Feature Requests

[Stilvoid]

Is there a central point for gathering feature requests or bugs, e.g. a GitHub issues page or something?

I've been taking some notes on papercuts while building up my game library on my A600GS (and getting in some serious time with Settlers  )

I hope these are helpful and please point me at an issue tracker if there is one

- Missing quality of life features:
    - Ability to invert mouse scroll direction ("natural" scroll).
    - Progress bar when adding HDFs. Anything over a few MB takes a while and there's no indication that anything is happening.
    - Timer or something when opening a large folder from USB stick. Bonus points if you swap the mouse pointer for a "thinking" cloud
    - Ability to choose smaller icons or perhaps a list view in the games selector.
    - Access to amiberry interface for additional tweaking when games need it.
    - Ability to map keyboard keys to joystick (as per UAE, cursor keys + ctrl)
    - Ability to filter/start typing when selecting an adf to import. Long lists are painful to scroll through.
    - Ability to map a joystick button to Up (and disable Up on the joypad)
    - Disk drive noise 
- Issues:
    - Audio pops on jack output when no sounds have played for a while (a few seconds) and then you click on a disc or something. Not good for my speakers!
    - File selector is case-sensitive so upper-case appears before lower-case.
    - Sounds sometimes repeat, e.g. select a game, sometimes the disk sound happens twice.

[AmigaBill]

These are all great suggestions as well as the idea to start this thread. Here are some quick suggestions off the top of my head that I have come up with as well as other folks who used it at our WAUG meeting

- Power and drive activity LED's
When I shut down via software I have to make it a point to press the power button or else I end up switching "off" the GS next time I go to use it. SillyBilly. Even just a power light would help immensely especially when doing a cold boot after crashes.

- Ability to make folders in "Games and Applications" launcher
Right now I am using this launcher as a "best of" and only importing my favorite items or else the carousel/menu will feel overloaded. I would like to be able to create a folder for "Shoot 'em Ups"; "Strategy";  "TBL"; "H0ffman" etc...

- Ability to load multiple .HDF files as a DH0: DH1: etc... So you have a virtual machine with multiple hard drives.
Maybe this feature already exists because AmiBench has multiple drives? Perhaps I don't know how to use it properly. After I load an .HDF I only see the option to replace the .HDF file, not add an additional one.

- Improved ADF Disk Swapping/Multiple Drives
I loaded up a 2 disk Cinemaware game. It doesn't seem like I can have a DF0: and DF1: (could be user error?) I added both ADF files but when I boot it prompts me to insert "reel2" So I navigate to the "Disk Changer" in the F12 menu and click on #2. This inserts the #2 disk into DF0: and it works, but it is all very vague and not clear. This can get extremely confusing when there are more than 2 floppies involved. It would be great to have at least a DF0: and DF1: but 4 floppy drives would be best. And when using the "Disk Changer" it would be nice to have the file names so I am clear which disk I am putting in what drive (providing you add more than one floppy drive support). It would also be great to be able to assign specific .ADF files to specific drives in the edit menu

- Hot Key for Disk Swaps
Feeding off the note above, it would be great to have hot keys for disk swaps so you don't have to break the flow when inserting a new disk. For example, in Eon, when it is time to insert disk 2 in DF0: you have to press F12, the machine pauses, and go navigate the menu. This kills the flow of the demo. If I could hit a hot key to swap disks or to inset disk 2 it would be awesome so the is no break in the demo. This is sort of a unique circumstance so I totally understand it not being a high priority but I am just throwing out ideas here.

- Wrap Around in the F12 menu
I usually navigate with a keyboard and every time I want to quit, my muscle memory has me press up arrow to wrap around to the bottom of the menu, but it doesn't do that. I have to down arrow through all the options to the bottom in order to quit. Not a huge deal but design elements like this make it feel a bit clunky

- Don't let the system icons on the left "jump" in Games and Applications Launcher
This is a minor one, but would improve the interface and user experience. When using a moue to navigate Games and Applications, don't allow the icons on the left to jump to a different part of the screen when you mouse over them and expand the menu. It is annoying. For example, if I mouse over the Gear System Icon, it jumps away from my pointer and my pointer ends up hovering over the Games and Applications tab. It isn't a huge deal, but it feels clunky

- Expert Mode
I wish you could switch into an expert mode so when you press F12 you get the AmiBerry menu like with PiMiga, AmiKit, Amibian, AGS, etc... This would let us re-map buttons, controls, and tweak settings. It would be really helpful. I am experiencing emulation issues on quite a few things. I know emulation is very difficult and I have issues with the other emulation systems as well, but frequently I can get something to run properly or better when I change the emulation settings in AmiBerry.

- Clearer "Controller Preference" Menu
I was confused about the controller preferences. When I add a DB9 joystick it says "DB9 Right Joystick" or "DB9 Left Joystick" in the menu However, on the A600GS itself they are labeled as "1. Game" and "2. Game" The labeling should be consistent. Additionally, left and right changes depending on on your orientation and which way you are looking at the device.

Thanks for hearing me out. I am really enjoying the A600GS so far and appreciate your efforts. The team seems passionate about the device and dedicated to future improvements and upgrades which is what gives me hope and excitement. It is easy for me to sit here with a beer in one hand and keyboard in the other coming up with all these ideas and critiques, but it is time consuming and difficult to actually implement them and and improve the A600GS. I am looking forward to further developments. Cheers guys!

[F0LLETT]

- Issues:
    - Audio pops on jack output when no sounds have played for a while (a few seconds) and then you click on a disc or something. Not good for my speakers!
    - File selector is case-sensitive so upper-case appears before lower-case.
    - Sounds sometimes repeat, e.g. select a game, sometimes the disk sound happens twice.

Never had audio pop, only when you switch from HD to Jack. So would need to be able to do it hear, so it can be looked into.
File selector, not sure what you mean, do you mean they way it orders things?
Sound does repeat, as its more than likely loading images on games menu.

Floppy sounds, god no, . Yeh its fun for about 20 secs, then it gets annoying, as its nothing like a real floppy, .

[Stilvoid]

Never had audio pop, only when you switch from HD to Jack. So would need to be able to do it hear, so it can be looked into.

I'll see if I can get a recording! About to head out for the weekend so will be next week

File selector, not sure what you mean, do you mean they way it orders things?

Yes that's right. For example, you would see

Code: [Select]

HARLEQUIN.adf
HeroQuest.adf
hammerfist.adf

instead of:

Code: [Select]

hammerfist.adf
HARLEQUIN.adf
HeroQuest.adf

Doesn't make much difference in this short list of course but in a list of 200 ADFs, hammerfist.adf would be all the way at the bottom past everything starting with 'H'

Floppy sounds, god no, . Yeh its fun for about 20 secs, then it gets annoying, as its nothing like a real floppy, .

True. More as something to indicate loading without needing to have all the LEDs turned on the whole time (which is just annoying). There have been a few times where I'm not sure if the emulator/Amiga has crashed or if it's loading. On a real Amiga, of course you'd hear if it was loading

[THX-1138]

I was wondering if a web browser would be feasible?

AmiFox apparently uses a server to do the heavy lifting from what I can see.  So, could the underlying Linux host OS run the backend server and Amibench run the AmiFox client?

otherwise..

What about something like the "Rabbit Hole" feature on AmiKit X to run Chrome on the underlying OS over the Amibench?

[Stilvoid]

I was thinking about this feature request topic the other day and it occurred to me that we have a lot of knowledgeable people here who are very passionate about the Amiga. How do you folks feel about opening things up a bit, perhaps a bit further down the line? There's no better follow-up to a feature request than "...and here's my branch in GitHub where I've proposed a solution". Obviously there's some overhead to managing community contributions but you'd have an overall increase in feature development. I can't speak for others but the potential for A600GS is why I bought one and I'm so impatient for it to be the under-the-TV everyday Amiga experience I'm looking for that I'd happily give some of my spare time to helping out

[F0LLETT]

I'm so impatient for it to be the under-the-TV everyday Amiga experience.

Me too, .

[Morbeous]

A web browser would be good.  On Amikit they have one with a direct link to Aminet.  Something like this would be very useful

[evil4dmin]

Hi all! I´m new here because of my recent purchase of an A600GS. I own a pretty big collection of real Amiga, but I like new approaches...

I´m using AmiFox and IMP3 right now and it is just awesome!

[Mousey]

With Super Skidmarks you can "Unprotect" it and delete (if you so wish), but you do not have that option for Thunder Hell.

I will never play Thunder Hell so would like to remove it from Games and Applications, but the "Unprotect" option is shaded out.  Can this be enabled in a future update so we have the option to delete it if we want?

——————————

Also, just a reminder here about the “Load State” feature request in case it gets lost!
https://forum.amiga.org/index.php?topic=76648.0

[F0LLETT]

With Super Skidmarks you can "Unprotect" it and delete (if you so wish), but you do not have that option for Thunder Hell.

I will never play Thunder Hell so would like to remove it from Games and Applications, but the "Unprotect" option is shaded out.  Can this be enabled in a future update so we have the option to delete it if we want?

——————————

Also, just a reminder here about the “Load State” feature request in case it gets lost!
https://forum.amiga.org/index.php?topic=76648.0

This is not a feature request, .

Its proberly missing the protect file, so its greyed out. I will mention it.

[broadblues]

With Super Skidmarks you can "Unprotect" it and delete (if you so wish), but you do not have that option for Thunder Hell.

I will never play Thunder Hell so would like to remove it from Games and Applications, but the "Unprotect" option is shaded out.  Can this be enabled in a future update so we have the option to delete it if we want?

Um, skids marks should not be deletable, that's an installation bug! Pre-installed software is double protected from deletion. If you deleted it it would likely get put back by an update anyway. Perhaps a hide from menu and show hidden option is needed.

[Mousey]

I like the idea of "Hide" and "Show Hidden" options - that would be great.

I just don't like seeing Thunder Hell in my lovingly curated games collection, when I know I'll never play it.  Super Skidmarks on the other hand is awesome and will stay there.

[Minuous]

Um, skids marks should not be deletable, that's an installation bug! Pre-installed software is double protected from deletion. If you deleted it it would likely get put back by an update.

That's not the Amiga philosophy; it is more like Windows or Android where they deliberately make it difficult to uninstall all the crapware.

[F0LLETT]

That's not the Amiga philosophy; it is more like Windows or Android where they deliberately make it difficult to uninstall all the crapware.

Huh???
You can't unsintall anything on A500 mini. Most of the games are rubbish. I can't remove the ones I dont want.
So what is your point, apart from what I can clearly see as trolling.