Amiga Report Online Magazine #2.22 -- July 15, 1994
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International Online Magazine
"Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information."
Copyright 1994 Skynet Publications
All Rights Reserved
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%% July 21, 1994 \\// Issue No. 2.22 %%
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Table of Contents
Columns and Features News, Reviews, and More!
About AMIGA REPORT Staff, Copyright information
Dealer Directory Amiga Dealer Addresses and Numbers
Commercial Online Services Sign-Up Information
FTP Announcements New Files Available for FTP
AR Distribution Sites Where to get AMIGA REPORT
____________________________________________
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%%%%%%%%//%%%%%| Amiga Report International Online Magazine |%%%%%%%//%%%%%
%% \\// | Issue No. 2.22 July 21, 1994 | \\// %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%| "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" |%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|____________________________________________|
The Editor's Desk Amiga News Dealer Directory
Distribution BBS's Product Announcements CoverDisk Info
The Humor Department
SPECIAL FEATURES
Around the Coyote: An overview .............................Louis Jamie
Confusion in the Modules Scene ............................Pauli Porkka
compt.sys.amiga ..........................................Jason Compton
Project Fantasy? ..........................................Katie Nelson
RIP Commodore....................................Tom Halfhill, via BYTE
REVIEWS
Second Samurai ....................................Katie Nelson
Sunrize AD516 and Studio 16 .......................Neil Brewitt
Innocent Until Caught ............................Jason Compton
Video Creator ....................................Jason Compton
InfoChannel / Channel 4000 ..................Douglas Nakakihara
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%% DELPHI PORTAL FIDO INTERNET %%
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The Editor's Desk
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%% The Editor's Desk by Robert Niles %%
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First off.... My apologies to all of you. My host (Connected INC) had
some problems with USWest (our local telephone company). Apparently
USWest was supposed to cut a line to another city, and instead cut off
the line to Yakima ...and Yakima is where I live. SO! For almost 3 weeks
I was not able to log on. Thus, I wasn't able to get the news and
information to put out to you. We are working on a way to get this out
to you just in case this ever happens again, in hopes that AR will be
able to be published without interruption.
Last issue we had an article in that described problems with Creative
Computers, a mail order company. Apparently the problem described wasn't
the only one of that sort. Many readers wrote in and described more.
While I'm not here to judge Creative, or any other mail order company, I
do feel that you should be aware of what other people are experiencing.
I'm very much a subscriber of the saying, "The customer is always right"
and it really makes me wonder about the things I've heard about
Creative. I have placed some of the mail concerning Creative in the
Reader Mail section, including mail from Mark Manes of Scala.
News about C= ??? Nopers. Unfortunately. I was hoping for something but
in doing without, Jason Compton talked to Mr Fraser of C=, Canada ...and
the information from him seems quite uplifting.
OK, Ok, I'll get outta your face :)
Enjoy!!
Delphi
Table of Contents
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%% Delphi Internet Services -- Your Connection to the World! %%
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Amiga Report International Online Magazine and the Amiga Report Coverdisk
is available every week in the Amiga SIG on DELPHI. Amiga Report
readers are invited to join DELPHI and become a part of the friendly
community of Amiga enthusiasts there.
SIGNING UP WITH DELPHI
======================
Using a personal computer and modem, members worldwide access
DELPHI services via a local phone call
JOIN -- DELPHI
--------------
Via modem, dial up DELPHI at 1-800-695-4002
then...
When connected, press RETURN once or twice
and....
At Username: type JOINDELPHI and press RETURN,
At Password: type AMIGAUSER and press RETURN.
DELPHI's best plan is the 20/20 plan. It gives you 20 hours each month
for the low price of only $19.95! Additional hours are only $1.50 each!
This covers 1200, 2400 and even 9600 connections!
For more information, and details on other plans, call
DELPHI Member Services at 1-800-695-4005
SPECIAL FEATURES
----------------
Complete Internet connection -- Telnet, FTP, IRC, Gopher, E-Mail and more!
(Internet option is $3/month extra)
SIGs for all types of computers -- Amiga, IBM, Macintosh, Atari, etc.
An active Amiga SIG hosting conferances, Usenet, Latest wares, and
FTP Gopher coming soon
Large file databases!
SIGs for hobbies, video games, graphics, and more!
Business and world news, stock reports, etc.
Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia!
DELPHI - It's getting better all the time!
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%% The Amiga Report Staff %%
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Editor
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%% EDITOR %%
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Robert Niles
Portal: RNiles
FidoNet: 1:3407/103
Internet: rniles@hebron.connected.com
Fax: 509-248-5645
US Mail: P.O. Box 8041
Yakima, Wa 98908
Emulation Editor
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%% EMULATION EDITOR %%
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Jason Compton
Internet: jcompton@bbs.xnet.com
FAX: 708-741-0689
European Editor
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%% EUROPEAN EDITOR %%
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Jesper Juul
Internet: norjj@stud.hum.aau.dk
Contributing Editor
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%% CONTIBUTING EDITOR %%
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David Tiberio
Internet: dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu
Amiga Report Mailing List
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%% Amiga Report Maillist List, the WWW, and Aminet %%
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AR Mailing List
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No Official Amiga Report Distribution Site in your local calling area? Are
you tired of waiting for your local BBS or online service to get Amiga
Report each week? If so, have we got a deal for you!
If you have an internet mailing address, you can receive Amiga Report
in UUENCODED form each week as soon as the issue is released. To be put
on the list, send Email to rniles@hebron.connected.com. Your
account must be able to handle mail of any size to ensure an intact copy.
For example, many systems have a 100K limit on incoming messages.
Many thanks to PORTAL Communications for setting this service up for us!
P.S.: Please be sure to include your Email address in the text of your
request message, it makes adding it to the list much easier. Thanks!
** IMPORTANT NOTICE: PLEASE be certain your host can accept mail over
** 100K! We have had a lot of bouncebacks recently from systems with a
** 100K size limit for incoming mail. If we get a bounceback with your
** address in it, it will be removed from the list. Thanks!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
World Wide Web
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AR can also be read with Mosaic (in either AmigaGuide or html form).
Reading AmigaReport with Mosaic removes the necessity to download it.
It can also be read using programs found in UNIX sites such as LYNX.
Simply tell Mosaic to open the following URL:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/People/mjw/Computer/Amiga/AR/MainPage.html
Mosaic for the Amiga can be found on Aminet in directory comm/net, or
(using anonymous ftp) on max.physics.sunysb.edu
Mosaic for X, Macintosh(tm) and Microsoft Windows(tm) can be found on
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aminet
~~~~~~
To get Amiga Report from Aminet, simply FTP to any Aminet site, CD
to docs/mags. All the back issues are located there as well.
(ftp.cdrom.com or ftp.wustl.edu are two sites)
Amiga News
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%% Amiga News %%
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Taurus Ventures Inc. (TVi) Develops Amiga-Based Home-Banking System
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~
At a press conference today, VanCity Savings Credit Union, a major
Canadian financial institution, made it's first public announcement
of it's revolutionary new home-based banking system. Named "TeleView",
this system is aimed at the average VanCity member, and requires no
special computer knowledge to operate.
The system uses the Amiga CD32 CDROM console as it's host, as well as
custom GUI application software and a custom external modem developed
by TVi. The system is operated by a wireless infra-red remote control
unit (or the included CD32 game controller) and allows users to do a
variety of common financial transactions, including bill payment,
transfer of funds between accounts, up-to-the minute online account
statements and balances, and interest and investment rate queries.
Company Introduction
Taurus Ventures Incorporated ("TVi") is currently developing an easy-
to-use home-based banking system for VanCity Savings Credit Union,
the second fastest growing credit union in Canada.
Taurus Ventures brings to it's projects a combined experience of
30 man-years in the areas of software engineering and design,
authoring systems design, embedded systems, database management systems
development, games coding and porting, graphics and animation production,
and project management.
TVi is based in Burnaby, B.C. Canada, often referred to as "Silicon
Valley North" due to the large number of computer hardware and software
firms that the area has attracted.
Company Philosophy
TVi intends to be the preeminent producer of interactive GUI-based
applications. TVi offers a full-service approach to development, working
closely with the client from proof-of-concept demonstration system and
initial design specification to final production, manufacturing, support
and distribution.
Projects
TVi is currently developing an easy-to-use home banking system for
VanCity Savings Credit Union, a major Canadian credit union. "TeleView",
as this project has come to be known, is aimed at the the average
credit union member and requires no special knowledge to operate.
TeleView employs the AMIGA CD32 game console as it's host, combined
with custom software and hardware, and offers the credit union member
access to their banking functions via a graphical user interface.
The software resides on a CDROM, and uses the TVi Modem to call the
financial institution.
The AMIGA CD32 is an excellent delivery system for applications like
TeleView due to its amazing versatility. The CD32 achieves its
versatility due mainly to its custom chipset and the AmigaDOS true
multi-tasking operating system. The CD32 can play Audio CDs, CD32
or CDTV entertainment software, and with an optional Full-Motion Video
cartridge, it can play MPEG movies. When connected to the TVi Modem
and a standard phone line, the AMIGA CD32 becomes a versatile computer
appliance capable of doing telecommunications, home-banking, home-
shopping, multi-player gaming or any other use that requires information
to be sent or received from a remote site. The TVi Modem also includes
a built-in infra-red receiver for using wireless controllers.
Development
Taurus Ventures is a registered commercial hardware and software developer
for Commodore Business Machines, and uses AMIGA computers in virtually
all aspects of company operations.
Our close relationship with Commodore has grown even stronger due to
Commodore Canada's Western Regional Management sharing the same address.
This ensures that TVi stays abreast of all the latest AMIGA technology
and developer news. Commodore Canada has expressed the utmost confidence
in the success of both the TeleView software and the TVi Modem.
Software
The TeleView software was developed using the "C" language and TVi's
proprietary software libraries, "HKLib" and "MediaLib" which allow our
development team to rapidly create any variety of new application for
the CD32 or AMIGA computer platforms. TVi plans in the future to port
our libraries for use on PC, Mac, CD-i, or 3DO platforms. giving
Taurus Ventures a much stronger market advantage.
Hardware
The TVi Modem/InfraRed Receiver was developed by TVi's hardware
engineering team, and to the best of our knowledge is unique in the
AMIGA CD32 community. The TVi Modem/IR device has been granted
"Commodore Approved Product" status by Commodore International.
The Modem is an external 2400 baud Hayes compatible device, which
attaches to the CD32's auxilliary/keyboard port. It is small, light, and
compact and is styled to complement the CD32's case design.
The InfraRed Receiver will accept signals from the original CDTV Remote
Controller or can be adjusted to accept signals from a variety of third
party remote control units.
The TVi Modem/IR unit has a keyboard pass-through to accept text input
from a standard AMIGA keyboard while the modem is in use.
Contact Information:
For more information about Taurus Ventures or any of it's products,
please contact us at:
Taurus Ventures Inc. (TVi)
Suite 400 - 6400 Roberts St.
Burnaby, B.C.
V5G 4C9
Phone: (604) 298-5657
Fax: (604) 298-5658
=============================
Advanced Systems & Software announce 68060 accelerator
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Advanced Systems & Software announces their newest addition to the Amiga
community, despite Commodore's departure. The only 68060 accelerator
available and announced for the A4000. This is not vapor ware, we have
it running at 82 MIPs, to be faster by release in August and 28 MFLOPS.
Compare that to a stock A4000 that runs at 28 MIPs and 16 MFLOPs. As one
reviewer said when he saw it in Europe, "I have seen the future." In
addition to this accelerator will be a module that attaches containing a
FAST SCSI-II interface, high speed serial ports and Ethernet controller.
Enter the future NOW.
Contact Advanced Systems & Software here in the Amiga vendor forum, at
CompuServe 71154.1731 or at voice 214-821-7776 or fax 821-3464.
=============================
GTI acquires CDx File System Rights from Xetec INC
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GTI Grenville Trading International GmbH of Oberursel, Germany is pleased
to announce that they have acquired with immediate effect the world-wide
copyright and marketing rights to the CDx File System from Xetec Inc.
All distribution, customer support and future development of the product
will be handled directly by GTI in Germany. A number of enhancements to
the product are currently being considered and will be announced in the
future.
All registered CDx users are welcome to take advantage of the GTI CDx
Hotline. German speakers please call (Germany) + 49 6171 - 78066. English
speakers please contact by FAX on + 49 6171 8302 or by mail (address
below).
Existing dealers will be receiving mail from us in the next few weeks but
are welcome to call our dealer hotline on + 49 6171 85937 (English or
German - FAX number as above).
GTI is Germany's leading specialist distributor of Amiga CD-ROM & Amiga
CD32 software and peripherals and is proud to offer dealers worldwide
the very latest in Amiga CD tecnology.
GTI Grenville Trading International GmbH
Zimmersmuhlenweg 73
61440 OBERURSEL, Germany.
=============================
CASIO INTRODUCES "PERSONAL VIDEO PRINTER" AT CES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
INNOVATION PRODUCES CARD-SIZE COLOR PRINTS OF IMAGES
RIGHT OFF YOUR TELEVISION SCREEN
CHICAGO, June 24--A new Personal Video Printer, Model "VG-100", was
introduced at a special press conference held here during the Summer
Consumer Electronics Show. This latest Casio innovation has the ability
to produce card-size color prints of home movies or any images that
appear on your TV screen.
The "VG-100" incorporates Casio's original new color printing technology
called Point Diffusion (PD) transfer printing. The "VG-100" will be
available in November and it is expected to sell in the marketplace for
under $600.
According to John J. McDonald, President of Casio, Inc., the Dover, NJ-
based consumer electronics company, video equipment such as cameras,
video cassete recorders and TV games are common to most households
around the world. And, more recently, multimedia equipment is becoming
very popular. This technology has generated a great deal of public
interest in a video printer that is capable of producing color prints of
images that appear on the TV screen.
"The introduction of this new color printing technology called Point
Diffusion (PD) will offer consumers the same technology as the
commercial industry at an affordable price," said Mr. McDonald. He
continued to say that the "VG-100" offers for the first time to the
consumer high quality, high definition and long lasting color prints
from their own home movies.
The Point Diffusion (PD) transfer printing system of the new "VG-100"
Personal Video Printer controls the size of each dot making up the image
to produce color prints of outstanding resolution. The "VG-100" is the
first household video printer with a built-in transfer color print system
that transfers images directly onto the paper using the hot melt thermal
transfer printing system. The result is high-precision, high-resolution
prints at an affordable price.
Connect the "VG-100" to a video tape deck and print images from the
tape as it plays back. Or you can print directly from a television
broadcast you have tuned into a VCR. The printing procedure is quick
and easy, and prints can be used as stickers and cards.
The "VG-100" features include:
-Beautiful and clear color prints of video images.
-Printed images that do not become dull or faded even after long-term
storage.
-An affordable price that is less than existing video printers.
-Card size paper that can be used as a sticker to affix almost anywhere.
-Enlargement function that can blow up an image for printing on two
to 36 cards.
-A reduction function that can print from two to eight images on a single
card.
-Picture-in-picture display that lets you specify an image for printing
while you continue to view a TV show.
-Lightweight, compact design requires little space (7.8 in x 3.5 in.,
approx. 5.5 lb)
According to Casio, the "VG-100" is designed to broaden sales by making
video images available to general consumers who own VCRs and video
cameras and who wanted the capability to print right off the TV screen.
Prior to the introduction of the "VG-100", most of the products in the
marketplace were for industrial use, due mainly to the cost and the
complexity of the equipment.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are selected excerpts from Casio's VG-100 tech sheet.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Specifications
Print System: Point diffusion transfer print system (PD System)
Color Gradations: 128
Colors: 2,090,000
Dots: 499x682 (210 DPI equivalent)
Print Speed: 45 seconds/page
Print Size: 2.1 in x 3.4 in (card size)
Paper size: 2.9 in x 5.1 in
Types of Printing: 13
Standard (4 types: landscape, portrait, framed landscape, framed
portrait)
Reduced (4 types: 1/2 horizontal, 1/4 horizontal, 1/8 horizontal, 1/8
vertical)
Enlarged (5 types: 2,4,8,20,36-card)
Paper Feed: Manual
Output Modes: Live signal, Still, Picture-in-Picture
Memory: Two screens
Other: Trimming function
Input/Output: VIDEO IN/OUT (RCA pin jack)
Power Supply: AC adaptor
Power Consumption: 29W
Dimensions: 7.8 in x 3.5 in x 9.8 in
Weight: Approx. 5.5 lb.
Included: AC adaptor, video cable, wireless remote controller, standard
paper 50 sheets, 1 ink ribbon
Supplies: Standard paper (50 pcs), Sticker paper (R) (50pcs.), Sticker
paper (L) (50 pcs), Stamp-size sticker paper (1/8) (50 pcs), Video index
label paper (50 pcs)
Contact: Pat Carrasco
(201)361-5400 ext. 439
or
Gary E. Johnson
Public Relations
(201) 887-3500
=============================
Animation Contest 94
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We are accepting submissions for 2-D and 3-D original
animations to be used in a video tape distributed worldwide. This
tape gives animators from all over the world the opportunity to
advertise their talent and show their work to the rest of the world.
Computer hardware and software will be awarded as prizes to the
winners of this contest. Prize winners will be determined by a
select board of industry professionals. The entries will be judged
on: originality, creativity, and use of equipment available.
Submissions DO NOT have to be broadcast quality. In fact, we
encourage ANYONE with the ability to get their animations to tape,
to enter this contest. Animations done on ANY computer using ANY
software will be accepted.
All persons with submissions accepted will have the
opportunity to have their Name, Studio Name, and Phone Number
(if requested) advertised in the credits at the end of the tape,
FREE of charge. A number will be assigned to each entry and shown
on screen while his/her animation is playing. This number
corresponds to their name in the credits. This gives anyone
purchasing this tape the ability to find an animator for
their projects fast and easily, i.e. Advertising Agencies,
Video Productions Companies, etc. as well as other animators
looking for help on projects or to trade ideas.
The tape will include 100's of entries from all over the
world. Animations will be categorized into many different Style
and Computer-Type categories and scored to an original soundtrack
for those animations that do not include one.
* Deadline for contest acceptance is OCT 14, 1994 *
The Animation Contest 94 Video Tape will be available for
purchase before Christmas time 1994. It will be available in all
Television Standards i.e. NTSC, PAL, SECAM, etc.
Retail price will be U.S. $24.95 + S&H
or
U.S. $14.95 + S&H for pre-orders before OCT 14, 1994
Anyone whos animation appears on the finished tape
will receive a special discount.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
For more information and contest rules, send one (1) self-addressed
stamped envelope to:
ANIM CONTEST
PO BOX 9839
Fresno, CA. 93794 U.S.A.
or call:
* Internet address: mquaschn@mondrian.CSUFresno.EDU
* BBS: (209) 447-0365 U.S.A.
(Logon: ANIM PW: Contest)
* Voice: (209) 277-1188 U.S.A.
P.S. Please e-mail any questions or suggestions to one of the
addresses above, not to where you are reading this. This message
is being posted in many areas and chances are we will never get your
message unless it goes to one of these locations.
=============================
Virtual Online University is For Real!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Virtual Online University, Inc. (VOU) announces beginning
classes on the Internet in September 1994. VOU was founded in April 1994,
and incorporated as a non-profit educational organization in June to
provide a novel approach to alternative education by offering fully
online, accredited distance learning using the Internet. The goal of VOU
is to provide low cost, high quality education and training.
Current offerings include an accredited Liberal Arts degree
program, emphasizing numeracy, literacy and critical thinking as
components of its interdisciplinary approach to distance education. Future
offerings will include post-graduate programs, anticipated to begin during
the second half of 1995. VOU has temporary space at (telnet)
falcon.cit.cornell.edu 8888 and is seeking permanent server space prior to
beginning classes in September.
According to Dr. William Painter, Executive Director, VOU will
"...target two primary audiences: first, current college and university
students in traditional education paths who wish to broaden their
opportunities with online education; and second is the non-traditional,
learning-disenfranchised person, that is, individuals who have limited
access to traditional education due to financial restrictions, physical
challenges, being part of at-risk populations, or with responsibilities
which preclude pursuing traditional educational paths."
The corporate mission statement of Virtual Online University is:
- to provide low-cost, high quality education;
- to offer distance education using interactive, interdisciplinary
methods outside of traditional learning paths;
- to assist traditional and non-traditional learners in furthering
their educational objectives;
- to form working relationships within business and industry to
provide students with valuable hands-on experience to supplement a liberal
arts education;
- to conduct research and provide a practical forum for
investigation of online environments and applications in distance
education, telecommunications and electronic delivery systems.
Virtual Online University operates within a Virtual Education
Environment using Multiuser Object-Oriented environment database software
(a MOO). Some MOOs are programmed as virtual cities and research centers,
others as educational environments. VOU will use various MOOs as online
virtual campuses, including a "traditionally designed" university campus
and one designed as an orbiting space station in Geosynchronous Earth
Orbit. Others are currently in planning, including an undersea
environment.
Contact:
Robert Donnelly
donnelly@coyote.csusm.edu
Dr. William Painter
wpainter@bigcat.missouri.edu
Reader Mail
Table of Contents
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%% Reader Mail %%
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[Ed's Note: Here are a few replies about Creative Computing that I have]
[received. ]
From: manes@DGS.dgsys.com (Mark Manes)
Apparently-To: rniles@hebron.connected.com
I was just reading the recent AmiReport and read with interest the
article about Creative Computers. I thought AmiReport would like to
know that Scala has had a very hard time with this mail order outfit.
Currently Creative Computers is selling the A3000/P package of
Scala MM200. This package was part of the 'free Scala' bundle included
in a Commodore promotion several years ago. The packaging is marked
as "Not for resale" etc.
It should be noted that this package will NOT work properly under
AmigaDOS 2.1 or AmigaDOS 3.x. The only upgrade that is available
is to Scala MM300 via Creative Equipment.
Users are advised to not purchase this product from Creative Computers.
Mark D. Manes
Applications Engineer
Scala Inc.
===============
From: Scott Hansen <HANSEN@Eisner.DECUS.Org>
Subject: Creative Computers Horror Story
To: rniles@hebron.connected.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: *** CREATIVE COMPUTERS LIE THROUGH THEIR TEETH ***
Message-ID: <13JUN199416283571@eisner.decus.org>
From: hansen@eisner.decus.org (Scott Hansen)
Date: 13 Jun 1994 16:28 -0400
This is a warning to all interested parties that CREATIVE COMPUTERS of
Torrance, California, sells their products by telling BALD-FACED LIES
about features and functionality. I certainly will never do business
with them again and I felt that everybody should be aware of their
business practices. Here's what happened:
Short version:
Prior to ordering a software product, I asked very specifically whether or
not the product contained certain functionality, and I received assurances
that it did. I bought it, and the product does _NOT_ do what they
promised. CREATIVE COMPUTERS themselves later confirmed this. Despite
the prior promises, they refuse to accept a return. I am now pursuing
recourse through VISA.
Long version:
I recently bought (not from CREATIVE COMPUTERS) a Power Point high density
external floppy drive for my Amiga 1200. It works great, except for the
fact that the utility I was using for backups (HDBackup, it came installed
on the 1200 when I bought it) did not take advantage of the high density
feature of the drive. It uses the drive ok, it just writes to the floppy
in its standard double-density proprietary format. Anyway, since I now
have this high density capability, I thought (silly me) that it would be
nice to have a backup utility that ACTUALLY USED the high densityness of
the drive. So I read old reviews of backup products and proceeded to call
CREATIVE COMPUTERS to ask them about two products, Ami-Back and
Quarterback. I spoke to a sales-type by the name of JIM HOUSKA, who
assured me in no uncertain terms that Ami-Back does not use the high
density feature of the drive (it turns out it actually does), and that
Quarterback does absolutely write in high density with the Power Point
drive (it turns out it doesn't) and is also the best backup product in
the Known Universe. So I ordered Quarterback (unaware that its maker,
Central Coast Software / New Horizons, was in the midst of going out of
business). Not only does Quarterback not write the floppies in high
density, it absolutely will _NOT_ write to a HD floppy in the HD drive
at all in any density. It will write to a DD floppy in the HD drive, and
it will write to a HD floppy in the DD drive, but with a HD floppy in the
HD drive the entire backup bombs right out.
So I called CREATIVE COMPUTERS, explained the problem and asked for a
Return Authorization number and a refund. No, I was told, but thanks for
asking. They actually confirmed that my results were in fact the truth;
the blasted thing didn't work, no way, no how. I spoke to Jim Houska, the
sales guy who got me into this. I spoke to "Veronica C.", who would not
give her last name. I TRIED to speak to Veronica's manager, "Bill M."
(Veronica wouldn't give me his name, either), but Bill doesn't answer his
phone and doesn't respond to his voice mail. Jim Houska freely admitted
that he had promised me the thing would work ("I really thought it would,
honest", he said). But no, I could not have a refund. I explained to
them that since I had purchased this thing with VISA, I had certain
rights, and that I would pursue a refund through VISA. They seem a bit
confused by this, but didn't change their minds.
So I packed the thing up in mint condition and sent it to their return
department by U.S. Mail with RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED, together with a
letter requesting a refund. I later received the Return Receipt, proof
that they accepted delivery. A few days ago, I received the package back
(they had obviously opened it), marked "Delivery Refused - Return to
Sender". Without re-opening it, I returned it to the U.S. Post Office
together with the signed Return Receipt, and the U.S. Postal Service
happily accepted it for return to CREATIVE COMPUTERS. I am now in
process of having VISA issue a charge back against CREATIVE.
CREATIVE COMPUTERS WILL LOSE THIS DISPUTE! I WILL GET MY MONEY
BACK
THROUGH VISA. Why they even bother to try this type of tactic is beyond
me. There are regulations, I do have rights to protect me against such
thieves, and they will lose. They are not being very "creative" if you
ask me. What is obvious is that they have only one objective: sell
product at all costs and by any means, even if it involves lying. They
have lost at least one customer, and I would advise all you to stay away
from them.
Scott Hansen
hansen@eisner.decus.org
=================
From: Wicki@cup.portal.com
To: rniles@hebron.connected.com
Subject: Creative Computers
Sooo... How about those Creative Computer guys.. Gotta love 'em :-/
example #1:
Ordered Pagestream 2.2 (upgradable) months and months ago. I've forgotten
when Kept checking, they said it was on the way. Finally 2 weeks ago I got a
letter (believe it?) that said that it was finally cancelled. I called to find
out where my refund was (I paid by check) and they said I had to send back
"the paper" with either the refund or credit box checked. I received no such
"paper". I still haven't seen my refund.
example #2:
To avoid the check-caching hassles, I had a friend of mine order a Bernoulli
150 external. Well, aobout 2 or 3 weeks later, I received a box in the mail,
but when I opened it, it contained a SyQuest 105. Not even the right form-
factor. Anyway, I called them back for a return authorization number, which
they did give me. I mailed off the SyQuest US Mail insured (the only method
available here on Guam) the same day I had to return my A1230-II to AmigaMan
for modification by GVP. AmigaMan received the package in 6 days; Creative
says they still haven't received it. Yeah. I've had to call 6 times to check
if they've received the SyQuest yet, but every time I call I have to
completely re-explain the story, at about $1 a minute for the call. Every
single time they give some excuse for why there is nobody in the receiving
department. Only once have they faxed me back with a negative answer (with
the return address from Mac Mall, no less)
I'll be willing to bet that either they misplaced the package (I'm tracing
it now) or better yet, they gave the return credit to Ichiro Matsubara,
whose Mac Mall receipt was _also_ in the same package that was sent to me
with the proper item description on it. They won't even partially credit my
friend's credit card with the difference in price between the $595 Bernoulli
and the $399 SyQuest drive.
Every single member of my computer club has a Creative Computers horry story
as well.
SSgt Robert C. Nowicki
vice-president Guam Amiga User's Group Enthusiasts (GAUGE)
wicki@cup.portal.com
==============
From: g.goldberg3@genie.geis.com
Received: by relay2.geis.com
(1.37.109.10G/15.6) id AA035979307; Mon, 11 Jul 1994 23:28:28 GMT
Message-Id: <199407112328.AA035979307@relay2.geis.com>
Date: Sun, 10 Jul 94 20:28:00 UTC
To: rniles@hebron.connected.com
Subject: Creative! What about GVP?!
X-Genie-Id: 6671766
X-Genie-From: G.GOLDBERG3
Status: RO
I've had few problems with Creative except them also being out of
all their good bargains right after I receive my Amiga World.
But GVP! They just don't care if you're not a company.
I ordered the A530 just after it came out. It wouldn't install
correctly, even with a developer helping me. I returned it.
Oh, I forget: this was an upgrade of their HD for the A500.
THAT wonder failed after 3 months (the fan died).
Anyway, I had to return the A530 3 times in the first few months.
Each time the RAM jumpers were set wrong.
Last summer the '030 chip died. As always, it takes time to get
through to them and convince them that you're not a complete idiot.
Anyway, they sent me a new one.
Contrast this with the dying Progressive Peripherals last September:
I thought I had a problem with their '040 board for my A2000.
They estimated it'd cost $50-$200 and take 3 weeks. Well, it took
exactly 3 weeks, they replaced a chip (not the '040) on the board,
and didn't charge me!
compt.sys.amiga
Table of Contents
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% compt.sys.amiga by Jason Compton %%
%% Chat with Mr Fraser, C= Canada jcompton@bbs.xnet.com %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
I had a chat recently with Duncan Fraser, Regional Manager of Commodore
Canada's Western operations.
It was a beautiful day outside and Duncan would have rather been golfing,
but he talked to me anyway.
I had received his card in the information packed on TeleView (more on
that later) and been surprised, to say the least. Commodore? Working
closely not only with a developer, but with a large financial institution
and telephone service provider? Not COMMODORE.
Yes, Commodore. In fact, as Duncan would point out a split second after I
compared his business card to the president of TVI (the developer
responsible for TeleView), they've GOT THE SAME ADDRESS!
Commodore Canada West lives with a developer. Wild, eh?
Apparently, it's not too much of a distraction and makes things easier.
Anyway, back to the story. I was dying to talk to him: after all, this
was a real business card from a real Commodore employee. I read through
the promo material and something caught my eye: VanCity, the credit union
that's the largest in Canada and the home of the TeleView project, would
consider hooking all of its 200,000+ members up to the system, using
CD32s. The question on my mind, the premise for my call, was "Can you
REALLY provide 200,000 CD32s?"
Dial the number. Ring ring. Then...something happened!
"Commodore."
Somebody ANSWERED THE PHONE! A real live phone-answering person
answered the phone! Slightly stunned, I managed to choke out that I
wanted to speak with Duncan Fraser. The receptionist informed me that he
was busy. I identified myself to leave a message, and then she said, "Oh,
well, you must be calling long distance. I'll go get him."
Unbelievable! Of course, at the same time, I was wondering if her
motivation wasn't to cut costs by eliminating the need to call me back,
but...
Ah, but who cares! The acting editor of Amiga Report was important enough
to speak to a live Commodore bigwig. This excites me because while UK
residents have David Pleasance to reassure them in monthly Amiga magazine
columns that all is as good as it can get, American users have never been
quite so lucky. Even with Dr. Kittell from C= Germany around on the net
to talk with, at home, it's just not the same.
In fact, we're lucky to get word at all from Commodore US, and they
have NOT been answering the phone, no matter how hard you try.
So then he picks up the phone. Terrific! We talk and talk and talk for
about 20 minutes...which isn't bad, considering I'm just some guy who
decided to interrupt a meeting he was having on a very nice day (he wanted
me to make sure I pointed out that it was a nice day in Burnaby, BC)
Here's a couple of substantial things I got out of that:
In his estimation, Commodore in general could not come up with 200,000
CD32s, let alone Commodore Canada. However, he added, "But someone
will be more than happy to do so soon." When I asked if "someone" had
a name, he told me that while I did a good job of asking me, he couldn't
tell me.
He also pointed out how closely Commodore had worked with TVI on the
TeleView project (well, obviously, it's tough not to when you're in the
same place...) and emphasized that the parties involved were major
players: VanCity and BCTel, the big credit union and telecommunications
provider, respectively.
Aside from that, he said he expected the Commodore situation to be
cleared up shortly-by July 15th, possibly. But he DOES see it coming.
Oh, that and the fact that the concept for TeleView originated "over a
glass of dark ale, as many of these things do." How quaint.
If you want to bother Duncan, feel free to at duncan@tvi.wimsey.com.
For the excitement of a live person answeing calls with the word
"Commodore", call Commodore Canada's Western Regional office at
604-291-0171, or fax them at 604-291-0737. Don't bother them TOO much,
though, or they'll get mad at me.
Video Creator
Table of Contents
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Video Creator by Jason Compton %%
%% jcompton@bbs.xnet.com %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Video Creator, by Almathera, is a CD title for the Amiga-aimed at the
CD32 crowd, but presumably runnable on any AGA Amiga and CD-ROM
drive. The concept is simple: Create videos to go with your favorite CD
titles. Tape them if you like, save them to RAM or disk if you have it,
or just watch it for fun.
But how does it work, you ask?
Well, first let's talk about HOW it works.
The Interface
-------------
The interface looks like Scala. A lot.
That said, I'll point out that it's not a direct ripoff, but it IS still
easy to use. Videos are tracked down to the millisecond, and effects can
be inserted using the editor at any point desired.
How many effects?
Well, tons are available, from the usual assortment of screen wipes and
fades, to animations and plasmas, to "psychoflicker." There's no
shortage, and the animation feature is in particular impressive, allowing
you to tile it on the screen in various combinations, including upside
down and opposing. Effects can be overlaid for extra depth. FMV,
providing you have the module and a disc to pull the FMV from, can be
used in your video as well.
Of course, since it's geared for a CD32, and not everybody has drives
hooked up to theirs, it might be a bit useless without some included
goodies, and Almathera has done exactly that. From stop signs to
animations of houses to German phrases to pictures of exploding aircraft,
there's a LOT of eye candy pre-installed. I haven't looked at all the
pictures yet, but I spent a good half-hour trying.
Loading is supported using AmigaDOS paths, meaning that you can
pull whatever you like off of any valid device.
You can test the outcome of effects while you're in the editor,
incidentally.
The setup ensures you'll never run out of possibilities and combinations.
After all, an editor's work is never done.
Random Raves
--------------
Just in case concocting your own video from scratch and painstakingly
making it look right isn't for you, Almathera has included a Random Raves
feature. This only calls on you to pick the track or tracks you want to
hear and the intensity level of the videos. Basically, "intensity" means
"how fast the effects will move and how often they'll change." The
results are always fun to watch, and sometimes downright impressive, as
transitions or pictures come up in a way that "fits" the tune. Of course,
the tune had nothing to do with it, but you can always pretend...
If you're a truly lazy individual, you can just pick "Random Play" for
the disc, meaning you do NO work and have almost NO say in the outcome
at all. Your preference.
The Finished Product
---------------------
Well, this is easy. All you do is sit back and watch, and your creation
warps and moves along as your favorite tunes play. Can't beat that.
If it's the Random Play Random Rave, there will be some pauses as the
CD32 tries to come up with something else to entertain you. Not too
much, though.
Limitations
-----------
VC is highly limited by the amount of RAM in your machine. The standard
CD32 2 megs IS enough for quite a lot of videos, but if you load a bunch
of 64+ color pictures and do several dozen separate types of effects, you
run into problems really quickly. Expansion memory should available for
much of the information...in fact, I would think all of it, since the
pictures don't HAVE to be in chip until you view them.
The Random Raves feature, to my knowledge and understanding, can
only pull from its own database of pictures and anims, so if you add any
to your collection, too bad, you'll have to create your own videos to
see them.
Those are fairly minor and surmountable. This one isn't.
PAL ONLY!
Ok, ok, North Americans have relied on programs like Nico Francois' PAL
and Chris Hames' Degrader to shift them to PAL for years now, and usually
do it without too much complaint. But it's just not very practical to put
a CD32 into PAL.
Oh, sure, you can view it on a composite monitor in PAL, or if you have an
expansion with an RGB out, PAL will be just fine, but try telling an NTSC
TV to go into PAL. It gives the display equivelant of "Screw you!" and
rolls terribly. And, after all, half of the point of this thing is to
tape your videos. Unless you've got a very nice VCR, it's just not going
to like it.
What happens if you try running the program in NTSC, then?
Most menus put their options at the bottom of the screen. On the main
editor screen, half of them are buried below the viewable area. This
means a LOT of guessing. Difficult guessing.
The videos look...well, they look ok, but you can't shake the feeling
that they should be a bit more centered and those things below the bottom
really WERE meant to be seen...
Ok, even if you can get past this...too bad, you can't see your entire
video anyway. Why not? Because VC internally tries to time in PAL
(25ths of a second, in fact, for the effects) and ends when PAL-timing
tells it to. On an NTSC CD32, though, time doesn't move like that,
so you wind up seeing 5/6ths of your video before it ends. Yes, you
can boot in PAL, but you're back to not being able to use it on a TV...
Special Niceties
----------------
Almathera plans to come out with VC updates, with more effects and
pictures. You can mail them anything you'd like and, if they like it too,
they'll scan it in and include it on the next disc. If you want to get a
head start, here's the address:
Dan the Scan
Almathera
Southerton House
Boundary Business Court
92-94 Church Rd
Mitcham, Surrey
CR4 3TD
ENGLAND
Label EVERYTHING you send them if you want it back. They say they'll
give you discounts on VC and other Almathera stuff...and if your pictures
are REALLY, REALLY good, you might get something for free.
Almathera's letter to me said they were considering doing an NTSC
version of VC. After using the program for 20 minutes, I wrote them
E-Mail telling them that if they wanted it to sell at ALL, it was
IMPERATIVE that they do an NTSC version. The PAL version will
be sold in the US anyway, at this point.
Almathera also apparently will be putting out fairly regular newsletters
for VC owners...tips, tricks, upgrades, and the like. The first one,
included with VC, told the history and evolution of the program, from a
68000 AMOS program designed to run on the CDTV to what it is now.
What is it? Read below...
The Sum-Up
------------
Video Creator is a load of fun. There are notes in the newsletter
suggesting using the Random Rave feature for parties...instant, effortless
visual effects that will really fit the mood and might even impress some
people technically. It's flexible, fairly powerful, and fun.
Oh, sure, you can't do simultaneous HAM8 animations while realtime
rendering objects, and there IS some slowdown when you run multiple
effects, but in all it's a terrific presentation program packaged as a
video factory-or Creator, if you will.
Its price of 35 British pounds, just a bit more than US$50, sounds like
a lot for a slideshow program. This isn't a slideshow, though. It's an
exceptional product, IF you're a PAL user.
If at any point in this review you felt interested in the product, it's
worth a serious checking-out. It makes CDs much more fun to listen to.
If you're an NTSC user and interested, I suggest you call, write, or
E-Mail Almathera and express your displeasure.
Almathera's information can be found at the top (alphabetically!) of
Amiga Report's Dealer Directory, elsewhere in the magazine.
Video Creator does what it says. Good job, Almathera.
Confusion in the modules scene
Table of Contents
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Confusion in the modules scene by Pauli Porkka %%
%% paporkka@freenet.hut.fi %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Time has passed since there were only few different module formats
for Amiga and Amiga only. Users didn't have to care about anything else
than getting to play SoundTracker or in better case Protracker modules.
Nowadays users not only have to watch out for dozens of different
module formats from Amiga world but also from PC world. Situation got
even more confused a few months ago when Finnish Amiga coder Jarno
Paananen started developing new players for Amiga. First came S3M
support and now there is support for MTM and 6 to 8 channel extended
Protracker module format.
Comp.sys.amiga.audio news group was flooded with questions about S3M
and no one knew what to do. That is why I decided to write this article
although you can propably figure out that I am not used to writing
any kind of articles. I just got bored answering same question all over
again and I hope this helps to clear up the situation.
As I mentioned above Jarno Paananen is the guy to thank for all
of this. He made the amiga version of S3M playing routine, that
routine is used in all S3M players in Amiga. The thought that Amiga
is limited to 4 audio channels is true, but with mixing channels together
you can get as many channels as you want. Of course mixing always reduces
the sound quality, but with good routines the quality loss can be
minimized. Paananen's routines make possible to mix for example 32
channels (32 simultanious samples) to be played with Amiga 8-bit outputs.
This idea is not a new one, but until now those routines haven't been
useful in Amiga mostly because lack of sufficient CPU power to make real
time mixing possible.
I am going to give you brief overview on currently supported PC module
formats.
S3M:
Scream Tracker III format. Supports 32 channels but only 16 digital sample
channels, other 16 channels are reserved for FM synth sounds created with
adlib and compatible (I am not sure about the compatibility issue, I do
not own PC to try out with).
Basically this is just like normal PT format except different internal
layout and with a new interesting panning option.
MTM:
Multi Tracker Module format. Supports up to 32 digital channels. Effects
are same as in ProTracker format but the internal layout is totally
different. I have found 1 MTM module this far that uses all 32 channels,
but my humble opionion is that if module author can't do good music
with 16 or less channels then the author should start learning to
make modules with a 4 channel tracker. Any modules using over 16
channels makes me think,"Where are those channels used?" They don't sound
any better than a 4 channel PT module with surround option.
6 or 8 channel (6CHN/8CHN):
This is exactly the same as normal PT format but with extended patterns
supporting an excess of 2 or 4 channels. Also called FTM modules after
Fast Tracker.
Other formats:
There are such formats as .FAR (Farandole, max 16 channels) and 669,
but there isn't support for them on the Amiga (yet).
How to play these?
Now that I have made you curious about the possibilities of these
module formats you might start wondering: How can I play these?
First of all there is a program called PS3M (2.5 will be released any
day now) which is made by Jarno Paananen. PS3M is simple requester driven
program which can play all the above mentioned module formats.
D.A.S.MP was the second to have ability to play S3M modules and now
upcoming version 3.2 will have player libraries to play S3M, MTM, and
6-8Ch modules. DASMP is MUI application and I am the author of this
program so I can't praise it without this article coming advertisement :).
The third program to play these is HippoPlayer which works even with
Kickstart 1.2, compared to other two which require 2.04 or higher.
All those players use basically the same mixing routine provided by
Jarno Paananen with little internal differences. For example DASMP uses
only 16 kilobytes CHIP ram per channel instead of 65 kb taken by PS3M and
supposedly by HippoPlayer. PS3M is requester driven, HippoPlayer has
normal intuition interface and D.A.S.MP has the MUI GUI which the
appearance is almost completely under user control.
Well, how do these modules sound?
My first feeling when I heard the very first of my S3M modules was
stunned. I almost dropped from my chair, I could never have dreamed
my A500+/28Mhz could produce so good sounding music. Of course there
are a lot of awful ones as well as good ones. The good ones are really
worth listening to.
As with all music some of you will like them and some of you will loath
them and you are of course entitled to your opinion. The quality of sound
does drop when mixing 16 channels to two Amiga outputs but for that there
is also cure coming. All new versions of three above mentioned programs
will have 14 bit playmodes in their new versions, and believe me it really
makes even a 20 channel MTM module to sound good.
Where to get these modules?
I uploaded about month or so ago several (about 30) S3M modules to Aminet
in aminet/mods/8voic. All S3M modules start with S3M_#?. I did the
modification to names to make it easier to user to find them.
I also uploaded few of MTM modules to Aminet in the same directory and
these modules start with mtm_#?. Unfortunately my financial situation
doesn't let me upload every S3M, MTM and FT (6-8ch) to Aminet because
it costs me real money. If you can get hold of FTP access you can do
the same as I did and start roaming the Internet world to find these
modules.
You might want to start your search in following places.
ftp.luth.se/pub/msdos/demos/music/
ftp.luth.se/pub/msdos/ultrasound/sound/ (I am not sure about this, it may
also be /pub/ultrasound/..)
ftp.eng.ufl.edu/ (I don't remember the path, but you can propably see that
it is something self evident)
That's about all, so have a nice day and enjoy the music.
Review: Innocent Until Caught
Table of Contents
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Review: Innocent Until Caught %%
%% By: Jason Compton (jcompton@bbs.xnet.com) %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Psygnosis recently sent me a box. In it were 4 Amiga titles for review.
Thanks go to Mark Blewitt, UK Public Relations Manager, for providing
them.
Thus begins the first of two game reviews I will do (I took the
strategy/adventure games while Katie Nelson has the two action/platform
titles) in this set...
Innocent Until Caught: The Packaging
The packaging is pretty enough: a box with multilingual labling, a nice
painting and some screen shots. Inside are two manuals (one for the game,
one Amiga-specific information), 10 880k floppies, and a poster for Blood
Money. Weird.
The Amiga manual is straightforward enough: they want to scream out at
you, "INSTALL THIS ON A HARD DRIVE OR YOU'LL BE SORRY!" but
don't out of politeness. The main manual is a different story. Much longer,
in a different style, and designed to inform about the gameplay itself.
It starts with the plot. You, for adventure purposes, are Jack T. Ladd,
a great thief who neglected to pay taxes on his "earnings". For that
reason, the IRDS (Interstellar Revenue Decimation Service) wants to
torture, maim, and kill you in 28 days if you don't come up with the
huge sum they're looking for.
A lot of first-person rambling from Mr. Ladd ensues, and whoever writes
his script got on my nerves quickly...it's supposed to sound arrogant,
but it just sounds like Ladd changes the subject a lot.
At any rate, the manual sums up the news to date, with a lot of those
little unnecessary details that I find worth having in adventure
games. It then goes to explain the playsystem of the game, which
is a completely different matter...
The Playsystem
They tried very hard to keep this from looking like a latter-day
Sierra game...you know the type...you can either take, use, or
use another object with an item. This interpretation is very,
very similar.
Except one thing. They made it TOO complicated for its own good.
Most icons are simple enough...the finger icon is the "use" action,
the hand is "take"...but there are two that slow the game down.
They are the eye and the magnifying glass.
There is a small oval-shaped window in the bottom left hand corner of
the screen. When the "eye" icon is active, it displays a small area
of the room you're in inside the oval: hence, the view through your
eye. Here, the objects are identified, such as "Chair", "Bar", etc.
But, as with all games of this kind, there is more to know about the
chair and the bar...even if it's only the statement "It's just a bar."
To get this, one would think you would need to click on the object
highlighted in the eye-view. But no, it's not that simple. You need
to cycle through the actions using the right mouse button and get to
the magnifying glass action (this means that the description
disappears) THEN click on the item you're asking about.
This wouldn't be so bad, if it wasn't for the mouse control.
The mouse control is horrid. Terrible. Bad. It's clunky, slow,
overresponsive when you're trying to keep it still and underresponsive
when you need to move it across the screen quickly. It's particularly
horrible in the copy protection, which involves entering a code from
the manual on a keypad. It's tough to get the pointer over the number
correctly!
Next week, I'll actually tell you how the game PLAYS.
Until then...
Sunrise AD516 and Studio 16 Review
Table of Contents
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Sunrize AD516 Hardware and Studio 16 Software by Neil Brewitt %%
%% neil@melkfri.demon.co.uk %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Sunrize AD516 Hardware and Studio 16 (V3) Software.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
The Sunrize AD516, coupled with the (supplied) Studio 16 software
provides a complete 16 bit, 48kHz direct to disk sampling system which
is capable of replaying up to eight tracks (samples) simultaneously.
AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION
Name: Sunrize Industries
Address: 2959 S. Winchester Blvd.,
Suite 204,
Campbell, CA 95008
USA
Telephone: (408) 374-4962
FAX: (408) 374-4963
LIST PRICE
$1495 (US) dollars (according to the promotional literature).
I paid around 1100 GB Pounds as part of a package deal: AD516, Bars
and Pipes Pro, and a 1-gigabyte hard drive.
SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
HARDWARE
4 Megabytes of RAM required. More is recommended.
68030 Processor or higher.
*FAST* hard drive; optimally, less than 10 ms seek time.
One free Zorro II/III slot.
SOFTWARE
AmigaDOS 2.0 or greater.
COPY PROTECTION
None. Hard disk installable.
MACHINE USED FOR TESTING
Amiga 3000/25 (Softkicked), 3.5 MB Fast RAM, 2 MB Chip RAM.
1 internal 1.44M floppies.
Quantum 105 MB internal hard drive.
Seagate 550 MB internal hard drive.
Workbench 3.0, Kickstart 3.1
INSTALLATION
The software uses the Commodore Installer program and is extremely
easy - just choose a destination directory.
The hardware (AD516) is also easily installed - remove a blanking
plate from the card bay, insert the AD516 into a free Zorro slot, and
replace the fascia screw. All that is then required is to plug a
suitable inputs and outputs into the AD516's external connectors -
2 Audio IN, 2 Audio OUT, and 1 SMPTE IN - all RCA (Phono) Sockets.
REVIEW
Not being the kind of person to read the full manual before using
stuff, I can genuinely say the AD516 and Studio16 combination was a
plug-and-go experience. It took between five and ten minutes to install
the whole package, all documented well in the manual.
My first foray into direct to disk recording was surprisingly easy -
a double click on the Studio16 icon brings up a "Studio16bench"
(essentially a blank screen) onto which the various modular parts of
the sampling software can be loaded.
From this blank screen, there are two pull-down menus:
"Applications" containing all the modules for the package, and "Project"
with the familiar "About" "Prefs" and "Save Setup" options. There are
around 10 modules immediately accessible, with names like "Recorder",
"Mixer" and "Meters". Everything starts from here. Each module produces
its own window on Studio 16's screen, and are all fully multitasking.
The first module I opened was "Recorder", which presented me with a
simple front-end with two sliders ("Rate" and "Gain") and four buttons
("Monitor", "Record", "Stop", and "Name"). I switched monitoring on, and
started my (test tape) input sound source. With the monitor button
depressed, the AD516 acts as a "pseudo" monitor, in that it actually does
process the incoming analogue signal to digital (at the specific rate) and
then back to analogue again on the output jacks. This is the best way for
the monitoring to work, in my opinion, as it gives a true impression of
how the end sample will sound.
Being too scared to sample quite yet, I opened up the "Samples" module,
which presents a list of the sample paths (and samples contained in
them). From this module, I found I could set the sample paths via a pull
down menu which had appeared to the right of the "Applications" menu.
This, again, was extremely intuitively designed.
Having set up my path(s), I opened the "Meters" module and was
presented with a "traditional" analogue meter, a digital meter, and a
scrolling graph of sound level - for the input, output, and channel one.
Shocked by this, I discovered that with the use of my right mouse button
(another menu had appeared) I could select any of analogue, digital, or
"graph" representation for the input channel, the output channel, or any
of the eight sample channels. I decided to have just a digital bar graph
for input and output channels for the time being.
So I recorded my first sample. On pressing the "Record" button in
the "Recorder" window, a small status window opens showing the size of the
current recording sample, the space left on the device, and the start time
of the sample (which said NA).
After pressing "Stop", I found the sample "Untitled_L" could be played
from the "Samples" window. I renamed the sample (from the pulldown menu)
and then chose "edit" from the same menu, which forced the Editor module
to load and open the selected sample. This was the familiar sample
editing window with a number of differences - I had the option to do a few
different things to all or any part of my sample. So, I "Normalized" it
all. This scales the sample so that it is at maximum volume (the loudest
part of the sample is represented by +32768). Then I added echo to it, and
then I analysed it to examine it's frequency content.
Next I opened the "Cuelist". Here I had to pick up the manual. The
cuelist looks very similar to the tracks display in Bars and Pipes
Professional, and works in a similar way. A sample can be dragged from the
"Samples" window and dropped onto a track in the cuelist. It then appears
as a "block" in the cuelist, which can be dragged around across any number
of tracks, crossfaded with other samples, and truncated and spliced ad
infinitum. Along the top of the Cuelist window is a "transport" control;
i.e., a Stop, Play, Forward and Backward button which performs just that
function - manipulating the "position" line within the tracks. All timing
within the cuelist is via one of four methods: SMPTE, SMPTE Plus (SMPTE
with fractions of frames), Beats Per Minute, or Hours Minutes and Seconds.
Here I encountered my first problem - It's essentially impossible to place
a sample at (SMPTE) 00:00:00:00 and have it start playing from its start.
The sample will be in sync properly, but won't actually start playing
until it's fully synchronized (around 3 seconds). This means you *must*
have *all* samples after the 5 second mark, which in turn means a five
second delay every time you listen to your masterpiece.
The cuelist is a *very* powerful part of the package. With the AD516's
SMPTE IN socket, this means writing audio-for-video is an ideal
application for the package. Each track may be played solo, turned on or
off, and direct recording into the cuelist is possible (punch in/out).
Samples may be grouped and edited simultaneously (useful for stereo
pairs), and all samples may be faded in or out linearly, logarithmically,
or exponentially over any time up to 2000ms. The Cuelist has a *very*
large time range, and I (just) had a ten hour time span visible at once,
with samples all indicated in their various positions.
There is an option in the cuelist whereby the mix of the eight
tracks is taken from the "Mixer" module. Within the mixer module, it
is possible to record both pan and levels of each track thus allowing
completely automated mixing to occur.
The remaining modules are utilities like a SMPTE generator, SMPTE
monitor, clock, and various "housekeeping" utilities.
Studio16 sports a full ARexx interface, and ARexx commands can be
associated with a specific timecode as an entry in the cuelist. This
could allow multimedia presentations to be played.
The performance of the hardware was as everyone had told me - very
good quality indeed, with excellent convertors.
DOCUMENTATION
The printed manual which accompanies the Studio 16 software covers both
software and hardware installation. It has a full tutorial section, a
comprehensive troubleshooting section, and a large reference section,
with a good index.
In my opinion, the manual is over-excellent, simply because I didn't
need it for a long time and even then I guessed what most things did. The
tutorial is excellent, and the whole manual is clearly written and well
presented.
LIKES
The manual is very well planned. There is very little in terms of
operation instructions, instead being more of a slightly verbose
reference manual with a tutorial section.
The interface. It's easy to tell what's happening, and how you can
control it.
The overall "feel" of the product. Now that I've read the manual, I
realise there are several things which I didn't find out by
experimentation (marking and naming of ranges within samples being a
useful example) that may prove useful.
The full Studio 16 interfaces seamlessly with Bars and Pipes Professional.
With Studio 16, there are two B+P accessories- an SMPTE tool to lock B+P
to the AD516's internal SMPTE code, and an accessory that, when opened,
gives the Studio 16 pulldown menu allowing access to all the modules on
the B+P screen. A separate configuration file is maintained for Studio 16
operation under Bars and Pipes.
DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS
There are several things I dislike, though none affect the operation
of the product directly as a production tool.
I'd like to see more effects. The DSP on the AD516 is underused in
my opinion. There is only one effect available (with respect to
"normalizing" which isn't really an effect), Echo, and I'd like to see a
great many more. Compression is the sort of thing which is *easy* to do
digitally, so why isn't it there? The echo is good, but why can't I echo
backwards as well as forwards?
I'd like *some* realtime effects. A simple routine could turn the AD516
into a realtime digital delay. For a small amount of effort, a lot of
return.
The sample scaling (in the Editing module) is linear - why? I'd like
to specify an "envelope" to which the sample can be scaled.
The Studio 16 Installer installs a default configuration file which
is for a standard 640*256 screen. No mention is made in the manual that
it is possible to run Studio 16 on an overscan screen. Luckily, the
author of part of the manual contacted me via email and explained that
if I delete the default configuration file, Studio 16 duplicates your
Workbench screen size. Such a small omission in the manual, but since
the cuelist is *horizontal*, an extra 64 pixels is *very* useful.
I'd like to see a "Maximum Performance" mode, whereby the screen is
blanked and multitasking is stopped, allowing the whole computer to
concentrate on producing a full "master" mix.
I heard that the upgrade from Studio 16 version 2.1 to version 3.0 cost
existing owners 200 GB pounds. I think that this is an unreasonable
price for an (albeit large) upgrade after such an initially high purchase
price for the package.
I'd like to see an official developer's kit. I think it would be nice to
see a "hard/sunrize" directory on Aminet containing various utilities
for manipulating samples within and without the Studio 16 environment. I
personally would like such a kit so I can write a compressor.
I would very much like to see Sunrize offering technical support via
the Internet.
COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS
On the Amiga platform, there are two other cards such as this: the
Toccata and Wavetools. Both are much cheaper than the AD516 but offer no
facilities such as the cuelist. The Wavetools has an RTX Real time effects
module which is available as an upgrade.
To be honest, I have neither auditioned nor used either of these cards
because the distribution of such exclusive products in the UK is quite
poor. Wherever I inquired, I was told that the AD516 was the best, and
having read lengthy reviews on all three boards, I came to the conclusion
that the functionality of any software without a cuelist feature is quite
poor. The Wavetools package has a niche with its realtime effects, but
I'd hope that Sunrize would challenge that.
Other platforms were not considerations, since I already own an Amiga and
to purchase a PC would cost at least, if not more than, the AD516. My
supplier (who is a audio/video producer by profession who supplies Amiga
peripherals as a sideline) told me that he had had clients who had bought
PC's and later discovered they needed more memory, bigger hard drives, and
generally more money.
BUGS
I have found one small bug, whereby two grouped tracks are "strangely"
ungrouped if you edit one of them on its own.
I've also been told that there's an impending free upgrade to V3.01
which is nearly ready for release which is basically a bug fix.
I have had problems with the speed of my hard drive(s). All the
documentation regarding the Sunrize package states that a hard drive with
a 14ms seek time is sufficient for recording / playing 5 tracks, and that
one with a 10ms seek time will play 8 tracks. My supplier supplied me with
a 12ms hard drive. :) As it is, I have managed to play (not reliably) 7
tracks simultaneously, so a 10ms drive should easily play 8 tracks. I will
be receiving a 9ms drive in a few days, so I may update this review after
this. I certainly have not been misinformed by Sunrize.
VENDOR SUPPORT
The package I bought included a half day training session and unlimited
telephone support from the supplier (NOT Sunrize), neither of which I
have had to use yet.
WARRANTY
Original purchaser - one year from purchase.
CONCLUSIONS
The AD516 and Studio 16 is a very powerful direct to disk recording
system. Its interface is so easy to use it's beyond belief, and it does
as much as is needed for basic radio edits, multitrack recording, and
video soundtrack production.
That aside, the hardware is of top quality and simply isn't utilised
to it's potential in my opinion. More effects and more versatility with
them coupled with a developer's kit would make this a card to buy an
Amiga for (like the Video Toaster).
I'm excited by the potential of the hardware, but daunted by the potential
upgrade cost. This results in a degree of caution in recommending
this card to others. It is truly unique and without compare on the Amiga
platform, but would I buy an Amiga for it? Probably not - yet.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
This review is Freely Distributable.
**** neil@melkfri.demon.co.uk ****
Infochannel / Channel 4000
Table of Contents
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Infochannel / Channel 4000 by Douglas J. Nakakihara %%
%% dnakakihara@BIX.com %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
/********************************************************************
NOTICE: This is the originally submitted text for an article that
appeared in the July 11, 1994 issue (#125) of MICROTIMES magazine.
(There are some slight edited differences between the published
version and this one.)
This article is freely-distributable as long as it remains unchanged
and this notice and the copyright remain included.
This article may not be re-published in any magazine, newsletter,
or similar media, including those electronically distributed,
without obtaining prior approval from the author. This provision
does *not* apply to USENET or BBSs.
Specific permission has been granted to Amiga Report.
Copyright(C)1994 Douglas J. Nakakihara.
The author can be reached thru Internet at dnakakihara@bix.com.
MICROTIMES is published by BAM Media, Inc.
3470 Buskirk Ave.
Pleasant Hill, CA 94523
(510)934-3700
MICROTIMES is available free at various distribution points
(usually computer stores) throughout California. The Northern
edition is over 300 pages, while the Southern edition is a little
less than 200 pages. This is a multi-platform magazine, which
includes Amiga coverage. About 200,000 copies are distributed each
month.
SUBSCRIPTIONS (13 issues):
US: 3rd Class $32 (allow 3-4 weeks for delivery), 1st Class $60
(allow 1-2 weeks for delivery).
MEXICO & CANADA: Surface Mail $50 (allow 4 weeks for delivery).
Air Mail $70 (allow 1 week for delivery).
OVERSEAS: Surface Mail $50 (Allow 6-10 weeks for delivery). Air
Mail $165 (Allow 1 week for delivery).
SAMPLE ISSUES: $4 ($6 for overseas) to cover postage.
BACK ISSUES: $6.
Although, efforts have been made to ensure the above information is
correct, there is no guarantee and prices are subject to change
without prior notice.
/********************************************************************
InfoChannel / Channel 4000
By Douglas J. Nakakihara
Whether you call it the information super-"highway," "hypeway," or
"tollway," one thing is clear, people will continue to demand more
information. People also want real-time updates and instant access. Only
a few years ago, you couldn't even get 24-hour checking account
information using the telephone. Yet, today I have often lamented the
fact that the database was only updated daily. It's just human nature:
yesterday's accomplishments become today's standards, and tomorrow we
want more. This growing need for immediate information will be a driving
force behind the information revolution.
Scala InfoChannel
Scala has recognized the advantages of the TV medium for providing
information. Nearly everyone on this planet knows what a TV is. It's
impact on the cultures of the world cannot be disputed. People will
effortlessly watch TV with little coaxing and the medium is one of the
cheapest ways to distribute information to masses of people. The real
hurdle with TV is not the medium itself but with program production.
Scala has been hurdling this problem for some time with a product
called InfoChannel, a computer-based information system. This product
provides an easy way to create, schedule, and distribute information to
one or even thousands of remote sites. The information can be displayed
using standard TV sets or computer monitors.
The Software
InfoChannel shares basically the same interface and presentation
power as its cousin, Scala Multimedia 300. The main differences are
InfoChannel's scheduling and networking features, and it's ability to
update a presentation while it continues to run. Using Scala Multimedia
300, you would have to stop the presentation, make the changes, and then
restart it.
A schedule can be set for groups or individual pages so that they
are displayed at a certain time. Dates and days of the week can also be
specified. This is particularly useful to prevent outdated
advertisements and promotions from being displayed.
InfoChannel is also capable of controlling many devices, like
VCRs, DATs, laserdiscs, MIDI, and the VideoToaster--now that's real
multimedia.
New Version
The newest version of InfoChannel adds MPEG support using an
optional MPEG decoder board. Software-based MPEG encoding has also been
announced. Other new features include built-in advertiser billing,
better image manipulation tools, framegrabber support, and outline text
capability.
Stations
An InfoChannel "Master Station" is basically an Amiga running the
InfoChannel software. It is on this machine that all of the text,
graphics, animations, and audio are compiled into a presentation.
A "Player Station" is an individual Amiga computer with
InfoChannel player-only software. The Master Station coordinates and
controls the distribution of InfoChannel presentations to the Player
Stations. The InfoChannel's ScalaNet module handles maintenance,
configuration, and supervision of the Player Stations. It also controls
password protection, author privileges, statistics collection, and other
administrative tasks.
In the simplest implementation, a Master Station is used with a
single Player Station connected to a network of TVs. A classic example
of this would be a cable TV broadcast of a programming schedule or in a
closed-circuit situation. There is no interactivity here and all of the
TVs would simultaneously display the same information. A hotel might
also implement such a system to display an event schedule.
Since the Player Stations are independent machines, they can
individually interact with users. As a result, multiple players can
provide different information depending on the needs of the user. You
can also have multiple Master Stations that transmit data to a group of
players. Each player can individually merge the received data.
InfoChannel can also accept data from mainframes, minis, and PC networks
and integrate it into a presentation.
Transmission
If there is only one Player Station and the Master Station is not
located too far way, the two computers can be linked using an
inexpensive null modem. An Ethernet-based Novell or TCP/IP local area
network can also be used to distribute the presentation. An easy way to
distribute presentations over long distances is using standard telephone
lines and modems. ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) lines,
satellite, and broadcast technology are also supported.
The Master Station will automatically compare the Master and
Player stations and not transmit duplicate data. If there is a time-
charge imposed on the transmission, like telephone charges, this feature
can be a real money saver. This is especially true if text is usually
the only thing updated on a regular basis. Larger files like animations
and other graphics can be pre-installed using floppy disks.
Real Life Uses
Scala boasts a large number of InfoChannel installations
throughout the world. Recognizable names include Hilton, Sheraton,
Marriot, Ford, March Air Force Base, GM, Nissan, JC Penney, American
Airlines, Boston University, and Shell Oil. The number of hotel
installations is impressive. Most of the systems are in Europe, but
there are several in the U.S.
A healthcare provider in Virginia uses interactive InfoChannel
kiosks in their hospital lobbies. The system provides patients and
visitors 24-hour access to all types of graphic and printed information,
including detailed direction information.
The SAS Scandinavia Hotel in Oslo, Norway uses InfoChannel for its
500 room hotel. InfoChannel provides information on restaurants, bars,
the pool and sauna, TV schedule, laundry services, and other hotel
services. Information is updated several times a week and management
loves the ability to make changes in a matter of seconds.
A cable company in Michigan serving 40,000 households uses several
Player Stations. Each player provides programming for a particular local
network. Programming includes information from the public library, local
government, and schools.
In England, a supermarket chain has an interactive electronic
cookbook kiosk. Using a touch screen, customers can view recipe
suggestions and also get printouts and coupons. In Holland, one of the
largest Dutch banks, VSB Bank, also uses a touch screen InfoChannel
system to provide individual information on deposits, loans, insurance,
and real estate. A second InfoChannel broadcast displays general bank
information.
Channel 4000
A cutting edge implementation of InfoChannel is "Channel 4000"
created by Alpha Video located in Minnesota. Along with a silent
partner, Alpha Video is owned by two former NewTek sales managers, Reid
and George Johnson (no relation). In the past three years, the revenues
for the desktop video dealer has grown from $4.5 million to $9 million
in annual revenue. Former NewTek VP, Paul Montgomery, called Alpha Video
"the world's best desktop video dealer."
In an effort to capitalize on Alpha Video's expertise in desktop
video and network dealers with similar businesses, Channel 4000 was
born. It is promoted as the world's first private desktop video
television channel. The InfoChannel broadcast is transmitted via modem
to subscribers five days a week and each broadcast runs about 15
minutes. Each subscriber has its own Player Station.
Wizards
Though the service, which began in September 1993, started out
heavily Toaster-oriented, changes in the industry--most notably
Commodore's bankruptcy--has caused Channel 4000 to cover more and more
non-Amiga-based products. The main subscriber base is referred to as the
"DeskTop Video Wizards Network." For the most part, these are Video
Toaster dealers.
Daily Transmissions
Channel 4000 broadcasts are automatically transmitted late at
night to take advantage of lower telephone rates. Nearly all of the
graphics, animation, and audio are pre-installed on the remote Player
Stations, so the broadcast usually consists of only a small player
script file that can be transmitted in less than a minute.
The Broadcast
From the broadcast menu a subscriber can choose any one of the
five most recent broadcasts. The entire broadcast is complemented with
catchy background music. Every broadcast is divided into various
segments that more or less cover a certain topic. Limited advertising
time is available during the broadcasts. However, to date, there has
been little advertiser support.
Alpha Video has created custom backgrounds to give the broadcast
its own unique look and feel. The backgrounds provide an exciting yet
comfortable backdrop for the informative text that is tastefully wiped
in. Large legible fonts are used and the music enhances reading the
text.
Real Time News
Channel 4000's aim is to keep its subscribers up to date and
informed on a daily basis. If you consider that traditional printed
materials like magazines and company flyers are out of date by weeks or
months by the time they are received, Channel 4000 is providing
essentially real-time news.
Coverage of the current uncertainty surrounding the Amiga with
Commodore's unknown future has demonstrated the value of Channel 4000's
up-to-the-minute information. Since the day the infamous Wall Street
Journal article hit, they have been doing their best to wade through the
rumors and sort between fact and fiction. Their telephone interview with
one of the bankruptcy trustees--before anyone even knew who they were--
was unprecedented. They have interviewed other key people in the Amiga
community and given subscribers invaluable guidance on what they should
be doing to protect their desktop video businesses.
The Cost
Channel 4000 subscription rates range from $50 to $350 a month,
depending on the annual revenue of the subscriber. Alpha Video sells and
leases Player Stations. You can use your own A1200 or A4000 (AGA
required), provided you have the enough free disk space and a supported
modem. However, you are a lot less likely to encounter transmission
problems with a dedicated machine.
The Future is Now
Implementations of InfoChannel like Channel 4000 are providing a
glimpse of things to come. It's easy to generalize about the information
superhighway and how long it will take to pave. The fact of the matter
is: the pioneering efforts of companies like Alpha Video demonstrate
that the technology is already here today.
* * *
Just as I was about to put this article to bed, I received the sad
news that the plug was being pulled on Channel 4000. Alpha Video was
unable to expand the Channel 4000 subscriber-base beyond Amiga/Video
Toaster dealers. They needed strong advertiser support that could not
come from Amiga developers alone. However, without a PC-based
InfoChannel and no supply of Amiga 1200s, they could not offer an
affordable player system. (On a somewhat related note, there is an
interesting rumor that a shipment of newly manufactured 1200s has
appeared in Europe.)
George Johnson stated that, "ending Channel 4000 is not an issue
of us giving up on this. We're even more excited about this than ever."
"We think there is a ton of other applications. We learned a lot from
Channel 4000 and we're just going to keep going with this thing."
Resources are now being focused on Alpha Video's Private Channels
division to promote their Custom Channel and Alphachannel products. With
a Custom Channel, they will produce and distribute a daily InfoChannel
broadcast for clients--essentially a customized Channel 4000. Their
Alphachannel product is geared toward a cable/broadcast station or
closed-circuit situation. This can be an interactive application where
viewers can affect what's being shown using their telephone. The
interaction can be real-time or queued. If they want to, clients can
take a totally hands-off approach and merely provide raw information to
Private Channels and let them take if from there.
Private Channels has already been contracted to do several
InfoChannel-based installations, including one for Scala dealers.
Another client is a tire installation chain that will show an
advertiser-sponsored informational broadcast to people in their waiting
rooms. Pinnacle was very interested in a custom channel to promote their
product Aladdin, a PC-based video switcher. However, they didn't like
the fact that Channel 4000 only ran on an Amiga.
Incidentally, Scala has hired a number of ex-Commodore employees.
Many of them were involved with Amiga research and development. It is
well known that Scala is desperately searching for a way to effectively
port Scala Multimedia and InfoChannel over to the PC platform. The
problem? Windows can't handle it. I suspect that they are using the
former Commodore brain power to design software and perhaps even
hardware to run Scala products on IBM PC hardware, with Amiga or better
performance.
InfoChannel
$2,500 Master Station software
$800 Player Station software
Scala, Inc.
2323 Horse Pen Road, Suite 202
Herndon, VA 22071
(703) 713-0900
Alpha Video
7711 Computer Avenue
Edina, MN 55435-5494
(612) 896-9898
Second Samurai Review
Table of Contents
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% First Look: Second Samurai, part 1 by Katie Nelson %%
%% knelson@bbs.xnet.com %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
This is a difficult game to review. Although its graphics don't really
live up to the Amiga potential (in fact, they look slightly better than
8-bit Nintendo), I can say that the game playability compensates for this
short-coming.
On the subject of the graphics . . . The characters have very little
animation (if any) when they change their position or orientation. The
"outdoors" backround is nice, however, but the very very quick rotation
of the moon around the planet can get tiresome after a dozen or two games.
The backrounds of the "inside" are fine, really. Nothing to shout about,
but nothing to criticize.
I think the biggest improvement that could be made graphically for a
potential Third Samurai would be a greater number of colors . . . or at
least finding better ways to use the existing ones.
What about the sound? It's there. It's the standard "this is a game with
an East Asian theme"-type music. Again, nothing to shout about, but
nothing to criticize.
I will delve into the playability of the game in the next issue, but lest
you think the game is a waste: As I said, the playability of the game is
a vast improvement over the graphics. Quite nice, actually.
Keep reading
K. Nelson
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% European Outlook by Jesper Juul %%
%% norjj@stud.hum.aau.dk %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
AR Contest
Table of Contents
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% AR Contest by David Tiberio %%
%% Enter and Win! dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
- THE PRIZE FOR NEXT MONTH -
CONTEST BEGINS: 6-17-94
CONTEST ENDS: 7-29-94
The Amiga Report contest is still going on, and it is not too
late to enter. This ongoing monthly contest allows Amiga Report
readers a chance to win software by either solving a puzzle or by
entering a random drawing.
The prize this month is the Amiga Online Reference Manual v2.3,
from Area52. This is a 1,000 page help system for the Amiga and Video
Toaster, covering the Workbench, AmigaDOS, Lightwave, and more ($34.95).
The second prize choice is the FutureShock audio CDROM, which was
produced using Amiga computers by SideWinder. There are some Sidewinder
music modules on Aminet that you may want to look at for a sample of
the audio CD ($12.95).
The third prize to choose from is CG52jr, a character generator
from Area52. This CG includes 15 scalable fonts, and supports various
dither styles, shadows, and other text effects. IFF images may also
be loaded, along with 100 predefined palettes. Text can be genlocked
live or saved as IFF files ($24.95).
Winners may also select CG52 Fonts, which includes 50 scalable
fonts for use with the CG52jr character generator, the Workbench, and
most Amiga applications that support BitMap or CompuGraphic fonts
($19.95).
Previously we have offered the ARexx Reference Disk by Merrill
Callaway, which was awarded to a previous winner. Contact Whitestone
for more information (505) 268-0678.
All monthly contests end on the morning of the first of the
following month. Any entries beyond this date will be entered into the
next contest.
- THE MONTHLY DRAWING -
To enter the random drawing, select a number from 1 to 262,144
and send it to me at one of my addresses listed below, either by
the postal service or email through the Internet.
Also, you may enter by solving the following puzzle. The winner
of this puzzle will be decided within the same time frame as the
random prize, to allow the contest information to filter through the
networks, and to allow your letters and postcards to come in.
The winner for June 1994 will be published next week.
- THE PUZZLE -
Everyone thinks that the other code problem was too easy, which
it was. So this month I made it a bit tricky (and I don't want to
hear any complaints that the solutions are too hard)! This is a
transcript of a press conference about a military operation somewhere
in the United States. Your job is to figure out which companies are
involved. In the next few issues I will make the clues gradually
become easier.
Gore, the Vice President, made the statement.
He said he would, but very quietly.
The engineers are locked up on the island.
They are computer experts.
They are no longer incorporated, but AmigaGuide is stored there.
That is why their fort is so valuable.
The banner on the building reads "BRCH".
The surface to air missile drowned in the sea.
Squad A had to move into the area at 5:00pm, as they always do.
Strategic Operations in New York handled the affair.
They landed opposite their destination.
There is no other way to calm the port.
The rest will be printed at a later time.
- TO ENTER -
To enter, simply let your fingers do the talking and write an
email and send it to dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu. You MUST put
the word CONTEST in the subject line of the email header! Otherwise
you run the risk of having your email deleted (don't ask, it is a
long story!) or send a post card or letter to:
Amiga Report Contest
c/o David Tiberio
6 Lodge Lane
East Setauket, NY 11733
Is it possible to win via snail mail? You might think that your
chances of winning are better by entering in email (much faster of
course), but one month's winner sent in a letter that arrived the
day before his winning number was drawn!
In your letter or email, please provide the following, using this
format:
RANDOM_NUMBER postal_address
email_address
Such as:
4761615 David Tiberio, 6 Lodge Lane, East Setauket, NY 11733
dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu
Your full name and address. Please keep in mind that many of
you may have addresses that I am not accustomed to, so please include
your country or any other information that I would need in case you
win. An email address should also be included, if possible.
You must also include a brief one sentence overview of the editorial
in this issue of AMiga Report. Just to make sure you are reading it. :)
You must also include the issue number. For example, if you read this in
AR213, then include that in your correspondance. Also, a prize winner
will be determined by a random number generator. Choose a number from
1 to 262,144. The closest winner or winners to the randomly generated
number will receive the prize in the mail. Anyone who does not provide
a number will have one assigned to him randomly.
All prizes will be mailed within one week after I get my hands on
the published version of AmigaReport. I am doing this for a few reasons.
First, every winner so far has given the correct puzzle solution before
I have received the editon of AmigaReport that announced it. :)
Second, I don't like to go to the post office every day if I can avoid
it. Third, you never know when someone's power supply might blow up
(right Mr. Editor?!).
- RULES AND REGULATIONS -
1. In the event that the editor's power supply fries, the contest for
that month will have its deadline postponed to a later date, to be
announced. Any contest entries for the random drawing will be added
to the next month's drawing, to be held once per month near the
beginning of the month.
2. All prizes are donated. I cannot be held responsible for any damage
caused by a prize. For example, if you leave your prize on the
stairs and your grandmother slips on it, I will not pay her medical
bills.
3. We are not doing this for any profit, and cannot be held responsible
if we go out of business or are otherwise financially unable to give
you anything! We are actively looking for submissions from other
software authors.
4. Good things come to those who read the rules and regulations! Here
is a tip to help you win: every problem is a trick problem, or gives
you clues that are not part of the problem itself. Read the whole
entire contest entry looking for clues. And read my other articles
for more clues. I give some very obvious clues :).
5. If for any circumstance you are awarded a prize but do not receive
it, contact me at (516) 476-1615. I will promptly attend to any
mistakes that have been made.
6. These rules are subject to change at any time without warning!
7. Each line of the press release has the name of a company.
8. All contest entries must be received within the dates listed at the
top of this page. A new puzzle is published each month.
9. Don't post the answer to public forums!
- THE DISCLAIMER -
DISCLAIMER: This contest is being provided as a service to the
Amiga community and all persons involved in running this contest
cannot be held liable for anything that costs you money or
lifetime pain and anguish. Rules are subject to change. All entries
must be received by whenever TBA. Any entries beyond this date
will be entered into the next contest, if any.
- THE CHANCE YOU WILL WIN -
Odds of winning are approximately 1:50 for the random drawing and
1:15 for the correct answer to the puzzle, based upon current entries.
SPECIAL THANKS to SideWinder for donating the Future Shock albums
for inclusion in our contest, along with Merrill Callaway for his ARexx
Reference Disk!
dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu
Project Fantasy: Vaporware ][
Table of Contents
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Project Fantasy: Vaporware ][ by Katie Nelson %%
%% knelson@bbs.xnet.com %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Well, since Nintendo scrapped its inital thoughts on a cd-based machine,
its latest dream is Project Reality. Now, I realize that the news of
Nintendo and Silicon Graphics teaming up to create the "ultimate" game
machine is old news, but I recently (okay, a couple weeks ago) found out
that this machine is supposed to retail at $200 US.
HA!
First of all, it's supposed to waste other game machines that cost $400+,
with emphasis on the +.
Secondly, this is Silicon Graphics we're talking about. Let's see...
their cheapest computer was $5000 and didn't come with a hard drive last
I heard. Now, that IS because it's supposed to be a high-end graphics
workstation. However, what type of technology could they possibly add
to a game machine for 25 times LESS than that?
Thirdly, has anyone heard any specs on this thing? (Write to
knelson@bbs.xnet.com if you have) I haven't even been able to get
info on the type of processor, other than "It'll be cool."
I think "Project Reality" is a poor name for a system no one has seen yet.
Keep Reading
K. Nelson
AR CoverDisk #2
Table of Contents
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% AR CoverDisk #2 by Jason Compton %%
%% Trying to keep on top of everything. jcompton@bbs.xnet.com %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Amiga Report Coverdisk Issue 2
Feature item: Yak1.59 (Special AR lite version)
GuidePrefs 1.0
UPSey
Xenostar Demo
More Bowie Poag artwork: Reactor.IFF
Watch for it soon!
To join the mailing list, send mail to listserv@bbs.xnet.com with the command
ADD <youraddress> ardisk
That's all you need to do.
Around the Coyote Information
Table of Contents
==================== Around the Coyote Annual Event ====================
A Short History
Around the Coyote was created in 1989 by Jim Happy-Delpech, a French
Cameroonian [West-Africa] art consultant, in response to a need for higher
visibility and greater exposure of the Chicago art community to the
international art world, The goal was to find a method by which the talent
of Chicago artists could be properly exposed locally and then ultimately
recognized nationally and internationally. The culmination of the idea was
Around The Coyote 90, an event, which took over much of the Wicker
Park/Bucktown area, opening many of the exisisting artist studios within
the district to the public viewing and arranging space to house the work of
other nearby Chicago artists in centrally located donated building. The
end result was a one-of-a-kind direct dialogue created between the artist
and viewer for the four days of the event. That first year, 250 visual and
performing artists were given the opportunity to share their artistic
vision with over 10,000 visitors. The event had also boasted an
international section with a substantial delegation of artists from the
nation of Poland. The result was to provide a unique view of other part of
the art world to the city as well as to begin to forge a link with other
foreign lands in terms of opening the door to future artistic exchanges
thereby enhancing the reputation of Chicago one of the world's creative art
center. Now, after a record year that presented the work of 800 visual and
performing artists working in every conceivable discipline and art form to
100,000 visitors, Around the Coyote promises to provide even greater
opportunities to the exhibition concept. Around the Coyote maintain its
commitment to Chicago that also includes year round program of event and
services including international artist exchange, summer art program and
smaller exhibitions.
The 1994 Around the Coyote Annual Event
September 8th - 11th
The event is open to all Midwestern artists. The center piece of this
years exhibition will be a juried show at several key neighborhood
locations that will involve a limited group of several hundred jury
selected artists in many different disciplines and medias. Some of those
involved in jury selection process for visual art will be Tom Blackman of
Blackman & Associates, Paul Gray of Richard Gray Galleries, Natalie Van
Straaten, Executive Director of the Chicago Art Dealer's Association and
Aron Packer of Aron Packer Gallery. A special emphasis will be made to
include the work of new, emerging, and independent artists. The criteria
for selection will be based on the work's quality, contemporary nature and
its exploration of new medias.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Around The Coyote
For immediate release - (July 6,1994) Contact:
VIRTUREAL - A site specific interactive fine art experience.
For four days, the Around the Coyote Annual 1994 Event, held on September
8th through 11th in the Wicker Park - Bucktown area of Chicago, will be the
backdrop of what promise to be one of the more interesting computer
interactive fine art experience held to-date within the Midwest. The
concept of transition from physical reality to virtual reality will bye the
focus of a project entitled, Virtureal. The physical site installation
will include a simple maze-like chamber that will contain an interactive
display housed in a monument-like structure which at first glance will
serve to emulate the viewers actual reality within the entire enclosure.
From this vantage point, the viewer participant will be invited to cross
over into the virtual landscape of digitally produced images, performances
and environments create by a small group of regional computer artist
including Louis Jaime, Scott Becker, and Michele Fitzsimmons. This
exhibition will conceptually bring the viewer/participants into the unique
perspective of the artist and their inner workings and how it relates to
their imagery.. For further information please contact 312 862-8373 or
312-342-9928.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Profile
Louis Jaime ('59) is as a computer artist and animator for a television
station in Chicago. His career in television started in 1983 as an
engineer, videographer and eventually as a computer artist with the
graphical evolution of the personal computer.
His educational background includes photography, art, design, architectural
drawing and oil painting. His work incorporates various media, platforms,
software and hardware. He has also traveled throughout the United States
and other countries exploring various cultures.
Some of his independent work has appeared:
Computer Artist magazine April/May '94 issue, Gallery section
Computer Artist magazine August/September '94 issue, Cover artwork and
featured artist.
MPC CD ROM - Wirehead: The Virtual Media Galerie, a total 3-D virtual
gallery environment.
Around The Coyote 1994 Annual Event (Chicago) computer fine art exhibit.
Around The Coyote 1994 Annual Event (Chicago) VIRTUREAL - A site specific
interactive fine art experience. This is a collaboration of digitally
produced images, performances and environments created by regional computer
artists Louis Jaime, Scott Becker, and Michele Fitzsimmons.
ProControl by Doug Crane/Elastic Reality, as tutorial files.
His sculptured 3-D objects are currently available through Viewpoint
Datalabs, Orem, Utah.
Statement
My artwork is a direct manifestation of my soul and experiences through
this journey of life and into the after world. The viewer will be drawn to
one or all my works out of pure empathy. It is my hope that for a brief
moment the viewer find solace, as I have, in this electronic environment
and into a world where words have no meaning.
- Louis Jaime
WinBorg
Table of Contents
----- Newsgroup: comp.sys.amiga.misc -----
#17834 comp.sys.amiga.misc 5k
From: supp@ridgefield.sdr.slb.com (Michael Supp)
Subject: The Borg meet Windoze (Star Trek lost episode)
Date: 27 Jun 1994 13:03:24 GMT
Organization: Schlumberger-Doll Research
Something thast was passed on to me....
>From: jrd@roddenberry.ebt.com (john r. durand)
Message-Id: <9406241757.AA20515@roddenberry> To: junkmail@cadre.com
Subject: Random meaningless humour
X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII
Content-Length: 4596
Status: R
"Star Trek Lost Episodes" transcript.
<Picard> "Mr. LaForge, have you had any success with your attempts at
finding a weakness in the Borg? And Mr. Data, have you been able to access
their command pathways?"
<Geordi> "Yes, Captain. In fact, we found the answer by searching through
our archives on late Twentieth-century computing technology."
<Geordi presses a key, and a logo appears on the computer screen.>
<Riker looks puzzled.> "What the hell is `Microsoft'?"
<Data turns to answer.> "Allow me to explain. We will send this program,
for some reason called `Windows', through the Borg command pathways. Once
inside their root command unit, it will begin consuming system resources at
an unstoppable rate."
<Picard> "But the Borg have the ability to adapt. Won't they alter their
processing systems to increase their storage capacity?"
<Data> "Yes, Captain. But when `Windows' detects this, it creates a new
version of itself known as an `upgrade'. The use of resources increases
exponentially with each iteration. The Borg will not be able to adapt
quickly enough. Eventually all of their processing ability will be taken
over and none will be available for their normal operational functions."
<Picard> "Excellent work. This is even better than that `unsolvable
geometric shape' idea."
. . . 15 Minutes Later . . .
<Data> "Captain, we have successfully installed the `Windows' in the Borg's
command unit. As expected, it immediately consumed 85% of all available
resources. However, we have not received any confirmation of the expected
`upgrade'."
<Geordi> "Our scanners have picked up an increase in Borg storage and CPU
capacity, but we still have no indication of an `upgrade' to compensate for
their increase."
<Picard> "Data, scan the history banks again and determine if there is
something we have missed."
<Data> "Sir, I believe there is a reason for the failure in the `upgrade'.
Appearently the Borg have circumvented that part of the plan by not sending
in their registration cards."
<Riker> "Captain, we have no choice. Requesting permission to begin
emergency escape sequence 3F ...."
<Geordi, excited> "Wait, Captain! Their CPU capacity has suddenly dropped
to 0% !"
<Picard> "Data, what does your scanners show?"
<Data, studying displays> "Appearently the Borg have found the internal
`Windows' module named `Solitaire', and it has used up all available CPU
capacity."
<Picard> "Let's wait and see how long this `Solitaire' can reduce their
functionality."
. . . Two Hours Pass . . .
<Riker> "Geordi, what is the status of the Borg?"
<Geordi> "As expected, the Borg are attempting to re-engineer to compensate
for increased CPU and storage demands, but each time they successfully
increase resources I have setup our closest deep space monitor beacon to
transmit more `Windows' modules from something called the `Microsoft
Fun-pack'.
<Picard> "How much time will that buy us?"
<Data> "Current Borg solution rates allow me to predicate an interest time
span of 6 more hours."
<Geordi> "Captain, another vessel has entered our sector."
<Picard> "Identify."
<Data> "It appears to have markings very similar to the 'Microsoft'
logo..."
<Over the speakers> "THIS IS ADMIRAL BILL GATES OF THE MICROSOFT FLAGSHIP
_MONOPOLY_. WE HAVE POSITIVE CONFIRMATION OF UNREGISTERED SOFTWARE IN THIS
SECTOR. SURREDER ALL ASSETS AND WE CAN AVOID ANY TROUBLE. YOU HAVE 10
SECONDS TO COMPLY."
<Data> "The alien ship has just opened its forward hatches and released
thousands of humanoid-shaped objects."
<Picard> "Magnify forward viewer on the alien craft!"
<Riker> "My God, captain! Those are human beings floating straight toward
the Borg ship - with no life support suits! How can they survive the
tortures of deep space?!"
<Data> "I don't believe that those are humans, sir. If you will look closer
I believe you will see that they are carrying something recognized by
twenty-first century man as doeskin leather briefcases, and wearing Armani
suits."
<Riker and Picard, together - horrified> "Lawyers!!"
<Geordi> "It can't be. All the Lawyers were rounded up and sent hurtling
into the sun in 2017 during the Great Awakening."
<Data> "True, but appearently some must have survived."
<Riker> "They have surrounded the Borg ship and are covering it with all
types of papers."
<Data> "I believe that is known in ancient venacular as `red tape'. It
often proves fatal."
<Riker> "They're tearing the Borg to pieces!"
<Picard> "Turn the monitors off, Data, I cant bear to watch. Even the Borg
doesnt deserve such a gruesome death!"
john
Final Words
Table of Contents
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Final Words %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Well, through much hardship and difficulty, we FINALLY got the issue out.
I eventually had to finish it in order to get it out...Niles was worn out.
Thanks to everyone for your patience.
The next issue should be out July 29th, and both David Tiberio and I are
poised to release it ourselves if a monster comes and eats Robert Niles'
modem. It will come out.
Next week should bring another load of reviews, including the continuations
of the game reviews in this magazine, as well as the closer to the Retina
Z-III series and the start of the SX-1 review. If we're really lucky, we
may even have news about Commodore and the Amiga.
Until next time, just hang in there.
Jason
The Shepherd V1.1
Table of Contents
TITLE
The Shepherd
VERSION
1.1
AUTHOR
Obbe Vermeij
Brasserskade 69
2612 CA Delft
Holland
Obbe@ph.tn.tudelft.nl
DESCRIPTION
The shepherd is a gods-game (a bit like populous and powermonger)
where the player has to move animals around to gain territory and
food. There are 50 species of animals and they all behave in a
different way. (they live, eat, walk around and actually chase
eachother)
The game contains lots of graphics and sound- effects. It is OS
friendly, multi-tasking and HD installable.
The Shepherd is a shareware game. A registration fee of $30 will
be asked from regular players.
REQUIREMENTS
The Shepherd works on any Amiga with at least 1 Megabyte of
memory of which at least 1/2 Meg is chip.
AVAILABILITY
The game is available on Aminet in the directory
aminet/game/misc.
There are 2 files :
Shepherd1_1.lha
Shepherd1_1.readme
Two possible aminet sites are
USA: wuarchive.wustl.edu
Germany: 131.246.9.95
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Obbe Vermeij _ _ I tried to make computers think like
Proud Amiga owner /. .\ human beings,
(& assembly programmer) { | } now my computer made ME think like a
Obbe@ph.tn.tudelft.nl \-/ computer. (0110101)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
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Dozer Demo
Table of Contents
TITLE:
DOZER
VERSION:
This is the 10 level demo version, now available by FTP.
COMPANY:
FastRam Design,
24 Montague Road, Cambridge, CB4 1BX, England.
AUTHOR:
Design and graphics by Dominic Camus,
Code by John Reynolds.
This announcement posted by David Ingram
( dmi1000@phx.cam.ac.uk ) of FastRam Design.
DESCRIPTION:
Dozer is an original puzzle game for the Amiga, in which you
drive a bulldozer around a huge castle. The object of the game
is to catch the monster which is loose inside the castle, by
re-arranging the castle interior to guide it into a trap.
The game is designed primarily to be as playable as possible, and
has a very wide spread of levels from fast and easy to very
puzzling indeed. The Dozer Demo also features various control
methods, easy hard-disk installation, graphical level selector,
passwords, an automatic map and a turbo mode. There are 10
levels in the demo, and the last few in particular should keep
you busy for quite a while.
The complete version of the game can be ordered from FastRam
Design, and includes over 100 levels and many more features.
REQUIREMENTS:
Any PAL Amiga with at least 1 Mb of RAM.
HOST NAME:
Any Aminet site, for example -
UK ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk
Sweden ftp.luth.se 130.240.16.3
USA ftp.wustl.edu 128.252.135.4
DIRECTORY:
/pub/aminet/game/think
FILE NAMES:
Dozer.lha ( 159702 bytes )
Dozer.readme ( 7755 bytes )
DISTRIBUTABILITY:
This version of Dozer is free. You may distribute it wherever
you like, provided you include all the files in an unmodified
form. Help us to spread our game by uploading it to other
networks or public domain disk collections !
PRICE:
A charge of 5 Pounds in the UK or 8 Pounds elsewhere is made for
the full version of the game. Ordering information is included
with the demo version, and we encourage you to try the demo and
find out what Dozer is all about for yourself.
OTHER:
This game was originally created over a period of two years by
the developers, FastRam Design, for a commercial release. The
demo version which appeared on the coverdisk of Amiga Format
magazine recently in the UK is the same as this demo. Sadly,
however, due to a lack of demand for puzzle games ( even good
ones ), Dozer was never published. As a result, FastRam have
agreed to make the demo available on Aminet and to provide the
upgrade offer mentioned above, by which you can order the
complete game.
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TestPatterns Loader V1.1
Table of Contents
TITLE
TestPatterns.loader
VERSION
Version 1.1
AUTHOR
Steve Quartly (steveq@sndcrft.DIALix.oz.au)
DESCRIPTION
This is a simple loader for OpalPaint useful for lining up
monitors etc. It has 2 sets of Colour Bars, Cross Hatch, Dots,
Linearity, Frequency Response, Centering and Grey Scale. The
selected test pattern is loaded directly into OpalPaint. This
loader runs in both PAL and NTSC.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
- Opalvision card.
HOST
Aminet FTP sites (ftp.wustl.edu, ftp.luth.se, etc)
DIRECTORY
pub/aminet/gfx/board
FILENAME
TestPatt_load11.lha - 7201 bytes
PRICE
Free - distribute as much as you like!
DISTRIBUTION
Freely redistributable as long as archive is intact. All
rights reserved. Not to be re-sold, except for duplication/disk
costs ($4 max), or with express written consent from the author.
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Info on the Aminet CD 3
Table of Contents
TITLE
Aminet CD-ROM 3
AUTHOR
Urban D. Mueller (umueller@wuarchive.wustl.edu)
DESCRIPTION
The Aminet CDROM contains all software uploaded to Aminet this year
(ie since the appearance of the Aminet CD 2) plus the 300 most popular
files from the rest. You'll find on the CD:
- About 600M of compressed software (1G uncompressed) in 3200 archives
- Over 1700 applications and utilities
- Over 450 music modules
- Over 350 demos
- Over 200 games
...and much more. Aminet files until June 15th are included.
One of the main features of the CD is an all new AmigaGuide based user
interface. No installation or Shell knowledge required. By a single
click on the archive name in the AmigaGuide index of the CD you can
- Unpack the archive to RAM: or
- View the images in an archive (if it's from pix/) or
- Listen to the modules in an archive (if it's from mods/) or
- Read the text in an archive (if it's from docs/)
A program to search the CD index for keywords is included. It outputs
the same type of unpacking AmigaGuide documents. Also, you can do
searches for programs on previous CD's and global Aminet searches.
You can drag a search kit onto your hard disk to do searches without
having the CD in your drive.
COMPATIBILITY
- Amiga OS versions 1.3, 2.0, 3.0 for the access software
- ISO level 1, ISO level 2 and RockRidge compatible
- All Amigas including CDTV and A570 (disk is not bootable)
CD32 not tested.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
Recommended:
- For the user interface: OS 2.0 or higher, 2M RAM
AVAILABILITY
The CD is not yet available. It's will be shipping by July 31st.
However we'd like to see some preorders in order to estimate the
demand, and the ratio of Aminet Gold vs Aminet Share CD's (see below)
PRICES
The Aminet CD 3 is sold under two different names:
- The Aminet Gold CD 3 costs a bit more, depending on your dealer.
But it includes a donation of $2 for the people who made the CD
possible (mainly me and Matthias Scheler) and for Aminet hardware.
- The Aminet Share CD is about 30% cheaper but doesn't include any
payment for Aminet. You are asked to pay a shareware fee if you
like the CD and want to encourage us to keep going.
You can preorder the CD from (all prices exclude S&H):
Germany
- Aminet Gold from Stefan Ossowski: DM 29.80
subscription: DM 24.80 per CD
- Aminet Share from Stefan Ossowski: DM 19.80
subscription: DM 19.80 per CD
USA
- Aminet Gold from Fred Fish: $19.95
subscription: $14.95 per CD
Please note that the US price is higher than planned, this is due to
the falling exchange rate of the US currency and higher than expected
import taxes.
For details on how to order, read pub/aminet/docs/misc/CD-Orders.txt
on your nearest Aminet host (e.g. wuarchive.wustl.edu).
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VideoMaxe 4.40
Table of Contents
TITLE
VideoMaxe
VERSION = RELEASE
VideoMaxe 04.40, Major Update to 04.33.
COMPANY
none
AUTHOR
Stephan Suerken (s_suerke@informatik.uni-kl.de)
DESCRIPTION
VideoMaxe is a video database that satisfies ALL needs of a
private video user. It has nearly NO `RESTRICTIONS' whatsoever
[all data strings are dynamic, size of projects, mask lists, etc.
are limited by your memory only, etc], HANDLES all CLASSIC
PROBLEMS of a video database [record suggestions, spool
information, any title compression, etc.], adds COMFORT [database
facility, statistics, search routines, customization, etc.] and
it has a COMFORTABLE OS 2.1+ ENVIRONMENT [localized, appl. icon,
online help, etc.].
Installation in English, German. Program in English,
German, French. Documentation in English, German.
NEW FEATURES
Most important 04.40 innovations:
oo Added ONLINE HELP. Simply press HELP in any window and the docs
for that window will pop up.
oo Improved printing:
o using less hazardous printer commands (!)
o too long strings (texts, memos, view texts, etc.) will no
longer be cut to fit into one line, but printed fully
o printer preferences may hold two "Condensed" pitches now
(15 or 17).
o you can change the "Use abbr." flag now locally for printing
o no longer initializing the printer before printing, adding a
gadget to do that manually into the printer window.
oo Added german documentation.
REQUIREMENTS
Any Amiga with OS 2 or better.
HOST NAME
Any Aminet site, such as:
Germany ftp.uni-kl.de pub/aminet/
Switzerland litamiga.epfl.ch pub/aminet/
USA ftp.wustl.edu pub/aminet/
DIRECTORY
biz/dbase
FILE NAME
VideoMaxe440.lha
PRICE & DISTRIBUTABILITY
VideoMaxe (C) Copyright 1989-94 by Stephan Suerken.
ShareWare, 30,- DM resp. 20,- US Dollar to get registered.
Freely distributable but copyrighted; earnest users MUST register.
Registering users "buy" all updates with main version number 4.
(It is very unlikely that there will be a main version 5 in
future...)
Enjoy!
-Stephan, K-Town, 11 Jul 1994
******************************************************************
* Stephan Suerken *
*----------------------------------------------------------------*
* INet: <s_suerke@informatik.uni-kl.de> Voice: 0631-15045 *
*----------------------------------------------------------------*
******************************************************************
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StarWoids V1.0
Table of Contents
TITLE
StarWoids
VERSION
1.0 - 3 level demo.
AUTHORS
Coding: Martin Kift (M.H.Kift@swansea.ac.uk)
Graphics: Rowan Crawford (dljar1@giaeb.cc.monash.edu.au)
Sound: Rob Wells (rewel1@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au)
DISCRIPTION
StarWoids is a ShareWare shoot-em-up game.
The game design is based on Thrust (C64) and Oids (AtariST) but
also contains ideas from many other games such as Asteroids and
X-pilot. Each level presents a different challenge - some are
puzzel based, while others might be pure shoot-em-up or even timed.
The demo version here contains three large, and quite hard, levels.
There is a decent reward if you manage to complete the 3 levels.
FEATURES
o Raytraced intro animation.
o Full StarWars theme music.
o Joystick and/or keyboard control.
o Keyboard configuation saveable to disk.
o Can be played from floppy or hard drive.
o Colourful use of dual playfield mode.
o TOOLTYPE support for turning off music and/or animation.
o Installer support.
o Fantastic playability.
o Fully system friendly.
o Blood! :)
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
StarWoids requires PAL, and at least 1 meg of memory. With only
0.5 meg of chip memory, you will need to disable the music using
the TOOLTYPES. StarWoids should run on any Amiga.
HOST NAME
ftp.ee.pdx.edu /pub/amiga/misc
cekift.swan.ac.uk (UK work hours only)
FILE NAMES
StarWoids1.dms
StarWoids2.dms
PRICE
The demo is free. The full (registrated) version costs 20 Australian
dollars or 10 English pounds. The AmigaGuide document contains full
information.
DISTRIBUTABILITY
StarWoids is copyright (c) Kift-Crawford-Wells. The demo is freely
distributable in both DMS or unpacked form. You may place the demo on
CDs, but Martin, Rowan and Rob must receive one free CD each. If placed
on a CD, it must be in DMS form. No files may be removed or altered.
Full information is in the AmigaGuide document.
--
Rowan Crawford.
dljar1@giaeb.cc.monash.edu.au
I'm prepared to mail it to anyone who can accept two 650k mail packets.
--
The Fishing Report, July 15, 1994
Table of Contents
T H E F I S H I N G R E P O R T
by Fred Fish
Jul 15, 1994
==================
FRESHFISH CD-ROM's
==================
At this point I am completely sold out of the first (Oct 93) and second (Dec
93) FreshFish CD's. The third FreshFish CD (Mar/Apr 94) and fourth
FreshFish CD (May/Jun 94) are still available, but are expected to be sold
out within the next month or two. The fifth FreshFish CD (Jul/Aug 94)
should start shipping about Jul 22nd. Starting with the next FreshFish CD,
we hope to get back on schedule with releases that occur at the beginning of
the month that matches the cover date of the CD.
==============================
GOLDFISH & FROZENFISH CD-ROM's
==============================
It was recently discovered that material included on floppy disks 238, 244,
298, and 355 contained viruses. Considering how long it has been since this
material was released, and that these viruses had not been previously
detected, I decided to simply redo the CD masters and not issue a general
recall of any CD's. Users that have either the original GoldFish or
FrozenFish CD's can upgrade to the remastered version for a $10 upgrade fee,
which includes the cost of the replacement CD plus shipping and handling.
It is not necessary to return the CD if it was ordered directly from me;
simply send in your upgrade request, the upgrade fee, and the name of the
account under which the original CD was ordered.
===================
NEW AMINET CD-ROM's
===================
I am happy to announce that I will be carrying the new Aminet CD's as an
authorized U.S. distributer. Both the Aminet Gold and the Aminet Share will
be available. Subscriptions for both CD's are also available, at $59.95 per
year for the Gold version and $44.95 for the Share version. There are
expected to be four releases per year, so the subscription is actually for 4
CD's, regardless of when they actually end up shipping.
The only physical difference between the Aminet Gold CD and the Aminet Share
CD is the front cover artwork. Built into the price of the Aminet Gold CD
is an automatic contribution to the creators of the CD and sufficient margin
to make the disk attractive to low volume resellers and retail sales
outlets. Users who purchase to the Aminet Share version are expected to
make their own contributions directly to the creators if they feel that the
CD is worthwhile and wish to support creation of future Aminet CD's.
=====================
MEETING PEARLS CD-ROM
=====================
I am happy to announce that I will also be carrying the new Meeting Pearls
CD. This CD contains about 150 high quality and high resolution fractals, a
ready to run version of PasTeX which includes fonts for FAX and 600 dpi
printers, a ready to install version of the Amiga NetBSD port, and many
other ready to run applications including UMS, DaggeX, a lot of utilities,
games, etc. Because the version of NetBSD included on the CD-ROM includes
encryption code that is restricted for U.S export, all imported CD's will
only be available for resale within the U.S.
===========================
FUTURE FLOPPY DISK RELEASES
===========================
Floppy disks after disk 1000 will be produced by Amazing Computing (PIM
Publications) using material from each FreshFish CD. They are expected to
start with the Jul/Aug FreshFish CD, so I anticipate that the first batch of
disks after 1000 should be availabe sometime in August. Contact PIM
Publications directly for further information (1-800-345-3360 voice,
1-508-675-6002 FAX).
===========================
ISO-9660 MASTERING SOFTWARE
===========================
Starting with the March/April FreshFish CD-ROM, I switched mastering
software. I am now using an enhanced version of mkisofs, which was written
by Eric Youngdale, and enhanced by Frank Munkert to make it suitable for
generating the "Amiga flavor" of ISO-9660.
The CD-ROM's produced by mkisofs are 100% compatible with the latest
versions of most 3rd party CD-ROM filesystems, including AmiCDROM, Xetec,
Ralph Babel's, Commodore's 3.1, FastLane, and AsimWare Innovations. Other
products have either not been tested or have been found to be incompatible
for reasons that are not yet clear.
This software is covered by the GPL (GNU General Public License) and I am
working to get the changes folded back into the version maintained by Eric.
The latest version is included on the Jul/Aug 94 FreshFish CD.
======================
ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS
======================
Material for inclusion in the CD-ROM distribution can now be submitted
electronically via anonymous ftp. Please upload your submissions as an lha
archive, one archive per submited program, to the ftp incoming directory on
ftp.amigalib.com. Please include a "Product-Info" file in the lha archive.
This file describes the material using a standard format that is recognized
by the new version of KingFisher and by tools that I use to automatically
generate information about the CD contents. If you don't have a copy of the
Product-Info specification, it can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from
ftp.amigalib.com, in directory pub/amiga.
If you do not have access to anonymous ftp, you can still submit material
electronically by mailing a uuencoded lha archive to
"submissions@amigalib.com".
=================
ELECTRONIC ORDERS
=================
You can email orders to be paid via credit card (VISA or MasterCard only) to
"orders@amigalib.com". All such orders must include the full name of the
card holder, the card number, the expiration date, and a daytime phone
number which can be used to verify the order. We will attempt to
acknowledge all such received orders via return email, and to verify an
unspecified precentage via phone calls.
=================================
SPECIAL BBS VERSION OF FROZENFISH
=================================
By special request from BBS operators, I will be issuing a limited number of
a custom version of the April 1994 FrozenFish CD called "FrozenFish-PC".
This CD will have the complete contents of each floppy disk 1-1000 in a
single archive and all directory and file names will be ISO-9660 level 1
compliant (8.3 format, uppercase only, etc). This means that the CD will be
completely compatible with IBM-PC based systems., unlike my regular Amiga
CD's which are closer to ISO-9660 level 2.
Until the actual demand is known, each copy of this CD will be individually
created as a CD-R "gold disk". If there is sufficient demand for the CD,
then there will be a small production run made and people who received the
CD-R versions can upgrade to the production version for $5 plus shipping
costs. The price of this CD will be $24.95 because of the expected lower
volumes and thus higher production costs per CD.
============================================================================
Name and ____________________________________________________________
Address ____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
Phone Numbers: Home: ________________________ Work: _______________________
(optional)
FAX: ________________________
Email Address: ____________________________________________________________
============================================================================
DESCRIPTION QUANT UNIT COST TOTAL
FreshFish Subscription (1 year, 6 CD's) _____ * $89.95 = _______
FreshFish: ___ Mar/Apr-94 ___ May/Jun-94
___ Jul/Aug-94 ___ Sep/Oct-94
___ Nov/Dec-94 ___ Jan/Feb-95 _____ * $19.95 = _______
FrozenFish: ___Apr-94 ___Oct-94 ___Apr-95 _____ * $19.95 = _______
FrozenFish-PC: (special IBM-PC version) _____ * $24.95 = _______
GoldFish (1000 disk archive - 2 CD set) _____ * $19.95 = _______
Aminet Gold: ___Jul-94 ___Oct-94 ___Jan-95 _____ * $19.95 = _______
Aminet Gold subscription (1 Year, 4 CD's) _____ * $59.95 = _______
Aminet Share: ___Jul-94 ___Oct-94 ___Jan-95 _____ * $11.95 = _______
Aminet Share subscription (1 Year, 4 CD's) _____ * $44.95 = _______
Meeting Pearls (U.S. only, export restricted) _____ * $11.95 = _______
SUB-TOTAL => _________
Shipping and Handling (see note below to calculate) S&H => +_______
TOTAL => _________
============================================================================
SHIPPING AND HANDLING
Add $3.95 per package of up to 4 CD-ROM's for shipping and handling to any
destination. Shipping to USA destinations is via priority mail. Shipping
to international destinations is via small packet airmail. After the first
4 CD's in a package, add $1 for each additional CD. For Federal Express
(USA only) S&H is $12.95 for the first 4 CD's and $2 for each additional CD.
Base Price Additional CD's Total
[ ] Priority Mail $3.95 plus ___ * $1 = _______
or Air Mail
[ ] Federal Express $12.95 plus ___ * $2 = _______
(USA only)
============================================================================
SELECT PAYMENT METHOD DESIRED:
[ ] Cash, check, money order, or bank draft (Payable in U.S. dollars)
[ ] VISA or
[ ] MasterCard Number: ________________________________ Expires: __________
Full Name on Card: ____________________________________________________
Amount to Charge: $__________
I understand that the total amount shown above will be charged to
the above described account upon receipt of order, and that in the
event that not all of the requested CD-ROMs are received in a timely
manner, any unused portion will be fully refundable upon demand.
Sign Here: __________________________________________
============================================================================
Send or FAX your completed order to:
FAX or voice: (602) 917-0917 Amiga Library Services
Voice only: (800) 804-0833 610 N. Alma School Road, Suite 18
Email: orders@amigalib.com Chandler, AZ 85224-3687
============================================================================
--
TimeGuardian 1.0
Table of Contents
TITLE
TimeGuardian
VERSION
1.0
AUTHOR
Gerri Koerner, Markus Matern & Juergen Matern
DESCRIPTION
'TimeGuardian' is a program package with which you can easily
start events, that have to be done at certain times or dates
on your computer. You also can write log files to disk, where
you can see when your computer was switched on.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
Any amiga with WB2.04 or higher.
MUI 2.0 or higher for the preferences
program.
HOST NAME
TimeGuardian is available on aminet.
Uploaded to ftp.uni-kl.de on 5.7.94
DIRECTORY
util/misc
FILE NAMES
TimeGuardian_1.0.lha
TimeGuardian_1.0.readme
TimeGuardian_1.0.fix.lha
TimeGuardian_1.0.fix.readme
PRICE
US$ 15 or DM 20.-
DISTRIBUTABILITY
TimeGuardian is shareware, look at its documentation
for further information.
OTHER
Take a close look at it ;-)
--
Origins V2.0 Demo
Table of Contents
TITLE
Origins II
VERSION
Demo V 2.00
DESCRIPTION
The demo version of the recently announced Release II of Origins.
Origins II is a dedicated data base for keeping track of genealogical
information. It will support databases of over 6 million individuals.
The user interface is designed to be both easy to use and very powerful.
Origins will correctly handle multiple marriages, step-children,
unmarried parents, and other difficult situations that some programs
refuse to allow. Origins lists Persons, Marriages, Parent/Child Index,
Ahnentafel, and Soundex. It generates reports on Persons, Family
Groups, Pedigree Chart, Descendants Charts, and Tiny-Tafel.
Context-sensitive hypertext help is built in. Origins can automatic-
ally call your ARexx-compatible editor to create Source and Note files.
These files may also be written and displayed in hypertext format.
You can search on any combination of fields or by Soundex codes. You
can instantly display IFF (ILBM) pictures of individuals, marriages,
baptisms, and family groups.
You can import and export data between Origins and other genealogical
programs using the GEDCOM file format, and you can generate Tiny-Tafel
listings for use with the Tafel Matching System. Many useful ARexx
functions are included.
A single floppy data disk will hold approximately 2000 person and 500
marriage records. Origins is not LDS compatible.
NEW FEATURES
Installation is now very easy. The user interface is improved. For
example, localization support displays all information in your chosen
language (German available now, with French, Italian, and Spanish
planned), and the graphical interface is now laid out dynamically,
relative to your system overscan preferences. Online help has been
expanded to include virtually all gadgets and menu items.
AmigaDOS style pattern matching is now implemented in searches.
Two new date formats have been added, so you may now specify events
as happening before or after a certain year. Macro Keys allow
you to enter long strings with a single keystroke.
Some reports have been significantly improved, and a new descendant
report in the general style of the New England Historical and
Genealogical Register format has been added.
Record caching has been added, making the access times much faster for
all complex functions, especially sorts.
WHERE TO GET THE DEMO
Available for anonymous ftp on Aminet, for example ftp.cdrom.com
(192.153.46.2). It's in the directory /pub/aminet/biz/demo, and the
file name is Origins2.lha (147823 bytes).
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
Origins requires V2.0 or later of the Amiga OS, at least 1 megabyte
of ram, and 2 floppy drives or hard disk.
PRICE
The demo is free. Full version is US$85 + shipping. Ground shipping
is included in the U.S. and Canada. Others please call.
COMPANY
The Puzzle Factory, Inc. Voice: (800) 828-9952 - Orders only
P.O. Box 986 (503) 935-3709 - Questions/support
Veneta, OR 97487 BBS: (503) 935-7883
USA Internet: jlavin@efn.org
In Europe, contact:
Helios Software Voice: +(623) 554828
163 Huthwaite Road
Sutton-in-Ashfield
Nottinghamshire NG17 2HB
UK
DISTRIBUTABILITY
Demo is freely distributable. Copyright 1994 The Puzzle Factory, Inc.
OTHER
Origins and Origins II are trademarks of The Puzzle Factory, Inc.
Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc.
SUBMITTER
Doug Sears <dsears@efn.org>. I work with The Puzzle
Factory, and submitted this at their request.
--
InfraRexx 1.2
Table of Contents
TITLE
InfraRexx
(and InfraJoy hardware design)
VERSION
1.2
(InfraJoy version 3)
RELEASE DATE
15-Jul-94
AUTHORS
Leon Woestenberg (leon@stack.urc.tue.nl)
Jeroen Steenblik (jeroens@stack.urc.tue.nl)
DESCRIPTION
The InfraRexx software along with the InfraJoy hardware serve as an
ARexx-Infrared interface, that adds the function of an infrared
remote controller to your Amiga, and more.
With this software and hardware you can:
o Control external audio/video devices via ARexx commands.
o Control Amiga programs via a common remote control unit.
o Learn and edit new remote control infrared commands.
For example you can control a moduleplayer via your compact
disc player remote control unit. Or, control your video tape
recorder via a graphic user interface.
The main features are:
o Seperate editor (with learner) and ARexx host commodity.
o Multitasking-friendly infrared sampling monitor, with very
low system overhead during monitoring, can also be disabled.
o Font-sensitive, style-compliant graphic user interface.
o Localization for Workbench 2.1 users, and newlook menus for
Kickstart 3.x users.
o Lowcost hardware for joystickport, with optional throughput.
o Uses the Amiga Installer Utility to install onto (hard)disk.
CHANGES
o Improved hardware design, with new plans and instructions.
o InfraRexx programs support all current hardware versions.
o Waitpointer during busy times. Learn function timeout.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
InfraRexx needs at least AmigaOS version 2.04, and the commodity
needs ARexx Master to be running in order to be useful. The
software is useless without the small InfraJoy hardware add-on,
off which the design and full building instructions are included.
The hardware can also be ordered from one of the authors.
HOST NAME
Aminet FTP servers, like ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk (146.169.2.1)
DIRECTORY
/pub/aminet/util/rexx
FILE NAME
InfraRexx1.2.lha (97326 bytes)
PRICE
Free. The optional registration fee is US$10. The required
hardware costs about US$8 if self-built, but can also be ordered
for the amount of US$16, which provides free registration.
DISTRIBUTABILITY
Freeware; freely distributable software and hardware design.
InfraRexx Copyrights 1994 by Leon Woestenberg. InfraJoy hardware
design Copyrights 1994 by Jeroen Steenblik and Leon Woestenberg.
--
Waiting for AAA; The Advanced Amiga Adoption
Leon Woestenberg (leon@stack.urc.tue.nl)
--
FlexCat V1.3
Table of Contents
TITLE
FlexCat - The flexible catalog generator
VERSION
1.3; see CHANGES below
AUTHOR
Jochen Wiedmann
E-Mail: wiedmann@mailserv.zdv.uni-tuebingen.de
DESCRIPTION
Since OS 2.1 the Amiga offers a way to make programs run in
different language, the locale.library. The most important
part of the locale.library are the so-called catalogs which
contain the strings of one language. (Usually found in
Locale:Catalogs/<your-language>/<program-name>.catalog.)
::
Commodore offers a program called CatComp, which creates
these catalogs and some C-source, which makes using them
much simpler. FlexCat is a CatComp-replacement. The
difference between FlexCat and CatComp (as well as some
other replacements, KitCat for example) is, that FlexCat is
flexible in the generated source: Any programming language,
any individual needs should be satisfied. However, FlexCat is
not more difficult to use.
This sounds like a contradiction. FlexCat's solution is to
use template files, the so called "source descriptions". Ready
to use examples for Assembler, C, C++, E, Oberon and Modula-2
are distributed, additionally an example for supporting catalogs
on Workbench 2.0. Any other examples are welcome.
CHANGES
V1.1: Bug fixes
Added E support
Added French catalogs
V1.2: Bug fix in the E source generator
V1.3: Bug fixes again (at least one severe)
Improved the speed of the GetString function
Added C++ and Modula-2 source descriptions
Added Spanish docs
Added spanish and schwaebisch catalogs
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
An Amiga :-)
HOST NAME
FTP/Internet: AmiNet (ftp.wustl.edu) and mirrors
DIRECTORY
pub/aminet/dev/misc
FILE NAMES
flexcat1_3.lha
DISTRIBUTABILITY
Freely distributable, Copyright by the author, subject to the
GNU General Public License.
--
Portal
Table of Contents
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Portal: A Great Place For Amiga Users %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Portal Communications' Amiga Zone
The AFFORDABLE alternative for online Amiga information
-------------------------------------------------------
The Portal Online System is the home of acclaimed Amiga Zone, which was
formerly on the People/Link System. Plink went out of business in May,
1991 and The Amiga Zone's staff moved to Portal the next day. The Zone has
just celebrated its second anniversary on Portal. The Amiga press raves
about The Amiga Zone, when compared to its competition.
If you live in the San Jose, CA area, then you can dial Portal directly. If
you live elsewhere, you can reach Portal through any SprintNet (formerly
Telenet) indial anywhere in the USA. If you have an account on another
Internet-connected system, you can connect to Portal using the UNIX Telnet
programs, from anywhere in the industrialized world. Delphi and BIX users
can now Telnet into Portal for a flat $19.95 a month, with *unlimited* use.
Some of Portal/Amiga Zone's amazing features include:
Over 1.5 GIGabytes of Amiga-specific files
The *entire* Fred Fish collection of freely distributable software, online.
Fast, Batch Zmodem file transfer protocol. Download up to 100 files at
once, of any size, with one command.
Twenty Amiga vendor areas with participants like AmigaWorld, ASDG,
Soft-Logik, Black Belt, Apex Publishing, Stylus, Prolific, NES.
35 "regular" Amiga libraries with thousands of files. Hot new
stuff arrives daily.
No upload/download "ratios" EVER. Download as much as you want, as
often as you want, and never feel pressued doing it.
Live, interactive nightly chats with Amiga folks whose names you
will recognize. Special conferences. Random chance prize contests.
Famous Amiga folks aren't the exception on Portal, they're the norm.
Vast Message bases where you can ask questions about *anything*
Amiga related and get quick replies from the experts.
Amiga Internet mailing lists for Imagine, DCTV, LightWave, HyperAmi,
Director and Landscapes are fed right into the Zone message bases.
Read months worth of postings. They don't scroll off, ever!
No need to clutter your mailbox with them.
FREE unlimited Internet Email. Your Portal account gets you a
mailbox that's connected to the world. Send letters of any length to
computer users in the entire industrialized world. No limits.
No extra charges. No kidding!
Portal has the Usenet. Thousands of "newsgroups" in which
you can read and post articles about virtually any subject you can
possibly imagine.
Other Portal SIGs (Special Interest Groups) online for Mac, IBM, Sun,
NeXT, UNIX, Science Fiction, Writers, amateur radio, and a graphics
SIG with thousands of GIF files to name just a few. ALL Portal SIGs
are accessible to ALL Portal customers with NO surcharges ever.
The entire UPI/Clarinet/Newsbytes news hierarchy ($4/month extra)
An entire general interest newspaper and computer news magazine.
Portal featues an exciting package of Internet features: IRC, FTP,
TELNET, MUDS, LIBS. Free to all Portal customers with your account.
Internet Services is a menu driven version of the same kinds of
utilities you can also use from your Portal UNIX shell account.
All the files you can FTP. All the chatting you can stand on the IRC.
And on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) you can talk live, in real time
with Amiga users in the U.K., Europe, Australia, the Far East,
24 hours a day.
Our exclusive PortalX by Steve Tibbett, the graphical "front end"
for Portal which will let you automatically click'n'download your
waiting email, messages, Usenet groups and binary files! Reply to mail
and messages offline using your favorite editor and your replies are
sent automatically the next time you log into Portal.
(PortalX requires Workbench 2.04 or higher)
And Portal does NOT stick it to high speed modem users. Whether
you log in at 1200 or 2400 or 9600 or 14.4K you pay the same low
price.
How does all that sound? Probably too good to be true. Well, it IS true.
Portal Signup or for more information:
408-973-9111 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time
408-725-0561 (modem 3/12/2400) 24 hours every day
408-973-8091 (modem 9600/14400) 24 hours every day
or enter "C PORTAL" from any Sprintnet dial-in in the USA,
or telnet to "portal.com" from anywhere.
PORTAL'S CURRENT RATES:
All prices shown are in U.S. Dollars
Total Total Total Total
Cost Cost Cost Cost
Fee 1 hr. 5 hrs. 10 hrs.30 hrs.
Startup Monthly Per Per per per per
Fee Fee Hour month month month month
$ $ $ $ $ $ $
Portal 19.95 19.95
2400/9600/14.4Kbps, *direct 24 hrs 0.00 19.95 19.95 19.95 19.95
2400/9600bps nonprime Sprint 2.50 22.95 32.45 44.95 94.95
2400/9600bps prime Sprint +% 5.50-10 29.95 69.95 119.95 varies
2400/9600bps non prime # PCPursuit 1.00 20.95 24.95 29.95 49.95
* plus cost of phone call if out of Portal's local dialing area
Direct rates also apply to connections made to Portal using the
UNIX "telnet" program from an account you may already
have on an Internet-connected system.
% 9600 bps Sprintnet in over 300 cities areas
+ $10 rate prevails at smaller US Cities
# PCPursuit is a service of US Sprint. Portal is a PCPursuit
"Direct Access Facility" thus connection to Portal with a PCP account
is simply a matter of entering C PORTAL,PCP-ID,PCP-PASSWORD at the
SprintNet login prompt instead of C PORTAL.
Note:
Portal Direct 9600/14400 bps service is availble for both USR HST
modems, and any V32/V32.bis modems. There are dozens of direct-dial
high speed lines into Portal. No busy signals!
SprintNet 9600bps service is V.32 modem protocol only.
Again, Portal does NOT surcharge high speed modem users!
Portal subscribers who already have an account on an Internet-capable
system elsewhere, can use that system's "telnet" program
to connect to Portal for $0.00 an hour. That's right ZERO. From anywhere
in the world. If you're in this category, be sure to ask the Portal
reps, when you signup, how to login to Portal from your existing
Internet account.
Call and join today. Tell the friendly Portal Customer Service
representative, "The Amiga Zone and Amiga Report sent me!"
[Editor's Note: Be sure to tell them that you are an Amiga user, so
they can notify the AmigaZone sysops to send their Welcome Letter and
other information!]
That number again: 408-973-9111.
Portal Communications accepts MasterCard, Visa, or you can pre-pay any
amount by personal check or money order. The Portal Online System is
a trademark of Portal Communications.
Dealer Directory
Table of Contents
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Dealer Directory %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Almathera Systems Ltd
Southerton House
Boundary Business Court
92-94 Church Road
Mitcham, Surrey
CR4 3TD England
VOICE: (UK) 081 687 0040
FAX: (UK) 081 687 0490
Internet: (Sales) almathera@cix.compulink.co.uk
(Technical) jralph@cix.compulink.co.uk
Amigability Computers
P.O. Box 572
Plantsville, CT 06479
VOICE: 203-276-8175
Internet: amiga@phantm.UUCP
BIX: jbasile
(Send E-mail to subscribe to our mailing list)
Apogee Technologies
1851 University Parkway
Sarasota, FL 34243
VOICE: 813-355-6121
Portal: Apogee
Internet: Apogee@cup.portal.com
Armadillo Brothers
753 East 3300 South
Salt Lake City, Utah
VOICE: 801-484-2791
Internet: B.GRAY@genie.geis.com
Atlantis Kobetek Inc.
1496 Lower Water St.
Halifax, NS, Canada, B3J 1R9
Phone: (902)-422-6556
Fax: (902)-423-9339
BBS: (902)-492-1544
Internet: aperusse@fox.nstn.ns.ca
Brian Fowler Computers Ltd
11 North St
Exeter
Devon
EX4 3QS
United Kingdom
Voice: (0392) 499 755
Fax: (0392) 423 480
Internet: brian_fowler@cix.compulink.co.uk
CLICK! Amiga Specialists N.V.
Boomsesteenweg 468
B-2610 Wilrijk - Antwerpen
Belgium - Europe
VOICE: 03 / 828.18.15
FAX: 03 / 828.67.36
USENET: vanhoutv@click.augfl.be
FIDO: 2:292/603.9
AmigaNet: 39:120/102.9
Comspec Communications Inc
Serving your computing needs since 1976
74 Wingold Ave
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M6B 1P5
Computer Centre: (416) 785-8348
Service, Corporate & Educational Sales: (416) 785-3553
Fax: 416-785-3668
Internet: bryanf@comcorp.comspec.com
bryanf@accesspt.north.net
Computers International, Inc.
5415 Hixson Pike
Chattanooga, TN 37343
VOICE: 615-843-0630
DataKompaniet ANS
Pb 3187 Munkvoll
N-7002 Trondheim
Norway - Europe
VOICE/FAX: 72 555 149
Internet: torrunes@idt.unit.no
Digital Arts
122 West 6th Street
Bloomington, IN 47404
VOICE: (812)330-0124
FAX: (812)330-0126
BIX: msears
Finetastic Computers
721 Washington Street
Norwood, MA 02062
VOICE: 617-762-4166
BBS: 617-769-3172
Fido: 1:101/322
Portal: FinetasticComputers
Internet: FinetasticComputers@cup.portal.com
HT Electronics
275 North Mathilda Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
VOICE: 408-737-0900
FAX: 408-245-3109
Portal: HT Electronics
Internet: HT Electronics@cup.portal.com
Industrial Video, Inc.
1601 North Ridge Rd.
Lorain, OH 44055
VOICE: 800-362-6150
216-233-4000
Internet: af741@cleveland.freenet.edu
Contact: John Gray
MicroSearch
9000 US 59 South, Suite 330
Houston, Texas
VOICE: 713-988-2818
FAX: 713-995-4994
Mr. Hardware Computers
P.O. Box 148
59 Storey Ave.
Central Islip, NY 11722
VOICE: 516-234-8110
FAX: 516-234-8110
A.M.U.G. BBS: 516-234-6046
MusicMart: Media Sound & Vision
71 Wellington Road
London, Ontario, Canada
VOICE: 519-434-4162
FAX: 519-663-8074
BBS: 519-645-2144
FIDO: 1:2401/200
AmigaNet: 40:550/1
MaxNet: 90:204/1
InterNet: koops@gaul.csd.uwo.ca
PSI Animations
17924 SW Pilkington Road
Lake Oswego, OR 97035
VOICE: 503-624-8185
Internet: PSIANIM@agora.rain.com
Software Plus Chicago
3100 W Peterson Avenue
Chicago, Illinois
VOICE: 312-338-6100
Wonder Computers Inc.
1315 Richmond Rd.
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2B 8J7
Voice: 613-596-2542
Fax: 613-596-9349
BBS: 613-829-0909
CYNOSTIC
Office O1,
Little Heath Industrial Estate,
Old Church Road,
Coventry.
CV6 7NB
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel: +44 (0)203 681687
Fax: +44 (0)203 638508
David Cassidy email: bsupa@csv.warwick.ac.uk
DataService Oy
P.O. Box 50
Kuurinniityntie 30
02771 ESPOO
Findland, Europe
Voice: +358 (9) 400 438 301
Fax: +358 (9) 0505 0037
PROTONIC INC.
Amiga RuleZ!
4-3-11 Shinbashi
Yanagi Bldg 4F
Minato-ku,Tokyo 105
Japan
Tel:+81 (0)3 5402-7425
Fax:+81 (0)3 5402-7427
and of course the BEST Amiga BBS in Japan
BBS:Grey Matter BBS +81 (0)3 5709-1907 (8N1 V32bis 24H )
Email: nighty@gmatter.twics.com
Amiga Video Solutions
1568 Randolph Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55105
Voice: 612-698-1175
BBS: 612-698-1918
Fax: 612-224-3823
Net: wohno001@maroon.tc.umn.edu
Magic Page
3043 Luther Street
Winston-Salem, NC 27127
910-785-3695 voice/fax
Spiff@cup.portal.com
Keizer Tech
3881 River Rd N
Keizer, OR 97303
USA
Voice: 393-5472
Computer Link
Your Amiga/PC connection.
6573 middlebelt
Garden City MI 48135
USA
313-522-6005 Voice
313-522-3119 Fax
clink@m-net.arbornet.org
(Dealers: To have your name added, please send Email!)
BIX
Table of Contents
/// BIX - Byte Information Exchange Lots of information!
-------------------------------
BIX is the premier online service for computing professionals and enthusiasts.
While other online services cater to computer novices, BIX is the place for
knowledgeable people to go for answers to tough questions. You're likely
to find many others in similar situations who can offer advice, give
technical assistance, or point you in the right direction.
*** FULL INTERNET ACCESS! ***
BIX features access to the Internet - you can use FTP to transfer
files from sites all over the world, telnet to log on to other online
services, schools, and research sites, and send Internet mail to millions
of people at services like DELPHI, CompuServe, America Online, MCI Mail,
and other sites and services. Services like "WHOIS" and "Finger" are
also available, with more features on the way (like USENET newsgroups;
our newsreader is currently being tested and should be available very
soon!) There are no usage fees or special charges for Internet access -
it's all part of your BIX subscription.
==============================
Rates and Connect Information:
==============================
BIX membership costs $13 per month, plus connect time. There are several
different ways to connect:
SprintNet* $3/hour evenings/weekends $9/hour weekdays
Tymnet:** $3/hour evenings/weekends $9/hour weekdays
(SprintNet and Tyment rates shown are for 48 contiguous US states only.)
Tymnet Canada: $4/hr eves/wkends $9/hour weekdays
Tymnet Hawaii: $10/hr eves/wkends $20/hour weekdays
Telnet(via Internet): $1/hour, round the clock
Direct dial (Boston): $2/hour, round the clock (up to 9600 bps)
* SprintNet daytime hours are from 6am to 7pm, M-F, ET.
** Tymnet daytime hours are from 7am to 6pm, M-F, ET.
20/20 PLAN OPTION (for USA-48 users only):
Volume users can choose the 20/20 Advantage Plan, which is $20 per month
and includes the first 20 hours of access by any combination of methods
from the contiguous United States. Additional use is $1.80 per hour
(additional use for telnet access is $1 an hour). The 20/20 Plan's cost is
in addition to the $13 monthly fee.
INTERNATIONAL USERS:
If you wish to connect internationally through Tymnet or SprintNet,
please contact your local PTT. BIX accepts prepaid international calls,
direct dial, or telnet connections. In order to make a "collect" (not
prepaid) call to BIX, your account must be verified before the charges
are accepted. When you complete the registration, we'll mail you a BIX
Membership Agreement by regular US Mail. Whe you receive it, sign it
and return it to us by mail. When we receive it here, we'll authorize
your account to make reverse charged calls.
If you want to access BIX right away, contact your local PTT to set up a
prepaid account. You'll pay your local carrier for your calls to BIX in
advance, so there's no waiting period or verfication needed. Or, connect
at BIX via telnet to x25.bix.com.
SprintNet international calls from most locations are $24 an hour.
Tymnet international charges vary, but are generally between $20-$30 an hour.
====================
Billing Information:
====================
You can charge your monthly BIX membership fees to your Visa,
Mastercard, Discover, or American Express card.
You may have your company invoiced for one or more BIX memberships with
a BIX Corporate Account.
===================
To Sign Up For BIX:
===================
Dial by modem 1-800-695-4882 or 617-491-5410 *
(use 8 data bits, no parity, full duplex)
Press a few carriage returns until you see the Login:(enter "bix")
prompt, then type bix
At the Name? prompt, type bix.amrpt
* Users already on the internet can telnet to x25.bix.com instead.
At the USERNAME: prompt enter bix, then bix.net at the Name? prompt.
Once your account is registered, you can connect the same way, except
at the Name? prompt you'll enter your BIXname and then your password.
Using the above procedure will allow users in the 48 contiguous United
States to take advantage of our special "5 for $5" offer. This offer
lets you use up to 5 hours of evening/weekend time on BIX during the
current calender month (whatever month you sign up in), for $5.
Additional time is $1.80 per hour ($1 per hour for telnet). At the end
of the calender month, you will be placed into our standard rate plan,
at $13 monthly plus connect charges. You may also join the 20/20 Plan
at this time.
If you have other questions, please contact BIX Member Services
at (800) 695-4775; send a fax to BIX at (617) 491-6642; or send Internet
mail to info@bix.com.
BIX Member Services hours are 12pm - 11pm, Monday through Friday, ET.
DriveTest 1.0
Table of Contents
TITLE
DriveTest
VERSION
Version 1.0
AUTHOR
Michal Kara
Krosenska 543
Praha 8 - Troja
181 00
CZECH REPUBLIC
E-Mail: lemming@k332.feld.cvut.cz
DESCRIPTION
Have you ever connected to Amiga or repaired an external drive? If so,
you discovered that you need to know, what is drive signalizing to Amiga and
sometimes you need send certain signals or sequence of signals to the drive.
This program was written for these occasions.
Program has GUI - signals are controled using gadgets, received signals
are displayed as 'pseudogadgets'. You can directly control all eight signals
of the drives (MOTOR, SIDE, DIR, STEP and SELECT 0-3) and you see what is
physical level of four signals (READY, TRACK0, WR PROT and CHANGE) Amiga's
receiving.
Although it's directly accessing hardware registers, it's as clean as
possible, because it allocates all units by disk.resource. There may be
little dislike that it slows down computer, because it looks ten-times per
second for any change of received signals, but it's necessary.
NOTE: Signals are displayed 'as is' using their physical (not logical!)
level ("What can you measure by V-meter").
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
Kickstart 2.0+
igs.library and ss.library (included in package)
HOST NAME
Any Aminet host, i.e. ftp.uni-erlangen.de (131.188.1.43).
DIRECTORY
/pub/aminet/hard/test
FILE NAMES
DriveTest.lha (16095 bytes)
PRICE
Free.
DISTRIBUTABILITY
The archive is freely distributable as long as the archive remains
intact and only a nominal fee is charged for its distribution.
avmNfax 1.33
Table of Contents
TITLE
avmNfax (Advanced Voice Mail and Fax)
VERSION
1.33
COMPANY
SoftWorx
AUTHOR
Al Villarica
rvillari@cat.syr.edu
DESCRIPTION
Use your ZyXEL, LineLink, Dolphin,
or Rockwell based voice modem (Supras are
*not yet* supported) for voicemail or as a
simple answering machine with fax capabilities.
This version includes EFax, which handles Class 1
and Class 2 modems. This fax capability can be
used even if you don't have a voice-capable modem
(e.g. Supra LC). Of course, if you do have a voice
capable modem, then you get faxing and voicemail
capabilities.
If you already own GPFax or TrapFax, you can still
use those programs in lieu of EFax.
NEW FEATURES
There are too many new features to list here.
The most prominent one is the inclusion of EFax
with the archive.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
o Hard disk,
o a voice capable modem (ZyXEL with 5.02 ROMs or greater),
a LineLink 144e, an MTD Dolphin, or a Rockwell based
voice modem (such as the Zoom 14.4v)
o or, if you don't have a voice capable modem but have a
Class 1 or Class 2 fax modem (i.e. Supra LC,
Supra 14.4), you can still use the fax capabilities.
o 2.04 AmigaDOS or greater,
o MUI 1.4 or greater,
HOST NAME
wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4)
ftp.cdrom.com (192.216.222.5)
ftp.luth.se (130.240.18.2)
or any other aminet mirror
DIRECTORY
/pub/aminet/comm/misc
FILE NAMES
avmNfax1.33.lha
avmNfaxsrc1.33.lha
AVMVEngADPCM2.lha (pre-recorded English voice
files for the ZyXELs. Note: This is an old
set of voice files. You may need to
re-record some of the old voices and record
some new ones. Also, if you upgraded your
Zyxel roms to 6.12, you will need to run
some conversion program that is supplied with
the avmNfax archive.)
AVMVLLEng1.19.lha (pre-recorded English voice
files for the LineLinks)
PRICE
Shareware (price ranges from US$20 to US$50,
depending on what you want).
DISTRIBUTABILITY
This is Shareware, but you are free to upload the
archives listed above to any BBS, service provider
(Compuserve, Genie, etc.).
In Closing
Table of Contents
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% _ _ __ ___ _ %%
%% /\\ |\\ /| || // \ /\\ %%
%% / \\ | \\ /|| ||(< __ / \\ %%
%% /--- \\| \/ || || \\_||/--- \\ %%
%% /______________________________\\ %%
%% / \\ %%
%% Amiga Report International Online Magazine %%
%% July 21, 1994 ~ Issue No. 2.22 %%
%% Copyright 1994 SkyNet Publications %%
%% All Rights Reserved %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Views, Opinions and Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of
the editors and staff of Amiga Report International Online Magazine or of
STR Publications. Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless
otherwise noted. Reprints must, without exception, include the name of the
publication, date, issue number and the author's name. Amiga Report and/or
portions therein may not be edited in any way without prior written per-
mission. However, translation into a language other than English is accept-
ble, provided the original meaning is not altered. Amiga Report may be dis-
tributed on privately owned not-for-profit bulletin board systems (fees to
cover cost of operation are acceptable), and major online services such as
(but not limited to) Delphi and Portal. Distribution on public domain
disks is acceptable provided proceeds are only to cover the cost of the
disk (e.g. no more than $5 US). Distribution on for-profit magazine cover
disks requires written permission from the editor or publisher. Amiga
Report is a not-for-profit publication. Amiga Report, at the time of pub-
ication, is believed reasonably accurate. Amiga Report, its staff and con-
ributors are not and cannot be held responsible for the use or misuse of
information contained herein or the results obtained there from. Amiga
Report is not affiliated with Commodore-Amiga, Inc., Commodore Business
Machines, Ltd., or any other Amiga publication in any way. All items quoted
in whole or in part are done so under the Fair Use Provision of the Copy-
right Laws of the United States Penal Code. Any Electronic Mail sent to
the editors may be reprinted, in whole or in part, without any previous
permission of the author, unless said electronic mail specifically requests
not to be reprinted.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
RIP Commodore: From Byte
Table of Contents
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% R.I.P. COMMODORE 1954 - 1994 By: Tom R. Halfhill %%
%% BYTE Magazine %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
[Emulation Ed's note: Amiga Report feels that the use of this article is
not only a legal Fair Use of copyrighted material, but that is important
for Amiga and Commodore users to read. Taken from BYTE Magazine, August
1994.]
"Obituaries customarily focus on the deceased's accomplishments, not
the unpleasant details of the demise. That's especially true when the
demise hint's strongly of self-neglect tantamount to suicide, and nobody
can find a note that offers some final explanation.
There will be no such note from Commodore, and it would take a book
to explain why this once-great computer company lies cold on its deathbed.
But Commodore deserves a eulogy, because its role as an industry pioneer
has been largely forgotten or ignored by revisionist historians who claim
that everything started with Apple or IBM. Commodore's passing also recalls
an era when conformity to standards wasn't the yardstick by which all
innovation was measured.
In the 1970s and early 1980s, when Commodore peaked as a billion-dollar
company, the young computer industry wasn't dominated by standards that
dictated design parameters. Engineers had much more latitude to explore
new directions. Users tended to be hobbyists who prized the latest
technology over backward compatibility. As a result, the market tolerated
a wild proliferation of computers based on many different processors,
architectures, and operating systems.
Commodore was at the forefront of this revolution. In 1977, the first
three consumer-ready personal computers appeared: the Apple II, the Tandy
TRS-80, and the Commodore PET (Personal Electronic Transactor). Chuck
Peddle, who designed the PET, isn't as famous as Steve Wozniak and Steve
Jobs, the founders of Apple. But his distinctive computer with a built-in
monitor, tape drive, and trapezoidal case was a bargain at $795. It
established Commodore as a major player.
The soul of Commodore was Jack Tramiel, an Auschwitz survivor who
founded the company as a typewriter-repair service in 1954. Tramiel was
an aggressive businessman who did not shy away from price wars with unwary
competitors. His slogan was "computers for the masses, not the classes."
In what may be Commodore's most lasting legacy, Tramiel drove his
engineers to make computers that anyone could afford. This was years before
PC clones arrived. More than anyone else, Tramiel is responsible for our
expectation that computer technology should keep getting cheaper and better.
While shortsighted critics kept asking what these machines were good for,
Commodore introduced millions of people to personal computing. Today, I
keep running into those earliest adopters at leading technology companies.
Commodore's VIC-20, introduced in 1981, was the first color computer
that cost under $300. VIC-20 production hit 9000 units per day - a run rate
that's enviable now, and was phenomenal back then. Next came the Commodore
64 (1982), almost certainly the best-selling computer model of all time.
Ex-Commodorian Andy Finkel estimates that sales totaled between 17 and 22
million units. That's more than all Mac's put together, and it dwarfs IBM's
top-selling systems. the PC and the AT.
Commodore made significant technological contributions as well. The 64
was the first computer with a synthesizer chip (the Sound Interface Device,
designed by Bob Yannes). The SX-64 (1983) was the firt color portable, and
the Plus/4 (1984) had integrated software in ROM.
But Commodore's high point was the Amiga 1000 (1985). The Amiga was so
far ahead of its time that almost nobody - including Commodore's marketing
department - could fully articulate what it was all about. Today, it is
obvious the Amiga was the first multimedia computer, but in those days it
was derided as a game machine because few people grasped the importance of
advanced graphics, sound, and video. Nine years later, vendors are still
struggling to make systems that work like 1985 Amigas.
At a time when PC users thought 16-color EGA was hot stuff, the Amiga
could display 4096 colors and had custom chips to acclerate video. It had
built-in video outputs for tv's and VCRs, still a pricey option on most of
today's systems. It had four-voice, sampled stereo sound and was the first
computer with built-in speech synthesis and text-to-speech conversion. And
it's still the only system that can display multiple screen at different
resolutions on a single monitor.
Even more amazing was the Amiga's operating system, which was designed
by Carl Sassenrath. From the outset, it had preemptive multitasking,
messaging, scripting, a GUI, and multitasking command-line concoles.
Today's Windows and Mac users are still waiting for some of those features.
On top of that, it ran on a $1200 machine with only 256 KB of RAM.
We may never see another breakthrough computer like the Amiga. I value
my software investment as much as anyone, but I realize comes at a price.
Technology that breaks clean with the past is increasingly rare, and rogue
companies like Commodore that thrived in the frontier days just don't seem
to fit anymore."
Columns and Features
Table of Contents
From the Editor's Desk Saying it like it is!
Amiga News News and Announcements
Reader Mail The lines buzz hotly...
compt.sys.amiga A chat with Duncan Fraser
Video Creator A review of the CD32 disc...
Confusion... Confusion in the MOD scene
Innocent Until Caught A review of the adventure...
Sunrize/Studio 16 Another review: sound and music!
Infochannel/Channel 4k An overview and review
Second Samurai Review! Second Samurai!
AR Contest Can't win if you don't play.
Project Fantasy? One observer's opinion...
AR Coverdisk info! All right! New Coverdisk info!
Around the Coyote Information on an innovative show
RIP Commodore Byte Magazine's view on the end
The Humor Department Because we could all use a laugh
Final words... Just a note from Compton
About Amiga Report
Table of Contents
For Starters Where to get AMIGA REPORT
AR Staff The Editors
In Closing Copyright Information
The Editors
Feel free to contact any of the editors!
Robert Niles The Editor-in-chief
Jason Compton The Emulation Editor
Jesper Juul The European Editor
David Tiberio Contributing Editor
Commercial Online Services
Table of Contents
Delphi Getting better all the time!
Portal A great place for Amiga users...
InterNet Subscribe to the AR Mailing List
BIX For Serious Programmers and Developers
Files Available for FTP
Table of Contents
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Shepherd A "god" game in Shareware
Dozer Demo A new, original puzzle game
TestPatterns An OpalPaint nicety
Aminet CD 3 Info on the new CD...
VideoMaxe V4.4, a major update to the database
StarWoids 1.0, a new Shareware game
Fishing Rep. Fred Fish updates Amigans
TimeGuardian 1.0, "more than a cron program".
Origins 2.0 A new version of the geneology prog
InfraRexx An external Arexx control system
FlexCat 1.3 A quick way to work with locale...
Drivetest A floppy drive diagnostic tool
avmNfax 1.33 Voice mail/answering program
-----------------------------------------
NOVA
Table of Contents
* NOVA BBS *
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
Support BBS of The Chattanooga Amiga Users Group
* Running MEBBSNet BBS *
Wayne Stonecipher, Sysop
AmigaNet 40:210/10.0 40:210/1.0 40:210/0.0
FidoNet 1:362/508.0
An Amiga Software Distribution Site (ADS)
615-472-9748 USR DS 16.8 24hrs - 7 days
Cleveland, Tennessee
All AR back issues are kept online.
All new users receive access to the AR on the first call.
Any AR issue may be file requested with proper name.
To obtain the current issue you may FReq
Proper name, AR.LHA or simply AR
------------------------------------------
In The MeanTime
Table of Contents
*** System down temporarily -- Don't call except for FAX ***
* IN THE MEANTIME BBS *
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
* Running AXShell *
Robert Niles, Sysop
rniles@imtired.itm.com
509-248-5645 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days
Yakima, Washington
******* Notice *******
Those who call for the latest edition of Amiga Report, and who do not with
to establish an account, at the first login: prompt type "bbs", at the
second login: prompt type "guest".
Once in type "ARMAG" (without the quotes) at any prompt.
------------------------------------------
PIONEERS BBS
Table of Contents
* PIONEERS BBS *
** A PREMIER GENEALOGY BBS **
** WEST COAST - Amiga Virus Busters Support BBS **
** CD32 REVIEW Support BBS **
AND NOW
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
* Running EXCELSIOR! BBS *
Michael & Marthe Arends, Sysops
FidoNet: 1:343/54.0
206-775-7983 Supra 14.4k v32.bis 24hrs - 7 days
EDMONDS, Washington
New users can call and get ANY copy of Amiga Report. Just call using
the Name "Long Distance" and the password "Longdistance"(without the
quotes of course). Users using this account will have full access to
ALL past and present issues of AMIGA REPORT starting with the premier
issue. The latest issue of Amiga Report can be Freq'ed (FileREQusted)
from here as "AR.LHA", Freq's are valid at ANY time.
------------------------------------------
Biosmatica
Table of Contents
* BIOSMATICA BBS *
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Portugal
* Running Excelsior/Trapdoor/UUCP *
Celso Martinho, Sysop
FidoNet 2:361/9
+351-34-382320 V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days
------------------------------------------
Amiga Junction 9
Table of Contents
* AMIGA JUNCTION 9 *
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- United Kingdom
* Running DLG Professional *
Stephen Anderson, Sysop
Sysop Email: sysadmin@junct9.demon.co.uk
Line 1 +44 (0)372 271000 14400 V.32bis/HST FidoNet 2:440/20
Line 2 +44 (0)372 278000 14400 V.32bis only FidoNet 2:440/21
Line 3 +44 (0)372 279000 2400 V.42bis/MNP
Voice: +44 (0)956 348405 (24hrs) Direct Sysop Voice Line
Internet: user_name@junct9.royle.org
Special Interest Areas: - Bjork / Sugarcubes Fan Club
- Research of Lucid Dreaming
------------------------------------------
BitStream BBS
Table of Contents
* BITSTREAM BBS *
The BBS of the Nelson (NZ) Amiga Users Group
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
* Running Xenolink 1.0 Z.3 *
Glen Roberts, Sysop
FidoNet 3:771/850
+64 3 5485321 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days
Nelson, New Zealand
-------------------------------------------
Realm of Twilight
Table of Contents
* REALM OF TWILIGHT BBS *
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Canada
* Running Excelsior! BBS *
Thorsten Schiller, Sysop
Usenet: realm.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca
UUCP: ...!uunet.ca!tdkcs!realm
FIDO: 1:221/302
Fish: 33:33/8
24hrs - 7 days
519-748-9365 (2400 baud)
519-748-9026 (v.32bis)
Ontario, Canada
Hardware: Amiga 3000, 105 Meg Quantum, 213 Meg Maxtor, 5 megs RAM
-------------------------------------------
Metnet Triangle
Table of Contents
METNET TRIANGLE SYSTEM
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
UK Support for Mebbsnet
* Running Mebbsnet and Starnet 1.02a *
Jon Witty, Sysop
FIDO: 2:252/129.0
24 hrs - 7 days
Line 1: 44-482-473871 16.8 DS HST
Lines 2-7: 44-482-442251 2400 (6 lines)
Line 8: 44-482-491744 2400
Line 9: 44-482-449028 2400
Voice helpline 44-482-491752 (anytime)
Fully animated menus + normal menu sets.
500 megs HD - Usual software/messages
Most doors online - Many Sigs - AMIGA AND PC SUPPORT
Very active userbase and busy conference
Precious days and MUD online. AMUL support site.
-------------------------------------------
Omaha Amiganet
Table of Contents
* OMAHA AMIGANET *
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
* Running DLG Professional *
Andy Wasserman, Sysop
24 hrs - 7 days
FidoNet: 1:285/11
AmigaNet: 40:200/10
Line 1: 402-333-5110 V.32bis
Line 2: 402-691-0104 USR DS
Omaha, Nebraska
------------------------------------------
Amiga-Night-System
Table of Contents
* AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM *
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - Finland
* Running DLG Professional *
Janne Saarme, Sysop
24 hrs - 7 days
InterNet: luumu@fenix.fipnet.fi
FidoNet: 2:220/550.0
+358-0-675840 V.32bis
Helsinki, Finland
------------------------------------------
Ramses Amiga Flying
Table of Contents
* RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING *
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- France
* Running DLG Professional *
Eric Delord, Sysop
Philippe Brand, Co-Sysop
Stephane Legrand, Co-Sysop
Internet: user.name@ramses.gna.org
Fidonet: 2:320/104
+33-1-60037015 USR DS 16.8
+33-1-60037713 V.32bis
+33-1-60037716 1200-2400
Ramses The Amiga Flying BBS is an Amiga-dedicated BBS running DLG-Pro
on a Amiga 3000, 16MB RAM, 2GB Disk space, 3 lines.
We keep a dayly Aminet site mirroring, NetBSD-Amiga complete mirror site
from ftp.eunet.ch (main site), Amiga Report, GNU Amiga, Ramses is the
SAN/ADS/Amiganet French coordinator.
------------------------------------------
Gateway BBS
Table of Contents
* THE GATEWAY BBS *
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
* Running Excelsior! BBS *
Stace Cunningham, Sysop
Dan Butler, CoSysop
24 hrs - 7 days
InterNet: stace@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil
FidoNet: 1:3604/60.0
601-374-2697 Hayes Optina 28.8 V.FC
Biloxi, Mississippi
------------------------------------------
EMERALD KEEP BBS
Table of Contents
* Emerald Keep BBS *
Official Amiga Report Distribation Site
* Running DLG Professional *
Michael mac Nessa, Sysop
24 hrs - 7 days
FidoNet: 1:2250/2
AmigaNet: 40:206/1
618-394-0065 USR 16.8k DS
Fairview Heights, IL
------------------------------------------
Amiga BBS
Table of Contents
* Amiga BBS *
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
* Running Excelsior! BBS *
Alejandro Kurczyn, Sysop
FidoNet 4:975/7
First Amiga BBS in Mexico
(5) 887-3080 9600 V32,MNP
Estado de Mexico, Mexico
------------------------------------------
The Stygian Abyss
Table of Contents
* THE STYGIAN ABYSS BBS *
312-384-0616 14.4 USR Courier HST
312-384-6250 14.4 Supra V.32 bis (FREQ line)
312-384-0716 2400 USR Courier
FIDONet-1:115/384.0 CLink-911:6200/2.0 NWNet-206:310/0.0--206:310/1.0
PhantomNet Central States Cooridinator-11:2115/0.0--11:2115/1.0
FaithNet Central States Cooridinator-700:6000/0.0--700:6000/1.0
AMINet Chicagoland HUB-559:2/5.0
Chicago, Illinois
Over 4 GIGS of files I Over 3700 MODS I Over 120 On-Line Games
Tons of digitized sounds I Over 15,000 GIFS
Supporting: Amiga I IBM I Macintosh I C=64/128
SIR SAMMY-SysOp Enter.......If you dare!!
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Amiga Do PC BBS
Table of Contents
* AMIGA DO PC BBS *
Official Amiga Report Distribuition Site - Brazil
* Running Excelsior! v 1.18 *
+55-192-33-2260
Weekdays: 19-07 (-3 GMT)
Weekends: 24 hours
Fidonet: 4:801/44
RBT: 12:1212/1
Virinet: 70:101/17
Internet: fimoraes@dcc.unicamp.br
Francisco Moraes, sysop
Campinas, SP
Freq AREPORT for the newest issue avaiable.
------------------------------------------
Comm-Link BBS
Table of Contents
* COMM-LINK BBS *
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
* Running Excelsior Pro *
604-945-6192 USR DS 16.8
24 hrs - 7 days
Fido: 1:153/210.0
AmigaNet 40:800/9100.0
InterSports: 102:540/305.0
PussNet: 169:1000/305.0
InterNet: steve_hooper@comm.tfbbs.wimsey.com
Steve Hooper, Sysop
Port Coquitlam, B.C. Canada
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Phantom's Lair
Table of Contents
* PHANTOM'S LAIR *
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
* Running CNET 3.0 *
FidoNet: 1:115/469.0
Phantom Net Cooridinator: 11:1115/0.0-11:1115/1.0
708-469-9510
708-469-9520
CD ROMS, Over 15511 Files Online @ 2586 meg
Peter Gawron, Sysop
Glendale Heights, Illinois
Tierra-Miga BBS
Table of Contents
Tierra-Miga BBS
Software: CNet
Gib Gilbertson
24 hours - 7 days
FidoNet: 1:202/638.0
AmigaNet: 40:406/3.0
Internet: torment.cts.com
Line #1: 619.292.0754 V32.bis
City: San Diego, CA.
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Freeland Mainframe
Table of Contents
* FREELAND MAINFRAME *
Offical Amiga Report Distribution Site
* Running DLG Progessional *
John Freeland, SysOp
206-438-1670 Supra 2400zi
206-438-2273 Telebit WorldBlazer(v.32bis)
206-456-6013 Supra v.32bis
24hrs - 7 days
Internet - freemf.eskimo.com
Olympia, Washington
------------------------------------------
LAHO
Table of Contents
* LAHO BBS *
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Finland
* Running MBBS *
Lenni Uitti, SysOp
Juha Mkinen, SysOp (Amiga-areas)
Tero Manninen, SysOp (PC-areas)
+358-64-414 1516, V.32bis/HST
+358-64-414 0400, V.32bis/HST
+358-64-414 6800, V.32/HST
+358-64-423 1300, V.32bis
Seinäjoki, Finland
Our host machine is a 386/33 with 20MB of memory, 1GB harddisk and
a CD-ROM drive running in a Novell network. The BBS software is a
Norwegian origin MBBS running in a DesqView windows.
We have now (26th March 1994) over 10000 files online (mostly for
the Commodore Amiga line of the personal computers.)
Every user has an access to download filelist (LAHOFIL.ZIP), list of the
Finnish 24-hour BBS's (BBSLIST.ZIP or BBSLIST.LHA) and every issue of
the Amiga Report Magazine (AR101.LHA-AR???.LHA) even on their first call.
The system has been running since 1989 and is sponsored by the local
telephone company, Vaasan Läänin Puhelin Oy.
BTW, LAHO stands for "LAtomeren Höyrylaiva Oy" = "Barnsea Steamship Co."
Welcome on board!
------------------------------------------
Falling BBS
Table of Contents
* FALLING BBS *
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Norway
* Running ABBS *
Christopher Naas, Sysop
+47 69 256117 V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days
EMail: naasc@cnaas.adsp.sub.org
------------------------------------------
Command Line BBS
Table of Contents
* COMMAND LINE BBS *
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Canada
Canada's Amiga Graphics & Animation Source
* Running AmiExpress BBS *
Nick Poliwko, Sysop
416-533-8321 V.32 24hrs - 7 days
Toronto, Canada
-------------------------------------------
Leguans Byte Channel
Table of Contents
* LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL *
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany
* Running EazyBBS V2.11 *
Andreas Geist, Sysop
Usenet: andreas@lbcmbx.in-berlin.de
24 hrs - 7 days
Line 1: 49-30-8110060 USR DS 16.8
Line 2: 49-30-8122442 USR DS 16.8
Login as User: "amiga", Passwd: "report"
-------------------------------------------
Stingray Database BBS
Table of Contents
* STINGRAY DATABASE *
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany
* Running FastCall *
Bernd Mienert, Sysop
EMail: sysop@sting-db.zer.sub.org.dbp.de
+49 208 496807 HST-Dual 24hrs - 7 days
Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany
--------------------------------------------
T.B.P. Video Slate
Table of Contents
_________________________________
/ / /_ /\ * T.B.P. VIDEO SLATE *
/ / //// / Official Amiga Report
/ / AR Coverdisk / / / CoverDisk Distribution Site
/ / / / / An Amiga dedicated BBS for All
/ / / / / * Running Skyline 1.3.2 *
/ / / / / Mark E Davidson, Sysop
/ /__________________________/ / / 24 hrs - 7 days
/ _______________________ / / 201-586-3623 USR 14.4 HST
/ / ___ / / / / Rockaway, New Jersey
/ / / / / / / /
/ / /__/ / / / / Full Skypix menus + normal and
/______/_______________/______/__/ / ansi menu sets.
\______\________________\______\_\/ Download on the first call.
Hardware: Amiga 500 Tower custom at 14 MHz, 350 Meg maxtor,
125 Meg SCSI Maxtor, 345 Meg IDE Maxtor, 2 Double Speed CD rom,
9 meg RAM
--------------------------------------------
Amiga Central
Table of Contents
* AMIGA CENTRAL! *
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
CNet Amiga Support Site
* Running CNet Amiga BBS *
Carl Tashian, Sysop
Internet mail: root@amicent.raider.net
615-383-9679 1200-14.4Kbps V.32bis
24 hours - 7 days
Nashville, Tennessee
Hardware: Amiga 3000 Tower 68030+882@25MHz, 105 meg Quantum, 225 meg
Seagate,
Zoom 14.4k modem
--------------------------------------------
Continental Drift
Table of Contents
*==================================================================
==*
/\ C O N T I N E N T A L D R I F T B B S
/ \ (+61) 2 949 4256
/ \______ Murray Chaffer * Andre Lackmann * Dale Cohen
/ / \
/ / \ Amiga * IBM * Macintosh
/ / \ : : :
:\ \ /\ \ : : :800Mb+ Online - USENET News - Internet Mail
:\ \ / \ \ : : Local Mail - FIDOnet Mail - Shareware Regos
: :\ \/ \ \ : :Online Games - Aminet, FISH, Euro CD-ROMs
: :\ / /: :
: : :\ / /: : :Amiga Report * CD-32 View * Frontier Consoles
\ / / * Computer underground Digest *
\ /\ /
\ / \ / **Online shareware registrations**
\/ \/ Files daily from Aminet * ADS/SAN
*==================================================================
==*
Amiga Online Bs Heemstede
Table of Contents
Amiga Online Bs Heemstede
* HeadQuarters of Online Products *
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- The Netherlands
* Running Xenolink 1.90 *
Your SysOp is Michiel Willems
24 hours a day - 7 days a week
Fidonet : 2:280/464.0
DAN Host HQ : 55:100/1.0
Amynet Host : 39:151/1.0
NLA : 14:102/203.0
BOSnet Hub : 99:999/2.0
e-mail SysOp : michiel@aobh.wlink.nl
Line 1 +31-23-282002 14400 v32bis Supra
Line 2 +31-23-470739 14400 v32bis Supra
Heemstede, The Netherlands, Europe, The Earth
Very nice menu's
660 Megs HD online - ALOT of software
ALOT of messages - VERY fast BBS program
Point support - Lot's of doors online
Just freq AR of AR.LHA for the latest issue available
The system is running on an Amiga 2000 with a HARMS-Prof-3000 030
turboboard at 29Mhz and a copro at 50Mhz, 7MB RAM, 660 Meg HD space
and soon 1 Gigabyte HD space.
Every issue from Amiga Report Magazine online as far as the first issue.
Guru Meditation
Table of Contents
* GURU MEDITATION *
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Spain
* Running Remote Access *
Javier Frias, SysOp
+34-1-383-1317 V.32bis
24 hours - 7days
Spain
Moonlight Sonata DLG
Table of Contents
M O O N L I G H T S O N A T A D L G
* Amiga Report Official Distribution Site *
* DAS ModPlayer Support *
2 Nodes *FREE PUBLIC* Amiga BBS
MIDI-tunes, MIDI-utils, Modules, Amiga-files
Messages, Door-games, MUD...
Also patches for several synths!
(About 100MB of ProTracker Modules!)
Node #1 - +358-18-161763 - ZyXEL V32b 19200
Node #2 - +358-18-161862 - HST DS V32 14400
Fidonet: 2:221/112.0
Keyboards: Erno Tuomainen
Amiga3000 25MHz - 1.3Gigs HD
BBS Software: Dialog Pro BB/OS
LINKSystem LINK-CH1
Table of Contents
LINKSystem LINK-CH1
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - Switzerland
in local newsgroup link-ch1.ml.amiga-report
Mails and News from/to UseNet
contact: rleemann@link-ch1.aworld.de
+41 61 3215643 V32bis/Zyx16800
+41 61 3832007 ISDN X75/V110
+41 61 3832008 ISDN X75/V110
Doom of Darkness
Table of Contents
* Doom of Darkness *
* Home of AmBoS *
Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany
Marc Doerre (Marc_Doerre), Sysop (BBS-Owner/AmBoS-Support)
Bernd Petersen (TGM), Sysop (Amiga-Software-Support)
Gerhard Luehning (Klaro), Co-Sysop (Aminet-Support)
Kai Szymanski (Kai), Co-Sysop (AR-Support/AmBoS-Support)
Usenet: user_name@doom.ping.de
Line 1 +49 (0)4223 8355 19200 V.42bis/Zyx
Line 2 +49 (0)4223 3256 16800 V.42bis/Zyx
Line 3 +49 (0)4223 3313 16800 V.42bis/Zyx
Sysop Email: marc_doerre@doom.ping.de
AR-Infoservice : kai@doom.ping.de
RedEye BBS
Table of Contents
REDEYE BBS
* Running EXCELSIOR/UUCP/AFAX *
"Official Amiga Report Distribution Site Germany/Europe"
Sysop: Thorsten Meyer
Internet: sysop@redeye.greenie.muc.de
Line 1: +49-89-5460535 (V.32b, Zyxel EG +)
Line 2: +49-89-5460071 (USR Courier V32b terbo)
24hrs - 7 days
Munich, Germany
Areas for Amiga, PCs, Lotus Notes Group,
Amiga Report, Game Byte, Graphic Stuff,
3D-Exchange, 3D-tools, 3D-objects,
McAffee, GUS, PAS, DOOM, WINDOWS-NT, OS/2
Online CD, Online Games, USENET, INTERNET,
FIDO ECHOS, Developer
Virtual Palace BBS
Table of Contents
* Virtual Palace BBS *
* Official Amiga Report Distribution Site *
* Official Amiga Report Disk Distribution Site *
916-343-7420
300-14400 Baud V.42bis
AmiExpress 2.40 700 Mbytes
P.O. Box 5518
Chico, California 95927
Tibor G. Balogh (Tibor), Sysop
Sysop Email: tibor@ecst.csuchico.edu
Leland Whitlock (Leland), Co-Sysop
Where to find Amiga Report
Table of Contents
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Where to find Amiga Report %%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Click on the button of the BBS nearest you for information on that system.
FidoNet Systems
---------------
FREQ the filename "AR.LHA" for the most current issue of Amiga Report!
OMAHA AMIGANET ..................................Omaha, Nebraska
NOVA .............................Cleveland, Tennessee
PIONEER'S BBS ..............................Edmonds, Washington
BIOSMATICA .........................................Portugal
AMIGA JUNCTION 9 ...................................United Kingdom
BITSTREAM BBS ..............................Nelson, New Zealand
REALM OF TWILIGHT ..................................Ontario, Canada
METNET TRIANGLE ......................Kingston Upon Hull, England
AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM ................................Helsinki, Finland
RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING ...........................................France
GATEWAY BBS ..............................Biloxi, Mississippi
EMERALD KEEP BBS .........................................Illinois
AMIGA BBS .........................Estado de Mexico, Mexico
THE STYGIAN ABYSS ................................Chicago, Illinois
AMIGA DO PC BSS .................................Campinas, Brazil
COMM-LINK BBS .......................Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada
PHANTOM'S LAIR .......................Glendale Heights, Illinois
Tierra-Miga BBS .....................................SanDeigo, Ca
MOONLIGHT SONATA DLG ..........................................Finland
CONTINENTAL DRIFT ................................Sydney, Australia
Amiga Online Bs H'stede ..................................The Netherlands
Non-FidoNet Systems
-------------------
IN THE MEANTIME ...............................Yakima, Washington
FREELAND MAINFRAME ..............................Olympia, Washington
LAHO ...............................Seinajoki, Finland
FALLING ...........................................Norway
COMMAND LINE ..................................Toronto, Canada
LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL ..........................................Germany
STINGRAY DATABASE ...........................Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany
T.B.P. VIDEO SLATE .............................Rockaway, New Jersey
AMIGA CENTRAL .............................Nashville, Tennessee
GURU MEDITATION ............................................Spain
LINKSystem LINK-CH1 ...............................Basel, Switzerland
DOOM OF DARKNESS ..................................Bremen, Germany
REDEYE BBS ..................................Munich, Germany
Virtual Palace BBS ........................................Chico, Ca
