MiSTer FPGA Forum

We are happy to announce that the latest version of AmigaVision is available!

AmigaVision is the ultimate Amiga games & demo scene setup for MiSTer & Pocket FPGAs + emulators — and Amiga 1200, 4000 & CD32.

Internet Support

You can now connect to the Internet from your Amiga, via Wi-Fi or wired connection!

This has been tested and works out of the box on MiSTer — if you are running an emulator or original hardware, the Miami TCP/IP program might need some different settings to work on your setup. Consult the documentation for your Amiga network card or your emulator.

To go online, exit to Workbench, and select Apps → Network → Go Online from the menu.

We have kept the setup as minimal as possible, without installing MUI, web browsers or any of that other craziness — the goal is to give you a working baseline internet connection, so you can decide what you want to install on top of it.

We have included two useful tools in that regard:

• amiget — Command line utility that connects to Aminet, the primary source for free Amiga software. Try amiget -s topaz from the command line (Shell) for an example search, where you can ask it to download files and navigate the search results. Note that we recommend selecting a higher resolution if you can, since the tool uses quite a bit of window space — try 540p if you are on a modern 16:9 display.
• DCTelnet — Connect to BBSes from the Amiga like it's 1992! There are several active Amiga and Commodore 64 Bulletin Board Systems that are still active, where you can talk to fellow retro system enthusiasts. A refreshing alternative to social media!

Remember that you can install additional apps to your Saves: drive to make them survive future upgrades.

CD³² Launcher for MiSTer

• Separate CD32 launcher was added to MiSTer's main core selection menu under Console, and will allow you to go straight into the CD³² setup. You can put CD³² disc images in games/AmigaCD32.
• AmigaVision launcher entry is now optional, you can add it back into the menu in "Options" if you have a MiSTer.
• There is now a dedicated section on setting up and launching CD32 games in the documentation.

We maintain a CD32 on MiSTer compatibility spreadsheet that also contains any special settings needed for a given game, if any. The majority of the CD³² games work — at time of this release, 134 out of 161 games are playable.

General Improvements

• Default setup now starts in NTSC instead of the resulting PAL → NTSC → PAL switching that was the case in the past, to cut down on any delays when booting the setup. All games will of course run in their correct PAL or NTSC resolutions (depending on origin of the game developer) as before, this is just to avoid the 1-2 second sync wait that is common on TVs and monitors every time a new resolution is applied. As has always been the case, we default the launcher to NTSC for maximum compatibility with e.g. US consumer CRT TVs, since these often can't handle PAL.
• Old-school LCD monitors that run in a 1280×1024 (5:4) resolution are pretty common, so we added a preset for this resolution to the Screen Mode menu in Workbench.

Note on Upgrading

As always, do a complete clean install when upgrading, including adding the new MiSTer.ini settings if you are using that platform, as well as copying the config files.

This is especially important in this release to support both CD32 launcher presets, as well as PPP support for Internet.

There is a dedicated section in the documentation on upgrading.

100 Additional Games Now in Correct NTSC 5:6 Pixel Aspect Ratio

The AmigaVision project cares obsessively about making sure NTSC & PAL scaling and pixel aspect ratios are correct! We have identified another 100 games that should be rendered with the NTSC 5:6 Pixel Aspect Ratio — the following 100 games have been updated with the correct settings:

• 4x4 Off-Road Racing
• ABC Monday Night Football
• Adventure Construction Set
• After Burner (Sega)
• Alien Fires 2199 A.D.
• Alien Syndrome
• Amiga Karate
• Archon: The Light and the Dark
• Archon II: Adept
• Arcticfox
• Arkanoid
• The Bard's Tale: Tales of the Unknown
• Battleship
• BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception
• Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
• Blue Angels: Formation Flight Simulation
• Breach
• Bubble Bobble
• Buck Rogers XXVc: Countdown to Doomsday
• Castle of Dr. Brain
• Castle of Dr. Brain (MT-32)
• Centurion: Defender of Rome
• The Chessmaster 2100
• Cosmic Relief: Prof. Renegade to the Rescue
• Das Boot
• DeathBringer (Spotlight)
• Deja Vu: A Nightmare Comes True!!
• Downhill Challenge
• Dragon Lord
• Dragon's Lair & Escape From Singe's Castle
• DragonStrike
• Dr. Doom's Revenge!
• EbonStar
• F-19 Stealth Fighter
• Falcon
• Fighter Duel Pro
• Fighting Soccer
• Final Assault
• Four Crystals of Trazere
• Four Crystals of Trazere (Get Legends Save Disk)
• Gunship
• Hacker
• HardBall II
• Hare Raising Havoc
• Harrier Combat Simulator
• Keef the Thief: A Boy and His Lockpick
• King's Bounty
• Links: The Challenge of Golf
• Little Computer People: House-On-A-Disk
• Manhunter 2: San Francisco
• Mind Walker
• Moebius
• Monkey Business
• MouseQuest
• Nuclear War
• Ogre
• One on One
• Out Run
• Over the Net
• Paladin
• Peter Beardsley's International Football
• Pioneer Plague
• Platoon
• Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel
• Police Quest III: The Kindred
• Police Quest III: The Kindred (MT-32)
• Prince of Persia
• Qix: The 'Computer Virus' Game
• Rambo III
• Red Lightning
• Seven Cities of Gold
• Shanghai
• Silent Service II
• Silicon Dreams
• SimCity
• Skyfox
• Spacecutter
• Space Harrier
• Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter
• Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers
• Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers (MT-32)
• Spacewrecked: 14 Billion Light Years From Earth
• Spirit of Excalibur
• Stellar 7
• Street Sports Basketball
• Sub Battle Simulator
• Sword of Aragon
• Thunder Blade
• Total Eclipse
• Treasures of the Savage Frontier
• Turbo Sprint
• Typhoon Thompson in Search for the Sea Child
• Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
• Universe 3
• Vortex
• Windwalker
• Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
• World Games
• Zany Golf
• Amiga Dealer Demo

32 Games Now in Correct PAL Format

Additionally, there were 32 PAL format games that were erroneously configured to run in NTSC, this has been fixed. The following games now run in PAL, and have hand-tuned 5×PAL Dynamic Crop settings:

• Aquaventura
• Archipelagos
• Arena
• Armour-geddon
• Back to the Future Part 3
• Better Dead Than Alien
• Bill's Tomato Game
• Carthage
• Chips Challenge
• Cluedo: Master Detective
• Cosmo Ranger
• Cytron
• Damocles
• Dark Castle
• Dark Side
• Elf (Ocean)
• Full Metal Planete
• Ghostbusters 2
• Golden Axe
• Hybris
• Killing Cloud
• Laser Squad
• Nightdawn
• Plague
• Plan 9 From Outer Space
• Plutos
• Prison
• Spaceball
• Super Off Road
• Super Space Invaders
• Theme Park Mystery
• Tip-Off

Game Additions & Updates

AmigaVision now contains 4395 hand-tuned game and demo configurations.

Configurations are current with WHDLoad as of 2024.10.02, 50 games have been added or fixed:

• A320 Airbus
• A320 Airbus Edition Europa
• A320 Airbus Edition USA
• A320 Airbus Vol 2
• AirSupply
• Amidar
• Arcade Fruit Machine
• Aventura Espacial (Spanish)
• Aventura Original (Spanish)
• Blades Of Steel
• Celtic Heart
• Centerbase
• Clown-O-Mania
• Diosa De Cozumel (Spanish)
• DonkeyKong
• Doody
• Drip
• DynaBlaster
• Elevator Action
• Galaga
• HammerBoy
• Heimdall
• Heimdall (German)
• Heimdall (Spanish)
• Heimdall (French)
• Humans 2
• Humans 2 (German)
• Little Princess
• Little Princess2
• Mikro Mortal Tennis
• Ms. PacMan
• Rectangle
• Seelenturm (German)
• SexyDroids
• SpaceHarrier2
• Sqrxz2
• Sqrxz3
• Sqrxz4
• Super Gem'Z
• Tapper
• Tech
• Tetris AGA
• Tower of Souls
• Treasure Trap 2
• Trex Warrior
• Trolls
• Tubular Worlds
• Violator
• Willy The Kid (German)
• Windwalker 2

Arcadia Systems Arcade Category

Arcadia was an unsuccessful venture by Mastertronic to create an Amiga 500-based multi-game arcade system. In honor of the recent Arcadia restoration videos from RMC Retro, we have added a category for these games.

AmigaVision has had configurations for these games since the start, but you can now easily find them all under Special Hardware → Arcadia Systems in the launcher. The games are not great (to put it kindly), but are an interesting curiosity.

There is also documentation on how to operate the games.

PiStorm Compatibility

If you use original Amiga hardware, you may be familiar with the PiStorm project, where an expansion board that fits a Raspberry Pi for software CPU emulation (among other capabilities) can be added to original Amiga hardware to give a massive speed boost, as well as HDMI output and SD card support for hard drives.

We identified a problem with PiStorm's SCSI emulation support that would block AmigaVision from working on it, and through the assistance of their development team, verified a fix that could be included in the upcoming release.

If you have a PiStorm installed in your Amiga, their latest 1.0.4 release includes this fix.

Also, make sure you install the WHDLoad PiStorm Wrapper to apply PiStorm-specific configuration options when running games and demos.

Demo Scene Productions

We have a lot of love for the — still active! — Amiga demo scene! We arranged a few demo parties ourselves back in the 90s, and are always looking for exciting demos we can add to AmigaVision.

Recently, there was a demo party in Berlin, and we have added a few entries from the demo competition there, as well as some classics.

This release adds the following demos & disk magazines to the AmigaVision launcher:

• The Evil Forces — “Digital Noize 2”
• Old Bulls — “Moments”
• Grapevine 17

…and if you boot up the Amiga 500 setup, you will be able to enjoy these demos straight from floppy disk images from the Deadline 2024 party in Berlin:

• Desire — Inside the Machine
• Spreadpoint — 4FX

"Inside the Machine" is especially recommended, some excellent demo scene hardware trickery going on there, along with a banging soundtrack!

Greetings

In traditional Amiga demo scene parlance, "greetings" are a way to express gratitude and admiration for other demo groups or for help they have contributed — this release has been helped very much by our testers and contributors:

• Iain — for catching several CD32 configuration mistakes before release, and overall testing & feedback.
• hitm4n — for continuing to contribute high resolution screenshots for the upcoming new launcher.
• rsn8887 — for always ensuring that PAL and NTSC titles run with the correct settings, as well as helping debug the Internet setup.

Stay Updated & Help Us Make AmigaVision Even Better

If you find any bugs or settings that need improvements, file a ticket on the AmigaVision web site.

AmigaVision is an open source project, and we welcome contributions from the community.

You can follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon or via RSS, and updates will be posted when new releases happen.

Enjoy the best of what the Amiga platform has to offer!

Amazing, thank you.

limi wrote: ↑Sun Nov 10, 2024 11:50 pm

• Default setup now starts in NTSC instead of the resulting PAL → NTSC → PAL switching that was the case in the past, to cut down on any delays when booting the setup. All games will of course run in their correct PAL or NTSC resolutions (depending on origin of the game developer) as before, this is just to avoid the 1-2 second sync wait that is common on TVs and monitors every time a new resolution is applied. We default the launcher to NTSC for maximum compatibility with e.g. US consumer CRT TVs, since these often can't handle PAL.

May I please appeal this one for future AV releases? I certainly appreciate the thought behind not wanting to bounce sync so much, but starting in PAL and staying in PAL for the launcher would actually make a lot more sense. It's not that I'm not sensitive to those with NTSC-locked displays (I was one of them for MANY years!), but the frank reality is that most - and most significant - Amiga titles were created by European studios and are intended for play in PAL. Thus, even if you solve launcher 'issues' for NTSC displays, it still renders the vast majority of the library effectively unplayable (due to both timing and resolution).

Furthermore, making this change makes the 1:1 nature of the launcher screenshots now completely incorrect, which creates a new version of the very aspect ratio you're hoping to avoid in-game.

To be frank, anyone in NTSC-land gaming in 2024 on a CRT is VERY likely to have a multiscan monitor that can handle both, and if they don't, they are almost certainly on real hardware. I'm just not convinced the value proposition is there to make life worse for the majority to support a tiny minority (again, said as a lifelong US Amiga user! lol).

All that aside, thanks again for yet another absolutely amazing release!

rhester72 wrote: ↑Mon Nov 11, 2024 5:35 am

May I please appeal this one for future AV releases? I certainly appreciate the thought behind not wanting to bounce sync so much, but starting in PAL and staying in PAL for the launcher would actually make a lot more sense. It's not that I'm not sensitive to those with NTSC-locked displays (I was one of them for MANY years!), but the frank reality is that most - and most significant - Amiga titles were created by European studios and are intended for play in PAL. Thus, even if you solve launcher 'issues' for NTSC displays, it still renders the vast majority of the library effectively unplayable (due to both timing and resolution).

There is no change to how the games run (they will have the correct PAL or NTSC setting, like before), and there is also no change to the launcher, which always ran in NTSC.

The only thing that has changed here is that the resolution will not bounce from MiSTer’s NTSC default, to PAL, then back to NTSC when showing the launcher, and then back to PAL again when selecting a game, then back to NTSC (if you launched an NTSC game).

It now stays in NTSC from MiSTer’s menu, to Kickstart, to boot, to launcher, to showing the WHDLoad screen, and then switches to PAL if you launched a PAL game, or to NTSC with 5:6 PAR if you launched an NTSC game.

Again, no change to how the games are run, just a simple optimization to avoid unnecessary mode switching on booting and selecting a game, which tends to de-sync multiple times for 1-2 seconds on HDMI displays. This simply ensures you get to your game selection and game launch as quickly as possible without waiting for re-syncs

Furthermore, making this change makes the 1:1 nature of the launcher screenshots now completely incorrect, which creates a new version of the very aspect ratio you're hoping to avoid in-game.

No, the Pixel Aspect Ratio in the NTSC launcher is specifically at 1:1 via HDMI, the NTSC PAR then switches to 5:6 when loading an NTSC game. The launcher has always been NTSC, and yes — you could argue that it is somewhat incorrect on CRT only — but we have always accepted that trade-off. Nothing has changed on that front.

To be frank, anyone in NTSC-land gaming in 2024 on a CRT is VERY likely to have a multiscan monitor that can handle both, and if they don't, they are almost certainly on real hardware. I'm just not convinced the value proposition is there to make life worse for the majority to support a tiny minority (again, said as a lifelong US Amiga user! lol).

The launcher not being visible at all if you happen to use a US consumer CRT with your MiSTer is not an acceptable trade-off for us, which is why it has always launched in NTSC. No change to that in this release.

All that aside, thanks again for yet another absolutely amazing release!

Thanks!

This is amazing stuff! Thanks for all your hard work!
Time to update the Amiga portion of the MiSTer!

Say, I noticed you included Spanish, German, French versions of certain games in there. I don't know if there's a place to make requests, but I would love it if you added the original French version of Cruise for a Corpse (Croisière pour un cadavre) in the collection eventually; I always found the English translation to be so-so.

limi wrote: ↑Mon Nov 11, 2024 6:56 am

There is no change to how the games run (they will have the correct PAL or NTSC setting, like before), and there is also no change to the launcher, which always ran in NTSC.

My apologies - somehow after all this time, I never noticed the launcher ran in NTSC in the first place! LOL Carry on. =)

limi wrote: ↑Sun Nov 10, 2024 11:50 pm

We are happy to announce that the latest version of [AmigaVision] is available!

AmigaVision is the ultimate Amiga games & demo scene setup for MiSTer & Pocket FPGAs + emulators — and Amiga 1200, 4000 & CD32.

I just need to do a post to thank you for all your work ( and in honesty a little pop for my non-commerical and non-monitized channel https://www.youtube.com/GentlemensPixelClub ).

I do not know if you are a one-man band, but the work that you put into this is astounding and over the years you are the source that I use on the channel for Amiga games using your platform. I usually take AmigaVision for granted but have just read through the change notes you have here, I am blown away.

On reflection, the removal of all hassle of setting verything up and just being able to upload this to the MiSTer and play is a god send and I thank you for this.

I cannot estimate the amount of time and effort it has taken to bring this collection together and figure there must be a way to give back to you ?

Do you have any donation or support links where we can chuck you a few quid - or is there anything that those of us wish support you can do ?

YOU make enjoying the Amiga experience easy - thank you.

Many thanks for the new updated version - look forward to having a good play at the weekend!!!

Djiem wrote: ↑Mon Nov 11, 2024 12:59 pm

I would love it if you added the original French version of Cruise for a Corpse (Croisière pour un cadavre) in the collection eventually; I always found the English translation to be so-so.

It has been there for quite a while already

Incredible work as always! I especially love the new CD32 "core".

Re: Internet, what am I doing wrong here? I selected "Go online" from the menu, then opened Miami. It had the "Configuring PPP level LDP Please Wait…" window up and then after a few seconds shows the error below…

I've never used Miami before, and have only experimented briefly getting my real Amiga online (before abandoning the idea), but I'm interested in checking it out again.

markpaterson wrote: ↑Mon Nov 11, 2024 6:28 pm

Re: Internet, what am I doing wrong here? I selected "Go online" from the menu, then opened Miami. It had the "Configuring PPP level LDP Please Wait…" window up and then after a few seconds shows the error below…

Did you do a clean reinstall, including the .cfg files? It may not have a serial connection set up.

rhester72 wrote: ↑Mon Nov 11, 2024 5:35 am

Thus, even if you solve launcher 'issues' for NTSC displays, it still renders the vast majority of the library effectively unplayable (due to both timing and resolution).

There's a "force NTSC" option and it works on many (though not all) games, enough so you're not locked out of the "vast majority" at least. Seems more like wanting to display > 200px tall is the bigger hangup than timing (which is very loose anyway running AGA chipset on Mister)

To be frank, anyone in NTSC-land gaming in 2024 on a CRT is VERY likely to have a multiscan monitor that can handle both, and if they don't, they are almost certainly on real hardware. I'm just not convinced the value proposition is there to make life worse for the majority to support a tiny minority (again, said as a lifelong US Amiga user! lol).

So its somehow gotten easier to find 50hz CRTs now in America when no-one has been making the things for decades?

I believe the points in my reply were accepted as valid once what is actually happening was clarified, let’s not turn this into a discussion on CRT availability

markpaterson wrote: ↑Mon Nov 11, 2024 6:28 pm

Incredible work as always! I especially love the new CD32 "core".

Re: Internet, what am I doing wrong here? I selected "Go online" from the menu, then opened Miami. It had the "Configuring PPP level LDP Please Wait…" window up and then after a few seconds shows the error below…

Miami error.jpg

I've never used Miami before, and have only experimented briefly getting my real Amiga online (before abandoning the idea), but I'm interested in checking it out again.

I remember having trouble with this before and found it was because the MiSTer needs to commandeer an IP (I think it's x.x.x.254) to bridge the core to the network. I had a device on that IP and it caused a conflict.

This needs confirming though as it was a long time ago.

Should not be necessary as far as I know — it worked fine for me and our testers without it. Worth a try once you have ruled out the serial connection setup and internet connectivity for the MiSTer itself, of course. And yes, local network topology might have IP conflicts, NAT bridging or a thousand other things going on unrelated to the Amiga side of things.

limi wrote: ↑Tue Nov 12, 2024 1:23 am

markpaterson wrote: ↑Mon Nov 11, 2024 6:28 pm

Re: Internet, what am I doing wrong here? I selected "Go online" from the menu, then opened Miami. It had the "Configuring PPP level LDP Please Wait…" window up and then after a few seconds shows the error below…

Did you do a clean reinstall, including the .cfg files? It may not have a serial connection set up.

I copied the contents of the config folder folder to my sd card, overwriting everything. My UART is set to PPP, 115200 Baud. I also don't have any LAN device on X.X.X.254. Curious if any one else is having this problem or just me.

Knowing my luck, I'd log onto a BBS, undms the disk to find the LAmer Exterminator virus on it.
Happy days of trading, white and blue boxing, Quartex, Fairlight, Crystal parties etc.

FoxbatStargazer wrote: ↑Tue Nov 12, 2024 4:29 am

So its somehow gotten easier to find 50hz CRTs now in America when no-one has been making the things for decades?

I won't belabor the point, but it was never particularly difficult. Even the 1084S (not P) could autoswitch.

great stuff as always. i love that OG alien breed is now in the collection.
i have only one "but" please, for a love of god, change pinball fantasies AGA version with the CD32 one (PinballFantasies_v3.2_CD32.lha). CD32 version includes all the intros and the original table choosing menu (not like command line from AGA) but most important it includes one of the most iconic amiga intro tunes of all times: Olof Gustafsson's - Steel Chambers 2.
of course all the graphics are AGA still what makes this version ultimate way to play this game.
thank you very much
cheers

PS
quick note: press F11 to toggle tables

xFlesk wrote: ↑Tue Nov 12, 2024 8:15 pm

change pinball fantasies AGA version with the CD32 one (PinballFantasies_v3.2_CD32.lha). CD32 version includes all the intros and the original table choosing menu (not like command line from AGA) but most important it includes one of the most iconic amiga intro tunes of all times: Olof Gustafsson's - Steel Chambers 2.

Done! I was wondering where the intro went, but I guess they released the AGA version without it and just had a command line selector for tables instead, weird. I grew up on the ECS version, so I was used to having the intro and music, thanks!

which version of Chaos Engine is on AmigaVision. The darker tones on the OCS version feels right.

OCS/ECS, of course. The AGA version is an abomination

Many thanks, as always, this really is a fantastic collection. I like that it works so well relying on the Amiga hardware to provide the UI. I like this approach much more then something like Gamebase. Don't get me wrong having all the adverts, manuals, boxscans, etc. from a good GB collection is a fun thing too, but having the whole Amiga history on the Amiga itself is hard to beat in my opinion.

Chris23235 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 14, 2024 9:18 pm

I like that it works so well relying on the Amiga hardware to provide the UI. I like this approach much more then something like Gamebase. Don't get me wrong having all the adverts, manuals, boxscans, etc. from a good GB collection is a fun thing too, but having the whole Amiga history on the Amiga itself is hard to beat in my opinion.

Then we definitely have something exciting coming your way in the near future

I tried the CD32 version of All Terrain Racing. I found the title screen slightly corrupted, and the game crashed the Mister after a minute on the first track. Just curious if anybody else is seeing this as the game is marked as working on the compatibility sheet?

Cheers!

punking wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2024 2:55 pm

I tried the CD32 version of All Terrain Racing. I found the title screen slightly corrupted, and the game crashed the Mister after a minute on the first track. Just curious if anybody else is seeing this as the game is marked as working on the compatibility sheet?

Cheers!

Just gave it a try, some of the menu texts look slightly distorted, but I don't know how they should look like on real hardware. I just tried the Canyon track and the Amiga crashed after about 1 minute (was it the whole MiSTer for you or the simulated Amiga? In my case the system crashed and I got a Guru meditation).

Thanks for the updates, will test it and adjust the spreadsheet accordingly.