Software Update.

Software Update. The Amiga users old favourite MP3 player AmigaAMP has had a small update which has now brought it to version 2.9b1. � “This version features improved shoutcast (.pls) streaming, HTTP file streaming (.m3u), finally faster playlist scrolling, full MHI 1.0 support and minor bug fixes regarding the skin element positions. Unfortunately I'm experiencing major problems with my main development Amiga at the moment, so I couldn't do more until this release. Sorry :( The shoutcast routines might still be buggy. Every decoding engine has its own streaming routines for better efficiency, so if you want to tell me about your streaming problems please don't forget to mention which engine you're using.” Source : http://www.amigaamp.de/log.html Submitted by Fly^ on Saturday, 7 July, 2001

New version of SFS

SFS, the replacement for the ageing FastFileSystem on the Amiga has just received yet another update - taking it to version 1.190a. This version of SFS can be found on Joerg Strohmayers webiste here or downloaded directly by clicking here Submitted by Steve on Monday, 2 July, 2001

Dispute with Voodoo 3 Drivers

After all the good news about 3D drivers being developed for all the PCI colutions on the Amiga for the Voodoo 3 series of cards, it seems that one of the "big boys" started to make unreasonable demands. Voodoo 3 driver producers Hyperion have now not got a deal with Elbox to produce their Warp3D Driver for the Mediator range of cards. The reasons for this are outlined below in a recent posting on the Amiga Mediator newsgroup from Ben Hermans the Managing Director of Hyperion: "Elbox and Hyperion did NOT come to an agreement about licensing Voodoo 3drivers because Elbox insisted that the Mediator 1200 would be the very first PCI solution to be supported (of all PCI boards on the market regardless for which machine A1200 or A4000). There never was discussion about delivery dates. The fact of the matter was that Elbox wanted us to do something which was clearly impossible both practically and legally. Practically: we can't "unsupport" the Matay Prometheus PCI solution. Drivers are shipping with the Prometheus for some time now and it's impossible to turn back the hands of time and allow the Mediator 1200 drivers to be shipped first. Legally: We entered into a legally binding contract with Matay for driver support. They paid us, Elbox didn't. We cannot legally delay release of the Prometheus drivers (which are already released anyway) just because Elbox wants us to. This is a clear breach of contract and runs contrary to the requirement of good faith which is a general principle of contract law. In short, Elbox was trying to impose an impossible condition on us and as a result we failed to reach agreement about Voodoo 3 drivers. I have e-mails from several staff members of Elbox to back up these claims. Despite numerous attempts we could not convince Elbox that Mediator 1200 users really could care less about the fact that the Voodoo 3 drivers for an A4000 solution were shipping first. The result is apparently that there won't be any 3D drivers for the Elbox products unless Elbox drops this ridiculous condition. Or somebody could invent a time-machine. As anybody could see at the Benelux show, the Voodoo 3 drivers are quite ready and could be adapted to the Mediator 1200 in a relatively short time. Mediator 1200 users interested in Voodoo 3 drivers should e-mail Elbox explaining that they don't care if an A4000 PCI busboard is supported first as long as they can finally get their Mediator 1200 drivers. The ball is clearly in Elbox's court." -- Ben Hermans Managing partner Hyperion Entertainment" Submitted by Steve on Monday, 2 July, 2001

Genetic Species for Free!

A quick look on Aminet has revealed that the well received first person shooter Genetic Species has been fully released as freeware and is available to dowload from Aminet now.....The only caveat being the file sizes. If you have the time to download all 19 LHA archives totalling around 184MB, then zoom off to your local Aminet mirror now and enjoy. Look in game/actio for the GS-Fullgame??.lha files UK Aminet Mirror Submitted by Steve on Saturday, 23 June, 2001

Executive Update

Amiga Inc. have recently added a new update to their web pages which highlights some problems they have been noticing with regards to mis information being spread about their office locations. There have been several false claims from various companies saying that they are part of, or affiliated to Amiga Inc - resulting in Amiga Deutschland seeking to take legal action against these false claims. For the full update, pop along to Amiga Inc's hompages and read the full update here Submitted by Steve on Saturday, 23 June, 2001

Prometheus PPC Plans

To allay any rumours that may begin circulating with reagrds to the future PPC add-ons for the Prometheus cards, Matay have placed the following statements on their site: 1. Matay is not going to produce the PPC card by itself. We will choose among the CPU solutions available at the market (not necessarily "Amiga native" only). It would take too much time and concern to produce such a card, time we can spend providing you with other Amiga-specifict products. Why to invent wheel again? 2. The only problem to solve is software support to make the hardware cooperate with our PCI bridge. However, with the help of AmigaOS4 developers from Amiga Inc. it is not a problem at all. We will cooperate with them to make Prometheus+CPU card combo 100% compatible with the upcoming AmigaOS. 3. We are not limiting our support to one CPU card only. You should view a CPU card expansion the same as - for example - a graphics card expansion. More than one solution is possible. 4. The details will be announced after we finish talks with the CPU cards manufacturers. As we always state - no promises, only facts, so please be patient. In meanwhile, you can use Prometheus boards with the existing Amiga CPU cards. The software, i.e. AmigaOS4, will arrive later this year, so will our hardware to run it on. See Matays site for more information. Submitted by Steve on Thursday, 21 June, 2001

AmigaOne FAQ Updated on Eyetech

Eyetech have recently updated their FAQ pages for all the recent additions and information with regards to the eagerly anticipated AmigaOne boards. The FAQ contains a lot of information, far too much to surmise here, so pop on over to the FAQ Submitted by Steve on Thursday, 21 June, 2001

Where is Amiga.org?

For the last several weeks, the continual load on their site has brought Amiga.org to a corrupted stand-still. Over the next several whenevers, Amiga.org plan to rebuild the site, from the ground, they will establish a new news engine, and build a comments engine, then the forums. The good news is they will work to continue the site. CLICK HERE for more. Submitted by DaveyD on Thursday, 21 June, 2001

SCSI Driver for AOS4

A recently posted story has detailed plans that Amiga Inc. have decided to incorporated a SCSI driver into the next release of AmigaOS - AOS 4. The chip they are looking to support at the moment is the NCR SCSI scripts chip, the same one used on the recent Phase 5 boards. An internal document describing their reasons for this was posted to the AmigaOne mailing list. Submitted by Steve on Tuesday, 19 June, 2001

Warp 3D Voodoo Driver Status

Hyperion have recently published details on the status of their eagerly anticipated Warp 3D drivers for the Voodoo cards. As stated before, only the Voodoo 3 series will be supported by these drivers, but the Frieden brothers have been hard at work converting their code over to use the FIFO features of the Voodoo card, resulting in a very fast frame rate up until a resoultion of 024*768 - at which point the bus becomes saturated with data and slow down occurs. The good news is games already released like Heretic 2 can already make use of the driver, and are improved due to it. Better still, the new driver improves the display of the game over the Permedia version, due to blending modes not supported in the older card. An example can be found Here Currently the Prometheus version is on line to be completed first due to there being a small problem to overcome with hopw the G-Rex operates. The G-Rex driver will be completed then, followed later in the year by the Mediator driver. Submitted by Steve on Monday, 18 June, 2001

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