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Author Topic: Games Master System can be seen as Freeware  (Read 7340 times)

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OlafS3

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Games Master System can be seen as Freeware
« on: February 03, 2014, 01:17:52 PM »

"The game extension" is based on "Games Master System" for AGA support. The Games Master System can now be seen as freeware and used in projects without limitations, the author only wants that all included documents are kept.
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SamuraiCrow

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Re: Games Master System can be seen as Freeware
« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2014, 02:57:53 PM »

The original licensing was my only objection to the Games Master System.  I think the registered version would work with graphics cards as well.  If you can find somebody to hack out the key dependency of the library, I see no barrier to its use on 68k Amigas!

Also, it supports CPU-blitting internally so even on ECS and OCS, the GMS library would still be the preferred way to support BOBs.  (CPU blitting is able to reuse the mask plane for each bitplane, therefore speeding up transparent blitting substantially.)

At one point I was going to write my own replacement for GMS but in AmigaE instead of assembly.  Unfortunately, the AmigaE library mode is buggy beyond belief so it never got done.
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bruceuncle

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Re: Games Master System can be seen as Freeware
« Reply #2 on: February 05, 2014, 02:19:19 AM »

I had a quick look at the TGE extension (thank's to Lonewolf10's AMOS extensions download) and also found the gms_user and gms_dev archives.  A lot of useful source once I can get my head around the architecture!  ;D

I noticed reference to an "AMOS Developer CD" with talk of a bug-fixed and enhanced AMOS 2.x on this archive page.  Does anyone know if any of that material still exists and is available?  It would be a tremendous resource if so.
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OlafS3

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Re: Games Master System can be seen as Freeware
« Reply #3 on: February 05, 2014, 08:31:51 AM »

"Do not modify the archive or build new archives based on it. However, it is ok to do an auto install on a user's system and then copy new files into it, or patch in changes if that improves functionality."

So I think it is ok to change files as long as they are kept separately

@Bruceuncle

I found this website some time ago but never found anything useful so I think it was only a collection of ideas/plans. I think I have a "AMOS CD" somewhere at home though.
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SamuraiCrow

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Re: Games Master System can be seen as Freeware
« Reply #4 on: February 05, 2014, 05:15:13 PM »

I'll see if I can make a Cybergraphx 3.x compatible driver for the high-color and true-color modes then.  It appears that those drivers were never written despite being alluded to in the preferences program since it mentioned several old graphics cards.
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Lonewolf10

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Re: Games Master System can be seen as Freeware
« Reply #5 on: March 08, 2014, 03:45:00 PM »

I noticed reference to an "AMOS Developer CD" with talk of a bug-fixed and enhanced AMOS 2.x on this archive page.  Does anyone know if any of that material still exists and is available?

I have heard of the AMOS Developer CD before (probably whilst reading/archiving the old Y! AMOS-list messages), but I don't believe I have it.
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Spellcoder

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Re: Games Master System can be seen as Freeware
« Reply #6 on: March 18, 2014, 07:30:29 AM »

I had a quick look at the TGE extension (thank's to Lonewolf10's AMOS extensions download) and also found the gms_user and gms_dev archives.  A lot of useful source once I can get my head around the architecture!  ;D

I noticed reference to an "AMOS Developer CD" with talk of a bug-fixed and enhanced AMOS 2.x on this archive page.  Does anyone know if any of that material still exists and is available?  It would be a tremendous resource if so.

There should be people around here (?) with the patched versions of the AMOS libraries. I have them on my Amiga 4000, but it doesn't startup anymore so I would have to make an image of my harddisk and use an emulator to get them out.

The changes done by Pietro where as far as I know only (or mostly?) communicated through the AMOS List (an email list I'm member of since 1993, but it hasn't seen any activity for years now.). It was also used to distributed small patches. I think they would have used Aminet when they were ready with larger patches, but I think they got frustrated with the amount of work required before they got that far.
Pietro, by the way, is also the one who released the sourcecode at my request after I got permission from Francois Lionet. Pietro and I think Chris Hodges(I think) at the time were the only ones left with a copy of the sourcecode, since Francois lost his copy.

I think we've had a download link to the AMOS CD on this forum before?

On http://www.amigacoding.com/index.php/AMOS:Versions I have a short list of the changes and bugfixes I knew of which were made in those patches:
(the original wiki page has some links to the original email messages reporting on the fixes)

There were some patches created by Pietro Ghizzoni:
(?) fix for a print command?
(27 aug 1998) speed of flipping between AMOS and Workbench twice as fast and more OS-friendly
and 'The interlace problem with AmigaOS 3.1 is fixed' [1]
(11 sep 1998) 'Limit Bob' command fixed [2]
(13 may 2000) fix for compiled AMOS programs (in Header_CLI.Lib and Header_BackStart.Lib) where memory is deallocated before amos.library is finished cleaning up [3]

bruceuncle

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Re: Games Master System can be seen as Freeware
« Reply #7 on: March 19, 2014, 11:01:03 PM »

Many, many thanks for the info.   8) 8) 8)

I am ever grateful to Pietro for those AMOS Pro Sources and Francois for allowing their release.  The progress towards a fully functioning, bug-free, AMOS Pro V2.x was made so very much more achievable by that donation.

That lead in your post gives me more info on the bugs.  So, even if I can't track down any source or binaries, I know those bugs exist and where they are.  I'd already nailed a couple of them from the forensics I've been doing in CSI AMOS and the AMOS Pro V2.10 project, where they've been disassembled and incorporated into the V2.10 sources.  That's going to be one loooong project but it's going well.

Just a reminder that if anyone has any AMOS Pro binaries that differ from the original released version, I'm eager to get my hands on them.  I've got the necessary tools to find the differences, convert it back to assembler and incorporate it in the sources (assuming they check out as kosher bug fixes or enhancements of course!).

In the course of wandering through those archived pages, I came across an interesting little piece of nostalgia from 1999.  It's on the Amiga Format April 1999 issue's CD coverdisk.  I took the liberty of posting a zip of it here (no, not the entire CD, just this little bit  ;D ).  I'll leave everyone to download it themselves and find out what it is  ;D
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Lonewolf10

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Re: Games Master System can be seen as Freeware
« Reply #8 on: April 17, 2014, 05:07:59 PM »

Just a reminder that if anyone has any AMOS Pro binaries that differ from the original released version, I'm eager to get my hands on them.  I've got the necessary tools to find the differences, convert it back to assembler and incorporate it in the sources (assuming they check out as kosher bug fixes or enhancements of course!).

I think I have the new Header_CLI.Lib and Header_BackStart.Lib's...

*checking... please wait!*

*please wait!*

Yup, I appear to have the new ones, aswell as the old ones. There doesn't appear to be a difference in size looking at the files in windows or Amiga (via WinUAE), but I guess you can compare the 2 and see the differences.
I have attached both files to this post, simply remove everything after the hyphon, including the hyphon itself, to get the normal name :)

In the course of wandering through those archived pages, I came across an interesting little piece of nostalgia from 1999.  It's on the Amiga Format April 1999 issue's CD coverdisk.  I took the liberty of posting a zip of it here (no, not the entire CD, just this little bit  ;D ).  I'll leave everyone to download it themselves and find out what it is  ;D .

Cool. I can't wait to see what it is :)
« Last Edit: April 17, 2014, 05:13:28 PM by Lonewolf10 »
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