Vampire V2 / Apollo-Core GOLD3 boldy goes AGA chipset emulation!

Here's the next step in Vampire/Apollo-core development, and what an important step it is: Amiga-chipset emulation, namely AGA, is making good progress - now Vampire boards can do AGA graphics and audio via HDMI!

Once again, and finally, it looks like it's really happening: the looooong overdue update of the Amiga's screenmodes and connection capabilities in regard to modern displays.

Additionally, some programs - probably mostly games - will benefit from this new stage of Apollo-core in a specific way: due to not only the super-fast CPU-emulation but also the new AGA-emulation both residing on the Vampire now, there's no need for "turtle mode" anymore - in other words: the CPU doesn't have to wait for the slow Amiga-mainboard chipset blitter anymore, giving huge performance boosts to blitter-heavy applications.

AGA chipset emulation is still work in progress (e.g. currently PAL only), and hasn't been released to the public yet, but you can already watch some impressive demo videos:

Vampire 600 V2 / GOLD3 "No more turtle mode", parts 1 and 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYxEFUgWe1o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q_rfkqPymg

Source:
http://apollo-core.com/knowledge.php?b=1&note=6563

AmiGameJam 2017 game development competition results

The AmiGameJam 2017 Amiga game development competition ran from February 5th to March 30th 2017, and was held in two categories: Classic OCS/AGA Amigas and Next-Gen Amigas (AROS, MorphOS and AmigaOS4). The theme was "TV Shows and Movies" or "Christmas".

Six titles were submitted: Brus Lii, Santa Run (Next-Gen/AmigaOS4), Easter Egg, Max Knight Xmas Edition, Bridge Strike, and The Last Starfighter.

Based on 140 ratings, submissions scored from 1717 to 4720 points.

And the winner is...

...Bridge Strike, a vertically scrolling shoot'em up.

Project R3D
Code: Pawel Nowak (juen)
Graphics: Krzysztof Matys (koyot1222)
Music: Simone Bernacchia (JMD)
Sound Effects: Marcin Swiech (doomer)

Congratulations!

https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTIzOTQzLzU3MDc5MS5wbmc=/347x500/sHD3hC.png

You can download Bridge Strike, and the other games made for the AmiGameJam at:
https://itch.io/jam/amigamejam/results


Sources:
http://amigamejam.ultimateamiga.co.uk/
https://itch.io/jam/amigamejam

"Mini Metal Slug" for AmigaOS3 by Arti - and many other games by HunoPPC

Arti has ported "Mini Metal Slug", a "Metal Slug" remake, to AmigaOS3. It's a one-man-army comic-style shoot'em up game, and it demands some serious processing power: 68040 CPU, fast emulator, or Vampire accelerator is required.

You can find it on AmiNet:
http://aminet.net/search?query=minislug

Arti's homepage is:
https://artishq.wordpress.com

The AmigaOS3 version is based on HunoPPC's AmigaOS4 port of the game. HunoPPC has done a lot of other ports, mostly for AmigaOS4, and some for AROS, MorphOS, Linux, MacOS, Windows.

Titles include "World of padman", "Return to Castle Wolfenstein", "OpenBor"
"Xgalaga", "Aliens versus Predator 2000", "Enemy Territory: Legacy", among others.


You can find a list of his projects on his homepage:
http://hunoppc.amiga-projects.net/

Here's a video of "Mini Metal Slug" running on a Vampire accelerated Amiga:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvBGARLrPEc

Sources:
http://www.apollo-core.com/knowledge.php?b=3&note=6140
http://aminet.net/package/game/actio/MiniSlug
https://artishq.wordpress.com/

ALBs Blog - Freepascal, and online compiler!

If you like coding in Pascal on the Amiga, or if you want to start doing so, you should visit ALB's blog.

ALB's blog hosts the Freepascal compilers for AmigaOS, MorphOS and AROS, some other applications like Mapparium, GPSTool, and EdiSyn, and now he has even added an online Pascal compiler for AmigaOS, MorphOS and AROS.

Via a web interface, you can enter your Pascal code, choose the destination platform, click "Compile", and download your executable file.

There are two versions of the online Freepascal compiler: one for current browsers with full JavaScript, and one for older browsers (IBrowse, etc.) using HTML only.

Here's a video showing the online compiler in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3xSsq51syE

Head over to ALBs blog and check out some Pascal:
https://blog.alb42.de

Or go directly to the "FPC Online Editor/Compiler":
http://home.alb42.de/fpamiga/

Project Paula - a synthwave/cyberpunk tribute to the Amiga years

Oh yeah, those glory days, and those glory tunes! Speedball 2, Apidya, Flashback, Jim Power, Shadow of the beast, ... you name it, you sing it.

Now you can re-live the music originally composed by Chris Huelsbeck, David Whittaker, Paul van der Valk, Ron Klaren, Stéphane Picq and others, for games including Dune, Turrican 3, Battle squadron, Unreal, One step beyond, and Lotus III, in full instrumentation and high production quality.

"Project Paula" has been released for download and streaming, a collection of remakes of famous Amiga game tunes by artists Volkor X, Fixions, Wrencan, Master Boot Record, Hypercan, and others.

It's a "name your price" purchase - you decide how much you want to pay.

Head over to projectpaula.bandcamp.com, listen to the music, and make your donation: https://projectpaula.bandcamp.com/album/project-paula-amiga

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3214928880_16.jpg

Writing Amiga floppy discs from a PC

So you've pulled your beloved old yellowish-brownish Amiga 500 out from the attic - ah, those memories...

You've connected the TV cable, your trustworthy black-red Competition Pro joysticks, and the power supply, and switched it on. With your eyes wet, you've stared at the kickstart disk on the TV display. On your PC, you've googled for those old games, have downloaded plenty of them, you're trembling with excitement, your hands sweaty, humming the title melody of SWIV, thinking "Icecream! Icecream!"... no, you were never one of those heretics that upgraded to an Amiga 1200, having fancy things like IDE or PCMCIA, no, you're OCS, you're 512kB+512kB, you're DF0:, maybe DF1: at best ...

...and now you're stuck.

You need some way of transferring those ADF-files to your Amiga 500. You can't just go "online", you don't have a nullmodem cable at hand, and if you even had: How to transfer some transfer software over to the Amiga in the first place...?

Enter ADTWin.

ADTWin for Windows PCs is a combination of software and a special floppy disk drive cable. This could be the solution to your problems, and a very helpful addition even for those who already have figured out ways of transferring files to the Amiga. ADTWin allows you to connect a PC floppy drive to your Windows PC's parallel port, and write ADF files directly to floppy disc, ready for your Amiga's floppy drive!

You need to build the cable yourself, have a spare PC floppy drive, and download the software. There might be compatibility issues with some drives, but PC floppy drives are cheap, just get a bunch of them on eBay or the likes.

Wanna know more, and give it a try? Just click the link below:

http://m1web.de/ADTWin/

http://m1web.de/ADTWin/pics/special_cable.jpg

Sources:
http://m1web.de/ADTWin/
http://www.amigaforever.com/kb/13-118

Glenn Keller, Commodore Amiga Paula chip designer

"The Guru Mediation" did an interview with Glenn Keller, former engineer at Commodore, designer of the Paula chip, which is responsible for the Amiga's sound capabilities, serial port, and floppy disc drive interface.

Mr. Keller is a very nice guy, it's a pleasure listening to his ancedotes and information. He talks about the early days of Amiga development, the unreleased AAA chipset, and the longevity and revival of the Amiga system, among other topics.

Thanks to "The Guru Mediation" for the interview, and Mr. Keller for taking the time!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuXH2csMR8Y