AMIGA 500 OCS Version 2 Beta 3 - RELEASE CANDIDATE

Since about 1 month we are in the Beta phase for the upcoming release V2 of the Amiga 500 OCS core. A Beta phase only works, when people are testing, so I am super grateful that the community found bugs and contributed fixes. Please continue to do so and install and use this Beta 3/Release Candidate.

Beta 3 includes Beta 2 and here is what it brings compared to the above-mentioned Beta 1:

• Analog output was not able to show hi-res: Two gentlemen named Boris reported this issue on the same day. What a nice coincidence 🙂 The first Boris is Boris Schneider-Johne (aka @Kugelblitz360 on GitHub) and the other Boris is a gentlemen known as @realbobele on GitHub. Thanks to both. The GitHub issues closed are: https://github.com/sy2002/AExp/issues/36 and https://github.com/sy2002/AExp/issues/35

• Apidya hangs from ADF: Thanks to johey for reporting and fixing this. This was a general issue with certain games/demos so this fix in general improves the ADF (simulated disk) compatibility of the core: https://github.com/sy2002/AExp/issues/40

• Reset - sometimes even hard reset - does not reset HDMI out: This was a bit annoying - you sometimes needed to power-cycle your MEGA65 after pushing the reset button since the HDMI image went away after a reset: https://github.com/sy2002/AExp/issues/39

AI Disclosure: AExp is created using GenAI and embraces AI coding agents with a dedicated AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md in the GitHub repo.

Smaragd Dash 1.5 is out! 💎

A Boulder Dash style game for the MEGA65: dig through the caves, collect the emeralds, mind the boulders and reach the exit before time runs out.

Download: https://files.mega65.org/files/s/smaragd-dash-1_OeS5Zg.zip
Trailer: https://youtu.be/L9sqo3IKNZI

What's in it

• 56 caves: CWS Boulder Dash 1, 2 and 3 by clarkkent, each in five levels
  
• GDash's rules and all of its elements - its engine runs on the MEGA65
  
• Smooth scrolling, stereo music and sounds on two SIDs
  
• Help pages for every element (H on the title screen)
  
• A cave editor (E on the title screen): draw your own caves, try them at once, keep three games of your own

New in 1.5

• clarkkent's easier CWS 1 and 2: gentle first levels (fewer emeralds, more time), the fifth as hard as ever
  
• Acid speed on the editor's values page
  
• A falling wall now lands with a sound
  
• About 300 blocks free on the disk

How to start: copy smaragd-dash.d81 to the SD card, mount it as drive 8, RUN "SMARAGD DASH". Joystick in port 2, gamepad or cursor keys.
Got own caves on an older 1.x disk? cavekit.py upgrade old.d81 new.d81 moves them (and your high scores) over.

Source and manual: https://github.com/q4z1/MEGA65/tree/main/smaragd-dash

Made with the help of Claude (AI). Big thanks to clarkkent for the caves, graphics and testing - and to everyone who reported bugs! Feedback, especially from real hardware, is very welcome. 🙂

I decided its about time for a first version.

🖥️ z486MEGA65 v0.1-preview

• 64 MHz 486 + FPU, 64 MB RAM
• ET4000 SVGA, up to 1024×768
• Sound Blaster 16 + OPL3
• CD-ROM + CD audio
• IDE, floppy, mouse & joystick
• DOS + Windows 3.11

https://github.com/TiwazM/z486MEGA65/releases