@database "ar312.guide" @Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #3.12 -- June 18, 1995" @{" Turn the Page " link MENU} _ ____ ___ ______ _______ _ d# ####b g#00 `N##0" _agN#0P0N# d# d## jN## j##F J## _dN0" " d## .#]## _P ##L jN##F ### g#0" .#]## dE_j## # 0## jF ##F j##F j##' ______ dE_j## .0"""N## d" ##L0 ##F 0## 0## "9##F" .0"""5## .dF' ]## jF ##0 ##F ##F `##k d## .dF' j## .g#_ _j##___g#__ ]N _j##L_ _d##L_ `#Nh___g#N' .g#_ _j##__ """"" """"""""""" " """""" """""" """"""" """"" """""" ###### ###### ###### ###### ###### ######## TM ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ### ###### ## ###### ## ### ## "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!" Copyright 1995 FS Publications All Rights Reserved // =====================================//==================================== == June 18, 1995 \\// Issue No. 3.12 == =========================================================================== @endnode @node MENU "Amiga Report Main Menu" @toc MAIN =========================================================================== == Main Menu == ========================================================================== @{" Editorial and Opinion " link OPINION} @{" Featured Articles " link FEATURE} @{" Reviews " link REVIEW} @{" News & Press Releases " link NEWS} @{" FTP Announcements " link FTP} @{" Reader Mail " link MAIL} --------------------------------- @{" About AMIGA REPORT " link ABOUT} Contact Information and Copyrights @{" Where to Get AR " link WHERE} @{" Advertisements " link COMMERCIAL} Mailing List & Distribution Sites Online Services, Dealers, Ordering ______________________________________________ // | | // ========//====| Amiga Report International Online Magazine |======//===== == \\// | Issue No. 3.12 June 18, 1995 | \\// == ==============| "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!" |============= |______________________________________________| @endnode =========================================================================== == The Amiga Report Staff == =========================================================================== @node JASON "Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== == EDITOR == =========================================================================== Jason Compton ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internet Address -------- ------- jcompton@shell.portal.com 1203 Alexander Ave jcompton@xnet.com Streamwood, IL 60107-3003 USA Fax Phone --- ----- 708/741-0689 708/289-7047 @endnode @node KATIE "Assistant Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== == ASSISTANT EDITOR == =========================================================================== Katherine Nelson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internet -------- Kati@cup.portal.com @endnode @node ROBERT "Senior Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== == SENIOR EDITOR == =========================================================================== Robert Niles ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internet Address -------- ------- rniles@Wolfe.NET 506 W. Orchard Selah, WA 98942 FidoNet Fax ------- --- 1:3407/103 509/697-5064 @endnode @node SEAN "Games Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== == GAMES EDITOR == =========================================================================== Sean Caszatt ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internet -------- Sean.Caszatt@f512.n2601.z1.fidonet.org @endnode @node WILLIAM "Contributing Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== == CONTRIBUTING EDITOR == =========================================================================== William Near ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internet -------- wnear@epix.net @endnode @node EDITORIAL "compt.sys.editor.desk" @toc OPINION =========================================================================== == compt.sys.editor.desk By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} == =========================================================================== I've been learning a lot of things in the last few weeks. One is that it was pretty nice not rushing to make an exact 2-week deadline for this issue...it was some much-needed rest. Still, I feel like I've been just as busy... So busy, in fact, that I wasn't able to actually finish any reviews for this issue. Strike that up as a learning experience, too. I suppose that just means I'll have to have twice as many next issue. I've been learning lately that perhaps I should do like everyone else does and CHARGE MONEY for all these "open letters" I keep getting. You have to admit, there does seem to be a market for them. :) I've learned that maybe there is some name value in Amiga Report after all. I've been invited to speak at AmiJAM'95 in Calgary, in the company of such giants as Dale Larson, Dave Haynie, and Fred Fish. So, if you're bored in mid July, come see us. We'll be there. I've also learned, literally just an hour before I wrote this, from an unconfirmed report credited to Dan Stets of the Philadelphia Inquirer that Amiga Technologies will be manufacturing 4000Ts in the US and 1200s in Scotland. I've learned that there's some irony in hype. I just got a press pack from Team17, with their new slogan "100% Gameplay, 0% Bullshit." The information is in a nice red folder with glossy type-much snazzier than anything I've ever received before from Team17. The material talks about an upcoming soccer management game. In the two glossy release sheets, though, only the Mac and Windows are discussed. In the photocopied press release, only the Mac and Windows are discussed. The only place they admit to having created an Amiga version is on the second page of their faq on the product, another included insert. I don't know what the fellows at Team17 call this, but I call it bullshit. I honestly can't tell if they really did an Amiga version or not, and their press people haven't been nice enough to return my inquiry. Sigh. Next issue, more reviews, I promise. In the meantime, enjoy the new logo courtesy of Corinna Cohn, the Escom press conference transcripts, and all that news the assistant editor was nice enough to package for you... Jason @endnode @node COMMERCIAL "Commercial Products" @toc MENU =========================================================================== == Commercial Products == =========================================================================== @{" Editor's Choice " link EDITORCHOICE} Jason's picks @{" Commercial Online Services " link ONLINE} Sign-Up Information --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" Opinion " link OPINION} @{" News " link NEWS} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{" Reviews " link REVIEW} @{" Announce " link FTP} @endnode @node MAIL "Reader Mail" @toc MENU =========================================================================== == Reader Mail == =========================================================================== Date: Tue, 23 May 1995 06:53:58 -0500 (CDT) From: Chris Hall To: jcompton@shell.portal.com The co-sysop on my BBS had big problems with A&M Computer repair. He wanted me to email this to you so you could put in the AR and warn everyone about this company. --- subj: AR letter to jcompton@shell.portal.com from: Chris Foster on : Sun 21-May-1995 1:52p Dear Jason, I am writing you and your staff to tell you what a great job you do informing the Amiga community about news and new products for the Amiga. You have continued to do a great job and I will continue to read your magazine (Who could ask for a better magazine for the price.) :) The other reason I am writing you is the concern I have with a company in which I feel needs the attention of the Amiga community. In February of this year, I sent my Commodore 1960 multiscan monitor to be repaired to A&M Computer Repair Service. Before I sent it I called their office and spoke with someone and told him what problems I was having with the monitor. The computer screen had collapsed into a single vertical band down the center and was emitting a high pitched whining noise. He told me to send the monitor with $85.00 + $12.00 shipping (money order). Another person in their office told me that someone would call me as soon as they received the monitor. I allowed 6-7 working days for UPS to deliver it to them. Approximately 10-14 days later, I called A&M back to see if they received my monitor and money order. I spoke with another person and she said that they received the monitor the day before, but that there was not a money order enclosed with the monitor. She then told me that it would cost $168.95 to have it repaired. Obviously, whoever received the package just took out the packing material and threw it in the trash without checking the contents of the box. I then had to spend $5.00 to get a refund on my money order and wait 3 weeks for it to be mailed back to me. I called A&M back and told them to repair my monitor and send it back to me C.O.D. When I received my monitor back, there was only a shipping label attached and when I opened the box, there was not a copy of my invoice or any type of packing slip. I hooked the monitor back up to my computer and noticed that the PAL/NTSC screen modes weren't being displayed correctly. On the far right of the screen pixels were squeezed tightly together and pixels in the center of the screen appeared enlarged. All other video modes were normal. I also noticed that the case on the front of the monitor had been scratched as though someone had set it face down on a workbench and dragged or slid across a rough surface. I immediately called A&M back and told them what the monitor was doing and that I hadn't received a copy of the invoice. He told me to send it back and they would fix it and there wouldn't be any charge for the repair, and that someone would call me when they received the monitor. Well, sending the monitor costs approximately $15 (insured) and I was not able to send it for another week or so. I did not use the monitor except to only demonstrate what the PAL/NTSC modes were doing when the picture suddenly collapsed into a single vertical bar and emitted the high pitched whining noise (what I had sent it to them for in the first place.) I packed my monitor back up and shipped it back to A&M and waited two weeks before I finally had to call them again and ask if they had received my monitor and given any diagnosis. I called numerous times wanting to speak to the owner and each time I was told to leave my name and number and he would get back with me. I never once was called by anyone at A&M Repair Service in regards to this matter. I had to initiate all communications with them. I finally got to talk to the owner and he said that he would look at the monitor and call me back. Still no call back to me. I called repeatedly and asked to speak to the owner (who I later found out was also the technician that was doing the repair work) and was told that he wasn't in. I was informed that a circuit board on the monitor had a hole burned into it and that there was nothing they could/would do about it. I asked to be refunded and they refused to refund any money due to terms that they did not authorize me to have any repair work done on it other than by them. I simply stated in a letter I sent with the monitor the second time that I had a friend/technician LOOK at the monitor, and they are taking that to mean that I had work done to it. I did not take it to a repair shop, I had a friend (who is also a technician) come look at it, not disassemble it, when it blew out on me the second time. He said that he couldn't work on it because he couldn't get parts for the monitor since the Amiga market is in the position that it is in right now. I am still trying to get a refund of $168.95 that I paid to have it repaired. I spoke with someone at A&M Repair Service but they refuse to refund my money. I have since then received my monitor back with just a note written in pencil on the back of the case that says "burnt hole in board". Well, I took the cover off of the monitor just to look around and see where this hole was and if I could maybe get it repaired somehow. The hole is about 1/4" in diameter and the component that used to be there is missing. I also noticed that the RF shield was missing. After some studying of the circuit board I started to just put the whole thing back together when I noticed that there were some spare parts from somebody elses monitor floating around inside my monitor. The rubber feet that are on the bottom of monitors and screws that also attach the bottom cover of the monitor were loose, rattling around my monitor. I believe that this could've caused the monitor to have shorted out and caused the arcing that burnt the hole in the circuit board. I feel I have no choice but to bring this matter to the public eye and let you come to your own conclusion. I feel that I've been ripped off royally and believe that I deserve my money back since they did not fix my monitor.I have gotten absolutely nowhere with this company. It is really sad to pay $170 dollars for repair service and end up with a dead monitor. You may edit/revise this letter as you wish, but please post it for me and for others who may have defective Amiga equipment so that they won't make the same mistake I did. This is a warning to fellow Amigans to get a reliable company to work on their computer equipment. Thank you. Chris Foster Dark Horizon BBS 903-832-6214 --- --- --- --- --- From PUTYTHECAT@delphi.com Sat May 27 21:05:34 1995 Date: Sun, 28 May 1995 00:06:11 -0400 (EDT) Dear Jason, I have read a lot of UseNet posts recently concerning the whereabouts of Stefan Boberg, the author of the LHA archiver. Apparently several people (close to 10 by my count) have sent in their registration fees, but they never received the registered version of LHA or any word back from him. Several others, myself included, have wanted to send in for the registered version, but the address listed in the documentation is four years old and half way across the planet. I know I'm not about to send out money till I confirm the address - especially in light of the recent messages I've read. My question to you is: Do you know the whereabouts of Stefan Boberg or at least his current address? One of the posts said they heard Stefan has recently joined the programming group "Team 17". All EMail messages to them though have gone unanswered. If you don't know his whereabouts, would you at least consider including this letter in the next issue of AR so he or someone else who knows his whereabouts might read it? HEY STEFAN, PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SEND YOU MONEY!!! THE LEAST YOU COULD DO IS MAKE IT EASY FOR THEM!!! - Anyone? --- --- --- --- --- From: Bill Silvey To: jcompton@xnet.com Subject: ...PANTS? (letter to editor) Jason- After reading the latest word from Escom, I'm inclined to think of the episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000* in which Joel gave all of the 'bots neat presents. Tom got a hot-rod go-cart, Gypsy got a bath playset, and Crow got ... PANTS. Well, that's what U.S. Amiga users got handed this week. Pants. In other words, all of the good news was just that -- if you happened to live in Europe. Or be one of the 10000 people in the US or Canada who can afford one of the 10000 A4000T's Escom is so /GENEROUSLY/ sending across the sea. So here we sit. European Amiga users get the neat toys and we get... nothing. Not a damn thing. Ten thousand A4000t's are an excuse for Escom to say "Look. Amigas don't sell worth a damn in North America. Let's not even think about that market any more." Why? Who in the hell will be able (willing) to pay for an A4000T? NewTek? Not hardly. They jumped ship a month ago. Die-hard Amiga users? OK. There's 10000. That's not even the beginning of a thought of an idea about doing something that might create an indication of a ripple in the computer market here. This isn't an "It's not made here Alex should have won" rant...lots of great things come out of Europe. But how "fair" is it to NA Amiga users to be completely ignored by Escom? It isn't. And I guess now that NA stands for "Not Applicable" now. And set-top boxes, you say? Great. We got a shirt with our pants. *ObAmiga: They use(d?) Video Toasters extensively in the "BestBrains" labs. Anyone who leaves the platform, at least here, can't be accused of "abandoning" the Amiga. It's abandoned us. Sadly, Bill Silvey (wsilvey@oo.com) --- --- --- --- --- I was reading AR 3.09 today (I don't have a modem etc., but friends generally send me AR) and I thought I'd just add a coupla things to the letter about UK Amiga mags:- 1. Amiga Pro had gone to the wall 2. The best mag of all wasn't included-namely, JAM (Just Amiga Monthly), probably because it's a subscription-only magazine not a fancy glossy job! Glad Escom are gonna restart production of A600s (assuming of course that they actually do what they say they're gonna do...) it really is an underrated little machine-graphically disadvantaged though it may be :-( - it's a great "first-timer's" computer. If I'd had to start out on an A1200, never having touched a computer before, I'd have been put right off, instead of hooked for life. ;-) Anyway, thanx to you and AR for keeping the Amiga community in touch with what's been happening over the past rather traumatic year or so. Jen Allen Sussex, England @endnode @node OPINION1 "Finnish Amiga Market" @toc OPINION =========================================================================== A Very Worried Look - ESCOM Saves Finnish Amiga Market? Jukka Kauppinen jkauppin@muikku.jmp.fi =========================================================================== For years, Finland has been a neglected market area for C= products. Since the official, big and good THOUGH expensive, C= representative PCI-Data backrupted (because gray imports), Finnish C= Spokesmans have been many in their numbers, and ALWAYS very ignorant what they represent and attempt to sell. After PCI-Data we had A Commodore Finland, for very short time. After their demise Finland was given to Toptronics, who were very unsuccessful and, as can be doubted, unwilling to promote the Amiga in any way. During Toptronics "good times" a company called "Man & Man" also was promoted to official C= Importer status, and while they had the will, they lacked the financial muscle to do what they wanted. Even worse, the MORE official C= representative Toptronics prevented every effort by other companies to advertise the Amiga, because "the other companies would make money with the reputation TOPTRONICS (HAH!) built for Amiga-name". Sometime 1991-1992 even they were dropped out of C= representative position, and a ghostly kind of C= office was opened in Finland. Office, really, since it consisted of ONE man, who first though Amiga is a IBM PC-clone brand. TRUE! He was very ignorant, and never really knew anything about the Amiga. Some Finnish Amiga dealers even demoed the machine to him to show what Amiga is about and what it can do. He never learned though. Very much credit can be given to this man of Amiga's fast demise in Finland. He was very successfull in giving hard time to all Finnish Amiga dealers - aal machines HAD to be ordered trough him, and he couln't deliver them, other than very late and just fraction of machines ordered. He had no knowledge, no technical specs, no information of anything at all. He could not support the dealers, couln't advertise at all, or give C= backing on Amiga advertising campaigns in Finland. The only Amiga AD campaign we've had in the '90s was 1993, when Man & Man SOMEHOW got a 50% C= backing, and decided then to double their own part so the campaign was 150% of the original size. They managed to sell more Amigas in the worst time of year than in any previous year's BEST time. But it wasn't that long campaign, and the financial support never came back. All Amiga dealers and most users with knowledge of the "inner happening" in Finnish Amiga market are, as far as I know, in same opinion that THIS ONE MAN has been mostly responsible with Amiga's problems in Finland. So when C= busted, this guy went over, and started to sell cars and furnitures. Great. He's gone. What next? Year passed. We got ESCOM. ESCOM makes press release for Finnish mags, and it looks good. Wow! They have Scandinavian HQ, and an office in Finland. Hey, it's 1990 when we've had DIRECT contact, a real office, of our Amiga-manufacturer's. Maybe we finally get some decent support, tech knowledge etc? Maybe NOW our dealers get help when they need to... Or so I thought... The POINT IS, that ESCOM'S COUNTRY MANAGER (FINLAND) is the SAME MAN that has ruined Amiga-market in Finland during whole '90s! SAME MAN! Again, we have Eero Walden, as the head of Finnish Amiga-market. The future doesn't look that bright after all. Say your prayers. Finland is lost, forever. @endnode @node OPINION2 "Amiga User in Jakarta-Indonesia" @toc OPINION =========================================================================== A Portrait Of An Amiga User In Jakarta-Indonesia Edwin Nugroho nunu@server.indo.net.id =========================================================================== (first of all, sorry about my english) I am a recent computer engineering graduate. I am working at my campus's electronic & computer labs, and my campus's video labs. I am also a fanatic amiga user who lives in jakarta indonesia. I am amazed by amiga video and multitasking capability. I think amiga OS is very powerful and efficient. In my city 80 percent of amigas are used for video work. there are 6 - 8 video production alone in my city although here in jakarta, we don't have any dealers. Because we don't have any dealers, we got to order it directly from UK, USA or Singapore, and the price will go up to 1.5 - 3 times than the normal prices. I always encourage people that use computer for video work to use the amiga. I even encourage my lab at my campus to use the amiga. (curently my campus's video labs using amiga 500 & amiga 4000/040 for your information my campuss had to pay US$4000 for amiga 4000 alone, without monitor) Here in Jakarta, amiga are nameless computer. Recently, at computer expo in Jakarta, local apple dealer show to the big screen projector, 'Change Myself' music video from Todd Rundgren (I know it was created using AMIGA) people visit to their stand will think it produced using Apple Computer, So you see, I work very hard to promote amiga, To support amiga here in jakarta, with several of other fanatic amiga user, we even create our own memory boards, sampler boards ( at the moment only for A500), repairing the amiga (without support from anywhere), help to install the 3,5" HD to AMiga 1200, created our own external disk drive using cheap IBM drive and others activity. The 7 - 14 video production (in 3 city in Indonesia) that use amigas, depend on us. We even think in the near future we want to become an amiga dealer. (for video work amigas are still popular, but because it is hard to find especially in indonesia, then people buy IBM or Apple instead) So I hope Escom will make amiga's future brighter than before. My system consist of: Amiga 1200-030/882 50 mhz 10 MB ram, Amiga 2000-EC030/882 40/66 mhz 9 mb ram 2 Amiga 500 2 mb ram & 1 mb ram (i change the oscilator for my A2000) GVP-Glock & Minigen PAL Version DCTV PAL, 1.5 Gbyte of total HD storage @endnode @node OPINION3 "Rising From the Dead" @toc OPINION =========================================================================== RISING FROM THE DEAD Alejandro Kurczyn akurczyn@itesmvf1.rzs.itesm.mx =========================================================================== Finally, the wait is over, and there's light at the end of the tunnel, the Amiga has a new owner, and a new life. In the past days I've read a zillion letters about this, most of them with concern about the future, many more with suggestions and requests for ESCOM, and more in between. But a question keeps poping in my mind: What can we, the regular Amiga users and fans, do to keep our beloved companion alive? And as I ponder that question, I sense an idea lurking on my head: This is a second chance Yes my friends, this is a second chance, and no other PC had one in the past. It's time for us to appreciate our good luck, to behave ourselves and keep our friend alive, to have it in all her glory, show the world her power and have many more fun along the way. How? That's the easy part, just do the right thing. Let's cut that piracy crap, show the makers of software that we too can handle their programs. Some of you are saying "yeah, right" and I can understand you, software is pricey most of the time, even on our cheap plataform, but if money is not enough, there's the PD scene, you can live with it and believe me, you can live well. It's cool to say "Lemmings Tribes was available in the US before official distribution", but what did you obtained from that apart from a few hours of fun? Remember Sierra, Lucas, SAS, and some other makers. It's not only their programs and proffits, those are guys who can attract more developers, and put the money on big development projects and better programs. Support our programmers, and the people who dedicate some hours and days of their lives to us, like magazine editor's ( :-) ), PD organizers, and the like. After all, without them the "dark ages" may were really dark. Remember that each and every dollar/pund/peso/whatever you invest goes directly to your computer, and I mean the one you're using to read this right there on your desk. I hope you get the main idea of this letter as english is not my main language, but remembering a foreign president words: Ask not what the Amiga can do for you, but what you can do for the Amiga. I think it (and we) deserve it, besides, nothing but good times will follow for all of us if we do that. Alejandro Kurczyn Mexico @endnode @node NEWS1 "Air Mail" @toc NEWS TITLE Air Mail - Internet mailer for receiving and send emails. Compatible with POP3/SMTP/ESMTP. VERSION 1.0 AUTHOR Danny Y. Wong 131 64 Ave N.W. Calgary, Alberta T2K 0L9 Canada email: danwong@cadvision.com DESCRIPTION AirMail is a GUI based internet mailer for receiving and sending emails.AirMail is fully Intuitionized unlike other mailers that required hours ofinstallation and many external programs. AirMail includes the following unique features: - Address Book - maintain users and groups - In and Out mail boxes - Speech - Support external editors - File attachment. Include any file with the mail - Automatic uuencode/uudecode using any uu program - Mail queuing. You can use Air Mail as an offline reader/sender - Font sensitive - Arexx port - Easy user interface using icons and menus - No Shell commands Best of all Air Mail is NOT a port. It is totally Amiganized. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS AirMail requires the following. - AmiTCP 4.0 or greater - SLIP/PPP connection and account - Provider must support POP3/SMTP/ESMTP - Any Amiga with Workbench 2 or higher - 1 Meg minmium, recommended 2 Megs of RAM with AmiTCP/IP loaded - Optional UU program for uudecode/uuencode mail if you want to send files. HOST NAME ftp.uni-paderborn.de or any Aminet sites. DIRECTORY pub/aminet/comm/mail FILE NAMES AirMail.lha 97,391 bytes AirMail.readme 1,275 bytes PRICES shareware $20.00 US per copy Add additional $10.00 US for one year of free upgrades Group rates are available DISTRIBUTABILITY AirMail is shareware. The demo version can be distributed freely as long as the entire archive is remained unchanged.Copyright (c)1995 Danny Y. Wong All rights reserved. OTHERS Thanks to Scott Ellis for AmiPOP, Mehmet (Malice) Ali Sahin for the wonderful icons and especially to all the beta testers who have made Air Mail possible. @endnode @node NEWS2 "Photogenics 1.2 Update" @toc NEWS PHOTOGENICS 1.2 UPDATE Almathera is releasing on 15th May its new update of Photogenics. Photogenics 1.2 contains important new features which have been developed with the end-user's wishes in mind. We improved and added tools, options for paintmodes and better support for different file formats. The update from ealier versions to 1.2 is only available from Almathera. Photogenics 1.2 list of new features: Warper tool added: The easy-to-use warper tool allows you to distort, stretch, bend and twirl parts of your image. Printing added: One of the most frequent requests from end-users was to be able to print - Photogenics can now print to any preferences supported printer. Photogenics also supports the STUDIO II colour management system (not included) for true 24-bit colour quality printouts. CyBERgraphics 24-bit painting: Photogenics can now paint in hi-colour (15/16 bit) and true colour (24-bit) directly with any graphics card that supports the CyBERgraphics standard (eg. CyBERvision 64, Picasso II, Retina Z3, etc..). Requires CyBERgraphics drivers (not included) Transparency Gradients added: You can now apply various transparency gradients to rectangles, circles or other shapes you draw and give the direction of your transparency. Crop option added: You can now crop an image to remove unwanted borders etc... We added also for the end-user with non-AGA machines the Ham6.gio/ShowHam6.gio and the 16 Colour preview. Photogenics can now save and display standard Ham (or Ham-6)images as well as being run in a 16 colour preview. Some improvement has been made to the Previews (Photogenics uses high quality dithering to get near 24-bit quality from a 256-colour display) and the Compose mode (You can use other paintmodes inside compose to combine the two images in many different ways). You will also find new Paintmodes (colourise, gamma, mirage, jitter etc...), NewIcon support, New .GIOs (TIFF, PCX, HAM6, RETINA, ProGrab24, etc...) and many other improvements. Photogenics1.2 is better, bigger and heavier with a 150 pages manual. It retails at £59.95 and the upgrade from 1.1a to 1.2 costs only £15.00. You can purchase Photogenics 1.2 direct from Almathera, Southerton House, 92-94 Church Road, Mitcham CR4 3TD. @endnode @node NEWS3 "Ten on Ten" @toc NEWS TEN ON TEN Almathera decided that the dedicated Amiga user deserved a real big goody. For the first time in the Amiga history a complete pack of ten disks will be for sale for the price of £39.95. The Ten pack contains: Three early titles from Almathera CDPDI, CDPDII and DEMOI. PANDORA which contains ClipArt, textures, photo libraries and demos on multimedia application for POS, POI, Education and training: it is a must for any collector of PD. World Vista Atlas - now works on all Amiga CD-ROM - is an interactive atlas with maps, socio-demographic facts and audio track of speeches and music. THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE contains the complete text of all Shakespeare's plays, poems and sonnets. A very useful reference for all students. TEAM YANKEE , the tank game recently re-released on the Amiga, has been included for the fun orientated Amigaist. If you think that is not good enough we have also three new disks that will not be published separately: The PHOTOGENICS 1.2 Demo with a library of picutres to play with. Our own compilation of Clip Art and Fonts. The Networking CD is your only bootable disc and gives you all information you need to get the maximum from your nine other CDs This CD contains comms software and information about WWW, Mosaic, Usenet, the Archie browser, AmiTCP (get on-line software), Netreck the interacive game, the World fact to complete your World Vista Atlas and much more. As with all Almathera products the Ten on Ten pack lives up to the reputation of quality and excellence for which we have become renown world-wide. We don't substitute price for quality. However, this is a limited edition pack, we are producing ONLY 3000 units. You can order your Ten on Ten pack for £39.95 from Almathera, Boundary Business Court, 92-94 Church Road, Mitcham CR4 3TD, telephone 0181-687 0040 @endnode @node NEWS4 "AmiJAM '95" @toc NEWS AmiJAM'95 Press Release Looking for a great Amiga show to attend this year? Try Amijam'95, the largest Amiga show in the Pacific Northwest, to be held on the 15th and 16th of July during the world famous Calgary Stampede. Amijam'95, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), will have speakers, a dealer floor, workshops and seminars. The show hours are 10:00am until 6:00pm on Saturday, and 10:00am until 5:00pm on Sunday. Booked speakers include Dave Haynie, one of the most prominent members of the Amiga development team, Dale Larson of Intangible Assets Manufacturing, developer of Envoy v2 former Commodore engineer and networking guru, and Jason Compton, editor of Amiga Report and emulations expert. At the show are Wonder Computers, Canada's largest Amiga only retail chain, Fred Fish's Amiga Library Services, Oregon Research, The Computer Shop of Calgary and others. Many other developers and retailers will also be present, and possibly a few surprise attendees. Workshops and seminars will cover everything from the NewTek Toaster/Flyer to emulations and programming. Here is a tentative schedule of presenters: Orpheus Theatre Saturday July 15th 10:15 am - Opening address; Welcome to the show 11:00 am - Dave Haynie; Reflections on the Amiga 1:00 pm - Jason Compton; MacIntosh Emulations 2:30 pm - Adita Video; Video Toaster Flyer 4:00 pm - Dale Larson; AmiTCP and the Internet Sunday July 16th 10:00 am - NewTek/LW presentation 11:00 am - Jason Compton; PC Emulations 1:00 pm - [T.B.A.] 2:30 pm - Eye on Video; Video Toaster Flyer 3:30 pm - The Amiga Panel: Dave Haynie, Jason Compton, Dale Larson, Fred Fish Spartacus Seminars Saturday July 15th 11:00 am Dale Larson; Networking with your Amiga 1:00 pm Introductory C Programming with William Graham and Garrett Gallant 2:00 pm Adam's Productivity Applications Hour 3:00 pm Robert Currie; Amiga Graphics 4:00 pm Bryan Ewert; Multimedia and Music Sunday July 16th 10:00 am Dave Haynie; Technical Ins and Outs followed by Dale Schofield's Repair Shop, a how to session. 1:00 pm Advanced Amiga Programming & OOP Systems with William Graham and Garrett Gallant 2:00 pm Stephen Jeans; Computers in Education One of the special features of Amijam is a set of booths set aside for shareware authors. These will be free to shareware and freeware authors who attend the show to sell their products. Also planned are an all night hacker's party (Saturday night) and a wrap-up banquet after the show closes on Sunday. If you would like to attend the banquet, please let us know in advance so we can arrange a suitable location. Travel and Hotel Info: Canadian Airlines International and their regional partners, including American Airlines, have been selected as the official carrier for the Amijam'95 Convention. Canadian Airlines' Convention Air Reservation Office will guarantee you a minimum savings of 15% off the full economy fare when you travel with them to Amijam'95. Canadian delegates will be guaranteed a savings of 35% off the full economy fares within Canada. American delegates will be guaranteed a savings of 30% off the full economy fare. Two nights' minimum stay and 7 day advance purchase is required. Cancellation and rebooking penalties apply. Advance purchase fares offer even greater savings. Should you qualify, you will be offered the lowest available fare at time of booking (certain purchase requirements apply). Canadian Airlines' Convention Air Office toll-free at 1-800-665-5554 and advise them you will be attending the Amijam'95 Convention, July 15-16, 1995 in Calgary. Our file registration number is 2384. When making your registrations through your local travel agent, please ensure they register your booking with Canadian Airlines Convention Air Office. Canadian Airlines' regional partners include: Air Atlantic, Inter- Canadien, Canadian Partners, Calm Air, Canadian North and Time Air. Canadian Plus members continue to earn valuable mileage points with Canada's best frequent flyer program. For further information please see the Travel page at our web site listed below. For those concerned about inexpensive hotel services, SAIT offers an on-site hotel as part of their Hotel Management program. Accommodations which are low cost and clean are available for $19 per person per night. Please contact Linda Lampson at the SAIT Hotel at (403) 284-8102. For other hotel services, Calgary has many available, with downtown services providing ease of access to SAIT and the convention through Calgary's LRT transit system. Please contact your local travel agent for more specific information or see the Accomodation section of our web page listed below for more hotel names and phone numbers. To get more information about the show please contact the organizers at: tel: (403) 244-6990 fax: (403) 686-3790 alternate fax: (403) 249-4559 or via email: amijam@amuc.mtroyal.ab.ca Also see our World Wide Web page on the internet using your favorite WWW browser. Our URL is www.cuug.ab.ca:8001/~vermeuls/amijam.html We hope to see you there!! The Amiga Users of Calgary - P.O. Box 34230 - #19 1200 37th Street S.W. Calgary, Alberta, T3C 3W2, Canada ** Illegal activities (including the unlicensed copying of copyrighted materials are prohibited at AmiJam. Just thought you'd like to know! ** @endnode @node NEWS5 "Aminet CD 6" @toc NEWS TITLE Aminet CD 6 AUTHOR Urban D. Mueller (umueller@wuarchive.wustl.edu) CONTENTS Aminet CD 6 contains over 1 gigabyte of freely distributable software. The newest file included is dated Apr 28th. The space is used as follows (uncompressed sizes): 520M of software newer than Aminet CD 5 500M of demos 20M of top downloads These consist of: 1800 demos 1300 tools 350 mods 140 pics 120 games The demos were collected from various sources besides Aminet, and almost none of them have appeared on previous Aminet CDs. The disks also contains all Amiga Report magazines issued so far. ACCESS SOFTWARE Amigaguide based user interface, allows easy unpacking and viewing using a single mouse click. Extensive search facilities. Finds words in descriptions or readmes, and outputs matches as an index that allows direct viewing. New access features for the following categories of files: - Demos: All demos have been tested. Separate lists of best, good and compatible demos. All demos startable from those indices. Another demo index is the Amiga Demo List with extensive info about almost all demos on the CD. It is sorted by demo group. Finally there is a program called BootTool that allows you to view demos right after a reboot without much fuss, so you can quickly look at the demos that force you to reboot. - Mods: All of the modules are listed in indices sorted by music style and rating. There's also an index sorted by module author and the possibility to randomly play music of a certain style. - Docs: All Amiga Report electronic magazines that have appeared so far are on this CD, including a utility that allows you to search for any text in any AR article very quickly. - Personal: Aminet CD 6 allows you to easily create an index of your favourite files on the CD. - German: All the files (except demos) on Aminet CD 6 have a German description. Also included is an index of the SaarAG disks up to 840. Other improvements are the possibility to use file requesters to set extraction and tool paths, and 'Clones' which are little programs that, when started, unpack and run/view a file from the Aminet CD. PRICES The CD can be ordered from the following addresses: (credit cards OK) Germany: Stefan Ossowski (English spoken) Tel: +49-201-788778 Fax: +49-201-798447 Email: stefano@tchest.e.eunet.de Price: DM 25 USA: Fred Fish Tel: +1-602-917-0917 Fax: +1-602-917-0917 Email: orders@amigalib.com Price: $19.95 Prices exclude shipping. Subscriptions are available. More information, including distributors in other countries, is found in the text file docs/misc/CD-Orders.txt on Aminet. A complete index is found in disk/cdrom/Aminet-CD-6.lha Authors of software on the CD are entitled to one free CD. Send HELP FREEBIES to aminet-server@wuarchive.wustl.edu for more information. Aminet Set (the complete Aminet on 4 CDs) and Aminet 5 (with software newer than Aminet Set) are still available. @endnode @node NEWS6 "AR Tech Journal" @toc NEWS Some of you (many, I hope) might have seen the first issue of Amiga Report Tech Journal some time back. Possibly you've wondered what happened to that. ARTech's former editor, Greg Block, moved his development to NeXTSTEP, and I took the magazine over from him. However, there is a problem, and that being a lack of articles. ARTech needs you. I want to make ARTech a magazine that will always have some useful technique notes and interesting features for anyone interested in Amiga. This doesn't just mean programming, as you might have thought from the first issue. Amiga is that, but Amiga is also multimedia, rendering, and whatever you do with your machine. If you're an expert in some computing field, program Amiga, create cool art with Amiga, or just do something interesting with it, and would like to tell others about it, contact me. ARTech will welcome anything from LightWave animation technique notes to ARexx programming hints to a programming course. It is what many, including me, have waited for a long time. Help make it great. Osma Ahvenlampi - editor of Amiga Report Tech Journal www: http://www.hut.fi/~oahvenla/ email: Osma.Ahvenlampi@hut.fi @endnode @node NEWS7 "Makin Music CD-ROM" @toc NEWS Press Release-Makin Music CD-ROM from CD Exchange (info@cdex.demon.co.uk) Makin Musik is a CD Rom for the Amiga Musician, be they professional or amateur. A collection of composition software ( Trackers, Module Editors and sequencers. ) allows the Amiga musician to create fantastic music with ease. The Amiga user will find the Sound Samples on Makin Musik a valuable collection to their music making skills. With the permission of AKAI we have converted sounds from there professional sound library as well as the AKAI S3000 sampler we use ourselves into a format usable on the AMIGA. The sample quality is incredible Samples are in 8 & 16 bit. Now that programs like Octamed 6 can take advantage of 16bit samples this CD Makin Musik is invaluable. Amongst the 2500 sound samples found on Makin Musik you will find a large range of musical instruments, special effects, and even full loops and beats. Along with the Sound Samples and Composition software on Makin Musik you will also find a great collection of tools for manipulating your music samples, and also tools to create your own music. For musicians who have additional music equiptment attached to thir Amiga, Makin Musik contains a good selection of Midi Files which can be played within a sequencer through external Midi compatible instruments with the use of a Midi Interface. There are also plenty of Midi related tools available to the musician. Makin Musik has a retail price of 24.99 but those who order with reference from the Internet will be given a reduction making it 19.99, or $25.00 US $ not only that, if you are quick you will receive a complete CD Rom free of charge, which also contains many music modules and sound samples (Offer subject to stock). You can browse the contents of Makin Musik with the Easy to use Amiga Guide Document on the CD. This gives you a good overview and index to what is on the CD. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Makin Musik is a non-bootable CD Rom, it contains a support tool installer, which allows you to install all necessary tools such as Archiver's, Text Viewers, AmigaGuide, Installer, Pic Viewers and any other tools that are needed by Makin Musik. We also have a PC/MACINTOSH HYBRID CD Rom Version, which has already been released and has a few good reviews coming in such mags as 'The Mix' which is a Music Magazine and Multimedia Now, MacFormat, Mac World, Windows User and more. @endnode @node NEWS8 "CyBERgraphics 40.49" @toc NEWS TITLE CyBERgraphics VERSION 40.49 RELEASE DATE 1-June-95 AUTHORS Frank Mariak (fmariak@chaosengine.ping.de) Thomas G.Sontowski (marvin@sub.ph-cip.uni-koeln.de) DESCRIPTION CyBERgraphics supports: Picasso II Spectrum Piccolo Domino Retina Z3 BLT Piccolo SD64 The cybergraphics system was designed to define an independant graphics standard for graphics boards. We also wanted to continue our development of workbench emulations. We could include all our knowledge of about 3 years of gfx board software development (wb-emulation of visiona, domino, picasso and now the cybervision64). Cybergraphics is based on hardware dependant monitor drivers and hardware independant libraries. This has some advantages: Bug fixes in the workbench emulation or speed optimizations is of benefit for ALL gfx boards that are supported by the cybergraphics system. There is no third like XpERT or Village-Tronic inbetween developers and users. That guarantees bug fixes and continued development of the software in the future. cybergraphics allows using of 15/16/24 screens independant of the used color model. You are able to use the cybergraphics.library functions to modify this screens. Using graphics.library functions is currently not possible but this may change in one of the next releases. Cybergraphics will also be the standard workbench emulation for the soon coming (April 95) Cybervision64 by Advanced Systems&Software. (of course including drivers for diverse graphics programs, screen promoters and much more). Right now (6.4.95) there are drivers for Maxon Cinema,Real 3D, ADPro, AmaxIV, PhotoWorx, Emplant, ImageFX and Photogenics available. There is also a picture viewer called CyberView which can be found on AmiNet. Revision V40.49 (changes since 40.47) ------------------------------------- - changed the way ReadPixel() works on non clut screens. MatchPenColour now scans palette in reverse order in order to fix some problems. - CygnusED EOF marker is now shown correctly - pctask text modes now show up correctly under cybergraphics (inverse text before) - fixed jam2 line pattern bugs - fixed "pointer gets square" bug when screen was dragged down too far. Some machines even crashed ...... (- added faster text output ) <- disabled in 40.49 (to be revised) SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Minimum requirements to run cybergraphics 1) One of the following boards - Domino - Picasso II in linear mode (! not segmented !) - Piccolo Z2/Z3 or - Piccolo SD64 - GVP Spectrum - RetinaZ3 - CyberVision64 2) Kickstart 3.x 3) 68020 or higher 4) 2 MB of fast memory HOST NAME Aminet FTP servers, like ftp.netnet.net DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/gfx/board FILE NAME cybergfx4049.lha PRICE Shareware Version - Free Registered Version - 50 DM - in cash (or) DM 50 - Eurocheque $35 US - in cash $40 US - Foreign cheque Please see the Bestellformular or Orderform DISTRIBUTABILITY It is allowed to distribute cybergraphics on any data medium and to make it available on bulletin boards or other network compounds if the orginal directory structure will be kept. It is of course allowed to distribute these files in a packed archive file. It is also allowed to levy copy charges for the distribution on floppy disks or CD-ROMs, as long as it has stated clearly for the user that he has not payed for the share fee, hereby. It is not allowed to copy, distribute or generate registered versions. Cybergraphics must NOT be included or used in commercial products unless by written permission from the authors. Permission for Phase5 to distribute this program together with their graphics board CyberVision 64 is hereby given. Cybergraphics must NOT be used on any machine which is used for the research, development, construction, testing or production of weapons or other military applications. This also includes any machine which is used for training persons for *any* of the above mentioned purposes. (C) Copyright 1994-1995 by Thomas Sontowski & Frank Mariak @endnode @node NEWS9 "Delfina DSP" @toc NEWS PRELIMINARY INTRODUCTION TO THE DELFINA DSP 1. WHAT IS DELFINA DSP? Delfina DSP is a multifeatured audio board containing a fully programmable powerful 20 MIPS Digital Signal Processor. The board is capable of 16bit stereo digitizing and multichannel playback at 50kHz. Price will be under $700, with an introductionary price for the Internetters at $400. Features: - 40 MHz Motorola DSP56002 processor * 20 MIPS * 24 bit data bus * 56 bit accumulators * Most instructions executed in one cycle - 96k/192k/384k SRAM * Dual ported (addressable from Amiga) * Zero-waitstate (25ns) - Stereo AD/DA (analog-digital-analog) converter (CS4215) * Sample frequencies upto 50 kHz * 16 or 8 bit linear, u-law or A-law audio data coding * Programmable gain and attenuation * Microphone and line level inputs * Headphone and line level outputs * On-chip anti-aliasing/smoothing filters - High-speed RS232 interface (max. 2.5Mbit/s) - Centronics interface - Zorro II interface - Fully programmable using included libraries Software: DELFINA software version 0.9 beta includes the following: - delfaudio.library * multiple 16-bit or 8-bit channels * sound digitizing * samples in PC or Amiga format * sample rates upto 48 kHz * channel panning and other effects - delfina.library * for user's own DSP software * several DSP programs can be configured as interrupts * full mastership of the card possible - delfser.device * serial.device compatible * max. 115200 bps * minimal CPU usage on Amiga - delfpar.device * parallel.device compatible * minimal CPU usage on Amiga More sofware will be released later. 2. HOW AND WHY TO CONTACT US? The board is at prototype stage, so changes can still be made according to good propositions and requirements. The libraries and applications for the card will be continuously developed even after the product has been shipped, so we will be always open for fresh ideas. We'd be glad to join the discussion about wishes for features on the Internet News. For information, reply or mail to: Teemu.Suikki@lut.fi (design, software) Jyrki.Petsalo@lut.fi (marketing) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Delfina DSP. Discover the Sound of Power. @endnode @node NEWS10 "Simulate DVE Motion" @toc NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Robyn Cootey, Customer Support Manager DVE-TYPE MOTION EFFECTS FOR DPAINTIV & V! (10 May 1995 --- Provo, UT) DRC Sequential Graphics, producer of the DigitalCollage and DigitalCollage24 monthly texture tile and video backdrop services, is now releasing its monthly products in compilation form. Our first release is MotionCollage, which contains 150 motion clips for DeluxePaintIV & V's(tm) move requester, each with a descriptive name detailing the degree, angle, and style of movement. These are the same motion clips we shipped every month with Digital-Collage, bundled in one collection. These motion clips simulate complex DVE motion for your logos and graphics. Just load them in and let DPaint do all the work. Choosing an interesting and eye-catching motion path for your logo was never easier. MotionCollage includes the following: 150 motion clips, a tutorial, and 150 lo-res, 2 color, reference animations. Simply doubleclick on the animation's icon (or load it into DeluxePaint) and see instantly whether a particular motion clip is the right one for the job. We also include a standard installation utility. This collection retails for $69.95, but is available through DevWare for only $49.95. Call them at 1.800.879.0759 to order today. Or if you have any questions concerning this product, send e-mail to bug@itsnet.com or call DRC Sequential Graphics at 1.801.373.9579. @endnode @node NEWS11 "Stylus Pro-Pak" @toc NEWS Contact: Jeff Blume (303) 484-7321 jblume@bix.com Stylus announces the Stylus Pro-Pak Ft. Collins, CO. - Stylus, Inc. announces the Stylus Pro-Pak; a professional software bundle for graphic artists. The Stylus Pro-Pak includes ProVector 3, a major update of our structured-drawing program; StylusTracer(tm), for autotracing, image-processing, and touch-up; PSImport(tm), for PostScript importing and editing; and RexxRequest(tm), an ARexx command host for designing Intuition(tm) requesters for ARexx macros. NEW FEATURES IN PROVECTOR 3: * Advanced Graphic Architecture(tm) support * A complete "interface-lift" * New gradient fill options * New object effects, including perspective, blending, skewing, mirroring, warping, etc. * Object masks (clipping paths) * Additional file formats supported include HP-GL, and Adobe Illustrator * Improved text support, including resident and downloaded PostScript Type 1 support, text blocks, text effects, imbedded formatting commands * Anti-aliased, 24-bit ILBM output * PostScript Color Separations w/ Trapping, UCR, etc. * Math Coprocessor support * Support for Amiga OS 2.1 & 3.0 features, including ARexx; context-sensitive, on-line help via AmigaGuide(tm); public screen support; standard Amiga file and screen mode requesters LONG-STANDING FEATURES * Multiple Undos * True Layers * Structured and bitmapped pattern fills * Magnetism * ARexx * Multiple Projects * Page sizes up to 15x15 miles * RELIABILITY PSIMPORT(tm), the utility that gives ProVector the ability to load and edit PostScript files, has been updated to complement the new features of ProVector. Support has been added for the following PostScript(R) features: * Text objects * Gradient fills * Clipping paths (masks) STYLUSTRACER includes a full suite of image-processing and touch-up tools to prepare bitmaps for tracing. IFF-ILBM and TIFF bitmaps may be traced. Traced drawings may be saved in either IFF-DR2D, or Adobe Illustrator(tm) file formats. Tracing options include object tracing, center-line tracing, sub-polygon (objects with holes) tracing, and thin-line tracing. StylusTracer utilizes ARexx for macros and interprocess communication, as well as AmigaGuide for on-line help. Finally, REXXREQUEST is an ARexx command host utility which gives ARexx macros access to the Amiga gadtools.library, for building 2.X style requesters. Included macros provide examples of RexxRequest's use, as well as useful functions in their own right. The Stylus Pro-Pak is available NOW at a suggested list of $299.95 (US). For a limited time, the Stylus Pro-Pack will be available directly from Stylus, Inc. at an introductory price of $199.95. Registered ProVector 2.1 users who have also registered PSImport can upgrade to the Stylus Pro-Pack for $99.95. Registered ProVector 2.1 users without PSImport can upgrade for $129.95. A Power-Up offer has been established which allows owners of earlier versions of ProVector, Art Expressions, Professional Draw, DesignWorks, or Aegis Draw, to upgrade for $149.95. These special offers will only be available through July 31, 1995. Upgrade and power-up requests with a check drawn on a US bank, or international bank draft, should be sent to: att. Stylus Pro-Pak Upgrade Stylus, Inc. P.O. Box 1671 Ft. Collins, CO 80522 along with registration numbers or proof of purchase as appli- cable. Please include $7.00 for domestic shipping of new purchases; $10.00 for Canada and Mexico; $20.00 for all other international destinations. Include $5.00 for domestic update shipping; $10.00 for international update shipping. Colorado residents must include sales tax. A demonstration archive, "StylusDemo.lha" has been uploaded to BIX and Aminet. On Aminet, the archive may currently be found as "/pub/aminet/recent/StylusDemo.lha." Eventually, it should be found as "/pub/aminet/biz/demo/StylusDemo.lha." This release includes complete online documentation in AmigaGuide format. The printed manuals are current to the 2.1 release of ProVector. All of the new features in the Stylus Pro-Pak are documented in the convenient, context-sensitive, AmigaGuide on-line help. ProVector 3 and StylusTracer require Amiga/OS version 2.1 or later and 2 megabytes of RAM. A hard disk, additional RAM, and OS 3.1 are recommended. ProVector is a registered trademark of Stylus, Inc. StylusTracer and PSImport are trademarks of Stylus, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. @endnode @node NEWS12 "Scala Software" @toc NEWS Scala to Deliver Software with New Amigas Frankfurt, May 30, 1995 --- "We look forward to working closely with Scala and to deliver Scala software with all Amiga computers," said Manfred Schmitt, President of Escom AG, at a press conference in Frankfurt on Tuesday, 30 May. Escom AG has recently bought the assets of Commodore International and all rights to the Commodore and Amiga technologies. With its subsidiary, Amiga Technologies GmbH, Escom will relaunch the Amiga computer in September this year, first targeting the creative, video oriented, home and office multimedia markets. "Together the Scala software and the Amiga hardware technologies offer a powerful and cost effective solution for anyone who needs a multimedia package for home or office use. Scala lets us promote ready-to-use solutions, and not just computers," says Manfred Schmitt, CEO and President of Escom AG, the parent company of Amiga Technologies. "Escom now turns from a PC manufacturer and retailer into a multimedia company. We see this as a key to continued success." "The Amiga has shown the way and continues to do so, " comments Vice President Jon Bohmer, Founder of Scala, the undisputed leader in multimedia software for the Amiga platform. "No other solution can match the price performance of the Amiga - Scala combination. We will support the Amiga platform in the future and look forward to [a] close relationship with the new Amiga Technologies company." Adds Einar Haugstad, Vice President of Scala, "Even though the Amiga went out of production a year ago, we have continued to see a constant demand for Amigas, from both new and experienced users." The new Amiga 4000T will come in a totally new casing, designed by Creative Director Bjorn Rybakken of Bates Strategic Design in Oslo. Rybakken has long been a consultant for Scala and among other things, designed the Scala [Exclamation] logo. Escom was founded in Germany by Mannfred Schmitt in 1987 and has since grown to become the second largest indigenous European PC manufacturer. (Source: Dataquest) The company provides low cost, high quality PC products through its own European retail network as well as through direct channels. With a group turnover of 1.3 billion USD in 1994, Escom is one of the leading players in the European PC marketplace. Scala is in the business of Computer Television; using a computer to produce and distribute television-type programming. The company is on of the world's leading developers of computer-based television information solutions. Available in eleven languages, Scala's multimedia tools are distributed in more than 40 countries. Scala was founded in Norway in 1987. Today Scala is headquarted outside of Washington, DC, with international headquarters in Oslo and offices in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. Scala's team of software engineers includes most of the people who originally developed the Amiga operating system for Commodore. Scala's main products are Scala MultiMedia, a software package for production and playback of multimedia presentations, interactive training applications, infotainment and video titling. Scala InfoChannel is for multimedia networking and information distributions. Scala Interactive Television, includes software for the production of Interactive Television content as well as an operating environment for satellite and cable TV decoders. Scala, InfoChannel and the Scala logo are registered trademarks of Scala, Inc. @endnode @node NEWS13 "Amiga Convention '95" @toc NEWS The Official Info Pack on the Amiga Convention '95 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** Please feel free to spread this file around wherver you can, as long as it is not altered. We don't want people to show up at the wrong city or during the wrong month! If you are a magazine, please feel free to put this in your magazine. All that we ask in return is that you e-mail or call us to tell us that you have put the information into the magazine. Also, if you would like to have an article written for your magazine after the convention about what happened at AC'95, please e-mail *************************************************************************** --------------------------------------------------------------------------- In August, in Montreal, the third annual Amiga Convention will take place! This convention will gather the Amiga community together from all across the world to show its support for the Amiga! We hope to make this show the first event in the long fight to make the Amiga a well known computer in North America again. WHY: We are putting on the Amiga Convention '95 (AC 95) to support our favorite computer, the Amiga! We feel that for too long, the Amiga has been ignored, and now that the Amiga is owned by people who actually will support it well, we want to help them out in any way we can. We also want to get a lot of people together to have a really cool time! WHERE: A College Cafeteria in Montreal, large enough to hold over 1,000 people, not including the surrounding rooms. ADDRESS: College du Vieux Montreal 255, Ontario EAST (street) Montreal (Quebec) H2X 1X6 Canada WHEN : 19th - 20th August 1995 TIME : 8:00 - 20:00 (8:00 PM) Saturday 8:00 - 20:00 (8:00 PM) Sunday ENTRANCE COST: 7 Canadian dollars COMPETITIONS: Gfx (3d) -------- 1st place : $300 2nd place : $200 3rd place : $100 Music (mod 4 chan.) ----------------- 1st place : $300 2nd place : $200 3rd place : $100 Intro (64k max.) ---------------- 1st place : $500 2nd place : $300 3rd place : $200 Demo (2 megs max.) ------------- 1st place : $1000 2nd place : $600 3rd place : $300 * Special Award ceremonies to give out a special prizes for the persons that made some amazing thing with the Amiga Computers! (to encourage some developers that are doing crazy thing with the amiga!) Dealers/Devlopers on list already! ----------------------------------- We are currently talking to the AMIGA COMPANY, owned by Escom, to get them involved with the show. It will be announced in a later announcement whether they are coming or not. RCS Managements: Makers of the X-Calibur and Fusion-Forty GfxBase Eletronic: A local computer store chain. Eletromike: Another computer store chain. Wonder Computers: Owners of 4 stores in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, London. The biggest Canadian Amiga retailer. PreSpect Technics: Importers/dealers/devlopers of hardware products! Spectrum GFX: A video production company headed by the programmer of Composite Studio Pro. Ultred Visions Inc.: Developers of a CD32-based plug-and-play Internet access set-top box. Amiga Link: The online Amiga magazine! COST FOR RENTING TABLES : $100 - 1 day, $150 - 2 days, for one table of 6' by 3' and chairs. You may do whatever you want to at the rented tables. These tables are aimed towards dealers and developers. FREE TABLES: We will also have free tables at AC'95, for anyone who wishes to bring their Amiga, whether to show off something cool, or just to help someone else who might need one at the time. However, at the free tables you get less space than the pay tables, it is first-come first-serve, and you cannot sell products at the tables! That is strictly for the rented tables. ACCESABILITY: The show is easily accesable by bus and train, as well as having lots of parking space in the vicinity for cars. WHY DEALERS SHOULD COME: At AC'95, we offer tables at an incredibly cheap price, a price which includes electrical outlets. You also get the chance to show and sell your wares to a crowd of Amiga owners, all of whom have money to spend and are influenced by how big a prescence you have at the show. WHY PEOPLE SHOULD COME: AC'95 will have stands from many major dealers and developers. It will also have a lot of friendly Amiga owners there, plus a booming sound system and TV setup that will show crazy demos and products. It will be a wild good time for all! * Just 5 minutess walking distance from the Metro Station BERRI-UQAM as well as for the BUS terminals of VOYAGEUR, GREYHOUND, etc. * Interior parking space for up to 200 cars at $5 canadian a day. * We will have Audio/visual equipment setup for presentations of demos, programs, hardware, new products, etc. The audio equpment run at an incredible 5000W!! * The Student-Cafe will be open during the events selling food like sandwiches, soups, coffee and other fast food items. CONTACT: If you want to buy a table, get more information on the show, or just talk to the organizers, e-mail either or , or call 514-649-9756 (in Canada) and ask for Frederic Tessier regarding the Amiga Convention '95. You can also mail the organizers at: Frederic Tessier 922 Deschamps Sainte-Julie (Quebec) J3E 1N9 Canada @endnode @node NEWS14 "ShapeShifter" @toc NEWS TITLE ShapeShifter VERSION 2.0 AUTHOR Christian Bauer EMail: cbauer@mzdmza.zdv.uni-mainz.de SMail: Christian Bauer, Langenaustr.65, 56070 Koblenz, Germany DESCRIPTION ShapeShifter is a multitasking shareware Macintosh-II emulator for the Commodore Amiga computer. It allows to run Macintosh software concurrently to Amiga applications without hardware add-ons or modifications. Some of the emulation's features: - Color display up to 256 colors on AGA Amigas (16 colors on ECS) and up to 16,7 million colors on graphics cards (Picasso-II, EGS and CyBERgraphics cards are supported) - No MMU required, even runs on A1200 - Macintosh hard disks can be simulated in Amiga files or Amiga hard disk partitions [unregistered version has no hard disk partition support] - Can use Amiga floppy drives, serial, parallel and SCSI ports from the Mac [use of SCSI not possible in unregistered version] - Mac HD disks can be read directly with an HD floppy drive, Mac 800K disks cannot be read, Mac 720K disks, however, can - Multichannel sound output and parallel-port sound digitizers supported - Text clipboard sharing between Mac and Amiga - File handler to access Macintosh volumes from the Workbench - Speed comparable to a real Mac with equivalent hardware Changes in V2.0: - Pre-emptive multitasking - Quickstart now works reliably - Bug in stack handling corrected - Graphics cards in 24 bit address space work with ROM 34 - CyBERgraphics 15 and 24 bit modes now work, selecting a CyBERgraphics mode will automatically set the color depth - Needs no special ROM sub versions any more - Setting for task priority removed - Macintosh reset routine revamped - Italian catalog files - When the selected amount of Mac memory is not available, you can choose to use the largest free block - Numerous internal corrections and improvements - SCSI IDs individually switchable, an error when accessing ID 0 will no longer cause the other IDs to be skipped - The graphics refresh is now done by a subtask, enabling the Amiga mouse pointer will prevent any refreshes - ROM write-protection is now choosable - The FileDisk driver will no longer open files with empty names SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS OS2.1, 68020 processor, 4MB of RAM, HD floppy drive recommended. A copy of a Macintosh 512K or 1MB ROM and the Macintosh system software are not included, but required. The ROM can be read off of a real Mac by using a supplied program, the system software can be bought from Apple. Note, however, that reading the ROM is only legal if you have bought the ROMs or own a real Macintosh. AVAILABILITY Aminet sites: /misc/emu/ShapeShift2_0.lha Next Generation BBS, Germany (ShapeShifter support BBS) Port 1: +49-261-805012 (Zyx19.2) Port 2: +49-261-84280 (V.FC) PRICING The requested shareware fee is DM 50,- or US$ 40. Upon registration you will receive a keyfile that enables the disabled features (SCSI and hard disk partition support). DISTRIBUTABILITY Shareware (DM 50,- or US$ 40 requested) @endnode @node NEWS15 "Texturemapping Conference" @toc NEWS Amiga Texturemapping Online Conference On June 18th, 17:00 GMT, an online conference organized by Steffen Haeuser will be held. Programmers of existing texturemapping demos and projects will be onhand for discussion. The conference will be on IRC, channel #amitmap. @endnode @node NEWS16 "The One Cancelled" @toc NEWS The One, a UK Amiga games magazine, is closing. The departure of the editor-in-chief for Bullfrog Productions and the waning Amiga market were cited as the causes. Mat Bettinson, staff technical writer for CU Amiga, believes that the closure will help strengthen CU, as both magazines are published by Emap Images. @endnode @node NEWS17 "Portal gains World Wide Web interface" @toc NEWS Harv Laser, sysop of the 2.5 gigabyte Amiga Zone on the Portal online service, has announced that the services provided by Portal and the Amiga Zone will soon be available to customers through a World Wide Web interface. Previews of this service are now available on http://www.portal.com/~harv/ This move would make the Amiga Zone the first Amiga online service with a Web interface-provided nobody beats them to getting it up and running. @endnode @node FEATURE1 "Creating Cool Text Effects" @toc FEATURE ========================================================================== CREATING COOL TEXT EFFECTS: A GRAPHICS TUTORIAL Corinna Cohn gemini@indy.net ========================================================================== [For reference, the end result of this tutorial, AmigaReportTutorial.JPG, has been included in the magazine. -Jason] Let's face it, text is important. In order to catch attention, you need to have cool, interesting, and innovative text to catch the eye of the observer. I'm going to go step by step to show how I did the effect for the improv Amiga Report logo I did. STEP {1} - Creating the initial text. For the first step, I needed a program that could load a large number of fonts, and hopefully do other nice and interesting effects. As I own ArtExpression, I had to settle for something that could load PostScript fonts. Since Amiga Report is a news zine, I decided to pick an appropriate styletype. Having wild, exciting, bizarre, or groovy text was out for this particluar purpose, as I can only assume that something called Amiga Report has at least a moderately serious edge to it. I chose Times-Roman because this is a typeface that is commonly associated with newspapers. I also sketched in a cute little checkmark to go with the text effect... maybe I'll use it, maybe I wont. I save the work as a PostScript file. I could have saved the work as a standard IFF file, however that causes the file to be saved as a specified resolution. On the other hand, saving as an IFF means that you can load the file into nearly any program. Step {2} - Transfering the File This stage involved importing the text into a more capable program, (essentially, anything that does not say ArtExpression on the box), and for this I used ImageFX 2.1. Since IFX2.1 has a PostScript import module, (using the hgpost datatype), and I decided to have the resolution as a 425x550, and cropped it to 425x253. The resolution is a little bit low, but for what I'm doing, it will work just fine. Step {3} - The Real Job {A} - The Background This is where a dab of artistic flair comes in handy. Fortunately a dab is all that is required, for that is all I posses! Now, I conceptualize what this will look like. Will it be modern? Classic? New Age? I think that I will start with it having a modern background, and then afterwards, work on the text. I swap buffers, and then select "Create New Buffer" and size it to swap (If you remember, since we swapped the buffers, the one we were working on now becomes the "swap"). Going to the palette, I create a range of greys, (for that modern look). After trying out a couple of experimental fills, I decide to go with a nice wheel filled from the middle of the screen. {B} - The Checkmark First, I swapped buffers again to bring me back to the first screen, and I decided to do something about that checkmark. This was simple. I loaded a rainbow texture that I had laying around, (I think I grabbed it off of someone's home page), so I loaded it as a brush, and then did a brush fill on the checkmark. I then cut out the brush, and then removed the spot where the checkmark, as I did not want it to be there permanently. {C} - The Alpha Channel Black text on a white background faced me. The words "Amiga" and "Report" sat atop one another, the "G" in Amiga fitting in the depression in "Report". Nice. Now I do any special effects to the shape of the text. Since I don't want anything particularly fancy for this, I simply add a small amount of anti-aliasing. If you want to get crazy, try the dream effect first. Groovy, man. I then copied the screen to the Alpha channel. This will become my texture later in the process. {D} - Of Alphas, Swaps, and Textures I decide that I want a shadow effect, so I roll my current buffer by about 5 pixels. Now I swap buffers again to bring me back to the wheel fill. Setting the fill options to normal/rub through/use alpha as friskit, I used a filled box to select the whole screen. This causes the box to rub through the entire screen except what was protected by the alpha channel. The Text is filled by what is left of the wheel-filled screen, and the text now has a shadow beneeth it. {E} - The Checkmark Reviseted I throw the checkmark back in. Easy. Just make sure all of the drawing modes are reset to their defaults. Excuse me? How did I stick it behind the text? Well, I'm glad you asked, because otherwise I wouldn't have answered. I created a range of colors from black to almost pure white. Emphasis on almost. I then chose to exclude that range from receiving colour wiht my draw options. Easy as cake. Step {4} - Touch Up Work Well, everything turned out pretty good, but I wanted to fine tune things a little bit. First of all, sticking in the checkmark messed up some of my lettering. I repaired that using the pantograph draw option. I toned the white down to 235/235/235rgb I scaled it down to 380x200. I ran Unsharpen Mask to bring out the edges a little better. Step {5} - Saving Your Work This is a very important step. The format that you save your work in usually depends on a variety of things. How much space does your work need to fit in? I don't have a lot of space on my hard drive, therefore, I usually use JPEG. If you are using this for a WWW page, you probably want to save it in GIF. If I had the space for it, I would save my work as IFF24. Step {6} - The End Now you criticize your work and lament about how bad it turned out. At least, that's what I do. :) * * * If you care to see any of my work, please http://www.indy.net/~gemini This tutorial is Copyright 1995 by Corinna Cohn. This tutorial is freely distributable. @endnode @node FEATURE2 "BLAZEMONGER Goes Print" @toc FEATURE ========================================================================== BLAZEMONGER GOES PRINT Dan Barrett barrett@astro.cs.umass.edu ========================================================================== OK, OK, enough already!! Stop bombarding us with email messages, you rancid PANDA-BAITERS. You want the truth? OK, you got it! Apparently, many people are wondering where BLAZEMONGER INCORPORATED has been during all of this Commodore bankruptcy/negotiation business. As various computer giants took their turns wrestling over Commodore's ashes, where have the creators of BLAZEMONGER, the ULTIMATE computer game, been hiding? And why?? Heh heh heheheh. Well, for a while, we watched from the sidelines. Then, when Commodore UK and CEI finally got into the act, BLAZEMONGER INCORPORATED was right there, behind the scenes, helping out with the negotiations. Personally, we couldn't BELIEVE how long all those DWEEB LAWYERS went ON and ON. In fact, if it hadn't been for the timely action of our "Customer Service" department, those negotiations might STILL be in limbo. Special thanks go to "Vinnie" for his ingeniously creative and helpful use of razor wire and olive oil. Ooooooeee, that smarts. Now that Escom has won the battle, we've been involved in SECRET, INTENSE PLANNING SESSIONS with them to decide the future of the Amiga. 68060 CPU? AGA graphics? Built-in neutron BOMB? These are all extremely WIMP-OLA ideas. The final results, when the new Amigas hit the market, will be FAR BEYOND this unimaginative TRASH. Expect to see Cray CPU's, live AQUARIUMS, and LASER DEATH RAY CANNONS built into even the low-end models!! Ah, but that is not all. Escom has been only a side interest for our company. You see, we've also been working on a TOP SECRET project. It's new. It's FAST. And it's VIOLENT. VERY VIOLENT. The kind of QUALITY you'd EXPECT from the AWESOME creators of "the first computer game with its own Richter Scale rating" [Computer Gaming Monthly]. "But," you ask, in a kindly, innocent voice, the sort that a cute baby lamb might have in a hushed meadow at twinkling twilight, "what in the world could Blazemonger Incorporated be working on if they have already created the 'ultimate' computer game?" [The next paragraph is a brief, polite summary for all of those nice newcomers in the newsgroup. Old-timers can skip ahead.] FIRST of all, SHEEP-FACE, it's "BLAZEMONGER INCORPORATED" in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS!! If you don't SHOUT when you SAY IT, you SUCK when you PLAY IT!!!!! (TM) Get a LIFE, get a JOB, and GET A *GRIP*!! OK, now that that's overwith.... The answer, my friends, is that we haven't been working on a new game. Instead, we've been writing a book. "A book?" Yes, a BOOK. One of those FLAT things with PAGES. And it's all about... the life of Commodore! How they began, how they rose to grandeur, how they fell DOWN again, how they came back UP again, how they slipped and FELL on a banana peel, how they climbed back up using only their FINGERNAILS on a BARE ROCK CLIFF FACE, STRUGGLING for NEW LIFE, GASPING, BLEEDING PROFUSELY from every ORIFICE... only to find a pack of ULTRA-VIOLENT JOURNALISTS sitting at the top, writing lies about them. That's where we come in. Thanks to the EXPERT crew in our "Publications and Supplications" department, we have chronicled the rise and fall (and subsequent rebirth) of Commodore in PERFECT PROSE, GLEAMING GRAPHICS, and unequalled STYLE AND WIT. GRRRAAARRRRGH!!!! One of the most important issues we faced was, of course, what should the book be called? What title could we invent that would appropriately capture a subject so near and dear to millions of our hearts? We thought of a whole mess of preliminary titles, such as: o "The Ballad of Irving" o "How To Succeed in Business Without Trying One Damn Bit" o "I Was a Hardware Love-Slave in Bondage: Dave Haynie Tells All" o "The Amazing Adventures of Amiga Man and his Teenage Sidekick, MultiTasko!" o "From West Chester to Escom: What a Long, Fucked Up Road It's Been" o "Men Who Love Women and the Women Who Hate Their Computer Game Addictions" o "Mehdio and Gouldiette" So...... after much reasoned deliberation and argument (involving several machetes and a gallon of molten Snapple), we came to the decision that ALL of these titles were WAY WIMPY. NONE of them expressed the true feelings in our souls. So we locked ourselves in a PADDED FALLOUT SHELTER for 48 straight hours and emerged, truimphant, with the ONE TRUE TITLE we knew was meant for our book. Get ready for.... [rumble RUMBLE...!] "CRUSHED SKULLS: VIOLENT DEATH AND GERBIL LUST IN THE BOWELS OF COMMODORE" Yes! "CRUSHED SKULLS" is due to SLAM into your local bookstore any day now! It is destined to become CLASSIC of Western (or at least Westchestern) literature! But don't just take our word for it!! See what the reviewers have been saying about our Beta version of "CRUSHED SKULLS": "CRUSHED SKULLS is like no other computer book we've seen. Just the fact that it arrives in an armor plated cover renders it immediately unique." - Publisher's Weekly "CRUSHED SKULLS... is an... book that is... absolutely." - New York Times Book Review "CRUSHED SKULLS is the ULTIMATE, ULTIMATE BOOK!! It is a MASTERPIECE of EPIC PROPORTIONS!!!" - Bobby Blazebleeder (no relation) "If you read only one book this year, make it this one." - The Washington Post, speaking of Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" "CRUSHED SKULLS is the best book I've read this year." - Charles Manson "The fastest read I've ever experienced. The pages whipped past my eyes so quickly I could hardly take in the details! I read it twelve or thirteen times before I even opened up the cover!" - Computer Game Review "CRUSHED SKULLS is a total ripoff -- what a stupid book! I can't believe that BLAZEMONGER INCORPORATED would stoop to such a... [knock knock] um, excuse me for a moment... Yes, who is it? " - [Name omitted on request by friends and family who would like to assure the "Customer Service" department that do not share the reviewer's views] Now if THOSE reviews don't sell you on the book, I don't know WHAT will! But just in case, here is a brief, SPINE-TINGLING EXCERPT from the book. From Chapter 5, "Splattered Guts on Virtual Walls" "As the weeks flew by, and the development team worked diligently on the A3000+ prototype, dark things were afoot. Unknown to those loyal hardware and software designers, the deadly MARKETERS were on the warpath, wielding the ultimate weapon, Fatal Shortsightedness of Doom, and sending it whizzing into the heart of a good idea. 'I remember those days well,' said Mike Sinz. 'We used to hide our designs inside locked safes so the Marketing Department wouldn't know what we were doing. That way, they couldn't discontinue the project.' But it was to no avail. The A3000+ was discovered in a daring, midnight raid on the hacker headquarters, and it vanished into the obscurity of legend." Check it out, CBM fans! Here's your chance to learn the truth, the WHOLE truth, and NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH (except for the bits we made up). Watch for "CRUSHED SKULLS" any day now, d00dz!!! Copyright 1995 by Daniel J. Barrett. All rights reserved. This article may be freely distributed as long as it is distributed in its entirety. It may not be included in any publication without the written permission of the author. So nyaaah. [And yes, Dan lets us print these. But you can't just take it from here and print it yourself. Hahahah. -Jason] @endnode @node FEATURE3 "Open Letter on Amiga Piracy" @toc FEATURE @REMARK I have prefixed "LeoD5PM_" before each of the node names to make this @REMARK file easy to insert into any AmigaGuide-based mags. Anyone who wishes @REMARK to include this in their mag is welcome to do so, provided they do not @REMARK change anything apart from the line-formatting. ========================================================================== OPEN LETTER ON AMIGA PIRACY Leo Davidson leo@hampschl.demon.co.uk ========================================================================== An open message regarding the future of the Amiga in connection with piracy, and in particular that of Directory Opus 5. Written by Leo Davidson (P0T-NOoDLE / Gods'Gift Utilities / Anthrox) E-Mail: leo@hampschl.demon.co.uk (Until around July'95) IRC: "Nudel" in #Amiga Contents: @{" Main Text " LINK LeoD5PM_Message} @{" Jonathan Potter's Message to AR " LINK LeoD5PM_JPMSG} @{" How to order DOpus5 " LINK LeoD5PM_OrderInfo} DOpus5 is a work of art: probably the most configurable, versatile, and useful program ever written, but you'll never see anything like it again on the Amiga unless you let the developers know that the Amiga isn't a lost cause. @ENDNODE @NODE LeoD5PM_JPMSG "Jonathan Potter speaks." From Amiga Report, 3.09 =========================================================================== POTTER ON PIRACY By Jonathan Potter =========================================================================== Jason, I just thought I'd write a quick letter to AReport to express my disappointment with the actions of some members of the Amiga community. As you may be aware, Directory Opus 5 has just been released. This is a significant upgrade; the program has been completely rewritten after more than 6 months of hard work. Less than a week after its release, pirate copies have already spread around the world. Software piracy is a problem as old as computers themselves, and of course we'd be naive not to expect it. But to have the program appear so quickly on pirate BBS' makes me wonder just exactly how tuned in to reality some people are. The position of the Amiga at the moment is exceptionally precarious, as I would have thought was obvious to anybody, and the only thing keeping it alive are the developers who still believe in the platform. Many times in the past six months I've had to ask myself why I was wasting my time programming for a nearly-dead computer. Obviously, I do it because I enjoy it, but the hard truth is that I have to justify it in dollar terms - philanthropy is all well and good, but if I don't make any money I don't eat. The Amiga market is already small enough without the added burden of rampant piracy to contend with. I guess all I'm trying to do is to appeal to people; if they really believe in the Amiga, and really want to see it continue, don't contribute to its downfall by ripping off the hard work of the very people who are keeping it alive. Regards, Jonathan Potter +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Jonathan Potter yeti@adam.com.au +61-412-845-696 | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ @ENDNODE @NODE LeoD5PM_Message "They can't keep the faith if they can't eat." What pirates must remember is that it takes 12 months of bloody hard work to get a product to market, then more time to get some money in etc. Development of Dopus 5 was actually funded by GPFax. It is quite simple if people keep pirating our Amiga software we will just have to give up and go elsewhere. It would be a pity." Dr Greg Perry GPSoftware, PO Box 570, Ashgrove, Qld Australia 4060 Ph/fax +61 7 3661402 Internet: zzgperry@mailbox.uq.oz.au First let me state: I'm not attempting to create any illusions here. I'm no angel, and I haven't bought every piece of software I own. I wish I had the money to, and if I were not a student with zero real-income I would certainly buy a hell of a lot more software. This message is aimed at those who can easily afford to buy software and support their machine but don't. Of course some people are worse than others. Think of those selling pirate copies of other people's software and making so much money that they can afford to buy mega-expensive pieces of hardware and all kinds of stuff through virtually no work of their own (there IS such a thing as a free-lunch). Enough moral high-horsing, let's talk. The Amiga is in a bad state. It isn't a machine which is in every other house, office, or school. Everyone who has really got past inserting a game at the kickstart screen knows that the Amiga has the best OS on any home computer (sure, AmigaOS has holes in it at the moment, but I'd rather wear a raincoat with holes than one that dissolves in water!). Another thing the Amiga has going for it is the great support by PD and shareware programmers - people who really love the machine and write software for that single reason. Let's face it, if you look at how much software comes out (from MicroSoft alone!) on the PC, commercial software development on the Amiga has all but stopped in comparison. (Of course, bar a few games, there's very little I could do on the PC that I would not do better on an Amiga, despite the vast amounts of releases). I would go as far as to say that if all commercial software development on the Amiga stopped today, I would continue to use the Amiga for a long time to come, using the PD software, and writing my own stuff until I could afford my own SiliconGraphics machine, because I'm used to a REAL computer, without bottlenecks, workarounds, bad standards, and inherently-flawed hardware covered with a paper-thin gloss of leading edge technology. There is some incredible shareware software out there, but none of these people are earning enough from it to support them. Broadly speaking, there is a point where projects become so large that none but the rich-hobbyist can afford to make them just for fun and the love of a machine. Unless you've already made your fortune, you are simply not able to spend a year developing a program, because you won't even be able to pay the bills to keep your machine fed with electricity (well, OK, my SAmiLog3 is taking about 2 years to develop, but so far it could have all been done in 2 weeks!). So isn't it easy to understand why so many people have dumped the Amiga? No matter how much you love the machine, you can't make a living out of it if not enough people buy the software. The fact that developers who have experienced the *JOY* of programming on the Amiga can write software in the *DREADFULL* PC environment is an indication of just how much piracy has affected the Amiga market. On the PC, so many people own the machine that stupid things like a Screen-Blanker, which would never be a commercial product on the Amiga, have huge price tags slapped on them, and the stupid market buys it. (This is more or less what the PC is based on: a STUPID market who are happy to follow all the trends because they don't know that there is another way of doing things). Because the PC market is so huge now a product will make money even if only a tiny percentage of people buy it. Piracy may be a Robin Hood operation on the PC, but on the Amiga it is suicide for those who love the machine, and a disappearing way to make some quick money for those who don't give a stuff about it (notice how most of the parasites who were in the scene to make money have left the Amiga for the PC (of course, a large number of very talented and great people have also gone that way too, to our loss)). It's even worse on the PC, but I still think that the price of games on the Amiga is too high, especially considering many will last two weeks at most for someone like me. But on the Amiga we simply cannot complain about the cost of productivity programs. Let's look at Directory Opus as an example. This is a program which PC users would kill for, (and they would have to) yet it cost about the same price as many PC games! Walk into a software shop some day and have a look at just how much serious software costs on the PC. Of course, just because our (better) software is cheaper than the PC's doesn't mean it is reasonably priced. What is reasonable is an individual's choice, but I personally feel that a program such as Directory Opus is very good value for money. Not everyone likes DOpus, especially the controversial new version (believe me, use it for a week and you won't ever want to go back to DOpus4 !), and it's always been a program which has polarized opinions. You either love it or hate it, because a file management program is something that if you use at all, you probably use every single day you turn your computer on. When you use something as good as DOpus every day, and it costs as little as it does, there is very little excuse for not buying it. If you're using a pirate copy of Directory Opus 5, just think about this. Is the cost (and I would hardly call it expensive!) really so great, considering how much work has gone (and continues to go) into the program which you use every day and wouldn't be the same without? If you're using DOpus5 it is because you think it's the best, not because there is nothing else to do the job, as there are many, many other file-management programs for the Amiga. It isn't like people using AmiExpress because it's virtually the only option, despite the fact that it is incompetently programmed and designed (if it is designed at all). If I hated DOpus as much as I hated AmiExpress when I used that every day too, I would never have paid a penny for it and certainly wouldn't be urging anyone else to. However, I have a great deal of respect for the people behind DOpus, and I wish that they were getting rich from it (but not so rich that they wouldn't talk to me any more :), because they certainly deserve to. I know a lot of people read AmigaReport, so many of you will have seen the message from Jonathan Potter about how damaging the almost instant pirate release of DOpus was, and how upset he was personally. Now it seems that an internal beta copy has even been released (there isn't even honour among thieves). I've been talking to both Jonathan and Greg Perry a great deal during the past few weeks and they have been both helpful with my problems and open to my suggestions, not to mention extremely friendly and willing to take the time to talk to me. You wouldn't get that from a lot of other companies, and I guess it's a little ironic that the smaller companies can often offer better tech-support. Greg and Jonathan have both done a great deal for me, and this is my small way of doing (trying to do) something in return. I urge people not to release any more of the updates of DirectoryOpus. Those who would actually want the updates must like the program enough to be able to spend the small amount of money it takes to actually buy the program. You can't even use the excuse that you're doing it for respect, because virtually ANYONE who knows how to use DMS could release a new copy of DOpus. For the same reasons, I urge people not to release copies of the manual, as this and tech-support are about the only incentives to buy the program for people who don't even care about the developers and the future of the Amiga. There are many features of DOpus5 that you will probably never find without reading the manual. Incidentally, there will not be an electronic (AmigaGuide) version of the ARexx commands appendix for the sole reason of sales. Think about what that means. (Looks like I'm too late in saying this, someone has already released the manual :( ). Come on, if someone with as little money to spend as me at the moment can manage to pay the small cost, surely you can too. The only other reason that you should buy your copy of DOpus5 (for those who really just don't care about anyone or thing but themselves) is that DirectoryOpus has to be the most frequently "faked" program of all time. If I had a pound for ever fake copy (some with a virus attached) of DOpus that I've seen on certain BBS, I would be able to buy myself a second copy. If you want to be able to TRUST your copies, you have to BUY them. (For those of you thinking things are dandy, BOTH of the TWO versions claiming to be Directory Opus v5.1 are BOTH *BETA* versions, and not the real v5.1!! (YES, even the "German release" one). How does that make you feel about trusting new versions? Next time it could look just as much like an official release but wipe your harddrive.) DOpus5 is STILL being worked on and updated. Think how many of the great Amiga programs you use on a daily basis are still being updated. We really cannot afford to left any more developers leave our platform if we want our software to continue to be up there with the other machines'. @ENDNODE @NODE LeoD5PM_OrderInfo "Where to order DOpus5." To order Directory Opus 5 (GP Software): Small-Biz Software Phone: +61 (74) 919 190 PO Box 24 Fax: +61 (74) 926 860 Golden Beach Queensland AUSTRALIA 4551 Wizard Developments Phone: +44 (01) 322 272908 PO BOX 490 Fax: +44 (01) 322 2811311 Dartford Kent DA1 2UH ENGLAND Schatztruhe Phone: +49 201 788778 Veronikastr 33 Fax: +49 201 798447 45131 Essen GERMANY Micro R&D Phone: +1 308 745 1234 721 'O' Street Fax: +1 308 745 1246 Loup City NE 68853 USA (Taken from the registration card - I hope this information is accurate) @ENDNODE @node FEATURE4 "Open Letter to Amiga Technologies, Dr. Peter Kittel" @toc FEATURE ========================================================================== OPEN LETTER TO AMIGA TECHNOLOGIES, DR. PETER KITTEL Bob Richardson, MagicBox Inc. magicbox@peak.org ========================================================================== May 8, 1995 Escom AG ATTN: Dr. Peter Kittel Tiergartenstr. 9 D-64646 Heppenheim Germany Dear Mr. Kittel: Greetings. We have been following your posts to the internet for quite some time, and were very glad to hear of your new position with Escom. Our company markets products to the cable television industry, and relies heavily on the Amiga hardware and operating system both for development and our final product. Our products range from a low-cost character generator, based on the CD32 repackaged in a rack-mount chassis, on up to large distributed display systems based on multiple A4000's. This letter addresses our suggestions for what features we feel are essential for future machines, both for our needs and the general needs of the Amiga community. As you said in your post today, the most important thing right now is to get the existing models back in production. Short Term Suggestions: As you have mentioned in your posts, it is very important to keep the price of the low-end machines down. We definitely feel the same way, and recognize the need for those machines in the marketplace. Therefore, our suggested changes primarily apply to high-end machines, and the changes for low-end models are primarily related issues such as board layout. We feel that certain features which are not present in current models have provided significant problems for marketing the machines. For future models, we think the following relatively simple changes will add tremendous value: 1. SCSI in the high-end machines (A4000) Well over 90% of the Amiga 4000's we have shipped and encountered in the United States market have had to be equipped with a SCSI board, which occupies a Zorro slot. Because many of these system use the Video Toaster, which covers over but does not use two Zorro slots, only one slot is left free for networking, video capture, extra serial ports, etc. The addition of a SCSI controller (such as found in the A3000) will free up an extra slot, while simultaneously reducing the overall cost of putting a system together, since adding 3rd party cards is inevitably more expensive. 2. Video output in the high-end machines The A600, A1200, and CD32 provide a composite color video output which provide a remarkably high quality signal, better than most low-end genlocks. This solution should also be included in the A4000. If all you want to do is record your productions direct to video tape, you shouldn't have to buy an expensive genlock or waste your video slot. The exact same circuitry as the A1200/CD32 video encoder would be more than acceptable for most uses. 3. Audio input and/or extra parallel port in the high-end machines Most of the A4000's in the USA become equipped with a parallel-port based audio digitizer, such as the MegaloSound from HiSoft/AVR. Unfortunately, this requires the use of a switchbox or a Zorro slot with an extra parallel port, which is expensive, if you want to have a printer. Having this very inexpensive A/D circuitry integrated into the computer, or providing an extra parallel port for a printer (or PARnet, etc.), would eliminate this problem, and provide for more favorable direct comparison to competition from the A/V Macintosh line of machines. 4. Internal keyboard header in the low-end machines As I mentioned earlier, we repackage machines, such as the CD32 (and SX1) into a 19" rack-mount chassis. We have been doing this since the days of the A500. Unfortunately, this is very difficult to do with newer machines like the A600 and A1200. The A500 provided all the necessary keyboard controller lines on a header connector on the motherboard. Hooking an external keyboard to the A600/1200 requires soldering directly to chips or traces. Having the keyboard controller lines available just as blank, drilled pads that we can solder to would only add a couple of cents of cost to future machines, but would be of tremendous value to OEMs such as ourselves. 5. Connectors should all be on front or rear of high-end machines If at all possible, the location of the mouse connectors should be moved to the front or rear of the computer, as was the case on the A2000. By having connectors on the side of the machine, mounting of the cabinet in a permanent environment, such as a rack, is difficult, and sometimes impossible. 6. PCMCIA connector on low-end machines should be relocated We find the PCMCIA port to be of tremendous value, and use it for both SCSI and Ethernet applications. Unfortunately, the present location again provides problems for mounting of card-equipped machines in a rack, or in a professional setting. The best solution for us would be to have this connector present on the rear of the case, or recessed in a trapdoor. If it must remain on the left, perhaps moving it further toward the rear, and providing a greater depth for card insertion. We feel that the above suggestions, if implemented in the first round of new models, would greatly increase the usefulness of Amigas in a professional environment, while minimizing the cost impact to the lower models. Long Term Goals We have three additional suggestions for the future, which I will present here. Two are for new low-end models, and one is for the long-term future of Amiga O/S development. 1. Faster processor in the A1200 If (and only if) the component prices are low enough, the A1200 should get a processor upgrade. The simplest change, which wouldn't require a substantial redesign, would be to double the clock speed of the 68020 to 28MHz. A better solution would be to go with a 68030, with more address lines brought to the trapdoor, for more memory expansion. This would probably introduce compatibility problems and higher costs, however. Another suggestion would be to include SIMM sockets on the A1200 motherboard itself, so that the trapdoor could be used for other applications without always having to squeeze memory onto the cards. A problem many users face is that they buy one trapdoor card that accepts one type of memory, then later upgrade to a more powerful trapdoor card and find they have to buy all new memory. 2. Introduce an intermediate model that fits between the A1200 and A4000. We see a need in the video production and education markets, especially in the USA, for a very low cost Amiga model that appears more high end in terms of case design than the A1200. We feel such a machine could be produced using existing motherboard designs and would represent a good niche between the A1200 and A4000. Start with an A1200 motherboard, but put it in a plastic pizza-box style (thin form-factor) case with the floppy drive located in the front, and enough internal room for a 3.5" IDE drive. Provide a connector for a standard external Amiga keyboard. This machine will not cost much more than an A1200 to produce, and won't require a substantial redesign, but will easily overcome the established resistance in the US marketplace to console-style case designs. This would also be an ideal platform for low-cost multimedia delivery (see the CD32 section below). 3. Port the Amiga O/S to your chosen RISC platform The Amiga O/S is one of the last truly efficient, compact designs. It can be argued than a RISC-based Amiga that runs under Windows NT or such is not really an Amiga. We feel that in order for the basic design philosophies that the Amiga represents to carry on into the future, the operating system must be represented on future architectures, even if this takes much time to materialize. Without AmigaDOS, a RISC-based Amiga will just be a Windows box with a nice chipset. The CD32 This product deserves special mention. The CD32 has kept our company (and many others) going through Commodore crisis of the past year, as A1200's and A4000's are unavailable. We have gone so far as to design a 3" x 19" x 17" chassis that accommodates a CD32, SX1, 3.5" HD Floppy, 3.5" hard drive, and 3.5" 270MB SyQuest drive for our high end systems traditionally made up of A4000's. We feel that the CD32 has a good future as an ideal kiosk / multimedia delivery platform, and hope to see production continued. We wouldn't change a thing for the base model, as the inclusion of non-volatile RAM, keyboard and serial ports makes it a good all-around machine. A step up for multimedia producers would be a CDTV-style design with an integrated floppy drive. This could also be accomplished with the intermediate A1200-A4000 machine described earlier and an internal CD-ROM drive. Thank you for taking the time to consider these suggestions. We are looking forward to the results of your new efforts with Escom. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. You may call me at [phone numbers removed from public post], or send email to magicbox@peak.org. Congratulations once again on your new position; we wish you the best of luck. Sincerely, Bob Richardson Director of Product Development MagicBox, Inc. @endnode @node FEATURE5 "Frankfurt Press Conference Transcripts" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== TRANSCRIPTS FROM ESCOM/AMIGA TECHNOLOGIES' MAY 30TH PRESS CONFERENCE =========================================================================== Credit goes to Adrian J Warren (a.warren@rhbnc.ac.uk) for the bulk of the copying to file form of the press conference packet. Thanks also go to Gilles Bourdin, press officer for Amiga Technologies (gbo@worldnet.net) for providing official transcripts of key speeches. Below is the schedule of speeches from the May 30th press conference held by the new owners of the Amiga assets and technology. @{"4.00-4.10" link TY} Petro Tyschtschenko: Introduction. Amiga Technologies GmbH - the new company @{"4.10-4.25" link SC} Manfred Schmidt: Business Strategies of Escom, Amiga and Commodore @{"4.25-4.40" link KI} Dr Peter Kittel: Commodore and Amiga - history and outlook @{"4.40-4.50" link FR} Jeff Frank: Amiga hardware and OS development @{"4.50-5.05" link BO} Jon Bohmer: Scala's business strategy - Amiga support in the future - new developments @{"5.05-5.15" link RY} Bjorn Rybakken: Amiga A4000T - the new design @{"5.15-5.20" link DI} Wolf Dietrich: The new 68060 module --------------------------------------------------------------------------- B R E A K --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{"5.40-5.55" link ES} Prof. Hartmut Esslinger: Relaunch and redesign of Commodore and Amiga products @{"6.00-6.05" link GO} Ed Goff: Amiga's licensing policy @{"6.05-6.15" link GI} Don Gilbreath: Amiga's co-operation with VisCorp @{"6.15-6.25" link CO} Manfred Schmidt: Summary @endnode @node TY "Petro Tyschtschenko" Petro Tyschtschenko General Manager, Amiga Technologies GmbH Ladies and gentlemen, As the General manager of Amiga Technologies GmbH, I would like to welcome you to the first press conference of our new company and also tell you how much we appreciate your presence here. At a spectacular auction, five weeks ago in New York, ESCOM AG acquired the rights to the intellectual property of the former Commodore company for 10 Mio $, including all trademarks, logos, products and licences. Since the day we succeeded in buying the Amiga technology, many people have asked us how the future will look for their computer of choice. We got floods of anxious faxes and letters to which we couldn't give an answer at once because things were too early to comment. We will use the opportunity we have now to talk to all of you and present the new Escom daughtercompany, Amiga Technologies. Some leading developpers of hardware and software for the Amiga as well as some of our new licensing partners will present themselves and their projects to us. To clear up things from the beginning, - and that's the point you are all interested in - I want to make the comittment that we are determined to resume production and also want to continue hardware and software development of what we believe is a superior technology. That's why we created Amiga Technologies and we are now hiring the best and most capable people to accomplish this. For a sucessfull Multimedia company like ESCOM, the Commodore Patents and licences concerning Amiga are considered the key to multimedia technology. Mister Schmitt will say more about this later. But let's concentrate on our immediate plans. As the director of Amiga Technologies, my first priority now is to resume production of Commodore and Amiga computers and bring them on the market as soon as possible. For us, this means September 1995. I would also like to refer to Commodore computers, Pentium PCs, which will be available in August this year. These will be fully loaded P75 and P100 multimedia PCs. They will be assembled in our own ESCOM facilities. We plan to sell between 50 000 and 60 000 units before the end of this year. Let me point out that the Commodore and Amiga operations will be separate, Amiga Technologies will only take care of Amiga, whereas ESCOM will provide Commodore PCs. One month later, we will start producing the high-end multimedia Amiga 4000 T. To succeed in keeping that tight schedule, we negotiated with well known producers in Europe and Asia. For the selection of the manufacturing partner, we will be emphasizing the quality requirements. Until the end of the year, we plan to produce enough machines to meet the demand. These machines are already outsold in preorders. In October, the production of the low-end A1200 will begin. We expect to ship enough untis as well as CD 32 game consoles to meet the Christmas season demand. Please give us more time to publish quantities. The takeover of the inventory, which is mainly composed of spare parts, in the UK and Germany is completed. The rumoured stocks of new Amigas ready to be sold do not exist. For inventory in the Phillipines, we are currently negotiating with the local trustees. Ladies and gentlemen, the new Amiga Technology will now become the operating center of an international Company held 100% by ESCOM AG. Our headquarters in Bensheim will employ around 50 people for following tasks : development, support to developers, resellers, and users, production management, Marketing, PR and administration. We also took over the former Commodore development center in Norristown, with its research and development facilities. Eduard Goff, former Vice President and General counsel at Commodore now leads that center. He will talk to you later. Our developers are now working on the next generation RISC based Amigas as well as on improving current models. Here, we are working in a tight partnership with SCALA and MOTOROLA. Amiga Technologies GmbH expects a turnover of 100 Mio DM in 1995, mainly from the Christmas business with Amiga 1200, 4000 and CD32. Our monthly expenses are evaluated at around 600 000 DM. The break even point should be reached this year. We are confident that we will have rentabilized our 10 Mio $ investment by spring 1996 with Amiga sales and licences. I will be here again for further questions later this afternoon, but now let me introduce M Manfred Schmitt, Chairman of the executive board at ESCOM. @endnode @node SC "Manfred Schmidt" Manfred Schmitt Escom AG Chairman of the Executive Board Ladies and gentlemen, Since we won the auction for the intellectual property of Commodore and Amiga, the ESCOM AG is flooded with congratulation messages. Amiga clubs and Amiga users write to ask us to revive and continue to develop and improve the Amiga. Many of them actually sent us their wishes for future hardware architectures and operating systems improvements. However, it is still unclear for many users how a PC manufacturer and retailer will use the Amiga technology. Here is our answer: ESCOM now turns from a PC manufacturer and retailer into a multimedia company. The big multimedia applications will come very soon as Pay-TV, Video on demand, homebanking, home-shopping and online services. In this growing market, we want to become a leading provider of hardware, software and solutions. Our goal is to give the user a cost-efficient way to access all these new services the multimedia world will allow. The Amiga technology brings us all we need here in an elegant way. We see in the Amiga the key to Multimedia technologies for the future. As an intelligent terminal, you all know the PC. Many people use the PC in conjunction with a modem to access online services and the worldwide Internet. Escom is providing that market with a wide palette of advantageoulsy priced Multimedia PCs in a range between 2000 and 3000 DM. But there are other user profiles, who want to use the multimedia technology without having to spend several thousands of DM. For these users, the Amiga represents a very interesting alternative. It stands out with an amazing price/quality ratio. Also remarkable is the operating system with a still unmatched multitasking ability. That means that several applications can run simultaneously, depending on available memory without slowing down the whole system. This is achieved by the smart resource sharing of the system and the low consumption of RAM and processing power by the applications. The Amiga operating system needs 8 times less memory than Windows, and it multitasks better than Windows. Through this smart use of system resources, the Amiga is still a very efficient and unexpensive computer. Video is another strength of the Amiga. In this aspect, the Amiga is superior to the PC. The video output of the Amiga is already PAL and NTSC compatible, so it can just be plugged into a TV or any video monitor. A PC needs a converter to do this. The Amiga represents a possibility to give people access to interactive television, online services and pay TV with set top boxes at decent prices like 400 DM. The market is huge because there are much more televisions than computers in the homes. The set top box is a concrete application involving Amiga technology that we want to improve. For the American market, which is much more advanced than in Europe in this regard, we already have license agreements with our partner VisCorp - our first licence by the way. We are willing to be very flexible and open-minded regarding licensing of our technology. Amiga developers and manufacturers shall have the chance to talk with us to define partnerships or license agreements. Together, we will develop a wide range of Amiga hardware and software. Our goal is a productive, open amiga technology. The example of Viscorp demonstrates it at best : we license Amiga technology to people who want to integrate it in their own products. The press already talked about another partner, the Tianjin Family-Used Multimedia Co. Ltd. They will build the lower range of Amiga computers and revive the legendary Commodore 64 for the chinese market. Ladies and gentlemen, we have mainly talked about the Amiga. In New York, we also took over another well known brand : Commodore. All of you surely remember the good old Commodore 64 and its tremendous success in the early eighties. It is still a famous episode in the home computer history that could be compared to the Volkswagen Beetle. A recent study made by the german economic magazine DM reveals that the name Commodore still has very high recognition. 93 percent of all PC users know the trademark Commodore. such a reputation is only surpassed by IBM. We will now separate Commodore and Amiga operations. Amiga will be the multimedia range with Motorola processors and Commodore for Intel based Personal Computers. We want to use all available and appropriate distribution channels both for Commodore and Amiga: specialized retail stores, warehouses, and mail order services. The ESCOM subsidiaries are only one of many possibilities. Ladies and gentlemen, we are convinced that ESCOM, Commodore and Amiga will become a sucess story. Look at the structure and competencies we have built up in a short time. Thank you. @endnode @node KI "Dr Peter Kittel" Dr. Peter Kittel, Amiga Technologies GmbH, on the press conference 30 May 1995 in Frankfurt Ladies and gentlemen, As Head of the Product Planning Group of the new Amiga Technologies GmbH I would like to give you an overview about the past and the technical future in our view. The company Commodore started in 1958 as a typewriter repair company followed by production of electric typewriters, digital watches, calculators and video games. In 1977, there was launched one of the first real desktop computers, the legendary PET 2001. It was followed by the CBM series, where the CBM 8032 dominated the german bureau market in 1980 and the following years, just before the breakthrough of the IBM PC. These 8000 series had a reputation of being especially easy to use and to program and being robust, a similar reputation like the Volkswagen beetle. Simultaneously Commodore started the Home Computer market in 1981 with the VIC 20, soon followed by the C 64. The C 64 became the top selling computer ever, its success and sold number is again only comparable to the Volkswagen beetle. In this way Commodore had generated two different markets which complemented each other nicely. The year 1985 brought great news. In spring Commodore introduced the IBM-compatible PC 10, and in July in New York during a gala show the Amiga. - The PC 10 succeeded to carry on the advantages of the 8000 series and at least in Europe to increase the professional reputation. - The Amiga was far ahead its time with its graphics and sound capabilities and got an euphoric reception by the computer press. >From its first days software and hardware vendors exploited the special capabilities of the Amiga to display graphics, or also animated graphics, all accompanied by synchronized sound. Only later the term "Multimedia" was invented for this, the Amiga did it from day one. The special capabilities of the Amiga are due to two aspects, its special hardware - the Custom Chips with the familiar names Paula, Agnus, and Denise - and on the other hand its Operating System. Looking back, one can only admire how well suited for the future this unique operating system was designed in the early 80's. As a result it offers still unmatched multitasking ability. The Amiga reacts immediately on every user input and wastes no time for administrative tasks. Typically you can run several big applications in parallel, without noticing a slow down of any of them. This all while the Amiga uses its resources like memory in RAM or on disk very efficiently, so that it appears always a bit faster through this aspect, and also doesn't stress the wallet of its owner in regards of big RAM or harddisks. A further feature of the Amiga is its video compatibility by using scan frequencies typical for video, as well as its ability to get genlocked. Every Amiga from the low-end to high-end provides this feature. Many video and TV studios use the Amiga as an integral part of their equipment. To show more concretely where the Amiga comes from, here is a picture of the genius behind the Amiga Custom Chips, Jay Miner, who passed away last year. The breakthrough for the Amiga came in 1987, when the first Amiga 1000 was followed by two successors, the Amiga 500 as a dedicated home computer and the Amiga 2000 as a professional workplace computer. The A500 became immediately the star of the home computer scene and dominated it for several years, so that Commodore nearly gained a monopoly in this low-cost market. On the other end, the A2000 featured the Open System Architecture, so that add-on vendors could offer everything from an external video digitizer to a turbo board with a bigger processor. One other unique Amiga feature helped here, which is called "Autoconfig": You can just plug in cards and don't need to bother for DIP switches or jumpers, a feature that's only now slowly emerging as "Plug&Play" also on PCs. The year 1994 brought the breakdown of Commodore, after the financial reserves had been exhausted by some fatal management decisions. The liquidators tried to sell the company, but only in spring 1995, on the auction of April 20th and 21st in New York, the german company Escom won and took over Commodore completely. Under the wing of Escom AG, Amiga Technologies GmbH will concentrate exclusively on the Amiga, to restart its production and develop it further. The current Amiga generation offers a full palette from the absolute Low-End - the Multimedia Game Console CD32 - over the full-featured home computer A1200 up to the High-End with the A4000 Tower. Concurrent platforms try to state it as normal that you get a trade-off between enhanced features and speed. But the Amiga shows that this has not to be the case for a really modern operating system. The professionality of the Amiga's video features shows up frequently in the recent past, in that several TV series in USA are now produced completely on Amigas for their video effect parts. Two examples are SeaQuest DSV and Babylon V. After the takeover the new company is conscious of the necessity to further develop the Amiga platform, as the competition has not stood still. The new Amiga company will therefore install an engineering division that can make the transition into a new generation happen. In the mid term future this will lead to stronger processors and otherwise enhanced versions of the current models. The big perspective for the future consists in a port of the Amiga architecture to a RISC platform, to assure the awaited power for the future. The very first task of this new engineering division will be to prepare this decision. Which of the concurring RISC platforms will be the optimum for the special case of the Amiga, is no trivial decision. On one side it is a goal to bring the Amiga nearer to the "Mainstream", so that it becomes easier to port and run existing application programs. On the other hand, the future computer should always remain recognizable as an "Amiga" that is not assimilated among an amorphous mass of similar computers. The Amiga once started with far superior graphics and sound capabilities, and should by all means regain this advantage. To fulfill both requirements, there are currently two alternatives, the PowerPC and the HP PA RISC. Both have advantages and disadvantages, and they will get thoroughly judged. Concurrent with this, the operating system will have to get adapted to this new hardware platform, plus will adapt to new requirements like 3D graphics, texture mapping, Object Oriented design and other current technologies. This task will be not as difficult as some might suspect, as we can build on a basis which was always designed with progress in mind. Let's look forward to a great future of the Amiga architecture! @endnode @node FR "Jeff Frank" Jeff Frank Amiga Technologies GmbH My name is Jeff Frank and I have been retained by Amiga Technologies GmbH to provide technical assistance with respect to Engineering and Manufacturing Amiga related products. Previously I have been with Commodore International Ltd. for nearly nine years, primarily as Director of Engineering. I am sure you are all as happy as I to hear that the "Amiga" is indeed alive and well! Initially, most of our labours will be focused on resuming production of the A4000 Tower and A1200 class products. In fact, the A4000 Tower will be much like a new product introduction, considering that Commodore only ever built 1000 units. The A4000 Tower and A1200 will feature the AmigaDOS 3.1 Operating System which was not in wide release prior to Commodore's demise. We will also pursue both tactical and strategic enhancements to the Amiga product line over the months and years to come. Tactically, our first and perhaps the most obvoius enhancement will be a 68060 processor upgrade to the A4000 Tower. We also believe that a performance upgrade to the A1200 by moving from an EC020 to an EC030 processor as well as built in support for fast ram capability is a logical step. Strategically, we are looking into creating "Encapsulated Amiga Environments" or Emulations for the IBM and Apple environments. Also, potential ports of AmigaDOS to non-Amiga platforms will be assessed. We feel that this is a way we may help the Amiga Technology to permeate other Computing Environments. We will also consider merging architectures of available RISC technologies and the Amiga technology. We also feel very strongly that the "Amiga Technology" has applications in many non-traditional computing environments, and we will vigorously pursue relationships in order to promote the Amiga Technology. The Amiga operating System "AmigaDOS" features a low overhead Kernel and efficient use of memory, which makes it well suited to Multimedia and embedded applications, such as interactive TV set-top boxes. The Amiga "AA" core chipset features low-cost genlock support, high performance graphics and animation capabilities, and direct support of broadcast quality PAL and NTSC video standards making the technology ideal for video effects, video production and interactive TV set-top boxes. We feel that the time is right to establish this technology as a potential standard in these embedded applications, particularly here in Europe where these applications are just emerging and the participants can benefit from the many mistakes made by similar vendors in North America. Strategically, we will look toward advancing the core Amiga technology where possible and practical. In closing I would like to say that we are very excited about Amiga's future. @endnode @node BO "Jon Bohmer" Jon Bohmer (Founder of Scala, Vice President New Business Development) Scala is in the business of computer television: that is, using a computer to produce and distribute television type programming. The company is one of the world's leading developers of computer-based television information solutions and the undisputed leader in multimedia software fot the Amiga platform. Available in eleven languages, Scala's multimedia tools are distributed in more than 40 countries. Scala was founded in Norway in 1987. Today we are headquartered outside Washington, DC, with international headquarters in Oslo and offices in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. Scala's team of sortware engineers includes most of the people who originally developed the Amiga operating system for Commodore. Our main products are Scala MultiMedia, a software package for the production and playback of multimedia presentations, interactive training applications, infotainment, and video titling; Scala InfoChannel, for multimedia networking and information distribution; and Scala Interactive Television, including software for the production of TV content and the operating environment for satellite and cable TV decoders. All products share the Scala BackBone technology. This makes the software independent of hardware platorm and makes the Scala solutions portable to multiple environments. BackBone includes MMOS, which is an object-oriented operating system layer specifically developed for multimedia applications, and ScalaScript which is the scripting language we seek to establish as the standard multimedia language of the future. Since the Amiga went out of production a year ago Scala has seen a constant demand for Amigas, from both new and experienced users. We are happy to see production resume, and to continue to support the Amiga platform. Together the Scala software technology and the Amiga hardware technology make up a powerful and cost effective solution for everyone who needs a multimedia package for home or office use. No other solution can match the price performance of the Amiga and Scala combination. We look forward to working closely with the neew Amiga Technologies company in order to provide ready-to-use solutions with every machine. Scala's good design has long been one of our strongest assets, and it is an acknowledgement of our achievements that Escom has chosen one of our designers to create the new look for the new Amiga. @endnode @node RY "Bjorn Rybakken" Bjorn Rybakken Topics The Rebirth of the Amiga Reincarnation means to continue life, but in another body and in another place. The similarities of the Amiga rebirth is obvious. When designing a new Amiga, one should pay more attention to making the bodyshell relect that this is a different machine, and a different computer platform. Furthermore, the Amiga is a creative tool in creative environments, and it must therefore relate to this situation. @endnode @node DI "Wolf Dietrich" Wolf Dietrich Phase 5 digital products My name is Wolf Dietrich from phase 5 digital products, a Frankfurt based manufacturer of AMIGA perhipherals. I am happy to present to you at this re-introduction of the AMIGA series of computers the latest generation of the 68k series of processors, the superscalar 68060 CPU. phase 5 digital products has developed the first fully operational implementation of this processor for the Amiga marketed as the Cyberstorm 060 accelerator, which is available now and shipping. With this implementation of the powerful 68060 processor the new AMIGA models make a step ahead into the leading group of today's microcomputer systems. The 68060 processor combines the powerful functionality and instruction set of earlier 68k processors with a new superscalar architecture and adds performance-boosting features like two parallel integer instruction units, larger data and instruction caches of 8k size, a branch cache, and pipelined write accesses; this all means a combination of the industries most advanced technologies for processing performance enhancements. While software compatibility with existing applications is fully maintained, more than 80 mips processing power ie: real world applications on the AMIGA perform competitively with other high-end systems such as Pentium and PowerPC based machines. In combination with the AMIGA's other architectural advantages this makes a powerful system for all semi-professional and professional applications, perfectly suited for today's requirements for multimedia computing. The figures shown here indicate the performance leap which the 68060 brings to the AMIGA. With speed increases by a factor of between 4 and 5 times over the performance of the original 68040 based AMIGA systems - which have been powerful machines already - time-consuming applications are dramatically accelerated. These application benchmarks, however, still use unoptimized 68040 code, which can be accelerated another 1.5 times by simple optimization to the 68060's special features, which is a most simple task for software developers now that the 68060 is available. The scalable superscalar architecture also opens a wide future for options such as multi-processor systems, which either combine multiple 68060 processors, or even integrate other CPUs into such a system to build a most flexible computer system for many various tasks. As a conclusion, it can be said that the 68060 processor, integrated into the AMIGA architecture, offers true workstation power. With this competitive performance and the full integration with the AMIGA's architectural advantages the AMIGA will hold it's position as an outstanding multimedia computing system. @endnode @node ES "Prof Dr Harmut Esslinger" Prof. Dr. Hartmut Esslinger The 70's were the decade of marketing the 80's were the decade of finance the 90's will be the decade of design. (Business Week Magazine 1990) Reading this quote from Business Magazine, New York, one may be inclined to look at design like a magic medicine. I feel that the prominence of design today has more to do with market reality. Today, basically great production and functional quality is plentiful technical performance is exchangable, be it computers, automobiles, TVs, clothing - basically it's all the same. The markets and product-features are transparent like glass-houses, the customer knows nearly everything, even the margins lay in the open, there is no feature the competition doesn't have have very soon too, no major technical differentiation has been left in High-Tech. Except innovative, human culture, adapting products to people's specific needs - escpecially emotional ones, DESIGN, Integrated Strategic Design to be precise. Our own market research shows us, that in the field of TEDology products (Richard Wurman: Technology-Entertainment-Design as the new global industry) * Ten years ago 4 in 5 potential customers looked at technology and price, and only 2 in 5 cared for design, ease of use and ergonomics. * Today 4 in 5 potential customers make a buying decision based upon design but they expect the price to be about 30% lower than the "elite-design target-group" would have accepted 10 years ago. Design however is not defined by qualified aesthetics alone, some people list design as a visible principle of quality, some people define design still as a matter of prestige, and some just look at the level of excitement that design will provide. Design is becoming different, democratic, open, free Design is reflecting our open society; many dreams, many ideas, many truths. With design being considered a popular issue, no artificial add-on is considered competent anymore, no stylistic exclusion of the masses for the benefit of an elite will be tolerated. DESIGN is requested, feasible and available in what futurist Alvin Toffler calls the "individual mass product". We all know Commodore and AMIGA meant as High-Tech brands: Commodore was an affordable way to get into personal computing, the first AMIGA-machine actually was created just one mile off my house in Los Gatos - and personally I know some people who created the machine very well. But for some not so trivial reasons, the brands were managed out of the market. Now - after ESCOM acquired them - NOW * what will happen to the legendary brands? * what will be the future products? * how will they look and feel? * to whom will they appeal? * and will there be a new legend? We have set three goals: Our new product will emerge from what Richard Wurman calls TEDology, or what Nicholas Negroponte calls the new domain of "creative digital life" * Technology we will apply the best of Microsoft/Intel we will apply the best of Macintosh/PowerPC we will apply the hottest Technology in Games and we will apply the newest in Digital Television, Audio and Video. * Entertainment The new Commodore and Amiga products will be accessible by innovative and cultural software-interface solutions, which will be easy to use and powerful tools. I personally feel that our new products will create a new standard for people-oriented high-tech consumer products. * Design Our new products will be high-tech-fashion statements, some will appeal to young people, as statements of a new culture, some will appeal to women, emotional and elegant, some will appeal to power-hungry web-surfers, some will appeal to machine-crazies, we will introduce colour on a bigger scale, and we will create the opportunity of design-customization. As we just started to conceptualize and design the new product lines, I cannot show you anything concise or descriptive at this time. I can only explain our "way of design" a little bit and illustrate it with examples: * historic frogdesign breakthroughs, which were then assumptions of the future or became huge successes, changing High-Tch into High- Fashion. and as I am also a teacher, * the way students look at the future, they will live in as designers soon too. but you will not feel left out completely * because at the end of my short presentation I will show you the new brand identities of Commodore and AMIGA and one short 3 second peek into the design-work under way. Let me also remark shortly on the new way of doing business in Computing, (which since about 20 years is at the centre of my professional life): * It is very competitive, but due to standards it's based on Win - Win * It is about working together, repecting people and nature * It is about building alliances, rather than destroying common ground. @endnode @node GO "Ed Goff" Ed Goff Lawyer - employed by ESCOM and Amiga Technologies GmbH My name is Ed Goff. I'm a Philadelphia lawyer working with Escom and Amiga technologies GmbH, on a wide variety of issues related to the re-launch of Amigas. In particular, I will talk today on issues of Licensing. Our strategy will be somewhat different than the strategy that you saw from Commodore in the past. It is our intention to have strategic program for Amigas that will be as open as possible, and which will therefore drive the Amiga technology into as wide a range of products and applications as possible. First I would like to discuss the broadest type of licensing arrangements that will fit within our plan, Strategic alliances. We intend to consummate arragements for further development of the Amiga technologies together with strategic partners. These partners may be one or more well known names in the electronics and telecommunications industries. Together with the strategic partner or partners we intend to fund further development of new and advanced products based partly on Amiga and partly on proprietary and public systems provided by the strategic partner. Unfortunately I am not at liberty at this time to discuss or even identify potential strategic partners, as some of these discussions are at a very early stage. However you can understand that these strategic arrangements often take the form of joint ventures, cross- licenses, cost and risk-sharing agreements, and capital arrangements. As a result we can only announce the nature of such a strategic arrangement consistent with the wishes of the strategic partner at the time the arrangement is finalized. A second area of Licensing that falls within our strategic framework for a more open Amiga is embedded technology. We are currently pursuing opportunities for licensing the Amiga technology or portions of it to enterprises in there industries who will embed the Amiga in their products. One example of this sort of arrangement is VisCorp, a potential maker of TV set-top boxes. As you have heard or may hear from my colleagues, it is our belief that the Amiga presents uniquely attractive and cost effective solutions to enterprises attempting to meet the specifications of the telecommunications and cable industries. It is our belief that encouraging vendors in these markets to embed Amiga capabilities or features could be very exciting, and hopefully rewarding. In this regard I encourage you to make our intentions known as widely as possible so that we can get the broadest possible spectrum of embedded technology licensees. A third and less grandiose area of licensing involves people and companies who are already using the technology covered by the portfolio of patents copyrights and trademarks now owned by Escom. Often this area can be unpleasant because some of these folks have never recognised in any formal way their use of the technology. We intend to review a wide variety of products and components with a view to developing a licensing arrangement with their makers, users and sellers. At the moment, this is an uncharted area. It requires fairly intensive reviews, and often difficult discussions. For that reason, I am unable to give you further details on potential licensees at this time. @endnode @node GI "Don Gilbreath" Don Gilbreath Chief Technical Officer, VisCorp. Hello my name is Don Gilbreath. I have 12 years association with Commodore. I have worked in various capacities from engineering to technical sales and marketing. As a Director of Product and Market Development, I designed and managed among other products the team that brought the CDTV to market. I am happy to be here today for the re-birth of Amiga. After spending some quality time with ESCOM management, I am convinced they possess the marketing finesse and strength to make Amiga successful into the 21st century. Currently, I am Chief Technical Officer for VisCorp, an interactive set-top box developer and application designer based in the United States. Our executive offices are in Chicago, and we have engineering teams based in West Chester, Pennsylvania and the Silcon Valley. VisCorp is the first company to be granted a license to use the Amiga technology in interactive set-tops. Before I explain why we believe Amiga is the right platform of choice for set-tops, let me explain the current landscape of North America set-top offerings. We are aware of some 40 set-top projects. Seventeen design wins alone are for Philips chip sets and an OS9 derivative (DAVID), the closest competition for an Amiga offering. Som eof the other set-top projects (or camps) range from pure video game-based platforms such as Nintendo, Sony, and Sega to a multi- function, cost prohibitive (in terms of memory) Microsoft-based platform as well as similar offerings from Apple, SUN, and Silicon Graphics. Amiga will find a home between these two ranges in terms of cost/features and the development community. There is another camp which tend to be as much of a target as a potential partner and include Scientific Atlanta and General Instrument. They are currently not strong in computer technology as cable modems, video delivery, and authorization schemes. There is synergy and relationships with development between Amiga and these two companies in particular. What is this set-top business all about? 1 Selling product - initial hardware sale/lease or licensing - the enabling technology 2 Potential of ongoing revenues - hard goods - soft goods - providing movies, telephone service, and grocery shopping 3 Controlling transactions - classic gate keeper model We need a consortium because the following is at stake: 1 Self-intereest in semiconductors - hardware design win. 2 Operating system dominance - where applications reside. 3 Delivery system dominance - cable, teleco, radio, satellite, etc. 4 Development community - tools and understanding of next generation software. 5 Secure tranactions - financial and developer community backed (musicains to software writers). to the cusomer it must be friendly and secure Set-top world common goal: 1 Low cost - 2 Content rich - variety 3 Deploy a platform to meet the above parameters: Allow an upgrade path similar to a computer i.e. cable modem du jour, MPEG audio/video, etc., ISDN, wireless cable modems, etc. The confusion: 1% homes wired for 2-way high-speed data.... The confusion stems from how this magic, high-speed data arrives to the home: Is it telephone, satellite, radio, cable, or some hybrid? In our model it does not matter. We have OEM activities today in all of these areas. Our present VisCorp model, which is in homes today under the guise of a market test, is a hybrid model utilizing both analog telephone and broadcast data video. When the cable modem and digital video technologies settle, the federal laws may change as well. Our strategy is to deploy a product that is useful today but provides a migration path to this over hybrid, high speed, low cost world we don't live in. The current product: Over the past few years, we at VisCorp have been developing an interactive set-top platform. The VisCorp product starts by converging the television set with the telephone. It convers the TV set into an executive speakerphone with one-touch on-screen dialling and caller ID. It has built in filters and font generators to convert on-line data services to text that is readable at standard TV viewing distances. It has a built-in credit card reader and can support electronic directories, classified advertising, and catalogue shopping applications. Other features include on-screen TV listings with one button recording facility, sending faxes and e-mail, and accessing InterNet and multi-participant games (thousands playing simultaneously) that in some cases are tied to live TV events with national scoring in place prizes and cash where legal. The VisCorp product is currently being tested on a cable system in a Detroit suburb where it is also suppoting one-touch ordering of pay- per-view and access to local bulletin board service including restaurant reviews and local civic information. So this sounds like a great product. So why the Amiga? Is there something wrong? Absolutely nothing. It is our entry model, suitable today, and can be sold at retail 1995 for under 300 USD or the price of a feature rich telephone, which it is. We have a custom chip program nearing completion that further cost reduces this product and enables further dimensions in interactive TV in terms of the toy industry and education. The Amiga-based version will be our second model. We plan to embark on a crash program to further develop a chipset with our combined licenses and patented technologies with Amiga functionality. The combined Amiga/VisCorp interactive TV platform will support all currently envisioned interactive applications with the exception of full motion video on demand and practical speed CD Audio delivery. We do not think this is a handicap as a base case offering. Speciality markets or cable customers can be addressed with additional modules. We encourage an Amiga set-top consortium to be formed immediately. We believe a minimum base case design including encryption technology, if possible would be supported by consortium members. Since this platform is destined for world markets, a software rating mechanism would include parental lockout of adult features and include reviews, top sellers, etc. This standard must be in place in a similar fashion to that of the movie and music industry, thereby freeing the software development community to treat it as a guaranteed publishing platform with secure distribution of content and payment. This device which many of us will build in various @endnode @node CO "Conclusion" Conclusion Manfred Schmidt - Escom AG Ladies and gentlemen, So I hope that you got a more precise view of what the future of ESCOM and Amiga will be. I think that we all have the same motivations : We want the Amiga to succeed again as it did in the past, we want it to be recognised as an important player in the personal computer industry and we want it to be an interesting alternative to other systems. The market like the concept and the elegance of the Amiga and for us, Amiga is now our platform of choice, our business. A new company has now seen the light of day. This is an Amiga company, our people know what they have to do because they all have a deep knowledge and passion for the system they are working for. They also won't repeat the errors that have been made in the past. Since the liquidation of Commodore, this has been the first official Amiga press conference. To allow a close cooperation with the Amiga Press, Amiga Technologies has its own Press and PR department, led by your new person of contact who I'd like to introduce to you : Mr Gilles Bourdin. This conference is now over. I would like to thank you again for showing your interest, especially for those who had a long way to come. There is a showroom next door to this one where you can have a look at some of the many application fields the Amiga covers. In the meantime, before dinner, I and my colleagues are at your disposition if you have any further questions. Thank you. @endnode @node REVIEW1 "Da Capo CD-ROM Volume 1" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== REVIEW: DANNY AMOR'S "DA CAPO" CD-ROM VOLUME 1 Kane Peterson kanep@mcs.com =========================================================================== Da Capo is a 575 megabyte collection of music modules (mods), instruments and other music programs and utilities for the Amiga. "So what?", you might ask, "There are plenty of other CD-roms available that have similar programs and content." There are a few things that stand Da Capo apart from these other CD collections. First, Da Capo is designed for Amiga users. It has icons for all the programs contained on it, so everything can be clicked on from Workbench. The windows are positioned to appear at the correct size to hold all their contents. Second, it contains ready to run programs on the CD. It encompasses every music editor, mod-player, and music utility that I know about on the Amiga. Programs to note are: a full version of OctaMED 4 (mod editor), AmiSOX (sound converter utility), Play16 (WAVE, AIFF and AU sound player), DSound (IFF-8SVX sound player), and EaglePlayer (mod player). Also included are Workbench 3.x datatypes (AIFF, AU, VOC and WAVE) for supporting audio formats on other platforms, a demo version of OctaMED v6.0, and various audio CD-Rom players. Also on Da Capo are directories of instrument files already converted into IFF, WAVE, AIFF, VOC and AU format. For all formats you will find samples of drums, guitars, speech, fx and more. According to the author, there are over 2,000 instrument samples in each sound format. If you are like me, the music that is included on Da Capo is of most interest to you. This, I am happy to report, is what I liked most about Da Capo. I have listened to other mod CD collections like: 'The Ultimate MOD Collection', 'Town of Tunes' and mods on the 'Aminet' CDs, however, my largest criticism with these collections is that most of the mods fall under the 'techno' music category. That is, songs with just a heavy beat and a bunch of speech samples strung together. I'm not trying to pick on this music style (I, in fact, like techno music), but I find many of these mods to be boring and unoriginal. Da Capo has seem to step away from this and offer a more complete range of music. I have only listened to a small percentage of the 1,400+ mods on the disk, but many of them I have liked so far. Already, I can tell that there has been more music on this CD alone that I like, than what I have found on the other mod collections that I have listened to. Lastly, as extra added bonus to this CD, a real audio track with the song "I Love You" by Gabriel Seher is included on the disc. You can pop Da Capo into your compact disc player and listen to it as well. Da Capo gets a definite thumbs up! Da Capo is available from Amiga Library Services. (info@amigalib.com) @endnode @node REVIEW2 "Directory Opus 5" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== REVIEW: DIRECTORY OPUS 5 By: @{" William Near " link WILLIAM} =========================================================================== SOFTWARE: Directory Opus 5 MANUFACTURER: GPSoftware P.O. Box 570 Ashgrove, Queensland 4065 Australia +61 7 3661402 - Phone/Fax zzgperry@mailbox.uq.oz.au DESCRIPTION: The most powerful file management solution for the Amiga. PURCHASED FROM: Micro R&D 721 'O' Street Loup City, NE 68853 (308) 745-1243 - Phone (308) 745-1246 - Fax PRICE: I paid US$70, this includes $5 S&H and a $5 C.O.D. charge. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: Any Amiga with a hard drive and running at least Workbench 2.x can use Directory Opus 5 (DOpus 5). I would recommend at least 1 MB of free FAST RAM to operate this program. SYSTEM TESTED ON: Amiga 2000 (Rev 4.4), ECS chip set, GForce '030 accelerator @ 50 MHz., 2 MB CHIP + 8 MB FAST memory, Quantum LPS270S hard drive with Trumpcard Professional controller, Picasso II RTG board, Workbench 3.1 PACKAGING: The DOpus 5 package consisted of a shrink wrapped, 174 page, spiral bound manual with 1 floppy disk inside. INSTALLATION: DOpus 5 uses the standard Commodore installer utility, so, as usual, installation is a breeze. Upon launching the installer, you are presented with several choices of install methods: Start DOpus 5 on boot, Start DOpus 5 iconified, Use DOpus 5 as Workbench replacement, and Don't start DOpus 5 on boot. All of these are self-explanatory, except use DOpus 5 as Workbench replacement. If you choose to use DOpus 5 as a Workbench replacement, your LoadWB command will be renamed and a startup file for DOpus 5 will be put in its place. After selecting one of the install options for DOpus 5 the script creates a DOpus 5 drawer on the hard drive partition you selected and copies the appropriate files there. Finally, an assign line is added to your User-Startup script. One final note, if you are using a ROM switcher and you have renamed the original Startup-Sequence then you must rename the original Startup-Sequence so that the DOpus 5 install script can find it; otherwise, you will get an error and have to abort the install. FIRST IMPRESSIONS: If you are use to the look and feel of DOpus 4.x then you will immediately notice that DOpus 5 is a complete rewrite of its predecessors. The interface is almost completely new and fresh. DOpus 5 opens its own screen, of your choice, which strongly resembles a Workbench 2.x+ screen (a backdrop picture can even be used!) Most of the same pulldown menu choices are present with several DOpus 5-specific additions. Icons for all devices appear just as on Workbench. I had icons for my Boot and Work partitions, as well as the RAM Disk appeared on the main screen with the initial startup of DOpus 5. Also, a floating palette of buttons for performing various tasks and a RAM Disk Lister appeared on the screen. At this point, you are ready to go! My honest first impression was, this looks confusing! DOWN TO BRASS TACKS: Upon exploring the new features and look of DOpus 5 I quickly realized just how powerful this version is. The confusion I felt with my first look at the new utility quickly faded as I began to use it. You can click on any of the device icons that appear on the screen and open a floating Lister window. Each Lister window has a Title Bar which displays the device name and the amount of free space left on that particular device. Directly below the Title Bar is a Status Bar which displays: the number of selected directories out of the total number of directories displayed, the number of selected files out of the total number of files displayed, and the number of bytes selected out of the total number of bytes displayed. To the immediate right of these are the Lister Command Menu and the Device Gadget. These allow you to perform various actions on the selected files from a pulldown menu, as well as directory manipulations. The final item on this line is the Status Gadget which displays the state that the Lister is in i.e. SOURCE, DESTINATION, or OFF. You can change the state by clicking within the Status Bar. The last area before the actual file listings is the Lister Tool Bar which is full of various icon presentations for file and directory manipulation. The icons are: DeviceList/CacheList, Parent/Root, All/None, Select/Toggle, MakeDir, Copy/CopyAs, Move/MoveAs, ReName, Delete, Show, Play, Protect, Comment, and DateStamp. The icons of the Tool Bar are accessed by the left and right mouse buttons, also actions may be assigned to the middle mouse button. The Tool Bar can be customized any way you like, including the addition and subtraction of icons. The area of the Lister that actually shows the files and directories of the selected device can be customized as well. You can select the order in which the items are sorted and what part of the file's attributes are used for the sort order. The Lister's display can also contain as much information or as little as you desire. At the bottom of the Lister is a window where the complete path is shown. You can manually type a new path if you so desire. Maneuvering around in the Lister window can be accomplished by: holding the right mouse button down and moving the mouse pointer up/down/left/right (the listing will scroll to follow the mouse pointer's movement), using the cursor keys, using the numeric keypad's Home/End/PgUp/PgDn keys. The pulldown menus on the DOpus 5 main screen consist of the following options (I've included short definitions where appropriate): OPUS BACKDROP EXECUTE COMMAND ABOUT HIDE QUIT LISTERS NEW CLOSE MAKE SOURCE MAKE DEST LOCK AS SOURCE LOCK AS DEST UNLOCK TURN OFF UNLOCK ALL CLOSE ALL EDIT EDIT LISTER TOOLBAR EDIT LISTER MENU TILE (arranges the displayed Listers to fit equally within the main screen) HORIZONTALLY VERTICALLY CASCADE (cascades the displayed Listers within the main screen) SNAPSHOT VIEW AS NAME (just like the WB function) ICON (just like the WB function) SHOW ALL (just like the WB function) ICONS OPEN (same as double clicking on an icon) INFORMATION SNAPSHOT ICONS WINDOW ALL UN-SNAPSHOT LEAVE OUT (you can leave any directory or file out on the main screen) PUT AWAY SELECT ALL CLEAN UP RESET (restores the icon's positions according to the last snapshot) RENAME FORMAT DISK DISK INFORMATION PROGRAM GROUPS (you can make a separate icon which holds related programs within it. This is very similar to the WBStartup drawer in that programs can be launched from here without having the entire program's related files located in this drawer. You could make a Program Group that held all of your word processors, paint programs, etc.) NEW DELETE REMOVE PROGRAM BUTTONS NEW LOAD SAVE SAVE AS CLOSE EDIT (pull up the custom buttons editing palette) SETTINGS CLOCK CREATE ICONS (choose whether or not to add icons to new directories) RECURSIVE FILTER (create a filter that acts recursively on files within subdirectories) ENVIRONMENT (control over: screenmode, backdrop pattern, colors, global format for Lister displays, etc.) EDIT LOAD SAVE SAVE AS SAVE LAYOUT OPTIONS (control over: Caching, Copy, Delete, Hide Method, Icons, Locale, and special Lister format for specific directory paths) EDIT LOAD SAVE SAVE AS FILE TYPES (edit File Types used by DOpus 5 and WB 3.0/3.1) USER MENU (edit the User menu's contents) USER (customized user menu) OTHER FEATURES: * Full Drag and Drop support for highlighting directories or files and then dropping them in another Lister to be copied or unarchived etc. You can also just drag these directories or files outside of the Lister and drop them on the main screen for easy access. * The middle mouse button has full support for a wide range of functions associated with Buttons and Tool Bar icons, providing you aren't using a Commodity such as MultiCX which enables the middle mouse button for switching between screens. * Floating button bars make it easy to customize your DOpus 5 layout with only the most needed functions which aren't supported, or conveniently accessed, by an icon on the Tool Bar or a menu choice in the User menu. * ARexx support. * Data Type support. * The mouse pointer sensitive help function will pull up an Amigaguide document specific to the item you are pointing at when pressing the HELP key. * Enhanced Search requestor which supports simple and complex searches. * Enhanced Pattern Matching which supports simple and complex searches. * The ability to change the DateStamp of any file or directory. * Your old DOpus 4 configuration can be imported into DOpus 5. The look of DOpus 5 will change to look just like the old familiar DOpus 4 if you choose to do so. Frankly, this defeats the purpose and power of the new DOpus 5. I don't recommend it. DISLIKES & BUGS: I miss the CPU usage display on the main title bar. The ability to set a window close delay has been removed. This means that you have to either add a close gadget to any window that shows output from a DOpus 5 function i.e. LHA dearchiving etc., or add an AmigaDOS WAIT command to that particular function's activity. It was easier to just set the close delay under DOpus 4. When selecting a Backdrop for use on the DOpus 5 main screen, you must select the desired image from within your Prefs/WBPattern requestor and then use SaveAs. If you just select any old image from the DOpus 5 Backdrop requestor, it won't work. You have to type in a lengthy registration number that locks the copy of DOpus 5 on to the hard drive to which it was installed. If you copy the program to another drive or use a hard drive defragmenter (ReOrg etc.), you have to reregister the program by typing in the registration number again! I have experienced crashes when working with DOpus 5 with my Picasso II board and Workbench 3.1 setup. Closing the Button Paint Palette with its close gadget will cause a GURU every time on my system. SUMMARY: Directory Opus 5 is very powerful. It offers a fully multi-threaded, internally multitasking suite of programs. You can have multiple destination Listers open and be copying files etc. to each destination Lister from the source, formatting multiple floppies, unarchiving or archivng files, editing files, etc. -- all at the same time! Any of these individual tasks can be aborted without affecting any of the other tasks which are running concurrently. DOpus 5 offers a fresh new look and a functionality heretofore unheard of on the Amiga platform. The author is easily contacted via Email and he replies promptly, usually within one day. I strongly recommend that any power user of the Amiga get this program -- it's well worth it. @endnode @node REVIEW3 "PNG" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== REVIEW: A LOOK AT THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PNG Andy Dean adean@eleceng.ucl.ac.uk =========================================================================== [Well, it's mostly review. It's part plug, since the author of the article also wrote Image Studio, but hey...-Jason] Dear Jason, After reading the excellent article on GIF/PNG by Michael Console Battilana in AmigaReport 3.11, I thought you may be interested in the following article. We've recently added PNG support to ImageStudio and I've had a chance to test the new file format's performance against existing formats. I'd be delighted if you would consider the following article for inclusion in AmigaReport, it will of interest to anyone who deals with bitmap images. All the best, Andy Dean -------------------------------------------------------------------------- At the start of 1995 the GIF file format was the centre of attention when it was revealed that the LZW compression algorithm used for its data compression was under patent from Unisys. This meant that authors of commercial and shareware software that wrote GIF files were required to pay Unisys (or Compuserve, the designer of the GIF format) royalties for every copy of their software sold. This was deemed unacceptable by many users of GIF and so suggestions were put forward as to the creation of a royalty-free replacement for the GIF format. A few ideas have been suggested, but the most complete solution to date is the new PNG (Portable Network Graphics) file format. PNG takes the following features from GIF: o Storage of palette based images of up to 256 colours. o Interlaced redraw for quick display on World Wide Web browsers. o Transparent colour, allowing for non-rectangular images. o Powerful lossless compression algorithm. o Extendable for future expansion. and adds the following abilities: o Full colour images up to 48bits per pixel. o Full alpha channel. o Image pre/post filtering to further aid compression. o More levels of interlacing for faster display. The full PNG specification has not yet been released (it is up to the tenth draft at the time of writing), but already a PNG support library is being written to aid software authors in loading and saving PNG files from within their programs. As the co-author of the Amiga shareware image processing program "ImageStudio", I was very interested in this new format. So with the pre-release version of the PNG support library, the tenth draft of the PNG specs and the trusty SAS/C debugger at the ready, I wrote a PNG module for ImageStudio. My aims were to find out exactly what PNG could be useful for. I was interested in: o How fast PNG files were to load and save. o How large a PNG file is compared to other popular formats. I tested the PNG module with 3 images: "Bud" - 256 colour, 640x806 scanned image of a Budweiser advert. "Colourface" - 24bit, 574x815 scanned image of a woman's face. "Williams" - 24bit, 640x480 raytraced image of a Williams Formula1 grand prix car. With such a small number of images it is difficult to represent all types of image, but they represent perhaps the most popular types of image that are found in the 256 colour and 24bit formats. The results of load/save times and file size are given below: Image Format Load time Save time File size ----- ------ --------- --------- --------- Bud IFF-ILBM 11s 11s 460K GIF 14s 17s 371K PNG 11s 52s 326K LHA(1) 4s 29s 411K Colour- IFF-ILBM24 32s 28s 1,195K face JPEG(2) 32s 30s 95K PNG 33s 5m26s 691K TIFF-LZW(3) 1m09s 1m15s 1,450K LHA(1) 10s 1m12s 1,099K Williams IFF-ILBM24 16s 17s 354K JPEG(2) 16s 18s 48K PNG 15s 3m07s 104K TIFF-LZW(3) 27s 24s 178K LHA(1) 2s 19s 175K Notes: o The computer used for all the tests was an Amiga 4000/030 with 10MB of RAM and a 25MHz 68030. o The software used to load and save the images was ImageStudio v2.1.1 (68020+ version). (1) LHA is not an image file format. These values are the results of taking the IFF-ILBM and compressing it with LHA v1.38. The load time is the time taken to decompress the file, the save time is the compression time. This operation is a typical method of storing files to reduce their size. (2) The JPEGs were saved with a quality setting of 85. JPEG uses lossy compression, so information was lost over the original 24bit images; this explains JPEG's ability to create much smaller files than any of the other formats. (3) The TIFF-LZW files were loaded/saved by ImageFX v1.52 as ImageStudio cannot use TIFF-LZW yet. The colour mapped "Bud" image showed the least of the improvements in compression, but it was still significantly smaller than any of the other formats. When you're paying per kilobyte of file downloaded, any reduction in file size is welcome. It is the 24bit images where PNG excels. In both the scanned "Colourface" and raytraced "Williams" images, the PNG image was almost half the size of the nearest lossless format. JPEG still creates the smallest files, but at the cost of losing some of the image information. In the case of the "Colourface" image, the loss of information was almost imperceptible. With the clean raytraced "Williams" image however, the JPEG artifacts were quite noticible. I'll leave it up to the individual to decided whether PNG looks like a useful format for their own use. As all the PNG images were smaller than the other lossless formats it seems a good idea to consider PNG for storing files for archiving in all cases. Using JPEG to store scanned 24bit images is possible, but for storing computer generated images (from a raytracer, landscape generator or fractal program) the need for lossless compression is paramount. At the moment the creation of PNG files is substantially slower than with the other formats. This again suggests that PNG files lend themselves to applications where they are compressed once and read many times. The ImageStudio PNG module used for these tests is now released on Aminet as: gfx/conv ImageStudioPNG.lha The code is based on a pre-release v0.6 of the PNG library and so should still be considered "work in progress". The PNG library loads the majority of the PNG files I've come across and saves PNG files correctly, including support for interlacing and a transparent colour. The above archive contains both 68000 and 68020+ versions of the PNG module. Unregistered users of ImageStudio will find that PNG files loaded with the module will be clipped to 512x512, registered users will have a fully functional module. The module will be uploaded on the 7th of June 1995 so please give it a couple of days to propagate around the Aminet network. PNG is currently supported by both "ImageStudio" and Cloanto's "Personal Paint v6.3" on the Amiga, but as PNG becomes more popular I guess the format will be supported by many more packages. For more information on the GIF saga, I suggest reading Michael Console Battilana's article in AmigaReport 3.11. Excerpts are taken from the PNG specification, tenth draft. Permission is granted to reproduce this article (or parts of) in online and printed magazines, provided the author is credited for the work. The article remains Copyright 1995 Andy Dean. PNG information and sample images can be obtained by anonymous ftp at ftp.uu.net /graphics/png @endnode @node CHARTS1 "Aminet Charts -- June 5, 1995" @toc FTP | The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 5-Jun-95 | Updated weekly. Most popular file on top. | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- ar309.lha docs/mags 80K 4+Amiga Report 3.09, May 2, 1995 FingerInfo10.lha comm/net 2K 50+Finger useful/interesting sites ar311.lha docs/mags 93K 0+Amiga Report 3.11, June 1, 1995 mlink132.lha comm/net 123K 5+Direct internet access without SLIP Gloom.lha game/demo 427K 4+Magic Bytes' GLOOM - Playable Previe ar310.lha docs/mags 81K 2+Amiga Report 3.10, May 17, 1995 AmiTCP-demo-40.lha comm/tcp 738K 31+TCP/IP protocol stack FontDT-1.0.lha util/dtype 19K 4+DataType for Amiga fonts StarTrek_A.lha game/think 246K 4+Star Trek Stratagy/Action Game ShapeShift2_0.lha misc/emu 134K 7+Macintosh II emulator, V2.0 ANews17.lha docs/mags 145K 4+AmyNews #17; info on new Amiga produ VChck654.lha util/virus 123K 2+Version 6.54 of Virus_Checker. Amiga Erotica_cards.lha game/think 620K 4+Cardset for Klondike Deluxe AGA (III StarTrek_B.lha game/think 413K 4+Star Trek Stratagy/Action Game DamageWolf1.5.lha game/misc 128K 2+Wolf3D clone for A500+ (texture) BattleDuel.lha game/2play 569K 2+The very best 'Artillery' game ECS,A amigalink3.lha docs/mags 83K 3+An Amiga Guide Magazine on EVERYTHIN VMM_V3_1.lha util/misc 230K 1+Virtual memory for Amigas with MMU @endnode @node CHARTS2 "Aminet Charts -- June 12, 1995" @toc FTP | The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 12-Jun-95 | Updated weekly. Most popular file on top. | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- ar311.lha docs/mags 93K 1+Amiga Report 3.11, June 1, 1995 FView151.lha gfx/show 85K 1+FastView for IFF/GIF/BMP/JPG/PCX pics acuseeme1_50.lha comm/tcp 56K 0+Network video-conferencing tool BMPdt401.lha util/dtype 12K 1+Bmp picture datatype v40.1 for >= OS3.0 DamageWolf3DV1.lha game/misc 79K 0+Wolf3D clone (texture mapping) ToolManager21a.lha util/boot 24K 1+Small update for ToolManager 2.1 GloomDemo.lha game/demo 428K 0+Playable "Gloom"-Demo (Doom-like) ShootOut.lha game/shoot 190K 0+Cool shoot and collect game TUDE.lha util/misc 26K 1+The Ultimate Degrader & Enhancer. SLIPShuttle.lha comm/tcp 15K 0+SLIP connect w/ push of button pine391_020.lha comm/mail 437K 1+Integrated mail/news reader. Needs ixemu a5000.lha game/gag 84K 1+First picture of the new A5000 PutMail3.lha comm/tcp 33K 1+AmiTCP SMTP Client, Sends E-Mail. Iconian2_93.lha gfx/edit 171K 0+OS3.0 icon editor, NewIcon support. AmigaTemp.lha hard/misc 49K 0+Thermometer. V1.1 GetMail3.lha comm/tcp 27K 1+AmiTCP POP Client, receives E-Mail. pinebaseupd.lha comm/mail 97K 1+Update for pine391_base.lha pine391_base.lha comm/mail 374K 1+Integrated mail/news reader. Needs ixemu DiamondCaves17.lha game/misc 484K 0+The ultimate Boulder Dash Clone V1.7 KathyREKO.lha game/think 604K 0+Cardset for Klondike Deluxe AGA (III) - @endnode @node FTP1 "FastIFXModules 4.1" @toc FTP TITLE FastIFXModules VERSION 4.1 AUTHOR Helmut Hoffmann Rubensstrasse 4 41063 Moenchengladbach Germany EMail: hhoff@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de DESCRIPTION A set of loader and saver modules for the famous ImageFX-EGS and ImageFX image processing packages. The loader is designed for very fast speed and written in pure Assembler code. It also allows loading of many new file formats. Supported formats for loading: 1) IFF-ILBM (1 to 24Bit incl. HAM6/HAM8) 2) PPM/PGM/PBM (P1&P4 b&w, P5 grey, P6 color) 3) QRT (also known as dump format by PD raytracers as POV-Ray) 4) Targa 5) PCX 6) BMP (uncompressed) 7) TIF (packbit-compr./uncompr.) 8) EGS7.x window icons 9) DEEP 10) YUV 11) VLAB raw 12) RGB 13) HHsYUVSq sequence format 14) IFF-PBM (DPII) 15) ACBM 16) FBM 17) Sun raster (uncompressed) 18) MacPaint (b&w compressed 1Bit format; datafork only) 19) HHsXRL formats 20) PhotoCD (Base format 768x512 or 512x768 (portrait)) The additional DataType support extends this list by many formats; DataTypes can e.g. be found on Aminet in util/DType. NEW FEATURES New since V4.0: PhotoCD support SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS OS2.04 required, OS3.0/3.1 reccomended (needed for DataType support) ImageFX-EGS or ImageFX (commercial image processing software) AVAILABILITY Any Aminet site ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/gfx/misc/fastifxmodul41.lha Also available on: ftp://orion.etsu.edu/pub/egs/incoming/fastifxmodules41.lha which should later be /egs/graphics/... PRICE Shareware fee: 20DM (in europe) or 16US$ (worldwide) Special offers available for registered users of my EGS shareware applications EGSPhotoAlbum or EGS-TV (e.g. add-on price 10DM or 8US$). DISTRIBUTABILITY Copyright by Helmut Hoffmann 1994-1995 Limited demo version is freely distributable; registered users will receive a keyfile which enables all features. OTHER The freely distributable version loads all pictures only in greyscale. The speed and format support is the same, so you can try out if you like the speed advantages and are satisfied with the supported formats. After you have paid the shareware fee you will receive a special personal keyfile (together with the latest version). Once registered, you can use new freely distributable versions as update with your keyfile. @endnode @node FTP2 "Super Trail 1" @toc FTP TITLE Super Trail VERSION first public release AUTHOR Helmut Hoffmann Rubensstrasse 4 41063 Moenchengladbach Germany EMail: hhoff@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de DESCRIPTION A fast action game of skill... Principle of this game is to guide a rolling ball as fast as possible along a long and tricky track in space, to avoid the holes and gaps or jump over them, and to get as many points as possible in the end (what else?). Many extra fields with special effects can make this task easier or much more difficult. Included are nine levels, starting "very easy" and ending "utterly difficult". With the integrated level editor you can change levels or create your own levels. This is also possible with the freely distributable version, but you can't save levels to disk from this version. For proper use, you should decide to register and pay the shareware fee. With the registered full version you can design as many sets of each nine levels as you like and save them to disk. For each level set separate highscores (incl. highscore game play for automatic replay mode) are saved. The ball can be controlled by joystick or keyboard. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS 1MByte RAM AVAILABILITY Any Aminet site ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/game/misc/supertrail.lha PRICE Shareware fee: 10DM (in europe) or 8US$ (worldwide) for just using 20DM (in europe) or 17US$ (worldwide) to receive the extended version with loading/saving of level sets enabled DISTRIBUTABILITY Copyright by Helmut Hoffmann 1995 Limited version is freely distributable. @endnode @node FTP3 "EGS-TV Pro 5.0a" @toc FTP TITLE EGS-TV Professional VERSION 5.0a AUTHOR Helmut Hoffmann Rubensstrasse 4 41063 Moenchengladbach Germany EMail: hhoff@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de DESCRIPTION An animation, framegrabbing, handyscanner and Blue Screen effect software for the EGS graphical environment. This software enables all EGS users (e.g. users of the typical EGS graphic boards as Piccolo, Piccolo-SD64, EGS-Spectrum, EGS-110, ...) to create and edit animations direct on harddisk, grab pictures and sequences from several framegrabbers, access some handyscanners or apply the Blue screen effect to pictures/sequences. Supported framegrabbers: 1) VLab (std., Y/C and parallelport versions of MacroSystems framegrabber) 2) IV24 (GVPs Impact Vision) 3) VideoCruncher (Ing.buero Helfrich) Single or multiple frames can be grabbed from such framegrabbers and combined with loaded frames into sequences/animations on harddisk. Supported handyscanners: 1) Cameron (black&white and greyscale) 2) Reisware (black&white and greyscale) 3) ScanKing (black&white and greyscale) As scanner interfaces only Cameron and Reisware interfaces are supported. For animation creation or extension pictures or whole directories of pictures can be imported in the following file formats: 1) IFF-ILBM (1 to 24Bit incl. HAM6/HAM8) 2) JPeg (color and greyscale) 3) PPM/PGM/PBM (P1&P4 b&w, P5 grey, P6 color) 4) QRT (also known as dump format by PD raytracers as POV-Ray) 5) Targa 6) PCX 7) BMP (uncompressed) 8) TIF (packbit-compr./uncompr.) 9) EGS7.x window icons 10) DEEP 11) YUV 12) VLAB raw 13) RGB 14) HHsYUVSq sequence format 15) IFF-PBM (DPII) 16) ACBM 17) FBM 18) Sun raster (uncompressed) 19) MacPaint (b&w compressed 1Bit format; datafork only) 20) HHsXRL formats The additional DataType support extends this list by many formats; DataTypes can e.g. be found on Aminet in util/DType. Pictures can be downscaled during import. Animations/sequences can be edited directly on harddisk: new frames can be inserted/appended and frames can be deleted. Frames can also be directly imported from ImageFX or ImageFX-EGS. Frames can be directly exported to ImageFX, ImageFX-EGS, PicoPainter, ArtEffect, XiPaint, TVPaint or to Clipboard. Saving of individual frames is also possible in several formats (e.g. JPeg, IFF-ILBM24, ...). Animations can be played back at selectable speeds forward and backward. The Blue Screen keying effect allows the conbination of several image sources into one picture. This can e.g. be used to combine a picture from framegrabber with some blue background with another background picture, so that the blue background is replaced. The colour range can be selected by several parameters. NEW FEATURES New since V5.0: Support for VideoCruncher SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS OS2.04 required, OS3.0/3.1 reccomended (needed for DataType support) 6MBytes memory EGS system 6.0 or higher (usual in conjunction with one of the graphic boards, but it can also be used with the EGS for all Amigas without any graphic board) The EGS system (6.0 and 7.1) can be found for ftp access on "orion.etsu.edu" in the pub/amiga/egs section. AVAILABILITY Any Aminet site ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/gfx/board/egstv50a.lha Also available on: ftp://orion.etsu.edu/pub/egs/incoming/egstv50a.lha which should later be /egs/graphics/... PRICE Shareware fee: 40DM (in europe) or 33US$ (worldwide) for the Professional version. 25DM (in europe) or 25US$ (worldwide) for the Classical version, which does not include harddisk sequence editing, timing controls or JPeg saving. DISTRIBUTABILITY Copyright by Helmut Hoffmann 1994-1995 Limited demo version is freely distributable; registered users will receive a keyfile which enables all features. OTHER The freely distributable version has some restrictions which disappear after you pay the shareware fee and receive a special personal keyfile (together with the latest version). Once registered, you can use new freely distributable versions as update with your keyfile. @endnode @node FTP4 "Ensemble Verbes 1.4" @toc FTP TITLE Ensemble Verbes VERSION Version 1.4 (08/05/95) AUTHOR Peter E. Janes E-mail: pauljane@village.ca pejanes@descartes.uwaterloo.ca (until August 1995) 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, subjunctive past 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, Norwegian and Spanish catalogs included) Registered users can also obtain The French Student's Dictionary & Guide, a 150-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 5500 entries NEW FEATURES This is an update to Ensemble Verbes 1.3. It fixes a bug introduced in version 1.3 that caused incorrect user prompting during verb practice and tests. 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/Verbes1_4.lha (68656 bytes) Patch files for registered versions may be found at: ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/misc/edu/VerbesRegPch14.lha (45813 bytes) ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/misc/edu/VerbesRegPch13.lha (77599 bytes) ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/misc/edu/VerbesRegPch12.lha (21241 bytes) NOTE: Each file is relative to the previous version. For example, to upgrade Verbes 1.2 to Verbes 1.4 you will need both VerbesRegPch13.lha and VerbesRegPch14.lha. All of the files may also be retrieved (until August 1995) from: http://www.undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca/~pejanes/Verbes.html PRICE Ensemble Verbes: CAN $25.00 The French Student's Dictionary & Guide: CAN $10.00 Ensemble Verbes *and* The French Student's Dictionary & Guide: CAN $30.00 Add CAN $3.00 for shipping. User groups should contact the author for a group registration fee. DISTRIBUTABILITY Shareware. The unregistered version of Ensemble Verbes may be included in the CD-ROM or floppy collections compiled by Fred Fish and the Aminet moderators; all others should contact Peter Janes before including the program. Both registered and unregistered versions are Copyright (C) 1995 by Peter E. Janes. @endnode @node FTP5 "DFADT 39.1" @toc FTP TITLE DFADT VERSION V39.1 AUTHOR Dirk Federlein UUCP: dirkf@alcmy.franken.de (prefered!) Fido: 2:244/6302.12 DESCRIPTION The DFA datatype can be used to view DFA created database files using tools like Multiview. Additionally, it is possible to print customized address lists using this datatype and Multiview (for example) The display format can be customized, i.e. you can tell the datatype which fields of the address database you want to get displayed. This datatype can read all DFA address database formats from version 1.0 to version 2.25 of DFA! DFA is the definite address database tool. It supplies a very nice GUI, a powerful Arexx port, a flexible client server mechanism and much more. It is simply the ideal mean to manage several or many addresses for the beginner as well as for the professional Amiga user. This is version 39.1. Freeware, C-source included. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Requires Amiga-OS 3.0 (V39). Runs on all Amiga computers (500+, 600, 1200, 3000, 4000) with this OS (or a newer one) installed. HOST NAME ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/dtype/dfadt-391.lha (30529) PRICE Free. DISTRIBUTABILITY Freeware. @endnode @node FTP6 "Guidemaster 1.1" @toc FTP TITLE Guidemaster11.lha VERSION 1.1 AUTHOR Aric R Caley / Greywire Designs. Email: dances@qedbbs.com (Cannot reply to messages at this time) DESCRIPTION Replacement AmigaGuide (2.0) and Multiview (3.0) viewer. Reads and displays XPK compressed files. Uses special format for Amigaguide files that lets them load *FASTER* than uncompressed files normaly load. Uses very little memory -- less than normal Amigaguide and *much* less than other XPK based viewers. Alpha release of work in progress. FEATURES * Keyboard shortcuts in 3.1 now work again. * Custom (IFF based) high-performance Amigaguide file format: * Conversion/Compression utility provided. * XPK compression. * Index chunk allows for FAST loading. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Requires 2.04 and above of Workbench. 3.1 recomended. AVAILABILITY Guidemaster is available on any Aminet mirror in 'text/hyper': ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/text/hyper/Guidemaster11.lha PRICE Shareware ($10), or other physical or monetary donations. DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely distributable ShareWare, Copyright (c) 1995 by Aric R Caley. @endnode @node FTP7 "SASG Information Program 2.1" @toc FTP TITLE SASG Information Program VERSION 2.1 AUTHOR SASG (Standardized Amiga Shareware Group) DESCRIPTION This is the official all-in-one information program about the SASG, its goals, services, up-to-date information about all available shareware products (i.e. new SASG releases, updates etc.) and it also includes the favorite automated registration generator which makes the whole registration process a piece of cake. So, if you are interested in shareware products like MUI, DFA, MagicCX or MagicWB, if you would like to find out your nearest located registration site to be sure to get the benefits of a national treatment (shorter waits, own currency supported, local support etc.), and if you never registered shareware because of all the fuss and complication involved: Get this program! By the ease of a few mouse clicks the program will generate your personal registration form with all necessary data (like the receiver's address etc.). This is the easiest way to support the author of your favorite product and get the most out of your money through the quality assurance and services of the SASG. The SASG is a group of well-known shareware authors whose goal is to offer high quality shareware products at a reasonable (standardized, i.e. US$ 20.00) price on a high value-for-money basis. The SASG has achieved a well-established infrastructure for the registration process by installing several official registration sites all over the world (accepting a variety of currencies) and ensuring that you receive your registered product as fast as possible. At the same time the SASG is a non-profit organization which was founded by shareware authors themselves to ensure that 100% of your money will reach the specific author. This has made the low and standardized price of US$ 20.00 possible since no other persons than the author himself profits from your support. You may find all further information in the program itself. NEW FEATURES - New SASG product versions available - Improved printer support - New registration sites included - New payment methods & currencies included - Improved layout - String gadgets now retain the user's data even when the language is switched while being used - Improved MagicWB color support - All known bugs removed - Special joke implemented :) AVAILABILITY The SASG Information Program is available on Aminet in util/misc. ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/misc/SASGinfo21.lha (50589) PRICE Free. DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely distributable. Spreading encouraged. @endnode @node FTP8 "EGSPhotoAlbum Pro 5.0c" @toc FTP TITLE EGSPhotoAlbum Professional VERSION 5.0c AUTHOR Helmut Hoffmann Rubensstrasse 4 41063 Moenchengladbach Germany EMail: hhoff@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de DESCRIPTION A picture management (including PhotoCD) and presentation software for the EGS graphical environment. This software enables all EGS users (e.g. users of the typical EGS graphic boards as Piccolo, Piccolo-SD64, EGS-Spectrum, EGS-110, ...) to maintain and present large collections of pictures in full 24Bit quality on their graphic boards. EGSPhotoAlbum supports more than 20 picture file formats internally and additionally suports picture DataTypes and even animation DataTypes when used under OS3.0/3.1. Internally supported formats: 1) IFF-ILBM (1 to 24Bit incl. HAM6/HAM8) 2) JPeg (color and greyscale) 3) PPM/PGM/PBM (P1&P4 b&w, P5 grey, P6 color) 4) QRT (also known as dump format by PD raytracers as POV-Ray) 5) Targa 6) PCX 7) BMP (uncompressed) 8) TIF (packbit-compr./uncompr.) 9) EGS7.x window icons 10) DEEP 11) YUV 12) VLAB raw 13) RGB 14) HHsYUVSq sequence format 15) IFF-PBM (DPII) 16) ACBM 17) FBM 18) Sun raster (uncompressed) 19) MacPaint (b&w compressed 1Bit format; datafork only) 20) HHsXRL formats 21) PhotoCD (Base format 768x512 or 512x768 (portrait)) The additional DataType support extends this list by many formats; DataTypes can e.g. be found on Aminet in util/DType. Small (thumbnail) representations of all pictures in a directory or directory tree are shown very fast. You can then select pictures for viewing in multiple full size windows including fast scrolling and zooming functions. You can also present selected pictures in a Slideshow presentation mode including transition effects. Pictures can also be directly transfered to ImageFX, ImageFX-EGS, PicoPainter, ArtEffect, XiPaint or to the Clipboard. Saving is possible in several 24Bit formats including JPeg, IFF24 and more. For faster access you can also save downscaled representations of the images. You can view and change the file comment of pictures directly and also delete pictures in a comfortable way. NEW FEATURES New since V5.0: PhotoCD support New since V4.1: Slide show presentation including transition effects SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS OS2.04 required, OS3.0/3.1 reccomended (needed for DataType support) 6MBytes memory EGS system 6.0 or higher (usual in conjunction with one of the graphic boards, but it can also be used with the EGS for all Amigas without any graphic board) The EGS system (6.0 and 7.1) can be found for ftp access on "orion.etsu.edu" in the pub/amiga/egs section. AVAILABILITY Any Aminet site ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/gfx/board/egsphotoalb50c.lha Also available on: ftp://orion.etsu.edu/pub/egs/incoming/egsphotoalbum50c.lha which should later be /egs/graphics/... PRICE Shareware fee: 30DM (in europe) or 25US$ (worldwide) Special offer upto 7st June 1995 (Date of postage): 25DM (in europe) or 22US$ (worldwide) DISTRIBUTABILITY Copyright by Helmut Hoffmann 1994-1995 Limited demo version is freely distributable; registered users will receive a keyfile which enables all features. OTHER The freely distributable version has some restrictions which disappear after you pay the shareware fee and receive a special personal keyfile (together with the latest version). Once registered, you can use new freely distributable versions as update with your keyfile. @endnode @node FTP9 "GNU Chess 4.0.pl74" @toc FTP TITLE GNU Chess VERSION 4.0.pl74 AUTHORS Various, Amiga port by Jochen Wiedmann Am Eisteich 9 72555 Metzingen Germany Phone: (0049) +7123 / 14881 Internet: jochen.wiedmann@zdv.uni-tuebingen.de DESCRIPTION GNU Chess is a well known chess program written in C and designed to be portable. Depending on the hardware it can get very strong. (About 2200-2300 ELO on a DEC Alpha, about 1800 on an Amiga 1200) There are different versions available: - A simple ASCII version, printing the complete chessboard with ASCII characters after each move. - A Curses version, similar to the ASCII version, but with the ability to move the cursor. - An AmyBoard client; AmyBoard is a frontend, which allows you to play with the mouse on a beautiful chessboard. Some tools for analyzing a chess game and postsript output are included. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS AmigaOS version 2.0 or later Installer (available on Aminet, util/misc) If you want to use AmyBoard, you can get it on Aminet, game/board. AVAILABILITY Aminet, for example ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/gnuchess-4.0.pl74bin.lha ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/aminet/gnuchess-4.0.pl74bin.lha Internet chess servers, for example ftp://chess.onenet.net/pub/chess/Amiga/gnuchess-4.0.pl74bin.lha Distribution consists of three archives: gnuchess-4.0.pl74bin.lha Binary distribution gnuchess-4.0.pl74src.lha Original sources gnuchess-4.0.pl74diffs.lha Amiga sources and a pathfile DISTRIBUTABILITY GNU General Public License, Copyright Free Software Foundation @endnode @node FTP10 "Chaos 5.4" @toc FTP TITLE Chaos - The Chess HAppening Organisation System VERSION 5.4 AUTHOR Jochen Wiedmann E-Mail: jochen.wiedmann@zdv.uni-tuebingen.de DESCRIPTION Chaos is a program that manages single-player chess-tournaments. It offers different pairing modes: Swiss pairing (Less rounds than players) and Round Robin (same number of rounds than players), either FIDE system or Shift system. It's interface is written with MUI, see NEW FEATURES below. Available output (to printer, screen or file): - List of players (short or long) - Results - Table (all players or special groups, juniors for example) - Table of progress aor Cross Tables (all games of all rounds) - Internal ratings and German DWZ (close to USCF-rating or ELO) Localizing (default language is english) Limitations: - Number of players limited by RAM (2 KBytes and additional 100 Bytes Stack per player suggested) Enhanced possibilities: - Setting games (Swiss pairing only) - ARexx port - User configurable menu (allows to execute ARexx scripts from the menu) NEW FEATURES Swiss pairing algorithm completely rewritten, fixes some problems with the old algorithm. Fixed some problems with the new menu handling of MUI 2 and later. Added the possibility to determine the number of points one gets for win and draw. (Example: 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw) SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS AmigaOS 2.0 or later MUI, V2.0 or later (available on Aminet, dev/gui) Installer (available on Aminet, util/misc) AVAILABILITY Aminet, for example ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/Chaos5_4bin.lha ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/aminet/Chaos5_4bin.lha Internet chess servers, for example ftp://chess.onenet.net/pub/chess/Amiga/Chaos5_4bin.lha Distribution consists of two archives: Chaos5_4bin.lha Binaries Chaos5_4src.lha Sources DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely distributable, Copyright by the author, subject to the GNU General Public License. @endnode @node FTP11 "DFA(ddress) 2.25" @toc FTP TITLE DFA(ddress) VERSION V2.25 AUTHOR Dirk Federlein UUCP: dirkf@alcmy.franken.de Fido: 2:244/6302.12 DESCRIPTION DFA is the definite address database utility for you and the Amiga computer. DFA manages your email addresses, allows direct dialing of the stored phone numbers, grouping of addresses, different types of printing addresses, online help, application icon/window and much more! DFA has an Arexx port, font sensitive windows and can be fully directed by keyboard. Native languages are supported as soon as Workbench 2.1 (and above) is installed. Nearly every aspect of DFA is customizable, so you may configure "your own" DFA. This is version 2.25, a minor update to version 2.2. DFA is an SASG product! Shareware, binary only. NEW FEATURES (since v2.2) QuickSearch function for the DFAEditor main window. Improved mapping function for the MagicWB images. Several bug fixes. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS DFA needs at least Kickstart/Workbench 2.04 to run. It takes advantage of the new features included in version 2.1 (Locale support) and uses even some features coming with OS 3.0 if available. DFA is made to run on all systems, starting with the A500+ and ending up with the A4000(T). More than 512KB of RAM and a harddisk are recommended. HOST NAME ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/biz/dbase/dfa-225.lha (717630) (and aminet mirrors) PRICE DM US$ Shareware fee.............................30.00 20.00 See documentation for additional information. DISTRIBUTABILITY DFA is NOT PD. It is shareware. The author keeps the copyright over the whole package. The public version of DFA (without the keyfile!) is freely (re)distributable, but noone is allowed to sell the program for more money than to cover just the costs of copying. In any case nobody may charge more than Fred Fish claims for one of his "Library Disks"! @endnode @node FTP12 "AmyBoard 322.4" @toc FTP TITLE AmyBoard VERSION 322.4 (means: xboard-3.2.pl2, Amiga revision 4) AUTHORS Chris and Dan Sears (Original xboard) Tim Mann, mann@pa.dec.com (xboard since version 2.0) Amiga port: Jochen Wiedmann Am Eisteich 9 72555 Metzingen Germany Phone: (0049) +7123 / 14881 Internet: jochen.wiedmann@zdv.uni-tuebingen.de DESCRIPTION AmyBoard is a graphical chessboard, that can serve as a user interface for GNU Chess, for the ICS (Internet Chess Server) and for itself as a PGN (Portable Game Notation) file editor. The original xboard can also be used for electronic mail correspondence chess, but this possibility is not yet integrated into AmyBoard, as this requires cmail, which is a Perl script. As an interface to GNU Chess, AmyBoard lets you play a game against the machine, set up arbitrary positions, force variations, or watch a game between two machines. As an interface to the Internet Chess Server (ICS), AmyBoard lets you play against other ICS users, observe games they are playing, or review games that have recently finished. You can also use AmyBoard as a chessboard to play through games. It will read and write game files and allow you to play through variations manually. You can use it to browse games off the net or review GNU Chess, ICS, and correspondence games you have saved. These features are available at all times; even if you do not have access to GNU Chess or the ICS. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS AmigaOS version 2.0 or later MUI version 2.0 or later (available on Aminet, dev/gui) Installer (available on Aminet, util/misc) To play against GNU Chess you need the gnuchess package (available on Aminet, game/board) To connect to the ICS, you need Internet access, either by - a standard telnet program using stdin/stdout, for example AmiTCP/IP's telnet or - a terminal program using stdin/stdout, for example IPDial (available on Aminet, comm/tcp) AVAILABILITY Aminet, for example ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/AmyBoard-322.4bin.lha ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/aminet/AmyBoard-322.4bin.lha Internet chess servers, for example ftp://chess.onenet.net/pub/chess/Amiga/AmyBoard-322.4bin.lha Distribution consists of three archives: AmyBoard-322.4bin.lha Binary distribution AmyBoard-322.3src.lha Original xboard-3.2.pl2 sources AmyBoard-322.4diffs.lha Amiga sources and a pathfile DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely distributable, most parts under GNU General Public License (except for DEC's interest) AmyBoard is Copyright 1991 Digital Equipment Corporation, Maynard, Massachusetts (Original xboard) Copyright 1992-1995 Free Software Foundation, Inc. (Enhancements since version 2.0) Copyright 1995 Jochen Wiedmann (Amiga port) Please read the files COPYRIGHT and COPYING for details. @endnode @node MAILLIST "Amiga Report Mailing List" @toc WHERE =========================================================================== == Amiga Report Mailing List == =========================================================================== If you have an internet mailing address, you can receive Amiga Report in @{"UUENCODED" link UUENCODE} form each week as soon as the issue is released. To be put on the list, send Email to jcompton@bbs.xnet.com and in the body of the message ask nicely to be added to the list. ie: Please add me to the mailing list for Amiga Report magazine. My addresss is . 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! ** *** The following is only for Australian readers! *** To circumvent the new pay-per-megabyte system for Australian Internet communication, Paul Reece has been kind enough to set up an AUSTRALIAN-ONLY mailing list, to save his fellow countrymen some money. You can join the list by sending mail to: majordomo@info.tas.gov.au with the single line (in body of message): subscribe ar Amiga Report will then be bounced to you. @endnode @node UUENCODE @toc MAILLIST =========================================================================== == 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 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" link JASON} @endnode @node AMINET "Aminet" @toc WHERE 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: aminet.com, ftp.wustl.edu, ftp.tas.gov.au, ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk @endnode @node WWW "World Wide Web" @toc WHERE 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://sun1000.ci.pwr.wroc.pl/AMIGA/AR/ http://mm.iit.uni-miskolc.hu/Data/AR The following AR site also has a mailto form, allowing you to mail to Amiga Report from the web site.