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29.03.-01.04.24 • Revision Demoparty • Saarbrücken (Germany)
14.-16.06.24 • Flashback-Symposium #01 • Plauen-Jößnitz (Germany)
28.-30.06.24 • Alternatives Computer-Meeting 2024 • Wolfsburg (Germany)

28.Jan.2024



Programming language: Amiga C/C++ Visual Studio Code Extension 1.7.6
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 13.1 with the bundled WinUAE/FS-UAE and GDB." (YouTube video). Changes of version 1.7.6: more ... (dr)

[News message: 28. Jan. 2024, 16:32] [Comments: 0]
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28.Jan.2024
PPA (ANF)


Developer tool: Installation package for GCC with accessories
Grzegorz 'Krashan' Kraszewski provides an installation package at the title link, which facilitates the installation of the native compiler GCC 2.95.3 under AmigaOS, contains useful additions (e.g. make and diff) and also integrates it with the AmigaOS 3.2 NDK.

Required are at least an 68020 CPU and 32 MB Fast-RAM. It is planned to extend it with additional development packages (e.g. MUI, XPK, AHI and the like). (snx)

[News message: 28. Jan. 2024, 08:28] [Comments: 0]
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28.Jan.2024



Beat 'em up: Final Fight Enhanced
'Prototron' has finished his improved implementation of Capcom's Final Fight written in machine language (amiga-news.de reported), which can be downloaded in the accompanying text of the YouTube video. He expressly emphasises that this is a private project, which should primarily serve to learn the machine languages. An ECS or AGA Amiga with 2MB chip RAM and 512KB Fast RAM is required. (dr)

[News message: 28. Jan. 2024, 07:18] [Comments: 0]
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27.Jan.2024



Background pictures for AmigaOS 4.1: AOS-Wallpaper 1
Thomas from IconDesigner has, as he tells us, created wallpapers for various AmigaOS 4.1 computers and emulation environments in the last three months. These are:
  • AmigaOne500
  • AmigaOneA1222
  • AmigaOneX1000 AmigaOneXE
  • AmigaOS
  • Classic
  • Pegasos2
  • QEMU-A1-XE
  • QEMU-Peg2
  • QEMU-Sam460
  • Sam440
  • Sam460
  • WinUAE-Classic



The first part, which is now available, provides these background images in a screen ratio of 16:10 (1920 x 1200 pixels). Part 2 follows with 16:9 (1920 x 1080 pixels) and part 3 with 4:3 (1920 x 1440 pixels). (dr)

[News message: 27. Jan. 2024, 20:20] [Comments: 0]
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27.Jan.2024



Handheld console: "Amigo Tracker" for PlayDate
PlayDate is a handheld games console released in 2022 by the US software developer and computer games publisher Panic Inc (Wikipedia). As the operating system is kept open, external developers can also write software for the console using Lua and C (and a simulator). Outgunned Games has now published "Amigo Tracker", a retro player that can play 4-channel ProTracker modules, under the title link. (dr)

[News message: 27. Jan. 2024, 16:56] [Comments: 0]
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26.Jan.2024



Preview video: "The Lost Pixel" for AGA-Amigas
"The Lost Pixel" will be a conversion of the game of the same name by bitmagine Studio for AGA-Amigas. The platformer will be created using the RedPill game construction kit and will offer the following features:
  • 64 colours
  • 4 colours background sprites
  • wonderful music based on the original songs
  • two characters: Pix Cube and Pix Slime
  • secets to be found on each level
  • funny enemies
According to the developer, who previously converted Capitan Trueno, the game "will not need much RAM or CPU". (dr)

[News message: 26. Jan. 2024, 05:51] [Comments: 0]
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25.Jan.2024
Seiya (ANF)


PDF magazine: REV'n'GE 154 (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. Furthermore a focus is on rather unknown retro games.

Amiga-related, the current issue - a Winter Olympics special - is about "Winter Supersports 92" and "Space Cavern Blaster". (snx)

[News message: 25. Jan. 2024, 20:24] [Comments: 0]
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25.Jan.2024



AmigaOS 4: Code analysis with Cpppcheck V2.13r1
In September 2022, George 'walkero' Sokianos made an AmigaOS 4 port of Cppcheck, a static code analysis tool for the C and C++ programming languages, available for the first time. The tool is designed to be able to analyze your C/C++ code even if it has non-standard syntax common in embedded projects. The latest official version 2.13 has now been ported. (dr)

[News message: 25. Jan. 2024, 11:51] [Comments: 0]
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25.Jan.2024



Preview video: Aracde classic "Donkey Kong"
Jean-Francois 'jotd' Fabre ist about to port another game to the Amiga: this time Nintendo's aracade classic Donkey Kong. (dr)

[News message: 25. Jan. 2024, 09:39] [Comments: 0]
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25.Jan.2024



Programming assistance: AmiBlitz 3 templates for RTG Amigas and Apollo V4
Sami Vehmaa wants to encourage more people to develop games for the Amiga platform and to this end offers templates for the RTG version of AmiBlitz 3 on itch.io with "AB3_Templates". After he had already started to publish the source codes of some games written with it last year (amiga-news.de reported), he has now not only made the complete package available free of charge, but has also published a version specially adapted for the Apollo Vampire V4 and called "Amiblitz3 Vampire!". (dr)

[News message: 25. Jan. 2024, 06:41] [Comments: 0]
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25.Jan.2024



Preview video: "Trojan" for AGA-Amigas
During our advent calendar campaign, especially in the article about Erik 'earok' Hogan, we already reported on a first preview video by 'Retro Passion' about his realisation of the game Trojan for AGA-Amigas with the game construction kit "Scorpion Engine". Now a second video has been published. (dr)

[News message: 25. Jan. 2024, 06:38] [Comments: 0]
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24.Jan.2024



Game Construction Kit: RedPill 0.9.33
RedPill, developed by Carlos Peris, is a game construction kit written in Amiblitz 3.99, which allows the development of games from various genres (e.g. Agonman). 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.

As the developer explains to us, the new version 0.9.33 now allows the special output of the game code for an A500 or similar system by using fewer resources and disabling some functions. There are also a lot of general optimisations and a new screen for editing and converting images, as can be seen in this YouTube video. The changes in detail: more ... (dr)

[News message: 24. Jan. 2024, 04:53] [Comments: 0]
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23.Jan.2024



Preview video: Platform game "Silhouette Threat" for AGA-Amigas
A girl falls into a mysterious world armed with only her raincoat and umbrella while enduring constant attacks by strange, silhouetted creatures. The only way to return to her world is by collecting pieces to eventually assemble the raindrop portal...

This is the plot for the platformer "Silhouette Threat", which 'psquaredish' is currently developing for AGA computers with the Scorpion Engine. Only recently, Erik 'earok' Hogan, author of the Game Construction Kit, pointed out in our article about Video tutorials for the Scorpion Engine that the Scorpion Engine is not only intended for developers: this is the case here. The linked video shows a first, short test level.

His soon-to-be 12-year-old daughter designed the main character and some of the other graphics. As a non-artist, he tried his best to do the rest.

His absolute goal is to write a game that uses the parallax system and to have many large, overlapping levels in the game. As the author goes on to explain, he imagines an AGA game with 6 levels in which the bit planes of the dual playing field are divided into 2,1,1,2,1,1 instead of 4,4. Currently, the Scorpion Engine would limit the number of levels in AGA to 3, with 2 having to be repeated. The game Agony already uses the dual playfield bitplane splitting technique for OCS/ECS with a 3,2,1 split (see also Codetapper's article) and the source code is available here (amiga-news.de reported), which could make it easier to implement. If anyone is interested in helping with the programming of the bitplane splitter, the author would be pleased.

And 'psquaredish' also has written: "What I think might be possible is a tool something similar to the amazing parallax tool that Daniel Stephens has created for Boss Machine (YouTube video). He's able to take graphic strips and move them independently at any speed with a slider. It blew my mind when I saw it and made me think that maybe a similar tool could be made where you can just load any image into one of 6 overlapping parallax layers. Maybe it could be done as a plugin for Scorpion Engine or Redpill or just as a standalone tool, if that fascinates any coders again please let me know."

In the meantime, he plans to continue developing the game with the Scorpion Engine with the 3 layers. One important point was that he taught himself to use Protracker for the first time. He had never known what all the numbers meant, but now he understood it a little. He's put together a simple little sampled track that isn't in the video yet, but he may use it as temporary title screen music in the playable demo he plans to release sometime next month.

As this is his first game, he would welcome any feedback and ideas. (dr)

[News message: 23. Jan. 2024, 10:10] [Comments: 0]
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23.Jan.2024



Puzzle game: "TD Power Swap" for MorphOS
Rafał Zabdyr's "TD Power Swap" is a simple logic game based on the idea of the Amiga game Pure Brain (YouTube video). Your task is to put the pictures in their original order. (dr)

[News message: 23. Jan. 2024, 06:43] [Comments: 0]
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22.Jan.2024



Image editing: RNOEffects 2.0 for all Amiga systems
Developer 'jPV^RNO' has updated RNOEffects from its family of RNO applications to version 2.0. RNOEffects is a simple image editing programme with a focus on batch conversion options and alpha channel-based effects. Highlights of the update include the pixel editor tool and saving images in palette mode (YouTube video). The complete changes:
  • Added the "Pixel editor" tool with configurable pixel drawing options for left, middle, and right mouse buttons
  • Added the "Color picker" tool to show colour information under the mouse pointer and to pick and store multiple colour values temporarily
  • Added the "Area selector" tool which can be used to apply certain effects on a limited area of an image
  • Added the "Toolbox" tool to reduce pull-down menu use
  • Added support for saving images in the palette mode (1-8 bits), optionally with 16 pre-defined palettes including the MagicWB palette
  • Palettes can be saved in IFF ILBM, RGB32, LoadRGB4, and LoadRGB32 formats
  • Palette images can be saved as chunky data
  • Chunky image data and separate palettes can be saved as a C source code
  • Added an option to use an opacity map to apply an effect partially on an image (works with Blur, Contrast, Draw/Brush, Gamma, Modulate, Monochrome, and Tint effects)
  • Added "Chroma key" and "Luma key" effects to make colour ranges transparent
  • Batch converted images can be saved as a video
  • Added MagicWB support for the icon saving
  • Added information about the program state in the window title
  • Added Undo button on effects' windows
  • Function key shortcuts can be used to save images in several formats
  • Added an option to swap the main image with the buffer image
  • The Opacity map effect can use the buffer image as an opacity map
  • Added an option to invert the Opacity map effect
  • Added opacity map examples in the OpacityMaps directory
  • Renamed the "Reduce alpha" effect to "Alter alpha" and added an option to remove the whole alpha channel from an image
  • Background images can be centered in the Background effect
  • Added an option to clear the current image
  • Undo buffer wasn't initialised when loading an image at startup
  • Fixed colour picking with scaled images
  • Fixed Charcoal and Edge effects for images with transparency
  • Better window resizing when loading images
  • Skip arrow key operations if a command key is pressed simultaneously so as not to affect mouse pointer control via the keyboard
  • Arranged effects in an ordered format in the menu - into categories
  • Included JPEG2000, PCX, and TIFF plugins
  • Added support for saving images in JPEG2000 and TIFF formats
  • Select specific image/state to load of icon with multiple images
  • Added a setting to load icon properties and use them in icon saving options
  • Files can be drag'n'dropped into a batch conversion file list
  • Tool windows open at startup if they were open when settings saved
  • Other minor fixes
RNOEffects is available for all Amiga systems on Aminet. (dr)

[News message: 22. Jan. 2024, 22:12] [Comments: 0]
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22.Jan.2024



AmigaOS 4: elf.library V54.1
Hyperion Entertainment has released the new version 54.1 of the elf.library (Executable and Linkable Format) for AmigaOS 4, which is available via AmiUpdate. Changes since version 53.30:
  • Added AmigaDOS pattern support in load-time-blacklist (as an example "amissl_v#?.library" will now exclude all of the AmiSSL sub-libraries without having to list each separate library explicitly).
  • Reduced Elf_Collector process to a bare minimal process without all the pointless and unused decorations, backed off the priority to -5 and increased the polling wait to 1 second, increased the cache flush time to 300 seconds.
  • Added ADDR24 reloc support required for kernel 54.48 and higher.
  • The filesize parameter from Openelf.c was downsized from INT64 to UINT32 and then passed to ObtainCachedElfHandle() where the value was then stored in the elfhandle as an INT64. Remove the downsizing in Openelf.c and ObtainCachedElfHandle() to pass and store only INT64 now.
  • Fixed CopyDataSegment() reloc failures from being silently ignored (was returning successfully, instead of an error).
  • Rewrote CopyDataSegment() to no longer need to load relocs from disk each time it is called. Instead, the required relocs and information are stored during ElfLoadSeg() for later use. This allows applications to set OET_NoDOS when opening the file handle, instead of needing to maintain a file lock until the application exits.
  • CopyDataSegment() will now additionally use a .bss, .sdata or .sbss section as the reference for the baseOffset, if a .data section is not present.
  • Fixed several bugs with error handling in Elf32_LoadSegment. Previously, a failed read would lead to either an infinite regress or a deadlock.
  • Implementation of Elf32_CallConstructors and Elf32_CallDestructors. These are now called from inside InitSHLib in place of __shlib_call_constructors and __shlib_call_destructors. This has the benefit of being compiler and stdlib independent (so more generic). It also solves the problem, that the previous solution would in fact not work but (due to some problem with gcc __attribute__((section)) probably) would call an incomplete array of constructor functions.
  • Fixed bug in the storing of any data relocs, which would crash if the buffer needed to be enlarged.
  • Fix CloseElfTag in Elf32_CallConstructors and Elf32_CallDestructors.
  • Ensure that RELA section has been loaded in Elf32_OpenReloc.
  • Add GST_Load, TRUE to RelocateSectionTags in Elf32_CallConstructors/Destructors.
  • Added crash condition to OpenElfTags() in Elf32_CallConstructors/Destructors.
  • Fix a case of very bad error handling in Elf32_HandleRelocs (Timberwolf).
  • Fix a bug in relocbuffer.c. ElfSeek would not be called before ElfRead in Elf32_RefillRelocBuffer, which would lead to faulty reads. Several names have been changed to better clarify structure. This completes the fix for Timberwolf in the last revision.
  • Elf32_CallConstructors/Destructors have been updated to account for .init_array and .fini_array sections.
  • Open/CloseElfTags calls have been updated in the same two functions to account for correct reopening/reclosing of elfhandles.
  • Fix closing of OET_ReadOnlyCopy DOS filehandle in CloseElfTags.
  • Added GetSOHandles() function.
  • Change Elf32_CallConstructors/Destructors to handle .ctors/.dtors array starting with -1 instead of NULL, which fixes shared objects crashing that were compiled using newlib SDK >= 53.84.
  • Change Elf32_CallConstructors/Destructors to better handle missing NULL termination in .ctors/.dtors and added debug output to report such cases.
  • DLOpen() will now return NULL if any attempt is made to use it to open an ELF file that is not actually a shared object type.
  • Fix OpenElf() not initializing the shared object array, which caused CloseElf() to crash unless ElfLoadSeg() had been called.
  • Fix internal elfhandle flag never actually being set for shared objects, due to the code being placed before the header was read.
  • Program header loadable segments are now always loaded as segments unless the .rodata section is contained in a section containing an executable section, in which case sections in that segment are loaded separately, as before.
  • Don't unnecessarily call CacheClearE() individually for each and every reloc applied during ElfLoadSeg(), as we already flush that memory from the caches soon after anyway. This should speed up the loading of large executables.
  • RelocateSection() now correctly flushes the processor cache when R_PPC_JMP_SLOT relocs make changes to the PLT.
  • Elf32_CallConstructors/Destructors no longer attempts to relocate .ctors/.dtors, as ElfLoadSeg() will have always already done this.
  • Elf32_CallConstructors/Destructors no longer needs to open and reread the file, as the section indices are now saved by Elf32_OpenSOLib() before unloading the string sections.
  • Do not ignore ELFCMD_DOS_SEEK errors.
  • Correct autodoc for ELFCMD_DOS_SEEK to specify OFFSET_BEGINNING instead of OFFSET_CURRENT and changed return value to be boolean.
  • Fix recursive loop, which overflowed stack and crashed, which could happen when attempting to load a corrupt file, if there is an issue with the section name string table.
  • Check section headers for signs of corruption and, instead of crashing, display a message on failure and fail gracefully.
  • Protect against attempted incorrect/large/invalid memory allocations when loading sections from a corrupt file.
  • Add new error code ELF32_INVALID_HEADER to .
  • UnloadSection() no longer crashes if no sections have been loaded.
  • Fix crashes triggered by R_PPC_REL24 relocs, mistakenly caused by an out of range address during the resolution of undefined symbols, instead of jumping to the PLT.
  • Fix symbol cache not adding entry, if the cache needs to be enlarged.
  • Fully utilise the symbol cache when reading the symbol name.
  • OpenElf() needs to close the file, if it opened one, should there be an issue reading the headers.
  • Fix incorrect detection of invalid headers where OET_MemoryAddr has been specified instead of a file.
  • Add filename to give context to the ElfLoadSeg() error requesters. Further tweak to the pointer equality fix, to completely skip R_PPC_REL24 and R_PPC_LOCAL24PC relocs with a st_value of 0, as the relative branches will already be correct - no relocation required. Fix Elf32_BlacklistCheck() from crashing when passed a handle with no filename set (e.g. OET_MemoryAddr). Replace semaphore usage with mutexes
(dr)

[News message: 22. Jan. 2024, 22:01] [Comments: 0]
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22.Jan.2024



Demo: "V4driver" for Apollo Vampire V4
Sami Vehmaa has released his second demo after 30 years: "V4driver" (YouTube video) was written exclusively for the Apollo Vampire V4, as always in AmiBlitz 3. (dr)

[News message: 22. Jan. 2024, 21:35] [Comments: 0]
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22.Jan.2024



Platform game: Abbey(s) of the Dead V1.1
The developer 'UltraNarwhal' has released an update to its extended port of "Abbey(s) of the Dead" (YouTube video), which was released at the beginning of December and includes a few minor graphical tweaks. (dr)

[News message: 22. Jan. 2024, 21:26] [Comments: 0]
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22.Jan.2024



Video: Status update on DrawBridge for MiSTer
Following on from his video from August last year (amiga-news.de reported), Robert Smith shows the current status of the implementation of his "DrawBridge" project - standard PC floppy drives can be used to read and write Amiga floppies - for the FPGA Amiga clone MISTer (amiga-news.de reported): he not only reports on the successful reading and writing of floppies, but also that this works with several drives at the same time. (dr)

[News message: 22. Jan. 2024, 07:37] [Comments: 0]
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22.Jan.2024



8/16-bit emulator for Mac OS and Linux: Clock Signal v2024-01-22
Thomas Harte's Clock Signal is an emulator for various 8- and 16-bit platforms aiming to be invisible to the user. The idea is to simply start the source medium without configuring the emulator oneself. Clock Signal is available for Mac OS and Unix-compatible systems. While there is also an Amiga emulation included, it "remains wilfully inaccurate" for now. Changes:
  • fixes broken horizontal scrolling on the Master System;
  • correctly declines to page on the Electron if receiving interrupt acknowledgments;
  • corrects mismapping of Apple II inverted characters;
  • avoids automatic key repeat on the early Apple IIs;
  • with thanks to @ryandesign avoids potential performance issues on multi-GPU macOS machines with macOS 10.15+.
(dr)

[News message: 22. Jan. 2024, 07:07] [Comments: 0]
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