AMIGA CD32 Games Compilation Toolkit: create your own ultra-fast compilations!

[lennonlives]

My AMIGA CD32 Games Compilation Toolkit is finally completed! Get it below!

I assume everyone knows Gary's great CD32-200 compilation and its equally great derivatives. Although they are fine for what they are, there's always been a thing that has struck me about them: speed. They are painfully slow. It's a real turn-off to scroll through AGS at a snail's pace or to wait ages for the damn thing to boot up. So when I started out to create my own compilation toolkit, I made speed my main concern. What can I say? It worked out wonderfully. I stripped down the scripts as much as I could, delved into Amiga E and MagerValp's AGS source code to clean it up and improve it significantly, adding reasonable features. Gone is the limitation to 30 entries per list, gone is the slow scrolling, gone is the need to boot up the entire CD again after playing a game to pick the next. Believe me, you have no idea how fast it is

So what do you get?

* a heavily modified and improved custom version of AGS, now called AMS:
- optimized for the AMIGA CD32
- game list allows for an unlimited number of entries
- fast scrolling by 1 step using digital pad
- ultra-fast scrolling by 5 steps using shoulder buttons
- freely assignable data directories
- support for RAM disk caching to improve overall seek times considerably
- support for custom fonts
- improved 256 colour palette to make your screenshots look a little nicer

* a comfortable all-in-one solution for creating fast and slick AMIGA CD32 games compilations:
- low memory usage due to employing Wepl's wonderful WHDLoadCD32 and my own slimmed down scripts
- WHDLoad-installed games may be quit using the play/pause button on the AMIGA CD32 joypad, which will bring up AMS again: no need to get up from your couch anymore
- games may be run with or without RAD disk, depending on how much free memory they need: add or remove one simple line to your game's startup script and the disc does the rest
- fully automated scripts make creating your individual AMIGA CD32 games compilation a walk in the park
- fully preconfigured WinUAE-package containing all necessary files and two WinUAE configuration files: one for building and debugging the disc, another one for testing the finalized disc prior to burning

ISOCD and CDTV.TM have been removed from the package. I checked the license agreements of the other included programs, which are all free and should be fine to be bundled with the toolkit. No games have been included, but 127 predefined entries for AMS. Adding the respective games to the "Games" folder as explained in the manual will be enough to get some fast results.

The manual has seen several corrections and has been updated with additional information, e.g. where to get ISOCD and CDTV.TM legally and how to install them to get full functionality for the toolkit. It is highly recommended to read the manual prior to installing!

I'm sharing this package completely free of charge. All I'm asking for is to be credited for my work in your compilations.

Version 1.1 uploaded to the Zone!

Let me know what you think!

Cheers,

Lenny

Looking for the download? Check http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=43633 and have a look in 'App/Archive'

[Zetr0]

@lemonlives

This really is awesome stuff indeed,

and you know would take hardly any effort to get it to run on an Amiga1200 with a HDD

how fantastic is that?!

hell you could have DVD's of the stuff, if your miggy had a DVD reader of course

great stuff indeed lemonlives!!!!!

[DamienD]

Sounds very cool indeed lennonlives

You've obvioulsy put alot of hard work into this. Well done and am looking forward to trying out the finished product

[TCD]

Looks indeed really nice lennonlives
Will be nice to see a CD made with your tool

[lennonlives]

Thanks

It's lennon btw, not lemon

I use it on my two A1200s already. Really diggin' it.

However, I wonder what I am legally able to include in my toolkit. I would like to include ISOCD and CDTV.TM so the ISO can be created automatically. Do you know if this stuff is freeware now? What about games? Am I able to include games without getting into trouble or should I better leave them off?

[cosmicfrog]

here`s to expecting some new cd compilations for xmas

[Cammy]

FANTASTIC! Thank you so much for updating this awesome piece of software with so many much-needed features, I can't wait to start using it.

I was wondering, is it possible to run the menu in a NTSC resolution? I would like to make a compilation of games that work in NTSC for our North American friends, and for all the people who are buying those cheap, brand new NTSC CD32s on eBay.

Thank you again, and keep up the great work!

[viddi]

Great news.
I wanna try it!
Thanks lennonlives

[Fingerlickin_B]

Wow man, I really can't wait to try this!

You are a credit to the community making this available & I'm sure it took a lot of time & effort!

PZ.

[cane]

Sounds really interesting and useful, I'd love to test it a little bit.

[kriz]

great work !!!

[lennonlives]

It's done! Gonna write some instructions now.

Lads, I need your opinion on what I can legally include in the package.

What about some basic DOS tools such as Copy, Delete etc.? What about ISOCD and CDTV.TM? I can't include kickstart files, that's for sure. Do you know games that are freeware and can be included without doing something illegal?

Please help me out guys. I wanna get this thing outta the door

[Fingerlickin_B]

What about looking through the Public Domain games in Tosec?

I've got them if you want, but my internet connection is going down for up to 20 days starting tomorrow, so I'd have to post you a disc...which I'm quite happy to do, but it'll take ages to reach you

PZ.

[cosmicfrog]

if you want to be really safe you could write some simple dos comands in E copy and delete should be fairly simple

but to be sure we could do on some clarification as to which wb files we can distribute and which we can`t personally I`d do it exactly how you want it and see who complains and take according action

[Graham Humphrey]

DOS commands are fine to include, pretty much every PD/magazine disk used to include them back in the day.

[hit]

back2root has many games, which might legaly usable:
http://www.back2roots.org/Games/ADF-Games/

and here is something related to CDTV.TM:
http://www.cd32-allianz.de/entwickler/entwickler

"WICHTIG:
Bevor man aber sein CD³² Spiel kommerziell veröffentlichen will, muss man mit Amiga Inc. Kontakt wegen der Lizensierung aufnehmen!"

so not sure, about using "CDTV.TM", maybe its useable for non-commercial purposes, without asking for permission. i'm not sure. maybe you can contact the websites people, and ask them about legal issues.

[lennonlives]

Great! Keep your thoughts coming!

The toolkit is done. I've uploaded the manual to the Zone. I'm not going to share the toolkit unless we can be sure it's fine to do so.

I read your manual

WOW

Great work, thanks

But what happened if a game need to "write" (example High Score), since CD is read only ?

[lennonlives]

@Another World:

This is up to the slaves/games. WHDLoadCD32, which is used in my toolkit, ignores such commands. I think some slaves might support redirecting this data to the NVRAM, but I wouldn't count on it. Sure would make a great feature in future versions of WHDLoad!

[Dexther]

Is possibile to create this menù un amiga 1200 end hd ?
i'm are a amiga 1200 end my dream are a install this menù end pic to play on amiga 1200 ...
is possibile ?