Here's the next step in Vampire/Apollo-core development, and what an important step it is: Amiga-chipset emulation, namely AGA, is making good progress - now Vampire boards can do AGA graphics and audio via HDMI!
Once again, and finally, it looks like it's really happening: the looooong overdue update of the Amiga's screenmodes and connection capabilities in regard to modern displays.
The AmiGameJam 2017 Amiga game development competition ran from February 5th to March 30th 2017, and was held in two categories: Classic OCS/AGA Amigas and Next-Gen Amigas (AROS, MorphOS and AmigaOS4). The theme was "TV Shows and Movies" or "Christmas".
Six titles were submitted: Brus Lii, Santa Run (Next-Gen/AmigaOS4), Easter Egg, Max Knight Xmas Edition, Bridge Strike, and The Last Starfighter.
Arti has ported "Mini Metal Slug", a "Metal Slug" remake, to AmigaOS3. It's a one-man-army comic-style shoot'em up game, and it demands some serious processing power: 68040 CPU, fast emulator, or Vampire accelerator is required.
You can find it on AmiNet:
http://aminet.net/search?query=minislug
Arti's homepage is:
https://artishq.wordpress.com
If you like coding in Pascal on the Amiga, or if you want to start doing so, you should visit ALB's blog.
ALB's blog hosts the Freepascal compilers for AmigaOS, MorphOS and AROS, some other applications like Mapparium, GPSTool, and EdiSyn, and now he has even added an online Pascal compiler for AmigaOS, MorphOS and AROS.
Via a web interface, you can enter your Pascal code, choose the destination platform, click "Compile", and download your executable file.
Oh yeah, those glory days, and those glory tunes! Speedball 2, Apidya, Flashback, Jim Power, Shadow of the beast, ... you name it, you sing it.
Now you can re-live the music originally composed by Chris Huelsbeck, David Whittaker, Paul van der Valk, Ron Klaren, Stéphane Picq and others, for games including Dune, Turrican 3, Battle squadron, Unreal, One step beyond, and Lotus III, in full instrumentation and high production quality.
So you've pulled your beloved old yellowish-brownish Amiga 500 out from the attic - ah, those memories...
"The Guru Mediation" did an interview with Glenn Keller, former engineer at Commodore, designer of the Paula chip, which is responsible for the Amiga's sound capabilities, serial port, and floppy disc drive interface.
Mr. Keller is a very nice guy, it's a pleasure listening to his ancedotes and information. He talks about the early days of Amiga development, the unreleased AAA chipset, and the longevity and revival of the Amiga system, among other topics.
Thanks to "The Guru Mediation" for the interview, and Mr. Keller for taking the time!
Stephen Leary's TF530 accelerator board for the Amiga 500 is a nice piece of hardware for several reasons. It's low-cost, open-source, fast, has an IDE controller, and a great name.
Why not build one youself?
You need some proper tools, and should have some good soldering experience - SMD parts are really small... And you need some patience and knowledge to find the components.
For starters, check the video below, where Stephen shows the first steps in building it "from scratch".
The next step in Apollo / Vampire accelerators development: After the boards have been put into mass production, they're now available from Amiga retailers AmigaKit in Great Britian and Relec in Switzerland!
