Amiga Report Online Magazine #4.05 -- March 31, 1996
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March 31, 1996 Turn the Page Issue No. 4.05
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"THE Online Source for Amiga Information!"
Copyright 1996 FS Publications
All Rights Reserved
Table of Contents
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== Main Menu ==
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Editorial and Opinion Featured Articles
Reviews News & Press Releases
Aminet Charts Reader Mail
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About AMIGA REPORT Dealer Directory
Contact Information and Copyrights Amiga Dealer Addresses and Numbers
Where to Get AR Advertisements
Mailing List & Distribution Sites Online Services, Dealers, Ordering
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// | | //
========//====| Amiga Report International Online Magazine |======//=====
== \\// | Issue No. 4.05 March 31, 1996 | \\// ==
==============| "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!" |=============
|______________________________________________|
Editor
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EDITOR
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Jason Compton
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Internet Address
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jcompton@shell.portal.com 1203 Alexander Ave
jcompton@xnet.com Streamwood, IL 60107-3003
USA
Fax Phone
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847-741-0689 847-332-6243
Assistant Editor
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== ASSISTANT EDITOR ==
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Katherine Nelson
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Internet
--------
Kati@cup.portal.com
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== GAMES EDITOR ==
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Ken Anderson
============
Internet Address
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kend@dhp.com 44 Scotland Drive
ka@protec.demon.co.uk Dunfermline
Fife KY12 7TD
Scotland
Contributing Editor
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CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
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William Near
============
Internet
--------
wnear@epix.net
Contributing Editor
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CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
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Addison Laurent
===============
Internet
--------
addison@jobe.shell.portal.com
compt.sys.editor.desk
Table of Contents
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compt.sys.editor.desk By: Jason Compton
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Walker, new. Schmitt, out. Jost, in.
What's going on here?
As many of you may have heard by now, Amiga Tech showed their new Amiga
Walker prototype machine at March's CeBit. A very unconventional case hid
a somewhat conventional 030/40, AGA based Amiga with some very new
features, such as a PC industry Super I/O chip and a new CPU/Expansion bus.
After staggering losses in 1995, Manfred Schmitt departed Escom. He has
been replaced by Helmut Jost. Jost ran Commodore Germany and left in 1993 for
Escom's Sales and Marketing position. He subsequently left Escom in late
1995 to run IBM's German PC sales division, but is now back, this time at
the helm of Escom. Meanwhile, company founder Manfred Schmitt is
presumably free to retire at a young age or pursue his dreams elsewhere.
What does this mean for the Amiga and Amiga Technologies? No mention of
what his policy towards AT might be has been made. Amiga Technologies
employees seem cautiously optimistic that this change may bring good things
to the company.
In the past fortnight or so, the Amiga community got two new relatives.
The new baby, the Walker, is an odd shaped piece of machinery, but it's got
the right bloodline. The new patriarch, Helmut Jost, is a question mark.
But let us here at Amiga Report be among the first to welcome both to the
party. It really can be a fun place sometimes.
Speaking of fun, enjoy the issue.
Jason
PS-- How many of you realized that our 100th issue passed without comment?
It was very tempting to have a flashy, dramatic celebration, but then I
remembered the last magazine to brag about its 100th issue. Amiga World
was cancelled a few months later. So we'll stick with the low-key
approach. :)
Commercial Products
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Commercial Products
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Editor's Choice Jason's picks
Portal Information Systems A great place for Amiga users.
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News Opinion Articles Reviews Charts Adverts
Reader Mail
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Reader Mail
===========================================================================
From: bono@post.almac.co.uk (Bono)
Jason,
As with the majority of mails you undoubtedly receive, I am going to start
by saying... Wow! After having heard about AR for a long time from a
variety of sources I eventually, and somewhat sceptically, downloaded #401
and was utterly blown away, by the overwhelming graphics, great print
quality, glossy paper, 50% advert content, and paid-by-the-letter writers.
No, I'm being serious, it's what AR doesn't have that makes it so special,
just look at price as an example. I pay about $10 every month for a
particular Amiga magazine and what do I get: all of the above and worse.
Only 6 reviews of any use at all, and the majority, (I speculate)
influenced by a very nice corporate lunch. (not like I'm a cynic or
anything. :)
I look at my $10 worth and compare it with my 10-second-phonecall copy of
AR. Need I say more? Please keep up the good work, the whole Amiga
community in indebted to all the writers and editorial staff at AR, a very
big Thankyou on behalf of all of us.
All the Best,
Alastair Angus (Bono)
Well, you're welcome. It makes me proud to know that AR is considered
in the same, or a better, caliber than the print magazines that abound
out there. I would like to point out that while I can't speak for
previous years, I think the current crop of my print colleagues out
there are a pretty honest bunch who fully understand the impact of
their commentary and their responsibility to the market. -Jason
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
From dturner@bhk1.bhk.l.chiba-u.ac.jp Thu Mar 21 21:30:08 1996
Reading the editorial comment in the latest edition of AR, I feel inclined
to agree about the situation of the Amiga. Being conservative about
products in the computer world doesn't work that well - especially if you
don't have a computer that has a good reputation. The Amiga has to WIN
people over - people that are probably using the Win95 platform. To do
that, it has to be shown that the Amiga has comparable technology and low
prices. Generally, the Amiga does not require as powerful resources as the
Win95 world, but the recent release of AT's version of the A1200 and A4000T
have shown to be overpriced even for current Amigans.
The brutal reality about the Amiga is that it must develop into a hardware
setup that mirrors many of the easily available PC parts. Things like
floppy drives, hard drives, memory - everything must be similar so that
Amiga prices can be comparable to the millions of IBM clones being sold.
Furthermore, AT should present a variety of models that have slightly
different specifications. For example, have 3 or 4 different processors,
memory setups, hard drive capacities and so on. Then simply have different
names. This gives the potential Amiga buyer the impression that there are
a variety of different models. Moving to a new platform when there are
only two models available (even if older models exist) gives the impression
that the market is small. This is all about marketing. Generally, it has
worked well for Apple, who has simply changed the badge name on some of its
Macs (using basically the same equipment) to achieve a broader range of
computers.
This would also enable the introduction of more computers over the year -
without the huge cost of a completely new machine. For example, a version
of the A1200 should now be out with an accelerator card in the expansion
slot, a 500 meg HD, and 6 Meg of ram. This would fill the gap between the
current A1200 and the A4000T as well. As far as the cost would go, AT only
has to add a few more parts, and vary the price accordingly. The work
hours are almost nil.
In todays computing world, computer manufacturers have to provide
solutions, not just the machine. In the days of Commodore, many people
were buying Amigas, and then later going out and buying accelerator cards -
this shouldn't have been necessary. Commodore should have provided
competitive solutions themselves. At least with AT they are collaborating
with third parties (eg. Phase 5) to reduce their own expenses, yet ensure
that the initial Amiga they sell is a good product. Commodore was too
pig-headed about developing their OWN product.
AT can do more, on this front as well. More models, cheaper prices, and
the use of at least Escom in Europe to promote the Amiga will give AT a
footing, and then they may have the support to really start expanding the
Amiga market.
Regards,
Duncan Turner.
On some fronts, AT has begun to do these things. Let's hope the trend
continues. -Jason
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From: me@hca.co.za (Mike Erasmus)
Jason,
As the editor I'd like to thank you for the truly execellent you and the
other staff at AR for producing this cool magazine.
As I don't have access to UseNet at WORK, (Who want to pay for Internet
when you can get it for free...) I am unable to make this request via the
UseNet.
Since my daily bread and butter comes from working on the DREADED and
pathetic PeeCee, but one thing it has which is truly excellent. That is
Visual Basic, among a few.
As I am doing development/maintenance on in-house developed systems, I'd
love to know:
** Are there ANY programming tools like Visual Basic on Amiga ? **
I feel the current lack of a decent database development system, is
breaking the speed at which the Amiga can be considered a real machine for
business. Whereas the PC has invaded Amiga terrritory on every single
front, most noteably the absance of Amigas on shelves for a long time has
made the PC gain a foothold in the Graphics arena. To name but just one.
Recently I paged through an American "3D-Artist" mag, on a few pages there
were mentions of the Amiga. Or as it was put in one of the articles about
the development of Computer Gfx : "The Amiga was the PC which has started
graphics on non-SGI systems."
Well, as I said before. We need some decent Database development software.
I mean, really HEAVYWEIGHT stuff, like VB4.0, even Visual Basic V3.0 will
do, thanks a lot. Not even to mention things like Delhpi. Whereby the
creator of the software, using this AmigaVisualBasic will distrubute
fully-working run-time versions of the program, like compiled AMOS files.
I am aware of SuperBase 4 for Amiga which I undserstood was quite powerful.
But is there still support for it? [Yes, but not a lot. -Jason]
We aren't all fond of devlving deep into the likes of the Amiga ROM
manuals, let alone stuff around in endless pages of code. I'm talking
C/C++ now. What a waste of development time. It should of course, also
support some form of SQL. Support for Servers isn't a necessaity. Just be
able to use your modules over a shared network. Something like the
Access-SQL will be verrrry, very nice to have.
Please, I'm standing on my knees. I'm begging the Amiga developers
community. Consider a tool like this, as the PC is an absolute NIGHTMARE
to work on.
Greets,
Mike Erasmus
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From: fass003@ariel.macarthur.uws.EDU.AU (Anthony Ikeda)
Here is my idea. Why can't the Amiga be card based, by this I mean
allowing the various ports to be an option for example the Serial,
Parallel, external drive, scsi and midi ports could each be supplied on a
card that slips in the back like the FMV card for the CD32. Therefore the
FMV could also be included with the card. This could be known as the Amiga
Studio. Perhaps the serial and parallel ports could be separate but the
others are options that fit together. I mean how many people are going to
use these as soon as they get their Amiga???? Maybe you think this is
stupid but if it will reduce the cost of the Amiga I think it's the best
option.
Well, it all depends on whose cards you're using. If you're building
custom cards, it's probably going to wind up more expensive in the
long run. If you're talking about plugging industry-standard cards
in, that's another matter. PCI is supposed to be coming on
PowerAmigas, which would make this sort of architecture easy and
obvious. Until then, however, it seems AT will be stuck with custom
boards. -Jason
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From: Michael Jacula <mjacula@idirect.com>
Hi Jason!
I am writing in response to the reader mail in AR4.03 concerning the
Derringer 030 and OS3.1
I have an A2000 with a CSA Derringer 030/33 with 8MB of RAM installed. I
am running v1.0 of the D3 utility with no problems under OS3.1.
Has the reader checked for incompatibilities in his utilities/commodities
that he runs upon bootup? I am running MCP 1.05 (020 version) and
ToolsDaemon. I maintain complete ability to use all arguments of the D3
utility.
Just letting you know that it is possible to run the D3 utility under
OS3.1...
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From: Ron Upton <ronu@guru.apana.org.au>
Dear Katherine
I am searching for a program, PD or commercial, which will allow me to join
animation files created in DPaint (OP-5 format).
CyroUtil's CombineANIM, 1989, works perfectly for two very small files. It
appears that the program is unable to take advantage of all CyroUtil's
CombineANIM, 1989, works perfectly for two very small files. It appears
that the program is unable to take advantage of all of the available fast
ram.
I would be pleased to receive any information or advice relating
to this matter from readers of ar.
Many thanks
Ron Upton
ronu@guru.apana.org.au
P.S. Thank you for the great magazine.
The Magic Wand.
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
The Magic Wand.
Shane Kuntz Shane.Kuntz@heimdall.sdrc.com
===========================================================================
Many Many bitches, moans, complaints.
Many MANY flames.
Many Amiga users thought that Escom/AT had a magic wand and after the long
buyout process and auction E/AT would fix everything overnight.
It hasn't happened and anyone that thought E/AT would do feats comparable
to Jesus himself have been fooling themselves. Let's look at some simple
facts and then put yourselves in AT/Escoms shoes.
Commodore started it's decline long before they went bankrupt in 1994,
losing marketshare and developers as they sat on their rumps.
Liquidation started in 1994 and lasted an entire year. Other companies
forged ahead, more developers lost, more users lost.
April 1995. Escom wins auction with a 10+ million dollar bid.
Escom starts sorting through the mess left by Commodore's demise.
Within the 10 months they have owned the technology:
- Hire the needed Amiga personnel.
- Form Amiga Technologies.
- Reconstruct a dealer network.
- Find distributors in various countries.
- Choose a manufacturing line for the machines.
- Retool that line for Amiga products.
- Negotiate the addition of software to be included in
the Magic Pack.
- Reintroduce the A1200 and the A4000T.
- License the Amiga Technology to Viscorp.
- Chose the PowerPC chip as the next CPU for Amigas.
- Start Developing the new machine and cooperate with Phase5
to get the job done.
- Introduce the Amiga Surfer pack a all-in-one package to get
your amiga online.
- Introducing a new machine with more processing power
and expansion.
- Attended numerous shows/expos pledging their support for
the Amiga and showing off their offerings.
- Held Developers meetings to try and draw back/keep developers
on the Amiga.
This list isn't all encompassing of course as I don't know everything that
goes on at AT. Just with the things I've listed here, AT has been HARD at
work in the last ten months for the Amiga.
Think about the above list for a while and what AT has done for the Amiga.
It is a lot in 10 months of buying the remains of a liquidated company.
The one thing that is a major gripe point is *price,price,price*
How many companies could accomplish the above with out taking on an
enormous amount of debt/cost? NONE. If AT continues to price their models
high it will destroy the Amiga, if they bring their price down as they
become more and more stable everyone should be happy. (some are never
happy though)
If it weren't for the price, what has AT done that is so *bad*???
Absolutely nothing. They haven't played every card perfectly but they have
done some very good things for the Amiga in 10 months.
Think about this, if Dell had bought the Amiga Tech there would be no new
Amigas at *any* price.
I ask all Amigans to look at the *whole* picture when looking at Amiga
Technologies. Applaud them for bringing back the Amiga, developing new
Amigas, taking a chance. Write them about the high prices and suggest to
them your ideas and opinions where you think they could improve.
Quit looking at the half of the glass that's not full and look at the glass
that is full of many accomplishments. A pessimistic Amiga community sucks.
We have enough people beating on the machines we use/love than to have
ourselves give into it also. I'm guilty of it once in a while too.
Demo of Amiga Surfer Package
Table of Contents
--------------------------------
DEMO OF THE AMIGA SURFER PACKAGE
--------------------------------
On wednesday the 3rd of april '96 the Amiga-club 'The Brain' will host a
demo of Amiga Technologies' internet package. The demo will take place at
the CCVG De Kam, Beekstraat 172, 1970 Wezembeek-Oppem (in Belgium) and
starts at 8PM sharp. Doors open at 7.30PM. Everybody is welcome.
The Brain was founded in the eighties to help it's members with the use of
the Amiga computer. At the moment we hold a monthly meeting in De Kam
where we introduce Amiga-related products.
For more information:
Web page: http://igwe.vub.ac.be/~johanf/brain/
(Contains more info about The Brain and a route description to De Kam)
Johan Fabry : johanf@rave.org
FIDO 2:291/708.42
Wim Peeters : FIDO 2:291/708.72
Cserve: 101665,3216
tel: +32-2-731.57.37
Off Piste #1 for Sale
Table of Contents
OFF PISTE #1 IS RELEASED FOR SALE!
Off Piste is finally finished and released. The magazine will NOT be sold
in the Norwegian "Narvesen" kiosks, but in Denmark it will be distributed
in Dansk Blad Distribution's kiosks nationwide.
For 1 issue mailed directly to your mailbox, including postage & packing:
Enclose $6/£4/40 kr along with your name and address and mail to: Off Piste
c/o F. Erikson, Symrevegen 18, N-6100 Volda, NORWAY.
It can be paid into this postalgiro account (Postgirokonto): 0803 2349413.
Address: Off Piste/F.Erikson, Symrevegen 18, N-6100 Volda, Norway.
Subscriptions: 1/2 year (3 issues): $15/90,- kr
1 year (6 issues): $25/150,- kr
2 years (12 issues): $40/250,- kr
Direct your web-browser at our new site: http://www.sn.no/~frodeer
(e-mail: fe@stud.hivolda.no)
WHAT IS OFF PISTE?
[It's produced using Amigas. That's what the press release is doing
here... -Jason]
Off Piste is an alternative urban youth culture mag (on paper, in English),
focusing on topics such as music, entertainment, computing/communication,
youth travel, subcultures, and philosophy. It is written and designed by
skilled young talents who report directly from the core of what's happening
around the globe.
THE FIRST ISSUE FEATURES THIS:
-THE TRUE SPIRIT OF SATANISM
Off Piste Editor Frode Erikson takes an in-depth look at the ideology
behind this rapidly expanding and church-burning subcult. He talks with a
member of the Church of Satan in the U.S, and interviews a Christian
theologist to get his viewpoints.
-GRAFFITI ARTISTS - JUST VANDALS WITH HANDLES?
Can sprayed walls be looked upon as artistic images, or is it just
vandalism, like the general public like to believe? Our UK correspondent
Simon Carless investigates the issue on a trip to Washington D.C.
-URBAN LIFE IN DURBAN AND CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
Hasty impressions by Norwegian freelancer Tor Ketil Solberg from a
continent which is mostly known for starving young children and civil wars.
-STAND-UP POETRY
Stand-up Comedy become immensely popular in the 80's, bringing us stars
like Eddie Murphy and Billy Crystal. Stand-up Poetry is the new hip thing
of the 90's. In N.Y., there are already 10 cafe's devoted to this new way
of expressing lyrical art. Off Piste's correspondent in Copenhagen, Martin
Serup, reports on how this new scheme has been brought into action in
Europe.
-The paragraphs BREAKTHRU: Music/Computing/Zines and .NETSTORM and IF
YOU'RE HEADED TO.. Things to do for urban youth on vacation.
As well as: Underground cartoon by the promising artist Borge B.
Bredenbekk, essay(s) by Frode Erikson, Op-Ed columns and more articles!
How to reach Off Piste:
Snail-mail: Off Piste c/o F.Erikson, Symrevegen 18,
N-6100 Volda, NORWAY
Voice/Fax : +47-70079179
Mobile : +47-90092497
eMail : fe@stud.hivolda.no (Frode Erikson)
http : //www.sn.no/~frodeer
BBS : Mordor ABBS (Session WHQ): +47-57787379 (Host: Crude)
: msg to user: Cesium Session
frode erikson (cesium/session)
/off piste editor-in-chief/
Manfred Schmitt Resigns
Table of Contents
Manfred Schmitt removed as Escom CEO
Translated from Die Welt by Sven Tegethoff (cheetah@ius.gun.de)
Managing director of "Escom AG" forced to resign
Founder of discount-retailer for computers draws consequences from last
years high losses - Helmut Jost announced to be the successor.
Berlin - After high losses of 125,000,000 DM, the managin director of the
computer company located in Bochum, Manfred Schmitt, is going to leave the
company by the end of the month. Yesterday, Escom announced that the board
directors appointed Helmut Jost as the new Managing director from the first
of April. 43 year-old Mr. Jost was already active once in Escoms board of
directors from 1993 to 1995, before taking over the management of IBM's
PC-business.
An Escom spokesman in Heppenheim said, that Escom-Founder Schmitt had
offered his position by his own wish after the huge deficit, and annouced
he wants to take the full responsibility. Escom, with a turnover of
2,350,000,000 DM, were following some ambitious goals, but went out of
financial breath on them. Schmitt pushed the building up of an own retail
chain in Great Brittain, for example. Though these investments seemed to
be the strategically correct steps into foreign markets, they took too much
capital, and didn't bring enough income. The english PC market proved
itself to be just as tired as the German one nowadays. Generally, the weak
demand and the enourmous drop of prices on the PC market forced down
Escom's turnover and margins. Escom-Chief Schmitt's Multimedia-Plans also
proved as too high. Their potential partner RWE Telliance, a daughter of
electricity provider RWE, retired from their interest because of Escom's
financial situation. Banks and shareholders promised the company
100,000,000 DM of financial support (60,000,000 DM from a raise of assets),
to overcome the financial bottleneck.
The telephone company from Kiel by the name of "Hagenuk", which Manfred
Schmitt privately bought out from the "Preussag" in Oktober, caused further
Irritations among Escom's stockholders "Quelle" (25%) and "Siemens Nixdorf"
(SNI, 12.5%). It was Schmitt's plan to let the company sell cellular
phones via his Escom shops, about which the aforementioned two shareholders
didn't agree at all.
Even after his retirement to the board of shareholders, Schmitt is still
currently holding 23% of Escom's assets. Escom's share price rised up to
13DM yesterday, after 12.7 DM on Tuesday.
StormC v1.0
Table of Contents
TITLE
StormC: ANSI C & C++ Development System
VERSION
1.0
COMPANY
HAAGE & PARTNER Computer GmbH
Mainzer Str. 10A
61191 Rosbach v.d.H.
Germany
Phone: ++49 - 6007 - 93 00 50
Fax: ++49 - 6007 - 75 43
Compuserve: 100654,3133
Internet: 100654.3133@compuserve.com
Homepage: http://home.pages.de/~haage
DESCRIPTION
StormC
The versatile programming system for you and your Amiga!
========================================================
At the COMPUTER 95 we were introducing our brand-new C/C++ development
system called StormC. It is a highly integrated software development
system, containing an editor, compiler, linker, debugger and a RunShell
with some very special features.
The heart of StormC is its project management tool, which differs from the
traditional MAKE because really every part of the project including source,
includes and documentation can be managed by it and represented
graphically. The very fast editor displays key-words colourfully. This
option gives the programmer a good control while he is typing the source
code, because it is a kind of syntax check and it improves the readability
of the text. The StormC compiler handles ANSI C and C++ code and generates
optimised code for the whole Motorola 68xxx family (including 68060 and
68881/882).
The RunShell is a run-time system that monitors the running application and
prevents it from crashing the system. It also offers resource tracking,
i.e. it controls the use of resources by the program and handles cases
where it neglects to free them.
Another feature of the RunShell is the option to start the debugger. This
can be done during (!) the run-time of the program. So you don't have to
decide for debugging before compiling. The debugger is integrated into the
editor. This means that while you are debugging and setting breakpoints
you are working in the editor. The structure and the colouring of the
source code are still there. This is a very handy feature that makes
debugging a fast and easy process.
The Features of StormC
======================
StormC contains all development tools imperative for efficient
engineering:
Flexible project management - StormShell
- management of multiple projects
- hierarchical projects with section folding
- Drag&Drop
- automatic file-type recognition (sources, libraries, object files,
documentation...)
- Toolbar with Tooltips (help function)
- full configurable (>50 option requesters)
Fast source editor - StormED
- multiple-window editor
- syntax colouring
- user defined dictionary
- perfect source structuring
- unlimited Undo/Redo
- fast search&replace
- runs on graphics boards
Very fast ANSI-C & C++ compiler - StormC
- 2-in-1 compiler system: ANSI-C & C++ (AT&T standard 3.0)
- exception handling & templates
- high-speed compiler
- very good turn-around
- code generation for all Motorola 68xxx (incl. 68060, 68881/68882)
- single-pass compiler
- powerful inlining
- highly compatible with SAS/C, DICE, Aztec C, MaxonC, GCC
- precompiled headers or header caching
- multiple-pass optimiser
Optimising Linker - StormLINK
- very fast linker
- near-code optimiser
- type-save linking
- generates ROM code
- easy generation of shared libraries
- compatible to SAS/C- and MaxonC libraries
Run-time system - RunShell
- run-time system
- resource tracking
- controlled program interrupt
- any time start of debugger
Comfortable source level debugger - StormDEBUG
- multiple windows
- output into editor window
- easy breakpoint settings
- automatic value refresh
- inspect windows for variables, structs, classes
- editable typecasting
- HEX editor
Further features
- fully localised (German, English, soon: French/Italian)
- localised error reports
- full multitasking
- customised environment
- extensive libraries for ANSI-C, C++, Amiga OS
- OS 3.1 system include files
NEW FEATURES
Many enhancements since the first Preview/Demo.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
any Amiga model
hard drive
AmigaOS 2.0 or higher required
3 MB RAM
(some functionality is only available with a minimum of 6 MB RAM)
AVAILABILITY
I will upload it to Aminet this week (19.02.-23.02.96)
ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/lang/c/stormc.lha (1,3 MB)
Other sites:
ftp://members.aol.com/StormSUP (1,3 MB)
PRICE
StormC 598 DM (~398 $)
Upgrade 398 DM (~269 $)
(from any commercial programming language)
DISTRIBUTABILITY
Copyright by HAAGE & PARTNER COMPUTER GMBH 1996
OTHER
HAAGE & PARTNER COMPUTER announces a special PowerPC version of StormC for
the 3rd quarter of 1996. This version will be developed in tight
deliberation with Amiga Technologies and PHASE 5 digital products.
Programs developed with StormC can be ported to PowerPC Amiga directly.
Because of the native code the increase of speed should be enormous.
Ensemble Verbes v1.7
Table of Contents
TITLE
Ensemble Verbes
VERSION
Version 1.7 (2/3/96)
AUTHOR
Peter E. Janes
E-mail:
Peter_Janes@cableshare.ccmail.compuserve.com
Regular mail:
6868 Egremont Road
R. R. #8
Watford, Ontario, Canada
N0M 2S0
DESCRIPTION
Ensemble Verbes is a program to help students practise and master French
verbs in the most common tenses of the language. It is designed to support
classroom work, not to replace it.
The shareware version contains only -er verbs and present, present
subjunctive and present participle.
The registered version of Ensemble Verbes features:
* Over 75 verbs, including -er, -ir, -re, reflexive and irregular
conjugations
* Seven tenses: present, compound past, imperfect, future,
conditional, subjunctive present and present participle
* Full online, context-sensitive help via AmigaGuide tm
* Close adherence to Amiga User Interface Style Guide
* Sound support
* Support for international keyboards
* Locale support (English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish
and Swedish catalogs included)
Registered users can also obtain The French Student's Dictionary & Guide,
Second Edition, a 158-page book featuring:
* French/English and English/French sections
* Most commonly used vocabulary, in context
* Many easy-to-understand examples to help in selection of
vocabulary
* Many idiomatic expressions
* Regular and irregular verb charts
* Reference grammar guide
* Over 5700 entries
NEW FEATURES
This is an update to Ensemble Verbes 1.6. It contains a new German catalog
and fixes some bugs in the Installer scripts.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
Any Amiga running AmigaOS 2.04 or above. AmigaGuide/MultiView and
Installer are recommended.
AVAILABILITY
All files can be found on any Aminet site.
The unregistered version of Ensemble Verbes may be found at:
ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/misc/edu/Verbes.lha (74248 bytes)
Patch files for registered versions may be found at:
ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/misc/edu/VerbesRegPch17.lha (44018 bytes)
ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/misc/edu/Verb
Boulderdash3d
Table of Contents
Silltunna Software will be publishing Boulderdash3d (demo in
aminet/games/demo) on the Amiga and PC.
We would very much like your ideas and comments based upon the demo however
NOT regarding any gfx or gfx bugs. We are well aware of them and 'normal'
resolutions are already supported, as are gfx cards to a certain extent
(EGS). ECS machines are not currently supported but a version hasn`t been
ruled out, at least for those with graphics cards and an 020 processor.
We *do* want your gameplay ideas and comments posted directly to :
rich@xtreme.demon.co.uk
or myself of course.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Alex Amsel : Silltunna Software Lead Programmer : Black Magic |
| XTremeRacing 1x1 TMapping and Stunning Gameplay on AGA Amigas |
| Alex@teeth.demon.co.uk | Steve Bull is Back | *PWEIPWEIPWEI* |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
MetaTool v40.5
Table of Contents
TITLE
MetaTool - The Amiga MIME GUI
VERSION
40.5
AUTHOR
Ellis Pritchard <ellis@cam-ani.co.uk>
DESCRIPTION
MetaTool is an integrated mail program for the Amiga supporting the full
MIME standard. It also supports multiple mailboxes, has a built in address
book and has extensive multithreading, all combined with an easy to use,
intuitive, user interface implemented using MUI.
MetaTool is alone among MIME capable mailers for the Amiga in that it's
totally *FREE*. Yes, quality FREEWARE still survives in a world that will
soon be charging a $15 registration fee for a "Hello World" program...
NEW FEATURES
A relatively minor revision, version 40.5 includes the following
enhancements:
- Outgoing Mail Archive
- Auto Update
- Easy external Mailbox addition
- Even faster operation
- More flexible ENV: variables usage
- A handful of new features
- Fixes all known bugs
- Some MUI 3.1 support
- 68000 and 68020/30 opt versions included
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
- MUI 3.1 or higher
- AmigaOS 3.0 or higher (may work on 2.04+)
- Some capability for sending mail, e.g. SMTPpost
from INetUtils or UUCP sendmail, putmail etc.
AVAILABILITY
MetaTool 40.5 will be available on Aminet in directory comm/mail as
MetaTool.lha, or, pending the problems current with Aminet, directly from
the author or his Web site:
ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/pub/aminet/comm/mail/MetaTool.lha
http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~nuke/MetaTool.html
(available from 23-Feb-1996)
PRICE
*FREEWARE* - totally without cost.
DISTRIBUTABILITY
Freely distributable to individuals and non-profit making organizations.
Magazines are expected to pay some kind of fee, which could be just a copy
of the publication, profit making organizations my use MetaTool for free
unless they want technical support. Full details with documentation.
OTHER
For further information, please contact Ellis Pritchard at
ellis@cam-ani.co.uk, or point your browser at
http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~nuke/MetaTool.html.
Amiga CDROM Guide v1.5
Table of Contents
TITLE
Amiga CDROM Guide
VERSION
1.5
AUTHOR
Anders Bakkevold. (andersb@intercom.no)
DESCRIPTION
Amiga CDROM Guide (ACDG) was made to help Amiga-owners to pick the right
CDROM for their needs. It doesn't include commecial games or
photoCD-discs, but all Amiga PD/clipart/fonts/modules collections.
- It is in the Amigaguide-format.
- You will find all the vital information on a CDROM, like price, contents,
publisher etc.
- Covers 314 CDROMs!
- 145+ of the CDROMs have a review
- If you're interrested in for instance raytracing, click on the keyword
"Raytracing" to get a list of all CDROMs that can be assosiated with
raytracing.
- Other keywords: Clipart, fonts, pictures, utilities, GNU, text-files,
fish etc
- It's up-to-date with the latest CDROM releases.
- It is completely independent
All in all: 680kB of pure information!
NEW FEATURES
v1.5 Sixth release. Contains information about 314 CD-ROMs.
- 30 CD-ROMs Added:
Advanced Military Systems
All Dogs Go To Heaven
Aminer 10
AMUC CD 4
Animatic
CD-ROM World Atlas
CD32 Gamer Issue 10
CD32 Gamer Issue 6
CD32 Gamer Issue 8
CD32 Gamer Issue 9
Clipart & Fonts CD
Demos & Tools 1
Desktop Publisher's Dream 2
Digital Orchestra
EMC Index CD
EMC Phase 4
Encounters
FractalPro Image Library 1
Gamers' Delight 2
Glamour Girls
Lightwave 3D Enhancer
Netnews Offline 1
Nothing But GIFs AGA
Octamed 6 CD
Publisher's Companion
Sexy Sensations
Syndenis 3D-ROM
Texture Heaven 2
The New Basics Electronic Cookbook
XiPaint v3.2
- the ISBN field has been removed because it took too much space, and
not many CDs used it. The ISBN number will now appear in the
"comments" field. (Saved ~35kB!)
- a lot of info added, for instance many reviews from Amiga Format
- 145+ of the CDs have a review
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
You will need a program able to display Amigaguide files, like Multiview or
xkpGuide.
AVAILABILITY
Amiga CDROM Guide is available from any Aminet site, for instance:
ftp://ftp.amigalib.com/pub/aminet/docs/hyper/ACDGv15.lha
You can also email me (andersb@intercom.no) and I will send you the latest
version uuencoded.
There is also a WWW version available here:
http://www.intercom.no/~andersb/acdg/MAIN.html
PRICE
Amiga CDROM Guide is freeware.
DISTRIBUTABILITY
Amiga CDROM Guide v1.5 is copyright 1995 Anders Bakkevold.
All rights reserved. You may copy it as you like, as
long as no changes are made to the archive, and you
don't charge more than #2.00 for the media and
copying fees.
RoutePlanner v1.6a
Table of Contents
TITLE
RoutePlanner
VERSION
RoutePlanner 1.6a (22.2.96)
AUTHOR
Chris Lawrence <lawrenc@nextwork.rose-hulman.edu>
DESCRIPTION
A highway trip planner, based on Jim Butterfield's RoadRoute. Includes a
graphical user interface, database editor, and a conversion utility
(converts RoadRoute format files to RoutePlanner format).
Enhancements to RoadRoute include "highway classifications," up to 20
intermediate destinations ("Via cities"), state line notification,
preferred routing, abbreviated output formats, and "leg" subtotals.
Includes a database with complete coverage of about 95% of the lower 48
United States and basic coverage of the remainder of the U.S. and Canada.
Full coverage of Canada and U.S. expected within 3 months.
NEW FEATURES
Fixes a serious bug introduced in version 1.5. Improvements to the North
America database file and documentation.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
AmigaDOS 2.04 or higher
MultiView or AmigaGuide
Magic User Interface (release 3.2 or later)
1.5 MB minimum RAM, 2 MB or more preferred
AVAILABILITY
On any Aminet host, for example:
ftp://ftp.netnet.net/pub/aminet/biz/dbase/RoutePlanner.lha
DISTRIBUTABILITY
RoutePlanner and the RouteConv conversion utility are freely
distributable, but copyrighted. RouteEdit, the database editing
program is copyrighted shareware.
Terms as provided in documentation included.
RoutePlanner may be used for non-commercial or commercial purposes
under the same terms.
May be included in certain specified CD-ROM distributions without
prior authorization.
PRICE
US $5 for RouteEdit keyfile (only) by electronic mail
US $10 for full distribution (plus a selection of my other
FD/Shareware products) on disk, anywhere worldwide.
sort v1.49
Table of Contents
TITLE
sort
VERSION
1.49
AUTHOR
Ruediger Werner
E-Mail: wernerr@iee1.et.tu-dresden.de
rw2@irz.inf.tu-dresden.de
URL: http://home.pages.de/~wernerr
http://www.inf.tu-dresden.de/~rw2
http://eeetw0.et.tu-dresden.de:8080/~wernerr
S-Mail: Ruediger Werner
Stresemannplatz 2
01309 Dresden
GERMANY
DESCRIPTION
Sort does, what its name says -- it sorts ASCII-files in
alphabetical order. There are many features (see doc-file)
for manipulating the file(s) which have to be sorted.
It works from shell only. The sorting algorithm is very fast
(Try it!!).
NEW FEATURES
(registered version)
* dividing a file into two, according to the given pattern,
FEATURES
(unregistered version)
* sorting files alphabetically (ascending, descending)
* distinguishing and ignoring capitals and lower case
* erasing of empty lines
(registered version)
* sorting files alphabetically (ascending, descending)
* sorting with columns, variable length of sort string
* removing and replacing of characters
* picking out lines
* throwing out lines
* joining files
* operating in a given range only
* distinguishing and ignoring capitals and lower case
* erasing of empty lines
* erasing of double lines
* reversing of the file (without sorting)
* verbose function
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
none
AVAILABILITY
via aminet or from my homepage (under AMIGA):
http://eeetw0.et.tu-dresden.de:8080/~wernerr/amiga.html
the latest version will be available from my page
PRICE
5 US$ for registration (binaries) & sending by e-mail
8 US$ for registration (binaries) & sending by post
or equivalents in DM
registration see doc-file
DISTRIBUTABILITY
The unregistered version is freely distributable if it is done
in a noncommercial way and the contents of the archive are kept
intact. The registered version is not freely distributable.
Ruediger Werner
Nova Design, Inc. Acquires Aladdin 4D
Table of Contents
Nova Design, Inc. Adds A New Dimension To Their Product Line!
For Immediate Release
Tuesday, March 26, 1996
Contact: Bob Fisher
Nova Design, Inc.
1910 Byrd Avenue, Suite 214
Richmond, VA 23230
804-282-5868
Richmond, VA - March, 1995. Nova Design, Inc. is extremely pleased to
announce their recent acquisition of Aladdin 4D, the premiere 3D modeling,
rendering, and animation package from Adspec Programming.
"It's a perfect fit!", said Bob Fisher, Marketing VP of Nova Design. "Like
ImageFX, Aladdin is an incredibly powerful product with features unique to
the Amiga 3D market." Some of Aladdin 4D's more advanced features include
Procedural Textures, Real World Gasses, Particle Systems, and Path-based
Animation.
Greg Gorby, owner of Adspec Programming and creator of Aladdin 4D,
explained his selection of Nova Design: "We had many other offers, but
Nova's commitment to the Amiga, and the high-quality-at-a-reasonable-price
attitude that they've shown with ImageFX, convinced me that they were the
right company for Aladdin."
Before releasing Aladdin 4D, Nova Design will modernize and enhance the
interface, re-write the manual, and add a few new surprises to breathe new
life into this already superb Amiga product. Aladdin 4D 5.0, expected to
ship in early third quarter 1996, will be available to registered owners
for a special upgrade price.
Nova Design remains excited about the future possibilities of the Amiga
market. While some companies have chosen to abandon the Amiga, Nova Design
continues to provide new and innovative software to Amiga users worldwide.
Nova Design, Inc., 1910 Byrd Avenue, Suite 214, Richmond, VA 23230. For
customer support or information call (804) 282-6528, or fax us at; (804)
282-3768.
For more information on ImageFX call (804) 282-6528, or fax (804) 282-3768.
ImageFX and Aladdin 4D are trademarks of Nova Design, Inc.
All other trademarks are held by their respective owners.
World of Amiga
Table of Contents
THE WORLD OF AMIGA
==================
SHOW NEWS: MARCH 4th, 1996
SHOW TO BE LAUNCH VENUE FOR NEW BULLETIN BOARD SOFTWARE - BY ZEUS
DEVELOPMENTS
Zeus, a new bulletin board software package for the Amiga, will be given
its first public showing at the World of Amiga Show which opens at the
Hammersmith Novotel Exhibition Centre on April 13th.
Software house Zeus Developments will be giving visitors hands-on
demonstrations of the program throughout the two day show.
Zeus Developments will be unveiling the latest version of Zeus for the
first time at the World of Amiga Show.
"Zeus contains a revolutionary new communications standard for the Amiga
which features an attractive graphical user interface, sound and vision
capabilities and an increased operating speed.", said Zeus's Nick Loman.
Zeus will also be available at a discounted price for the duration of the
show.
A world-wide group of distributors is already is place and there are
support boards up and running in France, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Norway,
Japan, Australia, USA, Canada, Italy, Portugal, Greece and Switzerland.
The package contains many industry standard communincations protocols -
including:
- Hydra
- RIP Graphics
- IEMSI Logons
- It also supports many links to the Internet with users having the
ability to be allocated Email addresses, read UseNet newsgroups and
download the latest files from the Amiga software directory.
Please direct trade enquiris to Peter Brameld at PBA Events on 01462 480024
and press inquiries to Ken Hughes at Cape Cowley Associates on 0161 480 9811
World of Amiga Exhibitor List
Amiga Technologies
Amiga Technologies
Amiga Technologies
Amiga Technologies
Blittersoft
ClickBOOM
Digita International
Emap Images
Emerald Creative Technology
Epic Marketing
EM Compugraphic
Eyetech Group Ltd.
Future Publishing
Gasteiner
Gasteiner
HiSoft
HiSoft
HiQ
HiQ
IDG Media
LH Publishing
Micronics
PD Soft
PD Soft
Power Computing
Power Computing
Scala UK
Siren Software
Snap Computer Supplies Ltd.
Zeus Developments
To be confirmed:
Softwood
Fourth Level Developments
... quite a few others if rumours are to be believed.
---
Nick Loman (zeus@mistral.co.uk)
The Amiga Walker Prototype
Table of Contents
The Walker
While we don't have any CeBit reports ready for Amiga Report yet, the
biggest news was the Amiga Walker prototype on display.
Amiga Tech isn't far enough along that they're showing off PowerAmiga
hardware yet. The Walker is a stopgap measure, one more AGA machine to
carry the line across.
The design is quite unconventional. The Walker a black appliance, totally
unlike a desktop computer. Pictures have been placed on Aminet and on the
Web.
Walker Specsheet
While IRC conferences, speculation, and FAQs have abounded, not all of the
information in them has been complete or accurate. So Amiga Report went
straight to the source--Michael Metz, Amiga Product Manager at Amiga
Technologies. He provided this quick look at the specifications of the
Amiga Walker.
Here's a short summary:
1. 68030 Processor w/ 40 MHz (EC)
2. 2 SIMM sockelts for max. 128 MB of RAM on board
3. AGA Chipset
4. Additional SuperIO Chip w/
a: PC HD floppy support
b: EIDE support (perhaps up to 4 devices)
c: 2 * fast serial device with FIFO
d: Enhanced parallel port with bitronic support
5. Bay for internal DD (880 KB) floppy support
6. Complete motherboard at 40 MHz access (except for AGA) for fast memory
access
7. New designed system bus which will be compatible to the PPC AMIGA.
This system bus will include all needed signals regarding PCI and ZORRO
III. The slot itself needs a doughter board where third party
manufacturers may expand the system to a CPU and a ZORRO or PCI bus.
8. The AMIGA comes with a quad speed CD ROM, a hard drive and 5 MB of
memory (1 MB chip mem which may get expanded to 2 MD and 4 MB Fast memory
on SIMM socket.
Because of a very new design, the AMIGA may get expanded from a mini tower
to a big tower by just taking off the upper part with the CD ROM and the
floppy and inserting slices for further expanstions (hard drives, zorro
slots, PCI slots, more floppy drives etc.).
The new system will run on a 40 MHz base with a bridge to the AGA chips.
The design is meant to be accepted by new users. The idea was that each
user has a very intense relationship to his AMIGA so the design should be
something which supports this relationship. Pictures are available on the
net.
Sites which contain Walker information and pictures include-
http://www.amiga.de/de/Aktuelles/Walker-GB.html (The official page is
located here)
http://www.doremi.co.uk/walker/
http://www.ozramp.net.au/~morden/
http://www.bangor.ac.uk/~eeu013/walker
The Walker FAQ, not entirely complete, is at
http://www.intercom.no/~andersb/walker.html
eWorld Shuts Down
Table of Contents
[Commodore and Escom haven't been the only companies who have been hurt by
the computer industry. Apple's cutbacks included shutting down eWorld,
their online service. This is the letter its users received to deliver the
news.]
Fellow eWorlders:
As promised last Friday, I am writing this letter to update you further on
what is happening here at eWorld. While we're still working out some of
the details about our future, we wanted to give you information as soon as
we could so you can start making your plans.
The first thing I want you to know is that we are indeed closing down
eWorld on March 31st, 1996. While all of us here and in Apple management
acknowledge the wonderful community you have created here, it's important
for everybody to understand that in this rapidly-evolving information
industry, change is a constant. We have to respond to market and business
realities, and we have to be constantly on the lookout to make sure we make
the right, long-term decisions.
The way we see it, the smartest move for Apple to make is to greatly expand
our presence on the Internet. And the best way to structure that presence
is with a portfolio of web sites and services for particular customer
groups-not a general online service like eWorld. All of us here know that
this will be a blow to some, and an inconvenience for many of our members.
And I want to personally say that I am sorry for that. But we studied this
issue long and hard, and believe it's the right move.
The second thing I want you to know is that we're working to make the
transition out of eWorld as easy as possible for you. First, we have in
place a mail forwarding program that should facilitate you receiving e-mail
messages and attachments until July 1st, 1996. All you have to do is let
us know where you will be establishing your new Internet or online
presence, whether through an Internet Service Provider or other online
service (we'll have more info on how to do this later). Second, we are
making available to you-at a good price-the Apple Internet Connection Kit
(AICK). With AICK, you have an easy-to-use, all-in-one kit that can get
you connected to the Internet in as little as 15 minutes. Third, as we
said earlier, we are going to be significantly increasing our overall
Internet presence. You'll see new pages on a variety of exciting new
subjects-including our innovative QuickTime Live! page that allows you to
participate in Apple WebCasts, an interesting new interactive way to
experience entertainment events.
We look forward to sharing more transition details with you shortly. We
are literally working on these issues on an hour-by-hour basis. You have
been very loyal to us here at eWorld. We truly appreciate your commitment
as we work out the final transition issues over the coming days. As the
week progresses, we will be posting a detailed Q&A covering the options
available to you.
In the meantime, I have scheduled an auditorium conference tomorrow, March
5, at 6:30 pm PST where you and I can discuss this transition and I can
answer questions as best I can at that time. Please join me for this
discussion (Shortcut=stage 1).
Your patience and understanding is appreciated in more ways than you think.
Please watch this spot for further updates.
Our best,
Diana Keith, Director of Internet Productions.
Transmitted: 96-03-04 13:04:07 PST
Helmut Jost New CEO of Escom AG
Table of Contents
Helmut Jost new CEO of ESCOM AG
Manfred Schmitt to quit Board
Bochum/Heppenheim, 27 March, 1996. The Supervisory Board of ESCOM AG has
appointed Helmut Jost (43) as Member of the Board of ESCOM AG with effect
from 1 April, 1996. He will replace Manfred Schmitt as the company's CEO.
Mr. Schmitt's desire to leave the Board of ESCOM AG has been accepted by
the Supervisory Board. He is to quit his post on 31 March, 1996. Mr.
Schmitt will continue to serve the company as a consultant.
Helmut Jost has been in the European PC Business for many years. After
moving up the ranks at Commodore (where he was ultimately the Managing
Director of Commodore GmbH and Vice President International), Helmut Jost
accepted a post on the board of ESCOM AG in 1993, where he was responsible
for the Sales and Marketing functions and for the management of
subsidiaries. Since November 1995, he has been head of IBM's German PC
business.
In Helmut Jost, ESCOM has succeeded in winning back a man with an
outstanding knowledge of the company and its markets.
The AGA Experience Vol 2
Table of Contents
ANNOUNCEMENT: NFA/SAdENESS Software AGA EXPERIENCE Vol 2 CD COMING SOON!
Since the release of The AGA Experience Volume 1, we have been inundated
with requests for a follow-up, so here it is!. If you own an AGA Amiga, or
own a Graphics card - this is the CD for you!!! This is the first (well,
second really) CD dedicated to A1200/A4000 owners, and features the very
best AGA-only software since the release of The AGA Experience Volume 1.
The AGA Experience Volume 1 was loved by the reviewers, and its owners.
Here is a selection of the review scores it achived in the Amiga press:
93% - Amiga Format (Format Gold!).
90% - CU Amiga.
90% - Amiga User International.
90% - Amiga Shopper.
8/10 - Amiga Computing.
Reviews for Volume 2 to follow.. Great things are expected ;-)
Some of the main features, and improvements since the first CD are as
follows:
- EXCLUSIVE COMMERCIAL DEMOS. We have contacted many of the Amiga's best
software companies and they have created special demos of their best
titles just for us! These include a demo of the BRILLIANT Capital
Punishment - with special speech samples, and a 1-player vs computer
game, with 2 different characters! An EXCLUSIVE demo of the GREAT XTreme
Racing! Including a special track made for us (which even includes our
logo on the track!!). Also included are several goodies for Xtreme
Racing owners - like the lemmings patch and several graphical
improvements! We also have a great demo of Nemac4 - the latest
3DTexture-Mapped Amiga game. Including special 060 fixes for you lucky
060 owners!! You'll also be the FIRST to see the great new AGA flight
and combat sim - Microlyte warriors! Plus other goodies like exclusive
Worms levels, a demo of Pinball Prelude, a demo of Watchtower, a demo of
BlitzBombers and much more I have probably forgotten!
- EXCLUSIVE HTML DOCS AND AWEB. Yvon Rozijn has created us a special
version of AWeb, and we have created some exclusive HTML Internet-style
documents! You will see full-colour pictures, and you can even run some
of the CD's highlighted programs directly form the interface!
- NFA PRODUCTIONS. Including The GREAT Word diskmags!
- READY-TO-RUN. Most of the contents run straight from the CD. There is
no need to spend ages extracting disks. Well over 500meg of ready-to-run
hot utilities, diskmags, text files, demos, games and much more. Only
those titles which NEED to be compressed have been, these include Demos
and slideshows which have to be stored in DMS format. Extracting these
is as simple as double-clicking an icon in Workbench. IMPROVED since
Volume 1 - there are now MANY less DMS archives to mess about with!
- MAGIC WORKBENCH colour scheme and icons. We have spent months making
this CD the very smartest looking CD available today. Almost every
program has a suitable MagicWB icon. We have even created custom
Ray-Traced icons for the CD, any Amiga owner is guranteed to be
impressed! IMPROVED since Volume 1, with all the drawers in a clearer
lay-out and neater look.
- LICENSED Amiga Report Diskmags. The entire 1996 collection so far -
ready-to-view. A great resource for any Amiga owner.
- LOADS of MagicWB icons, backdrops etc. All you need to add a
professional appearance to your Workbench.
- HUNDREDS of programs never before seen on CD. Mostly downloaded from
BBSs from around the World, and straight from the Internet.
- ALL AGA Amiga Doom clones since the release of Volume 1. If you thought
Doom was impossible on the Amiga - take a look at this CD for a real
surprise! INCLUDING, wait for it,, a demo of Alien Breed 2 - The Killing
Grounds! You won't believe your eyes!
- THE LATEST AGA mega-demos. If you like being impressed by your Amiga,
you'll find a great selection of demos on offer. There are many which
that are so new, you won't have even heard of before - let alone seen!
INCLUDING a massive 15Mb+ WILD PARTY Demo!
- FULL COMPATIBILTY INFORMATION. We have listed where possible the
compatibilty requirements for the various demos on this CD. It will tell
you required RAM, Processor and even whether it will exit back to
Workbench! When you load a demo, it will tell you the requirements and
give you the option to 'RunIt' or 'Cancel'. All you Amiga owners with
030+ will LOVE this feature!! ;-)
- HIGH-QUALITY artwork and packaging. You'll be more than impressed with
the quality of the Amiga-created artwork and packaging! MUCH improved
since the release of Volume 1!
- VIRTUALLY 100% indexed. There is now a more comprehensive index file,
with most things fully described.
- PLUS hundreds of demos, games, slideshows, utilities, diskmags, texts,
fonts, 3D objects etc. etc.
The AGA Experience Volume 2 is soon to be released, and will retail for
just 19.99(GBP)!
We are now taking orders, and copies are limited so get your order in now!
Pre-order prices are available - contact us for details..
RELEASE DATE: Hopefully for the World of Amiga Show UK!
------------
For more details, or to place an order please contact us.
SAdENESS Software.
13 Russell Terrace,
Mundesley,
Norfolk.
NR11 8LJ.
ENGLAND.
TEL / FAX: +44 (01263) 722169
E-Mail: rich@sadeness.demon.co.uk
(TRADE ENQUIRIES VERY WELCOME.)
ESC Contact Address Changed
Table of Contents
ESC Contact Address Changed
The contact address for the ESC organization mentioned in a recent Amiga
Report is now 9517693@ul.ie.
Wonder Computers Tender List
Table of Contents
Wonder Computers Tender List
[While the tender deadline outlined in here actually expired before we
could get this issue to print, the results have not yet been announced, and
as mentioned in the letter, the liquidators do not necessarily have to sell
the goods in this fashion. So the information may still be relevant to
interested parties... -Jason]
Lots of Amiga equipment
Notice of Sale by Tender
Assets of Wonder Computers, Inc.
Sealed tenders will be recieved by the undersigned until 2:00 o'clock in
the afternoon EST, Thursday March 28, 1996 for the purchase of the
Trustee's right, title and interest in the following assets:
Listing of parcels available can be obtained from Ernst & Young Inc.
Tender must be accompanied by a certified cheque payable to Ernst & Young
Inc. for 15% of the amount of the tender price as a deposit which will be
returned if the tender is not accepted and forfeited to the undersigned on
account of liquidated damages is accepted and the sale is not accepted by
the tenderer. The balance of the tender price will be payable by certified
cheque or banker's draft on closing. Tenders may be made for individual
parcels or en bloc but en bloc tenders must stipulate a separate price for
each parcel.
Tecnders will only be accepted in sealed envelopes, clearly marked "Tender
Wonder Computers Inc."
The highest or any tender will not necessarily be accepted.
All tenders shall be subject to the Conditions of Sale which shall form
part thereof ad amy be obtained from the undersigned.
Notice is hereby given that the conditions set forth under Rule114(8) of
the General rules under the Bankruptcy Act apply to this sale subject to
additions, modifications ot omissions in whole or in part in the Conditions
of the Sale drawn up by the Trustee.
The assets may be inspected on Wed. March 20 and Monday March 25, 1996 and
an arrangement for an inspection time should be made with the Trustee.
Tenders will be opened and announced on Thursday March 28, 1996 at 4:00PM
at the office of the Trustee at 55 Metcalfe Street, Suite 1600, Ottawa and
all tenderers are invited to attend.
A more detailed description of the assets may be obtained by contacting Ms.
Nicoletta Chow or Mr. Damian Papps at telephone 613-232-1511.
ERSNT & YOUNG INC.
Trustee in Bankruptcy of Wonder Computers Inc.
Suite 1600, 55 Metcalfe Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1P 6L5
Fax: 613-232-5324
The Death of ACAR
Table of Contents
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
======================
After considerable deliberation over various alternatives, the future of
Amiga Review magazine has been finalised. We apologise for the extremely
long delay in publication of the next issue, and thank you all for your
patience. We did not want to go to press on another issue without being
able to annouce the future of the magazine.
The APRIL issue, which will go on sale mid-April, will be the last issue of
Amiga Review as a stand-alone magazine. It will be the normal size and
price.
The good news is that we will continue to cover the Amiga scene in a brand
new publication call Multimedia and Desktop Video.
The first issue, June/July 1996, will be published on May 22nd. This new
publication will cover Amiga, Mac and PC multimedia and desktop video
applications. Several leading Amiga software packages are now out on the
PC and other platforms (including Lightwave and Scala), so discussion of
these programs will expand to cover other hardware.
PLEASE NOTE: A dedicated section of the magazine will focus exclusively on
Amiga products, including non-multimedia and video related software and
hardware. All of the major advertisers from Amiga Review have committed to
moving across to the new magazine - so you will still be able to keep up to
date.
Continuing Amiga Review as a stand-alone magazine has been very difficult
for some time now. We struggled on through 1995, hoping things would pick
up. However the sudden jump in paper prices around July and a gradual
fall in readership and advertising through-out the year, put an end to any
hope of improving the situation.
IPC have indicated there is still a possibility they will pick up exclusive
distribution of the Amiga in Australia. We hope they do. However, the sad
reality is that regardless of what Amiga Technology have planned for the
platform, software development has slowed to trickle and it is our belief
that things are now unlikely to turn around in the short term.
Nevertheless, the Amiga remains one of the least expensive entry level
computers, and is still cost effective for 2D/3D animation, non-linear
digital video editing and titling, and live presentation graphics.
If the Amiga scene does pick up, having Amiga coverage in a broader
publication will extend the opportunity to grow the market. In a best case
situation, the Amiga section could one day be split off into a separate
magazine once again.
SUBSCRIBERS will automatically receive Multimedia and Desktop Video, unless
we are notified otherwise. You may also transfer across to PC Review
magazine. Regardless of which magazine you decide to receive, the total
number of issues remaining will apply. Of course, if you're not happy with
this offer, we will cheerfully refund the balance of your subscription due.
We hope you will at least consider receiving the first issue of Multimedia
and Desktop Video before making a choice.
As the editor of Amiga Review, I have seen some incredible events in the
world of Commodore and the Amiga - enough to fill a good book (Hey, there's
an idea!). The last 14 years have been enjoyable, although it was a great
shame that only at the end of the magazines life did I have the opportunity
to make improvements to Amiga Review (like having it produced on the Amiga)
I had hoped to see for so long.
Multimedia and Desktop Video will tap into one of the most interesting
aspects of desktop computer technology in this decade. I enjoy sharing the
potential of interesting technology with others. As an Amiga user, you are
no doubt fascinated by this area of computing too. I'm sure you'll find
our new magazine informative and worth while.
I am happy to discuss feedback to this change in this forum or by email.
Regards,
Andrew Farrell
Editor/Publisher
Amiga Review Magazine
New Games Editor For AR
Table of Contents
Ken Anderson Signs on as Amiga Report Games Editor
Ken Anderson, editor of the popular Grapevine disk magazine, has joined
Amiga Report in the long-vacant position of Games Editor.
Mr. Anderson will bring expanded gaming coverage to Amiga Report, and will
maintain contact with the industry's leading publishers and developers.
His experience and enthusiasm are a valuable addition to the AR team.
Feel free to contact Mr. Anderson with industry news, whispers, tips, or
review material.
Ken Anderson
44 Scotland Drive
Dunfermline
Fife KY12 7TD
Scotland.
kend@dhp.com
ka@protec.demon.co.uk
Amiga Magazine Subscription Offer
Table of Contents
_ _
/ | | /_\ ._ _ o _ _. |\/| _. _ _._ o._ _
\_|_| / \| | ||(_|(_| | |(_|(_|(_|/_|| |(/_ Subscription news.
_| _|
STOP PRESS
After torrents of E-Mail and many many requests from overseas readers,
managment has relented and applied the UK '12 for 8' special offer
to the rest of the world too.
Not only this but realising that many people may be uncertain with their
Amiga computing future, we've also brought in 6 monthly subscriptions.
With these special rates you not only get a great price on the best Amiga
Magazine going but you also get it on time, every time. Yes you even
get the CD as well as the floppys for special CD-ROM issues.
SPECIAL OFFER - 12 months
United Kingdom and British foreign legion post offices - #38.00
Europe/Eire Air Mail - #60.00
Rest of the World by Air Mail - #78
Rest of the World by Surface - #58
NEW 6 MONTH SUBS PRICES
United Kingdom and British foreign legion post offices - #27.00
Europe/Eire Air Mail - #45.00
Rest of the World by Air Mail - #58.50
Rest of the World by Surface - #43.50
SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS
Tower Publishing,
Tower House,
Sovereign Park,
Lathkill street,
Market Harborough,
LE16 9EF.
Phone: +44-(0)1858-468888
Payment acceptable with; Cheque, Post Order, International Money Order,
Access and Visa credit cards.
Orders payable to EMAP Images Ltd.
World Construction Set V2
Table of Contents
Announcing World Construction Set V2 for the Amiga
Questar Productions is pleased to announce continued development for the
Amiga line of computers with the prerelease of WCS V2.
WCS V2 is full of professional features suitable for use by animators,
geologists, foresters, cartographers, architects, engineers, game
developers, teachers, students and anyone with an interest in earth
sciences and art. It has powerful tools for those who need them, but with
its new wizard technology even a novice can get great looking pictures
fast.
WCS V2 prerelease is shipping now. In appreciation of the support Questar
has received from the Amiga community, the price for Amiga WCS V2 is
considerably less than the price for WCS V2 on other platforms.
Amiga users who order WCS V2 prerelease will receive a FREE upgrade to the
final version, complete with new manuals.
Meanwhile World Construction Set V1 is still available -- but only for the
Amiga. WCS V1 received rave reviews while breaking new ground in powerful
terrain creation and animation. It's a great way to start using WCS if
you're on a budget, and it's upgradable to WCS V2 should you need the
additional power in the future.
We think WCS V2 is the best terrain animation program available on any
platform. WCS V2 includes these advanced features:
- Spline based keyframe animation with over 100 animatable parameters,
including motion, color and ecosystem parameters. Create landscapes that
change over the course of a few minutes, a day, a week, a hundred years,
or even millions of years within a single animation.
- Interactive editing and display of parameters with a graphic interface
that shows the camera view, an overhead view and a spline-based timeline
editor.
- MUI-based interface takes advantage of large screen displays with
resizable windows you can arrange the way _you_ want. We have found MUI
to be fast and stable, and it has helped us concentrate on giving you
great terrain animation features while presenting a very powerful
interface.
- Highly detailed rock textures complete with stratification and folding.
- 3D evolving clouds.
- Waves, breakers and reflections on the water.
- Automatic beaches with support for tides.
- 3D-shaded scaled image textures for very realistic trees and plants even
close-up. A variety of foliage is included and you can even create your
own custom trees.
- The ability to render any number of DEM files in a single project -- even
the entire earth!
- A coordinate system that knows the earth is not flat and always takes the
curvature of the earth into account. Mountains appear realistically from
over the horizon as you move. Orbits are automatic.
- LightWave 3D scene and object export for combining LW objects with WCS
landscapes.
- WCS V2 even gives you the sun and moon!
Questar first developed WCS on the Amiga, we like the Amiga, and we are
continuing our Amiga support with WCS V2. We also support other Amiga
developers by using Amiga software for business, graphics, manual
production and video editing. We are proud of the advances made with WCS
V2 and we think it will make a great addition to your graphics software
toolkit.
We ask for your continued support of World Construction Set on the Amiga.
WCS V2 Prerelease is now available through dealers and distributors. If
your favorite retailer does not have WCS in stock, have them contact us:
Questar Productions
1058 Weld County Road 23.5
Brighton, CO 80601 USA
303/659-4028
wcsinfo@arcticus.burner.com
For more information and to see some great pictures, please check out our
web site:
http://www.dimensional.com/~questar
Long live the Amiga!
Thanks for your support,
Gary Huber, President
Questar Productions
(All trademarks are the properties of their respective owners)
New Virus Checker Owner
Table of Contents
New Ownership of Virus Checker
==============================
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>From John:
As of tonight (31/3/96) Virus_Checker has changed ownership.
The new owner of the code is David Dustin. Dave lives here in
New Zealand not far from me and now has the code and is looking over it.
The previous sale is now null and void as I did not receive any
money from them in time. The contract I signed with them means
nothing. If anything should surface that is using this other code
then please inform me so I can put a stop to it.
Dave will write a bit in here shortly to inform you whats going on.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>From Dave:
I have purchased the source-code and rights to further develop
`Virus Checker' by John Veldthuis, and pending final settlement,
hope to have a new version available within 4-6 weeks.
It will take me a while to familiarise myself with the code, and do
conversions to my system, but from the initial examinations I
foresee no real problems.
Some background information about myself:
I am a devoted Amiga developer, and have been since the A1000's
first hit New Zealand's shores. I have owned pretty much all of the
Commodore range, and still use many of the machines.
I had been a registered developer with CBM since 1990, but have been
programming long before that. I am proficient in Assembly, E, C/C++
and a number of "useless" languages.
Those who registered with John will still be classed as Registered
Users with me (once I get the list from John), but will require
"re-registration" with me, but at no cost.
More information will be made available in an announcment once I get
things worked out.
In the mean time, I would like to ask you, the users, to please
complete the following questions so that I may better understand
what is wanted from the future `Virus Checker'.
1. Which interface method should I use?
Pick one...
[ ] GadTools
[ ] ClassAct
[ ] MUI
[ ] BGUI
[ ] Triton
[ ] Other: __________________________
2. What sort of support for crunched files?
Pick as many as you want...
[ ] Only uncrunched files
[ ] XFD Library
[ ] XPK Library
[ ] Decrunch Library
[ ] LhA/Lzx Archives
[ ] Compressed Disk Images (DMS, PackDev etc...)
[ ] Other: __________________________
3. How should the program exist?
Pick one...
[ ] Single executable with virus code self-contained
[ ] Main executable, with separate brain files
[ ] Other: __________________________
4. What features do you count as most important?
Pick as many as you want...
[ ] ARexx port and support
[ ] AppIcon
[ ] File Watching
[ ] Full disk scans
[ ] Automatic scanning of new disks
[ ] Regular memory checks
[ ] Localisation
[ ] User creatable brain files
Please list any extra features you want me to consider...
5. What sort of Shareware restriction would you prefer?
Pick one...
[ ] Requester upon startup/exit
[ ] Certain features disabled
[ ] Limited trial period
[ ] None. Rely on users honesty. :-)
[ ] Other: __________________________
Please send the answers as well as any comments or suggestions,
via e-mail to: vc@eclipsnz.manawatu.gen.nz
Thank you...
Dave Dustin <dave@eclipsnz.manawatu.gen.nz>
Eclipse Software
PO Box 4598
Palmerston North 5301
New Zealand
Scala IRC Conference
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Scala IRC Conference
===========================================================================
LOG from the IRC conference with John Chang, Tech Support Manager, Scala US.
From Thursday 21'st of March 1996. Independantly organised
JPChang | Thanks to everyone for coming and waiting patiently. As you may
know, CeBIT closed as of yesterday. From the few pieces of news, I
understand that Scala was a big hit. We'll see what the press has to
say in the coming weeks and months. A number of notable Amiga
publications were in attendance. So things are looking very good.
Welcome all. Thanks for coming back and glad you've been patient.
That's it. Let the questions, comments, complaints, ideas, begin!
Blast_SSP | Thanx for coming again Johnny first. :) Sorry Johnny for being
a bit off topic, but Dave Haynie... What is his status ? Is he still
working at scala or has he resigned? And to what platforms is Scala
still doing MM/IC ? Like what are you doing and what are you planning
on doing?
JPChang | Dave Haynie still works for Scala and has no intentions of
leaving. There was some rumor running around that AT had offered him a
deal and that he would be moving to Germany. Not true. He may do some
consulting for AT on the side, but that's about it. MM and IC is still
available for the Amiga and of course, will soon be available for the
PC. Other platforms are being considered, but no decisions yet. We
still have low-level business activities with AT, but we may have to
wait until the first prototype Power Amigas become available to port our
new "BackBone" technology to the Amiga. BackBone is our new and much,
much, much improved software technology.
[Dave Haynie IS, and has been for months, a contract employee of Amiga
Tech. His primary responsibility is helping AT define a specification for
a PowerAmiga. He's doing it from the comfort of his New Jersey home.
-Jason]
NiteFlite | With Dave Haynie's involvment with the PowerAmiga, Amiga Techs
development of the Walker and PowerAmiga, etc. ... is there a chance
Scala will change their minds on this "wait and see" approach with the
Amiga. It sorta is a slap in the face.
JPChang | I don't see how its a "slap in the face". We could conceivably
do a port of BackBone to the ECS and AGA platforms, but by the time we
release the software, most will be working with the new Power Amiga
platforms. Truthfully, we can't count on the existing market to cover
the cost of R&D, marketing, sales, distribution and support. Power
Amiga, on the other hand, promises more. Including cross-platform
compatibility. Please keep in mind that we are a business and we have
comitments to our investors. Also, some assume that Scala is very
profitable, etc. While I can't actually disclose numbers, this is
simply not true. We will continue to do everything possible with the
Amiga market and work more dilligently with AT.
KarmaComa | Will there be a version of Scala with CyberGraphX support (or
atlest not only 15kHz PAL/NTSC) for Amiga if you decide to stick with it
(the Amiga)? And; what's this about a Scala set-top box? Info? ETA?
JPChang | We've discussed this in prior IRC sessions, but the fact is that
we can't do EGS/RTG support with the existing code that we developed for
our Amiga products. Its possible to do with our new BackBone technology
and more than likely, will be possible with the Power Amiga platform. I
seriously doubt if we can do it for the existing ECS/AGA systems.
MrDaniel | Note: Scala runs in most AGA screen modes, even >15kHz modes.
Like for example DblPAL, Multiscan etc.
JPChang | As to the set-top box, we are writing the playback/authoring
software for General Instrument Digicipher II box for Primestar. A
direct satellite service similar to RCA and USSB DirecTV.
Blast_SSP | It's me again Johnny :) This new Scala backbone... Is it your
plans on calling all Scala produced with the new backbone 1.0 again and
so forward ? Instead of continueing the 5.00+ version numbers ? Why
did you call the PC version 1.00? Was it because of you see the new
BackBone as some kind of a ReBirth? :) Thanx for your answers :))
JPChang | It was marketing's decision to call it MM100, as it is the first
version available for the PC. Yes, it would be our first product with
BackBone applied. Also, it help tech support distinguish which product
the user is talking about. If he says MM100, we know he means the PC
version, if he says MM400, then we know he's talking Amiga.
HeadQuake | Evening. :-) PC MM100, compared to other so called MM
authouring applications on Wintel machines.. what are the Scala
advantages? How will you market MM100?
JPChang | Well, first things first, it doesn't run under Windows, which has
its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that we can use the
hardware much more efficiently, than Windows or Win '95 can. All the
wipes you expect of the Amiga, can now be applied to the PC version.
Well, its reasonably close. Nothing quiet performs like an Amiga. :)
The bad news is that we can't take advantage of all the Windows
resources like MCI, DDE, OLE, etc. Not that its a great loss in my
opinion. :) If you've played PC games, you know how fast and powerful
the graphic speed and animation is. As we all know, a Windows based
application program, simply can't achieve that. Simply because Windows
limits these types of capabilities. I believe Scala will be the first
multimedia presentation program to take advantage of all these game
graphic techniques. MM100 and IC100 will come with literally HUNDREDS
of wipes! While the nearest Windows based multimedia app may give you
at most, 100! You can even create your own wipes, either using
"Picture" wipes or using the scripting language. As to marketing, well,
considering that we don't have as much money as Microsoft, who does, we
have to use gurella(sp) tactics. We have to take advantage of the
kindness of magazine reviewers, use the Internet and of course do as
many "grass roots" campaigns at tradeshows, expositions, etc.
Blast_SSP | Ok. here comes me again :) When will any new demo version be
out for any platform? When will any new VERSION be out on any plat-
form? What version number is it ? When is MM100 out ? And what's the
pricing of MM100, IC100, MMx00 (Amiga) and ICx00 (Amiga) ?
JPChang | We're working on the demo version for MM100 for the PC. It will
be distributed throughout the Internet and we are thinking of doing a
demo CD-ROM for in-store merchandising. Both MM100 and IC100 for the
PC, is expected to be released on May 1st of this year. MM100 for the
PC has a Suggested Retail Price of $249 USD, IC100 is $2,500USD and
$1,000USD for the IC Player. MM400 is $399USD and IC500 for the Amiga
is $2,500 and $800USD for the IC Player. You can find all of this
information and more at our website at http://www.scala.com or
http://www.scala.no.
MrDaniel | Tell us what happened after Rick Salmon plugged in his A1200 at
the multimedia seminar in Washington DC, three years ago. :) GA.
JPChang | Well, it was pretty neat. Everyone turned around to see Rick
plug the computer into the socket and the audio line-in jacks to the
mixer and the composite output to the projector. Rick already had
"ScalaTime" set up on autostart. So, you got the usual "This is a
journey into sound... After it was over, I think everybody was stunned.
Then came some applause. Then Rick proceeded to show everyone the power
of the Amiga and Scala. Like I said, in the newsgroup, Scala and the
Amiga was the only one to get a near standing ovation. :) Oh, yes. We
got plenty of inquiries. :))
HeadQuake | How about TCP/IP support in MM100/(IC100) (?) Having one server
(Pentium) doing CPU/disc work, and have many players/clients (486's).
Also, please tell us how a 'normal' working day for you at Scala US is
like. :) (a lot eh?)
JPChang | Yeah, all you need is to have the DOS based TCP/IP hardware/
software and that's all there is to it. Since it's peer-to-peer you can
load/save to any drive, although we do assign volumes. For example, if
you have the server array, say 10 GB, called BFG and its assigned driver
letter Z: You can set a directory by doing set scala_dir=BFG: Otherwise,
you can do peer-to-peer by using ScalaNetto transfer files from BFG to
the individual drives on the players. My working day... First thing in
the morning is to go through my voicemail. Do callbacks for the urgent
ones. I usually try to do a callback all at the same time, but many
live in different time zones, so I have to wait for the Californians to
have their first cup of coffee. Then I answer eMail, newsgroup
messages, America Online messages, CompuServe messages. Then its
whatever needs to be done during the day. Which includes call in
technical support, inside technical support (training), then projects.
Then there is the studying at night. Gotta keep up with all the trends,
new hardware, new software, etc. Its a lot but someone has to do it.
Blast_SSP | Will MM/IC PC have some kind of dongle or other hardware
protecttion? Like the AMIGA version has ? It has got to have some kind
of protection right ? Or will you maybe do SGI style protection? If
you know what I mean that is :)
JPChang | MM will not have a dongle, but IC will.
Blast_SSP | well I was wondering more about making some kind of SGI styke
protection..
JPChang | No. The dongle will be the standard ones like HASP and the like
for the parallel port.
Harv | hey John Chang - did you work there when I reviewed the original
Amiga Scala for .info magazine years ago? (came in a green box with a
guy climing up a ladder). wonderd if you read my review. :) feel fre
to upgrade me anytime, John :(
HeadQuake | The ladder is still there. (MM400) :)
JPChang | I did read your review Harv, but I joined Scala shortly
thereafter. Erm I think it was June of '90. Or maybe it was '91?
eMail me your address Harv and I'll see what I can do. :)
Spock | I have a wierd question here: Why can Scala MM300 run in one meg
chip, 2 fast, but not 2 chip, one fast? Also, what kinda fades do you
get with 2 meg chip/020?
JPChang | Erm, I think its a memory allocation thing. Also, if you attempt
to run a 2MB wipe, it usually hangs or crashes. :(
Spock | What kinda wipes aren't available with one meg chip I should ask.
JPChang | As to wipes with 2 MB, I think you get all of the "push" type
wipes or any wipes that have two images up at the same time. Erm, I
think with an '020 or faster onboard, you get to use the "Ants" wipe and
the "Dissolve" wipe. More importantly, you get real smooth, no pause
scrolls and stuff like that.
HeadQuake | Would MMU and/or FPU ever be of any use with Scala MM/IC ?
JPChang | On the current Amiga products, no. No need for an MMU or FPU.
We thought about changing the code to support an MMU for virtual memory
support, but found it was too difficult, rotten performance and very
unstable. Sigh.
MrDaniel | Assuming there will be a Scala PowerMM400, will it be fully
multitasking with the Amiga, have a AREXX interface etc... Or is
Backbone a complete, "handle it all" operating system?
JPChang | No, no, BackBone will be complimentary to the Power Amiga OS.
So, you'll still have ARExx, clipboard, intuition, etc. Keep in mind
that BackBone is scalable, we can add or remove features as necessary.
As you may know, MS-DOS needs all the help it can get. :), thus the
robustness of BackBone, more specifically MMOS (Multimedia Multitasking
Operating System). With the Power Amiga OS, I suspect we'll use MMOS
only to handle EXes and "glue" to the file system and graphics, but
that's about it.
<question seems to be missing>
JPChang | Hiya Commando. Umm, yeah it is possible to do scaling or zoom
type wipes. We can't make an image wrap around an object and spin away
and stuff like that, but you will get real "fly-ons" and "fly-offs" and
other really cool wipes. If you get to see the PC version, you'll see
the wipes that could be available for the Power Amiga version. Which
brings me to another subject, I wonder if the Power Amiga OS, will ever
have a 3D chipset API (Applications Programmers Interface)? Only time
will tell.
HeadQuake | (CyberGraphics 3.0 (Amiga PPC RTG) will do 3D routines etc.)
JPChang | Ah, well that answers that. Hmm, I'm sure we'll come up with
some interesting stuff.
HeadQuake | Just curious John, WHY did you buy an Amiga?
JPChang | When I was younger, I wanted to get into advertising and I knew
that computers were going to play a big part in that. The advent of
Desktop Publishing saw to that. So, in 1985, look what was available?
There was the Mac. Yeah it was cute, but had a small screen and was
only in B&W. Then there were IBM PC-ATs and the clones. 16 colors and
lousy DOS programs.
The $5.00 Clock Fix
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
The $5.00 A4000 Clock Fix (A Tale of Joy and Sorrow)
By: Craig Nori cnori@usa.net
===========================================================================
I recently discovered that the clock on my A4000/030 was failing to keep
accurate time. The following is the fix I came up with in order to correct
this situation. BE WARNED!! THIS FIX REQUIRES THAT THE SYSTEM BOARD BE
REMOVED AND SOME SOLDERING BE DONE ON THE BOARD. NO WARRANTY IS IMPLIED OR
GIVEN AND ALL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE USE OF THIS FIX IS UP TO THE OWNER OF
THE BOARD. IF YOU ARE NOT COMFORTABLE WITH THE USE OF A SOLDERING IRON,
DON'T EVEN THINK OF ATTEMPTING THIS FIX!!! ALL RESPONSIBILITY IS LEFT TO
THE READER!!!! ANY REMAINING WARRANTY FROM THE MANUFACTURER WILL MOST
CERTAINLY BE NULL AND VOID. IN OTHER WORDS, IF YOU MESS UP YOUR MACHINE,
IT IS NO ONES FAULT, OR RESPONSIBILITY, BUT YOUR OWN. If that hasn't
discouraged you so far, perhaps my experience with this fix will. But more
on that later.
After pulling the top cover off, I got my trusty multimeter out and
discovered that the lithium battery, BT176, was dead. I decided that
replacing the dead battery with the same type would only result in my
having to do the replacement again at a later date as the battery wore
down. A better solution, I thought, would be to install a battery holder
for easy battery replacement. The first step was to get the old battery
out in order to find a suitable replacement. Understand that the following
steps assume two things. First, you are going to use proper ESD protection
in doing this fix. (If you don't know what ESD protection is, should you
be doing this fix? Probably not.) And second, my 4000 doesn't have a
processor card plugged into the system board. The 68030 chip is on the
system board so you might have to remove the processor card as well, at the
appropriate time. This fix involves the following steps:
1. Remove the top cover.
2. Inspect for battery BT176. It is a silver coin shaped thing on
the left edge of the system board just ahead of the mouse and
joystick ports. Etched in the top is a big + (plus) sign and 3V
meaning a 3 volt battery. If you can't find it as described,
put the cover back on because these directions do not apply.
3. Remove the internal hard drive and cable.
4. Remove all Zorro cards.
5. Remove the riser frame. This is the strip of metal holding the
riser card down. There are two screws, one at the front and back.
NOTE the slots on the frame where it rests on the riser card.
6. Remove the riser card.
7. Remove the front panel.
8. Remove the front drive bay and cables.
9. Unplug any remaining cables from the system board.
10.Remove the 9 screws holding down the system board and remove it.
11.Get out your solder sucker and remove the battery from the system
board. There are 3 connecting points.
After completing the disassembly, with the battery in hand, I headed down
to the nearest Radio Shack and found a coin type battery holder and new
battery for my ailing Amiga. The catalog numbers for the replacements are:
Cat# 270-430 Battery Holder
Cat# 230-162 3 Volt Coin Battery
The cost to me was right at $5.00 USD. The new battery is physically
smaller than the old one, but not to worry, it works GREAT. The legs of
the new battery holder aren't a perfect match, so I CAREFULLY bent and
formed the legs to match the fresh holes made by the old battery. The
orientation of holder is the + pins along the left edge of the system
board. I soldered the holder in place, slipped the new battery into the
holder, and reassembled my Amiga using the above removal instructions in
reverse. The new holder looked like it was always meant to be there. I
reset the time, powered off the system and waited about 15 minutes to power
back up. When I did the time was correct and it looked like another
successful repair was completed. My clock was working and I now could
easily replace the battery in the future.
A happy ending you say? I thought so too until I realized that my speakers
were making a faint whistling noise and all the lights on my external modem
were on. I tried to get some noise from my speakers by firing up Octamed
Player. It started up, then the system crashed with a GURU. Needless to
say, my heart sank into my shoes, and a little tear started to form. I
couldn't think of anything I could have done to cause such a disaster. In
a panic, I raced into the next room and tore through several of my Amiga
magazines, searching the ad's for a price on new CIA chips. My mind tends
to multitask better when I panic and several thoughts were going at once.
Should I attempt surface mount repairs on my own? Straight soldering of
the chips or surface mount sockets? Where could I send off my Amiga for
repair? Could I live without my machine during the repair time? My cries
of agony caught my wife's attention. After explaining to her what had
happened, she suggested that I take a deep breath, drink a beer, and walk
away for a bit. Good advice, I thought, but then she is smarter than I am.
I took that deep breath and cracked a cold one. Sitting and drinking, the
events of the project started stepping through my mind. One thing I did
mentally note, as I was disassembling my machine, was that some of the
system board mounting screws were loose as I was removing them. The plan
was to make sure that they were all tight during the re-assembly. I wanted
to make sure they were, as this was important to the grounding of the
board. And you know, the loose screws were in the same area as the CIA
chips. My heart was working its way back up to knee level when I started
pulling everything back out of my Amiga. When I got the system board back
out, I flipped it over and there it was. On the land patterns near the CIA
chips was a small splotch of solder. I carefully scraped it off and
crossed all fingers and toes as I put everything back together. I powered
up and watched my modem. One light on as normal, so far so good. Starting
Octamed Player resulted in music coming out of my speakers. In stereo!
Nothing was permanently damaged and it all worked out fine.
My theory is, that during the last days of Commodore, quality control was
not at a very high standard. Perhaps the loosening of the system board
screws was an acceptable fix for a sloppy soldering job. And my tightening
of the screws caused the solder to short the CIA lines. At least that's my
story and I'm sticking to it. Hardware hacking can be fun and rewarding.
It can also be disaster and heartbreak. Or in the case of this project,
BOTH. Which brings me to the moral of this rather long tale: BE CAREFUL
and DON'T PANIC! And if you must panic, as in my case, remember to step
away for awhile if things don't go right. Lastly, BE CAREFUL. Did I
mention you should BE CAREFUL?
A TWIN APIW Overview
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
A TWIN APIW Overview
Porter Woodward Porter_Woodward@internet.kronos.com
===========================================================================
[In recent times, quite a bit of effort has been expended by people who are
trying to figure out just how to use the very modular construction of
Windows applications to work to the advantage of the rest of the computing
world who would rather not run Windows itself. One of these approaches is
outlined here, submitted for AR by an alert reader. -Jason]
There is currently an application out for some other platforms that is
called the "TWIN APIW" (yes I know it's a silly sounding thing). It's
actually pretty remarkable. It allows one to run Windows binaries on a
non-windows machine! Yes, you read that correctly.
Currently they have OS/2, Macintosh, NetWare, and Unix versions
precompiled. However, they are making the package available (both source
and binary) for personal/noncommercial purposes for FREE! As you can
imagine, this has created quite a stir with Microsoft.
Although, many of us would deny it with our last dying breath that there is
nothing Windows can do that we would want to, this could be a major chance
for the Amiga, and other platforms in general... A quote from their web
site might be useful, and better explain just what this thing is...
*******************************************************************
TWIN APIW Overview
Willows APIW Cross-Platform Development Kit (TWIN APIW) is a set of tools
and libraries that extends the number of platforms upon which Microsoft
Windows™ API-based applications may be developed. With the TWIN
APIW, developers may now use a single set of sources to develop and deploy
applications for Windows, UNIX and the Macintosh. Additional platform
support is currently under development, please contact info@willows.com for
additional information. Portable Source code is available for TWIN APIW
which allows those that are proficient and interested to port TWIN APIW to
other platforms themselves. Willows Software has programs in place to
assist those developers wishing to port applications, or the TWIN APIW
itself, to other platforms.
TWIN APIW includes the libraries and tools necessary to bring Windows
API-based applications and dynamic link libraries to alternative platforms.
The product includes debug and optimized versions of the library to help
you work in both environments. TWIN APIW also includes shell tools to port
sources, resource compilers that allow you to include menus, bitmaps and
icons in an application and a module definition compiler for building
shared libraries.
TWIN APIW Architecture
Willows TWIN APIW is made up of three major components:
Willows Library
Willows Drivers
Willows Binary Interface
The Windows compatible application interacts with the Willows Library the
same way that the application works in a Windows environment:
calling API functions
receiving messages
loading resources
launching other Windows applications.
The Willows Library interacts with the Willows Driver layer:
making requests for graphical, window, or system operations
receiving responses or asynchronous messages.
Existing Windows applications and modules interact with the Willows Binary
Interface to access the native implementation of the Willows API across all
platforms. This layer accepts all Windows API requests to allow a
non-native application to achieve native performance.
TWIN APIW is capable of recognizing binary Intel objects such as
third-party DLLs, Visual Basic controls (VBX), drivers (DRV) and custom
controls. This unique facility allows the inter-mixing of source and
binary modules within an application. This feature allows developers to
bring their applications to market faster by not having to wait for the
third party vender to port the object to non-"Wintel" architectures.
Resource files, bitmaps and icons may continue to be used without change.
Applications may continue to load resource from existing DLLs, without
modification.
Features
Win-Help Support via TWINView
Multi-tasking
DDE
MFC library support
Communications
MDI
Native and Binary DLL Support
Scalable Fonts
WNET
Support for .ini, .hlp, and .rc files
Symbolic debugger
Font
Source file preparation scripts
Binary Emulation
Printing
TWINView configuration editor
Resource compiler
Metafiles
Custom Configuration Flags
Diagnostic Tools
WinSock
Post-script printer driver
Common Dialogs
Replace
Module Definition Compiler
API Profiling
Tools
Binary printer drivers
Serial Driver
Color
Registration Database
DDEML
Find
Clipboard operation
Print
Open
Save As
Window 3.11 API Support
Platforms Supported
Macintosh
SUN SunOS
SUN Solaris
Netware
HP-UX
IBM AIX
Linux
SCO UnixUnixware
DEC OSF/1
SGI IRIX (MIPS ABI)
For More Information
The following documents are available as resource information. If you need
further information, you may email info@willows.com or call Steve Champion
at +1 408 777 1820 x222.
**********************************************************************
So, primarily it is a development tool. However, if the Amiga was included
in this sort of initiative - developers could no longer keep claiming it is
too time consuming to _port_ to the Amiga. Additionally, we could gain
the facilities to process Windows apps as "native" apps.
This is a powerful thing. I urge the Amiga community not to pass up this
chance. We won't loose our OS, but our OS will gain the capability to use
Windows stuff if we wanted to! It would only strengthen the Amiga's market
position.
If someone asks, "Does it run Windows?" we can respond "Yes"
If someone asks if the Wintel box can run AmigaDOS, No.
We could gain an expansive, extensible system from this, and a level of
flexibility never before seen on any computer system. Additionally, as
mentioned before, people could no longer claim they can't spend the time
and money to develop for the Amiga (serious apps only).
I think this news is too important to ignore. For more, technical
information, see http://www.willows.com/
Amiga Joker Survey
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Surprising results of a huge survey
Ralph Debusmann rade@coli.uni-sb.de
===========================================================================
German games magazine "Amiga Joker" (AJ) has recently made a survey about
their readers' Amigas, and the results of it are pretty surprising. 10000
readers took part in the survey of the world's biggest Amiga magazine. The
first result of it was the release of "Primal Rage", which had been
postponed by Warner due to considerations that not as many Amiga owners as
necessary have 2 Megs of RAM.
As not all results of the survey are of interest for a international and
non-AJ-reading public I'll only give you the (IMHO) most important and
surprising facts.
- most readers have an A1200 (54%), 12% possess a new Amiga Technologies
(AT)-A1200. 43% own an A500(+) or A600, 9% have an A2000 and about 10%
have an A4000. Dunno where the CD32-owners are, I guess they had to pick
"A1200 w/CDROM" on the chart ....
- very few readers are interested in buying an AT-A1200 in the near future
(5%), but 35% are interested in "coming models" like the new Amiga
announced on the AT-webpages "http://www.amiga.de" - 23% even say they
are not only interested but *plan* to buy a "coming model".
- Only 7% of the readers also own an PC-clone. This supports my opinion
that many Amiga owners only still cling to their Amiga because they have
not seen and played about with today's PeeCees too much. If they did,
many would already have left the Amiga in no time (especially when it
comes to games) :-(
- another interesting figure is that 67% have their Amiga for over a year.
But (to my surprise) there are also 33% who have recently bought one.
- 46% of the readers claim themselves to be "advanced", 38% even say they
are "experienced". Only 16% are "novices" :) I guess we are lightyears
ahead of Peecee-people in this aspect.
- 54% claim to have more than 30 originals, 28% have up to 20 originals
(the rest has up to 5 or up to 10)
- most prefered genres are: strategy (73%), adventures (60%) trading (54%)
and "3D-dungeons" (D**m-alike, 53%). I think these are more German
preferences, as I guess players in the UK prefer footie-sims and arcade
games.
The remaining breakdown by category:
Action (47%)
Sports (46%)
Multiplayer (42%)
RPG (37%)
Technical Sims (36%)
Arcade (28%)
Thinking (16%)
- 96% of the readers buy their games after reading the magazine (AJ), 63%
support their "opinion-building" by reading the reviews in concurring
magazines. 33% claim their opinion influenced by adverts, 42% also buy
by "mouth propaganda". This somewhat implies -> bad reviews -> bad
sales! I guess this wouldn't be so drastical if we had more and better
game demos like the PeeCee-crowd has. This virtually always sucks on the
Amiga - we get too few demoversions and if we get them, they are often
too short, just one level or so to get a real impression.
- 84% buy their software via mailorder, only 56% buy in shops, only 7%
claim to get pirated games. This number seems to be not too
representative IMHO :-(
- To the most important part - the configuration of the readers' Amigas
...
42% have a CD-ROM (mostly double-speed), 26% plan to buy one
86% have a HD, 4% plan to buy one
9% own a graphic card, 5% plan to buy one
16% own a HD-floppy, 18% are interested in one and 4% plan to buy one
35% own a joypad
82% have upgraded their memory, 7% plan to do this soon
(50% have 4 Megs, 30% have even more mem)
42% own an accelerator card (mostly 030s), 21% plan to buy one
88% own a second floppy
So, please make your own conclusions after reading this. For me it is
astonishing that 86% have a HD and 82% have expanded their memory, and that
not only from 512KB to 1M in their 500 ;)
That's one reason for games like "BIING" being such a huge success in
Germany (it required more than 3 Megs of mem and a HD). Also please note
that in the near future 68% will have a CD-ROM and 63% an accelerator card.
And please think about how much more people would upgrade if enough great
games would force them to!
My conclusion is that for Germany, probably the biggest market for Amiga
software, you could go along well with games on CD-ROMs or at least
HD-only-games which also require extra mem. THERE IS A MARKET! And I
repeat, if for example "Day of the Tentacle" would be ported or TFX the
number of reasonably upgraded Amigas would increase even more.
As a small addition I'd like to add the present game sales-top ten in
Germany:
1. SWOS 96
2. Obsession
3. Gloom Deluxe (020 needed)
4. Breathless (AGA needed)
5. Worms [2 meg CHIP highly recommended]
6. Soccer Stars
7. XTReme Racing (AGA needed)
8. Super Tennis Champs
9. Flight of the Amazon Queen
10. Black Viper
Where at least number 3 and 4 demand a bigger machine than the stock A500.
See you can actually SELL AGA-titles if they are good enough.
In the UK HMV-charts SWOS also is No.1, Worms No.3, followed by a big bunch
of Playstation titles. So in the UK the situation doesn't seem to be as
good as in Germany.
I wouldn't conclude that this is situation is like paradise. We all know
that 030s aren't state of the art (to express it carefully). But hey,
these figures are MUCH BETTER than I supposed and I hope this will change
the minds of game company bosses a bit. It has already changed Time
Warner's minds :)
Review: Blizzard 1260 Accelerator
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Review: The Blizzard 1260 Accelerator
John Scotto jscotto@wazoo.com
===========================================================================
The Blizzard 1260 is an accelerator for the Amiga 1200 built by Phase V
Digital Products of Germany. It is distributed by Softwood in the United
States.This is (to my knowledge) the first Amiga 1200 accelerator utilizing
the Motorola 68060 cpu. The 68060, for the non-technical among us, is
Motorola's answer to the Pentium. The 1260 as I received it has a surface
mounted 68060 clocked at 50 MHz. The board also has a single simm socket
which accepts one 72 pin simm. Due to the very small size of the board and
the angle at which the simm lies, only single sided simms can be used
according to the manufacturer. The board has one jumper which is used to
enable/disable remapping the kickstart roms to fast ram. There is also a
connector for Phase V's scsi connector which was not yet available as I
wrote this review.
My overall impression of the board's construction in favorable. The 1260,
unlike many A1200 accels, fits fairly easily into the "belly slot" of the
A1200. The simm socket is an easy to use standard connector and is fully
auto-configuring. The board does come with disk which has a new 68040
library and a 68060 library. There is also an installer to put these into
the appropriate directories for the user. The manual suggests installing
the software and ram before the board is connected and that is what I did.
The trickiest part is still physically connecting the accelerator but as I
alluded to there is enough spare room to allow the user to push the 1260 in
without too much trouble (one only need open the belly slot not the 1200's
case). Excluding manual reading the total time for installation was about
five minutes at the end of which my system was configured thus:
A1200 with OS 3.0
850 meg IDE hard drive(internal)
High density floppy (internal)
Blizzard 1260
18 megs ram (2 chip/16 meg simm on 1260)
And away we go.....
In a nutshell this thing is fast. I was previously used to a 68030@50 Mhz
which is no slouch but the 1260 made the machine visible faster at booting,
starting programs and executing instruction. Measuring just how fast is
somewhat of a problem as there is no Amiga benchmark utility which
understands the 68060. However, for those of you who want benchmarks here
is what Sysinfo 3.23 says:
38.9 mips
27.89 mflops
8.05 times the speed of an A3000/030@25MHz
2.04 times the speed of an A4000/040@25MHz
30.62 times the speed of a basic A1200
*cpu is read as a 68040@392 MHz*
The last line should indicate that Sysinfo results are to be taken with a
grain of salt. My subjective opinion is that Sysinfo underrates the
68060's performance. As I was unable to get AIBB 6.5 to run without
crashing the machine, thats all I've got for the bean counters out there.
Now I'll give the less precise measurements of system performance that have
convinced me that Sysinfo is wrong.
Once installed my boot time went from about 15 seconds with the '030 to
about 5 seconds. As I call up a number of progs on start, to include Magic
WB, virus checkers, a commercial cd filesystem, mouse utility and etc.,
this was fairly impressive. Final Writer 4.01 loads in a second or two
even when called via ToolsDaemon (which adds a small delay) and seems fully
compatible with the 1260. Final Calc results are the same. I tried three
web browsers (AWeb, IBrowse and AMosaic) and each worked well with AWeb
fairly leaping along with the 1260. Even a cumbersome program like Thor
operated visibly faster. Gloom operated very well and was exceptionaly
smooth in full screen, maximum resolution mode. Aladdin AGA and a pd game
called Parrot Island required the 060 be disabled in order to run (did I
forget to mention that you can fall back to 020 via a key combo at startup?
:^) Finally came the big tests.
I am not a graphic artist and do not "render" anything on my machine. I
have no LightWave comparisions to give you but I do have both PC-Task 3.1
(reg) and Shape Shifter 3.3 (reg) on my computer. To my mind the 1260
would be made or broken by how much it helped me effectively use my
emulation packages. First PC-Task - this PC 80286 emulator was useable but
dreadfully slow on my 030. Now with the 1260 Windows 3.1 boots as quickly
on my 1200 as on my laptop (DX2/50). Word 6.0 takes only a few seconds
longer on the 1200 than on the laptop. Nothing earth shattering but very
respectable for software emulation. In short PC-Task on the 060 is very
useable and acceptably fast. Second - ShapeShifter 3.3 - this Mac emulator
ran fairly quickly on 030. Now it runs even more quickly (surprise).
Operations seemed to occur about as quickly for me as on my friend's
Quadra. In 16 color mode cpu operations are swift but there is a
noticeable lag caused by screen updates since the Amiga's graphics chips
are not affected by the cpu upgrades a point I will return to later. I did
have make one change to my Shapeshifter configuration. I cannot get the
utility PrepareEmul to work properly if called in my startup-sequence - it
endlessly loops. I now must call it via a shell and thenlaunch SS. Aside
from this quirk SS seems to work as well as before but considerably
quicker. In short I am well pleased with my emulation capabilities now
that the 1260 is installed.
In summary the Blizzard 1260 is well built, easy to install, transparent to
use once the included software is installed, and generally compatible with
my software at least. The exceptions that I have noted above are both
games. If you want speed this provides it in spades. What it does not do
is change the AGA chip set's capabilities. If your primary need is more
colors on screen this board will not help you. If you need computing power
the 1260 is for you. I like this board and consider it money well spent.
Ahhh...he finally gets to price. Yes I have avoided this because in the
realm of Amiga speed has always been expensive and there does not seem a
rhyme or reason as to how to gauge relative value here. Suffice it to say
that you can expect to pay $900.00 (US) + shipping costs. If all you need
is a little more speed to play Gloom thats pretty expensive. If you want
to build a powerful rendering farm then its cheaper and faster than an
A4000. If you are like me - well I've gained a fast Amiga, a faster Mac
and a reasonably fast PC to boot! You draw your own conclusions.
Now I realize this is not an exhaustive trial such as a professional
reviewer would do. However, I believe that I am an "average user" or at
least reasonably so and that the subjective view is what most people want
anyway. Mips, mflops and megahertz do not mean much to most users and I
have tried to give my first impressions to other "average users". In the
ensuing weeks I will keep testing the 1260 for compatibility with more
software and some hardware too and will send the results to AR (if they'll
have any more from me that is). I leave you in the hope this has been of
at least peripheral value to you.
Review: Personal Suite CD-ROM from Cloanto
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Review: Personal Suite CD-ROM from Cloanto
By: Jason Compton
===========================================================================
It STILL amazes me how far the Amiga CD-ROM industry has come in just a few
short years. Besides the largely failed CDTV experiment, there seemed to
be some Fred Fish disk collections...and not much else.
Then, spurred in the commercial market by CD32, and by Aminet CDs on the
compilation side, things began to take off. The art of the shareware
CD-ROM has been pretty well explored, by Aminet, Fred Fish, and others such
as the Meeting Pearls crowd. On the other end of the spectrum, we've seen
multi-disc collections from Almathera. Games are still released on both
floppy and CD format, although CD32's premature demise as a going concern
has curbed the expansion of gaming CDs.
Now, slowly but surely, CD-ROM is finally gaining the sort of legitimacy
for commercial applications that it has enjoyed for years on other
platforms. A major step in this direction is the Personal Suite CD-ROM
from Cloanto, the shining beacon of Amiga development in Italy.
Personal Suite sets out to be just that--a collection of utilities an
individual user will find a great deal of use for. Headlining the CD are
the "Personal" applications: Personal Paint 6.4, Personal Write, and
Personal Fonts Maker from Cloanto and Personal SBase 4, from Oxxi. Also
included are a set of Kara fonts, Cloanto's DirDiff tool for watch-dogging
and protecting extremely large file copies, and the PNG datatype. To round
out the CD, a collection of Amiga artwork and animation is supplied, as
well as some classic novels, which have all of a sudden become a very
popular item for CD-ROM compilers.
Personal Suite ships in a container very much like a film can--a metal tin
just big enough to hold the CD. No paper. All documentation is online in
AmigaGuide format, in the Big Four Amiga languages, English, German,
French, and Italian. The majority of the books are in English, with a
small assortment in Italian.
It is the hope of any CD such as this to be more than the sum of its parts.
But to understand if this is the case, it is best to take a look at the
parts first.
Personal Paint 6.4
------------------
Clearly, the headliner of the headliners. Personal Paint has come a long
way, and it is essentially the only game in town for 8-bit (and below)
paint applications that is still undergoing development, DPaint and
Brilliance being abandoned programs.
PPaint is, at heart, a paint and animation program with a great deal of
features. Most notable is support for a wide range of filetypes for
loading and saving (including datatype support under OS 3.x), and the
built-in image processing features, allowing any one of a great deal of
present effects or programmable convolves to be applied to an entire image
or any user-definable area, a process as easy as picking an effect and
"lasso-ing" a region.
The new version provides support for graphic cards through the display
database, and I was considerably impressed by its performance on my Retina
Z-III running CyberGraphX. The speed, and solidity of the display, was
astounding.
In addition, the new manual offers helpful tips and tricks for Amiga
artists, including advice on dealing with the varying sizes of pixels in
the Amiga environment versus the rest of the world. PPaint allows you to
force square pixel usage.
Such features as multiple-level undo, built-in virtual memory, and the
DPaint-paradigm multiple function buttons (filled/unfilled objects, for
example) are all welcome.
PPaint alone pretty well makes the CD-ROM worth the price of admittance.
Personal Write
--------------
Personal Write is an odd one. It is billed as a word processor, but to my
mind it fits better in the category of text editor. Still, few text
editors allow flexible Postscript output and rudimentary grammar checking.
I suppose what throws it off is a total lack of WSIWYG. Instead, a display
very much like that of the text editor of your choice greets you. But
PWrite allows mail merging.
The interface clearly hearkens back to an era of OS 1.3, despite the
updated 1995 copyright notice. No concept of a display database exists,
instead you can choose to toggle interlace, A2024 mode, and the like. I
did find that a forced promotion to a 640x480x16 CyberGraphX screen worked
acceptably.
PWrite isn't really as comfortable to use as most text editors. For
example, text highlighting is not done by merely clicking and dragging, it
is a mode that must be toggled.
The one saving grace of PWrite is its ability to translate ASCII data into
a number of international and cross-platform modes. It's worth a look, but
it won't be the document generator of choice here any time soon.
Personal SBase 4
----------------
Oxxi software has become pretty hard to get a hold of lately, so a line on
one of the few databases for the Amiga is a worthwhile cause. Like Twist
2, and unlike Final Data, SBase is a relational database. In
oversimplified terms, this means that data in one file has access to data
in another file, which can be used interactively and cooperatively in such
applications as forms and invoices.
There's a lot of learning to do if you're going to get a relational
database to jump through hoops for you. Still, the potential to do some
great work is there.
The manual includes a guide to get you up and running somewhat comfortably
in 15 minutes, but that's only the beginning.
Personal Fonts Maker, Personal Fonts Maker 2
--------------------------------------------
PFM pretty much announces what it is--a tool to generate your own bitmapped
fonts.
Not being a typographer, it's admittedly difficult for me to comment on the
relative usefulness of such a program. I've always been quite happy with
the existing wealth of fonts, but can see the appeal to having access to
modifications.
PFM2 adds color capabilities and the ability to use a larger (in fact,
unlimited) bitmap. Unfortunately, it is hardcoded for AGA, and will not
promote to a CyberGraphX 256 color screen.
PFM similarly suffers from being built from an old interface, however. It
does not properly promote.
The neatest, and highest-level, tool is the Printer Driver Modifier,
allowing you to mess with escape codes sent to your printer. Use only if
you know what you're doing.
A number of fonts are included as object lessons and examples, and for your
general use.
Artwork, Books, PNG Toolkit
---------------------------
Any artwork collection with Eric Schwartz in it is ok in my book. Of
course, you'll want to check out the E. S. Productions CD-ROM for the
complete story. Legendary Jim Sachs is featured, as are Karl Bilheimer and
Dr. Chip.
The books? Classics are great. AmigaGuided in one big file for your
reading pleasure.
PNG is the GIF-replacement standard Cloanto helped develop after the GIF
patent fiasco of recent times. It is only fair to credit Cloanto for the
amount of work put in documenting the various unsavory actions of Unisys
and Compuserve throughout the GIF saga, encouraging the support of a new
standard. Both the datatype and a developer's kit are included.
The Verdict
-----------
Personal Suite street-prices around US$70 (or about UKP 50). What are you
getting for that price? In all honesty, two high-quality productivity
packages, one of which (Personal Paint) is a very mature and powerful piece
of software. SBase is showing a bit of age and disrepair, largely where
the interface is concerned, but is still a useful package.
You get two commercial applications which, while useful, have definitely
seen better days. Personal Fonts Maker is functional and really can be a
useful tool, and while Personal Writer is worth a look, it won't be
superceding Digital Quill any time soon.
Kara fonts are nothing to sneeze at. Consider yourself lucky to have
access to them.
Rounding out the CD to a comfy 646 megs are the additional artwork, fonts,
and books. No complaints here.
Top that with an AmigaGuide interface linked to the applications, full
manuals in multiple languages, and it seems to be a steal. It is.
My hat is off to Cloanto for paving the way for more CDs of this quality.
Cloanto Italia srl
PO Box 118
33100 Udine
Italy
++39 432 545902 voice
++39 432 609051 fax
++39 432 545905 BBS
info@cloanto.it e-mail
The Emulation Rambler
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
The Emulation Rambler
By: Jason Compton
===========================================================================
Ah, it's good to ramble once more!
As of late, I've been playing lots of games on Kevin Kralian's Apple2000
emulator--long out of development, but still a very stable piece of work.
Right now I'm building a career as an Allied Intelligence Agent in Beyond
Castle Wolfenstein.
But that hasn't taken up so much of my time that I haven't had a chance to
check out some other offerings in the emulation world. A wealth of new
8-bit machine emulators are out there just dying for a mention.
TRS-80 Model 3 emulator by John Fehr
------------------------------------
Like all good emulators, this was a study in nostalgia for the author.
The TRS-80 Model 3, a favorite of hardware hackers, is one of those
machines just on the edge of the computer explosion in the early 80's. In
this day and age, however, it is implemented as a "virtual screen" on an
NTSC High Res screen, where you are free to assign up to four disk drives
(virtual, of course) to load up DOS and various programs.
Like most 8-bit machines out there, the support on the net is growing and
if you do a little digging, you'll be sure to find a treasure trove of
software just waiting for you on an FTP site.
The emulator also has the interesting distinction of being the first
emulation ever implemented on a BeBox.
John Fehr can be reached at efw492@freenet.mb.ca, and model3.lha can be
found on any Aminet site in misc/emu.
ftp://ftp.netnet.net/pub/aminet/misc/emu/model3.lha
Atari800 by David Firth
-----------------------
Actually a port from the Unix version with some minor changes, Atari800 is
a fairly complete, but very resource hungry emulator of the Atari 800
computer, long hailed as an early work of Jay Miner's genius.
Unfortunately for Amiga users, the translation from high-power Unix
workstation to Amiga desktop computer leaves the Amiga starving for more
horsepower to keep up with the C-compiled program. Even though it seems to
properly promote to CyberGraphX modes (providing some speed improvement),
on the 030/25 A3000 it is so slow as to be unusable. An 040/25 under AGA
is little improvement. There was the signs of potential when we tried it
out on a Draco, however.
The 800 is such a neat machine I picked up one for my very own recently,
for a blowout price. It never got the widespread support of the Commodore
64, but has a lot going for it, including being the platform that spawned
Alternate Reality.
I have made some inquiries with the author as to the possibility of
integrating an assembly 6502 emulation into the emulation to provide a
speed burst, but to date nothing has come of it. The entire source is
available in the package, however, and I welcome anyone who will take it
upon themselves to either further encourage Mr. Firth to enhance the Amiga
version, or to make the changes themselves.
David Firth can be reached at david@signus.demon.co.uk. The Atari800
emulator can be found in:
ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/emulators/atari/
Note--this site has notoriously poor connections outside of the UK. Don't
feel bad if you don't get in first try.
A-CPC by Kevin Thacker
AmiCPC by Ludovic Deplanque
---------------------------
The Amstrad CPC line was quite popular, apparently, in the UK. Being an
American, I've never physically laid eyes on it...which makes it all that
much more appealing to have it as an emulator, since it's a machine I may
never get to touch but through the magic of software, it lies at my
disposal.
Both programs set out to emulate this machine. A-CPC allows for the 464,
664, and 6128 configurations (with enhanced model support in the registered
version), and AmiCPC emulates a 6128.
Seeing that I am at a disadvantage when it comes to information about this
machine, I instantly prefer to use Mr. Thacker's program, as it is far
better documented in English. Only minimal documentation in English is
provided with AmiCPC, although more comprehensive (or at least longer)
information is provided in French.
Both authors advise the use of at least an 030 processor, although A-CPC
allows for 68000 users at their own risk.
My experience on an 030/25 tells me that while I would be more comfortable
with a faster processor, I'm not too badly off. However, mode promotion is
not very healthy for either emulator.
A surprisingly large collection of software is out there on the net for
these machines. Definitely worth a look.
A-CPC can be found on any Aminet site in misc/emu.
ftp://ftp.netnet.net/pub/aminet/misc/emu/acpc_dem.lha
Author: K.E.W.Thacker@cs.cf.ac.uk
AmiCPC is a bit harder to come by. Try the ftp site ftp.ibp.fr, in
pub/amstrad.
ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/amstrad/
(No net address)
Amoric by Jean-Francois Fabre
-----------------------------
When I started to get interested in emulators, one of the appeals was the
ability to run new software for current platforms, such as the Mac.
Another was to recapture lost youth through C-64 and Apple II emulators.
But when I came upon the Sinclair Spectrum emulator, I realized there was a
very important third appeal--using machines I might never have a chance to
use elsewhere.
I briefly commented on this in the CPC section, I know. But with the
Spectrum and the CPC, I had at least remotely heard of the machines in one
passing form or another. But I had never in my whole life heard of the
ORIC Atmos, the machine emulated in Amoric.
From what I've gathered from Mr. Fabre's testimonial and my own experience,
the Oric is roughly analagous to a middle ground between a Vic-20 and a
Spectrum.
The Oric is a fun little machine, in the Z80/AY-3-8912 vein like its
contemporaries, the Spectrum and Amstrad.
(As an aside, does anyone have any theories or explanations as to why
European 8-bit computing seems to have revolved around the Z80 while
American 8-bit computing revolved around the 6502/6510?)
Amoric includes a method to pull Oric software off of the original tapes.
In addition, a large archive is floating around out there for the picking.
The Oric is an interesting cultural study if nothing else, as it was a very
French phenomenon. Personally, I don't associate the nation of France with
computer gaming much, but here you have it.
The emulator itself seems quite stable on a number of programs. I find the
interface a little uncomfortable and am disappointed in the lack of
promotability, but you can't have everything, I suppose.
Amoric is available on any Aminet site, misc/emu.
ftp://ftp.netnet.net/pub/aminet/misc/emu/AmoricV1_4.lha
The author can be reached at fabre@cert.fr. An Oric web site can be found
at http://arlesienne.ensica.fr/LOCAL/ORIC/
Ah, there you have it. Four new 8-bit machines to emulate away on. I know
they'll keep me busy for quite some time. Into the Eagle's Nest, anyone?
How about some Cabal? Or I could just go back to Hitler's bunker one more
time...
Review: Shapeshifter 3.4 by Christian Bauer
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Review: Shapeshifter 3.4 by Christian Bauer
By: Jason Compton
===========================================================================
I really have no excuse for not getting to this sooner.
ShapeShifter, in just one short year, has become the new de-facto standard
for Macintosh emulation on the Amiga. And really, it only took a few
months.
When released by Christian Bauer last year, ShapeShifter sent shockwaves
through the Amiga community. A shareware Macintosh emulator? The full
version a mere US$50 or so? No hardware to buy, and it works more or less
as well as Emplant?
Yes, really. And since that initial release, ShapeShifter has paved the
way for the continuance and spread of Mac emulation on the Amiga. At the
same time, its open architecture has encouraged third-party developers to
improve on it.
ShapeShifter consists of a shareware demonstration program, offering all of
the features of the main program except one--the ability to use whole hard
drive partitions as Macintosh partitions. This is a notable restriction,
as this is the fastest method of access, but not an insurmountable one, as
SS supports the slower "filedisk", a large AmigaDOS file containing a
virtual partition.
To function, ShapeShifter requires a 512k or 1 meg Mac ROM image. While
virtually every Mac has a different ROM, ShapeShifter supports most of the
flavors, and these ROMs can be found on currently used 680x0 Mac
models--meaning there is not likely to be a supply shortage any time soon.
Unlike the Emplant, no direct hardware method is provided for imaging the
ROMs in the Amiga itself. Instead, the legal theory is that you purchase
the ROMs and take the image from a real Mac using the included utility. In
effect, your purchased ROMs are the "legitimacy" for ripping the ROMs from
an office machine or the local computer store.
ShapeShifter, like other multitasking Amiga emulators, requires a special
boot program to remap a small section of memory.
SS allows the configuration of one or two monitor use (if you have an
external graphics card). It allows you to use the Amiga Workbench (largely
for show, as it is not a very fast option), a standard ECS or AGA
screenmode (rather slow in more than 2 colors, more so than Emplant was),
EGS or CyberGraphX. In addition, the specification for an external video
driver is included, and to date there have been several, including one
speeding up AGA performance (at the cost of additional fast RAM) and one
allowing use on an A2410 card. The Amiga pointer can be substituted for
the Mac's.
ShapeShifter supports Amiga high density floppies as Macintosh compatible.
Some problems have been reported with the Dell high-density floppy, but
when CrossDOS 6 is present (as is recommended for proper Dell use), these
seem to clear up.
SS allows the use of a direct SCSI connection for CD-ROMs and the like.
Memory constraints are similar to those found on SS's predecessors, Emplant
and A-Max IV. Count on losing a few megs to emulation overhead. In
addition, 040+ users are strongly nudged towards using the 1 meg ROM.
Graphics cards require fairly large allotments for proper buffering. Under
all these circumstances, therefore, consider 10 megs of RAM to be a
functional minimum.
Direct Amiga serial and parallel support is available, as is the ability to
use Amiga networking hardware. It is even possible to run MacTCP in
conjunction with AmiTCP, but I have not personally attempted this.
In action, ShapeShifter floors me. To be fair to Emplant, SS is not as
impressive as Emplant is in native Amiga screenmodes, except monochrome.
But once a graphics card is added, SS really shines. The continuing
support and expansion of ShapeShifter to accomodate more cards and more
systems has been quite impressive, however, in stark contrast to the
"Emplant PCMCIA" fiasco.
One of the real benefits to being a ShapeShifter user is the ready support
found worldwide. A number of "starter filedisks" exist, including the
freely distributable System 7.0.1 and 32-bit extension, to get novice users
up and running with minimal fuss and without having to deal with floppy
headaches.
As ShapeShifter has recently become Draco-compatible, it seems only fair
that the benchmarks should be reserved for such a copious display of power.
At this time, our Draco benchmarks are not yet available, however. We hope
to have them ready soon.
If you're at all interested in Mac emulation, you owe it to yourself to
check out ShapeShifter.
Available on Aminet in misc/emu.
Christian Bauer
Max-Planck-Str. 60
55124 Mainz
Germany
bauec002@goofy.zdv.uni-mainz.de
Review: The Creative Magic of Ron Thornton
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
The Creative Magic of Ron Thornton: Spacecraft Surfacing Techniques
Bohus Blahut - Modern Filmmaker Bohus@xnet.com
===========================================================================
Part II
In issue #4.04 of Amiga Report we began the review of this two videotape
set. The first tape: Spacecraft Model Design, is a two hour video
tutorial hosted by Ron Thornton, president emeritus of Foundation Imaging.
This first tape stays primarily in LightWave 3D's modeler, and outlines
techniques in constructing a Babylon 5'esque spaceship. The tape does an
excellent job of leading the intermediate modeler through steps to get a
render-efficient, yet good looking model. The tape also sets up video #2
in the series: Spacecraft Surfacing Techniques. Does tape #2 live up to
the quality of the first offering?
The answer is a resounding "yes". All that's laudable in the first tape is
in ample measure in tape two. Thornton uses Photoshop and LightWave on the
PC to create all of the surfaces for the model, but what's important here
is not the software or the platform, but the techniques that he shares. I
was able to complete the spaceship using a combination of LightWave 3.5 and
4.0 for the Amiga along with ImageFX 2.1 to replace PhotoShop on the video.
I'm fairly adept with both softwares, but for those who aren't, I'll
include some Photoshop to ImageFX jargon conversions in this review. A
future article may include all of the changes that I made to the video's
techniques to accommodate Amiga users. I used an '060 DraCo with 32 megs
of RAM to run both softwares at the same time. (gotta love that
multitasking.)
Included with both tapes is a helpful guide card that lists the topics of
the tape in order along with real-time counter information. For those of
you using a real-time VCR, simply zero your VCR's counter at the beginning
of the tape, and you'll be able to whiz to specific references according to
the card. For those of you who lack this VCR feature, it's useful at least
to know what order things go in for when you are scanning through the tape.
As I suggested in my last review, skim the tape first without actually
sitting at a computer. There are a few occasions where Thornton's
surfacing goes in a specific direction, with no explanation, but is usually
explained a few minutes later on the tape. To avoid these kinds of
creative surprises, have a good general knowledge of the flow of the tape
before you even warm up the computer.
There are two major components in any 3D model: the object's geometry, and
the object's surface. LightWave takes a different approach to surfacing 3D
objects than other major softwares. Many other pieces of software
incorporate surfacing design into the modeling stage.
Once you've constructed your wireframe object, you use surface tools in the
software's modeler to apply surface color and texture. The drawback to
this approach is that often you cannot see how your model will interact
with the lighting in your scene until you actually import the model into
your scene and render. If there are any modifications, you must bring that
model back into the software's modeler, and go to work. This also makes it
difficult to get a "feel" of how your models look together in an
environment until you actually bring everything together in the software's
stage layout.
LightWave allows you to apply surfaces in the Layout portion of the
program. This makes tweaking easier, also allowing you to see more
quickly overall adjustments in the scene's environment.
If you were to look around yourself, you could categorize every surface of
every object that you see (note to Mike Danger: how DO you do it, man?) by
it's color, it's diffuseness (the way that light plays across the surface),
and it's specularity (it's shininess). There are several parameters to
surfaces, but Thornton uses these three elements alone to get a gritty
"mech" spacecraft look.
At Foundation Imaging, they know the value of being frugal with system
resources. Though they have replaced their Amiga network with many high
powered PC stations now, there's no reason to be wasteful. Efficient
models mean more time to experiment and be creative, more time to render
longer and more intricate scenes. Those of you with '030 machines will
appreciate Thornton's approach to render-friendly modeling.
Thornton chooses a good order to accomplish tasks in this video, in that he
starts with the most intricate tasks first, to build up the user's
technique. We spend a good deal of time in the creation of the first
imagemap. Later elements build on these techniques, and so Thornton makes
the most of our time together by glossing over points that would be
redundant.
Since much of the model is composed of structural primitives (simple shapes
like tubes and cubes), much of our surfacing work will involve creating a
flat image in a paint program, then bringing it into LightWave and wrapping
it around a cylinder or a box. We start, though, with one particularly
tricky part to surface in this model: the wing section. This part of the
ship is a metaformed pair of wings and rear fuselage. Metaforming is a
fantastic modeling tool introduced in LightWave 3.5. It allows one to take
simple shapes i.e. a few boxes, and smooth them into organic shapes.
Effectively it's like placing a hard geometric object in a wind tunnel, and
wearing it's edges away.
While surfacing the wing, I found several flipped polygons in the wing's
modeling. Polygons, when flipped, don't render correctly, appearing as
holes in the finished product. I used some techniques that I learned from
the first tape to rectify this problem. In Modeler, pick a few polygons in
the wing, then click OPTION- SEL CONN [select connected]. The whole wing
section should be highlighted. Click POLYGON- ALIGN and this will flip all
polygons the same direction.
If you were to create a square shaped mech surface for the wing, it would
get hopelessly distorted when applied to the wing shape (square peg, round
hole, etc.). This is why Thornton uses the model to determine its
surfacing. By facing the wing section towards Layout's camera, we can get
a good idea of the wing shape. Also, be setting the Camera's zoom factor
to a huge 70, we can see the model with no perspective distortion. We
render this out and save to disk, then load up this template into ImageFX.
In the spirit of efficiency, this model doesn't use any 24 bit textures.
It gets its rich look from a pair of 256 grey scale maps, and a four color
image. Theoretically you could complete this model using an ECS amiga with
Dpaint III, but I wouldn't recommend it. AGA Dpaint will probably do the
job, but I heartily recommend that you use ImageFX. Its combination of
image processing, and superlative paint and touchup tools make this
surfacing biz a polygonal piece of cake. In several ways, I was able to
actually improve on Photoshop's techniques due to dedicated tools in IFX
(Kermit, are you listening?). In fact many essentials that Thornton
accomplished through multiple menus seemed downright awkward compared to
the few keyboard shortcuts that I used. Of course, I am much more familiar
with IFX than Pshop, so this may be an unfair comparison.
Once loaded into IFX, we begin by breaking up the wing into squares that
will serve to look like panels. A point that Thornton stresses is that
many 3D artists just slap panels down anyplace, and that makes their models
look very plastic. As he stretches the straight line tool, he goes into
some of the reasoning and design behind his choices in panel placement.
Once the wing is divided into logical panels, he uses Contrast and Value
adjustments (like on your TV) to alternately lighten and darken various
panels. I expanded on this technique by occasionally putting a subtle
gradient in a panel, and also playing around with the ROUGHNESS slider in
all of IFX's paint tools. This gave the effect of a mottled panel that
perhaps had been replaced, and was made from different metal than the rest
of the ship.
Once the panels are divided up, Thornton uses some brushes he created in
Pshop to airbrush streaks of dirt onto the model. Here's one way to
achieve these streaks in IFX. Go into a blank buffer in IFX. Load one of
IFX's included brushes into the buffer as a picture. Let's use the
soccerball (football for you purists) as an example. You'll note that
it's a little greyscale picture on a black background.
Now load up a picture of some kind, and load the soccerball as a brush
using BRUSH- LOAD BRUSH. Click in the picture somewhere. You get a
stamped version of the picture that you saw earlier, a soccerball on a
field of black. Now choose the AIRBRUSH drawing tool (it looks like a
spraycan), and pick a red out of your palette, and stamp the brush down.
Now there's a red soccerball in your picture. Adjust BLEND and ROUGHNESS
sliders and take note of the effects that you get. Here's how it works:
the greyscale brush acts a sort of alpha channel. White (RGB 255, 255,
255) areas of the brush receive 100% of the paint color that you've chosen.
As areas of the brush get darker, those areas receive less and less paint,
until you reach black. Black (RGB 0,0,0) areas receive none of the paint
color and are effectively invisible.
A clear example of this is the IFX brush "big ball". This is a circular
gradient that is bright white at the center, and gets darker as it radiates
outward. This is the basis of the IFX technique for making streaks.
In PALETTE, create a grey scale palette that starts at white and SPREADS to
black. How many steps this range should be depend on how subtle you want
the steps between colors to be. I found that around 8 steps was
sufficient. Highlight one end of this color spread, and with the RANGE
cycle gadget set to R1, click RANGE then click the other end of your color
spread. You'll see little pips appear in the colors in your range, and now
this particular color spread has the identity: R1.
Double click on the corner of the CIRCLE TOOL that contains the FILLED
CIRCLE. This accesses every draw tool's options. In the TYPE: gadget
select GRADIENT fill, and if it's not already selected, choose R1 as the
range to use. If you make a long thin circle, you'll see the outline of
the circle, and a line attached to the pointer. You can imagine your
cursor as having the leftmost color of your range attached to it. (Many
users mistakenly believe that the lightest color is always assigned to this
gradient placement selector. Calling it a 'hotspot' indicator is a
misnomer.) The palette "reads" from left to right, and so colors in a
spread that are to the left are "first". In our case, we have white
attached to our cursor. In this scenario, your mouse click will be the
point of purest white. Other colors in your range will radiate out from
your click point until you reach black.
In a smallish buffer (I used a black buffer that was 30 x 10 pixels) create
a long thin circle that stretches off of your buffer, so you have the
bottom half of this thin circle on your buffer. Click the cursor at the
top of this half circle, and you'll have a gradient that is white at the
top and fades to black as it stretches to the bottom.
Make several of these in various thicknesses and lengths. Again, you may
want to experiment with various settings in the ROUGHness slider. Crop
these little buffers close to the streaks without actually chopping into
the detail that you're creating. Pick them up using the scissors tool,
and save them as brushes using the BRUSHES- SAVE AS BRUSH menu item. If
you skim the tape, you'll notice that Thornton uses a big blob (similar to
the "big ball" brush mentioned earlier) to depict engine dirt on the wing
section of the craft. I used a combination of "big ball" with a blob that
I made, combined with the included brushes "sponge" and "smoke".
Once you've created these dirt streak brushes, apply then with the
airbrush, and a black palette color. I also recommend that you turn the
BLEND slider in the AIRBRUSH options (double click spraycan) down to
between 20 and 40%. This allows you to have subtle variation with the same
brush through multiple clicks. Load your streak brushes into IFX using
BRUSH- LOAD NEW BRUSH and choose between them using BRUSH- SELECT BRUSH.
You can use Thornton's technique of selecting regions on your wing section,
then airbrushing dirt onto these stenciled off areas by doing the
following. In your region selector, choose whatever type of region you
intend on using i.e. BOX and select a region in your picture. In REGION
OPTIONS check off "ENABLE PAINTING", and paint away. In order to choose
your next region, you must go back into REGION OPTIONS and disable "ENABLE
PAINTING" before moving on. This range selection- masking- painting-
process will grow into an efficient routine that will become second nature
by the time you've finished this tape.
Another time and labor saving technique is to work on only half of the
texture map, then mirror it where it is symmetrical. It obviously depends
on your needs, but for most people, the repetition in the pattern will
hardly be noticeable while the model is in motion. One could also mirror
the partially finished panels, then work on each side individually to yield
at least some time savings. Once you have your greyscale paneling and
dirtying down finished, you'll save this as you diffusion map. This tells
LightWave how light will play across your model. Darker grey areas will
appear to be darker in color and so on.
One could place this greyscale picture directly onto the model, but by
having the map reside in the diffuse channel, this means that you can
choose any color or combination of colors for the surface color, and still
retain all of the detail of the specular map. Thornton takes advantage of
this to add some pinstriping to our model. Another advantage is that if
you want a whole fleet of these ships, you can have a single diffuse map
loaded into LightWave's memory, but have several different 4-color maps
applied to the various ships in the scene to offer a sense of variety.
The Diffuse Map also acts as a guideline for the Specularity Map. Thornton
shows you how to take the Diffuse Map and heavily contrast it to yield the
Specular. LightWave's Specular channel allows you to load an image map
onto a model that controls how shiny a model will be. Brighter panels will
be shiny while the dark dirt streaks will be matte. Thornton even goes
through including little white dots throughout the model that will appear
as very shiny. Though almost imperceptible to the eye, the mind will pick
up on these little flecks of shininess as parts of the ship that have
little dings and dents and flecks of paint missing.
Once you've completed the wing's surfacing, you have the knowledge of the
techniques to finish the rest of the model. Thornton makes rather short
work of the rest of the model. It'll still take the modeler some time to
create all of the image maps featured rather quickly in the rest of the
video. Not to worry, Thornton does give the viewer intermediate screen
shots of his work, along with periodic color renders, so that the viewer
can follow along.
Once finished with the custom image mapping, the rest of the task is left
up to the LightWave modeler's best friend, Fractal Noise. This creates the
overall metallic grit on the rest of the model fairly quickly. Though only
a 90 minute tape, these techniques will make good on the viewer's in-depth
investment of time. Though I'd set aside a morning to follow these
techniques, I spent the better part of a day exploring these methods in
other types of modeling.
Again Desktop Images delivers a fantastic instructional tape at a knockout
price. I'm only sorry that it's over. I'd love to see a tape that dealt
purely with the basic aesthetics and design topics only touched upon
briefly by Thornton in these tapes. Other good topics, especially if one
could get more presenters of the calibre of Ron Thornton, would be 3D
cinematography, effective lighting, special effects, and perhaps more
intermediate modeling that isn't targeted specifically toward making
spaceships.
This is a hearty recommendation to the modeler looking to increase his
professional and personal modeling to get these tapes now. As I mentioned
last time, I'll post a picture of the completed model on the Web. I don't
intend to release my LightWave model of the ship because I think that the
LightWave community would benefit greatly from every modeler making their
own version of this ship. Instead of littering AmiNet with multiple copies
of the same ship, let's try to create new and exciting models using these
techniques and share those instead. I can hardly wait to see the first
non-spaceship non-submarine application of some of these techniques.
Zoom FaxModem V.34X
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Review: Zoom FaxModem V.34X
By Jeremy Nixon jeremyn@injersey.com
===========================================================================
How do you choose a modem? How do you even tell the difference?
There I stood, in Computer City, staring at a wall of modems. I wanted a
28.8k, V.34, external modem. At least half the options qualified, with
prices ranging from about US$150 to $300. Anything over $200 was
immediately ruled out.
The "helpful" sales associate informed me, quite seriously, that it is
"impossible" to use a Mac modem on a PC, or vice versa, regardless of what
sort of cable you have. "They just don't work that way--they have
completely different programming."
I thanked BrainBoy for his help and sent him on his way, daring not mention
that I have neither a PC nor a Mac. The sales staff, apparently, was not
going to be of much help.
After much box-reading and option-weighing, my choice was the Zoom FaxModem
V.34X. I have to admit the reason was a combination of price and nice
packaging. I paid US$169, on sale; the price was listed (in Computer City)
at $199.
The modem doesn't come with a cable, so I had to get a 25-to-25 modem
cable, too.
SPECIFICATIONS
As you probably know, if you read the specs on any six V.34 modems, you
will begin to have a sense of deja vu. The Zoom supports all the stuff
you'd expect it to support: speeds up to 28,800bps. V.34, V.FC, V.32bis,
V.32, V.22bis, Bell 212A, V.22...well, you get the point. Fax (Group 3,
Class 1 and 2) up to 14,400bps with V.33, V.17, and on and on. Flow
control with RTS/CTS, XON/XOFF, etc. DTE speeds up to 115,200bps. Auto
speed sensing. V.42bis and MNP5 compression. MNP10EC error correction.
Non-volatile memory.
About the only thing it doesn't have is built-in Caller ID. You can get an
upgrade kit for that, though I don't know what it entails.
You also get several blank disks--er, I mean, free offers from online
services, including AOL (of course), Compuserve, and GNN. And some DOS
software, in case you've got a PC sitting next to your Amiga.
INSTALLATION
Quite easy. Plug the modem cable into the modem, plug the other end into
your serial port, plug the power cable into the modem, plug the other end
into an outlet, and you're off.
DOCUMENTATION
The Zoom comes with a nice manual of 56 pages. Parts of it deal with
installing the internal version into a PC and thus can be skipped. You can
also be walked through the procedure of choosing an init string, in case
you're not familiar with AT commands.
The ten-page troubleshooting section seems comprehensive, though I haven't
had to put it to the test.
You also get a nice chart of AT commands, including the modem's default
settings, which comes in handy if you already know how to use them and just
need to look one up. And beginners will welcome the six-page glossary of
terms.
One interesting fact about the manual: nowhere does it specify what kind of
modem it's talking about. The word "Zoom" appears only in a line-drawing
of the modem.
GETING UP AND RUNNING
I don't know if this is unusual, but the Zoom worked perfectly the first
time I tried it. I looked through the manual and assembled an appropriate
init string for Term (AT&F&C1&D2W1), set my serial port speed for 38400
(more on this later), dialed, and there was my UNIX account.
For PPP, I used the same init string, changing the &D2 to &D0, which
assumes the DTR (Data Terminal Ready) is on. That worked just fine, too.
The only problem I encountered was when using PPP, and I've seen several
questions relating to this on the newsgroups. When you first power up the
modem, several lights come on, one of which is CD, for carrier detect. I
believe this to be a byproduct of the default &D0 setting (which can be
changed). When you attempt to start the PPP device, it dumps out with an
error.
I found that starting Term, and allowing it to send its init string to the
modem (with the &D2), the CD light would turn off, and I could then quit
the program and use PPP. A better workaround would be to change the
modem's default settings, but I use my UNIX shell account about 95% of the
time anyway, so I didn't bother. The point is, if PPP gives you an error,
look for that CD light. This isn't a problem specific to the Zoom, of
course.
PERFORMANCE
I'm pretty happy with the Zoom's performance. But, as with any modem, you
have to set your DTE (computer-to-modem) speed on your serial port to a
speed your hardware can handle in order to obtain the best results.
On my machine, the best speed I can get is 38400bps. If I try to drive the
modem any faster, the transfer rates drop like a brick, because the Amiga's
serial hardware just can't handle it. I suggest you try a variety of
speeds to see what your machine can do; I've heard from several people who
can use 57400 just fine, and one who can even use 115200, though on an
Amiga I'd have to see that to believe it.
Basically all I use the modem for is to call my Internet provider, and I
almost always get a full 28800bps carrier with the Zoom. I should note,
however, that I have very good telephone lines in my area. I once also
used it to call across the country (California from New Jersey) and I got
28800 then, too. The slowest speed at which the Zoom has ever connected is
26400bps.
Driving my serial port at 38400, my Zmodem downloads and uploads range from
2900-3700 characters per second, using the "sz" and "rz" UNIX programs in
my shell account, and xprzmodem.library in Term. I don't know what
accounts for the differences in speed--it could just be usage load at my
ISP. The absolute fastest download speed I've seen on a file of reasonable
size was about 3950 cps.
Bumping my serial port speed to 57400 makes these numbers drop to about
1400-1500 cps. 115200 is almost unusable. However, this is not at all the
fault of the Zoom, but rather the outdated serial hardware in the Amiga.
The Zoom also supports faxing. I don't have fax software, or access to a
fax machine to test it with, so I can't comment on it.
THE BOTTOM LINE
I am very happy with the Zoom. I was able to plug it in and forget it
(until I wrote this review, at least) and it gives me great performance for
a competitive price. So go ahead and buy one.
Zoom Telephonics, Inc.
207 South Street
Boston, MA 02111 (USA)
(617) 423-1076
http://www.zoomtel.com
TEST SYSTEM
Amiga 500 (rev. 8a PCB)
OS 3.1 & ECS
CSA Derringer 030/882
2 megs chip + 16 megs fast RAM
AdIDE controller w/100 meg HD
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
This article is Copyright 1996 by Jeremy Nixon, All Rights Reserved.
It may not be published anywhere except Amiga Report without specific prior
permission from the author.
Spreadsheet Faceoff: Final Calc vs. TurboCalc
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Spreadsheet Faceoff: Final Calc vs. TurboCalc, Part 1
By: Jason Compton
===========================================================================
It really makes me proud to see things like this--two application programs
in honest competition with each other, in an area not traditionally
"Amiga".
Until I found out, not so long ago, that spreadsheets could really do some
fantastic stuff, I could have cared less. But now I know better. While
they're not necessarily indispensible tools for everyone, you may be
surprised to find out what you really can get done.
It's only fair to take a look at the two big players in the market right
now, TurboCalc 3.5 from Digita and FinalCalc 1.03 from Softwood. And it's
only fair, given the complexity of the programs, to split up their
evaluation over a few issues.
This time around, I'll deal with some basic interface issues and cover the
tutorial aspects of each program. In the future, some of the unique
features, shared strengths, and individual weaknesses will be revealed.
TurboCalc 3.5
-------------
TurboCalc needs little introduction. It's been bouncing around for some
time now, most recently as an extremely low-cost CD-ROM in version 2.1.
Recently, Digita acquired the English language publication rights,
presumably to solidify their position as a full-service Amiga application
company.
To settle you into using a spreadsheet, the manual covers the basics--how
to get around, how to use cells, and the difference between relative and
absolute addressing. It also talks you through a short demonstration.
Of more interest is the included tutorial script, which upon loading takes
the user through the basic financial appliaction outlined in the manual.
Once through that example, you're more or less left to your own devices to
explore the dozens of sample projects in the package, some of which
illuminate very basic concepts (how to get an X/Y graph to look right),
others which add programming commands to the toolkit, and even a project
which allows you to play Connect 4 against a friend.
The sample sheets often could stand a bit more explanation and
documentation for first time users, and I found the occasional usage of
German commands internally where the English command was explained to be
confusing. Still, they do a good job of exhibiting the power of the
system.
The GUI is very tight and efficient, with flexible coloration, font
selection, and screenmode support. As a rule, it is fairly responsive,
although some scripting jobs cause pauses and flashes that get distracting.
Final Calc 1.03
---------------
Softwood isn't a stranger to the Amiga applications market, but Final Calc
is a relatively new entry.
Based on years of work by Khalid Aldoseri, who developed it to assist him
with his business, Final Calc brings a lot of high-end performance to the
Amiga.
It does so in a fairly stark style, however, at least for starters. Its
default opener on an NTSC: High Res screen took me slightly aback, as did
the gunmetal grey color scheme. A little quick work in Preferences got
that sorted out, but it does lack a bit of elegance.
On the other hand, nobody uses a spreadsheet because they're attractive.
After a brief overview of the nature of spreadsheets, Final Calc's manual
delves into issues of tools and applications. The tutorials come as a
collection of sample projects--not nearly as many as TurboCalc, but
interesting in their own right. They show off Final Calc as a number
cruncher with several real-world applications (such as generating calendars
for any month, any year, with any day of the week as the first position).
The most interesting project is the graph demo, which includes dozens of
graphs generated on a large data set, to show off the power of Final Calc
in creating presentations and displays.
Like TurboCalc, the more intricate coding aspects are not entirely
explained as this goes on. You do get a definite feel for the power of the
package, although more samples would have been nice to have. And the
manual is always available to describe the commands more specifically.
Final Calc also comes with a tool that is becoming popular in many
different applications--a "crash recovery" program, which actually searches
through memory not corrupted by a reset to try to locate FinalCalc project
data. This could come in handy if ever a random guru knocks you out just
as you are about to save.
While neither Final Calc nor TurboCalc take you by the hand and parade you
through their entire set of options, they do have intelligent and helpful
introductory projects. Next time, we'll take a look at what happens when
you actually start USING them.
Aminet Charts: 20-Mar-96
Table of Contents
| The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 20-Mar-96
| Updated weekly. Most popular file on top.
|
|File Dir Size Age Description
|----------------- --- ---- --- -----------
YAM12.lha comm/mail 135K 0+MUI Internet mailer for AmiTCP
ToolManagerUpd.lha util/boot 26K 0+Update to ToolManager 2.1 (V2.1b)
AmIRC10.lha comm/tcp 590K 0+Fully featured GUI IRC Client
FastBootV1_0.lha util/boot 14K 0+Lets you boot your Amiga VERY fast.
mn_ansitest.lha comm/mebbs 3K 39+ANSI Test Door for MEBBSNet
ar404.lha docs/mags 85K 0+Amiga Report 4.04, March 14, 1996
Iconian2_97.lha gfx/edit 315K 0+OS3.0 icon editor, NewIcon support.
AmiFTP-1.264.lha comm/tcp 211K 0+Easy to use GUI FTP client for OS 2.
Haynie.lha docs/misc 23K 0+Transcript/Dave Haynie Compuserve Co
AmiPhone1.41B.lha comm/net 112K 0+AmiTCP based voice chat program
IB_TransAnims.lha comm/net 164K 0+Set of Transfer Anims for IBrowse
AT_FAQ1_1.txt docs/anno 6K 0+A FAQ about the exciting new Walker
A-Start07.lha util/wb 45K 1+V0.72 of the BEST Win95-StartButton-
Breed96.lha game/misc 168K 0+Space colonisation/exploration game
telser140.lha comm/tcp 251K 0+Telnet(d)/rlogin(d) device/handler f
BOMBv1_2.lha game/2play 480K 0+Amiga Format award-winning game
ABackup511.lha disk/bakup 299K 0+Intuitive and very powerful backup p
PPP1_45.lha comm/net 105K 1+SANA-II PPP.device evaluation versio
TrappedPreview.lha game/demo 1.0M 0+March preview of Trapped, a 3D game
Best_DBLPAL.lha hard/drivr 5K 0+DBLPAL:784x550 monitor driver for AG
| The highest rated programs during the week until 20-Mar-96
| Updated weekly. Best program on top. Please rate all the programs you
| download. To do so, send to aminet-server@wuarchive.wustl.edu :
| RATE <path> <num>
| where <path> is the file you want to judge and <num> is a mark from 0..10
| with 10 being the best. You can rate several programs in one mail, but
| don't rate your own programs. Example: RATE dev/gui/mui23usr.lha 8
|
|File Dir Size Age Description
|----------------- --- ---- --- -----------
FTPMaker.lha comm/misc 40K 7+Help you to configure your ftpaccess
AmiPOP118.lha comm/net 98K 25+Amiga POP3 Client V1.18
AmiTCP-demo-40.lha comm/tcp 738K 72+TCP/IP protocol stack
ass_gfx.lha demo/euro 579K 136 Top 10 pics from Asm93 gfx compo
Odyssey.lha demo/file 3.3M 38 Demo by Alcatraz, ECS, 1st at TP91
IdodDisk1.lha demo/sound 594K 1+A MeTaL MuSiC DiSk By DeGeNeRaTiOn
IdodDisk2.lha demo/sound 641K 1+A MeTaL MuSiC DiSk By DeGeNeRaTiOn
VoxelEngine25.lha gfx/aga 71K 0+Landscape routine. V2.5
FastECS040.lha misc/emu 2K 2+FastECS for 68040 based Amigas
BlacksEditor.lha text/edit 204K 1+Wonderful Text Editor (Version 1.0)
lzx121.lha util/arc 161K 1+The Ultimate Archiver V1.21 Fixes/+S
lzx121r.lha util/arc 193K 1+The Ultimate Archiver V1.21R Registe
MCP110.lha util/cdity 395K 6+MAJOR UPDATE! The mother of the WB-U
MagicMenu_1.29.lha util/cdity 106K 120+PopUp menus for OS 2.x and newer
DragIt4.lha util/wb 48K 114+Move and size a window from anywhere
AmigaBase22.lha biz/dbase 462K 17+Powerful programmable database with
YAM12.lha comm/mail 135K 0+MUI Internet mailer for AmiTCP
thor222_main.lha comm/mail 790K 11+Offline reader, main archive (requir
IPDial20.lha comm/tcp 55K 1+SLIP/PPP dialer with shell terminal
cdguide_200.lha docs/hyper 154K 1+List of AMIGA-CDROM`s V2.00 (German
ValIandIISolve.lha game/hint 27K 1+Solve for Valhalla I & II
sfx-bin_30.lha mus/edit 301K 1+V 3.31 Binary for 68030
sfx-bin_40m.lha mus/edit 287K 1+V 3.31 Binary for 68040+FPU
sfx-data.lha mus/edit 228K 1+V 3.31 Data
sfx-doc_eng.lha mus/edit 78K 1+V 3.31 Docs english
Play16_1.6.lha mus/play 91K 6+Plays WAV, IFF, MAUD, etc, 14 bit ou
aglogo.lha pix/misc 44K 1+AMIGAmes 'logo' picture (Finnish Ami
VirusZ_II129.lha util/virus 164K 1+VirusZ v1.29 by Georg Hoermann
Aminet Charts: 01-Apr-96
Table of Contents
| The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 1-Apr-96
| Updated weekly. Most popular file on top.
|
|File Dir Size Age Description
|----------------- --- ---- --- -----------
AWeb.lha comm/tcp 253K 1+New fast non-MUI WWW browser. V 1.0a
awebftp.lha comm/tcp 3K 0+FTP plugin for Aweb (FTPMount requir
awebmail.lha comm/tcp 3K 0+Mail plugin for Aweb (TCP: required)
mn_ansitest.lha comm/mebbs 3K 40+ANSI Test Door for MEBBSNet
term-030.lha comm/term 655K 1+V4.6, MC68020/030/040/060 version
ZGIFDT39.18.lha util/dtype 7K 0+The FASTEST gif.datatype there is.
AWebdoc_ps.lha comm/tcp 87K 1+Documentation for AWeb 1.0 in PS for
urouhack14.lha util/wb 50K 0+Sysihack&framepatch, XEN-style butto
AgaEXTENDER.lha docs/misc 37K 0+AgaEXTENDER: Fast 24bit gfx on AGA
term-libs.lha comm/term 127K 1+V4.6, XPR and XEM libs
PutMail.lha comm/tcp 70K 0+Native Amiga SMTP Client
term-doc.lha comm/term 226K 1+V4.6, AmigaGuide format and library
term-extras.lha comm/term 242K 1+V4.6, HydraCom, ARexx scripts, sound
Fast_Exec.lha util/batch 10K 0+Moves exec into fastmem. OS 3.0+. V3
taskbar5_2.lha util/wb 30K 1+Win95 style taskbar v5.2 (Speed incr
PictDT43.lha gfx/board 178K 0+Picture.datatype V43.695 for AGA/CGr
FTPMount-0.8.lha comm/tcp 109K 16+Mounts FTP sites as part of a filesy
| The highest rated programs during the week until 1-Apr-96
| Updated weekly. Best program on top. Please rate all the programs you
| download. To do so, send to aminet-server@wuarchive.wustl.edu :
| RATE <path> <num>
| where <path> is the file you want to judge and <num> is a mark from 0..10
| with 10 being the best. You can rate several programs in one mail, but
| don't rate your own programs. Example: RATE dev/gui/mui23usr.lha 8
|
|File Dir Size Age Description
|----------------- --- ---- --- -----------
MagicMenu_1.29.lha util/cdity 106K 122+PopUp menus for OS 2.x and newer
term-030.lha comm/term 655K 1+V4.6, MC68020/030/040/060 version
VoxelEngine25.lha gfx/aga 71K 2+Landscape routine. V2.5
ReqToolsDev.lha util/libs 284K 11+ReqTools 2.4 - the requester toolkit
ReqToolsUsr.lha util/libs 156K 11+ReqTools 2.4 - the requester toolkit
VWorlds.lha misc/sci 735K 0+Images of sky from any planet or com
BlacksEditor.lha text/edit 204K 3+Wonderful Text Editor (Version 1.0)
AWeb.lha comm/tcp 253K 1+New fast non-MUI WWW browser. V 1.0a
thor222_main.lha comm/mail 790K 13+Offline reader, main archive (requir
aglogo.lha pix/misc 44K 3+AMIGAmes 'logo' picture (Finnish Ami
FTPMaker.lha comm/misc 40K 9+Help you to configure your ftpaccess
AmiPOP118.lha comm/net 98K 27+Amiga POP3 Client V1.18
AmiTCP-demo-40.lha comm/tcp 738K 74+TCP/IP protocol stack
ass_gfx.lha demo/euro 579K 138 Top 10 pics from Asm93 gfx compo
Odyssey.lha demo/file 3.3M 40 Demo by Alcatraz, ECS, 1st at TP91
IdodDisk1.lha demo/sound 594K 3+A MeTaL MuSiC DiSk By DeGeNeRaTiOn
IdodDisk2.lha demo/sound 641K 3+A MeTaL MuSiC DiSk By DeGeNeRaTiOn
mui33dev.lha dev/gui 585K 4+MagicUserInterface V3.3, developer f
mui33usr.lha dev/gui 797K 4+MagicUserInterface V3.3, user files
ar402.lha docs/mags 75K 7+Amiga Report 4.02, January 31, 1996
Angband-279v5.lha game/role 688K 1+Angband 2.7.9 (v5)
amiwm0.19pl29.lha gfx/x11 56K 1+X window manager WB like.
FastECS040.lha misc/emu 2K 4+FastECS for 68040 based Amigas
DI-DrmSeq.lha mods/slow 248K 2+DI - "Dream Sequence" - 16:06
worms.jpg pix/trace 264K 2+Cinema4D rendered picture
lzx121.lha util/arc 161K 3+The Ultimate Archiver V1.21 Fixes/+S
lzx121r.lha util/arc 193K 3+The Ultimate Archiver V1.21R Registe
MCP110.lha util/cdity 395K 8+MAJOR UPDATE! The mother of the WB-U
VMM_V3_3.lha util/misc 267K 14+Virtual memory for Amigas with MMU
Amiga Report Mailing List
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Amiga Report Mailing List
===========================================================================
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 majordomo@amigalib.com
Your subject header will be ignored. In the body of the message, enter
subscribe areport
The system will automatically pull your e-mail address from the message
header.
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.
** 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! **
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
UUDecoding Amiga Report
===========================================================================
If you receive Amiga Report from the direct mailing list, it will arrive in
UUEncoded format. This format allows programs and archive files to be sent
through mail by converting the binary into combinations of ASCII
characters. In the message, it will basically look like a lot of trash
surrounded by begin <filename> and end, followed by the size of the file.
To UUDecode Amiga Report, you first need to get a UUDecoding program, such
as UUxT by Asher Feldman. This program is available on Aminet in
pub/aminet/arc/
Then you must download the message that it is contained in. Don't worry
about message headers, the UUDecoding program will ignore them.
There is a GUI interface for UUxT, which should be explained in the docs.
However, the quickest method for UUDecoding the magazine is to type
uuxt x ar.uu
at the command prompt. You will then have to decompress the archive with
lha, and you will then have Amiga Report in all of its AmigaGuide glory.
If you have any questions, you can write to Jason Compton
Aminet
Table of Contents
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.
Sites: ftp.netnet.net, ftp.wustl.edu, ftp.luth.se, ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk
World Wide Web
Table of Contents
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 one of the following URLs:
http://www.omnipresence.com/Amiga/News/AR/
http://www.pwr.wroc.pl/AMIGA/AR/
http://mm.iit.uni-miskolc.hu/Data/AR
http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/amiga/ar/
http://ramiga.rnet.cgi.com/~AR
http://www.sci.muni.cz/ar/
http://metro.turnpike.net/P/panther/main.html
http://www.lysator.liu.se/amiga/ar/
http://ArtWorks.apana.org.au/AmigaReport.html
http://www.vol.it/mirror/amiga/
http://www.cucug.org/ar/ar.html
http://www.acropolis.net/clubs/amiga/amigareport/
http://www.bengala.saccii.net.au/ar/main.html
The following AR sites also have a mailto form, allowing you to mail to
Amiga Report from the web site. <Make sure your reader has forms
capability).
http://www.pwr.wroc.pl/AMIGA/AR/
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Users/kcci1
Amiga information can also be accessed at this URL:
http://www.cucug.org/amiga.html
Mosaic for the Amiga can be found on Aminet in directory comm/net, or
(using anonymous ftp) on max.physics.sunysb.edu
Copyright Information
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Amiga Report International Online Magazine
March 31, 1996 Issue No. 4.05
Copyright 1996 FS 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
FS Publications. Permission to reprint articles is hereby denied, unless
otherwise noted. All reprint requests should be directed to the editor.
Amiga Report and/or portions therein may not be edited in any way without
prior written permission. However, translation into a language other than
English is acceptible, provided the editor is notified beforehand and the
original meaning is not altered. Amiga Report may be distributed 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). CD-ROM compilers should contact the editor.
Distribution on for-profit magazine cover disks requires written permission
from the editor. Amiga Report is a not-for-profit publication. Amiga
Report, at the time of publication, is believed reasonably accurate. Amiga
Report, its staff and contributors 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 Escom AG. All
items quoted in whole or in part are done so under the Fair Use Provision
of the Copyright 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 is
specifically requested not to be reprinted.
===========================================================================
Amiga Report Writing Guidelines
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Amiga Report Writing Guidelines
===========================================================================
The three most important requirements for submissions to Amiga Report are:
1. Please use English.
2. Please use paragraphs. It's hard on the eyes to have solid
screens of text. If you don't know where to make a paragraph break,
guess.
3. Please put a blank line in between paragraphs. It makes
formatting the magazine much much easier.
4. Please send us your article in ASCII format.
Note: If you want to check ahead of time to make sure we'll print your
article, please write to the Editor.
Please stipulate as well if you wish to retain copyright or hand it over to
the editor.
Editor's Choice
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Editor's Choice
===========================================================================
These are selected products, reviewed by myself, that I've liked. So, I've
landed them and decided to sell them.
All prices are in $US.
John McDonough's The Music Maker, a Contemporary New Age CD composed on the
Amiga, is available through Amiga Report.
The crisp, clean sounds and calm melodies present a welcome alternative to
many pounding alternatives.
Available for US$12.00 plus $3 shipping in the US. Non-US orders, please
contact before ordering. Check or money order accepted addressed to
Jason Compton , shipments made by the artist.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| | Issue | Approximate | Amiga Report |
| Product | Reviewed | Retail Price | Reader Price |
---------------------------------|----------|--------------|--------------|
| | | | |
|GPFax Amiga Fax Software | 2.30 | $100.00 | $60.00 |
| (Class 1 and 2) | | | |
| | | | |
|Micro R+D CD-ROM Volume 1 | 2.25 | $69.00 | $30.00 |
| (Includes early Transition | | | |
| graphics converter and loads| | | |
| of artwork) | | | |
| | | | |
|Micro R+D CD-ROM Volume 2 | 2.26 | $99.95 | $46.75 |
| (Includes entire Nature's | | | |
| Backdrop series) | | | |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Orders may be placed via check, money order, or postal cheque, made out to
Jason Compton. Visa/Mastercard accepted via post or E-Mail. No CODs.
Mail all orders to Jason Compton . Orders will be processed by
Amiga Report and drop-shipped from Micro R+D.
In the US, add $5/$10/$20 for UPS shipping, ground/blue/red label,
respectively. Overseas: It is recommended that you consider $20 to be the
minimum cost for shipping. If you plan to order more than one item, E-mail
for shipping cost.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sidewinder's Future Shock II CD is now available through Amiga Report.
Featuring 15 Amiga-generated tunes totalling 71 minutes, Eric Gieseke's
work is captured on an Amiga-independent media.
Available for US$12.00. Please add $5 for shipping.
Make check or money order payable to Jason Compton . Orders will be
drop-shipped from Sidewinder Productions.
For overseas orders, please contact through E-Mail before ordering.
Portal
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Portal: A Great Place For Amiga Users
===========================================================================
The Portal Information Network's Amiga Zone
The AFFORDABLE alternative for online Amiga information
"Not just another UNIX Shell account!"
-------------------------------------------------------
Portal is the home of acclaimed Amiga Zone, a full-service online SIG
(Special Interest Group) for Amiga owners and users. We promise, and WE
DELIVER ongoing & aggressive Amiga support! Now, more than ever, with so
many Amiga magazines gone or shrunken, you need a viable,
professionally-maintained resource for information, software, and a link to
the world-wide Amiga community.
You can dial into Portal to access the Amiga Zone in many ways: direct
dial to our San Jose, CA high-speed modems (you pay for the phone call
if it's not local), or though any SprintNet or Compuserve indial anywhere
(with a small hourly fee) or via the World-wide Internet "telnet"
program to portal.com (no hourly fee).
Even Delphi and BIX users can Telnet into Portal for a flat $19.95 a month,
with *unlimited* use.
Portal is NOT just another shell service! Its Online system is fully
menu-driven with on-screen commands and help, and you can easily customize
it for your favorite terminal program and screen size.
Some of Portal/Amiga Zone's amazing features include:
* 2.5 GIGabytes of Amiga-specific file space - we have so much Amiga Stuff
online, we've lost count!
* The *entire* Fred Fish collection of freely distributable software,
online. ALL 1100 disks!
* Fast, Batch Zmodem file transfer protocol. Download up to 100 files or
100 email letters at once, of any size, with one command.
* Amiga vendor areas with many companies participating.
* So many incoming lines you'll probably NEVER get a busy signal
* 40 "regular" Amiga libraries with over 12,000 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 pressured doing it.
* Live, interactive nightly chats with Amiga folks whose names you will
recognize. Special conferences. Random chance prize contests. We
have given away thousands of bucks worth of Amiga prizes - more than
any other online service.
* Message bases where you can ask questions about *anything* Amiga
related and get quick replies from the experts.
* Amiga Internet mailing lists for Imagine, AMosaic, LightWave, ImageFX,
Picasso II & others feed right into the Zone message bases. Read
months worth of postings. No need to clutter your mailbox with them.
* FREE unlimited Internet Email with 5 meg of free storage.
Your email is private, secure, and never censored or monitored.
* A FREE UNIX Shell account with another 5 meg of free storage.
You can run AMosaic and other Browses via your shell and explore the
vast World Wide Web! Intermediate to advanced users can use
any standard UNIX mail and news utilities, compilers, and other
tools. Ask for your free UNIX book when you sign up.
* A home for your own Web page! Your UNIX Shell on Portal is linked
to Portal's Web Server. Create your own WWW pages for the whole
world to access. No extra charges!
* Portal has the Usenet. Thousands of "newsgroups" in which you can read
and post articles about virtually any subject you can possibly
imagine. Newsgroups are not censored!
* Other Portal SIGs (Special Interest Groups) online for Mac, IBM, Sun,
UNIX, Science Fiction, Disney, and dozens more. ALL Portal SIGs are
accessible to ALL Portal customers with NO surcharges ever. You
never worry "Ooops... Am I paying more for this area?" again!
* Portal was THE FIRST online service to offer a full package of Internet
features: IRC, FTP, TELNET, MUDS, LIBS wrapped into user-friendly
menus. And you get FREE unlimited usage of all of them.
* 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)
* 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.
To join Portal or for more information call:
1-800-433-6444 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time
1-408-973-9111 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time
1-408-725-0561 (modem 3/12/2400) 24 hours every day
1-408-725-0560 (modem 96/14400) 24 hours every day
or enter "C PORTAL" from any Sprintnet dial-in, or "portal" at any
CI$ network dialin, or telnet to "portal.com" from anywhere,
and then enter "online" and then "info"
or send email to "sales@portal.com"
Visit the Amiga Zone Web page at http://www.portal.com/~harv
Call and join today. Tell the friendly Portal Customer Service
representative, "The Amiga Zone sent me." Ask for the "Interactive"
account to get the Amiga Zone, the Online System and a UNIX Shell for
only $19.95 a month.
The Portal Information Network accepts MasterCard, Visa, or you can pre-pay
any amount by personal check or money order. The Portal Online System is a
trademark of The Portal Information Network. SLIP, UUCP, custom domain
and corporate accounts are also available.
Distribution BBSes - Asia
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Distribution BBSes - Asia
===========================================================================
-=JAPAN=-
* GIGA SONIC FACTOR *
Email: kfr01002@niftyserve.or.jp
+81-(0)564-55-4864
Distribution BBSes - Australia
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Distribution BBSes - Australia
===========================================================================
-=NEW ZEALAND=-
* BITSTREAM BBS *
FidoNET 3:771/850.0 AmigaNET 41:644/850.0
+64-(0)3-548-5321
-=VICTORIA=-
* NORTH WEST AMIGA BBS *
EMail: mozza@nwamiga.apana.org.au Fido: 3:633/265.0
BBS Phone/Fax: +61 3 9331 2831 USR Courier V.Everything
Distribution BBSes - Europe
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Distribution BBSes - Europe
===========================================================================
-=FINLAND=-
* LAHO BBS *
+358-64-414 1516 +358-64-414 0400
+358-64-414 6800 +358-64-423 1300
* KINDERGARTEN *
Email: matthias.bartosik@hut.fi
+358-0-881 32 36
-=FRANCE=-
* DYNAMIX BBS *
Email: erlsoft@mcom.mcom.fr
+33.1.48.89.96.66 Minitel to Modem
* RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING *
Internet: user.name@ramses.fdn.org Fidonet: 2/320/104-105-106
+33-1-45845623 +33-1-53791200
-=GERMANY=-
* DOOM OF DARKNESS *
Email: marc_doerre@doom.ping.de
+49 (0)4223 8355 19200
AR-Infoservice, contact Kai Szymanski kai@doom.gun.de
* IMAGINE BBS *
Email: Sysop@imagine.commo.mcnet.de
+49-69-4304948
Login: GAST (Download area: "Amiga-Report")
* LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL *
Usenet: andreas@lbcmbx.in-berlin.de
49-30-8110060 49-30-8122442
Login as User: "amiga", Passwd: "report"
* REDEYE BBS *
Internet: sysop@coolsurf.de
Modem/ISDN: +49-89.54662690 Modem only:+49.89.54662680
* STINGRAY DATABASE *
EMail: sysop@sting-db.zer.sub.org.dbp.de
+49 208 496807
* VISION THING BBS *
++49(0)345 663914
System Password: Amiga
-=GREECE=-
* HELLAS ON LINE *
EMail: cocos@prometheus.hol.gr Telnet: hellas.hol.gr
++301/ 620-6001, 620-6604, 620-9500
* ODYSSEY BBS *
email: odyssey@acropolis.gr Amiganet: 39:258/1.0
++301-4123502 23.00-09.00 Local Time
-=IRELAND=-
* CUGI BBS *
Fidonet: 2:263/155
+353 1 837 0204
* FWIBBLE! *
Fidonet: 2:263/900.0 E-Mail: 9517693@ul.ie
Phone: +353-902-36124 Midnight to 8am (GMT)
Freq "Readme.txt" for details
-=ITALY=-
* AMIGA PROFESSIONAL BBS *
Amy Professional Club, Italian Amos Club
+(39)-49-604488
* AMIPRO BBS*
AR and AMINET distributor
+39-49604488
* FRANZ BBS *
EMsil: mc3510@mclink.it
+39/6/6627667
* IDCMP *
Fidonet 2:322/405
+39-542-25983
* SPEED OF LIFE *
FidoNet 2:335/533 AmigaNet 39:102/12
The AMIGA Alchemists' BBS +39-931-833773
-=NETHERLANDS=-D
* AMIGA ONLINE BS HEEMSTEDE *
Fidonet: 2:280/464.0, 2:280/412.0 Internet: michiel@aobh.xs4all.nl
+31-23-282002 +31-23-470739
* THE HELL BBS *
Fido-Net : 2:281/418.0 e-mail : root@hell.xs4all.nl
+31-(0)70-3468783
* TRACE BBS GRONINGEN *
FidoNET 2:282/529.0 Internet Martin@trace.idn.nl
+31-(0)-50-410143
* X-TREME BBS *
Internet: u055231@vm.uci.kun.nl
+31-167064414
-=NORWAY=-
* FALLING BBS *
EMail: christon@powertech.no
+47 69 256117
-=POLAND=-
* SILVER DREAM!'S BBS *
SysOp: Silver Dream
+48 91 540431
-=PORTUGAL=-
* CIUA BBS *
FidoNet 2:361/9 Internet: denise.ci.ua.pt
+351-34-382080/382081
-=RUSSIA=-
* NEW ORDER BBS *
E-Mail: norder@norder.spb.su FidoNet: 2:5030/221.0
+7-812-2909561
-=SPAIN=-
* GURU MEDITATION *
+34-1-383-1317
* LA MITAD OSCURA *
E-Mail: jovergon@offcampus.es Fido: 2:341/35.19
+34-1-3524613
* MAZAGON - BBS - SYSTEMS *
E-mail: jgomez@maze.mazanet.es FTP: ftp-mail@ftp.mazanet.es
+34 59 536267
Login: a-report
-=SWEDEN=-
* CICERON *
E-mail: a1009@itv.se
+46 612 22011
-=SWITZERLAND=-
* LINKSYSTEM LINK-CH1 *
contact: rleemann@link-ch1.aworld.de
+41 61 3215643 ISDN: +41 61 3832007
Local newsgroup link-ch1.ml.amiga-report
-=UKRAINE=-
* AMIGA HOME BBZ *
E-Mail: Oleg.Khimich@bbs.tenet.odessa.ua FidoNet: 2:467/88.0
+380-482-325043
-=UNITED KINGDOM=-
* AMIGA JUNCTION 9 *
Internet: sysadmin@junct9.demon.co.uk FidoNet: 2:440/20
+44 (0)372 271000
* CREATIONS BBS *
E-Mail: mat@darkside.demon.co.uk 2:254/524@Fidonet
+44-0181-665-9887
* METNET CCS *
Email: metnet@demon.co.uk FidoNet: 2:2502/129.0 2:2502/130.0
+44-1482-442251 +44-1482-444910
* OCTAMED USER BBS *
EMail: rbfsoft@cix.compulink.co.uk
+44 (01703) 703446
* SCRATCH BBS *
EMail: kcci1@solx1.susx.ac.uk Official Super Skidmarks site
+44-1273-389267
Distribution BBSes - North America
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Distribution BBSes - North America
===========================================================================
-=ARIZONA=-
* MESSENGER OF THE GODS BBS *
mercury@primenet.com
602-326-1095
-=BRITISH COLUMBIA=-
* COMM-LINK BBS *
EMail: steve_hooper@comm.tfbbs.wimsey.com Fido: 1:153/210.0
604-945-6192
-=CALIFORNIA=-
* TIERRA-MIGA BBS *
FidoNet: 1:202/638.0 Internet: torment.cts.com
619.292.0754
* VIRTUAL PALACE BBS *
Sysop Email: tibor@ecst.csuchico.edu
916-343-7420
* AMIGA AND IBM ONLY BBS *
EMail: vonmolk@crash.cts.com AmigaNET: 40:406/7.0
(619)428-4887
-=FLORIDA=-
* LAST! AMIGA BBS *
(305) 456-0126
-=ILLINOIS=-
* EMERALD KEEP BBS *
FidoNet: 1:2250/2 AmigaNet: 40:206/1
618-394-0065
* PHANTOM'S LAIR *
FidoNet: 1:115/469.0 Phantom Net Coordinator: 11:1115/0.0-11:1115/1.0
708-469-9510 708-469-9520
* STARSHIP CUCUG *
Email: khisel@prairienet.org
(217)356-8056
* THE STYGIAN ABYSS BBS *
FIDONet-1:115/384.0
312-384-0616 312-384-6250 (FREQ line)
-=LOUISIANA=-
* The Catacomb *
E-mail: Geoff148@delphi.com
504-882-6576
-=MAINE=-
* THE KOBAYASHI ALTERNATIVE BBS *
FidoNet: 1:326/404.0
(207)/784-2130 (207)/946-5665
ftp.tka.com for back issues of AR
-=MEXICO=-
* AMIGA BBS *
FidoNet 4:975/7
(5) 887-3080
* AMIGA SERVER BBS *
5158736
* TERCER PLANETA BBS *
FX Network 800:525/1
[525]-606-2162
-=MISSISSIPPI=-
* THE GATEWAY BBS *
InterNet: stace@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil FidoNet: 1:3604/60.0
601-374-2697
-=MICHIGAN=-
* DC Productions *
Email: dcpro!chetw@heifetz.msen.com
616-373-0287
-=NEVADA=-
* PUP-TEK BBS *
EMail: darkwolf@accessnv.com
702-553-2403
-=NEW JERSEY=-
* T.B.P. VIDEO SLATE *
201-586-3623
* DLTACOM AMIGA BBS *
Internet: dltacom.camphq.fidonet.org Fidonet: 1:2606/216.0
(201) 398-8559
-=NEW YORK=-
* THE BELFRY(!) *
stiggy@dorsai.dorsai.org
718.793.4796 718.793.4905
-=ONTARIO=-
* COMMAND LINE BBS *
416-533-8321
* CYBERSPACE *
joehick@ophielia.waterloo.net
(519) 579-0072 (519) 579-0173
* EDGE OF REALITY BBS *
EMail: murray.smith@er.gryn.org Fido: 1:244/320.0
(905)578-5048
-=QUEBEC=-
* CLUB AMIGA DE QUEBEC *
Internet: snaclaq@megatoon.com Voice: (418) 666-5969
(418) 666-4146 (418) 666-6960
Nom d'usager: AMREPORT Mot de passe: AMIGA
* GfxBase BBS*
E-mail: ai257@freenet.hsc.colorado.edu Fidonet: 1:167/192
514-769-0565
-=TENNESSEE=-
* AMIGA CENTRAL! *
Email: root@amicent.raider.net
615-383-9679
* NOVA BBS *
FidoNet 1:362/508.0
615-472-9748
-=VIRGINIA=-
* NETWORK XXIII DATA SYSTEM *
EMail: gottfrie@acca.nmsu.edu
804-266-1763
Login: anon Password: nopass
-=WASHINGTON=-
* FREELAND MAINFRAME *
Internet - freemf.wa.com
(360)412-0228
* PIONEERS BBS *
FidoNet: 1:343/54.0
206-775-7983
Login: Long Distance Password: longdistance Or FREQ: AR.lha
Distribution BBSes - South America
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Distribution BBSes - South America
===========================================================================
-=BRAZIL=-
* AMIGA DO PC BBS *
Fidonet: 4:801/44 Internet: fimoraes@dcc.unicamp.br
+55-192-33-2260 Weekdays: 19-07 (-3 GMT) Weekends: 24 hours
Dealers - Asia
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Dealers - Asia
===========================================================================
-=JAPAN=-
Grey Matter Ltd.
1-22-3,Minami Magome
HillTop House 2F suite 201
Ota-ku,Tokyo 143
Tel:+81 (0)3 5709-5549 Fax:+81 (0)3 5709-1907
BBS: +81 (0)3 5709-1907 Email: nighty@gmatter.japan-online.or.jp
Dealers - Australia
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Dealers - Australia
===========================================================================
-=QUEENSLAND=-
Image Domain
92 Bridge St
Fortitude Valley, Brisbane
E-mail: s322698@student.uq.edu.au
Voice: 617-3216-1240 Fax: 617-3852-2720
-= NEW ZEALAND =-
CompKarori
LG/F Karori Shopping Mall
Karori, Wellington
Tel/Fax: +64 4 476-0212
Email: sales@compkarori.co.nz
Dealers - Europe
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Dealers - Europe
===========================================================================
-=AUSTRIA=-
A.R.T. Computeranimation Ges.m.b.H.
Feldstrasse 13
3300 Amstetten
Tel: +43 7472/63566-0 Fax: +43 7472/63566-6
-=BELGIUM=-
CLICK! N.V.
Boomsesteenweg 468
B-2610 Wilrijk - Antwerpen
VOICE: +32 (0)3 828.18.15 FAX: +32 (0)3 828.67.36
INTERNET: vanhoutv@nbre.nfe.be FIDO: 2:292/603.9
-=BULGARIA=-
KlubVerband ITA Gmbh
1309 Sofia
P.F.13, KukushStr. 1-2
Tel: +359-2-221471 Fax: +359-2-230062
Email: KVITA@VIRBUS.BG Contact: Dr. ING B. Pavlov
-=DENMARK=-
Data Service
Att. Soren Petersen
Kaerhaven2a 2th
6400 Sonderborg
Phone/Fax: +45 74 43 17 36 EMail: sorpe-95@sdbg.ih.dk
Nemesis Amy BBS
EMail: boersting@hoa.ping.dk Fido: 2:238/43
USR 33k6 V.E. +45 75-353726
-=FINLAND=-
Lincware Computers Oy / Lincoln Technologies Ltd
Lovkullankuja 3
10300 KARJAA
Voice: +358-(9)50-5583720 Fax: +358-(9)11-205415
EMail: linctech@freenet.hut.fi
-=FRANCE=-
ASCII Informatique
10 Rue de Lepante
06000 NICE
Tel: (33) 93 13 08 66 Fax: (33) 93 13 90 95
Quartz Infomatique
2 bis, avenue de Brogny
F-74000 ANNECY
Tel./Fax (automatique): +33 50.52.83.31
E-Mail: tcp@imaginet.fr
-=GERMANY=-
AMItech Systems GmbH
Ludwigstrasse 4
D-95028 Hof/Saale
VOICE: +49 9281 142812 FAX: +49 9281 142712
EMail: bsd@blacky.netz.sub.de
dcp, desing+commercial partner GmbH
Alfredstr. 1
D-22087 Hamburg
Tel.: + 49 40 251176 Fax: +49 40 2518567
EMail: info@dcp.de WWW: http://www.dcp.de
Hartmann & Riedel GdbR
Hertzstr. 33
D-76287 Rheinstetten
EMail: rick@p22.aop.schiele-ct.de Fido: 2:2476/12.22
Voice: +49 (7242) 2021 Fax: +49 (7242) 5909
Please call before visiting, or we may be closed.
Hirsch & Wolf OHG
Mittelstra_e 33
D-56564 Neuwied
Voice: +49 (2631) 8399-0 Fax: +49 (2631) 8399-31
Pro Video Elektronik
Roßmarkt 38
D-63739 Aschaffenburg
Tel: (49) 6021 15713 Fax: (49) 6021 15713
-=ITALY=-
C.A.T.M.U. snc
Casella Postale 63
10023 Chieri (TO)
Tel/Fax: +39 11 9415237
EMail: fer@inrete.it (Ferruccio Zamuner) Fido: 2:334/21.19
Cloanto Italia srl
Via G. B. Bison 24
33100 Udine
Tel: +39 432 545902 Fax: +39 432 609051
E-Mail: info@cloanto.it CompuServe: 100145.15
-=NETHERLANDS=-
Chaos Systems
Watermolen 18
NL-1622 LG Hoorn (NH)
Voice: +31-(0)229-233922 Fax/Data: +31-(0)229-TBA
E-mail: marioh@fwi.uva.nl WWW: http://gene.fwi.uva.nl/~marioh/
-=SPAIN=-
Amiga Center
Argullós, 127
08016 Barcelona
Tel: (93) 276 38 06 Fax: (93) 276 30 80
Amiga Center Alicante
Segura, 27
03004 Alicante
Tel: (96) 514 37 34
Audio Vision
San Jose, 53
Gijon (Asturias)
Tel. (98) 535 24 79
Centro Informático Boadilla
Convento, 6
28660 Boadilla del Monte (Madrid)
Tel: (91) 632 27 65 Fax: (91) 632 10 99
Centro Mail
Tel: (91) 380 28 92
C.R.E.
San Francisco, 85
48003 Bilbao (Vizcaya)
Tel: (94) 444 98 84 Fax: (94) 444 98 84
Donosti Frame
Avda. de Madrid, 15
20011 San Sebastián (Guipuzcoa)
Tel: (943) 42 07 45 Fax: (943) 42 45 88
Eurobit Informatica
C/. Gral. Garcia de la Herran, 4
11100 - San Fernando
Cadiz
Tel/Fax: (956) 896375
GaliFrame
Galerías Príncipe, 22
Vigo (Pontevedra)
Tel: (986) 22 89 94 Fax: (986) 22 89 94
Invision
San Isidro, 12-18
28850 Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid)
Tel: (91) 676 20 56/59 Fax: (91) 656 10 04
Invision
Salamanca, 53
46005 Valencia
Tel: (96) 395 02 43/44 Fax: (96) 395 02 44
Norsoft
Bedoya, 4-6
32003 Orense
Tel: (988) 24 90 46 Fax: (988) 23 42 07
PiXeLSOFT
Felipe II, 3bis
34004 Palencia
Tel: (979) 71 27 00 Fax: (979) 71 28 28
Tu Amiga
Plaza Pedro IV, 3
08120 La LLagosta (Barcelona)
Tel: (93) 560 76 12 Fax: (93) 560 76 12
vb soft
Provenza, 436
08025 Barcelona
Tel: (93) 456 15 45 Fax: (93) 456 15 45
-=NORWAY=-
DataKompaniet ANS
Trondheim Innovation Centre
Prof. Brochs gt. 6
N-7030 Trondheim
Tel: +47 7354 0375 Fax: +47 7394 3861
EMail:datakompaniet@interlink.no WWW:http://www.interlink.no/datakompaniet
Sezam Software
Ulsmågveien 11a
N-5o5o Nesttun
Tel/Fax: +47 55100070 (9-20)
ABBS: +47 55101730 (24t) Email: oleksy@telepost.no
-=SWEDEN=-
DataVision
Box 1305
753 11 Uppsala
Street Address: Sysslomansgatan 9
Orders: +46 (0)18-123400 Shop: +46 (0)18-124009 Fax: +46 (0)18-100650
-=UNITED KINGDOM=-
Almathera Systems Ltd
Southerton House / Boundary Business Court
92-94 Church Road
Mitcham, Surrey / CR4 3TD
VOICE: (UK) 081 687 0040 FAX: (UK) 081 687 0490
Sales: almathera@cix.compulink.co.uk Tech: jralph@cix.compulink.co.uk
Brian Fowler Computers Ltd
90 South Street / Exeter
Devon / EX1 1EN
Voice: (01392) 499 755 Fax: (01392) 493 393
Internet: brian_fowler@cix.compulink.co.uk
Visage Computers
27 Watnall Road
Hucknall / Nottingham
Tel: +44 (0)115 9642828 Tel/Fax: +44 (0)115 9642898
EMail: visage@innotts.co.uk
Dealers - North America
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Dealers - North America
===========================================================================
-=CANADA=-
Animax Multimedia, Inc.
196 Joseph Zatzman Drive
Dartmouth, NS / B3B 1N4
Ph: (902)468-AMAX Fax: (902)468-4341
EMail: animax@ra.isisnet.com
APC Computer Services
402-5 Tangreen Crt
Willowdale, Ont. M2M 3Z1
Voice/Fax: (416) 733-1434
EMail: shadow@interlog.com WWW: www.interlog.com/~shadow/apccomp.html
Atlantis Kobetek Inc.
1496 Lower Water St.
Halifax, NS / B3J 1R9
Phone: (902)-422-6556 Fax: (902)-423-9339
E-mail: atkobetek@ra.isisnet.com
Atlas Computers & Consulting - Derek Davlut
400 Telstar Avenue Suite 701
Sudbury, ON / P3E 5V7
Phone: (705) 522-1923 Fax: (705) 522-1923
EMail: s2200147@nickel.laurentian.ca
Computer Shop of Calgary, Ltd.
3515 - 18th Street S.W.
Calgary, Alberta T2T 4T9
Ph. 1-403-243-4358 Fx: 1-403-243-2684
Email: austin@canuck.com WWW: http://www.canuck.com/cshop
Computerology Direct
Powell River, BC
V8A-4Z3
Call 24 hrs. orders/inquiries: 604/483-3679
Amiga users ask for HEAD SALES REP for quicker response!
Comspec Communications Inc
74 Wingold Ave
Toronto, Ontario M6B 1P5
Computer Centre: (416) 785-8348 Sales: (416) 785-3553 Fax: 416-785-3668
Internet: bryanf@comcorp.comspec.com, bryanf@accesspt.north.net
ElectroMike Inc.
1375 Boul. Charest Ouest
Quebec, Quebec G1N2E7
Tel: (418) 681-4138, (800) 463-1501 Fax: (418) 681-5880
GfxBase Electronique, Inc
1727 Shevchenko
Montreal, Quebec
Voice: 514-367-2575 Fax: 514-367-5265
BBS: 514-769-0565
National Amiga
Oakville, Ontario
Fax: 905-845-3295 EMail: gscott@interlog.com
WWW: http://www.interlog.com/~gscott/NationalAmiga.html
Oby's Amigo Computing Shop
765 Barrydowne Rd
Sudbury, Ontario P3A-3T6
VOICE/FAX: (705)524-5826
All Amiga Computer Store Since 1990
Randomize Computers
R.R. #2
Tottenham, Ont. L0G 1W0
vox: 905-939-8371 fax: 905-939-8745
email: randomize@interlog.com www: www.interlog.com/~randomize/
Software Supermart
11010 - 101 Street
Edmonton, Alberta T5H-2T1
Voice: (403) 425-0691 Fax: (403) 426-1701
EMail: ssmart@planet.eon.net
SpectrumTech Electronics
412-1205 Fennell Avenue East
Hamilton, ON L8T 1T1
Voice: (905) 388-9575 BBS: (905) 388-2542
E-Mail: ste@spectrum.gryn.org Contact: Derek Clarke
-=UNITED STATES=-
A&D Computer
211 South St.
Milford, NH 03055-3743
Voice/Fax: 603-672-4700 BBS: 603-673-2788
Internet: amiga@mv.mv.com
Alex Electronics
597 Circlewood Dr.
Paradise, CA 95969
Voice: 916-872-0896 BBS: 915-872-3711
EMail: alex@ecst.csuchico.edu WWW: http://www.km-cd.com/~alex/
Amigability Computers
P.O. Box 572
Plantsville, CT 06479
VOICE: 203-276-8175
Internet: caldi@pcnet.com
Amiga-Crossing
PO Box 12A
Cumberland Center, ME 04021
VOICE: (800) 498-3959 (Maine only) VOICE: (207) 829-3959
FAX: (207) 829-3522 Internet: amiga-x@tka.com
Amiga Library Services
610 Alma School Rd, #18
Chandler, Az 85224-3687
Voice: (800) 804-0833 Fax: (602) 491-0048
E-Mail: orders@amigalib.com
Amiga Video Solutions
1568 Randolph Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55105
Voice: 612-698-1175 Fax: 612-224-3823
BBS: 612-698-1918 Net: wohno001@maroon.tc.umn.edu
Applied Multimedia Inc.
89 Northill St.
Stamford, CT 06907
VOICE: (203) 348-0108
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
Computer Advantage
7370 Hickman Road
Des Moines, IA 50322
Voice/Fax: 515-252-6167
Internet: Number1@netins.net
Computer Concepts
18001 Bothell-Everett Hwy, Suite "0"
Bothell, WA 98012
VOICE: (206) 481-3666
Computer Link
6573 middlebelt
Garden City MI 48135
Voice: 313-522-6005 Fax: 313-522-3119
clink@m-net.arbornet.org
The Computer Source
515 Kings Highway East
Fairfield, CT 06432
Voice: (203) 336-3100 Fax: (203) 335-3259
Computers International, Inc.
5415 Hixson Pike
Chattanooga, TN 37343
VOICE: 615-843-0630
Computerwise Computers
3006 North Main
Logan, UT 84322
CyberTech Labs
PO Box 56941
North Pole, Alaska 99705
Vox: (907) 451-3285 BBS1 : (907) 488-2547 BBS2 & Fax: (907) 488-2647
EMail: 71516.600@CompuServe.com Fido: 1:355/17.0
DC Productions
218 Stockbridge Avenue
Kalamazoo, MI 49001
(616)373-1985 (800)9DC-PROD
Email: dcpro!chetw@heifetz.msen.com
Digital Arts
1321 North Walnut
P.O. Box 5206
Bloomington, IN 47807-5206
VOICE: (812)330-0124 FAX: (812)330-0126 BIX: msears
Digital Castle
4046 Hubbell Ave. Suite 155
Des Moines, IA 50317-4434
Voice: (515) 266-5098
EMail: Sheep@netins.net
Electronic Connection
635 Penn Ave
West Reading, PA 19611
Phone: 610-372-1010 Fax: 610-378-0996
HT Electronics
E-Mail: HT Electronics@cup.portal.com BIX: msears
422 S. Hillview Dr. 211 Lathrop Way, Ste. A.
Milipitas, CA 95035 Sacramento, CA 95815
V: (408) 934-7700 V: (916) 925-0900
F: (408) 934-7717 F: (916) 925-2829
Industrial Video, Inc.
1601 North Ridge Rd.
Lorain, OH 44055
VOICE: 800-362-6150, 216-233-4000 Contact: John Gray
Internet: af741@cleveland.freenet.edu
Kipp Visual Systems
360-C Christopher Ave.
Gaithersburg Md, 20878
301-670-7906
kipp@rasputin.umd.edu
The Lively Computer - Tom Lively
8314 Parkway Dr.
La Mesa, CA 91942
Voice: 619-589-9455 Fax: 619-589-5230
Net: tlively@connectnet.com
Magic Page
3043 Luther Street
Winston-Salem, NC 27127
Voice/Fax: 910-785-3695 E-mail: Spiff@ix.netcom.com
Contact: Patrick Smith
MicroSearch
9000 US 59 South, Suite 330
Houston, Texas
VOICE: 713-988-2818 FAX: 713-995-4994
MicroTech Solutions, Inc.
1885 N. Farnsworth Ave.
Suites 6-7-8
Aurora, IL 60505-1162
Voice: 708-851-3033 Fax: 708-851-3825 BBS: 708-851-3929
Email: info@mt-inc.com WWW: http://www.mt-inc.com/
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
OverByte Industries, Inc.
661 Blanding Blvd. Suite 391
Orange Park, FL 32073-5048
Voice: 904-858-3348 E-mail: overbyte@jax.gttw.com
URL: http://www.jkcg.com/Webmaster/Overbyte/index.html
Paxtron Corporation
28 Grove Street
Spring Valley, NY 10977
Voice: 914-576-6522 Orders: 800-815-3241 Fax: 914-624-3239
PSI Animations
17924 SW Pilkington Road
Lake Oswego, OR 97035
VOICE: 503-624-8185
Internet: PSIANIM@agora.rain.com
Raymond Commodore Amiga
795 Raymond Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55114-1521
VOICE: 612.642.9890 FAX: 612.642.9891
Safe Harbor Computers
W226 N900 Eastmound Dr
Waukesha, WI 53186
Orders: 800-544-6599 Fax: 414-548-8130
WWW Catalog: www.sharbor.com
Slipped Disk
31044 John R
Madison Heights, Michigan 48071
Voice: (810) 546-3475
BBS: (810) 399-1292 Fido: 1:120/321.0
Software Plus Chicago
2945 W Peterson Suite 209
Chicago, Illinois
VOICE: 312-878-7800
System Eyes Computer Store
730M Milford Rd Ste 345
Merrimack, NH 03054-4642
Voice: (603) 4244-1188 Fax: (603) 424-3939
EMail: j_sauter@systemeye.ultranet.com
TJ's Unlimited
P.O. Box #354
North Greece, NY 14515-0354
VOICE: 716-225-5810 BBS: 716-225-8631
FIDO: 1:2613/323 INTERNET: neil@rochgte.fidonet.org
Zipperware
76 South Main St.
Seattle, WA 98104
VOICE: 206-223-1107 FAX: 206-223-9395
E-Mail: zipware@nwlink.com WWW: http://www.speakeasy.org/zipperware
Editorial and Opinion
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Editorial and Opinion
===========================================================================
compt.sys.editor.desk New, out, in.
The Magic Wand Or lack thereof
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News Opinion Articles Reviews Charts Adverts
News & Press Releases
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
News & Press Releases
===========================================================================
Amiga Walker Prototype The basic lowdown
Manfred Schmitt Resigns Goodbye.
Helmut Jost Named CEO Hello.
Nova Design Buys Aladdin 4D The render package changes hands
The Death of ACAR Australia is without a publication
New Games Editor For AR Yes!
Surfer Package Demo Hurry!
World Construction Set V2 The new version of the DEM wizard
New Virus Checker Owner VC changes hands...
The World of Amiga Last-minute news on WOA UK
The AGA Experience Vol 2 The new experience
Boulderdash3d To be published by Silltunna
ESC Contact Info Changed A new e-mail address
Wonder Comp. Tender List Might not be too late...
CU Amiga Subscription Offer Geez, these guys charge money.
StormC v1.0 The new development package
Ensemble Verbes v1.7 Learn French conjugation
MetaTool v40.5 MIME reading...
Amiga CDROM Guide v1.5 Keep up with the guide
RoutePlanner v1.6a Mapping tool
sort v1.49 Sort ASCII files
eWorld Shuts Down Apple cuts back...
Off Piste #1 for Sale If you dig this kind of thing
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News Opinion Articles Reviews Charts Adverts
Featured Articles
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Featured Articles
===========================================================================
Scala IRC Conference Another in the series
The $5.00 Clock Fix Not for the faint of heart
Amiga Joker Survey Interesting results...
A TWIN APIW Overview A cross-platform Windowsish API
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News Opinion Articles Reviews Charts Adverts
Reviews
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Reviews
===========================================================================
Blizzard 1260 Accelerator Fast.
Personal Suite CD-ROM A complete set of tools
Shapeshifter 3.4 THE Macintosh emulator
Spreadsheet Faceoff Part 1 Final Calc vs. TurboCalc
The Emulation Rambler 8-bit mania!
The Creative Magic of Ron Thornton Explore space with the master
Zoom FaxModem V.34X Fast, but in a modem sense.
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News Opinion Articles Reviews Charts Adverts
Aminet Charts
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Aminet Charts
===========================================================================
20-Mar-96
01-Apr-96
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News Opinion Articles Reviews Charts Adverts
About AMIGA REPORT
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
About AMIGA REPORT
===========================================================================
AR Staff The Editors and writers
Writing Guidelines What you need to do to write for us
Copyright Information The legal stuff
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News Opinion Articles Reviews Charts Adverts
The Staff
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
The Staff
===========================================================================
Editor: Jason Compton
Assistant Editor: Katherine Nelson
Games Editor: Ken Anderson
Contributing Editor: William Near
Contributing Editor: Addison Laurent
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News Opinion Articles Reviews Charts Adverts
Where to Get AR
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Where to Get AR
===========================================================================
The AR Mailing List
Aminet
World Wide Web
Distribution Sites
Commercial Services
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News Opinion Articles Reviews Charts Adverts
Distribution Sites
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Distribution BBSes
===========================================================================
Arranged by Continent:
Asia
Australia
Europe
North America
South America
Sysops: To have your name added, please send Email with the BBS name,
its location (Country, province/state) your name, any internet/fidonet
addresses, and the phone number of your BBS
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News Opinion Articles Reviews Charts Adverts
Dealer Directory
Table of Contents
===========================================================================
Dealer Directory
===========================================================================
Arranged by Continent:
Asia
Australia
Europe
North America
Dealers: To have your name added, please send Email with the name,
address, phone, and net address (if available) of your establishment.
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News Opinion Articles Reviews Charts Adverts
