A600GS Updates

[amigakit]

This week our developer is working on AmiBench enhancements.  The antialiased text will be rendered through the Arm Graphics Library instead of slower 68k code.   We hope to progressively convert more 68k functions across to native ARM code to boost AmiBench graphics performance.

[amigakit]

Amiga News have published an interview article about the A600GS computer system:

English

German

[amigakit]

The following software updates for the A600GS have been uploaded today through the in-built live update system.  They are available to download for all registered AmiSphere users:


46.1.850  (14/10/2024):


SystemV46:

* ARM Graphics Library:   Improve and extend support for Alpha Bliting a colour based source with and without mask. Add support for JAM1 JAM2 INVERSVID etc. Switch to synchrounous natice calls to reduce context switch overhead.  Use the above to accelerate CyberGfx BltTemplateAlpha() and thus improve rendering speed of antialiased text.

* Update C:JST to latest version 7.4

* Input Prefs added
* Locale Prefs added
* Populate Devs:Keymaps.

AmiBerry:

* Update plugins path. Update JST to 7.4

[amigakit]

The legendary Competition Pro Joystick is now available as a product option for the A600GS. 



This legendary digital joystick features four firing buttons and the turbo function permit enough control to defeat every opponent. Made of robust material the joystick is perfectly suitable for playing a wide range of game genres:  racing, platform, shoot em-ups and beat em-ups.

[amigakit]

I am currently writing my presentation on the A600GS for the Amiwest show next week.  I thought it would be much better to display the presentation slides on the A600GS itself rather than a laptop.   Our developer has created a small CLI command called ShowSlide.  This small program displays the presentation slides as full screen taken as a list from the command line.  For example:

Code: [Select]

c:ShowSlide SLIDES slide1.png slide2.png slide3.png slide4.png

Left mouse button advances to the next slide.  The slides are accelerated by the Shared Image Class and ARM Graphics Library

We will include this in the next public release.   Some A600GS users may find it useful if they want to use their A600GS as a portable presentation tool.  It will certainly be a talking point in meetings

[amigakit]

The following software updates for the A600GS have been uploaded today through the in-built live update system.  They are available to download for all registered AmiSphere users:


46.1.864  (25/10/2024):


SystemV46:

* ARM Graphics Library:      Add Text backend function to support generate to the antialiased text alpha template. Give 10% additional speedup on text rendering.   BugFix: RGB src image with no mask was not handled correctly, resulting in no rendering at all in some cases or incorrect alpha in others.
* ShowSlide v46.1 added to C directory. 
* AmiBench:  Migrate to using an intermediate AmiBench-Startup script before the traditional User-Startup and filter the latter from update archives. Now the user can edit and customise this without having customistions overwritten
* AmiSSL v5.18 updated
* Icon Library v51.4.589 updated
* Version command v46.21 updated
* CLI v46.10 updated
* Add def_DF0.info et al and snapshot the lower half of screen under current disks.
* AB-Dock: Use custom rendering to draw IntuiText based lables, cacheing the font etc to try and reduce text flicker.
* SetGadgetAttrs( node, GA_Selected,....) caused  TWO refreshes under AROS (and none under OS3.x)  Replace with SetAttrs() followed by RefreshGList()

A600GS:

* Add support for Floppy disk drives through Drawbridge.
* Add note about pressing fire button to enable DB9 joysticks

[amigakit]

Connect a real Amiga 1200 or Amiga 600 keyboard to your A600GS with the new AmiKey keyboard interface:

[amigakit]

The following software updates for the A600GS have been uploaded today through the in-built live update system.  They are available to download for all registered AmiSphere users:

46.1.878  (11/11/2024):

AmiBerry: Extend uaelib to provide info about available midi devices and allow setting currently active midi input and output devices.

Merge with latest amiberry-lite github 5.7.5

A600GS:
BrlTTY was installed by default on earlier image versions, this caused a conflict with Drawbridge USB as it "stole" the USB serial device from the DrawBridge drivers! This update will do a one time purge of brltty where installed. This had the strange effect of the first floppy drawbridge connected not working but the next one attached would work as if it were the only one attached.
 Later images are not affected.

Add support in the GUI for Competition Pro joysticks. Also add support for 8BitDo Zero 2 Bluetooth controllers. Widen the pattern used for testing input devices for joystickness so that more (hopefully all) gamepads should now be recognised as such.

If the bluetooth system was disabled then dbus messages sent to it to scan for attached or paired devices etc would trigger an Abort() in the libdus library rather than return the usual error message, unfortunately then causing the main GUI to Abort() to black screen. Add additional tests at all levels to prevent DBUS message being sent to BlueZ when not extant. This solves the main and up till now mysterious causes of the black screen after boot issue!

OctaMED:
Add a menu item to allow selecting the desired input and output A600GS MIDI devices

[amigakit]

The following software updates for the A600GS have been uploaded today through the in-built live update system.  They are available to download for all registered AmiSphere users:

46.1.891  (20/11/2024):

Latest A600GS system update has been released today.  Adds one click download and install game feature.  To test this new feature, Deluxe Galaga (Aminet version) has been added to the download and install list.  Simply click the Install button and it will be ready configured to play on your A600GS.  We plan to shortly add more classic public domain games to this list.   Deluxe Galaga was created by the late Edgar M. Vigdal who was a remarkable games developer.   Enjoy this very addictive classic game.

A600GS:

46.1.891:

A600GS: Extend new downloads sub panel to allow auto installing of A600GS targeted products.  Split display into "A600GS" and "Other Platforms" sectons

Update AmiSphere->Downloads tab adding scroller box so that content scrolls internally to screen page and does force screen to scroll. Populate grid rows from the two list with separating titles and move column titles to per section rather than at the head of the grid.

SystemV46:

* IconX 46.7:  Workaround for AROS SystemTags() issue that prevented IconX from working in AROS systems.

* Makedir 46.14: 

- Added ICONNAME option to be able to select a specific icon for the created directory. If no path is supplied the current dir is searched first and then ENVARC:sys

- Modified the CLI argument template to be more compatible with OS3 and OS4.

* remove serial debug from PatchGFX

[amigakit]

A video from our developer explaining the new download and install function:

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

[amigakit]

@BozzerBigD

With the new one-click download and install function, we can add new games for users to play.  As you can see from the video it is very easy and fast to download a game now with just a click.   

Of course all of this new functionality uses the AmiStore infrastructure already.  Next option will be the add to cart and pay for commercial titles feature.

This complex project is coming together nicely.

[amigakit]

Movem game by Hironymus Jumpshoe, MC. Mad Brush and Mr. Dux has been added a free download/install on the A600GS .

In the main menu, click on the Downloads section under AmiSphere menu

[amigakit]

Tanx created by Gary Roberts has been added a free download/install on the A600GS. 

In the main menu, click on the Downloads section under AmiSphere menu

[amigakit]

Biplanes created by Peter Mason has been added a free download/install on the A600GS. 

In the main menu, click on the Downloads section under AmiSphere menu

[amigakit]

Rollerpede created by M. Donkin and D. Parker has been added a free download/install on the A600GS. 

In the main menu, click on the Downloads section under AmiSphere menu

[amigakit]

Super Obliteration created by David Papworth, David Morley and Derek Morley has been added as a free download/install on the A600GS. 

In the main menu, click on the Downloads section under AmiSphere menu