19.Feb.2025
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Preview from Michal Schulz on PiStorm and Emu68
Michal Schulz and Claude Schwarz have already given us a lot of pleasure with their work on the Motorola68K emulation Emu68 (amiga-news.de reported) and 68K hardware emulation PiStorm32(-lite) (amiga-news.de reported). We asked Michal Schulz to inform us about the current and planned projects:
Framethrower
So far, the RTG emulation has been provided via the HDMI port of the PiStorm and the RGB data supplied by the Denise chip at the RGB port of the Amiga and must be tapped there separately. Since the end of 2023, the two have been working on an extension now called "Framethrower", which also outputs the RGB signal via the PiStorm (camera port) (amiga-news.de reported). As Michal writes, the project is unfortunately not yet finished: "There is a problem with the Tang Nano boards, which Claude is still working on solving. In more detail, this means that due to the design of the Tang Nano 9K, a lot of noise is introduced into the MIPI signal. This leads to either distortions in the transmitted image or the entire synchronisation is lost."
Emu68
For the Motorola68K emulation software Emu68, the new version 1.1 is to be released this year, which will bring some improvements in addition to typical corrections and bug fixes: "For example, cache blocks that are actually removed by the CPU cache flush will be reused. Instead, they will be "recycled" to reduce the compilation time. As a result, macOS, for example, will run much faster under Shapeshifter, and booting the Amiga will also take less time." The first tests have already been carried out and are very promising.
Furthermore, the work on the WiFi driver for Emu68 will be continued (amiga-news.de reported) and, if all goes well, the Ethernet driver for the Pi4/CM4 will be started. If there is enough time, the next project will be USB.
PiStorm16
The first version of the accelerator card for the Amiga 600 (or CM4) (amiga-news.de reported) has been produced in its final version in a quantity of 25 units and will soon be sent to the first users. Shortly afterwards, the project will be released as open source so that it can be produced and sold in larger quantities by various companies and hobbyists.
PiStorm16 is similar to PiStorm32: it uses the same FPGA, the firmware is embedded in Emu68 and is loaded to the PiStorm at startup, so features like the "stealth" mode are possible: by pressing and holding CTRL and the Amiga keys for a few seconds, the Amiga is started in basic mode, without extension.
Other models from the PiStorm16 family, for example for Pi3/Pi4 or for the A500, A2000 etc., will follow.
Future plans
Michal wrote: "We are looking at ways to make hardware that is unsuitable for the PiStorm in the Amiga usable in some form.
In the long term (i.e. not this year), a project is to be developed in which the Amiga chipset is implemented on an FPGA module, for example, and communicates with the processor via a PCIe interface. Yes, PCIe has disadvantages that make it almost unusable for a "classic" PiStorm. But in a scenario where PiStorm is not an interface but an Amiga chipset, the performance might be sufficient. Our work in this direction is running on several levels:
PocketStorm
As a first step, Claude has developed a motherboard for the Pi3/Pi4 that integrates the Amiga chipset (MiniMig) and the PiStorm interface in the Tang Nano 20K. With the help of Emu68, a complete (albeit emulated) Amiga is created.
EFI integration
At the same time, I am working on a start programme for EFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface), which will be integrated into Emu68. This would allow Emu68 to be used in some form on EFI-compatible systems.
FPGA + PCIe
In a further step (if we succeed) the Amiga chipset will be implemented on FPGA with a PCIe interface and run with the EFI version of Emu68.
This work does not mean that we give up the classic Amiga! There are still more than enough tasks for PiStorm and Emu68 in Amiga systems. Nevertheless, we also want to explore new avenues and discover further possibilities." (dr)
[News message: 19. Feb. 2025, 05:24] [Comments: 0]
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18.Feb.2025
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Platformer: BOOM!
In recognition of AmigaBill's commitment to the Amiga community, Dan 'zooperdan' Thoresen has released a small platform game in which he plays the protagonist. A demo version was already included on the cover disc of Amiga-Addict issue 25. The game has been written with the Scorpion Engine, the AGA chipset is required. (dr)
[News message: 18. Feb. 2025, 19:55] [Comments: 0]
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18.Feb.2025
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Demoparty: A look back at MountainBytes 2025 (German)
Last weekend, the MountainBytes demo party 2025 took place in Switzerland. The "Amiga User Group Switzerland" took part for the first time with a specially created demo and wrote a German-language report about the event at the title link. The results were published on DEMOZOO, with the demo Spreadpoints by Spreadpoint standing out from an Amiga perspective, taking first place in the "Oldschool and Alternative Realtime" category. (dr)
[News message: 18. Feb. 2025, 05:34] [Comments: 0]
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17.Feb.2025
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m68k assembly: "Amiga Assembly" plugin v1.8.13 for Visual Studio Code
"Amiga Assembly" is a plugin for Visual Studio Code to support assembly language for the Amiga Motorola 68000 machines and emulators. The stable version 1.8.13 fixes a bug which prevented the build task to work if filenames included spaces. On GitHub, a detailed documentation is available. (dr)
[News message: 17. Feb. 2025, 18:23] [Comments: 0]
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17.Feb.2025
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Video player: Reducer tool of Amos Anim Player updated (update)
The "Amos Anim Player" from 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) (amiga-news.de reported). Reducer is a stand-alone tool that does not require AMOS and reduces the data size. The updated version includes the following changes:
- Previous version of reducer used luma (greyscale) to filter out the difference between frames, 2025 version use chroma (RGB), so it gives a visualy much better result!!!
- Previous version doesn't work above 320x185 resolution, the new limit is 640x512
- does a better job correcting errors in HAM mode
- does a better job detecting/handleing small changes
- does a better job cleaning "residues" caused by slow movements
Update: (18.02.2025, 22:10, dr)
A video tutorial shows how to use it using an example. (dr)
[News message: 17. Feb. 2025, 06:32] [Comments: 0]
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17.Feb.2025
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Programming: Web based m68k assembler editor 4.0.0
Under the title link you will find a modern web application for writing, executing and learning M68K assembler code, which uses the SvelteKit framework and the Rust programming language (amiga-news.de reported, source code on GitHub). The tool now supports not only 68k, but also MIPS architecture. All changes:
- Added MIPS assembler/simulator (mars)
- Added MIPS documentation
- Other improvements and bug fixes
- Migrated website to svelte 5
- Made the UI more generic over different languages
(dr)
[News message: 17. Feb. 2025, 06:31] [Comments: 0]
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17.Feb.2025
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Preview video: Hyper Runner - Desert Road
"Hyper Runner" is an announced sci-fi racing game for AGA Amigas. The game was started in mid-2022 and only continued at the beginning of the year (amiga-news.de reported). Now another race track is being presented with the "Desert Road". (dr)
[News message: 17. Feb. 2025, 06:20] [Comments: 0]
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17.Feb.2025
Rob Smith
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Video: The history of X-Copy
In his latest video, Rob Smith traces the history of the well-known copy program X-Copy, whose source code was published in 2011 (amiga-news.de reported). In this context, Christian Bartsch, who worked for the software company Cachet, which wrote the copy programme at the time, is also interviewed (see also the German c't interview with him). (dr)
[News message: 17. Feb. 2025, 06:12] [Comments: 0]
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16.Feb.2025
AmigaKit (E-Mail)
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A600GS: Update 46.1.998 with German and Spanish localization
Today's software update 46.1.998 for the Orange Pi-based Amiga clone A600GS from AmigaKit now includes an ARM-native PNG datatype, version 7.2 of the word processing program Final Writer as well as German and Spanish language support.
Changes:
- A600GS:
- Add option to map RCTRL as RAMIGA key in Amibench et al.
- Add option to set alternate PAUSE MENU key (for keyboard lacking the default F12 key)
- German langauge support: translation contribution thanks to Philipp Lonke
- Spanish langauge support: translation contribution thanks to Javier De Las Rivas
- SystemV46:
- ARM Native Support: AK-PNG datatype converted to native ARM from 68K code giving up to double speed when decoding PNG files
- Programs:
- Update version of Final Writer to version 7.2
- AmiSSL has been updated to v5.19
(snx)
[News message: 16. Feb. 2025, 19:22] [Comments: 0]
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16.Feb.2025
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Aminet uploads until 15.02.2025
The following files have been added until 15.02.2025 to Aminet:
ira.lha dev/asm 278K VAR MC680x0/851 reassembler
GeneraNumeroCasuale.lha dev/basic 23K OS3 Custom routine to gener...
Firemeter.zip driver/inp 22K OS3 Measures Joystick Autof...
G-WARS.lha game/shoot 7.9M OS3 Geometry Wars inspired ...
AmiVms.lha misc/emu 3.8M OS3 Simulates OpenVMS comma...
PrayForGaza.lha mods/32bit 2.0M GEN 16bit 16ch Amiga Charit...
PrayForGaza.lha mods/8voic 562K GEN 16bit 16ch Amiga Charit...
Protrekkr_AROS_i386.zip mus/edit 13M ARO Tracker/Synth hybrid Pr...
LHArchiver_MOS.lha util/arc 1.6M MOS create lha archives int...
LHArchiver_OS3.lha util/arc 1.4M OS3 create lha archives int...
LHArchiver_OS4.lha util/arc 1.9M OS4 create lha archives int...
LHArchiver_WOS.lha util/arc 1.7M WUP create lha archives int...
AmiSSL-v5-OS3.lha util/libs 3.8M OS3 OpenSSL as an Amiga sha...
AmiSSL-v5-OS4.lha util/libs 3.5M OS4 OpenSSL as an Amiga sha...
AmiSSL-v5-SDK.lha util/libs 2.4M VAR OpenSSL as an Amiga sha...
IdentifyDev.lha util/libs 68K OS3 Identify hardware and m...
IdentifyUsr.lha util/libs 102K OS3 Identify hardware and m...
xxd.lha util/misc 34K VAR Hex dump utility and vi...
CPU-A.lha util/moni 502K OS3 System Information Tool
(snx)
[News message: 16. Feb. 2025, 08:30] [Comments: 0]
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16.Feb.2025
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OS4Depot uploads until 15.02.2025
The following files have been added until 15.02.2025 to OS4Depot:
amissl-sdk.lha dev/mis 2Mb 4.0 SDK for AmiSSL
arabic_console_device... dri/inp 3Mb 4.1 An arabic console device, line &...
amissl.lha lib/mis 3Mb 4.0 OpenSSL as an Amiga shared library
lharchiver.lha uti/arc 2Mb 4.0 Create LhA archives intuitively
(snx)
[News message: 16. Feb. 2025, 08:30] [Comments: 0]
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16.Feb.2025
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AROS Archives uploads until 15.02.2025
The following files have been added until 15.02.2025 to AROS Archives:
protrekkr.i386-aros.zip aud/tra 13Mb Tracker/Synth hybrid Program
protrekkr.x86_64-aros-v11... aud/tra 13Mb Tracker/Synth hybrid Program
(snx)
[News message: 16. Feb. 2025, 08:30] [Comments: 0]
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16.Feb.2025
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MorphOS-Storage uploads until 15.02.2025
The following files have been added until 15.02.2025 to MorphOS-Storage:
Markdown-Viewer_1.0.lha Dependencies/Mimetypes Use cmark to read markd...
IRA-2.11.lha Development/ASM MC68000/10/20/30/40 rea...
xxd.lha Development/Misc Hex dump utility and vi...
LHArchiver_1.13.lha Files/Archive Create lha archives int...
Znax_1.1.lha Games/Think Port of Znax by Papiosaur
System16-SpriteViewer_... Graphics/Show A quick and dirty Sega ...
Wayfarer_9.1.lha MorphOS-update Wayfarer is the latest ...
GetMimetype_1.0.lha System/Shell GetMimetype_1.0.lha
IconInfo_1.0.lha System/Shell IconInfo_1.0.lha
AmbientFind_1.0.lha System/Shell AmbientFind_1.0.lha
(snx)
[News message: 16. Feb. 2025, 08:30] [Comments: 0]
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16.Feb.2025
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WHDLoad: New installers until 15.02.2025
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 15.02.2025:
- 2025-02-12 new: Wizmo (Kingsoft) done by DJ Mike (Info)
- 2025-02-11 new: Grimblood (Maelstrom) done by paraj (Info)
- 2025-02-10 improved: Powermonger (Bullfrog) use fast RAM to speed up rendering, trainer, icons and docs added (Info)
(snx)
[News message: 16. Feb. 2025, 08:30] [Comments: 0]
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16.Feb.2025
Amiga Addict (ANF)
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Print/PDF magazine: Amiga Addict, issue 36
Issue 36 of the print/PDF magazine Amiga Addict is now available from the publisher addict.media and from UK newsagents. This issue is dedicated to the once largest UK Amiga dealer, Silica Systems, including interviews with former employees. (snx)
[News message: 16. Feb. 2025, 08:30] [Comments: 0]
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16.Feb.2025
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Do it yourself: Adapter board A314 for an internal Raspberry Pi, version 1.2.3
The A314 is an FPGA-based adapter board by Niklas Ekström, with the help of which a Raspberry Pi can be connected to the expansion slot of the Amiga 500 (amiga-news.de reported), which also makes it possible to use its network connection, among other things.
The now released version 1.2.3 contains a workaround for a bug in the compiler vbcc, which caused the a314-cp.device not to work properly on a 68000 processor. (snx)
[News message: 16. Feb. 2025, 08:29] [Comments: 0]
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16.Feb.2025
Karpour
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Copies of really old (Amiga) websites: archive95.net
archive95.net wants to make websites accessible again that are too old even for the Web Archive - the latter only started archiving public sites in 1996. For this purpose, commercial CDs from the years before 1996 are used, on which copies of existing websites were distributed in order to present them to offline customers. Since the "Amiga Plus Extra No. 5/97" is one of the CDs plundered so far, a search for "Amiga" also brings up various interesting hits: fan pages for the A/Box, press releases from Gateway or the old support pages from Newtek. (cg)
[News message: 16. Feb. 2025, 00:12] [Comments: 1 - 16. Feb. 2025, 06:35]
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15.Feb.2025
Acneproduction
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Mouse-controlled zombie shooter: Playable demo of "BDTZ"
BDTZ ("Better Dead Than Zed", video) is a mouse-controlled shooter in which the character has to be controlled from a bird's eye view through a zombie-infested maze of streets. Ammunition is scarce and shots attract more zombies.
The game is still in development, but two playable demos have already been released in the last two weeks. BDTZ should run on any Amiga with at least one megabyte of RAM.
(cg)
[News message: 15. Feb. 2025, 23:58] [Comments: 0]
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15.Feb.2025
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Point'n Click Adventure: Operation Sirius for Amiga OS 1.3
"Operation Sirius" is a point'n click adventure game that the author Achim Kern created in 2012 using Hollywood for various Amiga platforms. However, he never finished or published the original, much older and Kickstart 1.3-compatible version. He has now made the current version of Operation Sirius AmigaOS 1.3 available for download: the game can be played until it arrives on SIRIUS. It takes up three floppy discs and requires 2 megabytes of Chip RAM. (cg)
[News message: 15. Feb. 2025, 23:51] [Comments: 0]
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15.Feb.2025
Jan Beta
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amigastore.eu offers mechanical replacement keyboards for Amiga 1200
amigastore.eu now offers mechanical keyboards for the A1200, where each key has its own switch. The keyboards are developed by Sergiusz and produced by amigastore.eu, and they come in three variants, which differ in the switches used: linear switches or switches with tactile feedback - the latter are then available with or without an audible "click".
The provider does not provide any information on the keycaps used on the keyboards, which cost around 185 euros including tax. The key arrangement is European - narrow Enter key, additional key between "Y" and "Shift" - but a country-specific layout cannot be selected. The sample images show a British layout with two unlabeled keys. (cg)
[News message: 15. Feb. 2025, 23:40] [Comments: 0]
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14.Feb.2025
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Amiga emulator for macOS: vAmiga 4.0b3 (update)
Dirk Hoffmann has released the second beta version 4.0 (amiga-news.de reported) of his Amiga emulator "vAmiga" for macOS with the following changes:
Enhancements
- The emulator core natively supports the ADZ / HDZ format now.
- Media files can be saved in compressed form (ADZ / HDZ) in workspaces.
- gzip can be selected as snapshot compression format.
Bug fixes
- "Insert..." from the df0 menu does no longer crash
At least macOS 13.5 is required.
Update: (16.02.2025, 12:10, dr)
Meanwhile beta version 3 is available. Changes:
Enhancements
- ASR (Adaptive Sample Rate)
- Resizable audio buffer
- Negative run-ahead frames ("run-behind")
Bug fixes
- Fixed a hard-drive boot issue
(dr)
[News message: 14. Feb. 2025, 19:35] [Comments: 1 - 16. Feb. 2025, 12:15]
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14.Feb.2025
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Sound editor: ProTrekkr 2.8.2 for AROS
ProTrekkr is a tracker program that combines a software synthesizer with a traditional sample tracker. It can mainly be used to create electronic music (such as psytrance, trance, goa, hard acid, IDM, chip, techno, jungle, etc.) for small intros, demos or games. Version 2.8.2 has now been released for AROS (and other systems). Changes:
- Patterns wouldn't scroll sometimes when starting to play, fixed.
- Note volume from channels (volume columns and effects 03) are now handled in the velocity sent to midi output.
- Changed LCTRL + F1 / F2 (Decrease / Increase editing step) to LCTRL + F2 / F4 due to Mac OS "interfering".
- Fixed Midi handling on Linux and Mac OS.
- Fixed the keyboard shortcuts on Mac OS.
- Typos in the manual: Transpose to 1 octave higher shortcuts are LCTRL + K and LCTRL + LSHIFT + K.
- Replaced pink noise with triangle waveform in synth.
- White noise is now twice as loud to be on par with other waveforms loudness.
- Added a function to hard sync OSC 1 to OSC 2.
- Inserting or deleting a track didn't modify the other patterns data.
- Fixed an ugly visual bug that occured when changing colors during playing.
- Added tracks header foreground color modifier.
- Sub oscillator can now be scaled from oscillator 1 by semitones.
- Maths combiner functions are also used for sub oscillator.
- Fixed various bugs here and there.
- VU meters are now displayed on a single line and a much less sensitive.
- Removed support for antediluvian NoiseTrekker 1/2 modules & instruments, they were only supported for salvage and conversion purposes.
- Saving a pattern without any currently selected block will save the entire pattern into the file.
- New logo !
- Fixed Linux audio driver.
Direct download: ptk_v2.8.2_aros_x86.zip (13 MB) (dr)
[News message: 14. Feb. 2025, 06:12] [Comments: 0]
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14.Feb.2025
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Dungeon Crawler: Bolminok's Kingdom 1.05
Since our last news item, Sami Vehmaa has made some small improvements to his dungeon crawler "Bolminok's Kingdom", which requires an AGA Amiga with some Fast-RAM. For example, the STATUS window can now be opened by holding down the fire button. (dr)
[News message: 14. Feb. 2025, 06:04] [Comments: 0]
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14.Feb.2025
Richard Körber (Mail)
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Tool: identify-library 44.3 (update)
Richard Körber has released version 44.2 of the identify library. It collects all kinds of system parameters and provides the user with information on CPU, FPU, memory, clock frequency, etc., for example. Version 44.2 provides a few bug fixes, new boards and a few improvements to hardware detection:
- More CPU/FPU clock frequencies are detected
- Apollo 68080 is now detected
- inline/identify.h was missing (Rafal Zabdyr)
- Minimig Control Board was not detected (Gerald Schnabel)
- A2000 with PCMCIA expansion was detected as A600, fixed
- UAE/DraCo was not detected as emulator
- Added more boards
Richard Körber has moved all his Amiga projects from GitHub to Codeberg. The source code on GitHub has been archived, so it is read-only, and will be deleted later this year. Codeberg is a non-profit organisation based in Berlin that offers Git hosting and other services for free and open source projects.
Update: (18.02.2025, 21:10, dr)
Version 44.3 is now available, which fixes a crash on Amiga model detection on some machines
Download: IdentifyUsr.lha (102 KB) (dr)
[News message: 14. Feb. 2025, 05:43] [Comments: 0]
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12.Feb.2025
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PTDQ: Chunky-to-planar video system for AGA Amigas
In chunky mode, all the bits that make up the color of a pixel are stored directly one after the other in memory. In bitplane mode, on the other hand, which is used by the Amiga's framebuffer, several black and white images ("planes", each with one bit per pixel) are stored independently of each other in memory. For 3D graphics, it is better to calculate these using a chunky framebuffer and then convert them into a bitplane framebuffer - the so-called chunky-to-planar conversion.
PTDQ (Pixel Tetrads Dots / Quality) is a video system for AGA Amigas that uses a new method for this conversion. It is based on the same principle as a third method, PTDS (Pixel Tetrads Dots / Speed), which is already three years old. Both restrict the freedom of color selection (PTDS also limits the maximum number of colors from 256 to 81), but are faster than the traditional chunky-to-planar conversion method. With PTDQ, the color selection and quality remain limited, but less so than with PTDS. Details on the Pixel Tetrads Dots method can be found in the documentation contained in the archive. (snx)
[News message: 12. Feb. 2025, 11:22] [Comments: 0]
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12.Feb.2025
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Demo scene: Use of an Amiga 1200 at the Gerp party in Sweden
With his illustrated report at the title link, Carl Svensson describes the use of an Amiga 1200 equipped with genlock, video recorder and small monitor, which was used at this year's Gerp party in Sweden (amiga-news.de reported) to manage all submitted Amiga compos, play back the A1200 compos and create new demos. (snx)
[News message: 12. Feb. 2025, 11:22] [Comments: 0]
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12.Feb.2025
Andreas Magerl (ANF)
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Amiga Future: New full versions online
Further full versions of Amiga games have been added to Amiga Future's download area: Jonathan Train It, König Eduard, Mars Tank Attack, Nippon Safes Inc and Ts Imbiss. (snx)
[News message: 12. Feb. 2025, 11:22] [Comments: 0]
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12.Feb.2025
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AmigaOS 4: SDL 2.32.0 release candidate 1
Version 2.32 of the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) multimedia library is about to be released for AmigaOS 4. Platform-specific changes of the first release candidate version include support for a fourth and fifth mouse button. (snx)
[News message: 12. Feb. 2025, 11:22] [Comments: 1 - 12. Feb. 2025, 15:24]
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