@database "ar209.guide" @Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #2.09 -- March 11, 1994" @{" Turn the Page " link "menu"} _ ____ ___ ______ _______ _ d# ####b g#00 `N##0" _agN#0P0N# d# d## jN## j##F J## _dN0" " d## .#]## _P ##L jN##F ### g#0" .#]## dE_j## # 0## jF ##F j##F j##' ______ dE_j## .0"""N## d" ##L0 ##F 0## 0## "9##F" .0"""5## .dF' ]## jF ##0 ##F ##F `##k d## .dF' j## .g#_ _j##___g#__ ]N _j##L_ _d##L_ `#Nh___g#N' .g#_ _j##__ """"" """"""""""" " """""" """""" """"""" """"" """""" ###### ###### ###### ###### ###### ######## TM ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ### ###### ## ###### ## ### ## International Online Magazine "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information." Copyright 1994 Skynet Publications All Rights Reserved // %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%//%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% March 11, 1994 \\// Issue No. 2.09 %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @endnode @node P2-1 "Where to find Amiga Report" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Where to find Amiga Report %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Click on the button of the BBS nearest you for information on that system. FidoNet Systems --------------- FREQ the filename "AR.LHA" for the most current issue of Amiga Report! @{" OMAHA AMIGANET " link P2-1-9} ..................................Omaha, Nebraska @{" NOVA " link P2-1-1} .............................Cleveland, Tennessee @{" BIOSMATICA " link P2-1-4} .........................................Portugal @{" AMIGA JUNCTION 9 " link P2-1-5} ...................................United Kingdom @{" BITSTREAM BBS " link P2-1-6} ..............................Nelson, New Zealand @{" REALM OF TWILIGHT " link P2-1-7} ..................................Ontario, Canada @{" METNET TRIANGLE " link P2-1-8} ......................Kingston Upon Hull, England @{" AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM " link P2-1-10} ................................Helsinki, Finland @{" RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING " link P2-1-11} ...........................................France @{" GATEWAY BBS " link P2-1-12} ..............................Biloxi, Mississippi @{" TALK CITY " link P2-1-13} ...............................Waukegan, Illinois @{" AMIGA BBS " link P2-1-14} .........................Estado de Mexico, Mexaco @{" THE STYGIAN ABYSS " link P2-1-15} ................................Chicago, Illinois @{" AMIGA DO PC BSS " link P2-1-16} .................................Campinas, Brazil @{" COMM-LINK BBS " link P2-1-17} .......................Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada @{" PHANTOM'S LAIR " link P2-1-18} .......................Glendale Heights, Illinois @{" Tierra-Miga BBS " link P2-1-19} .....................................SanDeigo, Ca @{" MOONLIGHT SONATA DLG " link P2-1-61} .........................................Findland Non-FidoNet Systems ------------------- @{" IN THE MEANTIME " link P2-1-2} ...............................Yakima, Washington @{" FREELAND MAINFRAME " link P2-1-50} ..............................Olympia, Washington @{" LAHO " link P2-1-51} ...............................Seinajoki, Finland @{" FALLING " link P2-1-52} ...........................................Norway @{" COMMAND LINE " link P2-1-53} ..................................Toronto, Canada @{" RENDEZVOUS " link P2-1-54} ......................................New Zealand @{" LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL " link P2-1-55} ..........................................Germany @{" STINGRAY DATABASE " link P2-1-56} ...........................Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany @{" T.B.P. VIDEO SLATE " link P2-1-57} .............................Rockaway, New Jersey @{" AMIGA CENTRAL " link P2-1-58} .............................Nashville, Tennessee @{" CONTINENTAL DRIFT " link P2-1-59} ................................Sydney, Australia @{" GURU MEDITATION " link P2-1-60} ............................................Spain @{" DOOM OF DARKNESS " link P2-1-62} ..................................Bremen, Germany @{" REDEYE BBS " link P2-1-63} ..................................Munich, Germany @endnode @node "menu" "Amiga Report Main Menu" @toc "menu" @{" Columns and Features " link P1} News, Reviews, and More! @{" About AMIGA REPORT " link P2} Staff, Copyright information @{" Dealer Directory " link P3} Amiga Dealer Addresses and Numbers @{" Commercial Online Services " link P4} Sign-Up Information @{" FTP Announcements " link P5} New Files Available for FTP @{" AR Distribution Sites " link P2-1} Where to get AMIGA REPORT ____________________________________________ // | | // %%%%%%%%//%%%%%| Amiga Report International Online Magazine |%%%%%%%//%%%%% %% \\// | Issue No. 2.09 March 11, 1994 | \\// %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%| "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" |%%%%%%%%%%%%%% |____________________________________________| The Editor's Desk Amiga News FTP Announcements Reader Mail Dealer Directory Distribution BBS's UseNet Reviews CSM Update AR's Help Line SPECIAL FEATURES Hey! The Amiga! ............................................ Quint Paul Body Blows Galactic AGA .................................. David Zvekic Making the Amiga Better .................................. Benard Falor StarDust ................................................ Mike Schwager The Settlers ................................................ James Tee %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% @{" DELPHI " link P4-1} @{" PORTAL " link P4-2} @{" FIDO " link P2-1} @{" INTERNET " link P4-5} %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @endnode @node P1-1 "The Editor's Desk" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% The Editor's Desk By Robert Niles %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% It isn't anything new, but it seems this is the week to put some pressure on CBM's marketing division. I hate to become part of the "fad", but I can't say I blame the developers and users of the Amiga. ....And I'm quite sure I'm saying something that the people there at CBM don't already know. CBM!! Are you listening!? Advertise! OK, whew! I'm done. We have a nice new edition with lots of coverage on various subjects. Most of which, the readers have sent in. Either with articles, or rumors, news, and other bits and pieces of Amiga "stuff". Please, by all means, keep it up! One note though. We are not taking any more BBS distro sites. The only ones that will be added from this point, will be from countries who are not currently covered. Also the BBS distro site listing will only be posted in the issues ending in an odd number (ie: 201, 203, 205, etc.) Basically so that we can add more to AR without really increasing the size. Next, we have two pictures included. You need to have the DISPLAY command within your path. We will be going back to the AR_Viewer here in the near future, but currently the author is making a couple changes to it. There's not alot to "chit-chat" about, so I'll let you get on with your reading ....enjoy! @endnode @node P4-1 "Delphi" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Delphi Internet Services -- Your Connection to the World! %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Amiga Report International Online Magazine is available every week in the Amiga SIG on DELPHI. Amiga Report readers are invited to join DELPHI and become a part of the friendly community of Amiga enthusiasts there. SIGNING UP WITH DELPHI ====================== Using a personal computer and modem, members worldwide access DELPHI services via a local phone call JOIN -- DELPHI -------------- Via modem, dial up DELPHI at 1-800-695-4002 then... When connected, press RETURN once or twice and.... At Username: type JOINDELPHI and press RETURN, At Password: type AMIGAREPORT and press RETURN. DELPHI's best plan is the 20/20 plan. It gives you 20 hours each month for the low price of only $19.95! Additional hours are only $1.50 each! This covers 1200, 2400 and even 9600 connections! For more information, and details on other plans, call DELPHI Member Services at 1-800-695-4005 SPECIAL FEATURES ---------------- Complete Internet connection -- Telnet, FTP, IRC, Gopher, E-Mail and more! (Internet option is $3/month extra) SIGs for all types of computers -- Amiga, IBM, Macintosh, Atari, etc. Large file databases! SIGs for hobbies, video games, graphics, and more! Business and world news, stock reports, etc. Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia! DELPHI - It's getting better all the time! @endnode @node P2-2 "AR Staff" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% The Amiga Report Staff %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Editor ====== Robert Niles Portal: RNiles FidoNet: 1:3407/103 Internet: rniles@hebron.connected.com Fax: 509-966-3828 US Mail: P.O. Box 8041 Yakima, Wa 98908 Emulation Editor ================ Jason Compton Internet: jcompton@tcity.com European Editor =============== Jesper Juul Internet: norjj@stud.hum.aau.dk @endnode @node P4-5 "Amiga Report Mailing List" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Amiga Report Maillist List %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% No Official Amiga Report Distribution Site in your local calling area? Are you tired of waiting for your local BBS or online service to get Amiga Report each week? If so, have we got a deal for you! If you have an internet mailing address, you can receive Amiga Report in UUENCODED form each week as soon as the issue is released. To be put on the list, send Email to rniles@hebron.connected.com. Your account must be able to handle mail of any size to ensure an intact copy. For example, many systems have a 100K limit on incoming messages. Many thanks to PORTAL Communications for setting this service up for us! P.S.: Please be sure to include your Email address in the text of your request message, it makes adding it to the list much easier. Thanks! ** IMPORTANT NOTICE: PLEASE be certain your host can accept mail over ** 100K! We have had a lot of bouncebacks recently from systems with a ** 100K size limit for incoming mail. If we get a bounceback with your ** address in it, it will be removed from the list. Thanks! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @endnode @node P1-2 "Amiga News" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Amiga News %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% The A1200 and 1084S to be available again in the U.S. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Medhi Ali President of Commodore International has announced that both the Amiga 1084S monitor and the U.S. version of the Amiga 1200 computer will be again produced by Commodore and available in the United States. Both products have been out of production and unavailable to U.S. customers since late 1993. Larry Boyll, Dealer Sales Manager for Microsphere (A distributer of CBM and video products), stated that the 1084S and the 1942 monitors are expected to be in Microsphere's warehouse as soon as mid-March. value and performance of the 1084S. Also Microsphere will start shipping the A1200 in early April. The 1200 has been extremely popular in Europe, and demand has been quite high for it in the U.S. as well. Microsphere Inc., in business since 1982 has dealt with Commodore and related products for more than ten years. Based in Mishawaka, Indiana. Microsphere has sixty employees and had $24 million in sales in 1993. ASDG Job Opening ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ JOB OPENING: Technical Support Representative (WINDOWS/MAC/SGI/AMIGA) Be a part of one of the most exciting companies in the motion picture and television industries! ASDG, Incorporated, a leading supplier of professional special effects and image processing tools, is seeking to fill a full-time Technical Support Representative position to support our Windows/DOS, Macintosh, SGI, and Amiga software and hardware products. You need to possess excellent phone skills, know how to listen to our users' problems and respond with clear and helpful answers. You need to be organized, responsible, and have a service-oriented mentality. You also need to be willing to learn existing and new products. Video and film knowledge and experience and excellent technical writing skills are pluses. Relocation to Madison, Wisconsin is required. ASDG offers full health benefits, an aggressive profit sharing and pension plan, an excellent work atmosphere, and a chance to be part of one of most exciting special effects and image processing software companies in the industry. 1994 should be another great year for ASDG. We hope you can be a part of it. To respond, either email me a SHORT NOTE describing yourself (WHICH MUST INCLUDE YOUR PHONE NUMBER) or call me at (608) 273-6585. If you email, you run the risk of your mail getting lost, so if you don't hear from me...please call. Jeffrey R. Almasol Technical Support Manager ASDG, Incorporated 925 Stewart Street Madison, WI 53713 (608) 273-6585 (voice) (608) 271-1988 (fax) Amiga CD32 Launched in U.S. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --== Amiga CD32 Launched in U.S. at Intermedia ==-- (San Jose, CA - March 1, 1994) Commodore Business Machines, Inc. today announced at Intermedia the availability of the Amiga CD32 game machine in the United States "The CD32 will be available this spring at mall-based software stores, regional electronics stores, and Amiga dealers throughout the US," says John DiLullo, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Commordore Business Machines, Inc. "We are bundling three excellant games with the CD32: Pinball Fantasies by 21st Century, Wing Commander by Electronic Arts, and Oscar from Microvalue Flair," DiLullo added," and offering a special price on Psygnosis' Microcosm." First launched in Europe this past fall, Commodore reports to have sold over 100,000 units in Europe in just three months prior to Christmas. By outselling Sega four to one and claiming 38% market share of all CD ROM drives sold in the UK (according to the Gallup Weekly Report), the Amiga CD32 has established itself as the undisputed leader of the 32 bit machines. Electronic Gaming Monthly agrees by rating the CD32 higher than Sega CD, 3DO or Jaguar. At a suggested retail price of just $399, the Amiga CD32 features an unbeatable combination of power and affordability. "We challenge anyone to show us a better multimedia player at a better price," says Lew Eggebrecht, Vice President of Engineering for Commodore International. "With 50 titles available today and 100 expected by first ship in the U.S., the Amiga CD32 has wide support among the software development community," says John Campbell, Director of Applications and Technical Support for Commodore International. "The success we have had in Europe has convinced publishers to invest in creating revolutionary new titles for the Amiga CD32," Campbell added. The Amiga CD32 features a 32 bit Motorola 68EC020 Microprocessor with 2MB of memory, 16.7 million colors, and a double speed CD ROM drive built in. The CD32 will play audio CDs, most CDTV discs, and CD32 discs. With the addition of an optional MPEG-1 full motion video module, the CD32 can play MPEG VideoCDs, MovieCDs and Karaoke CDs with up to 74 minytes of better-than-VHS quality video and CD quality audio on a single disc. The suggested retail price of the MPEG module is $249. "The CD ROM drive in the CD32 is a fully multisession compatible Mode 1, Mode 2 Form 1, and Mode 2 Form 2 drive," says Jeffrey Porter, Director, Advanced Technology for Commodore International. "With optional software, the CD32 can read Kodak PhotoCD discs," Porter added. Commodore Business Machines, Inc. based in West Chester, PA is the U.S. subsidary of Commodore Internatrinal Limited. The company manufactures and markets a complete line of Amiga computers and peripherals for the business, consumer, educational, and vertical markets. The company's worldwide installed user base of Amiga computers is approximately 5 million units. Portal Conference with Michael Vunck of Warm and Fuzzy Logic ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Amiga Zone announces yet another special live, online chat conference with prizes! Please join us on Wednesday, March 16, 1994, at 7pm Pacific time (10pm Eastern) for an evening of discussion of LightRave 3.1, with Michael Vunck of Warm and Fuzzy Logic, Inc. LightRave 3.1 allows you to use NewTek's Lightwave 3D (tm) animation system on any Amiga computer, without the Video Toaster(tm), and supports many Amiga graphics cards, native Amiga graphics modes (HAM, etc.) and even supports rendering directly to GVP's ImageFX software (must be purchased separately), as well as both NTSC and PAL video modes. All of LightRave 3.1's significant and new features are detailed in a press release you can read online or download from the Amiga Zone's Press Releases Message Base ("go amiga;0;2;14;136") After the formal Q&A portion of this special chat, Warm and Fuzzy Logic, Inc., will raffle off two copies of LightRave 3.1. You must be present at the live chat to be eligible to win these prizes. Remember: March 16, 1994 "Go chat;2" See you there! Warm and Fuzzy Logic, Inc. 2302 Marriot Road Richmond VA 23229 (804) 285-4304 email: MikeWFL@shell.portal.com @endnode @node P1-3 "Hey! the Amiga!" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Hey What About The Amiga!? by Quint Paul %% %% oper4@ecvax2.ecn.missouri.edu %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Just thought I would add my 2 cents to the pot. You might say there is the big three when it comes to personal computers (Amiga,Mac,& the name sake clone). However if you read anything short of an Amiga only magazine you will find only a rare mention of the Amiga especially when it comes to multimedia. I read several trade journels, Byte magazine, and Amiga World, and you guessed it, no mention of the Amiga except in Amiga World. Well what I would like to get down to is a comparison of likes and dislikes I have about the different platforms. I am currently using a Mac Quatra 660AV to develope some multimedia presentations for the introductory Circuits course here at the Unitversity of Missouri-Columbia. Why the Mac? You are looking at a school that has every kind of computer but an Amiga. Reason 2, my advisor has a Quatra 800 with nice fancy Apple laser printer and color scanner. #3. There is just no convincing my advisor the many benifits of having an Amiga. I tried to show him some stuff I did with Amiga Guide and he just shrugged it off. Well enough said there, it is an awsome set up with 24meg of memory and a 500 meg hardrive not to mention the audio and video digitizing built right into the machine. Also a CD rom which uses a caddy. What I don't like about it is the way you manipulate your windows. If it wasn't for the finder you would be lost. I finally discovered that you could use the finder to force a window to the front. The other way is to click on the window to bring it forward. If there are very many windows open it gets quite tedious to do much of anything. On the Amiga you have the left Amiga plus N or M keys and a nice gadget for pushing the screen back. Just adding a few of the Amigas GUI features to the Mac would make a lot of difference. Other problems, while trying to run some of the applications I had memory problems. It seems most programs need memory assigned to them on startup and do not do any dynamic allocation. Though when you are digitizing Video /Audio with the Fusion recorder it must allocate memory since just a few seconds sucked up about 14 megabytes. However, the quality was rather poor, quite a bit of noise in the picture. Also missing is a shell, no command line though there is a scripting language on the system. Text reading gets a bit tedious at times, there are no text readers that use an interface like 'More'. You are left with a straight scroll bar, not even scrolling text via the mouse like in 'Much More'. Everything seems to be in black & white, quite a boring enviornment to work in when the machine is sitting on top of a 24bit graphics engine. Some color Icons but most are monocrome and look plain. Forbid you would ever want to straighten up your display. There is a cleanup menu item that does nothing when you select it. I have been moving the Icons arround manually which seem to snap to a grid and then hitting Cleanup in hopes they will stay put. But the computer will not do it for you. I think the system saves the configuration you are in when you exit because when I have turned the machine on windows would be open from various folders in the system and you can have Icons laying arround on the Mac equivalant of the Workbench. A few likes, the clipboard works real nice and seems to be integrated into everything. Example, I needed some mathmatical equations for part of my presentation. I used insert object equation from Microsoft Word, created the equations I needed then inserted it into a blank document. Next, I copied it to the clipboard and pasted it into Canvas (paint program). Once in Canvas I pasted the object and was able to stretch and resize it on the fly. Canvas treats everthing pretty much like a structured object, though the display redraw slows down as the number of objects increase. I hope this gives everyone a glimps at the competition and stirs up some ideas for Amiga programs. I am still stuck with my floppy based A500 but, I can do things on my 2 meg machine that would be impossible on a 2 meg Mac or IBM clone. Just the OS on the Quatra was using roughly a 2 meg memory partition. I doubt an A4000 needs 2 meg to run in. Driving the Amiga OS is like driving a smooth running exotic sports car (take your pick). With the competition you get your choice of walking or riding in a covered wagon, not very pleasant no matter how you look at it. I am always getting stirred up about the things I read. The latest is an article I read in IEEE Potentials about Multimedia. Written by a PHD candidate who seemed quite unaware that anything but a Mac or Clone machine exists. He talked about the MPC minimum standard for multimedia, If you had the minimum system you might be able to play an audio CD on your CD rom drive and that would be about it. Well I think thats enough for this bit of text. @endnode @node P1-4 "Call for Votes - CD32" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% CD32 - FIRST CALL FOR VOTES %% %% Adding CD32 Newsgroups to UseNet %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% unmoderated group comp.sys.amiga.cd32 unmoderated group rec.games.video.cd32 Newsgroups line: comp.sys.amiga.cd32 Technical and computing talk for Commodore Amiga CD32. rec.games.video.cd32 Gaming talk, info and help for the Amiga CD32. Please read this entire post before replying. Votes must be received by 23:59:59 GMT, [ *** ] March 1994. This vote is being conducted by a neutral third party. For questions about voting contact Jan Isley . For questions about the proposed groups contact Alan L.M. Buxey CHARTERS comp.sys.amiga.cd32 discussion for the following topics - using CD32 as a slave drive - Add-ons for the CD32 (eg FMV addition) - Technical talk about CD32 - Serious issues for CD32 (piracy etc) rec.games.video.cd32 - Games on the CD32 - Peoples opinions about games out - Hints and tips for games - Rumours/lists of games available/coming Other discussions may occur on these groups as time goes on, CD is a new revolution and only time will tell what can occur. WHY VOTE FOR THESE GROUPS We are just witnessing the sudden birth of the 32-bit CDROM age, the past 4 months have seen a huge explosion in the interest of gaming from the CD. There are huge increases weekly in the numbers of silver discs being sold with games and serious software pressed onto them instead of the latest pop hit...and CD32 - which is lonely without a group is one of the main contenders - both as a game platform and as a pro-serious computing platform. Within the year, you will find >100,000 of CD32 machines will have turned into fully-fledged computer systems thanks to 2 new module add-ons from 3rd party developers - one, the SX1 is already available. Many will also have become slave CD-ROM's. The machine is ALSO an AMIGA - so many computing people will want the comp.* group - also, many of the problems will be amiga type problems (of memory and how the thing works in general) - this can only be dealt with by amiga people - not just games oriented people. The add-on for the A4000 to allow CD32 gaming is still in main development and as this is the main development platform, its release is imminently in the spring - exactly when the cd32 groups will finally form! But there is also no denying that the CD32 isn't a games console either, far from it! So the rec.games.video.cd32 group is also required - to take the CD32 into the main arena for it isn't just a computing system. The CD32 now has 45% of the CDROM market in the UK (this is a true figure from the trade press) against 27% for the PC CDROM (which is dominated by multimedia and serious software). Admittedly, the market on CD32 right now is games - provoking the rec. group but what happens when the serious software comes out for CD32 (ie Wordworth 3, pagestream 3 and many more such titles..- all would utilize CD medium to the full)? So we require the 2 groups, One to put all CD32 bandwidth from all comp.sys.amiga.* groups into one group where it can be seen clearly. Another for just the gamers out there who only want game discussion. HOW TO VOTE Please do not mail this entire post. I know what it says. :-) Erase everything above the top "-=-=-=-" line and erase everything below the bottom "-=-=-=-" line. Do not erase anything between these lines and do not change the group names. Please give your name on the line that asks for it. For each group, place a YES or NO in the brackets next to it to vote for or against it. If you don't want to vote on a particular group, just leave the space blank. Don't worry about spacing of the columns or any quote characters (">") that your reply inserts. Then mail the ballot to: usenet-votes@mathcs.emory.edu Just Replying to this message should work, but check the "To:" line. -=-=-=-=-=- Don't Delete Anything Between These Lines =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Amiga CD32 vote Ballot (Don't remove this marker) Give your real name here: [Your Vote] Group ------------------ [ ] comp.sys.amiga.cd32 [ ] rec.games.video.cd32 -=-=-=-=-=- Don't Delete Anything Between These Lines =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Anything else may be rejected by the automatic vote counting program. The votetaker will respond to your received ballots with a personal acknowledgment by mail - if you do not receive one within several days, try again. It is your responsibility to make sure your vote is registered correctly. Only one vote per person and per account will be counted. Addresses and votes of all voters will be published with the final voting results. -- Jan Isley, jan@bagend.atl.ga.us or mathcs.emory.edu!bagend!jan votes to: usenet-votes@mathcs.emory.edu @endnode @node P1-5 "UseNet Review - Body Blows Galactic - AGA" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% UseNet Review - Body Blows Galactic AGA by DAVID ZVEKIC %% %% cs922097@ariel.cs.yorku.ca %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% PRODUCT NAME Body Blows Galactic - AGA BRIEF DESCRIPTION A beat-em-up game which pits 12 different fighters from 6 different worlds against one another. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Team17 Software Ltd Address: Marwood House, Garden St, Wakefield, West Yorkshire WF1 1DX England Telephone: (0)924 201846 LIST PRICE #29.99 (that's pounds) I paid $22 Canadian for it, but I bought a special copy that used to be given away for free as some promotion for A1200's. My copy didn't have a box, just a plastic bag with 2 disks and a manual. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE AGA obviosly. RAM: 1 MB required. Extra memory above 1 MB will be used to store data during play. SOFTWARE NONE, unless you have an NTSC Amiga. I had to use Chris Hames' Degrader 1.30 to get it to work in PAL. The early startup control doesn't help. Body Blows Galactic works on all versions of the OS. COPY PROTECTION Disk-based (the disk itself cannot be copied with DiskCopy) I couldn't get DMS to copy it either. NOT hard drive installable. Original disks required for use, however no data is ever saved to disk so you can leave them write protected (and are encouraged to do so in the manual). I rate the copy protection as somewhere between Acceptable and Annoying. People used to such things would not be bothered however I'm worried that my original disks might get damaged. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING A4000/030 - NTSC 2 MB Chip RAM + 2MB Fast RAM 1 external 880 k floppy + the standard A4000 disk drives etc. C= 1942 Monitor. Kickstart 3.0, Workbench 3.0 Also used Chris Hames' Degrader 1.30 to switch to PAL mode. Also tried it on: A1200 - NTSC 2 MB Chip RAM + 4 MB Fast RAM GVP SCSI+Fast Ram /w FPU option. Internal Clock C= 1942 Monitor Kickstart 3.0, Workbench 3.0 INSTALLATION None required. Just DO IT! REVIEW When I first arrived at one of my friendly neighborhood Amiga dealers (YES there are several in my town), I wasn't planning on buying anything, in particular. One of my pals was picking up an A4000 which he had on lay away (for almost a year as far as I know). Anyways, I'm not that big on video games in general (anymore), especially the OS non-compliant variety that take over your machine and don't let you multitask or heaven forbid don't install on your hard drive. I did decide to pick up the first issue of Amiga Game Zone magazine (which was damn good, I'll do a review on that later), and while we were about to leave I saw a few games in the discount bin without boxes at significantly reduced prices. Body Blows Galactic was among them. At $22 dollars I figured I couldn't lose, even if it was OS non-compliant. I remember paying (happily I might add) over $50 for Intellivision games and upwards of $80 for Nintendo games. This copy was originally part of a special A1200 promotion, which explained the low price and lack of a box. Anyways, when we returned from the dealership I immedietly tried the disk on my friend's A1200. To my surprise it worked! What didn't surprise me was that the bottom 50 or so scan lines were missing from the screen. This is typical of PAL games brought over here. I wish developers would show more consideration for North American Amiga owners. But I digress. I tried rebooting with the Early Startup Control set to PAL, but that didn't work (or surprise me) either. So with-out having a copy of degrader handy we tried out the game sans the bottom 10% of the screen. The first thing you'll notice when after the game boots is the amazing intro music! I'm talking real cool! Sort of a Techno-House dance tune, with digitized effects and a chorus that occasionaly chants the phrase "Body Blows" in time with the beat. Anime style portraits of the characters then appear one at a time while flying pixels make neat patterns in the backdrop. The title screen itself consists of a beatifully rendered characters which are reflected below as if on water. This rippling water effect is used later on in one of the sceneries where the characters actually fight in an ankle deep rippling pond next to more than 1 animated waterfall. Pressing the fire button brings you to a main menu. Where you get your typical playing options. You can play against the computer or against a friend. In tournament mode you can have either 4 or 8 players using any of the 12 characters (Yes, you can all pick the same character's if you like). There are several game options also. Matches can either be determined in a single round, or by playing a best 2 of 3. A match can have a time limit of 60 or 90 seconds per round or have unlimited time. There are 3 difficulty levels when playing against the computer. There is also a special mercy mode, which prevents the other character from being able to hit you immedietly after you stand up (after being knocked down). Now the fun part: playing the game. The central theme/plot/concept (such as it is) of the game is that 2 characters from Body Blows after defeating the evil Max "decide to take on the universe and challenge the meanest and toughest in an Intergalactic Competition, to become the ultimate Galactic Warrior." Yes it sounds hokey (sp?) but it's an excuse to have a fight. Playability is extremely high. My little 11 year old Nintendo raised brother is bugging me all the time to play Body Blows Galactic. According to him it is better than the SNES Street Fighter II. It's been a while since I've played SNES Street Fighter II, so I don't remember. The graphics are certainly better than SNES SFII. *THAT* I can remember. Several of the worlds in Body Blows Galactic AGA sport full screen parallax. Not only do objects in the scenery scroll left and right but up and down as well when a character jumps. There are also objects which scroll infront of the action as well as behind. One of them is a waist high wire mesh fence or devider which you can actually see through. The paralax is about as good as I've seen in a beat-em-up on a home computer or video game console. It certainly puts SFII or Mortal Kombat for Amiga to shame. (Of course I'm comparing an AGA game to 2 ECS games there). All of the sceneries in Body Blows Galactic are very nice to look at, and lend themselves well to the mood of the game. The joystick control is very responsive, and the moves are easy to learn. There are 20 to 21 moves for each character and Body Blows Galactic gets all of those using only a 1 fire button joystick. There is no keyboard support, so you need at least 1 joystick or 2 for multiple players. Each of the 6 worlds has unique background music which stay comfortably in the background. All of the songs are very well done and the music doesn't steal audio channels from the sound effects (or vice versa it seems). All of the characters make different sounds when they punch, kick or whatnot and this adds greatly to the game. One character Lazer, makes sounds like "hik!" "hook" , "uk" and things along those lines. A friend got very frustrated when I kept catching him with the "hik!" move. This lead to a joke that went along the lines of "all you need is a 'hik!' and everything will be ok!" It was funny at the time! :) I should mention that the AGA version sports more colours, better quality sound, more sound effects and tweaked music over the OCS version. So I can't vouch for the OCS sound. All of the characters have very distinct personalities with all the flavour and atmosphere of any of the other more well known beat-em-ups, without resorting to look-a-likes. i.e. Sub-Zero and Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. You get 12 UNIQUE characters with Body Blows Galactic! DOCUMENTATION The Documentation was adequete. It came in 4 languages and explained how to do the moves and a little history on each of the worlds. It also included a price list for other Team17 games. It was easy to read and mildly interesting for all of the 10 or 15 minutes it took to read. LIKES AND DISLIKES What can I say. It should have been hard drive installable. And it should have been mode promotable to DBLPAL. At least it should provide a means for switching to PAL from NTSC. I know many pirate copies of games include PAL booters. What kind of a message does this send when pirate games are more playable than store bought versions? If there isn't an NTSC version of this game and you are running of your TV in North America, you won't be able to play it. The music is superb. The graphics are superb. The feel and playability is excellent. This is a game I will be proud to show my PC loving, SNES loving and Genesis loving friends (along with Alien Breed II AGA). Someone I know (who has never owned an Amiga) appears to be thinking about getting a CD32 contingent on an NTSC version of this game and Alien Breed 2. Go TEAM17!! Get some North American Support happening! I liked that I didn't need to get a 2 buttom joystick to use all the moves, but at the same time I sort of wish I did cause I'd really like more moves. Only 1 button is used in this game. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS There is no Comparison. Body Blows Galactic is the best beatem up on the Amiga I've ever seen. I've played SFII (which I couldn't stand and is completely un-playable and WAY to fast and jerky on my A4000, not to mention lame sound effects) Mortal Kombat (which I could stand if I had an A500, but I can't stand on an AGA machine even if it had parallax scrolling which it doesn't!), and some other game whose name eludes me but rest assured is the worse of the 4. BUGS If you could call PAL a bug, then it has a bug. VENDOR SUPPORT Haven't had any need to call the vendor, although Team17 does encourage you to call them if you experience problems. WARRANTY I don't think there is a warranty. Although I expect Team17 will replace damage disked at a small cost. But don't quote me on that. CONCLUSIONS Overall I rate Body Blows Galactic a **** out of 5 stars. If it had been hard drive installable, mode promoteable and multitasked I'd have given it 5 out of 5. If you are looking for a beat em up for your Amiga. BUY THIS! This is a damn good game and if you are a fan of this genre you should definitly buy Body Blows Galactic. Final impressions? I've rubbed my left thumb raw from playing Body Blows Galactic! I haven't done that since Double Dribble for the original NES. COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1994 David Zvekic. All rights reserved. Permission is explicitly granted to distribute freely in any manner as long as no modifications apart from spelling or grammatical corrections are made. @endnode @node P1-6 "Making the Amiga Better" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Making the Amiga Better by Bernard Falor %% %% budmeister@cup.portal.com %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% MHO: How we can best help the Amiga in America One of the reasons why the Commodore Amiga computer, despite its technological advantages, is not as popular as the IBM PC or Apple Macintosh is its lack of software support. Although Amiga niche market products for video and animation are in many cases unrivaled, there is this perception that the Amiga just doesn't quite measure up in the other areas, including entertainment. Notice I said PERCEPTION. In marketing, image is everything, and this has produced a catch-22 situation in America. Since we are perceived to have fallen behind, it has become a RISK, instead of an opportunity, for American developers to write new Amiga software. Witness Gold Disk's recent retreat from further development. (At least they are willing to support their existing software!) This, in turn, only DEEPENS the negative perception of the general computer-buying public. A truly vicious cycle. But WAIT a minute! We don't have to be at the mercy of jittery developers or ineffective CBM marketing! WE are Amiga owners, DadGummit, and THAT makes a difference! What I'm going to suggest may curl your hair... so be prepared. If you're happy with the way things are with the Amiga in America, then stop reading now. But if you're fed up with the disrespect and second-class status we've received, I invite you to consider the following ideas. We have too long depended upon others to give us what we want. The time has come for us to make it happen ourselves! With an estimated 4 million amiga users worldwide, we have a GOLD MINE of potential on our side. And YOU ar a vital part of that potential. The Amiga word processor that blows Word Perfect 6.0 out of the water; the Amiga spreadsheet that obliterates Microsoft Excel; the amazing interactive educational applications; the new entertainment programs that will once again turn the non-Amigans green with envy - all of these are just waiting to explode into the marketplace! Unfortunately, they will only continue to wait - in the prison of mere potentiality - until you... yes, You... I said -->YOU<-- decide to write them. I am calling upon the American Amiga community to rise up and fight for their machines: not with a sword, but with a compiler! I'm not talking about shareware here (But a million thanks to those who support us with shareware! register, Register, REGISTER the shareware you use, please!). I'm talking about you, John and Mary Q. Reader, starting your own freelance programming enterprises, software companies, and distribution networks! There'll be loners and two member partnerships. I'm also seeing 4-5 member development teams (who met at a user-group meeting or on a BBS) rising to the occasion, even competing with other local groups, to professionally meet the unmet needs of the Amiga community. Where do you think Electronic Arts, Sierra On-Line, and NewTek came from? Do you think the software company fairy just waved her magic wand, and *POOF*, they suddenly appeared??? Give me a break! They were EACH just a group of people with an idea, once. How hard do you think it is to learn the fundamentals of programming? About as hard as buying THE C PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE by Kernigan and Ritchie for $35, and downloading a shareware compiler. (I recommend DICE from Fred Fish 491 - then regiser!) In two weeks, you'll be ready to buy Commodore's Rom Kernal Reference Manuals. In three months, we'll be seeing your demo programs on BBS's. Within the year, some of those programs will be developed and debugged enough to go version 1 commercial. If you think this is unrealistic, think again! This is highly realistic, if you *want* it bad enough! Did I say C ? Shoot! Write it in Amos, Assembler, E, Blitz Basic, Modula 2, Oberon... ARexx if you must! Just get started!!! If we will rise up out of our dependency mode and take the steps necessary to FLOOD the market with quality Amiga software offerrings, the Amiga will ascend from the depths of obscurity to become a major computing platform contender. If this does NOT happen... Do you understand that even if CBM became marketing Wizards tomorrow; even if our existing developers suddenly focussed on the weak areas; EVEN IF Apple and IBM applications WEREN'T catching up to us in video, animation, and entertainment, we would STILL be in an extremely weak situation? But if we DO awaken, stretch our horizons, and meet this challenge, I'm telling you that even if Commodore never put forth another marketing effort; even if existing developers did nothing new (God Forbid, by the way!); even if Apple and IBM continue to make inroads into our strong areas (highly likely), we could STILL win, due to our sheer size and momentum alone! Let your mind consider, for a few moments, what the impact would be if only five percent of us bought into this vision... The Amiga would literally be born again, in a marketing sense. Listen - we've got the machine... we've got the zeal... And, it's not too late in America yet; we STILL have the opportunity! And while you're at it, develop for PAL mode - And you, our European, Australian, and New Zealand friends, develop for NTSC! The choice is ours: we can continue to whine and cry about lack of support (adding to the vicious cycle), or we, the special people who fell in love with the Amiga, can begin to do the one thing in our power that will significantly make a difference. Thank you for considering my ideas... now get to work! I expect to see your demo stuff on the nets soon. I'll be there! Sincerely, Portal: Budmeister Internet:Budmeiste@cup.portal.com Bernard Falor All trademarks are the property of their respecitve owners. @endnode @node P1-7 "CSM Update" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Commodore Shareholder's Movement - Update %% %% CSM and the CBM Sharholder's Meeting in Nassau %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% March 2, 1994 Nassau, Bahamas - "We are not a rubber stamp board of directors," replied Commodore Chairman Irving Gould to an accusation by computer dealer, Jeffrey Moscow. By this time during the 1993/94 Annual Shareholder Meeting of Commodore International, board members had been repeatedly questioned on counts of inept management - for having led this NYSE issue to a net loss of $356 million for FY93. Only two years earlier, Commodore enjoyed annual net sales in excess of one billion dollars. Shareholder equity is now about (negative) -10.78 per share and Commodore owes over $50 million to banks in 18 different countries. The banks are putting the pressure on Commodore to repay, and Commodore is trying to avoid legal actions. The meeting which was four months overdue was held this March 2nd in its usual location, the exclusive Lyford Cay Club in Nassau, Bahamas where Commodore holds its incorporation. There was no repeat of the scene of November, 1991 when a dissenting shareholder was physically ejected from the meeting, but passions were nonetheless running high. At one point, Moscow asked General Alexander Haig - one of Commodore's five directors - to encourage Irving Gould to step down in the same way he had admirably done so with a certain US President. Someone has to take control, insisted Moscow; nothing is going to improve under current management, he went on. For about a half-hour, Gould, Moscow and shareholders parried comments on Commodore's ailing situation and prospects for recovery. Commodore is an international company which manufacturers the Amiga - the most popular model home computer in Europe and the host to many professional video products in the United States - for instance, the Video Toaster which has revolutionized the video industry. Commodore also recently introduced CD32, a 32-bit game machine which is becoming a hit in Europe. At the annual meeting, shareholders contended that perpetual mistakes, including inadequate supply of products during consecutive Christmas seasons, was responsible for the losses, while Commodore blamed the effects of soft economic conditions in Europe, their largest market. But whatever the cause of Commodore's problems, everyone at the meeting agreed that something needed to be done - perhaps new management or a grass-roots marketing campaign tapping into the enthusiasm of the Commodore base of customers as suggested by Michael Levin. Levin described himself as a spokesperson for these customers - many of whom have and are still actively becoming shareholders. The only thing being asked of Commodore was leadership. The lack of confidence in management was demonstrated by the shareholder defeat of a proposed amendment to Commodore's articles of association. This amendment would eliminate shareholder checks concerning large decisions such as mergers and sales of company assets. Another point raised at the meeting was Commodore's urgent need to resolve its debt and recover credibility so that it can become a player in the emerging interactive television market. In this market, programs and software will be downloaded by service providers into cable-box-like devices sitting on top of peoples' televisions. Commodore, the shareholders insist, must become the supplier of the boxes or the core technology going into compatible boxes supplied by other manufacturers. "On the surface, every one of our objectives was met for the meeting," stated Marc Rifkin, a shareholder attending the meeting with proof of the thousands of customers and shareholders backing his cause. "We don't think our warning fell on deaf ears; we now have an open line to Irving Gould, and he seems willing to listen. That is the critical first step." What happens next? Rifkin replies that either Commodore starts taking the steps necessary to survive, or they don't. The first sign will be whether Commodore brings in someone who can deal with the daunting financial and marketing challenges, as well as working with the Board of Directors. Previous attempts to find such a turn-around artist have ended in debacles, most notably, an ex-Pepsico executive, who cost Commodore a $10 million lawsuit, and current president, Medhi Ali who led Commodore during its recent decline. Commodore Shareholder Movement Announcement, March 2, 1994 We were at the shareholder meeting, and we were not alone. Various Amiga dealers whose livelihood depends on Commodore's success were also in attendance. Some spoke along with us while others silently observed the proceedings. Our message was clear; things are not rosey. Consistent and basic mistakes led Commodore to where it is, and as anyone can plainly see, continuing these mistakes will lead to ruin. They must not miss their one chance to make a comeback through the interactive television market. This relies on partnerships which Commodore has seemed unable to form. The situation is urgent. Commodore must leverage what resources it still has, including the activities of those customers who still carry the torch. Irving Gould met with us after the meeting to discuss what might be done. It seems that Gould is willing to listen and is concerned about the message which is reaching the users. If there is a solution to Commodore's situation, it must start from the top. We hope to offer Gould a solution which he will find favorable and will best benefit the interests of the Commodore shareholders and customers whom we represent. Keep your letters coming. Keep them concise and focus on what things you might do to help. Most importantly, spread the word. The assumption is that Commodore and its computers represent a tradition worth keeping. We can not do this alone. Others must become active leaders in the cause. Commdore Shareholder Movement P.O. Box 8296 Philadelphia, PA 19101 @endnode @node P1-8 "UseNet Review - StarDust" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% UseNet Review - StarDust by Mike Schwager %% %% mschwage@next3.corp.mot.com %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% PRODUCT NAME Stardust, version unknown BRIEF DESCRIPTION Blow up rocks! Asteroids on steroids! Explosions! Chaos! Mayhem! A modern version of the classic "Asteroids". Gameplay fully updated and modernized, with cool graphics and sound. Awful copy protection, though. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Bloodhouse Oy, Ltd. Bloodhouse UK Ltd. Address: P.O. BOX 40 Bromley Lane 00331 Helsinki Chislehurst, Kent BR7 6LH Finland England LIST PRICE $49.95 (US); it can be had for about $27 (US). SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE 1 Meg Agnus required. Must boot in PAL mode. Works fine on my 68000/68030 based, accelerator-equipped machine. Reportedly works well with a basic 68000-based machine. Does not work at all with a 68040-based machine SOFTWARE None. Chris Hames' "Degrader" may come in handy for you, though. Get it from Fish Disk 866. It allows you to boot in PAL mode on an older Amiga like mine. COPY PROTECTION Disk based. Not hard disk installable. This game uses a terrible copy protection track loader scheme. May the programmer never create another program again. The world will be better off. If you want to save a game, it will attempt to save it on disk 2. It comes on 3 disks; all of them are copy protected. Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 500, 4 Megs 32-bit Fast RAM, 1 Meg Chip RAM. CSA MMR 68030 Accelerator w/FPU (ran it on 68000-only mode, too). 2 floppy drives. Supra SCSI controller. 157 Megs of Hard Disk space. AmigaDOS 1.3 INSTALLATION None. SUMMARY On a scale of 1 to 5 stars, with a plus sign for extra credit (same as the comp.sys.amiga.reviews "micro review" format): Action: ***+ Graphics: **** Gameplay: **** Lack of bugs: ** Copy Protection: * Manual: *** Overall: ***+ REVIEW I bought this game from a poor soul who couldn't get it to work on his A4000. Well, it works fine for me, but it took a little hacking about. At first, I tried to get it going on my stock configuration. It ran the introduction just fine, but when it finally got to the main map-screen (where you select your missions), the screen had some horizontal lines spaced regularly down the left 1/3, and it would not respond to any input. So I finally got it to work by doing the A500 Fatter Agnus PAL hack - a hardware switch which allows me to boot in PAL mode. Then I discovered Chris Hames' Degrader program, and that allowed me to boot in PAL mode without any hardware hacking. I guess those of you with newer Amigas don't have to worry about it. But make sure you boot in PAL! Here is what it's like: You put your Disk 1 in and boot up. An intro screen comes on that was shamelessly borrowed from Star Wars. In it, words scroll up telling some silly story about how these rocks are out to destroy the universe. You can press the joystick button to continue on immediately, but watch the whole thing the first time. There's some animation in there that's cool. After a few minutes of disk grinding, an options screen is displayed, and you can make some selections. You can decide if you want the music on or off, how many lives you get (3, 5, or 7), and a few other little details. Then you press the joystick button, and you get to the "map-screen." I will try to describe it... really it's much simpler than what I've been able to write. Your ship is a little sprite. There are 5 rectangles on the screen, each one representing a "world," and your ship is in the rectangle on the upper left. As you move your ship left and right, up and down within the rectangle, you see on the bottom of the screen a brief description of the "level" - its difficulty rating, any special enemy ships present... that sort of thing. So you position your ship over a level you want to go into, and press the joystick button. Your ship spins around, the disks grind, and soon you find yourself in an asteroid field. But such an asteroid field! I don't know how they did these rocks, but they look great. Apparently they're all texture mapped, ray traced images. They really look nice. Your job, of course, is to get rid of them. So you shoot at everything and anything that moves. Just like in real Asteroids, the rocks blow up into smaller and smaller pieces. Finally, you blow away one of the smallest pieces. You may or may not get a little token. The token is labeled, and it gives you bonus things - maybe a faster gun, an extra life, some points, more shields, more "energy" (you lose energy whenever you collide with something), etc. If you die, you lose a little bit of your gun speed. Once you clear a level, you are back on the map screen. There you can select another level. Once all the levels are clear, a mother ship comes to get you. You destroy the mother ship (it's not so easy), and then you are done with that "world". A "W" icon appears on the map screen in your rectangle. You move over to it and press the joystick button. Now you "warp" to the next level: your ship spins around, floppy disks grind, and soon you are heading down some sort of tunnel. Rocks and mines are zooming past you. Your job now is to avoid the mines and avoid or (preferably) destroy the rocks. It's not too hard to get through the tunnel, but it is somewhat hard to get through AND destroy a decent number of rocks. Again, the graphics here are excellent. How did they make those realistic-looking asteroids come towards you and grow gradually larger like that? Nice job. Some levels have weapon transports. If you kill them and pick up the icon that's left, you get different weapons. Some of the weapons have different abilities and/or a higher overall speed. For example, each shot of the basic gun shoots three bullets simultaneously in a small fan arrangement. The next weapon available to you is a bouncer, and though you get only one bullet with each shot, the bullets bounce. It also has a higher available firing rate. The next is the "plasma" gun. I'm not sure yet if it's better or worse or what. It seems like a regular gun, with maybe a higher available firing rate. Eventually you'll die, and Stardust will tell you how horrible you are at playing the game. If you've gotten far enough, when you get back to the options screen you will see a code. Write that down; when you start the game again in the future, you can get to the warp tunnel just prior to the "world" you died in by typing in that code. You will come in with the same number of lives that you had at the time you originally did the warp level. That's nice, so you don't have to start all the lower levels again. DOCUMENTATION A small manual, written in English, Francais, Deutsch, Italiano, and something else - Finnish, I think. It covers the basics, but there's not much necessary for a game like this. I wish it explained what the little numbers on the left side of the screen are for: they appear when you are in the meteor-blasting screen. LIKES AND DISLIKES I like the graphics and the sound. One nice thing about real Asteroids was you could have 5 bullets in the air at once, but they came out as fast as you could shoot. This gave you at least a feeling that in an emergency, if you needed to shoot fast, you could. Stardust's gun is sluggish. What a drag. That's the one gameplay criticism I could make of the game. I like not having to start over all the way after I die. I really, really, really HATE that trackloader (copy protection). I want to be able to install the game on my hard disk, or at least run something from s:startup-sequence before the game comes up (like "pal" by Nico Francois). I wish they'd used key disk copy protection at worst. Disk 2 is used the most, and I wish I could copy it, because it won't last too long the way the game makes it spin constantly. You must un-write-protect one of the disks to save the high scores. I don't like that either. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS As games go, it's pretty good. Compared to the original Asteroids, Stardust's graphics and sound are generations better. The ship is frustrating to control because you just can't always blast off a quick bunch of shots in an emergency, like you could with Asteroids. But in every other respect, Stardust is light-years ahead of Asteroids. BUGS AUUGH! DAMN! Lousy, lousy loader. It's fast enough, sure, but you can't put the game on hard disk, the floppies spin endlessly, and my disks sound like they're going to give birth to a cow. Some guy named "Wanton" was supposed to have programmed the loader. He needs a spanking, badly. And the company deserves a verbal lashing for accepting it. I haven't seen a gross disgusting loader like this in years. Of course, I'm not normally a shoot-em-up gameplayer. But I wonder what the publisher is thinking when they sell software with these "features"? Reportedly does NOT work on the A4000. REQUIRES that you boot in PAL mode. I didn't have a hardware switch on my A500, so I installed one to get it to work. But then I found Degrader, and so I'm a little happier. VENDOR SUPPORT Unknown, for they are in England and I am in Chicago. WARRANTY If your disks go bad, send them to Bloodhouse along with 2.50 pounds UK and they will replace them. At least, that's what they say. CONCLUSIONS Explosions! Destruction! Chaos! Rocks! Stardust takes Asteroids a step further with cool graphics and sounds. After a while you get used to it and the game play still is... pretty good! It's fun. Rating: ***+ AmigaWorld gave this game an "A" rating, but it was a pretty quick review. They didn't even mention the compatibility problems with the Amiga 4000. To me, I can give a product a solid "A" only if it demonstrates consideration for the customer. Stardust's trackloader is a big slap in the face: it's as bad as the game itself is good. COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1994 by Mike Schwager. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to spread this far and wide over the known galaxy. Go ahead and quote bits and pieces of it if you like. Just don't alter its contents, and make sure to credit me with the text. @endnode @node P1-9 "Reader Mail" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Reader Mail %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% From: mjw@PORSCHE.BOLTZ.CS.CMU.EDU (Michael J Witbrock) To: rniles@hebron.connected.com Subject: Please add to "where to get AmigaReport" AR can also be read with Mosaic (in either AmigaGuide or html form). Reading AmigaReport with Mosaic removes the necessity to download it. Simply tell Mosaic to open the following URL: http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/People/mjw/Computer/Amiga/AR/MainPage.html Mosaic for the Amiga can be found on Aminet in directory comm/net, or (using anonymous ftp) on max.physics.sunysb.edu Mosaic for X, Macintosh(tm) and Microsoft Windows(tm) can be found on ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu Michael ============================= From: jdh@dagobah.hczoo.com (Joe Hobson) To: rniles@hebron.connected.com Subject: AR ads.... Status: RO Hey! I guess the personal ads are an ok idea as long as they don't get too long or carried away. The size doesn't matter as I use a high-speed modem. It's just that AR wouldn't be as enjoyable if it got too cluttered. Good luck with the magazine. I think it's looking great so far! I know Robert Glover when he lived here (in chattanooga) when he came up with the idea. I've seen alot of people slam him for abandoning the platorm. I say to each his own! He was known for jumping from system to system at a whim. (Only had his Amiga a year after bailing from Atari.) So it wasn't much of a surprise to us here. But I still had to defend him for the concept and time he put into it and it helped bring the Amiga community closer together. And all on his own time with no profit. (That's what I was trying to get across to the grumpers on FidoNet.) I'm glad he didn't just take it with him and let it die. They should give him that eh? He was gracious enough to hand over AR. I'm also glad that you stepped forward and agreed to takeover. Without support and helpfulness the Amiga community wouldn't be! That's what really sits us aside from the other platforms. Friendly support. We ban together. So good luck with the magazine and I know it's a thankless job and time consuming. And I for one am very greatful and look forward to each issue! Long live the Amiga, it's users, Amiga Report and it's editor!! Whew! Don't know what got into me! :) You know what.. you are free to include the above in an issue of AR if you want. Call it a contribution. ============================= From: dannyman@tcity.com (Dan Howard) To: rniles@hebron.connected.com Subject: Electronic Boutique, CD32 The following I am sending for you to print in Amiga Report if you think it worthwhile; Here is what I found on net, post it everywhere, and call them! *********************************************************************** If you want to see CD32 for sale in your local Electronics Boutique or Walden Software, there is a toll-free number you can call to voice your opinion. Right now, EB is considering carrying CD32 in it's stores but need to hear the publics opinion. All you have to do is call 1-800-800-5166 and they will take your name and address and send your message to their home office. This could help a great deal so hang up your modem and get dialin' ============================= Forwarded by: Peter J Ostrowski From: psychocandy@cup.portal.com (f ray kelly) Subject: freebie! Tired of C= bashing your amiga?? Not advertising it?? Ignoring it?? If you are, call 1-800-258-0533 and tell the person who answers, "I love my amiga and would like the free bumpersticker that is part of the I LOVE MY AMIGA MOVEMENT" This offer is made possible by AMIGAMAN and BILL SMITH as a way for US to advertise the Amiga, since C= doesn't want to! This offer is good til the end of march 1994, limit 1 per person. If you wish to get these in bulk, call them at their customer support number and ask for BILL SMITH to work things out. I assure you, the cost is very low. Please call!! Support the amiga!!! Thank you! ============================= From: UH9311@VicVX1.Vic.UH.EDU Subject: Reply about AR208 good news! To: Rniles@hebron.connected.com I received this reply from the Amiga Report "MS-DOS Blues" article and would like to share it with the rest of the readers. This is news to me and it kinda makes you wonder who made up this idea about making AAA and the earilier chipsets compatible and why there isn't a bronze statue somewhere of this person. I mean this is great news to me! Anyway I asked him if it would be ok to send it to you and he said it was fine but he "won't take responsibility for the content! :-}" so if you can get someone to verify this I imagine it would be just fine. Shane Bumpurs >From: UHOU::IN%"G.Sanderson@ais.gu.edu.au" "George Sanderson" >To: IN%"UH9311@VicVX1.Vic.UH.EDU" >CC: >Subj: cd32 error in AR208 I was reading AmigaReport 2.08 and found this in the MS-DOS Blues section: >> Get AAA out as fast as possible leaning development toward the New >> Generation CD^64 but for goodness sake do whatever possible to make >> someway for it to still play CD32 titles. Anything maybe a AGA >> cartridge or piggyback board or something easy to install. This is >> crutial, if not CD32 user will be ticked and won't upgrade because the >> next generation after AAA will "probably" not run AAA stuff. If you >> can't swing it, at least to a decent upgrade offer for CD32 owners. Any AAA machine - or the CD64, if it ever exists, will be able to play 99% of CD32 games. Even though most of these games use the AGA capabilities, they go through a library called specialfx.library which is basically a hardware independent copper list generator (and other effects). Therefore, when a new chipset is released, a new version of specialfx.library will be made, thus making all "old" software compataible. I think that any CD32 game using post-ECS features is forced to use the specialfx.library due to the cd-developer license. @endnode @node P1-10 "Filling the Gap" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Filling the Gap by Robert Niles %% %% rniles@hebron.connected.com %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% There are many commercial magazines that are quite well known to Amiga users. Here I wanted to talk about two magazines or newsletters that might not be as well known, but deserve the attention of the Amiga community. The first is Geoffrey William's Computer Artist & Videographer Report, which is often presented as "The CAV Report". Geoffrey Williams is a long time writer for the Amiga, and has written articles for several magazines. The CAV Report entails a monthly 6-page newsletter containing the latest news, business forecasts, and helpful advise. Subscribers also receive a monthly disk. Each disk covers something specific on graphics or video. All text is in a hypertext interface, and also includes useful freely distributable software. All set up and easy to use. Quarterly the subscriber will receive HyperMedia Journal. Hypermedia Journal is filled with articles, tutorials, and reviews. Much of which is interactive. (See AR208) I found the CAV Report to be a great addition to the Amiga community. Geoffrey's commentary is insiteful, and truthful. His articles give down to earth news that even those not interested in video related topics can enjoy. The second newsletter is called, XPress - The Amiga CAD newsletter. Like The CAV Report, this newsletter comes both on paper and on disk. XPress is for those of you who don't have a resource into using CAD software on the Amiga. XPress is filled with interesting articles, and is nicely complimented with pictures, which make the tutorials much more interesting and useful. XPress is interesting enough for the professional and the casual user of @{"CAD programs" system "display dynacadd-2d.iff"}. XPress details what you need to do a project, and how to use make the most of what you have. XPress is published quarterly. As stated each issue contains a disk or freely distributable software, sample drawings, demos, @{"IFFs" system "display xcad-world.iff"} and more. I sincerely suggest you take a look into both of these newsletters. Both are extremely well done, and can fill in the gap, where the commercial magazines fail to go. The CAV Report Subscription price: $80/year for 12 printed reports and 17 disks CBP 1833 Verdugo Vista Drive Glendale, CA 90218 Voice or fax: 818-240-9845 XPress Subscription price: $15/year for 4 printed reports and disks Bob Miller-Rhees 8231 NE Paulanna Lane Bainbridge Island, Wa 98110 @endnode @node P1-11 "UseNet Review - The Settlers" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% UseNet Review - The Settlers by James Tee %% %% JTEE@ac.dal.ca %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% PRODUCT NAME The Settlers BRIEF DESCRIPTION A strategic "world construction set" where the player's goal is to colonize land and develop a thriving community. For 1 or 2 players. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Blue Byte Software GmbH Address: Aktienstrabe 62 D-45473 Mulheim Germany LIST PRICE List Price: $49.95 (US) I paid $54 Canadian for it -- about $40 (US). SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE Works on any Amiga 500, 600, 1000, 1200, 2000, 3000, 4000. 1 MB RAM is required. 512K Chip RAM required for PAL users. 1 MB Chip RAM required for NTSC users. Depending on how much RAM your computer has, different game options are enabled. 1 MB Chip RAM and 4 MB Fast RAM allows all sound effects and in-game music, size 1-8 worlds (1200 screens big), and all missions. With 512K Chip RAM and 512K Fast RAM, you get about 25% of the sound effects, no in-game music, a choice of size 1-3 worlds (up to 37 screens big), and all missions. A second mouse is required to play in two-player mode. SOFTWARE Supports Kickstart 1.2, 1.3, 2.0, and higher. Comes on three 880K floppy disks. COPY PROTECTION Look up a set of symbols in the manual. This is a one time lookup every time you load up the game. The symbols are very easy to find in the manual. All three floppy disks are copyable. The program installs on a hard drive. Booting from the original disk is not required. A long intro sequence on disk 1, once seen, can be bypassed by loading off disk 3 (for disk-based users) or selecting the appropriate icon for hard-drive users. Once the game is loaded, the game disks/hard drive is not accessed again because the game is saved into Fast RAM (unless user has only chip ram). I rate the copy protection as "acceptable." MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 2000, 68000 CPU 1MB Chip RAM, 2MB Fast RAM 30MB Hard Drive AmigaDOS 1.3 REVIEW The Settlers is based on the "play god" genre of games like Civilization. The Settlers begins with a charming intro and then the password screen. At the first menu screen, players may choose among 30 missions (which must be passed one at a time before the password to the next mission level is given), 5 tutorials, a demo mode, and normal "design-your-world" gameplay. In "normal" gameplay, action takes place on one of 270 billion worlds chosen by the player with a 16-number combination. There are 10 computer-controlled competitors to choose from. Players can choose from various sized worlds depending on amount of computer memory. After making these choices, a mouseclick on START begins the game. The beginning screen displays a small section of the world. There are mountains, deserts, lakes, hills, and prairie land. Moving around the world is accomplished by moving the mouse while holding down the right mouse button. The Settlers is entirely mouse-driven. Your first task is to find a suitable plot of land (with the help of your land appraiser) to set up your main castle. Opposing computer players do the same; and from then on, it is a race to conquer all of the land. The game is intensely involving. Roads are built leading to proposed buildings the player wishes to be erected. Soon, small settlers come pouring out of the castle to carry out your directions. These are no normal settlers; these small fellows walk around, scratch their heads, carry supplies, and lead simply fascinating lives! So absorbing are the actions of these settlers that I often find myself watching them carry gold or bread from one building to the next, or watching a woodcutter chop down a tree. There can be anywhere from 500 to 64000 0settlers depending on the size of the world. The player is in full control of everything that is built. Supplies may be limited, so the settlers will need to be instructed how to make their own supplies. There is a different settler for every job; for example, there are carriers, ferrymen, construction workers, bakers, farmers, miners, forester, and butchers, to name just a few. Guard-rooms are built to expand the boundaries of the players land, as well as serving as the source of an attack on neighboring rivals. One may choose between 23 buildings to erect and 26 resources/tools to produce. Winning is based on good strategic placement of buildings and road networks. ARMS As in any "land-conquering" game, there are soldiers. They may have 5 different ranks, and the player can control where the best fighters go. OPTIONS There are options enough to satisfy even the most neurotic game player. There is a global map that the player can look at, indicating the presence of roads, the landscape, and the areas occupied by each player. Here the player will notice that the game world is overlapping - that is, a player can proceed in any one direction and he/she will come back to his original location. Other options in the game include many data graphs indicating the success rate of the player versus his opponents in terms of land ownership, fighting success, and total housing assets. Players can choose which resources have precedence and which buildings should be built first. Some of the added options include switching from the in-game music (with half the sound effects as well) to full sound effects, special mouseclick options, and even volume control from the screen. TWO-PLAYER MODE Two players can play The Settlers, either in competition against each other (in combination with other computer players if desired) or as a team working for the same goal. In two-player mode, the main game screen will split in half, giving each player control of his/her half of the screen. Necessary icons are all still there, just squeezed together more to fit in the smaller width. The split screens are a little cramped, though acceptable, myself being used to the nice wide view during one-player mode. DEMO ON AMINET There is a fully playable demo on the Aminet ftp sites, available to users with ftp access. I strongly suggest anyone considering this game to try out the demo first if possible. The demo is similar to the version being sold, except it lacks many of the options, music, some added graphics, any tutorials, any missions (and any documentation for that matter), and of course, any ability to save games. That's the general gist of the game. Hours and hours of absorbing gameplay. There are literally a hundred other touches to the game that I have not discussed here, but I will leave that to the joy of the buyer to explore. DOCUMENTATION The Settlers comes with a full-color reference card depicting all the possible buildings, jobs, resources, and tools. It also comes with a very useful, 135-page instruction booklet. The documentation is of good quality, with helpful icon pictures from the computer screen throughout the booklet, and it also gives a lot of useful strategic hints for how to do well in the game. There is information on how to install the game onto the hard disk. There is a table of contents. I personally found the instructions regarding the second knight menu (displaying morale) to be lacking, leaving me unsure as to which icons on the screen the booklet was referring. The documentation includes notes for beginners who have never heard of the terms "Chip RAM" or "Fast RAM", and for experts of the CLI-Workbench interface. LIKES AND DISLIKES/BUGS Ah - this is my favorite (and most important, IMHO) part - my impression of the game. First, I should note that the game is fully playable without reading the instruction book at all. The game is quite enjoyable when the player jump in and experiments with all the different icons and tools (of course, after having backed up the game). This is a big plus. The fact that the game can hold your attention for months on end is also a big plus (I guess that's one reason why Role Playing Games are so popular). I also like the multitude of options the game offers, the charming in-game music (that repeats every 20 minutes or so), the sheer size of the game, the beautiful graphics, and, most awe-inspiring, the settler-people. I am still in awe over how my 7-year old Amiga can keep track of 8000 little settlers all doing their own thing. Flags wave, water sloshes, and the swoosh of a light breeze can be heard. The sound is excellent (there's simply no end to it). Now the parts that I didn't like. Well, let's just say that Blue Byte never made a true NTSC version of The Settlers (not yet, anyway). Yes, that means that if your video output is normally NTSC, you're going to have to boot into PAL mode using "palboot" (and to do that, you are going to need at least a 1MB Fat Agnus chip). That isn't such a big problem, however. Secondly, when running off floppy disks, the game simply won't recognize disk 2 in drive df1:, not being able to validate the disk. That basically nullifies the need for 2 disk drives. That isn't a problem if you have any Fast RAM in which to save the game program; but if you don't, then you may have to do some disk-swapping. Otherwise, not a problem. I also have a slight disaffection for the game's saving method. The game does not allow previously saved games to be deleted. This becomes a larger problem when you realize that the game also fails to indicate whether there is enough room on the storage device for the game being saved. Often, I have tried to save the game, only to be told halfway through that there is insufficient room. Then, I scramble to find more empty disks (yes, I play off the floppy disks despite having a hard drive), because the game doesn't allow for the initializing of disks. My suggestion: definitely make sure you have room for a saved game before playing (i.e., 880K will be more than enough for any size 5 world game). My suggestions to the developers of Blue Byte GmbH are favorable: correct the game-saving concerns, perhaps make an NTSC version, and maybe throw in some female settlers. After all, it is hard to imagine a stork arriving at the home castle every 2 seconds in the game :) Overall, an excellent game. A sequel is inevitable, like Psygnosis' Lemmings series. Perhaps a "year 2010" setting? Whatever it is, I'm sure it will be excellent. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS The only other program I have had contact with similar to The Settlers is Civilization by Microprose. Both games are examples of the conquest and world domination form of gaming, and fine examples are they both. However, Civilization's icon system has been replaced by real-time horde of moving, acting, workers in The Settlers. Civilization, however, plays further ahead into time (the space age). Nevertheless, The Settlers scores higher in my book. I just have to add in a quick note about The Settlers and Hired Guns by Psygnosis just because they are both excellent examples of their respective genres. CONCLUSIONS Overall, I'd have to give The Settlers a 96% rating out of 100 (see DISLIKES/BUGS). It is best game of its class in the Amiga market right now. As an infrequent software consumer, I would certainly consider further similar products from this German company. If you like Civilization, or have any hidden urges to dominate and control, you'll love The Settlers for its influence power. If you like to knit (no offence) or play with Play-Doh, then you'll love The Settlers because it's so cute. I can't think of many who would not like The Settlers. In no way am I affiliated with Blue Byte GmbH. I am solely a satisfied customer. COPYRIGHT NOTICE This review is freely distributable. James Tee Dalhousie University JTEE@ac.dal.ca Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada February 11, 1994 @endnode @node P1-12 "Help!!" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% HELP!! %% %% Amiga Report's new HELP column %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% ED's Note: HELP!! is a new column that many reader's have asked for. The idea is simple. If you have a problem, post it here. Hopefully someone out there may be able to lend you a hand. Either reply directly to the person with the problem, or send it to me, and I will post your answer here. From: rcollazo@blaze.csci.csusb.edu (raymonD Collazo) To: rniles@hebron.connected.com Subject: Usermail... I didnt know how to get a question posted, but heres my message... HELP! I own a Maxtor Tahiti 1 optical drive. I have it connected to an Amiga 4000/40 via a A2091 SCSI controller. however, Im running into a problem: The system recognizes the drive just fine. Using HDToolbox, it returns the drive manufacturer, and type. however, it continually reports "CANT FIND DEVICE SIZE!"... After calculating out the cylinders and setting the head/ cylinder count, I proceed to low-level format the drive. The drive spins for about 45 minutes, and at the end of the format the heads retract, however the whole system is frozen at the FORMATTING, PLEASE WAIT screen. HELP WILL BE APPRECIATED!!! rcollazo@blaze.csci.csusb.edu ============================= From: "J.F. BRINKMAN " Subject: I/O card for Amiga To: rniles@hebron.connected.COM Greetings. As a new Network user I've been reading your AR-mag for the last couple of weeks and I certainly enjoy reading it. There is a question lingering in my mind for some time now and I think that you or the readers maybe able to answer it. Being an Amiga-amigo for 8 years now, I've never come across a certain kind of hardware - an I/O card. You know the type: multi-channel A/D, a handful of timers and loads of digital I/O lines. While the PC world is flooded with this kind of hardware, most if not all of the Amiga hardware (add-ons) is dedicated to sound and vision. So I've started to make my own I/O card. Still I wonder, have I missed something here or are there really no commercially available I/O cards for the Amiga (perhaps because nobody wants one) ? Keep up the good AR-Mag. Sender: J.F. Brinkman Erasmus University Rotterdam Dept. CID-EA Ee1934 POBOX 1738 3000 DR ROTTERDAM HOLLAND E-Mail : jbrinkman@cid.fgg.eur.nl FAX : +31 (0)10 - 4363389 @endnode %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Emulation Rambler By Jason Compton %% %% (jcompton@tcity.com) %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @node P4-2 "Portal" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Portal: A Great Place For Amiga Users %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Portal Communications' Amiga Zone The AFFORDABLE alternative for online Amiga information ------------------------------------------------------- The Portal Online System is the home of acclaimed Amiga Zone, which was formerly on the People/Link System. Plink went out of business in May, 1991 and The Amiga Zone's staff moved to Portal the next day. The Zone has just celebrated its second anniversary on Portal. The Amiga press raves about The Amiga Zone, when compared to its competition. If you live in the San Jose, CA area, then you can dial Portal directly. If you live elsewhere, you can reach Portal through any SprintNet (formerly Telenet) indial anywhere in the USA. If you have an account on another Internet-connected system, you can connect to Portal using the UNIX Telnet programs, from anywhere in the industrialized world. Delphi and BIX users can now Telnet into Portal for a flat $19.95 a month, with *unlimited* use. Some of Portal/Amiga Zone's amazing features include: Over 1.5 GIGabytes of Amiga-specific files The *entire* Fred Fish collection of freely distributable software, online. Fast, Batch Zmodem file transfer protocol. Download up to 100 files at once, of any size, with one command. Twenty Amiga vendor areas with participants like AmigaWorld, ASDG, Soft-Logik, Black Belt, Apex Publishing, Stylus, Prolific, NES. 35 "regular" Amiga libraries with thousands of files. Hot new stuff arrives daily. No upload/download "ratios" EVER. Download as much as you want, as often as you want, and never feel pressued doing it. Live, interactive nightly chats with Amiga folks whose names you will recognize. Special conferences. Random chance prize contests. Famous Amiga folks aren't the exception on Portal, they're the norm. Vast Message bases where you can ask questions about *anything* Amiga related and get quick replies from the experts. Amiga Internet mailing lists for Imagine, DCTV, LightWave, HyperAmi, Director and Landscapes are fed right into the Zone message bases. Read months worth of postings. They don't scroll off, ever! No need to clutter your mailbox with them. FREE unlimited Internet Email. Your Portal account gets you a mailbox that's connected to the world. Send letters of any length to computer users in the entire industrialized world. No limits. No extra charges. No kidding! Portal has the Usenet. Thousands of "newsgroups" in which you can read and post articles about virtually any subject you can possibly imagine. Other Portal SIGs (Special Interest Groups) online for Mac, IBM, Sun, NeXT, UNIX, Science Fiction, Writers, amateur radio, and a graphics SIG with thousands of GIF files to name just a few. ALL Portal SIGs are accessible to ALL Portal customers with NO surcharges ever. The entire UPI/Clarinet/Newsbytes news hierarchy ($4/month extra) An entire general interest newspaper and computer news magazine. Portal featues an exciting package of Internet features: IRC, FTP, TELNET, MUDS, LIBS. Free to all Portal customers with your account. Internet Services is a menu driven version of the same kinds of utilities you can also use from your Portal UNIX shell account. All the files you can FTP. All the chatting you can stand on the IRC. And on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) you can talk live, in real time with Amiga users in the U.K., Europe, Australia, the Far East, 24 hours a day. Our exclusive PortalX by Steve Tibbett, the graphical "front end" for Portal which will let you automatically click'n'download your waiting email, messages, Usenet groups and binary files! Reply to mail and messages offline using your favorite editor and your replies are sent automatically the next time you log into Portal. (PortalX requires Workbench 2.04 or higher) And Portal does NOT stick it to high speed modem users. Whether you log in at 1200 or 2400 or 9600 or 14.4K you pay the same low price. How does all that sound? Probably too good to be true. Well, it IS true. Portal Signup or for more information: 408-973-9111 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time 408-725-0561 (modem 3/12/2400) 24 hours every day 408-973-8091 (modem 9600/14400) 24 hours every day or enter "C PORTAL" from any Sprintnet dial-in in the USA, or telnet to "portal.com" from anywhere. PORTAL'S CURRENT RATES: All prices shown are in U.S. Dollars Total Total Total Total Cost Cost Cost Cost Fee 1 hr. 5 hrs. 10 hrs.30 hrs. Startup Monthly Per Per per per per Fee Fee Hour month month month month $ $ $ $ $ $ $ Portal 19.95 19.95 2400/9600/14.4Kbps, *direct 24 hrs 0.00 19.95 19.95 19.95 19.95 2400/9600bps nonprime Sprint 2.50 22.95 32.45 44.95 94.95 2400/9600bps prime Sprint +% 5.50-10 29.95 69.95 119.95 varies 2400/9600bps non prime # PCPursuit 1.00 20.95 24.95 29.95 49.95 * plus cost of phone call if out of Portal's local dialing area Direct rates also apply to connections made to Portal using the UNIX "telnet" program from an account you may already have on an Internet-connected system. % 9600 bps Sprintnet in over 300 cities areas + $10 rate prevails at smaller US Cities # PCPursuit is a service of US Sprint. Portal is a PCPursuit "Direct Access Facility" thus connection to Portal with a PCP account is simply a matter of entering C PORTAL,PCP-ID,PCP-PASSWORD at the SprintNet login prompt instead of C PORTAL. Note: Portal Direct 9600/14400 bps service is availble for both USR HST modems, and any V32/V32.bis modems. There are dozens of direct-dial high speed lines into Portal. No busy signals! SprintNet 9600bps service is V.32 modem protocol only. Again, Portal does NOT surcharge high speed modem users! Portal subscribers who already have an account on an Internet-capable system elsewhere, can use that system's "telnet" program to connect to Portal for $0.00 an hour. That's right ZERO. From anywhere in the world. If you're in this category, be sure to ask the Portal reps, when you signup, how to login to Portal from your existing Internet account. Call and join today. Tell the friendly Portal Customer Service representative, "The Amiga Zone and Amiga Report sent me!" [Editor's Note: Be sure to tell them that you are an Amiga user, so they can notify the AmigaZone sysops to send their Welcome Letter and other information!] That number again: 408-973-9111. Portal Communications accepts MasterCard, Visa, or you can pre-pay any amount by personal check or money order. The Portal Online System is a trademark of Portal Communications. @endnode @node P3 "Dealer Directory" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Dealer Directory %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Almathera Systems Ltd Challenge House 618 Mitcham Rd Croydon, Surrey CR9 3AU England VOICE: (UK) 081 683 6418 Internet: (Sales) almathera@cix.compulink.co.uk (Technical) jralph@cix.compulink.co.uk Amigability Computers P.O. Box 572 Plantsville, CT 06479 VOICE: 203-276-8175 Internet: amiga@phantm.UUCP BIX: jbasile (Send E-mail to subscribe to our mailing list) Apogee Technologies 1851 University Parkway Sarasota, FL 34243 VOICE: 813-355-6121 Portal: Apogee Internet: Apogee@cup.portal.com Armadillo Brothers 753 East 3300 South Salt Lake City, Utah VOICE: 801-484-2791 Internet: B.GRAY@genie.geis.com Atlantis Kobetek Inc. 1496 Lower Water St. Halifax, NS, Canada, B3J 1R9 Phone: (902)-422-6556 Fax: (902)-423-9339 BBS: (902)-492-1544 Internet: aperusse@fox.nstn.ns.ca Brian Fowler Computers Ltd 11 North St Exeter Devon EX4 3QS United Kingdom Voice: (0392) 499 755 Fax: (0392) 423 480 Internet: brian_fowler@cix.compulink.co.uk CLICK! Amiga Specialists N.V. Boomsesteenweg 468 B-2610 Wilrijk - Antwerpen Belgium - Europe VOICE: 03 / 828.18.15 FAX: 03 / 828.67.36 USENET: vanhoutv@click.augfl.be FIDO: 2:292/603.9 AmigaNet: 39:120/102.9 Comspec Communications Inc Serving your computing needs since 1976 74 Wingold Ave Toronto, Ontario Canada M6B 1P5 Computer Centre: (416) 785-8348 Service, Corporate & Educational Sales: (416) 785-3553 Fax: 416-785-3668 Internet: bryanf@comcorp.comspec.com bryanf@accesspt.north.net Computers International, Inc. 5415 Hixson Pike Chattanooga, TN 37343 VOICE: 615-843-0630 DataKompaniet ANS Pb 3187 Munkvoll N-7002 Trondheim Norway - Europe VOICE/FAX: 72 555 149 Internet: torrunes@idt.unit.no Digital Arts 122 West 6th Street Bloomington, IN 47404 VOICE: (812)330-0124 FAX: (812)330-0126 BIX: msears Finetastic Computers 721 Washington Street Norwood, MA 02062 VOICE: 617-762-4166 BBS: 617-769-3172 Fido: 1:101/322 Portal: FinetasticComputers Internet: FinetasticComputers@cup.portal.com HT Electronics 275 North Mathilda Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94086 VOICE: 408-737-0900 FAX: 408-245-3109 Portal: HT Electronics Internet: HT Electronics@cup.portal.com Industrial Video, Inc. 1601 North Ridge Rd. Lorain, OH 44055 VOICE: 800-362-6150 216-233-4000 Internet: af741@cleveland.freenet.edu Contact: John Gray MicroSearch 9000 US 59 South, Suite 330 Houston, Texas VOICE: 713-988-2818 FAX: 713-995-4994 Mr. Hardware Computers P.O. Box 148 59 Storey Ave. Central Islip, NY 11722 VOICE: 516-234-8110 FAX: 516-234-8110 A.M.U.G. BBS: 516-234-6046 MusicMart: Media Sound & Vision 71 Wellington Road London, Ontario, Canada VOICE: 519-434-4162 FAX: 519-663-8074 BBS: 519-457-2986 FIDO: 1:221/125 AmigaNet: 40:550/1 MaxNet: 90:204/1 iNET: koops@gaul.csd.uwo.ca PSI Animations 17924 SW Pilkington Road Lake Oswego, OR 97035 VOICE: 503-624-8185 Internet: PSIANIM@agora.rain.com Software Plus Chicago 3100 W Peterson Avenue Chicago, Illinois VOICE: 312-338-6100 Wonder Computers Inc. 1315 Richmond Rd. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2B 8J7 Voice: 613-596-2542 Fax: 613-596-9349 BBS: 613-829-0909 CYNOSTIC Office O1, Little Heath Industrial Estate, Old Church Road, Coventry. CV6 7NB UNITED KINGDOM Tel: +44 (0)203 681687 Fax: +44 (0)203 638508 David Cassidy email: bsupa@csv.warwick.ac.uk DataService Oy P.O. Box 50 Kuurinniityntie 30 02771 ESPOO Findland, Europe Voice: +358 (9) 400 438 301 Fax: +358 (9) 0505 0037 (Dealers: To have your name added, please send Email!) @endnode @node P5-1 "Lines v2.3" @toc "menu" TITLE Lines VERSION 2.3 AUTHOR Mika Kortelainen Petajatie 13 FIN-35100 ORIVESI AS. email: k125374@cs.tut.fi DESCRIPTION Lines is a simple but addictive game where the sole purpose is to draw lines on a 2-D grid. Every line consists of five points of which at least four has to be existing but unused in the direction of that line (the allowed directions are horizontal, vertical, and diagonal). The initial board has a cross-shaped figure from where the playing starts. System friendly, works on all Amigas with OS1.3 or above (might work with OS1.2, too). Both the NTSC and PAL versions are included. REQUIREMENTS A mouse :-) HOST NAME Aminet, e.g. ftp.luth.se (130.240.16.3) Also on ftp.funet.fi DIRECTORY AND FILE NAME Aminet: /pub/amiga/game/think/Lines.lha ftp.funet.fi: /pub/amiga/games/misc/Lines-2.3.lha Size: 65868 bytes PRICE Shareware, requested fee US $5 or 20-30 FIM (Finnish marks). An equivalent amount in other European currencies accepted, too. DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely distributable if no more than a nominal copying fee is asked. Copyrighted by Mika Kortelainen, 1992-1994. No commercial distributing is allowed without my written permission. PD librarians such as Fred Fish may distribute Lines on disk and/or CD-ROMs. OTHER As the documentation states, I do not send registered users anything (this archive contains everything that is needed), but by paying the fee you will help me to spend my time to develop Lines further and to release those updates to the public. If you don't like this policy, don't pay! @endnode @node P5-2 "VoiceShell v1.19" @toc "menu" TITLE VoiceShell VERSION 1.19 AUTHOR Tomi Blinnikka Internet: docbliny@mits.mdata.fi DESCRIPTION VoiceShell is a voice recognition utility. It allows you to start commands just by saying the command into a microphone. VoiceShell is a replacement for VCLI by Richard Horne. It also uses the voice.library by Richard Horne. VoiceShell, however, doesn't have a graphic display of the spoken word and thus is faster than VCLI. With VoiceShell you have full control over the supported samplers, including the GVP DSS 8. You can now choose between left/right input channels, microphone or line level, input gain etc... VoiceShell also has an ARexx port to allow almost full control over VoiceShell from external programs. You can even send ARexx commands through VoiceShell itself, allowing you to control VoiceShell with voice commands! NEW FEATURES This version has some bug fixes over the last release (version 1.11). It also allows longer filenames, can wedge keystrokes as if they were actually typed, can run special commands on errors, and has a few other small imporvements. VoiceShell is now a comodity. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS The program requires Kickstart 2.04 or higher. A sampler, i.e. audio digitizer hardware, is of course needed. VoiceShell supports Perfect Sound, Sound Master, GVP DSS 8 and generic (i.e. almost any other digitizer) samplers. The voice.library is also required and included in the archive so you won't have to worry about this. The documents are in AmigaGuide format, so in order to read them you'll need an AmigaGuide reader. There is an install script included, so you may use this to install VoiceShell if you have the Commodore Installer program on your system. HOST NAME Available on Aminet FTP sites. Try 'wuarchive.wustl.edu'. DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/util/misc FILE NAMES VS119.lha PRICE VoiceShell is shareware. The suggested shareware fee is $5 - $10. DISTRIBUTABILITY VoiceShell is shareware, (c) Copyright Tomi Blinnikka 1994. The archive is freely distributable. OTHER Support available direct from the author via EMail. This version is most likely the last, since the author currently doesn't have an Amiga he can program on. @endnode @node P5-3 "MultiVol Demo v1.01D" @toc "menu" TITLE MultiVol(TM) (Demo Version) VERSION 1.01D COMPANY AugmenTek 3606 S. 180th St. C-22 SeaTac, WA 98188-4339 USA Contact: Stephen Rondeau Phone: 206-246-6077 email: augmentek@acm.org DESCRIPTION A freely-redistributable demo version of MultiVol. MultiVol(TM) splits and joins files. The split files can be placed on diskettes, hard disks (including removable), or RAM -- or any combination of them. Splitting and joining are transparent to a program, so almost all programs that use files can split a file on output or join split file parts on input, without "knowing" that splitting or joining is occurring. This is a "crippled" demo version, severely limited in the size of files that can be split and joined. A split file part can contain up to 127 bytes. Utilities for renaming and listing split files, the graphical user interface, and comprehensive online documentation are not included. The commercial version is virtually unlimited in file sizes, and includes the items excluded from the demo version. FEATURES Both versions can: * split a file to diskettes or removable hard drives Other Amiga owners or service shops can join the file parts WITHOUT MultiVol. * join files with or without MultiVol * reuse ARexx(TM) procedures MultiVol will join your procedures to the main program in a way that looks like one complete file to ARexx. * spread a file across the remaining disk space on multiple disks * control splitting by remaining disk space, percentage of available disk space, exact byte amounts, or percentage of original file size (if known) * discard parts while splitting or joining * delete split file parts Joining will create a file of only the retained parts. The commercial version can also: * split a large file * download a file too big to fit on one diskette to multiple diskettes * assist you via hypertext documentation (AmigaGuide included) * facilitate using MultiVol via a select, point, and click interface * list and rename split file parts SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS * AmigaDOS/Kickstart(TM) 2.04 or higher PRICE The demo version is available at no cost, and is available at the location listed below. The commercial version is US $40, plus any applicable tax and shipping charges. LOCATION Aminet sites (e.g., ftp.wustl.edu), as: biz/demo/multivol_demo.lzh biz/demo/multivol_demo.readme DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely-redistributable, in its entirety. TRADEMARKS MultiVol is a trademark of AugmenTek. ARexx is a trademark of Wishful Thinking Development Corp. @endnode @node P5-4 "GNU Indent v1.9.1" @toc "menu" TITLE GNU Indent VERSION 1.9.1 AUTHOR GNU Indent is written by Joseph Arceneaux Amiga port by Peter Simons DESCRIPTION Indent is a powerful tool to (re-)format C language source and thus make code easier to read. This is GNU Indent 1.9.1, the latest available version. The archive contains the binary version, a list of changes and the manual in AmigaGuide format. The source not included here but is available per request directly from me. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS none HOST NAME Any Aminet host, i.e. ftp.uni-kl.de (131.246.9.95). DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/dev/c/ FILE NAMES Indent1_9_1.lha Indent1_9_1.readme DISTRIBUTABILITY GNU General Public License @endnode @node P2-3 "In Closing" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% _ _ __ ___ _ %% %% /\\ |\\ /| || // \ /\\ %% %% / \\ | \\ /|| ||(< __ / \\ %% %% /--- \\| \/ || || \\_||/--- \\ %% %% /______________________________\\ %% %% / \\ %% %% Amiga Report International Online Magazine %% %% March 11, 1994 ~ Issue No. 2.09 %% %% Copyright 1994 SkyNet Publications %% %% All Rights Reserved %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Views, Opinions and Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of the editors and staff of Amiga Report International Online Magazine or of STR Publications. Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. Reprints must, without exception, include the name of the publication, date, issue number and the author's name. Amiga Report and/or portions therein may not be edited in any way without prior written per- mission. However, translation into a language other than English is accept- ble, provided the original meaning is not altered. Amiga Report may be dis- tributed on privately owned not-for-profit bulletin board systems (fees to cover cost of operation are acceptable), and major online services such as (but not limited to) Delphi and Portal. Distribution on public domain disks is acceptable provided proceeds are only to cover the cost of the disk (e.g. no more than $5 US). Distribution on for-profit magazine cover disks requires written permission from the editor or publisher. Amiga Report is a not-for-profit publication. Amiga Report, at the time of pub- ication, is believed reasonably accurate. Amiga Report, its staff and con- ributors are not and cannot be held responsible for the use or misuse of information contained herein or the results obtained there from. Amiga Report is not affiliated with Commodore-Amiga, Inc., Commodore Business Machines, Ltd., or any other Amiga publication in any way. All items quoted in whole or in part are done so under the Fair Use Provision of the Copy- right Laws of the United States Penal Code. Any Electronic Mail sent to the editors may be reprinted, in whole or in part, without any previous permission of the author, unless said electronic mail specifically requests not to be reprinted. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @endnode @node P1 "Columns and Features" @toc "menu" @{" From the Editor's Desk " link P1-1} Saying it like it is! @{" Amiga News " link P1-2} News and Announcements @{" Hey! The Amiga! " link P1-3} Now, don't forget the Amiga! @{" Call For Votes " link P1-4} Starting a CD32 Newsgroup on UseNet @{" UseNet Review " link P1-5} Body Blows Galactic AGA @{" Making the Amiga Better " link P1-6} You can help too! @{" CSM Update " link P1-7} Shareholder's meeting in Nassau @{" UseNet Review " link P1-8} Stardust @{" Reader Mail " link P1-9} The readers speak! @{" Filling the Gap " link P1-10} Two newletters that hit it home @{" UseNet Review " link P1-11} The Settlers @{" HELP!! " link P1-12} AR's new HELP column @endnode @node P2 "About Amiga Report" @toc "menu" @{" For Starters " link P2-1} Where to get AMIGA REPORT @{" AR Staff " link P2-2} The Editors, and Contributers @{" In Closing " link P2-3} Copyright Information @endnode @node P4 "Commercial Online Services" @toc "menu" @{" Delphi " link P4-1} Getting better all the time! @{" Portal " link P4-2} A great place for Amiga users... @{" InterNet " link P4-5} Subscribe to the AR Mailing List @{" BIX " link P4-6} For Serious Programmers and Developers @endnode @node P5 "Files Available for FTP" @toc "menu" @{" Lines v2.3 " link P5-1} Simple and addictive game @{" VoiceShell v1.19 " link P5-2} Voice recognition utility @{" MultiVol Demo v1.01D " link P5-3} Demo of a file splitter/joiner @{" GNU Indent v1.9.1 " link P5-4} Tool to format C source code ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The most downloaded files from wustl.edu during the week until 06-Mar-94 File Dir Size Description ------------------- --- ---- ----------- DGalaga15.lha game/shoot 188K+Deluxe Galaga v1.5 - Works on all machines FastJPEG_1.10.lha gfx/show 43K+JPEG viewer with dithering for ECS/AGA exile.lha game/jump 187K+Bizarre and delightful platform game outside_3D.lha pix/misc 40K+Intel outside 3D with motorola backdrop AndroidArena.lha game/shoot 184K+A great game of Androids and Rooms aMiPEG02.lha gfx/show 79K+fast MPEG player for AGA amigas v0.2 cdvw101.lha text/mags 121K+CD32View - 1 Mar 94 SysInfo323.lha util/moni 48K SysInfo v3.23 Cheese.lha game/misc 156K+OS-friendly platform game, nice graphics enigma.lha mods/chart 125K Enigma ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @endnode ----------------------------------------- @node P2-1-1 "NOVA" @toc "menu" * NOVA BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Starnet BBS * Wayne Stonecipher, Sysop FidoNet 1:362/508 An Amiga Software Distribution Site (ADS) 615-472-9748 USR DS 16.8 24hrs - 7 days Cleveland, Tennessee @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-2 "In The MeanTime" @toc "menu" * IN THE MEANTIME BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running AXShell * Robert Niles, Sysop rniles@imtired.itm.com 509-966-3828 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Yakima, Washington ******* Notice ******* After 13 September 1993, In The MeanTime will no longer be on FidoNet, thus we will no longer be accepting File REQuests (FREQs). We WILL be still accepting calls and will have the latest edition of Amiga Report online. Downloads to first time callers are still accepted. For the west coast call @{"Cloud's Corner" link P2-1-3} to FREQ the latest edition of Amiga Report. Those who call for the latest edition of Amiga Report, and who do not with to establish an account, log in as guest with the password of "guest". At the prompt type "ARMAG" (without the quotes). @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-3 "Cloud's Corner" @toc "menu" * CLOUD'S CORNER BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site MebbsNet/Starnet Support/Distribution Site West Coast USA * Running MEBBSNet BBS * Larry Cloud, Sysop FidoNet: 1:350/30 MaxNet: 90:180/10 Internet: larryc@hebron.connected.com 206-377-4290 USR HST DS 24hrs - 7 days Bremerton, Washington New users can call and get ANY copy of Amiga Report. These are considered "free" downloads, they do not count against any file ratio. The latest issue of Amiga Reports can be Freq'ed (FileREQusted) from here as "AR.LHA", as "AR" or as ARxxx.LHA where xxx is the issue number. Freq's are valid at ANY time. For users interested in reading AR, but who do not have access to AmigaGuide, you can freq ARBUL and get the AR in bulletin form. This service is provided for persons who do not have Amigaguide (such as IBM users). Please note that any pictures distributed with the "regular" Amiga Reports archive will NOT be sent with this freq. This file is not available for dial-in users, but you can read bulletin #5 with your capture buffer open and get the same file. NOTE: This system is currently down. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-4 "Biosmatica" @toc "menu" * BIOSMATICA BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Portugal * Running Excelsior/Trapdoor/UUCP * Celso Martinho, Sysop FidoNet 2:361/9 +351-34-382320 V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-5 "Amiga Junction 9" @toc "menu" * AMIGA JUNCTION 9 * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- United Kingdom * Running DLG Professional * Stephen Anderson, Sysop Sysop Email: sysadmin@junct9.royle.org Line 1 +44 (0)372 271000 14400 V.32bis/HST FidoNet 2:440/20 Line 2 +44 (0)372 278000 14400 V.32bis only FidoNet 2:440/21 Line 3 +44 (0)372 279000 2400 V.42bis/MNP Internet: user_name@junct9.royle.org @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-6 "BitStream BBS" @toc "menu" * BITSTREAM BBS * The BBS of the Nelson (NZ) Amiga Users Group Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Xenolink 1.0 Z.3 * Glen Roberts, Sysop FidoNet 3:771/850 +64 3 5485321 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Nelson, New Zealand @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-7 "Realm of Twilight" @toc "menu" * REALM OF TWILIGHT BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Canada * Running Excelsior! BBS * Thorsten Schiller, Sysop Usenet: realm.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca UUCP: ...!uunet.ca!tdkcs!realm FIDO: 1:221/302 Fish: 33:33/8 24hrs - 7 days 519-748-9365 (2400 baud) 519-748-9026 (v.32bis) Ontario, Canada Hardware: Amiga 3000, 105 Meg Quantum, 213 Meg Maxtor, 5 megs RAM @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-8 "Metnet Triangle" @toc "menu" METNET TRIANGLE SYSTEM Official Amiga Report Distribution Site UK Support for Mebbsnet * Running Mebbsnet and Starnet 1.02a * Jon Witty, Sysop FIDO: 2:252/129.0 24 hrs - 7 days Line 1: 44-482-473871 16.8 DS HST Lines 2-7: 44-482-442251 2400 (6 lines) Line 8: 44-482-491744 2400 Line 9: 44-482-449028 2400 Voice helpline 44-482-491752 (anytime) Fully animated menus + normal menu sets. 500 megs HD - Usual software/messages Most doors online - Many Sigs - AMIGA AND PC SUPPORT Very active userbase and busy conference Precious days and MUD online. AMUL support site. @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-9 "Omaha Amiganet" @toc "menu" * OMAHA AMIGANET * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running DLG Professional * Andy Wasserman, Sysop 24 hrs - 7 days FidoNet: 1:285/11 AmigaNet: 40:200/10 Line 1: 402-333-5110 V.32bis Line 2: 402-691-0104 USR DS Omaha, Nebraska @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-10 "Amiga-Night-System" @toc "menu" * AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - Finland * Running DLG Professional * Janne Saarme, Sysop 24 hrs - 7 days InterNet: luumu@fenix.fipnet.fi FidoNet: 2:220/550.0 +358-0-675840 V.32bis Helsinki, Finland @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-11 "Ramses Amiga Flying" @toc "menu" * RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- France * Running DLG Professional * Eric Delord, Sysop Philippe Brand, Co-Sysop Stephane Legrand, Co-Sysop Internet: user.name@ramses.gna.org Fidonet: 2:320/104 +33-1-60037015 USR DS 16.8 +33-1-60037713 V.32bis +33-1-60037716 1200-2400 Ramses The Amiga Flying BBS is an Amiga-dedicated BBS running DLG-Pro on a Amiga 3000, 16MB RAM, 2GB Disk space, 3 lines. We keep a dayly Aminet site mirroring, NetBSD-Amiga complete mirror site from ftp.eunet.ch (main site), Amiga Report, GNU Amiga, Ramses is the SAN/ADS/Amiganet French coordinator. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-12 "Gateway BBS" @toc "menu" * THE GATEWAY BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Excelsior! BBS * Stace Cunningham, Sysop Dan Butler, CoSysop 24 hrs - 7 days InterNet: stace@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil FidoNet: 1:3604/60.0 601-374-2697 Hayes Optina 28.8 V.FC Biloxi, Mississippi @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-13 "Talk City" @toc "menu" * TALK CITY * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site 708-372-0190 - 2400bps 708-372-0268 - V32 14.4K 708-372-0283 USR DS 14.4K Fido Net 1:115/372,0 Phantom Net 11:2115/2.0 Clink Net 911:6080/4.0 UUCP tcity.com Over 3 Gig of Files Online | More and More things everyday. With Three IBM CD-ROMs online, 10 lines, support for all platforms, and a REALLY dedicated sysop (The Mayor). @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-14 "Amiga BBS" @toc "menu" * Amiga BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Excelsior! BBS * Alejandro Kurczyn, Sysop FidoNet 4:975/7 First Amiga BBS in Mexico (5) 887-3080 9600 V32,MNP Estado de Mexico, Mexico @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-15 "The Stygian Abyss" @toc "menu" * THE STYGIAN ABYSS BBS * 312-384-0616 14.4 USR Courier HST 312-384-6250 14.4 Supra V.32 bis (FREQ line) 312-384-0716 2400 USR Courier FIDONet-1:115/384.0 CLink-911:6200/2.0 NWNet-206:310/0.0--206:310/1.0 PhantomNet Central States Cooridinator-11:2115/0.0--11:2115/1.0 FaithNet Central States Cooridinator-700:6000/0.0--700:6000/1.0 AMINet Chicagoland HUB-559:2/5.0 Chicago, Illinois Over 4 GIGS of files I Over 3700 MODS I Over 120 On-Line Games Tons of digitized sounds I Over 15,000 GIFS Supporting: Amiga I IBM I Macintosh I C=64/128 SIR SAMMY-SysOp Enter.......If you dare!! @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-16 "Amiga Do PC BBS" @toc "menu" * AMIGA DO PC BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribuition Site - Brazil * Running Excelsior! v 1.18 * +55-192-33-2260 Weekdays: 19-07 (-3 GMT) Weekends: 24 hours Fidonet: 4:801/44 RBT: 12:1212/1 Virinet: 70:101/17 Internet: fimoraes@dcc.unicamp.br Francisco Moraes, sysop Campinas, SP Freq AREPORT for the newest issue avaiable. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-17 "Comm-Link BBS" @toc "menu" * COMM-LINK BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Excelsior Pro * 604-945-6192 USR DS 16.8 24 hrs - 7 days Fido: 1:153/210.0 AmigaNet 40:800/9100.0 InterSports: 102:540/305.0 PussNet: 169:1000/305.0 InterNet: steve_hooper@comm.tfbbs.wimsey.com Steve Hooper, Sysop Port Coquitlam, B.C. Canada @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-18 "Phantom's Lair" @toc "menu" * PHANTOM'S LAIR * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running CNET 3.0 * FidoNet: 1:115/469.0 Phantom Net Cooridinator: 11:1115/0.0-11:1115/1.0 708-469-9510 708-469-9520 CD ROMS, Over 15511 Files Online @ 2586 meg Peter Gawron, Sysop Glendale Heights, Illinois @endnode @node P2-1-19 "Tierra-Miga BBS" @toc "menu" Tierra-Miga BBS Software: CNet Gib Gilbertson 24 hours - 7 days FidoNet: 1:202/638.0 AmigaNet: 40:406/3.0 Internet: torment.cts.com Line #1: 619.292.0754 V32.bis City: San Diego, CA. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-50 "Freeland Mainframe" @toc "menu" * FREELAND MAINFRAME * Offical Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running DLG Progessional * John Freeland, SysOp 206-438-1670 Supra 2400zi 206-438-2273 Telebit WorldBlazer(v.32bis) 206-456-6013 Supra v.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Internet - freemf.eskimo.com Olympia, Washington @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-51 "LAHO" @toc "menu" * LAHO BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Finland * Running MBBS * Lenni Uitti, SysOp Tero Manninen, SysOp (PC-areas) Juha Makinen, SysOp (Amiga-areas) +358-64-414 1516, V.32bis/HST +358-64-414 0400, V.32bis/HST +358-64-414 6800, V.32/HST +358-64-423 1300, V.32 MNP Seinajoki, Finland Our machine is a 386/33 with 20MB of memory, 1GB harddisk and a CD-ROM drive. The BBS software is a Norwegian origin MBBS running in a DesqView windows. We have over 7000 files online (both for the Amiga and PC) + 650MB stuff on the Aminet CD-ROM disk. Every user has an access to download filelist (LAHOFIL.ZIP), list of Finnish 24-hour BBS's (BBSLIST.ZIP or BBSLIST.LHA) and every issue of the Amiga Report Magazine (AR101.LHA-AR1??.LHA) even on their first call. The system has been running since 1989 and is sponsored by the local telephone company, Vaasan Ladnin Puhelin Oy. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-52 "Falling BBS" @toc "menu" * FALLING BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Norway * Running ABBS * Christopher Naas, Sysop +47 69 256117 V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days EMail: naasc@cnaas.adsp.sub.org @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-53 "Command Line BBS" @toc "menu" * COMMAND LINE BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Canada Canada's Amiga Graphics & Animation Source * Running AmiExpress BBS * Nick Poliwko, Sysop 416-533-8321 V.32 24hrs - 7 days Toronto, Canada @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-54 "Rendezvous BBS" @toc "menu" * RENDEZVOUS BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - New Zealand New Zealand Excelsior! BBS Support Site * Running Excelsior! Professional BBS * David Dustin, Sysop Internet: postmaster@eclipse.acme.gen.nz +64 6 3566375 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Palmerston North, New Zealand @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-55 "Leguans Byte Channel" @toc "menu" * LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany * Running EazyBBS V2.11 * Andreas Geist, Sysop Usenet: andreas@lbcmbx.in-berlin.de 24 hrs - 7 days Line 1: 49-30-8110060 USR DS 16.8 Line 2: 49-30-8122442 USR DS 16.8 Login as User: "amiga", Passwd: "report" @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-56 "Stingray Database BBS" @toc "menu" * STINGRAY DATABASE * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany * Running FastCall * Bernd Mienert, Sysop EMail: sysop@sting-db.zer.sub.org.dbp.de +49 208 496807 HST-Dual 24hrs - 7 days Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany @endnode -------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-57 "T.B.P. Video Slate" @toc "menu" * T.B.P. VIDEO SLATE * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site An Amiga dedicated BBS for All * Running Skyline 1.3.2 * Mark E Davidson, Sysop 24 hrs - 7 days 201-586-3623 USR 14.4 HST Rockaway, New Jersey Full Skypix menus + normal and ansi menu sets. Instant Access to all. Download on the first call. Hardware: Amiga 500 Tower custom at 14 MHz, 350 Meg maxtor, 125 Meg SCSI Maxtor, 125 Meg IDE Maxtor, Double Speed CD rom, 9 meg RAM @endnode -------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-58 "Amiga Central" @toc "menu" * AMIGA CENTRAL! * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site CNet Amiga Support Site * Running CNet Amiga BBS * Carl Tashian, Sysop Internet mail: root@amicent.raider.net 615-383-9679 1200-14.4Kbps V.32bis 24 hours - 7 days Nashville, Tennessee Hardware: Amiga 3000 Tower 68030+882@25MHz, 105 meg Quantum, 225 meg Seagate, Zoom 14.4k modem @endnode -------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-59 "Continental Drift" @toc "menu" * CONTINENTAL DRIFT BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running DLG Pro software * Murray Chaffer & Andre Lackmann, Sysops +612 949-4256 24 hours - 7 days Sydney, Australia @endnode -------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-60 "Guru Meditation" @toc "menu" * GURU MEDITATION * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Spain * Running Remote Access * Javier Frias, SysOp +34-1-383-1317 V.32bis 24 hours - 7days Spain @endnode @node P2-1-61 "Moonlight Sonata DLG" @toc "menu" M O O N L I G H T S O N A T A D L G 2 Nodes *FREE PUBLIC* Amiga BBS Official Amiga Report Distribution Site MIDI-tunes, MIDI-utils, Modules, Amiga-files Messages, Door-games, MUD... Also patches for several synths! (About 100MB of ProTracker Modules!) Node #1 - +358-18-161763 - ZyXEL V32b 19200 Node #2 - +358-18-161862 - HST DS V32 14400 Fido-Net: 2:221/112.0 Keyboards: Erno Tuomainen BBS Software: Dialog Pro BB/OS @endnode @node P2-1-62 "Doom of Darkness" @toc "menu" * Doom of Darkness * * Home of AmBoS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany Marc Doerre (Marc_Doerre), Sysop (BBS-Owner/AmBoS-Support) Bernd Petersen (TGM), Sysop (Amiga-Software-Support) Gerhard Luehning (Klaro), Co-Sysop (Aminet-Support) Kai Szymanski (Kai), Co-Sysop (AR-Support/AmBoS-Support) Usenet: user_name@doom.platinum.werries.de Line 1 +49 (0)4223 8355 19200 V.42bis/Zyx Line 2 +49 (0)4223 3256 16800 V.42bis/Zyx Line 3 +49 (0)4223 3313 16800 V.42bis/Zyx Sysop Email: marc_doerre@doom.platinum.werries.de @endnode @node P2-1-63 "RedEye BBS" @toc "menu" REDEYE BBS * Running EXCELSIOR/UUCP/AFAX * "Official Amiga Report Distribution Site Germany/Europe" Sysop: Thorsten Meyer Internet: sysop@redeye.greenie.muc.de Line 1: +49-89-5460535 (V.32b, Zyxel EG +) Line 2: +49-89-5460071 (USR Courier V32b terbo) 24hrs - 7 days Munich, Germany Areas for Amiga, PCs, Lotus Notes Group, Amiga Report, Game Byte, Graphic Stuff, 3D-Exchange, 3D-tools, 3D-objects, McAffee, GUS, PAS, DOOM, WINDOWS-NT, OS/2 Online CD, Online Games, USENET, INTERNET, FIDO ECHOS, Developer @endnode