@database "ar504.guide"
@Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #5.04 -- April 16, 1997"
===========================================================================
  April 16, 1997              @{" Turn the Page " link MENU}             Issue No. 5.04
===========================================================================

                   @{" Gateway is buying Amiga Technologies! " link EDITORIAL}

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                 "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!"

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

Amiga Report 5.04 is sponsored in part by:

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

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

@{" AudioLab16 " link AD4}.  AudioLab16R2 provides quality professional audio tools
for high-end Amiga work.

@{" Amiga Legacy Magazine " link AD3}.  The new Amiga magazine--for your VCR!

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

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

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

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

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

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

    @{"     Where to Get AR      " link WHERE}             @{"     Advertisements      " link COMMERCIAL}
 Mailing List &  Distribution Sites     Online Services, Dealers, Ordering
               ______________________________________________
         //   |                                              |       //
========//====|  Amiga Report International Online Magazine  |======//=====
==   \\//     |  Issue No. 5.04              April 16, 1997  |   \\//    ==
==============|  "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!"  |=============
              |______________________________________________|
@endnode
@node JASON "Editor"
@toc STAFF

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Funny how things work out some times.  Twelve months ago, Escom was in
trouble, VIScorp was slated to buy the Amiga, and everything was falling
apart at the seams.

Now, Gateway 2000 has stepped up and is buying the entire Commodore and
Amiga-related properties from Escom, with the exception of the Commodore
trademark which is already in use by the new "Commodore", the successor of
the Netherlands branch of Escom.

The official announcements of the Gateway purchase are in the @{" News " link NEWS}
section of the magazine.  But a brief summary of where we are and how we
got here follows.

By March, things looked confused.  VIScorp had made no secret of the fact
that it was no longer pursuing an Amiga purchase.  The only company that we
knew of that was actively bidding was QuikPak, and while their intentions
seemed nice, it was somewhat questionable if they, a relatively small
privately held company, could raise the necessary funds for a purchase.

Rumors abounded about a plethora of other companies who were looking to
buy the Amiga, but nobody was telling who they were or what they wanted,
and there were certainly no official statements to be had.

One late March morning, the rumors started flying--"Gateway 2000 has bought
the Amiga!"  The rumors turned into tentative truths when the first Gateway
press releases started showing up on the major newswires, and the tentative
truths were confirmed by telephone calls to Gateway.  Gateway 2000, or GW2K
as I'm sure we'll get used to typing very soon, had submitted a bid which
had been accepted by the court-appointed trustee (our old friend Herr
Hembach), subject to the approval of the bankruptcy court and the German
regulatory officials.

Soon after, the court approval was granted.  As far as I understand it, the
deal is still pending regulatory approval, although private e-mail messages
sent by Amiga Technologies president Petro Tyschtschenko seem to indicate
that the approval may have been granted.  I have been unable to confirm
this with Gateway as of today, however.

What do we know about Gateway so far?  They have explicitly said they want
to build and sell Amigas.  We also know that they are interested in the
technology it provides them for their portfolio of intellectual
property--no surprise here.  They are retaining Petro as head of Amiga
Technologies, now to be named Amiga International, which will continue to
be headquartered in Germany and will run as a Gateway subsidiary.

Rumors indicate that they have been in touch with a number of Amiga
developers and companies.

Gateway has not made any Amiga-specific announcements for a couple of
weeks--not a surprise since there are undoubtedly some boring but necessary
legal, financial, and procedural details to be worked out, and Gateway has
their $5 billion/year PC business to run, too.

Is Gateway a Good Thing(tm)?  For starters, I think we're all agreed that
we'll take ownership over bankruptcy any day.  While there have been the
requisite naysayers who are convinced Gateway will just "kill the Amiga",
perhaps "tricking us" into buying Gateway PC clones instead.  I don't see
it.  Had Gateway wanted to kill off the Amiga as we know it, they could
have done so quietly, by not making a fuss over their acquisition.
Instead, they announced it openly, and while it was on a big computer news
day (a potential Apple takeover bid was announced), it still rated as
important enough to make a number of worldwide newspapers, magazines, and
television programs.


"So, what took you so long, Compton?  Did you or did you not promise us a
special buyout issue?"


Yes, I did.  And for a moment, it was tempting to sit down at the keyboard
and whip off a special issue as soon as Gateway confirmed that they'd
submitted their partially accepted bid.  But then I sat down and thought
about the matter.  When we did the Escom buyout issue, we had far more
facts and concrete decisions at hand--the bankruptcy court had ruled.
Here, we had a trustee's accepted bid, which was not the same thing.  Then,
there was the matter of the regulatory approval--which I'm still not
totally clear on.  So rather than get whipped up in the frenzy and report
something we might later regret, it was decided to hold off for either full
and final confirmation that the deal was done, or simply "it's about time
to put out another issue."  We did hit the latter, although this issue is a
bit smaller because of the time spent in the past few weeks trying to track
down Gateway info rather than reviewing products, and since we're retooling
the magazine to go to native HTML some sections (dealers and BBSes) are
missing this time around.

So enjoy, keep an eye on Amiga Report, and here's to what looks like
another interesting year.

-Jason

@endnode
@node COMMERCIAL "Commercial Products"
@toc MENU

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

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

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

@{"      Amiga Legacy Magazine    " link AD3}  The Amiga magazine for your VCR

@{"         AudioLab 16R2         " link AD4}  Professional Amiga audio software

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

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

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

THANKS for the GREAT Gateway Computer Show/Amiga97!  All the energy at that
show really boosted our spirits here at IAM, and proved that our Amigas are
still valuable whether or not someone buys the remains of Commodore/Escom!


GREAT AMIGA STUFF FROM INTANGIBLE ASSETS MANUFACTURING

Visit IAM on the Web: http://www.iam.com

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

We have very limited availability of Amiga Boing Logo collectible items for
our customers.  More Boing Logos are available, and special limited edition
DevCon posters are free with any order of $100 or more.   Only a few are
left after the Gateway show, so order now to get these!

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

* A book on Amiga networking and telecommunications: "Connect Your Amiga!
    A Guide to the Internet, LANs, BBSs and Online Services" revised 
    second printing (1996) US$19 + s/h
* DiskSalv4 -- the commercial release of Dave's disk utilities US$30 + 
   s/h (upgrade from earlier registered versions for US$10+s/h)
* MRBackup 2.5 US$45+s/h 
    (upgrade from earlier registered versions for US$10+s/h)
* SYA (Save Your Behind): DiskSalv4 and MRBackup together for only US$49!
* The Amiga-only peer-to-peer networking software Amiga Envoy, 
    US$39 +  s/h (2-user)
* MegaBall4, a tres cool system-friendly video game, US$29 + s/h 
* DICE 3.2 C Development Environment (full price $100+s/h, students and
   competitive upgrades only $75 +s/h)  Upgrade from DICE 3.x at
   ftp://ftp.iam.com/biz/iam/dice/!
* "Torn Shapes of Desire: Internet Erotica", book, US$14.95

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

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

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

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

http://www.iam.com

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

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

@endnode

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amiga-Link Accessories:

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


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


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

Payments may be made with a Bank Draft/Money Order, Postal MO, or VISA to 
AmiTrix Development in CAN or US dollars.  Cash COD's inside Canada only.

VISA orders require a fax with card name, number, expiry date & signature.
Please do not send your credit card info via email.

Shipping costs may vary for quantity orders/alternative method of shipment.
Canadian customers add 7% GST to all orders.

@endnode

@node AD3 "Amiga Legacy Magazine"
@toc COMMERCIAL

Amiga Legacy's Home Page: http://www.xnet.com/~jcompton/legacy.html

...from the editors of Amiga Report...from the producers at The Vantage
Point...

...premiering in June 1997...

Amiga Legacy is the groundbreaking Amiga magazine--for your VCR!

Legacy will bring you the latest info about the Amiga--its hottest
products, its coolest tricks, and its future direction--all on video!  From
the news in our cyberstudio to the most complete tutorials and reviews
possible, Legacy will provide expert analysis of everything today's user
needs to stay informed.

Let Legacy SHOW It To You!

If we say a product provides unparalleled performance, you'll see it in
action.  Our tutorials will provide you with second to none
instruction--made better because we teach by example.

** Amiga Businesses and Professionals ** We can offer you commercial time
in Legacy!  Our team will work with you to produce unique segments, if
necessary.  Please contact us for details--space in Issue 1 is still
available!

The Legacy team will deliver coverage about the Amiga 5 times a year (3 in
1997).  Subscribe now--and be a part of the new Amiga Legacy!

** PAL Amigans ** We are currently in discussions which may bring Legacy to
you in PAL format!  Please contact us if you are from a PAL country and are
interested in Amiga Legacy.

Subscription Rates:

8 Issues (1997-1998): $11.45 each + $2.05 s/h in the US ($112 total)
Save a full 20% off the cover price!

3 Issues (1997):      $12.95 each + $2.05 s/h in the US ($45 total)
Save $2 per issue off the cover price!

Single Issue:         $14.95 each + $2.05 s/h in the US ($17 total)

[Illinois residents add 8.25% sales tax.]

Legacy can accept your subscription via check, money order, or
Visa and Mastercard.

Please send your name, address, phone number, and account # and expiration
date (if applicable) to:

Legacy Maker
P.O. Box 60711
Chicago, IL  60626
USA

Welcome to the Amiga Legacy!

@endnode

@node AD4 "AudioLab16R2 For Professional Amiga Audio"
@toc COMMERCIAL

Contact AudioLab's Developers: maurizio@ivg.it via e-mail.

AudioLab16R2 is a professional digital audio postproduction application for
platforms running AmigaOS-compatible operating systems (currently Amigas
and Dracos).

Different versions are available for every ZII/ZIII audio boards in
production or, if you don't have a board yet, the standard Amiga chipset
(Standard version only).

With AudioLab16 you can perform any kind of creative modifications or
quality restorations on audio signals and produce studio quality digital
masters from multitrack projects (see details below).

Featuring over 4MB of optimized source code, more than 70 windows and
hundreds of controls, AudioLab16R2 is the largest audio processing/editing
system ever developed for AmigaOS.


The following manifacturers are active technical partners, providing
official drivers and selling specific AudioLab16R2 versions for their
boards:


Applied Magic Inc.  USA
 AudioLab16R2-SoundStage (SoundStage ZIII board only)
  http://www.amagic.com/html/al16ss.html


Petsoff L.P.        FINLAND
 AudioLab16R2-Delfina    (Delfina ZII board only)
  http://www.sci.if/~petsoff/al16df.htm


A.C.T.              GERMANY
 AudioLab16R2-Prelude    (Prelude ZII board only)
  http://www.act-net.com/al16pr.htm


To use AudioLab16R2 you need a 030CPU+4MBFastRAM (040/060CPU+8MBFastRAM
recommended) plus a fast HD, for realtime operations (the system works also
in off-line mode if necessary, to complete operations regardless hardware
performances).  Audio boards are optional (Standard version only).


For more informations about AudioLab16R2 (including ordering versions for
standard chipset, Toccata and soon Maestro) e-mail to:

                              maurizio@ivg.it


Every version, excluding the Maestro one, is available NOW.


AudioLab16R2: technical details

< Direct-from-disk tecnology >

Any operation is performed in direct-from-disk mode: audio-streams
durations are limited by disk space availability, not RAM space
availability.

- Maximum audio streams size: 2 gigabytes each
- OS volumes are supported: no special partitioning is needed
- Multitrack mode allows spreading a single project over hard-drives, ram
   drives, magneto-optical drives, cdrom drives (AsimWare AsimCDFS3.5+
   required for DOS level access to AudioCDs) operating simultaneously in
   direct-from-disk mode

< Realtime output >

The results of processing, non-linear editing and mixing operations can be
monitored in realtime, 16bit mode, through analog or digital outputs.

- 32KHz/44.1KHz/48KHz           (board dependent)
- Eight 16bit channels
- Analog and/or digital outputs (board dependent)


< Non linear multitrack editing >

Non linear editing capabilities allow rearranging the temporal sequence of
audio events without changing the structure of the original streams.  The
process is also non-destructive (original material is not modified during
cut&paste operations).

- Sixteen non linear tracks editing 
- Up to eight tracks on simultaneous playback 
- Multitrack graphic timeline 
- Double timecode notation (hh:mm:ss:ff and bars:beats:clocks) with
    autosnap-to-grid capabilities 
- Drag and drop mouse control (time slipping, cloning, aligning,...)
    for events and tracks 
- Clear/cut/copy/paste/insert/multi-insert on up to 16 tracks at the
    same time 

- Multilayer mixing controls: indipendent event level and stereo pan
    controls, indipendent track level and stereo pan controls, master level
    controls, mute/solo switches
- Insertion/retrival of user defined text labels (comments) onto the
    timeline 
- Timeline views snapshot bank 


< Digital signal processing >

Digital signal processing operators allow signal restoration, optimization
and creative modifications.

- noise gate 
- delay 
- flange 
- multiflange 
- invert 
- pitch-shift 
- time compress/expand 
- sample rate convert 
- interpolate 
- decimate 
- distort 
- FIR/IIR filter 
- reverberate 
- hum-remove 
- quantize 
- reverse 
- normalize 


< Waveform display >

Graphic waveform display allows visual inspection and easy interaction
during ranges definition.

- Graphic waveform display for on-disk recordings 
- User configurable graph resolution/speed to match different media
    seeking speeds (hard-drives, magneto-opticals, AudioCDs, ...) 
- Bi-dimensional zooms 
- Extensive range management and monitoring: monitor range, before range
    start, range start, range end, after range end ,... 


< Signal generation >

Reference signals are usefull for testing and tuning equipement.

- Multiwaveform generator 
    Impulse
    Noise
    Sine
    Square
    Triangle
- Sweep generator 



< AudioCD management >

Audio effects libraries are available on AudioCDs.  AudioLab16 can
digitally transfer the AudioCD tracks to your hard drive, to include them
in your multitrack projects.

- Transport controls (play/stop/eject/...) 
- TOC management 
- Digital audio transfers from AudioCDs to hard drives (compatible CDROM
    unit required)



< Playback triggering >

AudioLab16 can be slaved to an external MIDI hardware device or to a
concurrent Amiga software application in order to playback on-disk
recordings with accurate sincronization.

- Direct-from-disk playback triggering via external MIDI devices (MIDI
   interface required), applications capable of sending AREXX commands or,
   manually, via the computer keyboard

- Zero-delay reaction to NOTE_ON commands: perfect sincronization with
   external events
- Juke-box mode: audio streams can be selected (and played) via
   MIDI/AREXX/keyboard commands


< FIR filter design >

The "FIR Filter" DSP operator can reads ASCII text files defining different
FIR structures.  AudioLab16 can generate such text files depending on user
preferred filter specs (cutoff frequency, taps,...).

- Sinc windowing generator:  
  - Rectangle
  - Hanning
  - Triangle
  - Hamming
  - Blackman
  - Blackman-Harris

- Up to 127 taps 
- Band shifter handles low-pass, hi-pass, band pass and notch filter
   generation 
- Graphic displays



< Audio file formats >

AudioLab16 can exchange audio data files with PC, MAC, Unix, Amiga
platforms.

- AIFF 
- STUDIO16 
- MAUD 
- MAESTRO 
- WAVE 
- IFF/8SVX 
- SUN/NeXT 
- VOC 
- RAW 



< Samplepoints formats >

Raw streams can be processed and converted to common audio files formats.

- PCM 16 bit linear signed MSBLSB 
- PCM 16 bit linear signed LSBMSB 
- PCM 16 bit linear unsigned MSBLSB 
- PCM 16 bit linear unsigned LSBMSB 
- PCM 8 bit ulaw 
- PCM 8 bit linear signed 
- PCM 8 bit linear unsigned 
- DPCM 4 bit log 



< Cross-platform compatibility >

Using AudioLab16 it's possible to exchange 16bit formatted audio files with
the following hard disk recording software:


  Program                                Platform      Format

- Audioshop         (Opcode Systems)        MAC         AIFF
- Cubase Audio      (Steinberg)             MAC         AIFF
- Deck II           (OSC)                   MAC         AIFF
- Digital Performer (Mark Of The Unicorn)   MAC         AIFF
- Digitrax          (Alaska Software)       MAC         AIFF
- Logic Audio       (Emagic)                MAC         AIFF
- Pro Tools         (Digidesign)            MAC         AIFF
- Session 8 Mac     (Digidesign)            MAC         AIFF
- SoftSplice        (Digital Expressions)   MAC         AIFF
- Sonic System      (Sonic Solutions)       MAC         AIFF
- Sound Designer II (Digidesign)            MAC       AIFF/WAV  
- SoundEdit16       (Macromedia)            MAC       AIFF/WAV
- Studio Vision     (Opcode Systems)        MAC         AIFF
- Cubase Audio PC   (Steinberg)             PC          AIFF
- FastEddie         (Digital Audio Labs)    PC          WAV
- MicroSound        (Micro Technology)      PC          WAV
- SADiE Disk Editor (Studio Audio and Video)PC          WAV
- SAW               (I.Q.S.)                PC          WAV
- Session 8 PC      (Digidesign)            PC          WAV
- SSHDR1 HDRecorder (Soundscape Digital T.) PC          WAV
- Techno Lab        (Digital Manager)       PC       WAV/raw16
- The EdDitor Plus  (Digital Audio Labs)    PC          WAV
- Quad              (Turtle Beach)          PC          WAV
- Wave for Windows  (Turtle Beach)          PC          WAV
- Producer          (Applied Magic)        AMIGA     AIFF/STD16
- Studio16          (Sunrize)              AMIGA     AIFF/STD16
- Samplitude        (Sek'd)                AMIGA        MAUD


A demo of the Standard version, including two impressive demos of realtime
noise-suppression DSP techniques, is available on Aminet as
"mus/edit/audiolr2.lha".

Special thanks to Peter Urbanec and Thomas Wenzel for providing support
software for the Toccata and Maestro boards.

@endnode

@node MAIL "Reader Mail"
@toc MENU

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

From: Bill Silvey (mstrmojo@hotmail.com)

Jason,

Don't know if you still remember me...we used to chat via email about the
amiga (DUH!) way back when long about two years ago...I was "maxheadrm" on
#amiga...anyway, I couldn't help but keep up with the amiga stuff even
though I "sold out" long ago. 

I can only say two things: one, I prefer rice pilaf with my crow and two
YIPPEE!  Well, three things...my next computer (job willing) will NOT be
another x86 machine.  Fooey on them!  I've had one for two years now and
other than the vast library of software available[1] and the fact that
parts are cheap[2] there is NO advantage to this...this...BOX.  Oh I'll be
keeping this piece of crap (work and whatnot) and I'll even upgrade it
(thank you, PC market for making every technological advance obsolete every
year, like clockwork!) but I *will* be acquiring a Gateway-2k A1200.  And
the PPC expansion card.  And a 64m SIMM to go in it.  And a grafitti
dongle.  And a Squirrel CDROM drive.  Oh yes, there will be expansion...and
Shapeshifter, and a 1 gig internal HD...

I'm so happy I could scream.  Gateway!  Who would've guessed!  Gateway!

<singing> Happy days are here again...

[1] About 40% of them harkening back to the days when a 386 and 4 megs of
RAM was all you needed to run software; the rest being bloated unoptimized
code...

[2] You get what you pay for.  "Forty dollar" soundblaster "clones" are
unuseable about 80% of the time, and their "emulation" only emulates the
soundblaster PRO - an 8 bit sound card.  Don't let a PCer tell you that a
soundblaster is *still* any cheaper than $100 -- they ain't.  Maybe $80
mailorder.  I've been through a clone card already and I'm about to tear
the current one out with a pair of pliers. 

Take care, and feel free to use this letter as a testimonial in AR to let
folks know it's ok to come "back to the fold."


-    Well, there, we've told them. :)
     I'd just like to make a comment here--while Gateway was a surprise in
     the fact that we hadn't heard them as being interested, they certainly
     seem to follow a trend that PC clone companies are interested in owning
     the Amiga technology... -Jason

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

From: Harry Flaxman (hflaxman@meganet.net)

As usual, your reviews are right on the money!  Prior to upgrading to a
40mhz 040 from a 25mhz 030, I followed your lead and installed Executive,
as reviewed in the last issue.  It was a god-send for the old 2500.  I have
yet to see a program reviewed in your publication fail to live up to it's
reviewed expectation!

Keep it up!

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

From: Michael Branin (mbranin@gower.net) 

I have an AMTrade HD Drive.  My son pulled the sticker off
the bottom that invalidates the warranty.  I not so worried
about the warranty but under the sticker there were 2 copper
jumper wires hooked up only by the sticker and now the floppy
drive will not recognize disk that are inserted.  I was 
wondering if you knew or anyone else knows where to hook these
2 jumper wires back.

-    Unfortunately, I can't help Michael on this one.  Is anybody familiar
     enough with the AMTrade that they can tell him what he needs to
     reconnect?  -Jason

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

From: "Harlan Carroll" <hcarroll@inu.net> 

Quoting AR 5.03's CyberStorm Mark II review: Benchmarking an 060 card can
be difficult.  Real-world tests are generally the only way to go.  The
Cinema4D render test I'm fond of (320x400 raytrace of the included Stairway
example) gives the following results:

Blizzard 1260-- 1:26 [Running CyberPatcher] 
Cyber 4060   -- 2:00 [Running CyberPatcher] 

As you can see, the Cyberstorm Mark II is fully 3 times faster than a stock
A4000 or A4000T configuration, and runs rings around most other 040
implementations (and the Draco, whose 060 is apparently poorly configured).
It is interesting that the CyberStorm does not outperform the Apollo A1200
040 card by as much as one might expect, and it itself is significantly
outperformed by Phase5's A1200 Blizzard 060 card. 

Right now, the CyberStorm Mark II is the most impressive 060 card on the
market, hands down.  It runs about US$850, depending on where you look,
which means it's typically $50 or $100 more than the competition.  (QuikPak
offers a US$750 price with a 3640 trade-in, and the Apollo 060 card
generally sells around that price point as well.) However, the superior
technical support, compatibility, and performance are well worth it. 

My response: 

You say that the Blizzard 060 card outperforms the Cyberstorm 060 card and
yet you say that the Cyberstorm os is the most impressive 060 card on the
market hands down.  Isn't the Blizzard still cheaper and more powerful?  
Not to split hairs, since they are both Phase 5 cards and in different
types of Amigas.  Would you say that that Cyberstorm 060 card is better,
hands down, than the other 4000 accelerator cards?  Thank you for listening
to my ramblings.  <G>


-    Yes, my oversight in phrasing.  -Jason

@endnode

xxx OPINION

xxx NEWS

@node NEWS1 "Gateway 2000 Offer"
@toc NEWS

Gateway 2000 Acquires Assets of Amiga Technologies GmbH

North Sioux City, South Dakota, March 27 1997 - Gateway 2000 Inc.  today
announced that the company has made an offer to aquire the assets of Amiga
Technologies including all patents, trademaks and trade names.  The Company
is a subsidary of ESCOM AG, a German-based computer company that went into
bankrupty in July of 1996.  Amiga led the industry in combining computer
graphics, animation, and film sequences with stereo sound known today as
multimedia.

The offer has been accepted by the court-appointed Administrator in
Bankruptcy in Germany acting on behalf of AMIGA.  The agreement is subject
to regulatory approval.

"This acquisition is good news for Gateway and customers of AMIGA," said
Rick Snyder, president and COO of Gateway 2000.  "It will strengthen our
intellectual property position and invigorate a company that has been a
pioneer in multimedia solutions and operating systems technology."

AMIGA Technologies will be renamed AMIGA International.  The company will
operate as a separate business unit and will retain its current president,
Petro Tyschtschenko, who will work to develop new products for the AMIGA
market.

"Gateway 2000 will give us new life and energy for the future," said
Tyschtschenko.

About Gateway 2000

Gateway 2000, Inc., a Fortune 500 company founded in 1985, is a global
leader in the direct marketing of PCs.  The company, headquartered in North
Sioux City, South Dakota, has manufacturing facilities in the United
States, Ireland and Malaysia, and employs over 9,700 people worldwide. 
Gateway 2000 products and services consistently win top awards from leading
industry publications.  In 1996, the company shipped 1.9 million systems
and reported revenues of $5 billion and net income of $250 million.

About AMIGA

Since the introduction of the AMIGA A1000 in 1985, AMIGA has represented
the embodiment of the efficient use of memory and hard drive capacity,
while pioneering industry developments in multimedia, 32-bit multitasking
and autoconfiguration.

For additional information, please e-mail Steve Johns, Director of
Corporate Development for Gateway 2000 at johnsste@gw2k.com.

MEDIA CONTACT: Angela Peacock, Corporate Communications, (605) 232-1686.
@endnode
@node NEWS2 "QuikPak Welcome"
@toc NEWS

QuikPak Welcomes Gateway 2000 to the Amiga Community

Once again it seems that the Amiga Community is subjected to another sharp
turn on the rollercoaster that is the future of the Amiga.  The recent
announcement by Gateway 2000 that its bid to purchase the assets of Amiga
Technologies has been successful is truly a surprise.  Yet, it is a
surprise that holds much promise.

Gateway 2000 is a tremendous success story - continually scoring top marks
in customer satisfaction surveys based on service, support, and product
reliability.  Gateway 2000 is a leader in its market, and brings to the
Amiga Community a wealth of resources and knowledge.

While we are understandably dissappointed that our own bid was
unsuccessful, we at QuikPak remain as committed as ever to the future of
the Amiga.  We have devoted a large portion of our energies to developing
the Amiga market and supporting the community, and we have no intention of
abandoning our position now.  The Gateway 2000 purchase may represent an
excellent opportunity to breathe new life into the Amiga platform.  We've
maintained all along that we believe in the future of the Amiga, and stand
by our statements.

Thank you once again for your continuing support, and we look forward to
bringing you new information as it becomes available.  We look forward to
working with you, the user, and all our other partners in making the
Amiga's future as bright as possible.  And, we look forward to the
opportunity of working with the newest player in the Amiga field, Gateway
2000.

Sincerely,
Dan Robinson
Director of Business Development
QuikPak

Dave Ziembicki
C.E.O.
QuikPak
@endnode
@node NEWS3 "Gateway 2000 Bid Accepted"
@toc NEWS@

Gateway 2000 Offer To Buy AMIGA Accepted

Monday March 31 10:00 AM EST

NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D.  - Gateway 2000 says its offer to acquire the assets
of AMIGA Technologies has been accepted by a bankruptcy court in Germany. 
The value of the offer was not disclosed.

AMIGA is a subsidiary of ESCOM, a German-based computer company that filed
for bankruptcy in July 1996.  AMIGA's technology combines computer
graphics, animation, and film sequences with stereo sound.

Gateway 2000's purchase includes patents, trademarks and trade names.

The agreement is subject to regulatory approval.

AMIGA "will strengthen our intellectual property position and invigorate a
company that has been a pioneer in multimedia solutions and operating
systems technology," said Rick Snyder, Gateway 2000 president, in a
statement.

AMIGA will be renamed AMIGA International.  The company will operate as a
separate business unit and will retain its current president, Petro
Tyschtschenko, who will work to develop new products for the AMIGA market.


"Gateway 2000 will give us new life and energy for the future," said
Tyschtschenko, in a statement.

Gateway 2000 is a direct marketer of personal computers.  It shipped 1.9
million systems in 1996 and reported revenues of $5 billion.
@endnode
@node NEWS4 "Amiga Myst"
@toc NEWS

AMIGA MYST PRESS RELEASE
------------------------
 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Toronto, March 24, 1997

Dear Amiga users,

We at PXL computers and clickBOOM brought to you Capital Punishment last
November.  It went on to become the biggest game of the year.   At the same
time we promised more great things to come...

Today, we are proud to announce we are developing and publishing the Amiga
version of Myst!

What can we possibly say about Myst that has not already been said a
thousand times?  It is hard to imagine a more important game for the Amiga,
since Myst is the bestselling CD-ROM game ever!

Myst is not about polygons, frames per second, megahertz, or other 1997's
jargon.  It's a thinking man's game, with intelligent gameplay.  It shows
you don't have to be chasing bad guys with a shot gun to have fun with a
computer game.  In 1996 every team (including clickBOOM) was trying to
squeeze the life out of the machine they were programming for, in order to
get the fastest action.  On the other hand, there was Myst with its
brilliant adventure puzzles - and it became the bestselling game of the
year for both PC and Mac!

Myst is what happens when a team of extremely talented and hard working
people creates a vision.  Cyan, developers of the original Myst, have done
a tremendous job in the graphics and sound department, topping that with
the best adventure puzzles.

Myst will also be the biggest challenge for the Amiga market.  If it
succeeds, you will be seeing many more hit games coming - some through us,
some through other big companies who temporarily left the Amiga market.

Amiga version, like the original, will be CD-only.  If you do not own a
CD-ROM drive, you have a couple of months left to get it, or you will be
lagging behind.  For the rest of you, get a copy of Capital Punishment
while you are waiting for Myst.  :)

On Mac and PC, Myst was the first game to push hardware limits, requiring
faster processor and a CD-ROM drive.  It is clear we want to continue our
revolution on the Amiga, and this time our task is to push the hardware
limits. 

The exact specifications for Myst are still not known.  At the moment, it
appears that the following requirements will be necessary:

Minimum Hardware:
CD-ROM drive
AGA or Amiga with a video board
4Mb of FAST RAM
'030 CPU

Recommended Hardware: 
8Mb of FAST RAM
'040 or better CPU

Specifications:
- OS-friendly
- Fully multitasking
- Video board support (CyberGraphX, Picasso 96) in 16 million colors
- AGA in 256 colors
- Hi-res screenmodes (productivity, double PAL/NTSC, interlace).

Developer: clickBOOM
Publisher: PXL computers
Release date: Summer

We will be constantly keeping you up-to-date with our development progress.
The best place for the latest information is our web site, located at
http://clickboom.com

Additionally, Myst screenshots and sounds are available for download. 
Prior to the release of the game, you will be able to enjoy some playable 
demos.

As always, feel free to contact us at  info@clickboom.com 

Best regards from your clickBOOM team.
@endnode
@node NEWS5 "Amiga Developer Network"
@toc NEWS

The Amiga Developer Network is now online.

For Immediate Release

Contact:
Wayne Hunt
webmaster@amiga.org

Huntsville, AL - March 26th, 1997.  The North Alabama Society of Amiga
Users is proud to announce their newest web venture, the Amiga Developer
Network.  The new site at http://www.amiga.org/developer is dedicated
specifically to all aspects of development for the Amiga Computer, past,
present and future. 

We're still in the process of adding things on an almost constant basis but
you can expect to find discussion bases, technical specifications,
developer contact information and about everything we can find to post to
help you develop for the best (and some would argue ONLY) multimedia
personal computer in the world.

All questions and constructive feedback is welcomed as we're working hard
to make this effort a central point for the Amiga developer community.

Wayne Hunt

North Alabama Society of Amiga Users -
http://www.amiga.org/nasau/about.html
World-Wide Amiga Online - http://www.amiga.org
Amiga Developer Network - http://www.amiga.org/developer
@endnode
@node NEWS6 "IAM Welcome"
@toc NEWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RESPONSE TO AMIGA ACQUISITION

PHILADELPHIA, Pa., March 27, 1997 /UseNet News/ -- Intangible Assets
Manufacturing President, and former Commodore-Amiga Software Engineer, Dale
L.  Larson, has issued the following statement in reaction to today's news
that Gateway 2000 has purchased the Amiga assets subject to regulatory
approval:

"I'm thrilled that the Amiga technologies have finally been purchased, more
so that they have been bought by a company with such tremendous resources,
visionary management, and customer-service orientation as Gateway 2000. 
From their statement that they 'will work to develop new products for the
AMIGA market,' we conclude that the Amiga has a newly bright future ahead
of it.  I trust that this will re-invigorate the Amiga community and renew
interest in our markets.  We're looking forward to a surge in sales of our
Amiga products in the coming months as a result of this announcement."

Intangible Assets Manufacturing produces a line of Amiga products,
including the book "Connect Your Amiga!  A Guide to the Internet, LANs,
BBSs and Online Services", DiskSalv4, MRBackup, MegaBall4 and others.  IAM
also publishes Internet-related books "Torn Shapes of Desire: Internet
Erotica" and "Lineland: Mortality and Mercy on the Internet's
Pynchon-L@Waste.Org Discussion List." Web site: http://www.iam.com
@endnode
@node NEWS7 "Siamese System v2.0"
@toc NEWS

To all Amigans

HiQ are please to announce the release of the Siamese System v2.0 software
including the much talked about Siamese RTG.  For those who need a full
desciption please check out our Web site at http://www.siamese.co.uk, it
has most of the information you will need for those who for some reason
have not heard of it.

To coincide with this launch we would like to have an IRC conference.  
please rendezvous on channel #amiga on Monday 31st March, 9pm gmt.  [This
conference appears in this issue of Amiga Report.]

Please email me if you cannot attend this conference but would like a
brochure posted.

Siamese RTG is expected to cause much discussion, as it gives all Amiga
3.0+ owners access to all PC graphics card under Windows95 and WindowsNT4.
For example, using even a cheap half decent PC graphics card, you could run
your Amiga WorkBench at 1120x832, and it would feel far faster than normal
Amiga screen modes in 256 colours, with features like real time window
dragging!

Pricing:

RTG 2.0 upgrade from Siamese v1.5 is 59.95 + P&P
RTG 2.0 complete with hardware is 199.95
RTG 2.1 software upgrade will be 79.95 when released in May at the
London World Of Amiga Show, 
so now is the time to buy it. (RTG 2.1 will be a free upgrade to all
original RTG v2.0 purchasers)
@endnode
@node NEWS8 "VWM v1.4"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

    VWM - Virtual Window Manager

VERSION

    1.4 (25-Mar-97) (second public release)

AUTHOR

    Bahman Moallem

    E-Mail:         bamo@ctools.pp.se
    World Wide Web: http://www.ctools.pp.se/

DESCRIPTION

VWM, the virtual screen aware window manager, is a small, fast, and system
friendly virtual screen aware program that gives you 100% control over
windows' positions.

VWM features 2 ways of defining the new location for the target window,
setting an absolute or relative position (Co-ordinate Positioning) or using
a preset positioning technique usually related to the mouse position
(Preset Positioning Techniques).

  VWM can force your programs to:

  - open their windows in absolute positions related to the start
    point (0x0) of the active screen.

  - open their windows in absolute positions but related to the
    point (0x0) of the "active part" of the screen (for virtual
    screens).

  - center their windows under the mouse pointer (FollowMouse).

  - locate their windows under the mouse pointer but respect the
    view, that is to locate the windows far enough away from the
    closest edges of the visible screen but still under the mouse
    pointer (RespectView).

    FollowView(TM), known as RespectView in VWM, is Copyright (c)
    1993-1997 Bahman Moallem and was first introduced in MagicWords,
    the multilingual word translator for the Amiga
    back in 1993.

  - open their windows in the center of the visible part of the
    screen (CenterWindow).

  - open their windows in the corner of the visible part of the
    screens which is farthest away from the mouse pointer position
    (UseCorners).

  And much more.

NEW FEATURES

  -  New keyword 'DestinationOpenDelay'.
     If, for any reason, you want to delay the window opening, you
     can use this optional 'destination definiton' keyword.

  -  Empty lines in the VWM configuration file are considered
     comment lines and will be ignored.

  -  Improved error trapping in VWM configuration file.

  -  Minor clean up of the code.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

    AmigaOS 2.04 or better.

AVAILABILITY

    VWM version 1.4 (app. 34 KB) is available on Aminet, e.g.

    ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/misc/VWM14.lha

    or in the author's WWW site:

    http://www.ctools.pp.se/

PRICE

    Freeware.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

    VWM is freely distributable so long as all files accompanying
    the VWM package remain intact and unchanged.
    Unlimited non-commercial use is encouraged.
    VWM is Copyright (c) 1995-1997 Bahman Moallem.
@endnode
@node NEWS9 "MoveToMirror v2.0"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

   MoveToMirror

VERSION

   2.0  (completly rewritten)

AUTHOR

   Kenneth "Kenny" Nilsen/
   Digital Surface

   EMail: kenny@bgnett.no
   URL:   http://www.bgnett.no/~kenny/

DESCRIPTION

   This tool is used locally to move the files you have in your
   download directory to a local Aminet mirror on your harddisk. The
   program uses the *.readme files and the "Type:" field to determine
   where to put the files. If drawer(s) of the Type: field don't
   exists MTM will create them when needed. It also uses the Short:
   field (which is required in Aminet readme files) as filecomment
   for the main archive.

   Main features of MTM:

     - Pattern matching (optional)
     - Buffered copying
     - Clone option (optional)
     - Short: to comment (optional)
     - Overwrite check (optional)
     - Verbose output (optional)
     - Fast and small (written completely in assembler)
     - Simple to use

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

   Required:
      OS 2.04 or better

AVAILABILITY

   Aminet
     ftp://ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk/aminet/disk/misc/MTM.lha

   User files
     http://www.bgnett.no/~kenny/

PRICE

   Free

DISTRIBUTABILITY

   Distributed as freeware.

   MoveToMirror (MTM) is Copyright (c)1997 by Kenneth "Kenny" Nilsen/
   Digital Surface.
@endnode
@node NEWS10 "Targetus 3.0"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

     Targetus 3.0

AUTHOR

     Dalibor Kezele (dkezele@mia.os.carnet.hr)

DESCRIPTION

    Targetus is a Workbench system friendly game of shooting.

    Targetus is very simply to play. Just start it and you'll learn
    how to play it. Simply: shoot targets, get score, get into
    highscore, use menus/keyboard to pause, change speed of targets,
    get info and select 'Quit' to exit the game.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

    An Amiga. (Tested on 500/1.3 and 1200/3.0.)

AVAILABILITY

    Available on Aminet, e.g.
    ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/game/wb/Targetus.lha (13K)

PRICE

     The shareware fee is a postcard to author.

OTHER

     C source file included. Author's mailbox opened for reports.

     Author cannot be held responsible if Targetus causes any damage.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

     Copyright (c) 1995 by Dalibor S. Kezele
     The program is postcardware. It's freely distributable.
@endnode
@node NEWS11 "Cronus And proDAD Agreement"
@toc NEWS

CRONUS AND PRODAD ANNOUNCE SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT
Cronus and proDAD Software provide complete p.OS development environment.

Tempe, Arizona (March 26, 1997) - Cronus, a software development and
distribution company, and proDAD Software, creator of the p.OS operating
system, announced today that they have reached an agreement to distribute a
complete set of software tools and a developer version of p.OS that will
allow developers to begin porting their software to the new p.OS operating
system.  The upcoming Geek Gadgets Version 2 CD-ROM (Amiga Developers
Environment) from Cronus, due for release in April 1997, will contain a
developers release of p.OS and all necessary tools for p.OS development.

Using these tools, it is possible to write programs that run on both p.OS
and AmigaOS using the same binary file.  A shared library that runs on both
operating systems provides applications with all necessary ANSI C and POSIX
support, while special startup code allows programs to determine at startup
whether they are running on p.OS or AmigaOS and make the appropriate system
calls.  Using this technique, the development tools themselves run on
either operating system with negligible overhead or increased binary size.

The p.OS developer release requires an m68020 (or higher) processor, a hard
drive, and a minimum of 2 MB of RAM.  Applications developed for this
portable operating system are source code compatible with p.OS ports to
other architectures such as the PowerPC.  With a simple recompile,
developers of p.OS applications can reach the entire installed base of p.OS
users, regardless of the underlying hardware.  By porting to p.OS now,
developers will be able to take advantage of easy migration to future p.OS
releases on other architectures and enjoy the benefits of hardware
independence (and a brighter market).

Geek Gadgets and the Geek Gadgets logo are trademarks of Cronus.  p.OS and
the p.OS logo are trademarks of proDAD Software.

ABOUT CRONUS

Cronus
1840 East Warner Road
Suite 105-265
Tempe, AZ  85284
USA

Phone: 602-491-0442
FAX:   602-491-0048
Email: info@ninemoons.com
WWW:   http://www.ninemoons.com
ftp:   ftp://ftp.ninemoons.com

Cronus was founded by Fred Fish, author of the famous "Fish Disks" for
Amiga, the "Fish" series of CD-ROMs, the "Amiga Developers Environment",
and other Amiga software products.  Fred Fish has been involved in the
distribution of software for the Amiga since 1985.

ABOUT PRODAD

proDAD Software
Feldelestr. 24
D-78194 Immendingen
Germany

Phone:   ++49-7462/91134
FAX:  ++49-7462/7435
Email:   adver@prodad.de
WWW:  http://www.prodad.de

proDAD Software was founded 1990 and is the leading producer of video
software for the Amiga.  The p.OS project was started in 1995 to produce a
portable operating system for proDAD Software and other innovative Amiga
developers, while providing an easy migration path from AmigaOS and
retaining all the expected features and advantages such as full preemptive
multitasking and responsive user interfaces.
@endnode
@node NEWS12 "Speris Legacy Sequel"
@toc NEWS

Hi,

After working hard on Minskies:The Abduction and GunFury, Binary Emotions
are looking into producing the sequel to "Speris Legacy".  The design and
concept has been complete for quite a while, we are now at a stage where we
would like adventure game fanatics to express enhancements they would like
to see in the latest episode.  Here are examples of what we've discussed.

  * Twisting plot, with plenty of over dramatisation.
  * The choice of strategy & arcade style combat.
  * A greater and more flexible array of weapons.
  * Possibility of multi player.
  * A more simplified text interface, rather than the Monkey Island style
    selection.
  * Multi language select - German, French, Spanish, Italian + more.
  * Stronger multi-thread puzzles.
  * Meaningful sub games.
  * Smaller levels, but with more overall  locations to visit.
  * Subtler background music.
  * AGA & ECS in the same package (auto-enhancing)
  * More help and clues available.
  * A full character stats system. 

We are also looking for talented artists & effects coders interested in
contributing their skills to help make Speris 2 a great follow up on Amiga
AGA/ECS & PC.  If you are interested then please Email Ian at :
ISJOLLY@AOL.COM we can then discuss the work further.

Ian Jolly (Binary Emotions)
@endnode
@node NEWS13 "ADE Snapshot"
@toc NEWS

The 970328 snapshot of the Amiga Developers Environment is now available
for ftp from ftp.ninemoons.com:pub/ade/current.  See the "README" file in
the pub/ade directory for more information about the ADE.  See the
"Changes" file for a quick list of some (but not all) of the changes since
the last snapshot.

The complete ftp distribution is approximately 432 Mb (compressed), which
includes original baseline sources (154 Mb), amiga sources (160 Mb), amiga
binaries (106 Mb), and diff files (12 Mb).  When unarchived, the binary
tree is approximately 270 Mb, if you install everything.  The source and
baseline trees are approximately 650 Mb each when unarchived.

For the convenience of those that are unable to acquire the full ADE via
ftp, because of limited internet access bandwidth or cost considerations, a
CD-R disk containing this material is available from Cronus.  See the
Cronus web site (http://www.ninemoons.com) for additional information or to
place an order via the web.  You can also send email to
"info@ninemoons.com" for details.

Since there was room on the CD-R disk, we have also included the partial
port of Geek Gadgets for BeOS DR8.2.  These binaries will NOT run on the
upcoming DR9 release.  The CD-R disk also contains archives of the
Commodore include files integrated into the appropriate place in the binary
tree.  These files are NOT available in the ftp version because our license
to distribute them applies only to CD-ROM distributions.

I would recommend that if you have the diskspace, that you create a new ADE
directory, say dh0:ade-new, assign ADE: to it, cd to ADE:, extract all of
the binary distribution lha and tgz files in that directory, and then put
back all of your local changes (if any).  That way you can be sure that you
are starting with a clean install.  Simply extracting the distribution lha
archives on top of an existing binary tree is NOT advised.

If you sent in patches that were not included in this snapshot, they are
probably still in my TODO patch directory.  Please feel free to inquire
about them to make sure they were not overlooked.  Over the next one or two
weeks I will be integrating some more patches and some new packages, and
then will do another snapshot just prior to cutting the master for the next
ADE CD release.

Have fun!

-Fred Fish
 29-Mar-97
@endnode
@node NEWS14 "Australian Amiga Gathering 97"
@toc NEWS

------------------------------------------
   AUSTRALIAN AMIGA GATHERING 97 UPDATE
------------------------------------------

Proudly brought to you by Australian Amiga Gazette

I am please to inform you that we have finalized the location and dates for
the Amiga Expo:


SYDNEY SHOWGROUND
(Exhibition Village)
28TH - 29TH JUNE

If you would like to receive automatic updates regarding the "Australian
Amiga Gathering 97" just send a email to the address below with the subject
"Expo-update", no text is required in the message.

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


Australian Amiga Gazette
Suite 19 9-11 Abel Street
Penrith NSW 2750
Ph:  (047) 222-803
Fax: (047) 215-277
Email: mother@pnc.com.au
Web: www.pnc.com.au/~mother/aag.html
@endnode
@node NEWS15 "RP2000 AmiExec Implementation Pack V1R0"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

   RP2000 AmiExec Implementation Pack

VERSION

   V1R0

COMPANY

   DYNACHROME Software

   e-mail  : wjm@magma.ca
   web page: http://www.magma.ca/~wjm/dynachrome.html

AUTHOR

   W. John Malone

DESCRIPTION

   The RP2000 AmiExec Implementation Pack (AIP) is a set of
   software modules necessary to run the AmiExec kernel on the BVM
   RP2000 single board computer.  These modules are those defined
   by AmiExec, but not implemented in the base AmiExec
   distribution due to their hardware dependence.

   The major modules provided are cpu.RP2000.resource,
   timer.RP2000.device and serial.RP2000.device.  Also in the
   Implementation Pack are some associated include, configuration,
   and source files.

   See Background section below for a brief description of AmiExec
   and the RP2000.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

AmiExec V3R2 - Also from DYNACHROME Software, this is available free
               of charge from Aminet in the dev/cross directory, or
               you may e-mail DYNACHROME Software and request a
               copy of the distribution archive.

RP2000(s):     RP2000s are available from:

               BVM Limited
               Hobb Lane, Hedge End,
               SOUTHAMPTON,
               SO30 0GH, UK
               Tel: +44 (0)1489 780144
               Fax: +44 (0)1489 783589

               In North America the RP2000 is available from:

               BILL WEST INCORPORATED
               887 D Main Street
               Monroe, Connecticut 06468
               Tel: (203) 261 6027
               Fax: (203) 261 5061

AVAILABILITY

   RP2000 AIP is available directly from DYNACHROME Software.
   To order, e-mail wjm@magma.ca and request an RP2000 AIP
   Software Licence Agreement.

PRICE

   $135 CDN purchases 1 development system and 10 target system
   licences.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

   RP2000 AmiExec Implementation Pack is a commercial product,

   Copyright (c) 1997 by W. John Malone, All Rights Reserved.

BACKGROUND

   DYNACHROME AmiExec is a real-time, multi-tasking microkernel, the
   core of which is an implementation of exec.library.  AmiExec can
   be used for automation, process control, or other embedded
   systems based on 68K family CPUs and microcontrollers.  Software
   development for AmiExec can be done on Amigas with Amiga
   development tools.

   The BVM RP2000 is a standalone intelligent IndustryPack
   carrier for embedded applications.  It features:

      * 16MHz MC68302 Integrated Multiprotocol Processor
      * 512K bytes of zero wait state EPROM space
      * up to 512K battery backed SRAM
      * 1 RS-232 serial port and 1 RS-485 serial port
      * 2 IndustryPack sites
@endnode
@node NEWS16 "HotListHandler 1.10"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

   HotListHandler 1.10 (30-Mar-97)

AUTHOR

   Robert Nienkemper, Den Helder, The Netherlands
   robertn@tip.nl

DESCRIPTION

   HotListHandler (HLH) will manage your hotlist!

   Share one hotlist with all the browsers available for the Amiga.
   If you use more than one browser then use HotListHandler.
   If you stick with one browser, well, use it anyway.

HLH FEATURES

   o A nice toolbar
   o Easy to use
   o Share one hotlist among Amiga browsers
   o Offers a QuickMenu for fastlinks
   o Creates an index when viewing the hotlist through a browser
   o Grab URL's from browsers* (if the browser supports it via ARexx)  
   o Edit the hotlist while off-line (create Groups, add URL's, etc.)
   o Jump to any public screen
   o Totally font sensitive
   o AddToHotlist conversion

NEW FEATURES

   o Sort a hotlist
   o Search a hotlist
   o An HLH ARexx port
   o More Tooltypes for a better startup
   o Multiple hotlist support (Open, Save As)
   o Step through groups
   o Print a hotlist
   o Use the "hide" flag from AWeb hotlists
   o Support for Voyager-NG
   o And more.....

HLH SUPPORTS

   o AWeb
   o IBrowse
   o Voyager*
   o Mosaic
   o Voyager-NG*

* QuickGrab cannot be supported with Voyager as these browsers have no
  ARexx command to share the URL with other programs.

REQUIREMENTS

   Amiga OS 3.0+

AVAILABILITY

   ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/comm/www/HLHandler110.lha (57344)
   http://www.tip.nl/users/robertn/

REPLACES

   HLHandler10.lha (22-Dec-96)

PRICE & DISTRIBUTABITY

   Shareware: $10 US
   Distribution: Not restricted.
   Copyright (c) 1996-1997 Robert Nienkemper
@endnode
@node NEWS17 "HTDS v40.10"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

    HyperText-DataType-System (HTDS)

VERSION

    40.10

RELEASE DATE

    05.04.1997

AUTHOR

    Stefan Ruppert (Stefan.Ruppert@informatik.fh-wiesbaden.de)
                   (http://home.pages.de/~Ruppert/)

DESCRIPTION

    This package provides a modular HyperText System based on the
    datatypes concept of the AmigaOS 3.x. It offers many features,
    which aren't implemented in any currently available datatype.

    Main features are :
    ===================

    * embedding of other datatypes objects, which supports DTM_DRAW
      method
    * definition of links
    * multiple fonts
    * asyncron rendering
    * starting program's, ARexx macros from a link
    * Retrace/Forward buttons
    * ARexx port with commands to manipulate the hypertext object
    * well defined HyperText Programming Interface (HTPI)
    * supports lists like HTML : <OL>,<UL> and <DL>
    * supports normal and pattern searching
    * rexx scripts for internet access from a hypertext document
      (ftp,aminet,www,mail)
    * node indexing for very fast opening of hyperguide documents
    * rexx script for source viewing
    * background colors and pictures
    * HTML color expression handling (#RRGGBB)
    * navigator button row configuration
    * export class system. HTML/AscII export.

    Currently there are the following datatypes available in HTDS:

    - hypertext.datatype :
      super-class for all HyperText/Text related formats

    - hyperguide.datatype :
      AmigaGuide compatible (about 99.9%) sub-class.

    - directory.datatype :
      Allows you to browse through the FileSystem

    - man.datatype :
      Used to manage Unix-Manual-Pages in ASCII format (output of groff).
      Now you can use man-pages with HyperText links !

    - html.datatype :
      THE hypertext format these days

    - htdsascii.datatype :
      HTDS replacement of the normal ascii.datatype

    - productinfo.datatype :
      View Product-Info files.

    In the SDK archive with full source code:

    - catalog.datatype
      Sample implementation for IFF files.

    - htdemo.datatype
      Example sub-class DataType with full source code

    - dirdemo.datatype
      Subclass of directory.datatype

FUTURE

    For the future development of HTDS is planed :

    - mail.datatype
      Read your email or mailinglist archives

    - autodoc.datatype
      No need to convert autodoc files to AmigaGuide anymore

    - remove bugs, improve existing datatypes (add table support)
      and more

AVAILABILITY

    http://home.pages.de/~Ruppert/amiga/HTDS.html
    ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/dtype/HTDS.lha
    ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/dtype/HTDS_SDK.lha
    ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/dtype/HTDS_020.lha
    ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/dtype/HTDS_030.lha
    ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/dtype/HTDS_040.lha
    ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/dtype/HTDS_060.lha
    And all other Aminet sites.

PRICE

    It's Shareware.
    The fee is 40,- DM or 30 US Dollar

DISTRIBUTION

    Permission is hereby granted to distribute the program's archive
    containing the executables and documentation for non-commercial
    purposes as long as the archive and its contents are not modified
    in any way.

    It is strictly forbidden to include this archive in any kind of
    software collection except the Fish Amiga-Library, Aminet-FileServer,
    Meating-Pearls CD's or BBS fileareas or by a explict permission
    from the author!
@endnode
@node NEWS18 "CeBIT Show Report"
@toc NEWS

My report with pictures on this year's CeBIT show in Hannover, Germany is
online at:

http://www.cistron.nl/~ttavoly/aTmosh/cebit97.html

      ...
      _ . Thomas Tavoly
. _ // . aTmosh@amiga.cistron.nl
. \X/    http://www.cistron.nl/~ttavoly
...  5.0
@endnode
@node NEWS19 "AsimCDFS v3.0"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

    AsimCDFS

VERSION

    v3.8

COMPANY

    Asimware Innovations Inc.
    600 Upper Wellington St., Unit D
    Hamilton, Ontario
    Canada  L9A 3P9

    Phone:  (905)578-4916
      Fax:  (905)578-3966
    EMail:  info@asimware.com
      WWW:  http://www.asimware.com
      ftp:  ftp://ftp.asimware.com


AsimCDFS v3.8 Maintenance Release
---------------------------------

We would like to announce the availability of AsimCDFS v3.8, which was
released as of April 1st, 1997.  This is a maintenance update for the
AsimCDFS v3 package.

The update highlights include:
     - support for new CD-ROM drives, including the Pioneer 12x,
       Nakamichi 4.8, Toshiba XM-3801, Toshiba XM-5701 and the
       Philips CDD2600.
     - support for the Corel Stock Photo Library #3
     - updated language catalogs;
     - German localization of the installation procedure.

Registered users can obtain this release via our BBS, WWW or ftp site.
     - ftp:  ftp://ftp.asimware.com
     - WWW:  http://www.asimware.com
     - BBS:  (905)332-9207

You will need your AsimCDFS serial number to obtain access.


About AsimCDFS v3...
--------------------
The AsimCDFS software package is a CD-ROM control system which allows the 
user to read most CD-ROM discs with an Amiga computer and a suitable SCSI
or ATAPI CD-ROM drive. 

AsimCDFS is equipped with the following advanced features:
     - access to ISO 9660, High Sierra, Rock Ridge and Macintosh HFS 
       CD-ROM formats;
     - FishMarket, a CD-ROM disc containing the public domain Fred Fish 
       collection;
     - AsimTunes, an audio librarian/controller providing advanced 
       librarian and playback features;
     - support for direct digitizing from standard audio CDs and playing 
       audio via the Amiga hardware;
     - CDTV and CD32 emulation modules, complete with autobooting from 
       CD-ROM discs;
     - integrated support for Kodak and Corel PhotoCD discs.  Colour 
       WorkBench icons are created for easy identification.  Support for 
       resolutions from 192x128 up to 3072x2048;
     - support for both SCSI and ATAPI CD-ROM drives;
     - preferences editor for all AsimCDFS settings; and,
     - full ARexx command set available for all programs.

Asimware Innovations Inc.  is an Amiga software development house
specializing in CD-ROM and CD-Recordable technologies.  Our current product
line includes AsimCDFS, MasterISO, Texture Heaven 1 & 2, Audio Thunder and
PhotoCD Manager.

Asimware Innovations Inc.
April 1st, 1997
@endnode
@node NEWS20 "MasterISO v1.25b"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

    MasterISO

VERSION

    v1.25b

COMPANY

    Asimware Innovations Inc.
    600 Upper Wellington St., Unit D
    Hamilton, Ontario
    Canada  L9A 3P9

  Phone:  (905)578-4916
    Fax:  (905)578-3966
  EMail:  info@asimware.com
    WWW:  http://www.asimware.com
    ftp:  ftp://ftp.asimware.com


MasterISO v1.25b Maintenance Release
------------------------------------

We would like to announce the availability of MasterISO v1.25b, which was
released as of March 29th, 1997.  This is a maintenance update for the
MasterISO v1 package.

Registered uses may contact us directly for information on obtaining this
update.

MasterISO v1.25b adds support for the following CD-R drives:
          - Philips CDD2600*.  

*Please read the changes file on the update disc for full compatibility
information.

About MasterISO...
------------------
The MasterISO software package allows a user to control a CD-R recorder to
create custom CD-ROM and CD-Audio discs.

CD-ROM discs are formatted in the universal ISO 9660 format, compatible
with Amiga, IBM, Macintosh and virtually any other CD-ROM equipped
platform.

CD-Audio discs are formatted to the Red Book standard and offer universal
compatibility with standard CD players.

For reference, our current list of supported CD-R drives is:
     - Yamaha CDR-100, CDR-102
     - Sony CDU-920, Sony CDU-924
     - Pinnacle RCD-1000, RCD-202, RCD-5040
     - Philips CDD-522, CDD-521, CDD2000
     - Pioneer DW-S114X
     - HP 4020
     - TEAC CD-R50

Please contact us for a current list of tested CD-R and SCSI controller
combinations.

Asimware Innovations Inc.  is an Amiga software development house
specializing in CD-ROM and CD-Recordable technologies.  Our current product
line includes AsimCDFS, MasterISO, Texture Heaven, Texture Heaven 2,
PhotoCD Manager and Audio Thunder.

Asimware Innovations Inc.
March 29th, 1997
@endnode
@node NEWS21 "dignet.library v3.0"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

   dignet.library

VERSION

   3.0 (Major update)

[sorry to users that have looked for 2.2, but it was deleted from Aminet. 
Please try again with this version.]

   Also available now is the 3.023 update file.

AUTHOR

   Kenneth "Kenny" Nilsen
   Digital Surface

   EMail: kenny@bgnett.no
   URL:   http://www.bgnett.no/~kenny/

DESCRIPTION

   This is a library that will make serial network handling easy. It
   contains a set of functions that will do most of the "dirty" work
   for you. All you need to do is to allocate a net and then read and
   write to/from that net. Net here is a device, for example
   serial.device or a compatible device (such as the duart.device,
   artser.device .. and so on).

   With help from this library you can connect games and programs via
   null-modem cable or modem in a relativly comfortable way. It has
   its own modem functions to deal with modem dial-up/receive. You can
   even make your own BBS with this library.

   The library has integrated resource tracking. The resource
   tracking allows you to free memory, ports and devices that are
   used by a program that is suspended or terminates without a
   clean-up. The resource tracking also prevents you from free-ing an
   invalid pointer to a net.

   Archive includes developer information and a demo terminal program
   that uses the dignet.library.

FEATURES

- resource tracking
- string/text/binary support (all-in-one)
- should be painless to use, straight forward.
- possibility for more advanced uses (eg. with signals)
- fully re-entrant (more connections open at the same time)
- ready-for-use when allocating a net
- easy to change default parameters
- fast and small routines (written in assembler).
- safe to call functions even with faulty arguments
  (such as read/write no bytes, free-ing net twice).

NEW FEATURES (3.0)

 27 new functions added, among them you can find:

- Dial-up and receive modem functions
- Resource tracking is made public available with functions
- Resource tracking improved (more information)
- Text converter routines (PC <-> AMIGA)
- Now defaults to preference settings (own function to set
  a "safe" setting)
- Functions for converting special strings
  ("ATZ\r" -> ATZ(13) etc.)
- Added more functions for advanced usage (port/message ++)
- Added NIL support for the FlushNet() command
  (no more trash left)
- Added guide file documentation
- More debug tools and functions
- More speed improvements and optimizes

   Also included full convert tables between the different charsets
   such as ISO, IBN, IBM, APPLE, UK7, NO7 and more.

   Read the guide file or autodoc for more information.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

   Required:
      OS 2.04 or better
      A serial.device or a compatible device

AVAILABILITY

   Aminet
     ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/libs/DigNet.lha
     ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/util/libs/DigNetUPD.lha

   User files
     http://www.bgnett.no/~kenny/

   Source code
     Includes source code for a terminal program that uses
     dignet.library. Source code of DignetTERM is public domain.

PRICE

   Free

DISTRIBUTABILITY

Distributed as freeware.

Special notes:

Freeware authors: The library file can be distributed as a standalone file
in your own archive as long as you include a credit (read autodoc).  If
credit is unsuitable you can distribute the whole archive as it came from
Aminet in your archive.

Shareware/Commercial authors can also include the file as a standalone
file, but they should under any circumstances include a visable (to user)
credit in their programs.  If the library performs more than 20% of the
functionality in the program the library is not allowed to be used without
a license agreement.  Shareware/ commercial authors can buy themselves free
from the credit requirement in their programs.  I also consider the sake of
the program and what the fee is for the particualr program.  Make contact
for more information.

dignet.library is Copyright (c) 1997 by Kenneth "Kenny" Nilsen/
Digital Surface.
@endnode
@node NEWS22 "Pretium Checkbook Finances Software v1.1"
@toc NEWS

TITLE

    Pretium Checkbook Finances Software

VERSION

    1.1

COMPANY

    IDD
    204 NW 25th Street
    Gainesville, FL  32607

    (352) 373-9471 

    <http://www.pobox.com/~idd> - idd@pobox.com

DESCRIPTION

Pretium is a checkbook accounting program designed specifically for the
Amiga.  To record a transaction, such as a deposit or withdrawal from your
checking account, enter the information the same way you would record the
transaction in your checkbook.  Pretium keeps track of the running balance
and cleared and uncleared transactions automatically.

Choose an option from the menu and your transactions are sorted by payee,
category, amount, check number, or date.  Pretium supports check printing
to print professional looking checks faster than you can write a check by
hand.

Pretium can be used for keeping track of credit card charge and payments,
savings accounts, petty cash funds, cash transactions, and more.  You can
work with any number of separate accounts on-screen at one time.  Select a
transaction and click a button, and Pretium will display address and phone
number information about the payee from its built-in phone and address
database.  Pretium can also fill-in information from a previous
transaction, matched by entering just the first few letters.

If you want a clearer picture of where your money is going, you can have it
print a report.  Pretium supports categories and subcategories for
transactions, allowing you to classify and organize your finances. 

It also supports importing and exporting of files with Quicken, Microsoft
Money, and other programs that support the QIF exchange format.

Pretium is designed for international use.  It works with any date and
money format.

NEW FEATURES

New features since the 1.01 version include the payee database, sorting of
transactions by different transaction fields, funds transfers between
accounts, check voiding, and check printing.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

Pretium runs on any Amiga with AmigaDOS 2.x or better.  Pretium is designed
for use in any country with any money and date format.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

Pretium is a commercial software package.

PRICE

Pretium's suggested retail list price is $54.95 (US funds).

AVAILABILITY

The commercial software package is available through several dealers and
distributors.  If your software dealer doesn't carry Pretium, you can order
it directly from IDD by sending $54.95 (US funds) to:

IDD
204 NW 25th Street
Gainesville, FL  32607

A demo of Pretium is available as on Aminet in /biz/misc as "pretium.lha".
You can use the URL:

ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/biz/misc/pretium.lha

The demo is also available through the IDD web site at
<http://www.pobox.com/~idd>.  You can also receive it by e-mail by sending
mail to idd@pobox.com with "send demo" as the subject.
@endnode
@node NEWS23 "Finnish Users' Group Web Site"
@toc NEWS

A Finnish Amiga users' group, the Finnish Amiga Users' Association
(Suomen Amiga-kayttajat ry.) have new pages on the World Wide Web.
The pages contain relevant information about the association and the
latest Saku e-zines for Finnish Amiga users.

The pages can be found at:

http://www.ic.jytol.fi/~saku/
@endnode
@node NEWS24 "Australian Amiga Gathering 97"

[Originally directed at major webmasters, but good information for
everybody. -Jason]

Australian Amiga Gazette, Australia's only 40 page monthly Amiga magazine
is hosting the Australian Amiga Gathering '97.

Since out initial issue in December of 1996 we have found that support for
the Amiga is still strong in Australia.

Because of this we have decided to put together a show.  There has not been
an Amiga show Downunder for a number of years and we feel its time there
was one.

The show will be a two day event scheduled for the weekend of June the 28th
and 29th.

It will be located at the famous Sydney Showground which has been the
location of Sydney's Royal Easter Show for over a hundred years.

The show will not only include dealers, but also feature exhibitions by
Amiga User Groups, demo competitions and a few other surprises.

To show your support we would ask if you could add the html link provided
in this email on to your web-page.

The link will load a 400x40 pixel banner about the show from our homepage
(http://www.pnc.com.au/~mother/expo.html).  This banner will be updated
weekly as preparations for the show progress.

Could you please contact me via my email address (mgruber@fl.net.au) as to
your decision in regards to accepting this link.  This will allow me to
track where the show is being advertised.  Thankyou.

If you have any questions regarding the show do not hesitate to contact me.

Michael Gruber
@endnode
@node NEWS25 "Amiga News Australiasia Online Excerpts"

Amiga News Australiasia Online Excerpts

[Thanks to John Pospisil and ANA
(http://www.ozemail.com.au/~pospisil/amiga.html) for these items.]

Australian Amiga show will go on

Megatron Electronic Industries, an Australian Amiga distributor, has
renewed its commitment to staging an Australian Amiga show.

"We would like to congratulate Petro Tyschtschenko on concluding a deal
that will ensure the future of the Amiga platform for many years to come,"
says Megatron's general manager, Bob Farrow.  "Now the uncertainty has been
lifted, we can all get on with life and support Gateway 2000 and the rest
of the Amiga producers, service agents and dealers in an endeavor to
recapture a market that the Amiga excelled in."

Megatron says it intends to renew its efforts to push the Amiga to the
forefront of the graphics community and will shortly announce the date and
location of the Australian Amiga showcase.  "We hope that now the
uncertainty has been lifted, the Australian dealer network will rally
around Megatron to make the showcase an event to be remembered," says
Farrow.  

Interested parties should contact Bob Farrow at Megatron by phone
on (03) 9870 4844 or by e-mail on bob@megatron.com.au

---

Australian Education Network

The Australian-based Amiga Education Network (TAEN) was established in
response to Commodore Australia's demise (which preceded Commodore
International's demise by a few months) as a means of supporting the Amiga
platform in schools that were using it. 

TAEN hopes that:
o	1997 will see the Amiga rescued.
o The new owners will appreciate the importance of the education sector and
continue to provide a low cost (A1200HD-based) Amiga for this market.

TAEN invites your comments, and hopes to encourage discussion among those
in the Amiga community who still have an interest in using the Amiga in
education.

TAEN
PO Box 353
Armidale  NSW  2350
Ph (067) 722 100
flinter@tpgi.com.au
@endnode

@node NEWS26 "ELSAT Product Name Contest"
@toc NEWS

ELSAT S.C., makers of the FG24/Pro-Grab RT and the CD32 ProModule, as
reviewed in recent issues of Amiga Report, are sponsoring a unique contest!

Elsat is looking for a new name for the FG24/Pro-Grab RT (as it is known in
different countries.)  This name would be used both on the current Amiga
products and their new PC framegrabbing product.

The winning entry to Elsat will receive their choice of a CD32 ProModule or
an FG24.  In addition, a random entry will be drawn and will receive a
prize to be named by Elsat.

So, to recap: Come up with a catchier name than "FG24" and win one of them,
or one of the better CD32 expansion boxes out there.  Not a bad deal.

Entries should be mailed directly to Elsat's Marek Kujda, at
marek@elsat.com.pl, with the subject header "FG24 NAMING ENTRY".  Elsat
will have sole responsibility for selecting contest winners and will
announce their selections in an upcoming issue of Amiga Report.

@endnode

xxx FEATURE

@node FEATURE1 "Amiga '97 Developer Meeting Summary"
@toc FEATURE

===========================================================================
                    Amiga '97 Developer Meeting Summary
===========================================================================

March 17,  1997 - Hosted by Kermit Woodall of Nova Design, Inc.
Summarized by Paul Sadlik

Kermit Woodall, of Nova Design, hosted an informal meeting of developers at
the AMIGA 97 show in St.  Louis to discuss the possibilities of setting up
an informal developers support group.  During the meeting a number of
topics were discussed where developers could be working together to help
each other, the Amiga platform and community.  The idea is that this group
could begin to fill the void left by the demise of Commodore's CATS
developer office and coordinate developer efforts to move the Amiga forward

General Discussion - what do people want to see:
A source for getting current RKM manuals?
Nothing was concluded on this.  There was some discussion that someone
could work on getting something put together.

[I had the following record of a German company that was selling 3.x 
developer documentation:]
Hirsch & Wolf OHG
MittelStr 33
56564 Neuweid, Germany
voice02631-8399-0
fax 02631-839931

A recommended development environment?
Kermit suggested that this development effort should not get bogged down in
such religious decisions over what compilers to use, etc.  This should be a
loose organization the focused on moving the platform ahead, not imposing
rules and limitations on developers.

Developer communications:
Developer mailing list
Kermit set up an InterNet mailing list for folks interested in exchanging
genera development information.  This list is intended to act as a central
communications medium to coordinate members of this developers community
(not necessarily a programming help line).  To subscribe, send mail to:

newdev-requests@lists.best.com

in the message body put this line:

subsingle

to send messages for distribution to the list, address messages to:

newdev@lists.best.com

Web site:
Wayne Hunt has set up a general Amiga web site at the following address.
He has offered to host an area for Amiga developers on this site to keep
files and exchange information.  The existing site is located at:

http://www.amiga.org/developer

Parts of this site could have to be password protected and accessible to
fellow developers only.  This would allow areas of the site to contain more
private information - not for general, public consumption.

The site could contain a public list of people to send press releases to
and their preferences regarding formatting, type, etc.

The site could contain announcements of future, multi-developer, direct
mail efforts.  Don Hicks suggested a "bounty" system of qualified or
contingent bidding system that would indicate to participants how much
they'd have to pay for a specific part of the mailing.

The site will be maintained by Wayne Hunt.  His E-Mail address is:
wayne@amiga.org

File areas:
The idea is to maintain a collection of development tools, utilities,
source codes, etc.  for all developers.

The current contents of the AmiNet "dev" tree can be copied to the site,
(with their permission) but organized into more development specific
categories for easier navigation.

Just do it:
Organized Chaos: 
This isn't a formal organization.  No controllers.  Just suggestions and
aids for development.  Just do it.  No dues.  "You do not have to pay to be
confused."

Following through:
If you propose to do something for this effort, you should be responsible
for doing it or at least finding someone to take over your role.

Participation:
This effort should include some way to bring people into the 
development process.  Experienced developers as well as newer/smaller 
participants.  To bring in new blood and ideas.

Standards:
Kermit suggested that this developer body should become a central vehicle
for moving the platform forwards with new standards and community- wide
development efforts.  He presented the following points as examples of
things to be done:

AmigaGuide Replacement:
Kermit proposed that we need to replace the existing AmigaGuide-based help
system with a HTML-based one.  His proposal was to use a
communications-stripped version of one of the Amiga web browsers as
publicly distributable help program.

This raised many questions about whether such a system should require all
users to then have to have MUI or ClassAct.  Also that deviating from the
single Multiview/datatypes system would deprive Amiga users of that
unified, easy to use system of handling many different file types.

It was suggested (again) that we could an HTML datatype to handle such help
files.  It was also suggested that only a new API standard for help program
interfacing be defined (a superset of the current AmigaGuide API) to which
any web browser (communications enabled or not) could be modified for and
used.  This would leave the choice of MUI (or not), datatypes, public or
commercial version, etc up to the user.

After touching on the many questions and issues, it was decided that James
Melin of Digital Lightyear would act as a coordinator of this effort to
revise or replace the existing Amiga help system.

Twain scanner support:
Kermit said that some people were working on a freeware/shareware TWAIN
scanner driver.  He suggested that such a widely distributable scanner
interface would be valuable so many applications could incorporate scanner
support with little effort and little expense (required by a commercial
solution).  To take full advantage of this effort, developers should
support it by agreeing on an interface to it and supporting it.  Without
the specific scanner TWAIN drivers being freeware, and freely
redistributable, the effort to support TWAIN could be fruitless, according
to Woodall.

IFF ILBM & ANIM Standards:
Kermit suggested that the existing IFF standards had suffered stagnation
without any CATS-like body to coordinate and push standard evolution, like
they did with ANIM-7, etc.

As examples, Kermit suggested that the IFF ILBM standard was in need of
much work to support CMYK information, new compression methods, and more. 
That the ANIM standard needed support for timing and frames rates, full
color display and playback, as well as interleaved sound.

Finally, Kermit reinforced that these needed to be open, non-proprietary
solutions that should avoid pandering to serving just the needs of single
or small groups of developers.

Eric Schwartz added that the Amiga needed a new Object Based animation
standard reminiscent of the old "movie", Fantavision and Movie Setter
formats.

Developer Codependency:
In a small development community such as ours, Kermit suggested that Amiga
developers should cultivate, coordinate and use contacts and efforts with
other developers for everyone's benefit.  He offered the following as
examples of possible initiatives:

Developer Directory:
The entire community would benefit from having a directory of developers to
facilitate communications that could be kept online (on the web site).

Sharing announcements:
To increase contact between developers and with users, developers should
make sure to share their product announcements with each other and their
users.  Include all news/flyers/inserts in mailings to users.

Product Swapping, Developer Pricing:
It is helpful to developers to swap products, yet one never knows what kind
of policy a developer has regarding this.  Kermit suggested that developers
need to publicize what their policy is regarding swapping or selling (at
cost?) a product to other developers is.  This could be publicized in the
developers-only area on the web site.

Licensing - site licensing?
Another question (usually from distributors and dealers) is what a
developer's policy is regarding site licensing.  This could be determined
in a dealers-only area on the web site.

User Groups: 
Developers should publicize their user group buying and training programs
and policies.  It benefits dealers in the long run to support user groups,
at least with demos.  For example, Nova Design offers to demos and training
for user groups for travel costs.

Q: How are beta testers found and handled:
Companies have varying policies.  Sometimes they are not asked to pay,
since they are being asked to test software and their information can be
very valuable.  Good beta-testers are hard to find.

Traditional Media - by DON HICKS, Amazing Computing:
Product Announcements:
Send product announcements to magazines to let them know what's going on. 
Amazing Computing (and all Amiga magazines) want to see something on paper
for authenticity (fax may do), but appreciates an electronic (EMail)
version for editing/inclusion. 

Product Reviews
Provide them with two copies of your product.  One goes to the writer, one
they keep in the office to check the review against.

Suggest review angles
Suggest review angles of your software while providing demo copies.  It is
helpful to mention different or unusual ways users may have put your
product to use.

Programmer's CD-ROM proposal:
Don suggested that people could submit documents and programming tools to
Amazing Computing for placement in a developer CD-ROM ...   As people buy
the CD-ROM, contributors could get royalty checks.

Marketing 101:
Announcements:
Learn how to write announcements as if they were edited articles.  Send the
press announcements to everyone (Amazing, AmiReport, etc), as well as other
developers, user groups, etc.  Also send releases out on new ways your
program is being used to keep it in the public's eye.

Cooperative advertising:
Share advertising space with complimentary developers of a single solution
(for example, solutions for video companies).  This could be used with a
wide variety of advertising methods.

Direct Mail
Do a big, multi-developer group mailing with a flyer to all Amiga users.  
The idea is to keep the costs down to individual developers but get the
word out to many Amiga users.  Don Hicks offered that PiM Publications
could do the printing and mailing with their existing equipment.

Lead Sharing:
Provide Amiga show participant lists to developers.  Developers could share
or trade lists of users that allow their names to be distributed for Amiga
marketing.

Video Tapes:
Do multimedia promotion on video tape.  To be sold or sent directly to
users or used in video magazines, like the "Amiga Legacy" magazine being
started by Jason Compton.

In Closing:
As we ran out of time, Kermit Woodall closed with a short statement of
encouragement and direction for the assembled group.  While we have a lot
to do with the Amiga, we should all focus on doing what we can and don't
worry so much about trying to do everything at once.  As long as we are
able to accomplish consistent, constructive things around us, the big
picture can take care of itself.
@endnode

@node FEATURE2 "A Quick Look at MPEG3 Audio"
@toc FEATURE

===========================================================================
                        A Quick Look at MPEG3 Audio
                             By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}
===========================================================================

I've been meaning to do a "Fun with video streams" feature, and was well on
my way to getting comfortable with the new QuickTime, AVI, and MPEG players
for the Amiga when something else came up, and in some ways it's even
better.

It's called "MPEG3", "MPEG Layer 3", "MPEG Audio" or sometimes just "mp3".
An MPEG3 file contains 16-bit audio data that has been massively compressed
(by a factor of 9 or more) and can be played back directly from a hard
drive.  At 44.1khz, a sampled song from CD can take up 50 megs or more.
Applying MPEG3 to the file can result in something more in the neighborhood
of 5 megs.

On the Amiga, we don't quite have the luxury of 16-bit playback, but if you
have a sufficiently fast system, you can get MPEG3 playback which still
sounds quite good.  You will want an 040 to really get good results,
however.

Presently, I'm using Stephane Tavenard's mpega 2.2, which you can find on
Aminet in mus/play as mpega.lha.  Other playback and decoder programs are
also on Aminet, in mus/play and mus/misc.

The principle behind MPEG is beyond the scope of this article, but the
compression scheme is being used for all sorts of high-speed video and
audio transmission and delivery, including VideoCD and the new wave of
"DVDs".  MPEG Layer 3 audio is a deeper level of compression than
previously used, and has made it possible to put CD quality sound in a
reasonably sized file.

The implications are of course that you can store an entire CD on a small
hard drive partition or even a Zip disk.  A Zip's 100 megs are more than
enough to contain all the data of a 74-minute CD.  The extended implication
is that a CD-ROM could actually store multiple CDs on it, providing you
were willing to play it back through a computer rather than a regular CD
player.  Whether or not this technology will catch on for a new breed of
CD players remains to be seen.

Because MPEG audio files have reached manageable proportions relative to
modern data transmission speeds (at about 3-6 megs of data for a typical
"radio" length song) 28.8 and 33.6k modems are suitably equipped to make
trading MPEG3 files over the net a reality--which is where things get
interesting.

There are literally hundreds of MPEG3 Web and FTP sites out there, but the
entire practice is rather objectionable from a legal standpoint.  Record
companies would rather have you buy their CDs than swap MPEG3 files with
the rest of the world--but they are out there if you look.  My cursory
inspection reveals an awful lot of Spice Girls and techno and not much of
anything I'd like to listen to.

If you want to roll your own, you have some options.  There are packages
for the Amiga that will allow you to create your own MPEG3s from a
digitized source.  However, MPEG3 compression is very, very time consuming.
I have not yet tried using an Amiga to do the compression.  Instead, I put
the P-100, which typically sits around as a game machine, to work.  There
is a program which will digitize a .wav file directly off of a CD-ROM
drive, and another which does the MPEG3 compression.  All told, the entire
process takes about 11-12x longer than the length of the song to complete.
I then take the resulting file over to the Amiga and play it back.

To get similar results on the Amiga you'd want to use a reliable sampling
program and preferably one that could get you reliable 16-bit results over
a long period of time.  (A cheapie homebrew parallel port digitizer is not
the ticket here.) Then be very very patient as the compression goes to
work.

I'll say this: I'm glad I've got a Zip drive now or else my hard drive
would be getting rather full.  In a way, it's a silly novelty--particularly
if you already have the CDs, why in the world wouldn't you just play them,
instead of the MPEG3 file?  Well, if you don't own them it's a good way to
sample CD-quality tracks without counting on radio DJs.  If you do own
them, if you travel with your computer it saves you the trouble of packing
your CDs.  And face it, like so many other things we do with computers, we
do them because we CAN.  MPEG3 is a very neat "Hey, look at what we CAN do"
technology with some very serious real-world implications which will likely
make existing "IPhone" and "AmiPhone"-type projects look and sound silly in
retrospect.

@endnode

xxx REVIEW
@node REVIEW1 "Review:Kang Fu"
@toc REVIEW

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

[With additional comments from me at the end of the review, as I have
played Kang Fu as well with a somewhat different outlook than Ken. -Jason]

Kang Fu is another in the growing list of CD-only games, this time from
independent software house Great Effects Development (or GREED as they like
to call themselves).

Playing Klont, the kangaroo (did you guess?), your task is to hop around
the scrolling playfield, jumping on platforms and other creatures,
gathering up your little joeys ("little kangaroos") and finding the exit. 
Of course, you don't get it your own way - there's an odd assortment of
creatures out to stop you; bees, bouncing balls and grotesque axe-wielding
monsters.  However, various weapons lie scattered around for your use,
including the obvious boxing glove.

In other words, it's a platform game.  Classic platform games, such as The
First Samuri, Gods and Robocod have taken the genre in different
directions, introducing puzzles, clever level design and humour.  Sadly,
Kang Fu has none of these qualities: there are too many "leaps of faith",
where the player simply can't tell whether he/she can make it to the next
platform; a missed jump means another two minutes making the way back up
the playfield, no doubt only to miss it again.  Finding the exit is easier
said than done, and the only puzzle elements Kang Fu are of the "find the
key for the lock" variety.

The freedom of CD has been partially exploited by that obligatory backing
music, which isn't that bad.  There's also plenty of high-quality static
pictures for between levels, and even more brightly coloured backgrounds. 
All of these graphics eat up Chip RAM, however, and you'll need at least
1.8Mb continuous graphics memory free before Kang Fu will execute.

The graphics do look gorgeous, though ...  until they move.  The sprites
move smoothly enough, but apart from the main character, there's not nearly
enough frames of animation for each baddie.  This leaves some opponents
looking sped up, and the others positively wooden.  The main character has
all the responsiveness of a dead goldfish, and precision jumping takes an
unnecessary amount of effort.  It's not always immediately obvious where
the platforms are.  Couple this with some dodgy collision detection, we're
talking a bit of a mess all in all.

I'm trying really hard here to find something good to write about Kang Fu,
but I can't.  It DOES look very pretty, and it's professionally produced
and presented.  As with Burnout (AR503), I find it a real shame that
talented coders, graphic artists and musicians put so much effort into
producing something that just isn't playable or addictive at the end of the
day.

Pros: Looks nice.

Cons: Very limited entertainment, poor control and bad level design.  No
hook whatsoever.

---

[And now, a word from the editor...]

Much as I like Ken's writing, he wasn't originally slated to do this
review--I was.  But unfortunately, Kang Fu is one of the products that
sometimes gets shelved and neglected instead of reviewed promptly--which is
what I should be doing.

I did play Kang Fu enough to get a feel for it.  I've read what Ken and our
colleagues have to say.

Everyone is in agreement that Kang Fu is visually very accomplished.  The
player's kangaroo, in particular, is fluidly animated in a variety of
actions.  As platform games go, it's got one of the most elaborate graphics
sets I've ever seen.

Control using a single-button joystick is just about out of the question,
but the game supports a CD32 gamepad and I highly recommend using one.
It's easier to get a feel for what you're trying to do.

Ken's right--the game is often very unforgiving in terms of its jump
distances even on the first level, and because the levels are so large
(particularly across the height, which is a dimension we're less used to
dealing with in platform games) it can be very easy to get lost.  Whose
fault that is, though, is unclear.  Just because the structure is
different doesn't make the game bad.

I don't think the gameplay is really a major problem with Kang Fu--once you
get accustomed to your task, picking up the joeys who look sort of like
escaped convicts, tossing eggs and boomerangs around, it may even grow on
you.  What I think has caused difficulties for reviewers and the acceptance
of the game is the uneven presentation.  The graphics are very pretty and
crisp indeed, so the whimsical sound effects and absolutely ridiculous
enemies and situations (the gun-wielding kangaroo in overalls is a
disturbing sight) make you wonder what, exactly, the game is trying to
accomplish.  It's a blending but not a masterfully executed blending.

Kang Fu is a misunderstood game--misunderstood by its players, and I think
by its designers as well.  -Jason

Kang Fu is distributed by Alter Interservice, Holland. More details from--

Great Effects Developments
Hofwijckplein 46a
2515 RL Den Haag
the Netherlands
fax +32 546-817727
info@greed.nl
http://www.greed.nl
@endnode
@node REVIEW2 "Review: Worms - The Director's Cut"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                    Review: Worms - The Director's Cut
                            By: @{" Ken Anderson " link KEN}
===========================================================================

Worms - The Directors Cut (AGA)
By: Ken Anderson

Team 17 / Ocean

It's sad that Team 17 seem so resigned to the fact that the Amiga games
market is dead.  They've stated it countless times before, but as the last
paragraph in the Worms - The Directors Cut manual is titled "Bye Bye" [and
gives their thanks and sendoff to the Amiga...  -Jason], maybe this time
they really mean it when they say this is their last Amiga title.  It's
especially sad, as Worms DC is fine game, far better than some of the crap
Team 17 were foisting on the Amiga 3 years ago (anyone remember ATR? 
Didn't think so).

I can't honestly imagine there's anyone reading this who hasn't played
Worms in some shape or form, but to summarise the gameplay: players take
turns to fire various weapons at each other across an uneven landscape. 
Whoever stays alive the longest wins the match.

Of course, Worms adds more to this: dozens of weapons, wacky battlegrounds
and silly samples.  It's became as much as part of the Amiga as Lemmings
and Zool, and Amiga owners can feel proud that the game that's taken every
platform by storm, from the PC to the PlayStation, started out on the
Amiga.

Worms DC doesn't add too much; instead, it enhances what's already there. 
The graphics - in particular the backgrounds - are now far prettier, with a
pleasing parallax effect and an alleged 300+ colours in total.  Cavern
levels have been introduced - the playing area has a roof, which renders
air strikes useless, but does allow the use of "batropes" to swing across
chasms.

One interesting new addition is the "graffiti" mode, giving the player the
chance to draw their own level within the game.  This is actually more fun
than it sounds - use the mouse to scratch down a base landscape and the
computer will then add the peripheral objects to clutter up the playing
area.  Now you can battle on your initials without going through the
rigmarole of loading paint packages, saving bitmaps etc.

If you really want that truly custom landscape, Worms DC has improved
facilities for custom battlegrounds; in fact, a small GUI utility is
included for just this.  Factors such as gravity, background colours, water
type and even the quote that appears at the start of each level can be
altered, and already Aminet is filling up with more custom landscapes from
avid players (methinks it's time for game/worm, Urban)

There's a few new weapons, some more for effect than practical use, but
with names like Old Woman, Mad Cow and Sheep-on-a-rope, there's enough
entertainment value just finding out what each one does to keep you going
for a while.  Some of your armoury from the previous Worms has been subtly
enhanced - for example, it is now possible to choose which direction an air
strike will fire from.

Every Amiga gamesplayer should have a copy of Worms; it's a fine blend of
action and strategy that works well and is genuine fun to play, especially
against human opponents.  I'm not sure if there's quite enough different in
Worms DC to convince the occasional Worms player to buy it, but if you
played the original to death and are eager for more, or just have a
hankering to blow up your friends with furry mammals, grab Worms DC now.

Pros: The ultimate Worms. Looks good, plays well and is as silly as ever.

Cons: It's still just Worms - nothing radically new.

Worms - The Directors Cut is distributed by Ocean and should be available
from your local stockist, priced at 19.99UKP.

[Quick note: The title of WormsTDC is somewhat confusing since the original
Worms starts up with a note designating it "The Director's Cut." However,
this is in fact not the same game.  WormsTDC starts up with a big spinning
grenade.  That should keep you clear as to which is which.  -Jason]

Team17
Longlands House
Wakefield Rd
Ossett, West Yorkshire
WF5 9JS
United Kingdon

http://www.team17.com
@endnode
@node REVIEW3 "Review: Yamaha Desktop Speakers"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
             Review: Yamaha Desktop Speakers: YST-M10, YST-M5.
  Calum Tsang                                               tsangc@io.org
===========================================================================

Introduction
~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Amigas were older, they came with special monitors: ones that ran at
15 KHz, which Commodore customized at the OEM level.  Made by Phillips,
Daewoo, and others, models such as the 1084, 2080, and 1080, came with
internal speakers to showcase the audio capabilities of the Amiga system. 
Some of these speaker systems were actually quite good, including the pair
integrated into the cabinet of my aging C1084SP2.  However, with the
proliferation of deinterlacers, AGA, and graphics cards, plus Commodore's
unfortunate demise three years ago, very few Amiga users have the benefit
of sound in their monitors because they've upgraded to new SVGA class
displays.

Some resort to brutish measures like wiring up receivers and custom made
amplifiers.  While this certainly satisfies the need for audio, it's also a
waste of energy, and space consuming.  What many Amiga fans need is a good
set of desktop speakers.

The first set of high quality desktop speakers I tried about four years
ago, was a pair of Synthedata SD series stereo monitors, originally hooked
up to a Roland U20 keyboard at school.  They accepted a wide range of
input, from the mixboard/amp ready output of the keyboard to line level. 
They sounded amazing attached to my Amiga 2000, and their cast iron casing
exuded a certain professionalism to them.  However, they were very
expensive.

While at Comdex 95, I remarked at a very pretty pair of desktop speakers
made by Sony, those Japanese stylemeisters of industrial design.  (I
secretly wish to be a graphic designer, industrial stylist, architect, or
even a Lightwave modeller, but so far, all I've amounted to is a wishywashy
industrial engineering student, and a bad one at that, according to the
Faculty.  :) So not only is sound quality an issue for me, but I wanted
them to look nice too.

In more recent years, it seems there are many desktop speakers for the
consumer: but primarily, all are designed for headphone level output, with
an impedance incorrect for the line level output of Amiga systems, or their
external CDRom subsystems.  Many, sporting rather large ratings for power
output, are poorly designed: A pair of speakers at work, given to me
because they came with a generic sound card, rattled at any volume greater
than 10%.  They're usually made of cheap plastic, and look very ugly, a
generic PC clone derivative.  No Mac user would come near these atrocities,
but then of course, they have Apple's rather exquisite AppleDesign Powered
Speakers.

I had looked at Sony and Yamaha, even Roland too.  All produced line level
speakers with high quality output.  Unfortunately, they were also extremely
expensive at around $180-250CAD.  But one day, visiting my local Future
Shop consumer electronics retailer, I noticed a giant stack of Yamaha
YST-M10 desktop speakers, complete for $70 in their oddly spartan red and
rice coloured Japanese packing.

YST-M10
~~~~~~~
The M10's are very attractive speakers, which is what drew me to them
originally.  About nine inches tall, in a rice/white colouring, these
speakers have a pretty cloth grill on the front, unlike the cheap,
resonating plastic or metal grills of normal PC speakers.  Each speaker has
a distinctive curve outwards, with a finely moulded plastic backing. 
Instead of some cheesy SuperBass function, controls are very simple: Power,
Presence and Volume.  Presence is basically Tone: more treble or bass in
one knob.  All the controls are on the right speaker, and the setup is
integrated: no additional amplifiers are needed, just the supply and the
two cabinets.

Most importantly, the M10 supports both line level and headphone level
input.  There is an input for power, supplied in a very nice power adapter
module which doesn't take up extra plug spaces, being halfway down the
power line, an output for the left speaker, and a stereo input.  The signal
connectors are both 1/8".

Complete with a dual RCA to 1/8" adapter, plus 1/8" to 1/8" for Walkman's
and PC sound cards, and 1/8" to 1/4" phono for larger headphone jacks, my
first test of the YST-M10 was to our family's Pioneer CLD1080 LaserDisc
combi player.  Accidentally setting the volume up high, the first brass
horn blasts of Gloria Estefan's "Conga" scared the hell out of me.  
Subsequent tests with Dave Matthews, Kon Kan and U2 proved the Yamahas to
be amazing in sound quality, filling the entire room the way our Sony
STR-AV970 200W surround receiver does.  The floor rattled.

The pair was subsequently relocated to my bedroom, where my Amiga 3000 is
located.  Hooking up to my machine was really simple: a pair of RCA cables.
Amiga sound was fine.  The M10 made the Amiga native audio seem somewhat
depressing compared to the LD's output.  I also hooked up my NEC CDR83i
CDRom drive, housed in a Apple SC CD casing.  It's output was also
extremely good.  I've since used a set of Y cables to mix the Amiga 3000
audio and the CDRom sound.  A3000T and A4000 owners have this feature built
into the motherboard with a simple mixer circuit.

The M10 also hooks up to headphone level devices, including a Toshiba
420CDT notebook's headphone jack, and a Panasonic RQ-SX1V walkman.  Using
the M10 has been a blast: while I usually have music playing quietly while
using the Amiga, when I need volume, the M10 surely delivers.  It has great
range, and you can never hear the thing resonate.  Powering up and down the
speaker makes little "pup" noise, and volume control is easy.  The only
issue is switching off the powerbar while the speakers are on: this makes a
pop noise.  The disturbing thing is that the M10 is only rated at 10W.   It
uses Active Servo Technology, which, according to a more knowledgeable
friend, basically improves the SPL and quality by actively monitoring the
output and changing the speaker signal dynamically.  It compares to 80W PC
generic soundcard speakers.

YST-M5
~~~~~~
Shortly after purchasing the M10's, I was at PriceCostco, and saw the
younger sibling, the M5 for sale.  At $39, it was certainly a deal! 
Knowing how good the M10's were, the M5 would likely be the same quality. 
Most intriguing was the incusion of TWO input ports, instead of the one on
the M10. 

Again, the M5 supports line level in, a must for Amiga owners.  Yamaha
intends you to use this as a true multi component speaker system: the
instruction leaflet shows diagrams for hooking up to a Nintendo, a TV, a
VCR, a PC sound card, and a CasioTone (tm) keyboard. 

I intended to use this pair with my sister's A2500/30, which has both the
native Amiga sound, plus a A2386SX25 Bridgeboard and a SoundBlaster Pro
card on it.  Plugging in the SoundBlaster Pro into input 1, and the Amiga
RCA output into input 2, I discovered the M5 was designed to truly use both
at the same time: each input is independent!

As a result, both signals are at the correct volume.  A perfect match for
our Bridgecard/Amiga setup!  The M5 is less neat looking than the M10, with
a more traditional plastic styling without the cloth grille.   However, the
plastic is still the same high quality material, and it comes with the
entire assortment of connectors and cables.  Canadian versions also come
with an extra box on the outside with more tacky designs, plus a free The
Who's Tommy musical MMCD.  I found this to be largely useless and I gave it
away to a friend. 

The M5 is rated at only 3W, but like the M10, sounds much more powerful.
It was such a good deal, I ended up buying two more pairs for friends who
had Amiga systems.

Both speakers are magnetically shielded, which means they don't interfere
with monitors or erase floppy disks.  The M10 is rated at 80 Hz to 20kHz
+/- 3db, the M5, 90-20kHz.  The only issue I've had with either is the
connectors: they tend to be loose.  As long as you don't toss them around
and unplug every day, they're fine.  You can even get them in stylish black
too.

Conclusion
~~~~~~~~~~
In late summer of 96, Yamaha replaced the M5 and M10 with newer models: the
M7 and M15.  A friend purchased the M15 to replace his M10, and reports
slighly better treble high range, plus the added benefit of a 1/8" front
headphone jack. 

You can additionally add a subwoofer unit.  I've never found a need for
this, but it includes an active crossover somewhere inside.  The entire
line is of very high quality, and while I prefer the look of the M10 to any
of the other models, any will certainly make a great addition to your Amiga
setup.
@endnode
@node REVIEW4 "Review: Epson Color Stylus 500"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                      Review: Epson Colour Stylus 500
  Calum Tsang                                               tsangc@io.org
===========================================================================

[Note: Epson has recently introduced the Stylus Colour 400 and 800, capable
of 1440x720 output, but they are largely still based on the 500 series
printers.--Calum]

I remember quite well when my friend Olivier purchased his Epson Stylus
Colour a year and a bit ago: the near photo output was nothing short of
amazing.  Of course, the price tag for the unit was nothing short of
amazing too: around $700-800, Canadian.  At the time, I had just received a
free Canon Bubblejet BJ5-and was quite happy printing out with the basic
package Canon Europa had distributed from Wolf Faust.  If you notice that
the model numbers of the latest Canon printers are in the 4500's, you can
surmise how pathetic a BJ5 is.  Still, the Epson Stylus Colour, and the
later introduced Stylus Pro, required special drivers and the paper was
expensive...

Until recently, my BJ5, while slow and black ink only, met all my needs.
Proofing output for layouts, printing reports, making labels and inserts
for my tapes etc.  Unfortunately, it's always had trouble feeding paper:
the rollers are clogged and worn, and it's external ASF module is somewhat
crickety.  And right before exam season last year, it started causing a lot
of problems.  So off I went, looking for a new printer.

There were a few alternative choices, including some refurbished HP DeskJet
500's for only $175 at a local used computer store.  Packed in shrinkwrap,
there were at least twenty of them.  I like the HP's, but bad memories of
my ex girlfriend (whose workplace had HP Deskjet Colour printers) made me
stay away.  Used printers perhaps from school, like broken HP LaserJet
II's, could be a route as well.  Neither proved to be the right path,
though.

I could continue to use the school's resources: one of the labs had
recently installed a pair of LaserJet 5SiMX's, RISC RIPs with 17 ppm 600
dpi output.  But the process of file conversion, school equipment breaking
down and a constant lack of paper in the trays strayed me from that route.

Somehow, after breaking up with my ex, I had this intense desire to do
something other than school: to be creative.  So my thoughts turned to
colour printers.  The memories of Olivier's amazing Colour Stylus sprang to
mind, yet the fact I had about three dollars in my bank account also were a
bit more noticeable.  What to do?

Fortunately, I made enough of a fuss that my family said they'd pay for it.
Looking at all the different models, it occured to me that the printer
market is primarily inkjet these days for consumers.  The two major
manufacturers are Hewlett Packard and Canon.  Secondary brands included
Epson, and Lexmark (formerly a subsidiary of IBM), plus a multitude of
other weird one offs.  Name wise, I'd had good experiences with Canon
Bubblejets-my BJ5 was a real trooper to the end.  I had also used a Deskjet
500C, a CMY-K model which required a cart swap for colour.  The paper
handling seemed superb on the HP.  Epson is a relative newcomer to the
technology: but they've garnered a lot of respect in the last few years.

Going to buy a printer these days isn't the way it used to be: when I got
my A2000 in 1988, we spent literally weeks reviewing different printers.
When we finally chose a Star Micronics NX1000Rainbow, I had printed so many
of my own samples, most salespeople considered the printer sold.  Nowadays,
PC hardware is commodity driven: a printer is a printer is a printer.
Visits to Computer City Canada and Future Shop reinforced the new computer
retail paradigm of boxes, boxes, boxes.  You look at the boxes, you pick
the one you like, you take it home.  You don't bring in your own files.
Nor do you ask for practical print samples.  You just use your copy of
HomePC, ComputerLife or Martha Stewart Computer Living, those amusing
family PC magazines to select the right model, whip out your credit card
and bring home your new printer to plug into your Windows machine.

Some general notes about printers: all come with personal creative
software.  While I think this is really quite nice and is a great idea for
PC newcomers, the idea of paying extra for some Print Shop esque package is
somewhat revolting, seeing as I have a 10MB A3000.  Of course, you can't
quite say no.  They also all have Windows only drivers.  (I don't think
there's a printer in history that came with an Amiga specific driver,
except for the odd ones like the Primera and all.)

I guess I'm lacking in confidence overall lately.  But I don't want to make
the wrong decision on a new printer.  So I very carefully looked at all the
printers, so as not to jump into my new output hardware too quickly, the
way my failed relationship started.  (I intend to have this printer more
than two years, thank you)

HP's offerings, their 600 series models, have a U paper feed where you
place paper in the front, and it loops back out.  This is similar to the
older Stylus model.  I was not too impressed with their output, even though
their claimed resolution was 600x300 dpi.  The pricing on these printers
seemed about $100-150 more than anything else.  I had somewhat ruled out
the HP.

Lexmark's round shaped printers looked like a extruded cross section of
those ham macaroni loaf things you see in the deli section but never buy. 
Unfortunately, with a limited market share, buying supplies would be
difficult.  No go for Lexmark, although they get bonus points for their
nifty Optra N workgroup lasers, which can belt out page after page of
TokenRing throttled 16 Mbps Novell NPRINT output.

Canon, had two model ranges, the CMY-K 200 series, and the CMYK 4000
series.  Early on, I'd decided I didn't want a CMY-K printer where you had
to put in all the colours with no black, or black only.  Not only a
nuisance, but the colour output is faded and not as vivid without true
black.  As a result, the 4000 models, 4100 and 4200, were taken into
consideration.  These models can do 600 dpi.

Finally, the Epson line, with the midrange Stylus 500 and the higher end
Stylus Pro and Stylus Pro XL, was studied.  All can do 720x720 dpi, and
apparently in plain paper too.  The concept of printing large format
posters on an XL intrigued me, but then my father saw the price tag and
thought about buying a new car instead of tabloid colour output.  I still
don't see his reasoning.  The Stylus Pro, around $550, seemed like an
excellent choice, with it's support for 11x17 output.  However, it's
unlikely I'll ever need to print anything that large.  It also had a U
shape paper path, which I wanted to avoid.  I wanted to be able to shove in
corrugated cardboard, if needed.

The Stylus 500, is actually quite similar to an interim model, the Stylus
II.  With two simultaneous cartridges, one CMY and the other K, the 500 had
a somewhat straight V shape paper path, with folding output tray.  However,
compared to the Deskjets and Canons, the 500 looked sparse and cost
reduced.  It's anemic control panel and flimsy plastic, while incorporating
improved Stylus Colour technology, seemed indicative of it's low, low,
price at $380.  Basically, it looked like a shoebox with a paper feed. 
It's sole purpose seems to be slamming colour images out at maximum quality
with a minimum of features for the cost conscious yet resolution demanding
family or home office.  While not some wussy oriented job like the Canon
BJC2xx models, nor a industrial monster like the BJC4550 or the ProXL, the
500 seems very much a middle of the road choice.

So, finally caught between the two, a Stylus 500 or a Canon BJC4000 model,
we bought the Epson, because of it's output quality.  While no retailer in
Toronto had the unit in stock, a trip to our favourite
high-volume-bulk-quantity-pigs-slurping-at-the-trough-but-we-love-it-anyway
s consumer retail outlet PriceCostco yielded an entire skid of the Epsons.
Plus for $390, we got an extra Black ink cart and a high quality shielded
printer cable.  At the checkout, the woman in front of us rang up her sole
purchase: "MILK 4L --$3.99".  Then, we rang up our purchase "EPSON STYLUS
PRINTER --$389.00".  Only in North America, kids.

The first few days were somewhat disappointing, due to a lack of quality
paper.  While my friend's Stylus Colour, obviously meant for professionals
and serious print mavens, came with a sampler full of special paper, all I
got was the Epson Kiddie Paint Bucket CDRom, a wonderful and unexecutable
set of Windows programs.  I'm sure it's great, apparently you can make
fridge magnets and greeting cards with it.  I don't know.  My nearest PC is
at work, and it's attached to a Canon CLC800 colour laser copier, and we're
not allowed to print fridge magnets on it.  Unless it's for business
reasons.

Of course, with the purchase of the Epson was the requisite requirement of
printer drivers.  And of course, a call to my Amiga using friend.  Turns
out Olivier has a package of the Endicor EnPrint Epson drivers he's not
using.  Well, I'm game.  I install the excellent EnPrint drivers and try
belting out some JPEGs that I had scanned from 35 mm photos on a Logitech
PageScan Colour at 100 dpi.  Hrm.  The output looks muddy.  Could it be
this the fact I'm using photocopier 20 lb bond Xerox 1524 plain paper?
Hey, wait, the box says you can print 720 dpi on plain paper!  What a lie!
Or does the printer just suck?  Oh no!  Have I made the wrong choice!?

...the fear of an important thing unwinding, unraveling is pretty scary.
You put so much effort and dedication into something, and it just falls
apart, your impression, your love of it, just-wait, sorry, this is a
printer review... 

Subsequent trips to Business Depot and OfficePlace find a ream of
Hammermill JetPrint premium inkjet paper (highly recommended by all Epson
users, I've found) and 100 sheets of the Epson 720 dpi clay coated special
paper.  More print outs.  Amazing.  This thing can print!  Soon after, the
sound of the Epson whizzing along is interminable.  Layouts are crisp,
photo images rich and deep.  Flesh tones come out nicely in faces, while
basic colours are sharp and distinct.  The only problem seems to be ink
soaking, which is largely remedied with varying paper.

A problem arises.  Text out of a word processor, using scalable fonts,
takes ridiculous amounts of time to print.  That's okay, a quick search on
Aminet turns up several Epson LQ and ESC/P2 printer drivers for
Preferences.  They run extremely well for black and white output with word
processors and the like.  Perfect.

After a while, I start to notice some nice design features on the unit.
For example, the ample sheet feeder pops forward when loading a page, to
shuffle and align the rest of the stock.  Paper handling is a joy, the
Epson deals with pages with the skill of a Vegas cardshark.  Setting the
width of a stack of paper is similar to a departmental laser, a locking
latch that's easily set and left secured, unlike the finicky collapsing
mechanisms on others.  The front panel, which looked silly at first glance,
folds down and extends as a very useful paper tray, yet folds back up,
saving desk space.  In both positions, the printer looks normal.  The front
panel is also easy to use: head cleaning and form feed is surprisingly
easy, not requiring any complex button combinations.  It's also
surprisingly well built in the right places, although it's still not a
tank.  The inkwells are much larger than other models, and don't clog the
way some printers do.  There's the ever useful Macintosh 8 pin DIN serial
port along with the usual Centronics parallel I used with my GVP
ioExtender.

Weeks later, I find a BJC4200 at a client's.  The plastic is worse than the
Epson, and there's even fewer controls than the Stylus: a single button on
the top.  The ink cartridges are small, the mechanism frail.  Perhaps I did
buy the right one.

The Epson of course, handles raw text dumps fine too: configuration files,
shell scripts, source code printouts all spit out nicely.  It feeds the
cheap paper I use for these easily, and it's output speed is very fast.

One project that came up had me designing business cards for a school
organization.  While the final camera copy would be done on a 600 dpi
PostScript laser (namely a Lexmark Optra) for professional offset printing,
I decide to make a few with the Epson for fun and to fulfill a last minute
need for a seminar I'm attending.  I could have used the expensive route
and bought some inkjet perforated business card sheets from the local
stationary store.  But it's 2 am, and I need them tomorrow.  A quick look
around the room discovers some old file folders from 1991.  I cut a
rectangle out of them, toggle the Stylus to envelope/thick mode, and load
the sucker into my new printer.  The 500 easily prints out my cards onto
the file folder stock, and with a couple cuts of a razor, I have a small
stack of business cards.  Amazing.  The Stylus' near straight paper path
comes in handy.

Another project involved making a birthday card for a friend.  I took a
picture of her I already had on file, and composited it in 24 bit with an
existing background image of texture I had made for another layout.  I ran
the Stylus with some rough fibrous paper, and cut and glued it with other
images/papers I had gathered for variety. 

It seems that ever since I left school for my year of self-adjustment and
work, I've been designing more and printing more.  I also am running my
Amiga in dual monitor mode more too.  Every evening seems to have my
terminal session on the 13" and my page layouts on the 15", while the
sounds of Dave Matthews play out on the CDRom and the Yamaha speakers.
Since buying the printer, I've done several layouts for CSIE, the Canadian
Society for Industrial Engineering's U of T Chapter.  Business card proofs,
logo designs.  Some purely artistic, like a friend's odd birthday card.
Some purely commercial, like my own flyer/advertisement.  Some purely crazy
too, to satisfy this ridiculous obsession I've grown with paper output.
I've grown this somewhat disturbing fetish with printing, both design and
formatting.  Seeing an image, whether text or graphic, coming out of the
Epson, is a wonderful sight.

To conclude, I'm very very happy with the Epson Stylus Colour 500.  Every
Amiga user should consider buying it, along with the various driver
packages out there.

--Calum Tsang writes for the University of Toronto's Engineering Society
newspaper, the Cannon, and is the creative drive behind the U of T Chapter of 
the Canadian Society for Industrial Engineering, if not the academic or
leadership force.  He is currently working as a systems developer at a large 
company with lots of paper while out of school forcibly for a term.
@endnode

@node REVIEW5 "Picasso IV"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
            Review: Picasso IV Graphic Card from Village Tronic
                             By: @{" William Near " link WILLIAM}
===========================================================================

MILLIONS OF COLORS AND A FLICKER FIXER TOO

If you have ever used an AGA Amiga's Workbench in 256 colors then you know
just how unusable and frustrating that can be.  You also know that
virtually every AGA owner runs his Workbench in usually no more than 16
colors due to the speed problem.

There are really only two ways to cure this problem if you want a colorful
and fast computer display.  One is to wait for a next generation Amiga,
which may just happen due to the Gateway 2000 buyout of the Amiga.  The
other way is to buy a 24-bit graphics card.

The latest contender in the Amiga 24-bit graphics board market is the
Picasso IV from Village Tronic Marketing GmbH of Germany.  Any Amiga with a
Zorro II/III slot, a video slot, Workbench 3.1, and a 68020 or better CPU
can join in on the fun.

FEATURES AND OTHER THINGS

The Picasso IV is based on the CL-GD5446 graphics chip by Cirrus Logic.
This chip is certainly not one of the newer graphics chips from Cirrus
Logic, but it still serves its purpose on the Amiga.  There are 4 MBs of
64-bit, 50 ns EDO video RAM on the card that enables it to run at a maximum
1280 x 1024 in TrueColor (24-bit) with a local PCI-Bus.

Some of the other more interesting features of the Picasso IV are: S-VHS
video input/outputs, 3.5 mm stereo audio input/outputs, FLASHROM for future
firmware updates via software, picture-in-picture capability (PIP), Amiga
and CD-ROM audio inputs, 4 channel audio mixer on-board (Amiga, Line, TV,
CD), and many more.

The built-in flicker fixer/scan doubler was the main feature that attracted
me to the Picasso IV rather than the competition.  The flicker fixer
enables all standard Amiga screenmodes to be viewable on virtually any
monitor.  By standard Amiga screenmodes, I mean NTSC and PAL only --
nothing else!  The Picasso IV won't pass-through the non-15 kHz.
screenmodes and scan doubling the double-NTSC/PAL modes is also not in the
cards.

TO HACK OR NOT TO HACK

Installing the board into your A3000 or A4000 is simply a matter of
dropping the card into the Zorro III slot that is in-line with the video
slot.  Installing the same board into an A2000, which I did, is a whole
other beast.

You must first remove all the monitor drivers from your system, except for
the NTSC and PAL ones.  All RTG software, like CyberGraphX must be removed
too.  After doing this it's time to install the Picasso96 driver software
using the standard Commodore Installer.  I would highly recommend that you
run to the nearest source of Picasso96 support, the Internet, and grab the
latest version of the software (currently 1.16), as the included version is
woefully outdated at this point.  The Picasso96 software is being actively
updated on an almost weekly basis, which is a great thing. 

In order to install the Picasso IV hardware into an Amiga 2000 you must
first remove the flicker fixer module from the main card.  According to the
manual, this is simply a matter of cutting two plastic bridges that help to
hold the two boards together -- wrong!

I started out by following the procedure outlined in the English manual.  I
cut through the two bridges with a very sharp knife and proceeded to gently
bend the flicker fixer module back and forth in an attempt to set it free.
I soon realized that this just wasn't going to happen.  If I applied too
much pressure on the main board and module, it would surely cause damage. 
I had to saw through almost every connecting point between the module and
main board (there are 31 of them) by hand with a jigsaw blade made
especially for plastic.  About 45 minutes later I had two separate boards.
This is not a job for the faint of heart!  If you don't feel confident
doing this modification then I would suggest that you let your local
computer dealer do it for you.  It's not an impossible task, but I haven't
talked to anyone yet that hasn't spent anywhere from 30 minutes to well
over an hour doing this.

After removing the flicker fixer module from the main board, I placed the
Picasso IV into an empty Zorro II slot and the flicker fixer module in the
video slot.  Three cables are then routed under the power supply to connect
the two boards together. 

All of this could have been avoided if Village Tronic would have finished
development on their Denise adapter board before releasing the Picasso IV.
This adapter will enable A2000 owners to install the entire graphics board
into a Zorro II slot and then run a cable from the board's flicker fixer to
the Denise socket.

The Picasso IV comes with a nice, spiral-bound German manual and a plain
folded and stapled English version.  Unlike the Picasso II's English
manual, which was a decent piece of work and spiral-bound too.  Don't get
me wrong, the English manual uses good grammar and spelling for the most
part, unlike other translated manuals I have had the misfortune of using in
the past.

READY TO GO

Once all of the hardware and software is installed it's time to boot up the
computer and see what happens.

Initially, a low-res screenmode is selected from the available ones.  I
promptly entered the Prefs/Screenmode program and brought up a 1024x768x256
Workbench screenmode on my 17" monitor.  It looked quite nice on a large
monitor too.  If you've never seen an Amiga being run in a high resolution
screenmode then it will be a sight for sore eyes, literally.

Screen updates after opening or moving a window on Workbench are so much
faster than any non-graphics-board-Amiga that you will wonder how you ever
got along without one.  Even switching to a 1024x768x24-bit Workbench
hardly slowed things down.  Yes, it was noticeable when compared to only
256 colors, but it's still just as fast or faster than a 16 color hi-res
Workbench under OS 2.1.  Of course, if you don't have a good amount of
available FAST RAM then I wouldn't recommend going over 64,000 colors at
that resolution for your Workbench.  I have 8 MBs of FAST and I still only
use 256 colors on my Workbench. 

There's really nothing like running all of your favorite applications in
high resolution and bit depth screenmodes.  The number of screens you can
have open at any one time is really only limited by the amount of RAM
available to your system.  Of course, the higher the resolution and bit
depth of your screen, the more RAM it eats.  I can easily run Workbench,
DOpus 5.5, and Final Writer 5 at the same time with memory to spare.  On
the Internet I often run YAM, VoyagerNG, and AmIRC at the same time.  I
have limited VoyagerNG to 256 colors due to the amount of RAM needed to run
it in 24-bit color.  If you're used to viewing the WWW in 16 colors now,
you won't believe your eyes when doing the same in 256 or even 16 million
colors!  Programs like PageStream and Final Writer will run faster on a
graphics board's screen too.  Imported graphics just plain look better in
256 colors.

Screen flipping with my middle-mouse-button is virtually instantaneous, but
screen dragging is not available at this time.  I actually don't miss
screen dragging ever since moving to a graphics board a couple of years
ago.

TUNING THE DRIVERS

There is an included program called PicassoMode, or you can use the
improved PicassoModeTNG, for tuning the board's output to get the most out
of your monitor.

With PicassoModeTNG you can set the minimum and maximum horizontal and
vertical frequencies that your monitor is capable of, as well as the pixel
clock, sync rates, etc.  You can effectively tune every available
screenmode and create new ones too.  Be forewarned, you can totally fry
your monitor if you don't know what you're doing!   Those who choose to
play around with the presets will pay dearly for any great mistakes made in
the settings.  It's best to just set the minimum and maximum horizontal and
vertical sync rates and leave the rest to the software. 

There are many included monitor settings for various models and more are
available on the Picasso96 WWW site.

COMPATIBILITY

The Picasso96 authors claim high compatibility with CyberGraphX
applications and I have found this to be true.  All of my picture viewers
and players still function under Picasso96 as they did under CyberGraphX. 
I haven't found anything that won't work, but I'm sure there may be a thing
or two out there that will break.  [It seems that certain pieces of
CyberGraphX software being developed in affiliation with Phase5 are issuing
thinly veiled threats that the software is not likely to work under the P96
CGX emulation. -Jason]

ImageFX users will notice that the program will lockup at times.  The
Picasso96 authors are aware of this problem and are working on it.  ImageFX
will still work, but the occasional lockup is not unheard of.

NewIcons support is there, as long as you disable the RTG feature of
NewIcons 3.   This is a CyberGraphX-specific feature of NewIcons and will
cause problems when enabled under Picasso96.

FINAL RAMBLINGS

One way to breathe new life into an aging Amiga is to buy a 24-bit graphics
card.   Any Amiga, for that matter, will seem like it's better than brand
new, provided you have the CPU and RAM required.

The Picasso IV is one of the nicest 24-bit graphics boards available for
the Amiga today.  It only has a few faults, overall, and the Picasso96
software is under constant development.  The authors of Picasso96 are
available via Email and there's even a Picasso mailing list too.

I would recommend this board over the competition mainly due to the
on-board flicker fixer.  It would be nice if the board would just
pass-through the non-15 kHz.  screenmodes and scan doubling the
double-NTSC/PAL modes would have been a plus for AGA users too.  None of
these things really deter from the overall package so much that you
wouldn't be happy, though.  So go out and grab a Picasso IV and start
seeing the computing world in true color!

© William Near 1997

Provided for review by:
Software Hut
Folcroft East Business Park
313 Henderson Dr.
Sharon Hill, PA  19079
USA
http://www.softhut.com
610-586-5701 voice

@endnode

@node REVIEW6 "AmyResource CD-ROMs"
@toc REVIEW

===========================================================================
                 Review: AmyResource CDs Zero through Two
                             By: @{" Jason Compton " link JASON}
===========================================================================

Another series of CD-ROMs has arisen in what has been a difficult task to
master in recent years--how to come up with a general-interest CD-ROM
that's attractive when we have Aminet and Aminet CD-ROMs?

Interactive (di Danelon Luca, of Italy) may have found a good formula.
Compile a bimonthly CD-ROM, grab as much good new stuff as you can find,
make sure everything has an icon and is fairly easy to launch, and top it
all off with a strong set of commercial demos and two or three registered
shareware or commercial "coverdisk" titles that people might actually want
to use.  Oh, yeah, and put Eric Schwartz artwork on your CD sleeve and the
disc itself.

Started in September 1996 with Volume Zero (I'm not quite sure why), the
three entries we were sent reflect their origins and what at the time was a
primarily Italian market focus, but the publisher tells me that he's
looking to expand distribution to more of Europe and North America, and
will be compiling English language versions as well.  As it stands now, the
AmyResource CDs are geared to an Italian user although a number of the
programs on the CDs do have English documentation.  The registered packages
tend to have both English and Italian documentation, although this is not
always the case.  (a couple of programs on CD #0 seemed to be
Italian-only).

Like I said, it's tough to put together a set of CDs that will continually
endear itself to users when they can pick up the really inexpensive Aminet
CDs instead.  But for all the good stuff on Aminet, and the ease of use of
the AmigaGuide interface, it's not necessarily the easiest thing in the
world to navigate and also isn't as pretty as a bunch of classy icons would
be--and that's what AmyResource does.  The only recent general interest CD
series I can look at as having great appeal have been magazine covermount
CD-ROMs (at the very least, CU Amiga and Amiga Format now offer them
monthly) and the more occasional AGA Experience discs, now up to volume 3.
The magazines have the advantage of a readerbase looking for things to do
with their Amiga and magazine tie-ins, as well as the magazine's coverdisk
software (and probably a lot of support material to boot which wouldn't
have fit on a floppy.)  The AGA Experience CDs tend to gear themselves at
being very visual.

AmyResource is a pretty balanced collection, as you would expect something
with its frequency to be.  Of course, I couldn't get full enjoyment out of
everything because of the language barrier, but hitting "install" is
obvious enough in most any language, to set up assigns and so forth.

Volume Zero has a very well thought out collection.  There are demo
versions of Haage and Partner's software library (ArtEffect, StormC,
StormWizard), large parts of Cloanto's library, Cinema4D 3.1, and others.
As well, there are a number of game demos, a whole mess of freely
redistributable software, a collection of mods, and the
commercial/registered versions of ImageStudio 2.3, McFiler, and MUI More.
ImageStudio is the attraction here--for a low-end image processor and
converter, it can't be beat.

Volume One caused me a bit of trouble with the installer for some reason.
The "coverdisk" collection this time is CygnusEd and Amiga E--two very
useful packages, although I think CED is pretty dated.  Still, lots of
people seem to swear by it.

Volume Two -- well, you get the idea here.  Given away are Doopsi and
WebPlug, the HTML editor.

AmyResource is also now using a Web interface (with AWeb and IBrowse demos
provided) to make getting around the CDs easier.

So, keep an eye out for this series when it's released in English.  I'm
told there's likely to be a "best of" CD to introduce the English versions.

Interactive di Danelon Luca
Via Boizano, 2
33010 Feletto Umberto (UD)
+ 0432 575098 voice/fax
danelon@interlansrl.it

@endnode

xxx CHARTS
@node CHARTS1 "Aminet Charts: 30-Mar-97"
@toc FTP

| The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 30-Mar-97
| Updated weekly. Most popular file on top.
|
|File              Dir        Size Age Description
|----------------- ---        ---- --- -----------
ar503.lha          docs/mags  119K   1+Amiga Report 5.03, March 22, 1997
FFNews156.lha      comm/news  212K   0+*The* new Amiga NNTP Newsreader
qt14.lha           gfx/show   266K   0+QuickTime player for AGA/CyberGFX. V
akLJPG43x.lha      util/dtype  93K   0+AkLJPG-dt V43.1 (LJPG, 68000-060)
MCC_HTMLtext.lha   dev/mui    105K   0+HTMLtext.mcc with Browser (MUI)
ffnews_update.lha  comm/news   71K   0+FFNews update (Executable only!)
APatchBeta.lha     util/boot    7K   0+Speed up patch for your 68020+ Amiga
SerialPrefs26.lha  util/sys    60K   1+V2.6 - Extended Serial Preferences f
pplib020.lha       util/libs    5K   0+Powerpacker.library 68020+ version
AlienF1.lha        game/demo  139K   1+A fast, full texture-mapped F1 Game
LinuxAmigaHOWT.lha misc/unix   18K   1+Amiga Linux setup, install and HOWTO
TM30_PopMCCs.lha   util/wb     28K   0+Pop*.mcc update for Toolmanager 3.0
Gir03.lha          comm/tcp   115K   0+Gsm internet realtime audio player
CServer.lha        comm/tcp     2K   0+Smart AmIRC script for multiple serv
SysInspector10.lha util/moni  108K   0+SysInspector 1.0 - A new system moni
wbupdate.lha       util/misc  633K   0+Workbench Update 3.12
narrate.lha        comm/tcp     2K   1+AmIRC script to SPEAK what is typed!
VersionWB.lha      util/sys    23K   1+V2.5 AmigaDos Version replacement.
MailCheck.lha      comm/mail   34K   1+ESSENTIAL scripts for Miami and YAM
Xtruder33.lha      util/virus 435K   0+Virus killer with extensive checking

| The highest rated programs during the week until 30-Mar-97
| Updated weekly. Best program on top. Please rate all the programs you
| download. To do so, send to aminet-server@wuarchive.wustl.edu :
| RATE <path> <num>
| where <path> is the file you want to judge and <num> is a mark from 0..10
| with 10 being the best. You can rate several programs in one mail, but
| don't rate your own programs. Example: RATE dev/gui/mui23usr.lha 8
|
|File              Dir        Size Age Description
|----------------- ---        ---- --- -----------
AlgoMusic1_8.lha   mus/misc   1.2M   8+Creates algor. techno tunes. A must-
mui38usr.lha       util/libs  1.0M   6+MagicUserInterface 3.8, user files
FW_AllInOne.lha    biz/swood   74K   3+FW-Macros-Packet - german -
poing4.lha         game/actio 108K  12+Nice breakout clone
PacMan96.lha       game/misc  571K  14+Superb PacMan-Clone, systemfriendly
Creepy.lha         game/shoot 314K   6+Arcade game with brilliant graphics 
ACM.lha            dev/c      443K 199+Amiga C manual w/ many examples
Executive.lha      util/misc  1.2M   0+UNIX-like process scheduler (V2.10)
Miami20g.lha       comm/tcp   694K   4+TCP/IP stack for easy Internet acces
MagicMenu2_15.lha  util/wb    169K  13+Improves the Intuition menus (V2.15)
McF_43.lha         biz/dbase  163K  14+*McFiler* catalogues files w/ many u
dCN_Z20.lha        comm/bbs    69K   2+Best and quickest Zippy 2.0 for FAME
GetNET22.lha       comm/thor   27K  17+GetNET 2.2, URL grabber for Thor 2.4
yastralp.lha       demo/aga   1.3M  40+Your Astral Pilot: meet the alien wi
Point_Rock4.lha    demo/mag   602K   1+Issue 4 of a new Hard Rock Amigaguid
WBsteroids.lha     game/wb    137K   4+Asteroids in a scalable WB-Window.
mac2ni.lha         gfx/conv     9K  16+Convert/Rip MacOS.rsrc Icons to NewI
CyberAVI19.lha     gfx/show    76K   1+AVI animation player for CyberGraphX
CyberQT11.lha      gfx/show    74K   1+QuickTime animation player for Cyber
WzonkaLad.lha      misc/emu    80K   1+Wzonka-Lad - Gameboy emulator v0.58.
AmigaAnim.lha      pix/anim    67K   1+Amiga Animation for Web Pages
EvenMore036.lha    text/show   98K   1+Font sensative text viewer (bug fix)
ObjArc14usr.lha    util/arc    50K 111+Access archives (lha, tar...) like d
BindPathes.lha     util/boot    6K  28+Create all the search pathes in one
BlizzMagic.lha     util/boot   12K  12+V3.3 Softkicker+ for Blizzard 1230/4
FastIPrefs4035.lha util/boot   37K   3+FastIPrefs 40.35 & FastWBPattern 40.
SerialPrefs26.lha  util/sys    60K   1+V2.6 - Extended Serial Preferences f
RushHour13.lha     game/misc  237K   6+Switch traffic lights, Version 1.3
Logic.lha          game/think 290K   4+Great Game!
raystorm_881.lha   gfx/3d     585K   5+V1.8 of RayStorm (68020+881 binaries
@endnode
@node CHARTS2 "Aminet Charts: 13-Apr-97"
@toc FTP

| The most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 13-Apr-97
| Updated weekly. Most popular file on top.
|
|File              Dir        Size Age Description
|----------------- ---        ---- --- -----------
dtypeslib452.lha   util/libs  130K   1+New datatypes.library, V45.2
VirusZ_II137.lha   util/virus 188K   1+VirusZ v1.37 by Georg Hoermann
AddDataTyps451.lha util/sys    37K   1+New AddDataTypes, V45.1
SoundDT.lha        util/dtype  17K   0+New sound.datatype w/fixes for OS3.0
HTDS.lha           util/dtype 266K   1+HyperText-DataType-System (HTDS) 40.
mpega.lha          mus/play   219K   1+MPEG I,II & III audio decoder V2.2 (
AmiServ.lha        comm/tcp     4K   0+First FServe for use with AmIRC! (2n
New8n1.lha         comm/misc   73K   0+Replaces serial.device.  V37.34
BenchTrash.lha     util/wb     25K   0+Global trashcan 4 WB, w. eject suppo
aagenesp.lha       game/demo  2.9M   0+Vulcans-GENETIC SPECIES 3D Demo V2.0
arcanoid.lha       game/wb     90K   0+"Arkanoid" clone in window version 2
info.lha           comm/cnet   13K  37+Show user Info at login.
ViNCEd.lha         util/shell 287K   0+The final CON: solution, ^Z, XTerm,
infodt391_upd.lha  util/dtype   2K   1+DataType for Amiga .info files
WinSoundv1.2.lha   util/cdity  38K   0+Workbench Sound Commodity v1.2
xfd117.lha         util/pack  137K   1+Decrunch almost every packed file (e
trsivw65.lha       util/virus 609K   0 V6.5 of the AMIGA viruskiller by M.S
MCC_HTMLtext.lha   dev/mui    112K   1+HTMLtext.mcc with Browser (MUI)
HTDS_030.lha       util/dtype  73K   1+HTDS 40.10 datatype binaries for 680

| The highest rated programs during the week until 13-Apr-97
| Updated weekly. Best program on top. Please rate all the programs you
| download. To do so, send to aminet-server@wuarchive.wustl.edu :
| RATE <path> <num>
| where <path> is the file you want to judge and <num> is a mark from 0..10
| with 10 being the best. You can rate several programs in one mail, but
| don't rate your own programs. Example: RATE dev/gui/mui23usr.lha 8
|
|File              Dir        Size Age Description
|----------------- ---        ---- --- -----------
mui38usr.lha       util/libs  1.0M   8+MagicUserInterface 3.8, user files
Executive.lha      util/misc  1.2M   1+UNIX-like process scheduler (V2.10)
Miami20g.lha       comm/tcp   694K   6+TCP/IP stack for easy Internet acces
pretium.lha        biz/misc   132K   0+Checkbook accounting demo V 1.1
Point_Rock4.lha    demo/mag   602K   3+Issue 4 of a new Hard Rock Amigaguid
Petition.lha       docs/misc    1K   1+Amiga Games Petition
CyberAVI19.lha     gfx/show    76K   3+AVI animation player for CyberGraphX
CyberQT11.lha      gfx/show    74K   3+QuickTime animation player for Cyber
AmigaAnim.lha      pix/anim    67K   3+Amiga Animation for Web Pages
EvenMore036.lha    text/show  112K   0+Font sensative text viewer (BETA)
FastIPrefs4035.lha util/boot   37K   5+FastIPrefs 40.35 & FastWBPattern 40.
SerialPrefs26.lha  util/sys    60K   3+V2.6 - Extended Serial Preferences f
EagleWB.lha        util/wb    237K   2+Eagle pic, 800x600x256, a great WB B
AmIRCsounds.lha    comm/tcp   240K   2+IFF samples to use with AmIRC
Logic.lha          game/think 290K   6+Great Game!
Xtruder33.lha      util/virus 435K   2+Virus killer with extensive checking
WB_BootPic7.lha    pix/boot   362K   4+Workbench Boot Pictures for Amiga OS
AlienF1.lha        game/demo  139K   3+A fast, full texture-mapped F1 Game
MasterMind.lha     comm/cnet    3K  16+Mastermind door for CNet
GuitBust.lha       mods/rock  504K   3+GuitarBusting by T-REX/PRIDE
PowerDrops.lha     mods/sets  434K 187+PT-MODs (1) from Olof Gustafsson
PowerFlops.lha     mods/sets  598K 187+PT-MODs (2) from Olof Gustafsson
SwitchbackMods.lha mods/sets  306K 117+Mods from Rebels Switchback by Chrom
PackDev1_9.lha     util/arc    24K   3+Packs DFx, DHx etc., XPK support, V1
PlayWormDC.lha     game/data   59K   2+A sexy stage for WormsDC =:)
akJFIF43x.lha      util/dtype 212K   1+AkJFIF-dt V43.50 (JPEG, 68000-060)
TimeConnect.lha    comm/misc  174K  42+Phone Call coster/logger with MUI
MCC_HTMLtext.lha   dev/mui    112K   1+HTMLtext.mcc with Browser (MUI)
DOpusXFD.lha       biz/dopus   78K  30+XFD Decruncher for DOpus5 v1.01
STFax.lha          comm/misc  194K   1+STFax 1.302 - Powerful and user-frie
@endnode

@node MAILLIST "Amiga Report Mailing List"
@toc WHERE

===========================================================================
                        Amiga Report Mailing List
===========================================================================

If you have an internet mailing address, you can receive Amiga Report in
@{"UUENCODED" link UUENCODE} form each week as soon as the issue is released.  To be put on
the list, send Email to majordomo@ninemoons.com

Your subject header will be ignored.  In the body of the message, enter

subscribe areport

The system will automatically pull your e-mail address from the message
header.

Your account must be able to handle mail of any size to ensure an intact
copy.  For example, many systems have a 100K limit on incoming messages.


** IMPORTANT NOTICE:  PLEASE be certain your host can accept mail over   **
** 100K!  We have had a lot of bouncebacks recently from systems with a  **
** 100K size limit for incoming mail.  If we get a bounceback with your  **
** address in it, it will be removed from the list.  Thanks!             **
@endnode
@node UUENCODE
@toc MAILLIST

===========================================================================
                          UUDecoding Amiga Report
===========================================================================

If you receive Amiga Report from the direct mailing list, it will arrive in
UUEncoded format.  This format allows programs and archive files to be sent
through mail by converting the binary into combinations of ASCII
characters.  In the message, it will basically look like a lot of trash
surrounded by begin <filename> and end, followed by the size of the file.


To UUDecode Amiga Report, you first need to get a UUDecoding program, such
as UUxT by Asher Feldman.  This program is available on Aminet in

     pub/aminet/arc/

Then you must download the message that it is contained in.  Don't worry
about message headers, the UUDecoding program will ignore them.

There is a GUI interface for UUxT, which should be explained in the docs.
However, the quickest method for UUDecoding the magazine is to type

     uuxt x ar.uu

at the command prompt.  You will then have to decompress the archive with
lha, and you will then have Amiga Report in all of its AmigaGuide glory.

If you have any questions, you can write to @{"Jason Compton" link JASON}

@endnode
@node AMINET "Aminet"
@toc WHERE

                                  Aminet
                                  ======

To get Amiga Report from Aminet, simply FTP to any Aminet site, CD to
docs/mags.  All the back issues are located there as well.

Sites: ftp.netnet.net, ftp.wustl.edu, ftp.luth.se, ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk

@endnode
@node WWW "World Wide Web"
@toc WHERE

                              World Wide Web
                              ==============

AR is also available on the WWW!  Some of the mirror sites include a mail
form, allowing you to mail to Amiga Report from the web site and some also
include a search engine allowing you to search recent issues for specific
topics and keywords (if your browser has forms capability).  Simply tell
your browser to open one of the following URLs (pick a location nearest you
for the best performance):

Australia
     http://ArtWorks.apana.org.au/AmigaReport.html
     http://www.deepwoods.saccii.net.au/ar/menu.html
     http://www.livewire.com.au/cucug/ar/ar.html (w/search and mail) 
     http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~pec/amiga.html

Germany
     http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/amiga/ar/

Greece
     http://www.acropolis.net/clubs/amiga/amigareport/

Hungary
     http://mm.iit.uni-miskolc.hu/Data/AR

Italy
     http://www.vol.it/mirror/amiga/ar/ar.html

Poland
     http://www.pwr.wroc.pl/AMIGA/AR/

Sweden
     http://www.lysator.liu.se/amiga/ar/

United Kingdom
     http://ppewww.ph.gla.ac.uk/~gowdy/Amiga/AmigaReport/
     http://www.iprom.com/amigaweb/amiga.html/ar/ar.html (w/search and mail) 
     http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Users/kcci1

USA
     http://www.cucug.org/ar/ar.html (w/search and mail)
     http://www.omnipresence.com/Amiga/News/AR/

Additional Amiga information can also be accessed at this URL:
     http://www.cucug.org/amiga.html

Mosaic for the Amiga can be found on Aminet in directory comm/net, or
(using anonymous ftp) on max.physics.sunysb.edu
@endnode
@node COPYRIGHT "Copyright Information"
@toc ABOUT

===========================================================================
                Amiga Report International Online Magazine
                 April 16, 1997            Issue No. 5.04
                       Copyright 1997 FS Publications
                             All Rights Reserved
===========================================================================

Views, Opinions and Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of
the editors and staff of Amiga Report International Online Magazine or of
FS Publications.  Permission to reprint articles is hereby denied, unless
otherwise noted.  All reprint requests should be directed to the editor. 
Amiga Report and/or portions therein may not be edited in any way without
prior written permission.  However, translation into a language other than
English is acceptible, provided the editor is notified beforehand and the
original meaning is not altered.  Amiga Report may be distributed on
privately owned not-for-profit bulletin board systems (fees to cover cost
of operation are acceptable), and major online services such as (but not
limited to) Delphi and Amiga Zone.  Distribution on public domain disks is
acceptable provided proceeds are only to cover the cost of the disk (e.g. 
no more than $5 US).  CD-ROM compilers should contact the editor.  
Distribution on for-profit magazine cover disks requires written permission
from the editor.  Amiga Report is a not-for-profit publication.  Amiga
Report, at the time of publication, is believed reasonably accurate.  Amiga
Report, its staff and contributors are not and cannot be held responsible
for the use or misuse of information contained herein or the results
obtained there from.  Amiga Report is not affiliated with Escom AG.  All
items quoted in whole or in part are done so under the Fair Use Provision
of the Copyright Laws of the United States Penal Code.  Any Electronic Mail
sent to the editors may be reprinted, in whole or in part, without any
previous permission of the author, unless said electronic mail is
specifically requested not to be reprinted.

===========================================================================
@endnode
@node GUIDELINE "Amiga Report Writing Guidelines"
@toc ABOUT

===========================================================================
                      Amiga Report Writing Guidelines
===========================================================================

The three most important requirements for submissions to Amiga Report are:

     1.  Please use English.

     2.  Please use paragraphs.  It's hard on the eyes to have solid
     screens of text.  If you don't know where to make a paragraph break,
     guess.

     3.  Please put a blank line in between paragraphs.  It makes
     formatting the magazine much much easier.

     4.  Please send us your article in ASCII format.

Note:  If you want to check ahead of time to make sure we'll print your
article, please write to the @{"Editor" link JASON}.

Please stipulate as well if you wish to retain copyright or hand it over to
the editor.
@endnode
@node ZONE "CalWeb"
@toc ONLINE

===========================================================================
                    CalWeb: The Home of the Amiga Zone!
===========================================================================

AMIGA ZONE MOVES TO CALWEB!

THE AMIGA ZONE MOVES FROM PORTAL TO CALWEB INTERNET SERVICES

For over ten years the Amiga Zone has been an online resource, home,
community, oasis, for Amiga owners.

For over ten years I've made my living running the Zone and supporting Amiga
users all over the USA, Canada, and the world.

Five years ago when American People/Link pulled their own plug, we had to
find the Zone a new home and we found a good one on the Portal Online
System. 

Well, it's happened again.. Portal has informed all of its customers that
its ten year history as an online service and Internet provider is coming to
an end on Sept. 30, 1996.  This is very sad, it's short-notice, and the
decision is completely out of my control, but it's also irreversible.  

Portal is changing its entire business plan from being an ISP to selling an
accounting system to other online services.  

So be it. It's sad, but like I said, the Zone went through this before and
now we'll go through it again, and come out the other side better and wiser.

THE AMIGA ZONE IS MOVING TO CALWEB INTERNET SERVICES.

CalWeb (http://www.calweb.com) is a two year old Internet provider located
in Sacramento, CA.  It has a good sized customer base, and very
knowledgeable support staff. 

It's also run by a long time Amiga owner who has been a friend of mine for
many years.

The world of modeming has changed much in the last ten years.  In 1985 you
had very few choices and you had 1200 baud.  These days, everyone and his
dog has an ISP running and a web page

But the vast majority of those providers don't know an Amiga from a hole in
the ground, and could care less about Amiga owners.  Say "AWeb" or
"IBrowse" to them and they'll say "Omega?  Amoeba?  What?  Huh?  They still
make those things?"

CalWeb is different because it's the new home of the Amiga Zone.

In October 1996, a new custom front-end menued system will be added to
CalWeb to host the Zone.  It'll have features for Zone users that neither
Plink nor Portal ever had nor were they willing to add.

The tradition of a friendly online Amiga community, run by long time Amiga
owners, users and lovers will continue. 

Message bases, huge file libraries (we plan to move over the 20,000+ files
we have on the Zone on Portal to CalWeb, MANY of which you'll never see on
Aminet or anywhere else), live nightly chats, vendor support and our famous
prize contests will continue.

We've given away tens of thousands of dollars worth of Amiga prizes in the
last ten years.  No one else even comes close. 

I urge any and all of you who were on Plink, or who are now on Portal or
who may have left Portal..  or even if you were never on either but used or
still use another online service to join CalWeb for the Amiga Zone.  I
personally promise you the best online Amiga community we can possibly
build.  You will not be disappointed.


CalWeb has arranged a special signup offer for you!

Call:
 1-800-509-9322
  or
 1-916-641-9320
  or telnet to calweb.com, login as "guest", and follow the prompts. 

You can join CalWeb for US$19.95 flat, a month.

CalWeb takes major credit cards or you can establish a monthly invoiced
account if you don't have plastic.

The signup is FREE.

To get this deal you must say "THE AMIGA ZONE SENT ME" when you call or
signup online. 

I hope to see lots of you join CalWeb.  You can telnet into it from
anywhere for no hourly charges at all.  Your $19.95/mo fee covers
everything and also gets you ten meg of storage which includes hosting your
own personal web page.  Naturally, when the Zone opens there, you'll have
unlimited use of all of its features and areas.  Never a "money meter"
clock to worry about.

Your personal or business CalWeb Web pages are maintained by you via FTP. 
It's pretty slick.  You can make a net connection to the server with any
Amiga FTP client, put your files onto it, the permissions are automatically
set (no "chmod-ing" required!) and flip to your running browser and see the
changes instantly.

The Amiga Zone's new home is already up at:

         http://www.amigazone.com

running on CalWeb's server.  Ckeck it out!

Please feel free to write to me at harv@amigazone.com or harv@cup.portal.com
if you want more information.

Remember to say "THE AMIGA ZONE SENT ME!" when you join.

A splendid time is guaranteed for all.  

Please plan to join us in the Amiga Zone on CalWeb!

@endnode
@node OPINION "Editorial and Opinion"
@toc MENU

===========================================================================
                           Editorial and Opinion
===========================================================================

@{"   compt.sys.editor.desk   " link EDITORIAL}  Gateway Days are here...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   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
===========================================================================

@{"   Gateway 2000 Offer   " link NEWS1}  The first news we heard

@{"  Gateway Bid Accepted  " link NEWS3}  Just about the icing on the cake

@{"       Amiga Myst       " link NEWS4}  Myst being ported to the Amiga!

@{" Win an FG24 or ProMod! " link NEWS26}  Name the product and win one!

@{"   Developer Network    " link NEWS5}  Amiga Developer Network Website

@{"  Siamese System v2.0   " link NEWS7}  Siamese with RTG released

@{"        VWM v1.4        " link NEWS8}  Control screen and window positions

@{"   MoveToMirror v2.0    " link NEWS9}  For local Aminet mirrors

@{"      Targetus 3.0      " link NEWS10}  WB shooter game

@{"   Cronus And proDAD    " link NEWS11}  Joint development support agreement

@{"  Speris Legacy Sequel  " link NEWS12}  Binary Emotions at work

@{"      ADE Snapshot      " link NEWS13}  New version of Amiga Dev. Environment

@{"   Amiga Gathering 97   " link NEWS14}  Dates and times for the show

@{"    RP2000 AIP V1R0     " link NEWS15}  Run AmiExec on a single-board computer

@{"  HotListHandler 1.10   " link NEWS16}  Share hotlists between browsers

@{"      HTDS v40.10       " link NEWS17}  Modular hypertext in datatypes

@{"   CeBIT Show Report    " link NEWS18}  Pictoral report on the Web

@{"     AsimCDFS v3.0      " link NEWS19}  New version of the CD filesystem

@{"    MasterISO v1.25b    " link NEWS20}  New version of the CD mastering program

@{"  dignet.library v3.0   " link NEWS21}  Help with serial networking for programmers

@{" Pretium Finances v1.1  " link NEWS22}  Personal finance package news

@{" Finnish Group Web Site " link NEWS23}  New user group site

@{"   Amiga Gathering 97   " link NEWS24}  Show announcement

@{"     ANAO Excerpts      " link NEWS25}  Magazine excerpts from Down Under

@{"      IAM Welcome       " link NEWS6}  IAM welcomes Gateway to the game

@{"    QuikPak Welcome     " link NEWS2}  QuikPak's reaction to the buyout

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   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
===========================================================================

@{" Developer Meeting Summary " link FEATURE1}  From the Amiga '97 show

@{"   A Quick Look at MPEG3   " link FEATURE2}  High quality audio compression

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   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
===========================================================================

@{"        Kang Fu        " link REVIEW1}  Insert bad kangaroo pun here.

@{" Worms: Director's Cut " link REVIEW2}  Little, pink, different enough?

@{"    Yamaha Speakers    " link REVIEW3}  Make your Amiga sound good

@{"   Epson Stylus 500    " link REVIEW4}  A look at this and other printers

@{"      Picasso IV       " link REVIEW5}  Bill Near breaks down the new 24-bit card

@{"   AmyResource CDs     " link REVIEW6}  A look at a new series of CD-ROMs

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   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
===========================================================================

                             @{" 30-Mar-97 " link CHARTS1}

                             @{" 13-Apr-97 " link CHARTS2}

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   News   " link NEWS} @{"  Opinion  " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{"  Reviews  " link REVIEW} @{"  Charts  " link FTP} @{"  Adverts  " link COMMERCIAL}
@endnode
@node ABOUT "About AMIGA REPORT"
@toc MENU

===========================================================================
                            About AMIGA REPORT
===========================================================================

@{"        AR Staff         " link STAFF} The Editors and writers

@{"   Writing Guidelines    " link GUIDELINE} What you need to do to write for us

@{"  Copyright Information  " link COPYRIGHT} The legal stuff

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   News   " link NEWS} @{"  Opinion  " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{"  Reviews  " link REVIEW} @{"  Charts  " link FTP} @{"  Adverts  " link COMMERCIAL}
@endnode
@node STAFF "The Staff"
@toc ABOUT

===========================================================================
                                 The Staff
===========================================================================

               Editor:               @{" Jason Compton    " link JASON}

               Assistant Editor:     @{" Katherine Nelson " link KATIE}

               Games Editor:         @{" Ken Anderson     " link KEN}

               Contributing Editor:  @{" William Near     " link WILLIAM}

               Contributing Editor:  @{" Bohus Blahut     " link BOHUS}

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   News   " link NEWS} @{"  Opinion  " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{"  Reviews  " link REVIEW} @{"  Charts  " link FTP} @{"  Adverts  " link COMMERCIAL}
@endnode
@node WHERE "Where to Get AR"
@toc MENU

===========================================================================
                              Where to Get AR
===========================================================================

                         @{"   The AR Mailing List   " link MAILLIST}

                         @{"         Aminet          " link AMINET}

                         @{"     World Wide Web      " link WWW}

                         @{"   Distribution Sites    " link BBS}

                         @{"   Commercial Services   " link ZONE}

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   News   " link NEWS} @{"  Opinion  " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{"  Reviews  " link REVIEW} @{"  Charts  " link FTP} @{"  Adverts  " link COMMERCIAL}
@endnode
@node BBS "Distribution Sites"
@toc WHERE

===========================================================================
                            Distribution BBSes
===========================================================================

Look for the listings in the next issue of Amiga Report!

Sysops: To have your name added, please send @{"Email", link JASON} with the BBS name,
its location (Country, province/state) your name, any internet/fidonet
addresses, and the phone number of your BBS

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@{"   News   " link NEWS} @{"  Opinion  " link OPINION} @{" Articles " link FEATURE} @{"  Reviews  " link REVIEW} @{"  Charts  " link FTP} @{"  Adv @{"  Adverts  " link COMMERCIAL}
@endnode
@node DEALER "Dealer Directory"
@toc MENU

===========================================================================
                             Dealer Directory
===========================================================================

Look for the listings in the next issue of Amiga Report!

Dealers: To have your name added, please send @{"Email", link JASON} with the BBS name,
its location (Country, province/state) your name, any internet/fidonet
addresses, and the phone number of your dealership

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