Scene Digest  •  Jan – Apr 2026 Retro Scene Roundup Three months of news from IndieRetroNews & Aminet

The last three months have been exceptionally active across the retro scene. The Amiga dominated coverage — with arcade-quality ports and new releases landing almost weekly — while the C64 and MSX communities were far from quiet. Here’s the full picture from IndieRetroNews and Aminet.

▶ IndieRetroNews

Amiga    Games & Ports

Double Dragon AGA by JOTD is the biggest ongoing story. Legendary porter Jean-François Fabre is rebuilding the Amiga version from scratch to match the arcade original — a project many in the community consider long overdue, given the original Amiga port’s reputation as one of the worst conversions ever made. A significant WIP update dropped in April. Stunt Car Racer received a remarkable beta update by Vesuri, now running at a smooth 50/60fps on Amiga hardware — something the 1989 original never managed. Gravity Addict arrived as the first official update to the Gravity Force series in decades, produced with Galahad’s assistance and distributed as the coverdisk for Amiga Addict Issue 42. It includes new levels, fresh title screens, and updated menus. Arkamiga by Mainake Project is a solid Arkanoid clone bootable from ADF on a stock Amiga 500, with optional visual enhancements on AGA machines. Echodrome by PixelPlop won first place at AmiGameJam 2025 and was subsequently released publicly as v0.11, earning a perfect 5.0 rating on itch.io. Xeno Genesis, a previously unknown Amiga shoot-‘em-up, was recovered and preserved by the community. Zippy Race (MotoRace USA) received a public alpha from Modern Vintage Gamer, porting the top-down motorcycle arcade racer to Amiga 500.

C64    New Releases

Trenchangle by drmortalwombat is a tower defence game for PAL C64 systems, blending classic placement with modern progression mechanics and a tech-tree upgrade system. Crystian and the Lost Crystals by ntpr is a visually impressive solo-developed platform adventure with three detailed locations and over 60 enemies per area. Flat-Lane by youki06 is a Formula racing game in the spirit of early 1983–84 C64 titles, a lifelong dream project for its developer. The Secret of Monkey Island C64 project generated considerable excitement with early footage, and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo for C64/128 by RetroGL continued receiving updates through the period.

Multi-Platform    Big Remasters & Announcements

Defender of the Crown: The Legend Returns via Black Tower Basement and Nordcurrent Labs is the most significant commercial announcement of the period. The remaster ships with a Retro Mode preserving near-perfect Amiga authenticity, and a Classic Mode with a completely new visual identity and refined mechanics. Jetpac PC Remake by Langford Productions is a comprehensive rebuild of the 1983 ZX Spectrum classic, with three switchable graphic styles including the original Spectrum aesthetic. Rocketman for MSX1 via Renovatio is a physical release arriving June 2026 — rigid cardboard box, 24-page full-colour manual, two exclusive stickers. Five worlds, two difficulty modes, boss fights, and a save-code system. Renegade Reborn for Amstrad CPC is in development: a 6-level beat-‘em-up running at 25Hz with bosses on every stage. No release date yet.

▶ Aminet

game/    Notable Game Uploads

G-WARS (game/shoot, 14MB, OS3) — A Geometry Wars-inspired shooter for classic Amiga, appearing in both the February and March batches with updates. DTB — Dodge These Balls (game/actio, ADF, OS3) — A bootable PAL action game released in February. LCD Game Conversions — A substantial batch of Donkey Kong, Fire Attack, and Runaway LCD handheld conversions landed in February, each compiled for OS3, OS4, MorphOS, AROS, and WarpOS. KABOOMANIA Demo v1.3 (game/demo, 3.8MB, OCS/AGA) — A new game demo landing in the April batch. Norrland Demo (game/demo, OS3) — A Norrland-inspired Amiga game demo, available in standard and WHDLOAD versions, uploaded in mid-March. F1GP 2026 Carset (game/data) — Current-season data for the classic Amiga F1GP simulation.

dev/    Development Tools

REDPILLGameCreator received multiple updates across the three months (8.4MB → 8.7MB), remaining one of the most actively developed tools on Aminet. It supports AGA graphics and full OS3 compatibility. NodeAmiga (dev/lang, 445KB) — A JavaScript runtime for AmigaOS. MicroPython (dev/lang, 248KB) — A MicroPython interpreter for OS3. Both landed in the April batch. ACE-Basic (AmigaBasic Compiler Enhanced) was updated repeatedly across the period. Sevgi Engine, an open-source 2D video game engine for OS3, appeared in April alongside ygame, another open-source 2D AGA engine.

util/  &  driver/    System & Utilities

AmiSSL v5 landed in the April batch across OS3, OS4, and SDK editions — bringing a current OpenSSL implementation as an Amiga shared library, a significant security and networking upgrade. ANAIIS USB Stack was updated in March with expanded games controller support. SAGADriver also received a full driver package update in the same batch. ScummVM was updated across AGA 060 and RTG 060 variants in early February — bringing a current build of the cross-platform adventure engine to classic Amiga hardware. AmiArcadia, the Signetics-based machine emulator, was updated for OS3, OS4, and MorphOS in both February and March.

mags/    Community Magazines

What IFF? Issue 5.19 for April 2026 was uploaded in both full and lite editions, continuing the long-running Amiga community magazine’s unbroken run on Aminet.

Sources: indieretronews.com  •  aminet.net  •  amiga-news.de   |   Compiled by Future Retro Fusion  •  April 2026

== Step 0 — Backup (strongly recommended) ==
Before you begin:
# Backup your boot SD (FAT partition) contents (Emu68 files).
# Backup your Amiga system drive (or at least your Poseidon and DEVS/LIBS changes).
# If testing USB storage: test with a blank USB stick you don’t care about.

== Step 1 — Update Emu68 to 1.1 alpha.1 ==
# Download the correct Emu68 1.1 archive for your hardware from the Emu68 releases page.
# Extract the archive on your PC.
# Copy/replace the Emu68 boot files onto the **FAT(16/32) boot partition** of the SD card.
# Reinsert SD and boot Emu68.

‘'’Notes:”’
* Emu68 1.1 changes some package names (make sure you pick the correct one for your PiStorm family).
* Emu68 1.1 may require a newer VideoCore.card (see the Emu68 release notes in the release page).

== Step 2 — Confirm Poseidon 4.5 is installed ==
The xHCI driver is a **Poseidon v4.5** hardware driver.
# Open Trident (Poseidon preferences).
# Confirm Poseidon version is **4.5** (About/Version info).
# If you’re not on 4.5, install/update Poseidon first before proceeding.

== Step 3 — Install gic400.library (required) ==
# Download the latest **gic400.library** release from:
# https://github.com/rondoval/emu68-gic400-library/releases
# Copy **gic400.library** to:
#* ‘'’LIBS:”’
# Reboot your Amiga/Emu68 environment.

== Step 4 — Install xhci.device ==
# Download the latest **emu68-xhci-driver** release from:
# https://github.com/rondoval/emu68-xhci-driver/releases
# Extract the archive on your Amiga (or on PC and transfer the files over).
# Copy ‘'’xhci.device”’ to:
#* ‘'’DEVS:USBHardware/”’
# If the ‘'’DEVS:USBHardware”’ drawer does not exist, create it.

‘'’Why this location?”’
Poseidon hardware drivers are typically loaded from ‘'’DEVS:USBHardware”’ and referenced like:
DEVS:USBHardware/.device/

== Step 5 — Add/Enable the xHCI controller in Trident ==
# Open ‘'’Trident”’ (Poseidon prefs).
# Go to the section for ‘'’Hardware”’ / ‘'’Host Controllers”’ (wording varies).
# Choose ‘'’Add”’ (or similar).
# When prompted for driver/device:
#* Select ‘'’xhci.device”’
#* Set ‘'’Unit”’ to ‘'’0′'’ (typical default)
# Save changes.
# Use Trident’s ‘'’Restart Poseidon”’ / ‘'’Restart stack”’ option if available, otherwise reboot.

== Step 6 — Test safely ==
Start with low-risk devices first:
# Plug in a simple USB2 HID device (mouse/keyboard via dongle).
# Check Trident’s device tree: you should see a root hub and attached devices.
# Only after HID works, test storage with:
#* A spare USB stick you don’t care about
#* Read-only tests first (list files, verify checksums if possible)
# If you try USB3:
#* Plug a USB3 device directly into a blue USB3 port on the Pi 4B (no hub)
#* Expect limitations (USB3 hubs not supported yet)

== Known limitations (as of driver v2.0) ==
* The driver is experimental and can corrupt data.
* USB3 (SuperSpeed) support is limited:
** Works only for some devices directly connected to Pi 4B USB3 ports
** USB3 hubs are not supported
* CM4 and the Pi 4 OTG port are not supported (per repo README).

== Troubleshooting ==
=== xhci.device doesn’t appear in Trident ===
* Confirm you copied it to: ‘'’DEVS:USBHardware/xhci.device”’
* Confirm you are running Poseidon **4.5**
* Reboot after copying (don’t rely on hot-reload at first)

=== Trident/Poseidon can’t open the driver or crashes ===
* Confirm **gic400.library** exists in ‘'’LIBS:”’
* Confirm you are running **Emu68 1.1 alpha.1** (or 1.0.99)
* Confirm you are using **Raspberry Pi 4B** (VL805 xHCI controller)

=== Devices enumerate but storage is flaky ===
* This is expected for an experimental driver.
* Use different USB sticks, avoid hubs, try USB2 devices first.
* Avoid write tests on anything important.

== References ==
* Emu68 releases and release notes:
https://github.com/michalsc/Emu68/releases
* emu68-xhci-driver:
https://github.com/rondoval/emu68-xhci-driver
* emu68-xhci-driver releases:
https://github.com/rondoval/emu68-xhci-driver/releases
* gic400.library:
https://github.com/rondoval/emu68-gic400-library
* gic400.library releases:
https://github.com/rondoval/emu68-gic400-library/releases

Community Roundup · November 2025 – February 2026

The Amiga Scene:
Everything That Happened

A cross-source digest of the biggest news in classic Amiga gaming, homebrew development, hardware, and software — drawn from Indie Retro News, the English Amiga Board, Aminet, and the PiStorm/Emu68 project.

https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/