06.Feb.2024
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Video tutorial: Writing a simple IFF ILBM reader for DOS
John Bintz has been a software developer for over 20 years and runs the website The Industrious Rabbit. Originally to share his experiences as a developer with others, but more recently to explore some of the more unusual areas of technology and find ways to explain them in an interesting and entertaining way. In a new post he now explains how to write a simple DOS program on a Windows PC to read the IFF-ILBM image format commonly used on the Amiga. (dr)
[News message: 06. Feb. 2024, 22:10] [Comments: 0]
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06.Feb.2024
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Video tutorial: Screen commands in AMOS
In another part of his series of short tutorials on AMOS Pro, retro and Amiga fan 'Yawning Angel' looks at the commands available for using screens in AMOS programs. As always, the source file for the programme shown in the video can be downloaded free of charge from his website. (dr)
[News message: 06. Feb. 2024, 22:01] [Comments: 0]
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06.Feb.2024
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Aracde classic: "Donkey Kong"
Jean-Francois 'jotd' Fabre has ported another game to the Amiga: this time Nintendo's aracade classic Donkey Kong. The game is running on a Amiga 500 (YouTube video). (dr)
[News message: 06. Feb. 2024, 06:24] [Comments: 0]
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06.Feb.2024
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SCSI-SD adapter: ZuluSCSI firmware v2024.02.06
ZuluSCSI is a new generation of file-based SCSI hard disk and CD-ROM drive emulators (review of an user). ZuluSCSI emulates a SCSI-I or SCSI-2 hard disk using an SD memory card (amiga-news.de reported). Changes of version 2024.02.06:
- RP2040: Fix watchdog timeout
- Fix setting type with default SCSI strings
- Fix IMGx=filename ignoring device type
- Add X68000 quirk for odd 0x00 CBD opcode
- Siemens EWSD patch for ZuluSCSI
(dr)
[News message: 06. Feb. 2024, 06:13] [Comments: 0]
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05.Feb.2024
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Controlling Sonos speakers: SonosController 1.3 (AmigaOS 3/4, MorphOS)
Known for his Workbench simulation TAWS, Michael Rupp has also been working on his Amiga programme for controlling Sonos loudspeakers since 2021: SonosController (amiga-news.de reported). He has now released version 1.3 of his programme, written in the Hollywood 10 programming language, which is available for MorphOS and AmigaOS 3 and 4.
As the author tells us, he had taken our news item of Hollywood 10 support for Visual Studio Code as an opportunity to continue working on SonosController. Changes:
- NEW: option to show notifications when a new track is played in any zones or, as another option, only in the currently selected zone.
This uses MagicBeacon on MorphOS, Ringhio on AmigaOS 4.x and Ranchero on AmigaOS 3.x (if available).
- NEW (AmigaOS 4.x): show an icon in AmiDock including a context menu featuring the following commands:
- Play/Pause
- Previous track
- Next track
- NEW: powerful ARexx interface, see AmigaGuide for further details
- NEW: detect if a device needs updating and stating this in its label.
- NEW: menuitem "Settings/Update music library now" to invoke a refresh of the Sonos music library.
- NEW: menuitem "Project/About my Sonos system" showing information about all zones found in the connected Sonos system.
- NEW: upgraded to Hollywood 10, hURL 2.0 and XML 2.0
- FIXED: possible crash if album art could not be loaded
Since AmiSSL is now available for AROS, the hURL plugin is now also available for AROS. Michael Rupp is therefore now looking for an AROS user who uses Sonos and could test the SonosController for him. If you are interested, simply send an e-mail to the author. (dr)
[News message: 05. Feb. 2024, 21:31] [Comments: 0]
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05.Feb.2024
individual Computers Jens Schönfeld GmbH (ANF)
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RTG driver: P96 V3.4.1 released
Press release: The new version V3.4.1 contains new drivers for the GBA-PII++ and VA2000 cards, and it makes installation on UAE a lot easier. Further, the driver for the A2410 "Tiga" card has been updated and overlays for the Picasso IV card have been fixed. Support for the Altais card for Draco machines has been improved, and P96Prefs also got an update.
You can get all information on this update in the Wiki article about P96.
Unfortunately, this current shop system has been giving us a hard time lately, with lots of problems during the order process, and even more problems when we tried to update the downloadable files. In order not to delay the release of this version any longer, we kindly ask all customers to be patient, as we're rolling out this version via eMail. (dr)
[News message: 05. Feb. 2024, 20:15] [Comments: 0]
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05.Feb.2024
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USB-C power supply: PowerShark available (update)
The "PowerShark" a USB-C-based power supply for the keyboard case Amigas 500, 600 and 1200 (amiga-news.de reported). It is now available for about 70 Euro under the title link. Furthermore the developers have published a FAQ page as well as a list of tested power supplies.
Update: (06.02.2024, 22:18, dr)
The "PowerShark" is currently sold out. As the developers told us on request, a next batch is definitely planned. At the moment, however, the focus is on processing the orders. This could take some time due to the large quantity. (dr)
[News message: 05. Feb. 2024, 20:11] [Comments: 0]
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04.Feb.2024
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Game Construction Kit: RedPill 0.9.34
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. Changes of version 0.9.34:
- Added condition triggers Cam PosX and Cam Pos Y to check the camera position.
- Internal function that finds out color closest to other has been changed.
- OCS copper gradients may be faster now.
- Added condition trigger Contains Tile Tag.
- Copper values in screen setup are now really only the default ones.
- Anim Frame trigger renamed to just frame, as it is not taking into account
the animation.
- If you are using the condition Frame is, in the trigger screen this frame
will be displayed.
- Fixes in automatic remap when loading a spritesheet image.
- Further optimizations in trigger processing.
- Small verticall scrolling improvement.
- Optimizations when coming back from playing the game to the editor.
- Fix for sometimes wrong palette being displayed when going from spritesheet
screen to main screen.
- Fix in audio object default value when upgrading a project from an old
version.
- Fix in Overrite Color/gradient triggers not updating the palette.
- Fix in audio listener objects introduced in the previous version.
- Fix in Tile On Map/Screen/Border triggers, under certain conditions could
execute unwanted triggers.
- Fix in Camera follow code.
- Fix when attaching non static objects to static objects.
- Fix for level deletion and others when coming back from playing the game to
the editor.
- Some unused code has been removed.
(dr)
[News message: 04. Feb. 2024, 07:57] [Comments: 0]
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04.Feb.2024
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Aminet uploads until 03.02.2024
The following files have been added until 03.02.2024 to Aminet:
strangeMOS.lha comm/www 779K MOS strange' is strange
json.hollywood.lha dev/hwood 6K JSON en- and decoder for Holl...
MCE.lha game/edit 4.0M 68k Multi-game Character Editor
MCE-OS4.lha game/edit 4.6M OS4 Multi-game Character Editor
Schwurblomat.lha game/gag 117K 68k Bullshit Bingo Buzzw. Generat...
EternalLove.lha mods/8voic 168K 16bit 8ch Guitar Piano Ballad...
morsconv.lha text/misc 10K 68k Modular Morse code generator
AmiSSL-5.14-OS3.lha util/libs 3.7M 68k OpenSSL as an Amiga shared li...
AmiSSL-5.14-OS4.lha util/libs 3.3M OS4 OpenSSL as an Amiga shared li...
AmiSSL-5.14-SDK.lha util/libs 2.3M AOS OpenSSL as an Amiga shared li...
A1060Diag.lha util/misc 2K 68k A1060 Sidecar Diagnostic Tools
AmigaGPT.lha util/misc 881K AOS App for chatting to ChatGPT
ifflistmaker.lha util/misc 6K 68k Merges IFF files into IFF LIS...
ReportPlus.lha util/misc 663K 68k Multipurpose utility
ReportPlusMOS.lha util/misc 768K MOS Multipurpose utility
ReportPlus-OS4.lha util/misc 835K OS4 Multipurpose utility
rexxpatcherror_de.lha util/rexx 1K German locale for Alfie's Rex...
(snx)
[News message: 04. Feb. 2024, 07:36] [Comments: 0]
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04.Feb.2024
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OS4Depot uploads until 03.02.2024
The following files have been added until 03.02.2024 to OS4Depot:
amissl-sdk.lha dev/mis 2Mb 4.0 SDK for AmiSSL
json.hollywood.lha dev/mis 6kb 4.0 JSON en- and decoder for Hollywo...
mce.lha gam/uti 5Mb 4.0 Multi-game Character Editor
aos-wallpaper1.lha gra/mis 442Mb 4.1 AmigaOS 4.1 Style Wallpaper ... ...
imp-newicons.lha gra/mis 308kb 4.0 imp3 new png icons
amissl.lha lib/mis 3Mb 4.0 OpenSSL as an Amiga shared library
amigagpt.lha net/cha 881kb 4.0 App for chatting to ChatGPT
(snx)
[News message: 04. Feb. 2024, 07:36] [Comments: 0]
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04.Feb.2024
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MorphOS-Storage uploads until 03.02.2024
The following files have been added until 03.02.2024 to MorphOS-Storage:
SDL_2.30.0_Libraries.lha Dependencies/Library/SDL All Libraries SDL : SDL...
MCE_14.50.lha Games/Editor Multi-game Character Ed...
ReportPlus_8.46.lha Misc A Multipurpose utility ...
Strange_0.23.lha Network/Web A small tool to view ht...
(snx)
[News message: 04. Feb. 2024, 07:36] [Comments: 0]
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04.Feb.2024
Amiga Future (Webseite)
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AmigaRemix: Further file added
AmigaRemix collects remixes of well-known soundtracks of Amiga games. Since our last news-item, the following mp3 file has been added:
- Emax/TRSI - Def.loration (Nightwolf 2024 remix)
(snx)
[News message: 04. Feb. 2024, 07:36] [Comments: 0]
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04.Feb.2024
AROSWorld (Forum)
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AROS distribution: TinyAros 3.1b
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. (snx)
[News message: 04. Feb. 2024, 07:36] [Comments: 1 - 17. Feb. 2024, 13:58]
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04.Feb.2024
Andreas Magerl (ANF)
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Amiga Future: New full versions online
Further full versions of Amiga software have been added to Amiga Future's download area: Font Machine and XDVE CD.
The following games, which are also marked as being new, are just re-uploads: A320 Airbus, Alien Drug Lords, Alien Fish Finger, Anstoss, Antz, Apano Sin, Aquanaut, Archon, Archon 2, Atoms and Aunt Artic Adventure. (snx)
[News message: 04. Feb. 2024, 07:35] [Comments: 0]
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03.Feb.2024
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Diving game: "The Deep" V1.01 for Apollo Vampire V4 and RTG Amigas
This version 1.01 of Sami Vehmaa's diving game "The Deep" (YouTube video) not only offers a slight speed improvement for the Vampire V4, but also support for RTG Amigas for the first time. (dr)
[News message: 03. Feb. 2024, 22:20] [Comments: 0]
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03.Feb.2024
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AmigaOS 4.1: SDL 2.30.0 Release Candidate 1
Juha 'capehill' Niemimaki has published the first release candidate of version 2.30.0 of the multimedia library SDL for AmigaOS 4.1. The library is intended to make it easier for programmers to develop portable applications and is used by numerous open source games. SDL requires AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition and optionally OpenGL ES 2.0. Changes:
- Improve UTF-8 text input support.
- Update install script.
- Reset mouse pointer when it leaves its window.
- Improve audio recording.
Download: SDL2.lha (6,9 MB) (dr)
[News message: 03. Feb. 2024, 19:53] [Comments: 0]
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03.Feb.2024
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m68k assembly: "Amiga Assembly" plugin V1.8.7 for Visual Studio Code
"Amiga Assembly" is a plugin for Visual Studio Code to support assembly language for the Amiga Motorola 68000 machines and emulators. Preversion 1.8.7 fixes a compatibility issue with Vscode 1.86.0. On GitHub, a detailed documentation is available. (dr)
[News message: 03. Feb. 2024, 14:48] [Comments: 0]
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03.Feb.2024
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Chiptune tracker: Furnace V0.6.1 for Windows, Mac and Linux
'tildearrows' Furnace is a tool that can be used to create sound chip music ("chiptune"), mostly from the 8/16-bit era (amiga-news.de reported). It supports a wide range of functions and sound chips, from NES, SNES and Genesis to ES5506, VIC-20 and the Amiga. Version 0.6.1 released today contains many bug fixes and improvements for the chiptune tracker, including MIDI corrections, three new OPL emulation cores, two new chips and much more. The songs can be exported as audio files (.wav), VGM files and ZSM files (for Commander X16). An manual is available. (dr)
[News message: 03. Feb. 2024, 14:34] [Comments: 0]
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02.Feb.2024
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Blog: Limitations of the HAM mode explained on the Hamulet engine
Recently, the developer of the game Hamulet - a demo version was included in issue 10 of the English-language Amiga magazine "WhatIFF?" - published a YouTube video that is intended to demonstrate as a proof-of-concept whether a puzzle or platform game could be feasible using the Hamulet engine in HAM and has the following features:
- Large 8-way scrollable HAM screen with no visible fringing
- Massive animated bobs (Blitter objects), the largest one being 144x170 pixels
- Copper list to create a parallax effect of a "transparent" HAM screen, where the background sky gradient is visible and scrolls at a lower speed
- Multiple animated sprites
- Music by Virgill
- Runs on Amiga 500, requires 1MB of chip
Appunti Digitali is an Italian website that deals with technology issues that the operators know or can judge from their own (professional) experience. The article now published under the title link deals with this video and the limitations of HAM. (dr)
[News message: 02. Feb. 2024, 09:35] [Comments: 0]
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02.Feb.2024
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Blog: Restoration of an Amiga 2500UX (AMIX)
In the past we have reported several times (1, 2, 3) about Commodore's Unix derivative AMIX. The two "official" Amigas on which Amix could run were the Amiga models 2500UX and 3000UX. Bo Zimmerman has bought an Amiga 2500UX on eBay, since it had been on his wish list for a long time. In his blog post under the title link, he now reports on his impressions and the restoration. (dr)
[News message: 02. Feb. 2024, 09:10] [Comments: 0]
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02.Feb.2024
Puni (ANF)
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AmigaOS 4: Blog summary for January 2024
For the past month 'Puni' has again published a news summary for AmigaOS 4 at the title link. (snx)
[News message: 02. Feb. 2024, 07:31] [Comments: 0]
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01.Feb.2024
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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
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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)
[News message: 01. Feb. 2024, 18:52] [Comments: 0]
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01.Feb.2024
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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
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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)
[News message: 31. Jan. 2024, 22:06] [Comments: 0]
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31.Jan.2024
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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)
[News message: 31. Jan. 2024, 21:57] [Comments: 0]
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31.Jan.2024
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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)
[News message: 31. Jan. 2024, 21:43] [Comments: 0]
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