DiskFlashback Released!

DiskFlashback

Rob Smith has brought us all an amazing new Windows package! If you are a retro computer user weather it be Amiga, Atari ST or PC, this is for YOU! See below for all the information and where to get it from his official page below.

(Taken directly from Robs page. For more information please visit his site directly)

A Windows package to use Floppy Disk Images Files & Non-PC Real Floppy Disks in Windows, directly.

Why?

Most of the USB floppy drives are terrible. And modifying a drive for DrawBridge removes the IBM/PC floppy disk support in Windows. Plus I was getting annoyed having to boot WinUAE just to copy a file to an ADF (or disk).

So I decided to build this – And all the silly playground arguments from childhood now behind us I gave a little love to the Atari ST too (untested, I don’t have one!)…

I’d been planning on building this since 2017, and now, with a simple double-click I can now access the contents of these disk image files directly!

 See the Getting Started Guide! for more details!

Features

• Mount ADF, DMS*, IMG, IMA, ST, MSA*, HDA, HDF and SCP* files as virtual drives (* read only)
• Supports AmigaDOS OFS/FFS DD & HD Disks
• Supports IBM/PC FAT12/16 DD 720k & HD 1.44Mb Disks
• Supports Atari ST FAT12/16 GemDOS Single and Double Sided normal & extended Disks
• Supports Dual Format Amiga/Atari floppy disks and mounts them as two drives! (read only)
• Use DrawBridge, Greaseweazle or SupercardPro as a real windows drive letter
• Create blank disk images for the above formats.
• Rip real floppy disks to file
• Write disk images to real floppy disks
• Install boot blocks on Amiga disks
• Optionally silently swap file extensions (eg: mod.thismusic to thismusic.mod)

Download – It’s Free!

Consider sending me a tip to say thanks!

WINDOWS MAY DETECT THIS AS A VIRUS
THIS IS A FALSE POSITIVE AND YOU ARE SAFE TO IGNORE IT
 Download DiskFlashback V1.0.0.6 beta

System Requirements:
Windows 10/11 64-Bit Only

View Release Notes

How does it work?

DiskFlashback is powered by:

• Dokany for the Virtual Drives
• ADFLib for the Amiga File System
• FatFS for the FAT12/16 File System
• xDMS for DMS File Support
• FloppyBridge for Real Floppy Disk Support

DiskFlashback is OpenSource and available under the GPL2 Licence, and available from GitHub.

Join me on Discord for discussion about the product!

Reshoot Proxima 3 Released!

Purchase HERE: Reshoot Proxima 3 Download-Version

Reshoot Proxima 3 is available in the following variants:

Signature Edition (Soundtrack + Game CD)
Signature Edition (Soundtrack + Game CD) plus USB
Pure Edition (Game CD)
Digital Edition (HD installation archive download)
Soundtrack (Audio CD)
Poster A1

About Reshoot Proxima 3

Prepare for a pixel-powered thrill ride like no other!
Dive into the heart of classic gaming nostalgia with our top-down retro pixel art shooter for classic Commodore Amiga-platforms.
Traverse 5 breathtaking stages, from the fiery Sun to the eerie depths of Hell.
Brace yourself for lightning-fast, vertical-scrolling mayhem that will test your reflexes and courage.
“Reshoot Proxima 3” is the ultimate challenge for those seeking a technically astounding adrenaline rush.
Immerse yourself in a stunning mix of gameplay flow, pixel art and music.
Face unrelenting foes, and prove your mettle in this tough-as-nails shoot ’em up.
Are you ready to rewrite the cosmos and conquer the skies?

Features:

* Custom-made for Amiga AGA-hardware
* Fluid gameflow experience
* 5 uniquely themed stages
* adaptive attack wave design
* makes full use of AGA-chipset
* 24 bit color pixel art
* Steady 50 fps framerate
* 2 difficulty settings
* Energizing music and sound-fx
* Entire code in Assembly-language
* Local and global highscore table
* Available on CD-ROM boxed, USB and digital
* Exclusive for Commodore Amiga A1200, A4000 and CD32
* Compatible with most Amiga-emulation systems, MISTer, A500 Mini, PPC

Check out this great review from 10 Minute Amiga Retro Cast!

Amiga 4000 Resin Printed Parts!

I’ve been working on my personal 4000 for some time and sadly had to sell it off to cover some unexpected bills shortly after finished it. It’s with a new owner that loves it as much as I did making it.

So what do I do now? Well I’m making myself a new one. I’ve nearly got the new board completed and just need to solder a few more parts. The one missing thing was a case. I had most of one but it’s missing the front face and other plastic parts. What’s a guy to do? Well, if you know me you know I don’t give up easily. I had access to a large format commercial resin 3D printer. Below are the results from having the replacement parts professionally printed. I can’t wait to show all of you the completed project when I’m done now. Stay tuned!

WinUAE 4.10.0 Now Available for Download

Another major new release of the gold standard in Amiga emulation is now available for download. Go grab it from here: https://www.winuae.net/

Major update

• 68000 based unexpanded (with optional Slow or Fast RAM expansion) configurations are now 100% cycle-accurate.
• Big thanks to ross for writing test programs that required perfect cycle accuracy. Lots of expected and unexpected hardware features found and implemented.

Featute updates that got delayed but will be implemented in 5.0

• OCS and ECS Denise mid screen resolution changes are not pixel perfect, correct chip model specific bit pattern is not emulated yet. AGA is pixel perfect.
• Not all blitter line draw width != 2 (invalid line draw configuration, normally not used) conditions are 100% accurate.
• Disk status/interrupt timing is not fully confirmed yet.

New hardware emulation features and update

• 68000 emulation is finally fully cycle accurate, last missing part, interrupt level change detection timing, is now cycle accurate.
• Custom chipset interrupt timing is now cycle accurate.
• CIA emulation is now fully cycle accurate. Timers were accurate previously but now also interrupt timing, TOD counting, CPU/E-clock sync, and more, including undocumented side-effects are cycle accurate.
• Serial port internal timing, interrupt timing, including SERDATR status bits are now cycle accurate (I used serial port interrupts as a timer in my cputester real 68000 interrupt timing tests)
• Audio interrupt timing is now cycle accurate (Was almost fully accurate previously).
• Blitter timing is now cycle accurate (previously startup behavior and interrupt timing was not fully accurate).
• Blitter line mode with invalid settings (for example width not 2, octant and line direction mismatch etc) is now almost accurately emulated. Some conditions are not fully correct.
• Copper is now cycle accurate, previously some special cases were not handled correctly.
• More undocumented chipset features implemented.
• A1000 Denise bug emulated: sprites end horizontally 1 lores pixel later than bitplane horizontal window end. Currently enabled when A1000 Agnus is selected.
• OCS/ECS vs AGA EHB on/off mid screen change different behavior emulated.
• Emulated chipset mode display is blanked if programmed mode is active but has invalid configuration (for example too short or too long sync pulses or missing syncs, genlock sync enabled without genlock, etc).
• Optional display mode change resync black screen delay.
• Programmed custom chipset modes again use also blanking timing to position the display in addition to vsync and hsync (Most real world SVGA monitors do the same).
• Max allowed programmed mode non-interlaced vertical line count is now 800 (increased from 592), special 700+ line programmed modes are possible and compatible with real SVGA monitors.
• Refresh cycles conflicting with bitplane DMA is now accurately emulated, including all display and audio related glitches it can cause.
• Optional Chip RAM and Slow RAM power up pattern emulation, enabled by default.
• Color palette is now filled with pseudo-random contents at power up (was all black previously).
• Monitor type selection. Composite sync or H/V sync. ECS Agnus/AGA programmed display modes can generate different C-Sync and H/V sync signals.

New other features and updates

• RTG (uaegfx) Picasso96 v3.0+ mixed mode screen draggging is enabled by default.
• RTG (uaegfx) blitter emulation now supports previously unsupported less common blitter operations.
• RTG (uaegfx and emulated boards) automatic integer scaling support.
• On the fly FloppyBridge drive change to normal or back now triggers automatic disk change condition.
• Harddrive panel Full drive/RDB mode is now normal checbox. Hopefully it is less confusing than button that didn’t look like a button.
• Larger default GUI size and slightly larger font if Windows desktop is large enough (at least 1600*1024).
• CD audio is now always mixed with Paula audio. Separate CD audio output support removed.
• Some American Laser Games didn’t have ROM descrambling support, also added missing ROM variants.
• Added American Laser Games Quickstart support.
• Added NVRAM path to Paths panel. Arcade/CD32/CDTV hardware NVRAM files default to this path.
• Keyboard reset change, reset state is kept until at least one key is released.
• CTRL+C in console log/debug window does not anymore close WinUAE. CTRL+C in newer Windows versions can be used as a Copy operation.
• Changed CTRL+F12 fullscreen/windowed switch: If already switched from full-window to window. Next CTRL+F12 will return back to full-window, not fullscreen.
• Optional interlace mode filter profile added.
• DirectDraw mode was replaced with GDI mode. GDI mode does not support exclusive fullscreen but supports basic scaling modes and uaegfx hardware cursor that DirectDraw mode did not support.
• Palette mode screenshot support. If enabled and screen has <= 256 colors, palette mode screenshot is created. It also attempts to preserve first 32 color entries if possible. RTC is automatically enabled if chipset extra= and system has fast ram, slow ram or chip ram expansion.
• Save MSM6242B RTC model control registers to RTC file if they are modified. Previously only RF5C01A (Used in big box Amigas) control registers (and NVRAM) was saved.
• If Quickstart ROM based Arcade hardware config (Arcadia or ALG) is selected, NVRAM file name is automatically set to ROM name. Genlock video file path is also set if ALG ROM is selected. Config files are not affected.
• ROM file list sorting changed, added grouping, sort by group priority first (KS ROMs, extended KS ROMs, freezer ROMs etc..), then alphabetically.
• Sometimes old graphics was temporarily visible in RTG modes if RTG had visible black borders (depends on scaling mode) and screen was switched and new screen had larger size/resolution.
• Added “Slow” flag to RAM panel. If set, selected memory bank has Chip RAM timing but is not Chip RAM capable. Advanced chipset panel “C00000 is Fast RAM” removed, it is not needed anymore.

4.9.x bugs fixed

• Sprite to playfield and playfield to playfield collisions were unreliable.
• RTG (uaegfx) overlay was not drawn. 32-bit Windows only.
• Magic mouse mode without virtual mouse driver installed: mouse position was incorrect in RTG modes and it also ignored scaling modes.
• If hardware emulated RTG board VRAM was immediately (no gap in address space) after any RAM/ROM region and JIT direct was enabled: first 4096 bytes (host CPU page size) of VRAM was not fully JIT direct compatible and any direct read or write to first 4096 bytes would not access VRAM correctly, causing unexpected graphics glitches.
• Quickstart panel floppy bootblock check used current track of drive (not track 0). Broken when FloppyBridge support was added.
• Hires resolution and hires BPLCON1 bit set (or shres and shres BPLCON1 bit): single pixel horizontal offset may have appeared in right side of screen. AGA and non-subpixel mode only.
• CD32/CDTV Quickstart mode “remembered” previous DF0: setting and didn’t disable it by default (even if Quickstart panel showed it as disabled).
• CD32/CDTV Quickstart panel DF0: was not possible to select/enable.
• Z2 RAM configuration was unreliable.

Older bugs fixed

• CHD CD image CD audio timing fix.
• Direct3D11 with custom shaders leaked memory.
• Directory filesystem softlinks fixed.
• 68060 without FPU or disabled FPU and executing FPU instruction that uses -(An) or (An)+ addressing mode: D7 was modified when exception stack frame was created.
• Reading from non-existing custom register always returned 0xFFFF instead of data that previous cycle’s possible DMA access transferred.
• Higher 68000/010 integer clock multipliers (4x+) in CE mode: chipset access timing was not accurate.
• Second 1M extended ROM bank is now internally split to two 512k banks. Non-aligned bank start and size caused problems in some configs.
• Hardware emulated RTG boards that have physically swapped red and blue output (Spectrum, Piccolo, Piccolo SD64) had wrong colors in 24/32-bit modes.
• Piccolo Z3 and Piccolo SD64 Z3 had wrong autoconfig board logical size (which crashed the driver).
• CD audio was not resumed if WinUAE was unminimized and minimize was configured to pause emulation.

Debugging related updates and fixes

• Ultra extreme overscan mode. Shows complete full raster including blanking regions. Horizontal and vertical blanking disabled. COLOR0 changes are always visible.
• DMA debugger shows CIA accesses (including cycles lost due to E-Clock sync) and Chip RAM RAS/CAS addressing values.
• DMA debugger shows CPU memory access type (instruction fetch or data access). Interrupt level and interrupt level change detection are included.
• DMA debugger shows CPU opcodes in basic form (“NOP”, “MOVE” etc), vertically. Which can look a bit weird…
• Added CPU STOP state information to DMA debugger (| = STOP idle cycle, + = STOP idle cycle and higher IPL detected = STOP ending soon)
• Visual DMA debugger shows conflicting cycles as blinking red pixels.
• Horizontal and vertical position are now included in debugger history output (H/HH)
• Added OR, AND and XOR operators to debugger calculator (|, &, ^).
• sp command parsed attached sprites incorrectly.
• It was not possible to enter debugger anymore if CPU was stuck in stopped state after entering and exiting the debugger once.
• Tracing STOP instruction now works differently, each single step executes one internal STOP “round”.
• Memwatch break point that crossed 64k “bank” didn’t map last 64k “bank” if it was only partially needed.
• Self modifying code (smc) debugger feature now clears detected modifications if 68020+ instruction cache is flushed.
• DMA debugger (both console and visual) better support for variable/toggling horizontal and vertical line counts.

Detailed change log in winuaechangelog.txt

Building the GBA1000 68030 to 68060 Turbo Card

Fun little project I completed Saturday. This is an Amiga accelerator card. It was originally designed for the Amiga 1000 remake board called the GBA1000. It will allow the use of a faster 68060 CPU in place of the 68030. Its also got some pretty fast RAM.

An Easy to Use GUI Tool for Lightning Fast Serial-port Floppy and File Transfers

AmigaXfer is an easy to use GUI tool for lightning fast serial-port floppy and file transfers.

http://aminet.net/package/comm/misc/…er_1.0.0_win32

All Classic Amiga models are supported. All AmigaOS (1.x/2.x/3.x), all Kickstart versions (I have tested 34/37/39/40/45).
All you need is an Amiga, another computer and a serial cable (any null-modem will work, only 3 wires used).

Its main feature is that it does not require special software on the Amiga side, as it uses the kickstart’s builtin serial debugger.

The easiest way to get into the debugger and use amigaXfer is via the extra workbench menu when wb is loaded via loadwb -debug.

Additionally, it can be used to bootstrap an Amiga without bootable floppies.

https://www.rvalles.net/bootstrappin…ga-floppy.html

By disabling interrupts and polling the serial port directly, speeds as high as
512kbps are achieved, even on a basic Amiga 500 with its 7MHz cpu clock.

Both floppy images and files can be transferred in both directions.

Download:
http://aminet.net/package/comm/misc/…er_1.0.0_win32
https://github.com/rvalles/pyamigadebug/releases/

Amiga 4000 Resrored

I worked on this 4000 today and fort it back to like new again. Fixed the broken simm sockets, nice new modern caps and a batter mod. It should last another 30 years now.

Vampire V500 in Checkmate Case

I have been taking some time over the last couple weeks to sell off some of my gear and clear up some space. It’s allowed me the time to finally get my V500 installed and into the Checkmate case I’ve had stored away for over a year now. It’s coming along very well and looks great. Here is the current progress of the build. It came to life just before posting this today.

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MegaChip A500 Install

I had a request to install this MegaChip on a REV 5 Amiga 500 and take care of the 3.1 ROM kickstart socket mod as well while I had it. The process was fairly straight forward. I followed the original manual for the MegaChip for a REV 5 by cutting and relocation the JP2 jumper and then had to cut a single trace over near the trap door RAM header. You then need to attach a jumper wire from the board to pin 36 on Garry or pin 48 on the 68000 CPU socket. Once done I desoldered the original Agnus socket and replaced it with this newly made adapter board with 2MB and the 8375 Agnus on it directly to the motherboard. This will allow a 68000 socket accelerator like the Vampire 500 and others to fit over the Mega Chip. I am quite pleased with the final results. If you are interested in one of these you can pick one up over at Amibay following this link: http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?101224-Megachip-for-A500-A2000-and-CDTV-(rj1307-project-Poland)

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Jumper and Trace Cutting Modifications Required.

Amiga 4000T Replica Project Update

With the feedback I received from some members of the community its been decided that this will not move forward for now and is on hold for the foreseeable future.