@database "ar407.guide"
@Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #4.07 -- May 16, 1996"
===========================================================================
  May 16, 1996                @{" Turn the Page " link MENU}             Issue No. 4.07
===========================================================================
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                 "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!"

                      Copyright 1996 FS Publications
                            All Rights Reserved
@endnode
@node MENU "Amiga Report Main Menu"
@toc MAIN

Amiga Report 4.07 is sponsored in part by @{" ClickBOOM " link AD1}, authors of the
upcoming @{" Capital Punishment " link AD1}.

===========================================================================
==                               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. 4.07                May 16, 1996  |   \\//    ==
==============|  "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!"  |=============
              |______________________________________________|
@endnode
@node JASON "Editor"
@toc STAFF

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

                               Jason Compton
                               =============
             Internet                                  Address
             --------                                  -------
     jcompton@shell.portal.com                1203 Alexander Ave
     jcompton@xnet.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@cup.portal.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 ADDISON "Contributing Editor"
@toc STAFF

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

                              Addison Laurent
                              ===============

                                 Internet
                                 --------
                       addison@jobe.shell.portal.com
@endnode
@node EDITORIAL "compt.sys.editor.desk"
@toc OPINION

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

This is such a ridiculously huge issue of Amiga Report that there's really
not much to be gained by me taking up a lot of space here.

VIScorp is still pursuing--but has not completed--the purchase of the Amiga
from Escom.  Negotiations continue.  Don't panic.  I have been meeting with
VIScorp officers and speaking with VIScorp personnel.  In fact, as soon as
the ink dries and the right form is filed, I will BE a VIScorp personnel.
Effective Monday, I'm joining VIScorp's Communications department as a
contractor whose job it is to make sure that the Amiga community is
informed and aware of VIScorp's actions and intentions--and vice versa.

Phase5 has a major announcement to make.  Wonder Computers International is
up and running.  A new TCP/IP stack is coming, there's all sorts of new
products on the horizon...

Lots of people have a lot to say.  Don't let me stand in their way.

Jason

@endnode

@node AD1 "Capital Punishment Is Coming..."
@toc MAIN





                THEY say: "Amiga games suck"
                THEY say: "Developers are gone"
                THEY say: "No more good games"
                THEY say: "Amiga is dead"






                ...well, WE say:



                              F*@% THEM !!! 
                              -------------




          We are clickBOOM - the angriest team in cyberspace



          We have developed an amazing combat epic for Amiga 
                        called Capital Punishment



                      It is what players asked for:

                                 playable
                                  fluid
                                   fast
                                realistic...



                         And what they hoped for:

                                 violent
                                  wild
                                engrossing
                           adrenaline-pumping...



               And it's coming soon to blow your Amiga away!



      You'll engage in battle against warriors, ninjas, aliens, and 
   an assortment of other fearsome opponents in some of the goriest 
   fighting scenes ever seen in a video game.



Amiga Computing - "Capital Punishment could take fighting games 
                   into the next millennium"

Amiga Format    - "Capital Punishment has been proclaimed as 
                   the ultimate video game".

Amiga Report    - "Capital Punishment is a very smooth and engrossing game"

CU Amiga        - "Frame rate is higher than any fighting game I've seen"




Visit "clickBOOM" web page for more information; chance to win one of 
5 free Capital Punishment games; and to download playable beta demos:

                 http://www.io.org/~clkboom/amiga/

Internet e-mail: clkboom@io.org






                                             beware...Punishment is coming

@endnode

@node OPINION1 "Message from Sweden"
@toc OPINION

===========================================================================
                            Message From Sweden
  Morgan Eklof and Magnus Ingmarsson     z94morek and d95magin@isy.liu.se
===========================================================================

Greetings from Sweden!

Maybe we should introduce ourselves...
We are two guys from Sweden who has been thinking alot about the AMIGA &
it's future.  (We = Magnus Ingmarsson, Morgan Eklof.) (We study at
Linköping institute of technology.)

First of all we would like to thank Amiga Technologies for doing a splendid
job.  This text has become a bit shorter since the interviews with
different Amiga people in Amiga-Magazin (5/96) were published.  For
instance some of the ideas that we were considering in the draft is already
implemented by Amiga Technologies:

The ads are concentrated on getting _new_ customers.  This is smart since
the old customers already are "brainwashed" ;-) (read: madly in love with
the Amiga.)

The own design.  Good job, leaves noone indifferent!  (btw.  We were
leaning towards getting help from Bang & Olufsen.)

The modular design.  Very smart with only one slot that can house a card
which holds additional slots.


Here are what we think is not only a recommendation but a necessety:
We do hope that AMIGA Technologies reads this and acts accordingly...
We also believe that these views are shared by many in the AMIGA-community.


1.  An important feature is that the power-supply should be in the box like
    in the A1000, A2000, A3000, A4000.  The A500, A600 and the A1200 give
    the impression of a "homecomputer".

2.  The use of standard components as much as possible to reduce cost and
    will make sure that the AMIGA does not become a slave under custom-
    circuits...  i.e.  makes sure that programmers program properly.  (but
    it will need a "thing" to make it different.  An unique OS is not
    enough.)

3.  In every AMIGA there should be a SCSI-interface to ensure fast & easy
    implementation of hd's, scanners and so on.

4.  There should be a "ZIP-type of drive" in every AMIGA & thus there would
    be no need for a HD.  (But since there is a SCSI-interface it is easily
    added.) (This choice must be made wisely since the ZIP is big at the
    moment but there has been anouncements about new products from 3M and
    their partners.) There should also be a hd-floppy drive.  (But by
    choosing the 3M and partners drive it will be compatible.)

5.   Magic Worbench must be included from the beginning.

6.  The smallest model must be able to deliver at least 800*600*24 NI in
    72Hz/31kHz.  Regarding TV it must be able to perform FULL PAL/NTSC non
    interlaced in 24-bits.  Of course there must be chunky as well as
    planar graphics and why not include a successor to the AKIKO...  There
    should also be 16-bit sound with fm-synth included.  A DSP is a must! 
    (Since it can be made to do alot of things.) There must also be a small
    custom made circuit that is cheap and easily replacable and upgradable
    and makes alot of difference!  (The consumer must feel that he/she is
    part of something special and the Design of the Walker is a good step
    in the right direction but it must be more than exterior, it must be in
    the hardware as well.)

7.  Memoryprotection has already been announced by Amiga Technologies but
    it must incorporate one important AMIGA-feature.  It must be possible
    to turn off!  Resource tracking should be there if one wants to have
    it.  And the GURU should return maybe in a new form.(For instance when
    there is a segmetation fault.) (For instance he might float in in a
    meditative way on the screen and drag a little piece of cloth with the
    errorcode on.) (Again, the Amiga can and MUST be different and FUN!)

8.  The Workbench must be able to multitask far better then today. (For
    instance when copying files.)

9.  Why not work together with SUN on getting the AMIGA to better perform
    in a network? (For instance is Ericsson and Motorola working on a
    way to transmit 8 megabits/s over standard copper wire which means that
    the computermanufacturer which has _thought_ about that development in
    the market and acted accordongly in one or two years will have a big
    advantage since people will probably have those kinds of speeds to
    their homes. (We have just seen a demostration of 1.5 megabit/s over a
    standard telephone wire. (From a server in Stockholm via optical fibre
    to the local phonestation and from there via standard phone-wire. Most
    impressive!)

10. Now to a more bold suggestion: Why not make a Virtual Workbench!  The
    ability is there if you use the I-glasses combined with a cheap
    glove...


We hope that we by producing these small suggestions have helped the AMIGA
to get to its proper place on the market.

One more thing...  Many people like ourselves are having a hard time to
choose between the Walker and the new Power Amiga.  We beliave that many
potential buyers of the Walker will be discuraged by Amiga Technologies
silence about the new Power Amiga since they don't want to experience
missing out on some important feature of the new Power Amiga.  Therefor it
is necessary that Amiga Technologies makes clear the specs of the Power
Amiga as soon as possible since the "high-end" customers will find out if
they should wait and buy a Power Amiga or conclude that they should buy the
Walker and buy extra cards for it since (in the "high-end" customers eye)
the Power Amiga will be "a size to small" in regards to CPU, Graphics and
so on.

All in all there is only one thing to say:

Amiga Technologies has done much more for the Amiga since mid 1995 then
Commodore ever did!  Keep up the good work and thank you!


Regards

Morgan Eklof      (z94morek@isy.liu.se)
Magnus Ingmarsson   (d95magin@isy.liu.se)

@endnode

@node COMMERCIAL "Commercial Products"
@toc MENU

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

@{"      Capital Punishment       " link AD1}  The upcoming action game from ClickBOOM

@{"        Editor's Choice        " link EDITORCHOICE}  Jason's picks

@{"   Portal Information Systems  " link PORTAL}  A great place for Amiga users.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   News   " link NEWS} @{"  Opinion  " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{"  Reviews  " link REVIEW} @{"  Charts  " link FTP} @{"  Adverts  " link COMMERCIAL}
@endnode
@node MAIL "Reader Mail"
@toc MENU

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

From: Jon Bui <JBui@yorku.edu>

It tooks me an hour to read the April 2 issue of A.R.  Either I take speed
reading lessons or AR should cut down on its contents. 

It's great to see AR is doing well.  Ever since Amiga Format price went up
to $13.00, I've stopped buying it and have now depended on AR to keep me up
to date on the latest Amiga's news. 

Is it possible to set up on the AR's homepage a word search that will looks
through previous AR's publication?  This would greatly help user to
determine which previous publication contain details and information on the
item they're looking for.

     - As a matter of fact, the CUCUG web site with Amiga Report does
     contain a basic search engine.  Use
     http://www.cucug.org/amiga/ar/ar.html to get to it.
     As for AR being too big--it pleases me no end that Amiga Report is
     having no trouble filling space.  Although I have to admit, the
     increased content as of late has made it tougher to get issues out on
     time. -Jason


@endnode

@node NEWS1 "ScreenTab 2.0"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

    ScreenTab


VERSION

    2.0 (25.4.1996)


AUTHOR

    Michael Link (u193113@uebung2.fh-reutlingen.de)


DESCRIPTION

ScreenTab is a powerful commodity to make switching screens and windows
more comfortable.  It's main functionality is derived from the well known
"Alt+Tab"-Feature of Windoze.

It enables you to switch between different screens or windows by using a
special key combination (e.g.  'LAmiga + Tab').  When you press it, a
little window appears on the frontmost screen and lets you cycle through
all screen (window) titles.  When releasing the keys, the chosen screen
(window) will come to front.

If you don't want to switch without the mouse, move the mouse-pointer at
the lower edge of the screen, and a cool taskbar (to be more exactly
"screenbar") appears with the actual opened screens.


NEW FEATURES

- external MUI-Interface for nearly absolute configuration of ScreenTab
- ScreenTab can now display IFF-Images in front of the screen name.  A
  whole bunch of nice images is included in the archive.
- Win95-like taskbar (incl. clock) for screen-switching


SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

Requires at least Kickstart/Workbench 2.04.
Localization features of WB 2.1+ are supported.

Needs MUI 3 for the preferences, the commodity runs without MUI !


AVAILABILITY

ScreenTab is available from any Aminet site, for instance:

ftp://ftp.amigalib.com/pub/aminet/util/cdity/ScreenTab_2_0.lha


PRICE

ScreenTab is GIFTWARE


DISTRIBUTABILITY

ScreenTab is freely distributable.

Any re-distribution has to include all files in the archive without any
modifications.  Additions of files to the archive are NOT allowed.

ScreenTab may be freely distributed via BBSs, InterNet/UseNet, software
libraries such as Fred Fish's and Aminet CD-ROM, and other similar
electronic channels.

Disk magazines and services that charge extra for file transfers may NOT
distribute it without written permission by the developer !

@endnode

@node NEWS2 "VIScorp Amiga Input Form"
@toc NEWS

[Mr. Vance Schowalter has devised a standardized "form" for input to
VIScorp.  I have been asked by VIScorp to make sure that these are
immediately sent to VIScorp's international Amiga contact, Eric Laffont,
elaffont@pratique.fr.  Try to have these in as soon as possible.  -Jason]

Amiga-VIScorp Feedback Form
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Email this completed form to: viking@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca AND
elaffont@pratique.fr.

Please use this form when sending feedback to VIScorp.  This will help
ensure that your response will be noted. 

This form is subject to change at any time without notice.

Thank you.

Regards,

Vance Schowalter.


Personal Information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name           [                                                        ]
Company Name   [                                                        ]
Street Address [                                                        ]
City/Town      [                                                        ]
Province/State [                                                        ]
Zip Code       [                                                        ]
Country        [                                                        ]

Home Phone     [                                                        ]
Business Phone [                                                        ]
Fax            [                                                        ]
Internet Email [                                                        ]
Homepage (URL) [                                                        ]


Please use an asterix "*" whenever prompted by a multiple choice question.

When prompted for comments, please make them clear and concise.


1. In which capacity are you associated with the Amiga computer?
   (Check all that apply)

( ) User
( ) Dealer
( ) Developer

2. How old are you?

( ) 10-15
( ) 16-20
( ) 21-25
( ) 26-30
( ) 31-35
( ) 36-40
( ) Over 40

3. Marital Status?

( ) Single
( ) Married
( ) Divorced
( ) Widowed

4. Which Amiga(s) do you currently use/own? (Check all that apply)

( ) CDTV
( ) CD32
( ) A500
( ) A600
( ) A1000
( ) A1200
( ) A1500
( ) A2000
( ) A2500
( ) A3000
( ) A3000T
( ) A4000
( ) A4000T

5. Which AmigaDOS do you currently use? (Check all that apply)

( ) 1.1
( ) 1.2
( ) 1.3
( ) 2.0
( ) 2.1
( ) 3.0
( ) 3.1

6. Do you have 1 or more hard drives?

( ) Yes
( ) No

7. Do you have 1 or more CD-ROM drives?

( ) Yes
( ) No

8. Do you have a modem?

( ) Yes, highspeed
( ) Yes, less than 9600 baud
( ) No

9. Which Graphic Cards, if any, do you use? (Check all that apply)

( ) CyberVision64
( ) Retina ZII/III
( ) Piccolo
( ) Merlin
( ) Harlequin
( ) Picasso I/II
( ) OpalVision
( ) Spectrum
( ) Other________________________________
( ) None

10. Which Accelerator Cards, if any, do you use? (Check all that apply)

( ) 020
( ) 030
( ) 040
( ) 060
( ) None

11. How long have you been using an Amiga?

( ) Less than 1 year
( ) Less than 5 years (2 to 4)
( ) Less than 10 years (6 to 9)
( ) More than 10 years (10+)

12. How would you rate your Amiga skills and knowledge?

( ) Expert
( ) Advanced
( ) Average
( ) Novice

13. Number each from 1 to 10 according to degree of personal importance.

( ) Multi-media (ie. Scala)
( ) Telecommunications
( ) Internet
( ) Business
( ) CAD
( ) Publishing (ie. books, magazines, newsletters, software)
( ) Education
( ) Science
( ) Music
( ) Art (ie. Andy Warhol inspired)
( ) Video
( ) Programming
( ) Image Processing
( ) Entertainment (ie. games)
( ) Other __________________________________________________

14. Should VIScorp continue R&D of the Amiga as a personal computer?

( ) Yes
( ) No

15. Should the AmigaDOS be ported to other platforms?

( ) Yes
( ) No

16. Should AmigaDOS come with full Internet features?

( ) Yes
( ) No

17. Should AmigaDOS enhance features (ie. datatypes)?

( ) Yes
( ) No

18. Should AmigaDOS have MUI-like enhancements to its GUI system?

( ) Yes
( ) No

19. Should Amiga Technologies continue with its current Power Amiga plans?

( ) Yes
( ) No

20. In 10 lines or less, what do you feel should be done to improve the
    Amiga's graphics capabilities?


21. In 10 lines or less, what do you feel should be done to improve the
    Amiga's audio capabilities?


22. Would you like to see Amiga clones?

( ) Yes
( ) No

23. Would you like to see Amiga laptops?

( ) Yes
( ) No

24. Should all Amigas come with a hard drive?

( ) Yes
( ) No

25. Should all Amigas come with a CD-ROM drive?

( ) Yes
( ) No

26. Should all Amigas ship with two or more mb of Graphics memory?

( ) Yes
( ) No

27. How many mb of Fast memory should Amigas ship with?

( ) 1
( ) 2
( ) 4
( ) 6
( ) More than 6

28. If Amigas include a CD-ROM drive, should the AmigaDOS be on a CD-ROM
    instead of floppy disks?

( ) Yes
( ) No

29. Should the talents of professional Amiga users be taken advantage of to
    enhance marketing capability and quality?

( ) Yes
( ) No

30. Should closer alliances continue to be actively sought out with major
    3rd party developers to produce a better Amiga product faster?

( ) Yes
( ) No

31. Should VIScorp maintain International Amiga research and development?

( ) Yes
( ) No

32. Should VIScorp incorporate global volunteer Amiga user groups into
    official promotional activities such as organizing Amiga computer
    shows, competitions for various applications, etc?

( ) Yes
( ) No

33. In 10 lines or less, how do you see the Amiga in 2 years, based on
    current VIScorp (Amiga Technologies) plans?


34. Enter any additional comments not answered above, below. Please be as
    clear and as concise as possible.


---------------------------------------------------------------<SNIP>

@endnode

@node NEWS3 "OctaMED Soundstudio V1"
@toc NEWS

           Octamed Soundstudio is nearing completion!

For full planned release details and to see the progress so far, why not
d/l the latest "beta" demo that has been placed into the Aminet biz/demo
area?


As part of our commitment to the loyal followers/users of our program we
are hoping to be in a position to accept credit card orders by post, email
and via our WWW Site by the time the new version goes on sale.

(MasterCard, Visa, Access and, in the UK, Switch will be accepted)

We will announce this, along with the actual release date of the program,
on our World Wide Web Site, the OctaMED User BBS and other available means.

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

This file lists some of the changes and new features between OctaMED V6 and
OctaMED Soundstudio V1.  (still more to be added)

(if you haven't seen V6 and are only using V5, then you're in for a suprise)

                               --------------
                               
                               
                            Main Features  (more additions yet)
                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Mixing Routine
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is the most significant new feature; instead of the old 4-channel mode
which was tightly tied to the audio hardware of Amiga, the mixing routine
is hardware-independent, and can use several output options.  Supported
output devices are Amiga (8- and 14-bit), Toccata (16-bit), Maestix
(16-bit) and Delfina (16-bit).  It's also possible to record digital sound
data directly onto disk at desired resolution (8/16) and sampling
frequency.

The mixing routine allows up to 64 independent audio channels, supports
both 8- and 16-bit samples, user-specified mixing frequency (constrained by
the limitations of the output device), trackwise panning, playing samples
backwards, ping-pong looping, playing samples from Fast RAM, a six-octave
pitch range, OctaMED synthsounds, stereo and mono modes, real-time
echo/cross-echo and stereo separation control and high-quality
interpolation for recording digital data on disk.

The mixing routines are written in optimized assembler code, for optimum
versions for both 68000 and 68020 + greater, though mixing is very slow on
the 68000.

As a rough example on the speed of the routine, the A3000/25 can play about
10 channels at 48 kHz thru Toccata.

Also, to support the mixing routine, OctaMED can now load S3M and also
FastTracker 1.0 modules.

As I said, you can store the module (or parts of it) onto disk directly as
digital sample data.  This could be used, for example, for creating a drum
loop sample by constructing it with several tracks, and then saving
it...the resulting sample only takes one channel and it can be used
anywhere.  A special "Smoothing" switch is available for recording onto
disk.  It filters unwanted frequencies away, resulting better audio quality
than what you would get in 4 channel mode.  On the 68060, it's useful in
real-time playing, as well :-)

The fact that the audio data is mixed by the processor also opens exciting
possibilities for performing digital signal processing at the same time. 
OctaMED Soundstudio offers digital 'Echo' and 'Cross Echo' in real time.  I
hope to extend the array of DSP functions in the future PC versions.

Playing 8 or more channels using this demoversion....

Choose "Set Options" from the Song menu, click 1-64 Ch Mixing.  Then choose
"Mixing Parameters" from the Settings menu and set Max.  Channels to the
desired number of channels.  Loading a S3M-module or an OctaMED module
using mixing (which are extremely rare at the moment, of course) will cause
these settings to change automatically.

Notation Editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The notation editor, which didn't exist in V6, is now back.  It is vastly
enhanced.  Main highlights:

* Up to 16 staves, each tracker track can be assigned to any staff.  The
  staves can be named, and their vertical positions and width can be
  adjusted.  Treble, bass and alto clefs are available.

* Time signature freely selectable (instead of only two choices, as in V5).
  Measures can be added to a block at a single click.

* A Compugraphic notation font is provided for better print quality.

Some people have been longing for a top quality "professional" notation
editor, such an editor won't ever appear in the Amiga OctaMED version.  It
would be practically impossible to cross professional notation with
tracking, and the result would probably be a big kludge that nobody is
satisfied with.

For professional quality notation, OctaMED songs can be exported as MIDI
files to a dedicated "notator" program.


FastMemPlay
~~~~~~~~~~~
FastMemPlay is a new feature for use in the 4-channel mode.  As the name
implies, when this feature is activated, samples can reside not only in
Chip RAM, but also in Fast RAM.  You can therefore fully utilize all the
memory you have installed.  The FastMemPlay-feature also offers a few other
advantages; the samples may now be as long as the memory allows (the old
limitation was 131072 bytes), and you can also use odd offset and length
for repeat.  (All of these features are automatically available when using
the mixing routine.)

Triggering ARexx Commands
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The new player command 2D is suitable for controlling events that must be
synchronized with playing the song.  You can define up to 256 events which
can then be launched in the song using the command 2D.  The possible events
are: sending an ARexx command to OctaMED or some other program, launching
an ARexx script or even launching another program.

Replace Notes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is a new window which allows you to do powerful search-and-replace
operations on notes, instrument numbers, commands, or any combination of
them.  For example:

    C-2 2xxxx -> D-2 3xxxx
    xxxxx0FFF -> xxxxx0000 (remove commands 0FFF)
    xxxxx09xx -> xxxxx0000 (remove all TPL change commands)

The functionality of this feature is fully available for use by ARexx
scripts.

MIDI Controllers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The set of command numbers 31 - 3F have now been reserved for MIDI users. 
The old way of using MIDI controllers required a combination of commands 05
and 00.  Now you can map any controller to a single command 31 - 3F.  Plus,
you can also control MIDI Registered and Non-Registered Parameter Numbers
with the same set of commands (3 pairs of 05/00 commands would be required
for that).

Instrument List
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A simple window for easy viewing and selecting of instruments in memory.

Improved ARexx Interface
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
28 new ARexx commands and 9 improved commands.  Some powerful new commands
include finding and/or replacing notes/instrument numbers/commands (see
Replace Notes above), direct handling of copy buffer contents, and sending
MIDI messages (useful for keyboard shortcuts).

The above features were the most significant changes since V6, but they are
not by any means the only ones.  But you can see the rest when OctaMED
Soundstudio is released, and I hope, after a years work, you will like it.


Smaller features (more to be added)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Default directories for loading songs, instruments and executing ARexx
  scripts can be set and saved.
* ARexx scripts can be executed with a new menu item + file requester
  combination.
* A menu item for opening AmigaDOS shells on OctaMED screen for quick
  command line jobs.
* Instead of requesting the file format when saving instruments, the
  Sample List Editor now has menu items for default formats.
* The Song Annotation window can be (optionally) opened automatically
  when there's information embedded in the song just loaded.
* Cut/Copy operations now optionally affect either all command pages of
  the block, or just the current page.
* Re-mark range resurrects the previously selected range.
* A special Slave Mode for using the Amiga as a MIDI slave (for sample
  playing).
* Changed settings can be optionally displayed on the title bar.
* The Generic Slide is now clever; it handles unsigned and signed slides,
  and special slides in which both digits are independent, depending on
  the command and whether MIDI is active or not.
* Command 0FF7 stops playing until all pending SysEx commands are sent.
* Fixed many (minor) bugs and problems.

 -Teijo Kinnunen  April 96

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

Now, if your still reading).....

A Quick Overview Of What The New Additions Do......

( These are the most important new functions to be added, so far...)

The Mixing Parameters Window

Probably the Soundstudio's biggest addition is a new channel mode: Mix. 
Based on the mixing technique used in 5 to 8 channel mode, it can play 64
notes at once using the normal Amiga sound capabilities!  You can also
bring your song to life with effects such as echo, and use it to record
part of your song direct to disk as a sample.

But before you get too excited, remember that the Amiga physically only has
four sound channels, so Mix mode uses very special tricks to cram all those
notes in and in the process, the notes can lose sound quality on slow
processors.  In fact, the faster your processor, the better quality the
notes can be.  For acceptable quality, you really need a minimum 68020
processor found in the A1200.

The Mixing Parameters window is used to set up Mix mode.  But before I
explain it, I'll list the enhancements and limitations that Mix mode has,
in comparison with 4 channel mode.


Other Enhancements at this time

1) Can play up to 64 notes at once.

2) Effects: Echo, Cross Echo, Stereo Separation.

3) Track Panning: Can alter the stereo location of each track.

4) Many additional player commands.

5) Sample length limited only by available memory (previous limit was
   131072 bytes).

6) Direct-to-disk recording.

7) Three new octaves: 2 low, 1 high. So the note range is now C-1 to B-6.
   The 4-channel notes C-1 to B-3 are now notes C-3 to B-5.

8) More precise sample loop setting. Previously, only even values of Repeat
   and RepLen (Instrument Parameters were possible.
   Now, all values are allowed.


Limitations

1) A probable loss of sound quality on old processors, but the faster your
processor, the better the quality.  In fact, very fast processors increase
sound quality.

2) Aura 16-bit samples can't be used, (were they ever that good anyhow?)

3) Multi-octave samples can't be used.

4) The oscilloscope equalizer doesn't function.


So although Mix mode is based on the old 5 to 8 channel mode, you will see
that it has hardly any of its previous limitations.



The Important Mixing Parameters window will now be described.


Mixing Mode section

The radio button at the top left selects the output device: the device
through which notes will be played.

* Amiga 8-bit/14-bit: Plays notes through the Amiga.  14-bit is much better
  quality than 8-bit, and doesn't put much more strain on the processor,
  but it plays at half the volume.

* Delfina DSP: (no further info available at this time)

* Toccata 16-bit: Plays through your Toccata card.  no further info
  available at this time-

* Maestix 16-bit: (no further info available at this time)

* Disk 8-bit/16-bit: Records the output to a file, as a sample.  See "The
  Recording Window" for more details.

The output will be in mono (the same on both speakers), unless you switch
the Stereo check box on.  Mono is faster than stereo.

Smoothing mode significantly enhances sound quality, but it's very slow. 
Because of its speed, it's only recommended for Disk 8-bit/16-bit modes,
although you're welcome to try it on other modes...


Mixing Frequency

The mixing frequency is a very important value.  It specifies, in Hertz
(sample values per second), how quickly the samples should be mixed.  The
higher the frequency, the better the sound quality, but also the more work
the processor has to do.

So - you've guessed it - the highest mixing frequency that you can use
depends on your processor.  If you try using a frequency that is too high
for your computer, the computer will hang: the mouse pointer will move very
slowly, or even not at all.  If this happens, do a panic stop by holding
down both mouse buttons for several seconds.

Believe it or not, the highest possible frequency also depends on the
screen mode!  If the screen is DblPAL, DblNTSC or Productivity, the Mixing
Frequency slider can take any value.  In other screen modes, the slider's
maximum value is 28375.

If the output device can't play at your requested frequency, OctaMED
chooses the frequency closest to your request.  Your request is shown in
the Requested numeric box, the actual frequency used in the Actual box. 
The reason for this discrepancy is that all of the output devices,
excluding Disk 8-bit/16-bit, can only play at certain frequencies.  (This
even includes your Amiga...)

Technical notes:
The frequency of each note is different in 4-channel mode from Mix mode. 
This is because in 4-channel mode, the frequencies are approximated to what
the Amiga DMA can play.  Mix mode doesn't use the Amiga DMA, so it uses the
correct freque- ncies.

The frequencies are very slightly off on Amigas not having an FPU and this
is because the integer version of the frequency calculation has some error.
The difference however is not audible.


Other gadgets

* Max.  Channels: The maximum number of channels.  For example, if you want
  to play notes on tracks 0 to 5, set this slider to 6.  Notes become
  quieter as you increase Max.  Channels, to make room for the new
  channels.  This slider doesn't increase processor load by itself: the
  load depends on the number of notes actually playing.

* Volume Adjust: Allows you to adjust the overall volume of notes.  The
  value is a percentage; when 100 %, the notes are at normal volume.  Set
  the notes to half-volume by sliding to 50%; double volume is 200%.

In practice, increasing the volume above 100% generally causes unwanted
distortion (noise), unless the samples in your song are quiet.  Also, using
effects can cause distortion, even at 100%.  If this is the case, turn the
volume down until the distortion is removed.  (You can't hear the volume
adjustment until you release the slider button.)

* Mix Buffer Size: The size of the mix buffer, an area of memory used by
  OctaMED to mix samples together. You needn't ever change it, unless:

  a) in Disk 8-bit/16-bit mode. Increasing Mix Buffer Size to, say, 30000
     greatly quickens direct-to-disk recording.

  b) using MIDI. MIDI notes are played immediately, while mixed notes are
     played after a slight delay. So it's recommended to set Mix Buffer
     Size to the lowest allowed value, 32. If sound quality suffers as a
     result, compensate by raising the mixing frequency (if possible).

  c) you use samples with very short loops. Playing a loop shorter than
     about a third of the Mix Buffer Size (i.e. usually 100 bytes)
     considerably increases processor load. So if you must use very short
     loops, try decreasing Mix Buffer Size.

* Panning and Effects: Open the Mix - Track Panning and Mix - Effects
  windows.  They allow you to adjust the stereo location of each track, and
  add effects such as echo to your music.


Other points of interest

1) 5 - 8 channel mode uses a frequency of 15768 Hz in non-HQ mode, and
   28867 Hz in HQ mode.  As a side note, you could *perfectly* reproduce
   the 4-channel mode with a mixing frequency of 3.6 MHz...  :-)...  Though
   48 kHz with smoothing is often better in practice.

2) With 16-bit samples, only volume values 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 can
   be used.  This means that note volumes may sound a bit strange if you
   change Volume Adjust or the track panning.  Also, the volumes you can
   use with some player commands (such as Set Volume, type 0C) are limited
   to the above values.

3) To allow old 4-channel and 5 to 8-channel songs to use the new Mix mode,
   the Miscellaneous Options window contains two new Use Mixing check
   boxes.  When on, the samples in loaded songs are transposed up 2
   octaves.  (This doesn't include synthsounds, MIDI instruments or
   ExtSamples.)

   When using old 5 to 8-channel songs with the new mode, don't try to set
   Volume Adjust to 200 % to allow for halved samples.  Halved samples are
   in 7-bit quality, so it's best to re-load the original samples.

4) Internally, OctaMED has three separate parts which control playing,
   called the players.  There's one player for 4-channel mode, another for
   5 to 8-channel modes, and another for Mix mode.

   When you play a note using the keyboard in 4 or 5 to 8-channel modes,
   the player is used briefly to start the note off, but then the note is
   left to play and finish of its own accord. The Mix mode player, however,
   is used throughout the note's playing, from its start to its finish.

   So the Mix mode player is switched on when the first note is started.
   But it isn't switched off when the note has finished. Instead, to react
   more quickly to other notes you play, it's kept switched on until you
   click STOP or press the space bar.

   This means that the player is switched on even when no notes are being
   played. On slower Amigas, this may slow down operation, so simply press
   the space bar to switch the player off. It also means that if you change
   anything in the Mixing Parameters window, such as Mixing Frequency or
   track panning, you must stop playing and restart it for the changes to
   take effect. (This doesn't include Stereo Separation, Echo Depth, or
   a change from Echo to Cross Echo or vice-versa.)

5) Do remember about panic stop! If the computer seems to lock up during
   play, try holding both mouse buttons down for a few seconds.

6) 5 to 8-channel mode's split channels don't exist! Amiga volume
   registers are set to a fixed volume. The volume is scaled by the mixing
   routine, so each track does have an independent volume.

7) Almost all settings in Mixing Parameters, Mix - Track Panning, and
   Mix - Effect are saved with songs. In particular, Mixing Mode and Mixing
   Frequency aren't saved. This is so that, for example, a song created on
   a fast Amiga using a high frequency won't immediately cause a slow Amiga
   to lock up.

   OctaMED uses a special file format for songs using Mix mode: MMD3.
   This is identical to MMD2. The only reason for its existance is so that
   older versions/player programs won't attempt to play Mix-mode songs.

8) You can play samples in either type of memory - Chip or Fast - in Mix
   mode. By default, though, samples are loaded into Fast memory, because
   Instr menu - Load Samples To Fast Mem is automatically switched on.


The Mix - Track Panning Window
Here you adjust the stereo location of the notes played on each individual
track.  Do this using the sliders.

Track numbers are displayed to the left of each slider, the tracks' stereo
location to the right.  To begin with, all tracks have a stereo location of
0 (center).  This means that notes on all tracks are played with equal
volume on both speakers; in other words, they're played in mono.

To force a track's notes to be played entirely through the left speaker,
drag the track's slider all the way to the left (value -16).  Likewise for
the right speaker: drag the slider to the far right (value 16). 
Intermediate values play the notes at different volumes on each speaker.


Free Panning and Sum Of Balances

Because track panning is really altering the volume of each track on each
speaker, you must be careful that the volume on either speaker doesn't
become too high, causing distortion.  For example, setting all tracks to be
played on the left speaker (value -16) is bound to cause distortion on the
left speaker.

The Sum Of Balances display helps you prevent distortion.  It displays all
the tracks' stereo locations added together.  When the volume is perfectly
balanced between the two speakers, the Sum Of Balances is 0, so adjust the
sliders until it becomes 0.

Free Panning, when on, allows you to set the stereo locations to whichever
values you choose, without worrying about volume distortion.  Not
surprisingly, Free Panning is usually on.



The Mix - Effects Window add special effects to your music.

The one you'll be dying to play with is echo.  To switch echo on, set the
Echo cycle gadget to Echo or Cross Echo.  The difference between the two is
Cross Echo alternates echoes between the speakers; you must have Stereo
mode on to use it.

Echo Rate is the distance, in milliseconds, between each echo.  It can take
any value in the range 1 to 32767.

Echo Depth sets the depth of echoing.  The larger the value, the deeper the
echoes.  Technically, it specifies the relative amplitudes of successive
echoes.  For example, if it's 25 %, the first echo's amplitude is 25 % of
the original amplitude, the second echo is 25 % * 25 % = 6.25 % of that.

Stereo Separation is interesting.  Dragging the slider to the right
separates the sound on each speaker.  Dragging to the left brings the
speakers' sound closer together.  This feature is best understood by
experimentation.  (Technically, the stereo image is separated by feeding
part of the left channel to the right in inversed phase, and vice versa.)


The Recording Window
This window is displayed during direct-to-disk recording, the act of
transferring part of your song to disk as a sample.

To record directly to disk:

1) In the Mixing Parameters window, select Disk 8-bit or Disk 16-bit,
   depending on whether you'd like an 8-bit or 16-bit sample. Also set the
   Mixing Frequency to any value you wish (the higher the frequency, the
   larger the produced sample).

2) The next time you play a note or your song, a Record as file requester
   will appear.  In this requester, select the filename of the produced
   sample.

3) Next, you set the file type of your sample in the requester that
   appears.

4) Finally, the Record window will open and OctaMED will start recording. 
   The window displays information on the sample's file format (resolution
   (8/16-bit), IFF/RAW/MAUD etc, Mono/Stereo, frequency).  It also displays
   recording time in minutes and seconds, and file size.  These two values
   change as the song is being played.

Click the Stop Recording button to stop recording.  You must do this
because OctaMED doesn't stop recording automatically at the end of the song
or note.  You can now load your sample back into memory.


The FastMemPlay Window
This poetically-named window allows you to play samples from Fast memory. 
For background on this, see Instr menu - Load Samples To Fast Mem.

By editing the Buffer Size box, you can alter the FastMemPlay buffer size.
A small value, such as 32 or 64, is recommended to minimise distortion if
your song contains synthetic sounds.

MIDI Slave Mode
Using the MIDI menu's Slave Mode Active item, you can turn your Amiga into
a MIDI device!  Why on earth would you want to do that?  Well, if you're
lucky enough to own two Amigas, you can use the sound channels of both
Amigas together, to play a total of 8 samples at once rather than the usual
4.  You do this by using one Amiga to control the other, as if it were a
MIDI keyboard.

It works best in 4-channel mode, for highest quality.  You compose your
song using one of the Amigas (call it the master), and use the other Amiga
(the slave) only as a note player.  The blocks in your song should be 8
tracks wide: use tracks 0 - 3 for instruments played by the master Amiga,
and tracks 4 - 7 for those played by the slave Amiga.

The idea is, the slave Amiga's first 16 instruments (01 - 0G) correspond to
the 16 MIDI channels.  So when the slave Amiga receives a MIDI message to
play a note on MIDI channel 4, it plays the note using instrument number
04.  One slight drawback is each instrument can only be played using one
particular sound channel, which you designate using the master Amiga.

Anyway, here's how you set it all up:

1) Attach a MIDI interface to each of the two Amigas. Connect MIDI OUT on
   the master Amiga to MIDI IN on the slave Amiga.

2) Load OctaMED into both Amigas. Select MIDI menu - MIDI Active on the
   master Amiga. Select MIDI Active, Input Active and Slave Mode Active
   (all in the MIDI menu) on the slave Amiga. Make sure both Amigas are in
   4-channel mode.

3) Now to set up the instruments. Go to each Amiga in turn, and load the
   instruments you want to be played on that Amiga. On the slave Amiga,
   you're restricted to instrument slots 01 - 0G; on the master Amiga, you
   can use any slots.

4) On the master Amiga, you actually need two categories of instrument:
   those to be played through the master Amiga (which you've just loaded),
   and MIDI instruments that correspond to each instrument you've loaded
   into the slave Amiga. OK, let's say you've loaded a sample named
   Fantasia into slot 06 on the slave Amiga. So on the master Amiga,

   a) Select any empty instrument slot

   b) Open Instrument Parameters

   c) Change the instrument Name to Fantasia [slave] (for example)

   d) Slide the MIDICh slider to 6 (because Fantasia is loaded into slot 06
      on the slave Amiga)

   e) You must also tell OctaMED which sound channel on the slave Amiga
      that Fantasia should be played through, using the Preset slider. So
      if Fantasia is to be played through channel 2, slide Preset to 2.
      Because there are 4 sound channels, each played using one of tracks
      0 - 3, you can slide Preset to 0, 1, 2 or 3.

      Be careful when deciding which instrument should be played through
      which channel. If you've loaded up to 4 instruments into the slave
      Amiga, you just need to assign a different sound channel to each
      instrument. If you have more than 4 instruments, though, you should
      take care that no two instruments are set to play through the same
      channel at the same time, because this is impossible!  This depends
      on your song.

   f) Close Instrument Parameters

   Now when you want to play, say, note G-2 using the Fantasia instrument,
   you should enter a G-2 using the Fantasia [slave] instrument on the
   master Amiga. Repeat steps a to f for each instrument you've loaded into
   the slave Amiga.

5) Now compose your song!  Use 8-track blocks.  For instruments played
   through the master Amiga, use tracks 0 - 3 as usual.  For those played
   through the slave Amiga, use tracks 4 - 7 and the MIDI instruments
   you've set up to correspond with the slave Amiga's instruments.  Then
   just play the song: it should be quite an amazing effect!

Other notes:

a) Slave mode only receives and handles MIDI Note On messages.  So any
   effects received, including player commands, will be ignored.

b) You can, however, use player command 0C (set volume) with notes played
   by the slave Amiga.  The instrument's default volume (in Instrument
   Parameters) changes to the appropriate level when a 0C is received.  The
   Instrument Parameters slider isn't updated, though, for effciency
   reasons.

c) To reduce the amount of MIDI data sent, you should really switch on
   Suppress NoteOff on all of the MIDI instruments defined on the master
   Amiga.

The MIDI Cmd 3cxx Window
As its title suggests, this is one of OctaMED's more technical windows!

Using a combination of player command types 05 and 00, you can set any MIDI
controller you choose.  Command 05's level is the controller number,
command 00's the controller value.  So if OctaMED came across this in a
song: 00509 --- 00004 then OctaMED would set MIDI controller number 9 to 4.
The obvious disadvantage with this is that it takes two lines: one to
provide the controller number, another to provide the value.

This window cuts the setting of MIDI controllers down to one line.  You
define command types 31 - 3F to set your chosen MIDI controller numbers to
the value given by the command level you use in the song.

For example, you can define player command type 35 to set MIDI controller
number 12.  Then, if you use command 3506 in your song, OctaMED sets MIDI
controller number 12 to 6.  So, only one player command is needed to set
MIDI controllers, instead of two.

The gadgets

Starting at the top, the slider selects a player command type.  A value of
5, for example, selects type 35.  Types 31 to 3F can be selected.

Clear Setting clears the selected player command type's setting.  Its
controller type is set to Standard [MSB], and its number to 0.  Clear All
does this to all player command types.

The other gadgets show the selected command type's setting: its controller
type and number.  The controller type can be Standard, RPN or NRPN,
together with [MSB] or [LSB].  More information as and when further
developed.

You can make a copy of the current shortcut by holding down Shift while
clicking Ins.  New or App.  New.  This is useful for making a new shortcut
similar to the current one.

You can now create an empty shortcut for the Help key, thus turning the
press Help for Help feature off - the Project menu item can be selected
instead.  This avoids situations where the rather large Help file is
accidentally loaded instead of deleting a note (i.e.  Help rather than Del
is pressed).


Playing PC Mods
OctaMED can now load modules created on two different PC sequencers:
ScreamTracker 3 (S3M) and FastTracker 1.0.  Not all S3M effects are
supported, but most modules play without trouble.  The effects that are
supported are:

Extra fine slides (commands EEx, EFx); Tremor (command Ixy); Retrig (+
volume-slide) (command Qxy)

Note that the more popular FastTracker 2 is not *yet* supported.

ARexx Script
Opens a file requester to execute an ARexx file.
You can also do this in the keyboard shortcuts window and ARexx Trigger Setup window.


ARexx Trigger Setup
Opens the ARexx Trigger Setup Window. Here you can set certain player
commands to execute ARexx scripts, run programs and much more.

AmigaDOS Shell
Opens an AmigaDOS shell, just like the shell you can open on the Workbench,
on the OctaMED screen.  You can now run programs or use AmigaDOS commands
like copy or dir.


The audio channels are now allocated when they are needed for the first
time.  So when using Mix mode with Toccata, Maestix or Delfina they aren't
allocated at all!


Notation Editor: Opens the main notation editor window with its Tools
window.

All Cmd Pages: When on (default), Cut and Copy affect all command pages. 
When off, only notes in the current command page are cut or copied.


Select: Opens the Instruments window.  This window lists all your
instruments, and allows you to select one from the list.



Load Samples To Fast Mem
There are two types of memory: Chip memory and Fast memory.  Fast memory is
much faster than Chip memory, so it's preferable to store things in there.
However, the Amiga usually needs all samples to be stored in Chip memory.

@endnode

@node NEWS4 "ColEm Source Code Available for Development"
@toc NEWS

From Hans Guijt, H.Guijt@inter.NL.net:

I have recently ported ColEm, the Colecovision Emulator, to the Amiga. 
Unfortunately this operation was not entirely succesful: only one game runs
on ColEm Amiga, all other games refuse to work.

I'd love to debug this source, but:

* I've no real interest in Colecovision emulation.  I never had a
  Colecovision, so I miss that vital emotional bond.

* I cannot spend much time programming my Amiga.  The time I have available
  I would rather use programming fMSX, the MSX emulator.

------------------------------------------------------------------
--- For those reasons I am now offering the source to ColEm    ---
--- Amiga here on the net. If you are interested in continuing ---
--- where I left off please contact me and I'll send you the   ---
--- source.                                                    ---
------------------------------------------------------------------

Some details:

* The source consists of C (SAS, v6.51) and assembly (GenAm, v3.01).  A lot
of attention has been given to speed, and I'm shamed to admit that
readability has suffered.

* Requirements for ColEm Amiga: 68020 or better, v36 OS or better, having
some fastram helps a great deal.

* The source is based on fMSX Amiga.  It contains several MSX features that
are out of place on a Colecovision.

* The relation between ColEm Amiga and ColEm UNIX is almost non-existant.

* The rules set down by the author of the original UNIX version (Marat
Fayzullin) do not allow you to charge money for the finished product.

(In case you are in it for the money: don't bother.  I state in the fMSX
manual that fMSX is free, but financial gratitude is not refused.  The
grant total after over a year of programming: 25 DMark.  I personally don't
care but I know many others feel differently about this.)

* ColEm Amiga looks and feels a great deal like fMSX Amiga.  Download it
from Aminet (misc/emu) to get an idea of what it is like.

* If you find any bugs please tell me, since the same bugs are likely
present in fMSX Amiga.

* You are allowed to spread the finished product under your own name,
although I want to be credited for my part.

* If multiple people request the source I will send it to each of them.

Some people out there may be tempted to request the executable, in the
vague hope of obtaining a Colecovision emulator.  This is futile, since the
only game that runs on it is also available for fMSX Amiga (it is Konami's
Antarctic Adventure, in case you're curious).

People curious about the workings of fMSX Amiga can request that source
too.  It is much more complex than the ColEm Amiga source, though.  If you
feel like writing a Sega Master System emulation or some other Z80 based
emulation this would be a good place to start.


Hope to hear from you soon,

Hans

@endnode

@node NEWS5 "Message To Amiga Developers"
@toc NEWS

Message to Amiga developers

Recently, a number of Amiga-developers have contacted VIScorp to make
proposals about the future of Amiga.

VIScorp is ready to listen to all suggestions coming from the Amiga
developer community.

In France, an Amiga developer asked if VIScorp would like him to represent
officially the company to the french developer community in order to
centralize their ideas and proposals.

We found this to be an excellent idea for supporting the Amiga and would
actually like to extend this system to all countries where Amiga developers
are active, so that there are VIScorp representatives in each country.

If you would like to represent VIScorp in your country, feel free to
contact David Rosen (drosen@vistv.com), VP, Business Development or Raquel
Velasco (raquel@vistv.com), Director of Sales and Marketing Europe at
following Email address: raquel@vistv.com.


Regards,
Bill Buck
CEO, VIScorp


--
Gilles Bourdin / Amiga Technologies GmbH
Public Relations
Email to: gbo@amiga.de  URL: HTTP://www.amiga.de FTP: lisa.amiga.de

@endnode

@node NEWS6 "ImageFX 2.6 Released"
@toc NEWS


Nova Design, Inc. Shipping ImageFX 2.6

For Immediate Release

Contact:        Bob Fisher
                Nova Design, Inc.
                804-282-5868

Richmond, VA - Tuesday, May 07, 1996.  Nova Design, Inc.  announced today
that ImageFX 2.6 has begun shipping to fill all preorders for this exciting
new upgrade.  This upgrade, announced less than a month previously, adds
more features and functionality than can be found in any other Amiga
graphics package!  See the list of features below.


Image Processing and Special Effects Made Easy

ImageFX 2.6 includes a number of technical breakthroughs and enhancements
that allow users to easily create exciting special effects on single images
or sequences using either the improved IMP and AutoFX programs included
with ImageFX.  The new eff ects and functions that have been added allow
quick "load it and do it" access to the basic effect, while providing a
wealth of controls to allow near-infinite customization for the advanced
user.  The new features include:

Complete Newtek Video Toaster/Flyer 4.1 Support.  Now loads and saves
Toaster Framestores and Flyer Clips, and has the ability to framegrab,
render and interactively preview your work directly on the Toaster's
composite output.

Updated CyberGraphX Previewing.  Users of display cards using CyberGraphX
software can now preview in any high color mode with full color realtime
brush painting.  Additionally, CyberGraphX full color displays have been
added to Cinemorph, the Amiga most popular morphing package, and Viewtek,
the popular image and animation viewer.

New Fargo FotoFun Support.  The low-cost Fargo FotoFun printer can now be
driven directly from ImageFX to produce 24-bit accurate color photographic-
like output.

Hewlett-Packard Scanjet IIc/3c/4c Support.  Now all the latest Hewlett-
Packard scanners can be driven by ImageFX on most Amiga SCSI cards.

Newtek Digiview Support.  The Amiga's legacy of excellent hardware is not
forgotten with the addition of support for Newtek's slowscan video
digitizer; Digiview. 

New Wireless Program.  This new program joins the ImageFX suite to provide
sophisticated wire removal capabilities.  You can now remove wires holding
actors or objects suspended in the air so you can make your super heros
fly.

Updated Effects.  ImageFX's ever popular Lightning now has multiple bolts
and even more options than ever before.  The Shear, Straw and Composite
functions have been upgraded along with many other improvements throughout.

New Effects.  Many new special effects have been added in this release of
ImageFX.  Animated Bubbles, Fire and Fire Rings, an all new Displace, wild
Sparkles, Liquid image warping, Film Grain, Remove Grain and much more!


Web Site Support

Nova Design has a newly renovated web site on the Internet as well.  A
complete feature list for ImageFX is maintained there along with all press
releases and helpful information.  If you'd like to view the list of
features found in ImageFX, point your web browser to the following URL
address: http://www.novadesign.com


Upgrade Price
 
The upgrade is priced at only $34.95, plus shipping and handling ($5.00 US,
$7.00 elsewhere), to registered owners of ImageFX 2.0 or higher. 

Contact our order lines at 1-800-IMAGE-69 or (804) 282-1157, orders can
also be faxed to (804) 282-3768.  Write us at; Nova Design, Inc., 1910 Byrd
Ave, Suite 214, Richmond, VA 23230

ImageFX, AutoFX, IMP, Cinemorph and Wireless are all trademarks of Nova
Design, Inc.  All other trademarks are held by their respective owners.

@endnode 

@node NEWS7 "IntuiCookie for BGUI 1.0"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

    IntuiCookie for BGUI

VERSION

    1.0 (20.02.96)

AUTHOR

    Christian Kemp

    52, BD Patton
    L-2316 Luxembourg

    E-Mail : ckemp@innet.lu
    WWW    : http://www.innet.net/~year0183/

DESCRIPTION

IntuiCookie is a fortune cookie program with many features and support for
formatting characters.  Its only purpose is to display random quotes, jokes
or fortunes at bootup.

IntuiCookie uses a hash file for an amazingly fast access of the cookies. 
CookHash, a hashfile generator with AppIcon is also included.  Cookies can
include formatting characters and it is possible to use different fonts for
cookie/origin in the BGUI window.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

IntuiCookie requires OS2.04 or later and BGUI.library V37 or later.

AVAILABILITY

IntuiCookie is available on any Aminet site, for example

ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/misc/ICookie_BGUI.lha (149125)

PRICE

IntuiCookie for BGUI is Mailware.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

IntuiCookie is subject to the "Standard Amiga-FD Software Copyright Note".

@endnode

@node NEWS8 "Fields of Battle 1.30/1.31 Bug"
@toc NEWS

Field of Battle v.  1.30/1.31 has a bug, which result in 8-bit CyberGFX not
working with old versions of the operating system.

If you start FoB with 8-bit CyberGFX with and old version of the OS,
nothing will be drawn on screen.  After a while, when the normal
arrow-pointer appears, clicking on the screen results in the "No game in
progress" dialog.  If you move the dialog arround, it will leave "trails"
on the screen.

The bug appears if your graphics libraries version isn't version 40.xx or
newer.  Type "version graphics.library" from a shell to examine the version
of your graphics library.

We will release a new demo which fixes the problem, as well as a patch to
the registered version, next week if everything goes as planned.

Lars Moellebjerg
Bevelstone Production I/S

email: bvlstone@login.dknet.dk
WWW:   http://www.login.dknet.dk/~bvlstone

@endnode

@node NEWS9 "SoftLogik Web Page Online"
@toc NEWS

SoftLogik's web page is now live.  Come visit us at www.softlogik.com.  If
your browser reports that it can't find it, try again in 24 hours.  Some
name servers might not have it yet.

The following email addresses are now valid:

Tech Support: support@softlogik.com

Automated Info: info@softlogik.com

If you find a mistake on our site, please report it to us so that we can
correct it.  It's brand new, so there may be a few loose ends dangling and
the content is still a bit light.

Regards,

Michael
SoftLogik

@endnode

@node NEWS10 "Amiga Games Library Under Development"
@toc NEWS

            ANNOUNCEMENT: DEVELOPMENT OF AN AMIGA GAMES.LIBRARY


I am in the process of developing a library specially for the purpose of
writing GAMES.  For the past few weeks I have been experimenting with the
concept and now that I am satisfied with the results, I have decided to
develop it into a full Games Programming Interface.

So far I have done the basic features (about 40 functions), and am now on
to the real stuff.  Already there is full support for multi-directional
hardware scrolling, dual playfields, colourlists, double buffering, triple
buffering, AGA support, 4 different types of fading, etc.  In other words,
all the things the OS previously COULDN'T do (unless you enjoy having major
headaches).

The objective of this library is to remove the need to hack the hardware
within games (the library will do it for you :-/).  Then when a new Amiga
is released, the libary will be re-written to deal with that, so your game
still works!  (Or at least under 680x0 emulation anyway :-) The real bonus
is that your game will also work with all the major gfx cards, because
there will hopefully be versions of games.library specifically written for
these also.  So no more problems with CyberGfx/Picasso/Retina/etc boards. 
Multi-tasking arcade games will also be quite easy to write under this
library, although you can do away with the OS if you wish.

The only thing I want to know is how many people will use the library, how
many want to see something like this in use, and how many will *help me
write this library*.  This is an "open project" so all programmers that
wish to donate or write routines for it may do so.  I would do it all
myself, but not if you want to see it released in the next few months. 
Plus I think this way everyone has a chance to have a say which I think
will be very important for this project.

With some help, the following features should become a reality:

*  An in-built debugger.
*  A multiple blit routine.
*  Texture mapping routines.
*  Gouraud shading routines.
*  Complete vector drawing system, including "Draw_Multiple_Vectors".
*  XPK support.
*  Support for Sprite screen backgrounds.
*  Easy IFF support for gfx and sound (just point to the file and go).
*  Various  screen  fades, wipes and special fx normally only seen in demos
   built in.
*  A  c2p  routine  that  automatically  uses the fastest algorithm for the
   user's system.
*  Retargetable graphics to adjust to the user's system.
*  Support  for  GPI's  (Games Programming Interfaces), similar to API's in
   windows I guess (but better :-)
*  Anything else you can come up with.

If you can help with any of these, or anything not listed, please send me
some mail.  The retargetable graphics part is especially important, I don't
own any gfx cards so it is up to you if you want to see this area fully
supported.  If not enough interest is generated, the library will still be
written, but only for personal use.  So make contributions/comments/ideas/
anything.  This could really be something worth-while.


- Paul Manias
  DreamWorld Productions.

  sandman@welly.gen.nz

@endnode

@node NEWS11 "Frodo 2.2"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

  Frodo

VERSION

  2.2

AUTHOR

  Christian Bauer

  EMail: bauec002@goofy.zdv.uni-mainz.de
  SMail: Christian Bauer, Max-Planck-Str.60, 55124 Mainz, Germany

DESCRIPTION

Frodo is a multitasking freeware C64 emulator for the Amiga and DraCo.

This emulator focuses on the exact reproduction of special graphical
effects possible on the 64, and has therefore relatively high system
requirements.  Using a 68060-50 and a CyberVision card gives about 140-160%
of the original C64 speed in standard text mode in the emulation's most
precise mode and about 700% in its fastest mode.

Using a line-based VIC model, Frodo is capable of running most games and
demos correctly, even those with FLI, FLD, DYCP, open top/bottom borders,
multiplexed sprites etc.  A single-cycle version of the emulator, "Frodo
SC", is included that runs even those programs that fail on the line-based
emulation.

A graphics card (any one whose modes are selectable with a screenmode
requester will do) is strongly recommended for faster display as the
emulator's routines have been designed for a chunky display memory.

Some small demo programs and the full source code in C and assembly
language are included in the archive.

Changes from V2.1:
 - OtherIEC gadget disabled on DraCo
 - Overscan type can be set again
 - D64 rouines read 1 byte too much from files, causing trouble with
   some decrunchers
 - $d41c returns random values
 - TOD clocks wrap around at 11:59:59.9
 - SID registers are reloaded when changing the SID emulation type

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

OS2.1 and a 68020 (or better) are required, as well as copies of the
original C64 ROMs, which are not included.

AVAILABILITY

  Aminet sites: /misc/emu/Frodo.lha
  Next Generation BBS, Germany
    Port 1: +49-261-805012  (Zyx19.2/ISDN)
    Port 2: +49-261-84280   (V.FC)

STATUS

Freeware

DISTRIBUTABILITY

Freely distributable

@endnode

@node NEWS12 "Announcing Miami, a new TCP/IP stack"
@toc NEWS

Miami - a new TCP/IP stack for Internet access

This is the first preliminary announcement regarding Miami, a new TCP/IP
protocol stack for Internet access by modem.  Miami is currently "work in
progress".  Functional beta versions are not available yet, but you can get
more information and preliminary screen shots from my web page (see
signature).

I am also asking everyone interested in a new TCP/IP stack to participate
in the development by providing me information about your modem, dialing
conventions in your country and your Internet provider.  Your help could
ensure that the first release of Miami already supports a wide range of
configurations and Internet providers.  Please have a look at my web page
for more information.


The current Amiga Internet situation from my point of view:

Many users have told me personally or posted on Usenet that they are
unhappy with the current choices for Internet access (usually AmiTCP/
ppp.device or AmiTCP/cslip.device).  Although AmiTCP is in itself a very
powerful and well-written program, it has not been specifically designed
for modem-based Internet access, i.e.

- it has many features that most users do not need (e.g.  gatewaying, very
  extensive configuration)

- it is rather difficult to configure

- you need to know all configuration parameters (dial script etc.) in
  advance, i.e.  AmiTCP/ppp.device cannot dial up your Internet provider
  and find out the required settings by themselves.

- it is not an "Amiga-ish" application, i.e. it lacks a GUI

- it does not handle "dialing" in any way (well, at least until AmiTCP 4.2.
  I have not had a chance to check the quality of the 4.3 dialer yet).

- it does not support some of the new features that many new Internet
  providers (mostly Win-NT-RAS and Cisco/Xyplex) use, e.g.  automatic DNS
  server discovery through IPCP/BootP.

Besides AmiTCP only supports SANA-II.  Although SANA-II is a Very Good
Thing (tm) for Ethernet-like networks it can be a real burden for
modem-based Internet access, because the SANA-II standard lacks some
features required for dialup connections.  Most integrated TCP/IP protocol
stacks on other platforms only use packet drivers (the equivalent of
SANA-II) for Ethernet-like networks, but use integrated PPP/SLIP for dialup
connections.  This is not possible with AmiTCP.

All of the above taken together makes it unnecessarily difficult to use
AmiTCP with ppp/slip, and there is no way around this without redesigning
*all* of it.


Now about Miami:

Miami is an attempt to make Internet access on the Amiga as easy as
possible.  Simple (mostly automatic) configuration has been my primary goal
throughout the design and implementation of Miami.

Miami contains a complete TCP/IP stack based on the latest BSD networking
code (net/3, 4.4).  It also contains a dialer (both script-driven and
interactive), and builtin PPP and (C)SLIP.  All of this is controlled and
configured through a single GUI (MUI-based), that is completely localized.
There are *no* configuration files to create or edit *whatsoever*.  All of
the settings are stored in a single IFF file, allowing you to have multiple
distinct configurations for different Internet providers.

In addition Miami comes with a GUI-based configuration program "MiamiInit"
that automatically configures your Internet setup and creates a suitable
settings file.  MiamiInit is already available in an early beta version
from my web page (see signature), so you can check out if Miami would work
with your system and Internet provider (and if it does not: tell me about
it so I can fix it before release :-)).

Miami intentionally does not support SANA-II, because SANA-II support would
require a lot of additional configuration (routing, netmaks etc.) and thus
make the program more difficult to use, just like AmiTCP.  SANA-II support
might be added later, though, as a "power user option".

Miami will be compatible to both AmiTCP 4.x (bsdsocket.library) and AS-225
(socket.library), so most programs available for these stacks should work
with Miami.

Miami will be shareware.  Pricing has not been finalized yet, but the
registration fee will probably be below $40.  And there will probably be
some discounted upgrade path for registered users of ppp.device :-).  I
expected the first release to be ready in June or July 96.


For more information, a more detailed feature list, screen shots of Miami
and beta versions of MiamiInit please have a look at my web page (see
signature).  For comments/questions please send email to
"kruse@america.com".

Please DO NOT send email about

- beta-testing Miami.  I do not need additional external beta-testers at
  this time.

- MUI as the GUI engine.  There is no other GUI engine that even remotely
  offers the features MUI does, and the decision to use MUI is final.

@endnode

@node NEWS13 "Message to Amiga Users and Developers"
@toc NEWS

                     MESSAGE TO AMIGA DEVELOPERS AND USERS

  From Eric Laffont, VIScorp Developer/User Liason

   28-Apr-96

I have been given the responsibility by Mr Bill Buck, CEO of Viscorp, to
rebuild a strong Amiga Developer and Users Community.  I know that the
Amiga community is currently very fragmented and in the past nothing
serious has been done for you.  As a Commodore developer since 1983 (C64,
then Amiga), I can understand all your wishes.

First of all, we are listening to all your suggestions about
software/hardware development, documentation, distribution, contact--just
about anything you want if it's reasonable.  It's a great mission to seek
information from the entire world.  So if you're interested in collecting
suggestions and representing your Amiga community, contact us on the
VIScorp Web Site, or simply reply to this message.

PS: Mrs.  Raquel Velasco and Mr.  Bill Buck apologize for not replying to
the mail they have received because they are very busy, as you can imagine.
They will reply when they return to the US around the first of May.  But
you can always reach me via email:

elaffont@pratique.fr (Eric Laffont)

   VISCORP
   111 North Canal Street, Suite 933
   Chicago, IL 60606

   Corporate Information Contact: Florine Radulovic

   Voice 312.655.0903
   FAX 312.655.0910

@endnode

@node NEWS14 "Australian Pro-Internet Rights March"
@toc NEWS

[Amiga Report Magazine supports the free exchange of information over the
Internet in all nations.  While the content of Amiga Report does not fall
under anybody's current interpretation of "objectionable", we believe that
the successful dissemination of all forms of information depends on free
access to all others.  Any restrictions on Internet access and exchange are
impediments to our mission, and censorship of any material is only a
precedent for more control.  As such, we urge interested Australians to
investigate this event, and urge our readers worldwide to take steps
now--even in those countries where your rights have not yet been
threatened--to ensure that publications like Amiga Report retain free and
clear channels of distribution.  -Jason]

Zip Australia supports the right to free speech on the Internet, and would
like to see that the proposed laws censoring the internet are NOT
implemented.  We would like to see all Zipsters (and non-Zipsters alike:)
participating in this march on state parliament.

The lowdown is that the state Government wants to make only 'G' rated
material available on the 'net, meaning that various things including
medical information and some on line art will be illegal to obtain, and
making the provider responsible.  A bit like prosecuting Teltsra for
customers using colourful language during a conversation (even if the two
people consent!).  Even some material that can be freely broadcast over the
radio will be illegal!

As well as this being a law against free speech, the nature of the internet
makes it impossible to police fairly.

Below is a repost of some of the discussion going on about the leaflet to
be distributed to the public and MPs.  Note that the final content will
most likely change slightly, with lots of people chipping in with ideas.

(Thanks to Thorfinn (thorfinn@zip) for informing us)

Hope to see you all there!


> From: Peter Merel <pete@zip.com.au>
> Subject: Re: Electronic Freedom March on NSW Parliament - leaflet
> Date: 22 Apr 1996 01:00:30 +1000

Okey-doke, I've had a go at revamping Richard Ling's pamphlet.  I liked the
form that Richard adopted quite a lot, but I didn't think he phrased things
so that our average Joe Blow could understand them.  What follows is, like
Richard's effort, tentative and preliminary, but imho it's close to
something that will penetrate the average mind.  Might make a good web page
too if Danny thinks it's worth formatting.

Any and all comments, criticisms, refutations, rewrites and replacements
very very welcome.  If folks think that Richard's original works better
than this, I have no problem with that either.  Perhaps Mick can tell us
whether the length is okay, and if anyone has any ideas about graphic
images to go along with this, that'd be great too.  Don't sit on your
hands!

--

                       5 MYTHS ABOUT THE INTERNET
                       --------------------------

MYTH 1:  The internet is full of pornography.

In fact, pornography on the Internet is just a tiny fraction of what goes
on there - it's like the number of sex-shops in Sydney as opposed to all
the other shops.  Just like in Sydney, if you look up "sex-shops" in the
online Yellow Pages, you'll find a few.  But if you don't actually go
inside them, you'll never see any pornography at all - just like real
sex-shops.

The Carr government doesn't understand this.  Carr has never used the net,
and he imagines it's like some kind of TV show.  He thinks all the porn on
the net will be right there in everyone's faces.  This is the same as
thinking that Sydney is nothing but an X-rated cinema.

Because of this stupid misunderstanding, the Carr government will make
every NSW Internet user a target for extortionists and hooligans from all
over the world.  Under Carr's new Internet laws, if an extortionist sends
you a pornographic picture, which any one of 100 million people on the
global Internet could do, for free, in perfect anonymity, with just one
click of the mouse, you'd be up for a $25,000 dollar fine and/or 6 months
in jail.

This new legislation will neither prevent access to Internet porn nor shut
down the real pornographers.  What it will do is make you and your Internet
provider into targets for extortion and entrapment.

MYTH 2:  Internet users are constantly at risk of being exposed to
         objectionable material.

Imagine you're down at the pub, and someone starts telling a dirty joke. 
Happens all the time, doesn't it?  No one minds much, because if you don't
want to hear the joke, you don't need to hear it - you can walk off and go
talk with some other people.  No one forces you to listen.

It's exactly the same on the Internet.  On the net you will only see what
you go looking for.  You can filter out what you don't like.  You can
always let both a dirty-joker and any interested Internet users know how
you feel about what is said.  The net is conversational, like a world-wide
pub.

The Carr government doesn't understand this.  It wants to spend hundreds of
millions of dollars to install policemen with sensitive eavesdropping
equipment all over NSW.  The moment one of Carr's police hears someone
start to tell a dirty joke, they'll fine them $25,000 and throw them in
jail.

Even worse, if you happen to be within earshot of a dirty-joker, even if
you're asleep or not listening, Carr will drag you into a courtroom to have
you prove that you weren't involved.  And if you can't prove it, then Carr
will fine you $25,000 and shove you in the clink too.

MYTH 3:  Pornography can be stopped by imposing a statewide or national ban.

Teenagers scrawl rude words and pictures of genitals on the walls of public
lavatories.  While these things are distasteful, no one gets particularly
upset about them, because, unless you spend all your time reading lavatory
walls, these things are only a momentary nuisance.

It's the same on the Internet; pornography is usually scanned in by
teenagers and "scrawled" onto public forums that are automatically copied
to every computer in the world.  But most users don't see any of this,
because there are millions of different "walls" on the net, and only a
handful are devoted to the equivalent of lavatory graffiti.

The Carr government doesn't understand this.  Rather than ignore lavatory
grafitti as the momentary nuisance that it actually is, Carr wants to set
up the Internet equivalent of video-cameras monitoring all public urinals.
Never mind the fact that this would cost hundreds of millions, Carr says
that if you have the online equivalent of a call of nature, and you see an
obscenity on an online "lavatory wall", that's worth $25,000 and 6 months
in a prison surrounded by rapists and murderers.

Even if this insane policy were pursued, it would catch no one but the
innocent.  Real online pornographers have free worldwide access to
"encryption" and "steganography" software on the Internet - the equivalent
of a graffiti-kid wearing a mask and writing in invisible ink.  Carr's
monitoring software could never catch the originators of the grafitti,
because these schemes are so mathematically tough to decode that it would
take all the world's computers working for a thousand years before even one
pornographer could be found.  And even then Carr would have no way of
proving whose finger was on the mouse.

So the only people Carr can catch will be the poor unsuspecting folks who
wander into the wrong stall at the wrong time.  And, to justify the massive
expense of this absolutely futile campaign, you can bet he'll crucify them.

MYTH 4:  There's no existing solution to this problem.

Places like King's Cross exist online.  Right now, none of them exist in
Australia, but they're directly accessible from here.  They'll tell you how
to mix up the drugs, they'll sell you the vilest pornography imaginable,
and they'll seduce your children into addiction and sickness, just like the
real King's Cross.

But the Internet also offers your children all the advantages of the finest
university education, unlimited access to the most beautiful artworks, and
expert advice on absolutely anything that interests them.  The net holds
out unlimited financial, social and educational advantages to your children
- any Australian child who can't use these advantages is already well on
their way to the 21st century scrap-heap.  If you love your kids, you can't
afford to deny them these opportunities.

Now keeping your kids away from the real King's Cross is *YOUR* job, not
Bob Carr's.  No one can watch your kids for you.  No one can keep them out
of trouble but you.  And it's just the same on the net.  Filter programs
like "Net Nanny" and "SurfWatch", are very helpful in keeping an eye on
your kids, but at the end of the day it's *YOUR* job to supervise your
children on the net.  If your kids are going to be able to cope with the
revolutionary technology of the next century, they need you to give them
the advice that only you, as a parent, know how to give.

But the Carr government doesn't understand this.  If your kids stumble onto
an online "Playboy" then Carr isn't satisfied with you giving them your
parental advice.  Instead, he wants to fine you $25,000 dollars and throw
you in jail for six months.  And if he can't get you, then he wants to get
the administrators and owners of the business that sells you access to the
Internet - or anyone, so long as he can look like a "tough guy on porn".

MYTH 5.  Censoring the Internet is just responsible government.

What's the big deal with the Internet?  If the net is just people talking
to one another, why crack down on it?  If two consenting adults want to
share naughty bits online, is that worse than what they want to do in their
bedrooms?  If you want to discuss sex, drugs or anything else online, is
that worse than what you talk about down at the pub?

In fact, it's just the same thing.  People are just the same online as they
are offline.  If Bob Carr has no business telling you what you can do in
your bedroom, then neither does he have any business telling you what you
can email to your partner over the Internet.  If Bob Carr doesn't have any
business monitoring your conversations in the pub, then neither does he
have any business eavesdropping on your transactions on the net.

But, worse, Carr's new laws will stop you and your children getting
financial, educational and social opportunities that can hugely enrich your
lives.  That's the same kind of thinking that burns books, that jails
dissidents, and that opposes freedom of speech.  Carr's legislation is a
vastly expensive PR exercise that belongs in Beijing, not in Sydney.

Let's stop this Big-Brother rubbish right now.  If we don't want Carr
monitoring every phone call in NSW, making us vulnerable to online
extortion, destroying our kids' opportunities for a first-world future and
squandering hundreds of millions of dollars of our taxes on his paranoia,
then we need to make ourselves visible. 

On May 27, at 12.30, lunchtime, protestors will gather in the Sydney
Domain.  At 1pm we're going to march on the NSW parliament.  This will be a
peaceful protest, and if the police tell us to disperse then we will. 
Smiles, food and music are very welcome.  Please encourage your friends and
colleagues to come along.  Many people are also going to wear blue ribbons,
the international symbol of free speech.  But the main thing is to turn up
- show Carr that you care.  And that you vote.

-- 
mailto:pete@zip.com.au                 |            Accept Everything.  |
http://www.zip.com.au/~pete/           |            Reject Nothing.     |

BB et al.

-- 
Zip Administration
Phone  : 2126-911 (ans mach) 
Dial In: 2126-288 2126-144 

@endnode

@node NEWS15 "The New Amiga M1538S Monitor"
@toc NEWS

The AMIGA M1538S Specifications


     · CRT
     
     15" diagonal Black Matrix
     0.28 mm dot pitch
     Short persistance (P22) tube
     Anti-static AR faceplate finish
     
     · DISPLAY TIMINGS
     
     Horizontal: 15 - 38 kHz
     Vertical: 45 - 90 Hz
     Bandwidth: 40 MHz
     
     · MAXIMUM RESOLUTIONS
     
     1024 x 768 (interlaced)
     800 x 600 (non-interlaced)
     
     All AMIGA resolutions and frequencies !!!
     
     · CONTROLS
     
     Mains on/off
     Contrast
     Brightness
     Vertical height
     Horizontal Position
     Volume
     
     · INPUTS / OUTPUTS
     
     Analog RGB via 23-pin AMIGA-Sub 'D'
     0.7 V - 75 Ohm
     Separate H and V sync
     Audio input LHS / RHS phono socket
     Audio input signal 1 V p-p 5000 Ohm
     Audio Output 0.5 W RMS per channel
     
     · POWER SUPPLY
     
     Line 90 - 265 V, 50 - 60 Hz
     Power Consumption 65 W max.
     
     · ENVIRONMENT
     
     Reliability > 35,000 h
     Operating temperature 0 - 40 °C
     Relative humidity 10 - 90 %
     
     · APPROVALS
     
     EN60950, PTB, MPRII, EN29241, 89/336/EC, EN55022 Class B,
     GS
     
     · PHYSICAL
     
     354x360x380mm (HxWxD)
     14.4 kg unpackaged
     
     · WARRANTY
     
     1 year parts & labour
                
  Available New! at your AMIGA-Dealer !

@endnode

@node NEWS16 "The New Amiga M1764 Monitor
@toc NEWS

The AMIGA M1764 Specifications

    · CRT

    17" diagonal FST invar mask
    0.28 mm dot pitch
    307 x 225 mm typical display size
    Anti-static AR faceplate finish
    
    · DISPLAY TIMINGS
    
    Horizontal: 15 - 64 kHz
    Vertical: 45 - 125 Hz
    Bandwidth: 85 MHz
    
    · MAXIMUM RESOLUTIONS
    
    1280 x 1024 60 Hz
    1152 x 870 68 Hz
    1024 x 768 76 Hz (recommended)
    
    All AMIGA resolutions and frequencies !!!
    
    · CONTROLS
    
    Mains on/off
    On screen Display control of all functions
    
    · INPUTS / OUTPUTS
    
    15 pin 'D - Sub' captive lead
    0.7 V - 75 Ohm
    Separate H and V sync
    Combined sync ( TTL )
    
    · POWER SUPPLY
    
    Line Volts 90 - 265 V, 50 - 60 Hz
    Power Consumption 95 W max.
    Power Saving 2 W max.
    
    · ENVIRONMENT
    
    Reliability > 50.000 h
    Operating temperature 5 - 40° C
    Relative humidity 10 - 90 %
    
    · APPROVALS
    
    TÜV, EN60950, NEMKO, CSA22.2 No.950,UL1950, ZH1/618, GS, DHHS
    FCC/A, EN55022/A, EN55082-1, EN60555, 2ISO9241-3, MPRII, TCO92
    
    · PHYSICAL
    
    400x418x434mm(HxWxD)
    17 kg unpackaged
    
    · WARRANTY
    
    1 year parts & labour, RTB
          
  Available New! at your AMIGA-Dealer !

@endnode

@node NEWS17 "VIScorp Invites Amiga Community to Attend Meeting                                       
@toc NEWS
                                       
               VISCORP INVITES AMIGA COMMUNITY TO ATTEND MEETING
                                       
  Executives to Discuss Pending Acquisition of Amiga, ITV Opportunities
  
   
   
Chicago IL, May 9, 1996 - Visual Information Service Corp.  (Nasdaq VICP,
Bulletin Board), a developer of Interactive TV (ITV) set-top boxes to
enhance television use and viewing by providing Internet access and
electronic communications functions, will host a meeting for Amiga computer
users, vendors, retailers, software and hardware developers.  The meeting
will be held in Toulouse, France on Sunday, May 19, 1996 and is intended to
encourage dialogue between the Amiga community and VIScorp, which announced
on April 11, 1996, a letter of understanding with Escom AG to acquire the
assets and intellectual property of Amiga Technologies and the former
Commodore Business Machines.
   
"The Amiga community is a large, established and dedicated one, and I
believe this is the first time that an owner or prospective owner has gone
to this vast community to ask for its opinions," said Raquel Velasco,
VIScorp's Director of Sales and Marketing - Europe.  "We are excited about
the opportunity to tell people about VIScorp and our vision for the future
of Amiga Technologies.
   
"We have asked for proposals and suggestions from the Amiga community. 
With the `anticipated acquisition of Amiga, we see limitless opportunities.
We welcome ideas and are coming to France to listen, as much as to share
our own vision."
   
The meeting will feature VIScorp Chief Executive Officer William Buck,
Chief Technical Officer Don Gilbreath, Vice President - Business
Development David Rosen, Ms.  Velasco, and Chief Software Engineer Carl
Sassenrath.
   
The company asks that all proposals be sent by May 12, 1996 via email to
VIScorp Manager of Technical Development for Amiga, Eric Laffont, at:
elaffont@vistv.com or via facsimile at: 33-61-538-656.
   
VIScorp has announced that it intends to begin marketing its first set-top
box with full Internet and Web capabilities, called the Universal Internet
Television Interface(r), (UITI(r)) in the fourth quarter of 1996.  The
company says an enhanced set-top device, the Electronic Device(r) (ED(r))
is scheduled for roll out in 1997, and will feature capabilities such as
telephone reception and dial-up, facsimile, pay-per-view options,
electronic mail, access to on-line services, including the Internet, and
more.  Both devices utilize the Amiga operating system and chip sets.
Information about VIScorp can be obtained at the company's Web site at
http://www.vistv.com/.
   
   
   VISCORP
   111 North Canal Street, Suite 933
   Chicago, IL 60606
   
   
   Corporate Information Contact: Florine Radulovic
   
   
   Voice 312.655.0903
   FAX 312.655.0910

@endnode

@node NEWS18 "OctaMED and high-resolution sampling"
@toc NEWS

Press Info Regarding OctaMED Soundstudio and sampling with Aura


We have been inundated for requests by purchasers of the HiSoft Aura card
for info on just why samples taken via Aura<>OctaMED V6 are no where near
as good as if they are taken via the Aura's own software that is supplied
with the card itself.

Now allthough we are still, even at this late stage, attempting to sort
this anomaly out prior to it's release, we do have some good news for
everybody, especialy those that are still only considering purchasing the
Aura card and also Amiga owners that have an A4000 but cannot afford the
hefty prices for Soundcards.

Due to some very clever programing by it's author, Teijo Kinnunen, OctaMED
Soundstudio V1 is now capable of playing mods and samples *directly*
through the Paula chip in 14bit quality thanks to the new mix routines in
this latest version.

It will also enable old 8bit mods to be loaded, mixed and resaved in the
new 14bit mode.

For info on just how it is completed, just read the latest info that is
available from our WWW Site.  You can also download the last "beta" Demo
and try it yourselves.



 Ray

   RBF Software

@endnode

@node NEWS19 "HTMLess 2.0"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

   HTMLess - Converts WWW HTML pages to standard Amiga ASCII text files.

VERSION

   2.0 (major update)

AUTHOR

   Manuel Martin-Vivaldi
   E-Mail   : bitabit@servicom.es  (Faster and safer)
   FidoNet  : 2:341/28.55		Manuel Martin
   AmigaNet : 39:192/1.29		Manuel Martin

DESCRIPTION

HTMLess is an utility to extract the text inside HTML files (Web pages) and
convert it to a readable text format.

FEATURES

 o Fast, written 100% in assembler.
 o Small but powerful utility (only 12000 bytes long).
 o CLI and Workbench usage.
 o ToolTypes support. [New since v2.0]
 o Admit filenames as CLI parameters (can be launched from a
   DiskMaster/DirOpus type program to autoconvert HTML's).
 o Output text could be formatted to easy reading.
 o All non-ASCII chars are converted.
 o Can keep [href's] (like WWW adresses) in the output text.
 o .HTML or .HTM filename suffix could be changed to your own defined text
   extension. [New since v2.0]
 o Very easy to use...just try it.
 o WYSIAWYG (WhatYouSawIsAlmostWhatYouGet)
 o No annoying requesters when starting/using/quitting program.
 o It's OriginalWare (OriginalWhat?) and it's only Amiga (Yeah!).

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

 - AmigaOS 2.0+ (v1.3 could work, but is not supported nor tested)
 - "ReqTools.library" by Nico Francois and Magnus Holmgren.

AVAILABILITY

 - AmiNet :  text/hyper/HTMLess.lha
 - Maybe on the next AmiNet CD?! *8)

PRICE

   OriginalWare!

That means if you use this program you must buy an original Amiga program
or game, register or pay the shareware fee to any program you are using
often.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

Free distributable with the usual restrictions.  See documentation for
further details.

@endnode

@node NEWS20 "Phase5 Announces PowerPC Amiga Compatible Computer"
@toc NEWS

PowerUp - The Next Generation:
phase 5 digital products announces an Amiga-OS-compatible computer for 1997


Oberursel, May 1996: According to the plans of phase 5 digital products,
Oberursel near Frankfurt, Germany, the coming year, 1997, will be a year of
joy for all Amiga enthusiasts.  As an expansion of the PowerUp project,
which involves developing PowerPC processor cards for existing Amiga
models, the company has announced that an independent Amiga OS-compatible
computer system will be available in the first six months of 1997,
representing a revolution on the computer market.

"We will continue to give our full support to the Amiga idea because as we
were among the first Amiga users we continue to believe in the advantages
and superior concepts of the Amiga", says Wolf Dietrich, Managing Director
of phase 5 digital products.  "However, it is high time for a radical leap
forwards in technology that needs to be borne by a vision of a computer for
the next millennium.  We have seen too many half-hearted efforts in the
last few years." In the view of Gerald Carda, Technical Director at phase
5, it is necessary to take a step towards complete innovation in order to
realise such a vision.  "Concepts that build up on the standard components
of the PC world never offer the scope that give a computer system the lead
that the Amiga 1000 had over other systems 12 years ago."

In line with this philosophy, the new computer will be based on a highly
integrated Custom Chip design which, as a central functional unit, will
enable the system to achieve a hitherto unknown performance.  "We will
demonstrate the possibilities that are inherent in the resolute and
single-minded pursuit of a new development that does not become submerged
in the mainstream of adaptation to the Wintel world and the general
tendency towards economy in the PC mass market which more or less throttles
innovation for the sake of saving one single dollar", continues Gerald
Carda.  Despite this, the system now being announced is not intended to
become a dream machine in the high price category.  In the words of Wolf
Dietrich: "On the basis of our current price calculation we will be able to
offer unusually good value for money for which our products for the Amiga
market are already renowned."

It is actually true that the extremely high degree of integration and the
realisation of novel concepts will make it possible to achieve a
performance that explodes existing bounds.  Based on the PowerPC as the
main processor, the new computer, in addition to the high performance of
the processor, offers hardware support for multimedia (MPEG) and 3D
functions, while even the basic system offers a resolution of 1600x1200
pixels at 24-bit color depth and a refresh rate of 72 Hz.  At the same time
special functions for image and video effects have been implemented in the
hardware.  In addition there are audio inputs and outputs in stereo CD
quality, a video-compatible and Genlock-capable 24-bit video output and an
FBAS/S-VHS video input.  Along with the usual interfaces, the system is
rounded off by a Fast SCSI-II controller, a network interface and an ISDN
interface.  With these features a complete system with a 120 MHz 603e
PowerPC, 16 MByte memory, a SCSI hard disk of 1 GB and a quad-speed CD ROM
will be available for a purchase price of around 3,000 DM (1,400 pounds or
2,000 US$, respectively) on the basis of the present market prices for the
components.  "We hope that in just about one year from now we will even be
able to offer a 150 to 166 MHz 603e-processor at this price", anticipates
Wolf Dietrich.  "In terms of performance the processor has no problems in
keeping up with a Pentium processor with an equally fast clock.  However,
there is no sign of any comparable graphic performance anywhere the PC
field and the features of our systems will be difficult to match." There
will be a similar system available with a PowerPC 604-e processor and 150
MHz for about 4,000 DM (1,800 pounds or 2,700 US$, respectively).

Although phase 5 digital products state that the total concept for the
system has already been under development for quite some time and has
practically been concluded, it is not possible to publish a more exact
description of the system features at the present point in time.  "At the
moment we are intensively concerned with looking into whether it would be
worth applying for a patent for any of the concepts we have developed and,
if so, for which.  So unfortunately we are not able to publish more precise
details of the concept until after this process has been concluded and we
have possibly applied for protection by patent", says Gerald Carda.  For
this reason we cannot reckon with any publication of the full system
specifications until the end of June.

Not only the hardware concept of phase 5, but also the software approach
comes as a surprise.  The new computer system will be supplied with a
completely new operating system written in Native PowerPC code, but with
binary compatibility with Amiga-OS 3.x.  Here Gerald Carda has the
following comments: "As we are already developing an Amiga-compatible
PowerPC-Exec with an expansion library and a PowerPC CyberGraphX version in
the context of the PowerUp developments, it is the logical consequence that
the next step will be the innovative development of the other components. 
An operating system that is compatible with Amiga-OS 3.x makes it possible
for the user to continue to use the existing software that can run under
CyberGraphX, while developers who already give massive support to
CyberGraphX will be able to continue to maintain and develop their products
at the present level.  In this way we will be enabling Amiga users to
switch to the new system without any problems." "In addition", continues
Gerald Carda, "we will be opening up ways of making considerable
improvements in the internal structure and extensive additions to the scope
of functions".  Besides the 24-bit support which has already become a
standard due to CyberGraphX, Gerald Carda names the coming CyberGraphX 3D
and multimedia interface as an example.  There will also be an optimisation
of the system's performance and a revision and adaptation of the user
interface in line with the functional and optical state of the art.  "For
years Amiga-OS has represented the conceptual realisation of ideas that
today are propagated by many to be special innovations.  This means that
reprogramming will make it possible to achieve a really highly powered and
modern OS.  Of course our system will also be open for other operating
systems or emulations, such as MacOS or an X-Windows link-up.  The
discussion concerning so-called new operating systems, however, was
intended more as marketing hype than as a realistic alternative."

The commitment with which phase 5 digital products will force forward this
project is reflected not least in the considerable volume of investment
that has been made in the development.  "By the middle of 1997 we will have
invested seven-digit figures in this project", says Wolf Dietrich.  "We
have the know-how, the development team, the technical equipment, the
support from third parties (especially Motorola) and the financial basis
for this project.  The only thing that we still need is massive and
positive support from the Amiga user basis.  With this early disclosure of
our objectives we expect to receive the anticipated response from the
users, for, after all, such a project only makes sense if there is still a
large number of convinced Amiga fans.  We therefore appeal to all Amiga
fans to write to us, to send us faxes or to contact us via E-mail (under
the address specially set up for this purpose: aproject@phase5.de).  Every
positive reaction will strengthen this forward-looking project."


PowerUP project continues to make progress

The PowerUp project also continues to make progress.  "The delivery of the
developer PowerPC boards will now start in summer", says Gerald Carda. 
"Unfortunately, we are a few months behind in our schedule due to extensive
discussions between Motorola, Amiga Technologies and phase 5.  These
companies were to agree on a close cooperation and clarify a number of
matters, especially with regard to new standards specific to the new
PowerPC.  After the discussion concerning a takeover by VIScorp started and
the wave or redundancies that directly followed at Amiga Technologies,
which led to most of the contact persons who had been involved in the
projects leaving the company, AT abandoned the present cooperation.  For
this reason we will waste no further time and will continue with our
project on our own, which was the way in which we started it.  Nor can we
wait any longer to see what VIScorp might possibly intend or not intend."

The support for external developers in the PowerUp program is now complete.
More than 250 developers - including practically all noted commercial
software suppliers in the Amiga field - are registered and their numbers
are growing every day.  This alone is evidence of the strong support for
the future Amiga-compatible PowerPC platform.  As from the second half of
May, the registered users will now be able to order the PowerPC Beta
developer boards from phase 5 which mean the green light for the hot phase
of the world-wide software development.


Motorola appreciates the concept of phase 5

In the realisation of their new, innovative computer system phase 5 will be
fully supported by Motorola.  "We appreciate the powerful and innovative
concept that phase 5 represents and we fully support the efforts of this
company as a partner in our global PowerPC strategy." says John Letham,
European Technical Marketing Manager, Motorola RISC Microprocessors.  "We
have had a number of joint meetings now and we are impressed by the
know-how and vision that is the basis of phase 5's driving force."


Technology demonstrations
In close cooperation with Motorola phase 5 is preparing technology
demonstrations, to be shown in due course, which will demonstrate the
impressive capabilities of the next generation of PowerPC 603e CPUs at
significantly increased clock rates.  This programme is already underway
and Summer of 1996 will see phase 5 present prototypes of PowerPC boards
for Amiga 3000/4000 as well as for the Apple Macintosh 7500/8500/9500
series.  "With the presentation of these new processors, Motorola as a
leading semiconductor manufacturer clearly illustrates their capabilities
demonstrating exactly why the next generation of PowerPC CPUs will hold the
pole position in the microprocessor performance race".  says Wolf Dietrich
of phase 5.  "Our computer system, when shipping next year, will also offer
these extremely fast processors, delivering true high-end workstation
performance.  The higher speed of the CPUs will also deliver a performance
increase to the upgrade boards for existing Amiga systems." With the
presentation of this PowerPC technology demo on Apple MacIntosh system
phase 5 digital products announces their entry into the MacIntosh
accelerator market.  This new branch of their operation will make
additional use of the PowerPC know-how that is been build up in the Amiga
development, while for both the Amiga and the MacIntosh PowerPC products an
even more attractive pricing can be realized due to the higher quantity
demands of PowerPC processors.


phase 5 digital products on the situation of Amiga Technologies

In addition to this project announcement, phase 5 also made some side
remarks on the current state of affairs with regard to Amiga Technologies.
"To our regret we found that Amiga Technologies offers us no sort of
outlook or basis for developing into the future", says Wolf Dietrich.  "The
first year of Amiga Technologies was marked by a continued chain of wrong
decisions which have been responsible for the bad situation in which the
company now finds itself.  The results must be adequate to the objectives
set in the spring of 1995 and in this respect they are more than
disappointing.  There is no getting away from this.  In fact the same
mistakes were made that were previously made at Commodore and partly by the
same people.  For example, attempts continue to keep technically outdated
products on the market at unrealistic prices, which is particularly true in
the case of the A4000T.  Another point is that the marketing concepts are
completely outdated, there is an absence of any kind of futuristic vision
and a lack of any independent development, which is so pronounced that
today AT neither has any 68060 technology to show for itself nor even a
sign of any PowerPC technology.  The brief spark of any independent
development was extinguished again by the latest wave of redundancies.  In
this respect the only thing that we can just about expect from AT is that
they sell off their large quantities of existing stock.  These do give us
some cause to hope that the existing products will be on the market for a
while and that, in due course, they will be offered at more realistic
prices.  Finally, the only thing that can be said about the activities of
AT is: They should have asked someone who knows his stuff."

In the opinion of phase 5 a takeover of Amiga Technologies by VIScorp does
not awaken hope of any major innovations or any strengthening of the Amiga
system.  "So far we have heard nothing from VIScorp that would cause us to
assume that anything different is being planned than the exploitation of
the Amiga technology in a settop box.  Nor do we see why this company,
which must certainly concentrate all its efforts on realising its settop
projects, should be interested in further pursuing the primary aim of
continuing with the Amiga system.  If this had been the case, it would
already have been quite feasible for VIScorp to initiate such a project as
a licensee of the Amiga technology." phase 5 sees this critical opinion
confirmed by current events.  "The actions of VIScorp do not convince us
that they are serious in continuing with the Amiga.  So far, for example,
VIScorp has not directly spoken to the developers who were the last to
support the Amiga.  Nor was there any reaction when we tried to make
contact.  The VIScorp meeting in Toulouse that has now been announced lacks
any kind of organisation and was called without there being any
recognisable concept behind it.  For this reason it is more than doubtful
whether even a sign of any constructive result can be expected to come out
of it, so that in our view it would be a pure waste of time to attend, as
we have repeatedly found in the recent year at ESCOM meetings.  We don't
need a repeat of that." Let it be mentioned in passing that the hope often
expressed in the general discussion, i.e.  that in VIScorp Amiga will find
itself taken over by a company that will finance the development of a new
generation of Amiga products more or less from the petty cash, is something
that Wolf Dietrich considers to be very optimistic.  "For a start we had
exactly the same expectations a year ago when everyone thought that the
giant ESCOM would get things moving at Amiga from a standing position and
quickly produce a new generation of Amiga computers for a more competitive
price.  Secondly we should first wait and see whether the figures that have
been bandied about in the discussion concerning VIScorp's takeover of AT
have any sort of real fundament."


About phase 5 digital products

phase 5 digital products, based in Oberursel near Frankfurt, are
internationally operating manufacturers of hardware and software products.
The company is entirely owned by its founders, Gerald Carda and Wolf
Dietrich.  Since the market launch of its first product line in 1992 this
company, which consists of an experienced team of the first Amiga users and
developers, quickly established itself as one of the leading manufacturers
in the Amiga market.  Since 1992 its products have been distinguished many
times, including 20 awards for Product of the Year in Amiga journals.  In
1995 phase 5 supplied accessories to the value of some DM 12 million (5.5
million pounds or 8 million US$) in the Amiga market alone.  Since the
Christmas season of 1995 almost 30,000 hardware products have been
delivered.  The product portfolio for Amiga includes accelerator cards,
SCSI controllers and graphics cards.  In these fields phase 5 digital
products has repeatedly proved itself to be manufacturer that is a
forerunner and an innovative leader, for instance in bringing out the first
Zorro III-DMA-SCSI controller world-wide, the Fastlane Z3, in producing the
first 68030 card world-wide with a DMA-SCSI controller for the Amiga 1200,
in offering the first 68060 card world-wide for Amiga systems (the
Cyberstorm 060/50 for A4000), in manufacturing the first 64-bit graphics
card world-wide with full system-integrated 24-bit support (the
CyberVision64 for A3000/A4000) or in bringing out the first 68060 card for
the A1200 world-wide, the Blizzard 1260.  Along with intensive development
activities as a Beta developer for Motorola in the 68060 and PowerPC field,
hardware developments at phase 5 include pure research work in the field of
multimedia high-performance DSPs and in the latest development department
ASE (advanced silicon engineering) VLSI chip design.  An expanding team of
some 20 staff is currently working on these projects at the company's
headquarters in Oberursel on premises covering an area of 960 square
metres.  In the adjoining service area, which covers an area of almost 600
square metres, the company, as from August 96, will be producing hardware
products - including the new PowerPC products - in its own, highly modern
manufacturing plant using the most recent manufacturing techniques.

Contact:
phase 5 digital products
In der Au 27
61440 Oberursel, Germany
Intl. Phone:  +49 6171 583787
   Intl.Fax:  +49 6171 583789
   Homepage:   http://www.phase5.de
      Email:   mail@phase5.de
         or:   aproject@phase5.de
@endnode

@node NEWS21 "Wonder Computers International Announces Distribution"
@toc NEWS

WONDER COMPUTERS INTERNATIONAL ANNOUNCES DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENTS

May 10, 1996--Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Wonder Computers International is pleased to announce two exclusive
distribution agreements for Amiga products in North America.

Lazarus Engineering Corp.  of Canada and Quasar Distribution of Australia
have signed WCi as their designated distribution source for the Amiga
markets in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

Lazarus Engineering Corp.  develops and manufactures the KB-10 IBM
PC-keyboard adapter for Amiga computers, as well as DesignWorks 2, a
structured drawing package.  Quasar Distribution is the publisher of
QuarterBack, DirWork, and PC-Task, including the imminent version 4.0.

Wonder CEO Mark Habinski remarked, "We are pleased to have the chance to
rebuild our strong ties with major Amiga industry developers."
 
WCi will stock and handle dealer purchases for all of these products on the
continent.  Inquiries can be directed to Keynes Emeruwa, Manager of WCi
Distribution, at Wonder Corporate Headquarters in Ottawa, Canada.

Contact: Keynes Emeruwa

Retail line: 613-721-1800
Retail fax:  613-721-6992

Distribution/Dealer line: 613-721-1993
Distribution/Dealer fax:  613-721-1994

WONDER COMPUTERS INTERNATIONAL OPENS!
-------------------------------------

May 10, 1996--Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

On April 16, 1996, Wonder Computers International took possession of a 
large parcel of property from the bankrupt Wonder Computers Inc.   The 
past few weeks have been spent organizing the new company and its Amiga 
inventory, and the time has come to officially launch the firm as an 
Amiga sales and support institution.

Wonder Computers International is pleased to announce its Federal
incorporation as "Wonder Computers 1996" in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, as of
May 2, 1996.  Wonder Computers International will continue to use its trade
names and logos: Wonder Computers Inc.  (with the trademark "rainbow
Wonder"), and WCi (With the golden rendered letters, and multi-coloured
spherical dot over the "i").

Wonder Computers International has announced its first two Amiga sales 
centers, with plans for a third in the immediate future.

The retail operations will initially consist of an Ottawa-based
full-service store, a Vancouver based sales office, and an Ottawa based WCi
Distribution Division.  The company will continue to offer comprehensive
support of the Amiga platform, while increasing its focus on desktop video
solutions.  Company President and CEO., Mark Habinski has stated that he
looks forward "to renewing Wonder's former close co-operation with Amiga
Technologies and NewTek", and that he believes "together we will build a
bright future for the Amiga in North America". 

Wonder Computer's Ottawa store will open May 18th, while the administrative
aspects of the business should be on track a week earlier.  The Ottawa
retail store will have its Grand Opening Saturday June 1st, with a number
of distinguished guests expected to be in attendance.  The Vancouver sales
office is already under operation.

When asked about Wonder's plans for the future, Habinski replied that
Wonder would be opening a centrally-located Toronto based retail store
"sometime early next quarter", and that a full Vancouver retail store would
follow shortly thereafter.  A fourth store is expected next Spring, but its
location has not yet been finalised.  Wonder will also be pursuing
franchising opportunities in other Canadian markets, and major centres
across the United States.

Wonder Computers will also continue to be actively involved in supporting
and sponsoring Amiga-oriented trade shows across the continent in coming
months.  In addition, Wonder plans to build on the achievements of its
highly successful Toronto-based World of Amiga 1995 show by repeating the
event this coming December.  More details on the upcoming show, for both
visitors and exhibitors, can be expected early in July.

Internet Service Providing will continue to remain an important aspect of
Wonder Computers' business.  "We'd like to provide our Amiga customers with
a one-stop ISP, tailored to their needs", stated Habinski.  Wonder's unique
position as Amiga specialists places them in an excellent position to
provide Amiga enthusiasts with knowledgeable support and customer service
for such an undertaking.

    Mark Habinski, President/CEO
    Wonder Computers International
   "Leading Edge Computing - Amiga Innovation"

For Ottawa inquiries, contact

Rob Parker
Wonder Computers Int'l.
1315 Richmond Road
Ottawa, Ontario K2B 8J7
Canada

613-721-1800 voice
612-721-6992 fax

For Vancouver inquiries, contact

Brad Barnett
Wonder Computers Int'l.
2229 Edinburgh St.
New Westminster, BC V3M 2Y2
Canada

604-524-2151 voice

For Toronto inquiries, contact

Mark Habinski
Wonder Computers Int'l.
1315 Richmond Road
Ottawa, Ontario K2B 8J7
Canada

613-721-1993 voice
613-721-1994 fax

@endnode

@node NEWS22 "Open Letter from Mark Habinski, CEO of Wonder Computers Int'l."
@toc NEWS

An open letter to the Amiga Community from Mark Habinski, CEO of Wonder
Computers International.

I'd like to take this opportunity to set the record straight on what
happened to Wonder Computers Inc.

First of all, a bit of background about the company will be useful.  Wonder
Computers Inc.  was incorporated on May 3rd, 1993.  Its initial
startup-cost of $48,000.00 was raised by equal investments from myself, my
father, my best friend, and a university chum.  Over the course of the next
two years, another $300,000+ was invested in the company.  That included
not only the life savings of almost everyone in my immediate family, but
also $50,000 borrowed by my father for that purpose, and additional funds
from my extended family, my friends, and my employees.  Basically, almost
everyone I knew and cared about had invested in Wonder; and those I cared
about most, had invested everything they had.  I owned just over 30% of the
company, my father owned 20%, and the rest of the shares were split among
another 20+ shareholders.

I founded Wonder with the express purpose of improving the lot of the Amiga
platform in North America.  I didn't want to get rich (if that had been my
goal, I'd have had a much better chance almost anywhere else.) I wanted to
support a starving, dedicated market, support hard-working developers, grow
a team, and eventually reward our investors.  I had some good ideas, and
some appropriate skills.  Over our 2.5+ years in business we managed to
complete almost $10 million dollars in sales to Amiga customers around the
world.

Unfortunately, my success in sales did not outweigh my inexperience in
running an operation of that magnitude.  I learned on the job, but I made a
number of mistakes, and our bottom line went from mediocre to negative in
our second year of business.  Somehow, during this process, I lost my
perspective.  I began to live, eat, and breathe Wonder Computers.  First, I
started ignoring my family responsibilities, I stopped excercising, my
eating habits became irregular.  As our situation became worse, I was
forced to borrow more and more money to keep things afloat.  My hair
started falling out, I became chronically sleep deprived (sleeping just 2
or 3 hours a night, while working 18-20 hours a day), and all the while
Wonder's situation worsened.  Our sales were increasing but margins were
falling, and we couldn't seem to make the head way we needed.  I was
clinging to the hope that Amiga Technologies would finally bring newly
built Amigas to market.  They were promised in September. 

By the time our World of Amiga Show rolled around in December, and we still
had no new machines, I began to panic.  Petro managed to restore my faith
in Amiga Technologies.  He convinced me that we would actually get new
machines into Canada before the end of the month.  I felt we were about to
finally turn a corner.  The WOA was tremendously successful and retail
sales began to pick up.  December was the first month in 6 to see Wonder
turn a profit.  January started out with a boom, and when our first batch
of 4000T's finally arrived, we were on pace for a record month; I knew the
worst was over.  We were ordering more product than ever, to supply six
growing stores, and our fledgling Distribution division had doubled its
sales to other dealers monthly from October through to January.  Our
Engineering division had finally released its first couple of commercially
viable products, and substantial revenues were on the horizon.

I was on top of the world as I thought my dream of making a difference for
the Amiga platform was finally becoming reality.  Tuesday, January 16th,
the night before a routine end-of-year-review meeting with my bank, I
received a concerned phonecall from Julie Drapeau-Teed, Wonder's financial
manager.  She had used her home computer to review a couple of transactions
in our account, and she had noticed that our balance appeared to be too
high.  I didn't think that sounded like too much of a problem, and
obliviously, I walked into the bank Wednesday morning to receive quite a
shock.  My account manager took me into the office of the Bank manager, and
together, they informed me that they were calling in our loan.
Furthermore, they told me that the night before, they had placed a hold on
all of our outgoing cheques, in order to trap as much of our cash as
possible.  In effect, they were unilaterally shutting us down.  The next
two days I spent desperately trying to restore our finances.  I went to
other banks, I spoke to lawyers, I contacted our investors.  Our own people
were tapped out, those close to the business had invested all they had,
those more remote had put in all they were willing to lose.  By Monday
morning, all of the cheques that had bounced when the bank placed the hold
had caught up to us, and trustees were placed on site, (at each of our
locations), to ensure that we did not try to return product to vendors, or
in any other way reduce our equity. 

Still I tried to turn things around, but a week later, we were all locked
out of our offices, and we were bankrupt.  It had happened so quickly, and
had been so unexpected, that I failed to perform all of the tasks that I
should have thought of.  Right up until the day I was locked out, I
believed I could turn things around.  I didn't consider calling creditors
as I knew I could not send them any money or return product (with the
trustees watching over my shoulder, and controlling our accounts), and I
did not want to panic everyone as I thought erroneously that we could fix
everything, and most would never need to know about our temporary setback.

When reality set in, my world came crashing down around me.  My staff was
owed six weeks of pay (as we had always kept 2 weeks in arrears, their
final paycheques bounced, and we were unable to issue the last regular
payroll.) Many of them had been living day to day on loans from friends,
and almost all were stuck.  Mortgages were on the line for the family
types, cars were reposessed, including my own.  Several people verged on
nervous break downs.  Three different parents of employees/shareholders
died in a span of a few weeks.  I had angry creditors calling me at home,
at all hours.  Terrified employees, shattered shareholders, and even my own
father were calling my home demanding explanations, needing money, and
asking for my help with an unbelievable range of problems set-on by
Wonder's demise.  In an inspired moment I wrote a letter to Jason Compton,
to be included in his press release about Wonder's bankruptcy.  I wanted to
give everyone some hope, and I prayed for a miracle.

I spent the next six weeks as a complete wreck.  Not only was my business
bankrupt, but my frantic exertions of the previous three years had left me
physically drained and emotially bankrupt as well. 

By mid-March I had started to regain my perspective, and I realized that
although things were bad, my life wasn't over.  (It just seemed that way.)
My wife had come back to me, my family forgave me (although their lives
were all profoundly changed for the worse by the financial disaster.) This
is the time when I should have shelved whatever was left of my tattered
pride, and contacted the trade creditors whom I knew personally, and
apologized for what had happened.  I apologize to you now, to those who
were owed money by the previous Wonder, not only for hurting you and your
businesses, but also for failing to apologize earlier when I first came to
my senses.  I was so consumed with my own loss, and that of my
partners/employees at Wonder (and even that of our customers), that I
failed to consider the many other decent, hard-working people who had been
hurt by our demise; our suppliers.

March 28th was set as the deadline by the bankruptcy trustees to sell off
Wonder's assetts.  I realized that if I could somehow raise fresh
financing, and get Wonder started once again, that I might have an
opportunity to help make amends for all of the damage I had caused.  I
wanted to give shares to all of the old shareholers, rehire the old staff,
and pay a portion of the outstanding debts (basically the amounts owed to
employees, and fellow-amiga businesses.)

As I began to work on this task, I started to regain some of my old
self-confidence, tempered now by a great deal of recent unpleasant
experience.  I contacted Escom, I contacted NewTek, I visited countless
venture capital companies, but all to no avail.   After our recent demise,
no one with any money wanted to take a chance on me, and I COULDN'T EVEN
BLAME THEM.  When the 28th came and went I finally realized that it was
over.  I gave up.  In fact, I started to pen the long overdue apologies I
owed to so many different people.   Friday morning, when I got up, there
was a phone message from a little known customer asking me to call him
back.

Its amazing to me now how close I came to blowing what I now see as my
life's biggest and most undeserved second chance.  I really didn't want to
have to patiently talk things over with yet another customer, solving his
Amiga problems, or answering "no, Wonder probably would not be able to
reopen". 

Fortunately, I screwed up my resolve, and placed the phonecall.  I was
shocked when I learned this customer wanted to talk to me about bringing
Wonder back.  I didn't think it was still possible, as the tender deadline
was passed, but the small spark of hope he lit for me caused me to call the
Trustees and ask whether or not it was too late for a new bid to be
entered.  When they answered that no, it was not too late, my hope suddenly
soared.  Kent and I spent the weekend in frantic discussion, and Monday
morning, Kent who was substantially more wealthy than I had ever imagined,
placed a bid on a large portion of Wonder's inventory, and its name.  It
has since been resolved that he would get 80% ownership of the new business
in return for his investment, and I would receive the remaining 20%, in
return for running the company.  Kent, a 20 year veteran of the business
world, would oversee the financial aspects of the business, and ensure that
we didn't get into the same sort of trouble that overtook us before . 

I told Kent that I intended to divide the bulk of my portion of the shares
among former shareholders of Wonder (in the same ratio that they had owned
before); and while he couldn't really understand why I wanted to do that,
he did not object. 
 
In this way, I felt that at least one of my debts had been absolved.  While
the new company will start out substantially smaller than the old (10
employees rather than 60), I hope that in time, I will be able to rehire
the majority of our former staff (or at least those that still want to be
part of the team.) A second debt on its way to being repaired.  Our
customers would once again have a place to shop for their Amiga products. 
(Not all of our old locations will reopen right away, but once again, I
hope eventually to resatisfy those markets.) A third debt on its way to
being resolved.  The final debt, that to my former creditors is certainly
the most difficult to repay.  Wonder, at the time of its bankruptcy owed
almost 1.8 million Canadian dollars.  Our balance sheet would have shown us
in the red by only a few hundred thousand, but as the company was
liquidated for much less than its true value, the net debt to creditors is
still about CDN$1.3 million.  (Or just under $1 million U.S.)

I am still personally broke.  Further, my new boss is not interested in
repaying my company's old debts.  He's a business man pure and simple.  
What choices do I have?  Well, I do consider myself to be "personally
indebted" to a number of Wonder's former creditors.  I don't feel as badly
for Bell, or UPS, the "mega companies", as I know that for them this is a
normal part of their business.  But to the smaller, Amiga based businesses
whom I was proud to think of as friends and even partners of Wonder in the
tiny Amiga market we all chose to call home, I feel personally indebted.

My options are limitted.  I can offer to repay what I owe when I accumulate
the personal wealth, but sadly that will take a long time, and I may never
be able to repay everything.  With the shambles of my current finances I
could not even begin to make such payments for years, as I try to regain a
semblance of normalcy for my family. 

I can simply explain what happened, as I've done here, and ask for
forgiveness, but I know people have little faith in mere words, in these
jaded times.

What I've decided to do is offer the one things I still have at my
disposal, in an effort to make up for my debt.  I'm going to repay these
creditors with my own shares in the new business.  If they don't want to be
a part of the ownership of the new company, that's ok, I know that there
will be those who would like to buy the shares from them.  (Certainly some
of our employees would be interested, and perhaps in time, I might be able
to buy some back myself).  The Amiga creditors owed over $1000 by the old
business will each receive share packages in the mail, explaining what they
are being offered, and what exactly is involved. 
 
Its going to take at least a few more weeks to get the legal work done, but
then they can expect to receive a package from me in the mail, including a
letter detailing the shares and their meaning, and a shareholder agreement.
Once the latter is signed and returned, shares will be issued, and a number
of Amiga businesses will become part owners in Wonder.

I don't know if you believe in God, but the past few months have certainly
reaffirmed my faith.  When I in my pride thought I was at the top of the
world, I had everything stripped from me.  When I was at my lowest,
believing all was lost, I was blessed with a second chance I knew I did not
deserve.  Best of all, I've been given the opportunity to repay everyone I
owe, and continue the job I love, supporting the Amiga platform, and doing
the best I can to help it grow once more.

I've said my piece.  I don't know what else I can do to repair the harm
I've caused.  I've made mistakes, and as some have suggested, I acted
irresponsibly (although not with evil intent), and I'm doing everything I
can to make up for the consequences of my previous actions.

I still believe in the Amiga platform, I still believe that it can make an
exciting resurgence on the international computer scene, and I firmly
believe Wonder Computers will help bring this about.

	Yours very Truly,



    Mark Habinski, President/CEO
    Wonder Computers International
   "Leading Edge Computing - Amiga Innovation"

@endnode

@node NEWS23 "BetterEdit 1.4"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

BetterEdit

VERSION

1.4

AUTHOR

  Name : Allan Odgaard
 Snail : Dagmarsgade 36, DK-2200 Copenhagen.
 Email : Duff@DK-Online.DK
   WWW : HTTP://WWW.DK-Online.DK/Users/Allan_Odgaard/

DESCRIPTION

BetterEdit is a StringGadget Edithook, giving you alot of extrafunctions,
in all system stringgadgets.  Inspired by NewEdit!

FEATURES

 o Block mode, visual and useable via mouse!
 o Change case of a word or letter.
 o Copy, Cut & Paste to/from clipboard.
 o FileNameCompletion like KingCon.
 o In-/De-crease numbers.
 o Paste special chars via ascii code (e.g. search for <CR> in CEd)
 o Reach gadgets outside the stringgadget - V1.4 works together with ReqTools!
 o Word Move/Deletion.
 o Written in assembler, means 5332 bytes of executable code!
 o Still much on my ToDo list (thanx to Christoph A. Loewe)

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

Kickstart V39+ (very special indeed!)

AVAILABILITY

AmiNet:Util/CDity/BetterEdit.LhA

In the future, it might become availeble on my homepage, together with alot
of other stuff, done by me!

PRICE

If you decide to use it for a longer period, you should send me a postcard.
If you for some reason can't afford it; An email will do!

DISTRIBUTABILITY

It is *NOT* to be distributed on magasine coverdisks or similar without the
owner's explicit written consent.

@endnode

@node FEATURE1 "Amigarella, An Amiga Allegory"
@toc FEATURE

===========================================================================
                       Amigarella, An Amiga Allegory
  Giorgio Gomelsky                                        gio@phantom.com
===========================================================================

               AMIGARELLA, THE TOUGH GUY, THE GLOBE TROTTER
               THE YOUNG MAN , THE KING OF RETAIL, THE DUKE
                   OF FUTURES and THE PRINCE OF KERNEL
                 --------------------------------------
                         Fairy Tale or Nightmare?

Just a few days ago, on April 21, it being the first anniversary of the
Escom-Amigarella affair-romance-union-concubinate-marriage-honeymoon,
what-have-you, we,her old-time friends concerned about her well-being, were
asking ourselves how our "Liebling " was doing.  Things were rather
humdrum,lethargic, plodding.  We feared Amigarella might get bored by such
dawdling, dull drudgery.  Admittedly it was better than being retired, out
of circula- tion, but what were these rather methodical, formal, keepers
doing to her spontaneity, her unaffectedness, her spirit?

Little did we know that fate, once more, was cavorting to throw a humongous
spanner in the works!!  What a perplexing, infinitely baffling, truly
amazing existence.

Yet it is nothing new and we shouldn't be surprised at these twists and
turns.  Casting a look over the emotional life of our offbeat friend with
all its up and downs, I'm sure some of us can't help breaking out into a
smile, which soon turns into "...a simper, a chortle, a chuckle, a giggle,
a guffaw, a titter..." (Thanks Final-Writer Thesaurus!), and finally into a
good ol' belly-laugh!

Poor Amigarella, will she ever find happiness?

Just a year ago she was not only homeless but also orphaned, abandoned and,
alas, not for the first time.  Over and over again she gets into these
nasty tightspots and unhealthy relationships.  Yet, her birth and
beginnings were bathed in mirth.  Her biological parents were astonishing
people; inventive, cheeky, fear- less, intuitive, friendly, well-informed
and endowed with a formidable sense of humor.  Good folks, impelled by an
inspired Miner, they were so far ahead of the crowd it made the
middle-humans in the Valley feel altogether rather uncomfort- able: they
just couldn't figure out what these eccentrics were up to and so refused
them access to the country-club.  But the family didn't care two hoots
about that.  With consummate faith in their offspring, they had cheerfully
invested all of their savings in trying to give her the best possible
education and a good start in life.

Unfortunately it wasn't to be.  Their oddball manner was just too much for
the establishment.  Finally they ran short of money and so came
face-to-face with the insensitivity of ferocious capitalism.  They couldn't
look after her anymore and so were obliged to give her up for adoption.

Amigarella was such a beautiful, uniquely gifted child: bright, cheerful
and resourceful.  Since very early on she was inquisitive, kooky, curious,
interested in things.  She needed little attention from grown-ups.  She was
too busy playfully discovering the pleasures of life.  She had none of that
grasping capriciousness some kids have.  Her appetite was not for sweets or
toys, but for megabytes, blitters and sprites.  She was cheap to keep.  She
learned to dance, to paint, to compose, to sing, to photograph, to film, to
video, to digitize, to animate, to a-rexx and on and on.  She was a fast
learner.

When word about the adoption got out, 2 candidates foster- parents, came
forward.  Both, somehow incestuously, in the same business and fierce
competitors.  In fact, one of them had worked for the other (or the other
way round) and there was no love lost between them..  Both knew Amigarella
was a rich source of delight and satisfaction.  To begin with, the first
foster-parent, The Tough Guy, who was very, very ambitious if not ruthless,
got the custody.  Soon, though, it became very obvious that his real
objective, his hidden agenda, was that of probing where Amigarella got her
good disposition from and then apply it to his own, not so bright children.
Rumors began running that Amigarella was slowly wasting away.  Now, the
other foster-parent, miffed to have lost out in the first place, stepped
in.  At the very last minute, he managed to snatch her away from the
perverse machinations of this bad parent.  This second foster-parent, The
Globe Trotter, was a well-to-do, middle-aged playboy-type who lived in an
aeroplane and whose main motivation was to avoid the IRS and to trip up his
old rival...

Ah, we all thought, at least our Amigarella would be looked after and grow
up in a safe, clean environment, get the best education and become a
beautiful, intelligent and desirable young lady.  And at first things
looked very auspicious.  The Globe Trotter well-to-do Playboy gave her a
wonderful debutante's ball.  Everybody who was somebody in the Valley came
to the party and swooned over her beauty, her playfulness, her quirky humor
and yes, her caring and supportive friends.  We were all so happy for her!
Now we were certain her troubles were over, that she could look forward to
a rich and exciting life and sooner or later, find a worthy husband and
have many bright and healthy children.

But, very unexpectedly, things began to go wrong.  It turned out that The
Playboy-Globe Trotter had this most annoying habit of taking off in his
plane to distant sunny places, at the drop of a hat and for no precise
reasons.  He just never was around when time came for important decisions.
An absent father, he left our friend in the hands of people who neither
understood nor appreciated her unique character and potential.  Slowly, the
promise of a joyful happy life wilted away.  Many of her friends tried to
intervene, some were even working for the Globe-Trotter.  But to no avail.
Amigarella got more and more depressed and forlorn.  On certain days she
was seen walking around all dishevelled and scruffy.

Then, one day, the news came that the Globe-Trotter had blown all his money
on some shady escapade and was going to fire everybody and shut down all
the factories across the world.  Although all of Amigarella's friends had
seen this coming, they were powerless to intervene to save the situation. 
Some of them did try, by buying shares in the company and writing many
letters.  But it was too late.  Amigarella would soon be in the street,
homeless and parent-less yet again.  It was downright heart-breaking.

The Globe-Trotter and his minions took a long time liquidating their
assets.  It just went on and on.  Everyday brought more bad news and more
disappointments and there seemed to be no salvation in sight.  The
wonderful promises for Amigarella's life were dwindling away at an alar-
ming rate.  What, oh what, would become of her?

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the news arrived that Amigarella
would go on the chopping block, offered at an auction to the highest
bidder, like some prize cow.  How humiliating!

You can imagine how her friends felt!  Endless speculations and rumors were
rekindled.  Who would show up to save her from the clutches of such a
terrible fate?  Someone suggested all her friends dig into their pockets,
raise enough funds to pay the debts and give her a new life.  Perhaps
making it possible for her original parents, brothers and cousins, who knew
her so well and loved her, to come back and look after her.  But no-one re-
ally listened.  They were all too busy moaning and groaning and hoping
someone would show up to save the day.  On top of it all, good Father Jay,
decided to leave for heavenly shores..

When a full year had passed, and after much back and forth, two suitors
appeared on the horizon to rescue our friend from oblivion.  One, a
handsome young man from Florida, was well-aware of Amigarella's gifts and
uniqueness and of her many dedicated friends on whom he knew he could
count.  The other, unknown on these American shores, was what appeared to
be a very self-assured, very ambitious, founder-chairman whatever of some
vast-chain selling computers in far away Germany of all places: his name
was The King Of Retail.

The suspense was killing.  The Young Man from Florida was very open about
his plans for Amigarella and was often available to speak to her friends
and reassure them of his good intentions.  The King Of Retail, however, was
the opposite.  Very tight-lipped and secretive he never tried to get in
touch with Amigarella's family of choice and shoot a bit of the breeze.
Again, people all over the world started agitated speculations: this way
and that way, who could, would, do this and that, what was the best for
her, who would love her the most, give her what she needed, who would be
more suitable for her.  More and more it looked like everyone was engaged
in frantic match-making, preparing an unforeseen yet inevitable wedding.
Her friends were giving away the bride...

The day of reckoning came on a beautiful spring morning a year ago on April
21.  The contending parties had met in a lawyer's office the day before and
put their bids on the table.  More speculations were bandied about.  Most
of Amigarella's friends wished The Young Man from Florida would carry her
away.  He seemed to really love her, want her and know how to cherish and
care for her.  Alas, in this material world, good intentions are not
enough.  The German KING of Retail pulled out a few slick legal tricks,
came up with cash on the spot and so laid a binding claim on Amigarella.
It later appeared he had been very manipulative, very determined to take
her back with him to Germany.  She would look fabulous on his arm as they
stepped off the plane.  The Young Man from Florida had lost...

Of course everybody was very disappointed.  After all who was this German
fellow, why did he pay 12 million dollars to have her by his side, what was
he going to do for her, was there a pre-nuptial agreement, was her future
finally secured, would this union, made almost at gun-point be a fruitful
one?  Many, many questions needed to be answered.  Yet again, a great
uncertainty prevailed...

For the next few months all of Amigarella's friends started tumultuous
exchanges, new speculations.  They desperately tried to get in touch with
The King Of Retail in far away Germany.  One day it looked like the new
groom knew how precious a person his bride was and how to give her back her
luster; then on another day, it was just the opposite.  He gave her the
wrong clothes, hairdo and accessories; she looked lost and confused in that
distant land.  It was skirting the ridiculous.  No one could find out what
was going to emerge.

Then, slowly, German thoroughness began to show.  Nothing glamorous, but a
precise, bit by bit gathering of all mislaid or lost parts would make
rebuilding possible.  But then, the week after, some cranky, incoherent,
muddled announcement would again throw panic among her friends.  And so it
went on.  Up an down, good and bad, in an almost surreal yo-yo dance
between hope and despair.  Finally, just a couple of months ago, all the
old old parts were put together with some new ones and Amigarella was taken
to a few parties and re-introduced to the world, at least as seen from
distant Germany.  But frankly, it didn't work.  Amigarella looked
old-fashioned and stiff, awkward, hemmed-in, she who was always rather
forward if not outrageous.  They gave her things to say that sounded hollow
and flat, like " Back For the Future" and "Forward To The Past" and so on.
Worse, they didn't even reach out to her friends who were all, of course,
dying to help every which way they could to make her come-back a success.

So, the launch didn't meet The King Of Retail's and his partners'
expectations.  On top of that he had gone a bit goofy buying hundreds more
stores with nobody in them who knew how to sell whatever they were selling.
So, just a few days ago it appeared his partners were rather unhappy about
the big losses incurred in this first year of ESCOM'S multimedia fever.  He
had to sell some more of his, now minority shares and, of course, in true
"as matter of honor" German style, resign from the chairmanship.

And now what?  How is this story going to unfold?  The successor to The
King Of Retail, at the helm of the good ship ESCOM,used to work for The
Globe Trotter.  Can you believe it?  Before resigning, The King Of Retail
had approved 2 brand new wardrobes for our Amigarella.  A real hip one
which would make her look like a million dollars, but would take no less
than one full year to bring about and the other a very strange, awkward
getup that some suggested make her look like a toaster or a vacuum cleaner
from the 50s....

What if the worst happens and our Amigarella will find herself abandoned
once again?  What will her friends feel like then?  And will they be able
to do anything about it this time around??  Perhaps they should have
another look at the idea of dipping into their pockets for a few dollars,
marks, rubles, dinars, francs or pounds, say $100 worth, and put it all in
an emergency chest, just to be on the safe side.  How's that old saying,
"Once bitten, twice shy"?  The King Of Retail paid 10 millions dollars for
her.  If 100,000 friends put up $100 each they could make certain
Amigarella will not get homeless again!  A pipe-dream?  Perhaps, but things
could get desperate and the alternative is just too grim to ponder.

Oh dear, oh dear, what would become of our poor Amigarella?  Her friends
feared the worst, what else could they do?  Then, out of the blue, almost
one year to the day of ESCOM's "nuptials" their new Commander-in-chief made
an unbelievable announcement: Amigarella had found yet another suitor and
would be released to him for an astounding $ 40,000,000!!  Wow!  Amigarella
and the cat's seven lives?

Saved by the bell yet again?

Who then was this new suitor willing to pay 3 times more than ESCOM to hold
our Amigarella in his arms?  Well, to begin he was an American.  His
business is to built newfangled, ingenious black boxes that would sit on
top of television sets and act like a combination
modem/playstation/interactive commu- nications device.  The industry calls
them NCs (Network Computers) and a great future is forecast for them.  Just
about every major player, from MicroHard to Oracle, ATT, you name them, is
preparing to conquer this new and potentially rich market.

These NCs would cost around $500 and therefore become acces- sible to many
people who can't or won't buy fully-fledged computers whose sales,
according to experts, are beginning to reach their ceiling of 40% house-
hold penetration, at least in the US.  So, Amigarella's new suitor, whose
real name is VISCORP - but for this story we'll call him The Duke Of
Futures - fully aware that some of Amigarella attributes were perfect for
his box, had originally negotiated what is called a "licensing agreement"
with ESCOM, so as to be able to use those parts in his designs .  Why would
he now want to acquire ALL of Amigarella body and soul?

It goes without saying that your chronicler's nosiness was tickled.  His
investigations led him to a truly astonishing discovery: most of the people
at the Duke Of Futures office were not only Amigarella fans but some of
them had been heavily involved in her very past.  One of them, The Prince
Of Kernel, had been there at the very beginning and in fact designed one of
her original and most attractive features, her OS, or operating system, a
truly wondrous piece of work.  Could this be more than just a coincidence,
a twist of irony?  Could it be that after all her mishaps and misadventures
Amigarella was finally coming back home for good?

Sigh!  What a relief!  Many of her friends, hurt and disappointed by past
events, immediately put forward warnings full of guarded caution,
scepticism and circumspection.  Others gave vent to feelings of joy and
celebration.  The Prince Of Kernel and his colleagues left encouraging
messages of hope for all to read on the internet.  As usual hefty
discussions started considering various possible options.  But now there
was a new energy.  Everyone felt that an outfit counting among its member
someone like the Prince Of Kernel had a very good chance of fulfilling
Amigarella's as yet unfulfilled aspirations.  Of course, the deal between
ESCOM and The Duke Of Futures, has not as yet been finalized or signed and
once more all of Amigarella's friends will have to endure much suspense and
trepidation.  But then, by now, they've become masters at it.  Let's hope
'ol Father Jay is keeping a cheery, magnanimous eye on his and our
extraordinary and inimitable Amigarella!
@endnode

@node FEATURE2 "A First Look at LightWave 5.0"
@toc FEATURE

===========================================================================
                       A First Look at LightWave 5.0
  Bohus Blahut                                             bohus@xnet.com
===========================================================================

       "Imitation is the sincerest form of copyright infringement"
                                                   ©1996 Bohus Blahut

A look at LightWave 5.0

In the last issue, we examined a few of LightWave 5's new features.  These
observations were based on hands-on demonstrations at NAB in Las Vegas. 
NewTek is already shipping the PC version of LightWave 5.0.  The following
is the list of improvements verbatim from the press release. 

NewTek reported to us that the only differences between this list and what
will actually make it to the Amiga release, are that the Amiga version
won't have any features that call on "OpenGL".  Other differences between
versions will be more apparent once LW 5.0 Amiga is actually shipping. 

Note: features denoted with an asterisk (*) are features that are also
available in previous versions of LW.

LAYOUT

True OpenGL support for real-time shaded views.  Includes support for up to
8 interactive lights, acknowledges surface attributes such as Diffusion,
Specularity, Luminosity, Double-sided, Outline Only, and Smoothing

Front Face View of objects for faster redraw and cleaner interface

AutoKey Create mode for ultra-fast keyframe set up  

Realistic OpenGL Previews animations

Tiling and Alpha Channel options for Texture Maps

Dolly, Truck and Pan capability allowing movement along an object's axis

Infinite Surface Layering

User definable Texture Map anti-aliasing

Numerous enhancements to the User Interface including:

Color Background images for enhanced compositing

Color Swatches in RGB fields

Render Sample Cube

Copy/Paste Surface attributes from Render Samples

* Dozens of surface attributes including Luminosity, Glossiness, 
  Diffusion, Transparency, Reflectivity, Bumpiness

* Animate and Morph textures

* Apply over a dozen textures including Marble, Wood Ripples, Fractal 
  patterns and a variety of image mapping options


ANIMATION

MetaMation: A new organic animation plug-in that automatically smoothes an
object with Metaform2 before each frame renders

Bone Enhancements including: Joint Compensation, and Muscle Flexing

Inverse Kinematics improvements including active goals and goal strengths

Multiple Target Object Morphing from one envelope

Interactive Camera Zoom levels

Interactive Light Cone angles

* Inverse Kinematics allows you to create complex character animation
  quickly

* IK makes animating like puppeteering

* Animate nearly all attributes of your scenes through an easy to use
  keyframe interface, or with envelope controls.

* Animate lights, lens flares, textures, objects, even camera attributes;
  zoom or depth of field

* Hierarchical motion and targeting

* Displacement Mapping and 3D Morphing

* Advanced Motion controls including Spline Controls, Velocity, Shifting
  and Scaling

* Multi-color wireframe layout (not available on Amiga Version)

* Save AVI and FLIC flies

* Advances lens flare controls allows streak rotations and other
  manipulation

* Penello Lite from XAOS tools gives your imagery an organic look

MODELER

OpenGL support for real time shaded views, acknowledging surface attributes
of Diffusion, Specularity, Luminosity, Double-sided, and Smoothing

METANURBS Modeling Tool; this new tool combines the ease and flexibility of
polygonal modeling with the power and organic feel of NURBS modeling

Metaballs Modeling Plug-In

New and improved MetaForm2 Plug-In

New Spline Modeling Tools

Surface Editing directly in Modeler

Graphics Tablet Support standard

Randomization for Bevel and Array tools

Data sharing (import/export) between Layout and Modeler

Enhanced support for True Type fonts

Dramatically increased Graphic Redraw speed

Easy to use Lasso Style Zoom

* Hundreds of modeling tools including Extrude, Lathe, Bevel, Mirror,
  Clone, Quantize, Jitter, Subdivide and many more

* Postscript and TrueType font compatibility

* Draw freehand shapes, or trace over images

* Work among ten different layers

* Preview objects as solid or see through wire-frames or new OpenGL preview

* Boolean tools allow cutting, slicing, and combining objects easily

* Create organic objects with spline curves, spline patching, and Metaform2

* Multiple view options

* Macros allow automation of complex functions

* Multiple levels of Undo and Redo

* Automatic standards format between metric and standard in numeric
  requesters

* Mathematical functions can be typed directly into numeric requesters

PLUG-INS

Robust Plug-In architecture gives NewTek and other developers direct
control over LightWave 3D to suimply add new features and functions such as
gravity, image filter/processors, or new modeling tools.  Plug-Ins included
with LightWave 3D are:

Equation
LWpanels
Globsave
MotionEffector
InheritRotation
JitterMotion
MathMotion
ParentBone
ParentCamera
ParentLight
ObjList
ObjectSequence
DisplacementMapEffector
LazyPoints
MetaMation
Blotch
CelShader
Checker
ColorCube
HSLColorCube
NormalColor
SurfBlurShader
StoryBoard
FilmExpand
4XStoryboard
ImageList
MotionDump
AllBGLayers
Arn_calculate
BoundingBox
Cage
Calculate
Center
Center
Center1D
CenterScale
CenterStretch
CutCurves
Envelopes
ImpSurf3D
Julienne
LightSwarm
LoadFonts
MathMotion
NextEmptyLayer
PathToMotion
Platonic
Plot1D
Plot2D
PointCenter
PolyEdgeShaper
Donut
Wedge
SplineCage
RandomPoints
Gear
RandPricks
RotateAnyAxis
RotateHPB
SceneToVRML
Stipple
SuperQuadric
Symmetrize
TextCompose
TextCurve
Throw
Toroid
Translator3DOptions
VRMLAutoSave
VRMLSave
Wedge
Add-Metaball
AutoPatcher
AutoPatcherMK
BGConform
Converge_Points
Fast-Triple-Fan
Fast-Triple-Traverse
Make_DoubleSided
MakeSpikey
MetaBalls
MetaForm2
Points2Polys
TriangleFan
TriangleStrip
Power-Texture
PowerView
RandPoints
Reduce-Polygons
Rest-On-Ground
Rotate-About-Normal
Rotate-Arbitrary-Axis
Rotate-To-Ground
Rotate-To-Object
Spherize
Squarize
SurfFuzzShader
Weave
ZOR
BlurFilter
Convolve
Emboss
Gamma
Negative
NightVision
NTSC_Legalize
PAL_legalize
PENELLOlite
Sepia
SpecialBuffer
SurfBlurFilter
SurfFuzzFilter
VidNoise
Vignette
Watermark
AVI savers
FLIC saver

Image Loaders/Savers for the following formats: Alias, BMP, Cineon, IFF,
JPEG, PCX, Pict, Pixar, QRT, Rendition, SGI, Sun, TIFF, Targa32, Toaster,
WaveFront, XWindows, YUV

Translator 3D loaders/savers for the following formats:
3DStudio, AuoCAD, Alias/Wavefront


RENDERING

New Cel Animation Features for Cel edges and Cel rendering, makes 3D look
hand drawn.

New Plug-In classes including Pixel Filter and Special Buffers for new
rendering and shader effects

New Lens Flare modes including; central ring color and size modifications,
and star filter enhancements

Project bitmap images through spotlights

* Render 32bit images in custom resolutions

* Saves 24-bit images and separate 8-bit alpha channel images

* Use realistic camera options such as Focal Length, Depth of Field and
  Motion Blur

* Generate true-to-life Ray Traced shadows, reflections, and refraction

* Control light attributes including Light Type, Color, Intensity, Falloff,
  Lens Flare, Shadow Options, and more

* Create special effects such as animated Fog, Image Keying and Particle
  Blur

* Unaffected by Fog option for objects

* Unseen by Rays option for object

* Custom resolutions up to 8,000 by 8,000 pixels

* Render module allowing network rendering on up to 999 CPUs

* IFF2Clip module allows building of Video Toaster Flyer Clips

LightWave 3D includes a CD-ROM full of license-free objects, images,
textures, and scenes.

For more informations call 1-800-TOASTER, info@newtek.com, or
HTTP://www.newtek.com

@endnode

@node FEATURE3 "Photogenics 2 IRC Conference"
@toc FEATURE
===========================================================================
                       Photogenics 2 IRC Conference
===========================================================================

[On April 22, at 10 PM London time, Almathera held a conference on IRC to
promote and discuss Photogenics 2, the upcoming revision to their
paint-style image processing package.  Here is the edited transcript of the
proceedings.]

Photogenics 2 IRC Conference, held by Almathera.
April 22, 10 PM London.

Jolyon:  Welcome everyone...  We'll begin in a few minutes.  In the
meantime feel lucky we can't play any abysmal 'hold' music at you...

Jolyon:  Ok..  Welcome everyone to the Photogenics 2 on-line Q&A
session.  We'll be launching Photogenics 2 in the beginning of next
month, and we're here tonight to take questions about it...

Jolyon:  Most importantly, you'll want to know what features we've
added:  Well, briefly...  ARexx support, Animation reading and
creation...  Virtual Images (work with huge images direct from Hard
disk - no MMU needed), full on-line documentation (in HTML format)
and much more!

Jolyon:  If you've got any questions, /msg THP and you'll get put on
the question list..

Jolyon:  Do I hear the first question?

THP:  [Finish any question with GA, same as all other AR-style
conferences]

Grypas:  I want to know what position Photogenics will hold after
version 2 compared to other popular image proccessing software.  In
school I have to use Photoshop and I am familiar with Image FX which
I'm considering buying.

Jolyon:  We obviously intend it to be in a very good position indeed.
There are plenty of things Pgs can do that ImageFX and Photoshop
can't, or at least are a lot less easy to perform.

_Sinister:  We now have many features which have only been available
to IFX in the past, such as VMem, and ARexx.  This makes our position
a lot stronger.

Jolyon:  And Photoshop has neither (ok, it uses Vmem on the OS, but
that's *damn* slow)

Jolyon:  The Amiga is the home of the most innovative graphics
software available on any platform.  We're proud that Photogenics is
considered highly amongst such a strong pack...

THP: [current-queue: gi, tachyon, monty, jamesbartz]

Gi:  Will layers be implemented in V2.xx, and what about Colour
correction, and how about a Plug-in system for extra features

Jolyon:  Ok...  Layers no, (other than the paintlayer Photogenics has
had since V1)

Jolyon:  Colour correction - it depends on exactly what you're after.
If you're after CMYK support that's not something we're planning to
add in the short term

_Sinister:  Though we do now have real-time previews and proper
Histograms...

Jolyon:  The amiga has always been a video-centric rather than a
print-centric system, so RGB has always been more important than CMYK
for most Amiga users...

Jolyon:  (We will add it - give us time - but it's a *big* task).

Jolyon: As for plug-ins, YES.  Photogenics 2 has a brand-new plug-in system
for effects.  These effects, unlike the paintmodes, are effects that can be
applied to the whole image in one go (such as the histogram tool, the
perspective rotate effect and even our brand new fractal generator that
generates 32-bit fractals (with 8-bit transparency) onto your images...

Jolyon: These are similar to the GIOs used for file input/output and full
programming docs will be provided.

Tachyon: I wanted to know about the stability and future plans of the
company and product.  It's a tough market.  Also I've heard rumours of
programmer turnover, and other internal situations.  Also is full
CyberGraphX support available/in the works.

Tachyon:  Also pricing on V2.  That's about it, thanks.

Jolyon:  Ok..  First the company...

_Sinister:  Well I'm not going anywhere, and I've been here since 1.2...
(1.1a even)

Jolyon: The Amiga market has collapsed, for commercial software, and it's
been tough.  Much of our work is now for custom programming (things you're
never likely to see) and we've even dabbled in some PC programming too
(just to keep the money coming in).  But we're committed to developing for
the Amiga, and after meeting Bill Buck of Viscorp last week I am far more
confident than ever that the Amiga does have a secure future - which means
Almathera does too.  As for programmer turnover, we've not had a
particularly high rate of this.  We've had the same team here for over a
year now...

Jolyon:  Now.  for the program...

Jolyon: We've spent ages and ages going through the photogenics source
fixing all your favourite bugs.  We believe Photogenics 2 is the most
stable release ever...

Jolyon: Full CyberGraphX support?  We've had CyberGraphX support since V1.2
- was there anything in particular you meant by this?  (/msg me...)

Monty: A few questions..  1st - Who had the original idea for PGs?  2nd -
Are you likely to be getting a PPC dev board anytiume soon?  3rd - Do
youthink your contract problems with Paul Nolan will ever be resolved??

Jolyon: 1.  Paul Nolan came up with the original program (called SfxGen)
which Photogenics is based on.  For the last year or so all work has been
done in house.

Jolyon:  2.  No, I don't (but as soon as we do...)

Jolyon: 3.  Yes, I hope they will be.  I think it's a pity that Paul has
caused friction between us by taking private discussions out to a wider
audience...

JamesBart 1. What about image enhancement? 2. Who's Paul Nolan?????

_Sinister 1: That like, kind of what we do...

_Sinister 2: He wrote the original program we based some of Photogenics on.

[THP-infochannel: queue = frotz zool inertia pauln grypas simD lostman]

            [split and takeover-attempt occured at this point]

_Sinister: Ouch.

[THP-infochannel: Ow. Split.]

THP: [We seem to have lost a few folks, so I'll restack the queue...]

JolyonR:  Well..  It appears that someone is trying to screw up our
conference.  How mature...

_THP__: Apologies. Back to our schedule.... Frotz?

Frotz: Oh hi.  um, my main question is about the added animation support,
and also I'm concerned that your conflict with PaulN might lead to him
going to another publisher, which would leave my upgrade in an uncertain
situation, wouldnt it?

JolyonR:  Ok..  Animation support.

JolyonR: Animation support works in a similar way to ImageFX and Adpro -
you use ARexx scripts to read and write frames of animations.  These
scripts allow you to apply whatever sequences of operations you want across
a whole animation, for example.

JolyonR: As for PaulN and the safety of Photogenics - remember that
Photogenics is an Almathera product, if PaulN wanted to take the original
SFXgen program to another publisher which he's entirely entitled to do in
1.5 years time, then he'd have an *awful* lot of work putting in even half
the stuff we've added in the last two years.

JolyonR: I'm sure the minor differences between us will be sorted without
any problems.  We got annoyed with him recently because he went public over
a disagreement which really should have been kept internal.  Because of
this, he's found it's taken much longer to sort the problem out.

Zool 1) You said you talked to Bill Buck of VIScorp.  Who is he and what
did he say to you to make you more optimistic?

Zool 2) Will an updated Photogenics, let's say 2.0 SE, be in the Amiga
Magic Pack?

Zool 3) Jolyon, will you ever get into a group hug with Paul Nolan and
Wouter van Oortmerssen again?  =)

JolyonR 1) Bill Buck said a lot of things that cheered me up no end. 
Unfortunately, I've signed an NDA and can't speak about it.

JolyonR 2) The Amiga magic pack is unlikely to change in the short term (so
it will remain 1.2SE), as for future bundles, maybe...

JolyonR 3) I like Paul.  I know _Sinister doesn't get on with him well, but
that's a personality thing.  I expect that Paul Nolan will be much more
heavily involved in Version 3 of photogenics...

_Sinister:  Hoi!  Thats not entirely true...

JolyonR: As for Wouter...  We'll, let's just say we've agreed to disagree
over programming language issues :-)

Inertia: Okay, thanks.  Just a couple of quick ones.  Have you implemented
or considered a feature similar to Photoshop's Magic Wand?  Can you tell us
any more about new processing features?

JolyonR:  Ok..  First let me mention something important...

JolyonR: PaulN may have mentioned he has been working on 'Photogenics 2'
for a while now.  This is indeed true.  What has happened is that this work
has, for various reasons, taken much longer than originally anticipated.
This means that verison 2 has been written in-house in Almathera, and
Paul's code will be the core for Version 3.  Version 2 has to be called
version 2 for marketing reasons (not my decision...)

JolyonR:  Back to your question, Inertia...

JolyonR: Magic Wand - Well, Photogenics works a little differently from
programs like Photoshop, as you may have realised.

JolyonR: With Photoshop you select a region with a tool that selects
outlines of areas.  On Photogenics, the selected area is the 8-bit
paintlayer channel.  This is how with Photogenics you can select regions
simply by spraying on areas with the spray can.  This has even been
extended to the new effects system, so if you want you can do a histogram
equalisation *only* of the areas of an image you've sprayed over!

JolyonR: The 'fill can' tool in photogenics does have a tolerance and
smoothness tool that allows you to select regions in a 'magic wand'
style...  I've mentioned a few of the new effects, many of them have
real-time previews (such as hue&Saturation adjust).  These look wonderful
on a Cybergraphx screen :-)

[THP-infochannel: stacking on: pauln, grypas, simd, lostman, Gi, pixel]

JolyonR: Paul?

___THP Paul?

___THP Odd. Okay, moving on.... Grypas?

Grypas: Thank you again! (hold on)

Grypas: I was expecting more in the animation departement but I want to
know how impressive is the list of special effects.

Grypas:  How can users help you apart from buying the program?

Grypas:  And how fast is it on an AGA A4000@25?

JolyonR: Ok..  First, I apologise to _Sinister, my previous post made it
sound like he was the only one who had arguments with PaulNolan, which
certainly isn't the case, and when I mentioned it was a personality thing,
I didn't mean _Sinister...

JolyonR:  And your questions:

JolyonR: Special Effects list currently includes:

Balance (realtime colour balance control)

Blur (simple and gaussian, like the old menu items, but as
effects now so you can paint on *huge* gaussian blurs)

Edge (much better edge detect algorithm than the one in paintmodes)

Fractal (the mega 32-bit fractal generator)

Gradient (apply gradient fills to regions or the whole image)

Histogram (realtime histogram equalisation, selectable channels, etc)

Hue&Saturation (as previously described)

Invert (fast invert)

Linestrokes (difficult to decribe...)

Median (selectable size median filter)

MixColour (various colour mixing effects)

Noise (apply noise)

Paper (apply paper textures) - _Sinister - you've not seen this
yet, have you?  :-)

Perspective (3d roatation)

Plasma (the old loader, now an effect, so you can 'paint' plasma
onto an image...

_Sinister: (paper - no.  You've hacked up the old GIO I take it...)

JolyonR:Pyramid (make an image out of pyramids - like Photoshop  :-)

RadialBlur (very nice...)

Remove Isolated Pixels

SheetMetal (strange)

Tile (which also does 3d bevelled box type effects)

and Wave (which does 2d wave distortion type things...)

JolyonR: and the second part of your question was...  You can help by
continuing to support the AMiga!

JolyonR: And, on any AGA machine, it runs like toffee unless you use the
non-promoted screenmodes (eg Pal rather than DblPal).  That's AGA hardware
for you, nothing we can do about it, except suggest you get a gfx card..

___THP: I'd like to mention here [being the installer-coder, 'n all] that
Photogenics 2 will be initially released on CD, floppy versions later...

SimD: 1. Where do you see PG going after v2.0?

SimD:  2.  Are you considering releasing a CD version with a load of
gfx, etc on?

___THP: SimD: ;-]

SimD: 3. Why was PaulN kicked out of the conf immediately at first?

_Sinister:  [1] v2.1?  (as long as it continues to be successful,
it'll keep getting better).

_Sinister:  [2] PGS2 /will/ be a CD release, with GFX etc...  (cut
down floppy later)

_Sinister: [3] Due to comments he made before the conf.  started.  We let
him on after, but he was obviously stuck for anything to say...

Lostman: Thanx ___THP and thanks to our guest and all involved.  Sorry if
this has been asked, I came in a little late & I seem get net SPLITed alot.
I will TRY to be brief..  3 questions...

Lostman: 1) What is your opinion on adding "Layers" (or like tools) AKA
Photoslop?

Lostman: 2) This may be out of scope of this conf., but the new Cybergfx 3
is supposed to have new "3D libs".  I have yet to find out what this is.
Is this something that you could and would use in you product?  and how?

Lostman: 3) Also what is the upgrade price, policy, and availiblity for
this new program -(as well as for Photogenics lite or SE people (mine came
with the cyber64))?

JolyonR: Ok...  [1] PaulN has been working on multiple layers for some time
now...  Expect that for V3 (but I guess that won't be till MUCH later this
year...)

JolyonR: [2] Yes, I've head about CyberGfx 3d libs too, but despite being
one of Phase5's 'partners' in PowerPC development, they tell us nothing...


JolyonR: [3] Upgrade from 1.2 is £34.95, from 1.2SE and CyberPhotogenics1.2
is £49.95 (rrp is £99.99)

Gi: will a DraCo version be done (using Dec Alpha) if you get your
development machine, also I've asked Sinister this, is a fractal
compression system available?, also have you thought of developing some
software for Cybergraphx that is seriously needed like an anim player
etc...  also will PGS2 need more memory?

JolyonR:  Ok..

_Sinister:  We'd love to do DraCo (jolz, I'm having it...)

JolyonR: MacroSystems promised us an Alpha back last July, but suprisingly
we never got it :-) If we get one, and an Alpha compiler then *OF COURSE*
we'll port it (or as much as is necessary, ie the speed-critical stuff)

JolyonR: Fractal compression - I'm investigating this and wavelett
compression at the moment.  I've been talking to iterated systems on and
off for 2 years now, and they're much closer to allowing us to do an Amiga
port now than at any previous time.

JolyonR: Anim player for CyberGfx?  Sounds a good idea...  I'll throw the
idea around here and see what people think.

JolyonR: Pgs2 now requires 4Mb.  This really should have been the minimum
for Pgs1.2..  The program is a bit bigger, and there are more libraries
floating around, but this is offset by the new virtual image system.  I
loaded an 18Mb image, cut a part out, painted on it, pasted it back into
the image, and saved it as a jpeg.  All taking less than 200Kb of ram....

Pixel: Hi, Does it have a distort "perspective" effect like Photoshop have?


___THP:  Sin?  ;-]

_Sinister:  Yes.

_Sinister:  :)

___THP: Okay, I'd like to put in a couple of questions we had mailed to us
[that may answer a few more public q's]

___THP: [1] GIF-Export.  Will it make it into the next release?  [Anthony
Ikeda, Australia]

JolyonR:  Yes.  It's a PD add-on, of course :-)

_Sinister:  Also, complete with inteleved and transparency support...

JolyonR: I'm just ironing out a couple of bugs in it now...  It does
interlace and transparency, as _Sin has just said...  The transparency
support is clever - you 'paint on' the transparency in Photogenics into the
paint layer, so you don't have to mess around choosing strange colours and
hoping the colour reduction doesn't screw up and use that colour for
dithering.  Bits you want transparent you paint on.  Simple.  You can use
the fill tool to make regions of similar colour all transparent if you
want.

JolyonR: Oh, we've also added support for Progressive JPEG to the JPEG
code...

___THP: [2] Improved speed in the 16bit Cybergraphics screen [on a
PPS040@35mhz], is the central engine full C yet, Swedish distributor? 
[from Jonas Elfstrom, Sweden]

JolyonR: Speed has been slightly improved in 16-bit cybergraphx.  But more
speed could be got if CyberGraphx was improved :-) Central engine is still
in Amiga E.  It won't change until a future version...

JolyonR: More stuff is out of the central engine now, the central engine is
mostly user-interface code.

[THP-infochannel: stacking on: GregE, Inertia]

JolyonR: Swedish distributor.  Yes, we have one, but I can't remember who..
If you mail me later I can find out the details and reply...

    [it's Vidamus Multimedia, with email on vidamus@algonet.se and w3 on
    http://www.algonet.se/~vidamus - i couldn't find the info in time]

GregE: I hear that the Walker will only have 1 meg of chip ram.  Do you
agree that this is a very bad thing, and will Photogenics be in the Walker
pack?  Also will you support PNG?

JolyonR: I hear the Walker may not even happen now...  1Mb chip is a *very*
bad thing.  I've not heard anything about a Walker pack.

JolyonR: We support read and write of PNG files in Photogenics 1.2a upwards
(via a free GIO on AmiNet).  It's included now with Photogenics 2

Inertia: Thanks again.  The flyer I received mentioned something about
LightWave support.  Can you mention anything about this / memory required?

JolyonR: Yes..  Memory required = lots (but you'll need that for Lightwave
anyway :-)

JolyonR: Photogenics can load .LWOB objects (as wireframe views) so you can
load an object, paint a texture onto it, and save the texture...  We'll
provide arexx scripts to link them automatically to allow seamless control
of one package from the other...

[THP-infochannel:  stacking on:  LostMan, Gi, and nobody else
atm....]

Lostman: Hhow about support for vector tranlations like EPS, PDF, and Corel
Draw files, also support for quicktime?

JolyonR: EPS input is something I've wanted to do for a long time.  It's on
the list of "Things to add if we suddenly run out of bugs to fix in the
next two weeks".  If not, I'll try and do an EPS importer (based on the
post.library, or equivelant) as a freebie on aminet.  PDF is dificult...
I'll have to check out the new ghostscript for that...  Corel Draw is
probably even tougher...  that's unlikely for a long time...

Gi:  Will an ARexx script for Pagestream3 be available?

JolyonR: We don't have Pagestream3.  I faxed SoftLogic a while ago asking
if they wanted to swap copies so we could add such support, but no
response...  Perhaps I'll try again...  and the last question I forgot to
answer...  about Quicktime - Not yet, but we've head that Amiga have
licenced Apple Quicktime code.  When we get that, we can support Quicktime
*100%*...

<<Topic>>___THP sets topic to "Photogenics 2 - Time to wind it up.".

___THP: Okay, the 'official log' should wind up now.  We'll go unmoderated
in a second.  Thanks to all of you for showing up and hanging thru the
splits and channel-chaos ;-]

<<Mode>>___THP changes channel modes to not moderated

___THP: Hopefully, we'll get a transcript into the next Amiga Report, and
get the last few questions in as well [060 optimisation and more]

___THP:  But for now, thanks and goodnight!

   [there were a couple of extra questions afterwards worth mentioning]

NorthWay:  Doing any 060 optmisations?

JolyonR: Not at the moment, our compiler doesn't support 060 optimisation
(or does it?)

_Sinister:  No, it doesn't...

_Sinister wishes we had an 060 in the office (or even at home)

MrDaniel: SAS/C?  Tray Storm C mayber...  Its supposed to support 060, but
afaik it doesnt optimize as good as SAS/C...

NorthWay: StormC is the only one thinking about it I think :)

JolyonR: I tried stormC on a piece of code we have here.  The output ran at
1/3 of the speed of the SAS version (no joke...)

NorthWay: you have no small time consuming loops that cries for hand
optimised code?  :)

MrDaniel: hmm...  I'm not that surprised...  Storm C is still not
completed...  I hope they get some really good optimizer in it.

JolyonR:  I hope so too.  The rest of the product is very good.

JolyonR:  We're not adding any more 680x0 code with PPC on the way!

NorthWay: Why not? 100 lines 68K wont cost you a leg and an arm.

MrDaniel: Two legs and an arm? :)

Pixel: What about colorizing, support for more than 3 colors

JolyonR: False Colour allows you to create your own palette for colourising
with up to 256 colours.  Did you mean something else?

MrDaniel: BTW... when will it be released?

_Sinister: May (15th?)

@endnode

@node FEATURE4 "BLAZEMONGER INC Purchases VIScorp!"
@toc FEATURE

                   VIScorp purchased by BLAZEMONGER INC!

Yes, Amiga fans, the rumors are true!  As of six hours ago, VIScorp has
been purchased in a surprise takeover by BLAZEMONGER INCORPORATED.  VIScorp
chief honcho and generally cool guy Carl Saskatchewan is reportedly
"delighted" with the acquisition and looks forward to an "er...  unusual
product line" to be introduced at next month's WORLD OF BLAZEMONGER
conference in Chickenmilk, Wisconsin.

Among the products to be introduced at the W.O.B. are:

o The Amiga ST: a set-top computer that, when attached to any television
set, automatically converts all incoming programs into reruns of
"Gilligan's Island."

o Sidecar II, an IBM PC emulator roughly the size of the Queen Elizabeth II
luxury liner.  Comes complete with torpedos.

o BLAZESCAPE, the ONLY World Wide Web browser capable of connecting to
ALTERNATE DIMENSIONS.  Features multithreading, HTML 6.0, and new Virtual
Java (TM) which beams cool animations DIRECTLY into your CEREBRAL CORTEX
with a sledgehammer.

o The AmigaBICEP 5000, their new top-of-the-line computer.  In direct
contrast to the original Amiga 1000, which used an off-the-shelf CPU and a
custom graphics chipset, BLAZEMONGER INCORPORATED has decided to use an
off-the-shelf graphics chipset and a custom CPU.  Known as the BLAZEIUM
chip, this little speed demon runs at a blazing 2,000,000 tychohertz (10 to
the power 8275, base 19) and features over EIGHT BILLION REGISTERS for the
ULTIMATE in hardware banging!!!

o And of course, BLAZEMONGER MCXLVII: "FATAL DEATH KILLERS OF ARMAGEDDON."
[Availability is pending the overturn of the Communications Decency Act,
and possibly the Geneva Convention.]

See you in Chickenmilk!!

                                                        Dan

 //////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
| Dan Barrett -- Computer Science Dept, University of MA, Amherst, MA 01003 |
| http://www.cs.umass.edu/~barrett/public.html   --    barrett@cs.umass.edu |
 \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/////////////////////////////////////
---
Copyright 1996 by Daniel J. Barrett.
This article may be freely distributed as long as it is distributed in its
entirety.  It may not be included in any publication without the written
permission of the author.  So nyaaah.

@endnode

@node FEATURE5 "Dynamic Technologies IRC Conference"
@toc FEATURE

===========================================================================
                    Dynamic Technologies IRC Conference
===========================================================================

[Recently, an independently organized IRC conference was held with Dynamic
Technologies, a new Amiga company announcing its upcoming hardware
products.  The edited transcript appears below.]

Nick_S: Welcome all!  I hope you have checkout http://www.frugal.com/~amiga
for an idea of products!

Zool: The conference, in case you do not know, is with Dynamic
Technologies, (that is Casey_H and Nick_S), who are making some innovative
new Amiga products.

Casey_H: Dynamic Technologies is an amiga hardware company we are currently
working on several amiga products at the moment.  Our most popular products
seem to be the HyperSound 32 (DSP based), the ZorroPlus Amiga 1200
expander, and the FlopNET networking hardware.  Today, you may ask any
related questions, developer questions, ideas etc.

Nick_S: Casey_H is the chief developer of the team.  I am mainly in charge
of the FlopNET development, which is a Floppy port based network

Marrs: I think we need a cheap ethernet card for the Amiga.  Network
connectivity is very important, IMHO.

Casey_H: yes, we are hoping that we can create an adapter for the flopnet
...  but right now it will be limited to amiga systems via floppy port

Nick_S: We want to have FlopNET ready first before expanding it.

Casey_H: Flopnet will follow the ethernet packeting structure for full
compatablility.

GregE: Do you expect the Power Amigas to be PCI based, and be able to use
PC cards?  Do you think your Products represent good value next to these,
and are you woried about the competition ?

Casey_H: yes, we do think the poweramiga will be pci based.  I am worried,
yes, but there are currently a lot more amigas that are still zorroII/III.

Nick_S: Well, I think that the PCI systems are not yet ready to be
consitered.  I feel that the PowerAmiga systems should offer Zorro
compatability for other devices.

JimF: On your Homepage you metion the viedo blaster 128, can you give us
some more detalis especially in reguards to production time and software
compatibility.

Casey_H: The video blaster 128 is something i can not give you a date on. 
Currently it is rather expensive to produce.  We are looking into other
types of chipsets and designs, but until then...  The Video Blaster 128 is
a planned product, but it is still being thought about.  It contains a
128bit video processor.  It will use Zorro-III.

Brazilian: Well, Marrs asked my question (Cheap network cards, a must!  :)
but I am interested in multiport serial ports.  C='s was the only one I
know of that had many ports, and it never really worked right for a lot of
people.  I've heard talk of a "Comports 8" board but seen nothing.

Casey_H: Well, i can not say when we would get started on such a project. 
but being a CNet sysop, i will be releasing something soon.  maybe at the
end of the year if time permits.

AmigaInfo: Do you have a SANA II driver for FlopNET SANA (there is no info
on your homepage about it)?  How compatible is Hypersound32 with the Amiga?
and finaly, Do you belive it will be better for your company, and for the
Amiga, with VisCorp as the new owner (if they end up buying it)?  It would
be nice to have SANA II since there is a lot software for it, Envoy for
example...

Nick_S: Well, I hadn't really based FlopNET arround a network device, but I
have consitered a Serial/Network device to use.

Casey_H: the hypersound 32 works in the theory of the picasso - any
programs are promoted into the Hypersound32 .  Anything addressing the
hardware directly will be retargeted phyicaly into the hypersound.

Casey_H: We want this networking hardware to be fully compatable with any
current software, as much as possible.   i also believe that viscorp will
help the amiga.

JonL_: What is the max number of clients in a flopnet?  Two or many?  What
security does/will it offer?  (Oh and I agree, ethernet, Asap ;)

Nick_S: There will be 2 versions.  One will be a 2 computer version, with
no expansion, and the second will be a multi computer version.   as for
Security, that has not really been discused, but I will look into it.

Casey_H: security is a must also.

tommyB: Is the new audio board is only 16bit, not 20+.  There is yet NO
high-res board for the Amiga, unlike Macs/PCs.  are there RCA digital
inputs?

Casey_H: the audio board is 16bit digitizing, yes, but playback is 32.  the
RCA outputs are designed to work with current amiga audio setups.

MrDaniel: What exactly is VideoBlaster128?  a Video card?  Video effects
(like Toaster)?  Or a gfx board?  What can you use it for?  What is the
SGGS chipset you intend to use in the VideoBlaster128?  Any idea when it
might be out?

Nick_S: VideoBlaster is a replacement Video card, but like said before, it
isn't far enough into development to discuss.

Casey_H the videoblaster works under the same theory of the CV 64.  but as
nick said, it is not ready to be talked about yet.  nothing is official.

Zool: Is it based on PC hardware?

Casey_H: the PC chipsets are hard to obtain ..  we might go a different way
as far as video.  most 128bit chipsets are custom made.


MrDaniel    32 channel 32-bit audio playback? Are you serious, or is this some
            kind of joke? :)

Casey_H: Mrdaniel: well, in real life, this is not possable - you can not
play all 32channels in 32bits mode.  32bits mode is just like the HAM mode.
very limited - we might take it out later.

JimF: How close to shipping are any of your products, especially the audio
board?  Before we started you mentioned that your were going to post the
prices on your HP, can you give us preview of those now?

Casey_H: well, we are not ready to ship our products..  we are coming
around $100-$150 for the final price.

[At this point, the channel became unmoderated and most of the conversation
is too difficult to pick through.]

Nick_S: FlopNET is expected to be $59.00 for the 2 computer version, and
$65.00 + $20 per additional node for the multicomputer version.  Does this
sound reasonable?

Casey_H: the hypersound 32 is 16 bit, but does have a 32bit mode.  This
might be omitted since it is causing the price to rise.

tommyB: I have been looking for a card with atleast 20bit.  will HypSnd fit
the bill??

Casey_H: well, the playback rate has not been carved in stone, i hope that
we can get the 32bit mode to work cost effectively..  there is a
professional version planned complete with BNC connectors, etc.  to pair
along with the videotoaster, etc.

GregE: Will the sound card have an ide cdrom inerface ?  And I want
EtherNet too :) What sort of software will be with the card, will there be
octomed support.  how about support for HDR and talking to SCSI midi
samplers.  Will the software have nice features like time streach, or just
plain cut and paste

Casey_H: The soundcard will not have an IDE interface - too expensive for
this version.  The software support will hopefully be great, since i will
be giving out/promoting the new amiga audio card standard.  maybe a deluxe
card, but what we need is a basic sound card for the amiga - cheap and of
good quality.

GregE: will there be a new audio.device to work with.  could i have
developer information ?

[This information is available in the News section of Amiga Report 4.06]

Santos: How does the Hypersound 32 (Hard- and Software) compare to other
Amiga Products ?  as far as sound quality and audio record/mixing options ?
compared to the Sunrize AD516 or the Meastro ?  And to Professional PC/Mac
cards ?  Can you record/edit/add effects to sound realtime to/on HD ?  What
is the planned release date, and is there an option to preorder?

Casey_H: santos: this fall ...  we are not ready for pre-orders yet.  you
can edit/record in realtime if the harddrive speed permits.  as for
quallity, we will do our best on that.  it will be good, however.

AmigaInfo: Do you have contacts with other developers and AT/VisCorp
regarding new standard API for GFX/SFX?  Will you have your own APIs to
your cards?

Casey_H: The new standard is not offical yet, but i am working with a few
people about this.  I have contacted viscorp about this.

AmigaInfo: I am convinced that AmigaOS must have new APIs, and be as
hardware independant as possible to be able to catch up even in the future.

Casey_H: i have decided to work with a very talented person, featured in
Amiga Report.

AmigaInfo: Sounds great, i hope we will see something usefull soon, it is
very needed.

Casey_H: yes, exactly.  this new audio standard will finish up this
problem.

AmigaInfo: Is it your standard?

Casey_H: no, it is Martin Blom's standard.

AmigaInfo: Will it be using a symtem like datatypes or something new?

Casey_H: something new - streamed datatype-like.

AmigaInfo: Nice, I hope it will be more complete than datatypes.

Casey_H: yes, this will allow realtime decoding without loading it into
memory.

AmigaInfo   Will it have support for handeling sound from different programs at
            the same time?

GregE: Will there be a new "audio.device" type thing to control the card. 
Could i have developer information, or have things not got that far yet ? 
Are you officaly setting the amigas RTAudio standard, or just taking it
upon your self ?  I agree with AmigaInfo, the amiga needs to be as hardware
independant as possible.  If you are doing the standard, I hope you will
make it open to PCI sound cards.

Casey_H: well, the developer software is in beta ...  but go ahead and
look.  it is on 4.06 amiga report under news.  we are taking up on it, it
is not official.  it works with all DSPs and will work with anything new. 
it works with "dumb" and "smart" sound cards.  the documentation is quite
interesting.

For more information, contact DT at http://www.frugal.com/~amiga.

@endnode

@node FEATURE6 "WOA UK Q&A Session with Bill Buck of VIScorp"
@toc FEATURE

===========================================================================
    William Buck's speech and replies to questions at the Viscorp/Amiga
Technologies press conference at the World of Amiga Show, London, April 13
                                   1996.
===========================================================================

[AmigaNews of France has been kind enough to transcribe the Bill Buck
speech from the WOA UK show.  We are grateful to be able to run the session
in nearly its entirety.  -Jason]

This transcript is copyright AmigaNews (France).  AmigaNews apologises for
the fact that a number of questions from the back of the hall were not
audible to us at the front.  But despite that, we've put in this text all
of Bill Buck's answers...


Bill:
There are many people that work for AT, but this man (Petro) is the man who
resurrected the Amiga and I think he deserves a round of applause for that.

First I want to let you know a little bit about who we are:

Curtis Gangi is a former Commodore employee.  Don Gilbreath is the man who
engineered and designed the CDTV.  He is a former Commodore employee.
David Rosen is also a former Commodore employee.  We are people who believe
in this platform and who believe in this community, and I can't tell you
how happy I am that this conference just happened to be at about the same
time that we were able to finish our negotiations with Escom.  We think
that the world is about to change in a lot of ways, and we think the
internet is part of that change.  And we think that in the beginning of
Amiga it was about making it easy for people to use a computer, and one way
to do that was to put it on a television set.  And that's what we're going
to do.  We're going to bring Amiga back to where it was - BUT we're going
to keep Amiga where it is now, too.  So don't forget about that.  We need
you people to help us move forward in this vision that really, from the
very beginning, Amiga was built on.  So, that's where we are.  And that's
all I have to say.

Let me throw in another plus since we're in England.  This is the people
we're working with here in the great UK.  This is Optonica.  This is Lee
Gibson and his people, and this will be part of our projects as well, you
can be sure.

Q: Will the Walker project be delayed by this?

Bill Buck: On the 24th of this month [This has changed] we'll be having a
press conference with Escom in Frankfort.  Many of these things we're still
trying to determine.  As you might guess, there's a lot of woork involved,
Curtis has been there this whole last week, I was there the week before,
we're involved in a lot of analysis right now, but on the 24th we'll try to
make a lot of those things clear.

Q: Is there any reason why you're paying 40 million dollars for...

Bill Buck: Well l'et's disect that 40 million number a bit.  Everybody's
saying "Boy these guys really are crazy", or "they really like the Amiga a
lot".  Remember, there was a certain amount of money that was paid for the
intellectual property.  Then there was a certain amount of money that was
spent subsequent to that to put all these pieces together so that they
could come out the other end as computers, right.  That cost a lot of
money, and you can be sure that's more than 40 million dollars, okay.  What
we're buying is an asset, an asset that involves inventory, finished goods;
inventory components (which we can use to continue to do what was being
done but which we can also use to do what we want to do also, ), and the
intellectual property.  So we think we're getting a great deal for that. 

(Question inaudible)

Bill Buck: I already said that, I said so we could keep doing what's
already being done.And that we could do what we want to do too.  You know,
in the computer business it takes a lot of time to get all the pieces that
you need to make what you want.  In some cases the waiting time for some of
these parts is as much as 21 weeks.  One of the most fantastic
accomplishments that Petro made was that he was able to mobilise all these
different companies needed to supply these parts that could go into this
one thing and be an Amiga computer, and we want to keep that pipeline
going.  Because it's not easy to start again.

(Question inaudible) 

Bill Buck: We have a meeting with Motorola on Wednesday, and probably the
most fair thing for me to say is stay tuned in and be there on the 24th.

Q: Will you ship the center of R&D back to the States?

Bill Buck: The great thing about the Amiga community and the great thing
about the world as it is today...  I don't think there's ever going to be a
"ship to this" or "ship to that".  We're working with Lee and his company
in the UK, we have three guys in Tokyo, (two guys in Tokyo and one guy in
some other place, Don?).  Close, OK.  We're working with people in
California, we're working with people in Westchester (Pa).  Our engineering
team's in Westchester right now - they never left.  All these things are
moving around in different ways.  Visit our Web site.

(Question inaudible)

Bill Buck: Well, all I could hear was the custom chip part.  It's in our
interest to develop the custom chips.  Right now there's three chips.  If
we can make something that goes on one and it costs less it's better for
everybody.  Of course we're gonna do that.  We have a big interest in that.
Where that ends up ultimately?  If its a chip it could be on a PC, it could
be in a TV, it could be wherever it needs to be to do what it needs to do.
We're going to support the development of these kinds of things because
it's in our interest to do that.

Q: If the link with Escom is broken...

Bill Buck: Nobody said it was broken.  I spoke to Helmut Jost twice on the
phone yesterday.  We have a good relationship and we're going to have a
good relationship.  We're excited to work with a guy like Petro and Petro's
going to stay involved with this thing.  We already have a distribution
arrangement with Escom.  It was part of our original licence agreement,
which was signed in Décember of last year.  Escom has the ability to
distribute our products in 13 or 14 different countries, I couldn't list
them all.

(Question inaudible)

Bill Buck:I'll use the words of Helmut himself.  Escom has a retailing
business.  That's its strength, that's its core business, that's where
they're going to focus.

Question by Antony Jacobson, editor of Amiga User International: 
Escom has been a disaster in this country, certainly from a retailing point
of view.  When they took over Rumbelows chain stores the Amiga has had as
much trouble as it had previously.  They have not done any better.  If
you're depending on Escom in this country you'll have as much trouble as
the Amiga has had previously.  

Bill Buck: Number one: we will use Escom as a distributor, you can be sure;
but you'll never hear the word "exclusive" coming out of my mouth, OK?  So
there will be a number of different strategies that I'm sure will be
succesful.  And you can help me be succesful.  Here's my deal with you and
everybody else in this room.  If you can help me figure out how to bring
the Amiga back where it was send me a letter, send me an e-mail message.
Send it to me, send it to Curtis, send it to Don, send it to Gilles, it
doesn't matter, send it to us, right?  We'll capitalise on every single
good idea that you can give us.

Q: But the first thing you have to do is to support the software
developers.  Nobody will buy the Amiga machines if there's not the software
to go with them.  It's absolutely key that you get the software developers.

Bill Buck: I agree with you.  Do you understand what our strategy is in
terms of what we want to do with the product as well?  We had an ambition
for this thing when we licenced the product and now our ambitions are being
broadened because of this opportunity that's been created.  But what we're
trying to build is a publishing environment.  We had an appliance, a
toaster, a microwave oven, but we didn't have a place in the wall to plug
it in.  There was no electricity.  For us the internet is electricity.
We're building a publishing environment that works for people (who by the
way are Amiga people who understand this, and understand how to make things
for TV), where the interface is the television set.  Could be the
television set.  That was our original thing, that's the reason why we
licenced the technology...Now, we're so excited about it we don't know what
to do yet, I'll be honest with you.  But come to the press conference on
the 24th and I'll give you some more information.

Q: Have you been in negotiations with people like NetScape for ports of
software?

Bill Buck: All this activity around the <internet at the moment is a great
opportunity for people like you because this is a way to begin to
communicate with the rest of the people that use a TV set.  But to get back
to your question, we're talking to everybody right now, because everybody's
interested in this.  It's a great opportunity for people who know about the
operating system and how to make neat things on TV.  If you think you can
make something that looks really really neat on TV, or computers, that can
be networked through the internet that we can work together on to
distribute, see David at the end of this press conference.

(Question inaudible)

Bill Buck: We're scrambling.  We had a business plan that we were going to
execute, all of a sudden this opportunity came up, we got off our marching
orders, but we think its a fantastic thing, we're gonna support it, and if
you've got ideas we want to hear about it.  That's it.

Q: What about HDTV, digital television...  There's so many ideas about
set-top boxes..

Bill Buck: Don't make a mistake.  I am programmed on a business plan that
set us in a direction that gave us a reason to licence the Amiga technology
in December of 1995.  Today I find myself, we find ourselves, with an
opportunity that's much broader than that.  Don Gilbreath in the back (he's
the tall, good-looking guy), is the guy who's engineered all of these
things already.  We have a whole strategy, and the whole construction of
our technology is modular, it fits perfectly with what the technology of
the Amiga's all about.
 
Q: The European idea of a set-top box is an HDTV...

Bill Buck:It's true, that is the European idea right now, let's just say
that we may or may not share that vision, that's all.  We can support it,
but we have a more simple version in mind.  Something that's more
consistent with what exists today.

(Question inaudible)

Bill Buck: That's what we're hoping to be able to do.  I'm not making any
grand pledges today but that's certainly what we're trying to do.  I don't
want to spend 75 million dollars like Trip Hawkins did to develop the
community.  The community's already there.

Q: Why didn't you buy Amiga when it was up for grabs for a lot less?

Bill Buck: I was there; I sat right next to Manfred in New York City at the
bankruptcy hearing.  They paid a certain amount of money for the
intellectual property.  That included also a certain amount of inventory. 
Some of that inventory was sitting in a warehouse in the Philipinnes.  Been
through at least one cyclone...  And nobody knew what was there.  Stuff was
scattered all over the three winds.  They assembled it and I can tell you
that the cost of putting all those pieces together was far greater than
what they paid for it.

Q: Tell us about Viscorp.

Bill Buck: We're a little americain public company who's taken advantage of
all the wonderful media coverage and expectation of the future of the
internet.  That's what we've done.  And we've leveraged that in the
American capital markets.  That's why we have a 200 million dollar market
cap.  And that gives up the ability to leverage that to gain the financing
that we need to make all these things happen.  We're doing the American
dream right now and we hope to use that to support the technology and our
vision out to the rest of the world.  Viscorp was originally incorporated
in 1990, but the company really changed directions in november 1994.

Q: The Amiga is a computer and you just have to show us that any future
development is not going to be just a kind of set-top box.

Bill Buck:You know, what I always like to say is "Amiga Inside"

Q: Yes I know but the (interrupted)

Bill Buck:It's kind of catchy, maybe somebody will pick it up...
(laughter)

Bill Buck: What was the Amiga built to do?  (interrupted)

Q: ...set-top box...I just want a straight answer on it..

Bill Buck:It just happened two days ago and I'm trying to catch my breath.
He's basically said that he's afraid we're not going to support the
development of the computer..(interrupted)

Q: The set-top box is fine but..

Bill Buck: We want there to be a big Amiga community so...(interrupted)

Q: We need a straight answer...

Bill Buck:Is there anybody in the room that would like to answer his
question because I'm sure I already did.  I made a point at the very
beginning that we intend to continue forward with what's happening.  We're
going to do our best to do that.  We have a vision and we have a business
plan and that's why we licenced the technology in the very beginning.  Now
we have an opportunity to make a broader (interrupted)

Bill Buck:You're very rude, I can tell you.  Does anybody else want to ask
me a question?

Q: What parts of the Amiga are you using in the set-top box?

Bill Buck: Some of the pieces that we use right now, as an example, are the
chip-sets that made the Amiga what it is.  The operating system of course
is a great thing, and we intend to use that as well.  We've changed the
board design a little but, and there's an example, that can be used with a
computer too.  We've done a lot of things that interface quite well with
the telephone infrastructure and the future of wwhere we think the
communications market is.  It's a 68000 series processeur, that's what
we're using right now and we're going to keep using that.  If we have a
good meeting of Wednesday with Motorola and things develop like I think
they might there could be other chances to do things.

(Question inaudible)

Bill Buck:Its a question about us combining the chipsets.  It's our
intention to do that...  I think we're goiing to add some other features in
there.  We want to be able to provide an opportunoity to lots of people . 
We intend to licence this widely, widely, and we think that we can maintain
support for the computer industry, for the television industry, for the
kidney dialasis machine industry, or whatever it is, by licencing, and we
intend to do that in a very very supportive way.

End of press conference.
Copyright © AmigaNews, NewsEdition (France) 1996
AmigaNews, journal d'actualités Amiga
12 rue Barrière, 31200 Toulouse France
Tél +33 61 47 25 67, FAX +33 61 47 25 69
email anews@club-internet.fr



Bruce Lepper
Directeur de Publication d'AmigaNews

@endnode

@node FEATURE7 "AMOS Tips, Tricks and Stuff They Should Have Told Us"
@toc FEATURE

===========================================================================
           AMOS Tips, Tricks and Stuff They Should Have Told Us
  C. Edward Stewart                          joehick@ophelia.waterloo.net
===========================================================================

AMOS is a good programming language, that's not in doubt.  Unfortunately,
the manual is a bit obscure on some points and there are a lot of
errors/omissions that make for some frustrating programming sessions.  To
combat the agony of programming, I've been compiling a list of `Things They
Should Have Told Us' that I use on a regular basis.  I decided to put a few
together for the users at large and this is the result.

Changing the Mouse Pointer
To change the mouse pointer to anything other than the arrow, crosshairs
and clock (quite an ugly clock, too!) you need to do the following:

- Draw your images in a Bob Editor or import them from a paint program or
whatever.  They must be FOUR COLOUR LORES images.  Standard size is 16 by
16 pixels, but don't let that stop you.

- To activate your new image, load your Bobs (Load "YourFile.Abk",1) and
issue the command to change the mouse (Change Mouse 4).  The Bob images are
called by using four and above (just add 3 to the actual Bob number to get
the mouse image number).

- To change the colours of the mouse, use colours 17-19 (on a 16 colour
screen).  Colour 17 is the highlighted (lightest) colour, Colour 18 is the
body (medium) colour and Colour 19 is the shade (darkest) colour.

Menu Colours
After setting up a menu, you activate it, only to find it looks like
something from a Sixties flashback.  Menu colours are another item that the
manual neglects to mention.

- To set your menu to colours that you can live with, you need to set the
Paper and Pen to the opposite of normal; that is the paper command defines
the colour of the text and the pen command defines the colour of the menu
bar itself.

That Pesky Floppy
I'm sure you all know already that using DF0: is a no-no.  Use the volume
name instead, so then hard drive fanatics can install your programs without
sending you nasty email.

To check for your volume, try this:

A=Exist("VolumeName:")
If A=True Then Print "Found It!"
If A=False Then Print "VolumeName: Not Found."

The True and False keywords (-1 and 0 respectively) make it a bit easier to
read your code and figure out what you were trying to do.

Now that you know it's there, you can write to it, right?  Wrong.  Floppies
can be write protected.  So how can we get around that?  Try this:

Poke $BFD100,%10000
A=Btst(3,$BFE001)
If A=True Then Print "Disk is write enabled."
If A=False Then Print "Disk is write protected."

This checks DF0:.  Change the %10000 to %1000 to check DF1:.

A Nifty Startup
We all know that AMOS is a good language, but it has a reputation for
inferiority in the general population, due to some bad programs put out
when AMOS was in its infancy.  The following code will start your AMOS
program without showing its AMOS roots.

A=Peek(Leek(4)+530)
If A=60 Then COUNTRY_HEIGHT=200 : COUNTRY_SPEED=60
If A=50 Then COUNTRY_HEIGHT=256 : COUNTRY_SPEED=50

Screen Open 1,640,COUNTRY_HEIGHT,16,Hires
Curs Off : Flash Off : Hide
Colour 0,$0 : Colour 1,$AAA : Cls 0
Paper 0 : Pen 1

Print "Checking system."

If COUNTRY_SPEED=60 Then Print "NTSC Amiga"
If COUNTRY_SPEED=50 Then Print "PAL Amiga"

A=Chip Free
B=A/1024
Print "Chip Memory:";B;"k"

A=Fast Free
B=A/1024
Print "Fast Memory:";B;"k"

A$=" 00"
A=Deek(Leek(4)+296)
For B=0 To 3
If Btst(B,A) Then A$=Str$(B+1)+"0"
Next B
B$="680"+Right$(A$,2)
Print "Processor: ";B$

A$=""
If Btst(4,A) Then A$="68881"
If Btst(5,A) Then A$="68882"
If A$<>"" Then Print "CoProcessor: ";A$

Wait COUNTRY_SPEED

This startup will identify the internal timing of the Amiga it is run on,
as well as the memory and processor information.

To keep the illusion of non-AMOS up, never use the default (0) screen. 
When compiling, deselect the `Create Default Screen' option.  This will
avoid that ugly orange screen popping up and giving away the AMOSness of
the program.

You could add these lines to make your program even more system friendly:

If COUNTRY_SPEED=60 Then Goto PAL_IT
If COUNTRY_SPEED=50 Then Goto _NTSC_IT
Goto MAIN

PAL_IT:
Print "Switch to PAL (y/n)?"
A$=""
Do : A$=Inkey$ : If A$="" Then Loop
A$=Lower$(A$)
If A$="y"
Doke $DFF1DC,$20
Poke Leek(4)+530,50
COUNTRY_HEIGHT=256
COUNTRY_SPEED=50
Goto MAIN
End If
If A$<>"n" Then Goto PAL_IT
Goto MAIN

_NTSC_IT:
Print "Switch to NTSC (y/n)?"
A$=""
Do : A$=Inkey$ : If A$="" Then Loop
A$=Lower$(A$)
If A$="y"
Doke $DFF1DC,$0
Poke Leek(4)+530,60
COUNTRY_HEIGHT=200
COUNTRY_SPEED=60
Goto MAIN
End If
If A$<>"n" Then Goto _NTSC_IT
Goto MAIN

MAIN:
Your program begins here

This added bit lets you not only check for NTSC/PAL, but switch the Amiga
into the mode you require for your program.  This allows European
programmers to write games in PAL that will sense NTSC Amigas and switch
them to PAL.  Conversely, the information is there for any programmer to
adjust his graphics to match the information in COUNTRY_HEIGHT and
COUNTRY_SPEED.

Obviously, these aren't all the tips and tricks that I've found, but it's
enough to whet your appetite and get some of the beginners off to a good
start.

I'd like to point out right now that I am not the only author of this
article.  A few of these tips are based on information in the AMOS List on
the InterNet.  My most recent acquisition was the CPU testing procedure
that I modified for my startup program.  It was sent to me by Paul Burkey,
author of Sneech (a great game).

I'd give you my email address for any questions or comments, but it will be
changing before this goes to press.  You can find me on the AMOS List at:
amos-list@conan.eds-ms.com and you can find programs written by me on the
AmiNet, notably FBN-D21u.lha and FBN-Remi.lha.

@endnode
@node REVIEW1 "Review: Star Crusader HD"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                         Review: Star Crusader HD
  Carl Chavez                                         forego19@nwlink.com
===========================================================================

Review of Star Crusader (HD version)
 
Requirements:
A1200 with hard drive
extra memory recommended
 
Machine used for testing:
A1200, 2MB Chip/4MB Fast
130 MB Seagate HD
Supra external disk drive
 
Summary:

Star Crusader is one of a rare breed of Amiga games: the space combat
simulator.  As the name suggests, you are a member of a culture --the
Gorenes-- that is on a crusade to educate what is perceived as the wild
masses of the universe.  When education fails, the military does not.  Can
you conquer the aliens of the Ascalon Rift?  Or will you perhaps decide
that the Gorenes' crusade is wrong and aid the rebels?
 
Installation and running:

The game comes on ten compressed disks and will occupy about 15MB of hard
drive space.  Installation and decompression with the non-Installer script
takes almost a half-hour.  Much of the hard drive space is used to store
various animations (10 MB worth) and sounds (3 MB worth).  This should
satisfy the demand of some Amiga gamers that Amiga games should be more
PC-like (heavy with graphics and sound). 

To run Star Crusader, you must make sure that you have no important
programs in the background because it will not multitask.   In fact, Star
Crusader will actually reboot your Amiga!  I found this very odd; but I
guess it does free up a lot of resources.  Fortunately, it does warn you to
close everything before you continue start-up. 
 
The game:
 
You are first asked to select one of five difficulty levels.  The level
affects the enemy pilot skills, as well as other, less tangible things.

Star Crusader opens on the space station AR-1, a front-line fortress of the
Gorenes.  The Gorene Empire is the most powerful and advanced race in the
known universe and is attempting to civilize the barbaric alien races of
the Ascalon Rift.  You, Roman Alexandria, lead Gold Squadron: a collection
of the best pilots of the Gorene Empire.

When on AR-1, you can go to several places: the Tactical Map Room, the
Mission Briefing Room, the Computer Room, and the Flight Simulator, .

In the Tactical Map Room, you can see a map of the whole Ascalon Rift and a
representation of how much territory each of the five major powers
(Gorenes, Tancreds, Zemuns, Amiens, and Mazumas) possess.  The amount of
territory each power owns affects the rate of crew and spaceship
replacements, as well as the quality of pilot cadets.  The success of your
combat missions determines how much territory is won or lost.

In the Mission Briefing Room, you find out what you have to do in a
mission, and in the Computer Room you assign wingmen to help on the primary
mission and other pilots to various secondary missions.  These pilots can
be ordered to take or defend territory, to teach new cadets so you get more
pilots, to rescue captured pilots, or to raid the enemy's shipping for
resources to build more ships or to capture alien ships for use by the
Gorenes.  The ability to control the actions of your whole squadron adds
much to the amount of strategy necessary to play the game.  You have to be
aggressive with your goals but you also have to hoard your limited
resources.

Gorene ships have the ability to capture alien ships with a tractor beam
and jump back to base.  You can familiarize yourself with an alien (or
Gorene) ship's controls, weapons, and readouts with the Flight Simulator. 
There are a total of eleven different ships to fly or to fight against, and
you can set up a battle of up to 1-to-10 odds.  This is a good place to get
used to the control method of Star Crusader.  It does not support
joysticks, joypads, or analog joysticks.  The mouse and keyboard are the
only controls (this may be different on the CD-ROM version).  The mouse
cursor controls the direction of the ship.  This can be confusing at first.
Most flight games have "down-is-up" movement: pull down to climb and push
up to dive.  In Star Crusader, pull down to dive and push up to climb.  
After a few simulator missions, you should finally get the hang of flying a
fighter.

In the simulator and in actual combat, you will notice that the graphics
and graphic detail are very good for an Amiga game.  All of the ships are
made up of many polygons and have animated objects such as engine flare.
There can be lots of objects on the screen at once: up to eleven fighters,
as well as satellites, space stations, destroyers, cruisers, freighters,
laser fire, missiles, shield hit effects, beam weapons, and asteroids.  The
action between multiple fighters and capital ships present in some missions
may rival that in Lucasarts' X-Wing (although it is not near the action
level of TIE Fighter).  Accompanying the visual atmosphere is a small
amount of speech samples which I was quite surprised to discover were
included in the HD version.  Imagine my surprise to hear a doomed pilot
gasp, "OH SHIT, I'M HIT!" for the first time.   And this game was rated
acceptable for 3-10 year olds by ELSPA?!?!  Oh, the horror...  There's no
way to turn speech off if you get sick of it, but personally I don't think
a 'quiet' function is necessary.

The speed of the graphics engine is also worth noting.  With many of the
aforementioned objects on the screen at once, it can still be playable on a
A1200 + Fast RAM.  The polygons can be set on high or low detail if the
game does start to slow down.  Even on low detail you can still identify
individual ship silhouettes.  It is unfortunate that the programmers did
not include texture mapping as a detail option for A4000 or accelerator
owners, though, as they did for MS-DOS.

During a fight, your wingmen will do (and say) things that fit their
personalities.  Each pilot has a rating for piloting, laser shooting,
missile shooting, courage, and discipline.  Cowardly pilots will run away
sooner, which may cause you to be overpowered, but courageous pilots will
die sooner for their bravery (leaving you short a pilot and a ship, both of
which are difficult to replace).  Disciplined pilots will follow orders...
usually.  Some pilots seem to have special personalities.  Kayla Brool, for
example, has exceptional skills in all categories, but she still won't
follow orders all the time.  She also has a phobia about fellow pilots
stealing her kills, and she'll always whine about it.

Star Crusader has a feature called "Power Management".  It is similar to
X-Wing's power control: the pilot can assign priority to certain systems so
that they work better.  It is more complex that X-Wing's, in that each ship
has different power levels for each system.  Some systems will work when
getting less power, while others (like the all-important repair system)
will not work at all.  You can overcharge your lasers and shields to
increase their effectiveness, but this will cause permanent damage to those
systems.

Other good things: NTSC or PAL switch is coded into the game, and there are
intermission scenes featuring rendered characters and full speech (on the
HD version!).  The latter may be a disadvantage on certain systems, as the
intermissions are 10MB of the 15MB game directory.

All this stuff sounds great, except for the control system...  so what's
the bad news?

First of all, the game is missing many of its advertised features.  The
most obvious feature missing is the texture mapping, but that was to be
expected.  The most anticipated feature of Star Crusader is missing also,
though, and that is unforgivable.  YOU CAN'T CHOOSE YOUR SIDE!  In press
releases, in ads, and in the manual GameTek claimed that you could fly for
the Gorene Empire or be a Gorene rebel.  Not on the Amiga HD version.
Perhaps it's a bug.

You see, there's a mission in which your officers are ordering you to do
allow the death of the enemy and rebel leaders, and the enemy leaders and
your friends who have joined the rebellion are begging you to save them by
destroying a robotic explosives ship.   This is supposed to be the mission
where you make your big decision.  But no matter what you do, you praise
the Gorenes in an intermission and end up on the Gorene Empire's new base.
The first time I 'chose' to join the aliens, my rebel friend Hela told me I
had joined the rebels and I still ended up with the intermission and the
Gorene base.  The second time I tried, I turned the intermissions off.  I
was thanked by Hela, then I ended up on the Gorene base with a reprimand
for destroying a friendly fighter!

There's no other way to switch sides.  You can't ask the aliens if you can
join them.  The communications system of Star Crusader is totally useless
unless you want to goad a fighter into attacking you instead of a wingman.
All of the comm options are insults.  There's no way to negotiate with the
aliens unless it's in the game's script.  There is no effect on alien
attitude when you rescue escape pods containing alien pilots.  You cannot
deliberately fail a mission in order to become friendly with the aliens.
And in the Mission Briefing Room, a couple of pilots (including Hela)
defect during the briefings.  Also during the briefings, there is open
disagreement and unruliness in the squadron but you're not allowed to
choose your responses in a conversation.

Prime example: Your squadron is assigned to deal with the planet Hattin.
You know that there is satellite orbiting the planet that contains a deadly
poison.  The squadron is ordered to damage --not destroy-- the satellite
with lasers --the implication being that other weapons will destroy it-- so
that the poison will enter the atmosphere.  You protest (you don't get to
choose whether to protest or not; you must protest as the script demands).
You suggest that you tractor-beam the satellite and destroy it elsewhere as
an example of Gorene power.  The idea is turned down.  One pilot agrees
with the plan, and others, like Hela, disagree.  Hela rebels and is
arrested.  You can't choose who you agree with; you must go out on the
mission.

During the mission, you could try to destroy the satellite, but it is only
damaged by torpedoes and other heavy weapons, so the planet is still
destroyed.  You could try to tractor-beam the satellite and jump out, but
you're not allowed to.  You could jump out after receiving a message from
the aliens begging you not to destroy the satellite, but you're not
reprimanded for doing so, so you remain a Gorene.  You could blow away your
own wingmen but the aliens don't care.  You can't even eject to join the
enemy; they won't rescue you.  How come it's so hard for you to join the
enemy, and inferior pilots like Hela and a certain Krugar Dept find it so
easy?   THEY didn't need special jump coordinates.

I suppose it may not be a minus to be a Gorene.  The manual says that the
choice will be a moral decision, so if you're into cold-blooded murder,
genocide, breaking promises, and other benevolent acts, a Gorene is the
right (the only) choice.  It is somewhat fun...

Another important feature missing involves the presence of asteroid fields,
minefields, and nebulas.  They do exist in the game.   Your computer will
warn you of such places as you enter them.  You will notice when you enter
a nebula; your computer systems will start to go haywire.  But when you
enter an asteroid field, sometimes you will see no asteroids.  When you do,
it barely hurts (if at all) to crash into them.  You can fire through
asteroids to hit an enemy.  And minefields contain no mines!

Although pilots on both sides have personalities and skills, they tend to
exhibit little intelligence.  Gorene pilots obsessive about kills, like
Kayla Brool, like to crash into you as they chase your target.  Pilots of
Mazuma Buccaneers, the least-armored and -shielded of all the fighters,
like to kamikaze you.  For some odd reason, slow, unarmed freighters will
maneuver into attack position (even though they can't fire) and will try to
ram you too.

Summary:

Star Crusader is one of the few games that acknowledges that Amiga users
are upgrading their computers, and for that it should be praised.  It is a
sound action game, and a surprisingly adequate (for its genre) strategy
game, but Star Crusader doesn't deliver on many of its promises.

@endnode

@node REVIEW2 "Review: Zeus Professional BBS"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                       Review: Zeus Professional BBS
  David Manley                                     D.J.Manley@cf.cs.ac.uk
===========================================================================

AUTHORS/COMPANY INFORMATION

    Zeus Developments

    Name:       Alex May
    Location:   Lewes, England
    BBS No:     44-(0)1273-474352
    FidoNet:    2:441/58.0
    Internet:   zeus@oikos.demon.co.uk

    Name:       Nick Loman
    Location:   Brighton, England
    BBS No:     44-(0)1273-382524
    FidoNet:    2:441/58.72
    Internet:   zeus@mistral.co.uk
                rauper@pavilion.co.uk

    WWW:        http://www.mistral.co.uk/zeus/


LIST PRICE

Approximately 100UKP

DEMO VERSION

Available from the above BBSi with features disabled.


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

HARDWARE

    An Amiga with KS 2.04 or above
    A HardDrive with 5meg or more free
    2 or more megabytes of RAM

SOFTWARE

    ARexx must be installed.


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

Amiga 1200/020 28MHz
2 MB Chip RAM, 4 MB Fast RAM
Seagate 420MB internal Hard Drive
AmigaDOS 3.1
28.8K external modem


INSTALLATION

Zeus comes on 3 disks and with an extra utilities disk.  Installation
is via the standard installer program and takes about 5 minutes due to the
files being archived on the disks.

A point to remember is that it does not install in its own directory so you
may want to make a directory called Zeus (or similar) but as this is stated
during installation this is easily done.

The program will add several lines to S:User-Startup most of which are
assigns.  The Zeus libraries are stored in their own directory and not the
standard Libs directory.  You will also require rexxsyslib.library and
reqtools.library (V37 or above).

REVIEW

When opening the Zeus directory you will see a set of the most beautifully
drawn set of MagicWB icons I have ever seen, believe me these icons should
be in the Louvre.

Before you click on the Zeus icon you must make sure that you have run
RexxMast (I didn't and it wouldn't load (an error message may have been
nice).

The Zeus program, in my opinion, is more powerful than any BBS software on
the Amiga and certainly the most powerful I have seen on any platform.
This power comes from the fact that Zeus is completely Arexx based making
it as completely configurable as any program could be.

The Zeus software consists of 2 main screens, the menu screen and the ANSI
watcher.  On the main Zeus screen you get a display of icons and menus
which do many things and the ANSI watcher is for watching what people are
doing on your board and for Local logins.

All the screens can be opened in any resolution you require (I know for a
fact it works on a Picasso as well as standard displays).

The actual BBS side is completely based on your own Arexx scripts down to
the finest detail, but before you run away screaming there is a complete
sample BBS whose scripts you can configure to your own needs.  It really is
very easy.

The files and message editors are very easy to use and full control is
given over which files are accessible and which are not by setting various
flags.

Another of Zeus' features is the inclusion of Specialist Interest Groups,
or SIGs for short.  These can be used to seperate both message and file
areas into distinct topics so that finding the right areas is easy to do. 
Separate access restrictions can be applied to SIGs so you could have a
co-sysop who is only allowed to configure that specific area while not
having access to other areas.

The full range of file transfer protocols are available for the User
ranging from the common ZModem to the more obscure Hydra.  For those with a
few 100 megabytes of harddrive space to spare scripts are supplied to allow
you to mirror Aminet on your board provided you have internet access of
course.

Messages can be sent locally, across amateur networks such as FidoNet and
most impressively full support for Internet email.

And this is where we come to Zeus' trump card in my opinion, complete
Internet access via the BBS from email to newsgroups right up to IRC and
WWW.

A variety of BBS doors can be used including CNet, Paragon and Xenolink
giving you access to a vast array of ready programmed doors and several of
these are included.

One of the most innovative features is the introduction of ZAPP, which is
Zeus' own protocol that will allow people logging to access your drives as
if they were devices mounted on their own computers.

The Zeus software is being continually developed and will grow in to the
definitive Amiga BBS software.


DOCUMENTATION

Printed

The manual provided is a 230 page experience.  All features are fully
documented to almost perfect detail and all aspects of the software are
covered.

My favourite section is the last few pages where you can gain some insight
into the minds of the two authors and believe me its not a pretty sight.
(Sorry Guys but it had to be said :) ).

Online

The online documentation is where you will have to look if you want to read
the documentation of the Arexx commands.  The list of commands is *huge*
(well over 100) and most commands are described in detail.

Most of the printed manual is actually reproduced in Guide form so you
don't have to keep referring back to the manual.

To be honest I prefer my documentation on paper but I realise quite a few
people are partial to a bit of on-line help, swings and roundabouts I
guess.


LIKES

I love the interface, almost like MUI without the MUI if you see what I
mean.  The configurabilty is simply phenomenal for the package of its type
and there is absolutely no reason for any two BBSi to look the same.  All
it takes is a bit of imagination on the Sysop's part and the sky's the
limit.

DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS

The only thing I dislike is the fact that I will probably never do the
product justice due to its tremendous scope for configuration.

Also there are a few problems with the manual mainly to do with the hole
punching, now whereas I can see the advantages of having a ring binder
manual allowing for new pages to be inserted as the updates become
available there really is no excuse for the holes through some of the words
where the margins haven't been set correctly.  I also went through my
manual with the hole strengthening stickers (all 230 pages) because the
pages look very likely to rip by the holes.


COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Out of all the BBS programs I have used nothing can touch the power of
Zeus.  Maybe I can be proven wrong but somehow I doubt it.


BUGS

None found.


SUPPORT

Is available from the authors or one of their several distribution sites
across the world.  Also there is a special channel on EFNet, #zeus where
you can get help from experts at nearly any time.


CONCLUSIONS

A quite simply brilliant piece of software.  I'll give it 4.9 out of 5
stars (I won't give it full marks because I don't believe any software is
perfect and where would be the motivation to continue updating it).
Congratulations Alex and Nick.

I would like to point out that I am in no way connected with Zeus
Developments, Alex May, Nick Loman or in any other way associated with the
software except for that I am a very satisfied customer.


COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Copyright 1996 David Manley

@endnode

@node REVIEW3 "Breed96 Review"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                             Review: Breed 96
                             By: @{"Ken Anderson" link KEN}
===========================================================================

No, don't get excited, it's not Alien Breed 3D 2 The Killing Grounds No
Honestly It's Not Doom At All My God Let's Make The Title A Real Belter
Lads v1.1.  It's not even 3D.

Having just landed yourself the plum job of governor on an alien world,
you're given the task of single-handedly populating, feeding and clothing
an entire planet.  Then, once it's old enough to stand on it's own two feet
for five minutes, you can boot it up the rear and send it out there to
start making you a few easy credits.

Looking very Sim City-ish at first, you can lay down power stations,
residential units and food cultivators on the planet surface.  And - joy of
joys!  - you get to join them up with little roads.  Everyone loved doing
that bit in Sim City.  Fortunately, there's no need to put down power
cables too, which removes the need to check that half the population is
still connected everytime you upgrade a side street.

Once you've got the bare necessities down, you can start researching bigger
and better things.  Ore mines make fuel for your shiny new shapeships, and
droids need to be built to take care of the attacking mutants.

Mutants?  Well, you haven't got the planet to yourself, y'know.  Every now
and again, the mutants get a bit uppity and decide to take a pot-shot at a
few of your choice buildings.  They're easily sent on their way, though -
any of your droids can be controlled directly, and are usually more than
capable of seeing off any mischievous mutant.  Just in case any damage is
done, they can repair buildings too.

Once you've got the mines built and the spaceport ready, you can leave
terra firma and start talking to the opposition.  If you're talking to any
of the other 3 races, you can start shipping goods back and forward, and
sit back and watch the creds roll in.  Usually this trading procedure would
mean sending a ship to A to pick up X, then flying to Y to drop off X for Z
creds.  Not in this game - set it all up with a few clicks of the mouse,
and your chosen ship will do a repeat run over and over again.  Nice.

Of course, you don't get it all you're own way - there's wars too.  Sooner
or later, your homeworld will come under the envious gaze of another race,
and then it's bang bang time.  There's not much you can do at this point -
sit back and hope that all the defences and battleships you built will win
it for you.  There's always any allies you've picked up along the way, too.

During the whole game, you have the helpful advice of an advisor to turn
too, so even when you're caught up in the mother of all battles, you'll
still have time to worry about the peasants being fed.

In the unregistered version, you can only build on one planet, the one you
started on.  However, in the full version, any planets spotted by your
observatory can be probed, fought over if they're populated, and claimed
for your own.  Then you have another little microcosm to build on, and
ultimately make you cash.

Hang on, unregistered?  Full version?  Breed 96 is shareware.  It's freely
downloadable, and apart from a few minor restrictions like the one-planet
business mentioned above, it's complete.  It will certainly give you a good
idea of what the whole game is above.

Breed 96 successfully combines the best bits from Sim City, Doom II and
Supremacy.  It's slick, and it is _very_ easy to play - each icon has a
text explanation, and even with the limited documentation, the game
practically explains itself.  Within 15 minutes of play - WITHOUT reading
the docs - I had a fair-sized living, breathing city, with lots of snakey
roads.  Everyone loves doing the roads.

However, within an hour I had filled my home world.  The available area
doesn't exactly afford you lots of space, and once it's full, all you can
do is demolish, rebuild, trade and try to ignore the advisor moaning that
there's isn't enough accommodation available.  Of course, this restriction
disappears in the registered version when you can build on other planets.

Finally, this is the first game written in AMOS that had me completely
fooled.  Usually I can spot an AMOS program at 50 yards - the chunky mouse
pointers, the lamiga+A task-switching, the jerky graphics.  Apart from the
downside that it doesn't multitask, Breed is so polished and classy, I
couldn't tell it from any other game, shareware or otherwise.

You can download the latest version of Breed from
http://outland.cyberwar.com/~zool/Breed.html.  The author, Damian
Tarnawsky, can be contacted at c9424357@peach.newcastle.edu.au.

Pros: Easy to play and understand.  Takes the best from others of the
genre, and combines them into a belter of a game.  Try it out for free!

Cons: Limitied long-term appeal, especially in the shareware version. 
Doesn't multitask. 

@endnode

@node REVIEW4 "Review: Aminet 11 CD-ROM"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                         Review: Aminet 11 CD-ROM
                             By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}
===========================================================================

Recently, Aminet CD-ROMs have included old versions of commercial software,
much like a magazine coverdisk.  In general, the offerings have been of
reasonable quality without being stunning additions to the CD-ROM.
However, this time around I am extremely impressed with the included
program.

XiPaint 3.2, the 24-bit paint program that is ECS, AGA, and virtually
all-graphic card format compatible, is included in its full form on the
Aminet CD-ROM.  Nice!

For those of you unaware, XiPaint is the standard Retina pack-in software.
It is an extremely capable package compatible with virtually all computers,
allowing you to paint even in HAM6 and HAM8.  XiPaint 4.0 has just been
released, and should do quite well considering the exposure 3.2 is
receiving on this CD-ROM.

But then, you don't buy Aminet CDs for the commercial software, right?  You
want those hundreds of megs of FD software.

This time around, the theme is maps--a bit odd, but at least there are a
lot of them.

The quality is the same--actually, it's been getting better the past couple
of discs--that I've come to expect from Urban and crew.  I even found a
good mod with a minimal amount of effort (Abacab, thanks Dr. Awesome!).

While there are an awful lot of mods and demos this time around, the
categorization of the demos continues to get more helpful.  The CD will
even help you keep track of which demos you've already viewed to date.

Amiga Report made it to the "recommendations" list of software, so I have
little to complain about in that arena.

It's really getting embarrasing not being able to come up with anything
novel to say about Aminet CDs.  They are the standard for freely
redistributable compilations of Amiga software, from one of the world's
largest collections of online software.  (Second largest next to the Linux
archive in binary size, apparently.)  If these guys start doing something
wrong, I'll let you know, but until then, keep watching the compilations...

Published by:

Stefan Ossowski's Schatztruhe
Veronikastr. 33
D-45131 Essen
Germany

++49 201 788778 phone
++49 201 798447 fax

stefano@tchest.e.eunet.de e-mail
http://www.schatztruhe.de/

@endnode

@node REVIEW5 "Review: Distant Suns 5.01 CD-ROM"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                     Review: Distant Suns 5.01 CD-ROM
                             By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}
===========================================================================

Hopefully, most of you recall the Distant Suns 5.0 review from a few issues
back.  The verdict--Distant Suns is a capable, but aging, astronomical
observation package with several good characteristics for beginning
stargazers.  However, in terms of flexibility, contemporary data, and sheer
volume of observable objects, the new Digital Universe had the clear
advantage.

That gap has been closed somewhat, but not entirely, by the release of
Distant Suns 5.01 CD.  Included on the CD is the Distant Suns program for
FPU and non-FPU machines, as well as images for both ECS and AGA users.
However, graphic card support is still non-existant and the AGA mode did
not properly promote under CyberGraphX.  (It seems to look for the AGA
hardware)

Most of that shipped on a few floppies before.  Included on CD are a number
of interesting animations, as well as the large Hubble Guide Star Catalog
and Stars on Demand databases of sky objects.  This puts a vast amount of
observational power at your fingertips.

The company now publishing the Distant Suns package, Chaocity, should be
applauded for finishing this product and seeing it through.  Unfortunately,
Chaocity's size have left little time for the actual improvement of Distant
Suns, and it shows when a brief comparison is made between the main engines
of DS and Digital Universe.

Still, Distant Suns has beaten DU to the punch of supporting this thorough
of a catalog, and does so without requiring wholesale copying to the hard
drive--the program will read the Hubble GSC and the Stars on Demand from
the CD-ROM drive.

The DS 5.01 CD-ROM is still less expensive than the Digital Universe and of
course still is configured to be a bit more friendly to the first-time user
than DU is.  Investigating the universe just got a bit easier.

Chaocity
221 Town Center West #259
Santa Maria, CA  93454
USA
805-925-7732 voice
805-928-3128 fax

@endnode
@node REVIEW6 "Review: Toshiba TIMM"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                Review: Toshiba TIMM 20" Multiscan Monitor
                             By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}
===========================================================================

Some time ago, Toshiba started doing nationwide (in the US) television
advertising for a new product called the TIMM: the Toshiba Integrated
Multimedia Monitor.  A 20" VGA monitor that could triple as a television
set or as a video monitor, taking RGB, coaxial (cable/antenna) and
composite video/audio inputs.

Big deal, right?  A 20 inch monitor with a .58 dot pitch isn't exactly at
the height of technology.

But there's a catch.  The TIMM is a multiscan monitor, meaning it can sync
down to 15khz in addition to displaying VGA-style output.  In quite plain
terms, that means that it can display all native Amiga screenmodes, from
NTSC/PAL Low Res on up.  And in case you haven't noticed, monitors that
support this range of screenmodes are not only in limited supply, but are
quite expensive--14 inch models without speakers often reach nearly US$500,
and are not exactly easy to find.  In Europe, the supply of Microvitec
Amiga Technologies-branded monitors has helped somewhat, but they too
suffer from high cost, and only now are 15 and 17 inch products being
offered.

The TIMM is a fairly attractive piece of hardware that doesn't go too far
into the "alternative design" concept.  The casing is off-white, with a
large tube flanked by two forward-facing strip-style speakers.  Control
buttons are located below the display screen, but you'll likely find the
included remote control (!) more handy.

The TIMM is advertised as the sort of item you'll use equally for TV
watching, videotape use, and your computer.  Maybe that's why the
instruction manual says virtually nothing about its use as a multisync
monitor and instead reads like a regular TV booklet.  And maybe that's why,
for some strange reason, the manual specifies that the TIMM has a maximum
resolution of a mere 640x480.

I can personally attest that the TIMM can display up to at least 1280x1024.
It does interlace at 1024x768 and above, but the display is actually quite
usable.

As an Amiga multisync monitor, I can quite honestly say that I have never
seen anything come close to the TIMM.  A trusty 1950 or similar is nice
while it lasts, but once you've had 20 inch display, it's tough to imagine
going back to something that sits comfortably on an Amiga 3000's case.
Despite the dot pitch rating, below 1024x768 the display is remarkably
crisp and clear.

As a video monitor and TV, the TIMM works quite well--while its size might
not make it conducive for use in large-scale video applications, as the
output monitor for the finished product it is an excellent choice, with its
quite capable built-in speakers.

The TIMM switches from RGB (computer operation) to TV to video input
operation at a touch of a button, either on the monitor or on the remote.
Each mode has its own settings--the RGB mode is most flexible, allowing you
to vertically and horizontally position AND size the screen to your liking.
Settings memory seems to be independent of power supply, but there is only
one setting stored.

All of this comes at a cost of about $700, street price.  That's rather
high for a 20 inch TV, but extremely inexpensive for a 20 inch fully
Amiga-compatible multiscan monitor with terrific NTSC and PAL displays.
(It is worth noting that while the TIMM will handle PAL RGB input it cannot
deal with PAL composite or television input)  In the Amiga's history, large
monitors with this degree of compatibility have been extremely expensive
and are no longer widely available.  What the TIMM offers is a reasonably
priced big-screen solution which offers the convenience of multiple inputs,
while sacrificing the .28 or below dot pitch found on monitors with fewer
Amiga features and a smaller screen size.

Only a few things concern me about the TIMM.  The first is that the power
plug is a two-blade affair instead of the usual 3-prong grounded plug found
for most serious computer equipment.  The second is that often the TIMM
will briefly flash the screen a minute or so after a cold start.  Finally,
the on-screen controls leave a lot to be desired.  They're perfectly
adequate, but for such a hip multimedia monitor, I expected something a bit
better than CGA cyan and purple blocky text.

For those with a dying 1950, or those looking for a large monitor that can
still handle a good round of Alien Breed, I would highly recommend you
investigate the TIMM.  Those looking to do 1600x1200 non-interlaced are
going to have to shop for something different.

Toshiba America Consumer Products
82 Totowa Rd.
Wayne, NJ 07470
201-628-8000 voice
http://www.toshiba.com/tacp/timm/TIMMhome.html

@endnode
@node REVIEW7 "Review: Fargo FotoFUN Color Printer"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                    Review: Fargo FotoFUN Color Printer
                             By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}
===========================================================================

Fargo has long distinguished themselves, on the Amiga and elsewhere, for
high-quality color printers using thermal wax and dye-sublimation transfers
for vibrant color that tends to last quite some time.

The Primera Pro has been the mainstay of the line, creating A4-sized
color printouts that usually stun visitors to dealerships.  But the
Primera's performance doesn't come cheap (Nearly US$2000), so apparently
the people at Fargo felt they wanted a more consumer-oriented product.

The FotoFUN's sole purpose is to create 4"x6" photos from computer images.
The unit itself is a small affair, significantly smaller than a breadbox.
On its front is a slot wide enough to accept a single 4" wide piece of
special FotoFUN photographic paper.

The operation of the FotoFUN is fairly straightforward--an image in IFF
format (1 to 24 bit, including HAM and Halfbrite modes) is sent to the
printer driver, or more specifically, to the AmigaDOS device created by the
printer driver.  This can be done with an image processing program's save
command, or a simple copy.  The driver does the rest of the work,
separating the file into the various portions needed by the printer's
internal workings, and firing them over to the printer.

When the printer receives the first instructions, it begins whirring, which
is the operator's cue to insert a piece of photo paper.  The printer has no
storage capacity of its own.  The driver sends the picture across the
parallel port, the printer churns with the photo for a couple of minutes,
and finally, after a number of passes, you get the finished product, a real
photograph of the computerized image of your choice.

Now, this SHOULD sound neat to you--and it is.  The FotoFUN creates 203 dpi
images at either 24 or 12 bit color depth (there seems to be some
disagreement--the consumer information says 24, the developer documentation
seems to indicate 12), which means that you get a good deal of color clarity
and vibrance right out of a box next to your computer.

After it sounds neat to you, you'll probably wonder "But, um, wait, what
exactly is this GOOD for?"  The advertising materials put it forth as a
companion piece to the PhotoCD enthusiast.  This is actually a very good
angle, as PhotoCDs often contain the sorts of pictures people would like to
be able to put in an album or give to friends anyway.  However, considering
that the cost of the media is quite high (a 36-picture ribbon and 36 pieces
of photo paper are US$35), it would be considerably more economical to just
save your PhotoCD negatives (if you had your own created) and have a pack
of photographs developed professionally.

But there are other, shall we say, "reasonable" uses for this printer.  A
professional 2D or 3D artist may want to send a client away with a
tangible, full-color example of a work in progress.  In moderate usage,
such a printer could help spice up a report or a presentation.

Ah, but who are we kidding?  The FotoFUN's name gives it away--it's largely
something people will play with because it's fun to get a full-color
photographic image off of your computer.  Fargo has two ways to encourage
people to have more fun with their printer--postcard kits and coffee mug
kits.

I'm not a postcard sort of person--well, I like getting them (Thanks to
Jorma of Sweden!) but I really don't send them.  But one of the first
things I did with the FotoFUN was create an Amiga Report mug, which is
really a treat to show visitors.  The mug kit works by having you print an
image, in reverse, without the standard protective overlay regular FotoFUN
prints receive.

This print gets wrapped around a specially coated mug from Fargo and locked
into place with a special metal clamp included with the Mug Kit.  Bake the
contraption in an oven for 15 minutes, and before you know it, you have a
tailor-made mug, with whatever image you see fit to transfer onto it.

Fargo's driver for the Amiga, which includes a GUI-based program for
setting your preferences, is not shipped with the printer but is instead
available from their Web site.  The Amiga driver uses one of the keyfiles
from the Windows disk.  The driver doesn't have all of the features of the
Windows and Mac version, but ImageFX 2.6 is shipping with enhanced FotoFUN
support, which we will discuss in an upcoming issue.

The FotoFUN driver virtually uses all of the Amiga's resources.  I highly
recommend that if you are going to print, don't touch anything else.  Even
slight interruptions can corrupt a printout, which is a time-consuming and
costly mistake.

It's tough to make the final call--is the FotoFUN "worth it"?  The output
is high quality, that's not at issue.  But $500, plus $1 a print, for
pictures?  Unless you've got your own scanner, or make lots of PhotoCDs,
you won't have a good way to get your personal favorites into the FotoFUN
to begin with.  This is a neat item, but think closely about the impact of
your purchase.  If you can't think of anything you'd enjoy more than a
full-color printout of the Babylon 5 battle scene you've staged in
Lightwave or Imagine, or a small pinup of Amy the Squirrel, I'd advise you
to go for it.

Fargo Electronics Inc.
7901 Flying Cloud Dr.
Eden Prairie, MN  55344
USA
612-941-9470 voice
612-941-7836 fax
http://www.fargo.com/

@endnode

@node CHARTS1 "Aminet Charts, April 26, 1996"
@toc FTP

| The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 26-Apr-96
| Updated weekly. Most popular file on top.
|
|File              Dir        Size Age Description
|----------------- ---        ---- --- -----------
awebftp.lha        comm/tcp    12K   0+FTP plugin v1.2 for Aweb
AWeb.lha           comm/tcp   263K   1+Fast, graphical WWW browser V 1.1 bu
ar406.lha          docs/mags  113K   0+Amiga Report 4.06, April 23, 1996
awebmail.lha       comm/tcp     3K   0+Mail plugin for Aweb (TCP: required)
AWEBsendYAMmai.lha comm/tcp     1K   0+Mail plugin for Aweb with YAM
BMPdt405.lha       util/dtype  19K   0+Bmp picture datatype v40.5 for >= OS
fforbid.lha        util/boot    1K   0+System speed hack
viscorp.lha        docs/anno   30K   0+VIScorp Information 960418 
taskbar5_3.lha     util/wb     29K   0+Win95 style taskbar v5.2 (Speed incr
A-Start08.lha      util/wb     47K   0+V0.87 BUGFIX of the BEST Win95-Start
CyberSpcHD.lha     game/role  898K   0+Cyberspace game (V1.01, HD Version)
IPDial21.lha       comm/tcp    58K   1+Best SLIP/PPP dialer with shell term
nslookup-gui.lha   comm/tcp     5K   0+NSLookUp with GUI. V1.0
fms_20.lha         disk/misc   11K   0+Virtual Floppy disk
ExpName22.lha      util/libs   46K   0+Get full expansion board names from 
Gui-FTP.lha        comm/tcp   352K   0+Gui-FTP V3.0 GUI based FTP client bu
mcx249.lha         util/cdity  74K   0+Multi Function Commodity
amicdfs214.lha     disk/cdrom 122K   0+AmiCDFS (AmiCDROM) v2.14
Lisa.jpg           pix/irc     45K  45+A picture of _lisa_ (lesingh@ouray.c
AWebAminet.lha     comm/tcp     5K   3+Aminetfind rexx script for AWeb (use

| The highest rated programs during the week until 26-Apr-96
| 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
|----------------- ---        ---- --- -----------
AmigaBase22.lha    biz/dbase  462K  22+Powerful programmable database with 
AmiPOP118.lha      comm/net    98K  31+Amiga POP3 Client V1.18
term-030.lha       comm/term  655K   4+V4.6, MC68020/030/040/060 version
Knights242.lha     game/2play 223K  77+Two-player violent dungeon bashing
SneechV1_5.lha     game/2play 390K   5+NEW Vers of *THE BEST* Multi Snake G
ViperAGA12.lha     game/2play 390K  78+Updated AGA Snake game with 6 player
Defektris.lha      game/think 142K  73+Enhanced Tetris with custom level ed
Hydrocis19.lha     game/think 194K  14+V1.9, with real time water simulatio
LhA_e138.run       util/arc   107K 190 LhA evaluation version 1.38
PowerSnap22a.lha   util/cdity  54K 114+Snap and paste anywhere using the mo
AWeb.lha           comm/tcp   263K   1+Fast, graphical WWW browser V 1.1 bu
VoxelEngine25.lha  gfx/aga     71K   5+Landscape routine. V2.5
ALynx.lha          comm/net   277K  39+Textbased WWW browser (AmiTCP/MLink)
ar404.lha          docs/mags   85K   5+Amiga Report 4.04, March 14, 1996
xtrndemo.lha       game/demo  680K  16+XTreme Racing Net Demo
Breed96.lha        game/misc  171K   3+Space colonisation/exploration game 
NetMail-13.lha     comm/mail  130K  26+E-mail program with GUI, groups, fil
BorisBall.lha      game/demo  339K   2+Demo of a Megaball beater with 8 BAL
DGalaga2.6cAGA.lha game/shoot 465K  31+Latest version of the best shoot em'
xanim8.lha         gfx/show   253K  43+XAnim: Avi/Quicktime/FLI/FLC/IFF/GIF
DeliTracker224.lha mus/play   736K   3+Enhanced/bugfixed players, e.g. s3m 
Play16_1.6.lha     mus/play    91K  11+Plays WAV, IFF, MAUD, etc, 14 bit ou
aglogo.lha         pix/misc    44K   6+AMIGAmes 'logo' picture (Finnish Ami
EasyFR21.lha       comm/fido  116K   6+V2.1 F'Req handler. XPK & traplist
speed.lha          demo/aga    64K  52+Triumph AGA intro (TG95). 040/882 re
BrainState.lha     demo/file  665K  44+AGA Demo by Cryptoburners. 2nd at TG
a95-tsl.lha        demo/ta95  566K  35+Fruitkitchen by The Silents DK - Fro
MasterBlast221.lha game/2play 197K  22+The ultimate Dynablaster Clone V2.2
RoketzPD_V2.25.lha game/2play 670K  63+Ver. 2.25 of this AGA only gravity-s

@endnode

@node CHARTS2 "Aminet Charts, May 13, 1996"
@toc FTP

| The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 13-May-96
| Updated weekly. Most popular file on top.
|
|File              Dir        Size Age Description
|----------------- ---        ---- --- -----------
Voyager.lha        comm/net   276K   0+WWW-Browser, Netscape/HTML3-extensio
AirMail32.lha      comm/mail  147K   0+MUI SMTP/POP internet mailer
mui33usr.lha       dev/gui    797K  10+MagicUserInterface V3.3, user files
BattleDuel.lha     game/2play 787K   0+The ultimate 'Artillery' game ECS,AG
vttxyam.lha        comm/net     3K   0+Modified Mailto Script for Voyager
ShutDown10.lha     util/wb    157K   0+Win95 like system shut down
NFA-HDIn.lha       game/patch 177K   0+A collection of legal HD Game Instal
AmiPhone1.71.lha   comm/net   117K   0+AmiTCP based voice chat program
Vmailto.lha        comm/mail    1K   0+Mailto script for Voyager (Uses Send
agaboost0.81.lha   misc/emu    21K   0+V0.81. Aga Video Driver for ShapeShi
ShapeShifter.lha   misc/emu   224K   1+Macintosh II emulator, V3.5
AddSearchGuide.lha docs/hyper   2K   0+Add a search button to AmigaGuide do
XOpa1_87.lha       util/moni   94K   1+System Monitor with a beautiful inte
gtlayout.lha       util/libs  119K   0+Gtlayout.library V24.17 GUI library
AWebBGUI.lha       comm/tcp     8K   0+Improving the speed of AWeb's settin
mwm104.lha         text/hyper  74K   1+Magic Web Maker v1.04 - More enhance
nslookup.lha       comm/tcp    38K   0+Full nslookup command (V1.3)
aswpop10.lha       comm/tcp    21K   0+POP client for Amitcp, by ASW. v1.0
AWeb.lha           comm/tcp   263K   3+Fast, graphical WWW browser V 1.1 bu
XpkArchivePack.lha util/arc   212K   0+XpkArchivePackageV2.0: xpkarchive.li

| The highest rated programs during the week until 13-May-96
| 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
|----------------- ---        ---- --- -----------
AmiPOP118.lha      comm/net    98K  33+Amiga POP3 Client V1.18
AmigaBase22.lha    biz/dbase  462K  24+Powerful programmable database with 
Knights242.lha     game/2play 223K  79+Two-player violent dungeon bashing
SneechV1_5.lha     game/2play 390K   8+NEW Vers of *THE BEST* Multi Snake G
ViperAGA12.lha     game/2play 390K  80+Updated AGA Snake game with 6 player
Defektris.lha      game/think 142K  75+Enhanced Tetris with custom level ed
Hydrocis19.lha     game/think 194K  16+V1.9, with real time water simulatio
voxel087.lha       gfx/aga    788K   5+Voxel Engine 0.87 by Silicon Motion 
LhA_e138.run       util/arc   107K 192 LhA evaluation version 1.38
PowerSnap22a.lha   util/cdity  54K 117+Snap and paste anywhere using the mo
ficherosdelsis.lha docs/hyper  59K   0+AmigaGuide Text containig info about
ALynx.lha          comm/net   277K  41+Textbased WWW browser (AmiTCP/MLink)
mui33usr.lha       dev/gui    797K  10+MagicUserInterface V3.3, user files
nemac411.lha       game/demo  132K   6+Update of texture map game
xtrndemo.lha       game/demo  680K  19+XTreme Racing Net Demo
NetMail-13.lha     comm/mail  130K  29+E-mail program with GUI, groups, fil
BorisBall.lha      game/demo  339K   4+Demo of a Megaball beater with 8 BAL
DGalaga2.6cAGA.lha game/shoot 465K  33+Latest version of the best shoot em'
xanim8.lha         gfx/show   253K  46+XAnim: Avi/Quicktime/FLI/FLC/IFF/GIF
MCP110.lha         util/cdity 395K  14+MAJOR UPDATE! The mother of the WB-U
EasyFR21.lha       comm/fido  116K   8+V2.1 F'Req handler. XPK & traplist
MetaTool.lha       comm/mail  207K   8+The Amiga MIME Mailer (40.5)
speed.lha          demo/aga    64K  54+Triumph AGA intro (TG95). 040/882 re
BrainState.lha     demo/file  665K  47+AGA Demo by Cryptoburners. 2nd at TG
a95-tsl.lha        demo/ta95  566K  37+Fruitkitchen by The Silents DK - Fro
ar406.lha          docs/mags  113K   2+Amiga Report 4.06, April 23, 1996
MasterBlast221.lha game/2play 197K  24+The ultimate Dynablaster Clone V2.2
RoketzPD_V2.25.lha game/2play 670K  65+Ver. 2.25 of this AGA only gravity-s
poing2.lha         game/2play 320K   9+A cool pong game with powerups & mor
SpringTime.lha     game/think 295K  56+Great 3d puzzle game by TRECISION

@endnode


@node MAILLIST "Amiga Report Mailing List"
@toc WHERE

===========================================================================
                        Amiga Report Mailing List
===========================================================================

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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 can also be read with Mosaic (in either AmigaGuide or html form). 
Reading AmigaReport with Mosaic removes the necessity to download it.  It
can also be read using programs found in UNIX sites such as LYNX.

Simply tell Mosaic to open one of the following URLs:
     http://www.omnipresence.com/Amiga/News/AR/
     http://www.pwr.wroc.pl/AMIGA/AR/
     http://mm.iit.uni-miskolc.hu/Data/AR
     http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/amiga/ar/
     http://ramiga.rnet.cgi.com/~AR
     http://www.sci.muni.cz/ar/
     http://metro.turnpike.net/P/panther/main.html
     http://www.lysator.liu.se/amiga/ar/
     http://ArtWorks.apana.org.au/AmigaReport.html
     http://www.vol.it/mirror/amiga/
     http://www.cucug.org/ar/ar.html
     http://www.acropolis.net/clubs/amiga/amigareport/
     http://www.bengala.saccii.net.au/ar/main.html

The following AR sites also have a mailto form, allowing you to mail to
Amiga Report from the web site.  <Make sure your reader has forms
capability).
     http://www.pwr.wroc.pl/AMIGA/AR/
     http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Users/kcci1

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
                  May 16, 1996            Issue No. 4.07
                       Copyright 1996 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 Portal.  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 EDITORCHOICE "Editor's Choice"
@toc COMMERCIAL

===========================================================================
                              Editor's Choice
===========================================================================

These are selected products, reviewed by myself, that I've liked.  So, I've
landed them and decided to sell them.

All prices are in $US.

John McDonough's The Music Maker, a Contemporary New Age CD composed on the
Amiga, is available through Amiga Report.

The crisp, clean sounds and calm melodies present a welcome alternative to
many pounding alternatives.

Available for US$12.00 plus $3 shipping in the US.  Non-US orders, please
contact before ordering.  Check or money order accepted addressed to
@{" Jason Compton " link JASON}, shipments made by the artist.

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

|                                | Issue    | Approximate  | Amiga Report |
|           Product              | Reviewed | Retail Price | Reader Price |
---------------------------------|----------|--------------|--------------|
|                                |          |              |              |
|GPFax Amiga Fax Software        |   2.30   |   $100.00    |    $60.00    |
|    (Class 1 and 2)             |          |              |              |
|                                |          |              |              |
|Micro R+D CD-ROM Volume 1       |   2.25   |    $69.00    |    $30.00    |
|    (Includes early Transition  |          |              |              |
|    graphics converter and loads|          |              |              |
|    of artwork)                 |          |              |              |
|                                |          |              |              |
|Micro R+D CD-ROM Volume 2       |   2.26   |    $99.95    |    $46.75    |
|    (Includes entire Nature's   |          |              |              |
|    Backdrop series)            |          |              |              |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Orders may be placed via check, money order, or postal cheque, made out to
Jason Compton.  Visa/Mastercard accepted via post or E-Mail.  No CODs.

Mail all orders to @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}.  Orders will be processed by
Amiga Report and drop-shipped from Micro R+D.

In the US, add $5/$10/$20 for UPS shipping, ground/blue/red label,
respectively.  Overseas: It is recommended that you consider $20 to be the
minimum cost for shipping.  If you plan to order more than one item, E-mail
for shipping cost.

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

Sidewinder's Future Shock II CD is now available through Amiga Report.
Featuring 15 Amiga-generated tunes totalling 71 minutes, Eric Gieseke's
work is captured on an Amiga-independent media.

Available for US$12.00.  Please add $5 for shipping.

Make check or money order payable to @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}.  Orders will be
drop-shipped from Sidewinder Productions.

For overseas orders, please contact through E-Mail before ordering.
@endnode
@node PORTAL "Portal"
@toc ONLINE

===========================================================================
                  Portal:  A Great Place For Amiga Users
===========================================================================

                The Portal Information Network's Amiga Zone

          The AFFORDABLE alternative for online Amiga information
                  "Not just another UNIX Shell account!"

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

Portal is the home of acclaimed Amiga Zone, a full-service online SIG
(Special Interest Group) for Amiga owners and users.  We promise, and WE
DELIVER ongoing & aggressive Amiga support!  Now, more than ever, with so
many Amiga magazines gone or shrunken, you need a viable,
professionally-maintained resource for information, software, and a link to
the world-wide Amiga community.

You can dial into Portal to access the Amiga Zone in many ways: direct
dial to our San Jose, CA high-speed modems (you pay for the phone call
if it's not local), or though any SprintNet or Compuserve indial anywhere
(with a small hourly fee) or via the World-wide Internet "telnet"
program to portal.com (no hourly fee).

Even Delphi and BIX users can Telnet into Portal for a flat $19.95 a month,
with *unlimited* use.

Portal is NOT just another shell service!  Its Online system is fully
menu-driven with on-screen commands and help, and you can easily customize
it for your favorite terminal program and screen size.

Some of Portal/Amiga Zone's amazing features include:

 * 2.5 GIGabytes of Amiga-specific file space - we have so much Amiga Stuff
      online, we've lost count!
 * The *entire* Fred Fish collection of freely distributable software,
       online.  ALL 1100 disks!
 * Fast, Batch Zmodem file transfer protocol. Download up to 100 files or
      100 email letters at once, of any size, with one command.
 * Amiga vendor areas with many companies participating.
 * So many incoming lines you'll probably NEVER get a busy signal
 * 40 "regular" Amiga libraries with over 12,000 files.  Hot new stuff
       arrives daily.
 * No upload/download "ratios" EVER. Download as much as you want, as
      often as you want, and never feel pressured doing it.
 * Live, interactive nightly chats with Amiga folks whose names you will
      recognize.  Special conferences.  Random chance prize contests.  We
      have given away thousands of bucks worth of Amiga prizes - more than
      any other online service.
 * Message bases where you can ask questions about *anything* Amiga
      related and get quick replies from the experts.
 * Amiga Internet mailing lists for Imagine, AMosaic, LightWave, ImageFX,
      Picasso II & others feed right into the Zone message bases.  Read
      months worth of postings.  No need to clutter your mailbox with them.
 * FREE unlimited Internet Email with 5 meg of free storage.
      Your email is private, secure, and never censored or monitored.
 * A FREE UNIX Shell account with another 5 meg of free storage.
      You can run AMosaic and other Browses via your shell and explore the
      vast World Wide Web!  Intermediate to advanced users can use
      any standard UNIX mail and news utilities, compilers, and other
      tools.  Ask for your free UNIX book when you sign up.
 * A home for your own Web page!  Your UNIX Shell on Portal is linked
      to Portal's Web Server. Create your own WWW pages for the whole
      world to access. No extra charges!
 * Portal has the Usenet.  Thousands of "newsgroups" in which you can read
      and post articles about virtually any subject you can possibly
      imagine. Newsgroups are not censored!
 * Other Portal SIGs (Special Interest Groups) online for Mac, IBM, Sun,
      UNIX, Science Fiction, Disney, and dozens more.  ALL Portal SIGs are
      accessible to ALL Portal customers with NO surcharges ever. You
      never worry "Ooops... Am I paying more for this area?" again!
 * Portal was THE FIRST online service to offer a full package of Internet
      features: IRC, FTP, TELNET, MUDS, LIBS wrapped into user-friendly
      menus.  And you get FREE unlimited usage of all of them.
 * Our exclusive PortalX by Steve Tibbett, the graphical "front end" for
      Portal which will let you automatically click'n'download your waiting
      email, messages, Usenet groups and binary files!  Reply to mail and
      messages offline using your favorite editor and your replies are sent
      automatically the next time you log into Portal.  (PortalX requires
      Workbench 2.04 or higher)
 * Portal does NOT stick it to high speed modem users. Whether you log in
      at 1200 or 2400 or 9600 or 14.4K you pay the same low price.

To join Portal or for more information call:

   1-800-433-6444 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time
   1-408-973-9111 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time

   1-408-725-0561 (modem 3/12/2400) 24 hours every day
   1-408-725-0560 (modem 96/14400) 24 hours every day

   or enter "C PORTAL" from any Sprintnet dial-in, or "portal" at any
   CI$ network dialin, or telnet to "portal.com" from anywhere,
   and then enter "online" and then "info"

   or send email to "sales@portal.com"

Visit the Amiga Zone Web page at http://www.portal.com/~harv

Call and join today.  Tell the friendly Portal Customer Service
representative, "The Amiga Zone sent me."  Ask for the "Interactive"
account to get the Amiga Zone, the Online System and a UNIX Shell for
only $19.95 a month.

The Portal Information Network accepts MasterCard, Visa, or you can pre-pay
any amount by personal check or money order.  The Portal Online System is a
trademark of The Portal Information Network.  SLIP, UUCP, custom domain
and corporate accounts are also available.
@endnode
@node BBS_ASIA "Distribution BBSes - Asia"
@toc BBS

===========================================================================
                         Distribution BBSes - Asia
===========================================================================

                                 -=JAPAN=-

                           * GIGA SONIC FACTOR *
                     Email: kfr01002@niftyserve.or.jp
                            +81-(0)564-55-4864
@endnode
@node BBS_AUSTRALIA "Distribution BBSes - Australia"
@toc BBS

===========================================================================
                      Distribution BBSes - Australia
===========================================================================

                              -=NEW ZEALAND=-

                             * BITSTREAM BBS *
               FidoNET 3:771/850.0   AmigaNET 41:644/850.0
                             +64-(0)3-548-5321


                               -=VICTORIA=-

                         * NORTH WEST AMIGA BBS *
          EMail: mozza@nwamiga.apana.org.au     Fido: 3:633/265.0
         BBS Phone/Fax: +61 3 9331 2831   USR Courier V.Everything
@endnode
@node BBS_EUROPE "Distribution BBSes - Europe"
@toc BBS

===========================================================================
                        Distribution BBSes - Europe
===========================================================================

                                -=FINLAND=-

                               * LAHO BBS *
                    +358-64-414 1516   +358-64-414 0400
                    +358-64-414 6800   +358-64-423 1300

                             * KINDERGARTEN *
                      Email: matthias.bartosik@hut.fi
                             +358-0-881 32 36


                                -=FRANCE=-

                              * DYNAMIX BBS *
                        Email: erlsoft@mcom.mcom.fr
                    +33.1.48.89.96.66 Minitel to Modem

                        * RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING *
     Internet: user.name@ramses.fdn.org     Fidonet: 2/320/104-105-106
                      +33-1-45845623   +33-1-53791200


                                -=GERMANY=-

                           * DOOM OF DARKNESS *
                      Email: marc_doerre@doom.ping.de
                          +49 (0)4223 8355 19200
           AR-Infoservice, contact Kai Szymanski kai@doom.gun.de

                              * IMAGINE BBS *
                    Email: Sysop@imagine.commo.mcnet.de
                              +49-69-4304948
              Login: GAST (Download area:  "Amiga-Report")

                         * LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL *
                    Usenet: andreas@lbcmbx.in-berlin.de
                       49-30-8110060   49-30-8122442
                 Login as User: "amiga", Passwd: "report"

                              * REDEYE BBS *
                        Internet: sysop@coolsurf.de
         Modem/ISDN: +49-89.54662690   Modem only:+49.89.54662680

                          * STINGRAY  DATABASE *
                 EMail: 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 *
          EMail: cocos@prometheus.hol.gr    Telnet: hellas.hol.gr
                    ++301/ 620-6001, 620-6604, 620-9500

                              * ODYSSEY BBS *
            email: odyssey@acropolis.gr   Amiganet: 39:258/1.0
                  ++301-4123502   23.00-09.00 Local Time


                                -=IRELAND=-

                               * CUGI BBS *
                            Fidonet: 2:263/155
                              +353 1 837 0204

                               * FWIBBLE! *
               Fidonet: 2:263/900.0   E-Mail: 9517693@ul.ie
              Phone: +353-902-36124    Midnight to 8am (GMT)
                       Freq "Readme.txt" for details


                                 -=ITALY=-

                        * AMIGA PROFESSIONAL BBS *
                 Amy Professional Club, Italian Amos Club
                              +(39)-49-604488

                               * AMIPRO BBS*
                         AR and AMINET distributor
                               +39-49604488

                               * FRANZ BBS *
                          EMsil: 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
                The AMIGA Alchemists' BBS   +39-931-833773


                              -=NETHERLANDS=-D

                       * AMIGA ONLINE BS HEEMSTEDE *
   Fidonet: 2:280/464.0, 2:280/412.0   Internet: michiel@aobh.xs4all.nl
                       +31-23-282002   +31-23-470739

                             * THE HELL BBS *
           Fido-Net : 2:281/418.0   e-mail : root@hell.xs4all.nl
                             +31-(0)70-3468783

                          * TRACE BBS GRONINGEN *
            FidoNET 2:282/529.0   Internet Martin@trace.idn.nl
                             +31-(0)-50-410143

                              * X-TREME BBS *
                      Internet: u055231@vm.uci.kun.nl
                               +31-167064414


                                -=NORWAY=-

                              * FALLING BBS *
                       EMail:  christon@powertech.no
                               +47 69 256117


                                -=POLAND=-

                          * SILVER DREAM!'S BBS *
                            SysOp: Silver Dream
                               +48 91 540431


                               -=PORTUGAL=-

                               * CIUA BBS *
                FidoNet 2:361/9   Internet: denise.ci.ua.pt
                           +351-34-382080/382081


                                -=RUSSIA=-

                             * NEW ORDER BBS *
           E-Mail: norder@norder.spb.su   FidoNet: 2:5030/221.0
                              +7-812-2909561


                                 -=SPAIN=-

                            * GURU MEDITATION *
                              +34-1-383-1317

                            * LA MITAD OSCURA *
             E-Mail: jovergon@offcampus.es   Fido: 2:341/35.19
                               +34-1-3524613

                        * MAZAGON - BBS - SYSTEMS *
       E-mail: jgomez@maze.mazanet.es   FTP: ftp-mail@ftp.mazanet.es
                               +34 59 536267
                              Login: a-report


                                -=SWEDEN=-

                                * CICERON *
                           E-mail: a1009@itv.se
                               +46 612 22011


                              -=SWITZERLAND=-

                          * LINKSYSTEM LINK-CH1 *
                   contact: rleemann@link-ch1.aworld.de
                   +41 61 3215643   ISDN: +41 61 3832007
                 Local newsgroup link-ch1.ml.amiga-report


                                -=UKRAINE=-

                            * AMIGA HOME BBZ *
      E-Mail: Oleg.Khimich@bbs.tenet.odessa.ua   FidoNet: 2:467/88.0
                              +380-482-325043

                            -=UNITED KINGDOM=-

                           * AMIGA JUNCTION 9 *
        Internet: sysadmin@junct9.demon.co.uk     FidoNet: 2:440/20
                             +44 (0)372 271000

                             * CREATIONS BBS *
           E-Mail: mat@darkside.demon.co.uk   2:254/524@Fidonet
                             +44-0181-665-9887

                              * METNET CCS *
     Email: metnet@demon.co.uk    FidoNet: 2:2502/129.0  2:2502/130.0
                     +44-1482-442251   +44-1482-444910

                           * OCTAMED USER BBS *
                    EMail: rbfsoft@cix.compulink.co.uk
                            +44 (01703) 703446

                              * SCRATCH BBS *
      EMail: kcci1@solx1.susx.ac.uk     Official Super Skidmarks site
                              +44-1273-389267
@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 *
       EMail: steve_hooper@comm.tfbbs.wimsey.com   Fido: 1:153/210.0
                               604-945-6192


                              -=CALIFORNIA=-

                            * TIERRA-MIGA BBS *
             FidoNet: 1:202/638.0   Internet: torment.cts.com
                               619.292.0754

                          * VIRTUAL PALACE BBS *
                   Sysop Email: tibor@ecst.csuchico.edu
                                916-343-7420

                        * AMIGA AND IBM ONLY BBS *
            EMail: vonmolk@crash.cts.com   AmigaNET: 40:406/7.0
                               (619)428-4887


                                -=FLORIDA=-

                            * LAST! AMIGA BBS *
                              (305) 456-0126


                               -=ILLINOIS=-

                           * EMERALD KEEP BBS *
                 FidoNet: 1:2250/2     AmigaNet: 40:206/1
                               618-394-0065

                            * 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

                            * STARSHIP CUCUG *
                       Email: 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 *
                        E-mail: Geoff148@delphi.com
                               504-882-6576


                                 -=MAINE=-

                     * THE KOBAYASHI ALTERNATIVE BBS *
                           FidoNet: 1:326/404.0
                      (207)/784-2130   (207)/946-5665
                     ftp.tka.com for back issues of AR


                                -=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 *
        InterNet: stace@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil   FidoNet: 1:3604/60.0
                               601-374-2697


                               -=MICHIGAN=-

                            * DC Productions *
                    Email: dcpro!chetw@heifetz.msen.com
                               616-373-0287


                                -=NEVADA=-

                              * PUP-TEK BBS *
                       EMail: darkwolf@accessnv.com
                               702-553-2403

                              -=NEW JERSEY=-

                          * T.B.P.  VIDEO SLATE *
                               201-586-3623

                           * DLTACOM AMIGA BBS *
       Internet: dltacom.camphq.fidonet.org   Fidonet: 1:2606/216.0
                              (201) 398-8559


                               -=NEW YORK=-

                             * THE BELFRY(!) *
                         stiggy@dorsai.dorsai.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 *
            EMail: 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! *
                      Email: root@amicent.raider.net
                               615-383-9679

                               * NOVA BBS *
                            FidoNet 1:362/508.0
                               615-472-9748


                               -=VIRGINIA=-

                       * NETWORK XXIII DATA SYSTEM *
                       EMail: gottfrie@acca.nmsu.edu
                               804-266-1763
                      Login: anon   Password: nopass


                              -=WASHINGTON=-

                          * FREELAND MAINFRAME *
                         Internet - 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=-

                            * AMIGA DO PC BBS *
           Fidonet: 4:801/44   Internet: fimoraes@dcc.unicamp.br
      +55-192-33-2260   Weekdays: 19-07 (-3 GMT)   Weekends: 24 hours

@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   Email: nighty@gmatter.japan-online.or.jp

@endnode
@node DEAL_AUSTRALIA "Dealers - Australia"
@toc DEALER

===========================================================================
                            Dealers - Australia
===========================================================================

                              -=QUEENSLAND=-

                               Image Domain
                               92 Bridge St
                        Fortitude Valley, Brisbane
                     E-mail: s322698@student.uq.edu.au
                 Voice: 617-3216-1240   Fax: 617-3852-2720


                             -= NEW ZEALAND =-

                                CompKarori
                         LG/F Karori Shopping Mall
                            Karori, Wellington
                          Tel/Fax: +64 4 476-0212
                       Email: 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

                                -=BELGIUM=-

                               CLICK!  N.V.
                            Boomsesteenweg 468
                        B-2610 Wilrijk - Antwerpen
           VOICE: +32 (0)3 828.18.15     FAX: +32 (0)3 828.67.36
           INTERNET: vanhoutv@nbre.nfe.be      FIDO: 2:292/603.9


                               -=BULGARIA=-

                           KlubVerband ITA Gmbh
                                1309 Sofia
                          P.F.13, KukushStr.  1-2
                  Tel: +359-2-221471   Fax: +359-2-230062
          Email: KVITA@VIRBUS.BG     Contact: Dr.  ING B.  Pavlov


                                -=DENMARK=-

                               Data Service
                           Att.  Soren Petersen
                              Kaerhaven2a 2th
                              6400 Sonderborg
          Phone/Fax: +45 74 43 17 36   EMail: sorpe-95@sdbg.ih.dk

                              Nemesis Amy BBS
               EMail: boersting@hoa.ping.dk   Fido: 2:238/43
                       USR 33k6 V.E.  +45 75-353726


                                -=FINLAND=-

             Lincware Computers Oy / Lincoln Technologies Ltd
                              Lovkullankuja 3
                               10300 KARJAA
            Voice: +358-(9)50-5583720   Fax: +358-(9)11-205415
                      EMail: 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 (automatique): +33 50.52.83.31
                          E-Mail: tcp@imaginet.fr


                                -=GERMANY=-

                           AMItech Systems GmbH
                              Ludwigstrasse 4
                             D-95028 Hof/Saale
               VOICE: +49 9281 142812   FAX: +49 9281 142712
                       EMail: bsd@blacky.netz.sub.de

                    dcp, desing+commercial partner GmbH
                               Alfredstr.  1
                              D-22087 Hamburg
                 Tel.: + 49 40 251176 Fax: +49 40 2518567
                 EMail: info@dcp.de WWW: http://www.dcp.de

                          Hartmann & Riedel GdbR
                               Hertzstr.  33
                           D-76287 Rheinstetten
          EMail: rick@p22.aop.schiele-ct.de   Fido: 2:2476/12.22
              Voice: +49 (7242) 2021     Fax: +49 (7242) 5909
             Please call before visiting, or we may be closed.

                             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
       EMail: fer@inrete.it (Ferruccio Zamuner)   Fido: 2:334/21.19

                            Cloanto Italia srl
                           Via G.  B.  Bison 24
                                33100 Udine
                 Tel: +39 432 545902   Fax: +39 432 609051
              E-Mail: info@cloanto.it   CompuServe: 100145.15


                              -=NETHERLANDS=-

                               Chaos Systems
                               Watermolen 18
                           NL-1622 LG Hoorn (NH)
            Voice: +31-(0)229-233922   Fax/Data: +31-(0)229-TBA
     E-mail: marioh@fwi.uva.nl   WWW: http://gene.fwi.uva.nl/~marioh/


                                 -=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
                             Plaza Pedro IV, 3
                       08120 La LLagosta (Barcelona)
                Tel: (93) 560 76 12     Fax: (93) 560 76 12

                                  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
EMail:datakompaniet@interlink.no  WWW:http://www.interlink.no/datakompaniet

                              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


                            -=UNITED KINGDOM=-

                           Almathera Systems Ltd
                Southerton House / Boundary Business Court
                             92-94 Church Road
                         Mitcham, Surrey / CR4 3TD
            VOICE: (UK) 081 687 0040     FAX: (UK) 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
                Internet: brian_fowler@cix.compulink.co.uk

                             Visage Computers
                              27 Watnall Road
                           Hucknall / Nottingham
           Tel: +44 (0)115 9642828   Tel/Fax: +44 (0)115 9642898
                        EMail: visage@innotts.co.uk

@endnode
@node DEAL_NAMERICA "Dealers - North America"
@toc DEALER

===========================================================================
                          Dealers - North America
===========================================================================

                                -=CANADA=-

                          Animax Multimedia, Inc.
                         196 Joseph Zatzman Drive
                          Dartmouth, NS / B3B 1N4
                 Ph: (902)468-AMAX     Fax: (902)468-4341
                       EMail: animax@ra.isisnet.com

                           APC Computer Services
                            402-5 Tangreen Crt
                         Willowdale, Ont.  M2M 3Z1
                         Voice/Fax: (416) 733-1434
  EMail: shadow@interlog.com   WWW: www.interlog.com/~shadow/apccomp.html

                           Atlantis Kobetek Inc.
                           1496 Lower Water St.
                           Halifax, NS / B3J 1R9
               Phone: (902)-422-6556     Fax: (902)-423-9339
                     E-mail: 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
                   EMail: s2200147@nickel.laurentian.ca

                      Computer Shop of Calgary, Ltd.
                          3515 - 18th Street S.W.
                         Calgary, Alberta T2T 4T9
                 Ph.  1-403-243-4358   Fx: 1-403-243-2684
        Email: austin@canuck.com   WWW: http://www.canuck.com/cshop

                           Computerology Direct
                             Powell River, BC
                                  V8A-4Z3
               Call 24 hrs.  orders/inquiries: 604/483-3679
          Amiga users 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
      Internet: 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

                         GfxBase Electronique, Inc
                              1727 Shevchenko
                             Montreal, Quebec
                  Voice: 514-367-2575   Fax: 514-367-5265
                             BBS: 514-769-0565

                              National Amiga
                             Oakville, Ontario
              Fax: 905-845-3295   EMail: gscott@interlog.com
          WWW: http://www.interlog.com/~gscott/NationalAmiga.html

                        Oby's Amigo Computing Shop
                             765 Barrydowne Rd
                         Sudbury, Ontario P3A-3T6
                         VOICE/FAX: (705)524-5826
                    All Amiga Computer Store Since 1990

                            Randomize Computers
                                 R.R.  #2
                         Tottenham, Ont.  L0G 1W0
                   vox: 905-939-8371   fax: 905-939-8745
     email: randomize@interlog.com   www: www.interlog.com/~randomize/

                            Software Supermart
                            11010 - 101 Street
                         Edmonton, Alberta T5H-2T1
                Voice: (403) 425-0691   Fax: (403) 426-1701
                       EMail: ssmart@planet.eon.net

                         SpectrumTech Electronics
                       412-1205 Fennell Avenue East
                           Hamilton, ON L8T 1T1
                Voice: (905) 388-9575   BBS: (905) 388-2542
           E-Mail: ste@spectrum.gryn.org   Contact: Derek Clarke

                             -=UNITED STATES=-

                               A&D Computer
                               211 South St.
                          Milford, NH 03055-3743
                Voice/Fax: 603-672-4700   BBS: 603-673-2788
                         Internet: amiga@mv.mv.com

                             Alex Electronics
                            597 Circlewood Dr.
                            Paradise, CA 95969
                  Voice: 916-872-0896  BBS: 915-872-3711
     EMail: alex@ecst.csuchico.edu   WWW: http://www.km-cd.com/~alex/

                           Amigability Computers
                               P.O.  Box 572
                           Plantsville, CT 06479
                            VOICE: 203-276-8175
                         Internet: 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   Internet: amiga-x@tka.com

                          Amiga Library Services
                          610 Alma School Rd, #18
                          Chandler, Az 85224-3687
                Voice: (800) 804-0833   Fax: (602) 491-0048
                        E-Mail: orders@amigalib.com

                           Amiga Video Solutions
                           1568 Randolph Avenue
                            St.  Paul, MN 55105
                 Voice: 612-698-1175     Fax: 612-224-3823
           BBS: 612-698-1918     Net: 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
            Portal: Apogee     Internet: Apogee@cup.portal.com

                            Armadillo Brothers
                            753 East 3300 South
                           Salt Lake City, Utah
          VOICE: 801-484-2791     Internet: B.GRAY@genie.geis.com

                            Computer Advantage
                             7370 Hickman Road
                           Des Moines, IA 50322
                          Voice/Fax: 515-252-6167
                       Internet: 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

                              CyberTech Labs
                               PO Box 56941
                         North Pole, Alaska  99705
 Vox: (907) 451-3285   BBS1 : (907) 488-2547   BBS2 & Fax: (907) 488-2647
            EMail: 71516.600@CompuServe.com   Fido: 1:355/17.0

                              DC Productions
                          218 Stockbridge Avenue
                            Kalamazoo, MI 49001
                       (616)373-1985   (800)9DC-PROD
                    Email: 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
                          EMail: Sheep@netins.net

                           Electronic Connection
                               635 Penn Ave
                          West Reading, PA 19611
                  Phone: 610-372-1010   Fax: 610-378-0996


                              HT Electronics
           E-Mail: HT Electronics@cup.portal.com     BIX: msears

           422 S. Hillview Dr.          211 Lathrop Way, Ste. A.
           Milipitas, CA 95035          Sacramento, CA 95815
           V: (408) 934-7700            V: (916) 925-0900
           F: (408) 934-7717            F: (916) 925-2829


                           Industrial Video, Inc.
                           1601 North Ridge Rd.
                             Lorain, OH  44055
         VOICE: 800-362-6150, 216-233-4000     Contact: John Gray
                  Internet:  af741@cleveland.freenet.edu

                            Kipp Visual Systems
                          360-C Christopher Ave.
                          Gaithersburg Md, 20878
                               301-670-7906
                           kipp@rasputin.umd.edu

                     The Lively Computer - Tom Lively
                             8314 Parkway Dr.
                             La Mesa, CA 91942
                   Voice: 619-589-9455 Fax: 619-589-5230
                        Net: tlively@connectnet.com

                                Magic Page
                            3043 Luther Street
                          Winston-Salem, NC 27127
           Voice/Fax: 910-785-3695   E-mail: Spiff@ix.netcom.com
                          Contact: Patrick Smith

                                MicroSearch
                        9000 US 59 South, Suite 330
                              Houston, Texas
                 VOICE: 713-988-2818     FAX: 713-995-4994

                         MicroTech Solutions, Inc.
                         1885 N.  Farnsworth Ave.
                               Suites 6-7-8
                           Aurora, IL 60505-1162
        Voice: 708-851-3033   Fax: 708-851-3825   BBS: 708-851-3929
           Email: info@mt-inc.com   WWW: http://www.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

                         OverByte Industries, Inc.
                       661 Blanding Blvd.  Suite 391
                        Orange Park, FL 32073-5048
            Voice: 904-858-3348   E-mail: overbyte@jax.gttw.com
          URL: http://www.jkcg.com/Webmaster/Overbyte/index.html

                            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
                     Internet:  PSIANIM@agora.rain.com

                          Raymond Commodore Amiga
                            795 Raymond Avenue
                         St. Paul, MN   55114-1521
                 VOICE: 612.642.9890     FAX: 612.642.9891

                           Safe Harbor Computers
                          W226 N900 Eastmound Dr
                            Waukesha, WI 53186
                 Orders: 800-544-6599   Fax: 414-548-8130
                       WWW Catalog: www.sharbor.com

                               Slipped Disk
                               31044 John R
                      Madison Heights, Michigan 48071
                           Voice: (810) 546-3475
                  BBS: (810) 399-1292   Fido: 1:120/321.0

                           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
                  EMail: 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
           FIDO: 1:2613/323   INTERNET: neil@rochgte.fidonet.org

                                Zipperware
                             76 South Main St.
                           Seattle, WA  98104
                 VOICE: 206-223-1107     FAX: 206-223-9395
   E-Mail: zipware@nwlink.com   WWW: http://www.speakeasy.org/zipperware

@endnode
@node OPINION "Editorial and Opinion"
@toc MENU

===========================================================================
                           Editorial and Opinion
===========================================================================

@{"   compt.sys.editor.desk   " link EDITORIAL}  Let's keep it short...

@{"    Message from Sweden    " link OPINION1}  Two users' opinions

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   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
===========================================================================

@{" VIScorp Invites Community " link NEWS17}  Come one, come all to France.

@{" Message from Eric Laffont " link NEWS13}  VIScorp's international Amiga contact

@{"Message to Amiga Developers" link NEWS5}  VIScorp reaches out

@{"  VIScorp Amiga Input Form " link NEWS2}  Tell VIScorp what you want!

@{" Phase5 Announces Computer " link NEWS20}  An upcoming Amiga-compatible PPC computer

@{"WCi Distribution Agreements" link NEWS21}  The New Wonder makes some deals

@{" Letter From Mark Habinski " link NEWS22}  An open letter regarding the Wonder bankruptcy

@{"        ImageFX 2.6        " link NEWS6}  Nova Design releases the latest

@{"   Amiga M1538S Monitor    " link NEWS15}  AT announces a 15 inch monitor...

@{"    Amiga M1764 Monitor    " link NEWS16}  ...and a 17 inch monitor.

@{"       ScreenTab 2.0       " link NEWS1}  Screen-switching commodity

@{"   OctaMED SoundStudio V1  " link NEWS3}  The sound suite nears completion

@{"   Coleco Emulator Source  " link NEWS4}  Developer opportunity-take over this code

@{" IntuiCookie for BGUI 1.0  " link NEWS7}  Fortune cookie program

@{"    Fields of Battle Bug   " link NEWS8}  A minor game bug for CyberGFX users

@{" SoftLogik Web Page Online " link NEWS9}  The DTP company goes online

@{"    Amiga Games Library    " link NEWS10}  An ambitious project under development

@{"         Frodo 2.2         " link NEWS11}  The latest version of the 64 emulator

@{"Miami, the new TCP/IP stack" link NEWS12}  Announcing a new way to get on the Net

@{"Australian Net-Rights March" link NEWS14}  March for Internet Rights down under

@{" OctaMED and 14-bit samples" link NEWS18}  Check it out...

@{"        HTMLess 2.0        " link NEWS19}  Strip HTML codes for plain text

@{"      BetterEdit 1.4       " link NEWS23}  A new text editor

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   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
===========================================================================

@{" Bill Buck Q&A Session  " link FEATURE6}  The transcript from WOA UK

@{"       Amigarella       " link FEATURE1}  An Amiga allegory

@{"  First Look At LW 5.0  " link FEATURE2}  Newtek's latest offering

@{"Photogenics 2 Conference" link FEATURE3}  Almathera talks about the newest version

@{"Dynamic Tech Conference " link FEATURE5}  A new hardware developer

@{"  AMOS Tips and Tricks  " link FEATURE7}  A few handy pointers for AMOS

@{"BLAZEMONGER buys VIScorp" link FEATURE4}  BLAZEMONGER fans rejoice!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   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
===========================================================================

@{" Toshiba TIMM Monitor " link REVIEW6}  Would you like a 20" multiscan? Thought so.

@{" Fargo FotoFUN Printer" link REVIEW7}  Get full-color photographic printouts

@{"   Star Crusader HD   " link REVIEW1}  Wing Commander-style action

@{" Zeus Professional BBS" link REVIEW2}  Full-featured BBS package

@{"       Breed96        " link REVIEW3}  Planetary management

@{"   Aminet CD-ROM 11   " link REVIEW4}  XiPaint 3.2 and more

@{" Distant Suns 5.01 CD " link REVIEW5}  New star catalogs added

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   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
===========================================================================

                            @{"    26-Apr-96    " link CHARTS1}

                            @{"    13-May-96    " 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

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@{"   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:  @{" Addison Laurent  " link ADDISON}

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@{"   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 PORTAL}

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@{"   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}

                          @{"    Australia    " link BBS_AUSTRALIA}

                          @{"     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

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@{"   News   " link NEWS} @{"  Opinion  " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{"  Reviews  " link REVIEW} @{"  Charts  " link FTP} @{"  Adverts  " link COMMERCIAL}
@endnode
@node DEALER "Dealer Directory"
@toc MENU

===========================================================================
                             Dealer Directory
===========================================================================

                          Arranged by Continent:

                          @{"      Asia       " link DEAL_ASIA}

                          @{"    Australia    " link DEAL_AUSTRALIA}

                          @{"     Europe      " link DEAL_EUROPE}

                          @{"  North America  " link DEAL_NAMERICA}

Dealers: To have your name added, please send @{"Email", link JASON} with the name,
address, phone, and net address (if available) of your establishment.

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