After a fractal lecture as a part of the computer graphics course at uni a friend of mine wrote a program in Delphi which interactively demonstrated how easy it is to construct interesting images by adjusting the fractal parameters. I liked the idea and thought that it would be great to have such a program written in Java 1.1 so that it would work in every Java aware browser.

Tree Fractal applet is the result of this idea. The archive contains complete source code, a jar archive with compiled classes and a html page for viewing in a browser.

TV-Logo is a program for displaying logotypes of TV stations. To use it you only need a plain Amiga (any Amiga will do, as long as it has KS 2.0 and a working floppy drive). Of course you'll also need a genlock to compose the Amiga output with the TV signal.

As you probably already noticed, the requirements are really low for such a program. Most similar programs need better Amigas and usually a hard disk, too. This program was designed to offer a simple solution to those who have smaller Amigas, but would still like to use them for such purposes. The program of course also works on better Amigas and can take use of hard disks, but these aren't required.

According to the low requirements, the program features are not exactly the best in comparison to other programs (these would result in bigger exe size and higher requirements), but still they offer enough to make the user happy.

The program offers easy switching among ten different source pictures for logotypes, ten preset logos (with specified size, RGB correction, position and ten different texts each (with configurable colour, size, font and style)) available at a touch of a button and several other useful features.

There probably isn't a computer user out there who hasn't heard of Java before. Well, people are certainly of different opinions about it but nobody can deny its (sort of) cross-platform nature and design for Internet.

The language is already shipped with many ready to use classes and every release has more of them. But still, there are some things which are needed often but programmers have to write them themselves. I have written classes for some of these tasks myself and you can download them from here for free.

CapturingCanvas3D (CapturingCanvas3D.zip (2.88 KB)): CapturingCanvas3D is an extension to the Canvas3D class which offers capabilities of JPEG image capturing in an easy way. The source is heavily based on the work of Peter Z. Kunszt from Dept of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore MD which can be found in the Java3D FAQ. I just made the API and class behavior more user friendly. Documentation is included in the source in javadoc format.

CLIArguments (CLIArguments.zip (1.54 KB)): CLIArguments performs the CLI arguments parsing for you. You just pass it the array of Strings with the arguments and use the provided methods to get the values the user entered. It's nothing fancy but it works fine for me. You can generate the documentation by using javadoc.

ImageLoader (ImageLoader.zip (1.36 KB)): Image loader transparently handles loading of images from the jar archives. You don't need to know about the Netscape incompatibilities and you don't have to take care of the image decoding yourself anymore. The class contains only the constructor and a method for obtaining the image, but that's all you really need. The documentation can be generated by using javadoc.

BallMaster is a puzzle game with a simple basic idea and (hopefully) addictive gameplay. It can be easily learned to play without long manuals and instructions.

It is based on an old game named Logical which works only on Amigas with 68000 processor and Kickstart 1.3. This game tries to bring its idea to newer Amiga hardware and also tries to extend the original game with some new ideas. To play it on Windows or other non-Amiga OS, an emulator is needed.

The game features are:

• OS friendly
• 256 colour AGA graphics
• 64 colour extra half bright ECS graphics
• 100 levels
• password access to every 5th level
• numerous game elements
• mouse controlled

I released the source code and all the developer material under the terms of GNU General Public Licence as I don't have time to work on the game any more. You are invited to download the source (written in Blitz Basic 2) and continue development yourself. Additional information can be found in the source archive.

Files available for download:

• BallMasterAGA.zip (1.41 MB) - BallMaster for AGA Amigas
• BallMasterECS.zip (934.27 KB) - BallMaster for ECS Amigas
• BallMasterSrc.zip (47.82 KB) - BallMaster GPL source code in Blitz Basic

Blitz Basic is a simple but powerful programming language for Amiga. At this time a version for Windows is also available but it unfortunately isn't be compatible on the source code level because of different libraries and design decisions. If you're still programming for Amiga in Blitz Basic, here are some routines and techniques which might be of use to you.

ActiveWindow (ActiveWindow.zip (12.32 KB)): This source code demonstrates how to open a window which automaticaly activates itself as long as its screen is the front one. The routine is particularily useful in cases where you open your own screen and a window on it which then receives all the events through IDCMP messages and also changes the pointer. By using this routine you can always know when your screen is the front one and you can activate the window without the user having to intervene.

BitmapPrint (BitmapPrint.zip (16.12 KB)): This is a function for printing text on any bitmap using standard intuition fonts. All font styles are supported and also the shadow and outline effects are available.

ScrollText (ScrollText.zip (45.56 KB)): This is a ready to use scrolling text routine. With it you can add a scrolling text to your program almost without any programming. The code can easily be modified to personal needs. A special font creator program along with an example is also included in the program.

ShapesFix (ShapesFix.zip (18.34 KB)): This archive contains two functions meant as a replacement for the buggy built-in commands CopyShape and Scale which trash the image when its size exceeds 32 KB. You can use these functions safely as long as the size of the single bitplane doesn't exceed 32 KB. In case it does you'll probably have to rewrite the blit functions, too.