@database "ar205.guide" @Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #2.05 -- February 4, 1994" @{" Turn the Page " link "menu"} _ ____ ___ ______ _______ _ d# ####b g#00 `N##0" _agN#0P0N# d# d## jN## j##F J## _dN0" " d## .#]## _P ##L jN##F ### g#0" .#]## dE_j## # 0## jF ##F j##F j##' ______ dE_j## .0"""N## d" ##L0 ##F 0## 0## "9##F" .0"""5## .dF' ]## jF ##0 ##F ##F `##k d## .dF' j## .g#_ _j##___g#__ ]N _j##L_ _d##L_ `#Nh___g#N' .g#_ _j##__ """"" """"""""""" " """""" """""" """"""" """"" """""" ###### ###### ###### ###### ###### ######## TM ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ### ###### ## ###### ## ### ## International Online Magazine "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information." Copyright © 1994 Skynet Publications All Rights Reserved // %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%//%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% February 4, 1994 \\// Issue No. 2.05 %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @endnode @node P2-1 "Where to find Amiga Report" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Where to find Amiga Report %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Click on the button of the BBS nearest you for information on that system. » FidoNet Systems « --------------- FREQ the filename "AR.LHA" for the most current issue of Amiga Report! @{" OMAHA AMIGANET " link P2-1-9} ..................................Omaha, Nebraska @{" NOVA " link P2-1-1} .............................Cleveland, Tennessee @{" BIOSMATICA " link P2-1-4} .........................................Portugal @{" AMIGA JUNCTION 9 " link P2-1-5} ...................................United Kingdom @{" BITSTREAM BBS " link P2-1-6} ..............................Nelson, New Zealand @{" REALM OF TWILIGHT " link P2-1-7} ..................................Ontario, Canada @{" METNET TRIANGLE " link P2-1-8} ......................Kingston Upon Hull, England @{" AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM " link P2-1-10} ................................Helsinki, Finland @{" RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING " link P2-1-11} ...........................................France @{" GATEWAY BBS " link P2-1-12} ..............................Biloxi, Mississippi @{" TALK CITY " link P2-1-13} ...............................Waukegan, Illinois @{" AMIGA BBS " link P2-1-14} .........................Estado de Mexico, Mexaco @{" THE STYGIAN ABYSS " link P2-1-15} ................................Chicago, Illinois @{" AMIGA DO PC BSS " link P2-1-16} .................................Campinas, Brazil @{" COMM-LINK BBS " link P2-1-17} .......................Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada @{" PHANTOM'S LAIR " link P2-1-18} .......................Glendale Heights, Illinois » Non-FidoNet Systems « ------------------- @{" IN THE MEANTIME " link P2-1-2} ...............................Yakima, Washington @{" FREELAND MAINFRAME " link P2-1-50} ..............................Olympia, Washington @{" LAHO " link P2-1-51} ...............................Seinajoki, Finland @{" FALLING " link P2-1-52} ...........................................Norway @{" COMMAND LINE " link P2-1-53} ..................................Toronto, Canada @{" RENDEZVOUS " link P2-1-54} ......................................New Zealand @{" LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL " link P2-1-55} ..........................................Germany @{" STINGRAY DATABASE " link P2-1-56} ...........................Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany @{" T.B.P. VIDEO SLATE " link P2-1-57} .............................Rockaway, New Jersey @{" AMIGA CENTRAL " link P2-1-58} .............................Nashville, Tennessee @{" CONTINENTAL DRIFT " link P2-1-59} ................................Sydney, Australia @{" GURU MEDITATION " link P2-1-60} ............................................Spain @endnode @node "menu" "Amiga Report Main Menu" @toc "menu" @{" Columns and Features " link P1} News, Reviews, and More! @{" About AMIGA REPORT " link P2} Staff, Copyright information @{" Dealer Directory " link P3} Amiga Dealer Addresses and Numbers @{" Commercial Online Services " link P4} Sign-Up Information @{" FTP Announcements " link P5} New Files Available for FTP @{" AR Distribution Sites " link P2-1} Where to get AMIGA REPORT ____________________________________________ // | | // %%%%%%%%//%%%%%| Amiga Report International Online Magazine |%%%%%%%//%%%%% %% \\// | Issue No. 2.05 February 4, 1994 | \\// %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%| "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" |%%%%%%%%%%%%%% |____________________________________________| · The Editor's Desk · Computer Product News · FTP Announcements · The Grapevine · Dealer Directory · The Listening Post · The Humor Department · Reader Mail · Distribution BBS's » SPECIAL FEATURES « Emulation Rambler Special Report..........................Jason Compton European Outlook............................................Jesper Juul Blaze On!................................................Daniel Barrett EGS FAQ....................................................Brian Wright CES Report...................................................Kris Kuntz Commodore Shareholder Movement Update........................Mike Levin Usenet Review: Mortal Combat.............................Steve Dempsey %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% @{" DELPHI " link P4-1} · @{" PORTAL " link P4-2} · @{" FIDO " link P2-1} · @{" INTERNET " link P4-5} %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @endnode @node P1-1 "The Editor's Desk" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% The Editor's Desk By Robert Glover %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% You know what they say... all good things must come to an end. Well, after this issue, I will no longer be the editor of Amiga Report. Robert Niles, our Assistant Editor, will be taking over the helm from now on. I will fade to the background as an advisor. Why? Several reasons. First, the Amiga community has been dwindling for some time down. When Amiga Report started back in March of 1993, we had quite a few people on board as editors and contributors. Well, many of them have disappeared, most with no warning and no forwarding address. Or at the very least, they don't answer their Email anymore. Last week was a good example of that dwindling. If it hadn't been for Robert Niles' commentary, we'd have had no original articles in the issue. I don't like riding solely on Usenet Reviews. I've mentioned several times that we welcome submissions, but due to our non-profit nature, we cannot pay people for them. It's simply a matter of people writing because they enjoy writing and enjoy helping others in the Amiga community. Which is why I started Amiga Report. Through 1993, things were going pretty well, but business has dropped off to the point that I don't see much point in continuing. I therefore offered the editor position to Mr. Niles, and he gladly accepted. Another reason is that I just don't use my Amiga very much anymore. Over Christmas, I hand-built a PC system, very similar to the one I detailed in my "Taking the PC Plunge" article a number of weeks ago (well, I only have 4 meg of RAM in it, not the 16 meg I recommended -- hey, I'm broke!). Since then, that's what I use about 99% of the time. It's gotten to where I only turn on my Amiga for the few hours a week it takes me to generate the magazine. So what will I be doing? Aside from advising Mr. Niles and helping smooth the transition, I've begun research on a new online magazine. I plan on debuting a Special-Interest type magazine based on the PC sometime in March or April. I don't have a name for it yet, though PC Report is our 'code' name for it right now. That magazine won't be a general-purpose PC magazine, like our 'sister' magazine, STReport, which focuses primarily on DOS, Windows and Macintosh users. We will specialize in more cult products -- OS/2, Unix, some hardcode Windows users, and specialty products like the Gravis Ultrasound sound card (think of the GUS as a 32-voice, 16-bit version of the Amiga's Paula sound chip). We'll still have the usual Industry News and the best of the online messages, but the tone of the issue will definitely be more closely tailored. If any of you Amiga owners out there are into the PC in that respect, and are interested in contributing, please drop me a note! All of my Email addresses will stay the same, though at this point, I'm not sure if I'll still be on Portal after February. One more thing... my list of Portal conferences from last week is completely wrong. That's what I get for scribbling notes down illegibly. ;) Please see AR Online in this issue for the CORRECT schedule. Sorry, Harv. Rob @ AR \|/ @ @ ----------------------------------------------------oOO-(_)-OOo------------ @endnode @node P1-2 "The Editor's Desk Too!" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% The Editor's Desk Too! By Robert Niles %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% While I welcome the chance to serve the Amiga community by taking over the work that Rob Glover has done for the last year, I still wonder if this magazine is going to survive. OK, look at the situation. Amiga Report is an online magazine that is produced on a weekly basis, receives no income what-so-ever, and still must bring to the readers current, informative, and interesting news. For the most part we rely on the few people out there who are willing to spend a bit of time each week to write articles. To put it simply, this can get tedious at times. So the rest of the magazine comes from the readers. The Amiga community. For this magazine to survive we need more people to write for AR. Not on a weekly basis, but whenever you feel that there is something the Amiga community might have an interest in knowing about. I can safely say that this magazine is produced by the readers, for the readers. It's your voice, your thoughts, and your experience. We have no advertising "pressures" to make us feel like we have to beef up a review or comment in the favor of the developer. We simply report what YOU feel about a product, service, or what-not. Send us information on what is happening in your community, what you like/dislike about an Amiga product, or ANYTHING that you feel the readers would like to know about. If you're not sure, contact me. I can be reached via email or USMail by the following means: US Mail: Robert Niles P.O. Box 8041 Yakima, Wa 98908 InterNet: rniles@hebron.connected.com FidoNet: Robert Niles at 1:3407/103 In AR204 I reported that I can safely say that AR has at least 750 readers each week. Thanks to some information given to me by Urban Mueller, we can up that count to over 1000. He stated that Amiga Report gets on the average of 300 download from wustl alone, and that we could safely say that with all the sites that make up Aminet we probably average about 1000-1500 downloads from Aminet alone. Thanks to Urban for this information! Now there's one thing I really would like to do, and that is to thank each and every one of our readers for making Amiga Report the greatest AMIGA online magazine around!! @endnode @node P4-1 "Delphi" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Delphi Internet Services -- Your Connection to the World! %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Amiga Report International Online Magazine is available every week in the Amiga SIG on DELPHI. Amiga Report readers are invited to join DELPHI and become a part of the friendly community of Amiga enthusiasts there. SIGNING UP WITH DELPHI ====================== Using a personal computer and modem, members worldwide access DELPHI services via a local phone call JOIN -- DELPHI -------------- Via modem, dial up DELPHI at 1-800-695-4002 then... When connected, press RETURN once or twice and.... At Username: type JOINDELPHI and press RETURN, At Password: type AMIGAREPORT and press RETURN. DELPHI's best plan is the 20/20 plan. It gives you 20 hours each month for the low price of only $19.95! Additional hours are only $1.50 each! This covers 1200, 2400 and even 9600 connections! For more information, and details on other plans, call DELPHI Member Services at 1-800-695-4005 SPECIAL FEATURES ---------------- · Complete Internet connection -- Telnet, FTP, IRC, Gopher, E-Mail and more! (Internet option is $3/month extra) · SIGs for all types of computers -- Amiga, IBM, Macintosh, Atari, etc. · Large file databases! · SIGs for hobbies, video games, graphics, and more! · Business and world news, stock reports, etc. · Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia! DELPHI - It's getting better all the time! @endnode @node P2-2 "AR Staff" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% The Amiga Report Staff %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Editor ====== Robert Glover Portal: Rob-G Delphi: ROB_G FidoNet: 1:285/11 AmigaNet: 40:200/10 Internet: General Mail: ROB_G@Delphi.com Submissions: Rob-G@cup.portal.com Assistant and Technical Editor ============================== Robert Niles Portal: RNiles FidoNet: 1:3407/103 Internet: rniles@hebron.connected.com @endnode @node P1-3 "Computer Product News" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Computer Product News %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AMIGA'S TOP IMAGE PROCESSOR GETS BRAND NEW LOOK AND MORE In what the company terms "the most significant upgrade in its history", ASDG's Art Department Professional (ADPro) now offers unmatched display board support, over 100 pre-written ARexx programs, direct support for the Fargo Primera dye sublimation printer, new file formats and operators, and an entirely new look and feel which dramatically boosts ease-of-use. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Madison, WI, January 14, 1994 ---- ASDG Incorporated, a leading supplier of color imaging and special effects solutions for the television and motion picture industries, announce Art Department Professional (ADPro) version 2.5. According to the company, ADPro 2.5 is "the most significant upgrade in the product's history". ADPro version 2.5 offers a choice of several completely style guide compliant user interfaces. According to company president, Mr. Perry Kivolowitz, "A new and thoroughly modern user interface was our most requested improvement. We surveyed our customers and found that some preferred a list oriented graphical user interface (GUI) for speed, while others preferred a button oriented GUI for ease-of-use. We implemented both and allowed them to be intermixed configurably." The result, says the company, is an easier-to-use ADPro in which no major feature is more than a mouse click away. Comments which typify beta tester feedback to the new user interface include those of Mr. Brick Eksten, of Expert Services. Says Mr. Eksten, "I find the interface to be much faster, and that helps me get more work done." These sentiments were echoed by Mr. Kenneth Wilder, Head Animator with Marmalade, who found the new user interface alone gained him a 20 percent increase in productivity. ADPro's GUI now runs on many third party display boards, such as the Picasso, using RTG (ReTargetable Graphics) technology. ADPro can now render images in a window on the same screen as its user interface, bringing new levels of WYSIWYG performance to the product. Other newly supported third party hardware includes: DPS PAR, EGS, Retina Z-III and Retina, and the Video Toaster. The Amiga's finest image format support has gotten even better with the addition of 6 new file formats in ADPro and 3 new formats in the (optional) Professional Conversion Pack (PCP). To ADPro, the company has added support for Commodore's CDXL animation format, Digital Broadcaster JStream files, FLC and FLI animations, ICO files and direct reading and writing of Workbench icons. The PCP has grown to support files in the SGI, Alias, and Wavefront (both the RLA and RLB varieties) formats. Owners of the PCP should note that, as in the past, their PCP modules will be upgraded as part of the ADPro upgrade. ADPro 2.5 directly supports the revolutionary Fargo Primera printer in its dye sublimation mode (its thermal transfer mode was already supported by ADPro's PrefPrinter saver). "The Primera is a breakthrough due to its low price," said Sales Manager Gina Cerniglia. "We've adapted our state-of-the-art printer support to drive the Primera in dye sub mode including the ability to print huge posters in amazing color." ADPro 2.5 includes more than 100 pre-written ARexx programs, many of which are interactively customizable by the user. Used in conjunction with the latest version of FRED, these ARexx programs can be combined in an infinite number of ways, producing a huge array of full motion special effects automatically. And, ADPro now allows users to define their own ARexx programs which can be incorporated directly into ADPro's configurable user interface. Many other improvements or additions have been made to ADPro such as the ability to perform alpha channel blending with nearly every file format, not just those that support their own alpha channel. Composits can now be performed over a range of colors permitting more flexible chroma keying. New operators include Histogram Equalization and a brush-based Pattern operator. A new program called CineMorph is included which converts streams of images between 24 frame per second film style and 60 field per second video style time bases. ADPro 2.5 also sports greatly improved documentation. ADPro's manual now includes 9 tutorials, many more pictures and diagrams, and an expanded ARexx programming section. The manual has also been reorganized (and its index expanded) based upon customer feedback making it easier to use and more helpful. ADPro 2.5's price will remain unchanged at $299. Existing owners can upgrade for $45 plus shipping and can, for the first time, upgrade via telephone using Visa, MasterCard, or AmericanExpress. For more information, please contact Ms. Gina Cerniglia at ASDG Incorporated, 925 Stewart Street, Madison, WI 53713 or call (608) 273 6585. Expert Services can be reached at (606) 371 9690. Marmalade can be reached at (818) 552 5024. CATS Amiga Developer Info 24-Jan-94 ==================================== Attached is information on CATS developer materials, Amiga registered developer programs, Amiga programming manuals, bug/enhancement reporting, and Workbench licensing. NEW! Note that the new 3.1 Amiga (aka 'Native') Developer Update disk set is now available! We would appreciate your help in cross-posting this information to other electronic information systems. Thanks! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technical Information List for Non-Registered Developers and Users --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Listed below are the materials available to non-registered developers and users. Send check or money order (US funds only - no foreign checks accepted) to Commodore Business Machines, CATS-Orders, 1200 Wilson Drive, West Chester, PA 19380. Shipping and handling for USA is $5.00. Shipping and handling for Canada and Europe (via Air) is $15.00. Add local state sales tax for the following states: Pennsylvania, Virginia, California and Tennessee. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE for European Developers: European developers and users may also purchase many CATS technical items through the following German company. Their list and prices may differ slightly from the CATS US list, and AmigaMail subscriptions may only be purchased directly through CATS US. Hirsch & Wolf oHG Attn: Hans-Helmut Hirsch Mittelstr. 33 D-56564 Neuwied Germany Fax: ++49-2631-839931 Tel: ++49-2631-83990 UUCP:hhhirsch@carla.adsp.sub.org (Fax preferred) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- A500/A2000 Technical Reference Guide, P/N: TECHREF01 $40.00 A 275-page reference manual that describes the technical features of the A500 and A2000, as well as those features that differ from the A1000. Table of contents includes: System Block Diagrams, Amiga Expansion, Designing Hardware for the Amiga Expansion Architecture, Driver Documentation, Software for Amiga Expansion, PC Bridgeboard and schematics. Programmer's Guide to ARexx and Disk, P/N's: AREXX01 & AREXX01D $20.00 (August 1991) Manual (228 pages) and disk designed to allow you easy access to the power of ARexx. Includes information on how to make effective use of ARexx, how to conform to development standards and how to interface applicatations to the ARexx environment. 1989 Amiga Developers Conference Notes, P/N's: NOTES89 & NOTES89D $75.00 510-page manual and 2 disks created for 1989 Amiga Developers Conference. Subjects include: Intro to Programming the Amiga, Features Outline for V1.3 ECS Features and the Graphics Library, Janus Dual-Port Memory, Hi-Res Color Graphics Card, Interfacing to ARexx, Advanced Amiga Architechtures, The IFF parse.library, and more. 1988 Amiga Developers Conference Notes, P/N's: NOTES88 & NOTES88D $75.00 400+ page manual and 4 disks created for 1988 Amiga Developers Conference. Topics covered include: Unique Amiga Techniques, Tips and Tricks for Programming in C, IFF, Autoboot and Kickstart V1.3, V1.3 Printer Device and Printer Drivers, Amiga Audio and Sound, Overscan, Hi-Resolution Fonts, Programming for 16-Bit Amiga, A500 Expansion Cards, and much more. Amiga 1000 Schematics and Expansion Specifications, P/N: A1000SM $20.00 (June 1986) Spiral-bound manual containing full Amiga 1000 schematics, timing diagrams, PAL equations, and documentation for the auto-configuration process. AmigaDOS V2.0 Native Developer Update, P/N: NATDEV20 $20.00 The 2.0 Native Developer Update is a must-have for any Amiga programmer. This four-disk set contains the final 2.0 function Autodocs, final 2.0 C and assembler Amiga include files, linker libs (Amiga.lib, debug.lib, ddebug.lib) FD files, offsets, a great deal of 2.0 example code, and the "Software Toolkit II" disk full of the latest Amiga debugging tools. (This disk set has been replaced by the new V3.1 Amiga Developer Update but is still very useful for its 2.0 example code). V3.1 Amiga Developer Update Disk Set, P/N: AMDEV3.1 $30.00 This new 5-disk must-have set includes: Docs - V40.15 Autodocs, and articles/notes about V38/V39/V40 Includes & Libs - V40.15C and assembler include files and linker libs Examples1 - General library examples including Locale, plus PCMCIA Examples2 - IFF modules and examples, Datatypes, AmigaGuide SWToolkit3 - The latest Amiga debugging tools Also included is a new SetPatch for V37 which adds better ExAll emulation, and the current (as of 15-Dec-93) V40 SetPatch for V38 and higher systems. Note that the 40.15 exec.doc autodoc has been updated to have the correct prototype for CheckIO. The 3.1 Amiga Developer Update materials can be used when developing for any Amiga OS version since they include the earlier structures and function autodocs. A new Readme called Using_Amiga_Includes provides some tips on developing for earlier releases. Toolmaker, P/N: TOOLM01 $99.00 A user interface builder and source code generator based on the gadtools library introduced in Release 2. (Contact Michael Erwin, 82 Gary Drive, Trenton, NJ 08690 (609) 587-2885 -- between 2PM and 5PM EDT for technical support.) AmigaMail Volume II, P/N: AMAILBI01 $75.00 Back issues of the technical newsletter on the Amiga from September/ October '90 to May/June '93. (Binder and index tabs are sold separately.) AmigaMail Volume 1, P/N: AMVOL1 $75.00 Back issues of the technical newsletter on the Amiga from January/ February 1987 to July/August '90. (Binder and index tabs are sold separately.) AmigaMail Binder, P/N: AMAIL1B01 (Vol. 1), AMAIL2B02 (Vol. II) $10.00 ea. AmigaMail Index Tabs, P/N: AMAILIND $5.00 ea. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Amiga Programming Manuals ============================= Non-registered developers must purchase their Amiga RKM and AmigaDOS manuals through bookstores or from the publishers. Dept C does not sell these manuals. These manuals cover Release 2.0. To program newer 2.1 or 3.x features, use the 2.0 programming methods shown in these manuals plus the new functions and flags covered in the tutorials, autodocs, and examples on the 3.1 Amiga Developer Update disks. Published by Bantam Books (800-223-6834, NY & Canada 212-765-6500): The AmigaDOS Manual 3rd Edition ISBN 0-553-35403-5 Published by Addison-Wesley (800-447-2226, 617-944-3700): Amiga User Interface Style Guide ISBN 0-201-57757-7 Amiga Hardware Manual ISBN 0-201-56776-8 Amiga ROM Kernel Manual: Includes and Autodocs ISBN 0-201-56773-3 Amiga ROM Kernel Manual: Devices (includes the IFF manual) ISBN 0-201-56775-X Amiga ROM Kernel Manual: Libraries ISBN 0-201-56774-1 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Workbench, Includes, and AmigaCD Licenses Developers who wish to distribute files/commands from Workbench a license to do so. Distribution of the items in PD, shareware, or freely redistributable form is not allowed. Licenses may be requested through your local Amiga support organization, or through CATS - Licenses, 1200 Wilson Drive, West Chester, PA., 19380. Licenses are available for Workbench 1.3, Workbench 2.0, Workbench 2.1, Workbench 3.0, Includes 1.3, Includes 2.0, Includes 3.0, and Includes 3.1. In addition, an amendment is available for 1.3 Workbench license-holders to distribute 2.04 (37.x) iffparse.library. If you are developing a CD product for any Amiga CD platform, you must have an AmigaCD license. AmigaCD licensees receive tools for creating bootable AmigaCD products, and may access our closed AmigaCD conferences on our developer networks. An AmigaCD license may be requested through CATS Licenses (address below). To request license forms, be sure to specify which license(s) and amendments(s) you require and include your full SURFACE MAIL address including country. Licensing generally costs $100/year for Workbench, $25/year for Includes/Libs. Developer archives for the original Installer and original Amigaguide are available on the nets and on BIX in amiga.dev/listings. These archives include a print/sign/send free license for distribution of these products. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Official Developer Conferences Our primary goal is to support developers who are registered in our Amiga developer programs. However, some support for non-registered develepers may also be found in the open Amiga developer conferences on the same networks where our closed support areas are located. BIX: amiga.dev (open); amiga.cert and amiga.com (open only to registered Certified and Commercial developers); amiga.cd32 (open only to AmigaCD licensees). Registered developers and AmigaCD licensees will find instructions for requesting access to closed BIX conferences in the amiga.dev/instructions topic. UUCP: comp.sys.amiga.* (open); adsp.* (open only to registered Certified and Commercial developers in Europe via their support program); adsp.cd32.* (open only to AmigaCD licensees). CIX (UK): amiga.* (open); adsp.* (open only to registered Certified and Commercial developers); nv.beta (open only to AmigaCD licensees) Additional independent Amiga user and developer areas may also be found on most popular commercial BBS systems including Genie and Compuserve. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Amiga Example Code and Tools ============================ 1. 3.1 Amiga Developer Update (see Materials list). Contains example code for new 2.1 (V38) and V39 (3.0) features. 2. 2.0 Native Developer Update (see Materials list). Contains the all of the 2.0 Devcon code examples and 2.0 AmigaMail code examples. 3. Latest IFF code: Version 37.10 is on Fish Disk 705. A new V39 version of the NewIFF code which supports AA is available to registered developers in our closed BIX, ADSP, and CIX conferences. This code requires iffparse.library (note - the 2.04 iffparse.library is 1.3 compatible). 4. Fish Disks 741 and 742 contain 4 archives of 2.0 RKM Companion Code (all of the 2.0 Rom Kernel Manual code examples). Fish Disk 344 contains the previous 1.3 "RKMCompanion" code. 5. Debugging Tools - 3.1 Native Developer Update (see Materials list). Some updated tools (usually latest Enforcer and Mungwall) are also submitted to Fred Fish as released. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reporting Bugs and Requesting Enhancements Bug reports and enhancement requests may be submitted electronically in "Report" format only. The Amiga "Report" program for generating bug reports and enhancement requests is provided on the 3.1 Amiga Developer Update disks, and is also on Fish Disk 920. Mail bug reports in Report format to: bugs@commodore.com Mail enhancement requests in Report format to: suggestions@commodore.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Registered Amiga Developer Programs Developers who have or are developing commercial products for the Amiga should participate in one of our registered developer programs. The programs vary country by country, but generally provide hardware discounts on development systems, access to pre-release developer materials, and the ability to access closed electronic conferences. There are different programs at varying cost and level of support. Developers in the US and Canada may request a developer program application by mailing to the following address and requesting a developer application, and including their own name and full SURFACE MAIL address. Developers in other countries should contact their local Commodore branch for information on developer programs. United States ============= For information on becoming a registered developer in the US or Canada: Mail: CATS - Developer Applications Commodore 1200 Wilson Drive West Chester, PA. 19380 UUCP: ej@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com OR rutgers!cbmvax!ej BIX: cats.admin Region: United States and Canadian developers. MUI Fido File Request 1.00 NAME MUI Fido File Request 1.00 DESCRIPTION MUI Fido File Request is a GUI for selecting files from a filelist, which almost every Fidonet mailbox provides for download. The list of selected files is written to a .REQ-file in your outbound directory. The next time you call up your Fido Boss these files are automatically downloaded by your Fidonet communications software. HARD- AND SOFTWARE-REQUIREMENTS - Amiga OS 2.04 - WB 2.1 (if you want to make use of localization) - Stefan Stuntz' Magic User Interface 1.4 or better DOWNLOAD Any Aminet site, e.g. Switzerland litamiga.epfl.ch 128.178.151.32 pub/aminet/ Scandinavia ftp.luth.se 130.240.18.2 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.uni-kl.de 131.246.9.95 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.uni-erlangen.de 131.188.1.43 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de 130.149.17.7 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.th-darmstadt.de 130.83.55.75 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.uni-paderborn.de 131.234.2.32 pub/aminet/ USA ftp.wustl.edu 128.252.135.4 pub/aminet/ USA ftp.cdrom.com 192.153.46.2 pub/aminet/ USA merlin.etsu.edu 192.43.199.20 pub/aminet/ DIRECTORY comm/fido FILE NAME MUIFFR10.lha FURTHER SOURCES FIDO: Mowgli 2:242/7 +49-(0)241-40 59 49 2:2452/107 DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely distributable, but copyrighted. AUTHOR Martin Steppler Internet: steppler@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de ADSP: steppler@cookies.adsp.sub.org FidoClassic: 2:242/7.12 Martin_Steppler@mowgli.fido.de FidoLight: 2:2452/107.12 WORDPERFECT CORPORATION RESTRUCTURES OPERATIONS =============================================== OREM, Utah, Jan. 24, 1994 WordPerfect Corporation announced today that it is restructuring its operations to adapt to changing market conditions in the software industry. The reorganization will result in a reduction in force of 1,025 employees or 17% of the company's worldwide workforce. "Because of the intensely competitive nature of our industry and rapidly declining software prices, we must continually monitor the effectiveness of our internal organization," said Ad Rietveld, president and chief executive officer of WordPerfect Corporation. "This reduction in workforce is a painful process for us, but a step we can't avoid if we are to maintain long-term competitiveness." Employees at WordPerfect's Utah County headquarters who receive lay-off notification will continue to receive full salary and benefits for 60 days, and will also have access to career counseling, placement services and a full-service career resource center. The company is offering support for employees who will remain with WordPerfect Corporation as well. "Employees will always be our greatest asset and we are deeply committed to providing them with a stimulating and rewarding work environment," said John Lewis, executive vice president of WordPerfect Corporation. As part of its restructuring, WordPerfect Corporation is consolidating related workgroups; reducing the core in-house manufacturing services; shifting the localization of some international language versions to outside contractors; and outsourcing many other functions that were previously performed in-house. "Maintaining efficiency is an ongoing process," said Lewis. "We will continue to review the effectiveness of our organization in light of the dynamic industry where we work." @endnode @node P1-4 "Amiga Report Online" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Amiga Report Online News %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% *** Area: AMIGA Date: 26 Jan 94 23:05:00 *** From: Skipper Smith (1:114/146.0) *** To : All *** Subj: CD32 in the news From TWICE (This Week In Consumer Electronics), Jan 24, 1994 pp 61-62. Quoted without permission [Following a bunch of stuff about how Trip Hawkins is a god and 3DO is the be-all and end-all of interactive multimedia...] Backed by the Amiga's reputation as a game player's computer, Commodore came to CES to officially launch its new Amiga CD32 video game console, saying it hoped to sell between 300,000 and 500,000 units during its first year in the market. [...] In addition to CD-based games, the Amiga CD32 will also play audio CDs, CD+Gs, and with a separate software upgrade, Photo CDs [it will also play CD+Midi disks, but I only know of one in existence). When used with an optional full-motion video module, expected to be price [sic.] just under $250, the Amiga CD32 will be able to play Video CDs and Philips' CD-I Digital Video titles. [...] Stilley said Commodore's distribution plan for Amiga CD32 will target mall-based software outlets, TV home shopping channels, select consumer electronics retailers, video rental stores and mass merchants and toy stores. Marketing efforts will include direct-mail pieces to Amiga users, promotions at sporting events, malls and other high-traffic venues, and retail training and POS materials for dealers, while advertising efforts will consist of page-dominant newspaper ads, full-color national and children's magazine ads and 30- to 40-seconde TV commercials. Commodore is also establishing a membership card club which will offer special discounts on software and other related products. [...and continuing with a bit more on CD-i and two sentences on the Jaguar.] » Portal News « =========== .../Message Bases/Hardware/HELP! Can't get my new LinkLink Modem to work! 16027.3.286.1 HELP! Can't get my new LineLink Modem to work! 1/30/94 00:45 21/1111 Hubert - Cross HELP! Can't get my new LineLink Modem to work! I just got my new LineLink 114e and it would appear that it is defective. It is hard to believe that a brand-new-right-out-of-the-box product could be defective, but when I turn it on, without any wires attached, (except for the power supply cord), the CD red light goes on, the MR green light blinks slowly three times and then stays on, and all the other lights stay off. Is this normal? My old 1200 modem (the one I am using right now) doesn't have any lights so I am not familiar with them, but it seems to me that the CD light should stay off until a carrier is detected! When I plug all the cords and hook it up to my Amiga and run jr-comm, I immediately get a "Carrier Detected!!!!" message, and that's it. The computer doesn't lock up, but nothing happens when I hit any keys. I called Mac Warehouse and as soon as they heard "Amiga", they wouldn't even let me explain. I could not convince them that, according to a LOT OF PEOPLE here in Portal and in the Internet, this Makintosh modem works fine with the Amiga. So much for their technical support. .../Message Bases/Hardware/HELP! Can't get my new LinkLink Modem to work! 16027.3.286.2 Hubert... 1/30/94 08:02 24/1026 Harv Hubert - 1. Either the modem is defective or you need to change a setting or two. If the modem is truly defective (some LineLinks have been known to be shipped that way), just call Mac W. and ask for a replacement. Pack it up and put the Airborne return label on it. They'll come to you, pick it up and you'll have a new one in a day or two. The return label is stuck right on your invoice. You will NOT lose anything. Zero additional cost. So don't freak out. 2. Try sending AT&R0 to the modem. See if that makes it work correctly. If so, send AT&W to write that changed setting back into the modem's EPROMs. From reading some articles on Usenet, this is what some peoeple had to do to get theirs to work properly. I don't remember if I had to do this with mine when I got it a few months ago, but it does work quite brilliantly for me and I've used it with Baud Bandit 2.1d (about 99% of myusage) with JR_Comm a couple times and with GPFAX Class 2 Generic V2.342 many times to both send and recv multi-page faxes. Harv .../Message Bases/Programming - All Languages/SHAREWARE DOESN'T WORK! 16046.3.81.5 Re: SHAREWARE DOESN'T WORK! 1/27/94 20:33 19/1019 RLStockton "How many times...?" Quite a few. I am a registered user of perhaps a dozen or more shareware programs, starting with VD0: (thanks Perry!) way back at the dawn of Amiga shareware. I have also written shareware, and STILL get people sending me shareware fees for "Nag", even though I went commercial with it back in 1988. There certainly ARE people who use shareware without paying, and that does make shareware a limited income project, and leads to less shareware being produced. You are obviously contributing to this bad situation. I would suggest that you examine your conscience and send in the usually very small fees requested. Shareware is a GREAT idea being killed by cheaters. Just my 2 cents, - Richard .../Amiga Zone/Files & Messages/Message Bases/Press Releases/Commodore Hiring 19249.3.139.1 from Usenet 1/28/94 21:51 96/3566 Harv CATS Amiga Support Engineer position available. [ We would appreciate your help in cross-posting this message to the Amiga and job offer areas of other electronic bulletin boards. Thank you! ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Position: Amiga/CD32 Support Engineer II Location: Commodore Applications and Technical Support (CATS) Commodore International Ltd., West Chester, PA. 215-431-9100 Apply to: Human Resources Department Commodore International Ltd. 1200 Wilson Drive West Chester, PA. 19380 Applicants - please include a detailed list of the Amiga hardware and software features you have programmed. And if possible, please include a diskette and/or printed listings of Amiga code you have written. Job Description --------------- Amiga Support Engineers are actively dedicated to ensuring that Commodore's third party software and hardware developers can obtain answers to technical issues related to developing quality software and hardware for Amiga platforms. This key role offers a great deal of variety. Supporting developers with their diverse projects is the number one priority, but you will also be able to help construct Amiga Demo disks, and write small tools to help developers utilize the capabilities of our machine, including audio, graphics, software video (CDXL) and full screen full motion video (MPEG). Responsibilities ---------------- o Provide software and hard‹C‹DäÔf‹F‹E‹DiÀž user.listnŸÿÿÿý------------------------------------------------------------------------- username expires Comments ------------------------------------------------------------------------- mbithead *exempt dholst 21Mar94 sailor 21Mar94 orion 21Mar94 ken 21Mar94 chrome 21Mar94 nicolaspigot 21Mar94 warr 19Nov94 ely 21Mar94 brianxap 21Mar94 sleepy 21Mar94 paulday 21Mar94 jcarp 21Mar94 micro assembler (preferably 68000) o Strong communication skills, both written and verbal o Must be organized, and have initiative .../Message Bases/General Q&A, Announcements, and Help!/3 upcoming PRIZE chats 16026.3.681.1 hey, read.me! 1/28/94 10:00 93/3655 Harv (The following is being posted to Usenet too - feel free to grab this article and cross-post it to BBSes, Fidonet, & etc....) ----- Announcement of three live conferences on Portal, during Feb. 1994, for the graphically-inclined, all with *PRIZES* =============================================== Continuing its decade-long tradition, the Amiga Zone on the Portal System is pleased to announce THREE exciting special LIVE conferences with *PRIZES* for attendees during the month of February, 1994. We have scheduled: - Feb. 23, 1994, an evening with Kermit Woodall & Tom Kreihbel, designer and programmer of GVP's ImageFX package, with special guest speaker, Rusty Mills, Producer at Warner Brothers animation, to discuss the upcoming release of ImageFX 2.0 from GVP. - Date To Be Announced, an evening with Perry Kivolowitz, Jeff Almasol, and possibly others at ASDG to announce and discuss the upcoming release of Art Deptartment Professional 2.5, the most significant upgrade in the history of this award-winning product. - Date To Be Announced, an evening with Michael Vunck, of Warm & Fuzzy Logic, to discuss the release of LightRave 3.1, the product which allows NewTek's LightWave to be run on any Amiga without an installed Video Toaster, and supports other graphics cards. (note: please do not email _me_ to ask about these new products - each respective mfr has or will be posting their own announcements to the net). All three of these special conferences will have random-chance prize contests with one or more of the discussed products given away to some lucky attendees. W&F has already committed to give away at least two LightRave 3.1 pkgs (msrp: $500) in theirs. Your chances of winning are excellent, and you must be present to win. Ed McMahon will NOT announce your name on TV :) If you are not already a Portal customer and wish to become one, in time to participate in these special conferences, you may sign up in various ways: 1. Phone 1.408.973.9111 and sign up by voice. 2. Telnet to "portal.com" and follow the onscreen prompts. 3. Sprintnet users may enter "c portal" and follow the prompts. Portal's signup fee is $19.95. The monthly flat rate charge is $19.95. This includes unlimited access to Portal's menued "online system" including net email, Usenet, all SIGs, including the Amiga Zone which now has about TWO GIG of Amiga files online in 36 libraries, 20 vendor areas, the entire Fish disk collection, and more. A UNIX shell account is yours for the asking. Fast batch-Zmodem protocol is always available. Other stuff to know: We feed popular Amiga net mailing lists right into our online message bases and they never scroll off or expire. We offer a complete pkg of Internet services, all with UNLIMITED usage at NO extra cost: FTP, IRC, Telnet, etc. etc. Portal Pursuit is available to Sprintnet users in the USA - a plan which gives you 30 non-prime hours of use per month for $30, or 50 hours for $50, up to 9600 bps! Telnet and direct-dial users can connect up to 14.4K bps, at NO EXTRA CHARGE EVER! Busy signals? Forget them. Portal has rack after rack of high-speed Telebit WorldBlazer modems online. If you forget all of this stuff, there is an Amiga Zone/Portal ad in every issue of Amiga Report, the online magazine, available at every Aminet site. So don't miss your chance at thousands of dollars' worth of state of the art Amiga graphics products, and your chance to ask questions to the guys who make these products - learn about them months before magazine reviews appear. Regards, Harv harv@cup.portal.com Sysop of The Amiga Zone @endnode @node P4-5 "Amiga Report Mailing List" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Amiga Report Maillist List %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% No Official Amiga Report Distribution Site in your local calling area? Are you tired of waiting for your local BBS or online service to get Amiga Report each week? If so, have we got a deal for you! If you have an internet mailing address, you can receive Amiga Report in UUENCODED form each week as soon as the issue is released. To be put on the list, send Email to rniles@hebron.connected.com. 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. Please do not send general Email to Amiga-Report-Request, only requests for subscription additions or deletions (or if you are not receiving an intact copy). All other correspondence concerning the mailing list should be directed to Robert Niles at rniles@hebron.connected.com. Also, please do not send subscription list requests or changes to the editor. Many thanks to PORTAL Communications for setting this service up for us! P.S.: Please be sure to include your Email address in the text of your request message, it makes adding it to the list much easier. Thanks! ** 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 P1-5 "Reader Mail" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Reader Mail %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% From: IN%"Steve_Herring@matrix.rain.com" To: IN%"ROB_G@delphi.com" CC: Subj: Please Post in AR! :) TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: I am writing this letter to the whole Amiga community to give my perspective on the situation of Commodore, and the Amiga. First of all, some background about myself. I'm the Associate Producer (sometimes Executive Producer) of a local Cable Access show called Cyberspace 3D (blurbs have appeared in various magazines about the show - including AR a while back). On the show we began covering JUST the Amiga, and still continue to cover the Amiga. BUT, we've started doing other things including Interactive Television, Desktop Video, Home Entertainment, and other computer platforms. This wasn't a decision based on the Amiga's past/present/future. It was simply to broaden our audience. Anyway, because of this show, I've had the privilige of dealing with some big companies in these industries. Just recently, we attended the 1994 Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The very FIRST thing I'd like to address is Commodore's financial situation. (This is going to be a LONG, LONG letter so sit back and get comfortable or stop reading now - this has been brewing for well over 9 months!) Many people tend to believe rumors and VERY outdated information. Commodore is in a bad situation, but by no means has it ever been as bad as the public has perceived. This has been confirmed by various people at NewTek who I've had contact with (I've even visited NewTek in Topeka!). If you're really curious about Commodore, I suggest you read the Bandito's comments about Commodore in the Feb. '94 issue of Amazing Amiga. He has some CURIOUSLY informed opinions (almost like he'd been told some of it!) about C=. Commodore is on the upswing (from all that I can see - remember this information is MY opinion from my perspective). Accelerating sales of the Amiga 1200 and CD32 in some countries has bolstered their profit margins. Now, the next thing concerns the very heart of signals from Commodore. Before I write what I'm about to write, don't panic. But I've heard a rumor (that is pretty much COMPLETELY confirmed) that Commodore and their distributors have discontinued shipments of the Amiga 1200 and Amiga 4000/030 to the United States. They continue to sell on average about 30,000-40,000 Amiga 4000 '040 units in the US. And I smell a hint of NAFTA's affect in this decision. They are still shipping to Canada. As a matter of fact a 1200 is cheaper from Canada now - and has been for some time. One other thing I forgot to mention...where I work used to have a dealers license here in Portland, OR. So, this gave me an idea of dealer prices. For quite a few months, a place out of Canada has been offering Amiga products cheaper than we could get them from CEI (our distributor). As a matter of fact, a 1200 can be had from them in US for $339 RIGHT now. I'm told that the sales of 1200's in the US wasn't enough and they didn't have high enough profit margins to make them worth-while. It's unclear what affect this will have on Commodore's plan to market and sell the CD32 in the US. CD32: These have been selling VERY, VERY well. I spoke with David Pleasance (sp?), Commodore UK's co-President of Operations, and he informed me that sales of 16-bit console sales have all but stopped in the UK since the release of CD32. Further he stated that CD32 is outselling the Sega CD 4 to 1. I heard this from him at the WCES, and tried to confirm it with different game companies while I was there. (There's a lot of Euro people -- especially UK people at CES). From what I can tell it is true. I spoke directly with a Nintendo representative about it and they were less than pleasant after that! :D The CD32 is NOT selling well in Germany because Germans appear to use computers and don't necessarily like gaming consoles. This was true across the board for all consoles though. While CD32 isn't selling well there, the Amiga 1200 is. This is another point. Commodore is having trouble manufacturing enough 1200's and CD32's at the same time. This could have had some influence on the US 1200 decision. AR: I can't say enough to express how much I appreciate the work you guys put into these on-going online reports. I can speak for at least 5 people in saying that we haven't missed a release in quite a while. I'm sure you have quite a few silent readers who never write, but don't get discouraged. I'm sure that by now, you have thousands of readers. If not tens of thousands. Anyway - THANKS A MILLION. ATARI JAGUAR: I saw the letter from the guy complaining about your coverage of the Jaguar in AR...and I must say I applaud it; however, the games list was a little misleading. After playing some of the Jaguar games listed at CES - and a local software store, a good majority of the games aren't finished. To top the list Aliens vs. Predator (The stage of completion at CES, to me raises doubts about it being done by spring of '94). I believe the Jaguar to be a SERIOUS threat to Commodore's US CD32 sales. Many C= executives have written off Atari claiming, "Even Commodore has better marketing than Atari!" Atari has quite a few BROAD claims that are untrue, but they might be able to pull out quite a few sales just because of the hype they've created. One claim I'm talking about is the elusive CD add-on. And the fact that the Jagaur was originally intended to sell for $200, but now is going to sell for $250. And the CD unit probably will cost AT LEAST an additional $200-$250 bringing total cost to $500. A unit costing that much is not likely to have many sales. This will be major downer for any CD games for the unit. Also they simply don't have the capitol to run a national advertising campaign. They could borrow it, but I doubt they will...look at the Falcon! You say Commodore is in worse shape because they owe money! Well, Commodore is getting it back, and will have QUITE a few innovative titles available - there's already some GOOD GOOD games for the CD32. Microcosm looks AWESOME - so does Liberation and Pirates Gold! Anyway, the next 6-9 months will tell the tale of the Jagaur vs. CD32 in the US. In closing, I'd like to apologize for all the spelling and grammatical errors - it's REAL late here! And I'd like to say I'm open to any feedback to all that I've said. I can be wrong about these things, but I've stated them, and it's up to all of you to prove me wrong. Until then, I assume I'm right, and if I am wrong, I'll admit it! Oh, one last thing, I've heard people saying, "Commodore sucks, and they don't support their users-so I'm not gonna buy any Amiga stuff!" Well, I have one thing to say...I've bought my computer (AMIGA) because it does what I need/want, not because a company is going to pat my on the back and say good things in my ear or on TELEVISION! Television is EXPENSIVE - I know, I deal with it on a very small scale, and even that is expensive! ;D Commodore doesn't have the money to get the results they need out of Television right now! I've been told they're negotiating with QVC to sell CD32 in the US - QVC is located across the street from Commodore in West Chester! This would be a GREAT thing. Anyway, I'm going on too much, so if you have a comment write to me at the E-Mail or U.Snail mail address below. In the mean time - to all Amiga users, you have the most creative computer in the world...don't forget that fact or lose sight of what you really need in a computer! Best Wishes, Steve Herring Some Kind of Producer for Cyberspace 3D! :D Reply to: Steve_Herring@Matrix.rain.com or Steve Herring c/o Cyberspace 3D P.O. Box 230123 Portland, OR 97281-0123 -------------------------------------------------- From: IN%"mdaymon@sosi.com" To: IN%"Rob_G@delphi.com" CC: Subj: Picasso II errors Rob, The Picasso II review you published in ar204 was very inaccurate. Please put these changes in the next issue. I have contacted the author who now agrees with me that the Picasso II is the better board. > [MODERATOR'S NOTE: Over the years, there has been much discussion > and debate on USENET about the meaning of the term "retargetable > graphics" or "RTG". In this review, Humberto Gomez uses the term > "RTG" as it is found the Picasso II documentation. As it was explained to me, the Picasso II uses intuition - the REAL intuition whereas other boards "EMULATE" intuition. (Hence, Workbench EMULATION instead of RTG in the adverts) The Picasso II supports front-to- back gadgets, screen dragging and all the other intuition functions. The other boards use an intuition emulator which means they are not "RE- TARGETING" they are "EMULATING" and do not support the whole of intuition. > Resolutions include 640x400 with 16 million colors, 800x600 with 16 > million colors (with 2 megs installed), 1280x1024 with 256 colors, and many > others. Anything higher than 800x600 may be displayed with 256 colors. But > I noticed in ADPro, all of these resoltuions had the ability to display > 64,000 colors with no problem. Many intermediate resolutions are also > available. You can now create your own resolutions. Also, 1600x1200 has been available for many months. > - Minor problems with the screens in 3.0. They wont drag correctly > and the pointer sometimes gets stuck at the menus. Some of that is due to intuition bugs. Hold the left Amiga key, click the left mouse button and "drag" the motionless screen until it moves. Then pull the mouse down until the screen comes back up. This is reported to be fixed in OS3.1. > - Some of the programs supplied are in German, not English. They are being translated as quickly as possible. > - It requires AmigaDOS 3.0 to select more than 16 colors in the > resolutions for programs such as ProPage, DPaint, and others. Any board that advertises 256 colors on an intuition screen under OS2.0 or 2.1 is using very illegal/serious patched techniques to do so. Compatibility is forsaken. > - TV Paint JR always says it does not have enough memory for UNDO > buffer, even if you install a full two megs on the board. > > [MODERATOR'S NOTE: I suspect that TV Paint Jr. is limited by the > amount of RAM in the Amiga, not just on the Picasso board. - Dan] * TV Paint uses FAST RAM as a buffer. TV Paint opens all screen in 32-bits of resolution (24 color bits, 8 alpha channel bits) No matter what screen you open, TV Paint will allocate ((((X * Y * B)/8)/1024)*2) kilobytes of RAM. If it can fit half that, it will disable UNDO and open anyway. The moderator was right. > COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS > > Besides that, the boards compare well. They both autoswitch, and > they both are RTG. But in my opinion, the EGS is a better board than the > Picasso. But the EGS Spectrum is also more expensive. I contacted the author with my aforementioned points and he agreed that the Picasso II was the better board. > VENDOR SUPPORT > > Although friendly with regards to my question, they seemed > unknowledgeable. I asked what advantages are there to having 2 megs on the > board and they just did not know. They did not know of specific AmigaDOS 3.0 > problems, just that there were some. The board packaging also shows an > AmigaDOS 3.0 A3000 Workbench screen with 256 color pictures, but the > representative I spoke with said that 3.0 is not fully supported. The Picasso II uses the same chip that the Spectrum and Piccolo boards use (Cirrus Logic 5426). By adding the extra meg, you can have all the same resolutions and colors available with those boards. (There is a myth that the Picasso II can't handle as much as the other boards, which is not true.) There is also a new mode called "chunky" (available only with 3.0/3.1) which I am told by other Picasso owners it about as fast as a 2 or 4 color 640x200 ECS screen. ---------------------------------------------- From: Mr D G Cassidy Message-Id: <14801.199402041155@lily> Received: from localhost by lily id LAA14801; Fri, 4 Feb 1994 11:55:14 GMT Via: Subject: AR sub To: rniles@hebron.connected.com Date: Fri, 4 Feb 1994 03:55:12 -0800 X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 4859 Status: RO Hi! I've just read Amiga Report and was very impressed! Some of the news in there was excellent, although I do feel that some of the opinions expressed regarding the Amiga's "death" are somewhat US-based. In Europe Amiga is the biggest home computer platform (discounting PC which is regarded by many here as mainly a business machine). Amiga has sold thousand of units here over the Christmas period, with CD32 taking many of those sales. I am a partner in a company called CYNOSTIC (information of which is below for your Dealers section) and we distribute Amiga public domain software across the world. In the past two months sales have never been better; people are queuing up to buy either software or hardware; only today we sold a new A4000 system to an eager new owner. In short, I think that your readers' views about the Amigas' death are slightly premature. CBM *ARE* going through a hell of a lot of problems, mostly caused by gross mis-management on the part of their higher exceutives. The delay in upgrading Amiga technology HAS taken too long but it's still ahead of the competition as far as operating system and sheer ABILITY are concerned. Naturally, the price reflects this; to expand a basic A1200 set-up to a productivity level is expensive, especially here in Europe, compared to that of PC. However, if you compare a made-to-fit Amiga system, such as an A4000/030 to a standard PC then the difference is noticeable, in both price and performance terms, in the Amiga's favour. To be blunt, the Amiga never really took off in the US. Europe is where CBM has made its fortune and, stupidly I feel, it is beginning to ignore this, its core market. More and more people here are beginning to realise that Amiga is not simply a games machine and it cannot be regarded as such anymore. Look at the high- quality software and hardware which is being released now; the Toaster (even if a PAL version isn't available - COME ON NEWTEK!), Wordworth 3, Pagestream 3, and others, not to mention Emplant. Emplant is the best thing to happen to Amiga in a long time. This is the piece of hardware which will give Amiga the edge. If you look at a Mac or PC owner you can look then straight in the face and tell them you own an Amiga, plus a Mac, plus a PC all in THE SAME BOX. Moreover, when the AAA chipset is released, with its PC front-end (as it will have) then I hope we will see people beginning to take more notice of our humble machine. It will outstrip other systems at a stroke, it will be quicker, more useable and more STANDARD than any other system. No matter how much i hate saying it, far more people are familiar with the front end of a PC than an Amiga and, by employing a Windows(-like) user interface CBM should hopefully capitalise on the ignorance of the majority of the public. I read a letter in AR204 from a man who said he'd bought a PC and never once regretted it. I suggest that he never used his Amiga to its fullest. PC cannot achieve HALF of what Amiga can do, without major expansion (SoundBlaster etc) or severe wallet-whacking. Anyway, enough of this ramble. My final point is this: although PC may have many more machines than Amiga, the fact remains that PC is a system based on criteria laid down over a decade ago, and retains compatability with systems which went out of date with the Ark. We CAN'T let this outmoded type of system be the future for our world's computer networks. We are on the brink of another computer revolution; computer communication networks are the future and if we let them lie on the rocks of the PC hardware standard then I, for one, am likely to forget computers altogether and go back to the chalk and board. After all, they're far more user friendly. Yours, David Cassidy. Information regarding Cynostic for inclusion in your dealer section: CYNOSTIC Office O1, Little Heath Industrial Estate, Old Church Road, Coventry. CV6 7NB UNITED KINGDOM Tel: +44 (0)203 681687 Fax: +44 (0)203 638508 David Cassidy email: bsupa@csv.warwick.ac.uk Cynostic can provide public domain software for all Amiga systems, ranging from the very latest in European demos (most on day of release) to the best in utilities and games. We are distributors of licenseware, including the AM/FM (Amiga Musicians Freeware Magazine) series by Bjorn A Lynne and The Final Frontier, the Star Trek disk magazine, now the biggest selling disk-magazine in the world. We can also supply the best in hardware at the best prices, with a guaranteed back-up service unsurpassed by any of our competitors. Give us a call, send us a fax, send me an e-mail. Whatever, just DO IT! CYNOSTIC - BRINGING THE DOMAIN TO YOUR DOORSTEP. Thanks for producing such a great magazine!! David. @endnode @node P1-6 "Usenet Review - Mortal Kombat" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Usenet Review: Mortal Kombat By Steve Dempsey %% %% (s.dempsey@genie.geis.com) %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% PRODUCT NAME Mortal Kombat BRIEF DESCRIPTION A popular martial arts "beat-em-up" arcade game ported to the Amiga. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Program Copyright by Acclaim Ent. Inc. Published by Virgin Interactive Ent. (Europe) Ltd. Address: Virgin Interactive Ent. (Europe) Ltd. 338A Ladbroke Grove London, W10 5AH UK Telephone: (081) 964-8242 FAX: (081) 960-9900 LIST PRICE Purchased at local Amiga dealer for $36.00 (US). SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE Compatible with Amiga 500, 500+, 600, 1200, 1500. See INSTALLATION, below, for tips on getting the program to run on an A4000. Requires 1 or 2 button joystick and 1MB RAM. SOFTWARE None mentioned. COPY PROTECTION Disk-based. Not hard-drive installable. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 4000/030 2MB Chip RAM, 4MB Fast RAM 450 MB hard drive AmigaDOS 3.0 BACKGROUND If you occasionally go to the arcade, you probably have already noticed the game Mortal Kombat. Many months ago, Mortal Kombat was ported over to the SNES and Sega Genesis machines. Today, Mortal Kombat is one of the hottest games selling on those two platforms. Fortunately, there was an announcement that Mortal Kombat would be released for the IBM and Amiga computers. (Yes, Amiga!) The greatest fear of arcade ports, however, is that they will not hold true to their original design, often metamorphosing into poor, unplayable pieces of junk. This is NOT true with Mortal Kombat! Much of the game play is preserved making it a very enjoyable piece of software. INSTALLATION AND GETTING STARTED When I first opened the package, I immediately threw the boot disk into DF0: on my 4000/030. Unfortunately, the program did not boot up! The box specifically states that Mortal Kombat is indeed compatible with the A1200 but makes no mention of the A4000. Thus, I first immediately tried all boot-up options (holding the two mouse buttons down at boot time and selecting), but still nothing. Next, I tried various options with the program Degrader, which "degrades" the system to allow older software to work. But I still got nowhere. Now, you can imagine the frustration on my face after feverishly trying to get Mortal Kombat to work but getting nowhere at all. After pitying myself for hours, I logged into one of the BBS's that I call and found this program called the "1.3 Bootup disk". The 1.3 Bootup disk allows Kickstart 1.3 to be allocated into RAM, surviving resets, thus allows non-standard DOS disks to boot up. Nevertheless, I stuck in the 1.3 Bootup disk and let it go. When I was faced with the old familiar "Insert Workbench" display, I threw in the Mortal Kombat bootup disk, and IT WORKED! I have heard that other 4000 users have figured out ways to boot Mortal Kombat using Degrader and the boot menu, but I encourage them to get ahold of the 1.3 Bootup disk, since it is much easier to use. Mortal Kombat comes on just two disks and does in fact support two floppy drives. If you only have one disk drive, however, Mortal Kombat seems to take advantage of any extra RAM above 1MB to minimize disk swapping. Most importantly, there was NO disk swapping at all during the actual game play. This allowed myself actually to "kick-back" while playing the game. Unfortunately, Mortal Kombat is NOT hard drive installable and that's a real bummer. QUALITY I pretty much assume that Mortal Kombat is programmed using 32 colors. Now, if you never saw Mortal Kombat before, Mortal Kombat uses digitized images for its characters, making it a very "realistic" type of game in its class. What you see on the screen is a very good representation of Mortal Kombat's digitized characters for 32 colors. There is a multitude of background screens in which to Kombat. (Which the computer chooses for you.) Unfortunately, most of the screens are static, making it very plain except in one background shot where I saw a witch moving across the screen. Game speed is critical to this type of game, and Mortal Kombat doesn't let you down. The characters' speed and fluidness of movement are essentially preserved in all aspects. For example, doing a roundhouse kick actually looks and "feels" real. In fact, nearly all the martial arts moves take on a realistic approach both visually and acutely. For those who have a two button joystick, you are allowed to use the second button as a "kick" inducer. Unfortunately, I do not have a two button joystick, and thus was unable to test that function. Even with just a one button stick, however, the controls are fairly easy to remember and initiate. Even so, I would definitely recommend a two button stick for overall simplicity. THE GAME Mortal Kombat uses digitized images to represent various characters. These characters are: Johnny Cage, Kano, Raiden, Liu Kang, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Sonya Blade. Each character has his/her own strengths and weaknesses. In addition, each character has his/her own "death blow" move. A death blow move will instantly kill the opponent. Note that the documentation does not reveal the death blow moves, so you must figure them out yourself. The object of the game is to win all matches against each opponent and eventually fight the legendary "Goro". Note that there is also a two player mode if you have another joystick. In this case, the two players fight till the end. The option menu will allow yourself to choose various game difficulty levels. I would strongly suggest picking "Easy" in the beginning as it is very tough to win even at the easy level at first. Fighting the other computer opponents is really fun. You apply various offensive martial arts moves to the opponent while at the same time defending from his/her move. After you play a while, you will notice that certain characters can beat other characters without too much damage, and it works the other way around too, so it's a learning experience to play around with various characters. Towards the end of a fight in which one of the character gets "beaten up", you can (if you won) apply the death move. The death move is actually pretty visually gory. In fact, the box of Mortal Kombat states that the game is "not suitable for person under 15 years of age." It can be quite thrilling though, for the older crowd. DOCUMENTATION Mortal Kombat comes with a high quality, glossy, manual dedicated to the Amiga. It is an excellently written manual with nearly all moves (except death blow) illustrated, and information about the "kombatants". I also received three cut-out stencils with various Mortal Kombat logos and such. A very nice addition, if you ask me. LIKES AND DISLIKES I liked the game play and conversion quality of Mortal Kombat. It is a very fast and fun game to play. Support of the two button joystick is also greatly welcomed. Disk swapping on a one drive system with lots of RAM was minimalized, and even non-existent during actual game play making it very stressless. A great problem in Mortal Kombat was getting it to work on my A4000. I am completely disgusted with the programmers who obviously didn't even bother to test the game on an A4000. Come on folks, a LOT of us game users out there have A4000's! Speaking of which, why is it that the game is not hard drive installable? Let us remember that a LOT of game users also have hard drives that we would love to have filled with a good game like Mortal Kombat! I pray that an AGA version of Mortal Kombat will come out soon. I have heard that a CD-32 version is planned. Mortal Kombat could really use 256 colors and take more advantage of faster processors to make the game even better -- especially with the background screens. COMPARISON TO OTHER PLATFORMS I have an SNES at home with Mortal Kombat. How good is the SNES version compared to the Amiga version, you ask? I would have to give the SNES the edge since it has more colors on screen (let's get that AGA version out!), much better joypad support (well, I won't nail it too hard on this one since Mortal Kombat actually went through the effort of getting two button joystick support!), and finally, the SNES has animated background screens which make the game a bit more pleasing. I am happy to say, however, that character movement speed and agility are very much the same. I have not seen the IBM version of Mortal Kombat, but I have heard that it will support 256 colors and be hard drive installable. I can safely assume that it will require more than 1MB of RAM, however. Since the IBM version can be hard drive installable, it gives absolutely no excuse that the Amiga should not also have it. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR GAMES ON THE AMIGA The only other top-notch "beat-em-up" for the Amiga I can think of (and own) is Body Blows by Team 17. Body Blows requires significantly more disk swaps, even in the middle of actually playing the game, which is very irritating. Mortal Kombat is definitely more fluid and fast than Body Blows. Mortal Kombat is also better in actual game play, making it much more challenging and rewarding. BUGS The only bug I found was that mysteriously the audio would sometimes get a bit distorted but game play would be unaffected. It got to the point, however, that I would be forced to reboot the game since the audio distortion would get very irritating. I do not know why this happens and can estimate it only happens about 1 in 15 times I play the game. CONCLUSIONS Mortal Kombat is an excellent game and definitely the best beat-em-up on the Amiga by far. The conversion quality is top-notch and makes good use of the old graphic chipset. If you are looking for a good arcade game, go out and buy this one. I guarantee you that you will not be disappointed. COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1993 Steve Dempsey. All rights reserved. This article may be reprinted in any non-commercial publication and/or online magazine. @endnode @node P1-7 "CBM Shareholder Movement Update" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Commodore Shareholder Movement Update By Mike Levin %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Questions have been coming in about the instructions concerning signing and mailing proxy ballots to the CSM PO Box. We ask that you only sign the ballot in the lower right without checking off any boxes and then send it along with any envelope your broker might have supplied you with to the CSM PO Box. We ask this because by checking a box, you may only either vote for the Board of Directors' slate or withhold authority for them to cast your votes. There is no way to vote against the candidates. For this, the CSM would have had to received Commodore's cooperation in publishing an altenate proxy statement. So, Commodore's own proxy must be used in the most advantagious way possible. Our goal with the proxies is to provide hard proof of Commodore shareholder support for the CSM at the meeting this March 2nd. Hopefully, we will arrive at the meeting with thousands of proxies in-hand. Our positions are unchanged from those stated in the Amazing Computing article. We will speak the views we have heard expressed from you on matters such as leveraging the user base, standardizing Amiga technology through licensing and carrying out well considered marketing strategies. We will also address Commodore's future and the changes which need to occur in management, and will request a follow-up meeting. Please be informed that the new telephone number for Mike Levin of the Commodore Shareholders Movement is now 703-787-8217. Please call on evenings and weekends. My apologies to anyone who has had difficulty reaching me. Please send us your letters if you have not already done so. Commodore Shareholder Movement PO Box 8296 Phildelphia, PA 19101 @endnode @node P1-8 "EGS FAQ" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% EGS FAQ By Brian Wright %% %% (wright@merlin.etsu.edu) %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Welcome to the EGS (Enhanced Graphics System) frequently asked questions document. This document will be maintained as frequently as is necessary when new questions arise. Within this document you will find questions which are generally and frequently asked by people new to the EGS software system. Hopefully some of these questions and answers will help you. If you find that your questions are not answered by this document, feel free to email to the maintainer of this document (the name is located at the bottom of this document). This document will be primarily used for EGS related questions, but graphic board specific questions as related to EGS may also apply and therefore be included. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- #1 Question: What exactly is EGS? Answer: EGS is the Enhanced Graphics System developed by Viona Development. It is a retargetable graphics system (via a set of libraries) for use primarily with specific Amiga graphic boards. EGS can also be run on the native Amiga graphics system (ECS, AA (aka AGA), and possibly OCS with enough memory). EGS is mainly licensed by specific graphics board manufacturers for inclusion with their graphics boards (for example, Spectrum and Piccolo both use EGS). EGS also includes software tools to adjust resolution, screen colors, pointers and screenmodes. EGS, when run in the native Amiga modes (OCS, ECS or AA), is limited to the resolutions and depths of that system. EGS does not extend or in any way alter your graphics capabilities. It makes use of whatever graphics system and capabilities you currently have. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #2 Question: Why do I need EGS? Answer: EGS is an alternative to Intuition in that it supports depths up to 24 bit (16.7 million colors). Intuition is only capable of up to 8 bit depths (256 colors...even in 3.x versions). EGS provides you with a way to deal with depths above 8 bit in as fluid a way as Intuition. In some ways, EGS is superior to Intuition. EGS also gives non-AA equipped Amigas a way to deal with higher screen depths and higher resolutions (provided you have a a display device capable of displaying them). In fact, since EGS gives you a way to deal with greater depths and resolutions, certain display board's capabilities will surpass that of AA. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #3 Question: How much hard disk space does EGS require? Answer: EGS requires between 4 and 5 megs (at minimum) HD space. More than that if you intend on storing 24 bit images. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #3.1 Question: How much RAM is required to run EGS? Answer: EGS requires at least 2 megs of system RAM (per the Spectrum manual). However, the more you have, the better EGS will operate. If you have 5 megs of RAM, you will be able to run most of the tasks comfortably at 8 bit. You might find, however, that at 24 bit you run out of RAM quickly. If you never run any EGS programs and operate strictly off the emulation, you'll almost never run out of RAM. In fact, with a display board, you free up CHIP ram because you are using the external board for the screen information. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #3.2 Question: Why do I need so much RAM? Answer: EGS swaps whatever is not currently in the display buffer on the board into your system RAM. For example, if you have a 768x482 24 bit screen open and you push that screen to the back, the data on the board will be swapped out into your system RAM. If another EGS screen is popped to the front, that RAM is swapped back onto the board. Therefore, you will need enough system RAM to swap all non-displayed EGS screens into. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #4 Question: Will virtual memory systems work with EGS? Answer: Yes, for the most part. Almost every EGS tool that came with the Spectrum works very well with Gigamem. The first program that you run will allocate the memory for the EGS Screen that opens the screen first. That first program run will also be the one that swaps in and out when you move the screen from front to back. Until you close all windows on the screen, the EGS screen will remain active and the VM will remain reserved (see question #5). Any VM system you install will greatly increase the usability of EGS by giving your system much needed RAM. Remember though, VM is slower and requires HD space with which to swap into. The VM system will also require an MMU equipped Amiga which includes the A3000, A4000/040 and any full 020/030 accelerated Amigas with an MMU. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #5 Question: How does the EGS screen system work? Answer: The EGS screen system opens what's called the EGS Default Screen. This screen is much like a 2.x/3.x default screen where you can shanghai programs. The only difference is that this EGS screen is strictly for EGS programs. All of the EGS tools included appear on this screen. This doesn't mean that all EGS programs require this default screen for use. In fact, any EGS program can either choose to use the EGS Default Screen or open their own custom EGS screen for any specific legal size or depth. EGS screens are currently not draggable. This includes the Workbench emulation. In other words, any screen which is either native EGS or has been promoted up to an EGS resolution will not be draggable. This could change in the future. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #5.1 Question: How do the front to back gadgets function? Answer: The front/back gadgets work a little differently with EGS installed. EGS screens are kept as a seperate list of screens from the list of Intuition screens. Therefore, because Intuition knows nothing of EGS, it is unable to flip to any other screens than Intuition screens. Because EGS is aware of Intuition, EGS screens can flip to the next available whether Intuition or not. For example, you have two screens open: an EGS screen and the Workbench screen. If you hit the front/back gadget on the Workbench, nothing happens. This is due to Workbench and Intuition not knowing about EGS. If, however, you were on the EGS screen and hit the front/back gadget, it would flip to the next screen whether EGS or not. It can do this because it is aware of both the EGS list of screens and Intuition's list. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #6 Question: How do you set the resolutions for EGS? Answer: EGS adds screen resolutions to the system ScreenMode database. Any program that supports this database can access these new resolutions and take advantage of EGS. Both Intuition and EGS use this ScreenMode database with which to select an appropriate screen. Promotion tools also use this database so that you may promote one screentype to another screentype. To create entries for the ScreenMode database, refer to the DisplayAdjust program for more details. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #7 Question: What is screen promotion? Answer: Screen promotion is a method by which you can specify any specific application which opens a certain set resolution to open in any other resolution. Some various tools which support this are Promotor, ScreenModeChanger and Pprefs. NOTE: Keep in mind that some applications do not like being promoted or, because of the way they handle their graphics, can't be promoted. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #8 Question: Does EGS have a Workbench emulator? Answer: Yes. Since EGS patches the ScreenMode database, you can use the system Screenmode pref to put your Workbench into any resolution in the database. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #8.1 Question: What's the difference between EGS and the Workbench Emulation? Answer: EGS is an independant software display system capable of its own custom screens with windows on those screens. The Workbench emulation uses Intuition and the ScreenMode database to put Workbench as well as other Intuition screens onto your display board. Each system is seperate from one another. EGS applications can't be displayed on Intuition. Intuition applications can't be displayed on EGS (not yet anyway :). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #9 Question: Is EGS easy to install? Answer: Yes, it is. Just make sure you have enough space to install it. Your EGS distribution should have come with a Commodore installer script to make the installation process simple. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #10 Question: Will my A3000/A4000 equipped with an older revision buster work with any of the Zorro III boards (Spectrum or Piccolo)? Answer: Yes. You can run your graphics card in Zorro III mode without many, if any problems. It is not *required* that you buy a new buster for your machine. See question 10.2. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #10.1 Question: What is the revision number of the buster I will need if I decide to change it? Answer: The revision buster you will need is revision K or revision 11 (same thing). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #10.2 Question: Will I see any speed improvements by installing the new buster chip? Answer: At this time, it is unknown if you will experience any speed improvements by changing this chip. You will, however, clear up any potential DMA problems by replacing it. NOTE: If you decide to replace this chip, it is recommened that you order the chip puller from your dealer at the time you order the chip. You may also let your local dealer change it if you do not feel comfortable enough doing it yourself. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #11 Question: What is the current version of the EGS system? Answer: The current version of EGS is version 6.0 of the libraries. Some systems may still be shipped with version 5.0 of the libraries. If you find you have version 5.0, contact your dealer for an update. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #12 Question: How will EGS library and software updates be handled? Who will I get it from? Answer: At this moment in time, updates to the libraries and software will be handled through your board's manufacturer and not through Viona. Contact technical support from your board manufacturer/distributor to find out how they intend on distributing library and software updates. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- #13 Question: With my Workbench running an EGS resolution, some programs have stopped functioning? What's happening? Answer: Poor programming. ;) No seriously.. Some programs try and adopt Workbench's screen size and depth. If you are running 800x600x256, the errant program may not know how to create such a screen and fail. This happens most likely because the program knows nothing of the Screenmode database and therefore can't request the appropriate Screenmode with which to open the screen. More than likely it is a 1.3ish program doing this. 2.0 and especially 3.x aware programs seem to have fewer problems in this respect. The solution is to temporarily move your Workbench screen back to a non-EGS screenmode using standard ECS/OCS. The program should run fine with this setup. After you run the program, you should be able to put the Workbench back into the EGS resolution and leave the other program running. It is a hassle, but it should work. Otherwise, call or write the company and ask them to fix the program. If this solution does not work, the program may be failing due to other reasons. At this point, you should consult either someone from Viona, someone from where you bought your graphics board, or email the EGS list on Internet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This FAQ will be updated as questions are asked. I have added what I think are some of the most common questions. There are, I am sure, many more questions which still need to be asked and included. By all means, if you have a question, ask it. I'll try to get a response to it as quickly as possible. Whenever I see a FAQ type question and a good response, I will add it to the FAQ. If any of the current questions need revision or expansion, please let me know. I am hoping in the future to put this document into other formats such as TeXInfo for porting over to such readers as ASCII and AmigaGuide to name a few. At first, however, I plan to work on it in ASCII just to get it started. Please submit any questions to Brian Wright . Thanks much. @endnode @node P1-9 "European Outlook" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% European Outlook by Jesper Juul %% %% (norjj@stud.hum.aau.dk) %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Our future with HP-PA Risc -------------------------- OK. So Commodore won't _tell_ us which RISC processor they're going to put inside next years Amigas. But they do have a policy of _hinting_ that it is going to be Hewlett-Packards HP-PA chip, and indicating the truth of this it seems HP and Commodore have agreed to some kind of technology-share deal. (See AR 1.38.) I guess HP-PA is coming, and at this stage a lot of people (including myself) would be wise to skip assembler programming and take up C++ instead. In a year or two, I may in fact be writing my fractal routines for HP-PA Risc in C++, what a strange thought! What seems to concern most everybody about HPs chip is: 1) Speed and 2) emulations. Plenty of purely speculative speed-comparisons have been put forward. Advocates of the PowerPC have been eager to point to the number of emulators allegedly being developed for that chip. Here's a few facts to sort things out: 1) In the 1994/2 issue of Danish computer magazine "Datatid", a Hewlett-Packard workstation with a HP PA-7100LC 80Mhz CPU is benched again an IBM workstation with 66Mhz PowerPC 601, a Siemens-Nixdorf with 60Mhz Pentium, and a 50Mhz Sun SparcStation. The test was a program written in AutoCad. (Autocad is avaliable on each of these machines.) Results are in seconds taken to perform some calculations and some drawing, respectively: HP-PA PowerPC Pentium Sparc Calc. 2 2.9 3.9 6 Draw 4.25 6 6.25 10.25 This looks rather promising! The HP-PA calculates nearly twice as fast as the Pentium, nearly 50% faster than the PowerPC. And drawing speed doesn't look too bad either. The Sparc is trailing far behind for some reason. Sure, there's a million things to look out for, like how efficient the compiler is, memory speed and so on. But real-life tests do give the best indication of real-life speed! The HP-PA includes on-chip instructions for packing/depacking JPEG and MPEG graphics. It also replaces some of the other chips of the average computer; the motherboard is about half the size of a '486. 2) For the Hewlett-Packard workstation, a program called "SoftWindows" emulates Dos and Windows on the processor level. And a program called "WABI" - later to come - emulates Windows itself, meaning that OS-bound operations will perform at full RISC speed. (There are some doubts concerning the compatibility of this one.) Although these two emulators are written on top of UNIX and thus would require adjustment to work with AmigaDos, it does mean that all the low-level emulation programming has been completed, and that fast, well-tested Dos/Windows emulation could quickly appear on a HP-PA based Amiga. So HP-PA may after all be a much better choice than PowerPC. Well done, Commodore. When is it going to be official? Full-Motion video, a short review --------------------------------- During the last days of January, a still limited supply of CD32 FMV modules finally reached Northern Europe. I went to look at it, the store carried an "Assorted Arias" or something opera CD, "Black Rain" by Ridley Scott, and "Star Trek IV", all in the Philips CD-I video format. Price was 199 DKR ($29), a bit steep for old movies. I watched Star Trek IV for a while: The sound is great, the colours are great, the still pictures are great. About BetaCam quality, none of the usual VHS disturbances. But still, I wasn't all that impressed. I may not be the average user (who is?), having spent a good part of my teens writing demos on the C64, learning to spot single 1/50th second delays in screen updates, but there was one thing I really thought didn't measure up: Movement. To understand my problem, you'll need no know a bit about how FMV works. -It _is_ completely incredible that they've been able to pack motion video and digital stereo sound into the mere 150K/second a CD offers. A combination of three different strategies does it: 1) Standard compression. Like IFF, GIF, TIFF etc., a picture can be compressed to take up less disk space, then later loaded from disk and decompressed to its original state. 2) Key and delta frames. Some of the frames ("key frames") on the CD are stored as complete pictures. But most of the frames ("delta frames") are stored only as their difference to the previous frame - this saves a huge amount of space. For example, a close-up of Mr. Spocks facial reactions to some unanticipated event might be a completely still picture, with the exception of his left eyebrow being raised. The delta frame needs then only contain enough information to describe the eyebrows' new whereabouts. The rest of the picture can remain unchanged. 3) Lossy compression. Where standard compression attempts to keep all the information of the original picture intact, lossy compression draws heavily on the fact that our sensory apparatus is a bit slow at times. So a lossy compression scheme is always based on certain ideas as to which two shades of red are indistinguishable to our eyes, which two bits of the sound of a violin are indistinguishable to our ears, which tiny facial movement is unnoticed by most people. The unnecessary information is consequently discarded. (Hence the term "lossy".) -The first problem concerns point two: With every cut or change of camera angle in a movie, a new key frame has to be introduced. Since a key frame takes up a lot of space on the CD, there's not much room for delta frames, and the whole picture remains frozen for a few frames, waiting for the new key frame to be loaded. _With every cut all movement freezes._ Quite disturbing to watch. -The second problem lies in point three. To fit a movie in 150K/second, _a lot_ of subtle changes of facial expression are judged as unnoticable. The result is that when Mr. Spock raises his eyebrow, the rest of his face is completely - and I do mean completely - static. Characters silently listening to somebody else are very silent indeed, they look like still pictures (great quality) and then suddenly move (not to great). -What I'm saying is that the MPEG standard is a bit optimistic about our eyes' _inability_ to spot unsteady movement. Yes, I am nitpicking and yes, I am looking for problems, but I wasn't nearly as impressed as I thought I'd be. And here's hoping that my eyesight is vastly superior to the average users'. But to like watching digital video, it would probably be a good idea to completely forget what I've said here. I for one couldn't stop paying attention to stillness once I'd noticed. On the other hand, this is hopefully just the beginning. Perhaps VideoCD (the standard Commodore has subscribed to) is much, much better, perhaps even CD-I video will improve once they learn to turn all the knobs just right at recording time. And perhaps I'll just forget all about it after three minutes of "Blade Runner". I think I have to get used to movies on CD, but then it may be easier than getting used to VHS movies - or CD sound! SeaQuest DSV ------------ The Steven Spielberg/Amiga produced SeaQuest DSV series can now be seen on my side of the Atlantic: Starting January 26th, German television station RTL airs SeaQuest Wednesdays at 21:15. Though certainly bringing Amiga effects to a large audience - I think most Europeans with cable TV can watch the channel - RTL may not be the station we want our computer to be associated with; it is mostly known for demented gameshows sporting lightly clad females. Furthermore, they usually employ abysmal actors to dub all non-German speech. Of course we needn't care; we're only in it for the graphics... RTL will later on stage an _Amiga_ animation competition in connection with SeaQuest. A-Max IV -------- A-Max IV - "the other" Macintosh Emulator - is selling for DM 998 (US$ 570). It appararently multitasks, reads 800K Mac disks (this is surprising), uses Amiga ports and SCSI, supports sound, and let's you access the Mac Clipboard from the Amiga side. An A-Max vs. Emplant test would be really interesting now. Final Copy II/Final Writer: A quick and unjust review ----------------------------------------------------- In a slightly personal way: When the wordprocessor Final Copy II was released, I tried it out because it looked good in the ads. And I _was_ impressed; nice fonts, OK speed, nice facilities. But when pressing right amiga + i to get italics, nothing happened, why? - Because you have to select an italic _font_ to get italics. This is very cumbersome, and it also means that there's no way to write a text and then decide that you want to use another font or pitch; this would require manual replacement of font specifications at each and every italicised word or quote! As a special bonus the programmers didn't include footnote facilites either, making sure that Final Copy II is utterly useless for any serious purpose. Like this, with italics unusuable and no footnotes, I'd rate Final Copy II as exactly 0 out of 10 quills. The company itself - Softwood - scores 10 out of 10 empty looks for selective incompetence. Some time has passed, an expanded version called Final Writer has been released. Updates are a wonderful thing of the software world but - (sound of trumpets) - guess what wasn't updated this time! Still unusable italics! Still no footnotes! And the prices has gone up! I'd rate Final Writer as -10 out of 10 quills. Softwoods incompetence rating explodes the scale. I don't mean to sound harsh (oh well, I guess I do), but how is it possible to spend months programming adding lots of nifty features, without for five minutes considering the question: What does the user need? -Now watch out for Final Paint, the revolutionary program that loads, edits, and displays 24-bit graphics on your Amiga 500! (It doesn't actually _save_ graphics, though.) As you may know, AmiWrite and several other Amiga wordprocessors do take the same approach to italics, but that's no excuse at all: It is plainly stupid. And as for not including footnotes, why not forget capital letters or printing as well? Please understand that I only find it worth being less than nice to Softwood because Final Copy II and Final Writer _could be_ great and professional programs. Easily. Now do it. @endnode @node P1-10 "Emulation Rambler Special Report" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Emulation Rambler Special Report By Jason Compton %% %% (jcompton@tcity.com) %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Well, there wasn't enough to talk about this week (besides Emplant) to warrant a full-length article, but there ARE a couple of important items, so off I go. I picked up and read a copy of MacUser at a friend's house the other day and found (not quite by accident) a short article on the planned Quadra DOS-Compatible Mac models. I read through it and didn't hear anything new: until I reached the bottom. Here's the quote, from February 1994's MacUser magazine: "Apple will wait to see whether software emulators under development by Insignia Solutions will run fast enough on the coming PowerPC Macs." Hold everything! The mass amount of PowerPC propaganda seems to say that PowerPC, straight out of the box, will run basically anything ever written for a (non-Amiga) computer. At least, that is what the hordes of slavering LC-owning PowerPC-hoping people have been telling me, to my utter disbelief. Here's some proof, straight from a Mac journal, saying the contrary. "Under development" they say? I've heard from someone that he saw a demo of PowerPC in which files were being dragged from a Mac desktop to a Windows desktop on two separate monitors. That was all he saw. "Insignia Solutions"? Most people seem to be under the impression that IBM, Apple, and Motorola will be shipping them loads 'o emulators with their computers so that they can run everything. If a third-party company is doing it, odds are that PowerPC owners will be running out to the store to BUY them. "to see [if they] will run fast enough"? Run fast enough? Wow, I'd been told that PowerPC could run anything anytime anywhere. Maybe not. Also, I've been offered a chance to preview an upcoming Apple II emulator which the author claims is the most comprehensive and compatible one ever written...and from what he claims, I believe him. I'll tell you more when I hear more. That's it for this briefing. Keep the emulators warm. @endnode @node P1-11 "CES Report" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% CES Report By Kris Kuntz %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 1/6-9/1994 - CES Consumer Electronics Show, Las Vegas, Nevada. This is a report of a conversation held at CES between John DiLullo, head of Marketing for Commodore U.S. and an Amiga dealer. -Kris Kuntz & Jeff Cupp, Digital Arts, Bloomington, IN Allow us to introduce ourselves to you. We are a full-service Amiga dealer in Bloomington, Indiana. It's not a huge town, not a small town either and home to Indiana University. We have been a dealer for the last 3 1/2 years and are very active in promoting all aspects of the Amiga. Yes, we sell Video Toasters but they account for only about 1/2 of the number of actual computers we sell. We advertise in local media, we go out and do many shows and demonstrations, and we have worked hard to make our store well-stocked, clean and professional looking. We are, as I was told once by a Commodore rep, the kind of store Commodore likes to have promoting their product. We have made a commitment to Commodore and work hard on their behalf. (Many of you at this point will undoubtedly label us as stupid.) We have heard everyone's complaints about Commodore's management or mismanagement of the Amiga line and tend to agree at least a little with both sides. (If you think Commodore treats its dealers badly, check out what Apple has done to theirs over the past several years!). Commodore's biggest problem seems to be in marketing and we realize that they don't have much of a budget here in the United States. That problem could be helped by Commodore International but they seem to feel the U.S. is not worth it. Since we are not a large chain store, we have become rather creative in getting the most from our marketing dollar. We thought we might have some low cost ideas that Commodore U.S. could make use of. So here's the meat of this letter. We decided to take a break from work and go to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this last week to see Commodore's main announcement of the CD32 here in the United States. Their booth was upstairs away from the main floor and about as far away from the "game machine" area as they could possibly be. As far as we could tell, there were no big announcements of this great new game machine and our feeling was that the "launch" was more of a sputter. While we were in the both, we spoke with John DiLullo, head of marketing for Commodore U.S.. The following are comments he made to us: 1) Commodore doesn't want Amiga dealers selling the CD32s. He told us that "the Amiga market is the wrong place to sell the CD32s" and that "Amiga people will find the CD32s". At the show they were looking for chain stores to pick up the CD32. This is why none of your local dealers have CD32s yet - unless they have worked out a deal with a Canadian dealer to bring them in through Canada. Commodore is really up set by dealers who have managed to do this, they claim it will mess up their U.S. marketing plan. No one seems to be able to tell us about the U.S. marketing plan. A really super 30-second TV commercial was done for Europe and we were able to see it in the booth at CES. Of course, we were also told that it would be too expensive to really run here in the U.S.. It was actually a question to Mr. DiLullo about allowing dealers to have copies to do local TV insertions which brought up the initial comment of them not wanting dealers to sell CD32s. Obviously they don't really want our help promoting them either. We are also Commodore developers and happen to have had a CD32 for demo since early December. We informed Mr. DiLullo that we had been showing it to both Amiga and non-Amiga owners and that we actually had several pre-sold. He said that that was too bad, they'd just have to get them somewhere else and gave us the strong impression that it was a real waste of our time even showing the CD32 to people (unless we were planning it simple to help promote any products we might develop.) 2) He told us that the CD32 would be a much better product for Commodore to sell since support would be really unnecessary. He suggested that the computers required service technicians, training for purchasers and worst of all parts supplies for repairs. "If a CD32 breaks they just bring it back and get another one." He seemed to like the idea of Commodore simply being a manufacturing firm for a single, simple product. 3) Mr. DiLullo specifically told us that the Amiga 1200 cannot compete with 386 systems and because of this, Commodore plans to stop manufacturing 1200s. They will not officially discontinue them, just stop making them. He did say that after they started selling CD32s in Europe that 1200 sales doubled but he feels that would never happen in the U.S.. When we suggested that we sell 1200s against PCs all the time because they have features lacking in PCs, he informed us that that was a purely emotional reaction to the Amiga and not a legitimate business reaction. He told us that the Amiga was only realistically going to sell in the tiniest of niche markets and that was how it was always going to be. (He used the pyramid example saying that the PCs were at the broad base of sales and that the Amiga was at the smallest top point of the sales.) Intel happened to be doing a presentation at the show which mentioned that by the year 2000 it is expected that the average home will have 2.5 computers. We told him that we saw no reason why the second computer in the home could not be an Amiga (a PC being the first to fit with his views). He told us that basically we were full of it and that it would absolutely never happen. "Amiga will never be a household name." 4) Last but most certainly not least, when we suggested that perhaps Commodore should use its loyal customers on a local level to help promote the Amiga, he informed us that "the fanatical Amiga owners are an embarrassment to Commodore." So, after this amazing little talk with Mr. DiLullo, we went back to our hotel and considered chucking it all and moving to the wilderness (no computers for miles and miles). After we calmed down a bit we went back the next day and spoke to some other people who know what's happening in the real world of Commodore (distributors). Yes, Canada is starting to have product to sell and we could be selling them too if Commodore would allow the normal distributors to have them. One of the large distributors has told us that they expect Commodore will change their minds about dealers when no chain stores start ordering units to sell. They expect it will take until the end of the quarter (late March) before they make them available to dealers though. As for 1200s, we actually found out this week that since the demand rose so sharply in Europe, Commodore went back into production of 1200s and that NTSC versions should begin to be more readily available. In regards to marketing or lack of marketing in the U.S., talking to Mr. DiLullo cleared up many questions as to its poor quality here in the U.S.. When the head of marketing obviously doesn't believe in the product he is to promote, doesn't believe that anyone in the general market would ever want to have his product, feels his product is a pain to support and is "embarrassed" by the current owners of his product, it's not surprising that his efforts to promote the product are limp or non-existent. After talking to him we were thoroughly embarrassed by Commodore. We can only hope that he is a very unusual case at Commodore and that perhaps they are not aware of his attitudes and comments. Since we were not able to talk to Geoff Stilley (General Manager Commodore U.S.) or Mehdi Ali (President-Commodore International) we cannot guarantee that Mr. DiLullo's comments really represent all of Commodore. As a dealer, developer user, and stockholder we are appalled that anyone with those kinds of attitudes would be put in charge of marketing or anything having to do with sales of the Amiga product! We've written this letter because we want to let people know what Commodore's plans really are. Below are the names and addresses of 3 people at Commodore we would like you to write to as well as the address for the Commodore Shareholder's Movement (they will take anything you send them to the Commodore Board of Directors meeting coming up in March). We feel that marketing needs to be strongly looked at, that dealers should be allowed to carry CD32s along with all those chain stores and be allowed to start selling them NOW, and that perhaps if Commodore was a bit more committed to us then we might be able to help them regain some of the market here in the U.S.. Please write a letter to them and send copies to all three gentlemen and to the CSM (try to be polite and reasonable) telling them what you think about the current situation and please offer suggestions (again, be polite-after all, we're "fanatical Amiga owners" and will be dismissed if we don't appear reasonable). Mr. Geoff Stilley & Mr. John DiLullo Commodore Business Machines 1200 Wilson Drive West Chester, PA 19380 Mr. Mehdi Ali Commodore International Limited 375 Park Ave.. New York, NY 10152 Commodore Shareholder's Movement P.O. Box 8296 Philadelphia, PA 19101 Author: Kris Kuntz Retyped: Jeremiah S. Junken For further correspondence, questions or other information, please mail: Jeff Cupp: jcupp@bix.com Mike Sears: msears@bix.com @endnode @node P1-12 "BlazeMonger in Review" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% "BLAZEMONGER In Review" By Dan Barrett %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% TITLE "BLAZE ON, 1993": a collection of Amiga-related humor VERSION 3.14159... COMPANY BLAZEMONGER INCORPORATED AUTHOR Daniel Barrett DESCRIPTION Despite popular demand, here is a set of humorous articles that I posted in the comp.sys.amiga newsgroups during 1993. The set includes such forgettable classics as: o The "Let's BLAZE A Great Deal" game show! o "The Case of the Detonating Disk Heads" murder mystery! o Strip poker, the BLAZEMONGER way! o Commodore's new nuclear waste disposal program! o The wild and wacky BLAZE-FEST '93 in California! o The TRUE story behind the "insider conference" on GEnie! o OrgASM, the ultimate assembly language system! o A tour of BLAZEMONGER INCORPORATED and its unusual employees! o Several April Fools jokes from comp.sys.amiga.reviews! o BLAZE-24, the ultimate graphics board! o 10 Amiga programming tips for the real world (never posted; published in the proceedings of an Italian Amiga conference)! ... and many more! If you really enjoy inflicting pain on yourself (or others), two earlier sets of articles are also available; see "FILE NAMES", below. NEW FEATURES Now contains 65% more cholesterol and a free copy of "Bunny Blaster Wars!" SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Consciousness. Works under all versions of Kickstart. A warped sense of humor is recommended but not required. HOST NAME All Aminet ftp sites. Also available on the famous ftp site etarip.uoy.ffo.kcuf, when its network connection is functioning. DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/text/docs FILE NAMES DanBarrettHumor3.lzh Two older collections of articles are found in the files DanBarrettHumor.lzh and DanBarrettHumor2.lzh. It is recommended that you read the earlier articles first, since some of the later jokes build on earlier ones. PRICE Free! (Contributions are accepted, of course. :-)) DISTRIBUTABILITY Copyright 1993 by Daniel J. Barrett. All rights reserved. These articles may be freely distributed as long as they are distributed in their entirety. They may not be included in any publication without the written permission of the author. OTHER BLAZE ON, d00dz...! Dan @endnode @node P4-2 "Portal" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Portal: A Great Place For Amiga Users %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Portal Communications' Amiga Zone The AFFORDABLE alternative for online Amiga information ------------------------------------------------------- The Portal Online System is the home of acclaimed Amiga Zone, which was formerly on the People/Link System. Plink went out of business in May, 1991 and The Amiga Zone's staff moved to Portal the next day. The Zone has just celebrated its second anniversary on Portal. The Amiga press raves about The Amiga Zone, when compared to its competition. If you live in the San Jose, CA area, then you can dial Portal directly. If you live elsewhere, you can reach Portal through any SprintNet (formerly Telenet) indial anywhere in the USA. If you have an account on another Internet-connected system, you can connect to Portal using the UNIX Telnet programs, from anywhere in the industrialized world. Delphi and BIX users can now Telnet into Portal for a flat $19.95 a month, with *unlimited* use. Some of Portal/Amiga Zone's amazing features include: · Over 1.5 GIGabytes of Amiga-specific files · The *entire* Fred Fish collection of freely distributable software, online. · Fast, Batch Zmodem file transfer protocol. Download up to 100 files at once, of any size, with one command. · Twenty Amiga vendor areas with participants like AmigaWorld, ASDG, Soft-Logik, Black Belt, Apex Publishing, Stylus, Prolific, NES. · 35 "regular" Amiga libraries with thousands of files. Hot new stuff arrives daily. · No upload/download "ratios" EVER. Download as much as you want, as often as you want, and never feel pressued doing it. · Live, interactive nightly chats with Amiga folks whose names you will recognize. Special conferences. Random chance prize contests. Famous Amiga folks aren't the exception on Portal, they're the norm. · Vast Message bases where you can ask questions about *anything* Amiga related and get quick replies from the experts. · Amiga Internet mailing lists for Imagine, DCTV, LightWave, HyperAmi, Director and Landscapes are fed right into the Zone message bases. Read months worth of postings. They don't scroll off, ever! No need to clutter your mailbox with them. · FREE unlimited Internet Email. Your Portal account gets you a mailbox that's connected to the world. Send letters of any length to computer users in the entire industrialized world. No limits. No extra charges. No kidding! · Portal has the Usenet. Thousands of "newsgroups" in which you can read and post articles about virtually any subject you can possibly imagine. · Other Portal SIGs (Special Interest Groups) online for Mac, IBM, Sun, NeXT, UNIX, Science Fiction, Writers, amateur radio, and a graphics SIG with thousands of GIF files to name just a few. ALL Portal SIGs are accessible to ALL Portal customers with NO surcharges ever. · The entire UPI/Clarinet/Newsbytes news hierarchy ($4/month extra) An entire general interest newspaper and computer news magazine. · Portal featues an exciting package of Internet features: IRC, FTP, TELNET, MUDS, LIBS. Free to all Portal customers with your account. Internet Services is a menu driven version of the same kinds of utilities you can also use from your Portal UNIX shell account. · All the files you can FTP. All the chatting you can stand on the IRC. And on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) you can talk live, in real time with Amiga users in the U.K., Europe, Australia, the Far East, 24 hours a day. · Our exclusive PortalX by Steve Tibbett, the graphical "front end" for Portal which will let you automatically click'n'download your waiting email, messages, Usenet groups and binary files! Reply to mail and messages offline using your favorite editor and your replies are sent automatically the next time you log into Portal. (PortalX requires Workbench 2.04 or higher) · And Portal does NOT stick it to high speed modem users. Whether you log in at 1200 or 2400 or 9600 or 14.4K you pay the same low price. How does all that sound? Probably too good to be true. Well, it IS true. Portal Signup or for more information: 408-973-9111 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time 408-725-0561 (modem 3/12/2400) 24 hours every day 408-973-8091 (modem 9600/14400) 24 hours every day or enter "C PORTAL" from any Sprintnet dial-in in the USA, or telnet to "portal.com" from anywhere. PORTAL'S CURRENT RATES: All prices shown are in U.S. Dollars Total Total Total Total Cost Cost Cost Cost Fee 1 hr. 5 hrs. 10 hrs.30 hrs. Startup Monthly Per Per per per per Fee Fee Hour month month month month $ $ $ $ $ $ $ Portal 19.95 19.95 2400/9600/14.4Kbps, *direct 24 hrs 0.00 19.95 19.95 19.95 19.95 2400/9600bps nonprime Sprint 2.50 22.95 32.45 44.95 94.95 2400/9600bps prime Sprint +% 5.50-10 29.95 69.95 119.95 varies 2400/9600bps non prime # PCPursuit 1.00 20.95 24.95 29.95 49.95 * plus cost of phone call if out of Portal's local dialing area Direct rates also apply to connections made to Portal using the UNIX "telnet" program from an account you may already have on an Internet-connected system. % 9600 bps Sprintnet in over 300 cities areas + $10 rate prevails at smaller US Cities # PCPursuit is a service of US Sprint. Portal is a PCPursuit "Direct Access Facility" thus connection to Portal with a PCP account is simply a matter of entering C PORTAL,PCP-ID,PCP-PASSWORD at the SprintNet login prompt instead of C PORTAL. Note: Portal Direct 9600/14400 bps service is availble for both USR HST modems, and any V32/V32.bis modems. There are dozens of direct-dial high speed lines into Portal. No busy signals! SprintNet 9600bps service is V.32 modem protocol only. Again, Portal does NOT surcharge high speed modem users! Portal subscribers who already have an account on an Internet-capable system elsewhere, can use that system's "telnet" program to connect to Portal for $0.00 an hour. That's right ZERO. From anywhere in the world. If you're in this category, be sure to ask the Portal reps, when you signup, how to login to Portal from your existing Internet account. Call and join today. Tell the friendly Portal Customer Service representative, "The Amiga Zone and Amiga Report sent me!" [Editor's Note: Be sure to tell them that you are an Amiga user, so they can notify the AmigaZone sysops to send their Welcome Letter and other information!] That number again: 408-973-9111. Portal Communications accepts MasterCard, Visa, or you can pre-pay any amount by personal check or money order. The Portal Online System is a trademark of Portal Communications. @endnode @node P3 "Dealer Directory" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Dealer Directory %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Almathera Systems Ltd Challenge House 618 Mitcham Rd Croydon, Surrey CR9 3AU England VOICE: (UK) 081 683 6418 Internet: (Sales) almathera@cix.compulink.co.uk (Technical) jralph@cix.compulink.co.uk Amigability Computers P.O. Box 572 Plantsville, CT 06479 VOICE: 203-276-8175 Internet: amiga@phantm.UUCP BIX: jbasile (Send E-mail to subscribe to our mailing list) Apogee Technologies 1851 University Parkway Sarasota, FL 34243 VOICE: 813-355-6121 Portal: Apogee Internet: Apogee@cup.portal.com Armadillo Brothers 753 East 3300 South Salt Lake City, Utah VOICE: 801-484-2791 Internet: B.GRAY@genie.geis.com Atlantis Kobetek Inc. 1496 Lower Water St. Halifax, NS, Canada, B3J 1R9 Phone: (902)-422-6556 Fax: (902)-423-9339 BBS: (902)-492-1544 Internet: aperusse@fox.nstn.ns.ca Brian Fowler Computers Ltd 11 North St Exeter Devon EX4 3QS United Kingdom Voice: (0392) 499 755 Fax: (0392) 423 480 Internet: brian_fowler@cix.compulink.co.uk CLICK! Amiga Specialists N.V. Boomsesteenweg 468 B-2610 Wilrijk - Antwerpen Belgium - Europe VOICE: 03 / 828.18.15 FAX: 03 / 828.67.36 USENET: vanhoutv@click.augfl.be FIDO: 2:292/603.9 AmigaNet: 39:120/102.9 Comspec Communications Inc Serving your computing needs since 1976 74 Wingold Ave Toronto, Ontario Canada M6B 1P5 Computer Centre: (416) 785-8348 Service, Corporate & Educational Sales: (416) 785-3553 Fax: 416-785-3668 Internet: bryanf@comcorp.comspec.com bryanf@accesspt.north.net Computers International, Inc. 5415 Hixson Pike Chattanooga, TN 37343 VOICE: 615-843-0630 DataKompaniet ANS Pb 3187 Munkvoll N-7002 Trondheim Norway - Europe VOICE/FAX: 72 555 149 Internet: torrunes@idt.unit.no Digital Arts 122 West 6th Street Bloomington, IN 47404 VOICE: (812)330-0124 FAX: (812)330-0126 BIX: msears Finetastic Computers 721 Washington Street Norwood, MA 02062 VOICE: 617-762-4166 BBS: 617-769-3172 Fido: 1:101/322 Portal: FinetasticComputers Internet: FinetasticComputers@cup.portal.com HT Electronics 275 North Mathilda Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94086 VOICE: 408-737-0900 FAX: 408-245-3109 Portal: HT Electronics Internet: HT Electronics@cup.portal.com Industrial Video, Inc. 1601 North Ridge Rd. Lorain, OH 44055 VOICE: 800-362-6150 216-233-4000 Internet: af741@cleveland.freenet.edu Contact: John Gray MicroSearch 9000 US 59 South, Suite 330 Houston, Texas VOICE: 713-988-2818 FAX: 713-995-4994 Mr. Hardware Computers P.O. Box 148 59 Storey Ave. Central Islip, NY 11722 VOICE: 516-234-8110 FAX: 516-234-8110 A.M.U.G. BBS: 516-234-6046 MusicMart: Media Sound & Vision 71 Wellington Road London, Ontario, Canada VOICE: 519-434-4162 FAX: 519-663-8074 BBS: 519-457-2986 FIDO: 1:221/125 AmigaNet: 40:550/1 MaxNet: 90:204/1 iNET: koops@gaul.csd.uwo.ca PSI Animations 17924 SW Pilkington Road Lake Oswego, OR 97035 VOICE: 503-624-8185 Internet: PSIANIM@agora.rain.com Software Plus Chicago 3100 W Peterson Avenue Chicago, Illinois VOICE: 312-338-6100 Wonder Computers Inc. 1315 Richmond Rd. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2B 8J7 Voice: 613-596-2542 Fax: 613-596-9349 BBS: 613-829-0909 (Dealers: To have your name added, please send Email!) @endnode @node P1-13 "The Grapevine" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% The Grapevine %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% - Topeka, Kansas -------------- Rumors of the new version of ToasterPaint have surfaced. New features include: - Full screen - AGA modes - Super new airbrush mode - All-new, more consistent interface - Supports PostScript fonts @endnode @node P1-14 "Humor Department" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% The Humor Department %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% *** Area: OMAHA Date: 22 Jan 94 9:52:20 *** From: Wes Perkhiser (1:285/1.20) *** To : All *** Subj: Gilligan Remember the Gilligan's Island episode where the Russian spies land on the island, but every time they get close to their goal Gilligan messes them up (accidentally)? Remember how they decided that Gilligan must be a Yankee master spy, because no one could really be that stupid? That episode was the event that brought about the concept of the "Gilligan Effect", where someone who is really clever pretends to be incredibly stupid to throw off the trail of those who are out to get him. Many people, in fact, refer to their favorite politician as a master at the Gilligan Effect. How, though, do we distinguish pretend stupidity from actual stupidity (also known as the Gilligan Syndrome)? Unfortunately, the only way to tell the difference is by close, long-term observation of the subject. This, however, leads to other complications. For one thing, it takes a person of exceptional patience and self-control to observe stupidity in action without interfering with the activity in question. Another, far more dangerous, effect is that stupidity is contagious. (Just look at any major political body to see the effect of sustained contact with stupid activity.) In fact, some studies comparing the genetic disposition toward stupidity vs. the environmental effects of exposure to stupidity have concluded that stupidity is only marginally related to genetic makeup. So, without risking the effects of a long-term study, the question of the day is: Lorena Bobbit's jury -- Gilligan Effect or Gilligan Syndrome? @endnode @node P2-3 "In Closing" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% _ _ __ ___ _ %% %% /\\ |\\ /| || // \ /\\ %% %% / \\ | \\ /|| ||(< __ / \\ %% %% /--- \\| \/ || || \\_||/--- \\ %% %% /______________________________\\ %% %% / \\ %% %% Amiga Report International Online Magazine %% %% February 4, 1994 ~ Issue No. 2.05 %% %% Copyright © 1994 SkyNet Publications %% %% All Rights Reserved %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Views, Opinions and Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of the editors and staff of Amiga Report International Online Magazine or of STR Publications. Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. Reprints must, without exception, include the name of the publication, date, issue number and the author's name. Amiga Report and/or portions therein may not be edited in any way without prior written per- mission. However, translation into a language other than English is accept- ble, provided the original meaning is not altered. Amiga Report may be dis- tributed on privately owned not-for-profit bulletin board systems (fees to cover cost of operation are acceptable), and major online services such as (but not limited to) Delphi and Portal. Distribution on public domain disks is acceptable provided proceeds are only to cover the cost of the disk (e.g. no more than $5 US). Distribution on for-profit magazine cover disks requires written permission from the editor or publisher. Amiga Report is a not-for-profit publication. Amiga Report, at the time of pub- ication, is believed reasonably accurate. Amiga Report, its staff and con- ributors are not and cannot be held responsible for the use or misuse of information contained herein or the results obtained there from. Amiga Report is not affiliated with Commodore-Amiga, Inc., Commodore Business Machines, Ltd., or any other Amiga publication in any way. All items quoted in whole or in part are done so under the Fair Use Provision of the Copy- right Laws of the United States Penal Code. Any Electronic Mail sent to the editors may be reprinted, in whole or in part, without any previous permission of the author, unless said electronic mail specifically requests not to be reprinted. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @endnode @node P1 "Columns and Features" @toc "menu" @{" From the Editor's Desk " link P1-1} Saying it like it is! @{" The Ed's Desk Too! " link P1-2} Looking toward the future. @{" Computer Product News " link P1-3} The Amiga and the industry. @{" AR Online " link P1-4} The lines are buzzing! @{" Reader Mail " link P1-5} The readers speak! @{" UseNet Review " link P1-6} Mortal Kombat @{" CBM Sharholders Movement " link P1-7} An Update. @{" EGS FAQ " link P1-8} What is EGS??? @{" European Outlook " link P1-9} Amiga with HP-PA RISK? @{" Emulation Rambler " link P1-10} Special Report @{" CES Report " link P1-11} A talk with John DiLullo @{" BLAZEMONGER in Review " link P1-12} BLAZE-ing away! @{" The Grapevine " link P1-13} We heard it first! @{" The Humor Department " link P1-14} Jokes and shameless plugs @endnode @node P2 "About Amiga Report" @toc "menu" @{" For Starters " link P2-1} Where to get AMIGA REPORT @{" AR Staff " link P2-2} The Editors, and Contributers @{" In Closing " link P2-3} Copyright Information @endnode @node P4 "Commercial Online Services" @toc "menu" @{" Delphi " link P4-1} Getting better all the time! @{" Portal " link P4-2} A great place for Amiga users... @{" InterNet " link P4-5} Subscribe to the AR Mailing List @{" BIX " link P4-6} For Serious Programmers and Developers @endnode @node P5 "Files Available for FTP" @toc "menu" No files listed. @endnode ----------------------------------------- @node P2-1-1 "NOVA" @toc "menu" * NOVA BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Starnet BBS * Wayne Stonecipher, Sysop FidoNet 1:362/508 An Amiga Software Distribution Site (ADS) 615-472-9748 USR DS 16.8 24hrs - 7 days Cleveland, Tennessee @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-2 "In The MeanTime" @toc "menu" * IN THE MEANTIME BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running AXShell * Robert Niles, Sysop rniles@imtired.itm.com 509-966-3828 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Yakima, Washington ******* Notice ******* After 13 September 1993, In The MeanTime will no longer be on FidoNet, thus we will no longer be accepting File REQuests (FREQs). We WILL be still accepting calls and will have the latest edition of Amiga Report online. Downloads to first time callers are still accepted. For the west coast call @{"Cloud's Corner" link P2-1-3} to FREQ the latest edition of Amiga Report. Those who call for the latest edition of Amiga Report, and who do not with to establish an account, log in as guest with the password of "guest". At the prompt type "ARMAG" (without the quotes). @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-3 "Cloud's Corner" @toc "menu" * CLOUD'S CORNER BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site MebbsNet/Starnet Support/Distribution Site West Coast USA * Running MEBBSNet BBS * Larry Cloud, Sysop FidoNet: 1:350/30 MaxNet: 90:180/10 Internet: larryc@hebron.connected.com 206-377-4290 USR HST DS 24hrs - 7 days Bremerton, Washington New users can call and get ANY copy of Amiga Report. These are considered "free" downloads, they do not count against any file ratio. The latest issue of Amiga Reports can be Freq'ed (FileREQusted) from here as "AR.LHA", as "AR" or as ARxxx.LHA where xxx is the issue number. Freq's are valid at ANY time. For users interested in reading AR, but who do not have access to AmigaGuide, you can freq ARBUL and get the AR in bulletin form. This service is provided for persons who do not have Amigaguide (such as IBM users). Please note that any pictures distributed with the "regular" Amiga Reports archive will NOT be sent with this freq. This file is not available for dial-in users, but you can read bulletin #5 with your capture buffer open and get the same file. NOTE: This system is currently down. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-4 "Biosmatica" @toc "menu" * BIOSMATICA BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Portugal * Running Excelsior/Trapdoor/UUCP * Celso Martinho, Sysop FidoNet 2:361/9 +351-34-382320 V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-5 "Amiga Junction 9" @toc "menu" * AMIGA JUNCTION 9 * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- United Kingdom * Running DLG Professional * Stephen Anderson, Sysop Sysop Email: sysadmin@junct9.royle.org Line 1 +44 (0)372 271000 14400 V.32bis/HST FidoNet 2:440/20 Line 2 +44 (0)372 278000 14400 V.32bis only FidoNet 2:440/21 Line 3 +44 (0)372 279000 2400 V.42bis/MNP Internet: user_name@junct9.royle.org @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-6 "BitStream BBS" @toc "menu" * BITSTREAM BBS * The BBS of the Nelson (NZ) Amiga Users Group Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Xenolink 1.0 Z.3 * Glen Roberts, Sysop FidoNet 3:771/850 +64 3 5485321 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Nelson, New Zealand @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-7 "Realm of Twilight" @toc "menu" * REALM OF TWILIGHT BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Canada * Running Excelsior! BBS * Thorsten Schiller, Sysop Usenet: realm.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca UUCP: ...!uunet.ca!tdkcs!realm FIDO: 1:221/202 Fish: 33:33/8 24hrs - 7 days 519-748-9365 (2400 baud) 519-748-9026 (v.32bis) Ontario, Canada Hardware: Amiga 3000, 105 Meg Quantum, 213 Meg Maxtor, 5 megs RAM @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-8 "Metnet Triangle" @toc "menu" METNET TRIANGLE SYSTEM Official Amiga Report Distribution Site UK Support for Mebbsnet * Running Mebbsnet and Starnet 1.02a * Jon Witty, Sysop FIDO: 2:252/129.0 24 hrs - 7 days Line 1: 44-482-473871 16.8 DS HST Lines 2-7: 44-482-442251 2400 (6 lines) Line 8: 44-482-491744 2400 Line 9: 44-482-449028 2400 Voice helpline 44-482-491752 (anytime) Fully animated menus + normal menu sets. 500 megs HD - Usual software/messages Most doors online - Many Sigs - AMIGA AND PC SUPPORT Very active userbase and busy conference Precious days and MUD online. AMUL support site. @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-9 "Omaha Amiganet" @toc "menu" * OMAHA AMIGANET * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running DLG Professional * Andy Wasserman, Sysop 24 hrs - 7 days FidoNet: 1:285/11 AmigaNet: 40:200/10 Line 1: 402-333-5110 V.32bis Line 2: 402-691-0104 USR DS Omaha, Nebraska @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-10 "Amiga-Night-System" @toc "menu" * AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - Finland * Running DLG Professional * Janne Saarme, Sysop 24 hrs - 7 days InterNet: luumu@fenix.fipnet.fi FidoNet: 2:220/550.0 +358-0-675840 V.32bis Helsinki, Finland @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-11 "Ramses Amiga Flying" @toc "menu" * RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- France * Running DLG Professional * Eric Delord, Sysop Philippe Brand, Co-Sysop Stephane Legrand, Co-Sysop Internet: user.name@ramses.gna.org Fidonet: 2:320/104 +33-1-60037015 USR DS 16.8 +33-1-60037713 V.32bis +33-1-60037716 1200-2400 Ramses The Amiga Flying BBS is an Amiga-dedicated BBS running DLG-Pro on a Amiga 3000, 16MB RAM, 2GB Disk space, 3 lines. We keep a dayly Aminet site mirroring, NetBSD-Amiga complete mirror site from ftp.eunet.ch (main site), Amiga Report, GNU Amiga, Ramses is the SAN/ADS/Amiganet French coordinator. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-12 "Gateway BBS" @toc "menu" * THE GATEWAY BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Excelsior! BBS * Stace Cunningham, Sysop Dan Butler, CoSysop 24 hrs - 7 days InterNet: stace@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil FidoNet: 1:3604/60.0 601-374-2697 Hayes Optina 28.8 V.FC Biloxi, Mississippi @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-13 "Talk City" @toc "menu" * TALK CITY * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site 708-372-0190 - 2400bps 708-372-0268 - V32 14.4K 708-372-0283 USR DS 14.4K Fido Net 1:115/372,0 Phantom Net 11:2115/2.0 Clink Net 911:6080/4.0 UUCP tcity.com Over 3 Gig of Files Online | More and More things everyday. With Three IBM CD-ROMs online, 10 lines, support for all platforms, and a REALLY dedicated sysop (The Mayor). @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-14 "Amiga BBS" @toc "menu" * Amiga BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Excelsior! BBS * Alejandro Kurczyn, Sysop FidoNet 4:975/7 First Amiga BBS in Mexico (5) 887-3080 9600 V32,MNP Estado de Mexico, Mexico @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-15 "The Stygian Abyss" @toc "menu" * THE STYGIAN ABYSS BBS * 312-384-0616 14.4 USR Courier HST 312-384-6250 14.4 Supra V.32 bis (FREQ line) 312-384-0716 2400 USR Courier FIDONet-1:115/384.0 CLink-911:6200/2.0 NWNet-206:310/0.0--206:310/1.0 PhantomNet Central States Cooridinator-11:2115/0.0--11:2115/1.0 FaithNet Central States Cooridinator-700:6000/0.0--700:6000/1.0 AMINet Chicagoland HUB-559:2/5.0 Chicago, Illinois Over 4 GIGS of files I Over 3700 MODS I Over 120 On-Line Games Tons of digitized sounds I Over 15,000 GIFS Supporting: Amiga I IBM I Macintosh I C=64/128 SIR SAMMY-SysOp Enter.......If you dare!! @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-16 "Amiga Do PC BBS" @toc "menu" * AMIGA DO PC BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribuition Site - Brazil * Running Excelsior! v 1.18 * +55-192-33-2260 Weekdays: 19-07 (-3 GMT) Weekends: 24 hours Fidonet: 4:801/44 RBT: 12:1212/1 Virinet: 70:101/17 Internet: fimoraes@dcc.unicamp.br Francisco Moraes, sysop Campinas, SP Freq AREPORT for the newest issue avaiable. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-17 "Comm-Link BBS" @toc "menu" * COMM-LINK BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Excelsior Pro * 604-945-6192 USR DS 16.8 24 hrs - 7 days Fido: 1:153/210.0 AmigaNet 40:800/9100.0 InterSports: 102:540/305.0 PussNet: 169:1000/305.0 InterNet: steve_hooper@comm.tfbbs.wimsey.com Steve Hooper, Sysop Port Coquitlam, B.C. Canada @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-18 "Phantom's Lair" @toc "menu" * PHANTOM'S LAIR * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running CNET 3.0 * FidoNet: 1:115/469.0 Phantom Net Cooridinator: 11:1115/0.0-11:1115/1.0 708-469-9510 708-469-9520 CD ROMS, Over 15511 Files Online @ 2586 meg Peter Gawron, Sysop Glendale Heights, Illinois @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-50 "Freeland Mainframe" @toc "menu" * FREELAND MAINFRAME * Offical Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running DLG Progessional * John Freeland, SysOp 206-438-1670 Supra 2400zi 206-438-2273 Telebit WorldBlazer(v.32bis) 206-456-6013 Supra v.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Internet - freemf.eskimo.com Olympia, Washington @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-51 "LAHO" @toc "menu" * LAHO BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Finland * Running MBBS * Lenni Uitti, SysOp Tero Manninen, SysOp (PC-areas) Juha Makinen, SysOp (Amiga-areas) +358-64-414 1516, V.32bis/HST +358-64-414 0400, V.32bis/HST +358-64-414 6800, V.32/HST +358-64-423 1300, V.32 MNP Seinajoki, Finland Our machine is a 386/33 with 20MB of memory, 1GB harddisk and a CD-ROM drive. The BBS software is a Norwegian origin MBBS running in a DesqView windows. We have over 7000 files online (both for the Amiga and PC) + 650MB stuff on the Aminet CD-ROM disk. Every user has an access to download filelist (LAHOFIL.ZIP), list of Finnish 24-hour BBS's (BBSLIST.ZIP or BBSLIST.LHA) and every issue of the Amiga Report Magazine (AR101.LHA-AR1??.LHA) even on their first call. The system has been running since 1989 and is sponsored by the local telephone company, Vaasan Ladnin Puhelin Oy. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-52 "Falling BBS" @toc "menu" * FALLING BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Norway * Running ABBS * Christopher Naas, Sysop +47 69 256117 V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days EMail: naasc@cnaas.adsp.sub.org @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-53 "Command Line BBS" @toc "menu" * COMMAND LINE BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Canada Canada's Amiga Graphics & Animation Source * Running AmiExpress BBS * Nick Poliwko, Sysop 416-533-8321 V.32 24hrs - 7 days Toronto, Canada @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-54 "Rendezvous BBS" @toc "menu" * RENDEZVOUS BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - New Zealand New Zealand Excelsior! BBS Support Site * Running Excelsior! Professional BBS * David Dustin, Sysop Internet: postmaster@eclipse.acme.gen.nz +64 6 3566375 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Palmerston North, New Zealand @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-55 "Leguans Byte Channel" @toc "menu" * LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany * Running EazyBBS V2.11 * Andreas Geist, Sysop Usenet: andreas@lbcmbx.in-berlin.de 24 hrs - 7 days Line 1: 49-30-8110060 USR DS 16.8 Line 2: 49-30-8122442 USR DS 16.8 Login as User: "amiga", Passwd: "report" @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-56 "Stingray Database BBS" @toc "menu" * STINGRAY DATABASE * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany * Running FastCall * Bernd Mienert, Sysop EMail: sysop@sting-db.zer.sub.org.dbp.de +49 208 496807 HST-Dual 24hrs - 7 days Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany @endnode -------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-57 "T.B.P. Video Slate" @toc "menu" * T.B.P. VIDEO SLATE * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site An Amiga dedicated BBS for All * Running Skyline 1.3.2 * Mark E Davidson, Sysop 24 hrs - 7 days 201-586-3623 USR 14.4 HST Rockaway, New Jersey Full Skypix menus + normal and ansi menu sets. Instant Access to all. Download on the first call. Hardware: Amiga 500 Tower custom at 14 MHz, 350 Meg maxtor, 125 Meg SCSI Maxtor, 125 Meg IDE Maxtor, Double Speed CD rom, 9 meg RAM @endnode -------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-58 "Amiga Central" @toc "menu" * AMIGA CENTRAL! * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site CNet Amiga Support Site * Running CNet Amiga BBS * Carl Tashian, Sysop Internet mail: root@amicent.raider.net 615-383-9679 1200-14.4Kbps V.32bis 24 hours - 7 days Nashville, Tennessee Hardware: Amiga 3000 Tower 68030+882@25MHz, 105 meg Quantum, 225 meg Seagate, Zoom 14.4k modem @endnode -------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-59 "Continental Drift" @toc "menu" * CONTINENTAL DRIFT BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running MAXsBBS software (DLG Pro is being delivered!) * Murry Chaffer & Andre Lackman, Sysops +612 9188375 24 hours - 7 days Sydney, Australia @endnode -------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-60 "Guru Meditation: @toc "menu" * GURU MEDITATION * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Spain * Running Remote Access * Javier Frias, SysOp +34-1-383-1317 V.32bis 24 hours - 7days Spain @endnode