Catweasel MK2 on X1000

Ever since I read about the upcoming availability of X1000 support for the Catweasel Mk2 I was very excited to try it out with the many Amiga floppy disks I have - and today is the day!

For the last week or so I have been very sick with terrible food poisoning and unable to do anything at all. I feel a little bit better today and decided to tackle this project to try to take my mind off it!

So what is a Catweasel mk2? Well, it is a hardware device made by Individual computers and now available through Amigakit.com. It has the ability to present floppy drives of different formats (PC, Amiga, MAC, etc) to the AmigaOS4 (and Classic Amiga) to enable different formatted disks to be read.

With the X1000 there is no floppy drive or floppy drive port, so it is necessary to have a Catweasel installed in order to use a floppy disk drive under AmigaOS4. Until recently the only way to do this was by getting a Catweasel 4 PCI card, which is very hard to find anywhere nowadays - I certainly couldn't find it!

So recently AmigaKit.com released a package of CatWeasel Mk2 (still available to buy) with X1000 adaptor kit, which essentially is a special twisted IDE cable, and a CD containing updated drivers (not available elsewhere) to work with the X1000 IDE hardware to enable AmigaOS4 to see the Catweasel Mk2 when attached to the IDE port. I quickly ordered mine and got it this week.

The big positive for me is the ability to easily read my 25 year old plus floppy disks into ADF format using the X1000, and then use them via RunInUAE on the X1000!

So when I opened the package I got the floppy drive, a lot of floppy cables, power converters and a manual/floppy for Classic Amigas, and an unlabelled CD containing the X1000 drivers:

To read up how to wire this all up, you need to turn to the Classic Amiga manual included in the box, and specifically just one page which shows where to connect the various cables in:

For the X1000 just plug in the twisted IDE cable included to the Amiga-IDE port on the Catweasel, and the twisted end of the cable plugs into the X1000 IDE port.

I used a High Density PC floppy drive for this, and so you need to ensure the floppy drive is connected to the twisted floppy drive cable connector which tells it that the drive is drive 0.

Next, before installing in the X1000, I then inserted the CD to install the required drivers:

I read the readme_first file which contains important configuration information to make the Catweasel mk2 work with the X1000 (Click to expand):

Having taken note of what I have to do above, I got started with the installation:

The installation proceeds until the next screen without prompting for any more information:

Once I clicked Proceed above, I get the CatWeasel Prefs screen below, which needs to be modified (click to expand):

I modified it as per the Readme_first file, which ends up looking like this (click to expand):

Now it tells me the installation is completed and ready for reboot:

I powered off the X1000, and install the CatWeasel Mk2 and floppy drive. I will eventually mount it correctly against the hard disk bay wall, but for now it looks like this for testing:

I then powered on the X1000 and when the Workbench has loaded I now have a clicking floppy drive, ready for action! So first I try a Directory Opus 5.5 floppy disk:

And it comes up on the Workbench no problem. I open the Readme directly from the floppy disk no problems as below:

Next I had a look in the Shell to see the disk device, which is set to DF0:

Next I fired up DOpus4 and copied the files from the floppy disk to a temporary hard disk folder as a test and it worked well and fast for a floppy:

Excellent stuff, it works well!

Included with the software on the CD also is a program called SuperDisk - which is installed into the Utilities folder as part of the installation. This software allows you to read Amiga floppy disks to/from ADF format. Keen to try this out, I put in an old floppy disk application called PageSetter, from way back in 1986!

I ran SuperDisk (written by Ian Gledhill), and then typed in the image path name I wanted to be created, in this case "work:adf/PageSetter.adf". I then clicked on Read Disk the floppy drive got to work:

The floppy disk read was quite fast, and finished quickly:

The programs needs a "bing" sound or "Finished" dialog notice box in my opinion, but the visual green shows it is done I guess.

Next, I checked the destination folder, and sure enough the PageSetter.ADF is there:

When I double click on it, it launches via RunInUAE automatically and soon I am looking the PageSetter Workbench 1.2 screen:

I then ran the PageSetter program and it works well (well, as well as a Desktop Publishing Program from 1986 works!):

So now I have my first converted Amiga floppy disk to ADF format on the X1000 thanks to the Catweasel Mk2 and new drivers from AmigaKit.com.

If you want to read more on how to use SuperDisk there is a great guide here.

If you need to do this kind of conversion of old floppy disks to ADF, or just want to be able to copy Amiga files from your floppy disks to/from your X1000 this is perfect and works very well.

I will of course play around with it some more yet (I haven't tested writing ADF to disk or other formatted disks like PC disks), but hopefully this gives you a feeling for how the CatWeasel Mk2 works on the X1000.

Huenison on X1000

Today I am taking a look at the newly released game Huenison for AmigaOS4 on the X1000.

BTW I should explain that work has been busy for the last few weeks including weekends, making it hard for me to spend much time playing with the X1000! Apologies for not updating the blog more often...but, enough of that, let's take a look at Huenison!

It was developed by Simone Bevilacqua for AmigaOS4 (and also available on Windows), released under the name "Retream". Simone also previously released the game BOH on AmigaOS4.

Their website is here if you want to learn more about the game! You can download the demo from there for free, and the full version is available for purchase for around $6 AUD.

Essentially the game is a shoot-em-up in the classic 8/16 bit era style, complete with Commodore 64 style SID music, spot speech effects, dot matrix display (similar to the scoreboard on Pinball Fantasies on the Classic Amiga.

There is a lot of variety in this game, with your Cannon able to rotate colours to fire that colour bullets. Kind of reminds me of switching colours on a BIC 4 colour pen! When you fire a bullet of a certain colour, it allows you to destroy blocks coming down that are of the same colour.

This is an interesting dynamic in the game which makes it differ a lot from most shoot em ups I have played on the Classic Amiga and other platforms in the past!

A Windows version is included in the AmigaOS4 version of the game too, which is a bonus if you want to try it on there too, but of course our focus is on the AmigaOS4 version! When you install the game you get the following folder:

The manual is in PDF format and explains the game much better than I can so here is some excerpts from the manual to explain the game (click to expand):

Once you launch the game, you get a similar audio sample from Impossible Mission on the Commodore 64 (which for those who don't recall it said "Another visitor, stay a while, stay forever") and a retro Commodore 64 style intro tune, setting the tone for the intentionally retro feel of this game as you navigate the Main Menu with the keyboard:

From the Main Menu you have the options, put in a password to start from a later level, and New Game to get started. The options allows you to alter whether the game runs in a window or full screen, and the dot level which is relevant on slower AmigaOne systems, but not needed to be adjusted on the X1000.

The first time you start the New Game, it gives you the option to put in an email address for submitting your high scores to a global high score table available for viewing on the ReTream website (you can also choose to just have local scores):

An activation is sent to your email address after this is done - you need to click on the activation link provided in the Email for your scores to be counted. When you close the game your high scores are sent to the ReTream website and displayed for the world to see how good you are!

You can use the keyboard to play the game too but definitely for me the usb Amiga Joystick was the way to go, allowing me to switch colours and fire easily.

Lets take a look at some screenshots from the game itself. The music is all retro and Commodore 64 style in feel, which suits the game perfectly:

Level 1 starts off simple enough but very quickly gets harder and faster. As the bricks come down and reach the bottom of the screen, they create an increase of the land that your ship moves left to right on, making it more difficult to shoot and quicker for enemies to increase the height even further:

The different brick types are important to getting rid of bricks quickly and efficiently. The manual explains all these types well, their characteristics and how they are deployed depending on the type of level being played in the game:

Didn't take long to be killed:

Ok, let's try again!

I felt more confident the next time through but it gets hard very quickly and a lot of action happens on the screen at the same time!

After a few more goes I managed to get a bit further into the game, and things continue getting harder:

It is hard to remember all the different blocks - I expect there is a strategy to dispatch these quickly but I admit I haven't worked it out yet - I just change colours and shoot like mad!

Some enemies require multiple shots to kill and others just a single shot. Some constantly change colour and can't be destroyed, and their are many other varieties as well as the game goes on.

I will be the first to admit I am not very good at this game but I will keep trying to get further into it!

The game costs around $6 AUD which is a bargain and the game has excellent sound, graphics and interesting gameplay that will ensure you don't get bored quickly and keep coming back for a higher score! I tried the demo first, and was very happy to buy the full version of the game.

Well done Simone, this game is original in concept, pays homage to the retro era of Classic Amiga and Commodore 64 gaming, and is a lot of fun to play too! I recommend it for X1000 owners!

1st Anniversary of X1000

It has been just over one year since I received my X1000 as part of the First Contact release. It has been a lot of fun trying out and blogging about lots of different hardware and software on it during that time!

I had hoped to do something a bit more substantial on this blog for the 1st anniversary but unfortunately I have been up to my neck in work recently and had no free time to do it - sorry!

My X1000 is currently awaiting a suitable compatible wifi card to try out the new Atheros 5000 driver recently released! I am keen to try it out once I have time to source a card.

I have a CatWeasel 2 card (brand new, never used for the last few years) for reading floppies as well, and I was keen to try it out on the X1000, but it looks like it needs a special cable to connect it to the IDE connector on the X1000 and some newer drivers from AmigaKit to use it too. Unfortunately AmigaKit appears to only sell them as a bundle with the Catweasel, and I only need the drivers and the cable...I may ask them if I can get just those bits separately, as the CatWeasel is expensive and I already have one!

I was reflecting the other day that these days I only use my X1000 for any Amiga related stuff! Even though in Amigaland I have MorphOS 3.2 Powerbook G4, Icaros Netbook, Minimig, Amiga 2000/4000D/4000T and CD32, I haven't fired them up at all this year, other than the Powerbook briefly to upgrade to MorphOS 3.2.

I am impressed that thanks to the X1000, I have finally made the transition from Classic Amiga to NextGen Amiga user, something I didn't think possible 1-2 years ago when my Amiga 4000T was still getting quite a workout, and the SAM440 was not being touched due to it's speed issues, just before it failed completely.

I am keenly looking forward to AmigaOS4.2 on the X1000 and the further developments during 2013.

So I raise a glass - Here's to you X1000, one year on. It's been interesting ride and a lot of fun! :-)

Giga Lo Mania on X1000

Today I also wanted to take a look at a recently released game called Giga Lo Mania, based on the classic Mega Lo Mania. It is ported to AmigaOS4 by Kas1e.

For those who remember, Mega Lo Mania was a popular game for the Classic Amiga, released way back in the early 1990's. I loved playing the game, and still play it often under emulation on the X1000, as below:

The wonderful UK voice samples "The design is ready", "We've advanced a tech level", "Tower critical", "It's all over" and many others would be all too familiar for those who have played Mega Lo Mania! :-)

Giga Lo Mania, like the original, is a classic strategy game in the style of Populous, but more combat focused, based on improving your tech level and resources to advance your population to later eras, inventing tools and weapons that allow you to form stronger armies and castles to beat your enemies.

It is free to download the game from www.os4depot.net. There is some more information about the game from the original author's home page here - this site includes lots of information on the gameplay instructions also.

There is a lot of strategy to the game, but it is a lot of fun to play too! Let's take a look at the game.

It runs on standard Radeon HD graphics card, so you do not need to have the dual display setup with the Radeon 9250 to play the game, which is great news for X1000 owners who don't have that configuration.

Once launching the game, it launches in a window. I apologise but I forgot to screen grab these game shots without the window - but I didn't have time to do them again! The game heads straight for a Menu to select the game type you want to play - A Single Island or All Islands. There is no intro like in Mega Lo Mania. Since All Islands is the full game, beginning from the first age, it makes sense to start there:

Being a bit of wimp, I chose the Easy level to start with:

Next up you get to choose which race of people you want to play, the same as in Mega Lo Mania. I do miss the characters not being shown here though....Since I always played the Blue people in Mega Lo Mania, I picked the same here.

Following this, you get to see the first island you will be playing. It is the First Age, and each age consists of 3 or more islands to win. You can choose to play the islands within the same age in any order, but you must win them all to progress to the next age.

Under the options menu here (shown below), you have the option to turn the sound off, although considering there is no music in this game and very little spot effects this seems a little pointless - but nonetheless the option is there! You can also save and load games from here, with multiple slots to save to. This is an improvement on Mega Lo Mania which would just give you a code you needed to write down to restore the game to the same point:

Once you click on Play Island, you then need to choose the number of people you want to start with on the island. This is the first part of the strategy since you are only given 150 people to use across all islands within the age you are playing. So for the easy islands using less people is better, but if you don't use enough, it takes too long to develop your people and you can be easily beaten by your opponent!

For those who played Mega Lo Mania on the Amiga a lot, you would know there was a bug in the original game which allowed you to decrease the number of people after selecting your location in the Island but before the game started! This is not present in Giga Lo Mania, so no cheating! You do need to select your location on the island - in this case there is only two locations, so your opponent takes the other one, but as the game progresses you get much larger islands.

This location decision is important because different locations in each island have different resources, which means that the optimum position for each island is not likely to be found the first time you play through it! Ok, location picked, we get the initial island view:

As per Mega Lo Mania, the controls for the game are on the left, and show the current era and tech level by the castle type and the man displayed. The globe icon, when clicked as below, allows you to use your people to invent new technologies to defend the castle and form armies. The technologies are split into Castle repair levels, Castle army defending technologies and Army technologies for fighting other people:

So first up I design a stick (the lowest tech), and assign the number of people I want to research it. As long as you have 2 or more people left over, they will continue to multiple the population slowly over time, allowing you to build an army.

While this tech research is happening the game continues in real time. You can only research one tech element at a time.

I can speed this process up by clicking the 1x icon to speed up 2x or 3x but beware of this since attacks can happen suddenly - simply change the speed back to 1x if this occurs:

Once the timer is counted down completely, the tech is researched and available for use. However, the number of the items you can allocate to the army you create is limited by the elements available in the island location you are in.

So next I select the building weapon icon so I can assign some people to use sticks to defend the castle from attack:

I can then place my defenders in the 4 vacant spots on the Castle. As the game progresses to later levels you have multiple buildings and must defend them all, requiring more people to do so:

Defenders all in place, ready for action. The red bar indicates the castle strength, which reduces when attacked by enemies. I also show my current element stocks on the left. These elements can not be increased - once they run out, that's it. You need to plan your army and attack strategies around the elements available. In larger islands you can move your people to another location, build another castle (which is automatic) as needed:

I continued to research more technologies, and advanced a tech level. It changes the castle type and colour, although I really wish we could have the original Mega Lo Mania samples for this bit. A hole appears in the island location to indicate additional elements have been found that can be mined:

Accordingly, I allocate some people to mine this element. As we extract quantities of this element, additional technology can be researched:

Ok, now it's time to create my army to beat the enemy:

Once I have chosen the number of people to use each weapon type (which is limited to the elements available to make the weapons), I can then deploy them, initially to my own location in the island:

I then can move the army to an adjacent location, as below. Please note that you can only move to the next location, so if the island is large, it is necessary to move multiple times to get where you want the army to go:

Let battle commence!

Here I have already destroyed the opponents castle and finishing off the remaining army:

I won, great! I still can play this game!

I will include some screenshots from the next island in sequence also, which has 4 locations:

I choose only 50 people this time, to make sure I have 60 remaining for the final island in the age:

The game commences again:

I am doing well here, time to take on the enemy:

I win again!

The last island in the era, and this game doesn't go so well for me! There are two enemies in this one:

When there are two or more enemies, it is important to make an alliance with one of them early in the game, to avoid them attacking you while you are building up your army and technologies:

You can see below I have made an alliance with the Green people:

Oh dear, the green people formed an alliance with Red instead....

And now they are attacking me and I am really not ready. I hastily relocate my people to build a new castle nearby:

I lost my castles in both sectors following the battle, but most of my army survived, so I moved on to attack one of the enemies to regain ground:

It didn't end well:

 

 

There is a lot more to the game and many more islands and era to explore, and lots of different technologies to research, getting onto planes and other high end weapons.

 

Giga Lo Mania is a lot of fun and reminds me fondly of playing Mega Lo Mania on the Classic Amiga. I just wish it had the voice samples from the original and some background music...the graphics are much better than the original, although they still need some work too as admitted by the author! It is free, so I guess I can't complain too much!

 

It is worth giving Giga Lo Mania a go!