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[MichaelVParent]

Hi everyone.  I'm trying to get back into AMOS  but am loosing far too much time and energy trying to get a working and half decent development environment set up.

We can DRASTICALLY increase the appeal of using Amos and therefore hopefully increase support for your efforts if we first make, and then continually up-keep a full (amos dev set up in a box) exe like this one: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=60144

The idea would be, give people something they can double click on their PC and it will open up a nice emulated Amiga/workbench with always the very latest version of Amos Pro and all its extensions installed, as well as the best painting program, sound , and music program freely available as well.

Is anyone willing to help me do this? payment for your assistance is definitely an option. Please reply here so we can work out the logistics etc.
Thanks,
Mike Parent

[Sidewinder]

I like this idea, although I suggest that we also include an archive that can be used by those who already have a working UAE or real hardware system.

Perhaps GitHub or some other such site could be used to host this project and allow for easy updates and distribution (at least on Windows and Linux boxes, does the Amiga have a decent git client?).

What we need first is a listing of all the necessary packages, which version of AMOS, what updates, what extensions, which paint and music programs, etc.

[MichaelVParent]

Exactly. I was thinking the same thing. Shall we start making a list of must-have programs?

I want to start making tutorial videos, and they will all be based on this Amos install folder/amos for windows build...so everything they se me do, then can copy, "out of box" without the hassle of hunting down programs, extensions, plug-ins, etc etc.

[Sidewinder]

Yes, I think we shall:

Obviously AMOS Pro and compiler with the latest patches.

Extensions:
AMOS 3D
TOME
AMCAF

Graphics:  I use PersonalPaint, v7.1c is available for free, but I don't know if it is freely distributable.

Music:  I don't use trackers much, but is ProTracker any good?

[Hungry Horace]

Include ProTeacker and octamed Soundstudio to cover all bases

[Sidewinder]

Forgot to mention the OM for AMOS 3D which is a separate program beside the extension.

[MichaelVParent]

Hi Sidewinder!  Great to see you again!

I vote for Brilliance 2.. It's the best 2d pixel art program for making Classic Amiga graphics (low res, indexed color) in my opinion.

thanks,
Mike

[MichaelVParent]

Also,
I'm looking desperately for the TurboPlus extension for Amos Pro. Does anyone here happen to have it?
I'm even hunting down ancient emails from the creators of the extension and seeing if those email accounts are still active....

thanks.

[Sidewinder]

Brilliance 2 would be great to include, but is it freely distributable now?

One thought I've had for a while now is that AMOS had the idea of accessories which wasn't really appreciated or exploited to its full potential before the market dropped out from under the Amiga.  It was often easier to use DPaint or some external program to edit graphics and sound and then import into AMOS rather than to use some of the poorly designed accessories.  This is all well and good, but perhaps updating the accessories to make them more useful, intuitive, and powerful would be appropriate at some point in this project.

Also, AMOS Pro creates a personalized installation and ties the programmers name and certain preferences to the AMOS development environment at install time.  I've been looking into the Install.AMOS source code and I think it should be possible to modify it to make the pre-installed image (hdf or whatever we decide) also customized to the programmer after the first boot.  I think this would be preferable to distributing an hdf that has my name encoded in the "About AMOS Pro" dialog.

[MichaelVParent]

Regarding Brilliance. From What I can tell, Digital Creations hasn't existed for a very long time. I'd have no idea who to contact. It's also been readily available for decades on all Amiga forums and emu sites without anyone ever showing up saying "hey, pay me money" so I think its in the clear... I also assume if someone did come out of the wood words and cause trouble we could work it out with them or simply remove brilliance from the package.

I also agree, improvements to the default tools, or other tools previous people made in Amos is a good idea too..In fact, I have some improvements in mind for Rastermaster16. which is readily available  complete with its Amos code, I think.

[SamuraiCrow]

I am afraid that there is no legal status of "abandonware".  If you use the software without permission, you are liable for damages if the author ever shows up.

For that reason, I would go for the Amos accessories being updated.

[MichaelVParent]

I'm fine with not including it for maximum legal safety. I'll see if I can find the appropriate people to ask for permission.