E.M.M.A. (Emulated Machine, My Amiga) Pt5

NEW LOOK

Well, this is the final part. I'd got to the point where I just wanted to make it look pretty, so...

I've been working on the look and feel of my emulation and wanted an OS4.x feel which meant, for me, the place to start was with the icons and the obvious choice was Mason Icons of which there are a huge selection of OS4.x icons from ADPro to YAD and a lot in between, however there are gaps that need filling so I downloaded Icons Reworked and cha05e90 Icons. Using the all the releases from all three gave me most of the icons I needed, from system icons to software icons.

Loads of Icons and Many More Besides

For an OS3.x machine to be able to display OS4.x icons properly an updated version of icon.library is needed or else the icons appear corrupt.

Changing the icons  and adding a more colourful wallpaper allowed me to take E.M.M.A. from...

Initial Workbench 3.9 Before Tinkering

to...

Updated Workbench 3.9 After Tinkering

As you can see I have made it a little more colourful. I have used the Fire Ice Planet wallpaper, amended the dock to incorporate OS4.x icons, removed some of the apps I will use least, installed NoWinED and dock icon as my text editor of choice and even replaced AWeb with iBrowse, browser of choice, mainly due to the fact that I'm not keen on AWeb and I couldn't get Netsurf working.

I have nine application available on the dock:

1. iBrowse

iBrowse 2.4

2. Personal Paint

Personal Paint 7.2.1

3. AmigaAmp

AmigaAmp 2.11

4. Amiga Shell

Amiga Shell

5. DOpus

DOpus 4.17 pre 20

6. LhA-RAM

LhA-RAM

7. ScreenMode Prefs

ScreenMode Preferences

8. Input Prefs

Input Preferences

9. NoWinED

NoWinED 0.83

I can now turn on my laptop, E.M.M.A., on and it boots straight into a full screen, 1366x768 Workbench, omitting having to see Windows entirely. Unfortunately the boot time is quite excessive, over 1 minute, even having disabled most of the Windows software that used to start on bootup.

I have added some up to date datatypes and libraries and would like to make it look a lot more like my Sam440ep but I am unable to install the DeJaVu font which I use as my default workbench font and I also use it in my InTune program.

I can open Hollywood v7.0 and work on InTune, my music player, allowing me to get on and enjoy programming the Amiga way. I will hopefully, also, take a fresh look at my Star Trek database. 

Hollywood Running Just Fine

Showing My InTune Program Running

As you can see InTune is nowhere near complete. There's no playlist, not all MP3s load, seems to have some error when reading ID3 tags for artist on some MP3s.

I have to admit no matter how time consuming it is to do all I have done to get this far with E.M.M.A. I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute.

As an adendum I wanted to tell you all that I had intended on starting a new project M.A.R.I.E. (My Amiga Recreation In Emulation), I know a bit corny but still something I wanted to do but never got round to it, but there is always time. Just get all the bits together, a suitable laptop, most upto date Amiga Forever, a copy of AmigaOS4.1fe and any other bits I may need. Watch this space.

Michael

E.M.M.A. (Emulated Machine, My Amiga) Pt4

WHAT I REALISED

OK, so this is part 4 and we are close to the end of E.M.M.A. Keep in mind this was originally done in July od 2017 and a lot of improvements have been made to the emulation software.

Looking back at E.M.M.A. I realised I had raised the bar way too high, running OS4.1 Classic on an emulated PPC machine, for the specification of this laptop and that running Amiga OS3.9 would be a better choice for my needs.

What I Wish

The hope of booting straight into Amiga OS3.9 and being able to work on my Hollywood projects, InTune and Star Trek Database, while on the go.

Installation "Sort Of"

I decided to forgo the installation and setup descriptive process, as this has been written about on numerous occasions and on various website. Epsilon in December of 2015 wrote about the process of installing Amiga Forever 2016 and Guru Meditation has a YouTube video showing How to install OS4.1.

Step 1...

Installation of Amiga Forever 7 completed and when run for the first time we are greeted with the very familiar Amiga Forever Launcher and the first thing I did was create a copy of the Workbench 3.x system and rename it E.M.M.A. and change the date to 2017.

Amiga Forever 7 Launcher

Renaming My Configuration to E.M.M.A.

First E.M.M.A. Emulation Session

I know I will eventually be going full screen but thought, for now, I'd resize the screen to give me as much Workbench real estate without it disappearing behind the PC taskbar at the bottom.

ScreenMode Prefs

Right I now have it figured, If I change screen mode to 1366x768, which is the same resolution as E.M.M.A. and then select fullscreen then Amiga Forever takes up the whole screen.

Resizing With ScreenMode Prefs to 1366x768

Selecting Fullscreen

E.M.M.A. in All Her Glory

I am now very excited at how this is going. There are still many things to do. Need to have it boot into this, full screen Amiga Workbench and of course the look and which software to install, etc.

I'd like to say a huge thank you to M. C. Battilana for allowing me the use of Amiga Forever 7 on my pride and joy.

Let's see how far I can take this project, I'd like it to be known I am not trying to compete with A.L.I.C.E.

Michael

E.M.M.A. (Emulated Machine, My Amiga) Pt3

INSTALLING AMIGAOS4.1

I know, once I started on this journey I couldn't stop. I thought this needed repeating for all budding Amigas that want to be free of the home with their Amiga-ing. Below is just a small interlude as there is more to follow.

I don't really need to cover much about this as it has been documented many times under emulation and on native hardware so I will just comment on my experience setting up and the overall experience.

I will say I had a little problem when installing as the default window when installing was larger than my 14" Windows laptop resolution could cope with, I managed to get round this by installing Amiga Forever and then Installing AmigaOS4.1 on a laptop with a larger screen resolution.

Once OS4.1 was installed on my 15.6" laptop I could set the Workbench screenmode to one which would fit the 14" laptop which is 1366 x 768. Once the screenmode setting and the virtual HD and config file are saved they can then be copied to the new laptop and then when Amiga Forever is run and this config file and virtual HD are loaded then E.M.M.A. is up and running.

I am now able to run E.M.M.A. at virtually full screen, I have to take into account the taskbar of a Windows machine and also the titlebar on the Amiga Forever window and I get to run it at 1366 x 720 which is pretty good going.

I have a few issues that need to be addressed but as this is more time spent using Amiga Forever than I have ever done before I'm sure I'll get these sorted. There are also issues with the hardware choice but it's too late for that, for a start a 1.6ghz laptop is slow but usable, faster would be better.

I need to look into adding the PCs drives or directories, I know this is possible but it will take some investigation..

If there is one thing I have learnt from this process is that Amiga Forever is a very powerful piece of software that enables non Amiga PPC owning people to be able to get the experience without forking out for new hardware.

I can honestly say that without Amiga Forever I would not have been able to set up E.M.M.A.

Pricing

To get E.M.M.A. running it has cost me approx. £250.00, that includes the hardware, Amiga Forever and AmigaOS4.1 Classic, If I had spent another £100.00 on the laptop, this would have given me a 2.48ghz processor and therefore a smoother experience that is still only £350.00 which to me seems a very reasonable price to pay for an Amiga laptop.

Here's a simple question, would you buy E.M.M.A. for £350.00 if sold as a complete package?

I have enjoyed getting it to the stage I'm at and will continue to refine E.M.M.A. possibly try on a faster processor, use the laptops HD, possible larger screen modes and it would be nice to be able to boot straight into OS4.1 and not need to deal with Windows.

The End, or is it...

Michael

E.M.M.A. (Emulated Machine, My Amiga) Pt2

AMIGA FOREVER

I told you there would be more and here is part 2, this I first posted on Blitterwolf on 10th November of 2016 again I thought it worth sharing just to continue the story, there will be further parts to follow.

When people think of emulation they think annoying, time consuming, messing around with many configurations and downright frustration, none of this will be seen here thanks to Amiga Forever as this is the ideal software when it comes to emulation for Amigas on PCs.

It was probably going back to 2009 when I first got introduced to Amiga Forever and was hooked straight away, I have always had an keen interest in emulation of many systems from getting a small handheld Android machine and having it run C64 emulation all the way up to Amigas on PCs.

So onwards it is, I am using the latest incarnation which is Amiga Forever 2016 version, the installation is flawless and doesn't take too long. Once installed and run you are presented with the window shown below

Amiga Forever 2016 Player Window

In the systems tab shown above you will see listed all the Amiga models all the way from 1985 and the Amiga 1000 up to more modern versions from 2002 with Workbench 3.x. Options also include variants such as AmigaSYS, AmiKit and AROS.

For my purposes I will need a version of the Amiga 4000 so I right clicked on Amiga 4000 and I copied and renamed to AmigaOS 4.1fe.

At this point I remembered that my copy of AmigaOS4.1 for Classics would need to be registered on the Hyperion website, thankfully to take out more complication a downloadable version of the disk ISO is available here.

From this point on to carry on the configuration of Amiga Forever all I needed was the AmigaOS4.1 Emulation book, fully illustrated with brilliant step by step instructions.

So now I have a nice 14" laptop with a copy of Amiga Forever 2016 installed, I wonder what to do next...

To be continued...

Michael

AYN Odin 2 Mini

Well, I hit the jackpot a couple of days ago and took delivery of an Anbernic RG28XX and an AYN Odin 2 Mini Pro. On receiving these I thought I need to purchase a microSD card and so checked out Amazon an bought a Integral 1TB microSD card, this is of course for the Odin 2 Mini Pro, so now let me talk about it.

As always with AYN products the packaging was slick and beutiful.

Initial Box Opening

I Got the Black Version

First View of Android 12 on the Odin 2 Mini

Let's review some specifications, the original Odin 2 Max, the Odin 2 Mini Pro and the PS Vita as the PS Vita is a similar form factor:

	AYN Odin 2 Max	AYN Odin 2 Max	PS Vita
CPU	SD 8 Gen 2	SD 8 Gen 2	ARM Cortex A9
OS	Android 12	Android 12	System Software
Battery	8000mAh	5000mAh
Controls	Hall Sticks	Hall Sticks
Screen	6" IPS	5" MiniLED	5" OLED
Touch Screen	Yes	Yes	Yes Front & Back
Resolution	1920x1080p	1920x1080p	960x544
RAM	16GB LPDDR5x	12GB LPDDR5x	512MB
Storage	512GB UFS4.0	256GB UFS4.0
Ex Storage	microSD	microSD	PS Vita Card
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 7	Wi-Fi 7	Wi-Fi
Bluetooth	5.3	5.3	2.1 + EDR

So, there isn’t a great deal of difference when it comes to the internal specs from the Odin 2 Max to the Odin 2 Mini Pro. A smaller battery mainly due to the power consumption of the smaller size of the screen. The dimensions of the PS Vita compared to the AYN Odin 2 Mini are a little smaller but not by much. The AYN Odin 2 Mini is often referred to as the PS Vita we’ve always wanted and so what are the differences in the internals of the two, the hardware has come a long was in the last 12 years since the PS Vita was initially released.

I intend on using my Odin 2 Mini as a PlayStation handheld so I’ll have PSP, PS Vita, PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and if there is any space left on the 1tb microSD card possibly some PlayStation 3, so do I bother with RetroArch and a front end such as Daijisho for only 4 emulators or would I be best just using the stand-alone emulators PPSSPP for PSP, Vita3K for PS Vita, Duckstation (others are available) for PlayStation and NetherSX for PlayStation 2 and if possible RPCSX for PlayStation 3. I shall try the stand-alone emulators first and if these are acceptable, I’ll stick with them.

I believe higher end emulation such as Switch is possible but not what I’m aiming for on this handheld, something with a larger screen would probably suit better.

I love my Odin 2 and Odin 2 Portal, but longed for something a little more portable, they just seem a little big for gaming on the move which is what drew me to the Odin 2 Mini.

It has taken quite a long time to copy my ROM files over to the microSD card due to the amount of files and their sizes, I did get some PlayStation 3 files across but the sizes are quite large so only copies 6 games.

My first test was PPSSPP for PlayStation Portable emulation, running God of War which is one of the hardest PSP games to emulate but the speed at which it runs wasn't my first problem, the controls were as the left thumb-stick that was supposed to control Kratos was not working at all so a bit of key mapping from within PPSSPP and away we go but using mapping this way is not ideal and would be nice if it worked straight out of the box, but never mind, it works.

Duckstation for PlayStation emulation seemed to be a good choice but I had to make sure I had bios files or it wouldn't load any games, but once I had the bios file games worked OK, however, again the left thumb-stick wasn't working so more key-mapping needed and I had total control, I only tried a couple of games, Metal Slug X (USA) and F1 2000 (USA) both played absolutely fine.

NetherSX2 for PlayStation 2 emulation had the same issue as Duckstation and needed a PS2 bios file to even load a game and again key-mapping needed in order to control. Once keymapping done I tried Aeon Flux and Devil May Cry and both of these run smoothly.

RPCSX for PlayStation 3 emulation which didn't seem to need a bios file. I only had space for 5 games which were Uncharted 1, Uncharted 2, Uncharted 3, God of War Collection and God of War II. Some of the games got passed the menu screen before crashing and others just crashed.

Vita3K for PlayStation Vita emulation needed the most work to get running, having to download firmware and having to download a font package during setup both of which used to be accessible during setup however the font package link no longer worked but I could still install Vita3K. Once installed I tried installing a few .zip files which are the ROMS the few I installed worked and what was nice is that after installing it shows in the GUI which games are compatible using a traffic light system, guess what, more key-mapping needed.

Overall my PlayStation handheld console has not been a bad experience and of the emulators my favourite and easiest to set up was PPSSPP and needed the least tweaking. The more I spend using them and possibly a little more tweaking will make game playing a lot more enjoyable with all the emulators, it literally is whether you are willing to put in the time.

Some Googling, some setting tweaking and watching video setups and I'm sure the time will be well worth it. PlayStation 3 may be beyond Odin 2 Mini's capabilities or the games I tried, Uncharted series and God of War series, may just be too much for the emulator never mind the hardware and I will try some a little less power hungry.

For now I'll play with settings for a while and probably get back to you with a part 2 to let you know how I got on. If anyone has any suggestions on tweaks or settings then please don't hesitate to comment.

Michael

E.M.M.A. (Emulated Machine, My Amiga) Pt1

Hi all, now here is something I first posted on Blitterwolf on 7th November of 2016 but I thought it worth sharing again as it is still something I am passionate about, there will be further parts to follow.

I had initially thought of putting my Sam440ep board into a laptop case and having a native Amiga laptop, I posted on amigaworld.net on the 10th October 2016 looking for advice on weather anyone thought it possible.

It is now nearly one month on and I have decided that the idea was beyond my capabilities if at all possible.

I already had in my possession a copy of AmigaOS4.1fe Classic and a copy of Amiga Forever 2016 and also recently purchased the book AmigaOS4.1 Emulation (Complete Guide Not Just For Beginners) so all I needed was a laptop.

AmigaOS4.1fe Classic

Amiga Forever

AmigaOS 4.1 Emulation

Choosing the laptop was a bit time consuming, I needed one with a CD drive, don't want to mess with SD cards, cheap as my intention was to run it solely as an Amiga so didn't want to fork out a lot of money on a laptop with a 17 inch screen, 8gb of memory and 2tb hard drive. I found a nice 14 inch model with 4gb and 500mb hard drive and less than £250.00.

Preparing the Laptop

I was slightly mistaken that getting home with the laptop and then installing Amiga Forever, no that would be way too easy. I got home at 2pm yesterday got it charged and switched it on, it proceeded to install a couple of updates to Windows 10, when I say a couple I mean a couple of dozen as at 10:30pm it is just finishing the last update giving me just enough time to install Amiga Forever.

Now lets get Amiga Forever configured.

To be continued...

Michael

RETROID POCKET 5

What follows is not a review of the Retroid Pocket 5, as this console has been reviewed numerous times, but a case of how useful it was and how well if coped with my needs for the morning.

Retroid Pocket 5

I knew I would be out of the home for an extended period of time this morning so I wanted to have a distraction out with me, I wanted something portable but not necessarily pocketable so I chose my Retroid Pocket 5, which once in its official hard case would fit in my sling bag and luckily enough it just fits alongside a can of coke (just in case).

Retroid Earbuds

I knew I would be sat for quite some time and possibly surrounded by quite a few people so the hunt was on for some earbuds and as my Poounur ear buds were already in my sling bag they would do, I do have some official Retroid ear buds but I couldn't find them. I needed to pair my Poounur earbuds with my Retroid Pocket 5 and unfortunately that just wasn't working so I thought I'd have another look for my Retroid ear buds and strangely enough they were exactly where I thought they might be, under the sofa.

I wouldn't be playing games in the car even though I was the passenger as that would be rude, how could I sing along, badly, to the music in the car if I was trying to concentrate on the game it was only a short drive anyway. We arrived out our destination, sat down and I started playing "Nova" via the PPSSPP emulator and only played for about 5 minutes but had to stop, not because it was a bad game, a bad emulator or a bad console it's just I found myself feeling uncomfortable playing outside which i never thought would happen, I'm used to playing stupid little games on my phone which I can look up from on the odd occasion without losing track of where I was. “Nova” which is quite an emersion game and playing surrounded by people in a waiting room just seemed plain weird.

Could it be possible that a horizontal handheld, no matter how powerful or good looking like this is just not for me when I'm out and about, or could it be that I am just not used to playing outside the home and maybe something more the size of a Game Boy or a mobile phone would suit me better.

I might try a smaller device such as one of the Anbernic devices, some of which are Game Boy size, quite powerful and can play PSP games using the PPSSPP emulator and see how I feel using one of those.

I will have to try a vertical handheld next time, I have many to choose from, and see how I get on. I could also try a clamshell device, because if I remember rightly I never felt uncomfortable playing a Nintendo DS when I was out and about. I still have plenty of options for outside gaming to try and I'm sure I will find a console that suits my needs.

My advice for anyone wanting to game outside handheld consoles come in all shapes and sizes and what suits one person may not suit another.

Michael

NUMBER 70 (Approx.)

Well a rather unassuming box arrived a couple of days ago, apparently stating in an email I received that it had been handed to the resident (me), however I was at work at the time and once home I was informed by the neighbour that it had been left on the doorstep and they had taken it in.

No matter how unassuming the box was it had rather familiar words on the side in a rather familiar font "Made in China". I couldn't wait to open it but thought I should take some photos as I went along.

A Brown Box

The number 70 the title of this post refers to is number 70 in the collection of handheld consoles I own, most running Android, this one is a Retroid Pocket 4 Pro.

Retroid Pocket 4 Pro

Not only did the package include the Retroid Pocket 4 Pro but to my surprise it included a clear grip and a case.

Clear Grip

Case

Emulation is quite a big passion of mine and has been for many years, one of my favourite emulation experiences was E.M.M.A.(Emulated Machine, My Amiga) which I started in November of 2016. Other passions of mine are computers, consoles and handheld consoles the oldest of the handheld consoles is from 1981 (not an emulation machine though).

So back to number 70, the Retroid Pocket 4 Pro and the task of gaming emulation ahead of me and the Android 13 operating system that is on it, so I need a microSD card (which size) for game ROMS and it was at this point I started the search for a card and after a ten minute search I found an unused 512GB card.

Now to choose which systems will be best to emulate, no point in trying PS3 or Switch as these would be out of reach of the hardware and on the other end of the spectrum is Gameboy and Gameboy Colour these systems would be better suited to hardware with a lower specification.

My first thought is the Playstation series, so let's start there with the Playstation Portable (PSP), Playstation and Playstation 2. My collection of PSP ROMS are 128GB alone and Playstation ROMS are 232GB so no space for Playstation 2 so lets have a rethink. How about another handheld console for example my collection of Gameboy Advance games are 11.4GB so I'll put those on, my collection of Mega Drive (Genesis) are 723MB and has some good games so I'll throw those on, NEOGEO ROMS are 10.1GB, TurboGrafX ROMS are 341MB, Dreamcast ROMS are 36.5GB and SNES ROMS are 3.79GB, I think I'll call it quits at that.

I knew I didn't want to emulate any computers as most expect a keyboard which the Retroid Pocket 4 Pro doesn't have and a virtual on screen keyboard would have to be used which I'm not particularly keen on.

Console	Stand Alone	RetroArch Core
Playstation Portable	PPSSPP	PPSSPP
Playstation	Duckstation	SwanStation
Gameboy Advance	Pizza Boy	mGBA
Mega Drive (Genesis)	MD.emu	Genesis Plus GX
NeoGeo	FinalBurn Neo	Final Burn New
TurboGrafX	PCE.emu	Beetle PCE
Dreamcast	ReDream	Flycast
SNES	Snes9x EX+	Snes9x

Or I can use RetroArch which would cover all of the systems, I have used RetroArch on other handhelds so this is the route I will take, all my ROMS are saved on an external hard drive so all I have to do is attach this to my laptop and insert the microSD card into a card reader and copy the required folders from one to the other, rather time consuming but worth it.

Now over to my Retroid Pocket 4 Pro and insert the microSD card and turn on, now to install RetroArch, to do this we need to go to the RetroArch website and download from there as it's not available on PlayStore.

I'm going cheat a bit in my blog here and point you to an extremely good set up guide by Russ at Retro Game Corps which informs you of all the set up information you need from RetroArch through to individual emulators for consoles and computers.

Once RetroArch is setup you can access your ROMS from there but I prefer to have a graphical front end and there are plenty to choose from, such as Daijisho (Free), Emulation Station, Beacon Game Launcher, Plain Launcher (Free) and Reset Collection (Free), and my choice which is just my preference is Daijisho. Joey's Retro Handhelds has a great Daijisho Setup Guide and I would advise following this.

Hope this leads to some happy gaming for you out there and if you love Number 70 then you'll love the remaining 69 of which Number 1 is, chronologically, from 1989 which is my Atari Lynx.

Enjoy

Michael