@database "ar130.guide" @Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #1.30 -- October 22, 1993" @{" Open Magazine " link "menu"} _ ____ ___ ______ _______ _ d# ####b g#00 `N##0" _agN#0P0N# d# d## jN## j##F J## _dN0" " d## .#]## _P ##L jN##F ### g#0" .#]## dE_j## # 0## jF ##F j##F j##' ______ dE_j## .0"""N## d" ##L0 ##F 0## 0## "9##F" .0"""5## .dF' ]## jF ##0 ##F ##F `##k d## .dF' j## .g#_ _j##___g#__ ]N _j##L_ _d##L_ `#Nh___g#N' .g#_ _j##__ """"" """"""""""" " """""" """""" """"""" """"" """""" ###### ###### ###### ###### ###### ######## TM ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ### ###### ## ###### ## ### ## International Online Magazine "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information." October 22, 1993 No. 1.30 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// / Winners Don't Use Drugs / /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Copyright © 1993 SkyNet Publications All Rights Reserved A Member Of STR Publishing @endnode @node P2-1 "Where to find Amiga Report" @toc "menu" /// WHERE TO FIND AMIGA REPORT Distribution Sites! -------------------------- Click on the button of the BBS nearest you for information on that system. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// / FidoNet Systems / //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// FREQ the filename "AR.LHA" for the most current issue of Amiga Report! @{" OMAHA AMIGANET " link P2-1-9} ..................................Omaha, Nebraska @{" NOVA BBS " link P2-1-1} .............................Cleveland, Tennessee @{" CLOUD'S CORNER BBS " link P2-1-3} ............................Bremerton, Washington @{" BIOSMATICA BBS " link P2-1-4} .........................................Portugal @{" AMIGA JUNCTION 9 " link P2-1-5} ...................................United Kingdom @{" BITSTREAM BBS " link P2-1-6} ..............................Nelson, New Zealand @{" REALM OF TWILIGHT " link P2-1-7} ..................................Ontario, Canada @{" METNET TRIANGLE " link P2-1-8} ......................Kingston Upon Hull, England @{" AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM " link P2-1-10}.................................Helsinki, Finland @{" RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING " link P2-1-11}............................................France //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// / Non-FidoNet Systems / //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// @{" IN THE MEANTIME " link P2-1-2} ...............................Yakima, Washington @{" FREELAND MAINFRAME " link P2-1-50} ..............................Olympia, Washington @{" LAHO BBS " link P2-1-51} ...............................Seinajoki, Finland @{" FALLING BBS " link P2-1-52} ...........................................Norway @{" COMMAND LINE BBS " link P2-1-53} ..................................Toronto, Canada @{" RENDEZVOUS BBS " link P2-1-54} ......................................New Zealand @{" LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL " link P2-1-55} ..........................................Germany @{" STINGRAY DATABASE " link P2-1-56} ...........................Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany @endnode Non-AmigaGuide Users: See the end of this document for numbers to each BBS. ___________________________________________________________________________ /// 10/22/93 Amiga Report 1.30 "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" -------------------------- · The Editor's Desk · CPU Status Report · New Products · FTP Announcements · Dealer Directory · Usenet Reviews · The Humor Department · Emulation Rambler · AR Online · Hired Guns · Civilization AGA » New Amiga Disk Magazine « » Multimedia Market Exaggerated? « » Retina Vs. EGS Spectrum « /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Amiga Report International Online Magazine "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" » FEATURING WEEKLY « Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information Hardware · Software · Corporate · R & D · Imports /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// / PORTAL · FIDO · INTERNET · BIX · AMIGANET · DELPHI / /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-1 "From the Editor's Desk" @toc "menu" /// From the Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!" ---------------------- I was watching Beyond 2000 on The Discovery Channel last Tuesday afternoon, and saw something rather interesting. They were running a story on Virtual Reality. A company called "W" Enterprises was creating cyberspace simulations for doctors, architects, and even doing some games. The narrator said that they were using "Commodore's Amiga computer" with additional chips for graphics. There were pictures of somebody inserting IC's on a motherboard, but I'd say they looked a lot more like RAM chips than anything else. Besides, it'd be kinda hard, I bet, to add more custom graphics chips to the machine unless they're talking about a custom board (like a Retina or EGS Spectrum). It's nice to know the Amiga is still a forerunner in the design of new technology. The PC hasn't taken over completely! I'm still being haunted by the remark two issues ago about there being a "bug" in DLG. Let me rephrase that. Instead, I think the word, "inconsist- ency" would be more appropriate. So please forget I said anything about a bug. ;) Now, a special note... we've lost an Amiga Report Distribution Site. The Dead Fish BBS has been taken down. Below is the letter I received in E-Mail the other day: #1 19-OCT-1993 14:03:18.67 NEWMAIL From: IN%"awald@dfbbs.linet.org" To: IN%"rob_g@delphi.com" CC: Subj: Remove Would you please remove me as an amiga report distribution site, and perhaps stick in some where in amiga report that the dead fish is dead. Let them know I am taking the BBS down because the Amiga community no longer exists in my area. Or just remove my name and be done with it :). My UUCP email will still be active. Cya on the nets! And thanks for bringing Amiga Report to the Amiga community. We're really sorry to see him go, but I can certainly understand that if there are no Amiga callers to your board, there isn't much point in having it. Again, we're sorry to lose you! Oh, another note before I forget. Our Internet Mailing List guy, Bob Caron, is going to be offline for a while for a move from Massachusetts to Kansas, so anybody wanting on or off the list, please get your requests in now. Otherwise, it may take a few days to a week or more for your request to be processed. Thanks! Rob @ AR @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P2-2 "AR Staff" @toc "menu" /// The Amiga Report Staff Dedicated to serving you! ---------------------- Editor ====== Robert Glover Portal: Rob-G Delphi: ROB_G FidoNet: 1:285/11 AmigaNet: 40:200/10 Internet: General Mail: ROB_G@Delphi.com Submissions: Rob-G@cup.portal.com Assistant and Technical Editor ============================== Robert Niles Portal: RNiles Delphi: RNILES FidoNet: 1:3407/104 (Private) Internet: rniles@imtired.itm.com Contributing Correspondents =========================== Michael Bromery Jason Compton Kurt Haenan David W. Lowrey @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P1-2 "CPU Status Report" @toc "menu" /// CPU Status Report Late Breaking Industry-Wide News ----------------- » Hitachi to Market Re-Writable Optical Drives « According to Hitachi Ltd., the company later this year will begin selling 2-gig re-writable 5.25-inch optical disk drives. Hitachi said the re-writable optical disk can store 50% more data than products of other makers available on the same size of disk. » Multimedia Expo - Analyzing The Games Industry « At the "Analyzing the Games Industry - Investment and Return" session at the Multimedia Expo in San Jose, one of the featured speakers was Volpe Welty's Lee Isgur. Isgur identified Nintendo as the dominant player in the video game industry in terms of installed base and hardware. However, he said that in terms of sales, the "8-bit machine is faltering very badly," but the "16-bit will do better in sales than last year." He also said that, "Game-Boy is, at the moment, the leading portable platform." He predicated that there would be 83 million units of software sales domestically this year. He noted that Sega has been outselling Nintendo in the last few weeks in the US, in terms of new hardware and software sales. However, he said he did not know if that would continue into the Christmas season. He identified CD's as becoming the dominant factor in the industry in terms of software during the 1995-1997 period. Interestingly, he said that which media the game industry uses will dictate where it goes. He maintained that the current cartridge industry is fairly expensive, and expects a shift to something else - such as flash cards or CD-ROMs. He also said that the current hardware "is lousy," with no flat screens, no great colors. » IBM Microelectronics Has Faster PowerPC Chip « IBM Microelectronics has announced a new version of the PowerPC 601 micro- processor that runs at 80 MHz. Previous versions operated at 50 and 66 MHz. Company officials said the new chip would make possible desktop computers faster than any based on existing processors. The PowerPC line of chips resulted from an alliance of IBM, Apple Computer Inc., and Motorola. The 601 is the first of four planned Power-PC parts. The PowerPC 603 is a power-saving version aimed at laptop, portable, and low-end desktop computers. The PowerPC 604 is meant for higher-performance desktop PCs and workstations. The PowerPC 620 will be the top of the line, meant for high-performance workstations and servers. IBM plans to begin making these chips in 1994 and 1995, Smith said. The 601 chip has 2.8 million transistors, in a package about four tenths of an inch per side. It includes the Motorola 88110 bus, which provides an advanced interface that supports a range of computer systems, including personal computers, workstations, and multiprocessing systems, the companies said. » Hewlett-Packard Announces Video Printing System « Hewlett-Packard Co. this week announced the HP VidJet Pro, a product that allows video images from a wide range of sources to be printed on plain paper using most HP printers. Designed for professional video production, the HP VidJet Pro has an easy-to-use interface that is also expected to attract advanced home hobbyists. Users connect the HP VidJet Pro to any video source, such as a videotape player, television, camcorder, photo CD or laser-disc player. They also connect the system to an HP DeskJet or LaserJet printer or HP DesignJet plotter. Images are stored as individual frames, sequences of frames or in pre-designated special formats, such as the first frame of every scene change. HP-authorized video dealers are scheduled to begin taking orders for the VidJet Pro in December. Prices will vary depending upon options, starting at about $3,500. » QMS Unveils Color Laser Printer « QMS Inc this week announced that it has begun quantity shipments of its ColorScript Laser 1000 Print System, it first desktop color laser printer. The QMS ColorScript Laser 1000 produces color and monochrome documents on a variety of paper stocks, including plain office paper. The unit offers an output resolution of 300 dots per inch. Four self- contained toner cartridges containing cyan (blue), magenta (red), yellow and black toner, supply the basic colors used to create a palette of millions of colors. The QMS ColorScript Laser 1000 is compatible with most computer systems, networks and mixed computing environments. Its resident emulations include PostScript Level 2 and Level 1, HP PCL 5C with GL/2 (which supports color) and an optional DEC LN03 Plus emulation. Standard interfaces include parallel, serial and LocalTalk ports. The QMS ColorScript Laser 1000 is available now and is priced at $12,499. » Seagate Intros New High-Capacity Drives « Seagate Technology has announced 13 new hard disk systems, with storage capacity ranging from 214 megabytes (MB) to 9.1 gigabytes (GB). Included in the new lines is the ST410800 Elite 9, a 9.1 gigabyte unit in a 5.25 inch full-height form factor. Seagate says that the unit is designed for hierarchical storage and large file plus database appli- cations. The ST15150 Barracuda 4 is a 4.1 GB 3.5 inch half-height drive for super servers, super computers, and high performance storage systems. The ST12450 Barracuda 2 is a 3.5 inch half-height drive that can store up to 1.78 GB of data. The Hawk family comes in 2.14 GB, 1.7 GB and 1.05 GB versions, designed for advanced workstations and super servers. Hawk comes in Fast SCSI-2 and Fast//Wide SCSI-2 versions in either single-ended or differential configurations. In the under one GB category, Seagate is introducing the ST5660, ST3491 and ST9550 families. The 5660 is available with AT or Fast SCSI-2 interfaces, has a 12 millisecond seek time. OEM pricing is $495 for the AT/IDE model and $545 for the Fast SCSI-2 version. The 9550 was designed for use in portable computing units and can withstand shocks up to 100 Gs and uses a disc substrate material called MemCor. The glass-ceramic canasite-based media was developed jointly by Corning Glass Works and Seagate. MemCor substrates can be manufactured much thinner than other media and still retain rigidity. The ST9559 has a 16 millisecond average seek time. » Hayes Launches New Fax-Modem, Cuts Prices « Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. announced a new fax board which can work on two separate phone lines, the JT Fax 144B Dual, and cut prices on its older 9600 bits per second (bps) product by over 35%, to $369. The new fax-modem is more than just a fax answering machine. It eli- minates the need for an additional voice card and provides voice announcement and prompting, voice record and playback, and the ability to enter commands through a touch-tone phone. It also off-loads the con- version of files to the fax format from the main computer, and enables routine multi-board installations in a single computer, limited only by the number of available slots. The modem will be available November 1 in North America, Latin America, and Hong Kong, with a further world-wide rollout following shortly thereafter. » U.S. Robotics Sells Subsidiary « Modem maker U.S. Robotics Inc. has sold Communications Research Group, the subsidiary responsible for making and selling the BLAST com- munications software product line, to Blast Inc., a North Carolina cor- poration. U.S. Robotics said that it retained an equity interest in the new entity and "will work closely with Blast Inc. to ensure the needs of new and existing BLAST customers are met." Robotics Vice President Ross Manire said, "As we evaluated our core business, we recognized that CRG was not a strategic fit going forward. (This sale) allows for more focus on what is a very support-intensive communications software line." » Motorola Announces a New Integrated Processor « Motorola's High Performance Microprocessor Division this week an- nounced the 68307, a highly integrated processor ideal for a variety of portable, low-power applications such as digital cordless telephones, portable measuring equipment and point-of-sale terminals. The 63807 was originally designed for the digital cordless phone products of a major European telecommunications company. The newest member of the 68300 Family of Integrated Processors, the 68307 features a static 68EC000 core processor with multiple bus interfaces. It is the second processor designed using Motorola's standard cell design methodology. "The 68307's high level of functional integration results in reduc- tions in power consumption, board space and system cost demanded by today's portable devices," said Jim Reinhart, Motorola's manager, M68000 marketing and applications. "The 68307 is the only member of the 68300 Family of Integrated Processors that incorporates several bus interfaces, providing glueless connections to a wide variety of common system peripherals and memory." » RAM Prices Falling « On the July 4th weekend, the Sumitomo Chemical plant in Japan exper- ienced an explosion that shut it down. Since Sumitomo produces 60% of the world's high-quality epoxy resin, the explosion resulted in sky- rocketing RAM prices. Some suppliers reported RAM costs jumping 200-300% since the explosion. Sumitomo announced this week that it will be back in production in December. This announcement has resulted in some com- pany's RAM prices dropping 10-20%, with larger price reductions due in December or January. Epoxy resin may seem far removed from RAM chips, but the substance is critical to about 80% of the computer chips made today. Alvin Despain, Ph.D., an expert on computer architecture at the University of Southern California, said the resin protects the surface of the integrated circuit (IC), has some thermal properties that help get heat out, and is the "glue" to hold down the silicon in the chips. » Chip Rate Drops in September « The chip industry's key book to bill ratio took a dive last month to 1.01, down from 1.08 in August, possibly indicating a much softer market for semiconductors than had been forecast. The ratio means that for every $100 worth of products shipped in Sep- tember (billed), manufacturers received $101 worth of new orders (bookings). » Online Service for Women Formed « An online service devoted to women, called WIRE (the Women's Infor- mation & Resource Exchange) has been created in San Francisco. The service, created by two computerists who are women, offers news, entertainment, bulletin board conversations and electronic messaging. Subscribers pay $15 a month for two hours of use, with additional time billed at $2.50 an hour. Sources say that "in the 'virtual community' formed by computer online services, women represent 10% to 15% of online users. They often are made to feel unwelcome by men who dominate online conversations and make sexually harassing comments." WIRE officials said men are welcome, but said unruly subscribers could be expelled from the system. » Recall of Faulty Dell Notebook PCs « Dell Computer Corporation has announced the recall of 17,000 dis- continued 320SLi and 325SLi notebook computers because of a faulty part that, under certain circumstances, could cause a fire. Dell said its engineers has determined that a capacitor on the mother- board of both models might crack under physical stress. If that happens, the capacitor might overheat and cause a fire. A Dell spokesperson said he only knows of the problem happening on three machines, and the company has been unable to replicate the problem in the lab. However, due to the safety aspect the problem Dell is immediately recalling both models. Registered owners are being notified by registered mail. Owners of either model should return their machines to Dell so repairs can be made. Turnaround time will depend on how many owners return their units. To return one of the computers owners should contact Dell on their toll free number between the hours of 8AM and 6PM CDT. Special customer services representatives are available to arrange the returns and answer questions. » Flying Toasters Arrive For DOS Users « Berkeley Systems has started shipping its DOS version of After Dark screen saver. Screen savers, apart from looking good on screen, protect the computer monitor from phosphor burn-in -- which is a problem when monitors are left on but inactive. The company says that After Dark can also increase privacy -- to block access to a user's files, the program features a screen-locking security system that is deactivated only by a user- selected password. After Dark for DOS also offers optional digitized sound effects, run through the internal PC speaker or through Sound Blaster or Ad Lib com- patible sound cards. The package requires DOS 3.3 or higher, a VGA or SVGA display, 640k of RAM, and a hard drive. The product is priced at $49.95. » Mastercook II For PC Debuts « Spinnaker Software has introduced its Mastercook II, a Windows-based cookbook software package that contains more than 1,000 recipes and allows the user to enter and store their own culinary masterpieces. In addition to being a collection of recipes - 100 of them are from what Arion calls "the great chefs of America" - Mastercook II can select recipes that use on-hand ingredients meeting the user's personal nutritional objectives. It can also print shopping lists, recipe cards, menus, meal plans, or a complete customized cookbook. Mastercook II requires a 286-based PC or higher running Windows 3.1 or higher, 2 megabytes (MB) of system memory, and 2.5MB of free hard disk space. Spinnaker says it will have a street price of under $30. » Fujitsu Announces Latest Pen-Based System « Fujitsu has announced the PadPlus RF, a pen-based computer with wire- less communications built-in. Fijitsu previous pen-based systems had carried the Poqet name. The PadPlus RF incorporates the Proxim RangeLAN wireless adapter and radio inside the computer, with a retractable antenna in the upper left corner. The PadPlus RF can send data up to 300 feet using what's called spread spectrum technology, which sends data over a wide spectrum of frequencies to minimize interference. The PadPlus RF has a maximum burst rate of 242,000 bits/second on three channels. The system includes error correcting hardware and firmware designed to retransmit undelivered data. The pocket PC weighs about two pounds, and can run for between two and four hours on a set of rechargeable batteries. It also features a PCMCIA expansion slot, a serial connector, an infrared link, and a keyboard. It can work with Novell Netware and Netware Lite, with preliminary pricing set at $2,449. » Intel Earnings Up 143% « Intel Corp. this week reported third quarter earnings of $584 million (or $1.33 a share), up 143% from earnings of $241 million (or 56 cents a share) for the same period a year ago. Analysts believe Intel will continue to dominate the computer chip industry for some time, especially with recent releases of the state-of- the-art 486 and Pentium chips that have pushed the company ahead of its rivals technologically and in terms of revenues and profits. Sources say that Intel is on track to ship hundreds of thousands of Pentium processors in 1993 and millions in 1994. » Lotus Income Up 151% « Lotus Development Corp. has reported net income of $18.3 million, or 41 cents per share, for its third quarter ended Oct. 2. This is up 151% from $7.3 million, or 17 cents per share, before a stock-sale gain in last year's third quarter. Lotus' third-quarter revenue was $240.1 mil- lion, up 16% from $206.7 million in the same period last year. » Ares Software Announces Font Workshop « Ares Software Corp. this week announced Font Workshop, a value-packed bundle containing FontMonger, FontMinder 2.0 and FontFiddler, three essential font applications for Windows-based computers. Ares Font Workshop will ship on Oct. 15, 1993 and have a suggested re- tail price of $249.95. Now Windows users will have all the tools they need to convert, modify, create and manage their fonts in one economical package. FontMonge converts fonts between all major formats and enables cross- platform conversion of fonts between Macintosh and PC computers. Fonts can be modified or even created in a flash with FontMonger's simple, elegant interface. FontMonger has a suggested retail price of $149.95. FontMinder 2.0 will manage fonts in Windows 3.1. FontMinder stream- lines the installation and de-installation of PostScript and TrueType fonts. FontMinder has a suggested retail price of $79.95. FontFiddler is a kerning editor for TrueType and PostScript fonts. FontFiddler has a suggested retail price of $99.95. » Peachtree Accounting for Windows Release 2.0 « Peachtree Software announces that its best-selling Windows accounting package, Peachtree Accounting for Windows Release 2.0, has surpassed all sales projections and is outselling its previous version and the competition three-to-one as of September 1993. A PC Research Survey reveals Peachtree Accounting for Windows Release 2.0 is outselling Microsoft Profit and MYOB by a significant margin. In addition to enhancements like graphical guides and on-line tutorials, Peachtree Accounting for Windows Release 2.0 now reads files created in Intuit's Quicken for DOS and Quicken for Windows. Peachtree Accounting for Windows Release 2.0 is fully networkable out of the box and sells for a suggested retail price of $169. » New Ace Board « Best Data Products Inc. is rolling out the ACE Advanced Communication Enhancement system, a breakthrough internal board for IBM-compatible PCs that will change the way small companies and at-home workers use computers. Developed in cooperation with IBM's Microelectronics division, ACE merges fax, modem, sound, telephone answering capabilities and CD Rom interface onto a single card--a first-time feat made possible by a new digital signal processing (DSP) technology from IBM called Mwave. One ACE board can take the place of four separate cards, saving valuable space in the motherboard for other applications. In addition, ACE defies obsolescence because it is fully software- upgradeable, making it easy and inexpensive to add new applications such as V.FAST, color faxing and video teleconferencing as they become available. ACE also reduces downtime because it permits simultaneous tasking, enabling a user to continue working at the computer screen while a fax is being sent or a phone message is being taken. Both of these important features were made possible by the Mwave technology. The ACE system comes with a 14,400 bps modem, a 9,600 bps fax with fax back and fax forward features, and a 16-bit audio board with wave table synthesis. It requires a 386SX MHZ processor with a 4 MB RAM and is designed to operate with Windows and OS/2. Suggested list price is $259. » Apple USA Head Resigns Effective Tomorrow « According to Apple Computer, Apple USA president and general manager, Robert Puette, will be resigning effective October 15. His replacement is expected to be his boss, Ian Diery, executive vice president of Apple's Personal Computer Division. Puette has been at Apple since 1990. Apple officials said the USA general manager is leaving to pursue other interests. However there are speculations that Puette's resignation could be the result of Apple's restructuring. Sources at Apple did say that the resignation has nothing to do with rumors that Apple USA might wholly move to Austin, Texas. » Apple Sets up a "Try Before You Buy" Software Division « Joining IBM and Gateway, Apple Computer has announced a new CD-ROM delivery system for its software. The initial offering will consist of 80 software programs and will be handled by a new division called Soft- ware Dispatch. Apple's Software Dispatch division will handle 800 number calls from users who, after providing a credit card number to purchase the soft- ware, can unlock applications on the Software Dispatch CD-ROM disc via a key given over the phone. A Quicktime movie tutorial will be supplied to explain the 'Try it first' purchase process. Interactive tours, limited trial versions, and product information sheets will be available for each software application on the CD. Customers may select the software by clicking on a button that adds the title to an electronic order form. The electronic key will allow installation from the CD to a hard disk of the software purchased. At the same time, the customer can also get a full set of product documentation that is identical to the print version that users would normally get in traditional packaging. Hard copies of the documentation can also be ordered. Over 80 applications will be on the first CD, featuring productivity, utilities, education, games, fonts, clip art and other applications from Symantec, Claris, Computer Associates, Intuit, Vividus, Spinnaker, and Lotus. The CDs will be distributed free by mail beginning in November 1993 to Macintosh CD-ROM owners and in early 1994 to Windows CD-ROM owners. The cost of the software will be about the same as users can expect to pay in software stores. » Pastel ships DayMaker Organizer 3.0 « This week Pastel will start shipping the new version of its best- selling personal organizer for the Mac, DayMaker Organizer 3.0. Version 3.0 was inspired by feedback from many of the nearly 50,000 users of DayMaker. "The key to DayMaker Organizer's superiority is the natural integra- tion of contact and phone-call management to the most usable calendar and to-do list program," said Hank Williams, president of Pastel. He added "DayMaker Organizer 3.0 offers a complete solution for personal organization by providing a tightly integrated product that gives users immediate access to their important information and is easily customized." Special introductory pricing of $129.95 is being offered through Nov- ember 30, 1993. After that DayMaker Organizer 3.0 will list for $149.95. A competitive trade-up is available for $49.95 from Pastel and leading catalogs. Current DayMaker users can upgrade for $29.95 plus $5.00 for shipping and handling. After December 31, the upgrade price will be $39.95. To order an upgrade, DayMaker users should send a check plus a copy of their sales receipt or the cover of their DayMaker manual to: Pastel Development, 113 Spring Street, New York, NY, 10012, or order by calling Pastel's order department at: 800/249-8316. About Pastel Development ________________________________________________________ »» Dataquest - CD-ROM Market Exaggerated «« LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 OCT 20 (NB) -- There is a strong shift on the part of multimedia hardware makers towards software in the form of CD-ROM titles. Apple Computer, Media Vision, and Creative Technologies have all announced their intention to offer CD-ROM software titles in various forms. Traditional book publishers, such as Harcourt Brace, are getting to the act as well. However, Dataquest analysts say the race to CD-ROM may be premature. Media Vision's Allen Thygensen, senior director and general manager of multimedia publishing, told Newsbytes: "Content, long term, is where the money is." Ian Diery, executive vice president of Apple Computer's Personal Computer Division, said the company sees such strong opportunity in the direction of content that it has gone as far as to spend $100 million to populate the market with CD-ROM hardware so it can sell CD-ROM titles. Harcourt Brace and Company, a publisher in the educational market, just recently purchased Archipelago Productions, a California-based developer of CD-ROM and interactive computer software and educational products, for the purpose of entering the educational software market. Random House, another educational publisher, recently announced a joint venture agreement with multimedia software publisher Broderbund to develop and distribute CD-ROM titles. However, the market for CD-ROM drives and titles may not grow as fast as these companies anticipate, according to Bruce Ryon, principle multimedia analyst with the market research firm Dataquest. Ryon said exaggerated reports have had the CD-ROM market as high as $3 billion, but Dataquest has been unable to find any supporting evidence for a market larger than $600 million right now. A recent Dataquest survey revealed only seven percent of a sample population of 200 consumers with computers have CD-ROM drives attached to their computers. Ryon says independent surveys he has seen have held to the same proportions. This means the current market for CD-ROM titles is a small subset of the PC market as a whole. In addition, Ryon said he found a whopping 85 percent of the CD software titles are sold bundled with CD-ROM drives and those surveyed said they were happy with the software that came in the bundle. Less than fifty percent bought additional titles after buying the CD-ROM bundle and most buyers said they did not plan to purchase any more CD-ROM titles. As the CD-ROM drive market becomes more competitive, manufacturers are considering cutting their costs by eliminating the expense of the bundled software, but Ryon says these companies are also afraid to eliminate the bundles because they fear CD-ROM sales will drop off altogether. The main demand in the CD-ROM market is driven by the needs of home business and home education, according to Dataquest. A family can easily justify the purchase of a CD-ROM drive bundled with an encyclopedia on CD as opposed to the $1,700 or higher expense of an actual book set of encyclopedias, Ryon said. In addition, other reference materials, medical encyclopedias, and early learning software titles are also finding acceptance in the home and small business markets. As for the rest of the titles out there, Ryon quipped, "There's a lot of content chasing not many potential buyers." While there appears to be a nice growth curve ahead of 30 to 40 percent, the steep growth curves hyped by the multimedia hardware companies are probably not going to occur, Ryon claims. A handful of companies are doing well, such as Software Toolworks with a $28 million revenue stream and Compton's in the $26 to $28 million range. However, the vast majority of content developers are small shops with total revenue of under $50,000. Why all the hype? Ryon says it is in the interest of the multimedia hardware vendors to make the market sound lucrative. These companies sell more hardware and get more developers to make titles for the hardware, Ryon maintains. @endnode ------------------------------ @node P1-3 "BitMap" @toc "menu" -= BITMAP =- Authors wanted! We are putting together a new disk magazine. Everyone interested in 2D & 3D graphics and animation on Amiga are welcome to send in their reviews, tips, tutorials, images, objects, ARexx scripts, etc. The aim is to give everyone who sends their material in exposure (please include your contact address and a note about what you do) The magazine will be distributed in NTSC-compatible format so that people on both sides of the pond can read it without problems. We'll be also publishing a freely distributable collection of images in JPEG format on Amiga, PC and Macintosh disks. They'll contain text files describing images and ways to get in touch with their authors. We plan to put them into PC and Macintosh PD libraries to spread it all over the place. Please note that the magazine will be distributed on electronic networks, via PD libraries etc. and we cannot guarantee that your copyright will be respected. But you _should_ include copyright notice anyway. Please submit material via e-mail or on 880K disks only. Send your submissions to: Jacek Artymiak Department of Civil Engineering University of Leeds Leeds LS2 9JT England or E-mail: jartymiak@cix.compulink.co.uk @endnode ------------------------------ @node P1-4 "Prime Mover" @toc "menu" Prime Mover from Psygnosis TITLE Prime Mover COMPANY USA: EUROPE: Psygnosis Ltd. Psygnosis Ltd. 675 Massachusetts Ave. South Harrington Building Cambridge, MA 01239 Sefton Street, Liverpool L3 4BQ USA United Kingdom Order Line: (800)438-7794 Tel: +44 51 709 5755 Tech Support:(617)497-7794 DESCRIPTION Prime Mover is a motorcycle racing game. The game's playability sets it apart from all others. Prime Mover has been painstakingly developed to provide a unique computer racing experience. Developers at Psygnosis have dedicated considerable research time into isolating the factors that make racing games so playable - factors such as fluid graphics, cornering, and reducing 'stumbling' (the amount of time spent floundering on off-track grassy sections). FEATURES o Five unique motorcycles with individual performance characteristics o Race in 12 different countries o 3.7 Megabytes of graphics o 18 Soundtracks o Fluid 50 frame per second animation SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS o Any Amiga model with at least 1MB RAM (512K CHIP or greater) PRICE & DISTRIBUTABILITY $49.99 US Suggested Retail Price The full game is available from Amiga dealers worldwide. Prime Mover can also be ordered directly from Psygnosis. Prime Mover is a commercial product Copyright 1993 Psygnosis, Ltd. Announcement by: Daniel Robbins Psygnosis Ltd. Tech Support Representative 675 Massachusetts Avenue & Telecommunications Liason Cambridge, MA 02139 psygtech@psygnosis.com @endnode ------------------------------ @node P5-1 "Mand2000 Demo" @toc "menu" Mand2000 demo available for ftp TITLE: Mand2000D - fractal exploration program. VERSION 1.102 COMPANY Cygnus Software 33 University Square, #199 Madison, WI, 53713 USA or CygnusSoft@cup.portal.com AUTHOR: Bruce Dawson Helen Dawson DESCRIPTION: Mand2000D is the demo version of Mand2000, a fractal exploration program. Fractals are strangely beautiful mathematical objects which have started appearing everywhere from book covers to rock videos. The Mandelbrot set is probably the most popular of these fractals. Its unique beauty and infinite complexity, derived from a simple mathematical formula, have drawn thousands of people to explore the Mandelbrot set on their computers. Do note however, that no mathematical ability is required to explore and appreciate fractals with Mand2000. Mand2000 draws pictures of the Mandelbrot set and other fractals on your Amiga and allows you to explore them by zooming in towards interesting areas. In Mand2000 we have attempted to combine speed, power and simplicity with a few unique features, all designed to make it easy for you to discover uncharted regions of the Mandelbrot set, Julia set and other fractals. Mand2000D is a full version of Mand2000, except that saving and printing have been crippled. What makes Mand2000 different? Point and click animated zooming is the most intuitive way of exploring the Mandelbrot and Julia sets that we could think of. It's as easy as using a zoom lens on a camera. Until now the idea of driving through the Mandelbrot set would have been absurd - now it's a reality. Plug in your joystick to scroll and zoom your way around the most complex object ever seen. Mand2000's multi-pass drawing means that even slower Amigas can take a test drive. It lets you see an approximation of the final picture in just a fraction of a second. Even for pictures that will take several minutes to complete, you can get a good idea of what your picture will look like almost immediately. This allows you to decide quickly whether to keep zooming, or wait for the completed picture. Mand2000 has a multi-window, multi-requester design. You can adjust parameters and see the changes in real time as Mand2000 continues calculating while you use the requesters. Leave as many requesters and fractal windows open as you want. Mand2000 lets you calculate fractal zoom movies quickly, by calculating key frames and letting Mand2000's TweenPlayer create the intermediate frames at playback. Just a few of the other features include: full AGA support, Picasso II compatibility, literally dozens of different assembly language math routines for accuracies ranging from 16 bits to 1000+ bits, on-line help, printing, multi-level undo, built in locations to start you searching, full featured ARexx support, several ARexx scripts supplied, graphical displaying of your location, etc. These are just some of the more significant and innovative features in Mand2000. There are dozens more. NEW FEATURES: Since version 1.001 we have added: An AppIcon, some new ARexx commands and scripts, and optional disabling of joystick zooming, for compatibility with dongles, etc. BUG FIXES: Fixed all known bugs. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS: Requires version2.04 of the OS. Three fractal equations are always available. Four more fractal equations are available with a 68881, 68882 or 68040. HOST NAME: Aminet - ftp.wustl.edu DIRECTORY: /pub/aminet/gfx/fract/Mand2000Demo.lha PRICE: $34.95 US for the release version with full working save - sorry, we cannot take credit cards. DISTRIBUTABILITY: Mand2000D is Copyright (c) 1993 Cygnus Software Mand2000 is tryware. The demo version, Mand2000D, may be freely distributed in original and unmodified form as long as no more than a nominal copying fee is charged. The release version of Mand2000 may not be distributed. @endnode ------------------------------ @node P5-2 "MCalc v1.0" @toc "menu" MCalc 1.0 available for ftp TITLE MUIProCalc (MCalc) MUI'Programmer'Calc VERSION 1.0 COMPANY None working for AUTHOR Kai Iske Brucknerstrasse 18 63452 Hanau Germany Tel.: +49-(0)6181-850181 email: kai@iske.adsp.sub.org iske@informatik.uni-frankfurt.de DESCRIPTION MUIProCalc is a MUI-based calculator much like Jimmy Yang`s Calc 3.0. It still lacks the plotter, but it offers a quite flexible history facility for inserting previously entered expressions. Different output formats offered and plenty of functions the user may choose from. Furthermore the look of the calculator may be customized. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Only OS 2.x and MUI (MagicUserInterface by Stefan Stuntz) HOST NAME wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4) DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/os20/util/ FILE NAMES MCalc10.lha ; program, docs and source PRICE GiftWare, i.e. anything you like ;) DISTRIBUTABILITY GiftWare @endnode ------------------------------ @node P5-3 "MultiUser v1.5" @toc "menu" MultiUser 1.5 available for ftp TITLE MultiUser RELEASE 1.5 AUTHOR Geert Uytterhoeven uytterho@cs.kuleuven.ac.be SHORT A protection system for several users DESCRIPTION You've got an Amiga with Kickstart 2.04 or higher and several people are regularly fooling around with it ... Last week your sister deleted your 20MB JPEG collection by mistake and you don't want this to happen again ... Well, here's the answer: MultiUser! MultiUser allows you to create a *IX-like environment where several users live together in harmony, unable to delete each others files, unable to read those private love-letters of other users ... And this even if several users are working on the machine at the same time (on a terminal hooked up to the serial port) ... You are the sole user of your computer? Well, make sure it stays that way by installing MultiUser! People without a valid login ID and password won't be able to access files you have made private with MultiUser. If you make all files private (not readable for others), the only useful thing they could do, is boot from a floppy ... And ... you do not have to reformat your hard drive! NEW FEATURES - Better compatibility with ixemul.library (i.e. gcc/g++). - Groups can have a name. - Users can belong to more than one group. - Support for system monitoring. - Non-binding assigns (e.g. HOME: points always to your home directory, even if several users are using the same computer at the same time). SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS - AmigaOS Release 2.04 (V37+) or higher. - A Rigid Disk Block compatible hard drive/controller. - reqtools.library V38+ () Nico Frangois). HOST NAME wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4) [AmiNet] DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/os20/util FILENAME MultiUser15.lha PRICE Suggested contribution of 500 BEF or USD 15 DISTRIBUTABILITY Shareware @endnode ------------------------------ @node P5-4 "Amiga PGP v2.3a" @toc "menu" Amiga PGP 2.3a plus available for ftp [ Editor's note: PGP uses the RSA encryption algorithm, ] [ which is patented at the US Patent Office. The last I ] [ heard, the publishers of PGP do not have a license to ] [ freely distribute software using this algorithm ] [ (although I think they can sell it commercially). ] [ Therefore, this software is contraband and using it is ] [ illegal, at least in the United States if you don't ] [ work for the federal government. The last time I ] [ checked, the documentation contained a long descrip- ] [ tion of the legal issues involved with this package. ] [ Please consult that for further details. -Dan Barrett ] TITLE Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) VERSION Version 2.3a PLUS AUTHORS The original version was written by Philip Zimmermann, Branko Lankester, Hal Finney, Peter Gutmann and various other contributors. Amiga port and enhancements by Peter Simons , based on the efforts of Cor Bosman. DESCRIPTION Pretty Good(tm) Privacy (PGP), from Phil's Pretty Good Software, is a high security cryptographic software application for MSDOS, Unix, VAX/VMS, Amiga and other computers. PGP allows people to exchange files or messages with privacy, authentication, and convenience. Privacy means that only those intended to receive a message can read it. Authentication means that messages that appear to be from a particular person can only have originated from that person. Convenience means that privacy and authentication are provided without the hassles of managing keys associated with conventional cryptographic software. No secure channels are needed to exchange keys between users, which makes PGP much easier to use. This is because PGP is based on a powerful new technology called "public key" cryptography. And PGP performs the public-key functions faster than most other software implementations. PGP is public key cryptography for the masses. The release consists of two archives: The official release and an enhanced version. Both can be found on in the same directory on the AmiNet--see below for further details. The main archive contains everything you need to run PGP plus sources and several contributions, while the update-archive just contains the new PGP versions the the source-diffs of the changes that have been made. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS none HOST NAME Any Aminet host, i.e. ftp.uni-kl.de (131.246.9.95). DIRECTORY /pub/amiga/aminet/util/crypt/ FILE NAMES PGPAmiga2_3a.LHA * main archive PGPAmiga2_3a.readme PGPAmi23aplus.LHA * update archive PGPAmi23aplus.readme DISTRIBUTABILITY GNU General Public License @endnode ------------------------------ @node P5-5 "Recipe Box v1.1" @toc "menu" Recipe Box V1.1 available on Aminet TITLE The Recipe Box VERSION V1.1 AUTHOR Vic Freed vic@umcc.umich.edu DESCRIPTION The Recipe Box is an easy to use graphic database that can be used for printing recipe cards and for keeping track of all your recipes. This program is easy to use and very strait forward. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS none HOST NAME Any Aminet host or ftp.wustl.edu:/systems/amiga/aminet/biz/dbase/ DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/biz.dbase/ FILE NAMES RecipeBox11.lha DISTRIBUTABILITY ShareWare @endnode ------------------------------ @node P5-6 "UMS v10.7" @toc "menu" Universal Message System (UMS) - Release 10.7 Available for FTP TITLE Universal Message System (UMS) VERSION Public Release 10.7 COMPANY Private developers AUTHOR Various. Please consult the documentation DESCRIPTION UMS is an universal mail and news system. UMS itself handles the message base. It uses a very fast message base with a standarized message format. The access to the message base is handled by standarized programmer interface (ums.library). Programmers support for C, Modula-2 and Oberon are included. The ums.library interface includes an ARexx interface and transparent networking support. External programs provide the interface to existing networks, e.g. Usenet over UUCP. Currently available are converters for UUCP, FIDO, Maus and Z-Netz. The standarized interface eases the creation of new converters. The standarized message format eliminates the need for specialized message readers or writers. Currently you can choose between a comfortable, MUI based program and old-style program which uses the console and the keyboard. Included is an Installer script for easy installation. NEW FEATURES * IntuiNews, a MUI based message reader * ARexx interface * many new tools * updates to the existing tools SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS * OS 2.04 (or better) is required * IntuiNews needs the MUI package (not included) HOST NAME Aminet servers, e.g. ftp.wustl.edu (USA) ftp.uni-paderborn.de (GERMANY) or ftp.dfv.rwth-aachen.de (GERMANY) FILE NAMES Aminet: /pub/aminet/comm/mail/UMS10_7.lha dfv: /pub/amiga/UMS/UMS10_7.lha PRICE Free DISTRIBUTABILITY UMS 10.7 is freely distributable. @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-5 "Online Weekly" @toc "menu" /// ONLINE WEEKLY Amiga Report Online The lines are buzzing! --------------------------------- From Fidonet's Amiga International Echo --------------------------------------- Well just so everyone knows in the business section of the Washington Post there is a story on the CD^32. It is fairly long and speaks of C= in a possibly possitive light (Basically C= is not dead yet, but could be if nothing happens). Here is the first paragraph, so you can get an idea... Commodore's Entertaining CD Player CD32 Is a Game, Video and Adudio Machine Rolled Into One Commodore, the company that once dominated the home computer-market in the United States only to let that position slip through its circuits, has quietly introduced a remarkable home-entertainment device that could take the country by storm - or languish on store shelves. It could go either way for teh CD32 because Commodore can't - or won't - spend more than pocket change to promote the device. Anyway it goes on from there but my typing is not the greatest in the world, so I guess it is up to you to find the article if you want to read this. It is the second week in a row that the Amiga's have been mentioned in the Washington Post (Last week it was basically Amiga's are still the best at multimedia if you can find one. This was a paragraph in a story about multimedia). Later, Rob Morton morton@wam.umd.edu ------------------------------ Area: AMIGA Date: 15 Oct 93 18:57:00 From: Rich Koster (1:396/36.0) To : All Subj: End of Poll The poll has come to an end, asking Amiga users on various echoes if they would pay for new games and productivity software made by Disney if they were to decide to come out with more in the future. The number of responses was quite low. I have decided to not pass along the names and responses of those taking part, but have instead informed Dave Arnspiger of Disney Software what the numbers were. If any of you responding are upset that I'm not passing your comments along, remember that you always have the ability to write to Disney yourself personally. Question: More support and/or buy more Disney productivity? No: 1 Maybe: 1 Yes: 29 Here on the Amiga echo, someone was interested in knowing if the IBM version of Disney's The Animation Studio had ever been upgraded and if it would get more updates in the future (this was asked because the Amiga version has never been upgraded). Dave Arnspiger responded to that question this way: DA> There are some plans to do an upgrade to the IBM version. I don't DA> think that includes the AMIGA version, but I am not privy to those DA> high level issues. [...] DA> There have been several bug fixes and one upgrade DA> to IBM DAS and all that did was add support for Windows. Thanks to one and all who took part in the poll! Rich Koster, amiga.moderator.aide ------------------------------ Area: AMIGA Date: 14 Oct 93 19:25:11 From: J. Moore (1:229/15.0) To : All Subj: Amiga Sighting I just got back from seeing The Phantom of the Opera at the Pantages in Toronto (this is not a small-time production) and whaddayaknow -- there on the sound board setup was a C= 1084 monitor. Looked down and there were a couplea Amigas. They use 'em to handle the sound -- even got a mention in the program. Didn't get a chance to ask what hardware/software they use. Also the local computer newspaper, Toronto Computes, has a two page article on Commodore's Gould and Haig and their troubles with the Commodore Shareholders' Movement. Plus Robocop (the TV series) is in production here with 3D graphics by Lightwave. @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P4-5 "Amiga Report Mailing List" @toc "menu" /// Amiga Report Mailing List ------------------------- Are you tired of waiting for your local BBS or online service to get Amiga Report each week? Have you been spending more money that you want on long distance phone calls to download it from one of our Distribution Sites? If so, have we got a deal for you! If you have an internet mailing address, you can receive Amiga Report in UUENCODED form each week as soon as the issue is released. To be put on the list, send Email to Amiga-Report-Request@gnu.ai.mit.edu. Your account must be able to handle mail of any size to ensure an intact copy. For example, GEnie has a limit of about 40K per message, and most of our issues are well over that limit. Please do not send general Email to Amiga-Report-Request, only requests for subscription additions or deletions (or if you are not receiving an intact copy). All other correspondence should be directed to the editor at ROB_G@Delphi.COM. Many thanks to Bob Caron for setting this service up for us! P.S.: Please be sure to include your Email address in the text of your request message, it makes adding it to the list much easier. Thanks! ** IMPORTANT NOTICE: PLEASE be certain your host can accept mail over ** 100K! We have had a lot of bouncebacks recently from systems with a ** 100K size limit for incoming mail. If we get a bounceback with your ** address in it, it will be removed from the list. @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-6 "UseNet review - Hired Guns" @toc "menu" /// Usenet Review: Hired Guns --------------------------- By David W. Lowrey (dwl10@juts.ccc.amdahl.com) PRODUCT NAME Hired Guns BRIEF DESCRIPTION An "adventure" game for 1-4 players, where each player controls one or more of the computer characters. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: DMA Design (distributed by Psygnosis) Address: 29 Saint Mary's Court Brookline, MA 02146 USA LIST PRICE I paid $44.95 (US) at a "full service" Amiga store. I don't know the list price. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE At least 1 Meg of memory. If you have a 2 meg Agnus chip, the program will use extra sound effects. It works on my 68020-based Amiga, so I would imagine that other processors are supported. Supports up to 4 floppy drives. A special parallel adapter can be bought, or made, that allows 2 additional joysticks to be used. The game also allows you to use a modified Sega "Joypad" in place of a joystick. SOFTWARE ? COPY PROTECTION Look up a word in the manual. The disks are copyable, and the game is hard disk installable. The "look up a word...." scheme isn't too bad as the game doesn't always ask you! I would rate the copy protection as acceptable. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 2500 68020 processor board with 2 meg Fast RAM 2091 SCSI controller with 2 meg Fast RAM (total of 5 meg memory, of which one meg is Chip RAM) AmigaDos 2.1 INSTALLATION The program either runs off of floppies, or off of your hard drive. The hard disk version of the game does not take over the system. You can pause the game and switch to the Workbench. The game returns to the Workbench when you exit. The floppy version takes over the system, and you have to reboot when you are finished with the game. Floppys do not require any installation, other than the judicial practice of copying the originals and playing from the copies. To install the game on a hard drive, drag the Install icon into the drawer you wish to contain the HiredGuns directory. Then double-click the Install icon. 5 languages are supported. You have the choice of installing the complete game, including the extra music, or just a minimal configuration. The disk comes on 5 floppies, and takes about 1.5 meg of hard drive space. REVIEW NOTE: I have had the game for 24 hours now, so this is really a first impression. If my opinion changes, or if I have the facts wrong, I will send in an update. Hired Guns is somewhat like an RPG, or "adventure" game, where you have a party of "adventurers", and you go on a quest of some sort, solving puzzles and fighting bad guys along the way. You usually have a "window" that shows what the party sees. Hired Guns is like that, plus a whole lot more. Up to 4 players control 4 computer characters at the same time. The players can use up to two mice, the keyboard, or joysticks to control the computer players. Each input device can control one or more computer players. The program supports a parallel port joystick adapter. Other games, such as Gauntlet, use this same device. When there are only one or two players, they have to use a mouse. That means that for a two player game, you need two mice. Three or 4 players have the option to select the input device. Each computer character can also be told to "follow the leader", so you can move up to 4 characters at once. This "Auto Leader" mode will cause the computer characters that have the mode enabled to follow the currently moving character. Each computer character has its own view window, so each can be in a different place at the same time. If player 1 is standing in front of player 2, then player 2 sees player 1 in front of him. You have your choice of 12 different computer characters. You cannot edit their "stats" nor add your own characters. However, you CAN edit the graphics for each character using any Amiga paint program. Each character has an ILBM IFF file containing the different views of that character. You can edit the pictures, perhaps replacing them with your own picture, and use that in the game. The view windows are in "3D" style, so you get the illusion of depth. The graphics are relatively detailed, but they do not blow you away. The purpose of the game is for the players to eradicate the area of the various mutants that happen to be there. You are provided various weapons, and more are found that allow you to do this. You move your computer characters around the a landscape consisting of grass, trees, multi-level buildings, tunnels, and rocks. There are also water channels, sometimes multi-leveled, that you can (or have) to wander around in. There are devices available (you hope) that will allow humans to breathe, and keep robots sealed for a few minutes. There are stairs and elevators that move you up and down. There are big blocks that you push and pull around to allow you or another computer character to get across a chasm or water channel. There are force fields, teleport fields, and doors that need to be removed, accessed, or opened. Many of the puzzles require cooperation between computer characters to complete. And, of course, there are the "Bad Guys." There are many different ones, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. It is up to you to figure out the best defense and the appropriate weapons that are necessary to deal with each creature. Each character has an inventory of items, called a "store". Items can be picked up, dropped, and equipped, using each computer character's store window. If a computer player has the appropriate device, a map of where he or she has been is automatically kept, and is displayable. The game has several modes. There are "Training" missions, "Short Campaign" games, and the "Full Campaign" game. The training missions start out easy and get progressively harder. The "short campaign" games can usually be completed in one sitting. When there are more that one "human" playing the game, they can compete with each other to see which one completes the level first. The "Full Campaign" has about 20 different sites you have to visit, each with different puzzles and varying degrees of difficulty. Fortunately, you can save your "Full Campaign" game between playings on floppy, Hard Drive, or in RAM. DOCUMENTATION The program comes with 4 different manuals. However, I am not impressed with the contents. Much of the information you need is either spread out between the manuals, or not there at all. The manuals are: "Amiga Instructions", which tells you how to install and operate the game; "Game Manual", which describes the various games, and some of the objects in the game; and "The Luyten System, a Background" which describes the bad guys and weapons. It also describes and the local planetary system, which is for "color" only and not necessary to play the game. Finally, the "Countdown To Graveyard" manual gives a history to what is happening, and also describes the Good Guys. All of the apostrophes (') are missing in the manuals! None of the manuals describe any sort of strategy that might be of help. LIKES AND DISLIKES I really like having 4 independent characters to control. You have each character's view in front of you at all times. I also like the balance between fighting and problem solving. The problems are just as important as the fighting. They are also logical problems, such as "how the heck can I get down 4 stories without killing myself," as opposed to being randomly teleported somewhere for no apparent reason. I like the hard drive installability, and the relatively non-intrusive copy protection. I like the ability to play with 3 other players (which I haven't tried, yet). COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS There was a demo of this program released earlier this year. The play is basically the same, but items such as "group mode" work much better. BUGS None found, yet. CONCLUSIONS This is a much waited-for game, and it was well worth the wait! COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1993 Starbound Enterprises. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P4-2 "Portal" @toc "menu" /// Portal: A Great Place For Amiga Users -------------------------------------- Portal Communications' Amiga Zone The AFFORDABLE alternative for online Amiga information ------------------------------------------------------- The Portal Online System is the home of acclaimed Amiga Zone, which was formerly on the People/Link System. Plink went out of business in May, 1991 and The Amiga Zone's staff moved to Portal the next day. The Zone has just celebrated its second anniversary on Portal. The Amiga press raves about The Amiga Zone, when compared to its competition. If you live in the San Jose, CA area, then you can dial Portal directly. If you live elsewhere, you can reach Portal through any SprintNet (formerly Telenet) indial anywhere in the USA or through Tymnet from anywhere in North America. If you have an account on another Internet-connected system, you can connect to Portal using the UNIX Telnet programs, from anywhere in the industrialized world. Delphi and BIX users can now Telnet into Portal for a flat $19.95 a month, with *unlimited* use. Some of Portal/Amiga Zone's amazing features include: · Over 1.5 GIGabytes of Amiga-specific files · The *entire* Fred Fish collection of freely distributable software, online. · Fast, Batch Zmodem file transfer protocol. Download up to 100 files at once, of any size, with one command. · Twenty Amiga vendor areas with participants like AmigaWorld, ASDG, Soft-Logik, Black Belt, Apex Publishing, Stylus, Prolific, NES. · 35 "regular" Amiga libraries with thousands of files. Hot new stuff arrives daily. · No upload/download "ratios" EVER. Download as much as you want, as often as you want, and never feel pressued doing it. · Live, interactive nightly chats with Amiga folks whose names you will recognize. Special conferences. Random chance prize contests. Famous Amiga folks aren't the exception on Portal, they're the norm. · Vast Message bases where you can ask questions about *anything* Amiga related and get quick replies from the experts. · Amiga Internet mailing lists for Imagine, DCTV, LightWave, HyperAmi, Director and Landscapes are fed right into the Zone message bases. Read months worth of postings. They don't scroll off, ever! No need to clutter your mailbox with them. · FREE unlimited Internet Email. Your Portal account gets you a mailbox that's connected to the world. Send letters of any length to computer users in the entire industrialized world. No limits. No extra charges. No kidding! · Portal has the Usenet. Thousands of "newsgroups" in which you can read and post articles about virtually any subject you can possibly imagine. · Other Portal SIGs (Special Interest Groups) online for Mac, IBM, Sun, NeXT, UNIX, Science Fiction, Writers, amateur radio, and a graphics SIG with thousands of GIF files to name just a few. ALL Portal SIGs are accessible to ALL Portal customers with NO surcharges ever. · The entire UPI/Clarinet/Newsbytes news hierarchy ($4/month extra) An entire general interest newspaper and computer news magazine. · Portal featues an exciting package of Internet features: IRC, FTP, TELNET, MUDS, LIBS. Free to all Portal customers with your account. Internet Services is a menu driven version of the same kinds of utilities you can also use from your Portal UNIX shell account. · All the files you can FTP. All the chatting you can stand on the IRC. And on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) you can talk live, in real time with Amiga users in the U.K., Europe, Australia, the Far East, 24 hours a day. · Our exclusive PortalX by Steve Tibbett, the graphical "front end" for Portal which will let you automatically click'n'download your waiting email, messages, Usenet groups and binary files! Reply to mail and messages offline using your favorite editor and your replies are sent automatically the next time you log into Portal. (PortalX requires Workbench 2.04 or higher) · And Portal does NOT stick it to high speed modem users. Whether you log in at 1200 or 2400 or 9600 or 14.4K you pay the same low price. How does all that sound? Probably too good to be true. Well, it IS true. Portal Signup or for more information: 408-973-9111 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time 408-725-0561 (modem 3/12/2400) 24 hours every day 408-973-8091 (modem 9600/14400) 24 hours every day or enter "C PORTAL" from any Sprintnet dial-in in the USA, or enter "portal" from any Tymnet "please log in:" prompt, USA & Canada or telnet to "portal.com" from anywhere. PORTAL'S CURRENT RATES: All prices shown are in U.S. Dollars Total Total Total Total Cost Cost Cost Cost Fee 1 hr. 5 hrs. 10 hrs.30 hrs. Startup Monthly Per Per per per per Fee Fee Hour month month month month $ $ $ $ $ $ $ Portal 19.95 19.95 2400/9600/14.4Kbps, *direct 24 hrs 0.00 19.95 19.95 19.95 19.95 2400/9600bps nonprime Sprint or Tymnet 2.50 22.95 32.45 44.95 94.95 2400/9600bps prime Sprint +% or Tymnet 5.50-10 29.95 69.95 119.95 varies 2400/9600bps non prime # PCPursuit 1.00 20.95 24.95 29.95 49.95 * plus cost of phone call if out of Portal's local dialing area Direct rates also apply to connections made to Portal using the UNIX "telnet" program from an account you may already have on an Internet-connected system. % 9600 bps Sprintnet and Tymnet available in over 300 cities areas + $10 rate prevails at smaller US Cities # PCPursuit is a service of US Sprint. Portal is a PCPursuit "Direct Access Facility" thus connection to Portal with a PCP account is simply a matter of entering C PORTAL,PCP-ID,PCP-PASSWORD at the SprintNet login prompt instead of C PORTAL. Note: Portal Direct 9600/14400 bps service is availble for both USR HST modems, and any V32/V32.bis modems. There are dozens of direct-dial high speed lines into Portal. No busy signals! SprintNet 9600bps service is V.32 modem protocol only. Tymnet 9600bps services is V.32 modem protocol only. Again, Portal does NOT surcharge high speed modem users! Portal subscribers who already have an account on an Internet-capable system elsewhere, can use that system's "telnet" program to connect to Portal for $0.00 an hour. That's right ZERO. From anywhere in the world. If you're in this category, be sure to ask the Portal reps, when you signup, how to login to Portal from your existing Internet account. Call and join today. Tell the friendly Portal Customer Service representative, "The Amiga Zone and Amiga Report sent me!" [Editor's Note: Be sure to tell them that you are an Amiga user, so they can notify the AmigaZone sysops to send their Welcome Letter and other information!] That number again: 408-973-9111. Portal Communications accepts MasterCard, Visa, or you can pre-pay any amount by personal check or money order. The Portal Online System is a trademark of Portal Communications. @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P1-7 "Usenet Review - Civilization AGA" @toc "menu" /// Usenet Review: Civilization AGA -------------------------------- By Michael Robert Bromery (davereed@wam.umd.edu) PRODUCT NAME Civilization AGA BRIEF DESCRIPTION A strategy game based on the history of the world. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Microprose 180 Lakefront Drive Hunt Valley, MD 21030 USA Telephone: (410) 771-1151 Name: Kompart UK Ltd. 20 Guilford Road St Albans, Herts AL 1 5JY Telephone: (0727) 868005 Fax: (0727) 845202 LIST PRICE I paid approximately $54.00 (US). SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS An Amiga with the AGA graphics chipset. COPY PROTECTION There is a manual lookup copy protection. This is done once while you play. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 1200 2 MB Chip RAM 60 Meg hard drive 2 floppy drives REVIEW Civilization is game based on the history of the world. You start off as a leader of a small neanderthal, nomad tribe which is looking for a place on this planet to start its first settlement. From here, you try to build an empire that can last through the ages. You have scientists that try to achieve new discoveries or new technology which you can then use. Your decisions on what the Scientists can research make very large changes between one possible future and another. Not only that, but you have to handle properly what ideas your tribe knows now. You start with only two types of people you can send out from your town or towns. You can send out Militia (cheap and fast to make, are pretty weak fighters, but still are your only chance at defense at the beginning of the game). You can also send out Settlers (these are pretty dynamic), which can do one of several things. The settlers can go out and 1. Try to find a place to build yet another town. 2. Irrigate plains so that they reap more food. 3. Change plains to forest or vice versa. 4. Build roads so that any unit (types of people or machines; we'll call them units from now on) can move 3 times as fast. Roads, obviously, are best when built from town to town. The main 2 screens that you use the most are the Main Map screen and the Town screen. In the Main Map, you manipulate your units, look around your known part of the world, and control main game functions. In the Town screen, you control aspects of the town and choose what the town builds (it'll show you how many turns it will take to finish the project too). You can also manipulate how the town farms, and how much food, water, fish, oil, diamonds, gems, and ore that the town brings in. Much food comes from ripe and irrigated lands, especially if those lands have Game in them. (Game means animals that can be hunted for food. Australian Aboriginals politely go for game like certain deer to survive, for example. I'd like to visit them myself -- they seem like nice blokes.) OK, back to the game. You do this, and manipulate troops for fortifications or scouting around. You usually will use troops to discover new parts of the world. At the beginning, you can only see a small square around your first group of settlers (which you start with), but as you move around in the map, those black unknown squares become known territory. Beware, there are other civilizations out there trying to do the same thing. Gameplay changes (much like Dune) as you discover more things, then makes a drastic change when you meet other civilizations. When you meet other civilizations, things come to war, peace, treaties, spies, Diplomats, stealing technology, encouraging other civilization's cities to go under revolt, political chaos, restoring or making new order, and more. Messengers from one republic to another. While doing all that you did before and more. Soon, you have a magnificent empire (if you last that long) with all sorts of towns that you have to worry about; and the way the game leads you in the comfortable learning curve, you are surprised that you could probably remember specific things about all of the 50+ towns that you have. Technology goes with learning the alphabet, establishing writing, and building literacy which gives birth to messengers and diplomats. There are also the wheel, automotion, and mathematics... in which the first and the third would allow the use of catapults, because your men need mathematics to understand the true theory of projectile motion. When you learn those, you can have catapult units attack other towns and such, but are easily taken out by decent ground troops. Some discoveries make others obsolete. The game goes on an on, getting more complex as it goes, even to the age of the space race (if you lived that far, or any other civilizations lived that far while you are there). Yes, for those of you who are into nuking people, they go as far as nuclear weapons and a bit past them. Now the sound. Well, who asked for sound in Civilization anyways? Well, don't fret. The music is as nice as it gets for this kind of game. It's decent, but not earthshattering, but the music is very appropriate during the beginning and introduction sequences. You also have the main theme of your tribe or civilization play when certain special events happen to you. Otherwise, no in-game music (which is nice, because in-game music can be annoying with this kind of game, and the authors know it). There is sound in the game, as you hear a digitized sword clashing sound when two units fight, or the sound of workmen and woodworkers when a new development is built in a city for example. AGA VERSION INFORMATION Well, the first difference is the title. It's not just called Civilization: it is actually called Civilization AGA. It seems they really wanted to make note of the difference. Technically, I can say this is probably one of the best IBM ports ever made. The 256 color screens often show some nice graphics in which they were directly converted from the IBM original and some look like they were touched up a bit. To enjoy the graphics truly, you need a real monitor. Though, they look great on a television, but they look very sharp and refined on the monitor. Now the speed. It looks like they decided to not make the same mistake they did with the first Amiga (old chip set) version of Civilization. They decided to Amigatize the game to bring more enjoyable fulfillment of this work. The graphics look good and the game doesn't run slowly at all, even with my stock A1200 system. Civilization AGA multitasks with the operating system. It runs on an Intuition screen which you can use your AMIGA keys and M, N or the mouse to screen-flip, or drag down screens to use other programs in the process. Even with just 2 megs of memory, you can run certain software while playing Civilization, so it is a boon and a plus for the game. Another great thing about the speed is, though you see the Civilization screens normally animate things, you are not restricted: it is all done strictly in the Civilization AGA Intuition screen. The speed at which you can handle other things in the background makes Civilization AGA seem that it is hardly using the CPU at all. The scrolling at the beginning isn't smooth, but it wasn't meant to be that way. This was coded that way so it would move slowly enough to match the music that plays with it. Even a pixel by pixel smooth scroll on the Amiga would be too fast because you need a certain frames per second in order to have a smooth scroll (still too fast). It's just neat to move the screen around while it does this. Planet generation is pretty swift, when you choose to start new game or choose to have your own custom-made planet. You can even hit the spacebar or Enter keys so that it skips part of the animated introduction when the planet generation is finished. Even on a stock A1200, you never have to go through the whole introduction to wait for the planet to be constructed. DOCUMENTATION The real explanation of the game takes up 70+ single-spaced typewritten pages. Sounds daunting, eh? Well, when I first saw the IBM original of this game, when someone was already up to developing the train, concepts were going around in it that I couldn't comprehend. But if you play the game from start to finish, you seem to never lose your place. It has a great learning curve that guides you through history. And as the game and your civilization get more intelligent, so does the player. The game also includes a full Civilization Encyclopedia, which tells you about all aspects of the game, aspects of the various technologies and things people can learn, often with picture illustrations (some which look quite nice with a gradient blue background) and comparisons to how this was achieved or what significance this had in Real Life Earth History. LIKES AND DISLIKES ---- Dislikes ---- This game is well done, but I have one small gripe. The gripe is the special effect of the fade between some screens. They do the smooth color fade for transitions between the Main map and the Civilopedia, or when you want the Bird's Eye view of the city. My gripe is that it is faster to simply jump to the next screen than to do a smooth color fade (which is probably faster on A1200s with Fast RAM or accelerated AGA machines; e.g., A4000 or 68030/040 accelerators). I don't like to wait a second to flip between screens, though it looks neat: I would like the choice to do without them. When on the town screens and you click on a part of the screen that doesn't do anything, it will redraw the screen. It redraws quick as a jump jet, but the redrawing is unnecessary, especially since the Amiga mouse is a sprite. It is the smaller of my two gripes. ---- Likes ---- Probably the best IBM conversion to date, and they even were nice enough to improve over that original in Civilization AGA. It adheres more to the AmigaDOS standard except for the way you use the menus (in which the left mouse button and the right mouse button have the same function). It's comfortably fast for any AGA machine, and takes up just 1.1 megs of memory for those who like multitasking. And it is the best educational program for the High School/College-level student while being one of the most addictive games of the century. This game broke in a lot of gameplayers who, before, didn't like strategy-style games. Having this kind of stuff and animation in a standard Intuition screen is neat as it is nice. It'll have you playing for ages and has randomly generated maps, and has gameplay that changes based on your decisions in a tree-like structure. The more decisions you make, the more branches are on the gameplay tree. BUGS I have found no bugs at all with the program itself. It seems to clean up resources cleanly after exit. I've tested it with Hires/Lores Mice, various Workbench screenmode setups, but haven't yet been able to screw up the program. The only bug seems to be running it after some other Buggy program that doesn't clean up its resources well. The program may hit a vector that the other program trashed, but made open for other program use. I can't blame Civ AGA for that though. I have managed to run something that must've cause Civilization's graphics to get a bit garbled, but you can tell it straight from the beginning. If the title of Civilization looks OK at the beginning, the rest of the graphics will too. You may need to do an 'avail flush' command or flush the libs in the debug menu when your Workbench is invoked with "loadwb -debug". That is, if you use buggy programs. CONCLUSIONS If you have an AGA machine, and don't have Civilization AGA, I'd suggest you go for it. Well, that's my review. Happy Civilizing. :) ->Other questions regarded to. Mike Bromery. -President of UMAUG(The University of Maryland Amiga Users Group.) @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P4-3 "Holonet" @toc "menu" /// Holonet: Inexpensive Internet Access ------------------------------------- *** HOLONET *** HoloNet is an easy to use Internet Access BBS. HoloNet is based on custom BBS software which provides an easy to use menu driven interface. HoloNet is ideal for those looking for an easy way to use Internet services. HoloNet does not currently provide UNIX shell access. Services include: o Convenient Access A local call in 850+ cities nationwide. o Online Publications Include USA Today Decisionline, Newsbytes, Datanet Computer News, Eeeekbits, and Boardwatch Magazine. o USENET Averages over 30MB of USENET news per day. The following news readers are available: NN, TIN, and RN. o Internet E-Mail Members have an Internet E-mail address similar to: member@holonet.net o Internet Access Access to telnet, talk, finger, IRC, and FTP. (note: you must comply with the policies of any networks you use) o Single and Multi-player Games Board, card, fantasy, and puzzle games. o Support for Eudora Excellent off-line Macintosh e-mail reader. o UUCP E-mail and USENET feeds Link LAN E-mail systems and BBSes to the Internet. How to try HoloNet for FREE: Telnet: holonet.net Modem: 510-704-1058 (Berkeley, CA) at 1200, 2400, 9600, or 14400 bps. There are free demo numbers nationwide, for an automated response containg a list of access numbers, send e-mail to access@holonet.mailer.net How to get more information: E-mail: info@holonet.net Modem: 510-704-1058 at 1200, 2400, 9600, or 14400bps Voice: 510-704-0160 Fax: 510-704-8019 HoloNet is a service mark of Information Access Technologies, Inc. Copyright © 1992 Information Access Techologies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P1-8 "Emulation Rambler" @toc "menu" /// The Emulation Rambler --------------------- By Jason Compton (jcompton@meltdown.chi.il.us) Off I go again, this week with an IBM C-64 emulator and some ensuing questions of legality... The C-64 Emulator Demo, while not very cleverly named, does what it says for a sufficiently fast IBM with a SoundBlaster compatible card. It emulates a C-64. I haven't had time or the resources to extensively test its emulation (which I'll explain in a minute), but from the demo programs included with the package, this emulator does pretty much exactly what it says. Since it's a demo version, SOMETHING has to be disabled. In this case, you can't access any drives, only the 10-15 programs the author has placed in the package, selectable by an internal menu and then loaded using just plain old "load", like a tape. It's a LOT faster, though. Blindingly so. Admittedly, my test machine is a 486/66, but the emulator is alleged to work to 100% capacity on a 386/40 or 486/33. Obviously, these are machines considerably more expensive than the $60 you can get a refurbished 64 for these days, (or even a new C-65!) but, as I always say, it's the emulation that counts. The author includes about 10 games and a demo or two. A couple of them didn't run, but the ones that did ran flawlessly, albeit a bit too fast, and the internal speed controls didn't seem to do a whole lot to help, except to speed it up more. Joystick emulation is provided using the arrow keys (another drawback). The music from the SoundBlaster Pro sounds like SID music to me. All in all, it's a considerably more faithful emulation of a 64 than A64 for the Amiga. At this point, however, there just MIGHT be a slight bit of doubt about the authenticity of the emulation. For all we know, it JUST MIGHT be an elaborate farce, and the programs have been specially modified to run from what looks for all the world like a C-64. I truly believe that it's the real thing however. How real? Here's where the legality comes from. From what I've read of the sparse documentation (it's a 64, how much could you possibly need?), all it says is that 6510 code is emulated faithfully. It does NOT mention what sort of kernal is interpreting the code once it's emulated, but I am inclined to believe that it's the original 64 kernal and BASIC ROM being used in the program, unlike A64, whose programmer wrote his OWN kernal and BASIC. Anyone who would successfully attempt such a feat would (and deserves to) take credit for it, and the C-64 Emulator author does not. Plus, the games on the demo are all games which were commercial. Is all of this illegal? Yep. But I am forced to question just HOW illegal it is: after all, it would be rather difficult to legitimately buy a copy of Spy Vs. Spy, since the game is no longer in circulation. The same case can be made for the 64 ROMs. Another interesting parallel is the proliferation of Kickstart files in the Amiga world...we all know that developer copies of KS 2.0 and above have spread around boards, providing semi-workable alternatives to buying a new ROM (I have legitimate 2.1 and feel it was worth the money). At the same time, due to machines which have come out with KS 2.04, 2.05, and now 3.0, which have zero compatibility with some of the picky 1.3 and below programs, kick files for 1.3 have been published in PD disk magazines (a legal faux pas), and I myself have downloaded a copy of Kickstart 1.1 (yes, 1.1), back when title bars had the thinnest possible horizontal lines running through them, presumably to look like a Macintosh. The distribution of 1.3 and 1.1 would still be illegal, since Commodore-Amiga holds the copyright...and 1.3 IS still sold in ROM form in some places. But v1.1 is something Commodore hasn't sold in years, and somehow I doubt it is practical to come knocking on my door asking for payment. I got a companion copy of Workbench 1.1, and still get a kick out of the three graphics demos they included, and the ability to TURN OFF CLI in Preferences. I was actually glad I didn't submit an article for AR129, as Jim Drew's conference was much more informative. I figured I'd do a little responding to it, however... First, in answer to the question "...why anyone would want other platform emulation"...my answer is threefold-first, if there's ANY software for that computer you need to run, you can just pop it into your Amiga and run it-second, you can use it to impress the hell out of other computer users-and third, it's just incredibly neat to be able to take another computer's screen, multitask it, and still do silly things like click on the title bar and fling it up and down. Not to mention the fact that as software becomes sparse for the Amiga in business/application areas, Emplant (or other emulators) provide often cheaper solutions than going out and buying a new computer-not to mention the fact that in getting an emulator or Emplant, you keep as much money as possible out of the rival company's hands. I am curious to see just how well 386/486 emulaton will work without a true 386/486 on the board... and that Utilities Unlimited would give away all 8-bit emulators is enough to set me to drool...not to mention make me think VERY seriously about getting an Emplant. Money and practicality have prevented me up until now...but if I can get a 64, Apple II, and Atari emulator free, I think they've got another customer. A side note: I realize I have been somewhat lax in reporting on Amiga emulators lately, and I apologize. With school and the lack of any new Amiga emulators that I've actually gotten in my hands, my range of knowledge has been a bit depleted. I'm working on getting a set of benchmark comparisons between PC-Task and SoftPC, but I need someone with a faster Amiga than my 020/14 to run the tests. For now, I'll close. Until next week, remember: Tell a friend about what the Amiga can do. Tell your neighbors what the Amiga can do. Tell ANYBODY with ANY remote interest about the Amiga. Make them get one. I'm not kidding. @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-9 "Usenet Repost - retina vs. GVP Spectrum" @toc "menu" /// Usenet Repost: Retina Vs. GVP Spectrum EGS 24-bit Video Boards --------------------------------------------------------------- By Kurt Haenen (haenen@cs.kuleuven.ac.be) Hi there Amigoids, I've replaced my Retina 4MB board with an EGS 28/24 Spectrum with 1MB (It was supposed to have 2MB, but there were some problems with the delivery) and I want to share my opinion of both boards with you. First of all : I won't compare any 24bit capabilities at the moment because it wouldn't be fair, since I only had 1MB in the Spectrum, but lets talk about the rest. The Spectrum sure has one thing my Retina didn't have : good documentation. Well, that is at first sight. The docs clearly explain installing and using the software that comes with the Spectrum, ie. the EGS system. So, I installed the stuff and tried it ... At first it seemed to run fine, but then ... FREEZE ... So, I reset my machine, start enforcer and what do we get ? Yup, enforcer hits. Enforcer Hit! Bad Program! 18-Oct-93 01:02:40 BYTE-WRITE to 40059A3A data=00 PC: 07B79F52 ----BUS ERROR---- USP: 07BB239E SR: 0004 SW: 00A1 (U0)(-)(-) TCB: 07A04690 Data: 00000000 0000015B 00000166 00000000 10000000 000003FF 00059800 40059A3A Addr: 40059A3A 07A09604 07BB23EA 07BB23EA 07B7F078 0793D44C 078007F8 -------- Stck: 07B71280 07BB23EA CE2C0132 07A09604 07A09604 021E015B 07B707E0 07976C02 Stck: 00000166 00000000 10000000 000003FF E1CF0046 036602BC 07BB74FC 07BB39FC PC-8: 2C2B000C E08ECCBC 000000FF DC81DE34 6520063E 10876008 266F0004 10AB000F PC *: 266F0004 246B0008 246A007C 47EA0114 598F2F48 001C3F41 001A2E8B 225345EF Name: "Blanker Painter" Enforcer Hit! Bad Program! 18-Oct-93 01:04:54 LONG-READ from 4000D748 PC: 00F82D28 ----BUS ERROR---- USP: 07B68A3A SR: 0000 SW: 1101 (U0)(-)(-) TCB: 07B642C8 Data: 00001320 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 Addr: 4000D744 07AEBE20 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 -------- Stck: 00000011 00000000 0000000B 0000EA60 00000000 00000000 07A0270C 07A0270C Stck: 07930898 07B69114 078007F8 00000000 0793CBEA 000207A0 270C0000 00000000 PC-8: 670412D8 53802209 08010000 66442200 C27C0003 2F017278 B081651A 48E73F3E PC *: 4CD87CFE 48D17CFE 7230D3C1 9081B081 64EE4CDF 7CFCE488 67105380 22004840 Name: "EGS-ScreenMode" These are just some examples of the Enforcer hits I get. They all are BUS ERRORS, but the address read from or written to changes. This is on an A4000/040 with Zorro III on the Spectrum enabled. I won't consider disabling this, cause it's the only reason to have a Spectrum instead of a Picasso. I have a fat-buster revision 9, so this may be the problem, but it is not very likely. Since the board doesn't do DMA, the buster-bug should not affect it. The strange thing is that there IS memory at that place (the graphics memory of the Spectrum). Has anyone else experienced this ? Oh yeah, running enforcer gives me a system that doesn't freeze up anymore, but everytime a bus error is generated, the system freeze for a moment. I send the enforcer output to NIL: so it isn't the printing of the output that causes this, but the bus error itself. I also run the program that came with the board that turns of the cache for the address-space of the card. Before you read on, I have to say that I have a 2 monitor system, so I do not use the built-in display-switcher and I have told this to the install program. One thing I liked about my Retina was the way screens were handled, ie. exactly the same as standard Amiga screens. Cycling through screens on the Retina would also include standard Amiga screens, but on the Spectrum they are completely apart. To switch between Amiga and Spectrum screens you have to use a hotkey, you can not simply press the screen-depth gadgets to get to an Amiga screen if the current one is a Spectrum screen. And something really anoying is that when your using the standard Amiga modes and use the screen-depth gadget on such a screen, the monitor has to resync even if the underlying screen uses the same display mode. Yet another software problem. There is an option to allow you to have a connection between the Amiga side and the Spectrum side, so that moving the mouse off a screen on one monitor will make it appear on the other one, but still it keeps blanking the Amiga screen when I move the mouse off it, so it isn't very useful. Also the mouse keeps appearing at the wrong place when moving from the Amiga screen to the Spectrum screen. You move the mouse off the left edge of the Amiga screen, so you would exspect it to appear at the right edge of the Spectrum, but NO, it appears at the left edge :{( The EGS system supplied catches your eye for a few moments. Windows move with their entire contents visible, you can put pictures in the background of the screen, have a 24bit drawing in a window on top of that and simply drag the window and its contents in real-time. This surely means the board is quite fast and the supplied screen-blankers (especially scooter) only adds to this impression, *BUT* if you have more than 1 screen on the Spectrum, the screen cycling (with A-m or the screen-depth gadget) is *SLOW* ! The Retina was a lot faster at doing this and it think this board could do it a lot faster too, so my guess is that it's another glitch in the software. To continue about the EGS stuff: it really sucks. As I said, at first it looks great, but then: the clock always crashes, the display disappears (I mean the EGS screen is closed) regularly, simply because there seems to be a small shortage of memory (I have 8MB fast-ram and still it isn't happy) and no serious application (I mean existing software) works under EGS. I haven't found an ADPro driver on my disks, so I couldn't use ADPro to display stuff and the EGS viewer can't read anything else than IFFs. Once again I wanted my Retina back. It may have been a slower board, but the software was reliable and useful. It didn't crash on me for over 6 months. The Spectrum software doesn't crash either (if we forget about the EGS stuff and only consider the screenmodes), but there are a lot of things that aren't right: - To begin with: the enforcer hits. This may be a hardware problem though. - When using CED 3.5 and opening a duplicate view (Amiga-d), the cursor is drawn twice (in XOR I guess) in the newly opened view, so that is becomes invisible. The second cursor scrolls up and down together with the text and only disappears when you scroll enough to get it out of sight. This problem never appeared on the Retina or the Amiga native display, so it must be a bug in the Spectrum software. - As stated above, screen-shuffling is *SLOW*. The Retina was at least 10 times faster at this than the Spectrum. Since the Spectrum has a Zorro III bus and the Retina only Zorro II, this should not be the case, so I guess it's again a software problem. REMARK: Could some Picasso owners tell me how fast the Picasso is in screen-shuffling. I flip through the screens a lot and I would like this to be snappy. Also for the Picasso users: Is it true that you can drag down screens on the Picasso to see the underlying screen ? I heard this rumour ... - Powersnap doesn't work anymore. I do not know what exactly seems to be the problem, so this could be a Powersnap bug, but it did not appear on the Retina. Maybe it's because the screens are in fastram now. - There are no programmers docs except for the EGS stuff. This really sucks. I am not going to write something for EGS. Actually I hate EGS. All the nice commodities I have are useless on an EGS screen. Oh well, my feelings about EGS are probably not shared by others, so I won't bother you with them, but I really think they could have done a better job than this: who the hell needs all those EGS gadgets and menus when you've got Amiga gadgets and menus *AND* MUI (which in my opinion are better). No promotion utility was provided with the Spectrum, but since I'm the author of Promotor, that wasn't a big problem. The Spectrum of course has some advantages: faster scrolling than the Retina and (silence) ... Well, that's about it. The software of the Retina was simply a lot better than the stuff for the Spectrum. I have also used the EGS-DisplayAdjust program to get the most out of my monitor and yet again I was not impressed. The Spectrum can not achieve the same resolution/refresh rate my Retina could. This seems quite odd, especially since all the talk in comp.sys.amiga.graphics indicated that the max. pixel speed of the Retina should be lower than that of the Spectrum. I should state however that according to the manual that came with my Retina, the Retina has a 90MHz pixel speed, not 75 as mentioned in all the comp.sys.amiga.graphics articles. But because of the limitations of my monitor I don't think the pixel speed limitation is the problem. The real problem is the sprite. My Retina did 800x600x8 bit at 86Hz on my monitor, the Spectrum can only go upto 83Hz, if I push it higher, the sprite pointer gets screwed up if it's at the top of the screen. The Retinas image also filled up my display nicely. When using the Spectrum, even when I turn my monitors knobs so that the display is as large as possible, there still are black borders to the left and right of the screen. I can remove those borders, but that means dropping the refresh rate and I don't wonna do that: I was just getting used to the rock-steady 86Hz. Another problem with the Spectrum is the mouse-pointer: the Retina had a nice 4-coloured (1 transparent) sprite for this, but the Spectrum seems to use some weird kind of sprite, with a kind of half-transparent color. I do not like this ! Of course this is a question of taste. Another anoying thing is the image the sprite uses: I work on an A4000 and so I normally use a hires sprite, but this seems to screw up the color information of the sprite used on the Spectrum. Again a software problem. REMARK: Again, could some Picasso II users tell me whether or not the Picasso II sprite is also half-transparent. Both cards use the Cirrus Logic chip-set, so my guess would be that the Picasso also has this type of sprite, but I would really like to know for sure. Ok, I'm gonna wrap it up here ... Conclusions: I want my Retina back. The scrolling was slower, but the software was a lot better and it was *STABLE*. Once again it has been proven to me that even the nicest board is shit without decent software. Well, I guess that's about it. I'll be giving the Spectrum back to the store and will probably get a Picasso II (which seems to have much better software) and a bit of money back. Of course, due to the same chipset, I guess the Picasso II will also have some of the problems (sprite and display size) I mentioned here, but at least you get a decent workbench emulation and drivers for ADPro and of course it's a lot cheaper than the Spectrum. At the moment I don't think the Zorro III facility of the Spectrum is of much use: under normal WB operation, fast data transfer is only needed when scrolling something. And since both boards have a blitter to speed up this operation a bit (if not the entire area needs to be refreshed), I don't think you'll notice the additional speed of Zorro III a lot. And then of course there is the fact that generally German firms have better software updates than US companies. I know I'm gonna get flamed for this, but I really think this is true. GVP for example has an excellent record of supplying the user with neat manuals, but I haven't heard about any software upgrade for any of their products (ok, maybe it's cause I'm in Europe). MacroSystem for example has a very bad record concerning manuals (my Retina came with some photocopied stuff), but their software is continually updated and enhanced. Ok, that's my opinion, let the flamin' start :{) One last remark: I think it's really outrageous that the graphics boards for the Amiga cost so much money. An EISA board with a Cirrus Logic chipset on it (the same one as in the Spectrum, Picasso and Piccolo) costs about $150 US, while the Spectrum costs about $400 US. For that kind of money a 80x86 user gets a really fast Localbus S3 board which can do 1280x1024 in 24bit at 72Hz non-laced. With the bankrupcy (how does one write that) of C= being only a small step away (How are the CD32 sales in your country ? How's the SEGA promotion campaign on your TV-station ? Have you seen a single C= commercial on TV ? And just how many CD32 games have you seen ? Didn't C= say that there were going to be 17 games out by the time the CD32 was going to be released ?), maybe we should consider porting the Amiga look and feel to some other platform. Hoping to get a better board soon, Kurt Haenen Kurt Haenen, Student Civil Engineer, Department of Computer Science, KU Leuven. (Where you come from Civil Engineer may have a completely different meaning.) Snailmail: Homsemstraat 53, B-3891 Borlo, Belgium Email: haenen@cs.kuleuven.ac.be stud16@cc4.kuleuven.ac.be fhgaa99@cc1.kuleuven.ac.be @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P4-6 "BIX" @toc "menu" /// BIX - Byte Information Exchange Lots of information! ------------------------------- BIX is the premier online service for computing professionals and enthusiasts. While other online services cater to computer novices, BIX is the place for knowledgeable people to go for answers to tough questions. You're likely to find many others in similar situations who can offer advice, give technical assistance, or point you in the right direction. BIX is divided into areas called conferences, each devoted to a particular area of interest. They range from algorithms to windows, from writers to amiga. Conferences are categorized into groups, usually referred to as exchanges, so that you can browse through whatever groups interest you and see a list of the conferences it contains. These are some of the exchanges on BIX: amiga.exchange - the place for Amiga developers and enthusiasts byte - the full text of each issue of BYTE magazine; source code too e.and.l - Entertainment and Leisure; music, pets, games, more ibm.exchange - everything from OS/2 to PC clones mac.exchange - Mac news, support, software, advice professionals - consultants, engineers, financiers gather here programmers - some of the best brains in the business! wix - the Information Exchange for Windows; Windows Magazine online writers.ex - the professional and amateur writer's exchange *** FULL INTERNET ACCESS! *** BIX also features access to the Internet - you can use FTP to transfer files from sites all over the world, telnet to log on to other online services, schools, and research sites, and send Internet mail to millions of people at services like DELPHI, CompuServe, America Online, MCI Mail, and other sites and services. 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BIX accepts prepaid international calls, direct dial, or telnet connections. In order to make a "collect" (not prepaid) call to BIX, your account must be verified before the charges are accepted. When you complete the registration, we'll mail you a BIX Membership Agreement by regular US Mail. Whe you receive it, sign it and return it to us by mail. When we receive it here, we'll authorize your account to make reverse charged calls. If you want to access BIX right away, contact your local PTT to set up a prepaid account. You'll pay your local carrier for your calls to BIX in advance, so there's no waiting period or verfication needed. Or, connect at BIX via telnet to x25.bix.com. SprintNet international calls from most locations are $24 an hour. Tymnet international charges vary, but are generally between $20-$30 an hour. ==================== Billing Information: ==================== You can charge your monthly BIX membership fees to your Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express card. You may have your company invoiced for one or more BIX memberships with a BIX Corporate Account. To do so, send by US Mail or fax a Purchase Order including a Purchase Order number, invoice address, contact person, a phone number where we can reach the contact person, and the company's fax number. Please direct it to the attention of Connie Lopes, who handles corporate accounts. Our fax number is 617-491-6642. Your corporate account will generally be set up within 24 hours. =================== To Sign Up For BIX: =================== Dial by modem 1-800-695-4882 or 617-491-5410 * (use 8 data bits, no parity, full duplex) Press a few carriage returns until you see the Login:(enter "bix") prompt, then type bix At the Name? prompt, type bix.amrpt * Users already on the internet can telnet to x25.bix.com instead. At the USERNAME: prompt enter bix, then bix.net at the Name? prompt. Once your account is registered, you can connect the same way, except at the Name? prompt you'll enter your BIXname and then your password. Using the above procedure will allow users in the 48 contiguous United States to take advantage of our special "5 for $5" offer. This offer lets you use up to 5 hours of evening/weekend time on BIX during the current calender month (whatever month you sign up in), for $5. Additional time is $1.80 per hour ($1 per hour for telnet). At the end of the calender month, you will be placed into our standard rate plan, at $13 monthly plus connect charges. You may also join the 20/20 Plan at this time. If you have other questions, please contact BIX Member Services at (800) 695-4775; send a fax to BIX at (617) 491-6642; or send Internet mail to info@bix.com. BIX Member Services hours are 12pm - 11pm, Monday through Friday, ET. @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P3 "Dealer Directory" @toc "menu" /// Dealer Directory Serving our readers! ---------------- 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 GEnie: B.GRAY CLICK! Microcomputer Applications B.V.B.A. 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 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 (Dealers: To have your name added, please send Email!) @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /// AR Confidential We heard it through the grapevine! --------------- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-10 "Amiga Ramblings" @toc "menu" /// Amiga Ramblings --------------- by Robert Niles Well since I couldn't think of anything *real* to talk about I thought I'd make you suffer through a bit of my charming wisdom, and plain common sense. OK, I'm done. Naw, not really. For those of you who followed my articles on using the InterNet through email, I need to make a correction...if you haven't figured it out yorself already. On the InterNIC's WHOIS (tm) function, send it to mailserv@internic.net .....not to mailserv@rs.internic.net. My boo-boo, I'm sorry. Just got a little happy with the fingers :) OK, who went out to buy the Emplant (tm) yet? I really don't know why I would want to get another platform to run on my Amiga...but it sure would impress the friends eh? Really though, something like that would really open up the doors. Didn't like the Amiga version of Wacky Space-out Warriors (tm)? Well get the MS-DOS (tm) version instead! Blamo! Now you got 30 trillion colors on your screen! Not that you can see more than...what is it...somewhere between 1 and 500,000? I'm sure I'm close. But really...(I keep saying that) ...to have a computer...that runs other computer software...all nice and neat, is something worth-while. I was in a conference with someone last night...he has another computer that isn't supported very well. Well he said something like, "...if I'm going to fork so much more money on another computer...I want support" ...now if the concept of running, oh say, five or six different computer systems on your Amiga (tm) is not supportive enough. Well, ya got an ego problem. Remember that column that we were running in AR (?m) a while back...what was it called...."Tip of the Week (tm)"? Ever wonder why you haven't seen it lately? Me too! Well, I really can't say that you all are interested in "How to use the CLI(c?)" articles....but if you have any ideas about something you would like to see, shoot it my way. As I'm just be-fumbled on what to write about. As you haven't noticed! Well I'll let you go recuperate, but If I'm in a bind next week... ....well, we'll just have to do this again! @endnode @node P1-11 "Humor Department" @toc "menu" /// The Humor Department Jokes, Quotes, Insults, Shameless Plugs -------------------- From the local Omaha Echo on FidoNet ------------------------------------ Area: OMAHA To : All Subj: Florida Tourist Season As some of you may know, the recent rash of tourist killings in Florida has resulting in the hiring of a Public Relations firm to try and keep the tourists coming. Here is an advanced copy of one of their brochures. Try and visualize it in the form of a glossy flyer, with lots of pictures of happy hunters enjoying the new sport. ***** Miami: Big Game Hunters Paradise Tired of hunting the big cats in Nairobi? Can't get a permit for the Elk in Montana? Bored with the lack of danger in the more traditional targets? Now you can hunt a big game that is just as dangerous as you, yet still easy to find. Yes, you too can hunt the dreaded "Tourist Preditus". And, best of all, hunting from your rental car is both legal and recommended. As with any organized hunting expedition, there are a few rules to comply with. The first, of course, is that your bag limit is four. This is to ensure that enough big game is left for other visitors. There is no season, and no difference between male and female predators. Due to the presence of non-game species, and the difficulty of identifying the game from the non-game, a safari guide is highly recommended. As a general rule, though, game animals are those that will be also hunting you, and can often be found in packs roving around other, non-hunting tourists. One common hunting technique utilized by your game is that of "bumping" the prey gently with a car, then shooting and robbing the prey when it stops. This can be used to identify your game. After allowing the "bumping" to cause you to stop, you can easily drop all of your game animals with a minimum of danger if you are using several hunters in a blind configured to look like a rental car. Florida law, however, requires that the predator must get the first shot, so body armor is recommended for the driver and any front seat passengers. Taxidermy services are available for those who wish, although some countries may have restrictions on the import of your stuffed and mounted game. As a general rule, the animals you will be hunting carry many forms of parasites, so proper disease control is important. The recommended form of trophies are pictures, with souvenir necklaces made from the spent shell casing appealing to some hunters. Florida law does have sever penalties for taking of non-predator species, so please ensure that your marksmanship is up to the task before hunting. Your safari guide can provide other legal tips which may be needed. @endnode @node P2-3 "In Closing" @toc "menu" /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Amiga Report International Online Magazine October 22, 1993 * YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE * No. 1.30 Copyright © 1993 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. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Only * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * _ _ __ ___ _ * * /\\ |\\ /| || // \ /\\ * * / \\ | \\ /|| ||(< __ / \\ * * /--- \\| \X || || \\_||/--- \\ * * /______________________________\\ * * / \\ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Makes it possible!! @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 /// 10/22/93 Amiga Report 1.30 "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" -------------------------- · The Editor's Desk · CPU Status Report · New Products · FTP Announcements · Dealer Directory · Usenet Reviews · The Humor Department · Emulation Rambler · AR Online · Hired Guns · Civilization AGA » New Amiga Disk Magazine « » Multimedia Market Exaggerated? « » Retina Vs. EGS Spectrum « /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Amiga Report International Online Magazine "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" » FEATURING WEEKLY « Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information Hardware · Software · Corporate · R & D · Imports /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// / @{" PORTAL " link P4-2} · @{" FIDO " link P2-1} · @{" INTERNET " link P4-5} · @{" BIX " link P4-6} / /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// @endnode @node P1 "Columns and Features" @toc "menu" @{" From the Editor's Desk " link P1-1} Saying it like it is! @{" CPU Status Report " link P1-2} Computer Products Update @{" Authors wanted for BitMap " link P1-3} A new online Amiga magazine! @{" Prime Mover " link P1-4} by Psygnosis @{" Online Weekly " link P1-5} The lines are buzzing! @{" UseNet Review " link P1-6} Hired Guns @{" UseNet Review " link P1-7} Civilization AGA @{" The Emulation Rambler " link P1-8} The C-64 on an IBM @{" UseNet Repost " link P1-9} Retina VS. GVP's Spectrum @{" Amiga Ramblings " link P1-10} Here he goes again! @{" The Humor Department " link P1-11} So ya wanna be a tourist!?! @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" @{" Portal " link P4-2} A great place for Amiga users... @{" Holonet " link P4-3} Inexpensive Internet Access @{" 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" @{" Mand2000 Demo " link P5-1} Farctal Exploration Program @{" MCalc v1.0 " link P5-2} An MUI programmer calc @{" MultiUser v1.5 " link P5-3} A protection system for multiusers @{" Amiga PGP v2.3a " link P5-4} Pretty Good Privacy @{" Recipe Box v1.1 " link P5-5} Prints and keeps track of your recipes @{" UMS v10.7 " link P5-6} A universal message reader @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 Starnet/MebbsNet Support Site West Coast USA * Running Starnet BBS * Larry Cloud, Sysop FidoNet: 1:350/30 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. 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 #22 with your capture buffer open and get the same file. @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 Internet: user_name@junct9.royle.org Line 1 +44 (0)372 271000 14400 V.32bis/HST Fido 2:253/510 Line 2 +44 (0)372 278000 14400 V.32bis only Fido 2:253/520 Line 3 +44 (0)372 279000 2400 V.42bis/MNP Fido 2:253/530 Sysop Email: sysadmin@junct9.royle.org @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-6 "BitStream BBS" @toc "menu" * BITSTREAM BBS * The BBS of the Nelson (NZ) Amiga Users Group Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Xenolink 1.0 Z.3 * Glen Roberts, Sysop FidoNet 3:771/850 +64 3 5485321 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Nelson, New Zealand @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-7 "Realm of Twilight" @toc "menu" * REALM OF TWILIGHT BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Canada * Running Excelsior! BBS * Thorsten Schiller, Sysop Usenet: realm.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca UUCP: ...!uunet.ca!tdkcs!realm FIDO: 1:221/202 Fish: 33:33/8 24hrs - 7 days 519-748-9365 (2400 baud) 519-748-9026 (v.32bis) Ontario, Canada Hardware: Amiga 3000, 105 Meg Quantum, 213 Meg Maxtor, 5 megs RAM @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-8 "Metnet Triangle" @toc "menu" METNET TRIANGLE SYSTEM Official Amiga Report Distribution Site UK Support for Mebbsnet * Running Mebbsnet and Starnet 1.02a * Jon Witty, Sysop FIDO: 2:252/129.0 24 hrs - 7 days Line 1: 44-482-473871 16.8 DS HST Lines 2-7: 44-482-442251 2400 (6 lines) Line 8: 44-482-491744 2400 Line 9: 44-482-449028 2400 Voice helpline 44-482-491752 (anytime) Fully animated menus + normal menu sets. 500 megs HD - Usual software/messages Most doors online - Many Sigs - AMIGA AND PC SUPPORT Very active userbase and busy conference Precious days and MUD online. AMUL support site. @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-9 "Omaha Amiganet" @toc "menu" * OMAHA AMIGANET * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running DLG Professional * Andy Wasserman, Sysop 24 hrs - 7 days FidoNet: 1:285/11 AmigaNet: 40:200/10 Line 1: 402-333-5110 V.32bis Line 2: 402-691-0104 USR DS Omaha, Nebraska @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-10 "Amiga-Night-System" @toc "menu" * AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - Finland * Running DLG Professional * Janne Saarme, Sysop 24 hrs - 7 days InterNet: luumu@fenix.pp.fi FidoNet: 2:220/550.0 +358-0-675840 V.32bis Helsinki, Finland @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-11 "Ramses Amiga Flying" @toc "menu" * RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- France * Running DLG Professional * Eric Delord, Sysop Philippe Brand, Co-Sysop Stephane Legrand, Co-Sysop Internet: user.name@ramses.gna.org Fidonet: 2:320/104 +33-1-60037015 USR DS 16.8 +33-1-60037713 V.32bis +33-1-60037716 1200-2400 Ramses The Amiga Flying BBS is an Amiga-dedicated BBS running DLG-Pro on a Amiga 3000, 16MB RAM, 2GB Disk space, 3 lines. We keep a dayly Aminet site mirroring, NetBSD-Amiga complete mirror site from ftp.eunet.ch (main site), Amiga Report, GNU Amiga, Ramses is the SAN/ADS/Amiganet French coordinator. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-50 "Freeland Mainframe" @toc "menu" * FREELAND MAINFRAME * Offical Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running DLG Progessional * John Freeland, SysOp 206-438-1670 Supra 2400zi 206-438-2273 Telebit WorldBlazer(v.32bis) 206-456-6013 Supra v.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Internet - freemf.eskimo.com Olympia, Washington @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-51 "LAHO" @toc "menu" * LAHO BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Finland * Running MBBS * Lenni Uitti, SysOp Tero Manninen, SysOp (PC-areas) Juha Makinen, SysOp (Amiga-areas) +358-64-414 1516, V.32bis/HST +358-64-414 0400, V.32bis/HST +358-64-414 6800, V.32/HST +358-64-423 1300, V.32 MNP Seinajoki, Finland Our machine is a 386/33 with 20MB of memory, 1GB harddisk and a CD-ROM drive. The BBS software is a Norwegian origin MBBS running in a DesqView windows. We have over 7000 files online (both for the Amiga and PC) + 650MB stuff on the Aminet CD-ROM disk. Every user has an access to download filelist (LAHOFIL.ZIP), list of Finnish 24-hour BBS's (BBSLIST.ZIP or BBSLIST.LHA) and every issue of the Amiga Report Magazine (AR101.LHA-AR1??.LHA) even on their first call. The system has been running since 1989 and is sponsored by the local telephone company, Vaasan Ladnin Puhelin Oy. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-52 "Falling BBS" @toc "menu" * FALLING BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Norway * Running ABBS * Christopher Naas, Sysop +47 69 256117 V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days EMail: naasc@cnaas.adsp.sub.org @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-53 "Command Line BBS" @toc "menu" * COMMAND LINE BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Canada Canada's Amiga Graphics & Animation Source * Running AmiExpress BBS * Nick Poliwko, Sysop 416-533-8321 V.32 24hrs - 7 days Toronto, Canada @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-54 "Rendezvous BBS" @toc "menu" * RENDEZVOUS BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - New Zealand New Zealand Excelsior! BBS Support Site * Running Excelsior! Professional BBS * David Dustin, Sysop Internet: postmaster@eclipse.acme.gen.nz +64 6 3566375 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Palmerston North, New Zealand @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-55 "Leguans Byte Channel" @toc "menu" * LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany * Running EazyBBS V2.11 * Andreas Geist, Sysop Usenet: andreas@lbcmbx.in-berlin.de 24 hrs - 7 days Line 1: 49-30-8110060 USR DS 16.8 Line 2: 49-30-8122442 USR DS 16.8 Login as User: "amiga", Passwd: "report" @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-56 "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 --------------------------------------------