April 15, 2004 - Cloanto released today version 6.0 of Amiga Forever, the Classic Amiga emulation, OS, connectivity and support suite officially licensed by the Amiga companies.
Amiga Forever is available in a downloadable Online Edition and
in a CD Edition which includes premium content of historical interest (all Amiga OS versions, gallery, videos, games) and KX Light. All versions of Amiga Forever include Amiga OS 1.3 and 3.X files and make it possible to run Classic Amiga software (including hundreds of legally downloadable games) on any PC, with special support for the Windows platform,
but also compatible with Mac OS X and GNU/Linux systems.
[MZ Note: Under Linux and MOL, this software adds compatability to a lot of older software, and includes many tools and utilities that are useful. (Need a legal copy of AmigaGuide.library anyone?)]
Amiga Forever 6.0 is a completely restructured package which took more than two years to complete. New features include:
- Preinstalled Amiga applications more than doubled (both in the 3.X and in the 1.3 environments)
- Support for hard disks larger than 4 GB, mouse wheel, AHI, MUI, etc.
- Built-in web browser, great for both "safe surfing" and for cross-browser web design testing (e.g. to see how your sites look without Java, Flash or ActiveX)
- CDs are now automounted in real time (includes CacheCDFS file system)
- Built-in CD audio player and media player
- New Amiga ROM and OS files (as in Amiga OS "3.5" and "3.9", but also historical items such as the Amiga 1000 boot ROM)
- New reference configurations (for A500, A1200, CDTV, CD32, etc.)
- More than 10 "First Demos" (Boing, Robo-City, Juggler, etc.) added to 1.3 environment
- More realistic emulation (e.g. floppy disk drive sound, which makes an unexpected big difference in perception, but also required the addition of a good old "noclick" utility
- New documentation (HTML shared by both Amiga and host OS)
- Amiga Explorer 6.0 software
- New launcher panel with one-click controls
- New Software Manager for easy emulation news and updates The CD Edition of Amiga Forever additionally includes the
following new features:
- Boot from CD option (featuring the KX Light GNU/Linux distribution)
- New Gallery section (includes 1985 Byte Magazine reprint)
- New high quality videos (includes Launch of Amiga New York event)
- New preinstalled games (Mindwalker, Ports of Call, Deluxe Galaga, etc.) (Please refer to the Amiga Forever web site for important additional information and screenshots.)
- Classic Amiga software compatibility is achieved by means of an Amiga hardware emulation layer (configurable to emulate different Amiga models and custom chip sets) and different versions of the original Amiga OS (not an emulation). The Amiga environment in turn relies on host operating system functionality to transparently enable modern features such as
up-to-date hardware drivers, virtual memory, WiFi networking,
DirectX technology, advanced power management, Serial ATA storage, etc.
Amiga Forever 6.0 is scheduled to be featured on 3sat TV's "neues" show, on April 17, at 18:30 (via Astra satellite), and at the Amiga Party in Maarssen, the Netherlands, also on April 17.
As always, the Amiga Forever Team at Cloanto would like to thank the Amiga Community for its support over these almost 20 years, which made this new version possible.
Amiga Forever Home Page
http://www.amigaforever.com
