18.May.2023
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Preview videos: Temptations port for CD32
The developer 'S0Y' is working on his CD32 port of Temptations, the platform game originally released for MSX-1 in 1988 (amiga-news.de reported) and now has published two further preview videos showing the complete third and first sequences of the fourth level. (dr)
[News message: 18. May. 2023, 05:50] [Comments: 0]
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17.May.2023
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Video player: Amos Anim Player V2023.05.16
The "Amos Anim Player" of the group "ELECTRIC BLACK SHEEP" is a very simple IFF-ANIM player that runs on any Amiga. It can play compressed IFF-Anim formats synchronised with a separate IFF Audio Sample (or MOD). Not much RAM is needed, as the anim frames and audio are streamed directly from the hard disk. If there is enough RAM, the sound is streamed directly from RAM.
The Amos Video Player, also provided by the "ELECTRIC BLACK SHEEP", uses its own file format. The conversion takes a long time and only works on WinUAE with acceptable speed. The "Amos Anim Player", on the other hand, uses the standard IFF animation format, which is much easier to convert and can be used on real hardware.
The AMOS source code is included and can be used freely. Feedback on usability on faster computers is welcome. (dr)
[News message: 17. May. 2023, 21:30] [Comments: 0]
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17.May.2023
Amigaworld.net (forum)
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AmigaOS 4: Survey results regarding usage of PowerPC emulation
Hans de Ruiter has now evaluated his recently started survey about the usage of AmigaOS 4 on a PowerPC emulator. According to this, almost 55 % of the 447 participants use real hardware and a good fifth exclusively emulation. At the title link more details can be found. (snx)
[News message: 17. May. 2023, 13:13] [Comments: 0]
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17.May.2023
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Reverse Engineering: Speedball 2
In terms of games (software), reverse engineering is the process of analysing the code and content of the game to understand how it works. A GitHub page provides software tips and learning materials for interested developers. In this case, Simon Frankau has taken on the Amiga classic Speedball 2.
Based on his previous analysis of the Sega Megadrive version, he used the reverse engineering tool Ghidra for the disassembly. Below, he described to us how he followed the boot process to obtain a memory image:
- Disassemble the boot block (first couple of sectors of the ADF) to find how it loads the second-level loader. The boot block uses ROM routines, so I had to learn about how to call the OS from assembly.
- Once I knew where the second-level loader was in the disk image, I could disassemble that. This loads the main binary. The second-level loader has its own disk routines, so I got to learn about the sector encoding of Amiga disks (with MFM) and the blitter.
- From there, I learnt where the main binary was, and could extract it from the ADF. It's compressed, so I reversed the compressor and wrote my own implementation to decompress the binary.
- At this point, I had a memory image representing the game after loading and decompressing. I loaded it into Ghidra and worked through it, understanding it and giving names to all the functions and variables, and adding comments.
- I also built tools to extract and the graphics and sounds and make them accessible.
As he goes on to describe, the copy protection (although the game has been cracked) uses Rob Northen's Copylock, a kind of trace vector decoder. To undo this, I used FS-UAE's debugger to track what it was doing.
Overall, this project would have helped him immensely to learn a lot about the Amiga, as the game makes good use of the hardware:
- It uses the copper for scrolling and palette management.
- It uses the blitter to render sprites and do disk decoding.
- It uses the sound hardware and vertical blanking interrupt for a mod-player-like sliced player.
- It uses the CIA and other i/o for keyboard and joystick.
- Some graphics resources were embedded IFFs, so I learnt about them.
The code would have been pretty good, in his opinion - he could usually figure out what the developers were up to, even though there were no symbols or comments, and he discovered few bugs. He found it amusing that the copy protection routine, despite its complexity, only changes three memory locations.
Despite the hardware differences, the code is very similar to the Megadrive version, which would a) show how easy it is to port it to 68000 platforms and b) make decoding the Amiga version easier.
The binary would contain a few pieces of dead code, such as a team-selection menu, but unlike the Megadrive version there are not cheat codes.
The AI was pretty simple, given how well it plays! The AI doesn't cheat: it interacts with the rest of the game by writing to the variables that would otherwise be written to by the joystick routine for a two player game. (dr)
[News message: 17. May. 2023, 06:05] [Comments: 0]
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17.May.2023
itch.io
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Platformer: Tech Demo "Space Cavern Blaster" v0.13
As entry to the Retro Platform Jam #6, 'dotmos' has released a cross-system platformer for Amiga 500, Atari ST, C64, DOS and Sega Megadrive as a proof of concept (amiga-news.de reported, YouTube video). Version 0.13 now provides support for joysticks. (dr)
[News message: 17. May. 2023, 05:53] [Comments: 0]
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17.May.2023
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Space Invaders clone: Skinvaders
Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot'em up originally programmed by Tomohiro Nishikado and distributed by Taito. The group "ELECTRIC BLACK SHEEP" - among others, the mini-game None of Us - has now published a simple variant written in AMOS, whose graphics can be exchanged in the enclosed source code independently of the programme code. The background and the enemy images can have a maximum of eight colours, but must in any case have the same colour depth. (dr)
[News message: 17. May. 2023, 05:25] [Comments: 0]
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16.May.2023
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Programming language: Amiga C/C++ Visual Studio Code Extension 1.7.2
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). Today version 1.7.2 has been released. Changes:
- NEW: update gcc to 13.1.0, binutils, GNU gdb (GDB) 14.0.50.20230511-git
- CHG: replaced MicroKnight debug font with Topaz
(dr)
[News message: 16. May. 2023, 19:16] [Comments: 0]
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16.May.2023
Frank von LogicalByte (ANF)
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Strategy game: "Virtual Enemies" in development
LogicalByte, the developer of the logic game Connect, yesterday introduced the next game for the Amiga 500 (and higher). The title is "Virtual Enemies".
The player lives in an alternative timeline in the 80s. The earth is already suffering enormously from the severe climate changes caused by the unchecked overexploitation of the last decades. States and their rulers have become irrelevant. Large corporations, which have control over all important raw materials, are the true rulers. On their orders, entire armies of hackers embark on an electronic war of information gathering and sabotage. The player is one of them, a novice, a noob who has yet to find his place.
So the player's central task is to penetrate foreign computer networks. He does this with his computer, which can be upgraded by money received. Software tools have to be written, improved and expanded in order to complete the tasks even more efficiently. Those who now inevitably think of Hacknet or Uplink can rest assured: it is not a clone that copies the game principle, but has its own sophisticated game mechanics.
The game can be played alone or, if the Amiga is connected to the Internet, together with other players. Some missions are so complex, difficult and thus glorious that they can only be completed together. A ranking list brings the possibility of worldwide comparison. We are aware that cooperative playing is only fun if fellow players are available. Therefore clients for Windows, Linux and Mac will be available shortly after the Amiga release (probably end of 2024). This should generate a player reach that the Amiga has not seen for a long time.
The first prototype will be playable at Amiga38 in October. (dr)
[News message: 16. May. 2023, 05:27] [Comments: 0]
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16.May.2023
MorphZone (Forum)
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MorphOS: Web browser Wayfarer 5.3 (update)
Jacek 'jacadcaps' Piszczek has released version 5.2 of his web browser Wayfarer for MorphOS 3.18 which is required. This version fixes high CPU load with github.com, updates easylist adblock data and introduces a user script to remove some youtube gradients (changes).
To install the user script, open User Scripts from the Debug menu. Hit Import and load the Scripts/yt-no-gradients.json file from Wayfarer's directory. Select the script, make sure Enabled is checked (it'll be off by default) and hit Apply.
Update: (18.05.2023, 05:19, dr)
Meanwhile, version 5.3 is available which fixes handling of local files, adds a workaround for a NetStack bug in MorphOS 3.14-3.18 and includes updated cURL and sqlite.
Download: wayfarer.lha (29 MB) (dr)
[News message: 16. May. 2023, 04:57] [Comments: 0]
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15.May.2023
Markus Tillmann (Mail)
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Event: Information on the Amiga38
Markus Tillmann wrote: Yesterday, Sunday 14 May 2023, ticket sales started shortly after 8pm with a few minutes delay (amiga-news.de reported).
Amiga38 is expected to be the biggest worldwide again this year - despite several old and new Amiga events - welcoming guests and visitors from all over the world.
The visitors can look forward to three main topics that will be in the foreground during the one and a half days: on the one hand, we want to pay tribute to the legendary and insanely active demoscene and have a few more musical and informal contributions for this in addition to the demo contest brought to life by the Apollo team (amiga-news.de reported).
Our second main topic will be AmigaOS and its current development team: who is actually behind the development of AmigaOS3.2? Part of the team will be represented with their own stand at Amiga38 and will be available to answer questions. Camilla Boemann will travel from Denmark and will also give a stage presentation on behalf of the team.
Furthermore, we also want to give Commodore's console, the Amiga CD32, more attention, especially since it celebrates its 30th birthday this year. A beacon of hope or stillborn? What was the plan behind the console? What would have happened if Commodore had been more liquid at the time of its release? These and other questions will also be addressed in October - we were able to win Beth Richard from the USA as a special guest of honour. Beth Richard worked as an engineer at Commodore from 1991 until she left in April 1994.
She was the designer of the Grace chip and the CDTV-CR that used it; the MPEG-4000 that was the prototype for the CD32 FMV cartridge, one of the three designers of the Akiko chip in the CD32 and the lead designer of the CD1200 prototype.
Other well-known names who have already confirmed their participation include Petro Tyschtschenko, who celebrated his 80th birthday in April, David Pleasance and Dave Haynie.
For Amiga38, in addition to the day tickets at 27.50 euros, appropriately named "Pass A38", there are of course again day tickets including table (for 40 euros), as well as tickets for the pre-opening and get-together on Friday evening (after the exhibitors have set up, a first tour is possible, plus snacks and drinks from 8 pm, as well as a stage programme including a Reshoot Proxima release party) at 59 euros.
In addition, there are some ticket combinations with discounts, as well as free tickets for children and young people up to and including 16 years of age. As experience shows that some categories will sell out quickly, it makes sense to secure your ticket in good time.
Questions about the tickets or other topics concerning the Amiga38 can be sent by email. (dr)
[News message: 15. May. 2023, 05:47] [Comments: 0]
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14.May.2023
Andreas Magerl (ANF)
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Amiga Future: All Amiga Joker articles online (German)
Already since the beginning of the year, all original issues of German print magazine Amiga Joker are available as PDF files at Amiga Future homepage (amiga-news.de reported). Now also all articles have been added to the database at the title link. (snx)
[News message: 14. May. 2023, 20:02] [Comments: 0]
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14.May.2023
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Video: Pixel art using Brilliance II
In December 2021, graphic and game designer Kevin Saunders had published a video tutorial for the graphics programme Brilliance II. As he reports in his latest Patreon blog entry, he was recently asked for advice on creating pixel art on the Amiga. Under the title link he now shows how he creates a copy of an image on the Amiga with Brilliance II. (dr)
[News message: 14. May. 2023, 14:26] [Comments: 0]
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14.May.2023
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Aminet uploads until 13.05.2023
The following files have been added until 13.05.2023 to Aminet:
msInternetStatus.lha comm/net 38K 68k Internet status monitor (+src)
shellcolors.lha dev/c 11K 68k code colored text lines in C
less-mos.lha dev/gg 599K MOS Viewer program similar to "more"
HollywoodCompile-AROS... dev/hwood 1.5M x86 compile HW scripts on many pl...
HollywoodCompile-MOS.lha dev/hwood 1.5M MOS compile HW scripts on many pl...
HollywoodCompile-OS3.lha dev/hwood 1.3M 68k compile HW scripts on many pl...
HollywoodCompile-OS4.lha dev/hwood 1.8M OS4 compile HW scripts on many pl...
bwbasic320c.lha dev/lang 3.0M 68k ByWater BASIC Interpreter v3.20c
bwbasic322_OS4.lha dev/lang 944K OS4 OS 4 ByWater BASIC Interprete...
iBASIC_beta2.lha dev/lang 260K 68k very basic BASIC Interpreter ...
REDPILLGameCreator.lha dev/misc 3.3M 68k Game Creator with AGA support
SMB2-GUI_AROS.lha disk/misc 1.6M x86 A GUI to create SMB2 dosdrivers
SMB2-GUI_OS3.lha disk/misc 1.3M 68k A GUI to create SMB2 dosdrivers
SMB2-GUI_OS4.lha disk/misc 1.8M OS4 A GUI to create SMB2 dosdrivers
TankMouse.lha driver/inp 14K 68k Scroll-wheel driver for TankM...
Mattonite.lha game/actio 974K 68k Arkanoid like PAL game almost...
TunnelsAndTrolls.lha game/role 18M 68k Implementation of Tunnels & T...
RNORadio.lha mus/play 2.8M MOS Internet radio player
SPlay.lha mus/play 46K 68k A quick 8SVX/ADPCM SamplePlay...
MagicWB800x600x8-Set3... pix/back 304K Set 3 of 800x600 8 Colour MWB...
pgs30a.lha text/dtp 652K 68k PageStream 3.0a Patches
ps3b01.lha text/dtp 771K 68k PageStream 3.0 to 3.0b Patch ...
ps3b3.lha text/dtp 153K 68k PageStream 3.0b Patch 3 of 4
ps3ba1.lha text/dtp 669K 68k PageStream 3.0a to 3.0b Patch...
ps3btu.lha text/dtp 35K 68k PageStream 3.0b Tune Up
ps3c.lha text/dtp 626K 68k PageStream 3.0c Free Update
ps3d.lha text/dtp 709K 68k PageStream 3.0d Free Update
psfont.lha text/dtp 13K 68k PageStream 3 Font Engine 3.0b...
avalanche.lha util/arc 109K AOS ReAction unarchive GUI for xf...
avalanche_de.lha util/arc 8K German catalog for Avalanche 2.2
avalanche_guide_de.lha util/arc 8K German translation of Avalanc...
RandomBackdrop.lha util/boot 44K 68k Up to 255 random backdrops wi...
WarpPNGdt.lha util/dtype 159K ALL PNG image datatype V45.27
ADiffView.lha util/misc 134K 68k Graphical ASCII file compare/...
LilCalendar.lha util/time 3.4M 68k Versatile calender and remind...
(snx)
[News message: 14. May. 2023, 06:59] [Comments: 0]
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14.May.2023
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OS4Depot uploads until 13.05.2023
The following files have been added until 13.05.2023 to OS4Depot:
warppngdt.lha dat/ima 159kb 4.0 PNG image datatype V45.27
bwbasic.lha dev/lan 944kb 4.0 The Bywater BASIC Interpreter
hollywoodcompile.lha dev/mis 2Mb 4.0 Compile HW scripts on many platf...
mednafen.lha emu/gam 12Mb 4.1 Mednafen Emulator
fallout-ce.lha gam/rol 4Mb 4.1 Fallout Community Edition port f...
smb2-gui.lha net/sam 2Mb 4.0 A GUI to create SMB2 dosdrivers
lilcalendar.lha off/mis 2Mb 4.0 Versatile calendar and reminder ...
avalanche.lha uti/arc 109kb 4.1 Simple ReAction GUI for xadmaster
avalanche_ita.lha uti/arc 7kb 4.0 Italian translation for Avalanche
(snx)
[News message: 14. May. 2023, 06:59] [Comments: 0]
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14.May.2023
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AROS Archives uploads until 13.05.2023
The following files have been added until 13.05.2023 to AROS Archives:
hollywoodcompile-aros.lha dev/uti 2Mb compile HW scripts on many platf...
xump-v.i386-aros.zip gam/pla 1Mb multi-platform puzzler by Retroguru
icon_game_38x38.lha gra/ico 373kb icon game 38x38 Laptop Desktop
smb2-gui.i386-aros.lha net/sam 2Mb A GUI to create SMB2 dosdrivers
lilcalendar.i386-aros.lha uti/wor 3Mb Calender scheduling and reminder...
(snx)
[News message: 14. May. 2023, 06:59] [Comments: 0]
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14.May.2023
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MorphOS-Storage uploads until 13.05.2023
The following files have been added until 13.05.2023 to MorphOS-Storage:
RNORadio_1.4.lha Audio/Players RNORadio is a GUI based...
Less_633.lha Development/GeekGadgets A paginator similar to ...
MorphOS-SDK_3.18-20230... Development/SDK MorphOS Software Develo...
LHArchiver_1.9.lha Files/Archive Create lha archives int...
Woof!_11.0.0.lha Games/Shoot3D Woof! is a continuation...
LilCalendar_2.4.lha Office/Organizer Versatile calender and ...
WarpPNGdt_45.27.lha System/Datatypes PNG image datatype V45.22
(snx)
[News message: 14. May. 2023, 06:59] [Comments: 0]
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14.May.2023
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WHDLoad: New installers until 13.05.2023
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 13.05.2023:
- 2023-05-13 improved: Dark Castle (Three-Sixty) another version supported (Info)
- 2023-05-07 improved: Escape from Colditz (Digital Magic Software) graphics for Polish flags in game fixed (Info)
(snx)
[News message: 14. May. 2023, 06:59] [Comments: 0]
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14.May.2023
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:
- Desert Dawn
- Details Wizball - Drabness to Splendour
(snx)
[News message: 14. May. 2023, 06:59] [Comments: 0]
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14.May.2023
MorphZone (website)
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MorphOS: Software Development Kit 3.18
Together with MorphOS 3.18 also the corresponding version of the software development kit has been published. It updates system headers as well as various GG components. (snx)
[News message: 14. May. 2023, 06:59] [Comments: 0]
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14.May.2023
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Video: The History of Cursor Keys
In this video, the YouTube channel "The 8-Bit Guy" takes a look at the history of the cursor keys, which nowadays are mostly arranged in the shape of an inverted "T": The index, middle and ring fingers can remain on the keyboard and the middle finger can easily switch between the up and down keys.
Digital Equipment Corporation developed the LK201 keyboard in 1982 because they found that left, right, and down were the most frequently used keys. That is the de facto standard today, but that was not always the case. For example, the Apple Lisa and the original Macintosh had no cursor keys at all because Steve Jobs wanted to encourage developers and users to use the mouse.
The "diamond arrangement" would have given the Amiga 1000 an idiosyncratic layout: the cursor keys are shaped like a diamond, with the left and right keys so close together that you can't just use your middle finger to switch up and down between the keys. However, with the introduction of the Amiga 500 and 2000, they switched to the inverted T style that we all use today. So the Amiga 1000 is the only Amiga that had such cursors. (dr)
[News message: 14. May. 2023, 06:01] [Comments: 0]
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13.May.2023
GitHub
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WHDLoad: Graphical user-interface iGame 2.4.0
iGame is a MUI-based frontend for starting WHDLoad games (amiga-news.de reported). George 'walkero' Sokianos has released version 2.4.0 for AmigaOS 2.04 and higher, AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS.
As the author explained in his latest blog entry on ko-fi, he is introducing "igame.data" with this version: a media file that stores information about the title, the year of release and the number of players for the respective game, among other things. This should make it possible to automatically categorise one's own collection of WHDLoad games. The MUI classes NList and NListviews are required. The changes in the overview:
Added
- Added back the saving of the list after a scan of the repositories, which was removed in the previous releases
- Introduced the new igame.data files
- iGame uses NList now with extra columns that are sortable
- Added "Prefer igame.data" checkbox in preferences that let the user to set if the title is going to retrieved from the igame.data files or from the slave file or the folder name, like it used to work. This doesn't have any effect on non-WHDLoad items.
Fixed
- Fixed the status messages which was stack with saving list message and didn't show the number of games again.
Changed
- Now the MUI changes are loaded from envarc. With MUI v5 balance size and list columns are saved there and restored the next time iGame is started
Direct Download: iGame-v2.4.0-20230513.lha (427 Kb) (dr)
[News message: 13. May. 2023, 21:36] [Comments: 0]
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