amiga-news.de - Latest Amiga News

Amiga events
13.-15.06.25 • Flashback-Symposium #02 • Jößnitz (Germany)
01.-02.08.25 • Amiga/040 • Mountain View (USA)
11.-14.09.25 • Classic Computing 2025 • Hof (Germany)
17.-19.10.25 • Amiga40 • Mönchengladbach (Germany)
14.-16.11.25 • Flashback-Symposium #02 • Jößnitz (Germany)

01.Feb.2024

Java program: ham_convert 1.9.4
Sebastian Sieczko's java-based program ham_convert converts modern graphic formats to the Amiga's HAM format and is now available in version 1.9.4. Changes:

Added DynamicHires variant with an AGA palette. To enable select mode=Amiga AGA Dynamic HiRes/PCHG software mode.
Implemented PCHGF_32BIT format to be used by DynamicHires AGA and Atari 8-bit ILBM IFF files (using BigLineChanges). DynamicHires OCS uses PCHGF_4BIT (SmallLineChanges) format IFF limited to RGB444. https://wiki.amigaos.net/wiki/ILBM_IFF_Interleaved_Bitmap#ILBM.PCHG was uses as a reference. This enabled accurate encoding of the Atari 8-bit palette in the iff files.
Extra EHB palette optimization was renamed extra OCS palette optimization and extended to support also 2/4/8/16/32-color modes (to be extended later).
Acorn Archimedes VIDC1 256-color mode (out of 4096).

(dr)

[News message: 01. Feb. 2024, 22:03] [Comments: 0]
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01.Feb.2024 Shoot'em Up: BreakThru V1.0
Since the beginning of last year, 'acidbottle' has been working on the Amiga conversion of the horizontal shoot'em up Breakthru, which was originally published by Data East in 1986: the player controls an armed military vehicle and must make his way through enemy forces - consisting of soldiers, flamethrowers, helicopters, tanks, jeeps etc. - to ultimately retrieve a stolen fighter plane. - The player must make his way through enemy forces - consisting of soldiers, flamethrowers, tanks, jeeps, etc. - to ultimately retrieve a stolen fighter plane (YouTube video).

He has now released version 1.0, which requires a 2-button controller and an Amiga with at least 1MB chip RAM, 1MB additional RAM and a CPU with 14MHz or better. A hard disc is also recommended. (dr)

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01.Feb.2024

Developer diary: Update on the game "The Gate" #1
At the beginning of October last year , we introduced the AMOS game "The Gate" by Fabio 'Allanon' Falcucci, a mixture of "Impossible Mission" and "Project Firestart" with his own ideas and concepts. We asked the developer to tell us about the current state of development. Here is his report, illustrated by his latest YouTube video:

"I still don't have a list of requirements but I'm targeting stock Amiga 1200 for this project, fingers crossed :)

I'm still writing the engine but I've made big progresses adding new features, fixing bugs and optimizing the code to make it as smooth as possible. Here is a list of what's new since my last progress report:

Doors
- Doors can be operated with the [action key], a pop up screen will appear to allow the user to operate the door.
- Unlocked doors can be operated freely
- Some of them may require a key to be opened
- Some of them may require a terminal to be opened
- Some of them may require to complete an event to be opened, in this case the hero will say something about it to give an hint to the user.
Furnitures
- Furnitures are essentially containers and they hold items: the hero search them (like already seen in Impossible Mission) and when the furniture is searched an auto-pick screen is displayed to let the user know what items has been picked and what will be leaved into the container, not picked items can be picked later.
- Furnitures may require a terminal to be unlocked
- Furnitures may require a dialog option to be selected to be unlocked
Terminals: I've developed a simple scripting language for this for maximum flexibility. Terminals graphics is also nice because I've reproduced old monitor color glitches and out-of-sync effects. Terminals that require keys can be hacked by the player using a special hacking tool that will be available in the game. Each terminal can be tuned by the script that is run (colors, effects, print speed, etc...).
I'm very proud of how I implemented terminals: they run script programs that allow me to simulate terminals with text interfaces. From terminals the user is able to:
- Operate doors (open/close/unlock)
- Operate furnitures (unlock)
- Display informative text to help the hero with its quest
- Minigames
- An many more actions and nice things
Dialogs
- Like I've done for terminals, I've used scripts to run dialogs between characters but also when the hero express a thought. Dialogs use almost the same scripting language developed for the terminals but with more commands for certain situations and to display the portrait (and the needed expressions) of the character that is talking. This system is very flexible and you may be able to unlock a door after having talked to an NPC for example
Game menu, which let the user access the following functions:
- Documents : You can read here all the docs the hero has gathered (implemented)
- Tools : From here the hero can review and equip special tools he found during the adventure (implemented), these tools are unique and can be used with the right mouse button once equipped (implemented).
- Map : A simple automap system, not yet implemented. I'd like to let the player to type map notes.
- Diary : This is a personal diary, the player can freely take notes here. Not yet implemented and not sure if it is nice or not.
- System : From here the player can load and save the game. Not yet implemented.
- Settings : Game settings. Not yet implemented.

About the tools

I've already designed the tools that the player will find during its adventure, they are 8 in total and the hero can equip them, once at a time, from the game menu. Once equipped some tools can be triggered automatically, some manually (with the right mouse button) and some have both the functionalities. For example there is a device called "Relife" that has two functions when equipped:

1: If the hero is suddenly killed the device tranfers its energy into the hero body and regenerate some of his life points.
2: Pushing the right mouse button (and holding it down) the device's energy refill the hero hit points.

The "Relife" device regenerates its energy over time, very slowly. Another example is the "Hacking Device" which I'm currently working on: when equipped the hero will be able to hack any locked terminal, the hacking will be completed if the player will be able to resolve a mini-game. We all know Fallout 3/4 terminals & Mass Effect ones right? :)

What has to be done?

Game menu
Tools/Special devices (2 of 8 implemented)
Traps
NPCs
Enemies

Those will complete the engine and I will focus on the maps and the story, which is already on my desk :) "

You can support the developer via his Patreon page. (dr)

[News message: 01. Feb. 2024, 08:57] [Comments: 0]
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31.Jan.2024 Arcade classic: Pong for RTG Amigas and Apollo Vampire V4
After Sami Vehmaa initially released his Pong conversion for the Apollo Vampire V4 only, version 1.01 is now also available for RTG Amigas. It can be played either against each other or against the computer. (dr)

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31.Jan.2024

Chat software: AmigaGPT V1.4.2 for AmigaOS 3 and 4
Cameron Armstrong has written AmigaGPT, a chat program for AmigaOS 3.2 that uses the power of the chatbot ChatGPT (amiga-news.de reported). Originally written for AmigaOS 3.2, the programme meanwhile also supports AmigaOS 3.9, Cloanto's Workbench 3.X and AmigaOS 4.1. Changes of version 1.4.2:

Replaced clicktabs for AmigaOS 3.X since the version is too old and will crash. 3.X users can select the mode at startup.

Download: AmigaGPT.lha (881 KB) (dr)

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31.Jan.2024 DIY: Firmware 1.02 for Amiga 4000 accelerator board "Z3660"
In October 2021, developer 'shanshe' had started a project on GitHub for the Amiga 4000 turbo board "Z3660" based on John "Chucky" Hertell's A3660 board and the Z-turn Board (amiga-news.de reported). The now available firmware 1.02 improves the SCSI emulation introduced with firmware 1.01 in terms of speed and stability. (dr)

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30.Jan.2024

Encryption protocol: AmiSSL 5.14 (AmigaOS 3/4)
Version 5.14 of the open source encryption protocol AmiSSL has been released, which is now based on the latest version OpenSSL 3.2.1. Detailed changes:

Updated OpenSSL backend to full compatibility with the latest OpenSSL 3.2.1 (30.1.2024) version which includes fixes for these low severity vulnerabilities:
- Fixed PKCS12 decoding crashes.
- Fixed excessive time spent checking invalid RSA public keys.
- Fixed excessive time spent in DH check / generation with large Q parameter value.
Removed redundant POWER8 VSX Poly1305 and ChaCha20 code.

Downloads:
AmigaOS 3: AmiSSL-5.14-OS3.lha (3,7 MB)
AmigaOS 4: AmiSSL-5.14-OS4.lha (3,4 MB)
SDK: AmiSSL-5.14-SDK.lha (2,3 MB) (dr)

[News message: 30. Jan. 2024, 21:08] [Comments: 1 - 02. Feb. 2024, 03:58]
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30.Jan.2024
ANF Event: Flashback Symposium #01 in Saxony (Germany)
From June 14 to 16, 2024, the first Flashback Symposium will take place in Jößnitz, a district of Plauen in the Vogtland region of Saxony. The event is open to all systems, but the focus is on the Amiga. The participants are invited to play, pixelate, program and solder.

There will be workshops, live game battles, live cosplay and short talks, accompanied by barbecue delicacies and draught beer. "Blastromen" from Finland will provide the music on Saturday. (snx)

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30.Jan.2024
ANF New website for AmigaOS 3.x developers
A website for AmigaOS 3.x developers has been set up at the title link, which contains articles, a forum and the NDK. The addition of online browsable versions of the autodocs is planned.

Questions from users, their bug reports etc., on the other hand, should continue to be published in other forums instead. (snx)

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30.Jan.2024
Lizard (ANF) Dealer: Vesalia going to retire
As the owner, Guido Does, has confirmed to Amiga Future, the Amiga dealer Vesalia is gradually closing its doors. As a first step, the company's own online store has been closed; instead, the website now redirects to eBay, where stock is offered for sale. (snx)

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30.Jan.2024
Andreas Magerl (ANF) Print magazine: Issue 141 of Amiga Future readable online
The German and English issue 141 (November/December 2019) of the print magazine "Amiga Future" can now be read on the magazine's website in the form of image files of the individual pages. Remaining copies of the magazine as well as a higher resolution PDF version can be purchased from the publisher. (snx)

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30.Jan.2024

Aminet uploads until 27.01.2024
The following files have been added until 27.01.2024 to Aminet:

Glitch.lha               demo/ecs   228K  68k Glitch demo for GERP2024/Sweden
shading.lha              dev/amos   7K        Phong and Gouraud shading
REDPILLGameCreator.lha   dev/misc   5.6M  68k Game Creator with AGA support
laffiks_elaborates.zip   docs/misc  300K      minterms, octants, texturing ...
MCE.lha                  game/edit  3.8M  68k Multi-game Character Editor
MCE-MOS.lha              game/edit  4.2M  MOS Multi-game Character Editor
MCE-OS4.lha              game/edit  4.4M  OS4 Multi-game Character Editor
Schwurblomat.lha         game/gag   114K  68k Bullshit Bingo Buzzw. Generat...
TDPowerSwap.lha          game/think 188K  MOS simple logical game
RNOEffects.lha           gfx/edit   6.5M  MOS Image processing program
RNOEffects_68k.lha       gfx/edit   6.0M  68k Image processing program
RNOEffects_68k_FPU.lha   gfx/edit   5.9M  68k Image processing program
RNOEffects_AROS.lha      gfx/edit   3.6M  x86 Image processing program
RNOEffects_OS4.lha       gfx/edit   7.4M  OS4 Image processing program
RNOEffects_WOS.lha       gfx/edit   6.4M  WOS Image processing program
AmiArcadiaMOS.lha        misc/emu   5.3M  MOS Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiVms.lha               misc/emu   3.7M  68k Simulates OpenVMS commands
imp3.lha                 mus/play   47K   68k Do stuff on Amiga!
AOS-Wallpaper1.lha       pix/back   442M      AmigaOS 4.1 Style Wallpaper ...
AmiKit_PiStorm1.jpg      pix/misc   219K      AI generated image: AmiKit/Pi...
AmiKit_PiStorm2.jpg      pix/misc   210K      AI generated image: AmiKit/Pi...
AmiKit_PiStorm3.jpg      pix/misc   240K      AI generated image: AmiKit/Pi...
AmigaGPT.lha             util/misc  878K  AOS App for chatting to ChatGPT
VATestprogram.zip        util/misc  18M   68k Versatile Amiga Testprogram

(snx)

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30.Jan.2024

OS4Depot uploads until 27.01.2024
The following files have been added until 27.01.2024 to OS4Depot:

imp3.lha                 aud/pla 47kb  4.0 Do stuff on Amiga!
cppcheck.lha             dev/uti 4Mb   4.1 A static analysis tool for C/C++...
mce.lha                  gam/uti 4Mb   4.0 Multi-game Character Editor
rnoeffects.lha           gra/edi 7Mb   4.1 Image processing program
pythonssl_amissl5.lha    lib/mis 104kb 4.1 pythonssl using the AmiSSL5
amigagpt.lha             net/cha 878kb 4.0 App for chatting to ChatGPT
pciutils.lha             uti/har 1Mb   4.1 OS4 port of pciutils lib offerin...
reportplus.lha           uti/mis 835kb 4.0 Multipurpose utility

(snx)

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30.Jan.2024

AROS Archives uploads until 27.01.2024
The following files have been added until 27.01.2024 to AROS Archives:

rnoeffects.i386-aros.lha     gra/edi 4Mb   Image processing program

(snx)

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30.Jan.2024

MorphOS-Storage uploads until 27.01.2024
The following files have been added until 27.01.2024 to MorphOS-Storage:

AmiArcadia_30.80.lha      Emulation                 A Signetics-based machi...
FinalBurnNeo_1.0.0.3.lha  Emulation                 FinalBurn Neo, an Emula...
SonicMania_1.0.0.lha      Games/Platform            A complete decompilatio...
TDPowerSwap_1.3.lha       Games/Think               A simple logical game b...
RNOEffects_2.0.lha        Graphics/Tools            Image processing program.

(snx)

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30.Jan.2024

WHDLoad: New installers until 27.01.2024
Using WHDLoad, games, scene demos and intros by cracking groups, which were originally designed to run only from floppy disks, can be installed on harddisk. The following installers have been added until 27.01.2024:

2024-01-23 fixed: Menace (DMA Design/Psygnosis) better cd32 buttons read routine, splash customs option added (Info)
2024-01-22 fixed: Début: Planet Simulation (Pandora) loading filename starting with "/" fixed now (Info)

(snx)

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29.Jan.2024 Amiga emulator for MacOS: vAmiga v2.5
After the release of the beta version a good week ago (amiga-news.de reported), Dirk Hoffmann has now released the stable version 2.5 of his Amiga emulator vAmiga for MacOS without any further changes. The minimum system requirement for his emulator is macOS 11.0. (dr)

[News message: 29. Jan. 2024, 22:08] [Comments: 0]
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29.Jan.2024 Amiga Kit: Price of A600GS games console set/OctaMED update
As AmigaKit writes to us, the price of the games console has now been set at 119 euros. OctaMED v8 from A-EON Technology is to be bundled with the A600GS. In-house developers have added AHI support to the original 1996 source code for OctaMED. This is the first time this support has been added to this programme.

This should enable OctaMED to use the A600GS audio driver instead of Paula emulation. OctaMED was also tested with a USB-to-MIDI adapter cable connected to the A600GS: it can play MIDI devices. This could make the A600GS interesting for musicians who want to use OctaMED but don't have a lot of money to spend on old Amiga hardware.

In addition, OctaMED V8 is currently being updated to support the CAMD MIDI library, adding AHI support. As a result, OctaMED now runs on AmigaOS 4 machines with AHI and no longer requires hacks.

AmigaKit also reports that the development of AmiBench is making good progress and is ready for the project launch:

AmiBench Release V46.1 contains the latest version of AK-Datatypes including a new Picture Datatype V46.9 and Datatypes Library V46.24 which have been optimised for the A600GS. The updates have also been ported to their PPC counterparts: Picture Datatype V54.9 and Datatypes Library V54.24 will be included in the next Enhancer Software 2.3 for PPC systems.

You can now express your interest by entering your e-mail address on the official website of the A600GS. (dr)

[News message: 29. Jan. 2024, 22:04] [Comments: 0]
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28.Jan.2024

Programming language: Amiga C/C++ Visual Studio Code Extension 1.7.6
Bartman', member of the demo group 'Abyss', provides with 'amiga-debug' a 'Visual Studio Code' extension for "compiling, debugging and profiling Amiga C/C++ programs compiled by the bundled gcc 13.1 with the bundled WinUAE/FS-UAE and GDB." (YouTube video). Changes of version 1.7.6:

NEW: modified template project to include -ffunction-sections, -fdata-sections, --gc-sections flags and changed assembly files to use unique sections so linker can better strip unused code/data
NEW: updated type_traits include
FIX: fix MacOS issue

(dr)

[News message: 28. Jan. 2024, 16:32] [Comments: 0]
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28.Jan.2024
PPA (ANF) Developer tool: Installation package for GCC with accessories
Grzegorz 'Krashan' Kraszewski provides an installation package at the title link, which facilitates the installation of the native compiler GCC 2.95.3 under AmigaOS, contains useful additions (e.g. make and diff) and also integrates it with the AmigaOS 3.2 NDK.

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

[News message: 28. Jan. 2024, 08:28] [Comments: 0]
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28.Jan.2024 Beat 'em up: Final Fight Enhanced
'Prototron' has finished his improved implementation of Capcom's Final Fight written in machine language (amiga-news.de reported), which can be downloaded in the accompanying text of the YouTube video. He expressly emphasises that this is a private project, which should primarily serve to learn the machine languages. An ECS or AGA Amiga with 2MB chip RAM and 512KB Fast RAM is required. (dr)

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

Background pictures for AmigaOS 4.1: AOS-Wallpaper 1
Thomas from IconDesigner has, as he tells us, created wallpapers for various AmigaOS 4.1 computers and emulation environments in the last three months. These are:

AmigaOne500
AmigaOneA1222
AmigaOneX1000 AmigaOneXE
AmigaOS
Classic
Pegasos2
QEMU-A1-XE
QEMU-Peg2
QEMU-Sam460
Sam440
Sam460
WinUAE-Classic

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

[News message: 27. Jan. 2024, 20:20] [Comments: 0]
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27.Jan.2024 Handheld console: "Amigo Tracker" for PlayDate
PlayDate is a handheld games console released in 2022 by the US software developer and computer games publisher Panic Inc (Wikipedia). As the operating system is kept open, external developers can also write software for the console using Lua and C (and a simulator). Outgunned Games has now published "Amigo Tracker", a retro player that can play 4-channel ProTracker modules, under the title link. (dr)

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

Preview video: "The Lost Pixel" for AGA-Amigas
"The Lost Pixel" will be a conversion of the game of the same name by bitmagine Studio for AGA-Amigas. The platformer will be created using the RedPill game construction kit and will offer the following features:

64 colours
4 colours background sprites
wonderful music based on the original songs
two characters: Pix Cube and Pix Slime
secets to be found on each level
funny enemies

According to the developer, who previously converted Capitan Trueno, the game "will not need much RAM or CPU". (dr)

[News message: 26. Jan. 2024, 05:51] [Comments: 0]
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25.Jan.2024
Seiya (ANF) PDF magazine: REV'n'GE 154 (Italian/English)
Besides the Italian original issue, the PDF magazine REV'n'GE ("Retro Emulator Vision and Game") is also available in English. The magazine's reviews compare, if available, the different ports of classic games to the various platforms of their time. Furthermore a focus is on rather unknown retro games.

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

[News message: 25. Jan. 2024, 20:24] [Comments: 0]
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25.Jan.2024 AmigaOS 4: Code analysis with Cpppcheck V2.13r1
In September 2022, George 'walkero' Sokianos made an AmigaOS 4 port of Cppcheck, a static code analysis tool for the C and C++ programming languages, available for the first time. The tool is designed to be able to analyze your C/C++ code even if it has non-standard syntax common in embedded projects. The latest official version 2.13 has now been ported. (dr)

[News message: 25. Jan. 2024, 11:51] [Comments: 0]
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25.Jan.2024 Preview video: Aracde classic "Donkey Kong"
Jean-Francois 'jotd' Fabre ist about to port another game to the Amiga: this time Nintendo's aracade classic Donkey Kong. (dr)

[News message: 25. Jan. 2024, 09:39] [Comments: 0]
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25.Jan.2024 Programming assistance: AmiBlitz 3 templates for RTG Amigas and Apollo V4
Sami Vehmaa wants to encourage more people to develop games for the Amiga platform and to this end offers templates for the RTG version of AmiBlitz 3 on itch.io with "AB3_Templates". After he had already started to publish the source codes of some games written with it last year (amiga-news.de reported), he has now not only made the complete package available free of charge, but has also published a version specially adapted for the Apollo Vampire V4 and called "Amiblitz3 Vampire!". (dr)

[News message: 25. Jan. 2024, 06:41] [Comments: 0]
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25.Jan.2024 Preview video: "Trojan" for AGA-Amigas
During our advent calendar campaign, especially in the article about Erik 'earok' Hogan, we already reported on a first preview video by 'Retro Passion' about his realisation of the game Trojan for AGA-Amigas with the game construction kit "Scorpion Engine". Now a second video has been published. (dr)

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

Game Construction Kit: RedPill 0.9.33
RedPill, developed by Carlos Peris, is a game construction kit written in Amiblitz 3.99, which allows the development of games from various genres (e.g. Agonman). RedPill is compatible with AGA and ECS, the "player" for playing the finished creations requires a total of 1.5 MB RAM. Jens 'Farbfinsternis' Henschel has written a tutorial.

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

Added a new Build Game option to target low end machines (like A500 with 1MB). This reduces the maximum number of level objects (from 64 to 32) and disables some code like CD32 audio and storage among others to reduce memory needed and increase performance of the games.
Multiple optimizations in all fronts reducing the CPU and memory required by games.
When forcing NTSC resolution the game will use less Chip memory.
Static objects are now updated first, I hope this do not break old games as sometimes the execution order could be different.
Added a new screen for Frame manipulation, copy&pasting, rotating, scaling, can be done in this screen. Find more information in the guide.
Default input key for Fire 1 has been changed to left caps key.
In Game Setup screen there is a new Mem Info section that will give an estimation of the memory used by the game. Take it with a pinch of salt.
Build does not copy diskfont.library anymore as it is not needed.
Fix in Collision Down being triggered when there was any collision.
Optimization in tile accessing.
Small optimization in palette processing.
Optimization in action trigger processing.
Compression for SFX has been deactivated as sometimes it fails and others prevent loading.
In Screen setup screen now you can decide if you want subpixel scrolling or not.
When Building a project there are warning messages if the files cannot be compressed.
When loading a project, this loading action now can be cancelled.
Files ".pal" in projects are now used in a different way.
Camera limits code has been simplified.
Fixes in the FX rendering.
Action trigger Frame by Angle fixes.
Animation frames are now cleared when starting a new project.
When compressing projects, if the asset is not properly compressed now it tries to load the file without compression.
Refactoring of level loading and tileset loading that reduces the exe size and memory usage.
Refactoring of the main loop camera and display system.
Trigger actions system optimization.
Small optimization in Change Tile trigger.

(dr)

[News message: 24. Jan. 2024, 04:53] [Comments: 0]
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23.Jan.2024 Preview video: Platform game "Silhouette Threat" for AGA-Amigas
A girl falls into a mysterious world armed with only her raincoat and umbrella while enduring constant attacks by strange, silhouetted creatures. The only way to return to her world is by collecting pieces to eventually assemble the raindrop portal...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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23.Jan.2024 Puzzle game: "TD Power Swap" for MorphOS
Rafał Zabdyr's "TD Power Swap" is a simple logic game based on the idea of the Amiga game Pure Brain (YouTube video). Your task is to put the pictures in their original order. (dr)

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

Image editing: RNOEffects 2.0 for all Amiga systems
Developer 'jPV^RNO' has updated RNOEffects from its family of RNO applications to version 2.0. RNOEffects is a simple image editing programme with a focus on batch conversion options and alpha channel-based effects. Highlights of the update include the pixel editor tool and saving images in palette mode (YouTube video). The complete changes:

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

RNOEffects is available for all Amiga systems on Aminet. (dr)

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22.Jan.2024

AmigaOS 4: elf.library V54.1
Hyperion Entertainment has released the new version 54.1 of the elf.library (Executable and Linkable Format) for AmigaOS 4, which is available via AmiUpdate. Changes since version 53.30:

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

(dr)

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22.Jan.2024 Demo: "V4driver" for Apollo Vampire V4
Sami Vehmaa has released his second demo after 30 years: "V4driver" (YouTube video) was written exclusively for the Apollo Vampire V4, as always in AmiBlitz 3. (dr)

[News message: 22. Jan. 2024, 21:35] [Comments: 0]
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22.Jan.2024 Platform game: Abbey(s) of the Dead V1.1
The developer 'UltraNarwhal' has released an update to its extended port of "Abbey(s) of the Dead" (YouTube video), which was released at the beginning of December and includes a few minor graphical tweaks. (dr)

[News message: 22. Jan. 2024, 21:26] [Comments: 0]
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22.Jan.2024 Video: Status update on DrawBridge for MiSTer
Following on from his video from August last year (amiga-news.de reported), Robert Smith shows the current status of the implementation of his "DrawBridge" project - standard PC floppy drives can be used to read and write Amiga floppies - for the FPGA Amiga clone MISTer (amiga-news.de reported): he not only reports on the successful reading and writing of floppies, but also that this works with several drives at the same time. (dr)

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

8/16-bit emulator for Mac OS and Linux: Clock Signal v2024-01-22
Thomas Harte's Clock Signal is an emulator for various 8- and 16-bit platforms aiming to be invisible to the user. The idea is to simply start the source medium without configuring the emulator oneself. Clock Signal is available for Mac OS and Unix-compatible systems. While there is also an Amiga emulation included, it "remains wilfully inaccurate" for now. Changes:

fixes broken horizontal scrolling on the Master System;
correctly declines to page on the Electron if receiving interrupt acknowledgments;
corrects mismapping of Apple II inverted characters;
avoids automatic key repeat on the early Apple IIs;
with thanks to @ryandesign avoids potential performance issues on multi-GPU macOS machines with macOS 10.15+.

(dr)

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21.Jan.2024

Demoparty: Results of Gerp 2024
This weekend the demoparty Gerp took place in Sweden. Among other things, there were competitions in the categories "Amiga 40k Intro" and "Amiga Demo". Here are the winning productions:

Amiga 40k Intro

1. place: Desire FM by Desire (YouTube video)
2. place: Point Of No Return by Dead Hackers Society, Ephidrena and SMFX (YouTube video)
3. place: BYO40K by PACiF!C (YouTube video)

Amiga Demo

1. place: Planetary Void by Five Finger Punch (YouTube video)
2. place: A Murder Of Scrolls by Andromeda
3. place: Is Real by Desire (YouTube video)

Amiga 4 Channel Music

1. place: Dan Dan Dada by Bonefish, JosSs and Mygg (YouTube video)
2. place: Peace Droid by Interphace / Andromeda
3. place: Brink It Back To Me by Dya, No-XS and mAZE / Desire

Amiga Graphics

1. place: Stress Fracture von Optic / Planet Jazz (YouTube picture)
2. place: Popup Sweetheart von Facet / Bonzai ^ Genesis Project ^ Lemon
3. place: Infernal Pursuit von Critikill und Jade / SWEET16

(dr)

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21.Jan.2024

Aminet uploads until 20.01.2024
The following files have been added until 20.01.2024 to Aminet:

tekstura_4_points.lha    dev/amos   57K       4 point texture mapping
GitDesktop.lha           dev/misc   1.4M  MOS Graphical frontend for git
woof.lha                 game/actio 21M   OS4 Woof (Doom Port)
Crazy8_A500_DiskVersi... game/think 477K  68k Crazy8 OCS Disk Version
heif-convert.lha         gfx/conv   2.6M  68k Convert HEIC HEIF images to j...
WhatIFF2.12.lha          mags/misc  2.0M      What IFF? #2.12-December-2023
AmiArcadia.lha           misc/emu   5.0M  68k Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiArcadia-OS4.lha       misc/emu   5.5M  OS4 Signetics-based machines emul...
AmiVms.lha               misc/emu   3.7M  68k Simulates OpenVMS commands
v4sa_wb_2024.png         pix/wb     1.1M      Vampire V4 Standalone Workben...
morsconv.lha             text/misc  9K    68k Modular Morse code generator
fix1980.lha              util/arc   1K        Fix an lha with timestamps of...
Image2PDF.lha            util/conv  20M   ALL convert images to PDF and more
IdentifyDev.lha          util/libs  67K   68k Identify hardware and more
IdentifyUsr.lha          util/libs  101K  68k Identify hardware and more
AmiKick.zip              util/misc  53K       Check Kickstart images under ...
Mnemosyne.lha            util/misc  80K   68k Disk usage statistics+file/fo...
ZIPTest-1.1.lha          util/misc  49K   68k test Amiga 3000 ZIP DRAM memo...
ViNCEd.lha               util/shell 860K  68k ViNCEd, the CON: with ^Z & TA...

(snx)

[News message: 21. Jan. 2024, 08:03] [Comments: 0]
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21.Jan.2024

OS4Depot uploads until 20.01.2024
The following files have been added until 20.01.2024 to OS4Depot:

amiarcadia.lha           emu/gam 5Mb   4.0 Signetics-based machines emulator
woof.lha                 gam/fps 21Mb  4.1 A continuation of Lee Killough&#...
x5k_gray_wallpaper.zip   gra/mis 10Mb  4.0 a set of 8 wallpapers for AmigaO...
image2pdf.lha            uti/tex 20Mb  4.0 Convert JP(E)Gs and PNGs to PDF

(snx)

[News message: 21. Jan. 2024, 08:03] [Comments: 0]
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21.Jan.2024

AROS Archives uploads until 20.01.2024
The following files have been added until 20.01.2024 to AROS Archives:

image2pdf.i386-aros.lha      off/dtp 20Mb  convert images file to PDF

(snx)

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21.Jan.2024

MorphOS-Storage uploads until 20.01.2024
The following files have been added until 20.01.2024 to MorphOS-Storage:

EasyRapa-1.1.lha          Development/Hollywood     Generate RapaGui simple...
GitDesktop_0.12.41.lha    Development/Tools         A graphical git fronten...
Gobliiins5-demo.lha       Games/ScummVM             Gobliiins5-demo.lha
HomeWorld-VF.lha          Games/Strategy            Full french version (wi...
Image2PDF_2.5.lha         Graphics/Convert          Convert JP(E)Gs and PNG...

(snx)

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21.Jan.2024

WHDLoad: New installers until 20.01.2024
Using WHDLoad, games, scene demos and intros by cracking groups, which were originally designed to run only from floppy disks, can be installed on harddisk. The following installers have been added until 20.01.2024:

2024-01-20 updated: Dylan Dog: The Murderers (Simulmondo) patch rewritten, crashes fixed, 68000 quitkey support, new install script (Info)

(snx)

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21.Jan.2024
Armin Eden (ANF) German podcast: "The Games Archaeologists" discuss Wheel of Fortune
The German podcast "Die Spiele-Archäologen" covers retro games in 25 episodes so far. The current edition discusses Wheel of Fortune, which was released in 1991, with the self-proclaimed "archaeologists" mainly talking about the Amiga version of the game, their favorite Wheel of Fortune presenter and "the best letter pusher on private television".

Images and texts as well as a video about the game are presented, and the podcast can also be listened to on the usual services such as Spotify. And if you don't remember Wheel of Fortune, you can find a German review of the game at Kultboy. (snx)

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21.Jan.2024
Discord AmiKit Channel (ANF) Workbench distribution: AmiKit for PiStorm 12.4
Since October, the workbench distribution AmiKit has also been available for the turbo boards PiStorm and PiStorm-lite (amiga-news.de reported), in which a Raspberry Pi mini-computer serves as a processor replacement.

The "Winter Update" to version 12.4 contains updates of many included programs and the basic components (including Michal Schulz's Emu68) as well as the new additions GoVars 1.0, Translator 42.4 and Tran43pch 43.1. For the voice output support under AmigaGPT you need the narrator.device of the Workbench disks 1.34 and 2.04. The full list of changes can be found at the title link. (snx)

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21.Jan.2024
Team Retr-O-Mat (ANF) Event: Retro Dreams 2024 in Thuringia (Germany)
The first "Retro Dreams" retro computer meeting will take place on May 11, 2024 from 10 a.m. in the village community center ("Dorfgemeinschaftshaus") Hesserode (Dorfstraße 7, 99734 Nordhausen, Germany). Entry without hardware is free - with hardware, the stand fee is 8 euros per table.

In addition to the exchange of experiences and a cozy get-together with food and drinks, presentations and demonstrations of classic software, games and scene demos are planned. (snx)

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21.Jan.2024
Amiga WARP Organization (ANF) Amiga-WARP-Kalender für 2024
Continuing their tradition from 1997, members of Croatian Amiga WARP organization have published a new calendar for the year 2024 that is available as PDF files in English and Croatian language at the title link. This year Amiga WARP organization celebrates ten years since it was reactivated again to support Amigans in this part of Europe.

Download:
WARP_Calendar_2024.pdf (590 KB)
WARP_Calendar_2024_ENG.pdf (590 KB) (snx)

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21.Jan.2024

Chat software: AmigaGPT V1.4.1 for AmigaOS 3 and 4 (update)
Cameron Armstrong has written AmigaGPT, a chat program for AmigaOS 3.2 that uses the power of the chatbot ChatGPT (amiga-news.de reported). Originally written for AmigaOS 3.2, the programme meanwhile also supports AmigaOS 3.9, Cloanto's Workbench 3.X and AmigaOS 4.1. Changes of version 1.4.0:

AI image generation! Switch between chat and image generation mode by clicking the tabs at the top of the screen
Colour tweaks
Status bar shows more information and colours
About screen can now be dismissed with any key press or mouse click
The OpenAI API key requester now populates with the existing key if it exists so you can more easily find and fix typos in the key
Added the ability to set the chat system (new "Chat System" menu item)
Fix crash when having a conversation consisting of a few messages

Update: (21.01.2024, 18:10, dr)

Version 1.4.1 fixes a bug where the prompt textbox remains in a readonly state when switching from image mode to chat mode.

Direct download: AmigaGPT.lha (878 KB) (dr)

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20.Jan.2024 Demoparty: Revision 2024 (Germany, 29.03.-01.04.)
Traditionally, the Revision demoparty will once again take place on the Easter weekend from 29 March to 1 April in Saarbrücken (Germany). The organisers will announce further information in the coming weeks. (dr)

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20.Jan.2024

Demoparty: MountainBytes 2024 (Switzerland, 16.-18.02.)
Press release: rom February 16-18th, we finally rock the Swiss demoscene again! We have a packed program for you:

Friday: Meteoriks 2024 Nomination Gala - with big demoshow
Saturday: OHP, Music, Graphics, Oldschool & Newschool Realtime Compos
Saturday: Game Music Composer Legend CoLD SToRAGE Live in Concert
Sunday: Open Door for Interested Citizens, Prizegiving

Also, we’ll offer our Demomaking 101 Workshop again, for you to try out different (demo)tools, and give you time and space after the compos to talk and exchange with competitors.

So bring friends that you always felt could find a home in the demoscene, but could use some introduction first! Kids are welcome when supervised, for more information please check our website.

Please support us by preordering your ticket - for environmental reasons, t-shirts will only be available in presale. By donating to the event (called our Cowee-Bonds) you also help making this at all possible.

We are really looking forward to you, your releases and your good mood!

The MountainBytes Organisers (dr)

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20.Jan.2024

Amiga emulator for MacOS: vAmiga V2.5b1
Dirk Hoffmann has released the first beta version of V2.5 of his Amiga emulator vAmiga for MacOS. Changes:

Licensing:

The emulator core is now licensed under the Mozilla Public License v2.

Enhancements:

A user-definable upper bound limits the size of the snapshot storage.
Denise’s DIW logic is more accurate

Bug fixes:

Fixed a bug related to the allocation of sprite DMA slots (#799).
Fixed a race condition related to the SPRxCTL register (#715).
Fixed an issue with the serial port (9-bit packets) (#803).
Fixed a minor visual issue in the status bar that started showing up with the latest macOS release.

The minimum system requirement for his emulator is macOS 11.0. (dr)

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20.Jan.2024 Hardware: Bass mixing with "BassMX"
As Edwin van den Oosterkamp writes under the title link, one of the things he always enjoyed on his Amiga was watching demos, especially when using a hi-fi system with proper speakers instead of the small speakers in the 1084S monitor. However, the Amiga's perfect channel separation always bothered him a little, so that you could hear the drums on one speaker and the bassline on the other, for example. This could make the sound feel unbalanced.

He developed "BassMX" as a solution to this problem: it takes the sound from one channel, filters it so that only the low frequencies are retained and mixes it with the sound from the other channel. In short, it mixes the bass for both channels.

And Edwin explains: "In theory this means that the bassline and drums are now on both speakers while the locations of other instruments are unaffected. In practice it depends on the actual instruments used. While the bass drum will be centred, the Hi-Hat will not be, for example. Similar with a slap-bass, where the slap part will still be only on the original channel but the bass sound itself will be on both channels." He offers audio examples on his website to help you understand this.

Robert Smith published a YouTube video in which he demonstrates the difference between the standard Amiga sound and the BassMX sound. The developer himself describes the BassMX development process in a separate blog entry.

The module is available on eBay or now also from Alinea Computer. (dr)

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20.Jan.2024 Wall papers for AmigaOne X5000 Workbench
McFly offers owners of an AmigaOne X5000 eight different background images with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 for the Workbench, which are basically grey, but contain coloured lettering or in some cases a coloured BoingBall. (dr)

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19.Jan.2024 Diving game: "The Deep" V1.00 for Apollo Vampire V4
A few days ago, we reported on the preview video of Sami Vehmaa's latest project: a diving game exclusively for the Apollo Vampire V4. He has now released version 1.00, which is currently available for 2.50 euros. (dr)

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19.Jan.2024

Multiplayer arcade game: "WiZONK!" v0.1
On the occasion of this weekend's Amiga Ireland 2024, Michael 'Mixel' Dawes is making available a first playable version of his multiplayer arcade game "WiZONK!", which he is developing with the game construction kit "Scorpion Engine".

In an arena, you have to defend yourself as a wizard against (up to) three enemies with a range of mystical powers and, if possible, be the last one standing.

This multiplayer test is intended for two to four players, who either play against each other using a multiplayer adapter or two players with a joystick and two with a keyboard. Wizonk's multiplayer component is basically free of charge - although anyone interested can take advantage of the opportunity to honour the developer's work with a little donation. In the future, there will also be an improved Wizonk+ with a single-player mode, which will then be subject to a charge.

Wizonk should run on all Amigas with 1 MB. If there are any problems, the author asks you to inform him. Known bug: On some systems, when loaded from the workbench, the title screen freezes (usually you press fire to skip it). If you boot without the startup sequence, it should work fine. The developer will add more levels over time. (dr)

[News message: 19. Jan. 2024, 14:40] [Comments: 0]
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18.Jan.2024

Analogue Pocket: Amiga-Core V0.2.1
The handheld game console Analogue Pocket (Wikipedia) is FPGA-based and as such supports modules from Nintendo, Sega, the PC Engine or the Atari Lynx. Version 0.2.1 has now been published of the Amiga Core. Changes:

ICACHE Fixed for WDLOADER to work correctly
LBA48 is done to make larger HDD images to 2TB in size
The Joysticks are completely disabled when using the emulated mouse or keyboard
Audio Mixing - Still some work to be done here to get rid of the snap or pops from the lower frequencys to 48Khz
Some changes to the caching for the MPU to speed up some processes

(dr)

[News message: 18. Jan. 2024, 21:11] [Comments: 0]
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18.Jan.2024 Amiga Games That Weren't: Stuntman Seymour
Codemasters is a British developer and distributor of video games that has been part of Electronic Arts since 2021. At the end of December last year, the website "Amiga Games That Weren't" reported on the game studio's platform game "Stuntman Seymour", which was probably started in the late summer of 1992 and largely, if not completely, finished. The game is a spin-off of CJ's Elephant Antics, also developed by Codemasters.

As the site reports, the finished game was probably not published because new quality standards were introduced at the time, according to which games with only a single protagonist, for example, did not meet these standards. In addition, the game developer focussed more on console games than on home computer games. The game is now available under the title link. (dr)

[News message: 18. Jan. 2024, 09:29] [Comments: 0]
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18.Jan.2024 Preview video: Robocop (AGA), Update #13
Daniel Allsopp is working on a port of the arcade classic "Robocop" by Data East. The aim is to significantly surpass the official Amiga version. After a year, Allsopp has now published a new preview video of his title developed in 68k assembler, which requires an AGA computer (amiga-news.de reported). (dr)

[News message: 18. Jan. 2024, 09:01] [Comments: 0]
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17.Jan.2024 MorphOS: Version management "Git Desktop" v0.12.41
Rafał Zabdyr has released a third beta version of his graphical user interface for the version management Git for MorphOS (amiga-news.de reported). "Git Desktop" is written in C++ and based on MUI through his C++ wrapper. MorphOS 3.x and the Git component of the SDK are required. This release includes many fixes, UI/UX changes and improvements, the diff accuracy mode by 'word' and a application settings window have been added. (dr)

[News message: 17. Jan. 2024, 22:36] [Comments: 0]
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17.Jan.2024

Creating Amiga Reaction GUIs: ReBuild 0.10.0 (beta version)
In mid-November, we introduced Darren 'dmcoles' Cole's "ReBuild" in detail, with which it should be possible to create graphical user interfaces for ReAction, the evolution of ClassAct. Changes of version 0.10.0:

made some changes to the code generation function to add a window id enumeration
changed window 'name' property to 'identifier' and added some validition
added a user manual text file

The author asks you to test ReBuild extensively and report any bugs to him.

Download: rebuild0.10.0-beta.lha (160 KB) (dr)

[News message: 17. Jan. 2024, 22:04] [Comments: 0]
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17.Jan.2024 Game development: IFF/ILBM exporter v1.4 for Aseprite
Recently We introduced a script written by Prismatic Realms for the image editor Aseprite that converts graphics into an IFF/ILBM file. With the current version 1.4, the script recalls the previous export path and file name, which makes the workflow a little more efficient. (dr)

[News message: 17. Jan. 2024, 21:55] [Comments: 0]
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16.Jan.2024

Preview video: Platform game "Robot Jet Action 2"
Almost two years ago, Tomasz 'Carrion' Mielnik released the platformer "Robot Jet Action" for the C64. Now he is working on porting the game to the Amiga and has called it "Robot Jet Action 2". The author has listed the new features:

Level screen scrolling in 4 directions
Initial boss level implementation
Initial implementation of the worldmap / level selection screen
A lot of implementation and bug fixes
what you see is going to be World #1 and Gfx for World #1 is almost done.
Initial implementation of bigger enemies (wider that 16 pixels sprites)

(dr)

[News message: 16. Jan. 2024, 21:52] [Comments: 0]
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16.Jan.2024

Image and PDF converter: Image2PDF 2.5 for all Amiga systems
Bernd Assenmacher's Image2PDF is a tool for converting images to PDF and vice versa. Images can also be scaled or saved in a different format (amiga-news.de reported). Changes in version 2.5:

rearranged GUI to make it more intuitive
melted the target requesters to one single target requester
added source PDF-file requester to GUI for PDF2Image and PDF2PDF
added function "Image2Image" to change the format of images
added function "scan file(s)" to determine the attributes of the image(s)
added function "rem (dup)" to remove duplicate entries from the listview
added function "check" to check the given images if they are valid to process and to clean the listview from unvalid image files
added possibility to scale images to a fixed size
added more formats for Image2PDF (B4, B5, US, Executive, Comm10)
installer now sets the OS automatically (thanks Daniel ;-))
key F1 now opens the guide file as help too
updated tooltips
optimized output messages
fixed a bug where "read source" did not work correctly sometimes
many improvements done "under the hood" ... ;-)

(dr)

[News message: 16. Jan. 2024, 21:43] [Comments: 0]
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16.Jan.2024

Module player: NostalgicPlayer 2.2.0 for Windows
NostalgicPlayer is a program for playing Amiga music modules under Windows, based on APlayer. The development of the player had been started by the author Thomas Neumann in 1993 on the Amiga, later continued on BeOS and now on Windows (amiga-news.de reported). Changes of version 2.2.0:

Updated to .NET 8.
Can now show sample information from TFMX modules. Because the TFMX format does not have a sample list structure like other module formats, it is hard to find out how many and where the samples are stored. Therefore sometimes you will see that a sample may be splitted into several samples or other small glitches.
SidPlay will now show the right number of channels used to play the module in Module Information window. Normally, this will be 3, but for multiple SID chips module, it will be higher.
Oktalyzer player will now convert 7-bit samples to 8-bit when loading a module.
Will now be able to start playing on systems which has more than 2 speakers setup. Thanks to Raph99-Thanys and 7zxkv for reporting this.
Removed the latency option again from the CoreAudio agent. It is now hardcoded to 200 ms, since it gave problems when it was too low when playing e.g. SidPlay modules.
The sample visualizers now show the whole buffer and not only the last 20 ms.
Now the module information updating also uses the mixer latency settings.
The module information window will not switch tab back to the default one anymore, when changing sub-song.
Added close button in message boxes.
It's now possible to press the F1 key in any window to open the relevant help page.
When you press the next module button, the end of module list settings will be used to find out what to do.
Updated mpg123 to version 1.32.4.
Updated SharpCompress to version 0.35.0.
Updated Krypton.Toolkit and Krypton.Navigator to version 80.23.11.321.
Updated libsidplayfp to version 2.6.0.
Renamed Atari Octalyser to just Octalyser.
Moved MultiTracker, FastTracker, Mod's Grave, Digital Tracker MOD and Octalyser formats from ModPlayer to Xmp.
Added new TakeTracker format, since LibXmp can detect the difference between FastTracker and TakeTracker.
Added Scream Tracker 3 MOD, OpenMPT MOD and FlexTrax formats.

An installation package can be found on Microsoft Store. (dr)

[News message: 16. Jan. 2024, 21:17] [Comments: 0]
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16.Jan.2024 ACube Systems: Guides for Radeon driver and USB/SD boot on Sam4x0
Press release: Dear valued customers,

We have received numerous inquiries regarding the appropriate Radeon driver to use and how to go about it. We understand that using AmigaOS 4.1 can be a bit challenging in this regard, so we would like to provide you with some helpful information to make the process easier.

Please take a moment to read this PDF Radeon QuickGuide, which discusses the various versions of Radeon drivers and provides instructions on how to install them on AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition. It is crucial to carefully go through the article to ensure a smooth installation.

Additionally, with the Make Bootable USB-SD QuickGuide we have prepared an article on utilizing an USB key or SD card that contains an AmigaOS 4.1 system, allowing for easy booting on Sam4x0 systems. We understand that working with an USB key / SD card may not be as straightforward as it should be, so we are here to assist all our customers and fellow Amigans in the Community.

We genuinely hope that you find these details invaluable and that they enable you to utilize AmigaOS 4.1 on Sam4x0 at its best. (dr)

[News message: 16. Jan. 2024, 06:35] [Comments: 0]
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15.Jan.2024 Preview video: "The Deep" for Apollo Vampire V4
Sami Vehmaa's latest project will be an action adventure exclusively for the Apollo Vampire V4: as a diver you try to find the 50 loads of gold that a sunken ship once carried. (dr)

[News message: 15. Jan. 2024, 22:15] [Comments: 0]
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15.Jan.2024

Apollo cards: File sharing tool "ApolloExplorer" v1.1.2
ApolloExplorer is a simple file exchange programme that can be used to transfer files from a PC to an Amiga running an Apollo card and vice versa over the network. A server software runs in the background on the Amiga and allows a client running on a PC with Windows, Linux or MacOS to connect to the Amiga and browse the local hard drives. Changes in version 1.1.2:

Hopefully the Amiga server shouldn't crash anymore on any machines. Please let me know if it does for you.
The annoying bug on MacOS where the folder contents (not the folder) were copied when dragging a folder is fixed. Finally!
Fixes for the blinking drive icons
The browser window should remember the user's selection of list or icon mode

(dr)

[News message: 15. Jan. 2024, 21:55] [Comments: 0]
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15.Jan.2024 Game Construction Kit: Video tutorials for the Scorpion Engine
The Scorpion Engine is not only intended for developers, but - as Erik 'earok' Hogan, author of the Game Construction Kit, emphasises - for anyone who wants to create a game for the Amiga. With the Scorpion Engine, he is trying to realise a project that strikes a balance between user-friendliness, performance and flexibility. We therefore asked the developer to what extent video tutorials are available.

Just recently Erik was a guest on AmigaBill. The recording of the live stream available on YouTube shows in great detail how a very simple game can be created from scratch using the Scorpion Engine. Coincidentally, it uses the same Terybleknight artpack that was used in a Redpill game.

The video series launched in April 2022 in collaboration with Michael Parent from BitBeamCannon (amiga-news.de reported) was also continued: Making Games with Scorpion Engine has six parts.

Finally, please refer to the video tutorial on creating a vertically scrolling demo, which we also mention in our update messages. (dr)

[News message: 15. Jan. 2024, 11:27] [Comments: 0]
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14.Jan.2024

Tool: Mnemosyne V1.2.0
Mnemosyne is a tool for AmigaOS 3.x that shows how much space files and folders take up on the hard disk. It is supposed to help manage the space on the hard disk better. Mnemosyne is written in C and uses ReAction. ClassAct is required under AmigaOS 3.1 and 3.1.4.

Version 1.2.0 provides the following changes:

Added ability for ToolType usage.
Added feature for Rounding numbers.
Added NOROUND ToolType to prevent Rounding if chosen.
Added Menu Toggles for Tooltypes.
Updated Images to represent new Version.
Added Tooltypes information to Wiki and Guide.
Making Tooltypes available for CLI Use as well.
ReImplemented -g flag to GUI flag.
Fixed Incorrect overflow handling.

You can get further information from the Wiki.

Direct download: Mnemosyne-1.2.0.lha (80 KB) (dr)

[News message: 14. Jan. 2024, 21:37] [Comments: 0]
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14.Jan.2024

Amiga emulator: Amiberry 5.6.6
Amiberry is an Amiga emulator for ARM-based single-chip systems like the Raspberry Pi, the Odroid XU4 or the Tinkerboard from ASUS, which brings some newly developed features like a "WHDLoad-Booter" or support for controller configuration using RetroArch. For example it is used in the Workbench distribution AmiKit for the Raspberry Pi 4/400. Changes in version 5.6.6:

Bugfixes

WHDBooter would default to 020 CPU in cases it should use 68000
WHDBooter should detect AGA/CD32 games and use 020 CPU for them
don't exclude the fps counter calculation
switch back to normal vsync
Revert timing changes, as some users reported problems
don't keep native window size when opening an RTG screen
Fix zero length disk dma not finishing when dsksync is detected.
Do not generate Fat Gary delay/exception if Z2/Z3 board unmapped space access.
floppy sounds did not load on macOS
fix floppy sounds dir name should be lowercase on macOS as well
dlopen was broken on macOS after previous changes
changing the value of capture_always on the fly didn't work
don't enable RTG hardware sprite by default

Improvements

Updated WHDLoad to latest version
remember window position and size
merge recent updates from preview
improve DrawBridge functionality
merge statusline updates from preview
implemented multithreaded RTG rendering
fix background color for main window selectors
allow higher V.Offset values
allow more values in joy-mouse settings
Do not force key release if mouse capture was requested but mouse was already captured.

(dr)

[News message: 14. Jan. 2024, 17:15] [Comments: 0]
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14.Jan.2024 Blog: Mingo's Commodore Page" becomes "Mingo's Commodore Blog"
Domingo has been running his "Mingo's Commodore Page" for almost two decades and has published numerous instructions, information and tips there. Now he has moved to Google's blogger service at a new address and has already published a new tutorial for Amiga users on data exchange between Amiga and PC via the serial interface (German).

The move had become necessary due to permanently rising costs with the previous provider, the enormous amount of time required for maintenance (which is no longer necessary with the new provider) and the code of the old website, which had become increasingly complex over the years and therefore more difficult to manage.

As Domingo tells us, the old manuals will be revised and gradually republished in the new blog. The focus of the blog is on tutorials, but there will be "reviews" of Commodore hardware and software, such as the one about the Amiga 1200 (German).

Unfortunately, however, not everything can be transferred 1:1 from a website to a blog, so it remains to be seen whether and what else will be on the blog. In any case, the current plan is to post a new entry at least every 10 to 14 days. (dr)

[News message: 14. Jan. 2024, 17:09] [Comments: 0]
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14.Jan.2024

Tool: identify-library 44.1
A week ago Richard Körber released version 44.0 of his identify.library. This update mainly is a bug fix release:

Bugfix: Emu68 MMU was not detected correctly
Bugfix: OCS Denise was not detected
Bugfix: Apollo 2030 was not detected
68EC030 is recognized now (if mmu.library is present)
Added Emu68 Unicam Board

Downloads:

IdentifyDev.lha (67 kB)
IdentifyUsr.lha (101 kB) (dr)

[News message: 14. Jan. 2024, 13:50] [Comments: 0]
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14.Jan.2024

Aminet uploads until 13.01.2024
The following files have been added until 13.01.2024 to Aminet:

JP20.lha                 demo/mag   1.4M  68k Jurassic Pack #20
P96Prefs.lha             driver/vid 88K   68k P96 Preferences Editor
VA2000.card.lha          driver/vid 5K    68k Alternative VA2000 P96 driver
TunnelsAndTrolls.lha     game/role  18M   68k Implementation of Tunnels & T...
IcePrincess.lha          mods/8voic 486K      16bit 6ch Wiener Royal Waltz ...
WarpWebPdt.lha           util/dtype 285K  68k WebP image datatype V45.5
IdentifyDev.lha          util/libs  67K   68k Identify hardware and more
IdentifyLib_FR.lha       util/libs  21K       French catalog and docs for i...
IdentifyUsr.lha          util/libs  101K  68k Identify hardware and more
VATestprogram.zip        util/misc  16M   68k Versatile Amiga Testprogram

(snx)

[News message: 14. Jan. 2024, 08:15] [Comments: 0]
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14.Jan.2024

OS4Depot uploads until 13.01.2024
The following files have been added until 13.01.2024 to OS4Depot:

seq.lha                  aud/mis 427kb 4.1 MIDI sequencer
warpwebpdt.lha           dat/ima 285kb 4.0 WebP image datatype V45.5
fuppes.lha               net/ser 15Mb  4.1 Free UPnP Entertainment Service

(snx)

[News message: 14. Jan. 2024, 08:15] [Comments: 0]
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14.Jan.2024

MorphOS-Storage uploads until 13.01.2024
The following files have been added until 13.01.2024 to MorphOS-Storage:

WarpWebPdt_45.5.lha       Dependencies/Datatypes    WebP image datatype V45.2
MCE_14.40.lha             Games/Editor              Multi-game Character Ed...
Easy2Install_1.0b48.lha   Network/PackageManager    A package manager to do...

(snx)

[News message: 14. Jan. 2024, 08:15] [Comments: 0]
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14.Jan.2024

WHDLoad: New installers until 13.01.2024
Using WHDLoad, games, scene demos and intros by cracking groups, which were originally designed to run only from floppy disks, can be installed on harddisk. The following installers have been added until 13.01.2024:

2024-01-07 improved: Graham Gooch World Class Cricket (Audiogenic) supports another version, defaults to a T20 match (Info)

(snx)

[News message: 14. Jan. 2024, 08:15] [Comments: 0]
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14.Jan.2024
Andreas Magerl (ANF) Print magazine: Amiga Future, issue 166
The English and German issue 166 (January/February 2024) of the print magazine Amiga Future has been distributed. It can be ordered directly from its editorial office and from Amiga dealers that stock the magazine.

Content of the current issue includes, besides various reviews, show reports from Amiga-Meeting Nord and the a1k.org-Meeting in Finkenbach as well as an interview with Richard Löwenstein. (snx)

[News message: 14. Jan. 2024, 08:15] [Comments: 0]
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14.Jan.2024

Sprite/Icon/Map editor: Raster Master V3.2 R99 for Windows 10/11
Raster Master (amiga-news.de reported) is a sprite/icon/map editor for Windows 10/11 which generates RayLib-, PutImagedata and Map code for gcc, AmigaBASIC, Amiga C, Amiga Pascal, QuickBasic, QB64, Quick C, Turbo Pascal, freepascal, Turbo C, Turbo Basic, Power Basic, FreeBASIC, GWBASIC, BASICA, and PC-BASIC (YouTube video).

Since our last last news item several changes have been made, among others:

new fill option for paint tool in sprite edit mode. Hold shift key to paint selected pixel with same color in entire sprite
Cloning of Sprites and Maps added
Added new RGBA Custom option for gcc and freebasic

(dr)

[News message: 14. Jan. 2024, 08:00] [Comments: 0]
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14.Jan.2024
Michal Schulz (Mail) Motorola68k emulation: Emu68 v1.0 Release Candidate 3
Developer Michal Schulz has released Release Candidate 3 of version 1.0 of his Motorola68K emulation Emu68 for the ARM architecture, focusing on the PiStorm and PiStorm32lite (amiga-news.de reported). Emu68 1.0 Release Candidate 3 is the last release candidate before final version 1.0. It includes all fixes from RC1 and RC2. Additionally it contains several changes and fixes improving performance of old games and demos:

BlitWait

The BlitWait option allows the user to force Emu68 to do more fine-grained waits before writting several blitter-sensitive registers. Normally, the software which is using blitter should wait until it completed the operation, but in some cases the demo coders assumed that m68k is slow enough to not waist time for waiting. Such games and/or demos require the blitwait option activated either through cmdline.txt or with help of EmuControl to operate properly.

Ability to add EmuControl parameters to Emu68 globally

With this release user can pass the EmuControl command line options, like e.g. DBF ICNT=1 CCRD=0 directly to cmdline.txt file and thus making them global. This, in combination with eventually disabled CPU caches, allows one to run demos like the "State of the Art" directly from floppy, without WHDLoad.

RGB to HDMI Passthrough

This feature requires small external hardware (work in Progress or A500, A600, A1200, A2000) which sends the digital RGB data through the camera interface to raspberry directly. IN combination with new unicam.resource (embedded in kernel) and new VideoCore/Emu68-VC4 driver (available in new nightly build of Emu68-tools) this allows to display the RGB signal from Amiga on the HDMI. The unicam.resource allows one to enable this feature on boot already, new VideoCore driver allows one to easily switch between RGB and RTG modes on the same screen.

The developer provides more detailed information on the changes in his new Patreon post. (dr)

[News message: 14. Jan. 2024, 07:10] [Comments: 0]
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13.Jan.2024 Video tutorial: Reading CSV files with AMOS
In another part of his series of short tutorials on AMOS Pro, retro and Amiga fan 'Yawning Angel' shows how he reads CSV (Comma Separated Values) data into a programme and separates the CSV values, both manually and using an automated method. (dr)

[News message: 13. Jan. 2024, 22:02] [Comments: 0]
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12.Jan.2024 ADF tool for macOS: ADFMaster v2.2
'Matze1887' has updated his ADF tool "ADFMaster" for macOS to version 2.2, which he himself describes as experimental. The dark mode and errors in IFF/ILBM decoding have been fixed (wrong colours) and better handling of international file names has been implemented. The tool is available on itch.io from four Euros. (dr)

[News message: 12. Jan. 2024, 21:47] [Comments: 0]
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12.Jan.2024

Datatype for WebP: WarpWebP.datatype 45.5
Oliver Roberts has updated his WarpWebP.datatype for viewing the WebP image format to version 45.5. The datatype is based on Google's libwebp 1.3.2. Versions for AmigaOS 3/4, WarpOS and MorphOS are available, a graphic card is not required. Changes:

Updated with libwebp 1.3.2.
Decoding of lossless images on 68k is now 30% faster.
Various minor optimisations.
Removed some redundant code.

(dr)

[News message: 12. Jan. 2024, 10:21] [Comments: 0]
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