@database "ar134.guide" @Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #1.34 -- November 19, 1993" @{" Open Magazine " link "menu"} _ ____ ___ ______ _______ _ d# ####b g#00 `N##0" _agN#0P0N# d# d## jN## j##F J## _dN0" " d## .#]## _P ##L jN##F ### g#0" .#]## dE_j## # 0## jF ##F j##F j##' ______ dE_j## .0"""N## d" ##L0 ##F 0## 0## "9##F" .0"""5## .dF' ]## jF ##0 ##F ##F `##k d## .dF' j## .g#_ _j##___g#__ ]N _j##L_ _d##L_ `#Nh___g#N' .g#_ _j##__ """"" """"""""""" " """""" """""" """"""" """"" """""" ###### ###### ###### ###### ###### ######## TM ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ### ###### ## ###### ## ### ## International Online Magazine "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information." November 19, 1993 No. 1.34 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// / Winners Don't Use Drugs / /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Copyright © 1993 SkyNet Publications All Rights Reserved @endnode @node P2-1 "Where to find Amiga Report" @toc "menu" /// WHERE TO FIND AMIGA REPORT Distribution Sites! -------------------------- Click on the button of the BBS nearest you for information on that system. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// / FidoNet Systems / //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// FREQ the filename "AR.LHA" for the most current issue of Amiga Report! @{" OMAHA AMIGANET " link P2-1-9} ..................................Omaha, Nebraska @{" NOVA " link P2-1-1} .............................Cleveland, Tennessee @{" CLOUD'S CORNER " link P2-1-3} ............................Bremerton, Washington @{" BIOSMATICA " link P2-1-4} .........................................Portugal @{" AMIGA JUNCTION 9 " link P2-1-5} ...................................United Kingdom @{" BITSTREAM BBS " link P2-1-6} ..............................Nelson, New Zealand @{" REALM OF TWILIGHT " link P2-1-7} ..................................Ontario, Canada @{" METNET TRIANGLE " link P2-1-8} ......................Kingston Upon Hull, England @{" AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM " link P2-1-10} ................................Helsinki, Finland @{" RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING " link P2-1-11} ...........................................France @{" GATEWAY BBS " link P2-1-12} ..............................Biloxi, Mississippi @{" TALK CITY " link P2-1-13} ...............................Waukegan, Illinois //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// / Non-FidoNet Systems / //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// @{" IN THE MEANTIME " link P2-1-2} ...............................Yakima, Washington @{" FREELAND MAINFRAME " link P2-1-50} ..............................Olympia, Washington @{" LAHO " link P2-1-51} ...............................Seinajoki, Finland @{" FALLING " link P2-1-52} ...........................................Norway @{" COMMAND LINE " link P2-1-53} ..................................Toronto, Canada @{" RENDEZVOUS " link P2-1-54} ......................................New Zealand @{" LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL " link P2-1-55} ..........................................Germany @{" STINGRAY DATABASE " link P2-1-56} ...........................Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany @{" T.B.P. VIDEO SLATE " link P2-1-57} .............................Rockaway, New Jersey @{" AMIGA CENTRAL " link P2-1-58} .............................Nashville, Tennessee @{" CONTINENTAL DRIFT " link P2-1-59} ................................Sydney, Australia @{" GURU MEDITATION " link P2-1-60} ............................................Spain @endnode Non-AmigaGuide Users: See the end of this document for numbers to each BBS. ___________________________________________________________________________ /// 11/19/93 Amiga Report 1.34 "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" -------------------------- · The Editor's Desk · CPU Status Report · New Products · FTP Announcements · Dealer Directory · AR Confidential · Usenet Reviews · AR Online · The Humor Department · Emulation Rambler · A.M.I.G.A. · GPFax Review · Famous Amiga Uses · New Scala Products · » Commodore Posts Another Loss! « » WOCA Seminar Schedule « » INOVAtronics Announces "Edge" « /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Amiga Report International Online Magazine "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" » FEATURING WEEKLY « Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information Hardware · Software · Corporate · R & D · Imports /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// / DELPHI · PORTAL · FIDO · INTERNET · BIX · AMIGANET / /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-1 "From the Editor's Desk" @toc "menu" /// From the Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!" ---------------------- » SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMNT « ------------------- The Amiga Report Internet Mailing List is no longer accepting requests for additions, deletions or changes. The individual managing the list is no longer able to continue this task. The Amiga-Report-Request address has been disabled, so any mail sent there will be bounced back. The actual list is still active as it stands, and will be for another week or two. We are in the process of converting the list over to another system, and hope to have the move completed in a few weeks, hopefully sooner. In the meantime, if you are not on the mailing list, I suggest you try to get AR from either a major online service, or from one of the many offical AR Distribution Sites. That list continues to grow, as we've added four more sites since last week! Thank you for your patience. And now, back to our regularly-schedule editorial... Have you ever wanted to see your name in writing? Are you technically inclined, or good at writing reviews? We're looking for some writers to do original pieces. Naturally, since we're a free magazine, we have no budget in which to pay people. The only thing we can offer is the good feeling you'll get by knowing you're helping the Amiga Community! We're interested in all kinds of articles... reviews, programming instruction, helpful hints and tricks (remember the DOA Amiga Tip of the Week? We ran out of ideas). If you have anything you care to contribute, we're more than happy to take a look! Please send submissions to Rob-G@cup.portal.com. Thanks! Rob @ AR @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P4-1 "Delphi" @toc "menu" /// Delphi: It's Getting Better All The Time! ------------------------------------------ Amiga Report International Online Magazine is available every week in the Amiga SIG on DELPHI. Amiga Report readers are invited to join DELPHI and become a part of the friendly community of Amiga enthusiasts there. SIGNING UP WITH DELPHI ====================== Using a personal computer and modem, members worldwide access DELPHI services via a local phone call JOIN -- DELPHI -------------- Via modem, dial up DELPHI at 1-800-695-4002 then... When connected, press RETURN once or twice and.... At Username: type JOINDELPHI and press RETURN, At Password: type AMIGAREPORT and press RETURN. DELPHI's best plan is the 20/20 plan. It gives you 20 hours each month for the low price of only $19.95! Additional hours are only $1.50 each! This covers 1200, 2400 and even 9600 connections! For more information, and details on other plans, call DELPHI Member Services at 1-800-695-4005 SPECIAL FEATURES ---------------- · Complete Internet connection -- Telnet, FTP, IRC, Gopher, E-Mail and more! 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DELPHI - It's getting better all the time! @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P2-2 "AR Staff" @toc "menu" /// The Amiga Report Staff Dedicated to serving you! ---------------------- Editor ====== Robert Glover Portal: Rob-G Delphi: ROB_G FidoNet: 1:285/11 AmigaNet: 40:200/10 Internet: General Mail: ROB_G@Delphi.com Submissions: Rob-G@cup.portal.com Assistant and Technical Editor ============================== Robert Niles Portal: RNiles Delphi: RNILES FidoNet: 1:3407/104 (Private) Internet: rniles@imtired.itm.com Contributing Correspondents =========================== Jun Akiyama Jason Compton Chad Freeman David Tiberio @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P1-2 "CPU Status Report" @toc "menu" /// CPU Status Report Late Breaking Industry-Wide News ----------------- ** Atari Ships $250 Jaguar System ** Last week, Atari Corp. formally launched its $250 64-bit games mach- ine, the Jaguar. Computergram International said the machines will go on sale in New York and San Francisco in the next few weeks, in the rest of the U.S. early next year, and in Europe later next year. Atari says that next year it will offer a $200 CD-ROM drive add-on to play audio compact disks and disk-based games. The Jaguar systems are being made for Atari by IBM's Charlotte, N.C., operations. Atari chief Sam Tramiel has told reporters he expects the company to sell 40,000 to 50,000 Jaguars before Christmas and at least 500,000 in 1994. "The critical requirement," comments CI, "is for successful soft- ware, and there will only be four games this year, and perhaps two dozen next year; the games will cost $40 to $50." The Jaguar ships with one game cartridge included. In a related story, this week, Atari Corp. and Accolade Inc., a nota- ble publisher and developer of Sega and Nintendo video games, jointly announced a licensing agreement that will enable Atari to bring five proven, hot titles from Accolade to consumers on the new 64-bit Jaguar Interactive Multimedia System by Fall 1994. Commenting on the company's decision to work with Atari, Accolade's chairman, Alan R. Miller stated, "That Atari Jaguar is definitely cool, new technology that is being introduced at a price point attractive to consumers. We think Atari has a real shot at establishing Jaguar as a successful system, and we want be part of that effort." The Accolade titles for Jaguar include: Al Michaels Announces HardBall III; Brett Hull Hockey, Bubsy in: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind; Charles Barkley Basketball; Jack Nicklaus' Power Challenge Golf. "Accolade's list of titles adds significantly to the Jaguar product line," said Sam Tramiel, president and chief executive officer of Atari. "Accolade's proven titles enhanced by the 64-bit power of Jaguar will enrich the Jaguar player's library of video games with life-like sports adventures and real-time 3D animated characters that speak. The Accolade titles help us to attain our goal of delivering a high quality selection of Jaguar titles that will entertain all age groups." ** 3DO Posts $7 Million Quarterly Loss ** 3DO Co., reported a fourth- quarter loss of $7 million for its second quarter ended Sept. 30. This compared to a loss of $2.1 million for the prior-year quarter. 3DO posted quarterly revenues of $2.6 million from development systems shipments to its software licensees. It had no reve- nues in the year-ago quarter. 3DO has started selling its $700 Interactive Multiplayer, a device that merges capabilities of the video-cassette recorder, the personal computer and the video-game player. 3DO unveiled a prototype player, dubbed Opera, at the winter Consumer Electronics Show last January in Las Vegas, Nev. The company's backers include American Telephone & Telegraph Co., Time Warner Inc., Matsushita Electric Industrial, venture capitalist Kleiner Perkins Caufied & Byers and Electronic Arts, one of the key developers of video-game software. Early reviews of the system, powered by a 32-bit computer chip and playing compact disks, have been generally positive although some anal- ysts think its price tag may be too high for many consumers. But backers believe the machine will catch on with trend-setting buyers and will take hold because it can be used with both adults and children. 3DO will face competition from Atari Corp.'s Jaguar video-game player, due in some stores before the end of the year. Analysts have been impressed with early reports about the $250 Jaguar, which runs on a 64-bit chip will sell for about twice the price of Nintendo's and Sega's 16-bit machines but considerably less than 3DO's $700 player. ** Which Systems do MultiMedia Developers Prefer? ** The answer - Apple Computer's Macintosh and Sun Microsystems' SPARC platforms for developing software - at least, that's what the new Data- quest survey tells us. The market researcher surveyed 200 multimedia developers who work on a wide range of products including video games, corporate presentations, CD-ROM title development, advertising, kiosks, training and education. Nearly 63% of the respondents said they prefer the Macintosh platform when developing multimedia software on personal computers, and less than 36% said they prefer IBM and compatibles. Of the respondents who use workstation platforms for multimedia development, 38% said they prefer SPARC and 31% noted a preference for the Silicon Graphics platform. "It's ironic that, while multimedia software developers prefer to use the Macintosh platform by nearly two to one, the majority of their reve- nue will come from producing DOS- and Windows-compatible products," said Bruce Ryon, principal analyst of Dataquest's Multimedia service. ** Japan's Computer Shipments Down ** Japan's shipments of small business computers in the April-September first half of the current fiscal year fell 20.7% from a year earlier to 68,541 units. In terms of value, shipments dropped 22.4%. ** Washington Post to Create Interactive Newspaper ** The Washington Post Co. announced this week it has created a new unit that will produce news and information products for distribution through computers, faxes and telephones. Called Digital Ink, the company's first product will be an online, interactive version of The Washington Post. It will be available in July 1994. ******* General PC News ******* ** IBM to Shrink Computers ** IBM on Tuesday formally signaled a big change in the way it builds large computers, saying it would gradually adopt a design that costs less money and takes less energy and space. The design is called parallel processing because the computer makes decisions and crunches data with dozens or hundreds of the chips found in personal computers. Big computers in the past have typically been built around one or a few large processor chips. Parallel-based compu- ters take up the space of a refrigerator compared to previous monoliths that filled a room. ** New Version of Anti-Virus Software ** Trend Micro Devices, Inc. has announced PC Rx 4.0, a new version of its anti-virus software for DOS- and Windows- based computers. The soft- ware features rule- based activities monitoring and virus scanning and removal. It also incorporates a new technology called MutieClean. MutieClean is designed for the elimination of mutation engined viruses, codes which previously could not be detected or removed if in an advanced state of infection generation. PC Rx 4.0's rule-based virus trap doesn't require virus pattern up- dates and is able to filter virus infected programs from legitimate applications. ** Okidata Introduces New 600 dpi-class Printer ** Okidata Monday introduced the newest member of its 4 page-per-minute (ppm) family, the OL410e. It is a compact, 4 ppm, LED/laser-class page printer designed for individual PC users who require 600 dpi-class out- put for desktop publishing, graphics, word processing and spreadsheet applications. An affordable choice in 600 dpi-class printers, the OL410e carries a suggested list price of $899. The new OL410e joins Okidata's recently introduced OL400e, a compact, 300 dpi LED/laser-class page printer designed with a suggested list of $699. Specifically, the OL410e, with its 600 dpi-class output, is targeted at users of 386/486 PCs who have the need for higher quality output for external selling and marketing documents, such as presentations, flyers, newsletters and brochures. ** PC Price Cuts - Getting Ready for Comdex ** IBM cut prices up to 26% on its top-of-the-line personal computers that run networks of desktop models. Hewlett-Packard chopped the prices of several mid-range PC's up to 12%. ** Sound Blaster Owner Sues Covox Inc. ** Creative Technology Ltd., which owns the trademark of Sound Blaster products, has received a preliminary injunction pending trial in U.S. District Court to restrict Covox Inc. from selling products bearing the word "Blaster." Covox produces speech recognition software bearing the name "Voice Blaster." Pending the hearing, Covox "is obliged to adhere to the court's order that by Dec. 1 it must provide stickers to its customers disclaiming any association between Voice Blaster and Sound Blaster." ** miro Introduces Two New miroVideo Cards ** miro Computer Inc. announces two new PC video cards, its first entries in the U.S. multimedia market. Both cards can do high-resolution, real-time single-frame or motion- video captures, and are compatible with Microsoft Video For Windows, and each offers significantly more. The economical miroVideo Model D-1 is available for $279. The professional-grade miroVideo Model DC-1 is $899. The Model D-1 will ship by the end of December, the Model DC-1 by the end of February. ** Cyrix Releases '486 Upgrade Chips ** Cyrix Corp. has added the Cx486SRx2 to its Upgrade Microprocessor family. The Cyrix 386 to 486 Upgrade Microprocessor models allow users to upgrade their 16, 20 or 25MHz 386SX systems to 486 performance. The chip maker says the upgrade extends the life of existing 386SX desktop PCs by delivering up to a 70% improvement on application performance while maintaining software compatibility. The Cx486SRx2 is a single chip module. A clip-on device, co-developed with Augat Inc., snaps the Cx486SRx2 on the existing 386SX micropro- cessor, disabling the original chip and allowing the Cx486SRx2 to take over all the microprocessor functions. The design works in all desktop systems tested, but it's not suitable for notebook applications, since it requires 1-inch spacing to accommodate the Upgrade and heat sink and allow for proper airflow. Cyrix says it's evaluating plans for upgrade products for the 386SX notebook market. The Cx486SRx2 25/50, for upgrading 25MHz systems, has a suggested re- tail price of $299. The Cx486SRx2 20/40, for upgrading either 16MHz or 20MHz systems, has a suggested retail price of $269. ** Epson Expands ActionNote Line ** Epson America has added new systems to its ActionNote line of '486 portable computers. In a statement, Epson says: -:- The ActionNote 700, built around 486DX/33 processors, includes monochrome, dual-scan passive matrix color or TFT active matrix color versions. The monochrome sidelit LCD screen offers 64 shades of grey, while the passive matrix and TFT active color screens feature 256 simultaneous colors. -:- The ActionNote 500C offers an enhanced passive matrix color note- book with a 486SLC/2-50 clock-doubled processor and local bus video. Available also is a removable hard disk drive available in configurations from 80MB to 213MB. ******* General Mac News ******* ** Rumor - Apple to Launch MS-DOS-Based Mac at Next Week's Comdex ** Rumor has it that Apple Computer Inc. will be launching its combina- tion Macintosh-Windows machine as the Quadra 610 DOS Compatible at Comdex next week. Sources say the machine, code-named Houdini, "includes the Apple Win- dows co-processor board and enables users to switch among the System 7, MSDOS and Windows environments with a hot key." Look for the system to include an 80486 processor and a VGA graphics chip. Insiders say that "It will use the screen, RAM, SCSI ports, serial ports and hard disk of the Quadra," "Once the hot key is pressed, the Microsoft Corp. environment takes over the screen; a second keystroke returns the user to the Mac System 7." Supposedly the machine will be offered in three configurations: a basic unit with 8MB and 160MB disk and floating point unit, the same setup with built-in Ethernet and another with a 230MB disk. ** Seagate Signs With Apple ** Seagate has signed a new contract to supply Apple Computers Inc. with volume quantities of its 209MB ST9235N hard drive. Financial details were not released. Reports say that the drives will be used with Apple's portable computers. ** Two New Macintosh Viruses Discovered ** The Triangle Software Division of Datawatch Corp. this week announ- ced the upgrade of its popular Macintosh anti-virus software, Virex, to version 4.1 to detect and repair the newly discovered CODE 1 virus. CODE 1, discovered at several sites in the United States, can infect application programs and system files of any Apple Macintosh computer. Once infected, CODE 1 will rename the hard disk to "Trent Saburo" when the system is restarted on October 31 of any year. Although the virus employs a trigger date mechanism tied to October 31, system crashes and other damage can occur at any time of the year, as CODE 1 attempts to alter system files. "CODE 1 is the first Macintosh virus to utilize 'stealth' techniques, indicating growing sophistication among virus writers," stated Andrew W. Mathews, general manager of Datawatch's Triangle Software Division. "With version 4.1 we have once again demonstrated our ability to combat this increasing sophistication." A separate virus, named MBDF B, was also recently reported to Data- watch as a "new" virus strain. The MBDF B virus can cause unintentional system damage, such as system crashes and malfunctions in application programs. Because of its advanced detection capabilities, Virex versions 3.6 and greater already detect and repair MBDF B. For more product information on Virex or any of the Datawatch Triangle Software Division products, please call 919/549-0711. ___________________________________________________________ » COMDEX Opens! « LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 15 (NB) -- Comdex has become so large it is hard to tell what the big story or announcement will be. Will it be the battle between Novell's UnixWare and Windows NT? Will it be the Apple Newton, or some other personal digital assistant (PDA)? Will it be multimedia, by whatever name it is going by these days? In fact, it will be all that, and more. The user base is so splintered, with different types of people in different types of situations requiring radically different tools, that it is hard to tell what will happen. This at a time when Microsoft Windows is as big a standard as DOS once was -- the DOS market is drying up. For now, it seems that PDAs, personal communicators or hand-held mobile devices are giving Microsoft's rivals one last chance to shine. Devices running Microsoft at Work, a stripped-down version of Windows, are not due until next year. Meanwhile there are three versions of the Zoomer under Geoworks -- from AST, Tandy, and Casio -- the Apple Newton, and the AT&T Personal Communicator with its PenPoint operating system. All will try to get a piece of the market before the 800-pound gorilla, now known as Bill Gates, decides where to sit down. Speaking of Microsoft, many are featuring the Microsoft Office suite of applications -- including Excel, Word, and PowerPoint -- which is putting pressure on Borland, WordPerfect and single- purpose programs. By selling a collection of applications at a discount, all of which work together, some argue that Microsoft is making major application software into a two-horse race -- with itself and Lotus, with help from Notes, being the two horses. The show itself will be housed in four venues -- the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Las Vegas Hilton next-door, the Sands Expo Center, and Bally's -- but that does not mean it is getting smaller. Instead, cozy tents have been set up, some for exhibits, others for functions like the press center. Parking will be impossible, but at least there will not be the long rides to the Tropicana or Riviera to worry over. Speaking of long rides, however, many people are literally staying 50 miles or more from the show, and cabbies are taking people in suits to hotels they would be scared to visit most days. The official noise is 170,000 expected, although the word on the street is more like 185,000. » Editorial - The Online Future « ATLANTA, GEORGIA, U.S.A., 1993 NOV 12 (NB) -- By Dana Blankenhorn. There's a great and growing paradox online. Users remain tied to modems running, at best, at 9,600 bits/second. Their main choices are among CompuServe, GEnie, America Online, Applelink, and Prodigy on the consumer side, Dialog, Dow Jones, or Mead Data Central on the business side. Meanwhile, billions are being spent to "dominate" the coming world of multi-megabit services linked to cable TV. While information providers and service providers work at arms- length in today's online world, and anyone with an idea has a shot at the market, there's a growing assumption that only "brand names" need apply in the future. The need to control such brand names has created a feeding frenzy among players, who like BellSouth, are determined to be "survivors" in a game that hasn't really started. I don't know if anyone has noticed it or not, but Prodigy has yet to turn a profit, and will never, ever, make back the $500 million IBM and Sears invested to open it. This is because Prodigy continues to think it can control what people say and read online, choices best left to free people and free markets. The same hubris is now consuming such otherwise intelligent men as Bell Atlantic's Ray Smith, BellSouth's John Clendenin and TCI's John Malone. The reasons for it can be found in the Bells themselves. The networks they offer are, compared to their promises, pitiful. If I were Ross Perot, comparing the Bells' promises and performance, I'd be a little crazy too. A decade ago the Bells promised a raft of new services based on a digital standard called ISDN. ISDN delivers two 64,000 bit/second data channels and a 16,000 bit/second signaling channel to residential customers. Today ISDN is offered in only a few places, and I still can't get it in Atlanta, despite living just a block from a major urban switch. Even Bell-heads are in on this joke -- if the Bells were selling sushi they'd call it cold dead fish. Bell-head suppliers were happily pinning "cold dead fish" buttons to their lapels at this year's Supercomm trade show, and the Bell-heads were laughing right along. The problem today remains the same as it was 10 years ago, when ISDN was the big buzzword. The Bells like to talk about competition, but all they really understand is monopoly. They won't make investments in plant and equipment unless they see a guarantee of profit. The same is true of the cable companies. That's what this feeding frenzy over Paramount is really all about -- control. The Bell-heads and cable-head ends figure if they don't control what goes over their systems, its cost, and the ability to keep others' content off, investments in the "information superhighway" just aren't worth it. As Ross likes to say, "I find that fascinatin'." Every other business in the world seems to have figured out there's a difference between content and distribution. The former must always be risky, in the way that art and science are risky. There can be no guarantees the product will be as promised. There's no way to guarantee against a movie like "Ishtar" or "Popeye," no way to prevent a "Paula Poundstone Show" from reaching the air for two weeks. The risks are inherent in the process of trying something new. Distribution risks are different. They're about balancing the cost of obtaining business with the cost of providing service. Producers don't know if there will be any business. Distributors just worry about getting their share, and at what price. My point -- billions and billions of dollars are going to be lost in the next few years, billions and billions of dollars that could have been profitably invested in fiber wires and high- capacity switches, billions and billions of dollars which will go instead to lawyers, deal-makers and accountants. The Japanese thought they had this game wired too, so Sony bought Columbia while Matsushita bought MCA-Universal. Now Matsushita wants out -- even deep pockets have a bottom to them. You'd think the Bell- heads would take a lesson from that and stick to their knitting. Not a chance -- like those old ladies fleeced by Zero Mostel in Mel Brooks' "The Producers" a quarter-century ago, they've got stars in their eyes and sawdust in their veins. The tragedy is this time we'll all pay for that, in the form of higher phone rates, and less technology online than we'd like, that we deserve, and that we'd pay for. The preceding two stories are © 1993 NewsBytes. Reprinted with permission. @endnode ___________________________________________________________ @node P1-3 "CBM Announces another loss" @toc "menu" » Commodore Announces Another Loss « PHILADELPHIA - Commodore International Ltd., after months of unexplained delay, revealed late Friday (11-12-93) that it lost $356 million for the year ended June 30, obliterating shareholders' equity, which fell from $325 million June 30, 1992, to negative $53.2 million. The report raises "substantial doubts about the company's ability to continue as a going concern," Commodore said in the report, which normally would have been issued in August. The West Chester, Pa., firm also said it lost $9.7 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30. Officials were unavailable. @endnode @node P1-4 "INOVAtronics releases Text editor" @toc "menu" » INOVAtronics Releases New Professional Text Editor for the Amiga « "Edge" EDGE is a powerful and easily configurable text editor for writing and editing common ASCII text files. Uses include editing AmigaDOS batch files (such as the Amiga's Startup-Sequence), as a "front end" editor for Desktop Publishing programs, and as a source code editor for various programming languages such as C or ARexx. EDGE is desirable for any project where a conventional word processor would embed unwanted, invisible formatting codes in your text. Toaster users will find EDGE a perfect companion to Directory OPUS and great for tweaking those Lightwave render files. EDGE Feature List ----------------- · May open an unlimited number of files (limited only by available memory). · Allows an unlimited number of windows per file (limited only by available memory). · Real-time update of a file's windows. · Files may be saved with Snapshot which maintains the local editing environment in the icon for the project. · Extensive AmigaGuide on-line help everywhere; pressing the Help key at any time brings up the relevant section of the help file in AmigaGuide hypertext, which allows you to jump around as you wish or retrace your steps. · Powerful undo and redo feature. You may define the size of the undo buffer. · EDGE's custom screen is public, allowing other applications to exist on its screen. Command Shells, ARexx consoles, Directory Opus, etc., may exist on the EDGE display. The custom screen may run on any monitor added to the display database. · Can open on the Workbench screen, a clone of the WorkBench, or on any application that uses a public screen (i.e. EDGE may open on the Directory OPUS screen). · User definable fonts. The screen and gadget fonts may be any font; monospace or proportional, between 6 and 64 points. The text font may be any monospace font between 6 and 64 points. All three fonts support user definable softstyles bold, italic, underline, and font scaling. · Has the ability to hide sections of text inside "folds". Folds can be nested. Commands include: Show, Hide, Shownested, Hidenested, Showall, and Hideall. · Unlimited number of ErrorMarks and IMarks, 10 BookMarks, one AutoMark. · When EDGE is running, it opens a device much like a "RAM Disk". This device works just like any disk on the WorkBench, inside Directory Opus, or when named in a Shell. You may drag and drop a project file icon on this device/disk icon and it will load into EDGE for editing. The EDGE: device gives instant access to all files loaded into EDGE. You can do most things with the EDGE: device that you can do with a normal ram-disk (including creating and deleting files). · User definable menus, user definable keyboard layout, all texts, messages, errors, prompts, titles, etc., are completely definable. · Fast search and replace. Searches can be stopped by pressing CTRL-C. Supports AmigaDOS 2.0 wildcards (in single line searches), whole words, case significance or not, circular searches, and multiple line searches with replacement. You may search and replace non-printing characters such as '\000'. You may copy text (blocks) to the search or the replace buffer. EDGE supports searching for assembler/C labels and C function definitions, and it will test for matching brackets. · Powerful, well integrated ARexx support with a rich set of editor ARexx commands, as well as a macro recording facility. · You may iconify and deiconify EDGE via window gadget or hotkey. User definable hotkey and cx priority. You may also select to disable the icon-window in the WB screen. "Wakeup" is fast since the config files aren't "release" during iconification. EDGE may be started in iconified state. · Search/replace commands include: find, findchange, findnext, findchangenext, findlabel, findcfunction, findimark, findbracket. · Backup-system supports auto-numbering and handling of multiple backups per file. · All config files and startup scripts may be overridden at startup using special keywords or tooltypes. · Wordwrap with user definable right border. Paragraph formating using either left, right, centered or filled justification which uses the wordwrap right border. · AutoSave via user definable timer (in minutes). You may also define how the AutoSave works: you may choose to save only the current file or all open files; save files only if changes have been made or save them regardless. · Two clipboards, one local to the current file and one global which is shared by the whole Amiga. Available block commands include: copy, cut, paste, erase, uppercase, lowercase, swapcase, printclip, saveclip, clearclip. EDGE supports vertical or columnar blocks. · Powerful printing system. User definable printer device, user definable header and footer titles with separate printer initialization strings, date, filename, page numbering, tab converter, margins and paper length. By having the init strings user definable the user may specify more advanced options for his/her printer than with normal 'bold', 'italic', etc., buttons. · Each file has a user definable local environment that may be saved with the file in the icon (scroll borders, flags, bookmarks, IMark image, wrap border, window size/position, tab list, search/replace stings, rx string etc). The local environment is easily changed with a point and click requester. The flags contain features such as: safe saves, icon creation, convert tabs to spaces, layout, auto indent, line wrap, word wrap, backup, editable or view only, insert/overwrite mode and the search flags - case, words, wildcards, direction and circular. · The EDGE global environment, which affects all EDGE files, is also controlled with a point and click requester. The entire environment can be controlled from ARexx. · The user may elect to use either the Commodore standard ASL FileRequester or the EDGE built-in requester. · All the EDGE requesters may be user positioned or pointer relative (appearing where the pointer is). · EDGE task priority is user definable, as are the ARexx-console and the time delay to wait before closing the ARexx-console. You may also define the threshold for errors reported to the user (all EDGE errors have user definable error-levels); the maximum number of files in the last-used-list. The EDGE file requester maintains a history of files and is completely keyboard controllable. · The EDGE icon toolname is user definable and so is the EDGE project icon. · The status line may be either in the top or bottom of the window; the ink and paper colors are user definable. · The EDGE text windows can have 'autofunctions' attached to them: bring window in front of all other windows at activation, zoom window at deactivation, unzoom window at activation, adjust window size to even chars when the window is resized. Suggested retail price is $99.95. For more information, contact INOVAtronics, 8499 Greenville Ave. Suite 209B, Dallas, Texas, 75231, 214-340-4991. @endnode @node P1-5 "New Amiga Game Magazine" @toc "menu" » New Amiga Game Magazine Debuts « TITLE Amiga Game Zone magazine COMPANY Amiga Game Zone 103 W. California Urbana, IL 61801 USA ORDERS: 1-800-32-AMIGA INFO/FAX: 1-217-344-3478 DESCRIPTION American Amiga owners will finally have their own Amiga-specific game magazine. Amiga Game Zone will exclusively cover Amiga games and related hardware from both the United States and Europe. All machines will be supported, including the new CD32, AGA, and standard Amigas. Issues will have full-color covers and will include numerous Amiga screenshots and in-game graphics. Amiga Game Zone will initially be published on a bi-monthly basis, but plans are to go to monthly issues by summer. The premiere issue will be nationally distributed to newsstands and computer stores in December. Amiga Game Zone will offer the most detailed information and reviews in the industry. Each issue will have information on new European import games as well as American releases. Charts of the twenty best selling games on both continents will also be included. The December issue will feature a complete analysis of the new Amiga CD32 with every available title reviewed. Approximately twenty current games will also be reviewed in each issue with a brief overview and a detailed opinion offered for each game. Reviews will include complete compatibility information and an overall rating. A special column will cover every AGA game released for the Amiga 1200 and 4000. Amiga Game Zone will clearly be the best source of regular information for the Amiga games player. Strategy guides will be published for the top American games, in addition to cheats, level codes, and tips for all Amiga games. Classic commerical and public domain games will be featured on the last page of each issue. Sample issues are available from the publisher for $4 each plus $1 for postage and handling. Six issue subscriptions are $24 including postage. To order by Visa or MasterCard, call 1-800-32-AMIGA. Send checks or money orders to Amiga Game Zone, 103 W. California, Urbana, IL 61801. For more information, call 1-217-344-3478. ANNOUNCEMENT BY Geoff Miller, editor Amiga Game Zone magazine miller@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu @endnode @node P1-6 "HD expansion form A600/1200" @toc "menu" » New Hard Drive Expansion for Amiga 600/1200 « Amiga Format magazine reports that Software Demon has introduced two hard drive add-ons for the Amiga 600 and Amiga 1200 computers. These are the first Amiga expansion units that use the PCMCIA slot on the left side of the machines. Two models are offered: One for 2.5" IDE drives, and one for the larger (and cheaper) 3.5" units. @endnode @node P1-7 "Raggae MODs contest" @toc "menu" » Reggae Mods Contest Announced « TITLE Reggae Mods Contest AUTHOR Bobby Stewart (Owner of Sandals Resorts & creator of Contest) Paul Cubillos (Partner in Contest) Comments & question are welcome COMPANY USA: Unique Vacation Inc. 7610 S.W. 61 Avenue Miami, Florida 33143 800-Sandals 305-284-1300 DESCRIPTION Have you ever wanted to go to Jamaica for a Sun n' Fun Vacation. Well that time has finally come! A good friend & I have created the Reggae Mods Contest. If you can find or create Reggae style MOD(s), submit it to me at my address or Email me for ways to transfer your entry to me.If you are creating a MOD for entry, we would like you to get your inspiration from famous artists such as Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, 3rd World, UB-40, etc. We do not want you to copy their songs, just use their idea or similar rythem as inspiration for your own creation. Copying songs is a criminal offense. Any MODs received not meeting the above criteria will be deleted from the running. Your entries, provided we do not have that particular file online already, will be put into a "Grand Pot" (Computer DataBase), along with your name,phone number and complete address, and any information concerning the MOD entry (Where you got it, author, inspiration, etc). All original works entries are to become property of Sandals Resort Hotels. I will periodically update everyone on Usenet of the progress of the Contest along with all entries already online. The drawing will be on December 31th, 1993. The winner will receive an all expense paid week in one of the four Sandals Resort Hotels in Jamaica (airfare not include) for themself and a guest of their choice. All Sandals Resort Hotels are all-inclusive resorts which include: unlimited food & beverage; wide range of watersports; group activities; taxes and gratuities. All Resorts are for couples only and located on romantic beach settings. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS All MODS must be in standard pro-tracker or noise-tracker format. Pro-Tracker and Noise-Tracker are MOD(modules) creating programs. The reason for this is that MODs will be used in a Scala environment, which can only use these type of formats. All MODs will be used for advertising commercials in Jamaica on a certain channel within the hotels compound. HOST NAME Depending on how many MODS are received, there will be a directory created on wuarchive.wustl.edu for allocation of these MODs. Meanwhile you should send all mail to me at: 59236014T@Servax.fiu.edu which happens to be my brothers account at Florida International University. Send me Email so we can find a way to get your MOD into the drawing. DISTRIBUTABILITY This contest is distributable as far into the network as possible. ENTRIES ONLINE Mod.Calypso mod.Dreamland mod.JamaicaFever mod.JamaicanBeat mod.La_Vie_est_Rose @endnode @node P5-1 "Cookie v2.0" @toc "menu" » Cookie 2.0 available for FTP « TITLE Cookie VERSION 2.0 AUTHOR Amiga version by Andreas M. Kirchwitz, original Unix version by Karl Lehenbauer E-Mail: amk@zikzak.in-berlin.de DESCRIPTION This is a very fast fortune cookie program. It prints a nice quote/saying/joke from your cookie database. The cookie database is a plain text file, entries are separated by "\n%%\n". So you can easily add your own cookies with a simple text editor. Once (after installation or changing your database) you have to generate a hash-table (a small file with lots of numbers) which helps Cookie to get an amazing fast access to entries in even very large databases. Includes C-source and 2 MB fortune cookies. Contact me if you want more ;-) SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS none 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/misc/cookie20.lha" in the body. DIRECTORY pub/aminet/util/misc FILE NAMES cookie20.lha DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely distributable. @endnode @node P5-2 "ForceIcon v1.0" @toc "menu" » ForceIcon 1.0 available for FTP « TITLE ForceIcon VERSION 1.0 Kai Iske Brucknerstrasse 18 63452 Hanau Germany Tel.: +49-(0)6181-850181 email: kai@iske.adsp.sub.org iske@informatik.uni-frankfurt.de DESCRIPTION ForceIcon is an utility mainly for users of CDRom drives. Since one can not snapshot the position of a volume`s icon, nor replace it by a user-defined one, I wrote this utility. ForceIcon allows you to set the position of a disk`s icon and/or replace it by a different image/icon which doesn`t have to be a disk.info file. All types of ".info" files may be selected. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Only OS 2.x and up HOST NAME ftp.luth.se (130.240.18.2) DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/os20/wb/ FILE NAMES ForceIcon10.lha ; program, docs and source PRICE GiftWare, i.e. anything you like ;) DISTRIBUTABILITY GiftWare @endnode @node P5-3 "New World Demo" @toc "menu" » New World Demo available for FTP « TITLE New World (Demo) RELEASE 1.2 AUTHOR Kevin Roll (kar5@po.cwru.edu) SHORT Demo version of New World game DESCRIPTION New World is a game of exploration and trade, similar to the C-64 classic Seven Cities of Gold. The player forms an expedition and sets out from Europe in search of the new world. Once there, the explorer must deal with the natives who live there. This demo version is fully playable but contains a few limitations. The game is multitasking, fully system-compliant, hard-disk installable, and AGA enhanced. Optional display and font selection is supported. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS New World requires AmigaDOS 2.04 or higher. The registered version requires 1 meg contiguous memory. NEW FEATURES This release corrects some bugs in release 1.1 and adds some major enhancements. HOST NAME Aminet (e.g. wuarchive.wustl.edu) DIRECTORY /pub/amiga/aminet/games FILE NAME NewWorldDemo12.lha PRICE Registered versions of New World are available for $30 US. See documentation for details. DISTRIBUTABILITY The archives are freely distributable in original and unmodified form. See documentation for details. New World is (c) Copyright 1993 by Kevin Roll. @endnode @node P5-4 "Zeus SCSI Patch" @toc "menu" » Zeus SCSI patches available for FTP « TITLE The package ZeusSCSI.lha contains the following executables: ConfigMem, KickLoad, PatchZeus, PatchZeus2 and ZeusSCSIfix. VERSION The version numbers of the executables in ZeusSCSI-package are: ConfigMem: 37.4 KickLoad: 1.0 PatchZeus: 1.1 PatchZeus2: 1.2 ZeusSCSIfix: 2.9851 AUTHOR Michael L. Hitch (osymh@montana.edu) DESCRIPTION These programs make owners of Progressive Peripherals Zeus 68040 card a lot happier than they are without them. The PPI supplied SCSI driver has the annoying feature that it uses a CPU polling loop for waiting the SCSI DMA transfers to complete. The supplied patch programs make the SCSI driver to use Signal()/Wait() mechanism to wait for the completion. This allows other tasks to use the CPU while a task is doing a SCSI transfer. The patches also fix a nasty problem which is related to the copyback cache of 68040 processor. The PPI driver pays no attention to this problem which can cause disk reads to be corrupted. So even if you don't want better performance consider using the patches. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Zeus 68040 accelerator card with ROM version 2.98 is required to use the patches. Some of the programs may work or could be made to work with OS version 1.3 but to be safe at least 2.0 is required. HOST NAME The package is available from Aminet sites. The main Aminet site is ftp.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4) but use a server closest to you. DIRECTORY On Aminet sites the package can be found in directory: /pub/aminet/hard/drivr FILE NAMES On Aminet sites the package is named: ZeusSCSI.lha The size of the package is 40473 bytes. PRICE Free. DISTRIBUTABILITY Freely distibutable. @endnode @node P5-5 "Music Web" @toc "menu" » The Music Web available for FTP « TITLE "The Music Web" VERSION DATE First release -- November 1993 DESCRIPTION The Music Web is an extensible, interactive, graphic-diagram environment for building configurations of elements to manipulate MIDI event streams (and perhaps other data). Modules with specific functions can be `plugged together' by placing icons in a diagram and linking them in the desired configuration; paths may branch and join at will to form a two-dimensional network. This is a first release, with a limited set of modules, including an 8SVX `instrument', intended for real-time performance (no sequencer module yet). You will probably be able to take best advantage of this package if you have some kind of multitimbral, multichannel MIDI setup, but it should be useful for even the simplest. With more modules to come, I hope it can become one of the most flexible music environments around. A list of most of the current functions: MIDI IN and MIDI OUT (of course!) Loudness (reduce velocity value of a note event) Transpose (up or down by semitones up to two octaves) Key Range (pass a specified range of notes) Key Filter (block specified notes of the scale) Msg Filter (block specified types of MIDI messages) Set Channel (of events on that path) Delay (make delayed copies of note (and other) events) Instrument (an 8SVX-from-MIDI player) SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS The Music Web needs the 2.04 or later operating system; it should run in a 1MB machine. It really needs something faster than a 68000 to be useful (though it will run on one). Of course an essential requirement is a MIDI interface on the Amiga serial port. Documentation is in AmigaGuide form, so you should really have this on your system. A plain text version of much the same stuff is avaiable on request. [NOTE: An inadvertent reference to `shadow.library' was left in the current installation sequence. This is *not* used by the MIDI version.] AUTHOR Pete Goodeve (pete@violet.berkeley.edu) AVAILABILITY The Music Web is available for anonymous ftp from Aminet, for example: USA ftp.wustl.edu 128.252.135.4 in directory: /pub/aminet/mus/midi as: MusicWeb.lha (~230Kbytes) DISTRIBUTABILITY The Music Web is Copyright Peter J. Goodeve 1993, and is freely distributable Shareware. Suggested donation $35 US. @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-8 "Amiga Report Online" @toc "menu" /// Amiga Report Online News Keyboards clicking away! ------------------------ » Portal News « ----------- .../General Q&A, Announcements, and Help!/Commodore at Australian show 16026.3.634.1 from usenet 11/9/93 21:48 136/6934 Harv Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Path: portal!sdd.hp.com!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexa s.edu!uunet!munnari.oz.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!dpi-gw!qdpii!davidme From: davidme@qdpii.ind.dpi.qld.gov.au (David Meiklejohn) Subject: Well done, Commodore! Message-ID: Organization: Queensland Dept of Primary Industries Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1993 07:46:14 GMT Lines: 121 Portal-Origin: Usenet Portal-Type: text Portal-Bytes: 6425 Portal-Location: 17267.3.5567.1 On November 4-6, IDG Communications (magazine company) presented the Australian Macworld Expo at the Sydney Exhibition Centre (Darling Harbour). In conjuction with it, they also held the first Publish / Multimedia World Expo. I went along on Saturday to have a look, and see what's happening in the world of Macs. I also expected to see some "interesting" applications of PCs (along with the Macs) in the multimedia section. The exhibition was divided into two equal-sized halls, one devoted to Macworld, the other Multimedia. According to the floorplan, each was arranged in the same way, with the major exhibitor having the largest stand, in the centre of each hall. For the Macworld Expo, that was, of course, Apple Computer. In the adjoining multimedia hall, the major exhibitor was, you guessed it: Commodore Amiga! They had actually booked as much floorspace as Apple, at a predominantly Mac show. To understand the significance of this, it helps to know that, on the exhibition floorplan, every exhibitor is identified by a number only, except the two major exhibitors: Apple and Commodore. The show catalog is divided into two halves - open it at one end and you get the Macworld show guide, but open it from the other, and it's Multimedia world. On opening the Macworld section, the inside cover and first page is a two-page Microsoft spread. Open the guide from the other end, though, and the first thing you see is: "Amiga. The affordable multimedia solution!" Very professional looking. Less professional is the facing, inside cover, which is a full-page ad for the "Amiga CD^32 32-bit CD based entertainment system." Turning to the exhibitor list, we see, under Amiga: Commodore at Macworld? Commodore has some pretty exciting news for visitors to Macworld - but it has nothing to do with Macs! Commodore will be showing visitors to its stand in Multimedia World the amazing Amiga computer: the perfect alternative to the Mac on every count. Specifically, Commodore will be demonstrating its top-of-the-range Amiga 4000, the computer which has become the machine "of choice" amongst the professional video/graphics industry. The Amiga 4000 is designed for multimedia - a job it does exceptionally well at amazingly low cost. In fact, countless TV stations, video production companies, advertising agencies and in-house video units have adopted the Amiga. But it's more than a multimedia performer: desktop publishing, desktop presentation, desktop video, disktop audio and even interactive design are just some of the fields the Amiga 4000 is found in today. If you're thinking about a computer for multimedia, think again - and think Amiga. Try a hands-on demonstration of the power of this machine at the Commodore stand at Macworld. Obviously, Commodore found someone who knows what hype is to write the above. :-) In fact, saying that the Amiga is the perfect alternative to the Mac on every count is a bit over the top (although, with an Emplant, you do pick up most of the software base) and it's the sort of claim that could have left Commodore to fall flat on their face. But - I hadn't looked at the showguide when I wandered in. It's my usual practice to look quickly around a show to see what's there, before stopping at individual exhibits. So, I started in the Mac hall, and saw lots of Macs doing amazing things. Then I gazed across toward the multimedia hall and the first thing that caught my eye was a large sign, with a spotlight moving on it, hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the hall, saying "Amiga - Multimedia _now_". Needless to say, my jaw dropped and I rushed right over. They had a video wall set up, which was connected to a CD^32. Plugged into the back of the CD^32 was an MPEG board, and playing on the video wall was good old Bon Jovi. Now, there were lots of 24-bit quicktime animations playing on high-end hardware, over in Mac land. But, none of it could touch the quality and smoothness of the video being played by the humble little A$1100 CD^32 (the console is $699 here; the MPEG board will go on sale here for A$399 (US$267) next month). They had seats set up, continually full of people watching the screens. While not demoing CD^32, they showed an Opalvision video. Some of Commodore's area was taken by a video production company, although I didn't really check it out - video not being my thing. Another area was taken by a dealer (Sigmacom?), who had a display that was impressing quite a few passersby. They were showing off the new 150MB Bernoulli drives by playing 24-bit animations off one, while subjecting it to a repeated drop test. What I found nicest though, was the Workbench screen on one of the Amigas there. They had an EGS board in an A4000, connected to a NEC 6FG, which is about 20", and sharp as a whistle. The WB was running at 1280x960 in 256 colours, and was quite fast to use. They had set it up with background and window pics, and had installed MagicWB. The whole thing looked very appealing, and it made the Amiga look like a truly professional system, able to match it with the big boys. I was most impressed when a couple of "suits" walking past, noticed this screen and remarked on what a good-looking desktop it was. These guys had never even heard of an Amiga, and it had to be explained to them that they weren't looking at some new Mac OS. Of course, the price tag of that sort of system is way up there, but no higher than most of the other stuff on display at that show. All in all - words fail me. It was one thing that Commodore grasped this opportunity to present themselves to a receptive and influential audience in such a big way. It was quite another to see the Amigas attracting much interest, and quite able to match any other display at the show. Add to that, actually getting to see CD^32's MPEG in action, and, well, I'm glad I went, to say the least! Let's hope they keep it up, and maybe try some of the same in the US. I think the American Amiga supporters could do with some good news.... :-) ------------------------------ /Gateways/Usenet/comp/sys/amiga/announce/Virus on Disk 919 and CD-ROM 17258.3.705.1 Virus on Disk 919 and CD-ROM 11/7/93 21:42 76/3835 fnf@fishpond.cygnus.com (Fred Fish) On Nov 2nd, two hours before I had to leave to get on a plane to go to the WoC show in Cologne Germany, I got a FAX that said there was an active Saddam Hussein virus on disk 919 in the BBBF submission. This was later confirmed when I arrived in Cologne on Nov 4th. Because the contents of disks 911-930 are on the Oct Fresh Fish CD-ROM, this problem also affects that CD-ROM. The details, as I understand them at the moment, are: (1) The virus is on disk 919 in the BBBF submission. The exact filename is "BBBF/FileVirLib/VirusToTest/Saddam_Hussein_virus". (2) The virus is only dangerous if you are running kickstart 1.2 or 1.3. However it is a *very* dangerous virus. (3) In order to infect your system you would need to execute the file containing the virus. Under normal use of the CD-ROM, there is no danger from the virus. User's might legitimately ask how such an error could occur, including an easily detectable virus (using most virus checkers) and one with an obvious name as well! The only explanation I can offer at this point is that we obviously didn't run a virus checker over all files on the CD-ROM (though we do normally have virus checkers running on the test systems that will detect viruses when they get run), and that the person working for me on that batch of floppy disks didn't realize that this was an actual working virus and not just a test file that simulated a virus or a castrated virus that would be no danger. It's still my responsibility though, so any blame for including it must fall on me. As soon as I return home, on about Nov 12th, I will reissue disk 919 with the virus removed, and send copies of the replacement floppy to all of my direct subscribers. I will also send a letter to all of my direct CD-ROM subscribers, notifying them of the problem and offering a replacement CD-ROM at no charge, should they wish to return the virus infected one. I will not insist that all CD-ROM users return their CD-ROM's, except those that use the CD-ROM in such a way that the file containing this virus is publically accessible, such as on a BBS or ftp server. Once we were certain that the CD-ROM contained an active virus we halted further distribution of the CD-ROM. This meant that I had to destroy approximately 500 CD-ROM's at the WoC show in Cologne, much to the frustration of local German users who begged to be allowed to purchase them. The optical side was carved up with a knife, I signed the front, and we gave them away as souvenirs of the show. Ultimately I expect this virus to cost me about $3,000 to $5,000 in lost productivity time, CD-ROM replacement production costs, and shipping charges. So you can be very sure I'll be doing everything in my power to avoid future virus problems. I am very disappointed that Safe Hex International apparently offered no warning that their distribution included an actual working virus rather than just a file simulating a virus or a castrated, harmless virus. Furthermore, to pick such a dangerous virus seems to me to be very irresponsible. I'm not contemplating any sort of legal action at this time since I don't feel that the submission had any malicious intent, though I'm also not ruling such action out for now, or in the future should I discover new submissions containing trojan horses or viruses. Because of the time I will lose dealing with this problem, the next Fresh Fish CD-ROM may be delayed a week or so. My best estimate at the moment is that the December Fresh Fish CD-ROM (aka the second monthly CD-ROM) should ship about the second or third week of December. -Fred ------------------------------ /Message Bases/General Q&A, Announcements, and Help!/CBM at COMDEX.... not! 16026.3.638.1 Centaur has the booth 11/15/93 18:34 32/1458 Harv Commodore does not have a booth at COMDEX/Fall (Nov. 15-19, 1993, in Las Vegas... 170,000 attendees expected. Over 2000 exhibitor booths). They are listed in the ridiculously huge show book/directory but upon arriving at the "South Annex" hall and looking for their booth number, instead I found Centaur Development with their familiar OpalVision demo booth, being manned by Greg Niles, tireless demodude and Centaur phone support guy. Greg had a bad sore throat and was not enjoying the prospect of facing an entire week of doing demos during which he narrates his on-screen actions to a crowd of viewers. Greg told me that it was his understanding that CBM turned their booth space over to Centaur at virtually the last minute. Hopefully CBM will, as they promised at the WOCA show in Pasadena in Sept. '93, have a good showing at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) also to be held in Vegas the first week of January, 1994. I would certainly hate to see them bail out of that show too, since that is when/where they claimed they were going to roll-out CD^32 to the full USA market. COMDEX is about 98% PeeCees. Bill Gates, Intel, and IBM own this show, for all intents and purposes. There are a few Amigas scattered about here and there, but I won't kid ya, the Amiga is practically invisible here unless you know where to look. Ah well, there are plenty of other things to do in Vegas for the rest of the week ;-) » Delphi News « ----------- 20113 10-NOV 06:02 Potpourri RE: usual questions (Re: Msg 19981) From: LMCCLURE To: XIS (NR) DCTV is Digital Creation's Digital Composite TeleVision, totally unrelated to Commodore's CDTV. (Well, not *totally* unrelated...it was long expected that Commodore would be bringing out a DCTV display-only expansion for CDTV. However, this never occurred). DCTV is a black box that attaches to the DB-23 video port on the Amiga and to the parallel port. It has a DB-23 pass-thru port for your RGB monitor, a composite out port (for DCTV video), and a composite in port (for digitizing). BTW, the parallel port connection is needed only if you are digitizing. While DCTV is not true 24-bit output, I would say it is every bit as good as what you see on TV, and at best resolution, actually better than what you get from a typical VHS tape, based on my own experience. (Yep, I've got one). From what I recall from my last digitizing session, "RAW" format files take up around 450K, while "DISPLAY" files take up *much* less (around 96K, as I recall). This is for an image that is stored in Amiga RAM as a 4-bitplane, hi-res interlaced, overscanned image. I see used DCTV's pop up for sale for $200 or less, a savings of $100 off the new mailorder price. If you are interested in one, and have nothing against used goods, I strongly recommend this route. The RGB convertor, so that you can use an RGB monitor, and more importantly, use DCTV graphics with a genlock, runs $200 new. I rarely have seen this item for sale used separately, and not that often in combination with the DCTV itself. Of course, with used color composite monitors available for well under $200, the only real need I see for this is genlocking DCTV graphics. As I recall, the A3000 has 4 slots, the same as the A4000. The video slot is inline with one, and PC slots are inline with the other three, if I am not mistaken. Since the A3000 already has a flicker fixer and SCSI controller built in, this should be adequate for most folks, especially if you don't plan on using a Brigdeboard. This would give you room for one card (Videotoaster, Opalvision, etc.) in the video slot, a Retina or other video card in a regular slot, with two more slots left for other goodies, such as a VLab framegrabber, DKB memory expansion, multiport board, etc. To put it another way...if you could afford to fill up all 4 slots, you could probably afford to buy an A3000T (which has more slots)! The Toaster 4000 will work in the A3000 without modification. (It has a video I/O section that snaps off and changes the configuration...it comes set up for the A4000/A3000). The older Toaster board (intended only for the A2000 series) would work, but either required the A3000 or the Toaster board to be physically modified for it to fit. The flicker fixer in the A3000 is certainly worth it, as it is included! Seriously, if you are talking about getting one for the A2000, I would give the Microway FlickerFixer a definite thumbs down...the places I see still selling it ask as much or more for it as Commodore's own 2320 board, and it does not work as well. ICD's Flicker Free Video 2 has the advantage of not taking up the video slot, but costs the most... over $200 new (actually, around $225). I have seen some places selling Commodore's A2320 new for as little as $125 (and used prices even lower on occassion), so unless you have something intended soon for the video slot, I strongly recommend it. Your first few sessions with rock steady 640x400 Workbench displays on your Amiga will convince you it was money well spent. Also, for normal use, all the 2.04 ECS modes except Super hi-res (i.e. 1280x200 and 1280x400 interlaced) will work with an inexpensive VGA monitor with a Commodore A2320 or the ICD FFV2. ------------------------------ 20356 17-NOV 22:05 General Information RE: clone mice (Re: Msg 20326) From: JUHLER To: XIS (NR) Howdy, A BUS mouse from the clone world will work on an Amiga. There is a write up on this in the Jan. 92 issue of Amazing Amiga. Pin out: (9- pin Sub D) (9-Bin Din) (Amiga) (IBM) 1 4 2 2 3 5 4 3 5 7 6 6 7 1 8 Ground 9 9 8 Chassis Ground Chassis Ground » FidoNet News « ------------ *** Area: AMIGA Date: 10 Nov 93 22:18:05 *** From: John Strzykalski (1:107/344.0) *** To : All *** Subj: THE BEST OF AMIGA Has anyone ever had any dealing with the people who put out a monthly publication on disk (usually 3 disks) with PD & shareware programs on them, called "The Best of AMiga". Well I have, and it will be my first and last dealing with them!!!! Over 2 months ago I purchsed a 3 disk set in which 2 of the disks had read.write errors. Inside the package was a little note stating thatif you received defective disks to send them back. Well I did, along with 2 follow up letters, and they never responded to me!!!!! Now I'm out $15.00 for the purchase of this, but worst of all I do not have these programs which I really wanted in the first place. I'll be damned if I'll go out and buy it again. I have no use for companies like this who do not have the decency to respond to the customers needs. I told them in my last letter, that it was the final one, and if I did not receive a reply them, I would handle the matter myself by telling the AMiga community about thier non-existent disk replacement service. I hope a compnay like this goes out of business tomorrow!!!!!!!! I have no use for them. I should have known better when I had seen that they operated out of a P.O. Box. I had sent the disks to a place in Cape Coral Florida. So the next time you see this publication anywhere, think twice before you purchase it, for if the disks are defective, odds are, you are NOT going to receive replacements for them!!!!!!! ------------------------------ *** Area: AMIGA Date: 13 Nov 93 20:26:17 *** From: Mike Levin (1:273/912.0) *** To : All *** Subj: C= Shareholder Movement @MSGID: 1:273/912.0 1dd903e9 Dear Member of the Commodore Community, Minutes before trading ended on the NYSE this evening, Commodore released their financial statements for the last two quarters. For Q4 93 ending June 30th, Commodore had a loss of $82.9 million; making a total loss of $356.5 million for the year. Q1 94 ending September 30th had a loss of $9.7 million. Demand that Commodore meet with the Commodore Shareholder Movement. We all have a stake in the fortunes of this company, and the CSM offers the most promising and lasting route to recovery. We can only achieve this with your participation. Please support the CSM by dup- licating and sharing this questionnaire (at user groups, dealers, shows, etc.). By the way, if you are planning to buy stock, Monday might be a good time. Thank you. Commodore Shareholders Movement Post Office Box 8296 Philadelphia, PA 19101 Phone: 215-487-0440 Fax: 215-825-3966 Internet/Portal: MarcR@cup.portal.com Sincerely yours, Michael Levin ------------------------------ *** Area: AMIGA Date: 14 Nov 93 13:53:26 *** From: Lorne Laliberte (1:348/706.3) *** To : All *** Subj: Frontier! Well, much to my surprise, when I called a local dealer Friday to find out if anyone tried When Two Worlds War yet (both the dealer and I are waiting for a first-hand report, since it's been pretty trashed on the local nets) I asked if there were any new releases. He remembered me, asked how the story was doing ("still having troubles with it?" ;), but started listing new IBM titles, the brat. I said "How 'boot on the Amiga, Duncan?" and he laughed (a bit embarrassed I'll bet). "Let's see..." checking a list. "Frontier, um..." "FRONTIER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU HAVE FRONTIER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I blew his ears off. I hadn't slept in a long time, but I said "hold it for me I'll be right there" and rushed into the city. And I've got it! Man, what an amazing program. It almost doesn't seem right to call it a game - it's a universe! 100,000,000,000 planets is a nice number. But look at the galactic map, and zoom out, waaaaaaaaaaaaaay out, until you realize that that huge map they give you (looks nice in any room by the way - already on my wall!) is only a few pixels on a screen full of 'em. It's amazing. I spent an hour in the star map, zooming in and out, scrolling around (it's gorgeous...it moves so smoothly on the A1200!). I discovered an undocumented feature carried over from Elite - use shift with the cursor keys moves the view in the star maps a sector at a time, instead of in minute increments. ZOOM! The map flies, and it goes on, and on, and on, and on..."Unexplored," "Unexplored" the stars all say. (At least, I think that feature is undocumented, I haven't found it in the manual yet). There are some pretty wild star systems in Frontier. You name it, it's there. I've even visited a system with 6 stars (though one was a brown dwarf and considered a sub-star). Two binary stars, each set of binaries rotating around a white dwarf (I think) and a brown dwarf around that little white star as well. A planet around the brown dwarf, and a space station around that planet. Sometimes it's a long trip to get to the planet, though, since there's a lot of open space in this system (if the computer tells you it's out of range, shut off the engines and fly manually using RETURN for forward and SHIFT for reverse thrust. The Autopilot decelerates using reverse thrust, but it's never as powerful as forward thrust. I recently bought a new ship (an Eagle Long Range Fighter Mk 2 to replace my Mk 1 - it's got more forward thrust, less reverse thrust, and 2 tonnes more cargo space than the Mk 1, which is why I wanted it ;) and while it has 28 Gs forward thrust, it only has 4 Gs reverse thrust. So pedal to the metal, then coast, flip around, and decelerate with the main engines. You also have a better chance of avoiding hostile ships if you go faster - ships catch you when you're coasting or decelerating, usually, and the less time you spend decelerating, the better. Combat in Frontier is not for the weak hearted! Battles last a lot longer than they ever did in Elite, I find - lasers now are very hard to use, the little 1 MW pulse laser you start out with (and a bigger laser almost requires a bigger ship or forget trading anything - lasers take up hull space like everything else you buy) in the recommended starting position (there are 3 starting positions - more later ;) isn't that hot, and you have to get really close (under a kilometer, which is a lot harder than it sounds) to get a good shot, unless the target is flying in line with you at the time - then you can try thrusting at him with guns blazing but hope you blow him up before he does you, or before you collide. Save the game often in spaceflight if you have to. It's easy, Frontier has the quickest file requestor I've ever seen. It's gorgeous to use. It's really weird - HD installation consists of opening up the drawer on your HD where you want Frontier to be, and moving the single icon over to it. That's it. That's absolutely it! And Frontier loads faster off the HD than my Workbench loads, for heaven sakes. It seems to me that somethign over 600k usually takes longer than that to load, but maybe I'm just in all around shock right now. The game is very nicely done. You have a choice of using Elite-style controls, or using controls better suited to the mouse. After struggling in combat with the Elite controls (thing just move too fast in combat, sheesh) I switched to the mouse, and have had better success. The game is very open ended, of course, but you really have to work to make money. Trading animal meat and robots between two rich systems is a good way to go, but when you only have 3 tons of cargo space and one of them has to be used for Hydrogen Fuel (and hope you don't need more ;) you don't make much per trip. That's why I moved up to the Mk 2 Eagle, as soon as I could afford it - 2 more tons of cargo space. There are a good number of ships in the game, and they're very nicely rendered in combat and otherwise. But there's so much to decide! The Constrictor is there but while it has cargo room it's relatively slow and needs an extra crewperson to man it, which you'll have to find and hire (in other words, you have to pay him a wage!). The Cobra Mk III is very tempting, being a 1-pilot ship, and with lots of cargo room, but it's slow compared to the new fighters. It has room for some real equipment, though, like more powerful lasers and shield generators. Frontier gives you the option of starting in any of three different situations. Recommended is the first position, with an Eagle Long Range Fighter already equipped with the essentials on Ross 158, nice and close to Sol. Position number two puts you on Mars (terraformed ;) with an Eagle that has a larger Beam laser but nothing else. Position number three is for old fogie Elite die-hards, giving you a Cobra Mk III in orbit around Lave (yes it's there! Part of a small group of stars with only one planet arond them ;). You have a laser and that's about it, but the ship is worth a LOT if you want to sell if off real quick...and you have a lot of cargo room, so you can make money quickly. The kicker is that you start off as a Fugitive in the eyes of both the Federation and the Empire - Lave is an independent world, so you're safe enough for now. But things get really hot with a price on your head. Police fines are bad enough for us honest folk, fire a laser accidentally in the wrong place (even ifyou don't hit anything) and you might face a 7000 credit fine. ------------------------------ *** Area: AMIGA Date: 14 Nov 93 14:57:52 *** From: Lorne Laliberte (1:348/706.3) *** To : All *** Subj: Still Frontier! Of course I'm not done yet. Included with the game are a nice manual (though a bit sparse in some areas, compared to the original - there's more to cover though), a Gazetteer of famous star systems with some hidden hints, a book called "Stories of Life on the Frontier" with little stories set in the Elite universe, a quick reference card, a very nice star map (though only a fraction of what's out there), a notice for a Frontier T-shirt (I want one! Call me an easy mark but I want one!) and two disks - the game disk, and a Data Disk. What the Frontier Data Disk does, I don't know - unless it sneaked its way onto my hard drive while I wasn't looking, HD users don't use it (or will it be asked for later in the game? Who knows). It's only 13% full anyway - I suspect it's included mostly for saved games. It took me a while to understand the physics in the game - versus the lack of physics in the original . For instance, in the orginal, the space bar increased your speed, and another key decreased it, and you maneuvered a la Star Wars. In Frontier, you accelerate and decelerate. In manual flight the ship spins on its gyros and you point it wherever you like, and the computer works the thrusters to bring the ship to that course. If you're already moving pretty fast, the speed might not even seem to change if you turn 180 degrees, because of scale, and the fact that it takes a while to change speed even with 25 Gs. In other words, your inertia is taken very much into consideration now. In combat, it may seem as though you're zooming around your opponent, but you're still moving in your original direction at great speed. Say I'm heading for the planet Discovery, and I'm doing 20,000 km/s (kms^-1 in the game, same thing). A Sidewinder attacks me, and I thrust towards him. What I've done is add a component to my velocity vector, changing it slightly. My line-of-flight crosshairs won't seem to move, because at 20,000 km/s a few seconds of thrust to move 8 kilometers left or right doesn't mean much. Once you're able to shake off the feeling that your velocity (or line-of-flight) vector doesn't HAVE to move for you to be zooming around your opponent, everything's fine. Targetting tunnels help a lot in spaceflight, by giving you instant feedback on the closing velocity between you and the targetted opponent. And it's best to switch off the engines and control thrust yourself. Outrunning opponents is possible if you have a faster engine, but if you're heading for a planet you can't just thrust towards it forever - you have to think about deceleration at all times. But if you're careful you can keep an opponent at bay by thrusting for the planet, then turning and decelerating at the last possible moment. Most likely the other ship will zoom past you harmlessly, and if you keep up your thrust he'll have a hard time catching you again. Of course, if the other ship has more powerful engines you'll have to do this many times. It's possible to beat off the fast ships by reversing your thrust and keeping them in a yo-yo chase, but it's tricky to do that without overshooting the planet you're aiming for. In combat ships' designations are shown on screen, and you can actually identify ships by it - I've had run-ins with the same ship after evading it once before on another trip. The designation appears on most ships' hulls, and that's indicative of the wealth of depth in this game. If you thought Elite seemed real, ha ha, wait till you try the Frontier. Bounty hunting is still possible. You no longer collect a bounty on every ship - only on those that are wanted. And, you collect nothing unless you've got a Radar Mapper to positively identify the ship, and give you information on its specs. It takes up a ton of cargo space...ship building in Frontier is laced with choices. Do I go for that beam laser, and lose another 4 tons of cargo space? Do I really need an atmospheric shield? If I only take one missile I can take an extra tonne of goods each trip... There are faster military engines available, that burn special fuel, but its converted into radioactives yo have to pay to have dispose of (jettisoning anything is illegal and results in a fine ;). There are amazingly powerful weapons but only large ships have room for them. Everything is a trade-off. You can make good money fast running errands for people, but keep an eye on the date! People aren't happy when things are delivered late. And not everyone keeps their half of the bargain - I've delivered parcels and had the authorities notified instead of payment made! Good thing I asked for half-payment up front, or I wouldn't have seen a penny. If you have any imagination. If you enjoy games where the goals parallel those of life itself, and the aim is to survive. If you want your games to last as long as you want them to. If the thought of exploring strange new worlds excites you. Buy Frontier! ------------------------------ *** Area: AMIGA Date: 11 Nov 93 22:13:20 *** From: Tim Lloyd (6:700/267.69) *** To : All *** Subj: Scala Part 1 Got some info off Compuserve I thought you might like. It's in three parts.... NEWS RELEASE Ameritech 30 South Wacker Drive Suite 3400 Chicago, IL 60606 Media contacts: Geoff Potter, Ameritech, (312) 220-2383 Linda Barker, Scala, (303) 628-5442 November 8, 1993 AMERITECH AND SCALA FORM MULITMEDIA ALLIANCE Ameritech now will help its Midwest customers create proprietary information delivery networks of multimedia presentations combining, text, video images, animation and sound. The company today announced an alliance with software firm Scala, Inc., to market computer-based information network that are both cost-effective and easy to use. With this alliance, Ameritech now will offer its customers Scala's proprietary multimedia network product, known as InfoChannel, for uses ranging from employee information video magazines for corporations to class registration and campus event information networks for schools to point-of-sale advertising displays for retailers. Specifically, customers can call upon Ameritech to design, install, maintain, and provide training for their own multimedia networks which utilize the Scala InfoChannel software to create the on screen material and to update, schedule and transmit the information over standard telephone lines. For example, J.C. Penney uses InfoChannel to produce and broadcast its daily employee news program, McDonald's uses it for point-of-sale advertising at several stores in England, and the University of Michigan uses it to assemble and send important campus news to 15,000 students at their residences. Ameritech will package these kinds of applications using Scala software and market them through its business units to customers in many markets, including the health care, education and financial industries. The alliance also calls for joint development of multimedia products for customers in specific markets. "Scala products let you produce unsurpassed multimedia programming on a desk-top computer, with a minimum of training, at a price point that no other product can match, " said John Hillman, Scala marketing vice president. Businesses, government agencies and schools can create these multimedia programs and then transmit them over standard lines or ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) lines to stores, remote offices, schools or other sites. The information can be updated and displayed at these sites on television sites, desktop compute monitors or interactive touch-screen kiosks. "Ameritech is quickly expanding from an order taker of network components to a value-adding partner and market maker," said John Vaughan, president of Ameritech information industry services, the Ameritech unit that serves third-party network services and information providers. "Scala's multimedia products, coupled with our networking and marketing ability, enable us to provide many exciting customer applications in both existing and new markets." Vaughan said. With 45,000 users in 40 countries, Scala is the leading international developer of multimedia authoring software for distributed information systems. Scala was founded in Oslo, Norway, in 1987 and incorporated as a U.S. company in Delaware in 1992. Today's world headquarters are in Reston, VA., with domestic offices in Portland, OR, Philadelphia and Chicago. Ameritech is a leading provider of full-service communications and information services to about 12 million customers in the Midwest, and it also has operations in New Zealand, Norway, Poland and other countries. Its 1992 revenues were $11.2 billion, and its assets exceed $22 billion. Customers may call (800) 451-5283 for more information. ### ------------------------------ *** Area: AMIGA Date: 11 Nov 93 22:14:14 *** From: Tim Lloyd (6:700/267.69) *** To : All *** Subj: Scala Part 2 The best multimedia authoring software for the Amiga just got better! Introducing the next generation multimedia presentation software: SCALA MULTIMEDIA MM300 Check out these new features: Drawing Tools - Create and manipulate lines, rectangles and circles! Each drawing can be moved and resized. Add different attributes like color, wipe, outline, shadow, etc. Resize Brushes and Pictures - Scale, crop, change-aspect-ratio of backgrounds and brushes! Load Resolution - Change resolutions and number of colors on the fly! Fast Floyd-Steinberg Dithering - Pictures and brushes can now be remapped quickly with the Floyd-Steinberg dithering technique. Images will look smoother and cleaner than ever before! Optimize Palette - This time saving feature automatically calculates and remaps the color palette for each background, brush and text color! File Format Support - The Scala EX system now loads GIF, TIF, PCX and BMP file formats from other computer platforms! You can even save IFF pictures into the Microsoft Windows BMP format! Absolute Timing - New SMPTE compatibility feature allows you to set frame rates for PAL (25 fps), NTSC (Drop-Frame and Non Drop- Frame), and Film (24 fps). Scala scripts can be slaved to Time-Code chase with the new MIDI 2.0 EX and any Amiga compatible MIDI-to- SMPTE device (eg. Blue Ribbon Soundworks Triple-Play Plus) File Requester Shuffler - Now you can see a "thumbnail" picture of backgrounds, the first frame of an animation, and brushes! Stunning New Wipes - FadeToWhite, Nuclear, Random, Dissolve, Ants, Rollodex, Flipover, and Cccut are a few of the new wipes in MM300. Plus many of the new and old page wipes are now text wipes! Most wipes can now change directions using the "Turn90" and "Backwards" options in the Page Wipe Menu, creating hundreds of new wipes! Sound On Buttons - You can now add two globally set sounds to buttons for feedback on interactive applications. DSS Sound Module Support - MM300 will now playback music modules created with GVP's Digital Sound Studio package that comes with the GVP DSS 8+ Audio Sampler! Take advantage of the DSS8+ enhanced features using Scala's built-in sampler editing features! "Automagic" Creation of Buttons - Click on a screen object like a brush and MM300 will automatically create the button border surrounding the object! New Backgrounds - Nine new backgrounds have been added to the standard Scala package. Additional Scala Background Libraries can be purchased seperately. Save Script in a Drawer - this time saving function now copies all brushes, backgrounds, sounds, fonts, etc. to a drawer for easy transferring! New Text/Button Attributes - Underline color can be independent of text, an improved 3D Attribute function, and an all new Beveling Attribute function which creates 3D, four-sided buttons with ease! Text Box for Subtitling - Allows you to create Text Box Headers with a different color and transparency. Great for video subtitling! Sound Playback Directly from Hard Disk - Any size sound sample (mono or stereo) is now spooled directly from hard disk, saving precious Amiga Chip RAM. Preview 24-Bit Pictures - A fast IFF 24-bit preview allows you to browse through your 16 million color images and then load them into any ECS or AGA screen mode! Enhanced Scala Utility Support - The utility launcher now start other Amiga programs that modify scripts, pictures, animations and sound files! Enhanced AnimLab - Now has Anim8W and Anim8L support, new Scala animation formats Anim16i and Anim32i, animation support for FLIC (a common animation format on MS-DOS PCs), change resolutions of animations and pictures, enhanced palette control, add text to animations, much more! New EX Modules - Scala MM300 now includes these improved EX modules: MIDI 2.0 EX - Enhanced to support Blue Ribbon Soundworks' One Stop Music Shop and Triple Play Plus. The EX also reads MIDI Time-Code from MIDI to SMPTE devices like Dr. T's Phantom. CDTV 2.0 EX - Enhanced features now include the ability to play multiple tracks, use time-code for in and out points, wait for specific locations, fade volume in and out. New Genlock EX Modules - MM300 now includes EX modules for GVP G-Lock, Digital Creations SuperGen and G2 Systems G2 Genlock (PAL) GVP IV-24 EX - Control the picture-in-picture, keying modes, and display 24-bit IFF pictures. AVideo/Colormaster 24 EX - (For A500, A2000, A3000 only) Display 12 or 24-bit backgrounds with overlayed Scala graphics, playback of 12-bit animations in the avnm/avnmd format. System Requirements: For A500, A600, A2000 and A3000; Scala MultiMedia MM300 requires AmigaDOS 2.04 or higher, at least 1 MB of Chip RAM, at least 2 MB of Fast RAM, Hard Disk, ECS Chipset recommended (ECS Agnus and ECS Denise). Accelerator and additional Fast RAM also recommended. For A1200, A4000 and other AGA based Amigas; Scala MultiMedia MM300 requires AmigaDOS 3.0 or higher, 2 MB of Chip RAM, at least 2 MB of Fast RAM, Hard Disk, additional 32-bit Fast RAM recommended. NOTE: For Amiga 1200, use of PCMCIA 2 MB or 4 MB Memory Card may degrade performance. Suggested Retail Price: $399.00 Release Date: November 15, 1993 Deliverable Date: December 1, 1993 or sooner For more information contact: Scala, Inc. 12110 Sunset Hills Rd. Suite 100 Reston, VA 22090 Tel: (703) 709-8043 Fax: (703) 709-8242 Scala and Scala MultiMedia MM300 are registered trademarks of Scala, Inc. All other producst mentioned herein are registered trademarks of their respective companies. Specifications, features, price and other information subject to change without notice. ------------------------------ *** Area: AMIGA Date: 11 Nov 93 22:15:08 *** From: Tim Lloyd (6:700/267.69) *** To : All *** Subj: Scala Part 3 Scala FYI To: All Scala Product Owners From: John Chang, Technical/Sales Support Subj: Upgrading to Scala MultiMedia MM300 For information on the new Scala MultiMedia MM300, please see message titled "Scala MM300 Factsheet" for more information in this forum. For all registered owners, Scala, Inc. will be sending you an upgrade notification flyer in the next two weeks. For those of you who forgot to register your Scala software, this information is for you: MM300 Upgrade from: Special Price After Rebate Home Video Titler $298.00 N/A Scala Video Studio $298.00 N/A MM200/A3000P* $298.00 $229.00 MM200* $198.00 $129.00 MM210* $168.00 $ 99.00 Like the current version of Scala MultiMedia MM200/MM210, MM300 will come with a green Scala Key (dongle) for license enforcement. The special price allows you to keep your current Scala software license agreement and upgrade to MM300. Therefore you will have two Scala Keys. The one you currently own and the MM300 version. Please note that the MM300 green Scala Key will run MM300 and MM200/MM210. Your current red Scala Key will *NOT* run MM300. * If you do not wish to keep your current Scala license agreement, you may return the red Scala Key and receive a rebate check for the difference in the above indicated After Rebate price. (Example: Pay $168.00 for the MM300 upgrade, turn in your red Scala Key, receive a rebate check for $69.00. Net cost to you is $99.00) If you have not turned in your registration card, we strongly suggest you do! Hurry, this is a limited time offer! For more information contact: Scala, Inc. 12110 Sunset Hills Rd. Suite 100 Reston, VA 22090 Tel: (703) 709-8043 Fax: (703) 709-8242 Scala and Scala MultiMedia are registered trademarks of Scala, Inc. Prices, specifications, price and special offer subject to change without notice. ------------------------------ *** Area: AMIGA Date: 13 Nov 93 15:11:28 *** From: Mark Dickenson (1:284/8.2) *** To : All *** Subj: OMG! I saw an Amiga and a Squirrel! In our never ending quest to find occurances of the Amiga in any media I have just found it again in an unlikely place... I even got to see a squirrel! Pickup the comic "Ninja High School Yearbook 93" by Antarctic Press (Issue 5 for Oct. 1993) that just came out this month. You will find a story called "Ninja High School Prequal" by Amiga Animator "Eric Schwartz". The cartoon stars every Amiga owners favorite female, Amy the Squirrel along with a cameo by his newest character Sabrina and an unnamed sexy female mouse. You will find an Amiga computer with the familiar Amiga Checkmark on the screen in one panel as well as the Commodore Logo on the "Die You Bastard Die!!" handgun. Looks like Eric might be branching out into comics. ;) ------------------------------ *** Area: AMIGA Date: 6 Nov 93 1:36:37 *** From: Jonathan Gapen (1:121/6.11) *** To : All *** Subj: Doom not spoken here Okay all you naysayers of the echo, I have four words for you: SIERRA'S BACK IN TOWN! Yes, we will see King's Quest VI on our AGA Amigas! Of course, if you get Amiga World, you probably have read that by now. That, and an AGA Wing Commander. *Maybe* an AGA Day of the Tentacle from LucasArts. KQ VI won't be another cheap Sierra port, oh no, it'll be done by Revolution Software of England. Sounds great, doesn't it? Amiga World lists 50 AGA games that are under way or out. They did have to stretch a little with some PD and a rumor, but there's still 50 games listed. The AGA games are really coming now. Even some of the "big boys" are back in the Amiga arena, so it's not all gloom 'n doom as some people are so fond of claiming. We've got some great, amazing productivity software coming soon, great Amiga games and a fair amount of ports from Clone games. CD³² is selling extremely well in Europe, which could bring even more developers into or back to the market. Commodore plans to advertise, bringing more recognition for the Amiga name. I suppose you can look at it in two ways. It's simply that markets change. You can look at the loss of the old as bad omens or the new potential. I'll look at the bright side. ------------------------------ *** Area: OMAHA Date: 14 Nov 93 13:54:36 *** From: Lee Dise *** To : Don Ferree *** Subj: Lost Kitties Noting the recent traffic concerning Joan's lost kitty -- I've a very soft spot for lost animals, cats in particular -- something few people realize is *how* cats and dogs get lost. In the hopes that somebody can make use of this information, I'll pass it along. According to Desmond Morris (author of the best-selling _The Naked Ape_ and at least two books on cats), cats and dogs orient themselves differently. Once a dog loses sight and scent of his or her domicile, the dog is lost. Period. Cats, on the other hand, seem to have almost a magnetic orientation. They have been known to travel hundreds of miles to a former home, unerringly. Problem with cats is, they don't always realize when their families have moved. People often lose cats shortly after moving because they let the cat out, and the cat tries to find its way back "home." It's tragic, really. I always suggest to people with cats that after they move, keep the cat in doors at least for two months -- maybe three. You want to give the little furball enough time to realize the new place is really "home." » AmigaNet News « ------------- *** Area: AMIGA_DESKTOP Date: 11 Nov 93 15:27:16 *** From: Peter Stuer (2:292/603.7) *** To : All *** Subj: Final Copy font trick I don't know if anybody has posted this trick before or if it is even appropriate in this area but here it comes: This trick works with KickStart 2.04 and up. If you (like me) think that the screen font that comes with Final Copy has a certain 'flair' but is not quite what you like you will find that there is no way to change the font Final Copy uses using one of the preference requesters. Here's how you can do it: 1. rename the original "SWScrFont" directory and "SWScrFont.font" file in the "FCFonts" directory to something else, f.e. add ".orig" to both names. That way you'll always have a backup. 2. copy the ".font" file of the font you like to the "FCFonts" directory using the name "SWScrFont.font". This font can be propotional or even an outline font. 3. Copy the font directory of the font using the _original_ name to the "FCFonts" directory. Make sure there's a font in it that is about the same size as the original SWScrFont. 4. Start Final Copy: Tadaa! Apparently Final Copy is _completely_ font sensitive! I don't see why the writers haven't added a font requester to change the screen font. ------------------------------ *** Area: NEWS_AMY Date: 8 Nov 93 0:18:52 *** From: Gustav Kjeldsen (39:140/101.24) *** To : All *** Subj: New AGA/CD32 Titles Hey! Apparently you guys haven't seen this yet, a list of games to be released in November '93. Watch, then look into my eyes, and say: The Amiga is Dead! you CAN'T!! Game Publisher Team Game Genre AGA CD32 --++*++---------------------------------------------------------------++*++- Hardcore 21st Century Digital Ill. Simon The Sorceror Adventuresoft Adventure Yes Addictive! Black Legend Fear Black Legend StarDust Bloodhouse Shoot'em up Fantastic Voyage Centaur Yes Yes Cosmic SpaceHead CodeMasters Arcade Adv. Curse of Enchantia 2 Core Design Adventure Yes Darkmere Core Design Arcade Adv. Heimdall 2 Core Design Iso. Adv. Cyberace Cyberdreams Racing I Have No Mouth Cyberdreams Adventure Boot! Daze Football Elizabeth I Daze Ascon Strategy Yes Flight Sim Toolkit Domark SIMIS FlightSim. F1 Domark Lankhor Racing International Rugby Domark Rugby BioSphere EA Bullfrog Strategy Only Yes Creation EA Bullfrog Yes EA Ice Hockey EA Sports Pip EA Bullfrog Yes Campaign 2 Empire Wargame Cyberspace Empire 3D RPG DreamWeb Empire Adventure Maelstrom Empire Strategy? Twilight 2000 Empire 3D sim Yes Genesis Flair Adventure Yes Yes Liverpool Grandslam Sports Nick Faldo's Golf AGA Grandslam GolfSim. Yes Yes Realms Of Darkness Grandslam RPG Seventh Sword Of Mendor Grandslam RPG Yes Tensai Grandslam Arcade Adv. Disposable Hero Gremlin Shoot'em up K240 Gremlin Strategy Litil Divil Gremlin Arcade Adv. Only Only Legend Of Soracil Gremlin RPG/Adv. Only Yes Lotus Turbo Trilogy Gremlin Racing Only Utopia 2 Gremlin God/Strat. Yes Yes Zool 2 Gremlin Platform Only Yes Global Chaos Hex Rave Music Only Only Akira ICE Only Only Total Carnage ICE Shoot'em up Detroit Impressions Strategy The Blue and the Grey Impressions Wargame Buzz Aldrins Race Interplay Star Trek 25th aniv. Interplay Adventure Only Survival Kompart UK Strategy Only Naughty Ones Kompart UK Platform Batman Returns Konami Denton Designs Beat'em up Legends Krisalis RPG The Lost Kingdoms Krisalis RPG Day Of The Tentacle LucasArts Adventure Only Yes ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ :D Genesia Microids God/Strat. A.T.A.C. Microprose Action/Strat. B17 Fl. Fortress Microprose FlightSim. Yes Yes F117A Microprose FlightSim. Fields Of Glory Microprose WAR/Action Formula One Gr.Prix AGA Microprose F1 Sim. Only Only Harrier Jump Jet Microprose FlightSim. Pirates! Gold Microprose Strategy Only Only Sub War 2050 Microprose The Legacy Microprose Magnetic Scr. RPG Yes Yes Brutal Sports -Football Millenium Sport Daughter of Serpents Millenium Adventure Only Yes Dinoworlds Millenium Adventure Yes Yes Operation Starfi5h Millenium Platform Yes Yes T-Rex Millenium Jump-n-Run Only Yes Beastball Mindscape Captive 2 Mindscape Tony Crowther Champions Mindscape Drive Fractulus Mindscape SUE/Fl.Sim. Only Only Flag Mindscape Liberation Mindscape Yes Yes Mario is missing Mindscape Education Metamorphosis Mindscape Sim City 2000 Mindscape God/Strat. Yes Yes Sim Farm Mindscape God/Strat. Yes Son Of the Empire Mindscape RPG Wing Commander AGA Mindscape Action/SF Only Yes Jack The Ripper Mirage Adventure Return t.t. Lost World Mirage Adventure Only Only Rise of the Robots Mirage Beat'em up Yes Yes Space Junk Mirage Adventure Only Only Guiness b.of Records 2 New Media Records Only Only First Contact Ocean SF.Adv. Yes Yes Inferno (Ex.Oddysey) Ocean D.I.D. SpaceEpic Only Yes John Joe Ocean Adventure Yes Yes Jurassic Park Ocean Action/SEU Yes Yes Lobo Ocean Mr Nutz Ocean Ocean France Platform Yes Yes Open Golf Championship Ocean GolfSim. Yes Yes Ryder Cup Golf Ocean GolfSim. TFX (Ex.Inferno) Ocean D.I.D. FlightSim Only Yes Amiga CD Football Plattsoft Football Only Only Armour-Geddon 2 Psygnosis Ben E Factor Psygnosis Puzzle Adv Brion The Lion Psygnosis Platform Yes Yes Codename Hellfire Psygnosis SEU Creepers Psygnosis Dracula Psygnosis BEU/Adv. Yes Yes G2 Psygnosis Adventure Globdule Psygnosis Platform Innocent Until Caught Psygnosis Adventure Only Yes Lemmings Trilogy Psygnosis Puzzle Only Magican's Castle Psygnosis Platform Microcosm Psygnosis Action/SEU Only Only Perihelion Psygnosis RPG Puggsy Psygnosis Puzzler Yes Yes Second Samurai Psygnosis Platform Superhero Psygnosis Walker 2 Psygnosis Blaster X-Mas Lemmings '93 Psygnosis Lemmings! Striker 2 Rage Rage Platform Elfmania Renegade Terramarque BEU Yes Yes Flight o.t.Amazon Queen Renegade Adventure Yes Only Rough n' Tumble Renegade Wunderkind Platform Yes Yes SensibleWorldOfSoccer Renegade Sensible Soccer Yes Yes Defense Of The Crown 2 Sachs Entert. Strategy Yes Yes FIST Supervision Steve Jackson Adventure Lovers Guide CDTV Supervision 18+ Monopoly Supervision Boardgame Last Ninja Trilogy System 3 Puzzle/BEU ? Only Putty 2 System 3 Platform Yes Yes Body Blows Galactic (2) Team 17 Team 17 Beat'em up Yes Yes Project X 2 Team 17 Team 17 Shoot'em up Yes Yes Case of the C. Condor Tiger Media Yes Only Battle Storm Titus Shoot'em Up ? Yes Super Blues Bros Titus Platform Air Search Rescue Thalion Ambermoon Thalion Yes Yes Non Second Prize 2 Thalion Motor Racing U96 Thalion Heroic a.o SpaceFlight Troika NASA History Yes Only Blades of Destiny US Gold ATTIC RPG Evolution:Lost In Time US Gold Platform Yes Kingmaker US Gold US Gold Boardgame Yes Raiden US Gold Shoot'em up 7th Quest Virgin Adventure Only Only Alladin Virgin Platform Yes Yes Beneath a Steel Sky Virgin Revolution Adventure Yes Black Sect Virgin Lankhor Cannon Fodder Virgin Sensible Soft. Puzzle Cool Spot Virgin Eden Virgin Cryo Heart Of Darkness Virgin E Chahi/F Sav. Malfunction Virgin Miracle Bat Virgin Miracle Games Mortal Combat Virgin Acclaim Beat'em Up Yes Yes North Polar Expedition Virgin Adventure Yes Yes Terminator II - Arcade Virgin O.Wolf-type --++*++---------------------------------------------------------------++*++- I'd say, im going to wish for CD32 this christmas! And I say "Bye, bye, Atari Jaguar, 3DO, CDI, SEGA, Nintendo!!!!" Gustav Kjeldsen ------------------------------ *** Area: QUEST_AMY Date: 6 Nov 93 8:38:32 *** From: Greg Blanchard (40:708/51.0) *** To : Jim Huls *** Subj: Re: MultiView where? JH> When you have a product mostly for kids, anything can JH> happen. I think the CD32 is what C= should have done originally JH> instead of either CDTV or even the A500. The lowend systems are used JH> for games so sell a console. If they want a computer that probably JH> ended with an 030 or greater, buy one of the high-end models so C= CAN JH> make money instead of selling cheap lowend computers that get upgraded JH> with non-Commodore products. Commodore is said to be phasing out the JH> 1200 and 4000/030. If so, they are at last realizing what needs to be JH> done to survive in these economics. They just might be too late. JH> :-( I agree with most of your post but I strongly disagree with your elitist attitude. If C= hadn't pumped out millions of cheap computers the yuppies and the so called 'business' types (who only look for tax deductions) would STILL own the microcomputer world. When I think of the likelyhood of $10,000 Apple ][s or $25,000, 64K I*M PeeCees I could puke...... I go back to the Personal Electronic Transactor, VIC-20 days when an Apple cost $1500 for an entry level machine (B/W too). Those machines were mostly bought by people with the need to show off (with pirated software usually). The less fortunate, unwashed masses were to be mildly pitied and allowed to admire the neat toys, even play with them, but NEVER to enter the hallowed halls of COMPUTER OWNERSHIP! If the VIC-20 wasn't available in 1982 at $149, I would never have purchased ANY computer. (And I was thankful for the PD creations from the PET as well as -few remember- 'type in programs') I fear that the world of computing would be very much the poorer if all those eager teens hadn't the chance to discover the joy of machine language! Imagine the legions of so called "MIS Professionals" who would only understand Time Share and Batch Processing. Save us from the "business school" types and "professional computer users". Long live the programmer with ML under his/her nails and the urge to create something more than a prettier spreadsheet. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!! AMIGA!!! BTW, as you can see this touched a VERY raw spot. I agree that C= needs to work closer with 3rd party developers to maximise EVERYBODY'S profits. I just don't think that C= needs to beg at the feet of the monied few. It didn't work too well for Apple, in the long run either. @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-9 "Amiga Online Reference Manual" @toc "menu" /// Online Amiga Reference Manual ----------------------------- by Robert Niles (rniles@imtired.itm.com) Last week (AR133) I took a look at the Amiga Online Reference Manual (AORM), but left out the contact information. For more information, or to order, contact: Email: dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu Paper Mail: Area52 c/o David Tiberio 6 Lodge Lane East Setauket, NY 11733 @endnode @node P1-10 @toc "menu" /// WOCA Toronto Seminars --------------------- Reprinted from FidoNet World of Commodore Amiga Seminar Schedule Image is Everything: ImageFX in Hollywood and Your Home A discussion of how Warner Bros. Animation uses the Amiga and GVP's best selling image processing ImageFX for their fantastic new animated show Animamiacs! Exciting tricks, tips and special effects you can do at home with ImageFX on your Amiga or EGS Spectrum equipped Amiga will also be highlighted in this presentation. 11:00 am Friday (FR) Dynamic Digitising by Rombo As one of the worlds largest producers of video related multimedia products, Rombo will be displaying and discussing their award winning Vidi Amiga 12 and 24 Range. Vidi Amiga 12, the world's largest selling digitiser will be demonstratedto its fullest capabilities along with our newest releases Vidi Amiga 12 and 24 Real Time. 11:45 am Friday (OR) 1:15 pm Sunday (OR) All New Software from Axiom See the Canadian premiere of Axiom's Software's new product: Wavemaker, Anim Workshop 2, and Pixel 3D Proffessional 2! Wavemaker allows any Lightwave 3D user to make stunning flying-logo animations very quickly and easily. Pixel 3D Professional and Anim Workshop now have all the features you've been waiting for, such as full Postscript support and new AGA versions! 12:30 pm Friday (FR) 10:30 am Saturday (FR) 12:30 pm Sunday (FR) Pagestream 3.0: The Future of Publishing Learn how to create professional documents using Pagestream 3.0. This in-depth presentation will cover all the features which have made Pagestream the number one selling Amiga desktop publisher. Pagestream has the best interface, the most features, and the best font and graphic support. 1:15 pm Friday (OR) 12:45 pm Saturday (OR) 11:45 am Sunday (OR) Jim Sachs Presents Brilliance - Professional Paint and Animation Software Jim Sachs will give an in-depth look at Digital Creation's new paint and animation software - Brilliance. Jim is an Amiga artist that created "Amiga Lagoon", the cover art for the Brilliance package and poster. He will share some of his techniques in using this powerful new paint and animation package. 2:00 pm Friday (FR) 3:15 pm Saturday (FR) 2:00 pm Sunday (FR) Add Colour to Your Life Video and DTP enthusiasts come to the Migraph seminar and see how the Colorburst colour hand scanner and Migraph OCR can save you time and effort on your projects. Scan 18-bit colour, 64-bit true greys, and line art for text processing. For spetacular 24-bit images come and see the new Migraph 24-bit colour flatbed scanner. 2:45 pm Friday (OR) 2:30 pm Saturday (OR) Power Presentations: Scala MultiMedia MM300 and InfChannel IC500 Scala Inc., will demonstrate the new features, utilities and new uses for MM300, InfoChannel IC500 and Scala's new Echo EE100 editting cable. EX drivers for products like genlocks, VCRs, 24-bit display boards, switchers, audio cards, and support for other graphic formats will be demonstrated and discussed. Multimedia on the Amiga has never been so easy, powerful and fun! 3:30 pm Friday (FR) 12:00 pm Saturday (FR) 11:00 am Sunday (FR) Technical Clinic Commodore will provide a forum for the Amiga users to ask questions of Commodore's technical staff. This is your chance to finally find out what makes what and why! The seminar will cover the entire Amiga line, past and present. 4:15 pm Friday (OR) Digital Imaging The use of the Amiga in digital still imaging. This seminar will include a look at PhotoCD and software related to the processingand manipulation of digital images. We will examine the various ways of dealing with image transfer from traditional photography to the exciting world of digital imaging. 11:15 am Saturday (OR) Keynote Address by Commodore Business Machines Lew Eggbrecht, Vice-President of Engineering, Commodore International, will discuss future directions of Commodore. 1:30 pm Saturday (FR) Videographics The Amiga, bundled with related video products, gives the end user the capabilities that once cost thousands of dollars more. Attend this seminar to learn how you can make professional videos using your Amiga. 4:45 pm Saturday (FR) Amiga CD32: Full Motion Video and More! This seminar will examine the newest member of the Amiga product family, the Amiga cd32. The full motion video capability of the machine will be demonstrated as will all of it's great features. 3:45 pm Sunday (OR) Seminars are subject to change without notice. @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-11 "Usenet Review - GPFax" @toc "menu" /// Usenet Review: GPFax -------------------- By Jun Akiyama (akiy@netcom.com) PRODUCT NAME GPFax version 2.342, GENERIC version BRIEF DESCRIPTION Send/Receive faxes with a faxmodem. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Company Name: GPSoftware Authors: Dr. Greg Perry, Richard Carde Address: 21 Aloomba Road Ashgrove, Brisbane QLD 4060 Australia Telephone: +61 7 366 1402 FAX: +61 7 366 1402 E-mail: gregp@gpsoft.adsp.sub.org rc@splat.aarnet.edu.au LIST PRICE GPFax version 2.01 had a list price of $120 (US), but I was unable to find the list price of any of the current versions. I paid $74.99 for my copy, although I know some mail order companies will be lower. You can sometimes obtain this software more cheaply when it is bundled with a faxmodem. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE This version of the software requires a Group 3, Class 2 TIA TR29.2 supporting faxmodem. At least 1 MB of RAM is required, but the manual says: "HIGHLY RECOMMEND a minimum of 1 MB of CHIP memory and at least 0.5 MB of FAST memory." A hard drive is not required, but the manual once again recommends a hard drive "for most efficient performance." The program and supporting files on my hard drive take up about 230,000 bytes including its own font and printer driver. The program can be run on a 68000 CPU, but faster processors are recommended, especially for higher characters per second throughput on Workbench 1.3. SOFTWARE Workbench 1.3 or above is required. It works fine even under Workbench 3.0. COPY PROTECTION None. Hard drive installable. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 4000/040 2 MB Chip RAM, 4 MB Fast RAM Workbench 39.29, Kickstart 39.106 SupraFaxModem v32.bis 14,400 baud REVIEW There are two versions of the GPFax software: one for the Supra modems, and another "generic" version for others. Although I have a Supra modem, I was able to purchase only the generic version, as my retailer carried only that copy. However, Dr. Perry has told me that for an additional $25, one can cross-grade from the generic version to the Supra version. So, to save money, buy the correct version. (The generic version works fine on my SupraFaxModem; so until I get a large shipment of money in sometime, I think I'll stick with it. Supposedly, the Supra code is more optimized for the Supra modem. I'll followup if I cross-grade.) The first thing to check when you boot up your program the first time is its version. GP has released several versions in a relatively short period of time, ranging from 2.01a, 2.01b, 2.30, 2.341, and 2.342. I had 2.01a (2/5/92). Don't fear; the patches are available on the Aminet ftp sites, although one may have to apply more than one patch to get to the current version (2.342). However, because of this upgrading fiasco, the included manual does not list all of the features of the software. For example, in order to use the program on the Workbench, you need to enter "SCREEN=WORKBENCH" as a tooltype in the GPFax icon. Such information is included in some of the updates but may be missing in others. I basically downloaded all of the patches and then read all of the documentation files to make sure I didn't miss anything. A more current, complete manual would be very welcome. Installation onto a hard drive is relatively simple; just double click on the Install-GPFax icon on the included floppy, and Commodore's Installer program will guide you through the process. (Note: some of the upgrades include "new" fonts and printer driver, which you may need to install manually. I do not know if these fonts and driver are actually any different than the ones included with 2.01, but for safety's sake, I installed them.) The drawer created will have the GPFax program, a ViewFax program to view faxes without actually having to enter GPFax, a FAX_IN drawer and FAX_OUT drawer (where Faxes are stored when they come in and before they are sent out, respectively), a directory with some ARexx examples, some configuration files, and some documentation files. Once booted, the GPFax screen (or window, if you set that tooltype) is shown. The first thing you may notice is the lack of menus. Everything in GPFax is button/keyboard driven. I suppose this is used as a simplification device, but I found it slightly annoying in the beginning, though I have since grown accustomed to it. The first time you run the program, you will need to set some environment variables. These variables include your company name, your fax number, and your phone number, all of which will be printed onto an optional cover sheet for each fax. Also, you can set which device you wish to use, how many rings before Auto Answer picks up the phone, and the default font used for the Convert function (described below). In addition to the above "Environment" section, there is an "Options" section in which you can set other preferences such as Quiet Modem (which deactivates your modem speaker), Make Icons for faxes, create a Workbench Appicon (for drop-in faxing capabilities), and Use Security (which allows you to screen faxes by their incoming ID number). There is, of course, a phonebook in which you can store your most often dialed fax numbers. Here, you can enter a Name, Number, a Comment, and a Group field as well as cover page details for each entry. The number field can be marked with a "Man!" before the number itself if the fax receiver must be notified to place their fax machine into receive mode before sending the fax. The Group field can group certain names into the likes as "Customers" and "Vendors" to facilitate faxing a group of people. The cover page details include your company name, the name of the person sending the fax, your fax number, your voice number, the name of the company to which the fax is addressed, the name of the person to whom the fax is sent, a "header" IFF to place at the top of the cover page, and a "signature" IFF to place at the bottom. In creating a fax, you have two choices: create an ASCII text or 2-color IFF picture which is fed into the Convert program, or use a word processing program or a desktop publishing whose output will be sent to the faxing driver rather than the normal printer driver. The former will use the aforementioned font that was set in the Environment section to create a fax of the text in that font, or just plainly use the two-color IFF pixel-by-pixel. This, of course, will not produce a very professional looking fax. The latter option, to use the fax printer driver, is much better, producing a fax output of up to 210 dpi by 196 dpi. This is much simpler too, as all you need to do is create a document (for example, in Pagestream), set the printer configuration to send to the preferences printer, and print. GPFax will intercept the file and send it to its Fax_Out drawer, converting it into a FAX format on the fly. Before sending the fax, you can view it on the screen using the Display command. You can set the resolution of this screen within the Options sections; I use a Super72 Super Hires Laced screen. Here, you can specify if you wish to view at a 1:1, 1:2, or 1:4 ratio. (The 1:1 shows about 10% of the page, 1:2 shows about 60%, and 1:4 shows the entire page for me.) You also have the option of printing the fax if you wish for a hard copy before sending it. In order actually to send a fax, all you have to do is select which fax pages you wish to send, choose the phone number to which you wish them sent, either enter a number or choose an entry from the phone book, and you're done. The fax is sent! You can also Schedule your faxes to be sent at a specific time, in case you wish to save money by faxing after 11pm, or perhaps during your lunch hour. GPFax will even reschedule your transmission until a later time, if it attempts the fax but find a busy number. In order to receive a fax, you can either set the Auto Answer mode on within the Options section, or manually Receive a fax. Either way, the fax will be downloaded into the Fax_In drawer, which you can Display (as explained above) or Print to your preference printer. If you wish, the program will convert the fax into an IFF file. GPFax also includes an ARexx capability to, as the manual states, "allow almost complete remote control of the program from an ARexx script." I, being no ARexx guru, have not used the ARexx capabilities at all. Ich kann nichts sagen. Es tut mir leid. DOCUMENTATION The manual included with the original disk was created for version 2.01. The upgrades on Aminet also have additional information regarding the upgraded versions. The documentation is mediocre. Because of the upgrading, I found some discrepancies between the illustrations in the manual and the real screens in the program. However, the manual is followable, and the program is really pretty simple to use, luckily. As I mentioned above, the documentation included with the upgrades could be better. For example, the documentation for the generic version also included a lot of information regarding the Supra version. Why is it in there? It's not needed. LIKES AND DISLIKES I found GPFax to be pretty easy to use. The no-menu interface annoyed me at first, but I have grown accustomed to it now. The quality of faxes it sends and receives is good. There are a few things I do not like, though. GPFax, whenever it receives a fax or intercepts a printing file to create a fax, uses a pretty cryptic naming convention to name the faxes. Although this can be slightly modified using a "Popup" print menu to assign another name to these fax files, the fact that the program appends an ever-increasing number (starting from 002 and working its way up) to the end of that file name on each and every file. I keep finding my self renaming each fax as it is created in order to keep track of which fax is which. A more intuitive fax naming convention could have been used here. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS When I first got my faxmodem, I tried out the "elcheapofax" public domain program. I found it to be quite cryptic, and now find GPFax to be a pretty good buy. BUGS I haven't found any bugs per se, but have encountered a problem in creating files by having the program intercept the file being printed. Although most programs can route their output to the printer chosen in the Workbench Preferences, some programs are unable to do this. I could not get Word Perfect to output directly to GPFax, and had to resort to Pagestream to use this capability. (Of course, Pagestream presents a MUCH better output than Word Perfect, so I shouldn't complain....) In addition, one of the upgrade documentation mentions a problem when using Final Copy I and II. It states that "this has been an ongoing problem for a several [sic] months now and we have been getting a number of irate users of GPFax complaining bitterly to us. After considerable analysis of this problem, we found that Final Copy II (Release 1 sep 26.92) was the culprit." The note concludes, "Enough! If you are one of the people who suffer from this problem, COMPLAIN TO SOFTWOOD not us!! After discussing this problem with Softwood, they have kindly offered to upgrade users of earlier version [sic] of Final Copy II to the later version which has been rewritten to work correctly." As aforementioned, don't forget to get the GPfax patches from Aminet (under biz/patches) if you get a version older than 2.342. VENDOR SUPPORT I sent E-mail to Dr. Greg Perry regarding the possibility of cross-grading from the generic version to the Supra version, and he replied with a note saying $25 and the original disk will allow me to upgrade. I personally find that amount to be expensive and will reconsider whether or not to cross-grade. I am not associated with the vendor in any way except as a customer, unless I have some psychic link with them I don't know. :-) WARRANTY There's a 90 day warranty on the supplied disk which must be accompanied by a proof of purchase, and applies only to the original purchaser. CONCLUSIONS On a scale from one to ten ducks (one duck being the equivalent to "Pond Scum," and ten ducks garnering a "Totally ducky!" description), I give GPfax eight and a half (ouch) ducks. My final impressions are that I'm quite happy I got the program, and I hope they'll continue to provide upgrades available through Aminet. COPYRIGHT NOTICE I hereby relinquish the copyrights to this review to Daniel Barrett, as he is such a cool guy and posts funny articles to Usenet. Whatever he wishes to do with my inane words, he is free to do so. So nyaah. BLAZEMONGER NOTICE For you BLAZEMONGER II players out there, this review, in its entirety (including the headers), is the secret password jump from level 323,832,123.021 to 763,334,292.8A0. Just type it in during the digitized sample of Dave Haynie screaming "MEGA1-RAMMM-SEEYYYYYYY!!!", and you're there. Wow. How did the BLAZEMONGER programmers know? (And when did Mr. Haynie say that?) ------------------------------ Here's a small followup to my previous GPFax review. I just received E-mail from Dr. Greg Perry of GP Software thanking me for writing the review. This, I would like to say, is a good aspect of customer support. Dr. Perry also stated the following: "You may like to know that we are now shipping [the GPFax] product with [a] completely re-written manual with all upgrade[s] included." I'm sure you can contact Dr. Perry for further details on receiving an updated manual somehow. @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P4-2 "Portal" @toc "menu" /// Portal: A Great Place For Amiga Users -------------------------------------- Portal Communications' Amiga Zone The AFFORDABLE alternative for online Amiga information ------------------------------------------------------- The Portal Online System is the home of acclaimed Amiga Zone, which was formerly on the People/Link System. Plink went out of business in May, 1991 and The Amiga Zone's staff moved to Portal the next day. The Zone has just celebrated its second anniversary on Portal. The Amiga press raves about The Amiga Zone, when compared to its competition. If you live in the San Jose, CA area, then you can dial Portal directly. If you live elsewhere, you can reach Portal through any SprintNet (formerly Telenet) indial anywhere in the USA or through Tymnet from anywhere in North America. If you have an account on another Internet-connected system, you can connect to Portal using the UNIX Telnet programs, from anywhere in the industrialized world. Delphi and BIX users can now Telnet into Portal for a flat $19.95 a month, with *unlimited* use. Some of Portal/Amiga Zone's amazing features include: · Over 1.5 GIGabytes of Amiga-specific files · The *entire* Fred Fish collection of freely distributable software, online. · Fast, Batch Zmodem file transfer protocol. Download up to 100 files at once, of any size, with one command. · Twenty Amiga vendor areas with participants like AmigaWorld, ASDG, Soft-Logik, Black Belt, Apex Publishing, Stylus, Prolific, NES. · 35 "regular" Amiga libraries with thousands of files. Hot new stuff arrives daily. · No upload/download "ratios" EVER. Download as much as you want, as often as you want, and never feel pressued doing it. · Live, interactive nightly chats with Amiga folks whose names you will recognize. Special conferences. Random chance prize contests. Famous Amiga folks aren't the exception on Portal, they're the norm. · Vast Message bases where you can ask questions about *anything* Amiga related and get quick replies from the experts. · Amiga Internet mailing lists for Imagine, DCTV, LightWave, HyperAmi, Director and Landscapes are fed right into the Zone message bases. Read months worth of postings. They don't scroll off, ever! No need to clutter your mailbox with them. · FREE unlimited Internet Email. Your Portal account gets you a mailbox that's connected to the world. Send letters of any length to computer users in the entire industrialized world. No limits. No extra charges. No kidding! · Portal has the Usenet. Thousands of "newsgroups" in which you can read and post articles about virtually any subject you can possibly imagine. · Other Portal SIGs (Special Interest Groups) online for Mac, IBM, Sun, NeXT, UNIX, Science Fiction, Writers, amateur radio, and a graphics SIG with thousands of GIF files to name just a few. ALL Portal SIGs are accessible to ALL Portal customers with NO surcharges ever. · The entire UPI/Clarinet/Newsbytes news hierarchy ($4/month extra) An entire general interest newspaper and computer news magazine. · Portal featues an exciting package of Internet features: IRC, FTP, TELNET, MUDS, LIBS. Free to all Portal customers with your account. Internet Services is a menu driven version of the same kinds of utilities you can also use from your Portal UNIX shell account. · All the files you can FTP. All the chatting you can stand on the IRC. And on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) you can talk live, in real time with Amiga users in the U.K., Europe, Australia, the Far East, 24 hours a day. · Our exclusive PortalX by Steve Tibbett, the graphical "front end" for Portal which will let you automatically click'n'download your waiting email, messages, Usenet groups and binary files! Reply to mail and messages offline using your favorite editor and your replies are sent automatically the next time you log into Portal. (PortalX requires Workbench 2.04 or higher) · And Portal does NOT stick it to high speed modem users. Whether you log in at 1200 or 2400 or 9600 or 14.4K you pay the same low price. How does all that sound? Probably too good to be true. Well, it IS true. Portal Signup or for more information: 408-973-9111 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time 408-725-0561 (modem 3/12/2400) 24 hours every day 408-973-8091 (modem 9600/14400) 24 hours every day or enter "C PORTAL" from any Sprintnet dial-in in the USA, or enter "portal" from any Tymnet "please log in:" prompt, USA & Canada or telnet to "portal.com" from anywhere. PORTAL'S CURRENT RATES: All prices shown are in U.S. Dollars Total Total Total Total Cost Cost Cost Cost Fee 1 hr. 5 hrs. 10 hrs.30 hrs. Startup Monthly Per Per per per per Fee Fee Hour month month month month $ $ $ $ $ $ $ Portal 19.95 19.95 2400/9600/14.4Kbps, *direct 24 hrs 0.00 19.95 19.95 19.95 19.95 2400/9600bps nonprime Sprint or Tymnet 2.50 22.95 32.45 44.95 94.95 2400/9600bps prime Sprint +% or Tymnet 5.50-10 29.95 69.95 119.95 varies 2400/9600bps non prime # PCPursuit 1.00 20.95 24.95 29.95 49.95 * plus cost of phone call if out of Portal's local dialing area Direct rates also apply to connections made to Portal using the UNIX "telnet" program from an account you may already have on an Internet-connected system. % 9600 bps Sprintnet and Tymnet available in over 300 cities areas + $10 rate prevails at smaller US Cities # PCPursuit is a service of US Sprint. Portal is a PCPursuit "Direct Access Facility" thus connection to Portal with a PCP account is simply a matter of entering C PORTAL,PCP-ID,PCP-PASSWORD at the SprintNet login prompt instead of C PORTAL. Note: Portal Direct 9600/14400 bps service is availble for both USR HST modems, and any V32/V32.bis modems. There are dozens of direct-dial high speed lines into Portal. No busy signals! SprintNet 9600bps service is V.32 modem protocol only. Tymnet 9600bps services is V.32 modem protocol only. Again, Portal does NOT surcharge high speed modem users! Portal subscribers who already have an account on an Internet-capable system elsewhere, can use that system's "telnet" program to connect to Portal for $0.00 an hour. That's right ZERO. From anywhere in the world. If you're in this category, be sure to ask the Portal reps, when you signup, how to login to Portal from your existing Internet account. Call and join today. Tell the friendly Portal Customer Service representative, "The Amiga Zone and Amiga Report sent me!" [Editor's Note: Be sure to tell them that you are an Amiga user, so they can notify the AmigaZone sysops to send their Welcome Letter and other information!] That number again: 408-973-9111. Portal Communications accepts MasterCard, Visa, or you can pre-pay any amount by personal check or money order. The Portal Online System is a trademark of Portal Communications. @endnode *************************************************************************** /// Another Moronic, Inane and Gratuitous Article --------------------------------------------- By Chad Freeman (cjfst4+@pitt.edu) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-12 "Famous Amiga Uses" @toc "menu" /// Famous Amiga Uses ----------------- By David Tiberio ABC ABC Sports 1992 Olympic Games. Live Amiga generated instant overlays. "Young Indiana Jones Chronicles", Emmy Award, Special Visual Effects. Athletics Athletics Stadiums. Atlanta Braves Sports Display. BC Place Stadium video displays in Vancouver, Canada. California Angels Anaheim Stadium. Cotton Bowl. Dallas Mavericks Reunion Arena's Scoreboard. Florida Marlins Joe Robbie Stadium Event Scoreboard. Harlem Globtrotters events. Miami Dolphins Jumbotron. Philadelphia Phillies Scoreboard and Phanavision. Portland Trailblazers, Portland Oregon, sporting events. Atlanta Georgia 1996 Olympics Planning Board. Chelsea Soccer Club, England, sponsored by Commodore UK. Awards "Babylon 5", Emmy Award Winning Movie, Warner Bros., 1993. Cox Cable Productions, New Orleans, LA. ACE Award nomination for Sports Productions. NewTek, Inc., of Topeka Kansas. Emmy Award winner for developments in television engineering. Creator of the Video Toaster and the Screamer. "Panama Deception", Oscar Award Winning "Best Documentary Film". "Young Indiana Jones Chronicles", Emmy Award, Special Visual Effects. Cable Television Brookhaven Cable, Long Island, New York. Prevue Guide, Real Estate Channel, Classified Ads Channel. Comedy Central Cable Network. Video Toaster generated overlays and graphics. Cox Cable Productions, New Orleans, LA. ACE Award nomination for sports productions. Still store of basketball players. Online CG for remote live EFP events, basketball, football, telethons. Corporations and Government ABC, American Broadcasting Company. American Cablevision. Atlanta Georgia 1996 Olympics Planning Board. Previsualization, storyboarding, and advertising. BC Hydro, Vancouver, Canada. Interactive video displays. Brookhaven Cable in Long Island, New York. Brooklyn Queens Cable, Brooklyn, New York. Pay Per View. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC Broadcast Center in Toronto. Information Kiosks, for finding studios and offices. Ford Motor Company, in automobile assembly plants (InfoChannel). InfoChannel, Scala Inc.. International Business Machines. Multimedia displays. Israeli Air Force. Amiga generated flight simulators for pilot training. JPL, technology and astronomy lab. Distant Suns, astronomy software. LILCO, Long Island Lighting Company, New York. Corporate training videos. NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Association. AmiLink control systems. NBC, National Broadcasting Company. NewTek, Inc., of Topeka Kansas. Creator of the Video Toaster and the Screamer. Emmy Award winner for developments in television engineering. Nuclear Electric, Ipswich. Amiga controlled MCR simulator for Sizewell B Control Room. Pay Per View. Amiga generated video sequences. PBS, Public Broadcasting System. Various television series. Prevue Networks of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Creaters of Prevue Guide. St. Clair Interactive Communications. K-Mart Coupon Center. SEATS Theater Seat Booking System. TCI cable television. Toaster Marmalade of California. United Video of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Makers of Prevue Guide. Universal Studios. VIDIGraphic. Virtuality. Dactyl Nightmare, virtual reality coin-op game. Walt Disney Productions. Animated movies and television series. Warner Bros., motion picture company. "Animaniacs", animated cartoon television series. "Babylon 5", motion picture, television series. ESPN ESPN's "Fly Fishing Video Magazine". Events Friendship Games, Kuwait. Pan American Games. "Phantom of the Opera" at the Pantages, Toronto, Canada. Controls audio effects. IBM OS/2 Multimedia Presentation at CEBIT, Hannover. Using InfoChannel multimedia software. Exhibits Amiga Expo Mexico. Epcot Center Interactive Displays. BC Hydro multimedia exhibit in Vancouver, Canada. Bit.Movie computer art competition in Riccione, Italy. IPISA, Incontro dei Programmatori Italiani per lo Sviluppo Amiga. Mac World Expo. Apple Computer video wall demonstrations. Science World video display in Vancouver, Canada. World of Commodore-Amiga Show New York City, New York. Pasadena, California. Sidney, Australia. Toronto, Canada. HBO HBO, Home Box Office. "Afterburn" flight scenes by Toaster Marmalade of California. IBM OS/2 Multimedia Presentation at CEBIT, Hannover. Scala multimedia software. Minnessota Mainframe Site Multimedia Presentations. Scala multimedia software. Kiosks and OEM Amiga.Physik.Unizh.Ch Internet FTP site supported by Amiga 3000UX. Founding host site of Aminet mirrors. Supervised by Urban D Mueller. Australian international airports (InfoChannel). Arcade Coin-Up Video Games. Mad Dog McCree, laser disc based video game. Controlled by a genlock-equipped Amiga 500. Magic Johnson's Basketball. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC Broadcast Center in Toronto. Information Kiosks, for finding studios and offices. CD32, CD based game console. First 32-BIT game console. Introduced July 1993. Based on the AGA chipset as found in the Amiga 120u0. CDTV, CD based interactive multimedia player. First CD based multimedia player. Introduced 6 months before CD-I. Based on the OCS chipset as found in the Amiga 500. Consumer paint color coding service, used at hardware stores. Design Mirage's Kodak Film Racing Team. Expandaview Videowall System, Optinocal Ltd. of England. Point of Sale and Point of Information systems. "Graphic Master". "Studio VIP Plus". Franklin Mill Outlet Mall, Philladelphia, Pennsylvania. Information booths. London Transport Museum Interactive Displays. 109 CD32 consoles. Networked kiosks developed by Index Information. Martinez California County District Attorney's Office. Database of Delinquent Parents, using NewTek Video Toasters. Me TV, Video Karaoke, Media Image Productions. Oceana Naval Air Station in Virgina Beach, Virginia (InfoChannel). POST In Store Advertising Network for Supermarkets. SEGA Genesis software development systems. Amiga 500 based expansion boards for game development. User Interface Technologies "Media Magician", home control system. Videoplex Tour of Alaska. Video Toaster Workstations by NewTek of Topeka, Kansas. Amiga based systems with Video Toaster expansion board. VIDIGraphic's McDonalds' Drive-Thru Video Displays. Movies Feature Films "City Slickers", motion picture, starring Billy Crystal. "Fantastic Four: The Movie", motion picture. "Freejack", feature film, starring Emilio Estevez. Lightwave generated animation of main character's race car. Video Toaster generated time-warp displays. Graphics created by Joe Conti. "Honey, I Blew Up the Baby". Effects produced by Anti-Gravity Workshop. "Hot Shots, Part Deux", motion picture. "Jurassic Park", previsualization by Amblin Imaging. "Mouth of Madness", directed by John Carpenter. "Necronomicon", feature film. "Panama Deception", Oscar Award Winning "Best Documentary Film". "Sidekicks", starring Chuck Norris. "Star Trek VI", feature film. Lightwave generated graphics by Joe Conti. USS Enterprise and USS Excelsior modeled by Allen Hastings. "Three Men and A Baby". Amiga character generation and titling by Rick Probst. "Total Recall", motion picture. "Warlock", produced by Trimark. "Wayne's World II", starring Dana Carvey and Mike Myers. Produced by Paramount Pictures. Television Movies "Afterburn". Home Box Office Presentations. Flight scenes by Toaster Marmalade of California. "Babylon 5", Emmy Award Winning Movie, Warner Bros., 1993. "The Dark Half". Stephen King television movie. Character effects by Everett Burrell. "Max Headroom", motion picture and television series. "seaQuest DSV", Irvin Kirschner (director), Universal Studios, 1993. Starring Roy Scheider. Effects produced by Amblin Imaging and 60 Video Toasters. More special effects than "The Empire Strikes Back". "Tommyknockers". Stephen King television movie. Morphing sequences using ASDG's MorphPlus, by The Post Group. "Young Indiana Jones Chronicles", Emmy Award, Special Visual Effects. MTV Bee Gees, using NewTek Video Toaster animated sequences. Billy Idol. Rick Finn. Todd Rundgren. "Change Myself", music video. "Fascist Christ", music video. "Property", music video. "Theology", music video. ZZ Top. NBC "Amazing Stories". "Quantum Leap". Morph effects produced by The Post Group using MorphPlus. "seaQuest DSV". Video Toaster effects created by Amblin Imaging. "This Country's Rockin'", television special. "Unsolved Mysteries". Video Toaster effects created by Joe Conti. NewTek Lightwave 3D, 3D modeling software. Screamer rendering system for Lightwave 3D. Video Toaster and the Video Toaster 4000. Personal video production system. PBS "Ghost Writer", television series. "My Secret Identity", television series. "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego", PBS & Walt Disney Productions. People Andy Warhol, painter (deceased). Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction author. "The Hammer of God". "Ghost from the Grand Banks". Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. "Three Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", graphics by Bob Anderson. Betty Boo, musician. Amiga used in production of her first album. Amiga used as a sequencer in her first tour. Billy Idol, musician. NewTek Video Toaster. Amiga generated video walls. Brad Carvey, brother of Dana Carvey. An original designer of the NewTek Video Toaster. Joe Rockhopper, Area52 spokesmodel. Matt Groening, creator of "The Simpsons". Penn Jillette, Magician/Comedian (of Penn and Teller). Star Trek: The Next Generation actors. Carel Struycken, "Mr. Homn". Wil Wheaton, "Ensign Wesley". Steven Spielberg, motion picture director. "Jurassic Park", previsualization by Amblin Imaging. "seaQuest DSV", special effects, underwater craft. Todd Rundgren, musician. "Change Myself", music video. "Fascist Christ", music video. "Property", music video. "Theology", music video. Production Studios Amblin Imaging. Creator of "seaQuest DSV" special effects. "Jurassic Park" previsualization presentations. Foundation Imaging, California. Creator of "Babylon 5" special effects. Public Access Public Access Programming. "Cyberspace 3D", in Portland, Oregon. Schools College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York. Olympia High School of Olympia, Washington, desktop video production. State University of New York Albany, Mathematics Department. Oswego, Graphics Department. Tulsa Junior College of Oklahoma, desktop video production. Desktop Video Production Associates Degree. Two year degree on using the Amiga and the Video Toaster. Walton High School, Marietta, Georgia. Television Commercials 1992 Olympic Games promotional advertisements. Encyclopedia Brittanica commercials. Amiga 2000 used as prop computer. Pay Per View. Amiga generated video sequences. Movies "Afterburn". Home Box Office Presentations. Flight scenes by Toaster Marmalade of California. "Babylon 5", Emmy Award Winning Movie, Warner Bros., 1993. All computer graphics generated on Amiga computers. Lightwave 3D generated scenes of space ships. "The Dark Half". Stephen King television movie. Character effects by Everett Burrell. "Max Headroom", motion picture and television series. Amiga generated background displays. "seaQuest DSV", Irvin Kirschner (director), Universal Studios, 1993. Starring Roy Scheider. Effects produced by Amblin Imaging and 60 Video Toasters. More special effects than "The Empire Strikes Back". "Tommyknockers". Stephening television movie. Morphing sequences using ASDG's MorphPlus, by The Post Group. "Young Indiana Jones Chronicles", Emmy Award, Special Visual Effects. Programs "Amazing Stories", television series, NBC. "Animaniacs", animated television series by Warner Bros. "Babylon 5", science fiction television show by Warner Bros., 1993. Emmy Award winning show, special effects. Created by Foundation Imaging in California. "Clarissa Explains it All", Nickelodeon. "Cyberspace 3D", public access programming in Portland, Oregon. "The Edge" promotional commercial. Produced by Digital Fantasy. Amusement park ride in California. "Entertainment Tonight", entertainment news magazine. "Goof Troop", animated television series, Walt Disney Productions. "Miami Vice", television series. Amiga 1000's and video displays used as props. "Montel Williams Show", daytime talk show. "My Secret Identity", television series, PBS. "Mysteries Beyond the Other Dominion", SciFi Channel. Produced by Toaster Marmalade of California. "Neighbors", Australian television soap opera. "Nick Arcade", Nickelodeon. "Quantum Leap". Morph effects produced by The Post Group using MorphPlus. "Robocop", television series. Graphics created with Lightwave 3D. "Roboflight", SciFi Channel. "Rush Limbaugh", political satirist. "Prisoners of Gravity", TVOntario. "seaQuest DSV", NBC. Starring Roy Scheider. Effects produced by Amblin Imaging and 60 Video Toasters. "Tail Spin", animated television series, Walt Disney Productions. "Total Panic", Nickelodeon. Mandala interactive video walls. "Unsolved Mysteries". Video Toaster effects created by Joe Conti. "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego", PBS & Walt Disney Productions. "Wild Side", Nickelodeon. Specials "45th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards" Video Toaster effects created by the Post Group. Advertising Club of New York's Annual Awards Ceremony. American Music Awards. Showtime's "World Class Kickboxing Championships". "This Country's Rockin'", documentary about America, NBC. Stations 900 NBC Television Stations. WSTM 3 in Syracuse, New York. Atlantic City, New Jersey. American Cablevision. Brookhaven Cable in Long Island, New York. Brooklyn Queens Cable, Brooklyn, New York. Pay Per View. Nickelodeon. SciFi Channel. TCI cable television. Virtual Reality BattleTech Center, virtual reality games in Chicago, Illinois. Amiga generated graphics. Dactyl Nightmare, virtual reality arcade game by Virtuality. Amiga generated graphics and system control. Compilation Copyright 1993 Area52. All Rights Reserved. Freely Distributable and reprinted here with permission. David is actively searching for more and more uses of the Amiga computer! When submitting additional information, be as detailed as possible. Please provide as much detail as you can based upon the parties involved, their location in the world, and what software and hardware was used! Most importantly, he wants to build the list of local TV stations that use the Amiga. Please send any updates or corrections to: Area52 c/o David Tiberio 6 Lodge Lane East Setauket, NY 11733 (516) 476-1615 dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-13 "The Emulation Rambler" @toc "menu" /// The Emulation Rambler --------------------- By Jason Compton (jcompton@tcity.com) It's going to be a relatively short Emulation Rambler this month...I've been preoccupied with trying to upgrade my system to a 3000. But, I DO have some news. 1. First off, thanks a lot to the guys who have been sending me mail in response to my call for benchmarking PC-Task. I've got to get together the programs first, but after that I should be sending them along... 2. Second, here's something I got in mail from Mike Greene... "I found the following file a week ago, it was in a GENIE file library: sxtest.zip...the included readme file:" [A lot of stuff saying you need to run the file off of a VERY stripped down IBM system configuration: this is the file that checks to see if Cyrix's new 386SX clip-on attachment will work with a particular 386SX] "I ran this on my A2386/25 and it came up saying I could use this clip on 486 chip. So, I would assume it should work with all 386 BBs." Can anyone else confirm this? It sounds like for $200, 386 bridgeboard users could be getting a REALLY good deal, especially if they bought them for the $200 the boards were being wholesaled for when C= was trying to get rid of them...even with a Golden Gate 386, it wouldn't be bad at all. 3. Finally, thanks very much to Jim Drew of Utilities Unlimited, who has pledged an Emplant to me for sometime near (before or after) WOC Canada... I'm hoping by then I'll have my 3000 system to do some higher-level testing, but I will do the best with what I've got to work with. Thanks to everyone for sticking with me, please keep the mail coming, and I'll see you all again soon. @endnode @node P1-13-1 "The Amiga Rambler" @toc "menu" /// The AMIGA Rambler ----------------- by Robert Niles (rniles@imtired.itm.com) First off...I'm in NO way making fun of the Emulation Rambler - I was just not very clever this week :) Thanks to those who responded to my articles on using the Internet via Email. I've been working on more, more of those type of articles for those who only have email access, and some on the Internet in general. Putting some of this stuff together takes a while at times, so I have to put it off yet another week. BUT if you have any idea, suggestions, or questions, send me a note at the address above. How many of you call a multitude of Amiga BBSes each day, week, or month? OK..... Ever hear that speech by the former President Kennedy? Well, I'm going to distort it a little bit... "Ask not what your Sysop can do for you, but what you can do for your Sysop" Sysops are funny little things that hang out on the other side of that system you've been calling. Whether it be the free access system in your local area or the SIG mangagers at the online commercial networks. Whereever they are, they go through (the good ones anyways) alot to bring you whatever they can. At times, at a huge cost to themselves. I ask you this. Do something nice for your Sysop. Make November the "Amiga Sysop" month or something. Do anything from donating some money, time, uploads, messages, or simply tell the Sysop 'THANKS'. Most Sysops really do alot for little credit or recognition. It's time we pay them back ...whatever we can. On the last note, I've wanted to do something for quite a while. Next week, we will add the "Great Amiga Report" questionaire. Simply put, it's just a questionaire about you. The Amiga User. What you use, what you do, what do you use your Amiga for, etc. I'll compile all this information and feed it back to you close to the end of the year. Basically to give us a feel on who the Amiga community is, and what you're all about. Do me a favor and fill it out and send it to me! I'd love to hear from you all! @endnode **************************************************************************** @node P4-6 "BIX" @toc "menu" /// BIX - Byte Information Exchange Lots of information! ------------------------------- BIX is the premier online service for computing professionals and enthusiasts. While other online services cater to computer novices, BIX is the place for knowledgeable people to go for answers to tough questions. You're likely to find many others in similar situations who can offer advice, give technical assistance, or point you in the right direction. BIX is divided into areas called conferences, each devoted to a particular area of interest. They range from algorithms to windows, from writers to amiga. Conferences are categorized into groups, usually referred to as exchanges, so that you can browse through whatever groups interest you and see a list of the conferences it contains. These are some of the exchanges on BIX: amiga.exchange - the place for Amiga developers and enthusiasts byte - the full text of each issue of BYTE magazine; source code too e.and.l - Entertainment and Leisure; music, pets, games, more ibm.exchange - everything from OS/2 to PC clones mac.exchange - Mac news, support, software, advice professionals - consultants, engineers, financiers gather here programmers - some of the best brains in the business! wix - the Information Exchange for Windows; Windows Magazine online writers.ex - the professional and amateur writer's exchange *** FULL INTERNET ACCESS! *** BIX also features access to the Internet - you can use FTP to transfer files from sites all over the world, telnet to log on to other online services, schools, and research sites, and send Internet mail to millions of people at services like DELPHI, CompuServe, America Online, MCI Mail, and other sites and services. Services like "WHOIS" and "Finger" are also available, with more features on the way (like USENET newsgroups; our newsreader is currently being tested and should be available very soon!) There are no usage fees or special charges for Internet access - it's all part of your BIX subscription. ============================== Rates and Connect Information: ============================== BIX membership costs $13 per month, plus connect time. There are several different ways to connect: SprintNet* $3/hour evenings/weekends $9/hour weekdays Tymnet:** $3/hour evenings/weekends $9/hour weekdays (SprintNet and Tyment rates shown are for 48 contiguous US states only.) Tymnet Canada: $4/hr eves/wkends $9/hour weekdays Tymnet Hawaii: $10/hr eves/wkends $20/hour weekdays Telnet(via Internet): $1/hour, round the clock Direct dial (Boston): $2/hour, round the clock (up to 9600 bps) * SprintNet daytime hours are from 6am to 7pm, M-F, ET. ** Tymnet daytime hours are from 7am to 6pm, M-F, ET. To find your local SprintNet number, call SprintNet at (800) 877-5045, ext. 5. Internationally, call (404) 859-7700. To find a local Tymnet number, call Tymnet at (800) 937-2862. Internationally, call (703) 442-0145. ================ There is no surcharge for 9600 bps access via either telecom carrier. There is no surcharge for up to 10mb of Internet mail per month (sent and received). There will be a charge of $1 per 100,000 bytes thereafter. ================ 20/20 PLAN OPTION (for USA-48 users only): Volume users can choose the 20/20 Advantage Plan, which is $20 per month and includes the first 20 hours of access by any combination of methods from the contiguous United States. Additional use is $1.80 per hour (additional use for telnet access is $1 an hour). The 20/20 Plan's cost is in addition to the $13 monthly fee. INTERNATIONAL USERS: If you wish to connect internationally through Tymnet or SprintNet, please contact your local PTT. BIX accepts prepaid international calls, direct dial, or telnet connections. In order to make a "collect" (not prepaid) call to BIX, your account must be verified before the charges are accepted. When you complete the registration, we'll mail you a BIX Membership Agreement by regular US Mail. Whe you receive it, sign it and return it to us by mail. When we receive it here, we'll authorize your account to make reverse charged calls. If you want to access BIX right away, contact your local PTT to set up a prepaid account. You'll pay your local carrier for your calls to BIX in advance, so there's no waiting period or verfication needed. Or, connect at BIX via telnet to x25.bix.com. SprintNet international calls from most locations are $24 an hour. Tymnet international charges vary, but are generally between $20-$30 an hour. ==================== Billing Information: ==================== You can charge your monthly BIX membership fees to your Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express card. You may have your company invoiced for one or more BIX memberships with a BIX Corporate Account. To do so, send by US Mail or fax a Purchase Order including a Purchase Order number, invoice address, contact person, a phone number where we can reach the contact person, and the company's fax number. Please direct it to the attention of Connie Lopes, who handles corporate accounts. Our fax number is 617-491-6642. Your corporate account will generally be set up within 24 hours. =================== To Sign Up For BIX: =================== Dial by modem 1-800-695-4882 or 617-491-5410 * (use 8 data bits, no parity, full duplex) Press a few carriage returns until you see the Login:(enter "bix") prompt, then type bix At the Name? prompt, type bix.amrpt * Users already on the internet can telnet to x25.bix.com instead. At the USERNAME: prompt enter bix, then bix.net at the Name? prompt. Once your account is registered, you can connect the same way, except at the Name? prompt you'll enter your BIXname and then your password. Using the above procedure will allow users in the 48 contiguous United States to take advantage of our special "5 for $5" offer. This offer lets you use up to 5 hours of evening/weekend time on BIX during the current calender month (whatever month you sign up in), for $5. Additional time is $1.80 per hour ($1 per hour for telnet). At the end of the calender month, you will be placed into our standard rate plan, at $13 monthly plus connect charges. You may also join the 20/20 Plan at this time. If you have other questions, please contact BIX Member Services at (800) 695-4775; send a fax to BIX at (617) 491-6642; or send Internet mail to info@bix.com. BIX Member Services hours are 12pm - 11pm, Monday through Friday, ET. @endnode *************************************************************************** @node P3 "Dealer Directory" @toc "menu" /// Dealer Directory Serving our readers! ---------------- Almathera Systems Ltd Challenge House 618 Mitcham Rd Croydon, Surrey CR9 3AU England VOICE: (UK) 081 683 6418 Internet: (Sales) almathera@cix.compulink.co.uk (Technical) jralph@cix.compulink.co.uk Amigability Computers P.O. Box 572 Plantsville, CT 06479 VOICE: 203-276-8175 Internet: amiga@phantm.UUCP BIX: jbasile (Send E-mail to subscribe to our mailing list) Apogee Technologies 1851 University Parkway Sarasota, FL 34243 VOICE: 813-355-6121 Portal: Apogee Internet: Apogee@cup.portal.com Armadillo Brothers 753 East 3300 South Salt Lake City, Utah VOICE: 801-484-2791 GEnie: B.GRAY CLICK! Microcomputer Applications B.V.B.A. Boomsesteenweg 468 B-2610 Wilrijk - Antwerpen Belgium - Europe VOICE: 03 / 828.18.15 FAX: 03 / 828.67.36 USENET: vanhoutv@click.augfl.be FIDO: 2:292/603.9 AmigaNet: 39:120/102.9 Computers International, Inc. 5415 Hixson Pike Chattanooga, TN 37343 VOICE: 615-843-0630 DataKompaniet ANS Pb 3187 Munkvoll N-7002 Trondheim Norway - Europe VOICE/FAX: 72 555 149 Internet: torrunes@idt.unit.no Digital Arts 122 West 6th Street Bloomington, IN 47404 VOICE: (812)330-0124 FAX: (812)330-0126 BIX: msears Finetastic Computers 721 Washington Street Norwood, MA 02062 VOICE: 617-762-4166 BBS: 617-769-3172 Fido: 1:101/322 Portal: FinetasticComputers Internet: FinetasticComputers@cup.portal.com HT Electronics 275 North Mathilda Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94086 VOICE: 408-737-0900 FAX: 408-245-3109 Portal: HT Electronics Internet: HT Electronics@cup.portal.com Industrial Video, Inc. 1601 North Ridge Rd. Lorain, OH 44055 VOICE: 800-362-6150 216-233-4000 Internet: af741@cleveland.freenet.edu Contact: John Gray MicroSearch 9000 US 59 South, Suite 330 Houston, Texas VOICE: 713-988-2818 FAX: 713-995-4994 Mr. Hardware Computers P.O. Box 148 59 Storey Ave. Central Islip, NY 11722 VOICE: 516-234-8110 FAX: 516-234-8110 A.M.U.G. BBS: 516-234-6046 MusicMart: Media Sound & Vision 71 Wellington Road London, Ontario, Canada VOICE: 519-434-4162 FAX: 519-663-8074 BBS: 519-457-2986 FIDO: 1:221/125 AmigaNet: 40:550/1 MaxNet: 90:204/1 iNET: koops@gaul.csd.uwo.ca PSI Animations 17924 SW Pilkington Road Lake Oswego, OR 97035 VOICE: 503-624-8185 Internet: PSIANIM@agora.rain.com Software Plus Chicago 3100 W Peterson Avenue Chicago, Illinois VOICE: 312-338-6100 (Dealers: To have your name added, please send Email!) @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-14 "AR Confidential" @toc "menu" /// AR Confidential We heard it through the grapevine! --------------- - Somewhere, Texas It is rumored that Microbotics is working on an expansion board for the CD32. This board will have parallel, serial, floppy, and IDE hard drive ports, plus RAM expansion and MPEG support. No firm price has been set, but we anticipate it to run around £139. @endnode ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @node P1-15 "Humor Department" @toc "menu" /// The Humor Department Jokes, Quotes, Insults, Shameless Plugs -------------------- (Sign handed to me at work -- from a {cork} bulletin board.) FOR SALE -- BY OWNER Complete set of the _Encyclopedia_Britanica_. Excellent condition, no longer needed. F--king wife knows everything. @endnode @node P2-3 "In Closing" @toc "menu" /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Amiga Report International Online Magazine November 19, 1993 * YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE * No. 1.34 Copyright © 1993 SkyNet Publications ~ All Rights Reserved /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Views, Opinions and Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of the editors and staff of Amiga Report International Online Magazine or of STR Publications. Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. Reprints must, without exception, include the name of the publication, date, issue number and the author's name. Amiga Report and/or portions therein may not be edited in any way without prior written per- mission. However, translation into a language other than English is accept- ble, provided the original meaning is not altered. Amiga Report may be dis- tributed on privately owned not-for-profit bulletin board systems (fees to cover cost of operation are acceptable), and major online services such as (but not limited to) Delphi and Portal. Distribution on public domain disks is acceptable provided proceeds are only to cover the cost of the disk (e.g. no more than $5 US). Distribution on for-profit magazine cover disks requires written permission from the editor or publisher. Amiga Report is a not-for-profit publication. Amiga Report, at the time of pub- ication, is believed reasonably accurate. Amiga Report, its staff and con- ributors are not and cannot be held responsible for the use or misuse of information contained herein or the results obtained there from. Amiga Report is not affiliated with Commodore-Amiga, Inc., Commodore Business Machines, Ltd., or any other Amiga publication in any way. All items quoted in whole or in part are done so under the Fair Use Provision of the Copy- right Laws of the United States Penal Code. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Only * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * _ _ __ ___ _ * * /\\ |\\ /| || // \ /\\ * * / \\ | \\ /|| ||(< __ / \\ * * /--- \\| \X || || \\_||/--- \\ * * /______________________________\\ * * / \\ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Makes it possible!! @endnode @node "menu" "Amiga Report Main Menu" @toc "menu" @{" Columns and Features " link P1} News, Reviews, and More! @{" About AMIGA REPORT " link P2} Staff, Copyright information @{" Dealer Directory " link P3} Amiga Dealer Addresses and Numbers @{" Commercial Online Services " link P4} Sign-Up Information @{" FTP Announcements " link P5} New Files Available for FTP @{" AR Distribution Sites " link P2-1} Where to get AMIGA REPORT /// 11/19/93 Amiga Report 1.34 "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" -------------------------- · The Editor's Desk · CPU Status Report · New Products · FTP Announcements · Dealer Directory · AR Confidential · Usenet Reviews · AR Online · The Humor Department · Emulation Rambler · A.M.I.G.A. · GPFax Review · Famous Amiga Uses · New Scala Products · » Commodore Posts Another Loss! « » WOCA Seminar Schedule « » INOVAtronics Announces "Edge" « /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Amiga Report International Online Magazine "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" » FEATURING WEEKLY « Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information Hardware · Software · Corporate · R & D · Imports /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// / @{" DELPHI " link P4-1} · @{" PORTAL " link P4-2} · @{" FIDO " link P2-1} · @{" INTERNET " link P4-5} · @{" BIX " link P4-6} / /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// @endnode @node P1 "Columns and Features" @toc "menu" @{" From the Editor's Desk " link P1-1} Internet Mailing List SPECIAL NOTICE! @{" CPU Status Report " link P1-2} Computer Products Update @{" CBM Announces Loss " link P1-3} CBM's financial situation @{" INOVAtronic's Text Editor " link P1-4} A Professional text editor @{" Amiga Game Zone Magazine " link P1-5} A new Amiga games magazine @{" HD expansion for A600/1200 " link P1-6} Add a Hard Drive to the A600/1200 @{" Raggae MODs contest " link P1-7} Win some time in the sunny cool waters! @{" Online Weekly " link P1-8} The lines are buzzing! @{" Amiga Online Reference Manual " link P1-9} AORM - contact information @{" WOCA Toronto Seminars " link P1-10} Find out what's going to be happening! @{" Usenet Review " link P1-11} GPFax @{" Famous Amiga Uses " link P1-12} What are we doing with the Amiga? @{" Emulation Examiner " link P1-13} AmigaDOS for Dummies @{" The AMIGA Rambler " link P1-13-1} November is Amiga Sysop Month? @{" AR Confidential " link P1-14} We heard if through the Grapevine! @{" The Humor Department " link P1-15} Jokes, Quotes, and Shameless plugs! @endnode @node P2 "About Amiga Report" @toc "menu" @{" For Starters " link P2-1} Where to get AMIGA REPORT @{" AR Staff " link P2-2} The Editors, and Contributers @{" In Closing " link P2-3} Copyright Information @endnode @node P4 "Commercial Online Services" @toc "menu" @{" Delphi " link P4-1} Getting better all the time! @{" Portal " link P4-2} A great place for Amiga users... @{" InterNet " link P4-5} Subscribe to the AR Mailing List @{" BIX " link P4-6} For Serious Programmers and Developers @endnode @node P5 "Files Available for FTP" @toc "menu" @{" Cookie v2.0 " link P5-1} Fast Fortune Cookie Program @{" ForceIcon v1.0 " link P5-2} Good FUW CD-ROMs @{" New World Demo " link P5-3} Demo of 'New World' "7 Cities of Gold look-alike @{" Zeus SCSI patches " link P5-4} Patches the P.P. Zeus 68040 card @{" Music Web " link P5-5} Interactive enviro to manipulate MIDI events @endnode ----------------------------------------- @node P2-1-1 "NOVA" @toc "menu" * NOVA BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Starnet BBS * Wayne Stonecipher, Sysop FidoNet 1:362/508 An Amiga Software Distribution Site (ADS) 615-472-9748 USR DS 16.8 24hrs - 7 days Cleveland, Tennessee @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-2 "In The MeanTime" @toc "menu" * IN THE MEANTIME BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running AXShell * Robert Niles, Sysop rniles@imtired.itm.com 509-966-3828 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Yakima, Washington ******* Notice ******* After 13 September 1993, In The MeanTime will no longer be on FidoNet, thus we will no longer be accepting File REQuests (FREQs). We WILL be still accepting calls and will have the latest edition of Amiga Report online. Downloads to first time callers are still accepted. For the west coast call @{"Cloud's Corner" link P2-1-3} to FREQ the latest edition of Amiga Report. Those who call for the latest edition of Amiga Report, and who do not with to establish an account, log in as guest with the password of "guest". At the prompt type "ARMAG" (without the quotes). @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-3 "Cloud's Corner" @toc "menu" * CLOUD'S CORNER BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site Starnet/MebbsNet Support Site West Coast USA * Running Starnet BBS * Larry Cloud, Sysop FidoNet: 1:350/30 Internet: larryc@hebron.connected.com 206-377-4290 USR HST DS 24hrs - 7 days Bremerton, Washington New users can call and get ANY copy of Amiga Report. These are considered "free" downloads, they do not count against any file ratio. The latest issue of Amiga Reports can be Freq'ed (FileREQusted) from here as "AR.LHA", as "AR" or as ARxxx.LHA where xxx is the issue number. For users interested in reading AR, but who do not have access to AmigaGuide, you can freq ARBUL and get the AR in bulletin form. This service is provided for persons who do not have Amigaguide (such as IBM users). Please note that any pictures distributed with the "regular" Amiga Reports archive will NOT be sent with this freq. This file is not available for dial-in users, but you can read bulletin #22 with your capture buffer open and get the same file. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-4 "Biosmatica" @toc "menu" * BIOSMATICA BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Portugal * Running Excelsior/Trapdoor/UUCP * Celso Martinho, Sysop FidoNet 2:361/9 +351-34-382320 V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-5 "Amiga Junction 9" @toc "menu" * AMIGA JUNCTION 9 * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- United Kingdom * Running DLG Professional * Stephen Anderson, Sysop Internet: user_name@junct9.royle.org Line 1 +44 (0)372 271000 14400 V.32bis/HST Fido 2:253/510 Line 2 +44 (0)372 278000 14400 V.32bis only Fido 2:253/520 Line 3 +44 (0)372 279000 2400 V.42bis/MNP Fido 2:253/530 Sysop Email: sysadmin@junct9.royle.org @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-6 "BitStream BBS" @toc "menu" * BITSTREAM BBS * The BBS of the Nelson (NZ) Amiga Users Group Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Xenolink 1.0 Z.3 * Glen Roberts, Sysop FidoNet 3:771/850 +64 3 5485321 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Nelson, New Zealand @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-7 "Realm of Twilight" @toc "menu" * REALM OF TWILIGHT BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Canada * Running Excelsior! BBS * Thorsten Schiller, Sysop Usenet: realm.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca UUCP: ...!uunet.ca!tdkcs!realm FIDO: 1:221/202 Fish: 33:33/8 24hrs - 7 days 519-748-9365 (2400 baud) 519-748-9026 (v.32bis) Ontario, Canada Hardware: Amiga 3000, 105 Meg Quantum, 213 Meg Maxtor, 5 megs RAM @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-8 "Metnet Triangle" @toc "menu" METNET TRIANGLE SYSTEM Official Amiga Report Distribution Site UK Support for Mebbsnet * Running Mebbsnet and Starnet 1.02a * Jon Witty, Sysop FIDO: 2:252/129.0 24 hrs - 7 days Line 1: 44-482-473871 16.8 DS HST Lines 2-7: 44-482-442251 2400 (6 lines) Line 8: 44-482-491744 2400 Line 9: 44-482-449028 2400 Voice helpline 44-482-491752 (anytime) Fully animated menus + normal menu sets. 500 megs HD - Usual software/messages Most doors online - Many Sigs - AMIGA AND PC SUPPORT Very active userbase and busy conference Precious days and MUD online. AMUL support site. @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-9 "Omaha Amiganet" @toc "menu" * OMAHA AMIGANET * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running DLG Professional * Andy Wasserman, Sysop 24 hrs - 7 days FidoNet: 1:285/11 AmigaNet: 40:200/10 Line 1: 402-333-5110 V.32bis Line 2: 402-691-0104 USR DS Omaha, Nebraska @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-10 "Amiga-Night-System" @toc "menu" * AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - Finland * Running DLG Professional * Janne Saarme, Sysop 24 hrs - 7 days InterNet: luumu@fenix.pp.fi FidoNet: 2:220/550.0 +358-0-675840 V.32bis Helsinki, Finland @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-11 "Ramses Amiga Flying" @toc "menu" * RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- France * Running DLG Professional * Eric Delord, Sysop Philippe Brand, Co-Sysop Stephane Legrand, Co-Sysop Internet: user.name@ramses.gna.org Fidonet: 2:320/104 +33-1-60037015 USR DS 16.8 +33-1-60037713 V.32bis +33-1-60037716 1200-2400 Ramses The Amiga Flying BBS is an Amiga-dedicated BBS running DLG-Pro on a Amiga 3000, 16MB RAM, 2GB Disk space, 3 lines. We keep a dayly Aminet site mirroring, NetBSD-Amiga complete mirror site from ftp.eunet.ch (main site), Amiga Report, GNU Amiga, Ramses is the SAN/ADS/Amiganet French coordinator. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-12 "Gateway BBS" @toc "menu" * THE GATEWAY BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Excelsior! BBS * Stace Cunningham, Sysop Dan Butler, CoSysop 601-374-2697 V.32bis 24 hrs - 7 days InterNet: stace@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil FidoNet: 1:3604/60.0 Biloxi, Mississippi @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-13 "Talk City" @toc "menu" * TALK CITY * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site 708-372-0190 - 2400bps 708-372-0268 - V32 14.4K 708-372-0283 USR DS 14.4K Fido Net 1:115/372,0 Phantom Net 11:2115/2.0 Clink Net 911:6080/4.0 UUCP tcity.com Over 3 Gig of Files Online | More and More things everyday. With Three IBM CD-ROMs online, 10 lines, support for all platforms, and a REALLY dedicated sysop (The Mayor). @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-50 "Freeland Mainframe" @toc "menu" * FREELAND MAINFRAME * Offical Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running DLG Progessional * John Freeland, SysOp 206-438-1670 Supra 2400zi 206-438-2273 Telebit WorldBlazer(v.32bis) 206-456-6013 Supra v.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Internet - freemf.eskimo.com Olympia, Washington @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-51 "LAHO" @toc "menu" * LAHO BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Finland * Running MBBS * Lenni Uitti, SysOp Tero Manninen, SysOp (PC-areas) Juha Makinen, SysOp (Amiga-areas) +358-64-414 1516, V.32bis/HST +358-64-414 0400, V.32bis/HST +358-64-414 6800, V.32/HST +358-64-423 1300, V.32 MNP Seinajoki, Finland Our machine is a 386/33 with 20MB of memory, 1GB harddisk and a CD-ROM drive. The BBS software is a Norwegian origin MBBS running in a DesqView windows. We have over 7000 files online (both for the Amiga and PC) + 650MB stuff on the Aminet CD-ROM disk. Every user has an access to download filelist (LAHOFIL.ZIP), list of Finnish 24-hour BBS's (BBSLIST.ZIP or BBSLIST.LHA) and every issue of the Amiga Report Magazine (AR101.LHA-AR1??.LHA) even on their first call. The system has been running since 1989 and is sponsored by the local telephone company, Vaasan Ladnin Puhelin Oy. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-52 "Falling BBS" @toc "menu" * FALLING BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Norway * Running ABBS * Christopher Naas, Sysop +47 69 256117 V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days EMail: naasc@cnaas.adsp.sub.org @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-53 "Command Line BBS" @toc "menu" * COMMAND LINE BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Canada Canada's Amiga Graphics & Animation Source * Running AmiExpress BBS * Nick Poliwko, Sysop 416-533-8321 V.32 24hrs - 7 days Toronto, Canada @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-54 "Rendezvous BBS" @toc "menu" * RENDEZVOUS BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - New Zealand New Zealand Excelsior! BBS Support Site * Running Excelsior! Professional BBS * David Dustin, Sysop Internet: postmaster@eclipse.acme.gen.nz +64 6 3566375 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Palmerston North, New Zealand @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-55 "Leguans Byte Channel" @toc "menu" * LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany * Running EazyBBS V2.11 * Andreas Geist, Sysop Usenet: andreas@lbcmbx.in-berlin.de 24 hrs - 7 days Line 1: 49-30-8110060 USR DS 16.8 Line 2: 49-30-8122442 USR DS 16.8 Login as User: "amiga", Passwd: "report" @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-56 "Stingray Database BBS" @toc "menu" * STINGRAY DATABASE * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany * Running FastCall * Bernd Mienert, Sysop EMail: sysop@sting-db.zer.sub.org.dbp.de +49 208 496807 HST-Dual 24hrs - 7 days Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany @endnode -------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-57 "T.B.P. Video Slate" @toc "menu" * T.B.P. VIDEO SLATE * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site An Amiga dedicated BBS for All * Running Skyline 1.3.2 * Mark E Davidson, Sysop 24 hrs - 7 days 201-586-3623 USR 14.4 HST Rockaway, New Jersey Full Skypix menus + normal and ansi menu sets. Instant Access to all. Download on the first call. Hardware: Amiga 500 Tower custom at 14 MHz, 350 Meg maxtor, 125 Meg SCSI Maxtor, 125 Meg IDE Maxtor, Double Speed CD rom, 9 meg RAM @endnode -------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-58 "Amiga Central" @toc "menu" * AMIGA CENTRAL! * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site CNet Amiga Support Site * Running CNet Amiga BBS * Carl Tashian, Sysop Internet mail: root@amicent.raider.net 615-383-9679 1200-14.4Kbps V.32bis 24 hours - 7 days Nashville, Tennessee Hardware: Amiga 3000 Tower 68030+882@25MHz, 105 meg Quantum, 225 meg Seagate, Zoom 14.4k modem @endnode -------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-59 "Continental Drift" @toc "menu" * CONTINENTAL DRIFT BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running MAXsBBS software (DLG Pro is being delivered!) * Andre Lackman, Co-Sysop +612 9188375 24 hours - 7 days Sydney, Australia @endnode -------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-60 "Guru Meditation: @toc "menu" * GURU MEDITATION * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Spain * Running Remote Access * Javier Frias, SysOp +34-1-383-1317 V.32bis 24 hours - 7days Spain @endnode