@database "ar232.guide" @Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #2.32 -- November 21, 1994" @{" Turn the Page " link "menu"} _ ____ ___ ______ _______ _ d# ####b g#00 `N##0" _agN#0P0N# d# d## jN## j##F J## _dN0" " d## .#]## _P ##L jN##F ### g#0" .#]## dE_j## # 0## jF ##F j##F j##' ______ dE_j## .0"""N## d" ##L0 ##F 0## 0## "9##F" .0"""5## .dF' ]## jF ##0 ##F ##F `##k d## .dF' j## .g#_ _j##___g#__ ]N _j##L_ _d##L_ `#Nh___g#N' .g#_ _j##__ """"" """"""""""" " """""" """""" """"""" """"" """""" ###### ###### ###### ###### ###### ######## TM ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## #### ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ### ###### ## ###### ## ### ## International Online Magazine "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!" Copyright 1994 Skynet Publications All Rights Reserved // =====================================//==================================== == November 21, 1994 \\// Issue No. 2.32 == =========================================================================== @endnode @node "menu" "Amiga Report Main Menu" @toc "menu" =========================================================================== == Main Menu == =========================================================================== @{" Editorial and Opinion " link P1} @{" News and Features " link P2} @{" Reviews " link P3} @{" Reader Mail " link P4} @{" FTP and Product Announcements " link P2-2} ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @{" About AMIGA REPORT " link P5} @{" Dealer Directory " link P6-3} Contact Information and Copyrights Amiga Dealer Addresses and Numbers @{" Where to Get AR " link P5B} @{" Commercial Products " link P6} Mailing List & Distribution Sites Online Services, Dealers, Ordering ______________________________________________ // | | // ========//====| Amiga Report International Online Magazine |======//===== == \\// | Issue No. 2.32 November 21, 1994 | \\// == ==============| "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!" |============= |______________________________________________| c.s.a.editor.desk Amiga News Dealer Directory Distribution BBS's Product Announcements Reader Mail Emulation Rambler @endnode =========================================================================== == The Amiga Report Staff == =========================================================================== @node P8-1 "Editor" @toc P5-1 =========================================================================== == EDITOR == =========================================================================== Jason Compton ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internet Address -------- ------- jcompton@cup.portal.com 1838 Chicago Ave. #419 jcompton@bbs.xnet.com Evanston, IL 60201-3806 USA Fax Phone --- ----- 708/491-4064 708/332-4599 @endnode @node P8-2 "Assistant Editor" @toc P5-1 =========================================================================== == ASSISTANT EDITOR == =========================================================================== Robert Niles ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internet Address -------- ------- rniles@pnw.net P.O. Box 8041 Yakima, WA 98908 FidoNet Fax ------- --- 1:3407/103 509/248-5645 @endnode @node P8-3 "European Editor" @toc P5-1 =========================================================================== == EUROPEAN EDITOR == =========================================================================== Michael Wolf ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internet -------- MikeWolf@bonebag.tynet.sub.org @endnode @node P8-4 "Contributing Editor" @toc P5-1 =========================================================================== == CONTIBUTING EDITOR == =========================================================================== David Tiberio ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internet -------- dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu @endnode @node P8-5 "Copy Editor" @toc P5-1 =========================================================================== == COPY EDITOR == =========================================================================== Katie Nelson ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internet -------- Kati@cup.portal.com @endnode @node P1-1 "compt.sys.editor.desk" @toc P1 =========================================================================== == compt.sys.editor.desk By: @{" Jason Compton " link P8-1} == =========================================================================== Wow. That's really all I can say when I look at Amiga Report these days. So I'll say it again. Wow. As of Amiga Report 1.04, April 9, 1993, the editor, Rob Glover, considered a 120k issue to be rather large. AR listed only two dealers and two distribution BBSes. Straight text. A press release for PageStream 3.0. Rumors of the Amiga 5000. AR 1.10. More dealers, same format...rumors of the Amiga 1400. AR 1.15. Hey, now we're getting somewhere. Robert Niles' arrival means AR goes to AmigaGuide (little-known fact: Niles, even as "technical editor", was the guy AmigaGuiding the magazine all along, which is really the hardest part...now I make Copy Editor Katie Nelson do it, as I discovered upon taking over the editorship that I'm not particularly good at it.) A non-US BBS is on the list, which is 4 BBSes long. Oh yeah, AR still carried NewsBytes. Fast forward to the present. Amiga Report has dozens of official distribution BBSes, has repeatedly been the #1 AmiNet download on weeks it is released, and our dealer directory is so big we've separated it by continents. Oh yeah, and we manage to find enough material in 2 weeks or so to put out a magazine which often breaks the 200k barrier. So we've had to cheat and kick it down to 2 weeks. For that, I do apologize...I myself remember looking forward to its arrival on Friday nights or Saturday mornings every week. Anyway, I had a point, and it's this: I'd like to thank everyone who has been a part of Amiga Report up until now-specifically the readers. There are thousands-some say tens of thousands-of you out there now. You're the only reason we're doing this, because AR is certainly not a cash cow, as our writers will attest to. And to those writers, who have so generously given up their work free of charge-thank you, and keep it up. :) Why stop now? There's no place to go but up, as long as you keep reading. We'll find things to talk about. Speaking of which: Be sure to check out the details of the CEI conference on IRC this Wednesday (the 23rd) at 10:30 PM GMT (5:30 PM EST). As for CEI, they've been up to a few things lately. They started selling off the items they bought at the C= US auction in September. On the menu are CDTVs, CDTV-IIs (CDTVs with built-in floppy), 1950 monitors, and even some C= 65s. Some 3400 motherboards (predecessor to the 4000) have been found, and they even have a 3000+ or two (probably not for sale, though.) Watch for Games Editor Sean Caszatt to join the staff in the near future. Sean, editor of Amiga Entertainment Monthly, has agreed to end AEM and join Amiga Report. We look forward to his contributions. On the buyout front: No word from C= UK lately other than this: The DevCon that they were planning for before the WOA show at Wembley will be rescheduled to February 1995, but they do want to hold a half-day session the first day of the show to get everyone together. For CEI- they had people in the Philippines last week checking the available inventory. In short, many boxes are mislabeled and a significant portion of the inventory itself is damaged: returned 1200s with "failed" test tags and the like. CEI wants to adjust its bid to reflect their disappointment, but still would like to sign their contract by Wednesday. Stick with us: we'll keep on top of it. Jason P.S. Many of you have asked for an Amiga Report Index. There are currently at least two in the works, and I'll try to get at least one of them before the end of the year. It will definitely include all AmigaGuided issues (1.14 to present). We'll include 1.01-1.13 if we're in a very good mood. *** I'll be on vacation in December. Starting December 10 and lasting until the first week in January, I will be at a different address. I will still be able to check the voice line, but faxes and mail to the currently listed information will not reach me. For that time period, use 1203 Alexander Ave. FAX: 708-741-0689 Streamwood, IL 60107 (E-Mail will still reach me) @endnode @node P4 "Reader Mail" @toc "menu" =========================================================================== == Reader Mail == =========================================================================== From: Bruce Chandley (bruce.chandley@channel1.com) Hi, Jason I just wanted to drop a note to you and your staff to let you know what a great job you and your staff are doing to keep the Amiga Users informed on the lastest product and news about the Amiga. I wish that you worked for amiga world and maybe they would have a good mag. I have used the Amiga since 1987.I was the subject of an article in the old Commodore magizine in July of 1988 about using the Amiga in Video production. I firmly beleive that the amiga is the best computer for video production and Mutimedia. My company now Provides companys with infomation systems based on the amiga, needless to say we are trying to hang on until something is resolved with the current state of confusion. Let's hope the the attorneys involved with the handling of this feel they have made enough money and can get on with it, so that people like myself can continue to use the amiga to run a company that has a lot of potential in this new age of the information highway. Once again thanks for amiga report, and the best of luck to you and your staff. Keep up the great work. ---------- From: Joe Solinsky (jcsky@cs.ucr.edu) Darkseid wrote a fairly enjoyable note basically about Microsoft doing something for the Amiga some day in the future. I feel the need to voice a dissenting opinion about that. Support of a company like Microsoft is something I personally would oppose on political grounds, as they have yet to involve themselves in my life. I think a brief hop down memory lane is in order. I remember reading that Microsoft wrote a version of Basic for the Amiga. I also remember that it was not very good. Was it A Basic? I've used (like everyone else has) their products on other platforms. They do the job, cost a fortune, and have an appetite for resources. They also crash, some more than others, but they crash in a very uninformative way. The question of "what did I do?" never gets answered. I personally think that Microsoft's employees aren't going to be given either the go-ahead or the information to put to use the OS or the chipset to its proper form. For instance: I'd be willing to bet Microsoft is the only company capable of messing up multitasking (okay, yes, there are programs like Caligari which interrupt multitasking, but it is legal as an exec call), and I'd also bet that a spreadsheet from them wouldn't take advantage of a math coprocessor (as opposed to something more integrated, like one in the CPU). If Microsoft wrote Amiga software, we'd get a lower standard by buying their stuff. Of course, there's the other thing: Bill Gates seems to have more power over the world than Clinton does over the USA. If his software became an Amiga presence, I fear it would become yet another reason not to buy an Amiga. I don't want to think that Microsoft has as much credit for the computer world as we know it, but it does. By inviting a monopoly presence, we are going to trouble the splendid diversity which I have always relished in the Amiga community. However, I am not afraid of Microsoft entering the market. If they write good software, so be it, but they are up against some real gems (take your bows Amiga programmers, you deserve it), and something tells me they will really have to change their style to enter the Amiga market and go anywhere. -Joe Solinsky UC Riverside CS Dept. ---------- From: John Gustafsson (john_gustaffson@augs.se) Future!? If there will be a future for the Amiga there is some things that are very important. Read on Alex, David and anyone who may be in charge of the future of Amiga. Here we go: 1.CD-ROM: There must be GOOD CD-ROM options for all AGA owners! A PCMCIA solution is good, BUT it must be at least 100% CD³² compatible! Another solution to the problem is a SCSI-II CD-ROM and a turbo/memory card. But then good software for CD-ROM must exist from Amiga International (or what they company will be called). CD³² games, photo-CD etc. etc., you name it, it must work! The A4000 owners who need CD-ROM with CD³² and FMV must get a chance to get it cheap. A SCSI CD-ROM and a FMV/Akiko-card should be a pretty good thing to go for. The Card must have TV and S-VHS cable output and the FMV must be able to be outputted in the TV/S-VHS output, the normal monitor and in both at the same time. 2.Turbo/memory: The 030 cards fore the A1200 is far to expensive and the 040/060 for the A4000 is very high priced! Get the prices down. Talk to Motorola, buy them out (dream on:-) ) or whatever. We need cheaper high speed CPUs. The PC market got it and the Amiga needs it to survive! Also an A4000 with 060 is needed! SCSI-II options for A1200 (with turbo/memory) should be nice. A new A4000 (called A4000B or something) with better (and faster) memory, CPU (030 50Mhz, 040 40Mhz, 060 50/66Mhz), fSCSI-II should be the right thing to do NOW. MagicWB and Magic User Interface!? Get at good look at them... 3.Prices: The Amiga is too expensive! Get good deals out. Here is one example: * A4000/040 (with a new and better 040 card running 40Mhz and high speed memory). * CD-ROM (but not FMV) * 10 megs of memory or more * Final Writer 3.0 * 4 good games (including least one on CD) * 2 months free access to InterNet (modem link) * A modem (14.4k or 28.8k) * A good monitor (C1940->) * Magic WorkBench (too cheap and to good to be left out) (* Emplant card for PC/Mac) All this for £1400. Mac owners will change platform quick! This how it should be... The cost for an A4000 shouldn't be so much higher that a PC/Mac is a better economic choice. 4.Software: Lower the prices a bit for games (including CD games). Lets say loose a £5 and put a roof at £25. To compete with music CDs, books, movies and other stuff like that, there must be good prices. Those pirates cracking games, they could be very useful as real coders! They sure as hell knows a lot about the Amiga and coding. Use them instead of break them. And all those traders, bust 'em. They do not know anything useful anyway... Look out for the 'ELITE' BBS's and those fools who copy CDs! Get good 'serious' software out! All that MicroSoft products like Excel, but with the look and feel of Final Writer and the Amiga. No windows here! Work as closely as possible with the guys from Scala, NewTek and others. Get SAS to make good C and C++ compilators again. Or if they won't. Buy SAS C for the Amiga and get those who worked on it to work for you. They are too much needed to go away. 5.Future Amigas: Don't make a Windows Amiga. I won't buy one. And I don't know ONE person who would... No matter which RISC you choose. Make it a real Amiga with an Amiga OS, Blitter, Copper, WorkBench and the whole lot. What about that Amiga Card for the PC? What the hell are you doing? The PC DOSEN'T got what it takes to run like the Amiga. Crap memory system! No copper, blitter, this means a new monitor ! And they keyboard is pure shit! And not to mention to crappy busses! And that Intel thingy! DO NOT MAKE IT! Lower prices on the A4000/040 is much better. And get a PPC/Pentium card for it. And don't forget that if it gets cheaper, who the hell will by an Amiga? And who the hell wants a PC! Get real... 6.InterNet: Get good deals for Amiga owners to get InterNet at home (modem link or direct link). Get the necessary software and make other companies aware that the Amiga or on InterNet to stay! Mac and PC are the much ahead today :-( A InterNet/Multimedia kit for the A4000 should be useful. DSP for FMV and MPEGs from InterNet. Much better sound (mainly for internet) and Akiko. Put a SCSI CD-Rom to it and mark it for the cost of a expensive soundcard and CD-ROM for the PC. You get an InterNet connection as 'extra'. 7.The users: The best users in the world. And don't you ever forget it! Listen to what they have to say. They know what the public wants and what the public can pay. They can tell you what to improve and what to avoid. Give us good support and it will pay. Belive me! 8.Commercials: Beside the usual TV and Magazine stuff you should think about getting known for real! Get as many TV stations, film/special FX makers to use the Amiga and SHOW IT! Get some Super Amigas (060 66Mhz and super graphics card (Boasted Toaster?)) to be the number one in computer rending. That is what I call getting people's eyes open! 9.Other things then pure Amigas: I want the credits for this and all what that means. OK? I think that the Amiga CD32 could be used in a different way... A few days ago I saw Pioneers LaserDisc system, Karokee and Hi-Fi. What about a product including LD, FMV and CD32 (with 28Mhz 020 and 4 MB fast for better games and PhotoCD)! Make it work with CD-movies, PhotoCD, LaserDisc, Normal CDs and Amiga CD32 games. Make it able to control the eq., TV (colour, contrast etc) and things like timers. It will be a smash hit! That's all for today. All rights reserved ©John Gustafsson //InterNet: John_Gustafsson@AUGS.se There you go... Hope there is a solution to the C=/Amiga problem soon... //John Gustafsson ---------- From: JLW (1446@tccn.com) Since you put a new issue out lately I suppose you got a lot of mail but I thought I would drop you another line to tell you that your newsletter is looking better all the time and I consider it the premium source of info in the US on AMigas (or the world for that matter). Also I would like to add an article idea: many are purchasing used AMIGAs now (myself recently - a 2000 030)and have no idea what we cand do with is or add to it. Can you use VGA like the 1200? What is possible? This would be a great on-going article about the many machines now being resold to new users. Also the 1000. In closing I would like to mention that I work for a company that makes floor scrubbers (Tennant - in Minneapolis) so be careful what you say about them. Do you want GIFs for your collection? JLW @endnode @node P1-2 "Darkseid's Opinion" @toc P1 =========================================================================== == Darkseid's Opinion == =========================================================================== [The opinions expressed herein are Darkseid's fault. Amiga Report's editorial staff takes no responsibility for him. :) -JC] If I remember correctly the Sega Megadrive/Genisis use a Motorola 68000 as their base processor along with a few 6852s and a few custom chips. The Amiga family use the 68000 series, 68060 anyone ??. Now if Ive read correctly, Commodore Uk under David Pleseance, MBO is being backed by the Chinese. This particular firm knocks out Sega compatible clones, at a greatly reduced price, without infringing any copyrights. What say the tech heads get together and build a cross platform that can run Sega carts /cds and Amiga cds/floppies..... AMEGACD64 anyone ...... Maybe Im being paranoid but then again.......... The risc based floor scrubber.... Lew Eggebrecht has announced a new development in the processor. With a new gate array design the scrubber can now run at 4.2 mips (Meter ImPecably Scrubbed) and with the new fpu can use 3d routines to clean well into the corners. Unfortunately teething problems have led to the inline cd drive being scrapped due to it jumping tracks when the scrubber is running at full capacity. The 68060 is being considered for a budget model, this how ever will only be able to run at 3.13 mips due to restrictions in the dma (direct Mopping access) and a hereditary fault in the vram adaptor (it cant get Mtv). The new risc scrubber is being tentatively called the Fs1800rs and will come with power steering, air conditioning and alloy wheels as optional extras retail price is expected to be in the region of $1250.99. ;) The 68060 and its uses for the future. A 4000/60 is an attractive prospect, its specs say it is at least 45-50% more powerful than the 040, say ... what happened to the 050?... As per usual, motorola are releasing the standard clock speeds, but I would say some naughty people will clock em up a bit with new timer chips, see most of the 1200 ram/accelerator cards, mind you they are running well within their operating tolerances but it could, no will shorten the life span of the chip. Back to my topic, most US (oxymoron methinks) will be most familiar with the Amiga through the Video Toaster, which goes to show it takes more than a fast cd drive and speakers to make a multimedia machine. Whereas Eurousers (Hmmm goood combination) will be more used to it as a games/work machine. For the games player, the 060 aint gonna make a blind bit of difference, well not for a few years yet, mind you flight sims would be simply stunning and Frontier (Excellent 'game') would be completely jaw dropping 68000-020 is impressive but that whooooarrrhhggghhhh. Work users ie home dtp/video titling again not that much of an impact, maybe if you are heavily into 3dart/rendering (and win the lottery ;) ) it would make a difference. The place where it 'will' make most waves is inside the toaster, I know you can get the screamer ($12,000.00 >8^O) or the Oven both of which are very quick. The 060 however will slot onto the mother board taking up less room and for all those who got mmu/fpu less 68lcs provides a great way of powering up your machine (030-060 whoo baby). The power the new chip gives 'could' mean that the time spent rendering could be slashed, Sgi machines are very good at that, the 060 cant quite match them but smart people do all the work during the day and naff off home at night leaving the machine to render away quite happily overnight..... So to sum up, for now the 060 is an expensive luxury, most users won need it, but if youre serious about rendering, or its your job and you dont have some sort of accelerator already the 060 could be what you need. As for me, well Im only a student, running one of the last 1.3 500s (soon to be wb2.04), and I sont have much cash, Ah well I wonder would the bank let me mortgage my liver or kidneys........... [Yes, we realize the Screamer isn't really available, but he doesn't. -JC] The macs use the 6800x0 motorola chips as their cpu. The powermacs use a risc chip as their cpu, they run most of the old software as well as the new specially written applications. The Amiga uses the motorola 6800x0 chips as well, does it not follow that the Amiga risc could 'borrow' the powermac cpu for use in 'the next generation' or perhaps to help in the design of the AmigaRisc. The AmigaRisc in my opinion (for what its worth) is a good idea but I feel that the custom chip setup which gives us the flexibity (unless youve got wb 1.3 ;) )we 'enjoy' is still appropriate so rather than designing a super quick cpu which has to do it all ala the powermac/pc or pentium (boooo hisssssss) that the ARC (amiga risc chip) should consist of a modularised unit, with Denise/Gary/Paula/Agnus et all being built into the ARC which would allow the power/speed of the cpu to be used for the processing and not being slowed down by having to generate beeps and throw memory around, compare a 286 pc to a 500, to see what I mean, the pcs chip has to do all the work and thus is sluggish (the chips are similarly aged) whereas the 500 although slower (in clock speeds) can keep up and unlike the pc has windows (1.3 heheh) and can multitask, no please wait printing garbage..... I hope you can see what Im getting at here......... @endnode @node P2-1 "Press Releases" @toc P2 =========================================================================== == Press Releases == =========================================================================== The Gateway Amiga Computer Show ---------------- Report by Geoff Miller The Gateway Amiga Computer Show was held in St. Louis, MO on October 29 to the delight of many Amiga owners throughout the Midwest. Even though it was actually just a gathering held by the St. Louis area user group, it was very well executed and had a large attendance. It was, of course, the only North American Amiga show held this year! Here's a quick run-down of the attendees: Amiga Game Zone magazine (of course), Amiga Library Services (Fred Fish's son was manning the booth, having brought as many CD-ROMs as could fit in one suitcase - he flew here!), Simple Stat Graph, Fairbrothers, Video Assistance Company & Comp-Ani Video, Data Management and Research, Pure Logic Software (they had their cool Wolfenstein 3D engine running on an accelerated A1200), Memphis Amiga Group, Oregon Research (new products included Termite, a new terminal program), Data Grafix, Noahji's (no show?), Lab Software, Cedar Computer Center, River City Technologies, Gateway Amiga Club, Innovision Technology, Scharp Products, Digital Imaging, Bytes for a Bit, CUCUG, Soft-Logik (PageStream 3.0, anyone?), Digital Castle, Fastrax, PJ Nordman FX, Whitestone Publishing (AREXX Cookbook), Flasar's Recyclables, Micro Media, A-Z Used Computers, Intangible Assets Manufacturing (Commodore software engineer Dale Larson was the keynote speaker - he was also promoting his book Connect Your Amiga!), Plato Computers, FERAL, Desktop Images, DC Productions, MicroMedia, TFSnet, and ECI Computer Exchange. (Whew!) There were classes held for AREXX, DPaint, DTP, and the Toaster. Prizes were given away on the hour (the grand prize was a Picasso board, won by the show's chairman!). There was even a consignment table for show attendees. Many people were seeking Amiga hardware of any kind (1200s, 4000s, monitors, accelerators, etc.). CD-ROMs were very prevalent at the show, which is an encouraging trend. All in all, the show ran pretty smoothly and was good fun for everyone involved. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - xxxx xxx xxx x x xxx xxx x x x xxx x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x xxx xx xxx xxxxx x x x xx x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x xxxx xxx xxx x x xxx x x xxxx x xxx The Original Amiga Disk Recovery ToolTM Now Better Than Ever! DiskSalv 3 is the first commercial version of DiskSalv. Developed by Dave Haynie and published by Intangible Assets Manufacturing, it is the fourth major revision of DiskSalv, and it offers features never before found in DiskSalv or other Amiga disk utilities. While it would be difficult to list every new feature of DiskSalv 3 in a reasonably short announcement letter, new features include: * A Hot New Look The DiskSalv 2 user interface has been completely reworked. While the best features have been retained, much has been improved. The font sensitivity is better than ever -- why should a utility tell you which font you must use? The overall look is cleaner, with graphical queues throughout that enhance operations without making undue demands on your system's memory or pretending to be a video game. Gadgets and help texts are context sensitive. Device selection throughout is drag-and-drop, though of course enhanced list selection is still available for the asking. Interactive AmigaGuide links are provided for every gadget and menu function, available at the press of the HELP key. * An Ounce of Prevention... A disk can now be checked for troubles without actually making any repairs, for extra confidence. Deleted directories, files, and data can be permanently erased for added security, program releases, etc. Traditional full or incremental backups are supported, in the same style as DiskSalv's recovery functions. * ...And a Pound of Cure You still get traditional DiskSalv functions, only better. Undeletes can often be performed in-place. A fully redesigned filter mechanism supports pattern matching on full pathnames, file notes, dates, file sizes, and/or protection bits. Pattern matches can be used to include a file in a scan, exclude it, or stop a scan on a match. Any number of filter groups may be active at the same time, and such groups may be loaded from disk. * When Time Counts A new intelligent prefetching disk cache, buffered file I/O, and improved internal design makes DiskSalv faster than ever. The scroll bar calculations have been refined for greater accuracy. * There's Nothing to Lose Device description editing and volume searching functions have been greatly enhanced. DiskSalv can freely convert between its internal device format, standard Amiga ASCII format (DOSDrivers files), and Rigid Disk Blocks (the standard autoboot format). * Going by the Book A complete, on-line AmigaGuide manual is included to aid both beginner and advanced user. Details range from the basics through a complete theory of operation. Decriptions of all DiskSalv file formats and associated C Language "include" files are also supplied. Environmental awareness is a DiskSalv tradition. Back in the DiskSalv 1 days, Dave encouraged folks to "register" the shareware by sending money to Greenpeace. After careful consideration of the environmental impact of printed manuals for frequently updated computer software, we have decided to provide only AmigaGuide documentation. We believe that you will appreciate having completely up-to-date documentation with hypertext links and will appreciate our contribution to the health of our Earth. Additionally, the entire DiskSalv package is reusable, so there won't be anything you have to throw away or recycle without getting at least one more use from it. **SPECIAL NOTE: This offer replaces the "semi-commercial manual" for DiskSalv 2 offer made in the DiskSalv V11.27 release. Everyone who ordered the DiskSalv 2 manual will get DiskSalv 3 instead. If you purchased DiskSalv 2 with the expectation of printed documentation and are unhappy with receiving DiskSalv 3 instead, we will cheerfully issue a full refund on receipt of your returned software and a note explaining your disatisfaction. * WHAT A GREAT DEAL! All this for only $40.00 plus shipping and handling. Here is where to get it... In the U.K., IAM products are distributed exclusively by: Almathera Systems Limited Southerton House Boundary Business Court 92-94 Church Road Mitcham, Surrey CR4 3TD ENGLAND (081) 687 0040 fax: (081) 687 0490 almathera@cix.compulink.co.uk In Australia, contact: Matt Christou 20 Clotilde St Mt Lawley Perth, Western Australia Australia, 6050 (09) 271 0624 matthew@monet.ece.curtin.edu.au In Germany, all other IAM products are available from Hirsch & Wolf, but the German version of DiskSalv3 is distributed by: Stefan Ossowski's Schatztruhe Gesellschaft fur Software mbH Veronikastr. 33 45131 Essen stefano@tchest.e.eunet.de Everywhere else, go to your Amiga dealer or order direct from IAM. IAM accepts Visa and Mastercard in addition to checks and money orders in U.S. dollars. PA residents add sales tax. Shipping and handling charges (for Parcel Post/Air or Priority Mail): US and Canada: $5/$8, elsewhere: $8/$15. IAM accepts orders by email, fax, mail and telephone (in that order of prefrence). info@iam.com -- for an automated response with info on IAM and its products, including an order form. Intangible Assets Manufacturing 828 Ormond Avenue Drexel Hill, PA 19026-2604 USA +1 610 853 4406 fax: +1 610 853 3733 (If you have or have had trouble reaching us by phone, please try 215 instead of 610 and please let us know about the problem. The area code split in 215 earlier this year has caused problems for a small percentage of telephone users worldwide.) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The following is information authorized for print by SoftWood, Inc. FinalCalc (FC) is a high-end spreadsheet that aims at providing the Amiga with something to compete with the top spreadsheets in the 'outside world'. Its main formula recalc engine has been written to be significantly more powerful than the current generation of spreadsheets. The engine always does a 'natural' recalc. i.e. formulas are evaluated in the order of their inter-dependancies, no matter how complex, making sure that the result of a formula is correct. The recalc engine always runs in the _background_. The user never waits for FC to recalculate. You keep on editing cells while FC chugs along in the background, catching up and updating the display as you work. This is very smooth and has to be used to be believed. Even with this, the recalc code itself is very fast anyway, recalculating only what has changed or needs to be recalculated, not the entire project. FinalCalc's user interface is designed to be both easy to use, and power-user friendly. Everything is keyboard/hotkey driven as well as mouse driven. Almost every function, requester, feature can be controlled from the keyboard without using the mouse. The user interface can come up on any screen mode and use any Amiga font, even changing the screen mode and/or the user font on the fly. FinalCalc supports multiple sheets per 'Project'. (a project can consist of 1 to 254 sheets, each containing a maximum of ZZZ (18277) columns and 65000 rows.) I won't go into more details now.. but FC has very powerful printing features, great 2D and 3D graphs, more than 630 arexx/script commands, and tons of features. If you have any questions or comments... I'm here. (smile) Khalid. We will mail information and upgrade offer later this month. Here is what's new in FW3: - drag and drop text editing - type and spell--option to spell check as you type - dictionary hyphenation option - easy page numbering without the need to know about master pages - easy header/footer setup without the need to know master pages - enhanced text selection including triple-click, quad-click, shift extended selection, and enhanced text selection while dragging mouse - "no warning" auto-save option - polygon and beizier special shape drawing tools - selective display of master page items on first only, all but first, and all pages of section - enhanced page number formatting - more precise "snap to" grid for graphics and text blocks - ability to use more than one language for spelling and typing (requires purchase of extra dictionarys) Most of the new features have to do with making FW easier to use. Final Data was written in-house by SoftWood. Final Data is an easy-to-use, flat file data manager--it is not intended to stack up against SBasePro. Its purpose is to provide a simple, yet powerful way for people to orgainize and print lists of information on their Amiga. It is ideal for tasks such as: - name and adress lists (friends, customers, business contacts, etc.) - collections of any type (video, CD, stamp, coin, etc.) - reference material such as titles of books and periodicals - home inventory, bills, birthday reminders, and appointments Final Data is not a relational database manager. Although many databases can be open at the same time, each database contains one file and knows nothing about other databases. A Final Data database appears on the screen as a table with rows and columns similar to the way a spreadsheet looks. Viewing a database in this manner lets you look at a lot of information at the same time. Columns may be narrowed or widened by dragging a column's border with the mouse. Data is entered into cells in a similar manner as entering data into a word processor or text editor. As you go from cell to cell entering data the program verifies that the information you enter is consistent with the type of information expected. Final Data can arrange data in any desired sequence. A unique feature gives you the option of sorting either an entire database or only selected rows. The search and replace feature lets you make changes in the same manner as in a word processor. You can print a database in either label or columnar report format. Final Data prints reports complete with page headings that included title and page number. Reports may also be printed with totals and row counts. Labels can be defined in a variety of user-defined formats. Labels can be printed from one to many across a page. Final Data uses a printer's built-in fonts for maximum speed and readability. Final Data was programmed fromthe beginning with ARexx in mind. There are over 75 Final Data ARexx commands that you can use to develop scripts. There is also a user-defined ARexx menu you can use to acess your scripts. @endnode @node P2-6 "IRC Conference Rules" @toc P2 =========================================================================== == Rules for the IRC Conference with Alex Amor of CEI == =========================================================================== The IRC conference with CEI will be November 23, 10:30 PM GMT (5:30 PM EST), unless something major pulls Alex Amor out of the office. All interested should meet in IRC channel #amiga, where I will invite you into the conference channel from. Thanks to Mr. Harman (Boodah on IRC) for writing these rules up for the IRC conference. Rules for the IRC conference with Alex Amor: To keep this conference as organized as possible we ask that you follow some simple rules. We'd like to see conferences like is in the future and it is doubtful that CEI company officials will want to return again if the environment that they encounter is noisy, obtrusive, and rude, and it certainly wouldn't do much to encourage other companies to hold IRC conferences, either. To maintain order in the channel, it will be moderated. Only those persons who are designated as channel moderators or channel monitors will have channel operator status. Any attempt at hacking ops on a netsplit will result in immediate deop/kick/ban from the channel for the duration of the conference. Please don't spoil it for the rest of us. Voice status will be given by Jason Compton who will be the head moderator of the channel. To ask a question, /msg him with a subject followed by a ? The purpose of sending him a subject will be so that he can weed out questions that have already been answered. Please limit your subjects to a few words so that Jason doesn't have to take the time to read things while trying to monitor the channel. Also, message Jason *ONCE*, not multiple times. Violation of this rule will result in kick/ban from the channel. Due to the number of conference attenders expected, most likely individuals will only be able to ask one question. Also, exepect that not everyone will be able to ask a question due to time constraints. Jason will inform everyone if time permits for another round of questioning from conference participators. *****There will be no private messaging of Mr. Amor***** Any /msg 'ing of Mr. Amor will result in immediate kick/ban from the channel for the duration of the conference. Once again, please don't spoil it for the rest of us. Please keep in mind that all of us wish to see conferences like this take place in the future. This conference will be the first of its kind and we need to take great care to ensure that it progresses with a certain level of decorum. @endnode @node P2-5 "COMDEX/Fall '94" @toc P2 =========================================================================== == COMDEX/Fall '94 By: Harv Laser == =========================================================================== COMDEX/Fall '94 (the world's largest computer convention, possibly the world's largest convention of any kind) is going on this week in Las Vegas, Nevada USA. Appx. 200,000 people are attending. The casinos are really empty and the hotel rooms are all about double or triple their usual nightly rates to make up for the computer trade's apparent allergy to gambling. The main hall at the L.V. Convention Center is dominated by the boring stuff (IBM, PowerPC, Lotus, Borland, Apple, blah blah etc. who cares) but the interesting stuff is at the other venue, the Sands Hotel Convention Center. (The Interface Group, the outfit who puts on COMDEX bought the Sands a couple years ago and spent megabucks building the huge convention center behind it). Even that wasn't big enough so they converted the underground parking garage into a whole 'nother exhibit hall floor in the complex. COMDEX used to take place in six or 20 hotels all over town but now all of the exhibits have been conglomerized into just the LV and Sands Convention Centers. Of course, probably every hotel in town has "private suites" where various corporations wheel and deal and wine and dine their customers and potential customers. (Parenthetically, I've always wondered how Bill Gates, the uncrowned "King of COMDEX [tm]" gets in and out of the show halls. I've never seen him.. I suppose maybe they've built a series of secret underground tunnels to spirit him in and out, or perhaps he drives a beat up Volvo alone into the parking garage wearing a wig and fake beard ala Michael Jackson when he wants to visit Disneyland and go unmolested by raving lunatic fans) So today I schmoozed and schlepped my way thru the "Multimedia" floor of the Sands part of the show, aisle after aisle of hundreds upon hundreds of corporate booths, some huge, some a single table, some famous, some from companies I never heard of. Some were doing "boffo biz" as they say in Hollywood, while at others, one might see a couple of forlorn looking guys in suits standing there staring off into space wondering, perhaps "why isn't my product attracting the babes?" Everything and anything Computer-related can be found at COMDEX, from huge ridiculously expensive hardware arrays right down to silly little desk items with smiley faces on them. I did spot three companies who are known to the Amiga community at large and thought I would comment on what they were showing... NewTek They're showing ONE product. LightWave, for Amiga, PC, and SGI machines. Same price for all of them: $995.00. Everyone here knows what LightWave is so no need to explain it. While there may have been other Amigas at COMDEX, the one in NewTek's booth was the only one I saw today (and its monitor was turned off). Huge screens and monitors were running tapes of the various tv shows where LW has been used: Bab5, seaquest, etc. etc. Lee Stranahan was working at one station doing demos but the crowd was nothing like I've seen at NewTek booths at other shows like SIGGRAPH (where the crowds are 10x more render-oriented than they are at COMDEX). Elastic Reality (formerly ASDG) Inc., Had their Mac, PC and SGI machines and were showing ER, the morphing package on each of them. The booth was quite crowded and demos were being performed by various employees such as Bruce "CygnusSoft" Dawson, Jeff "JRAGraphics" Almasol, and others. On the monitors was a looping demo tape of various films, tv shows, and commercials that ER has been used to create effects for. It was quite crowded and drawing a lot of attention. Keith "TRexx Professional" Williams has departed the company for parts unknown :( and big bossman Perry Kivolowitz had left Vegas yesterday, so I missed yakking with him. Apparently ER Inc. has been doing a lot of hiring lately evidenced by all the new faces I saw working their booth. They have overgrown their current offices and are looking for a new one, a sign of success. No Amigas in their booth, though :( but Rick Unland was :) (Rick was formerly with Commodore and for a while was involved with the CDTV project under Gail Wellington's lead.. he's also worked for any number of other Amiga products companies and is a good guy). Play Inc. This is the company you may or may not have heard about which is a merger between a bunch of ex-NewTek folks (engineers and p/r people) and Digital Creations, and Progressive Image Technology, the hardware outfit who made all of DC's stuff like DCTV, SuperGens, etc. This is Play's first trade show booth, and they are showing their first product. It's a PC product. It's called "Snappy". "What the hell is that!?" you ask as you scratch your head. Well I'll tell you. It's a digitizer. A FrameGrabber. It plugs into the PC parallel port, runs on a 9-volt battery, grabs any video source in 1/60th of a second in 1500x1125 24-bit color resolution (yes, that res is correct) and can save out to disk in the form of BMP, PCX, TIFF, GIF and JPEG formats, in 1500x1125, 640x480, or 320x240 sizes. It's a tiny unit, about the size of a pack of cigarettes, it's portable, and they're bundling with it special versions of Fauve Matisse and Gryphon Morph. The whole thing retails for $199.95 and it'll be in stores in late December this year. Kiki Stockhammer, famous for years in the Amiga community for sitting on a chair wearing a headset microphone and demoing the Toaster for hours on end, is now sitting on a chair, wearing a headset microphone, demoing Snappy for hours on end. :). Mark "the man in black" Randall was yakking it up with booth visitors. Laura "I was the NewTek girl before Kiki" Longfellow was working the reception desk (I was surprised to see her working for Play Inc. for no particular reason, but was pleased too, and she was looking VERY fine ;) If I had a 386 or better PC with a buncha RAM and disk on it I would get a Snappy. It's a slick little device and it really produces beautiful, very hi-res, very NON-jaggie results in the blink of an eye. It is, if you will, a 1994 DigiView/DCTV for PeeCees. Comparisons are painfully obvious, especially when viewed in the perspective that Play Inc. is a combination of former NewTek people andcurrent Digital Creations people. But Snappy is a slicker product than either of those were, and it contains Play's first piece of custom silicon which Mark was proudly showing off like a rare coin in a box. Other Random Thoughts on COMDEX in no particular order... -Mark Randall handed me what is the first "3D" business card I've ever seen... open the card and the die-cut word "P L A Y" pops up from inside. (Do these people know how to spend money or what!) -I had read a newsburp on Clarinet a couple months ago about how COMDEX had "outlawed" Adult-oriented software at their shows. Apparently they changed their minds and then some. The Multimedia hall had at least ten different vendors (maybe more, I didn't stop to count) who were selling "adult" (or "porno" if you prefer) CD ROM software of every description. ALL of these booths were crowded. You open the COMDEX program guide (a FAT book that weighs 3 lbs) and it tells you that COMDEX is not a selling show. It is a trade show for dealers, distributors, the press, mfr's reps, etc. etc. EVERY one of the CD ROM booths was selling product like mad. And while Adult CD ROMs have typically been GIF files, this is the first time I've seen them in Kodak PhotoCD format, so of course I bought one to take home for further inspection ;) -These shows are expensive! Just to walk into the exhibit halls costs $75. But hardly anyone pays $75 to get in because practically every booth exhibitor hands out free entry passes to their customers. I got in on a free pass courtesy of IBM :) How about $1.75 for a can of coke and $3.50 for a hot dog, everywhere inside the show at all the food stops. This is typical for large trade shows but it's still outrageous. -I sat in on a couple demo sessions at some booths (mainly to rest my back and feet after having lugged around 20 lbs. of brochures and magazines and other junk in a bag like everyone else) and got some free software which is of course Windows stuff that I can't use but what the hell, someone will want it. One of the neatest things I saw was, believe it or not, a new Kid-oriented CD ROM being published by the cable tv Discovery Channel. This thing was absolutely delightful, filled with humor, surprises, and excellent graphics and I was impressed. There are some people out there who know how to make quality CD ROM stuff with imagination. -Getcher Free Magazines Here Picked up a number of free copies of various rags, and also signed up for a number of free subscriptions. When you go to these huge trade shows there are invariably any number of magazine publishers who will give you a one year free sub just for filling out a form and checking a million little boxes (like telling them how many billions of dollars worth of computer stuff you're responsible for buying each year). So I picked up a free one-year sub to New Media and Morph's Outpost, and a couple others. Morph's publisher has a brand new magazine out called "Blaster" and they were handing out tons of free copies of the first issue. This rag is a bit hard to describe but I guess they're aiming it at the older skateboard set who is into anything with the prefix "Cyber-" on it, and who appreciate the finer points of Beavis & Butthead's subtle humor and who know what a modem is. I sat down and had a couple $1.75 cokes and read through it and it's a pretty decent little rag so look for it on newsstands soon if not now. Ya might enjoy it, if the wild typesetting and graphics doesn't give you a permanent migraine. Well I could ramble on more but that's enough. I'll be back in Vegas in January for CES (The Consumer Electronics show) which I find to be generally a lot more entertaining than COMDEX, and at which there is a much better chance of actually seeing more than one Amiga in a two million square foot exhibit hall. (feel free to stick this posting in your user-group newsletter, online magazine, bathroom wall, bird cage, or whatever.. just keep my name on it which your parakeet can use as a target. [Amiga Report officially denies association with bathroom walls and bird cages, but we know he's kidding. -JC] @endnode @node P2-4 "The Paranoia Story" @toc P2 =========================================================================== == The Paranoia Story By: Ken Pierce == == AGE Entertainment Software == =========================================================================== Because of the large amounts of personal email I've been receiving asking what is going on with the game Paranoia, AGE Entertainment Software, DEM Software and myself, I have decided to go public with the complete story of Paranoia from day one. In May of 1993, Jim Georgeadis (the Paranoia head programmer) and myself were working together at a computer store (Ace-Tech Computers in Calgary, Alberta) and had been for some time. We had bantered back and forth the idea of doing a game together for a while, and we were sort of playing with a beat-em-up concept as a PD release. This game was to be released at AmiJam'93 in Calgary, and was a TRUE example of the troubles we would face in the future. The game was delayed and delayed, until AmiJam was upon us, and Jim was quite literally working on the game in the Ace-Tech booth. I had done some cheezy Ren & Stimpy graphics, and we had added R&S sound effects to the game as well. The engine, though, was far from complete (although the game was fun to play). Eric Schwartz was one of the guest speakers at that show, and re-did the graphics for the game (his were much nicer than mine, I must say) but alas the game was never finished, and thus never released into the public domain as we intended (although we did show it AmiJam and it did get quite a response). Still, at least Jim and I knew we could work together on a project, and we started talking about sitting down and doing something /serious/. We discussed the different possibilities, and Jim seemed to have a burning desire to do a serious beat-em up. I didn't think there was much of a market for it, though, so we scrapped it. From there we had to decide where to go. Jim also had a desire to a 3-D RPG of some kind, and I thought there may be a market for *good* RPG since there had been so few lately. Thus began work on "the game", and tests to see if it was possible. After about a month, Jim had a working copy of the engine up and running, and we could see this thing had some potential. It had crap graphics, no name, no plot, no theme, no sounds, but it did have some line drawn walls (filled with a really grotesque shade of orange) and a stick man with a big red head that chased you arouund (Mr. Stickman, who may still be in Paranoia to this day). The game worked in a step-mode way (like Dungeon Master), and we thought we could get away with that if we just made sure the game reeked of suspense and atmosphere. Work continued on the engine, and we started talking about possible plots. We thought of the standby D&D style plots, but scrapped those because it had been done to death, and eventually stuck on a game which would be like "playing" the movie Aliens. We wanted to have the player feel helpless and distraught while running through a maze, not knowing what's around the next corner and being chased by vicious critters all the way through. At this time, a demo came out called "DWAGA". It was an AGA based dungeon walking demo, which had smooth scrolling walls. We looked at the way the programmer of that game had done his engine (which we had mentioned, but written off because we thought it would be too slow) and decided that maybe smooth scrolling walls were the way to go. Jim began work on the next revision of the game engine. As he did that, I began to think of plot possibilities, keeping the Aliens theme in mind. That was when the basic plot of the game was worked out. You were on this ship, and it had been attacked by aliens. The aliens had boarded the ship, and you had to find a way off the thing. It was simple, but effective, and offered the opportunity for lots of puzzles. Now, Jim had the next revision of the engine done, and it looked ugly, but effective. At this point, we needed some real graphics. I contacted Bryan Ewert, who is a 3-D animator in the Calgary area. He was on a hiatus from work, and agreed to work on the project with us. He did a few test renders for us so we could see how his work was, and we liked it, so work began on the interiors. At this point, I figured one thing that could add atmosphere to the game would be several exterior animations at key plot points in the game. These would have a typical sci-fi flavour to them, and would help to keep the different segments of the game attached. They would also help to explain some key elements of the plot (like how the aliens got on board in the first place). I explained my concept for these animations to Jim and Bryan, and both were quite excited by the possiblities offered. Bryan, though, didn't want the task of designing an alien and terran fleet of ships, so I told him I'd come up with a rough idea of what I thought things should look like. In the meantime, he continued work on the interiors which were coming along very nicely and Jim continued working on the game engine, which still needed a lot of tweaking. This was around the same time that I was beginning to think we may have something very special here, and it may be something that could really leave its mark on the Amiga community. This is when I began posting messages into Fido AmigaGames describing the game, and when I started receiving mail asking me for more information. Slowly, the walls were being finished and Jim was implementing them into the game. At this point, though, we started to realize how limiting Chip RAM can be when working with these types of graphics. We made some design changes to the engine, and work continued again. The new engine wasn't as smooth as the old one, but it took a lot less RAM (it would've barely worked in 2MB of Chip RAM the old way). I wasn't happy about the trade-off in performance, though, and asked Jim to try to find a way around it. With the new engine, though, Jim told me that the game could be done in "4-6 weeks", assuming of course, that Bryan could keep up his current pace with the graphics. I finished up my drawings (in DPaint) of what I thought the alien and terran crafts should look like, except the freighter (which will come later), and Bryan had a look at them and, for the most part, liked them. I also wrote up technical documents explaining how the ships "worked", and this is the point where I began to think a bible may be necessary to keep us from screwing up continuity in the game. Besides, it could be quite a help in writing the manual later on. It was also around this time that I approached my girlfriend, Lisa Priebe, to do the music for the game. She received some quick training in OctaMED, and began work. Somewhere in this time frame, we showed the early demo (called AlphaTeaser) to the Amiga Users of Calgary at a meeting. It went over well, and I still get asked about the game from local people because of that meeting. Eventually we were coming into December of 1993, and the public was getting kind of impatient while waiting for the game. Still, I kept adamant in my posts, saying that it wouldn't be released "until it was done". I was still disappointed that we had missed our September and October deadlines, though. In December, I lost my job at Ace-Tech (which is an even longer story than this one), but wasn't too concerned about it. I figured I would be able to hold out long enough for the game to be ready, and then with any luck we'd be on our way to success and stardom in the Amiga games market. Then came January. In January of 1994, Lisa and I broke up. This stalled the music (which, quite frankly, hadn't gotten far), and stalled me. I went into a deep, dark depression, and at that point development (except for some tweaking on Jim's part) pretty much stopped. There was little, if any, communication between Bryan, Jim and myself, and Paranoia was at an effective standstill. In the beginning of February, I came out of my depression, and work began on Paranoia again. Still, Bryan had started doing some very serious, and very time consuming work on an animation with JW Lees Developments, and eventually had to drop out of Paranoia. Still, though, even with Bryan gone, the game progressed at an amazing rate. Jim had managed to pull off some astronomical acheivements in the game engine, and things were looking good. At this point, we started to discuss sequels to the game more seriously, and worked out a plotline which would cover three games. In the first game, the player would simply escape from the ship. At the end of the game, he would be seen landing on a nearby planet. In the second game, the player would be on a colony on the planet, and everyone would be dead. The player would have to figure out the mystery of what happened on the colony while trying to find all the parts to repair a damaged communications array and send a distress signal to someone so he could be rescued. At the end of the second game, he would be rescued, and taken back to Earth. In the third game, he'd have to go to the alien homeworld where he'd be part of an attack squad which would be out to destroy the alien civilization. This last game contained lots of moral dilemmas for the character to go through. After discussing these sequel possiblities with Jim, I sent out another message on the nets discussing Paranoia, and its future sequels (assuming, of course, that Paranoia was a success). This was when things on the net *really* began to buzz. There was still a lot of stuff to do on the Paranoia engine, though, so we figured we'd finish what was on the plate, and then deal with the other problems later. This was around the same time that Don Kittle came into the picture. Initially, Don and I were just friends. Don had broken up with his girlfriend around the same time I'd broken up with mine, and the two of us hanging around together had helped us each to work our way out of our depressions. I knew Don was into rendering, so I asked him to pick up where Bryan had left off in the graphics department. At this time, just about all that was left to do were the exterior animations, and I already had diagrams for what they were all supposed to look like done. Don began working on some stuff that night, and by the next day, I had the first render of a Hoarder Infestation Pod sitting on my hard drive. I was happy with the results, and he seemed happy with the project, so he was officially "on the team". We still didn't have any music, but Brad Lazaruk (another friend) had heard us mumbling about sound effects on the Paranoia mailing list. He sampled some gunshots and sent them to us, and they made it into the game in no time. There were also some other sound effects from sources all over the place which were being put into the game. They were inconsistent, and at times, simply poor, but it was better than nothing. And besides, they were just for testing. We'd resample all the sounds we needed later on. Also at this point, Lorne Laliberte paid a visit to Calgary from Manitoba. Him and I had sent mass volumes of email back and forth about Paranoia, and knowing that he was a writer, I wanted him involved. I decided that Lorne was the person who would write the background story and manual for Paranoia. As soon as I let him know that I wanted him to do it, he started work, and the email REALLY started to flow. By this time, though, money had started to run a little low (I had been out of steady work for some months...I had managed to get a few temp jobs in there, but nothing steady), and I had to give up my apartment. I had the option of moving back to British Columbia, which would have really hampered Paranoia development, but reduced my living costs substantially, or finding a place to stay for less money in Calgary (actually, no money). I asked Don if I could crash at his place, and he said yes. I didn't realize at the time what a strain this would put on both our personal and professional relationships. There were still a few weeks before I was set to move out of my apartment, though, and so development on Paranoia continued at a breakneck pace. The final control panel (or next to final control panel in the end) was in place, buttons were working properly, and the game engine was still running at a good speed on a stock 1200 by the time I was making the move. I moved into Don's place, and for the first few days, things were fine. Work was getting done on Paranoia, and I had managed to re-establish my email feeds and had caught up on my mail. Work on the bible continued, including technologies, and the Paranoia universe was coming together nicely. Lorne's work on the story was coming together well, too. Shortly after moving into Don's place, though, something changed. Don wasn't around for long periods of time, and quite frankly, I saw him less when I was living with him than before I moved in. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he was uncomfortable with the situation. Also, he had been going to meet with Jim regularly to work on the game. That, to me, was fine, though because at least something was getting done on Paranoia. Around here was when the teaser demo was (finally) finished, and sent out. That teaser demo refused to work on 68000 based machines. Some weeks passed, and eventually the tension got so bad that I started spending nights at my girlfriend's house, and only went back to Don's place during the days to do the work I needed to do. Still, after about a week of this, I decided to spend another night at Don's in the hopes of being able to accomplish more (four or five hours a day isn't a lot of time) the day after that. Jen dropped me off in front of Don's building, and I went in. I unlocked the door, but when I tried to enter the deadbolt was locked. I didn't have a key to the deadbolt, so I tried ringing the doorbell and banging on the window. There was no response. Eventually I gave up, and started the long (and cold, since I didn't have a jacket with me) walk over to Brad's place, where I spent that night fighting off my allergic reaction to his cat. The next day, I went into Don's place and did the work I needed to do. I left before he came home that day. For the next while after that, I spent the nights at Jen's and the days at Don's, which was inconvenient, but helped alleviate the stress. One day, I wasn't gone when Don got home from work. After that day, he started locking the deadbolt during the day. That meant that my clothes, computer, close to every possession I own, was locked away from me. I went in one night when Don and Jim were there, and grabbed my clothes and took them to Jen's. I didn't say a word to him in the time I was there, and he didn't say a word to me. That was when things got really bad. I also saw the work they had been doing on the game at that point, and had some problems with some of the stuff that had been done. I let them know the problems I had with the things they had done, and got into an argument with Jim. He said something to the effect of "well, why didn't you say something earlier", to which I responded that I needed to know what was going on before I could tell them what I thought of it. Afterwards, Jen showed up, and I left with her. The argument was never resolved. I couldn't call Don, because I couldn't bear to talk to him with everything that was going on, but I had to, because he had all my possessions at his place. I called Jim one day, and talked to him, and Jim told me that there was no doubt that I was going to have to move out of Don's. I wasn't surprised at that. That was the same day that another mutual friend told me how Don was telling him that I was using his place as a "garbage dump". I called Don at work, and told him that I had to talk to him. I met him at his place that night. We talked for a while about the various goings-on with the deadbolt and everything else, and then we talked about the game. He told me that him and Jim had decided that I wasn't fulfilling their needs as a "publisher" for the game, and that they had decided to form their own company to produce the game. He said they had already sent out press releases and made an announcement on the nets to the effect that I was out and they were in. They had already formed the company (called DEM), and had already contacted the european press about the game. He said they didn't "slam" AGE, but when he showed me the press release they had sent, I didn't see how he could say that. Still, at that point, the friendship was more important to me than the game, and I told Don that. He explained to me that it was "never their intention to screw me over", and that I would be receiving a royalty from the game. The amount was never (and has never been) discussed. I moved my essentials (especially the computer) out of Don's place and into Jen's. I was still confused about what was going on, in terms of Paranoia and Don's and my friendship. I still haven't heard anything from Jim to this day, aside from little bits of chit chat here and there when we've run into each other. At this point I had to leave town for my brother's wedding, but my suit was locked in Don's apartment. I stopped at the airport (where Don works) and asked him if I could get a key to the deadbolt at his place so I could get in to get my suit. He told me that he didn't feel he could "trust me", and that his computer was sitting there with Paranoia. He told me he didn't want me there without him being there. This not only hurt me, but insulted me, because I had thought I'd made my position pretty clear to him during our face to face conversation a few weeks prior. That night, I went to Don's, and got the suit. He asked me when I'd be getting the rest of my stuff out of his place, and I told him I'd do it as soon as possible. Then I went to my brother's wedding. I was gone for a week. The rest of my belongings were still at Don's place through this time. When I got back, I saw Don briefly when Jen and I stopped by his place to drop off an invitation to a Halloween party at Jen's place. I was friendly, Jen was friendly, and Samantha, another friend who was with us was friendly. Don took the invitation, thanked us, and never showed up for the party. Don not showing at the party wasn't a shock, but the email I received a few days later was. I'll quote it here: DK> Hey; DK> DK> I think it's kinda shitty the way you've basically DK> assumed me to be a warehouse for your stuff. Please DK> remove it all by Thursday, November 3, 1994 or I'll DK> have to dump it in the yard... At this point, I finally snapped and sent back a long reply telling him how I felt about everything that had happened. Jen borrowed her father's truck, and we went there on the evening of Wednesday, November 2nd. He turned us away, giving us a feeble excuse that he was about to go to bed, so we came back the next day. Another friend of his was there that day, and I never set foot in his apartment. He put it in the hallway, and my friends and myself loaded it into the vehicles and left. I haven't seen, spoken to, or emailed Don since. From what I understand, Jim has been out of town, although I haven't heard anything from him in quite some time, either. Another friend was telling me about how Don had said I, "never contributed anything" to the game. Quite frankly, I don't know if Don believes that or not, because Don wasn't around in the early stages where I did most of my work. I will admit, that I wasn't as involved in those later stages, but full blame for that can't lie on me. I was never told what was happening at any point in late development even when I directly asked. I'd receive runaround answers which didn't solve anything. That was when I made the decision to go public. Royalties or no royalties (and I *can* use the money), I was tired of being slammed both publically and privately by these guys when they had no right at all to do that. Don tried explaining to me how I legally don't have a leg to stand on because copyright law in Canada is so vague, but what I don't think Don or Jim realize is that if I did decide to go to the courts with it, Paranoia would probably die there because the work (and copyrights) would be split into chunks. I have friends in the legal profession as well, and they're very well versed in Canadian copyrights. I don't plan on going to the courts with this story unless I absolutely have to, because quite frankly I can't afford it, and neither can they. I'm not a vindictive person, and I am moving on with new AGE developments. I do feel I've spent a year and a half of my life devoted to Paranoia, though, and that I do deserve compensation for that time. This game has been the destruction of two of my best friendships (or what I *thought* were my best friendships), and I'm not writing this article simply out of spite. I'm writing it, because my name has been attached to all the hype and anticipation which Paranoia has received. Quite frankly, Paranoia, as it sits right now is incomplete. It's probably around 70% done, and I don't want people to get the idea that I "approved" this product as being done in its current state. I was told by Don and Jim that they wanted to get the game out to market by Christmas, at all costs (including the release version being buggy...and never having been playtested by anyone outside the development team), and I don't want to be the one blamed for its shoddy construction. I've also been told by both Don and Jim consider the Amiga to be a dead platform, and that Paranoia will be their only game on the machine. They like the machine, but they don't want to support it because there isn't enough money in it. They also scrapped the ideas for the two sequels for the game, they said they had no interest in tying the game together with a big plot (or taking a chunk out of their profits with a big storybook) and they had no interest in doing a CD32 or AGA version of Paranoia. These are all things which were put a little more politely in their press release (which I would've included had I still had it), but which are all in there if you read it (it was posted to Fido AmigaGames sometime ago, perhaps some reader has a copy of it in their archives?). I just wanted to set the record straight, and give my side of the story. I welcome an equivalent diary of events from Jim and/or Don. I'm sure that I've probably forgotten a lot of things in this story, but I think everything major is in here. A lot of things can be done in a year and a half, but apparently Paranoia wasn't one of them. AGE is going to stay in the Amiga market, and their will be future AGE products. The next one is already in early development, and I hope to go public with some details as to what it'll be in the near future. I'll keep this promise to the Amiga public, always. A game will not be released through AGE Entertainment Software unless it is something that I as a game player would play. The last time I saw Paranoia, it was not something I would play. It was something I would fiddle with, but not something that would absorb me the way a good game should. Stay tuned, folks, because this one isn't over yet. Thanks for your support, and keep listening on the nets because I'll be back with a new announcement soon. @endnode @node P3-1 "Emulation Rambler" @toc P3 =========================================================================== == Emulation Rambler: CrossMAC/MaxDOS By: @{"Jason Compton" link P8-1} == =========================================================================== It feels good to ramble once more. On my agenda lately have been the two Macintosh filesystems, MaxDOS 2.0 from Media4 Productions and CrossMAC from Consultron. In a way, it's a battle of new vs. old...Media4, while not strangers to software development or the Amiga, are making their first attempt at a commerical product. Consultron, on the other hand, is responsible for essentially defining MS-DOS filesystems for the Amiga...you know them well if you own CrossDOS or Workbench 2.1 and above. The goal of both programs is the same: to provide as-transparent-as-possible access to Macintosh floppies, hard drives, and A-Max/Emplant hybrids for AmigaDOS. The requirements are a decent graphical interface to get to where you want (Macintosh devices mounted as AmigaDOS device), and, most importantly, functionality. Let's cut right to the chase. Both MaxDOS and CrossMAC do the job. I have no major complaints about their primary operation. There. Done. I can stop now, right? Well, ok, I'll tell you what the differences are. Mounting the Mac stuff: CrossMAC and MaxDOS get your devices mounted in fairly similar ways. A graphical interface asks you to select a drive, then a partition. MaxDOS requires you to know a bit more than CrossMAC does about your system (the unit number of your SCSI hard drive, but it's a number between 0 and 6, so you can only be wrong so many times...) but they both get the job done. Another primary difference is that while MaxDOS will automatically generate a mountlist entry to your specification, CrossMAC will go so far as to automatically place the device in your user-startup. Reading the data...or is it the resource? Mac files are stored in two parts: a "data" fork and a "resource" fork. If you'd like the technical explanation, check out the program manuals. In short, one tells the Mac what the program's all about and the other tells it what to do with it. The system, in short, is responsible for the reason you can double-click on virtually anything on a Mac and get a program to pop up...or, the flip side of the coin, the reason it's so hard to do something with a file if it DOESN'T make a program pop up... Anyway: Both programs need some way to represent this on the Amiga, so they show them as two separate files. MaxDOS calls the resource fork for the file "blah" as "blah" with a superscript 2 after it. (Yes, I know I can type alt-2 but I'd like to ensure that readers everywhere get the drift.) CrossMAC calls it blah.rs. Either way, you get the point. You'll primarily be interested in the data fork, but more about that later. Floppy, floppy, floppy... It's interesting to note that MaxDOS needs Consultron's mfm.device to read high density floppies. (If you've got CrossDOS or Workbench 2.1 and above, you've got mfm.device. If not, you'll need to get it from Consultron.) MaxDOS can also handle all makes of Amax and Emplant floppies. CrossMAC, not to be outdone, also goes to the length of allowing the use of A-Max hardware (I/II or II+/IV) to read low density Mac floppies: either of the external drive type for A-Max I/II or the shared-drive type for II+/IV. Again, both do the job. ...But, I could care less about the resource fork! Not surprising. MaxDOS allows you to filter out data or resource forks or just show both by commodity control. I was unable to find such a feature on CrossMAC. How does this all look, anyway? Both programs incarnate their disks as Workbench icons, which open into standard windows, and so it goes. CrossMAC will show all files, unless hidden (another trick of the Mac operating system which can be circumvented with these programs) as icons: either data icons, resource icons, or their own 2-color icons taken straight from the Mac if they're applications. This is where some of CrossMAC's extras come into play, but I'll get to those in a second. With MaxDOS 2.0, there will be no icons, so a "Show All" is prudent. However, with MaxDOS 2.1, arriving "any day now", the Mac icons will be displayed. CrossMAC's extras: Not for the squeamish. Consultron has included some goodies in their program that MaxDOS doesn't counter. Their usefulness...well, it'll vary on a case-by-case basis. The first is VHex, a simple hexadecimal-code viewer which all Mac drive data files default to. (i.e., double-click on a Mac data file and you'll get VHex.) It's fairly primitive, nothing that DirWork doesn't do, but it is nice to have as a default tool. The second is Res_Extractor. Remember what I said about resource forks? This will allow you to pull those bits of code that tell the Mac what to do out of the resource forks and look at them. It's neat, even if you don't understand it. The next is Mac_File_Salv. Not having any corrupted Mac disks, I wasn't able to test it, but this program purports to try to save damaged files from damaged disks. Nice to know. File_Type_Manager should be used only by astoundingly confident people. It will, essentially, allow you to tell what was previously a MS-Word document that it's now a font. Of course, it won't WORK, but you can do it. A huge database of possible filetypes comes with, and you can change them. All of these are certainly nice to have, and don't hinder CrossMAC by any means. But they're also not necessary, and can be done with more confidence on a true Mac. So, what's the point, Jason? The point is that both of these programs work. CrossMAC is the more polished of the two, but it's also got a $20 higher pricetag. Functionally, they're indistinguishable. My feelings at the end are mixed. The products are quality, and I recommend that if you need one, you check prices and what functions you want and make your decision. But at suggested prices of $150 for CrossMAC and $130 for MaxDOS, you may also want to give some thought to just going whole-hog and buying an Emplant. It's considerably more expensive: about $330 will get you the deluxe version, and then you need to dig up ROMs and System software, but you also get the Mac programs themselves, not just file portability. The choice, as always, is up to you. These programs would make terrific Amiga pack-ins, and I hope both Consultron and Media4 pursue that possibility when this damned buyout is over with. CrossMAC MaxDOS 2.0 Consultron Media4 8959 Ridge Rd 2800 University Avenue Suite h1b-101 Plymouth, MI 48170 West Des Moines, IA 50266 USA USA 313-459-7271 515-225-7409 @endnode @node P3-2 "Ruff N' Tumble" @toc P3 =========================================================================== == Review: Ruff N' Tumble By: Darkseid == =========================================================================== Running on a 2 meg 1.3 500...... Haven't been able to run it on AGA but I don't expect any real differences. The plot, young Ruff Rogers has lost his marbles down a rabbit hole, he gets sucked down the rabbit hole by the head bad guy Dr Tinpot. Tinpot gives Ruff a gun and challenges him to get his marbles back, he of course will do evrything to stop him mwoooo hahahahahahah *maniacal laughter* Thus begins the game.... Well its a platformer, yayyyyy whooooooo another platformer..... ;^). Well hang on a mo, this platformer has guns..... 8^)))))) not just machine guns, but rocket launchers, lasers and joy of joys FLAMETHROWERS HEHEHEHEH. The game follows formula, x levesl per themed world with a big nasty at the end.... Hmmm doesnt look to good now does it... But wait, does it play well, YES it does, the graphics are simply gorgeous (even on a 500 8^) ), the sound is well, sparse if you turn the music off , and I did cos Im not that found of dance/rave music sparse but effective, control is well..... peachy with Ruff throwing his well animated little body around with fluid ease. The levels are solidly designed, good layouts with almost no blind leaps into the unknown (well there are a few but they are just to get at extra goodies) platforms look solid and inertia and gravity for all the sprites seems bang on, well bar the piranas on world do which seem to swim like greay (drat...) greased lightning.... annoying. The enemies are varied enough from world to world indeed from level to level, they have different attack patterns, some patrol platform and when they 'see' you run/grab/shoot at you (ho hum sounds samey), but and this is a big but, they are so well layed out that if you think you can beat them easily, this game is not rambo or sonic (tm) go charging in and you'll get youre ass soundly whupped, 3 hit points and 2 lives coupled with a maniac charge does not make for a long game..... Pick ups vary, from power ups for your current gun, to red hearts to restore a hit point (should you actually lose one), to gold hearts to boost all youre health back up and give you an extra one to play with (to a limit of 5). Bonus points are scattered around in themed graphics, fruit in the forest world gems in the mines etc etc, then of course there are the different coloured marble Red Green and Blue, each level has a set amount to collect (of each colour) when that limit is reached singulary the remaining marble turn to coins (more on that in a mo) when all 3 are completed the exit opens and you may leave to the next level/world. Coins are dotted around the landscape, and are dropped by dead baddies, 100 gives Ruff an extra life, mega coins with a colour in the centre clear your marble count, so picking one up is a good way of either getting off the level quick/getting loads of coins. Extra lives can be picked up, switches tripped, bombs set of, forcefields turned off and on with keys. It boils down to one excellent game with only a fewminor niggles. In world 2 I keep hitting a bug when I jump out of water and a fish hits me Ruffs sprite hang so I can fire but I cant move or turn... ngghhhhh It always happens when IM DOING REALLY WELL TOO !!! mutter mutter also some parts of the levels are near impossible to get through without losing a lot of hit points, very annoying. Well, all I can do now is reccomend the game, I dont particulary like platformers but this one has caught my attention, even if I cant get off level 2 due to a silly bug (or is it just me). Well designed, well executed, hard to fault, play it I think you'll like it...... o.O V Darkseid - The Mad Man from Ulster- @endnode @node P3-3 "Review: HighSpeed Pascal" @toc P3 =========================================================================== == Review: HighSpeed Pascal By: Chris Coulson == == From Amiga Online Review Column == =========================================================================== PRODUCT NAME HighSpeed Pascal ("HSPascal") The bulk of this review is about version 1.10; however I have included some additional information about the new version 1.20 that was released in late September/early October 1994. BRIEF DESCRIPTION An Amiga Pascal compiler that is very nearly 100% compatible with Turbo Pascal 5.0. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: HiSoft Address: The Old School Greenfield Bedford England MK45 5DE Telephone: +44 525 718181 FAX: +44 525 713716 E-mail: hisoft@cix.compulink.co.uk LIST PRICE Version 1.10 is currently being advertised for 49.95 UK Pounds, with the full price of V1.20 99.95 UK Pounds. Upgrades for registered users are available: From V1.00 to V1.20 - 14.95 UK Pounds + postage From V1.10 to V1.20 - 9.95 UK Pounds + postage Postage is currently 2.00 UKP within the UK, 4.00 UKP in Europe and 7.00 UKP anywhere else. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE 512K RAM required. I recommend 2MB RAM or more. I recommend a second floppy drive or a hard drive. Hard drive installation requires 1.5MB of hard drive space. SOFTWARE Workbench 1.3 or higher required. COPY PROTECTION None. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 4000/030/882 - 25MHz 2MB Chip RAM, 4MB Fast RAM 124MB Seagate Hard Drive 405MB Samsung Hard Drive Microvitec 1438 Multisync Monitor AmigaDOS 3.0 INSTALLATION V1.10 requires manual installation, which is best carried out by dragging the directories/files from the floppy to the required location on the hard drive. V1.20 includes an Installer script that makes life a lot easier. The installation requires about 1.5MB of hard drive space. REVIEW My first impressions of this package were good. Upon opening the box, I encountered two very nicely put together manuals and a HiSoft disk wallet containing the four disks: two for each version of the compiler. (V1.20 comes on two disks, containing all the 1.3 and 2.0+ files in archives.) There is no empty space inside the box, unlike a lot of other commercial utilities. When everything is put inside, the box feels quite heavy and well filled, which somehow gves you a feeling of getting value for your money. :-) Anyway, after a painless installation, I got my first view of the HiSoft editor. For Devpac3 users, the HighSpeed Pascal editor will be instantly familiar, as it is virtually identical, with only a few changes in the settings menus (after all it is a Pascal compiler, not a 68000 assembler :-)). The editor supplied with V1.20 is slightly different. Although is appears the same on the surface, most of the menus have been re-arranged, with some old options being either renamed or removed and replaced with new options. After a year of using V1.10, I am a little lost in the new editor layout, but it does have advantages over the old editor's and is totally AmigaDOS 3.0 compliant. For those who have never experienced a HiSoft editor before, here is a quick rundown on what to expect. The editor runs on the Workbench screen; so if you can, you should probably run Workbench in some high resolution mode, unless you like editing source code in medium resolution. The fonts used for the source code display and menus are user-definable, which is a good thing. There are several menus with quite a few options/sub-menus to deal with, and some of the menu choices lead to new windows containing cycle gadgets and string requesters for even more configuration options. As far as I know, even the 1.3 version of the compiler features 2.0+ style screen gadgets via hard coded gadget routines. V1.20 note: You no longer need to use the Workbench screen. It can use the Workbench screen, open its own screen in any screen mode your Amiga can generate, or even run on a public screen. To test this last feature, some of this review, like this paragraph, was written with HighSpeed Pascal running on the public screen opened by Powerpacker 3. Being able to open its own screen is also useful if, like me for instance, you like having a colourful Workbench but also want fast scrolling through your source code. No problem: just make HSPascal open its own 2 or 4 colour screen and you have the best of both worlds. I assume that it will even work on third party display boards that add their screen modes into the system mode list, though I can't test this for myself (would someone like to donate a 24-bit graphics card?). The editor is so good at its job that I use it all the time as a general text editor. OK, it's not as good as a dedicated text editor, but since these tend to cost just as much as the entire HSPascal package, I'll stick to using the HiSoft editor. Of course, if you prefer using another text editor to edit your source code, you can do so. You can then either load the source into the HiSoft editor and use the in-built compiler options to compile the code, or you can just use the CLI interface to the compiler, which is VERY similar to the DOS interface for PC Turbo Pascal. So, once you've got your source code on disk and ready to compile, how well does HighSpeed Pascal cope with that? "Very well" is the answer. HSPascal implements virtually all of the Turbo Pascal 5.0 functions, with only the scalable typeface support and some PC specific things missing, like the memory overlay management commands. Oh yes, the inline assembler uses 68000 code rather than 8086 code. :-) There are a few little compatibility problems that are related to the differences between the Amiga and the PC, mainly in the DOS unit. However, they are documented in the Technical Reference manual. Some other problems are not. For example, the standard PC DOS shell is a 25 line display. On an Amiga, the Shell display is any height you like. Thus a Pascal program written on the PC expecting a 25 line display may well cause a garbled display on the Amiga. Of course there are ways around this, like using the inbuilt function to test the size of the Shell display before writing to it. Note that most problems will occur when using Pascal code written for use on a PC, or if following Pascal tutorials from Turbo Pascal textbooks, all of which assume that Turbo Pascal is a PC only product (which, technically, it is). If you are not concerned with the portability of your code, you can happily ignore any differences between PC and Amiga and just get on with writing code. So, what about those programmers who would like to include, say, Intuition routines in their programs? Well, HighSpeed Pascal does not directly support Intuition nor any Amiga system functions other than those needed to emulate Turbo Pascal functions. Thus, whilst disk handling is fairly well done, graphics handling is primitive and audio support apparently non-existent. However, a full set of Includes are provided (for AmigaDOS 1.3 and 2.0 with HighSpeed V1.10, or for AmigaDOS 1.3 and 3.0 with HighSpeed V1.20) so anyone with knowledge of system programming could use HighSpeed Pascal to create system accessing programs. For anyone who wants to write programs like this but who does not know anything about programming the system directly, you really should steer clear of HighSpeed Pascal. What market is HighSpeed Pascal aimed at? It would seem that primarily it is intended for those programmers who need to write standard Turbo Pascal compatible code without going near a PC, and as a secondary function, by providing hooks into the operating system, it can be used by Amiga programmers who might otherwise choose to use C, Assembler, or any other language. Personally, I bought it when my Electronics Degree project became too much for PCQ Pascal to handle. For my needs, writing a 7000+ line piece of Turbo Pascal code, HighSpeed Pascal was the ideal compiler, allowing me to write code that I knew, with a little bit of care when writing the DOS related routines, would function identically on both my Amiga and the University PCs, and I didn't need to so much as look at a PC to write the code. In seven months of program development, I only used a PC during the last month as part of the final testing/debugging phase of the project. Supplied as part of the package is MonAm, the HiSoft debugger. Unfortunately, it is designed to be a 68000 debugger and as a result you will require some knowledge of 68000 assembler in order to get the most out of this utility. To aid debugging, programs can be compiled with debugging data embedded in the executable, which allows the debugger to display functions and procedures by name rather than by some arbitrary identifier. Additionally, you can display the 68000 code alongside the Pascal source and single step through the code. It must be stressed that MonAm is NOT a Pascal debugger, and as the manual states, "One thing to consider before groping around inside your program with MonAm is that many bugs can be discovered much more easily by simply looking at the source code." COMPILATION SPEEDS The following times show how long HighSpeed Pascal takes to compile various length pieces of code, when the source code is stored on hard drive and the executable file is written to the same hard drive. Note that V1.10 and V1.20 are almost identical in compilation speed, with V1.20 being slightly slower (around a second or two) for long files. Of course, since V1.20 uses the AmigaDOS 3.0 includes and link library, which are larger than the 2.0 equivalents, the extra data handling required for these support files may be the cause of the speed differences. Program Length (KB/Lines) Compilation Time Minimal program less than 0.5 second 20KB/500 lines or less less than 3 seconds 160KB/7000 lines 9 seconds The "Minimal program" is the shortest possible (I think) Turbo Pascal program: PROGRAM x; BEGIN END. This test shows the time overheads incurred by the compiler and linker. In the third case, the program consisted of a skeleton main program with most of the code contained in 13 user defined units, along with one pre-defined unit. In total then, 15 disk files were used to compile this program; yet even with all the disk accessing required, compilation was still very fast indeed. The limited (!) number of results is due to two things. First, I don't have all that many Pascal programs available to test, and second, most of the programs I do have are so short that they compile in about 1 second. Unless you are writing a huge program or are compiling from floppy to floppy on a 0.5MB 7MHz 68000 Amiga, HighSpeed Pascal lives up to its name. DOCUMENTATION The 202-page User Manual (spiral bound) contains information about the use of the software. The 278-page Technical Reference (spiral bound) containing information about the inbuilt functions/procedures, and some information about general Turbo Pascal syntax. An on-disk README file contains the latest information about the specific software versions/disk contents, etc. The quality of the printed manuals is very good indeed, and unlike most companies producing Amiga compilers, HiSoft realise the best form of binding for a software manual is the spiral bound method. No more straining with one hand to keep the manual open at the page you want, whilst trying to type with your other hand. The contents and index sections are on the whole very well done, allowing you to find what you want very easily. The Technical Reference is NOT a Pascal programming guide. You will need to know at least how to program in Standard Pascal before using this compiler. What the reference DOES tell you is the syntax of every function and procedure provided either within HighSpeed Pascal itself, or in the supplied units (DOS, Graph etc.). It also describes the basic syntax of the Pascal constructs like REPEAT..UNTIL, CASE, IF..THEN..ELSE etc. and also the format of the various pre-defined variable types. In short, it describes all you need to know to write code using the HighSpeed Pascal extensions to the basic Pascal language. Of course, if you already have experience with TurboPascal 5.0 on the PC, you should be able to dive in and write code without much use of the Reference. LIKES It is a very well programmed utility that is, as far as I can see, completely Style Guide compliant. It works without complaint regardless of what commodities I have installed, and as far as the editing and compiling of source is concerned, it has shown itself to be VERY VERY stable. Of course, once you run a compiled program either from the Shell, the Workbench or from the Run option, HSPascal can do little if the program causes a system failure, but that is not a fault of HSPascal. DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS It is a pity that HiSoft did not extend the TurboPascal function set to add Amiga specific functions, such as the automatic creation of Intuition windows, menus etc., in the same way that BlitzBasic allows you to create Intuition interfaces with little effort. A missed chance by HiSoft I think. There is no on-line help available. Although the printed manuals are excellent, there are times when on-line aid is more useful. (CD-ROM owners see below). CD-ROM OWNERS READ THIS The following is copied from a letter I received from HiSoft. "The HiSoft Language CD-ROM will contain the latest versions of all three language packages; each system is supplied ready to run from the CD, with installation programs to install the individual programs onto your hard disk. Full on-line documentation for each package using AmigaGuide is also included." Note: 'all three language packages' refers to Devpac, Pascal and BASIC. No price or release dates are known at this time, but it is good to see HiSoft promoting the serious use of CD-ROMs on the Amiga. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS As far as Amiga Pascal products go, the only other compiler I have used is PCQ Pascal, which was public domain and is now, I believe, shareware. Since PCQ supported only the Standard Pascal command set, and since it relied on using other PD products like A68K and Blink to create the final executable program, it cannot be fairly compared to a commercial TurboPascal compiler like HSPascal. Compared to TurboPascal 6.0 on the PC, HSPascal wins on looks, since Turbo 6 does not have a Windows interface. As far as compilation of code goes, both compilers seem to work as well as each other, although I think HSPascal is somewhat faster in compiling (subjective opinion only). As an Amiga user, I prefer using HSPascal, and only use TurboPascal if I have to be sure that my code will work on a PC, and even then I would only use it to test the code *after* I had written it using HSPascal. BUGS None that I know of. VENDOR SUPPORT I have not had to contact the vendor at all. WARRANTY A 30 day period from the date of purchase is provided free. If you require further support from HiSoft, you must pay for it. Two schemes exist: the Silver Support and Gold Support schemes. Silver Support costs 19.95 UK Pounds and is a one-off payment. This gives you access to technical help from HiSoft, and also provides access to reduced cost upgrades (see the List Price section). Gold Support costs 39.95 UK Pounds PER YEAR, but offers free incremental upgrades (i.e. from V1.1 to V1.2 would be free, but from V1.x to V2.x would not be). Both schemes cover all HiSoft products you may own without having to pay any extra. Thus someone with HSPascal, Devpac and Hisoft Basic could get support for all three by paying just once. If you have already registered another HiSoft product, HSPascal will be covered by that support registration, you only need return the registration card to activate the support. CONCLUSIONS If you require a fast and reliable Turbo Pascal 5 compatible compiler for your Amiga, this is the only choice. If you are just starting out with Pascal programming, you may prefer the simpler and cheaper PCQ Pascal option, and perhaps purchase HSPascal at a later date. Overall this is an excellent utility and is a worthy companion to the other great HiSoft products available. (I'm not connected to HiSoft by the way; I just happen to like their products.) COPYRIGHT NOTICE This is a freely distributable document. Use it however you like, as long as any alterations do not change the context of the review. Also, don't try to pass it off as your own work, because IT ISN'T! Chris email: c.j.coulson@ncl.ac.uk --- Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews @endnode @node P3-4 "Review: Physics Laboratory in Mechanics" @toc P3 =========================================================================== == Review: Physics Laboratory in Mechanics By: @{"Jason Compton" link P8-1} == =========================================================================== I was once a student of physics, so I think I was decently enough prepared to review this product. What I wasn't prepared for was the use of (shudder) bru by the installer program for this 4-disk program. Yes, bru. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it's the program behind HDBackup, the sabotage Commodore placed in Workbench 2.x and above to make you think you could back up your hard drive and retrieve it. So, I had to dig out my old WB disks in order to get the program installed... But enough complaining. Once it actually WAS installed, it was time to get to business. PLIM resides in its own directory and is actually two programs, to represent parts one and two of the program (merely a division of the subject matter.) They cover kinematics, dynamics, statics, universal gravitation, work and energy, impulse and momentum, and rotation. The program itself is written in CanDo, and in rather unpleasing 640x200 and fairly low color. But the interface has been set up intelligently and is well laid-out, describing the particular experiment being taught, clueing the student to select an equation, and then proceeding with the simulation. The buttons are certainly easy to distinguish and intuitive to decipher. The subject matter itself is presented well, although (as with all educational software) is certainly only a suppliment to a full-blown class. 3 experiments (easy/medium/hard) are given in each subject area, with a logical progression between them. One of the better parts of the program is the history and picture section, with a summary of the basis of the experiment and either its creator or the scientist who developed an important concept behind it. The pictures are primitive, but are at least a diversion. Sounds and music are included, and are also very basic. The concepts are presented well, even if the experiments sometimes run slowly-I found myself waiting a rather long time to draw 5 dotted circles in a orbit experiment. My only real complaint with the material presented is that there should be more of it: expanding the scope beyond mechanics, at least in future products, would be appreciated. It seems only natural to present electricity and magnetism on a computer, does it not? In short, Lori Vinciguerra seems to know a great deal about physics and is very interested in presenting it in an educational way. In this, she has definitely succeeded. However, there are quite a few rough edges on the program that prevent it from being a real grabber. Allowing instructors to develop their own experiments certainly wouldn't hurt, either. Hats off to OWL Software. It takes bravery to try educating people with Amigas. It takes talent to actually pull it off, too. OWL Software 460 Summer Avenue Reading, MA 01867-3819 owl@davinci.reading.ma.us BBS: 617-942-7216 @endnode @node P2-2-1 "NetBSD 1.0" @toc P2-2 I am pleased to announce the availability of release 1.0 of the NetBSD operating system, a freely available and redistributable BSD system that runs on a variety of hardware platforms. NetBSD 1.0 is based on 4.4BSD Lite and Berkeley Networking Release 2 sources. It includes support for shared libraries on most architectures, the enhanced Berkeley Fast File System (which supports 64-bit file sizes and clustering), rock-solid networking code, and a fair amount of binary compatibility with other operating systems. A list of significant changes since the last release is present in the "CHANGES" file in the distribution. The list is far too long to include here. Release 1.0 of the NetBSD operating system is distributed with complete source code and is available from the distribution sites listed at the bottom of this message. At this time, binary releases for the following architectures are available: Amigas i386-family PCs some m68k-based Macintoshes PC532 SPARCstation (sun4c) -class machines In addition, a binary release is expected, but not yet ready, for the HP9000/300 family of workstations. Though the NetBSD 1.0 source tree includes support for DECstations, some Sun 3 models, and some VAXen, those ports are not far enough along to merit a complete binary distribution. Within the next few days, installation and release notes for each of the ports mentioned above will be posted to the appropriate mailing lists and/or newsgroups for those ports. If those notes don't answer any questions you might have about NetBSD, you should probably subscribe to one of more of the NetBSD mailing lists, and ask there. For information on what lists are available and how to subscribe, mail majordomo@NetBSD.ORG with an empty message body. Enjoy! Chris Demetriou The NetBSD Project ============================================================================ NetBSD Mirror Site List The following sites mirror the NetBSD 1.0. Those marked with "[*]" are also known to mirror NetBSD-current. Host name Services Provided ---- ---- -------- -------- ftp.iastate.edu Anonymous FTP, AFS [*] Anon-FTP path: pub/netbsd/NetBSD-1.0 AFS path: /afs/iastate.edu/public/ftp/pub/netbsd/NetBSD-1.0 ftp.eecs.umich.edu Anonymous FTP [*] Anon-FTP path: BSD/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.0 gatekeeper.dec.com Anonymous FTP Anon-FTP path: pub/BSD/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.0 wipux2.wifo.uni-mannheim.de Anonymous FTP, SUP [*] Anon-FTP path: pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.0 SUP: get the file pub/misc/sup/supfile.example via anonymous FTP, and read it as an example. NetBSD.rmit.edu.au Anonymous FTP, SUP [*] Anon-FTP path: pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.0 SUP: get the file /README.sup via anonymous FTP, and read it for information. ftp.demon.co.uk Anonymous FTP, possibly SUP [*] Anon-FTP path: pub/BSD/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.0 SUP: contact peter@demon.net for SUP server status/information ftp.ibp.fr Anonymous FTP [*] Anon-FTP path: pub/NetBSD ftp.uni-regensburg.de Anonymous FTP Anon-FTP path: pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.0 ftp.unit.no Anonymous FTP Anon-FTP path: pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.0 ftp.stacken.kth.se Anonymous FTP Anon-FTP path: pub/OS/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.0 flick.lerc.nasa.gov Anonymous FTP Anon-FTP path: pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.0 coombs.anu.edu.au Anonymous FTP Anon-FTP path: pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.0 ftp.funet.fi Anonymous FTP Anon-FTP path: pub/unix/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.0 col.hp.com Anonymous FTP [*] Anon-FTP path: mirrors/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.0 ftp.netbsd.org Anonymous FTP, SUP [*] Anon-FTP path: pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.0 SUP: get the file pub/sup/README.sup via anonymous FTP from ftp.netbsd.org, and read it for instructions. If you wish to become a distribution site for NetBSD, contact Chris Demetriou . @endnode @node P2-2-2 "XPR Kermit 2.37" @toc P2-2 TITLE XPR Kermit VERSION 2.37 AUTHOR Stephen Walton, Frank da Cruz, Marco Papa swalton@galileo.csun.edu DESCRIPTION XPR Kermit is an implementation of the Kermit file transfer protocol written as an Amiga external protocol (XPR). This means that any terminal program which follows the XPR specification can use XPR Kermit to transfer files using the Kermit protocol. The Kermit file transfer protocol is very robust, and is the only major protocol which can transfer binary files over lines which do not transparently pass all 256 8-bit characters. It is also very widely available on everything from ancient minicomputers with 16K of RAM to the latest supercomputers. For more information on Kermit, Amiga users should refer to the book "Using C Kermit" by Frank da Cruz and Christine Gianone. NEW FEATURES Version 2.37 of XPR Kermit fixes an embarrassing bug which meant XPR Kermit never freed the memory it allocates for file transfers. The fix was simple; thanks to John Ata for reporting the problem. ALL USERS of XPR Kermit should get this latest release. HOST NAME Aminet, for example ftp.cdrom.com (192.216.191.11). DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/new, will move to /pub/aminet/comm/term FILE NAME xprkermit.2.lha PRICE Free DISTRIBUTABILITY The Kermit file transfer protocol is copyrighted by Columbia University, New York, NY USA. Please see the files available for anonymous FTP from watsun.cc.columbia.edu for the details of the distribution. In particular, Kermit cannot be distributed for profit. Anyone who wants to distribute XPR Kermit in any way which involves the exchange of money should first contact Frank da Cruz, fdc@watsun.cc.columbia.edu. OTHER The USENET group comp.protocols.kermit.misc is for open discussion of the Kermit protocol. @endnode @node P2-2-3 "Aminet CD 4" @toc P2-2 TITLE Aminet CD 4 AUTHOR Urban D. Mueller (umueller@wuarchive.wustl.edu) CONTENTS Aminet CD 4 contains 1.1 Gigabytes of freely distributable software, The newest file included is dated Oct 8th. The space is used as follows: 330M of software that has appeared since Aminet CD 3 (15-Jun-94) 230M of modules (music) 100M of top downloads (most frequently accessed files) These consist of 1700 modules 1600 utilities 250 games 100 demos 80 animations ACCESS FEATURES - Amigaguide based user interface, allows easy unpacking and viewing with a single mouse click - Extensive search facilities. Finds words in descriptions and outputs matches as an index that allows direct viewing - Many guides to the contents of the CD. E.g. top downloads lists, new software recommendations, and style sorted module lists CHANGES The following things have changed since Aminet CD 3: - Almost all of the contents. Less than 100M of the Aminet CD 4 contents were already found on CD 3. - Viewing programs are now configurable, ie you can pick your own module players and image viewers - The search facility now accepts search patterns with wild cards (OS 2.0 required for this feature) - An index of all earlier Aminet CD's exists and can be searched using the find tool - There is now a BBS index files (files.bbs) in every bottom level directory - There is now a module player that works under OS 1.3, ie you can play the mods on CDTV (mem expansion recommended) - Also included is a random player that plays music from the CD in the background AVAILABILITY Shipping COMPATIBILITY - All Amigas including CDTV/A570. Not compatible with CD32 plus Communicator. Compatible with CD32 plus SX1. Not bootable. - All Amiga OS versions for the access software. - All operating systems, except some MSDOS CDROM file systems that cannot handle mixed case file names. PRICES The CD comes in two versions for different prices. The higher priced version (Aminet Gold) includes a donation to the otherwise unpaid makers of the CD, the lower price one does not (you can still donate tho). The CD can be ordered from the following addresses: (credit cards OK) Germany: Stefan Ossowski Tel: +49-201-788778 (English spoken) Fax: +49-201-798447 Email: stefano@tchest.e.eunet.de Aminet Gold : DM 29.80 Aminet Share: DM 19.80 USA: Fred Fish Tel: +1-602-917-0917 Fax: +1-602-917-0917 Email: fnf@amigalib.com Aminet Gold : $19.95 Aminet Share: $11.95 Prices exclude shipping. Subscriptions are available. More information, including distributors in other countries, is found in the text file docs/misc/CD-Orders.txt on Aminet. A complete index of Aminet CD 4 is found in disk/cdrom/Aminet-CD-4.lha Aminet CD 3 is still available. @endnode @node P2-2-4 "Superloader.loader" @toc P2-2 TITLE SuperLoader.loader VERSION Version 1.0 AUTHOR Steve Quartly (steveq@sndcrft.DIALix.oz.au) DESCRIPTION This is a very flexible loader for module OpalPaint. By using Andreas Kleinert's superview.library, SuperLoader.loader is able to load the following file formats into OpalPaint: IFF-ILBM IFF-ACBM OS V3.00+ DataTypes PCX upto V3.0 SVO upto V1.0 GIF upto 89a BMP (Windows) FBM (Unix) C64 (Koala, Doodle) IMG (GEM/Ventura) TIFF (V5.0) Targa WPG (WordPerfect) SunRaster (RAS) Pictor/PCPaint/PIC MAC (MacPaint) JPEG (JFIF) SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS - Opalvision card. - superview.library (partially included in archive.) HOST Aminet FTP sites (ftp.luth.se 130.240.18.2, etc) DIRECTORY pub/aminet/gfx/board FILENAME SuperLoader_10.lha - 121887 bytes PRICE Free - distribute as much as you like! DISTRIBUTION Freely redistributable as long as archive is intact. All rights reserved. Not to be re-sold, except for duplication/disk costs ($4 max), or with express written consent from the author. @endnode @node P2-2-5 "MUI Builder 2.00" @toc P2-2 TITLE MUI-Builder VERSION 2.00 COMPANY None AUTHOR Eric Totel 26 route de Montsuzain 10150 Voue France EMail : Eric.Totel@Ramses.fdn.org Fidonet: 2:320/104.56 DESCRIPTION MUI-Builder is an application builder for MUI programs. It will allow beginners and other programmers to build their Graphic User Interface very easily. It generates C, E or Oberon code for MUI. (soon to come : Modula2) With the many options of MUI-Builder, you will be able to generate precisely the part of the source code you really want, and not only the whole interface. This will permit to maintain easily your code without losing your previously modified program, each time you change your interface. Moreover you will be able to design the inline hypertext guide from MUI-Builder by attaching a help text to each GUI-Object of your interface. The builder will be able to create the AmigaGuide documentation automatically. NEW FEATURES - Notifications support (creation and test of the notifications) - New tree display - New external generators (a library provides some functions to help the programmers !) - More objects supported (Menus, PopObjects ...) - improved objects - More style guide compliant - and a lot of others ... SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS - MUI 2.2 ( Won't work with previous versions ) - OS 2.x and up HOST NAME Any aminet site such as: wuarchive.wustl.edu or ( in europe ) ftp.luth.se. DIRECTORY Aminet : /pub/aminet/dev/gui FILE NAMES MUIBuilder20.lha (program, docs[guide and dvi], and examples) PRICE GiftWare (send what you want but send something !!!!) DISTRIBUTABILITY GiftWare. @endnode @node P2-2-6 "GTDriver" @toc P2-2 TITLE GTDriver VERSION 1.0 AUTHOR Roberto Attias UUCP: attias@ghost.sm.dsi.unimi.it (preferred) roby@tias.adsp.sub.org Marco Zandonadi UUCP: zandonad@ghost.sm.dsi.unimi.it DESCRIPTION GTDriver is a program to control serial graphic tablets and serial mice with your Amiga. Version 1.0 of GTDriver supports the following tablets: - Summagraphics MM - Summagraphics Bitpadone - CalComp 2000 - Cherry - TekTronix 4957 - Wacom and the following mice: - Microsoft mouse - Mouse System mouse If your tablet or mouse emulates one of the previous models you can use it with GTDriver (if not, contact the authors to have your device supported in the next release of the package). GTDriver has many parameters that can be configured using the prefs program GTDOptions. Among the parameters you find the emulation type, the baud rate, the dpi tablet resolution, the dimensions of the clip region, etc. GTDriver has two working modes: 'driver mode' and 'server mode'. In 'driver mode' the pointing device of the tablet becomes a mouse replacement, and you can use the tablet with any program. If you have a digitizing puck, it may have more than two buttons. However, only three buttons are supported in 'driver mode'. The third button is mapped to the third Amiga mouse button (that is supported by few programs). 'Server mode' is intended for programmers only. You can write your own programs that use GTDriver in server mode: in this way GTDriver will not control the screen pointer, and will send complete tablet information to your program in a documented format. By using GTDriver in 'server mode' your software can take full advantage of any tablet feature. GTDriver supports user-defined tablet buttons (called pseudo-buttons or p-buttons). A p-button is a rectangular area on the tablet, to which an arbitrary key combination has been associated. Whenever you press the stylus on a pseudo button, its key combination is sent to the active program just like you were pressing it on the keyboard. As many programs use keyboard shortcuts to select tools and menu items, you can define sets of p-buttons even for programs not explicitly written to work with GTDriver. For example, you can use Deluxe Paint or DynaCadd with a graphic tablet without having tool bars on the screen, without selecting menu items and, most of all, without the software being aware of GTDriver! FEATURES - Message port with support for many commands; - Two working modes: 'driver mode' (mouse replacement mode) and 'server mode' (direct control for programmers); - Support for user defined pseudo-buttons on the tablet; a pseudo button is associated to a keyboard sequence so that button masks can be created to control software that isn't aware of GTDriver (Deluxe Paint, etc.); - Font-sensitive AUISG-compliant preferences program (GTDOptions); - Enforcer and Mungwall test for both GTDriver and GTDOptions; - Dvi, Amigaguide, ASCII and ANSI text documentation; - C source example to show how to program GTDriver in 'server mode'; - Deluxe Paint 4.5 pseudo-button mask included; HOST NAME GTDriver is available for anonymous FTP on Aminet sites such as ftp.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4). DIRECTORY /pub/aminet/hard/drivr/ FILE NAMES GTDriver.lha (183146 bytes) GTDriver.readme (5146 bytes) SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS GTDriver needs at least Kickstart/Workbench 2.04 to run. A fast CPU it's not required but the driver may have better performance with it. PRICE To become a registered user you have to send us a registration fee and your full name and address. More details are explained in the package documentation. If you like `GTDriver' and use it, please register yourself, helping us to enhance this product. If you don't think this program is useful enough to pay for it, please, at least e-mail (or mail) us your suggestions, so that we can make improvements. DISTRIBUTABILITY GTDriver is NOT PD. It is shareware. The authors keep the copyright over the whole package. The unregistered version of GTDriver is freely (re)distributable, but none is allowed to sell the program for more money than to cover just the costs of copying. In any case noone may charge more than Fred Fish claims for one of his "Library Disks"! @endnode @node P2-2-7 "NewIcons" TITLE The NewIcons Package AUTHOR The programs and documentation were written by: Nicola Salmoria (MC6489@mclink.it) The icon artwork was drawn by: Roger McVey (r.mcvey@genie.geis.com) The documentation and installer were written by: Philip A. Vedovatti (vedovatt@u.washington.edu) DESCRIPTION NewIcons is a revolutionary enhancement to the graphical user interface (GUI) of the Amiga computer. On an AGA machine, the NewIcons package allows users of AGA systems to view icons on their Workbench, independent of the Workbench palette settings. Icons up to 256 colors can be utilized on the standard workbench. A comprehensive set of NewIcon images is included in the package for all the standard Workbench files as well as several other images. The images were drawn by the artist well-known for his isometric icon sets, Roger McVey. Included in the NewIcons package is DefIcons, which will display the appropriate icon for dozens of different file types that don't have icons attached to them. Deficons recognizes IFF, JPEG, and GIF files, source codes of various languages, packed file types, mountlists, printer and monitor drivers, and much more. Both NewIcons and Deficons work on OS2.0+ systems as well (with a 16 color icon limitation on non-AGA machines). Other features include: o Icons can easily be created from IFF brushes using your favorite paint program. The icons will appear on your workbench screen in the _exact_ proper colors, no matter what your palette is set to (using AGA). o If you click on a "fake" icon, the Workbench "Execute Command" field will have the user defined default tool already typed in for you. o Fix that CrossDos icon to look like a standard NewIcon image. o Unique icons for RAM disks and CD-ROMS that don't have icon images. o Comprehensive set of NewIcon manipulation utilities to maximize the appearance of your Workbench. o Extensively beta tested. o Full AmigaGuide documentation and automated installer script. Your old icons will NOT be deleted! o A supplemental icon set will soon be released with over 400 NewIcon images. o NewIcons and DefIcons work independently of each other, so you can install which features you want to use. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS NewIcons and Deficons will work on any Amiga system using OS 2.04 or above. OS2.x users have a 16 color icon limitation; AGA users can use icons up to 256 colors. A hard disk drive is recommended. HOST NAME Available via Anonymous FTP on any Aminet site (such as ftp.netnet.net 198.70.64.3). DIRECTORY pub/aminet/util/wb PRICE Free! DISTRIBUTABILITY This software is FREEWARE. It is freely distributable as long as the archive remains intact, and only a nominal fee is charged for its distribution. This software is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. By using it, you agree to accept the entire risk as to the quality and performance of the program. @endnode @node P5B-1 "Amiga Report Mailing List" @toc P5B =========================================================================== == Amiga Report Mailing List == =========================================================================== If you have an internet mailing address, you can receive Amiga Report in @{"UUENCODED" link P5B-1-1} form each week as soon as the issue is released. To be put on the list, send Email to jcompton@bbs.xnet.com and in the body of the message ask nicely and briefly to be added to the list. ie: Please add me to the mailing list for Amiga Report magazine. My addresss is . 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. ** 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! ** @endnode @node P5B-1-1 @toc P5B 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 P5-4 "Copyright Information" @toc P5 =========================================================================== == _ _ __ ___ _ == == /\\ |\\ /| || // \ /\\ == == / \\ | \\ /|| ||(< __ / \\ == == /--- \\| \/ || || \\_||/--- \\ == == /______________________________\\ == == / \\ == == Amiga Report International Online Magazine == == November 21, 1994 ~ Issue No. 2.32 == == 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 permission. However, translation into a language other than English is acceptble, provided the original meaning is not altered. Amiga Report may be distributed 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 publication, is believed reasonably accurate. Amiga Report, its staff and contributors 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 Copyright 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 is specifically requested not to be reprinted. =========================================================================== @endnode @node P6-1 "Editor's Choice" @toc P6 =========================================================================== == Editor's Choice == =========================================================================== These are selected products, reviewed by myself, that I've liked. So, I've landed them and decided to sell them at the lowest price I'm authorized. All prices are in $US. | Issue | Approximate | Amiga Report | Product | Reviewed | Retail Price | Reader Price | ---------------------------------|----------|--------------|--------------| | | | | | |Swifty 3-button mouse | 2.28 | $39.95 | $22.75 | | | | | | |GPFax Amiga Fax Software | 2.30 | $100.00 | $60.00 | | (Class 1 and 2) | | | | | | | | | |Micro R+D CD-ROM Volume 1 | 2.25 | $79.00 | $53.95 | | (Includes Transition graphic| | | | | converter and loads of | | | | | artwork) | | | | | | | | | |Micro R+D CD-ROM Volume 2 | 2.26 | $99.00 | $59.95 | | (Includes entire Nature's | | | | | Backdrop series) | | | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Orders may be placed via check, money order, or postal cheque, made out to Micro R+D. Visa/Mastercard accepted via post or E-Mail. No CODs. Mail all orders to @{" Jason Compton " link P8-1}. Orders will be processed by Amiga Report and drop-shipped from Micro R+D. In the US, add $5/$10/$20 for UPS shipping, ground/blue/red label, respectively. Overseas: It is recommended that you consider $20 to be the minimum cost for shipping. If you plan to order more than one item, E-mail for shipping cost. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sidewinder's Future Shock II CD is now available through Amiga Report. Featuring 15 Amiga-generated tunes totalling 71 minutes, Eric Gieseke's work is captured on an Amiga-independent media. Available for US$12.00. Please add $5 for shipping. Make check or money order payable to @{" Jason Compton " link P8-1}. Orders will be drop-shipped from Sidewinder Productions. For overseas orders, please contact through E-Mail before ordering. @endnode @node P6-2 "Area52 Price Listing" @toc P6 AREA52 Price Listing for September/October 1994. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Although many Amiga mail order companies and dealers are becoming harder to locate, it only makes room for us smaller dealers to bring you the same products at the same prices you would expect from the largest mail order house around. Over the summer we at AREA52 have been slowly expanding our product line to contain hardware such as hard drives, monitors, and accelerators, along with software from various smaller developers in the area. Here are some of our prices, but look for more in the October issue of Video Toaster User. We welcome you to compare prices! 17" AOC SVGA monitor, digital controls, .28mm 1280x1024 NI $625 14" SVGA monitors, many brands, .28mm, 1024x768 NI 260 Warp Engine 68040 for A4000, 0mhz, SCSI2 750 Cyberstorm 68040 for A4000, 0mhz 750 Personal Animation Recorder 1499 Conner 540 megabyte IDE hard drive, PAR compatible 299 Conner 810 megabyte IDE hard drive 499 Conner 1.0 gigabyte IDE hard drive, PAR compatible 625 Micropolis 2210A 1.0 gigabyte hard drive, IDE, PAR compatible 699 Micropolis 2217A 1.7 gigabyte hard drive, IDE, PAR compatible 950 Micropolis 2210 1.0 gigabyte hard drive, SCSI2 699 Micropolis 2217 1.7 gigabyte hard drive, SCSI2 950 Micropolis 2217AV 1.7 gigabyte hard drive, SCSI2 999 Fujitsu 530 megabyte SCSI hard drive 350 Fujitsu 1.0 gigabyte SCSI hard drive 625 Samsung 251 megabyte IDE hard drive 199 Samsung 426 megabyte IDE hard drive 250 Barracuda 2.1 gigabyte SCSI2 hard drive 1350 Barracuda 4.2 gigabyte SCSI2 hard drive 2599 Seagate 42 megabyte 2.5" IDE hard drive for A1200, A600 150 Seagate 210 megabyte 2.5" IDE hard drive for A1200, A600 299 Seagate 340 megabyte 2.5" IDE hard drive for A1200, A600 425 Seagate 524 megabyte 2.5" IDE hard drive for A1200, A600 625 External drive bays 1 drive bay $99. 2: $150, 4: $250, 8: $475 Most drives are 2 year minimum to 5 year warranty on larger drives. MTBF of 23 years on all drives! Most drives are 3.5" half height. Order (800) 730-0082, or FAX 24 hour orders to (516) 476-1615. NY State residents may order using (516) 476-1615. NY State residents must add 8% sales tax. VISA and MasterCard accepted. COD accepted by money order or cash equivalent. Prices subject to change. @endnode @node P6-4-1 "Delphi" @toc P6-4 =========================================================================== == Delphi Internet Services -- Your Connection to the World! == =========================================================================== Amiga Report International Online Magazine and the Amiga Report Coverdisk are available 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 P6-4-2 "Portal" @toc P6-4 =========================================================================== == 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 pressured doing it. * Live, interactive nightly chats with Amiga folks whose names you will recognize. Special conferences. Random chance prize contests. We have 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 1-408-973-9111 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time 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 P5B-2 "Aminet" @toc P5B Aminet ~~~~~~ To get Amiga Report from Aminet, simply FTP to any Aminet site, CD to docs/mags. All the back issues are located there as well. (ftp.cdrom.com or ftp.wustl.edu are two sites) @endnode @node P5B-3 "World Wide Web" @toc P5B 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/News/AR/index.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 @endnode @node P9-A1 "Omaha Amiganet" @toc P5B-4A * 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 P9-A2 "NOVA" @toc P5B-4A * 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 P9-A3 "PIONEERS BBS" @toc P5B-4A * 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 P9-A4 "CIUA BBS" @toc P5B-4A * 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 P9-A5 "Amiga Junction 9" @toc P5B-4A * 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 P9-A6 "BitStream BBS" @toc P5B-4A * BITSTREAM BBS * The BBS of the Nelson (NZ) Amiga Users Group Official Amiga Report Distribution Site BITSTREAM BBS is running on an Amiga 2000/030 with 7MB RAM 800MB of Hard Drive Space and a 650MB CD-ROM Drive Line 1 : 24 hours, +64-(0)3-548-5321, SupraFaxModem 28k8 VFast Class Modem Supplied by Supra. Hard Drive Controller Supplied by Micro World We use the XENOLINK Professional BBS Software v1.91 Sysop: Glen Roberts Co-Sysop: Peter Lowish FidoNET 3:771/850.0 MaxNET 90:301/150.0 AmigaNET 41:644/850.0 @endnode @node P9-A7 "Realm of Twilight" @toc P5B-4A * 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 P9-A8 "Metnet Triangle" @toc P5B-4A 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 P9-A9 "Amiga-Night-System" @toc P5B-4A * 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 P9-A10 "Ramses Amiga Flying" @toc P5B-4A * 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 P9-A11 "Gateway BBS" @toc P5B-4A * 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 P9-A12 "EMERALD KEEP BBS" @toc P5B-4A * 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 P9-A13 "Amiga BBS" @toc P5B-4A * 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 P9-A14 "The Stygian Abyss" @toc P5B-4A * 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 P9-A15 "Amiga Do PC BBS" @toc P5B-4A * 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 P9-A16 "Comm-Link BBS" @toc P5B-4A * 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 P9-A17 "Phantom's Lair" @toc P5B-4A * 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 P9-A18 "Tierra-Miga BBS" @toc P5B-4A 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 P9-A19 "Moonlight Sonata DLG" @toc P5B-4A 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 P9-A20 "Continental Drift" @toc P5B-4A *=====================================================================* /\ 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 P9-A21 "Amiga Online Bs Heemstede" @toc P5B-4A 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 P9-A22 "The Kobayashi Alternative BBS" @toc P5B-4A 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 P9-A23 "Highway to Hell BBS" @toc P5B-4A * Highway to Hell BBS * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site Sysop: Iain Black (iblack@dit.ie) Cosysop: Damien Ryan (djryan@dit.ie) Online from 22:00 - 08:00 GMT Fidonet Node: 2:263/154 +353-1-847 5217 @endnode @node P9-B1 "In The MeanTime" @toc P5B-4B *** 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 P9-B2 "Freeland Mainframe" @toc P5B-4B * 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 P9-B3 "LAHO" @toc P5B-4B * 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 P9-B4 "Falling BBS" @toc P5B-4B * 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 P9-B5 "Command Line BBS" @toc P5B-4B * 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 P9-B6 "Leguans Byte Channel" @toc P5B-4B * 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 P9-B7 "Stingray Database BBS" @toc P5B-4B * 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 P9-B8 "T.B.P. Video Slate" @toc P5B-4B _________________________________ / / /_ /\ * 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 P9-B9 "Amiga Central" @toc P5B-4B * 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 P9-B10 "Guru Meditation" @toc P5B-4B * 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 P9-B11 "LINKSystem LINK-CH1" @toc P5B-4B 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 P9-B12 "Doom of Darkness" @toc P5B-4B * 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 P9-B13 "RedEye BBS" @toc P5B-4B REDEYE BBS * Running EXCELSIOR/UUCP/AFAX * "Official Amiga Report Distribution Site Germany/Europe" Sysop: Thorsten Meyer Internet: sysop@redeye.muc.de Line 1: +49-89-5460535 (V.32b, Zyxel EG + / USR V.34) 24hrs - 7 days Munich, Germany Areas for Amiga, PCs, Amiga Report, WAU Main Coordinator for Germany, Game Byte, Graphic Stuff, 3D-Exchange, 3D-tools, 3D-objects, GUS, PAS, DOOM, Online CD, Online Games, USENET, INTERNET, FIDO ECHOS, Developer @endnode @node P9-B14 "Virtual Palace BBS" @toc P5B-4B * 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 P9-B15 "X-TReMe BBS" @toc P5B-4B -*+*/+ 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 P9-B16 "Vision Thing BBS" @toc P5B-4B Vision Thing Infect East German HQ, Keks ASCII Design World HQ Running CNET 3.xx about 800 MB HD Space The Amiga Report downloader connects with Handle: Amiga PW: Report ++49(0)345 663914 Speed up to 19200. @endnode @node P9-B17 "Amiga Professional BBS" @toc P5B-4B AMIGA PROFESSIONAL BBS +(39)-49-604488 24h - 365 days ZyXEL V42/42bis MNP5, 16.8K Hardware Amiga 3000T 1GByte SCSI-HD Software AmiExpress BBS SysOp Claudio Zanella, 35133 PADOVA - ITALY Official board of Amy Professional Club Official WAU point North East Italy Official Italian Amos Club Official Amiga Report Distribution Site AMIGA ONLY, development, gfx, musix, no piracy @endnode @node P9-B18 "The Belfry(!)" @toc P5B-4B * The Belfry(!) * Sysop: Jesse Erlbaum (stiggy@dorsai.dorsai.org An East Coast distributor of Amiga Report Amiga-run BBS since August 1989 718.793.4796 718.793.4905 @endnode @node P6-3 "Dealer Directory" @toc "menu" =========================================================================== == Dealer Directory == =========================================================================== Arranged by Continent: @{" Asia ", link P6-3-1} @{" Europe ", link P6-3-2} @{" North America ", link P6-3-3} (Dealers: To have your name added, please send @{"Email", link P8-1}!) @endnode @node P6-3-1 "Dealers - Asia" @toc P6-3 =========================================================================== == Dealers - Asia == =========================================================================== 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 @endnode @node P6-3-2 "Dealers - Europe" @toc P6-3 =========================================================================== == Dealers - Europe == =========================================================================== 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 Sales: almathera@cix.compulink.co.uk Tech: jralph@cix.compulink.co.uk Amiga Center Alicante Segura, 27 03004 Alicante Spain Tel: (96) 514 37 34 Amiga Center Argullós, 127 08016 Barcelona Spain Tel: (93) 276 38 06 Fax: (93) 276 30 80 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 Centro Informático Boadilla Convento, 6 28660 Boadilla del Monte (Madrid) Spain Tel: (91) 632 27 65 Fax: (91) 632 10 99 Centro Mail Spain Tel: (91) 380 28 92 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 C.R.E. San Francisco, 85 48003 Bilbao (Vizcaya) Spain Tel: (94) 444 98 84 Fax: (94) 444 98 84 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 DataKompaniet ANS Pb 3187 Munkvoll N-7002 Trondheim Norway - Europe VOICE/FAX: 72 555 149 Internet: torrunes@idt.unit.no DataService Oy P.O. Box 50 Kuurinniityntie 30 02771 ESPOO Finland, Europe Voice: +358 (9) 400 438 301 Fax: +358 (9) 0505 0037 Donosti Frame Avda. de Madrid, 15 20011 San Sebastián (Guipuzcoa) Spain Tel: (943) 42 07 45 Fax: (943) 42 45 88 GaliFrame Galerías Príncipe, 22 Vigo (Pontevedra) Spain Tel: (986) 22 89 94 Fax: (986) 22 89 94 Invision San Isidro, 12-18 28850 Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid) Spain Tel: (91) 676 20 56/59 Fax: (91) 656 10 04 Invision Salamanca, 53 46005 Valencia Spain Tel: (96) 395 02 43/44 Fax: (96) 395 02 44 Norsoft Bedoya, 4-6 32003 Orense Spain Tel: (988) 24 90 46 Fax: (988) 23 42 07 PiXeLSOFT Felipe II, 3bis 34004 Palencia Spain Tel: (979) 71 27 00 Fax: (979) 71 28 28 Tu Amiga Plaza Pedro IV, 3 08120 La LLagosta (Barcelona) Spain Tel: (93) 560 76 12 Fax: (93) 560 76 12 vb soft Provenza, 436 08025 Barcelona Spain Tel: (93) 456 15 45 Fax: (93) 456 15 45 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. @endnode @node P6-3-3 "Dealers - North America" @toc P6-3 =========================================================================== == Dealers - North America == =========================================================================== AmegaByte! 5001 Garrett Ave. Beltsville, MD 20705 INTERNET: amega@globe.net VOICE: (800) 834-7153 VOICE: (301) 937-1640 FAX: (301) 937-1658 A Computer Services Company Amigability Computers P.O. Box 572 Plantsville, CT 06479 VOICE: 203-276-8175 Internet: amiga@phantm.UUCP BIX: jbasile (E-mail to sub. to our mailing list) Amiga Video Solutions 1568 Randolph Avenue St. Paul, MN 55105 Voice: 612-698-1175 Fax: 612-224-3823 BBS: 612-698-1918 Net: wohno001@maroon.tc.umn.edu 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 Computer Link Your Amiga/PC connection. 6573 middlebelt Garden City MI 48135 Voice: 313-522-6005 Fax: 313-522-3119 clink@m-net.arbornet.org Computerology Direct Powell River, BC Canada V8A-4Z3 Authorized Commodore, AT&T/NCR Systems Dealer Call 24 hrs. orders/inquiries: 604/483-3679 Amiga users ask for HEAD SALES REP for quicker response! Computers International, Inc. 5415 Hixson Pike Chattanooga, TN 37343 VOICE: 615-843-0630 Comspec Communications Inc Serving your computing needs since 1976 74 Wingold Ave Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6B 1P5 Computer Centre: (416) 785-8348 Sales: (416) 785-3553 Fax: 416-785-3668 Internet: bryanf@comcorp.comspec.com, bryanf@accesspt.north.net 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 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 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 Keizer Tech 3881 River Rd N Keizer, OR 97303 USA Voice: 393-5472 Magic Page 3043 Luther Street Winston-Salem, NC 27127 910-785-3695 voice/fax Spiff@cup.portal.com 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 2945 W Peterson Suite 209 Chicago, Illinois VOICE: 312-878-7800 Software and Service in Chicago - Will ship. Wonder Computers Inc. 1315 Richmond Rd. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2B 8J7 Voice: 613-596-2542 Fax: 613-596-9349 BBS: 613-829-0909 Zipperware 626 S. Washington Seattle, WA 98104 VOICE: 206-223-1107 FAX: 206-223-9395 E-Mail: Jon.Funfar@p0.f203.n138.z1.fidonet.org "Seattle's Last (great) Amiga Store!" @endnode @node P1 "Editorial and Opinion" @toc "menu" =========================================================================== == Editorial and Opinion == =========================================================================== @{" compt.sys.editor.desk " link P1-1} Pondering the past and the future. @{" Darkseid's Opinion " link P1-2} It's...opinion all right. @endnode @node P2 "News and Features" @toc "menu" =========================================================================== == News and Features == =========================================================================== @{" Press Releases " link P2-1} Stuff people want you to know. @{" IRC Conference Rules " link P2-6} Rules for Conference w/Alex Amor @{" COMDEX/Fall '94 " link P2-5} Harv checks out what (and who)'s hot. @{" The Paranoia Story " link P2-4} Sordid history of the game. @endnode @node P3 "Reviews" @toc "menu" =========================================================================== == Reviews == =========================================================================== @{" The Emulation Rambler " link P3-1} CrossMAC/MaxDOS: Harvesting the orchard. @{" Ruff N' Tumble " link P3-2} Darkseid loses his marbles. @{" HighSpeed Pascal " link P3-3} A TurboPascal wannabe. @{" Physics Laboratory " link P3-4} The joy of mechanics. @endnode @node P2-2 "FTP and Product Announcements" @toc P2 =========================================================================== == FTP and Product Announcements == =========================================================================== @{" NetBSD 1.0 " link P2-2-1} Finally! @{" XPR Kermit 2.37 " link P2-2-2} External Kermit library @{" Aminet CD 4 " link P2-2-3} Play the Aminet home game @{" Superloader.loader " link P2-2-4} A picture-loading accessory for Opal @{" MUI Builder 2.00 " link P2-2-5} MUI made simple @{" GTDriver " link P2-2-6} Serial mouse/tablet control @{" NewIcons " link P2-2-7} An icon hack, for lack of another word | The 10 most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 14-Nov-94 | Updated weekly. Most popular file on top. | |File Dir Size Description |------------------- --- ---- ----------- ar231.lha docs/mags 71K+Amiga Report 2.31, November 8, 1994 VChess3_1.lha game/think 163K+Excellent chess game (Vector Graphics) puzzlepits2.lha game/think 258K+Rad! 30 lvls+editor; full version NewIcons.Bkds1.lha pix/icon 771K+The NewIcons Backdrop Set #1 PGPAmi26ui.lha util/crypt 624K+PGPAmiga 2.6ui IITextures.lha gfx/3d 20K+8 Imagine 3.0 Textures. 020+FP only. Aminet-CD-4.lha docs/misc 86K+Index and description of Aminet CD 4 wbtitle.lha util/wb 16K+Change WB title text, show VM, Retina vchck644.lha util/virus 80K+VirusChecker 6.44 Released 28 Oct 1994 AWS-15.lha util/boot 55K+Shows config during boot. @endnode @node P5 "About AMIGA REPORT" @toc "menu" =========================================================================== == About AMIGA REPORT == =========================================================================== @{" AR Staff " link P5-1} The Editors and writers @{" Copyright Information " link P5-4} The legal stuff @endnode @node P5-1 "The Staff" @toc P5 =========================================================================== == The Staff == =========================================================================== Editor: @{" Jason Compton " link P8-1} Assistant Editor: @{" Robert Niles " link P8-2} European Editor: @{" Michael Wolf " link P8-3} Contributing Editor: @{" David Tiberio " link P8-4} Copy Editor: @{" Katie Nelson " link P8-5} Contributing Writers: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _Ken Pierce_ kpierce@age.cuc.ab.ca _Darkseid_ ckb426@ujvax.ulst.ac.uk _Harv Laser_ harv@cup.portal.com @endnode @node P5B "Where to Get AR" @toc "menu" =========================================================================== == Where to Get AR == =========================================================================== @{" The AR Mailing List " link P5B-1} @{" Aminet " link P5B-2} @{" World Wide Web " link P5B-3} @{" Distribution Sites " link P5B-4} @{" Commercial Services " link P6-4} @endnode @node P5B-4 "Distribution Sites" @toc P5B =========================================================================== == Where to find Amiga Report == =========================================================================== @{" FidoNet Systems " link P5B-4A} @{" Non-FidoNet Systems " link P5B-4B} @endnode @node P5B-4A "FidoNet Distribution Sites" @toc P5B-4 FidoNet Systems ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Click on the button of the BBS nearest you for information on that system. FREQ the filename "AR.LHA" for the most current issue of Amiga Report! @{" OMAHA AMIGANET " link P9-A1} .................................Omaha, Nebraska @{" NOVA " link P9-A2} ............................Cleveland, Tennessee @{" PIONEER'S BBS " link P9-A3} .............................Edmonds, Washington @{" CIUA BBS " link P9-A4} ........................................Portugal @{" AMIGA JUNCTION 9 " link P9-A5} ..................................United Kingdom @{" BITSTREAM BBS " link P9-A6} .............................Nelson, New Zealand @{" REALM OF TWILIGHT " link P9-A7} .................................Ontario, Canada @{" METNET TRIANGLE " link P9-A8} .....................Kingston Upon Hull, England @{" AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM " link P9-A9} ...............................Helsinki, Finland @{" RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING " link P9-A10} ..........................................France @{" GATEWAY BBS " link P9-A11} .............................Biloxi, Mississippi @{" EMERALD KEEP BBS " link P9-A12} ........................................Illinois @{" AMIGA BBS " link P9-A13} ........................Estado de Mexico, Mexico @{" THE STYGIAN ABYSS " link P9-A14} ...............................Chicago, Illinois @{" AMIGA DO PC BSS " link P9-A15} ................................Campinas, Brazil @{" COMM-LINK BBS " link P9-A16} ......................Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada @{" PHANTOM'S LAIR " link P9-A17} ......................Glendale Heights, Illinois @{" Tierra-Miga BBS " link P9-A18} ....................................SanDeigo, Ca @{" MOONLIGHT SONATA DLG " link P9-A19} .........................................Finland @{" CONTINENTAL DRIFT " link P9-A20} ...............................Sydney, Australia @{" Amiga Online Bs H'stede " link P9-A21} .................................The Netherlands @{"Kobayashi Alternative BBS" link P9-A22} ...........................................Maine @{" Highway to Hell BBS " link P9-A23} .................................Dublin, Ireland @endnode @node P5B-4B "Non-FidoNet Distribution Sites" @toc P5B-4 Non-FidoNet Systems ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Click on the button of the BBS nearest you for information on that system. @{" IN THE MEANTIME " link P9-B1} ..............................Yakima, Washington @{" FREELAND MAINFRAME " link P9-B2} .............................Olympia, Washington @{" LAHO " link P9-B3} ..............................Seinajoki, Finland @{" FALLING " link P9-B4} ..........................................Norway @{" COMMAND LINE " link P9-B5} .................................Toronto, Canada @{" LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL " link P9-B6} .........................................Germany @{" STINGRAY DATABASE " link P9-B7} ..........................Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany @{" T.B.P. VIDEO SLATE " link P9-B8} ............................Rockaway, New Jersey @{" AMIGA CENTRAL " link P9-B9} ............................Nashville, Tennessee @{" GURU MEDITATION " link P9-B10} ...........................................Spain @{" LINKSystem LINK-CH1 " link P9-B11} ..............................Basel, Switzerland @{" DOOM OF DARKNESS " link P9-B12} .................................Bremen, Germany @{" REDEYE BBS " link P9-B13} .................................Munich, Germany @{" Virtual Palace BBS " link P9-B14} .......................................Chico, Ca @{" X-TReMe BBS " link P9-B15} .................................Holland/Belgium @{" Vision Thing BBS " link P9-B16} .........................................Germany @{" Amiga Professional BBS " link P9-B17} ...........................................Italy @{" The Belfry(!) " link P9-B18} ....................................New York, NY @endnode @node P6 "Commercial Products" @toc "menu" =========================================================================== == Commercial Products == =========================================================================== @{" Editor's Choice " link P6-1} Jason's picks @{" Area52 Price Listing " link P6-2} Tiberio wants to sell you stuff. @{" Commercial Online Services " link P6-4} Sign-Up Information @endnode @node P6-4 "Commercial Online Services" @toc P6 =========================================================================== == Commercial Online Services == =========================================================================== @{" Delphi " link P6-4-1} Getting better all the time! @{" Portal " link P6-4-2} A great place for Amiga users @endnode