@database "ar129.guide" @Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #1.29 -- October 15, 1993" @{" Open Magazine " 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." October 15, 1993 No. 1.29 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// / Winners Don't Use Drugs / /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Copyright © 1993 SkyNet Publications All Rights Reserved A Member Of STR Publishing @endnode @node P2-1 "Where to find Amiga Report" @toc "menu" /// WHERE TO FIND AMIGA REPORT Distribution Sites! -------------------------- 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 BBS " link P2-1-1} .............................Cleveland, Tennessee @{" CLOUD'S CORNER BBS " link P2-1-3} ............................Bremerton, Washington @{" BIOSMATICA BBS " 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 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// / Non-FidoNet Systems / //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// @{" IN THE MEANTIME " link P2-1-2} ...............................Yakima, Washington @{" FREELAND MAINFRAME " link P2-1-50} ..............................Olympia, Washington @{" LAHO BBS " link P2-1-51} ...............................Seinajoki, Finland @{" FALLING BBS " link P2-1-52} ...........................................Norway @{" COMMAND LINE BBS " link P2-1-53} ..................................Toronto, Canada @{" RENDEZVOUS BBS " link P2-1-54} ......................................New Zealand @{" LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL " link P2-1-55} ..........................................Germany @{" DEAD FISH BBS " link P2-1-56} ...........................................?????? @{" STINGRAY DATABASE " link P2-1-57} ...........................Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany @endnode Non-AmigaGuide Users: See the end of this document for numbers to each BBS. ___________________________________________________________________________ /// 10/15/93 Amiga Report 1.29 "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" -------------------------- · The Editor's Desk · CPU Status Report · New Products · FTP Announcements · Dealer Directory · Usenet Reviews · The Humor Department · AR Online · Magic Workbench » GVP's EGS Spectrum Board Reviewed « » Atari's Jaguar Steals 3DO's Thunder « » Delphi Conference with Jim Drew « /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Amiga Report International Online Magazine "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" » FEATURING WEEKLY « Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information Hardware · Software · Corporate · R & D · Imports /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// / DELPHI · PORTAL · FIDO · INTERNET · BIX · AMIGANET / /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// @node P1-1 "From the Editor's Desk" @toc "menu" /// From the Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!" ---------------------- The next generation of video game wars is on! The 3DO is officially out, the CD32 is out in Europe, and due out anyday now in the US, and Atari's Jaguar should be appearing in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and London real soon now. If the marketing of Commodore's and Atari's' entries are any good, the 3DO won't have a prayer. How does a $699 machine compete with a $399 CD32 and $199 Jaguar ($399 after you add the optional CD ROM drive)? Both Atari and Commodore have signed some good names to make games. Interplay, a well-known game maker that had signed up for 3DO develop- ment, took a look at the Jaguar and its developer documentation, and quickly declared the Jaguar to be superior to 3DO in every respect. Word has it that they may not even be a 3DO developer anymore. While the CD32 isn't as advanced as Atari's 64-bit RISC-based Jaguar, or Panasonic's 32-bit RISC-based 3DO, it has the advantage of (1) a reasonable price, and (2) a standard CD ROM drive. This means that it's likely to be the machine of choice for MPEG movies. Just add the optional MPEG board, and you're ready to watch all those movies that are being ported to the compact disc format. I think owners of laser disc players are going to be upset when their format is abandoned in another year or so. This week is Chad Freeman's birthday (Happy Birthday, Chad!), so he's taken the week off from his A.M.I.G.A. column. Jason Compton has also decided to take a break this week, so our big treat is the conference with Jim Drew on Delphi, the maker of Emplant. That's it for this week! Rob @ AR @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P2-2 "AR Staff" @toc "menu" /// The Amiga Report Staff Dedicated to serving you! ---------------------- 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 Delphi: RNILES FidoNet: 1:3407/104 (Private) Internet: rniles@imtired.itm.com Contributing Correspondents =========================== Thomas Baetzler Travis Guy Jeff Wahaus @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P4-1 "Delphi" @toc "menu" /// Delphi: It's Getting Better All The Time! ------------------------------------------ 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 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 Online Electronic Encyclopedia! · Weekly informal conferences (currently Thursdays at 10 pm EST)! DELPHI - It's getting better all the time! @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P1-2 "CPU Status Report" @toc "menu" /// CPU Status Report Late Breaking Industry-Wide News ----------------- ANOTHER VIDEO GAME CONTENDER - It is rumored that 3DO Co. will soon move into the video game market. Sources say that 3DO's Interactive Multiplayer unit is, "faster and more powerful than game machines now on the market". Much attention has been focused on the 3DO system "because of its ability to combine video, audio, text and graphics." One problem that the 3DO system has to overcome is the few games that will be available for it through Christmas. Sources say that "customer decisions on machine purchases usually are based on what games can be played on those machines ... and so far, the software selection for 3DO is slim." The manufacturer says 10 to 20 games will be available for Christmas sales, though more than 150 games are under development. PEN COMPUTER OFFERS WIRELESS NETWORKING CAPABILITIES - Fujitsu Per- sonal Systems Inc. has announced the PadPlus RF, one of the industry's first mobile computers with fully-integrated wireless communications technology. The PadPlus RF is a pen-based mobile computer that allows transparent wireless client/server and peer-to-peer LAN communications. The PadPlus RF incorporates Proxim Inc.'s RangeLAN wireless adapter and radio into its enclosed housing, with a retractable antenna in the upper left corner. The PadPlus RF has the same form-factor and func- tionality as the PoqetPad Plus. The PadPlus RF features a communications range of up to 300 feet with interference immunity made possible by the spread spectrum technology. The PadPlus RF has a burst data rate of 242Kbps and provides users with three full channels. With error correcting hardware and firmware desig- ned to retransmit undelivered data, users will be sure that data is never lost or corrupted. The PadPlus RF is available immediately through FPSI systems integrators and VARs. Preliminary pricing for the PadPlus RF is $2,449. HP CUTS VECTRA PRICES - Word from Los Angeles is Hewlett-Packard Co. is cutting prices of selected Vectra personal computers by up to 14%. APPLE BIG IN ASIA-PACIFIC - Apple Computer Inc.'s bottom line is being given a boost by a tremendous boom in the personal computer market in Asia, according to a top company executive. Reports say that sales of the major Macintosh and PowerBook product lines are higher than the rate of market growth. "Our Asia-Pacific business is growing at a rate of around 50 percent" annually, said Randy Battat, vice president of Apple's Macintosh desktop and PowerBook division. IBM AND PHILIPS UNVEIL OPTICAL DISK DRIVE - Philips Electronics NV and IBM Corp. announced they have formed a joint venture to develop affordably-priced optical disk drives for the computer market. The 3.5- inch IBM MTA-3127 optical disk drive is the first in a series of products aimed at a market for small, high-capacity drives. "We are aiming at a very big market share, by far the biggest," said Philips spokesman Jack Reemers. He explained the disk drive market is currently worth $250 million annually, but forecasts it will grow rapidly to more than $1 billion. INTEL CORP. ANNOUNCES '386 CHIP FOR EMBEDDED PROCESSING MARKET - A new line of '386 chips intended for the embedded processing market will be available in volume in the second quarter of next year, Intel Corp. says. The embedded market includes microwave ovens, consumer electronics, copiers, facsimile machines, telecommunications and other devices in which the tasks are more limited than those of microchip-based PCs. NEW CHIP SPEEDS UP GRAPHICS PROCESSING 30 TIMES - Samples of chips that are said to process graphics 30 times faster than current tech- nology are being sold in samples by Toshiba Corp. Toshiba officials said the LSI (large-scale integration) chip is capable of processing 150,000 polygons -- the basic building blocks of computer graphics -- per second, compared with 5,000 per second for computer graphics workstations now on the market. FUJITSU AND HYUNDAI TO JOINTLY PRODUCE CHIPS - Fujitsu and Hyundai Electronic Industries Co. announced they will jointly produce computer memory chips. Manufacturing will take place in the Hyundai factory in Inchon, South Korea, as well as in Fujitsu's plants in northern Japan and Gresham, Ore. The two companies also said they are considering jointly developing more advanced chips. APPLE DENIES TEXAS MOVE IS IN THE WORKS - Apple Computer is once again denying rumors that say the firm will move some of its operations to Austin, Texas. The company did say, however, that it was planning on moving some of its operations out of California's Silicon Valley. MEGAHERTZ CUTS MODEM COSTS - Megahertz Corp. has reduced prices by as much as 38% on its PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) modems. The price reductions include those on modems with the company's patented XJACK connector system. Those reduced in price range from the XJ1144 14,400/14,400bps data/ fax w/XJACK (reduced to $399 from $599) to the CC324FM 2400/9600bps data/fax (to $239 from $379). ASTRONAUTS TO TEST COMPUTER - The helpfulness of an "intelligent" computer called the Astronaut Science Advisor is to be tested later this month on the next space shuttle mission. The system was designed "to help space travelers increase their productivity and improve the scientific quality of data they collect". Experts at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., say that the computer has four major functions: -:- Diagnosis and trouble-shooting of experiment equipment. -:- Data collection. -:- Management of experimental procedures. -:- Detection of "interesting" information. "Scientists hope the nonhuman assistant will enhance the crew's abi- lity to perform science experiments and reduce reliance on air-to-ground communications," sources said. "If it does, it can play a critical part on longer missions and the space station." NO JAIL TIME FOR 'NASA CRACKER' -- An Australian computerist who authorities say shut down some NASA computers for 24 hours in a 1990 system intrusion has avoided jail time. In Melbourne, the 22-year-old Nahshon Even-Chaim was sentenced to 12 months' jail but was freed immediately by the judge on a good behavior bond. Judge Anthony Smith warned Even-Chaim, who was known in his underground computing circles as "Friend," that he may have to serve the sentence if he breached the $1,000 bond over the coming year. Smith also ordered Even-Chaim to carry out 500 hours of unpaid community work over the next two years. WORDPERFECT CORP. SETTLES SUITS - WordPerfect Corp. says it has set- tled lawsuits against a Canadian bulletin board system operator and a Texas beta-tester it accused of illegally copying and distributing beta versions of its new WordPerfect 6.0 word processor. A statement from the company says the software was first found on a BBS called "California Dreamin" located in Toronto. It was then traced to a beta-tester in Texas, the company said. "Under court authority," says the statement, "U.S. marshals and Royal Canadian Mounted Police, together with company representatives, con- fiscated computer equipment and unauthorized copies of the program from the electronic bulletin board operator and from the beta-test site." This was WordPerfect Corp.'s first direct action against a beta- tester, though the publisher previously has taken actions against pirate BBSes through the Business Software Alliance of which WordPerfect Corp. is a founding member. @endnode ______________________________________________________________ @node P5-1 "ScreenSelect v2.1" @toc "menu" ScreenSelect 2.1 available from Aminet TITLE ScreenSelect - Commodity to change screen orders + Window AutoActivator. VERSION 2.1 AUTHOR Markus Aalto Internet address: s37732v@vipunen.hut.fi DESCRIPTION Commodity program to change frontmost screen by selecting the screen name from ListView gadget. Also has a customisable hotkeys for different screens and selection of new Default Public Screen, etc... NEW FEATURES Several bugfixes and code cleanups. Also features cursorkey support in listview. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS KS 2.04 or later. HOST NAME Aminet ftp sites. For example wuarchive.wustl.edu or ftp.luth.se. DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/os20/cdity/ FILE NAMES ScreenSelect_2.1.lha PRICE Free! DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely distributable. Copyrighted (c) by Markus Aalto. @endnode ------------------------------ @node P5-2 "SysLog v1.7" @toc "menu" SysLog 1.7 Available for FTP TITLE SysLog -- Amiga system log daemon VERSION Version 1.7 AUTHOR The original author is unknown. However, Amiga specific stuff, enhancements and docs by Peter Simons . DESCRIPTION SysLog is a set of subroutines designed to help you to debug your programs. Several concepts for debugging output exist (one of them is the debug.lib, released by Commodore) and all of them have a few advantages and disadvantages. SysLog consists of two parts: A link library, containing the routines your programm should call, and a daemon, handling the debugging output. If your program jumps into the log-routine, an exec message is sent to the daemon's port and control is handed back to the program immediatly. The daemon will receive the message and will print it out to the standard output it has been started from or to one or more logfiles. Thanks to this concept, the to-be-debugged program does not have to perform the logging itself. The big advantage of SysLog is that all programs compiled with the debugging information use one logfile/output for their messages in cronological order. So, you can exactly determine what happened in what order. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS none HOST NAME Any Aminet host, i.e. ftp.uni-kl.de (131.246.9.95). DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/dev/debug FILE NAMES Syslog1_7.LHA Syslog1_7.readme DISTRIBUTABILITY SysLog is freely distributable. @endnode ------------------------------ @node P5-3 "YAK v1.54" @toc "menu" Yak 1.54 available for FTP TITLE Yak -- multi-purpose commodity VERSION 1.54 AUTHORS Gael Marziou and previously Martin W. Scott E-mail address: gael@gnlab030.grenoble.hp.com DESCRIPTION Yak stands for "Yet Another Kommodity" (never was any good at spelling), and is a mouse/window manipulation program along the same lines as DMouse, KCommodity and lets you activate screens and windows and insert the local date. It offers more than the AutoPoint Commodore standard commodity and it's only 28 Kb long! FEATURES A lot! Among them : AutoPoint, Autoactivation of windows, extensible hotkey system (like FKey's) with a lot of different actions SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS OS release 2.04 or newer is required; Yak has been tested with OS releases through 3.0. UPDATE This is a small update to Yak 1.53, it contains : - a german catalog (Thanks Olaf Gschweng) - a better support for localization with error messages now localized - a tooltype LANGUAGE - a 'no click' for floppy drives - code size has been greatly reduced by 10 Kb ! HOST NAME Software has been uploaded to the Aminet Site: wuarchive.wustl.edu 128.252.135.4 and will be readily available on other Aminet sites. DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/os20/cdity FILE NAME yak154.lha PRICE There is no charge for use of this software. DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely distributable as long as the contents of the archive are kept intact. OTHER E-mail address for bug reports and fixes: gael@gnlab030.grenoble.hp.com @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-3 "Online Weekly" @toc "menu" /// ONLINE WEEKLY Amiga Report Online The lines are buzzing! --------------------------------- From Usenet's Comp.Sys.Amiga.Misc Newsgroup ------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc Path: vanbc.wimsey.com!deep.rsoft.bc.ca!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtef sd.com!uunet!majipoor.cygnus.com!fnf From: fnf@cygnus.com (Fred Fish) Subject: Sneak preview of first monthly CD-ROM Message-ID: Organization: Amiga Library Services Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 05:29:26 GMT Lines: 191 Sneak Preview of My First Monthly CD-ROM Disk (Fred Fish -- 10/7/93) Because I am getting close to the point of being ready generate the master for the first monthly CD-ROM, I figured this was a good time to let people know what it's status is, and provide a sneak preview of what the disk can be expected to contain. I don't expect any major changes at this point, so this information ought to pretty accurately reflect what the actual CD-ROM will contain. There's a lot of info in this message, so here is a quick summary: * This first CD-ROM represents the efforts of two people working almost full time for more than a month. * I've moved, so I have a new address and phone number. * I'm expecting to have shipable CD-ROM's about Oct 20th or so. * The CD-ROM will contain the contents of floppy disks 600-930. * The CD-ROM contains 84Mb of new material, 150Mb of useful tools including gcc 2.4.5, emacs 18.59, PasTex, etc, and 404 Mb of material from old floppy distributions. * All of the source to the supplied GNU binaries is provided and has been personally used by me to build the supplied binaries, using the GNU compiler on this CD-ROM (except GNU emacs). * You must order *now* if you wish to reserve a copy. * The next monthly CD-ROM will be due out about the last week in November or the first week in December. I'VE MOVED ---------- Because I had to spend a couple weeks at the end of September moving to a new residence, my schedule for the first monthly CD-ROM has slipped by about that amount. I'm currently projecting releasing the master to production about Oct 15th, and having shippable CD-ROM's shortly after that. I've been told it should only take a few days to do the actual CD-ROM production. Note that my address and phone number have changed. The new contact information is: Amiga Library Services 610 N. Alma School Road, Suite 18 Chandler, AZ 85224-3687 U.S.A. voice/FAX: (602) 917-0917 STRUCTURE OF THE CD-ROM ----------------------- The current structure of the CD-ROM closely follows the initial concept for the monthly CD-ROM's, being divided into roughly three sections: (1) New material, which includes the material from the new unreleased floppy disks as well as material which does not appear in the floppy distribution, (2) useful utilities that can be used directly off the CD-ROM if desired, thus freeing up the corresponding amount of hard disk space, and (3) older material from previous released floppy disks or CD-ROM's. The portion of the disk dedicated to new material that I've not previously published on a CD-ROM or floppy disk is 84Mb, broken down as follows: 7Mb Archived (bbs ready) contents of disks 911-930 16Mb Unarchived (ready-to-run) contents of disks 911-930 21Mb Archived "new material" not in floppy distribution 40Mb Unarchived "new material" not in floppy distribution The portion of the disk dedicated to a bunch of useful tools like GNU utilities, TeX with lots of fonts, and other interesting software that will be updated on a monthly basis, is 150Mb, broken down as follows: 3Mb Reviews of Amiga software and hardware 4Mb Full BSD source for supplied BSD executables. 8Mb Binary executables, libraries, and other "runtime" things. 10Mb Runtime support stuff for GNU emacs and GNU C/C++ 14Mb Distributions of various small utilities and libraries. 33Mb PasTeX source, fonts, binaries, etc. 78Mb Full GNU source for supplied GNU executables. The portion of the disk dedicated to old material is 404Mb, broken down as follows: 257Mb Unarchived contents of floppy disks 600-910. 147Mb Archived (bbs-ready) contents of floppy disks 600-910. GNU CODE -------- Here are the current GNU distributions which are included in both source and binary form. In most cases, they are the very latest distributions ftp'd directly from the FSF machines and compiled with the version of gcc included on this CD-ROM. I have personally compiled all of the GNU binaries supplied on this CD-ROM, to verify that the compiler (version 2.4.5) is solid and that the binaries are in fact recreatable from the supplied source code. bc diffutils flex grep make tar binutils doschk gas gzip patch termcap bison emacs gcc indent perl texinfo cpio fileutils gdbm ispell sed textutils dc find gmp m4 shellutils uuencode Here is an "ls -C" of the binary directory which can be added to your path to make all these utilities usable directly off the CD-ROM, once it is mounted: AD2HT bc doschk indent paste test ARTM bison du info patch texi2dvi AZap brik echo install pathchk texindex AmigaGuide bsd-make egrep ispell pr touch DiskSalv bsplit emacs join printenv tr ExpungeXRef c++ env ld printf true Installer cat etags lha protoize unexpand LHArc chgrp expand ln ranlib uniq LHWarp chksum expr locate rm unprotoize LoadXRef chmod false logname rmdir uudecode MKProto chown fgrep look sdiff uuencode MuchMore cksum find ls sed v NewZAP cmp flex m4 sh vdir PerfMeter comm flushlibs make size wc RSys cp fold makeinfo sleep whoami SD cpio g++ mg sort xargs SuperDuper csplit gcc mkdir split yes SysInfo cut gccv mkfifo strip zcat WDisplay d gdir mknod sum zoo Xoper dc grep mv tac [ dd gunzip nice tail ar diff gzip nl tapemon as diff3 head nm tar basename dirname id od tee CONTENTS OF FLOPPY DISKS 600-930 -------------------------------- Because this is the first monthly CD-ROM, there are no previous monthly CD-ROM's from which to replicate new material from previous months. I've elected to use the contents of floppy disks 600-910 to fill that portion of the CD-ROM. The next monthly CD-ROM will contain the new material from the first one, which will squeeze out a substantial number of the older disks, probably 600-700. Then the next monthly after that will contain the new material from both of the previous monthly disks, squeezing out another batch of older disks, etc. ORDERING INFORMATION -------------------- If you wish to reserve a copy of this first monthly CD-ROM (and get the lower price for preordered copies) you must order *now*, since your order must reach me before I have to tell the CD-ROM production house how many CD-ROM's to cut. Orders received after that will be filled on a first come first served basis from the extra CD-ROM's produced, and those few CD-ROM's will cost 50% more. The current pricing for preordered copies is $19.95 per CD-ROM plus $3 shipping and handling to USA/Canada/Mexico, $5 shipping and handling to other destinations via small packet airmail. For orders received after the master disk is released to production about Oct 15th, the price is $29.95 per CD-ROM, with the same cost for shipping and handling as preordered CD-ROM's. You can FAX in an order to (602) 917-0917 if you wish, and pay with VISA or MasterCard, but there is a $50 minimum on such orders because of the way I have to process them. If you want copies of the 6 page description of the CD-ROM distribution that was posted previously to comp.sys.amiga.announce (and has been slightly updated) send me email and I'll email it back to you. NEXT MONTHLY CD-ROM ------------------- Getting this first CD-ROM out was a lot more time consuming than originally anticipated. Because of this, not everything was done on this CD-ROM that I wanted to get accomplished. Since there is still lots of leftover work to be done for the next CD-ROM, it is anticipated that it will follow about 5-6 weeks after this first one. Eventually, after two or three CD-ROM's, the distribution will stabilize to a monthly interval. -Fred ------------------------------ From FidoNet's Amiga International Echo --------------------------------------- Area: AMIGA Date: 9 Oct 93 21:22:11 From: William Jones (1:348/706.0) To : All Subj: READ THIS! Well...here's some interesting news. A few months back, I purcased a game called Lemmings II. Now, I know I could have got a pirated copy, but I feel I should support the software houses that support the Amiga. The least I can do, I feel. So I recently exchanged my A1200 +HD, for the one I owned previously had occassional weird flickers in DBLNTSC, which I thought were normal until I found out otherwise from fellow 1200 owners. So what is the point of my story? When I went to install Lemmings II to my hard drive, IT ERASED ITSELF. It read "Icon x, deleting install, deleting install.info". And the game will NOT boot off of floppy. I can see this as NOTHING but an attempt to "punish" a user who tries to install the program on multiple computers. But what of my situation? And of my right to switch computers daily, deleting and re-installing Lemmings II on an hourly basis, between my new A1200s? An absurd case, but as long as it is on one single computer, I see how this cannot be anything but my right. So what it comes down to is this. I BOUGHT a program for $70 CDN funds, and I cannot back it up (the floppies), AND, it can only be installed once. Unaceeptable. There should have at least been a warning that the program would delete itself if you attempted a second install. How on EARTH was I supposed to know? To not even TELL me it would do that is beyond comprehension. I now have NO working copy of Lemmings II. Thanks Psygnosis. Assh*les. ------------------------------ Area: AMIGA Date: 11 Oct 93 19:07:11 From: Grant Cormier (1:229/15.0) To : All Subj: *** ADF Meeting Notice ** *** X-Post Warning *** FROM :RICKAN@GPU.UTCC.UTORONTO.CA SUBJECT:Toronto Showing of CD32, Picasso II and DPS PAR Xref: portnoy comp.sys.amiga.advocacy:68959 comp.sys.amiga.misc:40442 comp.sys.amiga.graphics:19731 Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,comp.sys.amiga.misc,comp.sys.amiga.graphics Path: portnoy!news2.uunet.ca!math.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!utnut!utgpurickan From: rickan@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca (Mark Rickan) Subject: Toronto Showing of CD32, Picasso II and DPS PAR Message-ID: Organization: UTCC Public Access Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1993 20:59:24 GMT Lines: 38 Toronto Area Showing of CD32, Picasso II and DPS PAR ---------------------------------------------------- If you live in the vicinity of Toronto, ON and would be interested in attending one of the first public showings of three of the most exciting new products in the Amiga market, you are invited to attend the November meeting of the Amiga Developers' Forum (ADF). On Sunday, October 17th at 7:30 PM the group is pleased to present the following: o the Amiga CD32 console and MPEG expansion module (CBM) o the Picasso II graphics adaptor (Expert Services) o the Personal Animation Recorder (Digital Processing Systems) Representatives from the respective companies will be on hand to demonstrate these products and answer any questions. While this meeting is traditionally directed towards members of the development community, we would like to extend this invitation to anyone interested in joining us for the evening. Because seating will be limited however, we would appreciate it if you could respond to this message via e-mail to confirm that you will be coming. (Please forward all replies to mrickan@flame2.trentu.ca) The meeting will be held at the following location: Film Clips/Progressive Distributing 25c Mallard Rd. (Yorks Mills & Lawrence) All those who express interest in attending will be mailed a map to clarify the location. Please plan on being punctual. Cheers, Mark *** End of X-Posting *** Hi Everyone, Just thought I'd clear up a few details on this, First, that's Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and Second, you can also E-Mail myself if you need to attend as well and I will pass along your name to be added... ------------------------------ From FidoNet's Amiga Tech Echo ------------------------------ Area: AMY_TECH Date: 5 Oct 93 0:17:00 From: Keith Burby (1:120/414.0) To : All Subj: Amiga/Toaster Sighting I was watching last Thursday's (September 30) episode of "The Rush Limbaugh Show" while reading my latest QWK bundle when I noticed something interesting. About 20 minutes into the show, after the commercials ended and the show came back on, the logo came up in the lower left corner followed by (suprise, surprise) the Video Toaster fade of the woman with the wand that I've seen so often in an area Amiga dealer. Hats off to Multimedia Inc. for their taste in computers. As always. K/B ~~~ ------------------------------ From the local Omaha echo on FidoNet ------------------------------------ Area: OMAHA Date: 7 Oct 93 3:27:34 From: Mike Riddle (1:285/27.0) To : All Subj: EFF Advisory For those "into" "adult" files and .GIFs: ****************************************************************** ////////////// ////////////// ////////////// /// /// /// /////// /////// /////// /// /// /// ////////////// /// /// ****************************************************************** EFFector Online Volume 6 No. 2 10/1/1993 editors@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 -==--==--==-<>-==--==--==- In This Issue: ***VERY IMPORTANT*** Critical Files to Remove from Your BBS [ munch ] ************************************************************ ***VERY IMPORTANT*** Critical Files to Remove from Your BBS ************************************************************ EFF has learned that the following graphic image files have been the subject of a recent federal indictment alleging receipt and possession of child pornography and transportation of obscene materials through interstate commerce. ***EFF STRONGLY ADVISES ALL SYSOPS TO REMOVE THESE FILES FROM THEIR ELECTRONIC BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEMS IMMEDIATELY IN ORDER TO AVOID LEGAL REPERCUSSIONS.*** Please distribute this message widely and quickly. Alleged child pornography files: PPO4@.GIF FAMO3.GIF CHERRYA.GIF CHERRYB.GIF CHERRYC.GIF WC221501.GIF LITSIS.GIF MBON006.JPG MBON007.JPG DS-X-219.GIF INOCNT.JPG KID013.GIF Alleged adult obscenity files: ORGY6.ZIP (A DL FILE) WC1C2332.GIF BAMS-039.JPG ________________________________________ Shari Steele Director of Legal Services Electronic Frontier Foundation 1001 G Street, NW Suite 950 East Washington, DC 20001 202/347-5400 (voice), 202/393-5509 (fax) ssteele@eff.org @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P4-5 "Amiga Report Mailing List" @toc "menu" /// Amiga Report Mailing List ------------------------- Are you tired of waiting for your local BBS or online service to get Amiga Report each week? Have you been spending more money that you want on long distance phone calls to download it from one of our Distribution Sites? 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 Amiga-Report-Request@gnu.ai.mit.edu. Your account must be able to handle mail of any size to ensure an intact copy. For example, GEnie has a limit of about 40K per message, and most of our issues are well over that limit. 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 should be directed to the editor at ROB_G@Delphi.COM. Many thanks to Bob Caron 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. @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-4 "Usenet Review - EGS Spectrum" @toc "menu" /// Usenet Review: EGS Spectrum 28/24 Graphics Card ------------------------------------------------ By Jeff Wahaus (jeff_w1@sfov1.verifone.com) PRODUCT NAME EGS Spectrum 28/24 BRIEF DESCRIPTION The following is a review of GVP's new EGS Spectrum 28/24 graphics board. I've had this board for a little over a week now, so I think that I have a pretty good feel for what its capabilities are. Here are my impressions so far as well as the technical specs. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Great Valley Products, Inc. Address: 637 Clark Ave. King Of Prussia, PA 19406 USA Telelphone: (215) 354-9495 Fax: (215) 337-9922 LIST PRICE The list price of the Spectrum board is $599 for the 2MB version and $499 for the 1MB version. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS Amiga with a Zorro slot. AmigaDOS 2.04 or greater. Minimum of 2 MB of RAM. COPY PROTECTION None. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING My system is an Amiga 2000 with 22MHz 68030/68882 and 12MB of memory, A2320 Display Enhancer, Commodore 1950 Multisync monitor, and various other SCSI disk drives, tape drive, bridge board, etc. INSTALLATION Installation was very simple. I just put the board into a slot, connected the supplied video jumper cable from the output of my Display Enhancer to the Spectrum's input (I really appreciated the supplied cable), and that was it. The software comes on 5 disks and uses Commodore's Installer program. OVERVIEW The performance of the Spectrum board is exceptionally good, and this is with a Zorro II system. I imagine that this board would fly on a Zorro III system (you will need an up-to-date Buster chip for Zorro III though). Scroll speeds on a EGS 640x480 pixel 16-color Workbench are about 8 times faster than when using an equivalent native Amiga mode. Even when using an EGS 800x600 pixel 256-color Workbench, scroll speeds do not substantially degrade. An awesome feature of the Spectrum/EGS system is that you can move windows with their contents intact in real time. This looks really incredible in 24-bit color. In EGS Paint, moving around with an oversized 800x1200 24-bit image was done in real time as well. The image quickly and smoothly scrolled as I moved the windows sliders to reveal the hidden parts of the image. The output of the Spectrum is exceptional. All of the EGS display modes are very crisp. When the native Amiga display modes are passed through (this is handled automatically), they appear as they always did with no noticeable noise or interference from the Spectrum board. I am a little disappointed that the maximum refresh rate for a 800x600 pixel 24-bit screen is 50Hz. I guess you Europeans won't mind this, as you all are used to that 50Hz flicker. I did define a 800x600 pixel 16-bit screen mode at 60Hz and I am pleased with this mode. To be honest, I can't discern much difference between the 16-bit and 24-bit modes; they both look very good. One slight glitch I noticed was that the EGS's cursor produces a short line of horizontal pixels if you moved it to the very top line of the display screen. Not a big problem, though. After reading the manual, I discovered that this may be a result of the way in which the screen mode was defined. Sure enough with a little bit of tweaking, I was able to get rid this problem. THE HARDWARE The board itself looks very clean and professionally designed. There is only 1 jumper, which controls the Force Zorro II option. There are two 512KB RAM chip sockets which were filled on my board as I have the 2MB version. There is also an empty socket in the middle of the board. I would guess that this socket will be used to support the upcoming RTG (ReTargetable Graphics) from Commodore. The board has 2 ports which are accessible from the back of the computer: one is a 9-pin video input, and the other is a 15-pin (SVGA type) video output. One thing worth mentioning is RAM. You will need a lot of it. The Spectrum board uses Fast RAM for storing screens. Chip RAM is not used at all unless you use a native Amiga display mode. For instance, I had both an 800x600x3 Workbench screen and a 736x556x24 EGS screen open and still had 980K of Chip RAM free on a 1MB Chip RAM machine. All EGS screens do use Fast RAM, however. My 12MB machine was constantly getting low on memory (less than 2MB free) when running several programs at once. Granted, I did have a couple of 24-bit images loaded in EGS-Paint and an Image processing program running at the same time. THE SOFTWARE The supplied software includes EGS Paint and several preferences programs: one to set the default EGS Screen Mode, one to set the EGS System Fonts, one to set the Display Colors, and the Display Adjust program for defining and editing screen modes. Another preferences program lets you edit the EGS sprite pointers, although this program constantly crashed on me. And finally, there is a program to select which EGS screen blanker to use. The screen blanker program has several neat blankers to choose from like raindrops, fractals, EGS wave, and others. There are also several utility programs included such as an IFF display program, a clock, an EGS version of the text display program 'More', an EGS Shell (couldn't get this one to work), and a screen/window grabber program which saves EGS displays to an IFF-24 file. There is a program to let you define 24-bit backgrounds for your EGS screen. Several pre-defined backgrounds are provided. In a directory named 'Tools' there is a neat little function plotter program and a Tetris Game. The software was all pretty straightforward: I was up and running without opening the manuals. That is, until I tried actually using some of EGS Paint's features. It took a little getting used to; but with a little help from the manual, I quickly got the gist of it. My impression of EGS Paint is not so favorable, but it does have a few neat features. The author obviously spent a lot of time on the stencil features. They allow you to mark off areas of the image which can/cannot be modified. The stencil area can be captured as a brush or saved to disk. EGS Paint will let you have multiple images open at the same time. Also it will let you have 2 or 4 views of the same image within a window at different magnifications if desired. Overall I would say that EGS Paint still needs quite a bit more work. I haven't really found any bugs with EGS Paint, but there are a few things which need fixing. For instance the window which contains the image being edited constantly updates its title when the mouse moves (even when coordinates have been turned off). Not only does this needlessly slow down painting, but it is very annoying to see the title bar flickering like that. Another thing which I don't like about this program is that when drawing lines with a brush larger than 1 pixel, you get a thin 1 pixel wide representation of where the line will be drawn. I would really like to have the option of seeing the entire thick line drawn before I let go of the mouse button. I know that this would be slow, but they could at least make it an option so that you can see what the line will really look like if you want to. Another dislike about EGS Paint is that when you grab a brush you are given a 1 pixel deep outline image of what the brush looks like until you stamp it down on the image. If the EGS system is fast enough to move entire 24-bit windows with their contents intact in real time then why can't EGS Paint show the full 24-bit brush? Brushes also don't seem to know about using transparent background colors. I could go on and on about what features are missing but I won't. Would I say that EGS Paint is useless? No, not really. It is useful for touching up 24 bit images. It does have a slick interface. But in comparison to a program like Deluxe Paint there is quite a lot missing. One notable capability missing from both EGS Paint and the IFF Viewer program is the ability to read and write JPEG and GIF type images. Currently only IFF is supported. It is a real headache to convert JPEG's to IFF before working with them. And the size of them!!! A 150K JPEG image becomes about 2MB once it's converted to IFF-24. To give GVP credit, they do use external libraries to support file IO. This means all they have to do is release modules for JPEG and GIF in the future and the programs will automatically support them. I have been using HamLab II+ to do the conversions. It's an excellent program that is well worth the modest asking price. I would love direct Spectrum support in this program. Ed, are you listening? Hint. Hint. Moving on to the rest of the software.... A nice program included is the display database/screen mode creator. You can define custom resolutions to add to the display database. It gives you complete control over the Vertical and Horizontal scan rates allowing you to squeeze the most out of you monitor. Compatibility with existing software is good as long as you don't try and use an EGS display mode. This is probably the most disappointing aspect of this package right now. I tried running ProPage 3.1, ProDraw 3.0, and Final Copy II on a 256 color hi-res Workbench screen, and none of these programs would work at all. In fact they crashed and burned. Both ProPage and ProDraw would not even work on their own custom screens if I had the workbench set to an EGS mode of any type. I did have a little luck, however. Most programs which open up a window on the Workbench screen will work. They don't seem to know or care about any extra colors you have over 16 though. Even the Workbench preferences programs won't use more than 16 colors. I'm running Workbench 2.1 by the way. I would really like to see GVP come up with a screen mode promoter program like the Retina graphics board has currently. Programs which use the Display Database do work correctly. I currently have exactly 2 programs which do use the display database (out of thousands). One is the Workbench and the other is Term 3.4. Final Copy II does work on large screens as long as they have 32 colors or less. I guess I'll be needing a lot of software upgrades in the near future. SPECIFICATIONS Zorro II/III autosense (with a "force Zorro II" jumper on board) 32-bit Video Local Bus 1MB or 2MB of DRAM (I got the 2MB version) Maximum pixel display speed: 28M pixels/sec @ 24bits 80M pixels/sec @ 8bits Maximum Display Screen Sizes: 1600x1280 @ 4 bits 1280x1024 @ 8 bits 1024x768 @ 16 bits 800x600 @ 24 bits Zorro Bus to Spectrum bandwidth: Zorro II - 3.5 MB/Sec Zorro III - 12.0 MB/Sec Special Hardware: Hardware Blitter 64x64 pixel sprite (pointer) Video Signal Passthrough (allows all Amiga modes to be displayed with 1 monitor) BUGS The EGS sprite pointer program would not run -- it crashed constantly. I could not get the EGS shell program to work. CONCLUSIONS In retrospect I would say that Spectrum board is a really nice piece of hardware. My complaints with this system are all software related. I think that we can count on the software's improving, knowing GVP's reputation. I feel that they rushed the software to get this board out because of the heavy competition now emerging. Not that all of the software included is all bad. In fact, it all has a very polished look, but it lacks a little substance right now. Once the software catches up, I will be in 24-bit bliss. The opinions expressed above are my own. I am in no way connected with Great Valley Products. I am a software engineer by trade and an artist by heart. -Jeff Wahaus- jeff_w1@verifone.com @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 or through Tymnet from anywhere in North America. 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. Usenet feeds into Portal many times each hour. There are 14 Amiga-specific Usenet newsgroups with hundreds of articles posted every day, including postings by Commodore personnel. Since Usenet is distributed worldwide, your questions and answers can be seen by literally hundreds of thousands of people the same day you post them. · 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 enter "portal" from any Tymnet "please log in:" prompt, USA & Canada 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 or Tymnet 2.50 22.95 32.45 44.95 94.95 2400/9600bps prime Sprint +% or Tymnet 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 and Tymnet available 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. Tymnet 9600bps services 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 P1-5 "Delphi Conference - Jim Drew" @toc "menu" /// Delphi Conference: Jim Drew from Utilities Unlimited ----------------------------------------------------- RNILES> OK, we'll go ahead and start the conference... RNILES> Ok....first We have tonight... RNILES> Jim Drew from Utilities Unlimited.... RNILES> the makers of EMPLANT. RNILES> Jim...first off how about a little about yourself and Utilities Unlimited. .Jim Drew> Well, Utilities Unlimited, Inc. is about 8 years old. We first started in the C64 business (remember those)? We got into the Amiga market in '89 with 'Super-Card Ami', a disk copier.. had bad dealings with ReadySoft over SYBIL and EMPLANT was born. :-) BONAJDROVSKY> Jim, I have a couple of questions... 1st, how soon till 3.2? .Jim Drew> Well, v3.2 is due out soon... we are out of version numbers, so we don't have much choice! :-) BONAJDROVSKY> second, I seem to have some problems with empscsi.device... lockups with big files? are you planning to release a new version soon? .Jim Drew> No.. we don't see this problem. You need to check 'GAL3' on your EMPLANT harware... It will be indentified by having a white label with 'P3-XXXX-Y'.. where 'XXXX' is a date code, and 'Y' is a model number. In your case, the model # is either a 'B' or 'C'. The date code needs to be '5092' (50th week of 1992) or later. If it isn't, contact Utilities Unlimited for an upgrade. BONAJDROVSKY> My EMPLANT is very new... got it 1.5 weeks ago.. I don't think it's outdated gal. Finally, I have a Q about the IBM emulation module. I understand that it will be memory intensive. .. how big PC with 8 megs of FAST? .Jim Drew> I will not be answering any questions about the IBM emulation. At this point, I have instructed our office to provide no information about it until it is ready for shipping. BONAJDROVSKY> ok, thanks. that's all for now. .Jim Drew> As far as your SCSI problem, the only possibility left is termination. Make sure that the LAST SCSI device is terminated and NO other device is... If you are still having problems after you are sure that the cable is ok, and the drive(s) is/are terminated properly, then I would send the board back to us for a replacement. TODDA> Is the Emplant coming out for the A1200? .Jim Drew> Yes. TODDA> Okay, what port will it use, and will I need an accelerator? .Jim Drew> No, you can use the stock A1200. .Jim Drew> It will be PCMCIA based. TODDA> Thanks! That's it. KALEM> Jim, just how compatable is the system with the MAC line for everything from word proccessors to games? And what about the SNES and GENISIS emulation? .Jim Drew> BTW, the unit will also work in a PCMCIA port on a different computer for the ports. .Jim Drew> Well, compatibility is great. We demo PhotoShop, Quark Express, QuickTime movies etc. We know of one program that won't ever work.. Apple's own Disk Copy program... .Jim Drew> we could fix it, but it breaks all of Apple's own rules and nobody really uses it anyways... they use DiskDup+ and other PD programs... .Jim Drew> No information is available at this time (to even us) about the SNES and GENESIS emulation modules.. we are not writing them. KALEM> Sorry, thought I saw it somewhere. DONE .Jim Drew> There will be SNES and GENESIS emulation modules, it is just that we (UUI) are not writing them... two companys in Germany are. KALEM> OOOH! thank you NWASTE> DITTO RNILES> OK while we are waiting for some more hands....What can the Emplant emulate...and what is being possibly planned for the future of emplant? .Jim Drew> MAC. :-) .. PC (386/486), Apple ][+/e (we did demo this one at WOC in Pasadena), Atari 400/800, C64/128, etc, etc. a bunch of stuff... and other 3rd party companys are taking interest in writing modules too... so, EMPLANT will really be taking off. RNILES> Haha...that's good to hear!! OK...grumpa you're next .Jim Drew> Well, the 8 bit emulations will be free to customers.. PC will $99.95. GRUMPA> Can you tell us why anyone would ewant other paltform emulation? I ahvnt got time to run Amiga programs GRUMPA> much less other stuff .Jim Drew> Well, the MAC has some serious application software packages... the best in the world... .Jim Drew> ..many people don't have enough desk space too. .Jim Drew> ...but... .Jim Drew> ... big reason is money... even production studios in Hollywood (I deal with these people daily) are on tight budgets... GRUMPA> Well, in my case, for every meg of hard disk space I would dedicate to other platforms, it cripples my Amiga .Jim Drew> ...ever price a Quadra with all of the goodies? Spendy. Besides, there is that nastalga thing. :-) .Jim Drew> 'Cripples' is probably a poor choice of wording. You are giving your Amiga the power it needs to keeping it alive... GRUMPA> Can EMPLANT emulate a QUADRA?... .Jim Drew> ...the Amiga could die if something is not done to expand it's capabilities. .Jim Drew> Yes, EMPLANT's MAC emulation is a 'generic' MAC. This means that it is ALL MACs made. The speed is dependant on the processor you are using... .Jim Drew> A3000=MACIIci and A4000=Quadra 700. BONAJDROVSKY> Since DiskCopy does not work, can you suggest another method of writing .image files to a disk? .Jim Drew> Use DiskDup+. It is much faster, and more reliable. Apple's Disk Copy program does work with the MAC emulation for READING disks, just not writing them. BONAJDROVSKY> Could you elaborate more on the clipboard support, and multiOS file system that you mentioned on comp.sys.amiga.emulations? .Jim Drew> Well, the Amiga's and the MAC's clipboard will be shareable.. that is, you can cut and paste between the clipboards... .Jim Drew> ..the multi-osFileSystem and multi-os.device will allow ANY Amiga user (even without EMPLANT) to read and write MAC, IBM, and Atari ST disk formats.. this includes... BONAJDROVSKY> sounds HOT! FInally, I have the GVP EGS Spectrum.. will you support 800x600 mode soon? .Jim Drew> ...hard drives, diskettes, etc. The way it is designed, you can add a new DOS type by simply changing the 'datatypes.library'. So, adding support for OS/2's filesystem is very easy. .Jim Drew> No.. you can not use 800x600 at all. I explained this on c.s.a.emulations. .Jim Drew> The EGS and Piccolo boards won't make 832x624 screens... only 800x600... the MAC can't use this size. KALEM> Jim, I saw that the Emplant was available for around 400(?). But without any BIO chips. So, 1) Is it worthless right out of the box? 2) What kind of price will I be spending to get MAC-II System-7 compatibility? (on a stock A1200)... .Jim Drew> You would need a set of ROMs (or a ROM image if you already own a MAC II/x/cx machine), and the MAC system software (which can be downloaded from various FTP sites). KALEM> price? .Jim Drew> The A1200 version will retail for $299.95 and will include both a SCSI interface and a dual serial interface. .Jim Drew> ROMs can be purchased at various prices... KALEM> What about things like analog joystick and cards? .Jim Drew> shop around.. we have had customers pay as little as $90, and as much as $650. .Jim Drew> Analog joysticks for what? KALEM> Sorry, I think a PC question slipped in there :) .Jim Drew> :-) :done: NWASTE> I AM AT A LOSS AS TO THE COST OF A USEFUL SYSTEM HERE. I HAVE A 2000 AND NEED 486 CAPABILITIES NWASTE> I ALSO NEED TO BE ABLE TO USE HARDWARE/SOFTWARE PACKS THAT ARE MAC .Jim Drew> System requirements for MAC emulation: .Jim Drew> 68020 or 68030/040 with MMU (no, the 020 does not need an MMU) .Jim Drew> At least 4 megs of FAST ram (32 bit memory preferred), and MAC 256K ROMs.. .Jim Drew> ..and of course, you'll need the MAC system software. NWASTE> WHAT WOULD THIS COST... .Jim Drew> Unknown... it varies for the different pieces. .Joe> Hello Jim, Joe Slayton from Baltimore Md. here. Are there any hardware revisions coming out soon that we should wait on before purchasing? .Jim Drew> No.. the only change we ever made to the 'hardware' was a change in the SCSI handshaking logic, and that was done last December. I am not making any changes to something that works. :-) .Joe> Does the emplant require any more power from the supply than is usually there? .Jim Drew> No, we use ultra-low power components... real low in fact. Our custom logic uses about the same about of power as a standard LED... .Joe> great! no new power wupply .Joe> about the floppy emulation... .Jim Drew> Also, the board is very well buffered... I never turn the power off before removing or inserting an EMPLANT board in my system. :-) .Joe> will a apple floppy be the simplest solution? .Jim Drew> Apple floppy? .Joe> drive emulation .Jim Drew> Ah.. well, it depends what you are doing. If you have HD floppy drive, you can read/write MAC HD disks... .Joe> I read that there was some song and dance required to use the amiga floppy .Jim Drew> ...if you have low-density MAC disks, you will need either SYBIL (which we do not sell anymore... thank you Japan), or a drive interface and MAC drive. .Joe> oh, ok...that is what I meant . No problems with using a mac floppy drive. .Jim Drew> More like a really bad waltz. :-) The MAC floppy drive (low density) has variable speeds. :done: CABRALC> Hi JJim, how come the Mac roms arent included with the package? .Jim Drew> Because we don't want to get involved with that. I am sure Apple is not happy as it is. :done: BONAJDROVSKY> Jim, since you don't sell SYBIL any more, what will be replacement for it, and when? How about the support for the PD Mac floppy interface? .Jim Drew> We support the PD MAC floppy interface now. Yes, we will have a disk drive (MAC) interface replacing SYBIL that is similar to the PD hack. .Jim Drew> The release date has not been set at this time. .Jim Drew> :done: BONAJDROVSKY> Also, about what you mentioned earlier... the EGS can do ANY resolution between 320x200 and 1600x1280. It simply has to be defined. Could you provide a driver for 832x624 so that we can define a mac screen for it? .Jim Drew> Well, we *tried* to define the screen size of 832x624, but the EGS.library does NOT permit this size to be opened. I am going to have to talk to the programmers in Germany (again) about this. KALEM> Me again :) Is there a relese date on the A1200 Emplant or is it out already? Is it SCSI or SCSI-II? Does it run on WB? Does it play well with other programs (multi-tasking)? RNILES> .Jim Drew> There is no release date set for the PCMCIA version of EMPLANT. We are having problems getting the PCMCIA connectors... .Jim Drew> It is SCSI-I as is the EMPLANT now.. however, the controller is capable of moving 1.75 megs a second quite easily.. so I don't see a problem with speed... yes, it multitasks just like the current EMPLANT MAC emulation. .Jim Drew> ..and you can use the SCSI interface for the Amiga side. .Alan> i was told that there where a lot of problems getting the emplant to work i was wo was wondering if this is ture. .Alan> i ment true?done. .Jim Drew> well, yes and no. I think a lot of the problems were due to our documentation... .Jim Drew> ..we now have a nice 3-ring binder style documentation, and that has ended our problems with installation. :-) RNILES> LOL! .Alan> ok. .Jim Drew> E)electronic M)icro-P)rocessor L)evel A)miga N)ative T)ask (above was an answer to, "What is EMPLANT" NWASTE> What would a 486 emulation cost? .Jim Drew> $99.95. You need no ROMs (we wrote our own BIOS). NWASTE> Including Emplant?.. .Jim Drew> No... that is an emulation 'module'. The EMPLANT system retails from $279.95 to $399.95 depending on the options you want. NWASTE> What are these options? done .Jim Drew> BASIC board - $279.95, OPTION 'A' (dual serial ports w/BASIC) - $349.95.. .Jim Drew> OPTION 'B' (SCSI interface w/BASIC) - $349.95, DELUXE (serial & SCSI w/BASIC) - $399.95. RNILES> Jim: Can these serial ports and such be used on the Amiga side? .Jim Drew> Yes. You can use the SCSI interface and/or the serial ports on the Amiga AS WELL AS with an emulation module... even at the same time. .Joe> Did I read earlier that the GVP spectrum is supported? and is there a preferred video board recommended by Emplant. .Jim Drew> GVP's spectrum is supported... I don't have an official opinion at this time. Commodore has asked me to review the various video boards and choose which board they will base their RTG standard on. I would like to be fair and judge all boards made....before going to Commdore with my opinion. .Joe> I was wondering, I am really interested in getting this setup, but the Retina board doesnt work with games on the original moniotor. .Jim Drew> I guess I do have an opinion... don't get a Retina board for use with EMPLANT. It was the first board we supported and is _by far_ the slowest. Games are unplayable using it. .Joe> Thanks much!...the spectrum looks good on the ad...I hope maybe this will be what I need for the Emplant..and 256plus colors BONAJDROVSKY> Will Mac 3.2 support Amiga internal Parallel port? If not, when can we expect support for it? (Note to .Joe: My EMPLANT works wonderfully with the Spectrum 28/24 it's FAST!) .Jim Drew> No, v3.2 will not include Amiga parallel or serial support. There is no release date set for this support. .Jim Drew> ...BTW... .Jim Drew> ...Amiga parallel and serial support now takes the place of the sound support (bottom of the list of things to do).. but who knows, maybe it will magically appear like s (Jim lost carrier here) RNILES> ooopss...looks like we lost him...we'll wait a bit and see if he gets back BONAJDROVSKY> bummer, that's the only way to print for me, but I'd rather have 32 bit clean first. Also, I have problems with using 14.4 kbaud modem in the emplant serial port. not DSR. Any suggestions? (I'm using a Mac cable.) .Jim Drew> OK... I'm back .Jim Drew> I got bumped... weird. BONAJDROVSKY> ok I have problems with using 14.4 kbaud modem in the emplant serial port. not DSR. Any suggestions? (I'm using a Mac cable.) BONAJDROVSKY> I mean no DTS.. .Jim Drew> Yes, you can't use ANY HIGHER BAUD than 2400...period. We did not write the serial driver. It does not support handshaking at all. BONAJDROVSKY> will you rewrite it, Jim? .Jim Drew> I need to look at that code and add handshaking support. On the MAC side, I lock my modem at 57,600 without any problems and get better CPS rates than my A4000. XIS> hello,do you know what the landmark or norton rateing is on your 486 emulator? done .Jim Drew> Like I mentioned in the beginning of this conference, I am not answering any questions concerning the IBM emulation... .Jim Drew> ..not until it is officially released. Sorry. :done: XIS> ohh I'm sorry KALEM> Jim, what is all this talk about boards? Ok, IF I buy an A1200, the Emplant (when it comes out), the 99.95 486 (that you wrote). Then what else do I need to use programs and play games? KALEM> If that is a PC question then I am done. .Jim Drew> For the MAC emulation (included with ALL EMPLANT systems), you will need MAC 256K ROMs, and MAC system software.. and of course, any software you want to run... .Jim Drew> The PC emulation requires no ROMs, just MS-DOS software. DENM> I was just wondering how long you had to work on Emplant before you were convinced or could convince others that it was possible. .Jim Drew> About 15-20 minutes. :-) .Jim Drew> ... for myself.. DENM> :) .Jim Drew> ... people *still* don't believe it when they see it.. We had one of our MAC IIx machines sitting right next to an A3000/EMPLANT.. system at WOC. People were looking for another MAC under the table, and cables coming from the MAC sitting there connecting to the A3000. :-) DENM> I'm done. Thanks. .Joe> Jim, What is the story on sound support?, is there any? and will that affect sound from a Mac cdrom player hooked up to Emplant .Jim Drew> yes, there is full STEREO sound support. You can play QuickTime movies with sound, games, etc... just like a MAC. No adverse affects on anything. .Joe> This is sounding better every minute... .Joe> Any discount for Delphi users.? heh,heh. DONE .Jim Drew> :done: ;-) BONAJDROVSKY> Jim, since it's patented, I'm sure you won't mind answering this... :-) how did you get the multitasking to work in supervisor mode? (I'm interested in the tech aspects) .Jim Drew> By re-writing all of the code. Basically, once RsrvMem37ii is running, you are now running on OUR multitasking system.. it no longer uses the Amiga's own routines. .Jim Drew> ..basically, the Amiga's routines forbid multitasking while in Supervisor mode... BONAJDROVSKY> are you talking about the Exec's scheduler itself? .Jim Drew> ..in fact, they make sure you can't! So, by re-writing the OS stuff to support task switching while in SuperVisor mode *AND* while our emulation is running... .Jim Drew> .. we can multitask our emulation. No, not the task schedule routines.. the task switching routines themselves. BONAJDROVSKY> hmm.. that's what I suspected. Very slick. I was blown away when I first saw my Ami and Mac run at the same time. :done: .Jim Drew> Thanks. :-) RNILES> Jim: I just want to make sure on this...the Emplant is being sold in Europe with the Amigas correct? .Jim Drew> Well, there is a deal going through right now with Commodore UK that will provide an EMPLANT system and a 3rd party video board with every A4000/040 sold... .Jim Drew> ..this same deal is in the works right now with Commodore US and CEI. RNILES> Ah...that's good to hear...possibly with the A4000s here also? .Jim Drew> Yes, possibly. We are hoping so.. that would mean 40,000+ units a month in the US. RNILES> CBM is selling 40,000 units a month here in the US? .Jim Drew> Of the A4000, yes. RNILES> Ahhh...I like to hear that! .Joe> Jim, there has been alot of talk about a4000's... .Joe> will my a2000 68030 8meg ram be ok? .Jim Drew> Yep. I have an A2500 (2630) with 4 megs of 32 bit memory and 2 megs of 16 bit memory.. it works great! :-) .Joe> Oh, ok....hey...notice you guys are making the other emulator makers look like real goofs...DONE KALEM> I still don't understand the use of the video board. ??? What is it for? .Jim Drew> Well, the MAC has the ability to run in 256 colors, 32000 colors, and 24 bit colors. .Jim Drew> The Amiga (with exception of the AGA machines) is not capable of anything higher than 16 colors. .Jim Drew> ..in HIRES mode. :done: KALEM> won't the 4000 (1200) do that? .Jim Drew> AGA machines can do the 256 color mode, but nothing higher. XIS> Jim do you mean that with your emplant I won't need a 24 bit true color board? .Jim Drew> Well, yes, you would need a 24 bit board if you wanted 24 bit graphics. The EMPLANT hardware has no video capabilities itself. .Jim Drew> We you like me to ASCII-send a complete info sheet? XIS> yes done .Jim Drew> I think it will look a bit odd, but you could always cut out the wraps.. .Jim Drew> Ok.. I will prepare it... .Jim Drew> Ready? .Jim Drew> Here it goes.... Updated June 26th, 1993 EMPLANT received class B FCC verification August 24th, 1992. Information reguarding the product "EMPLANT" from Utilities Unlimited, Inc. This information is freely re-distributable and may be used in any form as long as the contents are not altered. What is EMPLANT? ---------------- EMPLANT is a hardware/software product that is designed to allow the emulation of virtually any computer using the Amiga. A simple software driver and ROM(s) from the computer to emulated are all that is required. Features and software compatibility will depend on the software driver. About the hardware ------------------ The hardware holds the key to emulation speed. Every effort was made to make the hardware virsatile enough that we should never have to upgrade it to handle the emulation of forth comming computer systems. For this reason, we have included components that may never be used, however, this does insure the fact that we are prepared for the future. The MAC series of computers, although different from one another, share the same basic technology. We can replicate this technology by emulating the MAC's custom chips through a reliable hardware system. All timers, interrupts, and clocks are handled on a hardware level so that speed is identical (or even faster) than the real computer being emulated. Support for custom EPROMs, static RAM, and SIMM modules makes our hardware compatible with all existing methods of storing a computer's operating system. This versatility also allows us to create adapter boards if some new method of OS storage becomes available. The EMPLANT hardware has four empty 32 pin ROM/RAM sockets provided for use with operating systems that are stored in DIP format (such as 128K MAC+ ROMs are). These sockets can also be used to store your own utility software in EPROM format. We plan to release a utility package that will be literally "at your fingertips". Another option is to fill the four sockets with static RAMs, giving you up to 2 megs of extra RAM that you could write protect and make auto-booting, which would be handy for floppy-only customers. The hardware comes in two forms: a plug in card that occupies one of the Zoro II/III slots on your A2000/2500/3000, and a plug in card that fits on the expansion bus on your A500/1000. For the A500/1000 version, there is a pass-thru that allows you to plug in your existing equipment. The Apple Nu-Bus expansion ports are not emulated through hardware because they are now RAM-based device drivers which operate faster than a MAC's own hardware. We will be producing NuBus adapter sockets that allow the use of standard MAC NuBus products to work in a Zoro II/III slot. * AVAILABLE HARDWARE OPTIONS * HIGH SPEED MAC SERIAL PORTS/APPLE TALK SUPPORT The MAC serial port is not emulated, it is duplicated - using the exact same standard dual high speed serial interface IC. Apple Talk is completely supported through this port like the MAC, via a 8 pin mini-din connector. This dual high speed serial port can be used on the Amiga side as well, allowing the connection of two serial devices operating independantly. Communication speed on these ports are a maximum of 230.4K baud, which is the speed at which Apple Talk runs. Maximum modem speed is generally limited to 57.6K baud. SCSI INTERFACE A simple, autobooting SCSI controller using NCR53C80 high speed controller IC. Capable of pseudo-DMA transfers up to 1.1 megs per second. Support for up to 7 SCSI devices including CD ROMs, tape backup units, and hand scanners. This SCSI interface can be used on both the Amiga side and the MAC side, independantly or simotaneously. About the MAC II emulation software ------------------------------------ FULL COLOR, MULTITASKING, MAC II EMULATION! Up to 16 colors can be displayed using the standard OCS/ECS Amiga video output, and up to 256 colors can be displayed when using an AGA capable machine. Full color can also be emulated with various 8bit and 24bit video boards. Support for the Retina, Merlin, Picasso II, Piccolo, EGS-28/24 Spectrum, and Rainbow II video boards allowing up to 16 million colors to be displayed!! We are currently working on drivers for other video boards. Full STEREO sound is supported through the Amiga's audio outputs. ALL emulation modules created for the EMPLANT system will share one very important feature...they will multitask with the Amiga's environment. That's right, just pull down the MAC screen, or flip to the back with LEFT-AMIGA-M/N and you still have complete access to your Amiga! ...and the MAC stays running at full speed! Speaking of speed, a 25Mhz A3000 runs the emulation at exactly twice the speed of a *real* MAC IIx computer! The MAC IIx emulator software is relatively simple since the majority of the emulation is done on a hardware level, giving both better compatibility and equally important, emulation speed. The software reads the MAC ROM SIMM module that is installed on the EMPLANT board, dumps the ROM image into a block of memory, and patches the image to run on your Amiga. One intelligent move on the part of Apple was to define "global" variables for their operating system. This makes it relatively simple to move the code around without a lot of hassles. Since the MAC IIx is a 68030 based machine, it has a AMU or PMMU to map memory into various locations. Using a 68020/30/40 with an MMU allows virtually 100% compatibility when running MAC software on the emulator. Another big advantage of having a MMU is the tremendous speed increase of the video display drivers. The MAC's video data is in 'CHUNKY' format, and the Amiga's video data is in 'PLANAR' format. These two formats are completely different, so the emulation converts the MAC's video data into data that the Amiga's display hardware can use....all in real time, thanks to the MMU. Support for virtually ANY SCSI device such as hand scanners, Ethernet cartridges, hard drives, SyQuest units, Magneto-Optical units, DATs, film recorders, CD-ROMs, etc. is provided via the EMPLANT's SCSI port. You can also use AmigaDOS formatted devices (which become MAC formatted by the emulation). Amiga devices such as hard drive partitions, recoverable RAM drives (RD0, RAD, VD0, etc.), and MS-DOS partitions can all be used under the emulation. Up to 14 different devices can be used at the same time. The MAC 400/800K disk format is emulated by using the already successful SYBIL hardware package. High density (1.44mb) floppys are supported via the CBM 1.76mb drives. Future emulation ---------------- Since the EMPLANT's hardware is so versatile, a completely new and different computer can be emulated by just changing the emulation software patch and the ROM(s). MAC QUADRA, Mega ST, and IBM AT (386/486) emulators are planned in the future. Price and availability ---------------------- Current retail price for the basic EMPLANT system is $279 + shipping. Basic EMPLANT system with High speed serial ports/Apple Talk support is $349.00 + shipping. Basic EMPLANT system with high speed SCSI interface is $349.00 + shipping. Deluxe EMPLANT system with both high speed serial ports/Apple Talk support AND high speed SCSI interface is $399 + shipping. All EMPLANT packages described above come with the MAC IIx emulation software and necessary device drivers. The EMPLANT systems are shipping now, however, we are in a back order situation with shipment priority based on the order date. * Product specifications and prices are subject to change without notice * To be placed on a mailing for more information, please contact Utilities Unlimited at: 1641 McCulloch Blvd. Suite #25-124 Lake Havasu City, AZ 86403 (602) 680-9004 Orders Only (602) 453-6407 FAX (602) 680-9006 Technical Support (602) 453-9767 24 hr support BBS Usenet: j.drew@cryo.rain.com j.drew@nesbbx.rain.com GEnie: j.drew2 ..Robert> OK...everyone use your buffers there! ..Robert> Thanks for the info! .Jim Drew> Yikes... please ignore the part about the 'Quadra emulation' planned for the future. As I stated, our emulation is now ALL MACs made. BONAJDROVSKY> Jim, in my EMPLANT manual, I read that the SIMM socket can be used for foreign processors. Could you give us a hint to the possibility of any HARDWARE based emulation modules? .Jim Drew> well, it is possible. We have nothing planned at this time, however, I did not want to leave the hardware un-expandable. ..Robert> OK, one more question from whomever .Jim Drew> I have a comment.. .Jim Drew> The next release of our emulation (v3.19) will have something that we have been missing for quite some time, and possibly the only advantage to having AMAX in the past... .Jim Drew> We have now included bi-directional file transfer ability built right into the emulation. You can transfer data from anywhere to anywhere... .Jim Drew> .. for example, I am able to move files from a MAC connected to my A3000/EMPLANT system via AppleTalk to my A1200 system connected to the A3000 via Parnet. .Jim Drew> There are no headaches that deal with MACBinary files... .Jim Drew> we handle all of the conversion for you. Speaking of conversion... .Jim Drew> In v3.2, there will be conversion modules for the MAC emulation's file transfer system. These modules (information will be made available publically so you can write one yourself)... .Jim Drew> .. will let you convert data AS IT IS TRANSFERRED. For example, you will be able to convert fonts, pictures, and even sound samples... or ANYTHING else you might like! One MAC company is going to port their screen saver... .Jim Drew> ...program's animations using this method.. converting their format to ANIM format. Just wanted to let you guys know... v3.19 will be available on our BBS (and GEnie, Portal, etc.) on Sat. ..Robert> Hahaa...this thing sound super!! KALEM> What is YOUR dream ideal setup for using the Emplant. To get THE MOST out of it! .Jim Drew> Well, the ideal setup (in my opinion) is an A3000 with 16 megs of memory and a Piccolo video board... but, I do like other systems too... especially the 33Mhz 040 board for the A3000. :-) KALEM> The AGA computers are not in your future? .Jim Drew> Well, I have two A4000s... so, I am definately into AGA... but, you asked what the best arrangement is.. .Joe> Thankyou for all your help Jim and the informed answers...I cant wait to get one. Bye everyone. Joe. KALEM> Thank you VERY much. And have a good night. DONE .Jim Drew> .. The A3000's are cheap right now... and you can buy an A3000 and a video board for less than an A4000/030! .Jim Drew> 'nite Joe. Phew! That's the conference! I would really like to thank Jim Drew for coming to the conference and letting us have the chance to ask him these questions. Emplant sounds like something that belongs in an Amiga! This conference is © 1993 by Delphi Internet Services, Inc. Reprinted with permission. @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-6 "Atari's Jaguar VS. 3DO on CBS" @toc "menu" /// Atari's Jaguar steals 3DO's Thunder on CBS This Morning ------------------------------------------------------- By Travis Guy Reprinted from AEO News #1, October 8, 1993 Finally breaking loose from its well crafted veil of mystery, the Atari Jaguar made its national television debut early today on the CBS news program CBS This Morning. Placed squarely in competition with the 3DO system, Atari's new machine looked to be in good shape in the battle of the next generation videogame systems. For those who couldn't see the CBS This Morning piece, the Jag played second fiddle to the 3DO... in terms of placement and air time only. Herb Weisbaum, consumer reporter for KIRO-TV, Seattle, opened his three and a half minute live report with a Panasonic REAL 3DO Multiplayer at his side, telling viewers only that there were two new video game machines coming to market. "Both are better than anything that's ever come before." 3DO was presented as a 32-bit machine that relies on CDs to deliver action and realism. Lots of footage of Crash and Burn, the Panasonic player's pack-in game, played throughout the 3DO segment, interspersed with snippets from other 3DO games. Ken Williams, President of Sierra On-Line said of 3DO, "It's got the horsepower to deliver the games we always dreamed about." 3DO CEO Trip Hawkins demoed PGA Tour Golf, saying it has, "The look and feel of a TV broadcast." Kirkland, Washington's Boy Scout troop 616 was given an opportunity to play with a 3DO machine - the comments from the Scouts ranged from, "It's cool" to "A lot better than Super Nintendo and Genesis." Weisbaum warned, "Right now, 3DO stands alone. But not for long." Suddenly, the familiar Fuji and the ATARI logo appeared on screen - Atari's first direct mention. The Jaguar was presented as "an even more powerful system," a 64-bit machine to sell for "just 250 dollars", and to which a $200 CD-ROM can be added. The Jaguar, a controller, and a CD-ROM unit attached to another Jaguar - all sitting in front of a Jaguar shipping box - were displayed. Cuts from Crescent Galaxy, Cybermorph and Raiden were shown being played: "The first time Jaguar software has been seen on TV. The games are colorful, fast-paced, with lots of action." Atari President Sam Tramiel said, "I love shoot'em up games. That's what people like to play.... The big thing is to have a lot of fun with your software. That's the key." Glenn Rubenstein, a videogame reviewer for the San Francisco Examiner, was seen having been given some time to spend with a Jaguar. "For 250 dollars, I'm very impressed with the Jaguar." Rubenstein laughed, "I would actually spend my own money. Not a lot of journalists would say that about a product, but I would actually go out and buy a Jaguar." Weisbaum closed his report on Atari by saying Rubenstein would have to wait until November for the Jaguar's San Francisco and New York rollout, with national distribution coming in 1994. He then pointed out that 3DO is going to the stores now. For $700. CBS This Morning anchor Harry Smith asked Weisbaum, "Who's going to pay that?" Weisbaum answered, "They [3DO] say people will for brand new technology." He also added that the machines (both 3DO and Jaguar) will be able to connect to digital networks to enable players to play games linked across the country. Harry Smith neatly summed up the segment, "Hot stuff, Herb." Notes: //// From the background I was given, CBS was planning a story on 3DO, when they heard about Atari's Jaguar. After spending 4 hours at Atari on Tuesday, they felt that it was worthy to include it in their story. //// The Atari logo and Fuji shown in the broadcast should be part of what appears when you power up a Jaguar without a cartridge or CD-ROM installed. //// I reached Herb Weisbaum later in the day by phone, and asked him what were his personal impressions on both machines. He declined to take a stand on that, saying, "At this moment, I have trouble playing Pong." //// Atari Corp. also confirmed via phone that the Atari Jaguar will retail for $249. This includes one controller and one pack-in game. //// CBS This Morning airs weekdays on most CBS stations from 7am to 9am (Eastern and Pacific times) and 6am to 8am (Central time). @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P4-3 "Holonet" @toc "menu" /// Holonet: Inexpensive Internet Access ------------------------------------- *** HOLONET *** HoloNet is an easy to use Internet Access BBS. HoloNet is based on custom BBS software which provides an easy to use menu driven interface. HoloNet is ideal for those looking for an easy way to use Internet services. HoloNet does not currently provide UNIX shell access. Services include: o Convenient Access A local call in 850+ cities nationwide. o Online Publications Include USA Today Decisionline, Newsbytes, Datanet Computer News, Eeeekbits, and Boardwatch Magazine. o USENET Averages over 30MB of USENET news per day. The following news readers are available: NN, TIN, and RN. o Internet E-Mail Members have an Internet E-mail address similar to: member@holonet.net o Internet Access Access to telnet, talk, finger, IRC, and FTP. (note: you must comply with the policies of any networks you use) o Single and Multi-player Games Board, card, fantasy, and puzzle games. o Support for Eudora Excellent off-line Macintosh e-mail reader. o UUCP E-mail and USENET feeds Link LAN E-mail systems and BBSes to the Internet. How to try HoloNet for FREE: Telnet: holonet.net Modem: 510-704-1058 (Berkeley, CA) at 1200, 2400, 9600, or 14400 bps. There are free demo numbers nationwide, for an automated response containg a list of access numbers, send e-mail to access@holonet.mailer.net How to get more information: E-mail: info@holonet.net Modem: 510-704-1058 at 1200, 2400, 9600, or 14400bps Voice: 510-704-0160 Fax: 510-704-8019 HoloNet is a service mark of Information Access Technologies, Inc. Copyright © 1992 Information Access Techologies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P1-7 "Usenet Review - Magic Workbench" @toc "menu" /// Usenet Review: Magic Workbench ------------------------------- By Thomas Baetzler (s_walter@irav1.ira.uka.de) PRODUCT NAME MagicWB BRIEF DESCRIPTION A collection of icons to replace the standard Commodore-supplied icons. To quote from MagicWB's ReadMe file: "[This] is not 'just another useless Icon compilation!' It is far more different. [...] This package contains all standard system icons and more (actually 60 different icons) painted in a new completely different style: They look very 3-dimensional, have 8 colors, have gradient fills, feature click-and-push animation if being clicked onto to simulate a pushed button and even more..." AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Martin Huttenloher Address: Parkstr. 11 87645 Schwangau Germany Telephone: ++49 (0)8362-81104 E-mail: xen@nathan.zer.sub.org (Internet) XEN@NATHAN.ZER (Z-Netz) SHAREWARE FEE DM 20.00 or $20.00 (US) SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE If you don't have the AGA chipset, I strongly recommend a flicker fixer or some kind of graphics board that lets you use the Workbench in a flicker free HighRes-Interlaced or better display mode. While MagicWB can be installed on any kind of system, it doesn't look too good on displays with non-proportional pixels. For example, a 640x200 display would make the MagicWB icons look much too tall. To unpack the MagicWB archive, you'll need at least 1.7 megabytes of RAM or hard disk space. Installation might be difficult on floppy-based systems with less than 2 MB of memory and custom Workbench disks. SOFTWARE The MagicWB icons are created using the enhanced AmigaDOS 2.x coloring scheme, so you'll need at least Workbench 2.0. If you want to use one of the fancy backdrop patterns, you'll also need to pick up the "NickPrefs" package by Nicola Salmoria, which can be found on AmigaLibDisk (Fish Disk) 780. COPY PROTECTION None. However, all MagicWB icons are marked with a tooltype ">>>>>>Icon by Martin Hottenloher <<<<<<". MACHINE USED FOR TESTING My test setup includes: o Amiga 2000, ECS chipset, Kickstart 2.04, Workbench 2.1 o Commodore A2630 68030 accelerator with 4 MB of 32-bit memory o Commodore A2320 FlickerFixer o Picasso II Graphics Enhancer o CTX 14" MultiScan Monitor REVIEW I'll admit I had to be forced to try out the MagicWB package. I had been using the normal 4 color HighRes Workbench for ages, and I saw no need to change things around, especially not to some colorful interlaced mode. But then my Picasso II arrived, and peer pressure got the better of me. Now I'm perfectly happy with the new look of my Workbench, and I'm not thinking of switching back any more. The installation should prove no major problem once you've read the "LIKES AND DISLIKES" and "BUGS" sections of this review. Just go ahead and see what you get! Alternatively, you can have a look at Martin's Workbench by clicking on the "Show MagicWB" icon. Modifications include the switch to an interlaced display with eight colors. Also, all of the standard system icons will be replaced with their MagicWB counterparts. The supplied utility "Update Drawers" brings the new "Magic" look to directory structures on other partitions of your system. Once you're done, you will see the new professional look of your Workbench. MagicWB also comes with a large collection of nice-looking backdrops that can be installed on your Workbench. They sure do look nice, but if your Workbench version is lower than 3.0, you need NickPrefs to install them. See "BUGS" on my experiences with this package. You pay for all that glitz with some trade-offs: the MagicWB icons are quite a bit larger in size than the old ones, so they take up much more space on your hard disk. They also take longer to load, since the installation seems to fragment your hard disk a bit. However, this is quickly cured by backing up and restoring the disk, defragmenting it. Alternatively, if you're courageous enough, you might try one of those fancy disk reorganisation programs. Switching from 4 colors non-interlaced to 8 colors interlaced also carries some performance penalties on older systems, since the increased DMA bandwidth required to display such a mode effectively slows down blitter operation. If you wish you had your old fast-scrolling shell back, you might try Bernhard Moellemann's ScreenManager, which lets you open a dedicated public screen in your favourite screen resolution to run your shell(s) on. This shouldn't be a problem on AGA machines! Running MagicWB on the Picasso II graphics board in 800x600 pixel resolution is a pleasure to behold! :-) Another problem of running an interlaced display is the inevitable flicker in the first scan line of the display that my A2320 display enhancer creates. A cheap work-around to this is using the "BorderBlank" commodity which can be found in the subdirectory os20/util on the Aminet ftp sites. I remember having heard of some program that would blank the first line of the display to avoid that problem, but I seem unable to get a pointer to it. Any suggestions? [MODERATOR'S NOTE: Some monitors allow the first line of the display to be raised high enough to be hidden by the monitor border itself. This is another way to solve the problem. I do this at home on my NEC 5fg. - Dan] You might also run into trouble trying to run your collection of hard-disk-installed games. Some commercial games evidently don't like interlaced Workbench displays! You can kludge around this by fixing them with a startup-procedure that explicitly switches back to a non-interlaced screenmode of your choice. The "ScreenMode" preferences program supplies a "Use" keyword that lets you specify a screenmode preferences file to use. Having all those old-style icons lying around on your Workbench tends to be a problem, too. Don't be afraid to try to create your own icons! All you need is IconEdit and some paint package! Maybe Martin Huttenloher will provide generic MagicWB icon layout templates in IFF format in a future release! DOCUMENTATION MagicWB comes with a large, 58 kilobyte ReadMe file, detailing the installation, history and concept of MagicWB. There's also a license agreement and the usual plea for shareware contributions. LIKES AND DISLIKES I don't like the way the MagicWB installation copies its new icons over the existing ones, overwriting your existing tooltypes, and without saving the old icons first. The installation should provide an option to back up the old icons someplace. A suitable method would be to "cd" to the SYS: partition and run something like 1> cd sys: 1> lha -r a old_icons #?.info which recursively collects all existing icon files into an archive. Now, if you want to restore your old icons after you have installed MagicWB, this is done easily by unpacking the archive again: 1> lha x old_icons Copying over the old tooltypes to the new icons is a bit more difficult. This should be handled in an updated version of the installation program. Maybe Martin Hutteloher could try out Stefan Winterstein's "ICONtrol", which can be found on AmigaLibDisk (Fish Disk) 603. This utility lets one replace the image of an existing icon with that from another icon. Giving away a fully operational shareware package shows the author's trust in the Amiga community. However, my personal feeling is that more people would be willing to register if the author made clear what kind of incentives he's offering. You know, I just love to have those shareware registration certificates and specially labeled disks around. :-) While MagicWB includes all of the standard icons, you'll probably discover that there are thousands of old-style icons left on your Workbench. :-( Converting all of them over to the new "Magic" look should prove too hard a task for any single user. In an effort to motivate other users to contribute their custom-made MagicWB icons to a common pool, I've uploaded the archive "MagicIcons.lha" to the directory wb/misc on the Aminet ftp sites. New icons include my favourite commodities like "Tool Manager", "TWA", "ASwarm", "MFR" and "Exploding Layers". COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS I've seen a lot of icon collections in my time, but there's nothing that comes close to MagicWB in quality. BUGS The "Unpack MagicWB" script didn't work properly for me. The dearchiver complained that it had problems creating some files. This is either fixed by unpacking the archive from hand, or by replacing the call of "lhx" in the script with a call of LhA. I experienced random crashes and gurus after installing a full MagicWB. At first I figured it might be a problem with my newly-acquired A2060, the the new release of the Picasso II software, or even a nasty virus. However, by chance I was pointed to the true culprit: > From: Tom Jones <1:147/2020.5@fidonet> > Date: 29 Aug 93 15:23:26 > Newsgroup: fidonet.AMIGA > Message-ID: 3e3af5da%FidoNet@p5.f2020.n147.z1.fidonet.org > Subject: Majic WB gotcha! > I just solved a problem someone else might find interesting to know > about. After installing [MagicWB] my editor started crashing the > whole system, usually guru 8000 0003, when I saved the message. (I first > noticed it using Textra 1.13a as the editor for April point software.) This > had not happened before, now it was every other message. > To cut to the chase, I found one thing that cured it: not using NickPrefs [...] > Tom I'm forwarding a bug report to Nicola Salmoria. [MODERATOR'S NOTE: I have seen many reports on USENET that NickPrefs may cause system crashes, especially under Kickstart 3.0. - Dan] VENDOR SUPPORT Quoting Martin Huttenloher: "Registered users will receive one free update of MagicWB on a specially labeled disk. Further updates will be available for a nominal fee covering postage and handling; i.e., about DM 5 or $5 (US)." WARRANTY None. CONCLUSIONS MagicWB gives your Amiga Workbench that professional look that you've come to envy on systems like NeXT. You really should give it a try. I'd rate it 4.5 stars out of 5. COPYRIGHT NOTICE You can contact me at: fhinf@iraul1.ira.uka.de (until October 1993) s_walter@irav1.ira.uka.de (send CC: to here please) Thomas.Baetzler@mil.ka.sub.org (slow but reliable) Medic BSS, 2:241/7454.2@fidonet (very slow but reliable) Thomas Baetzler, Herrenstr. 62, 76133 Karlsruhe, FRG Voice: ++49 (0)721 29872 Medic BBS: ++49 (0)721 496821 Copyright 1993 Thomas Baetzler. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P4-6 "BIX" @toc "menu" /// BIX - Byte Information Exchange Lots of information! ------------------------------- BIX is the premier online service for computing professionals and enthusiasts. While other online services cater to computer novices, BIX is the place for knowledgeable people to go for answers to tough questions. You're likely to find many others in similar situations who can offer advice, give technical assistance, or point you in the right direction. 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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.pp.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 P2-1-50 "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 "Dead Fish BBS" @toc "menu" * THE DEAD FISH BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Excelsior * Aaron Wald, Sysop (914) 425-6015 V.32bis Supra 24 Hrs 7 Days Internet: dfbbs.linet.org Amiganet 40:714/14.0 @endnode -------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-57 "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 --------------------------------------------