Floppy disk images on PC and Mac: Greaseweazle Tools 1.21
Keir Fraser's "Greaseweazle" does - similar to Kryoflux - read the magnetic information on a floppy disk independently from the format used and saves as much information as possible to generate a so-called "Flux Level Image" in Supercard format (SCP), which enables reading and back-writing of copy-protected disks.
Version 1.21 of the Greaseweazle Tools provides the following changes:
micropolis: Codec for Micropolis hard-sectored MFM disks
gw reset: By default do not reset configured "gw delays"
Fix setup.py installation: Require bitarray earlier than v3
Encryption protocol: AmiSSL 5.18 (AmigaOS 3/4)
Version 5.18 of the open source encryption protocol AmiSSL has been released, which is now based on the latest version 3.4.0 (22.10.2024) of OpenSSL. Changes:
Switched to OpenSSL 3.4, with full compatibility with the latest OpenSSL 3.4.0 (22.10.2024) version, which includes new features, improvements and bug fixes.
Updated root certificates to latest Mozilla-based bundle, dated 24.9.2024.
Emulator: WinUAE 5.3.1
The Amiga emulator WinUAE has been released in version 5.3.1. Changes:
New features
Added Picmatic Marbelle Vice and Tierras Salvajes 100Hz TV laser disc arcade game support.
Updates
Implemented OpalVision undocumented automatic VRAM bank switch. King of Karate demo now have working scrolling background.
Implemented Mediator 1200TX 2x4M PCI window mode.
Serial port emulation updates: transmit speed is now more accurate, receive speed is throttled if data is arriving too quickly.
CTRL+F12 windowed/fullscreen switch now remembers previous fullscreen mode (fullscreen or full-window) and it is stored between sessions in registr/ini.
Bug fixes
Fixed GamePorts panel “Swap ports”.
Some screen resolution/font combinations caused crash when on screen keyboard was opened.
Fixed music glitch in James Pond 2 (non-AGA). Most likely also affected some other interrupt based music players too.
Golem SCSI II HD controller configuration didn’t load correctly.
Fixed SPRxPOS modification in last possible moment being missed causing sprite to be disabled. (Fixes Reshoot R background flickering)
Fixed possible crash when AmigaOS 4 resets during boot and switches to PPC mode if directory filesystem emulation was in use.
SCSI CD audio PLAY AUDIO TRACK/INDEX returned error if end track was higher than last track. SCSI spec allows it and it should not cause error.
Prometheus Firestorm PCI bridge interrupt state bit was inverted.
Print/PDF magazine: Amiga Addict, issue 33
Issue 33 of the English-language magazine Amiga Addict is now available from the publisher addict.media and in British newsstands. In the cover story, the editorial team discusses the influence of the Amiga on virtual reality systems.
This issue also contains reviews of the new games Dr. Dangerous and Droid Special Edition and the classic games Donk, Deuteros and The Chaos Engine, a feature on the Dune II Remaster project, a story about games that should have been ported to the Amiga, a downloadable cover disk with Alien Fish Finger and much more.
Amiga Addict is published every six weeks and is available as a single issue or by subscription, in either printed or PDF format. (nba)
Videogames studies: Experimental action game "Squarez" now available
The recently released Squarez is a remake of the Flash game SQUARES 2 and was developed as part of the CHLudens research project (amiga-news.de reported). This abstract action game is controlled entirely by mouse and offers minimalist, rectangle-based graphics. The aim of the game is to catch grey rectangles while avoiding the yellow ones in various levels.
It is interesting to note that Squarez was designed as a research game to explore why abstract games were rare in the home computer era, even though 1970s art was increasingly moving in this direction. While video games have become increasingly realistic, this game questions the urge for hyperrealism and invites players to enjoy a visually reduced experience.
The game was developed using the so-called cryAEngine and is available to download as freeware. The source code and the "Processing" development tool are also provided. Squarez is an exciting example of how creative research and video games can go hand in hand. (nba)
WHDLoad: New installers until 19.10.2024
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 19.10.2024:
AmigaRemix: Further files added
AmigaRemix collects remixes of well-known soundtracks of Amiga games. Since our last news-item, the following mp3 files have been added:
Flashback, Main Menu Music (Vandahlia Special Remix)
MorphOS: Future versions of Wayfarer without updated WebKit/GTK engine
As Jacek 'jacadcaps' Piszczek has told at the title link, future versions of his web browser Wayfarer will stay with the current version 2.46 of the WebKit/GTK browser engine. Already porting this one would have taken several weeks. Since the WebKit developers removed the Legacy/Win/Cairo target and its dependencies, which Wayfarer requires, and started to use Skia, further MorphOS ports of the engine wouldn't be feasible anymore.
Apart from this, contemporary websites would also increasingly require more performance than the ageing G4 and G5 hardware can offer. For the time being, however, the existing WebKit core would be modern enough to continue to display the pages that can be displayed so far - probably even for several years to come. Until then, he tends to set up a hosted browsing service under Linux or Mac OS, which then generates the Wayfarer pages externally. Accordingly, the next version of his browser will already offer the option of either displaying the web pages locally or having them generated externally using CEF. (snx)
Book: English edition of AmigaOS 3.2 Reference Manual / French one in progress
In February, Look Behind You published the Reference Manual "AmigaOS 3.2 - Das Handbuch" in German language with 512 pages. Now the 480-page English edition is available as a book and as a digital download as well - either directly from the publisher or from selected retailers: Amiga on the Lake (USA), RetroPassion (UK) and Retro 8bit Shop (Netherlands).
In addition, a French version is now also in the works on the initiative of the Swiss retailer Relec. "AmigaOS 3.2 le Manuel" will be available in three versions: as a book for 35 Swiss Francs, digitally for 20 and both combined for 50. Potential buyers are advised to express their interest using a corresponding form.
Meanwhile, the original German edition has been updated in its digital version. This includes additions and corrections. Registered customers can download the PDF file again via their account at the publisher. (snx)
Worms: The Director's Cut 1.5 for the 30th anniversary
Next year, the legendary game Worms celebrates its 30th birthday. To mark the occasion, its programmer Andy Davidson is planning a free new edition for the Amiga. To this end, demo groups around the world are invited to contribute new levels with their own names.
A level template is available on request. The levels must have a size of 960 x 350 pixels and be sent in by New Year's Eve. Specifications for the 16-color palette: 00 - black or dark color (transparent), 01 - white or near white, 02 - pink, 03 - any color, 04 - lighter shade of 03, 05 - any color, 06 - lighter shade of 05, 07-15 - any colors. Layers: Either one image for a conventional Worms level or two images for a two-layer level, consisting of foreground and background with the same color palette. The background - to be kept darker - is shown where the foreground is transparent or the foreground is destroyed in the course of the game. (snx)
Looking back: Battle Chess was not U-certificated in Germany
At the title link, "Gamers Global" looks 35 years into the past and recalls that the Amiga chess game "Battle Chess" was indexed as harmful to minors in Germany in April 1989 on the initiative of the Bavarian State Youth Welfare Office.
However, this only lasted for about five months, as Electronic Arts successfully appealed against it. Despite the high picture quality made possible by the Amiga 500, the depiction of brutality (video) would not have reached the intensity of violence required for the index.
For this reason, during the reassessment the responsible committee came to the conclusion that also children and young people could maintain the necessary distance from the gameplay, which would be in part also imaginative and funny. (snx)
Amiga Future also celebrated the 25th anniversary of its online presence last month: its website went online for the first time on September 9, 1999. What was initially intended as a source of information for the print magazine has since continued to grow with the news section, over 100 online readable issues of the magazine, 7,000 German and 2,000 English test reports, workshops, specials, etc. (snx)
Reshoot Proxima 3: Tin box variant available
To celebrate the first birthday of the shoot'em-up game "Reshoot Proxima 3", it can now alternatively be purchased in a metal box, limited to 55 copies and signed, at the title link - optionally also with a USB stick. (snx)
Logic game: Untangle V1.1
Grzegorz Kraszewski is in the process of writing the logic game Untangle for the Amiga. The player has a number of dots in front of him, which are connected by lines and cross each other. The aim of the game is to untangle the lines by moving the dots so that no line intersects another (amiga-news.de reported). He has now released version 1.1 with the following changes:
Fixed a bug of freeing a memory block twice at game end.
Added the game ending displaying total number of moves and time spent.
Added 25 more levels, now the game has 175 levels.
The game runs in a Workbench window, an Amiga with any processor and Kickstart/Workbench 3.0 or higher are required.
He also wants to design the game so that it will run on any Amiga, from an Amiga 1000 with 256 KB Ram and KickStart 1.1 to the fastest Amiga with 3.x. (dr)
Developer log: What can be expected from the final 64-bit version of Odyssey?
At the end of August, we reported on an initial test version of the Odyssey browser for AROS version 2.0, which is being continuously updated (the latest version of the 32-bit variant was released yesterday). In a short article, Krzysztof 'deadwood' Śmiechowicz describes various ways in which the upcoming 64-bit version Odyssey 2.0 can execute JavaScript code and what impact this has on performance. Some of the results are quite interesting and come very close to today's (October 2024) Firefox performance. This is all the more surprising given that the WebKit engine Odyssey 2.0 was released in February 2019. (dr)
Update: (06:17, 21.10.24, dr)
Demovesion V1.04 is now available. Since the first version, numerous bugs have been fixed, the "M" key can now be used to switch the music on and off and the CPU load should now be lower. (dr)
AROS distribution: TinyAros 3.4.1
The AROS distribution TinyAros is aimed more at users, which is why no developer tools are included (but can be downloaded optionally), which makes it leaner and therefore quicker to install and ready for use.
The now released version 3.4.1 (video) is based on the current ABIv0 backport and also contains updated libraries and programmes, additional included software and bug fixes. (snx)
Cowboy/shootout game: Demo version of Duel
In "Duel", two cowboys (or so far a cowboy and an alien) that can be controlled up or down shoot at each other, with various obstacles providing cover (video). In the finalised version, you will be able to choose from over 20 characters and the weather will influence the battle. (snx)
AmigaOS 4: AmiUpdate V2.55
AmiUpdate is an update system for AmigaOS 4 and helps to keep system components and applications up to date. There are currently 241 entries in the database. Version 2.55 has now been released with the following changes:
Fixed an error in the main list helphint where the date of the update was not shown correctly.
Made some changes to the routines that handle the Ignore Manager, and saving the list back to
disk. An apparent crash appeared to be located there, although it was unreproducible here.
Fixed a memory leak that occurred each time a scan was started.
Reworked the "Abort" logic. It is no longer possible to abort the scan, but aborting updating
works as originally expected. Whether this fixes the unreproducible crashes or not remains to
be seen.
Following a successfull login, users were complaining the details were not saved. The call to
save the details was commented out. No idea why, or how long it's been like that, but it should
work as expected again!
Added support for double-clicking items to expand them in the Path Manager.
Changed the way the notifications are handled when the preferences change.
Prefs_Updates 53.19: Prefs change notifications are now handled differently to suit the new mechanism.
Development tool: vasm 2.0
After eleven months of development, Frank Wille has released the update to version 2.0 for the modular assembler vasm. The changes in version 2.0 in detail:
Support for architectures which have bytes with more than 8 bits.
Output formats bin, ihex, srec, test and vobj currently support >8-bit bytes.
New options -obe and -ole to define the endianess of target-bytes in binary output.
New options -ibe and -ile to define the endianess of target-bytes in binary includes (incbin).
New option -underscore adds a leading underscore to all imported and exported symbol names.
New option -relpath to treat all include paths as relative first, even when starting with '/' or '\'.
Reworked relocations and added the option to define their signedness.
New CPU backend for unSP (micro-nSP), having 16-bit bytes. Contributed by Adrien Destugues.
New CPU backend for the FPGA-CPU HANS, using 32-bit bytes. Contributed by Yannick Stamm.
New output module "pap", which outputs MOS Paper Tape files, as documented in the KIM-1 User's Manual. Contributed by Dimitri Theulings.
When printing error messages in macros, also print the source text line calling the macro.
A macro redefinition prints a warning with the previous definition. The old macro is correctly replaced.
Also warn about initialized space atoms (.space, etc.) in BSS sections.
Workaround for a Windows bug, when reading a source text from stdin directly via the terminal.
Fixed output of 64-bit symbol values in vobjdump.
Directives to suppress listing file output (like NOLIST) will no longer appear in the listing file.
Fixed string constants (in immediate addressing modes) with non-ASCII characters.
Fixed potential buffer overflow when generating a section name for ORG directives (since V1.9f).
Output modules now show the source line for unknown relocation errors.
m68k: Most out of range errors have now become warnings.
m68k: Out of range 8-bit immediate constants write to all 16 bits of the extension word, with a warning (to be able to simulate the behaviour of some old, faulty assemblers).
m68k: Improved -opt-size optimization for move.l->moveq/lsl, which now optimizes all values below 0x8000 where the highest and lowest bit set does not span more than 7 bits (suggested by Erik Hemming).
m68k: Float-constant optimization (OPT of, enabled by default) now also supports integer constant optimization to 16-bit.
GUI for Greaseweazle Tools: ADFDiskBox v2
Keir Fraser's "Greaseweazle" reads the magnetic layer of the floppy regardless of the format used and stores as much information as possible in a so-called "flux level image" in supercard format (SCP), making it possible to read and write back copy-protected floppies. We have been reporting on FluxMyFluffyFloppy, a GUI for the Greaseweazle Tools, for some time now. In addition to GreaseweazleGUI, there is a third alternative for Windows, ADFDiskBox, which has now been released in version 2.
The author John Brett, who has made the source code of his project available on GitHub, has kindly given us a few explanations about the new version:
Both FluxMyFluffyFloppy and GreaseweazleGUI can handle many floppy formats, while my ADFDiskBox specialises in Amiga DOS floppies. It simplifies Amiga DOS batch read and write operations (for ADF, 82-track ADF, SCP:Amiga DOS and RawSCP).
The programme requires Net Framework 4.8 to run, so it should run on Windows 10 (also runs on the 32-bit version) and Windows 11. The latest version of Greaseweazle Tools must first be downloaded and unpacked before the installer can be executed.
I've been learning C# for a while now and I'm creating this program for learning purposes (which is why the code is a bit messy). When I started, the other programs couldn't handle 82-track Amiga DOS discs or batch mode. Now they can, using the editable diskdefs file. My GUI, on the other hand, uses its own version. I have recently added some more features, such as batch mode for all Amiga formats, which is why I have changed the version number to 2. Now more than one Greaseweazle is supported on the same computer. (dr)
AmigaOS 4: Tutorial for creating a USB boot stick for the AmigaOne X5000
'McFly' has published two tutorials (available in English and German) in the OS4Depot which should enable users of an AmigaOne X5000 to create a bootable USB stick either from a system backup (OS4Depot link) or with the help of the AmigaOS 4.1 installation CD and using an RX graphics card OS4Depot link).
When asked, the author kindly wrote us the following about how it came about:
Since my X5000 no longer started properly some time ago due to a mistake on my part and the install CD also refused to start, I was looking for solutions to persuade my X5000 to start again ;-)
At the time, a Radeon R7 graphics card was still installed and I found the following devastating information on the Internet, which explained why the installation CD could not be booted:
"The basic RadeonHD driver on the OS4.1 CD does not support models with the Oland Chip set (R7 240/250), thus you cannot boot from the CD."
I therefore created a boot medium using a card reader and CF card. I have documented how I proceeded step by step in a small illustrated tutorial.
A little later I upgraded my computer with a Radeon RX580 graphics card. Because of this I collected all the necessary information on how to create a USB installation stick for AmigaOne X5000/20 with RX graphics card. This graphics card requires separate drivers which are not included on the AmigaOs4.1 install CD. I have also summarised this procedure in an illustrated guide in the hope of being able to give some users a little help. (dr)
CLI command: sysvars V0.13
The sysvars command creates environment variables with system information in order to make it dependent on these, for example, in the startup sequence, which patches are included. So far there is information on the CPU and FPU, the chipset, the vertical frame rate (PAL/NTSC), Kickstart version and revision, version and revision of bsdsocket.library as well as whether the emulator UAE is used - and if so, in which version.
Version 0.13 provides the following changes:
Added $VampireType, $VampireCoreRev and VampireClockMult
Demis Hassabis: Nobel prize winner with an Amiga background (Update)
Demis Hassabis was recently honoured with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his outstanding contributions in the field of artificial intelligence. In particular, the development of AlphaGo, which was the first program to beat a professional Go player, and AlphaFold, which enabled revolutionary breakthroughs in protein folding, earned him the Nobel Prize. These achievements mark significant advances in AI research and biomedicine.
Interestingly, Hassabis began his career as a game developer: As teenager he was working for Bullfrog on the AI of the original Amiga game "Populous II". As project manager and lead programmer of "Theme Park", that, among other systems, was also released for the Amiga, and as a key contributor to "Black & White" (not released for the Amiga), he made a creative impact on the gaming world at an early age. The design principles Hassabis learned during this time – balancing complexity and usability, creating immersive worlds – later influenced his approach to developing AI systems. The ability to model and make accessible complex systems, which he honed as a game designer, fed directly into his scientific work. This interdisciplinary connection between game mechanics and AI research shaped his visionary approach to technological challenges.
In addition to Theme Park and Black & White, Hassabis was also involved in games like Republic: The Revolution. His experience in game development helped him to bridge the gap between entertainment and science by finding creative solutions to real scientific problems.
Update: (06:30, 17.10.24, snx)
Addition of Populous II to the news-item, based on an interview from 2016. (nba)
smbfs allows Amiga users to access Windows and Linux SMB shares, enabling network drives to be used like local drives. This makes it easier to integrate Amiga systems into modern networks and facilitates file sharing between different platforms.
"This release rolls back the changes contributed by Tygre in version 2.23, which implemented a workaround for dealing with directory and file names which made use of Unicode codepoints that could not be represented on the Amiga using the ISO 8859-1 character set. Tagged as amiga-smbfs 2.23, it was intended as a test in preparation for integrating Tygre's changes." Olaf Barthel continues on the smfbs-page on GitHub: "Sadly, the time to polish this feature never arrived and in the mean time there was no robust amiga-smbfs version to use instead. The amiga-smbfs 2.22 release intends to correct this, for the time being."
The file system in the new version for AmigaOS 3.x (68k) and AmigaOS 4.x (PPC) can be downloaded for free from the GitHub page under the title link. (nba)
Video: How the diskspare.device stores 984KB on a DD disc
Robert Smith is currently working on an update of DiskFlashback (amiga-news.de reported) and is currently working on support for the diskspare.device (Aminet link), which is a supplement or replacement for the trackdisk.device, which can be used to format discs with 960 KB or 984 KB or, if an HD drive is available, with 1920 KB or 1968 KB. In his latest video, Smith shares his findings and results on how it works. (dr)
Video series: The Amiga 1000 as a Workstation
In a nine-part journey through time, Thomas Cherryhomes attempts to categorise the Amiga 1000, which was officially launched in USA in 1985, in terms of its practical suitability as a workstation and to compare it with similar products.
At that time the Amiga 1000 was running AmigaOS 1.1, a 256KB expansion and two disk drives. Since, as the author writes, workstations were mainly used for scientific and technical tasks, with the expectation of developing customised software for a specific task, the series ultimately focused on this. The parts published so far:
WHDLoad: New installers until 12.10.2024
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 12.10.2024:
2024-10-12 improved: Wiz'n'Liz (Psygnosis) access fault fixed, 2nd button supported, trainers added, fast memory used (Info)
2024-10-09 improved: Superfrog (Team 17) adapted to WHDLoad 19, now uses internal joypad read routine (Info)
2024-10-08 improved: Trolls (Flair Software) another version supported, trainer bug fixed, manual included (Info)
2024-10-07 updated: Trolls (Flair Software) patch rewritten, audio/graphics/crash bugs fixed, 68000 support, more trainers, another version supported, all versions share features (Info)
GoVD: Virtual desktops for the Workbench
Krzysztof Donat's program GoVD makes it possible to use the Workbench on up to eight virtual screens under AmigaOS 3.2 (and possibly also 3.1.4, but he has not tested this). You can specify which Workbench windows and programs should use which of the screens.
The program is shareware, the fee is freely selectable. Developers who have placed programs on Aminet can register the program free of charge. (snx)
DIY: Two internal floppy disk drives in the Amiga 500
Rod Thomas' AmigaDualFloppyInterface allows the use of two internal floppy disk drives in the Amiga 500 (tested only with version 6A of the motherboard). In practice, one of them is a Gotek drive.
His project allows the use of two internal floppy drives without any additions to the external drive connector and without irreversible modifications to the Amiga, with the option of selecting which of the two drives can be booted from; the second drive can still be used. (snx)
Platform game: Tiny Pixel Adventure
Tiny Pixel Adventure is a classic platformer. Development has not yet been completed, but it is already playable. No information is given on the system requirements. (snx)
Managing ADF files: Rust library "adflib" V0.1.4
In March 2023, we reported on Volker Schwaberow's project to convert ADFlib, written primarily in C by Laurent Clevy, into the Rust programming language. At that time, it could be used to read and write ADFs, read and write tracks and sectors in a byte array.
He has now recently released version 0.1.4 and thus also made a disc bitmap implementation available.
He kindly explains to us: "adflib V0.1.4 offers some interesting functions for working with ADF disc images (Amiga Disk File). It allows you to read, write and manipulate ADF files directly from Rust code. The main functions include:
Extracting file information and directory structures
Extracting individual files from ADF images
Displaying and modifying disc and bitmap information
Formatting ADF images (OFS and FFS are supported)
Defragmenting ADF images
The Rust library includes a command line tool. It allows you to use many of the library functions directly from the shell without having to write your own Rust code. For example, you can quickly list the contents of an ADF image or extract individual files.
A special feature is the existing hunk implementation. Hunks are a special file format for executable Amiga programmes. The integration into adflib potentially makes it easier to work with Amiga executables within ADF images. I also plan to integrate this into the command line interface so that you can directly display information about Amiga executables from it.
All in all, adflib V0.1.4 is a first solid version for developers who want to work with Amiga disc images. The library offers basic functions that should be sufficient for many applications. At the same time, it is still manageable and easy to understand.
I would also like to emphasise that the library is designed to work not only with physical ADF files, but also with ADF data embedded in ZIP archives. DMS support is also planned. Tests are also included and we have modularity in the library.
For retro computing enthusiasts or developers of Amiga emulators, adflib could be a useful addition to the toolbox. The Rust implementation promises robustness and good performance. More importantly, the build environment is available on almost any system and the project can be easily compiled and installed. The library is also available in the Crates.io library repository, which allows installation via 'cargo install adflib'. This is an easy way to obtain the command line tool and the library.
Of course, I'm happy if anyone wants to participate in the project. Contact is easily possible via Github." (dr)
APEO - AMOS Professional Executable Optimizer
Simone 'saimo' Bevilacqua's APEO, which he originally developed for his game "Ring around the World", patches the executable files generated by the AMOS Professional Compiler 2.0 to make them faster. The technical details are included in the manual. (snx)
Installing floppy disks on hard disk: JST 7.4
JST can be used to install disk-based games on hard disk using WHDLoad slaves. After a long break - our last news-item dates back to 2002 - the further development of this program, which was first released in 1996, has been resumed in 2017. Today's focus is on WHDLoad compatibility, non-upgraded Amigas (or weak emulations) and those without a keyboard, i.e. a substitution by the CD³² control pad.
This year's update 7.4, released three days ago, supports the ReadJoyPort API of WHDLoad 19 (to some extent) and fixes a potential memory cleanup bug when using the Kickstart ROM 1.3. (snx)
Interview: Matthew Leaman (Amiga Kit, A-EON) about the A600GS
About a year ago, the first photos of the ARM-based "Games System and Classic 68K compatible computer" A600GS were shown at AmiWest 2023. Since August 2024, the console is officially available (amiga-news.de reported) and we regularly report on updates and new games or software that is provided for the A600GS. Time to talk to Matthew Leaman, Managing Director of A-EON and Amiga Kit, about this project and possible effects on AmigaOS 4 software such as the Enhancer Software.
Amiga-News (AN):Matthew, we've been reporting a lot lately about the latest project from you and Amiga Kit: the A600GS. How satisfied are you with the sales launch?
Matthew Leaman (ML): Sales have had a encouraging start. We hope to recuperate our two years of development costs as we sell more units. We are continuing to develop new software for the A600GS every few weeks so we are hoping this will encourage more sales.
AN: Perhaps you should introduce our readers to the computer a little more. GS stands for Game Station. So is it primarily intended for gamers? What can a buyer expect?
AN: Reading the forums, there seems to be some confusion about what the system is based on: many think it's AmigaOS 3 or WinUAE, but it's actually AROS, right? Why did you choose it?
ML: For the last 6 years we have been working on projects called System Release V46 and System Release V54. They share the same code base, V46 is compiled for 68K and V54 is compiled for PPC. System Release V54 components have been released as part of the Enhancer Software for PPC machines such as the X1000, X5000 and A1222 Plus.
System Release V46 is installed on the A600GS and has a high degree of OS3 compatiblity. It features a new DOS command set written from scratch, a brand new datatype library, picture datatype and AK-Datatypes added. Quite a few system classes are added to enhance the programs. Our developers have also recreated a few System, Utilities and Prefs tools from the ground upwards. On top of SystemV46 sits AmiBench desktop running in 32bit 1080P screen resolution with it's AB-Dock, Clock and Calendar. Your readers can find out more by visiting the Wiki.
As you can expect to develop all of this software has taken many years. To make it a completely bootable system we used AROS 68K components to supplement the original software we have made.
AN: Now I'm not an AROS expert, but when I want to test games via the Amiga emulator vAmigaWeb and then use the AROS ROMs, many of them don't run. Did you have to test all the games and then adapt them?
ML: The A600GS user is free to install any ROMs they have legal licence to in the ROM section. You can achieve the maximum compatibility by doing this. Remember how games did not run on your Amiga 500 and you had to use a Kickstart ROM switcher to play the older games? This is the same principle but instead using software.
The A600GS also allows users to alter the individual game settings for Chip, Fast and Slow Memory. Some old games did not like memory expansions. I remember in my Amiga 500 having a trapdoor expansion with a switch to disable it. A600GS users can do this easily in the software.
AN: We recently reported not only that there is a new Final Writer version for AROS, but also that a special edition of the word processor is installed on the A600GS: did this also contribute to your decision in favour of AROS?
ML: We were very grateful to Timothy Deters for contributing Final Writer for pre-installation on our product. All of the credit goes to him and his team of developers. We have not had any hand in the development of that application. He has invested a lot of time and resources in modernising the application. It is looking great for fans of Final Writer to get a new 2024 edition. Using AROS ROMs enabled us to use his software without a lot of development work.
AN: And what about support for current printers? Is it possible to print directly from A600GS?
ML: You can print directly using Postscript printers or alternatively print to PDF.
AN: In addition to Final Writer, an updated version of OctaMED is also installed and a new version of PPaint has been announced: were these applications planned from the outset? Or did you decide during the project that the A600GS should become more than just a gaming computer after all...?
ML: From the outset we planned to bundle these A-EON software applications. It gave us an excuse to invest more development into them. The expanded user base from the A600GS will hopefully make development of OctaMED and PPaint financially sustainable.
AN: How did the idea of the new computer come about in the first place?
ML: As you know our beloved computers are getting older and sometimes they need recapping and maintenance. The cost of retro computers on auction sites such as Ebay has gone to very high levels. There is not a low cost way of introducing our community to new users. We hope that the A600GS will be the low priced computer system that shows that our community likes gaming but also being creative with applications such as OctaMED and Personal Paint. AmiBench also lets A600GS users install their own applications. We recently added the famous YAM application to AmiBench (amiga-news.de reported) so now you can send and receive your emails on the A600GS.
AN: Did you realise that there was a gap in the market or was this an idea that had been in the drawer for a while?
ML: We first pitched this idea a couple of times since 2012 to see if we could obtain ROM licences. We emailed the concept pictures and description of the project to parties who we thought could help us. Unfortunately we had no feedback. Presumably the lack of response was due to the ongoing legal problems. The original hardware idea was slightly different: we were going to put the new system in one of our Arcade Evolution Joystick cases and call it A1200GS. It would have a joystick built in and plug directly into the television. The software idea would be exactly the same as the A600GS with an integrated AmiStore App Store. Of course since 2012, ARM hardware has improved substantially so the A600GS is now a far more rounded computer system with features such as WiFi and Bluetooth. The delayed release has let us develop our own system software so we did not to partner with other third parties to launch the A600GS.
AN: Matthew, you are not only the managing director of Amiga Kit, but also of A-EON: the new Enhancer version should have been released some time ago, right? Has further development there suffered from the A600GS project? Or was it worth the wait and the Enhancer software benefits from the A600GS project? What is the status?
ML: We had a software contribution given to us for the Enhancer Software 2.3 which would have represented a key element of it. Unfortunately the contribution was withdrawn so we have had to remove it. This held the Enhancer Software 2.3 update back for a short time. There are lots of nice fixes and small updates in the current development version of ES 2.3, some of which are developed concurrently for the A600GS. We are polishing it for release in the near future.
AN: Are AmigaOS 4 and its users still on the priority list?
ML: A-EON always has it's hardware and software customers as a priority. We are not responsible for OS4 development of course, this is the domain of Hyperion Entertainment.
AN: Is the "LibreOffice" project still being pursued in principle?
ML: This is still an active project and has not been cancelled.
AN: Thank you very much, Matthew! We will continue to follow the various projects with interest. (dr)
Preview video: Platformer "Robot Jet Action 2"
Tomasz 'Carrion' Mielnik is in the process of porting his platformer "Robot Jet Action", originally released for the C64, to the Amiga as "Robot Jet Action 2" (amiga-news.de reported). In a new preview video #3 under the title link as well as the corresponding developer diary (Polish), the author explains that he has now switched from the programming language Blitz Basic 2 to the game construction kit Scorpion Engine. (dr)
Hollywood: Malibu 1.5 published Andreas Falkenhahn writes (translated): "Version 1.5 of Malibu, the Hollywood plugin that can display Scala scripts, has now been released. This version contains some bug fixes that were necessary to make the recently released iconic Scala games Beyond a Steel Sky and Adventure 2 by Quantum Code Monk work.
With Hollywood and Malibu you can now play these games comfortably on your nextgen Amiga, Windows, Mac OS, Linux etc. In addition, Malibu now also supports the Mac OS ARM64 platform. Malibu is now available for free download from the official Hollywood portal." (snx)
AVX instructions: An Amiga fan at Intel?
Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) are an instruction set extension for x86 processors introduced by Intel. Arnaud Carré's blog article at the title link is specifically about the AVX-512 instruction set published in 2013. The vpternlogd instruction it contains immediately reminded him of the Amiga's Blitter.
A frequently used minterm value for it is 0xE2, because it is suitable for masked 2D sprites: If the middle bit of three bitmaps (here: used for the mask) is set, the output value of the first bitmap is used (here: the sprite); if the middle bit is not set, the output value of the third bitmap is used (here: the background). And - coincidentally or not - in the official Intel documentation for the vpternlogd instruction, interestingly, from the 256 possible values also 0xE2 was chosen as an example. (snx)
Scene World Podcast Episode #200 - Mark Cale ("The Last Ninja")
To mark the 200th episode of the Scene World podcast, the team welcomes Mark Cale, founder of System 3 and pioneer of the video game industry. Cale worked on legendary titles such as International Karate and The Last Ninja. In the interview, he talks about his impressive career and the development of these iconic games. The interview starts at 16:15. It is a special anniversary episode that delves deep into the history of video games. (nba)
Interview: Plaion Marketing Manager on licensing games for retro consoles
The Norwegian video game culture magazine spillhistorie.no has published an interview (‘Licensing is a complicated business’) with Simon Turner, Marketing Director UK and responsible for the global marketing of the retro division. He talks about the modern replica consoles such as TheA500 Mini and TheC64 and the new The Spectrum and explains the challenges of licensing old games and the process of securing the rights to these titles. He also provides insights into the inspiration behind these consoles and possible future projects, mentioning the full-size version of the THEA500, but not discussing it in detail. (nba)
Platform game: 2tinycowboys for the Amiga 500 (update)
2tinycowboys is a new game for the Amiga 500 that is designed for two players to compete against each other on a single screen in an arcade-platformer style. Compared to the PC and Android version, the Amiga version stays closer to the original vision of the developer and includes new features such as a level selection menu and visual upgrades. There are currently five levels available.
The game was developed specifically for the Amiga 500 and, in addition to the existing features, also offers plans for future expansions. The developer uses the Scorpion engine and is working on new gameplay modes that will be created exclusively for the Amiga version. The gameplay can be seen on YouTube on the developer's channel Lord_Santa.
2tinycowboys can be downloaded from the website under the title link for a voluntary donation of 2 US dollars.
Update: (08:55, 12.10.2024, dr)
A new version 15 is now available, which offers a number of improvements under the hood as well as redesigned levels with more graphics. (nba)
"Demoscene - The Amiga Renaissance, Volume 3" now available
The new book ‘Demoscene – The Amiga Renaissance’ is the third part of a series of illustrated books about the demoscene (amiga-news.de reported). Following the first two volumes, "Demoscene - The Amiga Years" (1984-1993) and "Demoscene - The AGA Years" (1994-1996), Volume 3 now sheds light on the years 1997 to 2023 and thus the amazing development of the Amiga demoscene, which continues to thrive today despite Commodore's bankruptcy in 1994.
Although the Amiga was technologically overtaken by PCs, the demoscene remained a creative niche in which developers created complex effects in real time, graphics and soundtracks on old hardware. The book is dedicated to the challenges and unwavering enthusiasm of the Amiga community, which maintained its passion despite all obstacles. Available for 35 euros, this English-language title is a must-have for fans of the demoscene. (nba)
3D polygon models: 3D Object Converter v1.0 for AmigaOS 3.x/4.x
3D Object Converter is a new tool for 3D polygon models, also often referred to as wireframe models. The software was originally developed for MS-DOS and Windows and has now been ported to AmigaOS 3.x and 4.x in version 1.0.
The application can be used to import 3D model data from external sources, display it interactively and export it in various common 3D file formats. According to the developer, the program supports 886 file formats (list of supported formats).
The system requirements stated are an Amiga with a 68020 processor or higher, AmigaOS 3.0 or higher, MUI 3.8 or higher, and 32 MB RAM. According to the developer, A600GS, AmigaOne A1222+ and PiStorm32 Lite are compatible. With an existing internet connection, the tool can be automatically updated via a web updater.
The 3D Object Converter is offered as shareware at a price of 40 euros.
More information, features, formats and screenshots can be found on the project's website under the title link. (nba)
In the "Three Dee" category - three-dimensional demos - AttentionWhore won with New Art. Finally, there was also a winner in the "Wild" category: the music disc Tactical Transmissions by Pattern Syndicate (YouTube video). (dr)
Now Arnaud Neny has released another alternative for Windows 10/11 with rePlayer, which, as he writes, he originally started developing specifically to be able to play Amiga music formats.
Although, he continues, as listed above, there are already some alternatives, but as a passionate collector it would have started to become very annoying to keep up to date with newer songs by an artist, watch out for song duplicates and also have some missing playback functions.
So he started writing his own player, initially to play standard modules from the Amiga, using ImGui (for the interface), OpenMPT (to play Amiga modules) and libcurl (to handle the downloads from the web pages). He then added more playable formats, as well as a way to handle databases. In addition, rePlayer can also be used to play modern formats such as mp3, wav, ogg, etc. (dr)
Preview video: Halloween X
Sami Vehmaa's latest project is to be a game for Halloween and adapted for AGA Amigas. He has now published a first preview video on Twitch. (dr)
Arcade game: GoGoGo
After Paweł 'tukinem' Tukatsch recently published a demo version of his game "Ami Robbo 2", which is currently in development (amiga-news.de reported), the next release is already following: in "GoGoGo" (YouTube video) you drive in a car scrolling sideways and have to duck from ghosts or jump over obstacles and collect energy and points. Over the course of the second game, the car drives faster and faster. The game starts in black and white, but can be coloured by pressing the C, O and L buttons simultaneously:
The game runs on any Amiga and is available free of charge. (dr)
WHDLoad: New installers until 05.10.2024
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 05.10.2024:
2024-09-29 improved: Drip (Art Skiles) speed fixed for fast machines (Info, Image)
2024-09-29 improved: Clown'o'mania (Starbyte) problem with highscore loading ("previous call to resload_GetFileSize has been interrupted") on some machines fixed (Info)
AmigaRemix: Further files added
AmigaRemix collects remixes of well-known soundtracks of Amiga games. Since our last news-item, the following mp3 files have been added:
Emulator: FS-UAE fork started
GitHub user 'jacereda' has started a fork of the Amiga emulator FS-UAE. At the title link, a cleanup is currently taking place; in addition to the dependencies and the goal of a reproducible build environment, especially the JIT needs some work, since it is no longer working after the merge. Help with debugging is welcome.
FS-UAE itself has not been updated since 2022, the last source code addition was on July 29 of that year. Frode Solheim's last online activity known to us dates back to September 11 of last year. An e-mail inquiry to the author has so far remained unanswered, we will update this news-item if possible. (snx)
Workbench distribution: AmiKit packages Plug'n'Play and SuperCombo
The workbench distribution AmiKit (video) is now also available in the form of a bootable USB stick that can be used to boot a PC directly into the emulation. Included is the new AmiKit 12 SuperCombo package, which allows installation under Windows as well as Mac OS and Linux alike instead of the previous platform-specific individual licenses and also contains FlowerPot to run AmigaOS 4 on the systems mentioned.
A free older version of AmiKit (from 2017, with updates until 2019) is available at https://amikit.amiga.sk/x. There a voluntary amount including zero euros can be specified at check-out. (snx)
Black Amiga keycaps from A1200.net available in stores
The black Amiga keycaps from A1200.net are now also available at other dealers, e.g. Alinea or Amigastore; previously they were only available directly from the manufacturer. The caps are designed to fit all common Amiga models with the exception of the Amiga 1000 and are available in DE and US layouts.
The keycap sets contain a total of 108 caps, additional springs and key stabilizers. In addition to the 96 regular caps, there are special keys, for example a short space bar for the Amiga 600 or ISO and ANSI return keys. (snx)
Emu68: Imager Tool V1.0 released
The Emu68 Imager is a utility for Windows 10/11 to allow PiStorm users to easily prepare an SD card with Emu68 (amiga-news.de reported) and a basic pre-configured AmigaOS 3.1, 3.2 or 3.2.2.1 installation, and will allow you to partition the card based on sizes you can define.
It is targeted towards new users to avoid some common pitfalls with a new install, and will pre-install some standard tools and software to get you started including P96 for RTG, wifipi.device for Wifi access (along with demo versions of Roadshow and IBrowse), and DOpus.
AmigaOS 3.1, 3.2 or 3.2.2.1 in the form of ADF files and the Kickstart 3.1, 3.2 or 3.2.2 ROM file must be provided by yourself. Detailed instructions can be found on the project page under the title link. (dr)
Amiga Kit: Updates for A600GS
Updates for the A600GS have been released in the last few days. Among other things, AmiStore purchases and downloads can now be displayed directly on the A600GS and downloaded to the work partition or USB sticks (screenshot). A new internal build of YAM 2.10 has also been added (screenshot). Detailed changes:
Version 46.1.840 (03/10/2024):
SystemV46:
Add default tool of Multiview to ENVARC:SYS icons
AK-ILBM datatype replaces the AROS ILBM datatype
A600GS:
Add Purchases and Downloads panel to allow downloading of products purchased on AmiStore
Refactor update progress reporting to a global method in the application class, to allow easy reuse between classes and access by deeeply nested object methods.
Add network download progress reporting using the new framework
Add force option behind the scenes to allow skipping the checksum optimisation when updating from the advanced section.
System / Programs / AppInstalls archives: Update installer scripts to support above force option
Version 46.1.825 (24/09/2024):
Programs:
Network drawer (added)
Yam 2.10 application new build (added)
Dopus4: added Download button for retrieving files from the internet
SnoopDOS 3.11 (added)
SystemV46:
Picture Datatype 46.15 (updated)
AMISSL 5.17 (updated)
DefIcons 46.7 (updated)
Version 46.18 (updated)
CLI 46.9 (updated)
Wget 1.12 (added)
MultiView: bug fixed where it was always returning 1. Now returns 0 success and 20 failure
AB-Dock: Add YAM icon and separator
MUIMaster Library v19.71 (updated)
Zune Prefs (added)
A600GS:
Add advance section to the updates area, that allows selective updating / reinstalling of the most recent updates. The default method is preferred for more efficient update, but the extra control will allow fixing problems and reinstalling accidentally deleted component updates
Under some situations the inserted USB sticks and drives might not appear in AmiBench, now we force a refresh of the USB data before each restart of AmiBench.
Retro gaming: WHDLoad 19.0
Using WHDLoad, you can install games, scene demos and intros from cracking groups to your harddisk that were only working from floppy disks previously. Version 19.0 provides the following changes:
fix: noncached io-operations are again supported to Slave's memory,
was broken in 18.9 and gave DOS error #63
fix: AttnFlags are again correctly displayed in .whdl_register
chg: WHDLoad options are now written to .whdl_dump and .whdl_trace
chg: workaround added for the Slave Update Check via network, now
avoid local port 1024 because current ISP for cgi.whdload.net
is broken to accept HTTP requests from this port
new: if UAE is detected and MMU used by WHDLoad, the memory at
$f0f000 is added to valid memory areas to allow to trigger
the WinUAE debugger (JOTD)
new: new macro LOG in whdmacros.i to create entries in .whdl_log
(paraj)
fix: options SavePath and NoWriteCache did not correctly work for
the first action where SavePath was created (ztronzo)
new: option PreloadSmart added, preloads only files accessed in
preceding runs
chg: if ShowRegs/K is not specified and WHDLoad is started from
CLI/Shell it dumps the registers directly into the current
terminal window now
new: function resload_ReadJoyPort added, reads buttons and
directions for Joysticks/Joypads/CD32-Pads in ports 0/1 and a
4-player adapter, autodetect for CD32-Pad, see autodocs for
further info
sources/lowlevel.s has been adapted to use resload_ReadJoyPort
if slv_Version is set >= 19
a test Slave readjoyport.asm is provided which can be used to
test the function and connected devices, it will display
continously the function result for all ports
new: if a button is specified for QuitKey/K/N WHDLoad now checks
if this button is available on the controller detected on the
appropriate port
fix: checked bplcon0 bits for SnoopECS corrected (DJ Mike)
fix: made write protected vector table working on the 68040
fix: init cias interrupt mask as documented, before WHDLoad did not
init them and therefore the masks set by the operating system
kept intact, this may possible break some install which
expect a different interrupt mask (parai)
Database: BeeBase v1.1 for all Amiga systems
Steffen Gutmann's BeeBase is the successor to the programmable, relational database called MUIBase, which is also available for various other platforms (Windows, Mac OS, Linux) in addition to the Amiga systems (amiga-news.de reported).
Version 1.1 contains a corrected icon for the Amiga version and an optional MorphOS binary file using MorphOS' own sqlite.library. (dr)
Game: Update 1 for Heretic II 2024 for high-performance 68k Amigas Press release: For Heretic II 68K an update has been released that fixes a language audio issue, when having the English version installed the audio was set to German.
There is also a solution for people that experience mouse issues with certain types of mice that are being seen as game pads. This could happened with USB mice connected via an adapter.
Game: Hyper Wings 1.0
Christian Geldmann's Hyper Wings is an Asteroids-like space shooter (video). Despite the version number 1.0, he still considers the game, which has various difficulty levels and is written in assembler, to be in beta status, which is why he is grateful for feedback on bugs.
Tutorial: Installation of AmigaOS 3.2 on an SD card
At the title link Didier Malenfant describes how he has installed AmigaOS 3.2 on his Amiga 1200, which is equipped with a Terrible Fire 1260 turbo board. Target drive has been an SD card connected to the IDE port of the turbo board. (snx)
PDF manual: DOS documentation finished
As Thomas 'ThoR' Richter, one of the developers of AmigaOS 3.2, told us on request, his work on an English-language PDF manual for the dos.library in the style of the Amiga ROM Kernel Reference Manuals has been completed (amiga-news.de reported) and can be downloaded free of charge from the title link. A publication as a printed book is planned. (dr)
Print magazine: Passione Amiga, issue 21
The current issue 21 (September 2024) of the Italian magazine "Passione Amiga" again comprises 48 color pages and is available in print or digital form. The main focus of the issue is the presentation of the A600GS minicomputer.
Game reviews: OpenDune 2, CD32 Arcade Classic, Heretic II, Agent 357, AmiBrixx 22, Vanilla Conquer, Vanilla Conquer – Red Alert, Holy Warrior, Skinny Marley, Skinny Marley Waiter Dog, Borg, Ninja Carnage, Shift, Zombie Survivor and Droid Special
Hardware reviews: A600GS, LANIDE Zorro2 and Zorro3
Previews: A500 Maxi, QuasaurusX
Technology: Amiga and networks
Plus: gaming news, technology news
Passione Amiga 21 can be ordered from the publisher's webshop at the title link as a single issue or by subscription as of September 15, 2024. (nba)
Workbench clock and calendar: ScreenTime v1.6 now available
ScreenTime, which has just been released in version 1.6, is a useful commodity for all Amigas from Kickstart 2.04 onwards. It displays the current time on the Workbench or any other PubScreen. ScreenTime opens a borderless window at the top of the screen by default, which blends seamlessly into the overall picture. The font and colors are automatically adjusted to match those of the screen. This can create the visual impression that the window is part of the Workbench title bar.
If necessary, these settings, including the display format, can also be customized manually. Various configuration options are available for this via tooltypes or shell arguments.
In addition, a calendar with monthly pages is available, which can be accessed by clicking on the clock or using a keyboard shortcut.
ScreenTime requires Kickstart 2.04 or later. The package includes several languages, including German, and full source code.
The new version 1.6 includes bug fixes and improvements, as well as an option for different types of borders for the calendar, including a borderless design. (nba)
PDF magazine: REV'n'GE! 162 (Italian/English)
The PDF magazine REV'n'GE! ("Retro Emulator Vision and Game") is available in both the Italian original and an English translation (right-hand side). The current issue 162 also contains three reviews of Amiga titles: Crysis, Lethal Xcess and Office. (nba)
Scene World Podcast Episode #199 - John Romero
As part of the 199th edition of the Scene World podcast, Jörg Dröge and Arthur Heller talk to game designer John Romero (founder of id Software, among other things) about his recently published autobiography, “Doom Guy: Life in First Person”. Among other things, the American talks about his view of the retro scene (including the statement that Doom killed the Amiga), his entry into the games industry as a programmer and his experiences working for several game studios and software companies. The interview begins at 31:17 of the podcast, and the show also includes further news and stories from the retro scene. (nba)
Puzzle game: Demo version of Ami Robbo 2
Paweł 'tukinem' Tukatsch's latest project will be a contribution to AmiGameJam 2024: Ami Robbo 2 is the successor to Amirobbo by Polish game developers Bernard Krzymowski and Artur 'Szafir' Szafrański, which was released in 1992. With his permission and assistance, new graphics and levels were created for the second part. Robbo is a universal combat robot that has got into trouble and needs to be rescued from abandoned military bases with the player's help. (amiga-news.de reported).
The gameplay is based on the classic Sokoban but there are many other elements and a top-down view that Tukatsch invented. A demo version of the current status of the project has now been released (YouTube video). (dr)
Shoot'em Up: Demo version of QuasaurusX
The latest project from Amiten Games is the shoot'em up "QuasaurusX" (amiga-news.de reported), of which a new demo version has now been released: among other things, it offers new background and foreground graphics, new fonts and new end boss routines (YouTube video).
The game is currently not yet optimised, so that at least an (upgraded) Amiga 1200 is required. (dr)
AROS: Video on AROS distribution AROS One 2.6
Version 2.6 of the "AROS One" distribution for x86 computers based on the AROS binary interface ABI v0 was released around three weeks ago (amiga-news.de reported). The YouTube channel "Proteque-CBN" takes a close look at this version. (dr)
MorphOS: Tenth beta version of TinyGL
The MorphOS team developer Mark 'Bigfoot' Olsen had offered a Bounty project for improved OpenGL support and drivers for additional Radeon graphics cards under the title link, which had been successfully financed (amiga-news.de reported). Now the developer has released the tenth public beta version of his TinyGL update.
The main focus here was the implementation of support for framebuffer objects. However, in the process, many other related and unrelated parts of TinyGL have also been improved, resulting in better OpenGL compliance and more implemented features. The R600 driver is not included in this release, but will be included in a future release once the developer has updated it to the current TinyGL requirements. (dr)
Hollywood plugin: Pangomonium 2.1
Pangomonium is a plugin for Hollywood that offers a modern text and graphics engine with extensive features, including support for exotic fonts and coloured emojis. Version 2.1 is a bugfix release which fixes a bug in the SVG loader. It can now be downloaded from the title link on the official Hollywood portal. (dr)
DIY: Firmware update for "GottaGoFaZt3r"
"GottaGoFaZt3r" developed by Matt Harlum is a memory expansion with 128MB or 256MB Z3 autoconfig FastRAM for the Amiga 3000 and 4000 (amiga-news.de reported). The recent firmware update fixes the compatibility with A4091: DTACK (Data Transfer Acknowledge) was initialised too early, resulting in the wrong data being read from the GottaGoFaZt3r during DMA (Direct Memory Access). If no A4091 is used, there is no need to update to this version. (dr)
7-bit: Sum firmware update
The Sum adapters by 7-Bit enable the connection of USB keyboards to the Amiga. At the title link now a firmware update has been released. (snx)
WHDLoad: New installers until 28.09.2024
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 28.09.2024:
2024-09-28 improved: Treasure Trap (Emerald Software Ltd) alternative joystick controls added (player can be moved without using diagonal directions), copperlist problems fixed (Info)
2024-09-28 improved: Space Harrier II (Sega) second version supported, manual added (Info)
2024-09-27 updated: Space Harrier II (Sega) patch redone, crashes fixed, 68000 quit key, trainers added, speed improvements (Info)
2024-09-27 new: Tapper (Old Bob) done by JOTD (Info)
2024-09-27 improved: Hammerboy (Dinamic) 68000 quitkey support, many more CPU dependent delay loops fixed (Info)
2024-09-26 updated: Clown'o'mania (Starbyte) patch rewritten, new install script (Info)
2024-09-23 new: Air Supply (Magic Bytes) done by DJ Mike (Info)
2024-09-22 improved: Hammerboy (Dinamic) brightness bug fixed, timing fixed, unlimited lives trainer added, decruncher relocated, patch uses files instead of disk image (game must be reinstalled), source code included (Info)
Interview with Robert Koon (Amiga conversion of Dune II)
In another interview by Spillhistorie, Hans Arne Jacobsen spoke this time with Robert Koon, one of the developers involved in the Amiga conversion of Westwood's strategy classic Dune II. He is currently working on a new version, which should eliminate the limitations of the DOS original (amiga-news.de reported).
As the programmer explains among other things, he also intended to re-enter Amiga development with this undertaking - there would be several other projects that he wants to implement afterwards. (snx)
Video: The Obligatory Amiga Blitter Video
In the latest video on his website The Industrious Rabbit, John Bintz explains the Amiga's blitter in about thirteen minutes, supported as usual by his bunny drawings.
The source code used in the video, including that for converting PNG graphics to images embedded in the Amiga assembly code, can also be downloaded. (snx)
Floppy disk images on PC and Mac: Greaseweazle Tools 1.20, Firmware 1.6
Keir Fraser's "Greaseweazle" does - similar to Kryoflux - read the magnetic information on a floppy disk independently from the format used and saves as much information as possible to generate a so-called "Flux Level Image" in Supercard format (SCP), which enables reading and back-writing of copy-protected disks.
The new Greaseweazle firmware 1.6 provides the following changes:
Flux write: Whole-track writes to hard-sectored disks
Pre- and post-write delays: Specified by many drive datasheets
Required for correct interaction with offset tunnel-erase heads
Configurable "Index Mask", for debouncing noisy INDEX signals
Turn-based strategy game: New demo version of "Ecliptic"
Ecliptic is described by the author as "a mixture of turn based tactical combat and role playing" (amiga-news.de reported) being a visually reminiscent of the retro-futuristic science fiction of the 1970s and 1980s. Now a fourth demo has been released for the game as lha archive.
As the developer reports, the game now makes full use of EHB mode (in German). The chip RAM management has also been changed so that the game should no longer slow down on an A500 with 512 chip RAM.
In addition, the "combat rules" of the game have been revised: the hit points and damage caused by weapons have been simplified and are hopefully better balanced. The robots should also feel different now.
The game requires 1MB RAM, recommended is an Amiga 1200 with HD and Fast RAM. (dr)
Sprite/Icon/Map editor: Raster Master v4.3 R110 for Windows 10/11
Raster Master 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.
Numerous changes have been made since our last news item. For example, a sound generator (SFXR) has been added to Raster Master, which allows users to create simple sounds for their games. Sprites can now also be exported to the clipboard and as PNG files.
With the current version 4.3, the Sprite Animation entry has been added to the Tools menu. This allows you to create a sequence of sprites in the Sprite Editor and arrange them in the Sprite Animation sub program to see how they look. The animation can also be exported to a series of PNG files. Many sprite sheets contain animated characters that can be imported into RM using Sprite Sheet Import and previewed using Sprite Animation (YouTube video).
According to the developer, this was the last major component to be finalised. RM is now "useable program to create/import assets for simple 2D games".
(dr)
Retro Supplies: Four new hardware products
After Andrew 'LinuxJedi' Hutching presented updates for existing hardware projects at the beginning of July (amiga-news.de reported), he is now presenting four new developments:
ZonKEY is a replacement for the 6570 keyboard controller IC used in all models of Amiga 500 keyboards. It contains firmware that Hutching rewrote from scratch using the Amiga hardware manuals and reverse engineering the original chip.
DoohicKEY is a complete keyboard controller replacement board for the Amiga 500 Mitsumi keyboards, which is the most common type of keyboard for the Amiga 500. It uses the same base firmware as ZonKEY and offers additional features such as a two-colour LED (orange/green) for drive indication: orange for FDD activity and optional green for HDD activity.
It uses 100% new parts, even the LEDs are new, with specially designed 3D printed lenses that fit into the Amiga case.
Zinc is the 30pin SIMM version of the 72pin Hafnium diagnostic board which he launched earlier this year: it can be used to determine which RAM tracks on a motherboard have been damaged by a battery.
RGBtoHDMI board for the Amiga 500 enables pixel-perfect HDMI output from the Amiga 500 using a Raspberry Pi Zero (not included). This new version is low enough to keep the HDMI connector and board far away from the accelerator. (dr)
Tutorials for AmigaOS 4: Setting up an IDE, transferring software
With Kea Campus, Hans De Ruiter has started a membership programme in which software and electronics tasks are to be discussed and solved (amiga-news.de reported). As announced, he has also set up an Amiga corner on YouTube, in which instructions etc. are published at different times.
After his first article about setting up a cross-compiler for AmigaOS 4 (amiga-news.de reported), he has deepened this topic:
In the following article, he explains how to set up a code editor or integrated development environment (IDE) for cross-compiling to AmigaOS using Visual Studio Code as an example (YouTube video).
In the third part published yesterday, he shows how to copy the software created with it quickly and efficiently to an Amiga (YouTube video).
(dr)
Programming: Assembler development environment ASMotor 1.3.1
ASMotor is a portable and generic assembler engine and development system, consisting of a number of ISA specific assemblers, the librarian and the linker. The package can be used as either a cross or native development system.
Output formats include Amiga linker objects and Amiga executables. (snx)
Commodity: DrawerGenie V0.8
Originally written for the Amiga Tool Jam (amiga-news.de reported), Rob 'daedalus2097' Cranley continues to work on his commodity "DrawerGenie", which among other things adds simple toolbars to the drawer windows of the Workbench. The now released version 0.8 fixes a crash when starting with some old prefs files and removes the dependencies for the jpeg.library and zlib.library.
Experimental test: The Annotated Hacker Test
Swedish tech nerd and software developer Carl Svensson regularly covers topics related to Amiga, development and retro culture in his blog at datagubbe.se. In his new post "The Annotated Hacker Test" under the title link, users can expect an amusing, nostalgic test that puts technical knowledge to the proof in a retro-inspired environment. The goal is to apply classic hacking techniques and answer questions about computers from the 80s and 90s. The test combines fun interactive puzzles related to the hacking scene and retro computing and is aimed at technology enthusiasts who want to test their knowledge in a fun way. (nba)
Do-it-yourself: Amiga arcade game machine by the Belgian Amiga Club
The Belgian Amiga Club presents an arcade project on its website that recreates a real arcade experience on the Amiga platform. The project makes it possible to play classic Amiga games in a simulated arcade machine based on an iMac, and offers detailed information on setting up this home arcade system based on the Amiga. The aim is to preserve the charm and authenticity of the Amiga in a realistic arcade machine. All the components and STL files for DIY construction can be found on the website. (nba)
WHDLoad: New installers until 21.09.2024
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 21.09.2024:
Buffered CF2IDE adapter for Amiga 600/1200
According to the Canadian supplier Retro Rewind they are selling the first buffered Compact Flash IDE adapter for the Amiga 600 and 1200. Buffering a total of 24 signals makes the system more stable. In addition, a converter prevents the hard disk LED from lighting up permanently on some CF cards.
Furthermore the connection of another drive via the 44-pin connector CN3 is supported, whereby the respective card is set as master or slave via the jumper J1. (snx)
Hollywood: SID plugin 2.0 Press release: Airsoft Softwair, the hardest working men in code business, are back on your screen with version 2.0 of the SID plugin for Hollywood. Once this plugin is installed, Hollywood will "automagically" be able to play SID files just like any other audio file. Version 2.0 is a major update which now uses completely different SID core.
Version 1.x of the SID plugin was based on the rather outdated TinySID core whereas version 2 now uses the state-of-the-art cRSID replayer written by Hermit (Mihaly Horvath) which features a much more accurate SID emulation that also supports the RSID format (Real SID). Additionally, version 2.0 comes with several other new features like the possibility to set the SID model to emulate (6581 or 8580) and several convenience enhancements for users of Hollywood 10.
A demo applet which demonstrates the playback of a SID file is included. This applet can also be run using the freely available Hollywood Player so people who don't own the full version of Hollywood can check it out as well.
You can download the plugin from the official Hollywood portal. Thanks to Hollywood's cross-platform plugin system versions for AmigaOS3, AmigaOS4, MorphOS, WarpOS, AROS (x86), Linux (arm, ppc, x86, x64), macOS (arm64, ppc, x86, x64), Windows (x86, x64), Android and iOS are provided.
Game launcher: X-bEnCh 1.3 (public beta version)
Jim Neray's X-bEnCH is a graphical user interface with up to 640 colors (AGA; 128 on OCS/ECS computers) that can replace the Workbench for starting WHDLoad games and other applications and requires few resources; an integrated command line and the Xpl0rEr file manager are also available.
The hard disk can be searched automatically for WHDLoad games and other executable programs. For the latter, manual start scripts can be created with the internal scripting system "X-bEnCh Scripts". X-bEnCh runs on all Amigas.
Changes in version 1.3 (beta):
X-bEnCh.guide
X-bEnCh.guide updated and now fully up to date
X-bEnCh.guide updated with the Fix Fonts feature added with this release
Xinit 4.9
If "Fix Fonts" switch is activated, now kick the system custom fonts to preserve X-bEnCh normal design
"Fix Fonts" was breaking the Workbench screen fade to black. Fixed
User Workbench custom fonts were breaking fonts of X-bEnCh Xsetup panels buttons and XCli font. Fixed
"C:Wait" command check removed (Useless since a long time)
Spreaded/Shared over networks registration keys check added. These keys are no more actives from now and for the incomings releases
Registration keys are now availables from micromiga.com
If no reg key was found, after the countdown you were able to leave the "please reg screen" with the left mouse button or the game controler fire button. Now you can also use your keyboard with the "Enter", "Return" or "Space" key
Xmenu 3.9
Release version updated for the "Debug/log" option
Text updated
Xlaunch 5.3
Free Chip/Fast available displayed was highter than reality. Fixed
If listings was edited by hand, too much entry may been displayed. Now fixed. No more simply pickup entry from file until the end of file is reached - No only pickup what is supposed to be pickedup
Since the implementation of the new realtype tooltypes scan loop, there was a bug; If there was no .info file for the .slave of a game or if something goes wrong with the content of the .info file, the launcher was ending on a black screen. This is now fixed. If an issue is detected with the info file of a game, the slave is now launched with the default whdload parameters (as set up in Xsetup)
Games table may don't have enough rooms in some cases. Fixed
If you added more entries to the Favs list than the number of pages initialized for the Favs list at the launcher init, they weren't displayed until you leave and then restart the launcher. Fixed
Manual type listings fix : CD (Change directory) was missed. Can cause some troubles with some tools/games/demos/... Fixed
Amount of memory displayed was wrong. Fixed
XplorEr 2.4
Fixed the unit displayed for the free ram available (from KB to Kb)
Xcli 2.3
Sysinfo cmd updated to 0.7
Sysinfo: AGA chipset was in some case detected as ECS 2MB. Fixed
Sysinfo cmd updated to 0.6
Sysinfo: CPU typo fix from "Mc680x0" to "MC 680x0"
Sysinfo: ROM 47 displayed as "3.2" is now displayed as "3.2/3.2.x"
Sysinfo: RAM display format unified on 9 characters + "kB"
Xsetup 5.4
"Fix Fonts" button added to "My Sytem" setup panel. When activated this option will force the X-bEnCh font over the system custom fonts. Usefull only if you have changed the default system font
Free Chip/Fast available displayed was highter than reality. Fixed
When updating a whdload list, the infofiles scan was locked on 0% even if the scan goes well and finish without any issue. Now fixed
In some cases freemem, and other things were blinking a bit when being displayed/updated on screen. Fixed
Font used in the interface is now MicroKnight instead of topaz
Time/clock was'nt saved correctly when they were set from X-bEnCh setup pannel (My System/Set Clock). Now fixed
Pushing "Esc" key when scanning your hard drive now instantly stop the scan
Added a message on screen when user break the scan with ESC key
Finaly fixed the wrong path scan issue in the scan engine
Missed whdload games by the scan engine is now fixed
Fast/Full scan mode bugs fix
Now in Fast mode, if no slaves are found, the displayed message at the end of the scan suggest you to try the Full scan mode
The message "Please enter a path to scan before trying to update!" was displayed when trying to update a manual list type. Fixed
If Manual type list was selected the list type was'nt saved. Fixed
Now when "Updating" a manual list, check if the listing really exist and count the number of entry; then save it to the launcher prefs
When updating a manual list, check if the dir exist and if not, stop the update and display an error message with the problematic entry number
Amount of memory displayed was wrong. Fixed
Code cleaned (Nearly 20% of old useless code deleted)
If something goes wrong with the scan path, the unvalid scan path is now displayed. (Essentially for debug purpose at the moment.)
Xexit 1.7
If "Fix Fonts" switch is activated, restore the system custom fonts before leaving X-bEnCh
User Workbench custom fonts fixed when leaving Xb to Workbench
Event: Amiga Belfast 2024
On November 2nd Amiga users of Northern Ireland meet in Belfast. Who would like to bring his own computer along is asked to mention this on registration. Further information on the event is not available. (snx)
SCALA-MM game conversion: Beyond a Steel Sky
After Adventure 2 Remake, 'Quantum Code Monk', formerly 'grindercowboy', has released a second game project for Scala MM: Beyond a Steel Sky is a conversion of the 2020 sequel of the same name to Beneath a Steel Sky as a point'n'click adventure game. This is also his contribution to AmiGameJam 2024. The first part of the game is available for download, the second (and final) part will follow soon. Scala or the Scala-MM-Player and 4 MB RAM are required. (dr)
