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   AMIGA      Amiga International Echo      2,243 messages   

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   Message 38 of 2,243   
   Stephen Walsh to All   
   Commodore Free - Part 2   
   05 Jul 11 20:04:36   
   
   The delivery of a diploma for "Best Project MorphOS 2011" will be officially   
   presented at the Alchemy 2011 that will take place from 11 November to 13   
   November 2011 at Tainl'Hermitage (26 - France).   
      
   The development machine is composed of:   
      
   * A EFIKA 5200B motherboard,   
      
   * a housing epoxy polished,   
      
   * a Radeon graphic card,   
      
   * a PSU,   
      
   * MorphOS 2.7 or higher with its license,   
      
   * the latest pack Ultimate,   
      
   * MorphOS SDK pre-installed,   
      
   * carrying case.   
      
      
   *************************************   
          AMIGA IMMORTAL AUDIO CD   
   *************************************   
      
   The fourth part of Amiga Immortal audio CD series has been released. Like the   
   previous version, this is also a double CD. First month exclusively from   
   maz-sound.   
      
   Most of the tracks have been created by their original authors - trademark of   
   the Immortal series. Sometimes even playing live-instruments, you'll become   
   earwitness when Al Lowe himself (Leisure Suit Larry) playing the saxophone,   
   Jon Hare (Cannon Fodder) back at the microphone and Dave Govett (Wing   
   Commander) hitting the drums.   
      
   The latest edition contains music from the following games:   
      
   Atomino, Benefactor, Big Run, Cannon Fodder, Capital Punishment, Dangerous   
   Streets, F17 Challenge, Fascination, Final Fight, First Samurai, Flashback,   
   Flink, Fury of the Furries, Future Wars, Gauntlet 3: The Final Quest, Jaguar   
   XJ220, LED Storm, Leisure Suit Larry, Lemmings, Liberation: Captive 2,   
   Paradroid 90, Puggsy, T-Zero, Tales from Heaven, TFX, Turrican 2, Ultimate   
   Body Blows, Walker, Wing Commander, Wolfchild, Zarathrusta, Zeewolf,   
   Zeewolf 2: Wild Justice.   
      
   There are also short previews (although only through flash player) for all   
   the tracks.   
      
   http://www.maz-sound.com/Immortal/   
      
      
   *************************************   
        ICEFILESYSTEM 2.4 RELEASED   
   *************************************   
      
   http://blubbedev.net/icefs/   
      
   2.4 (2011-APRIL-11)   
      
   * Deleting file larger than "Max recycle bytes" no longer empties recycle   
   dir. Max file size in recycledir is now "Max recycle bytes" / 16. (if set).   
      
   * New (optional) environment variable: ICE_AUTORETRYIO. Set it to 1..n for   
   number of automatic retries of failed IO requests.   
      
   * Smaller bug in automatic renaming of recycledir files fixed.   
      
   * action_seek() allowed seeking beyond file with internal error requester as   
   result, fixed.   
      
   * IceSalv did not preserve file dates, fixed.   
      
   * IceCheck fixes/improvements.   
      
   * FSConfig got renamed to IceConfig.   
      
   * VInfo got renamed to IceInfo.   
      
   * No changes from the rc2 version.   
      
   * 64bit file/partition/extent sizes (actually very close to 2^63 bytes).   
   No self imposed fragmentation of large files unless there is not enough   
   contiguous space available.   
      
   * All metadata on disk is checksummed. This means any errors on disk will be   
   detected a lot quicker.   
      
   * Meta level journaling. Journaling makes operations to disk atomic.   
      
   * Hardlinks (directory and file), softlinks, notification, examine all,   
   record locking, file comments. Fully supported.   
      
   * Supports sector sizes from 2^9 to 2^31, at least in theory. File system   
   layout on disk is not dependant on a specific underlying sector size. File   
   system may however place data on disk so that it is optimal for the sector   
   size used.   
      
   * Supports block sizes from 512 bytes to 32 KB. Still works very well with   
   small block sizes though.   
      
   * File system does not get slower for larger partitions (scales very well),   
   or when heavily fragmented.   
      
   * No limit in # of files/dirs in partition/dirs.   
      
   * Handles removable media.   
      
   * Supports optional recycle dir.   
      
   * Supports automatically truncated log files and file change log.   
      
   * Wastes only 128k (and pre-allocates another 128k for meta space) for file   
   system administration data, regardless of partition size.   
      
   * Dynamic handling of cache memory. Memory is given back (progressively) to   
   system when not used.   
      
      
   *************************************   
            1541U-II UPDATE 2.1   
   *************************************   
      
   WHAT IS IT?   
      
   The '1541 Ultimate' is a storage solution for your Commodore home computer,   
   such as the C64, C128, C plus4, C16, etc. This piece of hardware implements a   
   'real' 1541 disk drive for Commodore computers. There are two versions of this   
   board; the 1541 Ultimate-I and the 1541 Ultimate-II. The 1541 Ultimate-I uses   
   an SD-card or MMC-card to store the floppy disks, while the 1541 Ultimate-II   
   uses MicroSD and USB pen-drives. Both the 1541 Ultimate-I and the 1541   
   Ultimate-II contain a replica of all the necessary hardware to be fully   
   compatible with a real drive.   
      
   NEW UPDATE OF THE 1541 ULTIMATE II FIRMWARE!   
      
   * Ready for testing V2.1. If no unacceptable new bugs are found, this could   
   be the release ;)   
      
   * Config menu is now 'hot', meaning that all settings that can be applied   
   when exiting the menu will be applied immediately without reboot.   
      
   * Audio options added   
      
   * Stereo SID emulation added   
      
   * Initial support for Domark cartridges added; not yet tested (and no support   
   from the menu in this release).   
      
   * Improvements made in file system handling.. (It's not 'clean' yet, but   
   delete and rename now work)   
      
   * Issue solved that caused errors when more than one cluster was used for a   
   directory. (ouch)   
      
   * Bug fixed that caused a crash when partition list was skipped.   
      
   * Some additional testing with SID support..   
      
   * Created module for selecting audio options in the Ultimate configuration   
   menu. Address for second SID now configurable.   
      
   * Some experiments done with EM1010 USB to Ethernet module. The module   
   doesn't comply with the USB philosophy of interrupts.. it *always* gives an   
   interrupt every poll.. (wrong!) But nevertheless, managed to send a DHCP   
   discover and receive a reply from the router. :) (not yet functional in   
   this release)   
      
   * Command Interface created and handler set up for testing VHDL. (not yet   
   functional in this release)   
      
   * Cartridge Logic restructured to make it a little more plug and go..   
      
   * Reading of ISO9660 added (both as .ISO file, as well as from external USB   
   CD-ROM..)   
      
   * Partition list skipped when there is just one...   
      
   For more information look at the website http://www.1541ultimate.net/   
      
      
   *************************************   
              NEW MASONICONS   
   *************************************   
      
   Two new icon sets in the AmigaOS 4.1 Update 1 design are available on the   
   Masonicons website.   
      
   MASONICONS COLLECTION APRIL 2011   
      
   Icons for Apps, Tools and Utilities like a completed RDesktop and Newscoaster   
   set, several generic icons for backup, default icons for audio files,   
   Hyperbench, QT and many more   
      
   DISK ICONS COLLECTION   
      
   Additional Device Icons for AmigaOS 4.1   
      
   www.masonicons.info   
      
      
   *************************************   
    AUTOMATIC MONITOR SWITCH FOR AMIGA   
   *************************************   
      
   André Pfeiffer (Ratte) developed a automatic monitor switch for the Amiga   
   computer. The switch is a "Do It Yourself" project, but there is a very   
   good tutorial on how to assemble the monitor switch. The monitor switch can   
   be used with the Amiga 1200, 3000 and 4000 computers with a IndivisionAGA   
   with CybervisionPPC or BVision. For all the details you can visit the a1k.org   
   web page   
      
   http://www.a1k.org/forum/showthread.php?p=417467   
      
      
   *************************************   
               TOSEC UPDATED   
   *************************************   
      
   The Old School Emulation Center (TOSEC) is a website and retro computing   
   initiative dedicated to the cataloguing and preservation of software,   
   firmware and resources for microcomputers, minicomputers and video game   
   consoles. The main goal of the project is to catalogue and audit all   
   possible kinds of software and firmware images for these systems.   
      
   As of release 2011-01-19, TOSEC catalogues over 200 unique computing   
   platforms and continues to grow. As of this time the project had identified   
   and catalogued 389,228 different software images/sets, consisting of over   
   2.95TB of software, firmware and resources.   
      
   http://www.tosecdev.org/   
      
      
   *************************************   
           C&A GAMES 3 RELEASED   
   *************************************   
      
   The 3rd release of C&A Games has been released, This is a polish magazine,   
   here is a translation of the release information from the website   
      
   Written by TOUDIdel   
      
   Finally, after long wait, we are pleased to present you a new issue of C & A   
   Games (TOC). In this third instalment of 52 pages you will find reviews of   
   games and a comprehensive description of the "TFX "and" Flimbo 's Quest,   
   history's about the game , "Boulder Dash " and an interview with Thomas   
   Lewandowski, known as Levi.   
      
   We also request to you, dear readers. If anyone feels up to and want to   
   assist the editors in the form of articles, e.g. for games, we invite you   
   to help shape the magazine. It depends on your contribution to the frequency   
   with which will show new issues of the magazine.   
      
   http://ca-fan.pl/   
      
      
   *************************************   
         SPELLCHECKER.LIBRARY V1.0   
   *************************************   
      
   Antoine Dubourg a.k.a. Tcheko released its latest production :   
   spellchecker.library 1.0   
      
   This new library offers spellchecking feature based on a dictionary of words.   
   It uses common and efficient spellchecking algorithms : double metaphone and   
   Levenshtein distance (used in major Office package like OpenOffice,   
   AbiWord...). This first release is aimed mainly at developer as no   
   application currently uses spellchecker.library.   
      
   Currently, this library offers '(s)low' performances : spellchecking is done   
   with a simple lookup table. Further version will include faster   
   spellchecking with the help of btree.library to the price of 'huge'   
   memory consumption. Tested with a French dictionary of more than 330.000   
   words, spellchecker.library took more than 80MB of memory excluding its   
   usage on low end hardware like Efika. Some benchmarking were done to   
   evaluate the spellchecking speed : up to 1 000 words per second was   
   achieved on a Mac Mini@1.42 with the btree version of the library.   
      
   Still, further version of the library will be designed to handle low memory   
   case to accommodate every kind of hardware. This library also has been   
   wrapped and tested with OWB which offers internal API for spellchecking.   
      
   Download : SpellChecker-1.0.lha   
   http://czeko.free.fr/public/spellchecker-1.0.lha (14KB)   
      
      
   *************************************   
   STROKE WORLD REVIEW By Commodore Free   
   *************************************   
      
   Free download from Protovision   
      
   OVERVIEW   
      
   Mr. Universum was the hero of the galaxy until a bad alien ensured that he   
   decreased some kilos.   
      
   The world and the whole universe were in sweet harmony. Mr. Universum, the   
   uncrowned king and hero of the universe provided for security and the peace   
   for all the peoples in the galaxy. He already struck many glorious battles,   
   triumphed in many fights. Only with one nature our hero got along   
   never completely: with the little green muscle eater. Now and then, always   
   exactly then, if Mr. Universum counted to few on it, this small poison dwarf   
   emerged - in order to make for the hero hell hot, so far however without   
   success. Until someday...   
      
   Minimum system requirements: C64 or C128 in C64 mode, 1541/1571 Floppy,   
   Joystick.   
      
   Also compatible with: 1541 Ultimate, SD2IEC, uIEC/SD, CMD SuperCPU with   
   SuperRAM card.   
      
   This game is available as PAL or NTSC version!   
      
   COMMODORE FREE   
      
   Stroke World consists of five worlds; each one is divided into five sections.   
   In each world a new graphic set awaits you. To leave a section, you have to   
   kill all creatures on the screen and run to a little signpost to enter the   
   next screen. At the end of each world you will get a password, so you can   
   re-enter that world at every time by typing in this password in the main   
   menu. After you have fought through all the levels there is a really big end   
   boss waiting for you. Can you destroy him?   
      
   You will want to download this file as it's a free game from PROTOVISON and   
   is available from the following url   
      
   http://www.protovision-online.de/games/strokeworld.htm   
      
   Main PROTOVISION website is located here, and after this magazine you will   
   remember it off hand!   
      
   http://www.protovision-online.de/   
      
   If you enter the shop and look at the games PROTOVISION have 3 categories to   
   choose from they are   
      
   * Full price   
   * Mid price and   
   * Freeware   
      
   In the freeware section are the 2 games   
      
   Starting Stroke World we are greeted in German this is however easily changed   
   by   
      
   With a joystick in port 1 press fire and you will be given a screen with   
   options   
      
   Here you can select amongst other things the language   
      
   Select English or Deutsch and then save option   
      
   Of course it will be in German first so its this option   
      
   Ok with that set we can then start the game, the change happens instantly   
   although you will have lost the intro in the correct language, I couldn't   
   find a way to restart from the intro so it seems you have to reload the   
   game to get the intro in the correct language.   
      
   The intro sets the scene but if you don't want to read it hit the fire button   
   to start the game   
      
   Now I don't know about the games history but on loading the game we are   
   presented with our hero lost in a cavern   
      
   The basic idea is you can climb and jump and punch (to kill) you have to kill   
   all the enemies and then go to the anvil to exit to the next level   
      
   Here labelled in the picture from screen 1 just to be sure you know how to   
   exit   
      
   Of course you are up against the clock and you only have a limited number of   
   shields   
      
   On later levels it's important to plan a route as you could get stuck by   
   jumping down and not being able to get back up.   
      
   The main character is a stick man! don't be put off though the animation   
   on the character is very good indeed, jumping climbing, very smooth, the   
   other items are basically animated and the background scenery looks very   
   nice.   
      
   Here our hero skilfully walks across a rope bridge or is it a pipe of some   
   sorts   
      
   Of course when our here looses energy he dies (ahhh shame) and does so by   
   "unzipping himself from head to foot and opening himself into 2 pieces,   
   very amusing.   
      
   To kill a creature you thump it by pressing the fire button in the direction   
   you want to thump and moving in that direction   
      
   If I could find a way to kill these stupid bat things then I would actually   
   be quite good at the game   
      
   At the moment I am climbing ladders and pointing towards it hitting like   
   mad in the hope I splat it into oblivion, trouble is its not working to well   
   in this game, these sometimes are quite hard to kill off.   
      
   Left on his own our here becomes board and stats to stretch and then dance   
   about Here is a scene directly after I received a password   
      
   Watch out for the killer snowball throwing snowmen   
      
   Remember on the later levels you can use the joystick diagonally, this is   
   very useful for when on the ropes/pipes to swing and jump off.   
      
   Drop from a height and our hero will complain shaking his fist violently at   
   you, fall from a great height and its all over, you will splat on the ground.   
      
   Sonically the music is excellent nice bobby music on the intro then down to   
   some hard hitting techno on the first 3 screens the snow man levels start to   
   chill out with lots of white noise and a more relaxed pace of music, sadly   
   my game playing hasn't progressed me onto further levels.   
      
   The game would benefit from a text doc to set the scene and help with the   
   control system but as you play it will be obvious how to control your man,   
   it's a very solid release and for the price FREE you would be mad not to   
   download a copy and at least give it a test drive. If this is the sort of   
   game PROTOVISION deem as free just think what the paid for versions are like   
      
   Review Commodore Free   
      
   Graphics: 7/10   
   Music: 8/10   
   Gameplay: 8/10   
      
   OVERALL SCORE: 8/10   
      
      
   *************************************   
   CASCADE REVIEW By Commodore Free   
   *************************************   
      
   OVERVIEW   
      
   Your task is to pop as many bubbles as you can. In order to do this, two   
   neighbouring bubbles must have the same colour. The more bubbles you can   
   destroy at once, the more points you will get and if all the bubbles are   
   destroyed you will get 500 extra points!   
      
   This game was first released at the Vision 2002 but unfortunately that   
   version had a bug: after a while, the music was corrupted. This is the new   
   100% version.   
      
   Minimum system requirements: C64 or C128 in C64 mode, 1541/1571 Floppy,   
   Joystick.   
      
   Also compatible with: 1541 Ultimate, SD2IEC, uIEC/SD, IEC-ATA, MMC Replay,   
   MMC64, 1581, CMD FD, CMD HD, CMD RAMLink, IDE64.   
      
   This game is PAL only!   
      
   This is another Freeware game from Protovision   
      
   Available from here http://www.protovision-online.de/games/cascade.htm   
      
   This game has appeared on a number of systems from Mobile phones to full   
   blown commercial releases Lets take a look at what PROTOVISION had to offer   
      
   First you need a joystick plugged into port two and after a brief intro and   
   how to play the game; we are on the main screen, it's a puzzler as you may   
   have guessed and its another of my favourite games. The Protovision   
   implementation is very good indeed, cool music from the start sets a nice   
   relaxing pace for the game   
      
   As the bubbles are popped they move over to the left (assuming a space is   
   created on the line) and join onto other bubbles   
      
   Of course the idea is to clear all the bubbles from the screen and gain as   
   many points as possible so I didn't do to well here. Only the same coloured   
   bubbles connected together will pop. The main idea is to get as many as   
   possible of the same colour together, and pop them all at once to gain   
   extra points   
      
   The game works out when this cant be done here we see 3 dissimilar colours   
   and so the game ends and allows you to enter a score   
      
   Functional graphics and excellent SID sounds again for FREE you cant go wrong   
   with this one. To pop the bubbles move the pointer (using the joystick) over   
   the bubbles you want to pop and press fire. Easy controls to master but the   
   game due to its Random starts of bubble locations can become very   
   frustrating, played with others watching it can soon turn to violence as   
   different people try to tell you there strategy is the best system.   
      
   Review Commodore Free   
      
   Graphics: 5/10   
   Sound: 8/10   
   Gameplay: 8/10   
      
   OVERALL: 7/10   
      
      
   *************************************   
   IT'S MAGIC 1 REVIEW By Commodore Free   
   *************************************   
      
   OVERVIEW   
      
   It's Magic by Protovision is a jump'n run with extremely cute graphics. The   
   main character of the game is a little tomcat named Tommy - he is very   
   curious and so he wants to be the first one who leaves his home world, the   
   Dream Islands. To make this plan come true, he signs on at a wizard. One   
   day, the wizard is out for some time, Tommy uses the opportunity: He takes   
   the magic book and the crystal sphere and with the right spell, he catapults   
   himself through time and space. Everything goes well it seems and he finds   
   himself in the so called "Outside World". Fascinating - but soon Tommy wants   
   to return home and realizes that this is impossible! He needs the crystal   
   sphere for that, and some magic potions... Unfortunately, the sphere broke   
   down into thousand little pieces, and the potions are guarded by some   
   monsters... And so, Tommy's first adventure begins, and you can experience   
   it with him. Meanwhile, the successor is available, too: It's Magic 2.   
      
   It's Magic consists of three worlds, each one is divided into 8 sections.   
   In each world a new graphic set expects you. To leave a section, you have   
   to collect all diamonds and find a magic potion. This potion is carried   
   around by one of the little monsters which run and fly around everywhere.   
   And when you reach the level's end and cannot leave - no problem: It's   
   Magic scrolls to the left and the right, so you can run back any time. This   
   is also useful in other cases: For example you can run after a monster until   
   you get it. To do away with these creatures, you got an - of course magical   
   - shot. Depending on the kind of the beastie more or less hits are   
   sufficient to let it blow up in pink dust.   
      
   Minimum system requirements: C64 or C128 in C64 mode, 1541/1571 Floppy,   
   Joystick.   
      
   Also compatible with: 1541 Ultimate, SD2IEC, uIEC/SD.   
      
   This game is PAL only!   
      
   Free download from here   
      
   http://www.protovision-online.de/games/itsmagic.htm   
      
   On starting the game we are asked if we want to use the fast loader, the   
   choice I suppose is down to your hardware, and if it causes problems. Here   
   on a stock machine for the review I selected yes (however for the record it   
   took 1 minute with the speed loader and about 2 minutes 5seconds without   
   selecting the speed loader)   
      
   Ok either way the splash screen loads and the music comes in   
      
   WOW this is Freeware!   
      
   The music is great boppy and bubbly with sort of clashing squeals I love it,   
   after about 10 minutes of listening I decided to play the game.   
      
   Look at the screen shot   
      
   Our hero a yellow cat? Starts his journey, and I love the clouds in the top   
   border floating around very nice, there isn't any in game music just the   
   spot sound effects however this doesn't really detract anything from the   
   game. The controls are using the joystick with the fire button causing our   
   hero to jump, to finish each level you must collect all the diamond segments   
   and then find the potion, this could be carried by any creature so you are I   
   suppose best to shoot everything on sight and ask questions later. Similar   
   scenarios have been used on other Commodore games so the game play in that   
   respect isn't unique.   
      
   A sequel exists and as you can guess is called its "Dave the fish! Sorry ok   
   its called magic 2, however this version for the review is FREE and so you   
   have little to loose by downloading and playing the game. Very polished   
   excellent control system and the physics (you can read this as the gravity   
   --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5   
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair: telnet: bbs.vk3heg.net Port: 2323 (3:633/280)   

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