AFCD1 - 614.4Mb - June 96
    
    It's all new! What changes could there possibly be, other than the last minute
    omission of Nick's toilet fury full-screen video.
    
    Commercial Software: Real 3D v2.5, Real 3D v1.5, Blitz Basic v2.1AF, Personal
    Fonts Maker 2.
    
    
    AFCD2 - 644.5Mb - July 96
    
    Still using the CanDo-generated front end, but it's getting difficult to keep
    it up-to-date already.
    
    Commercial Software: CanDo v2.5, Octamed 5, Wordworth 5.
    
    
    AFCD3 - 475.2Mb (but there are audio tracks) - August 96
    
    First audio tracks (excerpts from speeches given at the Toulouse press
    conference) on an AFCD! No sign of the front end from AFCD1 & 2.
    
    Commercial Software: TypeSmith v2.5.
    
    
    AFCD4 - 526.6Mb - Spetember 96
    
    First CD compiled by Ben. This CD was the start of the current layout, although
    there were nine drawers and five file icons at the root.
    
    Commercial software: none, but AlienBreed - Tower Assault movie.
    
    
    AFCD5 - 551.1Mb - October 96
    
    Loads of problems! Lots of people reported that they couldn't read this disc
    although we had had no trouble with it. Nick_Speaks! from the previous CD was
    replaced with Ben_Speaks! and has stayed the same ever since (although the icon
    has been improved!). First appearance of the In_the_Mag drawer.
    
    Commercial Software: None, but large numbers of PhotoCD images of Bath.
    
    
    AFCD6 - 600.4Mb - November 96
    
    First appearance of Look_here_1st! drawer (unwieldly-ly called
    Have_a_look_here_first! on this CD!).This drawer contained the startup scripts
    and the colour patchers making the total number of icons in the root: drawers
    8, files 1. It's also the first appearance on the AF_on_the_Web drawer,
    although the only website included was the old AF pages. This CD marks the
    first appearance of the venerable AFCDSurvey.
    
    Commercial Software: none.
    
    
    AFCD7 - 622.9Mb - December 96
    
    Sensibly we renamed the Look_here_1st! drawer this month, and new icon images
    for the drawers on the CD but other than that there aren't a great number of
    changes to the CD from the previous one. oh yes, and we had a huge amount of
    ReaderStuff (more than 200Mb) mainly thanks to Femi Hasani and his excellent
    video backdrops.
    
    Commercial software: DataChrome.
    
    
    AFCD8 - 517Mb - Christmas 96
    
    First appearance of our new AFCD icon, created for us by a reader. A new icon
    for Ben_Speaks! - me with much shorter hair (it's probably about time for
    another new one as I write this at the start of the production schedule for
    AFCD28). Ben_Speaks has my thought for the month for the first time, but will
    remain in AmigaGuide format for some time to come. Serious turns into
    Seriously_Amiga. Still not many websites and the Andy Davidson interview didn't
    get on the disc either. Also, we didn't want your MODs any more because of
    copyright infringements.
    
    Commercial software: Cinema 4D.
    
    
    AFCD9 - 576Mb - January 97
    
    We had interviews in Quicktime format on this CD, that weren't playable using
    the Quicktime players available to us at the time. They may well be now, so if
    you want to hear what Wolf Dietrich and Jason Compton had to say a year and a
    half ago, give them a try now.
    
    Commercial software: Octamed 6.
    
    
    
    AFCD10 - 646.1Mb - February 97
    
    A really packed CD this month and the first appearance of NewIcons for the
    CD and for Ben_Speaks!, for what it's worth. We now have nine drawers in the
    root of the CD to make it look neater (the extra drawer is one for Prefs). The
    main work I did on the CD was to create a massive set of AmigaGuide docs for
    all the transcsripts of the Lightwave Mailing list, along with huge numbers of
    objects, scenes and the like for the premier 3D package for the Amiga. We also
    started lining up the drawers in a now-familiar style and included a Reader
    Warrant in the Look_here_1st! drawer.
    
    Commercial software: FontMachine.
    
    
    AFCD11 - 589.6Mb - March 97
    
    A change in CD compiling took place this CD with the excellent
    EMComputergraphic taking the helm. As a first step, they got every single
    datatype that could be found at the time and put them on the CD. This CD also
    marks the first appearance of the minus signs at the start and end of the
    important directory names. The reason for this is to make them easier to find
    in a directory utility like DOpus. We also had the complete (but unannotated)
    source for Alien Breed 3D2.
    
    Commercial Software: Turbocalc 2.1.
    
    
    AFCD12 - 617.1Mb - April 97
    
    And now we start to consolidate with the CD. We've made a lot of changes over
    the previous eleven discs and now the CD is pretty good, EMC can get on with
    compiling instead of worrying about how to improve it. Of course, changes will
    come, but not yet.
    
    Commercial software: PPaint 6.4, Cinema 4D 2.
    
    
    AFCD13 - 460.6Mb - May 97
    
    An all-time low for content. We were decidedly hampered by Aminet not working
    properly and a lack of time generally. A first mention of Quake in Ben_Speaks!
    
    Commercial software: Scala 1.13.
    
    
    AFCD14 - 550.5Mb - June 97
    
    Again, not much changed for AFCD14 if I remember rightly. We had a lot of games
    though this issue including exclusive items from Vulcan previewing their
    up-and-coming games (some of which still haven't reached us!).
    
    Commercial software: none.
    
    
    AFCD15 - 644.2Mb - July 97
    
    The AFCD setup script becomes one file this month instead of two, but other
    than that there's not much change. However, as you can see, this CD is very
    full indeed.
    
    Commercial software: none.
    
    
    AFCD16 - 654.3Mb - August 97
    
    Our fullest CD yet! This CD accompanied our 100th issue so we included all 100
    top shareware titles which, no doubt, helped to fill the disc to the brim. The
    only obvious change this month is the fact the the AFCD_Setup file gains some
    plus signs in front of and behind its name and gets moved to the root of the CD
    to encourage you to use it more. We also tried out a Reader Ads section on the
    CD, but it didn't work out and was, instead, transplanted into the magazine.
    
    Commercial software: none.
    
    
    AFCD17 - 574.5Mb - September 97
    
    This CD sees the introduction of the superb AFCDFind written especially for us
    by that wiz Oliver Roberts. It made finding what you were looking for on our CD
    so much better than having to trawl through the listed indices that it was a
    shock, but even so it's improved immeasurably since then. Nice one Oliver!
    
    Commercial software: none.
    
    AFCD18 - 616.5Mb - October 97
    
    Look_here_1st! gets plus signs now to make sure it appears at the top of your
    listers in DOpus, but other than that there aren't many changes. We had 25
    different websites on the CD and more than 120Mb of your contributions though.
    
    Commercial software: Aquanaut.
    
    
    AFCD19 - 433.4Mb (plus audio tracks) - November 97
    
    Just a bit of a jiggle for the drawers on the CD this month - guaranteed to
    confuse everyone, but we didn't get too many complaints. It seems that a lot of
    you liked the audio tracks we had on the CD too.
    
    Commercial software: none.
    
    
    AFCD20 - 651.3Mb - December 97
    
    This CD sees the debut of AFCDPrefs, the tool that has made the AFCDs more
    personalised than ever. The marvellous Oliver Roberts wrote this for us too and
    like AFCDFind, it has improved and improved over the months we've been using
    it, thanks to our increased familiarity with it and your helpful suggestions
    through the AFCDSurvey. We had exclusive demos of Final Odyssey and Uropa 2 on
    this CD along with a full version of NetBSD.
    
    Commercial software: none.
    
    
    AFCD21 - 648.5Mb - Christmas 97
    
    This CD saw the start of yet another new feature to help you, the reader. We
    started the very popular Reader_Requests drawer on AFCD21 and it has been very
    successful so far. There was also a new AFCDSurvey to fill in and send to us
    (we must have had 5,000 of these surveys so far. I read every one of them and
    try to reply where possible). We also had an exclusive demo of the long-awaited
    Genetic Species on AFCD21.
    
    Commercial software: none.
    
    
    AFCD22 - 649.4 - January 98
    
    Not much has changed since the previous CD, although we do have another
    exclusive game demo in the shape of Foundation on this CD. Other than that and
    just about 100Mb of reader contributions, the CD contains the usual up-to-date
    mix of shareware and the like.
    
    Commercial software: none.
    
    
    AFCD23 - 645.6Mb - February 98
    
    Judging by responses we've had via email and in the post to AFCDPrefs, it
    seemed that many of you weren't sure what to do with it, so I took the time to
    explain it in Ben_Speaks! that CD. It's all a bit out of date now, but still
    relevant. The CD kept on keeping on that month, but we did have a novelty in
    the shape of our first ever MP3 file which was Petro Tyschtschenko's speech
    from Cologne. It was terrible quality, but then it was  never designed to go
    onto the CD in the first place, it was only many requests from readers that
    forced our hand.
    
    Commercial software: none.
    
    
    AFCD24 - 639.2Mb - March 98
    
    This CD was the first one done in the new year for us, so it was also the first
    CD we did that had loads of Doom info on it. It was also another CD where we
    had huge numbers of contributions from you (more than 180Mb). Other than that,
    there weren't many changes from the previous CD.
    
    Commercial software: none.
    
    
    AFCD25 - 643.1Mb - April 98
    
    All change! For the first time really since AFCD6, the CD was laid out afresh.
    Instead of having nine drawers at the root and two files, we, all of a sudden,
    dropped to only six drawers and one file - Ben_Speaks!. Speaking of which,
    Ben_Speaks! changed this month from being a boring old Amigaguide file into
    HTML, bringing together all the disparate elements of the CD: namely
    Submissions advice, websites, Ben Speaks and subs, although subs isn't here
    yet. The restructuring was done to leave CoverDisks, ReaderStuff,
    Seriously_Amiga, ScreenPlay and In_the_Mag in the root and to add a new drawer
    called System which contained pretty much what Look_here_1st! had contained,
    but better. PD_Select was renamed to demos and put into the In_the_Mag drawer.
    Because we ensured that you wouldn't have to run some horrid startup script to
    make sure that everything ran from the CD okay, AFCD_Setup was moved to the
    System drawer as well. We also had a few problems with this CD because some
    Sanyo 2x SCSI CD-ROM drives wouldn't read it because it stretched the ISO9660
    standard too far for them.
    
    Commercial software: UFO Enemy Unknown.
    
    
    AFCD26 - 642Mb - May 98
    
    A refinement of AFCD25. The Websites drawer got "-"s to put it up with the
    content drawers in a lister, the viewers drawer got renamed to Tools and had a
    lot added to it. Every month now, the AFCD will provide a useful collection of
    tools, utilities and commodities for you to make use of. A subscriptions page
    was added to Ben_Speaks! and the layout of it was changed to include frames
    (not that I think frames are great, they just make navigation easier in this
    instance). The Demos drawer was renamed to MegaDemos to save any confusion with
    any other kind of demo. We've also reduced the amount of system files on the CD
    to ensure that more of our CD is new stuff than the competition. As it stands
    on this CD, less than 8% of the disc's contents are actually repeated material,
    whereas CU's disc had more than 12%.
    
    Commercial software: PPaint 7.
    
    
    AFCD27 - 642Mb - June 98
    
    Little things really. Added little animated AF logos to the web pages, lost the
    icon for the Indices drawer in +System+, added new viewers to the Tools drawer,
    and so on.
    
    Commercial software: F1GP
    
    
    AFCD28 - 644.4Mb - July 98
    
    Removed the Prefs drawer from +System+ and moved AFCDPrefs into +System+
    itself. Got rid of the Superview library files from libs since we had already
    got rid of the SVPrefs program and it was out-of-date anyway. Exclusive demo of
    Golem's ace new XFL animation format which gives you full-screen, full-speed
    animation with synchronised sound. Added AFCD history to the CD. Got rid of
    separate Reader Warrant file and updated the Survey and Readme template. We
    also made a big change in the -Seriously_Amiga- drawer by moving the shareware
    drawers into their parent directory. This means that we have an extra directory
    deep to play with which comes in handy mainly for the Programming drawer.
    
    Commercial software: none.
    
    
    AFCD29 - 645.2Mb - August 1998
    
    So far, there aren't a lot of changes to be made to this CD, mainly because
    we're waiting to find out what you think of AFCD28. We're looking at adding
    better DOpus functionality, because it seems that many of you are running it as
    a WBR, and we can do a lot more (interactively) with it than we can with
    Workbench. Updated the survey to keep it up to date. Updated AFCDView so that
    it works properly with the new layout from AFCD28, and included the demo of
    Golem that we missed out on last month. Check it out, you'll be amazed, honest!
    
    Commercial software: none.
    
    
    AFCD30 - 646Mb - September 1998
    
    Cleared up a glitch in the AFCD_Setup script that meant that font prefs
    couldn't be found on AFCD28 and AFCD29. Added a new drawer to
    +System+/Tools/Workbench called Archivers which contains 68k and PPC versions
    of all the common archiving tools. Also added some diagnostic tools to the
    Expert drawer, and AHI and RTGMaster to the Sound and Graphics drawers
    respectively.
    
    Hopefully we should have some major changes in AFCDFind this CD, including the
    long-requested ability to search for a file, click on a link and have the
    file or drawer open up automatically. Unfortunately, it will only be people
    using a current version of DOpus that will have access to this function because
    Workbench isn't powerful enough!
    
    Added a Roadmap page to the html so that beginners can find their way around
    our CD easily. Changed ScreenPlay/Commercial so it has dashes, more consistent
    with SeriouslyAmiga/Commercial. Changed the layout of the websites drawer to
    make it more neat.
    
    Deleted more obsolete libraries and the like to bring down further the amount
    of repeated System files you have to deal with. Even so, I doubt that total
    System usage will go down at all (it's more likely to go up) since we've added
    some new tools and obviously the index for this CD. Even so, you'll find more
    new stuff on our CD every month than anywhere else!
    
    Design for the CD itself and its packaging changes this month. Our Art Editor
    Colin has worked hard on a new look for the disc.
    
    Commercial software: none.
    
    AFCD31 - 555Mb (plus audio track) - October 1998
    
    Added a new newicon to the CD this month. Robert C. Miller is the artist
    involved and we think he's done a great job on it. The starburst around it
    really gives it a sense of wonder that we hope you find on our CDs (corny, I
    know).
    
    Archived some of the early AFCD indices (AFCD1-10) so that they take up less
    room on CD. You can't get these CDs any more anyway. We'll be doing the same
    every ten CDs from now on.
    
    Updated the ARexx script that AFCDFind uses. You should have no problems in
    DOpus now getting it to bring up the windows or files you need.
    
    Updated subs advice.
    
    AFCD32 - 647Mb - November 1998
    
    Robert C. Miller has done a whole bunch of icons for our CD this month to
    please all the newicon fans out there. We'll be using them from now on and
    putting the MWB:NI question a rest.
    
    Again, this is a packed CD this time, especially given that we received a CD
    from one reader! We've had to redo the AVI file he sent us as an mpeg, but you
    won't be able to see it in on this CD since there wasn't the time to do it (or
    the space on the disc!) for this one.
    
    We've also included some new utilities in the C: drawer for DOpus users. Dread,
    Dshow and DPlay can be used in your AFCDPrefs to use DOpus' settings for text
    file reading, picture showing or sound playing, to make our CD even more
    integrated with DOpusbench.
    
    AFCD33 - 642.7Mb estimated - December 1998
    
    Another plus. We're considering getting rid of most of the files on the CD
    related to booting. CD³² owners have until AFCD35 to complain, otherwise we'll
    go ahead and stop the CD booting and ditch more of the system files. We've also
    ditched a bunch of stuff from the +System+ drawer this month bringing the total
    for the +System+ drawer down below 50 meg and the total number of System files
    on the CD down to about 7%. If we can get rid of the booting part of the CD, we
    can probably get rid of another 1% giving us just 6% repeated stuff every CD.
    
    AFCD34 - 644.3Mb - Christmas 1998
    
    Only two changes this month. The first is that websites get no leeway from us
    if they want to stay on the CD. The only option if you have a website that you
    want to appear on every AFCD is to send it in to us every four weeks, whether
    it has changed or not. The second thing to change is the fact that apparently
    some people have a problem with drawers called Workbench being on our CD, so
    we've changed the name to just WB throughout. We've also edited the preferences
    for the browsers on our CD so that will hopefully stop the "Disk is write
    protected" problem when using a browser from off the CD. We haven't tried this
    solution before, so it may not work, but it's worth a try, right? :)
    
    AFCD35 - 645Mb+ estimated - January 1999
    
    Two additions this CD: The first is the fact that we now have an ARexx drawer
    in the -Seriously_Amiga-/Programming directory, the second is that we now also
    have an additional drawer in ReaderStuff. Prompted by requests from users we're
    going to have A "readers' Workbench" drawer which will contain images of Amiga
    users' Workbenches along with readmes explaining just what they use to make
    their Workbench look the way it does.
    
    Also, advanced warning for next issue: We'll be taking off the +AFCD_Setup+
    file since it has become less and less valuable as time has gone on. We provide
    SnoopDOS on our CD every month, so if you find that there are libraries or
    fonts that you are lacking you can always copy them across to your hard drive.
    We'll also be changing the default tool AFCDView from ":c/afcdview" to simply
    "afcdview". This may mean that you'll need to copy AFCDView into your C:
    directory to be able to read files, but since it's only a tiny program this
    shouldn't be a problem.