@database 00324f60-0 @master alink:al4.guide @$VER: May 28, 1995 @author "Joshua Galun" @(c) "Amiga Link Magazine" @remark Created with Heddley v1.1 (c) Edd Dumbill 1994 @node "Main" "Amiga Link #4 May 28, 1995" @next "Editorial" @{u}Welcome to Amiga Link Magazine!@{uu} @{"Editorial" link "Editorial" 0} This month's rant @{"General  " link "General" 0} Articles on anything and by the Ed! everything Amiga. @{"The Staff" link "TheStaff" 0} The people who @{"Products " link "products" 0} Products that Amiga Link make Amiga Link. highly reccomends. @{"Letters  " link "letters" 0} Where you can read @{"Sites    " link "Distribution" 0} Where you can find the most inventive Amiga Link each month. hate mail around! @{"Legal BS" link "LEGALBS" 0} Read this at your own risk! @{b}Amiga Link #4 May 28, 1995@{ub} @endnode @node "Editorial" "Editorial" @next "General" Well, I feel much better about this issue of Amiga Link than I did with the last one. Lightning didn't strike my Amiga, my modem didn't mysteriously blow up, and God didn't come down from the heavens and take away my hard drive. All in all, things are going smoothly, for once. Before anything, I have to announce the most exciting event that I have heard since Escom bought the Amiga. The Amiga Convention '95, sponsered by Amiga Link, will take place in Montreal during August. This event is a rallying cry to Amiga users and businesses that make money off it to get together and support it! It also promises to be a great party, and be a fun time for all Amiga users who show up! Read more about AC'95 in the info-pack about it in this issue, and upcoming ones as more information becomes available. You may have noticed that there is a file named survey.lha that came with Amiga Link #4. This is a survey being put together to be sent to Escom after the results are tallied, to tell Escom what Amiga owners want. Please fill this out, as it will help out the Amiga community. Things have calmed down a bit since Escom has bought the Amiga. While at first, we had panic stricken Amiga fans jumping off buildings, people have seemed to accpet the situation very quickly. Part of this, ofcourse, is because there is really nothing that we can do about the situation. However, people also have begun to realize that Escom is serious about the Amiga. People realize that Escom IS hiring technicians to work on the Amiga, and that they ARE setting up Amiga subsidiaries in two countries. And, if that wasn't enough, people are enamored with Escom's size. Escom recently bought Rumbelows, an English computer chain, and they've already taken out full page ads in the four major British newspapers, as well as Radio Times, a very popular periodical in England. People just can't comprehend, after Commodore's marketing silence, that the Amiga might be advertised in MAJOR newspapers. This alone has won over many people to Escom's corner. The Amiga Technologies (the company owned by Escom that will be handling the Amiga) announced just before we went to "print" that they had hired Gilles Bourdin as their new Press/Marketing Director. Although I can't comment on Mr. Bourdin's marketing skills, I can say that he IS an Amiga owner, not some PC user who has no idea what an Amiga is or how to market it, and he does come onto Usenet and IRC, so he does talk to and know the Amiga community. Also, on May 30, Escom will be holding what appears will be a big press conference regarding the Amiga's future. It will be "hosted" by Manfred Schmitt, the head of Escom's Board of Directors. There will also be several guest speakers from the Amiga developer community. We have no way of knowing exactly what will go on, but I am guessing that they are doing this to show their support for the Amiga, and to get the Amiga some free advertising in the newspapers that will cover this conference. Amiga Link is trying to send someone to the conference, so that we can inform you of any interesting news that comes out of the conference. I don't believe in an afterlife... But I do believe in resurrection... Joshua Galun Editor of Amiga Link @endnode @node "Guardian" "Guardian Review" @toc "General" @next "CLChat" @prev "gfx" PRODUCT NAME Guardian A1200 BRIEF DESCRIPTION 3-D polygon-based shoot-'em-up AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Acid Software COPY PROTECTION Partially hard drive installable. 1 disk copy-protected, 1 disk not protected. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 1200 w/WB 3.0 (NTSC w/Degrader v1.30 by Chris Hames) 2 MB Chip, 4 MB GVP Fast Seagate130 MB HD Supra 880K external drive REVIEW Guardian has been compared to the classic game Defender. It certainly contains most of the features of Defender: fast, furious action; limitless alien threats with different capabilities; lots of buttons... from all the hype and comparison, I expected Guardian to be a good game. It IS a good game. Guardian is more like Defender's second sequel, Strikeforce. There are many different planets, each with different geographies and hazards. Your mission is to protect these planets from invaders who wish to destroy all the friendly buildings present. You have to defeat the aliens with as much accuracy as possible to avoid destroying your own buildings. To aid your mission, you have homing missiles which do not home in on your installations, and smart bombs which also kill everything except your buildings. After every few levels, there is a huge 'boss' ship which you must defeat in order to advance. What keeps Guardian from greatness? First, there seem to be some rather annoying bugs. Whole threads have been devoted to them on comp.sys.games.amiga. There are four which I have experienced. The first occurs after completing a level: sometimes the whole screen corrupts and the game becomes unplayable. The second bug, which I believe is present in the copy-protected level disk, prevents the levels from loading. The disk drive crunches and grinds, but the levels are not loaded and the computer must be rebooted. A third bug prevents the game from even loading. It hangs moments after the Workbench is closed. And if the adjustable viewing angle is not set at the default angle, the fourth bug causes buildings and terrain to float in the sky when the fighter is climbing. Other problems: the game is not multitasking or Workbench-friendly. I expected Guardian to be similar to Acid's other game, Roadkill. In that game, the ESC key would send me to Workbench. Nope. Reboot city, baby. Also, I found the viewing angle difficult to play in. My shots were often too high or low. If I adjusted the viewing angle, I'd get confused by the floating buildings. Lastly, I feel that this game was too expensive (suggested US price $49.95, I bought it for $39.95). Ever since Team 17 started released some new games at budget prices (suggested US price $19.95) I've seen many games that I think should be released at similar prices. Guardian contains a lot of action and a variety of enemies, but lacks depth. By lack of depth I mean that there is little to do besides shoot and dodge; there is not much else. I don't like paying a lot of money for a little bit of game. I admit, that what game that exists is very good. Sound: 7 Graphics: 7 Gameplay: 6 Lastability: 6 Value: 5 Overall: 6 Carl Chavez foregone@u.washington.edu @endnode @node "CLChat" "ClChat 3.7 Review" @toc "General" @next "Cybergames" @prev "Guardian" PRODUCT NAME CLChat 3.7 BRIEF DESCRIPTION An IRC like server and a GUI client for the servers like Grapevine. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Oliver Wagner E-mail: o.wagner@pluribus.wupper.de. WWW: http://ramiga.cts.com/clchat/clchat.html LIST PRICE Freeware. No money is asked for it whatsoever. You may find this product on Aminet in comm/tcp/ or any other public Amiga archive. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE 1 Meg of RAM required for client if running a server more is recommended. A Hard Drive is required and CLChat uses 184k if fully installed. SOFTWARE Requires AmiTCP 4.0, TIA, or MLink. MUI 2.3 Workbench 2.04 COPY PROTECTION There is no copy protection, since this program is freeware. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 4000/040 40mhz, 30meg fast, 2meg chip. 1 HD Floppy, 2.1gig, 540IDE hard drives, EGS Spectrum, Idek 17" monitor, and Workbench 3.0. INSTALLATION CLChat now has a easy to use Commodre Installer script. REVIEW CLChat is a wonderful multi-user chat program. When you download the archive and install you will be asked if you want to install the server and the gui. You do not have to install your own server as there are already many public 24hr servers available. There is a collection of linked servers called ARC-Net, see the manual or web site for more info. After you have installed CLChatGUI and start it, you might find it familar, as the interface is close to that of an IRC client. The actions, private messages, and different channels give it a very IRC-like feel. You and a friend may go there to chat, and find a few others to chat with, or go to your own channel for a discussion. With its Dialog box, sending private messages repeatedly is very easy, in a way much like DCC chat. You and your friend want to exchange pictures? CLChat has a file transfer button that sends files direct between machines, making transfer rates very fast. One of CLChats nicest features is it's arexx port. You can use it to make bots or scripts. This is a usfull item that todays irc clients are missing. DOCUMENTATION The documentation is in Amiga guide and very easy to follow. LIKES I like that CLChat is like the IRC, but more personal. Not as many users, just a bunch of Amiga people chatting. DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS There is really nothing to dislike as the author has worked hard to make it perfect. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS CLChatGUI vs. the IRC client Grapevine. It is much like Grapevine with user bar on the side, with all of the basic type commands of the irc, a nice preference program with all the related items, screen, beep and such. The server give clchat all of it's irc like qualities with a dcc chat type funtion and a dcc send like file sending direct between machines makes clchat a pleasure to use. BUGS Most all of the bugs that were present have been takin care of thanks to a speedy author. WARRANTY Oliver Wagner makes no warranties on CLChat. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion I think CLChat in another one of those really great net programs that you must add to your collection. You are sure to enjoy it with all of its marvelous features. @endnode @node "Akira" "Akira Review" @toc "Guardian" @next "SBOT4" @prev "InfoPack" PRODUCT NAME Akira BRIEF DESCRIPTION Multistage adaptation of Otomo's best known film. RELEASED BY International Computer Entertainment (I.C.E.) COPY PROTECTION Disk-based Not Hard Drive Installable MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 4000/40 w/wb3.0 2 MB chip / 12 MB fast Seagate ST3144AT 130 MB HD, Maxtor 7345AT 320 MB HD AIR 880k external drive REVIEW @{b}A Brief Explanation@{ub} The computer adaptation of Akira is little different from any other movie license, and does not really need an in depth review. In fact, it doesn't really deserve a review at all. Were this game not a product of something important to me, I wouldn't even give it two words. But because I feel as strongly about it as I do, I will endeavor to describe the expectations and disappointments that are I.C.E.'s Akira. In order to explain this, the background behind it must also be explained... @{b}Anime - Watashi no Koi@{ub} Japanese animation, or "anime", has long had a rabid, albeit small following in the western world, but only recently has it gained much attention in the popular press. For many years most people only thought of anime as the source of the poorly-dubbed children's shows which aired in the less-favorable hours of Saturday mornings, for that was all they had experienced of it. Europe and, even more so, America were to remain largely oblivious to the art form, even with the somewhat greater noteriety it would garner in the present day. And so while the mainstream has coursed down its narrow, deep path, the true enthusiasts of the genre have long endured in shadow. Small clusters of fans would eagerly trade and distribute generation- worn but beloved copies of their favorite shows, and with vaguely-translated script (if available) in hand, they would settle back to view them. Not many knew more than a smattering of Japanese, but with the aid of any translation that was available they would struggle to make out every nuance, pun, and figure of speech. When they met in groups, often there was only one script on hand, and one person would have to stand and read from it aloud as the show progressed. When even a script was lacked, it was the responsibility of the more fluent viewers to call out running translations of the dialogue, and occasionally explain the twist or turn that the plot had taken. Most people would find this pasttime tedious, if not downright silly, but for the fans the joy of seeing and understanding the shows they loved was more than enough to warrant the effort. But it wasn't the animation itself that they loved so. Indeed, it was often poor, lacking in fluidity and scope. It wasn't the quality of the artwork either, although they certainly appreciated the style and detail with which the individual frames were drawn. It was the STORIES that compelled them to watch. Plots were not restricted to a single motif, and were able to break the confines of the simple, straightforward thread without resorting to mindless mayhem. Characters were not flat, unchanging entities defined by their indiosyncracies, they were capable of independant thought, and could react realistically to their environment, even as it shaped them. They did not embody such concepts as "good" or "evil", and the viewer was not expected to identify solely with the protagonist. Morality was more often not the primary focus of the show, and when it was it usually was expressed through the thoughts and emotions of the characters, not a triumph over a diabolical foe. Death and love beyond the platonic were not scorned, but celebrated as a part of life. @{b}The New Fans@{ub} Yet when the mainstream western audience finally started to become aware of anime beyond the children's shows of the early morning, most were incapable of seeing the qualities that the fans so admired, what they saw was sex and violence, which had become taboo in what was percieved as a children's medium. Even anime directed at younger audiences offended western sensibilities, for it often portrayed death, and sometimes contained brief (and largely incidental) nudity. To most western viewers this became the distinguishing mark of anime, and the artistry and power of the medium was lost to them. The fact that these superficial concerns over incidental content were completely unknown to the Japanese was ignored. From this attitude arose a new, much larger legion of fans who cared little for the underlying story but instead watched anime to see rape and murder in a (gasp!) CARTOON. (This is not to say that the original fans disliked the inclusion of such material, but rather that they saw it as merely peripheral to the plot.) Businesses sprung up to import and translate anime that would cater to the desires of these new fans, sometimes displacing the few professional subtitlers that had emerged to support the true fans. One of these new companies, Manga Video (known to anime fans as Mangle Video), was able to wrap most of the European market around its finger to the point where the terms "anime" and even the sometimes offensive "japanimation" were replaced with "manga videos". Unlike the true fans, these new fans disliked hearing a language that was not their own, and accordingly the companies serving them released dubbed anime. It didn't matter that the voice actors were bad, that the translation was wrong, or that music was replaced, because all the customers wanted were decapitations and young girls being fondled by slimy tentacles, preferably at a high frame rate. They DIDN'T want to hear "slanty-eyed-speak". @{b}The Movie@{ub} Not all of these new fans were that extreme of course; many just wanted an action flick with some blood and guts and titty shots thrown in. Probably the most popular show among this crowd was a movie called Akira. Its high frame rate and violent action scenes enthralled most viewers. The true fans liked it too, but not to the same degree, for despite its spectacular techinical quality and amazing depth of imagery it had a rather mediocre plot. This has not stopped Akira from becoming what is probably the most widely known piece of Japanese animation in the western world. In its dubbed incarnation it can be found in almost any reasonably sized video store. While not the triumph of anime that some people believe it to be, it has certainly been a commercial success. Akira, in essence, created the popular western anime market. Hordes of guts-and-porn fans, and even a few true fans, look back to Akira as their first experience with anime. With the growing profitability of anime, it is not surprising that Akira became a prime candidate for a computer game license. What was surprising was that International Computer Entertainment, a relatively unheard of British software company, was awarded the contract. @{b}A Computer Game?@{ub} I.C.E.'s announcement created a great deal of interest and anticipation in Europe, especially in Mangle Video's dominion - the United Kingdom. The fact that it was going to be released, at least initially, only on the Amiga was treated as a good sign. (This also had the side effect of insuring that it remained almost totally unheard of in that dull, grey land of MS/DOS compatibles - the United States.) Computer game adaptations of anime are nothing new in Japan, but this was a breakthrough for Europe. It would be the first computer game based on anime to be marketed as such in the western world. It would also be the first commercial video game based on anime to be written in the west. (Though there have been western computer games that were eventually made into anime later.) It would also (this is why I was excited) be one of only TWO anime games to be released on the Amiga. (The first was U.N. Squadron, an adaption of the coin-op, which was called Area 88 in Japan. This was an adaption of the anime and manga of the same name, written by the immortal Kaoru Shintani.) I eagerly waited for it. I got the cool 1994 calendar poster with Kaneda on it. And I waited some more... I was anticipating really great things, because they were putting so much time into it! I was so eager that I didn't even stop to remember the last release from I.C.E., the completely awful Total Carnage.... Perhaps this realization would've saved me, but I doubt it. It took forever. I waited and waited for it to appear, but it didn't show. I counted off the days on my Kaneda calendar until there were no more days left on it to count, for it was 1995. I considered taking the poster down, but it looked cool so I decided to leave it. Besides, it kept reminding me to look out for the game. It was almost a year after the initial announcement that a friend told me of its release. I picked it up the very same day. I was happy. That didn't last very long. @{b}First Look@{ub} Skipping over the rather flimsy documentation, I immediately threw the first disk in. It wouldn't install. I was pissed at yet another company screwing the user over with a shitty trackloader. I sighed, I could live with that. It was an anime game. I didn't care. After a period of gronking I saw the intro come up... Wow! It was just like the movie! It showed a framegrabbed animation of Tokyo blowing up, and cut to the crater, showed the nice big red title, and played the cool drum sounds from the movie. The animation looked like it was only 8 colors. I could live with that, hey it's the game that counts! It then loaded the menu screen, superimposed over the jukebox from the movie, which appeared to be in only 8 colors as well. It played an uninspired adaptation of the theme from the motorcycle chase. It had all the excitement of marshmallows. I of course didn't notice, as I was still psyched from just HAVING the game! I clicked on the menu option to start the game.... @{b}Potholes@{ub} After looking at another grainy 8 color picture, the first level came up. It supposedly deals with Kaneda fighting against a rival gang - the Clowns. It looked more like Kaneda was fighting with his bike to get from one end of a stretch of badly maintained road to the other. Of course that is what the real goal of the level is. In addition to that worthy objective, you are also shown the true goal of Akira: filling up a bowl with pink goop. (I think this is supposed to be the psychic scanner from the movie, but it doesn't look like it. It looks like a bowl full of pink goop.) In this stage you get pink goop by going right. When you get all the way to the right end of the level, your bowl is full of pink goop and you go on to the next level to get more goop. Kaneda's bike does NOT move like it does in the movie. It handles about as well as a tricycle with the handlebars welded in place. It cannot go faster than about 15kph under its own power. I kept looking at the bike, trying to find the foot pedals. There is no real combat here. You have no pipe to bash the Clowns. You have no gun. The road is littered with police, innocent bystanders, other people on motorocycles (which don't go very far), massive chunks of concrete (?), boulders (!?!?) and flimsy-looking picket barricades. If you touch any of them, you die. What amazing combat. Even better are the massive gaps in the freeway that you have to jump over. The potholes are killer in Neo-Tokyo. *WHY* am I on this stupid thing if it's got these gaping holes in it? To make the jump, you need to hit a ramp. If you miss the ramp, you're dead. If you go up the wrong ramp, you're dead, because two screens ahead of you, where you can't see, is an innocent bystander waving his arms, and you can't turn fast enough to avoid him. Even better are the "bonus" pickups. Approximately 3/4 of these are absolutely vital to completing the level. If you don't pick them up, you die. Oh, not right away, but if you don't pick up the "bonus" grenades at several points, you can't use them to blow up the boulders, which you then run into at 1kph and die. If you don't pick up the "bonus" speedups, you don't get enough speed to make it over a ramp, or outrun the police (who kill you). If you don't pick up every single can of fuel, you die (curiously enough you eat gas at the same rate regardless of speed, I thought the Japanese valued fuel economy.) Oh yes, and then there's the boulders. You see, occasionally there are boulders blocking the freeway, and the only way to get by them is to throw a grenade at them. The problem is that you can only throw grenades a fixed distance. If you don't throw the grenade at precisely the right distance, you're screwed. If you throw anywhere closer to the boulders, then the grenade just overshoots them, and you wind up doing another 1kph collision-with-fireball. You can't back up, you can't aim closer, you can't get off your bike and set the grenade on the boulder. If you are closer than about 3/5 of the screen to the boulder, you will die. After about an hour I was finally able to clear the first level, whereupon I was presented with another level of the same. I gave up, it was really that bad. I wanted to persevere for the sake of the review, and I was finally able to do so in the form of a cheat you can enter on the password screen. (Yes, it's another of those level code annoyances that force you to use the joystick to enter letters when you have a perfectly good keyboard for stuff like that.) Using this I was able to crawl through the remaining three levels of the tricyc- er, motorcycle sequence. (I was even treated to another 8-color picture after the second level. It seems that every two levels you get a grainy picture. Great.) @{b}Booger Globs@{ub} It's of course obligatory to have one of the sequences be a platform game. In Akira, there are five of them, four of which have two levels each. The first three cast you as Tetsuo, who, having recently been granted psychic powers, is now trying to escape from the government laboratory so he can take over the world, I think. Tetsuo has the power to kill his enemies by throwing what look like either psychic bolts or booger globs at them. Once again the real goal is to fill a bowl full of pink goop. Obviously this is what Tetsuo really wants, as he refuses to leave the level without his goop. Goop is obtained by killing doctors, nurses, businessmen, airships, automobiles, bunny rabbits, teddy bears, and small children(!?). You need to kill almost all the other beings on a level in order to get enough goop to do whatever it is you're supposed to with it. The platform sections not only require pixel-perfect jumping, but punish you for screwing up by having you fall down holes in the floor that take you back 50% of the way through the level. Considering that each level takes more than an hour to complete if you play it well, this is not very amusing. The levels are artificially huge, and incredibly monotonous. Every screenfull looks like every other screenfull, though you get to know certain parts very well from being sent back to them all the time. The first two levels take place within a high-security hospital. In order to reach the exit you must have the necessary security cards to get through all the elevators between you and the exit. This is vaguely reminiscent of the platform sequences in Technocop, only with the added annoyance of having to go through all the elevators in order. Security passes are carelessly left around the level, though cleverly placed so that if you want to get out you have to walk the maximum possible distance. Curiously enough, you cannot aquire passes from all the doctors and nurses you kill with booger globs. They have pink goop, but no security passes. How do they use the elevator? Even more curious is the fact that in the movie Tetsuo simply blasted down doors, security be damned. He never actually used an elevator in the movie either. Why should Tetsuo have to do this in the game? Afraid he might collect his pink goop too quickly? The next two levels take place in an amazingly vast playroom, with lots of floors but curiously enough, no elevators, stairs, or ladders. The only vertical mobility you can obtain aside from jumping is the occasional fiddly little rising-and-falling-anti-gravity-platform-game-block. The infernal security passes are gone, but now you have to kill four times as many other beings to get enough pink goop. In addition to the old enemies, you get some new things to kill. Now there are businessmen who shoot you, miniature airships that bomb you, automobiles that puke on you (I don't recall this causing damage in the movie), teddy bears that claw you, and bunny rabbits that, well, hop on you. The other obstacles of note are the ones on the ground. There are jack-in-the-boxes with killer teardrops coming out of their eyes. They don't actually DO anything except cry. You have to time the teardrops and jump on top of the box at the right time to let you run under the them. The problem with this is that you could quite easily walk around them, if the game would let you. It's hard to describe without a picture, but it is really irritating. The same problem arises with these really tall piles of legos that you can't jump over. There is OBVIOUSLY a path you could use to walk around them, but the game staunchly insists that you can't. Well, Tetsuo did have a nasty bump on the head, and wasn't really thinking TOO straight... It should be said at this point that I was in considerable pain after slogging for 5 hours of this awful game, but I kept on going... It was my duty... Dear god... The next two levels were yet more of the same, only this time in the play castle at the top of the military laboratory, home to the children who were previously cars with indigestion, myopic bunnies, etc. The odd thing about this castle is that it is so mind-numbingly-bored-to-death huge. It wasn't much larger than a small cottage in the movie. But, I.C.E. have faithfully scaled it up FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT. Now instead of covering a few square yards of incredibly dull unplayable platforms, you can enjoy an area of a half dozen football fields of incredibly dull unplayable platforms! After throwing booger globs at uninteresting targets to get identical globs of pink goop for 5 hours, you can rest easy in the knowledge that you have another 2 hours of tedium to enjoy! There's even the temporarily enjoyable exercise of mindlessly and heartlessly exterminating the small children (who now look like small children) to suck the pink goop from their lifeless bodies! And because it's sooooo much fun you get to repeat the thrill of mass pedocide OVER AND OVER to a seemingly infinite number of incarnations of the SAME THREE sprites! Cackle in glee as you leave the drained carcasses of a hundred Thin Frail Little Girls (tm) behind! Perfect fodder for the streak of necropedophila in all of us! Feel your heart race with joy at the thought of killing yet another dozen Small Wimpy Snot-Nosed Boys (tm)! And don't forget to turn your stereo up, you wouldn't want to deny your ears the extasy of savoring the beautifully sampled explosions as your great globs of doom strike a blow of vengeance against the innumerable clones of Fat Kit Who Needs a Hovercraft to Get Around (tm)! And then, suddenly and sadly, after 7 hours of the same thrilling run-jump-fall-through-gap-in-floor-and-get-sent-back-8-screens gameplay, it is over. Tetsuo's mission for pink goop is complete... No more can you experience the elation of being obstructed by a tall, narrow pile of legos... No more can you immerse yourself in the wild abandon of hurling wads of snot at a billion otherwise respectable doctors gayly throwing hypodermic needles at you... Your happy days of repetition and rendundancy are over... And we are glad. It's about fucking time. @{b}Kaneda Gets Sensible@{ub} After sneaking into the military complex with members of the underground revolutionary terrorist organization, Kaneda decides that it's HIS turn at starring in a lame platform segment! Why should Tetsuo have ALL the aggravation and tedium? Surrounded by soldiers, rats, and being strafed by really slow, unsteady hovercraft, Tetsuo must wreak more destruction and mayhem, snuffing hundreds of lives so that HE TOO may posess the Sacred Bowl of Pink Goop Sucked From Dead People! This segment actually comes close to being enjoyable, a claim which none of the other stages could even hope to dream of making even if they were lying. For one thing, Kaneda packs a gun. This does considerably more damage than Tetsuo's weapon (which supports the hypothesis that those were in fact booger globs, and not the psychic bolts of doom of the movie). Kaneda has a head on his shoulders. (Now if only he would stop riding his unmaneuverable motorcycle-cum-hippopotamus over freeways with deadly boulders and 30 meter wide gaps.) The segment is also not even remotely as frustrating as the others due to the fact that the sewers seem to have been designed to be better suited to habitation than the building itself. There are no inexplicable gaps in the floor. There are no Bizarre Little Platforms that Mysteriously Float in Midair. There are no two-dimesinional obstructions that appear to occupy three-dimensional space. There are amazing devices known as "ladders" that can take you up or down a level without having to leap on Bizarre Little Moving Platforms that Mysteriously Float Around the Room in Midair, and you don't need to hike across the entire map to get a security pass to use them. But the fact that this part of the game, unlike the other 88.2% of the game, does not make you want to scream in utter frustration and do something impolite like, say, shooting your neighbors' kids, deep frying the entrails, and returning the freshly-cooked viscera as a christmas gift, does not actually mean that it is any fun. You still must wander around through two massive levels, in which any one part in virtually indistinguishable from any other, killing dozens of identical-looking people and collecting the pink goop that they leave behind. And while this is clearly the best part of the game, all it meant was that I was granted a brief respite from the sheer agony that is the rest of Akira, and was able to relax in relatively blissful state of abject boredom. @{b}Deja Vu@{ub} At last comes a segment which is not a platformer. It is, in fact, a shoot-em-up. A shoot-em-up in the spirit of the computer game that is Akira! Kaneda apparently gets fed up with obtaining his goop drop-by-drop from a hundred identical corpses, and decides to pursue his traditional means of goop acquisition -- moving to the right. To facilitate this process he, accompanied by his revolutionary underground terrorist girlfriend, steals one of the military's hovercraft. Unfortunately for both the military and our hero, the hovercraft appears to have been manufactured in the same factory as Kaneda's motorcycle. But rather than crawling inexorably forward and steering laterally with the grace and power of a beached whale, it crawls inexorably forward and steers VERTICALLY with all the grace and power of a beached whale. Fortunately it is not armed with fixed-range grenades, but with a semi-useful laser cannon and optional heat-seeking missiles. And while neither of them do much damage, at least they allow the removal of obstacles that are closer than 3/5 of the screen away. The whole thing resembles the retarded offspring of a tryst between the motorcycle stages and R-Type. Oh, and of course they have to do the obligatory "shoot through the tunnel really fast" segment, which, given the performance of your vehicle, is almost entirely unnavigable. The forks in the tunnel that lead to unforseeable, unavoidable, and instant death are also quite annoying. @{b}End the Suffering, End the Pain!@{ub} After escaping from the compound, the game goes into fast-forward. You're treated to a set of three grainy 8-color pictures this time, rather than the one you've been getting every other level. This is all very well, because I would much prefer to end this piece of tanuki turd rather than suffer through a Tetsuo-flying-like-Kaneda's-motorcycle segment, or a Tetsuo-killing-lots-of-soldiers-on-the-way-to-the-stadium-to-get-pink-goop segment, or (god forbid!) a Colonel-overthrowing-government-by-moving-to- the-right-and-collecting-pink-goop "bonus" round. ("bonus" meaning that if you don't get it you wind up dying for some stupid reason later) And so... Hurrah! It seems that my perseverance has finally paid off! I've made it to the climactic finale! I'VE REACHED THE FINAL BATTLE WITH... with... um... something. I'm not quite sure what it is, but it didn't appear in the movie or the manga. It's some sort of flying organism that occasionally releases worms that wriggle about randomly. The captions beneath the grainy 8-color pictures said something about fighting inside of Tetsuo-turned-blob, but that can't be right, as there's asteroids and buildings and legos in it. It could be a representation of the debris of the city floating within the sphere of destruction catalyzed by the coming of Akira, but that doesn't explain what the floating thing with the tentacles and eyeballs is. In any case, true to form, your ultimate goal is to gain one last bowl of pink goop. In order for Kaneda to get the goop he must fire his handy-dandy laser rifle at the big tentacle thing. Varius pickups around the level allow you to increase the power of your laser, and even convert it into a rocket launcher (how'd Kaneda pull that one off?) The more powerful the weapon, the more goop you get from shooting the tentacle thing. Once you've filled up your bowl of goop, the tentacle thing dies, and you get to see the nifty, grainy, 8-color framegrabbed ending animation, and the credits roll. (Well, actually they kind of JERK up the screen, the scroll routine was apparently written by an ambitious group of gerbils. I kind of wish they'd written the whole game, as even gerbils could do a better job than I.C.E.!) @{b}What Does it all Mean?@{ub} This is definitely one of the worst games I have ever laid eyes on. It makes Total Carnage look like an inspired work of art. It makes even the worst of Ocean's and Psygnosis's movie titles seem like faithful adaptations. It makes such classic chunks of crusty crap as Trump Castle, Spaceport, and The Honeymooners seem enjoyable. The best segment of the game (the sewers) could perhaps be considered platform fare as enjoyable as Huckleberry Hound, one of the worst platformers ever. The graphics, while not horrible, are completely uninspired, and in no way resemble the anime they are supposedly based on. The digitized stills and animations from the movie are extremely coarse, but still manage to look good compared to the pedestrian efforts of I.C.E.'s artists. Audio is unimpressive, consisting of either sparse uninspiring sound effects, or flat-sounding "enter the notes and you're done" renditions of the movie soundtrack. Gameplay is simply hideous, as you probably have already surmised. I.C.E. is clearly hoping to cash in on the name of the movie, attempting to stick unwary consumers with crappy software, and take them for what they've got. Obviously the market they hope to attract are the somewhat dim-witted "new fans" I discussed at the beginning of the article. Unfortunately a good many true fans, or even interested outsiders will probably be caught as well. Don't let it happen to you or your friends -- this is a waste of money. It isn't even worth the disks it comes on. Even worse, I have heard that I.C.E. offered to give a pre-release evaluation copy to a British Amiga magazine provided that they give it a rating of at least 80%. If this is true, then these people are unredeemably slime. Don't buy any of their products (not that you'd want to anyway). @{b}If It's This Bad, Why Is This Review So Long?@{ub} This game could be easily summed up in a single acronym -- POS, and I DON'T mean Point Of Sale. Yet for some reason I felt compelled to write this much about it. I wanted to explain *WHY* I was so heartbroken at how bad it was. I wanted to explain *WHY* I loved anime and longed to see more Amiga games based on it... I also wanted people to know the sheer agony that I went through playing it start-to-finish for this review (and that was with the CHEAT MODE ON!). Probably the main reason I explored this game, however awful, in such sickening detail was its official, though not spiritual, link to the anime art form. It was ugly and unserviceable, but it still was a bridge between my two favorite pasttimes, and there was little else to span the gap. I don't know if a great anime adaptation will ever come to the Amiga, and I don't know what form one would take if it did, but should the day of that great release come, may it be showered with tenfold the devotion that has been wasted here, on the blasphemy of I.C.E.'s Akira. OVERALL @{fg shine}Sound:@{fg text} Poor @{fg shine}Graphics:@{fg text} Poor @{fg shine}Gameplay:@{fg text} A violation of the Geneva Convention. @{fg shine}Lastability:@{fg text} Attempting to play it for longer than 60 seconds may result in suicide. @{fg shine}Value:@{fg text} Nonexistant. @{fg shine}Overall:@{fg text} The lowest of the low, and even lower than that. The only thing which is lower are the people who created and marketed it. This is a product of greed. @endnode @node "VBS30" "Video Backup System 3.0 Review" @toc "General" @next "gfx" @prev "CC3" @{u}Video Backup System V3.0 Review@{uu} By Guy Nathan @{b}Review:@{ub} ------- Once in a while a package comes along which really catches your attention. The product may be one which takes a totally new approach to old methods. Video Backup System (VBS) V3 was this type of package. VBS is, as the name suggests, a Video Backup System, a system which doesn't require a tape-streamer, or an endless supply of disks, if you wish to back up your hard disk. In VBS's earlier incarnations, not much was thought of it, and the general opinion was a case of use it at your own risk. Using a video to backup your files may leave you with the important question of, well, how reliable is it? Those of you with experience of the likes of AmiBack(tm) and Quaterback(tm) will know that when backing up your hard drive to disk all may seem fine, but when it comes to the ever essential restoration process, one disk has been stuffed up and depending on the program, you've either lost the whole backup or lost all the files on that disk. No, that doesn't always occur but can quite easily happen. With VBS, your not guarenteed that your backup will be foolproof against the likes of a crazed person with a electric-magnet going through all your videos and wiping them, ( I hate when that happens! -the Ed ) but you can be assured with VBS's built-in error checking the likelyhood of an error occuring are greatly reduced. V1.5 of VBS was generally not accepted due to the problem of unreliable restorations, V3.0 more than fixes this. Another advantage of VBS is the total costs involved, or lack of them. This is one of VBS's strongest points. With the likes of Tape-Streamers at 150$US per unit, and 30-40$ per tape, it is no cheap affair, and those who backup to disks, and have a big hard drive, the bill may even be comprable to those who own tape-streamers. All that is required for VBS 3.0, however is is one 4 hour tape (high-quality prefered) and a little patience, and for far less than the other alternatives you've got yourself a full backup suite. One 4 hour video tape can allegedly store up to 520MB's! I have not been able to properly test this with my 300MB HD for two reasons. Firstly, my hard drive isnt 520MB's, and secondly most of the files on my hard drive are compressed with file compressors (LhA's, Powerpackered, LZX's, ZIP's, and mainly StoneCracker) - meaning the actual amount stored on my hard-drive is probably equal to around 500MB+ uncompressed. With a 4 hour video tape I was able to backup 76MB of archives (mainly LhA's), 130-140MB of StoneCracker crunched executables, 50MB of unpacked executables, and 40MB of text on the one video. A neglible inclusion with the program is V1.5 of VBS. @{b}Documentation:@{ub} -------------- Documentation comes in a small ring-bound booklet. Although it is small, for most peoples purposes it is sufficient, and even goes into the complexities of issues such as its compression methods. I would have liked a bigger section for dealing with problems. Otherwise the documentation is simple to read and very good. @{b}Software Installation:@{ub} ---------------------- Installation is a breeze. Simply bootup your system as normal, insert the supplied disk, and double click on the install icon (which uses the great Commodore Installer). From there you'll be requested where you'd like VBS installed, and a line added to the user-startup assigning the location of VBS. Once complete, simply go to where you installed it and double click of the VBS icon and your ready to run. @{b}Hardware Installation:@{ub} ---------------------- Now most reviews I have read so far of VBS 3.0 (3 different reviews) state that VBS 3 hardware installation took them minutes. Being no big-time reviewer, I found things took a little more time (;-)). Self-installation without the manual is NOT recommended unless you have a competant knowlegde of this sort of thing. I found, after reading the instructions in the manual, that it merely involved plugging in a few plugs into the back of the Amiga and in to your video player. An important thing to note here is this package comes in two versions, one for newer video players (SCART version), and one for older video players (PHONO version). Before purchasing be sure to check which one you have. If like me, you own a box Amiga, I recommend picking up a RF Modulator if you don't already own one, as chances are the monitor currently connected to it doesn't have the same type of plugs as your video player. If you can't do this try a cheap genlock (eg.Lola's range). If the above paragraphs on hardware installation has confused you, don't worry, as the pictures supplied in the documentation will explain it for you. @{b}Software Use:@{ub} ------------- The programs simplicity is part of it's winning combination. On starting the program there is one button for Backup, one for Restore, and one for Verify (for checking the backup was successful). In general even the worst of Amiga users shouldn't have much troubles using this package. @{b}Problems:@{ub} --------- Obviously, being a video backup, it does have its trade-off's. The main thing lost is speed. Backing up a 500MB HD will take you 4 hours as opposed to tape-streamers which would blitz this time. To overcome this problem they have included the abilitiy to backup several partitions one after the other or at any time you schedule for it to start. To verify the backup (which I recommend), it means going through a tedious process of finding Image headers (which the program uses to identify the beginning of a backup) on a tape and then choosing verify, and choosing play on video. This can be a real pain with 5 partitions, like I have, or even for 2 partitions it can be annoying. If they allowed the program to verify one lot then go onto the next, everytime it finds a new image header, this would solve alot of hassles. @{b}Conclusion:@{ub} ----------- This program is a must for any user with an Amiga with a hard drive and who are not loaded with cash. This program will solve all your problems in a cheap, and reliable way. If you're after a backup solution the cheap way, then this is definately for you. @{b}Note:@{ub} For Amiga users without RF Modulators built in try and buy one, they probably can be picked up for around 20$ or so. (Or go for the slightly more expensive Lola alternative). @{b}Price:@{ub} UK - SCART Version - 65 pounds PHONO Version - 60 pounds V3 Upgrade - 20 pounds Australian and US Prices unknown @{b}Distributor:@{ub} Power Computing in UK @{b}Company:@{ub} Lyppens Software Productions Generaal Coenderslaan 25 5623 LT Eindhoven The Netherlands Guy Nathan gnathan@triode.apana.org.au Fidonet 3:714/909.18 @endnode @node "gfx" "How to Make Games That Work With Graphics Boards" @toc "General" @next "Guardian" @prev "VBS30" USING GRAPHICS BOARDS WITH GAMES by S.P. Haeuser EMail : haeuser@tick.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de I. Introduction As there are often questions in the way of "Does this AGA game run on my A3000 with Picasso II board ?" and as people with high end Amigas simply do not understand, why games do not support their graphics boards, I will talk in this article about the reasons, about what can be done, about what are the problems with TRUE AGA emulations and I will provide some example code for game programmers (under EGS and Cybergrafix here, as those probably will be the leading ones... and the ones to whom I am most familiar...) The article is mainly intended for programmers, and especially handles about the EGS system (as this is the system that I know best...) To introduce to the problem i will have some words about how Workbench-Emulations work, at least so far as it is needed for this article. The Amiga Display is bitmap oriented, that is, each pixel is splitted in 8 bitplanes, and graphics boards are chunky graphics, that is, they save each pixel value in one Byte (or in some more Bytes for >8 bit depths). To do a workbench emulation there has to be some code that SPREADS these pixel values to the various planes (which is slow) or a special chip that does this job (like in the Cybervision64) which is fast, but needs a better technology (you can't just do a VGA board with ZORRO-interface then...) Further, you have to be clear, the Amiga OS extensively uses the copper and the blitter processors. Of course those will get problems, if they had to deal with graphics memory on the board. Therefore WB-Emus patch different OS-functions, and if you use WB-Emus for coding you have to know which calls are still compatible, and which not. Of course, a lot of code writes directly to the Amiga special chips. This code will NEVER run on a graphics board, and this is, sadly, for most games. But this is the most efficent way to do a game, and game coders are very concrened with efficiency, as they want their games running on as many systems as possible. II. Main problems Now it is the point to name the main problems using Workbench emulation for games : 1) Speed 2) Using copper 3) Using Double buffered displays 4) Directly using special chips Blitter is no problem (as long as you do not access it directly, but use graphics.library...), the WB-Emus I know handle this well. As for #1, I have to say, of course the speed will be like in Amiga modes and better, but you won't get the speed that the graphics board is capable of. I will provide another solution later. If you NEED to use a WB-Emu, I recommend making the game compatible to Cybergrafix, as this one is a quite fast emulation and runs on nearly all boards. #2 is nearly unsolvable. User-Copperlists will be a problem to a lot of WB-Emus, and the screen will stay invisible. Better not to use such a thing. Some WB-Emus take #3 okay, but others (like EGS), do not like double buffering methods other than those of their own graphics board specific libraries. The buest guess is to use the doubble buffering methods around AllocScreenBuffer of 3.0... of course, then, the game only runs from 3.0 upward. As to #4, there is no way to run such a code on a graphics board. But, strangely enough, this is the best solution of all. Do not use the special chips of the Amiga, but use the special chips of some graphics boards you want to support. This is a solution of 1) to 3) as well. Of course, this is more work, as their is no "VGA-Standard" for Amiga... on PC the situation concerrning graphics boards is better... III. Solutions So, the possibilities are clear : A) Use a workbench emulation, but do not use Copper or Double Buffering B) Provide drivers for different graphics board, to access the video memory of these boards directly. There is currently a project running (Caution! Advertising! :) ), that is about creating a standard library called rtg.library that will do the job about B) for you, and will be Freeware in the future... providing support for most boards and even for ECS/AGA (with c2p code...). The code will leave the possibility for the coder only to get the start adress of the video memory from the library, use doubble buffering from the library, and do the rest himself (as most game coders want to do...) But up to now, you will need to do that driver things yourself. At this point I will say something about games actually running on graphics boards. That is ... ahem... Spaceward Ho! I've heard some rumours about the Sim games running on gfx boards, but I do not know if these are true. Sadly, apart from those and a few Shareware games, those are all of them up to now. Some games even have problems with the WB-Emu being activated (at least as far as EGS is concerned). So we have still a far way to go... IV. Coding section Now the coding section. In this section I will give you some hints on how to write data directly to the video memory of EGS boards (the great thing about EGS is, the egs.library provides a function to get the base adress of the video memory of a display, and such a thing I did not find in any other WB-Emu). Then I will give some hints about Cybergrafix (but I am not an expert there...) A. EGS Before you start opening a screen you should choose a screenmode. You only should use a screenmode that is available on this system (as you can never be sure, if it is...), and that is done in the following way : move.l egsbase,a6 ; Base Adress of egs.library jsr E_LockEGSVideo(a6) jsr E_GetHardInfo(a6) move.l d0,hardinfo ; info structure about this system jsr E_UnlockEGSVideo(a6) In the following i will discribe the HardInfo structure. It is a modified structure, as there are only EGS V 5.x includes out for EGS, but you will need V 6.x at least... so I had to modify them oneselves... I would not try to use C, as I got some serious speed problems with Double Buffering with that language...And of course, this sort of code, as it is the most internal part of our game, should be FAST... STRUCTURE E_HardInfo,0 APTR ehi_Product APTR ehi_Manufact APTR ehi_Name WORD ehi_Version WORD ehi_MaxFreq ULONG ehi_Flags APTR ehi_Modes WORD ehi_ActPixClock WORD ehi_frameTime APTR ehi_MemBase LONG ehi_MemSize APTR ehi_LibDate APTR ehi_Drivers APTR ehi_Monitors APTR ehi_VideoNodes APTR ehi_Screen LABEL ehi_SIZEOF Most of the entries of these structure do not say anything... and have no valid information inside... interesting are : APTR ehi_Modes APTR ehi_Monitors APTR ehi_Drivers The drivers contain information of the supported EGS drivers, and will be useful to find out which screenmodes actually run on the graphics board. STRUCTURE E_DisplayDriver,0 STRUCT edd_Node,LN_SIZE WORD edd_Pad0 APTR edd_Prefix ULONG edd_Depths STRUCT edd_Freqs,24*emm_SIZEOF STRUCT edd_Monitors,MLN_SIZE ULONG edd_Flags APTR edd_Default STRUCT edd_MaxPixel,24*4 ULONG edd_MemSize UWORD edd_MouseSize UWORD edd_Pad1 APTR edd_description LABEL edd_SIZEOF Now we get LN_NAME of the SECOND thing in that list of Drivers (the first one only contains rubbish...) We will examine the first four characters of the string we get then, and look for : PICO, LEGS, RB3a, RB3b or G110 PICO : Display driver for Piccolo/Piccolo SD64 LEGS : Display driver for EGS Spectrum RB3a,RB3b : Display driver for Rainbow 3 G110 : Display driver for EGS 110 I do not know what is about EGS Graffiti and A2410 EGS drivers... If someone knows, maybe he could send me a mail... Now we examine the screenmodes : STRUCTURE E_ScreenMode,0 STRUCT esm_Node,LN_SIZE UWORD esm_Horiz UWORD esm_Vert UWORD esm_Pad ULONG esm_Depths APTR esm_Driver STRUCT esm_Specs,24*4 LABEL esm_SIZEOF Here, LN_NAME contains the names of the screenmodes. We start with the SECOND element again... We look in this list for a screenmode that uses the driver we found before, and supports the Horiz, Vert and Depths values we want... Depths in this case is a bit-wise representation, so a set bit says this deptch is available. By the way, we can assume every EGS board is capable of 24 Bit and 8 Bit displays... If you want to examine Synchs or Monitor Specs, you have to look at the array of E_MonitorSpec (esm_Specs), but I do not want to go THAT MUCH into detail. You could use this to compare if this screenmode REALLY displayable on the given monitor, for example... So, lets assume we found a screenmode that fits... then, and only then, we can assume, we can open a Screen. We will now open an E_EScreen which is basically some video memory allocated on the board. It does not support higher EGS constructs like Windows for example, but we want something FAST ... Now we need a E_ENewScreen structure... move.l #ens_SIZEOF,d0 move.l #MEMF_CLEAR,d1 move.l $4,a6 jsr -198(a6) move.l screenmodename,ens_Mode(a0) move.w Depth,ens_Depth(a0) move.l egsbase,a6 jsr E_OpenScreen(a6) As next thing we will allocate a doubble buffering bitmap. Be sure all fits in the display memory, if you use 24 Bit displays... for doubble buffering you need of course display memory for BOTH displays on your board... move.w Width,d0 move.w Height,d1 move.w Depth,d2 move.l type,d3 ; colour model, described below... move.l #0,d4 add.l #E_EB_DISPLAYABLE,d4 add.l #E_EB_BLITABLE,d4 add.l #E_EB_SWAPABLE,d4 add.l #E_EB_CLEARMAP,d4 move.l screen,a0 move.l esc_Map(a0),a0 ; The FRIEND BITMAP move.l egsbase,a6 jsr E_AllocBitMap(a6) Now we are nearly finished. We still have to LOCK the screen (so EGS does not put the screen to Fast RAM while we are writing directly to video memory (there will be some strange results, if you switch back to the WB-Emu while our program runs... ghost pics... but do not bother...) move.l screen,a0 move.l esc_Map(a0),a0 add.b #1,ebm_Lock(a0) move.l BackBitMap,a0 add.b #1,ebm_Lock(a0) After locking the system needs some time to make the change happened. You should do a delay of about 0.1 seconds (for example dos.library Delay with a value of 5 ...), else you risk some crashes... After that you can write to the two bitmaps : move.l screen,a0 move.l esc_Map(a0),a0 move.l ebm_Plane(a0),a0 move.l #$ff000000,(a0) For example... the colour model used is RGBx per default, or, if you specify a custom bitmap, you can use xRGB too... in 8 Bit a standard chunky colour model (in 1 Byte) will be used... the x is for the Alpha channel... but sadly, I have no documentation for this, so ignore it... the constants for the type are found in the EGS autodocs (orion.etsu.edu is a site where they can be found... or contact INGENIEURBUERO HELFRICH, the makers of the Piccolo and Piccolo SD64 boards... To unlock, just subtract from the Lock values again... for unlocking you do not need to vaste processor time like it is done while locking. The next thing we do is Double Buffering. move.l screen,a0 move.l BackBitMap,a1 move.l egsbase,a6 jsr E_FlipMap(a6) move.l d0,BackBitMap The flip will happen after the next vertical blank interrupt. And as I said before: In C I got some graphics errors, strange thing, but in Assembler it worked perfectly and consumed almost no time... Functions for EGS board blitter support are in the egsblit.library, but those are self explaining. If you have difficulties, feel free to send me mail. In egsalphablit.library there are blitting functions for Alpha channel... but it seems nobody has documentations for them :((( Not even the coders of EGS ... Do not use any Pixelsetting functions of the libraries. If you do it yourself with this ebm_Plane-thing you will be MUCH faster...And, remember, you will need EGS V.6 includes... I will provide my EGS V.6 Bitmap structure here (self-made :) ) STRUCTURE E_EBitMap,0 WORD ebm_Width WORD ebm_Height UWORD ebm_BytesPerRow BYTE ebm_Depth UBYTE ebm_Type * Enumeration type descriptor for access to union fields APTR ebm_Plane BYTE ebm_Lock UBYTE ebm_Display UWORD ebm_Pad0 ULONG ebm_Pad1 STRUCT ebm_BitPlanes,24*4 ; because Ptr size is 4 Bytes ; in C BitPlanes[24] APTR ebm_Colors ULONG ebm_Flags APTR ebm_Class LABEL ebm_SIZEOF If you need another structure of EGS, and only have V.5 ASM-include, try to get the ASM-includes out of the V.6 C-Includes ... or send me mail, maybe i have the correct includes... Closing the Screen: move.l screen,a0 move.l egsbase,a6 jsr E_CloseScreen(a6) Closing the BackBitMap : move.l BackBitMap,a0 move.l egsbase,a6 jsr E_DisposeBitMap And remember : Before closing the screen, the CORRECT Bitmap has to be in front again... if not, perform an additional Double Buffering followed by a move.l screen,a0 move.l egsbase,a6 jsr E_WaitTOF(a6) Okay, that's all about EGS. All the examples are taken from my code about the EGS version of rtg.library. So you will get a much easier interface, as soon as rtg.library is finished. B) Cybergrafix Cybergrafix supports a function to get some information about the (modified) Bitmap structure, but (sadly) you do not get the adress of the video memory. So you can't write directly to the video memory, if you do not have the specs of the used board, but you have to use Cybergrafix as WB-Emulation. But, luckily, Cybergrafix is quite fast. Cybergrafix supports some very fine functions to select a screenmode, for example BestCModeIDTagList, which gets the best screenmode for a specified tag list of screen attributes. In EGS you had to do this yourself (some additional advertising: In rtg.library you have not to do it yourself, either... like in Cybergrafix, but with directly writing to the video memory...) For writing pixels, reading Pixels and blitting, there are the functions FillPixelArray, MovePixelArray, ReadPixelArray, ScalePixelArray, SwapPixelArray, WritePixelArray and WriteRGBPixel. I think what they do is quite clear. For double buffering you use standard Double Buffering functions like the functions around AllocScreenBuffer. Cybergrafix is a very compatible and fast WB-Emu. As color models you are able to use a LOT of them (look at your Cybergrafix developping docs). As I am no expert in Cybergrafix, that is all about it now. I do not know how good the graphics board blitter support for Cybergrafix is. So, at the end of this article, I wish you fun and success with your programming of Amiga graphics boards. And i hope, we soon will see some games or demos using graphics boards. Support them... @endnode @node "Cybergames" "CyberGames Review" @toc "General" @next "ADS" @prev "CLChat" PRODUCT NAME Cybergames AVAILABLE FROM cybergames1.lha and cybergames2.lha from the game/misc directory of Aminet, as well as on many BBSs. BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cybergames is a new shareware fighting game for the Amiga, in the tradition of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. RELEASED BY Bjorn Fogelberg of Cyberpunk Developments COPY PROTECTION None Hard Drive Installable MACHINE USED FOR TESTING NTSC Amiga 2000 w/WB 3.1 1 MB chip / 2 MB fast REVIEW I must admit, I'm not a huge fighting/beat-em-up fan. Sure, I got a kick out of Mortal Kombat, and Dark Stalkers was a lot of fun to play, but on the whole I find that most fighting games are too similar to others to waste my valuable quarters on them in the arcades. However, when I saw Cybergames on Aminet, I had to get it. The game promised gorey fighting like Mortal Kombat, and it was free to download, so what did I have to lose? The game comes in three archives, one for each disk, but thankfully it does come with an install script. Unfortuanately, this script does not use the official Commodore Installer program, and it will only install to the SYS: directory. This isn't a major problem, but it is slightly annoying, since your SYS: directory might be full, or you might want to install to a different directory where you keep your games. The install script does redeem itself a bit, though, simply by its ease of use, as all you have to do is put in the disks as it prompts for them. You can also play this game off disk, but well...shouldn't we all have hard drives by now? @{fg shine}Plots? We don't need no stinking plots!@{fg shine} shine} text} People who register this game are lucky enough not only to get more fighters, but also a plot to explain why your fighting. The plot is ok, although it seems to be written who's English needs work on. It's also a bit corny, but hey, I can deal with that, nobody reads the plots on fighting games anyway, right? @{fg shine}Demo Coders turned Programmers@{fg text} The openning to the game is an impressive little intro with some funky background music which really draws you into the game. The whole thing looks like it's done by some demo coders. Then you go into the sparse main menu, and with just a few button clickes your into the pre-fight picture of the person you're fighting. The pic is cool, and it really got me worked up to see the fighting. If the intro and pictures were any representation of the gameplay, this was going to be one hell of a game. I eagerly jammed by joystick button, anticipating the great pleasures that this game would bring to may life. I was dissapointed. The characters are small, much smaller than any self-respecting Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter character would be. The graphics also pale in comparison to the graphics that are in the intro and pictures of the characters, so much so that I wonder if the same artists even did them. Really, I think that the in-game graphics are much more important than the more bonus type graphics, the kinds that are nice, but are hardly noticed if they're missing. I was really disapointed in this seeming lack of logic by the programmers. But, ok, I think, I can deal with this as long as the gameplay is good. After all, everyone knows that Pong beats any CD-ROM fancy-arse graphics game hands down... Well, the gameplay isn't stupendous either. For one thing, you can only use one character. This means that you always use the same moves, and that your character always looks the same. Also, despite the fact that your enemies have more distinct looks, they too all do the same moves, with varying strengths as their only true differences. This flaw in the game wouldn't be so glaring if there were a wide spectrum of moves, but there aren't. The moves are very basic, essentially being kick and sword attack. There is a spitting attack, but, well, it doesn't do much except disgust your opponent. However, there is one special move, the swedish shave, which allows you to swing your sword around your head and finish off your enemy by slicing off your head. This is a very effective attack, and works much of the time. The only problem to using it is that you don't get much money for it, and money allows you to upgrade at the shop. But there is one problem beyond that for the swedish shave, and in the end it is that which truly kills the game. Imagine this situation: You have been beating away at your opponent for a minute now. Slowly but surely you have worked down your opponent to almost no strength, and worked up a handy pile of cash in the process. Then, suddenly, your opponent begins to spin around with his sword. You struggle with your joystick, but your character just won't react in time. You watch in agany as your character's head roles onto the floor. I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me. It is incredibly aggrevating to play through this game only to have a stray sword cut off your head. It ruins the point of playing the game, in a way. @{fg shine}Well, I WAS in a bad mood@{fg text} Perhaps I've been a bit too harsh on Cybergames. While it does have its flaws, it can still be fun to play and beat up on some poor enemy. The game could be a good one, in the future, if the authors would only do some more work on it. For one, get rid of that swedish shave! Getting rid of that would make the game much more fun to play. After that, put in some more moves, so that there is some variation in the game, and make the characters move and react more quickly; I really want to see my character move at the slightest move of the joystick, not 5 seconds after I push it. If the authors get these things done, I thing the game could be very good. At the moment, it simply shows promise, in the future, however, Cybergames could be the next great fighting game on the Amiga. OVERALL: @{fg shine}Sound:@{fg text} Good- Nice intro music, and cool in game sounds. @{fg shine}Graphics:@{fg text} Good- Nice pictures and intro but needs work on the in game graphics. @{fg shine}Gameplay:@{fg text} Average @{fg shine}Lastability:@{fg text} Poor - that swedish shave is just too annoying. The game is fun at first, but its quirks make it aggrevating to play after a while. @{fg shine}Value:@{fg text} Good - You might as well download it and try it out yourself; it's free! And $15 for the full game is not too much to ask. @{fg shine}Overall:@{fg text} Average- Try it out, if you like it, buy it, but you probably won't. Wait for the next version... @endnode @node "General" "General Menu" @{"Convention 95! " link "InfoPack" 0} The official info-pack on the Amiga Convention '95 in Montreal! @{"Akira Review   " link "Akira" 0} An excellent review of a sub-par game. You MUST read this review!! @{"C= Story       " link "SBOT4" 0} Some Bits of Treasure, part 4/4. It's sad to see the story end, but it's one hell of an ending! @{"C Clinic       " link "CC3" 0} The Coder's Clinic returns, better (and more colorful) than ever! An excellent way to get into programming! @{"VBS 3 Review   " link "VBS30" 0} A review of Video Backup System 3.0, the cheap backup system for anyone with an Amiga and a hard drive. @{"GFX Boards     " link "gfx" 0} How to make your game compatible with graphics boards. @{"Guardian Review" link "Guardian" 0} A review of the game Guardian, the so-called Defender for the 90s. @{"CLChat Review  " link "CLChat" 0} Find out all there is to know about this program to allow you to access IRC's younger brother. @{"Cybergames     " link "Cybergames" 0} Cybergames promises to be a gorey game; this promises to be a gorey review as well. @{"ADS Announce   " link "ADS" 0} An announcement of an incredible new program: Adventure Design System. @endnode @node "CC3" "Coder's Clinic 3" @toc "General" @next "VBS30" @prev "SBOT4" @{b}@{fg shine} CCCC OOOO DDDD EEEEEE CCCC L IIIII N N IIIII CCCC C C O O D D E C C L I NN N I C C C O O D D EEE C L I N NN N I C C C O O D D E C C L I N NN I C C CCCC OOOO DDDD EEEEEE CCCC LLLLLL IIIII N N IIIII CCCC@{ub}@{fg text} -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CODE CLINIC #3 I LUV GADGETS!!! As promised, We will add a gadget to our window. First we have to get some info on how to do this. GADGETS:Two types of gadgets. *FIRST TYPE OF GADGET:System System gadgets are those that you see in the windows and screens that you open. And we are not going to go much further than that. *SECOND TYPE OF GADGET:Application Application gadgets are the ones in which you create and use in your own programs. They can be placed at any location inside the window and can use any image. There are four basic types of application gadgets. [1] Boolean : OK buttons ect... [2] Proportion : Sound level ect... [3] String : Enter your name ect... [4] Custom : New gadgets. @{fg shine}*****-------------------------------------------------- * N * I STRONGLY SUGGEST INVESTING IN THE COMPLETE | * O * SET OF AMIGA ROM KERNEL MANUALS... AT THE | * T * VERY LEAST YOU SHOULD TRY TO GET THE LIBRARIES| * E * MANUAL ...THERE ARE MANY EXAMPLES/EXPLANATIONS| *****--------------------------------------------------@{fg text} To create a gadget you simply fill in a Gadget structure. (see @{"fig. 1" link "CC#3" 41}). You may also use the Gadtools Library to create gadgets (which we will), As you can see the Gadget structure has many items and to cover all these would @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} struct Gadget @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} consume a great deal of text @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow}{ @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} as suggested before get the @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} struct Gadget *NextGadget @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} ROM Kernel manual:Libraries @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} WORD LeftEdge, TopEdge; @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} (at the very least) as there @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} WORD Width, Height; @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} is detailed information on all @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} UWORD Flags; @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} structures the amiga programmer @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} UWORD Activation; @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} needs to understand. @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} UWORD GadgetType; @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} APTR GadgetRender; @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} OK lets do something different @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} APTR SelectRender; @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} like use the Gadtools Library @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} struct IntuiText *GadgetText; @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} to put some gadgets up on the @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} LONG MutualExclude; @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} window and let us know which one@{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} APTR SpecialInfo; @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} we selected. @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} UWORD GadgetID; @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} APTR UserData; @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} Now that we know about the @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} }; @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} Intuistion gadgets lets take a @{b}@{bg shine} FIG. 1 @{ub}@{bg back} look at the Gadtools gadgets. There are 12 types of gadgets that the Gadtools library supports and they are: @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow}Button @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow}String @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow}Integer @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow}Checkboxes @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow}Mutually exclusive @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow}Cycle @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow}Sliders @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow}Scrollers @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow}Listviews @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow}Palette @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow}Text-display @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow}Numeric-display @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} With all of these types of gads what couldnt you do? And as a real bonus there are several GUI buiders on aminet, just look in dev/gui and you will see several I personally like GadToolBox by Jan van den Baard. These programs take a great deal of coding off of your back and allow you to work on the inner workings of your own program. Lets take a look a the structure used to create a gadtools gadget: @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow}struct NewGadget @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow}{ @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} WORD ng_LeftEdge,ng_TopEdge; @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} WORD ng_Width,ng_Height; @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} UBYTE *ng_GadgetText; @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} struct TextAttr *ng_TextAttr;@{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} UWORD ng_GadgetID; @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} ULONG ng_Flags; @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} APTR ng_VisualInfo; @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow} APTR ng_UserData; @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}@{bg shadow}}; @{ub}@{fg text}@{bg back} @{b}@{bg shine} FIG 2 @{ub}@{bg back} If you compare the Gadget (fig 1) and the NewGadget (fig 2) structures you will see some common items. The way you create a gadget using gadtools is the CreateGadget() function, its prototype is: @{b}@{fg shine}struct Gadget *CreateGadget(ULONG kind, struct Gadget *prevgad, struct NewGadget *newgad, struct TagItem *taglist);@{ub}@{fg text} so to create a single button gadget we would do it like this: @{b}@{fg shine}ng.ng_TextAttr = &Topaz80; ng,ng_VisualInfo = vi; ng.ng_LeftEdge = 10; ng.ng_TopEdge = 10; ng.ng_Width = 60; ng.ng_Height = 12; ng.ng_GadgetText = "CLICK"; ng.ng_GadgetID = 1; ng.ng_Flags = 0; gad = CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END);@{ub}@{fg text} _____________________________ If you look at fig 2 you will []hello__________________[][] see that we have filled the | | structure and then made a call | @{"CLICK" link "" 0} @{"QUIT" link "" 0} | to CreateGadget(). The nice | | thing is that if you were to | | add another gadget you now only | | fill in the items that will | | change, an example of this | | is given below. Lets add a |___________________________| gadget that has "QUIT" inside it. @{b}@{bg shine}FIG 4@{ub}@{bg back} @{b}@{fg shine}ng.LeftEdge =80; ng.ng_GadgetText ="QUIT"; ng.ng_GadgetID =2; gad = CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END);@{ub}@{fg text} and now we would have two gadgets that would look like @{"fig 4" link "CC#3" 112} The example program was created using the example from the ROM Kernel Manual:Libraries in the chapter Gadtools Library pg.383-385. I would also like to mention that this layout was written by me and not by a GUI builder... and this is the GUI that we will use to create our AddressBook program. There are several new items to this code and alot of it you will not understand, I will try to clear up any questions in the next issue as we will go line by line of this code and explain what is going on... *****------------------------- *****------------------------- * N * ALL CODE IS INTENDED | * N * I COMPILED THIS CODE | * O * FOR VERSION 2.0 OR | * O * WITH SAS/C V6.0 AND | * T * ABOVE... | * T * HAD NO ERRORS OR | * E * | * E * WARNINGS | *****------------------------- *****------------------------- //.C..C.O.D.E.............................................................. #include #include #include #include #include #include #include #include VOID process_window_events(struct Window *); VOID gadtoolsWindow(VOID); VOID Do_Gad(struct Window *mywin,struct Gadget *gad,UWORD code); BOOL terminated = FALSE; struct TextAttr Topaz80 = { "topaz.font",8,0,0,}; struct Library *IntuitionBase; struct Library *GadToolsBase; void main(void) { if ((IntuitionBase = OpenLibrary("intuition.library",37))!=NULL) { if ((GadToolsBase = OpenLibrary("gadtools.library",37))!=NULL) { gadtoolsWindow(); CloseLibrary(GadToolsBase); } CloseLibrary(IntuitionBase); } } VOID gadtoolsWindow(VOID) { struct Screen *mysc; struct Window *mywin; struct Gadget *glist, *gad; struct NewGadget ng; void *vi; glist = NULL; if ((mysc = LockPubScreen(NULL)) != NULL) { if ((vi = GetVisualInfo(mysc, TAG_END)) != NULL) { gad = CreateContext(&glist); ng.ng_TextAttr =&Topaz80; ng.ng_VisualInfo =vi; ng.ng_LeftEdge =300; ng.ng_TopEdge =2+mysc->WBorTop+(mysc->Font->ta_YSize+1); ng.ng_Width =16; ng.ng_Height =12; ng.ng_GadgetText ="A"; ng.ng_GadgetID =1; ng.ng_Flags =0; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18 ; ng.ng_GadgetText ="B"; ng.ng_GadgetID =2; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18 ; ng.ng_GadgetText ="C"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18 ; ng.ng_GadgetText ="D"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18 ; ng.ng_GadgetText ="E"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge =300; ng.ng_TopEdge +=14; ng.ng_GadgetText ="F"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18 ; ng.ng_GadgetText ="G"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18 ; ng.ng_GadgetText ="H"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18 ; ng.ng_GadgetText ="I"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18 ; ng.ng_GadgetText ="J"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge =300; ng.ng_TopEdge +=14; ng.ng_GadgetText ="K"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18 ; ng.ng_GadgetText ="L"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18 ; ng.ng_GadgetText ="M"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18 ; ng.ng_GadgetText ="N"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18 ; ng.ng_GadgetText ="O"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge =300; ng.ng_TopEdge +=14; ng.ng_GadgetText ="P"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18 ; ng.ng_GadgetText ="Q"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18 ; ng.ng_GadgetText ="R"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18 ; ng.ng_GadgetText ="S"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18 ; ng.ng_GadgetText ="T"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge =300; ng.ng_TopEdge +=14; ng.ng_GadgetText ="U"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18 ; ng.ng_GadgetText ="V"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18 ; ng.ng_GadgetText ="W"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18 ; ng.ng_GadgetText ="X"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18 ; ng.ng_GadgetText ="Y"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge =300; ng.ng_TopEdge +=14; ng.ng_GadgetText ="Z"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18; ng.ng_GadgetText ="?"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge +=18 ; ng.ng_Width =54; ng.ng_GadgetText ="ADD"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_TopEdge +=14; ng.ng_Width =54; ng.ng_GadgetText ="QUIT"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); ng.ng_LeftEdge =10; ng.ng_TopEdge =2+mysc->WBorTop+(mysc->Font->ta_YSize+1); ng.ng_Width =180; ng.ng_Height =12; ng.ng_GadgetText ="BOOL 1"; ng.ng_GadgetID ++; gad= CreateGadget(BUTTON_KIND,gad,&ng,TAG_END); if (gad != NULL) { if ((mywin = OpenWindowTags(NULL, WA_Title, "PhoneBook V1.0", WA_Gadgets, glist, WA_AutoAdjust, TRUE, WA_Width, 400, WA_InnerHeight, 100, WA_DragBar, TRUE, WA_DepthGadget, TRUE, WA_Activate, TRUE, WA_CloseGadget, TRUE, WA_IDCMP, IDCMP_CLOSEWINDOW | IDCMP_REFRESHWINDOW | BUTTONIDCMP, WA_PubScreen, mysc, TAG_END)) != NULL) { GT_RefreshWindow(mywin,NULL); process_window_events(mywin); CloseWindow(mywin); } } FreeGadgets(glist); FreeVisualInfo(vi); } UnlockPubScreen(NULL,mysc); } } VOID process_window_events(struct Window *mywin) { struct IntuiMessage *imsg; ULONG class; UWORD code; struct Gadget *gad; while (!terminated) { Wait(1<< mywin->UserPort->mp_SigBit); while ((!terminated) && (imsg = GT_GetIMsg(mywin->UserPort))) { gad = (struct Gadget *)imsg->IAddress; class=imsg->Class; code =imsg->Code; switch (class) { case IDCMP_GADGETUP: Do_Gad(mywin,gad,code); break; case IDCMP_CLOSEWINDOW: terminated = TRUE; break; case IDCMP_REFRESHWINDOW: GT_BeginRefresh(mywin); GT_EndRefresh(mywin,TRUE); break; } GT_ReplyIMsg(imsg); } } } VOID Do_Gad(struct Window *mywin,struct Gadget *gad,UWORD code) { switch(gad->GadgetID) { case 1:printf("A\n"); break; case 2:printf("B\n"); break; case 3:printf("C\n"); break; case 4:printf("D\n"); break; case 5:printf("E\n"); break; case 6:printf("F\n"); break; case 7:printf("G\n"); break; case 8:printf("H\n"); break; case 9:printf("I\n"); break; case 10:printf("J\n"); break; case 11:printf("K\n"); break; case 12:printf("L\n"); break; case 13:printf("M\n"); break; case 14:printf("N\n"); break; case 15:printf("O\n"); break; case 16:printf("P\n"); break; case 17:printf("Q\n"); break; case 18:printf("R\n"); break; case 19:printf("S\n"); break; case 20:printf("T\n"); break; case 21:printf("U\n"); break; case 22:printf("V\n"); break; case 23:printf("W\n"); break; case 24:printf("X\n"); break; case 25:printf("Y\n"); break; case 26:printf("Z\n"); break; case 29:printf("TERMINATE\n"); terminated = TRUE; break; } } // End C Code NEXT MONTH: HEY DONT MISS IT !!!! I will explain the code you just read line by line. See you on IRC #amiga!!! @endnode @node "SBOT4" "Some Bits of Treasure 4/4" @toc "General" @next "CC3" @prev "Akira" @{fg shine}Some Bits of Treasure Part IV@{fg text} @{i}by Brian Strayer@{ui} John, Tom, and the boy loaded their vehicle and were off to the village. With a full measure of jolts and dust, they arrived at the village a bit before noon. Armand directed them to an area that was run down even for the village. They entered a ramshackle leanto stacked with sacks and debris and pushed through a worn board door in the back left corner. The room was small with a cot at one end and piles of stuff on the oppposite wall. Two boxes in the center of the common wall made a crude desk. Armand wisked off the cloth covering the desk and powered up the A500. "What now?" he asked. John laid down half a page of writing. "Open a shell and enter this page." As the boy entered the data, Tom looked at the code. "But what if the gizmo is off at the other end?" John raised his eyebrows, "From what I can gather indirectly of the time frame, access may have been possible for over a thousand years!" They refocused on the screen as Armand finished the last line. "Now, run it," John told him. The boy did. The screen went blank for a few seconds, then showed three small shapes that tumbled around like a screen saver. They then merged in the center forming the Commodore symbol. A loud 'ping' announced the change of the symbol to large letters proclaiming 'ACCESS'. The screen went blank and a low hum-pop was barely audible. Tom pointed behind them to the only open space in the room, "What's that?" A thin band of distortion was visible. It was much the same as distant objects appeared on a hot day. It ran from floor to ceiling and was about eight inches wide. The distortion was greatest in the center tapering to nothing on the edges. John walked slowly around it. It was visible from the machine and directly behind it. But nothing could be seen from the sides. He ventured, "I think that is our doorway." Tom stared at John, "I sure hope you're not thinking what I think you're thinking." "We have no other test equipment," he replied, "And we do not know what high powered friends that hoodlum might have. They still have the laptop. I don't see how we can wait and maybe loose our advantage." "I guess you're right," Tom assented. "But who's going to go through?" "I'm the obvious choice. I know the symbols and data," replied John. They equipped him with their few essentials in a couple of minutes. He faced the distortion, looked at them, and smiled, with a last attempt at humor, "Now don't wait up for me." He stepped forward and was gone. Not twenty seconds elapsed before John stepped back into the room. "What's...," Tom started and then stopped, staring at John's face. His eyes were bright and his whole being radiated excitement, and more. "It seems I've been gone a few seconds, but actually four hours has passed for me. You won't believe what I've seen. I can hardly explain it. And this distortion is a handle, not a door. It takes us to the door to another world. And not just a world, but life. Real life like we haven't known. I've met the people who have done all of this. They want us to come. Our world, our lives have been missing some key elements. We will have them there. But you must come and see for yourself. It's incredible. And we have to come back and tell everyone about the computers and what they really have at their fingertips, and what wonderful things await them." Armand did not hesitate,"I want to go!" John nodded,"Good. There's a place for us Tom, and much to do. Come and see." Parts of Tom's life flashed before his eyes. Those things he valued, memories of special places and times, and people, though there was no one really close. He felt suddenly afraid that all of these and his innermost dreams for his future would evaporate and be lost from his life forever. It enveloped him like a cold, dark horror and froze his confused thoughts. But then a speck of hope appeared. A hope for a new life without sadness, failures, and poor choices. He tenderly held this hope in his heart and with a new boldness, looked straight into John's eyes. "That sounds like a fair offer," he said, and followed them through. The End @endnode @node "InfoPack" "Info-Pack on the Amiga Convention '95!" @toc "General" @next "Akira" @prev "Editorial" The Official Info Pack on the @{fg shine}Amiga Convention '95@{fg text} -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ************************************************************************** Please feel free to spread this file around wherver you can, as long as it is not altered. We don't want people to show up at the wrong city or during the wrong month! If you are a magazine, please feel free to put this in your magazine. All that we ask in return is that you e-mail or call us to tell us that you have put the information into the magazine. Also, if you would like to have an article written for your magazine after the convention about what happened at AC'95, please e-mail ************************************************************************** -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In August, in Montreal, the third annual Amiga Convention will take place! This convention will gather the Amiga community together from all across the world to show its support for the Amiga! We hope to make this show the first event in the long fight to make the Amiga a well known computer in North America again. WHY: We are putting on the Amiga Convention '95 (AC 95) to support our favorite computer, the Amiga! We feel that for too long, the Amiga has been ignored, and now that the Amiga is owned by people who actually will support it well, we want to help them out in any way we can. We also want to get a lot of people together to have a really cool time! WHERE: A College Cafeteria in Montreal, large enough to hold over 1,000 people, not including the surrounding rooms. ADDRESS: College du Vieux Montreal 255, Ontario EAST (street) Montreal (Quebec) H2X 1X6 Canada WHEN : 19th - 20th August 1995 TIME : 8:00 - 20:00 (8:00 PM) Saturday 8:00 - 20:00 (8:00 PM) Sunday ENTRANCE COST: 7 Canadian dollars COMPETITIONS: Gfx (3d) -------- 1st place : $300 2nd place : $200 3rd place : $100 Music (mod 4 track) ----------------- 1st place : $300 2nd place : $200 3rd place : $100 Intro (64k max.) ---------------- 1st place : $500 2nd place : $300 3rd place : $200 Demo (2 megs) ------------- 1st place : $1000 2nd place : $600 3rd place : $300 * Special Award ceremonies to give out a special prizes for the persons that made some amazing thing with the Amiga Computers! (to encourage some developers that are doing crazy thing with the amiga!) Dealers/Devlopers on list already! ----------------------------------- We are currently talking to the AMIGA COMPANY, owned by Escom, to get them involved with the show. It will be announced in a later announcement whether they are coming or not. RCS Managements: Makers of the X-Calibur and Fusion-Forty GfxBase Eletronic: A local computer store chain. Eletromike: Another computer store chain. Wonder Computers: Owners of 4 stores in Ottawa, Toronto. The biggest Canadian Amiga retailer. PreSpect Technics: Importers/dealers/devlopers of hardware products! Spectrum GFX: A video production company headed by the programmer of Composite Studio Pro (c) Dimension Technologies Ultred Visions Inc.: Developers of a CD32-based plug-and-play Internet access set-top box. Amiga Link: The online Amiga magazine! COST FOR RENTING TABLES : $100 - 1 day, $150 - 2 days, for one table of 6' by 3' and chairs. You may do whatever you want to at the rented tables. These tables are aimed towards dealers and developers. FREE TABLES: We will also have free tables at AC'95, for anyone who wishes to bring their Amiga, whether to show off something cool, or just to help someone else who might need one at the time. However, at the free tables you get less space than the pay tables, it is first-come first-serve, and you cannot sell products at the tables! That is strictly for the rented tables. ACCESABILITY: The show is easily accesable by bus and train, as well as having lots of parking space in the vicinity for cars. WHY DEALERS SHOULD COME: At AC'95, we offer tables at an incredibly cheap price, a price which includes electrical outlets. You also get the chance to show and sell your wares to a crowd of Amiga owners, all of whom have money to spend and are influenced by how big a prescence you have at the show. WHY PEOPLE SHOULD COME: AC'95 will have stands from many major dealers and developers. It will also have a lot of friendly Amiga owners there, plus a booming sound system and TV setup that will show crazy demos and products. It will be a wild good time for all! * Just 5 minutess walking distance from the Metro Station BERRI-UQAM as well as for the BUS terminals of VOYAGEUR, GREYHOUND, etc. * Interior parking space for up to 200 cars at $5 canadian a day. * We will have Audio/visual equipment setup for presentations of demos, programs, hardware, new products, etc. The audio equpment run at an incredible 5000W!! * The Student-Cafe will be open during the events selling food like sandwiches, soups, coffee and other fast food items. CONTACT: If you want to buy a table, get more information on the show, or just talk to the organizers, e-mail either or , or call 514-649-9756 (in Canada) and ask for Frederic Tessier regarding the Amiga Convention '95. You can also mail the organizers at: Frederic Tessier 922 Deschamps Sainte-Julie (Quebec) J3E 1N9 Canada @endnode @node "LEGALBS" "LegalBS" The views expressed in this magazine are not neccasarily those of Joshua Galun nor anyone related to them. Amiga Link and the articles in it are copyright Joshua Galun. You may not reproduce Amiga Link's articles in any way, or edit the magazine, in any way without Josh Galun's express written consent. Amiga Link may be freely distributed on any BBS or online services as long as it is still in it's original archive and form. Public Domain resellers may sell Amiga Link for a maximum of $4.50 or £3.00, or in any currency as long as the amounts are equal to those, using the exchange rates of May 28, 1995. You may not use Amiga Link in any other way than putting it on BBSs and reading it, and selling it for the amounts specified. If you wish to use Amiga Link or an article in it for something else, you must first contact on of the editors. Amiga Link is not affiliated with Commodore-Amiga, Commodore Business Machines, Ltd., Escom AG, or any other Amiga publications. 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, unless specified otherwise. @endnode @node "products" "Reccomended Products" @next "letters" @prev "TheStaff" In using our Amigas and making Amiga Link, we have come across some products and services that we believe exemplary. These products have all received the much desired Amiga Link @{"Chicken Seal of Quality" system "p-view csq"} They are as follows: @{b}@{u}Heddley@{ub}@{uu}: This is a program to make Amiga Guide documents (such as the one you are reading write now), and it is incredible! Not only is it very easy to use, but it also cuts the time needed to make an Amiga Guide doc by a factor of 8, and has many great features! It's so good that we use Heddley here at Amiga Link! You can find Heddley v1.1 on Aminet. The author is Edd Dumbill. @{b}@{u}Page Stream 3.0g@{ub}@{uu}: Version 3 of this product was released early because of pressure, and as a result is was very buggy. However, Soft Logik has been very good about trying to fix the bugs and about spreading the new releases around. Page Stream 3.0g is not perfect, but it's pretty damn close! This product really brings the Amiga DTP up to industry standards, and we reccomend it to anyone interested in doing DTP on the Amiga, or any computer! @endnode @node "letters" "Letters to the Ed" From: Peter Hughes John (sic) congratulations on a healthy looking production - I look forward to further editions of Amiga_Link - however if this production is to maintain credibility I feel that a review should be totally honest in its scoring or it loses credibilty very fast. @{i}We at Amiga Link understand this, as shown by the review in this issue; we were hardly kind to Akira, and Guardian and Cybergames didn't get great reviews either. @{ui} I refer to the review by Roy Millican of Pagestream3 in your last issue - a very good article indeed however Roy concludes by saying:- "On a scale from 1-10, 10 being the Highest, I give it a 10" Yet he mentioned many bugs and the fact (unfortunately) that Pagestream3 still had many features not working:- "Many bugs were present, and some features not working, but most have been fixed. My biggest complaint is that you have to figure out and set the screen DPI when using a graphics board. - You cannot apply colors to text using the Color Palette. - The Line/Fill button in the toolbar cannot be used for text - You can't copy and paste (or duplicate/transform) text frames. - Color separations don't work." I therefore fail to see how a product can attract a 100% rating after comments such as these. Maybe Roy became slightly over enthusiastic and supportive of Soft-Logik, however the fact remains that they released a very unstable product and then tried to blame the users for forcing them to an early release. It would appear that all was not well in the Soft-Logik stable and after jumping from the starting gate they failed to maintain the lead as per the press releases they issued. @{i}You feel that Roy should not have given it such a high rating, and perhaps you are right, but on the other hand Roy did give many reasons for why this is a great product. I think the best example of all is that Roy uses PageStream 3 in his DTP business, which shows that it is far more than usable.@{ui} No answer has been given to the punters who backed this product - could a change of jockey have been the cause, I mean Dan Weiss had been riding this product for a long time and suddenly disappears. I personally have received less than acceptable support from Soft-Logik in recent times. It would appear that after long period of Pagestream use and sending Soft-Logik printed copies of productions (airmailed to the States at my expense) plus disk files of the productions. I did not rate an upgrade under the agreement even though my copy was registered and the correct package. This is not sour grapes - there must be many others like me that are extremely disappointed. @{i} This is not really related to how good the product is, though. It sounds as if you are more aggrevated at the poor support and poor timing of the release by Soft-Logik than at the program. Remember, Roy was reviewing v3.0g, not v3.@{ui} I for one am very disappointed with the performance of Pagestream3 and will continue to use Pagestream2.2, because it works. It certainly does not have the whistles and bells of other DTP Programs but, it works. There is an old saying "Garbage In Garbage Out" but in the case of Pagestream3 it is a case of "Garbage In Lucky To Get Anything Out" Once again congratulations to all involved in the production of Amiga_Link and I hope Roy Millican takes my comments in the constructive spirit they were written. Regards Peter Hughes Australia@{i} @{i} I'm sure that Roy has payed close attention to your letter, as he would to any letter which commented on his articles. Thanks a lot for your letter.@{ui} @{ui}Come on people, surely Peter Hughers isn't the only person who has comments about the mag! Write us at Zool@cyberwar.com ! @endnode @node "TheStaff" "The Staff at Amiga Link" @next "products" @prev "ADS" Yes, the following people have climbed to the highest rung of Amiga life: To write for Amiga Link! Joshua Galun is the Editor-in-Chief of Amiga Link, and he wrote the editorial (ofcourse) and the review of Cybergames. Send comments, letters to the mag, information, dirty gifs, or anything else related to the mag, to Roy Millican is the Technical Editor of Amiga Link. He handles everything that Joshua is afraid to touch, and he's a pretty handy writer too! He wrote the review of CLChat this month. E-mail him at Brian Strayer is the C= 64 user who won our hearts with his ongoing story, Some Bits of Treasure. Hopefully we can convince him to come back and write something new for the mag next month. E-mail him at Steven Haeuser wrote the complicater, but very helpful, article on how write games that work with Graphics boards. In the past he wrote the FAQ on texture mapping games, and he is currently working on a RPG for the Amiga. You can find out more about gfx board compatiblity from him at Jim Anglewell is the man we call in to do the tough tasks at Amiga Link. This month he slogged through every single level of Akira. If that ain't torture, I don't know what is! He's currently in a state of shock because of over-exposure to Akira, but when he recovers you can reach him at David Loeser of Synthesis Software kindly contributes the Coder's Clinic. You can find his games KnightsQuest and Hawk on Aminet. Ask him any C questions you might have at Guy Nathan, our resident Aussie, painstakingly backed uo his 5 partitions onto tape just for Amiga Link. Unfortuanately, after he formatted his HD to see if the restore program would work, he discovered that someone had taped over his HD with an episode of the Simpsons! D'oh! Mail him at Carl Chavez, the Amiga Link game's guru, wrote the review of Guardian. Carl eats, drinks, and writes for Amiga Link, so how bad can he be? Argue about games with him at with the message ADD Then, every time the magazine comes out, it will be mailed to you UUENcoded. The magazine is quite big, so if your e-mail address cannot accept messages of atleast 100k, don't put your name on the list. If you want to be taken off the lits, do the same thing, but subsititute DELETE for ADD. 2) The World Wide Web If you have the use of AMosaic or Lynx on your BBS, you can view Amiga Link online on 8 different WWW pages. Their addresses are: Roy Millican's home page, one of the best around! The Amiga home page! Check this page out! Amiga Link now puts a HTML version of Amiga Link on Aminet each month for people who wish to put Amiga Link on their WWW page. If you do put Amiga Link on your WWW page, pleasr tell us at Amiga Link and we'll list your page here. 3) Aminet and BBSs Ofcourse, you can also get Amiga Link off of the docs/mags directory of Aminet, or off many local BBSs, although we do not keep a list here, Amiga Link is on more than 50 BBSs worldwide. @endnode @node "ADS" "Adventure Design System Announcement" @toc "General" @next "TheStaff" @prev "Cybergames" @{i} I normally don't allow announcements in Amiga Link, but ADS really impressed me, so I let Travis have one...@{ui} Title: ADVENTURE DESIGN SYSTEM Author: Travis Riggs Aminet Filename: AdventureDesig.lha under games/role This program is by far the easiest game creator available for the Amiga today! With Adventure Design System, you can create any type of role playing game you can imagine. Anything from the typical D&D style game, to a space adventure game, or even a spy game! Whatever you want! ADS is so easy to use that you can put a decent game together in a matter of minutes. You don't need to have any programming experience. ADS also has an excellent on-line help feature that will answer any questions you might have about designing your game. If that weren't enough, ADS also checks your game for errors! Very nice! The basic concept works very well. You create "Objects" and "Creatures" and then place them into "Rooms" that you design in your game layout. Then ADS takes care of the rest! You can use any standard IFF picture or sound to include in your game. You can attach pictures and sounds to creatures, rooms, objects, key events, etc. It even supports AGA! Adventure Design System is Shareware. With the registered version you will be able to save out your games as STAND ALONE, and freely distributeable games! You can't find a more powerful games creator for adventure/role playing ! To receive a registered copy of Adventure Design System send $ 20 U.S. dollars, plus $ 5.00 shipping & handling to: Spectrum Video 1039 Sterling Road 1-(703) 471-5001 in Virginia and Suite # 104-B outside the U.S. Herndon, VA 22070 Attn: Travis 1-(800) 471-5001 Toll Free inside U.S. the U.S. Some of Travis' other credits include: Composite Studio Profeesional (Copyright 1995 Dimension Technologies), Bikini Karate Babes, and many others including current FMV CDRom projects and other commercial software for the Amiga! @{i} The Ed speaks: I really enjoyed the demo version of ADS, and I will be doing a complete review of it as soon as Travis gets me the registered version. I think that everyone should download this file from Aminet and try it out, because it's worth atleast trying out, and who knows, you may like it so much that you'll write a whole game in it!@{ui} @endnode