AmigaVision/MegaAGS 2023.04.05 Released!

[kolla]

3.2 kickstarts (and 3.1.4, and even old CBM 3.1 for A4000T) come without workbench.library and icon.library, due to lack of space in the 512kB ROM.

Instead the kickstart will look for those on any attached filesystem (old 3.1 and 3.1.4 kickstarts come with “stub” versions that do it, 3.2 uses the System-Startup component that generally scans file systems for ROM module updates)

System-startup also deals with setting up devices, like PIPE: and others, one can speculate also NIL:, and so if it gets confused by old 3.1 components, it may fail to set up things properly. That said, I’ve seen similar mind numbing requesters asking for NIL: etc when attempting to use the SoftIEEE FPU emulator… reporting bugs to Thomas Richter (and to a degree, also the OS 3.2 team) is more often than not an exercise in social engineering, so I simply haven’t bothered.

[gccw]

HOYLE VOLUME 3 for mt32-pi not working

[LamerDeluxe]

HOYLE VOLUME 3 for mt32-pi not working

I originally provided the mt32-pi version games for the MegaAGS pack, but Hoyle and Castle of Dr. Brain had incorrect instruments. This is possibly caused by the core being set to a faster speed than an Amiga 500.

[limi]

A great little review by local forum member allyourbasekris:

[limi]

Also, if anyone would be willing to help us with documentation for how to write an AmigaVision image to a CF/SD card on real hardware

I just rename the .hdf to .iso on Windows and write it to SD/CF with Balena Etcher.

Just attempted this to put a CF card in a CD32, and it didn’t work. Are you sure? Because all the documentation I can find online either assumes a) You have a real Amiga and use the Workbench install floppy to prepare the SD/CF card and copy files over on the Amiga itself, or b) 300 steps in WinUAE to do the same.

At no point do they use a tool like BalenaEtcher to write the disk, they all manipulate the card from the Amiga side (either real hardware or emulated).

Are there any other steps? Because writing the HDF that AmigaVision produces directly to an SD/CF card with BalenaEtcher did not work for me, and I really want it to be that easy. I know people are running it on real A1200s etc, so if anyone wants to tell us how they did it, that would be very useful :)

[bazza_12]

A great little review by local forum member allyourbasekris:

I have to say, like Kris.. this packaged has re-awakened my love for the amiga all over again.

[limi]

And a great setup tutorial from Pixel Cherry Ninja:

[charmless]

So.. most likely a stupid question. Are there any recommended video settings for AmigaVision when it comes to 1440p? I'm just using the pre-set 12 (1920x1440p) with video_sync 2. My monitor seems fine with switching between PAL and NTSC and I haven't noticed any weirdness. Have those of you using 1440p monitors done any specific adjustments for this core?

[jay_amiga]

In my case I have tried to test this new version on two real cd32 (one with tf328 and the other with tf330) passing the hdf image to the CF using the Win32diskimager program and it has not worked in either case.

I have used exactly the same method and program to burn the image to the CF that I used in the previous version.
With the previous release it worked perfectly on the real cd32 without touching anything. (older ones needed some modification) but team improved direct compatibility

Could there have been some change in the startup sequence that affects so that it does not boot into the machine?

What appears is the image of the logo with the cd, as if the cf did not exist, no type of error appears, it is strange.

[high-5]

Hi, I am especially interested in 4 players simultaneous games. Belive I once saw a MegaAGS list with all multiplayer games sorted by number of players but cant find it any longer. Does it exist or am I getting old?

[tgm0]

Hi, I am especially interested in 4 players simultaneous games. Belive I once saw a MegaAGS list with all multiplayer games sorted by number of players but cant find it any longer. Does it exist or am I getting old?

You either look under the Multiplayer section and check games info individually or you also have a selection under the Curated / Alex Limi's Collection / Multiplayer and here games have been renamed to have a [4P] in front of their names.

[limi]

In my case I have tried to test this new version on two real cd32 (one with tf328 and the other with tf330) passing the hdf image to the CF using the Win32diskimager program and it has not worked in either case.

I have used exactly the same method and program to burn the image to the CF that I used in the previous version.
With the previous release it worked perfectly on the real cd32 without touching anything. (older ones needed some modification) but team improved direct compatibility

Could there have been some change in the startup sequence that affects so that it does not boot into the machine?

What appears is the image of the logo with the cd, as if the cf did not exist, no type of error appears, it is strange.

That’s very interesting, thank you. I’m trying to figure out why the current setup doesn’t work when written directly to an SD card, but it’s time-consuming since I don’t have my real Amigas in my current location. Do you happen to remember which version worked for you? Trying to narrow things down, since I have tried a lot of adjustments to the file system configuration, but nothing seems to make a difference.

It’s unlikely to be the startup sequence, since it doesn’t get that far. Current hypothesis is that it's something about the drive geometry or other aspects of the file system setup.

[limi]

Oh, and if you (or anyone else with original hardware) is willing to help test, send me a DM, and we can coordinate. We are testing a couple of different changes that may fix it, and need help verifying.

[jay_amiga]

Hello, well, the last distribution that I had installed on the cd32 was 11.11.2022, working perfectly without touching anything.
I remember that in previous ones I had to delete some lines of the startup sequence referring to mister so that it started well but since 11.11.2022 it already had compatibility from the beginning

Indeed, it would not be the new startup sequence since I just tried passing the HDF to the CF and I have tried starting the CF from a PC card reader with Winuae and it has worked!
So this makes it more strange, since the SAME CF is booting from the pc drive with winuae, but it doesn't boot from cd32

Now I have just tried in A1200 it IS working,so the problem seems to be the boot in cd32

I will try again in cd32 and we continue talking

[limi]

[…] the last distribution that I had installed on the cd32 was 11.11.2022, working perfectly without touching anything.I remember that in previous ones I had to delete some lines of the startup sequence referring to mister so that it started well but since 11.11.2022 it already had compatibility from the beginning

Now I have just tried in A1200 it IS working,so the problem seems to be the boot in cd32

Wow, that is interesting. I generally expected that it wouldn’t boot on any Amiga if it didn’t boot on the CD32, and we’ve been looking into changes in rdbtool and other parts of the disk geometry, but haven’t found anything that should make this release any different from the last.

So that points to something being different with the way CD32 reads the CF/SD card/image.

Would you mind giving me the full specs of your setups? You mentioned TF accelerators, could you give me the exact setups, the Kickstart versions, and anything else that could be relevant?

Any confirmation of whether the current release boots on real hardware or not from other people with different setups would be great too, if anyone wants to try it on their computers.

[jay_amiga]

Well, the cd32 have the well-known TF 328 and 330 , both machines have the 3.1 rom that comes from the factory.

The A1200 where it has worked has rom 3.1 as it came on the machine this A1200 has only 8mb fast ram, also I have tried another A1200 with TF 030 (using the IDE of the A1200 not TF one )and also it has worked perfectly ,3.1 factory rom also.

The IDE specifications of the TF extensions vary slightly from the standard IDE of the A1200 but it is not clear why this should be a problem.

In one of the cd32s the disk activity light remains on and the CD screen appears and the other without permanent light and the standard initial screen of the cd32 also appears, I have burned the 11.11.2022 again and it works perfectly.

It really is really strange.Like you said, It seems something related to the specific way of these extensions of the cd32 have to read the CF , however, on 11.11.2022 has not been affected.

[limi]

Update: It looks like using AmiTools / rdbtool 0.6.0 instead of 0.7.0 lets it boot on CD32. We will make sure to change the setup to use the older version for upcoming releases, so they can work on CD32 too.

Thanks for the help with testing, jay_amiga!

[limi]

We filed the issue here, for anyone finding this thread while troubleshooting CD32 and TerribleFire issues when creating a hard disk image:

https://github.com/cnvogelg/amitools/issues/183

[limi]

All is well that ends well:

56D53EF8-11AF-46D2-A228-E7A72671BACB_1_102_o.jpeg (742.66 KiB) Viewed 11577 times

[grizzly]

And in a week we have Jay here asking where the week went saying he barely even blinked

[SegaSnatcher]

Great release, but I noticed the Batman Rises Demo hasn't been added yet, hopefully something AmigaVision team will add in the next update.

Not a big deal as I can just run the floppy image for now.

[Optiroc]

Great release, but I noticed the Batman Rises Demo hasn't been added yet, hopefully something AmigaVision team will add in the next update.

Not a big deal as I can just run the floppy image for now.

It uses a custom trackloader so it would need to be adapted to WHDL before it can be added to the main image. I believe it’s in the small selection of ADF images included in the Amiga 500 setup though.

[petarku]

so just to check here, I am using this on my mister and i like it. if i want to burn amiga vision image to SD card and run it on real amiga 1200 what i need to do at this moment in order to work? I am using benq monitor which is syncing on 15khz , would everything by default be in PAL or i should force it all the time through menu?

[limi]

if i want to burn amiga vision image to SD card and run it on real amiga 1200 what i need to do at this moment in order to work?

https://amiga.vision/docs#setup-for-amiga-hardware

I am using benq monitor which is syncing on 15khz , would everything by default be in PAL or i should force it all the time through menu?

Everything is in either PAL or NTSC, depending on what the game should be in. If your monitor only supports one of these, then yes, you have to force it to one or the other.

[petarku]

Thanks limi

What about first main screen, as i understand that is in NTSC . How i would force it to PAL ? Is that explained somewhere how to change?

Everything is in either PAL or NTSC, depending on what the game should be in. If your monitor only supports one of these, then yes, you have to force it to one or the other.

[limi]

What about first main screen, as i understand that is in NTSC . How i would force it to PAL ? Is that explained somewhere how to change?

If you are familiar with the Amiga, the easiest is probably to open DeluxePaint in a PAL 640×256 resolution, then load the AGS:skin-bg.iff and save it in that resolution.

We’ll look into making this a bit simpler in the future, but I highly recommend using NTSC for the menu if your display can handle it, especially as we are moving to the upcoming higher resolution launcher.

[hitm4n]

So Limi, has someone rebuilt all the game and demo screenshots ready for this new hi-res launcher version? Hopefully you have a resource to pull from (Lemon or HOL maybe), but i am willing to help out. In all the versions of AGS i've used, my main 2 wishes have been a more complete game (and demo) library, and proper clear screenshots (biggest bugbear). So i cannot wait for whats to come. 1 request down, game additions to go

While i am posting, i may as well chuck my requests in for game additions. Hopefully others will +1 some of these and some can make it into a future release. Do you do game addition requests? Are you limited to only WHDLoad enabled games? Is there somewhere else you'd like requests to go?

None of these games are in the current WHDLoad collection.
Many are included in DamienD's collection.
Some are included in my unofficial add-on for DamienD's collection. HDF's, ADF's, screenshots included.

4096 (or another nice version of this game)
Act Of War
Bograts
Boulderdash C64 (No One Inc)
Diamond Caves II (Collection)
Drag And Drop Deluxe
DropZone
Friday Night Pool
Hibernated 1 + Directors Cut + Addon
Hillsea Lido
Jelly Othelly
Kastle Kumquat
Klondike Deluxe + Cardsets
LCD Dreams
Lumberjack + variations
The Lost Treasures of Infocom (I have an HDF collection i compiled which expands this set by 10 more Infocom adventures)
Megaball v4.1 + as many boardsets as can be found (I've compiled a set in my Megaball HDF but main game is still v4.0)
Motorola Invaders 2 AGA
Nemac IV
Pacman 500
Plat-Man
Quest For Galaxia
R3 - The Art Of Rocketry + Bonus Levels
Relics Of Deldroneye (And sequels)
Saturday Night Snooker
Scramble 500
Schelobers Quest For A Babe
Sim City 2000
Super Foul Egg
Tapper
Tetren
Timekeepers
Uridium
Valhalla & The Fortress of Eve
Willys Weiry Nightmare
Xevious AGA

All this is so i have a one-stop place for all things Amiga. Currently i have Damien Ds collection with my own addons on an emulation PC. I have MegaAGS on MiSter and i have the regular "load an ADF" ability on the main core for anything else. To have everything in one box, under one menu, a great demo collection and a gameslist including a lot of the great PD stuff available (including new 2022/23 releases) is where i'd love MegaAGS to get to. Heres hoping, i'm keen to help expand the gameslist at least.

[limi]

So Limi, has someone rebuilt all the game and demo screenshots ready for this new hi-res launcher version? Hopefully you have a resource to pull from (Lemon or HOL maybe), but i am willing to help out.

Yes, we have pulled screenshots from openretro.org (with permission) and you can take a look at the files that will end up in the launcher here.

There are bound to be some missing ones — especially since this collection only covers games, so if you’re willing to step up and help us add screenshots, we are always happy to have contributions to the project.

Do you do game addition requests? Are you limited to only WHDLoad enabled games? Is there somewhere else you'd like requests to go?

Yes, we take requests for adding additional configurations, and no, we are not limited to WHDLoad only, we can also add configurations for other games, especially ones that are well-behaved when it comes to the OS.

Requests can be filed in the issue tracker.

If you are handy with Amiga scripting and/or Python scripting, definitely shoot me a DM, and we can coordinate how to do contributions on GitHub.

[hitm4n]

I can grab screenshots via WinUAE on PC but have no Amiga/Python scripting knowledge.
I can also grab demo/game screenshots via MegaAGS if theres a "grab screen" option in Mister?
I output to a 1080p 65" TV over HDMI, if the game runs correctly via MegaAGS and you set me on the right path, then i have some time to give and would enjoy helping the project along. Don't mind churning through games/demos and creating pics.

Should i submit my game addition requests all seperately?

Would it help to offer up some of the HDF collections i've put together? (One was for Poing 7.14 (my Poing HDF included it), but i see on the tracker someone already mentioned it and its now included). Neat. I put all the versions of Poing into one HDF collection, neater i think.

edit// removed some info

[limi]

I can grab screenshots via WinUAE on PC but have no Amiga/Python scripting knowledge.
I can also grab demo/game screenshots via MegaAGS if theres a "grab screen" option in Mister?
I output to a 1080p 65" TV over HDMI, if the game runs correctly via MegaAGS and you set me on the right path, then i have some time to give and would enjoy helping the project along. Don't mind churning through games/demos and creating pics.

Cool, that would be very helpful!

Screenshots need to be exactly 360×288px, 256 color IFF files centered in the frame, and we currently have 3-4 screenshots that cycle, with the first being the title screen. The naming convention is the id from our titles.csv file, e.g. game--1stdivisionmanager--1stdivisionmanager-2.iff.

We will probably want to write some script that identifies the entries that don’t have screenshots yet in the new setup — but since we already know that none of the demos have them yet, you could start there if you want to start with something in the meantime. Note that the correct format for demos would be to start on the -2 suffix, since -1 is reserved for box art, which they do not have.

In other words, load up the demo, take a screenshot of the title screen (or the closest you can find), take an additional screenshot or two of sections that seem interesting, and name them like this:

demo--huntfor7thoctober—huntfor7thoctober-2.iff
demo--huntfor7thoctober—huntfor7thoctober-3.iff
demo--huntfor7thoctober—huntfor7thoctober-4.iff
demo--huntfor7thoctober—huntfor7thoctober-5.iff

(we don’t plan to go any higher than 5 in the setup)

Should i submit my game addition requests all seperately?

A single bug is probably fine, we usually batch up work on these things and add all the configurations at once.