08/1997
@database "ar305.guide"
@Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #3.05 -- February 28, 1995"
@{" Turn the Page " link MENU}
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"THE Online Source for Amiga Information!"
Copyright 1995 FS Publications
All Rights Reserved
//
=====================================//====================================
== February 28, 1995 \\// Issue No. 3.05 ==
===========================================================================
@endnode
@node MENU "Amiga Report Main Menu"
@toc MAIN
===========================================================================
== Main Menu ==
===========================================================================
@{" Editorial " link EDITORIAL} @{" 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} @{" Dealer Directory " link DEALER}
Contact Information and Copyrights Amiga Dealer Addresses and Numbers
@{" Where to Get AR " link WHERE} @{" Commercial Products " link COMMERCIAL}
Mailing List & Distribution Sites Online Services, Dealers, Ordering
______________________________________________
// | | //
========//====| Amiga Report International Online Magazine |======//=====
== \\// | Issue No. 3.05 February 28, 1995 | \\// ==
==============| "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!" |=============
|______________________________________________|
@endnode
===========================================================================
== The Amiga Report Staff ==
===========================================================================
@node JASON "Editor"
@toc STAFF
===========================================================================
== EDITOR ==
===========================================================================
Jason Compton
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Internet Address
-------- -------
jcompton@cup.portal.com 1838 Chicago Ave. #419
jcompton@bbs.xnet.com Evanston, IL 60201-3806
USA
Fax Phone
--- -----
708/491-4064 708/332-4599
@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 KATIE "Assistant Editor"
@toc STAFF
===========================================================================
== ASSISTANT EDITOR ==
===========================================================================
Katherine Nelson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Internet
--------
Kati@cup.portal.com
@endnode
@node MICHAEL "European Editor"
@toc STAFF
===========================================================================
== EUROPEAN EDITOR ==
===========================================================================
Michael Wolf
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Internet
--------
MikeWolf@bonebag.tynet.sub.org
@endnode
@node SEAN "Games Editor"
@toc STAFF
===========================================================================
== GAMES EDITOR ==
===========================================================================
Sean Caszatt
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Internet
--------
Sean.Caszatt@f512.n2601.z1.fidonet.org
@endnode
@node DAVID "Contributing Editor"
@toc STAFF
===========================================================================
== CONTIBUTING EDITOR ==
===========================================================================
David Tiberio
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Internet
--------
dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu
@endnode
@node EDITORIAL "compt.sys.editor.desk"
@toc OPINION
===========================================================================
== compt.sys.editor.desk By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} ==
===========================================================================
"...we are signing an agreement with IBM to have them manufacture Commodore
products [for us]."
So spoke Alex Amor, President of CEI, to me when I called him this
afternoon while he was in the middle of a meeting.
Unfortunately, since he WAS in the middle of a meeting, I wasn't able to
get an explanation from him as to precisely what this means.
So far, all I can confirm it means is that CEI is announcing that their
manufacturing contractor is IBM. (I had learned this months ago, on the
condition that I keep my mouth shut.)
It does NOT mean that CEI has purchased Commodore's assets. In fact, based
on the rules of the liquidation, that isn't possible yet-there needs to be
a signed contract with the liquidator.
It also does NOT mean that IBM is in any way investing in this venture.
They're just contracted to build the product, in much the same way as they
build Atari Jaguars. They're doing work for money, nothing more.
As for Commodore UK, they informed Amiga Format they would be signing a
contract...and then, apparently, didn't. AF's Web page hasn't changed in
nearly two weeks, and the signing date given has passed.
Escom seems to be back in the picture. According to Amor, who claims he
was close to striking a deal with them at one point, their primary interest
is the rights to the Commodore name.
Now that I've got that out of the way...
Thank you, everyone who sent in a survey. Since there are quite a few of
them, it will take a while to compile them...but there are some changes in
store even before the results get tallied.
The Dealer Directory will now be a "Once-per-4-issue" feature. So, if you
don't catch them this issue, you'll have to wait for AR 3.09 before they
appear again. This is something that's been talked about for over a year,
and it's time to do something about it.
The BBS list is a different issue-they take up a good chunk of space as
well, but they're also doing AR a service. I'll consider the next move on
that.
You might want to check out the News section this issue, we're working hard
on expanding our coverage and keeping on top of recent developments...oh,
and holding some conferences, too.
This can only last so long, you know...
Jason
@endnode
@node MAIL "Reader Mail"
@toc MENU
===========================================================================
== Reader Mail ==
===========================================================================
We don't have any.
Please send us some.
@endnode
@node NEWS1 "Apple's Big Byte out of History"
@toc NEWS
[This was sent to me from, of all people, Rob Glover, original editor of
Amiga Report. Rob's now working at Walnut Creek, ex-publishers of the
Aminet CD, surrounded by a bunch of other ex-Amiga users. - Jason]
Found in the New York Daily News
February 8, 1995. (pg. 10)
APPLE'S BIG BYTE OUT OF HISTORY
Apple, the company that revolutionized the personal computer industry,
apparently thinks Newt Gingrich's Third Wave Information Age means
censorship is back - especially when it comes to abortion and gays.
In a stunning move for a company long admired for its forward-looking
policies, Apple last week suddenly notified the producer of an acclaimed
American history CD-ROM that it was discontinuing shipments because of
complaints about mentions of turn-of-the-century abortion, birth control
and homosexuality.
After failing to get Voyager Co. - the producer of "Who Built America?"
- to delete the controversial sections, Apple informed the company on
Jan. 31 that it was discontinuing shipments of the disc to public
schools.
Apple's notice came only a few days after "Who Built America?" won the
American Historical Association's bienniel prize for "the most
outstanding contribution to the teaching and learning of history."
Since November, Apple has distributed more than 12,000 copies of the
Voyager disc, as part of its free software package bundled with new
computer shipments to public schools.
"Who Built America?" was a joint project between New York-based Voyager,
the leading U.S. publisher of CD-ROM discs, and the American Social
History Project at the City University of New York.
CD-ROM is the technology that combines text, photos, music and video into
one multi-media experience on a personal computer. Like cd music discs,
CD-ROM discs can store immense amounts of information compared with older
methods.
Only a few minutes of viewing this disc shows you why Apple was at first
so enthusiastic. With it, history comes alive. You get not only a
standard text but original source documents, such as the complete video
of "The Great Train Robbery," the actual voice of William Jennings Bryan
giving his "Cross of Gold" speech, and survivors of the 1906 Atlanta race
riot and the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire giving you firsthand
accounts of those tragedies.
But in early January, Apple executives notified Bob Stein, chief
executive of Voyager, that they had recieved some complaints, the most
troubling dealing with citations of abortion, birth control, and
homosexuality.
There was, for instance, the audio interview with Elizabeth Anderson, who
recounted how, beginning in 1910, she had had 12 abortions.
And the 1882 letter from a gay German immigrant explaining how he fled to
America from his native land after being arrested for a homosexual
relationship.
And the 1901 New York Times account of Murray Hall, a well-known Tammany
Hall leader who for 25 years masquereded as a man and was married twice,
though "he" was secretly a "she."
"Some people may not like the fact there was abortion in 1910, but you
can't deny it existed," said Steven Brier, the CUNY history professor who
authored the original two-volume "Who Built America" and then adapted it
for CD-ROM.
"It's unbelievable to have this project blown-off in this way," an angry
Brier said yesterday.
And for this to happen with Apple - long regarded by many as the most
creative and visionary of companies - is especially troubling.
I bought my first Apple 2E more than 10 years ago, and I came to believe
that Apple's healthy irreverence toward narrow-minded thought and
arbitrary authority was just the spirit that produced its pioneering
innovations, things like the Macintosh and the powerbook laptops.
It was Apple, remember, that not too long ago refused to build a new
plant in Austin, Tex., after the local government tried to penalize it
for providing medical benefits to same-sex domestic partners. That time,
Apple stood on principal and won.
But now here was this public relations person, Carolyn Donohoe, giving me
a prepared statement late yesterday on the "Voyager issue."
Since the statement so clearly double-speaks for itself, I will quote it
extensively:
"It's not an issue of censorship. However, Apple has recieved some
customer complaints. As a matter of course, Apple continually reviews
the content of its bundles based on customer satisfaction and feedback.
"Currently, Apple is evaluating the bundle titled 'Apple Educational
Series: Elementary and Secondary Reference.' To date, Apple has neither
formally notified Voyager nor made any public announcements about future
versions of this bundle."
With the November elections behind us, and with our nation's future being
increasingly shaped by a rabid history professor named Newt Gingrich,
Apple appears ready to join the cencorship posse, tossing its own
once-proud rebel legacy into the trash bin it helped make famous.
If you would like to respond in an official way, please email:
michaels@voyagerco.com
@endnode
@node NEWS2 "AmigOS Web Site"
@toc NEWS
[From the AmigaOS Replacement Project team...]
The project's WWW site has materialized ! It's still quite small and under
construction, but the most important thing is that it's there. The man in
charge of the site is Chris Yiannias (cyiannia@uiuc.edu) and he wants your
feedback.
You can find the AmigOS Web site at :
http://far0066.urh.uiuc.edu/AOS/AOS.html
@endnode
@node NEWS3 "Into The Light"
@toc NEWS
Into the Light is a newsletter dedicated to LW and sowfware used with LW.
It has tutorials, new product releases, tips & tricks, ways to output LW
work, bussiness advise, product discounts, clasified, news and whatever LW
info I can throw in.
Subscription: $25 for 12 issues. $15 introductory price (good till Aprill 1)
Send Check to:
Jose Burgos
262 92nd Street
Brooklyn, NY 11209
Send inquiries to "IntoLight@aol.com"
@endnode
@node NEWS4 "CD32 Products List"
@toc NEWS
Geoff Adams has passed on the upkeeping of the Games/Products list for the
CD32 to Alan Buxey.
Anyone with news, rumors, etc., should e-mail him the details at
kcci1@central.sussex.ac.uk.
@endnode
@node NEWS5 "Amiga Envoy 2.0 Available"
@toc NEWS
PRESS RELEASE
Drexel Hill, PA (December 29, 1994) The least expensive and most tightly
integrated commercial peer-to-peer networking software for the Amiga just
got better. IAM software engineers Heinz Wrobel and Dale L. Larson spent
months adding features and perfecting the release.
New features include support of AmigaOS 2.04 DOS packet types (including
notification and record locking), support for removable media, enhanced
reliability and robust recovery, localization, AmigaGuide documentation,
and more.
Amiga Envoy 2.0 is available as an upgrade to any Amiga Envoy user,
regardless of where they purchased their original Envoy. The upgrade price
is US$25, which includes shipping. To upgrade in the US, send proof of
purchase (or developer number, for those who obtained Envoy as a beta from
Commodore) with check, money order, or Visa/MC number to IAM. Elsewhere,
contact your local distributor. The list price of Amiga Envoy remains
US$59.95.
Requires Workbench 2.04, Kickstart 2.04, 512k RAM, SANA-II compatible
networking hardware. Workbench 3.1, 1MB or more of RAM and HD recommended.
Intangible Assets Manufacturing
828 Ormond Avenue
Drexel Hill, PA 19026-2604
USA
voice: +1 610 853 4406
fax: +1 610 853 3733
For more information:
http://www.iam.com/iam
or
info@iam.com
IAM products are distributed by Almathera Systems, Ltd. in the UK,
Legendary Design Technologies in Canada, Hirsch & Wolf in Germany, Matt
Christou in Australia, and Claudio Dosio in Italy.
Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. Workbench and
Kickstart are trademarks of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. Envoy is Copyright
1985-1993 Commodore-Amiga, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Distributed under
license from Commodore.
@endnode
@node NEWS6 "Ex-CFO of C= Moves On"
@toc NEWS
OTC 01/31 0738 INTEGRATED CIRCUIT SYSTEMS NAMES HOCK E. TAN ...
VALLEY FORGE, Pa., Jan. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Integrated Circuit Systems
(Nasdaq: ICST) today named Hock E. Tan, who joined the company last
August as a senior vice president, to the additional post of chief
financial officer, effective February 6, 1995.
Tan replaces Keith D. Schneck who resigned effective February 5, to
pursue other interests outside of the company. Schneck had been chief
financial officer since joining the company in 1987, and had also
previously served in that time as a director, executive vice president and
chief operating officer. He will continue as a consultant to Integrated
Circuit Systems.
David W. Sear, president and chief executive officer, commented,
"Keith has served the company well during a period when its revenues grew
from under $10 million a year to almost $100 million a year. We wish him
the best in his new career."
Sear noted that Tan takes over the financial helm at a critical
juncture. "Our business outlook is good and we are now entering the
emerging areas of data communications and personal computer multimedia
applications that could continue to expand our businesses nicely," Sear
commented. "Hock will contribute in guiding us toward appropriate
business and financial strategies as the company makes progress towards
its next milestone."
Before joining Integrated Circuit Systems, Tan had been chief financial
officer of Commodore International in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He has
over 20 years of experience in the personal computer and electronics
industries, including several years managing a venture capital fund in
Asia. Tan had also served in senior financial management positions with
Pepsico and General Motors Corporation.
Tan holds a master's in business administration degree from Harvard and
bachelor/master degrees in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
Integrated Circuit Systems, Inc. is a manufacturer of semiconductor
products focusing on the design and marketing of mixed signal integrated
circuits for frequency timing, personal computer multimedia and data
communications applications. The Company's Turtle Beach Systems
subsidiary, located in York, Pennsylvania, is a supplier of PC multimedia
hardware and software products to original equipment manufacturers and the
consumer market. ICS is headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, with
operations in San Jose, California.
/CONTACT: Shellie Roth, Investor Relations Partners, or Hock Tan of
Integrated Circuit Systems, 610-630-5300/
@endnode
@node NEWS7 "Safe Hex International"
@toc NEWS
About Safe Hex International
------------------------------
DEAR AMIGA USER: My name is Erik Loevendahl Soerensen. I am a 48
year old electronics technician and in 1987, I have founded a
worldwide Amiga organization of about 600 Amiga enthusiasts. Our
organization is called "SAFE HEX INTERNATIONAL". The purpose of
this organisation is twofold:
1.> To combat, and prevent the spread of computer viruses.
2.> To bring the programmers of computer viruses to justice.
THE "SAFE HEX INTERNATIONAL" (SHI) disks are released on a regular
basis (approx 6-10 times per year), but of course ONLY..WHEN there
are some new valuable viruskiller updates.
This frequency of release has the dual purpose of maintaining
up-to-date protection against new viruses as they appear, and to
alleviate the problem of lame hackers making compilation disks
without any docs and, even worse, no addressses to which you can
send new viruses.
In return for sending us new viruses, you will receive the new
version of our "New Superkillers" disk to help you combat your
virus problems.
WE HOPE INDEED YOU WILL APPRECIATE AND SUPPORT OUR WORK, THANK YOU!
Newest Updates Of VirusKillers, Date: 22-01-95.
*************************************************************************
* VirusKiller Name. Version. Release Main File File Name *
* Date. Size. On BBS. *
*************************************************************************
* BootX ............ : 5.23b 20-06-93. 79912 bytes. BX523218.LHA *
* BootX Recog....... : 2.19 16-01-95. 33528 bytes. BXREC219.LHA *
* VirusScanner...... : 1.04 12-03-94. 38284 bytes. VC104.LHA *
* VirusZ II ........ : 1.12 12-12-94. 72648 bytes. VZII-112.LHA *
* VirusChecker...... : 6.50 22-01-95. 48752 bytes. VCHCK650.LHA *
* VirusChecker.Brain : 1.12 31-12-94. 2704 bytes. VCBFI112.LHA *
* VT ............... : 2.69 04-12-94. 211592 bytes. VT269.LHA *
* VirusInteceptor... : 1.15 19-10-93. 14500 bytes. VIRIN115.LHA *
* VirusWorkShop..... : 4.6 08-01-95. 132760 bytes. TRSIVW46.LHA *
* Xtruder .......... : 1.3 06-01-95. 64164 bytes. XTRUD13.LHA *
* SnapShot.......... : 2.2 05-03-94. 21672 bytes. SNAPSH22.LHA *
* AntiCiclovir...... : 2.3 20-08-94. 22700 bytes. ANTICI23.LHA *
* FindEmAll......... : 5.30 26-07-92. 4864 bytes. FEA53.LHA *
* BootBlock.Library. : 1.07 20-08-94. 4311 bytes. BBBF107.LHA *
* Unpack.Library.... : 39.54 07-12-94. 56748 bytes. ULIB3954.LHA *
* FileVirusLibrary.. : 32.10 10-03-93. 10284 bytes. FILEVLIB.LHA *
*************************************************************************
@endnode
@node NEWS8 "AR Tech Journal: Amiga Report Spinoff"
@toc NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 24, 1995
AMIGA REPORT MAGAZINE TO LAUNCH SPINOFF TECHNICAL JOURNAL
Jason Compton, owner of FS Publications and editor-in-chief of Amiga
Report Magazine, announced today the inception of a new magazine to
fill the need in the Amiga development and programming community.
"Amiga Report has become a prominent source for up-to-date information
for the Amiga community. There's no reason not to expand to help the
people who make the Amiga worth using."
The new magazine, dubbed AR Tech Journal, will be edited by Gregory
Block, a well-respected mind in the Amiga community. The first issue
is expected to be released in early April.
AR Tech will endeavor to cover topics ranging from coding tips and
tricks to the most complex of hardware hacks and enhancements,
catering to the "serious" Amiga enthusiast.
The monthly magazine will be authored in AmigaGuide format and
distributed along the same channels as Amiga Report-an E-Mailing list,
FTP, World Wide Web, and a network of online services and BBSes
worldwide.
Subscription requests can be directed to subscriptions@oubliette.com.
Correspondence to the editor, including articles for submission, can
be directed to editor@oubliette.com.
Amiga Report Magazine
1203 Alexander Ave.
Streamwood, IL 60107
USA
708-741-0689 fax
jcompton@xnet.com E-mail
@endnode
@node NEWS9 "Emplant PC money taken...no product yet!"
@toc news
The Usenet group comp.sys.amiga.emulations is now full of people who have
reported that credit cards have been charged and checks cashed for their
pre-ordered versions of Emplant PC by Utilities Unlimited.
Some date back a month, or more, and still no one has reported that they
have received their product.
I haven't been able to reach Jim Drew, CEO of UU, for comment. His office
last week said they didn't know when Emplant PC would ship, but confirmed
that money had been taken.
@endnode
@node NEWS10 "IRC Conference: Almathera on Photogenics"
@toc NEWS
Developers from Almathera, creators of the Photogenics image processing
system, Video Creator, the CD32 VJ package, and many other Amiga products
will be on hand on March 22, 1995, for an Amiga Report-sponsored IRC
conference. Photogenics will be the topic du jour.
The conference will begin at 11:00 AM EST (4:00 PM GMT). All interested
participants should meet in IRC channel #amiga. The conference itself will
be held on another channel, to be announced.
@endnode
@node NEWS11 "Commodore UK Rumblings"
@toc NEWS
On Amiga Format's WWW page (http://www.futurenet.co.uk), Amiga Format
recently printed that Commodore UK informed them of an impending contract
signing.
This signing was to have taken place a week ago. The page has not been
updated since.
C= UK has not responded to my e-mail in quite some time, so I am unable to
offer any more information.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Commodore UK has established a "buyout hotline." Calls are taken 24-hours
(as far as I can tell) on +44 1628 779655.
@endnode
@node feature1 "Expanding the 1200"
@toc feature
=========================================================================
EXPANDING THE A1200 OR HOW TO GO INSANE WITHOUT REALLY TRYING
By: Mark Hemsath urland@delphi.com
=========================================================================
Step 1:
Purchase a nice new USR 28.8K Sportster(R) FaxModem even if you don't
need it since this will be the only relatively painless part of the
procedure. Just don't forget to call the company at 1-800-543-5844 to
give them the serial number of the modem so they can send you the upgrade
chip it needs.
Step 2:
Buy yourself a DKB 40MHz 030 Cobra accelerator card and follow the
included instructions for installation. Now that you've satisfied
yourself that this thing simply will not fit through the belly slot as
claimed in the booklet that comes with card, do the following. Go to the
kitchen and get sunflower oil, crisco, or whatever is handy. Apply
liberally to edges of belly slot and edges of DKB Cobra. If you're a wimp
about cleanup afterwards, purchase a can of Uncle Bob's Electronic
Cleaner, Degreaser and Salad Oil. It evaporates within 24 hours, is
non-conducting, and is low in saturated fats. Spend however many hours of
fun you think you can stand before realizing that this too is a snipe
hunt. Mop up that mess you just made with some thick absorbent bread.
You should be hungry by now, so take a break and consume the cleaning
pads. Save a piece for later. Take the top off the 1200 and lift the
keyboard out of the way. Juggle the board around through 16 impossible
positions and you will find that it is lined up properly with the edge
connector. Scratch your head and push it home. Do not remove for any
reason, even if it doesn't work. Replace the belly cover and notice how
the card provides it's own ventilation by making the cover bulge outwards,
allowing free air circulation. One less thing to worry about.
Step 3:
Take two aspirin with a beer chaser. Acquire a DataFlyer 1200S SCSI+
controller. Go over the parts lists carefully as you will need to find
out which three or four things are missing. Scrounge up some ad-libs from
the mystery drawer in the kitchen. Follow the installation manual
substituting your improvisations when necessary. Try to put your 1200
back together. OK, so the keyboard presses the SCSI+ so much it pops off
the connector. Take that piece of oil soaked bread from step 2 and wedge
it under the left edge of the controller to hold it in place. Try the
reassembly again. My bread just squeezed and oozed out of the way but you
may have more luck if you saved part of the crust. Take your keyboard and
the top cover of your 1200 over to a friends house who has a band saw.
Sacrifice the Esc key and surrounding cover area. Real hackers don't use
the Esc key but if you think you need it, remap it over to the Help key
since most programs don't make use of it anyway. If you want to avoid
step 3 entirely, order the SCSI option for the Cobra board and you'll
probably have even better ventilation around the hatch cover.
Step 4:
Take four aspirin with beverage of choice. Now that your mutant 1200
has SCSI capability, let's add on a nice external HD. Call the way cool
mail order house that supplied you with the above two leftovers. Beg and
plead for them to install the HD in the external chassis for you since
it's obvious by now you don't know what the hell your doing. By doing
this, you can have a feeling of righteous indignation when it comes in
separate pieces and completely devoid of instructions. Assemble the
external chassis as best you can and set it next to your Amiga to impress
people. Use the HD as a paperweight on your desk until the gods of mail
order find the hole your documentation fell into.
Step 5:
Play with SysInfo for one week to convince yourself it was not in vain.
Self-induce a state of unconsciousness with whatever method is at hand.
Repeat until step 4 is complete. Buy an A4000T when production of the
Amiga resumes.
@endnode
@node feature2 "You know it's a weird world..."
@toc feature
=========================================================================
YOU KNOW IT'S A WEIRD WORLD...
Darkseid ckb426@ujvax.ulst.ac.uk
=========================================================================
1) A happy litte face pops up when you startup and everything says
Aldus....
2) The diskdrive accesses and its a pleseant (sic) sound...... instead of
that whirrrr kirjgunck gzztz grinding noise
3) The speech tool develops a bad fit of giggles :)
4) The chips have had a falling out... on screen you see:-
Paula to Denise "Tell Gary Ive finished with memory location
5EF54"
Gary to Agnus "Tell Paula I Dont care, Im going to use 7F33
instead"
Paula to Agnus " Tell Gary to shove it up his blitter"
5) The ascii file you just spent two hours writing , mysteriously cant be
saved due to some obscure error..
6) The floor scrubber joke fails to rise a smile...... ;) OK Jason ?
7) Any time you mention Windoze anywhere the machine it sulks
8) You can find every single printer driver but the one you need, when you
give up and go do something else you find what your looking for and
youve managed to lose the text file you wanted to print in the first
place..... aka(Sods/Murphys Law #4)
9) The virus killer you just got, plays eerie music as it hunts for
viruses then stages an execution of the virus on screen in many ways,
perhaps a hanging or a beheading, maybe even an MKII move... But the
doc file makes no mention of this...... >:o (surprise)
10) The Guru message is accompanied by a text message to the effect that
you are a muppet for doing what you just did...... Ive seen this
happen...... Most Amusing...
The complete idiots guide to computers.... Part One
-- Computing Definitions --
Bit: The Thing which programmers go mad by
Byte: The best way to eat lunch
Reverse Engineering The code make more sense backwards
Ram What the progammer does with his head and a wall
when his code fails to execute for the Nth time
Rom Absent minded programmers
Direct Memory Access What happens when the lid is taken off the computer
in a fit of temper
Floating Point Computers dont float so whats the point
Hardcopy A printout to verify what you knew was wrong anyway
Urgent Data Needs It'll do tomorrow
Stack The pile of coffee jars in the corner
Daisychaining The process of forming a necklace of floppy drives
Hardware The bits left over after you've fixed the computer
CPU Robot in star wars
Peripheral Now you see it, now you dont...
Megabyte Its a big sandwhich.. OK !
Gigabyte Oh my god look at the size of that sandwhich
Terrabyte Christmas Dinner yummmm
Chaining A method of attatching a programmer to their desk
so more work gets done.
Buffer What you do with your sleeve/tie to clean the
screen
I/O What you sign to get a mortgage---
I/O I/O so its off to work I go
Software A nice casual woolly jumper
Hashing Smoking a joint while your waiting for the data to
sort into alphanumeric order..
Binary We'll buy Nary a new computer later
Ascii A common phrase for those taking drugs
Hex Small grid for playing wargames on or
a dyslexic Nymphomaniac
Port Best drunk slightly warm
Chip Ram The bits that come off the programmer head when
hes ramming his head into the wall
Analyst Well it begins with ANAL so......
Monitor The thing that hurts when you drop it on your toes
Keyboard You'd be bored too if all people did was type on
you
FIFO Paging algorithim that governs Sensible World
Of Soccer (think about it)
SPSS The quickest way to drive someone mad....
MBO Mucho Bluffeeeng 'ombres
Hombre The next generation of Amigas... semi Legendary
vapourware
Screen What programmers emit when their program goes into
yet another unbreakable loop
Scanner Tacky series of horror films
Smileys Sir Alec Guiness computerised....
Floppy The way programmers brains feel after last nights
party
Well its time to wrap this up now.... I'd just like to add
To all Readers of Amiga Report (and all floor scrubber fans), and to all
amiga users everywhere, have a peaceful and prosperous new year... I'd
like to wish whoever has the future of this fine hunk a'chips all the best
for the future and DONT BLOW IT THIS TIME !!!!!!
@endnode
@node feature3 "Speed!"
@toc FEATURE
=========================================================================
SPEED AND THOUGHTS ON THE AMIGA WITH PA-RISC
Tim Cameron tim@ufrmsa1.olivetti.za
=========================================================================
I absolutely enjoyed the interview in AR3.02 with Chris Ludwig.
In fact I am glad the "3D-RISC" team chose the HP PA-RISC CPU as the basis
of the next AMIGA chip set. I have been lucky enough to actually work on
a HP 735/125 (48Z) machine with one of the "TOP" PA-RISC CPU's at its
heart. "WOW", this machine ZOOoooms along.
If this is the performance of the next AMIGA "GAMES" console, all I can
say to SEGA, NINTENDO etc, is good bye!!
As for the next AMIGA "COMPUTER", he! he! APPLE, INTEL etc, move over
here comes AMIGA PA-POOOWWWER MACHINES. >:)
"Let me slow down a bit and explain why I am ranting and raving so."
You see I've just completed a course at a company here, and there were +-
40 people connected to this HP machine. (Yea! so what you say, Not that
many people on the LAN.) No no no, CONNECTED TO THE HP MACHINE via the
LAN.
We were working on X-TERMINALS to this machine. i.e. NO PROCESSING POWER
where we sat, the HP machine did ALL the processing....
The speed that this machine handled all tasks was amazing. It was smooth
and a pleasure to work to. Editing, pre-processing etc FAST....
In contrast to this, about a year ago I did a "C" programming course on
an INTEL setup. i.e. 30-40 PC's working over the LAN to an INTEL file
server. The INTEL file server was a 486 at 33 MHz. (What a joke...
Pathetic)
The PC's were running Borland C, and ALL PROCESSING was on the local PC.
The only thing the file server was used for was DISK.
At times things were so pathetically slow, you could only gain a response
from your PC after a wait of over a minute. (Yea! That long....)
A short extract out of the interview to explain my point for this article.
>AN: So you're creating a custom HP-RISC for the Amiga.
>
>CL: Exactly, that was the plan, we're basically creating a custom PA-RISC
> chip based on the PA-150, the latest one, that would allow us to have
> really fantastic performance.
The PA-150 referred to by Chris is actually HP's PA7150 CPU running at
125MHz. "The new AMIGA running at 125MHz, OHoooww Yea! Cool." :)
Anyway enough of this drooling....
Below follows a chart of CPU performance, showing how fast the HP CPU's
are compared to others. The chart is sorted according to SPEC fp92, as
this is VERY important to all those who render images.
I must admit to not including any MC680x0 SPEC's as I could not get hold
of any. :(
** Note **
SPEC int92
This is a bunch of routines to test integer performance of the CPU under
test.
SPEC fp92
This is a bunch of routines to test floating point performance of the CPU
under test.
These test are much more accurate than tests showing MIPS, as a common job
is actually been done.
The only margin for error is in the compilers used on the different
machines, and this is very small.
You will notice that HP is only second to DEC, and that is ONLY because of
the clock speed of the DEC CPU's. Run them at the same speed and the HP
CPU's walk all over DEC's (alpha) CPU's.
MACHINE NAME CPU/FPU Clock SPEC SPEC
MHz Int92 Fp92
DEC 3900 AXP (ALPHA) AXP 21064 275 189 264
DEC 3700 AXP (ALPHA) AXP 21064 225 163 231
HP 735/125 (48Z) PA7150/int 125 136 201
HP 755/125 (48Z) PA7150/int 125 133 196
DEC 3800 AXP (ALPHA) AXP 21064 200 130 184
HP 755CRX PA7100/int 99 109 168
HP 735/99 PA7100/int 99 109 168
HP 735CRX PA7100/int 99 109 168
DEC 3600 AXP (ALPHA) AXP 21064 175 114 162
HP 745i/100 PA7100/int 100 106 155
HP 715/100 (HCRXZ) PA7100LC/int 100 100 137
HP 743i/100 PA7100LC/int 100 100 137
HP 715/75C PA7100/int 75 80 127
HP 712/80 (HC) PA7100LC/int 80 84 122
HP 715/80 (HCRXZ) PA7100LC/int 80 84 121
HP 712/80i PA7100LC/int 80 84 115
SUN SPARC STATION 20/61 SUPERSPARC/int 60 89 103
DEC 3300X AXP (ALPHA) AXP 21064 175 90 97
HP 715/64 (HCRXZ) PA7100LC/int 64 67 97
HP 743i/64 PA7100LC/int 64 67 97
SGI R4400SC INDY XZ R4400SC 150 88 97
SGI INDIGO2 EXTREME R4400/R4010 150 86 94
DEC 3300 AXP (ALPHA) AXP 21064 150 66 92
HP 730CRX PA7000 66 52 87
HP 750CRX PA7000 66 51 85
HP 712/60 (HC) PA7100LC/int 60 58 85
SUN SPARC STATION 20/51 SUPERSPARC/int 50 74 85
SUN SS10 MODEL 51 SUPERSPARC 50 65 83
INTEL XPRESS 815/100 PENTIUM 100 100 81
HP 745i/50 PA7100/int 50 49 79
HP 715/50C PA7100/int 50 49 79
HP 712/60 PA7100LC/int 60 58 79
SUN SPARC STATION 20/50 SUPERSPARC/int 50 69 79
IBM 250,25T/S/W GXT150 POWER PC 601 67 63 76
INTEL XPRESS 735/90 PENTIUM 90 90 73
DEC 3300LX AXP (ALPHA) AXP 21064 125 68 73
SGI R4600SC INDY XZ R4600SC 133 94 73
HP 720CRX PA7000 50 39 66
DEC 3300L AXP (ALPHA) AXP 21064 100 46 64
COMPAQ SYSTEMPRO/XL 5/66 PENTIUM 67 65 64
SGI R4000SC INDY R4000SC 100 58 63
SGI INDIGO R4000 ELAN R4000/int 100 59 62
INTEL XPRESS/MX PENTIUM 67 65 60
SUN SS10 MODEL 40 SUPERSPARC 40 50 60
HP 710C PA7100 50 33 56
SUN SPARC STATION 5/85 MICROSPARCII/int 85 64 55
SUN SS10 MODEL 30/30LC SUPERSPARC 36 45 54
HP 715/33C PA7100/int 33 33 52
SGI R4600PC INDY XZ R4600PC 100 63 50
SUN SPARC STATION 5/70 MICROSPARCII/int 70 57 47
HP 705C PA7000 33 23 39
SGI R4000PC INDY R4000PC 100 36 37
SUN SPARC STATION 2 CY7C601/int 40 22 23
SUN SPARC STATION IPX FJMB86903/int 40 22 22
SUN SPARC CLASSIC MICROSPARC 50 26 21
SUN SPARC LX MICROSPARC 50 26 21
SUN SPARC CLASSIC X GX MICROSPARC 50 26 21
COMPAQ DESKPRO 66M i80486DX2 66 32 16
COMPAQ DESKPRO 50M i80486DX2 50 26 12
COMPAQ DESKPRO 486/33 i80486DX 33 18 8
@endnode
@node feature4 "Portal Conference - Panorama"
@toc feature
=========================================================================
ONLINE CONFERENCE - JIM BARDEEN, AUTHOR OF PANORAMA
=========================================================================
[Recently, Portal held an online conference with Jim Bardeen, author of
Panorama, and his publisher, Amigadget. The edited transcript appears
below... -Jason]
Harv: FOR OUR FIRST HOUR OR SO TONITE, WE HAVE A SPECIAL SEMI-FORMAL CHAT
Jim: Thanks very much for inviting me.
Harv: ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE TO YOU OUR SPECIAL GUEST, JIM BARDEEN, AUTHOR
OF "PANORAMA". BEFORE THAT, I'D LIKE TO ASK A TWO PART QUESTION.
PLEASE ANSWER YY, YN, NY, OR NN AFTER I ASK IT :) PART 1) DID YOU
DOWNLOAD ANY OF THE PANORAMA PICS THAT JIM UPLOADED THIS WEEK AND 2)
DO YOU OWN PANORAMA?
XJumpdisk: NY
Input: NN
jcompton: NN
CarmenR: NN
Izzy: NN
JohnG: NN
PatB: NN
Lyonking: YN
jpawluk: YN
AmiGadget: YY
CarmenR: [ashamed]
Drakon: NN Yet but have seen the stuff in the mags
SBurroughs: NN what's panorama?
DonM: NN
CarmenR: I've seen some older images of Panorama tho
DonM: haven't check d/ls this week
Harv: OKAY, NEXT QUESTION: DO YOU OWN ANY AMIGA SCENERY/LANDSCAPE MAKERS?
ANSWER V- VISTA/PRO SA- SCENERY ANIMATOR WCS- WORLD CONSTRUCTION SET
O- OTHER
Harv: V-SA-WCS
CarmenR: N/A
ScottJ: VP & SA.
JohnG: V
XJumpdisk: V-SA
DonM: V
Jim: V-SA
Lyonking: V
Izzy: O
SBurroughs: not a one of those
SteveX: c
SteveX: v
Drakon: V-SA
jpawluk: V sa
Input: V SA
jcompton: V SA
AmiGadget: o
CarmenR: Imagine. :/
Harv: OKAY.. HERE IS A PAGE OR SO OF TEXT ABOUT OUR GUEST AND HIS PRODUCT.
AFTER THIS WE WILL TAKE QUESTIONS.
OK... HERE COMES THE PROLOGUE:
SBurroughs: drumroll
Panorama is a fractal landscape generating program for Amiga computers.
It lets you sculpt a landscape by applying a variety of fractal
parameters to initial data that you can edit graphically by moving peaks
and valleys around on the screen with the mouse. The program also
imports data, including DEM (Digital Elevation Map) data for real places
around the planet (or others).
The program was written by Dr. James Bardeen. It originated as
"Genesis," sold by MicroIllusions. The name was changed to Panorama at
version 3.0. The current version 4.0, is now sold by AmiGadget
Publishing Company (represented here on Portal by Jay Gross,
"AmiGadget"). It contains many enhancements and additional features over
the previous versions. Panorama supports 24-bit pictures of any
resolution, up to more than 8,000 by 8,000 pixels. The program will work
directly to several of the available frame buffers - OpalVision, Retina,
and Picasso - and Version 4.0 has much better support of AGA machines.
In addition, you can create and save AGA-only picture formats from
Panorama running on non-AGA Amigas.
Panorama is algorithmically correct, and mathematically with-it. The
program's emphasis, in addition to making gorgeous pictures, is to let
you experiment at the forefront of current research in fractals.
Original, fractal landscape algorithms that are unique to Panorama let
you adjust many parameters for the formulae simply and understandably, in
order to create strikingly different scenes, even from the same data.
You can use the pictures as backgrounds for video, as playfields for
gaming, or as the starting point for fine art, illustration and graphic
design. You can wrap them as bitmaps onto objects in your 3D rendering
programs. Or just frame them and hang them on your wall.
In addition, the program supports unattended operation for the creation
of animations of any length, generated and recorded automatically,
including automatic support for single-frame video recording. So, you
can conduct a fly-by, or a fly-through, or follow a river as it meanders
through lush, green valleys.
Panorama can be entirely controlled and operated with software through
its ARexx port. An extensive ARexx command structure provides control
over everything Panorama does. The Arexx functionality also permits
support of the VideoToaster and image processing software. Animation of
finished landscapes can be achieved through an internal scripting
language which includes the magic command "Tween" for easy scripting.
Any feature can be animated, especially the program's awesome skies, and
its waves and waterfalls. Panorama can simply record a script as you
work the program. You can then edit the script if you wish, to add Tween
and other powerful functions.
Panorama comes with utilities that will convert genuine, USGS Dem files
for its use through GeoRama. A new, second utility permits translating
Vista Pro DEM files for GeoRama and Panorama, as well.
The pictures are fully shaded, with true shadows, three types of trees,
water waves, haze, and control over all of the above in a variety of
useful ways. You can control the direction and elevation of the sun, for
example. You can choose separate color schemes and tree types for each
contour, and for each one you can also choose different bark and leaf
colors. The many dithering and blending algorithms are also under your
control, selectable for each contour. Panorama's trees are not 3D
objects, however.
Version 4.0 of the program has added fractal dithering and textures.
These can be applied to anything in the program for which texture or
dithering is appropriate - including tree leaves, water, clouds, etc.
The program includes some features normally associated with raytracing,
such as shimmering reflections of the sky in the waves.
The program lists for $99.95. It is available direct from AmiGadget
Publishing Company for an introductory price of $69.95, and fellow Portal
AmigaZoners are welcome to claim an additional $20 off - all plus $4
shipping (bottom line: $49.95 + $4 shipping). It installs on your
harddisk drive or runs from floppies, and it is not dongled.
Requirements: any Amiga, including Amiga 1000's, containing at least 3
megabytes of memory (more strongly advised), at least one floppydisk
drive, and AmigaDOS version 1.2, 1.3, 2.0, 2.1, 3.0, or 3.1. (The DEM
conversion utilities require AmigaDOS version 2.0 or above).
Updates from any previous version of the program are $35 (+ $4 shipping),
which includes the entire package: 5 floppy disks and the completely
revised manual. Updates from any version of Genesis, add an extra $5.
AmiGadget Publishing Company
P.O. Box 1696
Lexington, SC 29071-1696
// 30 //
ScottJ: Dr Bardeen, can Panorama read Vista Pro DEMs that are only in Amiga
format or can it read the IBM format Vista DEMs as well?
Jim: I have only tested the Amiga versions. Are the IBM versions any
different, except for coming on IBM disks?
Harv: scott - I think they're the same. note: VRLI now sells a CD ROM
with *every* binary DEM they have, for about fifty bucks.
ScottJ: I dont know but I want to be able to read the Vista DEMs on the
CD-ROM. Thanks.
Harv: Amigas can read them scott, per their literature. next?
XJumpdisk: We have enjoyed Panorama but have trouble with the DEM convert
prg.. all the files come in flat? ... Also I have trouble
with fog NOT turning off when I tell it to?
Jim: This hasn't been a problem for me when I have converted both one
degree and 7.5 minute DEMs. Of course, many of the one degree dems
will look very flat unless you exaggerate the vertical relief. I have
never had the fog problem.
XJumpdisk: When I draw a scene with fog, then zoom in and want the near
aspect fog free.. the fog stays around
Jim: You should check the haze settings. If the haze density is about 1.0
or less the foreground should be fairly clear.
CarmenR: Hi Jim.. I'm amazed to hear that a scenery program has waterfall
effects... Could you tell us more about it? Can the water be
shattered by hitting... a rock on the side of a cliff? Could it
be compared to particle effects?... And have you thought about
other formations like arches or caves?
Jim: The waterfalls aren't actually animated. Jay exaggerated a bit there.
But water waves are animated. Nothing that fancy. But you can make
circular ripples with the waves.
AmiGadget: And you can choose the source position, size, frequency, etc
for the waves and change it over time to animate.
Jim: No caves. The landscape must have a single height at a point.
DonM: How does the speed compare with VP?
Jim: Probably somewhat slower, but a lot more attention is paid to each
pixel to get maximum detail. The fractal textures give detail down to
the pixel resolution of the picture,independent of the triangle size.
JohnG: Will this beastie be able to input actual USGS DEM files?
Jim: Not directly, but through the conversion utilities supplied with
Panorama. I've done this with files from 9-track tape and files
downloaded from the Internet.
AmiGadget: the original usgs files are multiple megabytes
JohnG: so's my hard disk :)
AmiGadget: a progam that comes with Panorama, "GeoRama" compresses them to a
few hundred K to make them more manageable
Jim: Panorama has its own proprietary compression format, and splits up one
degree DEMs into 6 or 9 subquadrangles to keep file sizes at about 100
to 170 KB.
ScottJ: Jim, I have a Picasso II card and I was wondering if I could run
Panorama directly on the board or does Panorama just use the
Picasso as a frame buffer?
AmiGadget: GeoRama provides a graphic interface to the process.
Jim: You can create pictures using the Picasso memory for storage, and
display them as they are being drawn. The only problem is that you
can't access other screens while a picture is being drawn.
ScottJ: So Panarama just uses the Picasso as a frame buffer then?
Jim: That is, native Picasso screens. You can have the Panorama control
screen on an Amiga screen and access it. You can select Picasso
screens for "Amiga" rendering from the Display database.
Harv: jim.. what's he's after is does panorama itself, its interface, open
on the picasso display itself as well as rendering to it?
ScottJ: Ok. Thanks. Any chance of adding support for Picasso II and other
board so Panorama can run its interfaces on them?
Jim: This gives you 64 colors as opposed to 16 million. You can also run
Panorama itself on a Picasso screen from the Display Database, if it
accepts regular Amiga draw commands and is part of a high-res, lace
family.
Drakon: Okay 1) can you import objects a la SA ? 2) Nonlinear fog 3) what
does the program render when you go outside the dataset?
AmiGadget: drak, there is no object import.
Jim: 1) no, you can't import objects. 2) The fog has an exponential and a
Gaussian mode.
AmiGadget: see the reference in the HarvScroll(tm) about the trees not
being 3d objects either
Jim: Out side the data set, there is a ground plane which if it is a "sea"
ground plane can have waves on it. The haze tends to obscure the more
distant parts of the ground plane.
AmiGadget: "island" mode looks way cool like that
XJumpdisk: On a 6Meg 1200, saving AGA sometimes brings up a German requestor
then quits.. is that a memory constraint?
AmiGadget: ...that's an errortrap from the compiler in which Panorama is
created
Harv: ah so...German compiler :)
Jim: The program was written with M2Amiga, a Swiss-published language. It
probably indicates some kind of bug.
XJumpdisk: Danke
JohnG: Does it handle very large databases? like, if i wanted to render
Venus, would curvature enter into it? for that matter, how attached
to earth colors and atmospheric effects is it? :)
AmiGadget: jg, you have control in 24 bits of all of the colors for
everything
JohnG: AG, that helps :)
Harv: how much data can you stuff into it at once?
Jim: It can handle up to 12 contiguous VistaPro Large quadrangles at once,
but the max resolution in a single landscape is about 800x800 points
AmiGadget: it comes with a palette for molten lava, too
Drakon: cool!
Jim: You can certainly vary colors and atmospheric effects.
AmiGadget: aren't martian trees pink?
Jim: Make them pink if you like.
JohnG: so if i use multiple overlapping clumps to achieve a longer flight,
will there be a discontinuity at the seams, or is it pretty precise
as far as positioning oes?
AmiGadget: the fog effects are extremely smooth and pretty
Jim: You can position things very precisely, and automatically when working
from DEM files.
JohnG: (VP rounds and makes bumpy paths)
AmiGadget: one of the pictures ul'd here is a sunset one
JohnG: sounds pretty cool
Jim: There is neat contrast setting which gives a whole continuous range of
nice lighting effects, from bright glare to cloudy conditions.
Harv: Thanks to SteveX for queueing, who has to leave now
AmiGadget: jg, jim will correct me if i'm wrong, but i think you'll have no
trouble pasting adjacent squares together with Panorama
JohnG: cool
AmiGadget: might want to turn the automatic sun angle off, tho, if you
paste over a large area
Jim: You can't paste together adjacent Panorama data, that is true. But
you can vary the patch you load into Panorama from DEM files.
AmiGadget: yes, paste the pictures together when they're done
Jim: As for the fog, you should reset the fog to light haze. The fog
setting is automatically turned off after each picture.
ScottJ: Jim, what made you decide to create Panorama when there were two
other landscape renderers (Vista Pro & Scenery Animator) available?
Also what features does Panorama offer that other landscape
renderers don't?
Jim: I started this before there was anything else except the crude PD
predecessor to SA.
Harv: remember, panorama's uh... genesis came from.. uh.. "Genesis" :)
which was released years ago
Jim: Unfortunately, I haven't had much support from the companies I have
tried to market through, so Genesis and Panorama have been pretty
invisible.
AmiGadget:
Harv: Microillusions did a sterling job of burying Genesis
AmiGadget: they buried themselves.
ScottJ: I havent seen any ads for Panorama or Genesis.
Jim: By the way, that last comment did not apply to AMiGadget.
AmiGadget: Jay can't afford ads. And really, it's hard to justify
promotional expenses till the Amiga comes back to life (hope
hope)
DonM: How do you set up animations? I kinda like VP's way of drawing lines
from point to point, but in a separate program, aside from bumps I
seldom encounter. (sorry about miss.. got interrupted)
Jim: You place key frames interactively while making a script, and then fill in
with tweening by linear interpolation. Also, the comment about fog
should be that fog does NOT turn itself off automatically betwen
pictures.
It does lack the drawing of lines on the map to see the whole path.
ScottJ: Why havent you send demos to places like Amiga World? That would
garner some publicity.
AmiGadget: scott, they received press copies of version 3.0 from the
previous marketing agent (not me) Panorama has been publicized
in European magazines. we sold distribution rights to VitePro
in France for the French market.
Jim: There was a DEMO disk for Genesis.
Yes, it does have shadows on water, but not on the groundplane outside
the landscape proper.
DonM: so how do you pick the frames. is there a visual interface to do
this, or you just gotta know as you go?
Jim: You position the camera on a map, and then adjust the vertical field
of view using a side projection for each key frame. It's just that
the key frame positions aren't marked permanently.
ScottJ: Does Panorama have a special 68020/68030 version with math
coprocessor support?
Jim: It does have a 68020 version, but it doesn't use the math coprocessor.
it uses FFP floating point, which is just about as fast as processor
arithmetic without a lot of register juggling in machine language.
Harv: THANKS JIM & JAY. REMEMBER FOLKS, THERE ARE FIVE DEMO PANORAMA PICS
IN THE NEW UPLOADS AND ALSO THE SPECIAL $20 OFF DEAL FOR PORTAL FOLKS
@endnode
@node feature5 "Portal Conference - ImageFX 2.0"
@toc feature
=========================================================================
ONLINE CONFERENCE - NOVA DESIGN, CREATORS OF IMAGE FX 2.0
=========================================================================
[Recently, Portal held a conference with Nova Design, the creators and
publishers of ImageFX, the graphic processing system being reviewed in AR
as we speak. -Jason]
Harv: TONITE WE HAVE THE HONOR OF PRESENTING TO YOU.... THREE GUYS WHO
FORM A COMPANY... THAT IS A RARITY THESE DAYS... NOT ONLY DO THEY
MAKE *ONLY* AMIGA PRODUCTS... BUT THEY SUPPORT IT, AND HAVE NO
PLANS TO DO ICKY STINKY PEECEE PORTS OF IT... :) THIS COMPANY IS
NOVA DESIGN INC... THEIR PRODUCT IS IMAGEFX2... AND THEIR NAMES
ARE KERMIT WOODALL, TOM KREHBIEL, AND BOB FISHER...
Kermit: Actually, we're only porting to the VIC-20.
Harv: IMAGEFX2 HAS BEEN FAVORABLY COMPARED TO ADOBE PHOTOSHOP IN ITS POWER
AND FLEXIBILITY... AND IT IS A MASSIVELY WONDERFUL PROGRAM DO YOU
GUYS HAVE ANY INTRO REMARKS?
Harv: BEFORE WE START TAKING QUESTIONS... LET'S POLL THE AUDIENCE
HERE.... DEAR ALL .... IF YOU CURRENTLY OWN IMAGEFX 1.5 OR 2.0
PLEASE ENTER "1.5" OR "2.0" RIGHT NOW
Harv: 2.0
jcompton: 2.0
jpawluk: 1.5
DrGandalf: 1.5
Bob: 2.1
Kermit: .90, 1.0, 1.01, 1.5, 2.0, and... :)
Harv: IF YOU CURRENTLY OWN A COMPETING PRODUCT, ENTER "ADP" FOR ADPRO (ANY
VERSION) OR "IM" FOR IMAGEMASTER (ANY VERSION)
soft-logik: IM
DonnOK: ADP ...
DrGandalf: ADP
Harv: ADP
Lyonking: ADP
jpawluk: ADP IM
ted-c: adp,im,TV Paint
ScottJ: ADP & IM
Drakon: ADP
grog: adp
Harv: OKAY KERMIT.. LOOKS LIKE YOU HAVE A GOOD CROWD TO SELL TO :) WE'RE READY
FOR QUESTIONS.
DonnOK: Does the product support 24 bit cards like the retina on a A2000??
Kermit: Yes. On the Retina Z2/Z3 we can put up windowed 16/24bit
previews.
Harv: KERMIT... HOW ABOUT A LIST OF WHICH BOARDS YOU DRIVE? IF YOU CAN
REMEMBER THEM ALL..
Kermit: Ummm...it's easier to say which ones we DON'T preview on
actually... We don't preview on the Mimetics Framebuffer, the
Harlequin and such... We don't currently preview on Picasso II,
EGS based boards or the Toaster...
Drakon: :(
Harv: DCTV, HAM-E, ETC.
Kermit: Not right now.
Kermit: We do render out to all of these boards except the Mimetics.
jcompton: Well, ok, I'll be the first to two-part you. Followup to the
last question: Do you plan CyberGraphics support?
Kermit: Yes, we plan full Cybergraphics support.
Harv: JASON IN 25 WORDS OR LESS, WHAT IS THAT, FOR THOSE WHO DON'T KNOW?
jcompton: CyberGraphics is a new shareware RTG system designed for most
graphics boards, including the soon-to-be-released CyberVision.
Harv: AND WHO MAKES CYBERVISION
jcompton: CyberVision is made by Phase 5/AS&S Germany. AS&S currently has
no US distributor.
jcompton: Secondly, how serious is your Amiga support? Even some of the
most prolific companies are now in the "We'd like to continue
supporting the Amiga" rather than the "We WILL continue
supporting the Amiga"...
Bob: WE WILL continue to support AMI
Harv: (TOM ALSO WROTE VIEWTEK AND REND24 FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO MAY NOT KNOW
THAT)
soft-logik: Does FX do virtual memory?
TomK: Yes.
Harv: (has its own built-in VM. doesn't need gigamem, etc.)
Kermit: Definitely. However the virtual memory is only for images, not
for the software itself. This allows it to be much faster and
work on ALL Amigas, not just those with MMUs.
TheDuck: excuse me, very off topic question... do you have any plan in
the future for non-graphics software?... ie: music software?
Harv: that's a legit question.
Bob: uh...
Kermit: We've got ImageFX EGS 1.61 ...thats just got a little graphics in
it.
TomK: I wish... :)
Bob: But it sounds really bad...
Kermit: Seriously, our future software plans aren't set in stone. We'll
make public announcements when something is ready.
ScottJ: Kermit, will IFX ever add support for Video For Windows &
QuickTime? The source code for some of the codecs is in the Xanim
source code.
Kermit: Scott...that's being investigated now. We certainly don't want to
move on it too fast and have another GIF-like problem.
Bob: QT sux
Kermit: (The above is a reference to the GIF/LZW controversy from CIS)
TomK: Tell us what you _really_ think, Bob.. :)
DonnOK: What does IFX feature that ADP doesn't like functions on image or
output??..
Kermit: Don, for a full list I'd have to refer you to the press releases
we have online here and everywhere. It's a LONG list. Big items:
Visual image loading and thumbnail image previews, lightning
effects, PaintFX - turn your images into simulated paintings or
animated paintings, natural media painting modes, painting, more
loaders/savers which are all included, etc.
Bob: It would take HOURS to just list what IFX does that adp doesn't
Harv: (don't forget arexx macro recording. hit one key, record all your
mouse clicks for playback later)
DrGandalf: Kermit, I am unclear, did you say you currently do or don't
support the Harlequin?... [can't fall behind ADPro, Y'know
:)]...
Kermit: We do support the Harlequin for rendering. Actually Xi wrote it
for us.
DrGandalf: Included with 2.0?
Kermit: Yep.
Harv: Tom.... you are aware, of course, of this new very fast jpeg code
such as in... "FastJPEG_AGA" yes?... will you implement that in
ImageFX? and if not why not :)
tom, fjpeg loads .jpg files about 2-3x as fast as viewtek with less
artifacting.
TomK: I personally haven't seen "FastJPEG", but I have heard it mentioned
a few times.
Kermit: It's my understanding the author rewrote the IJG jpeg code into
assembly.
TomK: That's probably on the list of things to look into though (if I know
Kermit).
Harv: tom.. okay... viewtek question for you... I'd like to see you
expand what it does a bit... i.e.:::: say i'm using it to view pics
off a cd rom... something I do a lot... and I see one i want to
copy to my hard drive... how about puting something in vt's
interface to let me do that? GA (so I don't have to use opus AND
viewtek to do what one could do alone) (or maybe i should just
config opus to use viewtek :)
TomK: I'm not sure that I'd want to put a dirutil into VT, there's really
not much of an 'interface' there for that. For now, I'd recommend
just configuring DirOpus to use VT. :)
Harv: well not a whole dirutil.. just a "copy to" button. (beg beg).
JeffW: I have image fx 2.0 and I am very pleased. Does the program support now
or in the future the epson 1200c scanner at 2400 x 2400 dpi. and how much
memory would be needed at that dpi? GA
Kermit: ImageFX 2.0 does support the es1200c ...as for memory usage...Tom?
TomK: 2400x2400dpi 8.5x11 @ 24-bit == c. 1577MB according to my calculator
[Yes, IFX 2.0 supports 2400dpi.]
Harv: (you wouldn't really want to scan the whole 8x11 bed at 24 bit color at
2400dpi unless you were tottally insane, of course)
(at 2400dpi you could fill the screen with the head of a pin..
literally)
grog: speaking of GIF, do you guys support gif 89a with transparency?
Kermit: We do not support GIF89a with transparency. Given the state of
affairs that Compuserve has created with GIF, it's not likely to
happen now.
soft-logik: A series of questions inspired by ImageMaster: How fast is IFX
vis-a-vis IM
Is it style Guide Compliant
Do you get a manual?
What scanners are supported?
Kermit: Whoa! Ok...here goes...
TomK: AUISG compliant: Yes.
Kermit: We're faster in about everything than any competing package on the
Amiga...
Kermit: You get a great manual...heavily illustrated and around 400 or
more pages...
Harv: (fantastic manual)
soft-logik: So, it's nothing like ImageMaster. ;-)
jcompton: (Harv particularly likes the online manual)
Kermit: We support the Epson line of scanners, Sharp JX100, and most all
framegrabbers.
Harv: (I wrote the online manual :) (IFX2 has *tons* of online help key
help)
Kermit: Our online HELP system is second to none. Actually readable and
well put together. Right Mr. Laser?
Harv: ;)
ScottJ: Kermit, do you know if IFX will work on any of the 060 boards?
TomK: Scott: It should.
Kermit: Never seen one. Totally unknown. Are they even available???
jcompton: Kermit- No, but they're always nice thoughts. :)
Bob: Scott, could you loan me one for testing? :)
Kermit: Tom's the authority on that though. Since he said "yes", I'll say
yes too.
TomK: I just flipped a coin... :)
Kermit: Darn...that takes all the mystery out of it now. ;)
DonnOK: I am a loyal Amiga fan, don't get me wrong, but ......Are there
any problems with IBM or mac OS s/w or h/w such that you will not
port to them??
Kermit: Yes. ;)
Harv: get photoshop
Kermit: Seriously, why should any Amiga owner care?
jcompton: What is Nova's policy on development documentation for hooks,
and are you planning to release hooks on any sort of regular
basis?
Kermit: Tom?
TomK: The developer info for IFX 2.0 should be ready this week.
Kermit: We have plans for updates, similar to our past schedules.
Bob: and it only costs 5,000 dollars...make checks out to Bob Fisher
[Bob's kidding. The developer information is free, and hooks can be
freely redistributed or sold at the developer's discretion.]
Harv: okay me again.. another one for tom probably... when using
paintfx, sometimes I get into a situation.... where i've asked it
to do something totaly stupid.... such as use 3000 brush strokes or
something.... I can pound on the cancel button but often it takes
forever to cancel.... besides "don't do that, stupid" is there a
way.... for the cancel button to be recognized before the gas gauge
hits its first marker?
Kermit: The simple answer is...oh, I see you mentioned that, well the
moderate answer is that PaintFX is internally quite complex and it
has to setup lots of stuff. Cancelling simply isn't implemented
until it's actually doing sometime to an image.
TomK: Actually it checks the cancel gadget in between the fuel gauge
markers, but sometimes (like probably in the case you mention,
depending on the brush size), it just takes a while to get around to
checking for the cancel. Or, what kermit said. :)
Harv: is there no way to make it see cancel immediately?
TomK: Harv - I'll have to look into that some more.
Lyonking: Is Cinemorph included in IFX 2.0 and if so was it improved over
the previous version?
Kermit: Yes. CineMorph, as always, is included with ImageFX 2.0 ... it
has several improvements. It has color displays and can use the
thumbnail image requestor and has had ARexx added to it.
ScottJ: Kermit, what about Photo CD support and the new TIFF-JPG picture
format? Also, when is the demo version of IFX 2.0 going to be
uploaded?
Kermit: We've included that public domain PhotoCD compatible loader as
part of an "extras" package on our disks. The TIFF/JPG format has
been somewhat of a philosophic issue here...we tend to agree with
the Independant JPEG Group that no one should imbed JPEG images
inside another file format for no productive reason, but as we are
a conversion package we are looking at possibly support for
LOADing these but not saving them. As for the demo...real soon
now!
Harv: ifx's photocd loader works perfectly. use it all the time.
ted-c: Any plans for ImageFX to run natively on graphic baords because
while 24 bit is nice, the increased resolution is now a
necessity, not a luxury.
Kermit: What would "natively" mean?
ted-c: paint, run the program on a separate screen (i've got the picasso
board) rather than just a preview or render screen
Kermit: ImageFX 2.0 can run in windows on a single screen on the regular
Amiga Workbench and in 24bits on the Retina Workbench.
Cybergraphics support for similar displays is coming.
Bob: If those companies would be more AMIGA friendly there'd be a lot of
s/w for them
Harv: (If you have an AGA machine you can run imagefx on a 256 color workbench
including its preview window which is pretty cool)
ted-c: kermit, I was just tryin' to say that editing files in a 1280x1024
screen is really very productive.
Kermit: I agree...it's fully possible in ImageFX 2.0.
ScottJ: As the only image processing program still being upgraded, how
much longer do you think you can continue to support the Amiga?
Also any chance of CDXL support being added to IFX 2.0?
jcompton: As a point of order, I wouldn't go so far as to call IFX the
only image-processing program still being updated.
Bob: Easilly through 1996 even if there is never another Amiga made!
Kermit: There's darned little call for CDXL support and darned little info
on it.
DonnOK: Do you work with NS's Vlab framegrabber, and how much menmory on the
average do you need for imputting images from this source fro manipulating
these images (aprox 75 dpi??) ....
TomK: A hires lace overscan framegrab would use about 1MB of memory, I
think.
@endnode
@node feature6 "The Amiga Texture-Mapped Games FAQ V0.40"
@toc feature
=========================================================================
THE AMIGA TEXTURE-MAPPED GAMES FAQ V0.40
Steffen Haeuser haeuser@tick.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de
=========================================================================
History
V 0.1 First release
V 0.25 Added some more demos, layout is 80 charachters/line
V 0.26 Added History, layout is 75 characters/line
V 0.3 Added some additional info, added 3d-demo,
added Albas engine, added Wayne engine, added
source section.
V 0.35 Added A1200 smoothness values. Thanks to all the people
who sent me email, by the way... they help improving
the FAQ :))) Added some frame rates ...
V 0.4 Added short reviews of TextDemo57 and Alien Breed 3D
Table of contents
I. Introduction
1. What is Texturemapping ?
2. What are the problems of Texturemapping on the Amiga ?
3. How can they be solved ?
II. Short reviews of all demos/games/sources known to me
1. Demos
2. Game-Demos
3. Games
4. Sources
III. Rumours and other infos department
IV. Doing texturemapping with emulators
1. Hardware-Emulators
2. Software-Emulators
V. Algorithms
1. Terence Russells algorithms used in Wolf3D-2.lha
VI. The Amiga Texturemapping online conference
1. The invitation
2. Some hints for people who do not use IRC often
VII. What can YOU do to support this FAQ ?
I. Introduction
1. What is Texturemapping ?
Texturemapping is a method of wrapping bitmapgraphics around
vectors or 3D based graphics in common. For games, texturemapping
is mostly used doing very realistic Dungeons.
In contrary to a dungeon like in Dungeonmaster or Eye of the Beholder,
the player is not limited to some few directions, but he can turn
around in TRUE 360 degrees, like in real life. Often the graphics
is more realistic than the graphics of such block graphics games
and especially the opponents of the player are done very well
(using texturemapping and vector graphics ...)
Texturemapping is used for role playing games and for dungeon action
games (some of them able to handle more than one player at the same time).
The most famous such games are Castle Wolfenstein and DOOM. Castle
Wolfenstein is for PC and Mac, DOOM is for PC (and soon for Mac too).
There are probably more texturemapping action games than texturemapping
role playing games.
The original creators of DOOM did no port to the Amiga and won't do
so in the future. All the talk about "Amiga DOOM" is to do a similar
game on Amiga, not the original DOOM. Most people speak of "Wolfenstein
style" and "DOOM style" graphics engines to describe how GOOD the used
texturemapping in a game is. DOOM engines are superior to Wolfenstein
engines.
2. What are the problems of Texturemapping on the Amiga ?
Texturemapping needs to put single pixels to a screen, not only LINES
like in vector graphics. So you need both a fast CPU and a fast graphics
for doing texture mapping.
On PC (and on Mac) the color of each pixel is described by ONE BYTE...
this is the so-called CHUNKY PIXEL MODE. On Amiga, the color of each pixel
is described by EIGHT BYTES (for 256 colors). This is the so-called
BITPLANE GRAPHICS. Easy to understand, Chunky pixel is better for
texturemapping than bitplane graphics, as bitplane graphics only
has 12.5% of the speed of chunky graphics. Of course, if you take less
thean 256 colors the speed is better, and i was told, in this way you even
may get a better speed than doing chunky graphics.
Second thing, even if the 68040 is very fast, not everybody has got such
a thing(i have :)))) ). But on PC most gamers have got a 80486 (Which
probably is slower than the '040, but much faster than the '020). It is
probably not possible doing texturemapping with an 68000. In addition,
texturemapping should have 64 colors AT LEAST (maybe extra halfbrite
on ECS ...)
Third, a lot of companies let the Amiga alone (Boooooh... :((( ), and in
special they did not want to risk coding something DIFFICULT on Amiga.
And some coders simply are moronic DOS-lovers (greetings to ID Software
(they did DOOM) and to Richard Garriot of Origin at this place... i hope
they $"&$/&$"/$"/& (censored) !!!)
3. How can they be solved ?
A) Copper Chunky Modes
I told you before, that the Amiga is not capable of doing chunky modes.
That is not 100% the truth. There is a type of copper cheat (the copper
is one of the Amiga's graphics coprocessors), that in fact DOES chunky
modes. The problem with this graphics mode is, it can only handle a
resolution about 100x100 to 130x120 pixels (i do not know exactly, as i
am no specialist in coding texturemapping ...) Compared to PC Games with
320x200 texturemapping this may look ugly ... (but it should be mentioned,
games on PCs (at least on PCs that are not these absolute high-powered
ones...) often do not use full screen graphics, and so often too use such
resolutions. Copper chunky can't do 1x1 or 2x1 pixel resolution or
something like that (i do not know exactly what are the limits for that
Copper tricks... maybe an expert inc coding such things could tell me ?)
B) Chunky to Planar Conversion Routines
A Chunky to Planar Conversion Routine is a part of a texturemapping code,
that takes graphics in chunky (one Byte per pixel) as input, and puts it
as Bitplane Graphics on the Screen. Of course, this method needs much
CPU-power. For most demos/games, you should have at least a '030 to get
it smooth... and a lot of demos using this technique do not have FULL
texturemapping... that is, they for example have no stairs, and everything
on screen is on the same height level. Copper Chunky does this better, but
has a low resolution... of course a '040 with a Conversion Routine can
do fine things...
C) Using a graphics board
Graphics boards for the Amiga do not use Bitplane graphics, but, in fact,
Chunky graphics. The problem is, not many people have such boards in their
systems, in difference to the PC, where all graphics is based on such
boards. But some coders said, they maybe will do an additional "graphics
board version", that features the fast graphics chips with their chunky
graphics... there is even a texturemapping demo running on EGS (EGS is
a standard for Amiga graphics boards).
D) Demo-Groups do the Games
As those people who can do texturemapping best (on PC) often are
DOS-lovers, on Amiga a lot of people of the demo-scene and others, who
are not employed at software firms, began to code... and as software firms
want to SELL, they will probably sell the finished products, even if they
are Amiga-only... And of course there are firms DEDICATED to the Amiga,
like Team17 ... they are in this texturemapping business, too ...
II. Short reviews of all demos/games known to me
The short reviews are done in a specific format, mentioning Name, Author
Name (or name of one of the authors), Minimum System, Recommended System,
Engine style, How smooth the scrolling is and how good the pixelresolution
is. Then they are followed by a short description of the demo (of course i
could say more of the most, but there are a lot of demos reviewed...) Then
i list the E-Mail of the author (if available) and where on Aminet sites to
find the demo (if possible). I recommend using ftp.uni-paderborn.de or
src.doc.ic.ac.uk or another site with complete Aminet. Some smaller sites
only have got the latest uploads to Aminet. Wuarchive is a good choice,
too. And there is another good site called ftp.netnet.com or something
like that. You could look at ftp.luth.se, too.
Used abbreviations :
Minimum/Recommended System
All = All Amigas with 1 MB chip at least
020 = All Amigas with 68020 at least
AGA = All Amigas with AGA
030 = All Amigas with '030 at least
040 = All Amigas with '040 at least
060 = All Amigas with '060 at least (Joke! :))) )
FPU = All Amigas with FPU at least
EGS = All Amigas with EGS graphics boards
Engine style
Low = Engine worse than Wolfenstein,
Wolf = Wolfenstein-style engine
:) = A little Better than Wolfenstein, worse than DOOM
:):) = MUCH better than :), but not DOOM ...
DOOM = DOOM-style engine
Bey = Engine BEYOND DOOM
Smoothness
VSm = Graphics very Smooth
Smo = Graphics smooth
NSm = Graphics nearly smooth
Not = Not very smooth graphics
Pixel resolution
Cop = Probably copper chunky or some other copper cheat, maybe i am
wrong. In special CopL says low pixel resolution, CopM medium
and CopH says high resolution (but i think it is impossible
of doing a copper display with a pixel resolution you could call
HIGH). CopM probably is worse than Med. I used the CopL-CopM
abbreviations only to have SOME METHOD to differentiate
between different kinds of copper displays.
Low = Low resolution (probably something around 2x2 or worse...)
Med = Medium resolution (probably something around 2x1 or 1x2 ...)
High = High resolution (probably 1x1 ...)
Coded by
(P) = Single Person
(G) = Demo group
(PO) = listed person is one of those doing the thing... but there are
others...
(SF) = Software firm
All speed remarks are relative to my own system (hehehe...), an A4000/040
with 14 MB RAM and a Piccolo SD64 graphics board (not the standard Amiga,
isn't it ?) If you have an Amiga 1200 without accelator and did some tests
you may wish to mail your results to me ...
I have to remark too, that the comments are NOT objective... i like some
demos and games, and do not like others... no one should take it as an
insult, if i give his favourite demo a bad mark... it is only a try done
by me... if you think the other way round, tell me... maybe you can
convince me to change the FAQ as to one specific demo :))) I chose to be
STRICT in the remarks i had to do ... in order to show the differences
between the tested engines ... but of course i know how much work it is
even to do a texturemapping demo in LOW resolution with a TM-Engine that
suxx...
Sometimes i wrote something like Low/Wolf... then i did not want to say
Low, and not Wolf... again... everything very subjective ...
Ah... about that "recommended system" things... Just guesses...
Nearly all of the demos are on Aminet and for most of the demos
you will find in the FAQ in which directory. Most of the demos
also are (for the Germans reading this FAQ) available on the
Birdland BBS (number found at the end of this FAQ).
1. Demos
Only Demos with texturemapping parts that could be used in games are
mentioned... no textured spheres, cubes and such things... all things
mentioned in the chapter "Demos" will probably never get games ...
************************************************************************
Mindflow Stellar (G) AGA (4 MB RAM) AGA (4 MB RAM)
:) NSmo Med
One of the effects of this demo is a dungeon that looks nearly like the
dungeons of the game Ambermoon. The textures of the ceiling and floor
are MUCH better than in Ambermoon, but Ambermoon is smoother ...
Author : Stellar (One email of a Stellar-Member is
jsaarinen@kone.fipnet.fi, this is Nose/Stellar)
File : /pub/aminet/demo/aga/mindflow.lha
************************************************************************
Motion Bomb (G) AGA AGA
DOOM Not/NSm Med
One of the effects of this demo is a FULL texturemapped DOOM engine with
stairs and all. Bravo, Bomb !!! You should do a game out of this :)))
This demo did not run on my A4000/040, but i did get a patch from some-
one... i do not think this patch is on Aminet, though ... one last word
to the engine... there are stairs and all included, but the Speed i think
is not that sufficent for a game ... okay for a demo though...
Author : Gengis/Bomb
File : /pub/aminet/demo/par94/MotionDisk1.dms
/pub/aminet/demo/par94/MotionDisk2.dms
************************************************************************
Doomed Pearl (G) All All
Low VSm CopL
A demo where you can use the joystick to wander around... but i decided
not to do it to the Game-Demos, because the only intention to do this one
was, to prove it is possible of getting 50 fps on a plain A500. Someone
of Pearl tried to enhance the engine, but as this did not work, the demo
died. Talking about resolutions, there are copper chunky demos with
better resolution.
Author : Netrunner/Pearl (9308938m@lux.levels.unisa.edu.au)
File : /pub/aminet/demo/euro/Pearl.Doomed.lha
************************************************************************
Phobos Cydonia (G) All (???) All (???)
Low Smo CopL
One of the earlier approaches to Amiga texture mapping. It has no floor
textures and turning around does not look like it SHOULD... but asides
from that the speed is impressive. You can use your joystick to walk the
dungeon, in contrary to most not-game demos. The resolution is weak.
Author : ???
File : ???
************************************************************************
Fullmoon Fairlight (G) AGA AGA
Low NSm/Not Low
Even if Fullmoon is a very nice demo, the texturemapping part is not very
well done. The scrolling is not smooth, there are no floor and ceiling
textures and the resolution is low. The not texturemapping related parts
of the demo are nevertheless great !
Author : ???
File : ???
*************************************************************************
HOI-SAGAIII TEAM HOI (G) AGA AGA
Low NSm/Smo Low
The texturemapping part of the demo has no ceiling textures, and the floor
textures are not very well done. The speed is better than that of most
such "little hacks", but there are better texturemapping demos than this
one. Aside from this flaw, HOI-SAGA III is (looked upen on it as demo in
common) okay.
Author : Teamhoi@SterrBBS.nl (or was it TeamHoi@SterBBS.nl ???)
File : ???
*************************************************************************
Waynes Engine Wayne Mendoza ??? 040
DOOM ??? ???
This one will be DOOM-like graphics. But sadly Wayne_m said on irc he
would probably not do a game with it. I HOPE he changes his mind about
this :))) I do not know what the final name of the thing will be.
Author : wayne@msq.ruhr.de
File : Not yet available
*************************************************************************
2. Game-Demos
Game-Demos are Demos that are probably on their best way of getting games.
Some of them actually will get Games, some not ...
*************************************************************************
Warp_S O. Groth (PO) 020+HD AGA + Fast Ram
:):) Smo/Vsm Low/Med
Really a nice engine, the only DOOM style engine on Amiga with monsters
running around. This one will be a game 100%. Playable demo will be out
maybe February or March. The resolution and graphics are not the best at
the moment, but the next Demo out will (according to the beta i saw) be
much better. They got a new graphician, who is very good (i know this
one :))) ). Maybe the most promising demo of them all. It will get a
graphics board version, too, and an extra version that is '040-optimized
(higher resolution !!!) was promised sometimes... Was in the beginning
called Texmapp... The release version probably will be faster than the
demo. Uses not only 90 degree walls. Decompresses monster GFX in real
time. Just got a new beta from Oliver. Some bugfixes, you can shoot
(but there is no explosion graphics yet) and you have the option of
doing a speedup of the graphics. Maybe the engine is a bit faster
too...
Author : O.Groth@link-M.muc.de
File : /pub/aminet/gfx/misc/warp_s.lha
A1200 : Smoothness Smo
Frame : 19 fps on A4000/040
*************************************************************************
POOM Parallax (G) AGA 030+AGA
:):) Smo High
Maybe the most famous Amiga texturemapping demo. But it got very quiet
around it since October '94. Maybe they dropped it? Or maybe they will
bring out a complete game from one day to the other? There is a V0.3 on a
finnish BBS ... the coders did some talk about a "maybe" graphics
board version. POOM0.2 only has rectangular walls. The phone number of
the Finnish BBS is +358 18 161 763.
POOM0.2 is on Aminet ... As to V0.3 Beta, it is much smoother, you can
select a resolution from 32x32 up to 320x256 (the latter did not work
on my system, though...), you see the gun and there are some new
textures (a complete floor texture too...). As soon as you quit the
Beta, it crashes. The Beta does not run with 2 MB. Someone said,
the guys of Parallax would be working on something else at the moment,
so the next release of POOM would be some time away.
THE AUTHORS DO NOT WANT THE 0.3b BEING SPREAD. The real V0.3 will be
there somewhere in april.
Author : Jussi_Salmi@sonata.fipnet.fi
File : /pub/aminet/gfx/aga/poom_02.lha
A1200 : Smoothness Not (V0.2)
*************************************************************************
BSP John Fehr (P) All 040
DOOM Not Low/Med
This Demo reads an original DOOM-Wad-File and tries to interpret it. This
is SLOW, because WAD-Files were made for the PC, not for the Amiga ...
they are Intel-optimized... the WAD-interpreter BSP has no ceiling or
floor, but many features (because of the WAD ...) As it is No-Aga and
not very smooth, i do not think it is more interesting than for example
POOM or Warp_S. But it was probably VERY MUCH work to make this thing
reading .wad-Files ... and those multiple textures things probably cost
a lot of speed too... there are AGA versions in the archive too... they
too do not have floor and ceiling, but look better than the
ECS-version ... I was told, it seems, John Fehr now is doing something
further with his engine, but as to now i have no conformation from
himself (so, what about, this, John, if you read this FAQ ? :) )
Author : fehr@rpm2.aes.mb.doe.ca
File : /pub/aminet/gfx/misc/bsp1.0.lha
*************************************************************************
Tmapdemo C. Green (P) AGA AGA
??? NSm High
This demo comes with complete source... the author allowed doing a game
with his routine (he probably won't do himself ...) The engine is quite
cool, but very incomplete... just some blocks with Pics on the walls...
no collision check... but a floor...
Author : chrisg@commodore.COM (this email of course does not work ...)
File : /pub/aminet/gfx/aga/tmapdemo.lha
*************************************************************************
Tmapdemo S. Boberg (P) EGS EGS + EGS board
??? VSmo High
A Port of Chris Green's texturemapping engine to EGS... according to the
author a quick hack... probably won't get any further...
Author : ???
File : ???
*************************************************************************
Dentaku26 A.J.Amsel (PO) AGA/CD32 AGA/CD32
Wolf VSm CopL/CopM
Dentaku will be a Wolfenstein/DOOM-style game (probably with level editor
and serial device support). A.J.Amsel said to me, a demo will probably be
released in April 1995. An older demo (executable from September) is
available on ftp.luth.se. According to the mail information A.J.Amsel gave
me, he and the others formed now a software company which is called
Silltunna Software. They are two Coders (one of them A.J. Amsel), one
artist and Alistair Brimble doing the sound. The game uses a copper display
for its texture mapping routine. If you are a coder, an artist or a sound
specialist, you may wish to contact Mr. Amsel. Maybe you could join them
in there project (Mail to A.J.Amsel@exeter.ac.uk). A former Demo of
Dentaku was DentAWolf, but it has not much to do with Dentaku as
it is now. The ratings for DentAWolf are Low/Wolf,VSmo,Low.
The version of Dentaku found at ftp.luth.se is only optimized for
low end machines (but in my opinion it is good enough on high
end machines... maybe there is even room for an improvement of
the engine :))) And the engine does >20 fps on low end machines
too...) On high end machines you can even do 50 fps. The graphics
is of lower resolution as other games, but looks great anyway.
Author : A.J.Amsel@exeter.ac.uk
File : /pub/aminet/demo/aga/dentwolf.lha (DentAWolf...)
/pub/aminet/demo/aga/dentects.lha (Sept. Executable of Dentaku)
A1200 : Smoothness VSm
Frame : 50 fps on A4000/040
*************************************************************************
ChunkyMaze D. Bryson (P) AGA AGA
Wolf VSmo Med
A little dungeon with flickering torches and some pictures pinned to the
wall. It has no floor or ceiling textures and in some distance the
textures do not look nice. But there are worse tries. This project is
(even if there are better approaches) still alive, but as David Bryson
told me, the problem is the TIME. Anybody willing to help him, should
contact him per email. He did not do anything further by himself, but
Lee Metcalfe did some very nice graphics for the demo, and Paul Heams
coded a little further. David would like it, if someone with LOTS of time
picked this demo up. He would help this one with the source, of course.
I found a very similar demo on my harddisk (even the same textures...)
which is called wolf. I think it is an earlier or later version of
ChunkyMaze, but i do not have the docs.
Author : ceedb@cee.hw.ac.uk
File : /pub/aminet/gfx/aga/maze.lha
A1200 : Smoothness VSm
*************************************************************************
TextDemo5 J. Hendricks(P) 020 030
:) VSmo Med
In Fullscreen probably the fastest engine on Amiga (okay, POOM has floor
and ceiling textures and is not much slower...). Textdemo has Lightsources,
not-rectangular walls and the resolution and screen size can be
customized. The demo has OCS, ECS and AGA versions. It uses some very
tricky Chunky2Planar code (using even the blitter...). There is a
TextDemo6 in work, and as i was told this one will probably be one of the
best texturemapping demos on Amiga.
Author : john.hendrikx@grafix.xs4all.nl
File : /pub/aminet/gfx/misc/TextDemo5.lha
A1200 : Smoothness Not to VSm, according to screen size
*************************************************************************
TextDemo57 J. Hendricks(P) 020 030+Fast Ram
:):)/DOOM VSmo High
A long time, there was nothing new about Textdemo, but now it is on
Aminet !!! And it is probably the BEST texturemapping engine available
on Amiga, striking even Alien Breed 3D, POOM and Warp_S. I hope the
other coders won't take it this harsh and continue their projects
nevertheless :). On a fast '030 or a '040 it FLIES at near full screen.
I did it at 224x168 with 1x1 pixel resolution on my A4000/040 and
that looked ABSOLUT PHANTASTIC. John Hendrikx claimed he will do
a texturemapping engines for high end Amigas that will be AT LEAST
as good as DOOM, if not better...
Some features :
- Realtime movement (smoother on better systems, but not faster
than acceptable...)
- 128x128 textures (looks MUCH better ...)
- Multiple height walls :)))
- Floor textures (no ceiling textures yet...)
- "Bouncing movement" (I think the bouncing movement of TextDemo
looks better than that of DOOM !!!)
- Object-mapping-code for monsters included (but no animated
monsters implemented yet...)
- Textures take 24 Bit as original (so port to graphics board version
would be easy)
- something that looks like water (and the bouncing movement looks
like swimming :))) )
There are two teams doing games with this engine, John doing the engine
itself. The first team (the "Shade-Team") are five guys. They intend
to do a game with RPG elements that will be a mixture of DOOM, Dungeon
Master and Magic Carpet. The other Team ("Mystic tank") is doing a
two-person tank game.
Look forward to the next release (that shouldn't be a insult to the other
coders, but TextDemo is really GREAT ... did a long way from Textdemo5).
Maybe with that graphics board talk it would be nice if John did a
Cybergraphics version (if he reads this suggestion ... :) )
TextDemo57 is a sort of pre-release to TextDemo6. (Yeah! It is possible
on the Amiga! :))))))))))) )
Author: John.Hendrikx@grafix.xs4all.nl
File: wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/gfx/misc/TextDemo57.lha
Frame: 8-26 fps according to screen and pixel resolution (according
to the fps display... sometimes it seems to me better than the
display says... at the low rates...)
*************************************************************************
Reality AGA K.Picone(PO) ??? ???
??? ???
This project is at present a Wolfenstein type engine that has up to now
not made it to a public release. I got some infos about it :
- Aimed for A1200 and CD 32
- Static and moving objects
- Solid and see through walls
- Floor and ceiling textures (will be done later)
- 1x1, 2x1, 1x2 and 2x2 pixel resolutions
- walls at any angle and of any length
- 64 colour GFX, maybe soon 128 or 256 colour GFX
- external back drop pictures
- simple multi height walls
- graphics board version (will be done later)
- ECS/OCS version (later, with some reduction)
- 320x256 1x2 in 7-8 fps on A1200 with 4 MB Fast
- 320x256 1x1 in 5-6 fps on A1200 with 4 MB Fast
There will probably be a demo release in 2-3 weeks ...
Author: ???
File : Not yet available
Frame : 8 fps on A1200 with Fast Ram
*************************************************************************
Albas Engine alba on irc (P) AGA ???
DOOM ??? ???
This one is intended to be a game in June. A DOOM style engine
with 1x1 and 2x2 pixel resolution. It will do 12 fps on 68030 50 MHz
with fullscreen and 1x1. In a small screensize and with 2x2 it
should be even playable on a plain A1200 system. But Fast Ram
is recommended. I did not see it up to now .... I do not have the
email of the Author. I do not know the final name of the game.
ALBA, PLEASE CONTACT ME !!!
Author: alba on irc
File : Not yet available
Frame : 12 fps on 50 MHz 68030
*************************************************************************
Alien Breed3D Team17 (G) AGA AGA+Fast Ram
DOOM NSm/Smo CopL
The famous Alien Breed 3D Demo is finally there. What do i have to say ?
It is a full Doom engine based on chunky copper. The demo is non playable,
but it seems to me, the game is nearly finished. I think the full game
should show up in 2 months or something like that. The demo does not
run on A4000 properly up to now, but it is said they will fix that
before the release. The graphics resolution is low, but as to nearly
finished games, it is probably the nearest to DOOM available on the
Amiga up to now. I think it will sell fine. :)))
*************************************************************************
Dogenstien3D J.D.Doig (P) AGA AGA
Low/Wolf VSmo Low
Texturemapping engine where you can see the gun while walking around. As
to the graphics, most other engines are better. I don't think this one is
still around. The first version was called Dog3D.
Author : jasond@cee.hw.ac.uk (it seems, that this is no longer valid)
File : /pub/aminet/gfx/misc (if it is still there ...)
A1200 : Smoothness VSm
*************************************************************************
3D-Demo J.Corigliano(P) 020+2MB+OS2.0 030+2MB+OS2.0
Low/Wolf Smo/VSmo Low
The first try of a completely OS-friendly texturemapping engine. Does
9 fps on my A4000/040. As to the Smoothness i HAD to say VSmo, but the
movement is very slow and you can see a bit of the screen refresh when
you turn around. But if this is the first try (the file is not very big),
maybe later versions will get much better. The main problem of the engine
probably is the speed... maybe an updated graphics would enhance it
too... up to now it does not have floor or ceiling textures and the
other "serious" engines are better... but remember, that is not a
public available demo version, but a frist executable...
Author : jcorig@strauss.udel.edu
File : Not yet publicly available ...
Frame : 9 fps
*************************************************************************
Wolf23_ish Chris Colman(P) AGA AGA
Low VSmo Low
A "first try" texturemapping demo. In the Readme the author writes he will
make this one better. It is NO copper chunky. But "as is" it is not very
good. An older version was wolf2.lha. Maybe another demo i found
somewhere (but lost the readme...) is an older or newer version of this
demo (it is quite similar). It is called wolf10. But maybe it is only a
similar demo from another author.
Author : cpc16@mp-s4.phy.cam.ac.uk
File : /pub/aminet/gfx/misc/wolf3.lha
(wolf10 is /pub/aminet/gfx/misc/wolf.lha)
*************************************************************************
Wolf3D T. Russell (P) All All
Low NSm Low
Another "first try" demo. I do not know anything about what got with it
after this release.
Author : russell@cpsc.ucalgary.ca
File : /pub/aminet/dev/src/Wolf3D-2.lha (with source)
*************************************************************************
Rot3D J. Freund (PO) FPU+1.5 MB FPU+1.5 MB
Wolf VSmo Med/High
One of the first, if not THE first texturemapping engine on Amiga
(now in its latest version). The wood textures of the demo look quite
well, as do the stone textures, but there are no floor or ceiling
textures and POOM, TextDemo5 and Warp_S are better. If no one picks this
one up, it will die. The authors said they would help a potential
"up-picker". It now seems it is dead.
Author : freund@cis.uab.edu
File : /pub/aminet/demo/euro/rot3d.lha
*************************************************************************
3. Games
*************************************************************************
TrickOrTreat D. Stuart (P) All All
Wolf Smo Low
Little texturemapping game, where two players try to shoot each other. The
graphics is not the best and there is no floor or ceiling texture, but it
is the first texture mapping action game on Amiga (yes, it is this one, NOT
Fears !!!) Even if the graphics is not comparable to Wolfenstein, the game
is a lot of FUN. The author wrote he was looking for some work in coding
the Amiga.
Author : ???
File : Amiga User International 11/94 (Coverdisk 45)
Or : Duncan Stuart,10, Bramble Close, The Beeches, Uppingham,
Rutland, LE15 9PH
*************************************************************************
Fears BOMB (G) AGA AGA
Low/Wolf VSmo Low/Med
This is a Wolfenstein clone for Amiga. The walls are better than nothing,
the floor textures nearly nothing, the monsters do slide instead of walk,
but it is a COMPLETE GAME. It is shareware. There is even sound while
playing. And it is really FAST.
Author : Gengis/Bomb
File : /pub/aminet/games/demo/fears.lha
A1200 : Smoothness Smo/NSm
*************************************************************************
Ambermoon Thalion (SF) All 030
:) VSmo Med
Ambermoon (do i have to explain this ?) is probably the best fantasy RPG on
Amiga. Using a cool texturemapping routine. Okay, the monsters of Ultima
Underworld on PC are better, but what do you want? This one is LoRes, 32
colors !!! One minute of silence for Thalion... may they rest in peace...
OR be back and do something like that in AGA ??? :))) But sure, that won't
happen... and the programmers for Ambermoon are now at Blue Byte, doing
Ambermoon's sequel Albion for PC only... BLUE BYTE SUXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX!!!
Ambermoon is a commercial game.
*************************************************************************
Legend of valour ??? All ???
Wolf(???) ??? Low (???)
Legend of Valour is a texturemapping fantasy RPG on Amiga. It is a
commercial game. I do not own it and only saw it once, so i can't say much
about this one. But it is not such BIG stuff like Ambermoon.
A1200 : Smoothness NSm (on the biggest screen)
*************************************************************************
A last remark for this chapter : The game DeathMask is no real
texturemapping. It is a block graphics game which scrolls around while you
turn 90 degrees. Better play Hired Guns ...
*************************************************************************
4. Sources
There are some demos available with sources. Additional you can find
the sources of Chunky2Planar routines on Aminet. My comments to these
will be rather short, as i am not familiar in coding texturemapping.
If you have comments to some of these sources, mail me ...
The format of the short reviews of the sources of course is different
to that of the demo reviews. I will download these sources too and
look them through. Maybe then there is something more i could say
about them.
*************************************************************************
c2p4.lha /pub/aminet/dev/src 31KB
Very fast c2p converter using cpu+blitter for the conversion. Needs
68020 at least.
*************************************************************************
chnky2plnr.lha /pub/aminet/dev/src 14KB
Various fast c2p conversion algorithms.
*************************************************************************
fastc2p.lha /pub/aminet/dev/src 25KB
Two fast c2p converters.
*************************************************************************
chunky.lha /pub/aminet/dev/src 54KB
Example of how to create a chunky copper display.
*************************************************************************
rot3dsrc.lha /pub/aminet/dev/src 184KB
Complete source of the above reviewed Rot3D texturemapping demo.
*************************************************************************
wolf3d-2.lha /pub/aminet/dev/src 56KB
Above reviewed texturemapping demo including source.
*************************************************************************
tmapdemo.lha /pub/aminet/gfx/aga 131KB
Above reviewed texturemapping demo including source.
*************************************************************************
flick-14.lha /pub/aminet/gfx/show 71KB
FLI/FLC viewer with source including a c2p routine.
*************************************************************************
III. Rumours and other infos department
1. Maybe DSA 2 (a texturemapping RPG with a really cool engine already
released on PC) will come to the Amiga, maybe not. I heard rumours about
a spring release (and my software dealer said there would be a good
chance for this one to be ported). I do not know if it is AGA, but i
think, if they do it, it will be AGA ...
2. There are rumours about ACID Software doing a clone.
3. Some guy on the net wrote there would be a clone from some polnish scene
member. He could not remember the name, though, and i do not know, if
this guy is reliable.
4. According to Amiga Report 233, AGE Entertainment is working at a
scrolling dungeon game. The game should come out as "Paranoia" and the
project began quite a time ago. According to the article in the
meanwhile the programmers think of the Amiga as a dead platform (the
programmers of Paranoia, not AGE Entertainment !!!), and even if they
wanted to finish the ECS version of the game, they wouldn't do the AGA
version and the CD 32 version that were planned at the beginning. Nor
would they do the planned sequels to the game.
5. Some time ago a group looked for coders for porting the game BOOM that
they were doing for the Atari Falcon to the PC and Amiga. I do not know,
if they found any Amiga programmers for doing the port. The game should
be in three parts, and one of the three parts would be a DOOM style
action game. I heard, it would be near finished (or finished...) for
PC ... (EMail : rrfriede@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de)
6. In the latest add from my software dealer there were announced some
games for Amiga AND PC that use texture mapping. These games are Body
Count, The castle of Dr. Radiak and the sequel of Elder Scrolls,
Daggerfall. I do not know, if this is an error or what (as i never
heard anything about it before ... and usually such things do not go
unnoticed...) And some of these releases were marked as CD and there
was NOTHING written about CD 32 ... this looks strange... but maybe at
least ONE is TRUE (if so, i hope it is Daggerfall :))) ).
7. It is said Renegade is doing a Wolf/DOOM clone.
IV. Doing Texturemapping with Emulators
1. Hardware-Emulators
Hardware-Emulators, that is ... putting INTEL-PROCESSORS in your poor
little Amiga. You want to do THIS ? Oh, than you are running PC games,
not Amiga ones... therefore i do not write ANYTHING about it in my FAQ.
Because this is nearly no emulation anymore... it is ... gaming on PC ...
there are quite well emulators of this style called "GoldenGate".
2. Software-Emulators
There are some software PC emulators, but for games like DOOM they are not
useful. They are slow and only emulate a 8088 or 80286. DOOM needs a
80386 AT LEAST to run. Maybe on PC Task 3.0 Wolfenstein will run. But the
speed (espescially the speed of the graphics) surely is a problem. Maybe
with a graphics board, but probably even this is too slow. So ... wait for
PC Emplant's CPU transcription mode (this one will not be included in the
first version of the emulation software, it will come as a free update
later ...)
Second ... Mac emulation with software... there are two emulators...
AMaxIV and Emplant... as i heard AMaxIV does not run on AGA ... and it uses
tricks to be able running with a 128KB ROM ... i doubt games running on
this one, but maybe i am wrong...
On Emplant (which i own myself) i tested four texturemapping games for Mac:
The demoversions of these games (which i tried...) are on ftp.hawaii.edu
in /pub/mac/info-mac/game/com. You will need StuffItExpander to decrunch
them.
Wolfenstein : Runs on my A4000/040 with reasonable speed (even if i do not
use the graphics board ... with PAL Hires AGA ...), but only with the
smallest screen. Not very well coded, as it is not very smooth on the
graphics board either... (okay, with 320x256 it is something near
smooth ...)
Sensory Overload : Wolfenstein Clone, but i do not like the graphics...
okay, the screen is bigger than most of these demos for Amiga... but the
graphics is not much better... i think worse... Sensory Overload does not
run well without a graphics board.
Pathways into Darkness : Wolfenstein clone from Bungie (Bungie1@aol.com),
i think the graphics is better than Wolfenstein, but Wolfenstein has a
background music and PID don't ... it is slow, but in LoRes playable
without graphics board... not much faster with graphics board, though ...
Marathon : The absolute Mega-Game ... rating, if we do it as with the Amiga
demos above : BEY !!! (Yes, this one is MUCH better than DOOM ...) If you
are doing EVERYTHING to play DOOM on Amiga, take this one, take the
smallest screen size, no music, select that the game only displays every
second line... and run it on at least a 4000/030. But do not show it to
your PC friends, they will LAUGH at you, if you do not own a graphics
board... (i did, before i got mine :((( ) On a graphics board, Marathon is
FANTASTIC, better speed than Amiga graphics demos, maybe even better than
DOOM on PC (remember, Marathon is 640x480 ...) I use a resolution of
probably 400x300 in Lores, and it is absolute smooth on the SD 64 ...
Marathon is the sequel to Pathways into Darkness.
One Last : It is rumoured, at 15th April, DOOM II will be released for
Mac... 68040 and PowerMac, to be exact...
V. Algorithms
In this chapter i will put algorithms or coding hints sent to me.
Please do not send code (this would be MUCH to specific for this
FAQ).
1. Terence Russells algorithms used in Wolf3D-2.lha
Basic structures and algorithms used to create the Amiga Wolf3D demo.
The techniques I have used do not involve ray-casting for the rendering
or BSP trees for hidden object removal. Instead my style of rendering
has more in common with flat-shaded polygon rendering used in many
older demos.
Sorry for the crappy organization. I'm a fourth year computer science
student and I haven't much time to do this properly.
The Maze and basic objects:
The maze is essentially two dimensional and if looked at from above it
would appear to be a grid whose squares are outlined with walls or are
bisected with doors.
Each square from above is 64 x 64 pixels in dimension. I use pixels as a
unit of measurement since in fact each point is represented by a pixel
column in a bitmap.
The use of the grid analogy is purely conceptual, however, since using a
grid structure would create some complications (which are described under
'collision detection' and 'door movement'). For purposes of discussion I
will refer to the X and Y axis' as being the east-west and north-south
axis' (respectively) of the grid from an above view. The Z axis will
refer to the axis that comes up out of the grid. (This runs contrary to
how I actually programmed the demo as the Y and Z axis are swapped).
Walls and doors are represented by the same basic unit: the block.
A 'block' is from a structural standpoint the canvas onto which wall and
door imagery is 'painted' or 'mapped'. Every wall and every door in
the maze is associated with a block. In fact a block may consist of
up to 4 walls that represent the 'north', 'west', 'south', and 'east'
faces of the block.
From a programming view a block consists of 256 points plus a center
point. The center point positions the block relative to the bottom-left
corner (0,0,0) of the maze. The remaining 256 are divided into 4 groups
of 64 points, each of which are associated with a particular block face.
All 256 points are relative to the block's center point. (Hence,
only one set of these points need be maintained for all blocks within a
maze). As can be imagined the end-points for each face overlap.
The walls points are given the following offset ranges:
SOUTH: (-32,-32,0) to (31,-32,0)
NORTH: (31,31,0) to (-32,31,0)
EAST: (31,-32,0) to (31,31,0)
WEST: (-32,31,0) to (-32,-32,0)
Notice that for each face the ranges are given in an order which implies
counter-clockwise as viewed from above the grid. This is important for
properly rendering the wall graphics and for backface culling, that is,
removing walls that are facing away from the observer/player.
Each wall/door has an associated 64 x 64 pixel bitmap. Each 1 pixel wide
column of the bitmap is represented by one of the points found along the
wall/block face. Hence point 0 of the south wall of a block may represent
the 0th column of a 'stone wall' bitmap. From the programmer's view I use
the wall point's ordinal value (it's relative position) to offset/index
into the bitmap image.
Previously I mentioned that blocks are used for BOTH walls and doors.
The attentive reader may have noticed that the offsets for the walls
would create doors that are not located in the center of a block. Since
my aim was to create a near Id wolf-clone I had to specify extra offsets
just for the doors. These new offsets simply have either the X or Y
component zeroed depending on which direction the door is to lie along.
This allows the doors to appear in the center of a block. This also makes
it easy to have sliding doors since all I really need to do is move the
associated block's center point in the direction the door opens. The door
then slides 'into' an adjacent wall block which takes care of hiding the
door. (This is explained later in the next section).
RENDERING - this is just a quick and dirty algorithm
Translate the block centers by an amount equal to the players relative
maze position. Now rotate these centers using the players attitude or
angle of direction, also relative to the 0,0,0 point of the maze.
Next rotate the 256 wall points using the same players direction angle.
For each block center, translate a copy of the 256 wall points to the
block center such that the block center is in the middle of the points.
Now that we have a list of block points that are relative to the player's
position we want to render the blocks. To determine what blocks are
visible I simply sort them by there Y value, (which is now relative to
the player's position). I used this method since at the time I did not
know of the BSP tree method for determining visible polygons.
Once we have a list of sorted blocks, we can immediately discard the
blocks that fall behind the viewer. From this point we render each block
until the player's view is completely filled with graphics.
Since I don't want to draw all of the blocks that are in front of the user,
(just the ones that fill up the view), I use a pre-render loop which
determines what portions of walls/doors are visible.
To determine what is visible I use the sorted list of blocks and an array
called the xBuffer. This buffer is one dimensional and has an entry for
every vertical column of the user's game display.
The algorithm involves a lot of simple parts that when put together create
a fairly complex program. Hence I will attempt explain it using two similar
explanations.
EXPLANATION 1:
I use the following algorithm:
clear the xBuffer
while xBuffer is not full do
get the block closest to the player
for each face of the current block do
if current face is invisible then
skip face
else "current face is visible"
for each of the current face's 64 points do
perform a perspective calculation on the point to
get a screen X1,Y1 point.
duplicate X1 into X2
mirror Y1 across the center of the display to get Y2
the line (X1,Y1)-(X2,Y2) forms a column of screen points
onto which a column slice of the wall/door bitmap will
be mapped/scaled.
if X1 lies with in the range of the xBuffer
(usually 0-319 for a full screen) then
check xBuffer[X1].height to see if a column
hasn't already been written there.
IF height of current line > xBuffer[X1].height THEN
xBuffer[X1] = current column and it's associated
bitmap imagery.
else
discard this column as being invisible.
endif
"If all I did was insert just the columns into the
xBuffer there would be gaps in-between the columns
do to the perspective transformation, hence
I need a little loop that makes a copy of the
current column back to the previous column of the
same wall."
end-if
end-for
end-while
For example suppose my maze viewing area is 320 pixels across the screen.
Then the xBuffer has 320 elements. Each element is a structure that
records: the half-height of the wall/door from the horizon or the equator
of the viewing area; the bitmap identifier; the pixel column offset into
the bitmap
Now using the xBuffer I have a routine take each element and read a column
of pixels from a bitmap and then stretch and clip the bitmap into the
hidden rendering buffer.
EXPLANATION 2:
while not done do
check closest wall/door's extents
(i.e. the starting and ending X locations as project on the view)
if the extents are outside the viewing area then
discard the wall/door
else
for each of the 64 points/columns of the wall/door
determine where the column is relative to the view area
if the column lies in the view area then
check the corresponding xBuffer element to see if
something hasn't already been written there
if empty then
write the columns height and bitmap column offset
and bitmap identifier to the xBuffer.
else
if current column's height is greater then
write it
else
this part of the wall lies behind some other wall
end
end
end
end
end
end
Starting with the closest block I check each face to determine if it is
visible. Since the faces of the blocks are at angles of 90 and 180 degrees
from each other, at most 2 faces will be visible at any one time.
Once I determine a visible face I use the associated 64 points for that
face to determine visible columns. To each point I add to the Z component
an amount equal to have the height of a wall. Then I run the point
through a simple perspective calculation and I now have a somewhat correct
position for projecting the point onto the player's view.
I next create a duplicate of the point and mirror it across the middle
of the player's view. This gives me two points that represent a line or
column of the wall's bitmap. Since each point of a face is uniquely
associated with a column of pixels in a wall bitmap I can perform some
sort of 'texture' mapping now. Only one thing remains, and that is to
determine the next columns position. Since as you get closer to a wall
the 64 points will be spread out over a greater viewing area, gaps will
start to appear between the columns. These gaps are eliminated by copying
a column up to the next column.
Collision Detection:
Some authors have suggested using a static grid to perform collision
detection with walls. Generally this works very nicely, however, in the
case of Id's Wolf3D there is a slight problem. Id's game supports moving
walls (in other words the secret passage-ways). To perform collision
detection on these moving walls while using the static grid meant that
I would need to either create special case for checking when a wall was
moving, or would have to create a special kind of block: i.e. a moving
wall block. At the time I decided this was unsatisfactory so instead of
using a grid I decided to use the block's center point and a bounding box
around the player. Using this method, collision detection involves
checking each block center to see if it lies within the players bounding
box. This allows me to move blocks at will without worrying about special
cases and is generally pretty quick.
There are many more points to the algorithms I have used, and if you
are interested in understanding them and want to learn a maze rendering
technique that does not involves ray-casting then send some email.
Terence Russell
russell@cpsc.ucalgary.ca
VI. The Amiga Texturemapping online conference
[This information is dated. More recent information will be printed when
it is available. -Jason]
1. The invitation
At 7th February (Tuesday) at 22.00 MESZ (16.00 EST or 15.00 Central US
Daylight Saving Time) there will be a online conference on IRC about Amiga
Texturemapping. The conference will be on a channel name #amitmap.
Everyone who is interested in Amiga Texturemapping is invited. The talk
will be about the future of Amiga Texturemapping and as some programmers
already announced they would be there probably some coding themes. Maybe
there will be the possibility to find more people for an own project.
2. Some hints for people who do not use IRC often
IRC is the online chat system of the internet. Try out the command irc on
your site. If this does not work, contact your system administrator and try
to convince him to install an irc server :))).
As you entered irc, you specify your nick name (the name under which you
will be known), with /nick Nick-Name. An alternative is starting irc with
irc Nick-Name. To enter a channel (a channel is a place for people
discussing a specific theme to meet), you type /join channelname.
Each channelname starts with a #.
To send someone a private message (that other can't read) you type /msg
Nick-Name "...", where Nick-Name is the Nick-Name of the user, to whom you
will send the message. To send a message to all users in this channel,
simply type what you want to say. Usually you should write it in the
following way : Name of the user for whom this message is
primarily : Text.
/who * lists all users currently on this channel.
/list * counts the users on this channel.
With /quit you quit irc.
That are only the basics for irc, but with that knowledge you can be with
us at the conference :))). Irc also has a help-system installed,
by the way.
VII. What can YOU do to support this FAQ ?
1. Support Amiga
2. Write texturemapping demos/games on Amiga :)))
3. Buy Amiga texturemapping games, if they come to a release
4. If you know of any texturemapping game/demo not mentioned in this FAQ
(dungeon-related, no texturemapped cubes and spheres),
or if you have information relevant for me, mail to
- haeuser@minnie.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de
OR
- call Germany 07021/861920 or 862428 or 862429 (Birdland BBS,
i am Magic SN on this BBS ...)
OR
- Phone Germany 07021/51787 and ask for Steffen
OR
- go in irc and look for MagicSN (that's me :))) )
OR
- write a letter to Steffen P. Haeuser, Limburgstr.127,
73265 Dettingen/Teck,Germany
OR
- Do whatever you want ... :)
5. Do the same, if you want to send me critics or beta-releases of demos
to test them :)))))))))))))))) (at least i tried it... maybe someone
would be in FACT that nice :))) )
My internet-account is able to handle BIG UUEncoded mail... :))))))))
6. Spread this FAQ on all nets and BBS's.
7. If you are a coder, and you have a lack of time to code, or you have
a serious problem in coding texture mapping, maybe you find some
interesting EMail-Adresses all over this FAQ ...
8. Send me texturemapping algorithms you see no need anymore in
keeping them private (for this new chapter V)
That's it... as soon, as i hear news about some of the mentioned demos
(or of some new ones ...) i will do a later version of this FAQ. It will be
found in comp.sys.amiga.games at least... maybe soon there will be a later
version of Warp_S or POOM or TextDemo or DentAWolf or... or ...
ciao,
Steffen Haeuser
OR MagicSN (in irc)
OR haeuser@tick.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de (E-Mail, talk ...)
@endnode
@node FEATURE7 "Workbench 3.1"
@toc FEATURE
===========================================================================
WORKBENCH 3.1
Harry V. Runge haviru@cup.portal.com
===========================================================================
To begin, I've been using DOS 3.1 a little under a month and in some
areas, I find it a strange animal. The two in particular on my system
(see below) are the PALETTE and the OVERSCAN Editors. Let's take each in
turn.
When PALETTE is run, I get two choices: 8-color or 4-color. Under DOS
2.1, I had a 16-color palette and under DOS 3.1 with Directory Opus 4.11,
DOPUS still offers a 16-color palette. Toss in another variable, I'm
experimenting with Dan Fish's ColorSaver, a more than magnificent
alternative to the PALETTE editor, which not only presents a 16-color
user-customized palette option but also the option to save any number of
custom palettes. I don't understand why the 8-color limits were set as
they were. Get ColorSaver; put a lot more color on your workbench. As an
afterthought, one can use the Colorwheel button in PALETTE but I find it
thoroughly confusing when the colors don't come out as I anticipated.
Now the OVERSCAN is even stranger. I run the editor and it shows several
dimensions, minimum and max (724x482) but when hitting either edit button,
the screen goes to HIRes-noninterlace halving the vertical dimension from
482 to 241 in graphics and the same in text(202). Then I ran the
SCREENMODE editor and came up with a 640x400 interlaced display with a
Visible Size Property of 706x404 and again 16-colors.
Overall, I'm thoroughly happy with DOS 3.1; the main reason I upgraded was
so that I could run AMosaic when I get all the programs and
jargon/acronyms straight in my head. I was some worried that my favorite
programs would become cripples or coffin residers under the new DOS.
Ergo, the following:
What Runs: (with caveat) What Crashes: (Guru #'s)
======================== ========================
Directory Opus 4.11 Checks & Balances
Battle Chess (8000 0004)
Geotime_M AmiGlobe v.992
Moontool 030 (8000 0004)
Poing - all versions (8000 0008)
SimEarth HiRes
QuarterBack 6.0
FinalWriter 3.0
BaudBandit 2.1
Quarterback Tools 1.5
(warm reboot advisable before running)
AmiCheck 1.35
AtomClock *
Pagestream 3.0f
AdPro 2.5
DPaint IV
Garshneblanker 020 V36
Microfiche Filer 2.0+
Tools Daemon 2.1a
ColorSaver 1.18
Pinball Fantasies (needs CHIPVBR)
Schedule Pro
Implode 4.0
MaxiPlan 4 --> Not fully tested; boots OK
Note 1: Checks & Balances crashes only when I tried to print a report. I
called the company and they were aware of the problem and working on it.
They told me that it was peculiar to the A-1000 only but did not mention
any specific configuration.
Note 2: Amiglobe crashes no matter how I configure with either non-FPU or
FPU program versions. I tried with CHIPVBR and MMU running plus one or
the other independently. MUI 2.3 is run on startup and in the background.
AmiGlobe looks like a super program, an educational tool needed badly. I
could used some help here.
Plea: I sure wish a developer would pick up on the MicroFiche Filer and
update it. It is unique in its area and serves me well for a database for
special uses; recipes, pics and the like. It was a 1988 copyright and
still runs. Wish all programs were this well written.
* Updates my battery backed system clock automatically from
the startup-sequence on the first day of each month by
dialing (modem) the Naval Observatory atomic (cesium, I
think) clock here in nearby Washington, DC; you know, Al
Bore's residence.
One final comment: This is subjective only, but it appears that all
programs seem to execute more quickly than under any previous OS's. I'll
update the list as I use programs that I own but haven't run as yet. If
anyone wants to add to this list, go ahead. Suggest however that you
quantify your specific system as I've done. At the risk of starting a
"Can You Top This Contest" I venture to say that if it runs on my much
hacked-up hybridized rig, it will run on any non-AGA Amiga out there. I
now have set up my titanium 3/4 inch thick armor-plate shield in front of
the modem and have .357 SW Model 19 at hand to repel all attacks!!! I
don't claim to be 'dirty' but I'm working on it. 8<:()
BTW I'm still using the A-1000 Amiga (ca mid-'86) souped with the
Rejuvenator and the CSA Derringer (25 Mhz 68030 with ECS and 2MByte
Agnus); SysInfo tells that I'm running 89% as fast as the 25 Mhz A-3000.
The internal floppy is now external; it is the original, assembled in
1985. Also I modified a PC Clone tower to accept two 3.5 floppies and two
Quantum HD's 52 and 170 MBytes respectively. At the end of the floppy
chain is a 5 1/4 Amiga Drive (1020 ?; it's been so long I've forgotten).
Ram consists of 2 Meg Agnus, 2 MBytes 32 Bit from the Derringer and 2.5
MBytes Fast. DOS is 3.1 with ROM. I just recently added the FlickerFixer
(Microway) and a MAG Monitor (15DXF). The combination now gives, with
overscan, a flicker-free 724 x 482 display.
Please contact me at any of the following:
INet--> haviru@cup.portal.com
Portal-->haviru
Snail Mail--> Harry V. Runge
1423 Green Run Lane
Reston, VA 22090 - 3928
(703) 437-7488
@endnode
@node review1 "DiskSalv 3 By Dave Haynie"
@toc review
=========================================================================
REVIEW: DISKSALV 3 BY DAVE HAYNIE
By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}
=========================================================================
DiskSalv 3 By Dave Haynie
It's pretty much inevitable that, whether or not it's your fault,
something bad will happen to your hard drive at some point in your
computing career. Sometimes it's as simple as deleting that really cool
file that you meant to keep. Other times it's more serious, like having
your hard drive get overly cluttered internally, slowing things down. And
then of course there is always the possibility you'll delete an entire
directory...or accidentally format your hard drive. And sometimes, you
want to make backups.
DiskSalv is an inexpensive and reliable method of taking care of these
problems. And, of course, it's by Dave Haynie, who is by common assent
the holder of the title "Deity of the Amiga," at least among living
candidates.
Based on development since 1991, so the copyright message says, DiskSalv
takes some of the discomfort out of hard drive crises.
The feature you will (hopefully) find the most use for is Undelete.
DiskSalv will cruise through an entire partition checking for files it can
save from Data Limbo, then present you with a list to scroll through. Any
combination of the files can be rescued-providing that your destination
directory can handle them. Undeleting on top of the same partition isn't
allowed, so you'll need to use RAM: or (preferably) another HD partition.
The actual undeletion of files tends to be fairly quick, but since the
entire partition is scanned, gargantuan HD users may find themselves
making a sandwich. My largest partition is 200 meg, and I find the wait
time acceptable.
Salvage and Repair both work if data has been lost in some fashion that
can't just be undeleted-Repair attempts to correct the directory structure
while Salvage will find just about anything, regardless of structure.
They are time-intensive operations and you hope not to have to use them
very often.
Unformat is for doing just that-provided, of course, you haven't done
something silly like a low-level format. It is functionally very similar
to the Repair function, but grander in scope.
Check does just that: checks the structure of your files. Basically, it
lets you know if you need to move on to repairing or salvaging. It is a
rather time-intensive operation.
Backup allows you to do just that-back up. It allows you to back up from
any logical file-device to any other, though-in other words, you can back
up a directory to another partition. Interesting, although not everyone
will find it useful. There are no special incentives offered by the
author for using Backup, and I personally prefer BackUP by Felix Jeske,
but that's a different issue.
The last function is Cleanup. This will clear unused space on your drive,
hopefully making it more efficient. This is the operation most likely to
cause damage if something is wrong (i.e. your drive isn't validated), so
be careful.
Aside from this suite of functions, DiskSalv offers a way to check all
active .devices for AmigaDOS partitions.
The program itself is based around a very logical GUI. I do find that
some of the button pictures are too small to be useful, but you get used
to using them, and pressing the wrong one won't blow anything up. The
processor demand for most actions is fairly low, so you can still do
something productive while your drive clunks away.
DiskSalv comes as little more than a floppy, packaged in a folded up piece
of paper, credited as environmental packaging. Three cheers for lowering
unit cost, too. The extensive AmigaGuide manual is included on the disk,
and can be linked to the program if you have V39 of AmigaGuide. A warning
pops up if you have V34, but you can try to establish the link anyway. On
my 3000, it means instant guru. The manual itself is comprehensive and
easy to navigate.
As far as technical support is concerned, IAM and Dave Haynie provide
technical support-if you e-mail or fax them.
Overall, the package is worth the price of admission (about US$40). "Who
can put a price on security?" Well, $40 is reasonable for the level of
protection and repair DiskSalv offers.
Distributed by:
Intangible Assets Manufacturing
828 Ormond Ave.
Drexel Hill, PA 19026-2604
1-610-853-4406 voice (tech support not given over phone)
1-610-853-3733 fax
info@iam.com
@endnode
@node review2 "Final Writer V3.0 by Softwood"
@toc review
=========================================================================
REVIEW: FINAL WRITER 3.0 BY SOFTWOOD
William Near w.near@genie.geis.com
=========================================================================
SOFTWARE: Final Writer 3
MANUFACTURER: SoftWood Inc.
P.O. Box 50178
Phoenix, Arizona 85076
(800) 431-9151
DESCRIPTION: Word processor/desktop publishing program
PURCHASED FROM: SoftWood Inc.
PRICE: I paid $5 U.S. direct from SoftWood Inc. I only paid this much
because I had just purchased Final Writer 2.1 a month beforehand.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: Amiga running Workbench 2.x+, a hard drive and at
least 1.5 MB of RAM
SYSTEM TESTED ON: Amiga 2000 (Rev 4.4), ECS chip set, GForce '030
accelerator @ 50 MHz., 2 meg CHIP + 6 megs FAST memory,
Quantum LPS270S hard drive with Trumpcard Professional
controller, Workbench 3.1
PACKAGING: The envelope contained one floppy disk and a 19 page addendum
to the Final Writer 2 manual
INSTALLATION: The update disk uses the Commodore Installer program to
create the new version of Final Writer (FW) on your hard drive. The
Installer program will create new versions of: the Final Writer program,
ARexx macros, system data files and system libraries. Once the updated
version was placed on my hard drive I used DOpus to move the old FW2.1
fonts and my documents to the new FW3 drawer.
NOTE: I am only going to cover the differences between Final Writer
versions before 2.1 and the newer 2.1 & 3 versions in this review. It
would make the review quite lengthy if I were to cover every feature of
the Final Writer program. Basically, I'm using the addendum as a
reference for all new features in FW 2.1 & 3. Those of you who have older
(pre-2.1) versions of FW can see what differences there are in the newest
FW3 program. Those of you with version 2.1 can skip the parts of this
review which cover the features you already have and just read the
sections that cover new features only found in version 3.
CHANGES: These are the changes from pre-2.1 which can be found in FW2.1
and/or FW3 according to the addendum (menu choice and/or icon equivalent
will be shown in parenthesis):
* Undo/Redo Commands (Edit/Undo & Edit/Redo) - Selecting Undo will erase
the last command or action performed on the active document. This
information is stored in memory so that the Redo command may be selected
to restore the document to its state before the Undo command was selected.
The Redo command can only remember one level of action at a time.
* Font/Style Strip (View/Command Strip/Font/Style Strip) - This command
strip can be displayed instead of the Tool strip at the top of the screen.
The Font/Style strip allows you to: select paragraph styles, fonts, font
sizes, change text position and case, and set the text style to any
combination of bold, italic and underline.
* Easy Bold, Italic and Underline - The Font/Style strip contains icons
for: plain, bold, italic and underline. By selecting any combination of
these icons, the highlighted text will change to reflect your choices.
The current font must support these options for them to take effect. In
older versions of the program you had to highlight the text and then
select a bold font in order to change the text to bold. These options
will only work with NimbusQ and Type 1 fonts -- not Compugraphic fonts.
* Floating Palettes (View/Show Button Palette/Show Tool Palette/Show Style
Palette) - Floating palette boxes can be displayed on the screen. There
are three different palettes that can be displayed: tools, user buttons
and paragraph styles. You can position the palette(s) anywhere on the
screen and resize them. Palettes are shared between document windows.
Whenever you switch to a different active document, the palette(s) will
change to reflect the current status of the active document. All palette
positions and sizes are retained when you quit and then run FW again.
* Selective Display of Master Pages (Layout/Section) - Master pages can
now be displayed on all pages, only the first page or on all pages except
the first.
* New Page Formats (Layout/Section) - Page numbers can be automatically
placed on the page with the word "Page" in front of the number or a
section name can be placed before the page number. The latter option is
sensitive to which page the section and page number is being placed on
(left or right hand.)
* Auto-Save Without Requester (Project/Preferences/Document Save) - Now FW
will automatically save your active document without displaying the
requester first. The time interval can be set by the user and the
requester can still be made to appear, if desired.
* Triple and Quad Click Commands - These mouse click options are
available:
Single click = sets insertion point in text
Double-click = selects the current word
Triple-click = selects the current sentence
Quad-click = selects the current paragraph
* SHIFT Key Extended Selection - Clicking the insertion point and then
shift-clicking an ending point will automatically highlight all text
between these two points.
* Enhanced Text Selection - Dragging the mouse to select text can be made
sensitive by first using one of the mouse button click sequences. If the
triple-click were used to start highlighting, then you could keep dragging
the mouse before letting off of the third button click and all subsequent
sentences would be selected regardless of where you left off within the
last sentence.
* Drag and Drop Text Editing - Instead of using Cut & Paste options to
move blocks of text you can now select a block of text and hold the left
mouse button down and move the insertion point. When you release the
mouse button the block of text will be placed in the new location.
* Easy Header/Footer Creation (Layout/Easy Header/Footer) - You can make
text automatically appear on each page without setting up a Master Page.
You can specify a Page Number, Section Name or Text to appear on each
page. The positioning of the new Header/Footer information can be in the
left, center or right.
* Easy Page Numbering (Layout/Easy Page Number) - This option allows the
selection of the page number's location and positioning on the page. You
can also select whether the page number should appear on all pages, only
the first page or all pages except the first.
* Final Data Interface - The print merge feature will now accept data
directly from a Final Data or plain ASCII file.
* Polygon Graphic Tool (icon) - Use this tool to draw polygons and, when
completed, the text will flow around the shape.
* Special Graphic Shapes (icons) - There are two special rectangle and
oval tools which can be used to draw special shapes using a rectangle,
rounded-corner rectangle, oval or filled arc as starting shapes. You can
adjust all aspects of the shapes such as: line thickness, text flow etc.
You can also resize the graphic after it has been drawn. Empty and filled
arcs may also be drawn with these tools.
* The following requesters and menu choices have been modified to allow
for new options and to make using FW easier:
Selection Setup requester (Master Page items, Number by, Format,
Text, Prefix, First #)
Page Setup requester (removed the page numbering objects and placed
them in the Section Setup requester)
Display Preferences requester (use button strip, command strip
selection)
Speller Preferences requester (Hyphenation options removed and placed
in their own requester)
Hyphenation Preferences requester (method of hyphenation - Algorithm,
Dictionary or a combination of the two)
Layout menu (supports new features described earlier)
Document Preferences requester (turn on/off various typing and
editing features, language choice for the speller, thesaurus and
hyphenation)
* Type and Spell (Project/Preferences/Speller) - FW will flash the screen
when you have typed a word that it does not recognize. You can turn this
feature on or off.
* Multiple Language Support (Project/Preferences/Document) - The following
languages are available for FW3's Speller, Thesaurus and Hyphenation
options to use:
US English
British English
Canadian French
European French
German
Norwegian
Any or all of these alternative languages can be purchased directly from
SoftWood.
* The last section of the manual covers Troubleshooting for various
problems and their possible solutions.
SUMMARY: I like Final Writer 3 much more than Final Copy II (also by
SoftWood) because it has all of the features of Final Copy II and much
more. Your Final Copy II documents will load into FW3 perfectly, so
there's no need to worry about loss of formatting etc. The program seems
a little sluggish in some areas (even with my accelerated A2000),
especially when loading the program or opening a new document. The print
quality is very good, but it's still slooow. The icon bars (user
definable too) and floating palettes are a nice touch. I would have liked
to have received a completely new manual with the new release, but at
least the addendum isn't a ditto copy like I've received from other
companies! This is definitely one of the top two word processors for the
Amiga and it's the best $5 I've spent in a long time. Although the
upgrade will cost most of you more than what I paid, it's well worth it if
you're into serious word processing or light DTP.
@endnode
@node review3 "Termite by Oregon Research"
@toc review
=========================================================================
REVIEW: TERMITE V1.0 BY OREGON RESEARCH
David Manvell PutytheCat@delphi.com
=========================================================================
Termite v1.00
Retail price: $49.95
I paid: $39.00 + $5.00 S&H
Requirements:
Any Amiga with 1 Mb or greater memory.
Kickstart 2.04 or greater.
A Hayes compatible modem.
Hard drive or second floppy is recommended.
Oregon Research
16200 SW Pacific Hwy
Suite #162
Tigard, OR 97224
Customer Support: (503) 620-4919
Fax: (503) 624-2940
Internet: orres@teleport.com
Genie: ORA
CompuServe: 71333,2655
Reviewed on a standard A2000 ECS, 6 megs fast RAM, 3.1 OS, HD, Supra FAX
modem 14.4 V32.bis V42.bis MNP 2-5.
Before I submitted this article, I EMailed a copy of it to Oregon
Research for comments and to have them check it over for errors (seemed
like the fair thing to do). I received a reply from one of the
programmers (a Mr. Steven Frank) shortly thereafter. I have included
some of Mr. Frank's remarks, in brackets [], at the appropriate places in
the review.
Experience has taught me to shy away from the first version of any
program...usually because of missing features, sloppy coding, and those
many legged insects we call bugs. However, with the state of the current
telecommunications scene being rather dismal, I decided to take the plunge
and purchase Termite to see how it compares with the other term programs
I've used - Term 4.0, Jr-Comm 1.02r, and for most part Terminus 2.0d (now
2.0e).
Let me say right off, I like Termite! It's not perfect, but it's the
best of the bunch in terms of ease of use, flexibility, and stability. I
went from opening the box to dialing my first number in under 5 minutes.
Very rarely can you get up and running in such a short time. I am also
very happy to report that since I started using Termite almost three
months ago, the program has not crashed even once! On to the details...
My copy of Termite came in a small box containing a disk, warranty
card, brochures for other Oregon Research products (they make quite a
few), and an 84 page spiral bound manual.
The manual rests flat on a desk and contains a complete Table of
Contents, Glossary, and Index. The main part of the manual describes each
menu item and window in detail with special sections devoted to the more
difficult items: Macros and Scripts; File Transfers; and most importantly,
telecommunication settings. Even the more difficult ideas (e.g. terminal
emulation, file transfer protocols, handshaking, parity, etc.), are
explained in a straight forward and easy to read manner. To round the
manual out, I found quite a few sections designed to get you up and
running and keep you that way: Tricks and Tips, troubleshooting, Keyboard
Shortcuts, the Hayes Command Set, and even a small section on BBS
etiquette! The only drawback to the manual was the skimpy Hayes Command
Set (only 13 commands are listed). Otherwise, I found the manual to be
complete. I was surprised to find that I had actually read the whole
thing and understood most of it.
The first thing I noticed about Termite is that it is completely 100%
Amiga Style Guide compliant - Quite refreshing. The included Commodore
Installer made installing Termite a breeze. The program will open on any
of the standard Workbench Screen Modes, the Workbench itself, or any
public screen. All the menus, the button bar (see below), the upload dock
(see below), iconification, ARexx support, are Style Guide compliant. I
almost fell out of my chair when I hit the Help key and got (Gasp) Help!
Not just a little screen listing the version number either, but an
AmigaGuide database listing all the program's functions and describing
what they do!
For terminal emulations, Termite comes with two built in emulations,
standard Amiga ANSI and VT-102, plus it supports the Amiga standard XEM
libraries which gives you a wide range of emulation modes to choose from.
Three XEM libraries were included on the disk I received, xemASCII,
xemHEX, and xemVT340. There was a note in the ReadMe file stating that
Oregon Research also had a xemRIP library available. I sent for it (I'll
take anything free) and received it a day later.
For transfer protocols, Termite supports the standard XPR libraries.
Included on my disk were six of them: xprASCII, xprKermit, xprQuickb,
xprXModem, xprYModem, and xprZModem. On a side note for Delphi users,
Delphi has finally fixed the bug in their ZModem protocol that prevented
it from working with the XPR libraries.
[I was not aware of this! Very good news indeed - Steven]
The nice part about XEM and XPR libraries is that you can just change
or add new libraries as they come out without having to upgrade the
program.
One useful feature of Termite is the Button Bar. The Button Bar is a
small window with up to 16 user definable buttons on it. Each button can
have its own picture and function. You just click on one to upload,
download, send text, dial a number, clear a window, etc. There are 21
commands you can assign to a button including the Run ARexx Script
command. The Button Bar can be positioned either vertically or
horizontally anywhere on the screen. Each button is a 32x32 pixel IFF
brush that you can edit with any standard paint program. The only
drawback I found with the Button Bar is it tends to get in the way on low
resolution screens. I would prefer to be able to use smaller buttons, say
10x10, in order to make the bar a bit smaller. This would give you space
for more buttons too. A minor complaint at most as I normally use higher
resolution screens.
Another handy feature is the UpLoad Dock, which is a special icon that
Termite places on the Workbench upon start-up. Any file you drag onto the
UpLoad Dock will be placed in the UpLoad List. At any time after that,
you can execute an Upload From List from the pull down menus, the button
bar, or from an ARexx script to batch upload all the files in the UpLoad
list. This is a lot easier than working your way through file requestor
after file requestor picking out which files you want to upload.
Termite's PhoneBook is very flexible. Each PhoneBook entry can have
multiple numbers and virtually every function can be set for each number:
screen mode, palette, serial and modem settings, transfer protocols,
paths, screen fonts, Macros etc. Every number can be completely
customized. You can place frequently used numbers in the Dial pull down
menu for quick dialing. Just select a number from the pull down menu and
it dials it without you even having to open the PhoneBook.
Termite has 29 ARexx functions. All the basics are included: upload,
download, dial, hang up, set baud rate etc. Not the largest amount by any
means, but enough to get most jobs done. In a future version, I would
like to see an ARexx "Menu" function that would execute any pull down
menu. Also missing are functions to detect mouse clicks and loss of
carrier. In addition, I would like to see an expanded requestor function
that would allow you to bring up a requestor with configurable text,
input, and buttons. The current Yes/No requestor just doesn't cut it. A
list of errors would also be beneficial.
[We do intend to expand the ARexx support in future versions - Steven]
ARexx scripts can be attached to phone numbers for automatic execution
after connecting, or to the Button Bar. Perhaps in the next upgrade they
will allow us to assign ARexx scripts to the function keys and pull down
menus as well.
[Yes, it was an oversight that you can't attach a script using the
macro editor - Steven]
There are many more features that Termite has to offer: Automatic call
logging, where, for how long, and how much; configurable text macros which
are assignable to any function or shifted function key; a multi-tasking
chat window; an adjustable review buffer with cut and paste editing
between windows; completely font and screen sensitive screens and windows;
script recording for the programming impaired; serial port sharing to
allow Termite to share the serial port with other programs; and many
more...
There are a few minor problems with Termite, but you have to look hard
to find them. First, the ASCII Send is very slow. It sends text out just
a little bit faster than a decent typist with no adjustments available.
[We should be speeding this up soon. You're not the only one that was
bothered by this - Steven]
Second, there is no Print Screen option. There is a Print Clip command
which allows you to print the current contents of the clipboard, which in
turn could be "Copied" from the screen. This is awkward to use though and
doesn't work at all with emulations other than the internal ANSI. On the
plus side, it does allow you to print just a section of the screen which
you cannot do with a normal Print Screen command.
[This is also a candidate for future versions - Steven]
Another minor glitch is in the Dialer Time-out. It is not reset after
the Redial Delay counts down. Luckily this doesn't affect the operation
of the program.
[We have finally found the root of this bug, thanks to one of our users
on GEnie. It seems to work okay UNLESS you have a blank init string for
one of your systems. That causes the dialer to count down into negative
numbers. It will be fixed as of 1.1 - Steven]
The only other problem I've encountered is I have yet to be able to get
the Monitor button to default to on, no matter how many times I save it.
When Monitor is turned on, it is supposed to echo all the modem control
strings to the screen. Currently, I have to manually click it on every
time I dial a number.
[Yes, you are correct. We just found out about this one. It will be
fixed for 1.1 - Steven]
All in all, Termite has a very impressive user interface. It is
responsive, straight-forward, and easy to operate. It's compliance with
the Amiga Style Guidelines makes it a joy to use. Help is just a
key-press away and the program never crashes. For $49.00 retail, what
more could you ask for?
@endnode
@node review4 "Theme Park by Bullfrog/EA"
@toc review
=========================================================================
REVIEW: THEME PARK BY BULLFROG/EA
William Near w.near@genie.geis.com
=========================================================================
SOFTWARE: Theme Park (ECS Version) A separate AGA version is available
MANUFACTURER: Bullfrog Productions
DESCRIPTION: You must design and operate your own Theme Park (ever been to
Disney World?) and compete against 40 rival parks throughout the world.
PURCHASED FROM: Software Hut
313 Henderson Drive
Sharon Hill, PA 19079
(800) 93-AMIGA (orders)
(610) 586-5701 (info)
(610) 586-5706 (fax)
PRICE: I paid $52 U.S., this includes $5 S&H
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: Amiga running Workbench 1.3+ and ECS chip set.
You'll also need Degrader on an NTSC machine and the game will run much
smoother on an accelerated machine
SYSTEM TESTED ON: Amiga 2000 (Rev 4.4), ECS chip set, GForce '030
accelerator @ 50 MHz., 2 meg CHIP + 6 megs FAST memory,
2 standard floppy drives, Quantum LPS270S hard drive
with Trumpcard Professional controller, Workbench 3.1
PACKAGING: The box contained two floppy disks and a 72 page manual
INSTALLATION: The manual covers the complete installation procedure for
placing the game on your hard drive (requires approximately 1.4 MB of free
space) and there are sections which cover playing the game from the hard
drive in either Workbench 1.3 or 2.x+. There's also a section which
covers playing from the floppy disks.
GAME PLAY: You start at the main menu which allows you to setup a new
Theme Park, load a save game or continue game (this is if you exited out
to the main menu from an existing game and wish to reenter it.) When you
start a new game you must enter: your name, nickname, age, sex, park name,
sim level (sandbox, sim and full -- these determine the difficulty of the
game play and the options which will be available to you), park visitors'
mood (happy, average or fussy -- a fussy visitor will be very hard to
please and be stingy with their money), start level (easy, medium or hard
-- this determines how much money you will receive in the beginning),
opponents (play against 4, 10 or 40 computer controlled parks), opponent
level (easy, medium or hard (determines how aggressive the other park
owners are), and first game (yes or no -- if this is your very first game
then selecting "yes" will turn on the Park Advisor. The Park Advisor is a
little man who sits at the edge of the screen and tells you how to use the
various icons located on the screen and helps you get your first Theme
Park up and running.)
After you have made all the appropriate settings you must then select a
site for your first Theme Park's location. In the beginning you can only
select the U.K. as it is free. All other locations throughout the world
cost varying amounts of money depending on their location, population,
inflation rate, interest rate, economy, land tax, tax free period for a
new Theme Park, weather and terrain.
Once you're in the game, about 4/5 of the screen is the actual play area
which will contain your Theme Park (within a fenced in area.) You can use
the cursor keys to scroll around your vast park area. The other bottom
1/5 of the screen contains the various play icons (there are pulldown menu
equivalents for all of the icon options) and other information. The main
icons are:
* Path - this icon will attach a little square pad of cement to the
pointer. You move the pointer around the screen and create paths
(sidewalks) for the visitors to get around the park on. You start by
connecting the paths to the area at the main gate of your Theme Park and
then make the paths go whereever you want. Every piece of path costs
money, so don't get too rambunctious in the beginning. Don't worry, if
you misplace a path or build too much you can delete any part of the path
with a simple right mouse button click.
* Queue - this icon allows you to make queues (or lines in North American
terms) for the parkgoers to enter rides. All you need to do is place the
entrance for the queue at a path square and the other end at the entrance
to the ride.
* Rides - this icon allows you to select and place the various rides which
are available. Some of the rides are: fun house, tea cups, bouncy castle,
roller coaster (complete with loop-de-loop), water ride, maze, and spider.
All the rides must be placed by moving them around with the mouse pointer
and clicking on the location in the park that you desire. After placing
the ride you must position the entrance and exit with the appropriate
queue and path connected to each. Each ride has user-defined controls
for: speed, length, capacity and repairs. You can make your visitors very
happy by making the rides go faster, but you risk having your rides break
down more often and, worse yet, your passengers will puke while on the
ride or just after exiting it! The length of the ride is important
because you can give longer rides when the queues are shorter (this makes
more people want to ride) and then shorten the duration of the ride when
the queues are flowing over to move more passengers through.
* Shops - this icon allows you to purchase various shops to sell the
visitors items. Some of the shops are: Balloon World, Big Time Burger,
Big Time Fries, Saloon and a Steak Restaurant. You control everything
from the price of the items for sale to the amount of salt on the fries
and ice in the drinks! You must also keep up with inventory ordering on
the higher levels of play. Wise placement of shops in your park will
yield higher sales. Placing a novelty/souvenir shop at the exit of a
popular ride is a smart move; while placing a Big Time Burger at the exit
of a fast roller coaster could spell disaster! Remember, queasy stomachs
are the norm after a fast or scary ride.
* Scenery - this icon allows you to purchase and place various scenery
items, such as: trees, shrubs, lakes and toilets. Trees and lakes will
make your park more appealing to the visitors and a well place toilet
facility could spell the difference between visitors leaving the park due
to the call of nature or having puke all over the place.
* Staff - you'll need to hire staff members to keep things running
smoothly in your Theme Park. Mechanics will be on duty to repair a ride
which has broken down. Chicken Men are people dressed in silly chicken
suits to help and entertain the visitors. Security Guards will keep the
thugs from overrunning the park and driving away the visitors (I've
witnessed the brutal beating of a Chicken Man by thugs!) And finally, the
maintenance men will walk around the park and clean up trash and puke.
* Other various icons will let you see what a visitor is thinking and how
much money they have left to spend. You can also adjust ride attributes
and other options in the park, such as the ticket price at the gate.
PARK STATUS SCREEN: This screen will show a cross section of the park
visitors with thought balloons above their heads. The thought balloons
show a variety of things, such as: I'm hungry, thirsty, looking for the
exit, there's not enough salt on the fries, etc. You can gauge your
park's appeal and service by what the general visitor is thinking.
STOCK SCREEN: This screen allows you to order inventory for your shops.
You must keep well ahead of the game here or risk having a shop close down
due to lack of inventory to sell. Visitors aren't very happy when this
happens and they will leave the park in droves.
RESEARCH DEPARTMENT: In the upper levels of the game you must pump money
into R&D for new rides, shops, lavatories and bigger buses to bring
visitors to and from your Theme Park. No money in R&D means no new
amenities and thus, no new visitors to the park.
NEGOTIATIONS SCREEN: If you're not paying your staff enough money then
they will go on strike (complete with picket signs and all!) You must
negotiate with the union representative to come to a new agreement on
across-the-board wage hikes. If you can't come to an agreement then the
strike will go on and you will lose money.
BUGS/DISLIKES: I found one bug and a couple of things I didn't like about
the game. When you save a game to the hard drive it uses your nickname as
part of the save game name. When you try and reload a save game from the
hard drive, they won't show up! It seems the game is looking for a
specific save game name which doesn't incorporate your nickname. If you
rename the save games on the hard drive then you can reload them. It's a
pain, but you have to do it. Playing from the floppy disks and saving
games to floppy presents no such problems.
There is no way to exit the game and return to the Workbench -- there is
no real excuse for this since the game installs to the hard drive.
The pulldown menus are accessed by pressing the left mouse button at the
upper left hand corner of the screen. This is a minor annoyance, but it
is exactly the opposite from the "normal" way of doing these things on the
Amiga.
SUMMARY: Theme Park is an addictive game to play. Just watching the
little people as they walk through your park and ride the rides, purchase
souvenirs, food and drinks is a joy in itself. The occasional thug or,
worse yet, gang will invade the park and ruff up the staff and visitors --
nothing a few security guards can't handle! Just keeping up with the ride
and shop placement, inventory ordering, R&D, staff negotiations, ride
repair, cleanup and any of the dozen of other things to tend to, will all
keep you quite busy. All this while trying to avoid bankruptcy and
purchase a bigger and better location for your second or third Them Park.
This game could best be described as Lemmings meets Populous II and the
Sim xxx games. Try it, I think you'll love it.
@endnode
@node review5 "Sensible World of Soccer from Sensible/Renegade"
@toc review
=========================================================================
REVIEW: SENSIBLE WORLD OF SOCCER
Darkseid ckb426@ujvax.ulst.ac.uk
=========================================================================
Well what can I say about this game, well maybe that its actually a close
simulation of mountain goat herding in the foothills of Outer Mongolia.
Or that its a Beat_Em_Up with more moves than John Travolta in Saturday
Nite Fever, or a persian carpet racing sim....
No hmmmn I didnt think you'd believe me... Well its a Football games,
look footy is footy, Im sorry USA but the term football was used by the
rest of the world long before someone thought up your TV game. SWOS (Ive
got cramp) is the follow on, rather unsurprisingly, to Sensible Soccer 1&2
and the International version. Its the same with some neat changes, there
are some 1500 teams, including ones like Orlando Thunder, Hearts of Oak
from Ghana Bolivian First Division all the national teams are there too,
and theyre all wearing the right kit. There are also more than 35000
individual players in the game, with corrcect skin/hair colours. Also
every one of those 35k players have been graded on their skills, be it
passing, tackling heading etc. Finger wearying work I think you'll agree.
[Interestingly enough, the Orlando Thunder is the name of a now-defunct
team from the World League of American Football...perhaps a tip of the hat
from Renegade? - Jason]
The mechanics of the game are similar to before, but the keepers, who
could be beaten by an expert from inside the 50 yard line are now much
harder to score against. Also as the players are graded, their skills do
have an effect on the game, someone like Rai from Brazil is rated ath
2million to buy, and he's speedy, tackles well and is generally a far
better player than Sandy Barnes a midfielder for Grimsby FC costing 45K.
Someone like Roberto Baggio from Italy is worth 12million, but you can
tell, cos when he plays the ball sticks to his foot and his shots streak
toward the net like the RoadRunner on Acid. Formation too can be fiddled
with, if you have a speedy forward you can alter his position onfield in
relation to the ball so when the ball comes forward he's in a great
position to pick up and run at goal. It all hangs together very nicely
indeed, once that is youve got the hang of it. Practice is necessary, as
youll find all those skills built up in earlier Sensi Soccers are now only
the start as you'll need to play much better. As always the game shines
in 2 player mode, with matches becoming (even more) tense, often with only
a goal deciding the winner and with the optional handicapping system, a
novice can give a pro a decent match eg play Grimsby (the Pro) against Ac
Milan (novice) and the teams skills will balance personnal skills.
Then theirs the management side of things, players can be bought and sold
and you can progress from team to team during your management career.
Money to buy the players can come from sales, takings at the gates, TV
deals and winnig competetions, a good team can get better and better. I
took my local team, Bangor Fc into Europe after the first season (1994)
and managed to win the Euro cup in the 98 season, but each year I got
further and further and won more money so I had a better team the next
time around. The management section hangs well with the arcade, as a good
player can have a dramatic player on your team and injury or suspension to
a star player can cripple it just as easily. Ahah ! Ive got your
attention now, yes players can get hurt, first a minor knock, indicated by
a bandage on their head, they can play on but they wont play as well and
are more likely to pick a more serious injury which could put them out for
1-4 weeks or even the rest of the season.
A few minor bugs annoy, when going to play a match you are taken to the
team selector to make any necessary changes to the team/setup you feel are
necessary. The problem is theres no way back to the main menu from here
and if you have a couple of suspensions/injuries and cant field a full
team plus the right amount of subs, there is no way to get back to the
menu to remedy the situation, result, one reset and if you havent saved
the game tough.... Annoying but avoidable. Graphically the game hasnt
changed much but new sound effects and groovy new music enhance the
atmosphere. The 1200 has saveable instant replay, better sfx and more
graphic touches such as a constant clock and fluttering corner flags. If
you dont have this game and you like football BUY IT NOW, ignore FIFA et
all this is THE game of football (soccer alright USA ?). If you have
earlier versions of the game buy it anyway as the enhancements are worth
it.
Rating 87%
@endnode
@node review6 "ImageFX 2.0 Followup"
@toc review
=========================================================================
FOLLOWUP: IMAGE FX 2.0 BY NOVA DESIGN
By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}
=========================================================================
Here we are, back at Image FX 2.0, the comprehensive graphics processing
system. And, as promised, I've got a little more to say.
I'd say the thing that impresses me most, aside from the actual power of
the system, is the near-total integration of every imaginable act into
ARexx-and the considerate pre-packaging of quite a few of these acts as
included scripts. Using AutoFX, you can batch process to your heart's
delight. For a competent ARexx programmer, custom-integrating ImageFX into
your Amiga should be no trouble at all.
Another inclusion of interest is an MPEG processor-turn any sequence of
frames into an MPEG file. In effect, with relatively little effort, a
mini-movie can be created from your work.
I had brushed over the importance of Cinemorph in the package, but upon
reflection, it's rather nice to have an integrated morphing system packed
in free-and the sample project goes a long way to help the beginner,
allowing you to learn far more than you would if you were just dropped into
the fine art required to put together a nice-looking morph.
I have to admit-it's tough to talk at length about ImageFX. It's better to
just experience it, as there are just too many features to cover at once.
Rest assured, if you want to do it to a picture, ImageFX will offer you a
chance.
Price: Approx. US$250.
Nova Design, Inc.
1910 Byrd Ave.
Richmond, VA 23230
804-282-6528 voice
804-282-3768 fax
kermit@cup.portal.com
@endnode
@node review7 "Photogenics Followup"
@toc review
=========================================================================
FOLLOWUP: PHOTOGENICS FROM ALMATHERA
By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}
=========================================================================
It's worth taking a second quick swing through Almathera's "Effect
painting" system, Photogenics.
Of particular interest is that V 1.2 will be available to all registered
users in mid to late March, according to Jolyon Ralph of Almathera. The
only enhancement I was told about was the addition of the Harlequin and
other Grafexa-style graphics cards to the new render-able boards.
Almathera is planning to work on DCTV and IV24, and is looking for
information on the Firecracker24.
If there's one feature I failed to cover completely last issue, it's the
selectable brushtypes. Since the effect system is based around painting
effects onto an image, it's only reasonable to support different ways of
"applying" the effects. And that's what you get.
A good dozen or so different types, allowing different nuances of pressure
and "texture". After experimenting for a while, you'll begin to appreciate
the power Photogenics picks up from the direct power the user has over the
effect.
Almathera has created an innovative way of handling an old project. While
it is not, in itself, a solution for all occasions, it allows users at all
levels to create visual masterpieces. Just play with the watercolor
function a while, you'll see what I mean.
Price: Approx. 55 UKP, US$90.
Almathera
Southerton House
Boundary Business Court
92-94 Church Road
Mitcham
Surrey
CR4 3TD
England
+44 081 687 0040 voice
+44 081 687 0490 fax
@endnode
@node CHARTS1 "Aminet Charts - Feb 19"
@toc FTP
| The 10 most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 19-Feb-95
| Updated weekly. Most popular file on top.
|
|File Dir Size Description
|------------------- --- ---- -----------
xanim5.lha gfx/show 204K 1+XAnim: Avi/Quicktime/FLI/FLC/IFF/
GIF/MPE
ar304.lha docs/mags 91K 0+Amiga Report 3.04, Feb. 12, 1995
KlondikeIII_1.lha game/think 712K 0+Newest version of REKO Klondike!
15khzhack.txt hard/hack 5K 0+Flicker free screens on 15khz
monitor
LZX100.lha util/arc 128K 1+LZX V1.00, a fast new archiver with
good
KlondikeIII_4.lha game/think 579K 0+Newest version of REKO Klondike!
KlondikeIII_3.lha game/think 674K 0+Newest version of REKO Klondike!
KlondikeIII_2.lha game/think 630K 0+Newest version of REKO Klondike!
TextDemo57.lha gfx/misc 206K 0+DOOM style TMap demo with floors/
stairs
Diskspr3.lha disk/misc 144K 0+Use 984KB or 1.968MB floppy disks!
@endnode
@node CHARTS2 "Aminet Charts - Feb 26"
@toc FTP
| The 10 most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 26-Feb-95
| Updated weekly. Most popular file on top.
|
|File Dir Size Description
|------------------- --- ---- -----------
term43-030.lha comm/term 601K 0+The MC68020/030/040/060 version
DGalaga25.lha game/shoot 454K 1+Deluxe Galaga v2.5
term43-libs.lha comm/term 126K 0+XPR and XEM libs
term43-doc.lha comm/term 200K 0+AmigaGuide format and library
documentation
term43-extras.lha comm/term 262K 0+HydraCom, ARexx scripts, sound files
term43-main.lha comm/term 604K 0+Distribution for all Amigas
xprzmodem.lha comm/term 89K 0+XPR implementation of the ZModem
protocol
term43-roadmap.txt comm/term 31K 0 Introduction to the distribution
term43-locale.lha comm/term 241K 0+Locale and blank catalog table file
ArcsPack-1.lha pix/wb 865K 0+MagicWB/AGA Backdrops & Startup
images
@endnode
@node FTP1 "SoundBox"
@toc FTP
TITLE
SoundBox - Sample converter and player
VERSION
1.96 (1995-02-05)
AUTHOR
Richard Körber
E-Mail: shred@tfh.dssd.sub.org (Germany)
or shred@eratosth.wwb.sub.de (international)
DESCRIPTION
SoundBox is a sample converter. It is able to read and write
audio samples in the formats
- RAW (8 bit mono only),
- IFF (8 bit and 16(!) bit, mono/stereo),
- VOC (2 bit, 4 bit and 8 bit, mono/stereo),
- WAVE (8 bit, 12 bit and 16 bit, mono/stereo),
- AIFF (8 bit, 16 bit, mono/stereo),
- MAUD (8 bit, 16 bit, mono/stereo), and
- Maestro (8 bit, 16 bit, mono/stereo).
Further features:
- font sensitive, localized GUI (german, english)
- ARexx port (registered users only)
- plays 14 bit using internal hardware
- sample rates up to 60 kHz on any Amiga
- full online help
- loop editor
Currently, SoundBox has only german documentations.
NEW FEATURES
Since 1.95: Minor debuggings
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
AmigaOS 2.04 is required only.
I suggest lots of RAM, a harddisk, and 68020 or better to
get the full pleasure using SoundBox.
HOST NAME
Any Aminet site and Aminet CD #5
DIRECTORY
mus/misc
FILE NAME
SoundBox196.lha 102052 Bytes
PRICE
With some small limitations, SoundBox is freeware.
You have to register if you want to get the missing
features.
Registration fee: DM 20 (cash, eurocheque *ONLY*)
DISTRIBUTABILITY
Freeware with limitations
@endnode
@node FTP2 "SystemPrefs"
@toc FTP
TITLE
SystemPrefs - Preferences for cpu caches and ramsey
VERSION
2.10 (1995-02-09)
AUTHOR
Richard Körber
E-Mail: shred@tfh.dssd.sub.org (Germany)
or shred@eratosth.wwb.sub.de (international)
DESCRIPTION
SystemPrefs is a preference editor for cpu caches, ramsey
and cia. You can switch instruction cache/burst, data
cache/burst, write allocation, copyback, fastmode (60ns
RAM access) and audio filter. Additionally, you can put
the processor vectors to FastRAM.
SystemPrefs comes with a preferences icon ;) and has a
font sensitive and localized GUI (english, german).
Currently, there are only german docs available.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
AmigaOS 2.04 is required. 68020+ and FastRAM should be
available.
HOST NAME
Any Aminet site
DIRECTORY
util/wb
FILE NAME
SystemPrefs210.lha 59478 Bytes
DISTRIBUTABILITY
Freeware
@endnode
@node FTP3 "easyrexx.library"
@toc FTP
TITLE
easyrexx.library
VERSION
1.105
AUTHOR
Ketil Hunn
E-Mail: Ketil.Hunn@hiMolde.no
DESCRIPTION
A small and very fast shared runtime library that allows you to
add an AREXX port to your application with no fuss at all.
o Makes the parsing of AREXX messages as easy as parsing DOS prompt
arguments! Uses standard DOS templates for arguments.
o Easy to use tag-based functions.
o Send AREXX messages to any named port.
o Autodoc describing all functions in the library.
o Amigaguide documentation describing programming techniques and how to
use the library.
o Complete with example sources.
NEW FEATURES
o ReplyARexxMsg can now return strings to the calling AREXX-script.
o ReplyARexxMsg can now return values to the calling AREXX-script.
o 'Small linkable library'-source included to show how to automatically
call functions.
o More tag aliases.
Various bug-fixes.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
OS 2.04 or higher.
AVAILABILITY
ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/dev/misc/easyrexx.lha (29528)
PRICE
Free, as long as you follow the two guidelines below:
The license is the same for all software, regardless of what type of
software the library is used in, be it commercial, freeware, shareware
or whatever as long as you:
1) Note in the program and documentation that easyrexx.library is
copyrighted 1994, 1995 Ketil Hunn.
2) You give me a copy of each version of the software which uses
the library. There should be no cost to me.
DISTRIBUTABILITY
The files may be distributed as needed. That means that for products that
use the easyrexx.library, only that file needs to be distributed. For
development purposes, the library and its documentation should be all
distributed together.
@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: ftp.cdrom.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 the following URL:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/People/mjw/Computer/Amiga/News/AR/index.html
Or, for those in Europe, the Polish site is:
http://sun1000.ci.pwr.wroc.pl/AMIGA/AR/
Mosaic for the Amiga can be found on Aminet in directory comm/net, or
(using anonymous ftp) on max.physics.sunysb.edu
Mosaic for X, Macintosh(tm) and Microsoft Windows(tm) can be found on
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu
@endnode
@node COPYRIGHT "Copyright Information"
@toc ABOUT
===========================================================================
== _ _ __ ___ _ ==
== /\\ |\\ /| || // \ /\\ ==
== / \\ | \\ /|| ||(< __ / \\ ==
== /--- \\| \/ || || \\_||/--- \\ ==
== /______________________________\\ ==
== / \\ ==
== Amiga Report International Online Magazine ==
== February 28, 1995 Issue No. 3.05 ==
== Copyright 1995 FS Publications ==
== All Rights Reserved ==
===========================================================================
Views, Opinions and Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of
the editors and staff of Amiga Report International Online Magazine or of
FS Publications. Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless
otherwise noted. Reprints must, _without exception_, include the name of
the publication, date, issue number and the author's name. Amiga Report
and/or portions therein may not be edited in any way without prior written
permission. However, translation into a language other than English is
acceptible, provided the editor is notified beforehand and the original
meaning is not altered. Amiga Report may be distributed on privately owned
not-for-profit bulletin board systems (fees to cover cost of operation are
acceptable), and major online services such as (but not limited to) Delphi
and Portal. Distribution on public domain disks is acceptable provided
proceeds are only to cover the cost of the disk (e.g. no more than $5 US).
Distribution on for-profit magazine cover disks requires written permission
from the editor. Amiga Report is a not-for-profit publication. Amiga
Report, at the time of publication, is believed reasonably accurate. Amiga
Report, its staff and contributors are not and cannot be held responsible
for the use or misuse of information contained herein or the results
obtained there from. Amiga Report is not affiliated with Commodore-Amiga,
Inc., Commodore Business Machines, Ltd., or any other Amiga publication in
any way. All items quoted in whole or in part are done so under the Fair
Use Provision of the Copyright Laws of the United States Penal Code. Any
Electronic Mail sent to the editors may be reprinted, in whole or in part,
without any previous permission of the author, unless said electronic mail
is specifically requested not to be reprinted.
===========================================================================
@endnode
@node GUIDELINE "Amiga Report Writing Guidelines"
@toc ABOUT
===========================================================================
== Amiga Report Writing Guidelines ==
===========================================================================
The three most important requirements for submissions to Amiga Report are:
1. Please use English.
2. Please use paragraphs. It's hard on the eyes to have solid
screens of text. If you don't know where to make a paragraph break,
guess.
3. Please put a blank line in between paragraphs. It makes
formatting the magazine much much easier.
Note: If you want to check ahead of time to make sure we'll print your
article, please write to the @{"Editor" link JASON}.
@endnode
@node EDITORCHOICE "Editor's Choice"
@toc COMMERCIAL
===========================================================================
== Editor's Choice ==
===========================================================================
These are selected products, reviewed by myself, that I've liked. So, I've
landed them and decided to sell them at
All prices are in $US.
| | Issue | Approximate | Amiga Report |
| Product | Reviewed | Retail Price | Reader Price |
---------------------------------|----------|--------------|--------------|
| | | | |
|Swifty 3-button mouse | 2.28 | $39.95 | $22.75 |
| | | | |
|GPFax Amiga Fax Software | 2.30 | $100.00 | $60.00 |
| (Class 1 and 2) | | | |
| | | | |
|Micro R+D CD-ROM Volume 1 | 2.25 | $69.00 | $30.00 |
| (Includes early Transition | | | |
| graphics converter and loads| | | |
| of artwork) | | | |
| | | | |
|Micro R+D CD-ROM Volume 2 | 2.26 | $99.95 | $46.75 |
| (Includes entire Nature's | | | |
| Backdrop series) | | | |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Orders may be placed via check, money order, or postal cheque, made out to
Micro R+D. Visa/Mastercard accepted via post or E-Mail. No CODs.
Mail all orders to @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}. Orders will be processed by
Amiga Report and drop-shipped from Micro R+D.
In the US, add $5/$10/$20 for UPS shipping, ground/blue/red label,
respectively. Overseas: It is recommended that you consider $20 to be the
minimum cost for shipping. If you plan to order more than one item, E-mail
for shipping cost.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sidewinder's Future Shock II CD is now available through Amiga Report.
Featuring 15 Amiga-generated tunes totalling 71 minutes, Eric Gieseke's
work is captured on an Amiga-independent media.
Available for US$12.00. Please add $5 for shipping.
Make check or money order payable to @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}. Orders will be
drop-shipped from Sidewinder Productions.
For overseas orders, please contact through E-Mail before ordering.
@endnode
@node DELPHI "Delphi"
@toc ONLINE
===========================================================================
== Delphi Internet Services -- Your Connection to the World! ==
===========================================================================
Amiga Report International Online Magazine and the Amiga Report Coverdisk
are available in the Amiga SIG on DELPHI. Amiga Report readers are invited
to join DELPHI and become a part of the friendly community of Amiga
enthusiasts there.
SIGNING UP WITH DELPHI
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Using a personal computer and modem, members worldwide access
DELPHI services via a local phone call
JOIN -- DELPHI
--------------
Via modem, dial up DELPHI at 1-800-695-4002
then...
When connected, press RETURN once or twice
and..
At Username: type JOINDELPHI and press RETURN,
At Password: type AMIGAUSER and press RETURN.
For more information, call
DELPHI Member Services at 1-800-695-4005
SPECIAL FEATURES
----------------
* Complete Internet connection -- Telnet, FTP, IRC, Gopher, E-Mail and
more! (Internet option is $3/month extra)
* SIGs for all types of computers -- Amiga, IBM, Macintosh, Atari, etc.
* An active Amiga SIG hosting conferances, Usenet, Latest wares, and
FTP Gopher coming soon
* Large file databases!
* SIGs for hobbies, video games, graphics, and more!
* Business and world news, stock reports, etc.
* Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia!
DELPHI - It's getting better all the time!
@endnode
@node PORTAL "Portal"
@toc ONLINE
===========================================================================
== Portal: A Great Place For Amiga Users ==
===========================================================================
The Portal Information Network's Amiga Zone
The AFFORDABLE alternative for online Amiga information
-------------------------------------------------------
Portal is the home of acclaimed Amiga Zone, a full-service online SIG
(Special Interest Group) for Amiga owners and users. We promise, and
WE DELIVER ongoing & aggressive Amiga support!
You can dial into Portal to access the Amiga Zone in many ways: direct
dial to our San Jose, CA high-speed modems (you pay for the phone call
if it's not local), or though any SprintNet or Compu$erve indial anywhere
(with a small hourly fee) or via the World-wide Internet "telnet"
program to portal.com (no hourly fee).
Even Delphi and BIX users can Telnet into Portal for a flat $19.95 a month,
with *unlimited* use.
Portal is NOT just another shell service! Its Online system is fully
menu-driven with on-screen commands and help, and you can easily customize
it for your favorite terminal program and screen size.
Some of Portal/Amiga Zone's amazing features include:
* 2.5 GIGabytes of Amiga-specific file space - we have so much Amiga Stuff
online, we've lost count!
* The *entire* Fred Fish collection of freely distributable software,
online. ALL 1000 disks!
* Fast, Batch Zmodem file transfer protocol. Download up to 100 files at
once, of any size, with one command.
* Amiga vendor areas with participants like AmigaWorld, Elastic
Reality (ASDG), Soft-Logik, Apex Publishing, and others.
* 40 "regular" Amiga libraries with over 10,000 files. Hot new stuff
arrives daily.
* No upload/download "ratios" EVER. Download as much as you want, as
often as you want, and never feel pressured doing it.
* Live, interactive nightly chats with Amiga folks whose names you will
recognize. Special conferences. Random chance prize contests. We
have given away thousands of bucks worth of Amiga prizes - more than
any other online service.
* Message bases where you can ask questions about *anything* Amiga
related and get quick replies from the experts.
* Amiga Internet mailing lists for Imagine, AMosaic, LightWave, EGS,
OpalVision & others feed right into the Zone message bases. Read
months worth of postings. No need to clutter your mailbox with them.
* FREE unlimited Internet Email with 5 meg of free storage.
* A FREE UNIX Shell account with another 5 meg of free storage.
You can run Amiga Mosaic through your shell and explore the
vast World Wide Web!
* Portal has the Usenet. Thousands of "newsgroups" in which you can read
and post articles about virtually any subject you can possibly
imagine.
* Other Portal SIGs (Special Interest Groups) online for Mac, IBM, Sun,
UNIX, Science Fiction, Disney, and dozens more. ALL Portal SIGs are
accessible to ALL Portal customers with NO surcharges ever. You
never worry "Ooops... Am I paying for this area?" again!
* The entire UPI/Clarinet/Newsbytes news hierarchy ($4/month extra) An
entire general interest newspaper and computer news magazine.
* Portal was THE FIRST online service to offer a full package of Internet
features: IRC, FTP, TELNET, MUDS, LIBS. And you get FREE unlimited
usage of all of them.
* Our exclusive PortalX by Steve Tibbett, the graphical "front end" for
Portal which will let you automatically click'n'download your waiting
email, messages, Usenet groups and binary files! Reply to mail and
messages offline using your favorite editor and your replies are sent
automatically the next time you log into Portal. (PortalX requires
Workbench 2.04 or higher)
* Portal does NOT stick it to high speed modem users. Whether you log in
at 1200 or 2400 or 9600 or 14.4K you pay the same low price.
To join Portal or for more information call:
1-800-433-6444 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time
1-408-973-9111 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time
1-408-725-0561 (modem 3/12/2400) 24 hours every day
1-408-725-0560 (modem 96/14400) 24 hours every day
or enter "C PORTAL" from any Sprintnet dial-in, or "portal" at any
CI$ network dialin, or telnet to "portal.com" from anywhere,
and then enter "online" and then "info"
Call and join today. Tell the friendly Portal Customer Service
representative, "The Amiga Zone and Amiga Report sent me!"
[Editor's Note: Be sure to tell them that you are an Amiga user, so they
can notify the AmigaZone sysops to send their Welcome Letter and other
information!]
The Portal Information Network accepts MasterCard, Visa, or you can pre-pay
any amount by personal check or money order. The Portal Online System is a
trademark of The Portal Information Network. SLIP, UUCP and custom domain
accounts are also available.
@endnode
@node GENIE "GEnie"
@toc ONLINE
===========================================================================
== GEnie: Internet access, online games, more ==
===========================================================================
* What is GEnie?
GEnie is a commercial on-line service that offers many services at a
reasonable monthly rate. Some of the general services are:
- Over 150,000 software files to download
- Uploads to GEnie are free of any connect charges, so upload those
Public Domain programs to add to the Starship Amiga Roundtable's
vast selection of programs for free!
- Real-time chat
- Dozens of special-interest discussion areas
- Challenging multi-player games with graphics (yes, there are Amiga
front-ends)
- Worldwide news, weather and sports
- Electronic mail to and from the Internet
- FTP Service which provides users with interactive access to any of
the millions of files available for public access on the Internet
- Usenet Newsgroups Service which allow users to participate in the
global discussion areas collectively known as USENET
- Outbound Telnet Service which enables users to connect to other host
computers through the Internet
- GEnie Mall with nearly 40 different vendors
- Starship Amiga Roundtable which contains gigabytes of Amiga-only
files
- Commodore Roundtable for VIC-20, C-64, C-128 and other Commodore
computers
- Other Amiga software companies have their own Roundtables for
customer support such as Soft-Logik where all the latest program
patches and support files are available for their products
- AmiAladdin Support Roundtable for getting the latest updates to the
GEnie Aladdin software which is used to make maneuvering the GEnie
menu system much easier and faster. This is a specific area for the
Amiga version of this software which is free of charge
- Hundreds of other areas and services available
* How do I sigh up for GEnie?
You may sign up for GEnie service by one of two methods:
(1) Using your modem (8N1 half duplex 300/1200/2400 baud) dial
1-800-638-8369. Upon connection immediately enter HHH (Return),
don't wait for any on-screen prompt. At the U#= prompt type SIGNUP
(Return). You may use a major credit card account or your checking
account (US only.)
(2) Call GEnie client services via voice at 1-800-638-9636 or
1-301-251-6475 from outside the US and Canada.
@endnode
@node BBS_AUSTRALIA "Distribution BBSes - Australia"
@toc BBS
===========================================================================
== Distribution BBSes - Australia ==
===========================================================================
-=NEW ZEALAND=-
* BITSTREAM BBS *
FidoNET 3:771/850.0 AmigaNET 41:644/850.0
+64-(0)3-548-5321, SupraFaxModem 28k8 VFast Class
-=SYDNEY=-
* CONTINENTAL DRIFT BBS *
USENET, Internet E-mail, Fidonet, Aminet
(+61) 2 949 4256
@endnode
@node BBS_EUROPE "Distribution BBSes - Europe"
@toc BBS
===========================================================================
== Distribution BBSes - Europe ==
===========================================================================
-=FINLAND=-
* AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM *
InterNet: luumu@fenix.fipnet.fi FidoNet: 2:220/550.0
+358-0-675840 V.32bis
* LAHO BBS *
+358-64-414 1516, V.32bis/HST +358-64-414 0400, V.32bis/HST
+358-64-414 6800, V.32/HST +358-64-423 1300, V.32bis
* MOONLIGHT SONATA DLG *
Fidonet: 2:221/112.0
+358-18-161763 - ZyXEL V32b 19200
-=FRANCE=-
* RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING *
Internet: user.name@ramses.fdn.org Fidonet: 2/320/104-105-106
+33-1-45845623 V.34 +33-1-53791200 V.32bis
-=GERMANY=-
* DOOM OF DARKNESS *
Email: marc_doerre@doom.ping.de
+49 (0)4223 8355 19200 V.42bis/Zyx
AR-Infoservice, contact Kai Szymanski kai@doom.ping.de
* LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL *
Usenet: andreas@lbcmbx.in-berlin.de
49-30-8110060 49-30-8122442 USR DS 16.8
Login as User: "amiga", Passwd: "report"
* REDEYE BBS *
Internet: sysop@redeye.muc.de
+49-89-5460535 (V.32b, Zyxel EG + / USR V.34)
* STINGRAY DATABASE *
EMail: sysop@sting-db.zer.sub.org.dbp.de
+49 208 496807 HST-Dual
* VISION THING BBS *
Infect East German HQ, Keks ASCII Design World HQ
++49(0)345 663914 19200
System Password: Amiga
-=GREECE=-
* ODYSSEY BBS *
email: konem@prometheus.hol.gr 2:410/128.17@fidonet
+++ 301-412-3502 (ZyXEL 16.8K) after 23:00 local time
-=IRELAND=-
* CUGI BBS *
Fidonet: 2:263/155
+353 1 837 0204 V32bis
* HIGHWAY TO HELL BBS *
Fidonet 2:263/154 Internet: iblack@dit.ie
Online from 22:00 - 08:00 GMT +353-1-847 5217
-=ITALY=-
* AMIGA PROFESSIONAL BBS *
Amy Professional Club, Italian Amos Club
+(39)-49-604488
* SPEED OF LIFE *
FidoNet 2:332/505 AmigaNet 39:102/501
ZyX 19.2k/V32/V32bis/V42bis +39-59-226454
-=NETHERLANDS=-
* AMIGA ONLINE BS HEEMSTEDE *
Fidonet: 2:280/464.0, 2:280/412.0 Internet: michiel@aobh.xs4all.nl
+31-23-282002 +31-23-470739 14400 Supra
* THE HELL BBS *
Fido-Net : 2:281/418.0 e-mail : root@hell.xs4all.nl
+31-(0)70-3468783 (v32bis Supra)
* X-TREME BBS *
Internet: u055231@vm.uci.kun.nl
+31-167064414 (24h)
-=NORWAY=-
* FALLING BBS *
EMail: christon@powertech.no
+47 69 256117 28.8k
-=PORTUGAL=-
* CIUA BBS *
FidoNet 2:361/9 Internet: denise.ci.ua.pt
+351-34-382080/382081 (V32bis soon V34)
-=SPAIN=-
* GURU MEDITATION *
Running Remote Access
+34-1-383-1317 V.32bis
-=SWEDEN=-
* CICERON *
E-mail: peman@solace.mh.se
+46 612 22011
-=SWITZERLAND=-
* LINKSYSTEM LINK-CH1 *
contact: rleemann@link-ch1.aworld.de
+41 61 3215643 V32bis/Zyx16800 +41 61 3832007 ISDN X75/V110
Local newsgroup link-ch1.ml.amiga-report
-=UNITED KINGDOM=-
* AMIGA JUNCTION 9 *
Internet: sysadmin@junct9.demon.co.uk FidoNet: 2:440/20
+44 (0)372 271000 14400 V.32bis/HST
* CREATIONS BBS *
E-Mail: mat@darkside.demon.co.uk 2:254/524@Fidonet 39:139/5@Amiganet
+44-0181-665-9887 Hayes Optima 288 2400 - V.FC
* METNET TRIANGLE SYSTEM *
FidoNet: 2:252/129.0
44-482-442251 2400 Voice: 44-482-491752 (anytime)
@endnode
@node BBS_NAMERICA "Distribution BBSes - North America"
@toc BBS
===========================================================================
== Distribution BBSes - North America ==
===========================================================================
-=ARIZONA=-
* MESSENGER OF THE GODS BBS *
mercury@primenet.com
602-326-1095
-=BRITISH COLUMBIA=-
* COMM-LINK BBS *
InterNet: steve_hooper@comm.tfbbs.wimsey.com
Fido: 1:153/210.0 AmigaNet 40:800/9100.0 604-945-6192 USR DS 16.8
-=CALIFORNIA=-
* MYSTIC CAVERNS *
E-mail: roy@ctsnet.cts.com WWW: http://ramiga.cts.com
(619)442-7030 14.4 (619)442-7060 28.8
* TIERRA-MIGA BBS *
FidoNet: 1:202/638.0 AmigaNet: 40:406/3.0 Internet: torment.cts.com
619.292.0754 V32.bis
* VIRTUAL PALACE BBS *
Sysop Email: tibor@ecst.csuchico.edu
916-343-7420
* Amiga And IBM Only BBS *
(619)428-4887
vonmolk@crash.cts.com
AmigaNET address: 40:406/7.0
-=ILLINOIS=-
* EMERALD KEEP BBS *
FidoNet: 1:2250/2 AmigaNet: 40:206/1
618-394-0065 USR 16.8k DS
* PHANTOM'S LAIR *
FidoNet: 1:115/469.0 Phantom Net Coordinator: 11:1115/0.0-11:1115/1.0
708-469-9510 708-469-9520
* THE STYGIAN ABYSS BBS *
FIDONet-1:115/384.0
312-384-0616 USR Courier HST 312-384-6250 Supra V.32 bis (FREQ line)
-=LOUISIANA=-
* The Catacomb *
E-mail: Geoff148@delphi.com
504-882-6576 Supra v.fc 28.8k
-=MAINE=-
* THE KOBAYASHI ALTERNATIVE BBS *
Usenet and FidoNet Echo Areas FidoNet: 1:326/404.0
(207)/784-2130 (207)/946-5665
-=MEXICO=-
* AMIGA BBS *
FidoNet 4:975/7
(5) 887-3080 9600 V32,MNP
* AMIGA SERVER BBS *
Now with 17 CDs available
Number: 5158736
-=MISSISSIPPI=-
* THE GATEWAY BBS *
InterNet: stace@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil FidoNet: 1:3604/60.0
601-374-2697 Hayes Optina 28.8 V.FC
-=MICHIGAN=-
* DC ProNet running Cnet Amiga 3.0+ *
616-373-0287
V.Everything
chetw@dcpro.UUCP
-=MONTREAL=-
* GfxBase BBS*
E-mail: ai257@freenet.hsc.colorado.edu Fidonet: 1:167/192
514-769-0565 14.4
-=NEBRASKA=-
* OMAHA AMIGANET *
FidoNet: 1:285/11 AmigaNet: 40:200/10
402-333-5110 V.32bis
-=NEW JERSEY=-
* T.B.P. VIDEO SLATE *
Full Skypix menus + normal and ansi menu sets.
201-586-3623 USR 14.4 HST
* DLTACOM Amiga BBS *
(201) 398-8559
Fidonet: 1:2606/216.0
Internet: dltacom.camphq.fidonet.org (email only)
-=NEW YORK=-
* THE BELFRY(!) *
stiggy@dorsai.dorsai.org
718.793.4796 718.793.4905
-=ONTARIO=-
* COMMAND LINE BBS *
Canada's Amiga Graphics & Animation Source
416-533-8321 V.32
* REALM OF TWILIGHT BBS *
Usenet: realm.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca FIDO: 1:221/302 Fish: 33:33/8
519-748-9365 (2400 baud) 519-748-9026 (v.32bis)
-=TENNESSEE=-
* AMIGA CENTRAL! *
Internet mail: root@amicent.raider.net
615-383-9679 1200-14.4Kbps V.32bis
* NOVA BBS *
AmigaNet 40:210/10.0 40:210/1.0 40:210/0.0 FidoNet 1:362/508.0
615-472-9748 USR DS 16.8
-=WASHINGTON=-
* FREELAND MAINFRAME *
Internet - freemf.eskimo.com
206-438-1670 Supra 2400zi 206-456-6013 Supra v.32bis
* PIONEERS BBS *
FidoNet: 1:343/54.0
206-775-7983 Supra 14.4k v32.bis
Login: Long Distance Password: longdistance
@endnode
@node BBS_SAMERICA "Distribution BBSes - South America"
@toc BBS
===========================================================================
== Distribution BBSes - South America ==
===========================================================================
-=BRAZIL=-
* AMIGA DO PC BBS *
Fidonet: 4:801/44 Internet: fimoraes@dcc.unicamp.br
Weekdays: 19-07 (-3 GMT) Weekends: 24 hours +55-192-33-2260
@endnode
@node DEAL_ASIA "Dealers - Asia"
@toc DEALER
===========================================================================
== Dealers - Asia ==
===========================================================================
-=JAPAN=-
Grey Matter Ltd.
1-22-3,Minami Magome
HillTop House 2F suite 201
Ota-ku,Tokyo 143
Tel:+81 (0)3 5709-5549 Fax:+81 (0)3 5709-1907
BBS: +81 (0)3 5709-1907 Email: nighty@gmatter.japan-online.or.jp
@endnode
@node DEAL_EUROPE "Dealers - Europe"
@toc DEALER
===========================================================================
== Dealers - Europe ==
===========================================================================
-=BELGIUM=-
CLICK! N.V.
Boomsesteenweg 468
B-2610 Wilrijk - Antwerpen
VOICE: +32 (0)3 828.18.15 FAX: +32 (0)3 828.67.36
INTERNET: vanhoutv@nbre.nfe.be FIDO: 2:292/603.9
-=FINLAND=-
DataService Oy
P.O. Box 50
Kuurinniityntie 30
02771 ESPOO
Voice: +358 (9) 400 438 301 Fax: +358 (9) 0505 0037
-=GERMANY=-
dcp, desing+commercial partner GmbH
Alfredstr. 1
D-22087 Hamburg
Tel.: + 49 40 251176 Fax: +49 40 2518567
EMail: info@dcp.de WWW: http://www.dcp.de
Hartmann & Riedel GdbR
Hertzstr. 33
76287 Rheinstetten
Voice (answering machine) - 07242-2021 Fax - ask for the number
Please call first before visiting us. Otherwise it is likely that you
stand in front of a closed door.
Hirsch & Wolf OHG
Mittelstra_e 33
D-56564 Neuwied
Voice: +49 (2631) 8399-0 Fax: +49 (2631) 8399-31
Pro Video Elektronik
Roßmarkt 38
D-63739 Aschaffenburg
Tel: (49) 6021 15713 Fax: (49) 6021 15713
-=SPAIN=-
Amiga Center
Argullós, 127
08016 Barcelona
Tel: (93) 276 38 06 Fax: (93) 276 30 80
Amiga Center Alicante
Segura, 27
03004 Alicante
Tel: (96) 514 37 34
Centro Informático Boadilla
Convento, 6
28660 Boadilla del Monte (Madrid)
Tel: (91) 632 27 65 Fax: (91) 632 10 99
Centro Mail
Tel: (91) 380 28 92
C.R.E.
San Francisco, 85
48003 Bilbao (Vizcaya)
Tel: (94) 444 98 84 Fax: (94) 444 98 84
Donosti Frame
Avda. de Madrid, 15
20011 San Sebastián (Guipuzcoa)
Tel: (943) 42 07 45 Fax: (943) 42 45 88
GaliFrame
Galerías Príncipe, 22
Vigo (Pontevedra)
Tel: (986) 22 89 94 Fax: (986) 22 89 94
Invision
San Isidro, 12-18
28850 Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid)
Tel: (91) 676 20 56/59 Fax: (91) 656 10 04
Invision
Salamanca, 53
46005 Valencia
Tel: (96) 395 02 43/44 Fax: (96) 395 02 44
Norsoft
Bedoya, 4-6
32003 Orense
Tel: (988) 24 90 46 Fax: (988) 23 42 07
PiXeLSOFT
Felipe II, 3bis
34004 Palencia
Tel: (979) 71 27 00 Fax: (979) 71 28 28
Tu Amiga
Plaza Pedro IV, 3
08120 La LLagosta (Barcelona)
Tel: (93) 560 76 12 Fax: (93) 560 76 12
vb soft
Provenza, 436
08025 Barcelona
Tel: (93) 456 15 45 Fax: (93) 456 15 45
-=NORWAY=-
DataKompaniet ANS
Pb 3187 Munkvoll
N-7002 Trondheim
VOICE/FAX: 72 555 149 Internet: torrunes@idt.unit.no
AmiSys32
PB 540
4501 Mandal
Voice/Fax: 38260015 BBS:Coming...
-=UNITED KINGDOM=-
Almathera Systems Ltd
Southerton House / Boundary Business Court
92-94 Church Road
Mitcham, Surrey / CR4 3TD
VOICE: (UK) 081 687 0040 FAX: (UK) 081 687 0490
Sales: almathera@cix.compulink.co.uk Tech: jralph@cix.compulink.co.uk
Brian Fowler Computers Ltd
11 North St / Exeter
Devon / EX4 3QS
Voice: (0392) 499 755 Fax: (0392) 423 480
Internet: brian_fowler@cix.compulink.co.uk
CYNOSTIC
Office O1, Little Heath Industrial Estate / Old Church Road
Coventry / CV6 7NB
Tel: +44 (0)203 681687 Fax: +44 (0)203 638508
David Cassidy email: bsupa@csv.warwick.ac.uk
VISAGE COMPUTERS
18 Station Road / Ilkeston
Derbyshire / DE7 8TD
Tel/Fax: +44 (0)602 444501 Internet: floyd@demon.co.uk
@endnode
@node DEAL_NAMERICA "Dealers - North America"
@toc DEALER
===========================================================================
== Dealers - North America ==
===========================================================================
-=CANADA=-
Atlantis Kobetek Inc.
1496 Lower Water St.
Halifax, NS / B3J 1R9
Phone: (902)-422-6556 Fax: (902)-423-9339
E-mail: aperusse@ra.isisnet.com
Computerology Direct
Powell River, BC
V8A-4Z3
Call 24 hrs. orders/inquiries: 604/483-3679
Amiga users ask for HEAD SALES REP for quicker response!
Comspec Communications Inc
74 Wingold Ave
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6B 1P5
Computer Centre: (416) 785-8348 Sales: (416) 785-3553 Fax: 416-785-3668
Internet: bryanf@comcorp.comspec.com, bryanf@accesspt.north.net
GfxBase Electronique, Inc
1727 Shevchenko
Montreal, Quebec
Voice: 514-367-2575 Fax: 514-367-5265
BBS: 514-769-0565
MusicMart: Media Sound & Vision
71 Wellington Road
London, Ontario
VOICE: 519-434-4162 FAX: 519-663-8074 BBS: 519-645-2144
FIDO: 1:2401/200 InterNet: koops@gaul.csd.uwo.ca
Wonder Computers Inc.
1315 Richmond Rd.
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2B 8J7
Voice: 613-596-2542 Fax: 613-596-9349
BBS: 613-829-0909
-=UNITED STATES=-
A&D Computer
211 South St.
Milford, NH 03055-3743
Voice/Fax: 603-672-4700 BBS: 603-673-2788
Internet: amiga@mv.mv.com
AmegaByte!
5001 Garrett Ave.
Beltsville, MD 20705
VOICE: (800) 834-7153 VOICE: (301) 937-1640
FAX: (301) 937-1658 INTERNET: amega@globe.net
Amigability Computers
P.O. Box 572
Plantsville, CT 06479
VOICE: 203-276-8175
Internet: caldi@pcnet.com
Amiga-Crossing
176 Gray Road, Unit 5
Cumberland, ME 04021
VOICE: (800) 498-3959 (Maine only) VOICE: (207) 829-3959
FAX: (207) 829-3522 Internet: ewhite42@portland.caps.maine.edu
Amiga Video Solutions
1568 Randolph Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55105
Voice: 612-698-1175 Fax: 612-224-3823
BBS: 612-698-1918 Net: wohno001@maroon.tc.umn.edu
Apogee Technologies
1851 University Parkway
Sarasota, FL 34243
VOICE: 813-355-6121
Portal: Apogee Internet: Apogee@cup.portal.com
Armadillo Brothers
753 East 3300 South
Salt Lake City, Utah
VOICE: 801-484-2791 Internet: B.GRAY@genie.geis.com
Computer Link
6573 middlebelt
Garden City MI 48135
Voice: 313-522-6005 Fax: 313-522-3119
clink@m-net.arbornet.org
Computers International, Inc.
5415 Hixson Pike
Chattanooga, TN 37343
VOICE: 615-843-0630
DC Productions
218 Stockbridge Avenue
Kalamazoo, MI 49001
(616)373-1985 (800)9DC-PROD
Chet Wisniewski - Owner
Digital Arts
122 West 6th Street
Bloomington, IN 47404
VOICE: (812)330-0124 FAX: (812)330-0126
BIX: msears
Finetastic Computers
721 Washington Street
Norwood, MA 02062
VOICE: 617-762-4166 BBS: 617-769-3172
Fido: 1:101/322 Internet: FinetasticComputers@cup.portal.com
HT Electronics
275 North Mathilda Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
VOICE: 408-737-0900 FAX: 408-245-3109
Portal: HT Electronics Internet: HT Electronics@cup.portal.com
Industrial Video, Inc.
1601 North Ridge Rd.
Lorain, OH 44055
VOICE: 800-362-6150, 216-233-4000 Contact: John Gray
Internet: af741@cleveland.freenet.edu
Kipp Visual Systems
360-C Christopher Ave.
Gaithersburg Md, 20878
301-670-7906
kipp@rasputin.umd.edu
Magic Page
3043 Luther Street
Winston-Salem, NC 27127
Voice/Fax: 910-785-3695 E-mail: Spiff@cup.portal.com
Contact: Patrick Smith
MicroSearch
9000 US 59 South, Suite 330
Houston, Texas
VOICE: 713-988-2818 FAX: 713-995-4994
Mr. Hardware Computers
P.O. Box 148 / 59 Storey Ave.
Central Islip, NY 11722
VOICE: 516-234-8110 FAX: 516-234-8110
A.M.U.G. BBS: 516-234-6046
OverByte Industries, Inc.
661 Blanding Blvd. Suite 391
Orange Park, FL 32073-5048
Voice: 904-858-3348 E-mail: overbyte@jax.gttw.com
URL: http://www.jkcg.com/Webmaster/Overbyte/index.html
PSI Animations
17924 SW Pilkington Road
Lake Oswego, OR 97035
VOICE: 503-624-8185
Internet: PSIANIM@agora.rain.com
Raymond Commodore Amiga
898 Raymond Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55114-1521
VOICE: 612.642.9890 FAX: 612.642.9891
Software Plus Chicago
2945 W Peterson Suite 209
Chicago, Illinois
VOICE: 312-878-7800
Zipperware
626 S. Washington
Seattle, WA 98104
VOICE: 206-223-1107 FAX: 206-223-9395
E-Mail: Jon.Funfar@p0.f203.n138.z1.fidonet.org
@endnode
@node NEWS "News & Press Releases"
@toc MENU
===========================================================================
== News & Press Releases ==
===========================================================================
@{" Big Byte Out of History " link NEWS1} Apple censors pack-in products
@{" AmigOS Web Site " link NEWS2} The project gains a WWW site
@{" Into The Light " link NEWS3} Newsletter dedicated to LW
@{" CD32 Products List " link NEWS4} Change of command
@{" Amiga Envoy 2.0 " link NEWS5} New version available
@{" Ex-CFO of C= Moves On " link NEWS6} New job for Hock E. Tan
@{" Safe Hex International " link NEWS7} Anti-virus organization update
@{" AR Tech Journal " link NEWS8} Amiga Report launches spinoff
@{" Emplant PC " link NEWS9} Money taken, no product yet
@{" Photogenics Conference " link NEWS10} IRC conference in three weeks
@{" C= UK Rumblings " link NEWS11} What they're up to...
@endnode
@node FEATURE "Featured Articles"
@toc MENU
===========================================================================
== Featured Articles ==
===========================================================================
@{" Expanding the 1200 " link FEATURE1} Or how to go insane without trying
@{"You Know it's a Weird World" link FEATURE2} Darkseid speaks again
@{" Speed! " link FEATURE3} The Amiga with PA-RISC
@{" Conference - Panorama " link FEATURE4} Talks with Jim Bardeen
@{" Conference - ImageFX 2.0 " link FEATURE5} Nova Design on Portal
@{" Texture-Mapped Games FAQ " link FEATURE6} What's out there for the Amiga
@{" Workbench 3.1 " link FEATURE7} A strange animal
@endnode
@node REVIEW "Reviews"
@toc MENU
===========================================================================
== Reviews ==
===========================================================================
@{" DiskSalv 3 " link REVIEW1} Multi-purpose hard drive utility
@{" Final Writer 3.0 " link REVIEW2} New version of "Word Publisher"
@{" Termite v1.0 " link REVIEW3} New telecommunications software
@{" Theme Park " link REVIEW4} A look at the ECS version of the game
@{" Sensible World of Soccer " link REVIEW5} "Footy is footy", but this game is great
@{" ImageFX 2.0 Revisited " link REVIEW6} Nova's supercharged manipulator
@{" Photogenics Revisited " link REVIEW7} Almathera's effect painter and processor
@endnode
@node FTP "FTP and Product Announcements"
@toc MENU
===========================================================================
== FTP and Product Announcements ==
===========================================================================
@{" Charts " link CHARTS1} Aminet charts through February 19
@{" Charts " link CHARTS2} Aminet charts through February 26
@{" SoundBox " link FTP1} A sample converter and player
@{" SystemPrefs " link FTP2} Preferences for cpu caches and ramsey
@{" easyrexx.library " link FTP3} Runtime library to add ARexx port
@endnode
@node ABOUT "About AMIGA REPORT"
@toc MENU
===========================================================================
== About AMIGA REPORT ==
===========================================================================
@{" AR Staff " link STAFF} The Editors and writers
@{" Writing Guidelines " link GUIDELINE} What you need to do to write for us
@{" Copyright Information " link COPYRIGHT} The legal stuff
@endnode
@node STAFF "The Staff"
@toc ABOUT
===========================================================================
== The Staff ==
===========================================================================
Editor: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}
Senior Editor: @{" Robert Niles " link ROBERT}
Assistant Editor: @{" Katherine Nelson " link KATIE}
European Editor: @{" Michael Wolf " link MICHAEL}
Games Editor: @{" Sean Caszatt " link SEAN}
Contributing Editor: @{" David Tiberio " link DAVID}
@endnode
@node WHERE "Where to Get AR"
@toc MENU
===========================================================================
== Where to Get AR ==
===========================================================================
@{" The AR Mailing List " link MAILLIST}
@{" Aminet " link AMINET}
@{" World Wide Web " link WWW}
@{" Distribution Sites " link BBS}
@{" Commercial Services " link ONLINE}
@endnode
@node BBS "Distribution Sites"
@toc WHERE
===========================================================================
== Where to find Amiga Report ==
===========================================================================
Arranged by Continent:
@{" Australia " link BBS_AUSTRALIA}
@{" Europe " link BBS_EUROPE}
@{" North America " link BBS_NAMERICA}
@{" South America " link BBS_SAMERICA}
Sysops: To have your name added, please send @{"Email", link JASON} with the BBS name,
its location (Country, province/state) your name, any internet/fidonet
addresses, and the phone number of your BBS
@endnode
@node DEALER "Dealer Directory"
@toc MENU
===========================================================================
== Dealer Directory ==
===========================================================================
Arranged by Continent:
@{" Asia " link DEAL_ASIA}
@{" Europe " link DEAL_EUROPE}
@{" North America " link DEAL_NAMERICA}
Dealers: To have your name added, please send @{"Email", link JASON} with the name,
address, phone, and net address (if available) of your establishment.
@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
@endnode
@node ONLINE "Commercial Online Services"
@toc COMMERCIAL
===========================================================================
== Commercial Online Services ==
===========================================================================
@{" Delphi " link DELPHI} Getting better all the time.
@{" Portal " link PORTAL} A great place for Amiga users.
@{" GEnie " link GENIE} Internet access, online games, more.
@endnode