@database "ar501.guide"
@Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #5.01 -- January 23, 1997"
===========================================================================
  January 23, 1997            @{" Turn the Page " link MENU}             Issue No. 5.01
===========================================================================
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                 "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!"

                      Copyright 1997 FS Publications
                            All Rights Reserved
@endnode
@node MENU "Amiga Report Main Menu"
@toc MAIN

Amiga Report 5.01 is sponsored in part by:

@{" Intangible Assets Manufacturing " link AD1}.  IAM is the purveyor of a fine
line of Amiga products.  

@{" AmiTrix Development " link AD2}.  AmiTrix is the worldwide publisher of
the AWeb-II WWW browser.

@{" National Amiga " link AD3}.  National Amiga is a world-class world-serving 
Amiga dealership.

===========================================================================
==                               Main Menu                               ==
===========================================================================

    @{"  Editorial and Opinion   " link OPINION}             @{"    Featured Articles    " link FEATURE}

    @{"         Reviews          " link  REVIEW}             @{"  News & Press Releases  " link NEWS}

    @{"      Aminet Charts       " link     FTP}             @{"       Reader Mail       " link MAIL}

                     ---------------------------------

    @{"    About AMIGA REPORT    " link ABOUT}             @{"    Dealer Directory     " link DEALER}
 Contact Information and Copyrights     Amiga Dealer Addresses and Numbers

    @{"     Where to Get AR      " link WHERE}             @{"     Advertisements      " link COMMERCIAL}
 Mailing List &  Distribution Sites     Online Services, Dealers, Ordering
               ______________________________________________
         //   |                                              |       //
========//====|  Amiga Report International Online Magazine  |======//=====
==   \\//     |  Issue No. 5.01            January 23, 1997  |   \\//    ==
==============|  "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!"  |=============
              |______________________________________________|
@endnode
@node JASON "Editor"
@toc STAFF

===========================================================================
                                  EDITOR
===========================================================================

                               Jason Compton
                               =============
             Internet                                  Address
             --------                                  -------
       jcompton@xnet.com                      1203 Alexander Ave
       jcompton@amigazone.com                 Streamwood, IL 60107-3003
                                              USA

               Fax                                      Phone
               ---                                      -----
           847-741-0689                             847-733-0248
@endnode
@node KATIE "Assistant Editor"
@toc STAFF

===========================================================================
==                           ASSISTANT EDITOR                            ==
===========================================================================

                             Katherine Nelson
                             ================

                                 Internet
                                 --------
                               kati@nwu.edu
                            kati@amigazone.com
@endnode
@node KEN "Games Editor"
@toc STAFF

===========================================================================
==                             GAMES EDITOR                              ==
===========================================================================

                               Ken Anderson
                               ============

               Internet                             Address
               --------                             -------
             kend@dhp.com                      44 Scotland Drive
         ka@protec.demon.co.uk                 Dunfermline
                                               Fife KY12 7TD
                                               Scotland
@endnode
@node WILLIAM "Contributing Editor"
@toc STAFF

===========================================================================
                            CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
===========================================================================

                               William Near
                               ============

                                 Internet
                                 --------
                              wnear@epix.net
@endnode
@node BOHUS "Contributing Editor"
@toc STAFF

===========================================================================
                            CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
===========================================================================

                      Bohus Blahut - Modern Filmmaker
                      ===============================

                                 Internet
                                 --------
                              bohus@xnet.com
@endnode
@node EDITORIAL "compt.sys.editor.desk"
@toc OPINION

===========================================================================
    compt.sys.editor.desk                          By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}
===========================================================================

Amiga Report 5.01.  Amiga Report 5.01.

Sorry, I just had to say it a couple more times before I actually believed
it.

It really seems to be true, though--Amiga Report has entered its fifth year
of publication.  Its 113th issue--and the 95th since the first time an
article from me (an Emulation Examiner, later to become the Emulation
Rambler, which makes a long-overdue comeback in this very issue) first
showed up in the magazine.

But enough about Amiga Report and me for a minute.  Let's talk about the
Amiga.

It's 1997 now.  1996 could have gone a whole lot better.  We all know what
I mean, and I don't think there needs to be any more discussion on the
subject.

What remains to be seen is what 1997 will bring.  We stand at not just one,
but several cusps.  The Amiga acquisition is still an unclear picture, and
while there are only two companies which have publicly announced their
going intentions to acquire the Amiga technology (those being VIScorp and
QuikPak of the US), rumors of varying strength and legitimacy abound of
other companies taking an active interest in the Amiga properties.  In the
meantime, companies such as ProDAD, Phase5, and PIOS are jockeying for
positions to pick up Amiga market slack with "Amiga-like" computer
solutions, none of which have yet been released.  And there are even
rumblings of a new Amiga clone for the computer market.

For the record, I'd like to make the same promise I made back in 1995:
within six hours of receiving news and confirmation of a definitive Amiga
technology purchase, AR will release a special acquisition issue.

Amiga Report has borne through the years, and since 1993 has been dedicated
to providing timely, accurate news of the Amiga's voyage.  In 1997, we are
re-dedicated to following the Amiga and all of its successor technologies.
Amiga users are often worried about where continuing support will be coming
from.  Rest assured that Amiga Report will be here for you, as long as you
are here for the Amiga.

What is the future of the Amiga?  Who will be successful in their attempts
to purchase the technology?  Once purchased, how will the company in
question reconcile and deal with the independent successor technologies?  I
can't answer any of these questions right now, but I'll be watching.

I hope you will as well.  In the next months, the format of Amiga Report
will be changing somewhat--right now, I am leaning very heavily towards
making the main distribution of Amiga Report HTML.  Already, some of our
heaviest readership is on Web sites.  We last changed our magazine layout
format in 1995--and over the past two years, a number of high-quality and
easily obtainable HTML browsers have emerged.  Using A-Web, IBrowse,
Voyager, or perhaps something else, users can either access AR online, or
will be able to view the magazine in HTML as a local file.

We will make the transition gradually--in all likelihood, we will continue
to do AmigaGuide conversions of the magazine and will initially distribute
both the AmigaGuide and HTML versions on our mailing list, to give our
readers ample chance to find a browser they are comfortable with.  Both the
AmigaGuide and HTML versions would be placed on Aminet, but we will only
run one mailing list and in the long-term, the mailing list will likely
only distribute our main HTML format.  We're excited about the prospects
that HTML opens up, and hope you are looking forward to the transformation.

I can say, with all modesty and honesty, that I am extremely proud of what
Amiga Report has become since 1993.  In the past year, our mailing list
increased by 33%.  The number of Amiga Report mirrors and links around the
world is staggering, and response to AR on Aminet is always very warm.
Stick with us for the wild ride that being an Amiga user is, and we'll keep
bringing you what you're looking for.

-Jason

PS: Due to a particularly embarrasing mistake on my part, some of the news
items submitted to AR were lost shortly before this issue was assembled.
We are waiting for a backup from our ISP, but in case this never shows up,
if you submitted a news item to AR that you don't see in this issue, please
re-send it.  Thanks!
@endnode
@node COMMERCIAL "Commercial Products"
@toc MENU

===========================================================================
                            Commercial Products
===========================================================================

@{"Intangible Assets Manufacturing" link AD1}  IAM and their fine line of products

@{"       AmiTrix Development     " link AD2}  AmiTrix, publisher of A-Web II

@{"         National Amiga        " link AD3}  Worldwide online Amiga dealer

@{"             CalWeb            " link ZONE}  The new home of the Amiga Zone

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   News   " link NEWS} @{"  Opinion  " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{"  Reviews  " link REVIEW} @{"  Charts  " link FTP} @{"  Adverts  " link COMMERCIAL}
@endnode

@node AD1 "Intangible Assets Manufacturing: Great Amiga Stuff!"
@toc COMMERCIAL


GREAT AMIGA STUFF FROM INTANGIBLE ASSETS MANUFACTURING

IAM publishes high quality products for the Amiga, with some of the best
authors around, including former Commodore engineers Dale L.  Larson and
Dave Haynie.  We recently reduced all our prices.  Please help us spread
the word about our products so that we can keep supporting the Amiga!

What's more, we've expanded availability of Amiga Boing Logo collectible
items for our customers!  See the press release in this issue of Amiga
Report for more information.

See you at the "Gateway Computer Show -- Amiga 97" in St.  Louis on March
15 & 16, 1997.

The best way to get more information about IAM is through the Web:
http://www.iam.com.  We also have an AmigaGuide format catalog of our Amiga
products which can be FTP'd from file://ftp.iam.com/biz/iam/iam.lha, and
you can get an automatic reply with current information on our products by
emailing info@iam.com. 

* A book on Amiga networking and telecommunications: "Connect Your Amiga!
    A Guide to the Internet, LANs, BBSs and Online Services" revised 
    second printing (1996) US$19 + s/h
* DiskSalv4 -- the commercial release of Dave's disk utilities US$30 + 
   s/h (upgrade from earlier registered versions for US$10+s/h)
* MRBackup 2.5 US$45+s/h 
    (upgrade from earlier registered versions for US$10+s/h)
*  SYA (Save Your Behind): DiskSalv4 and MRBackup together for only US$49!
* The Amiga-only peer-to-peer networking software Amiga Envoy, 
    US$39 +  s/h (2-user)
* MegaBall4, a tres cool system-friendly video game, US$29 + s/h 
    with a Free XL MegaBalls T-shirt.
* DICE 3.2 C Development Environment (full price $100+s/h, students and
   competitive upgrades only $75 +s/h)  Upgrade from DICE 3.x at
   ftp://ftp.iam.com/biz/iam/dice/!
* "Torn Shapes of Desire: Internet Erotica", book, US$14.95

IAM products can be ordered direct from IAM via the web, mail, fax or phone. 

We don't accept COD orders, but do accept checks in US dollars, as well as
Visa and MC (no Amex or Discover).  Our shipping and handling charges are
flat-rate: you can order up to one of each of our products for the same
charge.  We ship via USPS or UPS at our option.  In the US: $6 for ground,
or $9 for air.  Elsewhere: $9 for surface and $15 for air. 

Our Amiga products are also available through Amiga dealers world wide. 

Intangible Assets Manufacturing
828 Ormond Avenue
Drexel Hill, PA  19026-2604
USA

http://www.iam.com

info@iam.com    -- bot mails you current info on our products
sales@iam.com   -- to ask questions or to place an order.

voice: +1 610 853 4406  (orders only, M-F 9-5 US Eastern time)
fax:   +1 610 853 3733

@endnode

@node AD2 "AmiTrix -- Worldwide Publisher of A-Web II"
@toc COMMERCIAL

===========================================================================
AmiTrix Development,  5312 - 47 Street, Beaumont, Alberta,  T4X 1H9  Canada
Phone/Fax: 1-403-929-8459  Email: sales@amitrix.com  HTTP://www.amitrix.com
===========================================================================

                    Direct Mail Order Price List             January - 1997
                    ============================
             (Prices subject to change without notice.)

Product Description                                       CAN $        US $
-------------------                                     -------     -------

AWeb-II (AWeb-II v2.1/HTML-Heaven2.0 WWW Software)      $ 60.00     $ 45.00

SCSI-TV HD controller for CDTV (with 2.5" Internal      $190.00     $149.00
                                     Drive Adapter) 
SCSI-TV for CDTV, with-out Adapter                      $180.00     $142.00
- the 2.5" adapter is not required for external drives.

SCSI-TV570 HD controller for A570 (with 2.5" Adapter)   $200.00     $157.00
SCSI-TV570 for A570, with-out Adapter                   $190.00     $149.00

Amiga-Link/Envoy Starter Kit (2-unit),                  $270.00     $210.00
- the peer-to-peer network for external floppy port.
- (also available as expander kit with extra cable)

Amiga-Link/Envoy Expander Kit (1-unit for odd # exp.)   $175.00     $135.00

Amiga-Link Expansion Kit (1-unit for even # exp.)       $135.00     $105.00

Amiga-Link Accessories:

   2-way Floppy Port Splitter (for external drives      $ 39.00     $ 31.00
                               with no pass-thru port)
   RG58 cable - 1m(3.5ft.)                              $ 10.00     $  8.00
   RG58 cable - 5m(16.5ft.)                             $ 13.00     $ 10.50
   RG58 cable - 10m(33ft.)                              $ 17.50     $ 14.00
   - (custom lengths available on request)
   Extra BNC-T connectors                               $  4.50     $  3.50


The P-Net Box, a ParNet Adapter                         $ 15.00     $ 12.00
AM33C93A-16PC SCSI controller for 3000/2091/HC+8        $ 26.00     $ 20.00
A3000 U202/U203 chip ram control PALs - each            $ 15.00     $ 12.00
External Active SCSI Terminator - C50 male              $ 29.75     $ 23.50
Internal Active SCSI Terminator - IDC50 male            $ 19.00     $ 15.00
External Passive SCSI Terminator - C50 male/female      $ 12.25     $  9.75
DB23 solder-type connector
- male, female, or chrome hood - each                   $  1.65     $  1.25


Shipping Costs: (most large boxed items)
---------------
First Class Mail: within Canada                         $ 10.00
                   within USA                                       $ 10.00
                  International                         $ 15.00     $ 12.00
Shipping: (for small bubble-packet items)               $  5.00     $  5.00

Orders should include a Bank Draft/Money Order or Postal MO, payable to 
AmiTrix Development in CAN or US dollars.  Cash COD's inside Canada only.
Shipping costs may vary for quantity orders/alternative method of shipment.
Canadian customers add 7% GST to all orders.

@endnode

@node AD3 "National Amiga - Amiga Products and Services International"
@toc COMMERCIAL

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                     N A T I O N A L    A M I G A    
              Amiga Products and Services International
------------------------------------------------------------------------

National Amiga has provided an on-line resource for Amiga products for
almost 3 years now.  We've pioneered Amiga internet retail and continue to
supply products around the world.

We have grown considerably since 1994 and have expanded into a large retail
store, full service centre and have started product development.  Let us
know what you want to see developed.

We can always be reached at http://www.nationalamiga.com where you will
find our full catalogue on-line for you to choose the products you want to
order.  You can even select to view the catalogue in 69 different
currencies so you don't have to figure out conversions.

National Amiga also puts out an 'update-list' every month with a list of
news, information and pricing specials.  Make sure you get on the list to
get the deals as soon as they come out.  Things can go fast!

Check out our web-site. It's changing to serve you better.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phone: 1.519.858.8760                   http://www.nationalamiga.com
FAX:   1.519.858.8762                   Serving the world on Amigas.
email: gscott@nationalamiga.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------

@endnode
@node MAIL "Reader Mail"
@toc MENU

===========================================================================
                               Reader Mail
===========================================================================

From: Nicolas Franck <gryzor@club-internet.fr>
Subject: Mods Anthology Review in AR411

Hello Jason!

I'm the author of the Mods Anthology CDROM, and I've *just* found out that
you had reviewed it in a previous AR issue! (shame on me ;)

First, thanks for this!

Secondly, I read that you didn't manage to use the "MAFind" tool?

I quote you:

> There is an informative AmigaGuide readme file included and a search
> facility.  Unfortunately, the search script does not seem to work
> completely on my system: it will locate strings in song titles on all
> four CDs, but will not interactively load them.

I guess that you forgot to do something _important_ before running MAFind,
either:

- Forgot to execute the "Click_Me_First" script (on any CD)?

      These scripts include some important 'Assign' commands, *required*
      for MAFind to be able to send the mods to Delitracker from the
      AmigaGuide just-built document.

- Forgot to launch Delitracker!? eheh this may happen...

- Forgot to launch "RexxMast" in your system? It is of course needed.


Otherwise, I don't know what happened... but you must have forgotten
something, as the MAFind worked very well for all other users.

Too bad that you didn't manage, because MAFind is really a strong point
of this collection! Those who hadn't any problem to make it run were all
very delighted with its power, believe me ;)

Best regards,

Nicolas
gryzor@club-internet.fr

                                --- --- ---

From: ROI@hotline.pfalz.de (EMMANUEL HENNÉ)
Subject: Re: AMIGA - What pisses *YOU* off? Take note JASON COMPTON!

"Captain !"-"Yes, Data ?"-"There`s an incoming subspace message concerning
"Re: AMIGA - What pisses *YOU* off?  Take note JASON COMPTON!"!"-"Who sent
it ?"-
"Jason Compton, Sir."
"To the captain`s lounge, Mr Data."


Thanks a lot, Jason, for AR 415.

Do You have the FIRST of all AReports still on Your harddisk ?
That must be a collector`s item, could You send it to me :) ?

CU,

Emmanuel


-    Amiga Report 1.01, and all back issues, are available on Aminet.  I 
     wasn't even an AR reader when the first issue came out, I started
     reading in AR 1.14 and had my first article published in 1.19...and
     the rest is history... - Jason

                                --- --- ---

From: Donald Feldbruegge <dhfeldbr@facstaff.wisc.edu>
Subject: Amiga Thoughts

Hello Jason,

I have been following (with interest) the recent series of posts about
QuikPak and VIScorp, and the effect on the future of the Amiga.  I decided
to make a brief, private, non-inflammatory comment. 

If you are correct about the inability of the many interested parties to
work together for the future of the Amiga, then I fear that the A4000 was
the last Amiga that will ever be produced.  I hope you are wrong this time,
but my gut feeling is that you may be correct.  I don't think that any of
the companies, individually, has the needed resources (people and/or money)
to produce an Amiga.  I doubted that VIScorp could pull off the computer
along with the set-top box.  My feeling is that QuikPak can manufacture,
advertise and sell; however, Operating System and hardware design is beyond
their capabilities.  I think that PIOS has probably lost interest in the
AmigaOS, but would be unable to deal with manufacturing and selling, if it
were to regain interest.  Each company, alone, has strengths and
weaknesses.  If any of them try to do the whole thing alone, they will fail
due to lavk of resources.  What was the old saying about "together we may
succeed, but individually we will undoubtedly fail." I know that each of
the companies has their own interests, but I feel an alliance would benefit
all of them.  If they can't work together, I don't think that the Amiga
name and AT property is worth anything at all.

As I said, I hope you are wrong, but you are probably correct.  In that
case, we had better stop worrying about the Amiga and start to think about
what is the best replacement.  Otherwise the whole market will finally
fragment (PIOS ONE, A\BOX, who knows what else) and there will be no
successor at all.  Of course, I suppose that I could just shrug my
shoulders and say that my Amigas are working fine; however, there will be
no future software developement and I will eventually end up in a time-warp
like the Amiga.  :-)

Enough of my comments.

Best wishes,
Donald Feldbruegge


-    Mr. Feldbruegge is referring to posts where I expressed doubts that a
     successful "consortium of Amiga companies" could be put together to
     jointly purchase the Amiga.  I stand by what I said, and it's backed
     up by a number of the exact companies that people like to bring up in
     this sort of discussion.  This doesn't mean I have no hope for the
     continuation of the Amiga--quite the opposite--but I just don't find
     that particular scenario realistic.  But yes, it will definitely be
     worth watching the Amiga-spawned technologies and where they go.
     - Jason
 
                                --- --- ---

From: "Eric Fortier" <cfortier@clic.net>
Subject: Letter to the editor

Hello Jason.

I would like to thank you for your commitment to AR.  1997 will hopefully
be a better year, and I wish you receive the credit you deserve.

First, regarding Windows 95.  As a programmer, computer phreak and
Amigaphile, I was anxious to get my hands on Windows 95 when it came out in
August 1995.  When i first installed it, it crashed, and I had to reformat
my drive.  But when it ran correctly, it was great!

A new better interface, faster response to various activities, more
robustness, it all made perfect sense!  Then, I started REALLY using it. 
Ho boy, do I miss the Amiga!  But why?  Windows 95 is a MUCH more powerfull
OS!  it's has built-in virtual memory which is quite reliable!  Built-in
drivers for internet protocols and "almost" any devices, modems, cards,
ect!  a really cool taskbar that allows you to very easily switch programs!
A System Tray which has mini icons representing various system utilities
curently running which you can simply point and click to acces!  and so
much more!!

Well, there are various reason why now, almost 1 1/2 year later I
absolutely *HATE* windows 95 (soon to be 97).  The system is so complex
it's incredibly Crash-Prone.  I won't get into more Windows 95 bashing, but
I just want to spill my guts: It's because of such piece of software that
we can't get along with just 16 megs of memory.  It's because of such
software that we can't stand our 486 computers anymore.  It's HUUUGE,
unoptimized.  It's build as a pre-emptive OS on a computer that has only 1
processor.  What's the deal here?  Ha well, I guess newsgroups such as
alt.windows95.crash.crash.crash have a reason to exist.

And from this I would like to link to a letter Gustav Kjeldsen wrote you
regarding MUI.  This "Toolkit" is the embodiment of everything I don't like
about today's Computers and OSes.  It give people easier things to use at
the expense of system resources.  I agree that it's an incredible piece of
software.  it provide users with very advanced system configuration
options.  But to have EVERY program use this?  I don't think so.  Or if
they would, we'd all have to get more memory and processor updates REAL
soon.

To quote Gustav: "Nobody could be dissatisfied with that...  Unless they
WANT something different, but then they won't follow ANY standard, and
that's not too admireable..." I wouldn't have said that to people of Newtek
when they were making the first release of the Toaster!

You see, that is exactly what people feels like.  Get with the flow!  don't
try and do things on your own, you won't succeed!  Go with standards!  It's
easier!  Don't Reinvent the wheel!

And I just hope you don't think i'm getting this from my sick psyche.  As a
Windows programmer, I'm on several mailing list, and receive ~100 emails
everyday.  I can tell you that many developpers think in the line of "I
won't do this software for anything below a pentium 90, people WILL
switch!" This is what Microsoft tought, and today, due to competition, they
provide Windows 3.1 users with their very own version of Internet Explorer.

On another topic I would like to talk about the future of the Amiga.

First, my personal views are that we need to embrace what first made the
Amiga a success.  Unique hardware.  This is to my opinion the only way a
computer can really stand apart.  a PC box is just that.  a box with an
Intel processor in it.  But there is a catch.  A PC Pentium motherboard
without the processor goes for around $130 canadian dollars.  It all comes
down to the price.  The hardware must be so unique as to provide people
with such power that the price would be worth it.  And to my opinion it's
not possible by embracing all the current PC standards.  The only way I see
that a computer can be profitable is by the brainstorming of people,
pushing to make new developments in the area of hardware.  In that respect,
the only company I can support is Phase 5 which stand by these same
principles.

Coupled with the right software, something really new and improved,better
and more pleasing can be made.  The OS must be utterely configurable and
should come with the basic tools used to maintain/use it: File manager,
backup software, disk salvage/defragmenter, builtin internet support, ect.
And it should not take 70 megs on your HD!  (my windows directoy is
actually 90.3 megs, excluding VM swapfile)

These are some of my views.  In it's current state, the Amiga is fun, but
outragously underpowered.  In the future, it should be highly modular,
powered by the state of the art technology and Unique hardware.

I thank you for reading this long email and wish you a really good and
properous new year.

Eric Fortier - RIR/TechLogic - Quality Document Imaging for all sizes

                                --- --- ---

@endnode
@node NEWS1 "Easter 1997 Invite"
@toc NEWS

Invitation: Verion 1.1                            Release date: 18.12.96

                                  MEKKA '97
                                SYMPOSIUM '97
                       The Official Invitation V1.1
                        +------ Easter 1997 ------+

                          Polka Brothers * Phantasm
                             Lego * Smash Designs
                                Amable * Avena

 +---------+
+  Content  +
 +---------+

   1.  Introduction
   2.  General Information (Date, Location, Bustrip, Price)
   3.  Features
   4.  Competitions
   5.  Timetable
   6.  CD-ROM
   7.  Organisers / Contacts
   8.  History
   9.  Disclaimer

 +---------------+
+ 1. Introduction +
 +---------------+

  Nearly one year ago two great parties took place:

  -> Mekka'96 (29th to 31st of march):

     Mekka was held  the first time in 1996  and was a great success. Over
     300 attenders from different countries joined the event. Before Mekka,
     there was no real  party for the german pc demo  scene in our country.

  -> Symposium'96 (5th to 8th of april):

     Symposium took place  the 9th time and about  650 attenders from all
     over Europe came to be part of this special event. The multi-plattform
     party got  a good reputation  cause it is a  scene party organized by
     scene people.

  At eastern 1997 these both parties will be combined  - not competing like
  last year - to provide you even more fun, entertainment and partyfeeling.

  It does not matter what kind of computers you like  - we will support all
  platform and  most of them  will be represented by  well known and famous
  demo groups for sure.

             - PC - Amiga - C64 - Atari Falcon - Acorn RISC PCs -

  This time Symposium/Mekka'97 will be an event not to miss - and remember:

                    If you don't come... it's your fault!

 +------------------------+
+  2. General Information  +
 +------------------------+

  Date:
  -----
    Join us at Easter 1997. We will open the doors for you on

    -> Friday 28 to Monday 31 of March 1997
       The doors will be opened on Friday at 12:00 CET.

  Location:
  ---------
    The party will take place at

    -> "Heidmarkhalle Fallingbostel" between Hamburg and Hannover
                               (approximatly 100km to the south of Hamburg)

    with enough space for about 2000 attenders.

    By car:
    -------
      You can  reach  the  partyplace over the  highway "Autobahn A7", exit
      "Fallingbostel". You will find signs directing you from this exit to
      the party.

    By train:
    ---------
      You will have to get to station  "Fallingbostel"  with the "Deutsche
      Bundesbahn". We will setup a bus-shuttle service to the party. Please
      contact:

      -> Michael Krause - Mannesallee 24 - 21107 Hamburg, GERMANY
         rawstyle@blackbox.dame.de, ii7349@fh-wedel.de (Raw Style/Lego)

      in advance to make sure  that our bus is at the train-station if you
      are arriving.

    Bustrip:
    --------
      Of course you can come by bus too.  At the moment we have information
      about at least two bustrips coming from

      -> Switzerland  and collection  attenders from south germany too. If
         -----------                                 -------------
         you want to join this bustrip  or your need additional information
         about this bustrip please contact: "furball@space.ch".

      -> Sweden. This trip is organized by Excel/Balance and Newt/Abyss. If
         -------
         enough people come together there might even be more than one bus.
         All this is  not absolutely  sure yet,  but if you are interested,
         you can send Excel a mail: "excelblc@freenet.hut.fi".

      If have information about any other bustrips  or you want to organize
      one please contact:

      -> Malte Kanebley - Im Dorfe 3 - 21629 Neu Wulmstorf, GERMANY
         amable@aol.com (Hardball/amable), voice: +49-4168-8611

  Price:
  ------
    The entrance fee  amounts 40 DM / person (about 25 US-Dollars).  We are
    not able to change foreign currencies.

    The organisation is !NON-COMMERCIAL!  As usual the entrance-fee will be
    distributed among the winners of the competitions.

    Pay in advance (possible until 28.02.97):
    -----------------------------------------

      If you  decide to pay  in advance  you can save 5 DM / person.Please
      transfer  the  entrance-fee (35 DM / person) to the  following bank-
      account:

      -> Name of the Bank : Kreissparkasse Harburg
         Bank-Nr (BLZ)    : 207 500 00
         Account-Nr (Kto) : 211 00 888
         Name             : "Malte Kanebley"

      You will have  to choose  a password  to protect  your money. Please
      attach this line [german: "Verwendungszweck"] to your money order:

      -> "97"-HANDLE-PASSWORD-REALNAME

      Additional you have to send an email or snail-mail to

      -> Malte Kanebley - Im Dorfe 3 - 21629 Neu Wulmstorf, GERMANY
         amable@aol.com (Hardball/amable), voice: +49-4168-8611.

      This is important  because we need this  to verify your money reached
      us properly. You will get a confirmation and an entrance-ticket.

 +-------------+
+  3. Features  +
 +-------------+

  Of course a lot of features await you:

  -> Everyone talks about *Internet* and so do we.  We will have a Internet
     cafe installed for you with lots of terminals for IRC and Web access.

  -> A  ethernet  network  running  with a  big fileserver  and  party chat
     connected to the IRC.  Our equipment will hopefully provide a fast and
     save party network all 72 hours.

  -> We will present all compos  on a big screen of 6 * 4 squaremeters and
     a powerfull Dolby Surround music system.

  -> 100% public voting on all compos for everybody at the partyplace.

  -> There will be a  quiet place for you to sleep  if you decide not to do
     this in front of your computer or under the table ;)

  -> Network: we are selling network equipment like NE2000 network cards or
     ethernet cables and connectors for a low price as well.

  -> Live performances on the stage (one hour per day).

  -> A mind blasting laser show (not absolutely sure).

  -> Many other features we are not able or not willing to tell you yet.

  Now that we're organizing this party, you might think that all you can do
  is  visiting  it.  This is wrong:  We give you the one and only chance to
  produce  yourself.   If you want to give a lecture on something or if you
  have  another  idea of enriching the event, you're very welcome to do so.
  We would like you to contact someone of us as soon as possible, though.

 +-----------------+
+  4. Competitions  +
 +-----------------+

  General competition rules:
  --------------------------
    -> The Rules may change until the party starts.

    -> At least one of the competitors must be present.

    -> We must have all entries until deadline.

    -> We will have  a preselection  for the music compos.  Only 15 entries
       will be presented.  The preselection will be done by a jury of known
       scene people.

    -> Anonymous competition means  that the entry must not reveal who the
       author is.  A separate version including  a tag can be provided and
       will be spread instead.

    -> The entry must be released at the party - not at any time before and
       not on other parties taking place at the same time (we will exchange
       us with the organizers of all other parties).

    -> You must release a "final"-version of your productions at the party.

    -> You have to license us to put your production on any digital media.

    -> The entry must be  one archive with  description (FILE_ID.DIZ).The
       name  of the  archive  MUST be  compatible with  ISO 9660:  only the
       characters "A"-"Z","0"-"9" and the underscore "_" are allowed!

  System configuration:
  ---------------------

    PC:
    ---
      -> The production must support a GUS or SB and
      -> your production MUST support NOSOUND too.
      -> The program must NOT use the commandline  to select the soundcard.
         (use a soundcard-selection-menu or use a autodetect-function).
      -> 1oo% VGA-Register compatible videomode MUST BE SUPPORTED.
      -> Additionally you can use VESA 2.0-videomodes, too!
      -> Your can test  your production up to 3 times on our PC  to fix the
         latest hardware-problems.
      -> The Competition-PC will have following configuration:

         Prozessor       : Pentium 100 (maybe better)
         RAM             : 16 MByte
         Videocard       : PCI-Board with fast Videocard and 2 MB RAM
         Soundboard      : - Gravis Ultrasound with 1 MByte RAM
                           - Creative SoundBlaster 16 ASP (maybe AWE32)
         Operating System: DOS 6.2
         Max. Base-Mem   : 600 KByte (3D 614400 Bytes)
         Memory Configs. : HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE; no FlatRealMode!

    Amiga:
    ------
      -> Processor: 68030 running at 50MHz, AGA. 68060 is optional.
      -> RAM      : 2 + 16 MByte

    Atari:
    ------
      -> Standard Falcon configuration

    C64:
    ----
      -> New SID
      -> Action Replay MK6
      -> 1541-II disk drive.

    Acorn:
    ------
      -> Bring your own ;)

  Competitions:
  -------------

    Demo (PC, Amiga, Atari, Acorn, C64):
    ------------------------------------
      -> Maximum size PC, Amiga, Atari, Acorn: 6 MByte (3D 6291456 Bytes).
      -> Maximum sizee C64: standard 5,25" DD disk.
      -> Must not require installation (Assigns, Libs, Drivers, etc.).
      -> No precalculated animations are allowed.
      -> Write access to the disk is NOT allowed.
      -> For PC: It must be possible to interrupt the Demo with ESC.
      -> Only the first 15 min. of the Demo will be shown on the screen.

    Intro (PC, Amiga, Atari):
    -------------------------
      -> Maximum size PC: 64 KByte (3D 65536 Bytes).
      -> Maximum size Amiga: 40 KByte (3D 40960 Bytes).
      -> Maximum size Atari: 96 KByte (3D 98304 Bytes).
      -> Must not require installation (Assigns, Libs, Drivers, etc.).
      -> No precalculated animations are allowed.
      -> Write access to the disk is NOT allowed.
      -> For PC: It must be possible to interrupt the Intro with ESC.
      -> Only the first 10 min. of the Intro will be shown on the screen.

    Intro 4KB (PC, Amiga):
    ----------------------
      -> Maximum size: 4 KByte (3D 4096 Bytes).
      -> Sound (MIDI, AdLib, PC-Speaker or whatever you want) is possible.
         [Please include nessesary drivers]
      -> Write access to the disk is NOT allowed.
      -> Only the first 5 min. of the Intro will be shown on the screen.

    Game 32KB (PC):
    ---------------
      -> Maximum size: 32 KByte (3D 32768 Bytes).
      -> Just code a little, funny game,  e.g. jump'n'run or shoot`em`up or
         whatever you want (KLF: what about magic carpet 32KB? ;).
      -> The coder of the game will play it on the big-screen.
      -> Write access to the disk  is allowed  (hiscore, playerinfo, etc.).
         If these files are *not needed*  to run the game  they can increse
         size by 8KB (so 40KB possible).  We will delete these files before
         running the game on the compo-pc.

    Protracker Module (4 channel, all plattforms):
    ----------------------------------------------
      -> Maximum size: 1 MByte (3D 1048576 Bytes) unpacked.
      -> Only the first 3 min. will be played during the competition.

    Music (all plattforms):
    -----------------------
      -> Maximum size: 1.4 MByte (3D 1457664 Bytes).
      -> For PC: must be playable with Cubic-Player 1.7.
      -> For other plattforms: must be executable.
      -> MIDI is not allowed.
      -> Only the first 3 min. will be played during the competition.

    Music (C64):
    ------------
      -> All formats allowed, executable file.
      -> The C64 screen will not be shown during the compo.

    Graphics (all plattforms, ANONYMOUS):
    -------------------------------------
      -> Allowed formats: max. 640x512 24bit, IFF, GIF, PNG, JPEG.
      -> Raytracing is possible.  We need at least  three significant steps
         of the picure.
      -> Scanned pictures are not allowed.

    Graphics (C64, ANONYMOUS):
    --------------------------
      -> All formats/modes allowed.
      -> Must be an executable file.

    ANSi (all Plattforms):
    ----------------------
      -> Not more than 200 Lines!

    Wild:
    -----
      -> Anything possible, exept animations - only realtime calculation.
      -> Use any hardware you want.
      -> You must bring  your hardware with you  (we need F-BAS, Composite,
         VGA or RGB-output).

    Video:
    ------
      -> Anything possible.
      -> Must be on VHS or S-VHS tape.

    Surprise:
    ---------
      -> We will have some surprise-competitions at the party, too.
      -> You really think we would tell you those compos yet?
      -> ...of course not. But there will be FAST and FUN-COMPOS!

 +-----------+
+  5. CD-ROM  +
 +-----------+

  We are trying to produce a CD-ROM  with all productions on it. Therefore
  it is nessesary, that you authorise us to put your release on the CD-ROM.
  You will NOT lose the rights of your productions.  We don't know how long
  it will take to produce the CD  but we will try this as fast as possible.

  The CD-ROM will contain all productions of

  -> Mekka'96,
  -> Symposium'96 and
  -> Mekka/Symposium'97.

  We try to include the wild- and animation-compo too.

  The CD-ROM will be sold for a very low price (about or less than 20 DM).

 +-------------+
+  6. Timetable +
 +-------------+

  Friday:
  -------

    12:00   The party will start

  Saturday:
  ---------

    15:00   DEADLINE for Animation, Grafix, Music, Ansi
            DEADLINE for PC Game 32KB, PC 4KB Intro
            DEADLINE for all Acorn-, Falcon- and C64-compos

  Sunday:
  -------

    10:00   DEADLINE all other compos

  Monday:
  -------

    05:00   DEADLINE Voting

    09:00   Prize ceremony

    12:00   We will close the doors

 +--------------------------+
+  7. Organizers / Contacts  +
 +--------------------------+

  The  groups  involved  in  organizing the MeKKa/Symposium '97 are

  -> Amable (for PC)
  -> Avena (for Atari)
  -> Lego
  -> Phantasm (for Amiga)
  -> Polka Brothers (Amiga) and
  -> Smash Designs (for C64).

  But  what  do  names mean?  It's the experience that matters.  And that's
  what  we  can  *boast*  with:  ten  Symposiums, the  Mekka'96, the 680xx
  Convention  1993  and  an in-depth knowledge of the scene provide us with
  the power necessary for organizing such an event.

  More information:
  -----------------

  -> Get our upcoming invitation intros around X-Mas, at least for PC,
     Amiga and C64.

  -> On our extensive World Wide Web pages:

       http://134.28.37.10/~frank/Sym97/
       http://www.szczecin.pl/~rawstyle/Sym97/
       http://www.tu-harburg.de/~sijt2008/ms97/

  -> On the Black Box BBS:

       +49-4105-84619  (v34)
       +49-4105-669011 (ISDN)

  -> Directly from the organizers:

     PC:
     ---
       Malte Kanebley - Im Dorfe 3 - 21629 Neu Wulmstorf, GERMANY
       amable@aol.com (Hardball/amable), voice: +49-4168-8611

       Jan Tegtmeier - Reinckeweg 9 - 22399 Hamburg, GERMANY
       tegtmeier@tu-harburg.de (Starcode/amable)

     Amiga:
     ------
       Frank Schliefer - Am Musterplatz 27 - 21220 Seevetal, GERMANY
       gandalf@blackbox.dame.de (Gandalf/Phantasm)

       Michael Krause - Mannesallee 24 - 21107 Hamburg, GERMANY
       rawstyle@blackbox.dame.de, ii7349@fh-wedel.de (Raw Style/Lego)

     C64:
     ----
       chaotic@blackbox.dame.de (Chaotic/Smash Designs)

     Atari:
     ------
       michael_wiegers@hh3.maus.de (Jet/Avena)

 +-----------+
+  8. History +
 +-----------+

  Version 1.0 (09.12.96):
  -----------------------

    -> First invitation text released.

  Version 1.1 (18.12.96):
  -----------------------

    -> Bustrip from sweden added.
    -> Timetable added (deadlines only).
    -> Pay in advance only possible until end of february
    -> Compo rulez changed a very bit.
    -> Removed a few grammatical mistakes
    -> No more time to waste

 +---------------+
+  9. Disclaimer  +
 +---------------+

  -> We are  not responsible  for your  equipment  you bring to the party:
     keep an eye on it.
  -> We are not responsible for possible accidents during the party.
  -> We are not interested in troublemaking people and will throw them out.
  -> Drugs are forbidden at the party-place.  Alcoholics and smoking is not
     desired.
  -> You have to pay for everything you damage.
  -> You have to bring  your own wires  with you.  There is only one power-
     connection for each table/computer.
  -> Of course hacked, cracked or illegal programs are not allowed.
  -> Racism is not allowed.
  -> You are under German law  and everthing  that's forbidden  outside the
     party-place will be forbidden inside, too!
@endnode
@node NEWS2 "ProDad P-OS"
@toc NEWS

Dear Amiga-fans !

We would like to inform you about the following event:

ProDad will present their portable operating system P-OS on the Amiga
at the Computer Graphics 97 exhibition, 29th - 31st January 1997,
Kongresshaus Zurich, Switzerland.

ProDad will be at the booth of B&S Digitronic (G32). We'd like to
invite you to visit our booth and take a look at the Amiga's possible
future: P-OS.

We also show DraCo- and Casablanca Videosystems and more !

Please feel free to ask us for more information.

B&S Digitronic
Chr. Merian Ring 7,
CH-4153 Reinach
Schweiz

+41 61 711-6565

info@digitronic.ch
http://www.digitronic.ch
@endnode
@node NEWS3 "McAgenda"
@toc NEWS

Short:    *McAgenda* is a phonebook very easy to use, nice and useful!
Uploader: robiz@mbox.vol.it (Roberto Bizzarri)
Author:   Roberto Bizzarri, robiz@mbox.vol.it
Type:     biz/dbase
Requires: OS 2.0 (v37) and ReqTools.library
Version:  4.3
Replaces: biz/dbase/McA42.lha

McAgenda wants to be a simple phonebook.  I have written it to get rid of
all those big applications which require you to wander through plenty of
options just to get a phone number.  I'd rather use paper phonebooks for
that.  :) Or maybe i'd rather have used, because now there is McAgenda!

McAgenda needs OS 2.0+ (v37+) and "reqtools.library" (© Nico François &
Magnus Holmgren).

A u t h o r
~~~~~~~~~~~

You can find me here:

Internet Email : robiz@mbox.vol.it
Fidonet matrix : Roberto Bizzarri, 2:332/901.31
Snail mail     : Roberto Bizzarri, v. Giolitti 124, I-61100 Pesaro, ITALY
@endnode
@node NEWS4 "McFiler"
@toc NEWS

Short:    *McFiler* catalogues files w/ many useful functions (fit,unpack,..)
Uploader: robiz@mbox.vol.it (Roberto Bizzarri)
Author:   Roberto Bizzarri, robiz@mbox.vol.it
Type:     biz/dbase
Requires: OS 2.0 (v37) and ReqTools.library
Version:  4.3
Replaces: biz/dbase/McF42.lha

              __  __      _____ _ _             _  _     ____
             |  \/  | ___|  ___(_) | ___ _ __  | || |   |___ \
             | |\/| |/ __| |_  | | |/ _ \ '__| | || |_    __) |
             | |  | | (__|  _| | | |  __/ |    |__   _|  ___) |
             |_|  |_|\___|_|   |_|_|\___|_|       |_|(_)|____/


This program was born to achieve a better way to catalogue and archive
files on ANY MEDIA DEVICE with special functions for FLOPPIES.  It features
functions able to quickly trace, view, unpack, rename, discard a file, as
well as hide it from your list.

You'll have at your disposal two nice routines, "FitDisk" and "SingleFit",
which will allow you to optimize your collection of files to fit in the
least possible number of disks.

McFiler requires OS 2.0+ (v37+) and "reqtools.library" v38+ (© by Nico
François & Magnus Holmgren).

A u t h o r
~~~~~~~~~~~

You can find me here:

Internet Email : robiz@mbox.vol.it
Fidonet matrix : Roberto Bizzarri, 2:332/901.31
Snail mail     : Roberto Bizzarri, v. Giolitti 124, I-61100 Pesaro, ITALY
@endnode
@node NEWS5 "McCloud"
@toc NEWS

Short:    McCloud: simple and quick command to *hide* a floppy disk!
Uploader: robiz@mbox.vol.it (Roberto Bizzarri)
Author:   Roberto Bizzarri, robiz@mbox.vol.it
Type:     disk/misc
Requires: OS 2.0 (v37)
Version:  1.2
Replaces: disk/misc/McCloud1_1.lha

                        ***************************
                        * M c C l o u d   v 1 . 2 *
                        ***************************
                  Written by Roberto Bizzarri © 1995-1997
                          English doc by Phalanx
                                (Freeware)

I N T R O D U C T I O N
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

McCloud will forbid any floppy disk access on the specified disk.  It will
likely be useful in case you don't want unskilled people to jam with your
disks.  McCloud won't provide you any data encryption, it just modifies the
specified disk's bootblock to render it invisible to your computer.

The reason why I decided only to modify the bootblock is principally the
security: should the disk present any read/write error, you'll get your
datas back with a common program like DiskSalv, QBTools and so on, while a
full encryption might be more unhandy.  Anyway McCloud's aim is just to
protect a bit your disks, not to grant full security.

If you insert in any drive a disk protected by McCloud, no icon will
appear, and, if asked via CLI/Shell, the Amiga will confirm the absence of
any disk in your drive!  Magical, isn't it?  :)

/***/

Changes from v1.1 :

   *  new arguments template
   *  added password support
   *  fixed bug whith bootable floppy disks
@endnode
@node NEWS6 "AmigaZone Web Access"
@toc NEWS

Greetings - 

The AmigaZone SIG (formerly on Portal and Plink, and now hosted by CalWeb
Internet) now has a World Wide Web interface! 

Yes, don't rub your eyes or ::gasp:: it's true!  You can now access the
AmigaZone's message bases and files via your web browser!

However, you must be an AmigaZone member.

Our new webbalized interface is at http://amigazone.com (with no "www").

After loading graphics on that page an authorization requester appears. 
Enter your AmigaZone account and password and you're in!  You can then use
your browser to read and post to our message bases and newsgroups, see
who's online, set your personal prefs (turn frames on and off depending on
if you want them or you prefer table displays), and search and download in
our vast file libraries.

This new Zone interface augments, and does not replace our WildCat BBS
style inteface at "telnet amigazone.com".  And our private FTP site at "ftp
amigazone.com" is still there too of course.  Your same AmigaZone user ID
and password get you into all three.

We have two kinds of AmigaZone accounts available::

a) a free two-week trial account. Limited to 120 minutes per day, no
internet email, and no multiple simultaneous logins. If you wish to apply
for a two week free trial, visit our other web site at
http://www.amigazone.com (the original Zone page which is still there and
will not go away) and read how. 

b) a full registered paid account.  $19.95 per month.  Gets you full 24
hour a day unlimited AmigaZone access to our files, messages, live chats,
your own amigazone.com email address, and you also get a full unlimited
access CalWeb UNIX shell account with 10 meg free storage and web page
hosting!  To sign up and become a paid member, see my .sig below.  Be sure
to say "AmigaZone Sent me" when you join, and signup is free.  MC/Visa or
have and invoice sent to you monthly.  CalWeb's phone support has *NO*
voice mail and is open 24 hours a day!

Many people have been clamoring for a web interface to the Zone.  Okay,
stop clamoring.  You got it. 

(Please note - the "chat" function on our new web site will not work with
anything but the Wildcat Navigator which is availble at www.mustang.com for
Windows 3.1/95/NT only.  I'm working on getting it ported to the Amiga and
hopefully have success..  otherwise all the other web page functions will
work.  And AWeb-II seems to have problems with it, but IBrowse 1.02 works
fine as do emulated NetScape and Internet Exploder). 

Again, without an AmigaZone account you can visit this new site and admire
it but you can't log in.

For tons of info on what the AmigaZone is, visit our original web site at:
http://www.amigazone.com

If you have a Zone account and wish to use it via the Web, visit our new
site at: http://amigazone.com

Regards,
Harv Laser,
AmigaZone Sysop
*Portal AmigaZone has moved to CalWeb - signup is FREE!
*Call 1-800-509-9322 (24 hrs.), say "Amiga Zone sent me." 
*Visit http://www.amigazone.com for more info.
@endnode
@node NEWS7 "The Graffiti Card"
@toc NEWS

To the Amiga community in general

Everyone knows that the situation of the Amiga is now critical.  Due to the
lack of commercial strategies and (very often) because of bad= luck (
example : the lasting of negotions between Viscorp and the liquidator of
Escom ) the Amiga is now really late, if compared with other competitive
machines.

Yet, solutions exists.  It is still possible to prove that the Amiga can do
serious applications, stunning multimedia softwares and especially amazing
games.  In this particular domain, we saw that the Amiga has several
problems.  One of this problem is the speed of the Motorola 68000
processors on Amiga computers which never went over 50 Mhz, ( compared to
the speed of Pentium for example ) and another problem is the lack of
chunky modes in the AGA chipset.

These chunky modes allow on other platforms high end quality games, such as
Doom, Duke Nukem, and Quake for the most popular, and we must recognize
that these games increased drastically Pc sales.  Well, why not doing these
games for the Amiga ?  We all know the problem of Planar pixel, poor AGA
bandwidth etc...  etc...  Several tries were done.  With the first Alien
Breed 3D, it was attempted to create real chunky pixels using the copper of
AGA, but we realised that the resolution of the screen was sacrified.  So,
converting the whole screen from chunky to planar in real time appears to
be the only solution.  If it allows great resolutions ( just look at
Breathless or TKG to be convinced ) , it unfortunatly requires a high speed
CPU to do the conversion properly and quickly.

Well : here are data for the problem

- No Chunky mode to do great games
- Most of the Amiga users having at least a 68030/50 Mhz CPU with AGA
- Some (not lots of but they exist ) game designers willing to support the
Amiga

There's an existing solution, but it costs a lot.  It is to buy Amiga
graphic cards and to develop great games for these cards.  But graphics
cards are not cheap, and for all A1200 users it involves buying a Tower and
Zorro slots, what is also more expensive.

Then, no solution ?

This great problem CAN BE SOLVED !

And we want to insist on this fact : a solution exists and MUST be used to
save the Amiga.
This solution is the GRAFFITI CARD.
This card , by only plugging in the RGB port of ANY Amiga, allows a fast,
real and NECESSARY chunky mode to OCS/ECS or AGA.

There are many evidence of its efficiency :

- some users use graffiti modes in their emulation of APPLE Mac ( such as
Shapeshifter or Emplant Lite ).  Starting with a 68030/50 Mhz CPU, DOOM,
MARATHON, WARCRAFT OR THIS KIND OF GREAT GAMES WORK PERFECTLY WITH AGA !
Thus we can imagine, what could be special optimized games in native Amiga
code for the Graffiti modes !

- some Amiga games and demos using the Graffiti card already exists : you
can find NEMAC IV ( which is furnished with the Graffiti ) and Trapped, two
Doom like games, and it's only a beginning.  They are working perfectly in
full screen, 1 x 1, with a 68030 CPU !

- The graffiti only costs 59 , 100 $ , 140 DM or 550 FF

This survey was made for 2 reasons :

- if you're working in a game development company : supporting the Amiga or
not please consider using this card to create or to port Pc games, as it is
done for Mac.  Consider also that with the Graffiti you can cover a large
market : not only AGA Amiga, but ALL the Amiga, from the A500 to the A4000.

- if you're a Amiga user : if you're not convinced by what we say, please
get information on the Graffiti, speak about it with friends, ask on IRC
channels ( such as #amiga ) etc...  If you're convinced, then you must have
already the card plugged in your computer !!

Please, transfer this survey to ANYone you think who can be interested in
this card.  ( Having a chunky mode should be the most interest of any Amiga
users !  )

Thank you for your cooperation.


Survey made by the Amiga Community of Montpellier (south of France).
Please read and visit the magasine Amiga Forever site

WEB        http://www.mygale.org/08/AFE
e-mail     afe@www.mygale.org

To order the Graffiti card :

contact Blittersoft, 6 Drake Mews, CrownHill Industry, Milton Keynes
                     MK8 0ER UK
Tel : +44 (0) 1908 561297    Fax : +44 (0) 1908 261488
@endnode
@node NEWS8 "Amiga Raffle"
@toc NEWS

So Santa Claus didn't bring you that Shiny NEW Amiga this year under the
Christmas TREE!  Or your spouse brought you a LUMP of Coal in your
stocking.

Well Northwest Amiga Group wants to fulfill your Holiday Wishes...

We have decided to raffle few items for just a few dollars, the feature
item is an Amiga 4060T that LOADED!  If you really don't need one of those
(I don't know anyone who doesn't and if you don't but have one send it my
way!) a second item is a SCSI Zip Drive.

Drop in at: http://www.rdrop.com/users/bern/raffle check it out and best of
all if goes to a VERY good cause our Amiga Users group.

And while your at it check out our home page at
http://www.aracnet.com/~bern/NAG.

GOOD LUCK, Seasons greetings & Happy New Year!

Those of you without WEB access should contact the raffle administrator at:
ini@aracnet.com.

@endnode
@node NEWS9 "Gateway Computer Show-Amiga 97"
@toc NEWS

Hello,

Just a short note to let everyone know that the Gateway Computer Show-Amiga
97 is progressing nicely.

We would like to welcome our three newest exhibitors and attendees:
  Amiga Report Magazine
  Compuquick Media Center
  NewTek, Inc.

Yup, that's right, NewTek.  We're mighty glad to have them and the other
vendors/exhibitors that have signed up.  You folks are what keeps the Amiga
alive.  Without your support, we'd have a mighty hard time.

Take a look at our updated show page at:
http://www.icon-stl.net/~jwwilson/GAC/show.html

If you haven't gotten any of our yellow smiley faced flyers to distribute,
and you'd like to help out a little, send me an email that you want to send
some to your customers, and how many you need.  I'll get them right off.
So far we have distributed over 2400 to clubs and companies nation wide.

If you didn't hear from the last update, we also signed an agreement for 20
radio spots in St.  Louis the week leading up to the show.

If you want to see more done, send in your payments for your exhibitor
space.  We can always use your money to boost attendance and interest, and
that is what you want.  If you are exhibiting, don't forget to list us on
your home page.  List us in your flyers, and newsletters as well.  Tell
everyone that your coming to the show on March 15 & 16.  We have a logo
available which you can use as well.  Just email a message that you would
like one for inclusion in you ads, newsletters, flyers, home page or
whatever.

Thanks & happy New Year.
Bob
-- 
Bob Scharp, Chairman
Gateway Computer Show - AMIGA 97
The Amiga Event, March 15 & 16, 1997
Show page: http://www.icon-stl.net/~jwwilson/GAC/show.html
email to:  bscharp@icon-stl.net
@endnode
@node NEWS10 "Upcoming UK Amiga Show"
@toc NEWS

To All:

I have just had a press release from the organisers of the last World of
Amiga Show asking me for a quote on the news they organising a new show,
set down for May 17th & 18th

It is being held in London at the Novatel (where it ws held last time).

For where I sit, this is just the boost the UK Amiga needs and with some
new projects due to be released around that time, it should be a very
interesting time of the year.  Hopefully, all those in the UK in Amiga misc
would like to express how they feel about this impending show.

I expect most of the Amiga press will have news items on this in their next
issues.

Larry Hickmott
LH Publishing, publisher's of DrawStudio, the premier illustration
package on the Amiga - get the demo, buy the package!

Snail Mail to, 13 Gairloch Ave, Bletchley MK2 3DH, UK
email me at larry@em.powernet.co.uk
@endnode
@node NEWS11 "DynosaursROM"
@toc NEWS

Db-Line Italy presents: DynosaursROM:

10 High quality dinosaurs objects for Imagine, LightWave 3D & 3DStudioMax.

10 objects complete of "Bones", control for the inverse kinematics and
"brushes" of bump, color and specular.For Imagine, LightWave 3D 5.0 and
3DStudioMax Scenes foreprepared with walk or run.  Animation rendered in
"AVI" and "FLC"

Available in versions for computer with a low memory...  objects and
brushes in "LowQuality" have more or less half poligons.  Objects in DXF
(without Brushes) - Objects in VRML without Brushes Doc and readme in
English, French and Italian.

DinosaursROM will be distributed by Db-Line and will be available during
January 97 at 149USD

for more information:
http://www.dbline.it/mhtm/DinosaursRom-e.htm
http://www.dbline.it/shtm/cd-573.htm

Db-Line srl
V.le Rimembranze, 26/C - 21024 Biandronno VA -  ITALY
Phone: +39-332-768000 ISDN  -  Fax: +39-332-768066
Bbs:+39-332-767383  - http://www.dbline.it
@endnode
@node NEWS12 "IAM Pricing"
@toc NEWS

Press Release
8-JAN-97

IAM Announces New Low Prices 

It's holiday sale prices were such a great success that IAM will continue
to offer new low prices indefinitely.  Of particular note, the bundle of
DiskSalv4 and MRBackup (called SYA or Save Your Behind) is now reduced
further to only $49, a savings of more than 50% off the original retail
pricing of these two products purchased separately.  Also note that the
Deathbed videos and T-Shirts are no longer available.

While supplies last, all direct orders for Amiga products from IAM will
include free metallic Boing logos described by the Amiga Web Directory as
"the quintessential Amiga collector items."

NEW RETAIL PRICE LIST

Connect Your Amiga!  A Guide to the Internet, 
   LANs, BBSs, and Online Services (book, 1996)      $19

DiskSalv4                                            $30
MRBackup 2.5                                         $45
SYA (Save Your Behind), bundle of DS4 and MRB        $49
MegaBall4 (with free XL t-shirt)                     $29
Amiga Envoy 2.0b                                     $39
DICE 3.2                                             $100
     for students/owners of other packages           $75

Torn Shapes of Desire: Internet Erotica (book, 1996) $14.95

IAM products can be ordered direct from IAM via the web, mail, fax or
phone. 

We don't accept COD orders, but do accept checks in US dollars, as well as
Visa and MC (no Amex or Discover).  Our shipping and handling charges are
flat-rate: you can order up to one of each of our products for the same
charge.  We ship via USPS or UPS at our option.  In the US: $6 for ground,
or $9 for air.  Elsewhere: $9 for surface and $15 for air. 

Our Amiga products are also available through Amiga dealers world wide. 

Intangible Assets Manufacturing
828 Ormond Avenue
Drexel Hill, PA  19026-2604
USA

http://www.iam.com

info@iam.com    -- bot mails you current info on our products
sales@iam.com   -- to ask questions or to place an order.

voice: +1 610 853 4406  (orders only, 9-5 M-F US Eastern time)
fax:   +1 610 853 3733
@endnode
@node NEWS13 "IAM Discovery"
@toc NEWS

Press Release
8-JAN-97

More Boing Logos Discovered -- And DevCon Posters

Intangible Assets Manufacturing's Boing Ball logo promotion was so
successful that el Presidente Dale L.  Larson went out in search of any
remaining stashes of these valuable collector's items.  His quest is
complete.  IAM is again offering an assortment of these valuable collectors
items free with any paid order direct from IAM, while supplies last. 

Customers will receive, as long as they are available, a metallic square
boing logo, and metallic rectangular logos.  One of the rectangular logo
designs has the boing ball with the word "Amiga," the other has a rainbow
checkmark with the word "Amiga." Both are supplied in two sizes.  They all
have an adhesive backing.  These logos were originally produced for the
A1000, but Commodore changed the logo design just before the first A1000s
were manufactured, leaving these as surplus.  They have been prized by
Amiga insiders throughout Amiga history.  They have been described by the
Amiga Web Directory as "the quintessential Amiga collector's items."

Also while supplies last, IAM customers placing a direct order for
merchandise totaling more than $100 can get one of the few remaining
historic 2nd Annual Amiga Developers Conference posters.  These full-size
art posters from 1987(?) feature a print from "RoboCity".  Being nearly 10
years old, the posters are not in perfect condition, but should still look
great in a frame.  IAM has more than a dozen to give away.

These offers apply only to new orders.  IAM will not sell these items
separately or ship them except with a new order.  Offer subject to
withdrawal at any time, our lawyers are bigger than your lawyers, etc.

To hunt down more logos, Larson asked several dozen former Commodore
engineers and sales people, and he unearthed two new sources for these
logos.  As far as he knows, these are the only remaining available
quantities of these logos on the planet.  IAM estimates that we have a few
months supply, and we will update our web site immediately when the supply
runs out.  Thanks to Randell Jesup (Senior Software Engineer at Commodore,
now at Scala), and Jeff Porter (Director of Advanced Systems at Commodore,
now VP of Engineering for Scala) for giving up their supplies so that IAM
could make them available to you.  (And thanks to Bryce Nesbitt and Dave
Haynie, who made their supplies available earlier.) John Orr (formerly of
CATS) provided the supply of posters.

Intangible Assets Manufacturing
828 Ormond Avenue
Drexel Hill, PA  19026-2604
USA

http://www.iam.com

info@iam.com    -- bot mails you current info on our products
sales@iam.com   -- to ask questions or to place an order.

voice: +1 610 853 4406  (orders only, M-F 9-5 US Eastern time)
fax:   +1 610 853 3733
@endnode
@node NEWS14 "A3000 SCSI Chip Update"
@toc NEWS

Amiga 3000 SCSI Chip Update

Two weeks ago a friend brought me a used Seagate SCSI 1 gig hd (ST-11200N)
for my A3000.  It seemed to work well, until I realized that long IFF files
were mangled in the transfers.

I thought about Bob Krusinski's article, 'SCSI Chip Upgrade', in the Amiga
Report 4.11 and that I might have one of those defective chips.

My friend, Ermanno Di Mario of DMgraphics, who brought me the hard disk had
the same idea and he brought over his Oktagon SCSI board to test.  After a
few days of smooth running it became evident that the problem was in the
old WD SCSI chip.

Ermanno contacted those few Amiga assistance labs that still exist in Italy
without finding a new chip.  Then he contacted an electronic distributer:
RS Components spa via Cadorna 66 Vimodrone (Milano) tel 039.2.274251

and found they had another WD SCSI chip in stock: WD33C93B-PL-00.  We went
to RS and they gave us a 15-page printout of chip specs in which it
indicated that it was backward compatible to the 'A' chip in most cases and
that it had SCSI-II capacity.  I took a chance and bought it.

The hard disk has been running perfectly on my A3000 for over a week now,
so I can say that Western Digital's WD33C93B-PL-00 is a good substitute. 
For those outside of the U.S.  who would have difficulty taking advantage
of Bob Krusinki's generous offer, the possiblity of finding the 'B' chip
shouldn't pose any great difficulty.

http://www.galactica.it/on_the_way/indice-i.html       stom@galactica.it
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stanley Tomshinsky..via Fiori Chiari 20..Milan 20121 Italy..+39.2.866992
@endnode
@node NEWS15 "UltraAccounts 3.4"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

    UltraAccounts 3.4

AUTHOR

    Richard Smedley
    PO Box 59
    Sutton-In-Ashfield
    Nottinghamshire
    NG17 3HP
    England

    rsmedley@cix.compulink.co.uk

DESCRIPTION

    An intuitive & easy-to-use accounts program, specially designed
    to be suitable for non-computer-users as well as experts.

    Features include:

    - Multiple accounts & transaction tags.

    - Compatible with UltraPayAdvice, for taking care of all your
      payslips. (Aminet: biz/misc/ultrapay.lha)

    - Debit & credit standing orders, and timed transfers. The
      transactions entered by these timed events can be edited or
      erased *without* duplicate entries being created.

    - Budgeting facilities.

    - Common transactions & transfers: These let you predefine the
      details of commonly-used transactions and transfers (eg. doing
      the weekly shopping) to save you from having to keep typing in
      exactly the same details each time you enter that transaction.

    - Reminders: Make sure that you don't miss any important events
      like birthdays/anniversaries, or bills that need paying.

    - Pie, bar and line graphs, with optional future projections.

    - Encrypted files, optionally password protected.

    - Multiple data export configurations.

NEW FEATURES

    - Major improvements to the GUI.

    - Now supports up to 50 seperate accounts, 50 tags, etc.

    - Bar & line graphs are again account-based instead of tag-based.

    - You can now select the start & end dates of the transactions to
      be displayed on the screen.

    - When erasing timed events, you are now asked whether or not you
      also want to erase the transactions created by those events.

    - When selecting start & end dates, you're no longer restricted
      to dates with transactions on them!

    - Numerous bug fixes and enhancements.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

    - Requires: AmigaOS 2.0, 2 meg ram, reqtools.library (supplied)

    - Recommended: AmigaOS 3.0, hard drive, additional memory

AVAILABILITY

    Available via FTP from Aminet sites.
    ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/biz/misc/ultraacc.lha
    (149785 bytes)

PRICE

    The unregistered version is fully functional, but will display
    shareware reminders from time to time.

    Standard registration fee is 10 Pounds Sterling (or equivalent)

DISTRIBUTABILITY

    Shareware, unregistered copies are freely distributable.

    UltraAccounts is (C) Richard Smedley 1997
@endnode
@node NEWS16 "AWN Popular Banners"
@toc NEWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - January 18 1997

The Amiga Web Network has just announced the most popular Amiga banners for
the year ending 1996.  The banners were judged by thousands of Amiga users
worldwide over the past 4 months.  Along with the 3 Most Popular banners,
other categories include Best Overall Banner and Unique Design and Theme.

Winners include:

1. MOST POPULAR BANNER

        Shape's Domain (IBrowse Plugins), with a score of 12.20%

        ProWb (Workbench Enhancement), with a score of 12.02%

        WorkbenchNG (Workbench Enhancement), with a score of 10.87%


2. BEST OVERALL BANNER

        Safe Harbor Online (Mailorder and Retail)


3. UNIQUE DESIGN AND THEME

        Netrunners (Web Host)


You can view these winning banners and their home pages by visiting:
http://www.amicrawler.com/search2/amicrawler/banners/awards.html
@endnode
@node NEWS17 "Cyclone Compiler"
@toc NEWS

Cyclone is a new Modula-2 compiler for the Amiga.  Although it can be used
for compiling standard Modula-2 programs, there is far more to Cyclone than
that.  Cyclone has added many features to Modula-2, including many you will
recognise from Modula-3, Oberon, ADA, E and C++.  What is more, it does
this without losing any consistency and Cyclone still feels like a Modula-2
compiler should.  The extensions to the standard Modula-2 language include
objects with polymorphism, exceptions, lists (like in E) and many more.

Cyclone also has a very good compiler.  It manages to achieve a compilation
speed faster than any C compiler, making program development faster and
easier than with a C compiler.  Even very large projects can compile in a
matter of seconds.  What is more, Cyclone does not sacrifice any code
quality in order to achieve these compilation speeds.  All the
optimisations you would expect from a professional compiler are there,
including function inlining, case table generation and peephole
optimisations and if all these optimisations aren't enough it also offers
one of the best inline assembler systems ever seen in an Amiga compiler.  
The resultant executables are also among the smallest produced by any
compiler, due to a smart linking system that doesn't waste any space and
the excellent optimiser, and can be made reentrent very easily.

Support for Cyclone is also impressive.  As well as Cyclone equivalents for
all the standard C includes, special modules are provided for things like
thread handling (courtesy of Robert Ennals), thread streams and Object
orientated features.  If the provided modules are not enough, Cyclone can
output standard blink compatible objects allowing you to link with programs
written in other languages.  A library linker is also provided to allow
easy creation of Amiga Libraries and it gives very high quality results.

However possibly the most incredible thing about Cyclone is that despite
it's incredible features and high quality code output, it is Giftware, so
even the poorest programmer has no excuse to not switch to Cyclone.

You can find Cyclone on Aminet (dev/m2).

Marcel Timmermans
EMail: mtimmerm@worldaccess.nl
 http://www.worldaccess.nl/~mtimmerm
@endnode
@node NEWS18 "Danish Amiga Magazine"
@toc NEWS

New Danish Amiga Magazine

Amiga Advis has been launched in Denmark and is looking for subscribers,
targeting Danish and Norwegian Amiga users.

Founded in mid-1996 by Jan Kronhøj Larsen, the magazine costs 80kr for a
3-month subscription and 30kr for a trial issue.

Amiga Advis is a monthly 36-page black and white publication, covering
topics of interest to Amiga users including word processing and publishing,
gaming, and the Internet.

Amiga Advis
Jernbanegade 47
4450 Jyderup
amigaadvis@vestnet.dk
@endnode
@node NEWS19 "PC-Task 4"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

  PC-Task 4

VERSION

  4.0

AUTHOR

  Chris Hames

PUBLISHER

  Published exclusively by:

    Quasar Distribution
    P.O. Box 101
    Vermont
    Victoria      3133
    Australia

    Phone +61 3 9887 2411
    Fax   +61 3 9887 2511
    BBS   +61 3 9587 5004

    E-Mail pctask@ozemail.com.au
    Internet:  http://www.ozemail.com.au/~pctask

DESCRIPTION

  PC-Task 4 is the fastest software 80486 emulator for the Amiga range of
  computers.  

  The following features are included in this release:

  - 80486 compatibility
  - The fastest software PC emulator for the Amiga
  - Uses Dynamic Compilation for speed.
  - Support for up to 16MB RAM (15MB extended) under MS-DOS
  - Up to 2 floppy drives and 2 hard drives supported
  - Supports multiple hard disk files and hard disk partitions
  - High density floppies and CD-ROM support
  - Select from MDA, CGA, EGA, VGA and SVGA (512K-2MB) video modes
  - Support for up to 256 colours on AGA machines
  - Compatible with graphic boards (eg. Cybergraphics, EGS Spectrum, Picasso)
  - Parallel, Serial and PC speaker emulation
  - Mouse support, including Serial Mouse emulation
  - Run multiple PC-Task processes on the same machine
  - Run MS-DOS applications in a window on a public screen (eg. Workbench)
  - Transfer files between your Amiga and MS-DOS
  - Support for David Salamon's GoldenGate bridge cards
  - Compatible with MS Windows 3.0 - 3.11 *

  * Windows 3.1 requires 1.5 MB contiguous RAM and sufficient hard disk space

  NOTE:  MS-DOS is NOT included.

AVAILABILITY

  PC-Task 4 is available now.
  PC-Task 4 DEU (German version) scheduled for mid January 1997

AUTHORISED DISTRIBUTORS (Current as of January 1st 1997)

  Australia & New Zealand (and anywhere else not listed)

    Quasar Distribution
    P.O. Box 101
    Vermont
    Victoria  3133
    Australia

    Phone +613 9887 2411
    Fax   +613 9887 2511
    BBS   +613 9587 5004

  U.K.

    Wizard Developments
    PO Box 490,
    Dartford, Kent
    England       DA1 2UH

    Phone +44 (0)1322 527800
    Fax   +44 (0)1322 527810

  Germany

    Casablanca Multimedia
    Wiemelhauser Straße 247a
    44799 Bochum 1
    Germany

    Phone +49 (0)234 7 20 35
    Fax   +49 (0)234 7 20 60

  France

    France-Festival-Distribution
    3 Rue Anatole France
    FR 13220 Chateauneufl-Les-Martigues
    France

    Phone +33.4.42.76.18.70
    Fax   +33.4.42.76.18.70

All distribution enquiries should be directed to Quasar Distribution.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

  An Amiga computer with AmigaOS 2.0 or greater, a 68020 or greater and
  a minimum of 2Mb RAM.

PRICE

  Please contact your local distributor for pricing and availability.

UPGRADES
  Registered users of Version 3.0/3.1 of PC-Task are currently being mailed
  update offers via the mail.  The cost of an upgrade from Version 3.0/3.1
  is AUD$60 (including delivery).  Feel free to order PC-Task before you
  receive your update offer by calling/faxing/emailing us at the details
  listing above.   Please remember to supply your registration number.

  Users  of  the  Quasar Distribution package who have not returned their
  product registration card, should contact Quasar Distribution, or their
  local authorised distributor for upgrade pricing and availability.

  Registered users of version 2.0 or before are also being mailed out an
  offer.  The cost to register these version is AUD$84.00 including delivery.


DEMO VERSION

  A demo version of PC-Task 4.0 is availble from our web page at
  http://www.ozemail.com.au/~pctask

  You will also find this on most Amiga BBSs and Amiga Internet archives,
  such as Aminet (will be in misc/emu/PC-TaskDemo40.lha).
@endnode
@node NEWS20 "GTI Charts - Dec 96
@toc NEWS

GTI Charts for December 1996:

Grenville Trading, International (GTI) is one of Europe's largest Amiga
software distributors, with partners all across Europe.  These charts are
compiled by GTI and reflect product sales from GTI to their dealers.

For more information on GTI, visit their homepage at
http://www.grentrade.com

GTI Top 30 CD Chart


This     Last   Title
Month's  Month
Rank
1        NEW    Aminet 16
2        ( 2)   Meeting Pearls 4
3        ( 1)   Aminet 15
4        ( 3)   Aminet Set 3
5        NEW    Amiga Format CD 9 - Jan 97
6        (37)   Amiga Format CD;8 - Xmas 96
7        NEW    Amiga Format CD 7 - Dec 96
8        ( 6)   Tele-Info Vol. 1 (GERMAN)
9        (14)   Maxon Atlas (GERMAN)
10       (17)   Geek Gadgets (Amiga Developer Environment)
11       ( 7)   Amiga Developer CD;v.1.1
12       ( 5)   Aminet 14
13       (15)   Aminet Set 1 (4 CD)
14       (23)   Directory Opus v5.5 (GERMAN)
15       (18)   Mods Anthology (4 CD)
16       NEW    Retro Gold
17       (12)   Aminet Set 2 (4 CD)
18       ( 9)   Amiga Magzin CD 11-12/96
19       (50)   System Booster
20       (20)   Fun Clips 2
21       (30)   C64 Sensations 2
22       (40)   Magic Workbench Enhancer
23       (38)   Personal Paint 7.0
24       (19)   Aminet 13
25       (46)   Personal Suite
26       (35)   Print Studio PPro
27       NEW    X-Ray CD 1
28       (25)   Light Rom 4
29       (24)   Workbench Designer
30       ( -)   RHS DTP Collection


GTI Top 10 CD Games Chart

Rank  Title

1     Wendetta 2175
2     Nemac IV
3     Akira
4     Gulp
5     Gamers Delight 2 
6     Cedric
7     Gloom
8     Oldtimer
9     Fighting Spirit
10    Legends 


GTI Top 15 Disk Games Chart

This   Last    Title
Month  Month

1      ( 3)    Hugo
2      NEW     Sensible World of Soccer 96/97
3      ( 1)    Capital Punishment
4      ( -)    Slamtilt AGA
5      ( 2)    Worms
6      ( 4)    Trapped
7      ( 5)    Killing Grounds AGA
8      ( -)    Valhalla 3
9      NEW     Jet Pilot
10     NEW     Sensible World of Soccer 96/97 Upgrade
11     NEW     Bograts
12     NEW     Mega-Typhoon
13     ( 6)    Fighting Spirit ECS
14     ( 8)    Formula 1;Masters
15     (10)    Glooom Deluxe


GTI Top 10 Productivity Chart

This   Last    Title
Month  Month

1      ( 1)    Turbo Print Prof 5.0 GERMAN
2      ( 5)    Asim CDFS 3.7x
3      ( 2)    I-Browse GERMAN
4      (10)    Personal Write
5      ( -)    Siegfried Antivirus
6      ( 3)    Personal Paint 6.4 GERMAN
7      ( 8)    Picture Manager 4 GERMAN
8      ( -)    Siegfried Copy 2.0 GERMAN
9      ( 4)    Blitz Basic v2.1 ENGLISH
10     ( -)    Directory Opus 5.5 ENGLISH
@endnode
@node FEATURE1 "Back To Personal Computing"
@toc FEATURE

===========================================================================
                        Back To Personal Computing
  Carl Sassenrath                                   future@sassenrath.com
===========================================================================

[Before reading Carl's message, it's worth pointing out that Carl is not
promising a new Amiga computer, a new AmigaOS, or even anything at all
related to what we consider the Amiga today.  But he has a vision to share,
so here you go...taken from Carl's website, http://www.sassenrath.com
-Jason]

Back to Personal Computing
A Message from Carl Sassenrath
20-Jan-1997

For more than 16 years Carl Sassenrath has been a leading innovator in the
field of operating system technology for companies like Hewlett Packard,
Apple, Amiga, and Commodore.  Mr.  Sassenrath is best known as the
architect of the Amiga multitasking OS kernel, a fast, efficient system
which pioneered the concepts of dynamically loadable libraries and devices.

Are You Satisfied?

We live in the age of tremendous personal computing power.  Our desktop
systems run hundreds of times faster than the large, expensive mainframe
computers of years past.  Yet, what has been the end result of this
unbelievable power?  Are you now satisfied with the operation of your
system?  Does it operate and respond as you expect?

Over the past decade the benefits of increased hardware performance have
been offset by an excessive growth in the size and complexity of the system
software.  Or perhaps it is the opposite -- the driving force behind
improving hardware performance was to overcome an ever-growing ineptitude
in software technology.  After all, how useable would Windows95 be on a 8
MHz computer?

The Complexity Problem

The developers of modern software don't understand the consequences of
their bloated systems on their users.  Operating personal computers now
requires us to devote as much time to set-up menus, installation programs,
configuration "wizards" and help databases as we do running productive
applications.  Companies like Microsoft mistakenly think that we either
have plenty of time to burn or perhaps actually enjoy endlessly fooling
around with their system.

This mindless attitude seems to manifest itself in every aspect of modern
software, from the development systems needed to create it, to the
application libraries (APIs) required to interface it, to the operating
systems necessary to run it.  This plague has swept through all aspects of
computer software -- as is evident when you download a 10MB C++ shareware
program, install an 80MB OS update, or receive a 10 CD-ROM developer's kit.

Many developers defend their software by arguing: "What is the harm with a
10MB program?  Don't you know that memory is cheap?" What they are really
saying is: "So what if it takes some time to download.  Who cares that it
consumes disk space and half the RAM.  Perhaps configuring it is a little
too complicated.  Alright, it does have many useless features.  But, after
all, it has less than a dozen obvious bugs, and it will run at least an
hour before crashing."

These developers fail to recognize the core problem: software complexity. 
In recent years it has become universally acceptable for software
technology to be absurdly complex.  Systems have grown both out of control
and out of proportion to their benefits, becoming wasteful, brittle, clumsy
and slow.  Like our federal government, these complex software systems are
now perpetuated by thriving bureaucracies of non-thought, propelled by
their own markets of desperate, inexperienced consumers who see no
alternatives.

Back to the Future

I have reached my limit when it comes to "modern" software practices.  Over
the past few years I've been dreaming not of the future, but the past. 
Perhaps you remember those days...  when a word processor was distributed
on a single floppy and what seemed like a huge OS took two.  Remember being
wonderfully productive on a 7MHz system with a 10MB hard drive?  If
something went wrong, you felt that there was a good chance you could fix
it yourself.

To me this is all about Personal Computing, not Personal Enslaving.  It is
about being the masters of our own computers, not the reverse.  A decade
ago this was true, but we are not the masters any more.  Is it possible to
reclaim that position?  Or, has it been lost to history like the Tucker
Automobile?  Everyone tells me that the world of personal computing is now
totally dominated by a single system -- one which I believe lacks not only
a consistent, efficient, reliable architecture, but an intelligent vision
of the future.
 
Perhaps we are at a pivotal point in personal computing, and this is where
we must take our stand.  It is my sincere hope that there are enough
scattered outposts of rebels who believe as I do and refuse to bow to the
&quot;empire&quot; (or have done so under duress and seek an opportunity to
flee.) With a critical mass we can build our own future and return to what
Personal Computing was meant to be.

My Part

For years after creating the Amiga's multitasking OS architecture I assumed
operating systems would continue to improve.  I figured that with five
million people using the Amiga and valuing its design, I had made my
contribution.  I set aside my new OS visions, naively thinking that others
would carry the torch onward toward the best possible future.  I know now
that I made a mistake, and I have come to regret it.

I am now prepared to develop the system that I have been contemplating for
the last decade.  I'm not talking here about making a clone of any existing
system (including the Amiga).  What I want is a personal computer that I
would like to use: a system that is genuinely easy-to-operate, consistent,
flexible, powerful, small, and fast.

My plan involves two phases.  The first phase is the completion of a new
scripting and control language.  I have worked on the design of this
language part-time for many years.  Within the last few months my efforts
have been full-time, and the language is nearly ready for its prototype
(alpha) release.  Versions will be available for each of the major
platforms over the next month.

Why a language?  Because I believe that the core of computing is not based
on operating system or processor technologies but on language capability. 
Language is both a tool of thought and a means of communication.  Just as
our minds are shaped by human language, so are operating systems shaped by
programming languages.  We implement what we can express.  If it cannot be
expressed, it will not be implemented.

Once the language is complete and in distribution, the second phase is to
develop a small and flexible operating system which is integrated in a
unique way with the language.  Attribute settings, control scripts,
configuration, installation, interprocess communications, and distributed
processing will be facilitated through the language.  Applications can
still be written in C and various other languages, but some aspects of
their system interface will be done through the OS language.  This system
is slated for prototype release later in the year and will be targeted at a
few different hardware platforms.

Your Part

The language and system described above are huge projects and will require
my best efforts for some time to come.  This is my sole mission, and I have
no other jobs or contracts to help pay the way.  Yet, I have absolutely no
intention of selling out to a big corporation or being driven by Wall
Street greed.  To do so would be to risk losing control (again) to those
who lack the insight and understanding to make the best decisions in the
years ahead.

Instead, my approach is to determine if there are enough of you out there
who feel as I do -- who want a choice, who want a system that makes you the
master, and who would be willing to help support it through financial
contributions.

I've been considering this for many months, but I've never done a
user-funded project like this before, and I don't know what to expect. 
Right now I am hopeful, but also a little nervous.  It's a big risk.  If
you like what I am proposing, please take to it to heart and consider what
I have said, because I cannot do it without you.  It's time to do something
different.  It's time to do something for ourselves.  I hope you will join
with me, rebel against software complexity, and return us again to being
the masters of our own Personal Computing.

Yours as always,
   Carl Sassenrath
   future@sassenrath.com

   PO Box 1510
   Ukiah, CA 95482

Copyright © Carl Sassenrath 1997

Permission is granted to copy, distribute, and repost so long as the
copyright is preserved.

Translators: there are numerous English idioms in this document, if you
need help with a clarification, please contact me.
@endnode
@node FEATURE2 "Definitive CDTV Retrospective"
@toc FEATURE

===========================================================================
                     The Definitive CDTV Retrospective
  Peter Olafson                                           peteroo@aol.com
===========================================================================

[Originally written for the short-lived Amiga Game Zone magazine, which
never published it, Peter Olafson of Amiga World game review fame shares
his all-encompassing review of one of the Amiga's least-understood machines
and the games it spawned.  To be continued next month with some
"not-quite-released" game information. -Jason]

A weather balloon.  An asteroid.  Picnic plates and Frisbees photographed
in soft focus.  West Chester swamp gas.

When the history of computer games is written, the CDTV will be probably be
regarded, at best, as an interesting blip on radar and, at worst, as a
first wrong step from the glittering pinnacle of 1990 down the dusty road
to April 1994.  Its games may not be mentioned at all. 

And, really, who would notice if they were not?  It's with some reason that
I've allied CDTV with UFOs here.  You could have blinked and missed it.
Or, seeing it, look back later, and wonder if it was really there at all.

Unveiled in the summer of 1990 and introduced in fall of 1991 by a CBM
flushed with the success of its A500, the CDTV - an A500 enshrined in a
gleaming black console with a CD drive, a meg of chip RAM and version 1.3
of the Amiga's operating system - never captured the imagination of the
public or the Amiga development community.  Post-mortems have variously
attributed its demise to marketing -- failure to link the new machine with
the Amiga -- and confusion over the CDTV's mission.  If not a computer, and
not a game machine, then what was it?  It looked like a CD player, and, in
Europe, was often sold -- or gathered dust, as the case may be -- alongside
them in electronics shops. 

Perhaps it was simply ahead of its time.  Or, perhaps not quite far enough
ahead. 

Whatever the reasons, they translated into poor sales.   Companies
typically don't notice a new platform until it has moved at least 100,000
units.  A month before the CD32's European launch in August 1993, a CBM
official estimated combined sales of the CDTV and CDTV-compatible A570
CD-ROM drive for the A500 at about 75,000, with about 30,000 of those being
CDTVs. 

The unit was not quite two years old by then, and already it had
effectively been an orphan for some months.  Sporadic publisher "support"
for CDTV would continue into 1994 - with one CDTV-specific and two
CDTV-compatible games releases - but that was more a function of the
quasi-compatible CD32's introduction than ongoing developer interest in the
CDTV. 

It was dead -- the CDTV II never went beyond prototype -- and in
retrospect, it had been dead almost from the beginning.  The three defining
factors that stand out when looking back over CDTV's history are
cancellation, mediocrity, and obscurity.

Cancellation: One hundred titles were planned for CDTV's anticipated launch
in the fall of 1990.  A year later, when the machine actually arrived, I'd
be surprised if the volume of releases was even a quarter of that.  Many of
the games that Commodore projected in its two CDTV catalogues, or whose
development was reported by the Amiga press, never turned up at all -
nearly 70 all told, including, embarrassingly, five of those promoted on
the Welcome Disk that shipped with the unit.  (A number would later see
release in CD32-specific versions.)

Mediocrity: Those games that did appear were often undistinguished or, at
least, enjoyed no distinction unique to CD.   The machine suffered, as did
the CD32 for the first nine months, from an abundance of straight ports,
marginal CD upgrades, and cobbled-together CDTV-specific curiosities.  It
has been widely said that the CDTV never had a really good game, and while
not true - in fact, it has a few excellent ones - it's easy to see how that
impression developed.

Obscurity: Giving the platform the benefit of the doubt, about 50 CDTV
games have been released.  That's not an atrocious showing (though the
ratio of released to unreleased stinks), and if you saw them assembled in
one stack, it would look like a lot.

But during CDTV's brief active life, it tended to be treated like a crazy
younger brother in an unenlightened society: locked in the basement instead
of getting into a home.  No one seemed to know what to do with it.
Magazines heralded its arrival, then roundly ignored it.  Retailers tended
to shunt it to one side.  Publishers made plans, and the plans gathered
dust.  These days, apart from few enterprising mail-order firms, CDTV games
are a forgotten commodity.

Nevertheless, the last three years has seen a mild revival of interest in
CDTV as gamers introduced to Amiga CD via the CD32 have returned to its
roots in search of new diversions. 

This may help in the search.  In the following CDTV discography, we'll
chart the machine's course in software in a full, commented catalog of
published games.  Each game is rated for quality, for any changes over a
pre-existing disk-based version ("NA" where no disk version existed), for
rarity and for CD32 compatibility. 

It's a long and, I'm sorry to say, a largely unhappy story.  Also a
hard-to-tell one in places, as Commodore (the largest CDTV publisher) is no
longer around to explain itself.  But it's nevertheless an opportunity to
peer into one of the most fascinating and neglected cubbyholes in the
Amiga's history.   Here's the radar profile of Commodore's most celebrated
UFO.

Air Warrior (On-Line): Regardless of platform, this Kesmai multi- player
flight sim reveals itself as a genuine piece of work when you're hooked up
with up to 39 other pilots in a "party with machine guns" atmosphere
online.

However, the CDTV version offers nothing out the ordinary.  This may have
been a contemporary of the commercial SVGA version for the IBM and
compatibles, but the CD is just a delivery medium.  If you're modem-less,
you can still fly only by yourself.  And as a solo flight sim, the graphics
will seem Gunship-primitive.  (Online, when you have to worry about simply
staying alive, the graphics are almost irrelevant.)

Besides, you can do better.  The Amiga version has been significantly
upgraded since this issue (circa 1992-93).  Check AmiNet for the current
version and spruced-up graphics files.

Bottom line: C.  Changes from floppy version: None.  Rarity: Not much.
CD32 compatibility: Yes, provided you have a keyboard attached.

Battle Chess (Interplay): Given the advances in chess algorithms, this
animated chess game is not exactly going to seem like Bobby Fischer these
days.  (Then again, Bobby Fischer doesn't seem like Bobby Fischer these
days.)

But Battle Chess was always more fun to watch (love the death anims) than
it was to actually play, and artificial intelligence was always a secondary
consideration.  I mean, what other chess queen swings her tush when she
walks?  What other rook looks as though he could join the Fantastic Four
with no questions asked?  What other pawns so deserved the name?  Battle
Chess is slightly slow, and the AI doesn't have much personality, but the
game has it to spare.

Bottom line: B-.  Changes: Digitized speech in the tutorial; better music.
Rarity: Not much.  CD32: Game proper works, but choosing the tutorial locks
up the machine.  Available in a CD32-specific version, however.

Battlestorm (Titus): A mediocre multi-directional shoot-em-up whose basic
simplicity of approach was ill-matched to the platform's potential -- but
that nevertheless helped establish a genre later fleshed out by flashier,
disk-based Amiga games like Amnios and Blastar. 

Bottom line: C-.  Changes: None of note.  Rarity: Fairly easy to find.  
CD32: Works fine. 

The Case of the Cautious Condor (Tiger Media): Time has been unexpectedly
kind to this first CDTV game - essentially a "talkie" graphic-novel version
of EA's 8-bit Murder on the Zinderneuf, set in 1937 aboard a Spruce
Goose-like clipper on a cruise over the Atlantic. 

The plane's owner has summoned a dozen guests aboard -- including your
character -- in an effort to solve the murder of a customs agent (his
illegitimate son).  The host's apparent heart attack cuts the flight short,
and you have a half hour to oblige your old friend, search the ship,
eavesdrop on the guests, and identify the worst of the bad guys and gals
aboard. 

All of which is easier said than done, as you'll need to consistently be in
the right place at the right time, interpret what you learn, and avoid some
unpleasant dead ends.  This conversion - Condor was first released in Japan
as a CD-ROM game in late 1989 - is expansive and lively (if prone to
stereotypes in characterization).  The quality of the speech is quite good,
and the interface is dead simple.  It wasn't especially well-received when
it first appeared in 1991, but it's easily worth the pittance it's likely
to cost you now.

Bottom line: B-. Changes: NA. Rarity: None. CD32: Yes.

Casino Games (Saen Software Development): Don't bet heavily on this Dutch
hodge-podge of video poker, slot machine and roulette from 1992.  It
displays no feel for any of these games of chance and offers nothing
CD-specific and nothing that hasn't already been achieved by disk-based
games in shareware.  (Actually, the best thing about Casino Games is the
"Jukebox" function,which allows you to browse through a range of bright
supporting music.)

Bottom line: D-.  Changes: NA.  Rarity: Rare out of all proportion to its
value.  CD32: Works.

Chaos in Andromeda: Eye of the Eagle (On-Line): Well, it's ...   it's ... 
it's big.  This sci-fi RPG sucks up around 450 megabytes -- a huge slab of
data by CDTV standards.  (The Case of the Cautious Condor uses 320.)

Unfortunately, all those megs don't add up to much.  The disk-based
original was mildly engaging - the graphics were tiny and ornate - but the
photographic and audio additions have a cheesy, homemade quality, slow
things down enormously and seem oddly out-of-touch with the game's
small-is-good concept.

Bottom line: D.  Changes: As above.  Rarity: Hard to find.  CD32: Flat
doesn't work.  A CD32-specific version was considered, but never surfaced.

Classic Board Games (Merit): A trio of board games - backgammon, checkers,
and chess - with digitized instructions and commentary in six beautifully
spoken languages, including Japanese.

Depending on your point of view, it's either unambitious or unpretentious.
The computer opponent isn't going to beat UChess, the backgammon opponent's
pieces move as though his fingers are broken, and, by rights, author Scott
Lamb (the fellow behind Merit's Operation Combat modem games) should
probably have increased the number of games in this translation from disk
to CDTV.   (Only 94 megs are used on the CD.)

Still, the voices are good-natured, the opponents aren't holy terrors, and
I like not being overwhelmed by features.  This is OK, but just OK. 

Bottom line: C.  Changes: Multi-language speech.  Rarity: Little.   CD32:
Works.

Cover Girl Strip Poker (On-Line): How much you enjoy this will depend on
what you're looking for.  If it's good poker (yeah, right), forget it.  The
girls here bluff out every hand, however worthless their cards, and the
game doesn't even follow standard poker rules.  (You can bet yourself way
into the hole, and pull five cards at the draw.)

And while I don't want to sound crass, where there's no real competition,
there's no titillation when someone loses her shirt.   This should just be
called Cover Girls Strip. 

On the other hand, if it's technical exoticism that interests you (yeah,
right), Cover Girl's kind of neat.  A lot of the demure strip teases
practiced here are handled in black-and-white CDXL films (the CDTV's
version of full-motion video), which have the quaint flavor of crank-driven
card-flipping movies.

Bottom line: D. Changes: NA. Rarity: None. CD32: Works.

The Curse of Ra (Rainbow Arts): Right around 1990, the game development
fraternity in general - and Germany's in particular - seems to have enjoyed
a fierce, brief fling with things Egyptian.  The children that sprung from
this union in Germany include Eye of Horus, Ramses, the PD games Pamehta
and Cheop, and Curse - a 200-level tile-matcher with roots in games like
Shanghai. 

The Curse of Ra is actually quite clever, borrowing some ideas from maze
games (transporters) and platformers (icy tiles) and should infuriate you
in no time.  The CDTV version is identical to the disk version - lacking,
understandably, the copy protection and level editor.  It's an odd choice
for conversion to CD, though, as there's nothing particularly special about
it. 

Bottom line: C+ Changes: None of note. Rarity: A little. CD32: No.

Defender of the Crown (CDTV Publishing): Cinemaware was one of the three
principal CDTV developers announced in the summer of 1990 (along with
LucasArts and Virgin).  That exactly two games (both Virgin's) surfaced
from this trio speaks volumes for CDTV's downfall.

However, blame can't really be placed at the doorstep of Cinemaware, which
had problems of its own and closed up shop months before the machine
actually took flight.  Its legacy seems to have fallen partly to Data East
(TV Sports: Baseball and TV Sports: Boxing) and partly to Commodore
(Defender of the Crown, DOTC II, and TV Sports: Football 2).

The CDTV take of Defender is essentially the disk-based version with speech
(which sounds almost Australian in spots) replacing text, and the addition
of an online manual.  The graphics are still radiant, the music still
lovely, and the whole package brings back the jubilant sense of discovery
from the Amiga's early days.

Unfortunately, it's also still Defender of the Crown ...  which is to say
that the play-balance flaws that dogged the original remain in place.  You
can beat this great looking but basic conquest game in an hour or so and
never look back.

Bottom line: D. Changes: As above. Rarity: Little. CD32: Works.

Defender of the Crown II (CDTV Publishing): Or DOTC: The Director's Cut.
Literally.  Assembled under The Director by DOTC artist Jim Sachs, this
revised version features a new objective (raising 20,000 pounds ransom to
save the king); subtly augmented gameplay (notably a real-estate market); a
much more appropriate digitized voice; some new graphics (the huge overlaid
silhouette of a galloping horseman to reflect your army on the move), some
just revised (Sachs was never happy with the original Robin Hood scene) and
some old ones that original coder R.J.   Mical couldn't fit on the
original's two disks back in 1986. 

Consequently, there's a generally more grown-up, brawny feel to the game,
and winning is much harder.  However, weaknesses remain - the arcade
sequences are still either too tough (jousting) or too easy (everything
else) - and I wish Sachs had elected to perform a more thorough overhaul. 

But there's more here than meets the eye.

Bottom line: B. Changes: NA. Rarity: None. CD32: Works.

Emerald Mines (Almathera): They should have called this Utter Boulderdash.
Almathera snarfed up every level for this celebrated arcade/puzzle game it
could lay hands on - literally thousands of them totaling more than 40
megabytes, from Ace Mine 1 to Enemy Mine to Oh No More Yams 9 to Ykikakau
Mine 2 .  It bundled them together with graphics and sound selectors and a
neat interface.  It allowed you to begin play every eight levels (because
you'd never see most of them otherwise).  And it fixed them to work under
AmigaDOS 3.1.  The result is a genuine labor of love: an amazing
compilation of the sort that CDTV's very nature always invited, but that
never materialized (save in the PD and shareware field). 

Drawbacks: Almathera didn't exert quality control over the levels, which
are often way too hard.  And none of the EM editors are included.

Bottom line: B+.  Changes: As above.  Rarity: None.  CD32: Works.   Boot in
PAL and disable any fast memory.

E.S.S.  Mega (Coktel Vision): It stands for European Space Simulator, and
it is probably the single most obscure CDTV title released. 

And it deserves to languish in obscurity.  Believe me, you don't want it. 
The execution is downright trashy.  Except for some 3D modeling, and around
10 CDXL sequences in the space database, the graphics in this space sim are
barely above C64 level.  The game begs for extravagant sound, and the cover
promises 300 megabytes of hi-fi music.  But I couldn't coax anything more
from it than the "boop" of the controller button presses and the bright
click of the countdown. 

There is evidently some depth to the game.  You equip the space shuttle
with cargo, crew, and energy - were you aware that the shuttle has lasers?
- and then get to launch, pilot, and land it (on a "shuttle carrier").  You
send up and maintain satellites, and you build and manage a space station.

The program gives you little help along the way.  E.S.S.  Mega has no
presence - the lack of sound kills it - and you never get the feeling that
you're playing it so much as playing with it.  And without ever having fun.

Bottom line: D-. Changes: NA. Rarity: Very hard to find. CD32: Yes.

Falcon (Spectrum Holobyte/Mirrorsoft): A great translation of the first
serious Amiga flight sim, featuring the redoubtable F- 16.  Set at the
"Commodore Fighter Base," the CDTV edition is the ultimate Falcon package,
incorporating an updated build of the basic game, both the Operation
Counterstrike and Operation Firefight data disks, loads of CDXL sequences
and speech (the latter both in the intro and the game) and a first-rate
interface - plus all the features you came to expect from the disk-based
game. 

Bottom line: A-.  Changes: Many, but mostly cosmetic.  Rarity: Very hard to
find.  CD32: Yes, with the occasional audio glitch.

Fantastic Voyage (Centaur): That's right.  The folks behind the OpalVision
board published this big, polished multi-direction shoot-em-up (based on
the now 30-year-old movie) on disk in 1991 and followed it up the next year
with a CDTV version.

And it's really not a bad game, with pleasant graphics (good use of
refraction and light, and decent modeling of the miniaturized sub) and lots
of little side-pockets along the route to explore in search of those little
necessities of arcade-game life. 

However, the tuneup for CDTV was purely cosmetic.  The music is now a bit
beefier, and some changes have been made in the main menu - adding a
music/effects option and dropping the NTSC/PAL and high-score table
selectors.

Trivia: Centaur did one other Amiga game: King of Karate, the beat-em-up
that it bundled with its 24-bit graphics board (which, by extension, must
make it the most expensive Amiga game ever released.)

Bottom line: B-. Changes: Cosmetic. Rarity: Some. CD32: Works.

Global Chaos (Hex): Kind of a weird mish-mosh of early "multimedia" in
which a platform game - the Rainbow Islands- style Top Banana - shares the
limelight with a bunch of rave demos.  Top Banana (which also has released
on disk) looks alarmingly homemade, but is equipped with an array of
charming sounds and sprites and plays quite nicely.

Bottom line: C.  Changes: The rave tracks and demos are extra.   Rarity: A
little.  CD32: Top Banana's fine, but the demos are glitchy. 

Guy Spy and the Crystals of Armageddon (Readysoft): One of CDTV's best-kept
secrets.  This CDTV Version of this first entry in Readysoft's line of
second-generation Dragon's Lair-style games turned up as an unadvertised
double pack with the IBM version. 

The animation's a good approximation of the Bluth games to which it was the
intended successor, and each fight scene is its own sub-game.   It's
perfectly pleasant (though it exchanges one type of one- dimensionality for
another), and it's certainly nice not to have to swap disks.  (The follow
up, the long-awaited Terror of the Deep, seems to have fallen into the
drink.)

Bottom line: B-.  Changes: None, really.  Rarity: None.  CD32: Works fine.

The Hound of the Baskervilles (On-Line): A Sherlock Holmes mystery based on
the great British sleuth's best known case.   Watson has laid out all the
evidence for Holmes' perusal, and clicking on these documents and photos
prompts verbal descriptions and the occasional cruddy sepia-toned
animation.

It's rough-edged, but kind of enjoyable.  Of course, it would be a lot more
enjoyable to collect this evidence yourself.  This doesn't even hold a
magnifying glass to Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective.

Bottom line: C-. Changes: NA. Rarity: Not much. CD32: Works. 

The Labyrinth of Time (Electronic Arts UK): The masterpiece.  Not so much
an adventure as an experience, Labyrinth (as it was originally called) is
easily the best playing, best looking, and best sounding game released for
CDTV.  The other-worldly HAM graphics, the looping cinematic score
(supremely spooky when played in a dark room), the giant-sized, fully-
rendered inventory, the distinctive, four-way views, the high level of
interactivity (flushing toilets and whatnot) and, the mystery and after a
while, the surprising depth - all combine for a first-person adventure
utterlyt unlike any other that appeared on the Amiga. 

Curiosity: Designed by Terra Nova Development expressly for CDTV, Labyrinth
fell victim to EA's rapidly cooling interest in the Amiga and wound up
surfacing first on the PC and Macintosh.

Bottom line: A.  Changes: NA.  Rarity: It's always in demand, and, hence,
can occasionally be difficult to find.  CD32: Works.
	
Lemmings (Psygnosis): It's just Lemmings - you do know Lemmings, right?  -
and the mindless little green-haired guys don't need enhancements.  (Except
a survival instinct, perhaps.)

But this strategy classic is a much better puzzle game when played with a
mouse instead of the CDTV's "are the batteries dead or were you standing in
the way?" remote.  And releasing Lemmings alone on a CD is a bit like
putting a hundred drops in a glass and calling it a drink.  Where is Oh No!
More Lemmings, and where are the special Christmas levels?

Then again, it wasn't entirely alone.  See Planetside in the "unreleased"
section.

Bottom line: B-.  Changes: Contains the Planetside demo.  Rarity: None.
CD32: Works, and was re-released virtually unchanged for the CD32.

Logical (Rainbow Arts): Another appealing puzzler from Rainbow Arts - and
another rather strange choice for a CDTV conversion.   More original than
Curse of Ra, this puts me in mind of a more orderly version of a children's
game called Avalanche.  Logical defies you to distribute incoming marbles
about a playing board via 99 different configurations of wheels and
troughs.  Instantly accessible, and even the first level is tricky. 

Again, a straight-arrow port from disk to CD that doesn't push the
hardware.

Bottom line: B. Changes: None. Rarity: Hard to find. CD32: No.	

Mind Run (Crealude): Often categorized as "education," it is actually a set
of tricky (and progressively trickier) brain teasers dealing with memory,
stress, sounds, and reflexes.  It's sly stuff, even for adults - not simply
variations on a theme - and execution is so original and artistic that,
however poorly you do, you'll always feel more entertained than oppressed.

Curiosities: Mind Run was coded using AMOS.  It's also one of a very few
multi-language games to distinguish American English from British English.
(To no point, really.)

Bottom line: B-.  Changes: NA.  Rarity: None.  CD32: No.  (You can get into
the program, but can't control it once there.)

Murder Makes Strange Deadfellows (Tiger Media): The second, and last,
Airwave Adventure.  (A third Tiger Media game, Angel of the City, was
dropped midway through production.)

Unfortunately, the label went out on a rather sour note.  This 1991
haunted-house mystery - based around your character's search for a new will
- is a rather poor cousin to Case of the Cautious Condor.  Storytelling
dominates, and these sequences can be interminable. 

Bottom line: D+. Changes: NA. Rarity: Hard to find. CD32: No.

North Polar Expedition (Virgin): Another obscure game, but an interesting
one.  This multi-player RPG basically consists of a multiple-choice trivia
game, with each player assuming a role (leader, navigator, radio man,
etc.).

What's unusual here is that your answers aren't necessarily right or wrong,
but influential to varying degrees in terms of team morale and availability
of supplies.  Example: If you elect to extinguish a tent fire by smothering
the flames with your sleeping bag, you'll improve team morale, but reduce
your stocks. 

Nice, too, that you don't need to be an expert at your role, and you can
play well using informed common sense.  And the "morning of so-and-so"
banner that heralds each day is just enough like "The Shining" to be a bit
creepy. 

Bottom line: B+.  Changes: NA.  Rarity: Next to impossible to find.   CD32:
Works, but some graphics are scrambled.

Power Pinball (KarmaSoft): Sort of an interesting story, this.  I'd never
seen this game listed for sale anywhere and had figured it for dead (like
so many other CDTV games) ...  until it turned up in 1995 in a mail-order
ad.  The mail order company (the late Better Concepts Inc.) indicated it
bought its stock from KarmaSoft (which didn't respond to an inquiry).

A guess: Power Pinball was manufactured back in the CDTV's heyday - were
CDTV allowed to have such a thing as a heyday - but not distributed.
Wonder if there are others like it yet to surface?

Unfortunately, even that little story's better than the game itself.  In a
world of Pinball Illusions and Slamtilt, 1990's Power Pinball is nothing
special.  It looks the way EA's Pinball Construction Set for the Amiga
might have looked (had EA ever gotten around to finishing it), and the play
isn't very involving when the ball's the size of a large pea.

On the other hand, it is what you'd expect in a CD version, incorporating
the updated program and all 13 pinball tables (five from the original game
and eight from the expansion disk).

Bottom line: D. Changes: As above. Rarity: None. CD32: No.    

Prehistorik (Titus): Not quite Chuck Rock, but a fair amount of fun all the
same.  In this light arcader, you send a little caveman running about,
collecting food, jumping over fires and chasms, and bashing angry dinos
(and bears, who evidently were contemporaries of dinosaurs) on the head
with an array of clubs.   The action will seem a bit dated and primitive
(heh) now, but it's playable.  Nice rotating Titus logo, too.

Bottom line: C+.  Changes: More music, sound, and polish.  Rarity: Some.
CD32: Works like a charm.

Prey: An Alien Encounter (Almathera): One of the last games aimed
specifically at the CDTV.  And compared to most other CDTV releases, this
3D action-adventure (from the developers of Chaos in Andromeda) doesn't
seem like a bad game ...  at first.  You roam a large, alien- infested
ship, freeing crew members, making toast of your uninvited guests and
collecting the necessities of life.  The graphics are OK, and movement
consists of the square-to-square scrolling used in Space Hulk, Psygnosis'
unreleased G2 and Angst. 

But the ship's not that large, and however crowded it may be with aliens
and crew, you always feel alone.  There's no character interaction, and
this isn't so much an open game system as a scripted story.  Follow the
script and get neat radio and video transmissions and an early end to the
game.  Depart from it and get an early end to your character.

Bottom line: D+.  Changes: NA.  Rarity: None.  CD32: Nope.  However,
there's a CD32-specific version.

Psycho Killer (On-Line): Psycho Killer, qu'est que c'est?  C'est crapola. 
This most successful of On-Line's CDTV games opens with your discovery of
an abandoned car.  (In fact, if you don't jam on the brakes pronto, you're
going to become one with it.) Its operator has just been abducted by - wait
for it - the psycho killer.  And you, being an honorable so-and-so, make
off across the English countryside (represented by blurry color
photographs) after them.  You interact with the program by clicking on
directional arrows and onscreen "hot spots." Do the right thing, and live
to see another blurry photograph.

And after about 10 minutes, you turn it off forever.  Psycho Killer is a
decidedly amateurish effort, with its corny acting, ghastly tutorial,
pseudo-poetic death scene, one-track story, and wobbly, silent movie-like
version of video.  The best parts about it, quite seriously, are the
dramatic appearance of the On-Line logo at the start and the sax that plays
behind the end credits.   The stuff in between is negligible.

Bottom line: F.  Changes: NA.  Rarity: Easy to find.  CD32: Works, but with
a lot of sound problems.  There's a CD32 version as well. 

Raffles (The Edge Interactive): A straight port of the disk version, this
is an isometric arcade-adventure in the style of Treasure Trap (though not
nearly so nice graphically). 

You're the burglar, Raffles, who's been trapped his mark's home and forced
to collect diamonds hidden by her late husband.  Naturally, they're in
inconvenient spots.  To reach them, Raffles can drag, jump on, and walk
atop furniture in the manner of a misbehaving child.  And they're
protected: The house is populated, rather absurdly, by oversized mice and
birds, and contact with them weakens you. 

Nothing to phone England about, but you may have some fun with it.

Bottom Line: C-.  Changes: None.  Rarity: A little.  CD32: Works, but
requires a keyboard to play fully.  (Keypad keys correspond to the number
keys on the CDTV remote.)

Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective (Icom Simulations; now Viacom New
Media): If there is a CDTV game that still warrants translation to the
CD32, it's this superb triple-threat mystery.

And not because it makes extensive use of tidy CDXL film sequences or
digitized speech - though those elements are delightful - but because it
entertains while making you think, and doesn't do the thinking for you. 

Sherlock Holmes is really just an engine for telling the story and sending
you cruising about Holmes' London, setting off little acted-out stage plays
as you go.  And it does so with consummate style, intelligence, and
characterization that are present in no other CDTV product (save
Labyrinth).  The video and sound quality are good, the acting isn't bad,
the interface is idiot-prooof and the whole thing just oozes class. 

But the crux of the game is your own creative thinking -- using what you've
learned to bring a suspect to justice -- and that makes it memorable. 

Unhappily, it's only a memory.  Icom went on to make two additional SH
games and Dracula Unleashed in this same general style, but never returned
to the Amiga. 

Bottom line: A.  Changes: NA.  Rarity: Hard to find.  CD32: No.  Gets as
far as the beginning of the first video segment, then crashes.
	
Sim City (Infogrames): Another of the CDTV's few real hits.  A very nice
conversion of the Maxis' city-building classic that also includes both sets
of add-on graphics (future and ancient cities), a "zoom" function, and a
large, easily accessed info window.   The "zoom" is especially nice, as it
gives you an opportunity to peek at all the little animations the game
tosses up -- bringing out the ant farm in the sim.

Devotees of the original may find the controls somewhat difficult to
master, but it's worth the effort.

Bottom line: A-.  Changes: Many.  Rarity: Some.  CD32: Works OK on an NTSC
CD32 booted in PAL, but you'll need to disable fast RAM.  Won't save
cities. 

Snoopy: The Case of the Missing Blanket (The Edge Interactive): An amiable
Peanuts game more or less keeping with the spirit of the classic strip that
seemed to shrivel in the 1970s.  All the main characters are here, and one
or another is bound to stroll through any given scene, uttering some
Peanutsy non sequitur in a voice straight out of the TV specials.  The
backgrounds are just right - nothing too complicated - and so's the
interface.

The key players are Linus, who has lost his beloved security blanket, and
Snoopy, who, in yet another flight of doggy fantasy, is playing detective.
You send him through this extensive neighborhood, identifying, picking up,
putting down, and using objects (each of which has a purpose) and doing a
bit of platform hopping.

Don't think it's just for kids.  The puzzles are basic, but you'll need to
be thorough to solve them, and the blanket can be found in a couple of
different places.

T'aint perfect, though.  Slowdowns occur if there are three animations
onscreen at the same time, and some disparities of size crop up.  (Sally is
as big as all the other kids, but Snoopy's perfect.)

Bottom line: C+.  Changes: Better music and more speech.  Rarity: A bit
hard to find on CDTV, but did surface on disk.  CD32: Works, but you'll
need a keyboard in order for Snoopy to walk into the screen.  Seems to
crash if left unattended for more than five minutes.

Space Wars (Odyssey): Odyssey's second CDTV release and not too shabby.
Imagine the combat bits from Star Control as a stand-alone game, and you
pretty much have Space Wars.  You pick ships, a scenario (empty space,
asteroids, black hole, or sun), and then have at it.  A particularly nice
touch is that the ships look progressively more beaten-down as they take
damage.  It's accompanied by a long-ish "movie," mingling hand- built
models and animation, that divides its time between looking really cheesy
and really polished.

Bottom Line: B-. Changes: As above. Rarity: A little. CD32: Yes.

Spirit of Excalibur (Virgin): Perhaps you've seen Simon the Sorcerer, Dark
Seed, or Beneath a Steel Sky on the CD32.  Well, those "talkie" graphic
adventures have an older brother on the CDTV.  This translation, developed
as "Excalibur," was the Amiga's first venture into this genre, and, if you
are patient with its cumbersome nature, you'll find it rather good.

Set in England after the death of Arthur, Spirit focuses on the efforts of
Arthur's rightful successor, Constantine, to win his kingdom.  The upside:
There's an enormous amount to do.  Spirit has lots of little side quests to
complete as in the fashion of The Lord of the Rings, and it's one of the
few games to successfully balance a war game with adventure.  It looks
great.   (Brad Schenk, co-creator of The Labyrinth of Time, was responsible
for the CD-ROM version's artwork.) The music is an almost physical
presence.  And the speech takes this feeling to an even higher level.  This
is that rarest of commodities: the true CDTV game.

The downside: Spirit of Excalibur is burdened by a sometimes awkward
interface.  Hey, anything involving the stupid remote can be awkward, and
there's a lot of trudging around for no good reason.  The combat routine
seems be an offshoot from Defender of the Crown instead of Lords of the
Rising Sun.

Curiosities: This Synergistic Software game uses a variation of the engine
originally developed for War in Middle Earth.  They stuck with it for the
disk-based sequel, Vengeance of Excalibur, and the excellent Conan the
Cimmerian.

Bottom line: B+.  Changes: Digitized voices for the characters.   Rarity:
Moderate.  CD32: No way, no how.  (Believe me, I tried.)

Super Games Pak (Odyssey): A trio of updated arcade classics: Byteman
(PacMan), Jailbreak (Breakout), and Deathbots (Bezerk).  The sounds and
music (beefed up from the disk edition) are quite pleasant, but there's
still not much going on here in terms of gameplay. 

The basic Byteman and Jailbreak don't display any really new ideas, though
Byteman makes the attempt, with walls that open and close.  Deathbots is
the most elaborate, but also the most conspicuously flawed, as it uses a
different perspective (side view) for your character and the robots than it
does for the backdrop (angled-down).  Weird, eh?

Bottom line: D.  Changes: More sounds and graphics.  Rarity: A little.
CD32: Works OK.

Team Yankee (Empire): On disk this is a pretty neat tank game with great
vehicle graphics and decent enemy artificial intelligence, but oddly short
on sound.  On CD, this is a pretty neat disk-based tank game with the same
good graphics and AI ...   and even more oddly short on sound.

Bottom line: C+. Changes: None. Rarity: Some. CD32: Works fine.

Tiebreak (Starbyte): A tennis game, and a good one.  It starts out neat,
with a long CDXL sequence shot courtside, and it stays neat right on
through the gussied-up courts and into the photo album and record book.
The only fault (heh) I can find is that the perspective is always centered
on the server, which places an unfair burden on the other player.  Also, be
warned: The only manuals I've seen are in German.

Bottom line: B.  Changes: Tons.  Rarity: Some.  CD32: Runs ...  sorta.
You'll need to knock down any fast RAM first, and you can use a standard
controller to get all the way through the setup menus.  The bad news: The
game proper recognizes only trackball or the CDTV remote. 

The Town with No Name (On-Line): An interesting oddity, this menu-driven
adventure is set in a polygonal western town with the most poorly drawn
inhabitants this side of the Pecos.  The game does have a range of places
to explore and can occasionally be "so bad it's good" funny (the John Wayne
and Clint Eastwood parodies are way off the mark), but simply ends up lame.
You can't move around freely, and the sub-games are insipid.  Why does this
game exist? 

Bottom line: D-.  Changes: NA.  Rarity: None.  CD32: Works OK.  Also
resurrected from Boot Hill for CD32. 

Trivial Pursuit (Domark): A genuine production number, this masterful board
game conversion is the only game the publisher completed for CDTV. 

The presentation is just wonderful: a great tumbling dice sequence; a
jolly, but bad-tempered bird named Russell as quizmaster (a vaguely John
Cleese-like character who can be told to stuff it when you start finding
him finicky and repetitive); delightful guest questioners (who have a
certain Rocky & Bullwinkle quality about them); and animation, speech,
music, sound effects, and crisp photos all over the place.  When you pick
your circular piece at the outset, a gloved hand descends and places a
"chosen" sign on it.  When you take too long to roll the dice, Russell
starts pecking at his seed (among other things).

Plus the game proper, of course.  The board and pieces are just right.  The
interface is very to-the-point.  And it has 2,000 questions -- 1,000 on
each of the CDs.  (This is also the only 2-D CDTV game - for reasons that
are not quite clear, as the data takes up a total of 447 megs.)

Two potential problems: The question files aren't encrypted, so someone
determined to "rehearse" could do so - much as Trivial Pursuit owners have
been known to do with the board game.   And certain categories, especially
entertainment and sports, have an understandable European slant. 

But pouncing on Trivial Pursuit for that would be like blaming an
Englishman for being English.  This is just about perfect. 

Bottom line: A-.  Changes: It's a total rewrite.  Rarity: Some.  CD32:
Works OK on an NTSC CD32 booted in PAL.  A one-disk CD32 version also
exists.

Turrican 2 (Rainbow Arts): Turrican was the seminal Amiga platform game: a
sort of high-tech Super Mario World, with loads of secret areas and
interesting gameplay challenges.   Turrican 2 is pretty much like its older
sibling, with a wider, deeper palette and equally fiendish level layouts
...  and perhaps better music in the CDTV version. 

Bottom line: B. Changes: Maestro? Rarity: High. CD32: No.  

Ultimate Basketball (Context Systems): A graphically dolled-up, but
pared-down, version of Sport Time's superb Omni-Play Basketball. 

To my thinking, that's still the great Amiga roundball game.  It captures
perfectly the sport's running-water flow, and the disk version is
definitely worth seeking out.

The water stills flows in Ultimate Basketball.  Unfortunately, it's less of
a game, and the additions are only around the periphery.   Context didn't
use this opportunity to include the add-on modules that Omni-Play
Basketball quietly accumulated over the years (though it does use the
sideview module that surfaced in the second edition of Magic Johnson MVP
Basketball), and in fact, ditched the whole league structure as well,
leaving just the playoffs.  (Probably a saved-game issue.)

Bottom line: C.  Changes: Some additional graphics, which give the score
screens a more television-like look.  Rarity: Some.  CD32: Works OK.

The Will-Bridge Practice Collection (Will-Bridge): Another obscure one.  
This series of playable bridge games was to consist of as many as five
volumes: Introduction to Bidding, Intermediate, Advanced, Competition, and
Advanced Competition. 

At least the first three surfaced, and I've played two of those.  If you're
bridge fiend and can't find a second, third or fourth, this may do.  The
games are slow, rather broad graphically and spotted with odd interludes. 
But they're also cleanly designed, detailed, and instructive. 

Bottom line: C.  Changes: NA.  Rarity: Considerable.  CD32: They run, but
won't play beyond a certain point.

Wrath of the Demon (Readysoft): Remember the days when publishers put game
specs in the back of the manual ("28 megabytes of graphics on one disk,
more animation than "The Lion King," 1,500 man years in the making") as if
they really meant something?

Well, Wrath of the Demon will return you to that era, and, in this case, it
really does mean something.  Released on disk in the age of great
sideways-scrolling action games kicked off by Shadow of the Beast, this
major league arcade adventure features 15 levels of parallax scrolling, 3
megabytes of 100-plus color graphics and 600 screens.  IBM coders still
have trouble doing this sort of game well.

I won't trouble you with the story.  Suffice it to say that monsters are
attacking - monsters never just stay home and watch TV - and off you go to
save the kingdom, with a man-ish princess in a very tight gown as an
obvious (though unstated) enticement. 

This straight conversion surpasses Beast on many levels.  It's held back
only by a graphical cartooniness.  (I mean, the hero waves to you after he
gets thrown from his horse.)

Curiosity: The disk-based followup promised (for years) from the same
Quebec development team seems to have fallen into the fire.

Bottom line: B-.  Changes: None of note.  Rarity: Little.  CD32: Caveat
emptor.  Runs, but, to my thinking.  the controls aren't reliable enough
for the game to be playable.  You won't even make it through the opening
horseback sequence (which is hard enough as it is).   Experimenting with
the settings on a Competition Pro joypad, I was able to get the game
working, but with keypad controls reversed and some disabled.

Xenon II: Megablast (Mirrorsoft): The game that established the Bitmap
Brothers.  This rich and difficult vertically scrolling shoot 'em-up
coupled an impression of great into-the-screen depth and a perfect
difficulty curve with the same graphical sheen that marks the developer's
subsequent games up to and including The Chaos Engine.  And it still holds
up.

Much was made at the time of the bopping, professionally composed score.
Feh.  (How come no one just puts realistic sounds in arcade adventures?) If
this sort of thing matters to you, you'll enjoy the improvements here.
Even if they don't, you'll still enjoy the game.  But the CDTV version is
otherwise pretty much the equal of the disk-based release.

Bottom line: B.  Changes: Vibed-up music.  Rarity: Very hard to find.
CD32: Yup.
@endnode
@node FEATURE3 "Fourth Level Development Complaints"
@toc FEATURE

===========================================================================
                    Fourth Level Development Complaints
===========================================================================

[Originally posted to comp.sys.amiga.misc, after making the rounds on some
mailing lists.  Consumer and dealer complaints about Fourth Level
Developments of the UK have been running rampant for months, and this is a
transcript of a discussion between a user and a FLD rep. -Jason]

From: David Gill <spot@davgill.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Fourth Level Developments - Treforgate

What follows is a transcript of messages sent between myself and Trefor S.
who represents Fourth Level Developments, the publishers and F L
Distribution Ltd., the distributors of AmiFileSafe (AFS).  It starts with
my request for information.

Should you have been taken in by their "Valentine's offer", do please
contact me as I am trying to persuade them that it is their duty to provide
apologies and full refunds to those involved.  Others will be free to make
up their own minds whether they wish to deal with this firm.

FLD now concentrate on sales to the clone market.  If anyone can suggest
suitable newsgroups who would benefit from this information, then please
let me know.

For the sake of brevity and clarity, all quoted material in correspondence
has been removed and replaced with <>.  The only other amendment is that I
have removed some personal information contained in one of my mails.  All
Trefor's responses are verbatim.

............................................................................

*AFS Pro registered user -----*

Dear sir,

I shall be most grateful if you would kindly answer a number of questions I
have concerning the continued support and development of AmiFileSafe PRO. 
I paid for the upgrade to version 3 and a fully working version of Disksalv
in you Valentines offer.  The product was promised by May 1996.

1> What is the expected date for the release of version 3?

2> Will Disksalv ever be available and if not will there be a replacement
product?

3> Will ReorgAFS ever be developed and if not will there be a replacement
product?

4> Why has the mailing list been discontinued?

5> Why have I been denied access to the telnet server?

6> Will interim versions be placed on the telnet server as they become
available?

Please provide answers to the above as it is very frustrating not having
any direct communication from you.  Rumours abound in newsgroups and with
your permission, I would be happy to share your response.

Yours faithfully,

David

..........................................................

<>
We are unsure on this one -- the Amiga market has died recently and there
just isn't much interest in it anymore.
<>
DiskSalv is available, it is just we no-longer stock it due to a problem
with IAM.
<>
I suggest you ask Mark Harden about that one.
<>
We did have problems with the list server on the Amiga - it now has been
moved and should be running ok.
<>
Maybe you are not registered on it.. If you could give me your name,
address, email address and serial number and I will check it out for you.
<>
Yes.
<>
Sure, I can understand that one.

Regards,

Trefor S.

..................................................................

Hi Trefor, on 07-Jan-97 09:29:06, you replied to my mail.

Forgive me if I find some of your responses confusing.  Please be kind
enough to explain in more detail.
<>

Are you saying that there is not much interest for AFS or the whole Amiga
software/hardware market.  If as I presume, you refer to AFS, this could
well be down to the perceived lack of development.  The adverse publicity
in many Amiga newsgroups and rumours which you have done nothing to squash
cannot help sales.

What about the interest shown in version 3 by the people, like me, who
responded to your Valentines offer?  We were promised version 3 by May '96.
If at anytime you decided to delay development due to a perceived lack of
interest in the Amiga market, don't you think you should have refunded the
monies taken?

Lack of communication makes people think the worst.  I do not believe that
you intended to defraud at the outset, but the statement you have made
above, implies that you intend to do so now or, indeed have been for some
while.

By now, it is probably too late to provide an explanation of your actions
and offer a refund to those not prepared for a further indefinite wait.  A
full refund plus additional sums for compensation would, no doubt, be
required to establish your honest intentions.

<>

My first paragraph refers to a "fully working" version of Disksalv.  I have
the program, but only one of the functions is operative with AFS.  The
version I have supplied by you is unsupported by the author.  There have
been updates made available on Aminet.  The patches specifically refuse to
update Disksalv AFS.

I have communicated with Dave Haynie and for you to say "it is a problem
with IAM" does not help me.  Once again, I have paid you for a fully
working version of this product.  The problems are between you and it's
author.  This is something that has been known for a long time and as with
AFS3 you have not had the decency to communicate in any way, let alone
offer a refund to those that have paid you.

The second part of my question was "Will there be a replacement product?"
which you have chosen to ignore.
<>

This is a strange answer as I believe your original statement was that
Holger Kruse was to develop this as Reorg is his program.  Just before the
mailing list went down, there was some furore about your breach of a
confidence in letting it be known that Mark Harden was working on a
defragger for AFS.  Does this mean that we shall never see such a product
as there "is a problem with" Holger Kruse and Mark Harden in addition to
Dave Haynie?

<>
Thanks. Will you be taking an active part?
<>

I have been registered twice.  It has been under separate numbers, as on
one of the earlier upgrades, you sent me "user" instead of "pro" and
proceeded to regiter that.  The latest number used was -----.  I originally
purchased AFS pro as version 2.01 and have your receipt numbered --.  I
also hold receipt number ------ for the Valentines offer.  To ask for my
name and address now would seem a little pointless.  But for your
indulgence..

Name
Address
Email
AFS reg'd no.
<>
Thanks. What is the latest Beta version?
<>
Thank you, but it's a shame that you have not provided any good news.
<>
I look forward to receiving a full response.

David

...................................................................

Thanks for your email.

Ive had ensure that your serial number is now on the updates server.

I am sorry we can not supply you with AFS V3 at the present time.  If you
return to us all the items you received in valentines offer along with your
reciept we will refund your money.

Dave Haynie has produced a new version of DiskSalv however he will not make
it available to us, so it is impossible for us to make it available to our
customers.

Holger Kruse has not written re-org AFS, so there isn't much we can do
about that one.

AFS3 development had already started when we made the valentines offer.

I hope that answers your questions.

Regards,

Trefor S.

......................................................................

Hi Trefor, on 08-Jan-97 10:56:44, you wrote,
<>
Thank you, but will there be any udates?
<>
You want your piece of paper back!  If you cannot supply what you promised,
you had better produce a suitable alternative or provide a full refund to
include interest to date to all those you have duped.
<>
There is no evidence of that on the updates server.
<>
The ones you have chosen to answer are incomplete.  Please reread my mail
and respond accordingly.
<>
David

.........................................................................

<>
The current version is 16.16, I am unsure as to when there will be any
more updates.
<>
I already stated that you could have a refund if you return the goods and
proof of purchase.. What more do you want?
<>
That is because there are not any versions which the end user could test
at that point.
<>
I will look back at your previous email.

Regards,

Trefor S.

..........................................................................


On 7 Jan 1997, David Gill wrote:
<>
No, I do refer to the whole market in this case.
<>
As in my previous email.
<>
We did not, nor ever will intend to defraud customers.
<>
As in my previous email I can offer you a refund on return of the goods
and proof of purchase.
<>
At this present time we can not offer a replacement product.
<>
We will read it, but all questions to FLD should be emailed directly to
FLD.
<>
1616

REgards,

Trefor S.

...........................................................................

Hi Trefor, on 08-Jan-97 16:42:08, you wrote,
<>
You already have my proof of purchase.  If not, then you would not have
been able to send me the goods for which I have prepaid.  As you have not
delivered there are no goods to return!

What more do I want?  - All those who have prepaid to be offered a full
refund to include interest to date on the goods for which they have prepaid
and you are either unable or unwilling to supply.  The other major omission
in your correspondence is an apology for the length of time you have chosen
to keep your customers/creditors in the dark, bearing in mind you promised
delivery by May 1996.

The offer of a refund to *all* should have been made long ago.

David

...........................................................................

<>
  You goods that you would have to return are those send to you under the
  valentines offer -- I take it you purchased this offer?

<>
  I can only speak about individual cases. We are not willing to pay
  interest however.
<>
  I apolagise that you have not received information eariler.

  Regards,

  Trefor S.

...........................................................................

Hi Trefor, on 09-Jan-97 16:08:15, you wrote,
<>
If you have no record of my purchase of the offer, then you are admitting
fraud.  You tell me what you want returned.  If you refer to the Disksalv
floppy, then I suggest you look at your letter to me dated 30/1/96.

BTW this letter states that ReOrg is in the process of being written -
expected release 2 months.  What did you do to upset Holger?

<>
I am asking you to speak *to* individual cases, not about them.  Will you
do so?  You may not be willing to pay interest.  A court of law may decide
otherwise.  It is your mess and up to you how you want to resolve it.

<>
Will you be writing individually to all concerned?

<>
cc'd to AFS List in accordance with your wishes.

David
....................................

Any reply to this will be forwarded.
Thank you for reading this far.

David Gill, Maidstone, England
spot@davgill.demon.co.uk
@endnode
@node REVIEW1 "Review: AmiFast A3000 SIMM Expansion Board"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
              Review: AmiFast A3000 SIMM RAM Expansion Board
                            By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}
===========================================================================

ZIP RAM.  Aaargh.

It's hard to mention the former without immediately proceeding to the
latter.  ZIPs are oddly shaped, fragile, and difficult to find.  And those
are the GOOD things about them.

So it's a foregone conclusion that if you've got an Amiga 3000 and less
than the full 16 megs of Fast RAM, you're somewhat unmotivated to rush out
and get some more memory.  But if ProvTech has anything to do with it,
everybody's A3000s will be running with 16 megs of Fast RAM, and in nice,
convenient SIMM packages, no less.

The AmiFast from ProvTech is a long, narrow PCB that covers almost the
entire area of ZIP sockets, mating with a number of pins.  The board runs
the long way from the front of your A3000 to the back, and has four SIMM
slots at the back of the machine, awaiting 4 or 8 meg modules.  You can
fill these up to 16 megs of Fast RAM, the most the onboard A3000 RAM
controller will handle.

The idea is simple-For about US$90, you buy the ability to replace your
existing ZIPs with more economical and MUCH more available 72-pin SIMMs, so
you can take your A3000 with less than 18 megs of memory up to the limit. 
If you have the full 16 megs of ZIPs now, the AmiFast will be of no
use--but if your A3000 is like mine, with just 8 megs of ZIPs, the cost of
an AmiFast and 2 8-meg SIMMs, if you're a good shopper, isn't such a bad
deal.  If you're running with less than 10 megs, you should give the board
some serious consideration.


Installation
------------

ZIP chips are fairly fragile, and their vertical design makes them an
incredible pig to remove from their homes.

In order to install the AmiFast, you're going to need to gut your A3000,
removing the disk drive array.  This is no simple task in and of itself,
but can be accomplished by mere mortals.

Once that's done, you'll see the bank of ZIPs in the front, right-hand
quadrant of the A3000.  Yank these out.  This is easier said than done.

As I said, I had 8 megs of ZIPs, which meant the ZIPs were next to each
other in pairs.  Removing the first ZIP was an incredible chore--I wound up
prying them up gently with a very small flathead screwdriver, and then
working them loose with my fingers.  The second was a snap--just pull
straight up with a pair of pliers.  In the course of doing this, I bent a
LOT of little ZIP pins, and one chip lost a pin.  Scratch one ZIP.

Did I mention these ZIP chips are fragile?

Once that's done, you'll need to install the AmiFAST.  ProvTech recommends
that you not install any SIMMs into the board until you are done with
installation.  I took their advice.

Mating the AmiFAST board isn't the easiest thing in the world to do--there
are pins running down the length to lock it into the bank of ZIP sockets. 
There's a small hole provided, allegedly for guiding the board into place,
but I found it much more productive aligning the board by sight on the
corners.  The manual does a good job of explaning which pins need to be
where in which sockets, and the board itself is well labeled, pointing to
key pins and telling you where they should be.

Once the board is pushed in place with some satisfying crunches, you can
install your SIMMs.  You can put in 4 or 8 meg SIMMs, of basically any type
(but ProvTech says they should be 8 or 16 chip SIMMs, 1Mx16 DRAMs will not
work), following the rule that 8 meg SIMMs preclude a SIMM in the previous
slot.  (i.e., out of slots 0, 1, 2, and 3, 2 8-meg SIMMs would be placed in
slots 1 and 3, leaving the other two blank, or 1 8-meg SIMM would be placed
in slot 1 and two 4 meg SIMMs in slots 2 and 3.)

I personally used the 8/4/4 configuration, as that was the memory I had on
hand.  The 8-meg SIMM was a double-sided model and fit just fine.

ProvTech maintains that the AmiFast is compatible, in functionality and in
real estate, with an installed A3640 board, but we did not have an
appropriate 3640 to test in the A3000.


Using Your New RAM
------------------

Well, it's really simple.  Either you have the memory, or you don't.  (The
first time I didn't, because I accidentally put the SIMMs in the wrong
configuration.) There's no software to configure, no jumpers to set on the
AmiFast--furthermore, there isn't even a single IC on the AmiFast board.


What You Get
------------

Basically, you get exactly the RAM you put into the A3000, and neither you
nor the A3000 are tipped off that they're SIMMs instead of ZIPs.  Both AIBB
and real-world testing tell me that the computer functions precisely the
same--the AIBB benchmarks were all within .01 of the pre-SIMM A3000,
suggesting that the machine is exactly the same for the journey.


Is It Worth It?
---------------

At current pricing, a pair of 8 meg SIMMs is US$80 or less, if you're a
good shopper.  Or, if you're like me, you might have some 80ns 4 meg SIMMs
that aren't particularly useful in some newer accelerator boards, but
they're perfect for the AmiFAST.  Tack on the $90 AmiFAST board and you're
looking at about $170, tops, to get a 16 meg A3000.  Current ZIP pricing is
a difficult thing to analyze--after all, the irony of the AmiFAST is that
as people buy it, they'll be selling their ZIP chips, which will create a
new supply of ZIPs.

Since it's generally easier to come up with reasons NOT to buy something
than TO buy something, let's get those out of the way.

An AmiFAST isn't for you if you--

Already have 16 megs of ZIPs installed

Already have a high-class 040 or 060 accelerator installed--since it will
support its own, faster-access SIMMs already.


However, an AmiFAST is probably a good idea if you--

Are planning to do some serious work on your A3000 and/or add a graphics
card, and you're running with 10 or less megs of memory

Are planning to install an A3640 040/25 card and have 10 or less megs of
memory (while you're inside the A3000, may as well kill two birds with one
stone)

Are looking to add some memory, but loathe the thought of using ZIPs, or
having to find them, or buy them used.


Also, it's worth noting that while the AmiFAST is available for about
US$90, it can be ordered directly from ProvTech as either an unassembled
kit or simply as a PCB, for project hacker types.  This cuts the cost by
roughly 50 and 75%, respectively.  ProvTech includes full assembly
instructions.

--

ProvTech
RR 4 Box 72
Washington, IN  47501
812-254-1781 evenings
812-257-0902 BBS
75507.3170@compuserve.com
@endnode
@node REVIEW2 "Emulation Rambler"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                             Emulation Rambler
                            By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}
===========================================================================

I got tired of constantly lamenting how little time I've spent playing with
emulators over the past many months and decided to do something about it.
After all, emulators were one of the first things I discovered that I
really liked about the Amiga, and the selection and quality have only
gotten better over time.  So I've got quite a few topics to cover this time
around.

Long-Awaited Emplant-type Modules Coming Soon?
----------------------------------------------

Back in the day of Emplant, we were promised all sorts of emulators that
never surfaced.  However, the liner notes for PCx promise an upcoming Apple
II and Atari 400/800 emulation coming soon.  In a conversation with Jim
Drew of Microcode Solutions, he informed me that they would be shipping
soon at a package price of US$29.95 for both emulators.  We'll keep you
posted.

Amstrad CPC: Another Machine Discovered!  ACPC and emucpc Reviewed
------------------------------------------------------------------

One of my favorite things about emulators is that they allow you to
experience computers you might never have a chance to own, or even
physically see.  Computers like the Sinclair Spectrum and MSX were
virtually unknown to me until I discovered their emulators.  The Amstrad
CPC is in the exact same category.  Imagine my delight at finding not one
but two emulators waiting for me on Aminet!

ACPC 1.11 is the Shareware product of Kevin Thacker of the UK.  Kevin's
emulation supports the 48k, 64k, and 128k incarnations of the original CPC
line, and the registered version supports the enhancements of the "Plus"
line.  As well, a number of support utilities for interfacing with real CPC
hardware are included, but unfortunately I cannot test these, having never
laid eyes on a real CPC.

The emulator runs on virtually any hardware configuration--the author
himself is using a 1 meg A500.  Compiled versions for the 68000, 010, and
020 are included.

The emulator supports the popular CPC disk snapshot format, and the
documentation includes some basic hints on navigating the CPC's OS--enough
to get a complete newbie like myself competent enough to load and run
games, at least.

To appreciate what I'm supposed to be getting, I read Kevin's background
information on the CPC.  It's a Z80 machine, like many of the "mainly found
in Europe" computers such as the Spectrum and MSX.  It can do a 640x200
two-color mode, but primarily has graphics modes reminiscent of the C-64.
Based on the software I've found, its heyday was the 80s, as it was for
other 8-bit machines of the time, and often you can find superior versions
of software out of the UK which found their way onto the 64.

ACPC opens up a custom Amiga screen for its operation, and from there you
get a CPC boot screen, and have access to a regular Amiga title bar for
menu options.  From here, you have some rather basic options--reset the
CPC, enable or disable sound, quit, and load a disk image or snapshot file.
(The title bar options also flash, which I find a bit annoying.)  You're
welcome to grab some software images--a recommended site is
ftp.nvg.unit.no, in pub/cpc, where you'll find a ton.

Generally, results were good, not great.  On an 040/25Mhz (stock A4000T
3640), I "felt" that programs were running at less than 100%--sound is
usually a good giveaway of those sorts of things.  It was pretty close,
however.  Joystick emulation is not implemented in the demo, but is said to
work in the registered version.

Emucpc 0.7 is an offering from Stephane Tavenard of France.  It requires OS
3.x and an 020--Thacker's ACPC does not, but frankly I can't imagine how
painful CPC emulation without a fast processor must be.  This emulator is
freeware.

Tavenard does things a bit differently.  Like ACPC, the emulator opens up a
custom Amiga screen, but there is no toolbar menu, just function key
presses (one of which brings up a help menu.)  This is somewhat clumsier
than Thacker's implementation, but there are also more user-configurable
options, such as changing frame update rate.

None of these options is really documented.  While documentation is
provided in both English and French, it is spartan compared to Thacker's,
and offers no real insight for those unfamiliar with the CPC.  Without
Thacker's walkthrough of how to use DOS under the CPC, I would have been
lost faced by EmuCPC 0.7.

Where Tavenard makes up for it is speed--it is somewhat, although not
incredibly, faster than ACPC.  It also seemed to be slightly more
compatible, at least with the scientifically insignificant amount of images
I tested.

Tavenard says the CPC emulator is binary compatible with the 68060 and runs
at 5.5X a CPC's speed on that processor.  I remain a bit dubious since he
does not say how he benchmarked it, and if it's anything like the ACPC
benchmarking method (a BASIC program, not the most informative of
benchmarks), it's a suspect number.

EmuCPC supports some image formats, but does not directly support the
primary format of ACPC.  Instead, you have to use an included utility to
convert the images.  ACPC can use the newly converted images itself, but it
seems a strange extra step.

The two emulators are in fact very similar in concept and operation,
although for those unfamiliar with the CPC I'd suggest you get familiar on
ACPC first.  Both packages have utilities to interface with real CPC disk
drives and disks.  And, maddeningly, both emulators refuse to mode promote
properly to CyberGraphX.  The screen will not update while it is visible.

In all, the emulators are jobs well done and I'm looking forward to
exploring more CPC titles on them.  Both are available on Aminet, in
misc/emu.


Getting the Most Out of Apple2000
---------------------------------

Some of you may remember Apple2000's release a couple of years back.  It
offers an Apple II+ emulation (48k) with a 16k language card emulation,
dual floppy capabilities, multitasking, sound emulation (rather uncanny if
you have a 4000T and internal speaker), and disk image support.  It was
Kevin's first completed project on the Amiga, and sadly, his last.  But he
left us with a very solid and fast (full speed on an 030/25) Apple II+
emulation, quite compatible with the Apple software library.  The major
missing piece of the emulation itself is unimplemented opcode support
(which effectively the Apple IIc computer lacks as well, since the 6502C
basically ignores the unimplemented "features"), and the emulation does not
support mode promotion.  (It does, however, work in ECS and AGA.)

Back when I did the review in 1994 I was relying on the Apple software
collection Kralian sent me with the package, select pieces of which found
their way into the emulation distribution as PD sample programs.  But since
then, a rather impressive software library has sprung up online.

ftp.apple.asimov.net is the place to be, in pub/apple_II/images.  Here
you'll find a boatload of games, utilities, and curiosities for the Apple,
much of which runs effortlessly on Apple2000.  If you're resourceful, you
can even find the Apple II+ ROMs themselves, which Kralian did not include
in the distribution.


New Spectrum Emulation: Speccylator 1.0
---------------------------------------

Just when you thought you had the Spectrum emulator of your choice,
Speccylator comes in and makes you rethink things.

Following in the established footsteps of the Spectrum 1.7 emulator from
Peter McGavin, and ZXAM-Spectrum, Speccylator emulates a 48k Sinclair
Spectrum.  It doesn't ask much--OS 2.x and about half a meg of available
RAM--but of course when it comes to emulation, more speed is always nicer.

The built-in hardware features of a Spectrum are all emulated, including
sound.  Display is on yet another non-promotable custom Amiga screen.

The emulator comes in flavors like McGavin's emulator, with versions for
the 68020+ processors, a standard 68000 version, and a special "hacked-up"
68000 emulator that will run things faster--when it doesn't crash, which
will be often.

Snapshot files of the "mirage" type (the sort McGavin's supports, and is
common, also supported along with other formats by ZXAM) can be loaded in
and played with a joystick or keyboard.  The joystick emulates a Kempston
interface, also found on McGavin's and ZXAM.

Unscientific observation leads me to believe that Speccylator is in fact
slightly faster than either McGavin or ZXAM.  However, it is not without
its faults.  It cannot be played on a CyberGraphX public screen like ZXAM,
and has what I consider to be an unreliable joystick interface, which often
misses input and doesn't notice when you've stopped pressing in directions
at times.  If that were to get cleaned up, it would likely supplant
McGavin's emulator.  ZXAM, however, is much more of a full-featured
emulator from a user's standpoint, with more options for customizing your
interface and your display.  It also has a gateway to enter "pokes" for
cheating at games.

Speccylator offers some tools for Spectrum hackers and the ability to halt
the Z80 processor, so it has its own appeal.  From a game playing point of
view, however, the unreliable joystick interface is a putoff.

Speccylator is V1.0, so I don't expect it to be perfect.  In time, it may
take its place among the classics.  You can judge for yourself from
Aminet's misc/emu directory.


Gameboy?  No way!  Yes way! (VGB and WzonkaLad)
-----------------------------------------------

Marat Fayzullin is a legend of emulation development.

This individual is responsible for no fewer than five separate
computer/console emulations.  Count them: MSX, ColecoVision, original NES,
Sega Master System/Game Gear, and Gameboy.  All of them are portable Unix
source code, so thankfully some of his work has made it to the Amiga.
(note: ColEm, iNES, and MasterGear do not have current Amiga ports.  It
would be terrific if someone picked up the gauntlet.)

Since Marat gave up coding on the Amiga in favor of Unix some time ago, it
is through the work of others porting and improving upon his code that we
are able to use it on the Amiga.  One such port is AmigaVGB 0.7 from Lars
Malmborg.  Building on the Unix code and the earlier work of a porting team
that did VGB 0.2 and 0.3 on the Amiga, Malmborg has created a largely up to
date Gameboy emulation, which opens in a standard Window on any Amiga
screen.

Emulating Gameboy hardware is actually pretty hard work, or so it seems,
since the emulation is rather slow unless you're using an 040 and/or a
graphics card.  This version of VGB allows you to use most cartridge images
out there (if you own the games yourself, you can build a ROM reader.
There are also file images around, although these are certainly of
questionable legality if you don't own the cartridges), supports GameGenie
cheat codes, and includes all relevant source code in case you're
interested in tweaking the application or learning more about how it works.

Ville Helin of Finland was dissatisfied with VGB's speed and its rather
bland Unix-origin appearance.  So he created an Amiga-only application
known as WzonkaLad (which of course translates to "Gameboy").  Opening on a
5-bitplane Amiga video screen (promotion is not encouraged at this point),
many of the features are similar to VGB, although the author of Wzonkalad
admits that VGB is superior in terms of compatibility.  Where Helin's
version excels is in speed.  While AmigaVGB was pretty usable on my 040/25
system and RetinaZ3 CyberGraphX, WzonkaLad using the 040/25 and standard
display hardware ran at nearly 100%--enough to still have a good time, at
any rate.

Neither emulator implements sound as of yet.  Both provide basic cartridge
information, both are multitasking friendly.  I like two particular
features of WzonkaLad--the ability to use a CD32-style gamepad for all
Gameboy input, and the ability to XPK compress ROM images.  (I wish more
image-based emulators would support the XPK standard.)  On the other hand,
Helin has fiendishly faithfully stuck to the old Gameboy "icky green LCD"
look, which is clever but would be best if it were avoided.  AmigaVGB lets
you define the colors, and defaults to a nice, crisp display.  I also think
that AmigaVGB's implementation, as a small window on Workbench or a public
screen, is how a Gameboy emulator should be implemented--as something you
do while you're whiling away time, much like a Gameboy itself.

Both emulators can be found on Aminet in misc/emu.


That's all the emulation I have time to talk about this time around.  Next
issue, I'll hopefully be providing more news of the promised 8-bit
emulators from Microcode Solutions, as well as reviews of fMSX 1.1, ColEm,
ABeeb (BBC emulator), PCx, and more!
@endnode
@node REVIEW3 "Review: MindEYE"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                   Review: MindEYE from Geodesic Designs
                            By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}
===========================================================================

The MindEYE is something we've been waiting for quite some time to review
here at Amiga Report.  We first heard of it, and its predecessor, the
MindLight, last year at the Amiga Atlanta 10th Anniversary banquet.  There
was an A1200 with a wacky visual show sitting on a table.  We were
introduced to the MindLight then, a piece of Amiga hardware from the 80s
that turned the noise and sound in a room into visual display.  Its
successor, the MindEYE, (which arguably should be named "The DJ's Dream")
is out now.

Unlike the Mindlight, which came in a clear plastic case (if you've seen
the GVP DSS8+, you get the idea), the MindEYE is a small, trapezoidal
prism-shaped box wrapped in holographic sticker.  All you see is a 9-pin
connector and microphone-type audio input on the back, and two knobs, a
pair of LEDs, and a small microphone on the front.

The developers at Geodesic Designs are well versed in the art of geodesic
mathematics, which is what makes the MindLight and MindEye work.  You don't
have to be interested in geodesic math to enjoy the MindEye, however.

The MindEYE's job, simply put, is to turn sound and music into a visual
display.  The guidelines for that visual display are set by the operator
(you) and the Amiga, but the form it takes on the display is in the hands
of the mathematical principles at work.

The unit comes with a 61 page manual and a disk containing the MindEYE
software.  Optional requirements include a good source of sound.

The MindEYE connects to the joystick port of your Amiga through an included
9-pin cable.  As soon as the Amiga is on, the MindEYE is functional and the
LEDs will pulse with the pickup of noise around it, but you'll see no
results until you run the MindEYE software.  There is a straightforward
tutorial included which will instruct you how to install the hardware and
software, set the knobs for sound threshold and gaiisk containing the MindEYE
software.  Optional requirements include a good source of sound.

The MindEYE connects to the joystick port of your Amiga through an included
9-pin cable.  As soon as the Amiga is on, the MindEYE is functional and the
LEDs will pulse with the pickup of noise around it, but you'll see no
results until you run the MindEYE software.  There is a straightforward
tutorial included which will instruct you how to install the hardware and
software, set the knobs for sound threshold and gain, and get your first
effects up on the screen.

The MindEYE software is really intended for NTSC or PAL video output, and
as such you'll get your best results using these.  AGA video modes and
color resolutions are supported in the newest software release.

The MindEYE hardware and software do some absolutely amazing audio effects.
By simply sitting around for an hour with a few friends, an A1200, and a
Siouxie and the Banshees CD, we got some brilliant color fades, polygon
patterns, and indescribable effects through a combination of blind hacking
with the software and following the included tutorials for advanced effects
in the manual.  In addition to its own line, polygon, and other graphical
effects, the MindEYE can take advantage of your own pictures and clipart
and incorporate them into its display.

The software implements dozens of different effects, many of which have
user-configurable parameters that quite literally mean that the MindEYE can
be in millions, if not billions, of different states for interpreting
sound.

There's really no question about it.  If you give the MindEYE's manual a
good reading and spend a half an hour with the MindEYE and a favorite CD,
you're going to be getting stunning visuals.  Whether you just let it suck
in noise from the room or take advantage of the direct input, you're in for
a treat.

Now, the question is--what do you do with that?

If you're a DJ with access to a video wall, I can't see you NOT using the
MindEYE.  With the included LIVE! board support (which we were unable to
test in time for this review, but hope to see soon), you can integrate the
dance floor into the visuals.  If you simply entertain at your house and
have a decent sized TV, an A600 or A1200 would make the perfect MindEYE
setup, since they can directly output to television and can be placed out
of reach but still put out a great show.

Getting what you specifically want out of the MindEYE can be a bit of a
task, however.  There are a lot of complex things going on inside the
Amiga, and the GUI interface of the MindEYE betrays its origins in the
early days of the Amiga.  While the software is functional on all modern
Amigas, the GUI has not received the sort of OS 2.x overhaul we often
expect.

This is not an insurmountable problem.  Because the software is certainly
designed with the concerns of a DJ or entertainment professional in mind,
virtually every option is keyboard controllable.  This is a double-edged
sword: it does mean that you can change effects on the fly with little or
no evidence on the screen, which is very important if you've got a crowd
out there and don't want to interrupt their visual orgasm with a big old
menu of buttons and a title bar.  The problem there is that you'll want to
keep the manual VERY close by until you're quite familiar with the
software, since virtually every key and key modifier has a purpose, the
numeric keypad numbers are not the same as the keyboard numbers, etc.

The MindEYE is, in a lot of ways, the best of both worlds.  It offers
instant visual gratification, but in the hands of a skilled operator can
turn out incredible images (see the MindEYE home page for an idea).  And
it's a continuing credit to the Amiga's architecture that such a device can
simply be plugged in and all of a sudden you have a dance club
entertainment box in your hands.  Whether or not that's worth the suggested
US$295 retail price is a question you'll have to answer.  But if you need
to have the latest Amiga toys, or think you could entertain with visual
effects, I strongly recommend investigating the MindEYE.


Geodesic Designs, Inc.
PO Box 956068
Duluth, GA  30136-9502
USA
770-822-0566 voice
770-338-8874 fax
geodesic@geod.com e-mail
http://www.mindeye.com
@endnode
@node REVIEW4 "Review: JetPilot"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                   Review: JetPilot from Vulcan Software
                            By: @{" Ken Anderson " link KEN}
===========================================================================

The closest most of us get to plane is once a year in the summer, with
suitcases and suntan lotion and the worry if you remembered to switch
everything off.  Now Vulcan Software give you the chance to sit behind the
steering wheel of a virtual plane, and worry about air temperature and fog
instead.

And more.  You can worry about air pressure, the weight of your aircraft,
what time of day it is and all sorts of things you never worried about
before, because it's all here.  The tagline "The Pinnacle of Realistic
Flight Simulation" is wholly appropriate, because JetPilot is a really is a
simulation, and not a game.

Using the mouse or an analogue joystick, you are bundled into the cockpit
of the aircraft of your choice, and are free to fly around the simulated
airspace of 27 different airfields in Europe.  From what I tell having
"flown" from Leuchars, not far from me on the east coast of Scotland, the
map is realistic enough to win even the most pedantic of surveyor's
approval.

The real challenge, however, is to qualify for combat missions by passing
your training.  To do this - and I must admit, I didn't - you'll have to
master the umpteen different keypresses, and display a fair understanding
of how a real airplane works before you'll come even close.  If you're ever
on a plane and the stewardess shouts those awful words "can anybody fly
this thing?", you'll at least be able to respond "I'll have a go, I played
JetPilot a couple of times".

You can radio down to base and ask for weather conditions, you can take
command of 255 aircraft at once, you can view yourself upside down from
your wingman's plane; you could probably persuade JetPilot to play the
"Blue Danube" with the engines if you pushed the correct combination of
keys.

Of course, all this realism comes at a price, and it's in the hardware.  To
enjoy JetPilot at it's very best, you'll need at LEAST a fast 030, and
that's with quite a lot of the detail switched off.  The game is reasonably
configurable in terms of how much is drawn on screen, but by the time
you've advanced far enough to have more than a couple of co-pilots flying
beside you, the frame rate plummages and the technical realism looses the
edge.

JetPilot is the most ambitious flight simulator ever attempted on the
Amiga, and apart from the speed issues, it does the job well.  However, how
much entertainment you'll get out of it depends on how much effort - and
hardware - you put into it, and how often you've lusted about driving your
own killing machine around the skies.

Pros: Complete and comprehensive simulation.  Plenty to do and learn; plane
buffs will have a field day.

Cons: A true simulation, so no instant entertainment.  Requires a meaty
Amiga to get even average frame rates.  Also has one of the most painful HD
installers on record--not a carelessly implemented installer, but a very
odd one nonetheless.

JetPilot is priced at 16.99UKP (+ 2UKP for P&P outside the UK), and can be
ordered from:

Vulcan Software Limited
Vulcan House
72 Queens Road
Buckland
Portsmouth
Hants PO2 7NA
UK

http://www.vulcan.co.uk
@endnode
@node REVIEW5 "Review: Uropa²"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                              Review: Uropa²
                            By: @{" Ken Anderson " link KEN}
===========================================================================

Austex Software - To be published soon by Vulcan Software of the UK.

1.5Mb RAM and hard drive required

Don't you just love it? There you go, giving all your colonists protection
from the baddies in the form of a crack squad of humans and clever robots.
Then the droids start to use their intellegence by taking over one of the
colonies, cutting off contact with Mother Earth and generally being pretty
damn unfriendly.  Time for you, as one of the few good robots left, to get
in there and sort them out.

The bulk of the action takes place in a forced perspective isometric
display.  As one of the droids, you must patrol the base, carry out certain
key tasks, rescue as many colonists as possible and quite probably beat up
a few rivals at the same time.  Obviously, it's not as easy as this - there
are many puzzles to be completed along the way, and the bad guys are not
afraid of fighting back.

In every room of the bases, there are objects to be searched - lockers,
beds, scientific labs and so on. Many of these contain important objects,
from weapon upgrades to access cards.  These can then be used in other
parts of the base to bring yourself closer to meeting your objective - to
complete the tasks set in that certain base and travel on to the next of
the 12 bases.

Some of the puzzles are just simple "find the key to open the door" rote
tasks. However, the later levels hold more involving tasks, and some of the
problems encounter require a good deal of thought. It does give a sense of
achievement to solve the problems, especially when you are rewarded with a
sizeable weapon upgrade or further insight into the plotline.

The travelling between bases is set in a seperate game environment, a
rather pleasing 3D lightsourced vector hovercraft simulation.  Anyone who
remembers Pete Cooke's classic 8-bit hits "Tau Ceti" and "Academy" will
feel instantly at home with this section, and you roam around the planet
surface, dodging enemy craft and navigating your way to the next port of
call. Fans of this section have the opportunity to try a null-modem link
with another Amiga for a bit of 2-player combat.

The isometric sections do tend to suffer from clutter - trying to flee from
an approaching killing droid only to have your exit blocked by two
dithering colonists is frustrating. It's even worse when you can't seem to
navigate yourself past an inanimate object such as a table or bed. Turning
your joystick through 45 degrees helps you find the diagnals required a bit
easier.

On the whole, Uropa² is a stunning work of gameplaying art, and will keep
you busy for many weeks, if not months. Too often, modern games sacrifice
atmosphere for technical excellence; Uropa² displays both without
compromise.  Some may be frustrated by the "fetch and carry" elements of
the isometric section, and it will not directly appear to the more rabid of
shoot'em'up fans.  However, if you like your arcade action spiked with a
little thought, I would urge you to download the shareware version from
your local Aminet mirror as soon as you can.

Pros:  Involving gameplay, with a strong atmosphere and sense of purpose.
Technically sound, and multitasks too.  Two game genres in one increase the
appeal.

Cons: Controls aren't as responsive as they could be. Some tasks become
repititious, and the puzzles aren't for the hard of thinking.

While recently shareware, Vulcan Software (http://www.vulcan.co.uk) has
picked up the game for commercial publication, due out soon.

@endnode
@node REVIEW6 "Review: Aminet 16 CD-ROM"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                         Review: Aminet 16 CD-ROM
                            By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}
===========================================================================

Another Christmas season, another festive Aminet CD.

#16 in the series brings a whole mess of MODs (largely incorporated from
the recent MODS Anthology four CD set released recently by Schatztruhe), as
well as the latest and greatest from Aminet to your doorstep.

Nothing particularly earth-shattering is on the disc this time around, as
this is the second Aminet in a row without a headline commercial title
(although a couple of the older commercial games from Gamers Delight 2 are
on the disc) and there haven't been any notable changes made to the
interface or the format.

As usual, games and demos are broken down into a "best/compatible/rest"
format, allowing you to run some titles directly from CD with relative
impunity as to compatibility issues (Urban does the testing on a 4000/040,
which means those of us with 060s and/or graphic cards are relatively, but
not entirely, safe).

I am continually pleased to note that AR is generally in the CD's
"recommendations" listing, although he'll hopefully make the change
reflecting that I am no longer a VIScorp employee soon.

Aminet itself, and the Aminet CD series, shows no signs of slowing down. 
The CDs are coming more and more rapidly, with 7 CDs and one 4-disc Aminet
Set in 1996, beating the advertised pace of a bimonthly (6 CD per year)
release.

If there's been any institution that is a prime example of not only
survival but incredible growth in the face of uncertainty in the Amiga
market, Aminet is it.  So kick back, hit the "shuffle" button in the Rock
MODs directory, and browse through the latest installment of Aminet, the
compendium of the collective wisdom of the Amiga community.

Aminet 16 is published by:

Schatztruhe
Veronikastr. 33
D-45131 Essen
Germany
+49 201 788778 voice
+49 201 798447 fax
stefano@tchest.e.eunet.de e-mail
http://www.schatztruhe.de
@endnode
@node REVIEW7 "Review: OctaMED SoundStudio v1"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                          OctaMED SoundStudio v1
                       a preview by: @{" Bohus Blahut " link BOHUS}
===========================================================================

A CD rom with the complete OctaMED Studio program for creating music
modules.  The CD has many example MODS, and directories of sounds to use in
MODs of your own.

If you'll remember the last few articles that I wrote for Amiga Report,
you'll recall that I was waxing nostalgic about the purchase of my first
Amiga in 1989.  Back when I got the machine, my thoughts were of using the
Amiga for music.  Walking out of the dealer's shop, I had in my hands a
MIDI interface, and a Future Sound 8-bit sound digitizer.  The musical
experimentation had begun.

My intention had been to create music with MIDI.  The Amiga's 8-bit soun d
was fine for video games and other playing around, but I didn't think it wo
uld cut it in professional music applications.  I did a lot of
experimenting with 8 -bit sound, and eventually the I could get the Amiga
to yield good sounding audio, but then there was the insurmountable
challenge of having only 4 tracks of audio.  T he obvious solution seemed
to be to use the Amiga as a MIDI controller, and th en access MIDI's 16
possible tracks of data.

It wasn't long before I started to hear about MODs.  It was after I played
the Psygnosis games, Shadow of the Beast 1 and 2, that I heard Amiga audio
at its finest.  I learned about the various Tracker softwares that
maximized Amiga audio capabilities.  These "tracker modules" are fairly
small, and are composed of a number of tiny raw sound samples along with a
little burp of data at the end.  Then, as now, there were entirely too many
MOD formats, and more come and go with the years (many are also PC
compatible).  Attempts were made at a format that would break the Amiga's 4
channel audio limitation.

While MODs were fun experiments, they didn't really constitute music to me.
In fact, I didn't pay much attention to MODs in general.  For the most
part, they sounded like video game music, and all sounded way too similar.
They were fun cover versions of pop songs, and techno. 

Lots of techno.

I hate techno.

I understand why.  This type of music is ideally suited to MODs since it
mostly repetitious loops, and is made of lots of ripped samples from old
James Brown albums...  all very unoriginal, all very stolen (in a copyright
sense)

I pretty much dismissed MODs as a novelty.  Evey once in awhile my interest
was piqued when I'd hear about some MOD group who put on Rave parties with
only their Amigas in tow.  While that's great, that particular music isn't
my cup of tea, and I've mentioned my problems with the audio quality and
the four channel barrier. 

There have been a few advances over the last few years in audio technology
for the Amiga.  There's the SunRize card, the Toccata, and others.  These
were primarily digital recorders, not samplers.  They aren't set up to
create sampled digital instruments.  That's the promise being made by many
other manufacturers now, all to upgrade the Amiga's default audio.

All of this background is so that you'll understand just how unbelievable
OctaMED SoundStudio is.  OSS has shattered the Amiga's 4 channel barrier,
samples at 14bit for higher quality, and allows for really long samples
including vocal tracks!  The system requirements aren't all that uncommon.
While you can use the program on 68000 machines, a good machine would be an
'020. 

A default a3000/25 can play approximately 10 channels of 48khz (CD quality)
sound through the MacroSystem Tocatta card.  It's also set up to take
advantage of '060 machines (but that doesn't assure DraCo compatibility.
Remember, the DraCo doesn't have the Amiga's custom chips) Obviously, the
faster the system, the better the performance. 

The CD contains the program (in several languages), example MODs, and lots
of audio samples to use in your own projects, but that's not the best part.
One of the best things about this CD is that the program actually runs off
of the disc!  Why don't more Amiga programs do this?  Certain applications
obviously benefit from HD installation for speed, but if it's at all
possible, then why not have the prog run from disc?  OSS makes a few
temporary assigns, which you can un-assign just by clicking an icon.  The
execution of the program is well thought out, and quite simple.

There is full on-line documentation, but if you choose to, you can mail
order a printed manual.  The software does have a shareware flavor to it,
but all of my experimenting so far has revealed it to be quite stable.  It
also supports several 16 bit audio cards for its sound engine.  We will be
testing OSS with the Tocatta card which should be unusual since I've never
used the Tocatta for anything other than digital recording.

I'm so impressed with this new program, I'm going to fiddle with it some
before turning in a full review.  It's important that we know where we're
coming from to know where we're going.  I'm hoping that my level of
excitement will stay high through the rest of this review, and I'll let you
know the outcome soon.

RBF Software
169 Dale Valley Road
Hollybrook,
Southampton SO16 6QX
England
@endnode
@node REVIEW8 "Review: Capital Punishment"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
          Review: Capital Punishment from PXL Computers/ClickBOOM
                            By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}
===========================================================================

1996 saw a lot of unlikely things for the Amiga.

It seemed unlikely that Escom would go bankrupt after what seemed to be a
good start to 1995, it seemed unlikely that VIScorp would suddenly show up
and want to buy the Amiga (and unlikely that they would succeed, but that's
another story), it seemed unlikely that we'd see so many new initiatives to
bring the Amiga into the next century.

It was also pretty unlikely that one of the most talked-about Amiga games
of the year would come from Canada, but there you have it.

Capital Punishment was the toast of the European magazines, who couldn't
talk enough about it.  And despite some delays, CP was indeed released at
the end of the year, with basically everything it promised.

For those of you who have somehow missed it, Capital Punishment is a
beat-em-up of the two-player, 2D variety.  What it lacks in player variety
(only four "human" warriors at your disposal) it makes up for in quality,
compatibility, and gameplay.

Capital Punishment ships on 7 disks and requires an AGA machine with a hard
drive--and 2+ megs of Fast RAM are highly recommended.  It will function
properly on all processors, including 060s.


Getting Ready for Punishment
----------------------------

Installing the game is a bit more of a chore than I expected--for reasons
not quite explained, you need to either have a registered copy of LHA, or
copy the included LHA keyfile into your L: hard drive directory.  This is
frustrating since unless you see the little yellow sticker on the box
telling you to do so, you might not do it, which will get you a hung
installation process.

The game is fairly simple to set up beyond that, with an option for
Parental Lock which disables some of the more objectionable points of the
game.  You should take the game up on its offer to create a bootdisk, since
the game demands so much Chip ram that you can more or less forget about
trying to start it from Workbench.  Such is life.

However, be careful what name the disk uses when you install to the hard
drive--be sure it's not an assigned alias but a true partition name.  I had
to manually rename the reference to "work:", since the partiiton in
question is actually "hd1:" in my setup.  This was a careless oversight on
their part, but not a major obstacle.


Getting Punished
----------------

Go ahead.  Try to play the computer right away after setting up the game.
I bet you're dead within 30 seconds.

Capital Punishment is damn hard in one-player mode, no matter how you slice
it.  It's full of options to make your demise more interesting, however.

Each combat screen comes with its own set of traps--spiked walls, electric
shocks, and big meathooks, to name just a few.  You're welcome to disable
these, as they can often lead to an earlier death than usual--but sometimes
they're your only hope of beating the computer.

CP is the first game I've seen with as many play options for measuring
damage.  Not only is there the concept of body and head stamina, but you
can play in traditional Street Fighter/Mortal Kombat energy mode (a set
amount of energy is given to each player, which is reduced by absorbing
blows), tug-of-war mode (energy is relative to the beating you've taken and
dished out, and a blend of the two.

There are a variety of ways to tackle the game--as an epic, where you are
on a quest to defeat an evil wizard, as a tournament or league, or as a
straight one-on-one test of skills.  Depending on the mode you pick, up to
four humans can be in on the action, taking the joypads when their number
comes up.

Recommendation: Get good at the game playing against a friend.  The
computer is merciless, and you'll be quite frustrated at first.  It doesn't
help that the instructions don't explicitly tell you the moves available to
each player.  I also recommend playing the computer in a non-epic game, so
that it will use a human combatant as opposed to the alien menaces you meet
in Epic mode.

Capital Punishment has features I haven't seen in Amiga beat-em-ups to
date--exceptional artwork, realtime lightsourcing, fast-paced but not
disorienting action, and a wealth of play options.  It also plays
exceptionally quickly from the HD, and the music, speech, and sound effects
are outstanding for creating atmosphere.  And the AI is among the most
effective and brutal I've ever seen--there will be no Mortal Kombat-style
"Keep doing flying kicks" victories here.

CP makes full and good use of CD32 gamepads, and I strongly recommend that
you pick a couple of them up if you're going to play any serious CP.
Single-button joysticks and the keyboard may also be used.

A word about the game's copy protection--it looks as though it was
something of a last-minute addition, as it comes as a small slip of paper
with a number of colored designs with codes below them.  You match the
screen prompt to the tiny (easy to lose) piece of paper.  It's not horribly
obstructive, but I lost my Worms codebook for a few months, and that was a
significantly larger document than this.  My advice is to keep your CP box
(it's good looking anyway) and keep the slip inside it at all times.

Titillating?
------------

Demona, the female warrior, has been a source of controversy since the
first CP demos of late 1995 and early 1996.  She's your typical female RPG
figure, wearing exceptionally comfortable "basically topless" leather.  She
remembered to pack a whip when she went to the sewers, but forgot a bra.

Alexander Petrovic, the game's producer, and I had a number of discussions
about the game over the past year, and he was pretty dead-set against
removing her (or at least, her more visible features) from the game, and I
agreed that there was nothing to get upset about, basically, but that was
before I actually saw her implemented in the game as anything other than a
non-functional character selection option.

In the game, she's got a few crass poses that take the character from being
a mildly amusing tip of the hat to silly depictions of women in fantasy
settings to an embarrassment, and the spelling here is intentional.  I'm
not advocating you use the parental lock, but in the end Demona is a
juvenile low point in an otherwise excellent game.


The Verdict
-----------

It's impressive enough that CP works effortlessly, beyond the necessary
boot disk, on just about any AGA Amiga configuration out there.  The game
is in PAL despite its North American origins, but by now we're all used to
PAL flicker over here.  

CP is a masterpiece of a 2D fighting game, with unsurpassed gameplay and
graphics better than my previous nomination for "most attractive
beat-em-up", Elfmania.  Its level of difficulty ensures you won't be done
with it in a matter of days.  I'm toasting Capital Punishment's success,
and looking forward to more from ClickBOOM.


PXL Computer/ClickBOOM
1270 Finch Ave. West
Unit 13
M3J 2G4 Toronto
CANADA

http://home.ican.net/~clkboom
clkboom@ican.net
@endnode
@node REVIEW9 "Review: Meeting Pearls 4"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                      Review: Meeting Pearls 4 CD-ROM
                            By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}
===========================================================================

Call them "The Non-Aminet FD Squad."  Call them "Citizens for Low-Priced
CDs."  They prefer to be called the "Meeting Pearls Team", but whatever you
want to call them, you have to call them "back."

The fourth Meeting Pearls conference has been held, and this CD is the
result.  Founded a few years ago by Angela Schmidt, who was sick of
expensive freely distributable software CDs, the Meeting Pearls series
consists of CD-ROMs put together by a group of German Amiga users and
software authors who come together to fill up a huge hard drive with the
latest and best in freely distributable software, and then get it published
for minimum cost (these days, 15DM or about US$10-$11).  The catch is that
if you like the CD, you're supposed to make a contribution to the group's
efforts, made simple through the inclusion of a bank deposit slip.

MP IV has come a long way from the first edition, which had an insistence
on using a then somewhat obscure thing called "MUI" and wasn't the easiest
thing in the world to get set up.  And while it still likes MUI and
Metatool in great proportions, the interface and CD access is far easier
than it used to be.

All you need to do to get running is to go through a short
assign-installation procedure, and then you're free to browse through an
AmigaGuide interface (or the CD itself, of course, through more
conventional means) to get what you're after.  Or use the included
FindPearls search utility.  Or, better yet, you can search the
documentation of just about all of the programs on the CD, which is a neat
trick, and quite useful.

In general, the CD is bilingual (English/German) although if you use the
Novice setting for the setup installation, you're not asked and it defaults
to German.  I find it's usually best never to use Novice mode for any
reason, but be forewarned in this particular case.  Sometimes links from an
English document will lead to German versions of other documents, while a
link elsewhere will garner you the English version you wanted.

If you were comfortable with earlier MP editions, or are a user of the
Aminet Amigaguide interface, you'll have no problems with this one.

The Meeting Pearls CDs are a great idea and have a certain potential edge
over Aminet CDs, which is that instead of just getting the newest titles of
a given couple of months, you're getting the personal picks of the past
several months of real people who come together with this specific goal in
mind.  It doesn't diminish the Aminet CDs, it's simply a different genre.

You could conceivably accuse the MP assemblers of having a "utilities and
tools" slant, as the Gaming directory is not huge, but the games that are
on there are of the better quality available--once again, the personal
choice outweighs the nature of "recent quantity."

One of the highlights is a pre-configured version of Ghostscript, which is
actually somewhat operable by a human being.  Ghostscript is a GNU-freely
available PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format document reader, as well as a
Postscript interpreter.  The output quality I tested with the Infocom
Masterpieces CD PDF manuals was not the greatest, but at least it didn't
crash as all of my independent Ghostscript installation attempts have done.
The configuration, however, is rather dependent on having the Meeting
Pearls CD in the drive.

At the price, if you're looking for a good way to catch up on FD software,
you can't beat Meeting Pearls IV.

Schatztruhe
Veronikastr. 33
D-45131 Essen
Germany
+49 201 788778 voice
+49 201 798447 fax
stefano@tchest.e.eunet.de e-mail
http://www.schatztruhe.de
@endnode
@node CHARTS1 "Aminet Charts: 12-Jan-97"
@toc FTP

| The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 12-Jan-97
| Updated weekly. Most popular file on top.
|
|File              Dir        Size Age Description
|----------------- ---        ---- --- -----------
akJFIF43x.lha      util/dtype 218K   0+AkJFIF-dt V43.20 (JPEG, 68000-060)
akPNG43x.lha       util/dtype 193K   0+AkPNG-dt V43.10 (PNG, 68000-060)
PC-TaskDemo40.lha  biz/demo   218K   0+PC-Task 4.0 80486 PC Emulator using
akSVG43x.lha       util/dtype  72K   0+AkSVG-dt V43.10 (SVG, 68000-060)
VirusZ_II136.lha   util/virus 187K   0+VirusZ v1.36 by Georg Hoermann
STFax.lha          comm/misc  109K   0+New powerful and user-friendly fax p
AVId.lha           gfx/show    16K   1+VERY FAST AVI player for AGA/020+
animdtc014.lha     util/dtype  17K   1+IFF ANIM DataType V1.4
term_47b_pch.lha   comm/term  721K   1+Updates `term' v4.7 to v4.7b
pplib020.lha       util/libs    5K   0+Powerpacker.library 68020+ version
newmenu.lha        util/wb     40K   0+Intape's colour palette
SayMore.lha        util/wb     15K   0+Say replacement with more options v0
memdiff.lha        util/wb      6K   1+Shows memory usage of programs (MUI)

| The highest rated programs during the week until 12-Jan-97
| Updated weekly. Best program on top. Please rate all the programs you
| download. To do so, send to aminet-server@wuarchive.wustl.edu :
| RATE <path> <num>
| where <path> is the file you want to judge and <num> is a mark from 0..10
| with 10 being the best. You can rate several programs in one mail, but
| don't rate your own programs. Example: RATE dev/gui/mui23usr.lha 8
|
|File              Dir        Size Age Description
|----------------- ---        ---- --- -----------
ManiacBall.lha     game/misc  427K   9+A multiplayer Breakout game V1.3
Graal2a.lha        game/role  341K  12+Graphic Adventure Authoring Language
Play16_1.7.lha     mus/play   105K   5+Multi format sound player, supports
RabbitIcons1.lha   pix/mwb    1.6M  52+MagicRabbits ICON/Pattern collection
FlashFind1.2.lha   util/cli    12K  51+Faaast text search tool (2.5MB in 10
akPNG43x.lha       util/dtype 193K   0+AkPNG-dt V43.10 (PNG, 68000-060)
ReqToolsUsr.lha    util/libs  157K   4+ReqTools 2.7 - the requester toolkit
HL2Voyager.lha     comm/www     2K  34+Arexx script for converting hotlist
PPaint7_Demo.lha   biz/cloan  540K   3+Cloanto Personal Paint 7 Demo Softwa
EO220.lha          biz/misc   313K   5+Everyday Organiser 2.20 (MUI) 
YAM13_4.lha        comm/mail  512K   3+MUI Internet mailer V1.3.4
amis_html.lha      comm/www    17K   1+WYSIWYG HTML editor for AMIS.
BlobzHD.lha        game/demo  657K   9+`Blobz` Playable demo (AGA+Hard disk
PacMan96.lha       game/misc  571K   3+Superb PacMan-Clone, systemfriendly
lionhd.lha         game/patch   4K   5+HD Installer for Lion King AGA
CyberAVI17.lha     gfx/show    55K   6+AVI animation player for CyberGraphX
RabbitIcons10.lha  pix/mwb     48K  49+MagicRabbits ICON collection 10
RabbitIcons11.lha  pix/mwb     38K  41+MagicRabbits ICON collection 11
RabbitIcons12.lha  pix/mwb     88K  34+MagicRabbits ICON collection 12
RabbitIcons13.lha  pix/mwb     63K  33+MagicRabbits ICON collection 13
RabbitIcons14.lha  pix/mwb     68K  30+MagicRabbits ICON collection 14
RabbitIcons15.lha  pix/mwb    138K   2+MagicRabbits ICON collection 15 (For
RabbitIcons16.lha  pix/mwb    187K  21+MagicRabbits ICON collection 16
RabbitIcons17.lha  pix/mwb    281K  12+MagicRabbits ICON collection 17
RabbitIcons18.lha  pix/mwb    253K   2+MagicRabbits ICON collection 18
RabbitIcons2.lha   pix/mwb    1.2M  51+MagicRabbits ICON/Pattern collection
RabbitIcons3.lha   pix/mwb    1.1M  52+MagicRabbits ICON/Pattern collection
RabbitIcons4.lha   pix/mwb    273K  52+MagicRabbits ICON/Pattern collection
RabbitIcons5.lha   pix/mwb    711K  52+MagicRabbits ICON/Pattern collection
@endnode
@node CHARTS2 "Aminet Charts: 19-Jan-97"
@toc FTP

| The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 19-Jan-97
| Updated weekly. Most popular file on top.
|
|File              Dir        Size Age Description
|----------------- ---        ---- --- -----------
ReqToolsUsr.lha    util/libs  167K   0+ReqTools 2.8 - the requester toolkit
akJFIF43x.lha      util/dtype 220K   0+AkJFIF-dt V43.21 (JPEG, 68000-060)
akPNG43x.lha       util/dtype 195K   0+AkPNG-dt V43.11 (PNG, 68000-060)
ExtensionsMana.lha util/wb     37K   0+Macintosh style Extensions Manager V
akSVG43x.lha       util/dtype  74K   0+AkSVG-dt V43.11 (SVG, 68000-060)
mcx260.lha         util/cdity  77K   0+Multi Function Commodity
newsBrowse.txt     comm/news    1K   0+Read and post to newsgroups from any
RealIcons.lha      util/wb      6K   0+(V0.18) A system patch for better ic
AmIRCFetch.lha     comm/tcp     2K   0+ARexx file retrieval ARexx script fo
WebPlugv121.lha    comm/www   159K   0+V1.21 of an HTML editor
virusz_i.lha       util/virus 187K   0+VirusZ v1.36 by Georg Hoermann
dtc-alta.lha       comm/www    33K   0+Cool Amiga logo Transfer Animation f
ReqChange.lha      util/boot  256K   0+Patch the OS to use ReqTools. V3.11
FrontalAssault.lha game/2play 3.5M   0+The *ULTIMATE* Scorched Tanks clone
XOpa1_92.lha       util/moni  104K   1+System Monitor with a beautiful inte
MBlank.lha         util/blank  33K   0+Small/basic modular blanker, v1.10
animdtc015.lha     util/dtype  20K   0+IFF ANIM DataType V1.5, now with sou
ixemul-020f.lha    dev/gcc    101K   0+IXemul 45.1 - 68020+fpu library
VersionWB.lha      util/sys    24K   0+V2.2 AmigaDos Version replacement.

| The highest rated programs during the week until 19-Jan-97
| Updated weekly. Best program on top. Please rate all the programs you
| download. To do so, send to aminet-server@wuarchive.wustl.edu :
| RATE <path> <num>
| where <path> is the file you want to judge and <num> is a mark from 0..10
| with 10 being the best. You can rate several programs in one mail, but
| don't rate your own programs. Example: RATE dev/gui/mui23usr.lha 8
|
|File              Dir        Size Age Description
|----------------- ---        ---- --- -----------
VersionWB.lha      util/sys    24K   0+V2.2 AmigaDos Version replacement.
YAM13_4.lha        comm/mail  512K   4+MUI Internet mailer V1.3.4
ManiacBall.lha     game/misc  427K  10+A multiplayer Breakout game V1.3
Graal2a.lha        game/role  341K  13+Graphic Adventure Authoring Language
SoundBox.lha       mods/funk  124K  15+Jazz mod by Accord+Deelite    ****
RabbitIcons1.lha   pix/mwb    1.6M  53+MagicRabbits ICON/Pattern collection
FlashFind1.2.lha   util/cli    12K  52+Faaast text search tool (2.5MB in 10
akSVG43x.lha       util/dtype  74K   0+AkSVG-dt V43.11 (SVG, 68000-060)
ReqToolsUsr.lha    util/libs  167K   0+ReqTools 2.8 - the requester toolkit
HL2Voyager.lha     comm/www     2K  35+Arexx script for converting hotlist
PPaint7_Demo.lha   biz/cloan  540K   4+Cloanto Personal Paint 7 Demo Softwa
amis_html.lha      comm/www    17K   2+WYSIWYG HTML editor for AMIS.
BlobzHD.lha        game/demo  657K  10+`Blobz` Playable demo (AGA+Hard disk
PacMan96.lha       game/misc  571K   4+Superb PacMan-Clone, systemfriendly
aplay221.lha       mus/play   659K   2+APlayer - An allround Amiga music pl
RabbitIcons10.lha  pix/mwb     48K  50+MagicRabbits ICON collection 10
RabbitIcons11.lha  pix/mwb     38K  42+MagicRabbits ICON collection 11
RabbitIcons12.lha  pix/mwb     88K  35+MagicRabbits ICON collection 12
RabbitIcons13.lha  pix/mwb     63K  34+MagicRabbits ICON collection 13
RabbitIcons14.lha  pix/mwb     68K  31+MagicRabbits ICON collection 14
RabbitIcons15.lha  pix/mwb    138K   3+MagicRabbits ICON collection 15 (For
RabbitIcons16.lha  pix/mwb    187K  22+MagicRabbits ICON collection 16
RabbitIcons17.lha  pix/mwb    281K  13+MagicRabbits ICON collection 17
RabbitIcons18.lha  pix/mwb    253K   3+MagicRabbits ICON collection 18
RabbitIcons2.lha   pix/mwb    1.2M  52+MagicRabbits ICON/Pattern collection
RabbitIcons3.lha   pix/mwb    1.1M  53+MagicRabbits ICON/Pattern collection
RabbitIcons4.lha   pix/mwb    273K  53+MagicRabbits ICON/Pattern collection
RabbitIcons5.lha   pix/mwb    711K  53+MagicRabbits ICON/Pattern collection
RabbitIcons6.lha   pix/mwb    248K  52+MagicRabbits ICON/Pattern collection
RabbitIcons7.lha   pix/mwb    1.1M  52+MagicRabbits ICON collection 7
@endnode
@node CHARTS3 "Aminet Charts: 05-Jan-97"
@toc FTP

| The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 5-Jan-97
| Updated weekly. Most popular file on top.
|
|File              Dir        Size Age Description
|----------------- ---        ---- --- -----------
ar415.lha          docs/mags   86K   0+Amiga Report 4.15, December 31, 1996
akJFIF43x.lha      util/dtype 209K   0+AkJFIF-dt V43.19 (JPEG, 68000-060)
AVId.lha           gfx/show    16K   0+VERY FAST AVI player for AGA/020+
akPNG43x.lha       util/dtype 184K   0+AkPNG-dt V43.9 (PNG, 68000-060)
STFax.lha          comm/misc  104K   0+New powerful and user-friendly fax p
term_47b_pch.lha   comm/term  721K   0+Updates `term' v4.7 to v4.7b
akSVG43x.lha       util/dtype  62K   0+AkSVG-dt V43.9 (SVG, 68000-060)
amis_html.lha      comm/www    17K   0+WYSIWYG HTML editor for AMIS.
ar415.lha          docs/mags   86K   0+Amiga Report 4.15, December 31, 1996
amirc11_efnet.lha  comm/tcp    10K   0+Patch AmIRC 1.1 for broken Efnet ser
SSpeed21.lha       util/moni  349K   0+SysSpeed V 2.1 - THE Speedtester ! 
MysticView0.68.lha gfx/show    39K   0+MysticView a new viewer using Render
BloodBath10.lha    game/shoot 1.8M   0+A take'em-out-game with digitized gr
memdiff.lha        util/wb      6K   0+Shows memory usage of programs (MUI)
FractalDynamis.lha gfx/misc    19K 204+Yet another fractals generation prog
mw10.lha           util/wb      7K   0+Show memory in a window on WB
Identify.lha       util/libs   68K   0+Expansions, Hardware, Alerts, Functi
pcxdemo21.lha      misc/emu   527K   1+PCx Demo V2.1  Software x86 PC Emula
hippoupdate.lha    mus/play    50K   0+HippoPlayer v2.37 update 68000 fix
BlizzMagic.lha     util/boot   12K   0+V3.3 Softkicker+ for Blizzard 1230/4

| The highest rated programs during the week until 5-Jan-97
| Updated weekly. Best program on top. Please rate all the programs you
| download. To do so, send to aminet-server@wuarchive.wustl.edu :
| RATE <path> <num>
| where <path> is the file you want to judge and <num> is a mark from 0..10
| with 10 being the best. You can rate several programs in one mail, but
| don't rate your own programs. Example: RATE dev/gui/mui23usr.lha 8
|
|File              Dir        Size Age Description
|----------------- ---        ---- --- -----------
ManiacBall.lha     game/misc  427K   8+A multiplayer Breakout game V1.3
HL2Voyager.lha     comm/www     2K  33+Arexx script for converting hotlist
Play16_1.7.lha     mus/play   105K   4+Multi format sound player, supports
akJFIF43x.lha      util/dtype 209K   0+AkJFIF-dt V43.19 (JPEG, 68000-060)
PPaint7_Demo.lha   biz/cloan  540K   2+Cloanto Personal Paint 7 Demo Softwa
EO220.lha          biz/misc   313K   4+Everyday Organiser 2.20 (MUI) 
YAM13_4.lha        comm/mail  512K   2+MUI Internet mailer V1.3.4
BlobzHD.lha        game/demo  657K   8+`Blobz` Playable demo (AGA+Hard disk
PacMan96.lha       game/misc  571K   2+Superb PacMan-Clone, systemfriendly
lionhd.lha         game/patch   4K   4+HD Installer for Lion King AGA
Graal2a.lha        game/role  341K  11+Graphic Adventure Authoring Language
CyberAVI17.lha     gfx/show    55K   5+AVI animation player for CyberGraphX
akGIF43x.lha       util/dtype  39K   2+AkGIF-dt V43.8 ("GIF", 68000-060)
ReqToolsUsr.lha    util/libs  157K   3+ReqTools 2.7 - the requester toolkit
SerialPrefs24.lha  util/sys    51K   5+V2.4 - Extended Serial Preferences f
akPNG43x.lha       util/dtype 184K   0+AkPNG-dt V43.9 (PNG, 68000-060)
ampu101.lha        game/2play 793K   6+VERY GOOD Worms 'clone' ,AGA,Freewar
BOR_part1.lha      game/misc  627K   2+The best BREAKOUT-game for AMIGA par
Angband_1.x.lha    game/role  254K  23+Angband 297v6s executable for Amiga
AlienFF.lha        game/shoot 178K   6+Platform Shoot'Em Up with lots of bl
VWorlds21.lha      misc/sci   1.2M  33+Images of sky from any planet or com
mwm210.lha         comm/www   161K   2+Magic Web Maker v2.10. (3.x OS only)
SP-ProjectMan.lha  dev/misc   119K   0+Multi-projects sources files manager
Vermone2.lha       game/actio 393K   1+A very configurable Worm game
knock_out.lha      game/actio 365K   9+The ultimate Break Out-type game.
ApexGolf.lha       game/demo  200K   4+Great new golfing game from Apex.
playpac.lha        game/misc  281K   8+Pacman game with random levels
lupe.lha           util/wb     55K   6+V1.7, The magnifying glass program
PowerTetris114.lha game/misc  448K   4+Cool & Smooth Tetris Game (ECS, Shar
DC-StefanGfx.lha   game/data   96K   0+New game-gfx for Diamond Caves
@endnode
@node MAILLIST "Amiga Report Mailing List"
@toc WHERE

===========================================================================
                        Amiga Report Mailing List
===========================================================================

If you have an internet mailing address, you can receive Amiga Report in
@{"UUENCODED" link UUENCODE} form each week as soon as the issue is released.  To be put on
the list, send Email to majordomo@ninemoons.com

Your subject header will be ignored.  In the body of the message, enter

subscribe areport

The system will automatically pull your e-mail address from the message
header.

Your account must be able to handle mail of any size to ensure an intact
copy.  For example, many systems have a 100K limit on incoming messages.


** IMPORTANT NOTICE:  PLEASE be certain your host can accept mail over   **
** 100K!  We have had a lot of bouncebacks recently from systems with a  **
** 100K size limit for incoming mail.  If we get a bounceback with your  **
** address in it, it will be removed from the list.  Thanks!             **
@endnode
@node UUENCODE
@toc MAILLIST

===========================================================================
                          UUDecoding Amiga Report
===========================================================================

If you receive Amiga Report from the direct mailing list, it will arrive in
UUEncoded format.  This format allows programs and archive files to be sent
through mail by converting the binary into combinations of ASCII
characters.  In the message, it will basically look like a lot of trash
surrounded by begin <filename> and end, followed by the size of the file.


To UUDecode Amiga Report, you first need to get a UUDecoding program, such
as UUxT by Asher Feldman.  This program is available on Aminet in

     pub/aminet/arc/

Then you must download the message that it is contained in.  Don't worry
about message headers, the UUDecoding program will ignore them.

There is a GUI interface for UUxT, which should be explained in the docs.
However, the quickest method for UUDecoding the magazine is to type

     uuxt x ar.uu

at the command prompt.  You will then have to decompress the archive with
lha, and you will then have Amiga Report in all of its AmigaGuide glory.

If you have any questions, you can write to @{"Jason Compton" link JASON}

@endnode
@node AMINET "Aminet"
@toc WHERE

                                  Aminet
                                  ======

To get Amiga Report from Aminet, simply FTP to any Aminet site, CD to
docs/mags.  All the back issues are located there as well.

Sites: ftp.netnet.net, ftp.wustl.edu, ftp.luth.se, ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk

@endnode
@node WWW "World Wide Web"
@toc WHERE

                              World Wide Web
                              ==============

AR is also available on the WWW!  Some of the mirror sites include a mail
form, allowing you to mail to Amiga Report from the web site and some also
include a search engine allowing you to search recent issues for specific
topics and keywords (if your browser has forms capability).  Simply tell
your browser to open one of the following URLs (pick a location nearest you
for the best performance):

Australia
     http://ArtWorks.apana.org.au/AmigaReport.html
     http://www.deepwoods.saccii.net.au/ar/menu.html
     http://www.livewire.com.au/amiga/cucug/ar/ar.html (w/search and mail) 
     http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~pec/amiga.html

Germany
     http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/amiga/ar/

Greece
     http://www.acropolis.net/clubs/amiga/amigareport/

Hungary
     http://mm.iit.uni-miskolc.hu/Data/AR

Italy
     http://www.vol.it/mirror/amiga/ar/ar.html

Poland
     http://www.pwr.wroc.pl/AMIGA/AR/

Sweden
     http://www.lysator.liu.se/amiga/ar/

United Kingdom
     http://ppewww.ph.gla.ac.uk/~gowdy/Amiga/AmigaReport/
     http://www.iprom.com/amigaweb/amiga.html/ar/ar.html (w/search and mail) 
     http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Users/kcci1

USA
     http://www.cucug.org/ar/ar.html (w/search and mail)
     http://www.omnipresence.com/Amiga/News/AR/

Additional Amiga information can also be accessed at this URL:
     http://www.cucug.org/amiga.html

Mosaic for the Amiga can be found on Aminet in directory comm/net, or
(using anonymous ftp) on max.physics.sunysb.edu
@endnode
@node COPYRIGHT "Copyright Information"
@toc ABOUT

===========================================================================
                Amiga Report International Online Magazine
                 January 23, 1997          Issue No. 5.01
                       Copyright 1997 FS Publications
                             All Rights Reserved
===========================================================================

Views, Opinions and Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of
the editors and staff of Amiga Report International Online Magazine or of
FS Publications.  Permission to reprint articles is hereby denied, unless
otherwise noted.  All reprint requests should be directed to the editor. 
Amiga Report and/or portions therein may not be edited in any way without
prior written permission.  However, translation into a language other than
English is acceptible, provided the editor is notified beforehand and the
original meaning is not altered.  Amiga Report may be distributed on
privately owned not-for-profit bulletin board systems (fees to cover cost
of operation are acceptable), and major online services such as (but not
limited to) Delphi and Amiga Zone.  Distribution on public domain disks is
acceptable provided proceeds are only to cover the cost of the disk (e.g. 
no more than $5 US).  CD-ROM compilers should contact the editor.  
Distribution on for-profit magazine cover disks requires written permission
from the editor.  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.  Amiga Report is not affiliated with Escom AG or
VIScorp.  All items quoted in whole or in part are done so under the Fair
Use Provision of the Copyright Laws of the United States Penal Code.  Any
Electronic Mail sent to the editors may be reprinted, in whole or in part,
without any previous permission of the author, unless said electronic mail
is specifically requested not to be reprinted.

===========================================================================
@endnode
@node GUIDELINE "Amiga Report Writing Guidelines"
@toc ABOUT

===========================================================================
                      Amiga Report Writing Guidelines
===========================================================================

The three most important requirements for submissions to Amiga Report are:

     1.  Please use English.

     2.  Please use paragraphs.  It's hard on the eyes to have solid
     screens of text.  If you don't know where to make a paragraph break,
     guess.

     3.  Please put a blank line in between paragraphs.  It makes
     formatting the magazine much much easier.

     4.  Please send us your article in ASCII format.

Note:  If you want to check ahead of time to make sure we'll print your
article, please write to the @{"Editor" link JASON}.

Please stipulate as well if you wish to retain copyright or hand it over to
the editor.
@endnode
@node ZONE "CalWeb"
@toc COMMERCIAL

===========================================================================
                    CalWeb: The Home of the Amiga Zone!
===========================================================================

AMIGA ZONE MOVES TO CALWEB!

THE AMIGA ZONE MOVES FROM PORTAL TO CALWEB INTERNET SERVICES

For over ten years the Amiga Zone has been an online resource, home,
community, oasis, for Amiga owners.

For over ten years I've made my living running the Zone and supporting Amiga
users all over the USA, Canada, and the world.

Five years ago when American People/Link pulled their own plug, we had to
find the Zone a new home and we found a good one on the Portal Online
System. 

Well, it's happened again.. Portal has informed all of its customers that
its ten year history as an online service and Internet provider is coming to
an end on Sept. 30, 1996.  This is very sad, it's short-notice, and the
decision is completely out of my control, but it's also irreversible.  

Portal is changing its entire business plan from being an ISP to selling an
accounting system to other online services.  

So be it. It's sad, but like I said, the Zone went through this before and
now we'll go through it again, and come out the other side better and wiser.

THE AMIGA ZONE IS MOVING TO CALWEB INTERNET SERVICES.

CalWeb (http://www.calweb.com) is a two year old Internet provider located
in Sacramento, CA.  It has a good sized customer base, and very
knowledgeable support staff. 

It's also run by a long time Amiga owner who has been a friend of mine for
many years.

The world of modeming has changed much in the last ten years.  In 1985 you
had very few choices and you had 1200 baud.  These days, everyone and his
dog has an ISP running and a web page

But the vast majority of those providers don't know an Amiga from a hole in
the ground, and could care less about Amiga owners.  Say "AWeb" or
"IBrowse" to them and they'll say "Omega?  Amoeba?  What?  Huh?  They still
make those things?"

CalWeb is different because it's the new home of the Amiga Zone.

In October 1996, a new custom front-end menued system will be added to
CalWeb to host the Zone.  It'll have features for Zone users that neither
Plink nor Portal ever had nor were they willing to add.

The tradition of a friendly online Amiga community, run by long time Amiga
owners, users and lovers will continue. 

Message bases, huge file libraries (we plan to move over the 20,000+ files
we have on the Zone on Portal to CalWeb, MANY of which you'll never see on
Aminet or anywhere else), live nightly chats, vendor support and our famous
prize contests will continue.

We've given away tens of thousands of dollars worth of Amiga prizes in the
last ten years.  No one else even comes close. 

I urge any and all of you who were on Plink, or who are now on Portal or
who may have left Portal..  or even if you were never on either but used or
still use another online service to join CalWeb for the Amiga Zone.  I
personally promise you the best online Amiga community we can possibly
build.  You will not be disappointed.


CalWeb has arranged a special signup offer for you!

Call:
 1-800-509-9322
  or
 1-916-641-9320
  or telnet to calweb.com, login as "guest", and follow the prompts. 

You can join CalWeb for US$19.95 flat, a month.

CalWeb takes major credit cards or you can establish a monthly invoiced
account if you don't have plastic.

The signup is FREE.

To get this deal you must say "THE AMIGA ZONE SENT ME" when you call or
signup online. 

I hope to see lots of you join CalWeb.  You can telnet into it from
anywhere for no hourly charges at all.  Your $19.95/mo fee covers
everything and also gets you ten meg of storage which includes hosting your
own personal web page.  Naturally, when the Zone opens there, you'll have
unlimited use of all of its features and areas.  Never a "money meter"
clock to worry about.

Your personal or business CalWeb Web pages are maintained by you via FTP. 
It's pretty slick.  You can make a net connection to the server with any
Amiga FTP client, put your files onto it, the permissions are automatically
set (no "chmod-ing" required!) and flip to your running browser and see the
changes instantly.

The Amiga Zone's new home is already up at:

         http://www.amigazone.com

running on CalWeb's server.  Ckeck it out!

Please feel free to write to me at harv@amigazone.com or harv@cup.portal.com
if you want more information.

Remember to say "THE AMIGA ZONE SENT ME!" when you join.

A splendid time is guaranteed for all.  

Please plan to join us in the Amiga Zone on CalWeb!

@endnode
@node BBS_ASIA "Distribution BBSes - Asia"
@toc BBS

===========================================================================
                         Distribution BBSes - Asia
===========================================================================

-= IRAN =-

* MAVARA BBS *
0098 21 8740815


-=JAPAN=-

* GIGA SONIC FACTOR *
Email: kfr01002@niftyserve.or.jp
+81-(0)564-55-4864

@endnode
@node BBS_AUSTRALASIA "Distribution BBSes - Australasia"
@toc BBS

===========================================================================
                     Distribution BBSes - Australasia
===========================================================================

-=NEW ZEALAND=-

* BITSTREAM BBS *
FidoNET 3:771/850.0
AmigaNET 41:644/850.0
+64-(0)3-548-5321


-=VICTORIA=-

* NORTH WEST AMIGA BBS *
mozza@nwamiga.apana.org.au
Fido: 3:633/265.0
BBS Phone/Fax: +61 3 9331 2831
@endnode
@node BBS_EUROPE "Distribution BBSes - Europe"
@toc BBS

===========================================================================
                        Distribution BBSes - Europe
===========================================================================

-= BELGUIM =-

* VIRTUAL VORTEX BBS *
vzpirit@hotmail.com
+32-2-3873391


-=DENMARK=-

* NEMESIS AMY BBS *
boersting@hoa.ping.dk
Fido: 2:238/43
+45 75-353726


-=FINLAND=-

* HANG UP BBS * (telnettable)
helpdesk@hangup.dystopia.fi
+358 - 09 - 278 8054

* LAHO BBS *
+358-64-414 1516   +358-64-414 0400
+358-64-414 6800   +358-64-423 1300

* KINDERGARTEN *
matthias.bartosik@hut.fi
+358-0-881 32 36


-=FRANCE=-

* DYNAMIX BBS *
erlsoft@mcom.mcom.fr
+33.1.48.89.96.66 Minitel to Modem

* RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING *
Fidonet: 2/320/104-105-106
+33-1-45845623   +33-1-53791200


-=GERMANY=-

* DOOM OF DARKNESS *
marc_doerre@doom.ping.de
+49 (0)4223 8355 19200
AR-Infoservice, kai@doom.gun.de

* IMAGINE BBS *
Sysop@imagine.commo.mcnet.de
+49-69-4304948
Login: GAST (Download area:  "Amiga-Report")

* LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL *
andreas@lbcmbx.in-berlin.de
49-30-8110060   49-30-8122442
Login as User: "amiga", Passwd: "report"

* REDEYE BBS *
sysop@coolsurf.de
Modem/ISDN: +49-89.54662690
Modem only:+49.89.54662680

* STINGRAY  DATABASE *
sysop@sting-db.zer.sub.org.dbp.de
+49 208 496807

* VISION THING BBS *
++49(0)345 663914
System Password: Amiga


-=GREECE=-

* HELLAS ON LINE *
cocos@prometheus.hol.gr
Telnet: hellas.hol.gr
++301/ 620-6001, 620-6604, 620-9500

* LOGIC SYSTEMS BBS *
Paddy@hol.gr
(301) 983-4645

* ODYSSEY BBS *
odyssey@acropolis.net
Amiganet: 39:250/1.0
++301-4123502   23.00-09.00 Local Time
WWW: www.acropolis.net/~konem/odygb.html


-=IRELAND=-

* FWIBBLE!  *
E-Mail: 9517693@ul.ie
Fidonet: 2:263/900.0
Phone: +353-902-36124    Midnight to 8am (GMT)
Freq "Readme.txt" for details


-=ITALY=-

* AMIGA PROFESSIONAL BBS *
+(39)-49-604488

* AMIPRO BBS*
+39-49604488

* DB-LINE SRL *
amiga@dbline.it
WWW: www.dbline.it
+39-332-767383

* FRANZ BBS *
mc3510@mclink.it
+39/6/6627667

* IDCMP *
Fidonet 2:322/405
+39-542-25983

* SPEED OF LIFE *
FidoNet 2:335/533
AmigaNet 39:102/12
+39-931-833773


-=NETHERLANDS=-

* AMIGA ONLINE BS HEEMSTEDE *
Email: sysop@aobh.xs4all.nl
Fidonet: 2:280/464.0, 2:280/412.0
+31-23-5471111   +31-23-5470739

* THE HELL BBS *
Email : root@hell.xs4all.nl
FidoNet: 2:281/418.0
+31-(0)70-3468783

* MACRON BBS HEILOO *
Email: macron@cybercomm.nl
FidoNet: 2:280/134.0
+31-(0)72-5340903

* TRACE BBS GRONINGEN *
Martin@trace.idn.nl
FidoNET 2:282/529.0
+31-(0)-50-410143

* WILD PALMS *
radavi@xs4all.nl
WWW: www.xs4all.nl/~radavi/wildpalms/wildpalm.html
+31-(0)30-6037959

* X-TREME BBS *
u055231@vm.uci.kun.nl
+31-167064414


-=POLAND=-

* SILVER DREAM!'S BBS *
+48 91 540431


-=PORTUGAL=-

* CIUA BBS *
denise.ci.ua.pt
FidoNet 2:361/9
+351-34-382080/382081


-=RUSSIA=-

* NEW ORDER BBS *
norder@norder.spb.su
FidoNet: 2:5030/221.0
+7-812-2909561


-=SPAIN=-

* GURU MEDITATION *
+34-1-383-1317

* LA MITAD OSCURA *
jovergon@offcampus.es
Fido: 2:341/35.19
+34-1-3524613

* MAZAGON - BBS - SYSTEMS *
jgomez@maze.mazanet.es
FTP: ftp-mail@ftp.mazanet.es
+34 59 536267
Login: a-report


-=SWEDEN=-

* CICERON *
a1009@itv.se
+46 612 22011


-=SWITZERLAND=-

* USE COMMUNICATIONS POP ZUG *
wenk@use.ch
+41 41 763 17 41


-=TURKIYE=-

* NEEDFUL THINGS *
Erdinc.Corbaci@beygir.bbs.tr
90-216-3629417


-=UKRAINE=-

* AMIGA HOME BBZ *
Oleg.Khimich@bbs.te.net.ua
FidoNet: 2:467/88.0
+380-482-325043


-=UNITED KINGDOM=-

* AMIGA JUNCTION 9 *
sysadmin@junct9.demon.co.uk
FidoNet: 2:440/20
+44 (0)372 271000

* CREATIONS BBS *
mat@darkside.demon.co.uk
2:254/524@Fidonet
+44-0181-665-9887

* DRAUGHTFLOW BBS *
Ian_Cooper@draught.demon.co.uk
+44 (01707) 328484

* METNET CCS *
metnet@demon.co.uk
FidoNet: 2:2502/129.0  2:2502/130.0
+44-1482-442251   +44-1482-444910

* OCTAMED USER BBS *
rbfsoft@cix.compulink.co.uk
+44 (01703) 703446

* SCRATCH BBS *
kcci1@solx1.susx.ac.uk
+44-1273-389267


-=YUGOSLAVIA=-

* UNIVERSE BBS *
sule@universe.bc.co.ui
+381-(0)21-741084
@endnode
@node BBS_NAMERICA "Distribution BBSes - North America"
@toc BBS

===========================================================================
                    Distribution BBSes - North America
===========================================================================

-=ARIZONA=-

* MESSENGER OF THE GODS BBS *
mercury@primenet.com
602-326-1095


-=BRITISH COLUMBIA=-

* COMM-LINK BBS *
steve_hooper@comm.tfbbs.wimsey.com
Fido: 1:153/210.0
604-945-6192


-=CALIFORNIA=-

* TIERRA-MIGA BBS *
torment.cts.com
FidoNet: 1:202/638.0
619.292.0754

* VIRTUAL PALACE BBS *
tibor@ecst.csuchico.edu
916-343-7420

* AMIGA AND IBM ONLY BBS *
vonmolk@crash.cts.com
AmigaNET: 40:406/7.0
(619)428-4887


-=FLORIDA=-

* LAST! AMIGA BBS *
(305) 456-0126


-=ILLINOIS=-

* PHANTOM'S LAIR *
FidoNet: 1:115/469.0
Phantom Net Coordinator: 11:1115/0.0-11:1115/1.0
708-469-9510 708-469-9520

* THE SAGE'S TOWER *
johnh@ezl.com
FidoNet: 1:2250/7
618-259-1844

* STARSHIP CUCUG *
khisel@prairienet.org
(217)356-8056

* THE STYGIAN ABYSS BBS *
FIDONet-1:115/384.0
312-384-0616   312-384-6250 (FREQ line)


-=LOUISIANA=-

* The Catacomb *
Geoff148@delphi.com
504-882-6576


-=MAINE=-

* THE KOBAYASHI ALTERNATIVE BBS *
FidoNet: 1:326/404.0
FTP: ftp.tka.com
(207)/784-2130   (207)/946-5665


-=MEXICO=-

* AMIGA BBS *
FidoNet  4:975/7
(5) 887-3080

* AMIGA SERVER BBS *
5158736

* TERCER PLANETA BBS *
FX Network 800:525/1
[525]-606-2162


-=MISSISSIPPI=-

* THE GATEWAY BBS *
stace@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil
FidoNet: 1:3604/60.0
601-374-2697


-=MICHIGAN=-

* DC PRODUCTIONS *
dcpro!chetw@heifetz.msen.com
616-373-0287


-=NEVADA=-

* PUP-TEK BBS *
darkwolf@accessnv.com
702-553-2403

-=NEW JERSEY=-

* T.B.P.  VIDEO SLATE *
201-586-3623

* DLTACOM AMIGA BBS *
dltacom.camphq.fidonet.org
Fidonet: 1:2606/216.0
(201) 398-8559


-=NEW YORK=-

* THE BELFRY(!) *
stiggy@belfry.org
WWW: www.belfry.org
718.793.4796   718.793.4905


-=ONTARIO=-

* COMMAND LINE BBS *
416-533-8321

* CYBERSPACE *
joehick@ophielia.waterloo.net
(519) 579-0072   (519) 579-0173

* EDGE OF REALITY BBS *
murray.smith@er.gryn.org
Fido: 1:244/320.0
(905)578-5048


-=QUEBEC=-

* CLUB AMIGA DE QUEBEC *
Internet: snaclaq@megatoon.com
Voice: (418) 666-5969
(418) 666-4146   (418) 666-6960
Nom d'usager: AMREPORT   Mot de passe: AMIGA

* GfxBase BBS*
E-mail: ai257@freenet.hsc.colorado.edu
Fidonet: 1:167/192
514-769-0565


-=TENNESSEE=-

* AMIGA CENTRAL! *
root@amicent.raider.net
615-383-9679

* NOVA BBS *
FidoNet 1:362/508.0
615-472-9748


-=VIRGINIA=-

* NETWORK XXIII DATA SYSTEM *
gottfrie@acca.nmsu.edu
804-266-1763
Login: anon   Password: nopass


-=WASHINGTON=-

* FREELAND MAINFRAME *
freemf.wa.com
(360)412-0228

* PIONEERS BBS *
FidoNet: 1:343/54.0
206-775-7983
Login: Long Distance   Password: longdistance   Or FREQ: AR.lha
@endnode
@node BBS_SAMERICA "Distribution BBSes - South America"
@toc BBS

===========================================================================
                    Distribution BBSes - South America
===========================================================================

-=BRAZIL=-

* 68000 BBS *
vaclav@centroin.com.br
AmigaNET-BR: 120:5521/1
+55-21-393-4390   [16-06h (-3GMT)]

* LITHIUM SYSTEMS BBS *
pa100137@datacontrol.com.br
051-632-2805 (00:00 - 08:30)

* STUFF OVERLOAD BBS *
dan_cab@lepus.celepar.br
AmigaNET-BR: 120:120/0
+55-41-252-9389

@endnode
@node DEAL_ASIA "Dealers - Asia"
@toc DEALER

===========================================================================
                              Dealers - Asia
===========================================================================

-=JAPAN=-

Grey Matter Ltd.
1-22-3,Minami Magome
HillTop House 2F suite 201
Ota-ku,Tokyo 143
Tel:+81 (0)3 5709-5549
Fax:+81 (0)3 5709-1907
BBS: +81 (0)3 5709-1907
nighty@gmatter.japan-online.or.jp


                              -= MAYLAYSIA =-

Innovations Lights & Magic (M) Sdn Bhd,
A1106, University Towers, 28, Jalan Universiti,
46200, Petaling Jaya,
Selangor Darul Ehsan
Tel: +6 03 7544544
Fax: +6 03 7544588
skchiew@pc.jaring.my

@endnode
@node DEAL_AUSTRALASIA "Dealers - Australasia"
@toc DEALER

===========================================================================
                           Dealers - Australasia
===========================================================================

-=AUSTRALIA=-

Amadeus Computers
1/534 Old Northern Rd
Round Corner, NSW 2158
Voice: 02 9651 1711
Fax: 02 9651 1710
WWW: www.ca.com.au/amadeus
amadeus@ca.com/au

Amiga Genius
826 Hunter St.
Newcastle West, NSW 2302
Ph: +61 49 623-222   Fax: +61 49 623-583
cdgtb@hunterlink.net.au

Amiga 'n PC Centre Pty Ltd
644 South Road Glandore
Adelaide, SA 5037
Phone: (08) 8293 8752
Fax: (08) 8293 8814
melbice@cobweb.com.au

Amiga Technologies (Not ESCOM related)
17 Thompson Circuit
Mill Park, VIC 3082
Phone: (03) 9436 5555
Fax: (03) 9436 9935
WWW: http://lion.cs.latrobe.edu.au/~laburacj/amitech.html
laburacj@lion.cs.latrobe.edu.au

Amilight Pty Ltd
47A Tate Street
South Perth, Western Australia, 6151
Phone: (09) 367 4422
Fax: (09) 3674482
WWW: www.vianet.net.au/~dwark
dwark@vianet.net.au

Amitar Home Computer Systems
Unit 1, 25 Gillim Drive
Kelmscott, WA 6111
Phone: (09) 495 4905
Fax: (09) 495 4905
WWW: http://crystal.com.au/~amitar/
amitar@crystal.com.au

Byte One
24 Silverton Drive
Ferntree Gully, VIC 3156
Phone: (03) 9752 3991
gordon@ozramp.net.au

Computa Magic Pty Ltd
44 Pascoe Vale Road
Moonee Ponds, VIC 3039
Phone: (03) 9326 0133
Fax: (03) 9370 8352

Computer Affair
337 Penshurst Street
Willoughby, NSW 2068
Phone: (02) 9417 5155
Fax: (02) 9417 5542
WWW: www.computeraffair.com.au
sales@computeraffair.com.au

Computer Man
611 Beaufort Street
Mt.  Lawley, WA 6050
Phone: (09) 328 9062
Fax: (09) 275 1010
WWW: www.iinet.net.au/~cman
cman@iinet.net.au

Desktop Utilities
PO BOX 3053
Manuka, ACT 2603
Phone: (06) 239 6658
Fax: (06) 239 6619
WWW: ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/~dtu
100026.1706@compuserve.com

Don Quixote Software
PO BOX 786
Toowoomba, QLD 4350
Phone: (076) 391 578
Fax: (076) 320 145
donq@tmba.design.net.au

Exclusive Computer Systems
Street: 34 Weston Street Weston, N.S.W.  2326
Postal: P.O.  Box 68, Weston, N.S.W.  2326
Phone: (049) 361213
Fax: (049) 36 1213
Email: peter.archer@fastlink.com.au

Fonhoff Computer Supplies
Baulkham Hills, NSW 2153
Phone: (02) 9639 7718
Fax: (02) 9639 5995
WWW: http://godzilla.zeta.org.au/~jfonhof
jfonhof@zeta.org.au

GSoft
Shop 4, 2 Anderson Walk
Smithfield, SA 5114
Phone: (08) 8284 1266
Fax: (08) 8284 0922
gsoft@cobweb.com.au

Image Domain
92 Bridge St
Fortitude Valley, Brisbane Queensland
Voice: 617-3216-1240   Fax: 617-3852-2720
imagedomain@msn.com

Motherboard Computers
Suite 19, 9-11 Abel Street
Penrith, NSW 2750
Phone: (047) 222 803
Fax: (047) 215 277
WWW: www.pnc.com.au/~mother
mother@pnc.com.au

MVB
506-508 Dorset Road
Croydon, VIC 3136
Phone: (03) 9725 6255
Fax: (03) 9725 6766

Sigmacom
Suite 16, 20-24 Gibbs Street
Miranda, NSW 2228
Phone: (02) 9524 9846
Fax: (02) 9549 4554
WWW: www.sigma.com.au

Software Buyers Service
PO BOX 734
Belmont, VIC 3216
Phone/Fax: (052) 431 445
arne@euphoria.bay.net.au

Software Circus
27 Darling Street
Kensington, NSW 2033
Phone: (02) 9313 8484

Synapse Computers
190 Riding Road
Hawthorne, Brisbane Queensland 4171
Voice/Fax: +61 7-3899-0980
WWW: www.powerup.com.au/~synapse/
synapse@powerup.com.au

Unitech Electronics Pty. Ltd. / Maverick Amiga
8B Tummul Place
St. Andrews, Sydney 2566
Voice: +61 2 9820 3555
Fax: +61 2 9603 8685

Valhalla: Games and Hobbies
493 Wellington Street
Perth, 6000
Phone: (09) 321 2909

Westcomp
96 Bentinck Street
Bathurst, NSW 2795
Phone: (063) 322 611
Fax: (063) 322 623


-=NEW ZEALAND=-

CompKarori
LG/F Karori Shopping Mall
Karori, Wellington
Tel/Fax: +64 4 476-0212
sales@compkarori.co.nz
@endnode
@node DEAL_EUROPE "Dealers - Europe"
@toc DEALER

===========================================================================
                             Dealers - Europe
===========================================================================


-=AUSTRIA=-

A.R.T.  Computeranimation Ges.m.b.H.
Feldstrasse 13
3300 Amstetten
Tel: +43 7472/63566-0
Fax: +43 7472/63566-6

Solaris Computec Ges.m.b.H.
Mariahilfpark 1
A-6020 Innsbruck
Tel: ++43-512/272724
Fax: ++43-512/272724-2
solaris@computec.co.at


-=BELGIUM=-

AVM Technology
Rue de Rotheux, 279
B-4100 Seraing
Voice: +32 (0)41 38.16.06
Fax: +32 (0)41 38.15.69
defraj@mail.interpac.be

CLICK!  N.V.
Boomsesteenweg 468
B-2610 Wilrijk - Antwerpen
Voice: +32 (0)3 828.18.15
Fax: +32 (0)3 828.67.36
vanhoutv@nbre.nfe.be


-=BULGARIA=-

KlubVerband ITA Gmbh
1309 Sofia
P.F.13, KukushStr.  1-2
Contact: Dr. ING B. Pavlov
Tel: +359-2-221471
Fax: +359-2-230062
KVITA@VIRBUS.BG


-=DENMARK=-

Data Service
Att.  Soren Petersen
Kaerhaven2a 2th
6400 Sonderborg
Phone/Fax: +45 74 43 17 36
sorpe-95@sdbg.ih.dk


-=FINLAND=-

Gentle Eye ky
PL 8
33841 Tampere
Phone: 358-3-363-0048
Fax: 358-3-363-0058
WWW: www.ge.vip.fi
ge@vip.fi

Lincware Computers Ltd
Lovkullankuja 3
10300 KARJAA
Voice: +358-50-5573696
Fax: +358-11-231511
linctech@freenet.hut.fi


-=FRANCE=-

ASCII Informatique
10 Rue de Lepante
06000 NICE
Tel: (33) 93 13 08 66
Fax: (33) 93 13 90 95

Quartz Infomatique
2 bis, avenue de Brogny
F-74000 ANNECY
Tel./Fax: +33 50.52.83.31
tcp@imaginet.fr


-=GERMANY=-

AMItech Systems GmbH
Ludwigstrasse 4
D-95028 Hof/Saale
Voice: +49 9281 142812
Fax: +49 9281 142712
WWW: www.hof.baynet.de/~mediatech
mediatech@hof.baynet.de

dcp, desing+commercial partner GmbH
Alfredstr.  1
D-22087 Hamburg
Tel.: + 49 40 251176
Fax: +49 40 2518567
WWW: www.dcp.de
info@dcp.de

Hartmann & Riedel GdbR
Hertzstr.  33
D-76287 Rheinstetten
Voice: +49 (7242) 2021
Fax: +49 (7242) 2167
rick@p22.aop.schiele-ct.de
Please call before visiting

Hirsch & Wolf OHG
Mittelstra_e 33
D-56564 Neuwied
Voice: +49 (2631) 8399-0
Fax: +49 (2631) 8399-31

Pro Video Elektronik
Roßmarkt 38
D-63739 Aschaffenburg
Tel: (49) 6021 15713
Fax: (49) 6021 15713


-=ITALY=-

C.A.T.M.U.  snc
Casella Postale 63
10023 Chieri (TO)
Tel/Fax: +39 11 9415237
fer@inrete.it (Ferruccio Zamuner)

Cloanto Italia srl
Via G.  B.  Bison 24
33100 Udine
Tel: +39 432 545902
Fax: +39 432 609051
WWW: www.cloanto.com
info@cloanto.com


-=NETHERLANDS=-

Chaos Systems
Watermolen 18
NL-1622 LG Hoorn (NH)
Voice: +31-(0)229-233922
Fax/Data: +31-(0)229-TBA
WWW: gene.fwi.uva.nl/~marioh/
marioh@fwi.uva.nl


-=NORWAY=-

Applause Data AS
Storgaten 31
Postboks 143
2830 Raufoss
Voice: +47 61 19 03 80
Fax: +47 61 19 05 80
WWW: www.applause.no
post@applause.no


-=SPAIN=-

Amiga Center
Argullós, 127
08016 Barcelona
Tel: (93) 276 38 06
Fax: (93) 276 30 80

Amiga Center Alicante
Segura, 27
03004 Alicante
Tel: (96) 514 37 34

Audio Vision
San Jose, 53
Gijon (Asturias)
Tel: (98) 535 24 79

Centro Informático Boadilla
Convento, 6
28660 Boadilla del Monte (Madrid)
Tel: (91) 632 27 65
Fax: (91) 632 10 99

Centro Mail
Tel: (91) 380 28 92

C.R.E.
San Francisco, 85
48003 Bilbao (Vizcaya)
Tel: (94) 444 98 84
Fax: (94) 444 98 84

Donosti Frame
Avda.  de Madrid, 15
20011 San Sebastián (Guipuzcoa)
Tel: (943) 42 07 45
Fax: (943) 42 45 88

Eurobit Informatica
C/.  Gral.  Garcia de la Herran, 4
11100 - San Fernando
Cadiz
Tel/Fax: (956) 896375

GaliFrame
Galerías Príncipe, 22
Vigo (Pontevedra)
Tel: (986) 22 89 94
Fax: (986) 22 89 94

Invision
San Isidro, 12-18
28850 Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid)
Tel: (91) 676 20 56/59
Fax: (91) 656 10 04

Invision
Salamanca, 53
46005 Valencia
Tel: (96) 395 02 43/44
Fax: (96) 395 02 44

Norsoft
Bedoya, 4-6
32003 Orense
Tel: (988) 24 90 46
Fax: (988) 23 42 07

PiXeLSOFT
Felipe II, 3bis
34004 Palencia
Tel: (979) 71 27 00
Fax: (979) 71 28 28

Tu Amiga Ordinadors
C/ Progreso, 6
08120 La LLagosta (Barcelona)
Tel: +34-3-5603604
Fax: +34-3-5603607

vb soft
Provenza, 436
08025 Barcelona
Tel: (93) 456 15 45
Fax: (93) 456 15 45


-=NORWAY=-

DataKompaniet ANS
Trondheim Innovation Centre
Prof.  Brochs gt.  6
N-7030 Trondheim
Tel: +47 7354 0375
Fax: +47 7394 3861
WWW: www.datakompaniet.no
post@datakompaniet.no

Sezam Software
Ulsmågveien 11a
N-5o5o Nesttun
Tel/Fax: +47 55100070 (9-20)
ABBS: +47 55101730 (24t)
Email: oleksy@telepost.no


-=SWEDEN=-

DataVision
Box 1305
753 11 Uppsala
Street Address: Sysslomansgatan 9
Orders: +46 (0)18-123400
Shop: +46 (0)18-124009
Fax: +46 (0)18-100650

Orebro Videoreklam
Slottsgatan 12
703 61 OREBRO
Tel/Fax: +46 (0)19-123807
WWW: www.flevel.co.uk/videoking
videoking@mbox200.swipnet.se


-=SWITZERLAND=-

RELEC Software & Hardware AMIGA
Village du Levant 2B CH 1530 PAYERNE
Tel: +26 660 02 82
Fax: +26 660 0283
Relec@com.mcnet.ch

Studio 4D
Deinikonerstrasse 14
6340 Baar
Voice: +41 41 763 17 47
Fax: +41 41 763 17 48
studio4d@zug.use.ch


                            -=UNITED KINGDOM=-

5DLicenceware
1 Lower Mill Close
Goldthorpe
Rotherham
South Yorkshire S63 9BY
Tel/Fax: 01709 888127
WWW: www.ware5d.demon.co.uk
phil@ware5d.demon.co.uk

Almathera Systems Ltd
Southerton House
Boundary Business Court
92-94 Church Road
Mitcham, Surrey  CR4 3TD
Voice: 081 687 0040
Fax: 081 687 0490
Sales: almathera@cix.compulink.co.uk
Tech: jralph@cix.compulink.co.uk

Brian Fowler Computers Ltd
90 South Street
Exeter, Devon  EX1 1EN
Voice: (01392) 499 755
Fax: (01392) 493 393
brian_fowler@cix.compulink.co.uk

Computer Magic
Unit 8 
Freemans Yard
Doncaster Road, Barnsley  S71 1QH
Tel: 01226 218255 / 0378 425281

Visage Computers
27 Watnall Road
Hucknall, Nottingham
Tel: +44 (0)115 9642828
Tel/Fax: +44 (0)115 9642898
visage@innotts.co.uk
@endnode
@node DEAL_NAMERICA "Dealers - North America"
@toc DEALER

===========================================================================
                          Dealers - North America
===========================================================================

-=CANADA=-

Animax Multimedia, Inc.
Willow Tree Tower
6009 Quinpool Road, Suite 802
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3K 5J7
Ph: (902) 429-1921
Fax: (902) 429-1923
WWW: www.animax.com/
info@animax.com

APC Computer Services
402-5 Tangreen Crt
Willowdale, Ont.  M2M 3Z1
Voice/Fax: (416) 733-1434
WWW: www.interlog.com/~shadow/apccomp.html
shadow@interlog.com

Atlantis Kobetek Inc.
1496 Lower Water St.
Halifax, NS / B3J 1R9
Phone: (902)-422-6556
Fax: (902)-423-9339
atkobetek@ra.isisnet.com

Atlas Computers & Consulting - Derek Davlut
400 Telstar Avenue Suite 701
Sudbury, ON / P3E 5V7
Phone: (705) 522-1923
Fax: (705) 522-1923
s2200147@nickel.laurentian.ca

CineReal Pro-Video
272 Avondale Avenue
Ottawa, Ontario K1Z 7G8
Phone/Fax: (613) 798-8150 (Call first to fax)
cinereal@proton.com

Computer Shop of Calgary, Ltd.
3515 - 18th Street S.W.
Calgary, Alberta T2T 4T9
Ph.  1-403-243-4358
Fx: 1-403-243-2684
WWW: www.canuck.com/cshop
austin@canuck.com

Computerology Direct
Powell River, BC  V8A-4Z3
Orders/inquiries: 604/483-3679 (24h)
Ask for HEAD SALES REP for quicker response!

Comspec Communications Inc
74 Wingold Ave
Toronto, Ontario M6B 1P5
Computer Centre: (416) 785-8348
Sales: (416) 785-3553
Fax: 416-785-3668
bryanf@comcorp.comspec.com, bryanf@accesspt.north.net

ElectroMike Inc.
1375 Boul.  Charest Ouest
Quebec, Quebec G1N2E7
Tel: (418) 681-4138, (800) 463-1501
Fax: (418) 681-5880

Forest Diskasaurus
35 Albert St., P.O.Box 84
Forest, Ontario N0N 1J0
Tel/Fax: 519-786-2454
saurus@xcelco.on.ca

FranTek
5-353 McArthur Avenue
Vanier, Ontario K1L 6N5
Phone: (613) 746-7854 ext 3
Fax/Modem: (613) 746-7854
WWW: www.travel-net.com/~frantek
frantek@travel-net.com

GfxBase Electronique, Inc
1727 Shevchenko
Montreal, Quebec
Voice: 514-367-2575
Fax: 514-367-5265
BBS: 514-769-0565

Le Groupe PowerLand
630 Champagne
Rosemere, Quebec J7A 4K9
Voice: 514-893-6296
Fax/BBS: 514-965-7295
mchabot@nationalnet.com

National Amiga
Oakville, Ontario
Fax: 905-845-3295
WWW: www.interlog.com/~gscott/NationalAmiga.html
gscott@interlog.com

Oby's Amigo Computing Shop
765 Barrydowne Rd
Sudbury, Ontario P3A 3T6
Voice/Fax: (705)524-5826
WWW: icewall.vianet.on.ca/pages/obys
obys@vianet.on.ca

Oshawa Amiga
Oshawa, ON L1J 5J8
Phone: (905) 728-7048
mjacula@idirect.com

Randomize Computers
R.R.  #2
Tottenham, Ont.  L0G 1W0
vox: 905-939-8371
fax: 905-939-8745
WWW: www.interlog.com/~randomize/
randomize@interlog.com

Software Supermart
11010 - 101 Street
Edmonton, Alberta T5H-2T1
Voice: (403) 425-0691
Fax: (403) 426-1701
ssmart@planet.eon.net

SpectrumTech Electronics
Contact: Derek Clarke
412-1205 Fennell Avenue East
Hamilton, ON L8T 1T1
Voice: (905) 388-9575
BBS: (905) 388-2542
ste@spectrum.gryn.org

Valley Soft
P.O.  Box 864
Pembroke, Ontario K8A 7M5
Phone: (613) 732-7700
Fax: (613) 732-8477
WWW: www.renc.igs.net/~valsoft

Wonder Computers Ottawa Retail Store
1315 Richmond Road
Ottawa, Ontario K2B 8J7
Voice: (613) 721-1800
Fax: 613-721-6992
WWW: www.wonder.ca

Wonder Computers Vancouver Sales Office
2229 Edinburgh St.
New Westminster, BC W3M 2Y2
Voice: (604) 524-2151

young monkey studios
797 Mitchell Street
Fredericton, NB   E3B 3S8
Phone: (506) 459-7088
Fax: (506) 459-7099
sales@youngmonkey.ca


-=UNITED STATES=-

A&D Computer
211 South St.
Milford, NH 03055-3743
Voice/Fax: 603-672-4700
BBS: 603-673-2788
amiga@mv.mv.com

Alex Electronics
597 Circlewood Dr.
Paradise, CA 95969
Voice/Fax: 916-872-3722
BBS: 915-872-3711
WWW: www.wordbench.com/
alex@wordbench.com

Amigability Computers
P.O.  Box 572
Plantsville, CT 06479
Voice: 203-276-8175
caldi@pcnet.com

Amiga-Crossing
PO Box 12A
Cumberland Center, ME 04021
Voice: (800) 498-3959 (Maine only
Voice: (207) 829-3959
Fax: (207) 829-3522
amiga-x@tka.com

Amiga Library Services
610 Alma School Rd, #18
Chandler, Az 85224-3687
Voice: (800) 804-0833
Fax: (602) 491-0048
orders@ninemoons.com

Amiga Video Solutions
1568 Randolph Avenue
St.  Paul, MN 55105
Voice: 612-698-1175
Fax: 612-224-3823
BBS: 612-698-1918
wohno001@maroon.tc.umn.edu

Applied Multimedia Inc.
89 Northill St.
Stamford, CT 06907
Voice: (203) 348-0108

Apogee Technologies
1851 University Parkway
Sarasota, FL 34243
Voice: 813-355-6121
Apogee@cup.portal.com

Armadillo Brothers
753 East 3300 South
Salt Lake City, Utah
Voice: 801-484-2791
B.GRAY@genie.geis.com

Computer Advantage
7370 Hickman Road
Des Moines, IA 50322
Voice/Fax: 515-252-6167
Number1@netins.net

Computer Concepts
18001 Bothell-Everett Hwy, Suite "0"
Bothell, WA 98012
Voice: (206) 481-3666

Computer Link
6573 middlebelt
Garden City MI 48135
Voice: 313-522-6005
Fax: 313-522-3119
clink@m-net.arbornet.org

The Computer Source
515 Kings Highway East
Fairfield, CT 06432
Voice: (203) 336-3100
Fax: (203) 335-3259

Computers International, Inc.
5415 Hixson Pike
Chattanooga, TN 37343
Voice: 615-843-0630

Computerwise Computers
3006 North Main
Logan, UT 84322

Concord Computer Solutions
2745 Concord Blvd.  Suite 5
Concord, CA 94519
Orders: 1-888-80-AMIGA
Info/Tech: 510-680-0143
BBS/Fax: 510-680-4987
WWW: www.ccompsol.com/
moxley@value.net

CPU Inc.
5168 East 65th St.
Indianapolis, IN 46220
Voice: 317-577-3677
Fax: 317-577-1500
cpuken@indy.net

CyberTech Labs
PO Box 56941
North Pole, Alaska  99705
Vox: (907) 451-3285
BBS1: (907) 488-2547
BBS2 & Fax: (907) 488-2647
71516.600@CompuServe.com

DC Productions
218 Stockbridge Avenue
Kalamazoo, MI 49001
Phone: (616)373-1985   (800)9DC-PROD
dcpro!chetw@heifetz.msen.com

Digital Arts
1321 North Walnut
P.O.  Box 5206
Bloomington, IN 47807-5206
Voice: (812)330-0124
Fax: (812)330-0126
BIX: msears

Digital Castle
4046 Hubbell Ave.  Suite 155
Des Moines, IA 50317-4434
Voice: (515) 266-5098
Sheep@netins.net

Digital F/X, Inc.
1930 Maple, Suite 7
North Bend, OR 97459
Voice: (800) 202-3285 / (541) 756-6693
WWW: www.digital-fx.com
DFX@Mail.coos.or.us

Discount Computer Sales
1100 Sunset Strip #5
Sunrise, FL 33313
Voice: 954-797-9402
Fax: 954-797-2999
DCS@aii.net, DCS@interpoint.net

Electronic Connection
635 Penn Ave
West Reading, PA 19611
Phone: 610-372-1010
Fax: 610-378-0996

Hawkeye Communication
1324 Fifth Street
Coralville, Iowa 52241
Voice: 319-354-3354
Hawkcom@inav.net

HHH Enterprises
Contact: Tom Harmon
PO Box 10
Hartwood, VA 22471
Voice: (540) 752-2100
ko4ox@erols.com

HT Electronics
211 Lathrop Way, Ste. A.
Sacramento, CA 95815
V: (916) 925-0900
F: (916) 925-2829
BIX: msears

HT Electronics
422 S. Hillview Dr.   
Milipitas, CA 95035   
V: (408) 934-7700 
F: (408) 934-7717 
BIX: msears

Industrial Video, Inc.
Contact: John Gray
1601 North Ridge Rd.
Lorain, OH  44055
Voice: 800-362-6150, 216-233-4000
af741@cleveland.freenet.edu

Kipp Visual Systems
360-C Christopher Ave.
Gaithersburg Md, 20878
Voice: 301-670-7906
kipp@rasputin.umd.edu

Krulewich Enterprises
554 Vega Dr
Corpus Christi, TX 78418
Voice: (512) 937-4624
1040.3444@compuserve.com

The Lively Computer - Tom Lively
8314 Parkway Dr.
La Mesa, CA 91942
Voice: 619-589-9455
Fax: 619-589-5230
tlively@connectnet.com

Magic Page
Contact: Patrick Smith
3043 Luther Street
Winston-Salem, NC 27127
Voice/Fax: 910-785-3695
spiff@ix.netcom.com

MicroSearch
9000 US 59 South, Suite 330
Houston, Texas
Voice: 713-988-2818
Fax: 713-995-4994

MicroTech Solutions, Inc.
17W745 Butterfield Road, Suite F
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181
Phone: 630-495-4069
Fax: 630-495-4245
WWW: www.mt-inc.com
info@mt-inc.com

Mr. Hardware Computers
P.O.  Box 148 / 59 Storey Ave.
Central Islip, NY 11722
Voice: 516-234-8110
Fax: 516-234-8110
A.M.U.G. BBS:  516-234-6046

Paxtron Corporation
28 Grove Street
Spring Valley, NY 10977
Voice: 914-576-6522
Orders: 800-815-3241
Fax: 914-624-3239

PSI Animations
17924 SW Pilkington Road
Lake Oswego, OR  97035
Voice:  503-624-8185
PSIANIM@agora.rain.com

Raymond Commodore Amiga
795 Raymond Avenue
St.  Paul, MN 55114-1521
Voice: 612-642-9890
Fax: 612-642-9891
BBS: 612-874-8342
WWW: www.visi.com/~raycomp
raycomp@visi.com

Safe Harbor Computers
W226 N900 Eastmound Dr
Waukesha, WI 53186
Orders: 800-544-6599
Fax: 414-548-8130
WWW: www.sharbor.com

Slipped Disk
170 E 12 Mile Rd
Madison Heights, Michigan 48071
Voice: (810) 546-DISK
BBS: (810) 399-1292

Software Plus Chicago
2945 W Peterson Suite 209
Chicago, Illinois
Voice:  312-878-7800

System Eyes Computer Store
730M Milford Rd Ste 345
Merrimack, NH 03054-4642
Voice: (603) 4244-1188
Fax: (603) 424-3939
j_sauter@systemeye.ultranet.com

TJ's Unlimited
P.O.  Box #354
North Greece, NY 14515-0354
Voice: 716-225-5810
BBS: 716-225-8631
neil@rochgte.fidonet.org

Zipperware
76 South Main St.
Seattle, WA  98104
Voice: 206-223-1107
Fax: 206-223-9395
WWW: www.speakeasy.org/zipperware
zipware@nwlink.com
@endnode
@node OPINION "Editorial and Opinion"
@toc MENU

===========================================================================
                           Editorial and Opinion
===========================================================================

@{"   compt.sys.editor.desk   " link EDITORIAL}  Five years of Amiga Report!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   News   " link NEWS} @{"  Opinion  " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{"  Reviews  " link REVIEW} @{"  Charts  " link FTP} @{"  Adverts  " link COMMERCIAL}
@endnode
@node NEWS "News & Press Releases"
@toc MENU

===========================================================================
                           News & Press Releases
===========================================================================

@{"     Amiga 4000T Raffle     " link NEWS8} NAG sponsors a 4060T raffle

@{"P-OS at Computer Graphics 97" link NEWS2} The would-be AmigaOS successor

@{"   Gateway Computer Show    " link NEWS9} St. Louis' Amiga extravaganza update

@{"   Upcoming UK Amiga Show   " link NEWS10} Another WOA UK is coming...

@{"        IAM Pricing         " link NEWS12} They're keeping the low prices

@{"       IAM Discovery        " link NEWS13} More Boing logos and a new treat

@{"    AmigaZone Web Access    " link NEWS6} AmigaZone gets a WWW interface

@{"     Easter 1997 Invite     " link NEWS1} Mekka and Symposium '97 parties

@{"          McAgenda          " link NEWS3} Straightforward phone book program 

@{"          McFiler           " link NEWS4} Catalogue/archive functions for Amiga

@{"          McCloud           " link NEWS5} Lock out floppy access

@{"     The Graffiti Card      " link NEWS7} A survey about the chunky adapter

@{"      Dynosaurus ROM        " link NEWS11} CD-ROM of prehistoric 3D objects

@{"   A3000 SCSI Chip Update   " link NEWS14} More news for A3000 users

@{"     UltraAccounts 3.4      " link NEWS15} A personal accounting program

@{"    AWN Popular Banners     " link NEWS16} Statistics from the Amiga Web Network

@{"      Cyclone Compiler      " link NEWS17} New Modula-2 Compiler on Aminet

@{"   Danish Amiga Magazine    " link NEWS18} AmigaAdvis is looking for readers

@{"         PC-Task 4          " link NEWS19} Chris Hames releases the latest

@{"    GTI Charts - Dec 96     " link NEWS20} Amiga distributor sales charts

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   News   " link NEWS} @{"  Opinion  " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{"  Reviews  " link REVIEW} @{"  Charts  " link FTP} @{"  Adverts  " link COMMERCIAL}
@endnode
@node FEATURE "Featured Articles"
@toc MENU

===========================================================================
                             Featured Articles
===========================================================================

@{"      CDTV Retrospective      " link FEATURE2} The definitive overview

@{"  Back To Personal Computing  " link FEATURE1} Message from Carl Sassenrath

@{"        FLD Complaints        " link FEATURE3} Fourth Level Development problems

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   News   " link NEWS} @{"  Opinion  " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{"  Reviews  " link REVIEW} @{"  Charts  " link FTP} @{"  Adverts  " link COMMERCIAL}
@endnode
@node REVIEW "Reviews"
@toc MENU

===========================================================================
                                  Reviews
===========================================================================

@{"    Capital Punishment    " link REVIEW8} Beat 'em up excellence.

@{" AmiFast A3000 RAM Board  " link REVIEW1} No more ZIPs!  SIMMs!

@{"         MindEYE          " link REVIEW3} Look at all the pretty colors...

@{"    Emulation Rambler     " link REVIEW2} It's been a while...

@{"         JetPilot         " link REVIEW4} No screaming babies on this flight.

@{"          Uropa²          " link REVIEW5} Isometric action, going commercial

@{"     Aminet 16 CD-ROM     " link REVIEW6} More Aminet!

@{"  OctaMED SoundStudio v1  " link REVIEW7} An introduction to the sound/MOD package

@{"     Meeting Pearls 4     " link REVIEW9} Another from the Pearls party

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   News   " link NEWS} @{"  Opinion  " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{"  Reviews  " link REVIEW} @{"  Charts  " link FTP} @{"  Adverts  " link COMMERCIAL}
@endnode
@node FTP "Aminet Charts"
@toc MENU

===========================================================================
                               Aminet Charts
===========================================================================

                             @{" 05-Jan-97 " link CHARTS3}

                             @{" 12-Jan-97 " link CHARTS1}

                             @{" 19-Jan-97 " link CHARTS2}

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   News   " link NEWS} @{"  Opinion  " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{"  Reviews  " link REVIEW} @{"  Charts  " link FTP} @{"  Adverts  " link COMMERCIAL}
@endnode
@node ABOUT "About AMIGA REPORT"
@toc MENU

===========================================================================
                            About AMIGA REPORT
===========================================================================

@{"        AR Staff         " link STAFF} The Editors and writers

@{"   Writing Guidelines    " link GUIDELINE} What you need to do to write for us

@{"  Copyright Information  " link COPYRIGHT} The legal stuff

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   News   " link NEWS} @{"  Opinion  " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{"  Reviews  " link REVIEW} @{"  Charts  " link FTP} @{"  Adverts  " link COMMERCIAL}
@endnode
@node STAFF "The Staff"
@toc ABOUT

===========================================================================
                                 The Staff
===========================================================================

               Editor:               @{" Jason Compton    " link JASON}

               Assistant Editor:     @{" Katherine Nelson " link KATIE}

               Games Editor:         @{" Ken Anderson     " link KEN}

               Contributing Editor:  @{" William Near     " link WILLIAM}

               Contributing Editor:  @{" Bohus Blahut     " link BOHUS}

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   News   " link NEWS} @{"  Opinion  " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{"  Reviews  " link REVIEW} @{"  Charts  " link FTP} @{"  Adverts  " link COMMERCIAL}
@endnode
@node WHERE "Where to Get AR"
@toc MENU

===========================================================================
                              Where to Get AR
===========================================================================

                         @{"   The AR Mailing List   " link MAILLIST}

                         @{"         Aminet          " link AMINET}

                         @{"     World Wide Web      " link WWW}

                         @{"   Distribution Sites    " link BBS}

                         @{"   Commercial Services   " link ZONE}

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   News   " link NEWS} @{"  Opinion  " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{"  Reviews  " link REVIEW} @{"  Charts  " link FTP} @{"  Adverts  " link COMMERCIAL}
@endnode
@node BBS "Distribution Sites"
@toc WHERE

===========================================================================
                            Distribution BBSes
===========================================================================

                          Arranged by Continent:

                          @{"      Asia       " link BBS_ASIA}

                          @{"   Australasia   " link BBS_AUSTRALASIA}

                          @{"     Europe      " link BBS_EUROPE}

                          @{"  North America  " link BBS_NAMERICA}

                          @{"  South America  " link BBS_SAMERICA}

Sysops: To have your name added, please send @{"Email", link JASON} with the BBS name,
its location (Country, province/state) your name, any internet/fidonet
addresses, and the phone number of your BBS

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   News   " link NEWS} @{"  Opinion  " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{"  Reviews  " link REVIEW} @{"  Charts  " link FTP} @{"  Adv @{"  Adverts  " link COMMERCIAL}
@endnode
@node DEALER "Dealer Directory"
@toc MENU

===========================================================================
                             Dealer Directory
===========================================================================

                          Arranged by Continent:

                          @{"      Asia       " link DEAL_ASIA}

                          @{"   Australasia   " link DEAL_AUSTRALASIA}

                          @{"     Europe      " link DEAL_EUROPE}

                          @{"  North America  " link DEAL_NAMERICA}

Dealers: To have your name added, please send @{"Email", link JASON} with the BBS name,
its location (Country, province/state) your name, any internet/fidonet
addresses, and the phone number of your dealership

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   News   " link NEWS} @{"  Opinion  " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{"  Reviews  " link REVIEW} @{"  Charts  " link FTP} @{"  Adverts  " link COMMERCIAL}
@endnode
