September 1993 MAGazine Volume 9 Number 9

The September General Meeting of the Memphis Amiga Group will be held Saturday, September 11 from 1:00 pm until approximately 3:00 pm in the Farris Auditorium on the campus of State Technical Institute at Memphis.

The newsletter is published monthly for distribution to the members of the Memphis Amiga Group. MAGazine contains meetings announcements, hardware and software reviews, video and book reviews, and other information of interest to Amiga and computer users in general. Contributions are welcome and may be submitted in hardcopy or via disk in ascii format at any meeting or you can upload to Operator Headgap BBS - 3/12/24 - (901) 365-1583 or V.32bis hi speed ONLY! (901) 367-0744. Be sure to leave a note to the sysop.

From the President's CLI

by Bob Nunn

RETINA A BUST?

Kelly Boswell from Videospeak gave us a preview of the RETINA Board. You may have seen an ad or an article on this board. It is supposed to give you AGA graphics or better on the 2000 or 3000 systems. It has a workbench workaround that is supposed to allow you to use most any program. It seems likely that they received a defective board. Perhaps we will see this one again when the manufacturer works out the software bugs or if Videospeak gets a replacement board that works. It did an amazing job on what we could see of it. It always impresses me to see 24 bit graphics, I just wish it didn't have the hash in it and perhaps the hardware was bad. This may be an affordable solution for the older machines to keep up. I thought Kelly did a good job showing off this obviously flawed system. Thanks to David Spence of Videospeak for an early view of this product!

MORE GREAT UTILITIES!

Kevin Browne (Merlin) came up with another winning group of utilities for this month. If you didn't get this disk you need to. I can't tell you how much a little collection like this is worth. Many of the jobs that you perform on the Amiga require a level of skill I personally have not developed. Programs like these make using your Amiga a joy. Bill Bowers did a great job as usual with a great selection of games, utilities, and Starship 5 minute reports and we had a new Music Program Demo disk this month as well.

NEW NEWSLETTER EDITOR.

Trevor Thrasher has asked for us to find another newsletter editor since he is moving and will no longer be able to continue. Trevor will be moving to the Nashville area to work and return to school. Thanks Trevor for putting in all the hard work and for doing a fine job for the last eight months or more on the newsletter for us. We wish you the best of luck.

We asked for help at the meeting and Charles Williams volunteered and has been temporarily assigned the responsibilities. After our next board meeting we will likely make it official. We will be discussing this and if you have an interest please stop by the next board meeting. We meet the second Saturday (Sept. 11th) same day as the regular meeting but at 11:00 at Gridleys near the State Tech Campus. Member and their guests are always welcome. We need your input!

GRAPHICS CONTEST!

Shelley Franklin had the top entry! She will be receiving her award this next meeting. We will showing off her entries.

HAMFEST IN OCTOBER!

Each year the Memphis Ham Radio Operators get together and put on a show. It is usually the second weekend, so it should be on October 9th & 10th in the Shelby Place Arena. It will conflict with our meeting. We will have more details at the next meeting.

While you might think that this has nothing to do with Amiga computing, you would be amazed at the equipment and software available at this show. Granted there may not be much if any Amiga specific equipment or software. You will find lots of selection on DOS and MAC shareware & CD ROMS. I always pick up a few things that I run with AMAX or PC TASK on the Amiga.

There are usually bargains on hardware items such as hard drives, memory and computer accessories like cables, switchboxes, surge protectors and all sorts of electronic gizmos. I usually pick up small items like fuses, switches, tools, solder, etc. which come in handy if you work on your equiment any.

This year we are planning on staffing a booth for the Memphis Amiga Group! We will have a table next to the Memphis Commodore Users Club. Let us know if you would be willing to spend some time staffing the booth. This is an excellent opportunity to meet new people, make new friends, and show your enthusiasm for the Amiga and MAG. You don't need to be an expert; our purpose there is to let people know about MAG, get exposure, and add more members to the club!

MIDWEST GATEWAY COMPUTER SHOW IN OCTOBER!

At our last meeting we announced that some of us were planning to attend this upcoming show in St. Louis on Saturday, October 23, from 11:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. at Machinist Hall in Bridgeton, MO. (See the Gateway Show article for more information).

DOOR PRIZE AT THE NEXT MEETING!

Charles Williams donated a couple of items to the club. At the next meeting we will be giving away a Brand New PC XT Bridgeboard w/5-1/4 DOS drive. If you have a card slot available be at the next meeting to get a ticket. The drawing will be held at the end of the meeting and you must be an active member and present to win.

HAVING TROUBLE WITH OPERATOR HEADGAP BBS?

If you are, give me a call at 795-0461 between 6 pm - 10 pm. My wife Cheryn or I will be happy to walk you through the new application process or help you with any area of difficulties for you. This new system has many more options, and that in itself can be confusing. I am still learning as well, and that is what this is all about, isn't? Call OPERATOR HEADGAP BBS! Now Over 1/2 Gigabyte of Online Storage! 901-365-1583 3/12/2400 baud or 2400 and above only 901-367-0744 v32bis.

MAG Meetings

The Memphis Amiga Group (MAG) holds general meetings the second Saturday of each month in the Farris Auditorium on the campus of State Technical Institute at Memphis (see map at left).

There will be a board of directors lunch meeting at Gridley's in the formal dining room beginning at 11:00 A.M., Saturday, September 11 (before the general meeting). For more information call Bob Nunn at 901-795-0461.

Memphis Amiga Group Officers for 1993

President
Bob Nunn
(901) 795-0461 voice

Vice President
Cheryn Nunn
(901) 365-1583 data

Treasurer
Terry Campbell
(601) 393-4864

Librarian
Bill Bowers
(901) 360-0003

MAGazine Editor
Charles Williams
(501) 655-8777

MAGazine Printing & Distribution
Terry A. Campbell
(601) 393-4864

Disk Sales & Video Rentals

MAG library and Fred FISH disks are $2 each.
($5 each for non-members)
Quality blank disks with labels are 65¢ each.
($1 each for non-members)
Rental of Amiga related videotapes is $3 per week.
(not available to non-members)
For all this and more contact club librarian
Bill Bowers (901) 360-0003
OR see Bill at the next MAG general meeting.

Advertising Rates

(contact Terry Campbell at 601-393-4864)

INFO

The Memphis Amiga Group (MAG) is a non-profit organization whose purpose is promoting and encourageing the use and understanding of the Commodore Amiga Computer. Memberships are open to all those who share a common interest in the Amiga computer and its many wonderful and unique features. Monthly meetings are open to the public and visitors are welcome.

Annual membership dues for new members are $25.00 with an annual renewal rate of $20.00. Associate memberships are available for $15.00 per year, renewable at the same rate, to those who must travel more than 45 miles one way to attend the general meetings. All memberships are family memberships and dues are nonrefundable.

Midwest Gateway Computer Show Set for October

Bridgeton, MO -- June 21, 1993. This fall something exciting is happening in St. Louis. On October 23, the "Gateway Computer Show" will open. This is the first major Amiga computer show in the Midwest for many years. It is sponsored by the Gateway Amiga Club, Inc., with the support of Soft-Logik Publishing Corporation. This show is designed to satisfy the hungry appetites of the many computer users in the Midwest. These folks are looking for solutions in Video, Desktop Publishing, Art, Animation, Music, Multitasking, Multiprocessing and more. They will find solutions and software for the "Creative Computer," the Amiga, on October 23, from 11:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. at Machinist Hall in Bridgeton, MO (just outside St. Louis).

We received a packet of information from the Gateway Amiga Club in Bridgeton. Tickets will be $4 in advance through Memphis Amiga Group, or $5 at the door. They will have door prizes, special speakers, a mini-theater and lots of items to buy. They are working on getting as many Amiga product vendors there as possible.

The Gateway Amiga Group has arranged through Best Way Travel for some special airfare and hotel/motel rates. Bob Scharp, chairman of the Gateway Computer Show said they had gotten $35 rates at a motel across the street from the hall, and $45 at a Holiday Inn close by. I don't know if these rates are single or what. We'll have better information for the meeting in September.

The club up there has gone to great lengths to make everything affordable, not only for people attending but for vendors as well. They have kept prices very reasonable so this may be one of the best Amiga shows ever!!

This will be an excellent opportunity to see some new Amiga products displayed, as well as get a chance to meet other users from around the country. Bob and I always make new friends at these shows and eagerly look forward to this one.

Watch for more information in the October newsletter and don't miss the September and October meetings for the latest information!

For even more information, contact: MAG President Bob Nunn at 901-795-0461.

Brilliance: two views

Brian and Ken look at the latest paint program from Digital Creations

by Brian Akey

This is a new paint program that most people have been hearing about for months. This first version is strong with all the features that most people will ever need. It can do animation and high quality painting in any amiga video mode. It will also allow you to work in 24bit while on a 500 or 2000 provided you have enough memory. I tried this out first hand by taking my program and the dongle (yeah it has one that goes on the joystick port) to a toaster system built on a 2000.

Your screen is in ham6 but brillance keeps up with the 24bit. After finding out that you have to load and save a brillance 24bit iff in adpro or some other 24bit program before loading it into toaster paint everything looked great. It is a great program for toaster people. It has very good smooth and smear tools. It has a memory limited undo. So if you make three mistakes you can go back. I like the program so far and I feel that it is faster and more refined than the other paint programs, except maybe Opalpaint. It is still buggy and it has crashed on me a few times. With a bug fix it should be the paint program for the amiga.

by Ken Winfield

Brilliance, the highly review and advertised paint program from Digital Creations finally shipped a couple of weeks ago. Whether it was worth the wait or not is still not clear (at least to me anyway).

Instead of a plain review I feel the best way to review this software is to compare it feature by feature to the old faithful Deluxe Paint from Electronic Arts. I will attempt to show direct comparison when possible and when not I will venture my opinion on that feature.

Comparison of Deluxe Paint 4 aga (Electronic Arts) and Brilliance (Digital Creations).

Interface.

In my opinion Dpaint definitely wins this category. Dpaint use pulldown menus and Brilliance does not, I know that pull-down menus are a matter of personal preference in a paint program. Pull-down menus give you access to features without cluttering the screen with buttons. In Brilliance, to perform certain actions may require 3 or 4 sub menus. Both programs use an intuitive interface that, at least, follows logical paths to perform actions.

Speed.

In overall speed Brilliance out paces Dpaint in most (but not all) categories. Below you will find listed some direct comparisions between the 2 programs performing the same task with the same IFF file on an Amiga 4000/040.

Screen Settings.

Both programs have very easy to use screen prefs menus. However Brilliance being 2 separate programs (one for HAM and one for all others) makes it quite difficult to move from one mode to another. Brilliance does however allow you to load (not save) DCTV pictures, a nice feature.

Screen Buffers.

No doubt Brilliance wins this category with multiple Screen Buffers allowing you to open as many spare screens as you memory will allow, whereas Dpaint allows only one spare screen. Also Brilliance has the addition capability of opening multiple animations, a big improvement over Dpaint.

Undos.

Again this is a strong point for Brilliance supporting multiple undos or even redos and far as your adjustable undo buffer will support.

Memory.

Dpaint is certainly a more memory efficient program. I have had Brilliance use as much as 7 Megs of memory (not including the animation I was working with). Of course the more features the more memory a program requires.

Installation.

Both programs installed very easily; both ask your serial number when installing.

Copy Protection.

Dpaint wins big on copy protection by only asking that you enter your serial number the first time you use the program and that's it. Brilliance asks for your serial number and requires a serial number encoded doggle to run on your computer.

If you wish to run Brilliance on another computer you must remove the doggle from the host machine and move it to the new system.

The doggle plugs into the joystick port and does not have a pass through which means no multitasking with Real 3-D (another program that uses dongle protection).

Loading Files.

Both programs will load any AGA or regular Amiga modes (assuming you are running the correct version of Brilliance).

Brilliance has the added ability to load DCTV pictures and convert them to HAM8.

Palette Control.

Both programs are very strong in this area, however I feel that the Brilliance palette control give you easier control to find a individual color.

Tools.

Brilliance does have a few tools that Dpaint does not, such as a bezier curve and a much more powerful air brush.

Fills.

I feel that Dpaint,s Fill menu is much easier to use, but it is no move powerful than Brilliance in this area.

Text.

Dpaint is far ahead in this area, Brilliance uses a requester than only support one line of text at a time. This is quite annoying when you wish to use multiple lines of text.

Brushes.

Brilliance give you much more power while working with brushes and anim-brushes, you can store up to eight brushes in "buffers" and use them on any of your screen buffers.

Summary.

Brilliance having a few more features and more speed (although it is still far from fast) would most likely be the choice of most professionals. Brilliance seemed to me to be quiet buggy, sometimes graphics appear where there are suppose to be none, and buttons take several clicks to get them to perform their tasks.

I had a problem working with 24 bit IFF to and from Imagine (Maybe all 24 bit files I am not sure) and a specially bothersome animation loading bug. When loading an animation, the file request fills almost the entire screen so you cannot tell where or what you are loading until it is finished (which another bug may never let it finish, forcing a reboot). The main nuisance to me is the hardware dongle and having to boot two separate programs for regular IFFmodes and HAM modes.

If you are a heavy user of paint programs I would suggest Brilliance, however if you are a casual user and already own Dpaint I would think twice before purchasing Brilliance.

Board Meeting Minutes

August 14, 1993.

The meeting was called to order at 12:00 pm by Bob Nunn, President. Also present were Cheryn Nunn, Terry Campbell, Bill Bowers, and Charles Williams.

Trevor Thrasher, the present newsletter editor, has let the board know he will be moving this fall and will be unable to continue functioning as the editor. The board members discussed possible volunteer replacements and an announcement will be made at the general meeting concerning this vacancy.

Ham Fest will be held the second weekend in October. Discussion was held about renting a table and the show for increased exposure for the club. Details concerning costs, time, place etc. will be gathered. Traditionally, the cost is low enough to make the opportunity attractive without incurring excessive expenses.

The board discussed the problem of manning a table during the meeting. Volunteers will be sought to fell in for that time.

The Gateway Computer Show is coming up in October in St Louis, MO. Watch the newsletters for more details. The meeting was adjourned at 12:30.

Respectfully submitted, Cheryn Nunn, Vice President.

Franklin takes honors in MAG art contest

Long-time member Shelley Franklin claimed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places in the 2D Stills division of the Memphis Amiga Group's recent Animation Contest. There were no entries submitted in any of the other three categories of 3D animation, 2D animation, and 3D stills.

Shelley's "paintings" were converted to black and white bitmaps for inclusion in the MAGazine from her original CDTV format.

Come to the September 11 general meeting to see them in color. They lose something in the translation to print, especially the colors and spect ratios.

[Photo: TOP: Massada Tiled 2, LEFT: A Viewing, ABOVE: Massada Tiled.]

Super Denise Chip

Why would you want one?

By Bob Nunn

For slightly less than $30, Amiga 500 & 2000 owners can perform a simple and quick upgrade to their systems. The Super Denise Chip is the chip that handles your display and is a plug in replacement for the older Denise chip. Is it worth doing though is another question altogether.

This information was taken from Operator Headgap BBS's Board Area (Hard Parts Sub-Board) and edited to save space. I certainly learned something and hope you will as well.

subj: Super Denise
from: Operator Headgap (Bob Nunn).

I had a Denise Chip go out on my Amiga 2000 so for a few dollars more I went ahead and bought the Super Denise Chip. I didn't notice much when I rebooted but you have added two neat screen modes and the SYSINFO program say I picked up 2 dhrystones in speed?

The two screen modes seem less that useful, unless you like looking at really tiny type that flashes or type that has been squashed sideways so think that it's hard to read. I loaded Directory Opus and it takes advantage, giving you much more menu to read.

What if any other Super Denise benefits?? Anybody play with it much???

from: Merlin
to: Operator Headgap (Bob Nunn).

Well, if you get a VGA or Multisync monitor, and you have Workbench 2.0 or greater, you can ran a 31 khz flicker free screen mode called Productivity mode.

Basically, it's like running in hires-interlaced, but without flicker. You are limited to 4-colors, though, but it's nice if you don't want to spend the money for a flicker fixer, and you like the hires modes. Most newer productivity software will use the mode as well. Opus and Term are a couple of examples. Other programs can be forced to open a Productivity screen using a screen promotion utility.

from: Belial.

You also get SuperHires. I think you can also get 1280x960 interlaced screens on a VGA monitor, or stick to SuperHires Productivity mode which is 1280x480.

The main benefit for these resolutions considering their lack of color (4 max.) would be for WYSIWYG processors or DTP software. Whenever I use Pagestream, I would set Workbench up for a virtual screen of 1280 x 960. It sure would make things nice to be able to see all of that rather than having to scroll around a 4 page display. I can also see the possibility of using really NICE looking fonts with term programs, and still get 80 columns of text.

from: Merlin
to: Belial.

I think you're confusing the SuperHires modes and the Productivity modes. Actually, there is no SuperHires Productivity mode. The available screen modes and Max. resolutions are (listed in the box at the bottom of the page).

These are just the ones for the NTSC and MULTISCAN monitor types. These are straight off my A3000 running Workbench 3.1, so they might very, but only slightly. The A3000 has the same regular Super Denise.

I wish there really was a 1280 x 480 mode...believe me, I'd be using it! :-) Workbench 3.1 also has an 800 x 600 mode (912 x 612 w/overscan) which is called SUPER 72: Super-High Res Laced, but it's a 24 khz mode which means you need a Multisync monitor, plus it's interlaced. Flicker, aarrrggg! But, it's not too bad 'cause the screen refresh is 72 hz versus 60 hz for most other modes.

The AGA versions are the same, just with 256 colors. Oh well, maybe when AAA comes out.

from: Belial

Well, I recall using an A3000 at Dave Spance's store in Collierville.. I am certain that the Super Denise supports a 1280x960 display. This obviously would not be a productivity mode. Also, I know there is no Super Hires productivity mode. Since the productivity mode works IN SuperHires and somehow uses this to achieve its flicker free display. I recall reading this in one issue of Amiga World. As for AGA, those chips are FULLY programmable. So, any resolution (up to the Max./min.) should be possible.

from: Merlin
to: Belial

Yeah, but Amiga World has been wrong about screen resolutions quite a few times, especially with AGA chipset. I have never heard anything at all about productivity mode 'working' in SuperHires mode. They are totally different modes altogether. SuperHires is a 15 khz that can be displayed on a 1084-type monitor...and is really tailored for video. Productivity mode is a 31 khz mode that can ONLY be displayed on a VGA or Multisync monitor, and is really ment for use with productivity software, such as DTP, because of the flicker-free output. Hence the name.

I talk to Dave Haynie on Internet quite often; he's one of Commodore's hardware engineers. I'll ask him about the 1280 x 960 mode, but I'm sure you're confusing the two modes. Concerning AGA programmability, I know, but there are more factors than just the screen resolution, such as the vertical scan rate and the screen refresh rate.

An example would be the EURO: 72 Hz Productivity mode. It is just like the MULTISCAN: Productivity mode, but has a screen refresh of 72 hz instead of 60 hz. Therefore, is suffers a slight resolution loss. Instead of being 656 x 480, it is 656 x 400. True, the AGA chipset has programmable resolutions, but it does have limitations too. A 1440 x 482, 31 khz, 72 hz screen mode is impossible with AGA, unfortunately.

Commodore's CD32

West Chester, PA, August 13, 1993). Commodore Business Machines today announced the introduction of the Amiga CD32 to be held at the World of Commodore Amiga show in Pasadena, California on September 10, 1993. The new Amiga CD32, a 32,bit game console with a double-speed CD-ROM drive, is based on the very successful Advanced Graphic Architecture TM chip set. It can display and animate graphics in 256,000 colors to create realistic, 3D graphics and animations for games and video applications.

Similar in appearance to other type of game consoles, the Amiga CD32 includes a hand-held, 11 button game controller and connectors for standard Amiga mouse, joystick and keyboard. The Amiga CD32 is easily connected to a TV set, composite monitor or SVHS video monitor.

The Amiga CD32 provides users with access to many existing CDTV game and reference titles. Psygnosis, Ocean, Acclaim, Virgin Games and other notable game developers are introducing new games for the Amiga CD32. About 30 games are expected to be available by October, 1993.

An optional MPEG module allows software developers to incorporate video, movie segments and TV-like backgrounds into their applications. This technology provides game enthusiasts with a new class of action packed games that include CD-quality sound. The Amiga CD32 plays VideoCD industry standard full-motion music videos and movies as well as standard audio CDs and CD+G discs.

Price for the Amiga CD32 wil be competitive with the price of 16-bit systems.

MEMPHIS AMIGA GROUP MEMBERS SEPTEMBER 1993

If your name is underlined check your renewal date

If you have a change of address or phone, please notify;
Terry Campbell (601) 393-4864

Financial Report of the Memphis Amiga Group August, 1993

* - Bank Statement not received before printing.

MAG Membership Chart for 1993

Hi Gang! Thought you might like to take a quick look at how the club membership is going this year. Looks pretty bleak don't it. Our club membership has dropped off substantially since the first of the year. I personally am proud of our club and what it has done for me. We, as a group need to get a little more active in the recruiting of new members. The Ham-Fest coming up is one way to get more visible to the public and potential members, and there are probably more events like this that we could be a part of. If you have any ideas on how we could increase our gang give me a call or contact one of the other officers.

Terry Campbell

YOU COULD OWN THIS BOX

If you have an old computer, old car, old lady, er. No! No! --- anything you need to get rid of. You can get this box, or one like it, for your very own. All you have to do is give your editor a call and tell him what you would like to advertise here.

Call Charles 501-655-8777

Welcome To The Gang!!

Rick Comby

This is our newest member. So let's all make him welcome!