Icaros Desktop 2.0 on Acer AspireOne ZG5 Netbook

This past week we finally see released the new Icaros Desktop 2.0 upgrade (AROS), so I was keen to try it out on my existing Icaros 1.5.4 installed netbook (I showed this at AmiWest 2014) - the Acer AspireOne ZG5.

You can download the Icaros Desktop 2.0 Live DVD from here. The Dvd includes everything you need to get a usable Icaros system on an x86 PC, including a large array of applications and utilities included! (You can click on any image to expand it for more detail)

Icaros is an alternative to AmigaOS4 and MorphOS as a Next Generation Amiga operating system - unlike the other two I mentioned it runs natively on a standard x86 PC.

You can just boot the Live DVD to try it out on your x86 PC system - you don't have to install it to hard disk until you have tested it out and are ready to do so. It is free to download and use!

The next photo shows a closer view of the Acer Netbook running the Icaros Desktop 2.0 live DVD from external dvd drive connected to the netbook via USB.

After installing Icaros Desktop 2.0 onto the hard disk using the InstallAROS icon on the desktop (which wiped the previous 1.5.4 installation - it does prompt you before it does it!), you then get a nice new Icaros Desktop using Directory Opus 5.9 Magellan as the Desktop, rather than the previously used Wanderer UI.

This is a great move in my opinion - I definitely prefer the Dopus 5.9 Magellan UI to Wanderer.

Since it is Directory Opus 5.9, I can easily change the drawer views to Icon Action (Right click, View As > Icon Action), creating the familiar DOpus interface for easy file management under Icaros:

There is also a modified Directory Opus toolbar on the right hand side with common operations - the distribution thoughtfully includes a icon on the bottom left of the toolbar that explains what the icons do:

One of the new applications included in the Icaros Desktop 2.0 Live DVD is Zune View, which allows thumbnail view of images, and simple graphical operations on images such as Resize, crop, Rotate, Flip, Color correction and more:

The Dock icon bar from previous versions of Icaros is still present in it's latest incarnation, allowing easy access to all programs installed without having to navigate through the drawers via Directory Opus:

Helpfully included in the installation of Icaros Desktop 2.0 is an 82 page Manual, which I was reading while listening to the example MP3 music file included in MyWorkspace vis MPlayer.

MyWorkSpace is a bit like the Windows Library folder concept under a user's home folder, with Music, Videos, Pictures, etc, subfolders under MyWorkspace for easy access. In addition to a shortcut on the desktop, each of these subfolders also has an Assign, eg. Pictures: which allows quick access from file requestors.

Next I wanted to try out the DiskImageGUI, which I have used heavily on AmigaOS3 and AmigaOS4, but not on Icaros before. It works exactly the same and works out of the box - below I mounted a CD iso file and also an old Amiga Computing cover disk to prove it works:

You don't have to use the DiskImageGUI though to mount images - you can also right click on an ISO in the Directory Opus listers to mount as ICD0 for example - very convenient. I mounted a CU Amiga CoverCD ISO this way:

Straight away the CD icon appears, ready to open up:

Being a big fan of Amiga (and other) modules, I next fired up HarmonyPlayer on Icaros Desktop 2.0 to play some tunes:

I can't imagine why you would want to, but in the prefs under Icaros Settings there is the option to change the Desktop back to the Wanderer GUI rather than the new Directory Opus 5.9 Magellan default:

At the moment I haven't got network support working, so I can't show off the internet applications yet - once I work it out I certainly will though. Networking worked out of the box with Icaros 1.5.4 on this machine so not sure what the issue is yet. Seems some other people are having network issues too. I am keen to try out the IndieGoGo App store included with this release once resolved...

Update 14/11: I have now fixed the networking issue - I needed to use the wireless Atheros 5000 driver to get the wireless networking working - all good now.

You can download software for AROS from a number of places, such as The AROS Archives here as a starting point, the AROS community forums at AROS-Exec and some interesting game developments on AROS too via AROS Gamer.

Next up on Icaros I played Putty Squad, which is an AGA game unreleased until recently by System 3 after being shelved in completed state and not released for 20 years! There is a link to it included in the Icaros Desktop 2.0 Dock icon:

This game is launched using the Janus-UAE 1.4 environment in Icaros, which presents the configuration GUI prior to starting the program - it is setup as a standard Amiga 1200 AGA computer emulation in this example - you can modify the configuration in the tabs as needed to fine tune:

When I click Start, Putty Squad loads up and runs:

On the emulation front, plenty of system emulators are included in the Icaros Desktop 2.0 Live DVD, including VICE, the Commodore 64 emulation. I had to try this out:

I ran the included D64 included with the distribution, which works - the emulation runs at or near 100% while running:

There is a lot of technical changes under the covers (like ABI0 to ABI1), but this doesn't mean much at all to me as an end user - although I am sure it is probably a good thing! I am glad they are improving Icaros, and it is great to see a new release in 2014.

There is still plenty more to explore and setup yet as I just got started with it (especially I need to play more with Amibridge and the Co-existence functionality as I haven't set it up properly yet). But hopefully this gives you a small taste of Icaros Desktop 2.0.

VoxelNoid using Wazp3D on X1000

Recently Cherry Darling released a new free game for AmigaOS4 (and MorphOS) called VoxelNoid, an arkanoid style game with a 3d voxel twist to the gameplay.

You can download it from Cherry Darling's website here.

They also released VoxelBird for AmigaOS4, which I also took a look at on my blog back in April 2014, here if you are interested.

Because VoxelNoid required Warp3D and I currently don't have my Radeon 9250 card installed in my X1000 (I have two Radeon HD cards installed), I couldn't try it out when initially released.

The author of Wazp3D Alain Thellier mentioned on AmigaWorld.net yesterday that he had updated the Wazp3D software and VoxelNoid runs on it. So I rushed to try it out on my X1000.

I downloaded the updated Wazp3D archive from os4depot.net here and following the included installation instructions - backed up my warp3d.library file in libs: and then copied the wazp3d.library-os4 to libs:Warp3D.library, and finally copied the new Wazp3D Prefs program into the Prefs folder.

There is a os4-configs folder in the Wazp3d archive that has an optimal wazp3d.cfg file for VoxelNoid.

So next here is the VoxelNoid folder after extracting:

I then copied the wazp3d.cfg-voxelnoid file in the Wazp3D os4-configs folder into the VoxelNoid folder above as Wazp3D.cfg. Ready to go!

The Readme explains how to play the game and also the notes about the performance on the AmigaOS4 version with a switch made to use Warp3D instead of MiniGL. The game was originally released at the Gerp 2014 demo party and won the Wild competition category!

Here is the title screen of VoxelNoid after starting - the graphics look great and the retro music suits the game very well:

You are prompted (not shown) to login with your preferred Name and email address to register your high scores online.

Under the Options Menu option you can change the game to run Full Screen or Window, change music and sounds effect volume and the difficulty level, amongst other things!

The Highscores option on the Main screen allows you to see local high scores, and also Online high scores too:

The Medals option on the Main Menu shows what achievements you have done playing the game, and what you still have yet to unlock:

Let's get into the game - I selected 1 Player (there is also a two player option), with just the initial start level unlocked to start off:

As mentioned this game is similar to the classic Arkanoid game released on Classic Amiga many years ago, except with a few twists.

On the left side is a power bar that gets higher as your ball passes through bricks you have hit with the ball as is bounces back and forth between your bat and the bricks:

Unlike Arkanoid, when you hit a brick it explodes into 3D voxel pixels which spread in small pieces across the game area. As your ball passes through those remains, they are redirected (like a magnet) to your bat and your power level on the left increases.

As with Arkanoid there are bonus pills that fall from some bricks when hit, that provide a temporary help - for example that enforce gravity on the ball to stick on your bat until ready to fire again, create multi-balls to speed up brick destruction, expanding the size of your bat to make it easier to hit the ball, and so on.

If the ball falls down beyond your bat, you lose a life, and with only 3 lives it doesn't take long to reach Game Over - which initially for me happened often, and quickly!

This games pushes me to keep trying again and again!

The power bar you build up on the left during the game allows you to shoot a flame weapon that slowly rises higher to destroy bricks in a straight line for as long as the power bar is not fully depleted. The power empties out quickly, so choose your targets carefully to help you finish the levels quicker:

Some more action shots from the game:

Finally completed level 0, and earned my first medal!

Level 1 in game screenshot:

Level 2 in game screenshot - getting better at this:

VoxelNoid as a game is a lot of fun and quite addictive. The retro music is great, and the voxel components and flame weapon tied to a power bar add a genuinely new twist and challenge to a well known classic 1980's game genre. It made me keep trying to beat the levels - I want to try it again now and see if I can do a bit better!

The great news for X1000 owners is that with the latest Wazp3D software you can play this game without the need for the Radeon 9250 card installed - the normal Radeon HD cards in the X1000 work well with VoxelNoid.

If I put back the Radeon 9250 card in my X1000 in the future it would be interesting to see if there are any differences to using Hardware Warp3D support instead of using Wazp3D. It runs well on Wazp3D so I am happy to run it like that for now.

Cherry Darling have delivered again with a fun game that is also free to download. I am surprised they don't charge for this game as it is clear a lot of work went into it.

Highly recommended for X1000 owners to download VoxelNoid (and the latest Wazp3D) and try out this game!

AmigaOS 4.1 Classic with FS-UAE 2.5.18dev on Mac OS 10.9

My focus has been on AmiWest for the past few weeks, so I haven't done much in Classic Amiga land - my apologies in the delay in posting.

This week though I have been moving my AmigaOS4.1 Classic setup from WinUAE to my Mac OS X 10.9 setup now that FS-UAE 2.5.18 development version is allowing me to run it on my Macbook Pro without Windows!

There is a thread and guide on EAB on how to set this up now using FS-UAE here. I won't redo what they have already written, but I can quickly show you that it works! Here is the FS-UAE 2.5.18 dev launcher:

 To make things easier there is now a Amiga 4000 (PPC/OS4) model to select from which has the correct configurations - although you do of course need to download the Picasso IV, Cyberstorm PPC and QEMU PPC plugins and put them in the right places for the FS-UAE config to work out of the box.

There is a few custom lines in my config too - some I added before the latest version so not sure how many are really needed:

Here it is, up and running:

I did cheat since I already prepped the HDF and installed AmigaOS4.1 Classic (and updates) in WinUAE previously (covered in detail in this blog in 4 parts starting here).

Next I am starting to load some software onto the system. I attached a Data HDF i prepped for my MiniMig and also an ISO (created using Toaster 11) containing AmigaOS4.1 files I want to install. Here I am using AmigaAMP3 to play back some favourite music (click to expand):

Still have to play with it more, and much more install work to do! 

But I wanted to quickly show that AmigaOS4.1 Classic works under Mac OS X too now! Haven't got networking working yet (trying the latest versions and updated qemu ppc plugin and slirp config) but it apparently does work so I will keep on trying!

Prepping for AmiWest 2014 Part 1

At the moment my focus Amiga-wise is prepping the NG Amiga hardware I am taking to AmiWest 2014 (Sacramento, California) as an exhibitor!

It has been a difficult time of late, with grief of a death in the family filling my spare time, when not working, which has also been hectic. Sorry for the delay in posting to this X1000 blog.

I have managed to squeeze some Amiga related things in (Classic Amiga) and a little IRC chat during this month, and have been updating the Classic Amiga blog regularly, but haven't really done a lot with the X1000 of late.

My attention has been drawn to the diversion of running Amiga OS4.1 Classic on WinUAE, also detailed in my Classic Amiga blog.

I am waiting for my new X1000 Amiga keyboard from Loriano, which is in progress as I type this, waiting for the final key to arrive and be installed before it is shipped to me! Pictures to come when I have received it and have it up and running on the X1000!

As I said, I am prepping the NG Amiga hardware I am taking to AmiWest 2014 as an exhibitor - my first visit this year. I am very excited about it!

The AmiWest 2014 website is here, to keep up with the latest news.

Because of the size, weight and likelihood of damage, I can't bring my X1000 to the show - which I am quite sad about!

I do plan to use AmigaOS4.1 Classic under WinUAE for the programming seminar. I hope to learn about how to code for AmigaOS4, so I can hopefully create some software of my own for the X1000!

In the absence of the X1000 though, I have several other NG Amiga systems I plan to bring along to AmiWest 2014 for people to look at and try out.

I am busy building those systems at the moment. Here are some in progress shots - technically this is not X1000 systems related, but they are NG systems like the X1000 is!

This is my registered MorphOS 3.7 laptop, an Apple Powerbook G4 15" model, running a Mad Wizards demo from Revision 2012 Demo party:

Return to Castle Wolfenstein running on it:

MorphOS 3.7 Ambient Desktop:

System Folder layout - no idea yet why there is French text in the bottom bar when the locale is English - came from the Chrysalis Pack iso add-on I guess:

Another view of the Ambient Desktop, with a different wallpaper:

AmiNetRadio playing some Mp3's, showing the playlist view:

Next is the Odyssey Web browser (OWB) showing MorphZone, MorphOS Files websites, to keep up to date on the latest news for MorphOS:

Next, I am playing my recent YouTube videos on Odyssey under MorphOS 3.7 works well - and no, before anyone asks, I didn't queue up for an iPhone 6 - I did get one via pre order on launch day though - my launch day blog post and video link here if interested):

Grunch is very useful tool that checks for updates on the latest version of software you have installed on your MorphOS machine:

This is just a small taste of one of the systems I plan to bring - my builds on two other computers are in progress right now.

I hope you can make it to AmiWest 2014 this year - I would love to meet and chat to as many Amiga people as possible!