting cycles as blinking red pixels.
- DMA debugger (both console and visual) better support for variable/toggling horizontal and vertical line counts.
- It was not possible to enter debugger anymore if CPU was stuck in stopped state after entering and exiting the debugger once.
- Added OR, AND and XOR operators to debugger calculator (|, &, ^)
- Debugger v command does not anymore crash if hpos or vpos is out of range.
- Debugger v command now (at least temporarily) shows Chip RAM row and column (RAS and CAS) addressing values. Very important for REFPTR and refresh/bitplane conflict behavior.
- Debugger sp command parsed attached sprites incorrectly (since the beginning).
- Changed CTRL+F12 fullscreen/windowed switch: If already switched from full-window to window. Next CTRL+F12 will return back to full-window, not fullscreen.
- Quickstart panel floppy bootblock check used current track of drive (not track 0). Broken when FloppyBridge support was added.
- Reset FloppyBridge state when changing floppy drive type to/from FB drive type to some other drive type. Fixes uae-configuration on the fly floppy drive type change to/from FB.
- Memwatch break point that crossed 64k "bank" didn't map last 64k "bank" if it was only partially needed.
- Self modifying code (smc) debugger feature now clears detected modifications if 68020+ instruction cache is flushed.
- Do not add CPU instruction history entries when CPU is stopped.
- Horizontal and vertical position is now included in debugger history output (H/HH)
- Added CPU STOP state information to DMA debugger (| = STOP idle cycle, + = STOP idle cycle and higher IPL detected = STOP ending soon)
- DMA debugger decimal horizontal cycle counter value removed, replaced with current IPL (interrupt level) line state.
- DMA debugger shows CPU opcodes in basic form ("NOP", "MOVE" etc), vertically. It looks a bit weird but didn't have better ideas..
- Advanced chipset CD32 NVRAM or C2P without CD32 CD was not fully supported.
- CD32/CDTV Quickstart mode "remembered" previous DF0: setting and didn't disable it by default (even if Quickstart panel showed it as disabled)
- CD32/CDTV Quickstart panel DF0: was not possible to select/enable.
- uaegfx automatic integer scaling supported (chooses max fully visible integer scaling multiplier), manual filter panel horizontal/vertical multipliers supported.
- END+F9 monitor switching is not anymore hardwired and can be changed using input panel. (END+F9 debug colors when in lagless vsync mode is still hardwired)
- CD audio is now always mixed with Paula audio. Separate CD audio output support removed.
- CD audio was not resumed if WinUAE was unminimized and minimize was configured to pause emulation.
- Z2 RAM configuration was unreliable. (4.9.0)
- Some American Laser Games didn't have ROM descrambling support. Added missing ROM variants.
- Added American Laser Games Quickstart support.
- If Quickstart ROM based Arcade hardware config (Arcadia or ALG) is selected, NVRAM file name is automatically set to ROM name. Genlock video file path is also set if ALG ROM is selected. Config files are not affected.
- Added all 3.1.4+ official KS ROMs to ROM scanner.
- ROM file list sorting changed, added grouping, sort by group priority first (KS ROMs, extended KS ROMs, freezer ROMs etc..), then alphabetically.
- Integer scaling had scaling artifacts that depended on window size and other variables. (Old bug)
- Added NVRAM path to Paths panel. (Arcade/CD32/CDTV hardware NVRAM files default to this path)
- Sometimes old graphics was temporarily visible in RTG modes if RTG had visible black borders (depends on scaling mode) and screen was switched and new screen had larger size/resolution.
- CTRL+C in console window does not anymore close WinUAE. (CTRL+C in newer Windows versions can work as a Copy operation)
- Added video recording file select inputevent. This also starts recording if file was selected.
- Window border FPS counter value has "R" appended if recording is active.
- Creating directory filesystem soft link didn't work (returned "object not found") in relative path mode (Windows needs absolute path when creating shortcut files)
- Directory filesystem soft links only resolved if directory containing link was listed first or if softlink was created in same session (softlink was "cached" by filesystem emulation).
- Added "Slow" flag to RAM panel. If set, selected memory bank has Chip RAM timing but is not Chip RAM capable. Advanced chipset panel "C00000 is Fast RAM" removed, it is not needed anymore. (Only affects CPU speed in cycle exact modes)
- ECS Denise Genlock features can be enabled manually: genlock_effects= or p. "brdntran" can be used to force enable BPLCON2 BRDNTRAN bit, "brdrblnk" to force enable BPLCON2 BRDRBLNK bit. Separated by comma. (for example "genlock_effects=3,15,p7")
- Genlock sprite color selection bug fix.
- Genlock ECS Denise BPLCON2 BRDNTRAN emulation fixed. Not real HW tested but I think it is supposed to make border look normal even if color 0 is genlock transparent.
- Genlock ZCLKEN BPLCON3 bit emulated, if set, genlock transparency video out pin (PIXELSW) starts outputting 14MHz pixel clock. Emulation creates alternating hires pixel size toggling transparency if enabled and genlock is configured. (Which probably is what happens in real world too when genlock is connected. Originally it probably was supposed to be pixel sync signal for external video devices)
- Added Output panel optional 256 color palette indexed png screenshot support. If screenshot has more than 256 unique colors, 24-bit png is created like previously. It also tries to keep original palette order: first screenshot's unique colors are collected, then custom color register values are collected (values at the end of previous field), screenshot colors are matched with custom colors, if match found, color is marked as allocated. Then all remaining colors (copper color changes, EHB, HAM, on screen leds, blanking black etc..) are added to palette. If total is more than 256, 24-bit png is created. 256 color mode also tries to preserve first 32 color palette entries. (Preserved = color is not overwritten by another color even if color is not used in screenshot)
- Optional IFF screenshot support (-screenshotiff or screenshot_mode=2 registry/ini). IFF mode does not attempt to preserve first 32 color palette entries to keep image depth as small as possible. IFF is not (yet) compressed.
- Debugger 's' and 'W' quoting support improved, for example "W xxx "ab'c" works as expected....
(dr)
[News message: 07. Oct. 2022, 06:22] [Comments: 0]
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06.Oct.2022
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Preview video: Robocop (AGA)
Daniel Allsopp is working on a port of Data East's classic Arcade game 'Robocop', he's trying create a better Amiga version than the official port from 1989. Allsopp has now released a new preview video of his AGA game which is developed in 68k assembler (amiga-news.de reported). (dr)
[News message: 06. Oct. 2022, 09:36] [Comments: 0]
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06.Oct.2022
Twitter
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Preview video: Beat'em Up 'Metro Siege'
In the latest preview video of the side-scrolling beat'em up Metro Siege (amiga-news.de reported) the developers show the latest changes and also give a first glimpse of an action platformer in development called "Scorpion Boy", which is written with the Scorpion Engine. (dr)
[News message: 06. Oct. 2022, 09:31] [Comments: 0]
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06.Oct.2022
Twitter
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Rogue-like game: Roguecraft announced
Budger Punch has so far released games for the Commodore 64, including Rogue64. As in Roguelike games, you have to go through a cube-shaped tentacle-terror maze in search of treasures and glory. Now one of the developers, Ricki Sickenger, has announced an Amiga version of it with improved graphics and adapted features:
As he explains to us, "Roguecraft will not be a 1:1 conversion of Rogue64. It will contain a lot of the same gameplay, but with some of the enhancements we wanted to have in the C64 version, and some new things that use the Amiga capabilities."
It was their first Amiga game, he said. He and his fellow used to be active in the Amiga demo scene, and they wanted to make an Amiga game to relive the joy of developing on this great machine. The game is announced for early next year. (dr)
[News message: 06. Oct. 2022, 06:28] [Comments: 0]
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06.Oct.2022
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Video: Short tutorial for AMOS Pro
In another part of his series of short tutorials about AMOS Pro (amiga-news.de reported) the retro and Amiga fan 'Yawning Angel' explains how to open windows. (dr)
[News message: 06. Oct. 2022, 05:44] [Comments: 0]
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05.Oct.2022
Christian Zigotzky (Mail)
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Linux: Billy Frontier ported
After Cro-Mag Rally and Otto Matic, Christian 'xeno74' Zigotzky has now compiled a third game for Linux PowerPC (32-bit), Billy Frontier, which had just been ported to AmigaOS 4 (amiga-news.de reported). The game should work under the AmigaOne X1000/X5000 Linux distributions Fienix, Void PPC 32-bit and MintPPC.
Download: BillyFrontier_1.1.0-linux-powerpc.tar.gz (80 MB). (dr)
[News message: 05. Oct. 2022, 20:27] [Comments: 0]
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05.Oct.2022
George Sokianos
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AmigaOS 4.1: Software Development Kit V54.16 released
Press release: October 5, 2022
Hyperion Entertainment is pleased to announce the immediate availability of a very substantial and comprehensive update of the Software Development Kit (SDK) for AmigaOS 4.1 54.16.
New functionality includes but is not limited to:
- the inclusion of different versions of the GCC compiler starting from the old 6.4.0, to 8.4.0, 10.3.0 and 11.2.0 which can be selected during installation including the option to install multiple versions
- the addition of a tool added to set the default gcc version
- SPE optimized binaries can be generated by using GCC 6.4 for maximum performance on systems equipped with an SPE
- vbcc compiler is once more included in the SDK, configured to work “out of the box”
- Simplegit and Subversion are now included
- Profyler 1.1 added and Hieronymus updated to 0.50 version
- Updated the include headers and the autodoc documentation
- Added extended documentation for all the GCC versions included
- AmiSSL 5.3 SDK is included
- Latest AutoDocViewer 1.4 is included
- newlib and clib updated to the latest versions
- ExecSG SDK updated to the latest version
- Many code examples were updated to reflect the newest changes, removing obsolete API calls
- Updated the "AmigaOS 4.1 SDK.pdf" with new sections and format
- Many more tools were updated to their respective latest versions
Hyperion Entertainment wishes to extend its special thanks and appreciation to George Sokianos as well as the AmigaOS 4.x development team for making this happen!
If you want to support our efforts further, please head over to our AmigaOS merchandise store. (dr)
[News message: 05. Oct. 2022, 14:36] [Comments: 0]
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05.Oct.2022
MorphZone
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MorphOS: Fourth beta version of TinyGL
MorphOS team developer Mark 'Bigfoot' Olsen had offered a bounty project for improved OpenGL support as well as drivers for more Radeon graphics cards under the title link, which has been successfully funded (amiga-news.de reported). Now the developer has released the fourth public beta version of his TinyGL update.
Among other things, shaders on the Radeon R500 graphics card are now supported, various shader-related bug fixes and optimizations have been made, and the ShaderBoy tool for testing and playing around with shaders has been included. (dr)
[News message: 05. Oct. 2022, 13:03] [Comments: 0]
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05.Oct.2022
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Feature test in AMOS: Minigame None Of Us
The group 'ELECTRIC BLACK SHEEP', known among other things for the fantasy shooter Project Quest, which is currently in development, has today released a minigame called "None Of Us", which is intended to test how to obscure the player's opponents with light and shadow in AMOS Pro (YouTube video). It is explicitly not a game under development.
An Amiga with ECS chip, 2MB chip RAM and a fast CPU are required. (dr)
[News message: 05. Oct. 2022, 10:55] [Comments: 0]
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05.Oct.2022
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Game Construction Kit: RedPill 0.9.14
RedPill, developed by Carlos Peris, is a game construction kit written in Amiblitz 3.9, which allows the development of games from various genres (see short tests of two Redpill games). RedPill is compatible with AGA and ECS, the "player" for playing the finished creations requires a total of 1.5 MB RAM. Jens 'Farbfinsternis' Henschel has written a tutorial.
Changes of the new version 0.9.14:
- Added condition Contains Tile that checks all tiles colliding with a big object.
- In AGA black borders hidin copper are back.
- Compatibility with Kickstart 1.3 is back.
- Added Collisions in the profiler screen.
- Levels can be exported in TMJ format in order to be used in Tiled.
- When using level properties music, the music will not restart if it is the same as before.
- Level properties screen layout has changes in preparation of some new cool features.
- WHDLoad slave names changed to make them easier to understand.
- Fix in Level Properties screen.
- Fixes when building projects.
- Fixes for some gfx gliches.
- Some small optimizations.
(dr)
[News message: 05. Oct. 2022, 08:37] [Comments: 0]
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05.Oct.2022
Christian Zigotzky (Mail)
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Linux: Kernel 6.0 for AmigaOne X1000/X5000
Right after the release of the final Linux kernel 6.0, which is the successor of version 5.19, Christian 'xeno74' Zigotzky has compiled it for the AmigaOne X1000 and X5000 and offered it for download in the corresponding thread of the Hyperion forum. There you can also find a screenshot showing the Fienix distribution using the current kernel. (dr)
[News message: 05. Oct. 2022, 06:20] [Comments: 0]
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