@database "ar407.guide" @Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #4.07 -- May 16, 1996" =========================================================================== May 16, 1996 @{" Turn the Page " link MENU} Issue No. 4.07 =========================================================================== ,a c4%&; 1%%%b 9%=~ " m; mmmm; nmm mmmmm .,pmq,. m; j#6 ##6 j### ### ,#'~ ~`g, j#6 ##&; ##&; #### ### ,#f `# ##&; jP##6 ###6 jP### ### .##' " jP##6 #'$#&; #$#&; #'### ### i## #'$#&; jP l##6 #l##6 jP ### ### &## jP l##6 #' $#&; # $#&;#' ### ### &## #' $#&; j#mmmd##6 # l##6P ### ### ?## mmmw j#mmmd##6 #' $#&; # $##' ### ### ##; $#$ #' $#&; jP l##6 # l#P ### ### `#l ,&#'jP l##6 #' ###mm # $' mm###mm mm###mm `#q,.,p#' #' ###mm (R) "~^~" &&&&q, , ,P `b d' tm d' ,P d&&&P ;P .,d' ,c&&q, &&&&q, ,c&&q, q&,e&q ;P' d&&&P ;P' `& d' `b ;P' `b dP~ `P d' ;P'`&; dB&&&&P ;P ,P d' P ;P ;P d' `&; &, , d' .,d' &, .,d' d' d' , &&& &&'`&&&P' ;B&&&P' `&&&P' &&& `&P' d' ;P &&& "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!" Copyright 1996 FS Publications All Rights Reserved @endnode @node MENU "Amiga Report Main Menu" @toc MAIN Amiga Report 4.07 is sponsored in part by @{" ClickBOOM " link AD1}, authors of the upcoming @{" Capital Punishment " link AD1}. =========================================================================== == Main Menu == =========================================================================== @{" Editorial and Opinion " link OPINION} @{" Featured Articles " link FEATURE} @{" Reviews " link REVIEW} @{" News & Press Releases " link NEWS} @{" Aminet Charts " link FTP} @{" Reader Mail " link MAIL} --------------------------------- @{" About AMIGA REPORT " link ABOUT} @{" Dealer Directory " link DEALER} Contact Information and Copyrights Amiga Dealer Addresses and Numbers @{" Where to Get AR " link WHERE} @{" Advertisements " link COMMERCIAL} Mailing List & Distribution Sites Online Services, Dealers, Ordering ______________________________________________ // | | // ========//====| Amiga Report International Online Magazine |======//===== == \\// | Issue No. 4.07 May 16, 1996 | \\// == ==============| "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!" |============= |______________________________________________| @endnode @node JASON "Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== EDITOR =========================================================================== Jason Compton ============= Internet Address -------- ------- jcompton@shell.portal.com 1203 Alexander Ave jcompton@xnet.com Streamwood, IL 60107-3003 USA Fax Phone --- ----- 847-741-0689 847-733-0248 @endnode @node KATIE "Assistant Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== == ASSISTANT EDITOR == =========================================================================== Katherine Nelson ================ Internet -------- Kati@cup.portal.com @endnode @node KEN "Games Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== == GAMES EDITOR == =========================================================================== Ken Anderson ============ Internet Address -------- ------- kend@dhp.com 44 Scotland Drive ka@protec.demon.co.uk Dunfermline Fife KY12 7TD Scotland @endnode @node WILLIAM "Contributing Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== CONTRIBUTING EDITOR =========================================================================== William Near ============ Internet -------- wnear@epix.net @endnode @node ADDISON "Contributing Editor" @toc STAFF =========================================================================== CONTRIBUTING EDITOR =========================================================================== Addison Laurent =============== Internet -------- addison@jobe.shell.portal.com @endnode @node EDITORIAL "compt.sys.editor.desk" @toc OPINION =========================================================================== compt.sys.editor.desk By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== This is such a ridiculously huge issue of Amiga Report that there's really not much to be gained by me taking up a lot of space here. VIScorp is still pursuing--but has not completed--the purchase of the Amiga from Escom. Negotiations continue. Don't panic. I have been meeting with VIScorp officers and speaking with VIScorp personnel. In fact, as soon as the ink dries and the right form is filed, I will BE a VIScorp personnel. Effective Monday, I'm joining VIScorp's Communications department as a contractor whose job it is to make sure that the Amiga community is informed and aware of VIScorp's actions and intentions--and vice versa. Phase5 has a major announcement to make. Wonder Computers International is up and running. A new TCP/IP stack is coming, there's all sorts of new products on the horizon... Lots of people have a lot to say. Don't let me stand in their way. Jason @endnode @node AD1 "Capital Punishment Is Coming..." @toc MAIN THEY say: "Amiga games suck" THEY say: "Developers are gone" THEY say: "No more good games" THEY say: "Amiga is dead" ...well, WE say: F*@% THEM !!! ------------- We are clickBOOM - the angriest team in cyberspace We have developed an amazing combat epic for Amiga called Capital Punishment It is what players asked for: playable fluid fast realistic... And what they hoped for: violent wild engrossing adrenaline-pumping... And it's coming soon to blow your Amiga away! You'll engage in battle against warriors, ninjas, aliens, and an assortment of other fearsome opponents in some of the goriest fighting scenes ever seen in a video game. Amiga Computing - "Capital Punishment could take fighting games into the next millennium" Amiga Format - "Capital Punishment has been proclaimed as the ultimate video game". Amiga Report - "Capital Punishment is a very smooth and engrossing game" CU Amiga - "Frame rate is higher than any fighting game I've seen" Visit "clickBOOM" web page for more information; chance to win one of 5 free Capital Punishment games; and to download playable beta demos: http://www.io.org/~clkboom/amiga/ Internet e-mail: clkboom@io.org beware...Punishment is coming @endnode @node OPINION1 "Message from Sweden" @toc OPINION =========================================================================== Message From Sweden Morgan Eklof and Magnus Ingmarsson z94morek and d95magin@isy.liu.se =========================================================================== Greetings from Sweden! Maybe we should introduce ourselves... We are two guys from Sweden who has been thinking alot about the AMIGA & it's future. (We = Magnus Ingmarsson, Morgan Eklof.) (We study at Linköping institute of technology.) First of all we would like to thank Amiga Technologies for doing a splendid job. This text has become a bit shorter since the interviews with different Amiga people in Amiga-Magazin (5/96) were published. For instance some of the ideas that we were considering in the draft is already implemented by Amiga Technologies: The ads are concentrated on getting _new_ customers. This is smart since the old customers already are "brainwashed" ;-) (read: madly in love with the Amiga.) The own design. Good job, leaves noone indifferent! (btw. We were leaning towards getting help from Bang & Olufsen.) The modular design. Very smart with only one slot that can house a card which holds additional slots. Here are what we think is not only a recommendation but a necessety: We do hope that AMIGA Technologies reads this and acts accordingly... We also believe that these views are shared by many in the AMIGA-community. 1. An important feature is that the power-supply should be in the box like in the A1000, A2000, A3000, A4000. The A500, A600 and the A1200 give the impression of a "homecomputer". 2. The use of standard components as much as possible to reduce cost and will make sure that the AMIGA does not become a slave under custom- circuits... i.e. makes sure that programmers program properly. (but it will need a "thing" to make it different. An unique OS is not enough.) 3. In every AMIGA there should be a SCSI-interface to ensure fast & easy implementation of hd's, scanners and so on. 4. There should be a "ZIP-type of drive" in every AMIGA & thus there would be no need for a HD. (But since there is a SCSI-interface it is easily added.) (This choice must be made wisely since the ZIP is big at the moment but there has been anouncements about new products from 3M and their partners.) There should also be a hd-floppy drive. (But by choosing the 3M and partners drive it will be compatible.) 5. Magic Worbench must be included from the beginning. 6. The smallest model must be able to deliver at least 800*600*24 NI in 72Hz/31kHz. Regarding TV it must be able to perform FULL PAL/NTSC non interlaced in 24-bits. Of course there must be chunky as well as planar graphics and why not include a successor to the AKIKO... There should also be 16-bit sound with fm-synth included. A DSP is a must! (Since it can be made to do alot of things.) There must also be a small custom made circuit that is cheap and easily replacable and upgradable and makes alot of difference! (The consumer must feel that he/she is part of something special and the Design of the Walker is a good step in the right direction but it must be more than exterior, it must be in the hardware as well.) 7. Memoryprotection has already been announced by Amiga Technologies but it must incorporate one important AMIGA-feature. It must be possible to turn off! Resource tracking should be there if one wants to have it. And the GURU should return maybe in a new form.(For instance when there is a segmetation fault.) (For instance he might float in in a meditative way on the screen and drag a little piece of cloth with the errorcode on.) (Again, the Amiga can and MUST be different and FUN!) 8. The Workbench must be able to multitask far better then today. (For instance when copying files.) 9. Why not work together with SUN on getting the AMIGA to better perform in a network? (For instance is Ericsson and Motorola working on a way to transmit 8 megabits/s over standard copper wire which means that the computermanufacturer which has _thought_ about that development in the market and acted accordongly in one or two years will have a big advantage since people will probably have those kinds of speeds to their homes. (We have just seen a demostration of 1.5 megabit/s over a standard telephone wire. (From a server in Stockholm via optical fibre to the local phonestation and from there via standard phone-wire. Most impressive!) 10. Now to a more bold suggestion: Why not make a Virtual Workbench! The ability is there if you use the I-glasses combined with a cheap glove... We hope that we by producing these small suggestions have helped the AMIGA to get to its proper place on the market. One more thing... Many people like ourselves are having a hard time to choose between the Walker and the new Power Amiga. We beliave that many potential buyers of the Walker will be discuraged by Amiga Technologies silence about the new Power Amiga since they don't want to experience missing out on some important feature of the new Power Amiga. Therefor it is necessary that Amiga Technologies makes clear the specs of the Power Amiga as soon as possible since the "high-end" customers will find out if they should wait and buy a Power Amiga or conclude that they should buy the Walker and buy extra cards for it since (in the "high-end" customers eye) the Power Amiga will be "a size to small" in regards to CPU, Graphics and so on. All in all there is only one thing to say: Amiga Technologies has done much more for the Amiga since mid 1995 then Commodore ever did! Keep up the good work and thank you! Regards Morgan Eklof (z94morek@isy.liu.se) Magnus Ingmarsson (d95magin@isy.liu.se) @endnode @node COMMERCIAL "Commercial Products" @toc MENU =========================================================================== Commercial Products =========================================================================== @{" Capital Punishment " link AD1} The upcoming action game from ClickBOOM @{" Editor's Choice " link EDITORCHOICE} Jason's picks @{" Portal Information Systems " link PORTAL} A great place for Amiga users. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- @{" News " link NEWS} @{" Opinion " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{" Reviews " link REVIEW} @{" Charts " link FTP} @{" Adverts " link COMMERCIAL} @endnode @node MAIL "Reader Mail" @toc MENU =========================================================================== Reader Mail =========================================================================== From: Jon Bui It tooks me an hour to read the April 2 issue of A.R. Either I take speed reading lessons or AR should cut down on its contents. It's great to see AR is doing well. Ever since Amiga Format price went up to $13.00, I've stopped buying it and have now depended on AR to keep me up to date on the latest Amiga's news. Is it possible to set up on the AR's homepage a word search that will looks through previous AR's publication? This would greatly help user to determine which previous publication contain details and information on the item they're looking for. - As a matter of fact, the CUCUG web site with Amiga Report does contain a basic search engine. Use http://www.cucug.org/amiga/ar/ar.html to get to it. As for AR being too big--it pleases me no end that Amiga Report is having no trouble filling space. Although I have to admit, the increased content as of late has made it tougher to get issues out on time. -Jason @endnode @node NEWS1 "ScreenTab 2.0" @toc NEWS TITLE ScreenTab VERSION 2.0 (25.4.1996) AUTHOR Michael Link (u193113@uebung2.fh-reutlingen.de) DESCRIPTION ScreenTab is a powerful commodity to make switching screens and windows more comfortable. It's main functionality is derived from the well known "Alt+Tab"-Feature of Windoze. It enables you to switch between different screens or windows by using a special key combination (e.g. 'LAmiga + Tab'). When you press it, a little window appears on the frontmost screen and lets you cycle through all screen (window) titles. When releasing the keys, the chosen screen (window) will come to front. If you don't want to switch without the mouse, move the mouse-pointer at the lower edge of the screen, and a cool taskbar (to be more exactly "screenbar") appears with the actual opened screens. NEW FEATURES - external MUI-Interface for nearly absolute configuration of ScreenTab - ScreenTab can now display IFF-Images in front of the screen name. A whole bunch of nice images is included in the archive. - Win95-like taskbar (incl. clock) for screen-switching SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Requires at least Kickstart/Workbench 2.04. Localization features of WB 2.1+ are supported. Needs MUI 3 for the preferences, the commodity runs without MUI ! AVAILABILITY ScreenTab is available from any Aminet site, for instance: ftp://ftp.amigalib.com/pub/aminet/util/cdity/ScreenTab_2_0.lha PRICE ScreenTab is GIFTWARE DISTRIBUTABILITY ScreenTab is freely distributable. Any re-distribution has to include all files in the archive without any modifications. Additions of files to the archive are NOT allowed. ScreenTab may be freely distributed via BBSs, InterNet/UseNet, software libraries such as Fred Fish's and Aminet CD-ROM, and other similar electronic channels. Disk magazines and services that charge extra for file transfers may NOT distribute it without written permission by the developer ! @endnode @node NEWS2 "VIScorp Amiga Input Form" @toc NEWS [Mr. Vance Schowalter has devised a standardized "form" for input to VIScorp. I have been asked by VIScorp to make sure that these are immediately sent to VIScorp's international Amiga contact, Eric Laffont, elaffont@pratique.fr. Try to have these in as soon as possible. -Jason] Amiga-VIScorp Feedback Form ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Email this completed form to: viking@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca AND elaffont@pratique.fr. Please use this form when sending feedback to VIScorp. This will help ensure that your response will be noted. This form is subject to change at any time without notice. Thank you. Regards, Vance Schowalter. Personal Information ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Name [ ] Company Name [ ] Street Address [ ] City/Town [ ] Province/State [ ] Zip Code [ ] Country [ ] Home Phone [ ] Business Phone [ ] Fax [ ] Internet Email [ ] Homepage (URL) [ ] Please use an asterix "*" whenever prompted by a multiple choice question. When prompted for comments, please make them clear and concise. 1. In which capacity are you associated with the Amiga computer? (Check all that apply) ( ) User ( ) Dealer ( ) Developer 2. How old are you? ( ) 10-15 ( ) 16-20 ( ) 21-25 ( ) 26-30 ( ) 31-35 ( ) 36-40 ( ) Over 40 3. Marital Status? ( ) Single ( ) Married ( ) Divorced ( ) Widowed 4. Which Amiga(s) do you currently use/own? (Check all that apply) ( ) CDTV ( ) CD32 ( ) A500 ( ) A600 ( ) A1000 ( ) A1200 ( ) A1500 ( ) A2000 ( ) A2500 ( ) A3000 ( ) A3000T ( ) A4000 ( ) A4000T 5. Which AmigaDOS do you currently use? (Check all that apply) ( ) 1.1 ( ) 1.2 ( ) 1.3 ( ) 2.0 ( ) 2.1 ( ) 3.0 ( ) 3.1 6. Do you have 1 or more hard drives? ( ) Yes ( ) No 7. Do you have 1 or more CD-ROM drives? ( ) Yes ( ) No 8. Do you have a modem? ( ) Yes, highspeed ( ) Yes, less than 9600 baud ( ) No 9. Which Graphic Cards, if any, do you use? (Check all that apply) ( ) CyberVision64 ( ) Retina ZII/III ( ) Piccolo ( ) Merlin ( ) Harlequin ( ) Picasso I/II ( ) OpalVision ( ) Spectrum ( ) Other________________________________ ( ) None 10. Which Accelerator Cards, if any, do you use? (Check all that apply) ( ) 020 ( ) 030 ( ) 040 ( ) 060 ( ) None 11. How long have you been using an Amiga? ( ) Less than 1 year ( ) Less than 5 years (2 to 4) ( ) Less than 10 years (6 to 9) ( ) More than 10 years (10+) 12. How would you rate your Amiga skills and knowledge? ( ) Expert ( ) Advanced ( ) Average ( ) Novice 13. Number each from 1 to 10 according to degree of personal importance. ( ) Multi-media (ie. Scala) ( ) Telecommunications ( ) Internet ( ) Business ( ) CAD ( ) Publishing (ie. books, magazines, newsletters, software) ( ) Education ( ) Science ( ) Music ( ) Art (ie. Andy Warhol inspired) ( ) Video ( ) Programming ( ) Image Processing ( ) Entertainment (ie. games) ( ) Other __________________________________________________ 14. Should VIScorp continue R&D of the Amiga as a personal computer? ( ) Yes ( ) No 15. Should the AmigaDOS be ported to other platforms? ( ) Yes ( ) No 16. Should AmigaDOS come with full Internet features? ( ) Yes ( ) No 17. Should AmigaDOS enhance features (ie. datatypes)? ( ) Yes ( ) No 18. Should AmigaDOS have MUI-like enhancements to its GUI system? ( ) Yes ( ) No 19. Should Amiga Technologies continue with its current Power Amiga plans? ( ) Yes ( ) No 20. In 10 lines or less, what do you feel should be done to improve the Amiga's graphics capabilities? 21. In 10 lines or less, what do you feel should be done to improve the Amiga's audio capabilities? 22. Would you like to see Amiga clones? ( ) Yes ( ) No 23. Would you like to see Amiga laptops? ( ) Yes ( ) No 24. Should all Amigas come with a hard drive? ( ) Yes ( ) No 25. Should all Amigas come with a CD-ROM drive? ( ) Yes ( ) No 26. Should all Amigas ship with two or more mb of Graphics memory? ( ) Yes ( ) No 27. How many mb of Fast memory should Amigas ship with? ( ) 1 ( ) 2 ( ) 4 ( ) 6 ( ) More than 6 28. If Amigas include a CD-ROM drive, should the AmigaDOS be on a CD-ROM instead of floppy disks? ( ) Yes ( ) No 29. Should the talents of professional Amiga users be taken advantage of to enhance marketing capability and quality? ( ) Yes ( ) No 30. Should closer alliances continue to be actively sought out with major 3rd party developers to produce a better Amiga product faster? ( ) Yes ( ) No 31. Should VIScorp maintain International Amiga research and development? ( ) Yes ( ) No 32. Should VIScorp incorporate global volunteer Amiga user groups into official promotional activities such as organizing Amiga computer shows, competitions for various applications, etc? ( ) Yes ( ) No 33. In 10 lines or less, how do you see the Amiga in 2 years, based on current VIScorp (Amiga Technologies) plans? 34. Enter any additional comments not answered above, below. Please be as clear and as concise as possible. --------------------------------------------------------------- @endnode @node NEWS3 "OctaMED Soundstudio V1" @toc NEWS Octamed Soundstudio is nearing completion! For full planned release details and to see the progress so far, why not d/l the latest "beta" demo that has been placed into the Aminet biz/demo area? As part of our commitment to the loyal followers/users of our program we are hoping to be in a position to accept credit card orders by post, email and via our WWW Site by the time the new version goes on sale. (MasterCard, Visa, Access and, in the UK, Switch will be accepted) We will announce this, along with the actual release date of the program, on our World Wide Web Site, the OctaMED User BBS and other available means. ---------------- This file lists some of the changes and new features between OctaMED V6 and OctaMED Soundstudio V1. (still more to be added) (if you haven't seen V6 and are only using V5, then you're in for a suprise) -------------- Main Features (more additions yet) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mixing Routine ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is the most significant new feature; instead of the old 4-channel mode which was tightly tied to the audio hardware of Amiga, the mixing routine is hardware-independent, and can use several output options. Supported output devices are Amiga (8- and 14-bit), Toccata (16-bit), Maestix (16-bit) and Delfina (16-bit). It's also possible to record digital sound data directly onto disk at desired resolution (8/16) and sampling frequency. The mixing routine allows up to 64 independent audio channels, supports both 8- and 16-bit samples, user-specified mixing frequency (constrained by the limitations of the output device), trackwise panning, playing samples backwards, ping-pong looping, playing samples from Fast RAM, a six-octave pitch range, OctaMED synthsounds, stereo and mono modes, real-time echo/cross-echo and stereo separation control and high-quality interpolation for recording digital data on disk. The mixing routines are written in optimized assembler code, for optimum versions for both 68000 and 68020 + greater, though mixing is very slow on the 68000. As a rough example on the speed of the routine, the A3000/25 can play about 10 channels at 48 kHz thru Toccata. Also, to support the mixing routine, OctaMED can now load S3M and also FastTracker 1.0 modules. As I said, you can store the module (or parts of it) onto disk directly as digital sample data. This could be used, for example, for creating a drum loop sample by constructing it with several tracks, and then saving it...the resulting sample only takes one channel and it can be used anywhere. A special "Smoothing" switch is available for recording onto disk. It filters unwanted frequencies away, resulting better audio quality than what you would get in 4 channel mode. On the 68060, it's useful in real-time playing, as well :-) The fact that the audio data is mixed by the processor also opens exciting possibilities for performing digital signal processing at the same time. OctaMED Soundstudio offers digital 'Echo' and 'Cross Echo' in real time. I hope to extend the array of DSP functions in the future PC versions. Playing 8 or more channels using this demoversion.... Choose "Set Options" from the Song menu, click 1-64 Ch Mixing. Then choose "Mixing Parameters" from the Settings menu and set Max. Channels to the desired number of channels. Loading a S3M-module or an OctaMED module using mixing (which are extremely rare at the moment, of course) will cause these settings to change automatically. Notation Editor ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The notation editor, which didn't exist in V6, is now back. It is vastly enhanced. Main highlights: * Up to 16 staves, each tracker track can be assigned to any staff. The staves can be named, and their vertical positions and width can be adjusted. Treble, bass and alto clefs are available. * Time signature freely selectable (instead of only two choices, as in V5). Measures can be added to a block at a single click. * A Compugraphic notation font is provided for better print quality. Some people have been longing for a top quality "professional" notation editor, such an editor won't ever appear in the Amiga OctaMED version. It would be practically impossible to cross professional notation with tracking, and the result would probably be a big kludge that nobody is satisfied with. For professional quality notation, OctaMED songs can be exported as MIDI files to a dedicated "notator" program. FastMemPlay ~~~~~~~~~~~ FastMemPlay is a new feature for use in the 4-channel mode. As the name implies, when this feature is activated, samples can reside not only in Chip RAM, but also in Fast RAM. You can therefore fully utilize all the memory you have installed. The FastMemPlay-feature also offers a few other advantages; the samples may now be as long as the memory allows (the old limitation was 131072 bytes), and you can also use odd offset and length for repeat. (All of these features are automatically available when using the mixing routine.) Triggering ARexx Commands ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The new player command 2D is suitable for controlling events that must be synchronized with playing the song. You can define up to 256 events which can then be launched in the song using the command 2D. The possible events are: sending an ARexx command to OctaMED or some other program, launching an ARexx script or even launching another program. Replace Notes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is a new window which allows you to do powerful search-and-replace operations on notes, instrument numbers, commands, or any combination of them. For example: C-2 2xxxx -> D-2 3xxxx xxxxx0FFF -> xxxxx0000 (remove commands 0FFF) xxxxx09xx -> xxxxx0000 (remove all TPL change commands) The functionality of this feature is fully available for use by ARexx scripts. MIDI Controllers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The set of command numbers 31 - 3F have now been reserved for MIDI users. The old way of using MIDI controllers required a combination of commands 05 and 00. Now you can map any controller to a single command 31 - 3F. Plus, you can also control MIDI Registered and Non-Registered Parameter Numbers with the same set of commands (3 pairs of 05/00 commands would be required for that). Instrument List ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A simple window for easy viewing and selecting of instruments in memory. Improved ARexx Interface ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 28 new ARexx commands and 9 improved commands. Some powerful new commands include finding and/or replacing notes/instrument numbers/commands (see Replace Notes above), direct handling of copy buffer contents, and sending MIDI messages (useful for keyboard shortcuts). The above features were the most significant changes since V6, but they are not by any means the only ones. But you can see the rest when OctaMED Soundstudio is released, and I hope, after a years work, you will like it. Smaller features (more to be added) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * Default directories for loading songs, instruments and executing ARexx scripts can be set and saved. * ARexx scripts can be executed with a new menu item + file requester combination. * A menu item for opening AmigaDOS shells on OctaMED screen for quick command line jobs. * Instead of requesting the file format when saving instruments, the Sample List Editor now has menu items for default formats. * The Song Annotation window can be (optionally) opened automatically when there's information embedded in the song just loaded. * Cut/Copy operations now optionally affect either all command pages of the block, or just the current page. * Re-mark range resurrects the previously selected range. * A special Slave Mode for using the Amiga as a MIDI slave (for sample playing). * Changed settings can be optionally displayed on the title bar. * The Generic Slide is now clever; it handles unsigned and signed slides, and special slides in which both digits are independent, depending on the command and whether MIDI is active or not. * Command 0FF7 stops playing until all pending SysEx commands are sent. * Fixed many (minor) bugs and problems. -Teijo Kinnunen April 96 -------------------------- Now, if your still reading)..... A Quick Overview Of What The New Additions Do...... ( These are the most important new functions to be added, so far...) The Mixing Parameters Window Probably the Soundstudio's biggest addition is a new channel mode: Mix. Based on the mixing technique used in 5 to 8 channel mode, it can play 64 notes at once using the normal Amiga sound capabilities! You can also bring your song to life with effects such as echo, and use it to record part of your song direct to disk as a sample. But before you get too excited, remember that the Amiga physically only has four sound channels, so Mix mode uses very special tricks to cram all those notes in and in the process, the notes can lose sound quality on slow processors. In fact, the faster your processor, the better quality the notes can be. For acceptable quality, you really need a minimum 68020 processor found in the A1200. The Mixing Parameters window is used to set up Mix mode. But before I explain it, I'll list the enhancements and limitations that Mix mode has, in comparison with 4 channel mode. Other Enhancements at this time 1) Can play up to 64 notes at once. 2) Effects: Echo, Cross Echo, Stereo Separation. 3) Track Panning: Can alter the stereo location of each track. 4) Many additional player commands. 5) Sample length limited only by available memory (previous limit was 131072 bytes). 6) Direct-to-disk recording. 7) Three new octaves: 2 low, 1 high. So the note range is now C-1 to B-6. The 4-channel notes C-1 to B-3 are now notes C-3 to B-5. 8) More precise sample loop setting. Previously, only even values of Repeat and RepLen (Instrument Parameters were possible. Now, all values are allowed. Limitations 1) A probable loss of sound quality on old processors, but the faster your processor, the better the quality. In fact, very fast processors increase sound quality. 2) Aura 16-bit samples can't be used, (were they ever that good anyhow?) 3) Multi-octave samples can't be used. 4) The oscilloscope equalizer doesn't function. So although Mix mode is based on the old 5 to 8 channel mode, you will see that it has hardly any of its previous limitations. The Important Mixing Parameters window will now be described. Mixing Mode section The radio button at the top left selects the output device: the device through which notes will be played. * Amiga 8-bit/14-bit: Plays notes through the Amiga. 14-bit is much better quality than 8-bit, and doesn't put much more strain on the processor, but it plays at half the volume. * Delfina DSP: (no further info available at this time) * Toccata 16-bit: Plays through your Toccata card. no further info available at this time- * Maestix 16-bit: (no further info available at this time) * Disk 8-bit/16-bit: Records the output to a file, as a sample. See "The Recording Window" for more details. The output will be in mono (the same on both speakers), unless you switch the Stereo check box on. Mono is faster than stereo. Smoothing mode significantly enhances sound quality, but it's very slow. Because of its speed, it's only recommended for Disk 8-bit/16-bit modes, although you're welcome to try it on other modes... Mixing Frequency The mixing frequency is a very important value. It specifies, in Hertz (sample values per second), how quickly the samples should be mixed. The higher the frequency, the better the sound quality, but also the more work the processor has to do. So - you've guessed it - the highest mixing frequency that you can use depends on your processor. If you try using a frequency that is too high for your computer, the computer will hang: the mouse pointer will move very slowly, or even not at all. If this happens, do a panic stop by holding down both mouse buttons for several seconds. Believe it or not, the highest possible frequency also depends on the screen mode! If the screen is DblPAL, DblNTSC or Productivity, the Mixing Frequency slider can take any value. In other screen modes, the slider's maximum value is 28375. If the output device can't play at your requested frequency, OctaMED chooses the frequency closest to your request. Your request is shown in the Requested numeric box, the actual frequency used in the Actual box. The reason for this discrepancy is that all of the output devices, excluding Disk 8-bit/16-bit, can only play at certain frequencies. (This even includes your Amiga...) Technical notes: The frequency of each note is different in 4-channel mode from Mix mode. This is because in 4-channel mode, the frequencies are approximated to what the Amiga DMA can play. Mix mode doesn't use the Amiga DMA, so it uses the correct freque- ncies. The frequencies are very slightly off on Amigas not having an FPU and this is because the integer version of the frequency calculation has some error. The difference however is not audible. Other gadgets * Max. Channels: The maximum number of channels. For example, if you want to play notes on tracks 0 to 5, set this slider to 6. Notes become quieter as you increase Max. Channels, to make room for the new channels. This slider doesn't increase processor load by itself: the load depends on the number of notes actually playing. * Volume Adjust: Allows you to adjust the overall volume of notes. The value is a percentage; when 100 %, the notes are at normal volume. Set the notes to half-volume by sliding to 50%; double volume is 200%. In practice, increasing the volume above 100% generally causes unwanted distortion (noise), unless the samples in your song are quiet. Also, using effects can cause distortion, even at 100%. If this is the case, turn the volume down until the distortion is removed. (You can't hear the volume adjustment until you release the slider button.) * Mix Buffer Size: The size of the mix buffer, an area of memory used by OctaMED to mix samples together. You needn't ever change it, unless: a) in Disk 8-bit/16-bit mode. Increasing Mix Buffer Size to, say, 30000 greatly quickens direct-to-disk recording. b) using MIDI. MIDI notes are played immediately, while mixed notes are played after a slight delay. So it's recommended to set Mix Buffer Size to the lowest allowed value, 32. If sound quality suffers as a result, compensate by raising the mixing frequency (if possible). c) you use samples with very short loops. Playing a loop shorter than about a third of the Mix Buffer Size (i.e. usually 100 bytes) considerably increases processor load. So if you must use very short loops, try decreasing Mix Buffer Size. * Panning and Effects: Open the Mix - Track Panning and Mix - Effects windows. They allow you to adjust the stereo location of each track, and add effects such as echo to your music. Other points of interest 1) 5 - 8 channel mode uses a frequency of 15768 Hz in non-HQ mode, and 28867 Hz in HQ mode. As a side note, you could *perfectly* reproduce the 4-channel mode with a mixing frequency of 3.6 MHz... :-)... Though 48 kHz with smoothing is often better in practice. 2) With 16-bit samples, only volume values 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 can be used. This means that note volumes may sound a bit strange if you change Volume Adjust or the track panning. Also, the volumes you can use with some player commands (such as Set Volume, type 0C) are limited to the above values. 3) To allow old 4-channel and 5 to 8-channel songs to use the new Mix mode, the Miscellaneous Options window contains two new Use Mixing check boxes. When on, the samples in loaded songs are transposed up 2 octaves. (This doesn't include synthsounds, MIDI instruments or ExtSamples.) When using old 5 to 8-channel songs with the new mode, don't try to set Volume Adjust to 200 % to allow for halved samples. Halved samples are in 7-bit quality, so it's best to re-load the original samples. 4) Internally, OctaMED has three separate parts which control playing, called the players. There's one player for 4-channel mode, another for 5 to 8-channel modes, and another for Mix mode. When you play a note using the keyboard in 4 or 5 to 8-channel modes, the player is used briefly to start the note off, but then the note is left to play and finish of its own accord. The Mix mode player, however, is used throughout the note's playing, from its start to its finish. So the Mix mode player is switched on when the first note is started. But it isn't switched off when the note has finished. Instead, to react more quickly to other notes you play, it's kept switched on until you click STOP or press the space bar. This means that the player is switched on even when no notes are being played. On slower Amigas, this may slow down operation, so simply press the space bar to switch the player off. It also means that if you change anything in the Mixing Parameters window, such as Mixing Frequency or track panning, you must stop playing and restart it for the changes to take effect. (This doesn't include Stereo Separation, Echo Depth, or a change from Echo to Cross Echo or vice-versa.) 5) Do remember about panic stop! If the computer seems to lock up during play, try holding both mouse buttons down for a few seconds. 6) 5 to 8-channel mode's split channels don't exist! Amiga volume registers are set to a fixed volume. The volume is scaled by the mixing routine, so each track does have an independent volume. 7) Almost all settings in Mixing Parameters, Mix - Track Panning, and Mix - Effect are saved with songs. In particular, Mixing Mode and Mixing Frequency aren't saved. This is so that, for example, a song created on a fast Amiga using a high frequency won't immediately cause a slow Amiga to lock up. OctaMED uses a special file format for songs using Mix mode: MMD3. This is identical to MMD2. The only reason for its existance is so that older versions/player programs won't attempt to play Mix-mode songs. 8) You can play samples in either type of memory - Chip or Fast - in Mix mode. By default, though, samples are loaded into Fast memory, because Instr menu - Load Samples To Fast Mem is automatically switched on. The Mix - Track Panning Window Here you adjust the stereo location of the notes played on each individual track. Do this using the sliders. Track numbers are displayed to the left of each slider, the tracks' stereo location to the right. To begin with, all tracks have a stereo location of 0 (center). This means that notes on all tracks are played with equal volume on both speakers; in other words, they're played in mono. To force a track's notes to be played entirely through the left speaker, drag the track's slider all the way to the left (value -16). Likewise for the right speaker: drag the slider to the far right (value 16). Intermediate values play the notes at different volumes on each speaker. Free Panning and Sum Of Balances Because track panning is really altering the volume of each track on each speaker, you must be careful that the volume on either speaker doesn't become too high, causing distortion. For example, setting all tracks to be played on the left speaker (value -16) is bound to cause distortion on the left speaker. The Sum Of Balances display helps you prevent distortion. It displays all the tracks' stereo locations added together. When the volume is perfectly balanced between the two speakers, the Sum Of Balances is 0, so adjust the sliders until it becomes 0. Free Panning, when on, allows you to set the stereo locations to whichever values you choose, without worrying about volume distortion. Not surprisingly, Free Panning is usually on. The Mix - Effects Window add special effects to your music. The one you'll be dying to play with is echo. To switch echo on, set the Echo cycle gadget to Echo or Cross Echo. The difference between the two is Cross Echo alternates echoes between the speakers; you must have Stereo mode on to use it. Echo Rate is the distance, in milliseconds, between each echo. It can take any value in the range 1 to 32767. Echo Depth sets the depth of echoing. The larger the value, the deeper the echoes. Technically, it specifies the relative amplitudes of successive echoes. For example, if it's 25 %, the first echo's amplitude is 25 % of the original amplitude, the second echo is 25 % * 25 % = 6.25 % of that. Stereo Separation is interesting. Dragging the slider to the right separates the sound on each speaker. Dragging to the left brings the speakers' sound closer together. This feature is best understood by experimentation. (Technically, the stereo image is separated by feeding part of the left channel to the right in inversed phase, and vice versa.) The Recording Window This window is displayed during direct-to-disk recording, the act of transferring part of your song to disk as a sample. To record directly to disk: 1) In the Mixing Parameters window, select Disk 8-bit or Disk 16-bit, depending on whether you'd like an 8-bit or 16-bit sample. Also set the Mixing Frequency to any value you wish (the higher the frequency, the larger the produced sample). 2) The next time you play a note or your song, a Record as file requester will appear. In this requester, select the filename of the produced sample. 3) Next, you set the file type of your sample in the requester that appears. 4) Finally, the Record window will open and OctaMED will start recording. The window displays information on the sample's file format (resolution (8/16-bit), IFF/RAW/MAUD etc, Mono/Stereo, frequency). It also displays recording time in minutes and seconds, and file size. These two values change as the song is being played. Click the Stop Recording button to stop recording. You must do this because OctaMED doesn't stop recording automatically at the end of the song or note. You can now load your sample back into memory. The FastMemPlay Window This poetically-named window allows you to play samples from Fast memory. For background on this, see Instr menu - Load Samples To Fast Mem. By editing the Buffer Size box, you can alter the FastMemPlay buffer size. A small value, such as 32 or 64, is recommended to minimise distortion if your song contains synthetic sounds. MIDI Slave Mode Using the MIDI menu's Slave Mode Active item, you can turn your Amiga into a MIDI device! Why on earth would you want to do that? Well, if you're lucky enough to own two Amigas, you can use the sound channels of both Amigas together, to play a total of 8 samples at once rather than the usual 4. You do this by using one Amiga to control the other, as if it were a MIDI keyboard. It works best in 4-channel mode, for highest quality. You compose your song using one of the Amigas (call it the master), and use the other Amiga (the slave) only as a note player. The blocks in your song should be 8 tracks wide: use tracks 0 - 3 for instruments played by the master Amiga, and tracks 4 - 7 for those played by the slave Amiga. The idea is, the slave Amiga's first 16 instruments (01 - 0G) correspond to the 16 MIDI channels. So when the slave Amiga receives a MIDI message to play a note on MIDI channel 4, it plays the note using instrument number 04. One slight drawback is each instrument can only be played using one particular sound channel, which you designate using the master Amiga. Anyway, here's how you set it all up: 1) Attach a MIDI interface to each of the two Amigas. Connect MIDI OUT on the master Amiga to MIDI IN on the slave Amiga. 2) Load OctaMED into both Amigas. Select MIDI menu - MIDI Active on the master Amiga. Select MIDI Active, Input Active and Slave Mode Active (all in the MIDI menu) on the slave Amiga. Make sure both Amigas are in 4-channel mode. 3) Now to set up the instruments. Go to each Amiga in turn, and load the instruments you want to be played on that Amiga. On the slave Amiga, you're restricted to instrument slots 01 - 0G; on the master Amiga, you can use any slots. 4) On the master Amiga, you actually need two categories of instrument: those to be played through the master Amiga (which you've just loaded), and MIDI instruments that correspond to each instrument you've loaded into the slave Amiga. OK, let's say you've loaded a sample named Fantasia into slot 06 on the slave Amiga. So on the master Amiga, a) Select any empty instrument slot b) Open Instrument Parameters c) Change the instrument Name to Fantasia [slave] (for example) d) Slide the MIDICh slider to 6 (because Fantasia is loaded into slot 06 on the slave Amiga) e) You must also tell OctaMED which sound channel on the slave Amiga that Fantasia should be played through, using the Preset slider. So if Fantasia is to be played through channel 2, slide Preset to 2. Because there are 4 sound channels, each played using one of tracks 0 - 3, you can slide Preset to 0, 1, 2 or 3. Be careful when deciding which instrument should be played through which channel. If you've loaded up to 4 instruments into the slave Amiga, you just need to assign a different sound channel to each instrument. If you have more than 4 instruments, though, you should take care that no two instruments are set to play through the same channel at the same time, because this is impossible! This depends on your song. f) Close Instrument Parameters Now when you want to play, say, note G-2 using the Fantasia instrument, you should enter a G-2 using the Fantasia [slave] instrument on the master Amiga. Repeat steps a to f for each instrument you've loaded into the slave Amiga. 5) Now compose your song! Use 8-track blocks. For instruments played through the master Amiga, use tracks 0 - 3 as usual. For those played through the slave Amiga, use tracks 4 - 7 and the MIDI instruments you've set up to correspond with the slave Amiga's instruments. Then just play the song: it should be quite an amazing effect! Other notes: a) Slave mode only receives and handles MIDI Note On messages. So any effects received, including player commands, will be ignored. b) You can, however, use player command 0C (set volume) with notes played by the slave Amiga. The instrument's default volume (in Instrument Parameters) changes to the appropriate level when a 0C is received. The Instrument Parameters slider isn't updated, though, for effciency reasons. c) To reduce the amount of MIDI data sent, you should really switch on Suppress NoteOff on all of the MIDI instruments defined on the master Amiga. The MIDI Cmd 3cxx Window As its title suggests, this is one of OctaMED's more technical windows! Using a combination of player command types 05 and 00, you can set any MIDI controller you choose. Command 05's level is the controller number, command 00's the controller value. So if OctaMED came across this in a song: 00509 --- 00004 then OctaMED would set MIDI controller number 9 to 4. The obvious disadvantage with this is that it takes two lines: one to provide the controller number, another to provide the value. This window cuts the setting of MIDI controllers down to one line. You define command types 31 - 3F to set your chosen MIDI controller numbers to the value given by the command level you use in the song. For example, you can define player command type 35 to set MIDI controller number 12. Then, if you use command 3506 in your song, OctaMED sets MIDI controller number 12 to 6. So, only one player command is needed to set MIDI controllers, instead of two. The gadgets Starting at the top, the slider selects a player command type. A value of 5, for example, selects type 35. Types 31 to 3F can be selected. Clear Setting clears the selected player command type's setting. Its controller type is set to Standard [MSB], and its number to 0. Clear All does this to all player command types. The other gadgets show the selected command type's setting: its controller type and number. The controller type can be Standard, RPN or NRPN, together with [MSB] or [LSB]. More information as and when further developed. You can make a copy of the current shortcut by holding down Shift while clicking Ins. New or App. New. This is useful for making a new shortcut similar to the current one. You can now create an empty shortcut for the Help key, thus turning the press Help for Help feature off - the Project menu item can be selected instead. This avoids situations where the rather large Help file is accidentally loaded instead of deleting a note (i.e. Help rather than Del is pressed). Playing PC Mods OctaMED can now load modules created on two different PC sequencers: ScreamTracker 3 (S3M) and FastTracker 1.0. Not all S3M effects are supported, but most modules play without trouble. The effects that are supported are: Extra fine slides (commands EEx, EFx); Tremor (command Ixy); Retrig (+ volume-slide) (command Qxy) Note that the more popular FastTracker 2 is not *yet* supported. ARexx Script Opens a file requester to execute an ARexx file. You can also do this in the keyboard shortcuts window and ARexx Trigger Setup window. ARexx Trigger Setup Opens the ARexx Trigger Setup Window. Here you can set certain player commands to execute ARexx scripts, run programs and much more. AmigaDOS Shell Opens an AmigaDOS shell, just like the shell you can open on the Workbench, on the OctaMED screen. You can now run programs or use AmigaDOS commands like copy or dir. The audio channels are now allocated when they are needed for the first time. So when using Mix mode with Toccata, Maestix or Delfina they aren't allocated at all! Notation Editor: Opens the main notation editor window with its Tools window. All Cmd Pages: When on (default), Cut and Copy affect all command pages. When off, only notes in the current command page are cut or copied. Select: Opens the Instruments window. This window lists all your instruments, and allows you to select one from the list. Load Samples To Fast Mem There are two types of memory: Chip memory and Fast memory. Fast memory is much faster than Chip memory, so it's preferable to store things in there. However, the Amiga usually needs all samples to be stored in Chip memory. @endnode @node NEWS4 "ColEm Source Code Available for Development" @toc NEWS From Hans Guijt, H.Guijt@inter.NL.net: I have recently ported ColEm, the Colecovision Emulator, to the Amiga. Unfortunately this operation was not entirely succesful: only one game runs on ColEm Amiga, all other games refuse to work. I'd love to debug this source, but: * I've no real interest in Colecovision emulation. I never had a Colecovision, so I miss that vital emotional bond. * I cannot spend much time programming my Amiga. The time I have available I would rather use programming fMSX, the MSX emulator. ------------------------------------------------------------------ --- For those reasons I am now offering the source to ColEm --- --- Amiga here on the net. If you are interested in continuing --- --- where I left off please contact me and I'll send you the --- --- source. --- ------------------------------------------------------------------ Some details: * The source consists of C (SAS, v6.51) and assembly (GenAm, v3.01). A lot of attention has been given to speed, and I'm shamed to admit that readability has suffered. * Requirements for ColEm Amiga: 68020 or better, v36 OS or better, having some fastram helps a great deal. * The source is based on fMSX Amiga. It contains several MSX features that are out of place on a Colecovision. * The relation between ColEm Amiga and ColEm UNIX is almost non-existant. * The rules set down by the author of the original UNIX version (Marat Fayzullin) do not allow you to charge money for the finished product. (In case you are in it for the money: don't bother. I state in the fMSX manual that fMSX is free, but financial gratitude is not refused. The grant total after over a year of programming: 25 DMark. I personally don't care but I know many others feel differently about this.) * ColEm Amiga looks and feels a great deal like fMSX Amiga. Download it from Aminet (misc/emu) to get an idea of what it is like. * If you find any bugs please tell me, since the same bugs are likely present in fMSX Amiga. * You are allowed to spread the finished product under your own name, although I want to be credited for my part. * If multiple people request the source I will send it to each of them. Some people out there may be tempted to request the executable, in the vague hope of obtaining a Colecovision emulator. This is futile, since the only game that runs on it is also available for fMSX Amiga (it is Konami's Antarctic Adventure, in case you're curious). People curious about the workings of fMSX Amiga can request that source too. It is much more complex than the ColEm Amiga source, though. If you feel like writing a Sega Master System emulation or some other Z80 based emulation this would be a good place to start. Hope to hear from you soon, Hans @endnode @node NEWS5 "Message To Amiga Developers" @toc NEWS Message to Amiga developers Recently, a number of Amiga-developers have contacted VIScorp to make proposals about the future of Amiga. VIScorp is ready to listen to all suggestions coming from the Amiga developer community. In France, an Amiga developer asked if VIScorp would like him to represent officially the company to the french developer community in order to centralize their ideas and proposals. We found this to be an excellent idea for supporting the Amiga and would actually like to extend this system to all countries where Amiga developers are active, so that there are VIScorp representatives in each country. If you would like to represent VIScorp in your country, feel free to contact David Rosen (drosen@vistv.com), VP, Business Development or Raquel Velasco (raquel@vistv.com), Director of Sales and Marketing Europe at following Email address: raquel@vistv.com. Regards, Bill Buck CEO, VIScorp -- Gilles Bourdin / Amiga Technologies GmbH Public Relations Email to: gbo@amiga.de URL: HTTP://www.amiga.de FTP: lisa.amiga.de @endnode @node NEWS6 "ImageFX 2.6 Released" @toc NEWS Nova Design, Inc. Shipping ImageFX 2.6 For Immediate Release Contact: Bob Fisher Nova Design, Inc. 804-282-5868 Richmond, VA - Tuesday, May 07, 1996. Nova Design, Inc. announced today that ImageFX 2.6 has begun shipping to fill all preorders for this exciting new upgrade. This upgrade, announced less than a month previously, adds more features and functionality than can be found in any other Amiga graphics package! See the list of features below. Image Processing and Special Effects Made Easy ImageFX 2.6 includes a number of technical breakthroughs and enhancements that allow users to easily create exciting special effects on single images or sequences using either the improved IMP and AutoFX programs included with ImageFX. The new eff ects and functions that have been added allow quick "load it and do it" access to the basic effect, while providing a wealth of controls to allow near-infinite customization for the advanced user. The new features include: Complete Newtek Video Toaster/Flyer 4.1 Support. Now loads and saves Toaster Framestores and Flyer Clips, and has the ability to framegrab, render and interactively preview your work directly on the Toaster's composite output. Updated CyberGraphX Previewing. Users of display cards using CyberGraphX software can now preview in any high color mode with full color realtime brush painting. Additionally, CyberGraphX full color displays have been added to Cinemorph, the Amiga most popular morphing package, and Viewtek, the popular image and animation viewer. New Fargo FotoFun Support. The low-cost Fargo FotoFun printer can now be driven directly from ImageFX to produce 24-bit accurate color photographic- like output. Hewlett-Packard Scanjet IIc/3c/4c Support. Now all the latest Hewlett- Packard scanners can be driven by ImageFX on most Amiga SCSI cards. Newtek Digiview Support. The Amiga's legacy of excellent hardware is not forgotten with the addition of support for Newtek's slowscan video digitizer; Digiview. New Wireless Program. This new program joins the ImageFX suite to provide sophisticated wire removal capabilities. You can now remove wires holding actors or objects suspended in the air so you can make your super heros fly. Updated Effects. ImageFX's ever popular Lightning now has multiple bolts and even more options than ever before. The Shear, Straw and Composite functions have been upgraded along with many other improvements throughout. New Effects. Many new special effects have been added in this release of ImageFX. Animated Bubbles, Fire and Fire Rings, an all new Displace, wild Sparkles, Liquid image warping, Film Grain, Remove Grain and much more! Web Site Support Nova Design has a newly renovated web site on the Internet as well. A complete feature list for ImageFX is maintained there along with all press releases and helpful information. If you'd like to view the list of features found in ImageFX, point your web browser to the following URL address: http://www.novadesign.com Upgrade Price The upgrade is priced at only $34.95, plus shipping and handling ($5.00 US, $7.00 elsewhere), to registered owners of ImageFX 2.0 or higher. Contact our order lines at 1-800-IMAGE-69 or (804) 282-1157, orders can also be faxed to (804) 282-3768. Write us at; Nova Design, Inc., 1910 Byrd Ave, Suite 214, Richmond, VA 23230 ImageFX, AutoFX, IMP, Cinemorph and Wireless are all trademarks of Nova Design, Inc. All other trademarks are held by their respective owners. @endnode @node NEWS7 "IntuiCookie for BGUI 1.0" @toc NEWS TITLE IntuiCookie for BGUI VERSION 1.0 (20.02.96) AUTHOR Christian Kemp 52, BD Patton L-2316 Luxembourg E-Mail : ckemp@innet.lu WWW : http://www.innet.net/~year0183/ DESCRIPTION IntuiCookie is a fortune cookie program with many features and support for formatting characters. Its only purpose is to display random quotes, jokes or fortunes at bootup. IntuiCookie uses a hash file for an amazingly fast access of the cookies. CookHash, a hashfile generator with AppIcon is also included. Cookies can include formatting characters and it is possible to use different fonts for cookie/origin in the BGUI window. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS IntuiCookie requires OS2.04 or later and BGUI.library V37 or later. AVAILABILITY IntuiCookie is available on any Aminet site, for example ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/misc/ICookie_BGUI.lha (149125) PRICE IntuiCookie for BGUI is Mailware. DISTRIBUTABILITY IntuiCookie is subject to the "Standard Amiga-FD Software Copyright Note". @endnode @node NEWS8 "Fields of Battle 1.30/1.31 Bug" @toc NEWS Field of Battle v. 1.30/1.31 has a bug, which result in 8-bit CyberGFX not working with old versions of the operating system. If you start FoB with 8-bit CyberGFX with and old version of the OS, nothing will be drawn on screen. After a while, when the normal arrow-pointer appears, clicking on the screen results in the "No game in progress" dialog. If you move the dialog arround, it will leave "trails" on the screen. The bug appears if your graphics libraries version isn't version 40.xx or newer. Type "version graphics.library" from a shell to examine the version of your graphics library. We will release a new demo which fixes the problem, as well as a patch to the registered version, next week if everything goes as planned. Lars Moellebjerg Bevelstone Production I/S email: bvlstone@login.dknet.dk WWW: http://www.login.dknet.dk/~bvlstone @endnode @node NEWS9 "SoftLogik Web Page Online" @toc NEWS SoftLogik's web page is now live. Come visit us at www.softlogik.com. If your browser reports that it can't find it, try again in 24 hours. Some name servers might not have it yet. The following email addresses are now valid: Tech Support: support@softlogik.com Automated Info: info@softlogik.com If you find a mistake on our site, please report it to us so that we can correct it. It's brand new, so there may be a few loose ends dangling and the content is still a bit light. Regards, Michael SoftLogik @endnode @node NEWS10 "Amiga Games Library Under Development" @toc NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT: DEVELOPMENT OF AN AMIGA GAMES.LIBRARY I am in the process of developing a library specially for the purpose of writing GAMES. For the past few weeks I have been experimenting with the concept and now that I am satisfied with the results, I have decided to develop it into a full Games Programming Interface. So far I have done the basic features (about 40 functions), and am now on to the real stuff. Already there is full support for multi-directional hardware scrolling, dual playfields, colourlists, double buffering, triple buffering, AGA support, 4 different types of fading, etc. In other words, all the things the OS previously COULDN'T do (unless you enjoy having major headaches). The objective of this library is to remove the need to hack the hardware within games (the library will do it for you :-/). Then when a new Amiga is released, the libary will be re-written to deal with that, so your game still works! (Or at least under 680x0 emulation anyway :-) The real bonus is that your game will also work with all the major gfx cards, because there will hopefully be versions of games.library specifically written for these also. So no more problems with CyberGfx/Picasso/Retina/etc boards. Multi-tasking arcade games will also be quite easy to write under this library, although you can do away with the OS if you wish. The only thing I want to know is how many people will use the library, how many want to see something like this in use, and how many will *help me write this library*. This is an "open project" so all programmers that wish to donate or write routines for it may do so. I would do it all myself, but not if you want to see it released in the next few months. Plus I think this way everyone has a chance to have a say which I think will be very important for this project. With some help, the following features should become a reality: * An in-built debugger. * A multiple blit routine. * Texture mapping routines. * Gouraud shading routines. * Complete vector drawing system, including "Draw_Multiple_Vectors". * XPK support. * Support for Sprite screen backgrounds. * Easy IFF support for gfx and sound (just point to the file and go). * Various screen fades, wipes and special fx normally only seen in demos built in. * A c2p routine that automatically uses the fastest algorithm for the user's system. * Retargetable graphics to adjust to the user's system. * Support for GPI's (Games Programming Interfaces), similar to API's in windows I guess (but better :-) * Anything else you can come up with. If you can help with any of these, or anything not listed, please send me some mail. The retargetable graphics part is especially important, I don't own any gfx cards so it is up to you if you want to see this area fully supported. If not enough interest is generated, the library will still be written, but only for personal use. So make contributions/comments/ideas/ anything. This could really be something worth-while. - Paul Manias DreamWorld Productions. sandman@welly.gen.nz @endnode @node NEWS11 "Frodo 2.2" @toc NEWS TITLE Frodo VERSION 2.2 AUTHOR Christian Bauer EMail: bauec002@goofy.zdv.uni-mainz.de SMail: Christian Bauer, Max-Planck-Str.60, 55124 Mainz, Germany DESCRIPTION Frodo is a multitasking freeware C64 emulator for the Amiga and DraCo. This emulator focuses on the exact reproduction of special graphical effects possible on the 64, and has therefore relatively high system requirements. Using a 68060-50 and a CyberVision card gives about 140-160% of the original C64 speed in standard text mode in the emulation's most precise mode and about 700% in its fastest mode. Using a line-based VIC model, Frodo is capable of running most games and demos correctly, even those with FLI, FLD, DYCP, open top/bottom borders, multiplexed sprites etc. A single-cycle version of the emulator, "Frodo SC", is included that runs even those programs that fail on the line-based emulation. A graphics card (any one whose modes are selectable with a screenmode requester will do) is strongly recommended for faster display as the emulator's routines have been designed for a chunky display memory. Some small demo programs and the full source code in C and assembly language are included in the archive. Changes from V2.1: - OtherIEC gadget disabled on DraCo - Overscan type can be set again - D64 rouines read 1 byte too much from files, causing trouble with some decrunchers - $d41c returns random values - TOD clocks wrap around at 11:59:59.9 - SID registers are reloaded when changing the SID emulation type SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS OS2.1 and a 68020 (or better) are required, as well as copies of the original C64 ROMs, which are not included. AVAILABILITY Aminet sites: /misc/emu/Frodo.lha Next Generation BBS, Germany Port 1: +49-261-805012 (Zyx19.2/ISDN) Port 2: +49-261-84280 (V.FC) STATUS Freeware DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely distributable @endnode @node NEWS12 "Announcing Miami, a new TCP/IP stack" @toc NEWS Miami - a new TCP/IP stack for Internet access This is the first preliminary announcement regarding Miami, a new TCP/IP protocol stack for Internet access by modem. Miami is currently "work in progress". Functional beta versions are not available yet, but you can get more information and preliminary screen shots from my web page (see signature). I am also asking everyone interested in a new TCP/IP stack to participate in the development by providing me information about your modem, dialing conventions in your country and your Internet provider. Your help could ensure that the first release of Miami already supports a wide range of configurations and Internet providers. Please have a look at my web page for more information. The current Amiga Internet situation from my point of view: Many users have told me personally or posted on Usenet that they are unhappy with the current choices for Internet access (usually AmiTCP/ ppp.device or AmiTCP/cslip.device). Although AmiTCP is in itself a very powerful and well-written program, it has not been specifically designed for modem-based Internet access, i.e. - it has many features that most users do not need (e.g. gatewaying, very extensive configuration) - it is rather difficult to configure - you need to know all configuration parameters (dial script etc.) in advance, i.e. AmiTCP/ppp.device cannot dial up your Internet provider and find out the required settings by themselves. - it is not an "Amiga-ish" application, i.e. it lacks a GUI - it does not handle "dialing" in any way (well, at least until AmiTCP 4.2. I have not had a chance to check the quality of the 4.3 dialer yet). - it does not support some of the new features that many new Internet providers (mostly Win-NT-RAS and Cisco/Xyplex) use, e.g. automatic DNS server discovery through IPCP/BootP. Besides AmiTCP only supports SANA-II. Although SANA-II is a Very Good Thing (tm) for Ethernet-like networks it can be a real burden for modem-based Internet access, because the SANA-II standard lacks some features required for dialup connections. Most integrated TCP/IP protocol stacks on other platforms only use packet drivers (the equivalent of SANA-II) for Ethernet-like networks, but use integrated PPP/SLIP for dialup connections. This is not possible with AmiTCP. All of the above taken together makes it unnecessarily difficult to use AmiTCP with ppp/slip, and there is no way around this without redesigning *all* of it. Now about Miami: Miami is an attempt to make Internet access on the Amiga as easy as possible. Simple (mostly automatic) configuration has been my primary goal throughout the design and implementation of Miami. Miami contains a complete TCP/IP stack based on the latest BSD networking code (net/3, 4.4). It also contains a dialer (both script-driven and interactive), and builtin PPP and (C)SLIP. All of this is controlled and configured through a single GUI (MUI-based), that is completely localized. There are *no* configuration files to create or edit *whatsoever*. All of the settings are stored in a single IFF file, allowing you to have multiple distinct configurations for different Internet providers. In addition Miami comes with a GUI-based configuration program "MiamiInit" that automatically configures your Internet setup and creates a suitable settings file. MiamiInit is already available in an early beta version from my web page (see signature), so you can check out if Miami would work with your system and Internet provider (and if it does not: tell me about it so I can fix it before release :-)). Miami intentionally does not support SANA-II, because SANA-II support would require a lot of additional configuration (routing, netmaks etc.) and thus make the program more difficult to use, just like AmiTCP. SANA-II support might be added later, though, as a "power user option". Miami will be compatible to both AmiTCP 4.x (bsdsocket.library) and AS-225 (socket.library), so most programs available for these stacks should work with Miami. Miami will be shareware. Pricing has not been finalized yet, but the registration fee will probably be below $40. And there will probably be some discounted upgrade path for registered users of ppp.device :-). I expected the first release to be ready in June or July 96. For more information, a more detailed feature list, screen shots of Miami and beta versions of MiamiInit please have a look at my web page (see signature). For comments/questions please send email to "kruse@america.com". Please DO NOT send email about - beta-testing Miami. I do not need additional external beta-testers at this time. - MUI as the GUI engine. There is no other GUI engine that even remotely offers the features MUI does, and the decision to use MUI is final. @endnode @node NEWS13 "Message to Amiga Users and Developers" @toc NEWS MESSAGE TO AMIGA DEVELOPERS AND USERS From Eric Laffont, VIScorp Developer/User Liason 28-Apr-96 I have been given the responsibility by Mr Bill Buck, CEO of Viscorp, to rebuild a strong Amiga Developer and Users Community. I know that the Amiga community is currently very fragmented and in the past nothing serious has been done for you. As a Commodore developer since 1983 (C64, then Amiga), I can understand all your wishes. First of all, we are listening to all your suggestions about software/hardware development, documentation, distribution, contact--just about anything you want if it's reasonable. It's a great mission to seek information from the entire world. So if you're interested in collecting suggestions and representing your Amiga community, contact us on the VIScorp Web Site, or simply reply to this message. PS: Mrs. Raquel Velasco and Mr. Bill Buck apologize for not replying to the mail they have received because they are very busy, as you can imagine. They will reply when they return to the US around the first of May. But you can always reach me via email: elaffont@pratique.fr (Eric Laffont) VISCORP 111 North Canal Street, Suite 933 Chicago, IL 60606 Corporate Information Contact: Florine Radulovic Voice 312.655.0903 FAX 312.655.0910 @endnode @node NEWS14 "Australian Pro-Internet Rights March" @toc NEWS [Amiga Report Magazine supports the free exchange of information over the Internet in all nations. While the content of Amiga Report does not fall under anybody's current interpretation of "objectionable", we believe that the successful dissemination of all forms of information depends on free access to all others. Any restrictions on Internet access and exchange are impediments to our mission, and censorship of any material is only a precedent for more control. As such, we urge interested Australians to investigate this event, and urge our readers worldwide to take steps now--even in those countries where your rights have not yet been threatened--to ensure that publications like Amiga Report retain free and clear channels of distribution. -Jason] Zip Australia supports the right to free speech on the Internet, and would like to see that the proposed laws censoring the internet are NOT implemented. We would like to see all Zipsters (and non-Zipsters alike:) participating in this march on state parliament. The lowdown is that the state Government wants to make only 'G' rated material available on the 'net, meaning that various things including medical information and some on line art will be illegal to obtain, and making the provider responsible. A bit like prosecuting Teltsra for customers using colourful language during a conversation (even if the two people consent!). Even some material that can be freely broadcast over the radio will be illegal! As well as this being a law against free speech, the nature of the internet makes it impossible to police fairly. Below is a repost of some of the discussion going on about the leaflet to be distributed to the public and MPs. Note that the final content will most likely change slightly, with lots of people chipping in with ideas. (Thanks to Thorfinn (thorfinn@zip) for informing us) Hope to see you all there! > From: Peter Merel > Subject: Re: Electronic Freedom March on NSW Parliament - leaflet > Date: 22 Apr 1996 01:00:30 +1000 Okey-doke, I've had a go at revamping Richard Ling's pamphlet. I liked the form that Richard adopted quite a lot, but I didn't think he phrased things so that our average Joe Blow could understand them. What follows is, like Richard's effort, tentative and preliminary, but imho it's close to something that will penetrate the average mind. Might make a good web page too if Danny thinks it's worth formatting. Any and all comments, criticisms, refutations, rewrites and replacements very very welcome. If folks think that Richard's original works better than this, I have no problem with that either. Perhaps Mick can tell us whether the length is okay, and if anyone has any ideas about graphic images to go along with this, that'd be great too. Don't sit on your hands! -- 5 MYTHS ABOUT THE INTERNET -------------------------- MYTH 1: The internet is full of pornography. In fact, pornography on the Internet is just a tiny fraction of what goes on there - it's like the number of sex-shops in Sydney as opposed to all the other shops. Just like in Sydney, if you look up "sex-shops" in the online Yellow Pages, you'll find a few. But if you don't actually go inside them, you'll never see any pornography at all - just like real sex-shops. The Carr government doesn't understand this. Carr has never used the net, and he imagines it's like some kind of TV show. He thinks all the porn on the net will be right there in everyone's faces. This is the same as thinking that Sydney is nothing but an X-rated cinema. Because of this stupid misunderstanding, the Carr government will make every NSW Internet user a target for extortionists and hooligans from all over the world. Under Carr's new Internet laws, if an extortionist sends you a pornographic picture, which any one of 100 million people on the global Internet could do, for free, in perfect anonymity, with just one click of the mouse, you'd be up for a $25,000 dollar fine and/or 6 months in jail. This new legislation will neither prevent access to Internet porn nor shut down the real pornographers. What it will do is make you and your Internet provider into targets for extortion and entrapment. MYTH 2: Internet users are constantly at risk of being exposed to objectionable material. Imagine you're down at the pub, and someone starts telling a dirty joke. Happens all the time, doesn't it? No one minds much, because if you don't want to hear the joke, you don't need to hear it - you can walk off and go talk with some other people. No one forces you to listen. It's exactly the same on the Internet. On the net you will only see what you go looking for. You can filter out what you don't like. You can always let both a dirty-joker and any interested Internet users know how you feel about what is said. The net is conversational, like a world-wide pub. The Carr government doesn't understand this. It wants to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to install policemen with sensitive eavesdropping equipment all over NSW. The moment one of Carr's police hears someone start to tell a dirty joke, they'll fine them $25,000 and throw them in jail. Even worse, if you happen to be within earshot of a dirty-joker, even if you're asleep or not listening, Carr will drag you into a courtroom to have you prove that you weren't involved. And if you can't prove it, then Carr will fine you $25,000 and shove you in the clink too. MYTH 3: Pornography can be stopped by imposing a statewide or national ban. Teenagers scrawl rude words and pictures of genitals on the walls of public lavatories. While these things are distasteful, no one gets particularly upset about them, because, unless you spend all your time reading lavatory walls, these things are only a momentary nuisance. It's the same on the Internet; pornography is usually scanned in by teenagers and "scrawled" onto public forums that are automatically copied to every computer in the world. But most users don't see any of this, because there are millions of different "walls" on the net, and only a handful are devoted to the equivalent of lavatory graffiti. The Carr government doesn't understand this. Rather than ignore lavatory grafitti as the momentary nuisance that it actually is, Carr wants to set up the Internet equivalent of video-cameras monitoring all public urinals. Never mind the fact that this would cost hundreds of millions, Carr says that if you have the online equivalent of a call of nature, and you see an obscenity on an online "lavatory wall", that's worth $25,000 and 6 months in a prison surrounded by rapists and murderers. Even if this insane policy were pursued, it would catch no one but the innocent. Real online pornographers have free worldwide access to "encryption" and "steganography" software on the Internet - the equivalent of a graffiti-kid wearing a mask and writing in invisible ink. Carr's monitoring software could never catch the originators of the grafitti, because these schemes are so mathematically tough to decode that it would take all the world's computers working for a thousand years before even one pornographer could be found. And even then Carr would have no way of proving whose finger was on the mouse. So the only people Carr can catch will be the poor unsuspecting folks who wander into the wrong stall at the wrong time. And, to justify the massive expense of this absolutely futile campaign, you can bet he'll crucify them. MYTH 4: There's no existing solution to this problem. Places like King's Cross exist online. Right now, none of them exist in Australia, but they're directly accessible from here. They'll tell you how to mix up the drugs, they'll sell you the vilest pornography imaginable, and they'll seduce your children into addiction and sickness, just like the real King's Cross. But the Internet also offers your children all the advantages of the finest university education, unlimited access to the most beautiful artworks, and expert advice on absolutely anything that interests them. The net holds out unlimited financial, social and educational advantages to your children - any Australian child who can't use these advantages is already well on their way to the 21st century scrap-heap. If you love your kids, you can't afford to deny them these opportunities. Now keeping your kids away from the real King's Cross is *YOUR* job, not Bob Carr's. No one can watch your kids for you. No one can keep them out of trouble but you. And it's just the same on the net. Filter programs like "Net Nanny" and "SurfWatch", are very helpful in keeping an eye on your kids, but at the end of the day it's *YOUR* job to supervise your children on the net. If your kids are going to be able to cope with the revolutionary technology of the next century, they need you to give them the advice that only you, as a parent, know how to give. But the Carr government doesn't understand this. If your kids stumble onto an online "Playboy" then Carr isn't satisfied with you giving them your parental advice. Instead, he wants to fine you $25,000 dollars and throw you in jail for six months. And if he can't get you, then he wants to get the administrators and owners of the business that sells you access to the Internet - or anyone, so long as he can look like a "tough guy on porn". MYTH 5. Censoring the Internet is just responsible government. What's the big deal with the Internet? If the net is just people talking to one another, why crack down on it? If two consenting adults want to share naughty bits online, is that worse than what they want to do in their bedrooms? If you want to discuss sex, drugs or anything else online, is that worse than what you talk about down at the pub? In fact, it's just the same thing. People are just the same online as they are offline. If Bob Carr has no business telling you what you can do in your bedroom, then neither does he have any business telling you what you can email to your partner over the Internet. If Bob Carr doesn't have any business monitoring your conversations in the pub, then neither does he have any business eavesdropping on your transactions on the net. But, worse, Carr's new laws will stop you and your children getting financial, educational and social opportunities that can hugely enrich your lives. That's the same kind of thinking that burns books, that jails dissidents, and that opposes freedom of speech. Carr's legislation is a vastly expensive PR exercise that belongs in Beijing, not in Sydney. Let's stop this Big-Brother rubbish right now. If we don't want Carr monitoring every phone call in NSW, making us vulnerable to online extortion, destroying our kids' opportunities for a first-world future and squandering hundreds of millions of dollars of our taxes on his paranoia, then we need to make ourselves visible. On May 27, at 12.30, lunchtime, protestors will gather in the Sydney Domain. At 1pm we're going to march on the NSW parliament. This will be a peaceful protest, and if the police tell us to disperse then we will. Smiles, food and music are very welcome. Please encourage your friends and colleagues to come along. Many people are also going to wear blue ribbons, the international symbol of free speech. But the main thing is to turn up - show Carr that you care. And that you vote. -- mailto:pete@zip.com.au | Accept Everything. | http://www.zip.com.au/~pete/ | Reject Nothing. | BB et al. -- Zip Administration Phone : 2126-911 (ans mach) Dial In: 2126-288 2126-144 @endnode @node NEWS15 "The New Amiga M1538S Monitor" @toc NEWS The AMIGA M1538S Specifications ˇ CRT 15" diagonal Black Matrix 0.28 mm dot pitch Short persistance (P22) tube Anti-static AR faceplate finish ˇ DISPLAY TIMINGS Horizontal: 15 - 38 kHz Vertical: 45 - 90 Hz Bandwidth: 40 MHz ˇ MAXIMUM RESOLUTIONS 1024 x 768 (interlaced) 800 x 600 (non-interlaced) All AMIGA resolutions and frequencies !!! ˇ CONTROLS Mains on/off Contrast Brightness Vertical height Horizontal Position Volume ˇ INPUTS / OUTPUTS Analog RGB via 23-pin AMIGA-Sub 'D' 0.7 V - 75 Ohm Separate H and V sync Audio input LHS / RHS phono socket Audio input signal 1 V p-p 5000 Ohm Audio Output 0.5 W RMS per channel ˇ POWER SUPPLY Line 90 - 265 V, 50 - 60 Hz Power Consumption 65 W max. ˇ ENVIRONMENT Reliability > 35,000 h Operating temperature 0 - 40 °C Relative humidity 10 - 90 % ˇ APPROVALS EN60950, PTB, MPRII, EN29241, 89/336/EC, EN55022 Class B, GS ˇ PHYSICAL 354x360x380mm (HxWxD) 14.4 kg unpackaged ˇ WARRANTY 1 year parts & labour Available New! at your AMIGA-Dealer ! @endnode @node NEWS16 "The New Amiga M1764 Monitor @toc NEWS The AMIGA M1764 Specifications ˇ CRT 17" diagonal FST invar mask 0.28 mm dot pitch 307 x 225 mm typical display size Anti-static AR faceplate finish ˇ DISPLAY TIMINGS Horizontal: 15 - 64 kHz Vertical: 45 - 125 Hz Bandwidth: 85 MHz ˇ MAXIMUM RESOLUTIONS 1280 x 1024 60 Hz 1152 x 870 68 Hz 1024 x 768 76 Hz (recommended) All AMIGA resolutions and frequencies !!! ˇ CONTROLS Mains on/off On screen Display control of all functions ˇ INPUTS / OUTPUTS 15 pin 'D - Sub' captive lead 0.7 V - 75 Ohm Separate H and V sync Combined sync ( TTL ) ˇ POWER SUPPLY Line Volts 90 - 265 V, 50 - 60 Hz Power Consumption 95 W max. Power Saving 2 W max. ˇ ENVIRONMENT Reliability > 50.000 h Operating temperature 5 - 40° C Relative humidity 10 - 90 % ˇ APPROVALS TÜV, EN60950, NEMKO, CSA22.2 No.950,UL1950, ZH1/618, GS, DHHS FCC/A, EN55022/A, EN55082-1, EN60555, 2ISO9241-3, MPRII, TCO92 ˇ PHYSICAL 400x418x434mm(HxWxD) 17 kg unpackaged ˇ WARRANTY 1 year parts & labour, RTB Available New! at your AMIGA-Dealer ! @endnode @node NEWS17 "VIScorp Invites Amiga Community to Attend Meeting @toc NEWS VISCORP INVITES AMIGA COMMUNITY TO ATTEND MEETING Executives to Discuss Pending Acquisition of Amiga, ITV Opportunities Chicago IL, May 9, 1996 - Visual Information Service Corp. (Nasdaq VICP, Bulletin Board), a developer of Interactive TV (ITV) set-top boxes to enhance television use and viewing by providing Internet access and electronic communications functions, will host a meeting for Amiga computer users, vendors, retailers, software and hardware developers. The meeting will be held in Toulouse, France on Sunday, May 19, 1996 and is intended to encourage dialogue between the Amiga community and VIScorp, which announced on April 11, 1996, a letter of understanding with Escom AG to acquire the assets and intellectual property of Amiga Technologies and the former Commodore Business Machines. "The Amiga community is a large, established and dedicated one, and I believe this is the first time that an owner or prospective owner has gone to this vast community to ask for its opinions," said Raquel Velasco, VIScorp's Director of Sales and Marketing - Europe. "We are excited about the opportunity to tell people about VIScorp and our vision for the future of Amiga Technologies. "We have asked for proposals and suggestions from the Amiga community. With the `anticipated acquisition of Amiga, we see limitless opportunities. We welcome ideas and are coming to France to listen, as much as to share our own vision." The meeting will feature VIScorp Chief Executive Officer William Buck, Chief Technical Officer Don Gilbreath, Vice President - Business Development David Rosen, Ms. Velasco, and Chief Software Engineer Carl Sassenrath. The company asks that all proposals be sent by May 12, 1996 via email to VIScorp Manager of Technical Development for Amiga, Eric Laffont, at: elaffont@vistv.com or via facsimile at: 33-61-538-656. VIScorp has announced that it intends to begin marketing its first set-top box with full Internet and Web capabilities, called the Universal Internet Television Interface(r), (UITI(r)) in the fourth quarter of 1996. The company says an enhanced set-top device, the Electronic Device(r) (ED(r)) is scheduled for roll out in 1997, and will feature capabilities such as telephone reception and dial-up, facsimile, pay-per-view options, electronic mail, access to on-line services, including the Internet, and more. Both devices utilize the Amiga operating system and chip sets. Information about VIScorp can be obtained at the company's Web site at http://www.vistv.com/. VISCORP 111 North Canal Street, Suite 933 Chicago, IL 60606 Corporate Information Contact: Florine Radulovic Voice 312.655.0903 FAX 312.655.0910 @endnode @node NEWS18 "OctaMED and high-resolution sampling" @toc NEWS Press Info Regarding OctaMED Soundstudio and sampling with Aura We have been inundated for requests by purchasers of the HiSoft Aura card for info on just why samples taken via Aura<>OctaMED V6 are no where near as good as if they are taken via the Aura's own software that is supplied with the card itself. Now allthough we are still, even at this late stage, attempting to sort this anomaly out prior to it's release, we do have some good news for everybody, especialy those that are still only considering purchasing the Aura card and also Amiga owners that have an A4000 but cannot afford the hefty prices for Soundcards. Due to some very clever programing by it's author, Teijo Kinnunen, OctaMED Soundstudio V1 is now capable of playing mods and samples *directly* through the Paula chip in 14bit quality thanks to the new mix routines in this latest version. It will also enable old 8bit mods to be loaded, mixed and resaved in the new 14bit mode. For info on just how it is completed, just read the latest info that is available from our WWW Site. You can also download the last "beta" Demo and try it yourselves. Ray RBF Software @endnode @node NEWS19 "HTMLess 2.0" @toc NEWS TITLE HTMLess - Converts WWW HTML pages to standard Amiga ASCII text files. VERSION 2.0 (major update) AUTHOR Manuel Martin-Vivaldi E-Mail : bitabit@servicom.es (Faster and safer) FidoNet : 2:341/28.55 Manuel Martin AmigaNet : 39:192/1.29 Manuel Martin DESCRIPTION HTMLess is an utility to extract the text inside HTML files (Web pages) and convert it to a readable text format. FEATURES o Fast, written 100% in assembler. o Small but powerful utility (only 12000 bytes long). o CLI and Workbench usage. o ToolTypes support. [New since v2.0] o Admit filenames as CLI parameters (can be launched from a DiskMaster/DirOpus type program to autoconvert HTML's). o Output text could be formatted to easy reading. o All non-ASCII chars are converted. o Can keep [href's] (like WWW adresses) in the output text. o .HTML or .HTM filename suffix could be changed to your own defined text extension. [New since v2.0] o Very easy to use...just try it. o WYSIAWYG (WhatYouSawIsAlmostWhatYouGet) o No annoying requesters when starting/using/quitting program. o It's OriginalWare (OriginalWhat?) and it's only Amiga (Yeah!). SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS - AmigaOS 2.0+ (v1.3 could work, but is not supported nor tested) - "ReqTools.library" by Nico Francois and Magnus Holmgren. AVAILABILITY - AmiNet : text/hyper/HTMLess.lha - Maybe on the next AmiNet CD?! *8) PRICE OriginalWare! That means if you use this program you must buy an original Amiga program or game, register or pay the shareware fee to any program you are using often. DISTRIBUTABILITY Free distributable with the usual restrictions. See documentation for further details. @endnode @node NEWS20 "Phase5 Announces PowerPC Amiga Compatible Computer" @toc NEWS PowerUp - The Next Generation: phase 5 digital products announces an Amiga-OS-compatible computer for 1997 Oberursel, May 1996: According to the plans of phase 5 digital products, Oberursel near Frankfurt, Germany, the coming year, 1997, will be a year of joy for all Amiga enthusiasts. As an expansion of the PowerUp project, which involves developing PowerPC processor cards for existing Amiga models, the company has announced that an independent Amiga OS-compatible computer system will be available in the first six months of 1997, representing a revolution on the computer market. "We will continue to give our full support to the Amiga idea because as we were among the first Amiga users we continue to believe in the advantages and superior concepts of the Amiga", says Wolf Dietrich, Managing Director of phase 5 digital products. "However, it is high time for a radical leap forwards in technology that needs to be borne by a vision of a computer for the next millennium. We have seen too many half-hearted efforts in the last few years." In the view of Gerald Carda, Technical Director at phase 5, it is necessary to take a step towards complete innovation in order to realise such a vision. "Concepts that build up on the standard components of the PC world never offer the scope that give a computer system the lead that the Amiga 1000 had over other systems 12 years ago." In line with this philosophy, the new computer will be based on a highly integrated Custom Chip design which, as a central functional unit, will enable the system to achieve a hitherto unknown performance. "We will demonstrate the possibilities that are inherent in the resolute and single-minded pursuit of a new development that does not become submerged in the mainstream of adaptation to the Wintel world and the general tendency towards economy in the PC mass market which more or less throttles innovation for the sake of saving one single dollar", continues Gerald Carda. Despite this, the system now being announced is not intended to become a dream machine in the high price category. In the words of Wolf Dietrich: "On the basis of our current price calculation we will be able to offer unusually good value for money for which our products for the Amiga market are already renowned." It is actually true that the extremely high degree of integration and the realisation of novel concepts will make it possible to achieve a performance that explodes existing bounds. Based on the PowerPC as the main processor, the new computer, in addition to the high performance of the processor, offers hardware support for multimedia (MPEG) and 3D functions, while even the basic system offers a resolution of 1600x1200 pixels at 24-bit color depth and a refresh rate of 72 Hz. At the same time special functions for image and video effects have been implemented in the hardware. In addition there are audio inputs and outputs in stereo CD quality, a video-compatible and Genlock-capable 24-bit video output and an FBAS/S-VHS video input. Along with the usual interfaces, the system is rounded off by a Fast SCSI-II controller, a network interface and an ISDN interface. With these features a complete system with a 120 MHz 603e PowerPC, 16 MByte memory, a SCSI hard disk of 1 GB and a quad-speed CD ROM will be available for a purchase price of around 3,000 DM (1,400 pounds or 2,000 US$, respectively) on the basis of the present market prices for the components. "We hope that in just about one year from now we will even be able to offer a 150 to 166 MHz 603e-processor at this price", anticipates Wolf Dietrich. "In terms of performance the processor has no problems in keeping up with a Pentium processor with an equally fast clock. However, there is no sign of any comparable graphic performance anywhere the PC field and the features of our systems will be difficult to match." There will be a similar system available with a PowerPC 604-e processor and 150 MHz for about 4,000 DM (1,800 pounds or 2,700 US$, respectively). Although phase 5 digital products state that the total concept for the system has already been under development for quite some time and has practically been concluded, it is not possible to publish a more exact description of the system features at the present point in time. "At the moment we are intensively concerned with looking into whether it would be worth applying for a patent for any of the concepts we have developed and, if so, for which. So unfortunately we are not able to publish more precise details of the concept until after this process has been concluded and we have possibly applied for protection by patent", says Gerald Carda. For this reason we cannot reckon with any publication of the full system specifications until the end of June. Not only the hardware concept of phase 5, but also the software approach comes as a surprise. The new computer system will be supplied with a completely new operating system written in Native PowerPC code, but with binary compatibility with Amiga-OS 3.x. Here Gerald Carda has the following comments: "As we are already developing an Amiga-compatible PowerPC-Exec with an expansion library and a PowerPC CyberGraphX version in the context of the PowerUp developments, it is the logical consequence that the next step will be the innovative development of the other components. An operating system that is compatible with Amiga-OS 3.x makes it possible for the user to continue to use the existing software that can run under CyberGraphX, while developers who already give massive support to CyberGraphX will be able to continue to maintain and develop their products at the present level. In this way we will be enabling Amiga users to switch to the new system without any problems." "In addition", continues Gerald Carda, "we will be opening up ways of making considerable improvements in the internal structure and extensive additions to the scope of functions". Besides the 24-bit support which has already become a standard due to CyberGraphX, Gerald Carda names the coming CyberGraphX 3D and multimedia interface as an example. There will also be an optimisation of the system's performance and a revision and adaptation of the user interface in line with the functional and optical state of the art. "For years Amiga-OS has represented the conceptual realisation of ideas that today are propagated by many to be special innovations. This means that reprogramming will make it possible to achieve a really highly powered and modern OS. Of course our system will also be open for other operating systems or emulations, such as MacOS or an X-Windows link-up. The discussion concerning so-called new operating systems, however, was intended more as marketing hype than as a realistic alternative." The commitment with which phase 5 digital products will force forward this project is reflected not least in the considerable volume of investment that has been made in the development. "By the middle of 1997 we will have invested seven-digit figures in this project", says Wolf Dietrich. "We have the know-how, the development team, the technical equipment, the support from third parties (especially Motorola) and the financial basis for this project. The only thing that we still need is massive and positive support from the Amiga user basis. With this early disclosure of our objectives we expect to receive the anticipated response from the users, for, after all, such a project only makes sense if there is still a large number of convinced Amiga fans. We therefore appeal to all Amiga fans to write to us, to send us faxes or to contact us via E-mail (under the address specially set up for this purpose: aproject@phase5.de). Every positive reaction will strengthen this forward-looking project." PowerUP project continues to make progress The PowerUp project also continues to make progress. "The delivery of the developer PowerPC boards will now start in summer", says Gerald Carda. "Unfortunately, we are a few months behind in our schedule due to extensive discussions between Motorola, Amiga Technologies and phase 5. These companies were to agree on a close cooperation and clarify a number of matters, especially with regard to new standards specific to the new PowerPC. After the discussion concerning a takeover by VIScorp started and the wave or redundancies that directly followed at Amiga Technologies, which led to most of the contact persons who had been involved in the projects leaving the company, AT abandoned the present cooperation. For this reason we will waste no further time and will continue with our project on our own, which was the way in which we started it. Nor can we wait any longer to see what VIScorp might possibly intend or not intend." The support for external developers in the PowerUp program is now complete. More than 250 developers - including practically all noted commercial software suppliers in the Amiga field - are registered and their numbers are growing every day. This alone is evidence of the strong support for the future Amiga-compatible PowerPC platform. As from the second half of May, the registered users will now be able to order the PowerPC Beta developer boards from phase 5 which mean the green light for the hot phase of the world-wide software development. Motorola appreciates the concept of phase 5 In the realisation of their new, innovative computer system phase 5 will be fully supported by Motorola. "We appreciate the powerful and innovative concept that phase 5 represents and we fully support the efforts of this company as a partner in our global PowerPC strategy." says John Letham, European Technical Marketing Manager, Motorola RISC Microprocessors. "We have had a number of joint meetings now and we are impressed by the know-how and vision that is the basis of phase 5's driving force." Technology demonstrations In close cooperation with Motorola phase 5 is preparing technology demonstrations, to be shown in due course, which will demonstrate the impressive capabilities of the next generation of PowerPC 603e CPUs at significantly increased clock rates. This programme is already underway and Summer of 1996 will see phase 5 present prototypes of PowerPC boards for Amiga 3000/4000 as well as for the Apple Macintosh 7500/8500/9500 series. "With the presentation of these new processors, Motorola as a leading semiconductor manufacturer clearly illustrates their capabilities demonstrating exactly why the next generation of PowerPC CPUs will hold the pole position in the microprocessor performance race". says Wolf Dietrich of phase 5. "Our computer system, when shipping next year, will also offer these extremely fast processors, delivering true high-end workstation performance. The higher speed of the CPUs will also deliver a performance increase to the upgrade boards for existing Amiga systems." With the presentation of this PowerPC technology demo on Apple MacIntosh system phase 5 digital products announces their entry into the MacIntosh accelerator market. This new branch of their operation will make additional use of the PowerPC know-how that is been build up in the Amiga development, while for both the Amiga and the MacIntosh PowerPC products an even more attractive pricing can be realized due to the higher quantity demands of PowerPC processors. phase 5 digital products on the situation of Amiga Technologies In addition to this project announcement, phase 5 also made some side remarks on the current state of affairs with regard to Amiga Technologies. "To our regret we found that Amiga Technologies offers us no sort of outlook or basis for developing into the future", says Wolf Dietrich. "The first year of Amiga Technologies was marked by a continued chain of wrong decisions which have been responsible for the bad situation in which the company now finds itself. The results must be adequate to the objectives set in the spring of 1995 and in this respect they are more than disappointing. There is no getting away from this. In fact the same mistakes were made that were previously made at Commodore and partly by the same people. For example, attempts continue to keep technically outdated products on the market at unrealistic prices, which is particularly true in the case of the A4000T. Another point is that the marketing concepts are completely outdated, there is an absence of any kind of futuristic vision and a lack of any independent development, which is so pronounced that today AT neither has any 68060 technology to show for itself nor even a sign of any PowerPC technology. The brief spark of any independent development was extinguished again by the latest wave of redundancies. In this respect the only thing that we can just about expect from AT is that they sell off their large quantities of existing stock. These do give us some cause to hope that the existing products will be on the market for a while and that, in due course, they will be offered at more realistic prices. Finally, the only thing that can be said about the activities of AT is: They should have asked someone who knows his stuff." In the opinion of phase 5 a takeover of Amiga Technologies by VIScorp does not awaken hope of any major innovations or any strengthening of the Amiga system. "So far we have heard nothing from VIScorp that would cause us to assume that anything different is being planned than the exploitation of the Amiga technology in a settop box. Nor do we see why this company, which must certainly concentrate all its efforts on realising its settop projects, should be interested in further pursuing the primary aim of continuing with the Amiga system. If this had been the case, it would already have been quite feasible for VIScorp to initiate such a project as a licensee of the Amiga technology." phase 5 sees this critical opinion confirmed by current events. "The actions of VIScorp do not convince us that they are serious in continuing with the Amiga. So far, for example, VIScorp has not directly spoken to the developers who were the last to support the Amiga. Nor was there any reaction when we tried to make contact. The VIScorp meeting in Toulouse that has now been announced lacks any kind of organisation and was called without there being any recognisable concept behind it. For this reason it is more than doubtful whether even a sign of any constructive result can be expected to come out of it, so that in our view it would be a pure waste of time to attend, as we have repeatedly found in the recent year at ESCOM meetings. We don't need a repeat of that." Let it be mentioned in passing that the hope often expressed in the general discussion, i.e. that in VIScorp Amiga will find itself taken over by a company that will finance the development of a new generation of Amiga products more or less from the petty cash, is something that Wolf Dietrich considers to be very optimistic. "For a start we had exactly the same expectations a year ago when everyone thought that the giant ESCOM would get things moving at Amiga from a standing position and quickly produce a new generation of Amiga computers for a more competitive price. Secondly we should first wait and see whether the figures that have been bandied about in the discussion concerning VIScorp's takeover of AT have any sort of real fundament." About phase 5 digital products phase 5 digital products, based in Oberursel near Frankfurt, are internationally operating manufacturers of hardware and software products. The company is entirely owned by its founders, Gerald Carda and Wolf Dietrich. Since the market launch of its first product line in 1992 this company, which consists of an experienced team of the first Amiga users and developers, quickly established itself as one of the leading manufacturers in the Amiga market. Since 1992 its products have been distinguished many times, including 20 awards for Product of the Year in Amiga journals. In 1995 phase 5 supplied accessories to the value of some DM 12 million (5.5 million pounds or 8 million US$) in the Amiga market alone. Since the Christmas season of 1995 almost 30,000 hardware products have been delivered. The product portfolio for Amiga includes accelerator cards, SCSI controllers and graphics cards. In these fields phase 5 digital products has repeatedly proved itself to be manufacturer that is a forerunner and an innovative leader, for instance in bringing out the first Zorro III-DMA-SCSI controller world-wide, the Fastlane Z3, in producing the first 68030 card world-wide with a DMA-SCSI controller for the Amiga 1200, in offering the first 68060 card world-wide for Amiga systems (the Cyberstorm 060/50 for A4000), in manufacturing the first 64-bit graphics card world-wide with full system-integrated 24-bit support (the CyberVision64 for A3000/A4000) or in bringing out the first 68060 card for the A1200 world-wide, the Blizzard 1260. Along with intensive development activities as a Beta developer for Motorola in the 68060 and PowerPC field, hardware developments at phase 5 include pure research work in the field of multimedia high-performance DSPs and in the latest development department ASE (advanced silicon engineering) VLSI chip design. An expanding team of some 20 staff is currently working on these projects at the company's headquarters in Oberursel on premises covering an area of 960 square metres. In the adjoining service area, which covers an area of almost 600 square metres, the company, as from August 96, will be producing hardware products - including the new PowerPC products - in its own, highly modern manufacturing plant using the most recent manufacturing techniques. Contact: phase 5 digital products In der Au 27 61440 Oberursel, Germany Intl. Phone: +49 6171 583787 Intl.Fax: +49 6171 583789 Homepage: http://www.phase5.de Email: mail@phase5.de or: aproject@phase5.de @endnode @node NEWS21 "Wonder Computers International Announces Distribution" @toc NEWS WONDER COMPUTERS INTERNATIONAL ANNOUNCES DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENTS May 10, 1996--Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Wonder Computers International is pleased to announce two exclusive distribution agreements for Amiga products in North America. Lazarus Engineering Corp. of Canada and Quasar Distribution of Australia have signed WCi as their designated distribution source for the Amiga markets in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Lazarus Engineering Corp. develops and manufactures the KB-10 IBM PC-keyboard adapter for Amiga computers, as well as DesignWorks 2, a structured drawing package. Quasar Distribution is the publisher of QuarterBack, DirWork, and PC-Task, including the imminent version 4.0. Wonder CEO Mark Habinski remarked, "We are pleased to have the chance to rebuild our strong ties with major Amiga industry developers." WCi will stock and handle dealer purchases for all of these products on the continent. Inquiries can be directed to Keynes Emeruwa, Manager of WCi Distribution, at Wonder Corporate Headquarters in Ottawa, Canada. Contact: Keynes Emeruwa Retail line: 613-721-1800 Retail fax: 613-721-6992 Distribution/Dealer line: 613-721-1993 Distribution/Dealer fax: 613-721-1994 WONDER COMPUTERS INTERNATIONAL OPENS! ------------------------------------- May 10, 1996--Ottawa, Ontario, Canada On April 16, 1996, Wonder Computers International took possession of a large parcel of property from the bankrupt Wonder Computers Inc. The past few weeks have been spent organizing the new company and its Amiga inventory, and the time has come to officially launch the firm as an Amiga sales and support institution. Wonder Computers International is pleased to announce its Federal incorporation as "Wonder Computers 1996" in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, as of May 2, 1996. Wonder Computers International will continue to use its trade names and logos: Wonder Computers Inc. (with the trademark "rainbow Wonder"), and WCi (With the golden rendered letters, and multi-coloured spherical dot over the "i"). Wonder Computers International has announced its first two Amiga sales centers, with plans for a third in the immediate future. The retail operations will initially consist of an Ottawa-based full-service store, a Vancouver based sales office, and an Ottawa based WCi Distribution Division. The company will continue to offer comprehensive support of the Amiga platform, while increasing its focus on desktop video solutions. Company President and CEO., Mark Habinski has stated that he looks forward "to renewing Wonder's former close co-operation with Amiga Technologies and NewTek", and that he believes "together we will build a bright future for the Amiga in North America". Wonder Computer's Ottawa store will open May 18th, while the administrative aspects of the business should be on track a week earlier. The Ottawa retail store will have its Grand Opening Saturday June 1st, with a number of distinguished guests expected to be in attendance. The Vancouver sales office is already under operation. When asked about Wonder's plans for the future, Habinski replied that Wonder would be opening a centrally-located Toronto based retail store "sometime early next quarter", and that a full Vancouver retail store would follow shortly thereafter. A fourth store is expected next Spring, but its location has not yet been finalised. Wonder will also be pursuing franchising opportunities in other Canadian markets, and major centres across the United States. Wonder Computers will also continue to be actively involved in supporting and sponsoring Amiga-oriented trade shows across the continent in coming months. In addition, Wonder plans to build on the achievements of its highly successful Toronto-based World of Amiga 1995 show by repeating the event this coming December. More details on the upcoming show, for both visitors and exhibitors, can be expected early in July. Internet Service Providing will continue to remain an important aspect of Wonder Computers' business. "We'd like to provide our Amiga customers with a one-stop ISP, tailored to their needs", stated Habinski. Wonder's unique position as Amiga specialists places them in an excellent position to provide Amiga enthusiasts with knowledgeable support and customer service for such an undertaking. Mark Habinski, President/CEO Wonder Computers International "Leading Edge Computing - Amiga Innovation" For Ottawa inquiries, contact Rob Parker Wonder Computers Int'l. 1315 Richmond Road Ottawa, Ontario K2B 8J7 Canada 613-721-1800 voice 612-721-6992 fax For Vancouver inquiries, contact Brad Barnett Wonder Computers Int'l. 2229 Edinburgh St. New Westminster, BC V3M 2Y2 Canada 604-524-2151 voice For Toronto inquiries, contact Mark Habinski Wonder Computers Int'l. 1315 Richmond Road Ottawa, Ontario K2B 8J7 Canada 613-721-1993 voice 613-721-1994 fax @endnode @node NEWS22 "Open Letter from Mark Habinski, CEO of Wonder Computers Int'l." @toc NEWS An open letter to the Amiga Community from Mark Habinski, CEO of Wonder Computers International. I'd like to take this opportunity to set the record straight on what happened to Wonder Computers Inc. First of all, a bit of background about the company will be useful. Wonder Computers Inc. was incorporated on May 3rd, 1993. Its initial startup-cost of $48,000.00 was raised by equal investments from myself, my father, my best friend, and a university chum. Over the course of the next two years, another $300,000+ was invested in the company. That included not only the life savings of almost everyone in my immediate family, but also $50,000 borrowed by my father for that purpose, and additional funds from my extended family, my friends, and my employees. Basically, almost everyone I knew and cared about had invested in Wonder; and those I cared about most, had invested everything they had. I owned just over 30% of the company, my father owned 20%, and the rest of the shares were split among another 20+ shareholders. I founded Wonder with the express purpose of improving the lot of the Amiga platform in North America. I didn't want to get rich (if that had been my goal, I'd have had a much better chance almost anywhere else.) I wanted to support a starving, dedicated market, support hard-working developers, grow a team, and eventually reward our investors. I had some good ideas, and some appropriate skills. Over our 2.5+ years in business we managed to complete almost $10 million dollars in sales to Amiga customers around the world. Unfortunately, my success in sales did not outweigh my inexperience in running an operation of that magnitude. I learned on the job, but I made a number of mistakes, and our bottom line went from mediocre to negative in our second year of business. Somehow, during this process, I lost my perspective. I began to live, eat, and breathe Wonder Computers. First, I started ignoring my family responsibilities, I stopped excercising, my eating habits became irregular. As our situation became worse, I was forced to borrow more and more money to keep things afloat. My hair started falling out, I became chronically sleep deprived (sleeping just 2 or 3 hours a night, while working 18-20 hours a day), and all the while Wonder's situation worsened. Our sales were increasing but margins were falling, and we couldn't seem to make the head way we needed. I was clinging to the hope that Amiga Technologies would finally bring newly built Amigas to market. They were promised in September. By the time our World of Amiga Show rolled around in December, and we still had no new machines, I began to panic. Petro managed to restore my faith in Amiga Technologies. He convinced me that we would actually get new machines into Canada before the end of the month. I felt we were about to finally turn a corner. The WOA was tremendously successful and retail sales began to pick up. December was the first month in 6 to see Wonder turn a profit. January started out with a boom, and when our first batch of 4000T's finally arrived, we were on pace for a record month; I knew the worst was over. We were ordering more product than ever, to supply six growing stores, and our fledgling Distribution division had doubled its sales to other dealers monthly from October through to January. Our Engineering division had finally released its first couple of commercially viable products, and substantial revenues were on the horizon. I was on top of the world as I thought my dream of making a difference for the Amiga platform was finally becoming reality. Tuesday, January 16th, the night before a routine end-of-year-review meeting with my bank, I received a concerned phonecall from Julie Drapeau-Teed, Wonder's financial manager. She had used her home computer to review a couple of transactions in our account, and she had noticed that our balance appeared to be too high. I didn't think that sounded like too much of a problem, and obliviously, I walked into the bank Wednesday morning to receive quite a shock. My account manager took me into the office of the Bank manager, and together, they informed me that they were calling in our loan. Furthermore, they told me that the night before, they had placed a hold on all of our outgoing cheques, in order to trap as much of our cash as possible. In effect, they were unilaterally shutting us down. The next two days I spent desperately trying to restore our finances. I went to other banks, I spoke to lawyers, I contacted our investors. Our own people were tapped out, those close to the business had invested all they had, those more remote had put in all they were willing to lose. By Monday morning, all of the cheques that had bounced when the bank placed the hold had caught up to us, and trustees were placed on site, (at each of our locations), to ensure that we did not try to return product to vendors, or in any other way reduce our equity. Still I tried to turn things around, but a week later, we were all locked out of our offices, and we were bankrupt. It had happened so quickly, and had been so unexpected, that I failed to perform all of the tasks that I should have thought of. Right up until the day I was locked out, I believed I could turn things around. I didn't consider calling creditors as I knew I could not send them any money or return product (with the trustees watching over my shoulder, and controlling our accounts), and I did not want to panic everyone as I thought erroneously that we could fix everything, and most would never need to know about our temporary setback. When reality set in, my world came crashing down around me. My staff was owed six weeks of pay (as we had always kept 2 weeks in arrears, their final paycheques bounced, and we were unable to issue the last regular payroll.) Many of them had been living day to day on loans from friends, and almost all were stuck. Mortgages were on the line for the family types, cars were reposessed, including my own. Several people verged on nervous break downs. Three different parents of employees/shareholders died in a span of a few weeks. I had angry creditors calling me at home, at all hours. Terrified employees, shattered shareholders, and even my own father were calling my home demanding explanations, needing money, and asking for my help with an unbelievable range of problems set-on by Wonder's demise. In an inspired moment I wrote a letter to Jason Compton, to be included in his press release about Wonder's bankruptcy. I wanted to give everyone some hope, and I prayed for a miracle. I spent the next six weeks as a complete wreck. Not only was my business bankrupt, but my frantic exertions of the previous three years had left me physically drained and emotially bankrupt as well. By mid-March I had started to regain my perspective, and I realized that although things were bad, my life wasn't over. (It just seemed that way.) My wife had come back to me, my family forgave me (although their lives were all profoundly changed for the worse by the financial disaster.) This is the time when I should have shelved whatever was left of my tattered pride, and contacted the trade creditors whom I knew personally, and apologized for what had happened. I apologize to you now, to those who were owed money by the previous Wonder, not only for hurting you and your businesses, but also for failing to apologize earlier when I first came to my senses. I was so consumed with my own loss, and that of my partners/employees at Wonder (and even that of our customers), that I failed to consider the many other decent, hard-working people who had been hurt by our demise; our suppliers. March 28th was set as the deadline by the bankruptcy trustees to sell off Wonder's assetts. I realized that if I could somehow raise fresh financing, and get Wonder started once again, that I might have an opportunity to help make amends for all of the damage I had caused. I wanted to give shares to all of the old shareholers, rehire the old staff, and pay a portion of the outstanding debts (basically the amounts owed to employees, and fellow-amiga businesses.) As I began to work on this task, I started to regain some of my old self-confidence, tempered now by a great deal of recent unpleasant experience. I contacted Escom, I contacted NewTek, I visited countless venture capital companies, but all to no avail. After our recent demise, no one with any money wanted to take a chance on me, and I COULDN'T EVEN BLAME THEM. When the 28th came and went I finally realized that it was over. I gave up. In fact, I started to pen the long overdue apologies I owed to so many different people. Friday morning, when I got up, there was a phone message from a little known customer asking me to call him back. Its amazing to me now how close I came to blowing what I now see as my life's biggest and most undeserved second chance. I really didn't want to have to patiently talk things over with yet another customer, solving his Amiga problems, or answering "no, Wonder probably would not be able to reopen". Fortunately, I screwed up my resolve, and placed the phonecall. I was shocked when I learned this customer wanted to talk to me about bringing Wonder back. I didn't think it was still possible, as the tender deadline was passed, but the small spark of hope he lit for me caused me to call the Trustees and ask whether or not it was too late for a new bid to be entered. When they answered that no, it was not too late, my hope suddenly soared. Kent and I spent the weekend in frantic discussion, and Monday morning, Kent who was substantially more wealthy than I had ever imagined, placed a bid on a large portion of Wonder's inventory, and its name. It has since been resolved that he would get 80% ownership of the new business in return for his investment, and I would receive the remaining 20%, in return for running the company. Kent, a 20 year veteran of the business world, would oversee the financial aspects of the business, and ensure that we didn't get into the same sort of trouble that overtook us before . I told Kent that I intended to divide the bulk of my portion of the shares among former shareholders of Wonder (in the same ratio that they had owned before); and while he couldn't really understand why I wanted to do that, he did not object. In this way, I felt that at least one of my debts had been absolved. While the new company will start out substantially smaller than the old (10 employees rather than 60), I hope that in time, I will be able to rehire the majority of our former staff (or at least those that still want to be part of the team.) A second debt on its way to being repaired. Our customers would once again have a place to shop for their Amiga products. (Not all of our old locations will reopen right away, but once again, I hope eventually to resatisfy those markets.) A third debt on its way to being resolved. The final debt, that to my former creditors is certainly the most difficult to repay. Wonder, at the time of its bankruptcy owed almost 1.8 million Canadian dollars. Our balance sheet would have shown us in the red by only a few hundred thousand, but as the company was liquidated for much less than its true value, the net debt to creditors is still about CDN$1.3 million. (Or just under $1 million U.S.) I am still personally broke. Further, my new boss is not interested in repaying my company's old debts. He's a business man pure and simple. What choices do I have? Well, I do consider myself to be "personally indebted" to a number of Wonder's former creditors. I don't feel as badly for Bell, or UPS, the "mega companies", as I know that for them this is a normal part of their business. But to the smaller, Amiga based businesses whom I was proud to think of as friends and even partners of Wonder in the tiny Amiga market we all chose to call home, I feel personally indebted. My options are limitted. I can offer to repay what I owe when I accumulate the personal wealth, but sadly that will take a long time, and I may never be able to repay everything. With the shambles of my current finances I could not even begin to make such payments for years, as I try to regain a semblance of normalcy for my family. I can simply explain what happened, as I've done here, and ask for forgiveness, but I know people have little faith in mere words, in these jaded times. What I've decided to do is offer the one things I still have at my disposal, in an effort to make up for my debt. I'm going to repay these creditors with my own shares in the new business. If they don't want to be a part of the ownership of the new company, that's ok, I know that there will be those who would like to buy the shares from them. (Certainly some of our employees would be interested, and perhaps in time, I might be able to buy some back myself). The Amiga creditors owed over $1000 by the old business will each receive share packages in the mail, explaining what they are being offered, and what exactly is involved. Its going to take at least a few more weeks to get the legal work done, but then they can expect to receive a package from me in the mail, including a letter detailing the shares and their meaning, and a shareholder agreement. Once the latter is signed and returned, shares will be issued, and a number of Amiga businesses will become part owners in Wonder. I don't know if you believe in God, but the past few months have certainly reaffirmed my faith. When I in my pride thought I was at the top of the world, I had everything stripped from me. When I was at my lowest, believing all was lost, I was blessed with a second chance I knew I did not deserve. Best of all, I've been given the opportunity to repay everyone I owe, and continue the job I love, supporting the Amiga platform, and doing the best I can to help it grow once more. I've said my piece. I don't know what else I can do to repair the harm I've caused. I've made mistakes, and as some have suggested, I acted irresponsibly (although not with evil intent), and I'm doing everything I can to make up for the consequences of my previous actions. I still believe in the Amiga platform, I still believe that it can make an exciting resurgence on the international computer scene, and I firmly believe Wonder Computers will help bring this about. Yours very Truly, Mark Habinski, President/CEO Wonder Computers International "Leading Edge Computing - Amiga Innovation" @endnode @node NEWS23 "BetterEdit 1.4" @toc NEWS TITLE BetterEdit VERSION 1.4 AUTHOR Name : Allan Odgaard Snail : Dagmarsgade 36, DK-2200 Copenhagen. Email : Duff@DK-Online.DK WWW : HTTP://WWW.DK-Online.DK/Users/Allan_Odgaard/ DESCRIPTION BetterEdit is a StringGadget Edithook, giving you alot of extrafunctions, in all system stringgadgets. Inspired by NewEdit! FEATURES o Block mode, visual and useable via mouse! o Change case of a word or letter. o Copy, Cut & Paste to/from clipboard. o FileNameCompletion like KingCon. o In-/De-crease numbers. o Paste special chars via ascii code (e.g. search for in CEd) o Reach gadgets outside the stringgadget - V1.4 works together with ReqTools! o Word Move/Deletion. o Written in assembler, means 5332 bytes of executable code! o Still much on my ToDo list (thanx to Christoph A. Loewe) SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Kickstart V39+ (very special indeed!) AVAILABILITY AmiNet:Util/CDity/BetterEdit.LhA In the future, it might become availeble on my homepage, together with alot of other stuff, done by me! PRICE If you decide to use it for a longer period, you should send me a postcard. If you for some reason can't afford it; An email will do! DISTRIBUTABILITY It is *NOT* to be distributed on magasine coverdisks or similar without the owner's explicit written consent. @endnode @node FEATURE1 "Amigarella, An Amiga Allegory" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== Amigarella, An Amiga Allegory Giorgio Gomelsky gio@phantom.com =========================================================================== AMIGARELLA, THE TOUGH GUY, THE GLOBE TROTTER THE YOUNG MAN , THE KING OF RETAIL, THE DUKE OF FUTURES and THE PRINCE OF KERNEL -------------------------------------- Fairy Tale or Nightmare? Just a few days ago, on April 21, it being the first anniversary of the Escom-Amigarella affair-romance-union-concubinate-marriage-honeymoon, what-have-you, we,her old-time friends concerned about her well-being, were asking ourselves how our "Liebling " was doing. Things were rather humdrum,lethargic, plodding. We feared Amigarella might get bored by such dawdling, dull drudgery. Admittedly it was better than being retired, out of circula- tion, but what were these rather methodical, formal, keepers doing to her spontaneity, her unaffectedness, her spirit? Little did we know that fate, once more, was cavorting to throw a humongous spanner in the works!! What a perplexing, infinitely baffling, truly amazing existence. Yet it is nothing new and we shouldn't be surprised at these twists and turns. Casting a look over the emotional life of our offbeat friend with all its up and downs, I'm sure some of us can't help breaking out into a smile, which soon turns into "...a simper, a chortle, a chuckle, a giggle, a guffaw, a titter..." (Thanks Final-Writer Thesaurus!), and finally into a good ol' belly-laugh! Poor Amigarella, will she ever find happiness? Just a year ago she was not only homeless but also orphaned, abandoned and, alas, not for the first time. Over and over again she gets into these nasty tightspots and unhealthy relationships. Yet, her birth and beginnings were bathed in mirth. Her biological parents were astonishing people; inventive, cheeky, fear- less, intuitive, friendly, well-informed and endowed with a formidable sense of humor. Good folks, impelled by an inspired Miner, they were so far ahead of the crowd it made the middle-humans in the Valley feel altogether rather uncomfort- able: they just couldn't figure out what these eccentrics were up to and so refused them access to the country-club. But the family didn't care two hoots about that. With consummate faith in their offspring, they had cheerfully invested all of their savings in trying to give her the best possible education and a good start in life. Unfortunately it wasn't to be. Their oddball manner was just too much for the establishment. Finally they ran short of money and so came face-to-face with the insensitivity of ferocious capitalism. They couldn't look after her anymore and so were obliged to give her up for adoption. Amigarella was such a beautiful, uniquely gifted child: bright, cheerful and resourceful. Since very early on she was inquisitive, kooky, curious, interested in things. She needed little attention from grown-ups. She was too busy playfully discovering the pleasures of life. She had none of that grasping capriciousness some kids have. Her appetite was not for sweets or toys, but for megabytes, blitters and sprites. She was cheap to keep. She learned to dance, to paint, to compose, to sing, to photograph, to film, to video, to digitize, to animate, to a-rexx and on and on. She was a fast learner. When word about the adoption got out, 2 candidates foster- parents, came forward. Both, somehow incestuously, in the same business and fierce competitors. In fact, one of them had worked for the other (or the other way round) and there was no love lost between them.. Both knew Amigarella was a rich source of delight and satisfaction. To begin with, the first foster-parent, The Tough Guy, who was very, very ambitious if not ruthless, got the custody. Soon, though, it became very obvious that his real objective, his hidden agenda, was that of probing where Amigarella got her good disposition from and then apply it to his own, not so bright children. Rumors began running that Amigarella was slowly wasting away. Now, the other foster-parent, miffed to have lost out in the first place, stepped in. At the very last minute, he managed to snatch her away from the perverse machinations of this bad parent. This second foster-parent, The Globe Trotter, was a well-to-do, middle-aged playboy-type who lived in an aeroplane and whose main motivation was to avoid the IRS and to trip up his old rival... Ah, we all thought, at least our Amigarella would be looked after and grow up in a safe, clean environment, get the best education and become a beautiful, intelligent and desirable young lady. And at first things looked very auspicious. The Globe Trotter well-to-do Playboy gave her a wonderful debutante's ball. Everybody who was somebody in the Valley came to the party and swooned over her beauty, her playfulness, her quirky humor and yes, her caring and supportive friends. We were all so happy for her! Now we were certain her troubles were over, that she could look forward to a rich and exciting life and sooner or later, find a worthy husband and have many bright and healthy children. But, very unexpectedly, things began to go wrong. It turned out that The Playboy-Globe Trotter had this most annoying habit of taking off in his plane to distant sunny places, at the drop of a hat and for no precise reasons. He just never was around when time came for important decisions. An absent father, he left our friend in the hands of people who neither understood nor appreciated her unique character and potential. Slowly, the promise of a joyful happy life wilted away. Many of her friends tried to intervene, some were even working for the Globe-Trotter. But to no avail. Amigarella got more and more depressed and forlorn. On certain days she was seen walking around all dishevelled and scruffy. Then, one day, the news came that the Globe-Trotter had blown all his money on some shady escapade and was going to fire everybody and shut down all the factories across the world. Although all of Amigarella's friends had seen this coming, they were powerless to intervene to save the situation. Some of them did try, by buying shares in the company and writing many letters. But it was too late. Amigarella would soon be in the street, homeless and parent-less yet again. It was downright heart-breaking. The Globe-Trotter and his minions took a long time liquidating their assets. It just went on and on. Everyday brought more bad news and more disappointments and there seemed to be no salvation in sight. The wonderful promises for Amigarella's life were dwindling away at an alar- ming rate. What, oh what, would become of her? Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the news arrived that Amigarella would go on the chopping block, offered at an auction to the highest bidder, like some prize cow. How humiliating! You can imagine how her friends felt! Endless speculations and rumors were rekindled. Who would show up to save her from the clutches of such a terrible fate? Someone suggested all her friends dig into their pockets, raise enough funds to pay the debts and give her a new life. Perhaps making it possible for her original parents, brothers and cousins, who knew her so well and loved her, to come back and look after her. But no-one re- ally listened. They were all too busy moaning and groaning and hoping someone would show up to save the day. On top of it all, good Father Jay, decided to leave for heavenly shores.. When a full year had passed, and after much back and forth, two suitors appeared on the horizon to rescue our friend from oblivion. One, a handsome young man from Florida, was well-aware of Amigarella's gifts and uniqueness and of her many dedicated friends on whom he knew he could count. The other, unknown on these American shores, was what appeared to be a very self-assured, very ambitious, founder-chairman whatever of some vast-chain selling computers in far away Germany of all places: his name was The King Of Retail. The suspense was killing. The Young Man from Florida was very open about his plans for Amigarella and was often available to speak to her friends and reassure them of his good intentions. The King Of Retail, however, was the opposite. Very tight-lipped and secretive he never tried to get in touch with Amigarella's family of choice and shoot a bit of the breeze. Again, people all over the world started agitated speculations: this way and that way, who could, would, do this and that, what was the best for her, who would love her the most, give her what she needed, who would be more suitable for her. More and more it looked like everyone was engaged in frantic match-making, preparing an unforeseen yet inevitable wedding. Her friends were giving away the bride... The day of reckoning came on a beautiful spring morning a year ago on April 21. The contending parties had met in a lawyer's office the day before and put their bids on the table. More speculations were bandied about. Most of Amigarella's friends wished The Young Man from Florida would carry her away. He seemed to really love her, want her and know how to cherish and care for her. Alas, in this material world, good intentions are not enough. The German KING of Retail pulled out a few slick legal tricks, came up with cash on the spot and so laid a binding claim on Amigarella. It later appeared he had been very manipulative, very determined to take her back with him to Germany. She would look fabulous on his arm as they stepped off the plane. The Young Man from Florida had lost... Of course everybody was very disappointed. After all who was this German fellow, why did he pay 12 million dollars to have her by his side, what was he going to do for her, was there a pre-nuptial agreement, was her future finally secured, would this union, made almost at gun-point be a fruitful one? Many, many questions needed to be answered. Yet again, a great uncertainty prevailed... For the next few months all of Amigarella's friends started tumultuous exchanges, new speculations. They desperately tried to get in touch with The King Of Retail in far away Germany. One day it looked like the new groom knew how precious a person his bride was and how to give her back her luster; then on another day, it was just the opposite. He gave her the wrong clothes, hairdo and accessories; she looked lost and confused in that distant land. It was skirting the ridiculous. No one could find out what was going to emerge. Then, slowly, German thoroughness began to show. Nothing glamorous, but a precise, bit by bit gathering of all mislaid or lost parts would make rebuilding possible. But then, the week after, some cranky, incoherent, muddled announcement would again throw panic among her friends. And so it went on. Up an down, good and bad, in an almost surreal yo-yo dance between hope and despair. Finally, just a couple of months ago, all the old old parts were put together with some new ones and Amigarella was taken to a few parties and re-introduced to the world, at least as seen from distant Germany. But frankly, it didn't work. Amigarella looked old-fashioned and stiff, awkward, hemmed-in, she who was always rather forward if not outrageous. They gave her things to say that sounded hollow and flat, like " Back For the Future" and "Forward To The Past" and so on. Worse, they didn't even reach out to her friends who were all, of course, dying to help every which way they could to make her come-back a success. So, the launch didn't meet The King Of Retail's and his partners' expectations. On top of that he had gone a bit goofy buying hundreds more stores with nobody in them who knew how to sell whatever they were selling. So, just a few days ago it appeared his partners were rather unhappy about the big losses incurred in this first year of ESCOM'S multimedia fever. He had to sell some more of his, now minority shares and, of course, in true "as matter of honor" German style, resign from the chairmanship. And now what? How is this story going to unfold? The successor to The King Of Retail, at the helm of the good ship ESCOM,used to work for The Globe Trotter. Can you believe it? Before resigning, The King Of Retail had approved 2 brand new wardrobes for our Amigarella. A real hip one which would make her look like a million dollars, but would take no less than one full year to bring about and the other a very strange, awkward getup that some suggested make her look like a toaster or a vacuum cleaner from the 50s.... What if the worst happens and our Amigarella will find herself abandoned once again? What will her friends feel like then? And will they be able to do anything about it this time around?? Perhaps they should have another look at the idea of dipping into their pockets for a few dollars, marks, rubles, dinars, francs or pounds, say $100 worth, and put it all in an emergency chest, just to be on the safe side. How's that old saying, "Once bitten, twice shy"? The King Of Retail paid 10 millions dollars for her. If 100,000 friends put up $100 each they could make certain Amigarella will not get homeless again! A pipe-dream? Perhaps, but things could get desperate and the alternative is just too grim to ponder. Oh dear, oh dear, what would become of our poor Amigarella? Her friends feared the worst, what else could they do? Then, out of the blue, almost one year to the day of ESCOM's "nuptials" their new Commander-in-chief made an unbelievable announcement: Amigarella had found yet another suitor and would be released to him for an astounding $ 40,000,000!! Wow! Amigarella and the cat's seven lives? Saved by the bell yet again? Who then was this new suitor willing to pay 3 times more than ESCOM to hold our Amigarella in his arms? Well, to begin he was an American. His business is to built newfangled, ingenious black boxes that would sit on top of television sets and act like a combination modem/playstation/interactive commu- nications device. The industry calls them NCs (Network Computers) and a great future is forecast for them. Just about every major player, from MicroHard to Oracle, ATT, you name them, is preparing to conquer this new and potentially rich market. These NCs would cost around $500 and therefore become acces- sible to many people who can't or won't buy fully-fledged computers whose sales, according to experts, are beginning to reach their ceiling of 40% house- hold penetration, at least in the US. So, Amigarella's new suitor, whose real name is VISCORP - but for this story we'll call him The Duke Of Futures - fully aware that some of Amigarella attributes were perfect for his box, had originally negotiated what is called a "licensing agreement" with ESCOM, so as to be able to use those parts in his designs . Why would he now want to acquire ALL of Amigarella body and soul? It goes without saying that your chronicler's nosiness was tickled. His investigations led him to a truly astonishing discovery: most of the people at the Duke Of Futures office were not only Amigarella fans but some of them had been heavily involved in her very past. One of them, The Prince Of Kernel, had been there at the very beginning and in fact designed one of her original and most attractive features, her OS, or operating system, a truly wondrous piece of work. Could this be more than just a coincidence, a twist of irony? Could it be that after all her mishaps and misadventures Amigarella was finally coming back home for good? Sigh! What a relief! Many of her friends, hurt and disappointed by past events, immediately put forward warnings full of guarded caution, scepticism and circumspection. Others gave vent to feelings of joy and celebration. The Prince Of Kernel and his colleagues left encouraging messages of hope for all to read on the internet. As usual hefty discussions started considering various possible options. But now there was a new energy. Everyone felt that an outfit counting among its member someone like the Prince Of Kernel had a very good chance of fulfilling Amigarella's as yet unfulfilled aspirations. Of course, the deal between ESCOM and The Duke Of Futures, has not as yet been finalized or signed and once more all of Amigarella's friends will have to endure much suspense and trepidation. But then, by now, they've become masters at it. Let's hope 'ol Father Jay is keeping a cheery, magnanimous eye on his and our extraordinary and inimitable Amigarella! @endnode @node FEATURE2 "A First Look at LightWave 5.0" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== A First Look at LightWave 5.0 Bohus Blahut bohus@xnet.com =========================================================================== "Imitation is the sincerest form of copyright infringement" Š1996 Bohus Blahut A look at LightWave 5.0 In the last issue, we examined a few of LightWave 5's new features. These observations were based on hands-on demonstrations at NAB in Las Vegas. NewTek is already shipping the PC version of LightWave 5.0. The following is the list of improvements verbatim from the press release. NewTek reported to us that the only differences between this list and what will actually make it to the Amiga release, are that the Amiga version won't have any features that call on "OpenGL". Other differences between versions will be more apparent once LW 5.0 Amiga is actually shipping. Note: features denoted with an asterisk (*) are features that are also available in previous versions of LW. LAYOUT True OpenGL support for real-time shaded views. Includes support for up to 8 interactive lights, acknowledges surface attributes such as Diffusion, Specularity, Luminosity, Double-sided, Outline Only, and Smoothing Front Face View of objects for faster redraw and cleaner interface AutoKey Create mode for ultra-fast keyframe set up Realistic OpenGL Previews animations Tiling and Alpha Channel options for Texture Maps Dolly, Truck and Pan capability allowing movement along an object's axis Infinite Surface Layering User definable Texture Map anti-aliasing Numerous enhancements to the User Interface including: Color Background images for enhanced compositing Color Swatches in RGB fields Render Sample Cube Copy/Paste Surface attributes from Render Samples * Dozens of surface attributes including Luminosity, Glossiness, Diffusion, Transparency, Reflectivity, Bumpiness * Animate and Morph textures * Apply over a dozen textures including Marble, Wood Ripples, Fractal patterns and a variety of image mapping options ANIMATION MetaMation: A new organic animation plug-in that automatically smoothes an object with Metaform2 before each frame renders Bone Enhancements including: Joint Compensation, and Muscle Flexing Inverse Kinematics improvements including active goals and goal strengths Multiple Target Object Morphing from one envelope Interactive Camera Zoom levels Interactive Light Cone angles * Inverse Kinematics allows you to create complex character animation quickly * IK makes animating like puppeteering * Animate nearly all attributes of your scenes through an easy to use keyframe interface, or with envelope controls. * Animate lights, lens flares, textures, objects, even camera attributes; zoom or depth of field * Hierarchical motion and targeting * Displacement Mapping and 3D Morphing * Advanced Motion controls including Spline Controls, Velocity, Shifting and Scaling * Multi-color wireframe layout (not available on Amiga Version) * Save AVI and FLIC flies * Advances lens flare controls allows streak rotations and other manipulation * Penello Lite from XAOS tools gives your imagery an organic look MODELER OpenGL support for real time shaded views, acknowledging surface attributes of Diffusion, Specularity, Luminosity, Double-sided, and Smoothing METANURBS Modeling Tool; this new tool combines the ease and flexibility of polygonal modeling with the power and organic feel of NURBS modeling Metaballs Modeling Plug-In New and improved MetaForm2 Plug-In New Spline Modeling Tools Surface Editing directly in Modeler Graphics Tablet Support standard Randomization for Bevel and Array tools Data sharing (import/export) between Layout and Modeler Enhanced support for True Type fonts Dramatically increased Graphic Redraw speed Easy to use Lasso Style Zoom * Hundreds of modeling tools including Extrude, Lathe, Bevel, Mirror, Clone, Quantize, Jitter, Subdivide and many more * Postscript and TrueType font compatibility * Draw freehand shapes, or trace over images * Work among ten different layers * Preview objects as solid or see through wire-frames or new OpenGL preview * Boolean tools allow cutting, slicing, and combining objects easily * Create organic objects with spline curves, spline patching, and Metaform2 * Multiple view options * Macros allow automation of complex functions * Multiple levels of Undo and Redo * Automatic standards format between metric and standard in numeric requesters * Mathematical functions can be typed directly into numeric requesters PLUG-INS Robust Plug-In architecture gives NewTek and other developers direct control over LightWave 3D to suimply add new features and functions such as gravity, image filter/processors, or new modeling tools. Plug-Ins included with LightWave 3D are: Equation LWpanels Globsave MotionEffector InheritRotation JitterMotion MathMotion ParentBone ParentCamera ParentLight ObjList ObjectSequence DisplacementMapEffector LazyPoints MetaMation Blotch CelShader Checker ColorCube HSLColorCube NormalColor SurfBlurShader StoryBoard FilmExpand 4XStoryboard ImageList MotionDump AllBGLayers Arn_calculate BoundingBox Cage Calculate Center Center Center1D CenterScale CenterStretch CutCurves Envelopes ImpSurf3D Julienne LightSwarm LoadFonts MathMotion NextEmptyLayer PathToMotion Platonic Plot1D Plot2D PointCenter PolyEdgeShaper Donut Wedge SplineCage RandomPoints Gear RandPricks RotateAnyAxis RotateHPB SceneToVRML Stipple SuperQuadric Symmetrize TextCompose TextCurve Throw Toroid Translator3DOptions VRMLAutoSave VRMLSave Wedge Add-Metaball AutoPatcher AutoPatcherMK BGConform Converge_Points Fast-Triple-Fan Fast-Triple-Traverse Make_DoubleSided MakeSpikey MetaBalls MetaForm2 Points2Polys TriangleFan TriangleStrip Power-Texture PowerView RandPoints Reduce-Polygons Rest-On-Ground Rotate-About-Normal Rotate-Arbitrary-Axis Rotate-To-Ground Rotate-To-Object Spherize Squarize SurfFuzzShader Weave ZOR BlurFilter Convolve Emboss Gamma Negative NightVision NTSC_Legalize PAL_legalize PENELLOlite Sepia SpecialBuffer SurfBlurFilter SurfFuzzFilter VidNoise Vignette Watermark AVI savers FLIC saver Image Loaders/Savers for the following formats: Alias, BMP, Cineon, IFF, JPEG, PCX, Pict, Pixar, QRT, Rendition, SGI, Sun, TIFF, Targa32, Toaster, WaveFront, XWindows, YUV Translator 3D loaders/savers for the following formats: 3DStudio, AuoCAD, Alias/Wavefront RENDERING New Cel Animation Features for Cel edges and Cel rendering, makes 3D look hand drawn. New Plug-In classes including Pixel Filter and Special Buffers for new rendering and shader effects New Lens Flare modes including; central ring color and size modifications, and star filter enhancements Project bitmap images through spotlights * Render 32bit images in custom resolutions * Saves 24-bit images and separate 8-bit alpha channel images * Use realistic camera options such as Focal Length, Depth of Field and Motion Blur * Generate true-to-life Ray Traced shadows, reflections, and refraction * Control light attributes including Light Type, Color, Intensity, Falloff, Lens Flare, Shadow Options, and more * Create special effects such as animated Fog, Image Keying and Particle Blur * Unaffected by Fog option for objects * Unseen by Rays option for object * Custom resolutions up to 8,000 by 8,000 pixels * Render module allowing network rendering on up to 999 CPUs * IFF2Clip module allows building of Video Toaster Flyer Clips LightWave 3D includes a CD-ROM full of license-free objects, images, textures, and scenes. For more informations call 1-800-TOASTER, info@newtek.com, or HTTP://www.newtek.com @endnode @node FEATURE3 "Photogenics 2 IRC Conference" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== Photogenics 2 IRC Conference =========================================================================== [On April 22, at 10 PM London time, Almathera held a conference on IRC to promote and discuss Photogenics 2, the upcoming revision to their paint-style image processing package. Here is the edited transcript of the proceedings.] Photogenics 2 IRC Conference, held by Almathera. April 22, 10 PM London. Jolyon: Welcome everyone... We'll begin in a few minutes. In the meantime feel lucky we can't play any abysmal 'hold' music at you... Jolyon: Ok.. Welcome everyone to the Photogenics 2 on-line Q&A session. We'll be launching Photogenics 2 in the beginning of next month, and we're here tonight to take questions about it... Jolyon: Most importantly, you'll want to know what features we've added: Well, briefly... ARexx support, Animation reading and creation... Virtual Images (work with huge images direct from Hard disk - no MMU needed), full on-line documentation (in HTML format) and much more! Jolyon: If you've got any questions, /msg THP and you'll get put on the question list.. Jolyon: Do I hear the first question? THP: [Finish any question with GA, same as all other AR-style conferences] Grypas: I want to know what position Photogenics will hold after version 2 compared to other popular image proccessing software. In school I have to use Photoshop and I am familiar with Image FX which I'm considering buying. Jolyon: We obviously intend it to be in a very good position indeed. There are plenty of things Pgs can do that ImageFX and Photoshop can't, or at least are a lot less easy to perform. _Sinister: We now have many features which have only been available to IFX in the past, such as VMem, and ARexx. This makes our position a lot stronger. Jolyon: And Photoshop has neither (ok, it uses Vmem on the OS, but that's *damn* slow) Jolyon: The Amiga is the home of the most innovative graphics software available on any platform. We're proud that Photogenics is considered highly amongst such a strong pack... THP: [current-queue: gi, tachyon, monty, jamesbartz] Gi: Will layers be implemented in V2.xx, and what about Colour correction, and how about a Plug-in system for extra features Jolyon: Ok... Layers no, (other than the paintlayer Photogenics has had since V1) Jolyon: Colour correction - it depends on exactly what you're after. If you're after CMYK support that's not something we're planning to add in the short term _Sinister: Though we do now have real-time previews and proper Histograms... Jolyon: The amiga has always been a video-centric rather than a print-centric system, so RGB has always been more important than CMYK for most Amiga users... Jolyon: (We will add it - give us time - but it's a *big* task). Jolyon: As for plug-ins, YES. Photogenics 2 has a brand-new plug-in system for effects. These effects, unlike the paintmodes, are effects that can be applied to the whole image in one go (such as the histogram tool, the perspective rotate effect and even our brand new fractal generator that generates 32-bit fractals (with 8-bit transparency) onto your images... Jolyon: These are similar to the GIOs used for file input/output and full programming docs will be provided. Tachyon: I wanted to know about the stability and future plans of the company and product. It's a tough market. Also I've heard rumours of programmer turnover, and other internal situations. Also is full CyberGraphX support available/in the works. Tachyon: Also pricing on V2. That's about it, thanks. Jolyon: Ok.. First the company... _Sinister: Well I'm not going anywhere, and I've been here since 1.2... (1.1a even) Jolyon: The Amiga market has collapsed, for commercial software, and it's been tough. Much of our work is now for custom programming (things you're never likely to see) and we've even dabbled in some PC programming too (just to keep the money coming in). But we're committed to developing for the Amiga, and after meeting Bill Buck of Viscorp last week I am far more confident than ever that the Amiga does have a secure future - which means Almathera does too. As for programmer turnover, we've not had a particularly high rate of this. We've had the same team here for over a year now... Jolyon: Now. for the program... Jolyon: We've spent ages and ages going through the photogenics source fixing all your favourite bugs. We believe Photogenics 2 is the most stable release ever... Jolyon: Full CyberGraphX support? We've had CyberGraphX support since V1.2 - was there anything in particular you meant by this? (/msg me...) Monty: A few questions.. 1st - Who had the original idea for PGs? 2nd - Are you likely to be getting a PPC dev board anytiume soon? 3rd - Do youthink your contract problems with Paul Nolan will ever be resolved?? Jolyon: 1. Paul Nolan came up with the original program (called SfxGen) which Photogenics is based on. For the last year or so all work has been done in house. Jolyon: 2. No, I don't (but as soon as we do...) Jolyon: 3. Yes, I hope they will be. I think it's a pity that Paul has caused friction between us by taking private discussions out to a wider audience... JamesBart 1. What about image enhancement? 2. Who's Paul Nolan????? _Sinister 1: That like, kind of what we do... _Sinister 2: He wrote the original program we based some of Photogenics on. [THP-infochannel: queue = frotz zool inertia pauln grypas simD lostman] [split and takeover-attempt occured at this point] _Sinister: Ouch. [THP-infochannel: Ow. Split.] THP: [We seem to have lost a few folks, so I'll restack the queue...] JolyonR: Well.. It appears that someone is trying to screw up our conference. How mature... _THP__: Apologies. Back to our schedule.... Frotz? Frotz: Oh hi. um, my main question is about the added animation support, and also I'm concerned that your conflict with PaulN might lead to him going to another publisher, which would leave my upgrade in an uncertain situation, wouldnt it? JolyonR: Ok.. Animation support. JolyonR: Animation support works in a similar way to ImageFX and Adpro - you use ARexx scripts to read and write frames of animations. These scripts allow you to apply whatever sequences of operations you want across a whole animation, for example. JolyonR: As for PaulN and the safety of Photogenics - remember that Photogenics is an Almathera product, if PaulN wanted to take the original SFXgen program to another publisher which he's entirely entitled to do in 1.5 years time, then he'd have an *awful* lot of work putting in even half the stuff we've added in the last two years. JolyonR: I'm sure the minor differences between us will be sorted without any problems. We got annoyed with him recently because he went public over a disagreement which really should have been kept internal. Because of this, he's found it's taken much longer to sort the problem out. Zool 1) You said you talked to Bill Buck of VIScorp. Who is he and what did he say to you to make you more optimistic? Zool 2) Will an updated Photogenics, let's say 2.0 SE, be in the Amiga Magic Pack? Zool 3) Jolyon, will you ever get into a group hug with Paul Nolan and Wouter van Oortmerssen again? =) JolyonR 1) Bill Buck said a lot of things that cheered me up no end. Unfortunately, I've signed an NDA and can't speak about it. JolyonR 2) The Amiga magic pack is unlikely to change in the short term (so it will remain 1.2SE), as for future bundles, maybe... JolyonR 3) I like Paul. I know _Sinister doesn't get on with him well, but that's a personality thing. I expect that Paul Nolan will be much more heavily involved in Version 3 of photogenics... _Sinister: Hoi! Thats not entirely true... JolyonR: As for Wouter... We'll, let's just say we've agreed to disagree over programming language issues :-) Inertia: Okay, thanks. Just a couple of quick ones. Have you implemented or considered a feature similar to Photoshop's Magic Wand? Can you tell us any more about new processing features? JolyonR: Ok.. First let me mention something important... JolyonR: PaulN may have mentioned he has been working on 'Photogenics 2' for a while now. This is indeed true. What has happened is that this work has, for various reasons, taken much longer than originally anticipated. This means that verison 2 has been written in-house in Almathera, and Paul's code will be the core for Version 3. Version 2 has to be called version 2 for marketing reasons (not my decision...) JolyonR: Back to your question, Inertia... JolyonR: Magic Wand - Well, Photogenics works a little differently from programs like Photoshop, as you may have realised. JolyonR: With Photoshop you select a region with a tool that selects outlines of areas. On Photogenics, the selected area is the 8-bit paintlayer channel. This is how with Photogenics you can select regions simply by spraying on areas with the spray can. This has even been extended to the new effects system, so if you want you can do a histogram equalisation *only* of the areas of an image you've sprayed over! JolyonR: The 'fill can' tool in photogenics does have a tolerance and smoothness tool that allows you to select regions in a 'magic wand' style... I've mentioned a few of the new effects, many of them have real-time previews (such as hue&Saturation adjust). These look wonderful on a Cybergraphx screen :-) [THP-infochannel: stacking on: pauln, grypas, simd, lostman, Gi, pixel] JolyonR: Paul? ___THP Paul? ___THP Odd. Okay, moving on.... Grypas? Grypas: Thank you again! (hold on) Grypas: I was expecting more in the animation departement but I want to know how impressive is the list of special effects. Grypas: How can users help you apart from buying the program? Grypas: And how fast is it on an AGA A4000@25? JolyonR: Ok.. First, I apologise to _Sinister, my previous post made it sound like he was the only one who had arguments with PaulNolan, which certainly isn't the case, and when I mentioned it was a personality thing, I didn't mean _Sinister... JolyonR: And your questions: JolyonR: Special Effects list currently includes: Balance (realtime colour balance control) Blur (simple and gaussian, like the old menu items, but as effects now so you can paint on *huge* gaussian blurs) Edge (much better edge detect algorithm than the one in paintmodes) Fractal (the mega 32-bit fractal generator) Gradient (apply gradient fills to regions or the whole image) Histogram (realtime histogram equalisation, selectable channels, etc) Hue&Saturation (as previously described) Invert (fast invert) Linestrokes (difficult to decribe...) Median (selectable size median filter) MixColour (various colour mixing effects) Noise (apply noise) Paper (apply paper textures) - _Sinister - you've not seen this yet, have you? :-) Perspective (3d roatation) Plasma (the old loader, now an effect, so you can 'paint' plasma onto an image... _Sinister: (paper - no. You've hacked up the old GIO I take it...) JolyonR:Pyramid (make an image out of pyramids - like Photoshop :-) RadialBlur (very nice...) Remove Isolated Pixels SheetMetal (strange) Tile (which also does 3d bevelled box type effects) and Wave (which does 2d wave distortion type things...) JolyonR: and the second part of your question was... You can help by continuing to support the AMiga! JolyonR: And, on any AGA machine, it runs like toffee unless you use the non-promoted screenmodes (eg Pal rather than DblPal). That's AGA hardware for you, nothing we can do about it, except suggest you get a gfx card.. ___THP: I'd like to mention here [being the installer-coder, 'n all] that Photogenics 2 will be initially released on CD, floppy versions later... SimD: 1. Where do you see PG going after v2.0? SimD: 2. Are you considering releasing a CD version with a load of gfx, etc on? ___THP: SimD: ;-] SimD: 3. Why was PaulN kicked out of the conf immediately at first? _Sinister: [1] v2.1? (as long as it continues to be successful, it'll keep getting better). _Sinister: [2] PGS2 /will/ be a CD release, with GFX etc... (cut down floppy later) _Sinister: [3] Due to comments he made before the conf. started. We let him on after, but he was obviously stuck for anything to say... Lostman: Thanx ___THP and thanks to our guest and all involved. Sorry if this has been asked, I came in a little late & I seem get net SPLITed alot. I will TRY to be brief.. 3 questions... Lostman: 1) What is your opinion on adding "Layers" (or like tools) AKA Photoslop? Lostman: 2) This may be out of scope of this conf., but the new Cybergfx 3 is supposed to have new "3D libs". I have yet to find out what this is. Is this something that you could and would use in you product? and how? Lostman: 3) Also what is the upgrade price, policy, and availiblity for this new program -(as well as for Photogenics lite or SE people (mine came with the cyber64))? JolyonR: Ok... [1] PaulN has been working on multiple layers for some time now... Expect that for V3 (but I guess that won't be till MUCH later this year...) JolyonR: [2] Yes, I've head about CyberGfx 3d libs too, but despite being one of Phase5's 'partners' in PowerPC development, they tell us nothing... JolyonR: [3] Upgrade from 1.2 is Ł34.95, from 1.2SE and CyberPhotogenics1.2 is Ł49.95 (rrp is Ł99.99) Gi: will a DraCo version be done (using Dec Alpha) if you get your development machine, also I've asked Sinister this, is a fractal compression system available?, also have you thought of developing some software for Cybergraphx that is seriously needed like an anim player etc... also will PGS2 need more memory? JolyonR: Ok.. _Sinister: We'd love to do DraCo (jolz, I'm having it...) JolyonR: MacroSystems promised us an Alpha back last July, but suprisingly we never got it :-) If we get one, and an Alpha compiler then *OF COURSE* we'll port it (or as much as is necessary, ie the speed-critical stuff) JolyonR: Fractal compression - I'm investigating this and wavelett compression at the moment. I've been talking to iterated systems on and off for 2 years now, and they're much closer to allowing us to do an Amiga port now than at any previous time. JolyonR: Anim player for CyberGfx? Sounds a good idea... I'll throw the idea around here and see what people think. JolyonR: Pgs2 now requires 4Mb. This really should have been the minimum for Pgs1.2.. The program is a bit bigger, and there are more libraries floating around, but this is offset by the new virtual image system. I loaded an 18Mb image, cut a part out, painted on it, pasted it back into the image, and saved it as a jpeg. All taking less than 200Kb of ram.... Pixel: Hi, Does it have a distort "perspective" effect like Photoshop have? ___THP: Sin? ;-] _Sinister: Yes. _Sinister: :) ___THP: Okay, I'd like to put in a couple of questions we had mailed to us [that may answer a few more public q's] ___THP: [1] GIF-Export. Will it make it into the next release? [Anthony Ikeda, Australia] JolyonR: Yes. It's a PD add-on, of course :-) _Sinister: Also, complete with inteleved and transparency support... JolyonR: I'm just ironing out a couple of bugs in it now... It does interlace and transparency, as _Sin has just said... The transparency support is clever - you 'paint on' the transparency in Photogenics into the paint layer, so you don't have to mess around choosing strange colours and hoping the colour reduction doesn't screw up and use that colour for dithering. Bits you want transparent you paint on. Simple. You can use the fill tool to make regions of similar colour all transparent if you want. JolyonR: Oh, we've also added support for Progressive JPEG to the JPEG code... ___THP: [2] Improved speed in the 16bit Cybergraphics screen [on a PPS040@35mhz], is the central engine full C yet, Swedish distributor? [from Jonas Elfstrom, Sweden] JolyonR: Speed has been slightly improved in 16-bit cybergraphx. But more speed could be got if CyberGraphx was improved :-) Central engine is still in Amiga E. It won't change until a future version... JolyonR: More stuff is out of the central engine now, the central engine is mostly user-interface code. [THP-infochannel: stacking on: GregE, Inertia] JolyonR: Swedish distributor. Yes, we have one, but I can't remember who.. If you mail me later I can find out the details and reply... [it's Vidamus Multimedia, with email on vidamus@algonet.se and w3 on http://www.algonet.se/~vidamus - i couldn't find the info in time] GregE: I hear that the Walker will only have 1 meg of chip ram. Do you agree that this is a very bad thing, and will Photogenics be in the Walker pack? Also will you support PNG? JolyonR: I hear the Walker may not even happen now... 1Mb chip is a *very* bad thing. I've not heard anything about a Walker pack. JolyonR: We support read and write of PNG files in Photogenics 1.2a upwards (via a free GIO on AmiNet). It's included now with Photogenics 2 Inertia: Thanks again. The flyer I received mentioned something about LightWave support. Can you mention anything about this / memory required? JolyonR: Yes.. Memory required = lots (but you'll need that for Lightwave anyway :-) JolyonR: Photogenics can load .LWOB objects (as wireframe views) so you can load an object, paint a texture onto it, and save the texture... We'll provide arexx scripts to link them automatically to allow seamless control of one package from the other... [THP-infochannel: stacking on: LostMan, Gi, and nobody else atm....] Lostman: Hhow about support for vector tranlations like EPS, PDF, and Corel Draw files, also support for quicktime? JolyonR: EPS input is something I've wanted to do for a long time. It's on the list of "Things to add if we suddenly run out of bugs to fix in the next two weeks". If not, I'll try and do an EPS importer (based on the post.library, or equivelant) as a freebie on aminet. PDF is dificult... I'll have to check out the new ghostscript for that... Corel Draw is probably even tougher... that's unlikely for a long time... Gi: Will an ARexx script for Pagestream3 be available? JolyonR: We don't have Pagestream3. I faxed SoftLogic a while ago asking if they wanted to swap copies so we could add such support, but no response... Perhaps I'll try again... and the last question I forgot to answer... about Quicktime - Not yet, but we've head that Amiga have licenced Apple Quicktime code. When we get that, we can support Quicktime *100%*... <>___THP sets topic to "Photogenics 2 - Time to wind it up.". ___THP: Okay, the 'official log' should wind up now. We'll go unmoderated in a second. Thanks to all of you for showing up and hanging thru the splits and channel-chaos ;-] <>___THP changes channel modes to not moderated ___THP: Hopefully, we'll get a transcript into the next Amiga Report, and get the last few questions in as well [060 optimisation and more] ___THP: But for now, thanks and goodnight! [there were a couple of extra questions afterwards worth mentioning] NorthWay: Doing any 060 optmisations? JolyonR: Not at the moment, our compiler doesn't support 060 optimisation (or does it?) _Sinister: No, it doesn't... _Sinister wishes we had an 060 in the office (or even at home) MrDaniel: SAS/C? Tray Storm C mayber... Its supposed to support 060, but afaik it doesnt optimize as good as SAS/C... NorthWay: StormC is the only one thinking about it I think :) JolyonR: I tried stormC on a piece of code we have here. The output ran at 1/3 of the speed of the SAS version (no joke...) NorthWay: you have no small time consuming loops that cries for hand optimised code? :) MrDaniel: hmm... I'm not that surprised... Storm C is still not completed... I hope they get some really good optimizer in it. JolyonR: I hope so too. The rest of the product is very good. JolyonR: We're not adding any more 680x0 code with PPC on the way! NorthWay: Why not? 100 lines 68K wont cost you a leg and an arm. MrDaniel: Two legs and an arm? :) Pixel: What about colorizing, support for more than 3 colors JolyonR: False Colour allows you to create your own palette for colourising with up to 256 colours. Did you mean something else? MrDaniel: BTW... when will it be released? _Sinister: May (15th?) @endnode @node FEATURE4 "BLAZEMONGER INC Purchases VIScorp!" @toc FEATURE VIScorp purchased by BLAZEMONGER INC! Yes, Amiga fans, the rumors are true! As of six hours ago, VIScorp has been purchased in a surprise takeover by BLAZEMONGER INCORPORATED. VIScorp chief honcho and generally cool guy Carl Saskatchewan is reportedly "delighted" with the acquisition and looks forward to an "er... unusual product line" to be introduced at next month's WORLD OF BLAZEMONGER conference in Chickenmilk, Wisconsin. Among the products to be introduced at the W.O.B. are: o The Amiga ST: a set-top computer that, when attached to any television set, automatically converts all incoming programs into reruns of "Gilligan's Island." o Sidecar II, an IBM PC emulator roughly the size of the Queen Elizabeth II luxury liner. Comes complete with torpedos. o BLAZESCAPE, the ONLY World Wide Web browser capable of connecting to ALTERNATE DIMENSIONS. Features multithreading, HTML 6.0, and new Virtual Java (TM) which beams cool animations DIRECTLY into your CEREBRAL CORTEX with a sledgehammer. o The AmigaBICEP 5000, their new top-of-the-line computer. In direct contrast to the original Amiga 1000, which used an off-the-shelf CPU and a custom graphics chipset, BLAZEMONGER INCORPORATED has decided to use an off-the-shelf graphics chipset and a custom CPU. Known as the BLAZEIUM chip, this little speed demon runs at a blazing 2,000,000 tychohertz (10 to the power 8275, base 19) and features over EIGHT BILLION REGISTERS for the ULTIMATE in hardware banging!!! o And of course, BLAZEMONGER MCXLVII: "FATAL DEATH KILLERS OF ARMAGEDDON." [Availability is pending the overturn of the Communications Decency Act, and possibly the Geneva Convention.] See you in Chickenmilk!! Dan //////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ | Dan Barrett -- Computer Science Dept, University of MA, Amherst, MA 01003 | | http://www.cs.umass.edu/~barrett/public.html -- barrett@cs.umass.edu | \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\///////////////////////////////////// --- Copyright 1996 by Daniel J. Barrett. This article may be freely distributed as long as it is distributed in its entirety. It may not be included in any publication without the written permission of the author. So nyaaah. @endnode @node FEATURE5 "Dynamic Technologies IRC Conference" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== Dynamic Technologies IRC Conference =========================================================================== [Recently, an independently organized IRC conference was held with Dynamic Technologies, a new Amiga company announcing its upcoming hardware products. The edited transcript appears below.] Nick_S: Welcome all! I hope you have checkout http://www.frugal.com/~amiga for an idea of products! Zool: The conference, in case you do not know, is with Dynamic Technologies, (that is Casey_H and Nick_S), who are making some innovative new Amiga products. Casey_H: Dynamic Technologies is an amiga hardware company we are currently working on several amiga products at the moment. Our most popular products seem to be the HyperSound 32 (DSP based), the ZorroPlus Amiga 1200 expander, and the FlopNET networking hardware. Today, you may ask any related questions, developer questions, ideas etc. Nick_S: Casey_H is the chief developer of the team. I am mainly in charge of the FlopNET development, which is a Floppy port based network Marrs: I think we need a cheap ethernet card for the Amiga. Network connectivity is very important, IMHO. Casey_H: yes, we are hoping that we can create an adapter for the flopnet ... but right now it will be limited to amiga systems via floppy port Nick_S: We want to have FlopNET ready first before expanding it. Casey_H: Flopnet will follow the ethernet packeting structure for full compatablility. GregE: Do you expect the Power Amigas to be PCI based, and be able to use PC cards? Do you think your Products represent good value next to these, and are you woried about the competition ? Casey_H: yes, we do think the poweramiga will be pci based. I am worried, yes, but there are currently a lot more amigas that are still zorroII/III. Nick_S: Well, I think that the PCI systems are not yet ready to be consitered. I feel that the PowerAmiga systems should offer Zorro compatability for other devices. JimF: On your Homepage you metion the viedo blaster 128, can you give us some more detalis especially in reguards to production time and software compatibility. Casey_H: The video blaster 128 is something i can not give you a date on. Currently it is rather expensive to produce. We are looking into other types of chipsets and designs, but until then... The Video Blaster 128 is a planned product, but it is still being thought about. It contains a 128bit video processor. It will use Zorro-III. Brazilian: Well, Marrs asked my question (Cheap network cards, a must! :) but I am interested in multiport serial ports. C='s was the only one I know of that had many ports, and it never really worked right for a lot of people. I've heard talk of a "Comports 8" board but seen nothing. Casey_H: Well, i can not say when we would get started on such a project. but being a CNet sysop, i will be releasing something soon. maybe at the end of the year if time permits. AmigaInfo: Do you have a SANA II driver for FlopNET SANA (there is no info on your homepage about it)? How compatible is Hypersound32 with the Amiga? and finaly, Do you belive it will be better for your company, and for the Amiga, with VisCorp as the new owner (if they end up buying it)? It would be nice to have SANA II since there is a lot software for it, Envoy for example... Nick_S: Well, I hadn't really based FlopNET arround a network device, but I have consitered a Serial/Network device to use. Casey_H: the hypersound 32 works in the theory of the picasso - any programs are promoted into the Hypersound32 . Anything addressing the hardware directly will be retargeted phyicaly into the hypersound. Casey_H: We want this networking hardware to be fully compatable with any current software, as much as possible. i also believe that viscorp will help the amiga. JonL_: What is the max number of clients in a flopnet? Two or many? What security does/will it offer? (Oh and I agree, ethernet, Asap ;) Nick_S: There will be 2 versions. One will be a 2 computer version, with no expansion, and the second will be a multi computer version. as for Security, that has not really been discused, but I will look into it. Casey_H: security is a must also. tommyB: Is the new audio board is only 16bit, not 20+. There is yet NO high-res board for the Amiga, unlike Macs/PCs. are there RCA digital inputs? Casey_H: the audio board is 16bit digitizing, yes, but playback is 32. the RCA outputs are designed to work with current amiga audio setups. MrDaniel: What exactly is VideoBlaster128? a Video card? Video effects (like Toaster)? Or a gfx board? What can you use it for? What is the SGGS chipset you intend to use in the VideoBlaster128? Any idea when it might be out? Nick_S: VideoBlaster is a replacement Video card, but like said before, it isn't far enough into development to discuss. Casey_H the videoblaster works under the same theory of the CV 64. but as nick said, it is not ready to be talked about yet. nothing is official. Zool: Is it based on PC hardware? Casey_H: the PC chipsets are hard to obtain .. we might go a different way as far as video. most 128bit chipsets are custom made. MrDaniel 32 channel 32-bit audio playback? Are you serious, or is this some kind of joke? :) Casey_H: Mrdaniel: well, in real life, this is not possable - you can not play all 32channels in 32bits mode. 32bits mode is just like the HAM mode. very limited - we might take it out later. JimF: How close to shipping are any of your products, especially the audio board? Before we started you mentioned that your were going to post the prices on your HP, can you give us preview of those now? Casey_H: well, we are not ready to ship our products.. we are coming around $100-$150 for the final price. [At this point, the channel became unmoderated and most of the conversation is too difficult to pick through.] Nick_S: FlopNET is expected to be $59.00 for the 2 computer version, and $65.00 + $20 per additional node for the multicomputer version. Does this sound reasonable? Casey_H: the hypersound 32 is 16 bit, but does have a 32bit mode. This might be omitted since it is causing the price to rise. tommyB: I have been looking for a card with atleast 20bit. will HypSnd fit the bill?? Casey_H: well, the playback rate has not been carved in stone, i hope that we can get the 32bit mode to work cost effectively.. there is a professional version planned complete with BNC connectors, etc. to pair along with the videotoaster, etc. GregE: Will the sound card have an ide cdrom inerface ? And I want EtherNet too :) What sort of software will be with the card, will there be octomed support. how about support for HDR and talking to SCSI midi samplers. Will the software have nice features like time streach, or just plain cut and paste Casey_H: The soundcard will not have an IDE interface - too expensive for this version. The software support will hopefully be great, since i will be giving out/promoting the new amiga audio card standard. maybe a deluxe card, but what we need is a basic sound card for the amiga - cheap and of good quality. GregE: will there be a new audio.device to work with. could i have developer information ? [This information is available in the News section of Amiga Report 4.06] Santos: How does the Hypersound 32 (Hard- and Software) compare to other Amiga Products ? as far as sound quality and audio record/mixing options ? compared to the Sunrize AD516 or the Meastro ? And to Professional PC/Mac cards ? Can you record/edit/add effects to sound realtime to/on HD ? What is the planned release date, and is there an option to preorder? Casey_H: santos: this fall ... we are not ready for pre-orders yet. you can edit/record in realtime if the harddrive speed permits. as for quallity, we will do our best on that. it will be good, however. AmigaInfo: Do you have contacts with other developers and AT/VisCorp regarding new standard API for GFX/SFX? Will you have your own APIs to your cards? Casey_H: The new standard is not offical yet, but i am working with a few people about this. I have contacted viscorp about this. AmigaInfo: I am convinced that AmigaOS must have new APIs, and be as hardware independant as possible to be able to catch up even in the future. Casey_H: i have decided to work with a very talented person, featured in Amiga Report. AmigaInfo: Sounds great, i hope we will see something usefull soon, it is very needed. Casey_H: yes, exactly. this new audio standard will finish up this problem. AmigaInfo: Is it your standard? Casey_H: no, it is Martin Blom's standard. AmigaInfo: Will it be using a symtem like datatypes or something new? Casey_H: something new - streamed datatype-like. AmigaInfo: Nice, I hope it will be more complete than datatypes. Casey_H: yes, this will allow realtime decoding without loading it into memory. AmigaInfo Will it have support for handeling sound from different programs at the same time? GregE: Will there be a new "audio.device" type thing to control the card. Could i have developer information, or have things not got that far yet ? Are you officaly setting the amigas RTAudio standard, or just taking it upon your self ? I agree with AmigaInfo, the amiga needs to be as hardware independant as possible. If you are doing the standard, I hope you will make it open to PCI sound cards. Casey_H: well, the developer software is in beta ... but go ahead and look. it is on 4.06 amiga report under news. we are taking up on it, it is not official. it works with all DSPs and will work with anything new. it works with "dumb" and "smart" sound cards. the documentation is quite interesting. For more information, contact DT at http://www.frugal.com/~amiga. @endnode @node FEATURE6 "WOA UK Q&A Session with Bill Buck of VIScorp" @toc FEATURE =========================================================================== William Buck's speech and replies to questions at the Viscorp/Amiga Technologies press conference at the World of Amiga Show, London, April 13 1996. =========================================================================== [AmigaNews of France has been kind enough to transcribe the Bill Buck speech from the WOA UK show. We are grateful to be able to run the session in nearly its entirety. -Jason] This transcript is copyright AmigaNews (France). AmigaNews apologises for the fact that a number of questions from the back of the hall were not audible to us at the front. But despite that, we've put in this text all of Bill Buck's answers... Bill: There are many people that work for AT, but this man (Petro) is the man who resurrected the Amiga and I think he deserves a round of applause for that. First I want to let you know a little bit about who we are: Curtis Gangi is a former Commodore employee. Don Gilbreath is the man who engineered and designed the CDTV. He is a former Commodore employee. David Rosen is also a former Commodore employee. We are people who believe in this platform and who believe in this community, and I can't tell you how happy I am that this conference just happened to be at about the same time that we were able to finish our negotiations with Escom. We think that the world is about to change in a lot of ways, and we think the internet is part of that change. And we think that in the beginning of Amiga it was about making it easy for people to use a computer, and one way to do that was to put it on a television set. And that's what we're going to do. We're going to bring Amiga back to where it was - BUT we're going to keep Amiga where it is now, too. So don't forget about that. We need you people to help us move forward in this vision that really, from the very beginning, Amiga was built on. So, that's where we are. And that's all I have to say. Let me throw in another plus since we're in England. This is the people we're working with here in the great UK. This is Optonica. This is Lee Gibson and his people, and this will be part of our projects as well, you can be sure. Q: Will the Walker project be delayed by this? Bill Buck: On the 24th of this month [This has changed] we'll be having a press conference with Escom in Frankfort. Many of these things we're still trying to determine. As you might guess, there's a lot of woork involved, Curtis has been there this whole last week, I was there the week before, we're involved in a lot of analysis right now, but on the 24th we'll try to make a lot of those things clear. Q: Is there any reason why you're paying 40 million dollars for... Bill Buck: Well l'et's disect that 40 million number a bit. Everybody's saying "Boy these guys really are crazy", or "they really like the Amiga a lot". Remember, there was a certain amount of money that was paid for the intellectual property. Then there was a certain amount of money that was spent subsequent to that to put all these pieces together so that they could come out the other end as computers, right. That cost a lot of money, and you can be sure that's more than 40 million dollars, okay. What we're buying is an asset, an asset that involves inventory, finished goods; inventory components (which we can use to continue to do what was being done but which we can also use to do what we want to do also, ), and the intellectual property. So we think we're getting a great deal for that. (Question inaudible) Bill Buck: I already said that, I said so we could keep doing what's already being done.And that we could do what we want to do too. You know, in the computer business it takes a lot of time to get all the pieces that you need to make what you want. In some cases the waiting time for some of these parts is as much as 21 weeks. One of the most fantastic accomplishments that Petro made was that he was able to mobilise all these different companies needed to supply these parts that could go into this one thing and be an Amiga computer, and we want to keep that pipeline going. Because it's not easy to start again. (Question inaudible) Bill Buck: We have a meeting with Motorola on Wednesday, and probably the most fair thing for me to say is stay tuned in and be there on the 24th. Q: Will you ship the center of R&D back to the States? Bill Buck: The great thing about the Amiga community and the great thing about the world as it is today... I don't think there's ever going to be a "ship to this" or "ship to that". We're working with Lee and his company in the UK, we have three guys in Tokyo, (two guys in Tokyo and one guy in some other place, Don?). Close, OK. We're working with people in California, we're working with people in Westchester (Pa). Our engineering team's in Westchester right now - they never left. All these things are moving around in different ways. Visit our Web site. (Question inaudible) Bill Buck: Well, all I could hear was the custom chip part. It's in our interest to develop the custom chips. Right now there's three chips. If we can make something that goes on one and it costs less it's better for everybody. Of course we're gonna do that. We have a big interest in that. Where that ends up ultimately? If its a chip it could be on a PC, it could be in a TV, it could be wherever it needs to be to do what it needs to do. We're going to support the development of these kinds of things because it's in our interest to do that. Q: If the link with Escom is broken... Bill Buck: Nobody said it was broken. I spoke to Helmut Jost twice on the phone yesterday. We have a good relationship and we're going to have a good relationship. We're excited to work with a guy like Petro and Petro's going to stay involved with this thing. We already have a distribution arrangement with Escom. It was part of our original licence agreement, which was signed in Décember of last year. Escom has the ability to distribute our products in 13 or 14 different countries, I couldn't list them all. (Question inaudible) Bill Buck:I'll use the words of Helmut himself. Escom has a retailing business. That's its strength, that's its core business, that's where they're going to focus. Question by Antony Jacobson, editor of Amiga User International: Escom has been a disaster in this country, certainly from a retailing point of view. When they took over Rumbelows chain stores the Amiga has had as much trouble as it had previously. They have not done any better. If you're depending on Escom in this country you'll have as much trouble as the Amiga has had previously. Bill Buck: Number one: we will use Escom as a distributor, you can be sure; but you'll never hear the word "exclusive" coming out of my mouth, OK? So there will be a number of different strategies that I'm sure will be succesful. And you can help me be succesful. Here's my deal with you and everybody else in this room. If you can help me figure out how to bring the Amiga back where it was send me a letter, send me an e-mail message. Send it to me, send it to Curtis, send it to Don, send it to Gilles, it doesn't matter, send it to us, right? We'll capitalise on every single good idea that you can give us. Q: But the first thing you have to do is to support the software developers. Nobody will buy the Amiga machines if there's not the software to go with them. It's absolutely key that you get the software developers. Bill Buck: I agree with you. Do you understand what our strategy is in terms of what we want to do with the product as well? We had an ambition for this thing when we licenced the product and now our ambitions are being broadened because of this opportunity that's been created. But what we're trying to build is a publishing environment. We had an appliance, a toaster, a microwave oven, but we didn't have a place in the wall to plug it in. There was no electricity. For us the internet is electricity. We're building a publishing environment that works for people (who by the way are Amiga people who understand this, and understand how to make things for TV), where the interface is the television set. Could be the television set. That was our original thing, that's the reason why we licenced the technology...Now, we're so excited about it we don't know what to do yet, I'll be honest with you. But come to the press conference on the 24th and I'll give you some more information. Q: Have you been in negotiations with people like NetScape for ports of software? Bill Buck: All this activity around the "" Then Print "CoProcessor: ";A$ Wait COUNTRY_SPEED This startup will identify the internal timing of the Amiga it is run on, as well as the memory and processor information. To keep the illusion of non-AMOS up, never use the default (0) screen. When compiling, deselect the `Create Default Screen' option. This will avoid that ugly orange screen popping up and giving away the AMOSness of the program. You could add these lines to make your program even more system friendly: If COUNTRY_SPEED=60 Then Goto PAL_IT If COUNTRY_SPEED=50 Then Goto _NTSC_IT Goto MAIN PAL_IT: Print "Switch to PAL (y/n)?" A$="" Do : A$=Inkey$ : If A$="" Then Loop A$=Lower$(A$) If A$="y" Doke $DFF1DC,$20 Poke Leek(4)+530,50 COUNTRY_HEIGHT=256 COUNTRY_SPEED=50 Goto MAIN End If If A$<>"n" Then Goto PAL_IT Goto MAIN _NTSC_IT: Print "Switch to NTSC (y/n)?" A$="" Do : A$=Inkey$ : If A$="" Then Loop A$=Lower$(A$) If A$="y" Doke $DFF1DC,$0 Poke Leek(4)+530,60 COUNTRY_HEIGHT=200 COUNTRY_SPEED=60 Goto MAIN End If If A$<>"n" Then Goto _NTSC_IT Goto MAIN MAIN: Your program begins here This added bit lets you not only check for NTSC/PAL, but switch the Amiga into the mode you require for your program. This allows European programmers to write games in PAL that will sense NTSC Amigas and switch them to PAL. Conversely, the information is there for any programmer to adjust his graphics to match the information in COUNTRY_HEIGHT and COUNTRY_SPEED. Obviously, these aren't all the tips and tricks that I've found, but it's enough to whet your appetite and get some of the beginners off to a good start. I'd like to point out right now that I am not the only author of this article. A few of these tips are based on information in the AMOS List on the InterNet. My most recent acquisition was the CPU testing procedure that I modified for my startup program. It was sent to me by Paul Burkey, author of Sneech (a great game). I'd give you my email address for any questions or comments, but it will be changing before this goes to press. You can find me on the AMOS List at: amos-list@conan.eds-ms.com and you can find programs written by me on the AmiNet, notably FBN-D21u.lha and FBN-Remi.lha. @endnode @node REVIEW1 "Review: Star Crusader HD" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Star Crusader HD Carl Chavez forego19@nwlink.com =========================================================================== Review of Star Crusader (HD version) Requirements: A1200 with hard drive extra memory recommended Machine used for testing: A1200, 2MB Chip/4MB Fast 130 MB Seagate HD Supra external disk drive Summary: Star Crusader is one of a rare breed of Amiga games: the space combat simulator. As the name suggests, you are a member of a culture --the Gorenes-- that is on a crusade to educate what is perceived as the wild masses of the universe. When education fails, the military does not. Can you conquer the aliens of the Ascalon Rift? Or will you perhaps decide that the Gorenes' crusade is wrong and aid the rebels? Installation and running: The game comes on ten compressed disks and will occupy about 15MB of hard drive space. Installation and decompression with the non-Installer script takes almost a half-hour. Much of the hard drive space is used to store various animations (10 MB worth) and sounds (3 MB worth). This should satisfy the demand of some Amiga gamers that Amiga games should be more PC-like (heavy with graphics and sound). To run Star Crusader, you must make sure that you have no important programs in the background because it will not multitask. In fact, Star Crusader will actually reboot your Amiga! I found this very odd; but I guess it does free up a lot of resources. Fortunately, it does warn you to close everything before you continue start-up. The game: You are first asked to select one of five difficulty levels. The level affects the enemy pilot skills, as well as other, less tangible things. Star Crusader opens on the space station AR-1, a front-line fortress of the Gorenes. The Gorene Empire is the most powerful and advanced race in the known universe and is attempting to civilize the barbaric alien races of the Ascalon Rift. You, Roman Alexandria, lead Gold Squadron: a collection of the best pilots of the Gorene Empire. When on AR-1, you can go to several places: the Tactical Map Room, the Mission Briefing Room, the Computer Room, and the Flight Simulator, . In the Tactical Map Room, you can see a map of the whole Ascalon Rift and a representation of how much territory each of the five major powers (Gorenes, Tancreds, Zemuns, Amiens, and Mazumas) possess. The amount of territory each power owns affects the rate of crew and spaceship replacements, as well as the quality of pilot cadets. The success of your combat missions determines how much territory is won or lost. In the Mission Briefing Room, you find out what you have to do in a mission, and in the Computer Room you assign wingmen to help on the primary mission and other pilots to various secondary missions. These pilots can be ordered to take or defend territory, to teach new cadets so you get more pilots, to rescue captured pilots, or to raid the enemy's shipping for resources to build more ships or to capture alien ships for use by the Gorenes. The ability to control the actions of your whole squadron adds much to the amount of strategy necessary to play the game. You have to be aggressive with your goals but you also have to hoard your limited resources. Gorene ships have the ability to capture alien ships with a tractor beam and jump back to base. You can familiarize yourself with an alien (or Gorene) ship's controls, weapons, and readouts with the Flight Simulator. There are a total of eleven different ships to fly or to fight against, and you can set up a battle of up to 1-to-10 odds. This is a good place to get used to the control method of Star Crusader. It does not support joysticks, joypads, or analog joysticks. The mouse and keyboard are the only controls (this may be different on the CD-ROM version). The mouse cursor controls the direction of the ship. This can be confusing at first. Most flight games have "down-is-up" movement: pull down to climb and push up to dive. In Star Crusader, pull down to dive and push up to climb. After a few simulator missions, you should finally get the hang of flying a fighter. In the simulator and in actual combat, you will notice that the graphics and graphic detail are very good for an Amiga game. All of the ships are made up of many polygons and have animated objects such as engine flare. There can be lots of objects on the screen at once: up to eleven fighters, as well as satellites, space stations, destroyers, cruisers, freighters, laser fire, missiles, shield hit effects, beam weapons, and asteroids. The action between multiple fighters and capital ships present in some missions may rival that in Lucasarts' X-Wing (although it is not near the action level of TIE Fighter). Accompanying the visual atmosphere is a small amount of speech samples which I was quite surprised to discover were included in the HD version. Imagine my surprise to hear a doomed pilot gasp, "OH SHIT, I'M HIT!" for the first time. And this game was rated acceptable for 3-10 year olds by ELSPA?!?! Oh, the horror... There's no way to turn speech off if you get sick of it, but personally I don't think a 'quiet' function is necessary. The speed of the graphics engine is also worth noting. With many of the aforementioned objects on the screen at once, it can still be playable on a A1200 + Fast RAM. The polygons can be set on high or low detail if the game does start to slow down. Even on low detail you can still identify individual ship silhouettes. It is unfortunate that the programmers did not include texture mapping as a detail option for A4000 or accelerator owners, though, as they did for MS-DOS. During a fight, your wingmen will do (and say) things that fit their personalities. Each pilot has a rating for piloting, laser shooting, missile shooting, courage, and discipline. Cowardly pilots will run away sooner, which may cause you to be overpowered, but courageous pilots will die sooner for their bravery (leaving you short a pilot and a ship, both of which are difficult to replace). Disciplined pilots will follow orders... usually. Some pilots seem to have special personalities. Kayla Brool, for example, has exceptional skills in all categories, but she still won't follow orders all the time. She also has a phobia about fellow pilots stealing her kills, and she'll always whine about it. Star Crusader has a feature called "Power Management". It is similar to X-Wing's power control: the pilot can assign priority to certain systems so that they work better. It is more complex that X-Wing's, in that each ship has different power levels for each system. Some systems will work when getting less power, while others (like the all-important repair system) will not work at all. You can overcharge your lasers and shields to increase their effectiveness, but this will cause permanent damage to those systems. Other good things: NTSC or PAL switch is coded into the game, and there are intermission scenes featuring rendered characters and full speech (on the HD version!). The latter may be a disadvantage on certain systems, as the intermissions are 10MB of the 15MB game directory. All this stuff sounds great, except for the control system... so what's the bad news? First of all, the game is missing many of its advertised features. The most obvious feature missing is the texture mapping, but that was to be expected. The most anticipated feature of Star Crusader is missing also, though, and that is unforgivable. YOU CAN'T CHOOSE YOUR SIDE! In press releases, in ads, and in the manual GameTek claimed that you could fly for the Gorene Empire or be a Gorene rebel. Not on the Amiga HD version. Perhaps it's a bug. You see, there's a mission in which your officers are ordering you to do allow the death of the enemy and rebel leaders, and the enemy leaders and your friends who have joined the rebellion are begging you to save them by destroying a robotic explosives ship. This is supposed to be the mission where you make your big decision. But no matter what you do, you praise the Gorenes in an intermission and end up on the Gorene Empire's new base. The first time I 'chose' to join the aliens, my rebel friend Hela told me I had joined the rebels and I still ended up with the intermission and the Gorene base. The second time I tried, I turned the intermissions off. I was thanked by Hela, then I ended up on the Gorene base with a reprimand for destroying a friendly fighter! There's no other way to switch sides. You can't ask the aliens if you can join them. The communications system of Star Crusader is totally useless unless you want to goad a fighter into attacking you instead of a wingman. All of the comm options are insults. There's no way to negotiate with the aliens unless it's in the game's script. There is no effect on alien attitude when you rescue escape pods containing alien pilots. You cannot deliberately fail a mission in order to become friendly with the aliens. And in the Mission Briefing Room, a couple of pilots (including Hela) defect during the briefings. Also during the briefings, there is open disagreement and unruliness in the squadron but you're not allowed to choose your responses in a conversation. Prime example: Your squadron is assigned to deal with the planet Hattin. You know that there is satellite orbiting the planet that contains a deadly poison. The squadron is ordered to damage --not destroy-- the satellite with lasers --the implication being that other weapons will destroy it-- so that the poison will enter the atmosphere. You protest (you don't get to choose whether to protest or not; you must protest as the script demands). You suggest that you tractor-beam the satellite and destroy it elsewhere as an example of Gorene power. The idea is turned down. One pilot agrees with the plan, and others, like Hela, disagree. Hela rebels and is arrested. You can't choose who you agree with; you must go out on the mission. During the mission, you could try to destroy the satellite, but it is only damaged by torpedoes and other heavy weapons, so the planet is still destroyed. You could try to tractor-beam the satellite and jump out, but you're not allowed to. You could jump out after receiving a message from the aliens begging you not to destroy the satellite, but you're not reprimanded for doing so, so you remain a Gorene. You could blow away your own wingmen but the aliens don't care. You can't even eject to join the enemy; they won't rescue you. How come it's so hard for you to join the enemy, and inferior pilots like Hela and a certain Krugar Dept find it so easy? THEY didn't need special jump coordinates. I suppose it may not be a minus to be a Gorene. The manual says that the choice will be a moral decision, so if you're into cold-blooded murder, genocide, breaking promises, and other benevolent acts, a Gorene is the right (the only) choice. It is somewhat fun... Another important feature missing involves the presence of asteroid fields, minefields, and nebulas. They do exist in the game. Your computer will warn you of such places as you enter them. You will notice when you enter a nebula; your computer systems will start to go haywire. But when you enter an asteroid field, sometimes you will see no asteroids. When you do, it barely hurts (if at all) to crash into them. You can fire through asteroids to hit an enemy. And minefields contain no mines! Although pilots on both sides have personalities and skills, they tend to exhibit little intelligence. Gorene pilots obsessive about kills, like Kayla Brool, like to crash into you as they chase your target. Pilots of Mazuma Buccaneers, the least-armored and -shielded of all the fighters, like to kamikaze you. For some odd reason, slow, unarmed freighters will maneuver into attack position (even though they can't fire) and will try to ram you too. Summary: Star Crusader is one of the few games that acknowledges that Amiga users are upgrading their computers, and for that it should be praised. It is a sound action game, and a surprisingly adequate (for its genre) strategy game, but Star Crusader doesn't deliver on many of its promises. @endnode @node REVIEW2 "Review: Zeus Professional BBS" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Zeus Professional BBS David Manley D.J.Manley@cf.cs.ac.uk =========================================================================== AUTHORS/COMPANY INFORMATION Zeus Developments Name: Alex May Location: Lewes, England BBS No: 44-(0)1273-474352 FidoNet: 2:441/58.0 Internet: zeus@oikos.demon.co.uk Name: Nick Loman Location: Brighton, England BBS No: 44-(0)1273-382524 FidoNet: 2:441/58.72 Internet: zeus@mistral.co.uk rauper@pavilion.co.uk WWW: http://www.mistral.co.uk/zeus/ LIST PRICE Approximately 100UKP DEMO VERSION Available from the above BBSi with features disabled. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE An Amiga with KS 2.04 or above A HardDrive with 5meg or more free 2 or more megabytes of RAM SOFTWARE ARexx must be installed. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 1200/020 28MHz 2 MB Chip RAM, 4 MB Fast RAM Seagate 420MB internal Hard Drive AmigaDOS 3.1 28.8K external modem INSTALLATION Zeus comes on 3 disks and with an extra utilities disk. Installation is via the standard installer program and takes about 5 minutes due to the files being archived on the disks. A point to remember is that it does not install in its own directory so you may want to make a directory called Zeus (or similar) but as this is stated during installation this is easily done. The program will add several lines to S:User-Startup most of which are assigns. The Zeus libraries are stored in their own directory and not the standard Libs directory. You will also require rexxsyslib.library and reqtools.library (V37 or above). REVIEW When opening the Zeus directory you will see a set of the most beautifully drawn set of MagicWB icons I have ever seen, believe me these icons should be in the Louvre. Before you click on the Zeus icon you must make sure that you have run RexxMast (I didn't and it wouldn't load (an error message may have been nice). The Zeus program, in my opinion, is more powerful than any BBS software on the Amiga and certainly the most powerful I have seen on any platform. This power comes from the fact that Zeus is completely Arexx based making it as completely configurable as any program could be. The Zeus software consists of 2 main screens, the menu screen and the ANSI watcher. On the main Zeus screen you get a display of icons and menus which do many things and the ANSI watcher is for watching what people are doing on your board and for Local logins. All the screens can be opened in any resolution you require (I know for a fact it works on a Picasso as well as standard displays). The actual BBS side is completely based on your own Arexx scripts down to the finest detail, but before you run away screaming there is a complete sample BBS whose scripts you can configure to your own needs. It really is very easy. The files and message editors are very easy to use and full control is given over which files are accessible and which are not by setting various flags. Another of Zeus' features is the inclusion of Specialist Interest Groups, or SIGs for short. These can be used to seperate both message and file areas into distinct topics so that finding the right areas is easy to do. Separate access restrictions can be applied to SIGs so you could have a co-sysop who is only allowed to configure that specific area while not having access to other areas. The full range of file transfer protocols are available for the User ranging from the common ZModem to the more obscure Hydra. For those with a few 100 megabytes of harddrive space to spare scripts are supplied to allow you to mirror Aminet on your board provided you have internet access of course. Messages can be sent locally, across amateur networks such as FidoNet and most impressively full support for Internet email. And this is where we come to Zeus' trump card in my opinion, complete Internet access via the BBS from email to newsgroups right up to IRC and WWW. A variety of BBS doors can be used including CNet, Paragon and Xenolink giving you access to a vast array of ready programmed doors and several of these are included. One of the most innovative features is the introduction of ZAPP, which is Zeus' own protocol that will allow people logging to access your drives as if they were devices mounted on their own computers. The Zeus software is being continually developed and will grow in to the definitive Amiga BBS software. DOCUMENTATION Printed The manual provided is a 230 page experience. All features are fully documented to almost perfect detail and all aspects of the software are covered. My favourite section is the last few pages where you can gain some insight into the minds of the two authors and believe me its not a pretty sight. (Sorry Guys but it had to be said :) ). Online The online documentation is where you will have to look if you want to read the documentation of the Arexx commands. The list of commands is *huge* (well over 100) and most commands are described in detail. Most of the printed manual is actually reproduced in Guide form so you don't have to keep referring back to the manual. To be honest I prefer my documentation on paper but I realise quite a few people are partial to a bit of on-line help, swings and roundabouts I guess. LIKES I love the interface, almost like MUI without the MUI if you see what I mean. The configurabilty is simply phenomenal for the package of its type and there is absolutely no reason for any two BBSi to look the same. All it takes is a bit of imagination on the Sysop's part and the sky's the limit. DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS The only thing I dislike is the fact that I will probably never do the product justice due to its tremendous scope for configuration. Also there are a few problems with the manual mainly to do with the hole punching, now whereas I can see the advantages of having a ring binder manual allowing for new pages to be inserted as the updates become available there really is no excuse for the holes through some of the words where the margins haven't been set correctly. I also went through my manual with the hole strengthening stickers (all 230 pages) because the pages look very likely to rip by the holes. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS Out of all the BBS programs I have used nothing can touch the power of Zeus. Maybe I can be proven wrong but somehow I doubt it. BUGS None found. SUPPORT Is available from the authors or one of their several distribution sites across the world. Also there is a special channel on EFNet, #zeus where you can get help from experts at nearly any time. CONCLUSIONS A quite simply brilliant piece of software. I'll give it 4.9 out of 5 stars (I won't give it full marks because I don't believe any software is perfect and where would be the motivation to continue updating it). Congratulations Alex and Nick. I would like to point out that I am in no way connected with Zeus Developments, Alex May, Nick Loman or in any other way associated with the software except for that I am a very satisfied customer. COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1996 David Manley @endnode @node REVIEW3 "Breed96 Review" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Breed 96 By: @{"Ken Anderson" link KEN} =========================================================================== No, don't get excited, it's not Alien Breed 3D 2 The Killing Grounds No Honestly It's Not Doom At All My God Let's Make The Title A Real Belter Lads v1.1. It's not even 3D. Having just landed yourself the plum job of governor on an alien world, you're given the task of single-handedly populating, feeding and clothing an entire planet. Then, once it's old enough to stand on it's own two feet for five minutes, you can boot it up the rear and send it out there to start making you a few easy credits. Looking very Sim City-ish at first, you can lay down power stations, residential units and food cultivators on the planet surface. And - joy of joys! - you get to join them up with little roads. Everyone loved doing that bit in Sim City. Fortunately, there's no need to put down power cables too, which removes the need to check that half the population is still connected everytime you upgrade a side street. Once you've got the bare necessities down, you can start researching bigger and better things. Ore mines make fuel for your shiny new shapeships, and droids need to be built to take care of the attacking mutants. Mutants? Well, you haven't got the planet to yourself, y'know. Every now and again, the mutants get a bit uppity and decide to take a pot-shot at a few of your choice buildings. They're easily sent on their way, though - any of your droids can be controlled directly, and are usually more than capable of seeing off any mischievous mutant. Just in case any damage is done, they can repair buildings too. Once you've got the mines built and the spaceport ready, you can leave terra firma and start talking to the opposition. If you're talking to any of the other 3 races, you can start shipping goods back and forward, and sit back and watch the creds roll in. Usually this trading procedure would mean sending a ship to A to pick up X, then flying to Y to drop off X for Z creds. Not in this game - set it all up with a few clicks of the mouse, and your chosen ship will do a repeat run over and over again. Nice. Of course, you don't get it all you're own way - there's wars too. Sooner or later, your homeworld will come under the envious gaze of another race, and then it's bang bang time. There's not much you can do at this point - sit back and hope that all the defences and battleships you built will win it for you. There's always any allies you've picked up along the way, too. During the whole game, you have the helpful advice of an advisor to turn too, so even when you're caught up in the mother of all battles, you'll still have time to worry about the peasants being fed. In the unregistered version, you can only build on one planet, the one you started on. However, in the full version, any planets spotted by your observatory can be probed, fought over if they're populated, and claimed for your own. Then you have another little microcosm to build on, and ultimately make you cash. Hang on, unregistered? Full version? Breed 96 is shareware. It's freely downloadable, and apart from a few minor restrictions like the one-planet business mentioned above, it's complete. It will certainly give you a good idea of what the whole game is above. Breed 96 successfully combines the best bits from Sim City, Doom II and Supremacy. It's slick, and it is _very_ easy to play - each icon has a text explanation, and even with the limited documentation, the game practically explains itself. Within 15 minutes of play - WITHOUT reading the docs - I had a fair-sized living, breathing city, with lots of snakey roads. Everyone loves doing the roads. However, within an hour I had filled my home world. The available area doesn't exactly afford you lots of space, and once it's full, all you can do is demolish, rebuild, trade and try to ignore the advisor moaning that there's isn't enough accommodation available. Of course, this restriction disappears in the registered version when you can build on other planets. Finally, this is the first game written in AMOS that had me completely fooled. Usually I can spot an AMOS program at 50 yards - the chunky mouse pointers, the lamiga+A task-switching, the jerky graphics. Apart from the downside that it doesn't multitask, Breed is so polished and classy, I couldn't tell it from any other game, shareware or otherwise. You can download the latest version of Breed from http://outland.cyberwar.com/~zool/Breed.html. The author, Damian Tarnawsky, can be contacted at c9424357@peach.newcastle.edu.au. Pros: Easy to play and understand. Takes the best from others of the genre, and combines them into a belter of a game. Try it out for free! Cons: Limitied long-term appeal, especially in the shareware version. Doesn't multitask. @endnode @node REVIEW4 "Review: Aminet 11 CD-ROM" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Aminet 11 CD-ROM By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== Recently, Aminet CD-ROMs have included old versions of commercial software, much like a magazine coverdisk. In general, the offerings have been of reasonable quality without being stunning additions to the CD-ROM. However, this time around I am extremely impressed with the included program. XiPaint 3.2, the 24-bit paint program that is ECS, AGA, and virtually all-graphic card format compatible, is included in its full form on the Aminet CD-ROM. Nice! For those of you unaware, XiPaint is the standard Retina pack-in software. It is an extremely capable package compatible with virtually all computers, allowing you to paint even in HAM6 and HAM8. XiPaint 4.0 has just been released, and should do quite well considering the exposure 3.2 is receiving on this CD-ROM. But then, you don't buy Aminet CDs for the commercial software, right? You want those hundreds of megs of FD software. This time around, the theme is maps--a bit odd, but at least there are a lot of them. The quality is the same--actually, it's been getting better the past couple of discs--that I've come to expect from Urban and crew. I even found a good mod with a minimal amount of effort (Abacab, thanks Dr. Awesome!). While there are an awful lot of mods and demos this time around, the categorization of the demos continues to get more helpful. The CD will even help you keep track of which demos you've already viewed to date. Amiga Report made it to the "recommendations" list of software, so I have little to complain about in that arena. It's really getting embarrasing not being able to come up with anything novel to say about Aminet CDs. They are the standard for freely redistributable compilations of Amiga software, from one of the world's largest collections of online software. (Second largest next to the Linux archive in binary size, apparently.) If these guys start doing something wrong, I'll let you know, but until then, keep watching the compilations... Published by: Stefan Ossowski's Schatztruhe Veronikastr. 33 D-45131 Essen Germany ++49 201 788778 phone ++49 201 798447 fax stefano@tchest.e.eunet.de e-mail http://www.schatztruhe.de/ @endnode @node REVIEW5 "Review: Distant Suns 5.01 CD-ROM" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Distant Suns 5.01 CD-ROM By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== Hopefully, most of you recall the Distant Suns 5.0 review from a few issues back. The verdict--Distant Suns is a capable, but aging, astronomical observation package with several good characteristics for beginning stargazers. However, in terms of flexibility, contemporary data, and sheer volume of observable objects, the new Digital Universe had the clear advantage. That gap has been closed somewhat, but not entirely, by the release of Distant Suns 5.01 CD. Included on the CD is the Distant Suns program for FPU and non-FPU machines, as well as images for both ECS and AGA users. However, graphic card support is still non-existant and the AGA mode did not properly promote under CyberGraphX. (It seems to look for the AGA hardware) Most of that shipped on a few floppies before. Included on CD are a number of interesting animations, as well as the large Hubble Guide Star Catalog and Stars on Demand databases of sky objects. This puts a vast amount of observational power at your fingertips. The company now publishing the Distant Suns package, Chaocity, should be applauded for finishing this product and seeing it through. Unfortunately, Chaocity's size have left little time for the actual improvement of Distant Suns, and it shows when a brief comparison is made between the main engines of DS and Digital Universe. Still, Distant Suns has beaten DU to the punch of supporting this thorough of a catalog, and does so without requiring wholesale copying to the hard drive--the program will read the Hubble GSC and the Stars on Demand from the CD-ROM drive. The DS 5.01 CD-ROM is still less expensive than the Digital Universe and of course still is configured to be a bit more friendly to the first-time user than DU is. Investigating the universe just got a bit easier. Chaocity 221 Town Center West #259 Santa Maria, CA 93454 USA 805-925-7732 voice 805-928-3128 fax @endnode @node REVIEW6 "Review: Toshiba TIMM" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Toshiba TIMM 20" Multiscan Monitor By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== Some time ago, Toshiba started doing nationwide (in the US) television advertising for a new product called the TIMM: the Toshiba Integrated Multimedia Monitor. A 20" VGA monitor that could triple as a television set or as a video monitor, taking RGB, coaxial (cable/antenna) and composite video/audio inputs. Big deal, right? A 20 inch monitor with a .58 dot pitch isn't exactly at the height of technology. But there's a catch. The TIMM is a multiscan monitor, meaning it can sync down to 15khz in addition to displaying VGA-style output. In quite plain terms, that means that it can display all native Amiga screenmodes, from NTSC/PAL Low Res on up. And in case you haven't noticed, monitors that support this range of screenmodes are not only in limited supply, but are quite expensive--14 inch models without speakers often reach nearly US$500, and are not exactly easy to find. In Europe, the supply of Microvitec Amiga Technologies-branded monitors has helped somewhat, but they too suffer from high cost, and only now are 15 and 17 inch products being offered. The TIMM is a fairly attractive piece of hardware that doesn't go too far into the "alternative design" concept. The casing is off-white, with a large tube flanked by two forward-facing strip-style speakers. Control buttons are located below the display screen, but you'll likely find the included remote control (!) more handy. The TIMM is advertised as the sort of item you'll use equally for TV watching, videotape use, and your computer. Maybe that's why the instruction manual says virtually nothing about its use as a multisync monitor and instead reads like a regular TV booklet. And maybe that's why, for some strange reason, the manual specifies that the TIMM has a maximum resolution of a mere 640x480. I can personally attest that the TIMM can display up to at least 1280x1024. It does interlace at 1024x768 and above, but the display is actually quite usable. As an Amiga multisync monitor, I can quite honestly say that I have never seen anything come close to the TIMM. A trusty 1950 or similar is nice while it lasts, but once you've had 20 inch display, it's tough to imagine going back to something that sits comfortably on an Amiga 3000's case. Despite the dot pitch rating, below 1024x768 the display is remarkably crisp and clear. As a video monitor and TV, the TIMM works quite well--while its size might not make it conducive for use in large-scale video applications, as the output monitor for the finished product it is an excellent choice, with its quite capable built-in speakers. The TIMM switches from RGB (computer operation) to TV to video input operation at a touch of a button, either on the monitor or on the remote. Each mode has its own settings--the RGB mode is most flexible, allowing you to vertically and horizontally position AND size the screen to your liking. Settings memory seems to be independent of power supply, but there is only one setting stored. All of this comes at a cost of about $700, street price. That's rather high for a 20 inch TV, but extremely inexpensive for a 20 inch fully Amiga-compatible multiscan monitor with terrific NTSC and PAL displays. (It is worth noting that while the TIMM will handle PAL RGB input it cannot deal with PAL composite or television input) In the Amiga's history, large monitors with this degree of compatibility have been extremely expensive and are no longer widely available. What the TIMM offers is a reasonably priced big-screen solution which offers the convenience of multiple inputs, while sacrificing the .28 or below dot pitch found on monitors with fewer Amiga features and a smaller screen size. Only a few things concern me about the TIMM. The first is that the power plug is a two-blade affair instead of the usual 3-prong grounded plug found for most serious computer equipment. The second is that often the TIMM will briefly flash the screen a minute or so after a cold start. Finally, the on-screen controls leave a lot to be desired. They're perfectly adequate, but for such a hip multimedia monitor, I expected something a bit better than CGA cyan and purple blocky text. For those with a dying 1950, or those looking for a large monitor that can still handle a good round of Alien Breed, I would highly recommend you investigate the TIMM. Those looking to do 1600x1200 non-interlaced are going to have to shop for something different. Toshiba America Consumer Products 82 Totowa Rd. Wayne, NJ 07470 201-628-8000 voice http://www.toshiba.com/tacp/timm/TIMMhome.html @endnode @node REVIEW7 "Review: Fargo FotoFUN Color Printer" @toc REVIEW =========================================================================== Review: Fargo FotoFUN Color Printer By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON} =========================================================================== Fargo has long distinguished themselves, on the Amiga and elsewhere, for high-quality color printers using thermal wax and dye-sublimation transfers for vibrant color that tends to last quite some time. The Primera Pro has been the mainstay of the line, creating A4-sized color printouts that usually stun visitors to dealerships. But the Primera's performance doesn't come cheap (Nearly US$2000), so apparently the people at Fargo felt they wanted a more consumer-oriented product. The FotoFUN's sole purpose is to create 4"x6" photos from computer images. The unit itself is a small affair, significantly smaller than a breadbox. On its front is a slot wide enough to accept a single 4" wide piece of special FotoFUN photographic paper. The operation of the FotoFUN is fairly straightforward--an image in IFF format (1 to 24 bit, including HAM and Halfbrite modes) is sent to the printer driver, or more specifically, to the AmigaDOS device created by the printer driver. This can be done with an image processing program's save command, or a simple copy. The driver does the rest of the work, separating the file into the various portions needed by the printer's internal workings, and firing them over to the printer. When the printer receives the first instructions, it begins whirring, which is the operator's cue to insert a piece of photo paper. The printer has no storage capacity of its own. The driver sends the picture across the parallel port, the printer churns with the photo for a couple of minutes, and finally, after a number of passes, you get the finished product, a real photograph of the computerized image of your choice. Now, this SHOULD sound neat to you--and it is. The FotoFUN creates 203 dpi images at either 24 or 12 bit color depth (there seems to be some disagreement--the consumer information says 24, the developer documentation seems to indicate 12), which means that you get a good deal of color clarity and vibrance right out of a box next to your computer. After it sounds neat to you, you'll probably wonder "But, um, wait, what exactly is this GOOD for?" The advertising materials put it forth as a companion piece to the PhotoCD enthusiast. This is actually a very good angle, as PhotoCDs often contain the sorts of pictures people would like to be able to put in an album or give to friends anyway. However, considering that the cost of the media is quite high (a 36-picture ribbon and 36 pieces of photo paper are US$35), it would be considerably more economical to just save your PhotoCD negatives (if you had your own created) and have a pack of photographs developed professionally. But there are other, shall we say, "reasonable" uses for this printer. A professional 2D or 3D artist may want to send a client away with a tangible, full-color example of a work in progress. In moderate usage, such a printer could help spice up a report or a presentation. Ah, but who are we kidding? The FotoFUN's name gives it away--it's largely something people will play with because it's fun to get a full-color photographic image off of your computer. Fargo has two ways to encourage people to have more fun with their printer--postcard kits and coffee mug kits. I'm not a postcard sort of person--well, I like getting them (Thanks to Jorma of Sweden!) but I really don't send them. But one of the first things I did with the FotoFUN was create an Amiga Report mug, which is really a treat to show visitors. The mug kit works by having you print an image, in reverse, without the standard protective overlay regular FotoFUN prints receive. This print gets wrapped around a specially coated mug from Fargo and locked into place with a special metal clamp included with the Mug Kit. Bake the contraption in an oven for 15 minutes, and before you know it, you have a tailor-made mug, with whatever image you see fit to transfer onto it. Fargo's driver for the Amiga, which includes a GUI-based program for setting your preferences, is not shipped with the printer but is instead available from their Web site. The Amiga driver uses one of the keyfiles from the Windows disk. The driver doesn't have all of the features of the Windows and Mac version, but ImageFX 2.6 is shipping with enhanced FotoFUN support, which we will discuss in an upcoming issue. The FotoFUN driver virtually uses all of the Amiga's resources. I highly recommend that if you are going to print, don't touch anything else. Even slight interruptions can corrupt a printout, which is a time-consuming and costly mistake. It's tough to make the final call--is the FotoFUN "worth it"? The output is high quality, that's not at issue. But $500, plus $1 a print, for pictures? Unless you've got your own scanner, or make lots of PhotoCDs, you won't have a good way to get your personal favorites into the FotoFUN to begin with. This is a neat item, but think closely about the impact of your purchase. If you can't think of anything you'd enjoy more than a full-color printout of the Babylon 5 battle scene you've staged in Lightwave or Imagine, or a small pinup of Amy the Squirrel, I'd advise you to go for it. Fargo Electronics Inc. 7901 Flying Cloud Dr. Eden Prairie, MN 55344 USA 612-941-9470 voice 612-941-7836 fax http://www.fargo.com/ @endnode @node CHARTS1 "Aminet Charts, April 26, 1996" @toc FTP | The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 26-Apr-96 | Updated weekly. Most popular file on top. | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- awebftp.lha comm/tcp 12K 0+FTP plugin v1.2 for Aweb AWeb.lha comm/tcp 263K 1+Fast, graphical WWW browser V 1.1 bu ar406.lha docs/mags 113K 0+Amiga Report 4.06, April 23, 1996 awebmail.lha comm/tcp 3K 0+Mail plugin for Aweb (TCP: required) AWEBsendYAMmai.lha comm/tcp 1K 0+Mail plugin for Aweb with YAM BMPdt405.lha util/dtype 19K 0+Bmp picture datatype v40.5 for >= OS fforbid.lha util/boot 1K 0+System speed hack viscorp.lha docs/anno 30K 0+VIScorp Information 960418 taskbar5_3.lha util/wb 29K 0+Win95 style taskbar v5.2 (Speed incr A-Start08.lha util/wb 47K 0+V0.87 BUGFIX of the BEST Win95-Start CyberSpcHD.lha game/role 898K 0+Cyberspace game (V1.01, HD Version) IPDial21.lha comm/tcp 58K 1+Best SLIP/PPP dialer with shell term nslookup-gui.lha comm/tcp 5K 0+NSLookUp with GUI. V1.0 fms_20.lha disk/misc 11K 0+Virtual Floppy disk ExpName22.lha util/libs 46K 0+Get full expansion board names from Gui-FTP.lha comm/tcp 352K 0+Gui-FTP V3.0 GUI based FTP client bu mcx249.lha util/cdity 74K 0+Multi Function Commodity amicdfs214.lha disk/cdrom 122K 0+AmiCDFS (AmiCDROM) v2.14 Lisa.jpg pix/irc 45K 45+A picture of _lisa_ (lesingh@ouray.c AWebAminet.lha comm/tcp 5K 3+Aminetfind rexx script for AWeb (use | The highest rated programs during the week until 26-Apr-96 | Updated weekly. Best program on top. Please rate all the programs you | download. To do so, send to aminet-server@wuarchive.wustl.edu : | RATE | 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 |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- AmigaBase22.lha biz/dbase 462K 22+Powerful programmable database with AmiPOP118.lha comm/net 98K 31+Amiga POP3 Client V1.18 term-030.lha comm/term 655K 4+V4.6, MC68020/030/040/060 version Knights242.lha game/2play 223K 77+Two-player violent dungeon bashing SneechV1_5.lha game/2play 390K 5+NEW Vers of *THE BEST* Multi Snake G ViperAGA12.lha game/2play 390K 78+Updated AGA Snake game with 6 player Defektris.lha game/think 142K 73+Enhanced Tetris with custom level ed Hydrocis19.lha game/think 194K 14+V1.9, with real time water simulatio LhA_e138.run util/arc 107K 190 LhA evaluation version 1.38 PowerSnap22a.lha util/cdity 54K 114+Snap and paste anywhere using the mo AWeb.lha comm/tcp 263K 1+Fast, graphical WWW browser V 1.1 bu VoxelEngine25.lha gfx/aga 71K 5+Landscape routine. V2.5 ALynx.lha comm/net 277K 39+Textbased WWW browser (AmiTCP/MLink) ar404.lha docs/mags 85K 5+Amiga Report 4.04, March 14, 1996 xtrndemo.lha game/demo 680K 16+XTreme Racing Net Demo Breed96.lha game/misc 171K 3+Space colonisation/exploration game NetMail-13.lha comm/mail 130K 26+E-mail program with GUI, groups, fil BorisBall.lha game/demo 339K 2+Demo of a Megaball beater with 8 BAL DGalaga2.6cAGA.lha game/shoot 465K 31+Latest version of the best shoot em' xanim8.lha gfx/show 253K 43+XAnim: Avi/Quicktime/FLI/FLC/IFF/GIF DeliTracker224.lha mus/play 736K 3+Enhanced/bugfixed players, e.g. s3m Play16_1.6.lha mus/play 91K 11+Plays WAV, IFF, MAUD, etc, 14 bit ou aglogo.lha pix/misc 44K 6+AMIGAmes 'logo' picture (Finnish Ami EasyFR21.lha comm/fido 116K 6+V2.1 F'Req handler. XPK & traplist speed.lha demo/aga 64K 52+Triumph AGA intro (TG95). 040/882 re BrainState.lha demo/file 665K 44+AGA Demo by Cryptoburners. 2nd at TG a95-tsl.lha demo/ta95 566K 35+Fruitkitchen by The Silents DK - Fro MasterBlast221.lha game/2play 197K 22+The ultimate Dynablaster Clone V2.2 RoketzPD_V2.25.lha game/2play 670K 63+Ver. 2.25 of this AGA only gravity-s @endnode @node CHARTS2 "Aminet Charts, May 13, 1996" @toc FTP | The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 13-May-96 | Updated weekly. Most popular file on top. | |File Dir Size Age Description |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- Voyager.lha comm/net 276K 0+WWW-Browser, Netscape/HTML3-extensio AirMail32.lha comm/mail 147K 0+MUI SMTP/POP internet mailer mui33usr.lha dev/gui 797K 10+MagicUserInterface V3.3, user files BattleDuel.lha game/2play 787K 0+The ultimate 'Artillery' game ECS,AG vttxyam.lha comm/net 3K 0+Modified Mailto Script for Voyager ShutDown10.lha util/wb 157K 0+Win95 like system shut down NFA-HDIn.lha game/patch 177K 0+A collection of legal HD Game Instal AmiPhone1.71.lha comm/net 117K 0+AmiTCP based voice chat program Vmailto.lha comm/mail 1K 0+Mailto script for Voyager (Uses Send agaboost0.81.lha misc/emu 21K 0+V0.81. Aga Video Driver for ShapeShi ShapeShifter.lha misc/emu 224K 1+Macintosh II emulator, V3.5 AddSearchGuide.lha docs/hyper 2K 0+Add a search button to AmigaGuide do XOpa1_87.lha util/moni 94K 1+System Monitor with a beautiful inte gtlayout.lha util/libs 119K 0+Gtlayout.library V24.17 GUI library AWebBGUI.lha comm/tcp 8K 0+Improving the speed of AWeb's settin mwm104.lha text/hyper 74K 1+Magic Web Maker v1.04 - More enhance nslookup.lha comm/tcp 38K 0+Full nslookup command (V1.3) aswpop10.lha comm/tcp 21K 0+POP client for Amitcp, by ASW. v1.0 AWeb.lha comm/tcp 263K 3+Fast, graphical WWW browser V 1.1 bu XpkArchivePack.lha util/arc 212K 0+XpkArchivePackageV2.0: xpkarchive.li | The highest rated programs during the week until 13-May-96 | Updated weekly. Best program on top. Please rate all the programs you | download. To do so, send to aminet-server@wuarchive.wustl.edu : | RATE | 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 |----------------- --- ---- --- ----------- AmiPOP118.lha comm/net 98K 33+Amiga POP3 Client V1.18 AmigaBase22.lha biz/dbase 462K 24+Powerful programmable database with Knights242.lha game/2play 223K 79+Two-player violent dungeon bashing SneechV1_5.lha game/2play 390K 8+NEW Vers of *THE BEST* Multi Snake G ViperAGA12.lha game/2play 390K 80+Updated AGA Snake game with 6 player Defektris.lha game/think 142K 75+Enhanced Tetris with custom level ed Hydrocis19.lha game/think 194K 16+V1.9, with real time water simulatio voxel087.lha gfx/aga 788K 5+Voxel Engine 0.87 by Silicon Motion LhA_e138.run util/arc 107K 192 LhA evaluation version 1.38 PowerSnap22a.lha util/cdity 54K 117+Snap and paste anywhere using the mo ficherosdelsis.lha docs/hyper 59K 0+AmigaGuide Text containig info about ALynx.lha comm/net 277K 41+Textbased WWW browser (AmiTCP/MLink) mui33usr.lha dev/gui 797K 10+MagicUserInterface V3.3, user files nemac411.lha game/demo 132K 6+Update of texture map game xtrndemo.lha game/demo 680K 19+XTreme Racing Net Demo NetMail-13.lha comm/mail 130K 29+E-mail program with GUI, groups, fil BorisBall.lha game/demo 339K 4+Demo of a Megaball beater with 8 BAL DGalaga2.6cAGA.lha game/shoot 465K 33+Latest version of the best shoot em' xanim8.lha gfx/show 253K 46+XAnim: Avi/Quicktime/FLI/FLC/IFF/GIF MCP110.lha util/cdity 395K 14+MAJOR UPDATE! The mother of the WB-U EasyFR21.lha comm/fido 116K 8+V2.1 F'Req handler. XPK & traplist MetaTool.lha comm/mail 207K 8+The Amiga MIME Mailer (40.5) speed.lha demo/aga 64K 54+Triumph AGA intro (TG95). 040/882 re BrainState.lha demo/file 665K 47+AGA Demo by Cryptoburners. 2nd at TG a95-tsl.lha demo/ta95 566K 37+Fruitkitchen by The Silents DK - Fro ar406.lha docs/mags 113K 2+Amiga Report 4.06, April 23, 1996 MasterBlast221.lha game/2play 197K 24+The ultimate Dynablaster Clone V2.2 RoketzPD_V2.25.lha game/2play 670K 65+Ver. 2.25 of this AGA only gravity-s poing2.lha game/2play 320K 9+A cool pong game with powerups & mor SpringTime.lha game/think 295K 56+Great 3d puzzle game by TRECISION @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@amigalib.com Your subject header will be ignored. In the body of the message, enter subscribe areport The system will automatically pull your e-mail address from the message header. Your account must be able to handle mail of any size to ensure an intact copy. For example, many systems have a 100K limit on incoming messages. ** IMPORTANT NOTICE: PLEASE be certain your host can accept mail over ** ** 100K! We have had a lot of bouncebacks recently from systems with a ** ** 100K size limit for incoming mail. If we get a bounceback with your ** ** address in it, it will be removed from the list. Thanks! ** @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 can also be read with Mosaic (in either AmigaGuide or html form). Reading AmigaReport with Mosaic removes the necessity to download it. It can also be read using programs found in UNIX sites such as LYNX. Simply tell Mosaic to open one of the following URLs: http://www.omnipresence.com/Amiga/News/AR/ http://www.pwr.wroc.pl/AMIGA/AR/ http://mm.iit.uni-miskolc.hu/Data/AR http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/amiga/ar/ http://ramiga.rnet.cgi.com/~AR http://www.sci.muni.cz/ar/ http://metro.turnpike.net/P/panther/main.html http://www.lysator.liu.se/amiga/ar/ http://ArtWorks.apana.org.au/AmigaReport.html http://www.vol.it/mirror/amiga/ http://www.cucug.org/ar/ar.html http://www.acropolis.net/clubs/amiga/amigareport/ http://www.bengala.saccii.net.au/ar/main.html The following AR sites also have a mailto form, allowing you to mail to Amiga Report from the web site.