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1993-05-21
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_ ____ ___ ______ _______ _
d# ####b g#00 `N##0" _agN#0P0N# d#
d## jN## j##F J## _dN0" " d##
.#]## _P ##L jN##F ### g#0" .#]##
dE_j## # 0## jF ##F j##F j##' ______ dE_j##
.0"""N## d" ##L0 ##F 0## 0## "9##F" .0"""5##
.dF' ]## jF ##0 ##F ##F `##k d## .dF' j##
.g#_ _j##___g#__ ]N _j##L_ _d##L_ `#Nh___g#N' .g#_ _j##__
""""" """"""""""" " """""" """""" """"""" """"" """"""
May 21, 1993 No. 1.10
==============================================================================
Amiga Report International Online Magazine
==============================================================================
From STR Publishing
[S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport
-----------------------------------------
* NOVA BBS *
Amiga Report Headquarters
* RUNNING STARNET BBS *
FidoNet 1:362/508
An Amiga Software Distribution Site (ADS)
615-472-9748 Supra V.32bis 24hrs - 7 days
Amiga Report can be FREQ'd from Nova each week.
Use the filename AR.LHA and you will always get
the latest issue.
-----------------------------------------
* THE BOUNTY BBS *
Home of STR Publications
* RUNNING TURBOBOARD BBS *
904-786-4176 USR DS 16.8 24hrs - 7 days
-----------------------------------------
______________________________________________________________________________
> 05/21/93 Amiga Report 1.10 "The Original * Independent * Online Magazine!"
==========================
- The Editor's Desk - CPU Report - New Products
- Dealer Directory - AR Online - AR Confidential
- Usenet Reviews - Who What Where - SuperFrog
- SupraTurbo 28 - NAB Show Report - Warez Out There
-* Amiga 1400 This Fall? *-
-* Future Of The 68000 Line *-
-* Sierra Losses Again *-
==============================================================================
Amiga Report International Online Magazine
From STR Publications
[S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport
The Original * Independent * Online Magazine
-* FEATURING WEEKLY *-
"Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information"
Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information
Hardware ~ Software ~ Corporate ~ R & D ~ Imports
==============================================================================
GENIE ~ DELPHI ~ NVN ~ BIX ~ PORTAL ~ FIDO ~ INTERNET
==============================================================================
IMPORTANT NOTICE!
=================
Amiga Report International Online Magazine is available every week in the
Amiga Forum on DELPHI. Amiga Report readers are invited to join DELPHI and
become a part of the friendly community of computer enthusiasts there.
SIGNING UP WITH DELPHI
======================
Using a personal computer and modem, members worldwide access
DELPHI services via a local phone call
JOIN -- DELPHI
--------------
Via modem, dial up DELPHI at 1-800-695-4002
then...
When connected, press RETURN once or twice
and....
At Password: type STREPORT and press RETURN.
DELPHI's Basic Plan offers access for only $6.00 per hour, for any
baud rate. The $5.95 monthly fee includes your first hour online.
For more information, call: DELPHI Member Services at 1-800-544-4005
DELPHI is a service of General Videotex Corporation of Cambridge, MA.
Try DELPHI for $1 an hour!
For a limited time, you can become a trial member of DELPHI, and
receive 5 hours of evening and weekend access during this month for only
$5. If you're not satisfied, simply cancel your account before the end of
the calendar month with no further obligation. If you keep your account
active, you will automatically be enrolled in DELPHI's 10/4 Basic Plan,
where you can use up to 4 weekend and evening hours a month for a minimum
$10 monthly charge, with additional hours available at $3.96. But hurry,
this special trial offer will expire soon! To take advantage of this
limited offer, use your modem to dial 1-800-365-4636. Press <RET> once
or twice. When you get the Password: prompt, type IP26 and press <RET>
again. Then, just answer the questions and within a day or two, you'll
officially be a member of DELPHI!
DELPHI - It's getting better all the time!
******************************************************************************
> From the Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!"
======================
Here it is, another week has passed since you last read my ramblings. A few
noteworth items... Mike Troxell's column, Rendered Reality, is going on hiatus
until he gets enough memory in his A1200 to actually RUN some of his graphics
programs. He told me the other day that it's pretty hard trying to write
about stuff you can't even run. Between that and the limitations of his 40
meg hard drive, he can't even get more than maybe two or three major graphics
applications on his system. Morph Plus lone takes about 8 meg, and Imagine
takes scads more. He can't decide whether to get a CSA 12-Gauge now or wait
for ICD's Viper.
I guess complacency is in these days. The two times I've requested that
people write in -- once with letters for a collective mailing to Commodore,
and last week, with mail order stories -- I've had no response at all. I
did get quite a bit of feedback concerning the decision to go to an Amiga
Guide format. That's still up in the air. It hinges on whether or not we
go every-other-week. If we do, you'll probably see at least an attempt at
Amiga Guide. If not, I doubt it.
Amiga Report is certainly a widely-read publication. I received word today
that a project to translate each weekly issue into Japanese is underway. I
have a distributor in the UK that posts the magazine on CIX and other UK
systems, plus the sysop of our headquarters BBS, Nova, has reported callers
from Canada and Germany, to name just two. I'm very pleased to see that
we have become so popular. I want to thank everyone who have sent their
comments. They are a valuable tool to determine if we are doing a good job.
If there is something you'd like to see, please let me know. If there is a
way for us to do it, we'll certainly try. If there is something you don't
like, again, let us know. Thanks again to everyone, and have a great
weekend!
Rob @ Amiga Report
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Amiga Report's Staff DEDICATED TO SERVING YOU!
====================
Editor
======
Robert Glover
Technical Editor Graphics Editor Contributing Editor
================ =============== ===================
Micah Thompson Mike Troxell Tom Mulcahy
GEnie: BOOMER.T M.TROXELL1
FidoNet: 1:362/508.5 1:260/322
Delphi: 16BITTER
Bix: HELMET
Contributing Correspondents
===========================
David Andrew Clayton
Eric Dietiker
Robert Niles
Berend Ozceri
Scott Withington
PC DIVISION ATARI DIVISION MAC DIVISION
=========== ============== ============
Roger D. Stevens Ralph F. Mariano R. Albritton
IMPORTANT NOTICE
================
Please, submit letters to the editor, articles, reviews, etc...
via E-Mail to:
Delphi........................ ROB_G
GEnie......................... ROB-G
Internet.......................ROB_G@Delphi.COM
FidoNet........................1:362/508.6
(NOTE: I can receive NetMail, but I cannot send it -- yet!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> CPU STATUS REPORT LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS
=================
MOTOROLA OUTLINES FUTURE OF 68000 CHIPS
AUSTIN, TEXAS -- Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector, part of its Micro-
processor and Memory Technologies Group, says the future for its 68000 chip
family is bright and will spark new revolutions in electronic products.
The company says its strategy calls for rapid progress on a number of fronts,
including basic processing technologies, design engineering, chip fabrication,
and quality. That will include higher chip density, integration, increased
performance, and reduced design cycles.
Part of Motorola's vision for the 68000 series includes personal computers
that are easier to use, are more powerful, and have greater versatility than
anything currently available. It also predicts smaller, smarter machines that
include palmtop nomadic computers, interactive home entertainment systems, and
hand-held global positioning and navigation devices for motorists, boaters,
and hikers.
The company says its higher density chips can increase chip density from the
present 68,000 transistors on the original 68000 processor and the 1.2 million
on the current 68040 model to a transistor count approaching 100 million by
the year 2000. With that kind of density, Motorola designers expect to be able
to place multiple CPUs (central processing units), megabyte-size caches, and
multiple parallel pipelines on a single chip. Within the next two years,
Motorola expects the 68000 family of processors to surpass 100 million
instructions per second, and that number will reach one billion instructions
per second by the end of the decade. That's similar to the computing power of
today's top-of-the-line supercomputers.
In the functional arena, the company says as transistor count climbs,
integrated processors will be able to pack logic equivalent to a large
motherboard on a single chip, and that chip could include multiple
specialized processors, a full complement of system peripherals, and even
several megabytes of memory. The company is also working on fuzzy logic,
neural networks, digital signal processing (DSP), wireless communications,
and other leading edge technologies.
Production time will also shrink, says Motorola, with the process of adding
peripheral logic to a core processor taking as little as one week from
specification to final mask by the year 2000.
Engineers also see lower power requirements for the greater capacity chips in
the future, saying that the next few years will see a static, 3.3-volt version
of the 68040, called the 68040V, as well as a low power 68030 processor. The
68060 and subsequent CPUs will have a fully static 3.3-volt design from the
outset, and Motorola designers expect to be producing processors in the
1.5-volt range by the end of the decade.
In terms of functionality, Motorola predicts general purpose CPUs, streamlined
embedded processors, low power chips, and specialized processors for
applications such as data communications, interactive CD players, portable
computing, and engine control. Applications are also envisioned for speech
recognition and advanced real-time video and animation.
The company says the consumer computing market is characterized by price
sensitivity and high volume production. By integrating the right mix of
functions for a given application, reducing the chip count, and providing
low-voltage chips, consumers should have available a variety of portable and
hand-held devices. As Motorola puts it, "The best is yet to come."
SIERRA LOSSES AGAIN, TSN CLOSER TO BREAK-EVEN
OAKHURST, CALIFORNIA -- Sierra On-Line is still struggling despite a 15
percent revenue increase for 1993. The company is reporting losses of $8.4
million for its 1993 fiscal year and again says the resources went into its
graphical bulletin board service, The Sierra Network (TSN).
Most of the company's losses were in its last quarter of the year with $6.2
million in losses reported. The largest revenues were in its fourth quarter as
well, with revenues of $11.9 million, an increase of 21 percent over the $9.9
million reported for the same period of fiscal 1992. Sierra has been reporting
losses each quarter since November of 1992 and is facing a class action suit
from its shareholders.
While the company says it is experiencing revenue increases in its software
products sales, it is finding the products have a reduced shelf-life. This
is in spite of the fact that market research firm PC Research indicated
Sierra had the largest market share of entertainment products in the holiday
season. Sierra is blaming an increase in game titles from other
manufacturers and new disk formats as the shelf-life culprits. For example,
market demand for 5.25-inch diskettes, a format the company has invested
heavily in, has dropped dramatically, the company added.
However, the real culprit behind the company's continued losses is the
Sierra Network. The company principles said last year The Sierra Network
could be profitable if it could get 50,000 subscribers. The company went to
flat rate fees, and has added innovative enhancements such as on-line
amusement parks and the ability to compose a picture of yourself which you
can choose to have displayed to others who interact with you on-line. Like
other on-line services, such as GEnie, Sierra offers multiplayer games with
graphical interfaces, such as flight simulations with other players in
other planes.
In addition, the company has attracted popular computer industry columnist
and radio host John Dvorak. Plans are to link the on-line service directly
with Dvorak's radio show "Dvorak On Computers," which is syndicated by SNP
Radio Network and is estimated to have about a half-million listeners. This
is not a new idea, as conservative political radio show host Rush Limbaugh
promotes interaction with listeners via the on-line service Compuserve.
Sierra has also invested in heavily promoting The Sierra Network and says
it has pushed revenues up from $0.3 million during fiscal 1992 to $3.0
million for fiscal 1993. Revenues for the quarter were nearly double last
year's at approximately $1.4 million, the company added.
Nevertheless, The Sierra Network has not reached that critical mass, and
is showing a loss of $1.9 million for the fourth quarter and ($5.4)
million for fiscal 1993. The company said the losses were caused by
attempts at expansion including "aggressive" marketing programs to
attract new subscribers and providing additional customer support.
The announcement of Sierra's earnings does not seem to have discouraged
investors. The stock, which closed May 19 at 11 was up today 0.875 in
light trading. The interest from investors may come from Sierra and AT&T's
recent announced the two companies are negotiating concerning The Sierra
Network. No specifics have been forthcoming, but representatives of Sierra
told Newsbytes it could mean The Sierra Network would become a joint venture
between AT&T and Sierra On-Line.
ATARI PLANS TO FIGHT JUDGE'S DECISION FOR NINTENDO
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA -- In the big money legal wars between video game
makers, the Atari unit of Time Warner has lost the last round to Nintendo.
District Court Judge Fern Smith, of the US District Court in San Francisco,
said that Atari did infringe on Nintendo's patents.
This is the same Judge, who in March of last year, issued an injunction
against Atari, saying Atari "decided to make its cartridges functionally
indistinguishable from Nintendo's own games by admittedly copying more
than was needed to make a game work on the NES console."
The battles between the two companies started in 1988 when Atari Games
broke off a licensing agreement which had allowed it to sell Nintendo
compatible game cartridges. Atari engineers found a way to break the
security code of the Nintendo chip, a so-called lock-out chip, and have
been using it ever since. Nintendo sued, charging patent infringement.
Atari countersued, charging the Japanese entertainment giant with illegal
monopoly of the game business.
Paul Liu, chairman of American Video Entertainment (AVE), told Newsbytes
that Nintendo changed the internal design of its hardware so the machines
will no longer play his company's game cartridges. Liu is in the process
of suing Nintendo for $105 million.
While Nintendo is winning in the courts, the Federal Trade Commission has
been pursing the game giant. In 1991 alone, reports from industry insiders
indicate Nintendo may have paid as much as $25 million in FTC fines for
anti-trust violations.
The entire computer industry is watching these video game maker battles
because they could set a legal precedent that prohibits software developers
from producing compatible applications for a computer without a license
from the designer of the computer hardware. A similar, long-term battle
between Sega and Accolade, also expected to be a precedent setting one,
was just settled out-of-court last month.
Atari officials say that the company will continue to fight and is
planning an appeal of Judge Smith's decision.
The preceding stories are Copyright (c) 1993 NewsBytes.
Reprinted with Permission.
------------------------------
WORDPERFECT CORPORATION INTRODUCES WORDPERFECT 6.0 FOR DOS
Worldwide announcement marks the beginning of a
new standard in information processing
OREM, Utah March 24, 1993 WordPerfect Corporation officially introduced
WordPerfect 6.0 for DOS today, the first upgrade in more than three years to
the company's best-selling DOS word processor. The new version, scheduled to be
released later this spring, was unveiled during press conferences in Germany,
Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Version 6.0 is the successor to WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS. Version 5.1 has
consistently been a best seller for the company since its introduction in 1989.
That trend continued in 1992, as WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS outsold all other
software applications.
"Like version 5.1, WordPerfect 6.0 for DOS will set a new standard in
information processing," said Alan Ashton, president of WordPerfect
Corporation. "The hundreds of new and enhanced features in WordPerfect 6.0
allow people to accomplish tasks never before possible with a word processor,"
said Ashton.
Spreadsheet functionality, for example, is now built into WordPerfect.
Computing functions and cell formatting features are now a part of Tables and
allow users to accomplish most spreadsheet functions without having to use a
separate spreadsheet package.
WordPerfect 6.0 users will also be able to fax directly from within
WordPerfect. Version 6.0 supports FaxBIOS technology and will ship with the
necessary drivers for Class 1, Class 2, or CAS-compliant fax devices.
"WordPerfect 6.0 for DOS is a product that goes beyond word processing by
providing solutions to a variety of day-to-day tasks," said Todd Ashman,
product marketing director for WordPerfect for DOS. "The new fax, sound, e-mail
and spreadsheet capabilities found in this upgrade help make WordPerfect the
application from which all personal computing originates."
Version 6.0 is also the first DOS word processor from WordPerfect
Corporation to be fully developed using the new WordPerfect Usability Center.
"Usability testing helped us to develop a new version of WordPerfect which is
not only more powerful, but easier to use than competing word processors," said
Jim Millecam, director of WordPerfect development.
"The new WordPerfect Coach feature, for example, takes WordPerfect
ease-of-use to a new level and is unavailable in any other word processing
application," said Millecam.
The Coach feature allows users to access their own personal tutor for
selected functions. The Coach will then guide the user by giving step-by-step
instructions regarding how to execute the specific function.
Hundreds of other user enhancement requests have been added to the
product. A few of the most powerful new additions include:
WYSIWYG Editing
Users can choose among three different interface modes while editing. The Text
Mode is similar to the only mode currently available in version 5.1. Working in
Graphics Mode allows users to see a graphical representation of fonts,
graphics, colors etc. The Page Mode offers the same functionality as the
Graphics Mode, but also shows headers, footers, footnotes, page numbers etc.
All three modes are fully editable, mouse compatible and can be accessed at any
time in the program.
Scalable Fonts
WordPerfect 6.0 supports four types of scalable fonts: Type 1, Intellifont,
TrueType and Bitstream Speedo. WPFI, a utility that ships with the product,
will install additional scalable fonts if the user desires. WordPerfect 6.0 for
DOS will also ship with a number of customized scalable WordPerfect fonts. The
scalable font technology in WordPerfect 6.0 makes true DOS-Windows-OS/2 font
compatibility a reality.
Selectable Merge
Users can select the fields of the data records they would like included in a
merge and then set the criteria by which those records are selected (all of
the Jones who live in New York City, for example.)
QuickFinder
First available in WordPerfect 5.2 for Windows, QuickFinder is an innovative
way to search local or network directories quickly and effectively. Indexes
created with QuickFinder allow users to quickly search for documents based on
user-defined criteria.
Other new and enhanced features include color printing, drag-and-drop
graphics, irregular text wrap around graphic images, Grammatik 5, the ability
to work with up to nine documents at a time, Undo, enhanced envelope creation
and more powerful macro capabilities.
"The new graphical interface is a powerful enhancement to the product,"
said Bill Kesselring, an analyst at DataQuest in San Jose, California. "The
overall combination of new and enhanced features in version 6.0 make
WordPerfect the easiest DOS word processor to learn and use."
WordPerfect 6.0 for DOS will have a retail price of $495 for a full
package. Full package upgrades, for existing WordPerfect customers, will have a
retail price of $129. A competitive trade-up package will also be available for
$149 to customers who own a competing word processing package.
-----------------------------
INSTALLER GAME AVAILABLE FOR FTP
TITLE
InstallerGame.lha
ESCAPE FROM COMMODORE!!
VERSION
1.0
AUTHOR
Greg Simon
InterNet: gs@teetot.acusd.edu
DESCRIPTION
This is a game written for the Commodore Installer Utility.
(no, I'm not kidding) It runs on the Installer, however it
installs nothing. Installer just provides an interface to a
simple adventure game, where the goal is to "escape from
Commodore!"
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
The Installer binary, v1.24 or higher.
Whatever system runs installer (show me one that doesn't)
HOST NAME
ftp.luth.se [aminet] (130.60.80.80)
(pending)
DIRECTORY
/aminet/game/hack
FILE NAME
InstallerGame.lha
PRICE
Nada. FreeWare. Enjoy it. I'm just not responsible for it.
DISTRIBUTABILITY
Everywhere your heart desires.
-----------------------------
ARGONAUTS NEWSLETTER INTRODUCED TO WIDER AUDIENCE
INTRODUCING ARGONAUTS. After a favorable reception among registered developers
it is being introduced to a wider audience.
Argonauts is a quarterly newsletter for the commercially active Amiganaut.
It seeks to help build a business infrastructure that will make our live
easier and more profitable. Regular features include first person business
accounts of product development, business opportunities, research papers,
news from overseas, a developers roundtable and more.
Currently we are building a registry of amiga talent, (publishers,
programmers, artists, technical writers). Next issue we will be introducing
$500 challenge prizes. These will be in the centuries old tradition of
offering a prize to the first person to achieve some specified goal in a set
time. Argonauts is also about putting some fun back into being in this
market. Too many people have forgotten that is why they originally came here
instead of the PC or Mac.
The current issue has articles about Objective-C, DevCon 93, DICE, European
CD-ROM, the registry, developers roundtable and more. Authors include Sarah
Bell, marketing director for Stepstone Corp, developers of Objective-C, Dan
Weiss, VP R&D Soft-Logik, Carl Rollo, Matt Dillon who needs no introduction
and Janet Bickerstaff from the UK ICPUG.
So take a chance and spend 29 cents to write for a free sample copy and
subscription information ($24.95 US) to:
Argonauts, Dept. A
Box 94
Pearl River NY 10965 - 0094
USA
Please feel free to upload this to other services such as GEnie, BIX, etc.
Marc P Seybold
Publisher, Argonauts
-----------------------------
SOFT-LOGIK ANNOUNCES THE NEW SOFT-LOGIK GRAPHIC LIBRARY
St. Louis, Missouri (April 20, 1993) Soft-Logik Publishing Corporation,
the developers of PageStream, the premier desktop publishing system for
Amiga computers, is pround to announce the first two volumes of the
Soft-Logik Graphic Library.
The first volume, 3D Flags of the World, contains 190 full-color flags of
countries and international organizations. The flags have beveled edges
which give them a unique 3D appearance. The bevels can be removed in a
compatible illustration program to create normal flags. The flags are
stored in Adobe Illustrator 88 EPS format. With PageStream 2 or Art
Expression they can be printed to any type of printer. 3D Flags of the
World is available for Amiga, Macintosh, PC and Atari computers on
double-density 3.5" disks.
The second volume, Amiga Computer Art, contains over 70 full-color
illustrations of Amiga computers and related equipment. The realism of
these drawings is stunning. The subjects range from the Amiga 1000 to the
Toaster WorkStation and include a hard drive card, genlock, HP printers,
Shown 60%, press <SPACE> for more, 'q' to quit, or 'h' for help
PCM card, handheld and flatbed scanners, and much more. The illustrations
are stored in Adobe Illustrator 3 EPS format. Amiga Computer Art is
available for Amiga computers on double-density 3.5" disks.
The suggested retail price of each volume is $125, but they are available
at an introductory price of only $67 each. The next volume to be released
will be a collection of PC and Macintosh computers and related equipment.
To order, contact Soft-Logik Publishing at:
sales 800-829-8608
international sales 314-894-8608
fax 314-894-3280
Soft-Logik Publishing Corp.
11131F South Towne Square
St. Louis, MO 63123 USA
Samples from the Clip Art collection may be downloaded from the Soft-Logik
BBS (314) 894-0057 and from the Portal Communications service.
-----------------------------
"CRAP" NEWSLETTER AVAILABLE ON FIDONET
. _________ ______ . __ _________ . .
| / _______// ____ \ * / \\ _____ \ |
-*- / / . / / . \ \ / /\ \\ \ . \ \ -*-
. | * / / / /_____/ / / /__\ \\ \___/ / * |
/ / * . / _____ _/ / ______ \\ ___/ .
/ / / / \ \ / / \ \\ \ *
* . / / . / / . / // /_ . _\ \\ \__ /\ *
\ \ *\_\ /_/*\___\ /___/*\___\*/ /
| \ \______________________________________/ /
-*- \________________________________________/ | . *
. | -*-
* . Crappy Ritten Amiga Paper * | .
------------------------
------------------
----------
-----
Announcing the newest online amiga newsletter. Crap contains all the
latest (and some of the oldest) information on games, hardware, music,
programming, coding, reviews, announcements, and more... Trust me its good.
It's so great, I can't even bring myself to type out the words to
explain it. So you will have to find out for yourself. Not convinced?
Shown 47%, press <SPACE> for more, 'q' to quit, or 'h' for help
Listen to what some of these people had to say:
"Crap Is So Good, I Stayed In The Bathroom For Two Hours, With My
Printed-Out Copy." -- Gene Babinsky
"When You Print Crap Out, It Makes Great Wall Paper"
-- Anonymous
"Amazing, Outstanding, The Best Movie of 93"
-- Siskely & Edgbert
(Sorry Wrong Announcement - ed.)
So your saying, how do I get my copy of crap? Well...
Via Fidonet, Request CRAP from 1:272/80.0
Call The Dead Fish BBS (Or your local BBS, it should have come
through SAN by now) at (914) 425-6015
Via Amiganet, Request CRAP from 40:714/14.0
Via ICN, Request CRAP from 91:914/7.0 or 91:914/600.0
Via Magnet, Request CRAP from 100:900/17.0
Via UUCP, email me at Aaron_Wald@dfbbs.linet.org (in order for me
to email you back a uuencoded copy you are gonna really
have to beg, not little begging, not hard core all out
begging...)
------------------------------
ANNOUNCING AMOS MAILING LIST
Attention all AMOS, AMOS Pro, and Easy AMOS coders!
The AMOS mailing list run by David Tiberio is now gone! :( Let's
all thank David for his help in setting up the first AMOS mailing list!
(HOOOORAY!)
However, do not despair! A new AMOS mailing list is here! Being
the most obnoxious and loudest AMOS advocate on the network, I have decided to
continue the list! That's right, I have assumed control!
To subscribe to the new AMOS list, send mail to:
amos-request@access.digex.com
In the body of the message, please put:
SUBSCRIBE <your email address>
For example, if I wanted to subscribe, I would put:
SUBSCRIBE aj639@Cleveland.Freenet.edu
(It is not case sensitive so do not worry about it)
Okay, now that you have subscribed, this is how you send a message to
everyone on the list. Compose your message as normal and send it to:
amos-list@access.digex.com
That is all you do! Everyone, including yourself, will get a copy of
your message. What a great way to find out about updates and ask questions
about anything relating to AMOS!
If you want to send me mail concerning the list, such as to unsubscribe,
heaven forbid, send it to the amos-request address. If you are unsubscribing,
heaven forbid, put UNSUBSCRIBE in the Subject line.
So what are you waiting for? Subscribe then send a message to amos-list
introducing yourself and telling everyone what you do with AMOS!
For those unaware of what AMOS, Easy AMOS, or AMOS Pro is, here is short
description:
All AMOS flavors (Easy, Pro, Creator) are a BASIC language with many advanced
commands to give you complete control over your Amiga. AMOS is geared toward
providing the most power with the least amount of work on the part of the
coder. There are over 700 commands that allow you to open screens, play music,
move sprites/BOBs, detect collisions, create menus, change fonts, scroll text,
math computations, disk access, and interface with machine language code.
AMOS Pro is the most powerful. Easy AMOS is designed for beginners and AMOS the
Creator is in the middle.
If you have questions about what else AMOS can do, just send a message
to the list and I am sure several people will answer. If you are not subscribed
you may want to say this in the message to make sure that those replying will
mail you directly.
------------------------------
MULTIPRINT V1.12 AVAILABLE FOR FTP
TITLE
MultiPrint
VERSION
1.12 13-May-1993
This is an update to version 1.9 released on the
28th of April 1993.
AUTHOR
John Matthews
4 Wadham Grove,
Tawa, 6203
Wellington
New Zealand
Phone 64 4 232-7805
Fax (by arrangement)
email:
Internet : tribble@gphs.vuw.ac.nz
( Irregular Monitoring )
DESCRIPTION
MultiPrint is a program initially designed to print
document files, and other text files, to as few sheets
of paper as possible. It has since had other features
such as bold/italic/font support, Compugraphic support,
paragraph reformating and full justification added
for improved flexability and readability.
MultiPrint prints text files to multiple columns, on
both sides of the sheet automatically, with no need
to shuffle the pages.
Pages are printed with a footer, with margins, page
numbers, and with a gutter to allow easy stapling,
or hole punching.
NEW FEATURES
Version 1.12 fixes a few bugs that were found in the last
released version, and adds a few significant features.
1.10 May 4, 1993
Bugs fixed :
1. Graceful exit if fonts or printer not opened.
1.11 May 11, 1993
Bugs Fixed :
1. Fixed bugs in handling of CSI type bold/italic etc codes,
a) not switching off
b) adding spaces in non-justified mode
Thanks to Andrew Harrison for spotting this
2. LineSpacing argument changed to only work for increasing spacing.
1.12 May 13, 1993
Bugs Fixed :
1. Top margin bug in Hewlett Packard direct driver code. Caused
problems
2. Fixed problem with Ctrl-C not working once all the pages were
prepared, and awaiting printing.
Added Features
1. HPUniDir flag in printer environment variable, to slightly improve
quality on HP DeskJets.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
MultiPrint requires 2.04 or higher.
MultiPrint works best with page oriented printers, such
as lasers and HP deskjets. A fast printer helps.
MultiPrint provides better output with the use of
Scalable fonts, and better italics/bold if you have a
complete family (or more) of Scalable fonts.
HOST NAME
This version can be found as MultiPrint18.lha on
amiga.physik.unizh.ch (130.60.80.80), where I uploaded
it in the new directory.
You could also try wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4).
In New Zealand, you can try kauri.vuw.ac.nz.
DIRECTORY
Should end up in /pub/aminet/text/print, where the last
version was put.
FILE NAMES
MultiPrint112.lha, MultiPrint112.readme
PRICE
MultiPrint is shareware, basically. If you find the
program useful, or need anything added, and want to
encourage me, a donation is welcome, but not
essential.
I would like to make enough money from MultiPrint to
replace the Ink Cartridge I used most of in testing
MultiPrint.
Suggestion, US$20 or equivalent, NZ$ if you can get them.
Any amount is fine though.
Hey, here's ambition ... maybe I could make enough
to buy a laser printer! :-)
DISTRIBUTABILITY
Shareware. Distribute to whoever, but if you plan
to include it in a magazine's cover disk, or anything
like that - let me know first.
No matter what, leave the documentation intact.
------------------------------
TOOLMANAGER V2.1 AVAILABLE FOR FTP
TITLE
ToolManager
VERSION
2.1
AUTHOR
Stefan Becker
E-Mail: stefanb@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de
stefanb@yello.adsp.sub.org
DESCRIPTION
ToolManager is a full featured program for either Workbench or CLI tool
management. Includes the ability to add menu items to the 2.x "Tools" menu,
add Workbench icons or dock windows.
The configuration is based on a object-oriented concept and handled by a
preferences program.
ToolManager supports ARexx, localization, networking and sound.
NEW FEATURES
Changes since version 2.0:
- New Exec object types: Dock, Hot Key, Network
- New Dock object flags: Backdrop, Sticky
- New object type: Access
- Network support
- Editor main window is now an AppWindow
- Gadget keyboard shortcuts in the preferences editor
- New tooltypes for the preferences editor
- Several bug fixes
- Enhanced documentation
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
Needs OS 2.04 or higher.
Localization requires OS 2.1 or higher.
Harddisk is recommended for unpacking the complete distribution.
HOST NAMES
amiga.physik.unizh.ch [130.60.80.80] /pub/aminet/os20/utils
ftp.dfv.rwth-aachen.de [137.226.4.105???] /pub/amiga/utilities
and of course all AmiNet mirrors...
FILE NAMES
ToolManager2_1bin.lha - Binaries and Documentation (ASCII, AmigaGuide, TeX)
ToolManager2_1gfx.lha - Anims, Brushes and Icons
ToolManager2_1src.lha - Source code and Programmer support files
PRICE
ToolManager 2.1 is GiftWare. Recommended donation is US $10-$20 or
10-20DM.
DISTRIBUTABILITY
Freely Distributable, (c) 1990-93 Stefan Becker
------------------------------
ANNOUNCING "FORAY" (TM) MUSHROOM INFORMATION & IDENTIFICATION DATABASE
TITLE
FORAY Mushroom Information and Identification Database
VERSION
1.0 - Pre-release demo/evaluation version
SAVE is disabled in this demo, but printing is left working.
AUTHOR
Marlin Greene
eye2eye design
1633 6th Ave. West
Seattle, Wa. 98119
206-281-9165
DESCRIPTION
When enthusiasts get together to collect, identify, and learn more about
mushrooms it's called a "foray." With a keen interest in extending that
feeling of fun and discovery, eye 2 eye design is pleased to announce
"FORAY" ... a pictorial mushroom information and identification database
for the Amiga.
Even someone who has never picked a wild mushroom, and doesn't intend to,
can enjoy FORAY as a pictorial information source. You can modify the
included records, add new records, or create entire new databases. FORAY
is also designed to assist the serious mycologist, offering the matrix
for an extensive multi-genus database. FORAY follows the same Group, then
Genus, then species naming convention found in mushroom books and field
guides.
The present version of FORAY supports the four major mushroom Groups:
Agarics, Boletes, Chanterelles, and Polypores. (Future upgrades will add
more.) Records may be retrieved by Genus, Genus.species, common name, or
by selecting feature keys and initializing a search. Features associated
with any mushroom record may be changed, providing the opportunity to
fine-tune an entry. Individualized comments and "field notes" may be saved
with any record.
Each mushroom entry can have a picture. The included pictures are a study
of how the Amiga's basic 16 colors may be expanded to accurately reproduce
the much wider palette of mushrooms in the wild. Using an Amiga paint
program, you can create new pictures to add to the database.
FORAY opens on its own hi-res screen on any Amiga with 2.0 or greater. It
has its own proportional font, picture gadgets, and a beautiful, easy-to-use
interface.
All the pictures are original, created with DPaint... nothing was scanned.
Please do not separate the pictures from the program.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
FORAY requires Amiga operating system 2.0 or greater, and likes a
non-flickering screen.
LHA to unpack the archive.
SUGGESTED ENVIRONMENT
At least 1M of memory, OS2.0 or greater
HOST NAME/FILE NAME
ForayDemo.lha 184660 bytes
ForayDemo.readme 342 bytes
These two files can be retrieved via anonymous FTP from all 12 AmiNet
sites in the directory:
/pub/aminet/util/misc
Three of these sites are:
wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4)
amiga.physik.unizh.ch (130.60.80.80)
ftp.luth.se (130.240.18.2)
PRICE
So that we can get FORAY launched, we are making the standard "introductory-
buy direct" offer. You can get the FORAY program disk, the pictures disk,
and a printed manual for only $40. The "release" version will have all four
mushroom Groups and 40+ pictures in the databases.
(include $3 for shipping + 8.2% sales tax for WA residents- $46.53 total)
FORAY is copyright 1993 by eye 2 eye design.
All the graphics and pictures are copyright 1993 by eye 2 eye design and
may not be reproduced for sale without permission.
If you need more information about the program contact us.
Marlin Greene Email contact:
eye2eye design crystal@glia.biostr.washington.edu
1633 6th Ave West
Seattle, Wa 98119
206-281-9165
DISTRIBUTABILITY
The demo version can be freely distributed, provided that the
contents of the archive remain intact. However, the demo version
is only intended for evaluation.
FILES that should be on the disk:
readfirst
readfirst.info
ForayBasics.txt short instructions
ForayBasics.txt.info
Boletes.db database of Bolete Group
Agarics.db database of Agaric Group
logo.pic title screen picture
FORAY Demo of program
FORAY.info
MUSHPICS (dir) contains the pictures
*** PLEASE KEEP ALL THE FILES TOGETHER IF YOU PASS IT ON ***
OTHER
You can run the demo from the floppy by simply clicking on the icon.
It may also be installed on a harddisk.
The release version of FORAY is hard drive installable. It will
include at least 48 pictures and database records and a printed manual.
This Usenet announcement and the files themselves were uploaded by
Crystal@glia.biostr.washington.edu with permission from the author.
------------------------------
MULTIUSER V1.3 AVAILABLE FOR FTP
TITLE
MultiUser
RELEASE
1.3
AUTHOR
Geert Uytterhoeven
uytterho@cs.kuleuven.ac.be
SHORT
Many users live in harmony on one system
DESCRIPTION
You've got an Amiga with Kickstart 2.04 or higher and
several people are regularly fooling around with it ... Last
week your sister deleted your 20MB GIF collection by mistake
and you don't want this to happen again ... Well, here's
the answer: MultiUser!
MultiUser allows you to create a *IX-like environment where
several users live together in harmony, unable to delete
each others files, unable to read those private love-letters
of other users ... And this even if several users are
working on the machine at the same time (on a terminal
hooked up to the serial port) ...
You are the sole user of your computer? Well, make sure it
stays that way by installing MultiUser! People without a
valid login ID and password won't be able to access files
you have made private with MultiUser. If you make all files
private (not readable for others), the only useful thing
they could do, is boot from a floppy ...
NEW FEATURES
Owner change during execution, and a lot more...
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
AmigaOS Release 2.04 or greater
HOST NAME
amiga.physik.unizh.ch (AmiNet)
DIRECTORY
os20/util
FILENAME
MultiUser13.lha
DISTRIBUTION
Freeware
------------------------------
SOFT-LOGIK ANNOUNCES LICENSING OF THE SERIALS TYPECOLLECTION
St. Louis, Missouri (May 4, 1993) Soft-Logik Publishing Corporation today
announced that it had licensed the Serials Typecollection from B&P Graphics
for sale on the Amiga and Atari platforms. B&P Graphics is one of Europe's
leading type houses.
The Serials Typecollection is made up of 1000 professional fonts in PostScript
Type 1 and TrueType format on an ISO9660 compact disk. This CD-ROM can be used
on Amiga, Atari, Macintosh and PC compatible computers. It is accompanied
by a small Type Specimen guide which shows all the fonts in the collection.
A full-size Type Specimen book is also available separately.
The fonts in the Serials Typecollection are compatible with leading Amiga
and Atari applications, including PageStream, Art Expression, TypeSmith
and Lightwave. A sample floppy disk with 12 fonts is available to those
who would like to test the fonts with their applications first.
Pricing:
Serials Typecollection on CD-ROM: $499
Serials Typecollection on CD-ROM and two 44MB Syquest cartridges: $674
Serials Typecollection on CD-ROM and one 88MB Syquest cartridges: $624
Serials Typecollection on CD-ROM and copied to user's
Syquest cartridge(s): $524
Serials Type Specimen Book (3 ring binder with 170 pages): $45
Sample Disk (with 12 fonts): $10
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> ONLINE WEEKLY Amiga Report Online People... Are Talking!
=================================
From the Amiga International Echo on FidoNet
--------------------------------------------
* AMIGA 1400 A REALITY??? *
Area: AMIGA (MAIL:Fido/AMIGA/)
From: Rakim Isadoor To: All
Subj: AMIGA 1400
Date: 15 May 93 11:57:00
There has been a lot of replies and questions regarding my original post where
I stated that an Amiga 1400 was going to be Commodore's next Amiga. I will
answer all of the questions in this post.
Where did I here about it?
I heard about it from a Commodore hardware beta tester. I cannot betray his
confidence and reveal his name (he did not want me mentioning it in the first
place). He was right about the 1200 and he was right about the AGA chips way
before anything was confirmed, so I believe him to be right this time also.
When will it be available?
He says that it should hit the dealers around November at the present schedule
and maybe as much as a month sooner.
SPECS:
* It will be AGA just like the 1200. In fact it is almost identical to the
Amiga 1200 in every regard except for a few very important improvements.
* It will have a 68020 running at either 25 or 28 MHz. His model has a 25 MHz
68020 in it.
* It will have a detachable keyboard similar to that of a 4000.
* The main case will be the sleekest and smallest that Commodore has ever made
for the Amiga (looks kind of like a Mac Performa 400).
* It will have a PCMCIA slot just like the 1200.
* Although the case will be small, there will more room for hard drives
allowing the owner to purchase larger dimensions (and cheaper) hard drives.
You are no longer limited to those expensive 2.5 inch ones.
* It will come standard with the same high density floppy disk drive that the
Amiga 4000 comes with. It will also allow reading and writing of the older
double density variety.
* there will be a small internal fan.
* There will be a 5.25 drive bay for tape drives/ cd rom etc.
* Two megs of Chip RAM.
* Standard configuration will be with 4 megs of ram and a 80 meg hard drive.
How much will it cost?
Well, he says it should cost about a hundred more than a 1200 with a similar
set up. They can do this because the 3.5 inch hard drives are A LOT cheaper
in mass. Also expect the price of the 1200 to drop about $60.00 after the
1400's release. By Christmas, the Amiga 4000/030 should be selling for $1699.
Hope the info clears up all of the questions I have been getting.
From the Amiga_Video echo on FidoNet
------------------------------------
Area: AMIGA_VIDEO (MAIL:Fido/Amiga_Video/)
From: Ron Kramer To: All
Subj: NewTek - cool company
Date: 10 May 93 15:52:54
Well I had my toaster go bad - and called Newtek to find out what the costs
would be to fix it. I was told "we fix em for free" - My unit was about 2
years old and out of warranty (I would guess - I don't pay much attention
to warrantys) anyway, I sent it out last monday... it arrived today - monday,
one week later. Free of charge. It included a stock letter stating "we
tested it and couldn't find anything wrong with it" I thought OH NO - I'm
stuck with the same old problem and wasted a weeks time!
Upon closer inspection I find a BRAND NEW TOASTER and registration card
(stamped REPLACEMENT) for me to fill out and send in... Those turkeys
gave me a NEW card for my two year old card! - now thats support!
From the Amiga.User area on BIX
-------------------------------
amiga.user/main #2177, from drchip, 888 chars, Sun May 16 11:26:28 1993
4MB 32 bit SIMMs come in several configurations that are all the same to many ay
applications. Without parity the normal structure is 1MBx32 and usually this
is done with 8 1Mx4 chips and there is no reason to put anything on the back.
With parity you will either find 8 1Mx4 chips and 4 1Mx1 chips or 8 standard
1Mx4 chips and a "quad CAS" 1Mx4 chip (internally structured as 4 1Mx1s but on
a single chip - these are reasonably new and reasonably scarce). When 12 chips
are used instead of 8 or 9 (which is common on a 1Mx36 (32 bit with parity)
and there is a need to conserve space it is usual to put chips on both sides.
If a larger SIMM is tolerable they are put on a single side. Single chips that
are 16 bits or 18 bits wide are now being made and this will eventually redsult
in smaller high capacity SIMMs or two chips on the mothrboard for 32 bit
memory with or without parity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Warez Out There
===============
By Tom Mulcahy
TITLE -
A.I.B.B. Version 6.1
VERSION -
Version 6.1, an update to the recent 6.0 release
AUTHOR -
LaMonte Koop
lkoop@tigger.stcloud.msus.edu (GP acct)
f00012@kanga.stcloud.msus.edu (Enginnering acct)
BIX: lkoop
Mail: LaMonte Koop
1001 Summit Ave. North #125
Sauk Rapids, MN 56379
DESCRIPTION -
A.I.B.B.
Amiga Intuition Based Benchmarks
Program Release Version 6.1
Copyright 1991-1993 LaMonte Koop
Version Change Information
Version series' 4.x-6.x of AIBB is a complete re-write from the original
code used for the previous versions 1-3. Being that this is the case, it
is quite important that the documentation be read thoroughly in order
to completely understand all aspects of the program performance. The
changes to this version series are detailed below.
Changes to version 6.1:
-- Some modifications were made to the way AIBB does MMU table
translations (such as looking up the ROM image location) on 68040
machines to correct a few problems and wrong results which occured
with this.
-- General code clean up and reduction has resulted in an
approximate 10K of size reduction in AIBB's executable.
-- A few more boards were added to AIBB's internal expansion board
database.
AVAILABLITY -
BIX: amiga.exchage
DELPHI: recent uploads
GENIE: Amiga RT, file #19286
FILENAME -
AIBB_61.LHA - 205,003 bytes
------------------------------
TITLE -
Scenery Animator v4.0 PREVIEW
VERSION -
Version 4.0, an update to version 2.x
AUTHOR -
Natural Graphics
PHONE: 1-916-624-1436
FAX: 1-916-624-1406
MAIL: 4603 Slate Court
Rocklin, CA 95677
DESCRIPTION -
SA4, due for release before the end of May, 1993, and still carrying
a retail price of US$99.95, has many enhancements, not the least
of which is AGA rendering modes and the ability to load, scale,
rotate and place VideoScape 3D ASCII ".geo" format 3D objects into
your landscapes.
There's no need to whine and moan about VS3D .geo being an old format.
There are nice object converters out there which will convert your
LightWave, Imagine, and other format objects into .geo format for
loading into SA4. If you are serious about Amiga 3D then you probably
already own an object converter.
SA4 will come with a limited number of simple public domain objects.
This new version also gives you the ability to plop down oak and
redwood trees anywhere you want to, thanks to the new ZOOM mode on
the map screen capable of up to 512x magnification for extremely
precise object/tree placement.
There are many other improvements in SA4, which will be detailed in
Natural Graphics' forthcoming magazine ads, the inevitable reviews,
and a recent postcard sent to the company's mailing list of customers.
SA4 requires a minimum of 3 MEG of RAM to operate, and will be
supplied in both a standard 68000 version and a faster 680x0/6888x
accelerated version on the same disk.
Two other medium res 16 color pics are in this archive. One of them
shows the main screen of SA4 with the two objects visible in the
landscape in the main preview window. The other is of SA4's map
screen showing the object list requester, and a slightly zoomed
map of the landscape showing placement of the two objects. The city
object is selected and thus red. The spaceship is de-selected and
thus white. SA4's interface details are still subject to revision
since these pictures came from a Beta copy of the program.
AVAILABILITY -
DELPHI: recent uploads
INTERNET: aminet
GENIE: N/A
FILENAME -
sa4pic.lha - 74,035 bytes
------------------------------
TITLE -
Deluxe Paint 4.5 -> 4.6 patch file
VERSION -
Version 4.6, an update to 4.5
AUTHOR -
Electronic Arts
PHONE: (415)572-ARTS
MAIL: 1820 Gateway Drive
San mateo, CA 94404
DESCRIPTION -
******************** DeluxePaint® AGA Patch ReadMe File *********************
Thank you for purchasing DeluxePaint AGA. Electronic Arts would like
to thank all those customers and beta testers who provided us with great
feedback and reports on how to improve the program. We would also like
to remind everyone that we are always looking for suggestions on how
to make this program the best it can be.
We want to keep making better versions of DeluxePaint, but remember
piracy and "lending your software" hurts everyone. Spread the word,
not the software.
Version 4.6 - Advance release module - 2/26/93
You will need the following to install this patch:
1. Your original DeluxePaint AGA Install Disk 1
2. Your owner registration card.
3. Pre-installed DeluxePaint AGA on a hard drive or floppy disk.
4. An Amiga running Amiga DOS version 2.04 or greater.
Dpaint.pch is an update module that converts your unregistered DeluxePaint
IV AGA version 4.5 program file to a version 4.6 file. This new version
adds two special enhancements to DeluxePaint AGA:
1. Improved support for the Trimedia Inc. pressure sensitive
graphic tablets.
2. Direct exchange of data in memory between DeluxePaint AGA
and Art Department Professional version 2.3.
Use following format:
spatch -o[newfile] -p[patchfile] oldfile
If you experience problems with DeluxePaint AGA version 4.6, please check
to see if these problems also exist in version 4.5 before contacting
Customer Support at Electronic Arts.
Please consult your manual for information on making working copies
or installing to a hard drive.
DeluxePaint IV © 1985, 1993 Electronic Arts All Rights Reserved.
DeluxePaint is a registered trademark of Electronic Arts.
Art Department Professional is a registered trademark of ASDG Inc.
AGA is a registred trademark of Commodore-Amiga Inc.
AVAILABILITY -
DELPHI: recent uploads
INTERNET: aminet
GENIE: N/A
FILENAME -
dpaintpatch.lha - 107,439 bytes
------------------------------
TITLE -
Force Monitor v3.10
VERSION -
Version 3.10, an update to version 3.09
AUTHOR -
Michael Illgner
Theodorstr. 27
W-4790 Paderborn
Germany
PHONE: 05251/26488 or 05251/60-2331
INTERNET: fillg1@uni-paderborn.de
DESCRIPTION -
***************************************************************************
* *
* This magnificient piece of software is real PD, so you do not need to *
* send any money to me, but I would like to receive some good sourcecodes *
* especially for OS2.0 [ amiga, of course ;-) ] or better. *
* *
***************************************************************************
***************************************************************************
* *
* F o r c e M o n i t o r v3.10 *
* *
***************************************************************************
ForceMonitor is written as a commodity, so it should belong to your
WBStartUp-drawer and will be started and used as any other commodity.
ForceMonitor patches OpenScreen and OpenScreenTagList, to open most screens
in a given displaymode. Using Exchange you can disable ForceMonitor, which
will bypass the patch. Due to security reasons, the patch will only removed
at program end.
Sorry, I cannot include the sources yet, because I am not allowed to own
the 3.0 AutoDocs and Includes ;-) (Hello CATS, we need them !!!!!)
History :
V3.5 fixed some small bugs.
The NewLook flag was always set.
ForceMonitor now checks ToolTypes from the icon it was started from,
not from the program icon itself.
Thanks to Markus Stipp (corwin@uni-paderborn.de) for discovering
these.
V3.6 The ConfigWindow now gets to the front if opened.
V3.7 Implemented the Reject-Screens-and-Tasks ListView, now you can specify
some Screens and Tasks, where ForceMonitor will not work.
Changed the SaveConfig() routine, now >all< unknown ToolTypes are
saved, not only "DONOTWAIT" !!
The version string is updated on every compilation now !!
ForceMonitor now uses 68020 code instead of 68040, so Amiga 1200
owners are happy :-)
V3.8 Implemented some menus.
Corrected the Reject-Screen-and-Task Gadget enabling and activation.
Removed bug in MyOpenScreenTagList() which caused enforcerhits on
screens without title.
Removed ugly bug in GetMonitorList()
ForceMonitor will now popup the ConfigWindow, if no correct
configuration could be read from the icon.
V3.9 ForceMonitor will activate the ConfigWindow if openend.
V3.10 Implemented an Enable Gadget to en/-disable ForceMonitor from
ConfigWindow. Thanks to Mario Kemper (magick@uni-paderborn.de) for
this suggestion.
AVAILABILITY -
INTERNET: aminet
BIX: amiga.exchange
GENIE: Amiga RT, file #19023
FILENAME -
forcemon310.lha - 10k
------------------------------
TITLE -
LX
VERSION -
Version 1.00
AUTHOR -
Jonathan Forbes
Xenomiga Technology
Toronto, Ontario
M5S 2Z4
Canada
DESCRIPTION -
LL XX XX
LL XX XX
LL XXX
LL XX XX
LLLLLL XX XX
Version 1.00
Written by Jonathan Forbes
Copyright © 1993, Xenomiga Technology
1 - Distribution
This version of LX is freely distributable for non-commercial use, including
distribution on the Fred Fish disks; i.e. there is no "shareware" (or other)
fee for non-commercial use.
Permission is hereby granted to include the unmodified Version 1.00 LX
executable by itself (i.e. without this documentation) with any PUBLIC DOMAIN
or SHAREWARE package, provided that a brief credit note is included in the
program's documentation.
2 - Introduction
LX is a fast dearchiver/decompressor for the Commodore Amiga. It is
compatible with LZ, Lhunarc, Lharc, LharcA, and LhA (all for the Amiga), and
Lharc and LHA for MS-DOS.
LX is the third generation of LZH utility released by Xenomiga Technology,
following Lhunarc and LZ.
LX is also an extremely small program (~ 16K) which makes it ideal for floppy
disk users to keep on a terminal disk.
Since LX reads and writes data asynchronously, the speed of the source and
destination devices (if they are different devices), be they floppy drives,
hard drives, or CD-ROM's, does not cripple LX as is common with the other
Amiga archivers.
This makes LX ideal for use in floppy-to-hard drive installation programs.
In fact, this is one of the purposes for which it was written.
3 - Performance
3.1 LX speed
LX is, at the time of release, the fastest LZH/LHA dearchiver available for
the Amiga. It goes without saying that the decompression routines were
written entirely in highly optimised assembly language.
LX was written with caching microprocessors in mind, and will perform better
the larger the size of your CPU's cache. LX's decompression code should run
almost entirely within the cache of the 68040.
3.2 LX/020
LX/020 is a version of LX which has been optimised for the Motorola 68020 and
later processors in the 680x0 generation.
It has been most optimised for the 68030, since LX was developed on an
Amiga 3000, although it will run on a 68020. It will not run on a 68000 or
68010 machine, however.
The speed increase is reasonably small (approximately 7% on an A3000), but if
you have a 68020 or better, it makes sense to rename LX020 to LX and use that.
4 - System requirements
LX requires AmigaDOS 2.0 or later to run.
LX/020 requires, in addition to the above, at least a Motorola 68020 CPU.
LX will run on an Amiga with 512 KB of RAM or more.
LX does NOT require arp.library.
5 - Compatibility
LX is intended to be compatible with all other LZH/LHA utilities, and supports
many of the Amiga-specific extensions to the standard LZH format.
LX can process archive headers of level 0 or 1, but does not process archive
headers of level 2, since the presence of such headers is essentially
non-existent on the Amiga, and would only incur additional overhead into
the program.
Note that LZ 1.92 and earlier can only process archive headers of level 0.
LX 1.00 Benchmark File
==============================================================================
See bottom of file for benchmarking setup.
A. Test 1
View all archives on DH1:
(29 -lh5- archives, totalling 8 MB)
Utility Version Time (sec) Command line
------- ------- ---------- ------------
1. LV 1.00 12.07 LV >nil: -q dh1:#?
2. LhA 1.38 12.07 LhA >nil: -q v dh1:#?
3. LX/020 1.00 12.10 LX020 >nil: -q v dh1:#?
4. LX 1.00 12.14 LX >nil: -q v dh1:#?
5. LZ 1.92 13.38 LZ >nil: -N v dh1:#?
Comments: As you can see, LV, LhA, LX and LX/020 operate at almost exactly the
same speed for the viewing operation.
B. Test 2
Test all files in archives on DH1:
(29 -lh5- archives, totalling 8 MB)
Utility Version Time (sec) Options
------- ------- ---------- -------
1. LX/020 1.00 92.45 LX020 >nil: -q t
2. LX 1.00 95.23 LX >nil: -q t
3. LhA 1.38 103.72 LhA >nil: -q t
4. LZ 1.92 115.67 LZ >nil: -N t
Comments: LX and LX/020 show their speed, a combination of optimised assembly
language, and asynchronous disk i/o.
C. Test 3
Test one large file in RAM:
(410K archived, 1500K decompressed, -lh5-)
Utility Version Time (sec) Options
------- ------- ---------- -------
1. LX/020 1.00 4.93 LX020 >nil: -q t
2. LX 1.00 5.35 LX >nil: -q t
3. LhA 1.38 5.42 LhA >nil: -q t
4. LZ 1.92 10.98 LZ >nil: -N t
Comments: Testing entirely in RAM, the asynchronous disk i/o advantage of LX
is nullified, and, in fact, becomes a deficiency, although it
remains faster than LhA.
D. Test 4
Test one large file in RAM:
(410K archived, 1500K decompressed, -lh1-)
Utility Version Time (sec) Options
------- ------- ---------- -------
1. LX/020 1.00 12.25 LX020 >nil: -q t
2. LX 1.00 12.75 LX >nil: -q t
3. LhA 1.38 15.34 LhA >nil: -q t
4. LZ 1.92 22.35 LZ >nil: -N t
Comments: LX and LX/020 are far faster at decompressing -lh1- archives.
E. Test 5
Test all files in archives on DF0:
(1 -lh5- archive, total 817K)
Utility Version Time (sec) Options
------- ------- ---------- -------
1. LX 1.00 55.22 LX >nil: -q t
2. LX/020 1.00 55.30 LX020 >nil: -q t
3. LhA 1.38 80.68 LhA >nil: -q t
4. LZ 1.92 96.27 LZ >nil: -N t
Comments: Demonstrates the advantage of LX's asynchronous disk i/o.
As a sidenote, here are the stats for the 'copy' command
(copy the archive from DF0: to RAM:)
Utility Version Time (sec)
------- ------- ----------
Copy 38.1 39.21
The above benchmarks were performed using:
Amiga 3000 (25 MHz 68030)
6 MB Fast RAM, 2 MB Chip RAM
52 MB Quantum LPS
All archivers and the timing program (RTimer) were in RAM:
All console output was suppressed in all tests.
The computer was re-booted between each test to avoid memory fragmentation.
The Data and Instruction caches of the 68030 were enabled, as was BURST mode
(for both Data and Instructions).
These benchmarks provide a very general idea of the speed improvement of LX
over other archives. Your mileage will vary.
AVAILABILITY -
BIX: amiga.exchange
GENIE: Amiga RT, file #19166
FILENAME -
lx100.lha - 24,576 bytes
******************************************************************************
:HOW TO GET YOUR OWN GENIE ACCOUNT:
_________________________________
Set your communications software to Half Duplex (or Local Echo)
Call: (with modem) 800-638-8369.
Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that).
Wait for the U#= prompt.
Type: XTX99587,CPUREPT then, hit RETURN.
GEnie costs only $4.95 a month for unlimited evening and weekend access to
more than 100 services including electronic mail, online encyclopedia,
shopping, news, entertainment, single-player games, and bulletin boards
on leisure and professional subjects. With many other services, including
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MONEY BACK GUARANTEE! Any time during your first month of membership if
you are not completely satisfied, just ask for your $4.95 back.
GEnie Information copyright (C) 1991 by General Electric
Information Services/GEnie, reprinted with permission
******************************************************************************
> AR Review: SupraTurbo 28 MHz Accelerator
=========================================
By Robert Niles
(RNiles@Delphi.com)
PRODUCT NAME
SupraTurbo 28
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
68000 28MHz accelerator for the Amiga 500 or the Amiga 2000
(tested device is the A2000 version, BETA unit)
AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION
Name: Supra Corporation
7101 Supra Drive
Albany, OR 97321
Telephone: 503-967-2440 Tech Support (9 am - 4 pm PST, M-F)
503-967-2400 General (same)
503-967-2410 Sales (same)
503-967-2444 (BBS Number 1200-14.4k)
FAX: 503-967-2401
EMAIL: America Online: SupraCorp2
BIX: SupraCorp
GEnie: SupraTech
RETAIL PRICE
Currently about $169.00 through some mailorder companies.
SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
HARDWARE
Amiga 500 or the Amiga 2000 with 68000 processor.
Expansion RAM to run SupraTurbo at full speed.
SOFTWARE
None
COPY PROTECTION
N/A
MACHINE USED FOR TESTING
Amiga 2000 rev 4
1/2 Meg Agnus
WorkBench 2.1, KickStart 2.04
2 MB Micron RAM Board
A2090A HD Controller, Rodime 3259T 200MB HD
REVIEW
Shortly after being advised that I would be beta testing the SupraTurbo 28
it arrived in the mail. I opened the box to find the SupraTurbo board, a
disk, and a manual which was a photocopy of the original preliminary manual,
which consisted of 15 pages. The SupraTubo 28 board is aprox 1/2" in height,
5" long, and at the widest part, around 1.5", which was connected by a wire
to a toggle switch.
I opened up the Amiga, took out the 2MB board and the Controller, removed the
plate in the rear of the computer that belonged to the accelerator slot. As
per the intructions I took the toggle switch (which is mounted on its own
late) and screwed it in where I removed the plate. I next took the SupraTurbo
and plugged it into the the accelerator slot. There's only one way you could
really fit it in there, and the instructions where precise, with pictures and
all... no need to worry here. I re-installed my other boards, put the cover
back on, reconnected the wires and powered it up. From beginning to end it
took me about 20 minutes to install.
The speed increase was noticably faster... in powering up through the
startup-sequence to loading the BBS program I run. On the supplied disk is
one program in which you can select whether do disable the SupraTurbo or
not. The toggle switch works the same way by selecting ON or OFF. The
position of the toggle switch determines which mode the computer will be in
upon power up. The toggle switch can be in either position for the software
to affect it.
The SupraTurbo 28 contains a 16K onboard static RAM cache, which is the main
reason for the overall speed increase. This RAM caches information stored
from system ROMs and any expansion (fast) RAM you have. You need at least
some expansion RAM in order to get the greater speed increase, otherwise
performance is only increased by about 10-20%.
Here are some tests I did unarchiving some files, using SysInfo 3.15 and
with AIBB 6.1:
Unarchiving Ncomm20.lha (252727 bytes)
SupraTurbo turned On: 14 seconds
" " Off: 35 seconds
Unarchiving Sunsethd.lzh (143722 bytes) A Dyna-HiRes picture
SupraTurbo turned On : 16 seconds
" " Off: 52 seconds
SysInfo v3.15
-------------
Central Processing Unit Type................... 68000
DMA/Gfx Chip................................... STD AGNUS - 512K
Display Mode................................... NTSC:High Res
Display Chip................................... STD DENISE
SPEED COMPARISONS AGAINST KNOWN MODELS & PERIPHERALS
A500 512k or A600 with 1MB CHIP ONLY........... 4.83
B2000, A2000, A1000 or A500 with fast ram...... 3.66
A1200 68EC020 ................................ 2.00
A2500 A2620 68020 14MHZ card.................. 1.24
A3000/25 SCRAM ICACHE IBURST DCACHE NODBURST... 0.55
A4000 68040 ICACHE DCACHE COPYBACK............ 0.14
CPU Million Instructions per Second............ 2.67
Speed of Chip Memory vs A600 Chip Memory....... 1.86
Dhrystones per second.......................... 2560
Comment........................................ >>>>>>>>>>>Lets go
CPU speed in MHZ............................... 28.90
AIBB v6.1 Tests
---------------
Test Name: Dhrystone
Parameters: 68000 based standard code
Multitasking: DISABLED
Test Code Location: Memory Node #2 Test Data Location: Memory Node #1
Test Result: 4761.90 Dhrystones/Second (Higher = Better Performance)
This Machine: 2.98
A600-NF: 1.00 (68000 | SC Math) Base System
A1200-NF: 2.01 (68000 | SC Math)
A3000-25: 5.57 (68000 | SC Math)
A4000-40: 19.20 (68000 | SC Math)
Test Name: Writepixel
Parameters: Not applicable to this test.
Multitasking: DISABLED
Test Code Location: Memory Node #2 Test Data Location: Memory Node #2
Test Result: 3384.41 Pixels/Second (Higher = Better Performance)
This Machine: 2.69
A600-NF: 1.00 (68000 | SC Math) Base System
A1200-NF: 3.00 (68000 | SC Math)
A3000-25: 3.48 (68000 | SC Math)
A4000-40: 15.33 (68000 | SC Math)
DOCUMENTATION
The 15 page manual I had was a preliminary release yet I experienced no
difficulties following the directions. It contained plenty of illustrations,
and was written for the layman.
The manual contained an introduction, explained what to expect from the
SupraTurbo as far as speed increases, directions for both the A500 and A2000
models, instructions on using the software, known incompatabilities section,
and a short troubleshooting guide.
LIKES AND DISLIKES
I like it!! I run a BBS and I'm archiving and unarchiving files on a
regular basis. The BBS itself runs MUCH faster than before. Users have even
noticed the difference. Other than the BBS, all my productivity software runs
faster, as well as a few games, like Falcon (from Spectrum HoloByte).
I have no dislikes (I've had it for about 4 months now).
COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS
Since I haven't run any other accelerators of this type, I have nothing
to compare this with. It should be at least as twice as fast as ICD's
AdSpeed.
BUGS
None known, although it will not run with 4 layered A2000 systems that were
made in Germany in 1986. Some devices such as bridge boards will not work
unless you have at least 4 MB of fast RAM becuase of some memory conflicts.
The SupraTurbo must be turned off when using a bridge board without 4 MB of
fast RAM. Also a small decrease in performance will be noticed with a bridge
board attached and SupraTurbo turned on.
I suspect that some games that address the Amiga illegally will also have
problems running. Disabling the SupraTurbo would solve this problem.
VENDOR SUPPORT
Support is given by the telephone numbers listed above, and through Email on
several commercial systems, and by the Supra BBS by leaving private mail to
SUPRATURBO.
WARRANTY
Unknown. Call for warrenty information.
CONCLUSIONS
If you are looking for something to increase the speed of your Amiga 500 or
2000 and have a limited budget, buy it. It's faster than the A1200 with a
68020 (no fast memory), and faster AND cheaper than the 14MHz AdSpeed unit
(price comparisons in the AmigaWorld magazine list SupraTurbo 28 at about
$10.00 cheaper than AdSpeed). Supra Corporation did this one right!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Usenet Review: Superfrog
=========================
By David Andrew Clayton
PRODUCT NAME
Superfrog
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
Superfrog is a platform game in the style of Super Mario Bros. or
Sonic the Hedgehog.
AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION
Name: Team 17 Software, Ltd.
Address: Marwood House, Garden Street
Wakefield, WF1 1DX
England
Telephone: +44 0924 201846 [Monday to Friday, 10am-4pm]
LIST PRICE
#26.99 (British Pounds)
$69.95 (Australian)
I'm not sure about American prices ($1.00 Australian = $0.70 US),
but they are bound to be much lower, since Australia has OUTRAGEOUS software
prices. End of rant.
SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
HARDWARE
A joystick.
SOFTWARE
None.
COPY PROTECTION
Disk protection: non-AmigaDOS floppies, not copyable by normal
AmigaDOS utilities. Not hard disk installable. (When will hard disk
installability become standard!?)
MACHINE USED FOR TESTING
Amiga 4000/40
Seagate 130MB IDE hard drive
GVP Series II SCSI hard disk controller, Quantum 200MB hard drive
2MB Chip RAM, 4MB Fast RAM (16-bit), 16MB Fast RAM (32-bit)
ASDG Dual Serial Board
NEC3D multisync monitor
AmigaDOS 3.0 (Kickstart 39.106, Workbench 39.29)
Competition Pro 5000 joystick
REVIEW
I purchased Superfrog after seeing wild praise for the game from
many people in comp.sys.amiga.games. I'm not particularly adept at platform
games, but I do find them enjoyable. The price of this game did put me off
at first; yet, I succumbed to the claims of playability, such as: "Finally,
a Sonic the Hedgehog killer for the Amiga!" Sonic is, apparently, a hard
act to follow. But on with the review.
The game's premise is that you're a magic Prince, complete with a
bride-to-be. The wicked witch has turned the prince into nothing more than
a little green frog. The frog found a strange bottle, and drank from it,
and became Superfrog.
Superfrog is a platform game, along the lines of "The Great Giana
Sisters", "Super Mario Bros", "Wonderboy in Monster Land", "Turrican", "Hard
and Heavy" and "Robocod". You control the Superfrog with your joystick, and
hop around trying to collect pieces of fruit, coins, crowns, gems, and
various items, as well as the ubiquitous Lucozade bottles which give the
frog his super status. Collection of coins determines when you can leave a
specific level, since each level has a toll, so you can't just find the exit
and leave. You have to work at collecting the prerequisite number of coins
first.
The game itself consists of 6 levels, each split into a number of
distinct stages. The game gets progressively more difficult as you play,
starting out very easy, and ending up being rather difficult and frustrating,
as do most platform games. Without this difficulty hike, such games would
be too easy and hence boring. Many of the levels have secret areas, tunnels,
and holes in the ground. There are also caches of coins hidden behind
objects, which can prove tricky to find.
Superfrog has a sidekick, "destructo-spud", a green potato with a
single cyclopean eye. This is your single weapon against the array of
baddies you have to get by, and it has to be found lying around on the ground
before it can be used. Be warned that destructo-spud doesn't affect all (or
even most!) of the denizens of magic land. And if you die, you lose your
destructo-spud until you find another one in the maze. You can also jump on
some baddies to kill them.
Superfrog can also acquire frog-wings in its travels, which enable
the frog to stay in the air a bit longer after it has jumped. However, the
amount of time you can stay up in the air is limited, and you always fall
back down to the ground, no matter how many times you press the button to
flap the wings. While you are in the air, you cannot fire destructo-spud
at your enemies. You can, however, jump on top of many enemies to disable
them. Having wings also helps to overcome some of the obstacles placed in
your path.
The action is fast-paced and very smooth. The frog is very
responsive to the joystick, and you can tell when you've made a mistake, so
the gameplay isn't all luck like some badly coded games turn out to be. Each
time the frog does something that it shouldn't, it loses some energy. After
five such mistakes, the frog will die, using up one of its "lives." You can
build up your energy again by acquiring more Lucozade bottles. Some actions
are instantly fatal (landing on or touching silver spikes), but most actions
only make you lose a unit of energy (touching a monster, or getting zapped
by a nasty).
Team 17 seems to be proud of the musical accompaniment, and so they
should be. There are eight different scores, and those that I have heard
are light and entertaining. The general sound effects are well done, and
the game would be lessened if you took them away.
An options screen, accessible before starting the game, lets you
start out with three, five or seven lives (as opposed to the documentation
which states 1, 3 or 5 lives), and play in either "easy" or "normal" mode.
Easy mode slows down the gameplay a little and lets you have more time to
finish each level. You can save your high scores to an optional
(user-provided) high-scores disk. There is an optional "level code" entry
line which allows you to go directly to a particular level by entering a
code. Such codes are gained in a little side-game fruit (poker) machine.
The fruit machine appears when you finish each stage of the game,
unless you decide just to take your bonuses as points. It allows you to
gamble your level bonuses earned, try and increase your score, get extra
lives, or get the code for the level you have just completed. Some people
find the machine tedious, but others think it is amusing. It's the only way
to get the level codes though, and is a necessary part of the game.
I like the game immensely. It's cute, fun to play, and the
responsiveness to joystick actions is superb.
There are, of course, bugs. (See BUGS, below.)
DOCUMENTATION
The game comes with a small, multilingual booklet. Languages
included are British English, Francais, Deutsch and Italiano. Americans
will just have to puzzle over the weird English section. :-)
LIKES AND DISLIKES
I like the game because it is captivating and fun to play. The
gradual increase in difficulty complements the skills you acquire while
playing the game. Finding the secret areas in each level is rewarding,
not tedious like in the PC game "Wolfenstein 3D."
I INTENSELY dislike having to pay $70 (Aus) for a game! I would
also greatly appreciate hard disk installability, though I realize this
would effectively bypass the floppy disk copy protection scheme. The wait
time to load the game from floppy disk, plus the non-multitasking while the
game is running, both marginally detract from an otherwise excellent game.
COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS
Superfrog is definitely one of the better platform games. It is as
good as Turrican 1, and better than Robocod.
BUGS
Ah, yes, the bugs. Firstly, the introduction sequence by Eric
Schwartz doesn't work unless you turn off the AGA mode of the A4000. This
is a minor bug, since you would only ever want to see the introductory
storyline animation once or twice.
The game works fine UNTIL it comes to changing disks. When you
insert disk 2 and press the fire button to indicate the disk has changed,
the A4000 resets itself. This is plainly mismanaged code. Turning off the
68040 caches stops this bug from presenting itself. You can also circumvent
the problem by inserting the second disk *before* it is called for. I can
see that some A4000 owners will lose high scores due to this bug.
Sometimes some aspects of the game, especially the "moving spikes,"
can get out of synchronization, so that it becomes impossible to get past
without losing some energy. I found that moving away from that part of the
screen, and then coming back, will usually fix the problem. I don't know if
this behaviour is a bug or a feature.
VENDOR SUPPORT
I haven't had cause to contact them.
WARRANTY
None that I can see.
CONCLUSIONS
An excellent, addictive game, with style and playability that will
be hard for other software companies to beat.
******************************************************************************
> NVN WANTS YOU! AR InfoFile Another Network Supports Amiga!
==========================
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growing lists of available services. The Amiga Forum is ready and waiting
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Order an extended NVN Membership of 6 or 12 months, pay for it in advance
and receive a bonus in connect time at no additional charge. Choose from
two subscription plans:
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------------------
Pay just $30 for a 6-month Membership and receive a usage credit that
entitles you to $15 of connect-time in the Premium services of your choice.
Your total savings using this plan would be over $20!*
12 Month Membership
-------------------
Pay $50 for a full year's Membership and get even more free time online.
We'll give you a $25 usage credit to use in your favorite Premium services
or try out new ones. You could save as much as $45.*
For more information about either of these plans, give us a call at
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NVN HIGHLIGHTS
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You can join NVN one of two ways.
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via modem phone 1-800-336-9092.
******************************************************************************
> AR Special Feature: NAB Show Report
====================================
By Scott Withington and Berend Ozceri
(swithing@libserv1.ic.sunnysb.edu)
(bo24+@andrew.cmu.edu)
EMPLANT BY UTILITIES UNLIMITED
------------------------------
One of the most talked about products on the net has been the Emplant board
by Utilities Unlimited. In addition, the president of Utilities unlimited,
Jim Drew, has been accused of being everything from an overconfident fool to
a disreputible con-artist. While at the world of Commodore-Amiga, I had an
opportunity to talk to Jim Drew and to see the Emplant board in operation.
First, my impressions of the controversial Jim Drew:
Jim Drew appeared to be a friendly, intelligent man in his late 20's. He
answered all of the questions he was asked (including some of the really
stupid ones and some of the ones that he had probably been asked a thousand
times during the show) in a forthright manner. He did not appear to hold a
grudge against anyone (except maybe the infamous Marc Barrett: He laughed,
when I mentioned that Marc was about the only one who fell for my April
fool's Day prank (about the new high-end chip to be shown to developers at
WOCA-NYC)). He said that he recieved one apology from one of the many peo-
ple who attacked him over the net. In other words, none of the accusations
people made about him appear to have any truth.
Now on to Emplant:
By now I assume that most people have seen pictures of the product and
descriptions of it's features, so I will skip over them. However if you
don't know, then you can get one from the Usenet archives. The Emplant
board was demoed on two amigas, an A4000 with a 1960 monitor, and an A3000
with a 1084s monitor (which was used to show the way it would look on an
accelerated a2000 or 500. On both Amigas, they were running a variety of Mac
programs multitasking with Amiga software. He demoed MS Word, Excel, Adobe
Photoshop, Quark Express, and several others. The 3000 version was running
in 16 color interlaced 640 x 480 (overscan) mode and the 4000 in 640 x 480
productivity 256 color mode. All software was running and looked good
(especially on the 4000).
I asked him if he had had any reports of software incompatabilities. He
responded that the only program incompatible with the current version of
the emulation software was Apple's own disk copier (he said that it broke
every rule for Mac software). He commented that he could produce a patch
to fix it (Microsoft software, which also breaks Apple's rules, has been
patched to work).
I also asked him if and when he would have an emulation of the Mac 32K
color mode. He looked over at his Mac programmer, who responded "about
6 hours after we get back."
Plans for the next version: Addition of ability to access Amiga
files from the Amiga partition on the Mac desktop, 32,000 color mode on
AGA amigas, and possibly addition of a patch to allow the use of an ec030
accelerator (the Mac color system uses the MMU extensively). He says that
the ability to use all of the other Mac ROMs should be completed by the
end of September, and 386/486 emulation by the end of the year or the
beginning of next year.
All, in all I feel that the Emplant appears to be an excellent product and
Jim Drew seems very dedicated to the enhancement and expansion of its
capabilities and features. His policy of making upgrades in the emulation
free and expansion (such as 386 emulation) cheap (~ $70), show him to be
committed to customer satisfaction. I predict that Jim Drew will soon be a
very successful businessman.
CENTAUR DEVELOPMENT AND OPALVISION DEMONSTRATION
------------------------------------------------
Centaur Development had a fairly large booth with lots of chairs, where they
seated audiences for their OpalVision demonstrations. They had two people
in the demonstrations one of which was a marketing person, and the other a
programmer. I had never seen OpalVision before, so the demo that I attended
was my first hands-on (more like eyes-on) exposure to this product.
The demonstration started with a short speech by the marketing person, who
informed us that although the add-on modules were not "absolutely" finished
yet, they would be finished and shipping within 60 to 90 days after the show.
He explained that they decided not to demonstrate fully finished products.
Then he went on with a comparison of the OpalVision main-board with the
VideoToaster. (Some info. for those not familiar with the OpalVision product-
line: OpalVision is a 24-Bit frame buffer and display-device with a maximum
resolution of 768x480 (580 PAL). It operates in the video-slot of the host
Amiga and utilizes its custom graphics co-processor for powerful stencil
modes, transition effects, animation, etc.) Here is what he said in his
comparison:
OpalVision VideoToaster
------------------------------------------------------------
Native RGB signals. Much Compsite NTSC analog inputs.
more discrete than NTSC
analog signals.
Both NTSC and PAL support. Only NTSC available.
9 inputs and 5 outputs. Also 4 inputs, 2 outputs.
a key input/output. (This is
with the OpalVision Video
Suite module)
5 stereo pair audio inputs. No audio support.
(This is again only avaiable
with the Video Suite module)
35ns character generator. 35ns character generator.
Any 3D program can output to Supported only by Lightwave 3D.
OpalVision.
Luma, chroma, and sandwich Only luma keying.
effects and keying.
Vector based effects enabling Non-vector based transitions.
custom effects to be programmed
by the user.
Interlaces live in-coming video No de-interlcing.
and Amiga video.
Has OpalPaint Has ToasterPaint.
He then said that the OpalVision main board was priced at $995. He also said
that each of the add-on modules would be priced at $995 also.
After the conclusion of his speech, the programmer took over and he gave a
demonstration of the OpalVision board and OpalPaint. I must say that I was
very impressed by OpalPaint. Having seen professional graphics platforms like
Pixars and SGIs, I can say that OpalPaint easily measures up to them. In the
demo, nearly all aspects of OpalPaint were demonstrated. The ease of use, and
the quality of the output amazed. I am not going to try to describe the demo,
only because I can't; it is one of those things that you just must see!
LEE STRANAHAN PRESENTS NEWTEK'S VIDEO TOASTER
---------------------------------------------
Even though the title of this demonstration was "Lee Stranahan Presents
NewTek's Video Toaster," it was much more a demonstration of the new version
of LightWave 3D. I can't say that people complained.
First, Lee Stranhan talked about the Toaster and LightWave in general,
demonstrated a couple of features of the Toaster Switcher and the Character
Generator. One thing that he mentioned over and over was that NewTek would
never ship LightWave 3D without the Toaster. (Now that I think about it, when
asked, he also mentioned that there was no Amiga 4000 Toaster in NewTek's
plans, but the Toaster 4000 has premiered at the NAB early this week. ;) )
Anyway, then he started the world premiere showing of the new version of
LightWave 3D. I have experience with Imagine as a 3D program and have never
used LightWave before; the stuff that I saw made me drool!
The first thing Lee did was to create a simple scene, and to put a light in
it. The light was a conical light, and to align it on one of the objects in
the scene, he switched the view mode to light; yes, you can look from a
light's point of view. This is incredibly handy for aligning lights. When you
are aligning a conical light, you can also see exactly where the light is
falling; amazing!
Then he explained that in LightWave 2.0, items would move strangely in the
layout screen, when the view direction was anything but straight ahead; "Not
any more!" exclaimed Lee, as he demonstrated how easy it was to move and
place objects in the layout screen.
Then he rendered a scene. All I can say is, it was fast. There were shadows
and everything, but it was fast. Lee explained the instead of using full ray-
tracing, LightWave now used a method called shadow-mapping to create shadows,
which was very, very fast! The anti-aliaser was also very cool; the way it
worked was, LightWave rendered a portion of the scene, then the anti-aliaser
performed edge-detection on it and smoothed those; cool, and very fast!
The next thing Lee demonstrated was Modeler's PostScript font support. Yes,
you heard me say that, and I saw it with my eyes. If you want to create
flying 3D logos, just open a PostScript font and type. The result is
incredibly smooth letters. When extruded and bevelled, these 3D texts look
simply awesome!
Next on Lee's list was Modeler's spline tools. With splines, you can just put
down a couple of points, let Modeler connect them with a spline, and there you
go; smoothly shaped objects! You can also create spline patches, which makes
the creation of organically shaped objects very easy.
Modeler now supports ARexx! With ARexx macros, the use of Modeler is one more
step easier. Each ARexx macro can have a graphical-interface for taking
parameters from the user and suppying feed-back during processing. ARexx
macros can do anything from centering object to creating mathematically
described objects.
Modeler's new boolean operators supply you with tools like Drill, Core, Add,
Subtract and others. Lee demonstrated this by subtracting a cow from a sphere.
Pretty funky!
Back to LightWave. Lee introduced LightWave's much talked about "Lens Flare"
feature. He explained that LightWave was the first 3D computer program to
incorporate computer-generated lens flares. He demonstrated this feature in a
simple scene again and the resulting image was once again, very good looking.
The last, but not the least part of the demonstration was LightWave's
character animation capability. He explained the LightWave programmer Allen
Hastings has developed a method to incorporate a skeleton into objects for
bending and twisting objects without doing any morphing. He demonstrated this
feature once again with his favorite cow object. When he loaded the cow object
with the skelton, you could actually see "joints" and "bones" in the cow. Then
he made the cow turn his head and bend his leg by just playing with the
skeleton. Once again, very cool.
That was the end of the demo, but he mentioned that there were more additions
to LightWave that he didn't have time to demonstrate including support for
displacemnt mapping (as opposed to bump mapping which is only apparent), clip
mapping, motion blur, particle blur, depth of field, etc.
That was one cool demonstration! Thanks Lee!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Usenet Review: Who! What! When! Where!
=========================================
By Eric Dietiker
PRODUCT NAME
Who! What! When! Where! version 1.3i
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
Who! What! When! Where! (WWWW) is a personal organizer program
containing a Directory (or phone/address book), Appointment Calendar, and
"To Do" list. The program supports multiple users, each with his/her own
private Directories and Appointment lists.
There are a host of other related features such as an alarm clock,
address label printing, and an auto dialer.
AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION
Name: The Blue Ribbon Soundworks Ltd.
Address: North Highland Station
PO Box 8689
Atlanta, Georgia 30306
USA
Telephone: (404) 315-0212
LIST PRICE
$99.95 (US). I paid nothing, but I had to buy $100 of BRS products
to get this deal from Creative Computing. They are now advertising WWWW for
around $10.
COPY PROTECTION
None. The program installs easily on a hard disk.
INSTALLATION
WWWW comes with an install program which runs the first time you
start WWWW, configures some data file locations, and installs the "wwwwtimer"
program if you want it. The install program edits your s:user-startup file
to start the background timer program. Every so often, WWWW seems to get
confused and re-run the install procedure on startup.
WINDOWING INTERFACE
The program runs in a number of windows on the Workbench. There are
separate windows for the Directory, Calendar, Appointment List, Alarm Clock,
To Do List, and Clock.
When WWWW starts up, you are presented with the Directory window.
It contains a scrolling list of the people in your directory, and a panel
with the currently selected entry on the list. When this window is closed,
a WWWW icon is placed on the WorkBench. Double-clicking on the icon
re-opens the Directory window.
Other parts of the program are available through the Directory
window's menu. Selecting items which activate other functional parts of the
program, such as the To Do List or the Appointment List, will cause the
Directory window to disappear and the new window to pop up. One notable
exception is the Calendar window, which co-exists with any of the other
windows. In some cases, such as the To Do List, there are no menu items
allowing movement to other windows, though you can always bring up the
Calendar window.
In general, I like the multiple window approach to the problem of a
single program which is really an application bundle. In some cases, the
implementation of WWWW is a little intrusive. One thing that bothers me is
the fact that WWWW hides windows without really being told to. When I move
from the Directory to the Appointment list, I must wait while WWWW hides the
Directory window, then pops up the Appointment window. It is a little
unsettling to see windows appearing and disappearing all over the screen.
Another minor annoyance is the fact that when I select an appointment from
the Calendar window, the Appointment window pops to the top of the window
stack whether I want it to or not. Usually I prefer my windows to stay
where I leave them.
DIRECTORY
As I mentioned above, the Directory window contains a scrolling list
of a user's addresses and a panel displaying the currently selected entry.
The list is sorted alphabetically by name. If you want your list sorted by
last name, you must enter last name first in the Name field for the entry.
The selected entry panel contains fields for name, address, home and
work phone numbers, birthday, groups and notes. Most of these are obvious.
You can use the Groups string to categorize your address list. Then
you can have WWWW display only the entries in a certain group by performing
a search on the list with only the group specified.
If you enter the birthday of a person on your list, you can have
WWWW notify you when that birthday occurs.
Once you select the person you wish to contact, you can have WWWW
dial the phone for you by selecting either Home or Work from one of the
menus. You can also print an address label for that person.
APPOINTMENTS
This functionality is the real reason I bought this program. I can
never keep track of when my wife is working, or when we are expected at
Relative X's for dinner. We use Synchronize at work on our UNIX
workstations to keep track of everyone's meetings; I need a program at home
for much the same reasons. One thing I usually don't need is granularity of
less than a day. All I want to know is what day to drive to Relative X's.
Several parts of the program interact to provide the Appointment
setting and notification functionality. They are the Appointment window,
the Calendar window, and the background program "wwwwtimer."
Appointments are entered via the Appointment window which is
arranged much like the Directory window. To enter a new appointment, click
on New in the window and fill in the Who, What, When, Where, Phone and Notes
fields. The When field always defaults to the current date and time, which
means it is always wrong.
Using the menu, you can bring up the Appointment Parameters window
and set default parameters, or parameters for a particular appointment. You
can set the time in advance of an appointment that the program reminds you
by selecting any of weeks, days, hours and minutes, and entering a value in
the associated text gadgets. [Oh my God - WWWW's alarm clock just went off
and told me to go to bed. I nearly fell out of my chair!] If you have WWWW
remind you in advance of an appointment, it will remind you once in advance
and once when the appointment starts. The Parameters window is also where
you set an appointment to repeat. You are limited to once, daily, weekly,
biweekly, monthly, and yearly.
Once the appointment is entered, it shows up in the Calendar
window. The Calendar window can display either Appointments or To Do
items. The month and year are displayed in the upper left corner. Clicking
on the month brings up a pop-up menu from which you can select another
month. Clicking on the year activates a text gadget; you can edit this to
change the year.
Clicking on the Calendar display on a day which has an appointment
brings up a list of the appointments for that day. The list contains
the Who field and the time of the appointment. You can configure the
calendar so that selecting an item from this list either selects, moves, or
copies an appointment. You can also have it create an appointment when you
click on a day. When you select or create an appointment the Appointment
window is brought to the front of the screen with the selected appointment
or a newly created appointment. When you move or copy an appointment, a box
appears around the entry, and you can then drag it to the correct day and
drop it. I don't know how you could move it from one month (today) to the
next (tomorrow).
Once you've created an appointment, the background timer program
starts monitoring it. When the appointment comes up a window comes up to
the front reminding you of the appointment. This window will override your
(well, my) screen blanker until you acknowledge it. The program will also
speak to you, play a sound effect (some are provided), ring a bell, flash
the screen, and run and ARexx script when your appointment comes up.
THINGS TO DO
The Things To Do window consists of a list of "To Dos" and a small
panel with the currently selected item. An item has a What and a When
field. There are buttons to create a new entry, delete the selected entry,
and put a check-mark by the selected entry.
A Thing To Do will be carried forward until you check-mark it and
use the Update menu item to clear out the old To Dos.
ALARM CLOCK
In the Alarm Clock window you can set a simple alarm to go off at
some future time. There is a What field you can use to remind yourself of
why you set the alarm.
CLOCK DISPLAY
You can have WWWW display a clock with the current date and time if
you wish. The clock displays on the title bar of an iconified window, much
like the standard WorkBench 2.1 clock in digital mode.
PRINTING
You can print phone numbers, your entire directory, appointments,
things to do, address labels, and a monthly calendar. The output is either
Draft or Letter quality, depending on how you've set your Printer
Preferences.
LIKES AND DISLIKES
I like the easy access to entries in the directory and the ability to
group entries (and thus limit the size of the scrolling list). I like the
small touches that show a lot of thought went into the program; for example,
the act that you can select a person in your Directory, then bring up the
Appointment window containing only your appointments with that person.
I dislike the somewhat quirky window scheme, and the flat,
"Workbench 1.3-like" interface.
COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS
I've recently downloaded a copy of the OnTheBall ("OTB") demo. This
program looks great and has a few features missing from WWWW. It displays a
small calendar on the WorkBench, through which you access your appointments
for a specific day. The program uses only one other window for all its
functionality. There is a row of buttons at the bottom of the window you
use to select between Appointments, Addressbook, To-Do List, and NotePad
(not in WWWW). You can also display a calendar for the currently selected
week, month or year, and print any of these. There are more options for
repeating appointments, such as repeating on selected days of the week. The
calendars print in graphics mode using CG fonts, so they look beautiful. I
wish my word processor could do as well!
Some things in WWWW missing in OTB are the ability to have multiple
users, the great variety of notification methods, and the ability to use the
mouse to copy and move appointments. This last is important to me when I
enter a month's worth of my wife's work days. To be fair, I haven't done a
full evaluation of OTB, or even seen the manual. There are probably a lot of
other features I am unaware of.
BUGS
The displayed clock is often wrong for periods of time. I haven't
checked to see whether this affects the timeliness of the notification.
When I click on an appointment in the Calendar window, the
appointment pops up. After it disappears, my screen is corrupted along the
borders of where the window was.
VENDOR SUPPORT
When I last spoke to Blue Ribbon, before I bought WWWW, the person I
spoke to said they had sold out of all their stock, and weren't sure whether
they were going to continue manufacturing or enhancing the program.
However, she assured me they would continue *supporting* the program. I
haven't called with the clock problem mentioned above to see just what
support they'll provide.
CONCLUSIONS
Though it shows its age in the flat and quirky user interface, Who!
What! When! Where! is a good personal organizer program. It has features,
such as multi-user support and drag-and-drop appointment moving, that are
probably not available elsewhere in the Amiga market. If you can live with
the idiosyncrasies I described above, and don't care that the program may
never be upgraded, I think you'll find it worth owning.
On the other hand, make sure you check out OnTheBall, which looks
quite cool.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Amiga Report CONFIDENTIAL "Rumors Tidbits Predictions Observations Tips"
=========================
NEW CABLE SYSTEM ANNOUNCED
May 17, 1993 -- Time Warner and US West Communications announced today a
joint venture to provide a new form of cable television and other similar
services. The new system will offer regular cable television, video games,
shopping services and more. These products will be transmitted to sub-
scribers over conventional telephone lines, thus negating the need to install
new wiring. The project is set to commence in Orlando, Florida later this
year or in early 1994. No date has been set for availability in the rest
of the country.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> AR Dealer Directory These are not ads -- just a reader service!
===================
Armadillo Brothers
753 East 3300 South
Salt Lake City, Utah
VOICE: 801-484-2791
GEnie: B.GRAY
Computers International, Inc.
5415 Hixson Pike
Chattanooga, TN 37343
VOICE: 615-843-0630
Finetastic Computers
721 Washington St
Norwood, MA 02062
VOICE: 617-762-4166
Portal: FinetasticComputers
Internet Mail: FinetasticComputers@cup.portal.com
MicroSearch
9000 US 59 South, Suite 330
Houston, Texas
VOICE: 713-988-2818
FAX: 713-995-4994
PSI Animations
17924 SW Pilkington Road
Lake Oswego, OR 97035
VOICE: 503-624-8185
Internet Mail: PSIANIM@agora.rain.com
Software Plus Chicago
3100 W Peterson Avenue
Chicago, Illinois
VOICE: 312-338-6100
(Dealers: To have your name added, please send Email!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Amiga Report's "EDITORIAL CARTOON"
==================================
> A "Quotable Quote"
==================
"The American Dream: Smoke pot, cheat on your wife, and become President!"
- From a user on Delphi, Referring to Bill Clinton
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Amiga Report International Online Magazine ~ STR Publications
-* [S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport *-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AR Online! ~YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE~ May 21, 1993
Amiga Report Copyright (c) 1993 All Rights Reserved No. 1.10
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Views, Opinions and Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of the
editors and staff of Amiga Report International Online Magazine or of STR Pub-
lications. Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise
noted. Reprints must, without exception, include the name of the publication,
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may not be edited in any way without prior written permission. However, trans-
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mains intact. Amiga Report may be distributed on privately owned not-for-
profit bulletin board systems (fees to cover cost of operation is acceptable),
and major online services such as (but not limited to) Delphi, GEnie, and
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are only to cover the cost of the disk (e.g. no more than $5). Distribution on
for-profit magazine cover disks requires written permission from the editor or
publisher. Amiga Report is a not-for-profit publication. Amiga Report, at the
time of publication, is believed reasonably accurate. Amiga Report, its staff
and contributors are not and cannot be held responsible for the use or misuse
of information contained herein or the results obtained there from.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~