Games Master System V0.6B

TITLE

Games Master System (GMS)


VERSION

0.6B (Released 11 May 1997)


AUTHOR

Paul Manias (paul@ethos.co.nz)


DESCRIPTION

The Games Master System is a developers kit that is aimed at enhancing the
functionality of the Amiga OS, with emphasis on games programming.  It is
based on the Amiga shared library standard, so will work with any
programming language such as C, Assembler, E, Basic etc.

The system can be ported across to other platforms besides the Amiga, and
in future GMS programs could be run on other platforms without
recompilation (CPU's must match or they have to be emulated).

Here are just a few of the GMS features:

 - Fast blitter functions, including CPU assisted blitting.
 - Full sprite support.
 - In-built proportional fading functions.
 - Sound support, includes intelligent channel play-back.
 - Support for raster/copperlists with built-in special FX.
 - External structure and object pre-processing, allows user editing of
   program data.
 - Smart saving/loading of files, including auto de/packing.
 - Support for all kinds of input devices (joysticks, joypads etc).
 - A system debugger is provided.
 - A preference program that allows editing of things such as default
   screen dimensions, resolutions, mode promotion etc.
 - Multi-tasking and screen-switching is supported.

The system has a very modern design and includes full resource tracking and
safe task destruction features.  A debugger has been included which GMS
functions co-operate with, so there is no need for special patches or
debugging tools.  Functions are written with garbage protection features
and where possible, software based memory protection.  GMS can recover from
many programming errors that usually result in software failures.

Full documentation and 260k of example source in C, Assembler and E is
included within the archive.


NEW FEATURES

Some of the new features present in V0.6B are:

 - Transparent chunky 2 planar implemented.
 - Picture resizing/scaling for LoadPic().
 - IceBreaker (the GMS debugger) is now available and working.
 - GMSPrefs is available and working.
 - 24 bit colour as standard (no more 12 bit colours).
 - Compiled code will be compatible with 680x0 machines that do not have
   the Amiga hardware or the Amiga OS (eg Macs).
 - Full resource tracking.
 - Task destruction features - just press Left Amiga and Delete to
   automatically kill a GMS program.


SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

There are no must-have requirements, but an AGA Amiga is necessary for
about 5% of the demos.  KingCON or any other enhanced shell with a scroll
back buffer is desirable for running IceBreaker.


AVAILABILITY

GMS is available on all up to date Aminet sites, for example:

  ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/dev/misc/gms_dev.lha (460k)


PRICE

This beta version is free.


DISTRIBUTABILITY

The distribution of the Games Master System is limited to Aminet and may
not be redistributed without permission from the Author.  The Games Master
System is (c) Copyright 1996-1997 Paul Manias / DreamWorld Productions.

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