Happy New Amiga Year 2025

Beautiful view for my AmigaOne X5000

Happy new Amiga year 2025 everyone! Amiga will be celebrating its' 40th anniversary 23th of July. 2025 has just begun, so lots of exciting things are going to happen. In this blog, I will cover up my recent stuff I do with my AmigaOne X5000/20 system, which I've had for a little more than a year now. I'm very happy with my X5000. It's extremely powerful and very fast. It's my main Amiga now.

Last year 2024 has been a turbulent year of challenges. After the summer of 2024, I received what I thought would be a unique offer to compose Amiga music for a couple of game projects (or so I thought). A request I received from a person who appeared to be a false person using AI to manipulate false projects. One of the game projects I was supposed to compose music for was the "Taylor's Tater Terror".

Taylor's Tater Terror was meant to be an ambitious game project to honor the deceased person - Taylor Calk, whom tragically passed away in January 2023. His father, Jack Calk, was to finance the project and the person who was to lead the project, was the false person I mentioned earlier.

There was much back and fort with the false project leader coming up with several crazy ideas at the same time, using AI to create several false projects and spamming Facebook with a couple of fake groups and concepts. In November 2024, Jack Calk himself contacted me about the project leader and told me that the "Taylor's Tater Terror" project was off the table, and all ties to the false project leader were severed and that I should do the same, which I did. Blocked the false project leader and cut off all connections I had with the guy. Yeah, shit can happen, but fortunately, we all learn from it. I moved on focusing on my own Amiga art and music instead. I might even have some of my own ideas for some game projects when I'm motivated to do them.

Two new Amiga groups on Facebook - Personal Paint and Amiga Art Gallery

Amiga Art Gallery on Facebook

One of the first things I decided to do when 2025 kicked in was to create 2 new Amiga groups on Facebook. One official and one private group.

Personal Paint is an official Facebook group I created. Since there was no group about Personal Paint, I decided to create one. This group will cover everything that has to do with Personal Paint for the Amiga. Tutorials have already been brought to the group, so that it will be easier to learn the use of the program and its' features. The group is quite new but growing well. I think Amiga users will find the group to be very inspiring and useful. Everyone using Personal Paint on Amiga or want to learn about it are welcome to join this group on Facebook.

Amiga Art Gallery is a private Facebook group I also created. Like a digital gallery where any kind of Amiga art, being pixel art, animation, video, 3D, morphing, raytracing, music and MIDI, can be uploaded and shared with everyone in the private gallery. Amiga Art Gallery is NOT to be compared with the group Amiga Art or the author behind Amiga Art. The real difference with Amiga Art Gallery is that we do NOT focus on contests, and we never break promises we can't keep, which was the case with the author behind Amiga Art, but that's not the reason why Amiga Art Gallery was created. Amiga Art Gallery was created to give all Amiga users full control and freedom of their own Amiga art. No deadline, no restrictions. Just their own limitation of creativity. More importantly, we do NOT accept AI generated images, because we want Amiga users to use their human talent and creativity to their maximum. We want REAL stuff, not fake stuff, so this is very important to keep in mind. The gallery is already growing very nicely. A fine gallery I believe Amiga users will find pleasure to join. Very promising.

New Amiga music in 2025 - Starting first with the project Pray For LA

OctaMED SoundStudio still going strong

Those of you who have followed my Amiga music work in the Amiga community know that I have composed Amiga music for many years now. I started in 2018 for real and have just vastly improved since then. In late 2024, after the cancellation of the Taylor's Tater Terror project that never happened, I composed Amiga Metal Rock music. A style I never thought I would do, but I did. As a start, it was quite challenging but I found it really enjoyable when I got into it, ending up with 3 great Amiga Metal Rock tracks already. These are Broken System, Devil's Torture and Santa Zombie. All part of a 10-song Amiga Metal Rock album titled "Frozen Hell". A fourth track is planned but not quite yet.

Pray For LA - An Amiga Charity song 

The most important Amiga music project I want to do, is an urgent release of an Amiga Charity song titled Pray For LA. A massive fire that turned most of the California into an apocalyptic scenario, resulting in lost of several lives and multiple luxury properties burnt down to ashes. Many who managed to evacuate lost their home and other valuable properties. Probably forever. It's really heartbreaking and I'm speechless. I really feel with those who are suffering, so I want to give something in thought of these people. A Charity song composed on the Amiga. It will be deeply emotional but also a beautiful one. LA needs all the love, hope, care, help and support needed to rise from the ashes again. To make people safe and well again. To know that there's always hope and always people who care. The song should be ready by the end of the week already and will be my first 2025 release.

Turning Amiga music into studio quality FLAC 

Compressing files with Archiver

In 2025 I'm doing some additional changes in term of my Amiga music projects, including studio quality FLAC version of several of my best Amiga songs I composed during the years 2018 up to recent time. The MP3 versions are on YouTube but the FLAC versions will be uploaded to Aminet, as well as several of my Amiga groups on Facebook, being Amiga Art Gallery, MED Music and Amiga Music Mods. There's always a FREE solution like those mentioned here. The Archiver from A-EON's Enhancer bundle can also compress files in several formats. One of the most useful formats is the 7z format based on the BZIP2 sources, if I'm not mistaken. As seen from the snapshot here, Archiver is quite capable of compressing 7z files with ease.

Uploading files to Aminet through a FTP

Uploading files or archives to Aminet cannot be done directly from its' site. Instead you need a FTP program like AmiFTP. The version of AmiFTP seen from the snapshot is the AmigaOS4 version which works very well.

This is how I always upload my Amiga music to Aminet, using AmiFTP. It's quite simple to set up and use. After the first few times, you really get quite used to how the program works. It's fast and very efficient. On my X5000 it really flies.

When you setup AmiFTP for the first time, it might remind you a bit of IRC. Aminet is not the only destination you can set. There might be others you can set as well. But we focus on Aminet, since you can't upload directly to Aminet without using a standalone FTP like AmiFTP.

ScummVM 2.9.0 and new games on X5000

Super Star Blast - New Space Shooter 

During Christmas 2024 I received a nice present from my Norwegian Amiga friend - Pål Ringkilen. The game is Super Star Blast. A space shooter with incredible nice graphic, animation, music and sound. You need the Warp3D NOVA driver from latest A-EON's Enhancer bundle which I have on my X5000. The RadeonRX driver makes the game pretty smooth on my X5000/20 model. Thank you so much, Pål! A really nice present! Very happy I received it and quite enjoyable! But it doesn't stop here when it comes to gaming.

Latest ScummVM 2.9.0 on my X5000

ScummVM 2.9.0 was released before Christmas 2024. Another great gift for the Amiga community. Version 2.9.0 has a lot of improvements and support for several new games like Timbleweed Park and support for the first 2 Syberia games. The latter games need Shader support, but these will appear as well.

Latest version of ScummVM works like a charm on my AmigaOne X5000/20 model, using OpenGL shaders. You definitely need Warp3D NOVA, RadeonRX driver and SDL2. ScummVM 2.9.0 is based on SDL2 and CLIB4 build, as I understand from its' documentation. The 3D driver is important if you want to play the more advanced 3D adventure games like The Longest Journey, Grim Fandango and soon those first 2 Syberia games. But advanced 3D adventure gaming is not the only exciting thing with latest ScummVM. In version 2.9.0, you can also play adventure games created by AGD Interactive. A software company which has done REMAKE versions of adventure games like King Quest 1-3, Space Quest 2 and Quest For Glory 2. I just happened to download and install all these remake versions in ScummVM 2.9.0 on my X5000.

Space Quest 2 Remake on my X5000

The cool thing about those remake versions created by AGD Interactive is that they were done in 256 colors with a resolution of 320x256. The graphic quality of these games are incredible beautiful and sharp. One would wonder why the Amiga version of several well known adventure games never were done with 256 colors, except from Universe and Simon The Sorcerer.

Universe is another adventure game. Probably not supported by ScummVM yet but was made with 256 colors using Copper technique, in which the game can be run on a normal Amiga 500, displaying all that 256 color from the game! That's pretty impressive for an adventure game!

King Quest Remake on my X5000

AGD Interactive has done a truly impressive work in remastering several of the iconic Sierra games, with 256 beautiful, high quality colors from a resolution of 320x256. Sound and music are now fully digital and very pleasant to listen to.

The snapshot here displays the first King Quest Remake in ScummVM 2.9.0 on my X5000, but you can see the other snapshots at the end of this blog. They're included as well in this blog.

Other exciting remake versions are Space Quest 2 Remake and Quest For Glory 2 Remake also in 256 colors with 320x256 resolution to play.

The only game that doesn't play so well in ScummVM since version 2.8.0 and 2.8.1, and this is even present in 2.9.0, is the old adventure game Broken Sword 1 from Revolution Software. There seems to be an audio issue in multiple scenes when trying to run Broken Sword 1 with latest ScummVM build. This bug has been reported to the ScummVM Bug Tracker, so hopefully the audio issue of Broken Sword 1 under latest ScummVM will finally be solved. But for now, the game is pointless to play and as so, I removed it from my ScummVM setup for now. All other ScummvM games have fully working audio. Fortunately, you can play Broken Sword 2.5 - the fanmade version that seems to be what the first Broken Sword game could have been. It's not that bad, really.

Simon The Sorcerer - 256 color version

Simon The Sorcerer is another graphic adventure game that truly impress. The snapshot here shows the Amiga AGA version in 256 colors! Yes, you read it right! 256 true AGA colors! The game was also released for normal non-AGA Amigas like the Amiga 500, using 64 colors. Simon The Sorcerer is one of few graphic adventure games that used more than 32 colors.

Using 256 colors for an adventure game adds a lot to the scene, especially in term of background and more details to the surrounding. I hope new Amiga adventure games can be created with 256 colors, when done so well like in Simon The Sorcerer. It shows how possible it really is.

Flight Of The Amazon Queen on X5000

Flight Of The Amazon Queen is another cool graphic adventure. What many might not be aware of is the fact that the game was originally created on an Amiga 1200 using the iconic paint program Deluxe Paint and the AMOS programming language. The game is based on 32 colors that were nicely painted as well.

The version I run in latest ScummVM is the 256 colors Talkie version for DOS. Graphically it looks better than the Amiga version. The only little minus is that the Amiga version has better music than the DOS version of the game. Nonetheless, the game is truly enjoyable to play.

Well, this covers just about everything I do these days on my AmigaOne X5000/20 system. Thank you for reading my blog. Hope you enjoy it.

HAPPY NEW AMIGA YEAR 2025!!!

Written by

Helge Kvalheim

King Quest 2 Remake on my X5000

King Quest 3 Redux on my X5000

Quest For Glory 2 Remake on my X5000

 

Amiga Art 2023 Contest Cancellation - The REAL reason

Beautiful X5000 HD Wallpaper

Been a while since I was writing another Amiga blog. Had so much fun with my AmigaOne X5000/20, but also much was happening in my private life as well, which I won't cover here. 2024 has been a remarkable, challenging year, and now we're into 2025 being a new year. It will also mark the Amiga's 40th Anniversary in July 23th this year.

Where to start? I should probably start with the reason why I value 2025 as a new beginning for me in many ways, most noticeably with Amiga.

Amiga Art 2023 Contest Cancellation - The REAL reason 

Amiga Art 2023 that never happened

Most of you are probably well informed about what happened with the Amiga Art 2023 Contest? A contest that was supposed to be one of the greatest. Was supposed to be reviewed around December 2023, but it never actual happened.

Before explaining the real reason, let me remind all of you that many contributed to the 2023 contest. Not for the sake of winning but to be part of something great. To see own art being displayed as well as being impressed by others' creations. When the contest was cancelled, it left many contributors with great frustration.

The part about the 2023 contest is not a personal attack of the author behind. It's not even about the man or how great he used to be. It's simply about the cancellation of the Amiga Art 2023 Contest and what led to the cancellation to happen. The real reason that was never told.

It's true that lots of unexpected life events happened to the author. Both good and bad things, and those were fairly understandable. All contributors respected that. Even I did, but these were only half the truth of what really happened to the 2023 contest. Allow me to explain.

There was never a proper communication with the Amiga Art group on Facebook regarding the aftermatch with the Amiga Art 2023 Contest. Despite the life events that happened around the first 3-5 months of 2024, there was still more than a half year away of 2024 to try find a solution to review the results of the Amiga Art 2023 Contest one way or another on YouTube.

That never happened. No communication with the group, not even an official admit of failure. You might wonder why bothering? Because when arranging something big, even if it was only meant to be a labour of love, it involves a lot of responsibility and promises to keep. Because there was made promises of great prizes to win and the 2023 contest WAS supposed to be one of the greatest the author had done from 2019 to 2022 so far. So even that the contest was not important, the author still had the full responsibility and he failed his own contest.

I know this myself from my own personal experience. My first contribution to an Amiga Art Contest was 2022, winning the second place in Amiga Music. My song was Last Ninja 4 Level 6 - The Plane Crash. I hoped to win a small prize for my second place back then, but it never happened. I remember when I asked the author about the prize, he told me that the person who was to send out the prizes, disappeared, and he further added that I had to accept it and let go. In the end, I was forced to let go of it, and instead contributed a lot of Amiga music, pixel art and photos for the 2023 Contest. A contest that failed greatly to happened, and it's not the life events being the real problem behind, but how the author simply chose to drop the 2023 contest, as he didn't really care about it at all. That's the impression he gave me.

However, I do admit that I pestered the author about the 2023 contest for months, but even if I didn't. other people would. The author would still have made the choice to cancel the 2023 contest, regardless of my own or others' actions. Many in the Amiga Art group on Facebook offered to help the author for months to make the 2023 contest a reality, and even tried to give him constructive feedback related to the failure with the 2023 contest. The real truth? The author couldn't handle it all and DECLINED all offer for help, resulting in the Amiga Art 2023 Contest to be DEAD and BURIED for good. A choice he made fully by own will and which has consequences. It was said that writing or speaking about this wouldn't accomplish things, but the truth does. The real truth is what matters here, and it's time for everyone to know the truth.

One would have thought that those life events would justify the situation, but to know that the author had a little more than half a year left of the 2024 to review the Amiga Art 2023 Contest and chose willingly NOT to bring up the contest, could only mean one thing. That the author simply doesn't care about his own contests, giving people false hope and dreams, and making promises he can't keep. Instead, he's pretending he didn't fail a contest and that everything is just fine, making YouTube reviews of old retro hardware instead. What's the logic with that? There's no logic in that. It's not even a normal situation but a weird one. But done is done. The damage that happened as a result of the author's failure to review the Amiga Art 2023 Contest cannot be undone. A new contest cannot undo that damage at all. People will always remember Amiga Art 2023 Contest as a failure that should never happen.

There are some small rumours about an Amiga Art 2025. It might happen, but most likely not become what the author hopes for. Many past contributors, noticeably those of us who contributed for the 2023 contest, became so frustrated about it that we stopped caring about any contest at all. As for a possible 2025 contest, most from the Amiga Art group on Facebook revealed that they are NOT going to join another contest by the same author. Simply because of what happened to the 2023 contest. Even if there should be a 2025 contest, the author himself is likely to be greatly disappointed not to see so many contributions at all. It will be a poor experience the author would have to live with, as he can only blame himself for that.

I might if possible send a small 2025 contribution of 5 Amiga pixel art, photos and music, creating my own legacy that way. Because I want the 2025 contest to be my LAST contribution for Amiga Art and then be completely done with it.

Now you all know the REAL truth about the Amiga Art 2023 Contest and what actually led to the contest being fully abanded and never reviewed for anyone to see. Life events was only half of the reason, but the real reason was an own will to cancel it, simply because the author couldn't handle it all and would never admit that in public. This is the whole truth behind it all.

This ends this blog for now. I wish you all the best for 2025. Keep being creative with the Amiga, and remember the Amiga's 40th Anniversary in July 23th this year.

Written by

Helge Kvalheim (HKvalhe)