Sunday, 2 February 2014

DOpus 5.9 Updated on X1000

A few months ago I started playing with the new Dopus 5.9 Magellan II Beta for AmigaOS4 on the X1000. Work has continued on a daily basis on improving the software, with kas1e and others working hard on it! I downloaded the latest nightly update version of Dopus 5.9 this week and played around with it this weekend to see what has improved:


I am pleased to report that a number of bugs and issues have now been addressed, with this process ongoing - you can see the progress in this forum thread on amigans.net here. There is also some good tips on how to get things some things working better.

You can always download the latest daily build of DOpus5.9 from www.dopus5.org.

My initial blog entry here explains the installation process and initial configuration needed to get it up and running. Once this is done, I have done some more stuff with Dopus 5.9 to make it integrate a bit better with AmigaOS 4.1 on bootup, without losing the functionality of AmigaOS 4.1 by running DOpus in Workbench Replacement Mode. I can simply close DOpus 5.9 at any time that I want to return to standard AmigaOS 4.1.

In order to do this, first it is necessary to tell Dopus 5.9 to use the Workbench screen. To do this, right click on the Settings Menu at the top of the DOpus screen and select Environment. This will then bring a screen which you need to select Display on the left hand side. You should then see a window like this:


Make sure Workbench:Use is selected, then click on Save.

When you run DOpus 5.9 in this way, the AmiDock will disappear whenever you open DOpus 5.9! There is a fix for this (thanks Severin for the tip on the amigans.net forum thread I linked earlier), which I will show you now.

Next, let's go into the SYS:Prefs folder and double click on WBStartup:


When WBStartup Prefs launches, it should look a bit like this (you may have other things in your wbstartup so it probably won't look identical):


Highlight the SYS:Utilities/Commodities/AmiDock module, and select Information. You should then get the screen below:


Click on the Icon tab:


We need to change the Start priority of AmiDock to make sure it loads AFTER DOpus5. This allows AmiDock to load correctly when DOpus 5.9 is placed in WBStartup (which we will do shortly). To fix AmiDock, click in the Start Priority section, and change 0 to -128 and click on Save:


OK, now we need to add Dopus 5.9 into the WBStartup. You should still have the WBStartup window open - select Add to add a new module. You need to browse to where you installed Dopus 5.9 on your X1000, browse to the WBStartup folder underneath and select Opus5_Startup - in my case this is located in SYS:Utilities/Dopus5/WBStartup/Opus5_Startup. WBStartup prefs should now show a new module as below:


Make sure the new module is highlighted as above, then select Information. In the window that appears, click on the Icon tab, and modify the Start Priority field to from 0 to 127 as below:


This will now ensure that Dopus will run at start higher priority than AmiDock. Click Save, and then click Save again to save the settings in WBStartup prefs.

(I know there are other ways to do DOpus5.9 loading via Workbench replacement mode via loadDB, renaming loadwb etc - but I like this way the best as I can easily close DOpus and return to AmigaOS4 if needed - the amigans.net forum details some more details of these other methods if you are interested)

Now the next part, we need to add an assign for DOpus5: to our installed Dopus 5.9 folder location (in my case SYS:utilities/DOpus5) to the s:user-startup file. This is so the Opus5_startup program knows where to find the main executable for Dopus 5.9. I use Notepad to edit s:user-startup and inserted the lines as highlighted below near the top of the file to ensure it exists before DOpus is run:


Once this is saved, we are then ready for a reboot! After rebooting, I get the following Workbench screen, now running Dopus 5.9, with AmiDock loading correctly (click to expand):


(Note that I also subsequently modified the start priority setting for FuelGauge in wbstartup to -120 so it would run after DOpus too - you will see Fuel Gauge working in screen shots later on)

Next I wanted to modify the boring default Workbench Titlebar display in Dopus 5.9 to include most of the information I was using on the normal AmigaOS 4.1 Workbench screen before. To do this, go into the Settings Menu (right click on Workbench title bar) and select Environment. Scroll down the items on the left hand side and select Miscellaneous.



If you click on the gadget next to Custom Screen Title in the Miscellaneous as above, you can see the codes shown on the right. You can then type these codes into the Custom Screen Title field to display versions of Workbench, DOpus, free memory, etc, in your title bar. Simply insert what you want into the Custom Screen Title field, pressing Enter when done. Then select Save and the Workbench title bar should update with your changes - mine looks like this (click to expand):


Now you can use DOpus 5.9 on the X1000 as your Workbench! If you encounter trouble you can always right click on the title bar, Select Opus Menu, then Quit to go back to standard AmigaOS4.1. It is still a BETA version and as such is not completely stable, although I have not encountered any issues so far. I am not a big DOpus 5.9 customisation guru and I haven't scratched the surface of what this powerful file manager can do...

The main issue I found so far is that large hard disk and USB partition sizes are not displayed correctly in Workbench windows. This is a known issue and hopefully should be addressed soon. It doesn't appear to affect file operations in limited testing so far.

Below is another screen shot of Dopus 5.9 on my X1000 in action, showing source and destination windows in name and icon mode, floppy disk window and cd image windows older icons rendering correctly, A-Tunes, TuneNet, SMTube and DiskImageGUI (click to expand):


As I have mentioned previously, it is great to be able to run DOpus 5.9 Magellan II on AmigaOS4.1 and I am very grateful for the efforts of kas1e and the testers for all their hard work in making this happen for all X1000 and AmigaOS4 computer owners. (I know it is being worked on for MorphOS, AmigaOS3 and AROS as well)

It is stable enough to try out and decide if it works for you, so if you are interested please give DOpus 5.9 a go!

Friday, 31 January 2014

Ace of Hearts on X1000

Hi all and Happy New Year 2014! I am back from my trip to Japan, and fired up my X1000 for the first time in 2014 to find out a new game has been released for AmigaOS4 - Ace of Hearts!


Ace of Hearts is a Poker card game created by Cherry Darling. It has been released for most common formats - PC, iPhone, etc, but there is also a AmigaOS4 version available!

Excited by having a new game to try out, I quickly bought it from their website here, you can also download the demo version from their website or from os4depot if you want to try it out first.

If you buy Ace of Hearts, you will receive an email containing the link to download the full version of the game. It costs 5,90Euro to purchase it.

After downloading the full version archive and extracting it, you get some nicely drawn icons to run the game from, and a read me.txt file too. Given this is now 2014, I decided to change my 2013 Workbench background on the X1000 to another of DJ Nicks backdrops that I didn't use yet (Click to expand):


 Two for the price of one - you get the AmigaOS4 version and the MorphOS version in the same archive:


The read me.txt contains some information about some recommended MorphOS version settings and some notes for the AmigaOS4 version. Although it mentions some potential performance issues, I didn't encounter these on my X1000 in testing it:


Once the game is launched for the first time, you have to put in your alias and email address to be able to post scores in the online scoreboard for the game. (You can also select the language for the game). I am glad to see this online scores feature in the game as online scoreboards are great motivators to try for a higher score against other Amiga players!


You then receive an email which you need to click on the link to activate your account to post online scores.

Once you click okay you are presented with the Main Menu for the game:


4 different game modes are able to be run, including The Royal Casino, 10 Minutes Challenge, 30 Minutes Challenge and Ultimate 24 hour Marathon! Not sure I want to play continuously for 24 hours though!

Under the options menu you can modify the music and sound effect volume, as well as whether the game runs full screen or in a window:


On the Main Menu, the Achievements option shows you all the achievements you can earn through the game, and your progress in getting them!


Back on the Main Menu, I decided to try out the Royal Casino game. when selected you see this information screen prior to starting the game - you start with $100 to bet with.

You can also click on the Top 10 and Online Rankings to see how you compare to the best players:



I clicked on New Game, and it walks you through the game screen and how to do things, as shown below:


These helpful tips are just shown for the first hand so you can get the hang of what to do, but it is fairly easy to pickup for anyone who has played Poker before:



So we get into the first hand, which is not so great for me - a pair of 2's is not a great start:



Progressing through the first hand and helpful tips, the game moves along quite smoothly:


I won my first game, which was great - you can choose to risk your winnings or cash it:


I decide to Risk my winnings, and unlock an achievement for getting three of a kind as well:


As this is the first time I have done the risk section, the help appears again to explain what to do:



Amazingly I got another achievement before I even played the Street-shuffle risk game!


You have to guess which position the red queen card is in after shuffling, which is definitely not easy to track, but I got it right first time out!


So, back to the main game screen, and I selected to increase my per hand bet from $1 to $10.


I was lucky enough to win a few hands:



I even got a Full House! When you lose games and lose the Risk section (which I did a lot), there is a luck bar at the top of the screen which increases each time, making it more likely you will get a good hand the next time.


I then got too aggressive with the risk sections after each hand that I won, and lost all my money, which apparently you get an achievement award for as well!


Game over I am afraid, no more money:


I did play the game for a while and found it enjoyable, although the music gets repetitive quickly (fortunately you can turn it off). The nature of poker play made me lose interest when I was not doing so well, but I guess I have to get better at it! 

I realise card games are not for everyone, but the graphics are good quality, spot effects are ok, and the authors have gone to some trouble to make Ace of Hearts a well presented and polished game for AmigaOS. The online ranking feature is very welcome, and the price is reasonable.

I am glad to start 2014 being able to play a new AmigaOS4 game on my X1000!




Thursday, 19 December 2013

Looking back at 2013 on X1000

Let's take a look back at 2013 on the AmigaOne X1000!


I should first sincerely apologise for the time between blog entries - October - wow, I had no idea how quickly the time has passed since then.

I have been very busy at work, working nights and weekends too, and had little time to spend on firing up the X1000. But, enough of that!

The games front this year has been quiet, but there have been a number of interesting games released on AmigaOS4, which all run well on the X1000.

Huenison (Retream)



The Legend of Edgar (Parallel Realities)



Frogatto (HunoPPC)



GigaloMania (Mark Harman - ported by kas1e)



M.A.C.E (AmiBoing)


A remake of the Innerprise Amiga classic Battle Squadron by Cope-Com was also released this year for AmigaOS4, which means we no longer require Classic Amiga emulation to run it! (no picture sorry)

An AmigaOS4 game released in 2013 that I haven't tried yet is Age of Thieves (Mrdarek) available on os4depot.net.


Some ports of QT framework games were also released in 2013, following the release of the QT framework on AmigaOS4 in 2013. Tanglet is one example, with plenty more available on os4depot.net to try out!

Tanglet (QT):


On the application front in 2013 we saw a number of updates and some new software as well.

A-FTP Server



AmiVNC4



Directory Opus Magellan II Beta



QT4.7 Framework



qMetro (QT):




MihPhoto (QT):



A music player front end called aTunes (Guillaume Boesel) was also released this year, providing a convenient way to collect all music files in a database, and then organise playlists and play music on AmigaOS4 using TuneNet or AmigaAmp as the player.


There were also plenty of updates released this year for existing applications!

On the hardware front 2013 saw the release of Catweasel Mk2 X1000 modification (and updated driver software) from AmigaKit to enable Amiga floppy disk support on the X1000.



In 2013 A-Eon has built a number of AmigaOne X1000 systems, and the X1000 is available now and in stock to purchase from AmigaKit, either as a complete system or just the X1000 motherboard. they even reduced the costs for Xmas! It is good to see that people who want one can more easily buy X1000 systems in 2013.

A-Eon also announced new AmigaOne systems to replace the X1000 at AmiWest 2013. These systems will be a way off yet, but it is good to see a future plan for the AmigaOne hardware platform into the foreseeable future.

A-Eon and ACube Systems (makers of the AmigaOne Sam line of AmigaOS4 compatible systems) announced a future cooperation agreement during 2013. Hopefully this should streamline the hardware used to make driver support easier and quicker to market moving forward.

We also received HD Audio drivers for the onboard X1000 soundcard in 2013, allowing me to finally remove the PCI soundcard, freeing up a slot for other hardware! We are still waiting on the internal network card driver for the X1000 - hopefully we will get this in 2014.

On the Operating System front unfortunately we didn't see the much awaited release of AmigaOS4.2 in 2013, and no idea of when we are likely to see it on the X1000. There is some rumours of AmigaOS4.1 Update 7 being released in 2013 still, but not as I write this.

On a personal level I still think the X1000 is a great AmigaOS4.1 machine, but the lack of visible development progress or updates on the intended AmigaOS4.2 platform on X1000 (which has been already pre-paid for by X1000 owners in 2012) is frustrating for all owners. We are looking forward to having hardware 3d graphics card support and multi-cpu support in AmigaOS4 so we can get the most out of our X1000 and the considerable financial investment made.

This frustration may not be confined to just myself, as it seems apparent by the amount of multiple linux distribution development work happening on the X1000 in 2013 in lieu of visible AmigaOS4.2 development progress being seen.

I admit I have no interest in running Linux on the X1000 and will not do so. I bought the X1000 to use AmigaOS4. I bought it to continue to enjoy using an AmigaOS under active development, and with the X1000 I finally transitioned from regularly using Classic Amigas. To be honest, I would prefer that future X1000 development efforts was focused on AmigaOS4, AROS or MorphOS Amiga like operating systems rather than Linux.

To that end, it would be good if the MorphOS development team could port MorphOS to the X1000.  I heard they are already doing some work on the Sam AmigaOne systems so it would be a logical extension. I would be interested in seeing how the two operating systems compare on the same hardware. The latest MorphOS 3.4 was also very recently released, with MorphOS 3.5 expected in 2014. I run MorphOS on a Mac Powerbook and it is nice (although having to use an old Mac and purchase a separate PC-Card wifi card for internet is frustrating)

Please note that I will be on holiday in Japan from Christmas until late January 2014, without access to my X1000. So unfortunately you will have to be patient again for the next X1000 blog update from me.

In the meantime, I wish you and your family a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year, and I am looking forward to an interesting 2014 for the AmigaOne X1000.