AmigaOS 4 News – February 2024
Hi,
Welcome to the second AmigaOS 4 Monthly Roundup of 2024!
It has been yet another active month in the world of AmigaOS 4. We’ve got plenty of updates to software and releases. The A1222+ is not out the door yet, but hopefully, it will be in March. As you’ve noticed, you are reading this on the Old School Game Blog, not on the Gaming on AmigaOS 4 blog. I’ve melted the two together, so from now on the roundups will be hosted here.
Without further ado, let us move on to the news! 🙂
Software News
Let us start with some AI-related news. 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
Version 1.4.2 (2024-01-31) is now available from OS4Depot. They replaced clicktabs for AmigaOS 3.x since the version is too old and will crash. 3.x users can select the mode at startup.
After hard work, HunoPPC is back with a massive update to the Super Nintendo emulator for AmigaOS4 called SNES9X NG.
Here are the changes from the previous version:
– Added modifications of prefs KEYBOARD on native GUI now!!
– Added on engine, new converter of keys intuition events to keys SDL2 events for new function of keyboard prefs
– Added recognition of duplicates in modified keys
– Added 2 new image for recognition, one for OK (green) and one for NOK (red)
– Rewinding cool option working now on game :-), use GUI for activate and add number of Mo for rewind dans on game press F12 for a moment to operate rewinding, IMPORTANT!! this hack is very big for your CPU, on X5000 90% of usage with 60FPS
– Fixed Vsync, now working with -vsync and for disable using -novsync (thanks to Kas1e)
– Fixed limiter of fps without Vsync
– Fixed loading Rom offset “Tintin in Tibet (Europe) (En,Es,Sv)
– Fixed loading Wild Guns, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers – The Fighting Edition with a good IRQ cycles and DMA delay
– Fixed LowMapRom and HiMapRom on memmap functions
– Optimized DSP2 for AmigaOS4
– Fixed small audio Crackling
– Fixed Speedup audio DSP1 and DSP2
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– Tipo fixed on locale (thanks Javier)
– Tipo fixed on SuperFX Mhz-> to ->%
– Fixed Run game selected with RETURN now!!
– Fixed quit GUI with ESCAPE
– Added cool sounds effects on native GUI (mario voice and yoshi voice)
– Added option -interpolationmethod for Sound Interpolation Method, Gaussian=0 / Linear=1 / Cubic=2 (default) / Sinc=3
– Remove Key Q for quit Snes9X
– Added new filters:
* 2xBR
* 2xBR-lv1
* DDT
* Scanlines 25%
* Dot Matrix
– Fixed draw time with FPS count
– Fixed HACKVIDEO config write
– Fixed INTERPOLATION config write
– Fixed OVERCLOCKCPU config write
– Added button for sounds effects on GUI
– New all catalogs
– Sound now is Threaded
– Fixed timing for all games with Vsync
– Fixed Joypad2, now working with the GUI launcher
– Added new hack option “-disablespritelimit” disable max sprite tiles rendered per line. Default = 34, Unlimited ~= 128
– Fixed Mute now working!!
– On game FULLSCREEN/WINDOW mode now working with = L_ALT + RETURN
– Added new option -emulatedmachine for a virtuel machine, activate a correct software rendering on internal engine (disable: vsync, FULLSCREEN_DESKTOP)
– Fixed commandline for all filters
– fixed commandline for support optical games: mouse, superscope, justifier and macsrifle.
– GUI is now V1.0.7
– Added to GUI news options: sound thread and Emulated machine (for QEMU and WinUAE machines)
– Fixed Vsync disable if you use emulated machine or rwinding options (thank to Javier)
– Added new images for inputs : Keyboard, joypad, mouse, superscope, justifier and macsrifle
– Now superscope working with a mouse Amiga
– fixed disabled prefs Buttons of joypad if you use other input
– Center the cursor on screen
– Support all optical games with cursor and mouse for shooting (move working, now i working on the buttons) IMPORTANT: Correctly choose the type of weapon suitable for the game otherwise it may not work correctly, MOUSE ONLY!!!
– Added new folder “Roms-Optical” for copy your games Guns or Optical (Konami Justifier, superscope, mouse and a special MacsRiffle)
– Fixed -nooverscan and center a screen on 320×240 mode (window and fullscreen)
– Fixed on mode -nooverscan and 320×240 centered screen with L_ALT + RETURN
– Fixed Justifier1 AimOffscreen Trigger button, now working with the center button of mouse
– Added 2 KEYS on KEYBOARD with optical mode:
* KEY HOME : “Superscope Pause”
* KEY END : “Superscope AimOffscreen”
– Fixed mode -emulatedmachine on all renderer
– Fixed if you use optical games with with L_ALT + RETURN disable a pointer on window mode
– Added 3 new images availablecover3dMSU1.png, availablecover3dOPTICAL.png and availablecover3dSUPERFX.png for not available previews
– GUI checking now all datas dependency for interface on launching and push requester if you have an error
– Fixed disable vsync on GUI with -emulatedmachine -nooverscan and -rewinding options
– Fix fps limiter on PAL mode
The emulator is available for download on OS4Depot:
OS4Depot – Your one stop for AmigaOS4 files
Rene Engel has created a video showing the emulator running on his AmigaOS 4 setup through QEMU. The footage was created with the previous version of SNES9X NG.
Leu is a spreadsheet application by Marcus Sackrow, which started as an Excel and OpenOffice viewer. Now it also features basic editing functions and a fully working parser.
It supports the loading of Excel (XLSX), Libre/OpenOffice (ods), ASCII (CSV), and TurboCalc (TCD) files. You can export the tables to Excel, Libre/OpenOffice, ASCII, HTML, or wiki tables. Version 0.08 is now available for download at OS4Depot.
A. Pankalla has released an update to Luettje Bookholler, which is a personal finance program. For those of you who are curious about what «Luettje Bookholler» means (I have mentioned this in an earlier roundup, but will repeat it for new readers), I can tell you that it is German and means «Little Accountant». Version 1.87 contains several bug fixes and changes:
- Bug: Report account-flow has not offer the last years, only last 12 months.
- Bug: Long catogory names are not shown in ignition tables.
- Changes: Now also the values are shown in ignition pie-graphics.
- Bug: Corrects some little bugs in ignition-sheets.
SDL2 (Simple DirectMedia Layer 2) 2.30 was released in February. You can download it from OS4Depot, as well as find more information about it there:
http://os4depot.net/?function=showfile&file=library/misc/sdl2.lha
Version 30.81 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);
- Central Data 2650 computer (1977);
- PHUNSY computer (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);
- 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!
Here is an overview of the changes since the last release:
Changes since V30.8:
Summary:
- Miscellaneous improvements and bug fixes.
Details:
- arcadia: improved overlay text for basketball and horse racing.
- wa: arcadia: changed white to grey in sidebar game glyphs (for better contrast against default sidebar background).
- wa: arcadia: fixed: sidebar game glyphs for red clash and robot killer were swapped.
- incorporated Mikhail’s latest Russian translation.
- aa: fixed: it was crashing during exit if eg. a needed ReAction class was not available.
- assembler: fixed: INCBIN directive was broken.
- pipbug: now autostarts biorhythm (300 baud) and life (machine code).
- pipbug: fixed: VDU autoadjustment could result in a mislocated LED display.
- pipbug: adjusted VDU autosense settings for biorhythm, calendar maker, mazemaker.
- fixed: WC,WP command were writing garbage error messages.
- pipbug: improved compatibility (improves random number generator, russian roulette, etc.).
- pipbug,binbug: now silences sound when resetting.
- pipbug: now translates ENTER to Ctrl-L automatically for mastermind and revised mastermind.
- wa: fixed: first string sent to output window was not being displayed.
- pipbug: added knowledge about good dump of RYTMON.
- pipbug 2: added comment support for pipla example.
- pipbug: fixed: baud rate addresses were incorrect after reset (fixes pipla test).
- pipbug: added autostart for Micro BASIC programs.
AmiArcadia is free to download. 🙂 You can grab it from OS4Depot here:
http://os4depot.net/?function=showfile&file=emulation/gamesystem/amiarcadia.lha
Here are the links to the authors websites:
http://amigan.1emu.net/releases/
HunoPPC and the Amiga French Team 2024 have ported Wipeout Rewrite to AmigaOS 4!
The rewrite of WipEout was done by Phoboslab. Here is the link to the Github page.
Please read on for more information from HunoPPC:
AmigaOS 4.1 Port by HunoPPC with the Amiga French Team 2024
Important: OpenGL renderer with MiniGL Library (no software)
A big thank you to Samo79 because this port for minigl would never have been made if he had not insisted 🙂
Use glewMGL port and code for minigl by HunoPPC 2024
Use SDL2 port by Capehill
IMPORTANT!! If you use hack GUI please check your DEVS/MONITOR/”driver” for add all new resolutions, thanks.
First release 1.0.0 AmigaOS4
- Added GUI for start a new prefs on live (important !! it’s an hack)
- Added Icon created by me
- Fixed loading texture with glewMGL
- Fixed fullscreen mode on glewMGL
- Added KPH counter on screen (thanks Samo79)
The game can be downloaded from OS4Depot, but the archive does not contain the assets (textures, 3d models, etc.) required to run the game. You can find the download link for the data files in the documentation on OS4Depot. 🙂
http://os4depot.net/?function=showfile&file=game/driving/wipeout.lha
Version 2.4.6 of the WHD-Load front-end iGame was released in February. The AmigaOS 4 port is maintained by George Sokianos a.k.a. Walkero. This is a front-end application for launching WHDLoad games and demos.
Features include:
– Multiple WHDLoad slaves repositories on hard disk partitions
– On-demand scanning in repositories for installed WHDLoad slaves (games, demos etc.)
– Use game tool types on the run
– Shows game screenshot (screenshot window can be altered through
– tool types/settings use datatypes to load foreign formats)
– Categorization of the games and filtering
– Manual addition of non-WHDLoad games, demos, etc.
– Simple statistics
– Find-as-you-type search filter
If you’d like to read about the changes since the previous version, please have a look at the appropriate page on GitHub.
An update to Report+, a ReAction-based utility with nine functions, has been released by James Jacobs. It was made available on OS4Depot on February 18th. This tool can help you with generating Aminet- and OS4Depot-style readme files, performing batch processing on icons, and much more. Click here to go to the download page or to find information about the recent changes.
Several language catalog files For AmiUpdate have been uploaded to OS4Depot thanks to the work of Niels Bache (Danish), Samir Hawamdeh (Italian), Michael Merkel and Gerd Frank (German), Petrol (French), Javier de las Rivas (Spanish).
René W. Olsen has released version 1.27 of the Amiga VNC Server. It has been written from scratch, and according to the author, it still needs some work. The source code is available on GitHub. Click here to download the archive. He has also released version 2.7 of ReSrc4, an MC680x0 Disassembler.
Heretic II from Hyperion Entertainment is getting close to becoming available for purchase! I’ve been in touch with the Alinea Computer Shop. They will stock the game. I wrote them and asked them to reserve a copy, which they will. 😉 If you want to know more about Heretic II for AmigaOS 4, I recommend checking out this interview I did a while back with Steffen Häuser a.k.a. TheMagicSN, who ported it to AmigaOS 4.
AmiGemini version 0.11 was released on the February 20th. It was created by Karl Jeacle and uploaded to OS4Depot by Samir Hawamdeh. It is a browser for Gemini, Spartan, Gopher, and Finger. The source code is included.
Kas1e has released version 0.10 of WB2Filer. WB2Filer is a hack that patches Intuition’s functions via SetMethod() to allow transparently run of the Filer binary pointing to the given partition on Workbench’s desktop instead of the original Workbench windows. Please click here to get an overview of the changes since the last release.
HexSee, a hex viewer that displays file contents in blocks of 16 characters per line, has been updated to version 1.1. The author is Retrami Software. It contains a few extra features that are not always available in other AmigaOS hex viewers. It can read any file up to 4 GB in size, while a single file buffer will not use more than 128 KB even for the largest file. Text and background colors can be set to any color, and it was written especially for AmigaOS 4.1.
– Added program information to the Screen Bar
– Added Tool Tips to the gadgets
– Enabled Localisation
– Added Text & Hex Search
– Added Text & Hex selection
– Enabled Home/End/PgUp/PgDown keys
You can download HexSee from OS4Depot.
MCE, Multi-game Character Editor, is a user-friendly open-source editor of character files, saved games, high score tables, levels, and graphics for 115 games. James Jacobs, the author, has now released version 14.61. Changes include a Dungeon Master 2 save game editor, and miscellaneous improvements and bug fixes.
On February 23rd, Michael Rupp released an update for the SonosController program, which allows you to control your Sonos speakers from any Amiga connected to the same network. The changelog can be found on OS4Depot, along with the program itself.
– NEW: first release for AROS x86
– NEW: ARexx command REINDEX to invoke re-indexing the Sonos music library
– NEW: include all icons in every distribution in new subdrawer “Icons”
– NEW: include additional icons by AMIGASYSTEM (thanks Carlos!)
– IMPROVED: reloading the browser with F5 will not loose the selected position and item anymore.
– FIXED: loading of data (playlists, queues, etc.) is no longer limited to 100 entries (bug introduced with 1.3).
– FIXED: if network is off the app won’t crash on startup but show an error message.
– FIXED: possible crash when clicking the “looking for Sonos…” entry.
A major release this month was the update to Rave. Daniel Jedlicka, a.k.a. Trixie on Amiga forums, has released an updated version of Rave, his sound editor for AmigaOS 4 compatible computers.
Changes since the previous release are as follows:
– The program now keeps a list of recently opened files and has an associated item in the Project menu for quickly opening these files again.
– Reworked the file requester, which now features a more flexible Access Panel with a user-definable Favourites section.
– Another addition to the file requester is the Browsing History pop-up for selecting recently used paths.
– Fixed a playback-related bug that would make Rave unresponsive, waiting for a signal that never arrives.
– Updated documentation.
Download link:
http://os4depot.net/?function=showfile&file=audio/edit/rave.lha
Rave requires AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition Update 2 or newer. It also requires Enhancer Core classes (toolbar.gadget, infodata.gadget, select.gadget, shared.image).
Here is an overview of Rave’s features:
– A modern, configurable graphical user interface (GUI).
– A tabbed environment for managing multiple projects from within a single program window.
– A powerful custom file requester with preview playback and other useful features.
– A wide selection of editing functions with unlimited Undo.
– Asynchronous operation: performing a task in a project doesn’t block the other projects.
– Support for multiple clipboard units.
– Modular design with an object-oriented plugin system, which makes the program easy to extend.
– A wide range of supported audio file types and formats.
Trixie has also published a new post on his blog, Rear Window, which is called Crawling back to life. There you can read more about the development of Rave.
Amiga-news.de reports that AmiUpdate has been updated twice in February. First to version 2.50, then to 2.51. Please visit amiga-news.de here to read the full story.
Another piece of news from amiga-news.de is about QEMU and the BBoot bootloader version 0.6. According to amiga-news.de, “BBoot is a simple, minimal bootloader for loading AmigaOS on QEMU-emulated AmigaOne and Pegasos2 machines, written by Amiga QEMU developer Balaton Zoltan.” Please click here to read the whole article concerning BBoot.
The last news is the release of version 6.22 of Codesets. More information and a download is available over at OS4Depot.
Miscellaneous
Versus is a demoscene chart and disk magazine created by two demo groups, Nukleus and Void, for Amiga OCS/ECS and AmigaOS 4. Nine issues have been released so far. The last one, Versus #9, came out for Classic Amiga and AmigaOS 4 in 2019.
Versus #10 is on the way, and voting has officially opened!
Cast your vote for your favorite demos, intros, programmers, musicians, and so forth! 🙂 The more votes collected, the more accurate the charts will be. Thank you in advance for your support!
You can find the Online votesheet here:
https://www.nukleus.nu/VersusVote.php
It is worth mentioning that you are not required to fill out all the fields.
We are very grateful for every vote we receive, and we really hope you’ll spend a few minutes filling out the votesheet as soon as possible. 🙂
Some of you might have noticed that I’ve not published much on Gaming on AmigaOS 4 recently. AmigaOS 4 related posts have been published on the Old School Game Blog instead. The reason is that I’ve decided to continue Gaming on AmigaOS 4 on Old School Game Blog from now on. I’m involved in many projects, such as those with Void (Amiga demo group), so it easier to blog in one place. 🙂
The AmigaOS 4 Monthly Roundup will continue, but on Old School Game Blog instead. I’ve added an AmigaOS 4 Monthly Roundup section to the site. Here is the link. I hope you’ll continue reading my blog posts about AmigaOS 4 and Amiga in general at Old School Game Blog.
The A1222+ motherboard and a full A1222+ computer system were listed on the website of amigakit.fr in February. The price for a motherboard without RAM is 1,199 EUR. 4 GB of RAM costs 39,99 EUR extra. A full system will set you back 1,599 EUR. The final price depends on taxes, fees, and shipping. You can not order either one from the shop yet, but according to AmigaKit, they should be available soon. Here is a quote from AmigaKit dated February 12th:
“No, AmigaKit FR is getting ready for general sale. First stock arriving is for Early Adopters very shortly. A date for non-early adopters will be added to the webstore in the next week or so.”
Source: https://www.amigans.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=9258&start=60
A date has not been added yet (today it is February 29th). March is just around the corner. When the A1222+ was announced (again) in October, one was told that the boards would ship in October, or November at the latest. This information can be found at Discord, as well as on Amigans.net. Several months have passed since then, and as far as I know, no one has received the A1222+ yet. The Facebook page of AAA Technology has not been updated since October, so it is not easy for customers or potential buyers to know what is going on. I really hope the A1222+ will be released soon though, and I feel for all those who are waiting and waiting for it to arrive. I’m sure it will be a fun system to experiment with!
A preview of the March/April issue of Amiga Future has been published on the official website of the magazine. Here is the link.
The Lost C has published a video on YouTube showing the new HunoPPC port of WipeOut for AmigaOS 4.1 in action. He shows it running a Sam440, Sam460, and an Amiga 1200 with BlizzardPPC and BVision. The video is in Italian.
He is not the only one who has created a video of Wipeout. So has McFlyPPC. His video shows it running on an AmigaOne X5000.
Rene Engel has uploaded a video showing version 1.33 of the Dgen SEGA Mega Drive emulator running with QEMU / Pegasos 2.
Muf has created a review of the Velocap HDR Tbox Deluxe, which you can see here. It is in Polish.
In February we’ve been playing a game by Entwickler-X called Balance Blox on Amigans.net.
BillE is currently in the lead with a whopping 124,200 points! There’s still a little bit of time left if you want to try to beat the score and become this month’s game champion over at Amigans.net.
https://www.amigans.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=9472
Until next time
You’ve reached the end of this month’s AmigaOS 4 Monthly Roundup. Hope you have enjoyed reading the news. 🙂
Thanks to all of you for supporting this initiative by reading, spreading, commenting, and sending me messages. It is much appreciated!
Have a great day, and see you in the next roundup! 🙂
Best regards,
Puni/Void a.k.a AmigaOldSkooler
Old School Game Blog 