166716927
submission
Mike Bouma writes:
Hyperion Entertainment is pleased to announce the immediate availability of a very substantial and comprehensive update of the Software Development Kit (SDK) for AmigaOS 4.1 54.16. Also Linux: Kernel 6.0 for AmigaOne X1000/X5000 has been released and the biggest Amiga event of the year will be held upcoming weekend in Mönchengladbach, Germany. The Amiga37 event.
162539002
submission
Mike Bouma writes:
Version 1.7 of AROS One for x86 has just been released and it's a distro of the "AROS Research Operating System", originally "Amiga Research Operating System". It's a standalone, free and open-source multi-media centric operating system that's designed to be portable, flexible, efficient and lightweight and can be seen dual booting with Windows 10 on an Acer laptop here. The most popular AROS specific community portal is AROS Exec.
Parts of AROS were used to create the commercial PowerPC based Amiga-Like operating system MorphOS, which has recently seen a new release as well, version 3.17. The most popular MorphOS specific community portal is MorphZone.
162403622
submission
Mike Bouma writes:
AmiKit is a compilation of pre-installed and pre-configured Amiga programs running emulated on Windows, macOS, Linux as well as running on classic 68k Amigas expanded with a Vampire upgrade card. Besides original Workbench, AmiKit provides Directory Opus Magellan and Scalos as desktop replacements and its "Rabbit Hole" feature allows you to launch Windows, Mac or Linux applications directly from your Amiga desktop! Antialiased fonts, FullHD 32-bit screen modes and DualPNG Icons support is included and this package comes with exclusive versions of MCP and MUI 5 (Magic User Interface).
The original AmigaOS (version 3.x) and Kickstart ROM (version 3.1) are required, also the recently released AmigaOS 3.2 is supported. You can also get the needed files from the Amiga Forever package(s). It even supports emulating AmigaOS 4.x (for PowerPC) easily through Flower Pot.
Here's an extensive overview video by Dan Wood. An Amiga Future review of an earlier 2017 version can be read here.
162246502
submission
Mike Bouma writes:
Despite being expensive and having been soldout for quite some time at the main Amiga Dealers, two days after Linus Torvalds' release of Linux 5.18, Christian "xeno74" Zigotzky made the latest PPC kernel available for the AmigaOne X1000 / X5000. Here and here are some screenshots. Linux PPC performs well on AmigaOne computers, for example here is a 5 year old YouTube AmigaOne X5000 demonstration video.
162058508
submission
Mike Bouma writes:
Airsoft Softwair has released Hollywood Designer 6.0, "a full-blown multimedia authoring system that runs on top of Hollywood and can be used to create all sorts of multimedia-based applications, for example presentations, slide shows, games, and applications. Thanks to Hollywood, all multimedia applications created using Hollywood Designer can be exported as stand-alone executables for the following systems: AmigaOS3, AmigaOS4, WarpOS, MorphOS, AROS, Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS."
The current version of Hollywood is v9.1 with various updated add-ons. To see earlier versions of Hollywood 9.0 & Designer 5.0 in action have a look at Kas1e's short demonstration on AmigaOS4 / AmigaOne X5000.
161964516
submission
Mike Bouma writes:
With the release of the A500 mini (which also supports A1200 games) and its side loading feature you may be interested to get started with Amiga Retro games development. This is why I collected some recent Amiga games development tutorials and added some additional information.
A popular game programming language on the Amiga is Blitz BASIC or AmiBlitz as the freely available and open source version is called now. The latest version (v 3.9.2) was recently released. The best known game developed with Blitz Basic is Team 17's original Worms game for the Amiga 500 in 1995. Meanwhile the Worms franchise has sold over 75 million game units across many different platforms. Daedalus2097 has just started an AmiBlitz video tutorial series on Twitch.tv: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. An example AmiBlitz game currently under development is Super Metal Hero (A1200) and here's a shooter level in the game.
REDPILL is a 2D game creation tool written in AmiBlitz by Carlos Peris and is designed to empower people to create many games for Amiga without programming knowledge. It's still early days but the first games are already being designed using this tool. An example game designed with this tool is Guardian — The legend of flaming sword.
The "Scorpion Engine" developed by Erik 'Earok' Hogan is a closed source game engine with all software developed for it open source. It offers a modern Windows IDE for development. In this video, Erik Hogan guides Micheal Parent from Bitbeam Cannon step by step as they create a legit retro video game from scratch. Various new games have and are being developed using this engine. An already released game is Amigo the Fox and an example game under development is Rick Dangerous (A1200 version).
If you want to dig deeper into Amiga coding then here's a series of Assembly game development tutorials by Phaze101. An example game currently being written in assembler is RESHOOT PROXIMA 3 (A1200).
If you are unexperienced with coding but would like to then here are some Amos (BASIC) tutorials for you: Rob Smith's How to program Wordle in AMOS on the AMIGA and Lets Code Santa's Present Drop Game.
160671162
submission
Mike Bouma writes:
I just bought the A500 mini here in the Netherlands. The first reviews are now available.
The Guardian gives the device a 4/5 score in their review:
"The A500 is a robust piece of tech nostalgia that will give veteran fans many hours of nostalgic pleasure while also providing an accessible means of introducing younger family members to the Amiga scene. The colourful sprites, pounding techno soundtracks and sardonic wit of the beloved Sensible Software, Team 17 and Bitmap Brothers games retain their appeal and it has been fascinating to rediscover how much the modern independent gaming scene owes to this 35-year-old home computer."
Also Nintendo Life has reviewed the device giving it a 8/10 score:
"As such, this is an intriguing device for anyone who is even remotely interested in tracking the development of the games industry – and while its £120 price tag makes it more expensive than many of its micro-console rivals, the ability to side-load games is very welcome indeed."
Express.co.uk gives the device a 3.5/5 score in their review:
"Overall, the Amiga 500 Mini is a strong addition to the crowded classic console market that will appeal mostly to those that have a lot of nostalgia for this iconic PC gaming machine. And the ability to add extra games is a great little bonus which will add plenty of extra life to the system."
Furthermore various YouTubers have reviewed the A500 mini, including Retro Recipes, which gives the device a perfect 5/5 score while stating it beats expectations.
159866611
submission
Mike Bouma writes:
Retro Recipes LLC has previewed prototype serial #01 of the 'A500 mini' Amiga retro console on youtube. The console comes with 25 pre-installed games including Worm's Director's cut, Simon the Sorcerer, The Chaos Engine, Super Cars 2 and Speedball 2. Additional games can be played in WHDLoad (.lha archived) format through a USB stick. The device comes included with a gamepad and mouse that can also be bought addionally seperately. The A500 mini has a HDMI video output and is scheduled for release on April 8th 2022.
156848051
submission
Mike Bouma writes:
Hyperion Entertainment announced the immediate availability of a new and updated Software Developer Kit (SDK) for the latest version of AmigaOS 4.1 (PPC Amigas). (i.e. after applying all the publicly released updates).
Also on December 21, 2021, Hyperion Entertainment released the first free update for AmigaOS 3.2 (68k classic Amigas). AmigaOS 3.2.1 fixes several bugs and additionally comes with new features.
155294997
submission
Mike Bouma writes:
Lady Decade talks about the fate of the Amiga CD32 after Commodore's demise, as well as covers what could have been the successor to the short-lived Amiga CD32 (which was the world's first true 32-bit CD based home console), the Amiga CD64.
The Amiga CD32 released in Europe on September 16, 1993 and on March 1, 1994, Commodore Business Machines announced: "First launched in Europe this past fall, Commodore reports to have sold over 100,000 units in Europe in just three months prior to Christmas. By outselling Sega four to one and claiming 38% market share of all CD ROM drives sold in the UK (according to the Gallup Weekly Report), the Amiga CD32 has established itself as the undisputed leader of the 32 bit machines." Operations in Germany and the United Kingdom were still profitable, but Commodore was not able to meet demand for new units because of component supply problems and could not release the (already made) Amiga CD32 stock in the United States due to a legal patent issue .Commodore declared bankruptcy on April 29, 1994 causing the CD32 to be discontinued only eight months after its debut. (source: wikipedia and Amiga Report)
The Amiga CD32 still has more than 100 games released for it. Sadly most of them were straight A500 conversions to CD format without any or little improvements technically. IMO the most impressive game released for the system was Super Stardust by Bloodhouse, published by Team17. It was the sequel to Stardust for the Amiga 500 and Atari STE. Bloodhouse merged with Terramarque (famous for their impressive Amiga 500 game Elfmania) to form Housemarque, which is still making games as of today.
154787065
submission
Mike Bouma writes:
Pixelglass Games and BitBeamCannon are working on new commercial Amiga games. Metro Siege is a 2-player beat em' up for the Amiga 500 with 1 MB of Ram. You can watch a teaser trailer here. Alarcity is a shoot'em'up for the Amiga 1200 and Amiga CD32. You can watch an earlier campaign trailer here.
If i.e. your classic Amiga broke down there's good news for you. The Amiga 500 mini (Essex Retro Gamer overview) is set to release in early 2022 It will be able to play Amiga 500, Amiga 600 and Amiga 1200 games in WHDLoad format. It's available for pre-order at Amazon.com and local shops worldwide.
154040163
submission
Mike Bouma writes:
A-EON Technology Ltd has released Enhancer Software Release 2.1 for AmigaOS4.1 FE update 2, which itself was released on 23 December 2020. It's an OS enhancement package with large amounts of updated and upgraded OS components. Also earlier this year Hyperion released AmigaOS 3.2 for all classic Amigas, here's a roundup of new features by The Guru Meditation on youtube.
143291096
submission
Mike Bouma writes:
Here's a youtube video testing the latest update of AmigaOS4 by Hyperion Entertainment. Some may wonder why AmigaOS4 is still actively being developed and even spurred the also active clones OSes AROS and MorphOS. Here's a recent report by OSNews.com on an article called Little Things That Made Amiga Great, A deep dive into a selection of ingenious AmigaOS features.
129500686
submission
Mike Bouma writes:
KK of the demo scene group Altair is making a Doom clone for the Amiga 500. The system requirements are a mere 7 Mhz Amiga 500 with 1 MB of RAM! Have a look:
Dread Ep 01 — making "Doom" clone for Amiga 500
Dread Ep 02 — "Doom" clone for Amiga 500 — Laying out the map...
You can find KK/Altair at the English Amiga Board.
116533908
submission
Mike Bouma writes:
"The MorphOS development team is proud to announce the public release of MorphOS 3.12. This new version introduces brand new dual-monitor capabilities to various Powerbook laptops as well as G5 desktop systems, and features improved thermal management, fan control and dynamic CPU frequency switching, which provide increased energy efficiency and reduced noise levels. Additionally, the Helios Firewire stack has been fully integrated into the core OS and we added support for hundreds of modern printers and scanners."
