22.Feb.2024
|
Book: "AmigaOS 3.2 – Das Handbuch" available, English version announced
The German book "AmigaOS 3.2 - Das Handbuch" ("AmigaOS 3.2 - The Reference Manual") has been published by Look Behind You. It has 512 pages and is available both as a hardcover book and as a PDF file.
The official press release can be found in our corresponding German news-item. Also an English version of the book has been announced. (cg) (Translation: snx)
[News message: 22. Feb. 2024, 22:10] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
22.Feb.2024
AmigaPortal.de (ANF)
|
Coders wanted for an AGA remake of Cryos 'Dune'
Graphic designer 'barjack' is designing a remake of Cryo's classic adventure Dune for AGA based Amiga computers. The new version will preserve the original story, but expand it with new locations, characters and storylines. On top of that it is intended to look a lot better, given that it targets AGA and uses the full PAL resolution - a few example illustrations are supposed to showcase the improved visuals:
Several planned changes to the gameplay have been outlined so far:
- Battles will be fought in an isometric 3D environment, they will be turn based affairs inspired by tactical RPGs
- The resource management part of the game will be expanded with additional trade options
- 6 new characters from Frank Herbert's ScienceFiction novel that the original game is based on
- bigger playfield: the palace is mentioned as an example - it will contain 42 locations now, not just 11
- All locations and characters will feature their own illustrations, all groups will feature their own leader
Barjack has announced his project on amigafrance.com a few days ago, asking for interested coders - preferably native french speakers, to make communication easier. He states he has been contacted by three interested programmers so far, they will be supplied with detailed specifications of his design to see if they're interested to implement it.
Work on the design was started in mid 2023. If the final game will run on a stock A1200 or require a 68030 and some FastRAM is yet to be determined. The game will be distributed for free, but barjack would like to create a limited run of a physical edition. (cg)
[News message: 22. Feb. 2024, 00:40] [Comments: 1 - 23. Feb. 2024, 16:52]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
21.Feb.2024
|
amiga-news.de: Server update on Friday evening
This Friday evening, amiga-news.de's server will be upgraded to a newer version of Debian Linux resulting in a short period of downtime for the website. Since the update was tested several times in a test environment, we're confident update will be painless and expect the job to take less than half an hour. (cg)
[News message: 21. Feb. 2024, 21:38] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
20.Feb.2024
ANF
|
Article on the advertising games of the 90s (German)
In a (German) GamersGlobal article at the title link, 'Nischenliebhaber' looks back at the advertising games of the 1990s. These include the games "BiFi 2 - Action in Hollywood", "Das Telekommando kehrt zurück", "Victor Loomes" and "Der rasende Reporter", which were also released for the Amiga. (snx)
[News message: 20. Feb. 2024, 13:46] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
20.Feb.2024
|
Accelerator: PiStorm16 for the Amiga 600 in development
At the title link Michal Schulz describes the PiStorm16 turbocard currently under development. In contrast to the classic PiStorm, an Efinix FPGA chip is used here as with the PiStorm32-lite. This means that no external devices are required for configuration, which is loaded as soon as the Emu68 emulation starts.
A first prototype is currently being manufactured, and separate connections for HDMI and network are planned for the future. (snx)
[News message: 20. Feb. 2024, 13:36] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
19.Feb.2024
|
Emulator: WinUAE 5.2.0
The Amiga emulator WinUAE has been released in version 5.2.0. Changes:
New features/updates
- MacroSystem DraCo emulation. Full emulation except V-Lab Motion video board which is totally undocumented. Amiga clone without Amiga custom chips.
- Picmatic Marbella Vice light gun laser disc arcade game is now fully working.
- American Laser Games and PicMatic statefile support.
- Genlock emulation display positioning/scaling updates.
- Retina Z2 and Z3/Altais RTG board emulation. (NCR 77C22E+ and 77C32BLT SVGA chips)
- S3 Trio64 PCI RTG board.
- On screen led font is now configurable, settings in GUI Miscellaneous panel.
- A2410 updates (Latest Picasso96 driver with DMA mode enabled graphics corruption)
- All emulated RTG boards now autoswitch (Automatic switch between chipset mode and RTG mode). Previously only RTG boards that have built-in switcher and PCI RTG boards autoswitched.
- Do not emulate special cases in native chipset screen mode last and first line(s) unless Overscan mode is Overscan+ or higher. (For example OCS Denise top and bottom line mismatched blanking start and end)
- NTSC mode screen vertical positioning improved.
- Disk swapper insert/remove cursor position now works as expected. Same image can be inserted in multiple slots.
5.1.0 Bugs fixes
- Fast 68020+ mode interrupt timing fix. (Some games hung or had missing or badly playing sound)
- Copper timing was unreliable in non-CE modes (Mainly affected horizontally multiplexed sprites)
- Dark mode was not initialized if config file was started directly (for example from command line), without opening GUI. Some sub-dialogs didn’t support dark mode.
- Zero length disk DMA with enabled disk word sync never finished (some copy protections failed to work).
- Game Ports panel default config overrode button 4 with on screen keyboard enable/disable option even if it was already configured in Input panel.
Older bug fixes
- Any TV overscan option + NTSC mode: few pixel grapohics corruption was visible in right edge of screen.
- Many hardware emulated RTG boards had problems with horizontal panning.
- 68040 MMU emulation fix. (MOVEM restart didn’t work correctly in all situations and MOVES 68040-only special case bus fault behavior was wrong)
- CyberVision 64/3D and Picasso IV overlay fixes. P96PipDemo is now working correctly.
- Ateo Pixel 64 had BGR/RGB swapped colors in most color depths.
- UAE AHI ignored AHI volume slider setting.
- Fixed mouse cursor jumping randomly when in tablet mode and clicking mouse button(s).
- Game Ports panel input device type getting stuck or entering Test/Remap window crashing in some situations.
- Some config file and registry/ini paths were always written in absolute format even if WinUAE was configured to relative path mode.
- "AVI output enabled" (and few similar on/off buttons) button type changed, previously they worked unexpectedly in some situations, visible state was not always matching internal state.
- Some sub dialogs (for example Gameports input mapping autofire) had old style and no high DPI support.
- 256 color screenshot mode created wrong colors in some situations, usually when AGA and almost all palette entries were allocated.
- Changing some native display settings (Filter/Display panel) settings didn’t reset all required display parameters until full display reset (for example window was resized)
(dr)
[News message: 19. Feb. 2024, 22:16] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
19.Feb.2024
|
Video: Building a PlipBox adapter
In his latest video, Robert Smith shows how he builds his own PlipBox adapter for his Amiga 2000 in order to use it to get connected to the Internet. (dr)
[News message: 19. Feb. 2024, 22:02] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
19.Feb.2024
|
Blog: Restauration of an A1060 Sidecar, part 2
A few months ago, Richard Körber was very lucky to acquire an A1060 Sidecar on eBay and reports in a three-part series on how he restored it. In the first part he disassembled it, in the second part now available under the title link all the broken parts are repaired and the Sidecar is restored to its original condition. (dr)
[News message: 19. Feb. 2024, 21:55] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
19.Feb.2024
|
WHDLoad: Graphical user-interface iGame 2.4.6
iGame is a MUI-based frontend for starting WHDLoad games (amiga-news.de reported). George 'walkero' Sokianos has released version 2.4.6 for AmigaOS 2.04 and higher, AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS. Some optimisation in list loading reduces the time needed more than 42%.
Direct download: iGame-v2.4.6-20240218.lha (438 Kb) (dr)
[News message: 19. Feb. 2024, 06:51] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
18.Feb.2024
|
AmigaOS 4: AmiUpdate V2.54
After AmiUpdate was recently updated several times (amiga-news.de reported), another update has been released today with version 2.54. Changes:
- Changed the main list to include a "Last Changed" column. This now allows you to sort updates
according to date.
- Improved the log output for clarity when connecting to WWW realms and using login credentials.
- Prefs_Updates 53.18 (12.2.2024):
Missed yet another application interface conflict. Hopefully this should be it now.
(dr)
[News message: 18. Feb. 2024, 14:44] [Comments: 1 - 18. Feb. 2024, 16:07]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
18.Feb.2024
|
Aminet uploads until 17.02.2024
The following files have been added until 17.02.2024 to Aminet:
ellipse.lha dev/amos 15K ellipse targetted 5 points
ellipse_exact.lha dev/amos 9K Precise solution of ellipse
escribed_ellipse.pdf docs/misc 94K ellipse targetted through 5 p...
AmiDuke_AGA.lha game/shoot 372K 68k Amiga port of Duke Nukem 3D
AmiDuke_RTG.lha game/shoot 662K 68k Amiga port of Duke Nukem 3D
ham_convert.zip gfx/conv 5.2M HAM graphic converter
AmiArcadia.lha misc/emu 5.0M 68k Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiArcadia-OS4.lha misc/emu 5.5M OS4 Signetics-based machines emul...
WizzPlay.lha mus/play 8K 68k A tiny protracker player
morsconv.lha text/misc 10K 68k Modular Morse code generator
(snx)
[News message: 18. Feb. 2024, 08:50] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
18.Feb.2024
|
OS4Depot uploads until 17.02.2024
The following files have been added until 17.02.2024 to OS4Depot:
resrc4.lha dev/mis 125kb 4.1 MC680x0 Disassembler
amiarcadia.lha emu/gam 5Mb 4.0 Signetics-based machines emulator
wipeout.lha gam/dri 1Mb 4.1 Re-implementation of the 1995 PS...
sdl2.lha lib/mis 7Mb 4.1 Simple DirectMedia Layer 2
luettjebookholler.lha off/mis 2Mb 4.1 Little Personal Finance program
amiupdate_dan.lha uti/wor 20kb 4.0 Danish catalog files for AmiUpdate
amiupdate_ita.lha uti/wor 47kb 4.0 Italian catalog files for AmiUpdate
(snx)
[News message: 18. Feb. 2024, 08:50] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
18.Feb.2024
|
AROS Archives uploads until 17.02.2024
The following files have been added until 17.02.2024 to AROS Archives:
ptk_v2.6.5.i386-aros.zip aud/tra 23Mb Tracker program with advance fea...
mididriver.zip dri/aud 49kb MidiDriver
(snx)
[News message: 18. Feb. 2024, 08:50] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
18.Feb.2024
|
MorphOS-Storage uploads until 17.02.2024
The following files have been added until 17.02.2024 to MorphOS-Storage:
openxcom_1.0.lha Games/Strategy A free open-source reim...
(snx)
[News message: 18. Feb. 2024, 08:50] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
18.Feb.2024
|
WHDLoad: New installers until 17.02.2024
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 17.02.2024:
(snx)
[News message: 18. Feb. 2024, 08:50] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
18.Feb.2024
|
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:
- Poormouth
- Shadow Fighter BGM09
(snx)
[News message: 18. Feb. 2024, 08:50] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
18.Feb.2024
Simon Adolf (ANF)
|
Event: Report and video from AmigaWinterTreffen in Großensee (Germany)
From February 9-11 2024 this year's "AmigaWinterTreffen" event took place in Großensee, Germany. A show report by Simon Adolf can be found in our German news-item, also there is a video on YouTube. (snx)
[News message: 18. Feb. 2024, 08:50] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
18.Feb.2024
Amitopia (ANF)
|
Web browser: AmiFox 0.5 with Itch.io downloads
AmiFox displays modern websites on an Amiga by downloading and displaying the pages converted into images by a web rendering proxy ("AmiFox server").
New features of version 0.5 include the ability to download files directly from Itch.io and the display of the URL as a QR code, for example to continue surfing on a cell phone. The browser is available for AmigaOS and AROS (x86, x64, ARM). (snx)
[News message: 18. Feb. 2024, 08:50] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
17.Feb.2024
|
Amiga emulator: Amiberry 5.6.7
Amiberry is an Amiga emulator for ARM-based single-chip systems like the Raspberry Pi, the Odroid XU4 or the Tinkerboard from ASUS, which brings some newly developed features like a "WHDLoad-Booter" or support for controller configuration using RetroArch. For example it is used in the Workbench distribution AmiKit for the Raspberry Pi 4/400. Changes in version 5.6.7:
Bugfixes
- Use path-type config file line save method.
- SX32Pro can support 128M RAM, fix memory mapping.
- "Warp mode reset" on the fly change wasn't recognized
- Fixed GUI->Chipset->Chipset Extra dropdown not being updated correctly
- Revert Vsync option effect: only affect internal emulation state
- Wnsure keyboard keys are released when pressing Alt-Tab
- Ignore Alt-Tab if used to release focus
Improvements
- History list paths now follow relative/absolute path mode.
- Merge updates from Preview branch
- Improve auto-crop accuracy
(dr)
[News message: 17. Feb. 2024, 22:10] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
17.Feb.2024
heckmeck!
|
Demoparty: The nominees for the "Meteoriks" awards
This weekend, the demo party "MountainBytes 2024" will take place in Switzerland (amiga-news.de reported). Yesterday evening, the nominees for the "Meteoriks" awards were determined, which will then be presented during Revision 2024, which takes place from 29 March to 1 April in Saarbrücken. Among the candidates are also some Amiga entries in three categories:
Best Midschool Production
Best Soundtrack
Outstanding Technical Achievement
(dr)
[News message: 17. Feb. 2024, 21:56] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
17.Feb.2024
|
Emulation: BBoot bootloader V0.6 for QEMU
BBoot is a simple, minimal bootloader for loading AmigaOS on QEMU-emulated AmigaOne and Pegasos2 machines, written by Amiga QEMU developer Balaton Zoltan (amiga-news.de reported). It replaces amigaboot.of on Pegasos2 and slb_v2 on AmigaOne and simplifies the booting of AmigaOS 4 under QEMU. A firmware ROM is no longer required. The current version 0.6 solves problems when booting the AmigaOne machine with the latest QEMU 9 version.
As Balaton Zoltan kindly explains to us, this new version is currently only required for those users who compile QEMU themselves from the current Git master repository, from which version 9.0 will later emerge.
The developer has also provided a tutorial Booting AmigaOS 4.1 on QEMU with BBoot.
However, as Alinea, for example, has informed us, the AmigaOne version of AmigaOS 4 has not been available for some time despite ordering from Hyperion Entertainment. The company could not be reached for comment. (dr)
[News message: 17. Feb. 2024, 10:31] [Comments: 0]
[Send via e-mail] [Print version] [ASCII version]
|
