2012 on the X1000 - A Look Back

Given that it is almost the end of the year, I thought it would be good to look back over the year 2012 and significant releases for AmigaOne X1000 and it operating system AmigaOS4 during that time.

I do know (and acknowledge) that there has been plenty of activity around MorphOS, AROS and Classic AmigaOS3.x platforms too in 2012 (I run all three of these platforms as well), but these are not the focus of this AmigaOne X1000 blog as it runs AmigaOS4. It would be interesting to compare MorphOS 3.1 and AmigaOS 4.1.6 performance on the same X1000 hardware, but that's another story!

It's been a great year in 2012 with so many things happening - let's get started!

On the Amiga hardware side in 2012, we of course saw the long awaited release of the AmigaOne X1000 running AmigaOS 4.1 Update 5! The systems are sold by Amigakit.com. The first batch of X1000's released was called the First Contact release, which I was lucky enough to be part of.

The first screenshot shows my X1000 from the front:

Next up shows the X1000 case from the back, highlighting how much Amigas have changed over the years - this has USB, SATA, DVI, PCI Ethernet, DVD burner, dual display cards and no parallel port, RGB port, RF modulator port or floppy drive connectors:

The bootup screen for the X1000, using it's own CFE pre-boot environment to boot AmigaOS4:

Although expensive, the X1000 system represents the fastest AmigaOS4 platform currently available, and is a credit to A-Eon and their various partners and distributors for their work to make this system happen for the enjoyment of the Amiga community. Thanks guys, I am certainly enjoying my X1000!

During 2012 we also had a firmware update released for the X1000 to support dual display systems:

Regarding other AmigaOS4 operating systems updates beyond AmigaOS4.1.5 - 2012 saw the release of AmigaOS 4.1 Update 6 for all AmigaOne systems. This included AmiUpdate, which allows AmigaOS4 users to automatically update their systems with new patches and rollback as needed, much like other modern systems like Windows and MacOS:

Showing off AmigaOS 4.1.6 further in the screenshot below you can see Cinnamon Writer (Word Processor), Sabre MSN Instant Messaging, TuneNet, Filer and GoldEd (click to expand):

In the next screenshot we see Milkytracker, Remote Desktop (connected to Windows 7 computer), and AmiPad (Click to expand):

Next up is Mame (Arcade emulator), MUI-OWB web browser, and AmiFTP client (click to expand):

In the final screenshot of AmigaOS 4.1.6 is DV Player and a game called Push Over:

As an Amiga user since Workbench 1.2 back in the 1980's I can tell you that AmigaOS4.1.6 is continuing to improve hand over fist with each version, supporting modern processors, many modern ATI HD graphics cards, USB2, PCI-e, SATA and so much more besides...keep up the good work Hyperion! I am really looking forward to AmigaOS4.2 including ATI Graphics HD card drivers with 3D support in hardware!

The evolution of the Amiga is so clear from these screenshots below from an Amiga 2000, Amiga 1200, Amiga 4000 and finally the AmigaOne X1000:

Amiga 2000 (AmigaOS 1.3 - 1989):

Amiga 1200 (AmigaOS 3.1 - 1993):

Amiga 4000 (AmigaOS 3.9 - 2000):

AmigaOne X1000 (AmigaOS 4.1.5 - 2012):

We are fortunate in 2012 to continue to have a colour Amiga magazine called Amiga Future released bi-monthly, 100% focussed on all things Amiga:

It is released in English and German language versions with a CoverCD containing a lot of software each issue. If you don't already buy it regularly or have a subscription, I strongly recommend it! You can get it from Amigakit.com, vesalia.de and other places as well. Their website is www.amigafuture.de

As a quick side note for those willing to go out and google, you can also get the electronic version of most of the classic and Next Generation Amiga magazines covering the period from 1985 to today! I can now view them all using AmiPDF on the X1000:

On the games front in 2012 we saw a number of games released on AmigaOS4, such as:

Hurrican (HunoPPC)

PushOver (Huno PPC)

Ami-Ingenious (Mrdarek)

7 Boings (Mrdarek)

1941 Extreme DX Dual (HunoPPC)

G.E.M.Z (Fabio Falcucci and Pascal Papara)

Swamp Defense (Amiboing)

Balance Blox (Amiboing)

Tap Jewels (Amiboing)

A Frog Game (Amiboing)

River Pirates (Amiboing)

Santa's Monster Shootout (Amiboing)

Flare

Equilibrio (www.amigasoft.net)

In addition to these games, I also got familiar with some other games released in the last few years for AmigaOS 4 that I had to catch up on such as:

BOH (Simone Bevilacqua)

Aquaria (www.amigasoft.net)

ULarn



Battle For Wesnoth

F1 Spirit

X-Moto

SuperTuxKart

Epiar

Phew - so many games released on AmigaOS4, and I certainly didn't cover them all - not even close! I did include reviews of a number of these games in my blog if you want to look through the game reviews I did this year.

Moving on to the Applications front now, we saw a number of important programs and program updates released for AmigaOS4 in 2012 including:


Timberwolf Release Candidate 1,2, and 3 (Port of Firefox Web Browser - HTML5 compliant)

NetSurf 2.9 (Web Browser)

AmiCygnix 1.1 and 1.2 (X-Windows environment allows porting of Linux based applications to Amiga)

Homebank (Financial Program)

Audacious (Music Player)

SketchBlock (Sketching program)

Cinnamon Writer (Word Processor)

Hollywood 5 & Hollywood Designer (Scripting/Programming engine)

SabreMSN 0.77 (Microsoft MSN Instant Messaging)

UADE (Unix Amiga Delitracker Emulator) and TuneNet plugins

JavaScript to integrate YouTube with MUI-OWB web browser

Some of the other interesting applications and emulation software I tried out during 2012 on my AmigaOne X1000 included:

MUI-MPlayer

Genesis Plus (Sega Megadrive emulator), Viceplus (C64 emulator), DOSBox (PC DOS emulator), VisualBoy Advance (Nintendo GameBoy Advance emulator), FPSE (PlayStation 1 Emulator):

HornyOS4 (MIDI Sequencer)

RunInUAE (E-UAE emulation of Classic Amiga ECS and AGA games and demos)

(Populous - OCS Game)

(Cyberlogik - AGA Demo)

Aladdin (AGA Game)

LoView (Graphic viewer)

There are plenty more applications I tried out in 2012, but this is turning into quite a long blog entry! suffice to say, this doesn't even scratch the surface of all the applications released and there is plenty more to explore!

In summary, it has certainly been an exciting year to be an Amiga user in 2012!

It is great to see new hardware (X1000) and operating system, application and games software continuing to be actively developed and released for Amiga in 2012. I continue to purchase useful and interesting AmigaOne hardware and AmigaOS4 software as much as I can to help support the development! More please! :-)

I am hoping 2013 continues the momentum in new hardware and software releases, with more focus on improving depth of modern hardware support in AmigaOS4, with AmigaOS 4.2, AmigaOne Netbook and more original games and applications being released.

I want to take the opportunity to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thank you so much for reading my blog during 2012. I hope you enjoyed it! I had a lot of fun writing it. Hopefully there will be a lot more exciting developments to come for the X1000 for me to blog about, long into the future!

I will be travelling to Japan over the New Year period and will not have access to my X1000 during this time unfortunately! So this will be my last X1000 blog entry for 2012, and the next entry should be around the middle of January 2013 at this stage, when I am back in Australia!

Bring on 2013!

SSDR on X1000

I decided to try out a recently released tool called Screen Switching Done Right (SSDR) on my X1000!

You can download SSDR from os4depot.net. Once downloaded and extracted (I extracted to SYS:Utilities/SSDR), simply double click on SSDR to run the screen swapping.

 

In short, SSDR is intended to allow you to see all open screens on your system and switch between them by left clicking on the one you want with your mouse.

Traditionally screen swapping in AmigaOS4 (and earlier) is done using AMIGA + M key combination. This old method has no preview of which screen you are switching to.

SSDR solves this by showing the screen preview graphically, and allows you to choose which one to go to instead of having to AMIGA-M cycling through all screens until the right one appears.

You can even preview a screen in SSDR by pressing the middle mouse button:

Having to double click on the SSDR icon on the workbench in order to switch screens is somewhat annoying though since Amiga-M is needed to get back to the workbench screen to run it (somewhat defeats the point of it). 

SSDR really needs to run as a commodity so it can be assigned to a key function. When I checked the readme for SSDR that is exactly what it says I should do - manually - by using another program called FKey:

So what is FKey I wondered? Looking around the X1000 sys:utilities/commodities folder I found it:

When I ran FKey twice (once to run as a commodity, and then second time to bring up the configuration window), I get the following screen, which was initially empty:

What what I did here is press the Begin Capture mode button and pressed the HOME key on my keyboard. I then clicked on Stop Capture Mode button. Next, under the Command option, I selected Run Program. This then enabled me to browse from the Command parameters option to select the SSDR executable. The result of these actions is shown in the window above. You can use the Test button to try out the keyboard mapping before saving, which worked perfectly.

So now I can press the HOME key to activate SSDR to swap screens, which is much more convenient and logical!

However, when I reboot the FKey mapping no longers works. It means I have to run FKey from the Commodities folder every boot! I found that it is necessary to start FKey as a WBStartup item in order for FKey to be available from bootup. To do this, go into Prefs folder and open WBStartup icon as shown below:

In the WBStartup window that appears, click the Add button:

Next, browse to SYS:utilities/Commodities/ folder and select FKey which should then add it to the WBStartup window as below:

That's it! Now SSDR will be available on bootup for switching screens by pressing the HOME key.

Unfortunately in my testing SSDR has some serious limitations you should be aware of:

• SSDR only works with screens that use over 8bit (256 colours)
• Any screen titled no_title will not show up in SSDR (this is quite common for games)
• I opened uLarn on 16bit and 32bit screen and neither showed in SSDR
• I think that SSDR also uses no_title as scrren title which may be why other no_title screens don't work.
• AmiCygnix v1.2 screen does not show up in SSDR
• SSDR is not dual display aware, so it cannot show screens from multiple monitors, as I have on the X1000.

This SSDR program has a lot of potential - I look forward to seeing updates to further expand it's functionality and remove some of the restrictions on what screens can be seen.

Mini Game Review - Santa Monster Shootout on X1000

Today I am looking at Amiboing's recently released game for AmigaOS4 called Santa Monster Shootout on my X1000.

Amiboing has released this game for free, just in time for the Xmas season!

In this game Santa apparently has developed a need to shoot monsters with bigger and bigger weapons! As you shoot enemies on screen you get more money. This money allows you to upgrade your weapons and ammunition to be more effective!

In the config program you can configure the game to run full screen or in a window.

Once you launch the game itself, you get to the main menu where you can get Help with playing the game, access the Shop to buy higher grade weapons and ammunition, access the Highscores which as usual for Amiboing are synchronised to their internet web server to keep track of scores of players across the world:

Below is the help screens to explain the game screen and shop functions. Joysticks are supported in the game which is good:

I was impressed with the high scores already achieved - I quickly discovered it will take a long time to get that high!

Next screen shows the initial Shop screen - I don't have any money to buy anything yet so we need to play the game now to see more!

I have to say the quality of the graphics is excellent! So now let's see some screenshots from the game itself:

There is a small game world you can walk to the left or right - enemies appear periodically to be killed!

The gameplay is a bit repetitive though...

 

The timer is used to calculate your bonus at the end of the level based on how much time is left. If it hits zero the game still keeps running but just no bonus for time remaining is given...I did eventually get enough money for a weapons upgrade ($500), so at the end of the level I went to the shop:

 

Weapon now upgraded, it's back to the game again, collecting health and additional ammo. With the default weapon you have unlimited ammo, but with the higher weapons you need to collect the ammo that appears when you shoot the enemies:

 

You can also collect the health bonuses as you go through the game, which restore your health. The game ends if your health goes down to zero...

Looking at the Level indicator on screen, I played this for quite some time initially and I was still stuck on level 1...

After a hint from AmigaWorld.net and some extra time with this game I learnt that you need to keep walking to the right to get to the end of level boss and the end of the level. Perhaps an arrow at the start of the level and a end of level door would make the progression more obvious. I did make it as far as level 12 - Unfortunately I got bored with the repetitive shoot - walk right - turn - walk left - shoot and repeat gameplay method!

I am really sorry Amiboing, but this game is not really my kind of thing. I think it needs platform style gameplay or more exploration element in the game to spice it up a bit. The shop is a nice touch though.

But it must be remembered that the game is free, the graphics are well done, and for those who like this type of game and treat it as just a little short term Xmas fun I am sure you will enjoy it!

Mini Game Review - 7 Boings on X1000

Today I am looking at a game called 7 Boings on my X1000, released this year by Mrdarek and available for download on os4depot.net.

Mrdarek also brought us Ami-Ingenious earlier in 2012. I reviewed that game in another earlier blog entry here. His website is http://www.lineapolis.dizzy.pl/other.shtml

7 Boings is a sort of Tetris style puzzle game with a different spin on the usual gameplay on how balls are placed in columns, and how the rules determine which balls are removed from the game when matches are made. The rules are a bit involved and confusing at first, especially regarding when balls are exploded and removed (well for me it was confusing anyway!). It is certainly different!

Fortunately a readme is included with the game than it explains the gameplay better than I could so I include it below to get you up to speed (click to expand):

Basically, you move the ball you are given into position using the left and right cursor keys and down arrow to drop into position. Then the next ball appears. The game continues until the game field is full of balls and no further moves can be made.

After running the game, you are presented with the Main menu, which allows you to select from a number of game modes. Mountain Trip is the easiest mode, and the higher modes get more difficult:

The game runs on the workbench screen - there is no option to run full screen.

At first I was confused by the colours and numbering in the game, as it made it appear that placing the same numbers and colours together it the goal, when it is not. The number on the ball dictates a match when the number of balls in a line (vertical or horizontal) will match the number on the ball being dropped. When a match is made the ball explodes, only with other similar numbered balls in the same line.

In addition to this, as the game progresses, Amiga Boing Balls appear which take 3 explosions to get rid of. The first fractures the ball, the second changes the boing ball to reveal a normal number ball, and then third gets rid of it altogether.

Confused? Me too.

But I kept trying and eventually got the hang of it. Reading the readme helps but playing it makes it easier to follow what the readme rules explain.

There are 7 columns and 7 rows in the main game, along with the Amiga Boing Balls, which makes sense why the game is called 7 Boings!

So now some gameplay screenshots, first at the start of the game, using Mountain Trip mode:

In the next screen shot you can see the 4 ball about to be dropped onto the 4th position vertically, which means it will explode, removing itself from the game:

As the game progresses, you can now see the Amiga Boing Balls start to appear. As mentioned they take 3 explosions to remove from the game. The probability of the Amiga Boing Balls appearing as the next ball increases, the further you get into the game:

 

Now I am about to drop the 6 ball into the 6th position vertically, which will remove the 6 ball and the 6 ball below it:

Moving on a bit in the game, there are lots of Amiga Boing Balls. After a while a row of Amiga Boing balls is added to the bottom of the game window and moves everything up one row:

The game gets harder the more Boing Balls are around as it takes many more explosions to get rid of them:

Oh dear, at this stage I am in a lot of trouble:

Sure enough, one last move and Game Over!:

7 Boing is now free, and it is an interesting game. Although there is no music and just spot sound effects, the game is fun to play, although difficult to work out at first.

It is great to see yet more original games for AmigaOS4 in 2012!

It takes some time to understand the game mechanics in 7 Boings, but it is worth it, because behind the slightly confusing rules is a good game!