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Demon Cleaner
22nd December 2010, 05:33
New version of Amiga Forever released.


New features in Amiga Forever 2011*:

* Multiple snapshots (saved states) per game
* Faster loading times (up to 10+ times faster than Amiga Forever 2010 on a system with 512 MB RAM)
* More than 100 usability improvements for a more refined and productive experience
* New user interface features to more easily swap disks, insert blank disks, grab screens, apply existing screenshots, etc.
* Enhanced integrated Workbench 1.3 and 3.X environments (new configuration settings, easy printing, etc.)
* New preset Amiga configurations, including CDTV and CD³² (seamlessly work with RP9 files, ISO/BIN/CUE images, and physical CD media)
* Extended RP9 format to support CD images (CDTV and CD³² content), embedded configuration tags and third-party editors
* Enhanced RetroPlatform Library (to recognize and configure games, etc.) with live updates
* Enhanced Export to Device functionality to save games to SD card, etc.
* Now Playing data for use by Skype, Messenger, Twitter and similar plugins
* New Gallery content
* New system ROMs (e.g. some versions that were unique to the Amiga 600 and Amiga 3000)
* Vastly improved, multithreaded content caching (no more "Building cache" or "Please wait" messages)
* Officially tested to comply with "Compatible with Windows 7" requirements, with full support for Windows Vista and Windows 7, both x86 and x64 (possibly still the first and only Windows software with custom-shaped glass-enabled skin)
* More...

Additional new and improved features that were already included in part in Amiga Forever 2009*:

* All included games and demoscene productions are now in RP9 format (uses less disk space and makes it very easy to add or remove files)
* RP9 Manager to scan for and import/export content
* Seamless, one-click integration of AmiKit and AmigaSYS add-ons lets you experience a broader variety of Amiga perspectives
* New system ROMs (e.g. the 0.7 Kickstart required to run the software used by Andy Warhol in the 1985 Launch of Amiga demo)
* Improved documentation and help (new Tip of The Day balloon, new documentation in Windows Help format)
* Emphasis on usability: interface and settings are improved, but remain consistent with the previous 2009 version and with C64 Forever (also see Tips for Upgraders)
* Content more than quadrupled (disk images are now compressed in the new RP9 format, and also used directly by the installer)
* New "Amiga Forever Game Pack I" (more than 100 games)
* More than 100 beautiful demoscene productions
* New Gallery items: original Tripos article, "top secret" Amiga-Atari documents, and much more
* New system HDFs: complete Amiga OS 1.3, 2.1 and 3.1 installations with only a minimum of add-ons (e.g. Y2K fixes, RTG update for 3.1), but otherwise identical to the original (including file attributes as intended by Commodore, which were lost in later distributions)
* New ADFs (1.3 Extras, complete 3.1 install set, etc.)
* New ROMs (Amiga 1000, A590 and A4091 boot ROMs, system-specific ROMs required for added compatibility, etc.)
* Preinstalled WHDLoad "kickemu" support
* New KX Light, bootable from CD and with HD installation option (now featuring live updates) and extended hardware support

Additional details about the player for Windows, which was also greatly improved in the new 2009 version:

* Revolutionary new and intuitive player interface for Windows, for easy selection and playback of games and other content
* Professional skin design with familiar "media player" interface
* Buttons and other visual controls provide intuitive access to content and emulation features (pause, resume, disk change, reboot, joystick vs. keyboard selection, window size selection, full screen, Amiga screen capture, etc.)
* The new Amiga Forever player makes it possible to double-click or drag-and-drop downloaded disk images (e.g. RP9, ADF, ADZ, etc.) to play them, using heuristic content analysis to preset a suitable Amiga hardware configuration
* The player has built-in support for dual screens (can use secondary display for full-screen Amiga) and multiple emulation sessions
* Rather than closing an emulation session, it is possible to save its state, for example to resume a game at a later time (the session is up and running again in an instant)
* It is also possible to undo the changes from the last session and revert to a previous saved state
* Full undo of RP9, ADF, ADZ, HDF and HDZ disk writes (disk changes may be committed or discarded when exiting the emulation)
* Windowed mode visualizes games and demoscene productions as they were meant to be displayed, without large unused overscan areas
* Helpful visualization of additional details (Amiga mouse options, device status with green/red read/write LEDs, context-specific help tips, Tip of the Day balloons, etc.)
* Integrated video playback (requires MPEG-2 support by the operating system, otherwise the Amiga Forever videos can be read by any DVD player)

* May indicate Plus Edition and Premium Edition Features. The Express Edition and Value Edition are limited to configurations that use the 1.3 ROM, and only include 50 games out of the box (which is still more than in previous versions of the software). Gallery items and KX Light support are included only in the Plus and Premium Edition. Video content is included only in the Premium Edition.

Features describing the "player" refer to the Windows version. Amiga content is also usable on other platforms, with additional software (both included and available for download elsewhere).

For their help during the development of Amiga Forever 2008 to 1010, special thanks to Amir Ansari, Robert Trevor Dickinson and Toni Wilen. See the Credits section in the Amiga Forever documentation for additional details.

Quick Buy

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Change Log

2012-12-20: Amiga Forever 2011 released. New features include multiple snapshots (saved states are saved as .rp9-snapshot files, and now also work with uncataloged content), faster loading times (even 10x and more on systems with 512 MB of RAM), reduced memory consumption, and numerous other improvements and internal changes in preparation of future features. Amiga Forever 2011 is a free update to all 2010 customers.The internal version is 2011.0.1.0.

2010-08-17: Amiga Explorer 2010.0.1.0 released. Fixes a bug that affected the right-click menu and the Properties dialog.

2010-08-06: Amiga Forever 2010.1.5.0 released. Fixes three crash conditions reported by users via WinQual submissions. Fixes bug that could lead to duplicate entries in a content list. Improves handling of RP9 files generated by third-party tools such as Simon Mathiassen´s RP9 Editor. Uses new image resize algorithms for better quality preview thumbnails. This is the 2010.1 "gold" update that also went on the new CD masters.

2010-07-31: Amiga Forever 2010.1.3.0 released. Includes performance and usability enhancements (mostly for power users working with thousands of content files).

2010-07-13: Amiga Forever 2010.1.0.0 released. Includes improved support for CDTV and CD32 disc images and physical CDs, improved caching (when working with large or numerous files), improved screen capture (saves as PNG instead of BMP) and autoresize on thumbnail drag-and-drop. Also features numerous other refinements and enhancements.

2010-05-14: Amiga Forever 2010 released. New features include improved user interface (disk change, etc.), support for new Open RP9 format and CDTV and CD³² disc images, enhanced Export to Device functionality, new system ROMs, seamless printing and other new settings in Tools/Options, and more. Customers who purchased the previous version on or after April 1st, 2010, have already been emailed with instructions to receive a free upgrade. An extra 5 dollar/euro shopping cart discount will be applied to upgrade orders placed until May 31, 2010. The internal version is 2010.0.0.0.

2010-05-07: Amiga Forever 2009.2 released. This is a free update to all 2009 versions. Solves some minor issues (automatic repair of deleted directories, broken drag and drop of PDF files into RP9, not all updates showing under Check for Updates, etc.) and introduces support for future RP9 file variants. The internal version is 2009.2.1.0. Includes new Software Director.

2010-05-03: Amiga Explorer 2010.0.0.0 released. This is a free update to all previous versions. Fixes crash if selected serial port is missing. Avoids reset of desktop icons on installation. The software is now shareware: registration is still appreciated, but there are no functional limitations in trial mode. Includes new Software Director.

2010-02-15: Amiga Explorer 2009.0.2.0 released. Minor update to Windows 9x compatibility layer. Includes new Software Director.

2009-11-20: Amiga Forever 2009.1.0.0 released. New features include Export to Device functionality in RP9 Manager and Now Playing data for use by Skype, Messenger, Twitter and similar plugins. Also added a button to add disk images in the manual configuration dialog (drag-and-drop was and remains possible). Includes new Software Director.

2009-11-10: Amiga Explorer 2009.0.1.0 released. Solves a bug whereby an existing Amiga Forever installation may require registration again after Amiga Explorer is installed. Includes new Software Director.

2009-09-24: Amiga Forever 2009.0.7.0 released. This version is able to detect and correct a condition where insufficient access privileges are set for the directory containing the cache files. This could have been caused by a bug in a previous Amiga Forever installer, resulting in the Games, Demoscene and Applications tabs not reflecting newly-added content on Windows Vista and Windows 7 systems.

2009-09-23: Amiga Forever 2009.0.6.0 released. This version passed the official "Compatible with Windows 7" logo test. It also improves detection of full-screen mode problems, adds a logging option to all emulation guests, improves cache behavior and performance on non-NTFS file systems, and solves a bug in the Value Edition (black window content on application startup).

2009-09-02: Amiga Forever 2009.0.5.0 released. This is mostly a bugfix release.

2009-08-15: Amiga Forever 2009.0.4.0 released. New features include a Rescan command in RP9 Manager, support for Windows 7 "Recent" jump lists, and improved handling of future updates. Updated Tip of the Day content, now also with mouse wheel navigation. An error condition that could involve the disk change commit and an issue affecting the proper installation of WHDLoad files were also resolved. Before selecting Check for Updates make sure that Software Director is up to date (self-updates are notified via a balloon, or may be checked in the Windows Control Panel).

2009-06-30: Amiga Forever 2009 released. New features include RetroPlatform Library with live updates, RP9 Manager to import and export content, one-click seamless AmiKit and AmigaSYS integration, original 1985 Launch of Amiga ROM, enhanced support for Windows 7 (both x86 and x64), and much more. Games and demos are now all RP9 (easy to add/remove). Customers who purchased the previous version on or after April 1st, 2009, have already been emailed with instructions to receive a free upgrade. The internal version is 2009.0.3.0.

http://www.amigaforever.com/

Harrison
22nd December 2010, 15:33
Good to see they are still working hard on this.

Have to wonder how much of the additions are thanks to the hard work of WinUAE development though, and not the AD team themselves. ;)

Still... a good package for any Amiga fan to own.

burns flipper
23rd December 2010, 11:49
Have to wonder how much of the additions are thanks to the hard work of WinUAE development though, and not the AD team themselves. ;)
I did think that myself.

Their interface seems quite interesting, and also the idea of pre-configured settings-per-game.

What's the R9 file format? Is it just a zipped ADF or something?

Phantom
29th December 2010, 13:26
Still... a good package for any Amiga fan to own.

I'm an Amiga fan, but I don't want (I prefer the real thing). :)

Demon Cleaner
29th December 2010, 13:39
Still... a good package for any Amiga fan to own.

I'm an Amiga fan, but I don't want (I prefer the real thing). :)

But it's quite interesting to have on f.ex. a notebook, it makes it portable, whereas the 'real thing' is limited to home use.

Phantom
29th December 2010, 13:40
That's a good point, but really no, thanks. :)

Harrison
30th December 2010, 14:27
That is a great point DC made. The only way to have a truly portable Amiga is emulation. And WinUAE is so good these days it does make it a good experience. And AROS is continuing development well and could mean a stable native Amiga OS on a notebook soon.