HKvalhe's X5000 Blog: Black power and fun ;)

TimberWolf going black with style!

The Serious Part:

Greeting, fellow Amigans! I did promise you another blog, so here it is already The 2 keywords are Power and Fun. What will these be?

Recently i have done a lot of improvement to the look of my AmigaOS 4.1.6 on my AmigaOne 500, noticably in both GUI and MUI to match the overall EasyColorBlue AmiTheme that is central on my OS.

The super advanced browser TimberWolf has also undergone quite a facelift. A dark, black theme originally meant for Firefox, but since TimberWolf is the AmigaOS4 version of it, then every add-on can be used in TimberWolf as well, even themes, which is great!

In the shot beside you see TimberWolf displaying the IMO Messenger Chat site, since TimberWolf has proper HTML5 support. IMO supports just about every type of chat systems. These are AIQ, MSN, Yahoo, Skype, Facebook Chat, Jabber and some others i can't remember, but the point is that IMO is very useful! Imagine Pidgin Messenger supporting IMO's many chat systems! Now that would be cool!

TimberWolf running IMO multi chat system!

If we only had proper webcam support, then using a webcam during chat would also be useful in AmigaOS4. Let see what the future will bring AmigaOS, shall we?

Another program i will show you, is the open sourced 3D application - Blender. This one is very advanced and powerful! If you are into 3D modelling, then this one is for you!

Blender is not quite fast without the hardware acceleration we are still waiting for in term of Warp3D for RadeonHD.

Blender in action in black style mode!

Seeing the potential of Blender, 3D modelling for future Amiga games and programs becomes very useful! There is no doubt that Blender is very powerful and advanced in the way it handles 3D modelling with both graphic and animation! Try it out!

The picture to the right shows Blender displaying a pool in 3D. While i did NOT model this pool, as i am no 3D or graphic expert, the example was part of Blender to show the true power of the application!

Next program to show off is GIMP (GNU Image Manipulator Program), which is an open source clone of Photoshop. GIMP is part of the AmiCygnix environment and can in fact run standalone in its' own window. GIMP has recently been upgraded to a much improved 2.6.11 version, with support for a lot of external, but quite powerful plugins, like loaders, filters and color enhance plugins! With these plugins (and more are said to be coming), GIMP becomes not only a favourite for manipulating and painting images, but also for advanced photo editing similar to Picasa 3 and Photoshop itself! GIMP is definitely a program of choice!

GIMP in true dark black style!

Not only that, but i managed to turn GIMP into a black, sexy mean beast! Now GIMP is also uber cool! AOWww!

What i really like with GIMP, apart from the cool black style, is the Color Enhance from one of the plugins. As you see here on the picture to the left, the landscape picture was actually "weak" in color. With the Color Enhance, i was able to make the photo more "alive" and real!

As i am heavily into photographing, GIMP will definitely be the program for me to edit and improve my photos! GIMP is a must-have to have in your system, along with other great applications!

The Fun Part:

Now it's time for the fun part of the blog. As you probably know, i have since February registered for the full version of the eGame Launcher, which now can run endless of different games from the launcher. Games like BlobWars, Pinball Fantasies and Willy run through the launcher. Look at the pictures below here.

The full version of eGame Launcher!

eGame Launcher uses MUI, as you can see how beautiful it looks now that MUI is highly configured. The eGame Launcher runs many different games. AmigaOS4 games, DOS games through RunInDOSBox and RunInUAE, among many. More games will be added later.

BlobWars Metal Solid is a well-known SDL platformer which has been updated to version 1.19 for AmigaOS4! It now uses some advanced SObjs files and runs a lot faster than earlier versions! I notice this quite well on my AmigaOne 500 under AmigaOS 4.1 Update 6!

Another thing is that audio and music are far more realistic, natural and modern! Music is both very ambient and soft-techno-stylish. Audio is just as it should be when doing all the shooting, bombing and the usual stuffs.

Animation is more realistic now. As an example, when throwing the grenates, they bounch as a tennis ball and hit just like one, as supposed to. All in all, i dear to say that BlobWars Metal Solid v1.19 for AmigaOS4 is by far the best version ever! It's truly worth to have in the collection of great games to play!

Blob prepares the final battle with Goliat!

Other games i have played a bit are DOSBox games like Pinball Fantasies, Willy Beamish and Prince Of Persia through RunInDOSBox using the eGame Launcher program above.

The game Willy Beamish is a cool and funny, cartoon adventure game, and i plays very well through the RunInDOSBox tool through eGame.

The other game is the famous, classic platformer - Prince Of Persia. It's very smooth and fast on my AmigaOS 4.1.6 system! This game also runs through eGame Launcher.

Willy Beamish helps his mother cooking.

I have mostly been playing a couple of adventure games through ScummVM. Games like DOTT (Day Of The Tentacle), Leisure Suit Larry 2 and 3, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, Curse Of Monkey Island, Broken Sword 1 and 2, among others.

These games are very cool to play and i love every one of them! There will be more games added as soon as the Warp3D driver is in place. Then there will be more exciting to play!

The Persia Prince in a tricky task.

Andrea from AmigaSoft.net is currently porting the long-expected AmigaOS4 version of the 3D FPS shooter, that is Wolfenstein - Return To Castle! It's uses OpenGL and is already available for MorphOS and AROS, and soon AmigaOS4, too!

Luckily, i have the full version of the game meant for Windows. So when the AmigaOS4 version is ready, then i will install the whole game as well!

The game will benefit best under AmigaOS 4.2 when it arrives, using Gallium 3D/Mesa 9.1 and the multicore CPU support! Oh yes, then it will be REAL fun! It will make your hair turning up and backward, and your skin going spooky, and that will only be the NEW beginning!

Wolfenstein - Return To Castle soon for AOS4!

And it's getting just better! As part of Lucasarts gaming company been shut down by their new owners Walt Disney, the sources of 2 well-known Star Wars games have been released for free to the public by Raven Software, in honour of Lucasarts.

These 2 games are Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy. In Jedi Outcast, you play as Kyle Katarn, and in Jedi Academy as his apprentice, Jaden. Should be very promising!

Jedi Outcast for AmigaOS4 is now possible!

In Jedi Outcast, Kyle Katarn and Jan do an important research mission of an abanded Imperial base as mecenaries, but they both realize quickly that more is behind than just a simple research. I won't spoil the fun, but i can tell that it involves Kyle using the Force as a Jedi.

With the source codes for both Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy been released by Raven Software, as an honour to Lucasarts, to the public for FREE, it leaves it possible to port the 2 games for AmigaOS4! AmigaOS 4.2 would run these 2 games perfectly, with the new graphic system mentioned, and the multicore CPU support! You get the true picture now, don't you? Thought so!

So you see, the possibilities seem to actually being many, seriously!

Now i will show you some other

Jedi Academy also possible for AmigaOS4!

ScummVM games i play, so take a look at the screenshots below here.

Well, i guess that is the whole blog. Perhaps a video blog next time? We'll see what i can do. Fingers crossed!

Enjoy the blog and the pictures!

Written by:
Helge Kvalheim, Norway