In April 2024, although there was no new version of AROS for x86, there was still a lot going on. Deadwood continues to work on a prototype x86 emulator for the 64-bit version of the system. We can also expect a cumulative patch package from him for the latest build in the near future. The AROS community is extremely active, and this is bearing fruit in the form of numerous ports and software updates. Thanks to the involvement of new users who have ported or updated older applications, AROS has gained a lot of new capabilities. Let’s take a closer look at what has appeared this month!
The site from which you could usually download the Tiny AROS distribution has disappeared from the web. However, we have nothing to worry about, as the author of the distribution - Amiwell79 - assures us that a new page, under a new address, will appear in the coming days. When that happens you will find the current link on this blog.
In the April poll for “irritating bug of the month” two were selected:
#116 (Wanderer: Allow deleting by pressing Del key)
#105 (DiskInfo showing OFS instead of FAT)
Patches for these bugs have been prepared by Deadwood and can already be downloaded from the AROSWorld forum in the thread dedicated to the April survey. They will also make their way into the next build as soon as it is released.
Irritating bug of the month - April 2024
If you want to influence the order of bug fixes, I encourage you to register on the forum and participate in the next vote: Link to current poll.
There are a lot of interesting items in AROS Archives, this time everyone will find something interesting for themselves. News in AROS Archives from April:
ScummVM (v.1.9.0)
(authors: Max Horn, Eugene Sandulenko and many others)
ScummVM - an interpreter that allows point-and-click games to run on modern systems. Initially designed to support LucasArts games using the SCUMM engine (the VM in the program’s name stands for virtual machine), it now also supports products from other manufacturers such as Sierra Entertainment, Revolution Software and Adventure Soft. ScummVM is free software, released under the GPL. Thanks to Deremon, ScummVM for AROS has been updated to version 1.9.0.
ScummVM 1.9.0
ResidualVM (v. 0.3.1)
(authors: Thomas Allen, Torbjorn Andersson and many others)
ResidualVM is a cross-platform open-source 3D game interpreter for playing LucasArts’ Lua/GrimE-based 3D adventure games Grim Fandango and Escape from Monkey Island, as well as Myst 3 and The Longest Journey. It has been ported to a wide variety of devices and operating systems.
ResidualVM uses OpenGL for hardware acceleration of 3D graphics. A software renderer for machines without hardware OpenGL is also included. The latest available version of ResidualVM was compiled for AROS by Deremon.
ResidualVM
ScummVM_Kens (v. 0.5)
ResidualVM-Kens (v. 0.5)
DOSBox Kens (v. 0.1)
MBX Kens(v. 0.1)
(author: amiwell79)
Unofficial Kens-style drawer icons for ScummVM, ResidualVM, DOSBox and Myst and MBX games.
Kens style icon set
ADoom3 (v. 1.5.3)
(author: Nick “Kalamatee” Andrews)
dhewm 3 is a source port of the Doom 3 GPL. It runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD and AROS, but should run (or be easily portable to) any system that supports OpenGL 1.4 with ARB, SDL and OpenAL shaders. Compared to the original Doom3, dhewm3 has many bug fixes, supports EAX-like sound effects on all operating systems and hardware (via OpenAL Softs EFX), has much better support for widescreen resolutions and 64-bit support.
The Doom3 port for AROS is based on the dhewm3 branch from the latest version 1.5.3, and was compiled by Deremon.
To run, you need the original data files from the PC version. It can be purchased on GOG: https://www.gog.com/pl/game/doom_3
ADoom 3
MBX Magical Broom Extreme (v. 1.0)
(author: Farox)
Magical Broom Extreme is a free horizontal shooter from Japanese developer Twin-Tail. It features 3D weapon effects and pretty binding gameplay. In the game you control a witch flying on a broomstick. Your goal is to survive the journey to the end of the stage. The game was ported for AROS by Farox.
Magical Broom Extreme (MBX)
Protrekkr 2 (v. 2.6.7)
(author: Franck “hitchhikr” Charlet)
ProTrekkr is a tracker program that combines a software synthesizer along with a traditional sample tracker, which can (mostly) be used to create electronic music (e.g. psytrance, trance goa, hard acid, IDM, chip, techno, jungle, etc.) for small intros, demos or games. It is a heavily modified version of the old NoiseTrekker 2, which was created by Juan Antonio Arguelles Rius aka Arguru.
Changes in the latest version:
- Fixed a crash when using the rand function on synth oscs & lfos under Linux
- Added playback procedure for PlayStation Vita
- Fixed a crash when loading older NoiseTrekker modules
- Startup screen is now optional
Protrekkr 2
Origami Intro (v. 1.0)
(author: Faemiyah Demogroup)
Origami’s demoscene intro was first presented at the 64kb introcompo at Assembly 2005, where it took third place. The version for AROS was compiled by Farox. You need an OpenGL-enabled graphics card to run it.
Origami Intro
The Fulcrum (v. 1.0)
(authors: Matrix Demogroup)
Another demoscene production ported for AROS by Farox. The Fulcrum is the winning demo from the 1998 Mekka & Symposium party. This release for AROS builds on the impressive work done by M-HT, who converted all ASM sources to C++/SDL and released for Linux and OpenPandora Handheld several years ago. His sources can be found here https://github.com/M-HT/fulcrum.
The Fulcrum
DUMB (v. 0.93)
(authors: Dumb team/M-HT)
DUMB is a library of IT, XM, S3M and MOD players developed by Robert J. Ohannessian, Julien Cugnière and Ben Davis. Thanks to Farox, who compiled it for the Fulcrum demo port, it is now available for all AROS developers to use in their projects.
DUMB - “Dynamic Universal Music Bibliotheque”
Image2PDF (v. 2.6)
(author: Bernd Assenmacher)
A small tool for converting images to PDF. It is primarily used to convert scans made with, for example, Scandal or Scanquix to PDF documents in specific output formats such as A3, A4, A5, Legal, Letter or ImageSize, but can also be used to convert other image files.
Changes in version 2.6:
- Updated manual file
- On MorphOS and AROS, the instruction file is now copied to the installation drawer.
- In MorphOS, the “Path” command in s:user-startup is now inactive. If it should be active, you must manually uncomment it, save it, and then restart the computer
- added ability to scale images in all selected formats
- added ability to compress PDF documents when Ghostscript is installed
- ability to change the orientation of PDF documents (not in ImageSize format)
- print margin can now be set
- using the command line will automatically adjust the orientation (not ImageSize format)
- compiled single versions for supported platforms
- removed applet from the archive
- added function to print PDF documents
Image2PDF
What IFF? (v. 3.13)
(authors: A. Vaisey, I. Sorensen, J. Scolieri, K. Saunders, R. O’Malley, T. Paul)
Amiga-themed magazine published in Amigaguide format. Issue 13 - April 2024.
What IFF? - April 2024
High-Low-Equal Poker Card (v. 2.10)
(author: Juan Carlos Herrán Martín)
A simple card game. Guess the next card that appears on the table and earn money and points. This is a special version to promote the author’s other game, Los Malditos del Valle del Cerro, which was featured in the March summary.
Changes in version 2.10:
- New screen size of 800x600 pixels.
- Compiled with the latest Hollywood 10.0.
- Los Malditos world environment and graphics.
- Fixed several old bugs.
- With two exclusive decks featuring Los Malditos characters.
High-Low-Equal Poker Card
IcarosFix (v. 2.3.4)
(authors: Aros, Third Part Dev)
Icaros was at one time the most popular AROS distribution. Unfortunately, it has not been updated for several years. This archive contains a set of patches for Icaros 2.3. To install, overwrite the files. This is an unofficial patch.