CU Amiga Super CD-ROM 27/CU Amiga Magazine's Super CD-ROM 27 (1998)(EMAP Images)(GB)[!][issue 1998-10].iso/GoodBye/JohnKennedy/November94.lha/november.Q&A.doc

Text File | 1994-09-12 | 22.0 KB | 635 lines

Please read me:
---------------

Well, this is it - my last ever Q&A.  I can't do it any more,
so please stop sending me the sacks of letters.  I'm not
doing it any more because:

1.  I'm getting sick of it,

2.  I'm very tired with having to threaten legal action
every month to get paid by EMAP. August and September are
still outstanding.

3.  There is no way I'm writing all this for £150 ever
again.  Have you any idea how long it takes?  I'm being
ripped off.

4.  I'm tired of sharing the credit with someone who never
writes a single reply, ever.  It happened with Mat, and now
it happens with Andy.  Well how about Andy writes the next
year's worth of Q&A and I still get my picture at the top?

Hmm.  Those are all the reasons that spring to mind at the
moment.  Huh - prima donna writers, eh?  Think they're so
important..  yeah, yeah I know:  but it's simply not worth
my while to write for EMAP any more.


john
----









Q&A


The Team of Amiga experts blaze their way through another
sackfull of letters.


John Kennedy:  Can we have more letters about printer
drivers please?

Andy Leaning:  Oh yes, and some more from A600 owners too!


Title: Cheap TV
Icon: Monitor

I own a bog standard Amiga 1200, and a 14 inch Microvitec
1438 multisync monitor, and I would be grateful if you
answer the following questions:

1.  Is it possible to receive television pictures on my
Microvitec monitor as the 0.28mm dot pitch would give a
superior display?  Unless I have my numbers wrong
televisions receive signals at 50kHz, whereas the 1438
monitor syncs at 15 - 38 kHz.  Am I right in thinking I
can't receive television pictures?

2.  Assuming I can receive pictures, can I use Power
Computing's Video Backup system, as the advert says you can
use it on a 1084 monitor?

3.  John, where did you get your Judge Dredd pics used in
the Masterclass section?

Dean Carl Pelier, Alpha House, Kilburn, London


1.  Hmm, some number confusion here.  A television updates
it's picture at 50 kHz (which is another way of saying fifty
times a second), but this has nothing to do with those other
numbers, which are measures of the horizontal scan rate.

Normal TV video signals have a scan rate of 15kHz, so the
Microvitec will be able to display video perfectly, and as
your say, with the good dot pitch should give an excellent
picture.  The only problem will be trying to sort out a
source of suitable video signals - you'll need separate Red,
Green, Blue and sync signals for the Microvitec.

2.  The Video Backup system has a composite video output,
and the 1084 has a composite video input - hence you can
watch TV.  The video backup unit itself isn't phenomenally
smart though, it just provides an easy way of linking the TV
tuner from the video recorder (which is required to back up
the hard disk) with the monitor.

You don't actually need the Video Backup unit at all to
watch TV - just a suitable cable which any TV repair shop
will be able to knock up for you.  Alternatively, most
Video-to-video repair kits will include enough adaptors to
get the job done.

What this all means by the way, is that unless your video
recorder has separate Red, Green and Blue and Sync outputs,
you won't be able to use it to watch TV.  In any case, I
suspect you don't actually have a video recorder and you
only want some way of getting a cheap TV in your college
digs.

If this is true, I have three things to say:

i. Remember that if you succeed, you will need to buy a TV license.
Unless your TV is battery powered, students living away from
home need their own license. The detector vans are very good
these days, and with student grants the pittance they are a
large fine could be disastrous.

ii. Keep a look out in electronics magazines for stand-alone TV tuners
(they cost about £50, and some will have suitable video out
signal - especially old Amstrad ones, originally designed
for the CPC colour monitor.)

iii.  Don't waste your time watching TV, and go to the library
and do some work instead. Or you'll end up like John.


3.  I don't know which pictures you are talking about.  If I
had scanned them directly from the comic with my zarjaz
JX100 colour scanner, I'd be a totally grexnix copyright
infringer - wouldn't I?  The last thing I need need is a hot
shot from Tharg thanks...



Icon:  Expansion Title:
Size isn't everything

I know the A1200 was only supposed to have the 2.5 inch IDE
hard drives fitted internally, but is it possible to fit a
3.5 inch drive with maybe some slight modifications to the
A1200 case?

The  larger drivers are cheaper and I've heard that they are
more reliable as well.

Adnan Hussain, Edmonton, London

Yes, it is possible to fit 3.5 inch drives to the A1200,
although you have to understand that this model of Amiga
wasn't designed with them and you perform any operations at
the cost of your warranty and your own risk.

You will need some cables to take the different drive cable
sizes into account, and also a power cable that borrows a 12
volt supply from the internal floppy drive power (the floppy
drive will continue to work as normal).  Trilogic (tel:0274
691115) sell these cables quite cheaply.

Fitting the drive inside the Amiga is a fine art, and
depending on the exact size of the hard drive (which varies
from model to model) it is possible to squeeze it into the
case with only minor alterations.



Title: Piracy plague
Icon: programs

I own an Amiga 500+ with 2Mb.  I have had my computer for
about four months.  In the first few weeks I didn't have
much software so I started swapping with my friends, but
when I swapped 'Sensible Software' with one of them I caught
a virus.  The virus (called Joshua) has since started
writing read errors to my disks.  I have tried using brand
new games but it does it to them too.

Keiran, Brentwood.

Sorry, Keiran but my first reaction is that as a software
pirate you deserve all you get.  Swapping software is a form
of piracy, and it is partly a result of piracy that has the
Amiga and parent Commodore in the state they are in today.

Never use programs you can't trace directly back to their
source, always switch off your Amiga for a few minutes
between games and get a disk drive cleaner, because that is
what's wrong with your computer.  And one more thing - buy
your own copy of 'Sensible Software' immediately.


Icon: CD-ROMS
Title:THE A600 IS PERFECT

I have an A600 with 1Mb upgrade.  My problem is that I have
seen the new CD drive for the A1200:  there seems to a
CD-ROM drive for every Amiga except the A600.  Why?

Is there a chip I could buy to turn my 16 bit Amiga into a
32 bit Amiga?  I have seen the A1200 in action and I'm not
impressed.  I will eventually upgrade to an A4000T but at
the moment I am happy with my A600:  I just need to upgrade.

L. Pattison, Bradley, Bilston.

Like the A1200, the A600 has a PCMCIA slot, and I am
convinced that it is only a matter of time before it is
possible to attach a CD-ROM drive to the A600.  In the mean
time, you can still keep a look-out for a second hand CDTV
and use Parnet to connect it to your A600.

Here at CU we have yet to see any form of accelerator for
the A600 (you need a 68020 or better for '32 bit'
performance), but try contacting WAW Elektronik in Germany
(tel:  [phone], fax:  [phone]) who are rumoured to
be producing all sorts of hardware for the A600 and CDTV:
we just haven't seen any yet, that's all.

What do you mean you aren't impressed with the A1200?  Which
features weren't good enough for you then?  The 2Mb Chip RAM
not enough?  The processor which goes four times faster?
The new Workbench?  The Advanced Graphics Architecture
chipset, which can produce more than 256,000 colours from a
16 million colour palette and drive a multisync monitor for
flicker free displays of 640 by 512?  The ability to have a
50MHz 68030 in the trapdoor (and a 68040 is rumoured)?  Come
on Mr.  Pattison - get hold of one of the latest AGA demos
and pop it into an A1200 in your local computer shop.  Then
try to stop yourself from buying one.  But if you are really
planning on getting an A4000T, please don't hold your
breath.


Icon: Printers
Title:  MY PRINTER WORKS TOO WELL

I have a three year old A500+ with two megs of RAM, a 100Mb
hard disk and external floppy drive and a Canon BJ10ex
printer.

1.  What printer drivers will work with my printer?  I was
told to use EpsonQ but just about any one seems to work.

2.  I am unsure if my RAM is working properly.  I have tried
the AVAIL command, but I am unable to understand it.  How
many bytes should I have free with just Workbench and a
Shell running?

3.  Could I connect two Amigas together through their hard
drives via the SCSI ports?  I would like to transfer the
entire contents of my hard drive to my Dad's without having
to go to the bother of backing up the disk and then
restoring.

4.  Is it worth buying an A1200 considering it's age and
Commodore's present state?

C. Robertson, Dumbarton.

1.  Most printer drivers will work - but not all will take
advantage of the Canon's advanced graphics printing
features.  For example, a simple word processor will output
raw text which the printer will happily print.  But try an
italic, bold or underlined font and you'll start to have
problems.

A program like the excellent Final Writer uses it's own
fonts, and if you try these you will simply get gibberish.
The same thing will happen if you try and print something
from within Deluxe Paint.  For more control, take the time
to buy the Canon Print Studio software, available from JAM
(tel:  [phone]).  Mind you this has to be a world's
first - a letter complaining that a printer driver works too
well.  I'll have to lie down for a bit.

2.  What makes you think that your RAM isn't working in the
first place?  The AVAIL command won't test it anyway - it
simply lists the amounts of different sorts available (Chip,
Fast and the total) under different situations (current
amount available, current amount in use, maximum amount and
the largest contiguous block free).  You will have about 2
millions bytes of Chip, but how much depends on screen
modes, drives fitted and a hundred other things.  If you
really need to test it, there are various programs in the
Public Domain (try 17 Bit's PD Engineer's Toolkit for
starters).

3.  You could theoretically connect two Amigas like this,
although I for one wouldn't like to have to write the driver
software.  The quickest way to transfer the data would be to
connect the drives to the same SCSI bus (there can be up to
six drives on the same SCSI bus), which will require one
hard drive to be disassembled, the SCSI ID jumper to the
changed and a special cable used.

An easier (but slower way) would be to get hold of Parnet,
and link the two Amiga's via their parallel ports.  Parnet
can do more than link CDTVs...  But why not simply use the
regular back-up you have made of your hard drive?  What do
you mean you haven't bothered?

4.  The A1200 is great home computer, with many benefits
over the A500+ (see previous letter).  Get one.



Title: Programs
Icon: WHY OH WHY?

I have been an avid reader of CU Amiga since 1989.  Since
then I have written to CU twice about three years ago and to
this day I have had no reply.

However, I would be grateful is you would answer this letter
in your Q&A section.  Is it possible to get a motor
mechanics course on disk?  For example designing or putting
together card engines with a point, click and place basis on
engine components.  If not could you put these idea to the
software houses.

Anthony Bradley, Ballyfermot, Dublin.

Sorry, Anthony but loyal reader or not we can't possibly
reply to every letter sent to us.  If we did, we wouldn't
have time to create the magazine in the first place.

The Good News is that yes, a mechanics course as you
describe does exist (or one very close to it) and it's on
CD-ROM.  The Bad News that it is for the PC, and there are
no plans for an Amiga version.


Icon: Help
Title: TEN QUESTIONS

I am one of the original Amiga owners.  I have an A500+ that
didn't come in a pack or anything.  I have some questions:

1.  How do you make those little readme files which I find
on a lot of disks?

2.  What is the different between NDOS and normal disks?

3.  Why are Atari STs so [rubbish] compared with the Amiga,
when they nearly have the same power?

4.  Is there a 1Mb 3D rendering package out?

5.  What makes hard drives twice as expensive as floppy
drives?

6.  Are there any decent hard drives for under £100?

7.  What is the Disk Doctor and where can I get one from?

8.  How much does it cost EMAP to produce every edition of
your wonderful CU?

9.  Can the Canon 10sx produce multi-coloured printouts?

10.  Finally, CD-ROM for the A500:  where, how much and what
will it run?

John Addicott, Moorland, Somerset


I'm sorry, but to qualify as an original Amiga owner you
need to have had an A1000, or at the very least, a 512K
Workbench 1.2 A500.  Everything else is pansy modern-day
stuff.

1.  Use ED from a Shell to create a text file.  If you need
an Icon, the easiest way is to copy one from an existing
text file.  Make sure there is a suitable text file reader
on your disk (for example, More).

2.  NDOS disks have been formatted in a different way from
normal AmigaDOS disks and therefore the Workbench can't
understand them.  Special programs present on the bootblock
of the NDOS disks contain a specially written file handing
system especially for dealing with them.  The idea is to
reduce piracy by making the disks impossible to read with
standard software.

3.  Time warp time!  This issue was concluded a long time
ago, when it became apparent that the Amiga's superior
custom chips and more advanced operating system gave it the
edge over the ST - even though they both use Motorola (not
Montorolia as Dixons sometimes print on their little in-shop
product cards) 68000 processors.

4.  You can't render anything with only 1Mb, it's simply not
on.  Real 3D classic might get close but you will still need
more memory to make it a worthwhile purchase.

5.  Hard drives are considerably more advanced than floppy
drives.  They are much, much faster, and need to work
reliably for years.

6.  Hmmm..  probably not.  You might get a second hand drive
of about 20Mb, but this would be a waste of money.  Don't
get a hard drive smaller than 80Mb - preferably much larger.

7.  DiskDoctor is a program that came with Workbench 1.3.
It tries to read data from damaged floppy disks, and it
occasionally succeeded (whereupon it renamed the disk Lazarus
and cased a spate of virus scare stories in the letters
pages of various magazines).  Instead, get the latest
version of DiskSalve from your local Public Domain library.

8.  A little more than tuppence ha'penny.

9.  No, it's a monochrome printer.

10.  Commodore's A590.  About £99 from various advertisers
and it will read all CDTV disks and all the current disks of
Public Domain software.


Icon: Programs
Title: BLITZ FIX

I felt you somehow threw an unjustly dark shadow over Blitz
Basic through your reply to N.  Ferguson's letter in your
Q&A pages in the August issue.

Mr.  Ferguson wanted to hide his graphics data from prying
eyes when writing programs in Blitz Basic.

I believe there exists a far more elegant and easier method.
Here is a pseudo algorithm for achieving it:


1.  INCBIN any external data files, taking care to assign
START:  and END:  labels, before and after the INCBIN
statement.

2.  Write a procedure to READ the INCBINned data, using the
START:  and END:  labels to calculate the address and length
values needed by the READ command.

3. Write a procedure to WRITE (remembering to ALLOCMEM enough bytes
before) the READ data temporarily to RAM:, once again using the
START: and END: labels to calculate the length and address values.

4. Once the data file in in RAM:, use LoadBitMap, LoadMED, LoadFONT ,
LoadSHAPE or whatever you require to load the data file.

5. DELETEFILE the temporarily created file in RAM: as it won't be
needed any more.

I believe that this method is by far more versatile than
AMOS' own memory banks, as you can include any kind of data
be it an IFF picture, MED or Soundtracker module, shape or
font.  In AMOS you can only merge IFF and bob files, but
Blitz does it with style.

Kenneth Summut, Marsa, Malta.


Icon: Accessories
Title: MODEM

I own an A1200 and am interested in buying a MODEM. I have read your
articles on comms and modems, and would be pleased if you could answer
my questions:

1.  Could you recommend a good modem between £100 and £200?

2.  Which is better:  the Supra Fax Modem 144LZ or the Pace
Linnet PLus?

3.  What is a fax modem, if not the obvious?

4.  What is the best program for controlling the modem, and
where can I get it?

5.  Which is the best OLR program to use?

6.  Please could you tell me the number of any boards in the
Coventry and Birmingham area.

A.  P Malin, Cliffard Park, Coventry

1.  The USR Sportster 14400 Fax modem falls into your price
bracket, and is very reliable.

2.  The Supra operates at 14,400 bits per second whilst the
Pace doesn't.  Need I say more?

3.  A fax modem contains circuitry that enables it to
communicate with fax machines (or other fax modems).  With
suitable software you can send pictures and drawings. This
software is usually not included with the modem.

4. Term is an excellent Terminal Emulator for the Amiga. NCOMM can
misbehave in ways which various Sysops have told me causes problems
with some Bulletin Boards. For sending faxes, GPFax is the tops.

5.  OLR (off-line reading) software is used to make sending
email easier and cheaper.  If at all possible, try to
register as a FidoNet 'Point' with a Bulletin Board, and
then use Spot 1.3 Otherwise, a OLR program such as Bluewave
is as good as any.

6.  It's a funny thing, but I can't find any. There must be
some somewhere nearby, so log onto any board and leave a
message asking for suggestions.




Title: I WANNA MAKE A DEMO!
Icon: Help

I am 14 and am already thinking of making some animations to
put on the PD market.  Whether I will be successful or not I
don't know but I am willing to have a go.  The trouble is
that I don't know how to get started or how to put a disk
together once I do.

I have an A500 with 1Mb of memory, Deluxe Paint 4 for
animation and Octamed 4 for sound.  I also have no
programming experience whatsoever.

Could you please tell me of a good simple to use program
that could help me?  Could you also me whether you think I
should get a memory upgrade and if so, how big?

p.s.  Could you please tell me how to use Animbrushes,
because I've lost my manual.

Jon Doe, Little Stoke, Bristol

The average demo disk works in a very special way:  rather
than simply replaying an animation created with Deluxe
Paint, the animations are written into the program itself.
This is necessary to create the lengthy and complicated
miniature music videos which are par for the course these
days.

Now that's not to say you should be even attempt to start -
you will able to create a lot of impressive effects with
what you have got.  Deluxe Paint comes with a program which
will replay animations, and there are plenty of others in
the Public Domain which will also do the job.  You should be
able to find a program which is capable of replaying sounds
in the background too.

As you guessed, your lack of memory might be a problem, so
stick to animations with as few colours as possible and use
short sound samples.  The Video Tracker program given away
with the June issue will help you as well.

When shopping for memory, keep a look out for second hand
bargains as many owners upgrade to A1200s or A4000s.  You
can't have too much RAM, and the more you have, the longer
the animations you can replay in one go.

p.s.  Always put your manuals in a safe place - without them
you tend to sound a little bit like a pirate.  There isn't
space here to list them all, but check out the regular
tutorials in issues of CU for some hints.


Icon: Help
Title: GIF CONVERT

I have a IBM-PC GIF format picture file which I want to
convert to an IFF file for use with Deluxe Paint.  I
attempted this using Multiview (I got the GIF datatype from
the PD disk NBS G318) but when I saved the image onto a
normal AmigaDOS disk all I got was blank, black screen.

Daniel Baker, South Wheatly, Notts.

Try using Multiview's Cut and Paste to snip out a clip, and
copy it to disk (it will be in the clipboard directory in
the RAM:  disk).  Alternatively, get a program such as
Screen-X or some other image grabbing program.  Use
Multiview to display the image (make sure your Workbench
display has lots of colours) and then grab it.


Icon: Expansion
Title: MORE A600 FANS

This is the first time I have bothered to write to a
magazine such as yourself, so here are some questions I
would like you to answer.

1.  I am one of the many people who bought Mortal Kombat.
It is an excellent game but there is something that should
be remedied before the possible release of Mortal Kombat 2.
On the Hard and Very Hard settings all the computer
opponents seem to be nothing but missile attacks, making the
game unplayable.  Why is this so?

2.  In the August issue of CU you did a piece on CD-ROM
drives for the A1200.  Why didn't Commodore use the PCMCIA
slot instead of the trapdoor interface.  Don't they know
how?

3.  Will there be a CD-ROM drive for the A600?  If not, why
not?

4.  I read in a friends magazine that Commodore might
produce the A600 with the AGA chipset.  Is this true?  Will
there be an exchange offer?

5.  Finally, I would like to ask you to persuade developers
to develop an accelerator for the A600.

Paul Marshall, Laneham, Retford, Notts.

1.  Sorry, no idea.  That's a question that only the game
programmers and designers can answer.

2.  Commodore had their reasons - what they could possibly
be will probably remain a mystery.  Not doing very well so
far, are we?

3.  There probably will be, yes.

4.  This is total rubbish.  The AGA chipset is designed to
work with 32 bit processors (the Motorola 68020 and above)
and so the A600 would also need to be redesigned to contain
an 68020.  Now tell me, what's the difference between an
Amiga A600 with a 68020-based Amiga (with the AGA chipset)
and an Amiga A1200?  A numeric keyboard, that's what.

5.  An accelerator is technically possible, although the
price would have to be between 200 and 300 pounds to make it
worthwhile.  Clearly it would be better to buy an A1200...