@database "ar227.guide" @Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #2.29 -- October 10, 1994" @{" Turn the Page " link "menu"} _ ____ ___ ______ _______ _ d# ####b g#00 `N##0" _agN#0P0N# d# d## jN## j##F J## _dN0" " d## .#]## _P ##L jN##F ### g#0" .#]## dE_j## # 0## jF ##F j##F j##' ______ dE_j## .0"""N## d" ##L0 ##F 0## 0## "9##F" .0"""5## .dF' ]## jF ##0 ##F ##F `##k d## .dF' j## .g#_ _j##___g#__ ]N _j##L_ _d##L_ `#Nh___g#N' .g#_ _j##__ """"" """"""""""" " """""" """""" """"""" """"" """""" ###### ###### ###### ###### ###### ######## TM ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ### ###### ## ###### ## ### ## International Online Magazine "THE Online Source for Amiga Information." Copyright 1994 Skynet Publications All Rights Reserved // %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%//%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% October 10, 1994 \\// Issue No. 2.29 %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @endnode @node "menu" "Amiga Report Main Menu" @toc "menu" @{" Columns and Features " link P1} News, Reviews, and More! @{" About AMIGA REPORT " link P2} Contact information and copyrights @{" Dealer Directory " link P3} Amiga Dealer Addresses and Numbers @{" Commercial Online Services " link P4} Sign-Up Information @{" Announcements " link P5} New Files, Products, and info @{" AR Distribution Sites " link P2-1} Where to get AMIGA REPORT @{" AR Commercial " link P9} Deals through Area52 and AR Direct ______________________________________________ // | | // %%%%%%%%//%%%%%| Amiga Report International Online Magazine |%%%%%%%//%%%%% %% \\// | Issue No. 2.29 October 10, 1994 | \\// %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%| "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!" |%%%%%%%%%%%%%% |______________________________________________| c.s.a.editor.desk Amiga News Dealer Directory Distribution BBS's Product Announcements Reader Mail AR Commercial SPECIAL FEATURES CEI Conference at BIX ..Sponsored by Phantom Development and Amiga Report The Voice From Across the Pond ..............................Michael Wolf Why? ......................................................Maxwell Daymon Heddley V1.1 Mini-Review .....................................Roy Milican A Look at the Future ......................................Ibrahim Solmaz PD/ShaReviews: GAMES! ...................................Robert Van Buren %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% @{" X-NET " link P4-6} @{" DELPHI " link P4-1} @{" PORTAL " link P4-2} @{" FIDO " link P2-1} @{" INTERNET " link P4-5} %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @endnode %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% The Amiga Report Staff %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @node P8-1 "Editor" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% EDITOR %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Jason Compton Internet: jcompton@bbs.xnet.com FAX: Working on it... Mail: 1838 Chicago Ave. Evanston, IL 60201-3806 @endnode endnode @node P8-2 "Assistant Editor" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% ASSISTANT EDITOR %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Robert Niles Portal: RNiles FidoNet: 1:3407/103 Internet: niles@free.org Fax: 509-248-5645 US Mail: P.O. Box 8041 Yakima, Wa 98908 @endnode @node P8-3 "European Editor" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% EUROPEAN EDITOR %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Michael Wolf Internet: MikeWolf@bonebag.tynet.sub.org @endnode @node P8-4 "Contributing Editor" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% CONTIBUTING EDITOR %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% David Tiberio Internet: dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu @endnode @node P8-5 "Copy Assistant" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% COPY ASSISTANT %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Katie Nelson Internet: kln365@lulu.acns.nwu.edu @endnode @node P4-5 "Amiga Report Mailing List" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Amiga Report Maillist List, the WWW, Aminet, and UUdecoding %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% AR Mailing List ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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 listserv@bbs.xnet.com and in the body of the message put: ADD armag ie: ADD rniles@goofy.com armag Your account must be able to handle mail of any size to ensure an intact copy. For example, many systems have a 100K limit on incoming messages. Joining the Amiga Report Coverdisk list is just as easy, but REQUIRES that your mail site be able to handle messages in excess of 600k. Place the following in the body of a message to listserv@bbs.xnet.com: ADD ardisk ie: ADD rniles@goofy.com ardisk Many thanks to X-Net Information Systems for setting this service up for us! ** IMPORTANT NOTICE: PLEASE be certain your host can accept mail over ** 100K! We have had a lot of bouncebacks recently from systems with a ** 100K size limit for incoming mail. If we get a bounceback with your ** address in it, it will be removed from the list. Thanks! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ World Wide Web ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AR can also be read with Mosaic (in either AmigaGuide or html form). Reading AmigaReport with Mosaic removes the necessity to download it. It can also be read using programs found in UNIX sites such as LYNX. Simply tell Mosaic to open the following URL: http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/People/mjw/Computer/Amiga/AR/MainPage.html Mosaic for the Amiga can be found on Aminet in directory comm/net, or (using anonymous ftp) on max.physics.sunysb.edu Mosaic for X, Macintosh(tm) and Microsoft Windows(tm) can be found on ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Aminet ~~~~~~ To get Amiga Report from Aminet, simply FTP to any Aminet site, CD to docs/mags. All the back issues are located there as well. (ftp.cdrom.com or ftp.wustl.edu are two sites) UUEncoding/Decoding (thanks to Bob Tomasevich for the quick tutorial) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What is uuencoding and uudecoding? ---------------------------------- uuencoding is converting a binary file into text (ASCII) which can be sent through mail or Usenet. uudecoding is reversing the process (e.g. converting the file back to binary). Why would I want to do this? ---------------------------- You have to send a binary file to a user who does not have FTP access, or the user is too lazy to FTP the file. What is the normal procedure? ----------------------------- 1. Convert the binary file into ASCII, using uuencode. 2. Send the file, through email, to the user. 3. The person on the receiving end gets the email, which may be split into parts. If the email is split into parts, the parts must be combined, in the order received, into one file. 4. Receiving person converts the file back into binary, using uudecode. What does a uuencoded file look like? ------------------------------------- The start always has: begin 644 So, for the file happy-happy-joy-joy.txt, it would look like: begin 644 happy-happy-joy-joy.txt The encoded file begins right after: M1TE&.#=A@`+@`9<````$`*QB15=2.+&/@R(Y)XM8.=J]H+*%7BL6#8]F6EP_] M*$=E5"L?L-Z8A-:#60\@$,9P27-4-YB#;4HY)U!L9KZNE\O"O["#;8]82SDF> M&[%J4FI',.&:E`48#="4@SE41M61(`)N(`-^(`1.($5>($9N($=^($A.((E>((IN((M^((Q.(,U>(,YN(,]^(-!+ &V"\"`@`[& `` end <-- the end of the encoded file size 151341 <-- size of the original file So, how would I do this on the Amiga? ------------------------------------- There are many uuencode/decode variants out there, but most usually have kept the old UNIX command line, which can be confusing to novices, or, require you to remove all mail headers and other, non-uuencoded text. Luckily, Asher Feldman took the time to write UUxt. What is UUxT? ------------- It is a program which performs both the uuencode/decode operations in one executable, AND, can also pack/unpack LhA archives. Tell me more. ------------- The UUxT archive contains UUxT, the CLI version, and UUxtGUI, the Workbench interface. I will give a short summary of how to use both. Detailed instructions are included in the UUxT archive. CLI Version: ------------ Running UUxT without any options gives the following: UUxT Version 2.1a Copyright (c)1993 Asher Feldman USAGE: UUxT [option] [archive name] options: a - encode l - LhAencode x - decode u - LhAdecode showing the format of the command line and the valid options. Some example command lines: 1. Normal encoding - UUxt a filename.uue filename-to-archive 2. Normal decoding - UUxt x filename.uue 3. LhA archiving and encoding - UUxT l filename.uue filename.lha file1 file2 ... 4. Decoding and LhA unarchiving - UUxT u filename.uue For LhA encoding and decoding, you will need LhA by Stefan Boberg. Workbench (GUI) Version: ------------------------ Below is a ASCII rendition of the UUxT-GUI window (from UUxtGUI doc): ____________________________________________________________ |+| UUxT-GUI Frontend v1.0 (c)1993 Asher Feldman | +------------------------------------------------------------+ | ______________________ ______________________ | | |InFile | | |OutFile| | | | +-------+--------------+ +-------+--------------+ | | (1) (2) (3) (4) | | ____________ _____________ | | Operation |@| Decode | Lha Name | | | | +-+----------+ +-------------+ | | (5) (6) | | _________ | | | START | | | +---------+ | | (7) | +------------------------------------------------------------+ (1) Clicking on this brings up a requester to select the file you want to perform the operation shown in gadget (5). (2) You can manually type here the filename of the file affected by the operation indicated in gadget (5). (3) Used only for encoding, brings up a requester to select where the encoded file should go. Selecting an existing file will cause the existing file to be replaced by the encoded file. You can also use this requester to create directories. (4) You can manually type the filename of the file to be the encoded file. (5) The operation to perform on file shown in (2). The operations are the four provided by UUxT (uuencode/uudecode/LhAEncode/LhADecode). (6) The name of the archive created with the LhAEncode option. Ignored when any other operation is selected. (7) Does the encode/decode/LhAEncode/LhADecode and pops up a requester indicating if the operation was successful or not. I need this! Where can I get it? --------------------------------- If you use the Internet from a local BBS, you may find it there. If not you can FTP it from wuarchive.wustl.edu, in the directory pub/aminet/arc/UUxT.lha It should also be on the Aminet mirrors. Thanks for the explanation! How can I reach you if I have questions? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Internet: bob.tomasevich@nezuld.com bobt@ais.net @endnode @node P1-1 "compt.sys.editor.desk" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% compt.sys.editor.desk By: @{" Jason Compton " link P8-1} %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Hello, everyone. It's October...and the end, allegedly, is in sight. Stop me if you've heard this before: The liquidator is supposed to present his decision to the Bahamanian Supreme Court October 15 or earlier. Of course...that could mean Oct. 15, 1995 at this rate. Who knows, though: this has to end sooner or later. A bit of housekeeping: Starting next issue, Amiga Report will be put into a split form for E-mailing. With the issues constantly above 200k, the compressed and UUencoded form is simply too big for many mailing list readers, so I've decided to make the change. I will try to keep the splits two-part only, so there is minimal effort to put them back together. Some mail readers and UUCP shells will do the combining automatically. Those who don't have this convenience can easily pull the two halves together with a simple text editor (MEmacs will suffice). I'd also like to answer a couple of charges against me. One is that I am geocentrically rooting for CEI to obtain Commodore. The answer to that is this: Amiga Report has been carrying a large amount of CEI info lately because we can get it. Commodore UK has been asked to appear for online conferences and has been invited to call me, but no response yet. As for Escom, the German company that recently submitted a bid: I am trying to gather contact information for the company. I am NOT trying to block news. I've postponed some reviews this week, simply because the magazine was filling up. Next time around, we'll have reviews of GPFax, Guardian, Cyber Sphere, MaxDOS, and Dave Haynie's new video (information is listed in the Amiga News section of the magazine.) Enjoy the issue. Jason P.S. I've received a few requests for an article on AmiTCP. Any takers? @endnode @node P1-2 "Amiga News" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Amiga News %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% A source inside Commodore Engineering at Norristown, PA has the following information regarding David Pleasance's C= UK MBO bid: Pleasance's financial backing comes from a Chinese company, known for producing illegal Sega clones to be sold on the Chinese market. The Chinese representatives were at the Norristown complex Sunday and Monday. Dan Stets, the Philadelphia-based newspaper reporter who has been covering the Commodore situation, saw a group of Chinese he believed to be affiliated with Commodore UK at the Norristown complex in late September. It is not known at this time what percentage of the bid such a company would represent, nor how they affect Pleasance's much-publicized plans of his version of the future of the Amiga. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - OWL Software, makers of educational software for the Amiga, have announced their Amiga Educator's List (AEL). The newsletter is freely available by E-Mail in AmigaGuide and ASCII formats. Contact owl@davinci.reading.MA.US for mailing list information, or grab it from the OWL BBS, 617-942-7216. October's issue represents the premiere. [On the educational note, be sure to check out this issue's Announcements section, which features some notable programs...] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the 9th December, at the World of Amiga exhibition in London, Almathera will hit the market with their remarkable new product - Photogenics. Photogenics combines the features of a powerful image manipulation package with the ease-of-use and creative freedom of a traditional paint program. You can load a variety of different images (JPEG, GIF, IFF, etc.) and save them in different formats, but Photogenics is much more than just a simple conversion system. Artists will love the multiple built in natural brushes (chalk, pencil, pastel, etc...), or you may perfer to retouch pictures with the airbrush. Through the variety of operations and the powerful visual alpha channels, image manipulation has never been so enjoyable. You can edit multiple images - each in its own resizable window. The realtime HAM-8 display gives you full-colour painting without needing a 24-bit graphics board. Designed for graphics artists and serious painters, Photogenics gives a professional working environment offering many features not even found on PC or Mac packages. The open-architecture design gives programmers the freedom of writing their own loaders, savers or effects. The minimum system is an Amiga 1200, floppy drive, Kickstart 3.0 or higher and 2Mb Ram, (4Mb ram and hard drive recommended). Photogenics will be available for sale at the World of Amiga Exhibition on stand 27, or contact Almathera on +44 181-687 0040 (0181 687 0040 inside the UK) or write to Almathera, Southerton House, Boundary Business Court, 92-94 Church Road, Mitcham, Surrey CR4 3TD, ENGLAND [Almathera is also listed in the AR Dealer Directory. -Ed] Price #54.95 UK (around $80) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Dale L. Larson Keynote Speaker at Gateway Amiga Show IAM to Introduce New Product Drexel Hill, PA (October 7, 1994) The Gateway Computer Show, 1994's only major North American event for end-users of Amiga computers, will be kicked off with a keynote address by Dale L. Larson. He will discuss the past, present and future of the Amiga computer. After his address, Mr. Larson will sign copies of his new book at IAM's table on the main floor of the show. Also at the show, IAM will launch a much-anticipated new commercial product for the Amiga. The new product will be available for purchase during the show. The Gateway Computer Show is sponsored by the Gateway Amiga Club, Inc., and is held in St. Louis, Missouri from 11am to 6pm on Sa- turday, October 29th, 1994. For more information, contact the Gateway Computer Show, Bob Scharp, Chairman, 14850 Phelps Drive, Bridgeton, MO 63044, (314) 739-5181. Dale L. Larson is a former Commodore-Amiga Software Engineer who contributed to several networking projects, AmigaOS 2.x and 3.x, and the A1200, A4000, and CD32. He is an expert in the Amiga and in computer networking. Besides "Connect Your Amiga!," he is the author of papers presented at Amiga DevCons in Denver and Milan, as well as articles that have appeared in AmigaWorld, AmigaMail, and other publications. IAM publishes Connect Your Amiga! A Guide to the Internet, LANs, BBSs and Online Services, Amiga Envoy software, The Deathbed Vigil... and Other Tales of Digital Angst, and does Amiga con- sulting. COMPANY INFORMATION sales@iam.com -- for orders info@iam.com -- for an automated response with info on IAM and its products Intangible Assets Manufacturing 828 Ormond Avenue Drexel Hill, PA 19026-2604 USA +1 610 853 4406 fax: +1 610 853 3733 (If you have trouble reaching us, please try 215 instead of 610 and please let us know about the problem.) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - New Appearances on Book Signing Tour for Connect Your Amiga! FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Drexel Hill, PA (October 7, 1994) After the enthusiastic reception for his New York University Manhattan appearance, Intangible Assets Manufacturing is pleased to announce two more cities on Dale L. Larson's book signing tour for Connect Your Amiga! A Guide to the Internet, LANs, BBSs and Online Services. The new dates are in Rockville, Maryland and St. Louis, Missouri. Existing dates are still scheduled in Washington state. Mr. Larson will be available to answer questions and to autograph copies of his book at Buried Treasure, Amiga Superstore, 5534 Randolph Road, Rockville, Maryland, (301) 770-6778. The event is scheduled from 10am to 12pm on Saturday, October 15, 1994. Mr. Larson will be teaching an 8-hour Amiga 'C' programming class in Springfield, Virginia later that afternoon. For additional details on the class, contact Mark Freemantle of the National Capitol Area Amiga User's Group: mfreemantle@melpar.esys.com, 703 560 5000 x4516 (w), 703 349 2016 (home, answering machine). There will also be an event at the Gateway Computer Show. After giving the keynote address at that show, Mr. Larson will sign copies of his book at IAM's table. The Gateway Computer Show is sponsored by the Gateway Amiga Club, Inc., and is in St. Louis, Missouri from 11am to 6pm on Saturday, October 29th, 1994. Dale L. Larson is a former Commodore-Amiga Software Engineer. He is an expert in the Amiga and in computer networking. Besides "Connect Your Amiga!," he is the author of papers presented at Amiga DevCons in Denver and Milan, as well as articles that have appeared in AmigaWorld, AmigaMail, and other publications. IAM publishes Connect Your Amiga! A Guide to the Internet, LANs, BBSs and Online Services, Amiga Envoy software, The Deathbed Vigil... and Other Tales of Digital Angst, and does Amiga consulting. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Intangible Assets Manufacturing Announces The Deathbed Vigil... and Other Tales of Digital Angst Drexel Hill, PA (September 15, 1994) Intangible Assets Manufacturing announces The Deathbed Vigil... and Other Tales of Digital Angst. Available now and published by IAM, this 120 minute VHS video tape is a documentary filmed, narrated and produced by Dave Haynie. Mr. Haynie is a well-known example of "cool," as well as a former Senior Hardware Engineer at Commodore Amiga, Inc. (now Senior Systems Engineer at Scala, Inc.) The video was produced and edited with the Amiga. It shows the famous "Deathbed Vigil Party," the last Margarita's layoff party, the West Chester facilities of Commodore (including the secret engineering lab), and more. It includes interviews with dozens of famous Amiga personalities, and offers opinions and explanations of many "behind-the-scenes" goings on. Anyone who has ever wondered what really went wrong with Commodore (and who wants to remember the best of what went right) will be interested. No true Amiga fan can be without this video! WARNING Contains profanity and scenes of graphic violence. NR (Not Rated). ORDERING INFORMATION The Deathbed Vigil is available through Amiga dealers worldwide and may be ordered directly from the publisher. The NTSC version is $35, PAL is $40. A limited edition, numbered and autographed version is also available for $75. Direct orders in the U.S., add $5 shipping and handling. PA residents add 6% state sales tax. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Outside the US, please add $8 for ground shipping and handling or $15 for air mail. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Intangible Assets Manufacturing Accepts Orders by Email Now Accepts Plastic Drexel Hill, PA (September 15, 1994) Intangible Assets Manufacturing, a software development and consulting company in the Amiga marketplace, announces that it now accepts Visa and Mastercard as payment for direct orders. Customers may phone in orders 24-hours a day by voice, voicemail or fax, may mail in orders, or may send orders by email to sales@iam.com. IAM products are also available from many Amiga dealers and distributors world-wide. IAM publishes Connect Your Amiga! A Guide to the Internet, LANs, BBSs and Online Services, Amiga Envoy software, The Deathbed Vigil... and Other Tales of Digital Angst, and does Amiga consulting. - - - - - - - SOFTWARE HUT INC., 313 Henderson Drive, Sharon Hill, PA 19079 For information call: 610-586-5701 To place an order call: 800-93-AMIGA To FAX an order call: 610-586-5706 September 21, 1994 Software Hut, Inc. of Sharon Hill, PA announces official distribution rights of the AmigaDOS 3.1 operating system from Commodore and Village Tronic Germany for all Amiga 500, 1200*, 2000, 3000, 4000 computers. Amiga OS 3.1 is NOW AVAILABLE. Following are a few Key Features: o new sceen modes and improved support for graphic boards (e.g. Picasso II RTG with up to 1600x1200 pixels in 256 colors) o significantly accelerated graphics rendering by rewritten graphics and layers libararies o CD-ROM support (including CDXL), reads standard ISO9660 CDs (including PC data and picture CDs) o supports different languages via locale.library (English, German, French, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian,..) o Datatypes for auto-detection of filetype for images, animations, sound, text, hypertext (Amiga Guide),... o Viewing/Playback of various files with MultiView and Datatypes o On-line help system using Amiga Guide o Improved Graphical User Interface with easier color selection and more flexible color assignment ("Pen-Sharing") o supports MSDOS & Atari disks (720KB, 1.44MB w/high dens. drives) There are three different versions of the kit available. Each kit comes complete with Kickstart ROM(s) (one for A500/2000, two for A3000 and A4000), three bound manuals with color binding which cover ARexx, Workbench and DOS plus six disks with color labels. The packaging is covered with an attractive color sleeve which makes it perfect to display. AS320-A500/2000/2500, AS330-A3000/3000T, AS340-A4000/A1200* * Disclaimer: The AS340 Kit will also work with the Amiga 1200 computers. However, because it was designed with the A4000 in mind, PCMCIA compatibility is not implemented. AS320 AS330 or AS340 ----- -------------- Retail Price $159.95 $179.95 We accept Visa, Master Card, Discover and American Express. American Express orders subject to a 1.5% service charge. **************************************************************** SPECIAL --- Order by December 1, 1994 and receive the AS320 for $ 139.00 and the AS330 or AS340 for $ 159.00 and as an added special Software Hut, Inc. offers free shipping via UPS to all locations in the U.S.A. To receive this special pricing please mention this posting. **************************************************************** Software Hut is supporting the release of OS 3.1 with complete reviews by Tim Walsh and Denny Atkin in Amiga World December issue. Look for this issue around November 1, 1994. Note: These are the offically licensed kits, beware of anyone selling just the ROMs as these are illegal and unauthorized copies. All future upgrades will be handled to registered users through Software Hut, Inc. @endnode @node P1-3 "Reader Mail" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Reader Mail %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Subject: Amiga report mail: GVP's Tech Support or the lack thereof While on the subject of GVP, I would like the opportunity to tell a little story. Recently an external SCSI HD failed. I attempted to reformat the disk and block out the bad sectors by using GVP's FastPrep. A message came screaming though my display, which I missed, and now the HD isn't recognized by the workbench, FastPrep or ExpertPrep. You must understand that I am no computer genius but can work on systems at a basic level. I am not a Human Computer Virus! I decide this is a little beyond my capabilities and call GVP's tech support. Their Automated Tech Support doesn't address my problem and fax a very brief and generic question to them thinking I would get voice response back. 24 hours later I receive their response fax asking for my mailing address. I fax that. 24 hours later I receive another response that primarily says "contact your dealer" and addresses an anomaly inherent in SCSI devices. This was my fault as I expected a voice response and didn't go into much detail. So I draft a detailed letter and fax it. It's now 48 hours later and I haven't heard a word. I really expected to hear from their tech support people via phone, live in an interactive format. I may just be me, but I prefer dialogue rather than listening to commands and pressing a number pad. Monkeys were treated this way in the early days of the space program, weren't they? And listening to the monotone voice without any interaction, well I gave that up when I graduated school. What is it I hope to accomplish by submitting this "view mail"? Maybe someone at GVP reads Amiga Report. Maybe this will create a reaction at their corporate level. Maybe they will realize that sometimes "right sizing" a company, cutting corners dropping services might foster poor customer relations. Poor customer relations will destroy a company. After all its the customer that makes a company, not a Board of Directors. Thanks for letting me use Amiga Report to vent my frustration. All I want is to get my HD back. Signed, No HD in Texas:) Mitch Warren USTUIQJV@IBMMAIL.COM From: mdaymon@rmii.com (Maxwell Daymon) Subject: Response to AR227 Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 02:19:53 -0600 (MDT) In response to the concerns put forward by Hans Bergengren in AR227: DMA CONTENTION Although the Amiga 3000/4000 have primitive "time-share" logic to prevent things such are serial overruns when used with Zorro III cards, the A2000 and A3000/4000 with Z2 cards does not. To clairify, the Amiga 2000 serial port is especially intolerent of DMA host adapters. There is a very specific moment that the serial port must fetch the incoming data. The Zorro II bus can very quickly saturate with a fast hard drive and controller causing the CPU to miss this window of opportunity. There isn't much that can be done (other than a solution similar to GVPPatch) to remedy this problem with the internal port. The source I drew upon for my conclusions is based on information posted by Dave Haynie on Wednesday, 24 Aug 1994 18:45:07 GMT ---Begin Included Text--- (The text without a '>' is written by Dave Haynie) In , jdow@BIX.com (jdow on BIX) writes: >There is nothing that can really be done about this other than to >compromise performance. Of course, you compromise performance in either case; one hard disk performance, the other interrupt performance. You'll find much the same case on the FastLane Z3 card when running with a very fast drive using the "Rev I Buster" workaround. With the workaround in place, you have the drive on the controller for extended periods of time, which gives you the fastest transfers on the A4000, but can sacrifice interrupt performance. >(The A3000 has logic that supposedly causes the bus to "time share" >with other things demanding it. Unfortunately that's only with Zorro III devices. The bus controller can start and stop Zorro III DMA devices on a cycle-by-cycle basis, so it can attempt to schedule them. It's still rather primitive on the A3000/A4000, but it does help. On Zorro II, once a bus master has the bus, there's nothing the controller can do to stop it, other than force an error (which would crash the card or at least damage most Zorro II bus transfers)." >With this facility I can STILL cause occaisional glitches on the >internal serial port. This leads me to think there is little or no >solution for the situation vis a vis the HardFrame. It is too >efficient for the bus in a manner of speaking.) It needs some kind of bus fairness mechanism, like the A4091 has (by virtue of the 53C710). The only solution on Zorro II is to build a controller which will back off at intervals. Unfortunately, that's almost always an overall performance hit, since there's no way to tell if anything actually wants to use the bus. This isn't strictly a Zorro III problem, it's been a problem with all 680x0 CPUs (or buses based on their bus protocol, like the Zorro II bus or A3000/A4000 local bus) up until the '040, which can actually indicate when it wants the bus. --- End included text --- The main point is that although the 68040 speed will allow for much higher transfer rates for the internal port (I reliably get 115,200 bps), it will not work well when the on-board GVP SCSI controller is accessed and the solution GVP provides did not work in my machine. Since the review was published, I've been contacted by a number of other G-Force owners who are experiencing the same problems with the GVP serial port and I'm still looking for a solution. The bottom line is that the serial port problems are not the fault of GVP. I'm sure they did the best they could to make a fast, yet cooperative, DMA host adapter. (In practice, applying GVP Patch to the G-Force 040 causes a hard drive that typically does 1.8MB/sec to 800KB/sec. That's about 40 times the speed of a typical floppy read on the same system, and faster than many hard drives hooked up to an unaccelerated machine.) SCSI-BUS INTERFACE CONTROLLERS GVP Series II controllers do NOT and have NEVER used the same bus interface as an A3000/A2091. GVP uses the AMD AM33C93A-16JC, while the Amiga 3000 and A2091 use a Western Digital WD33C93A-00-04. The Western Digital upgrade to a 00-08 fixes bugs in the revision -04 chip. The SCSI command set is implemented through the device driver. GVP's driver supports the SCSI-2 command set and Commodore's scsi.device does not. The word "PROTO" printed on the Western Digital chip merely means the chip is from the first production run (according to Western Digital). A WD33C93A-00-04 is the same as WD33C93A-00-04 PROTO, while a WD33C93A-00-08 is the same as a WD33C93A-00-08 PROTO. The GVP chip does not need to be replaced as it does not share those problems that A3000/A2091 users so often experience with CD-ROM drives. The A3000T had a WD33C93A-00-08 when I purchased it, both A3000's I tested the drive on were upgraded to -08 chips. Again, the chip does not automatically make the driver support the SCSI-2 command set. Dave Haynie pointed out what may be part of the problem. The IBM SCSI-2 drive I tested seems to use something called "FPT" (Forced Perfect Termination). It was not compatible with any controller I tried - except the GVP. It is not billed as a SCSI-1/SCSI-2 drive, so after much testing I gave up on it with SCSI-1 controllers. The only difference I could find with this drive other than the hardware is that it reports a response data format of SCSI-2, while the SCSI-1/SCSI-2 drives I tested all reported a CCS (Common Command Set) response format. The fact that the GVP controller handles it just fine when other fail is still the point of the evaluation. The question of any review is "what does it do for me?" In this case, for whatever reason, the G-Force works with a wider range of drives. EXPERT PREP I have also tried HDToolBox with my GVP controllers, but it is typically unwise to use software from other controllers because they often set options specific to the controller and companies do sometimes implement ambiguous options differently. Personally I like RDPrep, but I set up my drives with ExpertPrep (2.5) because it tends to enjoy setting it up in a specific logical configuration. Also, the GVP driver will not mount RESERVED partitions regardless of the prep software used. That is my major complaint. When purchasing a $1,200 product, I don't feel that the purchaser should have to go find programs to replace the included ones. When a 33MHz 68040 based Macintosh Quadra costs the same as a G-Force 040/33 for an Amiga 2000, I expect benefits including solid, well-written, complete programs. What's included with the G-Force looks like a good start, but it seems almost as if GVP took the programmers off the job once they just got it working. The software has a good foundation, it just doesn't seem polished. 68EC0x0 PROCESSORS There can only be two types of 68EC030's. Those that have the MMU totally and permanently disabled, and those that have been remarked to fulfill a larger order than Motorola could provide at the time. If your chip has a plastic package, the MMU is disabled and cannot be activated. Before a 68030 goes through testing, it is decided whether or not it will be a 68EC030 or a full 68030. If it is going to be a 68EC030, the MMUDIS pin is permanently grounded, effectively disabling the MMU without removing it from the mask. This insures a lower power consumption (CMOS logic doesn't consume power when it's not changing states), and since there is less heat generated, it can be put into a plastic package without the possibility of melting. So technically, the MMU is in the "mask" of ALL 68030's, but there is no software that can magically "unground" the MMUDIS pin, causing the MMU to function. Since the registers are still there, some software will erroneously report that an MMU is present and try to use it. The transparent translation registers _still exist_, though they are called access control registers, which greatly reduce the need for testing. The 68LC040 has the FPU physically removed from the mask resulting in a smaller die and less time needed for testing. The 68EC040 is an even lower cost version that disables both MMU's and the FPU _from the mask_. Thanks to Skipper Smith of Motorola Technical Training for this information. [For more information, see: Amazing Computing, Volume 8 Number 8, page 91] The main points are: 1) Motorola does not ship "failed" 68030's as 68EC030's. 2) The terminology with regard to an MMU not being used and an MMU not active or present in the chip is confusing, causing a lot of unnecessary phone calls to GVP (and others) and probably led to fax-only style support. I find it hard to believe that the MMU will work with the MMUDIS pin grounded. Perhaps you have software that just deals with the registers hence thinks and acts as if an MMU is present. From: tkibo01@mailserv.zdv.uni-tuebingen.de (Walter Bock) Subject: Reader MailTo: jcompton@cup.portal.com Date: Sat, 8 Oct 1994 05:23:48 +0100 (MET) Concerning: AR #228, Reader Mail - wishes for new Amigas. My thoughts on the new Amigas CPU: First of all, I don't like the idea of a RISC processor in the new Amigas. I have to work with those PowerPC Macintosh (too bad to work with anything other than Amiga, but with 040 Macs you didn't have to go nuts) as a programmer and I do not like the mass of incompatibilities produced by the new processor technology. Most important, with Apple being unable to port their operating system to native RISC code, it is al slow as a 030 mac. And that does not seem to be due to a bad emulation for 680x0 code - the emulation is real good, much more stable than the OS. I would not want to spend lots of money for an Amiga that is much slower than A4000/40. I certailnly would not buy such a system. And I don't expect Amiga Int. to get all the OS running on RISC code in time, let alone all the commodities ... one got accustomed to - not if they have to write a real good 68040 emulator for the new machine, too. And anything else, which would render the new Amiga incompatible with previous ones, would be suicide. I have another more personal point in favor of 060 processors: I like to program in assembler. The motorola one is quite good. And did you ever try to program RISC assembler ? It's almost as sick as intel one... Of course I know that you have to go with the time - and CISC processors seem to come to an end - but they did not reach it yet ! The 060 is a fine machine and would be perfect for the near future. You can clearly see how many customers Apple scared by it's too-fast switch to the PowerPC and how much OS engineering could not be done because they set themselves too tight deadlines. (e.g. they still didn't implement preemtive multitasking :( RISC may be the choice of the future, but don't be too quick. It's no good to re-start the Amiga with a premature OS, it would take much longer to rewrite all and everything for an integrated concept with a new processor than building a good CISC computer so Amiga-owners can stop buying PCs and start to see a perspective in the Amiga again. My thoughts on AAA / 3D RISC. are similar. I really don't believe Mr Pleasant if he says AAA OS implementation would last 18 month whereas the implementation of a completely new system could be done in 6. There has to be a miscalculation ! But if AAA is really as old stuff as stated (e.g. not much ahead of AGA), most impotant if the Customchip data throughput is not MUCH higher they should really can it. There would be no point making a computer which could not be competitive to PCI in terms of BUS performance (or contain PCI :) and to the cheap PC sound/gfx cards in terms of custom chip speed/ 16bit audio/ large Chip ram ... But after all, a new Amiga with only the name would be nonsense too ! There has to be Amiga OS on it (even if it could take some stylish improvement -> X11) and there have to run Amiga programs on it. OK, I'll give the old games a go, but most of the applications should run on it ! And I would be willing to spend real money on a "professional" Amiga - not too much a low end machine. If you see the prices of other non-IBM-compatible which sell for over 6000 DM ($3.900) a price similar to this for a top notch Amiga would be acceptable. - That's quite a letter. I'll let it stand on its own. -Jason From: gt4722a@prism.gatech.edu (AGENT GORDON COLE) Subject: Nice Date: Fri, 30 Sep 1994 23:11:04 -0400 (EDT) I really enjoyed the CEI chat, and hope you guys can put some more of that kind of stuff together! (I hereby give permission for you to use this as the bi-weekly 'AR is cool' message :-) - Why, thanks. Read the BIX transcript, then. @endnode @node P1-10 "The Voice From Across the Pond" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% The Voice From Across the Pond By: @{" Michael Wolf " link P8-3} %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% This time yours truly is going to report from the Photokina expo that happened September 22-27 in Cologne / Germany. The Photokina is probably the largest consumer photography/video/film expo in the world. There are two parts to the photokina, one covering consumer oriented photographic products (ranging from frames for pictures to genlocks) and a pro part, covering everything from lighting equipment to video beamers and SGI's. I was mainly interested in the pro video stuff, especially the M-JPEG boards for the Amiga (If you read my previous article on that subject then you might have noticed that this subject fascinates me. May be its because I want to buy one of those suckers in the near future ;-). Let's do a quick rundown of the products on the show. MacroSystems ------------ They were showing of their new VLab-Motion board, on an A4000 with a 40Mhz Warp Engine, and a Retina BLT ZIII board. Unforunately their demo was, frankly, crap. They only had a 260 MB Partition reserved for the VLab-Motion, no demo Videos/Animations on that partition and the Toccata audio board wasn't installed either. Instead they grabbed some live video from a cheap HI-8 camcorder and played around with their editing software (which is very nice BTW, very similar to Adobe Premiere for Mac's/PC's). The MS rep was extremely boring (the kind of guy that would sell you his grand ma, you know the type), and just talked to much instead of showing off the board. So there is now way I could compare the image quality to the DSP PAR that was also exhibited at the same booth (by a different company). MS was also demoing Elastic Reality for PC's, but it didn't impress me too much, the PC kept crashing all the time ;-)) dcp --- was the other company at that booth, they distribute SGI and Amiga software, mainly for the video / interactive market. They were demoing Lightwave 3.5 PAL, the DSP PAR and Elastic Reality for SGI's. I don't think I need to tell you anything about these great products. BTW: They are selling A4000's with the DSP PAR board as an alternative to single frame recording, 'tis funny though that they don't mention the name "Amiga"... on to the next one: ProDad ------ were showing all their software, including an early beta of their video editing program CAVIN. It sounds quite promising (I couldn't see much of it, it kept crashing ...). It supports all kinds of hardware (Control-L, LANC, PANASONIC-EDIT, RS 232 and RS 422 protocolls) and timecode (VITC, TCTC, RAPID). You can also use infrared signals for older hardware. CAVIN hast timelines for A & B VCR's, graphics / animation, hardware (i.e. framegrabber, M-JPEG boards, cd-player), audio (Amiga, audio boards or external). So you can use it as a complette A/B editing system. You can of course configure CAVIN to work in conjunction with other Pro Dad products, such as clariSSA, Monument Titler and Adorage. ProDad has also upgraded older products. Adorage 2.5 now supports a transparent colour 0, image conversion and loading of different image types (i.e. TIFF, PCX) and has some new 3D effects. There are two new modules for clariSSA, the Loaderpackage allows you to import new image formats (i.e. GIF, JPEG, PCX), while the "motion sound" add on allows you to add samples to your SSA animations. electronic-design ----------------- were at the same booth as ProDad. They demoed their new genlocks (mainly the Neptun), and their Framegrabber / Framebuffer combo FrameMachine. The Neptun looks very nice. It is the only "low cost" genlock I know of that allows you to use a simple kind of alpha channel. You can define one colour as beeing semi-transparent, while the others behave as normal. The Neptun is also fully software controlable (Very nice if you use SCALA for video editing). Oh, and Tobias Richter was there (known for his amazing Star Trek / Star Wars animations), showing off some of his work. It is amazing what this guy can do using a raytracer (Reflections) and a DCTV. after a long day and blisters on my feet... ------------------------------------------- Well, that is about it Amiga wise. electronic design was also showing the genlocks at the consumer part of the show, but you could also find lot's of PC video solutions there as well (such as FAST's Video Machine). Some PC People got very excited at Caligari Broadcast (for Windows), which has added features (and decreased performance). SGI were there too, showing all kinds of media solutions (I hate SGI's, they always make me drool, yeuch, what a mess...). We got bored at the fair after 6 hours, so we went to Cologne to have a beer (Koelsch) and enjoy what is left of summer. Nice city, go there if you're in the area ! This is all for today, next is a review of GVP's TBC Plus (in an A2000, unaccelerated :-(), and hopefully soon the Cyberstorm. Cheers ! Mike @endnode @node P1-11 "Why?" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Why? By: Maxwell Daymon %% %% A dark view... mdaymon@rmii.com %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Why? Commodore is all but dead. The future of Amiga is in the hands of liquidators who have a responsibility to creditors who alledgedly couldn't care less what happens, as long as they get their money. Further, the industry is not stopping to take notice - the Amiga isn't going to be the "future" forever. So why do people still cling to the Amiga? Obviously some have stopped and are (happily?) computing on some other platform. After all, a computer is a computer. Others are holding on to a large investment of time, money, or both. A number of users are simply familiar with the system and don't want to switch for that reason alone. After all, isn't it hard enough to learn one OS? There are also those who subscribe to the old principle of "don't fix what's not broken" and plan on using their Amigas until they literally break down. Many look beyond the superficial and practical reasoning. Especially those who see the Amiga as more than "just" a computer. In all honesty, AmigaOS, Macintosh System X, and OS/2 are the three last choices the general public has in terms of an operating system, that number is about to be reduced to two. There's always the various flavors of UN*X for the so called techno-gods, but they certainly aren't for the casual user and it's not the kind of OS you'd want to recommend to Aunt Matilda and the kids. These are the people who don't like the idea of getting a book of what you are allowed to use in your programs to avoid litigation for using so-called "industry trade secrets." These are the people who can't help but to notice that there is one company that has a huge number of people convinced that an integral part of all computers is DOS (*MS* DOS, that is) and they not only produce the operating system, but many of the applications and development tools FOR that operating system. Isn't it obvious that when one company controls the cars you drive, the roads you drive on, and the fuel you put into your car, you don't have quite as much freedom as you thought? To paraphrase Henry Ford, "You can have any operating system you like, as long as it's made by Microsoft." @endnode @node P1-12 "Heddley v1.1 Mini-Review" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Heddley v1.1 Mini-Review By: Roy Milican %% %% An AmigaGuide-maker roy@cts.com %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% PRODUCT NAME Heddley v1.1 BRIEF DESCRIPTION The best Amiga Guide maker I have found, good GUI and easy to use. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Edd Dumbill Address: 13 Giles Ave. Burnholme, York. YO3 0RB England Telephone: +44 (0)904 414524 E-mail: ejad-a@minster.york.ac.uk LIST PRICE Shareware fee: Uk Pounds 10.00 US Dollars 15.oo DM 25.00 SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS Workbench 2.0+ required COPY PROTECTION None MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 4000/040 40Mhz 30 megs fast, 2 megs Chip Workbench 3.0, EGS Spectrum. Hard Drive INSTALLATION Fast Installation, use of standard Commodore Installer REVIEW I've checked out many Amiga Guide makers, but this one is the best. It has an easy to use GUI along with many usefull features. Perfect for beginner or advanced user. Has support for many of WB 3.0 features and also has ARexx support. Allows you to start right out and go make an Amiga Guide. So if you do alot or just a little Amiga Guide creation this is a must. And with registration price as reasonable for such a good program it is worth it. DOCUMENTATION Documentation is in Amiga Guide format. Layed out well for the beginner or experienced Amiga user. LIKES The easy to use GUI interface. DISLIKES No real dislikes on this program. BUGS No bugs found. CONCLUSIONS This program is excellent and is a must addition to any WB. I give it 5 stars out of 5. ***** COPYRIGHT NOTICE This is a freely distributable review. @endnode @node P1-4 "A look at the future..." @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% A look at the future By: Ibrahim Solmaz %% %% One Amiga user's view sollmaz@lise-meitner.be.schule.de %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% [Editor's note: Mr. Solmaz went to quite extensive lengths to reach me with his article. I have decided to print it because opinions on the future are relevant and important to the entire community. However, some of the information within is based on conjecture, and should not be considered to be set in stone.] First hi to everyone who owns an Amiga ! I would complain, that everyone?, wants an Amiga 5000/RISC?/AAA? under $1400! Guys where are you living ? I visited a German Computer Shop called Vobis (They discount low cost PCs and also now Macintoshs) The Price for an PowerPC 8100/80 is 12.000 DM (nearly $6.900) The 8100/80 PowerMac has a PPC601, 80 MHz ! a 500Meg Hard drive, a Video-Adapter with 2MB VRAM (That's REAL Expensive, The AAA Chipset would also use it, if it ever comes out to public), TWO Onboard SCSI Host adapters (one with Standard SCSI-2, the other with Support for FastSCSI-2), 16 Meg Ram, (I think they are using low cost 70ns Simms) Apple Talk (Apple proprietary Network Protocol) Ethnernet (The Worldwide Used Network Protocol) And now we make a comparison: An Amiga 5000/RISC/AAA? (what I like to see) with 4MB VRam, (Don't forget with the AAA Chipset you need a minimum of 4MB Chip ram, OR can stick on your AGA/ECS Machine) a PPC604 80MHz or 100MHz Processor (These Machine must be comparable against Pentiums and PowerPC`s) a FastSCSI-2 Host adapter on Board I need that for my soon? Micropolis 2.4 Gig HD) at Minimum 16 MB Memory on Board I am going with my A3000 with 14MB Ram, many times out of memory, and don't forget that Risc Code is 50%-80% longer then normal CISC Code (68030/040/060/486/Pentium (I (myself) would put then there for sure 32 MB Ram. Also I would like to see Ethernet on Board (Its a must today, every better class PC and the Risc based Macintoshs/Quadras have that. I personally would like see FAST ethernet with a Transfer Rate of 10Megs, because its an ISO standard and it would be more used then FDDI in the Future) 540 Meg Hard drive (Quantum preferred, NOT SEAGATE) (Don't forget the RISC native Software is 50%-80% longer then normal CISC Code, also there is a need for big storage because 24 Bit Pictures, Animations and 16 Bit sound eats lot of Memory) DSP would be recommended, but its not important to have one ! (Anyway, most of the DSP Software Support is done, and there is also 1 Program which (also which I only know) supports the DSP Card (then maybe Onboard) ImageFX 2.0 ! You can find in ImageFX2.0 such strings like "vcas.library", "dsp3210.device" ALSO a DSP can play a ROLE of 3D Chip !No Problem at all ! Here is a List of the possibilities of AT&T DSP3210 Hardware: - 32-bit floating point arithmetic - 32-bit addressing - large 8K on-chip cache 0 wait - 33Mflops of power - shared bus with Motorola CPU - Serial I/O with DMA 24 Mbits/sec - Barrel shifter - mu-law & A-law encoding - Bit I/O general purpose 8-bit I/O port it can emulate: - V32 / V22bis MNP5 / V29 G3 fax / modem emulation with fallback - subband coder - G.722 7khz speech coder (1000% better than SAY) - DTMF generator/decoder - JPEG still/ MPEG encode/decode - Call progress detector - Non integer sample rate converter - delta-spectrum feature extractor - text to phones LPC, LPC to speach - speech recognizer - talker verification - 3d GFX library - MIDI music synth with EMU proteus soundlibs - perceptual image coder - perceptual audio coder There are many things which you CANT do with a 3D Risc Chip, but with a DSP !! You can also hold more then 1 DSP in the System !The Commodore DSP Card had two 66MHZ AT&T 3210DSP`s !Also the DSP Software support this! -4 PCI Slots (In one slot is the MPC604 Card) -5 Zorro III Slots, Good Design and good Quality (ALSO IMPORTANT) of the Case, Keyboard, Mouse,.. Parts! (I like the A3000 Mouse, and also A3000 Keyboards are excellent, some A4000`s keyboards and all A600/A1200 Keyboard are like typing on a 1940`s Typewriter or maybe worse, in short words, its SH*T.) And a good price for this Setup would be around $4000-$5000! Thats a good price for what you get !And not terrible expensive like Apple! the AAA Low End Machines (comparable to the PowerMac6100/60) must at start $2000 (3400 DM) ! System must be: Processor MPC603+, 80 MHZ 2 MB Vram, 270 Meg HD (Quantum preferred) 8 MB Ram 3 PCI Slots 1 or 2 Zorro III Slots ! And don't forget: if a Computer costs much, then there would be software which also costs much. And generally this kind of Software is much more powerful then low cost software (not all the time, but most times) (Show at the Mac`s) And what me make ANGRY, are people want to see all this for $1200. That's _NOT_ Possible. If you have No Money get another Hobby or stuck on your CD32/A1200/A600/Low Cost IDE PCs/Nintendos/ Kids' Computers?. Without such kind of People, the Amiga would have be a BETTER Status in the Computer world, and not like a TOY-Machine. (except the some TV Stations which are some Amigas using) I would like to see that the Amiga get a High Class Status like a Macintosh or like in the 1986. At this time People said "WOW" to my A1000, and at this time it was REAL expensive, and that was Good so, and today I will get pissed of, if I go to a Computer Shop and tell them that I have an Amiga, and then the Dealer would be say to me: Get a professional Computer, a PC or a Macintosh! or a better Game Machine like SNES & 3DO ! Anyway one day I said to one Dealer, that I have an Unix Clone (You can say that on a Amiga with a MMU (No A1200/A4000/EC030 hehe) without any Problems with NETBSD, which is a Common Unix, and don't forget that the Amiga Operating System has some UNIX like functions) with a resolution of 1024*800, and its Motorola based, has 400 megs SCSI-2 Hard drive. And his Comment was: "WOW, Cool Machine, How much did you pay for it ?" Then I replied: "More than a 486 Class Computer." (That's right, I payed for every 4 Meg in my A3000 440 DM=$290! :-) ) Another Important Thing is: Commodore has designed their own Chips, designing Amiga Hardware is not cheap like designing PC or Macintosh Hardware. Do you every heard that Compaq, Digital, The Taiwan PC Clone Makers?, uses Custom Chips (designed by themselves) ? (The VL/PCI/ISA Chipsets are designed not by the common PC Makers, its designed by Intel, OMTI, and 3 or 4 others) The Macintoshs (the newer ones) have only 3 Custom Chips, 1 for SCSI DMA (only in the PowerMacs, the older ones uses PIO), 1 for Sound, 1 the NuBus Slots. Thats all ! My Amiga 3000 has 8 Custom Chips: Fat Agnus, Paula, ECS Denise, DMAC, Ramsey, Fat Gary, Fat Buster, Amber, and the two CIA`s ! A Triple A System would have these Chips: Monica, Andrea, Linda, Mary, PCI -> ZorroIII Bridge , Some kind of Ramses & DMac & Gary! (Only the Chips: Monika, Andrea, Linda, Mary have a 700.000 Transistors, a AGA Based System has only 80.000 Transistors) That's costs a Hell of a lot to develop & produce such a Custom Chip Set! Also designing the System Operating software is a hell of work! Microsoft have been trying to design good System Operating software since 1980, but until now, they have not succeeded! PC Clone Makers don`t invest Money to develop Operating System, they only pay ? (or better) the customer pay for a license to use MS-DOS&Windows! And in this World are aprox. 80 Million PC`s. And every PC had a MS DOS License! License costs around 50 Dollar ! $60 * 80 Million Licenses = $4.000.000.000! This is 4 Billion Dollar ! (That's only with the Operating System, not to forget to mention the Microsoft Software Productivity? Software like Winword, Excel) If the New Amiga Company has success, then they can also do a little challenge with the AmigaOS against Microsoft WindowsNT and port the AmigaOS to the PreP Platform. And then they will get also there a new UserBase and some Money (that's important) If we say the OEM license costs about $80 and then they sell it over, and get some money (Show the Example with Microsoft above). With the superior AmigaOS would that be not a big problem, except the marketing! Here is a List of Directions of the next Apple OS, System8.0 (Maybe some Commodore People (Also Alex Amor?, David Pleasance?,) read this!) System8.0 (Codename Copland) will come up in the fall of 1995 ! ~~~~~~~~~ -OpenDoc Support (Would like to see that in future Revisions in the AmigaOS, -Needs at minimum a 68030 with MMU or a PowerPC ! (Apple only use only real 68030 with MMU!not such Shit like 68030EC like C= in the A4000/030, (This Type Guys can buy the Cyberstorm, WarpEngine, GForce Accelerator Card hehe)) -Preemptive Multitasking for new Programs, cooperative Multitasking for the old Programs (The Amiga has Preemptive Multitasking since the beginning!) -Memory protection only for new Programs ! -Concurrent IO, Access to multiple Peripherals ! -Changed Human Interface (Would be also good for the Amiga, something like MUI or a HUMAN Interface in the SCALA Design then every Idiot can use the Amiga. I know many of them!) -Filenames could be 48 Chars long and can use UNIcode Characters! (The Limit on the Amiga is 30 chars, 64 Chars would be ok!) -Volume Limit is by 256 Terabyte (=262144 GByte) and you can have a maximum of 65536 Files on a volume (On Amiga there is a Volume limit at 4 Gigabytes and HDToolbox plays crazy if you had more then 2 Gigs! Commodore give not any warranty for Drives bigger then 2 Gigs :( ! I don't know if there is a File Limitation on the Amiga, I have on my Amiga aprox 14000 Files!, if I had my 2.4 Gig Hard drive then I could test it out :-) ) System9.0 (Codename Gershwin) will come up in the fall of 1996 ! ~~~~~~~~~ -Mircokernal Architecture (The AmigaOS is now nearer to Mircokernal Architecture then any other OS, except MACH (NextStep is based on Mach), only Mircokernal Architectures can use the advantages of Multiple Processor Systems) -Also preemptive Multitasking for the old (System7.x Programs) (See my comment above, and I would like to see how they will implement it) -Full Memory protection (for old and new Programs) -3D Graphic Software Engine ! (that means you can play something like doom in the Desktop, and automatically a 3D Engine Chip would supported, would be a GREAT Idea for the AMIGA?-3D RISC Chip (On this Chip is David Pleasance and Alex Amor talking about) -Volume Limit is now by 8 ExaByte (=8192 TeraByte=8388608 GigaByte) File Limit is now at 4294967296 (=4 Billion!!!) Files on one Partition! In Generally these Steps must also the AmigaOS Follow! I know some People, who have Problems with the Filesystem on their Hard drive bigger then 2 Gigabytes (Some Days ago somebody left a message on the German UseNet (de.comp.sys.amiga.tech) that he has a 9 GB Harddisk, but he cant use all the storage, he is "only" able access 4 Gig from his 9 Gig Harddisk!) My hardware setups are: 1xA3000 (14 MB Ram, 400 MB Harddrive, 4 Greytone A2024 Monitor, CBM 2060 Arcnet) and 3xA1000 (one with 68030, 10.5 MB, 200 Meg Harddrive, CBM Arcnet Card) and the 2nd A1000 has 2.5 Meg and a Sidecar! Besides that, I have 2 USRobotics DSTs, they costs me more then todays 486`s! (But anyway I'm proud NOT to HAVE a PC, except the Sidecar, its has a 4.77MHZ 8088! but the Case looks NICE! :-) ) And at least I am 19 years young, NOT Working, I am going to school, for the next 1.7 Years! (I work in my holidays, but that's another story) Soon I will await my 2.4 Gig Harddrive, then I will open perhaps an Amiga Bulletin Board ! All Prices are German prices! Not US Prices! It seems that in Germany some things costs more! Now everyone think we, Germans?, are rich Guys ! If you have comments on this Article, then you can me send a mail, but it would be better if you sent it to Amiga Report Stuff, so everybody can read it. @endnode @node P1-6 "CEI Conference on BIX" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% CEI Conference on BIX %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% [I feel terrible about the formatting, but I have no easy way to compress this to 75 columns. Blame BIX. Had I taken time to reformat it, the magazine would have been delayed. Once again, I'm sorry. -Ed] Wednesday October 5, 1994 CEI CBiX Transcript On wednesday October 5, 1994 Alex Amor appeared in BIX's Amiga Exchange CBiX. Alex Amor is the CEO of one of the bidders, CEI. CEI is a major distributor of Commodore Amiga computers to both north and south America. They are one of the three remaining bidders in the Commodore Liquidation Buyout Derby. This transcript is Copyright 1994 by Delphi Internet Services. All rights are reserved with the following exceptions. Distribution on BIX, Delphi, and CIX may begin immediately. Distribution via other media may start on October 12, 1994. Amiga Reports may distribute this with their next issue. Within the above restrictions this may be freely distributed provided this notice remains and the file is not edited or changed in any way other than textual reformatting. The major players are Alex Amor [Alex-CEI], Valorie King [Valorie], and Joanne Dow [jdow]. Message from System Manager... Our FORMAL session is now started. [Valorie]* We welcome you to the BIX formal CBIX session with our special [Valorie]* guest Alex Amor of Creative Equipment, International. Our thanks [Valorie]* go to the following individuals for helping to set up this session: [Valorie]* For the suggestion: [Valorie]* Chrisopher Aldi, President, Phantom Development Co. [Valorie]* John Basile, V.P. for Operations, Phantom Development Co. [Valorie]* For the 'leg-work': [Valorie]* Jason Compton, Editor in Chief, Amiga Report [Valorie]* Thanks also to our Exchange Editor, Joanne Dow and the moderators [Valorie]* of the Amiga Exchange for their behind the scenes work to make [Valorie]* this evening possible. [Valorie]* If you are not familiar with CBIX commands please take a moment [Valorie]* to scan them using the /help command. [Valorie]* Also, please be aware that everything typed on channel 1 is [Valorie]* being recorded for the transcript of this evening's session. [Valorie]* If you wish to chat with other participants as well as listen [Valorie]* to our guest speaker please move to another channel (>30) [Valorie]* and then monitor channel 1. [Valorie]* Since this is a formal session, we ask that participants [Valorie]* please refrain from making any comments on channel 1 -- [Valorie]* that channel is reserved for the Chairperson and our guest. [Valorie]* Failure to abide by this request will result in ejection [Valorie]* from the formal session. [Valorie]* If your telecom package has a chat buffer or console window [Valorie]* you may find it helpful to activate it now. This will prevent [Valorie]* extraneous keyboard characters from being transmitted and [Valorie]* interrupting our guest. [jdow] On behalf of the Amiga Exchange I would like to welcome Alex to our special CBiX event. [Valorie]* This evening's session will have two parts. First, a short period [Valorie]* during which Alex Amor will make his opening statement. During [Valorie]* this period you may queue questions to the questions moderator. [Valorie]* After Alex finishes his opening statement we will begin submitting [Valorie]* questions to him from the queue. The decisions of the questions [Valorie]* moderator will be final as to which questions are asked and the [Valorie]* order in which they are asked. [Valorie]* The moderators for this evening are: [Valorie]* Chairperson -- Valorie King, moderator, Amiga Exchange [Valorie]* Questions Mod. -- Joanne Dow, Exchange Editor, Amiga Exchange [Valorie]* Please submit your questions to the Questions Moderator using /msg [Valorie]* unless she informs you to use another method (i.e. moving to a [Valorie]* specific channel to discuss your question with her). [Valorie]* Our guest will have DND (do not disturb) turned on so that he is [Valorie]* not bothered with trying to handle both public and private questions. [Valorie]* If you do not wish to receive messages you may also set /DND ON [Valorie]* This will not block messages from the moderators. [Valorie]* We also have two other roving moderators present. Rich and Nancy. Thanks for coming and helping out! [Valorie]* Thank you for coming. We hope you find this evening enjoyable and [Valorie]* informative. Please remember that our purpose here is to listen [Valorie]* to Alex and to extract as much information from him as we can [Valorie]* without using the instruments of torture . So, grab a cup [Valorie]* of coffee or a soda and settle in for what we anticipate will [Valorie]* be a very informative and pleasant evening. [Valorie]* Alex, would you like to start with an introduction of yourself and whatever preparatory comments you have? [alex-CEI]* Thank you Valerie.. [alex-CEI]* Good evenening. [alex-CEI]* As you know CEI is a Commodore Distributor in the U.S. [alex-CEI]* who is interested in purchasing the Commodore assets (Amiga).. [alex-CEI]* and making a go...we appreciate the tons of support we have... [alex-CEI]* received from end users, engineers, developers and dealers... [alex-CEI]* I'm available for any questions. [jdow] And here is the first question mostly because it is foremost in my mind. [jdow] sodekirk: How will the buyout affect the existing user base, developers and developer support, etc. in the USA? Will support continue here for us? Will marketing and promotion continue in the USA? Will there be efforts made to increase the visibility of the Amiga in the USA? What can we realistically expect? [alex-CEI]* Boy, what a loaded question... I hope they get easier from here on... [alex-CEI]* First and foremost, the Amiga community (developers, users, etc).. [alex-CEI]* have had a tough road as far as support fro the old C=... [alex-CEI]* our partners in this venture have analysed the mistakes tath C=.. [alex-CEI]* made. We are committed to an aggressive marketing campaign.. [alex-CEI]* in both the U.S. and overseas.. I believe that a product must... [alex-CEI]* be succesfull in the U.S. if it is going to survive world-wide. [alex-CEI]* As far as other support our staf will be made to understand who is.. [alex-CEI]* number one...the customer. Ours is an attitude of openess and.. [alex-CEI]* cooperation. [alex-CEI]* I hope that answers your question. [jdow] OK - lemme hunt up the next one - which is another toughie [jdow] bobr1: Q: When do you expect a *final* answer as to who wins the bidding war? [alex-CEI]* We are happy to announce, that based on our meeting with the [alex-CEI]* trustee, we are close to the acquisition of Commodore and it's [alex-CEI]* assets. An announcement can come within the next 3 weeks. [alex-CEI]* ?? [jdow] VaxBrat: Dealer network. Assuming there are any local dealers left to pick up the line what are your plans for distribution and other support? [alex-CEI]* During this lull our staff has been working with major... [alex-CEI]* players in the distribution and retail channels to make.. [alex-CEI]* sure the Amiga can come back in style. Closely after acquisition.. [alex-CEI]* we expect to make announcements which should be welcomed by... [alex-CEI]* dealers, end-users and developers... We realize that the core... [alex-CEI]* of the business should be handled through the local dealer... [alex-CEI]* but greater public awareness is important as well as better.. [alex-CEI]* penetration. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] This is a distillation of several: What new models do you expect to be delivering in the near future? [alex-CEI]* Without making any major announcements (that would get engineers upset). [alex-CEI]* it is logical to expect the introduction of the A4000 tower in... [alex-CEI]* a number of different flavors including a 68060 when time time.. [alex-CEI]* is right...in addition the intro of a higher performance a1200... [alex-CEI]* (read 68030) would follow .... the CD1200 and CD4000 are also.. [alex-CEI]* very close to coming off the drawing boards...as well the .. [alex-CEI]* latest release of the operating system. Our major concern at.. [alex-CEI]* present is filling the backlog of Amigas currently on order. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] Another generic question: Is there still enough dealer network out there to make distribution of the Amiga feasible? [alex-CEI]* Yes, the good dealer is still left. As you know only the good survive. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] bobr1: Q: How will existing warranties on machines already purchased this year be supported by the new organization. What will the new CBM be called? [alex-CEI]* The current working name for the new company is Amiga Technology International. This name of course is subject to change. [alex-CEI]* As far as warranty, we are working on a program to alleviate to log of warranty work. [alex-CEI]* One of our options is to charge those old C= customers with only the minimum labor charges. We realize that the warranty [alex-CEI]* is not our responsibility but would will do everything possible to garner good will from Commodore's old customers. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] twalsh: Alex, in the event you acquire C=, any thoughts on getting Amigas into education markets? Good opportunities exist in multimedia applications where the Amiga still has the edge. [alex-CEI]* As some of you are aware my company has been responsible for getting major Amiga based education labs in the state of Florida. [alex-CEI]* Educators require high performance computers, and good prices ( sounds like Amigas to me). [alex-CEI]* I do not expect the Amiga to become a replacement for PCs but to fullfill a specific market niche in multimedia, [alex-CEI]* video editing courses, arts, and music. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] jbasile: Q: Will CEI work more closely with developers, providing timely info, prototype machines, and future market directions? [alex-CEI]* In order for the new Amiga company to work it is ESSENTIAL to form strategic partnerships with developers. [alex-CEI]* We realize that machines dont sell its applications that sells machines. [alex-CEI]* We will have developers conference in both the US and Europe immediately [alex-CEI]* following acquisition of Commodore. In addition a steering committee of [alex-CEI]* developers and end users will be formed to report directly to the board. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] jcompton: CD4000? Are we still talking about the Akiko/MPEG hybrid Zorro card? [alex-CEI]* Yes. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] dray: Q: Do you plan to finish development of AAA...and if not will future Amigas retain the OS that we all know and love? [jdow] jcompton: This is from several people who are concerned about the new OS: What about making it processor-portable? [jdow] (Both sorta go together.) [alex-CEI]* Based on the information which has been provided from the current Commodore engineers the AAA [alex-CEI]* program does not look promising. Of course since I am not an engineer I am [alex-CEI]* open minded to restarting the project. The future seems to lie in a hybrid of [alex-CEI]* 3d/RISC and current Amiga technology. In addition, we are faced with the [alex-CEI]* dilema that the 68060 is the last processor in the family. It is important [alex-CEI]* to deal with the migration issue and we need to do it sooner not later. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] Oh you mentioned the magic number.... {^_^} [jdow] A6000: Supposedly "AmigaCorp USA" has demonstrated the A6000 at World of [jdow] Commodore in France. It has 100MHz 68060, AAA, Obese AGNUS with 64 sound [jdow] channels, no mouse, two trackballs on the keyboard instead, and a 300 pin ZORRO4 [jdow] slot for PC cards, Z2 and Z3 cards and Bridgeboards. [jdow] (I just saw this letter today.) [alex-CEI]* News to me!!!! But sounds pretty neat! [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] It did appear to be a splendid hoax. {^_-} [jdow] jcompton: Will we ever see the CEI 4000M (for the short of memory, the A4000/Emplant combo package from CEI) hit the streets in big numbers? [alex-CEI]* The 4000MC (A4000/Emplant) still makes a lot of sense. If we can get the price [alex-CEI]* of the A4000 in line this combo has a real future ahead. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] Since lots of people are interested: ecarroll: Q: If CEI's bid is successful, do you intend to stick with the Amiga's current OS, perhaps ported to a RISC platform, or will you be looking at alternatives already in use elsewhere (e.g. Windows NT)? [alex-CEI]* The Amiga OS needs to continue into the next generation! It would be nice if our new machines supported multiple OSs [alex-CEI]* We'll need to get engineering working on this. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] bobr1: Q: What about a 'professional' low end machine, like an A1200 w/ detatched keyboard, to compete with the likes of the Mac LC? [alex-CEI]* First of all there was a low cost Amiga machine designed by Commodore engineers. But, we [alex-CEI]* view the price reduction of the Amiga 4000 as a more important move. If the A4000 [alex-CEI]* was priced attractively we could compete with the Macs. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] dberez: Alex: Can you be a bit more specific on the O/S enhancements? How about imbedded network support for example. [alex-CEI]* Network support, RTG, DIG, etc, are all important and necessary additions. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] twalsh: Alex, any ongoing discussion w/ NewTek you could elaborate on? [alex-CEI]* We have a good relationship with Newtek and has promised to support their efforts as well [alex-CEI]* as the efforts of other Amiga developers. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] bobr1: Q: Will SCSI be included on the motherboard of future A4000's, since most users waste a slot adding it anyway? [alex-CEI]* YES! YES! YES! I hate IDE. [alex-CEI]* ? [alex-CEI]* Price reduced (not feature limited)! (move here as post comment ED) [jdow] (I presume he means the cost reduced A4000 model.) [jdow] Two together: [jdow] jcompton: be a competitive upgrade from OS 3.1 to your recent OS 3.2? [jdow] Keith Burns: Q: What does 3.2 offer that 3.1 does not? [alex-CEI]* Pricing on upgrade needs to be competative to maintained the install user base at the latest revision. In the past upgrade have been largely ignored by C=. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] Valorie: Q: Assuming you successfully get the remains of CBM, will you keep your operation based in the US? [alex-CEI]* Yes, our plans call for establishing a facility in the West Chester area where the majority of current and past engineers are located. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] twalsh: CEI currently offers an alternative to the 1942 monitor. Any plans on either resuming production of 1084 or a clone of it? Monitors with composite modes are in big demand. [alex-CEI]* Yes, we have begun negotiations with suppliers to provide new monitors for Amiga Technologies. [alex-CEI]* They include a composite monitor and a wide band multisync. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] lhinckley: A former C= engineer commented last nite that the Norristown facility had been sold. What does this mean to your plans? [alex-CEI]* The Norristow facility is the center of the chip production. We expect to reach agreement to have the new owners manufacture the [alex-CEI]* necessary chips for production of current and future Amigas. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] +Nancy: Q: Is there any chance that C= stock will be worth anything, or do the deals (rule that out). [jdow] I think I already know this answer; but, we need a laugh. [alex-CEI]* I have utilize my stocks to wallpaper our bathroom;) [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] Me too. [jdow] Keith Burns: Q: What RISC platform will be/has been chosen for the future Amiga [alex-CEI]* This decision has not been made. Once we are succesfull we will need input from developers, engineers and end users. [alex-CEI]* Of course our interest are a PA Risc, PowerPC and others. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] (If you win...) Is there really going to be hardware available for Christmas? [alex-CEI]* The likelyhood is that there won't be any hardware available for Christmas other than a few CD32s. [alex-CEI]* Our marketing people are looking at other options to make the holiday season a profitable [alex-CEI]* one for dealers. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] dequeen: Why is the buyout taking so long? [alex-CEI]* You must remember Commodore was a large company with many divisions located in many countries. This scenerio did not allow for a quick resolution as we had all hoped for. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] twalsh: Alex, any thoughts of selling/building a 24-bit A4000T? From the factory with a 24-bit graphics card already installed. [alex-CEI]* I believe we should wait for a little more OS support (RTG). [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] reinhards: Any chance to see an Amiga with a DSP? [alex-CEI]* We like the DSP option but need software support to really make it viable. Since the Amiga is a true multimedia machine sound and video inputs and outputs should come standard on future Amigas. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] jcompton: Q: What I was driving at with my 3.1/3.2 question was this: Will people be in another 2.04/2.1 situation, shelling out another $100-$150 in a few months? [alex-CEI]* The major concern is releasing an operating system which is consistant and accesible to all user. [alex-CEI]* It is not a financial issue. We need to stabilize the customer base before real progress can be made. [alex-CEI]* My suggestion is acquire 3.2 when we release it. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] lhinckley: Q: Will there be a flea market or a museum from the Westchester auction goodies? I saw the C65 and the PC palmtop... [alex-CEI]* Yes, we are in the process of cataloging the items from the west chester facility and will hold an online auction in the future... did you [alex-CEI]* say pizza size Amiga (we have one) how about a C65 yes we have them too..more to come. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] twalsh: C= UK is planning an Amiga developer's party next week. Could CEI perhaps throw something similar (win or lose) to keep developers/dealers together? [alex-CEI]* Once we are succesful then we can move forward immediately with a working developers conference (we'll supply the beer and chips)! [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] VaxBrat: Third party. What plans for enticing third parties to develop and port strategic software and hardware from other platforms? [alex-CEI]* You mean more than beer and chips:) [alex-CEI]* The key will be to support the developers (both large and small) by [alex-CEI]* bundling software with the machines. In addition the new company is willing to [alex-CEI]* pay developers to port over the software. This is something C= almost never did. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] dray: (any plans for) an A4000T with an '060 ?? [alex-CEI]* Yes! [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] Keith Burns: Q: We have been hearing 3 weeks since July, is 3 weeks realistic? [alex-CEI]* The dates which you have been hearing are generally rumors. This is the first time that I am sufficiently confortable to say the end is near. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] jcompton: Q: WHEN you release 3.2? Is it a definite, irrelevant of the result of the buyout? [alex-CEI]* Result of the buyout. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] This one seems to have been missed in a double above: [jdow] bobr1: Q: Many periphs, such as audio digitizers, waste the par port. Will new models include audio samplers or extra par ports with these in mind? [alex-CEI]* I think I already answered that.... The new machines should have both audio/video inputs and outputs built into the motherboard. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] dray: (any plans for) an A4000T with an '060 ?? [alex-CEI]* Yes. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] twalsh: GVP, once a cornerstone of the Amiga market, is a mere shadow of its former self. Have you been in contact with them, and, if so, your thoughts, please? [alex-CEI]* We are having constant conversations with GVP as most developers they are sitting in the side line waiting for something to happen. [alex-CEI]* Once this process get underway I expect that GVP will continue to support the Amiga and move forward with some of their exciting products. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] twalsh: Any thoughts on a television advertising campaign should you win the bid? [alex-CEI]* Realistically, major advertising campaigns are at least 9 months away. We need to contentrate on rebuilding the developer base, the dealer channel, new products and then to Hollywood. [alex-CEI]* Initial advertisement will be conducted in the niche trade presses (video magazines, tradional Amiga magazines, multimedia mags and even general computer mags (Byte)). [alex-CEI]* This will be followed by a very aggressive show schedule around the world. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] dberez: Alex: You still havn't told us what will be in 3.2? Can youi be more specific as to features and availabilty? [alex-CEI]* Let me follow up on the last question first. [jdow] bobr1: Q: Will you produce a laptop or lunchbox portable, or license the chipset to outside vendors interested in such a product? [alex-CEI]* 3.2 will feature minor improvements over 3.1 it will also stop the illegal distribution of 3.1 by unscroupulous developers. [alex-CEI]* Remeber there are certain entities which a properly selling 3.1 but we have seen a number of manual copied on Xerox machines with beta versions of 3.1. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] twalsh: Alex, have you been in contact with C= Canada, or do they factor into your plans? There's many Amiga users north of the border. [alex-CEI]* Yes, we have an extremely good relationship with the Canadian operations. The Canadian market holds a lot of promise for the Amiga. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] (A loaded one) bobr1: Q: No matter who wins, is there a possibility of CEI and C=UK joining forces and sharing resources to be truly international? [alex-CEI]* As I have said before, the door remains open to C=UK. I cannot say if the reverse is true. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] jgoodmon: Q: will the prices of machines (1200/4000) be the same as before? [alex-CEI]* One of our goals is to work on reducing the price for the A4000 machines. I do not believe a lot can be done on the 1200 pricing. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] twalsh: In your last on-line conf., you mentioned the assembly plant in the Phillipines being under the trustee's possession. Do you plan to re-open it? [jdow] jdow: Speaking of which - - - I heard a rumor of counterfeit AMigas appearing from that plant! [alex-CEI]* The rumours of counterfeit Amigas is that..a rumour. As far as reopening the Phil. factory [alex-CEI]* we have no plans. The quaility of the product and the distance between it and major [alex-CEI]* markets do not make economic sense. We are working with a major manufacturing partner [alex-CEI]* to build quaility Amigas in the good ol' USA and Europe. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] A financial pair: [jdow] geocresswell: How long can CEI operate w/o any income form the Amiga line? [jdow] elminster: How well financed are you? Do you have the money to support all these plans? [alex-CEI]* CEI was not only an Amiga distributor but also a number of third party peripherals and a manufacturer of several products ourselves. [alex-CEI]* The group of investor who are backing our venture for the acquisition of COmmodore have commited significant [alex-CEI]* resources to make our plans happen. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] Keith Burns: Q: Apple payed Microsoft to port Office to the MAC because no one wants one (machine for accounts and another for word processing.) [alex-CEI]* Your question? [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] I think he wants to know if you plan to "entice" MS or WP to port their products perhaps with financial enhancements. [alex-CEI]* There are a number of products which are important for the Amiga. Of course we are willing to pay to have them ported. [alex-CEI]* I am however not ready to have Office ported for the Amiga yet. I think Bill Gates has plenty of money already:) [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] Grin! [jdow] sodekirk: Is the Amiga the ONLY computer line CEI handles? [alex-CEI]* Yes [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] dberez: Assumming you buy out CBM, any chance of the new company going public? [alex-CEI]* Yes, our investors would like to see the company public after two years of operations. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] bobr1: Q: Can you identify this group of investors? What control will they have in the company? Will the company go public? [alex-CEI]* Unlike the former C= day to day decisions will be made by management team who understand the Amiga and the market not by money guys. [alex-CEI]* I am not at liberty to discuss the investors, only to say that they are technology driven and understand the potential of the Amiga core technology. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] jbasile: Q: Do you have plans to continue WOCA type shows in the USA? [alex-CEI]* YES! Shows will be affordable to the developers, vendors and end-users. All the Amiga shows are very important. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] ecarroll: Q: Any plans to add "Scan-doubler" technology to future AGA machines to overcome problems they currently have with VGA monitors? [alex-CEI]* At this time this is an open subject to discussion, no decisions have been made. C= did have some prototypes in house to solve this problem. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] jbasile: Q: In addition, new locations for WOCA should be chosen, i.e., Boston, MA, Montreal, etc. NYC is getting stale. [alex-CEI]* How bout Walla Walla Washington? hehehe [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] dray: Q: Have you been in contact with anyone about compilers and other development tools needed by developers if you do switch to a RISC CPU? [alex-CEI]* No, the decision for which RISC processor has not been made. Once it is they will be approached for the proper tools and support. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] Bill_L: "Does Apple's recent announcement that it will be licensing the Mac OS affect your marketing strategy? [alex-CEI]* No, not at all. AmigaOS stands heads above the Mac System. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] dray: Q: If you drop AAA, would you allow 3rd parties to license it? [alex-CEI]* If the design stage is sufficiently far along for AAA to be useful to developers of course. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] twalsh: If you win the bid, acquire C= lock, stock, and barrel, is there a one-, two-or five-year business plan you could briefly outline; i.e., distribution, European market development, product strategies? [alex-CEI]* I have written books on this question literally.. let try the Cliff Note version here. [alex-CEI]* The A4000 can be migrated upward to take advantage of the 68060 with a number of enhancements and then unto RISC. [alex-CEI]* The low end (A1200) still has a lot of life as a low end computer (68030,040, etc) [alex-CEI]* We will control a variety of niche market in which the Amiga excels: [alex-CEI]* Videography, 3#d rendering, multimedia and entertainment. [alex-CEI]* By getting the Amiga name recognize as the ultimate graphic machine the machine will blossom [alex-CEI]* into new vertical applications. We have reached tentative agreements with Europen distributors and [alex-CEI]* dealers to support the Amiga in those markets. [alex-CEI]* That's the Cliff Note version. [alex-CEI]* > [jdow] Do you need a brief recess? {^_-} [jdow] (I have LOTS more queued up.) [alex-CEI]* No, let's continue for the next 15 minutes. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] jcompton: What sort of lines of communication between "ATI" and the end user do you see? [alex-CEI]* Friendly, :), technical support and cooperation. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] bobr1: Q: Do you plan to make a laptop or lunchbox portable, or if not license the chipset to interested outside developers? [alex-CEI]* It does not make sense to develop a laptop with the current AA technology. My understanding is [alex-CEI]* that the next generation will be better suited for this application. If someone is interested [alex-CEI]* in making a "luggable" we will be more than happy to entertain offers. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] twalsh: If a co. wanted to buy/inspect the Phillipine plant, do they contact the trustee, the Phillipine gov't., or ??? [alex-CEI]* Call the trustee, serious inquiries are being accomodated. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] (I'd call the insurance agent first.) [jdow] dray: Do you plan on having both/either internet and phone support for both developers and user?? (Hopefully continueing here on BIX, jdow {^_-}) [alex-CEI]* yes, communication is important to the new management team. Plans include having a constant online presence. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] jcompton: Q: Will that sort of manufacturing/distribution of peripherals continue? Will there once again be a truly "full" package from one company at once? [alex-CEI]* All aspects of manufacturing and distribution will be controlled by the new company. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] twalsh: Any discussions with MicroSoft, Claris, Adobe, etc. we should know about? [alex-CEI]* We are not able to discuss ongoing conversations in this forum. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] elminster: Speaking of inducements to s/w companies - what are you going to do to keep SAS making compilers for Amiga? [alex-CEI]* Whatever it takes. SAS is an important developer. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] bobr1: Q: Will the CD32 be continued and enhanced for the long haul, or do you see it as the end of the line as far as game consoles & the amiga are concerned? [jdow] In line with that I know several kiosk manufacturers who are VERY eager to get CD32s. [alex-CEI]* I love the potential of the CD32 and expect to continue and enhance the product. But it is not very realistic to [alex-CEI]* fight a battle with the Titans (Sony, Nintendo, Sega) at this time. We think there is a great market for the CD32 as a low cost multimedia delivery platform. [alex-CEI]* The CD32 will continue to do well in Europe as a game console and once a deal is finalize new software should be coming online. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] jbasile: Q: Do you plan to continue support of PCMCIA, and the just release PCMCIA III, aka, "PC Card 94" on new machibes? [alex-CEI]* Have not discuss this issue with engineering. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] Keith Burns: Will you constant online presence maintain the developer conference on BIX? (I invite him to examine it. I can ask Carloyn to "let him in." jdow) [alex-CEI]* Yes. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] Two together again: [jdow] twalsh: C= often spoke of "infomercials" for CD32 that never happened. Planning some? [jdow] twalsh: Also, QVC is rumored to have bought/leased the W. Chester bldg. Some of the former C= management approached them to market CD32. Has CEI? [alex-CEI]* It appears that the "infomercials" have not been succesful for Phillips. [alex-CEI]* I am familiar with the discussions of C= and QVC, there is always a possiblity to further those discussion but not agreement or decision has been reached. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] IanG: Alex, as information is available could you please find away to get it to the nets? Reliable. [alex-CEI]* Yes, more than happy to. We'll let Jason know and he'll tell the world.:} [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] jcompton: Can you realistically see the Amiga being sold in the same markets as a Mac or PC in the future? ("Home Office", that sort of marketing lingo...) [alex-CEI]* No initially, we are directing the marketing funds towards the market were we have a significant chance of winning. If we are succesfull there then we'll take the challange. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] (Appears to be comment instead of question....) lhinckley: The AmiExpo team is still around and interested! [alex-CEI]* Good news. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] Bill_L: Mac OS again - providing Mac compatibility in a bundle could sway purchasers to the Amiga. Do you see this as a good possibility? [alex-CEI]* Yes, we saw this opportunity early on, that's why we bundled Emplant with the A4000. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] hughcrawford: Are there any plans to do a Amiga on a board to fit in a slot of a computer such as a PC clone or the pci slot of the upcoming Power PCs, sort of a reverse BridgeBoard? [alex-CEI]* There are a lot of discussions on that topic but nothing solid yet. I like the idea of introducing the world to the Amiga OS. This would also solve a lot of problems for the Amiga developer breaking into the PC market. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] elminster: When will the new version of RKM (revised to cover 3.1 or higher) be released? Is there already something in the works? [alex-CEI]* As we speak I am almost finished with the new RKM:) [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] ecarroll: Both Apple and IBM have announced TCP/IP support in future OS releases. Will CEI follow suit? [alex-CEI]* This time we will follow, next time we will lead. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] VaxBrat: Any Plans for A FEDERAL sales group. Support of Amix or Posix type O/S? [alex-CEI]* The Federal government has purchased substantial amount of Amiga products in the past. We expect to rebuild that part of the market slowly. Don't expect a new division of new OS soon. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] Demetri: Since time is the biggest factor, what will you do to try to keep the remaining Amiga users stick with the new C=? [alex-CEI]* The one thing C= did right was excellent deals on Power Ups. If we can bring new exciting machines to market with reasonable pricing and upgrade paths there is no reason to lose the loyal users. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] jcompton: Presuming you win in 3 weeks or so, what will you be doing for the Winter CES? [jdow] geocresswell: any plans to hit NAB next year? [alex-CEI]* If we can complete the acquisition in time my marketing guys have come up with a wild event for CES. Yes, trade shows including NAB are important to our goals. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] whavens: Q: How soon will there be developer support once you know you've got it? [alex-CEI]* Immediately. We need to get the developers onboard and move the Amiga forward. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] elminster: What are the remaining C= engineers doing now? Are you working with them RIGHT NOW? [alex-CEI]* There remains 18 engineers working for the trustee. A good number of engineers have expressed the willingness to return upon acquisition. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] bobr1: Q: Will you release a dartboard with Irving Gould's picture on it, or other similar promo items? :-) [alex-CEI]* Call us later and we'll tell you our plans. My staff won't let me discuss these plans online.:) [jdow] One last serious one then.... [jdow] dequeen: What should we expect in terms of worldwide marketing? Will there be efforts made to let more people in on the secret of the Amiga? whavens: Q: What will the relationship be between CEI and CBM UK if you win? If not? [alex-CEI]* A two part: [jdow] Um - oh well - two crept into the buffer [alex-CEI]* The best sales tool for the Amiga computer is to have people experience the Amiga and its operating system. [alex-CEI]* If we can get consumer awareness success will come naturally, to that extent we will work to educate the consumer through the right marketing channels. [alex-CEI]* As far as the Commodore UK group, I will repeat myself a thousand time, I have left the door open to work jointly if we are succesfull. The Amiga needs friends and supporters not waring factions. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] Re floor polishers from the C= auction....: [jdow] jcompton: I'm not asking you to set a date yet, but will there be a CEI victory party? And will the owner of the floor scrubber be invited? [jdow] jcompton: (Please ask this before Alex leaves:) Alex, can you please detail your plans for keeping the ATI office floors properly scrubbed? [alex-CEI]* We might not have time for a party there is a lot of work for developers, dealers, supporters and ourselves. As far as floor scrubbing I understand you excel Jason. [alex-CEI]* ? [jdow] That's about it, Folks. Alex tells me he is tired. (And now a brief word from our sponsers...) [jdow] jdow: Remember folks, this event is Copyright by Delphi Internet Services. There will be an official "capture buffer" posted in the near future to Delphi and CIX. Shortly thereafter it will be released to the networks. Please do not post your own as it will confuse issues. [jdow] And... [jdow] jdow: On behalf of BIX and its Amiga Exchange and all our members I want to thank you EVER so much for taking the time to be here tonight, Alex. [Valorie]* And thanks to Joanne, Rich, and Nancy for taking time from their busy schedules to support this event. [jdow] I hope we did not exhaust you too much. And it looks like it would be a "good thing" if you win. Good luck! [alex-CEI]* Thank you for your time, interest and support. I hope to let all of you in a secret real soon. Goodnight!!!!!!!!!!!! [jdow] Capture off < And a couple snippets from the ensuing discussion ED > < effusive thanks from all concerned > [jcompton]* Especially for fielding yet another floor scrubber question. [jcompton]* YAFSQ. That's going to be an anagram in the Amiga lingo if it's the last thing I do. [bobr1] Just what is the deal on the floor scrubber? What is the joke? [jcompton] bobr1: At the Commodore US auction, along with piles of technology and computers and electronics equipment, was a floor scrubber, with a full-color picture and paragraph-long description. @endnode @node P1-7 "PD/ShaReviews. LOTS of them." @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% PD/ShaReviews: GAMES! By: Robert Van Buren %% %% Quite a lot. Robert_Van_Buren@sacbbx.com %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% [Robert has quite a few of these...this is just a small sample, believe it or not. -Ed] Title: ALIEN BLAST Author: Wayne Morledge Genre: Arcade Language: AMOS Rating: * In the scroller, the author notes that he'll not apologize for the simplicity of the game/graphics (one or both...I forgot), that the game is a first attempt and just an excuse to kick some alien butt. Well, I can't fault him there...good call. But I hope he won't fault me for calling 'em as I see 'em. Poor title page, jerky scroller, garish backgrounds and mediocre gameplay. It's really not so awful that it is unplayable, it's just not worth one's time with so much really BITCHIN' stuff out there! In the game's defense, it IS uncompiled (hence the jerkiness?) and it is still better than most of what you'll find in the PD scene on other computers (or equivalent to...) * * * * * * * Title: ALL ROUNDER - A CRICKET SIMULATION Author: Gary L. Brown date: 1992 Genre: Sports Version: 1.03 Language: AMOS Origin: UK Availability: 17 Bit Disk 2225 Rating: *** Author Brown has ported his own Cricket game from its original versions on the VIC-20 and BBC computers, this time out offering a more realistic simulation of the game (in other words, the computer team is not perfect). This version saves averages, scores and league data. Upon loading the game, you'll note the slick title page and info screen...nice touch. Shame that after that, the text overwrites the graphic screen boxes (an AMOS bug, I believe). This mess is seen on the Main Menu and subsequent screens. From that menu, you may choose to view or reset the leagues and averages, or you can play a single match or continue league. After moving into the game choice, you'll need to select the competing teams, match length, and control (human, CPU, summary). A coin flip determines who has the option choice over batting or fielding. From this point on, it is the simulation itself, which features reasonable graphics, but just barely tolerable sound. Many of the menu boxes are designed in such a way that they look like a PC program, so that's not good. Otherwise, this is probably the best PD/shareware cricket sim you'll find. * * * * * * * Title: AUTOMOBILES Author: Tero Heikkinen/Overflow Productions Date: 1994 Genre: Racing Language: AMOS Rating: ** Apparently inspired by the PC game SLICKS & SLIDE, this is an overhead racing game for 1-3 players (3-player mode only available for 14Mhz+ systems). Blitz Basic has its commercial baby SKIDMARKS and now AMOS has this, although this is not necessarily a good promo for AMOS. The title page looks nice enough, but wait states on the Options screens are too sensitive on accelerated systems. The game comes with 9 tracks and promises more to follow...quite personally I'd rather see better control of the cars, as they handle much the same as all other overhead racing games (except SKIDMARKS). The potential seems to be here for a good game, but it needs a bit more polishing off first. * * * * * * * Title: BIONIX II - THE CHALLENGE Author: Mirage Genre: Shoot-em-up Origin: Holland Rating: **** For PD, this is pretty spiffy. The intro delivers some nicely digitized speech before loading the vertically scrolling space shooting action, which is somewhat on the average side. There are 55 enemies to shoot at and 14 different enemy types. They come charging at you, and you simply blast them to smithereens. According to the programmer, he uses Quatro-Buffering (4 buffers) to move the enemies in 32-color real-time. A decent diversion. * * * * * * * Title: BLEED - A JOURNEY THROUGH VIOLENCE Author: Zaz/Dual Crew Genre: Adventure Origin: Sweden Rating: *** Apparently this is a port of a C-64 adventure game by THE GNN (?) and is ported to the Amiga by Dual Crew, a team of graphics coders, trainer makers and (I assume) crackers. The text parser is loaded with obscenities, as one would expect from this crowd. Likewise, there are many sick references and violence that could only appease young teenage cyberpunks. You play Brad Nixon, a 27 year old NYC traffic cop, circa 1985. If you try to play a serious game, you'll find yourself investigating a schoolhouse slaughter, but you'll not be playing a serious game, so... The interface is nice for a text adventure, but somewhere, you should be informed that you have to use the spacebar to play. * * * * * * * Title: BLEED II Author: Zaz/Dual Crew Genre: Adventure Origin: Sweden Rating: *** Well well well - back for more sickness, eh? Damn kids! Essentially, more of the same. A music soundtrack has been added, but a toggle would have helped since you grow quite sick of the toon through your exploration. The text element continues with more nihilistic, racist, homophobic humor (?) that also shows a total disregard for children, the elderly and animals (I'll bet Liberals LOVE this game!). Resetting is tougher since the ninnies locked the keyboard from reboots (sigh). * * * * * * * Title: BOUNCE 'N' BLAST (aka BOUNCE AND BLAST) Author: Falcon/Digital Realms Date: 1991 Genre: Platform Origin: UK Availability: Assassins Disk 30 / 17 Bit Disk 2171 Shareware: $10, $5 Rating: ***** Simply splendid piece of shareware. This commercial quality platform arcade game gets your attention from the start with their shareware plea (a more reasonable deal you'll not find!) and offers not only the right to play this game, but a poster for their upcoming release (THE COMPLETE DUNGEONEER, a 3D RPG) and a discount on that game as well. Those gifts aside, this game is a great value on its own. Like in most games of the genre, you play a cute young boy who walks, hops and bounces across colorful Nintendo-ish platforms and walls, killing bugs and other psychotic enemies. Power-ups will give you more powerful weapons. Avoid pits of lava (at least it LOOKS like lava to me) and getting hit too many times by the baddies. This game is a gas! * * * * * * * Title: BRAZIL - THE QUEST FOR POWER Author: Allen Wittenauer/Crispy Software Date: 1994 Genre: Online Version: 1.3 Origin: USA Rating: *** Yet another online game based on a slew of others. It all started with ARENA, which spawned its more popular clone FOOD FIGHT. Loads of clones of the latter appeared before BRAZIL, but the game sat in limbo in its MS-DOS counterpart for one reason or another. It has transmogrified from its MS-DOS Pascal beginnings up to this Amiga SAS/C version for DLG Professional BBS. From that point, it's the basic fighting stuff that you find in its predecessors (and clones). * * * * * * * Title: DIRTY MOVES Author: Questor Date: 1990 Genre: Adult Rating: ** A joystick waggler...one of those games where you have to waggle the joystick back and forth as fast as you can. An animation on screen has you jacking on a...well, you get the idea. (Yet Another Masturbation Simulation?!?). The original release of this game takes a crap on our more modern systems, so the hackers of the Amiga community have graced us (okay...) with a version fixed for OS2.x+ and 680x0 machines. Now you can waste your time with this garbage on your A4000! Joy. * * * * * * * Title: DRIP Author: Art Skiles Date: 1989 Genre: Arcade Origin: USA Rating: ***** Wow! I still remember my disbelief when this first came out...never before had I seen such a polished public domain offering. In reality, this could have easily been a big performing commercial effort, since it eclipsed so much banal product out at the time (actually, a lot of what is still being released!). Drip is the main chracter, a drip of water who has the task of getting to the 16th floor (15 levels) by moving across the pipes, rusting them all, which allows you to advance to the next floor. No mean feat, since you have enemy forces to avoid, like acid, plasma, ice cubes which shoot from the pipes, clouds which clean the pipes, lasers, electric bubbles and coils, and crystal balls - all with their own particular characteristics. It's offset by two help thingies: bubbles, which will allow you to ride in them, making your job more swift, and balloons which will carry you across pipes that you normally must follow on track. The sound and graphics are near perfect, with cuteness plastered all over them. But don't be fooled - the strategy element is fierce, so don't expect to make it to floor 16 any time soon! Get this game! * * * * * * * Title: E-TYPE II Author: Matt Hall Date: 1992 Genre: Shoot-em-up Language: AMOS Origin: UK Shareware: £5 Rating: **** This sequel is chock full of beautiful graphics, you can't take that away from it. And the programming is also quite sharp, so if you like the game, send Matt the requested fiver, okay? E-TYPE II is, like it's parent, an update on the ASTEROIDS theme, only with spiffy visuals. There are some problems, though. As you shoot at the rocks repeatedly, they just take the shots in a static way until they've been blasted enough and then they finally explode...hard to swallow that concept. And it's still just ASTEROIDS with fancy duds on, but that's not a completely bad thing to be. If classic arcade shooters appeal to ya, you can't go much wrong here. * * * * * * * Title: FANTASY Author: Michele Berionne Date: 1994 Genre: Shoot-em-up Language: AMOS Origin: Italy Availability: AMOS PD Disk 619 Shareware: 10 lira Rating: *** Maybe *** is a bit hopeful, but it's a simple enough waste of time. If you have seen the Blitz game ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, then you know the idea (if not, how about OPERATION WOLF?). This was whipped up in 9 hours and is fairly generic, with minimal graphics...not the real problem. The sound is unusually chiding, sort of like Atari VCS sound on steroids. 4 levels of mayhem that doesn't quite equal ZOMBIES. * * * * * * * Title: FORMULA ONE CHALLENGE Author: Steven Rennocks/AmiVision Date: 1992 Genre: Racing Version: 4.1 Language: AMOS Origin: UK Availability: 17 Bit Disk 2025 (v3.0) NOTE: Full version from Deja Vu Licenseware Rating: **** Let me begin by noting that this game (v3.0) is neither PD nor shareware, although you CAN try this version out in a non-saving demo. Author Rennocks has apparently spent a great deal of time and put a lot of work into this product, which features music (two toons) & sfx, as well as graphics. It is more of a management simulation than an arcade racer, which is why you'll want to register the game for saving your season(s). The included season is 1992, which autoloads. As the game loads, you choose how many players (1-4), skill level (easy, average, tricky, or impossible?), and choose a team (from 15 cars). After that, it's time to spend your money (£1,000,000) on your engine (14 choices), tires (or tyres, as the Brits call it), and driver (50 choices). With all of that out of the way, the Main Menu lets you choose info on Championship, drivers (including tables for career points, wins, pole positions, and pitstop times), records if any, weather conditions & forecast, cars & drivers of players, race details (with track details, season, country, circuit & lap info), load/save, credit screen, and finally, The Race, which displays the racers and weather before loading the game screen. The race is 72 laps and is played on a split screen; the bottom half is the track with its cars flashing by, while the top half displays racing statistics as they happen. The positions are listed and updated each lap with incidentals posted as they occur (car failures, wrecks, pitstop times, fastest laps, spins, rejoins). The sound of cars racing past is aggravating with its sloppy thump at the start of the sample. At the end of the race, several conclusion screens display winners and placers, however quite often the text is too large for the screen which simply runs off the screen - this seems to be fixed in the 4.x version(s). Apart from these minor shortcomings, the game is thorough and loaded with managerial fun. * * * * * * * Title: GOLF RECORDER Author: Peter Wilson date: 1991 Genre: Sports Version: 1.6 Origin: Scotland Rating: **** One of those Euro-stats-sports type disks that they seem to enjoy making so much for every sport, but I must say that I was impressed with the slick interface and smooth look and feel of it all. It looks like it was created with some sort of multimedia authoring system, but the Lattice C code holds its own against the pack. The program itself keeps accurate records of your courses and your current handicap, while also offering system info, author info and some cleanly digitized greyscale images as well. Recommended! * * * * * * * Title: HIGHWAY PATROL Author: Jeff Parker/A.G.M. (Amiga Graphix Maniax) Date: 1990 Genre: Shoot-em-up Language: SEUCK Origin: USA Rating: * Even the stunning 10 lives given to you by this game cannot save its poor gameplay and horrid graphics. Apparently, you are a 'futuristic cop' on the highway armed with 'atomic shotfire', ridding the roads of violent criminals (so how do you explain the mysterious things on the sides of the road that randomly fire in all directions?). Awful vehicle, horrendous use of maps/tiles (this is a tutorial in how NOT to use game maps!) and average sound. Couple this with the below par title page and you have a useless waste of disk space. The fact that it's the author's first attempt doesn't excuse its worthlessness. * * * * * * * Title: INSECTOIDS 2 Author: Mark Sibly Date: 1993 Genre: Arcade/shoot-em-up Availability: Assassins Disk 114 Language: Blitz Basic 2 Rating: **** Quite nicely done, nostalgic arcade shoot-em-up in the mold of GALAXIANS, GALAGA, etc. This PAL treat needs no instructions - just load it up and start shooting. Like its arcade ancestors, there are attack waves that come every fourth attack wave. When you shoot the passing-by overhead saucer, it drops tokens which give such bonuses as faster movement, faster shooting, extra shots, double firepower and extra lives. Certainly worth a look! * * * * * * * Title: JELLY QUEST - JELLY QUEST PART II Author: David McGuire Date: 1993 Genre: Arcade Langauge: AMOS Origin: Ireland Shareware: £3.50 Rating: ** The distributable version of this game is a bit stripped down, while the registered version contains 40 new levels (rather than 9) and a whole bunch of other k00l stuff spread out across two disks! But the version I looked at failed to make an impression on me. The routines were slow and annoying: the title screen gives you options to play game, enter password, view high scores or get in-game help. Upon choosing any of them gives you a redundant animation that is slow and jerky. Even loading the game itself is slow and cumbersome (I loaded it from RAM!!! and even still had to hear my hard drive grinding away...and the game was NOT packed!) - and still the display was messy with text, even though the font assigns were correct. Game-wise, in a Q*BERT-style, your character (Jelly) hops across various blocks, each with different values and actions. His object is to rescue the jelly beans that were kidnapped from General Jelly and taken to Castle Jelly (are we back to the redundancy check again?). There's more to the story (MUCH more...), but space is at a premium and I really didn't like the game due to lowsy control and ill thought-out bothers. * * * * * * * Title: KLAKTRIS Author: Tony Hosier Date: 1992 Genre: Arcade/puzzle Origin: UK Availability: 17 Bit Disk 2174 Rating: **** The Tetris clone rears its ugly head again...well, not exactly. To begin with, this is not ugly - in fact, the graphics are quite pretty! As you may have gathered from the name of the game, it is a cross pollination of two hit games, KLAX and TETRIS. There are three levels of difficulty (Easy, Medium, and Hard - duh!) and each feature their own unique background and drop piece design. Each high score table is separately created for that level of gameplay. As in its parent games, the 3 interlocked blocks drop to the bottom of the well and you can shift the color in a loop. The idea is to create matches of three colors or more in order to wipe out that pattern. The assembly language coding makes for smooth play, if a tad sensitive. Command line alterations will let you use your own choice of music for the game (NoiseTracker mods). I only had one problem with the game and that is the poorly written documentation (being the English purist that I am) - somebody should tell this guy to put spaces after commas and periods, among other awful grammatical errors. I know this is nit-picking, but I didn't bother reading it due to this annoying writing style. The game, however, is quite enjoyable and very durable. * * * * * * * Title: LAME ST-PORTS (aka ST BASH) Author: J. Kertel/Cheeseware Date: 1990 Genre: Shoot-em-up Version: 3.0 Origin: Germany Availability: 17 Bit Disk 607 Rating: **** "...blast as many ST's and aliens as possible...blast your way from the 520 level up to the Mega level and beyond...", so claims the title page to this anti-Atari arcade excursion. And quite a good shooting frenzy it is! As the game loads its nice little pics and anims, we here the strains of Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" before the robot from Lost in Space blasts the Atari logo , then a selection screen gives us a host of choices, such as 1-2 player game (always a plus) and level of difficulty (normal, easy, medium, missile, block, fire). The action is as fast and furious and challeneging as any SPACE INVADERS clone I have played (and yes, it IS a SPACE INVADERS clone) and is a competent shooter even without the esoteric undertones. * * * * * * * Title: MAD RACE Author: Tobias Richter/AgaTron Date: 1988 Genre: Racing Origin: Germany Availability: 17 Bit Disk 307 Rating: * Horrible racing game from 3D freak Richter. This does more than show its age, it shows how really bad a racing game can be - something by which any contenders for the turkey award should be judged. Anyone with a reputation like Richter should never have unleashed such an unplayable hunk of dreck on the general public, since it is now here to haunt him forever. But you can only discover this level of poorness after degrading the system to 512k, lest ye be prepared to crash. Just don't bother, unless you are a glutton for abuse. * * * * * * * Title: MANGLED FENDERS (DEMO) Author: Pete W. Storonskij/Incinerplex Games date: 1994 Genre: Racing Origin: USA Language: Blitz2 Shareware: $10, £10, FIM 50, DM 15 Rating: **** Hey, I can't really find too much problem with this nifty little Demolition Derby arcade game. The car/vehicle sprites may take a couple of seconds to figure out which end is which, but once you get going, it's a real blast! You are given $50,000 (or £50,000 - depending on whether you are in NTSC or PAL...a nice touch!) which you may spend on various doo-dads for your vehicle. Without going into too much detail, here's a wrap-up of the features: NTSC/PAL support, Quitting (ESC or tilde), cheat mode, 6 vehicles (which can be played simultaneously) to pick from, 6 backgrounds (which I assume could be replaced with your own designs?!?), 7 power-ups, 6 damage upgrades, and many other nice features that you should discover yourself. The author insists on the demo being called a demo (between that and his shareware plea, the brevity of his doc is pushed to the max). Hell, register this game...it is better than many commercial outings. * * * * * * * Title: A NIGHT AT THE TOP Author: Trygue Jensen Date: 1992 Genre: Text adventure Origin: Norway Availability: 17 Bit Disk 1810 Rating: ** Yes, another text adventure. Take the disk, CD to the ANATT directory (or open the drawer icon) and read the extremely long-winded text file ANATT.hlptext for a lot of mumbo jumbo about the state of gaming, text adventures, global politics, programming, etc. I don't know why, but it's there. Anyhow, onto the game...despite the long talk, the parser is still somewhat limited, the use of English is stunningly abysmal (run-on sentences, misspellings, grammatical errors, and general incomprehensibility) and a general lack of interest all combine to make an unsatisfying adventure experience. I also found it far too easy to lose the game in under a minute, which certainly disdained my interest. * * * * * * * Title: NIGHTWORKS Author: Ber And Yep Date: 1988 Genre: Gambling Origin: UK Availability: 17 Bit Disk 1407 Rating: ** Yet another arcade fruit machine. The graphics are flashy, the sound is The Bangles' "Walk Like An Egyptian" in a loop, and the gameplay - well, it's a fruit machine, yes? And there is an in-game help screen. How many ways can you describe it? If you likes them, then plays this. If not, then avoid. * * * * * * * Title: OLEMPIAD '92 Author: Richard Evans Date: 1992 Genre: Sports Origin: UK Availability: 17 Bit Disk 2209 Number of Disks: 2 Rating: ** A possible good idea that is flawed due to flaky graphics and piss-poor gameplay. The game is a cross between LEMMINGS (only by association) and TRACK & FIELD. Let me start you off with the terrible excuse for a storyline: in the future (I assume), the population of Lemmings is slapped in the face with a recession (silly, innit?), so to prevent the spread of crime and poorness the government decides awarding cash prizes in a Lemmings Olympics will solve the problems (Clintonomics?). All that nonsense for a simple waggling TRACK & FIELD game? It's worse - the graphics are so simple that they are revolting, it's a waggler but you waggle with the mouse (joystick waggling was bad enough, but this?), and lastmost, you haven't a clue how well you are doing until after the event! You compete in the 200 Metre Race, Horse and Cart Race, Javelin Throw, Long Jump, Rowing Race, Skateboarding, and Swimming competitions, but no amount of choices can make the gameplay work. * * * * * * * Title: PETER'S QUEST: FOR THE LOVE OF DAPHNE Author: David W. Meny Date: 1989-91 Genre: Platform Version: 1.2 Origin: USA Availability: 17 Bit Disk 1409 (v1.0) Rating: ** Coded by a 17-year old junior, this game borrows a lot of inspiration from SUPER MARIO BROTHERS (plotwise only, since none of the NES banner game's playability made it to the translation). The story: the evil Brutus has taken away Peter's girlfriend Daphne, so in order to rescue her, Peter must follow the trail of (and collect up) hearts which are littered along various platforms. The 20 levels of the game are obliterated by deadly porcupines and other such menaces, while a dosage of bonus may also be obtained (coins, mushrooms, etc.) to help you in your quest. Each level must be completed within a time limit. Sounds okay? Now the bad news: this is yet another attempt by an American programmer to create an arcade environment in the C language. Created on a 512k A1000, the game suffers from graphic glitches (probably only goes away when using the exact system the game was written on!) and slow, aggrivated sprite movement. The sound samples of Daphne are so irksome that it may induce madness before you even complete one level. Even updated versions from 1991 contain the same wretched weaknesses. I wouldn't bother if I were you. * * * * * * * Title: PLANET FALL Author: George Lancaster/Black Sun Games Date: 1994 Genre: Arcade Language: AMOS Origin: USA Shareware: $10. Rating: *** Perhaps not the best of the genre, but nonetheless playable. A couple of the old 8-bit classics will pop to mind, namely THRUST. You are assigned various missions in which you man your spaceship and maneuvre it to docking stations using directional and thrusting skills. Along the way, the missions become more strategic with foreign enemies awaiting you with firepower, so docking becomes the least of your worries! It's all a bit slow moving and some of the between level routines become annoying but it's not a total loss. * * * * * * * Title: PUSSY QUEST 1 - A QUIET WEEKEND IN THE BUSH Author: The Heavyweight/Sick Minds Software Date: 1992 Genre: Adventure/adult Language: AMOS Origin: Australia Rating: ** An adult adventure game coded in 1½ days for a demo party. Load, save or delete characters (your girl) with characteristics. A prompt will ask you questions such as your name, girl's name, and slang words for certain body parts and sex acts, among others. The spelling and prose is rather crude, and the expected horny boy storyline is rather predictable (in an adolescent sort of way) with the expected boolean choices and results. A juvenile fantasy that may appeal to young boys (or those with similar mentality), but the rest of us will want to pass, as it is neither erotic nor humorous. Allegedly the first in a series - it is easy to see why no others followed. * * * * * * * Title: ROLL OR DIE Author: Animators Date: 1992 Genre: Arcade/sports Number of Disks: 2 Grade: *** Hmmm...dunno quite where to begin on this one, as there really is no equal that I have ever seen. And I thought the BLEED games were crude! What is it I am babbling on about, you ask? A very sick idea that is executed in a very slick way (sorta). Animators is a Euro Demo coder group who created this here game that pokes fun at those who are bound in wheelchairs. Although they do apologize and stress that they have nothing against the handicapped, they still put a lot of work into quite a sick joke. TRACK AND FIELD was never like THIS! There are four events: 1) MOUNTAIN ROLLING, one of those waggling games I hate so much, in which you waggle the joystick left to right at your fastest speed (until your arm collapses) in an attempt to build up enough speed to get your cripple up the mountain to the finish line; 2) ROAD ROLLER is a fairly well done racing game with our wheelchair bound victim replacing the vehicle and dodging the many obstacles along the way; 3) LONG JUMP is sorta like the javelin throwing events or a real long jump, only you waggle to a fast enough speed to send your paraplegic through the air and onto his head; and finally, 4) HOSPITAL RACE is a bit of a maze wherein you move your character through the hospital maze without hitting dead ends or patients. Most events are close to impossible to win...probably not the point anyway. At the end of the events, you are instructed to insert the second disk or the on-screen victim will be killed. Obscenities are dispersed liberally throughout the game. Sounds pretty worthless, yes? Well, I cannot deny that this crew really have some good programming skills, as the game is better quality than many commercial games. The sportscasters resemble quite closely those found in the TV SPORTS series of games! The music soundtrack (by Jeff) is also quite nice, consisting of mostly BP Soundmon and JamCracker toons. The ending displays a high score table and an option to save your scores, then proceeds with the usual demo greetz and messages. If the descriptions found in this review are offensive to you, then by all means avoid. But if you are more daring (or liberated?), then you may want to indulge in the carnage and give it a go. * * * * * * * Title: SCHOOLYARD SLAUGHTER (aka SLAUGHTER 2) Author: Rupert Genre: Shoot-em-up Language: AMOS Rating: *** The classic (?!) Atari PD game really DOES exist on the Amiga! Well, I'd heard the rumors... Tasteless game in which you have no other purpose than to gun down helpless school children. Only shots to the head count. Charming... * * * * * * * Title: THE SHEPHERD Author: Obbe Vermeij/Materia Magica Date: 1993 Genre: Strategy/sim Version: 1.1 Origin: Holland Availability: 17 Bit Disk 3111 Rating: ***** A 'temporary' version of the game which features 3 levels and 7 animals, with the final version claiming to support 100 levels and 40 animals. With that out of the way... So how does this all figure in? Well, it's sort of a God sim. Your objective is to buy animals which you place on a map for breeding. You are in a race against the computer god, with your animals represented as red and the computer as blue. Strategically, you must take into account food supply, which can be countered by purchasing trees for forest growth. Then there's weather and other forces of nature to contend with. A lot of care and detail here, right down to the fully custom icons on the disk. But the real care is in the game itself. The interface should be familiar to fans of POPULOUS and its sequels and lookalikes. The graphics are very presentable, as is the sound. Quite an impressive affair, considering one man did it all here - certainly this exceeds the traditional PD fluff of clones of SPACE INVADERS, MINES, SOLITAIRE and TETRIS! Highly recommended! * * * * * * * Title: STAR FIGHTER Author: Maciej Sawicki/Equinoxe Date: 1993 Genre: Who knows... Language: AMOS 3D Origin: Australia Number of Disks: 2 Shareware: $15 (US), $20 (Australia) Rating: * Playable demo version (with no save) that is distributed in floppy version (single drive only - lame) or hard drive version. Unfortunately, I chanced upon the floppy version (lha'd no less!!!) that looked like the hard drive version (with the Disk1 & Disk2 files in the root dirs - what an annoying waste of time this caused). That cost this game a point... irritation is always a setback when I have to make disks myself (note to author: DMS!!!), to say nothing of the sparse documentation. After all of the unsuccessful attempts at running the game from RAM: or hard drive, I finally made the appropriate disks (yes, assigns failed too!). And oh yes - that second disk drive is far too advanced a concept for the game to understand. After getting past the decent looking, yet flickery menu page and my mission was chosen, the game continued its annoying disk swap nonsense before kicking me back to the system (which it takes over, by the way). What went wrong? Is Kick/OS 2.x too advanced? Is it incompatible with my 68030? Who the hell knows - after almost 45 minutes of hacking with this nonsense, I'd rather spend my time on yet another Minefiled or Tetris clone (at least they work!) - I never even determined what type of game this is!!! UPDATE: I went ahaed and gave it another try (it's my job!) and booted from the disks and the game actually ran. That out of the way, I flew my ship (?) through some starfield-like space and did absolutely nothing. No encounters with other ships or aliens, although I was able to shoot. Although a patient guy, I bailed after five minutes of this tripe. Also worth noting is the disk swapping is immediate when entering the game and there is no sound to speak of. My * grade stands. * * * * * * * Title: THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE Author: Bryan Turnock/BSY Date: 1992 Genre: Arcade Language: AMOS Availability: Assassins Disk 121 Origin: UK Shareware: £3.50 (free copy of COR! game from BSY) Grade: *** Not bad arcade game where you play Leatherface, hero (?) of the highly success film series and true-life exploits with the title tool. Travel across the screen yard and home with your chainsaw, slashing up any victim that comes your way! Great fun! You have a limited fuel supply which must be monitored and tended to, so after every five murders, a new gas can appears which you must pick up in order to continue the carnage - all before the time counter reaches zero. After picking up the gas, the counter is reset and you can massacre more folks. Not entirely unplayable little game - a bit shallow, but certainly worth a look. One quibble is that is MUST be run from its floppy since the game looks for its graphic screens on the disk you booted from (even "assign sys: DF0:" did no good!). That is a major flaw and really screws up American users who are running OS/KS 2.04+. * * * * * * * Title: THRUST DUEL Author: Paul Hamilton/Spanner in the Works Date: 1993 Genre: Arcade/shoot-em-up Version: 1.2 Language: AMOS Professional Origin: UK Shareware: £1 Rating: ** A 2-player space dogfight game best sums up this one. You'll recognize references to THRUST and ASTEROIDS in the game. Your object: score 25 points by shooting spaceships or waiting for the other player to die. Fair enough. If you know the game of THRUST, you'll be aware that you can shoot, and you can land - just don't crash land. Thrust carefully to drop land safely. Die by not crashing down, getting hit by spaceship or getting hit by the other player. Oh, and look for ricochet bullets. Unfortunately, this is just another arcade game with no real distinguishing marks whatsoever. The music score is Ultra Vivid Scene's "Mercy Seat". * * * * * * * Title: UTG Author: Chris Hurley Date: 1993 Genre: Adventure Version: 0.95 Origin: USA Rating: *** If I was into ULTIMA-style adventures, I'd probably have given this a higher rating, hence the ***. Otherwise, I played it longer than any game in this genre yet. The story takes place in the kingdom of Agima (!) and you, a mere serf, are on a quest to find the missing king who vanished, which started a string on unpleasant events in the community, such as wild dogs, snakes and other nasties, attacking travellers. Phew! It was nice to have Amiga 8-channel music for the soundtrack, rather than the usual crap music accompanying this type of game. The graphics, while not great, are better than usual. A few Liberal jokes are tossed in unneccesarily as well. The docs and such as all in AmigaGuide format, the program uses the CBM Installer, and everything seems to have been fairly well thought out. If you are into Ultima-style games, this is your best bet. * * * * * * * Title: WELLTRIX Author: Gary W. Milliorn/Valcan Inc. Date: 1990 Genre: Puzzle Origin: USA Availability: 17 Bit Disk 781 / 17 Bit Disk 1710 Rating: **** The PD version of Spectrum Holobyte's WELLTRIS is, in fact, far superior to that questionable variation on the most addictive of all puzzle games. This is superior to WELLTRIS in every way...more visually appealing, better sound, more addictive (I never even cared for the commercial version) and this version has some user programmable features (colors, sounds, etc.). And it's nice to not have to deal with manual-based look-up protection in order to play! For the uninitiated, this is TETRIS played in a 3D well, where you combine multiple shapes in order to create the filling shape. There are three levels of difficulty to choose from, and you can play in Normal or Clock mode. Control is handled via the keyboards, but read the docs, as the keys change depending upon the mode you are playing. And speaking of docs, they are quite well written and couldn't be much improved upon, outside of being printed in manual form! In-game help is available and the game even multitasks! Grab this game up soon! * * * * * * * Title: WILLY WORM AND HIS BUNNY ASSAULT Author: Animators Date: 1993 Genre: Arcade Rating: *** An average game with a twisted storyline attached from Euro demo coder group Animators. It is nothing more than a 2-player snake game that plays like Tron cycles. But get a load of this pubescent storyline: Willy, a decidedly non-Hermaphrodite (?) worm, escapes from his laboratory home with another worm, Masturbating Manny (!). Both are vying for the affections of the same bunny and must battle it out in the Worm Battle Arena. Some objects play into the picture that may be picked up for various effects, including a syringe for worm-doping, ice block to freeze enemies and test tube for invulnerability. The worm with 7 bonus points wins, achieved via the opponent worm crashing or by collecting hearts. The joystick control is odd in how it changes direction randomly. Aside from the far-fetched plot, it's quite average. * * * * * * * Title: ZALYCON Author: Jag/Fanatix Genre: Arcade Language: AMOS Number of Disks: 2 Rating: **** A very good example of what can be done with AMOS. An arcade fest with loads of things going on, which I'll try to give you a taste of. In the year 2176, space travel becomes commonplace and the Moon colonizes. 20 years later, the Moon of Zalycon employs you as a Solar System Scout to protect it from the alien invasion of Zalycon's moonbase. This requires several feats, the first of which is getting there by flying your spaceship through an asteroid field. This is similar to the bonus level of PROJECT X, only with collision avoiding of those arcade rocks, rather than the caves. Next comes a moon buggy level where you must attempt the impossible - getting to the end! Too many jumps and too many obstacles make for a difficult job that I wasn't able to pull off. A wonderful music score is ripped from the likes of The Silents, SAE and 4-Mat of Anarchy, among others. The Options screen allows you to toggle sound/ music/both (good call!), instructions on/off (quite useful, actually), music test (test the toons first hand!), score save (see next option), and easy/normal/hard. The difficulty level has its price: on Easy, there is no score save or end sequence, the Medium level offers only the score save, and the Hard levels gives you everything (like you'll achieve it!). As a whole, this is a beautifully done work, with an exception of the annoying flashing text on the info screens (may not occur on systems that have no accelerator). One final quibble is the lock on quitting - why do programmers do that? The game even multitasks, but will not quit! That one cost you a point! Long review, I know, but I'm gonna run and try to get to the next level! @endnode @node P9 "AR Commercial" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% AR Commercial %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @{" Area52 " link P9-1} David Tiberio wants to sell you hardware. @{" Editor's Choice " link P9-2} Selected products that Compton likes. @endnode @node P1-8 "The Humor Department" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% The Humor Department %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Harv Laser had an entertaining solution for the Commodore Buyout conflict. "I think we should settle this by holding a no holds barred hot oil grudge match monster truck slug'it'out between amor and pleasance in the seattle king dome." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Who's bought Commodore? ====================================================================== 1. Barney: The new Amiga's will have 16-bit sound, but will only play "I love you, you love me...". It will have 16 million colors, but all of them are purple. 2. Atari: The only company that can do *WORSE* than C=. 3. Sony: Unfortunately, all software is now shipped on MiniDisks. 4. Samsung: Your Amiga will now glow in the dark. (Remember the Korean nuclear problem?) Who cares about megabytes, when we've got megatonnes? 5. Me! Hey, if Irving can do that bad, I can't do any worse. :-) 6. Microsoft: A new chip will be added - the Bill chip, which sucks money out of you. The operating system will now be dos only. A $200 program will replace workbench, running on top of AmigaDos, and attempts to multitask. When it fails, it will load solitare. If you have 30MB of ram and a 1000 MHZ 68080, you can buy the $500 program to replace the above programs. 7. Hyundai: Now you can drive your Amiga to work. Don't forget to park the Hard Disk! 8. Lego: Playing with your Amiga takes on a whoe new meaning, and you don't need to worry about running out of those blue connectors. :-) 9. IBM: They'll grant licence to everybody else, release an XGA Amiga, remove the ZII and ZIII slots, (leaving the ISA, naturally) and then there'll be a proliferation of self-conflicting, useless standards that nobody cares about, and then you'll have to decide what type of non IBM Amiga you'll buy. 10. GoldStar: The new machine will be GO-AMIGA which by itself is more advertiseing that has been done in the last 3 years. A definate improvement. Added to this marketing insight will be the cheap parts, cheap manufacturing etc. 11. Sam Walton: Okay, fine he's dead, but either way, Walmigas would be cool. When you boot, a person will greet you and show you today's specials. Here's where a certain manufacturer could learn a thing or two about SERVICE. Service means more than one nice guy in the service department. Hundreds of nice guys should be around to help you. 12. HP: Amigas will now have built in printers, so you won't need to worry about drivers. 13. Apple: There will now be a new food group: Chips & Amigas. You can take a byte out of your computer when you're hungry. Got another buyer? Send it to me at Mark_Yovorsky@comnet.cbmtor.gts.org Special thanks to Mark Brister, Bruce Gasson, and Calum Tsang for # 9, 10, and 1l1. (Just fill in their names in my email address instead of mine to contact them :-) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [Taken as-is...the joke wasn't quite elaborate enough to warrant a re- format...:)] *** "WINDOWS(tm)" *** MACHINE INDEPENDENT, DEBUGGED VERSION *** WINDOWS is undoubtedly one of the most widespread user interfaces within the realm of computer technology. Due to the success of the IBM PC (and its many clones) in the past decade, a demand eventually rose for other means of communication than the DOS prompt; something like the graphical point-and-click interface of the Apple Macintosh would be "kinda neat", some people thought. WINDOWS was the answer. WINDOWS was capable of performing almost every DOS command without demanding any mental effort from the user (however, a great deal of patience was needed, because WINDOWS is so amazingly slow, that it is sometimes hard to tell if it is doing anything at all (a small joke on the behalf of the developers, I suppose)). "Kinda neat", people said. "Look, my PC has a GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE with MOUSE POINTER and STUFF", people said, not realizing that virtually any other system already had the same (like with graphics and sound cards, by the way). "Kinda neat", the RAM manufacturers thought, knowing that WINDOWS would create an instant and excessive demand for RAM, or else it would refuse to run. "Kinda neat," Bill Gates thought, "I think I'll pretend that this is my invention and make another billion". And so he did, although the whole lot is ripped off from the MAC OS Finder & Amiga OS Intuitution. "Kinda neat", Intel stockholders thought, "people will actually BEG us for faster processors". "Kinda neat", the hardware dealers thought, "if we get them to believe that this thing is a "must",then we will see them again upgrading in the near future!". And if a few bewildered sheep actually failed to see the neatness, there was advertising a lot of it! And so, in spite of the sacrifices as for processor power and RAM, and the total lack of multitasking, people were happy. They were all happy. The emperor had got his new clothes. Now, why do you need this system? BECAUSE this is NOT the official WINDOWS from Microsoft, but an improved (yet compatible) version. In my effort to disassemble the PC-version, I stumbled upon some minor flaws, which I have done my best to correct when converting it. The program is written in assembler for improved speed and efficiency, and as an extra bonus, the program doesn't take up quite as much precious HD space or RAM as the original. The program is written for Amiga, but even for some PC-users, it may be an advantage to assemble the included source code and replace the old WIN.EXE file. So why do you need this system? Here is why: [*] It does just as much as the original WINDOWS, yet it is very much faster. [*] The familiar WINDOWS feel is still there (as skilled programmers will tell just from a quick glance at the code). [*] All bugged and obsolete routines have been removed, which saves a lot of HD space. [*] Uses less RAM than the original and instantly gives it back upon exit. [*] It is machine independent, just assemble and run on virtually any processor. [*] Benchmarks from the C64 show it to do just as much good as Microsoft WINDOWS [*] on a PC486 --- only it is slightly faster! [*] Thorough documentation of all advanced features. [*] The full, commented source code for you to study and improve upon. ;Begin Windows(TM) Sourcecode Windows: NOP RTS ;End Windows(TM) Sourcecode Talking about value for the money! Therefore, I see absolutely no reason for you to discard this piece of quality software. You will be using one of the most popular operating systems in the world, and you will not regret it. Copyright notice. This program is the product of years of hard labor, but I have decided to release it on the free market, anyway. If you use this program and you like it, please note that it is BANANAWARE. To become a registered user, you must mail a banana with your name to the queen of England in Buckingham Palace, and within three weeks, you will recieve a registered version on a disk signed by the queen herself. Also, it is strictly forbidden to run this program on any machine involved in the production of anything containing pineapple. This also applies to persons, who are involved in the production or distribution of pineapples or who have relatives working with pineapples. I really hate pineapples. A special rule applies to commercial software distributors. You are NOT allowed to distribute this archive without the prior, written consent of the PKK, the Khmer Rouge, Allan Cowboy, and Che Guevara (that was the catch). History: v0.9 (never released). A fully working version, but a little slower than I had hoped. v1.0 (this one!). Weeded out the last remaining, obsolete routines. Removed two NOPs to gain speed. Future: In the near future, I hope to be able to add some additional graphics (just for the kinda neat look of it), however I hope to be able to preserve speed. Maybe some optimizing of the main programme to gain even more speed (I already have a few ideas). @endnode @node P5-1 "AmiKiss v1.1" TITLE AmiKiss VERSION Version 1.1 AUTHOR Victor Ng Thow Hing e-mail: victorng@dgp.toronto.edu DESCRIPTION AmiKiss stands for Amiga Kisekae. Kisekae is Japanese for "changing clothes". This is a popular game for little girls where they are given paper dolls and a set of clothes to put on them. In particular, numerous Kiss data can be found on the internet that feature collections of popular Japanese Anime/Manga characters and sets of clothes that they can try on. Kiss programs have been found already on Mac, PC, and X-window platforms. AmiKiss is an Amiga implementation for playing Kiss. The player can click and drag items of clothing onto the characters displayed on the screen. Three sample data sets are provided with this archive. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Requires AmigaDos version 2.04 or above. Amigaguide.library is needed and is included in archive. Should have at least 1 MB chip ram. HOST NAME wuarchive.wustl.edu [128.252.135.4] (aminet sites) venice.tcp.com [128.95.44.29] DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/game/misc at wuarchive.wustl.edu /pub/anime-manga/software/KISS/kissprog at venice.tcp.com FILE NAMES AmiKiss11.lha, size: 110282 bytes PRICE This is shareware. If you like this software, please send $5. DISTRIBUTABILITY Public Domain. (C)Copyrighted by Victor Ng Thow Hing 1994. @endnode @node P5-2 "EyeCandy03" TITLE EyeCandy03 - Generates various designs: Spirograph(tm?) simulator of the spiral-drawing toy, "YarnBall", "CircleStar", "RotoBoxes", "RotoAngle" and "PolyGen". Simple, fun and addictive! VERSION This is version 03 which replaces EyeCandy02. See "NEW FEATURES" below for enhancements. COMPANY No company, just an AMINET upload by "yours truly". AUTHOR EyeCandy03 was written by me, Chuck Kenney. My particulars (address, etc.) are included in the user document in the archive. DESCRIPTION EyeCandy03 generates various "eye candy" graphics. Currently these are: "SpiroDraw", "YarnBall", "CircleStar", "RotoBoxes", "RotoAngle" and "PolyGen". All designs have different values that can be changed by the user which dictate the final appearance of the designs. "SpiroDraw" simulates the SPIROGRAPH(tm?) drawing toy. "YarnBall" generates designs that look like balls of yarn. "CircleStar" generates designs that look like 3D checkerboard stars. "RotoBoxes" generates "spirally, tunnelly" designs using squares. "RotoAngle" is a bit like "RotoBoxes" but uses lines and angles. "PolyGen" generates "tunnelly" designs using concentric polygons. "EyeCandy" Allows the user to specify different values for many of the parameters which dictate the sizes and shapes of the designs - "Drawing Wheels, Drawing Rings", number of "YarnBall" spokes, sizes and angles of change, etc. There is also a "Random" function for each design. The use of a computer to generate the various SpiroDraw and other designs actually enhances some of the capabilities! "EyeCandy02" is all mouse-driven (MENUs, GADGETs, etc.). It is a fun _and_ addictive program! .. but I'm biased, of course! EyeCandy03.lha also contains a very nice little freely distributable "screen-to-IFF" saver utility by Preben Nielsen (thanks, Preben) so that "EyeCandy" designs can be imported into and animated with "paint" programs. "EyeCandy" is shareware but does not nag the user in any way (except if the user selects the "About" MENU item) and all features are fully functional. NEW FEATURES The major new enhancement is that EyeCandy can now accommodate font-sizes up to 15 (though 13 is the practical limit). A bug in the SpiroDraw "Set Data..." function, "In/Out" was fixed. User Selection of SCREEN resolution has been moved from a selection window into the main "Preferences" MENU. EyeCandy03 has also been compiled under a new version of the compiler, "ACE" by David Benn, which enabled further enhancement and enjoyment of the user-interface in terms of look, feel and functionality. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS There are no special requirements that I know of. EyeCandy03 has been tested on an Amiga 2000HD (OS 2.1) and an Amiga 1000 (OS 1.3). HOST NAME EyeCandy03.lha has been uploaded to the AMINET site, ftp.etsu.edu (192.43.199.20) and is also available on all other AMINET sites. DIRECTORY EyeCandy03.lha and EyeCandy03.readme reside in the "aminet/gfx/misc" directory. FILE NAMES EyeCandy03.lha is 81,335 bytes long. PRICE The asking shareware price is the amount sent to me by my first shareware contributor to SpiroDraw, EyeCandy's predecessor. This requested shareware fee is $5.00 (US), in the hope that many little sharewares will add up to more than a few bigger ones! DISTRIBUTABILITY This program is freely distributable as long as the documentation accompanies the program but is a copyrighted (1994) shareware program by me, Chuck Kenney. If this program is included in any CD-ROM collection, I ask that a copy of the CD-ROM be sent to me. OTHER EyeCandy03, and other programs in progress are coming out of my basement as a result of the availability of a truly wonderful "BASIC-but-much-more!" compiler, "ACE" by David Benn. I would like to sincerely thank Mr. Benn for renewing my enthusiasm in programming and for making it possible for me to make my programs available to more than just my friends and immediately family! @endnode @node P5-3 "Making Music with Bertie Bunny" TITLE Making Music with Bertie Bunny COMPANY NAME WindShadow Software 77 McIntyre Court Newmarket, Ontario CANADA L3Y 8B9 Internet: gordon.wilkes@canrem.com FidoNet: gordon wilkes (1:229/15) Relaynet(RIME):gordon wilkes ->CRS Voice: 1-905-836-4400 Fax: 1-905-836-4400 DESCRIPTION At last there is a product for the Amiga computer where young children can have fun learning about music! WindShadow Software has introduced "Making Music with Bertie Bunny". This is a product that is only available for the Commodore Amiga computer. It fully employs the multimedia capabilities of the computer. There are many features to enhance your enjoyment: - Fun for children of all ages. Even a 2 year old can "Bang Keys" to control Bertie. Bertie Bunny will automatically move from place to place on the display. The child can simply bang on the keys to cause Bertie to choose an instrument or tune. Older children can use the mouse. This makes it quicker to make selections and helps them to develop fine motor skills. - Learn to recognize the sound of various musical instruments. - Learn to recognize various musical tunes from one or more of 4 different parts: the melody, a counterpoint to the melody, an obbligato accompaniment or a rhythmic accompaniment. - Hear how different instruments sound in combination with each other. - Use the computer keyboard as a musical instrument. You can select which instrument sounds are to be used and then play notes (up to 4 at a time will sound) and see the corresponding key-presses on a piano keyboard. - Readily installs on a hard drive. Installation uses Commodore's Installer utility. The Installer program is supplied under license from Commodore. - Supports the NTSC and PAL video standards and 6 languages. - Multitasks on the more powerful models of Amiga. Other software can run in the background at a low priority, for example, 3D rendering, compiling large programs, or downloading batches of files. - the manual is in AmigaGuide format. The AmigaGuide program is supplied under license from Commodore. This product is unusual in that it is easy to use for children as young as 2 years old, while providing creative opportunities for older children to explore. WindShadow Software is a Canadian company providing products for the Commodore Amiga which are sold world-wide. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS AmigaDOS 2.0 or greater and 1 megabyte of RAM. PRICE The single-copy list price is $34.95 (in U.S. funds) plus $5.00 for shipping and handling. If you purchase the product before October 31, 1994, the price is $27.96 (a 20% reduction) plus $5.00 for shipping and handling. If you are willing to receive the product by email as an LHA archive, there is no charge for shipping and handling. A special offer has been mailed to many User Groups which provides discounts up to 50% when members combine their orders. If your group has not yet received the offer, please contact me as soon as possible. Payment may also be made in other currencies. Please inquire to get the latest prices. Note that the Canadian dollar price is discounted a little bit more. DISTRIBUTABILITY This is a commercial product Copyright (C) 1994 WindShadow Software Now more than ever, software piracy will drive developers away from the Amiga. Gordon Wilkes President WindShadow Software @endnode @node P5-4 "ProCrypt V1.0" TITLE ProCrypt VERSION Version 1.0 AUTHOR Mathias Kretschmer DESCRIPTION ProCrypt is a brand new tool which encrypts the data on selected partitions. ProCrypt can be the perfect solution for your security problems. ProCrypt is a powerful program which protects your data from unauthorizied persons. It does so by encrypting blocks on a very low level of your device during writing and reading (in real time). If you access the file later for reading, the file gets decrypted at once. Once having ProCrypt installed (takes about 7 minutes) you will soon forget that there is an online-crypter working in the background. You will be able to continue your work without noticing any changes to your environment. The only difference will be the password request you have to enter after the crypted device is mounted. Everytime you boot your system ProCrypt will be started automatically by mounting the partitions which are crypted. This procedure can be "hidden" from foreign eyes. So they will never know that there is a crypter installed in your system. FEATURES ProCrypt uses the two different algorithms for coding. Both are extremly secure. They differ sligtly in security and speed. All actions of ProCrypt are fully transparent. You will notice only a very slight delay during file operations. You don't have to worry about your files. Very secure system-lock and a simple but effective protection against random manipulation (ie. Viruses) of diskblocks integrated. ProCrypt has a graphical user interface but can get also started using manual editing of mountlist entries. For the easy installation process Installer (by Commodore) is used. Even unexperienced users will have no problems to install ProCrypt. An OnlineHelp (using HotHelp-System from Maxon-Computers) is also provided for easy explanation of advanced usage. ProCrypt is a carefully tested program (Enforcer/Mungwall and Resource-Tracking proofed). There have been serveral testers in germany. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS ANY Amiga and Kickstart/WB2.0+ Maybe you should have a HardDrive but it also works with FloppyDisks. PRICE German Version (German manual) DM 89,- Release date: Now available DISTRIBUTABILITY ProCrypt is a commercial product. Order directly from: ProDev Vertrieb Eichendorffstr. 9 D-53859 Niederkassel Germany Maybe you give us a call for more information or when ordering your copy: (+49)6556-1285 (Mo-Fr 12.00-14.00/16.00-20.00) Support BBS of ProDev (German-System): SOURCE - (+49)2208-2514 - 24h - ZyXEL E+ Dealer inquiries are welcome. OTHER ProCrypt is copy protected. That means you will receive a personalized copy of ProCrypt. @endnode @node P5-5 "RevUp V1.2" TITLE RevUp VERSION 1.2 (4.9.94) PROXITY SOFTWORKS A cooperation of Amiga developers. Their intention is to release high quality software under one label. Members are: Boris Folgmann, Ulrich Sibiller and Christian Hechelmann. PETS Proxity Engineering and Technical Support Usenet: pets@amiuni.tynet.sub.org Fidonet: 2:246/1416.0 (pets) AUTHOR Boris Folgmann Address: Friedrichstra_e 7 71546 Aspach Germany Usenet: boris@prox.tynet.sub.org Fidonet: 2:246/1416.41 (Boris) PGP Fingerprint: 82 84 70 38 26 5E 50 5A 9C DB CA CA 62 0A 31 52 Phone: ++49-(0)7191-23439 Fax: ++49-(0)7191-2604 V.32bis 14.4 or HST 16.8 with ASL/V.42bis DESCRIPTION RevUp manages versions strings following the CBM standard for including in own programs, e.g. '$VER: YourTool 2.4 (30.9.94)'. It's a must for every serious C or Assembler programmer, so have a look at it! Your makefiles together with RevUp will do all the work for you. RevUp {} [REV ] [BETA] [NOC] [NOASM] [EXTRA] [TINY] REV : Explicit revision number. BETA : Generate beta information. NOC : Don't generate C Headerfile. NOASM: Don't generate ASM Includefile. EXTRA: Generate extra information. TINY : Don't print credits. FEATURES o RevUp generates and maintains include and header files with revision information. o RevUp is 100% compatible to the CBM developer tool BumpRev, but offers a lot of new features. o Multiple dependency files are supported. o Beta count management for beta versions included. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Kickstart 2.04 Workbench 2.0 Workbench 2.1 for localized DOS error messages. HOST NAME Any AmiNet site, e.g. ftp.uni-kl.de 131.246.9.95 DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/dev/misc FILENAME RevUp12.lha PRICE Free DISTRIBUTABILITY Freeware ) 1994 by Proxity Softworks @endnode @node P5-6 "ProxWatch V1.2" TITLE ProxWatch VERSION 1.2 (4.9.94) PROXITY SOFTWORKS A cooperation of Amiga developers. Their intention is to release high quality software under one label. Members are: Boris Folgmann, Ulrich Sibiller and Christian Hechelmann. PETS Proxity Engineering and Technical Support Usenet: pets@amiuni.tynet.sub.org Fidonet: 2:246/1416.0 (pets) AUTHOR Boris Folgmann Address: Friedrichstra_e 7 71546 Aspach Germany Usenet: boris@prox.tynet.sub.org Fidonet: 2:246/1416.41 (Boris) PGP Fingerprint: 82 84 70 38 26 5E 50 5A 9C DB CA CA 62 0A 31 52 Phone: ++49-(0)7191-23439 Fax: ++49-(0)7191-2604 V.32bis 14.4 or HST 16.8 with ASL/V.42bis DESCRIPTION ProxWatch is a localized font-sensitive clock program for the Amiga. ProxWatch uses a template for printing the time and date in it's window. The default string is '%T' which prints the time only, e.g. '01:23:45'. You may change this by editing the tooltype WATCHSTRING. For example try: Date: %d.%m.%y - Time %T this may result in 'Date: 17.8.94 - Time: 16:59:12' FEATURES o ProxWatch is a small utility for your WBStartup drawer. o The string used for displaying date and time is totally user definable. o The window can be opened on your favourite public screen. o Using a borderless backdrop window the watch text may be visually attached to the screen title. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Kickstart 2.04 Workbench 2.1 for locale.library V38 HOST NAME Any AmiNet site, e.g. ftp.uni-kl.de 131.246.9.95 DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/util/wb FILENAME ProxWatch12.lha PRICE Free DISTRIBUTABILITY Freeware ) 1994 by Proxity Softworks @endnode @node P5-7 "Gothic Clock v1.0" TITLE Gothic Clock v1.0 AUTHOR James W Savage Internet: bryce@gothic.demon.co.uk Fidonet: 2:2501/307.13 @ Centronics BBS DESCRIPTION Goth Clock is a simple titlebar clock that shows both the time and date in a draggable window. NEW FEATURES First release. HARD- AND SOFTWARE-REQUIREMENTS Workbench 2.0 or better. DOWNLOAD Any Aminet site, e.g. USA ftp.wustl.edu 128.252.135.4 pub/aminet/ DIRECTORY util/wb FILE NAMES GothClok.lha GothClok.readme FURTHER SOURCES FIDO: Centronics BBS +44 (0)473 273246 [2400 - VFC] 2:2501/307 PRICE Gothware. Send me something black and gothic. DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely distributable but copyrighted. @endnode @node P5-8 "Phonebill 3.1" TITLE Phonebill VERSION 3.1 AUTHOR Raymond Penners Internet: raymondp@stack.urc.tue.nl Fido: 2:286/407.60 AmigaNet: 39:153/201.60 NLA: 14:101/200.60 DESCRIPTION `phonebill' is, simply said, a log file analyzer. What it basically does is scan log file(s) generated by a terminal program or a mailer, extract all information about calls you have made by using your modem, and store this in its own (short) format. After extracting the calls `phonebill' can generate various reports in which you can find information on duration and costs of the calls. Here is a small list of the main features: * Very flexible user-configurable rates, supporting exceptions for certain days and dates. Handles fees and time units with up to 9 decimals (e.g. $1.2344657 dollars per 30.225678 seconds). * User-configurable log scanners: `phonebill' by default supports various log files, but for any log file that is not supported the user is able to create a scanner. The following is a list of log files that are already supported: * AutoPilot * CyberPager * GPFax * JrComm * MagiCall * MicroDot * Multifax (both v2.0 and Multifax professional) * NComm * Term action log and Term call log * Terminus * TheAnswer * TKR-BTX * Trapdoor * Trapfax * UUCP TimeLog * XenoLink * Log files can be automatically truncated if their size exceeds the maximum size. * Generates miscellaneous reports: statistics, total costs, .... * Context-sensitive online help. * Requires Kickstart 2.04 or higher. * Supports new 3.0 features (new look menus, ...). * Nice `Amiga User Interface Style Guide' conformant user interface. NEW FEATURES The following is a list of the most significant changes: * Bug fix: Updating the binary log files on MC68000-amigas could crash because of reading from an odd address. * New: Hosts can be assigned to groups, over which reports can be generated seperately, for example: create a group called "Poll" and assign all hosts you poll for mail to this group. Then you can view reports concerning these hosts only... * Changed: The cookie %a only accepted certain phonenumbers, which caused a lot of problems. Now %a accepts any string. So now, "Calling %n (%a)" and "Calling BBS (123-AMI)" match. "A BBS 123" and "%n %a" match too: name="A" nr="BBS 123", to resolve this "%n %A" should be used. * Added some average costs/calls/online per day to the stats. Also, if the is set somewhere in the future, `phonebill' will estimate the total costs on that date (bill report). * Added German and Swedish catalogs, updated Swedish rates. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Workbench 2.04 or higher. HOST NAME ftp.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4) DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/comm/misc FILE NAME pbill31.lha (190967 bytes) PRICE Shareware fee of $10 US. DISTRIBUTABILITY The archive and its contents are freely distributable. See documentation for details. The package is (C) 1993-1994 Raymond Penners @endnode @node P5-9 "C-Shell 5.39" TITLE C-Shell (csh) VERSION 5.39 AUTHOR Andreas M. Kirchwitz (csh 5.20+), based on csh 5.19 by Urban D. Mueller E-Mail: csh-fan@zikzak.in-berlin.de DESCRIPTION C-Shell is a replacement for the AmigaDOS command line interface. Many builtin Unix-like commands, very fast script language, file- name completion, command-name completion, comfortable command line editing, pattern matching, AUX: mode, object oriented file classes, abbreviation of internal and external commands. Supports multiple users. C-Shell is easy to install and to use. Online help for all commands, functions and various subjects. ARP-free! NEW FEATURES Changes since version 5.39 (summary): - New builtin variable "_timeout" (in microseconds) sets maximum response time for terminal to answer WINDOW STATUS REQUEST (for window bounds). Defaults to 1 (for local usage), must be set to higher value for remote connections. Only used, if window pointer is not available. - Removed command line length limitation (140 chars) for ARexx scripts that ends with ".rexx" but are started without the trailing ".rexx". - Removed command line length limitation (518 chars) for ARexx scripts and external shells (#! in first line), this was a limitation in AmigaOS' System() function. DOS scripts still have this limitation, because you cannot RunCommand() "execute". - Not only "*" and "?" but also "[" and "]" recognized as AmigaDOS pattern. (that means, to use "[" and "]" you must quote (") or escape (\) them!) - ... and much more workarounds for serious bugs in DateToStr() and Locale. - Fixed bug: making an assign to an executable and calling the executable by its assign crashed machine. - Fixed bug: builtin command "cp" sometimes used already freed memory for generating error messages (resulted in some strange error messages). - New flag for for command abbreviation ($_abbrev): 8, search DOS path-list if command wasn't found in Cshell's internal program hash list (see "rehash" command) - CTRL-D now shows matching files if current word is not a directory. (if directory then shows contents of directory -- as usual) In its current implementation this may have unexpected side effects if current word is already a pattern. - Class definition for AmigaE in class.sh - Now internal timer (eg, %e in the titlebar) not set to zero when a null command is encountered. (same for return code, %x in titlebar) - The idea of always using the variable "_dirformat" for "dir" wasn't a good idea. So, "_dirformat" is only used if option -z is given (when "_dirformat" is unset then use first argument as format string). - New control-code for line-editing: "^V" (ctrl-v) quotes next char. - New builtin variable "_kick" holds version number of Operating System. - Builtin command "assign" now prints volume name if assign points to an unmounted volume (eg, a removed floppy disk) and doesn't pop up a requester "Please replace volume ..." - It was a stupid idea to force redirecting of all Cshell-related system requesters to CSH's screen, because requester windows inherit the window title of their "initiator". They appear now again on your default public screen. - Fixed serious bug (crashed machine) with redirection and launching programs into background. (files closed twice) Known bug: it's still not possible to run pipes into background... - When running programs into background (run, rback, &), internal commands and aliases are recognized and executed with "csh -c". Aliases WON'T be resolved on this level so they must be declared in .cshrc to run them into background. - Execution of Rexx-Scripts (without trailing ".rexx") and any other program with "#! my_prog" or ";! my_prog" in first line of script now possible also from DOS search path and not only $_path. - New builtin variable "_mappath" (see manual), enables pathname- mapping for commands if script starts with "#!" or ";!" in first line. Converts Unix pathes like "/usr/..." to "usr:...". - New option "-w" for Cshell, don't use window pointer (useful for KingCON). - New option "-V" for Cshell, send only VT100 compatible control sequences. - Internal variable "o_vt100" now used (if option -t or -V is set), don't send control sequences that are not VT100 compatible (eg, special Amiga control sequences). - Various changes/enhancements to existing commands. - Miscellaneous bug fixes. See file "HISTORY" in archive csh539.lha for complete listing of changes and new features. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS AmigaOS 2.0 (or higher) HOST NAME FTP/Internet: AmiNet and mirrors For example, ftp.wustl.edu [128.252.135.4]. UUCP/E-Mail : mail-server@cs.tu-berlin.de Send mail to the address above and put the line "send /pub/aminet/util/shell/csh539.lha" in the body. DIRECTORY pub/aminet/util/shell FILE NAMES csh539.lha (binary and documentation) csh539src.lha (source code for SAS/C 6) DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely distributable, Copyright by the individual authors. @endnode @node P9-1 "Area52 Products" @toc "menu" Although many Amiga mail order companies and dealers are becoming harder to locate, it only makes room for us smaller dealers to bring you the same products at the same prices you would expect from the largest mail order house around. Over the summer we at AREA52 have been slowly expanding our product line to contain hardware such as hard drives, monitors, and accelerators, along with software from various smaller developers in the area. Here are some of our prices, but look for more in the October issue of Video Toaster User. We welcome you to compare prices! 17" AOC SVGA monitor, digital controls, .28mm 1280x1024 NI $625 14" SVGA monitors, many brands, .28mm, 1024x768 NI 260 Warp Engine 68040 for A4000, 0mhz, SCSI2 750 Cyberstorm 68040 for A4000, 0mhz 750 Personal Animation Recorder 1499 Conner 540 megabyte IDE hard drive, PAR compatible 299 Conner 810 megabyte IDE hard drive 499 Conner 1.0 gigabyte IDE hard drive, PAR compatible 625 Micropolis 2210A 1.0 gigabyte hard drive, IDE, PAR compatible 699 Micropolis 2217A 1.7 gigabyte hard drive, IDE, PAR compatible 950 Micropolis 2210 1.0 gigabyte hard drive, SCSI2 699 Micropolis 2217 1.7 gigabyte hard drive, SCSI2 950 Micropolis 2217AV 1.7 gigabyte hard drive, SCSI2 999 Fujitsu 530 megabyte SCSI hard drive 350 Fujitsu 1.0 gigabyte SCSI hard drive 625 Samsung 251 megabyte IDE hard drive 199 Samsung 426 megabyte IDE hard drive 250 Barracuda 2.1 gigabyte SCSI2 hard drive 1350 Barracuda 4.2 gigabyte SCSI2 hard drive 2599 Seagate 42 megabyte 2.5" IDE hard drive for A1200, A600 150 Seagate 210 megabyte 2.5" IDE hard drive for A1200, A600 299 Seagate 340 megabyte 2.5" IDE hard drive for A1200, A600 425 Seagate 524 megabyte 2.5" IDE hard drive for A1200, A600 625 External drive bays 1 drive bay $99. 2: $150, 4: $250, 8: $475 Most drives are 2 year minimum to 5 year warranty on larger drives. MTBF of 23 years on all drives! Most drives are 3.5" half height. Order (800) 730-0082, or FAX 24 hour orders to (516) 476-1615. NY State residents may order using (516) 476-1615. NY State residents must add 8% sales tax. VISA and MasterCard accepted. COD accepted by money order or cash equivalent. Prices subject to change. @endnode @node P9-2 "Editor's Choice" @toc "menu" These are selected products, reviewed by myself, that I've liked. So, I've landed them and decided to sell them at the lowest price I'm authorized. Swifty 3-button mouse (Reviewed in AR 2.28): $22.75 Micro R+D CD-ROM Volume 1 (Reviewed in AR 2.25) $53.95 (Includes Transition graphic converter and loads of artwork) Micro R+D CD-ROM Volume 2 (Reviewed in AR 2.26) $59.95 (Includes entire Nature's Backdrop series) Orders may be placed via check, money order, or postal cheque, made out to Micro R+D. Visa/Mastercard accepted via post or E-Mail. No CODs. Mail all orders to @{" Jason Compton " link P8-1}. Orders will be processed by Amiga Report and drop-shipped from Micro R+D. In the US, add $5/$10/$20 for UPS shipping, ground/blue/red label, respectively. Overseas: It is recommended that you consider $20 to be the minimum cost for shipping. If you plan to order more than one item, E-mail for shipping cost. @endnode @node P4-1 "Delphi" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Delphi Internet Services -- Your Connection to the World! %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Amiga Report International Online Magazine and the Amiga Report Coverdisk is available every week in the Amiga SIG on DELPHI. Amiga Report readers are invited to join DELPHI and become a part of the friendly community of Amiga enthusiasts there. SIGNING UP WITH DELPHI ====================== Using a personal computer and modem, members worldwide access DELPHI services via a local phone call JOIN -- DELPHI -------------- Via modem, dial up DELPHI at 1-800-695-4002 then... When connected, press RETURN once or twice and.... At Username: type JOINDELPHI and press RETURN, At Password: type AMIGAUSER and press RETURN. For more information, call DELPHI Member Services at 1-800-695-4005 SPECIAL FEATURES ---------------- Complete Internet connection -- Telnet, FTP, IRC, Gopher, E-Mail and more! (Internet option is $3/month extra) SIGs for all types of computers -- Amiga, IBM, Macintosh, Atari, etc. An active Amiga SIG hosting conferances, Usenet, Latest wares, and FTP Gopher coming soon Large file databases! SIGs for hobbies, video games, graphics, and more! Business and world news, stock reports, etc. Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia! DELPHI - It's getting better all the time! @endnode @node P4-2 "Portal" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Portal: A Great Place For Amiga Users %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% The Portal Information Network's Amiga Zone The AFFORDABLE alternative for online Amiga information ------------------------------------------------------- The Portal Online System is the home of acclaimed Amiga Zone, a full- service online SIG (Special Interest Group) for Amiga owners and users. You can dial into Portal to access the Amiga Zone in various ways: direct dial to our San Jose, CA area banks of high-speed modems (you pay for the phone call if it's not local), or though any SprintNet indial anywhere in the USA, (with a small hourly fee) or via the World-wide Internet "telnet" program to portal.com (no hourly fee). Even Delphi and BIX users can Telnet into Portal for a flat $19.95 a month, with *unlimited* use. Portal is NOT just another shell account. Its Online system is fully menu-driven with on-screen commands and help and you can easily customize it for your terminal program and screen size. Some of Portal/Amiga Zone's amazing features include: 2.5 GIGabytes of Amiga-specific file space - we have so much Amiga Stuff online, we've lost count! The *entire* Fred Fish collection of freely distributable software, online. ALL 1000 disks! 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, Elastic Reality (ASDG), Soft-Logik, Apex Publishing, and others. 38 "regular" Amiga libraries with over 10,000 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. We've given away thousands of bucks worth of Amiga prizes - more than any other online service. 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, EGS, Picasso, OpalVision & others feed right into the Zone message bases. Read months worth of postings. No need to clutter your mailbox with them. FREE unlimited Internet Email with 5 meg of free storage. A FREE UNIX Shell account with another 5 meg of free storage. 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, UNIX, Science Fiction, Disney, and dozens more. ALL Portal SIGs are accessible to ALL Portal customers with NO surcharges ever. You never worry "Ooops.. Am I paying for this area?" again! The entire UPI/Clarinet/Newsbytes news hierarchy ($4/month extra) An entire general interest newspaper and computer news magazine. Portal was THE FIRST online service to offer a full package of Internet features: IRC, FTP, TELNET, MUDS, LIBS. And you get FREE unlimited usage of all of them. 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) 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. To join Portal or for more information call: 1-800-433-6444 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time or 1-408-973-9111. 1-408-725-0561 (modem 3/12/2400) 24 hours every day 1-408-725-0560 (modem 96/14400) 24 hours every day or enter "C PORTAL" from any Sprintnet dial-in in the USA, or telnet to "portal.com" from anywhere. 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!] The Portal Information Network accepts MasterCard, Visa, or you can pre-pay any amount by personal check or money order. The Portal Online System is a trademark of The Portal Information Network. SLIP, UUCP and custom domain accounts are also available. @endnode @node P3 "Dealer Directory" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Dealer Directory %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Almathera Systems Ltd Southerton House Boundary Business Court 92-94 Church Road Mitcham, Surrey CR4 3TD England VOICE: (UK) 081 687 0040 FAX: (UK) 081 687 0490 Internet: (Sales) almathera@cix.compulink.co.uk (Technical) jralph@cix.compulink.co.uk Amigability Computers P.O. Box 572 Plantsville, CT 06479 VOICE: 203-276-8175 Internet: amiga@phantm.UUCP BIX: jbasile (Send E-mail to subscribe to our mailing list) Apogee Technologies 1851 University Parkway Sarasota, FL 34243 VOICE: 813-355-6121 Portal: Apogee Internet: Apogee@cup.portal.com Armadillo Brothers 753 East 3300 South Salt Lake City, Utah VOICE: 801-484-2791 Internet: B.GRAY@genie.geis.com Atlantis Kobetek Inc. 1496 Lower Water St. Halifax, NS, Canada, B3J 1R9 Phone: (902)-422-6556 Fax: (902)-423-9339 BBS: (902)-492-1544 Internet: aperusse@fox.nstn.ns.ca Brian Fowler Computers Ltd 11 North St Exeter Devon EX4 3QS United Kingdom Voice: (0392) 499 755 Fax: (0392) 423 480 Internet: brian_fowler@cix.compulink.co.uk CLICK! Amiga Specialists N.V. Boomsesteenweg 468 B-2610 Wilrijk - Antwerpen Belgium - Europe VOICE: 03 / 828.18.15 FAX: 03 / 828.67.36 USENET: vanhoutv@click.augfl.be FIDO: 2:292/603.9 AmigaNet: 39:120/102.9 Comspec Communications Inc Serving your computing needs since 1976 74 Wingold Ave Toronto, Ontario Canada M6B 1P5 Computer Centre: (416) 785-8348 Service, Corporate & Educational Sales: (416) 785-3553 Fax: 416-785-3668 Internet: bryanf@comcorp.comspec.com bryanf@accesspt.north.net Computers International, Inc. 5415 Hixson Pike Chattanooga, TN 37343 VOICE: 615-843-0630 DataKompaniet ANS Pb 3187 Munkvoll N-7002 Trondheim Norway - Europe VOICE/FAX: 72 555 149 Internet: torrunes@idt.unit.no Digital Arts 122 West 6th Street Bloomington, IN 47404 VOICE: (812)330-0124 FAX: (812)330-0126 BIX: msears Finetastic Computers 721 Washington Street Norwood, MA 02062 VOICE: 617-762-4166 BBS: 617-769-3172 Fido: 1:101/322 Portal: FinetasticComputers Internet: FinetasticComputers@cup.portal.com HT Electronics 275 North Mathilda Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94086 VOICE: 408-737-0900 FAX: 408-245-3109 Portal: HT Electronics Internet: HT Electronics@cup.portal.com Industrial Video, Inc. 1601 North Ridge Rd. Lorain, OH 44055 VOICE: 800-362-6150 216-233-4000 Internet: af741@cleveland.freenet.edu Contact: John Gray MicroSearch 9000 US 59 South, Suite 330 Houston, Texas VOICE: 713-988-2818 FAX: 713-995-4994 Mr. Hardware Computers P.O. Box 148 59 Storey Ave. Central Islip, NY 11722 VOICE: 516-234-8110 FAX: 516-234-8110 A.M.U.G. BBS: 516-234-6046 MusicMart: Media Sound & Vision 71 Wellington Road London, Ontario, Canada VOICE: 519-434-4162 FAX: 519-663-8074 BBS: 519-645-2144 FIDO: 1:2401/200 AmigaNet: 40:550/1 MaxNet: 90:204/1 InterNet: 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 ZipperWare 626 S. Washington Seattle, WA 98104 VOICE: 206-223-1107 Wonder Computers Inc. 1315 Richmond Rd. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2B 8J7 Voice: 613-596-2542 Fax: 613-596-9349 BBS: 613-829-0909 CYNOSTIC Office O1, Little Heath Industrial Estate, Old Church Road, Coventry. CV6 7NB UNITED KINGDOM Tel: +44 (0)203 681687 Fax: +44 (0)203 638508 David Cassidy email: bsupa@csv.warwick.ac.uk DataService Oy P.O. Box 50 Kuurinniityntie 30 02771 ESPOO Findland, Europe Voice: +358 (9) 400 438 301 Fax: +358 (9) 0505 0037 Grey Matter Ltd. Amiga RuleZ! 1-22-3,Minami Magome HillTop House 2F suite 201 Ota-ku,Tokyo 143 Japan Tel:+81 (0)3 5709-5549 Fax:+81 (0)3 5709-1907 and of course the BEST Amiga BBS in Japan BBS:Grey Matter BBS +81 (0)3 5709-1907 (8N1 V32bis 24H ) Email: nighty@gmatter.japan-online.or.jp Amiga Video Solutions 1568 Randolph Avenue St. Paul, MN 55105 Voice: 612-698-1175 BBS: 612-698-1918 Fax: 612-224-3823 Net: wohno001@maroon.tc.umn.edu Magic Page 3043 Luther Street Winston-Salem, NC 27127 910-785-3695 voice/fax Spiff@cup.portal.com Keizer Tech 3881 River Rd N Keizer, OR 97303 USA Voice: 393-5472 Computer Link Your Amiga/PC connection. 6573 middlebelt Garden City MI 48135 USA 313-522-6005 Voice 313-522-3119 Fax clink@m-net.arbornet.org VISAGE COMPUTERS 18 Station Road Ilkeston Derbyshire DE7 8TD UNITED KINGDOM Tel/Fax: +44 (0)602 444501 Internet: floyd@demon.co.uk Suppliers of Amiga Hardware, Software and Public Domain. HIGHLAND GREY CONSULTING, INC. Customer Service Centre Head Office 4704E - 49 Ave. R.R. 1 Camrose, Alberta Ohaton, Alberta Canada Canada T4V-3K9 T0B-3P0 VOICE: (403) 679-2242 FAX: (403) 672-0303 Sales and Service; Same Phone #'s! Apple, Amiga, IBM/Clone and Macintosh Systems (Dealers: To have your name added, please send Email!) @endnode @node P4-6 "X-NET" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% X-Net Information Systems %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% --==> Public Internet Connectivity Today <==-- - LIVE Internet - Over 6,000 Newsgroups - Telnet/FTP - Worldwide E-Mail - Gopher/Archie - Internet Relay Chat (IRC) - SLIP/PPP - NCSA Mosaic A system dedicated to the Amiga, IBM and Unix user. System Admins ------------- Naperville : (708) 983-6435 V.32bis Brian Vargyas NEW Hoffman Estates : (708) 882-1101 V.32bis Brian Clark Voice / Fax : (708) 983-6064 Arthur Zards Internet : net.xnet.com @endnode @node P2-3 "In Closing" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% _ _ __ ___ _ %% %% /\\ |\\ /| || // \ /\\ %% %% / \\ | \\ /|| ||(< __ / \\ %% %% /--- \\| \/ || || \\_||/--- \\ %% %% /______________________________\\ %% %% / \\ %% %% Amiga Report International Online Magazine %% %% October 10, 1994 ~ Issue No. 2.29 %% %% Copyright 1994 SkyNet Publications %% %% All Rights Reserved %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Views, Opinions and Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of the editors and staff of Amiga Report International Online Magazine or of STR Publications. Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. Reprints must, without exception, include the name of the publication, date, issue number and the author's name. Amiga Report and/or portions therein may not be edited in any way without prior written per- mission. However, translation into a language other than English is accept- ble, provided the original meaning is not altered. Amiga Report may be dis- tributed on privately owned not-for-profit bulletin board systems (fees to cover cost of operation are acceptable), and major online services such as (but not limited to) Delphi and Portal. Distribution on public domain disks is acceptable provided proceeds are only to cover the cost of the disk (e.g. no more than $5 US). Distribution on for-profit magazine cover disks requires written permission from the editor or publisher. Amiga Report is a not-for-profit publication. Amiga Report, at the time of pub- ication, is believed reasonably accurate. Amiga Report, its staff and con- ributors are not and cannot be held responsible for the use or misuse of information contained herein or the results obtained there from. Amiga Report is not affiliated with Commodore-Amiga, Inc., Commodore Business Machines, Ltd., or any other Amiga publication in any way. All items quoted in whole or in part are done so under the Fair Use Provision of the Copy- right Laws of the United States Penal Code. Any Electronic Mail sent to the editors may be reprinted, in whole or in part, without any previous permission of the author, unless said electronic mail specifically requests not to be reprinted. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @endnode @node P1 "Columns and Features" @toc "menu" @{" compt.sys.editor.desk " link P1-1} Just some notes @{" Amiga News " link P1-2} News and Announcements @{" Reader Mail " link P1-3} The lines buzz hotly once more @{" CEI Conference at BIX " link P1-6} No, really, there's new stuff in here. @{" Across The Pond... " link P1-10} Wolf reports on a German video show @{" Why? " link P1-11} Maxwell Daymon's commentary... @{"MiniReview: Heddley v1.1" link P1-12} An AmigaGuide authoring program @{" A Look at the Future " link P1-4} A user speaks on how it oughta be... @{" PD/ShaReviews: Games! " link P1-7} This is only a small sample... @{" The Humor Department " link P1-8} Monster trucks, anybody? @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 @{" In Closing " link P2-3} Copyright Information @endnode @node P2-2 "The Editors" Feel free to contact any of the editors! @{" Jason Compton " link P8-1} The Editor-in-chief @{" Robert Niles " link P8-2} The Assistant Editor @{" Michael Wolf " link P8-3} The European Editor @{" David Tiberio " link P8-4} Contributing Editor @{" Katie Nelson " link P8-5} Copy Assistant @endnode @node P4 "Commercial Online Services" @toc "menu" @{" Delphi " link P4-1} Getting better all the time! @{" Portal " link P4-2} A great place for Amiga users... @{" InterNet " link P4-5} Subscribe to the AR Mailing List @{" X-NET " link P4-6} An Internet site for everyone! @endnode @node P5 "FTP and product announcements" @toc "menu" @{" AmiKiss V1.1 " link P5-1} An implementation of a Japanese game (kids) @{" EyeCandy03 " link P5-2} Another in the kaledoscope drawing series... @{" Music W/Bertie Bunny " link P5-3} An educational musical package @{" ProCrypt V1.0 " link P5-4} Omnipresent encryption system @{" RevUp V1.2 " link P5-5} A revision-organizer @{" ProxWatch V1.2 " link P5-6} A flexible desktop clock @{" Gothic Clock V1.0 " link P5-7} A titlebar clock @{" Phonebill 3.1 " link P5-8} Find out how much AR downloads cost @{" C-Shell 5.39 " link P5-9} An Amiga implementation of csh | The 10 most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 9-Oct-94 | Updated weekly. Most popular file on top. | |File Dir Size Description |------------------- --- ---- ----------- ar228.lha docs/mags 83K+Amiga Report Online Magazine #2.28 MagicD3.lha pix/icon 237K+New Icons for MagicWB csh539.lha util/shell 246K+C-Shell (csh) 5.39, CLI replacement CrossMAC_V1Demo.lha misc/emu 74K+Floppy Read Only CrossMAC Demo ABC-Patterns-1.1.lha pix/icon 433K+Update - 111 new Workbench-patterns!!! mpegint.lha gfx/show 13K+GUI for mpeg_play program. WB2+ tophatwilly.lha game/jump 114K+TopHatWilly *GREAT* Platform game by OF justice9.lha demo/aga 767K+AGA demo by Tone Horgan, A1200 only term-41a-Patch.lha comm/term 107K+Term 4.1a, Patch for Term 4.1 LibrariesGuide.lha docs/help 30K+AmigaGuide to AmigaDOS Shared Libraries @endnode ----------------------------------------- @node P2-1-1 "NOVA" @toc "menu" * NOVA BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site Support BBS of The Chattanooga Amiga Users Group * Running MEBBSNet BBS * Wayne Stonecipher, Sysop AmigaNet 40:210/10.0 40:210/1.0 40:210/0.0 FidoNet 1:362/508.0 An Amiga Software Distribution Site (ADS) 615-472-9748 USR DS 16.8 24hrs - 7 days Cleveland, Tennessee All AR back issues are kept online. All new users receive access to the AR on the first call. Any AR issue may be file requested with proper name. To obtain the current issue you may FReq Proper name, AR.LHA or simply AR @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-2 "In The MeanTime" @toc "menu" *** System down temporarily -- Don't call except for FAX *** * IN THE MEANTIME BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running AXShell * Robert Niles, Sysop rniles@imtired.itm.com 509-248-5645 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Yakima, Washington ******* Notice ******* Those who call for the latest edition of Amiga Report, and who do not with to establish an account, at the first login: prompt type "bbs", at the second login: prompt type "guest". Once in type "ARMAG" (without the quotes) at any prompt. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-3 "PIONEERS BBS" @toc "menu" * PIONEERS BBS * ** A PREMIER GENEALOGY BBS ** ** WEST COAST - Amiga Virus Busters Support BBS ** ** CD32 REVIEW Support BBS ** AND NOW Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running EXCELSIOR! BBS * Michael & Marthe Arends, Sysops FidoNet: 1:343/54.0 206-775-7983 Supra 14.4k v32.bis 24hrs - 7 days EDMONDS, Washington New users can call and get ANY copy of Amiga Report. Just call using the Name "Long Distance" and the password "Longdistance"(without the quotes of course). Users using this account will have full access to ALL past and present issues of AMIGA REPORT starting with the premier issue. The latest issue of Amiga Report can be Freq'ed (FileREQusted) from here as "AR.LHA", Freq's are valid at ANY time. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-4 "CIUA BBS" @toc "menu" * CIUA BBS* Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Portugal * Running Excelsior/Trapdoor/AmigaUUCP/AmiTCP * Celso Martinho, Sysop FidoNet 2:361/9 Internet: denise.ci.ua.pt +351-34-382080/382081 (V32bis soon V34) 24hrs - 7 days. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-5 "Amiga Junction 9" @toc "menu" * AMIGA JUNCTION 9 * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- United Kingdom * Running DLG Professional * Stephen Anderson, Sysop Sysop Email: sysadmin@junct9.demon.co.uk Line 1 +44 (0)372 271000 14400 V.32bis/HST FidoNet 2:440/20 Line 2 +44 (0)372 278000 14400 V.32bis only FidoNet 2:440/21 Line 3 +44 (0)372 279000 2400 V.42bis/MNP Voice: +44 (0)956 348405 (24hrs) Direct Sysop Voice Line Internet: user_name@junct9.royle.org Special Interest Areas: - Bjork / Sugarcubes Fan Club - Research of Lucid Dreaming @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-6 "BitStream BBS" @toc "menu" * BITSTREAM BBS * The BBS of the Nelson (NZ) Amiga Users Group Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Xenolink 1.0 Z.3 * Glen Roberts, Sysop FidoNet 3:771/850 +64 3 5485321 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Nelson, New Zealand @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-7 "Realm of Twilight" @toc "menu" * REALM OF TWILIGHT BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Canada * Running Excelsior! BBS * Thorsten Schiller, Sysop Usenet: realm.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca UUCP: ...!uunet.ca!tdkcs!realm FIDO: 1:221/302 Fish: 33:33/8 24hrs - 7 days 519-748-9365 (2400 baud) 519-748-9026 (v.32bis) Ontario, Canada Hardware: Amiga 3000, 105 Meg Quantum, 213 Meg Maxtor, 5 megs RAM @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-8 "Metnet Triangle" @toc "menu" METNET TRIANGLE SYSTEM Official Amiga Report Distribution Site UK Support for Mebbsnet * Running Mebbsnet and Starnet 1.02a * Jon Witty, Sysop FIDO: 2:252/129.0 24 hrs - 7 days Line 1: 44-482-473871 16.8 DS HST Lines 2-7: 44-482-442251 2400 (6 lines) Line 8: 44-482-491744 2400 Line 9: 44-482-449028 2400 Voice helpline 44-482-491752 (anytime) Fully animated menus + normal menu sets. 500 megs HD - Usual software/messages Most doors online - Many Sigs - AMIGA AND PC SUPPORT Very active userbase and busy conference Precious days and MUD online. AMUL support site. @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-9 "Omaha Amiganet" @toc "menu" * OMAHA AMIGANET * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running DLG Professional * Andy Wasserman, Sysop 24 hrs - 7 days FidoNet: 1:285/11 AmigaNet: 40:200/10 Line 1: 402-333-5110 V.32bis Line 2: 402-691-0104 USR DS Omaha, Nebraska @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-10 "Amiga-Night-System" @toc "menu" * AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - Finland * Running DLG Professional * Janne Saarme, Sysop 24 hrs - 7 days InterNet: luumu@fenix.fipnet.fi FidoNet: 2:220/550.0 +358-0-675840 V.32bis Helsinki, Finland @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-11 "Ramses Amiga Flying" @toc "menu" * RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- France * Running DLG Professional * Eric Delord, Sysop Philippe Brand, Co-Sysop Stephane Legrand, Co-Sysop Internet: user.name@ramses.gna.org Fidonet: 2:320/104 +33-1-60037015 USR DS 16.8 +33-1-60037713 V.32bis +33-1-60037716 1200-2400 Ramses The Amiga Flying BBS is an Amiga-dedicated BBS running DLG-Pro on a Amiga 3000, 16MB RAM, 2GB Disk space, 3 lines. We keep a dayly Aminet site mirroring, NetBSD-Amiga complete mirror site from ftp.eunet.ch (main site), Amiga Report, GNU Amiga, Ramses is the SAN/ADS/Amiganet French coordinator. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-12 "Gateway BBS" @toc "menu" * THE GATEWAY BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Excelsior! BBS * Stace Cunningham, Sysop Dan Butler, CoSysop 24 hrs - 7 days InterNet: stace@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil FidoNet: 1:3604/60.0 601-374-2697 Hayes Optina 28.8 V.FC Biloxi, Mississippi @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-13 "EMERALD KEEP BBS" @toc "menu" * Emerald Keep BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribation Site * Running DLG Professional * Michael mac Nessa, Sysop 24 hrs - 7 days FidoNet: 1:2250/2 AmigaNet: 40:206/1 618-394-0065 USR 16.8k DS Fairview Heights, IL @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-14 "Amiga BBS" @toc "menu" * Amiga BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Excelsior! BBS * Alejandro Kurczyn, Sysop FidoNet 4:975/7 First Amiga BBS in Mexico (5) 887-3080 9600 V32,MNP Estado de Mexico, Mexico @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-15 "The Stygian Abyss" @toc "menu" * THE STYGIAN ABYSS BBS * 312-384-0616 14.4 USR Courier HST 312-384-6250 14.4 Supra V.32 bis (FREQ line) 312-384-0716 2400 USR Courier FIDONet-1:115/384.0 CLink-911:6200/2.0 NWNet-206:310/0.0--206:310/1.0 PhantomNet Central States Cooridinator-11:2115/0.0--11:2115/1.0 FaithNet Central States Cooridinator-700:6000/0.0--700:6000/1.0 AMINet Chicagoland HUB-559:2/5.0 Chicago, Illinois Over 4 GIGS of files I Over 3700 MODS I Over 120 On-Line Games Tons of digitized sounds I Over 15,000 GIFS Supporting: Amiga I IBM I Macintosh I C=64/128 SIR SAMMY-SysOp Enter.......If you dare!! @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-16 "Amiga Do PC BBS" @toc "menu" * AMIGA DO PC BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribuition Site - Brazil * Running Excelsior! v 1.18 * +55-192-33-2260 Weekdays: 19-07 (-3 GMT) Weekends: 24 hours Fidonet: 4:801/44 RBT: 12:1212/1 Virinet: 70:101/17 Internet: fimoraes@dcc.unicamp.br Francisco Moraes, sysop Campinas, SP Freq AREPORT for the newest issue avaiable. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-17 "Comm-Link BBS" @toc "menu" * COMM-LINK BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Excelsior Pro * 604-945-6192 USR DS 16.8 24 hrs - 7 days Fido: 1:153/210.0 AmigaNet 40:800/9100.0 InterSports: 102:540/305.0 PussNet: 169:1000/305.0 InterNet: steve_hooper@comm.tfbbs.wimsey.com Steve Hooper, Sysop Port Coquitlam, B.C. Canada @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-18 "Phantom's Lair" @toc "menu" * PHANTOM'S LAIR * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running CNET 3.0 * FidoNet: 1:115/469.0 Phantom Net Cooridinator: 11:1115/0.0-11:1115/1.0 708-469-9510 708-469-9520 CD ROMS, Over 15511 Files Online @ 2586 meg Peter Gawron, Sysop Glendale Heights, Illinois @endnode @node P2-1-19 "Tierra-Miga BBS" @toc "menu" Tierra-Miga BBS Software: CNet Gib Gilbertson 24 hours - 7 days FidoNet: 1:202/638.0 AmigaNet: 40:406/3.0 Internet: torment.cts.com Line #1: 619.292.0754 V32.bis City: San Diego, CA. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-50 "Freeland Mainframe" @toc "menu" * FREELAND MAINFRAME * Offical Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running DLG Progessional * John Freeland, SysOp 206-438-1670 Supra 2400zi 206-438-2273 Telebit WorldBlazer(v.32bis) 206-456-6013 Supra v.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Internet - freemf.eskimo.com Olympia, Washington @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-51 "LAHO" @toc "menu" * LAHO BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Finland * Running MBBS * Lenni Uitti, SysOp Juha Mkinen, SysOp (Amiga-areas) Tero Manninen, SysOp (PC-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.32bis Seinjoki, Finland Our host machine is a 386/33 with 20MB of memory, 1GB harddisk and a CD-ROM drive running in a Novell network. The BBS software is a Norwegian origin MBBS running in a DesqView windows. We have now (26th March 1994) over 10000 files online (mostly for the Commodore Amiga line of the personal computers.) Every user has an access to download filelist (LAHOFIL.ZIP), list of the Finnish 24-hour BBS's (BBSLIST.ZIP or BBSLIST.LHA) and every issue of the Amiga Report Magazine (AR101.LHA-AR???.LHA) even on their first call. @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 28.8k 24hrs - 7 days EMail: christon@powertech.no @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 P2-1-55 "Leguans Byte Channel" @toc "menu" * LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany * Running EazyBBS V2.11 * Andreas Geist, Sysop Usenet: andreas@lbcmbx.in-berlin.de 24 hrs - 7 days Line 1: 49-30-8110060 USR DS 16.8 Line 2: 49-30-8122442 USR DS 16.8 Login as User: "amiga", Passwd: "report" @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-56 "Stingray Database BBS" @toc "menu" * STINGRAY DATABASE * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany * Running FastCall * Bernd Mienert, Sysop EMail: sysop@sting-db.zer.sub.org.dbp.de +49 208 496807 HST-Dual 24hrs - 7 days Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany @endnode -------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-57 "T.B.P. Video Slate" @toc "menu" _________________________________ / / /_ /\ * T.B.P. VIDEO SLATE * / / //// / Official Amiga Report / / AR Coverdisk / / / CoverDisk Distribution Site / / / / / An Amiga dedicated BBS for All / / / / / * Running Skyline 1.3.2 * / / / / / Mark E Davidson, Sysop / /__________________________/ / / 24 hrs - 7 days / _______________________ / / 201-586-3623 USR 14.4 HST / / ___ / / / / Rockaway, New Jersey / / / / / / / / / / /__/ / / / / Full Skypix menus + normal and /______/_______________/______/__/ / ansi menu sets. \______\________________\______\_\/ Download on the first call. Hardware: Amiga 500 Tower custom at 14 MHz, 350 Meg maxtor, 125 Meg SCSI Maxtor, 345 Meg IDE Maxtor, 2 Double Speed CD rom, 9 meg RAM @endnode -------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-58 "Amiga Central" @toc "menu" * AMIGA CENTRAL! * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site CNet Amiga Support Site * Running CNet Amiga BBS * Carl Tashian, Sysop Internet mail: root@amicent.raider.net 615-383-9679 1200-14.4Kbps V.32bis 24 hours - 7 days Nashville, Tennessee Hardware: Amiga 3000 Tower 68030+882@25MHz, 105 meg Quantum, 225 meg Seagate, Zoom 14.4k modem @endnode -------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-21 "Continental Drift" @toc "menu" *=====================================================================* /\ C O N T I N E N T A L D R I F T B B S / \ (+61) 2 949 4256 / \______ Murray Chaffer * Andre Lackmann * Dale Cohen / / \ / / \ Amiga * IBM * Macintosh / / \ : : : :\ \ /\ \ : : :800Mb+ Online - USENET News - Internet Mail :\ \ / \ \ : : Local Mail - FIDOnet Mail - Shareware Regos : :\ \/ \ \ : :Online Games - Aminet, FISH, Euro CD-ROMs : :\ / /: : : : :\ / /: : :Amiga Report * CD-32 View * Frontier Consoles \ / / * Computer underground Digest * \ /\ / \ / \ / **Online shareware registrations** \/ \/ Files daily from Aminet * ADS/SAN *=====================================================================* @endnode @node P2-1-22 "Amiga Online Bs Heemstede" @toc "menu" Amiga Online Bs Heemstede * HeadQuarters of Online Products * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- The Netherlands * Running Xenolink 1.90 * Your SysOp is Michiel Willems 24 hours a day - 7 days a week Fidonet : 2:280/464.0 DAN Host HQ : 55:100/1.0 Amynet Host : 39:151/1.0 NLA : 14:102/203.0 BOSnet Hub : 99:999/2.0 e-mail SysOp : michiel@aobh.xs4all.nl Line 1 +31-23-282002 14400 v32bis Supra Line 2 +31-23-470739 14400 v32bis Supra Heemstede, The Netherlands, Europe, The Earth Very nice menu's 660 Megs HD online - ALOT of software ALOT of messages - VERY fast BBS program Point support - Lot's of doors online Just freq AR of AR.LHA for the latest issue available The system is running on an Amiga 2000 with a HARMS-Prof-3000 030 turboboard at 29Mhz and a copro at 50Mhz, 7MB RAM, 660 Meg HD space and soon 1 Gigabyte HD space. Every issue from Amiga Report Magazine online as far as the first issue. @endnode @node P2-1-60 "Guru Meditation" @toc "menu" * GURU MEDITATION * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Spain * Running Remote Access * Javier Frias, SysOp +34-1-383-1317 V.32bis 24 hours - 7days Spain @endnode @node P2-1-20 "Moonlight Sonata DLG" @toc "menu" M O O N L I G H T S O N A T A D L G * Amiga Report Official Distribution Site * * DAS ModPlayer Support * 2 Nodes *FREE PUBLIC* Amiga BBS MIDI-tunes, MIDI-utils, Modules, Amiga-files Messages, Door-games, MUD... Also patches for several synths! (About 100MB of ProTracker Modules!) Node #1 - +358-18-161763 - ZyXEL V32b 19200 Node #2 - +358-18-161862 - HST DS V32 14400 Fidonet: 2:221/112.0 Keyboards: Erno Tuomainen Amiga3000 25MHz - 1.3Gigs HD BBS Software: Dialog Pro BB/OS @endnode @node P2-1-61 "LINKSystem LINK-CH1" @toc "menu" LINKSystem LINK-CH1 Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - Switzerland in local newsgroup link-ch1.ml.amiga-report Mails and News from/to UseNet contact: rleemann@link-ch1.aworld.de +41 61 3215643 V32bis/Zyx16800 +41 61 3832007 ISDN X75/V110 +41 61 3832008 ISDN X75/V110 @endnode @node P2-1-62 "Doom of Darkness" @toc "menu" * Doom of Darkness * * Home of AmBoS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany Marc Doerre (Marc_Doerre), Sysop (BBS-Owner/AmBoS-Support) Bernd Petersen (TGM), Sysop (Amiga-Software-Support) Gerhard Luehning (Klaro), Co-Sysop (Aminet-Support) Kai Szymanski (Kai), Co-Sysop (AR-Support/AmBoS-Support) Usenet: user_name@doom.ping.de Line 1 +49 (0)4223 8355 19200 V.42bis/Zyx Line 2 +49 (0)4223 3256 16800 V.42bis/Zyx Line 3 +49 (0)4223 3313 16800 V.42bis/Zyx Sysop Email: marc_doerre@doom.ping.de AR-Infoservice : kai@doom.ping.de @endnode @node P2-1-63 "RedEye BBS" @toc "menu" REDEYE BBS * Running EXCELSIOR/UUCP/AFAX * "Official Amiga Report Distribution Site Germany/Europe" Sysop: Thorsten Meyer Internet: sysop@redeye.greenie.muc.de Line 1: +49-89-5460535 (V.32b, Zyxel EG +) Line 2: +49-89-5460071 (USR Courier V32b terbo) 24hrs - 7 days Munich, Germany Areas for Amiga, PCs, Lotus Notes Group, Amiga Report, Game Byte, Graphic Stuff, 3D-Exchange, 3D-tools, 3D-objects, McAffee, GUS, PAS, DOOM, WINDOWS-NT, OS/2 Online CD, Online Games, USENET, INTERNET, FIDO ECHOS, Developer @endnode @node P2-1-64 "Virtual Palace BBS" @toc "menu" * Virtual Palace BBS * * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * * Official Amiga Report Disk Distribution Site * 916-343-7420 300-14400 Baud V.42bis AmiExpress 2.40 700 Mbytes P.O. Box 5518 Chico, California 95927 Tibor G. Balogh (Tibor), Sysop Sysop Email: tibor@ecst.csuchico.edu Leland Whitlock (Leland), Co-Sysop @endnode @node P2-1-65 "X-TReMe BBS" @toc "menu" -*+*/+ X-TReMe BBS +/*+*- Pygor & The Doctor +31-167064414 (24h) Internet: u055231@vm.uci.kun.nl _______ .__ _____ /_ .__//_/ //.___/ Bitnet: u055231 at HNYKUN11 ./ //.__ .//.___/ Internet: u055231@vm1.uci.kun.nl /_//_/ /_//____/. BBS: +31-1670-64414 (24h) . ___ .____ ______________ _____ . . . / .\/ . // _ /_. __/ . //.__ .\ . / / / / // /_. / /./ / // __ \ / . /___//___//___/./_/ /___//_/. \_/ @endnode @node P2-1-23 "The Kobayashi Alternative BBS" @toc "menu" T H E K O B A Y A S H I A L T E R N A T I V E B B S ----- ----------------- --------------------- ----- Supporting the Central Maine since 1985! 7 In-Dial lines (All 14.4 Compatable) Support for IBM/Windows, Amiga, MAC and CNet BBS Support On-Line Games (over 100) Internet Newsgroups and Usenet Mail FidoNet Echo Areas FidoNet: 1:326/404.0 (207)/784-2130 \ TKA (207)/946-5665 \ Local (207)/353-7224 / Access (207)/377-3214 / Lines @endnode @node P2-1 "Where to find Amiga Report" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Where to find Amiga Report %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Click on the button of the BBS nearest you for information on that system. FidoNet Systems --------------- FREQ the filename "AR.LHA" for the most current issue of Amiga Report! @{" OMAHA AMIGANET " link P2-1-9} ..................................Omaha, Nebraska @{" NOVA " link P2-1-1} .............................Cleveland, Tennessee @{" PIONEER'S BBS " link P2-1-3} ..............................Edmonds, Washington @{" CIUA 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 @{" GATEWAY BBS " link P2-1-12} ..............................Biloxi, Mississippi @{" EMERALD KEEP BBS " link P2-1-13} .........................................Illinois @{" AMIGA BBS " link P2-1-14} .........................Estado de Mexico, Mexico @{" THE STYGIAN ABYSS " link P2-1-15} ................................Chicago, Illinois @{" AMIGA DO PC BSS " link P2-1-16} .................................Campinas, Brazil @{" COMM-LINK BBS " link P2-1-17} .......................Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada @{" PHANTOM'S LAIR " link P2-1-18} .......................Glendale Heights, Illinois @{" Tierra-Miga BBS " link P2-1-19} .....................................SanDeigo, Ca @{" MOONLIGHT SONATA DLG " link P2-1-20} ..........................................Finland @{" CONTINENTAL DRIFT " link P2-1-21} ................................Sydney, Australia @{" Amiga Online Bs H'stede " link P2-1-22} ..................................The Netherlands @{"Kobayashi Alternative BBS" link P2-1-23} ............................................Maine Non-FidoNet Systems ------------------- @{" IN THE MEANTIME " link P2-1-2} ...............................Yakima, Washington @{" FREELAND MAINFRAME " link P2-1-50} ..............................Olympia, Washington @{" LAHO " link P2-1-51} ...............................Seinajoki, Finland @{" FALLING " link P2-1-52} ...........................................Norway @{" COMMAND LINE " link P2-1-53} ..................................Toronto, Canada @{" LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL " link P2-1-55} ..........................................Germany @{" STINGRAY DATABASE " link P2-1-56} ...........................Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany @{" T.B.P. VIDEO SLATE " link P2-1-57} .............................Rockaway, New Jersey @{" AMIGA CENTRAL " link P2-1-58} .............................Nashville, Tennessee @{" GURU MEDITATION " link P2-1-60} ............................................Spain @{" LINKSystem LINK-CH1 " link P2-1-61} ...............................Basel, Switzerland @{" DOOM OF DARKNESS " link P2-1-62} ..................................Bremen, Germany @{" REDEYE BBS " link P2-1-63} ..................................Munich, Germany @{" Virtual Palace BBS " link P2-1-64} ........................................Chico, Ca @{" X-TReMe BBS " link P2-1-65} ..................................Holland/Belgium @endnode