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Download PDFWhatIFF? Issue 2.12
TopWhatIFF? For The Creative Amiga User
CONTENTS WhatIFF? Issue 2.12 December 2023 +#### #### ###%## +####+########+########+ +####+ `#+ `## #' ## `## `##+ +#+ `##+ +#+ +##+ +#+ ## ## # +#+ +#+ +#+ #' +#+ #' +#' ## ## ## +# ## # ## ## + ## + +#+ +#+ +## #+ ## %#. ## ## +# ## +# ## ## ###+ # ##+#+ +#.## #### ## ##### ##### ##' ## #+## # #####+ ##+### +# ## ## +# ## +# +#' +#+# ##+# ##'+## +#+ ## ## ## ## + ## + #+ ..:###.###+.+#+ ## ## #+ +#+ +#+ +#+ +#+ +' ::::##+:###::##::+##:##+:+#..##..##'..##'......##'............. :::::+#::+#+::##::##+%+##:###%##:;##:::##:::::::##:::::::::::##::::.. `::::#:::#:::#+::+##::+##+ #:+######+####+:::+####+:::::::::##::aNdy; ..;::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::;' .::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::;' `:::::::::; ,:::::::::::::::::;'`.::::::::::::::::::::;' `:::::; :::::::::::::::;' `::::;' For The Creative Amiga User! `:::::::::;' >> ENTER MAGAZINE <<TopWelcome to WhatIFF?
CONTENTS ============================================================================ -# WhatIFF? - Issue 2.12 - December 2023 #- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --EDITORS DESK-- -MEET THE WRITERS-- A few word from the current editor about the magazine. ---SHELL TALK--- A place for WhatIFF? writers and readers to air out their Amiga laundry or just talk about anything Amiga related! -----REVIEWS---- ---GAME REVIEWS---- Reviews of hardware and software, old and new covered. -----GUIDES----- -----ARTICLES------ Guides and support to all things Amiga. -TALKING AMIGA-- Hear from the people making hardware and software for the Amiga. -----LINKS------ ---AMIGA VENDORS--- ---AMIGA GROUPS---- Amiga related links and Amiga vendor websites. -ADVERTISEMENTS- Vendor advertisements and more. -INVENTS CORNER- ---COVER DISK--- Get the latest from Kevin and find out whats on this issue's coverdisk. --------===============================================================----- NEXT ISSUE *All content copyright of the respective authors 2023* --------===============================================================-----TopFrom The Editor's Desk
CONTENTS ============================================================================ From The Editor's Desk - by: Timo Paul ============================================================================ As I sit here and write this I am sitting on a brand new chair, it is thanks to my wife's help that I was able to buy a used company chair, which are generally much more expensive than the ones sold on Amazon. While I have lived in Japan for over 17 years and learnt the lanuage up to a point, there is still much to learn and I will inevitably need the help my Japanese wife can provide. I see WhatIFF? in much the same way. While there are the Amiga users who have used their machines non-stop and are now Amiga wizards, there are others who are new to the machine, those who are returning or those who just need some help in recalling how to do something. WhatIFF? is here to help them use their Amiga better be they a new user or experienced user, I hope that WhatIFF? can be of help to them much like my wife has been a help to me when I struggle with Japanese. This issue has some great features with some more guides on using the verstatile PiStorm, fixing booting errors with the A314-CP, creating 3D graphics with a word processor and more. We have a look at two RGB2HDMI solutions and the latest version of the Furia. Ivan Sorensen takes us on a philosophical journey with the Amiga and also has some time to fit in some game reviews. Finally but not least we have interviews with Andy Vaisey the developer of the game Spheroid and who has also given us as an exclusive Xmas demo with 15 levels, Rob Cranley the creator of DrawerGenie and Migel Fides, creator of the Trinity accelerator card. And that is not all but I do want to keep you, so before I wrap up I just want to thank all the writers and contributors over this year. The magazine has grown into something very special thanks to your hard work. Finally thank you to everyone who has downloaded and read the magazine, it means a lot to hear your comments. Right, now I am finished! Enjoy reading the magazine and also don'T forget to play the Xmas demo of Spheroid, hopefully it will take you back to days of Amiga and winter holidays.TopFree For All About Anything
CONTENTS ============================================================================ Shell Talk - by: Timo Paul ============================================================================ Unfortunately we have not got all of our writers back on board since we changed from a Discord channel to a forum. So for this issue I will be taking over Shell Talk. And what I want to talk about is going to be quite controversial, the PiStorm. First off I want to say that I love the PiStorm is has made my Amiga into a super Amiga with speed beyond my imagining, RTG support on the A1200 and hopefully networking in the future. However I had a strange moment recently that caused me to put the PiStorm away back into its box and put my TF1260 back in again. About two weeks ago I was having a look at the DarkForces Amiga conversion and was about to have it up and running on my Amiga. At the time I had the PiStorm installed and the Amiga was flying through everything like usual. Once the game was loaded and I started to play for a few moments, after a short while I stopped and realised that something was missing. Usuall when I play a 3D game or something that has been ported to the Amiga, I am impressed. But this time there was no 'Wow!' moment, it just felt as it should. It then struck me that the way I viewed my Amiga now was differently with the PiStorm installed. With the PiStorm I know that the main driver of the CPU is a brand new RaspberryPi that is many more times powerful than any Amiga ever made. With this also came the notion that the Amiga will of course be fast enough to play the game, there will not be any slow down as my Amiga is running at something like 1.4ghz. This knowledge that my Amiga can power through anything because it has a modern mini computer inside took away the 'fun' element of using the Amiga. It became in other words and an emulated Amiga and with that notion the idea that it should be able to do anything now. I decided to swap the PiStorm for my TF1260 and tried DarkForces again and it was a different experience. Most likely I did not expect or know the 060 will fly through everything as it is not a modern processor. It made the surprise of DarkForces running well a more enjoyable experience. I do not want to take anything away from what the PiStorm has achieved and does but I realised it has taken some of the magic away, for me at least, of using an Amiga. Saying that,if I had another A1200 I would put a PiStorm into it but as I have only one A1200 the TF1260 provides a more fun and surprising Amiga experience. How do you feel when you run a taxing game or application with a PiStorm vs a 'real' CPU?TopWelcome to the reviews section!
CONTENTS ============================================================================ -= R E V I E W S =---------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -= Hardware Review: RGB2HDMI Adapters for the A600 =- If you are undecided about the RGB2HDMI adapters, we have a look at two of them to help you decide if this is an essential purchase. -= Hardware Review: Furia =- The Furia has gotten a bad rap over the years for being unstable and causing fury to those who bought one, we have a look at the latest version to see if these issues are a part of the past. -= Software Review: DrawerGenie =- Commodities targeted at OS3.2 systems have been slow to appear on the Amiga however we take a look at a new tool released on Aminet that just might change how you use Workbench 3.2 forever. -= Software Reviews: Aminet Goodies =- Aminet top selection, each issue will feature a different contributor. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Reviews - WhatIFF? Issue 2.12 - December 2023#TopHardware review: RGB2HDMI Adapters for the A600
Reviews ============================================================================ Hardware Review:RGB2HDMI Adapters for the A600 - by Timo Paul ============================================================================ Product Name RGB2HDMI PiggyBackNotV3 Developed By Ian SB Available From amiga-shop.net amigstore.eu retropassion.co.uk progammatory.archi-tech.pl Price 25-90 EUR Hardware/Software Requirements Amiga 600 Test Machine Amiga 600/3.1 Review The humble A600 has not had much love from WhatIFF? over the last two years so I thought with this being our 2nd year it is time to put the A600 in the limelight. In this review we will be looking at two varients of the RGB2HDMI adapter: PiggyBackNot V3 and the standard board. 10 years ago I had my A600 connected to an Indivision ECS via the expansion port, this card worked flawlessly and gave a great picture even though it was from the VGA port. Sadly as is per usual for an Amiga user, the A600 was sold off to pay off for some other Amiga hardware and now having obtained an A600 again I am in the position of needing a way to get video out from my A600. While I would like to use an Indivision again, they are very hard to come by and do not offer the more common HDMI connector. So the RGB2HDMI seemed perfect. What you need to consider when buying one first is if you have or want to have an accelerator/extra ram in your A600. If so then your only choice is the PiggyBackNot V3 or the other varients that have the flex cable. So to begin with, let{s have a look at the PiggyBackNot V3. PiggyBackNot V3 Unlike the "standard" RGB2HDMI adapters the PiggyBackNot V3 from now on, PBNV3, does not have the Pi sitting on or close to the Denise. Instead in a nod to the Indivision, it has the Pi sitting on a board plugged into the expansion trapdoor port. This has the added benefit of giving you more space in the A600, better support for the Pi and less pressure on the Denise chip. The board also provides 1Mb extra chip ram, 3 clockports, a realtime clock chip and battery slot (Be careful how you orient the RTC chip or you risk damaging the board). The board connects to the Denise via a flex cable, the adapter sits snuggly onto the Denise and clips in with a satisfying click. It should be noted that the connectors are not very strong unlike the Indivision AGA, so if you remove the board more than two times it is highly likely the adapter lose it{s tightness and you will not get a picture. This unfortunately happened to me when I was testing both boards. The great part of this design, is that it allows you to add any accelerator or memory expansion card that goes over the CPU but it also makes for a fragile design. The flex cables are very thin and the connectors between the Denise adapter and HDMI can be easily broken. I suggest using a magnifying glass or if you wear glasses take them off to have a close look. Use as little force as possible, the travel of the locking mechanism is very short and moves suddenly when lose. Otherwise the PBNV3 is a very tidy solution to getting video out of your Amiga and comes with the bonus of 1Mb chip ram, extra clockports and a RTC socket. Standard Adapter This seems to be the most common and earliest variant of the RGB2HDMI, rectangle in shape the Pi sits a top the card at a horizontal angle to the Denise. There are other versions where it has been turned vertically but I have not been able to obtain that version yet. Compared to the PiggyBackNotV3, this is much simpler to install but it also puts a bit more pressure onto the Denise. I also found the connection to be quite squishy, any small amount of pressure and the board would pop off. I had tried to use the male mini HDMI to female HDMI adapter that was sent by Amigastore.ey and the part that plugs into the Pi was pushing on my low profile CF adapter, this caused the adapter to pop off any time I moved the Amiga or plugged in the HDMI cable. Not an ideal situation at all. There is a solution to this though, if you have already removed your RF modulator you can install a female HDMI port that will connected with a flex cable. Due to the angle of the standard HDMI2RGB board you need to find a male mini HDMI cable that is straight, and not the angled one. However I believe the angled type will work on the PBNV3 though. Once again you need to be careful with the Denise connector, like the PBNV3 the connector will wear out after one or two times of attaching to the Dense chip, it is really a one way trip whe putting on the board so make sure you have planned all your cabling in advance. Picture Quality Compared to my Indivision ECS the RGB2HDMI does an incredible job, the picture looks as if it is coming from an emulator. I have not seen a real Amiga 600 output such a bright and crisp image before. To give you an idea, when I used the Indivision, I could still see artifacts and waving on the picture. With the RGB2HDMI the picture solid and smooth. It seems the card does not support the more exotic resolutions though which the Indvision cards do but if you are happy to just run in the default PAl HiRes or HiRes Laced then this card cannot be beat in quality and price. Changing settings is a breeze with the button, one short press to move through the menus and one long press to select. There are many settings, from turning on and off scanlines, setting it for a different system, herz settings etc. There seems to be a lot to what is possible with the RGB2HDMI. Installation of the firmware is a simple download from the RGB2HDMI website and then use the RaspberryPiSDCardInstaller to set up the card. Final Thoughts The RGB2HDMI is one of the best upgrades you can get for your A600, it makes using the system so much nicer. I would like to have seen a more sturdy build regarding the Denise adapters, this is something the manufacters could learn from the Indivision cards. Aside from this issue the cards are very nicely made and it is great there are a variety of types available for those who have fastram/accelerator and those who want to keep their Amigas stock but still use a modern display.TopHardware review: Furia Amiga 600 Accelerator
Reviews ============================================================================ Hardware Review: Furia Amiga 600 Accelerator - by Timo Paul ============================================================================ Product Name Furia A600 Accelerator PCB rev.3 Firmware v13.1 Developed By Boris Krizma Available From amiga-shop.net amigstore.eu retropassion.co.uk lotharek.pl Price 130 EUR Hardware/Software Requirements Amiga 600 Test Machine Amiga 600/3.1 Review A Bit of a Reputation It was a with a bit of trepidation that I put the Furia into the shopping cart and paid. If you are on any of the Amiga boards you will have seen the numerous threads asking for help with the Furia. It seems to be a magical beast who grants it{s power to only those few it deems are worthy of it. On paper the card looks very nice: * 680EC020 at 33Mhz * MC68882 FPU at 40Mhz * 9.5Mb of RAM * PCMCIA friendly * Maprom ability A very robust set of features that will make your Amiga 600 sing and fly while doing tasks. The version that I received was the lastest revision with a black board instead of the red and white versions. As a precaution I also bought a *compatible* CF and SD card from Amigastore.eu, they came preinstalled with Workbench. The Board Itself The board is pretty large and covers a large portion of the motherboard, if you have an RGB2HDMI then you will need the versions that have the flex cable or the PiggyBackNotV3. There is a massive heatsink that covers most of the board with a jumper near the bottom to control the speed of the IDE interface. It clicks on with a very nice click, and if you want to (but I do not recommend doing so) you can lift the Amiga with Furia attached. This is something that the RGB2HDMI manufacturers could learn, the adapters need to clip on properly otherwise it is just a waste of Amiga users money. Once the board was snuggly and the *compatible* CF installed, it was time to turn on the Amiga and see if the trouble past was behind the Furia. On first power the Amiga just sat with a black screen, remembering from forums that the board needed to have some considerable pressure added when installing, I turned everything off and applied some more pressure to the card. Once again I turned on the Amiga and low and behold it booted to Workbench, and wow what a fast boot at that. I opened some windows to see how it felt and the Amiga 600 just flew, opening drawers and rendering windows like never before. Just from the Workbench experience this little card chugging along. However I was still a bit wary and decided to try some more intensive hard disk work copying some files over and this is where the Furia fell over. As soon as I started to copy some files from one partition to another the Amiga froze, only a three finger salute allowed me to get the Amiga back again. Hmm so it seems there is still an issue with CF flash cards, no worries I have a fast SanDisk SD card, so in went the CF card adapter and SD card. Again the Amiga did not boot on a cold start, when it did reboot it got about half way into the boot sequence and then just hung. This was not looking promising. After a few hours of work I could get the Amiga to only boot with the CF card from Amigastore.eu, but even then doing any hard disk work would lock up the Amiga. After a few days of trying various other tricks such as changing the file system to a new one and other types of installs of Workbench the Amiga and Furia were not stable together. I decided to send the card back to Amigastore.eu, they had a look and found the card to not be working correctly at their end as well. So from the looks of it this was an unlucky card. Final Thoughts When the card was in use my Amiga 600 was just speeding through everything it was a great joy to use. It is amazing how much power the card provides to the lowly A600. Though it is a pain to set up and I would hesitate recommending this card to someone who is not experienced with the Amiga or is willing to put in the hours and maybe days to get it working. If you are able to get it working then you will have one hell of a fast Amiga but there is no guarantee that it will work at all in your system. A card with much potential hamstrung by a fiddly setup and random compatibilty with CF and SD cards. If you can master the Furia then it is a great card, but that is if you CAN master it.TopSoftware Review: DrawerGenie
Reviews ============================================================================ Software Review: DrawerGenie - by: Timo Paul ============================================================================ Product Name DrawerGenie Developed By Rob Cranley Available From aminet.net/packages/util/wb/DrawerGenie Price Free Hardware/Software Requirements Workbench 3.1.4+ Test Machine Amiga 1200/3.2/TF1260 Review With the release of the Amiga OS3.2 the release of excelusive programs has been a slow trick. Even though there have been only few releases taking advantage of the newer OS there are some stellar releases. One such programme is DrawerGenie. It is freely available from Aminet and is well worth a look, let's delve into its features. In a nutshell DrawerGenie takes much of the functionally usually accessed from the menu and puts them within easy reach via a button bar displayed in the window. However it is not limited to the standard functions available from the menu, there is much more power in this little tool. The toolbar is brought up by pressing F1, according to the author he has not had the time to implement the tool bar showing automatically, however pressing F1 to bring up the toolbar is a fast and efficient way. It keeps the tool out of the way when not needed. So what is offered when you press F1, a list of actions is listed below: * Back * Parent * Cut * Copy * Paste * Refresh * New Drawer * Icon Information * Delete * View Type * Sort * File Visibility * Rename * Source * Destination * Copy To * Move To * View Files * Select All * New Shell * Unpack Archive * View Archive * Pack Archive * Find Files As you can see the available actions is very extensive and as such you will need to be running Workbench in a relatively high resolution, at least a Laced mod. HiRes PAL makes for a bit of a tight squeeze, I found that with HIGHGFX: Super-HighRes the bar fit very nicely into the windows. In Use As stated before to get access to the button bar you need to press F1, this also applies when you open a new window, the bar will not be carried across to a new window. The functions I found to be very useful and quickly DrawerGenie became part of my usual Workbench flow, I find that when I do not have it installed I am looking for it. Just the simple task of press a button to refresh the window to find contents is a much faster experience that having to go to the drop down menu. My system runs at 50Mhz with the 060, I have a Rev 5 so I unable to run the system any faster. But DrawerGenie really flies on my system, it also works well with CaBoom the utility for animating the opening and closing of windows which sometimes causes conflicts with other commodities. Many of the tasks that I would usually go to DOPUS for are not taken care of quickly with DrawerGenie such as unpacking/packing a file or viewing an archive's contents. Final Thoughts This review has only touched the surface of what DrawerGenie is capable of but in the short time that I have used it, DrawerGenie has become an essential tool that has earned a permanent place in my WBStartUp drawer. If you have an OS3.1.4 or higher system then you owe it to yourself to give this tool a try. If you want to learn more about DrawerGenie then please read the interview we have with the developer in this issue.TopSoftware review: PPaint
Reviews ============================================================================ Software Review:PPaint - by Rob O'Malley ============================================================================TopAminet Goodies - Writers top downloads from Aminet.
Reviews ============================================================================ - Aminet Goodies - ============================================================================ Welcome to Aminet Goodies section, each issue one of our writes will list their top 10 downloads from Aminet. For this issue there were no writers with the time to write up a list. So this time round I will list some of the fun utilities you can download for Workbench that have been recently uploaded to Aminet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- AmiWeatherForecasts => http://aminet.net/app/AmiWeatherForecasts1.3.lha With more classic Amigas online than ever, it is nice to be able to take have some modern features. AmiWeatherForecasts places the weather information in the Workbench menu bar. It shows the place, temperature and an icon for cloudy, rainy, or sunny weather. You can set your location by clicking on the menu bar and then using the drop down menu to access settings. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DarkForces Amiga Port => http://aminet.net/game/shoot/tfe_darkforces.lha Originally only released for the PC and Mac, we finally get a port for our powered up Amigas. You need to buy the DOS port from gog.com or steampower.com, the Mac version is not supported. It can be run on an 040 or 060, supports AGA and RTG. I find the best way to play the game is in NTSC LowRes, which can be done via icon info, look for (FORCE PAL) and change it to NTSC. I found with the Indivision AGA MK3 it provided a full screen image. A great first person shooter that shows again that the Amiga was more than capable if it had a more powerful CPU. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- AmiSSL 5.12 (updated 26th Nov 2023) => http://aminet.net/util/libs/AmiSSL-5.12-OS3.lha The latest update came out in October, updating to latest version will make for a much more pleasant browsing experience, this includes using the latest version of YAM. Since version 5 AmiSSL has been compatible with OpenSSL 3.1. Essential update if you access the internet from your Amiga. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MMULibs (updated 26th Nov 2023) => http://aminet.net/util/libs/MMULib.lha Essential library if you are running an 040 or 060, especially if it is an TF1260. If you already have MMULib installed then you do not need to worry about this version as there have been no major changes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- IconLib (updated 26th Nov 2023) => http://aminet.net/util/libs/IconLib_46.4.lha The latest update fixes an error in WB3.0/3.1 that caused an "Object Not Found" error when creating a new drawer in WB. New options have also been added for WB3.0/3.1 - "DropNewIcons", "KeepNewIcons" and "KeepColorIcons". A great utility that provides a welcome speed boost to Workbench icons. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- RNOSlides => http://aminet.net/gfx/misc/RNOSlides_68k.lha Another great utility from the house of RNO, this time around we are treated to a slide utility that has the ability to save slideshows in two video formats (MJPEG and AVI), and add text over images. It should be possible to view the slideshow within the program but I was unable to do that. However it is still a very useful utility, especially that I can save out my graphics work as an AVI for presenting away from my Amiga. ============================================================================ A rather short list for this issue but I hope you will find some utilties that you have never used before or feel like revisiting. See you next issue when we should have another writer giving their suggestions.Topgamereviews
CONTENTS ============================================================================ -= G A M E R E V I E W S =------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -= Weasels Gaming Corner: Something old and something new =- Weasels Gaming Corner is back for another issue and this time he takes a look at a new game and revisting and old game. -= Game Review: Spheroid =- We take a look at the 10 level demo of the brain buster Spheroid and find out inside if you have got the balls to play. -= Game Review: Tenebara 1 and 2 =- A unique looking puzzle game available on pretty much all retro platforms, we have a quick look at the Amiga versions. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------TopWeasels Gaming Corner: Something old and something new
Gamereviews ============================================================================ Weasels Gaming Corner: Something old and something new - by Ivan Sorensen ============================================================================ The Weasels Gaming Corner This issue I again wanted to take a look at two titles, one new (to the Amiga) and one from back in the day. First up we have Metal Law: A side scrolling run and gun with more than a little bit of Judge Dredd vibes about it. The game has pretty catchy music and surprisingly large sprites. It also features some interesting movement capabilities and pretty good visuals. The gameplay is fairly straight forward: Move around the level, collect a few items and blow away anything that moves. Along the way you have access to a rocket assisted double jump feature, something not commonly seen in Amiga platformers. There is a particular vibe I always associate with the Amiga: Games that are perhaps a bit more ambitious than what the developers could pull off and Metal Law feels like it fits in that category. It never quite reaches what I think the developers hoped it would, but it makes for a fun evening of blasting mutant scum in the sewers. Metal Law is not especially long or difficult so it is a game you stand a fair chance of being able to complete with a bit of work. A WHDLoad version is available requiring 1 MB of RAM. The game does not require AGA. On a more modern note we have an Amiga port of Magica. Originally an Amstrad game, this can be downloaded from Andy Noble's website at: => http://andynoble.co.uk/ A WHDLoad install is also available adding a number of trainer options. Magica is a platformer where you have to zap various fantasy creatures, then run to touch them before they wake up again. If you do, they are flung across the platform (stunning any creatures they hit) and turn into a potion. Your goal is to turn every creature on the screen into a potion, collect them all and then reach the exit when it appears, usually against a 50 second time limit. The game is very reminiscent of other single screen games like Bubble Bobble but manages to have its own identity. The music is fantastic and the graphics and animation is quite pleasing while being simple. The game saves your progress so you can knock out a few levels and come back to it later. Well recommended. Lastly I wanted to talk about a peculiar phenomena: Being captivated by a bad game. The game in question is Death Mask: An attempt to cash in on the rise of Doom clones with a step by step 90 degree turns gameplay approach (similar to Hired Guns but without any of the complexity of that game). Death Mask is pretty weak in all regards: The sound is pretty limited, the graphics engine has some weird effects where you can often see through doors when turning, the controls manage to both be stiff AND over responsive at the same time and combat is completely banal (You can only shoot straight ahead). Enemy AI is non existent and most have only a couple frames of animation (and a few do not appear to be animated at all). There are a few saving graces like a map that indicates objectives and enemies on it, as well as the ability to play two player split screen. We played this back in the day since it could be played two player on even an A500 and I occasionally replay it just to relive a few memories. It is by all accounts a pretty bad game and yet I've gotten the burning urge to actually play it to completion. Does this ever happen to you? When you sit down this weekend to do some Amiga gaming consider revisiting one of the games that you secretly knows was pretty bad and try to give it an honest shot at progressing. You may be surprised or maybe you won't. Weasel Out.Topspheroidreview
Gamereviews ============================================================================ Game Review: Spheroid - by Timo Paul ============================================================================ Product Name Spheroid (Demo) Developed By Andrew Vaisey Available From https://arkanixlabs.itch.io/spheroid Price Free Hardware/Software Requirements OCS+ IMB Ram Test Machine Amiga 1200/TF1 260/OS 3.2. 2/ Indivision AGA Mk3 Review It is very rare for my wife to come running into the study when I am playing a game, however, she heard me muttering various colour names, "red and grey, red and grey', over and over. She was under the impression that I was having some kind of mental breakdown. Instead, she found me sitting in front of my Amiga, controller in hand, deep in concentration moving a small sphere around a screen of coloured tiles. With the hour past my wife was sitting in the same position, glued to the screen repeating colour names over and over. And so this is how we were both introduced to the game Spheroid. Spheroid at its core is a simple move of the sphere around using the various tiles. There are several coloured tiles and others that allow you to transport from one area to another, ones that collapse after you roll over them, others are iced sending your sphere careening off the screen into the black abyss. Where things get more complicated are the "safe" colours, it may be two or more, depending on the screen. If you roll over another colour you explode in an exuberant way with the explosion effect sounding very much like from the A-Team. That is all there is really to it, roll your ball around the screen and figure out the path to the exit. However, while it sounds simple, the game gets fiendishly difficult quickly as the screens get more complicated with routes that seem simple at first glance but are much more complex than at first glance. Add in the time limit that only starts counting down when you stop moving and you will find yourself repeating colours and sweating while moving your little sphere around the screen. The graphics are nicely drawn, with the title screen giving you all the information you need, so study it first before entering the game. It has a very early 90s feel, while the graphics are simple during gameplay they are pleasant to look at and provide you with the visual cues you need to complete the level. For audio, we are treated to a stomping acid house track, something that I would not normally be associated with a puzzle game but it works very well, getting your heart pumping and adding to the sense of pressure and time. Final Thoughts Spheroid is one of the most enjoyable games I have played in a long time. The gameplay is simple and straightforward but with puzzles that can get quite challenging, well for me at least. It has that essential element of seeming easier than it is and hooking you in with one more try. It is much fun to play as my wife can attest to, it is a game that will have you thinking about the puzzles hours after you have finished playing it. On top of that, the game looks very polished with simple but effective graphics and a pumping soundtrack. On a side note, I teach students with learning difficulties such as dyslexia and ADHD. During my time reviewing Spheroid, I tested it on a few of my students and noted some interesting things. a) Even though it was a retro looking game they quickly got into it and enjoyed it greatly. b) The most surprising was how it helped with their concentration. After playing they were able to concentrate better in the lesson and do more work. It is known gaming can help but I have never seen it before as with Spheroid. Pros and Cons: + Simple but nice to look at graphics + Music is pumping and suits the game well + Gameplay is simple but hides a very deep game I cannot think of anything negative, other than maybe some variety in the music Scores Gameplay: 10/10 Graphics: 8/10 Sound: 8/10 Overall: 8.6/10 A very addictive and smart game that will have you hooked for hours if not days.Toptenebra12review
Gamereviews ============================================================================ Game Review: Tenebra 1 and 2 - by Timo Paul ============================================================================ Product Name Tenebra 1 and 2 Developed By Ali Pouladi Available From https://h4plo.itch.io/tenebra Price Free/Donation Hardware/Software Requirements OCS+ 1.3+ 512KB Ram Test Machine Amiga 1200/TF1 260/OS 3.2. 2/ Indivision AGA Mk3 Amiga 600/3.1/xT 020 Review By now you probably have already heard of or seen details on these two games having won game of the year in 2022 for Planeta Sinclair Awards, Tenebra has been ported to pretty much every platform out there. For those who do not know about the game, it is a simple puzzle game with the aim being to find the exit. This is achieved by moving lights, finding keys, lighting cold braziers, increasing the range of your light with oil, squeezing through cracks, fixing broken rails with a hammer, activating light sensitive sensors and passing through archways that collapse after you. Tenebra 1 contains 31 levels and Tenebra 2 has 35. The Amiga version can also be run in HiRes Laced though you will need a flicker fixer to not get a headache. The graphics are wonderfully simple, using only two colours but managed to be very effective. The light effect is achived by simple white dots but it works very well. When you finished a level it is revealed completely and I am always surprised by how simple the level is. It is a very interesting example of how our brain copes with a lack of information. When I am moving around the gameplay area I feel as if the room is much bigger and complicated. In a way it is almost like reading a book since you have to create much of the scenario in your head, something that is perhaps missing in modern games. There is also the option to have the screen flicker to mimic the effect of a torch, it nice that the feature can be turned off. Audio wise there is not much except for a haunting wind in the background and the sound effects for doors, switcheds and keys. Again minimalistic but highly effective with the option to be turned off. Gameplay is very simple but gradually becomes more complicated, it is important to not rush head on into the game and read the hints at the beginning of each stage. The puzzles are not particulary hard but they did cause to think for a while. Control is done by the joystick, sadly there is no keyboard control which I think would suit this type of game more than using a joystick/control pad. Fingers crossed this will be added in the future. It is also nice to have the level codes so that you can go back to the game at a later date. I greatly enjoyed playing both games, however if you have not played the first one then it is not advisable to go straight to Tenebra 2 as the first one teaches you much of the basics and will help when playing the second game. Final Thoughts Tenebra 1 and 2 are wonderfully addictive and fun to play, they are easy to pick up and not too difficult. While some might balk at the simple graphics they work more the game's advantage. I also played the Mac version but found the game lost some of its charm with the high resolution graphics and light effects. Tenebra takes me back to playing games on our ZX81 and D&D or HeroQuest with my mates. Download the game this winter and play it with a family member if possible as it works great as a team game. While the game is free I recommend paying the developer whatever you can as way of thanks for their efforts. Pros and Cons: + Simple graphics + Background sound effect suits the game well + Gameplay is easy to pick up and not too hard - No keyboard control, a game like this would really benefit from keyboard control Scores Gameplay: 10/10 Graphics: 8/10 Sound: 8/10 Overall: 8.6/10 Fantastic game with lots of atmosphere, don't be put off by the graphics as they help to create a better game.TopWelcome to the guides section!
CONTENTS ============================================================================ -= T U T O R I A L S / G U I D E S =---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -= Make DF1 work as DO with a PiStorm =- John Scolieri delves into the PiStorm and shows us how to set up the PiStorm so you can boot from DF1. -= A314-CP Fix including data and time: A314.device not found =- If you have an A314-CP then you already know how useful this little card is but you might also have issues getting the correct date and time set on boot, find out how to set it up inside. -= Creative Graphics: 3D Objects?and A Word Processor =- A new series looking at how to use the Amiga in unexpected ways to create digital artwork. To begin with we use a word processor to make alongside 3D software such as LightWave. -= Brilliance 101 Part 11 - Tokyo Bay =- We go through some of the steps taken to create the image that was submitted to this years Amiga Art Competition. -= ImageFX 101 Basics - Part 2 =- We have a look again at ImageFX 4.5 and learn how to use the new layers feature. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Tutorials/Guides - WhatIFF? Issue 2.12 - December 2023#TopA314-CP Fix: A314.device not found
Guides ============================================================================= A314-CP Fix: A314.device not found - by: Timo Paul ============================================================================= The A314-CP has grown to become one of my favourite add ons for the Amiga due to its ease of use and expansion possibilities. However there has been one issue that has been bugging me for a while. It arises from the Pi side of things due to the OS taking around 15 seconds to boot and then connect to the Internet. Since my Al200 has a TF1260 there is not extra clock port to have a battery RTC installed. So I need to grab the time and date from the Internet. This is done easily with the 'pisetclock' command in the start up sequence or using 'ntp' program to grab the time from an online server. The issues arise due to the boot time of my Workbench being faster than the Pi OS, this then results in an error in loading the A314.device and the time not being set properly. After a quick think about the issue it was obvious that I needed to time the network connection and setclock command to when the Pi was ready and connected to the network. The solution came about with some help from Ivan from the Tokyo Retro Computer users meet. What we need to do is put a delay into the Workbench, and where you put this delay is important. I am using Roadshow for my TCP/IP stack as such this command needs to be put before loading Roadshow. In my case Roadshow is loaded from the 'user-startup' file, so I need to add a delay to the boot sequence just before it loads Roadshow, to give time for the PiOS to connect to the internet. A simple command of 'WAIT 30 SEC' is all that is needed. I tested it with a shorter time and for my setup, 30 seconds gave me the best results, it could vary depending on your setup. A part of my user-startup is shown below .. WAIT 30 SEC ;BEGIN Roadshow If EXISTS S:Network-Startup Execute S:Network-Startup Endlf ;END Roadshow This will stop the error of A314.device not being loaded or unavailable. Now that issue is sorted we can load the 'pisetclock' command, I found the most reliable place to put it was in the 'startup-sequence' right after the 'LoadWB' command, as can be seen below ... C:LoadWB C:PiSetClock EndCLI >NIL: I tried placing it earlier before 'LoadWB' but it was not so reliable when setting the clock. Having it just after 'LoadWB' sets the clock about 5 seconds after Workbench has loaded, giving you the feel of having a RTC inside your Amiga. This is a very simple solution and though you do have to wait a bit longer for the Amiga to boot it gives you a stable clock and date solution. The other alternatives would be to buy a clock port expander and add a RTC card to the board along with the A314-CP. But if you are happy with the 30 second delay then this is a great option, you might be even able to shave a few seconds off the time depending on your setup.TopCreative Graphics: 3D Objects?and A Word Processor
Guides ============================================================================= Creative Graphics: 3D Objects?and A Word Processor - by: Timo Paul ============================================================================= Words create worlds, each time we pick up a book and start reading we are creating a fully fleshed world in our mind just from the words of the pages. But what about creating 3D objects that can be rendered in any 3D rendering software with your word processor? Welcome to Creative Graphics, a new series that will look at creative ways of making graphics without adhering to any particular software. Instead of making you into a professional pixel artist, this series will explore how to use the Amiga and the variety of software in fun and creative ways. To use a well-known phrase, "Standing on the shoulders of giants", the first article in this series will take influence from an article in the US magazine Amazing Computing. The first time I read the article the thing that caught my attention most was when it mentioned using a word processor to create a 3D object. My curiosity peaked, I read the article and followed the guides and greatly enjoyed it. So to begin this series we will borrow some ideas and go a bit beyond. To begin with we will need the following software: * Final Writer 5 (Or other word processors that can create tables) * ImageFX 2+ * Pixel 3D Pro (This can be found on Amiga Format disk AF65A) * LightWave 3D (Or any other 3D rendering software) To begin with let's open up FinalWriter, and using the menu bar go to 'Tables' and select 'Create'. Under the 'Settings' tab set columns to 10 and rows to 5, 'Column Width' should be 0.75 inches. Select the 'Lines' tab and set everything that has a weight of 1 point to 4 points. Select 'Use' and generate the table. You might need to drag the table so it is centred on the page. Keeping FinalWriter open, find ImageFX and start it up. Click the 'Buffer' button and select 'Grab Screen', you should see one that says "Final Writer - R", choose it and you will see a screen capture of FinalWriter show up on the ImageFX screen. You will need to crop the image so only the table is showing and this is easily done in ImageFX by clicking on 'Size', then 'Crop'. A box with handles will appear over your image, you can then drag them to fit the table. If you need to move the restraining box then click inside and drag. Just click on 'Crop' and you will see your cropped image appear if you need to crop more off repeat the process. Next, we will need to reduce the colour of the image from whatever it was down to 2 colours. The reason is that Pixel 3D Pro only works with 2 colour images. Once you have rendered the image down to 2 colours, you will need to reverse the black-and-white image. This can be done by clicking on 'Color' when in Toolbox (Selected from the right side) and then 'Negative'. Render the image as 2 colours again and save the image as 'Rendered Image' not '24-Bit Buffer'. Now you can close FinalWriter and ImageFX. Pixel 3D Pro In the original article, it had called for the use of Pixel 3D Pro version 2, however, it is very hard to find a working copy of the programme. So as an alternative, you can download the previous version that came free with Amiga Format on cover disk AF65A. ? Load up Pixel 3D Pro and you are presented with a display that looks similar to VistaPro. Find and click on the 'Load' hillton, locate your image and click on 'Accept'. A 2D image of your table will appear, to make it 3D, all we need to do is choose 'Extrude' from the left side. A requester will pop up and the only detail you need to change is the 'Extrude Value' to 30, then click on 'OK'. Now you will be presented with a wireframe?representation of your table which you can move freely around. However we are not quite finished yet, we need to save the object by clicking on 'Save' and selecting the 3D program you will use to render the object. In my case I chose 'LightWave 3D', once it is saved you can close down Pixel 3D Pro and get ready for LighWave 3D, Imagine, Aladdin or whatever is your weapon of choice. Landscapes and Tables Now you have your 3D object that started as a table in FinalWriter, pretty neat, right? From here you can use the object any way you like, create a city landscape where you can fly through the windows of skyscrapers, create a massive bookshelf, or maybe add a flat object to act like glass against the table object. By loading in many of the table objects and applying surfaces to them you can create unique landscapes where the light filters through the spaces in the tables. Why did we do it this way? Aside from being a fun experiment, it is also a much faster way to create an object like a 3D table this way, rather than having to cut and paste various objects together in the LightWave 3D modeller. If you find this article enjoyable and give it a try, we would love to see your work. Please submit your creations to the WhatIFF? forum at: => https://forum.whatiff.info Look for 'Readers Submissions' and find the appropriate category to submit your work.TopBrilliance 101 - Tokyo Bay
Guides ============================================================================= Brilliance 101 Part 11 - by: Timo Paul ============================================================================= By now the due date for the Amiga Art Competition has passed and so I thought it might be worth going over my entry and how I created it. As per usual I used Brilliance as while I started and really like DPaint, Brilliance is more refined art package that is aimed at the artiste So on to my image, first off the inspiration for my picture came about when I was travelling Tokyo on the train. From my sta?ion the train line goes over Tokyo bay and I get a great view of the bay and far into the distance e It was on one trip and the sky was bright blue with huge white clouds on the horizon and the water splattered with the sun's reflections. It struck me as being quite beautiful. So I did what any typical Amiga user would do, pulled out my laptop, started up UAE for Mac and sketched an outline of the view in Brilliance. From there I had to stop as drawing with the mouse pad was more stress than I wanted. The initial sketch had the bottom part of the image in blue for the bay and then I sketched the cloud shapes roughly. On another buffer I had created the building silhouettes so that I could paste them in once I was on my real Amiga. Well, here I am now at my A1 200 and time to import the image from my laptop thanks to the A 314-CP card it was a simple case of e-mailing it to my A1200 and the loading it into Brilliance. The first part of the image I worked on was the water. I chose a simple gradient going from a darker blue to a light blue with dithering enabled to give it a rougher look. However the water looked a bit sterile and I wanted to include the reflections on the water. This was achieved by drawing a small wave line in white with a pen tip of about 3 pixels. I then made a brush out of the wave and pasted it on the water. I held down the 'Left Shift' key to keep the cursor on the same horizontal line when getting near the horizon. Once I had pasted down several waves, I then used to the Transparent' tool to paste the brush on the water and over some of the other waves to create more depth and variety to the waves. Finally to create the impression of water the Smear' tool was used on all the waves to make it look like the wave is moving. I find the Smear' tool very useful when I want to create a more natural looking image, especially as I am not artistically skilled. Next it was time to move onto the clouds, I had to think hard on this one and recalled that the clouds were darker at the bottom and lighter at the top. The ' Gradient' tool came in very handy again. Choosing a colour that is almost white and a very slightly dark grey I had my gradient, however I did not want to use a standard verticle gradient. The gradient would need to follow the contours of the clouds and I found the best was was to use 'Highlight' gradient with the first colour, i.e. grey starting at the bottom. So when the red line appeared after clicking the 'Fill' tool I dragged it to the bottom on the cloud and it filled out nicely around the edges. Now I shoud mention here that there are several layers of clouds so make sure to have each of your cloud layers filled in a completely different colour, it can be pink, red, purple etc. so that you do not have a leaky flood as what happened to Andy Warhol ;) Going back to the spare buffer I could now paste in the buildings on the horizonal using various levels of shading, One of the easiest buildings to see from the train is Tokyo Sky Tree, it has a very distinctive shape which translates nicely into silhouette form. So now we are finished with the basic scene of Tokyo bay, however I wanted to create an image of the view from inside the train. To help save memory I created a new separate image for the internal view. This is where my limited art skills really started to let me down. My plan to was to create a window with the a 3D effect and place sillhouettes of the passengers in front of me. We will look at how this effect was achieved in the next issue.TopImageFX 101 Basics - Part 2
Guides ============================================================================ ImageFX 101 Basics - Part 2 - by: Timo Paul ============================================================================ I hope you enjoyed the first part of our journey into ImageFX, it is a very powerful program that is bit hamstrung by a rather difficult GUI. In this part of the series we will look at a feature only found in version 4.5 of ImageFX, that is the layer feauture. Something that has been the prevail of Photoshop it has finally come to ImageFX, though it is not the only program to have layers on the Amiga, Photogenics also has that feauture. As with almost everything in ImageFX you need to start with the buffers, for this guide you will need to load the standard version of ImageFX as the Classic version does not seem to support layers as well. For this example we will be using the included images with the ImageFX install. To start open the file (SmallGal.JPG), once the image loaded we want to load another image, the best way to do this is too click on 'Buffer' locate ' Load New' and choose the (SmallGuy.JPG) Now you should have two images loaded in separate windows. Go back to the main window and look for the RGB buttons, on the left of them you will find the Layers button. First make sure which image you want as your main image, this is done by click on the image itsefl. Then click on the Layers button and locate the gadget at the top right and press it. A menu will pop up, choose 'New Layer From Buffer and choose (SmallGuy.JPG). You will see the picture of (SmallGuy.JPG) cover up the original image, you can hide it from view by clicking on the eye icon in the Layer Manager. From here you can have a play with the 'Mode' which has some interesting effects. Choose 'Maximum' and 'Minimum' for some startling and rather scary effects. Double clicking on the layer will bring up more options for that particular layer. The layers can be moved by using the Layer Manager, select your layer and use the pop up menu to move the layer upper or lower. This should get you started with the basics of using layers, next issue we will look at Photogenics and see how it compares to ImageFX. On another note, the first ImageFX tutorial has had some great feedback from readers, some have even written in with suggestions. Once came from Boris, who has another way to create a brush in ImageFX. I will hand it over to Boris from here: I don't know if it is easier, but it is more exact without loosing parts of your image. When the image is rotated, the background around the image has one color In my case it is black. You choose now not the Poi y-tool for cutting, but the Flood-option. Then you pick with this the black area. After this you look in the Buffer-window for the Region-button. In the next window you choose "Invert Region", then Okay. Now you choose the button "Pickup Region" in the Brush-window ... et voila: you have the single rotated picture as brush. I LOVE ImageFX! Thank you Boris for your suggestion, if anyone else has some ideas, corrections or wishes to write their own guide then contact us on the forum or via e-mail at: submissions@whatiff. infoTopMake DF1 work just like DF0
Guides ============================================================================ How to make your external DF1 work just like DF0 - by: John Scolieri ============================================================================ How to make your external DF1 work just like DF0 with the PiStorm32 accelerator. So maybe you're like me at the moment and don't have an internal floppy drive handy to use in your Amiga 1200 with a PiStorm32 accelerator and Emu68 but you do have an external floppy drive. And if you're like me then sometimes you want to boot up 'real' disks straight from boot up without entering Workbench and that won't work 'most' times unless your booting from DFO. Luckily for us it's very simple to switch DF1 to DF0 when running Emu68 which is as follows: 1- Take the microSD card out of your PiStorm32 and connect it to your PC. 2- In the main FAT32 partition there is a file called 'cmdline.txt'. If it doesn't exist just create a new .txt file and name it cmdline.txt. 3- Open cmdline.text and add 'swap_df0_with_df1' (no quotes and it must be on one single line) 4- Save the file and reinsert microSD card into your PiStorm32. After you boot up again to Workbench you'll see you're external drive now as DF0 !TopArticles
CONTENTS ============================================================================ -= A R T I C L E S =------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -= The Amiga Philosopher's stance on Amiga Games =- Ivan Sorensen takes a philosophical view of Amiga games and how they are viewed in current society. -= Things Commodore Did Right =- Commodore sometimes gets a lot of flack what actions they took but at times Commodore seemed to get everything right, we look at one of those rare moments. -= Amiga Through the Lens of an LD Learner =- The modern world is full of digital distractions, we look at how the Amiga can provide a safe haven for those with learning difficulties. -= Amiga in 2023 =- We look back at 2023 and what was big news and who made a big impact in the Amiga scene. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Articles - WhatIFF? Issue 2.12 - December 2023#TopThe Amiga Philosopher's stance on Amiga Games
Articles ============================================================================ The Amiga Philosopher's stance on Amiga Games - by: Ivan Sorensen ============================================================================ I find that while there is a lot of talk about Amiga gaming on the internet, whether on Youtube or the various forums and social media sites, there are certain types of posts that always seem to come up: The game is bad because it had too much disk swapping / could not be installed on a hard drive / the Super Nintendo version was better / it was ported from the Atari / it was not arcade perfect and so forth. Often the comments seem to be made by people who admit they do not play Amiga games any longer or have not touched the particular game since 1989. These opinions often tend to cement themselves as people repeat opinions they have read, when they are not themselves familiar with the game in question. So soon everybody knows xxx is bad because yyy which both gives a distorted perception of how games were received at the time but also keeps people away from games that they might in fact end up enjoying quite a bit if they tried them. So I would like to present an alternate view of games on the Amiga that is rooted in a different approach. The following points are not in order of importance and their individual applicability may vary depending on the game in question. Take it as a starting point or a set of guidelines and make up your own mind. Point 1: To me it never matters if the Amiga version is the optimal port of the game or what other platforms it appeared on. If I am sitting down to play an Amiga game, I am interested in the game on the Amiga, not a hypothetical better version on a different system. This is particularly important if you are trying to better understand the historical side of the Amiga gaming scene. Games like Street Fighter 2 were greeted pretty enthusiastically in magazines at the time, even though they are considered to be bad ports today. This also goes for games that were ST ports: Nobody I knew had an ST so it did not make any difference to us at the time and it still does not. If the choice is between a fun game in 16 colours and a boring game in 32 colours, surely we all agree that the fun game is the better outcome? Point 2: My opinion of a game is based on the machine I can play it on. That may sound selfish but let me explain: Amiga owners I think often suffer a peculiar psychological effect where we spend hundreds (or thousands) of dollars tricking out machines but every game must run flawlessly on an unexpanded Amiga 500. I don't understand it. My system has a pretty fast 68030 which I wager is in the middle of the Amiga scene these days: You get people with unexpanded or barely expanded systems and you get people with monster fast systems but the median system is probably not that far from what I am using. So my stance on a game is based on how it performs on that system. It doesn't really matter if Fears for example runs poorly on a stock A1200 because who is going to try to play it on that system in 2023? This goes especially so for hard drives. People will complain about Beneath a Steel Sky coming on a huge stack of floppies but the game is hard drive installable. Is any serious Amiga fan really going to play the game running off floppies? This has given rise to a strange attitude among Amiga fans where people forget that while many games were not HD installable, plenty of them were (and most of the games that came on tons of disks like RPGs and adventure games supported hard drives). There was nothing stopping you from installing Civilization or UFO to a hard drive in 1992 but people will still complain about disk swapping in UFO in 2023. Back in the day some magazines begin noting if a game ran better or had more features on an A1200 or on an expanded machine and I think that is something that modern reviewers should take into account. There is no reason to be perpetually mired in 1985 (even if we are nostalgic retro-nerds). Point 3: My opinion is based on the version that exists today. This ties into point 2 to an extent but unless you are strictly looking at the game in its historical context, there is no reason to not use the most updated version which usually means WHDLoad. Whether its preloading, adding trainers or expanding the control options, a lot of games are greatly improved by using this version. Frustrated that you can't use a button to jump? Many games now do support that! Is there any reason to play the worse version? Again, if you are after the strict historical experience sure, I get it but otherwise get the better one. This is not even that ahistorical. I had games where I would use the cracked version over the disks I had purchased, because the cracked version added a trainer or level jump option or something similar. Likewise some games did receive updated files or patches. That was harder to come by in those days but with Aminet it started to become a thing and PD games often had multiple versions released with improvements and bug fixes. In conclusion: When I get back to reviewing games online, the games will be based on the most updated WHDLoad version running on my modestly expanded 1200 and based strictly on the Amiga version of the game.Topwhatcommodoredidright
Articles ============================================================================ Things Commodore Did Right - by: Timo Paul ============================================================================ What comes to mind when you think about US Commodore Amiga advertising? Maybe the fetus on a stick, an Amiga 1 000 on a pedestal, an old man? When it comes to the best advertising of the Amiga, the UK can arguably be seen as a leader, yes it was video game focused but it did put the Amiga in a good light. Well let me take you back to 1 988/89 when Commodore US surprised many in the United States with a series of ground breaking and fun TV advertisements. In these ads you had an American politician, Apollo astronauts, famous musicians of the time and sports celebrities all together. I was fortunate enough to be living in the States when I got my first Amiga. We had just moved to Pennsylvania and needed a computer to replace our aging ZX Spectrum. After seeing the A500 in the stores we were quickly convinced this was the computer for us. It was also during this time that I would witness some of the best Commodore US advertising ever. The first thing that comes to mind when I recall seeing the advertisements was the music. They used The Goonies soundtrack and it greatly helped to create a sense of excitement and wonder. For a generation that grew up with Star Wars, Indiana Jones, The Goonies, Ghostbusters, E.T., The A-Team and Airwolf these new advertisements spoke our language in tone and theme. The standard setup of the advertisements were a normal looking middle class American home, a teenage boy named Steve and his Amiga. Each advertisement focused on one aspect of the Amiga's multimedia abilities. Video production , music, and animation. In a stroke of genius they managed to convince stars of the day to appear all together. Just to illustrate the celebrity royalty that showed up, here is a list of all of them for just one of the ads. * Musicians: The Pointer Sisters, Burt Bacharach, Little Richard * NASA astronauts: Buzz Aldrin, Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper * US politician: Tip O 'Neill * Baseball player and coach: Tommy Lasorda In just one ad they all appear asking for Stevie's help with their music, building the ISS, calculations and more. Just think for a second of an ad that would have that many celebrities showing their support for a Mac or Windows PC today? It just does not seem possible. A later episode had him tricking his nextdoor neighbour by hijacking their TV and showing him accepting an award with the Amiga hooked up to a Genlock and providing titles and effects. This was really ground breaking because never before had a computer advertisement show what computers and more importantly the Amiga was truly capable of. It made using the Amiga look fun but also illustrated very well how truly capable the the Amiga was. It is only recently we have had advertisements showing what you can do with a smartphone but not with a computer and certainly not in 1988. If you think back to the ads that were shown in the UK the Amiga was mostly marketed as a games machine but these ads from the US really showed how versatile the Amiga was. It makes me wonder if they had been shown in the UK how would it have impacted the general view of the Amiga. I hope this has given you a better idea of how revolutionary the ads were and if you have not seen them yet then pop on over to YouTube, I have included the links below. It makes you wonder what could have been and more importantly enjoy the excitement that the Amiga still generated back then. Long ad with celebrities => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00z0U5DZhLc Stevie tricking his next door neighbours => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96SJYB7wa0w Stevie elevating his house => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R7xTR8j_2kTopAmiga Through the Lens of an LD Learner
Articles ============================================================================ Amiga Through the Lens of an LD Learner - by: Timo Paul ============================================================================ LD, learning difficulty, commonly associated with dyslexia or ADHD, it should not be confused with learning disability. In this article we are going to concentrate on learning difficulty and how the Amiga can be used as an aid in learning and concentration in ways that that modern hardware and software cannot do offer. From the start I think I should make clear that I am qualified dyslexia specialist with over 10 years teaching experience of children with dyslexia and ADHD. Over this time I have had the opportunity to experiment with various teaching techniques, some failing and some working. One factor that has been a common denominator is children love technology and they love old technology as well I want to talk a bit about the teaching experience first to give some basis of how the Amiga can be helpful. For the majority of tutoring learners with dyslexia or ADHD, from now on we will use LD, patience and variety is a very important tool. When I say variety I mean using kinaesthetic methods, having the learner move their body, trace letters in the air, using sand to give a tactile feedback, speaking and writing at the same time. This is just the tip of some of the techniques applied. In some instances however writing by hand can become quite stressful and in these instances schools and tutors allow the student to use a computer to write on. Now it needs to be stated that using a smartphone or tablet is not advised, even one with an attached keyboard as the tactile feel from typing is an essential factor when writing with a computer. With the newer computers however there has been the fashion of making thinner keyboards with less travel and while this is making the keyboard/laptop thinner it is taking away a very useful tool in learning. When you have to push the keys harder, feel the shape of the key and hear the clickty clack of typing it all adds to helping create a stronger impression. You can probably try it yourself, try and touch type on a new thinner keyboard verses the ones with more travel, I think you will find your typing to be more accurate. So this is one aspect of where the Amiga really helps, it provides a tactile typing experience, where the learner can touch the keys, hear the sounds and have to push a bit more than compared to a touch screen or newer type keyboard. We have now looked at how the Amiga provides a more tactile typing experience which aids in the learning experience. Next we will look at how using an Amiga word processor is better than any of the modern equivalents. Any learner with LD with struggle to a greater or lesser extend with concentration, as such, LD tutors will always look for ways to reduce the amount of distractions. The smartphone is a gateway drug to distraction with its notifications, multitasking, in coming phone calls and messages. The modern computer is no less distracting with internet access easily available and notifications becoming standard on a desktop computere With the Amiga we can throw all of this away. I had a great experience when my student first tried Excellence! he stopped and asked where the buttons were, how can I draw, where is the browser? He was on an Amiga 600 with just 2MB of ram. While he found it jarring at first he quickly got drawn into the simple GUI design, the low resolution graphics and tactile keyboard. There was far less looking around, fiddling with buttons or swiping at the screen just looking down at the keyboard to find his key and then looking at the screen. I allowed him to do some simple editing such as adding bold or using extra characters but it was a very minimal experience. And one that really helped him, he had to take his time to find the correct key and this really aided in his learning the spelling. Often an overload of stimuli can cause a freeze in learning, and this is exacerbated by modern tech. The Amiga provides a working environment that is visual quiter and less disracting than modern devices. If you have a child with LD and they struggle with reading and writing, sit them down in front of an Amiga and see what happens, it just might surpise you!TopAmiga in 2023
Articles ============================================================================ Amiga in 2023 - by: Timo Paul ============================================================================ By the time you are reading this it is either near the end of 2023 or it is already 2024. As this is our last issue of 2023 it seems appropriate to look back at what happened in 2023. So grab a hot mug of tea, coffee, hot chocolate or something with a bit more of kick and read on. But before we get on I will mention this does not represent the Amiga community as a whole and was gathered from people who decided to vote from AmiBay, EAB, Amiga.org and the WhatIFF? forum poll. Some Amiga users have scoffed at the idea of this poll and it may not be perfect but it at least give a partial view of how people viewed 2023 regarding new hardware and software. On to the awards ... 2023 we had a lot of new games come out, it was probably the best year we have had for games in a while but WhatIFF? is not about the games, really, as such an informal poll was done across several Amiga forums regarding the best hardware and software of 2023. In the hardware category the resounding result was the PiStorm, this card has taken the Amiga scene by storm (pun intended :), bringing the power of emulation to real hardware. WhatIFF?'s hardware of the year award goes to PiStorm. Other hardware should get a mention as well are the Vampire series of cards and RGB2HDMI adapters. Software wise the Amiga had many games released however regarding serious software the list was much more limited and concentrated more on updates. The software that got the most votes was Amiga OS3.2.x, below that came in Infinity Music Player (Imp3) and IBrowse. Finally we will look at the best Amiga vendor of 2023, writing for WhatIFF? requires reviewing various hardware and software as such we are ordering from various Amiga shops and over the year have created a list of the best vendors servicing the Amiga. For 2023, there has been one stand out Amiga shop that has shipped their products very quickly, responses in record time to questions, has reasonable prices and is able to respond in a timely and polite manner to issues. Taking all of these points into consideration the award for WhatIFF?'s best Amiga vendor of 2023 goes to: => www.amigastore.eu They have consistently provided good service and most importantly been helpful when issues occurred with damaged/non-working hardware. while there are other Amiga vendors out there doing a fantastic job AmigaStore.EU has done just that little more by having competitive prices and providing A class service. Thank you to everyone who voted and gave suggestions, finally thanks must be given to all the hardware and software developers keeping our Amiga scene alive and exciting. And it would be remiss of me to not to mention the importance and hard work of all the Amiga vendors, who are also keeping the Amiga alive for new comers and veteran users. A happy new year and here is looking forward to 2024!TopWelcome to voices of the people behind Amiga hardware and software.
CONTENTS ============================================================================ -= T A L K I N G * A M I G A =--------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -= Andrew Vaisey: Spheroid Interview =- To conicide with our Xmas coverdisk game we interview the developer behind the mind bending and highly addictive game Spheroid. We learn about how the development of the game came about. -= Rob Cranley: DrawerGenie Interview =- We talk to the developer behind the newly released Workbench commodity DrawerGenie, delving into the development and history. -= Miguel Fides: Trinity Card Interview =- The Trinity is a new 040/060 accelerator card for the A1200, we sit down with one of the developers to get the lowdown on the card. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Talking Amiga - WhatIFF? Issue 2.12 - December 2023#TopAndew Vaisey Interview
Talkingamiga ============================================================================ Interview - Andrew Vaisey: Spheroid by Timo Paul ============================================================================ 1. Hi Andy, thank you for taking the time for this interview, to begin with can you tell us a little about yourself? My pleasure, thank you for taking an interest and asking! I'm an almost 50 year old from Wales, UK, who has been using computers since he was about 10 years old, mainly various Commodore machines. I'm a teacher by trade, but currently work in the family business as a manager. I'm happily married (Hi Chantelle, sorry you have to keep putting up with this Commodore thing!), have two lovely daughters and three wonderful grandchildren. I'm slowly introducing the grandchildren to the wonders of old computers and gaming. My eldest grandson already has some Commodore64 testing and graphics credits to his name on the Commodore Scene Database (CSDb), has been testing Spheroid for me and recently finished his first PC game coding project. The second grandson has been testing Spheroid for me and his best so far is level 7 and considering he has only just turned 4, that's quite an achievement! 2. How did you get started with the Amiga? After 4 years of using a Commodore64, I asked for and received an A500 (with the 10 Star Pack) for Christmas 1988, after being wowed by the graphics and sound being demonstrated on an A1000 in a local independent computer store. I never put my C64 away though. My Amiga and C64 always sat next to each other on the desk in my bedroom when I was younger and *still* do, now I'm (much) older! 3. You have recently released the game Spheroid, have you created any other games prior to Spheroid? On the Amiga, no. I've developed and released a few games and demos on the C64 (which you can find on CSDb) and have a couple of unreleased games on the PC. I've also contributed to other people's games and demos across various 8bit machines, mainly graphics and music. 4. How did the idea for Spheroid come about? Now that's a story! Back in around 1988, in the days before I started coding seriously on any machine, I started to create a simple game where you guided a metal ball around a maze of coloured squares. This was done on the C64 using SEUCK. Once I had an Amiga, I bought AMOS in around 1990 (?) and set about recreating this maze game. Being young, the idea was off and on for many years and went through numerous design changes and a swap to AMOS Pro so I could use the compiler. That all finally stopped around 1993(ish), half-way through a major code refactoring: I had used AMOS procedures for all the subroutines without realising there was a limit to how many times procedures could be GOSUB before a crash. Fast forward to 2022 and after a few false starts, I finally get round to resurrecting my A1200 to see what remained of anything on the hard drive. Low and behold, it boots first time and after imaging the drive so I can snoop around in WinUAE, I find the Spheroid AMOS source and all the assets intact. However, the code won't run as it was half-way through being refactored and after 30 years I didn't have a clue what I or it was doing! However, I didn't want to waste the game design or assets so after a couple of days of learning Blitz Basic 2 (the game didn't need the raw speed of 68K), I set about recoding the game from scratch, with the main game engine coming together in a few days! 5. Was the game developed on real Amiga hardware or via emulation? Both. I don't like running my real hardware for too long these days, even with modern power supplies and recapped circuit boards, so most of the development was completed in WinUAE, with testing and tweaking on real hardware. I have my real Amiga setup "mirrored" WinUAE on my development laptop, except with an insane amount of RAM which speeds up development and reduces crashes! I also have a RaspberryPi 3 with an Amiga system setup for additional dev work and testing. 6. You handled all the programming, graphics and sound, what software did you use? For the actual game: Ultimate Blitz Basic 2.1+ was used for code. Graphics were drawn in Deluxe Paint IV and Personal Paint. The music was written in OctaMED Pro 5.01b. Sound effects were grabbed with a Technosound Turbo sampler using AudioMaster, which also handled the sample editing as required. A PC based level editor was created by Ray Lejuez, a fellow member of my scene group Arkanix Labs. Other software: ReOrg, DOpus, IconDeluxe, VirusZ, BlacksEditor. The loading and ending screens were created for me by Toni Galvez. I believe he used ProMotion, if the comment data in the file is to be trusted! 7. What was the most challenging aspect of developing the game? Levels! Game engines present certain challenges, but with perseverance, issues and bugs are overcome quickly. Creating the levels is the slog and the challenge for me. Keeping motivated is hard when you've done a few levels and realise there are 40 more to do! 8. Did you incorporate any ideas or influences from other games? Not really. The main game design is completely my own. Sure, there are probably "similar" games out there, but when I originally dreamt it up back in the late 1980s and developed it further in the early 1990s, there was no internet or online databases so I would have been blissfully unaware if there were analogous games. If really pushed, I would probably say that the rolling ball was influenced by Quedex and the mine tiles by Bombuzal, both on the C64. Some people have asked if the C64 puzzle game Sensitive was an influence, but it wasn't. During the game design stage, I wasn{t aware of that game and the gameplay in Spheroid is different anyway. 9. Do you plan to release the game on other platforms? In time, Spheroid will be ported to the C64 (already at 20% progress) and the PC. I'm handling the C64 version entirely myself. On the PC, I'm handling code and music, with Toni Galvez supplying the graphics. 10. How do you start the development process? Jump straight in! Whether on the Amiga or C64, once an idea gets into my head, I have to see it on the computer as soon as possible. This usually results in a frantic couple of weeks where I focus completely on coding the main engine that drives the game. That part of the process is actually the most satisfying for me, seeing what is possible, solving problems, finding bugs and so on. Once the basics are working, I find it harder to keep up the pace with regards the content! 11. What advice do you have for other Amiga users who want to create their own games? Coding wise, just go for it! Try starting with learning Blitz Basic 2! When I first got Blitz back in the 1993, I found it quite unstable, with lots of crashes. I've since realised that this was because of a lack of memory, even with the RAM upgrades I had at the time, and (very) numerous errors in the printed manual. Running on WinUAE under KS/WB 3.1 with a 030/040 and 1Gb of RAM (impossible back in the day), Blitz is as stable as they come and really quite powerful! In addition, there are great resources online including corrected manuals and helpful forums and websites. Sure, you're not going to write a Uridium 2 or Doom clone, but for most projects, Blitz is *more* than adequate! It{s a great language! 12. Looking beyond Spheroid, do you have plans for other games? I know there are some people who are already looking for me to do a sequel to Spheroid on the Amiga, with improved graphics and additional gameplay elements. This will probably happen once I have completed a couple of my C64 projects, probably happening in tandem with the PC port of Spheroid. I'd also love to port some of my C64 games to the Amiga, including Chiller 2, CHILL3R, and the Lost Realms of Murkasada. 13. If you have any real Amiga hardware, what machines do you own? I have an A500 and two A1200s. The A500 is boxed up at my parents' house. One A1200 is boxed up safe under my bed and the other, set-up in my little development studio next to my Commodore64's. My main A1200 has a 1230/16Mb card, a 4GB CF hard drive, an Indivision scandoubler/flicker fixer for HD video output and an internal Gotek floppy drive. Externally connected is a Cumana floppy drive, a CD-ROM drive connected via a Squirrel interface and a Technosound Turbo Sound Sampler. There are various other bits and pieces as well, connected as required. 14. Which Amiga is your favourite and why? I{d have to say the A1200. I loved my A500, but only really used it as a games machine. Yes, I upgraded it with extra memory, a small hard drive and a few other bits and pieces, but games is all I really ever run on it. When I started trying to get creative with code, graphics and music, the A500 started to run out of steam for me, even with the upgrades. Once I'd got an A1200 with hard drive (and a few other bits and pieces) things really opened up. The increased power and OS3.x reliability was great. As well as being creative, I used it as my main machine right up until about 1999, completing my university degree work on it as well as creating classroom resources in the early days of my teaching career. A VERY capable machine and still is, even to this day! Although I've never owned them so can{t technically say they're my favourites, I'd love to have a big box Amiga, probably an A3000 or A4000. 15. Thank you for your time Andy and for creating Spheroid, is there anything you would like to say to the Amiga community before we finish? Please continue supporting the Amiga scene! By that, I mean make a purchase from or donation to (however small): * the many technical wizards who continue to design replacement parts or offer repair services; * the numerous manufacturers and websites that still sell hardware replacements and upgrades; * the numerous individuals and groups still creating software, both games and applications; * the many forums, blogs and magazines (print and online) who support users and create new content. Without those above, there is no way I'd have been able to resurrect my A1200, maintain and upgrade it or begin creating on it again! The Amiga really is a special computer!TopRob Cranley Interview
Talkingamiga ============================================================================ Interview - Rob Cranley: DrawerGenie by Timo Paul ============================================================================ 1. Can you give us a brief background of your experience with the Amiga programming? I was quite late to the Amiga, getting my first (an A1200) around 1993. Before that, I was using my trusty Atari 800XL, which I got when I was 8 or 9 years old in the late '80s. I learned to program BASIC on that and the BBC Micro at school from the excellent Usborne computing books in the library, incidentally, the Usborne books are all available free now: => https://usborne.com/gb/books/computer-and-coding-books I was also very interested in electronics, however one project I worked on was to add hardware to my Atari that would let it control motors and relays from code. Unfortunately, this damaged one of the chips in the Atari and so I was without a computer for a while until I got my A1200. Once I had that I started programming a little in AMOS, but quickly moved onto Blitz Basic. I also started learning C and ARexx from excellent books released by Amiga Shopper magazine, as well as C and QBasic on the PCs we had in secondary school. For me, programming was at least as important as gaming as a pastime and reason for having a computer. For some time I was also coding as a part of my day job developing medical equipment, and that involved writing firmware for lab equipment and was mostly in C, but sometimes also for Windows using VisualBasic, C#, even Delphi at one point. But for me, I got the most enjoyment from programming in Blitz Basic on the Amiga, so that's what I kept doing in my spare time. 2. Is DrawerGenie your first Amiga application? No, I've released a few other applications too, most of which can be found on AmiNet. InstallerGen and SMBMounter are probably two of the most popular, though both are niche in their own way. Because I code mainly for fun, I have dozens of half-finished programs from the past 20 or 30 years. In most cases it's just a proof-of-concept, or a basic framework, nothing that could be called a finished application. I've also written a couple of games, mainly simple types like board games, but I brought Nivrig's excellent Dodgy Rocks to the Amiga using Blitz Basic. I've thoroughly enjoyed getting involved in the recent Amiga jams hosted by Zooperdan: first was the Blitz Basic Game Jam, for which I and some friends developed WeegieNights. It was probably overambitious and didn't get finished in time, but still ended up 5th place in the jam despite its unfinished state. We still plan to finish that whenever we have time. Then came the Amiga Tool Jam, which wasn't Blitz Basic-specific, and DrawerGenie is my main entry for this jam. I also entered a second program called "Closer", but it's only a little joke and is rightly in the "Most Useless" category :) 3. Can you explain what DrawerGenie is and what makes it unique? DrawerGenie is a commodity, and it allows the user to attach toolbars to normal Workbench windows. These toolbars include a variety of functions accessible through icon gadgets, most of which already exist in Workbench in some form, but gather them neatly together for quick access at a click of the mouse. The intention was to add a little bit of Directory Opus-like functionality to Workbench; I used DOpus 5 Magellan back in the day until OS3.5 was released, at which time Magellan became somewhat incompatible and I stopped using it. Workbench had gained some more functionality, and OS3.9 added to that, meaning that with some customisation through ARexx scripts and commodities, I didn't really need DOpus any more. But there are some very nice functions that DOpus provided that Workbench lacks, and DrawerGenie adds some of these. In particular, it lets the user access files with cut/copy/paste actions, designate a source and destination window to do 1-click copy and move operations, simple packing and unpacking of Lha files, as well as most of the standard Workbench functions like delete, rename, sort and so on. It's obviously inspired by Directory Opus and similar filemanagers, in particular the Lister commodity for OS4 that provides DOpus-style listers integrated with Workbench, but as far as I know there isn't anything quite like it for 68k versions of Workbench. 4. How did the concept/idea for DrawerGenie come about? I was saying before that I was a Directory Opus 5 Magellan user before OS3.5 came about, then switched to using OS 3.5 / 3.9 with some scripts to fill in the gaps in functionality. But I'm also an OS4 user, and on OS4 there's a great commodity called "Lister", which provides DOPus 5-style listers directly on Workbench. This is a great compromise between replacing Workbench completely and not having the DOpus-style functions, and I began to miss a similar thing on OS3. The idea of a small helper toolbar for Workbench basically came from that - what if we could just have the toolbar from Lister but the icon layout and full integration of a normal Workbench window? It's an idea that had been floating around in my head for a long time, and I was reasonably familiar with the Workbench interface from an ARexx perspective, so I knew a lot of the functionality needed for such a toolbar was already there. But with so many other projects that I was working on and so little spare time, the concept just stayed parked in my mind for years alongside many other ideas. It wasn't until I heard about the Amiga Tool Jam that I finally decided to put some time aside and develop DrawerGenie. Originally it was called DrawerCompanion, which was a terrible name, but described how it worked in my mind - a companion window that followed Workbench windows around, trying to help out when it could. I changed that to DrawerHelper when development started to gain momentum and my proof-of-concept code showed it might actually work, and I felt that was a slightly better name though still pretty unimaginative. It was near the end of the Jam that I was trying to come up with an icon for the program, and my wife said "Why not just call it DrawerGenie and draw a magic lamp?" And that's why it was renamed DrawerGenie in the final days of the Jam! 5. Why did you choose to create it for OS3.2+ and not 2.1/3.1 systems? Well, it will work on any OS3.5+ Workbench, which includes 3.9, 3.1.4 and 3.2. But support for earlier Workbench versions isn't really something I can do because earlier versions simply lack a lot of the functionality that DrawerGenie uses. OS3.5 was a huge overhaul of Workbench (internal version 44), and as well as the more obvious improvement like a new icon system, gave it a new API through workbench.library as well as an ARexx port for the first time. All subsequent versions of Workbench are based on the OS3.5 version, and while there are minor changes and bugfixes, they all support the same API and ARexx port. DrawerGenie uses both the workbench.library API v44 and the ARexx port heavily, and simply can't work without them. That means to be able to do the same thing on Workbench 3.1 or earlier, workbench.library would have to be heavily patched to gain access to the internal features that are available in later versions, and that sort of patching, as well as risking the stability of the OS, is also beyond my skill level. So for the foreseeable future anyway, DrawerGenie will only work on OS 3.5 or newer. 6. Were there any features that you wanted to include but could not/did not have enough time? Oh yes, many! I had a list of features I wanted to include, and worked through them during development. The basic core features are all there, but there are some features that I couldn't do. For example, I wanted the option to have DrawerGenie automatically attach a toolbar to a Workbench window when it opens (currently a hotkey needs to be pressed to attach a toolbar to a window), but that requires patching of the OS so DrawerGenie is aware of any windows being opened. That's not a thing I've ever done before and I wasn't able to get that feature working before the deadline, so it wasn't included. The other main feature I wanted to include but simply ran out of time, was more flexible toolbars so the user can select different styles. Currently this can be done by swapping in a new toolbar.iff file, but the palette remapping isn't handled and the size is fixed at 16x16 for each icon, which is quite limited. Support for different sizes of icon, and for the excellent AISS image library, is something I want to add in the near future. 7. What programming language did you use to create DrawerGenie? DrawerGenie was actually developed in Blitz Basic, specifically the open- source follow-on of Blitz Basic called AmiBlitz 3. This version of Blitz Basic provides a much nicer environment to code in than Blitz Basic 2.1, as well as providing many useful includes that act as wrappers for the OS libraries, simplifying their use. AmiBlitz is still actively developed, and is very highly backwards compatible with code written for Blitz 2.1, while also providing some useful new features like variable declaration checking and enforcing, dynamically assigned list arrays, variable parameter counts for functions and more. However, the AmiBlitz 3 environment is also more demanding than the Blitz 2.1 version, and so it requires a more powerful Amiga. It also helps a lot to use a high resolution (e.g. RTG) screenmode to make full use of the AmiBlitz features. So for developing on an Amiga with any less than a 68030, using Blitz 2.1 (ideally the Ultimate 2.1+ CD image) is probably a better option. It's worth mentioning though that the requirements of the executables produced are the same, and depend on the code rather than the development environment. For anyone interested in Blitz Basic, I have some information available at blitzbasic.info including example code and guides on the fundamentals of the language from "Hello World" up to GUI creation for system-friendly software and graphics handling for games. 8. Do you have plans for other software beyond DrawerGenie? I always have a head full of ideas for games and applications I want to write, as well as hardware I want to design and build. Unfortunately, I simply don't have enough time to pursue most of these ideas, but I always have a couple of projects on the go. Outside of DrawerGenie, my current project is Solas, a clockport card that gives the Amiga control of RGB lighting, fans, temperature sensors, LCD screens and more. This is a mixture of hardware, firmware and software development with the Amiga-side software also written in Blitz Basic while the firmware is written in C and assembly. It's nearing completion now, and once that's done I have updates to SMBMounter that I want to make, new features to add to DrawerGenie (and look into OS4 compatibility since that doesn't appear to work properly), a couple of ideas for games I want to write and so much more. I just need to win lots of money so I can give up my day job :)TopCONTENTSMiguel Fides Interview
Talkingamiga ============================================================================ Interview - Miguel Fides: Trinity by Timo Paul ============================================================================ 1. Hi Miguel, thank you for agreeing to this interview, can you please introduce yourself? Hi, I was an amiga user back in its hey day. I had an A500 and then an A4000 , which I kept using well past the Pentium PC times. I was working in a small computer store back then and considered PCs "just job". Since then, I made a career in embedded programming and left the retro scene for many years, until 6 years ago. I moved to the country and, as I had a lot of spare time, I took some broken amiga computers I had came across and tried to repair them as a slow hobby. My A1000 was damaged beyond repair so I decided to start with a full board replacement... 2. How did you get started with the Amiga? My father bought me an a500 in 1989. Some school friends got an a500 too and then I knew some more people that still are some of my best friends today... 3. You are working on the Trinity card, what project(s) did you work on before it? My first retro project was the A1100 replacement board. It quickly evolved from a simple A500-in-A1000 form factor to a feature-rich board with some ideas I had (a simple scan doubler based on SRAM, an 68020 with 32 bit fast ram, a replacement "gary" with ide interface and, finally, an A1200 compatible expansion slot). By the time I knew the famous Edu Arana and shared a lot to knowledge with brought a lot of shared small but clever boards we worked together. I always try to keep the look and feel of the first 90s hardware, so when we saw some simple 030 boards appear we decided to make a retro-looking 030 as cheap as possible but with the then-preferred expandable and "filled" look of the old days. We made the Tsunami 030. Now we have lots of parallel projects, not enough time to complete them in reasonable time. 4. Why did you decide to create the Trinity card? When I was testing had the Tsunami boards in the A1100, I had some tricks in the A1100 board which made debugging of accelerators a lot easier and I had two spare 060 chips with I had in a (failed) accelerator project for A500 so I took a newer approach to an accelerator with was not the simple way I had used in the Tsunami. I planned an 040-PCI/PCI-Amiga double bridge where I could try additional hardware with DMA and designed a board which I could fit and test in the A1100 (and A1200 later). I called it "Trinity" because the dual-bridge plus FPGA. 5. What unforeseen hurdles/difficulties have you encountered during development? Well it's by a large margin the most complex retro project I've done. There are lots of difficulties which make it somewhat similar of a small embedded SOC of today, centered on a state-of-the-art 90's CPU instead of a todays's 32bit core. We have DMA both in SDRAM and to-from Amiga. Some processing possible inside of the FPGA and peripherals for i2s (audio), i2c (which is used for an audio mixer), spi (this is issued for FPGA self upgrade), etc. 6. What aspects have been easier than you had anticipated? Well, easier than anticipated, I can't remember none right now... 7. There are many new accelerators available for the A1200 now, what sets your card apart from the others? As I said before, there are the requirements that I like to keep in every project: keep the look and the feeling of true retro hardware and maximize the performance of whatever is is really in the board. We don't use higher integration or manufacturing technology. We use the building blocks which were used in the 90s, no newer CPUs while bringing the highest performance from old stuff available. In addition to that, we sport full DMA 16/24 bit audio in/out with mixer (AHI). 8. The PiStorm is one card that has become very popular, why did you choose to create a card that uses a real 040/060 instead of the cheaper Raspberry Pi or FPGA? Well, it's my personal view of retro. For this kind of board, I'm not looking for for maximum raw performance. I want to see my 040/060 run faster than ever. If there is no old hardware involved then it's in a different league, closer to my PC or a Pi running UAE... 9. The onboard sound card is a very unique idea, what made you decide to include a sound card instead of RTG graphics? Back in the day I had a Cybervision 64 in my A4000, and I agree that it was very useful and many thought that it was the path to go. Looking back I think that a powerful CPU driving a frame buffer makes all contenders equal, not what the Amiga was in its glory days. I know that the Amiga video capabilities are very limited compared to retargetted graphics but, hey, this is retro, I was looking to faster A1100/1200, and A1100 isn't even AGA and it's okay. Maybe we (will) end up adding some video output but its not a priority for me. 10. Are there any additional features you hope to add in the future? Well, I'd like to add some sort on expansion slot like we did on the Tsunami but we have other issues before we can release the board for more testers. 11. Which type of user are you targeting the card at? I think that the board is a nice-looking card which feels and looks retro Amiga that provides the highest performance. We put our soul into it and everybody should be able to enjoy it. 12. What has the response been like from the Amiga community? Well I get a lot of positive feedback from all the boards I've done. There are a lot of Amiga active users and collectors and a big part of them seem to share our view of function, quality and good-looking (hardware) that we try to put in our designs. 13. Do you have plans to develop hardware for other Amiga models or computers? We have a lot of prototypes that comprise all the Amiga models. Most of them are due to (the) clever view of Edu and we usually share resources to help bringing the project forward. As I said, we can't do them all so we focus on a single project to finish when possible. 14. How do you see the Amiga scene developing in the next 5 years? I think that we are in a new time of expanding possibilities brought both by new performance levels for classic Amigas and new developments of system software. They both help to brings back the focus to native development on the Amiga. Thats really exciting to me because that makes the Amiga somewhat more appealing for what I like. I hope that more development in the high-performance 68k Amigas and more available development tools pave the way for more actually used Amigas both for gaming and native development, thus more new hardware diversity and refinement. 15. Being an Amiga user, do you have many Amigas, if so which one is your favorite and why? I try to have at least one of every Amiga model and I almost have, even if some are not 100% good looking or complete. My favorite, of course is my A1000 with the A1100 replacement board and Trinity 060 because it's custom made to my preferences :) I happen to have my original A4000/CyberStorm060 too, but I don't use it as often because I don't have much space for it. 16. Thank you for your time, before we finish do you have any final words or requests to the Amiga community? I'd like to share the good emotions that we have got in the recent years. We all have some sort of nostalgia but with the Amiga we have achieved great success in bringing the system back to use and enjoyment.Topadvertisements
CONTENTS ============================================================================ -= A D V E R T I S E M E N T S =-------------------------------------------- ============================================================================ ****************************************************** | * | Retro8Bit Heaven! * | =========================================== * | All you need for your beloved 8 and 16 bit * | machines. * | * | Cartridges, badges, wearables, full systems * | media, merchandise, boxes, joysticks, games * | and much more! * | * | Check us out at: www.retro8bitshop.com * | * | * ******************************************************TopWelcome to the links section!
CONTENTS ============================================================================ -= L I N K S =-------------------------------------------------------------- ============================================================================ www.amiganews.net/en/ One of the most up to date and comprehensive sources for Amiga news from around the globe. www.eab.abime.net English Amiga Board, the majority of the users are from Europe, a very friendly and helpful Amiga forum. www.exxoshost.co.uk The resource if you need help or information about the new Terrible Fire cards. www.amibay.com A great place for buying and selling Amiga hardware, they also have some very nice people to give advice about. Of recent it has become very hard to register on the website since their server migration. www.amiga.org Probably the longest running Amiga forum on the world wide web, most American Amiga users are on this board. www.amigaworld.net Another large Amiga website covering all Amigas, includes news, discussions and classifieds. www.amigans.net English Amiga website covering next generation, emulation and classic Amigas. www.amigafuture.de The longest running Amiga print magazine, issues are available in English and German. www.amiga-addict.com Newest English Amiga print magazine, if you are missing the likes of Amiga Power and Amiga Format, then this is the magazine for you. www.ka-plus.pl Commodore and Amiga print magazine avilable in English and Polish. Lots of games content. mancave-ramblings.blogspot.com Our own John Scolieri's personal website. ================================================================== If you have a link that you would like added to list contact: submissions@whatiff.info ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Links - WhatIFF? Issue 2.12 - December 2023#TopWelcome to the Amiga vendors section!
CONTENTS ============================================================================ -= A M I G A * V E N D O R * L I N K S =------------------------------------ ============================================================================ Alinea https://www.amiga-shop.net Amedia Computers https://www.amedia-computer.com Amiga 68k http://amiga68k.com Amigakit https://amigakit.amiga.store Amiga MC1 http://amiga1.com Amiga Shop https://www.amigashop.org AmigastoreEU https://amigastore.eu Amiga on the Lake http://amigaonthelake.com Arananet Retro Products https://www.arananet.net/pedidos Arcade Shopper https://www.arcadeshopper.com BuyElbox http://buy.elbox.com Electronics Is Fun https://electronicsisfun.com GGS Data http://www.ggsdata.se My Amiga Shop https://shop.myamigashop.com Relec http://www.relec.ch/fr RetroAMI https://retroami.com.pl Retro Passion https://www.retropassion.co.uk Retro Ready https://retroready.one Sell My Retro https://www.sellmyretro.com Retro Rewind https://retrorewind.ca Sordan https://sordan.ie Tindie https://www.tindie.com Vesalia https://www.vesalia.de ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Amiga Vendor Links - WhatIFF? Issue 2.12 - December 2023#TopWelcome to the Amiga Groups section!
CONTENTS ============================================================================ -= A M I G A * G R O U P * L I N K S =-------------------------------------- ============================================================================ ******************************************************************* * * United Kingdom United States Canada Germany Sweden * * France Belgium Czech Republic Denmark Finland * * Australia Russia Ireland Scotland Malta Japan * * ******************************************************************* ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Amiga Group Links - WhatIFF?#Topuk
Amigagroups ============================================================================ Amiga Group Links ============================================================================ United Kingdom Amiga North Thame http://www.amiganorththames.co.uk/ Birmingham Amiga Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/BhamAmigaGroup/ LINCS Amiga Group (LAG) http://lincsamiga.org.uk/ Norwich Amiga Group https://norwichamigagroup.co.uk/ North West Amiga User Group http://www.bambi-amiga.co.uk/spudmiga/nwag/index.html South West Amiga Group http://www.southwestamiga.org.uk/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Amiga Group Links - WhatIFF?#Topusa
Amigagroups ============================================================================ Amiga Group Links ============================================================================ USA Sacramento Amiga Computer Club http://www.sacc.org/ Central Texas Amiga Computer Society http://main.org/ctacs Central New York Amiga Computing Enthusiasts https://www.meetup.com/CNY-Amiga-Computing-Enthusiasts Central Texas Commodore Users Group https://www.meetup.com/Central-Texas-Commodore-Users-Group/ Metroplex Commodore Computer Club http://www.amigamccc.org/ Southern California Commodore and Amiga Network http://www.portcommodore.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=sccan:start Fresno Commodore User Group http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm Westchester Amiga User Group http://www.westchesteramigausergroup.org/ Amiga Computer Users Long Island https://www.facebook.com/groups/202303702519 Southeast Amiga User Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/SoutheastAmigaUserGroup/ Stamford Peterborough Amiga Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/spaguk The Other Group of Amigoids http://togausergroup.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Amiga Group Links - WhatIFF?#Topcanada
Amigagroups ============================================================================ Amiga Group Links ============================================================================ Canada Amiga Computer Users of Edmonton http://www.amicue.org Amiga Users of Calgary http://www.amuc.ab.ca Toronto PET Users Group (TPUG) http://www.tpug.ca * Started in 1979, TPUG is also the operator of the annual World of Commodore computer show. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Amiga Group Links - WhatIFF?#Topgermany
Usergroups Amigagroups ============================================================================ Amiga Group Links ============================================================================ Germany AUCB Treffen http://www.amigaclub-bautzen.de/ Amiga Club Munster http://acmuenster.de/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Amiga Group Links - WhatIFF?#Topsweden
Amigagroups ============================================================================ Amiga Group Links ============================================================================ Sweden Swedish User Group of Amiga http://suga.se/ Amiga Computer Group http://www.amiga-cg.se/ Syntax Society http://www.syntaxsociety.se/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Amiga Group Links - WhatIFF?#Topfrance
Amigagroups ============================================================================ Amiga Group Links ============================================================================ France Triple http://www.triplea.fr/ AFLE http://afle.free.fr/ AmigaPower http://www.amigapower.net/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Amiga Group Links - WhatIFF?#Topbelgium
Amigagroups ============================================================================ Amiga Group Links ============================================================================ Belgium Belgian Amiga Club?http://www.amigaclub.be/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Amiga Group Links - WhatIFF?#Topczech
Amigagroups ============================================================================ Amiga Group Links ============================================================================ Czech Republic Luky & Amiga Klub Forever + Czech PowerPC User Group http://powerpc.lukysoft.cz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Amiga Group Links - WhatIFF?#Topdenmark
Amigagroups ============================================================================ Amiga Group Links ============================================================================ Denmark Amiga Club Denmark http://www.amigaclubdanmark.dk/ Danish Amiga User Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/101927439851660? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Amiga Group Links - WhatIFF?#Topfinland
Amigagroups ============================================================================ Amiga Group Links ============================================================================ Finland Finnish Amiga Users Group http://saku.amigafin.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Amiga Group Links - WhatIFF?#Topaustralia
Amigagroups ============================================================================ Amiga Group Links ============================================================================ Australia Sydney Amiga Users Group http://www.saug.org.au Amiga Users Group https://www.amiga.net.au/ MAUG https://www.facebook.com/groups/MAUGr/ Perth Amiga User Group (PAUG) https://www.facebook.com/groups/perthamigausergroup/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Amiga Group Links - WhatIFF?#Toprussia
Amigagroups ============================================================================ Amiga Group Links ============================================================================ Russia Amiga Information Center (AIC) http://amiga.org.ru ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Amiga Group Links - WhatIFF?#Topireland
Amigagroups ============================================================================ Amiga Group Links ============================================================================ Ireland Amiga Ireland Meetup https://www.facebook.com/groups/amigaireland ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Amiga Group Links - WhatIFF?#Topscotland
Amigagroups ============================================================================ Amiga Group Links ============================================================================ Scotland Scottish Amiga User Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/626138110921245 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Amiga Group Links - WhatIFF?#Topmalta
Amigagroups ============================================================================ Amiga Group Links ============================================================================ Malta Amiga Malta https://www.facebook.com/groups/amigamalta ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Amiga Group Links - WhatIFF?#Top---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Amiga Group Links - WhatIFF? Issue 2.12 - December 2023#japan
Amigagroups ============================================================================ Amiga Group Links ============================================================================ Japan Commodore / Amiga Fan Club Japan http://cfc.amiga.co.jp/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Amiga Group Links - WhatIFF?#TopInvents Corner
CONTENTS ============================================================================ December 2023 * I N V E N T S / C O R N E R =- by Kevin Saunders ============================================================================ News from Invent Amiga Art Contest 2023 By the time you read this Doug and I will be busy looking over all the entrants for this year's Amiga Art Contest, good luck everyone :) I have managed to submit two fun animations to this year's contest :) Boss Machine Boss Machine will be the last Amiga Classic game I will make, so I will be doing my very best effort. Dan and I plan on doing a live stream soon on Dan's youtube: => https://www.youtube.com/@BossMachineAmiga/videos More assets have been created and my focus at this time has been the level selector screen, designing planets, screenshot thumbnails of the levels. Dan's very cool sprite editor have even more features, very organic spline controls for not only building big Bosses but paths for smaller enemies. I'm very impressed at what this engine can do. Apollo-X Some time has been spent on the shoot 'em up for Vampire Amigas and before the end of the year will have some new screenshots on my Patreon Blog. Our team is always very busy not only improving the ApolloOS but looking into future projects, hardware and software. At this stage Apollo-X is moving forward nicely, I am currently creating all the assets for the SKYRobots level, a very mechanical scenario in space. The Foreground tileset is 1024x1024 pixels, which gives plenty of room for creative design. I'm aiming at purely 2 parallax layers but in the Tiled Map Editor it is actually 4. The reason for this is I can create a lot more complexity and variation by overlapping different tiles. I'm really excited about this 2 player shoot 'em up. AmigaKit A600 GS - Amigakit Now that the A600 GS is in the open-public, recently shown at Amiwest 2023. I would like to mention that I am enjoying being part of this project. Recent work includes helping design the GUI - menu system as well as various branding and promotional materials. As you can imagine most info is under an NDA but as it becomes public, I can share more and I usually only post this info on my blog. Currently working on further promotional materials and sincerely wish Amigakit great success for this exciting project. Reshoot Proxima III You may have now noticed our 3rd and final game for the Reshoot series is now released. AmigaBill had a recent live stream on his Twitch Channel which was a lot of fun having the 3 main team members. For me It was 4am in the morning so I was not on camera and in the chat only. My office is part of the bedroom/study so it was difficult to be camera. We are extremely proud of this project and hope to enjoy it as much as we loved creating it. For me, I wanted to create a more grungier style over say a cleaner/pixel perfect look. Richard certainly deserves a lot of credit overall. Possible new Vampire Project - Dungeon Crawler game I have some posted news on my Patreon of some behind the scenes work on a Dungeon Crawler game for all Vampire Amigas. The game will be a hybrid of 3D dungeon and 2D rendered sprites. I'm fairly new to this project and currently testing out different software to create the characters. Projects outside of the Amiga Before I mention future projects (and some are not even listed), this is partly why I will not be creating any new Classic Amiga games. Many years ago, I have always dreamed of making games for the Amiga, and now after being part of 5-6 games, I have ticked that box. As I get older (52), I think about what else I would like to do. I believe the Vampire/Apollo Amiga needs more dedicated time to showcase what I believe is the best direction for the Amiga. So this is my new focus. An important other factor after many years of dedication all my spare time and more to the Amiga scene, and I would easily classify myself as the hardest/most productive Artist in the scene, my patreon barely gained any traction. Thankfully stable at 13 very valuable patrons. When you think of family Life and other things in life to do, maybe its a time for a change, other projects and other hobbies. The good news though is the Amiga scene is thriving, not as much as I would like to see but lots of great projects now and on the horizon. So with that news, below is a list of games I am also working on, all games are for PC below. My Brother Ian and I are very close to having our Boulderdash/Emerald Mine clone FruityCaves nearly complete. NOVA and Thrusterz 2 that i'm working with James is getting ever closer. Ian Saunders - Fruity Caves, Dragons Gold, Adrenaline Racer, RPG Shooter, Fatal Danger, Under Threat, Deep-Blue, Tank-Pong James Roberts - Thrusters 2, Iridium 2, Ultra Galaga, NOVA After all of these projects, I think I need a good rest. :) Till next time, Kev | Invent www.patreon.com/KevinSaundersTopCover Disk Number 4
CONTENTS ============================================================================ -= December 2023 Cover Disk Contents =-------------------------------------- ============================================================================ We have a very special coverdisk for you this issue, to celebrate our second year and it being our December issue we have an exclusive 15 level playable demo of Spheroid. But this is not a standard version but in the tradition of Amiga magazines before a Xmas WhatIFF? special version complete with Xmas music and graphics. You can find it in the drawer containing the magazine and extra files. Thank you to Any Vaisey for creating the demo. In addition we an 'Oldskool Volume 1' sample pack for you with some great pads, synths and chunky breaks. If you end up creating a tune with the samples then send us in and we will include it in the next issue. Until then, Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year!TopWhat's coming up in the next issue?
CONTENTS ============================================================================ -= N E X T * I S S U E - 3.13 - M A R C H 2024 =------------------------- ============================================================================ I cannot believe that 2023 is over and done, it seems each year is going faster and faster. The next issue is due to come out in March 2024, we will have some more reviews of Amiga 600 hardware, such as the xT accelerator, SSD solutions and a look at the A314-1000. Plus our usual guides, game reviews, articles and interviews. We hope to have an interview with the developer of the xT card and BitBeamCannon. Until then happy new year! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Next Issue - WhatIFF? Issue 2.12 - December 2023#TopMeet the writing staff of WhatIFF?
CONTENTS ============================================================================= -= W R I T I N G * S T A F F =----------------------------------------------- ============================================================================= WhatIFF? is an independent magazine created by Amiga enthusiasts from around the world looking for a more serious magazine. The main writers at the moment are a small group but hope to grow in coming issues. * Main Writing Staff * Ivan Sorensen John Scolieri Kevin Saunders Roald Strauss Rob O'Malley Steve Lord Timo Paul Tristan Shiflett We are always interested in new articles, guides or stories, if you have something you wish to submit please send it to: submissions@whatiff.info ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #Writing Staff - WhatIFF? Issue 2.12 - December 2023#Toptimopaul
Writers ============================================================================ Name: Timo Paul ============================================================================ Aliases: amifan (EAB) Contact info: timopaul@whatiff.info Websites: www.whatiff.info www.binarybeats.xyz ============================================================================= Bio: My journey with the Amiga started in either '87/'88 when the family got an A500 (Back then it was a computer for the whole family), I remember the monitor and A500 boxes almost being as high as myself. Before this time I had only been exposed to the ZX Spectrum and C64, using the blue Workbench for the first time was an amazing experience. When I saw DigiPaint in action I could not believe my eyes. From that moment I was a devoted Amiga user going through various Amigas, A500+A570, A600, A3000 and A1200. Over the years my Amiga has been used to creating digital artwork and for making or shall I say trying to make music. Then in the year 2021 I decided for some crazy reason that the Amiga scene needed a digital magazine similar to Amiga Report. It was my intention to have something that picked up where the great Amiga magazines such as Amiga World and Amazing Computing left off, providing a more serious look at Amiga usage through tutorials and reviews.Topstevelord
Writers ============================================================================ Name: Steve Lord ============================================================================ Aliases: stevelord (EAB) Contact info: stevelord@whatiff.info Websites: www.thedorkweb.substack.com ============================================================================ Bio: Steve enjoys doing impossible things on his Amiga 4000 and CDTV. Whether it's using his CDTV for email, playing Internet radio through his bluetooth speakers from his Amiga 4000, or talking to the world via the ISS from either. If people say the Amiga couldn't do it, he's probably looking for a way to do it. Steve writes his WhatIFF articles mostly using Arnor ProText.Topjohnscolieri
Writers ========================================================================== Name: John Scolieri ========================================================================== Aliases: klx300r (EAB) 328gts (amigans.net) aGS@C64_AMIGA (Twitter) Contact info: johnscolieri@whatiff.info Websites: mancave-ramblings.blogspot.com ========================================================================== Bio: Like many Amiga users my first computer addiction was the mighty Commodore 64! One day close to Christmas of 1986 I drove to my local Commodore store called Comspec...I was in high school and played rep hockey at the time and didn't have the time I used to when I was in grade school to visit Comspec each weekend to check out the latest magazine and games. Imagine my surprise when I stepped into the store and immediately in front of me was THE AMIGA! It was looping the Defender of The Crown intro and I fell in love instantly! From that day on it was my mission to buy that Amiga but I had just worked a few part time jobs to help pay for my first ever used car and didn't have a hundred bucks to my name lol. The Amiga was close to $2,000 Canadian dollars (after taxes) and unlike my C64 my parents didn't fall for the 'I need it for school' rant again. To (try) to make a very long story short I didn't save up to buy my Amiga until I started University in 1989. In the mean time I saw another Amiga called the Amiga 500 at Comspec and it was a lot cheaper than THE AMIGA but my eyes and heart and soul were only set on THE AMIGA! When I finally bought it that was the proudest/happiest moment I've ever felt and I jumped straight into University with Excellence! word processor and Logistix spreadsheet/ database. In my 2nd year I bought my first ever hard drive, a whopping 33MB which had its own case which sat atop my Amiga 1000 case. Later fast ram side cars showed up and I mingled with Manx Aztec C compiler in computer science class. Of course all the great games with awesome music/sound effects made my Apple/PC friends envious! By my 3rd year we had a small Amiga computer club and a few of us got our first accelerator boards for our Amiga which was called LUCAS and was based on a design in a Transactor magazine. It had a 68020 at 16 MHz with FPU on it and it really helped out with the more complicated spreadsheets and compiling programs. Life was good, the internet was just starting up, I graduated University and got my first full time job and then the bad news of Commodore going bankrupt hit the newspapers, magazines, and BBS boards! There was so much activity going on still in user groups and computer stores so us Amiga users just figured that it would sort itself out. At work there were only PC's running AutoCAD and I despised using the early Windows systems and couldn't wait to get back home to my Amiga. Over the years busy with work and 'adult life' many of my Amiga friends moved on to PCs and I ended up getting my first Amiga 1200 and later Amiga 4000 for great prices. I was still amazed how the Amiga community was still active and so helpful up to the early 2000's. By then I was married and working harder than ever to save up to buy a home instead of renting an apartment and my Amiga's were left at my parents house until around 2010 or so I read about a brand new Amiga which was coming out based on PPC CPU called the AmigaONE X1000 running a new AmigaOS4. I was skeptical at first after hearing about the technical issues with the earlier SE, XE boards with the initisal AmigaOS4 release but after consulting with some friends I joined the beta test team to get one of the first X1000 boards and I immediately felt at home with AmigaOS4.1 and have used it as my home Amiga ever since. Once I got some space set up in my house I got my Amiga's out of my parents house finally and eventually my original Amiga 1000 sits next to my AmigaONE X1000 and original C64 and of course my Amiga 1200 and 4000 came along too and with new accelerator cards and ram boards and spare motherboards and parts etc etc etc. Here I am today grateful to the Amiga computer and especially to the amazing Amiga community who back then and today has always been resilient, creative and helpful !Topkevinsaunders
Writers ============================================================================ Name: Kevin Saunders ============================================================================ Aliases: Invent (EAB) Contact info: kevinsaunders@whatiff.info Websites: www.patreon.com/KevinSaunders www.youtube.com/KevinSaunders www.twitter.com/invent71 www.instagram.com/invent71/ www.ko-fi.com/kevinsaunders ============================================================================ Bio: My journey with the Amiga started around 1988, The first time seeing the Amiga 1000 in the shop window playing animations such as the Amiga Juggler I fondly remember. My Brother and I saved up for an A500, and eventually bought an A4000 (cybervision 64 card) and then an A1200 with an 030 accelerator. I loved collecting every Amiga Magazine with demo disks. My interest in game designing for the Amiga started with deluxe paint and I did dabble with The Miracle Keyboard but that skill in music didn't last. It is because of the Amiga that I now work in video animation and game design.Topivansorensen
Writers ============================================================================ Name: Ivan Sorensen ============================================================================ Aliases: Weasel Fierce Contact info: ivansorensen@whatiff.info Websites: everydayamiga.posthaven.com ============================================================================ Bio: Danish Amiga fan since the 90s. Started with a 1200 and a 1200 is my machine today. I am interested in the casual and the philosophical aspects of the Amiga computer. My cats enjoy Turrican.Toprobomalley
Writers ============================================================================ Name: Rob O'Malley ============================================================================ Aliases: anaki rob Mr.Roboto Contact info: anakirob@whatiff.info Websites: systemofsound.org ============================================================================ Bio: Rob has been making music on Amiga ever since in the mid to late 90's his guitar teacher suggested that he get a drum machine to practice along to, and he instead opted to use OctaMED on his Amiga 500+ with A590 to craft beats and basslines Favourite quote: '...all she wanted to do was play with my ears all night' :PToproaldstrauss
Writers ============================================================================ Name: Roald Strauss ============================================================================ Aliases: MisthaLu Contact info: Websites: wwww.indiegamemusic.com ============================================================================ Bio: Content coming soon.Toptristanshiflett
Writers ============================================================================ Name: Tristan Shiflett ============================================================================ Aliases: Manical Contact info: Discord: Manical#1992 / manical90 Websites: manical.neocities.org ============================================================================ Bio: Manical started making music for the Amiga in early 2021 (April) and has released at some demoparties, and is planning to go to more along the way. He's in the demogroups MoonShine and Hokuto Force as a musician, and soon to be a coder or graphician. He started out with Protracker for his first 3 mods, then moved to FastTracker primarily, and then he started exploring Impulse Tracker and started making tracks with Furnace. His songs have gotten good reviews by many famous people in the demoscene, such as Jammer, Purple Motion, Skaven, and cTrix (Most known for his gAtari). Since his music journey, he's entered Syntax 2021, Mysdata 2022, Boozedrome VI (Which his track that he entered ended up on the official Boozedrome tape which was limited to 50 copies). Favorite quote: 'You see, we are here, as far as I can tell, to help each other; our brothers, our sisters, our friends, our enemies. That is to help each other and not hurt each other.'