AmigaOS 4 News – June 2024
Hello,
Thank you for visiting the Old School Game Blog and for being interested in checking out this month’s AmigaOS 4 Monthly Roundup.
Both May and June proved to be a bit hectic for me, so I have not been as active as I normally am. Still, a new month requires a new report, so that we can continue being updated about what is happening in the world of AmigaOS 4. 🙂
One thing I have noticed from previous months is that the A1222+ is getting extra attention and care. We can see that HunoPPC is on the ball here. He is making software compatible with the A1222+. As you will see further in the report, WipeOut is now getting some love from him. Maijestro, an AmigaOS 4 user, has also started to publish videos about what the A1222+ can do, such as 4K video and gaming. You will also see a bit of that later.
Thanks again for visiting my blog. I hope you’ll enjoy the news! 🙂
Cheers!
Software News
If you own an A1222+ and are looking for wallpapers to match your system, chances are you’ll find what you want on Aminet or OS4Depot. As for the latter, Francis G. Loch has uploaded an abstract backdrop in various resolutions from 640×480 to 3840×2160. The download is available here. If that is not enough, McFly has created a set of 10 wallpapers for the A1222 in 1920×1080.
Speaking of the A1222+, HunoPPC is working on a rewrite of the classic racing game WipeOut to suit SPE! This is good news for all A1222+ owners out there. A video showing effects, enhanced sound core, and speed-up can be seen below:
Developers using Hollywood might be interested in a new plugin that has been released. It is a plugin for LaTeX. This allows you to use the LaTeX markup language, displaying mathematical formulas in your scrips, as well as tables, boxes, and various formatting styles. Since it interfaces with Hollywood’s text library, you don’t need to learn any new commands. You can use the standard functions of Hollywood’s text Library.
Juan Carlos Herran Martin, a.k.a. Templario, has updated iConecta to version 5.25. This is a utility you can use to test your Internet connection. The new version has new graphics, and larger clock digits and it uses free fonts.
AmiSSL received an update to version 5.16. As mentioned in earlier editions of the AmigaOS 4 Monthly Roundup, the AmiSSL project is a collaborative effort to develop a port of OpenSSL in a shared library for Amiga-based systems. The download is available here. If you are interested in the SDK, it can be found here. It is a must-have if you use AmigaOS 4 to browse the web!
Most of us are familiar with RunInUAE, a tool you can use to run classic Amiga games directly from Workbench. Did you know that there is another program you can use that is similar?
It is called glUAE and is developed by RETREAM, who brought you excellent games such as Blastaway and BOH. glUAE integrates the Amiga emulator into the system thanks to the flexibility of AmigaOS and the configurability of UAE. You can find more information on the official website. Version 20240604 was uploaded to OS4Depot on June 8th and is available here.
The sources of RxMUI Version 50.4 has been uploaded to OS4Depot by Alfonso Ranieri. RxMUI is a solution to create GUIs in ARexx macros.
HunoPPC is back with a big update to the Super Nintendo emulator for AmigaOS4 called SNES9X NG!
Here are the changes from the previous version:
- Updated a core, now version is 1.63
- Added on GUI 9 icons for Save State Buttons
- Removed on GUI a select button for validating Save State
- Updated a catalog
- Fixed memmap
- Fixed loading roms SuperFX, added a big buffer now!!
- Fixed buffer audio
- Fixed audio stop and start
- Fixed loop on SDL1 SDL2 and EGL_wrap versions
- Disable Vsync on prefs by Default now!! for compatibility with different AmigaOS4 machines
- Added number of ROMs on GUI, now use “Bitstream Vera Sans Bold Oblique.font” for text render
- Fixed, refresh image of input choice, now reload GUI is disabled
- Added previews of SkinFX on GUI now!!
- Added new all icons created by me
- Added new logo SNES9X-NG created by me
- Fixed activate skinFX on GUI with different renderers
- Added new button PUSH_START, now on pushed is red
- Resized all images for optimized GUI
- Added a new logo to support me on KO-FI
- Added 1 new catalog: Polish
- Fixed Minimal GUI option with (NORMAL_WINSIZE) on Workbench icon, now working with new options (savestates, skins ..)
- Added a special WallPaper for Snes9x-NG
http://os4depot.net/?function=showfile&file=emulation/gamesystem/snes9x.zip
Speaking of Snes9x, Javier de las Rivas has created an alternative GUI you can use with the emulator. Version 1.5 became available only a few days ago. For more information on the change since the previous Version, please click here.
An update to Report+, a ReAction-based utility with nine functions, has been released by James Jacobs. It was made available on OS4Depot on June 16th. This tool can help you with generating Aminet- and OS4Depot-style readme files, performing batch processing on icons, and much more. Here are the recent changes:
- Miscellaneous improvements and bug fixes.
- fixed all GCC warnings.
- f4: added cursory knowledge about AIFF/AIFC.CDDT,CDTI,TRIF chunks.
- f4: added detailed knowledge about AIFF/AIFC.ISRC,MCNU chunks.
- f8: now shows percentages for totals where there is available space.
- os4: fixed: “Settings|Use all ISO-8859-1 characters?” menu item did not work properly.
http://os4depot.net/?function=showfile&file=utility/misc/reportplus.lha
“PowerReboot is a utility that allows the user to reboot or, if supported by the hardware, power off their system via a requester. It was originally written as a replacement for similar reboot tools, but also offered the user a requester to confirm if they intended to do this. No more losing your work because you rebooted by mistake!”. The utility is now available for download from OS4Depot.
Bernd Assenmacher has released version 2.7 of the Image2PDF utility. With this tool, you can convert PNG- or JPG files to PDF. The author labels it as “EmailWare”, so please send him an e-mail if you use the program. Changes and improvements are as follows:
- some small cosmetical fixes were done
- improved tooltips
- expanded scaling range of function “scale image(s) to” (now 10-6000)
- added an “abort” function to have the possibility to abort processes when having many images in the loop. This does not work with the “Convert PDF to” function.
http://os4depot.net/?function=showfile&file=utility/text/convert/image2pdf.lha
A long time ago I wrote a blog post about the LCD Conversion of Donkey Kong (Game&Watch) by Anbjørn Myren. I have also touched upon another conversion by him of the game Runway (Gakken).
Both are remakes of old and iconic handheld games. It turns out that Myren is back with an update to both. A joystick mode has been added to both games. Runway has also gotten a couple of gameplay fixes. You can find the games free to download via the links below:
http://os4depot.net/?function=showfile&file=game/misc/donkeykong.lha
http://os4depot.net/?function=showfile&file=game/misc/runaway.lha
If there is one thing many Amiga users are interested in it is benchmarks. Hans de Ruiter has returned with a new version of GfxBench 2D:
“GfxBench2D is a 2D graphics benchmark tool that measures the performance of a set of the most common 2D rendering functions. It can additionally upload the results to hdrlab.org.nz where it will be added to a public database that people can use to compare graphics cards. While submitting results to the server is purely optional, it is hoped that you will. The greater the number of people who submit their graphics benchmarks, the more useful the database becomes to us all. Additionally, uploaded results are displayed complete with graphs, whereas this tool only presents the data in table form.”
Demo Tube Net has created a video showing the new version in action!
Changes:
2.10 – 2024/06/24
- Switched to use AmiSSL
- Tweaked the code to find the graphics card’s PCI device so that it can handle VirtioGPU devices that have no directly accessible VRAM
http://os4depot.net/?function=showfile&file=utility/benchmark/gfxbench2d.lha
Version 32.71 of AmiArcadia for AmigaOS 4, a Signetics-based machines emulator, has been released by James Jacobs.
According to the documentation, AmiArcadia supports the following systems:
- Emerson Arcadia 2001 console family (Bandai, Emerson, Grandstand, Intervision, Leisure-Vision, Leonardo, MPT-03, Ormatu, Palladium, Poppy, Robdajet, Tele-Fever, Tempest, Tryom, Tunix, etc.) (c. 1982);
- Interton VC 4000 console family (Acetronic, Cabel, Fountain, Hanimex, Interton, Prinztronic, Radofin, Rowtron, Soundic, Voltmace, Waddingtons, etc.) (c. 1978);
- Elektor TV Games Computer (1979);
- PIPBUG- and BINBUG-based machines (EA 77up2, EA 78up5, Signetics Adaptable Board Computer, Eurocard 2650, etc.) (1977-1978);
- Signetics Instructor 50 trainer (1978);
- Signetics TWIN minicomputer (1976);
- Central Data 2650 microcomputer (1977);
- PHUNSY microcomputer (c. 1980);
- Ravensburger Selbstbaucomputer aka 2650 Minimal Computer trainer (1984);
- Hofacker MIKIT 2650 trainer (1978);
- Astro Wars, Galaxia, Laser Battle and Lazarian coin-ops by Zaccaria (1979-1981);
- Malzak 1 and 2 coin-ops by Kitronix (c. 1981);
- AY-3-8500/8550/8600-based Pong systems (Coleco Telstar Galaxy, Sheen TVG-201, etc.) (1976-1977); and VTech Type-right machine (1985).
It is packed with features, far too many to list here. Examples are ReAction GUI, load/save snapshots, windowed and fullscreen modes, CPU tracing, trainer, drag and drop support, graphics scaling, PAL/NTSC modes, frame skipping, and much more!
Changes since V32.7:
Summary:
- Interton: added “Project|Save screenshot as »|ASM…” command.
- Miscellaneous improvements and bug fixes.
Details:
arcadia: fixed: console output was writing to closed file handle after saving the screenshot as asm.
wa: twin: fixed: opening floppy subwin was causing the wrong graphic to be momentarily shown.
wa: fixed: “OK” button in quit confirmation requester was missing its tick glyph.
.ASM files are now supported for “project|open…” and drag and drop.
interton: added “project|save screenshot as »|asm…” command.
arcadia,interton: assembler: now warns when assembling non-ROM areas.
arcadia: fixed: assembler: it was generating incorrect BINs for >4K games.
opcodes subwin: fixed: RRL instructions had erroneous “flags written” info.
http://os4depot.net/?function=showfile&file=emulation/gamesystem/amiarcadia.lha
AmigaGPT is a text generation program that runs on the classic AmigaOS and AmigaOS 4. Utilizing the power of OpenAI’s GPT-3 and GPT-4 architectures, this program provides state-of-the-art language modeling.
Features:
- Generates text based on input prompts
- UI customization
- Full conversation history
- Text-to-Speech
Changes:
- Send button no longer appears after image creation
- The create image button stays disabled after image creation. Select a new image to create a new one
- Updated to latest json-c
http://os4depot.net/?function=showfile&file=network/chat/amigagpt.lha
On June 28th DRIDI released version 3.1Final of the Arabic Console Device. Changes and improvements:
(version 3.1Final) alternate multiline without shifting on ACTION_WRITE
There are three environment variables you can play with ed line editor:
- setenv tabstop=4 (default 8) use ,n display command
- setenv strictArabSCII=1 (default 0) for strict comparison when you use substitute s// commands and ,l to see the values changement ; As always you can use the combo we (write/edit) to set all Arabic right.
- setenv gauge=30 (default 50) use it with ,P [display with big P] 0p to unset
All setenv need to reset of ARABCON i.e a soft reset is enough.
http://os4depot.net/?function=showfile&file=driver/input/arabic_console_devicepro2.lha
amiga-news.de reports that Juha “Capehill” Niemimaki has published a first release candidate of Version 2.30.4 of the multimedia Library SDL for AmigaOS 4.1
https://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2024-06-00078-EN.html
According to a video on YouTube, Marek Glogowski a.k.a. smarkusg, is working on porting a GameBoy Advance emulator to AmigaOS 4.1. It is currently a work in progress, but as we can see from the video below, it runs games like Sonic Advance and Bomberman GB.
Nukleus and Void, two Amiga demo groups, are working on getting the new issue of Versus, a disk magazine and demoscene chart for AmigaOS 4 and Classic Amiga, out this summer.
That was all the software news for June. Let us move onto other types of news! 🙂
Misc News
Do you enjoy making games for the Amiga? Then you might be glad to hear that AmiGameJam 2024 has been announced!
This is a games creation competition and NG contributions are welcome according to the rules. 🙂 More information is available on the official website:
https://itch.io/jam/amigamejam
The theme of the contest is “The Sequel That Never Was” where you are invited to create a sequel to an Amiga game from back in the day.
Ktadd has published a new post on his blog about using a Logitech K400 Plus Keyboard with the A1222 Plus.
https://ktadd.weebly.com/amiga-ng-blog/using-a-logitech-k400-plus-keyboard-with-the-a1222-plus
The Amiga user Epsilon is back with a massive, and I mean massive, post about different topics including the A1222+. There you’ll find a ton of great photos of the system in action, as well as of components and more.
https://www.epsilonsworld.com/2024/06/retro-meeting-cz-and-1080p-video-on.html
A preview of the July/August issue of Amiga Future is now available from the official website.
https://www.amigafuture.de/app.php/kb/viewarticle?a=10677
Trevor Dickinson of A-EON Technology has a big Collection of Amiga hardware and software. In a recent video shot by Robert Bernardo, you can see his computers, which include many AmigaOne’s… We are talking the whole range!
Rene Engel, a.k.a. Maijestro, has been very busy in June with creating many videos showing his A1222+ in action. The most recent one focuses on showing different games running on the system, including Tower57 and ROTT (Rise of the Triad).
Another video that was uploaded yesterday shows the computer playing a 4K video with DVPlayer on RX 570.
The Lost C is back once again with AmigaOS 4-related videos. In June he made a two-part one where he unboxes and plays Heretic II from Hyperion Entertainment on a Sam440 and a Sam460. The videos are in Italian, but translation is possible through YouTube.
McFly has made a review of Airscan 1.30, an application for scanning developed by Arild Aarbakk. Lasting over 10 minutes, it gives an in-depth look at what you can accomplish with it.
No monthly report without some nice music by the Norwegian musician Helge Kvalheim! On YouTube, you can listen to Last Ninja 3 Outro 24, a 16-bit ambient edition. Enjoy!
In my absence, 328gts has been busy organizing games competitions (thanks mate!) at Amigans.net. Currently, they are playing Friking Shark, a shoot’em up game. Please head on over there and have a look. Maybe you’ll manage a game or two before July strikes? 🙂
Until Next Time
You’ve reached the end of this month’s AmigaOS 4 Monthly Roundup. As I write this, it is June 30th and I’m about to go upstairs to start dinner. 😉 All this typing has a tendency to make me hungry after a while. Anyway, hope you’ve enjoyed reading the news!
Thanks to all of you for supporting this initiative, it is much appreciated! I noticed some asking if a report was not written for May, but I can assure you that it was and that it is available from the usual place. Contrary in the past, I forgot to market it properly. 😉 I’ll make sure to post the news about the new update on Amigans.net etc. this time.
Have a great day, and see you in the next roundup! 🙂
Best regards,
Puni/Void a.k.a AmigaOldSkooler
