@database "ar227.guide" @Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #2.27 -- September 14, 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 Biweekly Source for Amiga Information." Copyright 1994 Skynet Publications All Rights Reserved // %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%//%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% September 14, 1994 \\// Issue No. 2.27 %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @endnode @node "menu" "Amiga Report Main Menu" @toc "menu" @{" Columns and Features " link P1} News, Reviews, and More! @{" About AMIGA REPORT " link P2} Contact information and copyrights @{" Dealer Directory " link P3} Amiga Dealer Addresses and Numbers @{" Commercial Online Services " link P4} Sign-Up Information @{" FTP Announcements " link P5} New Files and Announcements @{" AR Distribution Sites " link P2-1} Where to get AMIGA REPORT ______________________________________________ // | | // %%%%%%%%//%%%%%| Amiga Report International Online Magazine |%%%%%%%//%%%%% %% \\// | Issue No. 2.27 September 14, 1994 | \\// %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%| "Your Biweekly Source for Amiga Information" |%%%%%%%%%%%%%% |______________________________________________| c.s.a.editor.desk Amiga News Dealer Directory Distribution BBS's Product Announcements Reader Mail Emulation Rambler AR Contest! AR Contest Solution CIS Talk SPECIAL FEATURES A Call To Action (Flowers Accepted) ........................Lamar Morgan Review: HyperCache Professional V2.0 .......................William Near Full Motion Future .......................................Rowan Crawford A Letter to ID Software ................................George Sanderson CSAReview: Warp Engine 4040 ...............................Andre Perusse Amiga Game Endings .......................................Rowan Crawford Musings ...................................................Aric R. Caley AmItalia ...............................................Gabriele Peterle Review: Perihelion ........................................Jason Compton Review: VideoStage Pro ...............................Douglas Nakakihara Review: CD32 S-Port ......................................David Steidley %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% @{" X-NET " link P4-6} @{" DELPHI " link P4-1} @{" PORTAL " link P4-2} @{" FIDO " link P2-1} @{" INTERNET " link P4-5} %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @endnode %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% The Amiga Report Staff %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @node P8-1 "Editor" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% EDITOR %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Jason Compton Internet: jcompton@bbs.xnet.com US Mail: 1838 Chicago Ave. #419 Evanston, IL 60201-3806 USA Phone: (NOT between 12AM-7AM CST) (708) 332-4599 FAX: Working on getting it set up... @endnode @node P8-2 "Assistant Editor" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% SENIOR 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 P8-3 "European Editor" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% EUROPEAN EDITOR %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Michael Wolf Internet: MikeWolf@bonebag.tynet.sub.org Fido: 2:246/1115.0 @endnode @node P8-4 "Contributing Editor" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% ASSISTANT EDITOR %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% David Tiberio Internet: dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu @endnode @node P4-5 "Amiga Report Mailing List" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Amiga Report Maillist List, the WWW, Aminet, and UUdecoding %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% AR Mailing List ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you have an internet mailing address, you can receive Amiga Report in UUENCODED form each week as soon as the issue is released. To be put on the list, send Email to listserv@bbs.xnet.com and in the body of the message put: ADD armag ie: ADD rniles@goofy.com armag Your account must be able to handle mail of any size to ensure an intact copy. For example, many systems have a 100K limit on incoming messages. Joining the Amiga Report Coverdisk list is just as easy, but REQUIRES that your mail site be able to handle messages in excess of 600k. Place the following in the body of a message to listserv@bbs.xnet.com: ADD ardisk ie: ADD rniles@goofy.com ardisk Many thanks to X-Net Information Systems for setting this service up for us! ** IMPORTANT NOTICE: PLEASE be certain your host can accept mail over ** 100K! We have had a lot of bouncebacks recently from systems with a ** 100K size limit for incoming mail. If we get a bounceback with your ** address in it, it will be removed from the list. Thanks! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ World Wide Web ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AR can also be read with Mosaic (in either AmigaGuide or html form). Reading AmigaReport with Mosaic removes the necessity to download it. It can also be read using programs found in UNIX sites such as LYNX. Simply tell Mosaic to open the following URL: http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/People/mjw/Computer/Amiga/AR/MainPage.html Mosaic for the Amiga can be found on Aminet in directory comm/net, or (using anonymous ftp) on max.physics.sunysb.edu Mosaic for X, Macintosh(tm) and Microsoft Windows(tm) can be found on ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Aminet ~~~~~~ To get Amiga Report from Aminet, simply FTP to any Aminet site, CD to docs/mags. All the back issues are located there as well. (ftp.cdrom.com or ftp.wustl.edu are two sites) UUEncoding/Decoding (thanks to Bob Tomasevich for the quick tutorial) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What is uuencoding and uudecoding? ---------------------------------- uuencoding is converting a binary file into text (ASCII) which can be sent through mail or Usenet. uudecoding is reversing the process (e.g. converting the file back to binary). Why would I want to do this? ---------------------------- You have to send a binary file to a user who does not have FTP access, or the user is too lazy to FTP the file. What is the normal procedure? ----------------------------- 1. Convert the binary file into ASCII, using uuencode. 2. Send the file, through email, to the user. 3. The person on the receiving end gets the email, which may be split into parts. If the email is split into parts, the parts must be combined, in the order received, into one file. 4. Receiving person converts the file back into binary, using uudecode. What does a uuencoded file look like? ------------------------------------- The start always has: begin 644 So, for the file happy-happy-joy-joy.txt, it would look like: begin 644 happy-happy-joy-joy.txt The encoded file begins right after: M1TE&.#=A@`+@`9<````$`*QB15=2.+&/@R(Y)XM8.=J]H+*%7BL6#8]F6EP_] M*$=E5"L?L-Z8A-:#60\@$,9P27-4-YB#;4HY)U!L9KZNE\O"O["#;8]82SDF> M&[%J4FI',.&:E`48#="4@SE41M61(`)N(`-^(`1.($5>($9N($=^($A.((E>((IN((M^((Q.(,U>(,YN(,]^(-!+ &V"\"`@`[& `` end <-- the end of the encoded file size 151341 <-- size of the original file So, how would I do this on the Amiga? ------------------------------------- There are many uuencode/decode variants out there, but most usually have kept the old UNIX command line, which can be confusing to novices, or, require you to remove all mail headers and other, non-uuencoded text. Luckily, Asher Feldman took the time to write UUxt. What is UUxT? ------------- It is a program which performs both the uuencode/decode operations in one executable, AND, can also pack/unpack LhA archives. Tell me more. ------------- The UUxT archive contains UUxT, the CLI version, and UUxtGUI, the Workbench interface. I will give a short summary of how to use both. Detailed instructions are included in the UUxT archive. CLI Version: ------------ Running UUxT without any options gives the following: UUxT Version 2.1a Copyright (c)1993 Asher Feldman USAGE: UUxT [option] [archive name] options: a - encode l - LhAencode x - decode u - LhAdecode showing the format of the command line and the valid options. Some example command lines: 1. Normal encoding - UUxt a filename.uue filename-to-archive 2. Normal decoding - UUxt x filename.uue 3. LhA archiving and encoding - UUxT l filename.uue filename.lha file1 file2 ... 4. Decoding and LhA unarchiving - UUxT u filename.uue For LhA encoding and decoding, you will need LhA by Stefan Boberg. Workbench (GUI) Version: ------------------------ Below is a ASCII rendition of the UUxT-GUI window (from UUxtGUI doc): ____________________________________________________________ |+| UUxT-GUI Frontend v1.0 (c)1993 Asher Feldman | +------------------------------------------------------------+ | ______________________ ______________________ | | |InFile | | |OutFile| | | | +-------+--------------+ +-------+--------------+ | | (1) (2) (3) (4) | | ____________ _____________ | | Operation |@| Decode | Lha Name | | | | +-+----------+ +-------------+ | | (5) (6) | | _________ | | | START | | | +---------+ | | (7) | +------------------------------------------------------------+ (1) Clicking on this brings up a requester to select the file you want to perform the operation shown in gadget (5). (2) You can manually type here the filename of the file affected by the operation indicated in gadget (5). (3) Used only for encoding, brings up a requester to select where the encoded file should go. Selecting an existing file will cause the existing file to be replaced by the encoded file. You can also use this requester to create directories. (4) You can manually type the filename of the file to be the encoded file. (5) The operation to perform on file shown in (2). The operations are the four provided by UUxT (uuencode/uudecode/LhAEncode/LhADecode). (6) The name of the archive created with the LhAEncode option. Ignored when any other operation is selected. (7) Does the encode/decode/LhAEncode/LhADecode and pops up a requester indicating if the operation was successful or not. I need this! Where can I get it? --------------------------------- If you use the Internet from a local BBS, you may find it there. If not you can FTP it from wuarchive.wustl.edu, in the directory pub/aminet/arc/UUxT.lha It should also be on the Aminet mirrors. Thanks for the explanation! How can I reach you if I have questions? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Internet: bob.tomasevich@nezuld.com bobt@ais.net @endnode @node P1-1 "compt.sys.editor.desk" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% compt.sys.editor.desk By: @{" Jason Compton " link P8-1} %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Unfortunately, I once again have to report that there really isn't much of anything to report. Business is going at its normal pace as of late: slowly. New products continue to be put out, but the entire market seems to be in a state of suspended animation...waiting...waiting... Amiga Report is committed to being one of the first, if not THE first Amiga publication to announce the conclusion to this nonsense. Of course, we'll try to be damned sure that our source is accurate before we go announcing it like fools...basically, if I receive a call from a Commodore branch or a Commodore bidder, I'll print a rush-issue. But that isn't likely to happen just yet. Interesting letters keep popping up, so quite a few grace this issue. Incidentally, we DO now have detailed instructions for uudecoding, in case there are readers who need a quick course. Select the "Internet" option from the bottom of the magazine's main menu. For readers interested in contacting me directly: Amiga Report's main office has moved. My information-button (located above) reflects the magazine's new address and voice number. My E-Mail account remains the same. Because of the move, I haven't had a chance to set up any provisions for fax, but I'll take care of that. Hopefully. Here's to hoping for a concrete solution in the near future... Jason @endnode @node P1-2 "Amiga News" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Amiga News %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% A recent rumor prompted me to call Alex Amor at CEI. While I didn't believe the rumor itself, per se, it was more detailed than most and allowed me to put certain questions directly to him and have them answered. The rumor revolved around a completed C= UK buyout, and gave information about pending creditor meetings and the like. The buyout itself proved to be false, as I suspected. However, as I talked to him, the liquidators called him. We hung up, but I called him again the next day. His voice mail message told me that he would be traveling that day and the next (Thursday and Friday), which puzzled me since he hadn't mentioned any trips. I thought perhaps his departure had to do with the rumor I handed him. Finally, Tuesday, I got a hold of him again. He had returned and was leaving again the next day for New York. I prodded around to find out why he had left, and when I asked him, "Was it something drastic?" he said, "Yes, something drastic has happened, but I can't go into detail." He was about to start a meeting with his bankers to, as he put it, "talk about what it is we need to do." End of conversation, he said he would get back to me when he was back in his office. Hmmmm. [As an aside: I recently reported on Usenet that Amor would be gone until December 12th. There was a miscommunication and I apologize.] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Team17 is launching a set of new releases. The list follows, along with release dates, machines, and expected prices: Super Stardust: October, AGA and CD32, 29.99 UKP King Pin: October, ECS and CD32, 12.99 and 14.99 UKP Arcade Pool: August 22 (out now?), CD32, 14.99 UKP Alien Breed Tower Assault: November 7, AGA, 19.99 UKP (Plus Alien Breed II) : November 21, CD32, 29.99 UKP All Terrain Racing : October 17/November 7, ECS/AGA, 25.99 UKP In addition, Body Blows AGA is being re-released with tag team option and hard drive installability for roughly 15 UKP. Current owners can upgrade by sending in their disks and about half of the new budget price. Watch for a review of Body Blows AGA next issue. Alan Buxey says a review of Arcade Pool will be coming soon, and a preview of ATR will be available shortly. Team17 Tel: +44 (0)924 385903 6 St. Johns Square Fax: +44 (0)924 385904 Wakefield E-Mail: team17@cix.compulink.co.uk West Yorkshire England WF1 2QX - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - AR Corrections: Incomplete information was printed for Intangible Assets Manufacturing in AR2.26. It should be: Intangible Assets Manufacturing Voice: 610-853-4406 E-Mail: info@iam.com @endnode @node P1-3 "Reader Mail" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Reader Mail %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% From: Hans_Bergengren@p12.f123.n203.z2.fidonet.cd.chalmers.se To: jcompton@bbs.xnet.com Subject: Reader response regarding GVP 040 Combo review/AR226 In response to the Comprehensive GVP Combo '040 accelerator test in AR226: Maxwell Daymon has made a very thorough job on the test, and we thank him for that, but there are some both minor and major fact errors in the review, which I'd like to point out, as not to confuse others. First, Maxwell claims that DMA host adaptors as a rule are subject to serial port hardware overruns. While this isn't false in some cases (mainly GVP has problems), it certainly isn't true in most. Commodore DMA host adaptors generally behave very nicely, and the A3000 H/A is a very serial-friendly dude, since it hardly uses up any bus time at all during transfers. due to it's 32-bit wide, 25MHz high bandwidth architecture. A normal harddisk running at the top of it's lungs will generally only require a few percent of the A3000's bus, and even with the SCSI bus fully saturated, about 75% bus time should be available for the serial.device interupt server. And one should realize: having a CPU-polled H/A is no guarrantee against overruns, they rear their ugly head even in that camp. The benefit in this case of having a DMA H/A, is that not all CPU-time is consumed during harddisk transfers. The thing that causes these serial overruns in the first case is the size of the DMA packets being sent out on the SCSI bus. GVP adaptors use very large packets (probably to squeeze out some extra performance), while most other DMA adaptors use more moderate sizes. This can be adjusted with the MAXTRANSFER parameter. Toying with it will *not* destroy anything, altough it's a good idea to keep note of the original value, since increasing it might cause undesirable system operation (serial overruns, glitches in module replayers etc) while the harddisks are working. Decreasing it on the other hand, might reduce file transfer performance. GVPPatch reduces the maxtransfer only while the internal serial port is open; and sets it to 512 bytes. That's why your harddisks will reach almost floppydisk performance during file transfers. As a general rule: if it ain't broke, don't fix it! That means: fiddle only with the maxtransfer values if you have serial overrun problems, and try first to use GVPPatch (if you have a GVP H/A, that is). It might also be a good idea to switch serial.device for BaudBandit.device (v1.4c is the most recent, to my knowledge). This is a stripped-down serial handler (only RTS/CTS handshake and 8N1 serial parameters), but it's blazingly fast, and uses substantially less CPU time than Commodore's device. Even up to 57kbps could be possible on an unaccelerated machine. Unfortunately, it doesn't work very well in some systems, however. Try it out, if it gurus, throw it out. 8^) Maxwell also says that the A3000 is SCSI1, while the GVP card is SCSI2. That is incorrect, both host adaptors utilizes the SCSI2 command set, in a beta version. This is due to the fact that they both use the same Western Digital SCSI bus controller chip, one that is known as the "00-04 PROTO" chip. This version uses a version of SCSI2 that isn't finalized, and this causes incompatibility, mainly with certain tape and CDROM drives, but also with some harddisks. This chip can in the A3000 be replaced with the "00-08" (or sometimes also called "00-08 PROTO") chip, which contains true SCSI2. This will also give the benefit of improved performance in some setups! GVP users have a harder time, since GVP saw fit to surface mount the SCSI chip, and it will require either a very skilled hand or special equipment to replace it. Maxwell's problems with a SCSI2 drive might in this case lie more in the specific SCSI implementation, either in software or hardware, in the A3000, rather than depend on wether the H/A is SCSI1 or SCSI2. Replacing the SCSI chip in the A3000 with the "00-08" version should cure all his problems. Also worth mentioning: SCSI2 is fully downwards compatible with SCSI1, so nobody don't worry about not being able to use new drives on old controllers. Maxwell also has major gripes about ExpertPrep, and I understand him fully as an Series2 A500-HD+ owner. I use Commodore's HDToolBox software instead of GVPs unstable junk. It might not be able to set every parameter there is, but in it's latest incarnations, it supports the most useful stuff, and it's stable as a rock. HDToolBox has *never* screwed up on me, during my five years as an Amiga harddisk owner. It will always warn you if you risk destroying any data, so it's not neccessary to backup before changing basic stuff like harddisk buffers, mask value or maxtransfer. And by the way: to use HDToolBox with any of GVP's Series2 host adaptors, you need to add the following tool type to HDTB's icon: SCSI_DEVICE_NAME=gvpscsi.device And that's it! Finally, regarding the "to be or not to be" of an MMU in 'EC030 processors: Yes, there *is* an MMU in many chips. However, it's often not working at all, and will be disabled. But in fact, some batches of 'EC030 CPUs has been delivered with fully working MMUs, because of short supply of "real" 'EC030 chips, some 'RC030 processors have been labelled as 'EC030. It should be pointed out though, that it will be just by pure, dumb luck to have one of these, fully functional MMU chips in your accelerator/A4000-030, do not count on it! Then again, many an happy 'EC030 owner has found out to have a partly working MMU, that will in fact be able to catch some Enforcer hits, but not all, and not able to run VMEM utilities, like GigaMEM. It's worth trying out with Enforcer if you have an (albeit partly) working MMU, nothing will be destroyed if you try. 8^) There's example programs that generates various types of hits, and you'll be able to see which ones of them your MMU catches. Now, do not take this as I think that everything Maxwell Daymon said in his review is all crap and lies; that's not true. He did a really good job in his test, and it's hard to write something as big as his review without making a few mistakes. I have probably goofed myself somewhere above on these lines. If that proves to be the case, feel free to tell me so! Last, and not least: Thank You All at Amiga Report for devoting your time for making this wonderful, wonderful magazine! It's always nice to snuggle up in front of the screen with warm tea, chocolate chip cookies and a fresh issue of AR! May the Haynie be with you forever, and never stop making AR! 8^) - Thank you for the reply. I'd never envisioned a reader snuggling with AR before. And considering that AR has survived into 3 editors now, I think it has some staying power... From: Fredrik_Lundin@p56.anet.bbs.bad.se (Fredrik Lundin) To: jcompton@bbs.xnet.com Subject: Comments+survey Hi Jason ! First, I would like to comment on your leader about C= (AR#2.25). I can understand why people worry if a new U.K "Commodore" wouldn't give a damn about the USA, but remember... it's business. Let's say Pleasance gets the Amiga, he must show his creditors that he can make a profit on the Amiga, or they will dump it. Why produce NTSC Amigas+US marketing when there's no Amiga friendly _market_ over there, while back in the UK the Amiga is the leading platform. (atleast for homecomputing and games) Sure, it would be nice if they could, but it's probably to expensive. So, I do really hope that CEI will get the license to produce the Amiga in the US+Canada, so that the UK team can provide Europe with what we need. I believe this is something YOU americans should push and really struggle for (not only Americans of course), take contact with both CEI and the UK team, make it happen... Take care, Fredrik - Well, nothing is finalized yet...and, of course, there's always the argument about whether or not there's an Amiga market. It's there, it just doesn't realize it yet. If Commodore, inept thought it was, could produce machines for the world before, it's bound to be able to, eventually, again. From: JSCOTTO@delphi.com To: jcompton@bbs.xnet.com Subject: HELP Jason, I have a problem with my CDTV. I attempted to upgrade my CDTV to 2.1 os by installing developer roms(eproms) and a 2.04 rom. Well it didn't work- I got nothing but a dark gray screen. if there was no CD in the machine I wou;ld still get the CDTV logo but inserting any CD freezes the unit. What can be up? BTW I have reinstalled the original eproms, rom and I still have the no-op condition. Any help *will* be appreciated. - I passed this along to see if readers could help. Readers? From: Roy Teale To: jcompton@bbs.xnet.com Subject: submission [This is a bit of a retrospective by Roy, but it's more of a testimonial than anything, so this seemed a good enough place for it...-Ed] Not too long ago it was said around my house that I had simply gone mad - tipped over the edge by some simple complication that had happened to me one day for no simple reason. I would shuffle around the house muttering to myself and occasionally make a lunge for the telephone to make a call to who-knows-where, followed by another phone call to somewhere else, and finally settle back in my chair and mope for a few hours before falling into a blue funk over . . . well, nobody could understand unless they had a similar problem - or a similar fate. I was an orphan, or so I felt. And I was the darndest, most unlucky orphan I knew of. Mine was the fate of being left behind in an industry which seemingly didn't care for the unlucky end-user who happened to love their products. I was on the verge of upgrading my Amiga 2500 to the much-needed Dos2.1 level, having forever been told that I should do so, because 1.3 was just not that good anymore ... So, not wanting to invest in another computer system just yet, (mind you, it would have to have been another Amiga. I get enough of Pee-Cees in my electrical enginnering department at the school I attend) I decided that upgrading my existing computer was the most logical step to take. My A2500 was worth more sitting on my desk than it would be getting sold to somebody else. So gradually I had purchased the ECS chipset and installed everything except for the 2.x rom. My problems started when I obtained that rom. After that point, it was one swap after another (mostly concerning my A2630 accelerator not being compatible with the 2.x upgrade, and having to find a working set of eproms for that.) To make an extremely long story very tight and tidy, I spend 5 months of hair-pulling, long distance phone calls, talking to every dealer I could find, sending my accelerator to various places, and finally got it to work. To this day, nobody can give me the correct story, but essentially it boils down to that particular product (the A2630) not being supported by its parent company (C=) anymore. Well, many changes have happened since I got the support I needed (by Kasara Microsystems by the way), both to C= and to my computer system. I've purchased a Picasso II graphics board, a high-speed Zoom modem, another hard disk, a nice 17" monitor, and AmigaDOS3.1. And it's all plugged into my humble little A2500. I can't begin to describe how much use I've gotten out of this system. Mostly it has to do with the wonderful support I get over Internet. People, if you haven't explored the Amiga areas in Internet, get a move on! Most of my current setup, as far as software is concerned, has originated from Internet downloads. To name a few, avm&Fax (a Great little voice mail and fax package!!!), new Picasso drivers (which seem to come out fairly regularly from Expert Services), On The Ball (a calendar, scheduler, alarm clock, etc), numerous commodities such as Yak, PowerSnap, MagicMenus. Also, one of the most obvious additions to my system is Magic Workbench, a collection of icons and backgrounds for the Workbench. <> I'm glad I stuck with my computer system through thick and thin. The thin wasn't my computer's fault, nor do I wish to place blame on anyone. These are simply hard times we're living in. But I'm really happy with my Amiga system, and when I can afford it, I'll probably upgrade to an A4000, or better, but for now I'll stick with it. <> So anyway, everyone has a story, and I'm sure everyone would like to hear yours as well. [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] [] Roy Teale [] A2500 .. A2630 (28MHz 68030, 33MHz 68882, 4Mb) [] [] Home: (509) 529-9971 [] A2091+2Mb .. 2-Meg Agnus Project .. AmigaDOS3.1[] [] Work: (509) 525-0055 [] Switch-Itt .. Zoom 14.4V Modem, Terminus, [] [] Inet: tealro@wwc.edu [] AVM&Fax .. MicroWay FF .. Picasso II(2Mb) [] [] finger for PGPpubkey [] MAG MX17F Monitor ** Shopping for a DKB2632 **[] [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] From: "Donald H. Feldbruegge (608) 263-1497" To: jcompton@bbs.xnet.com Subject: Amiga-Report Dear Mr Compton & all the AR staff: I just wanted to send a brief note to let you know that I enjoy Amiga Report, ie that you do have a reader out here. I think that you are doing a *great* job of keeping us Amigans informed about events and happenings in our part of the world. I first discovered AR about 6 months ago when I first got access, at work, to the big world of the InterNet. After downloading AR the first time, I found that it was very worthwhile and up-to-date; now I have to check for AR the first thing on my weekly trips to the InterNet. I guess that AR has become an even more important source of information with the Commodore situation. My uses of the Amiga are pretty tame, compared to many of you, so I'm afraid that I truly don't have anything useful to contribute to AR or to the Amiga community as a whole. I use my A2000 very much as home computer. Word processing, a small PD spreadsheet, a small PD database, my geanealogy program, and a bunch of games. I'm not especially good at art/graphics or at music, and just don't have a lot of interest in Video, so that makes me sort of a different Amiga user, I guess. I have had experience with IBM and MAC at work, and I consider the Amiga *far* superior to either of them. It is very powerful, and still remains easy to use. Again, thank you for AR. I like it and find it very useful. Now to see if I can actually get this sent to you. I will have to copy this note to an IBM-formatted disk using PC-task, then translate to the MAC I use at work, before I can send it via an e-mail that I don't understand very well at all. Best wishes to you and all the AR staff. Keep it up. Don Feldbruegge (dh.feldbruegge@hosp.wisc.edu) - No problem. AR is, more and more, becoming an important part of the Amiga community, and it pleases me to no end to see that. Incidentally, there's no reason for anyone to be ashamed of not being an Amiga power-user...I certainly don't push my 3000 to render, spindle, and mangle graphics or blast out powerful original tunes... AR pushes it to the limit and that's enough. @endnode @node P1-4 "A Call To Action!" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% A Call To Action (Flowers Accepted) By: Lamar Morgan %% %% As originally written to Amiga World Lamar_Morgan@neonate.atl.ga.us %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% [Lamar originally submitted this to Amiga World, and was very disappointed in how much it was editted. As a remedy, he re-posted it to Usenet, hoping to make his impact there.] News Media "Wake-Up" Call - An Amiga Letter-Writing Campaign Despite the fact I am a loyal Amiga user, it is no secret the platform must have a bigger share of the computer marketplace, if it is to survive....let alone grow. Right now, due to the liquidation precedings, the Amiga market is in disarray. What's needed is a letter-writing campaign directed at the network news media. The purpose of the campaign is to get the network news media to investigate the Commodore situation. Personally, I think Irving Gould and Medhi Ali profited from Commodore at the expense of employees, end users and shareholders. I can't prove that. I do, however, believe it to be the truth. As you know, when prodded properly, the network news media has proven it can get innocent people out of jail. Perhaps, it can also help put the guilty behind bars as well. Amigans, let's ask for network news media help - to showcase the Amiga and expose Commodore corruption at the same time. Yes, this situation has all the "charm" of a network news story. So, let's get the show on the road. What follows are various contacts: Mr. Ed Bradley c/o "60 Minutes" CBS News 555 W. 57th St. New York, NY 10019 Mr. Ron Reagan "The Crusaders" P.O. Box 6363 Burbank, CA 91510-6363 Ms. Phyllis McGrady & Ms. Deborah Amos ABC News "Turning Point" 157 Columbus Avenue New York, NY 10023 (Via fax) CNN News National Assignment Desk 404-827-1593 (Via E-mail) Jane Pauley Dateline@news.nbc.com Remember, you cannot make a positive difference in the future of anything if you choose not to get involved. And, so it is with the Amiga platform. Please get involved. Express your feelings and concerns via letter, fax and e-mail to the parties previously listed. But, that's not all. Help spread news of this campaign to Amigans all over the world via Internet, Usenet groups and commercial online services. Your positive efforts combined with those of others throughout the world will help change the future of the Amiga platform for the better. P.S. It doesn't hurt to be clever when sending your messages of concern. Afterall, you are competing with many other "messages of concern." It is easy to be overlooked. That is why after sending letters and faxes to ABC News and not getting any feedback, I decided to do something quite out-of-the-ordinary. I decided to send flowers to Deborah Amos of ABC News "Turning Point." This time I got feedback in the form of a personal phone call from Deborah Amos. But, that's not all. She also gave me the opportunity to plead my case for a news investigation of Commodore. So, if by chance, you don't get any feedback from your messages, try sending flowers. The results may surprise you. @endnode @node P1-5 "Review: HyperCache Professional V2.0" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Review: HyperCache Professional v2.0 By: William Near %% %% An inexpensive disk cache solution W.NEAR@genie.geis.com %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Description: HyperCache Professional is a device caching program. It can be used to speed up data access by as much as 3000% on devices such as: SCSI & IDE hard drives, CD-ROM drives and floppy drives. Price: I paid 19.95 + $3.00 S&H as an upgrade from v1.01b direct from Silicon Prairie. System Requirements: 512K RAM, Workbench 2.04 or higher, hard drive recommended System tested on: Amiga 2000, Workbench 3.1, GForce '030 accelerator @ 50MHz., 1MB CHIP + 6MB FAST memory, 2 standard floppy drives, Quantum LP270S hard drive with Trumpcard Professional controller. PACKAGING HyperCache Professional v2.0 (HCP) came with a 19 page manual, one disk, a registration card and a letter containing an addendum to the installation instructions contained in the manual all shrink wrapped together. INSTALLATION HCP uses the standard Commodore Installer program which makes the program easy to set up on your hard drive. HCP will create its own drawer in the directory or partition that you specify during installation. The installer places a library (rexxhost.library) in your LIBS directory, well sort of. It also places HyperCachePrefs, HyperCache.guide, HyperCacheStats, and an ARexx drawer inside its drawer. The included addendum letter states the following: "We have learned that in certain system configurations where multiple partitions are available to install to, the HyperCache installation program is unable to locate a required library. If you receive such an error message while installing, re-start the installation, select Intermediate or Expert installation, and install to the SYS: partition. We have been unable to reproduce this problem in-house, and it has proven to be quite rare, but the above steps have always cured it." Well, I experienced this "rare" problem during the installation of HCP. I followed the addendum instructions, but this didn't cure the problem either. I called Silicon Prairie's tech support number and the representative told me to re-install the program to my SYS: partition. He also stated that they had traced the problem to an error in their installation script. The third try at installing HCP was unsuccessful, so I resorted to manually copying the "missing" library to the LIBS directory on my SYS: partition and running the installation program one more time. This time it worked flawlessly, but it was somewhat of a hassle because of the script error by Silicon Prairie - nothing major, just annoying. At the end of the installation process you are asked if you want HCP to automatically run upon booting up your system. If you answer yes the Installer will add a line to your S:User-Startup file. I chose not to have the Installer add the line to my User-Startup and instead placed the HCP program in my WBStartup drawer. Finally, the installation process ends by asking what type CPU you are using, either 68000 or 68020 and then it starts the HyperCachePrefs program. If you want to cache more than one device then you must create multiple copies of the HCP icon and rename them appropriately. I have three icons in my WBStartup drawer: HyperCacheHD, HyperCacheDF0, and HyperCacheDF1. The Tooltypes were modified for each of the three icons to correspond with the type of device being cached. It is not necessary to cache each partition of a device such as a hard drive. When you cache a hard drive HCP caches the entire device, creating multiple caches for the same device would waste memory and would not improve performance. The same caching setup could have been accomplished by adding the appropriate lines to my S:User-Startup script, but I found it much more convenient to just put the icons in my WBStartup drawer where they can be easily modified using the Icon/Information menu choice from Workbench. HyperCachePrefs HCP's GUI, known as HyperCachePrefs, opens a small window in the center of your Workbench screen which contains various areas for adjusting parameters for the operation of the disk caching. You may access the interface at any time by selecting the HyperCachePrefs icon contained in the drawer you specified at installation. The interface consists of: Available Storage Volumes List, Device Driver, Unit Number, Cache Size, Number of Lines, Line Size, Write Rentention Time, Quiet Write Time, and finally, Save, Use and Cancel buttons. * Available Storage Volumes List - Displays all available devices for possible caching. * Device Driver - Displays the device driver for the selected device i.e. scsi.device, trackdisk.device, etc. The Device Driver is automatically updated when a device is selected from the Available Storage Volumes List. * Unit Number - Displays the selected device's unit number. The Unit Number is automatically updated when a device is selected from the Available Storage Volumes List. * Cache Size - Displays the size of the current cache according to the Number of Lines setting. * Number of Lines - This parameter is the primary setting for determining the size of the selected device's cache. Increasing the Number of Lines will make the cache larger; conversely, decreasing the Number of Lines will make the cache smaller (256 lines = 512K cache, 512 lines = 1024K cache, etc.) * Line Size - This parameter controls how far HCP reads ahead (known as prefetching) in the data from your device and the amount of data that is moved to and from the cache at any one time. 4K is the default setting which is recommended by Silicon Prairie for most devices. If your device is very fragmented then they suggest that you try an 8K Line Size. The Line Size must be changed in powers of 2 i.e. 4K, 8K, 16K, etc. If you double the Line Size it will, in turn, double the size of the cache. You can maintain the same size cache by cutting the Number of Lines in half for each doubling of the Line Size. If your device is very fragmented, characterized by a slowing of read speeds, then I would suggest using ReOrg (PD) to defragment your device rather than trying to make up for it by adjusting the Line Size. You'll gain much more performance from reorganizing your device than by using HCP for this purpose. * Write Retention Time - This parameter determines the length of time that data will be kept in the cache before being written to the device. The default setting is 5 minutes (setting is displayed in seconds.) This setting can be disabled by setting the Write Retention Time to 0. The data in the cache will be written to the device after the amount of time set in the Quiet Write Time parameter has passed. The Write Retention Time setting is only useful when your CPU will have no idle time. * Quiet Write Time - This parameter controls the amount of time that HCP will wait, after the CPU goes idle, before any writes are made from the cache to the device. The default setting is 1 second, but you can add an extra margin of safety by setting the Quiet Write Time to 0 -- this will cause any writes to occur as soon as any spare I/O cycles are available. * Save - Selecting the Save button will cause any changes to HCP's operation to be permanently saved. * Use - Selecting the Use button will cause any changes to HCP's operation to be immediately activated, but these changes will not be permanently saved. * Cancel - Selecting the Cancel button will cause any changes to HCP's operation to be aborted. HyperCache.guide This is the Amigaguide hypertext on-line help document for HCP. This text includes: Late Breaking News, Parameters, ARexx, HyperCacheStats, and an Index. * Late Breaking News - This section contains any last minute information that was not included in the written manual. * Parameters - This section covers every aspect of setting the parameters for HCP. * ARexx - This section gives information about the supported ARexx commands (5) for HCP. By using ARexx commands you can control every aspect of HCP's operation, including statistics on the program's operation. * HyperCacheStats - This section gives information on the use of the HyperCacheStats program. * Index - A complete index to the Amigaguide hypertext document. HyperCacheStats This program opens a window on your Workbench which contains several areas of information pertinent to the device you are caching. The HyperCacheStats (Stats) program will only give information for the device which is being cached, if you have more than one device cached then you must use multiple copies of the Stats program with the appropriate Tooltype defined in each icon. I used HCP to cache my hard drive, DF0, and DF1. If I wanted to view the statistics for each of these devices I would make three copies of the Stats program and use the following Tooltypes: PORT=HyperCache.IVS_SCSIpro.device (for my hard drive using the Trumpcard Pro controller) PORT=HyperCache.trackdisk.device UNIT=0 (for floppy drive DF0:) PORT=HyperCache.trackdisk.device UNIT=1 (for floppy drive DF1:) The Stats program only compiles the information while it is activated. There is no way to save the statistics for future reference. This program is mainly intended to help determine the appropriate cache size for a certain device and for purely informative use. The Stats program consists of two separate areas, Averaged Statistics and Instantaneous Statistics. Averaged statistics: Total Read Hits, Total Read Misses, Total Read Samples and the same three categories for Writes. * Total Read hits - This represents the total number of reads from the cache as opposed to reading the data from the device. * Total Read Misses - This represents the total number of reads that had to be made from the device because the needed data was not available from the cache. * Total Read Samples - This represents the total number of times the Stats program has requested information from the cache. To the right of these lines are the complementary values for Writes. The above definitions are identical, except that they show statistics for Writes instead of Reads. Instantaneous statistics: Read Hits, Read Misses, Read Hit Ratio and the same three categories for Writes. * Read hits - Displays the number of reads from the cache over the past second. * Read Misses - Displays the number of reads from the device due to the needed information being unavailable in the cache over the last second. * Read Hit Ratio - Displays the total number of reads from the cache divided by the number of read hits then multiplied by 100. This represents the percentage of reads that were successful from the cache as opposed to having to read the data from the device. Just below these lines are the complementary values for Writes. The above definitions are identical, except that they show statistics for Writes instead of Reads. Also, to the right of this area are the averages for these categories. The manual states that the running of HyperCacheStats can slightly hamper the performance of the cache. They do not recommend running the Stats program during system performance tests i.e. A.I.B.B., SysInfo, etc. as it may effect the outcome. ARexx drawer The ARexx drawer contains five example ARexx scripts that require the user to modify the code with the appropriate device port. The scripts included are: Suspend, Activate, Alternate, Stats, and Flush. * Suspend - This script will stop HCP from running on the specified device port. * Activate - This script will start HCP running on the specified device port. * Alternate - This script will alternate between starting and stopping HCP's operation on the specified device port depending on HCP's current status. * Stats - This script will activate the Stats program for the specified device port. * Flush - This script forces HCP to immediately write any information currently waiting to be written from the cache. The included scripts are fully documented by the programmers and are a nice addition to the HCP package. LIKES: I liked the easy installation of HCP, except for the missing library problem, using the standard Commodore installer program. The program only takes a few minutes to install once you manually copy the included library, if necessary, to your LIBS directory. HCP adds a great amount of speed to several aspects of everyday operations, such as: reopening windows, reloading programs, rereading data in a data base or spreadsheet, reopening documents in a word processor or desktop publishing program, working on pictures or animations in paint and animation/rendering programs, etc. The HyperCacheStats program is a nice way of verifying HCP's operation and determining the appropriate cache size for each device. The included ARexx scripts are helpful in controlling HCP at this level. The manual is well written and precise, for the most part. The Amigaguide on-line help document is a very nice feature. The GUI is a big improvement over earlier releases of HCP. It makes the adjustment of HCP's features very easy to do (see dislikes.) DISLIKES: HCP's GUI will load under WB 3.1, but it freezes up after that. The computer is still functional, but the GUI remains on the Workbench and won't go away unless you reboot. I contacted Silicon Prairie about this and the representative said that they had done limited testing under WB 3.1. I used the Tooltypes to adjust the parameters for all my devices' HCP icons. This wasn't that big of a deal, but it would have been much nicer if the GUI would have worked under WB 3.1. The manual could have given some suggestions as to the recommended size of caches used by certain devices. The old manual (v1.01b) gave suggested settings for hard drives and floppy drives. I used a 512K cache for my hard drive and a 100K cache for each of the floppy drives. Through trial and error you can arrive at a good cache size based on your usage of the particular device and the information provided by the Stats program. Prettier icons should have been included for all of the supplied files. The included icons are rather dull as compared to a MagicWorkbench type scheme. SUMMARY: I highly recommend HyperCache Professional v2.0 to everyone. If you do a lot of everyday work with directories, databases, spreadsheets, word processors and the like, then you'll appreciate the benefits that HCP has to offer. It's nice to load a program such as DirectoryOpus or DPaint IV and then if you quit from it and try to reload it a few minutes later the program loads in a matter of a few seconds, instead of the usual several seconds on my machine. Also, when working with large databases in SuperBase IV it's nice to read through the data from beginning to end once from the hard drive and then have all subsequent reads made from the much faster cache. Buy this program! Publisher: Silicon Prairie Software 4771 148th Ave. NE Suite N202 Bellevue, WA 98007 (206) 556-0618 * Order, Product Info & Tech Support hyper@iceonline.com * Tech Support Internet @endnode @node P1-6 "Full Motion Future" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Full Motion Games and the Amiga By: Rowan Crawford %% %% An essay of analysis dljar1@giaeb.cc.monash.edu.au %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Full Motion Video (FMV) seems to be the big catch phrase at the moment, but a lot of people are skeptical about it's worth in video games. Psygnosis certainly feel it's a viable gaming option, and they (along with several other large companies) have put their cash behind it. Mircocosm, and it's sequel, Scavenger 4, represent their first attempts at FMV games, and although both were games were mildly successful in combining FMV with an actual game, they were still far from what people expect from interactive entertainment. [Scavenger 4 is rumored to have become "Novastorm". -Ed] Virgin had a big hit on their hands with 7th Guest, but that had even less interactivity than the Pygnosis efforts. It was a success because it looked good, and was something new. Nothing more. But it's not just Virgin who have taken advantage of FMV and the gullible PC games buying public. In fact, these "vaguely" interactive games are quite common on the PC (even the 3D0 has had it's unfair share), and there looks to be even more on the way. Which reminds me of a joke: Q: How many PC owners does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A: None, they just declare darkness as a new standard. So what can we, Amiga users, expect now that FMV is available on the CD32? And what does it mean for the future of computer gaming? Will everything eventually become more like a film than a game, or are there other uses for FMV? I think it has huge potential myself. The thing to realise is that it can't, and therefore won't, suddenly make games any better, or any more original. What it can do is make exhisting game styles more interesting, and also it can draw you into the game itself. Then again, someone might actually create a new genre of -interactive- game using on FMV. It's possible, if unlikey. Mircocosm was quite a large step from previous uses of FMV (even if it wasn't strictly using FMV, the basic result is the same). Psygnosis realised that FMV wasn't something that you should base a game on, but instead is something that you can use to make your game look and feel better. Although the shoot-em-up behind Microcosm wasn't the best game ever, the basic principle was right. With Scavenger 4 (when will there be a CD32 version!?), they kept the same idea, but worked on improving the game part to the extent that the craft could now interact with the background. It is design features like this which will allow FMV to be a bonus to game design rather than a hindrance to gameplay. FMV in this fashion could work with other game genres too, such as adventure games and maybe even playform games (with some careful design). The other use for FMV is for animations. Not only intro/end game animations, but for little animations throughout the game. Not necessarily just between levels either, access to the CD is fast enough that it could happen mid-game. For example, you're running along in a platform game, you put an object in the right place, and suddenly the whole screen morphs into something different. So many possibilities, and yet still they continue to produce so many interactivity-impaired games. It's just not right. I think what FMV is ideal for, is to help draw the player into the game. A nice scene setting intro animation, occational "joyride" levels, bonus set-pieces and a few small plot enhancing animations will all contribute to the feel of the game. Something to think about anyway. @endnode @node P1-7 "A letter to ID..." @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% A letter to ID Software By: George Sanderson %% %% aissande@kraken.itc.gu.edu.au %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% With games like Wolfenstein and Doom out for the PC, debate has raged over the Amiga's capability to pull off such graphics and effects, spawning loads of texture-mapping demos. Someone put the "No Amiga Doom" question directly to ID and got an answer that has made many people unhappy... From George Sanderson's letter on comp.sys.amiga.misc: #22901 comp.sys.amiga.misc 4k From: aissande@kraken.itc.gu.edu.au (George Sanderson) Subject: Id Software (Doom) responds! Date: 4 Sep 1994 19:27:31 +1000 Organization: Groom Lake Testing Facility Yo... I wrote a plea letter to Id software for them to port Doom to Amiga and got the usual "can't be done" response. I would appreciate people out there who have coded anything texture mapped and/or chunky2planar routines (or even copper screens) to convince them otherwise... Their main concern is the speed of the game (they say the 68040 is just enough) and that the c2p process would totally kill that anyway. The porting doesn't seem to be a problem ( 99% of Doom is written in C ) as they recently did a port to the SGI (Silicon Graphics) machine (the market there isn't that great), and Doom was developed on the NeXT... (btw, contrary to popular belief, Doom is still playable on a 40MHz 386 - not exactly a speed demon). It would be good if your responses were mailed to me - i'd like to mail as many responses to Id as possible in one hit, but if you decide to mail Id software directly, be polite and explain your point of view thoughtfully. The last thing we need is some Amiga fanatics abusing Id. Anyway, below is my original letter to Id, and after that is their response. ---- [original letter to Id Software] Hi. I would appreciate an answer to this letter from you or someone who is able to do so... I noticed that you have recently released a version of Doom for SGI, meaning that porting isn't a difficult task. Perhaps a port of Doom for Amiga would also be a good idea ? I realize that the Amiga lacks a chunky graphics mode and it is a relatively limited market compared to IBM clones, but the game market for Amiga is quite large. The lack of the chunky graphics mode has been solved via fast conversion routines (which can be found in ftp.wustl.edu:/pub/aminet or any other Aminet mirror) or as in the case for Amiga CD32, the conversion routine is provided in hardware. There are numerous texture mapping demos available showing that a Doom-type game is possible on the Amiga. The market for Doom on Amiga is also fairly large. The Amiga CD32, which is basically a games console with a CD drive built in, together with the SX-1 expansion unit could provide sufficient memory and speed requirements. Many owners of Amiga 1200 have upgraded their systems with high speed accelerators, bringing their machines performance similar to the A4000, which has more than enough horse power to handle Doom. These machines mentioned are the ones equipped with the AGA chipset, and by including the old generation, (but still fast) A3000, the market is large enough for a port of Doom to take place. If you have any further specific questions, I would be happy to answer them. g.sanderson@ais.gu.edu.au ---- [response from Id software] From johnc@idcube.idsoftware.com Sun Sep 4 02:52 EST 1994 From: John Carmack Date: Sat, 3 Sep 94 11:50:23 -0600 To: G.Sanderson@ais.gu.edu.au Subject: amiga doom The amiga is not powerfull enough to run DOOM. It takes the full speed of a 68040 to play the game properly even if you have a chunky pixel mode in hardware. Having to convert to bit planes would kill it even on the fastest amiga hardware, not to mention the effect it would have on the majority of the amiga base. John Carmack ---- @endnode @node P1-8 "CSAReview: Warp Engine 4040" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% CSAReview: Warp Engine 4040 By: Andre Perusse %% %% By MacroSystem Development aperusse@fox.nstn.ns.ca %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% PRODUCT NAME Warp Engine 4040 BRIEF DESCRIPTION The Warp Engine 4040 is an accelerator, RAM expansion, and SCSI-2 card for the Amiga 4000. COMPANY INFORMATION Name: MacroSystem Development Address: 24282 Lynwood, Suite 201 Novi, MI 48374 USA Phone: (810) 347-3332 Fax: (810) 347-6643 LIST PRICE $1695.00 (US). Street price is about $1450.00. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE An Amiga 4000 or A4000T. [MODERATOR'S NOTE: A previous reviewer stated that the board works on the A3000T as well. - Dan] SOFTWARE AmigaDOS 2.1 or higher. COPY PROTECTION None. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 4000 Tower, 2 MB Chip RAM, 16 MB Fast RAM (60ns). Workbench 3.1. Quantum 1800S 1.8GB SCSI-2 Hard Drive. NEC 3xi Internal Triple-Speed CD-ROM (with ASIM CDFS v2) Emplant Deluxe with version 4.7 of the emulation software. Multiface III I/O card. INSTALLATION [MODERATOR'S NOTE: If you are not comfortable opening up your Amiga, then you should have the work done by an authorized Amiga service center. Opening your Amiga yourself may void your warranty, and careless work may even damage the machine. - Dan] Installation of the Warp Engine involves removing the Commodore supplied 68040 processor card and replacing it with the Warp Engine. Note that the Warp Engine does not occupy a Zorro slot. The 4040 model comes with its own CPU, so you can sell your old processor card to an Amiga 3000 owner. A heat sink and fan (one unit) is provided with the 4040 though there is no mention of it in the documentation. You must peel off the sticker and stick it on top of the 68040. Placing the Warp Engine in the CPU slot of the 4000 can be tricky. The plastic standoffs are rigid and I had a tough time getting them to snap into the holes on the Warp Engine board. The documentation states that it might be easier if you place the standoffs on the 4000's motherboard first and then put the Warp Engine in. I found, however, that it was easier the other way around. If you want to connect your internal hard drive to the Warp Engine, a cable is provided. There is no SCSI activity LED connector on the Warp Engine card, however. You must connect your computer's hard drive activity LED directly to the hard drive. There is also no way to connect external SCSI devices to the Warp Engine. The manual states that an external connector is available from MacroSystems, should you want one. Next, there is a series of jumpers that must be configured for your system. You must tell the Warp Engine whether or not to AutoBoot off of the integrated SCSI-2 controller. The behaviour of the controller must also be set (you can make it slower or faster depending on your hard drive), including whether or not to support LUNs. You must also tell the Warp Engine what kind of memory you have installed on it. You must set jumpers for the size of the biggest SIMM module, and whether or not you have any double-sided SIMMs installed. Double-sided 16MB SIMMs take a lot of power and are not recommended by MacroSystems. A disk comes with the Warp Engine that contains various utilities. There is no Installer script. Just drag the drawer labeled "Warp Software" onto your hard drive. REVIEW I can sum up this entire review with one word: AWESOME!! The 4000 Tower used for this review virtually hovers off the floor! I am indeed greatly impressed with this unit. The Warp Engine comes in an unassuming, white box with the same kind of cover as the advertisement in AmigaWorld Magazine. The box contains the Warp Engine, a heat sink & fan, plastic standoffs, a thin, spiral-bound book, and a disk. If you have any Fast RAM on the motherboard of your 4000, you can move it onto the Warp Engine for increased performance. The Warp Engine has 4 SIMM slots (which accept industry standard 72-pin SIMMs) that can hold 4, 8, 16, or 32 MB SIMMs in any configuration. Very flexible. 60ns SIMMs are recommended to achieve the best performance. For all of you who think benchmarks are important, here they are (courtesy of AIBB v6.1 - compared to stock Amiga 4000/040): EmuTest 1.88 Writepixel 1.47 Sieve 2.87 Dhrystone 1.61 Sort 1.76 EllipseTest 1.12 Matrix 2.25 IMath 1.61 MemTest 4.61 TGTest 1.15 LineTest 1.02 Savage 1.63 FMath 1.61 FMatrix 2.80 Beachball 1.71 InstTest 2.41 Flops 1.60 TranTest 2.22 FTrace 1.69 CplxTest 1.71 Sysinfo (version 3.23) reports 29.89 MIPS and 7.58 MFlops. Most startling in the above benchmarks is the memory speed of the Warp Engine. With the 60ns 16MB SIMM module, the Warp Engine's RAM speed is over 4.5 times faster than a stock 4000!! Ssssssssmmmmokin'!! With a Quantum 1800S 1.8GB SCSI-2 hard drive, SysInfo reports a read speed of over 3 MB per second. DiskSpeed 3.1 reports a slightly more conservative speed of 2.5 MB per second. While the Quantum 1800S is no Seagate Barracuda, this is still very fast. Real world performance is the only benchmark in my book, however. I am running a 16 colour Workbench that feels like a 4 colour Workbench. Icons and windows just fly onto the screen. Response from the Amiga is instantaneous. Click on the close gadget of a window, and it's gone before you can blink. Screens open faster and programs load much quicker. Boot-up time was reduced by almost 10 seconds over a stock 4000 with an IDE hard drive. I can run the Emplant Macintosh emulator in 256 colours with absolutely no slowdown. PageStream 2.2 screen updates are so much faster with the Warp Engine 4040, it's a dream to use. The included software consists of SCSI hard drive partitioning and formatting software, a modified HDToolBox icon to work with the Warp Engine, a device driver, a SCSI handler (if do not set the Warp Engine SCSI controller to autoboot), and a CLI command to map Kickstart into Fast RAM. The lack of an Installer script is disappointing, but then there's not much to install. In fact, the Warp Engine will work fine without any of its supplied software installed. The included SCSI drive partitioning software is not as good as HDToolBox, in my opinion. It does not tell you how big your drive is in megabytes, only in blocks. DOCUMENTATION The small manual is clear and concise. It contains detailed technical information on how the Warp Engine works, which is great for all you techno-nuts out there. The installation instructions are well laid out in a step-by-step fashion. The only thing missing was an explanation of the heat sink. Although I knew how to install the heat sink and fan unit, I think MacroSystems should have at least mentioned it. LIKES This board is fast! MacroSystems did not cut corners at all on this card. It has a fast SCSI-2 controller and easy memory expansion. Its performance with Emplant is most impressive. The integration of accelerator, SCSI-2 controller, and RAM expansion on one card is a definite plus. And no precious Zorro slot is taken. DISLIKES The Warp Engine is rather expensive. Certainly not in everyone's budget, at $1500 (US) it's a bit steep. Installation of the 4040 in a 4000 Tower presents a problem, as well. With the fan on the CPU and/or SIMMs installed on the board, the drive bracket can no longer be installed. You must use a hack-saw to cut out areas for the fan and SIMMs to poke through. Luckily, it's not that difficult. Lastly, the lack of a SCSI activity LED connector on the Warp Engine is a bit of a let-down. If you have more that one hard drive, you can only connect your computer's LED to one of them. On a board that it so well designed, this oversight is inexcusable. The lack of an external SCSI connector is also a mark against the Warp Engine. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS The only other product that compares to the Warp Engine is GVP's G-Force 040. I have never used the G-Force, so I don't know how its speed compares. However, the G-Force uses GVP's custom SIMM modules, which are much more expensive than the industry standard SIMMs the Warp Engine uses. And the G-Force does not come standard with a SCSI-2 controller - it's an option. BUGS None found. VENDOR SUPPORT I've had no reason to call MacroSystems, so I have no idea how well they support their products. I did call their support BBS, however, and the technicians appear to answer all questions. WARRANTY Because the unit is not mine (I am a dealer configuring this for a client), I was interested in the warranty of the Warp Engine. So I started to read the legalese on the first page. About 3/4 of the way through the disclaimer, there is a sentence that says, "If you have read all of this, your brain, herein, will be turned into mush." I heartily agree with that sentence as I can never figure out what exactly the warranty covers. As it turns out, the last page of the manual states that the Warp Engine is warranted against manufacturing defects for 2 years. CONCLUSIONS If you can afford it, buy this card. If you can't afford it, sell your grandmother. You will not regret it. @endnode @node P1-9 "Amiga Game Endings" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Amiga Game Endings...good, bad, and otherwise By: Rowan Crawford %% %% A compilation dljar1@giaeb.cc.monash.edu.au %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% My reason for playing games is specifically to find out what happens once it's completed. The satisfaction gained after finally beating a game is often lost when all you see is, "Well Done". Unfortunately, it's an all too common sight in a lot of Amiga games, but there are exceptions. Yes, there are games around which give you the type of gratification you want after completing a game, but the problem is that that there is no way of telling which games these are. Until now anyway. Here is a compilation of all the endings posted to UseNet (c.s.a.games) recently, so finally you can see which games are actually worth playing. If you know the endings to *any* other games not on this list, or can give better discriptions of what is here, please mail them to me at: dljar1@giaeb.cc.monash.edu.au . I'll include them in the next list (if I receive enough). Even just "I think I liked it" will suffice. Now to the list... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Alien Breed: You are picked up by a huge space ship (which is drawn really well), then there's there's a heap of explosions. Short, but rather nice. Another World: The absolute final animation is short, but the whole ending, including the final level, is excellent. Ends with your character flying off on a dragon. Armourgeddon: Great outro animation (not confirmed). Awesome: Great outro animation (not confirmed). Black Crypt: Good ending. Cannon Fodder: Digitised picture of the SensiSoft team, and the original music played again. Lame! Cruise For A Corpse: Excellent film-like ending sequence. Chaos Strikes Back: "You Win" text plus cheesy animation. Deluxe Galaga: You get a picture plus some text stating that you've repelled the alien invasion. Then the text goes red, and you're informed that they are attacking again. Yep, back to level one except harder. Deuteros: "You Win" text. DisposableHero: Strange. You get an animation which starts with your craft landing. There's people all around cheering. Then the pilot jumps out, runs to a sports car and drives off. Then one of the people watching gets out a missile launcher and proceeds to blow up the car. Dungeon Master: "You Win" text. EOB I: It shows a 5 minute animated outro. It shows the party walking into the city hall and dropping off the eye of the beholder in front of the council. The council are initially angry when you disturb them, but are joyful once they hear about their story. The text says "Thus Begins A legend", which then fades out. EOB II: Good ending. First Samurai: TEXT! Thats it ("You have completed.. etc"). Flood: After all his adventures, the little critter finally excapes the sewer, jumps up out of the manhole and is immediately flattened by a truck. Absolutely hilarious. Hired Guns: It's nothing impressive, but it actually has something to do with the story in the manual, for once! Killing Game Show: Great outro animation (not confirmed). Leisure Suit Larry II: MEGA LONG ending sequence. Lemmings: DMA digitised cheering and clapping after a screen of text. Lionheart: A BRILLIANT animated sequence with some superb gfx/sound. Parallax backgrounds to the max. Actually has "two" endings - you get the extended version if you track down the amulet. Lotus I: Just text, just a line, just a word! Lotus II: "Well Done" type message plus pictures of the programmers. Microcosm: Having finished Microcosm, I was ABSOLUTELY AMAZED by the end-sequence (bigger and better than the intro in some cases!!). But after the strange "endro", if you leave it running through the credits, a strange event occurs: Suddenly you are seeing a looped animation of a very roughly rendered SPACE-SCENE!! Is this a preview of "Scavenger 4"????? Millenium 2.2: Just "GAME OVER" text!!! You aren't even told that you won the game. It just says: Game:100% Score:xxx Bla:blabla Might&MagicIII: Good ending. MonkeyIsland2: I woke up, and it was all a dream (perhaps leading into Monkey Island 3). Still pretty lame though. Myth: Stone Henge in vector format spins around, ending in the center looking at the main character kneeling down in front of you. Then there's a huge explosion. Very short, but very very VERY atmospheric. OverDrive: Not worth the (limited) effort. Personal Nightmare: Disappointing ending compared to that great adventure. RainbowIslands: Completed without collecting the seven gems: the players run towards a huge pile of gems, but the gem pile falls down, and the music goes sad. Then you''re told that you haven't really finished the game. Completed with the 7 gems: the players are being tossed into the air by Rainbow Island inhabitants, under a big rainbow. Rodland: Lame ending. Shadow Of The Beast I/II/III: Text & modified title picture & no new music. Shanghai: Apparently a very shocking/startling ending. Silkworm: "You Win" text. Starglider II: Almost NOTHING happens! StarTrek 25th: You go through the firefight at the end, and you just get the logo and the theme. StarWoids: Hah haa, you'll have to pay the ShareWare fee to find out :). SuperCars I/II: Just text, just a line, just a word! Superfrog: A funny Eric Swartz anim, but it wasn't really as good as the intro anim. Super Space Invaders: Neat little animation of mothership plowing into a Burger World, alien out of hatch, goes "ooOOOOOhhhh!", and passes out. Cute. Supremacy: Nice sequences for each opponent. Syndicate: "The End" - thats it! Turrican II: A short, but good, animation showing Turrican flying out of a huge complex towards (and past) the camera. Then the complex explodes. Finally it has scrolling text credits over the picture. Very good all up. Ultima 5: Good ending (?). Ultima 6: Lame ending. Xenon II: Another joke ending. When you finally beat the last bad guy, the screen goes blank except for a dot in the center of the screen (accompanied by a high pitch whine). A few seconds later, the screen fills with interference. It's supposed to look like you turned off the computer. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the source of these endings in no particular order except random: Alan Buxey / John Reynolds / Hawkwind / Jeff Hanna / Ralph Barbagallo Omar Siddique / Geoff Miller / Dylan Vanderhoof / James Tee / Kalle Marjola MILKA (Michael) / Paul Trauth / Willem-Jan Monsuwe / Rowan Crawford / Rich Cacace / Robin Halligan / Brian Michae Szymanek / Mr JS Giannakis / Alexander Adam Atkinson / Andrew Merryweather / Peter Kittel / Johan Forsberg @endnode @node P1-10 "Some musings on the situation at hand..." @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Musings and Analysis on the Amiga By: Aric R. Caley %% %% Operating systems and a plan for the future dances@qedbbs.com %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% AmigaOS: Is it worth it? ------------------------- Many people say that AmigaOS has fallen way behind, and that it would require to much time and work to get it up to speed with other "modern" OS's. I think they're wrong and here's why. Commodore computers have historicly done well as home computers. They are inexpensive and powerful. Therefore, the OS can lack some of the high end features -- in exchange for being a small, efficient OS that runs well on a home computer. Other competing OS's have their share of faults as well. The "competition" ----------------- Well lets look at Ms-Windows, shall we? It still does not have pre-emptive multitasking, though version 4.0 is supposed to have it (but it's not out yet). It does not have memory protection. It still uses that rediculous MS-DOS format for their drives, even though it lets you use names greater than 8 characters it must cram them into the old format. Quite a hack. It is slow and memory hungry. How about the Mac's system 7.whatever? It also still does not have pre-emptive multitasking, and who knows when it will get it. A massive rewrite will be required to add it. It also does not have MP. It's also slow and memory hungry. Of course I'm being very brief here, but I'm just illustrating that they lack some important features too. How about AmigaOS itself? We have pre-emptive multitasking. We also don't have MP. While it would be nice to have, it would be very hard to add. Probably as hard as it will be to add pre-emptive multitasking to System 7. We're very small and very fast. We don't have virtual memory standard, but can add it. We don't have RTG or DIG standard, but can add it. OK so we have some problems. But I don't think they are insurmountable. AmigaOS's market ---------------- Consider the market for the Amiga. It consists of: Home computer users. Game players. Specialty applications: Kiosks, "set top" devices, and other applications requireing an inexpensive multimedia delivery platform. Developers for all of the above. Video and multimedia. AmigaOS as it is right now is plenty sufficient for most of the above applications. It's perfect in fact, because it is small and efficient. I hear Scala is trying to port their wares to the PC, and in order to do so they are writting an AmigaOS-like custom OS for the PC. Gee, what was that about their OS's being better than ours? Not for everything, it seems. For the rest, there are many things that can and should be added to AmigaOS. So here goes. What to do with AmigaOS ----------------------- Several virtual memory programs have already been developed. Simply pick the best one, and integrate it into AmigaOS. VM problem solved. Look into the many RTG systems in use by graphics cards. If these small companies can do it, the new Commodore should have no problem doing it as a standard part of AmigaOS. Possibly parts of a current system could be adopted. Make the "post.library" a standard system library. Make a Postscript font engine. Make a Postscript printer driver than can print Postscript to ANY printer (pass through for those that know PS). Get all the datatypes drivers that have been written. Clean them up and include them. Write an MPEG datatype that can use the MPEG hardware (CD32, Zorro card) or software. How about some datatypes for all the music formats? Some more text Datatypes would be awesome (RTF, Wordperfect, etc). And a Postscript Datatype. And get developers to support them. Implement something like, or get the rights to, Hotlinks. How about a Hotlinks Datatype? Would this not give us the equivalent to DDE and OLE in Windows? Create and publish more standards. We could use some more standarization of ARexx commands. For instance, there could be a standard basic command set for a wordprocessor, or a terminal program, etc. We need a good standard for animation with sound/music. People need to support DR2D (or we need to create a better standard if necessary), and a formatted text standard, through the clipboard. We need more robustness in the GUI. We need a standard for font sensitive, inteligent GUI's. Something both FAST and small and easy to use (which effectively eliminates every third party solution I have seen). How about getting in on the ANSI standards commitee that is hamering out a standard for REXX? After all, REXX on the Amiga is probably the most popular (or at least 2'nd behind OS/2) version in wide use. Get William Hawes to do a new release of ARexx. Put in those proposed object-oriented extensions I read about in the REXX magazine (yup, there's a REXX mag, it seems to only recognize the OS/2 REXX though). Rewrite workbench, please. Envoy should be part of the OS as standard. I'm sure you can think of a dozen things to add as well. With all the talent out there, I think we could add a ton of features to AmigaOS very quickly to get us up to speed. ----- The question is, is it too late for the Amiga? Is there any life left? Can the Amiga be saved even by a company that knows what it's doing? Ever the optomist, I think it can be saved. I still think AAA is something special, even though it has been delayed significantly. So, how to do it. I'm sure everyone has their own ideas about "the plan" to save the Amiga. I do too. And here it is. Step one: Restart production of the A1200, A4000, A4000T and CD32 immediately. Deliver them in abundance to everyone. I hear there is a Canadian company that wouldn't mind buying 200,000 CD32's if Commodore could make them. Think of what that will do for the price of the CD32? (for those who don't understand mass marketing, it would reduce the price of the CD32). Ensure dealers, suppliers and end-users that the Amiga is not dead, and that they are being manufactured to meet demand. Let everyone know that this isn't the old Commodore anymore, and that the new Amiga is not going to just play around anymore. Help developers make the decision whether or not to leave the Amiga -- give them every incentive to STAY. Actively "court" new developers. Slash prices. Ship all machines with 3.1, of course. Amiga model Competitor-target CD32 - $250-$300 Sega CD (haha), Jaguar, CD-I (HA!), 3DO. A1200 - $250-$300 Low end clones? A4000/030 - $800 \ A4000/LC040 - $1000 - Clones, Mac Quadras. A4000/040 - $1200 / A4000T/040 - $1500 Quadra tower? Restart development of AAA and next generation Amiga, DSP card, etc. Begin advertising CD32 in game mags and during children's prime time TV. Advertise Amiga's as multimedia computers. Step two: (time frame: late 1994) Push the price of the CD32 as low as possible. Get CD32 displays into stores, to show off the games and the MPEG video (fight the CD-I head to head I say!) Be sure to supply good quantities for X-Mas! CD32 may not be as powerfull as the 3DO, but it's half the price and has more games. Get those A1200 and A4000 CD32 upgrade cards out! Get software developers to support 3.1 features (because of course, by now, tons of people should have the cheap 3.1 upgrade kits, right?). Write an MPEG datatype that uses the CD32 MPEG card if you have it. I want to see multimedia software running in a window on my workbench with real smooth video in it! I want to be able to cut and paste any kind of data from any application to any other! Bundle! Pick a good gfx card and bundle it with "hi-end" A4000's. Pick a good 040 accelerator (and 060 when available) and bundle it. Bundle GigaMem. Bundle Ethernet cards and Envoy. There's lots of third party stuff that is good, why not support them (just stay away from GVP!). The bundling could be handled by distributors; cooperate with them by unbundling Amiga's (sell them motherboards and other parts, separate from each other so they can put together custom systems cheaply). I'm sure CEI and Creative Computers as well as individual dealers would love this. Amiga model Competitor-target A4500/040-40 - $2000 Quadra 650, 800. (40Mhz 040, gfx card) A4500T/040-40 - $2300 Quadra 950 A4500/060 - $2500 PowerMac 7100 (66Mhz 060) More advertising: multimedia! Imagine for example the following print ad: "Multimedia does not live by CD-ROM and cute speakers alone.." Many people would have you believe that you can do Multimedia by simply adding a CD-ROM and a sound card. Well, Multimedia is much more than that. Multimedia means fast animation, great sound, video, hypertext, and interactivity. In order to do all these things, you need a system designed from the ground up for Multimedia. The Amiga is simply the best Multimedia platform. From the inexpensive CD32 unit (perfect for Kiosks and consumer use), which costs thousands less than other solutions, to the Amiga 4000, the Amiga can't be beat for the price. With the Amiga line, you can reach anybody in your target market. Not only is it a great delivery platform, it's also a great Multimedia development system. With advanced, award winning products like the Video Toaster (3D animation, video processing, and more) you can create spectacular Multimedia presentations. -- You get the idea. Hopefully, X-Mas '94 will be profitable, with very little investment. Step three: (time frame: early '95) Work closely with Amiga developers to produce products for the Amiga. Crank out as many CD32's, A1200's and A4000's as will sell (worldwide). Get CD32 into toy and department stores, and A1200+CD32 expansion bundles into the higher-profile places. Release the DSP card (Zorro III). Release a revised A4000: better memory system, supports more than 16MB RAM, SCSI-II, DSP in "DSP slot". Compact case, full size and tower versions, replace all previous A4000's. "The A4000 that should have been". "Multimedia workstation". Release revised A1200: fast RAM SIMM socket, math co socket, clock built in, Akiko (CD32 chip), 28Mhz EC030. $350-$400. Add CD-ROM for $150. Might as well do a CD32 with the same processor.. "multimedia on a shoestring", "Advanced gaming pleasure!". Amiga model Competitor-target CD32 - $200 CD32-II - $300 3DO, Jaguar-CD A1400 - $400 Low end clones? A1400CD - $550 3DO? Jaguar-CD? :) A4200C - $1000 Quadra 605/650 (33Mhz 040. DSP optional) A4200/040-33 - $1200 Quadra 660AV (DSP) A4200T/040-40 - $1500 Quadra 840AV (DSP) Step four: (time frame: mid 95) Aggressively market the Amiga: Multimedia and Games. A4000 is multimedia, CD32 is games, A1200 is the cross-over machine. Keep prices low! Get people to use Amigas. Get people to sell them. Get more developers. Aggressively develop AAA and new Amiga: Pheonix 5000. Aggressively develop AmigaOS 4.0 (see my other article about AmigaOS) Make some profit? Step five: (time frame: late 95, BUT BEFORE XMAS!) Rollout Amiga Phoenix 5000 series. Work with NewTek to simultaneously release an AAA based Video Toaster/Flyer(!!). "Toaster 5000"? * AAA chipset (see my previous article about AAA) Briefly: 1280 x 1024 max viewable display (non interlaced; at least 8 bits, maybe 16 max). Very fast blitter, can do mathematical operations (image processing?) 32/64 bit DRAM or VRAM depending on configuration. upto 16MB chip ram. Planar (1-16) or chunky (2,4,8) pixels, 24 bit modes, compressed mode. 8 channels of 16 bit audio. Now I've heard people whine that "1280 x 1024 sucks, it MUST do better!". Well, have you checked out the prices of 21" or larger colour monitors? They ain't cheap. If you can afford one of those, you can afford to get a fancy (expensive) graphics card that can do better than 1280 x 1024 if you really need it. The standard graphics aren't going to be able to cover ALL cases of what people need. The Amigas' niche is video, for better or worse, and AAA is plenty sufficient for video in the conceivable future (it shouldn't have any problem even with HDTV resolutions -- something that other graphics cards WILL have a problem with). * DSP (possible multiple units) * 40Mhz 040, 50/66Mhz 060 (with 64 bit localbus) * SCSI-II * PCI only on "low end" systems, with additional Zorro III slots on mid-high end (ZIII slots would be faster than A4000's). * No CPU slot -- CPU uses PCI slot. In theory, you could have more than one CPU card. * Aggregate system bandwidth of 400-600MB/sec (compared to around 35-48 for an AGA machine). * AmigaOS 3.5 (will probably be preliminary, a bit buggy, and not available for older Amiga's till 4.0 in '96). Software to use DSP (VCOS). Networking, Multimedia extensions (Envoy, CD32 software). Amiga model Competitor-target A5000-060 - $? PowerMac 8100 (or whatever comes next) (8MB fast, 2MB chip) Continue with aggressive multimedia marketing, with the same theme (that CD-ROM isn't all you need for multimedia!). The P5000 should be pushed as simply the ultimate multimedia computer. -- OK, so maybe this is overly optimistic. It may take a bit longer than what I outlined above. But I still think the Amiga has a chance. We're just farther behind than we should be. It still might be a bright future ahead. ----- [To preserve Mr. Caley's opinions and feelings, I have left this article largely untouched. However, it is worth reminding that no purchase of Commodore has been completed and that the architecture possibilities of future machines vary, depending on who you talk to. AAA may not be a viable future option-instead, another chipset may take its place. -Ed] Bio: Aric Caley is Amiga programer of 7 years. He is currently attending Cypress Community College in California working towards a BA in English (with a minor in Computer Science). You may EMail him at: dances@qedbbs.com. @endnode @node P1-11 "AmItalia" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% AmItalia: An assesment of the scene in Italy By: Gabriele Peterle %% %% ray@maya.dei.unipd.it %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% This is a little report about how _I_ see the Amiga's situation in Italy. I have no official sources or data, so these can be considered only my personal opinions, closes or far the reality. I am an italian boy, 23 years old and studing informatic engineering at the Padova university. I have owned an Amiga 500 since 1988. It was expanded with 68030/882 33MHz accelerating board, 1 Mb chip ram, 2 Mb 32 bit fast ram, second floppy drive and KS 2.04 . This kind of system is not always enough to run today's software (in parti- cular with an hard disk the life would be easier) but it still allows me to have a lot of fun. As it was released, I've considered to buy a 4000/040, but it was not full satisfying; the problems with the memory access, IDE, AGA only half step enhancement over ECS (still 8 bit sound and no full 24 bit graphic) and last the rumors around the AAA chipset, with its fabulous specs and performance, make me (and I mean many others) wait. Now is nearly 2 years I'm waiting! :( My opinion is that, if/when a new generation of Amiga will be released, we will see here a strong demand, expecially for the high end models (surely I will buy a 060 or RISC / AAA / SCSI 2 system). The demand of high end Amigas can be explained this way: Everybody know, Italy is a country of artists. In this particular case of computer artists; a couple of these are Antonio Di Lorenzo and Eva Cortese. Maybe they are'nt well know out of Italy (an animation by Eva Cortese called "Bye bye blue" was on Aminet or Funet a year ago, but I can't found it now) but here they have followers like Allen Hastings in USA. All the italian Amiga magazines have more than half of the pages dedicated to reviews, hints, tutorials, news about this argument. Every year in Riccione (town near Rimini, famous for its beach), during the Easter's holidays (end March-begin of April), there is an almost important international festival of computer art called Bit.Movie, which has thousands of visitors and hundreds artists (note that 90% of the works made with personal computers are developed on Amiga !!). So, what I need for computer graphic ? The italians answer: "An Amiga faster, bigger, more!" Finally a overview at the general computer world in Italy. The average italian computer user buys "MC microcomputer", a magazine with 80% PC, 10% Mac, 7% Amiga and 3% others coverage (I think that in reality the percentages are 70%, 7%, 20 % and 3% respectively). Also note that even here half of the (few) Amiga's pages are about computer graphic. The sad reality is that this magazine makes disinformation about the Amiga and consequentially the italians don't know this (awesome and better :) platform (and Commodore Italy do nothing of course ). As example, in an article of a 6 months ago issue, about the upcoming CD-ROM and films-on-CD market, was made the names of CD-i (ok,but less than 1000 sold in Italy), 3DO (ok, but less than _10_ in Italy, all imported from USA) and finally (CD32 you say? NO!!!!) **Jaguar** (what??!!?? no CD-ROM, no MPEG, less than _5_ in Italy coming from USA !!). They did not mention the CD32 which uses CD-ROM, supports MPEG and is largely available !! Now I'm hoping in the resurrection of the Amiga to shut up those people ! Until that time the soul of Amiga will survive in me (and in all us, I mean). (How a mystic phrase ! Maybe tomorrow I will create a new religion ! :) If you have questions or comments (or you want to join my new religion :), send me e-mail (or write an article for AR!). Ciao. @endnode @node P1-12 "Review: Perihelion" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Review: Perihelion by Psygnosis By: @{" Jason Compton " link P8-1} %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Perihelion rounds out the pack of games I while back from Psygnosis for review. It took me a while to get to it...mainly because the intro had me worried that the RPG would disappoint me. Why? Well, simply put, because the intro to Perihelion is the best game intro I've ever seen, save Microcosm. It's not so much the graphics (which are good for ECS: excellent use of shading) that make it so great. The sound is superb, and the text is incredibly atmospheric. Even the "Switch disk" request has a chilling pounding and banging to it. The start of the intro suggests the monitor and room condition you should have, and I strongly recommend you listen to them. You won't be sorry. Perihelion, the game, is a very complex idea. To sum up, a powerful, extremely "negative" (evil!) godlike creature is pouring entropy onto a planet. Literally, everything is breaking down in disorder...including genes. But, luckily for civilization, 6 entropy-resistant beings were created for such an eventuality. You control these six, and off to battle you go. (Don't bother wondering how one resists entropy: you just do.) The control of this RPG is very modular. The "base" screen is where you grab character information from...race, physical statistics and abilities, and the like. From there, you may go to specific inventory screens, combat screens, computer terminals, area maps or localized, 3-d maps. The system is reasonable enough...although the fact that the use of many computer functions (like reading mail and getting directories in many places) cost money is a bit irritating. Smacks of true life, though. Generally, the layout is great. Not immediately intuitive, but great. All of the screens are drawn beautifully...even if they are always rather orange, they look highly detailed. You use the area map to get where you want to be: this involves a scrolling relief map of a large section of your surroundings. Your party is represented by a ball that rolls to specific points based on which direction you tell them to go...at points of interest, you stop and are given a description. The concept is neat, and simplifies long travel for the impatient. Once you reach a point of interest like a town, you may choose to enter, in which case you go to a 3-d view, much like in the Bard's Tale series or comparable. Big mistake. This is where the game gets ugly, which is really too bad because things were going so well...the window in which your view is displayed is rather large, and as such the resolution of what you see is rather poor. And orange. Very, very orange. The variance of terrain is pitiful...I was literally becoming dizzy watching the sameness fly by me. Occasionally, you encounter a person. Then, you must use your computer terminal interface to talk with them, using a rather lousy parser and long waits for the effects to go off. On top of this, the manual is horrible. The layout is bad, with words trailing off and starting on different margins, and there are a number of details in the game simply not explained. Like, for instance, the vast majority of physical characteristics. The functional and game-related difference between a Knight and a Mercenary. The functional and game- related advantage and disadvantage to using a human-feline cross-breed. Things like this that are so vital to understanding your purpose. Considering the richness of the intro and the obvious effort put into crafting an alien world, Perihelion could have had real marketing potential. Perihelion books, a movie...it really would have worked. Unfortunately, the game doesn't play well enough when it counts to make pursuing it intensely worthwhile. If you're a patient mapper, you may very well enjoy Perihelion. But if you're easily bored by a street full of prefabricated houses or apartment buildings, you'd better steer clear. @endnode @node P1-13 "The Emulation Rambler" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% The Emulation Rambler By: @{" Jason Compton " link P8-1} %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% While the Emplant natives got some sort of appeasance by finally getting Emplant Mac 4.7, a large amount of them continue to be restless about the refusal of the PC emulation to surface. In the meantime, color shots of BIOS screens continue to be advertised in the back inside cover of Amiga World. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I spoke recently with Richard Mataka of GMR Productions, US distributor of Vortex Golden Gate boards. He had two main messages: 1. Sigma Design's WinStorm card is becoming increasingly difficult to find. He still has some, but since Sigma no longer makes it, the life is limited. (The WinStorm is the single IDE card with SCSI, VGA, and 16-bit sound+joystick port for bridgeboard-type emulators like the Golden Gate.) 2. While supplies last, he will sell double-speed internal SCSI CD-ROM drives to Amiga Report readers for US$175. Just ask for him and mention this article to get more details. (Note: Amiga Report is in no way involved with this offer. In fact, I didn't even ask, he just told me he wanted to do it.) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I also spoke with a company interested in assisting the Amiga emulation market. For customers interested in more than one item, this company will seek out ANY IBM or Mac product (hardware), locate the lowest cost available to them, and sell it to the end user at a 15% flat markup. The company wishes to remain nameless at this time, but I was asked to collect responses. If you've got an opinion, let me know. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - News about EMC (the company which bought up a bunch of Commodore 2386 emulator boards and began selling some as upgraded 486/33s a while back) has been hitting Usenet...apparently, an order upwards of $1000 has not been acted upon in quite some time. The customer tried contacting EMC by phone. He first got disconnection messages, then heard an answering machine message from David Cinege (apparently in charge of, or essentially totally, EMC) saying that he had been in a car accident and was unable to work for some time, but would be taking care of orders soon. Mr. Cinege personally told this customer the same thing by E-mail. I have mailed Cinege, but have not received a response. If the situation changes, I'll report it. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - @endnode @node P1-14 "CIS Talk" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% CIS Talk - Information on the Commodore US Auction and varied bits %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% [AR Warning: Not all of this information is confirmable as fact. Some of it is rumor, and rumors can be false. Be careful when talking about it- try to understand the context.] #: 163038 S3/Hot News and Rumors 09-Sep-94 08:37:35 Sb: #162960-#C= Toronto Sale Fm: Dale L. Larson/IAM 76702,654 To: Jim Butterfield 73624,14 (X) I just got back from my second day in West Chester for the auction. I'm exhausted. I talked to Alex Amor and Dave D. from CEI, Ed Goff (attorney and former(?) board member of Commodore), and other people who know what is going on. Some (limited) discussion of the liquidation occured, and I didn't find out anything new or suprising. I still suspect it is not going to happen within the next two weeks, and I wouldn't be suprised to see it stretched out. The furniture went for outrageous prices, but then, it does new, too. Some of the nastiest most useless cubicles sold for hundreds of dollars (for a one or two workstation setup). The nicest cubes sold for thousands of dollars per few workstations. The test equipment went for outrageous prices. Several of us (former engineers) sat together. The chip guys were laughing hilariously at some things which sold for more than they would pay for new. Some piles of Amiga stuff which would have required a semi to move, but which were probably 10% good stuff, sold for a few thousand. These piles cost more to move than to buy, or they would have been good deals. Among some of that stuff were an A3000+, several pilot-production build A4000s (with A3400 black faceplates), some A3000Ts, lots of A2000s, etc. I didn't end up buying any Amiga stuff. I suspect an easy $500,000 was raised. There were many lots which went for more than $25,000 (like test equipment) and there were 588 lots. It seems like the median was probably about $500. Dale L. Larson Intangible Assets Manufacturing (info@iam.com) "That's the best part about being crazy. You see things no one else can see." There is 1 Reply. Press for next or type CHOICES ! #: 162992 S3/Hot News and Rumors 09-Sep-94 02:34:48 Sb: #162946-CBM UK WINS! Fm: Steve Ahlstrom/SYSOP 76703,2006 To: Dale L. Larson/IAM 76702,654 (X) Dale, According to Pleasance (in an interview conducted Sept 6, to be printed in the next ICPUG newsletter), a final offer from his group was presented to the liquidators on the 6th, with a 10 working day expiration clause. Press for next or type CHOICES ! #: 163060 S3/Hot News and Rumors 09-Sep-94 11:46:47 Sb: HOTLINE UPDATE! Fm: Steve Pietrowicz/SYSOP 76701,250 To: ALL The AmigaWorld hotline message was updated again today (9/8). No official announcement has yet been made. They say that they believe UK group is the front runner. Pleasance made an unconditional bid this week to (hopefully) speed up the process. UK group believes the whole thing won't be decided until at least the 15th. IMPORTANT: New updates will be on 603-924-2195 and *not* the 800 number. AmigaWorld has received over 50,000 calls on the 800 line. They expect to have the new line operational next week, if there is new news. The switchboard will *not* be able to route your call through to this number. This is a direct dial number only. Press for next or type CHOICES ! -Andre #22 jcompton 8k From: Andre Lackmann <76711.710@compuserve.com> Subject: More info for ya'll Date: 11 Sep 94 19:37:42 EDT To: ar-ed , rn reread #: 163318 S3/Hot News and Rumors 11-Sep-94 00:59:09 Sb: #163306-D.Pleasance Baffler Fm: Dale L. Larson/IAM 76702,654 To: Mike Smith 76236,3042 (X) Lew is a pretty reasonable guy. He started off on the wrong foot, but he was willing to learn and, given the constraints of the environment, he did a pretty good job. You've got to remember, though, that the real job of a VP of engineering is more managerial than technical, and should be more a matter of vision than of specification. Entirely independent of the above, though, anyone speculating on Lew's involvement in the future of the Amiga is probably overestimating it, for reasons I can't go into. Press for next or type CHOICES ! #: 163402 S3/Hot News and Rumors 11-Sep-94 13:52:44 Sb: #163306-D.Pleasance Baffler Fm: Jim Plant, Video Toaster 72242,1623 To: Mike Smith 76236,3042 (X) Mike, According to Pleasance, Eggebrecht will not be returning. Some semi- conductor company built him his own lab in Colorado (made him an offer he couldn't refuse.) Jim Plant Press for next or type CHOICES ! #: 163414 S3/Hot News and Rumors 11-Sep-94 15:01:15 Sb: #163290-#D.Pleasance Baffler Fm: Steve Ahlstrom/SYSOP 76703,2006 To: Dale L. Larson/IAM 76702,654 (X) Pleasance has been consulting some engineers ... to Scala's consternation, some of the former engineers have been contacted by Pleasance to see if they'd be interested in working for Amiga International. Rumor mill says that CBM UK has recently placed some large orders for harddrives and monitors. -sja There is 1 Reply. Press for next or type CHOICES ! #: 163430 S3/Hot News and Rumors 11-Sep-94 17:49:30 Sb: #163414-#D.Pleasance Baffler Fm: Dale L. Larson/IAM 76702,654 To: Steve Ahlstrom/SYSOP 76703,2006 (X) Calling someone on the phone and asking "hey, is AAA worth keeping, is RISC practical, and are you interested in a job with AI?" isn't what I had in mind. Having a real plan with some kind of preliminary outline on specs (generated by engineers) was more like it... There is 1 Reply. Press for next or type CHOICES ! #: 163420 S3/Hot News and Rumors 11-Sep-94 15:46:26 Sb: FWIW Fm: Steve Ahlstrom/SYSOP 76703,2006 To: All The following is the text of a fax sent to various folks by Electronic Design (would someone like to enlighten me and tell me who Electronic Design is?). The emphasis is with the Euro market as the personalities involved with this fax are European. This fax summarizes a meeting which took place on Sept 5, 1994, one day before David Pleasance gave his interview to John and Janet Bickerstaff (the article based upon that interview was posted in the message base yesterday). --start Fax transcript-- Don't worry, be happy ... Summary of meeting with Commodore UK, David Peasance and John Smith, London 05-09-1994. First of all: still no official decision on the new owner of Commodore. However, no need to give up, since the following reasons for the lengthening process of the Commodore purchase are clear and therefore give hope. The Situation ------------- As already indicated a few weeks ago, Commodore UK has submitted a plan to the liquidator of how to finance Commodore and to run the business. This draft plan was combined with a purchasing offer valid 10 working days only. Commodore UK is the only bidder for the 'unconditional' purchase 'of the whole of Commodore', which comprises the right to manufacture, sell and market all present Commodore products and those in development. It also includes the purchase of the assets of Commodore Canada and Commodore UK. The Problem ----------- The plan submitted to the liquidator was based on the condition that all stock in the Philippines would be available immediately after the purchase of Commodore which would have meant quick availability of the Amiga again. However, due to open bills for rent and other things, the Phillipine government and other creditors have closed the whole building and watch it with guards so the stock cannot be touched. The Changes ----------- Due to this unexpected problem, the whole plan had to be reworked. The new plan was presented to the investors' lawyers on Monday, 050994 who promised to approve the plan and immediately pass it on to the liquidator in the US the same day. This new plan is again combined with an 'unconditional' bid valid for 10 working days, i.e. until 20th September. A decision will be made - definitive. Other bids like e.g. from Samsung only refer to certain parts of Commodore like chipset, etc. for their own purposes. This means that in case Commodore UK will not be the new owner of Commodore, the Amiga will not survive in it's present form and market position. According to David Pleasance's -and our- opinion, the chances of Commodore UK being the new owner are at 99.9%. As soon as a decision in Commodore UK's favor has been made production in Scotland will immediately be started, and as David's plans, from November, A4000s, A1200s and CD32s, Full-Motion-Video will be available again. Just for A1200s and CD32s there might be slight shortages before Christmas. What plans does Commodore UK have ? ----------------------------------- First of all: David Pleasance has a very good knowledge of the market, a realistic view of the position of the Amiga in the market and has both his feet tight on the ground. In the first time Commodore UK will primarily focus on maintaining and increasing the British market. However David is also well aware of the importance of the European and Australian markets. Since for the next 12 months no subsidiaries are planned in the different countries, David will appoint one or more distributors in each country, making sure that no dumping prices, price wars or grey imports will be possible. David Pleasance will concentrate on establishing a dealer network of competent, reliable and independant dealers. The name for this system is 'ACE' - Amiga Center of Excellence. In tight cooperation with hard and software manufacturers, David plans to realize advertising and marketing campaigns, to establish franchise dealers to build a tight and functioning dealer network. How about the future? --------------------- Most important: There will be a future. The R&D team in Norristown does still exist and will be increased 3-4 times after the takeover to take up again the further development of existing and future products. The contact to the developers will be intensified, as well as the cooperation with other manufacturers like Scala, Newtek, HP, Samsung etc. by giving out sublicences, for example. David wants to be close to the market basis to only produce what the market needs and wants. Developer Conferences (DevCons) are planned to take place in the UK in London and Software Developers will be on a hotline in the UK to give support to all developers. All this means that the Amiga Market will live once Commodore UK has got the final decision! --end Fax transcript-- -sja @endnode @node P1-15 "VideoStage Pro review by Douglas Nakakihara" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Oxxi Takes Center Stage with VideoStage Pro By: Douglas Nakakihara %% %% An authoring system with merit... dkakakihara@bix.com %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% NOTICE: This is the originally submitted text for an article that appeared in the September 5, 1994 issue (#127) of MICROTIMES magazine. (There are some slight edited differences between the published version and this one.) This article is freely-distributable as long as it remains unchanged and this notice and the copyright remain included. This article may not be re-published in any magazine, newsletter, or similar media, including those electronically distributed, without obtaining prior approval from the author. This provision does *not* apply to USENET or BBSs. Specific permission has been granted to Amiga Report. Copyright(C)1994 Douglas J. Nakakihara. The author can be reached thru Internet at dnakakihara@bix.com. MICROTIMES is published by BAM Media, Inc. 3470 Buskirk Ave. Pleasant Hill, CA 94523 (510)934-3700 MICROTIMES is available free at various distribution points (usually computer stores) throughout California. The Northern edition is over 300 pages, while the Southern edition is a around 200 pages. This is a multi-platform magazine, which includes Amiga coverage. About 200,000 copies are distributed each month. SUBSCRIPTIONS (13 issues): US: 3rd Class $32 (allow 3-4 weeks for delivery), 1st Class $60 (allow 1-2 weeks for delivery). MEXICO & CANADA: Surface Mail $50 (allow 4 weeks for delivery). Air Mail $70 (allow 1 week for delivery). OVERSEAS: Surface Mail $50 (Allow 6-10 weeks for delivery). Air Mail $165 (Allow 1 week for delivery). SAMPLE ISSUES: $4 ($6 for overseas) to cover postage. BACK ISSUES: $6. Although, efforts have been made to ensure the above information is correct, there is no guarantee and prices are subject to change without prior notice. /******************************************************************** Oxxi Takes Center Stage with VideoStage Pro By Douglas J. Nakakihara Oxxi has released a powerful new multimedia authoring program called VideoStage Pro. It's impressive text animation capabilities also make it an amazing video titling tool when used with a genlock. There is built-in control for ECS chipset genlocks, GVP's G-Lock, and Digital Creations' SuperGen. The Storyboard The main screen holds the "Storyboard" that displays thumbnail representations of 15 "slides." A scrollbar lets you scan through longer "shows." A small icon indicates the transition used for each slide, with timing information also shown. Timing can be set in increments of one video field (1/60 of a second for NTSC). Transitions can be selected from a user-definable tray or a requestor is available to select from the full assortment of over 60 wipes, fades, and scrolls. Each slide also has a user-definable name and two separate shows can be in memory simultaneously. The slide creation buttons are arranged vertically on the right side of the screen. You can drag one onto the Storyboard to replace an existing slide or insert it into the show, or just click and release to add it to the end. Slides can be quickly moved or copied using the mouse. The "gallery" provides a handy temporary parking place for one or more slides. One type of slide is a blank black slide and another is a color bar image for color adjustment use. A slide can also represent an ARexx script or an audio event (8SVX samples and tracker mod files are supported). The Graphic Slide The graphic slide is the one you'll use most often. Graphic slides are comprised of two parts: the background and things placed on the background. VSP comes with several background images designed to provide non-distracting backdrops for text. Alternatively, a small IFF brush pattern can be loaded and automatically tiled to fill the screen. A number of pre-made patterns are supplied and you can create your own with any paint program. ProFills by JEK is a good commercial source for more patterns. VSP can also generate customizable gradient backgrounds. These are not only beautiful, but they also require virtually no storage space, which could be important if you will be distributing the show on floppy disk. Animations (ANIM5 format only) are also loaded into graphic slides. Total control over speed, looping, and time is featured. (Note: VSP expects anims to be looping.) Color Palettes Before we get into what you can place on a background, we need to talk about color palettes. VSP divides color palettes into "fixed" and "assignable" ranges. Fixed colors are adjustable by the user for text and object coloring, including outline and shadows. Assignable colors are dynamically allocated by the program and used for backgrounds, gradients, brushes, antialiasing, etc. Generally, VSP automatically sets up half the palette as fixed, up to 32 fixed colors, but this can be set manually. The depth (which determines the number of colors), as well as the screen mode and resolution, for each slide is adjustable. There are two ways to load a graphic: as a "picture" or a "pattern." (You'll see later that the term "pattern" is somewhat of a misnomer.) When you load a graphic as a picture, the slide assumes the graphic's screenmode, resolution, and depth, and the entire palette becomes fixed. This is OK unless you are going to add titling because normally, a graphic's color palette won't contain the contrasting colors needed to make text stand out. So you'll have to do some color palette manipulations beforehand. Plus VSP won't have any assignable colors for antialiasing, etc. (There is an exception if the loaded graphic uses fewer than the maximum possible bitplanes--8 for AGA, 4 for non-AGA. In this case, one bitplane is added and you may or may not end up with assignable colors.) Well, of course, there is an easier way to maintain assignable colors. The trick is to load as a "pattern," a background picture whose number of colors is less than the number of assignable colors. For example, with a 16-color slide (eight fixed and eight assignable), you can load a four-color background. Loading an eight-color background would cause all 16 colors to become fixed. The pattern tiling feature is irrelevant if the loaded background has the same resolution (i.e., height and width) as the slide. The built-in palette editor features 24-bit RGB sliders, spread, copy, and switch functions, with the ability to load and save palette files. Palette colors can optionally be selected from a 24-bit color spectrum--even on non-AGA Amigas! (Actual displayed colors will be limited by hardware, however.) Scala backgrounds, which are 16-color HiRes files, can be easily reduced to eight-colors using ADPro or DPaint, since the images only actually use at most eight colors. These work well if you manually set the fixed color bitplanes to 2 (i.e., four colors). Incidentally, outstanding backgrounds can be made using as little as four colors! Adding Text For titling, VSP can use any Amiga bitmapped or CG font, including color fonts. Large fonts work best for presentations and several are included with the program. Adding text to a slide is as easy as typing it on a page. Text can use gradient fills and be styled with bold, italic, underline, outline, and drop and cast shadows. Each line can be automatically justified and multi-level antialiasing is available. Also, outline width, line spacing, kerning, and shadow attributes are all adjustable. An ASCII file can be imported with the ability to control fonts, etc. using special embedded commands. This is great for scrolling credits. Brushes You can also add IFF brushes to a slide. If a color used in a brush doesn't already exist in the assignable palette, VSP will attempt to load that color into an unused assignable spot. Excess colors will use the closest available color in the palette. Also, a library of 20 brushes can be set up for quick access to frequently used brushes. Warning: If a brush uses a fixed color and you change that color, VSP may select a different fixed color later on. Objects VSP also features nine different objects like hearts, stars, boxes, ellipses, and arrows that can be added to a slide. These can be rotated, re-sized, and distorted at will. Multi-level antialiasing minimizes jaggies. Attribute control is similar to text, but objects can also be embossed, and color and shadows have a transparency setting. Interactive buttons can be easily placed on a screen. A button can be a rectangle, brush, and/or text. Buttons can trigger ARexx scripts, sound, and transfer control to another slide. Text, brushes, and objects can be positioned by hand or using several automated tools. The ordering of these items can also be set, which can affect the sequence of their appearance. Actors Lines of text, brushes, and objects can be animated onto a page as "actors." You can also group things together so they are treated as a single actor. All of the common "fly in" effects are included, but VSP features some interesting "overshoot" effects, where actors move past the intended stop point and then return as if they were connected to a rubberband. This really gives actors a life of their own and you'll have to try real hard not to overuse this in your work. Another unique feature is the "piecemeal" option. This makes a text-actor fly in one letter at a time. Normally, this would make the effect take too long, so you also have the ability to overlap the animated pieces. This can be adjusted anywhere from one piece at a time to the entire actor at once. Using the piecemeal option with an overshoot effect is very cool! An alternative to piecemeal is the grid option. Actors are internally divided into a user-defined grid of rows and columns. Actors then fly in as pieces. Piecemeal and grid pieces can optionally appear to grow as they fly in! After you preview a slide with actors, a replay screen appears that lets you review the animation with total control. You can step through it frame by frame, replay it, etc. You then can return to the actor screen and adjust effects, timing, delays, etc. This is an incredible help in getting a slide to play exactly right. Titling A titling slide is essentially a graphic slide with a solid background using color 0. This is designed to hold text and objects that will be overlaid on top of video using a genlock. Titling can also scroll over the preceding slide, if both slides have the same depth. They should also use the same screen mode, although they don't have to have the same resolution. An additional constraint is that the total depth of both slides cannot exceed the maximum for your Amiga. So an AGA machine can have two four-bitplane slides and a non-AGA is limited to two two-bitplane slides. (I was unable to get this to work on my A3000, but it worked fine on my A4000. Oxxi has been alerted to the problem.) Flow Control Generally slides are executed in linear fashion; however, there are playback control icons that provide a way to direct the flow of a show. Also, there is a handy feature that lets you set the timing of slides by clicking the mouse as you play a show. This is great for syncing a show to music. Time Line A time line is also available to graphically adjust time parameters for slides and rearrange the play order. Since different types of slides may run in parallel (e.g., graphics and music), there are separate tracks for each type. For precise editing, zooming capabilities are provided. Most of the editing functions available on the Storyboard can be used here. Overhead time requirements are also shown for file loading time, object movement preparation, etc. Helpful Hand VSP includes many helpful features, like context-sensitive on-line help. The animated transitions examples are invaluable. The custom file requestor displays useful information on graphics and audio files and has the ability to preview them. VSP will also let you know when colors are being used that are too "hot" for video. To create portable presentations, the show file and all subordinate files, including fonts, can be saved in one location like on a floppy disk. How Does It Stack Up For anyone that does Amiga presentations, the first question in your mind is probably how does VSP compare to Scala MM300. Well overall I'd say Scala is a much more refined product and has a more powerful ARexx implementation, cleaner page transitions when pushing hardware limitations, the ability to play anims from disk, support for more anim formats, a more straight-forward interface, more built-in control of external devices, and text wipe-off effects--to name just a few advantages. Of course, a lot of VSP's features, described above, don't exist in Scala either. However, Scala is hampered by a joystick-port dongle, which even the player utility program requires. If you're developing a presentation on one machine to be played on another, the dongle can quickly become a real pain. VSP on the other hand, has no copy protection and the player program is freely distributable. VSP is also less than half the price of Scala. What's Missing There are a few things I'd like to see in VSP, like automatic text wrapping, actor wipe-offs, and animbrush support. Another shortcoming is you can't automatically backup through a show using the mouse, without creating specific hot buttons. This is a vital feature for live presentations. I'd also like to see text, brushes, and objects treated as one thing. I want to be able to add an outline and shadow to a brush, like can be done with text; I'd like the ability to make text shadows partially transparent, like objects can have; etc. etc. I'm sure things like this will be addressed in future releases. Kudos to programmer Gary Bonham on a superb initial release. Oxxi has a real winner on its hands. The power-to-price ratio is extraordinary. A hard disk, 1MB Chip and 2MB of Fast RAM, and AmigaDOS 2.0 or greater is required. Look for an upcoming version called VSP+, which will include remote updating and scheduling capabilities (ala Scala InfoChannel, $2,500), encapsulated Postscript support, and more. VideoStage Pro $179.95 VideoStage Pro Plus $499.95 Oxxi, Inc. P.O. Box 90309 Long Beach, CA 90809 (310)427-1227 @endnode @node P1-16 "Review: CD32 S-Port" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Review: CD32 S-Port By: David Steidley %% %% STEIDLEY@cmsuvmb.cmsu.edu %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% PRODUCT NAME CD32 S-Port BRIEF DESCRIPTION Connects the CD32 to a 25 pin serial port via the keyboard port. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Marpet Developments Address: No. 57 & 58, Top Floor Glasshouses Mill Nr.Pateley Bridge Harrogate North Yorkshire HG3 5QH England Telephone: +44(0)423-712600 +44(0)423-712601 (fax) LIST PRICE I paid #24.68 wich comes out to be about $38 US. I guess it depends on the exchange rate. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE Probably should have a CD32 on one end. On the other end of the cable, you need the standard 25 pin RS-232 port. Technicaly, that means you could hook it up to an clone I guess, but you would need software for it. SOFTWARE It comes with every thing you need to get the two computers talking to each other. COPY PROTECTION The software that is supplied is public domain. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING A1200 MBX 1200 4 Megs 882 Math-Co IDE Hard Drive INSTALLATION Installing the S-Port is very simple. It only requires you to connect the cable into the keyboard port on the CD32 (there is a pass through) on one end, and plug the other end into the serial port. REVIEW What I wanted, was a way of using all of those Aminet, clip art, etc... types of CD-ROMs. I didn't need to add memory, another drive, math co-processors, or anything like that. I just wanted a way to get data off of a CD and into my hard drive. The S-Port does this. When you receive the package, you get three things. The first is a simple cable that hooks the two computers together. The cable has two key board connectors on one end and an RS-232 on the other. One keyboard connector plugs into the CD32 while the other acts as a pass through so that you can still connect a key board. Since I don't have a keyboard for it, I don't know how well it works. I am curious to know what happens if you type while the two machines are connected. The other two parts to the package are the CD and disk. The CD will get the CD32 booted in workbench (Kickstart 40.60/Workbench 39.29 on my machine). It also has the feature where you can insert another CD without it re-booting. This will allow you to use the Fish disks and stuff like that. The floppy disk is for the Non-CD Amiga. It has all of the software needed to get the connection made between the two as well an installer script for hard drive installation. Actually getting the two machines talking is very simple. Since I have a hard drive, I installed the program, and ran it from the there. The program they give you is S/DNet. To run it you simply click on its icon on the "computer" side. Once running, you select START DNET from the menu. Then, you must run SNET-START on the CD. At this point I should mention that I know of no way to do this WITHOUT a mouse connected to the CD32. Since I have several mice, it was no problem for me. Anyway... Both computers whirled and clicked for a second and then indicated that they were both talking to each other (Actualy, it didn't happen that easy. I had a problem with my preference setting not being set to 19.2K baud. Once fixed, it worked well). You can use any number of ways of getting data across. But there is one large hassle that I will explain later. I also tried running programs from my A1200 that existed on the CD. Although it took a little while to transfer over, it did work. DOCUMENTATION There is not much to the paper documentation. It is about the size of a large greeting card. However, I don't know that it needs to have more in it. They explain what each of the three parts are, and how to get started. Also, on the disks are all the documentation for the S/DNET programs. However, this is only supplied by Marpet, it was written by The Software Distillery. LIKES It is inexpensive, and allows me to transfer/run files off of CD-ROM. Because it is nothing extreamly complicated, I believe that it will be very reliable. I should also mention that the cable is very well made and looks sturdy. DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS I guess I wish that it could transfer files faster. If they could come up with a cable that connected to the expansion port on the CD32 and the Amiga's parallel port, I would buy it. Of course, I would want the price to be about the same. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS The only other product that I have heard of is the Communicator II. I have not seen it work, but it sounds very interesting. It's only down fall was that I was paying big bucks on long distance calls to England, and bought the first product that the guy new of. Unfortunately, he hadn't heard of the Communicator. BUGS For some reason, when I run SNET off of the hard drive, intuition will not keep track of where it is in the path. For example... I type into a shell: SNET:CDPD My prompt comes back with the appropriat: SNET:CDPD> Now, if I ask for a directory (using "dir", "list", "NewList") it tells me that it can't find any information on . Note the spaces before the period. For some reason, it is not getting the proper information. But, if I type: dir SNET:CDPD Then I get the appropriat response. The same holds true for commands such as "copy", but not exicutables. For example, if I want to copy a file from the CD to the A1200, I must give the complete path name, regardless of what my current directory is. But, if I want to execute that file (assuming it can be), then all I have to do is type in it's name, and it works. This has me puzzled. I have tried playing some of the mods that are supplied on the CD using my own program (not the one on the CD), and use MFR to sellect the files. This seems to work just fine. All of that said, I should point out that this is not a problem with the cable made by Marpet. It is a problem with S/DNET: So, if you get another CD with a better program that uses the serial port, it should work. Also, I should mention that when I boot with Marpet's disk, the problem goes away. This suggests to me that maybe there is a compatability problem with versions of my operating system. I don't know, but it does NOT keep me from using the set up. VENDOR SUPPORT Because they are across the pond, I have not attempted to ask them about the "bug". They do provide a product registration card and a full address, phone number, and fax number. WARRANTY There is a two year warranty. CONCLUSIONS This is what I wanted. I can get all of the PD files, demos, etc... and it didn't cost an arm and a leg. I just wish that I could have bought it in the US. Not that I had any problems with the mailorder company that sold it to me. In fact, they were extremely helpful. But, I had to spend major bucks on shipping and phone calls. But hey... I am still glad I got it. COPYRIGHT NOTICE This may be freely distributed in its original form. @endnode @node P1-17 "AR Contest!" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% AR Contest! %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% - THE PRIZE FOR NEXT MONTH - CONTEST BEGINS: 9-13-94 CONTEST ENDS: 10-13-94 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/Toaster Reference Manual v2.221, 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). Another possible prize is SubVersion, a strategy submarine hunt game by Point of View Computing. Both a Mac and IBM version is included along with the Amiga version. FOCUS GbR has made available graphicRECALL, its interactive multimedia database. Designed for catagorizing and accessing large databases of images, texture maps, anims, and audio. Walnut Creek has also dontated 5 copies of the AMINET CD-ROM, which contains approximately 4000 files from the AMINET FTP sites. 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. More prizes will be announced as they become available. All monthly contests end on the dates listed above. Any entries beyond this date will be entered into the next contest. In the event that you were announced as a winner and did not receive your prize, please contact me by email. - 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 PUZZLE - Two cars are racing on a race track. Each car is traveling in an opposite direction (they aren't too bright). The cars eventually collide with each other. One suffers damage to the windshield as it gets hit. The other driver flies out the side openning on his car because the netting was damaged. The first car, a Formula 1 racer, has its windshield replaced. The second car has its netting replaced. What kind of car is the second car, and why? - 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 last month's winner send in a letter that arrived the day before his winning number was drawn! In your letter or email, please provide the following: 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 evnt 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. The company that publishes Art Department skipped the key information. - 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 1:5 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! SubVersion is donated by Point of View, and graphicRECALL is published by FOCUS GbR. dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu @endnode @node P1-18 "Contest answer" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% AR Contest Solution %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% THIS MONTH'S WINNERS: Tim Berry, nimbus@shell.portal.com, and Pat Larkin, of Louisville, Kentucky! Recently my email account was suspended for my yearly renewal, which is required every year at the end of August. I have had one winner who also changed mailing address, so if there are any other persons who were announced winners publically or privately please contact me with your new address (there are 2 of you!). THE PUZZLE: There are two matrices, A and B. Each matrix will have a value applied to it, and you must determine the answer. The value is specified by x, and the answers you must provide are Ax = ?, and Bx = ?. x = (151647 - 61615) [ 7 8 9 ] [ 1 2 3 ] A = [ 4 5 6 ] B = [ 4 5 6 ] [ 1 2 3 ] [ 7 8 9 ] [ 0 0 0 ] [ 0 0 0 ] What does Ax equal, and what does Bx get you? Also provide your method of obtaining the answer. I understand that there may be cultural differences for this problem... not all math is the same (you should see how my mother does long division!). So just make a good guess ::heh heh::. With a little research, you can determine the answers. You may want to look for information on matrix multiplication. As a special bonus, the first person to successfully supply the correct answer will automatically win. If you feel that you definitely have the answer, get in touch with me with what you have learned. If you do everything correctly, I will answer to let you know :). As an additional clue, the x value has a special code in it that has to do with area. THE WRONG ANSWERS: Anything that assigned A, B, or x to a numerical value is considered a wrong answer. THE WINNING ANSWER: Pat Larkin of Lousiville Kentucky was the first to answer the problem correctly in the manner described. THE BREAKDOWN: There are two matrices, A and B. Each matrix will have a value applied to it, and you must determine the answer. The value is specified by x, and the answers you must provide are Ax = ?, and Bx = ?. x = (151647 - 61615) Notice the value of x... it is not meant to be performed as an operation. In fact, the two numbers are part of a hidden code. If you take those two numbers and write them a little differently, such as: 1516 - 4761615, or 1516 - 476 - 1615, or 1 - 516 - 476 - 1615, you might figure out exactly what it was. :) The number is in fact a phone number, and mine at that! [ 7 8 9 ] [ 1 2 3 ] A = [ 4 5 6 ] B = [ 4 5 6 ] [ 1 2 3 ] [ 7 8 9 ] [ 0 0 0 ] [ 0 0 0 ] Matrix A is the layout of a calculator or the numeric keypad on a keyboard. Matrix B is the layout of a telephone keypad. What does Ax equal, and what does Bx get you? Also provide Ax gets you some numeric operation, while Bx gets you *ME*, since it was my phone number provided. your method of obtaining the answer. I understand that there may be cultural differences for this problem... not all math is the same (you should see how my mother does long division!). So Actually I wanted to say that not all phone service is the same, and that is the cultural difference I really meant. just make a good guess ::heh heh::. With a little research, you can determine the answers. You may want to look for information on matrix multiplication. As a special bonus, the first person to successfully supply the correct answer will automatically win. If you feel that you After the last issue that the puzzle was posted in, I received a phone call from a member of CompuServe with the correct answer. definitely have the answer, get in touch with me with what you have learned. If you do everything correctly, I will answer to let you know :). When he called, he got in touch with me, and I answered the phone. :) As an additional clue, the x value has a special code in it that has to do with area. The x value contained my area code. If you read my PhonePak review, you would have seen this paragraph: The number of extensions is almost limitless. Each one has its own extension number and parent mail box. You could also design extension based upon employee names. I like to use my area code (516) as an extension because it helps people remember it when they call. Also, Here I gave the number 516 so that people would see my area code, although my phone number is also listed elsewhere in Amiga Report. I could program it to use the initials of our employees or their first names. For example, using the initials of Bob xanth, a person would hit 29 on the phone keypad. Most words are hard to spell out using numbers, but it can be done. I have too many 0's in my office phone number, so I can't make up a sensible word. My grandmother though has a good one; her number (different area code though) spells out NAB-FOOD, which is what I usually do when I visit her. :) But of course she doesn't have a clue on how computers and codes work (apparantly like most of our contest readers... heh). :) And the last line was a hint mentioning our monthly contest, which was discussing at this particular time about using the PhonePak's dial extensions, and tricks using phone keypads. :) In my review of graphicRECALL, I made the following statements: Maybe I can convince him to donate a copy for the Amiga Report contest, and give one of our readers a chance to win another unique package, but I won't know for sure until I pick up the phone and call him. I'll clue you in on what happens, in one way or another. :) And there is the clue, picking up the phone and calling. From my review of the EGS Spectrum board, I allude to the calculator keypad: EGS also includes some tools, such as a nice screenblanker and a calculator program that draws algebraic functions in 3D. I just had to mention it for those of you who are into sine waves, matrices, etc. Eh? :) 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 the posted deadline. Any entries beyond this date will be entered into the next contest, if any. THE APOLOGY: Sorry that they were so hard, and that a few issues of AmigaReport did not make it out due to computer and network failures (phone company)! But the phone company will be able to make up for it in the current contest. :) As Edward Cayce might say, that is all for the present... dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu @endnode @node P5-1 "DoAllData 1.01" @toc "menu" TITLE: DoAllData VERSION: 1.01 AUTHOR: Sven Dickert (s_dickert@ira.uka.de) DESCRIPTION: DoAllData (short DAD) will give you comfortable handling with all sort of data. It establishes an AppIcon on the Workbench. Any icon that you will put in (drag-and-drop) will force the start of the viewing-, playing-, unpackingprogram or any other application that can process the icon's data type. With version 1.01 you can define a logfile that you may use as standalone-skript. DAD runs executables without suffixes. FUTURE: none, if noone pays the sharewarefee. * comfortable way to set the icon's position on WB * DAD will work with magicnumbers instead of suffixes, so DAD will cover more datatypes. * launching skriptfiles * own editor for the tooltypes, so DAD will run with 2.04 in a better way SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS: * at least Kick & WB 2.04, it works best with 3.0 up cause there it runs with locale and WBInfo(). HOST NAME: Software has been uploaded to the Aminet Site: ftp.uni-kl.de pub/aminet/ and will be readily available on other Aminet sites. You may also find it at: http://rzstud1.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/~un0u (every time the latest version) DIRECTORY: pub/aminet/util/wb FILE NAME: dad_pub.lha RELEASE DATE Aug 23, 1994. PRICE: US$ 15.00 or DM 20.- DISTRIBUTABILITY: DoAllData is copyright 1994 Sven Dickert. DoAllData is commercial and may not be distributed freely. This demo archive, however, is free to distribute. OTHER: full version available from: Sven Dickert Lindenstr. 31 74928 Hüffenhardt-Kä Germany @endnode @node P5-2 "Connect Your Amiga!" @toc "menu" INTANGIBLE ASSETS MANUFACTURING ANNOUNCES "Connect Your Amiga! A Guide to the Internet, LANs, BBSs and Online Services" ISBN 1-885876-02-5 The long-awaited book by Dale L. Larson (published by IAM) is finished. Special discounts are available for early orders. "Connect Your Amiga!" is 256 pages packed with information for networking and for going online. From background information for the novice to networking hints and tips for advanced users, this book has something for every Amiga owner. Some of the topics covered include: ABOUT THE INTERNET: What it is, what's so great about it, how it works, how to access it, how to join it, how to use it. ABOUT TELECOMMUNICATIONS: Selecting and using modems and terminal emulator software; how to find and choose computer bulletin board systems and online services; finding, downloading, decompressing and using public domain and shareware software. ABOUT NETWORKING HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE: the SANA-II standard, Ethernet, ARCNet, serial and parallel ports, selecting, configuring and using TCP/IP, SLIP, PPP, Envoy, DECNet, connecting to PCs, Macs and Unix, and more. The author is an expert on the Amiga and on computer networking. Mr. Larson was a Software Engineer in Commodore's Amiga Networking Group. He worked on AS225, is one of the principle authors of both the SANA-II Network Device Driver Specification and the original Amiga Envoy specification documents, and has published several articles about the Amiga and about Amiga networking. AVAILABILITY The book is at the printer's and will begin shipping from IAM directly to customers in late September. It should be on dealer and bookstore shelves by November. ORDER YOUR COPY NOW AND GET SPECIAL DISCOUNTS Connect Your Amiga! is $24.95 plus shipping and handling. Shipping and handling is $5 for book rate (domestic or international), $8 for Priority Mail and $13 for Air Mail. For details on ordering and on special discounts which expire September 20, 1994, plus information on other products from IAM and special promotional pricing, email to info@iam.com. Or check out IAM from the Web -- under the Companies section of the Amiga Home Page: http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/People/mjw/Computer/Amiga/Companies/IAM.html COMPANY INFORMATION For more information: info@iam.com Intangible Assets Manufacturing 828 Ormond Avenue Drexel Hill, PA 19026-2604 USA voice: +1 610 853 4406 fax: +1 610 853 3733 @endnode @node P4-1 "Delphi" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Delphi Internet Services -- Your Connection to the World! %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Amiga Report International Online Magazine and the Amiga Report Coverdisk is available every week in the Amiga SIG on DELPHI. Amiga Report readers are invited to join DELPHI and become a part of the friendly community of Amiga enthusiasts there. SIGNING UP WITH DELPHI ====================== Using a personal computer and modem, members worldwide access DELPHI services via a local phone call JOIN -- DELPHI -------------- Via modem, dial up DELPHI at 1-800-695-4002 then... When connected, press RETURN once or twice and.... At Username: type JOINDELPHI and press RETURN, At Password: type AMIGAUSER and press RETURN. For more information, call DELPHI Member Services at 1-800-695-4005 SPECIAL FEATURES ---------------- Complete Internet connection -- Telnet, FTP, IRC, Gopher, E-Mail and more! (Internet option is $3/month extra) SIGs for all types of computers -- Amiga, IBM, Macintosh, Atari, etc. An active Amiga SIG hosting conferances, Usenet, Latest wares, and FTP Gopher coming soon Large file databases! SIGs for hobbies, video games, graphics, and more! Business and world news, stock reports, etc. Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia! DELPHI - It's getting better all the time! @endnode @node P4-2 "Portal" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Portal: A Great Place For Amiga Users %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% The Portal Information Network's Amiga Zone The AFFORDABLE alternative for online Amiga information ------------------------------------------------------- The Portal Online System is the home of acclaimed Amiga Zone, a full- service online SIG (Special Interest Group) for Amiga owners and users. You can dial into Portal to access the Amiga Zone in various ways: direct dial to our San Jose, CA area banks of high-speed modems (you pay for the phone call if it's not local), or though any SprintNet indial anywhere in the USA, (with a small hourly fee) or via the World-wide Internet "telnet" program to portal.com (no hourly fee). Even Delphi and BIX users can Telnet into Portal for a flat $19.95 a month, with *unlimited* use. Portal is NOT just another shell account. Its Online system is fully menu-driven with on-screen commands and help and you can easily customize it for your terminal program and screen size. Some of Portal/Amiga Zone's amazing features include: 2.5 GIGabytes of Amiga-specific file space - we have so much Amiga Stuff online, we've lost count! The *entire* Fred Fish collection of freely distributable software, online. ALL 1000 disks! Fast, Batch Zmodem file transfer protocol. Download up to 100 files at once, of any size, with one command. Twenty Amiga vendor areas with participants like AmigaWorld, Elastic Reality (ASDG), Soft-Logik, Apex Publishing, and others. 38 "regular" Amiga libraries with over 10,000 files. Hot new stuff arrives daily. No upload/download "ratios" EVER. Download as much as you want, as often as you want, and never feel pressued doing it. Live, interactive nightly chats with Amiga folks whose names you will recognize. Special conferences. Random chance prize contests. We've given away thousands of bucks worth of Amiga prizes - more than any other online service. Vast Message bases where you can ask questions about *anything* Amiga related and get quick replies from the experts. Amiga Internet mailing lists for Imagine, DCTV, LightWave, EGS, Picasso, OpalVision & others feed right into the Zone message bases. Read months worth of postings. No need to clutter your mailbox with them. FREE unlimited Internet Email with 5 meg of free storage. A FREE UNIX Shell account with another 5 meg of free storage. Portal has the Usenet. Thousands of "newsgroups" in which you can read and post articles about virtually any subject you can possibly imagine. Other Portal SIGs (Special Interest Groups) online for Mac, IBM, Sun, UNIX, Science Fiction, Disney, and dozens more. ALL Portal SIGs are accessible to ALL Portal customers with NO surcharges ever. You never worry "Ooops.. Am I paying for this area?" again! The entire UPI/Clarinet/Newsbytes news hierarchy ($4/month extra) An entire general interest newspaper and computer news magazine. Portal was THE FIRST online service to offer a full package of Internet features: IRC, FTP, TELNET, MUDS, LIBS. And you get FREE unlimited usage of all of them. Our exclusive PortalX by Steve Tibbett, the graphical "front end" for Portal which will let you automatically click'n'download your waiting email, messages, Usenet groups and binary files! Reply to mail and messages offline using your favorite editor and your replies are sent automatically the next time you log into Portal. (PortalX requires Workbench 2.04 or higher) Portal does NOT stick it to high speed modem users. Whether you log in at 1200 or 2400 or 9600 or 14.4K you pay the same low price. To join Portal or for more information call: 1-800-433-6444 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time or 1-408-973-9111. 1-408-725-0561 (modem 3/12/2400) 24 hours every day 1-408-725-0560 (modem 96/14400) 24 hours every day or enter "C PORTAL" from any Sprintnet dial-in in the USA, or telnet to "portal.com" from anywhere. Call and join today. Tell the friendly Portal Customer Service representative, "The Amiga Zone and Amiga Report sent me!" [Editor's Note: Be sure to tell them that you are an Amiga user, so they can notify the AmigaZone sysops to send their Welcome Letter and other information!] The Portal Information Network accepts MasterCard, Visa, or you can pre-pay any amount by personal check or money order. The Portal Online System is a trademark of The Portal Information Network. SLIP, UUCP and custom domain accounts are also available. @endnode @node P3 "Dealer Directory" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Dealer Directory %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Almathera Systems Ltd Southerton House Boundary Business Court 92-94 Church Road Mitcham, Surrey CR4 3TD England VOICE: (UK) 081 687 0040 FAX: (UK) 081 687 0490 Internet: (Sales) almathera@cix.compulink.co.uk (Technical) jralph@cix.compulink.co.uk Amigability Computers P.O. Box 572 Plantsville, CT 06479 VOICE: 203-276-8175 Internet: amiga@phantm.UUCP BIX: jbasile (Send E-mail to subscribe to our mailing list) AMItech Systems GmbH Alsenberger Strasse 4 D-95028 Hof/Saale Germany - Europe VOICE:(0049) 9281/142812 FAX: (0049) 9281/142712 Internet: bsd@blacky.netz.sub.de Apogee Technologies 1851 University Parkway Sarasota, FL 34243 VOICE: 813-355-6121 Portal: Apogee Internet: Apogee@cup.portal.com Armadillo Brothers 753 East 3300 South Salt Lake City, Utah VOICE: 801-484-2791 Internet: B.GRAY@genie.geis.com Atlantis Kobetek Inc. 1496 Lower Water St. Halifax, NS, Canada, B3J 1R9 Phone: (902)-422-6556 Fax: (902)-423-9339 BBS: (902)-492-1544 Internet: aperusse@fox.nstn.ns.ca Brian Fowler Computers Ltd 11 North St Exeter Devon EX4 3QS United Kingdom Voice: (0392) 499 755 Fax: (0392) 423 480 Internet: brian_fowler@cix.compulink.co.uk CLICK! Amiga Specialists N.V. Boomsesteenweg 468 B-2610 Wilrijk - Antwerpen Belgium - Europe VOICE: 03 / 828.18.15 FAX: 03 / 828.67.36 USENET: vanhoutv@click.augfl.be FIDO: 2:292/603.9 AmigaNet: 39:120/102.9 Comspec Communications Inc Serving your computing needs since 1976 74 Wingold Ave Toronto, Ontario Canada M6B 1P5 Computer Centre: (416) 785-8348 Service, Corporate & Educational Sales: (416) 785-3553 Fax: 416-785-3668 Internet: bryanf@comcorp.comspec.com bryanf@accesspt.north.net Computers International, Inc. 5415 Hixson Pike Chattanooga, TN 37343 VOICE: 615-843-0630 DataKompaniet ANS Pb 3187 Munkvoll N-7002 Trondheim Norway - Europe VOICE/FAX: 72 555 149 Internet: torrunes@idt.unit.no Digital Arts 122 West 6th Street Bloomington, IN 47404 VOICE: (812)330-0124 FAX: (812)330-0126 BIX: msears Finetastic Computers 721 Washington Street Norwood, MA 02062 VOICE: 617-762-4166 BBS: 617-769-3172 Fido: 1:101/322 Portal: FinetasticComputers Internet: FinetasticComputers@cup.portal.com HT Electronics 275 North Mathilda Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94086 VOICE: 408-737-0900 FAX: 408-245-3109 Portal: HT Electronics Internet: HT Electronics@cup.portal.com Industrial Video, Inc. 1601 North Ridge Rd. Lorain, OH 44055 VOICE: 800-362-6150 216-233-4000 Internet: af741@cleveland.freenet.edu Contact: John Gray MicroSearch 9000 US 59 South, Suite 330 Houston, Texas VOICE: 713-988-2818 FAX: 713-995-4994 Mr. Hardware Computers P.O. Box 148 59 Storey Ave. Central Islip, NY 11722 VOICE: 516-234-8110 FAX: 516-234-8110 A.M.U.G. BBS: 516-234-6046 MusicMart: Media Sound & Vision 71 Wellington Road London, Ontario, Canada VOICE: 519-434-4162 FAX: 519-663-8074 BBS: 519-645-2144 FIDO: 1:2401/200 AmigaNet: 40:550/1 MaxNet: 90:204/1 InterNet: koops@gaul.csd.uwo.ca PSI Animations 17924 SW Pilkington Road Lake Oswego, OR 97035 VOICE: 503-624-8185 Internet: PSIANIM@agora.rain.com Software Plus Chicago 3100 W Peterson Avenue Chicago, Illinois VOICE: 312-338-6100 Wonder Computers Inc. 1315 Richmond Rd. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2B 8J7 Voice: 613-596-2542 Fax: 613-596-9349 BBS: 613-829-0909 CYNOSTIC Office O1, Little Heath Industrial Estate, Old Church Road, Coventry. CV6 7NB UNITED KINGDOM Tel: +44 (0)203 681687 Fax: +44 (0)203 638508 David Cassidy email: bsupa@csv.warwick.ac.uk DataService Oy P.O. Box 50 Kuurinniityntie 30 02771 ESPOO Findland, Europe Voice: +358 (9) 400 438 301 Fax: +358 (9) 0505 0037 Grey Matter Ltd. Amiga RuleZ! 1-22-3,Minami Magome HillTop House 2F suite 201 Ota-ku,Tokyo 143 Japan Tel:+81 (0)3 5709-5549 Fax:+81 (0)3 5709-1907 and of course the BEST Amiga BBS in Japan BBS:Grey Matter BBS +81 (0)3 5709-1907 (8N1 V32bis 24H ) Email: nighty@gmatter.japan-online.or.jp Amiga Video Solutions 1568 Randolph Avenue St. Paul, MN 55105 Voice: 612-698-1175 BBS: 612-698-1918 Fax: 612-224-3823 Net: wohno001@maroon.tc.umn.edu Magic Page 3043 Luther Street Winston-Salem, NC 27127 910-785-3695 voice/fax Spiff@cup.portal.com Keizer Tech 3881 River Rd N Keizer, OR 97303 USA Voice: 393-5472 Computer Link Your Amiga/PC connection. 6573 middlebelt Garden City MI 48135 USA 313-522-6005 Voice 313-522-3119 Fax clink@m-net.arbornet.org VISAGE COMPUTERS 18 Station Road Ilkeston Derbyshire DE7 8TD UNITED KINGDOM Tel/Fax: +44 (0)602 444501 Internet: floyd@demon.co.uk Suppliers of Amiga Hardware, Software and Public Domain. HIGHLAND GREY CONSULTING, INC. Customer Service Centre Head Office 4704E - 49 Ave. R.R. 1 Camrose, Alberta Ohaton, Alberta Canada Canada T4V-3K9 T0B-3P0 VOICE: (403) 679-2242 FAX: (403) 672-0303 Sales and Service; Same Phone #'s! Apple, Amiga, IBM/Clone and Macintosh Systems (Dealers: To have your name added, please send Email!) @endnode @node P4-6 "X-NET" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% X-Net Information Systems %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% --==> Public Internet Connectivity Today <==-- - LIVE Internet - Over 6,000 Newsgroups - Telnet/FTP - Worldwide E-Mail - Gopher/Archie - Internet Relay Chat (IRC) - SLIP/PPP - NCSA Mosaic A system dedicated to the Amiga, IBM and Unix user. System Admins ------------- Naperville : (708) 983-6435 V.32bis Brian Vargyas NEW Hoffman Estates : (708) 882-1101 V.32bis Brian Clark Voice / Fax : (708) 983-6064 Arthur Zards Internet : net.xnet.com @endnode @node P2-3 "In Closing" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% _ _ __ ___ _ %% %% /\\ |\\ /| || // \ /\\ %% %% / \\ | \\ /|| ||(< __ / \\ %% %% /--- \\| \/ || || \\_||/--- \\ %% %% /______________________________\\ %% %% / \\ %% %% Amiga Report International Online Magazine %% %% September 14, 1994 ~ Issue No. 2.27 %% %% Copyright 1994 SkyNet Publications %% %% All Rights Reserved %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Views, Opinions and Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of the editors and staff of Amiga Report International Online Magazine or of STR Publications. Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. Reprints must, without exception, include the name of the publication, date, issue number and the author's name. Amiga Report and/or portions therein may not be edited in any way without prior written per- mission. However, translation into a language other than English is accept- ble, provided the original meaning is not altered. Amiga Report may be dis- tributed on privately owned not-for-profit bulletin board systems (fees to cover cost of operation are acceptable), and major online services such as (but not limited to) Delphi and Portal. Distribution on public domain disks is acceptable provided proceeds are only to cover the cost of the disk (e.g. no more than $5 US). Distribution on for-profit magazine cover disks requires written permission from the editor or publisher. Amiga Report is a not-for-profit publication. Amiga Report, at the time of pub- ication, is believed reasonably accurate. Amiga Report, its staff and con- ributors are not and cannot be held responsible for the use or misuse of information contained herein or the results obtained there from. Amiga Report is not affiliated with Commodore-Amiga, Inc., Commodore Business Machines, Ltd., or any other Amiga publication in any way. All items quoted in whole or in part are done so under the Fair Use Provision of the Copy- right Laws of the United States Penal Code. Any Electronic Mail sent to the editors may be reprinted, in whole or in part, without any previous permission of the author, unless said electronic mail specifically requests not to be reprinted. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @endnode @node P1 "Columns and Features" @toc "menu" @{" compt.sys.editor.desk " link P1-1} A warning to Commodore courters... @{" Amiga News " link P1-2} News and Announcements @{" CIS Talk " link P1-14} News and rumors from a CIS conference @{" Reader Mail " link P1-3} The lines buzz hotly once more @{" AR Contest " link P1-17} Can't win if you don't play. @{" AR Contest Solution " link P1-18} Last month's puzzler... @{" A Call To Action! " link P1-4} Just what it says. @{" HyperCache Pro V2.0 " link P1-5} A method of buying some speed... @{" VideoStage Pro " link P1-15} Nakakihara gets his hands on Oxxi @{" Review: CD32 S-Port " link P1-16} A cheap networking solution for CD32s @{" Full Motion Future " link P1-6} A look at FMV and near-FMV @{" A Letter to ID... " link P1-7} Dare to ask about Amiga Doom... @{" CSAReview: Warp Engine " link P1-8} A look at the 040/40 monster. @{" Amiga Game Endings " link P1-9} Sometimes, "You Win" just sucks. @{" Musings... " link P1-10} Thoughts on the Commodore situation @{" AmItalia " link P1-11} The Amiga in Italy @{" Review: Perihelion " link P1-12} A Psygnosis RPG @{" Emulation Rambler " link P1-13} News and a deal for AR readers... @endnode @node P2 "About Amiga Report" @toc "menu" @{" For Starters " link P2-1} Where to get AMIGA REPORT @{" AR Staff " link P2-2} The Editors @{" In Closing " link P2-3} Copyright Information @endnode @node P2-2 "The Editors" Feel free to contact any of the editors! @{" Jason Compton " link P8-1} The Editor-in-chief @{" Robert Niles " link P8-2} The Senior Editor @{" Michael Wolf " link P8-3} The European Editor @{" David Tiberio " link P8-4} The Assistant 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 @{" X-NET " link P4-6} An Internet site for everyone! @endnode @node P5 "FTP and product announcements" @toc "menu" @{" DoAllData 1.01 " link P5-1} A drag-and-drop AppIcon for varied functions @{" Connect Your Amiga!" link P5-2} A tome of info from IAM |File Dir Size Description |------------------- --- ---- ----------- mangababesdemo.lha gfx/3dobj 653K+Sexy female human 3D models by Tomwoof AGATunnel.lha gfx/aga 15K+Agatunnel - hypnotic color cycling effects ar224.lha docs/mags 75K+Amiga Report - 10 Aug 94 babeanim.lha gfx/anim 429K Raytraced AGA anim of Manga Babes (by Tomw WBGames25.lha game/misc 80K+Tetris,Columns,Mines,15,Soukoban,Boulderda PicCon250.lha gfx/conv 123K+Gfx converter, ANIM and AGA support. XenostarDemo.lha game/shoot 190K+Excellent remake of arcade game ixem404lib.lha dev/gcc 372K+IXemul.library 40.4 avwm.lzh util/wb 22K+Olvwm-like virt. workb. manager (V 0.4) @endnode ----------------------------------------- @node P2-1-1 "NOVA" @toc "menu" * NOVA BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site Support BBS of The Chattanooga Amiga Users Group * Running MEBBSNet BBS * Wayne Stonecipher, Sysop AmigaNet 40:210/10.0 40:210/1.0 40:210/0.0 FidoNet 1:362/508.0 An Amiga Software Distribution Site (ADS) 615-472-9748 USR DS 16.8 24hrs - 7 days Cleveland, Tennessee All AR back issues are kept online. All new users receive access to the AR on the first call. Any AR issue may be file requested with proper name. To obtain the current issue you may FReq Proper name, AR.LHA or simply AR @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-2 "In The MeanTime" @toc "menu" *** System down temporarily -- Don't call except for FAX *** * IN THE MEANTIME BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running AXShell * Robert Niles, Sysop rniles@imtired.itm.com 509-248-5645 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Yakima, Washington ******* Notice ******* Those who call for the latest edition of Amiga Report, and who do not with to establish an account, at the first login: prompt type "bbs", at the second login: prompt type "guest". Once in type "ARMAG" (without the quotes) at any prompt. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-3 "PIONEERS BBS" @toc "menu" * PIONEERS BBS * ** A PREMIER GENEALOGY BBS ** ** WEST COAST - Amiga Virus Busters Support BBS ** ** CD32 REVIEW Support BBS ** AND NOW Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running EXCELSIOR! BBS * Michael & Marthe Arends, Sysops FidoNet: 1:343/54.0 206-775-7983 Supra 14.4k v32.bis 24hrs - 7 days EDMONDS, Washington New users can call and get ANY copy of Amiga Report. Just call using the Name "Long Distance" and the password "Longdistance"(without the quotes of course). Users using this account will have full access to ALL past and present issues of AMIGA REPORT starting with the premier issue. The latest issue of Amiga Report can be Freq'ed (FileREQusted) from here as "AR.LHA", Freq's are valid at ANY time. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-4 "CIUA BBS" @toc "menu" * CIUA BBS* Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Portugal * Running Excelsior/Trapdoor/AmigaUUCP/AmiTCP * Celso Martinho, Sysop FidoNet 2:361/9 Internet: denise.ci.ua.pt +351-34-382080/382081 (V32bis soon V34) 24hrs - 7 days. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-5 "Amiga Junction 9" @toc "menu" * AMIGA JUNCTION 9 * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- United Kingdom * Running DLG Professional * Stephen Anderson, Sysop Sysop Email: sysadmin@junct9.demon.co.uk Line 1 +44 (0)372 271000 14400 V.32bis/HST FidoNet 2:440/20 Line 2 +44 (0)372 278000 14400 V.32bis only FidoNet 2:440/21 Line 3 +44 (0)372 279000 2400 V.42bis/MNP Voice: +44 (0)956 348405 (24hrs) Direct Sysop Voice Line Internet: user_name@junct9.royle.org Special Interest Areas: - Bjork / Sugarcubes Fan Club - Research of Lucid Dreaming @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-6 "BitStream BBS" @toc "menu" * BITSTREAM BBS * The BBS of the Nelson (NZ) Amiga Users Group Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Xenolink 1.0 Z.3 * Glen Roberts, Sysop FidoNet 3:771/850 +64 3 5485321 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Nelson, New Zealand @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-7 "Realm of Twilight" @toc "menu" * REALM OF TWILIGHT BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Canada * Running Excelsior! BBS * Thorsten Schiller, Sysop Usenet: realm.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca UUCP: ...!uunet.ca!tdkcs!realm FIDO: 1:221/302 Fish: 33:33/8 24hrs - 7 days 519-748-9365 (2400 baud) 519-748-9026 (v.32bis) Ontario, Canada Hardware: Amiga 3000, 105 Meg Quantum, 213 Meg Maxtor, 5 megs RAM @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-8 "Metnet Triangle" @toc "menu" METNET TRIANGLE SYSTEM Official Amiga Report Distribution Site UK Support for Mebbsnet * Running Mebbsnet and Starnet 1.02a * Jon Witty, Sysop FIDO: 2:252/129.0 24 hrs - 7 days Line 1: 44-482-473871 16.8 DS HST Lines 2-7: 44-482-442251 2400 (6 lines) Line 8: 44-482-491744 2400 Line 9: 44-482-449028 2400 Voice helpline 44-482-491752 (anytime) Fully animated menus + normal menu sets. 500 megs HD - Usual software/messages Most doors online - Many Sigs - AMIGA AND PC SUPPORT Very active userbase and busy conference Precious days and MUD online. AMUL support site. @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-9 "Omaha Amiganet" @toc "menu" * OMAHA AMIGANET * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running DLG Professional * Andy Wasserman, Sysop 24 hrs - 7 days FidoNet: 1:285/11 AmigaNet: 40:200/10 Line 1: 402-333-5110 V.32bis Line 2: 402-691-0104 USR DS Omaha, Nebraska @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-10 "Amiga-Night-System" @toc "menu" * AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - Finland * Running DLG Professional * Janne Saarme, Sysop 24 hrs - 7 days InterNet: luumu@fenix.fipnet.fi FidoNet: 2:220/550.0 +358-0-675840 V.32bis Helsinki, Finland @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-11 "Ramses Amiga Flying" @toc "menu" * RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- France * Running DLG Professional * Eric Delord, Sysop Philippe Brand, Co-Sysop Stephane Legrand, Co-Sysop Internet: user.name@ramses.gna.org Fidonet: 2:320/104 +33-1-60037015 USR DS 16.8 +33-1-60037713 V.32bis +33-1-60037716 1200-2400 Ramses The Amiga Flying BBS is an Amiga-dedicated BBS running DLG-Pro on a Amiga 3000, 16MB RAM, 2GB Disk space, 3 lines. We keep a dayly Aminet site mirroring, NetBSD-Amiga complete mirror site from ftp.eunet.ch (main site), Amiga Report, GNU Amiga, Ramses is the SAN/ADS/Amiganet French coordinator. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-12 "Gateway BBS" @toc "menu" * THE GATEWAY BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Excelsior! BBS * Stace Cunningham, Sysop Dan Butler, CoSysop 24 hrs - 7 days InterNet: stace@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil FidoNet: 1:3604/60.0 601-374-2697 Hayes Optina 28.8 V.FC Biloxi, Mississippi @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-13 "EMERALD KEEP BBS" @toc "menu" * Emerald Keep BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribation Site * Running DLG Professional * Michael mac Nessa, Sysop 24 hrs - 7 days FidoNet: 1:2250/2 AmigaNet: 40:206/1 618-394-0065 USR 16.8k DS Fairview Heights, IL @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-14 "Amiga BBS" @toc "menu" * Amiga BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Excelsior! BBS * Alejandro Kurczyn, Sysop FidoNet 4:975/7 First Amiga BBS in Mexico (5) 887-3080 9600 V32,MNP Estado de Mexico, Mexico @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-15 "The Stygian Abyss" @toc "menu" * THE STYGIAN ABYSS BBS * 312-384-0616 14.4 USR Courier HST 312-384-6250 14.4 Supra V.32 bis (FREQ line) 312-384-0716 2400 USR Courier FIDONet-1:115/384.0 CLink-911:6200/2.0 NWNet-206:310/0.0--206:310/1.0 PhantomNet Central States Cooridinator-11:2115/0.0--11:2115/1.0 FaithNet Central States Cooridinator-700:6000/0.0--700:6000/1.0 AMINet Chicagoland HUB-559:2/5.0 Chicago, Illinois Over 4 GIGS of files I Over 3700 MODS I Over 120 On-Line Games Tons of digitized sounds I Over 15,000 GIFS Supporting: Amiga I IBM I Macintosh I C=64/128 SIR SAMMY-SysOp Enter.......If you dare!! @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-16 "Amiga Do PC BBS" @toc "menu" * AMIGA DO PC BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribuition Site - Brazil * Running Excelsior! v 1.18 * +55-192-33-2260 Weekdays: 19-07 (-3 GMT) Weekends: 24 hours Fidonet: 4:801/44 RBT: 12:1212/1 Virinet: 70:101/17 Internet: fimoraes@dcc.unicamp.br Francisco Moraes, sysop Campinas, SP Freq AREPORT for the newest issue avaiable. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-17 "Comm-Link BBS" @toc "menu" * COMM-LINK BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running Excelsior Pro * 604-945-6192 USR DS 16.8 24 hrs - 7 days Fido: 1:153/210.0 AmigaNet 40:800/9100.0 InterSports: 102:540/305.0 PussNet: 169:1000/305.0 InterNet: steve_hooper@comm.tfbbs.wimsey.com Steve Hooper, Sysop Port Coquitlam, B.C. Canada @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-18 "Phantom's Lair" @toc "menu" * PHANTOM'S LAIR * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running CNET 3.0 * FidoNet: 1:115/469.0 Phantom Net Cooridinator: 11:1115/0.0-11:1115/1.0 708-469-9510 708-469-9520 CD ROMS, Over 15511 Files Online @ 2586 meg Peter Gawron, Sysop Glendale Heights, Illinois @endnode @node P2-1-19 "Tierra-Miga BBS" @toc "menu" Tierra-Miga BBS Software: CNet Gib Gilbertson 24 hours - 7 days FidoNet: 1:202/638.0 AmigaNet: 40:406/3.0 Internet: torment.cts.com Line #1: 619.292.0754 V32.bis City: San Diego, CA. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-50 "Freeland Mainframe" @toc "menu" * FREELAND MAINFRAME * Offical Amiga Report Distribution Site * Running DLG Progessional * John Freeland, SysOp 206-438-1670 Supra 2400zi 206-438-2273 Telebit WorldBlazer(v.32bis) 206-456-6013 Supra v.32bis 24hrs - 7 days Internet - freemf.eskimo.com Olympia, Washington @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-51 "LAHO" @toc "menu" * LAHO BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Finland * Running MBBS * Lenni Uitti, SysOp Juha Mkinen, SysOp (Amiga-areas) Tero Manninen, SysOp (PC-areas) +358-64-414 1516, V.32bis/HST +358-64-414 0400, V.32bis/HST +358-64-414 6800, V.32/HST +358-64-423 1300, V.32bis Seinjoki, Finland Our host machine is a 386/33 with 20MB of memory, 1GB harddisk and a CD-ROM drive running in a Novell network. The BBS software is a Norwegian origin MBBS running in a DesqView windows. We have now (26th March 1994) over 10000 files online (mostly for the Commodore Amiga line of the personal computers.) Every user has an access to download filelist (LAHOFIL.ZIP), list of the Finnish 24-hour BBS's (BBSLIST.ZIP or BBSLIST.LHA) and every issue of the Amiga Report Magazine (AR101.LHA-AR???.LHA) even on their first call. @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-52 "Falling BBS" @toc "menu" * FALLING BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Norway * Running ABBS * Christopher Naas, Sysop +47 69 256117 28.8k 24hrs - 7 days EMail: christon@powertech.no @endnode ------------------------------------------ @node P2-1-53 "Command Line BBS" @toc "menu" * COMMAND LINE BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Canada Canada's Amiga Graphics & Animation Source * Running AmiExpress BBS * Nick Poliwko, Sysop 416-533-8321 V.32 24hrs - 7 days Toronto, Canada @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-55 "Leguans Byte Channel" @toc "menu" * LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany * Running EazyBBS V2.11 * Andreas Geist, Sysop Usenet: andreas@lbcmbx.in-berlin.de 24 hrs - 7 days Line 1: 49-30-8110060 USR DS 16.8 Line 2: 49-30-8122442 USR DS 16.8 Login as User: "amiga", Passwd: "report" @endnode ------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-56 "Stingray Database BBS" @toc "menu" * STINGRAY DATABASE * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany * Running FastCall * Bernd Mienert, Sysop EMail: sysop@sting-db.zer.sub.org.dbp.de +49 208 496807 HST-Dual 24hrs - 7 days Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany @endnode -------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-57 "T.B.P. Video Slate" @toc "menu" _________________________________ / / /_ /\ * T.B.P. VIDEO SLATE * / / //// / Official Amiga Report / / AR Coverdisk / / / CoverDisk Distribution Site / / / / / An Amiga dedicated BBS for All / / / / / * Running Skyline 1.3.2 * / / / / / Mark E Davidson, Sysop / /__________________________/ / / 24 hrs - 7 days / _______________________ / / 201-586-3623 USR 14.4 HST / / ___ / / / / Rockaway, New Jersey / / / / / / / / / / /__/ / / / / Full Skypix menus + normal and /______/_______________/______/__/ / ansi menu sets. \______\________________\______\_\/ Download on the first call. Hardware: Amiga 500 Tower custom at 14 MHz, 350 Meg maxtor, 125 Meg SCSI Maxtor, 345 Meg IDE Maxtor, 2 Double Speed CD rom, 9 meg RAM @endnode -------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-58 "Amiga Central" @toc "menu" * AMIGA CENTRAL! * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site CNet Amiga Support Site * Running CNet Amiga BBS * Carl Tashian, Sysop Internet mail: root@amicent.raider.net 615-383-9679 1200-14.4Kbps V.32bis 24 hours - 7 days Nashville, Tennessee Hardware: Amiga 3000 Tower 68030+882@25MHz, 105 meg Quantum, 225 meg Seagate, Zoom 14.4k modem @endnode -------------------------------------------- @node P2-1-21 "Continental Drift" @toc "menu" *=====================================================================* /\ C O N T I N E N T A L D R I F T B B S / \ (+61) 2 949 4256 / \______ Murray Chaffer * Andre Lackmann * Dale Cohen / / \ / / \ Amiga * IBM * Macintosh / / \ : : : :\ \ /\ \ : : :800Mb+ Online - USENET News - Internet Mail :\ \ / \ \ : : Local Mail - FIDOnet Mail - Shareware Regos : :\ \/ \ \ : :Online Games - Aminet, FISH, Euro CD-ROMs : :\ / /: : : : :\ / /: : :Amiga Report * CD-32 View * Frontier Consoles \ / / * Computer underground Digest * \ /\ / \ / \ / **Online shareware registrations** \/ \/ Files daily from Aminet * ADS/SAN *=====================================================================* @endnode @node P2-1-22 "Amiga Online Bs Heemstede" @toc "menu" Amiga Online Bs Heemstede * HeadQuarters of Online Products * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- The Netherlands * Running Xenolink 1.90 * Your SysOp is Michiel Willems 24 hours a day - 7 days a week Fidonet : 2:280/464.0 DAN Host HQ : 55:100/1.0 Amynet Host : 39:151/1.0 NLA : 14:102/203.0 BOSnet Hub : 99:999/2.0 e-mail SysOp : michiel@aobh.xs4all.nl Line 1 +31-23-282002 14400 v32bis Supra Line 2 +31-23-470739 14400 v32bis Supra Heemstede, The Netherlands, Europe, The Earth Very nice menu's 660 Megs HD online - ALOT of software ALOT of messages - VERY fast BBS program Point support - Lot's of doors online Just freq AR of AR.LHA for the latest issue available The system is running on an Amiga 2000 with a HARMS-Prof-3000 030 turboboard at 29Mhz and a copro at 50Mhz, 7MB RAM, 660 Meg HD space and soon 1 Gigabyte HD space. Every issue from Amiga Report Magazine online as far as the first issue. @endnode @node P2-1-60 "Guru Meditation" @toc "menu" * GURU MEDITATION * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Spain * Running Remote Access * Javier Frias, SysOp +34-1-383-1317 V.32bis 24 hours - 7days Spain @endnode @node P2-1-20 "Moonlight Sonata DLG" @toc "menu" M O O N L I G H T S O N A T A D L G * Amiga Report Official Distribution Site * * DAS ModPlayer Support * 2 Nodes *FREE PUBLIC* Amiga BBS MIDI-tunes, MIDI-utils, Modules, Amiga-files Messages, Door-games, MUD... Also patches for several synths! (About 100MB of ProTracker Modules!) Node #1 - +358-18-161763 - ZyXEL V32b 19200 Node #2 - +358-18-161862 - HST DS V32 14400 Fidonet: 2:221/112.0 Keyboards: Erno Tuomainen Amiga3000 25MHz - 1.3Gigs HD BBS Software: Dialog Pro BB/OS @endnode @node P2-1-61 "LINKSystem LINK-CH1" @toc "menu" LINKSystem LINK-CH1 Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - Switzerland in local newsgroup link-ch1.ml.amiga-report Mails and News from/to UseNet contact: rleemann@link-ch1.aworld.de +41 61 3215643 V32bis/Zyx16800 +41 61 3832007 ISDN X75/V110 +41 61 3832008 ISDN X75/V110 @endnode @node P2-1-62 "Doom of Darkness" @toc "menu" * Doom of Darkness * * Home of AmBoS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany Marc Doerre (Marc_Doerre), Sysop (BBS-Owner/AmBoS-Support) Bernd Petersen (TGM), Sysop (Amiga-Software-Support) Gerhard Luehning (Klaro), Co-Sysop (Aminet-Support) Kai Szymanski (Kai), Co-Sysop (AR-Support/AmBoS-Support) Usenet: user_name@doom.ping.de Line 1 +49 (0)4223 8355 19200 V.42bis/Zyx Line 2 +49 (0)4223 3256 16800 V.42bis/Zyx Line 3 +49 (0)4223 3313 16800 V.42bis/Zyx Sysop Email: marc_doerre@doom.ping.de AR-Infoservice : kai@doom.ping.de @endnode @node P2-1-63 "RedEye BBS" @toc "menu" REDEYE BBS * Running EXCELSIOR/UUCP/AFAX * "Official Amiga Report Distribution Site Germany/Europe" Sysop: Thorsten Meyer Internet: sysop@redeye.greenie.muc.de Line 1: +49-89-5460535 (V.32b, Zyxel EG +) Line 2: +49-89-5460071 (USR Courier V32b terbo) 24hrs - 7 days Munich, Germany Areas for Amiga, PCs, Lotus Notes Group, Amiga Report, Game Byte, Graphic Stuff, 3D-Exchange, 3D-tools, 3D-objects, McAffee, GUS, PAS, DOOM, WINDOWS-NT, OS/2 Online CD, Online Games, USENET, INTERNET, FIDO ECHOS, Developer @endnode @node P2-1-64 "Virtual Palace BBS" @toc "menu" * Virtual Palace BBS * * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site * * Official Amiga Report Disk Distribution Site * 916-343-7420 300-14400 Baud V.42bis AmiExpress 2.40 700 Mbytes P.O. Box 5518 Chico, California 95927 Tibor G. Balogh (Tibor), Sysop Sysop Email: tibor@ecst.csuchico.edu Leland Whitlock (Leland), Co-Sysop @endnode @node P2-1-65 "X-TReMe BBS" @toc "menu" -*+*/+ X-TReMe BBS +/*+*- Pygor & The Doctor +31-167064414 (24h) Internet: u055231@vm.uci.kun.nl _______ .__ _____ /_ .__//_/ //.___/ Bitnet: u055231 at HNYKUN11 ./ //.__ .//.___/ Internet: u055231@vm1.uci.kun.nl /_//_/ /_//____/. BBS: +31-1670-64414 (24h) . ___ .____ ______________ _____ . . . / .\/ . // _ /_. __/ . //.__ .\ . / / / / // /_. / /./ / // __ \ / . /___//___//___/./_/ /___//_/. \_/ @endnode @node P2-1-23 "The Kobayashi Alternative BBS" @toc "menu" T H E K O B A Y A S H I A L T E R N A T I V E B B S ----- ----------------- --------------------- ----- Supporting the Central Maine since 1985! 7 In-Dial lines (All 14.4 Compatable) Support for IBM/Windows, Amiga, MAC and CNet BBS Support On-Line Games (over 100) Internet Newsgroups and Usenet Mail FidoNet Echo Areas FidoNet: 1:326/404.0 (207)/784-2130 \ TKA (207)/946-5665 \ Local (207)/353-7224 / Access (207)/377-3214 / Lines @endnode @node P2-1 "Where to find Amiga Report" @toc "menu" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% Where to find Amiga Report %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Click on the button of the BBS nearest you for information on that system. FidoNet Systems --------------- FREQ the filename "AR.LHA" for the most current issue of Amiga Report! @{" OMAHA AMIGANET " link P2-1-9} ..................................Omaha, Nebraska @{" NOVA " link P2-1-1} .............................Cleveland, Tennessee @{" PIONEER'S BBS " link P2-1-3} ..............................Edmonds, Washington @{" CIUA BBS " link P2-1-4} .........................................Portugal @{" AMIGA JUNCTION 9 " link P2-1-5} ...................................United Kingdom @{" BITSTREAM BBS " link P2-1-6} ..............................Nelson, New Zealand @{" REALM OF TWILIGHT " link P2-1-7} ..................................Ontario, Canada @{" METNET TRIANGLE " link P2-1-8} ......................Kingston Upon Hull, England @{" AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM " link P2-1-10} ................................Helsinki, Finland @{" RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING " link P2-1-11} ...........................................France @{" GATEWAY BBS " link P2-1-12} ..............................Biloxi, Mississippi @{" EMERALD KEEP BBS " link P2-1-13} .........................................Illinois @{" AMIGA BBS " link P2-1-14} .........................Estado de Mexico, Mexico @{" THE STYGIAN ABYSS " link P2-1-15} ................................Chicago, Illinois @{" AMIGA DO PC BSS " link P2-1-16} .................................Campinas, Brazil @{" COMM-LINK BBS " link P2-1-17} .......................Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada @{" PHANTOM'S LAIR " link P2-1-18} .......................Glendale Heights, Illinois @{" Tierra-Miga BBS " link P2-1-19} .....................................SanDeigo, Ca @{" MOONLIGHT SONATA DLG " link P2-1-20} ..........................................Finland @{" CONTINENTAL DRIFT " link P2-1-21} ................................Sydney, Australia @{" Amiga Online Bs H'stede " link P2-1-22} ..................................The Netherlands @{"Kobayashi Alternative BBS" link P2-1-23} ............................................Maine Non-FidoNet Systems ------------------- @{" IN THE MEANTIME " link P2-1-2} ...............................Yakima, Washington @{" FREELAND MAINFRAME " link P2-1-50} ..............................Olympia, Washington @{" LAHO " link P2-1-51} ...............................Seinajoki, Finland @{" FALLING " link P2-1-52} ...........................................Norway @{" COMMAND LINE " link P2-1-53} ..................................Toronto, Canada @{" LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL " link P2-1-55} ..........................................Germany @{" STINGRAY DATABASE " link P2-1-56} ...........................Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany @{" T.B.P. VIDEO SLATE " link P2-1-57} .............................Rockaway, New Jersey @{" AMIGA CENTRAL " link P2-1-58} .............................Nashville, Tennessee @{" GURU MEDITATION " link P2-1-60} ............................................Spain @{" LINKSystem LINK-CH1 " link P2-1-61} ...............................Basel, Switzerland @{" DOOM OF DARKNESS " link P2-1-62} ..................................Bremen, Germany @{" REDEYE BBS " link P2-1-63} ..................................Munich, Germany @{" Virtual Palace BBS " link P2-1-64} ........................................Chico, Ca @{" X-TReMe BBS " link P2-1-65} ..................................Holland/Belgium @endnode