03.Aug.2021
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AmigaOS 4/MorphOS: Controlling Sonos speakers (update)
Michael Rupp, well-known by his Workbench simulation TAWS now has started a new project: Learning the programming language Hollywood.
Specifically, he is currently developing an application for AmigaOS 4 and MorphOS for controlling Sonos speaker.
The programm is called 'SonosController' and will have the following features:
- listing your speakers with the info of the currently playing song, with an icon that is downloaded from the speaker itself
- subscription of the speaker's UPnP events (that was probably the hardest one to crack, man-o-man), it means that the controller gets a notification if the Sonos system receives a command from some other controller (f.e. from your mobile or on some other computer) or directly from the speaker's buttons
- sending control commands:
- Play
- Pause
- Next
- Back
- Jump to time index
- Volume
- Mute
- Shuffle
- Repeat (everything, current song)
- Crossfade
- display of the current song's title, artist, and album on the selected speaker
- download and display of the album cover if possible (f.e. if embedded into the playing MP3 file)
- local cache for album covers for better performance
- local cache can be emptied in the Preferences dialog
- listing the selected speaker's current queue
- playing a song by clicking an entry in the queue
- listing the Sonos favourites incl. starting one
- listing the Sonos playlists incl. starting one (normal oder shuffled)
- listing TuneIn's saved radio stations incl. starting one
- listing TuneIn's saved radio shows incl. starting one
- browsing your music library incl. starting songs, albums, etc. (normal or shuffled)
- searching your music library by search string and search type (artist, album, composer, genre, song or imported playlist)
- the last x search strings are save, whereas x can be configured in the Preferences (0 - max. 50)
- saved search strings can be emptied in the Preferences dialog
According to the author, he "absolutely wanted to have an Amiga exclusive feature in it, something that the original Sonos app doesn't feature:
- Exporting playlists in M3U format. These can be put into your music library's "playlists" folder to be re-imported into Sonos, thus enabling you to kind of backup and restore your playlists.
All these features already have been implemented and currently are bug fixed. In future versions the following features will be added:
- grouping / ungrouping of speakers
- integration of music services such as Spotify, etc.
- modifying the current queue, adding songs (or whole playlists), remove songs, change song order
- save a queue as a new playlist
- modifying playlists (change, rename, delete, etc.)
- sleep timer functionality
- alarms functionality
- Ringho notifications
Regarding his experience with Hollywood, Rupp told us:
"I got into the new syntax very quickly, especially because the documentation is simply exemplary and full of sample code. Also, you can find an example for practically every programming aspect in the provided sample projects. And if I had any questions, I was always helped promptly in the Hollywood forum, be it by Andreas himself or other Hollywood programmers.
Hollywood is a programming language and so programming knowledge is necessary. Using the Hollywood Designer, however, you can do one or the other without, but this is more comparable to Scala or PowerPoint and is not a programming toolbox in the sense.
However, if you want to learn programming, I can recommend Hollywood as a starting point, especially because of the excellent documentation. Or you can click together something simple in the designer (a small slideshow or so) and then look at the generated script and try to understand what is going on."
Update: (05:53, 10.08.21, dr)
Michael Rupp emphazies that he is looking for beta testers. If you have a MorphOS or AmigaOS4 system and a Sonos speaker, then please contact him via mail. (dr)
[News message: 03. Aug. 2021, 20:24] [Comments: 0]
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03.Aug.2021
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Dev Diary: 'This week in PiStorm'
In his weekly column 'This week in PiStorm', the developer Andrew Hutchings gathers progresses and insights on the 'PiStorm' project.
In his latest entry among others he reported that the PiStorm-Wiki was updated and now includes a FAQ as well as a detailed software installation guide. (dr)
[News message: 03. Aug. 2021, 07:11] [Comments: 0]
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02.Aug.2021
Amigaworld.net (forum)
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From Vultures to Vampires: Shipping of book by Pleasance and Dickinson (vol. 1)
The first volume of "From Vultures to Vampires", a book by the former Commodore UK manager David Pleasance and the A-EON Technology co-founder Trevor Dickinson, is currently shipping to those crowdfunders who pledged for the e-book version. Printing of the real book is expected to be finished August 20.
For the Kindle variant, its manufacturer currently states September 6 as date of availability. Regarding prices, on his website David Pleasance mentions 15 (e-book, same amount as previously for crowdfunders) and 35 British Pounds, respectively (printed book, for crowdfunders it had been 30 Pounds; for volume two, the latter get a discount of 50 % on both variants). (snx)
[News message: 02. Aug. 2021, 08:34] [Comments: 0]
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01.Aug.2021
Alain Fontanin
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Text editor: Amiga Source Editor 1.52 (update)
By releasing version 1.2 (2019), at the end of the last year Alain Fontanin has resumed the development of his "Amiga Source Editor" (ASE) which originally started in 1989.
The author constantly develops his text editor further and now has released version 1.51 with the following changes:
- Compiled with SAS/C 6.58
- Use of the locale library for language-specific and country-specific properties (date and time) and catalogs for the localized version (english in the code, french and german as catalogs). The source file to generate the catalogs (ASE2019.cs with SimpleCat) is in the release
- Use of the gadtools library for menus and gadgets
- Reentrance mechanism, based on Arexx script to avoid having multiple instances of ASE2019 in memory
- Replacement of obsolete functions
- Ability to handle differents 'EOL' characters
- Significant improvement in the reading speed of a document
- Ability to create and manage document backups
- Improve configuration of ASE2019
- Improve tabs management : tab size from 1 to 10 and hard tabs
- Improve speed cancellation changes
- Integration of the Amiga clipboard
- First version (limited) of document comparison function
- Correction of the 'Delete content of the current line' function
- Correction of the 'Delete characters after cursor' function
- Correction of the 'Delete characters before cursor' function
- New functions 'Delete word before/after cursor'
- New configuration of the 'DEL' & 'BACKSPACE' keys;refer to 'Shortcuts' section, of the documentation for more information
- Removal of the 'Lorem Ipsum' function
- Correct version of the 'ASE2019.cs' localization file
Meanwhile version 1.52 is available which fixes a bug in the English menu.
Download: ASE2019_1.52.lha (134 KB) (dr)
[News message: 01. Aug. 2021, 07:33] [Comments: 1 - 03. Aug. 2021, 07:39]
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01.Aug.2021
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Aminet uploads until 31.07.2021
The following files have been added until 31.07.2021 to Aminet:
Healthcare_1.0.lha biz/misc 240K MOS Displays data from Garmin dev...
dsp3210.lha driver/oth 305K 68k DSP 3210 drivers and tools
F1GP2021Carset.lha game/data 13K 2021 Carset for F1GP
MCE.lha game/edit 3.2M 68k Multi-game Character Editor
MCE-MOS.lha game/edit 3.5M MOS Multi-game Character Editor
MCE-OS4.lha game/edit 3.8M OS4 Multi-game Character Editor
BOOM_AGA.lha game/shoot 2.8M 68k Amiga port of BOOM (DOOM)
BOOM_RTG.lha game/shoot 2.8M 68k Amiga port of BOOM (DOOM)
giocodel15.lha game/wb 158K 68k classic, some 50 year old puz...
AmiArcadia.lha misc/emu 4.3M 68k Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiArcadiaMOS.lha misc/emu 4.7M MOS Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiArcadia-OS4.lha misc/emu 4.8M OS4 Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiVms.lha misc/emu 3.2M 68k Simulates OpenVMS commands
BetterPerson.lha mods/8voic 3.8M Better Person 7ch Slow Latin ...
amiditools.lha mus/midi 82K 68k Tools for MIDI processing
ToolsMenu_FR.lha util/cdity 6K French catalog for ToolsMenu ...
Iconverter_mos.lha util/conv 52K MOS Convert WB 1.x/MagicWB icons ...
ADiffView.lha util/misc 160K 68k graphical ASCII file compare/...
(snx)
[News message: 01. Aug. 2021, 06:35] [Comments: 0]
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01.Aug.2021
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OS4Depot uploads until 31.07.2021
The following files have been added until 31.07.2021 to OS4Depot:
arabic_console_device... dri/inp 3Mb 4.1 An arabic console device, line &...
mce.lha gam/uti 4Mb 4.0 Multi-game Character Editor
cookiemaster.lha net/bro 2Mb 4.1 Web browser (currently Odyssey) ...
(snx)
[News message: 01. Aug. 2021, 06:35] [Comments: 0]
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01.Aug.2021
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AROS Archives uploads until 31.07.2021
The following files have been added until 31.07.2021 to AROS Archives:
68k_datatypes.zip aud 24kb new datatype for aros m68k
arlan.lha net/mis 223kb Simple "self-made" Gop...
(snx)
[News message: 01. Aug. 2021, 06:35] [Comments: 0]
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01.Aug.2021
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MorphOS-Storage uploads until 31.07.2021
The following files have been added until 31.07.2021 to MorphOS-Storage:
AmiArcadia_27.72.lha Emulation A Signetics-based machi...
ReportPlus_8.22.lha Misc A Multipurpose utility ...
Healthcare_1.0.lha Misc Displays data from Garm...
ADiffView_2.0.lha Text/Compare A graphical file compar...
(snx)
[News message: 01. Aug. 2021, 06:35] [Comments: 0]
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01.Aug.2021
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WHDLoad: New installers until 31.07.2021
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 31.07.2021:
- 2021-07-31 improved: Ports Of Call (International Software Development) protection removed, reduced memory usage (Info)
- 2021-07-31 new: Mutant League Hockey (Ocean) done by JOTD (Info)
- 2021-07-31 improved: Center Court 2 (G. Fritsch) run with any diskfont.library, fixed typos (Info)
- 2021-07-29 improved: Superfrog (Team 17) added 3-button joystick support (Info)
- 2021-07-26 updated: Crystal Kingdom Dizzy (Code Masters) install script corrected (Info)
- 2021-07-25 improved: Ports Of Call (International Software Development) german version supported (Info)
- 2021-07-25 improved: Crystal Kingdom Dizzy (Code Masters) 2nd version supported, reduced chip mem to 512k, 68000 quitkey, 2nd button jump, faster loading, trainers added, sound effects and blitwaits fixed, RawDIC imager (Info)
- 2021-07-25 new: Center Court 2 (G. Fritsch) done by JOTD (Info)
(snx)
[News message: 01. Aug. 2021, 06:35] [Comments: 0]
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31.Jul.2021
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Commercial action game: Turbo Tomato Deluxe Collectors Edition
Today Bitmap Soft has released the commercial action game 'Turbo Tomato – Deluxe Collectors Edition' in which you have to try to remove mutated vegetables from the playground using bombs.
The Deluxe collector edition is available for about 29 Euro (plus shipping) and contains the following items:
- Glossy Big Box
- Turbo Tomato game on 3.5″ floppy diskette
- Full-Colour Instruction booklet
- Turbo Tomato Fridge Magnet
- Selection of Stickers
- Glossy A4 single-sided poster
- Digital download included
Features of the game:
- Fast one or two player co-op action
- 35+ levels across four distinct worlds
- 40+ enemy types and 4 bosses to battle
- Online global high score table
- Level code system
The game runs on any Amiga equipped with 1MB Chip RAM and Kickstart 2.0+ and supports harddrive and CD32 installation.
The game also is available for about 12 Euro as digital download. (dr)
[News message: 31. Jul. 2021, 12:52] [Comments: 0]
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31.Jul.2021
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7-bit: Software update for 508i-Wicher cards
7-bit has released a software update to version 2.8b3 for its Wicher 508i cards which fixes a bug in AmigaOS3.2. (dr)
[News message: 31. Jul. 2021, 09:50] [Comments: 0]
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31.Jul.2021
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Print-/PDF Magazine: Amiga Addict, Issue 7
Seventh issue of British magazine "Amiga Addict" is available for pre-ordering. The lead article is about Psygnosis, but there are also articles about the Vampire, a review of Turbo Tomato and a look at how comic books helped sell the Amiga back in the day. This issue has 60 pages and includes an exclusive demo. (dr)
[News message: 31. Jul. 2021, 08:59] [Comments: 0]
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31.Jul.2021
Dante
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Top-Down-View-Shooter: New Preview video for 'AlarCity'
Already at the end of 2017 the developers of Pixelglass Games had announced the Top-Down-View-Shooter 'AlarCity'. John Tsakiris now has published a YouTube video "showcasing the transition from the original old 1.0 demo to the new design and direction." The game is being developed using the Scorpion Engine. (dr)
[News message: 31. Jul. 2021, 07:32] [Comments: 0]
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31.Jul.2021
Amitopia
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MorphOS: Reading data of Garmin devices
Carsten Siegners Healthcare "reads data from Garmin devices (smart watches,
portable GPS devices and bicycle computers. This data are displayed in a diagram." The first public version 1.0 can read cardiogram (data of the heart), sport, user profile and device info from the hardware. The latest MorphOS-Version 3.15 is required. (dr)
[News message: 31. Jul. 2021, 07:12] [Comments: 0]
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30.Jul.2021
Andre Ravalico (ANF)
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Videos: New channel CommoGuru (german)
At the title link, Andre 'Wollny' Ravalico has started a german YouTube channel called "CommoGuru". His aim are more in-depth reports compared to other videos about Commodore.
For now there are two videos of almost 45 minutes each about the Amiga CD³² and the Amiga 1200. Depending on reception, more will follow. (snx)
[News message: 30. Jul. 2021, 15:25] [Comments: 0]
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30.Jul.2021
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ACube Systems: New online shop / Sam460cr boards still not available
Press release, 29. July 2021:
"ACube Systems it’s pleased to announce the opening of its new online store.
In the new store customers will find the current lineup of ACube hardware ranging from barebones motherboards to accessories. Everything you’ll need to enjoy your AmigaOS / MorphOS experience with the usual quality and reliability you expect from several years of experience.
Please note:
Registered users of the old shop have been automatically imported, but we highly recommend all users to check their accounts, especially the shipping address, and correct any errors they should see."
The new batch of Sam460cr boards, announced at the end of March, still are not available.
But at least all three motherboards listed in the section Sam motherboards have price labels:
All price quotations are inclusive AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition. As far as there are new information regarding the availability of the boards, we of course will inform our readers. (dr)
[News message: 30. Jul. 2021, 07:35] [Comments: 0]
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29.Jul.2021
Patrick Nevian
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Tales of Gorluth III: Development status and survey
In January 2019 the third part of Tales of Gorluth Saga was announced. In April of the last year the developer Patrick Nevian (AMIworx) informed that the third part is being ported to the Scorpion Engine.
Now Nevian has asked all users who have pre-ordered the game how to proceed. The developer kindly allowed us to publish this mail:
"Dear Gorluth fans!
It´s been a while since my last update email. I told you about TOGIII being converted to the Scorpion Engine.
The advantages are obvious: 50 fps, better graphics, etc.
My Backbone version of TOGIII has been finished for a while now. Erik keeps improving Scorpion and the features are impressive. The implementation process will take some time, as Erik is working on more than one project.
Now my question to you: Do you still want to wait for the greatly improved Scorpion version, or do you want the unoptimized Backbone version?
I will discuss a deadline with Erik soon so that the Gorluth series can be completed one way or another. I´m looking forward to your feedback!"
He also invites all other users and potential purchasers of the game to give feedback. (dr)
[News message: 29. Jul. 2021, 11:51] [Comments: 0]
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29.Jul.2021
Amigaworld.net (forum)
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Emulator: QEMU 6.1 emulates Pegasos II
Two days ago, release candidate 1 of version 6.1 of the emulator QEMU has been published, including now the possibility to also emulate bplan's PowerPC mainboard Pegasos II.
Besides the AmigaOne X5000 and the already emulated mainboard Sam460ex, Pegasos II is the only further platform running MorphOS as well as AmigaOS 4.1, barring original Amiga computers with corresponding accelerator boards, which, despite internal maintenance, are not officially supported anymore since MorphOS 1.4.5. (snx)
[News message: 29. Jul. 2021, 11:40] [Comments: 0]
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29.Jul.2021
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Lawsuit: Hyperion's response to Evert Carton's testimony
On June 25, 2021 Hyperion's co-founder and sole managing director during the settlement negotiations with Amiga Inc. in 2009, Evert Carton, was deposed by both parties' lawyers in the lawsuit of the plaintiffs Cloanto and the so-called Amiga parties vs. Hyperion Entertainment as defendant. On July 14, 2021 plaintiffs submitted a motion for leave to file regarding this deposition (amiga-news.de reported).
On July 28, 2021, Hyperion Entertainment submitted their response to the court, requesting that plaintiffs’ motion should be denied (PDF file). Besides lack of diligence - because plaintiffs failed to depose Evert Carton before filing their motion for summary judgement - and increased harm for Hyperion with regard to their business relationships if the summary judgement would be delayed by admission of the deposition, the application is also substantiated by Evert Carton's minor relationship to the Amiga market.
Evert Carton's deposition confirmed the well-known fact within the Amiga community that there had been no relation of Evert Carton to the Amiga market prior to his involvement in Hyperion Entertainment and that this company was originally founded by Ben Hermans and himself as a vehicle for each of them to pursue their own goals (page 80 of the PDF file of the deposition). Lack of knowledge regarding AmigaOS 3.x due to this could be found in the testimony when Evert Carton was asked regarding specific products by Commodore underlying disputed trademarks such as "Workbench" (p. 54), while nevertheless he was aware of other details, for example the programming languages used in the source code of the original operating system which had to be adapted for creating AmigaOS 4 (p. 82).
Thus Hyperion's lawyer emphasizes that - as admitted by Evert Carton - Ben Hermans was the drving force during negotiations with Amiga Inc. in 2009 (p. 153, p. 25) and that Evert Carton could not force himself to become interested in Amiga, despite trying (p. 133). Furthermore it is pointed out that he lost faith in the new project regarding the AmigaOne X5000 (p. 91/92) and started a business of his own in November 2009, i.e. just one month after signing the settlement agreement, to avoid his revenue being continuously consumed by Hyperion's Amiga activities anymore (p. 262).
Regarding the fact that, due to Ben Hermans' main occupation, Evert Carton was the sole director and owner of 97 % of Hyperion's shares during the time frame of the negotiations with Amiga Inc. taking place, the lawyer is bringing forward the argument that by the time the settlement agreement had actually been executed, the distribution of shares would already have been changed during alteration of the legal form of the company - resulting in him owning "the minority as the only shareholder who lacked knowledge or understanding of Amiga" (49 % vs. 48 % by Ben Hermans and 3 % by Timothy de Groote), and that he would have just signed the settlement agreement in 2009 for Hyperion "because he lived within 50 meters of a notary" (p. 132). Back then Hyperion's company address was at Evert Carton's place of residence (p. 145).
Since thus Hyperion's intentions in negotiations with Amiga Inc. in 2009 would have been basically identic to Ben Hermans' intentions - which would be also visible in lacking memory on which party had added certain phrases (p. 100) or why the term "software" was defined differently compared to the original contract from 2001 (p. 112), or in the fact that Evert Carton didn't read all pages of the book "Amiga DOS Manual" (p. 118) - admission of his testimony is considered futile in a situation of his word against that one of his former managing partner, so that the application for admission should be denied, also due to lack of diligence. (snx)
[News message: 29. Jul. 2021, 10:54] [Comments: 0]
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28.Jul.2021
AmigaLove
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Iconverter: Old icons with a new look / Basics about AmigaOS icons
With 'Iconverter' (currently version 0.95) you can convert old icons as if they were created for today's more recent versions of AmigaOS. Iconverter converts AmigaOS 1.x and MagicWB icons into the format of NewIcons, using the color scale for which these icons were created. Theoretically this would also work for icons created under AmigaOS 2.0 to 3.1, but they are usually displayed correctly without conversion.
To get the converted icons displayed correctly, the NewIcons extension is needed under AmigaOS 3.0 and 3.1 or the new IconLib_46 created by Peter Keunecke. AmigaOS 3.1.4 and 3.2 do not need these extensions.
Iconverter is a shell or command line program written in Standard-C. Thus it should compile for all other systems that have a C compiler. About the background of the program the author Iljitsch van Beijnum writes:
"Workbench 1.0 to Workbench 1.3 used a four-color screen with the colors blue / white / black / orange. With the introduction of Workbench 2.0 this was changed to gray / black / white / blue-gray. This means that the WB 1.x icons look like a negative version of themselves. Also, the WB 1.x icons were designed for "640x200" or "640x256" screen resolutions. WB 2.0 and later icons were designed for higher screen resolutions (640x400 or 640x512), which means that WB 1.x icons look stretched on most newer systems."
In addition to adapting the icons to high-resolution screens, WB 2.0 also adds a 3D effect frame around each icon. From WB 2.0 it is also possible to change the number of colors on the Workbench screen, especially on AGA Amigas. There are about six generations of icons on the Amiga:
- 1. workbench 1.x icons created for medium resolutions (640x200 or 640x256) with a four-color blue/white/black/orange palette.
- Workbench 2.0 - 3.1 Icons created for higher resolutions (640x400 or 640x512) with a four-color gray/black/white/blue-gray palette. The system now draws a 3D frame around the icons.
- MagicWB icons. These can use eight colors and require a specific eight-color palette.
- NewIcons icons. NewIcons is an extension of the original icon file format and allows icons with up to 256 colors. The palette used by the icon is included and the system adjusts the colors of the icon to best display on any Workbench screen. NewIcons are limited to 93x93 pixels.
- 5. workbench 3.5 ColorIcons. These icons are encoded in an IFF format and are an extension of the original icon format. Like NewIcons, they can use up to 256 colors, but can be larger, 256x256 pixels maximum. (Sometimes they are also called "GlowIcons", since the GlowIcon style became popular with Workbench 3.5).
- 6. PNG-Icons.
NewIcons are supported by the NewIcons system, AmigaOS 3.1.4 and IconLib_46. AmigaOS 3.1.4 and IconLib_46 also support Workbench 3.5.
ColorIcons and IconLib_46 supports PNG icons.
Workbench 1.x icons look completely different on newer systems because a different palette is used and because they were designed for a different screen resolution. MagicWB icons only look correct if the MagicWB palette is used consistently. On an AmigaOS system version 3.0 or later with a workbench with more than eight colors, MagicWB symbols will tend to look strange and inconsistent because the system reassigns colors 4 - 7 as needed.
It is of course possible to use a tool (or under 3.1.4 a setting) to fix the colors 0 - 7 in the MagicWB palette. However, MagicWB colors 0 and 3 are somewhat darker than WB 2.0+ colors. Long story short, even with additional effort, it is not possible to get the three early generations of icons to look right on the same system at the same time. Iconverter solves this problem by converting these three types of icons into a NewIcon with the correct palette. The resulting icon files retain the original icon, so they look the same on systems that do not support the NewIcon extension.
There are two different versions of the iconverter: The version iconverter.ixemul requires the ixemul.library (version 48 or higher) and has the advantage that you can use the icon files with placeholders like #?.info. The regular version does not require the ixemul.library but does not recognize placeholders." (dr) (Translation: bb)
[News message: 28. Jul. 2021, 07:09] [Comments: 0]
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27.Jul.2021
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mouSTer: USB input devices for retro computers / Review
In the middle of last year, the Polish store retrohax.net announced "mouSTer", an adapter that allows connecting any USB mice and joypads to classic computers. In the meantime, "mouSTer" is available from the provider for just under 26 euros (plus shipping). The current firmware version is 3.12.2019.
Ilyich van Beijnum recently described in a detailed review how he got his favorite wireless mouse to work on his Amiga 1200 with the help of "mouSTer". (dr) (Translation: bb)
[News message: 27. Jul. 2021, 08:40] [Comments: 0]
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27.Jul.2021
Amiga.org (Forum)
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Adventure: Furtum Sacrum (Spanish/English)
Furtum Sacrum ("holy theft") is a point'n'click adventure by the Spanish group AmigaWave (amiga-news.de reported). Besides its original language, also English is supported. The game features characters of the film adaptation of the novel "The name of the rose", but a storyline of its own. Your task as a monk sent to the monastery San Martiño de Xuvia is to clear a series of robberies.
After being designed years ago already and endorsed by several programmers, in the end graphic artist José A. González decided to develop it on his own, thus he studied the program and its language, AMOS-based Graphic Adventure Creator, and finalised it himself.
The adventure runs on all Amigas with 1 MB of Chip RAM and is available both as a physical edition on 3.5" floppy disk in a box with manual as well as, free of charge, an ADF floppy image. Orders can be sent to José's e-mail address jojocreativo@gmail.com. Screenshots can be found at the corresponding thread at the forum of Amiga.org. (snx)
[News message: 27. Jul. 2021, 08:25] [Comments: 0]
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27.Jul.2021
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Video tutorial on how to install the Amiga emulator 'Amiberry' on a Pi400
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.
The video podcast '10 Minute Amiga Retro Cast' shows in its latest edition how to install the current version 4.14 of the Amiga emulator on a Pi400.
(dr) (Translation: bb)
[News message: 27. Jul. 2021, 08:12] [Comments: 0]
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27.Jul.2021
Greg Donner
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CS-Lab: New firmware 1.20 for Warp560/1260 available
As reported by Greg Donner on his unofficial Warp 3060/4060 page, CS-Lab has released a new version 1.20 for the Warp 560 and Warp 1260 along with an updated Quick Start Guide, which includes the following changes:
- SD card support in AmigaOS (warpSD.device)
- USB disk support in AmigaOS (warpUSBDisk.device)
- Autoconfig / AutoBoot support for SD and USB storage media
- DMA transfers for SD and USB storage media
- Change of FastRAM / RTG memory allocation to 224 / 32MB
As the developers write, "unfortunately this version does not support HW mp3 playback via WarpTool, as currently only AmigaOS has access to SD and USB disk. A special version of the mpega.library will be available with future updates."
One user was able to test the new firmware in advance and has published a YouTube video. (dr) (Translation: bb)
[News message: 27. Jul. 2021, 07:55] [Comments: 0]
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26.Jul.2021
English Amiga Board (Website)
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MIDI utilities: amiditools 1.0.0
Christian Vogelsang provides with the 'amiditools' some tools for musicians who control MIDI hardware with an Amiga. The package contains the following programs:
- udp - A network MIDI driver with custom protocol
- echo - A simple (test) driver that echoes all MIDI data
- midi-info - Show CAMD drivers and more
- midi-send - Send MIDI data via command line
- midi-recv - Receive MIDI data on command line
- midi-echo - Echo incoming MIDI traffic
- midi-perf - MIDI performance measurement
- BarsnPipes Tools - BarsnPipes Tools to access the new CAMD MIDI drivers
- midi-udp-bridge - Endpoint for udp MIDI driver
- midi-udp-echo - Test endpoint for udp MIDI driver
- midi-perf - MIDI performance measurement
(cg) (Translation: bb)
[News message: 26. Jul. 2021, 22:44] [Comments: 0]
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26.Jul.2021
Generation Amiga (Webseite)
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Emulator: WinUAE 4.9 Beta 25
The next release of the well-known Amiga emulator WinUAE will be version number 5.0 due to a new chipset emulation as well as the emulation of a Voodoo3 graphics card. Beta versions have been provided by the developer Toni Wilen for some time already under the version name WinUAE 4.9 Beta [n], currently Beta 25. (cg) (Translation: bb)
[News message: 26. Jul. 2021, 22:39] [Comments: 0]
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25.Jul.2021
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Game Construction Kit: Scorpion Engine V2021.5.2
The "Scorpion Engine" developed by Erik 'earok' Hogan allows you to develop games. The engine itself is closed source, all demos and example games are open source. The editor runs under Windows. Graphics are imported as PNG files, levels created by using the editor Tiled eingesetzt. For importing and creating sounds, music and animations the Amiga formats (mod, 8svx, anim5) are used.
Recently version 2021.5.2 has been released providing bug fixes as well as the new feature translucency which is demonstrated by an included demo:
For a first overview about the options and possibilites of the engine, Hogan recommends this YouTube video. How to import existing Backbone projects and create animation loops and slopes are also demonstrated by vidoes.
The Scorpion Engine is an ongoing work-in-progress version of the Scorpion Editor for Windows. According to the author a "documentation is almost certainly likely to come when the engine is stable, but the engine is constantly under development. Documents and tutorials would quickly go out of date, all of my time on the project goes into much needed bug fixes and features." Nevertheless many projects and games have been announced or released during the last time. The author has confirmed to us that his Game Construction Kit is not only aimed at professional developers, on the contrary:
"It's really designed for anyone who wants to make an Amiga game. I am a professional game developer so I've designed Scorpion to be fast and flexible enough to make the games I want to make. But at the same time, I've also tried to make it as straight forward as possible for non-developers. Mixel, for example, is making the largest and most complex Scorpion game to date entirely by himself with no background in programming: Creeping Me Out: Hex Night."
Taking up the question of one of our readers, if ports to any other platforms are planned he replied:
"A port for AmigaOS4 is not planned yet. I have started work towards porting Scorpion to other platforms, but I can't guarantee AmigaOS4 compatibility at this point." (dr)
[News message: 25. Jul. 2021, 07:35] [Comments: 0]
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25.Jul.2021
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Aminet uploads until 24.07.2021
The following files have been added until 24.07.2021 to Aminet:
HWP_RapaGUI.lha dev/hwood 7.2M MOS Cross-platform GUI toolkit fo...
REDPILLGameCreator.lha dev/misc 2.1M 68k Game Creator with AGA support
dsp3210.lha driver/oth 301K 68k DSP 3210 drivers and tools
MCE.lha game/edit 3.2M 68k Multi-game Character Editor
MCE-MOS.lha game/edit 3.5M MOS Multi-game Character Editor
MCE-OS4.lha game/edit 3.7M OS4 Multi-game Character Editor
AmiArcadia.lha misc/emu 4.3M 68k Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiArcadia-OS4.lha misc/emu 4.8M OS4 Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiVms.lha misc/emu 3.2M 68k Simulates OpenVMS commands
Ewy.lha mods/8voic 1.2M EWY 16bit 5ch Amiga Piano Ballad
ASE2019_1.50.lha text/edit 133K 68k Text editor
Vim_8.2-i386-aros.lha text/edit 12M x86 The ubiquitous text editor
Vim_8.2-ppc-amigaos.lha text/edit 14M OS4 The ubiquitous text editor
Vim_8.2-ppc-morphos.lha text/edit 13M MOS The ubiquitous text editor
ToolsMenu.lha util/cdity 73K 68k Add tools to the Workbench To...
Alltests.zip util/misc 14K 68k Automated Amiga Test Program
ReportPlus.lha util/misc 621K 68k Multipurpose utility
ReportPlusMOS.lha util/misc 735K MOS Multipurpose utility
ReportPlus-OS4.lha util/misc 786K OS4 Multipurpose utility
TestProgram.zip util/misc 27K 68k Versatile Amiga Test Program
InstallerLG.i386-aros... util/sys 121K x86 Commodore Installer replacement
InstallerLG.ppc-morph... util/sys 155K MOS Commodore Installer replacement
(snx)
[News message: 25. Jul. 2021, 06:43] [Comments: 0]
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25.Jul.2021
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OS4Depot uploads until 24.07.2021
The following files have been added until 24.07.2021 to OS4Depot:
picasm.lha dev/cro 142kb 4.0 PIC16F84 Assembler for the Amiga
crash.lha dev/uti 3kb 4.0 C source included
amiarcadia.lha emu/gam 5Mb 4.0 Signetics-based machines emulator
iconverter.lha gra/ico 99kb 4.0 Convert WB 1.x/MagicWB icons to ...
reportplus.lha uti/mis 786kb 4.0 Multipurpose utility
showfiles.lha uti/she 43kb 4.1 sorted & text-formatted file...
(snx)
[News message: 25. Jul. 2021, 06:43] [Comments: 0]
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25.Jul.2021
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AROS Archives uploads until 24.07.2021
The following files have been added until 24.07.2021 to AROS Archives:
vim_8.2-i386-aros.lha dev/edi 12Mb Vim
iconverter.i386-aros.lha gra/con 98kb Convert WB 1.x/MagicWB icons to ...
installerlg.i386-aros.lha uti/wor 121kb Commodore Installer replacement
(snx)
[News message: 25. Jul. 2021, 06:43] [Comments: 0]
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25.Jul.2021
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MorphOS-Storage uploads until 24.07.2021
The following files have been added until 24.07.2021 to MorphOS-Storage:
HWP_RapaGUI_2.0.lha Development/Hollywood/... A cross-platform GUI to...
Iris_0.125.lha Email New email client suppor...
MCE_13.0.lha Games/Editor Multi-game Character Ed...
InstallerLG_1.0.0b2.lha System/Shell Commodore Installer rep...
Vim_8.2.2993.lha Text/Edit A highly configurable t...
(snx)
[News message: 25. Jul. 2021, 06:43] [Comments: 0]
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25.Jul.2021
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WHDLoad: New installers until 24.07.2021
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 24.07.2021:
- 2021-07-18 new: Worthy (Pixelglass) done by JOTD (Info)
- 2021-07-18 new: Scuba Diver (Surreal) done by JOTD (Info)
- 2021-07-18 improved: First Samurai (Vivid Image) uses less chip memory, 3-button support added (Info)
- 2021-07-16 fixed: Incredible Shrinking Sphere (Electric Dreams) interrupt fixed (access to dmacon removed), gaame copyright info corrected into the slave (Info)
(snx)
[News message: 25. Jul. 2021, 06:43] [Comments: 0]
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24.Jul.2021
Aminet
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Game Construction Kit: RedPill 0.8.13
RedPill, developed by Carlos Peris, is a game construction kit written in Amiblitz 3.8, 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.
Changes of version 0.8.13:
- Number of Animations increased from 64 to 128. When updating project to this version there is no going back.
- When saving a project, if using the same previous name a backup of the project file is created.
- FIX: In tile properties of tileset 1 being used in all tilesets while in runtime.
- FIX: In tile properties screen solid tiles being displayed in incorrect positions.
- FIX: In ground collisions where the Objects are bigger than tile size.
- FIX: Fixed glitch happening when using Camera Shake in large maps.
(dr)
[News message: 24. Jul. 2021, 07:35] [Comments: 0]
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24.Jul.2021
Amiga Future (Webseite)
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Developer tool: vasm 1.8l
Earlier this week Frank Wille released an update of the modular assembler vasm. A list of changes in version 1.8l can be found at the title link. (snx)
[News message: 24. Jul. 2021, 05:59] [Comments: 0]
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23.Jul.2021
MorphZone (website)
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MorphOS 3.15: Bugfix for RAM handler
RAM handler of MorphOS 3.15 comprises a bug lasting for some years already that may result in the RAM: root directory to appear to contain many duplicate entries. With help by user 'AngryTom', MorphOS team member Harry 'Piru' Sintonen could fix this bug and release a patch for it now. To install it, extract the archive and drag & drop "ramrootfix" to SYS:WBStartup.
Download: ramrootfix.lha (21 KB) (snx)
[News message: 23. Jul. 2021, 21:16] [Comments: 0]
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23.Jul.2021
MorphZone (forum)
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MorphOS: E-mail client Iris 0.125
Today MorphOS team member Jacek 'jacadcaps' Piszczek released an update for his e-mail client Iris. Changes in version 0.125 include improvements of spellchecking, context menus and HTML markup code of e-mails.
For feedback to the author the corresponding thread at MorphZone can be used. (snx)
[News message: 23. Jul. 2021, 21:16] [Comments: 0]
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23.Jul.2021
Amigans
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Developer package: DevPack 1.1
The free "DevPack" provided by Dimitris Panokostas and Philipp Lonke is meant for Amiga users who under AmigaOS are going to develop software. The first version was released at the end of October 2020. The package is hosted on the Amikit website but does not have any dependencies on the commercial Workbench environment and can be installed on harddrive by extracting the lzx archive. Diverse compilers, text editors and other tools are included as listed in the Readme.
Changes of version 1.1:
- Released as an LZX archive as well as a dynamic (auto-expandable up to 3.9GB) SFS hardfile (HDF) for WinUAE and Amiberry
- ADDED: AmiLua 0.2 by Lua team, Matthias Rustler, http://aminet.net/package/dev/lang/amilua_src
- ADDED: AmiPython 2.3.3 by Tim Ocock, conversion and Amiga specific code by Irmen de Jong, http://www.monkeyhouse.eclipse.co.uk/amiga/python/
- ADDED: AMOS Pro Compiler by François Lionet, including PDF manual
- ADDED: ASM-One 1.48 & 1.49-RC2 by Boushh of TFA, https://www.amigacoding.com/index.php/680x0:AsmOne
- ADDED: Blitz Basic Demos by Erik Hogan, https://github.com/earok/BlitzBasicDemos
- UPDATED: FreePascal 3.2.2 by ALB42, https://blog.alb42.de/fpc-amigaaros-m68k/
- UPDATED: REDPILL 0.8.12 by Zener - Game Creator with AGA support, http://aminet.net/package/dev/misc/REDPILLGameCreator
(dr)
[News message: 23. Jul. 2021, 06:10] [Comments: 0]
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22.Jul.2021
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A2000-Motherboard using the EATX standard: Revision 1.2 is production candidate
After the developer 'jasonsbeer' has tested the prototpye of his rebuild of the A2000 motherboard called 'Amiga-2000-ATX', he has set revision 1.2 as production candidate. He wrote:
"I am currently running a Supra Wordsync SCSI card, a Commodore A2630 accelerator, and a Pi HDMI video card on the Amiga 2000 EATX. AIBB can be seen on the screen. I allowed the Amiga 2000 EATX to run for several hours playing games and running memory tests without issue. All the external ports are working as expected."
Changes of Revision 1.2:
- Fixed traces on the keyboard connector (error on the C= schematic)
- Added missing _COPCFG trace
- Deleted some extra traces that were not needed
- Added HSYNC/COMPSYNC selection jumper
- Cleaned up parts of the schematics
- Widened U801 footprint (RTC62423 is wider than the standard SOIC package)
- Added support for 1 and 2 MB Kickstart ROMs (512k still supported)
- Added some space around the external ports...they were crowded
(dr)
[News message: 22. Jul. 2021, 06:57] [Comments: 0]
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22.Jul.2021
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Game announcement: 'Jump!'
Polish developer Markus Duda is in the process of converting Yoomph, originally written for the Atari, for the Amiga. You have to move in a three-dimensional tunnel by means of a bouncing Amigaball and hit various (bonus) areas. This YouTube video shows the gameplay on the target platform: An Amiga 1200 with 4 MB Fast RAM.
As the developer told us, the game has reached alpha status. About 80% of the game is finished, which currently has 16 levels, in the final version should have about 30 levels. On the to-do list are still the creation of the intro and outro, as well as various improvements to the gameplay. A commercial release of the game is planned for the fall in the form of a download version and a boxed edition.
(dr) (Translation: bb)
[News message: 22. Jul. 2021, 06:05] [Comments: 0]
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21.Jul.2021
Amiga Future (website)
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Retailer: Relec changing ownership
Swiss Amiga retailer Relec has been founded in 1996 to fill a gap in the French speaking part of Switzerland as well as other countries of the same language. Now co-founder Emmanuel Rey is handing the company over to Benoît Wiblé. Connected to this is a change of location: the reseller moves from Payerne in the canton of Vaud to Fully in Valais.
Below you can read the official press release by Relec:
"Relec changes hands - Founded in 1996, Relec Hardware&Software Amiga will enter a new era in 2021. After 26 years of loyal service, its co-founder Emmanuel ‘XRAY’ Rey, is handing over to Benoît ‘Amigaouf’ Wiblé. Based since 1996 in Payerne in the canton of Vaud, Relec will move to Fully in Valais. Although Swiss, Relec provides many products to ‘amigaists’ in the French-speaking world, in Europe and in the world.
While maintaining the same level of quality and service as before, this move will bring new ideas, a desire to expand the catalogue and projects to develop. Amigaouf is well known in the Amiga world but also in the ‘Old Computers’ field with the OCC club, events like the Oufparty, Alchimie’s, Neuss and will put all his knowledge and contacts at the service of Relec.
We thank you for the trust you have put in us over the years and we hope you will continue with
Relec now and in the future. Amiga Forever." (snx)
[News message: 21. Jul. 2021, 14:08] [Comments: 0]
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21.Jul.2021
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Smarty and the Nasty Gluttons: Game conversion technical details
In his blog Cracking Stones one of the developers of the game Smarty and the Nasty Gluttons (amiga-news.de reported) gives detailed information about how it was technically implemented
So far four blog entries have been published:
(dr) (Translation: bb)
[News message: 21. Jul. 2021, 09:05] [Comments: 0]
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21.Jul.2021
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Project announcement: Universal Commodore power supply
The website 'RavenWolf' is generally dedicated to the research and restoration of all kinds of retro technology. In the latest project, a universal Commodore power supply is to be developed in the next few months. It is intended to be built by any hobbyist and will therefore mainly use commonly available components.
The reason for this is that Mike Brixius, project initiator, often receives used Commodore computers with either missing or wrong power supplies, which in case of doubt can damage the hardware. The goal is thus to build a tabletop power supply that will work with any Commodore computer.
Brixius began to catalog all Commodore machines (that he could think of) that use an external power supply. From this he was able to deduce that he would need to provide a total of 5 different voltages to cover all models:
- 5 volts DC at 5 amps for an extreme A500 configuration plus 1 external hard drive
- 9 volts DC at 1 amp for the Commodore 16 and 116 (if they are to be supported)
- 12 volts DC at 1.5 amps for the A500 plus an external drive
- -12 volts DC at a measly 0.1 amps for the Amigas
- 9 volts AC at 3 amps for the early VIC-20s or 1 amp if the early VICs are to be omitted
To simplify the project, support for the early Vic IIs, C16, and C116 can be dropped. However, as Brixius writes us, his prototype will support the Vic IIs
In addition, he intends to display information about power consumption, for which he plans to integrate a compact DC voltage and current meter. More information about the project as well as videos will follow in the near future.
(dr) (Translation: bb)
[News message: 21. Jul. 2021, 07:48] [Comments: 0]
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19.Jul.2021
Andreas Falkenhahn (ANF)
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Hollywood-Plugin: RapaGUI 2.0 released
Press release: After almost 4 years of development Airsoft Softwair, the hardest working men in code business, are proud to announce the long awaited release of RapaGUI 2.0. RapaGUI is the cross-platform GUI toolkit for Hollywood that allows you to create GUIs with native widgets for AmigaOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android. GUI layouts in RapaGUI are conveniently defined in XML files which are then converted into full-blown GUIs by RapaGUI on-the-fly. It just doesn't get any easier!
RapaGUI 2.0 is a major update with lots of new features, improvements and bug fixes. Here is a non-exhaustive list of new features in RapaGUI 2.0:
- support for Android!
- high-DPI monitors are now supported
- support for GTK3 on Linux
- core event handler completely rewritten
- convenient internationalization (i18n) support
- inter-process communication is now supported
- online help support
- dark mode support
- different fonts and font styles are now supported
- new Splitter, Finddialog and Hyperlink classes
- many new features for existing classes
- support for several new Hollywood 9 features
- over 50 pages of new documentation
- lots of other improvements and bug fixes
RapaGUI 2.0 is now available for free download from the official Hollywood portal. Thanks to Hollywood's cross-platform plugin system versions for AmigaOS3 (m68k), AmigaOS 4, MorphOS, Linux (ppc, arm, x86, x64), macOS (ppc, x64) and Windows (x86, x64) are provided. RapaGUI comes with almost 350 pages of documentation in various formats like PDF, HTML, AmigaGuide, and CHM that describe the GUI programming basics in detail and provide a convenient function and class reference.
Note that Hollywood 9 is strictly required by RapaGUI 2.0. It won't work with older Hollywood versions. Also note that there are a few minor incompatibilities between RapaGUI 2.0 and 1.x so it might be necessary to adapt your scripts. See the documentation for details.
Screenshots:
 (dr)
[News message: 19. Jul. 2021, 06:52] [Comments: 0]
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18.Jul.2021
Amiga Documents (Twitter)
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Lawsuit: Evert Carton on the settlement agreement from 2009
As requested by Cloanto and the Amiga parties, Evert Carton made a deposition in their lawsuit with Hyperion, the company he was a co-founder of. Plaintiffs' aim is to clarify the original intention of the settlement agreement (PDF file) signed in 2009 by Amiga Inc. and Hyperion.
The agreement's interpretation on the usage of trademarks and the source code of AmigaOS 3.1 is disputed (amiga-news.de reported), especially its further development for Motorola 680x0-based Commodore Amiga computers in the form of AmigaOS 3.1.4 and meanwhile also AmigaOS 3.2, respectively. Going by the plaintiffs point of view, Hyperion is cashing in on it unlawfully; a preliminary agreement to tolerate the distribution of AmigaOS 3.2 if it was made available for free was withdrawn in January.
Evert Carton was - besides Ben Hermans, who he met when they lived in the same dormitory - one of the two co-founders and managing partners of Hyperion, which had been a general partnership initially (Dutch: "Vennootschap onder firma", abbreviated VOF). Since 2003 and still at the time of the settlement agreement with Amiga Inc, Evert Carton was the sole director, since Ben Hermans prioritised his main employment at a law office. In 2011, Evert Carton announced that he had stepped down from Hyperion. Finally, in 2018, he also waived his remaining shares, as mentioned in his letter to the judge in which he expressed his willingness to be a witness (PDF file).
In his deposition (PDF file, 444 pages including supplements) Evert Carton confirms the agreement's interpretaion by Cloanto and, meanwhile, Mike Battilana's separate company Amiga Corporation, repectively (formerly known as C-A Acquisition Corporation). While active negotiation with Amiga Incorporated's lawyer would have been conducted by Ben Hermans as Hyperion's counsel, he himself would have been part of these talks as well. Furthermore, the settlement agreement would have been signed by him as the company's sole director and owner of 97 % of the shares at that time. According to Evert Carton, in 2009 Hyperion would have considered the Amiga market for AmigaOS 3.1, i.e. the operating system for 680x0 CPUs, to be dead. Their interest there would have been AmigaOS 4 only, i.e. the operating system for PowerPC CPUs.
The latter previously being bound to a specific processor architecture would have been the main reason for Hyperion to negotiate on a settlement agreement with Amiga Inc., allowing them to port AmigaOS 4 to any other platform as well. Accordingly, the resulting licence for trademarks would have been intended for marketing of AmigaOS 4 only, any other usage wouldn't have been up for debate at all. While there had been an additional plan to make use of the source code of AmigaOS 3.1 for embedded systems as well - just for exemplification a fridge is mentioned -, in this case the kind of operating system is not visible to the customer, thus it wouldn't have been marketed as "AmigaOS" there. Also selling Amiga fan merchandise like t-shirts would not have been an intention back then.
Key elements of Evert Carton's deposition are summarised in plaintiffs' motion for leave to file (PDF file).
Furthermore, Hyperion's lawyer also came into play during the testimony conducted via video conference - as in a cross-examination conducted in presence before the judge. The latter, on the other hand, targeted the original agreement between Hyperion and Amiga Inc. from 2001, when it was about the development of AmigaOS 4 as operating system for Eyetech's PowerPC computer called AmigaOne. This provided that in the event of Amiga Inc.'s insolvency, Hyperion and Eyetech would have been granted the exclusive right to further develop and market AmigaOS itself, relating to AmigaOS 3.1 and its further developments, including but not limited to AmigaOS 3.5 and AmigaOS 3.9. According to the lawyer's reading, this clause was triggered by the insolvency of Amiga Inc. or the non-successful full payment of the agreed 25,000 US dollars to Hyperion, so that Hyperion's development and distribution of AmigaOS 3.1.4 and 3.2 would be legal. Evert Carton, however, countered that the 2001 contract had been rendered irrelevant by the 2009 dispute resolution agreement. Finally, in the third round of questions, Cloanto's lawyer underlined this by referring to the relevant clause of 2009, that all previous agreements concerning the subject matter of the contract were cancelled by the dispute resolution agreement.
In addition, when reading Everton Carton's statement, one is struck by his astonishment that - while the conversion of Hyperion's legal form from a general partnership (Dutch: VOF) to a cooperative company with limited liability (Dutch: "Coöperatieve Vennootschap met beperkte Aansprakelijkheid", CVBA; as the third partner required for this, Timothy de Groote, introduced by Ben Hermans, joined with 3 per cent of the shares, while Evert Carton and Ben Hermans accounted for 49 and 48 per cent, respectively) did fall in the same period of a few weeks as the signing of the settlement agreement with Amiga Inc. - he had signed for "Hyperion CVBA" at a time when, according to his recollection, the company was still formally a VOF. However, this aspect does not seem to be relevant, since it was not taken up by Cloanto's lawyer, and the judge in the 2009 court settlement did mention the change of legal form ("Hyperion [Entertainment] VOF, now known as Hyperion Entertainment CVBA"). Whether, conversely, Hyperion's lawyer could take this up in order to declare the settlement of the dispute null and void, and therefore brought the original contract of 2001 with its insolvency regulation into play, remains open, but is likewise unlikely due to the judicial confirmation of the settlement reached at that time.
In addition, it emerges from the questioning that the costs of Hyperion's legal dispute with Amiga Inc. were borne by Evert Carton to a considerable - if not decisive - extent: partly in the form of the income generated by him outside the Amiga area with his actual activity for Hyperion, partly by a friend's loan of 100,000 Euros, which he later repaid himself. Investments that, according to him, he never recovered. (snx)
[News message: 18. Jul. 2021, 16:49] [Comments: 0]
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18.Jul.2021
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Aminet uploads until 17.07.2021
The following files have been added until 17.07.2021 to Aminet:
64tass.i386-aros.lha dev/cross 968K x86 Cross assembler targeting the...
picasm_os4.lha dev/cross 142K OS4 PIC16F84 Assembler for the Amiga
picasm-1-06.i386-aros... dev/cross 122K x86 PIC16F84 Assembler for the Amiga
NDK3.2R3.lha dev/misc 7.8M Native Developer Kit for Amig...
extfatfs-53-3.i386-ar... disk/misc 78K x86 A free exFAT file system impl...
ntfs3g-53-4.i386-aros... disk/misc 233K x86 A port of Tuxera's NTFS-3G fi...
eurochamp.lha docs/misc 245K Statistics: soccer Euro Champ...
dsp3210.lha driver/oth 284K 68k DSP 3210 drivers and tools
sonix-mos.lha driver/vid 1.6M MOS Display/grab pictures from so...
dtview2.catalog.de.lha gfx/show 1K German/Austrian catalog for D...
lemacs.i386-aros.lha text/edit 188K x86 Enhanced MicroEMACS
iconverter.i386-aros.lha util/conv 98K x86 Convert WB 1.x/MagicWB icons ...
Iconverter.lha util/conv 55K 68k Convert WB 1.x/MagicWB icons ...
iconverter_os4.lha util/conv 99K OS4 Convert WB 1.x/MagicWB icons ...
ReportPlus.lha util/misc 619K 68k Multipurpose utility
ReportPlusMOS.lha util/misc 734K MOS Multipurpose utility
ReportPlus-OS4.lha util/misc 784K OS4 Multipurpose utility
ViNCEd.lha util/shell 838K 68k ViNCEd, the CON: with ^Z & TA...
(snx)
[News message: 18. Jul. 2021, 06:40] [Comments: 0]
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18.Jul.2021
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OS4Depot uploads until 17.07.2021
The following files have been added until 17.07.2021 to OS4Depot:
hdaudio_ahi.lha dri/aud 119kb 4.1 Generic HD audio driver for Amig...
spaceinvaders.lha gam/shm 5Mb 4.1 A classic shooter with a modern ...
mce.lha gam/uti 4Mb 4.0 Multi-game Character Editor
dvskintool.lha gra/vie 80kb 4.0 The official skin Creation Tool ...
witchcleaner.lha net/mis 2Mb 4.0 Clean temp data from OWB and IBr...
reportplus.lha uti/mis 784kb 4.0 Multipurpose utility
(snx)
[News message: 18. Jul. 2021, 06:40] [Comments: 0]
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18.Jul.2021
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AROS Archives uploads until 17.07.2021
The following files have been added until 17.07.2021 to AROS Archives:
64tass.i386-aros.lha dev/cro 968kb Cross assembler targeting the 65xx
picasm-1.06.i386-aros.lha dev/cro 122kb PIC16F84 Assembler for the Amiga
extfatfs-53.3.i386-aros.lha dri/fil 78kb A free exFAT file system impleme...
ntfs3g-53.4.i386-aros.lha dri/fil 233kb A port of Tuxera's NTFS-3G ...
r2z_aros_intel.lha gam/mis 2Mb Test your reaction times
perciman_aros.lha off/mis 2Mb manage contact and other informa...
lemacs.i386-aros.lha uti/tex 188kb Enhanced MicroEMACS
(snx)
[News message: 18. Jul. 2021, 06:40] [Comments: 0]
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18.Jul.2021
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MorphOS-Storage uploads until 17.07.2021
The following files have been added until 17.07.2021 to MorphOS-Storage:
Sonix_0.40.lha Devices/Webcam Display and grab pictur...
AmiArcadia_27.7.lha Emulation A Signetics-based machi...
ReportPlus_8.21.lha Misc A Multipurpose utility ...
WitchCleaner_2.0.lha Network/Web A little and easy progr...
(snx)
[News message: 18. Jul. 2021, 06:39] [Comments: 0]
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18.Jul.2021
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WHDLoad: New installers until 17.07.2021
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 17.07.2021:
- 2021-07-16 fixed: Incredible Shrinking Sphere (Electric Dreams) interrupt fixed (access to dmacon removed), gaame copyright info corrected into the slave (Info)
- 2021-07-16 improved: Inviyya (Tigerskunk) support balanced version, slave works on 68000 now, trainers added (Info, Image)
- 2021-07-14 improved: Switchblade 2 (Gremlin) fixed not working climb ladders, support for three button joystick (Info)
- 2021-07-12 new: Playhouse Strip Poker (R. Brongers) done by Wepl (Info)
(snx)
[News message: 18. Jul. 2021, 06:39] [Comments: 0]
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17.Jul.2021
PPA
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Arcade shooter: Bean Versus The Animator
'17BitRetro' has released the arcade shooter 'Bean Versus The Animator' which can be purchased for 5 Dollar. The archive includes a lguide as well as five adf files. According to the developers they "wrote it originally back in 1994 and finished it off this year".
Features:
- 6 frantic levels
- 6 big boss fights
- 12 weapons
- 2 Player Simultaneous Action
- 32 colours
- 8 Bit SFX and Music
- Movie style Intro and Outro
- Lightgun or Mouse Controls
System requirements:
- OCS / ECS or AGA Amiga
- Kickstart 2.04 or higher (only tested under 2.04 and 3.1)
- 1 MB Chip Ram. Recommended 1.5MB overall to use extra drives
- Mouse or Lightgun: Sega Light Phaser 3050 with Amiga adapter and CRT was tested.
(dr)
[News message: 17. Jul. 2021, 12:44] [Comments: 0]
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17.Jul.2021
PPA
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Shell extension: Go Shell 3.0
The developer Krzysztof Donat wrote: "GoShell is free and easy tool to open Shell terminal in fullscreen on separate screen. You can choose any screen mode, set the colors and fonts, change the terminal window settings, and more. GoShell also has several predefined color sets, e.g. classic OS 3.x or OS 1.3, dark, green, orange etc."
Main features of the tool:
- Customizable screen, font and colors
- A set of predefined color sets
- Support for KingCON and ViNCEd (e.g. filename-completion with TAB )
- Hiding the mouse pointer in full screen mode
- Switching screens GoShell and others and quick access to the console with [Amiga]+m
- Exit the console with [Ctrl] + \
GoShell is Freeware but the author appreciates any little donation. (dr)
[News message: 17. Jul. 2021, 08:54] [Comments: 0]
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17.Jul.2021
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Amiga disks on PC: Pre-orders and name change for Smith's project
Robert Smith has renamed his project for reading Amiga disks using a PC disk drive from 'Arduino Amiga Floppy Disk Reader/Writer' to 'DrawBridge' (Disk Reader and Writer Bridge).
Besides, now it is possible to be placed on a waiting list: Smith sells his little board for USB Slimline disk drives for 25 British Pound plus shipping. The boards are fully compatible to Arduino Software (IDE) which enables future firmware updates.
All documents of Smith's project are available on GitHub under a free license. (dr)
[News message: 17. Jul. 2021, 07:13] [Comments: 0]
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16.Jul.2021
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A2000-Motherboard im E-ATX-Formfaktor: Tests des Amiga-2000-ATX-Prototypen
After developer 'jasonsbeer' received the commissioned prototype of his replica of the A2000 motherboard in ATX form factor, 'Amiga-2000-ATX', a few days ago, he is now testing it for functionality and possible bugs. He writes:
"Over the last two days, I have been able to confirm that the Zorro 2 bus and coprocessor slot are working. I am currently using a Supra Wordsync SCSI card, a Commodore A2630 accelerator and a Pi HDMI video card. AIBB is on the screen. I have run the Amiga 2000 EATX for several hours without a single problem. I have tested both an Amiga floppy drive and a Gotek floppy emulator with great success. The keyboard is connected and works fine (with a tweak). The mouse and joystick connections work as expected. The only things left to test are the parallel port and the real-time clock.
As a side note, there is an error in the schematics of the Amiga 2000 that relates to the pin numbers of the keyboard ports. They are mirrored on the schematics of the A2000 and A3000, hence my workaround for solving this keyboard problem."
(dr)
[News message: 16. Jul. 2021, 07:13] [Comments: 0]
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15.Jul.2021
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PDF Magazine: Lotek64, Issue 62
The magazine "Lotek64" is dedicated to old or alternative computer systems. The 62nd issue contains, among other things, a report on the Anaglyph 3D process used in the demoscene for about 30 years and its applications, including the example of the Amiga. This article can also be read on the website 'tarnkappe.info', where it is supplemented by some videos. (dr) (Translation: bb)
[News message: 15. Jul. 2021, 07:26] [Comments: 0]
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15.Jul.2021
Amigans
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AmigaOS 4: Version 6.8 des Audio-Treibers für Intel HD Audio
An update of the new AHI driver for AmigaOS 4 has been released (amiga-news.de reported) which includes the following changes:
- Output options added (ALL, Line, Front HP, S/PDIF)
- Added support for S/PDIF output (both RCA and optical)
- Added support for output muting (mutes Line, Front HP and S/PDIF)
- Added support for line-in and microphone preamplifier. (From the CODEC perspective, Line-In and MIC are equivalent. Therefore, preamps can also be enabled for Line-In).
- Speed improvements
- Small bug fixes
Explaining, the developer adds:
"With AHIRecord you can select a monitor output. This is a strange implementation becauseese actually makes an AHI request to change the playback output. This would require a digital loop. But this is not implemented in AHIrecord.
Now that the playback output selection is implemented, this is how you control the playback output for the next playback cycle. So be careful.
The internal monitor hardware provides an analog loopback to a small selection of outputs. The Sound Blaster Audigy FX is limited to the Front HP and Line outputs.
The CM8828+CM9882 cards are limited to the Line output only. So you cannot use the HD audio front panel output as a monitor output
AHI has no way to switch to monitor input. Only to monitor volume. So all monitor outputs are enabled. But if there is a need for a single monitor output, I can add a mute option for the other single outputs."
Supported Soundcards:
- Creative Labs Soundblaster Audigy FX (24bit/192kHz 5.1)
- Startech PEXSOUND7CH (24bit/192kHz 7.1) -> available under many different names
- Fransande 411944 (24bit/192kHz 7.1) -> available under many different names
- Terratec AUREON 7.1 PCIe (24bit/192kHz 7.1)
Sound cards that should work:
- Basically any combination of HDaudio controller and HD Audio multichannel codec (e.g. CA0113, CM8828, CM9882A ALC898 etc.)
Sound cards that do not work (yet):
- Asus Xonar Phoebus solo (CM8888 in combination with Discrete DACs in high quality)
- Powercolor Devil HDX (CM8888 in combination mit Discrete DAC)
Sound cards that will never work:
- "Sound Core3D" (CA0132) based sound blasters (Eg. Z, AE-5, AE-7, AE-9 etc). These cards have a DSP (ca0132) instead of an audio codec. They initially appear to be HD audio cards but after the DSP is booted they behave totally differently. Therefore, such cards must be supported with other drivers.
- PCIe Asus sound cards that are currently on sale. These cards are either AV100 (converted CMI8788), CM8786 or C-media 6632AX (USB chip) based. None of these chips comply with the Intel HD Audio standard.
- Sound Blaster Audigy RX and all other EMU-based or X-FI-based sound blasters. (do not comply with the Intel HD Audio Standard).
- Non-PCIe sound cards in general like external USB cards or old PCI cards.
(dr) (Translation: bb)
[News message: 15. Jul. 2021, 06:31] [Comments: 0]
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14.Jul.2021
Arne Urbaniak (E-Mail)
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Amiga disks on PC: Copy program A-Copy
A-Copy is a program that looks a lot like X-Copy for reading and writing ADF disk images under Windows. It requires the ADF drive hardware, which uses a Teensy USB Development Board as an adapter between PC and floppy drive. (cg) (Translation: bb)
[News message: 14. Jul. 2021, 23:51] [Comments: 0]
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14.Jul.2021
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AmigaOS 4: Python implementation of Space Invaders
Programmed by Tomohiro Nishikado and Taito distributed by Taito, Space Invaders premiered in 1978: an attack of aliens had to be fended off with the spaceship, moving left and right with it at the bottom of the screen and trying to decimate with shots the rows of regularly arranged aliens that were constantly moving horizontally, gradually moving downwards.
Subsequently, there were also numerous conversions for the Amiga, such as "Super Space Invaders" or DeLuxe Galaga. In 2014, developer Lee Robinson wanted to test his Python programming skills and wrote a Python clone of the game, the source code of which he published on GitHub (YouTube video).
Amiga programmer Janne Peräaho has taken this source code, ported it from Python 3 to Python 2.5.6 and created a conversion for AmigaOS 4.
Extras:
- Full screen mode
- Unlimited attack waves
- Highscore
- Title music
- Moon background
- Amiga-Icon
We have tested the game briefly: The game runs in slow motion under WinUAE on a Windows computer with 2.20 GHz. Maybe newer and faster systems can get more out of it. Native on an AmigaOne X5000/20, on the other hand, it runs smoothly and is thus perfectly suited for a short phase of distraction.
The game can be downloaded for free from OS4Depot, the author is happy about a small donation if you like it, which he also considers as motivation for future projects. (dr) (Translation: bb)
[News message: 14. Jul. 2021, 07:19] [Comments: 0]
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12.Jul.2021
Indie Retro News (Webseite)
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Preview-Video: Point'n Click Adventure 'Athanor 2'
Two years ago 16-bit conversions of the point'n click adventure game 'Athanor 2 - The Legend Of The Birdmen' (originally developed for the Amstrad CPC) were announced. Now, a first video has been released: Athanor 2 Amiga (pre-release video), comparison of the Atari ST and Amiga conversions. (cg) (Translation: bb)
[News message: 12. Jul. 2021, 23:22] [Comments: 0]
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12.Jul.2021
Indie Retro News (Webseite)
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Game Compilation: Ad Cosmos Ex Terra
Ad Cosmos Ex Terra is a game compilation for A500 with one MB of RAM. The disc image, which can be downloaded for free or for a price to be determined by the customer, contains the titles 'Lumberjack', 'Pong 4b' and 'Jump Besi Jump' - the first two have been revised again for this release.
After Lumberjack Reloaded, 'Lumberjack Revision' is already the second further development of the C64 port Lumberjack released in 2017. The new features include 8 different levels, some with different designs, a bee that disturbs the lumberjack at work and a shaking screen when the lumberjack has consumed too much alcohol.
'Pong4b' is an update for Pong4. New is the adoption of the sprites from the CD32 implementation Pong4k as well as background music during the game.
(cg) (Translation: bb)
[News message: 12. Jul. 2021, 23:11] [Comments: 0]
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12.Jul.2021
Indie Retro News (Webseite)
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Teaser video: Jump'n Run 'Agonman' announced for August
'Agonman' is a platform game created with the help of the RedPill development environment. A teaser video announces the release of the title for August. A 68020 and 2 MB of RAM are mentioned as the minimum requirements, while a 68030 and some Fast RAM are recommended. Agonman uses some of the graphics from the 2020 released classic 'Agony'. (cg) (Translation: bb)
[News message: 12. Jul. 2021, 22:55] [Comments: 0]
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12.Jul.2021
Amigans
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Puzzler 'Follix' for AGA Amigas released
Recently he has updated his puzzle game ArtPazz, yesterday Simone 'saimo' Bevilacqua has announced the release of his AGA puzzle game Follix. He wrote:
"I was 16 when I bought a stock Amiga 1200, in the fall of 1993, finally making the jump from my beloved Commodore 64. Back then, I was isolated in a little town, knew nobody who was into software development, owned no programming books and had no software, apart from a bunch of floppies containing 3 pirated games I got as a bonus from the shop I had bought the Amiga from. However, having heard I was interested in programming, some friends put me in touch with an older guy who had an Amiga 4000 loaded with several original productivity programs - among which AMOS Professional - and sitting on a desk in his shop, doing nothing. The guy (who eventually became a close friend) allowed me to go to his shop and use his Amiga at will (years later, he even let me take it with me to another town!) and provided me with a copy of AMOS (registered in his name).
I started learning AMOS and improving the little programming skills I had built with the Commodore 64 User Manual and some tapes that taught BASIC. I did not consider another language because I was totally unaware of other options and, anyway, AMOS felt like a natural step from Commodore 64's BASIC and gave me the feeling that I could finally satisfy my desire of making a whole, proper game.
Still, my skills and knowledge were limited, my unexpanded Amiga (which was the computer I did most of my programming on anyway) was not exactly a workstation and AMOS had its limits, so most of my ideas were doomed to remain just that - ideas. Yet, I was quite interested in puzzle games, which often have little hardware demands. And so the first game I ever created ended up being a puzzler. It was called Follia NBA¹, and the year was 1994.
The concept was stol... erm... heavily inspired by Thalion's Atomix², which I had seen on an MS-DOS computer of one of the aforementioned friends. It was a bit different from Follix: the tiles of a level were the pieces of a picture depicting the logo of an NBA team³; as a consequence, there was only one correct place for each tile; the player had to guess the area where the reconstucted picture fitted; for every 2 minutes left, the player was awared a bonus that, at his/her command, would automagically put a tile in the correct place.
That first version was really bad: some design choices were completely wrong; most of the graphics were ugly; the code was messy, inefficient and, in places, uselessly complicated; the sound effects were taken from various tracker modules. In all, it mirrored perfectly the fact that the development had been a learning process. Though, it did work (I am somewhat amazed by how the patches to the workarounds to the fixes to the bugs produced, in the end, the correct result); moreover, the puzzles were actually good and the game was indeed fun.
In those days, I could not imagine I was sowing a seed. Through the years, I reworked/remade the game 4 times (plus an additional attempt that brought a prototype to AmigaOS 4 and Windows, as a byproduct of an iOS version which somebody else was supposed to take care of), with Follix being the result of the last effort. The motivation behind it was not only to make the game better, but also to make it technically special through ALS (enhancing Follia NBA using CSS, the ALS predecessor, is something I had been wanting to do for ages), to put ALS to good use and to get rid of the basketball theme (which, at some point, no longer felt appropriate to me and certainly is not everybody's cup of tea). The code and the assets of Follix have been created from scratch, but the puzzles are still the original ones (except for Follix' first 4, which are new and purpose to introduce the player to the mechanics gently, and Follia NBA's last 2, which have been excluded because of their sheer difficulty)."
The game can be downloaded for free or for a little donation as lha archive or adf file. (dr)
[News message: 12. Jul. 2021, 09:42] [Comments: 0]
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