@database "ar503.guide"
@Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #5.03 -- March 22, 1997"
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  March 22, 1997              @{" Turn the Page " link MENU}             Issue No. 5.03
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Subject: Re: AR 5.02 Jason, My deepest gratitude to you for publishing the Amiga Report and distributing via e-mail; the journalistic quality is absolutely top notch. I hope you profit greatly from your involvement with the Amiga. You have given so much of such great value to this community. I seem to be receiving duplicate copies of the Amiga Report Magazine. Back in December, I had missed an issue or two, so I resubscribed, and since then I've been receiving two copies. I can't find any difference in the headers, but I have included them below in case they may some help to you. This is not any problem to me, but in the interest of conserving net bandwidth, and keeping your distribution list no longer than necessary, I am offering this information. Thanks again for a very fine publication. Best regards, Mike Fischer - Well, the bad news is that I couldn't track down the duplicate copy problem, but it's a nice letter anyway. :) -Jason --- --- --- --- --- From: Wolfgang "G.Wettach" Subject: Re: Just Use It! [In reference to David Prime's opinion piece in ar502: ] Hi David, I've read your lines in AmigaReport and just couldn't agree more. I use the Amiga for a large Fantasy-Project called MYRA (based on a noncommercial Play-by-Mail game) and there is no computer like it for this - for the Amiga we have several small programs, quiz, educational and AmigaGuides, for the PC we have only unfinished projects... ;-) Even our Myra-Support Mailbox runs on an Amiga and with MME (Multimedia) we will do some small Presentations in the near future. And the Amiga does it all, since 1985... I'm earning my money on the Amiga with translations. I don't care if it's for University lectures or for the Macintosh, as long as I can do them on my Amiga in my home or office. Only when I translate for the ATO, the Amiga Translators' Organzation, the prizes get a lot lower... ;-) We at ATO will do our part to keep the Amiga-future user-friendly by translating pOS as we do with Amiga-software for some time now. So the Amiga is there - Just Use It! Regards, Wolfgang G. Wettach (WGW), vfm_myra@geocities.com @endnode @node NEWS1 "Citadel 68K v7A01" @toc NEWS TITLE Citadel 68K Freeware BBS Program VERSION 7A01 AUTHOR Tony Preston, apreston@k2nesoft.com DESCRIPTION Overview: Citadel is a multi-platform BBS program. There is support for the IBM, Atari, and Amiga platforms. This announcement concerns the Amiga version of Citadel, Citadel 68K. It is a room based BBS program with many features not found in even the best commercial bbs programs. It is 100% free and sources are available. A Room based BBS has rooms instead of message conferences. The users carry on conversations in the room. A room is very much like a thread in other BBS programs, it has a subject and messages related to the subject. Citadel allows the many options. The Sysop can configure what privileges a user has, what characteristics a room has, and even what text will be used for most messages. It is flexible and since it is multi-platform, it is networking compatible with the other Citadel platforms. If your planing of starting a BBS, Citadel is the perfect way! It can be setup with virtually no cost! NEW FEATURES This version has several bug fixes, see the update file in the archive. There are some new utilities to make it easier to do long distance networking via internet email using Danny Wong's AirMail utility. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS A Citadel 68K has been configured and ran from a system as small as a 512K A500 with 2 floppies. Obviously, this limits what optional features that are available. The recommended configuration is 2 MB memory or more plus 20 MB HD space. Citadel requires 8192 of stack space. The Citadel BBS package has many optional features. These are packaged as separate archives. You many want to get all these packages. Cit_Arc_7A01.lha External archiver support Cit_Util_7A01.lha Utilities for offline maint. it_exec_7A01.lha **Citadel BBS and Configuration program cit_src_7A01.lha Complete Citadel and Utilties Source cit_src_7A01.lha **Documentation Cit_XPR_7A01.lha External up/download protocol support files in addition you might want to grab the file: devhandl.lha Door device handler ** required files to startup a bbs One last requirement... time...:) AVAILABILITY Available from any Aminet site such as: ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/comm/bbs/*7A01.lha The latest version can always be downloaded from: The Amiga Zone BBS (609) 953-8159 Special arrangements can be made to send you a set of disks with all the Citadel archives. There will be a small charge for postage and handling. PRICE FREE, NADA, ZIP, NOTHING... DISTRIBUTABILITY Citadel is released as a copyrighted FREEWARE program. Source and executable are available at no charge. No charge may be made to distribute Citadel and no system may copyright any part of Citadel. A nominal charge for disk duplication may be made so long as only the duplication costs are charged. Permission is given to Aminet and Fred Fish to include Citadel archives in their distributions. Anyone else wishing to distribute Citadel or Citadel files in any commercial distribution or fashion must contact the author for permission. OTHER Citadel 68K Copyrighted 1997 Custom Services. All rights reserved. Warranty: 30 seconds, 30 feet whichever comes first...:) Support for the budding sysop can be found on any of the following BBS systems. These systems are those which are actively networking with other Citadel. To get help, you should post messages in the Citadel 68K, CitaNews, or Sysop Only rooms asking your questions or send email to Tony Preston@The Amiga Zone.NJ (Citadel Domain Mail) apreston@k2nesoft.com (internet email) Tony Preston, In mail on The Amiga Zone BBS (609) 953-8159 @endnode @node NEWS2 "Informer Issue #6" @toc NEWS Issue #6 of The Amiga Informer is now available and ready for reading!. What's The Informer? The Amiga Informer (ISSN 1089-4616) is a B&W Amiga print Zine full of information and contacts that help readers stay connected with new developments and products. It features reviews, interviews, announcements, contacts and news. The Informer's staff are all committed and passionate Amiga users, and are proud to produce the entire newsletter using only Amiga computers. Issue 6 represents our first full year of production. During this year we have grown from an 8 page newsletter, to a 24 page mini magazine. In this issue you will find cover stories detailing QuikPak's bid for the rights to the Amiga and Carl Sassenraths' new LAVA programming language. Inside we present the winner of the prize drawing (MRBackup and Megaball 4) along with announcing the prizes up for grabs in the next issue (Capital Punishment and The Avalon CD).* *Note: Prize drawings are of course open to anyone as detailed in every issue and on our web site. Just send your name, address, phone number, email address and the date to the below address and you will be entered. This issue's news stories include an interview with Jim Drew of Microcode Solutions (formally of Utilities Unlimited). Other news items include: VillageTronics new Picasso 96 graphics card software; the Team AMIGA database; the AHI audio system; NewTekniques magazine; IAM's low pricing; the new pOS operating system from ProDAD; PCx 80x86 software emulation; and the Nova Design video. The "Developments" section profiles Expansion Systems and their products. The "Announcements" section highlights over 13 new Amiga products and services and we provide info on the Amiga 97 show. In the "Enhancements" section, Brad Webb continues his Workbench Extras column, detailing useful programs no Amiga should be without. This issue Brad examines X-Trash and the like. The "Site Seeing" column, by Davis Sprague, details the use of FTP and compares AmFTP and AmiFTP. Under "Site Seeing's" PD Pick section, Davis summarizes and compares the many currently available HTML editors. If you're looking for a web editor, you'll want to read this. We have 4 reviews in the "Evaluations" section. First is a review, by yours truly, of Expansion Systems new CD-XDS external CD-ROM chassis. Next is Brad Webb's assessment of SofTalk, TransMaker and PhonMaker from Parth Galen, followed by a Bill Schuck review of Frankenstein Software's Power Football. We complete our "Evaluations" section with a summery of the Utilities Experience CD-ROM. Issue 6 finishes off with the "Action" section suggesting that readers email a certain editor (not me, folks) with their comments. The "Contacts" section lists some excellent Internet sites, BBS numbers and fine Amiga dealers. A nice selection of used Amiga products can be found for sale from our subscribers in the "Marketplace" section. To receive a copy, send $1 US (for USA addresses) or $2 US (for all other countries) to cover printing and postage costs to: The Amiga Informer PO Box 21 Newburgh, NY 12551-0021 [Cash preferred, but checks made payable to Eldritch Enterprises]. If you would rather examine a selection of past Informer articles (without shelling out any cash!), visit our Web site at: http://www1.mhv.net/~eldritch You can subscribe to The Amiga Informer by Credit Card (Visa and Mastercard) by calling: 914-566-4665 In addition to receiving The Informer, subscribers gain these special benefits: * You are automatically entered into our bimonthly prize drawings for cool Amiga prizes. * You can advertise your used Amiga products for free in the Marketplace (seen by over 5000 readers). * As a subscriber, you gain a special 10% discount when you purchase any products from Liage International. * If you have an Email address, you will automatically be sent the latest news, courtesy of Amiga Update Newsletter. Thanks! Fletcher Haug Editor- The Amiga Informer Zine eldritch@mhv.net @endnode @node NEWS3 "ShowIcon V2.0" @toc NEWS TITLE ShowIcon VERSION V2.0 (update from V1.0) AUTHOR Dalibor Kezele Toplicka 127 42204 Turcin CROATIA e-mail: sentinel@bonus.fido.hr Fidonet: Dalibor Kezele 2:381/120 DESCRIPTION ShowIcon is a little AmigaDos utility which shows icon images. ShowIcon displays an icon image in a new window and icon information (such as WB position, width, height and depth of an icon) in the CLI/Shell window. It opens different windows for each icon you want it to display. With ShowIcon you don't need to load Workbench or run an icon painting program. ShowIcon is only 10 KB in size, optimized (see source code) and it executes quickly. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS An Amiga since it works on all Amiga models. It requirs about 15K of main memory to run. AVAILABILITY Any Aminet site, for example ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/cli/ShowIcon.lha PRICE The shareware fee is a postcard to author. OTHER Source file (Aztec C) included. DISTRIBUTABILITY Copyright (c) 1995 by Dalibor S. Kezele The program is shareware. It's freely distributable. @endnode @node NEWS4 "Amiga Browser Watch" @toc NEWS Amiga Browser Watch Web Site http://amicrawler.com/bwatch/ Amicrawler.com today announced the release of Amiga Browser Watch, a web page dedicated to tracking the relative market share of Amiga specific web browsers. This web page shows a daily summary of the percentage of users who visit the amicrawler.com site every day, cumulatively. Users visiting amicrawler.com can only be counted once each day. In order to qualify to be listed on the Amiga Browser Watch, each browser must be a publically available browser, and must be discernable as being operated by an Amiga computer. Browsers running on emulators cannot be included in this analysis. Future updates to the Amiga Browser Watch will include information such as operating system versions and weekly or monthly rankings. Also planned is the ability to notify visiting Amiga users if a new version of their favorite browser is available. David Tiberio http://www.amicrawler.com/bwatch/ @endnode @node NEWS5 "F1GP-Ed v3.30 TITLE F1GP-Ed VERSION 3.30 AUTHOR Oliver Roberts E-Mail: Oliver@POBoxes.com WWW: http://www.nanunanu.org/~oliver/ http://homepages.enterprise.net/oliverr/ Address: 30 Tillett Road Norwich NR3 4BJ ENGLAND DESCRIPTION An editor for use with the Formula One Grand Prix or World Circuit game (published by MicroProse Software). It is very easy to use, with a standard 2.0 look graphical user interface (even on KS 1.x!) and on-line help should you need it. Allows you to alter most of the in-game setup, including computer car performance, car/helmet/pitcrew colours, car fragility and many other things (and I MEAN many!). Sound samples can also be replaced, cockpit graphics changed, and lap records and setups printed. Changes can be saved directly to a copy of the game which is running in memory, or to the main file used by the game for a more permanent change. Also incorporated in the main program are a number of memory patches, including Toni Wilen's GPPatch and Grant Reeve's PatchF1GP. F1GP-Ed breathes new life into an ageing, but excellent game. 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997 sample datafiles supplied for those who don't want to mess about. The program itself is auto-enhancing, which means that it will run on a basic A500 with KS 1.2, but will make use of KS 2.x or KS 3.x specific routines on suitable machines to make itself even better. Supported languages: English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian and Czech. NEW FEATURES o The "in-game" palette can now be altered o GPPatch: font is now user selectable, HUD size can be preset, HUD can be enabled automatically, the "right-shift" car setup change can be disabled. Reduced chip ram usage, plus the required chip ram is now allocated dynamically (only if you actually install GPPatch). Display position is no longer hardcoded - uses same position as F1GP is using o Added Hall of Fame options to the Statistics window to configure the HoF lap record output o Added option to allow the "Abandon Qualifying" requestor to be skipped o The position of the game display can now be preset o Cockpit designs can now be viewed directly from within F1GP-Ed o The backdrop (.bkg) files used by F1GP's menus can now be replaced with other images o Improved font sensitivity calculations for proportional fonts - should result in more compact windows (tested with over 50 different fonts) o Saving cockpit designs to memory now works properly o Fixed bug in Nigel Rowe's McLaren-D cockpit (gear indicator no longer blanks out) SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Formula One Grand Prix or World Circuit game by Geoff Crammond, published commercially originally by MicroProse Software. The game has now been re-released by Guildhall Leisure on the Acid label. Approximately 1.5Mb of free ram needed to load the game and the editor to be able to use the memory patches. But, the editor itself and most of the features will work on machines with less memory. AVAILABILITY F1GP-Ed Web Page: http://www.nanunanu.org/~oliver/F1GP-Ed/ http://homepages.enterprise.net/oliverr/F1GP-Ed/ Aminet: ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/game/misc/F1GP-Ed.lha (458262) PRICE Shareware fee (minimum): United Kingdom £36 (UK Pounts) Rest of the World £37 (or US$ 15 / DM 20) Registrations can also be made via F1 Shareware (see documentation for details). DISTRIBUTABILITY F1GP-Ed is a Shareware product and it may be distributed freely provided none of the files (including the executable) are tampered with in any way whatsoever. A registration fee is requested if the product is found to be useful by the user. Registering means helps insure that I continue to develop the program, and as a bonus all features will be enabled. Copyright (c) 1994-1997 Oliver Roberts, All Rights Reserved. *** Not officially endorsed by MicroProse Software *** @endnode @node NEWS6 "Amiga Myst" @toc NEWS Mar. 4, 1997. Dear Amiga users, We at clickBOOM and PXL computers created Capital Punishment in 1996, the biggest Amiga game of the year. At the same time we promised to convert some of the biggest games from other machines to the Amiga. We are very proud to announce we have purhased the rights to develop and publish the Amiga version of MYST ! Myst is a phenomenon - the bestselling CD-ROM game ever, and the bestselling game of 1996 both on PC and Mac. But, more importantly, it is a marvelous game. This message is just an announcement for Myst. We will have the official press release with more information in a couple of days. Format: CD-ROM only Hardware: Amiga with a video board (16 million colors) or AGA (256 colors) RAM: 4Mb of FAST RAM Specifications: OS-friendly + multitasking Release date: Summer As always, feel free to contact us at clkboom@ican.net or visit our web site at http://home.ican.net/~clkboom/ Thank you, clickBOOM and PXL computers Alexander Petrovic Pxl computers / clickBOOM Producer @endnode @node NEWS7 "Quasar Explains French Problems" @toc NEWS 17th March 1997 For Immediate Public Release: Quasar Distribution, publishers of PC-Task, DirWork, Quarterback and Quarterback Tools Deluxe, have terminated our distribution agreement with France Festival Distribution due to piracy of PC-Task 4. Due to Serge Hammouche (the owner of France Festival Distribution) illegally selling pirated copies of PC-Task updates and full packages, they are no longer authorised to sell any versions of any of our products. It is disappointing to us to see this sort of behaviour occurring at this vital time for the Amiga computer. New distribution details will be available soon on our web site at http://www.ozemail.com.au/~pctask French PC-Task users are able to upgrade directly from us for US$47 including delivery. Further details are available on our web site. All PC-Task versions are sold with printed manuals, with a properly printed PC-Task label. If you suspect your version is a pirate copy, please email us at pctask@ozemail.com.au Peter Fregon Manager - Quasar Distribution Quasar Distribution PO Box 101, Vermont, Victoria, 3133, Australia WWW: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~pctask Fax: +613 9887 2511 @endnode @node NEWS8 "ImageFX Seminars" @toc NEWS ImageFX Seminars Now Available For Immediate Release Contact: Bob Fisher Nova Design, Inc. 804-282-5868 Richmond, VA - March 1997. User groups have begun taking advantage of all the new ImageFX Seminars given by Nova Design, Inc. staff. These seminars, which are also available to dealers, trade shows, and independant groups, are designed to introduce users to the power of ImageFX, show its uses and how to use it to achieve professional results. Customized Instruction The presentation is designed to fit the needs of the groups holding the seminar. Topics cover an introduction to ImageFX, tips and techniques, and conclude with a question and answer period where the audience can get individualized instruction and feedback directly from Nova Design personnel. Times The seminars are held exclusively on weekends and are available on a first come, first served basis. There are a limited number of spaces available in this year's schedule, so call as soon as you can. Our next scheduled seminar is at Lively Computers in San Diego, CA. We will keep a list of our scheduled seminars on our web page. If you're an individual who is interested in attending an existing seminar, you will need to contact the group hosting it. Cost The cost for the seminar is kept as low as possible. There is a speakers fee of only $150.00 per day, regardless of the number of people attending, plus all costs for travel and lodging. For more information call: (804) 282-6528, or fax (804) 282-3768 @endnode @node NEWS9 "AROS V1.7" @toc NEWS TITLE AROS - The Amiga Replacement OS V1.7 AUTHORS Aaron "Optimizer" Digulla - Head of Development Th.-Heuss-Str. 8 78467 Konstanz Germany irc: Optimizer email: digulla@wi-pc44.fh-konstanz.de (for AROS related mail) digulla@home.lake.de (for private mail) digulla@fh-konstanz.de (for large mails) Matthias Fleischer - Exec, DOS and Kernel (he did most of the work at this time) Martin Steigerwald - Alpha- and Sparc-Port Peter Boeckmann - Small functions Iain Templeton - Utility functions Note: It's no mistake that the addresses of the other persons are missing. It just that I want to protect them from beeing swamped by EMail :) DESCRIPTION AROS is an effort to re-write the AmigaOS V3.1 (40.70 or later) in ANSI C (mostly). The goal is to have the power of the AmigaOS without beeing limited by the hardware. We try hard to maintain source compatibility which means that, if you want some Amiga application on your mainframe, all you have to do is to get its source and compile it again. Right now, we have implemented these features: - Almost the complete exec. Only interrupts and some more esoteric functions are missing - Much of DOS - A shell to run DOS commands - A set of working DOS commands: Dir, List, Echo, Cd, ... - A bit of graphics.-, intuition.- and utility.library - Enough of Intuition to open a window, receive IntuiMessages and process them. - console.device with RawKeyConvert() - A demo which can be started from the shell, which opens a window in which you can draw with the mouse, press keys and click on gadgets. If you want to participate, then you can choose between these two: a) The Preferred Way: Get your hands on CVS and follow the instructions in the README.CVS in the AROSdev-archive. b) The Usual Way: Get the latest source, make your modifications and send me patches via email. Since this takes some time, make sure you allocate your work with the jobserver. If you write something for us, make sure to check if that job is not already done by someone else. To achieve this, use the jobserver. You can reach it by writing an EMail to aros@wi-pc44.fh-konstanz.de with the Subject "jobserv" (without the ""). It reads the contents of the mail and executes it. For help simply use the command "help" on a single line. CHANGES - console.device to allow to convert IntuiMessages into text - Bool-Gadgets - Some bug fixes - First steps with Resource Tracking and Purify FUTURE - More docs :-P - More functions - Resource Tracking for all things our nice OS has to offer - The fastes AmigaOS ever on an DEC-Alpha-Workstation with 200MHz ;) SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Right now, you need a PC running Linux to view the demos or to compile the source. No effort has been made to make sure that anything would work on an Amiga but you're welcome if you're a Amiga freak with plenty of time :) AVAILABILITY ftp://ftp.netnet.net/pub/aminet/misc/emu/AROSdev* AROSbin* On Aminet on misc/emu. There are two archives: AROSdev* which contains the source and AROSbin* which contains ready compiled demos which you can start in an XTerm under Linux. PRICE Free. DISTRIBUTABILITY (C) 1995-96 AROS - The Amiga Replacement OS It's freely distributable as long as all files are distributed unchanged. The source may be used in commercial product with written permission by the authors. @endnode @node NEWS10 "MPMorph v4.5" @toc NEWS TITLE MPMorph VERSION 4.5 AUTHOR Mark Paddock EMail: mark@topic.demon.co.uk mpaddock@cix.compulink.co.uk WWW: http://www.topic.demon.co.uk DESCRIPTION A 24 bit colour morphing program. Displays images in two windows with editable control points. Can do Warps/Morphs and animated Warps and Morphs. Images can be loaded and saved in a variety of formats. * Full ARexx interface; * Full context sensitive searchable online help; * Interactive Tutorial; * Source is available; * Render program should compile on Unix; * "Real Time" preview; * Partial EGS interface. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Required: OS3.0 or better At least 1MB of memory (or more) About 2MB of disc space Optional but recommended: Accelerator (68020 + 68881 or better) Hard Disk reqtools.library Lots of memory Optional: dctv.library EGS graphics board AVAILABILITY Aminet User files ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/gfx/edit/MPMorph45.lha (494753) Source code ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/gfx/edit/MPMorph45s.lha (282773) (Morphing programs) ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/dev/gui/MPGui54s.lha (70040) (Gui Library) ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/text/hyper/MPIndex55.lha (77504) (AmigaGuide Indexing) ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/gfx/conv/MPImage73s.lha (125092) (Image Libraries) PRICE Free DISTRIBUTABILITY MPMorph is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. MPMorph is Copyright (c)1993-97 Mark John Paddock @endnode @node NEWS11 "Amiga-CLISP" @toc NEWS TITLE Amiga-CLISP binary and source VERSION based on CLISP-1995-05-30 source AUTHORS Bruno Haible and Michael Stoll. Amiga-port by Joerg Hoehle DESCRIPTION CLISP is an implementation of Common Lisp. Common Lisp is a convential programming language and an AI language. It is interactive. It has automatic garbage collection and can protect resources (e.g. free them even in case a computation is aborted with an error). Common Lisp programs are easy to test (interactive), easy to maintain (depending on programming style) and portable (there is a standard for the language and the library functions). CLISP needs just 2 MB of memory (it will allocate more for large applications) and implements 99% of the CLtL1 standard, as well as some extensions and a large part of the CLtL2 standard. CLISP contains an interpreter and a compiler, CLOS, a small ARexx interface and a foreign function interface with which to call any function from almost any shared library. CLISP is safe to use, for any integer, array, string etc. manipulation is checked: your application won't write past a string, overflow an integer or dereference a NULL pointer, generating Enforcer hits. NEW FEATURES Amiga foreign function interface (AFFI) CLtL2 logical pathnames CLtL2 LOOP macro SCREEN package for (K)CON: cursor control -wide version that works with VMM optimized -00 version for 68000 processors SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Since this release, Amiga-CLISP requires at least OS 2.04. AVAILABILITY Main CLISP site and it's Amiga subdirectory: ftp://ma2s2.mathematik.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/lisp/clisp/ ftp://ma2s2.mathematik.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/lisp/clisp/binaries/amiga/ The author's Amiga-CLISP Home Page and directory: http://zeus.gmd.de/~hoehle/amiga-clisp.html In the dev/lang/ subdirectory of Aminet, for example: ftp://ftp.netnet.net/pub/aminet/dev/lang/CLISP960530-#?.lha PRICE Amiga-CLISP is and has always been free software. DISTRIBUTABILITY Slightly modified GNU Public License Joerg Hoehle. Joerg.Hoehle@gmd.de hoehle@zeus.gmd.de Author of Amiga-CLISP, a Common Lisp implementation Maintainer of fifolib, shared library and FIFO: DOS-handler @endnode @node NEWS12 "BattleDuel V1.6.80" @toc NEWS TITLE BattleDuel V1.6.80 AUTHORS Jochen Terstiege Michael David Marco Seine DESCRIPTION BattleDuel is a game like 'Artillery Duel' on the C-64: Two players fight against each other with cannons placed in a windy mountainous landscape. To hit the other they change the power and angle of the cannons. A duel is finished if one of the cannons is totally damaged. Some features: - up to 4 players - computer opponents - normal duel mode, 2 tournament modes, practice mode - ECS/AGA/GraphicBoard support (only one program) - network support: parnet, nullmodem, modem and TCP/IP - nice graphics and sound effects - full multitasking - OS friendly - support for public screens NEW FEATURES - four new weapons: parachute, energy flash, rocket, bomber - cannons can be repaired - new backgrounds: desert and winter - different copperlists - new animations: camel, weapons - optimised nullmodem and modem network modes - Parnet/Pronet network mode - stronger computer opponents - enhanced keyboard control - highscore contains now 100 entries - sound module is located in fast-memory (less chip-memory usage) - BD: assign is not necessary anymore - support for environment variable KEYPATH - some cheats and gags SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS - Kickstart 2.0 - Hard disk - 1MB chip memory - flicker-fixer or multisync monitor recommended AVAILABILITY ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/game/2play/BattleDuel.lha (1215038) PRICE Shareware fee of $15 US / DM 20 DISTRIBUTABILITY BattleDuel is Shareware! Copyright (C) 1997 Jochen Terstiege, Michael David, Marco Seine @endnode @node NEWS13 "iX-Guide 0.6d" @toc NEWS TITLE iX-Guide 0.6d AUTHOR Ivan Sturlic email: ivan.sturlic@public.srce.hr Tetsuo Tawara (help) email: ttt@bekkoame.or.jp DESCRIPTION An AmigaGuide/Multiview replacement and enhancement for AmigaOS3.0+ iX-Guide is a new hypertext system which is compatible with AmigaGuide. iX-Guide uses IXML, a hypertext markup language based on AmigaGuide. It is possible to view AmigaGuide documents, pictures and text files. iX-Guide will allow you to present a more attractive manual for your software. It can easily embed images and animations within your documents, along with a full range of formatting and style options for your text. iX-Guide is fully user-configurable, meaning you (the user) are able to choose your own keyboard shortcuts, choice of fixed and proportional fonts, window layout and much more. Images are loaded seperate to the display process, there is no need for you to wait while images load.They can optionally be disabled to save memory. NEW FEATURES o NEW !!! - ARexx interface with some graphics routines implemented. For example, it is possible to play an ARexx game inside a document! o CyberGfx support (currently 24 and 15-bit is not supported). o Inlined animations (SAFF and animation.datatype support) o Multiple fonts in one line o Text and image alignment o All known Enforcer hits encountered in the last release have been fixed. ... etc SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Requires OS3.0 AVAILABILITY It's available on Aminet ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/text/hyper/ixg06d.lha (147K) PRICE & DISTRIBUTABILITY It's freeware. You may copy to your heart's content. The program is copyrighted. Copyright (c) 1996-1997 Ivan Sturlic & T.T.T. OTHER This program comes with no guarantees. The author cannot be held responsible for any events occuring through the use of the program. @endnode @node NEWS14 "Chips With Everything" @toc NEWS AmigaSoc is pleased to announce what ought to be the UK's first Amiga-only TV programme due to start on BSkyB's "Computer Channel" next week (the week starting Monday 17th March) at 6:45 - 7pm, Mon-Thurs, and repeated at the weekend. The Computer Channel can be found on Channel 58 on the Sky Transponder (after Granada Good Life). It's called "Chips With Everything" (well we didn't pick the name!) The show will be feature a panel of Amiga people including Dan Winfield (founder of AmiLon -the Amiga London User Group, erstwhile web/perl columnist for Amiga Computing magazine, Marketing Director for IMMStudios, and AmigaSoc member). Alongside him will be Nick Veitch of Amiga Format - one of the most popular Amiga mags in the world (as if you didn't know!), and Sean Flowers from respected Amiga dealer, Direct Software. Some of the things to be touched upon in the first show will be exactly WHY the Amiga has got on just fine without Commodore, WHY the Amiga is such a good tool for connecting to the Internet, and of course multitudinous plugs for Direct Software! Please bear in mind that if there is a good response to the first few shows, then it will definitely become a regular feature. It's up to you! You can get to the home page for "The Computer Channel" from http://www.computerchannel.co.uk, although they don't appear to have much in terms of Amiga stuff yet. @endnode @node NEWS15 "AROS V1.10" @toc NEWS TITLE AROS - The Amiga Replacement OS V1.10 AUTHORS Aaron "Optimizer" Digulla - Head of Development Th.-Heuss-Str. 8 78467 Konstanz Germany irc: Optimizer email: digulla@wi-pc44.fh-konstanz.de (for AROS related mail) digulla@home.lake.de (for private mail) digulla@fh-konstanz.de (for large mails) Matthias Fleischer - Exec, DOS, drivers Peter Boeckmann - Sparc, Alpha Iain Templeton - FreeBSD, utility Peter Bortas - WWW site Martin Recktenwald - WWW, misc. Lennard voor den Dag - Amiga port Chris Lawrence - Linux/m68k Geert Uytterhoeven - Linux/m68k Nils Henrik Lorentzen - diskfont, icons, iffparse Stefan Ruppert - Datatypes Kars de Jong - misc Harald Frank - Amiga port Note: It's no mistake that the addresses of the other persons are missing. It just that I want to protect them from beeing swamped by EMail :) DESCRIPTION AROS is an effort to re-write the AmigaOS V3.1 (40.70 or later) in ANSI C (mostly). The goal is to have the power of the AmigaOS without beeing limited by the hardware. We try hard to maintain source compatibility which means that, if you want some Amiga application on your mainframe, all you have to do is to get its source and compile it again. Right now, we have implemented these features: - Almost the complete exec. Only interrupts and some more esoteric functions are missing - Much of DOS - A shell to run DOS commands - A set of working DOS commands: Dir, List, Echo, Cd, ... - Parts of graphics.library, intuition.library and locale.libary - Enough of Intuition to open a window, receive IntuiMessages and process them. - console.device with RawKeyConvert() - Several demos - The following parts are finished: icon.library, iffparse.library and utility.library. - A very basic RTG If you want to participate, then you can choose between these two: a) The Preferred Way: Get your hands on CVS and follow the instructions on our WWW pages. b) The Usual Way: Get the latest source, make your modifications and send me patches via email. Since this takes some time, make sure you allocate your work with the jobserver. If you write something for us, make sure to check if that job is not already done by someone else. To achieve this, use the jobserver. You can reach it by writing an EMail to aros@aros.fh-konstanz.de with the Subject "jobserv" (without the ""). It reads the contents of the mail and executes it. For help simply use the command "help" on a single line. CHANGES (since 1.7) - Implemented PROPGADGETS - Many new functions (we have now 377 of 1109 funcions, that's 34%) - NIL: and RAM: devices from M. Fleischer - AROS now uses the AFD-COPYRIGHT - New CLI commands: Mount, Assign, MakeDir, Delete, Ask, Date, ... - Real preemptive multitasking like on Amiga - FreeBSD/i386 support - Much easier to port to a new hardware. Moved OS specific files from the various directories to AROS/config/$(ARCH) and the CPU specific files to AROS/config/$(KERNEL). - Worked on docs - Many (50+) new functions in c.lib and amiga.lib - Big endian IO functions in aros.library - Amiga native and Linux/m68k versions. Amiga is still alpha. - A *pre* alpha of VBCC with i386 support. This is only loosely connected to AROS. See the README in the directory \filename{AROS/compiler/vbcc/}. - iffparse.library completed - First version which runs on the Amiga SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS You need a PC with Linux or an Amiga. For more information, please visit our WWW pages. AVAILABILITY Aminet, eg. ftp://ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk/aminet/misc/emu/AROS* ftp://aros.fh-konstanz.de/pub/aros/ (Main FTP Server) http://aros.fh-konstanz.de/~digulla/ (Main page) http://www.lysator.liu.se/amiga/aros/ (Sweden Mirror) http://home.worldonline.nl/~ldp/aros/ (AROS for Amiga) On Aminet on misc/emu. There are two archives: AROSdev* which contains the source and AROSbin* which contains ready compiled demos which you can start in an XTerm under Linux. PRICE Free. DISTRIBUTABILITY (C) 1995-96 AROS - The Amiga Replacement OS It's freely distributable as long as all files are distributed unchanged. The source may be used in commercial product with written permission by the authors. @endnode @node NEWS16 "dignet.library v2.2" @toc NEWS TITLE dignet.library VERSION 2.2 AUTHOR Kenneth "Kenny" Nilsen EMail: kenny@bgnett.no WWW: http://www.bgnett.no/~kenny/ DESCRIPTION This is a library that will make serial network handling easy. It contains a set of functions that will do most of the "dirty" work for you. All you need to do is to allocate a net and then read and write to/from that net. Net here is a device, for example serial.device or a compatible device (such as duart.device). You can with help from this library connect games and programs via nullmodem cable or modem in a relative comfortable way. The library have integrated resource tracking. The resource tracking allow you to free memory, ports, device that is used by a program that crashes or terminates without a cleanup. The resource tracking also prevents that you free a invalid pointer to a net. Archive includes developer information and a demo terminal program that uses the dignet.library. Some of the important features of this library: - resource tracking (from v2.1). - should be painless to use, straight forward. - string/text/binary support (all-in-one) - possibility for more advanced uses (eg. with Wait()) - fully re-entrant (more connections open at the same time) - comes with a default setting that works for most needs - easy to change default parameters - fast routines (written in assembler). - safe to call functions even with faulty arguments (such as read/write null byte). Read the autodoc for more information. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Required: OS2.04 or better AVAILABILITY Aminet ftp://ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk/aminet/util/libs/DigNet_2.1.lha User files http://www.bgnett.no/~kenny/ (soon) Source code Includes source code for a terminal program that uses dignet.library. Source code of DignetTERM is public domain. PRICE Free DISTRIBUTABILITY Distributed as freeware. Special notes: Freeware authors: The library file can be distributed as a standalone file in your own archive as long as you include a credit (read autodoc). If credit is unsuitable you can distribute the whole archive as it came from AmiNet in your own archive. Shareware/Commercial authors can also include the file as a standalone file, but they should under any circumstances include a visable credit in their programs. If the library do more than 20% of the functionallity in the program the library is not allowed to be used without a license agreement. Shareware/commercial authors can buy them self free from the credit requirement in their programs. Take contact for more information. dignet.library is Copyright (c)1997 by Kenneth "Kenny" Nilsen/ Digital Surface. @endnode @node NEWS17 "Browser Study Results" @toc NEWS March 13th, 1997 - Amicrawler.Com announced today the results of a week long study concerning web browser market share for Amiga computers. Topping the list was IBrowse, from Omnipresence international, with 68.5% market share. AWeb ranked a distant second with a 16.1% share, followed by AmigaVoyager with a 14.6% share. Older browsers such as AmigaMosaic scored .4%, and the non-graphical ALynx scored .3%. Other non-released Amiga browsers scored below .01%. The single most popular release was IBrowse v1.02 with a total count of 7,850 visitors, followed by AmigaVoyager v2.10 (2,557 visitors), IBrowse v1.02demo (2,433 visitors), Amiga-AWeb v2.1 (1,967 visitors), and three more versions of IBrowse scoring over 1,000 visitors. A total sample of 23,566 visitors were included in this study. A similar study performed by Browserwatch shows IBrowse with a 95.4% market share, Amiga-AWeb with a 3% share, and AmigaVoyager with a 1% share, among graphical Amiga web browsers. This study used a smaller sample of only 885 visitors over many weeks. For further information, please visit the Amiga Browser Watch at http://www.amicrawler.com/bwatch/. David Tiberio dtiberio@amicrawler.com http://amicrawler.com @endnode @node NEWS18 "AmigaSoc Developer Conference" @toc NEWS AmigaSoc is organising a developer's conference to be held at the World Of Amiga show in Hammersmith on May 17th and 18th. We would therefore like to invite anyone who has an idea or a hardware or software product which they wish to present in front of an audience. This is an excellent opportunity for people to get expert feedback on their projects, as well as get the chance to meet up with companies who may be interested in their ideas. Naturally, this invitation is open to anyone both in and outside the UK (provided you don't mind forking out for a plane ticket!). All in all, it promises to be something that developers should find extremely helpful. For further details, contact us at su-amiga@qmw.ac.uk Please watch this web page: http://www.qmw.ac.uk/~amiga/developer.html as we will be posting further information as it becomes available. Andrew Elia @endnode @node NEWS19 "Phonebill v3.5" @toc NEWS TITLE Phonebill VERSION 3.5 AUTHOR Raymond Penners E-Mail: raymondp@win.tue.nl URL: http://www.stack.nl/~raymondp DESCRIPTION `phonebill' is, simply said, a log file analyzer. What it basically does is scan log file(s) generated by a terminal program or a mailer, extract all information about calls you have made by using your modem, and store this in its own (short) format. After extracting the calls `phonebill' can generate various reports in which you can find information on duration and costs of the calls. Here is a small list of the main features: * Very flexible user-configurable rates, supporting exceptions for certain days and dates. * User-configurable log scanners: `phonebill' by default supports various log files, but for any log file that is not supported the user is able to create a scanner. The following is a list of log files that are already supported: * AmiTel * AutoPilot * CyberPager * DreamTerm * GMS * Gotcha! * GPFax * ISDN Master Telephone log * ISDN Wilhelmtel * JamMail * JrComm * MagiCall * MagicCX * MailKick * Miami * MicroDot * Multifax (both v2.0 and Multifax professional) * NComm * Off-line Amiga * Online-o-Meter * OnlineMeter * Plink * Prometheus * Term action log and Term call log * Terminus * TheAnswer * TKR-BTX * Trapdoor * Trapfax * UUCP TimeLog * UUCP uucico * XenoLink * ZeeTerm * ZerMailer * ZMailer * Zodiac's Point * Log files can be automatically truncated if their size exceeds the maximum size. * Generates miscellaneous reports: statistics, total costs, predicted costs ... * Context-sensitive online help. * Supports new 3.0 features (new look menus, ...). * Nice `Amiga User Interface Style Guide' conformant user interface. * Supports `traplist.library'. NEW FEATURES The following is an incomplete list of the most important changes: * Added billing per second. * Besides the built-in log file truncation, you can now also run a (shell) command when a log file exceeds its size. For example, setting the command to `delete "%f"' deletes the log file. * Several rates have been updated. In particular, swedish rates now use billing per second. * Several bug fixes. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Workbench 2.04 or higher. AVAILABILITY Phonebill is available on Aminet, e.g.: * ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/comm/misc/pbill35.lha (303293) You can also get it from my home page, located at: * http://www.stack.nl/~raymondp BULLETIN BOARDS Decades BBS (Sysop: Thomas Andersson) +46-54-831561 (USR 28.8 V.Everything) FidoNet: 2:203/625.0 AmigaNet: 39:160/105.0 PRICE Shareware fee of $10 US. DISTRIBUTABILITY The archive and its contents are freely distributable. See documentation for details. The package is (C) 1993-1997 Raymond Penners -- Raymond Penners -*- raymondp@win.tue.nl -*- http://www.stack.nl/~raymondp @endnode @node NEWS20 "CD Library System" @toc NEWS UNIX, Amiga, VMS and AS/400 Top List of Platforms Targeted for New CD Library System 11:45 a.m. Feb 26, 1997 EST IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Elms Systems Corporation(TM), innovator of digital library solutions for affordable CD sharing and publishing, has launched its "Solutions Provider" and Independent Software Vendor (ISV) programs. Elms is actively seeking ISVs to provide complementary software for its Digital Versatile Library(TM) (DVL(TM)). The "Solutions Provider" program is aimed at VARs and integrators with specialized expertise either in both vertical applications and non-Microsoft operating systems. The DVL is a first of its kind CD library hardware product which features storage of up to 100 CDs online in five easy-to-use bar-coded magazines. Charter participants already taking advantage of the market potential for Elms' DVL span a range of platforms including UNIX, Novell, and Amiga and include Luminex, Riverside, Calif.; Celerity, Knoxville, Tenn.; Asimware, Ontario, Canada; and Optisys, Glendale, Ariz. The new programs offer discounts on Elms products, specialized technical support including programmer guides, and a range of marketing benefits to software developers who partner with Elms to provide integrated hardware/software CD library products. According to Robert Smith, Elms vice president of marketing, the company is actively seeking developers of software for non-Windows environments. "Elms' internal charter is to focus on providing complete solutions for the Microsoft-based PC market," said Smith. "To offer our CD library capabilities to non-Windows users, we're looking to partner with the best and brightest software and solution providers for other platforms, including HP, Sun, AS/400, VMS and other environments." Elms recognizes that today's technical environment is very complex and that in order to maintain its technology leadership it needs partners with the expertise to solve specific customer problems. "Each OS has a constituent user community that embraces that OS for a reason. We need partners that understand those subtleties and can be responsive to the needs of customers," Smith concluded. Industry-Leading Feature Set Elms' DVL CD library is differentiated by unprecedented low price and a host of easy to use features. The breakthrough base price for the flagship product is $5,495. The DVL delivers a number of industry firsts, including: -- flexible drive configuration with 1 to 4 drives (one can be CD-R) -- user replaceable drives for easy drive replacements in the field technologies and faster drives -- front access to drives and magazines for easy use in an office environment -- battery backup system that monitors magazine changes in the DVL when the power is off, making it easier to bring the DVL back on-line "The magazines were designed with the user in mind," said Smith. The 20 CD magazine measures only 6.5" by 2.5" by 6.75" and is the most compact in the industry. The magazine features 20 numbered trays that alternate in color to make loading and unloading a specific tray easy. The small magazines help contribute to the DVL's small size which is not much bigger than a standard PC tower. The DVL can be ordered with a 4GB AV hard disk drive to provide additional storage for specific software needs. The hard disk drive is a field installable option that can be purchased separately. CD drives can also be added to the DVL at any time. "We want the VAR and the user to have flexibility," Smith pointed out. "With our Faster-Now feature the user can add drives at any time or upgrade them. We mounted the drives on rails, so you slide them in, connect the cables and snap the cover on to complete an upgrade." The DVL features a SCSI-II interface and uses standard SCSI-II move media commands to make it easy for ISVs to write software for the DVL. "The ISVs that have worked with us to develop software for the DVL have been able to write drivers for the DVL very quickly," says Smith. The DVL is offered in a variety of configurations, all of which feature five magazines. These range from the entry-level single-drive system for $5,495 (MSRP), to the top-of-the-line four-drive system with a 4GB AV hard disk drive for $8,795 (MSRP). The company's products are being offered by Bell Microproducts, San Jose, Calif. and Globelle, San Diego, Calif. Elms System Corporation is a leader in digital library solutions for affordable CD sharing and publishing. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Irvine, Calif. Elms develops a line of CD software called Panorama(TM) and a CD library, the DVL, aimed at the business and network user. The company can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.elms.com. Elms Systems Corporation, DVL, Digital Versatile Library, Faster-Now and Panorama are trademarks of Elms Systems Corporation. All other brands are the property of their respective companies. SOURCE Elms Systems Corporation Copyright 1997, PR Newswire @endnode @node NEWS21 "Divecalc" @toc NEWS Divecalc - The world's best diving competition manager Divecalc is a program meant to handle diving competitions with ease and speed. It lets you create all the events and all the divers of the competition in a hierarchial order to memory and to easily control all the aspects of the whole competition. So why is it the best, just look at the features: Graphical, multi-window user interface Small, fast and easy to use yet still extremely powerful Maximum of 65535 events in one competition Maximum of 999 divers in each event Set own difficulty degree limits, when needed Set or draw starting order of divers Create event groups to ease results feeding if several events are dived at the same time Both 5 and 7 judges supported Automatical difficulty degree calculation 6 printing routines including Judges Analysis and Dives, which prints the dives as they are read aloud. On-Line help Comprehensive settings program Use Divecalc easily in different languages (currently supported English and Finnish) Divecalc costs only 300 FIM, which is about 65 US Dollars 100 DM And what does it need? It needs an Amiga computer with at least AmigaDOS 2.1, MC68020 processor and 1 Megabyte of memory to run. It works on both floppy-only-system and hard drive based system. The author may be contacted at: Arto Huusko Anterontie 2A 67400 Kokkola FINLAND or Internet: E-Mail: arto.huusko@pp.qnet.fi WWW: http://www.qnet.fi/ahuusko or by phone: +(358) (6) 8314 196 @endnode @node NEWS22 "Amiga Enforcer V37.70" @toc NEWS Amiga Enforcer V37.70 New Version Supports 060, Source Code Available Enforcer V37, by Michael Sinz, published by Intangible Assets Manufacturing, is an advanced debugging tool for Amiga computer systems equipped with a 68020/68851, 68030, 68040, or 68060 CPU. It uses the MMU to help detect stray pointers and access to invalid memory. The Enforcer archive includes tools to help identify the exact location of bugs, including the line of source code in most C or Assembly code, as well as some other languages. Also includes a large on-line manual and some examples as to how errors can be caught. The original Enforcer was written by Bryce Nesbitt, copyright Commodore-Amiga. It was instrumental in the development of AmigaOS 2.04 and to the improvement of the quality of software on the Amiga. Enforcer V37 is a completely new set of code designed to provide even more debugging capabilities across more hardware configurations and with more options. Changes from the V37.62 release of Enforcer include: * Added 68060 CPU support the first public release that provides support for the 68060. See documentation for details. * New MMU dump tool * A large amount of new documentation including how and why certain things were built the way they were. A "must read" for Amiga system hackers and CPU hardware vendors. Includes some source code for some of the patches that were needed to make the 68040.library support as much Amiga software as possible. (And, thus, 68060.library - hopefully) * A special offer: Source code to all the Enforcer tools! Enforcer has always been available for use by Amiga developers for free. The wide spread use of Enforcer has been one of the reasons Amiga software is as good as it is. With this release of Enforcer, the author makes a special offer to people who wish to get the source code. This offer is detailed at http://www.iam.com/amiga/enforcer.html and in the Enforcer documentation. Support the Enforcer: Order today. Even if you don't need the source code to Enforcer, if you use Enforcer, please consider purchasing the source code to support the author and continued work on Enforcer. Enforcer has been developed over many years, worked on by two of the most famous and capable of the former Commodore-Amiga Software Engineers. If you're an Amiga developer, Enforcer is worth a lot to you and the quality of your software, so please support us. More information about Enforcer, the downloadable Enforcer archive, and ordering information are all available through the Enforcer web page at: http://www.iam.com/amiga/enforcer.html Any questions about Enforcer should be directed to: enforcer@iam.com The author, Michael Sinz, replies to mail sent to this address. Intangible Assets Manufacturing 828 Ormond Avenue Drexel Hill, PA 19026-2604 USA http://www.iam.com info@iam.com phone (orders only) +1 610 853 4406 fax +1 610 853 3733 @endnode @node NEWS23 "Games Master System V0.5B" @toc NEWS G A M E S M A S T E R S Y S T E M V0.5B NOW ON AMINET The new version of the Games Master System (games.library) is now on Aminet! The filename is: pub/aminet/dev/misc/gms_dev.lha This beta is being released in the hope that if you download it, you send us some feedback. Otherwise it will not be worth releasing future betas, and they will become private access only. As the project nears V1.0 it becomes even more important that any mistakes or flaws are dealt with very quickly, and that new ideas keep coming in. CURRENT FEATURES OF THE GAMES MASTER SYSTEM This is just a summary of the major features that have so far been implemented. Not all new features and changes have been documented here. For the complete low-down on all features of GMS check the developer information files. NEW! * Support for Multiple BOB image structures (MBOB's) for blitting many images from one structure. Makes allowances for structure mutations (for storing extra program data with image entries). NEW! * CPU assisted drawing with blitter functions, drawing speed is no longer limited to blitter throughput. Added optional mask generation for BOBs on intitialisation. NEW! * Internal resource tracking on memory allocations. GMS will free resources that you have not deallocated when your program closes the library. Warnings are given to help you fix any problems. NEW! * Structure and object pre-processing, for compiling structures before run-time. This makes GMS the first system to support up to 100% user editing of game data. * Fast blitter functions for drawing BOB's, copying for screen buffers, 3 different screen clears, auto background saving and clearing for BOB's. Also includes Pixel and Line drawing functions, and support for list's for very fast mass-drawing operations. * Full sprite support, and that is: All available sprite dimensions, colour table offsets, 16 colour sprites, width-doubled sprites, full animation support, lo-res, hi-res, and superhi-res support. * Sound support includes: Support for sound priorities, intelligent dynamic channel play-back, channel modulation for special effects, IFF support. * Proportional colour fading, functions are: PaletteMorph, ColourMorph, PaletteToColour and ColourToPalette. Support for setting speed and colour ranges. * Full support for raster/copperlists, with effects such as: Colourlists, Mirror, Flood, Screen and Sprite Splitting, and Palette changes. * Allows you to support all different kinds of input devices (joysticks, joypads, mouse etc) through just one simple function call. This enables you to support devices that don't even exist yet. * Stable memory allocation and a freemem routine that will not crash your machine if you have written over your memory boundaries. * Smart Saving and Loading of files, with automatic packing and depacking. Packer support covers files crunched with XPK (external), PowerPacker (internal), and RNC methods 1&2 (internal). * 320k of assembler, E and C sources, demonstrating all uses of the library. * All games can multi-task with no significant drop in speed or performance. @endnode @node NEWS24 "AmiNET Query" @toc NEWS TITLE AmiNET Query SHORT AmiNET FULL-TEXT Query available NOW! AUTHOR Torsten Hiddessen --------- http://www.tu-clausthal.de/~math/ \ * Leibnizstrasse 24, Z.152 Torsten.Hiddessen@tu-clausthal.de \ ~/\/\ 38678 Clausthal-Zellerfeld Fon:05323-40786 Fax:02561-913713253 \ _/ / \_ Germany ___________________ A4040_18MB_2GB_CD_USR33.6_ARIADNE___\ DESCRIPTION This article announces a BRAND NEW service for all AmiNET users: the #### # # # #### ##### ### # # ## # # # # # # # #### # ## # # #### ##### # # # # ### # # # # # #__# ## # # # # # # # # # ## # # # # # # # # #### # # # # # # # # #### # ### # #### #### # # # #### at the Technical University Clausthal (germany) URL: http://harvest.tu-clausthal.de/AmiNET/ It offers the first and ONLY full-text query to ALL file-descriptions (*.readme files) on AmiNET. Additionally you are able to list all files from a specific author or query the well known "Short:" descriptions only. The results may point to any AmiNET "full-mirror". The service is based on the "Harvest Search Engine" and ist maintained by Torsten Hiddessen. The index is updated two times every week and contains more than 36000 files, so far. @endnode @node NEWS25 "NetResearch Book" @toc NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 4, 1997 FIND IT FAST ON THE INTERNET WITH "NETRESEARCH" O'Reilly Releases Guide to Internet Power Searching SEBASTOPOL, CA--Finding things on the Internet is an everyday challenge for the millions who have come to depend on the Net's vast information resources. Navigating through the Net's morass of data can make the user feel like Goldilocks, longing for information that's not too much or too little, but "just right." O'Reilly & Associates' new book "NetResearch" helps Internet users quickly find exactly what they're looking for in the constantly changing online world. Information and locations on the Net change at a dizzying pace, but "NetResearch" is built to last. It shares the strategies and techniques of master Internet searchers--methods that readers can use successfully whether they're looking for information on mutual funds, demographics, plane schedules, or beer. Those who use the power searching techniques described in "NetResearch" will learn how to think like the masters when they go looking for something on the Internet. The book also covers America Online, CompuServe, Microsoft Network, and Prodigy, and includes quizzes to help readers practice research skills. In "NetResearch," author Dan Barrett offers these Internet Searcher's Rules for the Road: 1. Carefully choose a starting place. Like the old saying says, sometimes "you can't get there from here." Different starting points may lead to different results. 2. Don't assume failure too quickly. When a search program responds "nothing found," don't give up. Try a few variations on your search. If these don't produce results either, you can still try other starting places, programs, and search techniques. 3. Don't assume success too quickly. Even when you locate what you need, there might be another source of information available that is better. Don't be too loyal to one Web site or one search technique. Keep an open mind. Experiment. 4. Think about your route. Even if you reached your goal, there might have been a faster way to get there. Pay attention when a search strategy provides quick results: the same strategy might be usable in other situations. 5. Know your tools. Read the manual. Use the online help. Try out all the commands and options. Make sure your search software is the latest version, or at least a recent one. 6. Intuition is your best search tool. The Internet changes rapidly, and so does the software we use to access it. Knowledge, on the other hand, accumulates. As you learn from experience, you'll get progressively better at tackling new situations. The Net is a big, disorganized, inconsistent place. As anyone who has ever gotten 17,000 responses to a search engine query knows, constructing a focused search saves time and aggravation. With the help of "NetResearch," readers will learn effective search techniques to locate just the information they want, when they need it. # # # NetResearch: Finding Information Online By Daniel J. Barrett 1st Edition February 1997 240 pages, ISBN: 1-56592-245-X, $24.95 US http://www.ora.com @endnode @node NEWS26 "Arthur Wilkins Software Products" @toc NEWS Immediate press release: Budapest, 10 March, 1997 Arthur Wilkins Software - based in Budapest, Hungary - announces exciting new products for the Amiga. We are committed to produce affordable, but high quality software for the professional user especially those involved in the video industry. AW-AfterAlias is an unbelievable tool for professional cartoon studios. Now it is possible to create perfect quality cartoons using low-cost Amiga computers and cheap software. AfterAlias as its name suggests applies perfect anti-aliasing (no blur!) to a jaggied computer generated image. AW-DeFlicker removes the interlace flickering from any image without any visible blur - it is a must have for every video professional. AW-Freeze is also a very valuable operator for video users for freezing a still frame by eliminating motion between fields. All the above video tools come as an ADPro operator for easy integration. Freely distributable demo versions are downloadable from the Arthur Wilkins Software web. A complete package of visual effects for ADPro called 'AWFX1' is to be released soon with 8 superb plug-in modules (including AfterAlias, DeFlicker and Freeze). AWSW plans to publish 3rd party video effect modules for Macrosystem GmbH's MovieShop non-linear video editing software, filters for Adobe PhotoShop and more. BIGDISK breaks the 4GB limit of AmigaDOS, enables video users to handle large SCSI disks, such as 9GB hard disks manufactured by Micropolis and Seagate. Now it is possible to create partitions above 4GB and use them as an AmigaDOS system disk, or as a dedicated MovieShop video or audio partition with both Vlab-Motion and DraCo-Motion. Further information can be obtained from our web-site. Make sure to subscribe the AWSW newsletter (on our site) if you don't want to miss important information from us in the future. Arthur Wilkins Software 1141 Budapest, Malyva 32. Hungary Tel: (36-1) 221-2287 Fax: (36-1) 221-2287 URL: http://www.acomp.hu/awsw E-mail: ben@mail.datanet.hu. @endnode @node NEWS27 "REBOL Reference Manual, Part 1" @toc NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date: 13-March-1997 Contact: Cindy Sassenrath cindy@sassenrath.com ----- Carl Sassenrath Publishes the REBOL Reference Manual, Part 1 The first part of the REBOL(tm) Reference Manual, entitled "REBOL Values: The Building Blocks" is now available on-line at http://www.sassenrath.com. This manual, written for both novice users and programming experts alike, serves as an introduction to the first and most important concept of the language. It also includes seven example scripts written in REBOL that clarify the use of the language. "With just a glance at the examples it quickly becomes apparent why REBOL is a simple, yet powerful alternative to the future operation of our computer systems and the distribution of computer content on the internet", comments Sassenrath. He goes on to admit: "I realize that the REBOL language is not for everyone, but there are a lot of us who believe that personal computers have turned into a bad dream, with endless layers of bloated software being forced down our throats by huge stockmarket-driven bureaucracies." An "educational pre-release" of the REBOL language is expected to be out this month and is intended for people who want to try a few examples of their own, using what they have learned from the manual. Incremental releases of the language will be made over the next few months, with a 1.0 version slated for June 1997. Subsequent parts of the manual will be published to the Internet as they become available. The development of the REBOL language is being supported by contributions and will be freely available for personal non-commercial use on a range of computer systems. Corporate licenses and custom versions will be available for a fee. REBOL is a trademark of Carl Sassenrath. @endnode @node NEWS28 "VWM v1.2" @toc NEWS TITLE VWM - Virtual Window Manager VERSION 1.2 (15-Mar-97) (first public release) AUTHOR Bahman Moallem E-Mail: bamo@ctools.pp.se World Wide Web: http://www.ctools.pp.se/ DESCRIPTION VWM, the virtual screen aware window manager, is a small, fast, and system friendly virtual screen aware program that gives you 100% control over windows' positions. VWM features 2 ways of defining the new location for the target window, setting an absolute or relative position (Coordinate Positioning) or using a preset positioning technique usually related to the mouse position (Preset Positioning Techniques). VWM can force your programs to: - open their windows in absolute positions related to the start point (0x0) of the active screen. - open their windows in absolute positions but related to the point (0x0) of the "active part" of the screen (for virtual screens). - center their windows under the mouse pointer (FollowMouse). - locate their windows under the mouse pointer but respect the view, that is to locate the windows far enough away from the closest edges of the visible screen but still under the mouse pointer (RespectView). FollowView(TM), known as RespectView in VWM, is Copyright (c) 1993-1997 Bahman Moallem and was first introduced in MagicWords, the multilingual word translator for the Amiga back in 1993. - open their windows in the center of the visible part of the screen (CenterWindow). - open their windows in the corner of the visible part of the screens which is farthest away from the mouse pointer position (UseCorners). SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS AmigaOS 2.04 or better. AVAILABILITY VWM version 1.2 (app. 32 KB) is available on Aminet, e.g. ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/misc/VWM12.lha or in the author's WWW site: http://www.ctools.pp.se/ PRICE Freeware. DISTRIBUTABILITY VWM is freely distributable so long as all files accompanying the VWM package remain intact and unchanged. Unlimited non-commercial use is encouraged. VWM is Copyright (c) 1995-1997 Bahman Moallem. @endnode @node NEWS29 "POWER Recent v4.00" @toc NEWS TITLE POWER Recent VERSION 4.00 AUTHOR Jérôme LOUVEL (louvel@dig-isim.univ-montp2.fr) NEW FEATURES IN VERSION 4.00 - Completly reworked the code. - Improved the interface. - Localization of the interface. - New Database output format. - Added a generation window to pause, continue, abort the generation. - Ability to change the output format from the main window. - Ability to select INDEX fields to output. - It's EMAILWARE (for the moment I haven't received any feedback !) - Can set preferences for each output format. - When generation is aborted the already output files remains valid. - Can add a Search button in AmigaGuide files (uses SearchGuide). DESCRIPTION If you use frequently the Aminet services, I'm sure you'll find this program useful. The aim is to extract from the huge Aminet INDEX file, the information you need as quickly as possible, in a clean way. I know there are many other progs doing 'same' thing but none of them has a decent interface, none of them allows you to save your prefs, and many of them don't work very long because the INDEX format changes from time to time. Here's the solution, no need to type in boring CLI commands, simply use the friendly MUI interface and enjoy the work ... GLOBAL FEATURES - MUI interface with help bubbles, keyboard support, ... - Localized interface. - Preferences loading, editing, saving with special preferences for each output format. - Generation window with ability to pause, continue, abort the generation. If you stop the generation, the files already generated remains valid. - Allows to specify a minimum AND maximum age in weeks for output files. - Allows to customise the position of every INDEX field so the program can read ANY format of INDEX file (even old and future ones) ! - Allows to specify which directories and subdirectories to extract using listviews in the prefs window. - Uses TREE file to get description of directories for output files and preference window. - Can generate a RECENT type file in the following formats : Text, AmigaGuide, HTML and Database ! - Can add a search button in AmigaGuide files (needs the SearchGuide tool by Gérard Cornu). - Can split the RECENT file (one file for each directory selected) with a smart file extension handling. With this feature, even computers with low memory can easily use the huge INDEX file :-> - Can remove any field form the INDEX (except the file field of course). For example, the complete AmigaGuide version of an INDEX takes less space than the original INDEX if you remove the dir field ! - NO buffer is used for the RECENT file generation (sequential access) and the job is done in ONE pass. - When all the selected dirs are scanned, stops reading the INDEX immedia- tely :-) - Displays current written file and the current read directory during the RECENT file generation. - Displays an accurate progression gauge and a funny busy bar. - It's in EMAILWARE ! SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS - MUI 3.3 or better (Magic User Interface) - MCC_Busy class (dev/mui/MCC_Busy_2.3.lha) or with MUI archive. - An Amiga with the KickStart 2.04 or better - The WIDE version of the Aminet INDEX : * The wide version is in the Aminet /info/index/ directory ! * The short version is in the Aminet root directory... * You may use an INDEX from an Aminet CD-ROM (not sure) - The corresponding Aminet TREE file : * You should find it in the Aminet root directory * A recent version is present in the archive * This file describes the Aminet directory structure DISTRIBUTABILITY Program in EMAILWARE and Copyright © 1997 by Jérôme LOUVEL. If you use it, please consider sending me an EMail. AVAILABILITY Any Aminet site, such as ftp.wustl.edu or ftp.luth.se in the pub/aminet/util/misc directory: ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/misc/pw_recen.lha DISTRIBUTION Freely distributable via CD, disk, FTP, or any other form (if NO charge is asked for, except for the media) when the original distribution archive is kept intact. @endnode @node NEWS30 "fMSX Amiga 1.3" @toc NEWS TITLE fMSX Amiga 1.3 AUTHOR Hans Guijt (h.guijt@inter.nl.net) DESCRIPTION fMSX Amiga emulates an MSX computer on an Amiga. Features include: - Full emulation of the MSX1 system. - Partial emulation of the MSX2 system (to be expanded in the future). - Support for reading/writing MSX disks and disk images. - Support for the PSG and SCC sound chips. - Support for MSX memory sizes of up to 4Mb. 'MSX' is an 8-bit computer system with surprisingly good graphics and sound capabilities, and a relatively slow CPU. This means that although it can be emulated well, the results still look good. Some MSX games are on par with Amiga games when it comes to graphics and playability! Several MSX pictures have been uploaded to aminet (pix/illu/msx_pictures.lha). Software is not included with the package, but many packages (mostly games) can be found on FTP sites: ftp.saitama-u.ac.jp/pub/msx/ altair.komkon.com/pub/MSX/ ftp.funet.fi/pub/msx/ riaph.irkutsk.su/pub/ Hundreds of games are available from these sites, and some form a worthy addition to the Amiga software collection. Of course fMSX Amiga is fully multitasking, runs in an intuition screen, and has a font-sensitive user interface. NEW FEATURES New features in this version include extensive support for virtual tape (which allows the user to save his position in games such as Metal Gear or Payload - or do anything else a real MSX can do with tape if you'd want to ;-) ), and many bugfixes: - Sprites look better in screen 5. - Changing diskimages on the fly was broken. - fMSX won't hang anymore while changing the screen. Other new features include the ability to create diskimages, sprites in screen 7, and some minor improvements to the GUI. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Required are: - AmigaOS 2.0 - 68020 processor - 350 kilobytes chip ram - 1000 kilobytes other ram Recommended: - AmigaOS 3.0 - 68030 processor, at least 25MHz - Those 1000 kilobytes of 'other' ram had better be fast ram! Note that fMSX Amiga does *not* require the AGA chipset. In fact it runs on any chipset upto and including graphics cards! AVAILABILITY fMSX Amiga 1.3 is available from any aminet site, such as: ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/misc/emu/fmsx_1.3.lha PRICE It's free. DISTRIBUTABILITY fMSX Amiga 1.3 is publically supported freeware. If you are interested in the source, and you're not afraid of function pointers and huge amounts of assembly mixed with C, you can request it from me. If someone wants to do a special version (and I can think of several possibilities, such as a version that uses the MMU for optimized Z80 emulation, or a version that has been optimized for the CyberGfx system), contact me. @endnode @node NEWS31 "RO v1.25" @toc NEWS TITLE RO VERSION 1.25 AUTHOR Oliver Rummeyer Hochbergstrasse 49/1 D-88213 Ravensburg Germany/Europe http://www.uni-ulm.de/~s_orumme/ DESCRIPTION RO is a Intuition-controlled, fully user-configurable file manager for OS 2.04 and newer. You can use RO to copy, move, rename or delete files, and you can perform a filetype sensitive action command (e.g. show pictures or texts, play sounds, etc with one single command button) on files via GUI. Some features are: o uses MUI o very small executable o highly configurable o user configurable filetypes o supports datatypes o supports XPK, PP and ARCHandler o path name completer o more than 50 internal commands o user menu support o hotkey & hotdir support o powerful arexx port o very fast directory and file operations o appicon launches progs for defined filetypes o english, french, german and swedish documentation & catalog o supports middle mouse button o nice preference program o dynamic listviews o drag & drop NEW FEATURES - Version 1.25 (20.2.97) o Requires MUI 3.6 or better. o Fixed a major bug. o Fixed some minor bugs. o Catalog files changed. o New internal Function LFOLD. o Other minor changes. REQUIREMENTS RO requires Magic User Interface (MUI) version 3.6 or later. AVAILABILITY http://www.uni-ulm.de/~s_orumme/RO_v125.lha (346177 Bytes) RO is also available on Aminet, e.g. ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/dir/RO_v125.lha PRICE Shareware fee US$ 20 or 30,- DM DISTRIBUTABILITY Shareware, RO 1.25 is (c) 1994-1997 by Oliver Rummeyer @endnode @node NEWS32 "ToolManager v3.0" @toc NEWS TITLE ToolManager VERSION 3.0 AUTHOR Stefan Becker E-Mail: stefanb@yello.ping.de World Wide Web: http://www.ping.de/sites/yello/ Address: Bonner Ring 68 D-50374 Erftstadt GERMANY DESCRIPTION ToolManager is a program which lets you start your tools in a very easy way. You can start programs by using keyboard shortcuts, by selecting an entry from the Workbench's Tools menu or by clicking an icon either on the Workbench or in special dock windows. You can even drag icons from Workbench drawers on those icons to supply files to the programs. Additionally you can attach a sound to each of these actions. All these things are controlled by ToolManager objects. Each object has a specific task and contains information how to accomplish this task. F.ex. programs are represented as Exec objects and contain information about the program name and the stack size. The configuration is handled by the ToolManager preferences editor. It is based on MUI 3.x and thus offers a font-sensitive GUI where you can open multiple resizable object edit windows at once. It also supports Drag & Drop of objects. The distribution consists of 5 archives: Binaries - Programs, english doc., Installer script required Developer - Developer information optional Extras - Additional programs optional Locale - Translated documentation and program texts optional Sources - Complete source code optional NEW FEATURES Changes since ToolManager 2.1b: - Again rewritten (almost) from scratch :-) - Old object system removed, TM objects are now BOOPSI objects - Now uses memory pools - Delay parameter removed from Exec Objects - Animation support removed from Image Objects - Picture.datatype V43 support added to Image Objects - Only icon images supported for Icon Objects - Only images loadable via picture.datatype are supported in Dock Objects - Pattern & Vertical flags and Title parameter removed from Dock Objects - Dock Objects can now display text and images - Dock Objects can now be completely borderless - New preferences file format, hopefully more flexible - Converter for the ToolManager 2.x format - Events are now checked while the configuration is read - Preferences is now a MUI application: resizable window, multiple open edit windows and Drag&Drop support - Changing an object name automatically updates all references to the object. - Support for grouping objects. - All dock objects get the screen notifications - Added support for DOSPath 1.0 - CLI command lines are not limited to 4KB anymore - Installer script SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS ToolManager handler: AmigaOS 3.0 (V39) or better WBStart 2.0 or better DOSPath 1.0 or better ScreenNotify 1.0 or better (optional) picture.datatype V43 (optional) ToolManager preferences editor: AmigaOS 3.0 (V39) or better MUI 3.7 or better MCC_Pop 0.3 or better AVAILABILITY ToolManager 3.0 is available on Aminet, e.g. ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/wb/ToolManagerBin.lha ( 91740) ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/wb/ToolManagerDev.lha ( 12064) ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/wb/ToolManagerExt.lha ( 19556) ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/wb/ToolManagerLoc.lha ( 95606) ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/wb/ToolManagerSrc.lha (186480) PRICE GiftWare. Recommended donation is US $10 - $20 or 10 - 20DM. DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely distributable, (c) 1990-97 Stefan Becker @endnode @node NEWS33 "Executive v2.10" @toc NEWS TITLE Executive VERSION 2.10 AUTHOR Petri Nordlund (petrin@megabaud.fi) (http://www.megabaud.fi/~petrin/) DESCRIPTION Executive brings real multitasking to AmigaOS. Executive is a UNIX-like process scheduler for Amiga. It also has plenty of other features previously available only in larger operating systems. Executive improves the responsiveness of your Amiga. One CPU intensive application no longer causes the whole system to crawl. You can start many CPU intensive applications and the system still feels as if it would be totally idle. The Executive package also includes many useful client programs that let you control tasks and monitor what is going on in your system. The core of Executive is a scheduler that recalculates task priorities based on system load average and task's recent CPU usage. The scheduler will give high priority to interactive tasks and low priority to CPU intensive tasks. Lets say you are printing a document from a word processor. You can't do much else while the document is being printed. This isn't multitasking. With Executive you could also do some heavy rendering and C-compiling in the background at the same time. You could surf the web with your favorite browser without even noticing all these programs running in the background. Executive consists of a server and clients. The server is run in the background and it takes care of scheduling, CPU usage calculations and many other things. Some important features of the server: - precise (1/1000 seconds) CPU usage timing - six different scheduling algorithms - load averages - process identifiers - process group identifiers - accounting - focus - task with active window gets more CPU time - MultiUser support The client programs are: Acct Accounting daemon ALoad Display load average or CPU usage ALoad3D Display load averages in 3D Commander General task manager Ctp Extended ChangeTaskPri Dashboard The mother of all meters Kill Extended Break Lastcomm List last commands executed Meter Display system information Nice Run programs with lower scheduling priority Ps Process status displayer Pstree Display child-parent relationships Renice Renice a task Sa Display accounting statistics Stat Display some misc. information Timer Time shell and Workbench programs Top Display information about top CPU tasks Uptime Display system uptime and load averages Executive is fully compatible with all Amiga computers running AmigaOS release 2.04 or newer. Executive is the highest rated item of shareware CU Amiga magazine has ever awarded at 98%. Executive V2.00 got 97% from the same magazine, and it was ranked as "the best shareware utility ever." NEW FEATURES - This version fixes two very important bugs SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS AmigaOS 2.04 or newer is required to run Executive. AVAILABILITY Any Aminet site, for example: ftp://ftp.luth.se/pub/aminet/util/misc/Executive.lha Executive has a WWW-page which has links to several Aminet sites and also some nice screenshots. The URL of the page is: http://www.megabaud.fi/~petrin/Executive.html PRICE The freely redistributable version doesn't lack any crucial features so it can be used without registering. Registered users get process accounting, ALoad3D and Meter clients and 5 additional scheduling algorithms. Registration fee is $15 and it's also accepted in many other currencies. DISTRIBUTABILITY Copyright © 1995-97 Petri Nordlund, freely redistributable. @endnode @node NEWS34 "AmigaBase v2.4" @toc NEWS TITLE AmigaBase V2.4 AUTHOR Steffen Gutmann Langstr. 11 D-79331 Teningen-Nimburg GERMANY Email: gutmann@informatik.uni-freiburg.de DESCRIPTION AmigaBase is an easy to use programmable database with a graphical user interface. Data can be stored in fields of type STRING, INTEGER, REAL, DATE, TIME, BOOLEAN, CHOICE (one item out of many items) and MEMO (multiline text). Records are organized in a hierarchy, this allows an easy implementation of 1:n relations, e.g. for managing music titles on different music cassettes, etc. By programming AmigaBase, the user has the ability to create custom print or import/export routines, or to recalculate some fields when changing the value of a field. This gives high power to AmigaBase. NEW FEATURES since V2.3 There are only few changes in AmigaBase V2.4. The main work is now concentrated on finishing a new, relational, and MUI based database. o New icon set. o Some minor bug fixes. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Harddisk and Workbench 2.1+ recommended. AVAILABILITY AmigaBase V2.4 can be found in the Aminet, e.g. ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/aminet/biz/dbase/AmigaBase24.lha (512542) DISTRIBUTABILITY AmigaBase is shareware. If you use it, you have to register as an AmigaBase user. The requested shareware fee is DM 70,-- or US $50. On registration you will receive the latest version of AmigaBase along with the (English or German) user manual which contains about 100 DIN A4 pages and includes several screen dumps. AmigaBase is (c) by Steffen Gutmann 1989-1997. PRICE Shareware fee is DM 70,-- or US $50. @endnode @node NEWS35 "X-DVE 2.70" @toc NEWS * 11-3-1997 ClassX announces X-DVE 2.70 Our firm is continually updating X-DVE in order to make this leading software the most productive, easy and powerful DTV animation/titling environment on the market. With this new free release, X-DVE has been added of some some important features and new functionalities. The update from v2.50/2.60 for Italy, UK, Germany, USA will be freely available on Aminet. - 68060 support Thanks to its modular desing, X-DVE keeps its cpu intesive code into separate libraries which has been optimized for several processors. With X-DVE 2.70 we have introduced the 68060 version of these libraries to allow power-users to get the best out of their expensive accelerator boards. With the imminent arrival of new PPC-based boards we'll be able to supply PPC-optimized libraries in no time. - Multipalette Anim5/7L object X-DVE is based on graphical objects which can be enhanced, animated and rendered with thousands of effects and combinations. Objects can be single frame (text, brush) or an animated sequence of frames (starfield, multibrush or animbrush). With X-DVE 2.70 the animbrush object has been extended and now it supports doublebuffered multipalette animation formats as ANIM5 and ANIM7 (long). With this new feature, users no longer need to convert their animations into IFF-ANBR format in order to use them as X-DVE objects. When adding an ANIMBRUSH object, X-DVE detects its format automatically without the need of any user input. For multiple palette animations, the internal colour remapper will perform the needed frame by frame adjustments automatically. - 12 New slide effects The library of effects has been extended again reaching 64 different Slides. o The "Sweep" effects (4 variants) where the object is divided into small rotating slices. o The "Twist" effects (4 variants) where the object is twisted onto its own axis and smoothly becomes plain. o The "RotCarpet" effects (4 variants) where the object is mapped onto a page coming from outside the screen. All these effects are computed with 3D texure mapping calculations and give astonishing visual results if rendered with the X-DVE light sourcing feature. - Fixes The texture mapping routines have been tuned up to allow a better precision and appearance of the effects (the 3D polygon clipper has been enhanced to better handle very small polygons). - Future o We're working to make X-DVE support DraCo of MacroSystem (even if the guys at MacroSystem keep to ignore our requests of support, development tools and documentation). The features of the DraCo version are unpredictable: it all depends on MacroSystem. o The PPC version of the libraries is one of our main aims. - Thanks We would like to thank all our registered users for their support and for believing in this product. I hope they will appreciate our continuous efforts and dedication to the best computer ever. *************************************************************************** * ClassX Development Italy Via Francesca, 463 I-56030 Montecalvoli (PI) * * E-Mail: classx@pisoft.it Tel. +39 587 749206 Fax. +39 587 749206 * *************************************************************************** @endnode @node NEWS36 "Amiga Legacy Magazine" @toc NEWS Amiga Legacy - The Groundbreaking Amiga Magazine For Your TV! March 24, 1997--Chicago, IL USA From the editors of Amiga Report and the video producers at The Vantage Point comes Amiga Legacy, the Amiga's newest resource for Amiga information. Premiering in June 1997! Legacy is the new magazine that will bring you the latest info about the Amiga - its hottest products, its coolest tricks, and its future direction - all on video! From the news in our cyberstudio to the most complete tutorials and reviews possible, Legacy will provide expert analysis of everything today's user needs to stay informed. Let Legacy SHOW it all to you! All produced using Amiga technology! If we say a product provides unparalleled performance, you'll see it in action. Our tutorials will provide you with second to none instruction - made better because we teach by example. ** Amiga Businesses and Professionals ** We can offer you commercial time in Legacy! Our team will work with you to produce unique segments, if necessary. Please contact us for details. Space for Issue 1 is still available! The Legacy team will deliver 90 minutes of coverage about the Amiga 5 times a year (3 in 1997). Subscribe now - and be a part of the new Amiga Legacy! Note: Presently, Amiga Legacy is being produced in NTSC. However, we are aware that there is interest in the magazine in PAL nations. We are currently opening discussions for a European partner to assist in distribution to PAL countries. If you are interested in a PAL subscription, please let us know! Subscription Details: Single Issues: $14.95 each + $2.05 shipping in the US 1997 Sub - 3 Issues: $12.95 each + $2.05 shipping/each ($45 total) Save $2 per issue off the cover price! 1997-1998 - 8 Issues: $11.45 each + $2.05 shipping/each ($112 total) Save a full 20% off the cover price! Illinois residents add 8.25% sales tax. (Foreign shipping prices slightly higher. Contact us for details.) To subscribe, contact Amiga Legacy: By mail-- Include a check or money order for the appropriate amount made out to "Legacy Maker", or your credit card information (type, number, expiration date and signature). Visa/MC only. Be sure to include your full name, mailing address, and phone number! Legacy Maker PO Box 60711 Chicago, IL 60626 USA By phone-- Contact Amiga Legacy at 773-465-5158 with your credit card payment details. Everybody always talks about how great the Amiga is for video. See the Amiga's video abilities in action, and learn more about your computer and today's Amiga market! Amiga Legacy Online: http://www.xnet.com/~jcompton/legacy.html jcompton@xnet.com e-mail @endnode @node NEWS37 "World Of Amiga Show" @toc NEWS PRESS RELEASE 14TH FEBRUARY 1997 THE WORLD OF AMIGA SHOW IS BACK AGAIN Following its spectacular success last year, The World Of Amiga exhibition is coming back. The two-day show will be held at the Novotel Exhibition Centre in Hammersmith, London, on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th May. All the latest developments in Amiga technology will be on display, with major hardware and software launches anticipated from the leading UK and German developers and manufacturers. Admission prices are £8 for adults and £6 for children. "After last year's smashing success which saw the re-birth of confidence in the future of Amiga technology, The World Of Amiga 1997 is set to further enhance the machines' resurgence," said Peter Brameld, head of show organiser PBA Events. "With even more hardware and software developments this year than last, there are lots more reasons for Amiga users to come along to this unique showcase." - ends - Media enquiries to Tony Leah at Cape Cowley Associates on 0161 480 9811 @endnode @node NEWS38 "Almathera Closes its Doors" @toc NEWS In a short letter which blamed a debt owed to them by VIScorp as the cause, Almathera announced that it went out of business earlier this month. Almathera was involved in set-top development for VIScorp, and has had pending invoices with the former Amiga technology suitor for some time. It is unclear from the letter if the company was sent into bankruptcy by its creditors or if its directors simply decided to shut down the company. Legal hassles with Paul Nolan, the original author of the program behind Photogenics, cause Almathera to pull the product from its line shortly before the announcement, and Nolan claims he had a lawsuit with very large claims out against the company. An industry source indicates that the Almathera product line, as well as company principles Paul and Jolyon Ralph, have been picked up by Grandslam Software. @endnode @node NEWS39 "Phase5 Announces Blizzard 603e PowerPC Board" @toc NEWS Product News about the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board Accelerator for Amiga 1200 Oberursel, February 25, 1997: phase 5 digital products is proud to announce the upcoming BLIZZARD 603e Power Board, a PowerPC-based accelerators for Amiga 1200 and A1200-based Tower Systems. With this innovative and powerful new accelerator a new dimension of performance is brought to the Amiga 1200, with performance increases of multiple times beyond the performance of the fastest 68k based accelerators available today, for a sensationally low price that is perfectly targeted at the A1200 upgrade market. Primarily being designed as an upgrade board for existing Amiga systems, the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board incorporates phase 5's innovative dual-processor technologie, where a fast PowerPC RISC processor is combined with a 68k processor, in case of the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board a 68030 CPU. Both CPUs dynamically share the memory and system busses, what is necessary for a true multiprocessor behaviour. While the original AmigaOS 3.x continues to run on the 68030 CPU - as well as all existing applications do, what provides 100% compatibility - the PowerPC 603e CPU is supported by a comprehensive PPC Library developed by phase 5, which provides all functionality to integrate the PowerPC into the Amiga multitasking environment. Software developers can easily optimze their programs step by step by porting single tasks to PowerPC code, which then can run parallel with 68k tasks. Many important Amiga software vendors are preparing ported or optimized versions of their software packages already, so it is expected that a large quantity of software products supporting the PowerPC will be available soon. The BLIZZARD 603e Power Board will be availabe with the fast PowerPC603e processor at a clock speed of 120 MHz; a socket is provided for the 68030 companion processor in a PGA housing. It provides a fast memory expansion option which uses standard PS/2 type SIMMs. The memory is dynamically shared by the two CPUs on the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board . As an option, as very inexpensive Fast SCSI-II controller will be available for the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board, which combines transfer rates of up to 10 MB/s with the flexibility and expandability of the SCSI standard. With it's 120 MHz 603e processor the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board provides - only on the PPC side - a raw performance of approximately 170 MIPS or approximately 3.5 SPECint95 and 2.8 SPECfp95 (estimations based on Motorola/IBM manufacturer specifications) - a blistering performance that can compete with most of the fastest PC systems available today. with this performance the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board is ready for the most demanding applications such as 3D rendering and high-speed 3D gameplaying, image manipulation, animation, video applications, and many other demanding applications that depend on fast CPU performance. The BLIZZARD 603e Power Board will be delivered with a comprehensive software package, which includes the PPC library as well as tools for creative users, among them a Public Domain GNU C compiler for PowerPC (including sourcecode) and many demo programs and utilities with sourcecode; in addition to this software free developer support is available via the phase 5 FTP site. Last not least a PowerPC-optimized version of CyberGraphX V3 with RISC-optimized CyberGL/3D and MPEG functions and libraries is included (with a special GGX driver to support the AGA chipset) - of course with comprehensive documentation. The BLIZZARD 603e Power Board will be selling for a price that can be called sensational, offering a superior price/performance relation. The suggested retail prices are as follows: BLIZZARD 603e Power Board w/ 120 MHz 603e processor DM 699,- / GBP 279.00 / USD 399.00 Note: All prices are recommended retail prices. English and german price include local VAT, the recommended US price does not include local taxes. The prices are without the 68030 CPU which is necessary to operate the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board. 68030 processors from existing processor boards can be used on the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board by pluging these into the provided socket. If you don't own a 68030 CPU already, ask you local dealer for an attractive bundle offer. Registered owners of a Blizzard 68030 board will - within the PowerUp upgrade program - receive special, attractive upgrade offers by mail during March 97. The handling of these upgrades will be done via local appointed representatives. The delivery of the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board is scheduled for late May 1997. Availability for the A1200 desktop system is depending on the finalization of the CE approvals until that date. @endnode @node NEWS40 "Phase5 Announces CyberStorm 604e PowerPC Boards" @toc NEWS Oberursel, February 25, 1997: phase 5 digital products is proud to announce the upcoming CYBERSTORM PPC PowerPC-based accelerators for Amiga 3000(T) and 4000(T) as well as systems with compatible CPU-slot. With these innovative and powerful new accelerators a new dimension of performance is brought to the Amiga, with performance increases of 10 times and more compared to the fastest 68k based accelerators available today, resulting in a breath-taking performance. Primarily being designed as an upgrade board for existing Amiga systems, the CYBERSTORM PPC incorporates phase 5's innovative dual-processor technologie, where a fast PowerPC RISC processor is combined with a 68k processor, in case of the CYBERSTORM PPC either a 68040 or a 68060 CPU. Both CPUs dynamically share the memory and system busses, what is necessary for a true multiprocessor behaviour. While the original AmigaOS 3.x continues to run on the 68k CPU - as well as all existing applications do, what provides 100% compatibility - the PowerPC CPU is supported by a comprehensive PPC Library developed by phase 5, which provides all functionality to integrate the PowerPC into the Amiga multitasking environment. Software developers can easily optimze their programs step by step by porting single tasks to PowerPC code, which then can run parallel with 68k tasks. Many important Amiga software vendors are preparing ported versions of their software packages already, so it is expected that a large quantity of software products supporting the PowerPC will be available soon. The CYBERSTORM PPC will initially be availabe with the fast PowerPC 604e processor in clock speeds of 150, 180 and 200 MHz; the socket for the 68k companion processor accepts either a 68040 or a 68060 CPU. It provides a 64-bit wide, extremely fast memory expansion option (which can be upgraded by using pairs of standard PS/2 type SIMMs) which is dynamically shared by the two CPUs. Additionally, the CYBERSTORM PPC comes along with a DMA-driven Wide ULTRA SCSI controller on-board, which allows transfer rates of up to 40MB/s and is ready for the most demanding and professional applications. A 32-bit high-speed expansion connector with DMA access to the main memory is also provided for later upgradability. The 200MHz version of the CYBERSTORM PPC provides - only on the PPC side - a raw performance of more than 350 MIPS or approximately 8.1 SPECint95 and 7.1 SPECfp95 (estimations based on Motorola/IBM manufacturer specifications) - a blistering performance that goes far beyond most PC systems available today. The CYBERSTORM PPC will be delivered with a comprehensive software package, which includes the PPC library as well as tools for creative users, among them a Public Domain GNU C compiler for PowerPC (including sourcecode) and many demo programs and utilities with sourcecode; in addition to this software free developer support is available via the phase 5 FTP site. Last not least a PowerPC-optimized version of CyberGraphX V3 with RISC-optimized CyberGL/3D and MPEG functions and libraries is included - of course with comprehensive documentation. The CYBERSTORM PPC will be selling for a very attractive price, offering a superior price/performance relation. The suggested retail prices are as follows: CYBERSTORM PPC w/ 150 MHz 604e processor DM 1295,- / GBP 529.00 / USD 698.00 CYBERSTORM PPC w/ 180 MHz 604e processor DM 1595,- / GBP 649.00 / USD 879.00 CYBERSTORM PPC w/ 200 MHz 604e processor DM 1895,- / GBP 769.00 / USD 1069.00 Note: All prices are recommended retail prices. English and german price include local VAT, the recommended US price does not include local taxes. The prices are without the 68k CPU which is necessary to operate the CYBERSTORM PPC. 68k processors from existing processor boards can be used on the CYBERSTORM PPC by pluging these into the provided socket. If you don't own a 68k CPU already, ask you local dealer for an attractive bundle offer. Registered owners of a phase 5 68040- or 68060 board will - within the PowerUp upgrade program - receive special, attractive upgrade offers by mail during March 97. The handling of these upgrades will be done via local appointed representatives. In the second half of the year, an innovative graphic board will become available for the CYBERSTORM PPC expansion slot which will provide a functionality subset of the innovative CAIPIRINHA custom chip. By providing a stand-alone version of the DLRP (Display List Risc Processor) this board will offer superior display funtionality, highest WRAM-based resolution, pixel depth and speed as well as the possibility to start developing software that will support the functionality of our upcoming A/BOX computer system (please refer also to the project information about the A/BOX project in our news section). @endnode @node FEATURE1 "The Gateway Amiga Convention" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== THE GATEWAY AMIGA CONVENTION Pete W Storonskij pws@swine.unl.edu =========================================================================== I'll just skip the part where we drove on the highway for about a dozen hours to get into St. Louis, and subsequently went on a rollercoaster ride in the big clover leaves in the extensive St. Louis Interstate system. Let's just say that we found the convention site a half a day in advance, so we had lots of time to make sure we were there when they opened. When we entered, the first thing that we saw were a lot of yellow smiley-faced balloons. :) :) :) There were tons of them, and since they were lighter then air, a ton of balloons is quite a lot. The balloons were mostly on the ceiling, and in columns set between the tables, and attached to every other nook and cranny in the place. Soon there were a lot of people filling in the convention. The maximum occupancy was 35 for the main room, but that was exceeded by just the exhibitors. With the addition of enthusiastic convention goers, the hallways made for a nice place to meet people. :) There were lots of exhibitor booths, too. There was the coffee counter at the Scharp Designs table, and a Toaster at half of the others. There were two Toasters at the NewTek booth, as well as Spike and a few others to command the Toasters to make weird shapes. Dale Larson of Intangible Assets Manufacturing was putting Commodore-symbol Smiley faces on people. The best decoration there was the Amiga Report TV set encrusted with miscellaneous plastic and computer parts. It was showing a Portable Jason Compton unit called Legacy. There was also a full sized, Interactive Jason Compton there to answer any questions, pose for pictures, and so forth. The Portable Jason Unit was stuck in a 2 minute 38 second feedback loop and was fully immersed in selling copies of itself, where as the Full Sized Jason was flanked by three technitians from the Amiga Report staff feverishly replacing parts on Jason to make sure he kept on running :) Every once in a while, one of the technitians had to pull out the fire extinguisher to quash a fire starting in one of Jason's main panels. I had noticed that all of the exhibitors had name tags, but the rest of us had no name tags, so I found a nice looking piece of non-Amiga related paper and put my name and other important information on it, and I fixed it to my sweater :) Then, I went around talking to everyone. I had gotten back to the Amiga Report booth for the fifth time when Pat Larken of the Kentuckiana Planetary Empire walked by and recognized me :) "Nuclear Golf" he said, pointing at me, smiling. A fan had discovered me :), thereafter, I was smiling like all those yellow balloons :) :). I also brought my portfolio of snow sculptures to show to people, including the leaning Tower of Pisa and a gothic cathedral with all of those flying buttresses. :) At the end of the first day, the convention started to draw names from the registry. I was just about to start a conversation when my Dad came over and said that I wad won something :). I start heading through the people crowded around the front of the convention table while my smile continually grew until I had out smiled all of the balloons. I had won papers for a possible A4000 to be drawn for a bit later, in the NorthWest Amiga Group Headquarters sometime in the near future :) :D :D. So go ahead and cross your fingers for me :). *** THE SECOND DAY *** The last day of a convention is always reserved for all around sillyness. With this in mind, I tossed out my old name tag and created a new one from scratch. It read: "Pete W Storonskij: ALIEN SPY". I attached the name tag to the front of my B52 StratoFortress T-shirt. My Mom entered the convention armed with a black permanent marker and started redesigning all of the smiley-faced balloons. ::::) I entered with my own smile and started pointing out that I was an Alien Spy. Everyone liked my new identity :^] I also managed to draw some creative things on a few of the balloons, as well as the 30 minute old Alien Spy logo. :O I was deciding what to draw on a balloon when I had noticed that the Interactive Jason Compton had gotten loose and was roaming around the exhibits, passing out fliers and causing havoc in general. The Amiga Report Technitians came by just in time with their fire extinguishers in hand and proceeded in carting the Interactive Jason back to Central Control for a complete refit. :"> Before long, most of the balloons were now cats, dogs, pigs, and various other things. :X A few of the balloons had found their way into the inset lights and were happy to glow a bright yellow. @endnode @node FEATURE2 "Amiga '97 Show Report" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== Amiga '97 St. Louis Show Report By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== I first started going to Amiga shows in 1995, when AmiJam '95 was held in Calgary. Since then I've been to several, including the most recent Cologne show in Germany. I thought the Gateway show would be a good opportunity to relax, see the sights, and have a good time. It definitely was a good time, although there wasn't much time for relaxing. It was the first show where I came not just as a press guy, or as a representative of a company, but as a full-fledged exhibitor. I, and the others at Amiga Legacy, had a table set up showing off our upcoming videotape-based Amiga magazine. This has the effect of taking a LOT of your available time away from you. As a result, I wasn't even free to see everything at the show! This is pretty unusual. Typically, by the end of the second day I'm at a show, I've seen everything, talked to everybody, and am just waiting for the teardown to come so that the people I've got plans with for the evening can get it over with and be free to go out on the town. :) This time it was different. Not only was I also helping to man a table, but the show's hours were VERY short (6 hours the first day, only 5 the second). This might not have been so bad if I wasn't also trying to manage an online conference from the show (which turned out badly for reasons primarily outside my control.) However, I did get around to see quite a bit of the show. The organizers, the St. Louis Gateway Amiga Club lead by show chairman Bob Scharp, did a great job of promoting the show for over a year. As a result, they had very good exhibitor turnout (including an overseas visit from Hisoft) and something quite near an attendance of 1,000 over the two day period, not at all shabby. Scharp was also promoting his limited-edition temperature-change coffee mugs, and filled a last-minute vacancy with a long table known as "Scharp Software", which seemed to consist of endless boxes filled with various Amiga disk magazines (Amiga Animation, Best of Amiga, etc.) Inside the show itself, the biggest single attention-getter seemed to be Canadian dealer National Amiga, which had the largest single display area and a large variety of products, including their new Insert104 keyboard adapter. Greg Scott and Joe Archibald of National were constantly busy selling off tons of stuff, although curiously enough none of the A1241 Q-Drives (which only recently arrived in North America) were sold. Nearby was one of National's American contemporaries, Randhir Jesrani and CompuQuick. They, too, were doing a brisk business, including their stock of AT 14 and 17 inch monitors. Next to CompuQuick was Don Hicks and Amazing Computing. Don was pushing very hard to get attendees to subscribe or renew their subscriptions to the US' only newsstand Amiga magazine. Hosted in the Amazing area was Keith Siders from ProvTech with his AmiFast A3000 SIMM card, as reviewed in a recent Amiga Report. On Saturday, Richard from Hisoft sat in an area near Amazing, showing off the latest Cinema4D and IBrowse for the Amiga. I had a chance to talk with Richard on Saturday night, he seemed far more enthusiastic about the Amiga than he did in our conversation at Cologne a few months back. Silent Paw was onhand showing off, what else, a PAWS A1200 unit. There weren't the copious amount of PAWSTrac trackballs that I saw in Ohio, but I heard them mentioned once or twice anyway. Not far away sat Anti-Gravity Products, who had Paul Nolan and his Siamese System on display. They had an Eagle A4000T, which was quite an attention-getter since they're far more attractive than the QuikPak units. The Siamese RTG system is not yet complete for commercial sale but it was on display, and I have to admit that it's very, very impressive. The Siamese System seems to be the implementation of the old "Put the Amiga on a PC card", but in reverse. Much as I'm not a fan of Microsoft and their operating system, it's quite neat to see Cinema4D Amiga rendering on a Windows95 screen. Not far away was Nova Design, with a very black booth showing off their latest demo tape and selling ImageFX 2.6 at a VERY low price of US$190. Aladdin 4D, almost ready for re-release, was unveiled at a special meeting on Sunday, but I was unable to attend. Newtek was indeed at the show! Company president Tim Jenison was not, but a number of sales and marketing people were indeed there. They made a strategic mistake in choosing to demonstrate Lightwave 5 on an Alpha rather than an Amiga. In one way, I can see their thinking: "We are showing off a product, so we should show it off running as fast as possible." However, the correct thought, given the crowd they're trying to appeal to, would have been, "We are showing off a product at an Amiga show, so we should show it running on an Amiga." Full marks for the effort, though, and they did donate a Lightwave 5 Amiga as a door prize as far as I could make out, so bonus points for that. Dale Larson's IAM was next to Newtek, and he and Janet McIlvaine were kept very busy shuffling copies of IAM's books, Connect Your Amiga and Torn Shapes of Desire: Internet Erotica, along with the SYA DiskSalv/MRBackup combo. The Amiga logo promotion was, as always, a big hit with customers, as were the Commodore stickers Dale put on everyone who walked by. Dale sold out of MegaBalls and MegaBall T-shirts before the end of the show, prompting a few more people to make the bold claim that they, too, are possessed of mega balls. Y/C Plus, who specialize in add-on cards for Toaster systems, was there. I didn't get much of a chance to investigate their area, but they were selling rebadged Philips televisions which accept video and multisync VGA inputs. Decently priced, too, considering their Amiga capabilities. The 27" models were competitive with what Toshiba TIMM 20" monitors used to cost, although I just got a report that the TIMM is being blown out on QVC for $300 each. Near to Y/C Plus was the Oregon Research area, marred somewhat by the fact that Oregon Research could not attend in person, but president Bob Luneski sent a candid letter explaining their need to buckle down and work on products. SoftLogik had a single person onhand promoting their product. She alternately looked overwhelmed with people and worn out so I didn't get a chance to muscle in for a conversation. Micro R+D had a number of products on hand, including the GPSoft line (GPFax and DirOpus). They were situated near Amiga Atlanta and AmiTech (Ohio), two user groups sharing space and cross-promoting the Atlanta banquet video of a year ago and Eric Schwartz t-shirts, among other things. Grafica Software was giving personal demos of their MoneySmart personal finance program at the show. Quicken compatibility is promised very soon in an upcoming version of the program. One of the more talked-about items at the show wasn't even shown, we just had some flyers to look at--a company is promising an Amiga ethernet card, SANA-II compliant, for US$100 retail. Stay tuned. I was unable to talk at all with the rest of the exhibitors I can find listed, but they deserve mention: Brewster Productions, FASTRAX, NASAU, OZWare andPJ Nordmann-FX. (The latter produced the Amiga '97 television ads which were screened at the show's Saturday night banquet.) Ah, yes, the banquet. On Saturday night, a banquet was held for those who bought special Amiga'97 banquet tickets. Most of the exhibitors and luminaries from the show were in attendance, as well as a number of intrepid users. A panel discussion was held, because everybody loves a panel discussion--Randhir Jesrani, myself, Dale Larson, Don Hicks, Kermit Woodall from Nova Design, and Greg Scott were involved, as memory serves. After the banquet, some of us lingered behind. One thing lead to another, and before long you had a dozen or so Amiga luminaries sucking down hundreds of balloons of helium in front of a video camera. Exclusive footage will be in the first issue of Amiga Legacy, for those who are interested in this sort of mayhem. This sort of thing kept the usual ritual of going out and drinking to a surprising low. Despite the show's short hours, somehow it managed to keep everybody in the hotel for just about all of the time. It helped that the hotel bar was open later than most. Sunday morning, there was a meeting of developers run by Kermit Woodall. Not surprisingly for the first attempt, there were a lot of ideas thrown out and a lot of focus on specific details rather than a bigger picture, but the general mood of the group shows that there's at least some potential for cooperation, if only people will get over their xenophobic aversions to GUI creation tools. At the show, Nova Design also showed off their new PowerPC developer daughtercard. Unlike the commercial boards which will be standalone, the developer boards are daughtercards which plug into existing Cyberstorm Mark II units and house the PowerPC and 68060 on them. Nova's wasn't plugged into anything, and it wasn't much to look at, but it represents the next leap in processing power for Amiga computers. Partially because there was less drinking than usual, there aren't quite as many outtakes to share (aside from the balloons, of course.) But there are a few delights... Robert Hamilton (lostman on IRC), a member of Amiga Atlanta who designed the disturbing "claw clutching the boing ball" logo, introduced the Amiga Report/Amiga Legacy team to the phenomenon that is the Waffle House. For those of you unfamiliar with the American South, Waffle House is a chain of "restaurants" (and I use that term loosely) which dot the countryside once you get as south as Missouri. They specialize in using as much butter on everything as possible, and making doughy molded waffles. But we still think Robert is great. The Amiga Legacy video monitor was covered in random objects hot-glued to it in order to attract attention. It worked pretty well, especially the orange compressed-air hose and the 8-track Marvin Gaye stuck on the side. The Harley Hotel, where the show was held, is owned by Leona Helmsley. For those of you who missed it, she's one of the more deplored people in the world, who got in a lot of trouble a few years back for thinking that paying income tax was for people who didn't make a lot of money. This wouldn't be so notable if virtually everything in the hotel wasn't covered with stuff like "Proud to have the Helmsley touch." The font the hotel's logo is cast in is pretty scary and imposing, too. Not really the sense of warmth and comfort I want when I'm on the road. Lamar Morgan, the president of Amiga Atlanta is universally described by those who know him as the most determined and stubborn Amiga advocate there is. Once he latches on to an idea, it's nearly impossible to change his mind. This was clearly evidenced as he tried to educate a very bored-looking hotel clerk about the nuances of the Amiga as he checked out. (And BTW, we captured him with some helium on tape, too.) @endnode @node REVIEW1 "Review: Burnout" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Burnout (AGA/HD) By: @{" Ken Anderson " link KEN} =========================================================================== Writing games reviews can be difficult. What I write here is going to influence whether or not you'll consider buying a game. No matter if several people have sacrificed months of social interaction to bring a game to the Amiga, if I slag it here, chances are you won't buy it. Burnout obviously has received a great deal of effort from someone. From the disk icons, the introduction screens and the game itself, the author, Mark Sheeky, has put so much talent into making this not so much a game, but more of a style statement. It's just a bit of a pity there is no gameplay to back it up. Plotwise, you are supposedly a driver in the futuristic sport of "Burning" - the aim of which is to destroy the 3 other opponents without the same thing happening to you. The others can be rammed to death, or simply shoved off the edge of certain arenas. Winning earns cash, which can be exchanged in an inter-level shop for various add-ons; spikes, shields and so on. And that's about it, gamewise. Like most things, Burnout is improved with more human players, although the computer-controller cars put up a fair fight. There's the odd bonus level, but even when you've figured out what you're supposed to do, they do little to add to the action. Apart from the occasional change in arena, every level is practically the same; players trying to bump each other off the edge of the arena or into spikes. The power-ups add some interest, but once everyone has power steering and the fastest engine, there's not much point in carrying on. Burnout looks gorgeous. Raytraced cars on raytraced arenas make a visual treat, and the whole package from start to finish is polished and professional, although you may find you have to close a few programs from Workbench before launching the game, even on a machine with Fast RAM. The sounds are equally impressive, with nice crash'n'bang samples. The game arrives on 7 disks, and requires a hard drive to run. However, I found the hard disk installation procedure annoyingly difficult. The user creates a drawer on the hard disk by dragging the contents of the first disk into the desired directory: all standard stuff for Vulcan games. However, for the remaining 6 disks, the icons have to be manually dragged into the relevant sub-directory - Cars, Arenas etc. Once this done, the icons then have to be double-clicked separately to unexpand each section. It's time consuming - the expansion program is extremely slow and unnecessarily pretty - and boring. The system is obviously designed for future expansion, but I'd have been far happier with a standard Installer script. All in all, I can't really recommend Burnout, especially at the price. At half the RRP [Which is pretty close to what earlier Vulcan titles sold for! -Jason], it might be worth it for the occasional multi-player bout, but at the moment, there are less pretty but equally playable games in the public domain. Once you get over the gloss of the graphics, there's not nearly enough content to keep you going. Pros: Graphically excellent. Fun for a while with human opponents. Expansion kits already available. Cons: Single-dimensional, shallow gameplay. Hopeless hard disk installation. Burnout is priced at 19.99UKP (+ 2UKP for P&P outside the UK), and can be ordered from: Vulcan Software Limited Vulcan House 72 Queens Road Buckland Portsmouth Hants PO2 7NA UK http://www.vulcan.co.uk The Vulcan line is distributed in the US by: Sagittarius Software 1706 Canton Road Akron, OH 44312 USA 800-426-7687 voice sales@sagsoft.ald.net e-mail http://sagsoft.ald.net/ @endnode @node REVIEW2 "Review: Tiny Troops" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Tiny Troops By: @{" Ken Anderson " link KEN} =========================================================================== Cannon Fodder promised that "war has never been so much fun". Tiny Troops declares that "war is fantastic". It may not be much fun in real life, but it makes for great computer entertainment. The plotline we are offered is actually quite enjoyable: two alien races at war - the original reason for which has long since been forgotten - discover their planet is on it's last legs, and won't stand up to much more fighting. So rather than stop the war - let's face it, we all enjoy a good scrap now and again - they just parcel the whole thing up and move it to another world. Earth, to be precise. No-one here notices because the aliens are actually ant-sized. The potential offered by this storyline is used to the maximum - all of the action takes place on 65 different zoom-in sections of gardens, toy sets and the ilk. Anyone who remembers racing around the breakfast table in Codemaster's classic Micro Machines will know the kind of fun that can be had in the most unlikely places. Fun, in fact, is the word that sums up Tiny Troops. Although Cannon Fodder was rewarding and addictive, the difficulty curve was almost vertical; it sometimes felt it would be easier in real life. Tiny Troops never quite gets to the stage where you stop having fun and start getting annoyed. At the start of each level, you can choose your compliment for the battle ahead. At first, you are only given a choice of foot soldiers, which can shoot and run and not much else. Before long, you've got guys (or maybe girls? It's hard to tell) armed with every kind of weapon or vehicle available. Once the fray starts, it's playing-God time again, as you give orders to your troops. They can be commanded either individually or as a group to attack the enemy, move to a certain position, build a set-piece defence line, return to base for a energy top-up, or just rush in head first and kick ass. The background doesn't always remain passive; certain objects can be push around and manipulated; vital in some levels. Of course, your opposition don't just sit around waiting for you to attack - they're planning your fate too. The level is won by either destroying all the enemy, or destroying their teleport base - sometimes it's easier to distract the ground troops long enough for a few of your guys to wreck their teleport. Controls are simple, using the mouse and a simple icon setup which takes five minutes with the manual to work out. Things move at a reasonable sedate pace; there's no frantic mouse wrestling required to get your team doing what you want, which greatly contributes to the feeling you're having a good time playing this game. There's no direct humour, but stomping across carpets and negotiating garden gnomes can't fail to raise a smile. Tiny Troops might not appeal to the console-owning arcade freaks who demand graphics rushing past on screen at a rate of knots, but I can wholeheartedly recommend Tiny Troops to Cannon Fodder fans, and to anyone with a strategic bent. This is Vulcan's best release yet, and I hope that we'll see Tiny Troops II before too long. Pros: Thoroughly enjoyable arcade and strategy mix. Solid, steady pace and lots of levels. Two-player mode. Cons: Simple graphics which sometimes get a bit garish. The terminally serious-of-thinking might find it all a bit twee. Tiny Troops is priced at 17.99UKP (+ 2UKP for P&P outside the UK), and can be ordered from: Vulcan Software Limited Vulcan House 72 Queens Road Buckland Portsmouth Hants PO2 7NA UK http://www.vulcan.co.uk The Vulcan line is distributed in the US by: Sagittarius Software 1706 Canton Road Akron, OH 44312 USA 800-426-7687 voice sales@sagsoft.ald.net e-mail http://sagsoft.ald.net/ @endnode @node REVIEW3 "Review: Apollo 3060" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Apollo 3060 Joakim Olsen jocke@plea.se =========================================================================== One of the first (if not the first) 68060-accelerators for a standard desktop A3000 was the Apollo-3060, which we will take a look at in this review. When I bought my card about a year ago there wasn't really much of a choice, the only card that would phsically fit in my A3000 without having to bring out the chainsaw was this card from ACT/Apollo. At the time, it did cost me ~US$1500 but hey, money is just money, and I could really use the speed. [Currently, the Apollo 3060 is significantly less expensive, more like US$800. -Jason] The first thing to remember when getting any 060-accelerator is that it needs kickstart 3.1 (as of writing this, people has been telling me that 3.0 works as well), anything less will just crash because of incompatibilities with the 68060. The Apollo-3060 is exactly the same card as the 4060, apart from the fact that it's only got two SIMM-slots as compared to the 4060's four. This is because the card wouldn't fit in the A3000 otherwise. If you have an A3000T you should go for the 4060 instead. These two SIMM-slots can handle 32Mb standard (non-EDO) 72-pin SIMM's, or, if you have a couple of ED-SIMM's around, the card supports those as well (yes, that's ED, not EDO). The memory is autoconfig'ed but a big drawback is that the slots end up as separate memory chunks unless you have 32Mb SIMM's, in which case they will be configed as a contigous 64Mb chunk. You can of course go for one larger SIMM instead of two smaller to get around this problem, but it really is a shame this wasn't solved in hardware. There have been some talk about the possibility to use the MMU to map the separate chunks into one larger, but so far I haven't seen such a 'hack'. The card comes with a SCSI-II controler, which I haven't really tried that much, but I can say one thing.. It's slow! I still use the internal A3000 SCSI-controler but the onboard apollo-controler might be sufficient for a CD-ROM (which I don't have). Before installing the card you should install the supplied software, or at least copy the 68040.library replacement and the new 68060.library. The software didn't come with any flashy install-program (and mine was in german only) but it's no big deal since it's only a few files that needs to be copied. A new CPU command supporting all the 68060-options is also in the package, called CPU60. Installing the card in my A3000 was the usual hassle, disassembling virtually the whole machine to get to the CPU-slot, fitting the card and the 'patch' needed for the card (a wire needs to be connected between the A3000 scsi-chip and the kickstart-chips, the card comes with two sockets with the wire between them). Ah yes.. cooling.. my card came without a fan or heatsink, but my retailer was kind enough to send me a set free of charge. Now, adding a heatsink and fan is necessary, but there isn't really room for it, so actually my card is a bit bent, but it works well even on hot summer days! (I ran the card for about two weeks without any cooling and experienced tons and tons of weird crashes, these all dissapeared when I added the fan). Speed? What can I say? It's fast, damn fast as far as Amigas go. From tests I've done it adds up to be about the same speed as most other 060-cards. With my CV64 my machine now feels snappier than any PC I've run into, even though the raw CPU-power is far below that of a normal PC. There's been a *lot* of arguing about exactly how fast the 060 really is compared to a PC, and I've seen anything from "It's slower than a P60" to "It's at least as fast as a P133". [The canonical Lightwave test of a year or so ago put an 060/50 and a P90 on roughly equal footing. -Jason] I'd say it depends on what software you run, today there's not much software that is optimized for the 060 and one has to remember that several FPU-instructions has been removed from the 060-FPU compared to the old 68881 and has to be emulated, which can slow down programs like Imagine etc. Despite this fact, Imagine has never been more fun to work with! Hopefully, more 060-optimized software will come. Problems? Well, there are a few programs that are reported not to like the apollo-3060.. The only one I've run into myself is ShapeShifter which crashes as soon as I try accessing the serial-port. This problem has been known for some time but there hasn't yet been any patches neither for the card itself or for ShapeShifter that fixes it. Early CyberStorm cards were known to have this problem as well, but it was fixed with upgraded 68060-libraries, so hopefully a fix for this should be released in some time. [Interestingly enough, Darren Eveland, who is trying to start an information resource for the QuikPak 060 card, reports a very similar Shapeshiter crash upon accessing the serial port with the QuikPak card, as well. -Jason] Another little problem I've ran across is the fact that my machine just wont do software-initiated reboots, instead it just freezes until I hit the magic-three. After some experimenting I was able to partly get rid of this by removing the autoconfig jumper on the 060-card and 'manually' adding the memory in the startup-sequence, weird. Apart from these problems, there isn't much to say about the card, it does what it's supposed to do, add speed to my beloved amiga, and it does it pretty well. Still, if I was going shopping for a 060-card today, I'd probably not go for this card. The CyberStorm MK II has a much better support and is said to be faster accessing Z-III cards, also the CS MK II has better autoconfig-support in that it adds your valuable SIMMs as one memory-chunk nomatter what SIMMs you throw at it. Test-machine: A3000 Desktop (obviously) 4Mb ZIPP+2Mb ChipMem on the motherboard 32+8Mb SIMM on the 3060-card CV64 gfx-card (4Mb) Kickstart 3.1 ROM Workbench 3.1 CyberGfx V3 (b48) @endnode @node REVIEW4 "Review: Picasso IV Graphics Card" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Picasso IV Graphics Card Darren Eveland darren@mgl.ca =========================================================================== PRODUCT NAME Picasso IV graphics card. Board Revision 1.2 BRIEF DESCRIPTION High resolution graphics card for Zorro II/III Amigas. Integrated flicker fixer, PCI bus, 4 megabytes of 45ns EDO ram. Optional modules: Pablo II video encoder, MPEG-1 Decoder, 3D module, PowerPC module, 16-bit Sound module,TV-Tuner module. Includes Picasso 96 RTG software. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name:Village Tronic Marketing GmbH Address:Wellweg 95 D-31157 Sarstedt Germany Telephone:+49(0)50 66 / 70 13-0 FAX:+49(0)50 66 / 70 13-49 E-mail:support@village.de World Wide Web:http://wwwcip.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/~etk10317/etc/Picasso96.html LIST PRICE $439.00 US DEMO VERSION Picasso 96 software may be used on other graphics cards. It is available on Aminet (ftp.wustl.edu) or on the Picasso 96 home page: http://wwwcip.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/~etk10317/etc/Picasso96.html SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS Zorro II or III Amiga Amiga OS/ROMS Version 3.1 68020 or better CPU Also recommended: Hard disk extra RAM Multisync Monitor COPY PROTECTION None. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga Technologies A4000T 68040 25Mhz, 18 meg ram Kickstart 40.70, Workbench 40.42 (3.1) 1.0 Gig hard disk Nanao T2-17TS 17" monitor (30-86Khz) Picasso IV and Picasso 96 version 1.8 INSTALLATION Before you install the card you must install the supplied Picasso 96 software. (note it is recommended that you download the latest Picsaso 96 software from Aminet). The installer program prompts you through the installation. Also, remove Multiscan and the dbl monitor files from DEVS:Monitors and put them in SYS:Storage/Monitors. Open screenmode preferences and save your screenmode to a NTSC or PAL mode. Open up your amiga and install the Picasso IV into an empty Zorro/Video slot (in-line). A2000 users must use the supplied cables since the video slot is not in-line on that Amiga. You must FIRMLY push the Picasso IV into the slot. In my A4000T I had to use almost all my weight to get the card fully seated. Put the case back on your amiga, connect your monitor to the Picasso IV's 15-pin connector, and reboot your Amiga. All 15Khz NTSC/PAL modes now be 30Khz due to the built in flicker fixer. Open up screenmode preferences and you should have the Picasso IV screenmodes available. REVIEW The card itself is well designed - no last minute "fixes" can be seen. Theres are lots of connectors and jumpers, but I did not have to touch any of them. It is packaged in a plain white box with the big letters "Picasso IV" written on the top. No fancy package cover like they had for Picasso II! The Picasso 96 software is still in beta status, but it does work very well and is easy to use. It includes drivers for: ShapeShifter, AdPro, Photogenics, and XiPaint. A replacement "picture.dataype" is included so that programs that support datatypes can use a 16 or 24-bit display. Picasso 96 is also compatible with programs written for CyberGraphX. For example Photoalbum and Cybershow will work on 16 and 24-bit screens. So far I have tested the following software: MUI, MagicWB, Miami, Digital Quill, Voyager, AmIRC, AmTelnet, AmFTP, Aweb, YAM, ShapeShifter, CyberShow, Photoalbum, and Ibrowse. All work without problems! I now regularily use a 1024x768x16-bit workbench - quite fast for everyday use. Even though I have the crippled A3640 card, the Picasso IV is still much faster than an AGA 8-bit workbench. Voyager is excellent on this workbench. Fast scrolling. Great pictures at 16-bit. The difference between this and an AGA amiga is night and day. The Picasso IV really breathes live into the Amiga! Graphics card speed and also CPU speed are critical factors. If you were to put a 040 or 060 accelerator inside your Amiga it would considerably speed up access to the Picasso IV. DOCUMENTATION Documentation is supplied via a 38 page German manual! I have been told that the English manual has just been completed, and this will ship with all future Picasso IV's to all English speaking countries. In the mean time, there is lots of information available via the Picasso mailing list, and the World Wide Web to help you get started. The English version of the manual is even available for download. LIKES The Picasso IV hardware is very versitle - many optional modules are planned. The Picasso 96 software itself is very simple to install and use. In fact you hardly know it is there! It seamlessly integrates into the Amiga Operating system. There is also 2 options for screenmode configuration. The supplied PicassoMode 96 or the newer PicassoMode96 NG "Next Generation". The NG version will automatically make many of the adjustments necessary when configurating screenmodes. The card seems to be FAST in 16 and 24-bit modes. I cannot see much if any slow down from 8 to 16 to 24-bit. Yes there is some, but the 16 and 24-bit modes are fast enough for everyday use. In comparison they are about as fast as a 4 or 8 colour workbench on an AGA Amiga! Screen swapping is EXTREMELY fast on this card. Just as fast as an AGA Amiga! DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS The flicker fixer does not "pass-thru" Multiscan and dbl modes. I wish Village Tronic would have allowed for this. The card has a bandwidth limitation of 85Mhz in all 16 and 24-bit modes. So for example a mode of 1280x1024x16-bit @ 75Hz refresh is NOT possible. If you wish to use this mode on the Picasso IV you would have to settle with a 46Hz refresh rate. Interlace modes, however, are available. I would recommend 1024x768x16 or 24 @ 80Hz refresh. This is a nice size for a 17" monitor, and provides a very flicker free screen. There is no screen dragging available in Picasso 96. I suggest you visit the following WWW sites for some excellent information on Picasso IV: http://www.vgr.com/picassoiv (thanks to Robert Reiswig) http://ftp.tu-dresden.de/~deck/pic96/index.html (thanks to Jens Langner) COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS I have owned the GVP Spectrum, Cybervision 64, and now the Picasso IV. The Picasso IV can be compared closely with the CyberVision 64 (no longer available) from phase 5 digital products. VS. GVP Spectrum... The Picasso IV is much faster than the GVP spectrum in 16 24-bit modes. Due to the 4 megabytes of EDO video memory, it can also have 16 and 24-bit colour depths at higher resolution (for example 24-bit at 1024x768 at 80Hz refresh non-interlaced!). In these higher depth modes the card is still very fast. VS. CyberVision 64... In comparison to the original CyberVision 64, the Picasso IV seems again to be faster in 16 and 24-bit modes. However, the mature CyberGraphics software seems to be more optimized in some specific operations. Both cards provide fast, high resolution workbenches. The Picasso IV has a built in flicker fixer, whereas the CyberVision 64 has a "pass-thru" that leaves Amiga-generated video modes untouched. Both cards are excellent. The Picasso IV should soon have the optional modules released (Pablo II, TV-Tuner, etc...) The CyberVision 64 also boasted optional modules, but the support for these was dropped by S3, so phase 5 did not release them. BUGS Surprisingly, I did not find much in the way of bugs. The Picasso 96 software is extremely stable, even at this early stage. However, it is clear the software can be optimized (for example front/back movement of windows is slow). VENDOR SUPPORT I have not had to contact the Vendor. WARRANTY Unknown, but probably 90 days. CONCLUSIONS Excellent high resolution/colour depth card for Zorro II/III Amigas. If you are looking for a fast 16 or 24-bit workbench at high resolution, expansion potential through additional modules and a built in flicker fixer, then the Picasso IV is right for you. One thing I find quite excellent about this board, even early on, is the tremendous support available for it on the internet. There are already several Web pages dedicated to this card. Picasso 96 software is also frequently updated by its authors. COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1997 Darren Eveland darren@mgl.ca The author's QuikPak 68060 Support Page is at-- http://www.mgl.ca/~darren/68060.html @endnode @node REVIEW5 "Review: The Kara Collection CD" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: The Kara Collection CD By: @{" Bohus Blahut " link BOHUS} =========================================================================== A CD rom comprising the entire Kara line of color fonts, animfonts, backgrounds, animated backgrounds and elements. Also included are a pair of Cloanto programs to edit both conventional and color fonts, and an upgrade for PersonalPaint owners to version 6.4 Ah, those halcyon days of Kara fonts. God bless 'em. Warp back with me now to those heady days of 16 color high res animation, and interlace flicker headaches. In the early days of the Amiga, we didn't have much choice in the ol' font directory. Everything was a bitmapped font, and it never came in more than a few sizes. Fonts were either really huge for video, or small enough to be a workbench font (or a lousy publishing font). Then Kara Blohm and KaraFonts came along. These maximized the ECS limit of 16 colors in High Res. The fonts were big and finely textured with bricks, chrome, gold, etc. Keep in mind that the 1.3 OS wasn't really set up to allow for colors to be embedded into fonts, but there was a little program that came with Deluxe Paint (Electronic Arts) that allowed the use of these color fonts. KaraFonts didn't stop there. There was also a series of animated color fonts. Each letter was an animbrush going through an animated reveal. A good example of this is the set of chrome letters that rotates into view while a glint of light passes across each letter's face. There's also a script effect that gradually writes out your title, and several other motion reveals. The only drawback was that since there were only 16 available colors in High Res, the fonts often took over the whole palette. This meant that you couldn't have multiple color fonts on the same page. This meant retreating to the smeary world of HAM, or using several Amigas and genlocks to have several palettes at the same time. Ahh those heady days of hotwiring Amigas! Zap back to the present... I haven't thought about Kara fonts for a long time. Since I started using Amigas with graphics cards and accelerators, my work drifted farther and farther away from Dpaint compatibility. Recently, I purchased an A4000 and started playing around with AGA. Since so many Amiga users are now using AGA or similar machines, this means that several KaraFonts can share the same page! This is perfect for video folks since the titles are nice and big, and the 256 colorspace is enough to stamp down several lines of Kara text. One of the later 256 color versions of DPaint or Cloanto's own Personal Paint would do the job of actually animating this text. The good news is that Personal Paint runs on graphics cards! In addition to fonts, Kara has created "PlaqueGrounds". These are reliefs of textured tablets of wood, various types of marble, metals, etc. These are in 24bit, 256 and 16 color flavors. The 24bit versions are designed to load into framebuffers like the Video Toaster, and the other versions load into a variety of Amga configurations. These are meant to be backdrops for text, and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. There are also included alpha masks for really clean composites. The recent re-release of Star Wars in the US will probably be fodder for the fertile minds of Amiga users. Kara created a package of space themed animbrushes including moving star fields, an asteroid or two, and the invariable satelite. Think of it as a clip art collection for the intergalactic jet set. Not to be outdone, Cloanto has included some of their own software on the typically beautiful Cloanto-style packaging of this disc. There's Personal Fonts Maker, an editor/creator for conventional single color fonts. Also included is ColorType, the same kind of utility, but this one to create color fonts. For those who have earlier original versions of Personal Paint (not coverdisks), there is an upgrade on this disc to allow Ppaint to use animbrushes. There also an Arexx script to make setting up some of the more elaborate animfonts (i.e. setting up a series of animbrushes to make the gradual effect seem like it's happening from left to right) easier. I'm a sucker for programs that run right off of a CD. This disc lets the user choose to either run everything from the disc (in several languages), do a full IFF install of everything (maximum quality, maximum HD space), or do a Jpeg install (quality slightly degraded, significant saving of hard drive space). The disc is also fairly well organized, although with some redundancy. For example, the PlaqueGrounds are sorted both by style, and by material. I suppose that this could make work easier at times. When one is searching for inspiration, they shouldn't also have to search hell's half-acre for a file! It's also good to see Cloanto with some encouraging words in the extensive AmigaGuide documentation. They talk of future plans for Personal Paint, and animfonts in particular. They mention allowing imageprocessing to take place on colorfonts, and also to save scalable fonts as colorfonts. This makes the creation of new colorfonts in the future a snap! There are 28 distinctly different Kara fonts, each hand-tuned to different bitmap sizes, making for a total of 80 fonts. The fonts are already converted for use in specialty programs like Innovision's Broadcast Titler. The disc is also complete with animated tutorials and slideshows showing you what to do with colorfonts and how to do it. I feel that many of the styles of colorfonts are quite dated. Current print and TV aesthetic has strayed away from fonts who have textures that call a lot of attention to themselves. There are tons of included palettes to change the look of some of these fonts, and I'd suggest that you explore these. While many of these fonts and effects were cool in their day, there's been too much cheap cable TV that has overused this style of lettering. A place where I think these fonts may come into their own is on the Web. While television no longer embraces this style of font, nutty textures look great on a web page. This runs parallel to Cloanto's development of Web specific tools for Personal Paint. Some of these animfonts could look good as animated GIFs on a Web page somewhere. Obviously, any limits here are the artist's creativity and time. This is a disc of raw material. One can either use the raw material as-is, or one can inject imagination and artistry to get something different. I hope that a whole new generation of artists discover KaraFonts, and are able to get something new and exciting out of them. Cloanto P.O. Box 118 33100 Udine Italy +39 432 545902 net: info@cloanto.com web: http://www.cloanto.com @endnode @node REVIEW6 "Review: Magic Publisher" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Magic Publisher By: @{" Bohus Blahut " link BOHUS} =========================================================================== A 4 CD rom set with hundreds of megs of fonts, clip art, and other publishing utilities. The set includes Final Writer SE and WordWorth SE. Four CDs, eh? That's a lot of material for a computer that isn't really considered a publishing computer. What could a user find useful in four CD roms? Moreover, how hard will it be to find _anything_ in four discs? Fortunately, the set isn't aimed at any one type of user. Magic Publisher is aimed at everyone from the seasoned publisher to an Amiga user who doesn't even have a word processor. One of the unusual features of this full-bodied CD set is that it includes not one but two SE (Special Edition) of the two most popular word processors for the Amiga; SoftWood's Final Writer and Digita's WordWorth. This means that even the publishing newbie can explore the world of print with a single investment in this CDrom pack. I tried installing both WordWorth and Final Writer on an '040 2.1 OS 2000 with 16 megs of Ram. Final Writer is the program that I've used most, and after installing the "light" version it worked fine. For those of us accustomed to the many features of this fine program, most of these features are absent, replaced with a window telling you how great the full version is. There is a special upgrade price to users of this collection. Despite my best efforts, I couldn't get WordWorth to work. Not only did it come up entirely in German, but it was impossible to get started. I know that the full version WordWorth does in fact work (I'm writing this review with it), and it's a good program. I'm surprised that the "light" version didn't function. There is a special upgrade price for WordWorth as well. However, the focus of these CD roms isn't on these softwares. The CDs are ideal for owners of full versions of publishing software. The bulk of the disks are full of several formats of scalable fonts, and iff format clip art. The first disc contains the two special edition programs, FontMachine, PasTeX, along with Intellifont format fonts. Disc two has the iff format clipart along with Adobe (postsctipt) versions of the font set. The third CD has the font set in TrueType and DMF format, along with Bitmap and Color fonts. The final disc has all of the files archived for sysops to put on their BBS. The biggest value in this collection is the included booklet. It illustrates every font, every clip art. Too often, I've seen similar collections opt to include some PD picture cataloger with mini-thumbnails depicting the contents of the disc. I don't think that this electronic filing is any easier than the paper medium. Having several fonts spelled out per page makes comparisons between fonts easier for the creator. GTI have done their customers a great service by taking the time to print the reference material. It's great to be able to choose what fonts to install before committing to the hard drive space. The idea of having the same font set repeated several times throughout the discs in various formats is quite valuable for cross-platform work, but I didn't find it to work. I created a number of titles in a video using fonts from this collection, and figured that it would be pretty slick to have the labels and the packaging use the same font as in the video. When I took the discs to my friendly print studio and tried to load up the Adobe version of the same font into their Macs, it didn't work. Granted, it may have something that we were doing incorrectly. I'd like to hear from someone who's has cross platform success with this set. The clip art is all IFF format. This means that if you are counting on taking advantage of the "cross-platform-ability" of this set, you'll need to do some converting since IFF is not especially supported outside of the Amiga. The clips also originate in the public domain, so there's nothing especially new here. It is handy to have them all in one place, and well categorized in the booklet. For example, there is not only a category for "Food", but also subcategories like "Vegetables" and "Drinks". This kind of care is what makes this collection special (though I wouldn't categorize popcorn under 'puddings'). The clips are all black and white and vary widely in quality, but even the worst would serve as a good starting point in a good graphics program. While the CDs aim at the world of desktop publishing, let's not forget one of the growing forms of publishing, the World Wide Web. Again, the Amiga shows its graphics muscle in bridging the worlds of electronic media and print. I've used these fonts on several web projects, and as I mentioned earlier, I've used several of these fonts with Monument Designer on the DraCo. Some fonts didn't totally survive the conversion through Intellifont, showing some missing characters, or showing no characters at all. Since these fonts are from the Public Domain, there's really no room to complain, but I wish that GTI had screened the fonts more carefully. All in all, the set is an excellent value. If you don't have a modern word processor, this is a good way to get started. If you're already the proud owner of one of the Amiga's word processors, or a graphics person (especially a Toaster user who is sick of the few useful FontBank fonts included with CG!), this is a necessary addition. GTIGmbH Zimmersmuehlenweg 73 D-61440 Oberursel Germany http://www.grentrade.com @endnode @node REVIEW7 "Emulation Rambler" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Emulation Rambler By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== [This article was originally written a couple of weeks ago for Emuzine, an all-platform online magazine which was to be dedicated to emulation. Unfortunately, the magazine's publisher has backed out on the idea. So rather than let this article go to waste, I've decided to repurpose it a bit. Consider it a short reminder of where we are and what we've got in terms of 8-bit emulation... -Jason] Welcome, emulation fans! While the recent flood of exciting emulators have been primarily for the WinTel platform, (with a strong showing of portable Unix development as well), the Amiga was perhaps the first computer with a strong base of highly compatible emulators. A note about the test system: Currently, the test system here is running 8-Bit Machine Emulation and the Amiga ------------------------------------- Arguably the hottest craze right now in emulation is 8-bit computers: Apple IIs, Atari 800s, Commodore 64s, you name it, if it was an 8-bit computer platform of the 80s, odds are there's at least one good emulator out there and a plethora of software for anybody willing to look hard enough. The Amiga is reasonably well endowed with 8-bit emulators, and is particularly well off for C-64 and European 8-bit machine emulations (such as the Spectrum and Amstrad CPC), owing a lot to the Amiga's strong European popularity. In no particular order and by no means a complete list, here's some highlights of Amiga 8-bit emulation: Apple II+ Emulators: There's really only one high-class emulator for the Apple II+, but it leaves very little to be desired. Apple2000 was last updated in 1994 by its author, Kevin Kralian, who has since gone on to become a console game programmer at Acclaim and won industry accolades for "Best 32X Game of the Year" a year or two back. Apple2000 emulates a 48k Apple II+ with 16k "language" expansion card. Standard Apple file images and DDD-compressed images are supported, as well as memory snapshots. The emulator mimics the Apple II+ display hardware with extreme accuracy. It also provides an annoyingly accurate rendition of the Apple's internal speaker. One or two virtual floppy drives may be used, and the emulator comes with its own mock floppy ROM, only requiring you to supply the actual Apple II+ ROM image. High points: It's very fast, and luckily comes with speed control. On my system, "Ludicrous Speed" (no speed restriction) is far too fast. Full speed is attainable with a 68030/25 Mhz, an easy configuration to come by. Low points: It doesn't support graphic board display (no huge loss since the speed gain isn't needed, but inconvenient for graphic card users), and does not have a full 6502 implementation, so undocumented opcodes cause breaks to the debugger. Apple II emulation fans will be interested to know that Jim Drew has been promising a new Apple II emulator in "a few more weeks" for a few months now. Atari 800 Emulators: As for the Apple II+, we only really have one emulator, the Amiga port of the Unix Atari800. Unfortunately, unlike Apple2000, Atari800 is coded almost entirely in C, and not very optimized for the Amiga at that, so suffers from a lack of speed. Hopefully, giving it another chance will produce better results, and I'll share those when I have a chance. Similarly, Jim Drew is promising a new Atari 800 emulation to ship with the aforementioned Apple II emulator. Still no word on when it's really coming, though. Commodore 64 Emulators: As I said, there's quite an assortment. The earliest I know of was GO64!--very early, very primitive. Following that was The A64 Package, notable in the C64 serial interface box that came with the package and allowed you to hook up virtually any real C64 device, from a floppy drive to a hard drive or printer, to the Amiga and emulation, and for its 6581.library which provided a full SID chip emulation, which is now used by other emulators! A64 tried very hard--it was pretty fast on low-spec Amigas, and could run BASIC programs all day and even some games. The best part about it was that it would recompile C64 code into 680x0 code, which could be loaded in and run on the emulator, greatly improving speed to the point that programs were at several times their normal speed on a 68030/25 system. But it was ill-equipped to deal with things like D64 images and complex graphical tricks. A friend uses A64 to this very day for his C-64 development, since by recompiling his assembler into 680x0 code he's able to code and test programs far quicker by compiling them on the Amiga, then transferring them back to the 64 for evaluation. The modern crop of emulators consists of Frodo, MagiC64, and AXF-64. In rough terms, from left to right, they get faster and less compatible as you go across. Frodo is in simultaneous versions 2.4 and 4.0 for the Amiga. 2.4 is based on the original Amiga-developed Frodo code, and provides a reliable but resource-hungry C64 emulation which offers a full set of included ROMs (and a modified Kernal ROM to provide keyboard shortcuts for many BASIC and DOS operations), D64 support, SID emulation through one of two libraries (not included, but easily found from other sources) or a simple SID card you can build from the included schematics, and more. As I say, though, Frodo is slow. To get a really faithful emulation, a system as good or better than mine is highly recommended, otherwise you'll have to trade off video refresh for speed. Frodo also has joystick support and a built-in "freeze" monitor, as A64 did. Version 4.0 is based on the author's BeOS version of Frodo, and as such does not accomodate all of the things V2.4 did. For one thing, it only opens in a Workbench window rather than a custom screen as 2.4 does, and it does not support the 6581 or PlaySID libraries, only the SID card and the new AHI audio standard. However, it does offer things 2.4 does not, such as REU support. Frodo 4 is multiplatform, so you may want to check it out. MagiC64 supports D64s and T64s, most of the niceties of Frodo, and is often faster, although sometimes less accurate in replicating the 64 on video tricks. It supports the same two SID libraries as Frodo, has included ROM emulation (instead of modified Commodore ROMs, as Frodo does.) AXF-64 is the most "quick and dirty" of the lot. You're on your own for getting the ROMs (not difficult, and you can just use Frodo's anyway). Unlike Frodo and MagiC64, there are no on-the-fly GUI configurable options, you load up and you're on your way. Disk images are not supported, but sound library SID emulation is. Reset is a questionable routine and there's no way to hit "restore". But it's coded for speed and may be worth investigating if you're frustrated with Frodo or MagiC64. Both Frodo and MagiC64 come with fairly complete documentation, AXF's is less thorough but is sufficient for running the emulation. Each has their own keyboard layout, and I'd have to say I'm most comfortable with Frodo's. AXF's is fairly close, and MagiC seems not to have its mind made up about whether to follow C64 layout conventions or Amiga keycap conventions. MSX Emulation: MSX emulation is one of the things that I think makes emulation so great. Not only does it give you access to software you never thought you'd ever run again, but it gives you access to an entire computer platform you might never have had a chance to see, EVER. The MSX was a Microsoft-inspired computer standard popular in Asia and Europe. I'm no fan of Microsoft but I do enjoy playing around with MSX titles, most of which seem to be Japanese in origin. Sony and friends all built MSX machines and published software. There are two major MSX emulators for the Amiga. The first is fMSX 1.3, based on Marat Fayzullin's Unix fMSX but heavily modified by Hans Guijt for the Amiga. fMSX multitasks, supports graphics boards, and runs at full speed or better on 68040 or higher machines, and still is passable on slower systems. Hans keeps the software well up to date, and is pretty responsive about making it better. AmiMSX is a non-multitasking MSX emulation which may still have an edge in MSX2 emulation and speed, due to its non-system friendly nature. I've had limited success with AmiMSX, since fMSX is a lot easier to use. ZX Spectrum: God save me from yet another ZX Spectrum emulator! There are AT LEAST 4 or 5 of these out there, pretty similar when it comes to compatibility (very high), typically differentiated by their speed, support of image formats, and graphics board compatibility or support. The Spectrum was the first machine I felt about the way I feel about the MSX--without the emulators, I might never have been able to use one. My current favorite is ZXAM Spectrum. It supports a wide variety of game images, runs with good speed, and can be played in a Workbench window instead of a custom screen, which is nice for those times where you want to keep an eye on something else--a transfer, an IRC conversation, or the like. The original quality emulator is known simply as Spectrum 1.7. Peter McGavin proved it could be done, and quickly. Even with a 68020, you can get very good results thanks to his fast Z80 emulation. Spectrum 1.7 is aging and is not as friendly to graphic cards or image formats as other emulators are. Two newer emulators, Speccylator and Speculator (yes, they're different) are vying for some respect. Both are in the same league with ZXAM, but have not supplanted it in my mind as of yet. Vic 20 Emulation: The one Vic 20 emulation we have seems to have been done as a throwaway project, but it does a pretty good job, all things considered. It's unfortunately not compatible with the newly release Vic 20 megademo, Veni Vidi Vic, as it seems to not identify itself as either NTSC OR PAL. But you can emulate memory expansion and run a variety of cartridge ROMs on Vic-20, and at a very high rate of speed. This is by no means a complete list--I haven't yet touched on CPC, Oric, or BBC emulation, but those will have to wait for another time. All emulators identified in this article can be found on Aminet, the largest Amiga FTP network in the world, with more files than any other computer FTP archive. The primary Aminet site is ftp.wustl.edu, and the Emulation directory is pub/aminet/misc/emu. @endnode @node REVIEW8 "Review: Aminet Set 4" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Aminet Set 4 By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== The madness that is Aminet has launched yet another massive salvo! This one really took me by surprise. Not only is it fairly close on the heels of Aminet Set 3, but it has a specially included commercial software package even more impressive than that on the Set 3. This time, it's DirOpus 5.11, complete with special upgrade offer to the significantly more impressive DOpus 5.5! This set reflects quite a bit of MOD and graphical activity on Aminet lately, as over 2 gigs (uncompressed) of the new material comes from the "mods" and "pix" drawers. There are no new features in the interface itself (still the good old AmigaGuide) and the disc organization is easy enough to follow, with disc A acting as a catchall loosely organized under "Tools", disc B holds the "gfx" and "pix" directories and is appropriately enough labeled "Gfx", disc C is the "Fun" of the "demo" and "game" directories, and the fourth disc is "Mods", with the comm, dev, mods, and mus directories. (Presumably, comm and dev wouldn't have fit on disc A, likely because disc A also holds the material new since Aminet 16.) Easy to navigate, or at least as easy as going through 4 CDs can be, each disc has its own index and interface and updates you as to what's new and where it came from. (For example, Disc C also contains the MPEGs which are fairly new to Aminet.) The snapshot was taken a few days before Christmas, so it reflects roughly the second half of 1996, which was a pretty busy time for Aminet. Keep in mind that the bulk of that was the aforementioned pictures and mods. The DirOpus deal makes it nearly worth the price of admission on its own, although 5.11 isn't nearly as good as 5.5. (Only once 5.5 came out was I ready to go whole-hog and use it as a full Workbench replacement, which is working just fine as I write this.) Buried on other discs are other commercial titles--a couple of games and TurboCalc 2.1. Aminet Set 4 is of course the dream for Aminet completists, or those who just don't have time to keep up online but want to see what they've been missing. If you're already a Mods Anthology owner, are not particularly interested in over a gig of graphics, and have been keeping up with Aminet RECENT and have all you want, perhaps Set 4 isn't the best of buys for you. But if not, it represents excellent value for what you're getting, the high proportion of mods and graphics notwithstanding. Published by Schatztruhe Veronikastr. 33 D-45131 Essen Germany http://www.schatztruhe.de/ @endnode @node REVIEW9 "Review: Apollo 4040 Accelerator" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Apollo 4040 Accelerator Board from ACT By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== ACT has developed a reputation over the past couple of years, especially since they were finally introduced to the North American market, for putting out decent quality accelerators at reasonable prices. The Apollo 4040 is the top of their line for 68040 accelerators, sporting a SCSI controller, 4 SIMM slots, and a heatsink/fan-cooled 040 chip at 40mhz. The card itself fits in the processor slot of a desktop or tower A4000. (For A3000s, a slightly different card is available which will actually fit, since it uses only 2 SIMM slots.) Installation is fairly simple, and careful A4000 desktop owners will find as we did that while you need to take out your rear bay of hard drives, you may not have to remove the rest of the drives but can weasel your existing processor card out and fit the 4040 in its place. We couldn't get our card to fully mate with the plastic standoff pins in the motherboard, but nevertheless it has been securely planted in the 4000 for some time and hasn't come loose. The four SIMM slots can be populated with a total up to 128 megs, 60ns RAM recommended. A special, faster type of SIMM called ED-RAM (not to be confused with EDO) is supported, but the manual itself says that ED-RAM is so expensive it's probably not worth your while. Something the manual does NOT mention but more than one Apollo dealer has told us is that the Apollo cards function much better for FPU-style operations when a 4 meg SIMM is still on the A4000's motherboard. Confusing, but true. Finally, the fan requires power from the main power supply through a hard-drive style power connector, which branches off into another power feed (so that you don't "lose" a connector.) The fan seems adequate, we did not run into any power problems. Installation instructions will outline all of this as well as is necessary. Pay special attention to the timing/clock jumpers they tell you about. For regular operation, no software support is required, the standard 68040 library is supported. The SCSI drivers are installed from a separate disk. General operations ------------------ The 68040 is a full unit, meaning it comes with MMU and FPU. Programs like ImageFX and Cinema4D perform quite admirably, typically realizing at least a 50% gain in speed over a stock 3640 setup. AIBB tests rank the Apollo 4040 as typically anywhere from 30 to 300% faster. Its performance on my personal favorite benchmark, the Cinema4D Stairway raytrace, is shown as underperforming the Apollo 1240 card by a significant margin but still beating a stock 3640 setup by a great deal. The breakdown of the render tests: Blizzard 1260-- 1:26 [Running CyberPatcher] Cyber 4060 -- 2:00 [Running CyberPatcher] Apollo 1240 -- 2:31 Apollo 4040 -- 3:26 Draco 060/50 -- 5:05 Falcon 040/25-- 5:05 Stock 3640 -- 6:01 Curiously, for both the Apollo and Phase5 lines, the A1200 cards (Blizzard 1260 and Apollo 1240) outperformed their A4000 equivalents (CyberStorm 4060 and Apollo 4040). The bottom line for this test is that our 4000 desktop gained over 2x faster rendering speed. Specific applications vary, of course. While we did not encounter the same difficulties we did with the Apollo 1240 card that require FastExec as a cure, it is still not a bad idea. Integrating the Apollo into your Amiga environment -------------------------------------------------- Not really all that difficult, all things considered. If you're currently using an 030, you'll be realizing a whole new world of speed. If you're using a 3640, you're still going to see major gains because of the added speed of the processor and the relocation of the memory to the processor board. A word about the memory is in order: Except in rather extreme configurations (Matching 32 meg SIMMs up), your memory will not be mapped as a single contiguous block. This has minor impact on performance when you're talking about very large pieces of data, but more importantly it means that your available memory for things like Shapeshifter and PCx is going to be limited by your largest SIMM. The Phase5 boards map their memory into one single block, regardless of the SIMM combinations, which is a significant advantage if you're using RAM from various sources or are not able to shell out for a 32 meg SIMM. One glaring oddity in the Apollo's operation comes with Shapeshifter. It runs the latest version quite capably, although a few programs which work just fine on a CyberStorm 060 crash the Amiga entirely when run on the Apollo. Despite inquiring with Apollo and Shapeshifter experts, we were unable to track down the problem. The SCSI controller solely has an internal connector (nothing external like most newer Zorro SCSI cards or the A3000 or 4000T), and its performance is not the world's fastest. For driving a CD-ROM, however, it is more than adequate. Overall, we're quite pleased with the Apollo 4040's performance. Setup is easy, the speed gains are immediate and noticable. Sure, it could be better, but the performance is still quite admirable. The pricing of Apollo cards has done little but go down over the past year or so, and with a current price under US$550, the 4040 is an excellent way to juice up your A3000 or A4000. As our Apollo 3060 review in this issue indicates, the Apollo cards are far better as 040 than as 060 models. To make the jump to a top-of-the line Phase5 CyberStorm 060 card would be an extra $300, at least, and would not include the SCSI controller. So, if you're not ready to jump to an 060, give the Apollo 4040 some very serious thought. Paired with a graphics card running CyberGraphX or Picasso 96, your Amiga will become a very powerful beast indeed, and now that graphic cards are less than $400 new (and something like half that used, in many cases!), if you've been holding off on a major upgrade for your Amiga, now is a good time. US$550 Provided for review by ACT's North American Distributor Wonder Computers International 1315 Richmond Road Ottawa, Ontario Canada K2B 8J7 613-721-1800 voice 613-721-1994 fax http://www.wonder.ca ACT is extremely difficult to reach directly. We recommend that European inquiries be directed to their Norwegian distributor: Datakompaniet as Teknostallen 7030 Trondheim Norway + 7354 0375 voice + 7394 3861 fax http://www.datakompaniet.no @endnode @node REVIEW10 "Review: ArtEffect 1.5" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: ArtEffect 1.5 from Haage and Partner By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== It's fascinating to try and track the image processing market for the Amiga. For quite some time, there was AdPro, and all bowed to it. In the meantime, GVP was selling ImageFX, taking chunks out of AdPro's market. Times change, ASDG becomes Elastic Reality and goes on to do lots of film work, and AdPro becomes little more than the pack-in everybody gets with their Draco. ImageFX becomes king, and not without deserving it. Not long after, a British company puts out Photogenics, an image processing program which, while not as powerful as ImageFX, is much easier to simply sit down at and start playing with. It's intuitive, works much like a paint program, and is pretty affordable. Not to be outdone, the brothers Dean put out a shareware product called Image Studio, which for a fee about half of Photogenics' gets you a very capable image conversion and manipulation tool. That was, more or less, the world we lived in for a good year or two. High-end stuff got done on ImageFX, those of us who liked our complimentary Photogenics t-shirts used it to play around with, and if you just needed a quick task done or a conversion without much hassle, you went with ImageStudio. Shoot forward to the present. Photogenics gets something of a facelift, which implements a rather counterintuitive GUI. Not much after, its original author, Paul Nolan, starts taking legal action against Almathera. Almathera is now out of business (blaming VIScorp, but who doesn't?) and rumor has it that their product line (along with company principles Paul and Jolyon Ralph) is being picked up by Grandslam. ImageFX is still where it was. Image Studio is now in version 2 and has some commercial support from LH Publishing. So where does ArtEffect fit in to all this? Haage and Partner are not afraid to make bold statements. They call it Photoshop for the Amiga. They don't give it a Photoshop-style price, however. In the US, ArtEffect sells for about $110, roughly half what dealers ask for ImageFX 2.6 and a bit less than Photogenics 2 was selling for, when it was still available. How valid is their claim? After all, even the most staunch ImageFX backer has been known to concede that Photoshop has a leg up on IFX for one thing or another. Is ArtEffect the end-all, be-all of image processing? The Basics ---------- ArtEffect is designed to work on a decent-spec Amiga, although as is always the case with image manipulation, the more power you have, the better. An 020 and hard disk are absolutely required, as is OS 3.x. You'd be a fool to try to run ArtEffect without a good chunk of Fast RAM and a processor above an 020 of some sort, and while ECS is supported, you really should consider using an AGA machine or one running CyberGraphX, which is supported as standard. The test system is a CyberStorm 060/50 system with a CyberVision 3D running CyberGraphX 3 (recent beta). The CyberPathcher tool does not explicitly list ArtEffect as taking advantage of its capabilities. (in fact, I couldn't find explicit reference to an FPU of any kind) ArtEffect does support HAM8 if you don't have CyberGraphX and want to get a better color representation than 256. However, keep in mind that you lose resolution and also give up a lot of speed to see those results. You have been warned... ArtEffect can open on a public or custom screen. When loading, ArtEffect does a mini-benchmark on your graphical capabilities and seems to find custom screens significantly faster, but your mileage may vary. The workspace of ArtEffect is comfortable and intuitive. Your images are loaded into windows, marked off with rulers by default, and a primary toolbar and option window follow you through most operations, which are chosen using the menu bar. A number of other configurations, such as brush shape (a very powerful tool, if you know what you're doing) are available as function-key popups or menu selections. The toolbar has basic drawing options--draw line, draw open/filled circle and square and polygon, etc. You also have some control over brush or spray, text matting, and the like from the toolbar. Incidentally, this is the first program I've seen on any platform to use a nice muted color palette for its buttons (much like MagicWB). Typically, paint buttons are either mono and boring, or garish and ugly. The variety of paint modes, which range from simply drawing to blurring, smearing, "impressionisting" and the like, are straightforward, easy to use, and reminiscent of the Photogenics style. The real power of ArtEffect is in its filters, though. You can draw circles all day to your heart's content, but when it comes to applying actual effects, the filters are the place to look. Dozens of filters are supplied (and more are available as option disks, or occasionally as free upgrades), and each brings up a quick preview window which lets you examine what you'll do to the image before committing. Typically, each filter has options (for strength, angle of application, etc.) and as you change these, the preview dynamically re-renders. There is also a generic "convolve" filter for inputting your own 5x5 matrix convolution effects. It's really a snap to get ArtEffect working for you. As a dealer's ad for the product says, you really can get by without the manual, although it is itself competent, although certainly not the most nuanced on the art of image processing. (Its English is a bit uncomfortable at times, which surprises me since I've read the translator's posts on Usenet for years and his conversational English is flawless.) Unlike some reviewers who embrace easy to use programs like ArtEffect or Photogenics, I'm willing to admit the real reason. ImageFX intimidates me. I know full well how much power it has (I watched as its most recent demo tape was built from the ground up), but I can't seem to harness the power as easily for the more basic things that I'd like to do. That said, particularly in light of Photogenics "step backward" in GUI standardization, ArtEffect offers the best power-to-ease-of-use ratio of any dedicated image processing program out there today. That doesn't mean it's perfect, though. I'm not sure which is the more glaring failing--the poor Undo, the lack of ARexx, or the lack of GIF saving. So I'll outline them in that order and let you decide. Here's that Photoshop comparison again. The thing everyone crows about Photoshop is its "layers". Photogenics tried to capture this by implementing a "FIX" system where no change was permanent until you deemed it to be so. But ArtEffect doesn't come close. The minimum level of Undo is a single-action undo/redo. The maximum level is that you can undo any change made with a single drawing tool. So, you can scrawl all over a picture or draw several circles, but once you change from the circle tool to a draw tool, or vice versa, or switch filters, your changes are permanent. Needless to say, for serious work this is not the best of all possible scenarios. There's no ARexx. No simple way to integrate other programs. The documentation alludes to developer resources to do this, and the program does support TurboPrint and PrintStudio and ScanQuix, but there's no way to integrate ArtEffect seamlessly into a suite. This also removes the potential for batch processing. ArtEffect is meant to work with single images, and that's the way it will stay for the time being. Finally, while you can load GIF, you cannot save it. I understand that the GIF licensing scenario is not the greatest, but I wish developers would follow Cloanto's example and just bite the bullet and support the standard that people need for their work, particularly the Web. Nobody can accuse Cloanto of knuckling under to Unisys, since they were one of the spearheads of the PNG movement. ArtEffect will let you save in PNG, but it's not quite the same... But the bottom line is that for the price, ArtEffect is extremely easy to get comfortable with and put to work. If you go into it with your eyes open and know what to expect--an excellent tool for manipulating single images--you'll be very pleased. Haage & Partner Mainzer Str. 10A 61191 Rosbach GERMANY +49 6007 930050 voice +49 6007 7543 fax 100654.3133@compuserve.com e-mail http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Haage_Partner @endnode @node REVIEW11 "Mini-Review: CyberVision 64/3D" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Mini-Review: CyberVision 64/3D from Phase5 By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== The question of how to handle this review has been bothering me for a few weeks now. This can't be a complete review, because the CyberVision 64/3D isn't done yet. Namely, there's practically no software that takes advantage of the "3D" portion of that name, if you disregard a couple of 6 week old demos on the CyberGraphX support site. Some 3D software developers are apparently only now getting their boards. So, that said, I can hardly fairly evaluate a 3D board if I can't do anything 3D with it. On the other hand, Phase5 has been happily selling the board for months now, so it doesn't seem fair to let that go by without comment, either. The compromise is this, a mini-review pending some additional software support. After all, the installation process is the same, and we've got a pretty good idea what to expect out of the CyberGraphX V3 software by now. Each CyberVision 64/3D card comes with 4 megs of video memory and is Zorro II and Zorro III compatible. The board itself is oddly shaped, with a cut-out area to accomodate the just-released scan doubler/passthrough module (which we don't have onhand for review, unfortunately.) If you're using it, you have to install the board in an inline Zorro/video slot since the scan doubler portion plugs into the video slot. If not, any Zorro II or III slot will do. Configuring the board is pretty straightforward. When I got it, it was shipping with an early beta of the CyberGraphX V3 software (something like beta20. It's up to beta54 at the time of this writing.) If you're using something this old, upgrade it IMMEDIATELY. You'll be a lot happier, as certain basic features were not properly working in the early release version. The CyberGraphX official home page is at http://www.best.com/~vgr/cybergfx/ and I strongly recommend that you learn this address, memorize it, bookmark it, because it's the lifeblood of CyberGraphX users. Anyway, CyberGraphX, as most of us know by now, is a very powerful and very useful retargetable graphics system which uses the Amiga display database. Translation--you can make any program which gives you a screen requester (including Workbench) put itself on a CyberGraphX screen simply by selecting one from the list. Further, you can make most programs which DON'T ask you what screen to go onto run on a CyberGraphX screen anyway, using a tool like NewMode. CyberGraphX version 2 is available as a commercial product for most graphics cards out there. Version 3 is going to be freeware for everyone, so we're told, but so far there is not V3 support for anything other than Phase5's cards, the CyberVision 64 (no longer made) and the CyberVision 64/3D. Phase5 is even promising support for the new Picasso IV which runs the competing standard Picasso 96 software, but the CyberGraphX support is not available yet. The current CyberGraphX betas are quite stable, and now features are being added. Still not much word on the 3D support. The demos, that which there are, show polygons with realtime mapped textures on them in a 15 bit screen. You can rotate the objects using assigned keys. It's neat, but not very useful at present. CyberGL is the big exciting thing for CyberGraphX 3 that nobody has seen yet. The idea is that it will be a subset of OpenGL, the graphical standard used by software like high-end PC 3D applications, making it easier to port them to the Amiga. But again, we've yet to see it publicly. Previous to this card, I was using a Retina Z-III board under CyberGraphX 2. While by some accounts the Retina Z-III is actually the fastest Zorro-III Amiga graphics card, I was never quite comfortable with it and it always had a few oddities under CyberGraphX. (The original RetinaEMU software was horrible to use.) The CV64/3D is reportedly somewhat slower than both the Retina Z-III and the CV 64 for some screen operations (since the CV64/3D lacks some of the support hardware the CV 64 had access to). So, it's a tough call. Reports indicate that Picasso96 is actually a decent RTG system and it does provide CyberGraphX emulation (although certain official CyberGraphX tools seem to be threatening to prevent this from working), so the Picasso IV, with built-in scan doubler, seems to be delivering everything it was supposed to at present. The CyberVision 64/3D now has its scan doubler out, but the full fledged 3D is not a reality yet. These are the two big choices in the new graphics card market right now, and the choice is by no means clear. I really enjoy using the CyberGraphX screen environment, particularly its continued support for screen dragging and a very similar feel to the original Amiga system. Hopefully the 3D features will be available quite soon so we can make a full-fledged review. Phase5 Digital Products http://www.phase5.de @endnode @node REVIEW12 "Review: CyberStorm Mark II A4000/060 Card" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: CyberStorm Mark II A4000/060 Card from Phase5 By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== The original CyberStorm is the grandfather of all 060 cards. It wasn't cheap when it came out (in the neighborhood of US$1500!) but it delivered a lot of power when people were screaming for it, after the release of the Pentium. The CyberStorm line has since matured and been redesigned in a lower-cost manner. The Mark II no longer incorporates all of the features of the original card, leaving you with a base high-power 060 card to work with and a SCSI-II option. The Cyber Mark II is an 060/50 card with 4 SIMM slots, which replaces your existing CPU card in an A4000 or A4000T. Doing this in an A4000T is quite a project, as it involves removing the central drive bay from your machine, no less than 6 screws, two cable detachments, and a very difficult replacement project. Be sure you put your RAM on the card FIRST (RAM, in this case, is recommended as 60ns standard SIMMs. EDO is not supported.) The 060 is not heat-sink or fan-cooled, as is typical for 060 cards. It's not exactly a chilly chip, but manufacturers have enough confidence to leave it uncooled. There is a bit of a chicken-and-egg issue with installing the 060, because the existing 68040.library is insufficient to drive an 060 Amiga. Instead, you have to install a new "fragment" 68040 library and a 68060.library which the 68040.library points to. Follow the instructions very carefully on this one or you could be beating your brains out trying to find out why your Amiga won't boot. One interesting thing about the CyberStorm Mark II is that the 50mhz clock crystal is *warranty sealed* with a strip of paper (which, come to think of it, would be fairly easy to break by accident if you were manhandling the card). Some people (and dealers) have been known to overclock processor cards, with or without their customers' knowledge. Manufacturers sometimes cautiously condone this practice, but Phase5 is sending a very clear message in this case. Going 060 is a bit of a jump. While most software is quite compatible, those older titles which perhaps just barely worked on a heavily degraded 040 may finally give up and break on the 060. Quite often, disabling certain caches will help this problem. What you get in reward for making the jump is a very fast Amiga. Once installed, with the support software in place, you're ready to get to work. The 68060 has extra cache modes not available on other processors, and the software preconfigures the 060 for peak performance--as one of the documentation files warns, the included CPU060 command should only be used by people who know what they're doing since it will only slow down your operation. The 060/50, in and of itself, is a performance boost over even the fastest 040 chip. But it's the support software that makes the Phase5 card stand out over other models. As those of you who know the Phase5 060 line, or remember my Blizzard 060 review will recall, the magic is in the CyberPatcher utility. The simplified basis of CyberPatcher is this: The 68060 incorporates an FPU, just as the 68040 does. But the 68040's FPU is not always as efficient as a regular 68882 FPU, and the 68060's FPU further emulates certain commands rather than executing them directly. These levels of abstraction can slow down serious FPU tasks like rendering. The CyberPatcher program intercepts these commands, which would otherwise be bogged down, and "points" them to faster ways to get the results they're looking for. Run CyberPatcher, and certain programs, including ImageFX, Lightwave, Cinema 4D, and others, will be faster. Benchmarking an 060 card can be difficult. Real-world tests are generally the only way to go. The Cinema4D render test I'm fond of (320x400 raytrace of the included Stairway example) gives the following results: Blizzard 1260-- 1:26 [Running CyberPatcher] Cyber 4060 -- 2:00 [Running CyberPatcher] Apollo 1240 -- 2:31 Apollo 4040 -- 3:26 Draco 060/50 -- 5:05 Falcon 040/25-- 5:05 Stock 3640 -- 6:01 As you can see, the Cyberstorm Mark II is fully 3 times faster than a stock A4000 or A4000T configuration, and runs rings around most other 040 implementations (and the Draco, whose 060 is apparently poorly configured). It is interesting that the CyberStorm does not outperform the Apollo A1200 040 card by as much as one might expect, and it itself is significantly outperformed by Phase5's A1200 Blizzard 060 card. Doing more general benchmarks can be difficult, since most benchmark programs choke on the 68060. While few applications are being specifically coded for the 68060, when they are they are typically written with the CyberStorm in mind, and the most bug-free 060 operations tend to be with CyberStorms. For example, the CyberStorm is the only 060 card I know of which has flawless operation with Shapeshifter--the rest tend to encounter crashes when you access the serial port. The memory handling on the CyberStorm Mark II is one of the best things about it. Instead of most cards, which have to map separate blocks for each SIMM, or at least for non-matched pairs, the CyberStorm's onboard logic maps any combination of SIMMs into a single contiguous block. Not only is this more efficient overall, but it makes emulators like Shapeshifter and PCx VERY happy, since they can only work in the largest contiguous block. In your day to day usage, you may start taking the 060 for granted. Particularly once paired with a decent graphics card, you get excellent speed for just about every application. Window refreshes are very speedy. Opaque window dragging and resizing can be more than just a chunky curiosity, it can work the way it's supposed to. And if you're an emulator junkie like me, you can boast better-than-full speed C-64 emulation as well as the world's fastest 680x0 Macintosh, since Apple never built 68060 models. But don't forget that there's something inside driving it at a very high rate of speed. Other 060 cards on the market can lay claim to having superior speed in certain respects. Apollo cards are easy to overclock, so you can gain in that regard. The QuikPak 060 is actually clocked around 56mhz and supports EDO RAM, so certain memory-access intensive operations run faster. But Phase5's 060 software support is far better than that for the other cards, with new betas of the 68060.library coming out fairly regularly. CyberPatcher puts specific application performance over the top. Right now, the CyberStorm Mark II is the most impressive 060 card on the market, hands down. It runs about US$850, depending on where you look, which means it's typically $50 or $100 more than the competition. (QuikPak offers a US$750 price with a 3640 trade-in, and the Apollo 060 card generally sells around that price point as well.) However, the superior technical support, compatibility, and performance are well worth it. Phase5 Digital Products In der Au 27 61440 Oberusel +49 6171 583787 voice +49 6171 583788 fax http://www.phase5.de mail@phase5.de e-mail @endnode @node CHARTS1 "Aminet Charts: 23-Feb-97" @toc FTP | The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 23-Feb-97 | Updated weekly. Most popular file on top. | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- mui38usr.lha util/libs 1.0M 1+MagicUserInterface 3.8, user files akJFIF43x.lha util/dtype 206K 0+AkJFIF-dt V43.27 (JPEG, 68000-060) akPNG43x.lha util/dtype 195K 0+AkPNG-dt V43.27 (PNG, 68000-060) FastIPrefs4032.lha util/boot 35K 0+FastIPrefs 40.32 & FastWBPattern 40. qt13.lha gfx/show 251K 1+QuickTime player for AGA/CyberGFX. V New8n1.lha comm/misc 71K 0+Replaces serial.device. V37.31 twilight.lha util/wb 380K 1+The supreme WB enhancement system. ar502.lha docs/mags 108K 0+Amiga Report Magazine 5.02, February akSVG43x.lha util/dtype 72K 0+AkSVG-dt V43.27 (SVG, 68000-060) STFax.lha comm/misc 161K 0+STFax 1.188 - Powerful and user-frie AmFTP175.lha comm/tcp 296K 0+AmFTP - ftp/Archie/ADT/ADT-Find Clie AmTelnet13.lha comm/tcp 144K 0+AmTelnet - Telnet Client (ANSI/VT100 MiamiSpeedMetr.lha comm/tcp 7K 0+Cps counter for Miami 2.0+ (register akJFIF-PS.lha util/dtype 2K 0+Descriptor file for akJFIF and Photo sysi2.lha util/wb 24K 1+SysiHack clone replaces Window & Scr ModePro4_18.lha util/cdity 86K 1+Screenmode promotion utility. V4.18 SystemTracer.lha dev/debug 38K 320+View and manipulate system structure winbar.lha util/wb 37K 1+Taskbar with START-Button! textdtptch39.3.lha util/dtype 12K 0+V39.3 patches text.datatype to suppo | The highest rated programs during the week until 23-Feb-97 | Updated weekly. Best program on top. Please rate all the programs you | download. To do so, send to aminet-server@wuarchive.wustl.edu : | RATE | where is the file you want to judge and is a mark from 0..10 | with 10 being the best. You can rate several programs in one mail, but | don't rate your own programs. Example: RATE dev/gui/mui23usr.lha 8 | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- akPNG43x.lha util/dtype 195K 0+AkPNG-dt V43.27 (PNG, 68000-060) akSVG43x.lha util/dtype 72K 0+AkSVG-dt V43.27 (SVG, 68000-060) Miami20e.lha comm/tcp 689K 2+TCP/IP stack for easy Internet acces mui38usr.lha util/libs 1.0M 1+MagicUserInterface 3.8, user files AlgoMusic1_8.lha mus/misc 1.2M 3+Creates algor. techno tunes. A must- GfxLab24-181.lha gfx/conv 619K 18+GfxLab24 v1.8.1. Image Processing pr mui37usr.lha util/libs 992K 3+MagicUserInterface 3.7, user files Patch2AmiTCP43.lha biz/patch 514K 45+Patch AmiTCP/IP 4.1/4.2 to AmiTCP/IP amtalk.lha comm/tcp 207K 1+Ntalk compatible talk, lots of extra Creepy.lha game/shoot 314K 1+Arcade game with brilliant graphics Collector25.lha gfx/misc 263K 2+A powerful picture catalogger. Many MCXP325.lha util/cdity 108K 1+MUI Preferences for MultiCX mcx263.lha util/cdity 78K 1+Multi Function Commodity NewAvail_1.07.lha util/sys 4K 4+Commodore's avail replacement. V1.07 ar501.lha docs/mags 107K 4+Amiga Report Magazine 5.01, January StormC_Demo1_1.lha biz/demo 1.2M 27+StormC (Demo): ANSI C & C++ Developm YTZP.lha game/board 275K 2+Yahtzee taken to the next level! YAMscripts.lha comm/mail 21K 0+Useful ARexx scripts for YAM (rel 4) RushHour13.lha game/misc 237K 1+Switch traffic lights, Version 1.3 SystemTracer.lha dev/debug 38K 320+View and manipulate system structure Mines-mgsw.lha game/think 58K 4+The Minesweeper game V2_00 !!!! MetaView.lha gfx/conv 170K 1+Best meta- and vectorgfxconvert: AMF ML11.lha gfx/misc 12K 89+MagicLayers- moves/sizes windows rea mv_os2_x.lha util/sys 75K 1+OS 2.x MultiView replacement - now w YAM13_4.lha comm/mail 512K 9+MUI Internet mailer V1.3.4 lupe.lha util/wb 55K 13+V1.7, The magnifying glass program New8n1.lha comm/misc 71K 0+Replaces serial.device. V37.31 AMarquee1.30B.lha comm/net 134K 1+AmiTCP data broadcast library & serv @endnode @node CHARTS2 "Aminet Charts: 02-Mar-97" @toc FTP | The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 2-Mar-97 | Updated weekly. Most popular file on top. | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- AmiGB.lha misc/emu 27K 0+The best Game Boy emulator! CyberQT10.lha gfx/show 68K 0+QuickTime animation player for Cyber WBsteroids.lha game/wb 137K 0+Asteroids in a scalable WB-Window. MCC_HTMLtext.lha dev/mui 86K 0+HTMLtext custom class for MUI (Dirk ops-imp3.lha demo/sound 727K 6+"Impressions" by Oops! - part 3/5 BattleDuel.lha game/2play 1.2M 0+The *ULTIMATE* artillery game V1.6.8 ixg06d.lha text/hyper 147K 0+!!!AGuide with pics,anims,html-suppo SoundConvert.lha mus/edit 389K 0+Sound Converter V1.1 KangFuDEMO.lha game/demo 5.8M 0+Playable demo of AGA CD-ROM platform pcblkami.lha misc/emu 25K 0+Amiga jokes to run on PC or emulator dtypeguide.lha docs/lists 45K 0+Guide of datatypes -R2- witness.lha game/shoot 615K 0+Defender/Project X clone AMIL_1450.lha docs/hyper 93K 0+Amiga Main Internet List -1450- Crak.lha comm/tcp 42K 0+UNIX/AmiTCP passwd file checker mindwarp3.lha game/gag 34K 0+Nice eyecandy program similar to min EasyFind.lha util/dir 48K 0+FileFinder deluxe V1.10 - MUI autoindex2.lha comm/www 17K 0+Generates html doc to view pictures qt13.lha gfx/show 251K 0+QuickTime player for AGA/CyberGFX. V mui38usr.lha util/libs 1.0M 2+MagicUserInterface 3.8, user files Password_v211.lha util/sys 57K 0+Password Protection System | The highest rated programs during the week until 2-Mar-97 | Updated weekly. Best program on top. Please rate all the programs you | download. To do so, send to aminet-server@wuarchive.wustl.edu : | RATE | where is the file you want to judge and is a mark from 0..10 | with 10 being the best. You can rate several programs in one mail, but | don't rate your own programs. Example: RATE dev/gui/mui23usr.lha 8 | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- mui38usr.lha util/libs 1.0M 2+MagicUserInterface 3.8, user files AlgoMusic1_8.lha mus/misc 1.2M 4+Creates algor. techno tunes. A must- GfxLab24-181.lha gfx/conv 619K 19+GfxLab24 v1.8.1. Image Processing pr mui37usr.lha util/libs 992K 4+MagicUserInterface 3.7, user files Patch2AmiTCP43.lha biz/patch 514K 46+Patch AmiTCP/IP 4.1/4.2 to AmiTCP/IP Miami20g.lha comm/tcp 694K 0+TCP/IP stack for easy Internet acces amtalk.lha comm/tcp 207K 2+Ntalk compatible talk, lots of extra PhxAss435.lha dev/asm 301K 0+PhxAss V4.35 68xxx Macro Assembler CapitalPunishm.lha game/patch 303K 1+Capital Punishment upgrade to v1.1 Creepy.lha game/shoot 314K 2+Arcade game with brilliant graphics soliton120.lha game/think 131K 1+Solitaire card game, V1.20 (MUI) Collector25.lha gfx/misc 263K 3+A powerful picture catalogger. Many sofke.lha mods/techn 104K 3+My first HOUSE modul, EDIT version. penzium.lha pix/trace 472K 1+060 vs. Pentium! All by "NURBS" MCXP325.lha util/cdity 108K 2+MUI Preferences for MultiCX mcx263.lha util/cdity 78K 2+Multi Function Commodity ToolManagerBin.lha util/wb 90K 1+ToolManager - binaries (V3.0) NewAvail_1.07.lha util/sys 4K 5+Commodore's avail replacement. V1.07 ar501.lha docs/mags 107K 5+Amiga Report Magazine 5.01, January YTZP.lha game/board 275K 3+Yahtzee taken to the next level! YAMscripts.lha comm/mail 21K 0+Useful ARexx scripts for YAM (rel 5) RushHour13.lha game/misc 237K 2+Switch traffic lights, Version 1.3 SystemTracer.lha dev/debug 38K 321+View and manipulate system structure Logic.lha game/think 290K 0+Great Game! Mines-mgsw.lha game/think 58K 5+The Minesweeper game V2_00 !!!! MetaView.lha gfx/conv 170K 2+Best meta- and vectorgfxconvert: AMF mv_os2_x.lha util/sys 75K 2+OS 2.x MultiView replacement - now w lupe.lha util/wb 55K 14+V1.7, The magnifying glass program @endnode @node CHARTS3 "Aminet Charts: 09-Mar-97" @toc FTP | The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 9-Mar-97 | Updated weekly. Most popular file on top. | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- akJFIF43x.lha util/dtype 210K 0+AkJFIF-dt V43.30 (JPEG, 68000-060) akPNG43x.lha util/dtype 198K 0+AkPNG-dt V43.30 (PNG, 68000-060) FastIPrefs4035.lha util/boot 37K 0+FastIPrefs 40.35 & FastWBPattern 40. akPrefs.lha util/dtype 29K 0+Ak-Datatypes Prefs, V43.31 akSVG43x.lha util/dtype 74K 0+AkSVG-dt V43.30 (SVG, 68000-060) pplib020.lha util/libs 5K 0+Powerpacker.library 68020+ version targadtype.lha util/dtype 18K 1+Datatype for Targa or TGA images, V DiskMaster21c.lha util/dir 67K 1+THE Filemanager! Now for FREE! SerialPrefs251.lha util/sys 52K 1+V2.51 - Extended Serial Preferences sundtype.lha util/dtype 16K 1+Datatype for Sun Raster images, V 43 MCC_HTMLtext.lha dev/mui 87K 0+HTMLtext.mcc 11.2 for MUI with Brows Executive.lha util/misc 1.1M 1+UNIX-like process scheduler (V2.10) AmIRCURLShow.lha comm/tcp 3K 0+ARexx URLShow script for AmIRC New8n1.lha comm/misc 72K 0+Replaces serial.device. V37.33 amirc.lha comm/tcp 576K 1+Fully featured GUI IRC Client (v1.41 NewAddDataType.lha util/sys 13K 0+New AddDataTypes sersnoop.lha util/moni 19K 1+Serial device snooper fastblt.lha util/boot 4K 0+Speed up blitter-wait operations. Trapped-2.lha game/demo 1.2M 0+Playable Preview of TRAPPED II, 3D-t AmIRCPing.lha comm/tcp 2K 0+ARexx Ping script for AmIRC | The highest rated programs during the week until 9-Mar-97 | Updated weekly. Best program on top. Please rate all the programs you | download. To do so, send to aminet-server@wuarchive.wustl.edu : | RATE | where is the file you want to judge and is a mark from 0..10 | with 10 being the best. You can rate several programs in one mail, but | don't rate your own programs. Example: RATE dev/gui/mui23usr.lha 8 | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- ACM.lha dev/c 443K 196+Amiga C manual w/ many examples poing4.lha game/actio 108K 9+Nice breakout clone PacMan96.lha game/misc 571K 11+Superb PacMan-Clone, systemfriendly Creepy.lha game/shoot 314K 3+Arcade game with brilliant graphics mui38usr.lha util/libs 1.0M 3+MagicUserInterface 3.8, user files AlgoMusic1_8.lha mus/misc 1.2M 5+Creates algor. techno tunes. A must- GfxLab24-181.lha gfx/conv 619K 20+GfxLab24 v1.8.1. Image Processing pr mui37usr.lha util/libs 992K 5+MagicUserInterface 3.7, user files MagicMenu2_15.lha util/wb 169K 10+Improves the Intuition menus (V2.15) McF_43.lha biz/dbase 163K 11+*McFiler* catalogues files w/ many u Miami20g.lha comm/tcp 694K 1+TCP/IP stack for easy Internet acces amtalk.lha comm/tcp 207K 3+Ntalk compatible talk, lots of extra GetNET22.lha comm/thor 27K 14+GetNET 2.2, URL grabber for Thor 2.4 PhxAss435.lha dev/asm 301K 1+PhxAss V4.35 68xxx Macro Assembler CapitalPunishm.lha game/patch 303K 2+Capital Punishment upgrade to v1.1 soliton120.lha game/think 131K 2+Solitaire card game, V1.20 (MUI) WBsteroids.lha game/wb 137K 1+Asteroids in a scalable WB-Window. mac2ni.lha gfx/conv 9K 13+Convert/Rip MacOS.rsrc Icons to NewI Collector25.lha gfx/misc 263K 4+A powerful picture catalogger. Many WzonkaLad.lha misc/emu 71K 0+Wzonka-Lad - Gameboy emulator v0.57. sofke.lha mods/techn 104K 4+My first HOUSE modul, EDIT version. penzium.lha pix/trace 472K 2+060 vs. Pentium! All by "NURBS" ObjArc14usr.lha util/arc 50K 108+Access archives (lha, tar...) like d BindPathes.lha util/boot 6K 25+Create all the search pathes in one BlizzMagic.lha util/boot 12K 9+V3.3 Softkicker+ for Blizzard 1230/4 MCXP325.lha util/cdity 108K 3+MUI Preferences for MultiCX mcx263.lha util/cdity 78K 3+Multi Function Commodity RushHour13.lha game/misc 237K 3+Switch traffic lights, Version 1.3 raystorm_881.lha gfx/3d 585K 2+V1.8 of RayStorm (68020+881 binaries @endnode @node CHARTS4 "Aminet Charts: 16-Mar-97" @toc FTP | The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 16-Mar-97 | Updated weekly. Most popular file on top. | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- akJFIF43x.lha util/dtype 211K 0+AkJFIF-dt V43.40 (JPEG, 68000-060) akPNG43x.lha util/dtype 199K 0+AkPNG-dt V43.40 (PNG, 68000-060) akSVG43x.lha util/dtype 75K 0+AkSVG-dt V43.40 (SVG, 68000-060) Gir01.lha comm/tcp 27K 1+Gsm internet realtime audio player WebDesign14.lha comm/www 287K 0+HTML editor,PREVIEW and FRAMES suppo MakeSuperDisk.lha util/misc 5K 0+V1.3, Makes SuperKickstart disks fro MCC_HTMLtext.lha dev/mui 94K 0+HTMLtext.mcc 11.2 for MUI with Brows CGraphX223u.lha gfx/board 373K 1+CyberGraphX Extension Update Xoper27.lha util/moni 101K 0+A powerful system monitor HiDensity.lha hard/hack 6K 0+Use HD Disks on Amiga Tech. A1200 in SerialPrefs252.lha util/sys 55K 0+V2.52 - Extended Serial Preferences YamTools.lha comm/mail 51K 0+(v1.3) Adds SEARCH function and more MacPict2-dtc.lha util/dtype 76K 0+Datatype for Macintosh PICT2 picture WheelsOnFire1.lha game/demo 574K 1+Final preview of the 3D racing game pgpgoesmui.lha util/crypt 49K 0+MUI based GUI for PGP Amiga_IBrowseA.lha comm/www 32K 1+A very nice TransferAnimation for IB WheelsOnFire2.lha game/demo 649K 1+Final preview of the 3D racing game AntiBeol_121.lha util/virus 8K 0+Mem viruskiller for the new Packetvi WheelsOnFire3.lha game/demo 482K 1+Final preview of the 3D racing game GSMToast.lha util/pack 88K 0+GSM 06.10 audio codec | The highest rated programs during the week until 16-Mar-97 | Updated weekly. Best program on top. Please rate all the programs you | download. To do so, send to aminet-server@wuarchive.wustl.edu : | RATE | where is the file you want to judge and is a mark from 0..10 | with 10 being the best. You can rate several programs in one mail, but | don't rate your own programs. Example: RATE dev/gui/mui23usr.lha 8 | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- FW_AllInOne.lha biz/swood 74K 1+FW-Macros-Packet - german - poing4.lha game/actio 108K 10+Nice breakout clone PacMan96.lha game/misc 571K 12+Superb PacMan-Clone, systemfriendly Creepy.lha game/shoot 314K 4+Arcade game with brilliant graphics mui38usr.lha util/libs 1.0M 4+MagicUserInterface 3.8, user files AlgoMusic1_8.lha mus/misc 1.2M 6+Creates algor. techno tunes. A must- ACM.lha dev/c 443K 197+Amiga C manual w/ many examples Executive.lha util/misc 1.1M 2+UNIX-like process scheduler (V2.10) MagicMenu2_15.lha util/wb 169K 11+Improves the Intuition menus (V2.15) McF_43.lha biz/dbase 163K 12+*McFiler* catalogues files w/ many u dCN_Z20.lha comm/bbs 69K 0+Best and quickest Zippy 2.0 for FAME Miami20g.lha comm/tcp 694K 2+TCP/IP stack for easy Internet acces amtalk.lha comm/tcp 207K 4+Ntalk compatible talk, lots of extra GetNET22.lha comm/thor 27K 15+GetNET 2.2, URL grabber for Thor 2.4 yastralp.lha demo/aga 1.3M 38+Your Astral Pilot: meet the alien wi PhxAss435.lha dev/asm 301K 2+PhxAss V4.35 68xxx Macro Assembler CapitalPunishm.lha game/patch 303K 3+Capital Punishment upgrade to v1.1 WBsteroids.lha game/wb 137K 2+Asteroids in a scalable WB-Window. mac2ni.lha gfx/conv 9K 14+Convert/Rip MacOS.rsrc Icons to NewI WzonkaLad.lha misc/emu 71K 1+Wzonka-Lad - Gameboy emulator v0.57. sofke.lha mods/techn 104K 5+My first HOUSE modul, EDIT version. penzium.lha pix/trace 472K 3+060 vs. Pentium! All by "NURBS" ObjArc14usr.lha util/arc 50K 109+Access archives (lha, tar...) like d BindPathes.lha util/boot 6K 26+Create all the search pathes in one BlizzMagic.lha util/boot 12K 10+V3.3 Softkicker+ for Blizzard 1230/4 MCXP325.lha util/cdity 108K 4+MUI Preferences for MultiCX mcx263.lha util/cdity 78K 4+Multi Function Commodity RushHour13.lha game/misc 237K 4+Switch traffic lights, Version 1.3 @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 majordomo@ninemoons.com Your subject header will be ignored. In the body of the message, enter subscribe areport The system will automatically pull your e-mail address from the message header. Your account must be able to handle mail of any size to ensure an intact copy. For example, many systems have a 100K limit on incoming messages. ** IMPORTANT NOTICE: PLEASE be certain your host can accept mail over ** ** 100K! We have had a lot of bouncebacks recently from systems with a ** ** 100K size limit for incoming mail. If we get a bounceback with your ** ** address in it, it will be removed from the list. Thanks! ** @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.netnet.net, ftp.wustl.edu, ftp.luth.se, ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk @endnode @node WWW "World Wide Web" @toc WHERE World Wide Web ============== AR is also available on the WWW! Some of the mirror sites include a mail form, allowing you to mail to Amiga Report from the web site and some also include a search engine allowing you to search recent issues for specific topics and keywords (if your browser has forms capability). Simply tell your browser to open one of the following URLs (pick a location nearest you for the best performance): Australia http://ArtWorks.apana.org.au/AmigaReport.html http://www.deepwoods.saccii.net.au/ar/menu.html http://www.livewire.com.au/cucug/ar/ar.html (w/search and mail) http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~pec/amiga.html Germany http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/amiga/ar/ Greece http://www.acropolis.net/clubs/amiga/amigareport/ Hungary http://mm.iit.uni-miskolc.hu/Data/AR Italy http://www.vol.it/mirror/amiga/ar/ar.html Poland http://www.pwr.wroc.pl/AMIGA/AR/ Sweden http://www.lysator.liu.se/amiga/ar/ United Kingdom http://ppewww.ph.gla.ac.uk/~gowdy/Amiga/AmigaReport/ http://www.iprom.com/amigaweb/amiga.html/ar/ar.html (w/search and mail) http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Users/kcci1 USA http://www.cucug.org/ar/ar.html (w/search and mail) http://www.omnipresence.com/Amiga/News/AR/ Additional Amiga information can also be accessed at this URL: http://www.cucug.org/amiga.html Mosaic for the Amiga can be found on Aminet in directory comm/net, or (using anonymous ftp) on max.physics.sunysb.edu @endnode @node COPYRIGHT "Copyright Information" @toc ABOUT =========================================================================== Amiga Report International Online Magazine March 22, 1997 Issue No. 5.03 Copyright 1997 FS Publications All Rights Reserved =========================================================================== Views, Opinions and Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of the editors and staff of Amiga Report International Online Magazine or of FS Publications. Permission to reprint articles is hereby denied, unless otherwise noted. All reprint requests should be directed to the editor. Amiga Report and/or portions therein may not be edited in any way without prior written permission. However, translation into a language other than English is acceptible, provided the editor is notified beforehand and the original meaning is not altered. Amiga Report may be distributed on privately owned not-for-profit bulletin board systems (fees to cover cost of operation are acceptable), and major online services such as (but not limited to) Delphi and Amiga Zone. Distribution on public domain disks is acceptable provided proceeds are only to cover the cost of the disk (e.g. no more than $5 US). CD-ROM compilers should contact the editor. Distribution on for-profit magazine cover disks requires written permission from the editor. Amiga Report is a not-for-profit publication. Amiga Report, at the time of publication, is believed reasonably accurate. Amiga Report, its staff and contributors are not and cannot be held responsible for the use or misuse of information contained herein or the results obtained there from. Amiga Report is not affiliated with Escom AG. All items quoted in whole or in part are done so under the Fair Use Provision of the Copyright Laws of the United States Penal Code. Any Electronic Mail sent to the editors may be reprinted, in whole or in part, without any previous permission of the author, unless said electronic mail is specifically requested not to be reprinted. =========================================================================== @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. 4. Please send us your article in ASCII format. Note: If you want to check ahead of time to make sure we'll print your article, please write to the @{"Editor" link JASON}. Please stipulate as well if you wish to retain copyright or hand it over to the editor. @endnode @node ZONE "CalWeb" @toc ONLINE =========================================================================== CalWeb: The Home of the Amiga Zone! =========================================================================== AMIGA ZONE MOVES TO CALWEB! THE AMIGA ZONE MOVES FROM PORTAL TO CALWEB INTERNET SERVICES For over ten years the Amiga Zone has been an online resource, home, community, oasis, for Amiga owners. For over ten years I've made my living running the Zone and supporting Amiga users all over the USA, Canada, and the world. Five years ago when American People/Link pulled their own plug, we had to find the Zone a new home and we found a good one on the Portal Online System. Well, it's happened again.. Portal has informed all of its customers that its ten year history as an online service and Internet provider is coming to an end on Sept. 30, 1996. This is very sad, it's short-notice, and the decision is completely out of my control, but it's also irreversible. Portal is changing its entire business plan from being an ISP to selling an accounting system to other online services. So be it. It's sad, but like I said, the Zone went through this before and now we'll go through it again, and come out the other side better and wiser. THE AMIGA ZONE IS MOVING TO CALWEB INTERNET SERVICES. CalWeb (http://www.calweb.com) is a two year old Internet provider located in Sacramento, CA. It has a good sized customer base, and very knowledgeable support staff. It's also run by a long time Amiga owner who has been a friend of mine for many years. The world of modeming has changed much in the last ten years. In 1985 you had very few choices and you had 1200 baud. These days, everyone and his dog has an ISP running and a web page But the vast majority of those providers don't know an Amiga from a hole in the ground, and could care less about Amiga owners. Say "AWeb" or "IBrowse" to them and they'll say "Omega? Amoeba? What? Huh? They still make those things?" CalWeb is different because it's the new home of the Amiga Zone. In October 1996, a new custom front-end menued system will be added to CalWeb to host the Zone. It'll have features for Zone users that neither Plink nor Portal ever had nor were they willing to add. The tradition of a friendly online Amiga community, run by long time Amiga owners, users and lovers will continue. Message bases, huge file libraries (we plan to move over the 20,000+ files we have on the Zone on Portal to CalWeb, MANY of which you'll never see on Aminet or anywhere else), live nightly chats, vendor support and our famous prize contests will continue. We've given away tens of thousands of dollars worth of Amiga prizes in the last ten years. No one else even comes close. I urge any and all of you who were on Plink, or who are now on Portal or who may have left Portal.. or even if you were never on either but used or still use another online service to join CalWeb for the Amiga Zone. I personally promise you the best online Amiga community we can possibly build. You will not be disappointed. CalWeb has arranged a special signup offer for you! Call: 1-800-509-9322 or 1-916-641-9320 or telnet to calweb.com, login as "guest", and follow the prompts. You can join CalWeb for US$19.95 flat, a month. CalWeb takes major credit cards or you can establish a monthly invoiced account if you don't have plastic. The signup is FREE. To get this deal you must say "THE AMIGA ZONE SENT ME" when you call or signup online. I hope to see lots of you join CalWeb. You can telnet into it from anywhere for no hourly charges at all. Your $19.95/mo fee covers everything and also gets you ten meg of storage which includes hosting your own personal web page. Naturally, when the Zone opens there, you'll have unlimited use of all of its features and areas. Never a "money meter" clock to worry about. Your personal or business CalWeb Web pages are maintained by you via FTP. It's pretty slick. You can make a net connection to the server with any Amiga FTP client, put your files onto it, the permissions are automatically set (no "chmod-ing" required!) and flip to your running browser and see the changes instantly. The Amiga Zone's new home is already up at: http://www.amigazone.com running on CalWeb's server. Ckeck it out! Please feel free to write to me at harv@amigazone.com or harv@cup.portal.com if you want more information. Remember to say "THE AMIGA ZONE SENT ME!" when you join. A splendid time is guaranteed for all. Please plan to join us in the Amiga Zone on CalWeb! @endnode @node BBS_ASIA "Distribution BBSes - Asia" @toc BBS =========================================================================== Distribution BBSes - Asia =========================================================================== -= IRAN =- * MAVARA BBS * 0098 21 8740815 -=JAPAN=- * GIGA SONIC FACTOR * Email: kfr01002@niftyserve.or.jp +81-(0)564-55-4864 @endnode @node BBS_AUSTRALASIA "Distribution BBSes - Australasia" @toc BBS =========================================================================== Distribution BBSes - Australasia =========================================================================== -=NEW ZEALAND=- * BITSTREAM BBS * FidoNET 3:771/850.0 AmigaNET 41:644/850.0 +64-(0)3-548-5321 -=VICTORIA=- * NORTH WEST AMIGA BBS * mozza@nwamiga.apana.org.au Fido: 3:633/265.0 BBS Phone/Fax: +61 3 9331 2831 @endnode @node BBS_EUROPE "Distribution BBSes - Europe" @toc BBS =========================================================================== Distribution BBSes - Europe =========================================================================== -= BELGUIM =- * VIRTUAL VORTEX BBS * vzpirit@hotmail.com +32-2-3873391 -=DENMARK=- * NEMESIS AMY BBS * boersting@hoa.ping.dk Fido: 2:238/43 +45 75-353726 -=FINLAND=- * HANG UP BBS * (telnettable) helpdesk@hangup.dystopia.fi +358 - 09 - 278 8054 * LAHO BBS * +358-64-414 1516 +358-64-414 0400 +358-64-414 6800 +358-64-423 1300 * KINDERGARTEN * matthias.bartosik@hut.fi +358-0-881 32 36 -=FRANCE=- * DYNAMIX BBS * erlsoft@mcom.mcom.fr +33.1.48.89.96.66 Minitel to Modem * RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING * Fidonet: 2/320/104-105-106 +33-1-45845623 +33-1-53791200 -=GERMANY=- * DOOM OF DARKNESS * marc_doerre@doom.ping.de +49 (0)4223 8355 19200 AR-Infoservice, kai@doom.gun.de * IMAGINE BBS * Sysop@imagine.commo.mcnet.de +49-69-4304948 Login: GAST (Download area: "Amiga-Report") * LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL * andreas@lbcmbx.in-berlin.de 49-30-8110060 49-30-8122442 Login as User: "amiga", Passwd: "report" * REDEYE BBS * sysop@coolsurf.de Modem/ISDN: +49-89.54662690 Modem only:+49.89.54662680 * STINGRAY DATABASE * sysop@sting-db.zer.sub.org.dbp.de +49 208 496807 * VISION THING BBS * ++49(0)345 663914 System Password: Amiga -=GREECE=- * HELLAS ON LINE * cocos@prometheus.hol.gr Telnet: hellas.hol.gr ++301/ 620-6001, 620-6604, 620-9500 * LOGIC SYSTEMS BBS * Paddy@hol.gr (301) 983-4645 * ODYSSEY BBS * odyssey@acropolis.net Amiganet: 39:250/1.0 ++301-4123502 23.00-09.00 Local Time WWW: www.acropolis.net/~konem/odygb.html -=IRELAND=- * FWIBBLE! * E-Mail: 9517693@ul.ie Fidonet: 2:263/900.0 Phone: +353-902-36124 Midnight to 8am (GMT) Freq "Readme.txt" for details -=ITALY=- * AMIGA PROFESSIONAL BBS * +(39)-49-604488 * AMIPRO BBS* +39-49604488 * DB-LINE SRL * amiga@dbline.it WWW: www.dbline.it +39-332-767383 * FRANZ BBS * mc3510@mclink.it +39/6/6627667 * IDCMP * Fidonet 2:322/405 +39-542-25983 * SPEED OF LIFE * FidoNet 2:335/533 AmigaNet 39:102/12 +39-931-833773 -=NETHERLANDS=- * AMIGA ONLINE BS HEEMSTEDE * Email: sysop@aobh.xs4all.nl Fidonet: 2:280/464.0, 2:280/412.0 +31-23-5471111 +31-23-5470739 * THE HELL BBS * Email : root@hell.xs4all.nl FidoNet: 2:281/418.0 +31-(0)70-3468783 * MACRON BBS HEILOO * Email: macron@cybercomm.nl FidoNet: 2:280/134.0 +31-(0)72-5340903 * TRACE BBS GRONINGEN * Martin@trace.idn.nl FidoNET 2:282/529.0 +31-(0)-50-410143 * WILD PALMS * radavi@xs4all.nl WWW: www.xs4all.nl/~radavi/wildpalms/wildpalm.html +31-(0)30-6037959 * X-TREME BBS * u055231@vm.uci.kun.nl +31-167064414 -=NORWAY=- * BODØ BBS * bbsoft@sn.no +47 7552 2008 -=POLAND=- * SILVER DREAM!'S BBS * +48 91 540431 -=PORTUGAL=- * CIUA BBS * denise.ci.ua.pt FidoNet 2:361/9 +351-34-382080/382081 -=RUSSIA=- * NEW ORDER BBS * norder@norder.spb.su FidoNet: 2:5030/221.0 +7-812-2909561 -=SPAIN=- * GURU MEDITATION * +34-1-383-1317 * LA MITAD OSCURA * jovergon@offcampus.es Fido: 2:341/35.19 +34-1-3524613 * MAZAGON - BBS - SYSTEMS * jgomez@maze.mazanet.es FTP: ftp-mail@ftp.mazanet.es +34 59 536267 Login: a-report -=SWEDEN=- * CICERON * a1009@itv.se +46 612 22011 -=SWITZERLAND=- * USE COMMUNICATIONS POP ZUG * wenk@use.ch +41 41 763 17 41 -=TURKIYE=- * NEEDFUL THINGS * Erdinc.Corbaci@beygir.bbs.tr 90-216-3629417 -=UKRAINE=- * AMIGA HOME BBZ * Oleg.Khimich@bbs.te.net.ua FidoNet: 2:467/88.0 +380-482-325043 -=UNITED KINGDOM=- * AMIGA JUNCTION 9 * sysadmin@junct9.demon.co.uk FidoNet: 2:440/20 +44 (0)372 271000 * CREATIONS BBS * mat@darkside.demon.co.uk 2:254/524@Fidonet +44-0181-665-9887 * DRAUGHTFLOW BBS * Ian_Cooper@draught.demon.co.uk +44 (01707) 328484 * METNET CCS * metnet@demon.co.uk FidoNet: 2:2502/129.0 2:2502/130.0 +44-1482-442251 +44-1482-444910 * OCTAMED USER BBS * rbfsoft@cix.compulink.co.uk +44 (01703) 703446 * SCRATCH BBS * kcci1@solx1.susx.ac.uk +44-1273-389267 -=YUGOSLAVIA=- * UNIVERSE BBS * sule@universe.bc.co.ui +381-(0)21-741084 @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 * steve_hooper@comm.tfbbs.wimsey.com Fido: 1:153/210.0 604-945-6192 -=CALIFORNIA=- * TIERRA-MIGA BBS * torment.cts.com FidoNet: 1:202/638.0 619.292.0754 * VIRTUAL PALACE BBS * tibor@ecst.csuchico.edu 916-343-7420 * AMIGA AND IBM ONLY BBS * vonmolk@crash.cts.com AmigaNET: 40:406/7.0 (619)428-4887 -=FLORIDA=- * LAST! AMIGA BBS * (305) 456-0126 -=ILLINOIS=- * 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 SAGE'S TOWER * johnh@ezl.com FidoNet: 1:2250/7 618-259-1844 * STARSHIP CUCUG * khisel@prairienet.org (217)356-8056 * THE STYGIAN ABYSS BBS * FIDONet-1:115/384.0 312-384-0616 312-384-6250 (FREQ line) -=LOUISIANA=- * The Catacomb * Geoff148@delphi.com 504-882-6576 -=MAINE=- * THE KOBAYASHI ALTERNATIVE BBS * FidoNet: 1:326/404.0 FTP: ftp.tka.com (207)/784-2130 (207)/946-5665 -=MEXICO=- * AMIGA BBS * FidoNet 4:975/7 (5) 887-3080 * AMIGA SERVER BBS * 5158736 * TERCER PLANETA BBS * FX Network 800:525/1 [525]-606-2162 -=MISSISSIPPI=- * THE GATEWAY BBS * stace@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil FidoNet: 1:3604/60.0 601-374-2697 -=MICHIGAN=- * DC PRODUCTIONS * dcpro!chetw@heifetz.msen.com 616-373-0287 -=NEW JERSEY=- * T.B.P. VIDEO SLATE * 201-586-3623 * DLTACOM AMIGA BBS * dltacom.camphq.fidonet.org Fidonet: 1:2606/216.0 (201) 398-8559 -=NEW YORK=- * THE BELFRY(!) * stiggy@belfry.org WWW: www.belfry.org 718.793.4796 718.793.4905 -=ONTARIO=- * COMMAND LINE BBS * 416-533-8321 * CYBERSPACE * joehick@ophielia.waterloo.net (519) 579-0072 (519) 579-0173 * EDGE OF REALITY BBS * murray.smith@er.gryn.org Fido: 1:244/320.0 (905)578-5048 -=QUEBEC=- * CLUB AMIGA DE QUEBEC * Internet: snaclaq@megatoon.com Voice: (418) 666-5969 (418) 666-4146 (418) 666-6960 Nom d'usager: AMREPORT Mot de passe: AMIGA * GfxBase BBS* E-mail: ai257@freenet.hsc.colorado.edu Fidonet: 1:167/192 514-769-0565 -=TENNESSEE=- * AMIGA CENTRAL! * root@amicent.raider.net 615-383-9679 * NOVA BBS * FidoNet 1:362/508.0 615-472-9748 -=VIRGINIA=- * NETWORK XXIII DATA SYSTEM * gottfrie@acca.nmsu.edu 804-266-1763 Login: anon Password: nopass -=WASHINGTON=- * FREELAND MAINFRAME * freemf.wa.com (360)412-0228 * PIONEERS BBS * FidoNet: 1:343/54.0 206-775-7983 Login: Long Distance Password: longdistance Or FREQ: AR.lha @endnode @node BBS_SAMERICA "Distribution BBSes - South America" @toc BBS =========================================================================== Distribution BBSes - South America =========================================================================== -=BRAZIL=- * 68000 BBS * vaclav@centroin.com.br AmigaNET-BR: 120:5521/1 +55-21-393-4390 [16-06h (-3GMT)] * LITHIUM SYSTEMS BBS * pa100137@datacontrol.com.br 051-632-2805 (00:00 - 08:30) * STUFF OVERLOAD BBS * dan_cab@lepus.celepar.br AmigaNET-BR: 120:120/0 +55-41-252-9389 @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 nighty@gmatter.japan-online.or.jp -= MAYLAYSIA =- Innovations Lights & Magic (M) Sdn Bhd, A1106, University Towers, 28, Jalan Universiti, 46200, Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan Tel: +6 03 7544544 Fax: +6 03 7544588 skchiew@pc.jaring.my @endnode @node DEAL_AUSTRALASIA "Dealers - Australasia" @toc DEALER =========================================================================== Dealers - Australasia =========================================================================== -=AUSTRALIA=- Amadeus Computers 1/534 Old Northern Rd Round Corner, NSW 2158 Voice: 02 9651 1711 Fax: 02 9651 1710 WWW: www.amadeus.com.au amadeus@ca.com/au Amiga Genius 826 Hunter St. Newcastle West, NSW 2302 Ph: +61 49 623-222 Fax: +61 49 623-583 cdgtb@hunterlink.net.au Amiga 'n PC Centre Pty Ltd 644 South Road Glandore Adelaide, SA 5037 Phone: (08) 8293 8752 Fax: (08) 8293 8814 melbice@cobweb.com.au Amiga Technologies (Not ESCOM related) 17 Thompson Circuit Mill Park, VIC 3082 Phone: (03) 9436 5555 Fax: (03) 9436 9935 WWW: http://lion.cs.latrobe.edu.au/~laburacj/amitech.html laburacj@lion.cs.latrobe.edu.au Amilight Pty Ltd 47A Tate Street South Perth, Western Australia, 6151 Phone: (09) 367 4422 Fax: (09) 3674482 WWW: www.vianet.net.au/~dwark dwark@vianet.net.au Amitar Home Computer Systems Unit 1, 25 Gillim Drive Kelmscott, WA 6111 Phone: (09) 495 4905 Fax: (09) 495 4905 WWW: http://crystal.com.au/~amitar/ amitar@crystal.com.au Byte One 24 Silverton Drive Ferntree Gully, VIC 3156 Phone: (03) 9752 3991 gordon@ozramp.net.au Computa Magic Pty Ltd 44 Pascoe Vale Road Moonee Ponds, VIC 3039 Phone: (03) 9326 0133 Fax: (03) 9370 8352 Computer Affair 337 Penshurst Street Willoughby, NSW 2068 Phone: (02) 9417 5155 Fax: (02) 9417 5542 WWW: www.computeraffair.com.au sales@computeraffair.com.au Computer Man 611 Beaufort Street Mt. Lawley, WA 6050 Phone: (09) 328 9062 Fax: (09) 275 1010 WWW: www.iinet.net.au/~cman cman@iinet.net.au Desktop Utilities PO BOX 3053 Manuka, ACT 2603 Phone: (06) 239 6658 Fax: (06) 239 6619 WWW: ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/~dtu 100026.1706@compuserve.com Don Quixote Software PO BOX 786 Toowoomba, QLD 4350 Phone: (076) 391 578 Fax: (076) 320 145 donq@tmba.design.net.au Exclusive Computer Systems Street: 34 Weston Street Weston, N.S.W. 2326 Postal: P.O. Box 68, Weston, N.S.W. 2326 Phone: (049) 361213 Fax: (049) 36 1213 Email: peter.archer@fastlink.com.au Fonhoff Computer Supplies Baulkham Hills, NSW 2153 Phone: (02) 9639 7718 Fax: (02) 9639 5995 WWW: http://godzilla.zeta.org.au/~jfonhof jfonhof@zeta.org.au GSoft Shop 4, 2 Anderson Walk Smithfield, SA 5114 Phone: (08) 8284 1266 Fax: (08) 8284 0922 gsoft@cobweb.com.au Image Domain 92 Bridge St Fortitude Valley, Brisbane Queensland Voice: 617-3216-1240 Fax: 617-3852-2720 imagedomain@msn.com Motherboard Computers Suite 19, 9-11 Abel Street Penrith, NSW 2750 Phone: (047) 222 803 Fax: (047) 215 277 WWW: www.pnc.com.au/~mother mother@pnc.com.au MVB 506-508 Dorset Road Croydon, VIC 3136 Phone: (03) 9725 6255 Fax: (03) 9725 6766 Sigmacom Suite 16, 20-24 Gibbs Street Miranda, NSW 2228 Phone: (02) 9524 9846 Fax: (02) 9549 4554 WWW: www.sigma.com.au Software Buyers Service PO BOX 734 Belmont, VIC 3216 Phone/Fax: (052) 431 445 arne@euphoria.bay.net.au Software Circus 27 Darling Street Kensington, NSW 2033 Phone: (02) 9313 8484 Synapse Computers 190 Riding Road Hawthorne, Brisbane Queensland 4171 Voice/Fax: +61 7-3899-0980 WWW: www.powerup.com.au/~synapse/ synapse@powerup.com.au Unitech Electronics Pty. Ltd. / Maverick Amiga 8B Tummul Place St. Andrews, Sydney 2566 Voice: +61 2 9820 3555 Fax: +61 2 9603 8685 Valhalla: Games and Hobbies 493 Wellington Street Perth, 6000 Phone: (09) 321 2909 Westcomp 96 Bentinck Street Bathurst, NSW 2795 Phone: (063) 322 611 Fax: (063) 322 623 -=NEW ZEALAND=- CompKarori LG/F Karori Shopping Mall Karori, Wellington Tel: +64 4 476-0212 Fax: +64 4 476-9088 WWW: www.compkarori.co.nz Email: sales@compkarori.co.nz @endnode @node DEAL_EUROPE "Dealers - Europe" @toc DEALER =========================================================================== Dealers - Europe =========================================================================== -=AUSTRIA=- A.R.T. Computeranimation Ges.m.b.H. Feldstrasse 13 3300 Amstetten Tel: +43 7472/63566-0 Fax: +43 7472/63566-6 Solaris Computec Ges.m.b.H. Mariahilfpark 1 A-6020 Innsbruck Tel: ++43-512/272724 Fax: ++43-512/272724-2 solaris@computec.co.at -=BELGIUM=- AVM Technology Rue de Rotheux, 279 B-4100 Seraing Voice: +32 (0)41 38.16.06 Fax: +32 (0)41 38.15.69 defraj@mail.interpac.be CLICK! N.V. Boomsesteenweg 468 B-2610 Wilrijk - Antwerpen Voice: +32 (0)3 828.18.15 Fax: +32 (0)3 828.67.36 vanhoutv@nbre.nfe.be Generation Amiga Rue Hotel des Monnaies, 120-122 B-1060 Bruxelles Voice: +32-2-538.93.60 Fax: +32-2-538.91.35 WWW: www.genamiga.arc.be/genamiga/ Email: genamiga@arcadia.be -=BULGARIA=- KlubVerband ITA Gmbh 1309 Sofia P.F.13, KukushStr. 1-2 Contact: Dr. ING B. Pavlov Tel: +359-2-221471 Fax: +359-2-230062 KVITA@VIRBUS.BG -=DENMARK=- Data Service Att. Soren Petersen Kaerhaven2a 2th 6400 Sonderborg Phone/Fax: +45 74 43 17 36 sorpe-95@sdbg.ih.dk -=FINLAND=- Gentle Eye ky PL 8 33841 Tampere Phone: 358-3-363-0048 Fax: 358-3-363-0058 WWW: www.ge.vip.fi ge@vip.fi Lincware Computers Ltd Lovkullankuja 3 10300 KARJAA Voice: +358-50-5573696 Fax: +358-11-231511 linctech@freenet.hut.fi -=FRANCE=- ASCII Informatique 10 Rue de Lepante 06000 NICE Tel: (33) 93 13 08 66 Fax: (33) 93 13 90 95 Quartz Infomatique 2 bis, avenue de Brogny F-74000 ANNECY Tel./Fax: +33 50.52.83.31 tcp@imaginet.fr -=GERMANY=- AMItech Systems GmbH Ludwigstrasse 4 D-95028 Hof/Saale Voice: +49 9281 142812 Fax: +49 9281 142712 WWW: www.hof.baynet.de/~mediatech mediatech@hof.baynet.de dcp, desing+commercial partner GmbH Alfredstr. 1 D-22087 Hamburg Tel.: + 49 40 251176 Fax: +49 40 2518567 WWW: www.dcp.de info@dcp.de Hartmann & Riedel GdbR Hertzstr. 33 D-76287 Rheinstetten Voice: +49 (7242) 2021 Fax: +49 (7242) 2167 rick@morrison.inka.de Please call before visiting Hirsch & Wolf OHG Mittelstra_e 33 D-56564 Neuwied Voice: +49 (2631) 8399-0 Fax: +49 (2631) 8399-31 Pro Video Elektronik Roßmarkt 38 D-63739 Aschaffenburg Tel: (49) 6021 15713 Fax: (49) 6021 15713 -=ITALY=- C.A.T.M.U. snc Casella Postale 63 10023 Chieri (TO) Tel/Fax: +39 11 9415237 fer@inrete.it (Ferruccio Zamuner) Cloanto Italia srl Via G. B. Bison 24 33100 Udine Tel: +39 432 545902 Fax: +39 432 609051 WWW: www.cloanto.com info@cloanto.com -=NETHERLANDS=- Chaos Systems Watermolen 18 NL-1622 LG Hoorn (NH) Voice: +31-(0)229-233922 Fax/Data: +31-(0)229-TBA WWW: gene.fwi.uva.nl/~marioh/ marioh@fwi.uva.nl Computer + Repair Schoonbrood Rodeput 15 63695N Simpelveld Voice: 0031-455680048 Fax: 0031-455680049 CRS@CUCI.NL -=NORWAY=- Applause Data AS Storgaten 31 Postboks 143 2830 Raufoss Voice: +47 61 19 03 80 Fax: +47 61 19 05 80 WWW: www.applause.no post@applause.no DataKompaniet ANS Trondheim Innovation Centre Prof. Brochs gt. 6 N-7030 Trondheim Tel: +47 7354 0375 Fax: +47 7394 3861 WWW: www.datakompaniet.no post@datakompaniet.no Sezam Software Ulsmågveien 11a N-5o5o Nesttun Tel/Fax: +47 55100070 (9-20) ABBS: +47 55101730 (24t) Email: oleksy@telepost.no -=SPAIN=- Amiga Center Argullós, 127 08016 Barcelona Tel: (93) 276 38 06 Fax: (93) 276 30 80 Amiga Center Alicante Segura, 27 03004 Alicante Tel: (96) 514 37 34 Audio Vision San Jose, 53 Gijon (Asturias) Tel: (98) 535 24 79 Centro Informático Boadilla Convento, 6 28660 Boadilla del Monte (Madrid) Tel: (91) 632 27 65 Fax: (91) 632 10 99 Centro Mail Tel: (91) 380 28 92 C.R.E. San Francisco, 85 48003 Bilbao (Vizcaya) Tel: (94) 444 98 84 Fax: (94) 444 98 84 Donosti Frame Avda. de Madrid, 15 20011 San Sebastián (Guipuzcoa) Tel: (943) 42 07 45 Fax: (943) 42 45 88 Eurobit Informatica C/. Gral. Garcia de la Herran, 4 11100 - San Fernando Cadiz Tel/Fax: (956) 896375 GaliFrame Galerías Príncipe, 22 Vigo (Pontevedra) Tel: (986) 22 89 94 Fax: (986) 22 89 94 Invision San Isidro, 12-18 28850 Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid) Tel: (91) 676 20 56/59 Fax: (91) 656 10 04 Invision Salamanca, 53 46005 Valencia Tel: (96) 395 02 43/44 Fax: (96) 395 02 44 Norsoft Bedoya, 4-6 32003 Orense Tel: (988) 24 90 46 Fax: (988) 23 42 07 PiXeLSOFT Felipe II, 3bis 34004 Palencia Tel: (979) 71 27 00 Fax: (979) 71 28 28 Tu Amiga Ordinadors C/ Progreso, 6 08120 La LLagosta (Barcelona) Tel: +34-3-5603604 Fax: +34-3-5603607 vb soft Provenza, 436 08025 Barcelona Tel: (93) 456 15 45 Fax: (93) 456 15 45 -=SWEDEN=- DataVision Box 1305 753 11 Uppsala Street Address: Sysslomansgatan 9 Orders: +46 (0)18-123400 Shop: +46 (0)18-124009 Fax: +46 (0)18-100650 Orebro Videoreklam Slottsgatan 12 703 61 OREBRO Tel/Fax: +46 (0)19-123807 WWW: www.flevel.co.uk/videoking videoking@mbox200.swipnet.se -=SWITZERLAND=- RELEC Software & Hardware AMIGA Village du Levant 2B CH 1530 PAYERNE Tel: +26 660 02 82 Fax: +26 660 0283 Relec@com.mcnet.ch Studio 4D Deinikonerstrasse 14 6340 Baar Voice: +41 41 763 17 47 Fax: +41 41 763 17 48 studio4d@zug.use.ch -=UNITED KINGDOM=- 5DLicenceware 1 Lower Mill Close Goldthorpe Rotherham South Yorkshire S63 9BY Tel/Fax: 01709 888127 WWW: www.ware5d.demon.co.uk phil@ware5d.demon.co.uk Brian Fowler Computers Ltd 90 South Street Exeter, Devon EX1 1EN Voice: (01392) 499 755 Fax: (01392) 493 393 brian_fowler@cix.compulink.co.uk Computer Magic Unit 8 Freemans Yard Doncaster Road, Barnsley S71 1QH Tel: 01226 218255 / 0378 425281 Visage Computers 27 Watnall Road Hucknall, Nottingham Tel: +44 (0)115 9642828 Tel/Fax: +44 (0)115 9642898 visage@innotts.co.uk @endnode @node DEAL_NAMERICA "Dealers - North America" @toc DEALER =========================================================================== Dealers - North America =========================================================================== -=CANADA=- Animax Multimedia, Inc. Willow Tree Tower 6009 Quinpool Road, Suite 802 Halifax, Nova Scotia B3K 5J7 Ph: (902) 429-1921 Fax: (902) 429-1923 WWW: www.animax.com/ info@animax.com APC Computer Services 402-5 Tangreen Crt Willowdale, Ont. M2M 3Z1 Voice/Fax: (416) 733-1434 WWW: www.interlog.com/~shadow/apccomp.html shadow@interlog.com Atlantis Kobetek Inc. 1496 Lower Water St. Halifax, NS / B3J 1R9 Phone: (902)-422-6556 Fax: (902)-423-9339 atkobetek@ra.isisnet.com Atlas Computers & Consulting - Derek Davlut 400 Telstar Avenue Suite 701 Sudbury, ON / P3E 5V7 Phone: (705) 522-1923 Fax: (705) 522-1923 s2200147@nickel.laurentian.ca CineReal Pro-Video 272 Avondale Avenue Ottawa, Ontario K1Z 7G8 Phone/Fax: (613) 798-8150 (Call first to fax) cinereal@proton.com Computer Shop of Calgary, Ltd. 3515 - 18th Street S.W. Calgary, Alberta T2T 4T9 Ph. 1-403-243-4358 Fx: 1-403-243-2684 WWW: www.canuck.com/cshop austin@canuck.com Computerology Direct Powell River, BC V8A-4Z3 Orders/inquiries: 604/483-3679 (24h) Ask for HEAD SALES REP for quicker response! Comspec Communications Inc 74 Wingold Ave Toronto, Ontario M6B 1P5 Computer Centre: (416) 785-8348 Sales: (416) 785-3553 Fax: 416-785-3668 bryanf@comcorp.comspec.com, bryanf@accesspt.north.net ElectroMike Inc. 1375 Boul. Charest Ouest Quebec, Quebec G1N2E7 Tel: (418) 681-4138, (800) 463-1501 Fax: (418) 681-5880 Forest Diskasaurus 35 Albert St., P.O.Box 84 Forest, Ontario N0N 1J0 Tel/Fax: 519-786-2454 saurus@xcelco.on.ca FranTek 5-353 McArthur Avenue Vanier, Ontario K1L 6N5 Phone: (613) 746-7854 ext 3 Fax/Modem: (613) 746-7854 WWW: www.travel-net.com/~frantek frantek@travel-net.com GfxBase Electronique, Inc 1727 Shevchenko Montreal, Quebec Voice: 514-367-2575 Fax: 514-367-5265 BBS: 514-769-0565 Le Groupe PowerLand 630 Champagne Rosemere, Quebec J7A 4K9 Voice: 514-893-6296 Fax/BBS: 514-965-7295 mchabot@nationalnet.com National Amiga London, Ontario Fax: 905-845-3295 WWW: www.interlog.com/~gscott/NationalAmiga.html gscott@interlog.com Oshawa Amiga Oshawa, ON L1J 5J8 Phone: (905) 728-7048 WWW: web.idirect.com/~oshamiga mjacula@idirect.com Randomize Computers R.R. #2 Tottenham, Ont. L0G 1W0 vox: 905-939-8371 fax: 905-939-8745 WWW: www.randomize.com randomize@interlog.com SpectrumTech Electronics Contact: Derek Clarke 412-1205 Fennell Avenue East Hamilton, ON L8T 1T1 Voice: (905) 388-9575 BBS: (905) 388-2542 ste@spectrum.gryn.org Valley Soft P.O. Box 864 Pembroke, Ontario K8A 7M5 Phone: (613) 732-7700 Fax: (613) 732-8477 WWW: www.renc.igs.net/~valsoft Wonder Computers Ottawa Retail Store 1315 Richmond Road Ottawa, Ontario K2B 8J7 Voice: (613) 721-1800 Fax: 613-721-6992 WWW: www.wonder.ca Wonder Computers Vancouver Sales Office 2229 Edinburgh St. New Westminster, BC W3M 2Y2 Voice: (604) 524-2151 young monkey studios 797 Mitchell Street Fredericton, NB E3B 3S8 Phone: (506) 459-7088 Fax: (506) 459-7099 sales@youngmonkey.ca -=UNITED STATES=- A&D Computer 211 South St. Milford, NH 03055-3743 Voice/Fax: 603-672-4700 BBS: 603-673-2788 amiga@mv.mv.com Alex Electronics 597 Circlewood Dr. Paradise, CA 95969 Voice/Fax: 916-872-3722 BBS: 915-872-3711 WWW: www.wordbench.com/ alex@wordbench.com Amigability Computers P.O. Box 572 Plantsville, CT 06479 Voice: 203-276-8175 caldi@pcnet.com Amiga-Crossing PO Box 12A Cumberland Center, ME 04021 Voice: (800) 498-3959 (Maine only Voice: (207) 829-3959 Fax: (207) 829-3522 amiga-x@tka.com Amiga Library Services 610 Alma School Rd, #18 Chandler, Az 85224-3687 Voice: (800) 804-0833 Fax: (602) 491-0048 orders@ninemoons.com Amiga Video Solutions 1568 Randolph Avenue St. Paul, MN 55105 Voice: 612-698-1175 Fax: 612-224-3823 BBS: 612-698-1918 wohno001@maroon.tc.umn.edu Applied Multimedia Inc. 89 Northill St. Stamford, CT 06907 Voice: (203) 348-0108 Apogee Technologies 1851 University Parkway Sarasota, FL 34243 Voice: 813-355-6121 Apogee@cup.portal.com Armadillo Brothers 753 East 3300 South Salt Lake City, Utah Voice: 801-484-2791 B.GRAY@genie.geis.com Computer Advantage 7370 Hickman Road Des Moines, IA 50322 Voice/Fax: 515-252-6167 Number1@netins.net Computer Concepts 18001 Bothell-Everett Hwy, Suite "0" Bothell, WA 98012 Voice: (206) 481-3666 Computer Link 6573 middlebelt Garden City MI 48135 Voice: 313-522-6005 Fax: 313-522-3119 clink@m-net.arbornet.org The Computer Room 2760 South Havana Street Aurora, Colorado 80014 Voice: 303-696-8973 WWW: www.computerroom.com Email: sales@computerroom.com The Computer Source 515 Kings Highway East Fairfield, CT 06432 Voice: (203) 336-3100 Fax: (203) 335-3259 Computers International, Inc. 5415 Hixson Pike Chattanooga, TN 37343 Voice: 615-843-0630 Computerwise Computers 3006 North Main Logan, UT 84322 Concord Computer Solutions 2745 Concord Blvd. Suite 5 Concord, CA 94519 Orders: 1-888-80-AMIGA Info/Tech: 510-680-0143 BBS/Fax: 510-680-4987 WWW: www.ccompsol.com/ moxley@value.net CPU Inc. 5168 East 65th St. Indianapolis, IN 46220 Voice: 317-577-3677 Fax: 317-577-1500 cpuken@indy.net CyberTech Labs PO Box 56941 North Pole, Alaska 99705 Vox: (907) 451-3285 BBS1: (907) 488-2547 BBS2 & Fax: (907) 488-2647 71516.600@CompuServe.com DC Productions 218 Stockbridge Avenue Kalamazoo, MI 49001 Phone: (616)373-1985 (800)9DC-PROD dcpro!chetw@heifetz.msen.com Digital Arts 1321 North Walnut P.O. Box 5206 Bloomington, IN 47807-5206 Voice: (812)330-0124 Fax: (812)330-0126 BIX: msears Digital Castle 4046 Hubbell Ave. Suite 155 Des Moines, IA 50317-4434 Voice: (515) 266-5098 Sheep@netins.net Digital F/X, Inc. 1930 Maple, Suite 7 North Bend, OR 97459 Voice: (800) 202-3285 / (541) 756-6693 WWW: www.digital-fx.com DFX@Mail.coos.or.us Discount Computer Sales 1100 Sunset Strip #5 Sunrise, FL 33313 Voice: 954-797-9402 Fax: 954-797-2999 DCS@aii.net, DCS@interpoint.net Electronic Connection 635 Penn Ave West Reading, PA 19611 Phone: 610-372-1010 Fax: 610-378-0996 Hawkeye Communication 1324 Fifth Street Coralville, Iowa 52241 Voice: 319-354-3354 Hawkcom@inav.net HHH Enterprises Contact: Tom Harmon PO Box 10 Hartwood, VA 22471 Voice: (540) 752-2100 ko4ox@erols.com HT Electronics 211 Lathrop Way, Ste. A. Sacramento, CA 95815 V: (916) 925-0900 F: (916) 925-2829 BIX: msears HT Electronics 422 S. Hillview Dr. Milipitas, CA 95035 V: (408) 934-7700 F: (408) 934-7717 BIX: msears Industrial Video, Inc. Contact: John Gray 1601 North Ridge Rd. Lorain, OH 44055 Voice: 800-362-6150, 216-233-4000 af741@cleveland.freenet.edu Kipp Visual Systems 360-C Christopher Ave. Gaithersburg Md, 20878 Voice: 301-670-7906 kipp@rasputin.umd.edu Krulewich Enterprises 554 Vega Dr Corpus Christi, TX 78418 Voice: (512) 937-4624 1040.3444@compuserve.com The Lively Computer - Tom Lively 8314 Parkway Dr. La Mesa, CA 91942 Voice: 619-589-9455 Fax: 619-589-5230 tlively@connectnet.com Magic Page Contact: Patrick Smith 3043 Luther Street Winston-Salem, NC 27127 Voice/Fax: 910-785-3695 spiff@ix.netcom.com MicroSearch 9000 US 59 South, Suite 330 Houston, Texas Voice: 713-988-2818 Fax: 713-995-4994 MicroTech Solutions, Inc. 17W745 Butterfield Road, Suite F Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181 Phone: 630-495-4069 Fax: 630-495-4245 WWW: www.mt-inc.com info@mt-inc.com Mr. Hardware Computers P.O. Box 148 / 59 Storey Ave. Central Islip, NY 11722 Voice: 516-234-8110 Fax: 516-234-8110 A.M.U.G. BBS: 516-234-6046 Paxtron Corporation 28 Grove Street Spring Valley, NY 10977 Voice: 914-576-6522 Orders: 800-815-3241 Fax: 914-624-3239 PSI Animations 17924 SW Pilkington Road Lake Oswego, OR 97035 Voice: 503-624-8185 PSIANIM@agora.rain.com Raymond Commodore Amiga 795 Raymond Avenue St. Paul, MN 55114-1521 Voice: 612-642-9890 Fax: 612-642-9891 BBS: 612-874-8342 WWW: www.visi.com/~raycomp raycomp@visi.com Safe Harbor Computers W226 N900 Eastmound Dr Waukesha, WI 53186 Orders: 800-544-6599 Fax: 414-548-8130 WWW: www.sharbor.com Slipped Disk 170 E 12 Mile Rd Madison Heights, Michigan 48071 Voice: (810) 546-DISK BBS: (810) 399-1292 Software Plus Chicago 2945 W Peterson Suite 209 Chicago, Illinois Voice: 312-878-7800 System Eyes Computer Store 730M Milford Rd Ste 345 Merrimack, NH 03054-4642 Voice: (603) 4244-1188 Fax: (603) 424-3939 j_sauter@systemeye.ultranet.com TJ's Unlimited P.O. Box #354 North Greece, NY 14515-0354 Voice: 716-225-5810 BBS: 716-225-8631 neil@rochgte.fidonet.org Zipperware 76 South Main St. Seattle, WA 98104 Voice: 206-223-1107 Fax: 206-223-9395 WWW: www.speakeasy.org/zipperware zipware@nwlink.com @endnode @node OPINION "Editorial and Opinion" @toc MENU =========================================================================== Editorial and Opinion =========================================================================== @{" compt.sys.editor.desk " link EDITORIAL} Marching on and on... --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" News " link NEWS} @{" Opinion " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{" Reviews " link REVIEW} @{" Charts " link FTP} @{" Adverts " link COMMERCIAL} @endnode @node NEWS "News & Press Releases" @toc MENU =========================================================================== News & Press Releases =========================================================================== @{" Blizzard 603e PowerPC Board" link NEWS39} Phase5 announces A1200 PPC @{" CyberStorm 604e PPC Board " link NEWS40} Phase5 announces A3000/4000 PPC @{" World Of Amiga Show " link NEWS37} The WOA UK is back! @{" Amiga Myst " link NEWS6} ClickBOOM to bring us Amiga Myst! @{" Amiga Legacy Magazine " link NEWS36} An Amiga magazine for your TV! @{" Chips With Everything " link NEWS14} A new British TV show about the Amiga @{" Amiga Enforcer V37.70 " link NEWS22} New! Source code also for sale! @{" Citadel 68K v7A01 " link NEWS1} New version of the multiplatform BBS @{" Informer Issue #6 " link NEWS2} A new Informer hits the "stands" @{" ShowIcon V2.0 " link NEWS3} Low overhead icon viewer @{" Amiga Browser Watch " link NEWS4} A new service of AmiCrawler @{" Browser Study Results " link NEWS17} AmiCrawler's usage statistics @{" F1GP-Ed v3.30 " link NEWS5} The new version of the F1GP customizer @{" Almathera Shuts Down " link NEWS38} Almathera's doors close @{" Quasar And French Problems " link NEWS7} Piracy in France causes serious problems @{" ImageFX Seminars " link NEWS8} You, too, can have your very own @{" CD Library System " link NEWS20} Very professional software for the Amiga @{" X-DVE 2.70 " link NEWS35} Video animation package @{" fMSX Amiga 1.3 " link NEWS30} The latest MSX emulator version @{" AROS V1.7 " link NEWS9} The Amiga Replacement OS @{" AROS V1.10 " link NEWS15} ...an update to the above @{" Arthur Wilkins Software " link NEWS26} AdPro and Movieshop operators @{" MPMorph v4.5 " link NEWS10} 24-bit morph creation @{" Amiga-CLISP " link NEWS11} A CLISP implementation @{" BattleDuel V1.6.80 " link NEWS12} Shareware Artillery Duel clone @{" iX-Guide 0.6d " link NEWS13} A would-be AmigaGuide replacement @{" dignet.library v2.2 " link NEWS16} Serial network handling for programmers @{" Developer Conference " link NEWS18} To be held at WOA UK @{" Phonebill v3.5 " link NEWS19} Analyze phone bill logs @{" Divecalc " link NEWS21} Diving competition management @{" Games Master System V0.5B " link NEWS23} A game creation package @{" AmiNET Query " link NEWS24} In full text @{" NetResearch Book " link NEWS25} The latest from Dan Barrett @{" REBOL Reference Manual " link NEWS27} Sassenrath's first visible reference @{" VWM v1.2 " link NEWS28} Window management system @{" POWER Recent v4.00 " link NEWS29} Quick usage of Aminet RECENT @{" RO v1.25 " link NEWS31} Directory management with MUI @{" ToolManager v3.0 " link NEWS32} Powerful WB tool organizer @{" Executive v2.10 " link NEWS33} Task scheduling system @{" AmigaBase v2.4 " link NEWS34} Programmable database software --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" News " link NEWS} @{" Opinion " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{" Reviews " link REVIEW} @{" Charts " link FTP} @{" Adverts " link COMMERCIAL} @endnode @node FEATURE "Featured Articles" @toc MENU =========================================================================== Featured Articles =========================================================================== @{" Amiga '97 Show Report " link FEATURE2} The official AR account @{" Amiga '97 Show Report " link FEATURE1} A more whimsical look --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" News " link NEWS} @{" Opinion " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{" Reviews " link REVIEW} @{" Charts " link FTP} @{" Adverts " link COMMERCIAL} @endnode @node REVIEW "Reviews" @toc MENU =========================================================================== Reviews =========================================================================== @{" CyberStorm Mark II " link REVIEW12} Phase5's 060 powerhouse @{" Apollo 3060 " link REVIEW3} The ACT 060 card reviewed @{" Apollo 4040 " link REVIEW9} ACT's high-speed 040 card @{" Burnout " link REVIEW1} Very pretty racing, but... @{" Tiny Troops " link REVIEW2} War is ALWAYS a lot of fun. @{" Kara Collection CD " link REVIEW5} Kara fonts unearthed @{" Magic Publisher " link REVIEW6} 4 CDs full of DTP magic @{" Aminet Set 4 " link REVIEW8} The latest huge installment @{" ArtEffect 1.5 " link REVIEW10} "Do you know Photoshop?" Well... @{" Picasso IV Card " link REVIEW4} The latest in graphics cards @{" CyberVision 64/3D " link REVIEW11} A mini-look at the not-quite-done card @{" Emulation Rambler " link REVIEW7} An overview of 8-bit emulation --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" News " link NEWS} @{" Opinion " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{" Reviews " link REVIEW} @{" Charts " link FTP} @{" Adverts " link COMMERCIAL} @endnode @node FTP "Aminet Charts" @toc MENU =========================================================================== Aminet Charts =========================================================================== @{" 23-Feb-97 " link CHARTS1} @{" 02-Mar-97 " link CHARTS2} @{" 09-Mar-97 " link CHARTS3} @{" 16-Mar-97 " link CHARTS4} --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" News " link NEWS} @{" Opinion " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{" Reviews " link REVIEW} @{" Charts " link FTP} @{" Adverts " link COMMERCIAL} @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 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" News " link NEWS} @{" Opinion " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{" Reviews " link REVIEW} @{" Charts " link FTP} @{" Adverts " link COMMERCIAL} @endnode @node STAFF "The Staff" @toc ABOUT =========================================================================== The Staff =========================================================================== Editor: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} Assistant Editor: @{" Katherine Nelson " link KATIE} Games Editor: @{" Ken Anderson " link KEN} Contributing Editor: @{" William Near " link WILLIAM} Contributing Editor: @{" Bohus Blahut " link BOHUS} --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" News " link NEWS} @{" Opinion " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{" Reviews " link REVIEW} @{" Charts " link FTP} @{" Adverts " link COMMERCIAL} @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 ZONE} --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" News " link NEWS} @{" Opinion " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{" Reviews " link REVIEW} @{" Charts " link FTP} @{" Adverts " link COMMERCIAL} @endnode @node BBS "Distribution Sites" @toc WHERE =========================================================================== Distribution BBSes =========================================================================== Arranged by Continent: @{" Asia " link BBS_ASIA} @{" Australasia " link BBS_AUSTRALASIA} @{" 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" News " link NEWS} @{" Opinion " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{" Reviews " link REVIEW} @{" Charts " link FTP} @{" Adv @{" Adverts " link COMMERCIAL} @endnode @node DEALER "Dealer Directory" @toc MENU =========================================================================== Dealer Directory =========================================================================== Arranged by Continent: @{" Asia " link DEAL_ASIA} @{" Australasia " link DEAL_AUSTRALASIA} @{" Europe " link DEAL_EUROPE} @{" North America " link DEAL_NAMERICA} Dealers: 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 dealership --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" News " link NEWS} @{" Opinion " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{" Reviews " link REVIEW} @{" Charts " link FTP} @{" Adverts " link COMMERCIAL} @endnode

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08/1997