M.A.C.E.

M.A.C.E. follows in the footsteps of classic shoot 'em ups like R-Type with the addition of high definition graphics and online scoreboards. I bought the game from amigakit in the summer and have been meaning to write a short review ever since!

As you can see from the photos I bought a Speedlink Competition Pro USB joystick to go with the game. Both arrived carefully packaged from amigakit and in good time.

Assist 1.7

Assist 1.7 is now available to download from OS4Depot. As well as new and updated articles this latest update features a web search tool to quickly search Google, Wikipedia or the AmigaOS Wiki.

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Kicklayout

Two weeks back I decided to have a go at shaving a few seconds of my AmigaONE 500's boot time. I did this by editing the the 'Kicklayout' file, a file which determines what kickstart modules are loaded at boot. I knew this process was hazardous, possibly resulting in the machine failing to boot if the wrong line was commented out, however having done this on my old Sam440flex I decided to have a go.

Introducing Notify

I've just uploaded 'Notify' to OS4Depot. This simple little program is designed to act as a kind of 'middle man' between AllKeys and the AmigaOS notification system (Ringhio). Notify makes it easy to associate a key presses (and a few other events) with on screen notifications.

I made this a few weeks back as I wanted a way of having notifications show when pressing some of the 'multimedia' keys on my Perixx keyboard, such as the volume controls.

 

Playing DVDs on the AmigaONE 500

DvPlayer

I finally managed to play a DVD on an Amiga! So what?

Well, I bought DvPlayer, a video player for playing back DVDs amongst other formats, two years back and never successfully played a DVD with it on my Sam440flex. This all changed on Friday.

Battle of the Radeons

In the search for a suitable Radeon HD card for my new AmigaONE 500 I hunted for some of the recommended cards on eBay and found there were many to choose from. However, I soon discovered many Radeon HD cards are double height and although these might work they are not practical in the AmigaONE 500 as below the PCIe slot is the motherboard's one PCI slot occupied by a SATA board. Despite this I found a good selection of single height cards and ended up the winning bidder on two cards:

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5450 1 GB

XFX ATI Radeon HD 5550 1GB

Assist 1.6

Assist 1.6 is now available to download from OS4Depot.

The main feature of this release are dependency checkers for applications requiring AmiCygnix or Qt. Apart from this there are some other small improvements, such as page numbers in the A to Z, and 40 new articles taking the total number to over 500 now!

New users can download Assist from OS4Depot, while existing users can update to the latest release via AmiUpdate.

First Impressions

A couple of months back I received an email from amigakit inviting me to to order an AmigaONE X1000. I had registered interest in the X1000 some time before and joined the queue for this flagship AmigaOS system. I was disappointed to discover the price had crept up, due to rising CPU prices, with the configuration I wanted now coming in at almost £2300. To be honest I think the long wait also took the shine off the prospect of an X1000 for me. Eventually I contacted amigakit to let them know I was going to pass on the offer and instead decided to take a second look at ACube's AmigaONE 500.

The AmigaONE 500 is a system based on ACube's Sam460ex motherboard. I already have a Sam440flex which I have had a lot of use out of over the last few years, but fancied an upgrade. I decided to order the AmigaONE 500 SSD edition which came in at less than half the price of the X1000. Although not as powerful as an X1000, and perhaps less 'future proof', the difference in cost ultimately swung the decision for me.

AmigaONE 500 Unboxing

This week my new AmigaONE 500 arrived from ACube. I will post some thoughts on the system soon, in the meantime here are a few unboxing photos. Enjoy!

Assist 1.5

Assist 1.5 is now available to download from OS4Depot.

The highlight of this latest release is an improved experience when browsin in fullscreen mode.

New users can grab the latest version from OS4Depot, while existing users can update to this latest release via AmiUpdate.

Assist 1.3

Assist 1.3 is now available to download from OS4Depot.

Amongst other things, this latest release sees some further improvements to Preferences and 50 new articles added to the A to Z.

New users can grab the latest version from OS4Depot, while existing users can update to this latest release via AmiUpdate.

Assist 1.2

Assist 1.2 is now available to download from OS4Depot.

This latest release sees lots of a new ARexx commands added for to Assist's ARexx port and a fresh layout for Preferences.

Assisting in Norway

Thanks to Norwegian Amiga user Helge Kvalheim for mentioning Assist in his latest blog post:

Jack goes MUI

Assist 1.1

Assist 1.1 is now available to download from OS4Depot.

This latest release sees the introduction of support for the Jack AppStore for downloads. Jack 4 users can now enjoy asynchronous downloads from Assist. Check Assist's Preferences to switch on this new feature.

Besides Jack AppStore support, Assist also now has an ARexx port and of course many more articles to browse.

Assist 1.0

Assist 1.0 is now available to download from OS4Depot.

This is the 30th release of Assist, which now includes over 300 articles to help you get the most out of your Amiga!

As well as the numerous bug fixes and refinements, version 1.0 sees the introduction of step-by-step tutorials, logging and improved preferences for customising Assist's behaviour.

New users can grab the latest version from OS4Depot, while existing users can update to this latest release via AmiUpdate.

Welcome

Welcome to gtmooya's blog! Here you will find information and news about the AmigaOS 4 program 'Assist'. From time to time I may also post news about other Amiga-related projects and musings here.

Enjoy!