@database "ar221.guide" @Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #2.21 -- June 24, 1994" @{" Turn the Page " link "menu"} _ ____ ___ ______ _______ _ d# ####b g#00 `N##0" _agN#0P0N# d# d## jN## j##F J## _dN0" " d## .#]## _P ##L jN##F ### g#0" .#]## dE_j## # 0## jF ##F j##F j##' ______ dE_j## .0"""N## d" ##L0 ##F 0## 0## "9##F" .0"""5## .dF' ]## jF ##0 ##F ##F `##k d## .dF' j## .g#_ _j##___g#__ ]N _j##L_ _d##L_ `#Nh___g#N' .g#_ _j##__ """"" """"""""""" " """""" """""" """"""" """"" """""" ###### ###### ###### ###### ###### ######## TM ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ### ###### ## ###### ## ### ## International Online Magazine "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information." Copyright 1994 Skynet Publications All Rights Reserved // %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%//%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% June 24, 1994 \\// Issue No. 2.21 %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @endnode @node "menu" "Amiga Report Main Menu" @toc "menu" @{" Columns and Features " link P1} News, Reviews, and More! @{" About AMIGA REPORT " link P2} Staff, Copyright information @{" Dealer Directory " link P3} Amiga Dealer Addresses and Numbers @{" Commercial Online Services " link P4} Sign-Up Information @{" FTP Announcements " link P5} New Files Available for FTP @{" AR Distribution Sites " link P2-1} Where to get AMIGA REPORT ____________________________________________ // | | // %%%%%%%%//%%%%%| Amiga Report International Online Magazine |%%%%%%%//%%%%% %% \\// | Issue No. 2.21 June 24, 1994 | \\// %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%| "Your Weekly Source for Amiga Information" |%%%%%%%%%%%%%% |____________________________________________| The Editor's Desk Dealer Directory Distribution BBS's Emulation Rambler Reader Mail CES Report Amiga News SPECIAL FEATURES AR Contest!! .............................................David Tiberio Creative Computers Complaints..................................Assorted Retina Z-III Review ......................................Jason Compton Amiga Media Watch #1 ..........................................Pat Fish Obituary........................................(written by Harv Laser) %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% @{" DELPHI " link P4-1} @{" PORTAL " link P4-2} @{" FIDO " link P2-1} @{" INTERNET " link P4-5} %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @endnode @node P1-1 "The Editor's Desk" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% The Editor's Desk by @{" Jason Compton " link P8-2} %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Writing this is actually harder than I anticipated. I figured that being the editor (for a week), I'd want to come up with something profound to say. It's not working. Instead, I'm going to renew an old plea. WRITE! Write to us! Write FOR us! We know you're out there, you keep getting the magazine on the mailing list, we're almost always on the FTP charts, and we've got about 3 dozen distribution sites. Unfortunately, we'll bore you if there's nothing in the magazine. So, to ensure that there IS something, put it in yourself! Actually, you don't even have to do the work of putting it in, all you have to do is write it and send it to Niles. HE'S the one who has to put it all together. It's not hard...my career started with a letter to the editor. After getting over the shock of seeing it printed, I wrote the first article in the long running Emulation Rambler (then Emulation Examiner) column, and a career of sorts was born. Try it. Robert has even been nice enough to include a real-life US Mail address, so there's very little excuse for not being capable of submitting articles. Anyway, on to business. I think Robert may have forgotten to forward his mail to me: either that, or there were REALLY no submissions this week. I hope it's the former. I've drawn fairly strongly on comp.sys.amiga.reviews and my own columns. But my own observations and Dan Barrett's staff of freelance reviewers do not a magazine make. No news on Commodore yet...they're supposed to have a decision deadline at the end of the month, but they had one of those last month, too, so I'm not getting overly excited yet. I tried to talk to Samsung reps at the CES, but my results were less than ideal, as you'll read in my CES report... Finally, sorry it took so long to get AR out this week. It's been busy, there was a lot to put in, and I lost the mailer address. Again, my fault. Enjoy the magazine. @endnode @node P4-1 "Delphi" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Delphi Internet Services -- Your Connection to the World! %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Amiga Report International Online Magazine is available every week in the Amiga SIG on DELPHI. Amiga Report readers are invited to join DELPHI and become a part of the friendly community of Amiga enthusiasts there. SIGNING UP WITH DELPHI ====================== Using a personal computer and modem, members worldwide access DELPHI services via a local phone call JOIN -- DELPHI -------------- Via modem, dial up DELPHI at 1-800-695-4002 then... When connected, press RETURN once or twice and.... At Username: type JOINDELPHI and press RETURN, At Password: type AMIGAUSER and press RETURN. DELPHI's best plan is the 20/20 plan. It gives you 20 hours each month for the low price of only $19.95! Additional hours are only $1.50 each! This covers 1200, 2400 and even 9600 connections! For more information, and details on other plans, call DELPHI Member Services at 1-800-695-4005 SPECIAL FEATURES ---------------- Complete Internet connection -- Telnet, FTP, IRC, Gopher, E-Mail and more! (Internet option is $3/month extra) SIGs for all types of computers -- Amiga, IBM, Macintosh, Atari, etc. An active Amiga SIG hosting conferances, Usenet, Latest wares, and FTP Gopher coming soon Large file databases! SIGs for hobbies, video games, graphics, and more! Business and world news, stock reports, etc. Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia! DELPHI - It's getting better all the time! @endnode %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% The Amiga Report Staff %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @node P8-1 "Editor" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% EDITOR %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Robert Niles Portal: RNiles FidoNet: 1:3407/103 Internet: rniles@hebron.connected.com Fax: 509-248-5645 US Mail: P.O. Box 8041 Yakima, Wa 98908 @endnode @node P8-2 "Emulation Editor" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% ACTING EDITOR/EMULATION EDITOR %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Jason Compton Internet: jcompton@bbs.xnet.com FAX: 708-741-0689 @endnode @node P8-3 "European Editor" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% EUROPEAN EDITOR %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Jesper Juul Internet: norjj@stud.hum.aau.dk @endnode @node P8-4 "Contributing Editor" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% CONTIBUTING EDITOR %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% David Tiberio Internet: dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu @endnode @node P4-5 "Amiga Report Mailing List" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Amiga Report Mailing List, the WWW, and Aminet %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% AR Mailing List ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ No Official Amiga Report Distribution Site in your local calling area? Are you tired of waiting for your local BBS or online service to get Amiga Report each week? If so, have we got a deal for you! If you have an internet mailing address, you can receive Amiga Report in UUENCODED form each week as soon as the issue is released. To be put on the list, send Email to rniles@hebron.connected.com. Your account must be able to handle mail of any size to ensure an intact copy. For example, many systems have a 100K limit on incoming messages. Many thanks to PORTAL Communications for setting this service up for us! P.S.: Please be sure to include your Email address in the text of your request message, it makes adding it to the list much easier. Thanks! ** IMPORTANT NOTICE: PLEASE be certain your host can accept mail over ** 100K! We have had a lot of bouncebacks recently from systems with a ** 100K size limit for incoming mail. If we get a bounceback with your ** address in it, it will be removed from the list. Thanks! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ World Wide Web ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AR can also be read with Mosaic (in either AmigaGuide or html form). Reading AmigaReport with Mosaic removes the necessity to download it. It can also be read using programs found in UNIX sites such as LYNX. Simply tell Mosaic to open the following URL: http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/People/mjw/Computer/Amiga/AR/MainPage.html Mosaic for the Amiga can be found on Aminet in directory comm/net, or (using anonymous ftp) on max.physics.sunysb.edu Mosaic for X, Macintosh(tm) and Microsoft Windows(tm) can be found on ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Aminet ~~~~~~ To get Amiga Report from Aminet, simply FTP to any Aminet site, CD to docs/mags. All the back issues are located there as well. (ftp.cdrom.com or ftp.wustl.edu are two sites) @endnode @node P1-2 "Amiga News" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Amiga News %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Ed's note: Just in case you haven't picked up on this situation from reading my Retina review, here's the official notice, courtesy of David W. Martin] ----8<-------8<---------8<-------8<---------8<---------8<-------------- May 5, 1994, Witten, Germany MacroSystem GmbH of Germany Announces NoahJi's Exclusive United States Distributor Jorg Sprave, president of MacroSystem GmbH, located in Witten, Germany, is pleased to announce the appointment of NoahJi's as the exclusive distributor of MacroSystem product in the United States. Technical support, repair, and service will be handled by NoahJi's. Software updates for the V-Lab and the Retina will also be made available at a modest charge for current owners of these products. NoahJi's is the Amiga board division of Micro Reps, Inc. a 10-year-old distribution company. Eric Kloor, president of NoahJi's, is excited to begin distribution of the remarkable line of product manufactured by MacroSystem GmbH. The Retina Z3, with updated hardware features and astonishingly fast software, will soon be impressing the US market. In the current issue of The Amiga Magazine, Germany's largest, 10 different graphics boards were reviewed. The Z2 Retina was called "nearly legendary, " and in price/performance comparisons towered above the others. The only more impressive board in the tests was the new Retina Z3. Both products received glowing and strong recommendations. The Toccata 16 bit I/O board, which has been available in Germany for over 6 months, will now be available for the US market. The V-Lab Y/C 24 bit realtime video digitizer will also join the product mix of NoahJi's. An astounding new product that is currently in production and will be available here in July is the VLab Motion Card. This card is a Zorro II motion JPEG board for non-linear video editing and playback. The VLab Motion product contains a digitizer plus a video output device with YUV 4:2:2 square pixel quality and embedded hardware scaling and a genlock with chroma keying for real-time blue box effects as well as the compression/decompression JPEG chipset which runs at 29.5 Mhz peak frequency. The board has composite and Y/C inputs and outputs, and also features an expansion socket for add-ons like piggy packed YUV or RGB component transcoders, and an interface for outputting over NewTek's Video Toaster. The V-Lab Motion board does not require a time based corrector and can be combined with existing hard drives and controllers. VLab Motion also comes with MovieShop, a complete editing software package that features a hierarchical editor, B/W or color reference stamps, and a time line editor. Perfect interfacing with the Retina and the Toccata allow simultaneous recording and playback of audio and video. For more information contact: NoahJi's 3591 Nyland Lafayette, CO 80026 Phone: (303)499-1975 Fax: (303)499-1979 [Ed's note: You know what? We've carried this announcement before. Robert wanted it in again, though...] ----8<-------8<---------8<-------8<---------8<---------8<-------------- @endnode @node P1-3 "Reader Mail" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Reader Mail %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Some letters to @{" David Tiberio " link P8-4}. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Q. Many readers frequently ask, "Could you please email me the latest issue of Amiga Report?" A. Absolutely NOT! Why? I don't get them until a week after they are released, so chances are when you ask me for it I haven't gotten it yet either! I just subscribed to the Amiga Report Mailing List, which uuencodes and emails me the latets issue the day it is released. I merely sent email to rniles@hebron.connected.com and gave him my return address. He replied that they have very few subscribers. :) +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Q. Many people also ask about the List of Famous Amiga Uses, a monthly list of people and companies that use the Amiga. "Could you please email me the latest version?" A. Well, I wish I could, but it is over 50 pages long, pushing 100k in size. Most email is not safe unless it is under 32k in size, although many systems do accespt larger files (I can get at least 100k myself). In actuality, I haven't updated it since March or so, and it is about time I release another one on Aminet. I will keep you all posted, and promise to make them available by request in the mail. I just have to figure out an easy way to do it from my mailx program. :) +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Q. "What is your opinion on the situation with Commodore?" A. When the time comes, I will eventually have to buy a new system. I see no reason to abandon the platform at this point in time. In fact, we became an Amiga dealer on the day that CBM annunced its liquidation at the beginning of April! I am giving them at least until the end of the summer to see what will happen. In the mean time, I am buying a Macintosh emulator. I would prefer an IBM system, but I feel that I can set that as a goal to meet later in the year. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Q. "Why doesn't my Amiga Report display pictures properly?" A. Well, it appears our fearless editor misread one of the instructions that I had modified. Originally, the Installer script generated the image viewer based upon what display program you had available. The new display driver supports most viewers in one driver, and our editor had not included that driver with the archive. Hopefully this will be resolved in the future! +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Q. "Why didn't the AmigaDOS scripts article have working scripts?" A. Simple. They did work, until my UNIX system ate all the ".key" commands from mailx, and sent them as "key" commands, which are not valid AmigaDOS script commands. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Q. "What happened to Omega RIPort magazine?" A. After saving enough articles for a few more issues, I found that it was too much work to edit all the articles into a standard format, and my fingers hurt from typing so much as it is! Maybe if CBM changes hands this week, there may be a new version out! - USENET REFERENCES - On many AMINET sites: /pub/amiga/docs/mags/ar#?.lha Amiga Report magazines /pub/amiga/test/mags/ar#?.lha Amiga Report magazines On other AMINET sites: /pub/aminet/docs/mags/ar#?.lha Amiga Report magazines /pub/aminet/test/mags/ar#?.lha Amiga Report magazines - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I actually got a piece of mail this week, too... From: jason.eyre@kosone.com (Jason Eyre) Subject: Editorial Date: Tue, 21 Jun 1994 19:47:00 -0400 Organization: Kingston Online Services 613-549-8667 I've been an avid reader of AmigaReport for quite some time and think that it is an excellent source for information. But I'm a little disappointed that there aren't any editorials. Is there any reason for this? [I already replied to Mr. Eyre personally, but it's worth responding here, too...] Well, I have always considered the Editor's Desk an editorial source, even if Robert Niles isn't a rabble-rouser. :) At the same time, my compt.sys.amiga column has, to me, all the trappings of an editorial. If you'd like to see more opinion, though, let us know and we'll try to help. At the same time, anybody is free to submit opinion pieces to the magazine. Jason @endnode @node P1-4 "CES Report" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% CES Report by @{" Jason Compton " link P8-2} %% %% A look at what's up and coming... jcompton@bbs.xnet.com %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% I had been looking forward to the CES for quite some time...it had always seemed like the place to be when you wanted to see new, amazing products. After all, the Amiga was introduced at one. So far, I've been a bit disappointed from the computer angle. Very, very new computer-oriented products are being shown, the exception being new software lines like Paramount. Of course, many of these new lines won't be supporting the Amiga, since, as a Paramount rep told me, "We're in this to make money. We're not doing this to make other people's platforms attractive." So much for wanting to be on the ground floor. The show is broken up into two major areas: the East building, which I refer to as the "quiet one", featuring large Philips, 3DO, and Gemini displays, with a host of other consumer electronic devices, a few of which are actually pretty impressive (and which I'll actually include in the magazine this week and next), and the North, or "loud one", with all of the games: Nintendo, Sega, Ocean, Paramount, MTV, etc. etc. A few of the gaming magazines have actually set up booths, I guess to make them seem more journalistic. I HAVE been walking around, trying to get information, and relating it to the Amiga if I can. So I'll try to get the Amiga news out of the way first. 1. ReadySoft will be distributing Robinson's Requiem in North America, probably around Christmastime. It's a CD32 title by Silmarlis. 2. Inferno, another CD32 title, is scheduled for CD32 release around Christmas, a couple of months after the PC introduction. (incidentally, the game looked good on their PC). 3. Samsung is there, so I figured I'd try asking around. I went into the super-special Samsung reception room and left my card and my question, "Is Samsung bidding for the Commodore Amiga technology?", because nobody there knew what I was talking about. A fellow Amigan who I ran into at the show said that he talked to a Samsung rep who said that Samsung was still in it and waiting for a response, but since I didn't talk to this rep I can't be convinced. On Saturday, I checked back in, and they still didn't know. 4. Blue Ribbon was supposedly there, but I never managed to find them. 5. MicroProse is going to drop Amiga support, in all likelihood. 6. A rep from Westwood told me to sell my Amiga and "get a real computer." 7. Ocean bought the license to 6 new EA titles. Unfortunately, they only got the UK license (or perhaps only the Europe license.) I asked David Size of EA if he knew why they couldn't get the US licenses. He didn't know, since he's a game producer and doesn't deal with licensing. 8. Psygnosis is still supporting the Amiga. The sequel to Microcosm, which is now nameless because of a legal dispute, was being shown on the FM-Towns console (which, incidentally, has a bad controller). It looked decent. Same gameplay, mainly, just in a more open space. 9. I had a GREAT conversation with a rep from Maxis UK. She was very enthusiastic about the Amiga, and while she admitted that they don't port everything over to it, pointed out that they do the games that they feel "need" to be on the Amiga. Unfortunately, I didn't get her name. (By this point in the show, I had been sent to see so many UK reps I was considering going to software companies and simply asking, "Excuse me, is anybody here British?") That about does it for Amiga news. On with the show... 1. Yeah, yeah, The 3DO Company has a huge section. Actually, they just have a bunch of meeting rooms and reps, but have sublet a lot of that space to Panasonic, Samsung, Sanyo, and GoldStar, all of whom have their 3DO boxes present. They were in the East building, away from other games. Panasonic: Still has that "castle-shaped" unit, still has controllers that shock you through the speaker port (I actually got a few Panasonic and 3DO reps to admit that they have a problem with it!), and is coming out with an MPEG module and memory card. MPEG module: Latches onto the right side as you look straight at it, a boring black rectangle. No release date, no price. Memory card: Uses the PCMCIA 1 standard size, but their own proprietary cards anyway. The prototype was in a big ugly box about the size of an ORIGINAL external Amiga floppy drive, except this one was black. The memory card (128k) is tiny and sticks out of it. No price, no date. Also, Panasonic is working on implementing a "second-generation" 3DO box, which may very well be a cost-reduced, no-expansion-port model. Panasonic ALSO had a PAL 3DO on display, cleverly hooked up to a PAL TV so it didn't look like crap to the Americans. (come on, say it with me...) "No price, no date." Samsung: Probably has the most attractive unit in existance. What can I say, it plays 3DO games. No price, no date. Sanyo: Ugly box. Plays 3DO games, although the sound seemed to be lower quality than the others. That may just be the Sanyo TVs they had the boxes hooked up to, though. No price, no date. GoldStar: Box similar to Samsung's. Plays 3DO games. No price, no date. I asked representatives from each company this question: "What will be your selling angle? What will make the consumer buy YOUR 3DO box over someone else's?" I think I could have given these answers myself. Panasonic: Name recognition, status in the 3DO market, possible cost reductions. Samsung: May include the MPEG module in their unit, but maybe not. Sanyo: I'm not really sure, their rep spoke lousy English. The upshot, though, was that they would market it and try to bring it in cheaply. GoldStar: This guy seemed to have learned English from the Sanyo guy , and was about as helpful. Same story. Also, Creative Labs has a cleverly titled product called the 3DO Blaster. This is an 8-bit ISA card with the 3DO chipset that, if armed with a SoundBlaster and a sufficient double-speed CD-ROM drive, will play 3DO games on Windows or DOS (although the Creative guy seemed puzzled that anyone would want to play it on DOS.) The 3DO board passes through the normal VGA output and adds its own graphics, if the 3DO is in use. Creative also plans a 3DO MPEG board to go with this. Date: none. Price: "Well under $500", which we all know probably means $489.99. They did such an impressive job of showing it multitask, too: they had MINESWEEPER loaded at the same time as the 3DO. Oh dear, looks like the Amiga's been surpassed. Want my analysis on the situation? With all the games present, it doesn't seem like 3DO will be folding overnight. HOWEVER, I think that the "new 3" haven't thought their plans through well enough, and I predict that Panasonic will win unless they misprice their units... of course, they have already, but that's because they CAN. Creative's board is a nice idea, but unfortunately is rather silly. You will be paying roughly the same cost as a new 3DO ($480 at Software Etc. these days) for just a card that will require you to have a CD-ROM and SoundBlaster already installed (BTW, all the SB does is amplify the 3DO-generated sound.) The MPEG board will NOT (that's NOT) be accessable by the PC, meaning that if you've got a ReelMagic card or would like to use your 3DO MPEG for a PC program, too bad. The Creative rep ALSO admitted that there would be some problems with recognizing different varieties of MPEG movies and 3DO games, but their hope was that the white book standard would emerge supreme. For what looks like it will be the cost of a FULL 3DO unit, you can buy JUST A CARD that requires you already have a SB and a double-speed CD-ROM. Somehow, I think PC users will take a pass and go for a cheaper, full unit, unless they already own both pieces of hardware. Hopes and promises. Moving on across the aisle, Philips is putting on a blitz for the CD-i. Too bad they haven't improved on it. I will admit, though, they're trying, and the games are getting more exiting. Unfortunately, they all require the MPEG module. Perfect case in point is Microcosm. I walked over to where the Microcosm disk was and asked the Philips rep to start it up. He did, and the intro began. I had to admit to myself, it looked a touch better than the CD32 version, although the music was not as good. At any rate, it played for a while, and I asked (because I didn't know), "This is the base unit?" The replay: "The base unit and the Full Motion Video cartridge." Ah. THAT put a new spin on it. Now I was looking at an intro that, while looking somewhat sharper than the CD32 version, required an extra $250 to run. (The gameplay, incidentally, was not discernably superior. It had a first-person perspective, however.) Philips is trying to permutate the CD-i into lots and lots of new forms...TVCD-i being one, a 20 inch TV with a CD-i built in. They're also coming out with a new, low-cost box for $300. Its MPEG module will run another $200, for a grand total of $500 required to play Microcosm. It's a box, smaller in every dimension than the CD32, with a medium grey case and little visibility inside the CD drive. If any of you have ever seen a CD-i, you've probably noticed that their controllers are horrible, hard-to use, poorly-laid-out affairs. Even the Philips guys don't like them. However, they're coming out with a new gamepad-like controller for their new line. Something looked REALLY, REALLY familiar about this pad, but I couldn't place it. Finally, my companion, Katie Nelson, figured it out. "Why does this pad look so much like a Gravis Gamepad?" The Philips rep clamped his hand over his mouth in mock horror and said, "Well, you just said it. Yeah, they make them for us." The upshot from that display: CD-i has some decent games, IF you have the MPEG module. If not...you may as well have bought a CD32, it's better. Gravis: (on the subject) Gravis is coming out with a wicked-huge flightstick/programmable pad. This sucker is huge, sporting about 20 programmable buttons, two functions each, a joystick AND a joypad... for flight-sim enthusiasts, this is home. Paramount: A nice big display in the Loud building, featuring some new Star Trek games and Nana Visitor from Deep Space Nine (who, incidentally, looks much smaller in person.) Sir-Tech: I haven't made it to them yet, but they included a disk with press releases in the press packet. THAT, I like. Too bad none of them are very relevant to the magazine. I saw the Gunvertor! They had a couple of company representatives there, plus a busty blonde in a tight black bodysuit. Somehow, I figured as much. (If you don't remember the Gunvertor, I mentioned it a week or two ago. It's a $70 universal remote in the shape of a handgun.) I haven't been able to track down the Amazing Computing people, which is really a shame, because I was looking forward to talking with them. I've got some press releases: some computer/game oriented, some of just cool items on display. I'll be entering them over the next month or so, since only Sir-Tech had the foresight to include a disk for the press... @endnode @node P1-5 "Problems with Creative Computers" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Problems with Creative Computers %% %% %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% [Ed's disclaimer: Amiga Report is in no way affiliated with any Amiga or computer dealership. Our Dealer Directory is open to any, and is carried as a public service only. We do not specifically endorse any particular dealer over another. This article has been compiled from Usenet users and is provided as information for Amiga users.] [Ed's note: I first noticed this thread begin about two weeks back and read it. As it progressed, it seemed like there was a serious concern to be had. Decide for yourself.] ----- Newsgroup: comp.sys.amiga.misc ----- In article <2t1gf6$n79@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>, dm139@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Charles John Statton, Jr) writes: >I'm planning to purchase products through either one or both >of these companies, but I wanted to know what experiences others >have had with them first. I have dealt with CREATIVE COMPUTERS several times without problems UNTIL NOW!!! I will never do business with them again! They lie like dogs to sell products, then they don't back up their promises. For further (gory) details, I am posting a note regarding my adventures with them entitled "CREATIVE COMPUTERS LIE THROUGH THEIR TEETH!" Scott #16770 comp.sys.amiga.misc 5k From: hansen@eisner.decus.org (Scott Hansen) Subject: *** CREATIVE COMPUTERS LIE THROUGH THEIR TEETH *** Date: 13 Jun 1994 16:28 -0400 Organization: DECUServe This is a warning to all interested parties that CREATIVE COMPUTERS of Torrance, California, sells their products by telling BALD-FACED LIES about features and functionality. I certainly will never do business with them again and I felt that everybody should be aware of their business practices. Here's what happened: Short version: Prior to ordering a software product, I asked very specifically whether or not the product contained certain functionality, and I received assurances that it did. I bought it, and the product does _NOT_ do what they promised. CREATIVE COMPUTERS themselves later confirmed this. Despite the prior promises, they refuse to accept a return. I am now pursuing recourse through VISA. Long version: I recently bought (not from CREATIVE COMPUTERS) a Power Point high density external floppy drive for my Amiga 1200. It works great, except for the fact that the utility I was using for backups (HDBackup, it came installed on the 1200 when I bought it) did not take advantage of the high density feature of the drive. It uses the drive ok, it just writes to the floppy in its standard double-density proprietary format. Anyway, since I now have this high density capability, I thought (silly me) that it would be nice to have a backup utility that ACTUALLY USED the high densityness of the drive. So I read old reviews of backup products and proceeded to call CREATIVE COMPUTERS to ask them about two products, Ami-Back and Quarterback. I spoke to a sales-type by the name of JIM HOUSKA, who assured me in no uncertain terms that Ami-Back does not use the high density feature of the drive (it turns out it actually does), and that Quarterback does absolutely write in high density with the Power Point drive (it turns out it doesn't) and is also the best backup product in the Known Universe. So I ordered Quarterback (unaware that its maker, Central Coast Software / New Horizons, was in the midst of going out of business). Not only does Quarterback not write the floppies in high density, it absolutely will _NOT_ write to a HD floppy in the HD drive at all in any density. It will write to a DD floppy in the HD drive, and it will write to a HD floppy in the DD drive, but with a HD floppy in the HD drive the entire backup bombs right out. So I called CREATIVE COMPUTERS, explained the problem and asked for a Return Authorization number and a refund. No, I was told, but thanks for asking. They actually confirmed that my results were in fact the truth; the blasted thing didn't work, no way, no how. I spoke to Jim Houska, the sales guy who got me into this. I spoke to "Veronica C.", who would not give her last name. I TRIED to speak to Veronica's manager, "Bill M." (Veronica wouldn't give me his name, either), but Bill doesn't answer his phone and doesn't respond to his voice mail. Jim Houska freely admitted that he had promised me the thing would work ("I really thought it would, honest", he said). But no, I could not have a refund. I explained to them that since I had purchased this thing with VISA, I had certain rights, and that I would pursue a refund through VISA. They seem a bit confused by this, but didn't change their minds. So I packed the thing up in mint condition and sent it to their return department by U.S. Mail with RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED, together with a letter requesting a refund. I later received the Return Receipt, proof that they accepted delivery. A few days ago, I received the package back (they had obviously opened it), marked "Delivery Refused - Return to Sender". Without re-opening it, I returned it to the U.S. Post Office together with the signed Return Receipt, and the U.S. Postal Service happily accepted it for return to CREATIVE COMPUTERS. I am now in process of having VISA issue a charge back against CREATIVE. CREATIVE COMPUTERS WILL LOSE THIS DISPUTE! I WILL GET MY MONEY BACK THROUGH VISA. Why they even bother to try this type of tactic is beyond me. There are regulations, I do have rights to protect me against such thieves, and they will lose. They are not being very "creative" if you ask me. What is obvious is that they have only one objective: sell product at all costs and by any means, even if it involves lying. They have lost at least one customer, and I would advise all you to stay away from them. Scott Hansen hansen@eisner.decus.org #16796 comp.sys.amiga.misc 2k From: bsutter@silver.sdsmt.edu (Ben Sutter) Subject: Re: *** CREATIVE COMPUTERS LIE THROUGH THEIR TEETH *** Date: 14 Jun 1994 02:07:27 GMT Organization: South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Bradley Leffler (hammah@infi.net) wrote: > [stories deleted] Although it's sad and upsetting to see, hear of, or experience these kind of stories, I am glad they are posted instead of just being swallowed by the victim. It's called voting with your feet (or dollars) and it's more powerful than any "comsumer protection" law could ever hope to be. Companies that screw the customer by making fraudulent statements should be put out of business. Filing charges cost money, clogs the courts, and in general wastes resources that could be better spent on other things. Rather, simply putting them out of business by letting people know about them is much more effective. I hope both of you come out of your situations without too much damage done, and thanks for spreading the word. BTW, for anyone who's thinking about flaming someone who posts such messages, keep in mind that one of the qualifications for a statement to be slanderous is that it be false. Ben Sutter bsutter@silver.sdsmt.edu #16830 comp.sys.amiga.misc 2k From: ak512@freenet.buffalo.edu (Kent F. Miller) Subject: Re: *** CREATIVE COMPUTERS LIE THROUGH THEIR TEETH *** Date: Tue, 14 Jun 1994 08:09:28 GMT Organization: Buffalo Free-Net I've had numerous problems with Creative and advise everyone to stay away from them for the past few years. A friend of mine had a defective 4000 and he sent it back to them for repairs. While it was sitting around waiting for the new motherboard, the technicians were having fun playing the games that were on his hard drive. When the board finally came in, it was shipped back and everything seemed fine until he put a Zorro III type card and problems occured constantly. I told him that it could be an old version fo the Buster chip and sure enough, it was. After complaining to Creative for some time that when it was sent in, it had the leatest revision, the tech guy said, "Well, to know that you have an old version means you opened the case and your warrantee is voided so we can't do anything for you." Well after some serious bitching and threat of a law suit, they agreed to take it back. Also their adds showing fully stocked warehouse is crap. The picture is back from the Amiga 500 days and they are trying to sell off their amiga stock and further support the Mac platform. #16866 comp.sys.amiga.misc 2k From: nbonfili@galaxy.csc.calpoly.edu (Nick Bonfilio) Subject: Re: *** CREATIVE COMPUTERS LIE THROUGH THEIR TEETH *** Date: Tue, 14 Jun 94 19:20:58 GMT Organization: Computer Science Department, Cal Poly SLO I have encountered similar problems with Creative Computers, however, all turned out alright in the end. I had ordered a Bodega Bay unit from them for my Amiga 500. I really was steamed when upon opening the box, (after waiting for it to come in stock and to ship it), I discovered that it was physically damaged. There was a terrible scrape on the side and the cover did not fit on properly. Thus, I was not willing to accept it in this condition. I telephoned my local UPS office and explained to them I have received my parcel in a damaged condition. Their representative asked me to check to box for any visible damage. Of course, there wasn't any. Therefore, I was able to conclude that Creative likely knew of the damage before hand, and shipped it to me in this condition. After telephoning Creative they helped me get a RETURN AUTHORIZATION, and UPS picked up the defective unit, and eventually I got a new one that was okay. I still believe that Creative has a sort of creepy business practice, and I am still leary about ordering from them, although I probably would since I live in California and their products get to me reasonable fast. -- Nick Bonfilio ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo :::::IF YOU CAN READ THIS, THANK A::::: nbonfili@galaxy.csc.calpoly.edu :::::::::::::::TEACHER.:::::::::::::::: STILL A PROUD AMIGA USER!! ::::::::::::::::::::::::-how profound!: #16879 comp.sys.amiga.misc 2k From: bcolbert@cwis.unomaha.edu (Robert A. Colbert) Subject: Re: *** CREATIVE COMPUTERS LIE THROUGH THEIR TEETH *** Date: Tue, 14 Jun 1994 23:46:25 GMT Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha Just wanted to get my two cents worth in. I also had problems with Creative Computing. Last month when I got my Amiga World, I couldn't believe the prices on some of the stuff. I called and waited on the line for one and a half hours before I talked to a human, of the list of items that I wanted (about 10), they only had one... a 49 cent magazine... Imagine my surprise when I opened up this months Amiga World to see another add by Creative Computing with some more "amazing deals." Well, I found something very interesting in there... they had the DKB 1202 memory board in the add three times with three different prices. One box showed $119 for the board with no description of what was included with the board, another was $99 for the board with no memory, no math co, with clock, and another (this is not a mistake) for $79 with a 14mhz math coprocessor (68881). Well, I figured I would give it a shot, I called and got through with no wait. To my surprise they had ONE left in stock, so I ordered it. Well, I got it, it works, and I know they had to have made a mistake, because my friend paid $149 for the same deal about 6 months ago. So maybe that will bring some satisfaction, to know that they screwed up, to those of you who got screwed. Bob bcolbert@cwis.unomaha.edu #16881 comp.sys.amiga.misc 2k From: dougg@comtch.iea.com (Doug Goodridge) Subject: Re: *** CREATIVE COMPUTERS LIE THROUGH THEIR TEETH *** Date: 15 Jun 1994 00:36:58 GMT Organization: CompuTech, Spokane WA Nick Bonfilio (nbonfili@galaxy.csc.calpoly.edu) wrote: I have encountered similar problems with Creative Computers, however, all turned out alright in the end. I had ordered a Bodega Bay unit from them for my Amiga 500. I really was steamed when upon opening the box, (after waiting Hey, I have a Creative Computers story also... About six months ago I wanted to buy a hard drive for my 1200. I ordered one from Creative Computers over the phone with my Visa and made sure that it was going to be shipped overnight. I waited for 5 days and nothing happened, no call, no invoice, no hard drive. I called back on the sixth day and asked what the problem was and they told me the drive I ordered was out of stock. I asked why they couldn't have bothered telling me that when I placed the order so I wouldn't be hanging around the house for 5 days waiting for a shipment, and why they made a point of telling me that they wouldn't be able to ship it the day I ordered it, but it wouldn be shipped in the morning. Then they told me the drive had been on backorder for a couple of months. I just told them to cancel my order and got a snippy "As you wish, sir." in reply. Needless to say I called another company that same day, ordered the same drive for 5 dollars more and got it the next day. Creative Computers will not be getting my business again. dougg #16909 comp.sys.amiga.misc 3k From: hansen@eisner.decus.org (Scott Hansen) Subject: Re: *** CREATIVE COMPUTERS LIE THROUGH THEIR TEETH *** Date: 15 Jun 1994 12:11 -0400 Organization: DECUServe In article , solmes@pangaea.aldhfn.org (Jim Perkowski) writes... > But in Creative's defense I must say that I have never had any >problems with them. They shipped me my A4000 COD and it arrived on time >and in excellent condition. Since this pruchase I have also bought >Magic Lantern, the Retina 2.2 software upgrade and other things from >them. No problems. Also, in Quarterback's defense, it does work on my >A4000/040's HD floppy drive. I'm running version 6.02 and I must put an >HD floppy in the drive before I start the backup to make sure it uses >the HD mode. The problem you are having could really be with the drive. My purchase of Quarterback was not my first encounter with Creative, I've ordered things from them before and those orders arrived without exceptional delays and in working order. But with previous purchases I never had a problem that required trying to work with their Customer Service department, or trying to get a refund. As for Quarterback, I've had several users of that product make the same suggestion that you make, and I appreciate all your help. However, as I understand it, the external HD drive from Power Point differs from Commodore's A4000 internal drive in that Commodore's drive is recognized as a native device, whereas the third-party drive requires that a patch be run during startup, and apparently this is what causes the problem with some (most?) backup programs which use proprietary formats. AmigaDOS itself has no trouble at all writing to this drive. Nevertheless, your suggestion may in fact allow Quarterback to work, I don't really know. My question is this: why didn't Creative's Customer Service people make that suggestion? Did they check it out, try it? They told me they had investigated the question and that there was absolutely no way to make it work. I have no way to know if they were telling me the truth or not. Whatever, as I said in my original posting, I packed it up and sent it back, they sent it back to me again, and I refused delivery right back at them. It's up to Visa now. In any case, the replies from others who have related their horror stories with Creative Computers are enough to convince me that my problem with them is anything but an aberration. Based on the replies in this thread, it seems to me that ANY order with Creative that goes without a hitch is due to sheer luck. Despite your good fortune, there is no defense for Creative. Scott Hansen hansen@eisner.decus.org P.S. I just received my Ami-Back. It works! And you don't have to go through any goofy stuff. I like it a lot! #16961 comp.sys.amiga.misc 1k From: scott@ddreams.chs.wa.com (Scott Wiard) Subject: Re: *** CREATIVE COMPUTERS LIE THROUGH THEIR TEETH *** Date: 15 Jun 94 02:07:08 GMT Organization: Digital Dreams II [Note about Memory World deleted] Brad, I have had several business dealings with Memory World and have never had a problem with their service. When I needed to get more RAM for my SupraRAM board I didn't even know what I needed (ZIPS, SIMS) and the person who took my order knew exactly what my board would take and even saved me some money by recommending slower chips than what a friend had told me. He made his recommendation because he knew the specs of my board and even explained it all in laymans terms so that I'd understand. Also I've had many friends buy products from them and never have any of the problems you've described. My guess is that you've just had a run at extremely bad luck with your equipment . Scott #17114 comp.sys.amiga.misc 2k From: gbrawn@aol.com (GBrawn) Subject: Yet Another Creatve Story Date: 17 Jun 1994 18:28:02 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Bradley Leffler (hammah@infi.net) wrote: > (story deleted) YACCHS - Yet Another Creative Computers Horror Story. The attitude exhibited by Creative Computers is nothing new. A few years ago I purchased an A2000 HD from them, NOT. In the beginning, delivery was prompt - so far, so good. I booted my new machine: I only had chip ram, and the HD didn't show. Reboot. Nothing changed. Find the Phillips screwdriver and remove the cover. Imagine my surprise when I saw a virtually empty case - this was a stock 2000 - no HD and no extra memory. I checked the box . . . yep, it said Amiga 2000 HD, as did the badge on the CPU. The waybill said the package originated in West Chester. I assume that the box was stuffed by CBM and "disassembled" by Creative (who resold the components). I called Creative - no, I couldn't ship the unit to them and still get it back in time to meet my deadline. "But, you could bring it in to our shop," the anonymous voice encouraged me. Their shop was 120 miles away. Reluctantly, I made the long drive north. At Creative, the head tech set me up with no questions (no one apologized either). Nevertheless, their original intent lingered, and I've not bought from them since. Lately, I've been patronizing DevWare. Their advertising emphasizes video, but they have a good mix of hardware and software (including PD). I don't know their phone, but they have multi-page ads in Amiga World and VTU. To: rniles@hebron.connected.com Subject: Another Creative Story Status: RO Robert: Here is a Creative Computers story that is fairly short, but puzzling to me even now. I called Creative in April to obtain SBase4 Pro from Oxxi. They told me it wasn't in stock, but should be shipping next week. I waited a month and called Oxxi to see why they weren't shipping. They told me SBase4 had been out quite a while and they had just sent out their last `printing' a week ago. They would be making another shipment in another week. They asked me why I was concerned, and I told them I had ordered from Creative. They said, "Oh, we have had some problems with them." Nothing more specific. I immediately called Creative to cancel the order. The clerk asked me if I still wanted the other item on backorder. I searched my memory and cleverly asked him what it was (since I couldn't remember). It was a European magazine that I had ordered in November! After getting somebody else's permission (maybe his manager) he cancelled both orders. I don't understand how Creative can be so incompetent and stay in business. On a more upbeat note, I finally recieved SBase4 from another mail order concern (Savannah, GA doesn't enjoy a Commodore dealer's service). It arrived with a German DML manual (one of two) and a defective disk. Oxxi quickly sent me the English manual, but still hasn't replaced the defective disk (I am sure another call will cure that). Maybe all this is due to depression over Commodore's situation, monitor radiation, or something more insidious. Just make sure your publication doesn't catch the disease! - Walt Lounsbery, Publisher Scientific Amigan POB 60685 Savannah, GA 31420-0685 (912) 352-1866 waltal@well.sf.ca.us - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I have not intentionally left out any part of this thread, and I may be behind in the messages. If there are any other stories, positive or negative, please feel free to submit it to an editor. @endnode @node P1-6 "The Retina ZIII Review: Part 2" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% The Retina Z-III Board by @{" Jason Compton " link P8-2} %% %% Part 2 jcompton@bbs.xnet.com %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Part Two: Eye to Eye With the Retina Wow. That's a lousy pun. I hope at least nobody's used it before. At any rate, this week I'll tell you how the Retina actually PERFORMS. RetinaEmu and Retargeting ------------------------- The entire Retina mechanism is activated by a program called RetinaEmu. This is the program that wakes up the board and tells it to start targeting opened screens to the Retina display hardware unless specified otherwise. At its heart is an emulation of the Workbench screen. So how does that look? Well, you can put it in 8, 16, or 24-bit color depth. You can put it in a variety of screen sizes: I stick with the 800x480, 8-bit depth setting, but it can go higher. It looks good. The window updates are snappy and smooth, the pointer is flawless...in general, it's a formidable display, better than the delaced view on my 3000's native display. It is an ideal place to run programs that have Workbench capabilities but are otherwise impractical for use: for example, Terminus flickers when it scrolls on my 3000's display. Through the Retina, however, it is fairly smooth and has a bare minimum of flicker. If you choose to open a Retina screen for a program, be aware that you MAY be in for some problems. Some programs just don't come out looking quite right, like Terminus (which gives a nasty light blue-green border instead of basic black). Other programs, like Final Copy II, choke if you try to increase their color display by more than they like-32 or greater. Placing Terminus on a public screen, though, greatly improves appearance. The resolution for any new screen is the default, set in the RetinaEmu program. You can set defaults for 8, 16, and 24-bit screens, in any of the resolutions available for the particular mode (quite a few!). I have had great success with this, even on programs that are not terrifically programmed or programs that still date back to 1.3 compatibility (DirWork looks funny in 1024x768, or 1200x800). The resolution for these screens can be changed too, through RetinaEmu, which lists screens it has to open by their name, and recognizes them internally by this list of items, in the order it checks: Public Screen name Window name Program title This means that just about everything will register. You can edit and change the set resolution at any time, but it won't take effect until that particular screen is opened again. As I've said, the overall result is very pleasing. Windows move crisply, smoothly, and often in lots and lots of colors. Screens can be thrown into new, bizarre screen modes, although their reactions will vary. Some programs that rely on heavy video-banging won't work well in their new environment...emulators like the Spectrum, A64, and PC-Task come to mind. But for native Amiga applications, it's very effective. RetinaDisplay: Show me some pictures! RetinaDisplay is the packaged program that is responsible for displaying pictures directly to the Retina. Among the 10 or so formats supported are IFF and JPEG, the two most useful of the list. However, notable in its absence is GIF. This means that the Retina needs a program like Viewtek's Retina version to bring it up to speed with a large amount of the available pictures out there. The program itself gets its screenmode from the RetinaScreenMode utility, with modes down to 320x200 8bit up to 1200x900 interlaced 24-bit on my 1950 monitor. (Conspicuously absent from the monitor list is the 1960.) You also have the option to display pictures on the Workbench, but it seems like the settings necessary to get this are elusive: Donovan at NoahJi's tech support talked me through what I needed, and it still didn't work. That's happened to other people he's told as well. I HAVE seen it, though, and it's the only way you can scroll pictures: if you let the Retina open up a screen for the pic, it can't be scrolled. The quality of the display, of course, depends on your monitor and the mode the screen is in. I'm pleased with the results, but am very glad that Vt_Retina exists, because otherwise a large amount of graphics would be fairly useless for Retina users. VDPaint: Draw some yourself! ----------------------------- There's really not much reason for me to fully review this section. I'll tell you why: 1. I have no other experience with 24-bit paint programs. 2. They didn't send me a manual. That being said, I'll at least give you the rundown on VDPaint. You select the 24-bit screen you would like to draw on using the good old RetinaScreenMode program. From there, if you start the program, a paint screen opens up on a true Retina-only screen, with a message that contains a bit of German and the warning that the software version only works on a Retina. Well, ok, fine. Control is simple...the right mouse button brings up a window full of option buttons. Too bad I don't know what all of them do. A couple of nice features: The disk loader supports a sort of thumbnail file format that gets displayed in a small window on the requester. JPEGs can be loaded and saved in different compressions, but still no GIF support here. The text functions support even the rattiest of old Amiga fonts, and with shading, too. Of course, it IS free, so there's not much room for complaint. One thing that interests me is that, up until now, I've heard of people getting XiPaint with their Retinas. I think this is the same program, as there is a directory with "XiPaint" in the name... The operation itself seems smooth, with a wide variety of brushes and some clever color cycling routines. Personally, I can't take advantage of this software. Please, if any users are making more use of it, send me your thoughts and I'll incorporate them. Final comment for the week: My Retina has been failing to start lately on a cold boot. It started out as just requiring about 5 minutes to warm up before a warm boot would recognize it...now I'm at an hour or so. Donovan at NoahJi's has a similar problem, but he's usually able to do an immediate warm boot and get the Retina (both of us are using 3000s). I can't explain, it didn't happen during my first week of testing. Neither can he. Next week, I'll have to wrap up my review with some final thoughts and comments...and I have to ship it back, too! I was just getting used to this... grrr... @endnode @node P1-7 "AR Contest" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% AR Contest by @{" David Tiberio " link P8-4} %% %% Enter and Win! dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% - THE PRIZE FOR NEXT MONTH - CONTEST BEGINS: 6-17-94 CONTEST ENDS: 7-15-94 The Amiga Report contest is still going on, and it is not too late to enter. This ongoing monthly contest allows Amiga Report readers a chance to win software by either solving a puzzle or by entering a random drawing. The prize this month is the Amiga Online Reference Manual v2.3, from Area52. This is a 1,000 page help system for the Amiga and Video Toaster, covering the Workbench, AmigaDOS, Lightwave, and more ($34.95). The second prize choice is the FutureShock audio CDROM, which was produced using Amiga computers by SideWinder. There are some Sidewinder music modules on Aminet that you may want to look at for a sample of the audio CD ($12.95). The third prize to choose from is CG52jr, a character generator from Area52. This CG includes 15 scalable fonts, and supports various dither styles, shadows, and other text effects. IFF images may also be loaded, along with 100 predefined palettes. Text can be genlocked live or saved as IFF files ($24.95). Winners may also select CG52 Fonts, which includes 50 scalable fonts for use with the CG52jr character generator, the Workbench, and most Amiga applications that support BitMap or CompuGraphic fonts ($19.95). Previously we have offered the ARexx Reference Disk by Merrill Callaway, which was awarded to a previous winner. Contact Whitestone for more information (505) 268-0678. All monthly contests end on the morning of the first of the following month. Any entries beyond this date will be entered into the next contest. - THE MONTHLY DRAWING - To enter the random drawing, select a number from 1 to 262,144 and send it to me at one of my addresses listed below, either by the postal service or email through the Internet. Also, you may enter by solving the following puzzle. The winner of this puzzle will be decided within the same time frame as the random prize, to allow the contest information to filter through the networks, and to allow your letters and postcards to come in. The winner for June 1994 will be published next week. - THE PUZZLE - Everyone thinks that the other code problem was too easy, which it was. So this month I made it a bit tricky (and I don't want to hear any complaints that the solutions are too hard)! This is a transcript of a press conference about a military operation somewhere in the United States. Your job is to figure out which companies are involved. In the next few issues I will make the clues gradually become easier. Gore, the Vice President, made the statement. He said he would, but very quietly. The engineers are locked up on the island. They are computer experts. They are no longer incorporated, but AmigaGuide is stored there. That is why their fort is so valuable. The banner on the building reads "BRCH". The surface to air missile drowned in the sea. Squad A had to move into the area at 5:00pm, as they always do. Strategic Operations in New York handled the affair. They landed opposite their destination. There is no other way to calm the port. The rest will be printed at a later time. - TO ENTER - To enter, simply let your fingers do the talking and write an email and send it to dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu. You MUST put the word CONTEST in the subject line of the email header! Otherwise you run the risk of having your email deleted (don't ask, it is a long story!) or send a post card or letter to: Amiga Report Contest c/o David Tiberio 6 Lodge Lane East Setauket, NY 11733 Is it possible to win via snail mail? You might think that your chances of winning are better by entering in email (much faster of course), but one month's winner sent in a letter that arrived the day before his winning number was drawn! In your letter or email, please provide the following, using this format: RANDOM_NUMBER postal_address email_address Such as: 4761615 David Tiberio, 6 Lodge Lane, East Setauket, NY 11733 dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu Your full name and address. Please keep in mind that many of you may have addresses that I am not accustomed to, so please include your country or any other information that I would need in case you win. An email address should also be included, if possible. You must also include a brief one sentence overview of the editorial in this issue of AMiga Report. Just to make sure you are reading it. :) You must also include the issue number. For example, if you read this in AR213, then include that in your correspondance. Also, a prize winner will be determined by a random number generator. Choose a number from 1 to 262,144. The closest winner or winners to the randomly generated number will receive the prize in the mail. Anyone who does not provide a number will have one assigned to him randomly. All prizes will be mailed within one week after I get my hands on the published version of AmigaReport. I am doing this for a few reasons. First, every winner so far has given the correct puzzle solution before I have received the editon of AmigaReport that announced it. :) Second, I don't like to go to the post office every day if I can avoid it. Third, you never know when someone's power supply might blow up (right Mr. Editor?!). - RULES AND REGULATIONS - 1. In the event that the editor's power supply fries, the contest for that month will have its deadline postponed to a later date, to be announced. Any contest entries for the random drawing will be added to the next month's drawing, to be held once per month near the beginning of the month. 2. All prizes are donated. I cannot be held responsible for any damage caused by a prize. For example, if you leave your prize on the stairs and your grandmother slips on it, I will not pay her medical bills. 3. We are not doing this for any profit, and cannot be held responsible if we go out of business or are otherwise financially unable to give you anything! We are actively looking for submissions from other software authors. 4. Good things come to those who read the rules and regulations! Here is a tip to help you win: every problem is a trick problem, or gives you clues that are not part of the problem itself. Read the whole entire contest entry looking for clues. And read my other articles for more clues. I give some very obvious clues :). 5. If for any circumstance you are awarded a prize but do not receive it, contact me at (516) 476-1615. I will promptly attend to any mistakes that have been made. 6. These rules are subject to change at any time without warning! 7. Each line of the press release has the name of a company. 8. All contest entries must be received within the dates listed at the top of this page. A new puzzle is published each month. 9. Don't post the answer to public forums! - THE DISCLAIMER - DISCLAIMER: This contest is being provided as a service to the Amiga community and all persons involved in running this contest cannot be held liable for anything that costs you money or lifetime pain and anguish. Rules are subject to change. All entries must be received by whenever TBA. Any entries beyond this date will be entered into the next contest, if any. - THE CHANCE YOU WILL WIN - Odds of winning are approximately 1:50 for the random drawing and 1:15 for the correct answer to the puzzle, based upon current entries. SPECIAL THANKS to SideWinder for donating the Future Shock albums for inclusion in our contest, along with Merrill Callaway for his ARexx Reference Disk! dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu @endnode @node P1-8 "AR Contest Winner!" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% AR Contest Winner By: @{" David Tiberio " link P8-4} %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% THIS MONTH'S WINNERS: Carl Laurence Gonsalves - randomly drawn from 13 correct entries, guessing the number 139236 from the drawn number of 147601. and goodwinm@mail.cs.orst.edu - randomly drawn from 50 correct and incorrect entries in our second chance drawing, guessing the number 214387 from the drawn number of 212164. Both will be able to choose as a prize either the Future Shock II audio CD-ROM from SIDEWINDER, or the Amiga Online Reference Manual from Area52. The ARexx Reference Disk by Merrill Callaway was awarded to last month's winner. THE PUZZLE: Since people complained that the first contest was too hard, and that the second was too easy, I made one that anyone can solve with a little thought. Once you get some of it decoded you will be able to solve it with ease ::heh heh::! Decrypt the following encoded message: 17851 47932 Each location in the code represents one character in the ASCII character set from A to Z. Also provide your method of obtaining the answer. THE WRONG ANSWERS: No one submitted an incorrect answer, of all entries submitted. One entry suggested that RAW keycodes were used in the puzzle. This is incorrect, however he did guess the correct answer. Francesco "Syylk" Munda writes in his correct entry: "Okey, that was easy, after all. On "Amiga Report" isn't likely to appear "MSDOS GREAT"... :)" THE WRONG WAY TO ENTER: from LILLIQUISTJ@delphi.com: "Well, I couldn't get Delphi to post to you but MAYBE now it'll work. Anyhow, I already publically posted the answer to your puzzle. Sorry! I had it nicely type out too." Well, that's okay! Just try not to do it again! :) THE WINNING ANSWER: The prize winner is Carl Laurence Gonsalves, drawn from the winning answers. And here is Carl's correct entry, drawn randomly from all correct entries: >The puzzle was to decrypt: 17851 47932 > >The answer is: AMIGA RULES > >To solve the puzzle I looked at the numbers carefully. You said that "Each >location in the code represents one character ... from A to Z". I figured >this meant each digit represented a letter, and the space was a break >between the words. The first 5 letter word I thought of that had the same >first and last letters was Amiga, so I wrote down a table like: > >0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 > A G M I > >Then I thought, "Okay, where the heck is he getting the numbers from?" >Looking up at my keyboard I noticed that the letters A-G-M-I had the >same left-right placement as my table. I then expanded the numbers for >the second word by counting them and got: > >0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 > A W E R G M I L > S D F U O > X C V J > >I then wrote down the second word like: > >47932 >RMLEV >FUODS >VJ CX > >And looking across this the only sensible word I could see was "RULES". Katie Nelson's correct entry, which was not selected as the winning entry from the 13 correct entries, adds: "PS-- I like the message." Arnoud W. Morsink's correct entry, which was not selected as the winning entry from the 13 correct entries, (but wrong method!) identifies a hint found in another issue of Amiga Report: "Like you said, it wasn't hard - i.e., after I read the clue in "Programming Hash Tables": ("... this word (which I chose as an example for no particular reason).") :)" THE BREAKDOWN: - Since people complained that the first contest was too hard, and that the second was too easy, I made one that anyone can solve with a little thought. Once you get some of it decoded you will be able to solve it with ease ::heh heh::! The fastest way to solve this is to note that the first number, 17851, begins and ends with a "1", just like the word "AMIGA". As I stated in the puzzle, once you got some of it decoded, the rest should be easy. - Decrypt the following encoded message: 17851 47932 There are two words, and notice that only 10 digits are used. In this code, one digit can represent between 3 and 6 characters. - Each location in the code represents one character in the ASCII character set from A to Z. Also provide your method of obtaining the answer. Originally I was going to number my fingers from 0 to 9, and then touch type a message. Then I decided instead to use the numbers based upon the alignment with the characters on the QWERTY keyboard. Since people do have different keyboards, future puzzles will not rely on the keyboard anymore! ::whew!:: THE DISCLAIMER: DISCLAIMER: This contest is being provided as a service to the Amiga community and all persons involved in running this contest cannot be held liable for anything that costs you money or lifetime pain and anguish. Rules are subject to change. All entries must be received by April 30th, 1994. Any entries beyond this date will be entered into the next contest, if any. THE APOLOGY: I learned from the last contest not to use the keyboard, since it may be different in some countries than the QWERTY keyboard that I use. I promise not to do it again (I guess the MATRIX puzzle next month will be the exception ::hint::). As Edward Cayce might say, that is all for the present... dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu @endnode @node P1-9 "Review: ARexx Guide 2.0a" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% C.S.A. Review: ARexx Guide 2.0a By: Thomas Voirol %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% PRODUCT NAME ARexxGuide 2.0a BRIEF DESCRIPTION ARexxGuide is an extensive hypertext document in AmigaGuide format on the ARexx programming language. Do not confuse it with the South West Amiga Group's similarly named "Introduction To ARexx". This is an entirely different beast. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Robin Evans Address: 1020 Seneca #405 Seattle, WA 98101-2720 USA E-mail: robin@halcyon.com on Internet R.EVANS6 on GEnie r.evans6@genie.geis.com on Internet Availability: ARexxGuide can be obtained from many local BBSs and the Aminet ftp sites (util/rexx directory). LIST PRICE ARexxGuide is shareware. This means it is freely distributable, but if you find it useful, the author asks you to register. The shareware fee is $15 (US). Registration can be done from within ARexxGuide. A script asks you a few questions about your configuration and then assembles a text file which you can print out and mail in with the fee. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE Each ARexxGuide file is smaller than 75KB, so no extra RAM should be necessary. A hard disk or a high density disk drive is recommended, since a complete installation requires about 1 MB of disk space. SOFTWARE AmigaOS 2.04 or later is required. It might work with AmigaDOS 1.3, however, if you have ARexx and AmigaGuide or an equivalent of the latter like Hyper. COPY PROTECTION None. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 3000T, 2MB Chip RAM, 16MB Fast RAM Kickstart 40.68, Workbench 40.42 Multiview 40.8 Picasso II Graphics Board INSTALLATION Installation is a simple copy operation which can be done from Workbench. No Assigns or Path additions are necessary. If you invoke ARexxGuide from ToolManager or the likes, you should set the current directory to the one where ARexxGuide resides. REVIEW ARexxGuide starts with a nicely detailed, clearly arranged, main panel. From here you jump directly to the relevant chapters. Several entry points are given; that is, if you want to find a particular piece of information, there are usually several different "paths" that will lead you to it. If you are an ARexx beginner, you can browse through the Guide starting with the Introduction. The document turns out to be a complete course in ARexx, at the end of which you will be able to write programs. No prior knowledge of the language is necessary. Even a small history of Rexx is included. The seasoned ARexx programmer also will find ARexxGuide to be an invaluable on-line reference. The reference part of this documentation is divided logically into the chapters "Basic Elements", "Instructions", "Functions", "Operators", "Commands" and "Error Codes". ARexxGuide uses the hypertext capabilities of AmigaGuide extensively. This makes for a very lucid tree structure. You practically never have to read more than one or two pages of text, and almost every technical term is cross-referenced through a hypertext link. Finally, ARexxGuide encompasses a very thorough index which is the fastest way to look up the syntax and arguments of a command whose name you already know. All pages show the path by which they can be reached in the window's drag bar. On the bottom of each page, the Previous, Next and Contents links are displayed. All this makes navigating really easy. Distributed with the regular ARexxGuide is a requester version that, according to the author, will display term definition references in a requester window instead of jumping to the glossary. The requester version requires Nico Francois' reqtools.library and Rafael D'Halleweyn's rexxreqtools.library. However, since that Guide works properly only with V34 of the AmigaGuide utility, I could not try it out. DOCUMENTATION Since ARexxGuide IS documentation, there is not too much to say about this part ;^). Nevertheless, all the necessary meta-information (i.e., Distribution, Author, Registration and others) is there and easily accessible. LIKES I like and appreciate the enormous amount of work and care the author has put into ARexxGuide. It is very thoroughly detailed and provides almost all knowledge relevant to ARexx. I have not been able to spot any mistakes so far. DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS Dislikes I have to find yet. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS The only product I know that is comparable to ARexxGuide is the aforementioned "Introduction To ARexx" by the South West Amiga Group. While being a nice tutorial also, it lacks in the reference field and is not as clearly structured. BUGS None found. There obviously were some in the example scripts of the 2.0 release which have been fixed in 2.0a. VENDOR SUPPORT Besides releasing the bug-fixed version 2.0a, the author has provided a 50KB patch archive to upgrade an existing ARexxGuide 2.0 installation. Users of slower modems will be thankful that they don't have to download a whole new version. WARRANTY None mentioned. CONCLUSIONS I rate this product 10 stars out of 10. Honest. Robin Evans has provided us with an indispensable on-line help for ARexx where Commodore neglected to do so. The $15 shareware fee is fair compensation for the incredible amount of time and dedication the author has put into this documentation. I encourage all ARexx programmers, seasoned or aspiring, to test this fine product and by all means send the shareware fee to Mr. Evans. REVIEW AUTHOR'S BACKGROUND I program in REXX for a living on IBM mainframe computers running under MVS/ESA, and I use IBM's very comprehensive TSO/E REXX documentation on a daily basis. COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1994 Thomas M. Voirol. All rights reserved. Thomas M. Voirol tomv@vismag.limmat.net.ch Badenerstrasse 363 chwr9xv9@ibmmail.com CH-8003 Switzerland +41 1 400 16 42 +----------------------------+ +----//-----------------------+ | Thomas M. Voirol | | _ // Zurich, Switzerland | | Certified Amiga Magician | | \X/isual Magic Digital Arts | | tomv@vismag.limmat.net.ch | | ISDN: +41 (0)1 400 16 42 | +----------------------------+ +-----------------------------+ --- Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu Anonymous ftp site: math.uh.edu, in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews @endnode @node P1-10 "Review: Blitz Basic II" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% C.S.A. Review: Blitz Basic II By: Nicholas J. Kingsley %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% PRODUCT NAME Blitz BASIC II BRIEF DESCRIPTION A BASIC compiler and editor. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Acid Software Address: 10 St Kevins Arcade Karangahape Road Auckland New Zealand They also have a PO Box in London, England. LIST PRICE I paid 49.95 UK pounds at First Computers. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE 1 MB RAM required. SOFTWARE None. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 600 with 2MB RAM External disk drive INSTALLATION OVERVIEW Blitz Basic 2 ("BB2") comes on three compressed disks. The first contains BB2 itself and some programs that were published in Amiga Format magazine as type-ins. The others contain games, two of which were also in Amiga Format. In addition, some Blitz libraries are included, although you're not told how to use them nor what they do. There are also several utility programs. The first is a (bugged) program that will convert a bitmap screen, approximately 320 by 200 pixels, to either bobs or sprites. The second allows you to set up screens and graphics for map programs. You are also supposed to be given a program that allows you to set up windows icons and gadgets, although I haven't found it anywhere. BB2 consists of two parts - the editor and the compiler, discussed separately below. The compiler is accessed from the editor using pull-down menus. THE EDITOR The BB2 editor is quite basic. Consisting of no more than 30 commands, it is enough to get programs up and running. If you don't like the editor, you could always use your favourite word processor. The commands available include: NEW Clear program from memory LOAD & SAVE Load tokenised programs only DEFAULTS Modify tab settings, colours, etc. CUT, COPY, DELETE, FORGET Modify blocks SEARCH & REPLACE Find letters/words GOTO Go to a line number Most important commands include short-hand versions. If you select commands too quickly, the editor tends to muck up the screen. It won't redraw the screen until you select another option or scroll the screen. THE COMPILER This is where all your basic programs are turned into (very) fast machine code, although, due to the fact that compiled code is slower than pure assembly, programs do not run as fast as professional programs (although they do come quite close). The compiler has two settings: 1-pass mode and 2-pass mode. One-pass mode produces much slower code than 2 pass mode, as the code is not efficient. In addition, in 1 pass mode only, you can exit a program with CTRL-C. This is one of the many things that Acid manage to omit in their manuals. The machine code itself is quite small. The compiler manages to convert around 200K tokenised text to 64K in 2-pass mode. THE LANGUAGE The language itself is quite good. You don't need line numbers any more, and it supports procedures and functions, though procedures are called "statements" for some reason. AGA machines are supported with extra colours and graphics. All necessary commands are there - commands for string handling, mathematical calculations, displaying to screen, bitmaps, speech, samples (you can play only 128K (6 seconds) worth for each sample), sprites, windows, menus, bobs and structured programming commands (REPEAT/UNTIL, WHILE/WEND). For some reason, they've kept the ON GOSUB/GOTO commands as well as LET. I would have thought it was about time we got rid of both of those. However, extra commands and improvements to the language are available only to those people who subscribe to the BB2 magazine, which for a very bugged program (see "The Bugs") is not good at all. This is where AMOS manages to excel (the only time it really can), as all of its updates are in the public domain. Collision detection is a main problem. Although fairly accurate, it will tell you only if you've collided with something, and not which sprite or bob you've collided with. This means you've got to slow the program down by searching for which things you've collided with, using a FOR/WHILE/REPEAT loop. BB2 allows you to access all AmigaDOS ROM routines. The language handles bytes, words, long words and floating point numbers. The language has got a thing about using the currently activated object. Although a fairly good idea, I do feel it would be much easier for programmers to just enter one extra parameter for where they would like their objects to be placed. Sprites can only be removed from memory if they've been converted from bobs (for some strange reason). DOCUMENTATION BB2 comes with 2 manuals. One is a reference guide for most of the commands available, while the other contains the user guide for programming and some extra commands that they've added (presumably after they made the first book). Like the program, the manuals are full of errors and mistakes. CLS they say can be used in Amiga mode (multi-processing mode) or Blitz mode (disables multi-processing - games mode). Try as you might, CLS always returns an error message when used in Amiga mode. One command (ReMap) they've managed to get in the index of the reference manual but appears only in the user guide. The errors messages that they mention at the back of the reference guide are all the ones that you probably WON'T get - all the important messages are not mentioned at all, which is very bad. One of the worst messages you can get is "ERROR :" (Yes, that is the whole error message). This normally appears if you try to use a palette before a slice has been set up. At the end of the reference guide is a A500/A1000 keyboard layout of all the RawStatus codes, which can be quite useful. In addition, it also gives a technical insight into how the Copper works, and how the language handles all the technical aspects of the machine. In addition, all NewTypes (like the standard "C" structures) are given. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS AMOS and HiSoft Basic are the only ones that you should look at really. HiSoft Basic is new, so I don't know what it's like. AMOS is good if you're new to programming; as unlike BB2, the language does all the hard work for you. However, with AMOS, you have to buy a compiler as extra if you want faster programs. However, unlike AMOS, the amount of support given by BB2 is very small. As stated earlier, you have to subscribe to their magazine if you want anything extra. PD libraries currently stock only one BB2 program (and you get the code for that with the main program anyway). However, BB2 can produce (with hard work and patience) software that is as good as, if not much better than, software written with AMOS. See Skid Marks for a commercial game written in Blitz Basic. BUGS This is the one part that BB2 excels at. Bugs in the program are everywhere - the program can crash when you've loaded the program, when you've exited it, or when running it. All of these bugs mean that you have to reset the computer and reload the program again. When you load or exit the program, it gives a #80000003 code, and when running a program, it just crashes. The worst cases are when you run the program. Even though you carry out the error reduction routine as mentioned in the user guide, the program will always crash if: A) You try and open a bitmap that is too big for memory. B) You use some I/O command while in BLITZ mode. CONCLUSIONS The program scores marks for having the compiler built into the editor and for a very fast compiling and running speed. However, on the minus side, the program loses points for all the errors in the manuals, the program crashes, all the error messages not mentioned, and the lousy screen updates in the editor. Overall, BB2 is very good if you want fast arcade games and/or want to access the Amiga's ROM. However, you should be patient enough to save your programs before every run, and to suffer continual re-loading of BB2. - Nicholas J. Kingsley nicholk@dcs.rhbnc.ac.uk --- Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu Anonymous ftp site: math.uh.edu, in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews @endnode @node P1-11 "Review: Microvitec 1438 Monitor" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% C.S.A Review: The Microvitec 1438 Monitor By: Fergus O'Hea %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% From: hazard@csvax1.ucc.ie (Fergus O'Hea) PRODUCT NAME Microvitec 1438 Multisync monitor BRIEF DESCRIPTION A 14" colour RGB multisync monitor compatible with all AGA screen modes, available with or without stereo speakers. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Microvitec PLC Address: Bolling Road Bradford West Yorkshire BD4 7TU UK Telephone: (0) 274 390011 FAX: (0) 274 734944 Name: Microvitec (Deutschland) GmbH Address: Heinrich Hertz Strasse 4 4006 Erkrath Bei Dusseldord West Germany Telephone: (211) 920010 FAX: (211) 9200115 LIST PRICE I paid 300 GBP for the 1438 monitor without speakers. Some stores now sell the same monitor WITH speakers for around the same price, so shop around. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE A 23-pin to 15-pin RGB adaptor is required, since the monitor comes with an RGB lead ending in a 15-pin VGA style D-plug. Amiga 4000 owners should already have this adaptor. SOFTWARE None. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Standard Amiga 4000/030. Standard Commodore-supplied RGB adaptor. I have also hacked the C= monitor adaptor to fix the AGA banding problem. This hardware flaw in the AGA chipset causes noticeable vertical stripes on screens using the higher bandwidth monitors like Multiscan and DBLPAL. The simple fix for this, as posted some time ago on comp.sys.amiga.hardware by Steve Cutting (Steve_Cutting@guru.apana.org.au), involves soldering a resistor into the monitor adaptor. This fix worked perfectly with my 4000 and 1438 monitor. INSTALLATION The RGB adaptor must be connected to the Amiga's RGB port, then the RGB lead from the monitor plugs into the adaptor. The power lead from the monitor ends in a standard 3-pin "kettle lead" PLUG, i.e., it can be fitted directly into the main pass-through on the back of an Amiga 4000. Otherwise the supplied "kettle lead" must be used. REVIEW The first thing I noticed when I took the monitor out of the box is the case - it's pretty boring looking. A bit like an ultra cheap VGA monitor. Just below the front of the monitor are the brightness, contrast, size and centering controls (more about these later) and the all-important on/off switch. The monitor comes with its own tilt/swivel stand, but as I mentioned above, mine came with no speakers. A nice touch is the three-pin "kettle lead" plug on the end of the power lead; this means that 4000 owners can actually use that pass-through on the back of their machines instead of having yards of black wiring running around behind their desks. Installation was no problem. The strange shiny metal C= adaptor was plugged in between the monitor and the Amiga, then both the monitor and the Amiga were powered up using the switch on the front of my 4000 (because I'm lazy :-)). The first thing I noticed when my Workbench screen came up was the flicker -- I had the screen mode set to "PAL:Hires-Interlaced" previously, and on the 1438 it flickered even more horribly than it used to on my old TV. Also, any *non-interlaced* PAL or NTSC mode now flickers a bit more than it used to. I put this down to the fact that the 1438 specifications say it has a low-persistence tube. No kidding! But that was just an initial impression -- now I am used to the 50Hz flicker, and I don't even notice it any more. Besides, no one would use a PAL or NTSC screen any more when they can use the much nicer DBLPAL mode! After one quick visit into the Prefs drawer, and I had my DBLPAL Workbench all set up and ready to impress. But wait - the top and bottom of the Workbench had disappeared off the screen, and there were ugly black borders about 3 cm wide on either side. No problem, I thought, just adjust the vertical size, no problem, and the horizontal size... BUT! There is NO horizontal size control - a MAJOR flaw as far as the Amiga is concerned (I have noticed the same borders when I tried a SVGA monitor on my machine). In fact, there is no vertical position control either. All you get is brightness, contrast, vertical SIZE and horizontal POSITION. Nothing else. But don't panic. The default C= monitor drivers for DBLPAL and so on may stretch and move the screen on your 1438, but all that is needed is a little experimentation with MonEd and a (reasonably) full-screen display can be achieved. (MonEd is available on the Aminet ftp sites.) I recommend booting up some PAL or NTSC game and setting the monitor controls so that the screen is centred fairly well on the monitor, and THEN fiddling about with MonEd to arrange the DBLPAL, DBLNTSC, Multiscan, Super72, etc., monitors to give the best screen coverage. This will ensure that you won't have to keep adjusting the monitor controls every time you run a hardware-hitting game or demo. Apart from that initial period of driver-hacking, I am very satisfied with my monitor purchase. The picture quality of the 1438 is as good as any monitor I have ever seen, the pixels are sharp, and the colours really jump out of the screen. Mode-switching is also very fast. For example, I estimate it takes maybe a tenth of a second to switch between a Super72 screen (great for JPEGs) and a DBLPAL screen. In other words, the monitor can re-sync about as fast as you can manually switch screens anyway. DOCUMENTATION A small booklet containing six pages or so of documentation in each of six languages. There are the usual guidelines, precautions in use, etc., and some basic installation instructions (plug the video lead into the computer's video connector :-)). LIKES I like the sharp and clear picture quality and the fast mode-switching time. DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS I am disappointed that there is no horizontal size control. Also, the quality of the monitor case leaves something to be desired -- it's fairly cheap and ugly. I presume these two flaws exist because of efforts made to reduce the cost of the monitor. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS I haven't used any other multi-sync monitors for the Amiga. In terms of picture quality alone, it is as good as any PeeCee SVGA monitors I have seen, if not better. VENDOR SUPPORT I have had no reason to contact the vendor. WARRANTY I am unsure of the warranty terms. In the rush to get the monitor up and running, the guarantee card went missing :-). However, the user manual states that UK users should return the monitor to the supplier (not the manufacturer) if a fault appears. CONCLUSIONS Overall, this is a very good monitor for the price. I wanted the cheapest multisync I could get for the Amiga, and this is it. Just be ready with your copy of MonEd, and you will be happy with the 1438. I'd give it 4 stars out of 5. The last star was lost because of the omission of the horizontal size control and the somewhat grotty appearance. COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1994 Fergus O'Hea. All rights reserved. This review is freely distributable. If you want to contact me by e-mail, my address is hazard@csvax1.ucc.ie. @endnode @node P1-12 "Amiga Media Watch 1" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Amiga Media Watch #1 By: Pat Fish %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% filename=AmigaMediaWatch1.txt Please distribute the following article far and wide (newsgroups, BBS's, echos, post on FTP sites, etc). When you mail the author your POLITE comments, please send a copy of his responses to me at: pfish@erc.cat.syr.edu If possible, please also keep a copy of your messages to him. The author (Al Fasoldt) is syndicated in *over 100 newspapers*, and is a long-time Atari ST fan. (You can tell from the spin he puts on the Amiga story, and his anxiousness to pronounce the Amiga dead.) He avoids all the details and facts that imply that the European outlook is better than the US outlook, claims of continued production, and several potential buyers (with stories ranging from an outright takeover, to purchase of the Amiga chipset & OS for licensing to those wanting to make Amiga compatibles). This was AFTER a Rome-NY Amiga dealer corrected the columnist following Fasoldt's announcement (on a May 18th PBS talk-show) 'that it was all over'. The author refused to listen to the dealer's facts, instead insisting that Commodore was a singularly AMERICAN company and that ALL of CBM had already closed it's doors, everywhere. Also note what seems to be stale Atari fanaticism regarding Tramiel, Atari and the Amiga's lineage. If you have access to one of the texts from RJ Mical, Jay Miner, Dale Luck, Dave Needle, etc., describing the factual events surrounding the Amiga's birth send them as a separate message to the columnist or his editor. Maybe one of you has a copy of the 'History of Amiga' video that you could send him. Mail responses to this article to the Editor and Publisher of the Syracuse Herald American Newspaper/Stars Magazine, and to the columnist himself. US and E Mail addresses at bottom. (Text inbetween %% are my personal comments, use your own) Transcription of Al Fasoldt's column by David Gorton -------Excerpt of syndicated column follows---------------------------- Syracuse Herald American - Stars Magazine May 22, 1994 Page 29 REQUIEM FOR A COMPUTER Revolutionary Amiga has logged off for last time The Commodore company gave up the fight against IBM and Apple Macintoshes and closed, probably for good. The company had too many debts and too few assets. It had a lot of True Believers but not a lot of cash. AND SO THE Commodore Amiga Has passed away. It was a brilliant computer, more powerful than a PC or a Macintosh when it was introduced nine years ago. It displayed stunning color graphics when the best a PC could do was an ugly picture or two - and when the best a Mac could do was show a tiny black and white image on an absurdly small screen. COMMODORE KEPT improving the Amiga year after year. One of the biggest changes was a built in emulator that turned the Amiga into an IBM- compatible PC at any time. Another was the addition of faster chips and greater memory. %% IBM compatibility was an option; not built in, and most of us %% %% prefered it that way. Memory was never a problem either. %% A separate company marketed a device that turned the Amiga into a television-picture editing machine at one-tenth the cost of previous equipment. %% A really crude way of short-selling NewTek's VideoToaster? %% %% Or just the ramblings of a person who's never bothered to %% %% find out what the Amiga/Toaster is really all about? %% This brought video editing down to an affordable level for the first time and started a revolution, just now catching on among PCs and Macs, called desktop video. The legend of the Amiga is ripe with stories that sound too tall to be true but are factual nonetheless. One of them is the story of how the Amiga came to be a Commodore computer in the first place. %% The following is The Word According to Atari Fanatics %% THE AMIGA WAS supposed to be an Atari. In the early '80s, a group of computer software and hardware designers, including some from the original team that created the first Atari models, came together to devise a new model that would put Atari on top of the home-computer market. %% It was an independent company called Hi-Toro. Not an Atari %% %% subsidiary. Jay Miner who once worked for Atari was now working %% %% for Hi-Toro on their new computer the "Lorraine". It was named %% %% after the fiancee of one of the engineers. Atari's role was %% %% limited to it's vulture-like intent to take over the struggling %% %% company, with an insultingly low stock buyout offer. %% It was going to be powerful and friendly, and so the code name of "Amiga" - Spanish for "friend" - was chosen. %% Almost. Amiga = FEMALE friend, chosen to replace "Lorraine". %% %% It came lexically before APPLE, unlike "Lorraine". %% At that time, Atari was owned by Warner Communications. Atari's rival, Commodore, was owned by Jack Tramiel and his sons. In a hectic month, Tramiel had a falling out with Commodore's board of directors and left the company, pausing only briefly before buying the Atari company from Warner. %% Reality check: CBM insiders claim Tramiel's intent to buy Atari %% %% was known to him LONG before CBM had any suspicions. They claim %% %% Tramiel intentionally set CBM up to fail, as he was moving to %% %% take over CBM's competitor (Atari). His seemingly insane %% %% actions before he left CBM now make sense. CBM never fully %% %% recovered from his 'bad business decisions'. %% To get back at Tramiel, Commodore raided the Amiga team and hired all of them. Overnight, the Amiga switched stables, and the prize that Tramiel had set his heart on- an Atari with a dazzling new model-turned out to be a company in distress. %% Falcon fantasy. Hi-Toro (now renamed Amiga) accepted CBM's %% %% offer because Atari's was a joke. Companies don't %% %% "get back at" former execs. They seek profit. Later, %% %% Tramiel claimed his ST was better than the Amiga. %% NO DOUBT the Amiga as a Commodore fared better than it would have as an Atari, but an irony was playing itself out on the week that Commodore handed its affairs over to a liquidator. %% Funny, European divisions are said to be in normal operation. %% Atari, still in the computer business, announced a new deal that would put its graphics circuits in IBM-compatible PCs and saw its stock soar on Wall Street. %%Is this like "Atari & IBM entered a joint venture to make the %% %%Jaguar" when Atari actually PAID IBM to manufacture it's Jaguar? %% %%I suppose anything from .25 would be a soaring improvement. "Still %% %%in the computer business"? When was the last time you saw an Atari %% %%TT or Falcon anywhere? Atari survives by sales of stand-up arcade %% %%units. Jaguar is it's last shot at consumer electronics. %% To some, it looked like Jack Tramiel's revenge. But to fans of the Amiga, it was just a somber epitaph for a computer that lived a good life. Rest in peace, Amiga. %% Mr. Fasoldt seems all too eager to perform an autopsy while %% %% the patient is still warm. Not surprising considering the %% %% disproportionate coverage he's given to the Atari in %% %% contrast to the Amiga, IBM and Mac. %% Al Fasoldt's "Technofile" is distributed in the United States and Canada by Newhouse News Service. The author is systems editor at the Syracuse Newspaper. Write to him c/o Stars, P.O. Box 4915, Syracuse, NY 13221. You can send electronic mail to "a.fasoldt" on GEnie or to his Internet address: A.Fasoldt@genie.geis.com Or Email him at the Syracuse Newspapers' computer bulletin board service, "Syracuse Online" BBS: 315- 470-2027. Fax:315-470-2111 -------End of annotated article---------------------------------------- Due to some disreputable reporting, the Amiga's condition has been battered. Amigans are used to this arrogance, but now, at this critical time, it is very vulnerable. We need to address every non-truth, lie, slam, and premature declaration of death. Many less-than-savy Amigans are already thinking about moving to another system. These are the people who are most easily mis-lead by "industry pundits" who are all too happy to bury the Amiga while it's heart still beats. It's up to us to do damage control, since CBM sure isn't going to do it. Public perception and reactions will have an effect on the willingness of companies to take over and continue the Amiga family. While you're still fresh from reading his article, use your Amiga multitasking to write a letter, right now! Or call. Considering Mr. Fasoldt's disposition, it makes more sense to contact his editor first: The Syracuse Herald American/Stars Magazine welcomes comments and calls on this issue. Jim Howe, Editor of Stars Magazine, has a willingness to listen to Amiga users' complaints, perhaps to even PRINT them. His office is reachable at: Jim Howe Stars Magazine Voice/AnsMach: 315-470-2296 P.O. Box 4915 Voice/AnsMach: 315-470-6052 Syracuse, NY 13221 FAX: 315-470-2111 To developers continuing support of the Amiga: consider sending Mr. Fasoldt (and Mr. Howe?) letters of your intent, or literature on your product(s). His home mailing address is (if for some reason you don't use the PO Box listed above): Al Fasoldt 7408 Van Ness Rd Blvd. Baldwinsville NY 13027 315-635-4712 The Syracuse Herald American/Stars is owned by Newhouse News Service, who syndicates selected columns (Al Fasoldt's is one). Mr. Beaubette is the executive editor. Newhouse's address is: Newshouse News Service 2000 Pennslyvania Ave. N.W. Washington, DC 20006 202-785-0101 If you happen to be one of the people who actually worked on the Amiga, (or know one of them) please contact Mr. Fasoldt and his _Editor_ @ the above E-Mail address and phone numbers. The designers of the Amiga hardware and system software are in a better position than anybody to straighten Mr. Fasoldt out. Note that it's probably just as important to contact his editor. NEW YORK STATE AMIGA USERS The Syracuse area Amiga dealer, Industrial Color Labs, has about a quarter million dollars of Amiga products in stock. Since Mr. Fasoldt's premature claims, they've had a difficult time selling their wares. You can contact the PBS affiliate which broadcast the interview with Al Fasoldt. The "Good Afternoon" show is hosted by Art Levy, who seems almost smitten by Mr. Fasoldt. It's better to complain to Jack Neal, the Executive Producer for WCNY at: 1-800-451-9269 Good Afternoon Call-in: 1-800-451-2414 Other: 1-800-453-2424 If you're ouside their 800 coverage, replace "800" with 315. @endnode @node P1-14 "Obituary" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% The Passing of Jay Miner... %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% [Ed: Obituaries are unusual in computer magazines, but in this case I thought it was important. Here is the text from the message Harv Laser posted recently.] ----- Newsgroup: comp.sys.amiga.misc ----- #17766 comp.sys.amiga.misc 2k From: Harv@cup.portal.com (Harv R Laser) Subject: Jay Miner, R.I.P. Date: Sun, 26 Jun 94 20:16:26 PDT Organization: The Portal System (TM) The man known to all as The Father of the Amiga is gone. I just pulled this posting off his own BBS, "The Mission", posted there today by his co-sysop. Those of you who knew Jay or had met him at the many Amiga shows he attended, please join me in your own private way and remember this wonderful guy who gave us all so very much. Harv ----- *--* 06-26-94 - 18:51:53 *--* atdt14159672021 CONNECT 9600/ARQ DLG Pro BB/OS v0.995 - Copyright (c) 1989-1992 by TelePro Technologies Serial #PR0335 New Shell process 9 Welcome to THE MISSION in Mountain View Calif. Now running DIALOG BBS system (DLG Professional!) Your host and SYSOP Jay Miner (Padre) Co-Sysop Gary Chow Sysop hours 10-12am 2-5pm 7-10pm PST (unless gone fishing) Line 1: 415/967-2021 [SUPRA 14.4 V.32bis] Line 2: 415/967-0116 [SUPRA 14.4 V.32bis] [From ] Gary Chow [MSG 50 OF 51] [To ] All [Has Reply 51] [Date ] Sun 26 Jun 94 13:18 [Subject ] Jay Miner Jay Miner passed away June 20, 1994, at the El Camino Hospital in Mountain View. The actual cause of death was heart failure, but it was the result of kidney complications. A private memorial service will be held in July. He'll be greatly missed and much remembered. @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. If you have an account on another Internet-connected system, you can connect to Portal using the UNIX Telnet programs, from anywhere in the industrialized world. Delphi and BIX users can now Telnet into Portal for a flat $19.95 a month, with *unlimited* use. Some of Portal/Amiga Zone's amazing features include: Over 1.5 GIGabytes of Amiga-specific files The *entire* Fred Fish collection of freely distributable software, online. Fast, Batch Zmodem file transfer protocol. Download up to 100 files at once, of any size, with one command. Twenty Amiga vendor areas with participants like AmigaWorld, ASDG, Soft-Logik, Black Belt, Apex Publishing, Stylus, Prolific, NES. 35 "regular" Amiga libraries with thousands of files. Hot new stuff arrives daily. No upload/download "ratios" EVER. Download as much as you want, as often as you want, and never feel pressued doing it. Live, interactive nightly chats with Amiga folks whose names you will recognize. Special conferences. Random chance prize contests. Famous Amiga folks aren't the exception on Portal, they're the norm. Vast Message bases where you can ask questions about *anything* Amiga related and get quick replies from the experts. Amiga Internet mailing lists for Imagine, DCTV, LightWave, HyperAmi, Director and Landscapes are fed right into the Zone message bases. Read months worth of postings. They don't scroll off, ever! No need to clutter your mailbox with them. FREE unlimited Internet Email. Your Portal account gets you a mailbox that's connected to the world. Send letters of any length to computer users in the entire industrialized world. No limits. No extra charges. No kidding! Portal has the Usenet. Thousands of "newsgroups" in which you can read and post articles about virtually any subject you can possibly imagine. Other Portal SIGs (Special Interest Groups) online for Mac, IBM, Sun, NeXT, UNIX, Science Fiction, Writers, amateur radio, and a graphics SIG with thousands of GIF files to name just a few. ALL Portal SIGs are accessible to ALL Portal customers with NO surcharges ever. The entire UPI/Clarinet/Newsbytes news hierarchy ($4/month extra) An entire general interest newspaper and computer news magazine. Portal featues an exciting package of Internet features: IRC, FTP, TELNET, MUDS, LIBS. Free to all Portal customers with your account. Internet Services is a menu driven version of the same kinds of utilities you can also use from your Portal UNIX shell account. All the files you can FTP. All the chatting you can stand on the IRC. And on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) you can talk live, in real time with Amiga users in the U.K., Europe, Australia, the Far East, 24 hours a day. Our exclusive PortalX by Steve Tibbett, the graphical "front end" for Portal which will let you automatically click'n'download your waiting email, messages, Usenet groups and binary files! Reply to mail and messages offline using your favorite editor and your replies are sent automatically the next time you log into Portal. (PortalX requires Workbench 2.04 or higher) And Portal does NOT stick it to high speed modem users. Whether you log in at 1200 or 2400 or 9600 or 14.4K you pay the same low price. How does all that sound? Probably too good to be true. Well, it IS true. Portal Signup or for more information: 408-973-9111 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time 408-725-0561 (modem 3/12/2400) 24 hours every day 408-973-8091 (modem 9600/14400) 24 hours every day or enter "C PORTAL" from any Sprintnet dial-in in the USA, or telnet to "portal.com" from anywhere. PORTAL'S CURRENT RATES: All prices shown are in U.S. Dollars Total Total Total Total Cost Cost Cost Cost Fee 1 hr. 5 hrs. 10 hrs.30 hrs. Startup Monthly Per Per per per per Fee Fee Hour month month month month $ $ $ $ $ $ $ Portal 19.95 19.95 2400/9600/14.4Kbps, *direct 24 hrs 0.00 19.95 19.95 19.95 19.95 2400/9600bps nonprime Sprint 2.50 22.95 32.45 44.95 94.95 2400/9600bps prime Sprint +% 5.50-10 29.95 69.95 119.95 varies 2400/9600bps non prime # PCPursuit 1.00 20.95 24.95 29.95 49.95 * plus cost of phone call if out of Portal's local dialing area Direct rates also apply to connections made to Portal using the UNIX "telnet" program from an account you may already have on an Internet-connected system. % 9600 bps Sprintnet in over 300 cities areas + $10 rate prevails at smaller US Cities # PCPursuit is a service of US Sprint. Portal is a PCPursuit "Direct Access Facility" thus connection to Portal with a PCP account is simply a matter of entering C PORTAL,PCP-ID,PCP-PASSWORD at the SprintNet login prompt instead of C PORTAL. Note: Portal Direct 9600/14400 bps service is availble for both USR HST modems, and any V32/V32.bis modems. There are dozens of direct-dial high speed lines into Portal. No busy signals! SprintNet 9600bps service is V.32 modem protocol only. Again, Portal does NOT surcharge high speed modem users! Portal subscribers who already have an account on an Internet-capable system elsewhere, can use that system's "telnet" program to connect to Portal for $0.00 an hour. That's right ZERO. From anywhere in the world. If you're in this category, be sure to ask the Portal reps, when you signup, how to login to Portal from your existing Internet account. Call and join today. Tell the friendly Portal Customer Service representative, "The Amiga Zone and Amiga Report sent me!" [Editor's Note: Be sure to tell them that you are an Amiga user, so they can notify the AmigaZone sysops to send their Welcome Letter and other information!] That number again: 408-973-9111. Portal Communications accepts MasterCard, Visa, or you can pre-pay any amount by personal check or money order. The Portal Online System is a trademark of Portal Communications. @endnode @node P3 "Dealer Directory" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Dealer Directory %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Almathera Systems Ltd Southerton House Boundary Business Court 92-94 Church Road Mitcham, Surrey CR4 3TD England VOICE: (UK) 081 687 0040 FAX: (UK) 081 687 0490 Internet: (Sales) almathera@cix.compulink.co.uk (Technical) jralph@cix.compulink.co.uk Amigability Computers - A CEI affiliate dealer P.O. Box 572 Plantsville, CT 06479 VOICE: 203-276-8175 Internet: caldi@pnet.com BIX: jbasile (Send E-mail to subscribe to our mailing list) Apogee Technologies 1851 University Parkway Sarasota, FL 34243 VOICE: 813-355-6121 Portal: Apogee Internet: Apogee@cup.portal.com Armadillo Brothers 753 East 3300 South Salt Lake City, Utah VOICE: 801-484-2791 Internet: B.GRAY@genie.geis.com Atlantis Kobetek Inc. 1496 Lower Water St. Halifax, NS, Canada, B3J 1R9 Phone: (902)-422-6556 Fax: (902)-423-9339 BBS: (902)-492-1544 Internet: aperusse@fox.nstn.ns.ca Brian Fowler Computers Ltd 11 North St Exeter Devon EX4 3QS United Kingdom Voice: (0392) 499 755 Fax: (0392) 423 480 Internet: brian_fowler@cix.compulink.co.uk CLICK! Amiga Specialists N.V. Boomsesteenweg 468 B-2610 Wilrijk - Antwerpen Belgium - Europe VOICE: 03 / 828.18.15 FAX: 03 / 828.67.36 USENET: vanhoutv@click.augfl.be FIDO: 2:292/603.9 AmigaNet: 39:120/102.9 Comspec Communications Inc Serving your computing needs since 1976 74 Wingold Ave Toronto, Ontario Canada M6B 1P5 Computer Centre: (416) 785-8348 Service, Corporate & Educational Sales: (416) 785-3553 Fax: 416-785-3668 Internet: bryanf@comcorp.comspec.com bryanf@accesspt.north.net Computers International, Inc. 5415 Hixson Pike Chattanooga, TN 37343 VOICE: 615-843-0630 DataKompaniet ANS Pb 3187 Munkvoll N-7002 Trondheim Norway - Europe VOICE/FAX: 72 555 149 Internet: torrunes@idt.unit.no Digital Arts 122 West 6th Street Bloomington, IN 47404 VOICE: (812)330-0124 FAX: (812)330-0126 BIX: msears Finetastic Computers 721 Washington Street Norwood, MA 02062 VOICE: 617-762-4166 BBS: 617-769-3172 Fido: 1:101/322 Portal: FinetasticComputers Internet: FinetasticComputers@cup.portal.com HT Electronics 275 North Mathilda Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94086 VOICE: 408-737-0900 FAX: 408-245-3109 Portal: HT Electronics Internet: HT Electronics@cup.portal.com Industrial Video, Inc. 1601 North Ridge Rd. Lorain, OH 44055 VOICE: 800-362-6150 216-233-4000 Internet: af741@cleveland.freenet.edu Contact: John Gray MicroSearch 9000 US 59 South, Suite 330 Houston, Texas VOICE: 713-988-2818 FAX: 713-995-4994 Mr. Hardware Computers P.O. Box 148 59 Storey Ave. Central Islip, NY 11722 VOICE: 516-234-8110 FAX: 516-234-8110 A.M.U.G. BBS: 516-234-6046 MusicMart: Media Sound & Vision 71 Wellington Road London, Ontario, Canada VOICE: 519-434-4162 FAX: 519-663-8074 BBS: 519-457-2986 FIDO: 1:221/125 AmigaNet: 40:550/1 MaxNet: 90:204/1 iNET: koops@gaul.csd.uwo.ca PSI Animations 17924 SW Pilkington Road Lake Oswego, OR 97035 VOICE: 503-624-8185 Internet: PSIANIM@agora.rain.com Software Plus Chicago 3100 W Peterson Avenue Chicago, Illinois VOICE: 312-338-6100 Wonder Computers Inc. 1315 Richmond Rd. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2B 8J7 Voice: 613-596-2542 Fax: 613-596-9349 BBS: 613-829-0909 CYNOSTIC Office O1, Little Heath Industrial Estate, Old Church Road, Coventry. CV6 7NB UNITED KINGDOM Tel: +44 (0)203 681687 Fax: +44 (0)203 638508 David Cassidy email: bsupa@csv.warwick.ac.uk DataService Oy P.O. Box 50 Kuurinniityntie 30 02771 ESPOO Findland, Europe Voice: +358 (9) 400 438 301 Fax: +358 (9) 0505 0037 PROTONIC INC. Amiga RuleZ! 4-3-11 Shinbashi Yanagi Bldg 4F Minato-ku,Tokyo 105 Japan Tel:+81 (0)3 5402-7425 Fax:+81 (0)3 5402-7427 and of course the BEST Amiga BBS in Japan BBS:Grey Matter BBS +81 (0)3 5709-1907 (8N1 V32bis 24H ) Email: nighty@gmatter.twics.com Amiga Video Solutions 1568 Randolph Avenue St. Paul, MN 55105 Voice: 612-698-1175 BBS: 612-698-1918 Fax: 612-224-3823 Net: wohno001@maroon.tc.umn.edu Magic Page 3043 Luther Street Winston-Salem, NC 27127 910-785-3695 voice/fax Spiff@cup.portal.com Keizer Tech 3881 River Rd N Keizer, OR 97303 USA Voice: 393-5472 (Dealers: To have your name added, please send Email!) @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. *** FULL INTERNET ACCESS! *** BIX 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. 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 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 P5-1 "HWGRCS Patch Level 9" @toc "menu" TITLE HWGRCS VERSION HWGRCS 5.6.0.1 at Amiga Patch Level _9_ AUTHOR Ported, enhanced, and maintained by Heinz Wrobel Karlstr. 16 82131 Gauting Germany FAX +49 89 850 51 25, I prefer email. DESCRIPTION HWGRCS is a port of GNU RCS 5.6.0.1 done with SAS/C 6.51. The Revision Control System (RCS) manages multiple revisions of files. RCS automates the storing, retrieval, logging, identification, and merging of revisions. RCS is useful for text that is revised frequently, for example programs, docu- mentation, graphics, papers, and form letters. For upgraders from the old RCS 4.x on Fish 281/282: - HWGRCS supports the RCS_link feature - No problems with non-ASCII characters Special features: - File pattern and response file expansion in all RCS commands. - Support for .a,.ag,.asm,.fd,.guide,.i,.mod,.ps extensions. - GNU DIFF 2.6, GNU patch 2.1 and a N*rton like LP utility. - AmigaGuide. docs. - I try to _support_ HWGRCS (See the docs). NEW FEATURES New since patch level 8: - .mod extension recognized. - LP better documented. - 'D' protection bit is handled better. Bugs fixed since patch level 8: - rcsfreeze works with empty paths in RCS_link correctly. - No dummy entries left behind in the task list anymore. - $AmigaProtection$ changes should work right on ci now. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS >=V37, >1MB suggested, HD required. HOST NAME Any Aminet site, e.g. ftp.uni-paderborn.de (131.234.2.32) for users in germany. Please use the site that is closest to you. DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/dev/misc FILE NAMES HWGRCSp9i.lha Incremental patch to create patch 9. NOTE: The above is an incremental patch based on "HWGRCS Patch Level 8" If you don't use patch 8 yet, you'll need the following archives in addition to the one above to set up patch 9. HWGRCSp8f.lha Binaries and full AmigaGuide. docs HWGRCSsrcp8f.lha The sources HWGRCSmanp7f.lha The ASCII unix man pages for RCS (Note: _7_!) PRICE I don't declare it shareware as it is Gnu SW, but donations/gifts for my support are quite welcome! Donations in physical form preferred. Support ~ Gifts, especially for commercial users. DISTRIBUTABILITY RCS is distributable under the Gnu Public License. For my support of HWGRCS I won't bill you, but I ask for donations (Hear me, commercial users? :-). -- Heinz Wrobel Edotronik GmbH: heinz@edohwg.adsp.sub.org Private Mail: heinz@hwg.muc.de My private FAX: +49 89 850 51 25, I prefer email @endnode @node P5-2 "Master Midi v2.0a" @toc "menu" TITLE Master Midi VERSION v2.0a AUTHOR Pascal Serrarens Raadhuisstraat 40 1474 HH Oosthuizen e-mail: passerra@fwi.uva.nl DESCRIPTION Master Midi v2.0a is a tool for controlling your midi-setup. At this moment it supports the following instruments: General Midi Korg 05R/W Korg 03R/W Yamaha PSS-680 And by writing your own voice-module, every other instrument. You can voices on channels, change the controllers, mix the various channels and edit the effects of the Korg instruments. It also supplies a patch-bay, mute and solo, and an overview of which voices are set on the various channels. It coorperates well with Midi Play by Janne Syvdniemi: you can see the program changes, control changes, volumes and levels of the played song. You can change -realtime- the controls, voices and volumes of the song. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Required: - OS 1.3 or higher (1.2 is not tested) - MIDI-interface - an instrument supporting MIDI - midi.library (FISH 227) Recommended: - Midi Play HOST NAME every Aminet site, for example ftp.luth.se DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/mus/midi FILE NAMES mastmidi2_0a.lha (43748 bytes) PRICE The shareware fee is $10 (US) DISTRIBUTABILITY Copyright (c) 1994 by Pascal Serrarens The program is freely distributable, but shareware. @endnode @node P5-3 "SpiroDraw06" @toc "menu" TITLE SpiroDraw06 - Spirograph(tm?) simulator of the spiral-drawing toy. Simple, fun and addictive! VERSION This is version 06. Lengthened slider gadgets in the "Set Data" window in HI-RES mode to be easier to "grab" with the mouse. COMPANY No company, just an AMINET upload by "yours truly". AUTHOR SpiroDraw06 was written by me, Chuck Kenney. My particulars (address, etc.) are included in the user document in the archive. DESCRIPTION SpiroDraw06 simulates the Wheels-and-Rings-and-Pens spirograph drawing toy. Allows the user to specify different sizes for the "Drawing Wheels, Drawing Rings", etc. The use of a computer to generate the SpiroDraw designs actually enhances some of the capabilities! SpiroDraw06 is mouse-driven (MENUs, GADGETs, etc.) and provides an easy way to create one's own 'eye-candy'. It is fun _and_ addictive! SpiroDraw06.lha also contains a very nice freely distributable "screen-to-IFF" saver utility written by Preben Nielsen (thanks, Preben) so that SpiroDraw designs can be imported into "paint" programs. SpiroDraw06 is shareware but does not nag the user in any way and all features are fully functional. NEW FEATURES Lengthened slider gadgets in the "Set Data" window in HI-RES mode to be easier to "grab" with the mouse. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS There are no special requirements that I know of. SpiroDraw06 has been tested on an Amiga 2000HD (OS 2.1) and an Amiga 1000 (OS 1.3). HOST NAME SpiroDraw06.lha has just been uploaded to the AMINET site, ftp.etsu.edu (192.43.199.20) and should soon be available on all other AMINET sites. DIRECTORY SpiroDraw06.lha and SpiroDraw06.readme reside in the "aminet/gfx/misc" directory. FILE NAMES SpiroDraw06.lha is 58,003 bytes long. PRICE The asking shareware price is the amount sent to me by my first shareware contributor (Thanks go to Bill from Glendale, AZ!). This requested shareware fee is $5.00 (US). DISTRIBUTABILITY This program is freely distributable but is a copyrighted (1994) shareware program by me, Chuck Kenney. OTHER "SpiroDraw06" is the final release under the name, "SpiroDraw**". In the future "SpiroDraw" functionality will be integrated into a new forthcoming program, "EyeCandy01" which is currently being developed. "EyeCandy01" will have the capability of drawing various other designs (as the name implies) in addition to the "SpiroDraw06" designs. Any future changes/enhancements to any "SpiroDraw" features will be implemented in the "SpiroDraw" part of "EyeCandy**" only. SpiroDraw06, and other programs in progress are coming out of my basement as a result of the availability of a truly wonderful "BASIC-but-much-more!" compiler, "ACE" by David Benn. I would like to sincerely thank Mr. Benn for renewing my enthusiasm in programming and for making it possible for me to make my programs available to more than just my friends and immediately family! @endnode @node P5-4 "Account Manager-muFS v1.0" @toc "menu" TITLE AM - Account Manager for muFS VERSION 1.0 (first public release) AUTHOR Ingolf Koch ingolf@mathematik.uni-bielefeld.de DESCRIPTION Are you running muFS, the Multi User File System for the Commodore Amiga? Then you surely have thought of a program providing an easy way to maintain the users and groups in your system. Of course such a program should have a graphical user interface which allows doing all necessary operations by a few mouse klicks or key strokes. Additionally, it should be localized i.e. speaking to you in your preferred language. Then `AM' is the program you want. It was written to support the system operator's work by supplying an easy-to-use user interface based on MUI. FEATURES * localized (currently English, German, Netherlands, Norwegian, Portuguese, and Swedish catalogs) * needs and makes extensive use of MUI 2.0 (`muimaster.library' version 7+) * supports the following operations on the muFS system files - create new users/groups - edit any characteristics of an existing user/group - delete users/groups - temporarily ban a user from the system * automatically creates new $HOME directories and installs default files there by executing a user supplied script * checks $HOME directories (not functional yet) * searches muFS partitions for files with bad owner information and changes them SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS AmigaDOS 2.04 or higher. muFS (MultiUser FileSystem) by Geert Uytterhoeven (aminet: /pub/aminet/disk/misc) MUI 2.0 or higher (Magic User Interface) by Stefan Stuntz (aminet: /pub/aminet/dev/gui) 68020+ useful (but not required) HOST NAME Any Aminet ftp site, such as ftp.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4). DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/disk/misc FILE NAMES am1_0.lha (92520 bytes) PRICE Free (Cardware) DISTRIBUTABILITY Copyright 1994 Ingolf Koch. The files in this archive may be freely distributed as long as they are distributed in their entirety. @endnode @node P5-5 "Awk for the Amiga" @toc "menu" TITLE AT&T awk VERSION Amiga port v1.0 of AT&T source dated April 22, 1994 (no, its author(s) didn't give it a version number). AUTHOR Written by AT&T. Amiga port by Torsten Poulin (torsten@diku.dk). DESCRIPTION awk is a pattern-directed scanning and processing language described in A.V. Aho et al., "The AWK Programming Language", Addison-Wesley, 1988. It makes it possible to handle tasks like changing the format of data, printing reports, finding items with some property, and adding up numbers with very short programs, often only one or two lines long. An awk program is a sequence of patterns and actions that tell what to look for in the input data and what to do when it is found. The patterns can select lines with regular expressions, comparison operations on fields, variables, strings, etc. or a combination thereof. The actions, which look a lot like C without declarations, may perform arbitrary processing on the selected data. Programs written in awk are generally much smaller than they would be in a conventional imperative programming language like C. Being terse makes awk quite useful for prototyping larger programs, too. This is a fully functional version of awk as described in the aforementioned book. This means that everything works, including "internal" pipes. In addition, AmigaDOS patterns can be used on the command line. Compiled with SAS/C 6.51. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS The program runs under all versions of AmigaDOS. If you run AmigaDOS 1.x and have arp.library installed, it will be used for expanding patterns on the commandline. It is not a requirement, though. Under 2.x or 3.x, dos.library handles the expansion. HOST NAME Available on Aminet, e.g., ftp.luth.se (130.240.18.2). DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/util/cli FILE NAME ATT-awk-1_0.lha (158288 bytes) PRICE Free! DISTRIBUTABILITY Copyright (C) AT&T 1993 All Rights Reserved Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted ... [etc., please refer to the documentation accompanying the program]. @endnode @node P5-6 "AmigaNews Minnesota" @toc "menu" TITLE AmigaNews Minnesota SUBSCRIPTION & UNSUBSCRIPTION Send a friendly message to Jesse Mullan requesting a subscription or removal. Jesse Mullan DESCRIPTION This list will be used as a forum for Amiga information in the Minnesota area. It is run much like a newspaper or periodical, but less formal. Expect to find Commodore information, Minnesota users group information, snippets of humor, and much, much more! Traffic ranges from zero to about a hundred kilobytes, but usually about twenty kilobytes. Content is ASCII-text. This list is hand-compiled and edited using a text editor, mailer, and a host of hand-written *NIX shell scripts. The host system, a Sun workstation is accessed the via a 14,400 baud connection by a VT220 emulation running on an Amiga 500. AUTHOR This list is moderated by Jesse Mullan, who quotes articles found in the Comp.sys.Amiga.* groups, as well as forwarding articles sent to him by list-members and others in the Amiga community. WHY AmigaNews Mn was created by Jesse Mullan to fill the gap in Amiga news reporting and discussion in Minnesota. AmigaNews Mn provides a simple way to disseminate information to interested parties, many of whom either do not have access to Usenet newsgroups or do not wish to submerge themselves in the backwash of rumors and flames to find news. CHANGES Due to popular confusion, AmigaNews Mn no longer goes by the name: "Amiga Gourp." NOTES Back issues are available upon request. LEGALITY The editor of AmigaNews Mn attempts to follow all applicable laws. DISTRIBUTABILITY AmigaNews Mn is freely re-distributable, as long as credit remains with the original authors. @endnode @node P5-7 "Fractint 2.1" @toc "menu" TITLE Fractint VERSION 2.1 COMPANY Stone Soup Group is responsible for the pc version of this program. AUTHOR Terje Pedersen (terjepe@stud.cs.uit.no) is doing the amiga port of fractint. DESCRIPTION Fractint is a fractal generation program which has been rather popular on the PC's for a long time. Now all amiga owners may enjoy it too! The Rolls Royce of fractal programs! It has an amazing number of different fractal types and even more fractals can be generated by a huge amount of script files. It can generate 3d images as well as 2d images. Mapping fractals on spheres and generating images for viewing with 3d glasses is also possible. In addition to an amazing number of other things! NEW FEATURES V2.2: Added sound. The stereo 3d option was missing from '3d view options'. V2.1: Some options was missing from several requesters. fixed. The interface generation is improved somewhat. Now the input boxes is all of the same size! Now using reqtools screenmode requester. The cycle colors buttons is replaced by Load and Save palette. Amigaguide now pops up if you press the Help buttons or press help-key when the fractint screen is active. Some fractals runs 30-40% faster! I removed the FASTMEM flag so it will work on a computer with no fastmem. When color cycling (shift,alt,ctrl)-F1-F10 was supposed to give some nice color ranges. Now it does! (at least on AGA..) SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Any amiga with WB2.04. HOST NAME Fractint is awailable on aminet. Uploaded to WUARCHIVE.wustl.edu on 14.6.94 DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/gfx/fract FILE NAMES fractint000.lha fractint020.lha fractint020881.lha fractint040.lha fractint_guide.lha If you haven't got fracdata.lha from a previous version you may want that file too! It contains a serious amount of great fractal images just waiting to be generated! PRICE Free! DISTRIBUTABILITY Fractint is freeware. The copyright is retained by the Stone Soup Group. OTHER Happy rendering! @endnode @node P5-8 "DMODP v3.1" @toc "menu" TITLE DMODP31.LHA VERSIO V.3.1 AUTHOR (Until 31-Jul-94) Pauli Porkka Kaskitie 2B10 FIN-37600 VALKEAKOSKI FINLAND (From 01-Aug-94) Pauli Porkka Innalantie 5 D 29 FIN-37600 VALKEAKOSKI FINLAND e-mail: paporkka@freenet.hut.fi fido: 2:221/112.4(Pauli Porkka) DESCRIPTION D.A.S Module Player is a player specifically designed for high end users. Special attention has been given to efficient handling of modules in lists. Modules can be sorted and handled with such attributes as name(+revese), date(+reverse), style and author. For better handling modules can also be divided to two groups within every list and can also be played according to those groups. Adding modules to list is easy since DASMP can take care of modules already eisting in list and modules newer than current list. Modules can be extracted from virtually any external archives such as LHA and ZIP. XPK and PowerPacker packed modules can also be used. Since DASMP requires MUI, the Graphical User Interfce of the player is totally under user control. User control over other features of DASMP can be squeezed to three words: 6 configuration pages. Module specific configurations include things like module duration, author, style and date. Inoverall DASMP is very complex system giving user a possibility to use features he needs and forget the rest. What DASMP is not: DASMP is not small and is not ment to be a replacement for those cute little players floating around nets. DASMP is ot ment to be used on non accelerated a500 or a2000. NEW FEATURES S3M modules supported. This EPL is fixed A LOT since last release and now works. ScreamTracker III modules support 16 digital channels. D.A.S.MP can play these modules in multitasing. Quality is selectable by user, the higher quality the higher CPU usage. FT modules. FastTracker 6 and 8 channel modules. Quality selectable. Full FAST ram player for ProTracker modules. Only 128 kb CHIP needed. Main program has severalenhancements including RE-DESIGNED MAIN WINDOW. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS KS 2.04, WB 2.1, Magic User Interface 2.0 (MUI). MUI20USR.LHA is available on aminet. Older versions of MUI aren't sufficient. HOST NAME ftp.luth.se 130.240.18.2. DRECTORY aminet/mus/play PRICE Shareware 15 USD or 70 FIM. Regional registrations sites for U.S.A (20 USD) and Australia (25 AUD). Read dasmp.guide (documentation) for more info. DISTRIBUTABILITY Copyrighted by Pauli Porkka -94. Release arcive file is freely distributable on CD-ROM collections, PD/SW collections and similar. -- Via DLG Pro v1.0 Pauli Porkka E-Mail: paporkka@freenet.hut.fi D.A.S. Designs Fido: 2:221/112.4 * May the Interrupt be with you * @endnode @node P5-9 "Amiga ListSERV v3.0" @toc "menu" TITLE Peti's Amiga ListSERV VERSION Version 3.0 AUTHOR Written by Peter Simons . DESCRIPTION ListSERV is a software package to handle and maintain mailing lists, based on the well-known UNIX LISTSERV tool. With this daemon, users can easily subscribe or unsubscribe mailing lists, requests the frequently asked questions (FAQ) or index all mailing lists available on the machine. The archive contains all programs required to set a mailing list up plus a brief description in AmigaGuide and TexInfo style. Full source and RCS files are provided, too. FEATURES - ListSERV's important parts are written in ARexx and thus can be modified to fit your special requirements. - ListSERV may add a signature to any article posted to the list. Each mailing list may have its own signature, so you can state vital information there. - ListSERV automatically sets the "Reply-To:" entry in the mail header to the list's address. Therefore, replies to articles delivered via the list will be sent back to the list again. Users can simply reply. - ListSERV supports totally secret and encrypted mailing lists, using the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) package. You can set up confidential mailing lists that can be used for development of commercial soft-/hardware. - ListSERV supports FAQs. - ListSERV allows you to archive all traffic of a mailing list. - and more... SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Kickstart 2.04 or later is required. Futhermore, an working UUCP or TCP setup might be useful. :-) HOST NAME Any Aminet host, i.e. ftp.uni-kl.de (131.246.9.95). DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/comm/mail/ FILE NAMES ListSERV3_0.lha DISTRIBUTABILITY ListSERV is shareware. However, you may distribute the ListSERV archive as you want but you MUST NOT charge ANY money for the distribution. Inclusion in CD ROMs or similar collections require my explicit permission. @endnode @node P2-3 "In Closing" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% _ _ __ ___ _ %% %% /\\ |\\ /| || // \ /\\ %% %% / \\ | \\ /|| ||(< __ / \\ %% %% /--- \\| \/ || || \\_||/--- \\ %% %% /______________________________\\ %% %% / \\ %% %% Amiga Report International Online Magazine %% %% June 24, 1994 ~ Issue No. 2.21 %% %% Copyright 1994 SkyNet Publications %% %% All Rights Reserved %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Views, Opinions and Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of the editors and staff of Amiga Report International Online Magazine or of STR Publications. Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. Reprints must, without exception, include the name of the publication, date, issue number and the author's name. Amiga Report and/or portions therein may not be edited in any way without prior written per- mission. However, translation into a language other than English is accept- ble, provided the original meaning is not altered. Amiga Report may be dis- tributed on privately owned not-for-profit bulletin board systems (fees to cover cost of operation are acceptable), and major online services such as (but not limited to) Delphi and Portal. Distribution on public domain disks is acceptable provided proceeds are only to cover the cost of the disk (e.g. no more than $5 US). Distribution on for-profit magazine cover disks requires written permission from the editor or publisher. Amiga Report is a not-for-profit publication. Amiga Report, at the time of pub- ication, is believed reasonably accurate. Amiga Report, its staff and con- ributors are not and cannot be held responsible for the use or misuse of information contained herein or the results obtained there from. Amiga Report is not affiliated with Commodore-Amiga, Inc., Commodore Business Machines, Ltd., or any other Amiga publication in any way. All items quoted in whole or in part are done so under the Fair Use Provision of the Copy- right Laws of the United States Penal Code. Any Electronic Mail sent to the editors may be reprinted, in whole or in part, without any previous permission of the author, unless said electronic mail specifically requests not to be reprinted. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @endnode @node P1-13 "The Emulation Rambler" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% The Emulation Rambler By: @{" Jason Compton " link P8-2} %% %% A quick Make-It 486 bit... jcompton@bbs.xnet.com %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% I told you I'd run a review on the Make-It 486 upgrade chip in the C= 286 bridgeboard. I've done so. I couldn't get it to work. First off, I don't suggest you even TRY unless you're good at handling boards. Having already successfully taken apart the 2286 board is another big plus, because it's not easy. Why not? It's got a nasty daughterboard which is held on the main board by three sets of connectors. Tight connectors for a close board. The Make-It 486 resides on a small circuit board. The processor socket to receive it is under the daughterboard. Begin to see the problem? It's damn hard to get that 286 chip out, even with the included puller tool. Once you do, putting in the 486 board is easy, if you get the direction right. But putting the daughter back on...it just doesn't fit, not without bending the board to the point that I was afraid it might crack. So I tried to get it settled as well as I could and power up. The computer reported that janus.library couldn't be opened. The BB wasn't being recognized properly. I'll watch for success stories, but for now, the Make-It 486 seems like a nice idea, but not implementable for us. (Someone on c.s.a.emulations suggested ribbon-cabling the daughterboard and putting it somewhere else. Neat idea, but it may not work.) @endnode @node P1 "Columns and Features" @toc "menu" @{" From the Editor's Desk " link P1-1} The Acting Editor speaks. @{" Amiga News " link P1-2} You've heard this before. @{" Reader Mail " link P1-3} Readers bombard Tiberio! @{" CES Report " link P1-4} Compton's impressions. @{" Creative Computers " link P1-5} Some dissatisfied customers... @{" Retina ZIII Review " link P1-6} Part two on this 24-bitter... @{" AR Contest " link P1-7} Enter and win!! @{" AR Contest Winner! " link P1-8} Tiberio plays Santa. @{" ARexxGuide 2.0a " link P1-9} A review. @{" Blitz Basic II " link P1-10} Another review. @{" Microvitec 1438 " link P1-11} Yet another review: a monitor. @{" Amiga Media Watch 1 " link P1-12} Retaliation to mis(dis?)information. @{" The Emulation Rambler " link P1-13} A mini-Rambler, but important news @{" Obituary " link P1-14} Hopefully not a regular column. @endnode @node P2 "About Amiga Report" @toc "menu" @{" For Starters " link P2-1} Where to get AMIGA REPORT @{" AR Staff " link P2-2} The Editors @{" In Closing " link P2-3} Copyright Information @endnode @node P2-2 "The Editors" Feel free to contact any of the editors! @{" Robert Niles " link P8-1} The Editor-in-chief @{" Jason Compton " link P8-2} The Acting/Emulation Editor @{" Jesper Juul " link P8-3} The European Editor @{" David Tiberio " link P8-4} Contributing Editor @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" @{" HWGRCS Patch Level 9 " link P5-1} GNU RCS 5.6.0.1 Amiga @{" Master Midi v2.0a " link P5-2} Midi control system @{" SpiroDraw06 " link P5-3} Fun drawing program @{"Account Manager muFS 1.0" link P5-4} MultiUser Filesystem interface @{" Awk for the Amiga " link P5-5} Pattern-scanning language @{" AmigaNews Minnesota " link P5-6} Competition! @{" Fractint v2.1 " link P5-7} The Rolls Royce of fractals! @{" DMODP v3.1 " link P5-8} High-end MOD player @{"Peti's Amiga ListSERV3.0" link P5-9} The Unix daemon on the Amiga. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ The most downloaded files from wustl.edu during the week until 12-Jun-94 Most popular file on top. File Dir Size Description ------------------- --- ---- ----------- mfs.lha disk/misc 11K+Merges DF0: and PC0: in a single device ar218.lha docs/mags 51K+Amiga Report 2.18, 3-Jun-94 Harlequin.lzh demo/euro 85K+The definitive texture mapping gfx demo. ShowAmiga.lha demo/euro 78K+An Information System about Amiga by C= Ge jpegAGA10.lha gfx/show 253K+highest quality JPEG viewer (for AGA) anetfaq.lzh docs/help 77K+Amiga Networking FAQ sysihack.lha util/wb 4K+Get rid of squished looking windows V0.2 GPFP_1.0.lha comm/misc 10K+Small control util for GPFax SpaceTaxi.lha game/misc 202K+like the C64er game, 1-3 Players anb105.lha docs/mags 70K+Amiga Newsbits #1.05 - 01-Jun-94 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ @endnode ----------------------------------------- @node P2-1-1 "NOVA" @toc "menu" * NOVA BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site Support BBS of The Chattanooga Amiga Users Group * Running MEBBSNet BBS * Wayne Stonecipher, Sysop AmigaNet 40:210/10.0 40:210/1.0 40:210/0.0 FidoNet 1:362/508.0 An Amiga Software Distribution Site (ADS) 615-472-9748 USR DS 16.8 24hrs - 7 days Cleveland, Tennessee All AR back issues are kept online. All new users receive access to the AR on the first call. Any AR issue may be file requested with proper name. To obtain the current issue you may FReq Proper name, AR.LHA or simply AR @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-2 "In The MeanTime" @toc "menu" *** System down temporarily -- Don't call except for FAX *** * IN THE MEANTIME BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running AXShell * Robert Niles, Sysop rniles@imtired.itm.com 509-248-5645 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Yakima, Washington ******* Notice ******* Those who call for the latest edition of Amiga Report, and who do not with to establish an account, at the first login: prompt type "bbs", at the second login: prompt type "guest". Once in type "ARMAG" (without the quotes) at any prompt. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-3 "PIONEERS BBS" @toc "menu" * PIONEERS BBS * ** A PREMIER GENEALOGY BBS ** ** WEST COAST - Amiga Virus Busters Support BBS ** ** CD32 REVIEW Support BBS ** AND NOW Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running EXCELSIOR! BBS * Michael & Marthe Arends, Sysops FidoNet: 1:343/54.0 206-775-7983 Supra 14.4k v32.bis 24hrs - 7 days EDMONDS, Washington New users can call and get ANY copy of Amiga Report. Just call using the Name "Long Distance" and the password "Longdistance"(without the quotes of course). Users using this account will have full access to ALL past and present issues of AMIGA REPORT starting with the premier issue. The latest issue of Amiga Report can be Freq'ed (FileREQusted) from here as "AR.LHA", Freq's are valid at ANY time. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-4 "Biosmatica" @toc "menu" * BIOSMATICA BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Portugal * Running Excelsior/Trapdoor/UUCP * Celso Martinho, Sysop FidoNet 2:361/9 +351-34-382320 V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-5 "Amiga Junction 9" @toc "menu" * AMIGA JUNCTION 9 * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- United Kingdom * Running DLG Professional * Stephen Anderson, Sysop Sysop Email: sysadmin@junct9.royle.org Line 1 +44 (0)372 271000 14400 V.32bis/HST FidoNet 2:440/20 Line 2 +44 (0)372 278000 14400 V.32bis only FidoNet 2:440/21 Line 3 +44 (0)372 279000 2400 V.42bis/MNP Voice: +44 (0)956 348405 (24hrs) Direct Sysop Voice Line Internet: user_name@junct9.royle.org Special Interest Areas: - Bjork / Sugarcubes Fan Club - Research of Lucid Dreaming @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-6 "BitStream BBS" @toc "menu" * BITSTREAM BBS * The BBS of the Nelson (NZ) Amiga Users Group Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Xenolink 1.0 Z.3 * Glen Roberts, Sysop FidoNet 3:771/850 +64 3 5485321 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Nelson, New Zealand @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-7 "Realm of Twilight" @toc "menu" * REALM OF TWILIGHT BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Canada * Running Excelsior! BBS * Thorsten Schiller, Sysop Usenet: realm.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca UUCP: ...!uunet.ca!tdkcs!realm FIDO: 1:221/302 Fish: 33:33/8 24hrs - 7 days 519-748-9365 (2400 baud) 519-748-9026 (v.32bis) Ontario, Canada Hardware: Amiga 3000, 105 Meg Quantum, 213 Meg Maxtor, 5 megs RAM @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-8 "Metnet Triangle" @toc "menu" METNET TRIANGLE SYSTEM Official Amiga Report Distribution Site UK Support for Mebbsnet * Running Mebbsnet and Starnet 1.02a * Jon Witty, Sysop FIDO: 2:252/129.0 24 hrs - 7 days Line 1: 44-482-473871 16.8 DS HST Lines 2-7: 44-482-442251 2400 (6 lines) Line 8: 44-482-491744 2400 Line 9: 44-482-449028 2400 Voice helpline 44-482-491752 (anytime) Fully animated menus + normal menu sets. 500 megs HD - Usual software/messages Most doors online - Many Sigs - AMIGA AND PC SUPPORT Very active userbase and busy conference Precious days and MUD online. AMUL support site. @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-9 "Omaha Amiganet" @toc "menu" * OMAHA AMIGANET * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running DLG Professional * Andy Wasserman, Sysop 24 hrs - 7 days FidoNet: 1:285/11 AmigaNet: 40:200/10 Line 1: 402-333-5110 V.32bis Line 2: 402-691-0104 USR DS Omaha, Nebraska @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-10 "Amiga-Night-System" @toc "menu" * AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - Finland * Running DLG Professional * Janne Saarme, Sysop 24 hrs - 7 days InterNet: luumu@fenix.fipnet.fi FidoNet: 2:220/550.0 +358-0-675840 V.32bis Helsinki, Finland @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-11 "Ramses Amiga Flying" @toc "menu" * RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- France * Running DLG Professional * Eric Delord, Sysop Philippe Brand, Co-Sysop Stephane Legrand, Co-Sysop Internet: user.name@ramses.gna.org Fidonet: 2:320/104 +33-1-60037015 USR DS 16.8 +33-1-60037713 V.32bis +33-1-60037716 1200-2400 Ramses The Amiga Flying BBS is an Amiga-dedicated BBS running DLG-Pro on a Amiga 3000, 16MB RAM, 2GB Disk space, 3 lines. We keep a dayly Aminet site mirroring, NetBSD-Amiga complete mirror site from ftp.eunet.ch (main site), Amiga Report, GNU Amiga, Ramses is the SAN/ADS/Amiganet French coordinator. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-12 "Gateway BBS" @toc "menu" * THE GATEWAY BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Excelsior! BBS * Stace Cunningham, Sysop Dan Butler, CoSysop 24 hrs - 7 days InterNet: stace@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil FidoNet: 1:3604/60.0 601-374-2697 Hayes Optina 28.8 V.FC Biloxi, Mississippi @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-13 "EMERALD KEEP BBS" @toc "menu" * Emerald Keep BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribation Site * Running DLG Professional * Michael mac Nessa, Sysop 24 hrs - 7 days FidoNet: 1:2250/2 AmigaNet: 40:206/1 618-394-0065 USR 16.8k DS Fairview Heights, IL @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-14 "Amiga BBS" @toc "menu" * Amiga BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Excelsior! BBS * Alejandro Kurczyn, Sysop FidoNet 4:975/7 First Amiga BBS in Mexico (5) 887-3080 9600 V32,MNP Estado de Mexico, Mexico @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-15 "The Stygian Abyss" @toc "menu" * THE STYGIAN ABYSS BBS * 312-384-0616 14.4 USR Courier HST 312-384-6250 14.4 Supra V.32 bis (FREQ line) 312-384-0716 2400 USR Courier FIDONet-1:115/384.0 CLink-911:6200/2.0 NWNet-206:310/0.0--206:310/1.0 PhantomNet Central States Cooridinator-11:2115/0.0--11:2115/1.0 FaithNet Central States Cooridinator-700:6000/0.0--700:6000/1.0 AMINet Chicagoland HUB-559:2/5.0 Chicago, Illinois Over 4 GIGS of files I Over 3700 MODS I Over 120 On-Line Games Tons of digitized sounds I Over 15,000 GIFS Supporting: Amiga I IBM I Macintosh I C=64/128 SIR SAMMY-SysOp Enter.......If you dare!! @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-16 "Amiga Do PC BBS" @toc "menu" * AMIGA DO PC BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribuition Site - Brazil * Running Excelsior! v 1.18 * +55-192-33-2260 Weekdays: 19-07 (-3 GMT) Weekends: 24 hours Fidonet: 4:801/44 RBT: 12:1212/1 Virinet: 70:101/17 Internet: fimoraes@dcc.unicamp.br Francisco Moraes, sysop Campinas, SP Freq AREPORT for the newest issue avaiable. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-17 "Comm-Link BBS" @toc "menu" * COMM-LINK BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Excelsior Pro * 604-945-6192 USR DS 16.8 24 hrs - 7 days Fido: 1:153/210.0 AmigaNet 40:800/9100.0 InterSports: 102:540/305.0 PussNet: 169:1000/305.0 InterNet: steve_hooper@comm.tfbbs.wimsey.com Steve Hooper, Sysop Port Coquitlam, B.C. Canada @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-18 "Phantom's Lair" @toc "menu" * PHANTOM'S LAIR * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running CNET 3.0 * FidoNet: 1:115/469.0 Phantom Net Cooridinator: 11:1115/0.0-11:1115/1.0 708-469-9510 708-469-9520 CD ROMS, Over 15511 Files Online @ 2586 meg Peter Gawron, Sysop Glendale Heights, Illinois @endnode @node P2-1-19 "Tierra-Miga BBS" @toc "menu" Tierra-Miga BBS Software: CNet Gib Gilbertson 24 hours - 7 days FidoNet: 1:202/638.0 AmigaNet: 40:406/3.0 Internet: torment.cts.com Line #1: 619.292.0754 V32.bis City: San Diego, CA. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-50 "Freeland Mainframe" @toc "menu" * FREELAND MAINFRAME * Offical Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running DLG Progessional * John Freeland, SysOp 206-438-1670 Supra 2400zi 206-438-2273 Telebit WorldBlazer(v.32bis) 206-456-6013 Supra v.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Internet - freemf.eskimo.com Olympia, Washington @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-51 "LAHO" @toc "menu" * LAHO BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Finland * Running MBBS * Lenni Uitti, SysOp Juha Mkinen, SysOp (Amiga-areas) Tero Manninen, SysOp (PC-areas) +358-64-414 1516, V.32bis/HST +358-64-414 0400, V.32bis/HST +358-64-414 6800, V.32/HST +358-64-423 1300, V.32bis Seinäjoki, Finland Our host machine is a 386/33 with 20MB of memory, 1GB harddisk and a CD-ROM drive running in a Novell network. The BBS software is a Norwegian origin MBBS running in a DesqView windows. We have now (26th March 1994) over 10000 files online (mostly for the Commodore Amiga line of the personal computers.) Every user has an access to download filelist (LAHOFIL.ZIP), list of the Finnish 24-hour BBS's (BBSLIST.ZIP or BBSLIST.LHA) and every issue of the Amiga Report Magazine (AR101.LHA-AR???.LHA) even on their first call. The system has been running since 1989 and is sponsored by the local telephone company, Vaasan Läänin Puhelin Oy. BTW, LAHO stands for "LAtomeren Höyrylaiva Oy" = "Barnsea Steamship Co." Welcome on board! @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 P2-1-55 "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 P2-1-21 "Continental Drift" @toc "menu" +---------------------------------------------------------------+ /\ / \____ C O N T I N E N T A L D R I F T B B S / / \ ::/ / \:::: Official Amiga Report Distribution Site ::\ \ /\ \::: Running *DLG Pro* BB/OS Software :::\ \/ \ \:: Supporting the Amiga 100% Only! ::::\ / /:: \ / / Sysops: Murray Chaffer & Andre Lackmann \ /\ / FIDO: 3:714/911 PH: +612 949 4256 \/ \/ (Sydney, Aust.) +---------------------------------------------------------------+ @endnode @node P2-1-22 "Amiga Online Bs Heemstede" @toc "menu" Amiga Online Bs Heemstede * HeadQuarters of Online Products * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- The Netherlands * Running Xenolink 1.90 * Your SysOp is Michiel Willems 24 hours a day - 7 days a week Fidonet : 2:280/464.0 DAN Host HQ : 55:100/1.0 Amynet Host : 39:151/1.0 NLA : 14:102/203.0 BOSnet Hub : 99:999/2.0 e-mail SysOp : michiel@aobh.wlink.nl Line 1 +31-23-282002 14400 v32bis Supra Line 2 +31-23-470739 14400 v32bis Supra Heemstede, The Netherlands, Europe, The Earth Very nice menu's 660 Megs HD online - ALOT of software ALOT of messages - VERY fast BBS program Point support - Lot's of doors online Just freq AR of AR.LHA for the latest issue available The system is running on an Amiga 2000 with a HARMS-Prof-3000 030 turboboard at 29Mhz and a copro at 50Mhz, 7MB RAM, 660 Meg HD space and soon 1 Gigabyte HD space. Every issue from Amiga Report Magazine online as far as the first issue. @endnode @node P2-1-60 "Guru Meditation" @toc "menu" * GURU MEDITATION * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Spain * Running Remote Access * Javier Frias, SysOp +34-1-383-1317 V.32bis 24 hours - 7days Spain @endnode @node P2-1-20 "Moonlight Sonata DLG" @toc "menu" M O O N L I G H T S O N A T A D L G * Amiga Report Official Distribution Site * * DAS ModPlayer Support * 2 Nodes *FREE PUBLIC* Amiga BBS MIDI-tunes, MIDI-utils, Modules, Amiga-files Messages, Door-games, MUD... Also patches for several synths! (About 100MB of ProTracker Modules!) Node #1 - +358-18-161763 - ZyXEL V32b 19200 Node #2 - +358-18-161862 - HST DS V32 14400 Fidonet: 2:221/112.0 Keyboards: Erno Tuomainen Amiga3000 25MHz - 1.3Gigs HD BBS Software: Dialog Pro BB/OS @endnode @node P2-1-61 "LINKSystem LINK-CH1" @toc "menu" LINKSystem LINK-CH1 Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - Switzerland in local newsgroup link-ch1.ml.amiga-report Mails and News from/to UseNet contact: rleemann@link-ch1.aworld.de +41 61 3215643 V32bis/Zyx16800 +41 61 3832007 ISDN X75/V110 +41 61 3832008 ISDN X75/V110 @endnode @node P2-1-62 "Doom of Darkness" @toc "menu" * Doom of Darkness * * Home of AmBoS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany Marc Doerre (Marc_Doerre), Sysop (BBS-Owner/AmBoS-Support) Bernd Petersen (TGM), Sysop (Amiga-Software-Support) Gerhard Luehning (Klaro), Co-Sysop (Aminet-Support) Kai Szymanski (Kai), Co-Sysop (AR-Support/AmBoS-Support) Usenet: user_name@doom.platinum.werries.de Line 1 +49 (0)4223 8355 19200 V.42bis/Zyx Line 2 +49 (0)4223 3256 16800 V.42bis/Zyx Line 3 +49 (0)4223 3313 16800 V.42bis/Zyx Sysop Email: marc_doerre@doom.platinum.werries.de @endnode @node P2-1-63 "RedEye BBS" @toc "menu" REDEYE BBS * Running EXCELSIOR/UUCP/AFAX * "Official Amiga Report Distribution Site Germany/Europe" Sysop: Thorsten Meyer Internet: sysop@redeye.greenie.muc.de Line 1: +49-89-5460535 (V.32b, Zyxel EG +) Line 2: +49-89-5460071 (USR Courier V32b terbo) 24hrs - 7 days Munich, Germany Areas for Amiga, PCs, Lotus Notes Group, Amiga Report, Game Byte, Graphic Stuff, 3D-Exchange, 3D-tools, 3D-objects, McAffee, GUS, PAS, DOOM, WINDOWS-NT, OS/2 Online CD, Online Games, USENET, INTERNET, FIDO ECHOS, Developer @endnode @node P2-1-64 "Virtual Palace BBS" @toc "menu" * Virtual Palace BBS * * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * 916-343-7420 300-14400 Baud V.42bis AmiExpress 2.40 700 Mbytes P.O. Box 5518 Chico, California 95927 Tibor G. Balogh (Tibor), Sysop Sysop Email: tibor@ecst.csuchico.edu Leland Whitlock (Leland), Co-Sysop @endnode @node P2-1 "Where to find Amiga Report" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Where to find Amiga Report %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Click on the button of the BBS nearest you for information on that system. FidoNet Systems --------------- FREQ the filename "AR.LHA" for the most current issue of Amiga Report! @{" OMAHA AMIGANET " link P2-1-9} ..................................Omaha, Nebraska @{" NOVA " link P2-1-1} .............................Cleveland, Tennessee @{" PIONEER'S BBS " link P2-1-3} ..............................Edmonds, Washington @{" 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 @{" EMERALD KEEP BBS " link P2-1-13} .........................................Illinois @{" AMIGA BBS " link P2-1-14} .........................Estado de Mexico, Mexico @{" THE STYGIAN ABYSS " link P2-1-15} ................................Chicago, Illinois @{" AMIGA DO PC BSS " link P2-1-16} .................................Campinas, Brazil @{" COMM-LINK BBS " link P2-1-17} .......................Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada @{" PHANTOM'S LAIR " link P2-1-18} .......................Glendale Heights, Illinois @{" Tierra-Miga BBS " link P2-1-19} .....................................SanDeigo, Ca @{" MOONLIGHT SONATA DLG " link P2-1-20} ..........................................Finland @{" CONTINENTAL DRIFT " link P2-1-21} ................................Sydney, Australia @{" AMIGA ONLINE " link P2-1-22} ..................................The Netherlands Non-FidoNet Systems ------------------- @{" IN THE MEANTIME " link P2-1-2} ...............................Yakima, Washington @{" FREELAND MAINFRAME " link P2-1-50} ..............................Olympia, Washington @{" LAHO " link P2-1-51} ...............................Seinajoki, Finland @{" FALLING " link P2-1-52} ...........................................Norway @{" COMMAND LINE " link P2-1-53} ..................................Toronto, Canada @{" LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL " link P2-1-55} ..........................................Germany @{" STINGRAY DATABASE " link P2-1-56} ...........................Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany @{" T.B.P. VIDEO SLATE " link P2-1-57} .............................Rockaway, New Jersey @{" AMIGA CENTRAL " link P2-1-58} .............................Nashville, Tennessee @{" GURU MEDITATION " link P2-1-60} ............................................Spain @{" LINKSystem LINK-CH1 " link P2-1-61} ...............................Basel, Switzerland @{" DOOM OF DARKNESS " link P2-1-62} ..................................Bremen, Germany @{" REDEYE BBS " link P2-1-63} ..................................Munich, Germany @{" Virtual Palace BBS " link P2-1-64} ........................................Chico, Ca @endnode