@database "ar233.guide"
@Node MAIN "Amiga Report Online Magazine #2.33 -- December 4, 1994"

                               @{" Turn the Page " link "menu"}

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                       International Online Magazine

                 "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!"

                   Copyright  1994 Skynet Publications
                            All Rights Reserved

                                      //
=====================================//====================================
== December 4, 1994               \\//                    Issue No. 2.33 ==
===========================================================================

@endnode
@node "menu" "Amiga Report Main Menu"
@toc "menu"

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

    @{"  Editorial and Opinion   " link P1}             @{"    News and Features    " link P2}
                                    
    @{"         Reviews          " link P3}             @{"       Reader Mail       " link P4}

                     @{" FTP and Product Announcements " link P7}

                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    @{"    About AMIGA REPORT    " link P5}             @{"    Dealer Directory     " link P6-3}
 Contact Information and Copyrights     Amiga Dealer Addresses and Numbers

    @{"     Where to Get AR      " link P5B}             @{"   Commercial Products   " link P6}
 Mailing List &  Distribution Sites     Online Services, Dealers, Ordering
               ______________________________________________
         //   |                                              |       //
========//====| Amiga Report International Online Magazine   |======//=====
==   \\//     | Issue No. 2.33            December 4, 1994   |   \\//    ==
==============| "THE Online Source for Amiga Information!"   |=============
              |______________________________________________|

    c.s.a.editor.desk      Amiga News               Dealer Directory
    Distribution BBS's     Product Announcements    Reader Mail
                           AR Reader Survey

                             SPECIAL FEATURES

              Amiga Report Exclusive: CEI Conference on IRC!
                      Soft-Logik Conference on GEnie
                         Workbench Christmas List

                                  REVIEWS

   CEI A1962 14 inch Monitor ..............................Jason Compton
   Conundrum ..............................................Jason Compton
   Music MOD and Sound Effects CD .........................Jason Compton
   NewIcons .........................................Hermes Trismegistus
   Magitronic C-SV1500P Monitor ............................William Near
   GVP ioExtender ..........................................William Near
   Transition V1.2 ...................Katherine Nelson and Jason Compton
@endnode
===========================================================================
==                        The Amiga Report Staff                         ==
===========================================================================
@node P8-1 "Editor"
@toc P5-1

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

                               Jason Compton
                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*** Note well: I'll be in various places this Christmas season, so as of
December 11, use this information until further notice:

             Internet                                  Address
             --------                                  -------
     jcompton@cup.portal.com                   1203 Alexander Ave.
     jcompton@bbs.xnet.com                     Streamwood, IL 60107-3003
                                               USA

               Fax                                      Phone
               ---                                      -----
           708/741-0689                             708/332-4599


@endnode
@node P8-2 "Senior Editor"
@toc P5-1

===========================================================================
==                             SENIOR EDITOR                             ==
===========================================================================

                               Robert Niles
                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~
            Internet                                   Address
            --------                                   -------
      rniles@rniles.pnw.net                        506 W. Orchard
                                                   Selah, WA 98942

            FidoNet                                      Fax
            -------                                      ---
           1:3407/103                                509/697-5064

@endnode
@node P8-3 "Assistant Editor"
@toc P5-1

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

                             Katherine Nelson
                             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                                 Internet
                                 --------
                            Kati@cup.portal.com

@endnode
@node P8-4 "European Editor"
@toc P5-1

===========================================================================
==                            EUROPEAN EDITOR                            ==
===========================================================================

                               Michael Wolf
                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~

                                 Internet
                                 --------
                      MikeWolf@bonebag.tynet.sub.org

@endnode
@node P8-5 "Contributing Editor"
@toc P5-1

===========================================================================
==                          CONTIBUTING EDITOR                           ==
===========================================================================

                               David Tiberio
                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                                 Internet
                                 --------
                      dtiberio@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu

@endnode
@node P1-1 "compt.sys.editor.desk"
@toc P1

===========================================================================
==  compt.sys.editor.desk                           By: @{" Jason Compton " link P8-1}  ==
===========================================================================

It's always nice, when things don't look all that great, to do something
that makes a statement.  The Amiga situation certainly has been better, and
even current users in some circles have started calling it a "dead
platform" with "no hope", etc.  etc...

Tell that to the 450 people who participated in the CEI Conference on IRC
last Tuesday-the ones that set records for involvement in any event or
channel.  To be sure, there were certainly some skeptics among them, but
not enough to keep them away from the fourth public forum Amiga Report has
held on the buyout.  The conference is being translated into at least two
other languages, and I have already been approached by journalists from
three magazines to do report articles on the conference for their
publications.

I can't envision holding more conferences with CEI in the near future, but
I just contacted C= UK again and made a rather strong case for their
participation.  Still waiting for a response.

The most recent information available is as follows: This past Friday
represents the last day Commodore Norristown engineers will be paid.  The
Commodore money to pay them ran out November 4th (the old UK-signing
"deadline", established on that day for that very reason).  I do not know
what C= UK's response to this is, but CEI plans to negotiate a reduction in
their bid with the liquidators, as the liquidator was considering the
engineers and their contracts with Commodore to be an asset.  With that
asset gone, CEI seems unwilling to pay for it.

The effect this will have is as yet unknown.  CEI still seemed willing to
sign the contract next week, but that will likely hinge on how much they
try to lower their bid by and how the liquidator will take it.

In relating this story to some people, I have been asked what the effect of
this would be.  Obviously, if any delay occurs, it's bad for the
short-term.  However, the less money spent on the Amiga, the more money
left over to develop and sell it.  It's a toss up and a balancing act.

There's still no guarantee that any company will get it, but I haven't
heard any rumblings from anywhere but Florida in the past couple of weeks.


We'll see, as always.

Be sure to check out the conference...

Jason

P.S. For European readers, AR is now available on a Poland WWW site.  A
German site also exists, but I've lost the URL-will the maintainer please
contact me?
@endnode
@node P4 "Reader Mail"
@toc "menu"

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

From: owl@davinci.reading.MA.US (Opportunity With Learning)
Subject: Review

Jason,

I wanted to address some of the constraints that I had in writing the
program which I think address some of your concerns.

I was aiming to be able to run the program on a 2MB Amiga so that I would
not alienate people who had only purchased a stock Amiga 1200.  Since the
program is written in CanDo it started to grow very large as I progressed
through the subject matter.  I would have preferred to use more colors and
a higher resolution for the pictures, however, the size of the program
would have been enormous!  I have tried to address this issue with the
CanDo folks and am waiting to see how the newest version of CanDo fairs.
This was also the reason for splitting the program into two programs as
described in the user's manual.

As for the use of BRU, this was simply a way of packing all of the various
multimedia items onto 4 disks.  I wanted to use something that I didn't
have to license and assumed that everyone would have the program on their
machines.  I've actually only found one other person who did not have it
installed.  BRU would not have been needed either if Inovatronics allowed
some sort of sharing of libraries, so that each program was smaller than
500K+.

I also wanted to let you know that we are working on a second product which
will essentially cover optics, electricity, waves, and particles.  I have
had a lot of good responses to Physics Lab and requests for the second half
of the subject matter.  This should be available by next summer.

--
Opportunity With Learning - Educational Software for the Future
460 Summer Ave.  Reading, MA  01867-3819
Lori Vinciguerra - President
  Internet: owl@davinci.reading.MA.US

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

From: per.jonsson@deadzone.ct.se (Per Jonsson)
Subject: The rise of the Amiga!

Hello Jason and Amigareport!

I have just red the CEI conference from 29 nov and I feel better than ever
about the future of the Amiga rising like Phoenix.  I want to thank you all
folks on Amiga Report for doing a great "mag".

When CEI are (if they are) done with the buyout I'm going to send them a
packet of flowers (it's a bit hard with the distance here from Sweden :-)
or some choklade to congratulate them.  And I hope all you guys ('n
gerlies) out there is going to do the same.  Why not collecting some
dineros in your local Amiga-BBS/Usergroup or whatever and send something to
show your suport and joy.

This man (Alex) is a miracle, he have been in three (or more?) conferences
in less than a year, it's more than C= _ever_ have done officially in _ten_
years (in my knowledge).  And the man can listen to the users and he wants
to get our opinions.  I feel a great pleasure in that.

    cmp.l   #Alex,#D_Pleasence  ;Compare Alex CEI with David P. C= UK

David P.  has never been on a conference (exept for som show in UK) and the
only thing you hear (see) from him is his little columns in the English
Amiga Mags.

My only wish now is that CEI buy C= out so I can buy myself a brand new
A4000 with a resent pricetag.  And ofcourse so I can sleep in the nights
again ;-)

(Soon the people will sing and dance in the streets again)

Best Regards Per Jonsson /Stockholm/Sweden
             Fidonet: 2:201/325.3
             Email:   per.jonsson@p3.deadzone.ct.se

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

From: "Luis R. Anaya" <papo@gamekeeper.bellcore.com>
Subject: Questions and comments to CEI.

Hi Jason:

I got your email address out from the CEI log and I would like you to
forward suggestions and other mumbo jumbo to Alex Amor.  Some are
suggestions other are comments and others are just plain stupid :).

1.  I feel that CEI is not taking into consideration of the Latin American
market and its potential very seriously.  I'm aware that the support of the
strong user base in Europe and the Amiga re-introduction in USA are CEI's
priorities.

However, after reading the log and after speaking with another person which
asked the same question, the question has not been answered what is
warranted.  I would assume that all Latin American operations are going to
be done in the main office in Florida because most of the corporate offices
that deal with Latin America markets are there. 

It does make sense.  However, I strongly feel that there is nothing in
concrete to address it.  What's been feared is that CEI will follow the
steps of C='s, *to ignore completely Latin American dealers*,

The end result has been lost of revenue and a closed window of opportunity
in Latin America, something that right now Apple, Sun, DEC, IBM even NeXT
has capitalized with it.  NeXT provided a whole lab for the Monterrey
Institute for Higher Education Studies, Mexico.  They were one of the
prefered customer list afterwards, Apple claimed in the Caribbean Business
that the Power PC will take 20% of the computer market in Puerto Rico and
there was a big order of PPC for UPR@Mayaguez.

Perhaps after the re-introduction of the Amiga in USA might re-start the
interest in some of the Latin American markets, specially Mexico and Puerto
Rico which are the two markets with most direct contact with the USA and
are considered key markets for any product that is going to be introduced
in Latin America.  However that does not guaranteed that the Amiga will be
accepted as a serious computer platform if the market is mismanaged and the
dealers are ignored.  The competition is very strong.  Clones abound in
Puerto Rico, UPR @ Mayaguez are starting to buy Pentiums to run LINUX in
their engineering labs, the same goes with their math department.   In
other ways, it is not going to be easy and I do not think that ignoring the
market would do any good either if the Latin American market is going to be
acknowledged (i.  e.  unless you want their money).

2.  Education is going to be very important.  However, is CEI targeting the
Educational market the way it is supposed to?  Engineering Majors will
demand to have engineering applications for the to use.  GNU Applications
are acceptable for computer science majors but serious CAD/CAM, Chemist
simulator, structural analysis programs are also important.  For other
majors, word processors, spreadsheets and Math Cad like programs are going
to be the ones that will be used more.  Is CEI taking care of the
application bundles that should be released at the educational market?  Are
they going to be addressed by giving other choices of OS??

3.  I would imagine that CEI will continue pushing the Amiga for video
applications and multi media.  Are you thinking into going into other
aspect of the computer development?  like client server applications,
embedded systems, machinery control systems or mission critical apps (I
hate that word)??

Will sample machines are going to be sent to software development companies
for evaluation??  Will you do like Silicon Graphics to go around in a
trailer and showing people the power of Amiga??

That's all for now.  Thanks for your time reading this lines.  You can
contact me for anything and I wish CEI luck in their future ventures.
 
-- 
Luis Roberto Anaya-Rivera       papo@donuts0.bellcore.com     
A True PL/1 Hacker              papo@briscas.gamekeeper.bellcore.com
Bellcore, NJ                    Ham: N2ZXE+
@endnode
@node P2-1 "Press Releases"
@toc P2

===========================================================================
==                            Press Releases                             ==
===========================================================================

We forgot SoftWood's contact information last issue...

SoftWood
P.O. Box 50178
Phoenix, AZ  85076
USA
602-431-9151


                               PRESS RELEASE
                    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Nov 17, 1994
                       PRESS CONTACT: Ellen Kazmaier
                   tel: 314-894-8608; fax: 314-894-3280

       SOFT-LOGIK ANNOUNCES AVAILABILITY OF WORDWORTH AND DATASTORE

(St.  Louis) Soft-Logik(tm) today announced an exclusive licensing
agreement with Digita International(R) that will bring Digita's acclaimed
Wordworth(R) word processor and new Datastore(tm) database manager to the
United States and Canada.
 
Digita International is the leading publisher of Amiga productivity
software in the United Kingdom, and Soft-Logik Publishing is the leading
publisher of Amiga productivity software in the United States.  With this
agreement, Soft-Logik will now market and support Wordworth and Datastore
in the United States and Canada.  Soft-Logik will also make technical
support options available to existing users of these programs in North
America.
 
"The American Amiga market has undergone a lot of changes in the last
year," said Soft-Logik president Deron Kazmaier.  "It is important that
Amiga users in the United States and Canada have access to the very best
Amiga word processor and database.  We will give Amiga users here that
access."
 
Wordworth 3.1 is the latest version of Digita's award-winning word
processor.  It is faster, friendlier, and more powerful than its
predecessor.  Wordworth includes advanced online help tutorials, intuitive
editing, amazing text effects, and supports PostScript(R), TrueType(R) and
Compugraphic(R) fonts.  Its real-time spell checking, drag and drop
editing, tables, built-in printer font support and enhanced PostScript
printing make it the best choice for all Amiga word processing.  Wordworth
is available immediately from Soft-Logik at a direct price of $135, and
from all American and Canadian Amiga dealers.
 
Datastore is a new personal database manager.  It comes with EasyStart
Templates(tm) to get users started quickly, and extensive online help. 
Datastore features mail-merge with Wordworth, forms with text and graphics,
sophisticated queries and a Navigator with VCR-style controls.  Datastore
will be available in mid-December from Soft-Logik at a direct price of $95,
and from dealers.
 
Soft-Logik PageStream(R) 3.0 can import and export Wordworth text.  A
document filter, which will be available early next year, can be used to
load an entire Wordworth document into PageStream to preserve the document
layout.  This means that people who start a document in their word
processor and later need the features of a desktop publisher won't have to
start the document over again.  This synergy between Wordworth and
PageStream makes these programs the best team for Amiga word processing and
desktop publishing.
@endnode
@node P1-2 "The Padded Cell"
@toc P1

===========================================================================
==  Darkseid's Padded Cell                               By: Roger Boal  ==
===========================================================================

Top Ten signs you're having/gonna have a bad day
1)      The disk drive snaps at you
2)      The bird singing outside your window is a vulture
3)      The IRS want to interview your hard drive
4)      Theres a CBS/CNN newscrew waitingfor you when you get home
5)      The Tv is showing emergency routes out of town
6)      Your answering machine tells you to mind your own business
7)      Your twin forgets your birthday
8)      Your mother says good morning Robert and your name is Joe
9)      Your boss tells you not to bother sitting down
10)     You get up out of bed, wash, dress and then realise its Saturday
           and you don't have anywhere to go

The Amiga's that never where
1)      Integrated toaster
           Makes hot toast while you render (although had samsung won....)
2)      Video Toaster II (budget)
           MMMMMMMm crunchy VHS, spread with butter and strawberry jam
3)      The CD64 (pronounce Seedy 64)
           No need, the british govt fulfills this role
4)      Bill Gate Array
           Similar to the akiko chip array, but fools people into thinking
           that an expensive, crap machine is multimedia compatibile if you
           add a cdrom snd cute speakers.  Also makes money on a large
           scale by constantly forcing the user to upgrade.
5)      Games on Cartridge
           I taut I taw a Putty Cart, you did but then they relased it on
           floppy instead
6)      Warp Engine 4000/060
           The Imagine canna take it cap'n theyre gonna blow.....
7)      Ron Chips
           A new form of Memory management, which persuades chips to
           release ram by kicking their pins about, can lead to some chips
           turning up covered in cement.  Also known as the Kray
           (supercomputer) twins heheheh.
8)      The Mac-Amiga
           The Scots didnt like it so it was scrapped

Digital SuperHighway....  Roadkill ???  The internet as it stands is a
global community, basically free of advertisingie Junk Email..., without
social, economic or political divide.  You could be reading this a jew in
Palestine, an Arab in kuwait, an American in New York, a Brazilian in
Puerto Rico, a Frenchperson in Paris.  You could be jewish, catholic,
hindu, muslim, protestant, a pagan, an atheist, you could be liberal,
republican, nationalist, it doesnt matter the net doesnt judge, and from
what I've seen racism and bigotry isn't tolerated.  So why am I writing
this, well I'm worried where the net is heading, and as it seems that the
net will invade our lives be it Superhighway or whatever, how will it
affect us.Well, the suppositions are that the net will allow us to get and
send all sorts of information, wrong..  our govts are afraid of this and
will restrict us, one only has to look at the clipper chip in the us and
what happened to the guy who wrote the PGP program to see ample proof.  The
net will allow us to get newspapers on our computers, book flights, do our
banking, do our shopping and get videos on tap.  Hmm all very well and
good, but have you considered the ramifications.  If this happens you won't
need newspapers, or magazines if thats true what happens to the newsagents
and the printers, no work = no job.  The same goes for shops, travel
agents, video stores and banks, all you'll need is a computer and a few
programmers.  Also I like having to go out into the real world and interact
with real people and do real things.  Its called social behaviour , deny it
to someone and they begin to feel isolated, not a good thing in anyones
book.  We need human-human interaction in more ways than the most basic (ie
sex), it keeps our minds and souls healthy.  Try locking yourself in a room
for a week, dont meet anyone and only talk via the net, dont talk to anyone
socially, it is mentally tough...I guess what Im trying to say is, we need
to keep the net free and clean.  It is a tool for us to live our lives
with, not a way of living our lives, all Im saying is dont rush into the
future without some consideration.  Im cutting short here as I want to get
feed back on this (plus I have to go to class in about 5 min), if you
agree/disagree Mail CKB426@ujvax.ulster.ac.uk and leave your message.  I'll
put the best bits forward in a later artcicle.  Oh yes it is relevent to
the Amiga as the amiga could be one of the machines chosen to drive the
home end of the net, just be careful with the future, we dont know what'll
happen.....

Youve heard their side
Youve laughed at the far side
Youve fallen on your backside
Now read the Darkseid......
@endnode
@node P1-3 "Reality Check"
@toc P1

===========================================================================
==  Reality Check                                By: rbeekman@xs4all.nl  ==
===========================================================================

lately we have been bothered repeatedly with letters like the one from
John Gustafsson in the last issue of amiga report telling us what 'we'
need ...  which basically boils down to; an a4000/060 with a cd-rom ( 100%
cd32 compatible ), 10 Mb ram and 1 Gig Hd space .....  and all of this for
only $9.95.....  almost all of those letters make it sound like this is
'the only way the amiga will survive' i think it is time for a reality
check.....

what is happening while all amigans are picking their noses ???  just the
other day i read an article about the new VideoCube from a company called
ImMax, it is a non-linear on-line editing system based on ( you guessed
it....  ) a powermac....  non-linear video-editing has been available on a
professional level for about 4 years now, non-linear on-line video-editing
( which requires a much, much higher picture quality ) is pretty new and
several companies are now introducing their new systems...  what have we
got for the amiga to show ???  nothing really...  at least not something
that can compete as an editing-system with any ( new or old ) of the other
non-linear editing system .....  sure these systems cost an arm and a leg
( and you'd probably have to sell your grandma too ...  ), but you get
what you pay for .....

i do a lot of broadcast video-editing work and about a year ago the
company i work for needed a new video-titler, so i suggested to buy an
amiga 4000 and use scala for the titling ....  they did shop around and
get some offers so they new what the prices were, but then the 'ones that
had to decide' refrased the question to "are we going to continue on the
amiga-level or are we going to continue on a professional level?" ....  so
they ended up buying a 'professional' titling system that costed them
$50000 ( btw it runs on a MC68020 with a 68881 and a lot of custom
circuitry...  )

sure there has been a lot of ignorance influencing these people, but i
think that the amiga community at large is very much responsible for this
image of a gamesmachine-and-good-for-nothing-else that the amiga has to
put up with......  after all....  commodore has never done any marketing
what so ever....  so the image the amiga has is based on what amiga owners
had to show...

if you think you need an amiga 4000/060 with cd-rom, 32Mb ram and 1 gig
hd, then why is it that you do not want to pay for it ????  how many of
you have bought the par-system for home-use ????  none probably....  ok
there may be some wealthy exception to the rule ....  but lets face it
....  most of the expensive and resource-hungry hard- and software are of
no use to the vast majority of home-users .....  i don't see any dads
editing their summer-holiday videos on a non-linear video-editing
system.....  knowing the trouble involved in the process....

sure...  the par is targeted at the low-cost video-production marked, but
hey, it's a big world out there and any company is only going to invest
once every 3 to 5 years in equipment so they tend to go for the 'bit more
expensive but very compatible with larger systems and easily
expandable'-systems.....  hate to say it but the amiga-based systems up
until now lack in this field.....

if the amiga is ever going to conquer the world as the best
multi-media-machine-ever then you have to seriously address these kind of
things ...

people who really need the hardware are willing and able to pay for it...
only those who think that it would be cool to play rise of the robots on
an amiga 4000/060 with cd-rom, 32Mb ram and 1 gig hd do not want to pay
the full price...

if you really do need the hardware options then this means that you are in
some way or another involved in a professional video or multi-media
business, which means that you can and have to adjust your hourly rates to
be able to offer your clients exactly what they want, to properly serve
them and thus you will have no problem spending the above mentioned arm
and leg.....  if you are not involved in a professional video or
multi-media business and still think you need the hardware, you either now
why it is priced as it is or you should just sell your computer as
obviously you are incapable of valuing it correctly anyway.....

there also is another way of looking at the whole situation; what do you
want the amiga to support or be able to do ???  anything ?  or just
anything that doesn't cost anything ???  the last one ofcourse being the
least exciting one....  face it, cutting edge technologies cost an arm and
a leg and if you want the amiga to be able to handle these technologies
then some conditions have to be met.....  and those will involve expensive
hard- and software setups...

so what does the world look like right now?  until very recently almost
all of the sound-studios outside the u.s.  were using atari as their main
'do it all' computersystem....  right now they are almost all switching to
macs.....  amongst the non-linear video editing systems the macintosh has
always had a very firm base....  several leading systems were based on
macs and that seems to continue or even increase.....  the developments in
this field are still moving incredibly fast and it seems that the end of
this will not be reached for some time to come ....  so basically it might
not be too late to join the game ....  but we will all have to get used to
soft- and hardware demanding certain minimum setups ( eg ....  A6000/xICS,
32Mb ram, several gigs hd, etc ...  ) it should not be any issue at all to
drop support for ks<3.0 ....  the difference between ks3.0 and 3.1 are
minimal so one *might* consider supporting both......  but frankly, i
can't blame the new company if they were to abandon ks<3.1 altogether....

what i think is the only way to make the amiga survive is to have it
outperform any powermac setup conceivable, no matter what the costs are...
as said before, those who need it are willing and able to pay the
price....  this makes it possible to mass-produce the new technologies,
and thus dropping the prices and slowly bring these technologies into
reach of the ordinary user.....

the amiga will never be a widely supported, meaningful system if it keeps
conforming to those stuck in the past and unwilling to spend some extra
money to at least keep up....  nor will it ever get anywhere by demanding
that everything should always be able to run on a cheapest setup
available, again, sorry but if you are unwilling to pay for a proper
system ( by this i mean a system capable of handling your tasks in the
best possible way ) then where do you get the nerve to demand everybody
else to conform to your standards.....  sorry, you lose ....

again, you get what you pay for and so far the amiga has cost next to
diddly...
@endnode
@node P2-3 "CEI Conference on IRC"

===========================================================================
==                        CEI Conference on IRC!                         ==
===========================================================================

On Tuesday, November 29th, an unprecedented IRC conference was held with
Alex Amor from CEI.  It would not have been possible without the help of
numerous channel operators and monitors, particularly Bewdah (Boodah), who
basically did all of the work of maintaining the question queue.  It is
estimated that at least 450 people participated, either in the conference
channel or on one of the numerous echo channels that were established.


<Jason-AR> On behalf of Amiga Report Magazine, I'd like to invite everyone
           to the first EVER Amiga Buyout IRC Conference.

           The conference will go something like this: /msg the moderator,
           me, with a short summary of your question.  You'll be put on a
           list, which will be g iven out periodically by Boodah, the list
           keeper.

           Excessive messaging of the ops, moderator, or guest will NOT be
           tolerated.  We have someone here specifically to do
           kick/banning.

           I appreciate that everyone showed up, but also, not everyone can
           ask a question.  Follow-ups are impossibilities with such a huge
           crowd.

<Bewdah> By the way folks, congratulations on the largest IRC event as far
         as we are aware of.

<Jason-AR> Alex, do you have any opening words?

<alex_cei> Yes.  We are overwhelmed by the response from around the world
           today.  The support has been incredible, our hope is to finalize
           the deal shortly and bring back the Amiga!


<Overlord_> Will you [alex] consider using GLint chips for the amiga?

<LehmanNAV> [GLint is a 3D gfx chip from 3DLabs -Thanks EdS]

<alex_cei> No, the Commodore engineering team was working on a chip set
           with superior performance with a lower cost.  This chip was
           internally referred as a 3d/risc chip set.


<Frotz> Alex- how do you plan on providing educational support?  The
        university I work for is considering closing its amiga lab.

<alex_cei> Educational support is very important to the new Amiga company.
           Our plan calls for a comprehensive support staff exclusively for
           education.  Additionally, special pricing as well as special
           configurations for e ducation should make the Amiga quite
           attractive for all schools.  We are currently working on a plan
           that provides the least expensive solution for students than
           anything else thats available.


<Baffy> Amix is not the only Amiga Unix any more, but I feel it could be
        the best, and thus commercially viable, if development were to be
        continued immediataly .  Are there any plans to restart
        development/support of Amix?

<alex_cei> Support for Amix is possible.  Development on the 68040
           processor needs to be finalized.  There is no reason the new
           company wont support Unix, it's cheap and makes sense. 


<gabe> ok what my question is what do you think about DSP?  and also about
       040 fo r a base cpu for the amiga (ie 040 1200, 040 cd32) and WHat
       about amiga dos on a risc machine?(no windows nt) one more thing
       what about tcp/ip in amiga's?  thanks.

<alex_cei> A multiple part question I see....  First and foremost, DSP are
           good and necessary but, the co-developmen t of applications is
           necessary.

           As the price of the 68040 is reduced it will make the processor
           attractive for low end platforms.  The general transition has
           been to start with the advanced processors on the high end
           machines and migrate to the low end as price permits....

           The OS needs to migrate to a new processor within the next
           twelve months.  There is no reason that the new Amigas can't be
           multi-os machines.  AmigaDos firs t and everything else is just
           the topping on the cake.


<Phalanx> How much of the marketing budget would go into pan-Europe ?

<alex_cei> The marketing budget is fully dependent on a number of factors
           that include the size of the market...  the potential for
           Amigas.  I realize that a number of individuals in Europe are
           afraid the CEI will ignore their market.  This is not the case.
           I fully understand the popularity of the Amiga and the amount of
           marketing support which it needs in Europe.  In order to run a
           profitable company we must capitlize on the strengh ts of all
           the markets.  Marketing is Europe will be directed to the
           consumer market and the d eveloping video market.  While in
           North America the main emphasis will be on the professional
           multimedia markets.


<peman> Will next Amiga have the ZorroIII bus, or what bus will be used in
        future Amiga?

<alex_cei> The Zorro bus is as important to the Amiga as AmigaDos.  I
           believe the next generation machine should have the Zorro and
           the PCI bus.  This will enable developers t o add products
           relatively easilly.


<Jason-AR> Ok, everyone, quick reminder: You only get to ask one question,
           and that's if you're lucky.  If you've asked to be on the list
           already, DON'T ASK AGA IN.  That, and perhaps we can clear up
           some questions with this following salvo:

           1.  What is the current status of your bid and the negotiations?
           2.  Are you making any deals with the UK?

<alex_cei> CEI is in the final negotiating stages with the trustee.  If all
           goes well and there are no legal roadblocks there is a
           possibility that the con tract can be signed early next week.

           The inventory situation remains murky .  Commodore's raw
           material inventory was moved from the old C= factory to a
           warehouse where a number of product were lost or misplaced.  Our
           goal is to reintroduce the Amiga as soon as possible so the
           material issue is important.

           There is also an abundance of legal issues which are being
           resolved.  If all goes well an announcment will be made upon the
           signing.


           As far as the UK status, CEI is willing to work with whatever
           party to make the Amiga succesfull.  Our plan calls for opening
           up a new operation i n the UK and Germany within the next sixty
           days.  These operations will be staffed by the most competent
           individuals possible (either old/new Amiga management) and new
           blood.


<Timmer> Possibly CBM's biggest mistake was the bungling of
         AppShell/AppBuilder.  Will you be rekindling this project and/or
         undertaking a similar new project?

<alex_cei> I'm afraid that I am not familiar with this project.  If its
           good, sells Amiga and helps the market, yes.

<Tau> [AppShell/AppBuilder is a development tool to help designing well
      integrated GUI/ARexx interfaces, basically.]


<Intr> Alex well i wanted to know what is after the 68060?  is it the
       PowerPC (that what i think should be the best) or PA-RISC or
       something else!!!

<alex_cei> IBM/Apple is pushing us towards the PowerPC.  We have had talks
           with HP on the PA-RISC.  This is a determination that needs to
           be made by the new engineering team.  Obviously, we want the
           most powerful Amiga for the least amount of money.  Porti ng the
           operating system will be a key component to the new processor
           for the Amiga.


Kati-AR> Two parter:
         1.  You mentioned education.  Where will the educational software
             come from?  The most popular titles out now are on CD and
             aren't available for t he Amiga.
         2.  Will future versions of WorkBench look more "slick"?  Many
             people now use hacks and new icon packages to make their
             desktops more attractive.

<alex_cei> Part one.....the biggest boost to educational software is to get
           more computers out in the field.  The easiest way to accomplish
           this is through special models and pric ing for education.  As
           the Amiga being the first multimedia computer it makes no sense
           why every Amiga does not come with a CD-ROM drive built in.  The
           utilization of a multiple OS machine al so makes sense. 

           We have a very long list of cosmetic improvements for workbench.


<Bewdah> Sorry to interrupt, but what about including a better text editor,
         paint program, term program, etc ala IBM OS's?  Ed really stinks.


<alex_cei> ABSOLUTELY....What about a terminal program to communicate with
           Internet?  The possibilites are boundless.  I fully realize that
           our look and feel needs to be more professional and "zappier".

<Tau> [Commodore used to have Internet software..  Bundling AS225 shouldn't
      be out of the question even today]

<LehmanNav> [AS225 is too complex]

<alex_cei> We need a communication package that's user friendly.  Its
           important to remember that there is a possiblity that the Amiga
           might be the first computer a customer has purchased.  Ease of
           use is extremely important.  We would like to provide a complete
           out of the box solution for both the home and the business.
           There is no reason that advanced home Amigas can't have
           communication capabilities already built in from the factory.


<AlexG> alex: Is there a possibility that you will look into entering the
        Mexican or Latin-American market, which is growing rapidly?

<alex_cei> The Mexican market has always been strong for Amiga amiga ;-)


<Richie> First, Thomas (ProComp) sends his regards and regrets he couldn't
         be here.
         Q1: Any plans to start production of the A3000+ instead of 4000
             models and/or 3000+ motherboards as upgrades for current
             A3000-owners?
         Q2: Will you, if you decide to go with the PPC, make the Amiga
             MkII-ser ies compatible with the new hardware specs for
             PPC-machines from IBM/Apple/Motorola?

<alex_cei> No.  The first order of business is to restart production on the
           A1200, A4000 and A4000T.  The ability to offer upgrades is one
           that will be explored early in t he game.  The value and loyalty
           of our existing customer base will not be ignored.


<CasBaH> How many people will you have developing new Amigas that have
         actually developed Amigas or hardware for Amigas before?  And how
         big will the development team be?

<alex_cei> When we acquire the assets from Commodore we will be getting 17
           engineers.  Plans call to increase that number to 103 by the end
           of the year.  We will also be working closely with other
           manufacturers i.e.  Ameristar for networking, etc.


<DanF> What does CEI plan to do to support Amiga Users' groups?

<alex_cei> Discount programs, promotional materials, regional
           demonstrations, loan support programs, etc.


<Fila> Will you continue to make  and support CD32's

<alex_cei> Yes.  But, I see the future as an Amiga 1200 type machine with a
           built in CD.  We must be realistic that competing with the big
           boys(Nintendo, SEGA) will be extremely difficult.  Lets take the
           advantages of our technology and move them forward.  The CD32 is
           a great unit for interactive kiosk applications.  The next
           machine utilizing the new technology has a better chance agaisnt
           the big boys.  Unfortunately, C= lost too much valuable time
           with the CD32 and trying to bring it back will simply cost too
           much.


<_lisa_> It seems that now that market is in its mature phase that
         marketing will be critical, especially as the big boys excercise
         hold-and-maintain strategies .How will you fight this?

         Also It seems that now that market is in its mature phase that
         marketing wil l be critical, especially as the big boys excercise
         hold-and-maintain strategies .How will you fight this?

         Also 1) will the amiga ever make it back into mass merchants sand
         2) would y ou like a fresh outta grad school MBA for your
         Marketing Department?

<alex_cei> Another two parter I see.  First the Amiga is still, even today,
           viable against the big boys of the computer market.  There is no
           one that makes a personal home computer that can do what the
           1200 does and sells for that amount.

           If we concentrate on the markets which the Amiga can win hands
           down there is no reason we cant repeat the formula of the
           Commodore 64.  By moving forward with the new technologies that
           Commodore posseses we can play a signi ficant role in new
           developing markets.  (Set-top boxes, interactive display s
           tations, etc.)

           As for the second part our marketing has to be controlled by
           creative (read "unusual") marketing approach.  We simply need
           the best people (PERIOD).


<Camelot> What are your plans for Europe?  In prior conferences you have
          mainly talked about the US.  Do you have enough funds to market
          properly in Europe also? 

          2.  Are you plannning to hire the former C= employees back (eg. 
          Dave Haynie) ?  Al so,> with the rehiring of C= employees would
          you consider AAA?  As far as I know the plans for RISC are based
          on the opinions of 17 engineers, who do not k now AAA? 

<alex_cei> Once again Europe is extremely important!  C= sold 85% of their
           computers in Europe.  We will devote whatever resources are
           necessary to make the European market flourish.

           There are a number of ex-Commodore employees who have offered
           their services once the ac quisition is complete.  Of course we
           are thrilled to build a new Amiga Team uti lizing some of the
           old players.


<hog> 2 downers of NTized (boo!) Amiga:
          1.  will repel loyal Amigoids, who love its close relationship
              between CPU/ custom chips/OS
          2.  will have hard time attracting people who already have NT
              machines
          alex: what is your opinion?

<alex_cei> HUH?

<Jason-AR> Translation:  Do you want to use Win NT?

<alex_cei> The Amiga is unique due to its OS and custom chips.  This does
           not remove the possibility of running multiple OSs.  Remember,
           the Trojan Horse.  Wait till they see our operating system.

           PS.  Most people will not purchase an Amiga because it will run
           NT but , some will not buy it because it doesnt.


<Tau> two parter from people outside:
          1.  You mentioned getting old C= employees back.  Most of the old
              dev team is at Scala and 3DO it seems.  Do you have plans for
              co-development with Scala?
          2.  What is planned for future sound support in Amiga?

<alex_cei> CO-development with Scala is not out of the question.  CEI has
           an excellent relationship with SCALA.  We look forward to
           working with them in the future.

           Part two...DSP.

<Tau> [Sound is one of the things where even the current OS compliant
      software is VERY close to hardware.  Getting it moved to something
      else will be quite a challenge.  Good luck.]


<mickh> How are your plans for porting AmigaOS to a risc cpu?  As native
        and how fast will applications be available than?

<alex_cei> Porting the AmigaOS is large task that we plan to undertake
           almost immediately.  In order to properly implement a port it is
           important to have developers co-assis ting.  Our role includes
           full complete co-developer implementation of the porting.  When
           the ported OS is released applications that fully utilize the OS
           need to be present.


<HarvL> Alex, hi.  Re: upcoming trade shows.  VTU/Calif next month and
        CES/Vegas Jan '95.  What are CEI's plans to be at and/or display at
        either of these shows.  specifically CES wuld make for a great
        venue to "relaunch" the amiga?

<alex_cei> Time constraint is critical.  Once we have wrapped up the
           purchase of the Commodore assets we will immediately begin an
           extremely aggressive show schedul e.  But, to start prematurely
           does not make sense.  I will be attending a number of shows in
           the next few weeks to meet privately with developers and
           supporters.


<Xed> The amiga used to be big down here in Australia until commodore
      screwed all the distributors.  Are there any plans to re-start
      Commodore Australia and rebuild the userbase down here?  I know
      plenty of people who really don't want to sell their amiga (Me
      included).

<alex_cei> Yes, we are having conversation with a number of key players in
           the Australian market.  Our immediate plans do not call for
           opening an office but, working closely with allies.


<Axios> Is a CD-ROM unit with CD32 and MPEG support for the A4000 on the
        list of immediate releases once things get going?

<alex_cei> YES!


<oleg> mr amor, many people have said that amiga is dead technology,
       limited by its custom chips, why spend money on it?

<alex_cei> There are over 400 users here with us at this time.  Orders for
           thousands of computers are being submitted.  The Amiga OS can do
           things that Windows never even dream of at a cost no one can
           match.

           The There are over 400 users here with us at this time.  Orders
           for thousands <alex_cei> of computers are being submitted.  The
           Amiga OS can do things that Windows never even dream of at a
           cost no one can match.  The Amiga is dead?


<Marrs> C= only had a developers program which cost a lot of money.  Do you
        plan on a "cheap" support program for PD/ShareWare authors who just
        want the documentation of the latest OS.

<alex_cei> Yes, the developers are an integral part of making the Amiga
           succesful.  Many developers are small companies working out of
           their homes.  We fully realize that all individuals need to be
           update with the latest informations.


<LehmanNAV> Don't you get the feeling that this whole thing could possibly
            be too little too late?  Especially in the shaking up of the
            market which begun this summer and probably won't end for a
            couple years?

            All of the companies in the industry have become highly
            competitive, and the market tends to polarize around the
            "winning" (not necessarily the best) standard(s).  Do you
            really think CEI is equipped to cope with this enormous threat?

<alex_cei> YES!  Our intent is not to compete directly with the IBMs and
           Compaqs of the world.  The market is fragmenting and customers
           are being wiser when shopping for products.

           The Amiga can do a lot more for a lot less.  No I dont expect
           miracles but, the ability to viably compete in the market is
           more than just an opportunity.


<Sysinfo> 3 Questions:
             1) How will developer support under CEI differ from the former
                C=?
             2) will CEI do what it takes to get the support from SAS
                (SAS/C) back ?
             3) And last, what is CEI betting on, AAA or the so called
                "HOMBRE" project ? 

<alex_cei> CEI will work closely with developers.  This include joint
           ventures, joint marketing programs, bundling the developers
           products with the machines and getting input on the direction of
           the company.

           Getting SAS back on line with the Amiga is critical.  CEI will
           do whatever is necessary to obtain this support.

           The final decision on which technology to go with has not been
           made.  By having the machines share a common bus with graphics
           not located in the motherboard will allow greater flexibility.


<Setok> What will be the price range for the new Amigas?  I don't know much
        about the OS so does it have mem.  protection and stuff?

<alex_cei> There is not a lot of room in the low end Amigas, they were
           cheap to begin with.  The high end Amigas need to be priced more
           realistically.  Our goals are to utilize the original formula
           that made C= succesful in the beginning.  The most powerful
           machine for the least money.  The last few years they seemed to
           have forgotten this.

<Jason-AR> Interrupt: This will, of course, involve more high-profile floor
           scrubber marketing, will it not?  GA


<Richie> Q1: How will you support dedicated Amiga dealerships in favor of
             mail-or der multi-platform houses to enhance the image and
             strength of the Amiga?
         Q2: Have you considered buying SC from SAS and develop it
             yourselves?

<alex_cei> Strict market controls need to be implemented.  The Amiga is not
           a PC clone and should not be treated like one.  The profitable
           survival of the dealership is crucial to selling a specialized
           product like the Amiga.  We have not considered the purchase of
           SC at this time.


<vidarp> This is all fine & dandy but are there NO REAL news just a bunch
         of IF' s & THEN's, i mean C= UK is 99% sure of getting the ami so
         are you, real news so meone must know something, we are still in
         the DARK here, if this takes much longer even i jump ship. 

<alex_cei> IS THAT A QUESTION OR A COMMENT?

<Jason-AR> Comment.  Next question.


<Tachy> HI Alex, will future releases of the Amiga-OS support
        memory-protection by MMU like OS/2, UNIX and others?  As a
        programmer, I think we should care about the efficient OS and
        multitasking of this machine too...  what does CEI think about it?

<alex_cei> Remember, I'm not an engineer or a programmer.  I believe that
           the market expects that all Amigas be equipped with MMUs. 


<Metalite> Multiple processors, Multiple users and multiple screens &
           keyboards in one machine?  oh and memory protection in next
           mahines?

<alex_cei> Sorry, your question is beyond me in this mode.


<dmalovic> will CEI designed amigas have both chunky and planar modes, and
           will they remove videodma from stoping the processor (dual port
           video ram)

<alex_cei> Yes, the work to convert is already existing in the CD32.  This
           question is also beyond me, due to its technical nature.


<Lomby> hello alex: what kind of support do you plan to give in foreign
        countries(private resellers, subsidiaries..)? 

<alex_cei> Major centers of operations will be UK, Germany, Canada and the
           US initially.  Expansion into Norway and Italy are possible.
           Our goals are to work with partners in the remainder of the
           world to fullfil the market needs.


<PreSSo> When will massive multiprocessing (or at least multiprocessing:)
         be sup ported in AmigaOS and on which CPU?  WAlso where can users
         send their ideas on im provements on amiga?  (an email would do:)

<alex_cei> The first question is way to technical to be addressed by me in
           this media.  We are happy to take suggestions by regular mail to
           the following:

               CEI
               5555 West Flagler Street
               Miami, FL 33134
               USA
               Att: Amiga Suggestions

           Once we have accomplished the acquisition we will publish the
           E-mail address.

           Or send your suggestions to "JASON@floorscrubber.com".  He will
           forward them to us on a timely matter.

<Jason-AR> Interrupt: No, no, it's jcompton@bbs.xnet.com, but that's an
           excellent name for when I get a site running...:)


<Phalanx> When can we see RTG ?  It's even more important than RISC.

<alex_cei> RTG is the top item on our need list.  It's time has come.

<LehmanNAV> [I've been asked what RTG is, RTG == Retargetable Graphics,
            which allows a standard graphics interface no matter what the
            graphics characteristics of your display device]


<Tinea> Are you negotiating with Microsoft or Lotus about porting Word or
        AmiPro ?  (Final Writer still doesn't cut it, IMHO)

<alex_cei> We are talking to a number of different players in both the
           hardware and software industry.  At this time I am not liberty
           to give out any specifics.  If we can introduce a mu lti-OS
           machine this would by default give the Amiga users a broader
           base of programs.


<MrGandalf> You mentioned cosmetic enhancements with the OS, what type of
            enhancements might you mean?

<alex_cei> We have taken a close look at the SGI, Windows, etc.  They look
           and feel more professional then our beloved Amiga. 

<Tau> [geez, give me GEOS-C64 rather than Windoze, please ;)]


<Shades> Will the 1200 keep it it current shape as "all-in-one-case"
         computer, or will it be keyboard + case?  And what will be the
         name of the company?

<alex_cei> I believe there is room for improvement on the basic Amiga 1200.
           This does not necessarily mean a redo on the machine but, might
           mean new models (A1 400, A1600, etc.).

           The working name is currently Amiga Technologies International,
           remember this is subject to change depending on the legal types.

<cwolf> [NeXTSTEP would be a much better model :)]

<LehmanNAV> [agreed]

<Tau> [Walk through doors, don't crawl through windows - is that what you
      wanted , Timmer?  ;)]


<Frotz> Why has this taken over 6 months?  Can you explain the difficulties
        so that the skeptical among us understand?

<alex_cei> First of all you must remember that Commodore was once a billion
           dollar company.  There were 35 different companies located in
           over 20 different countries.  It is a legal nightmare.  So far
           the only people who have made money have been the lawyers and
           trustees.

           The majority of the legal matters have been settled and that why
           the actual transfer of property is close at hand.  The problem
           with the Phillipine inventory has also caused the most recent
           delays.

<MattC2> [Lawyers are known for drwing things out as they get paid by the
         hour - :)]

<alex_cei> Hopefully, all these issues have been or will be resolved by the
           end of the week.


<XmikeX> alex: any idea when CEI will have an inventory ready for those
         who've a lready placed deposits on some offbeat CBM equipment like
         a c65 :)

<alex_cei> We have taken no deposits on any offbeat Commodore equipment.
           When the inventory becomes available we fill orders on first in
           first out basis.


<Timmer> Would you consider contracting out some of the OS work, eg.  the
         improvement of the GUI?  I know that we at Phantom Development
         have already done a lot of ground work in this area.

<alex_cei> Yes.  We welcome the opportunity to work with developers to move
           our plans ahead.

<Tau> [I'm sure Pepo here would love a chance to have a look at Intuition
      source :)]


<dracon> The amiga has always been a great sounding machine since the 500
         What ideas have CEI got for the enhancement of the amigas sound
         capabilities?  16bit audio, built-in midi support?

<alex_cei> Again, DSP is instrumental (pun intended) to move the Amiga in
           the sound theater.


<Bewdah> Alex Any chance of EVER seeing the A3000+?  And did you enjoy this
         enough to want to do another IRC conference?  ;)

<alex_cei> I believe you will see a machine that will have all the
           capabilities of the A3000+ and more.

           I have enjoyed the opportunity to be with you this afternoon.  
           Hopefully, next time we can report that we are moving forward
           with the Amiga instead of just talking about it!

<Bewdah> Score, ANOTHER conference!! :)


<Jason-AR> Ok, the conference is coming to an end.  Just to wrap up... 
           Many people have expressed interest in working for the new
           company.  What do you suggest they do at this point?

<alex_cei> We need everyones help in order to be successful.  The one big
           difference is CEI is willing to listen where C= did not.  Let us
           know.


<Jason-AR> What sort of presence, realistically, could you have at this
           Winter CES?  I would think that by now, it's too late to get
           table space.


<alex_cei> CES is out of the question at this point.


<Jason-AR> Ok, everyone, that'll do it.  Stick around for the wrap ups and
           legalities...

* Bewdah thanks Alex for his time for the entire non-voiced crowd.  "Thanks
  mucho Alex!!"


<Jason-AR> Thanks to Alex Amor, President of CEI, for taking the time to be
           here today.  Thanks to the over 400 people who showed up, either
           actively or in a listening mode, for the conference.


<Jason-AR> Thanks to the channel ops for looking imposing, and thanks to
           Bewdah for doing the grunt work of maintaining the list and
           handing out voice.  His help was invaluable.


<alex_cei> Thank you all for attending.  I would like to give a special
           thanks to the moderators and all who have assisted in setting up
           this conference!;-)


<Jason-AR> Comments can be directed to CEI at the address they gave you a
           while back, or directed to me, jcompton@bbs.xnet.com, and
           they'll eventually get to them.

           That should about do it.  Thanks to everyone for making this a
           surprising success.
@endnode
@node P2-4 "Soft-Logik Conference"
@toc P2

===========================================================================
==                    Soft-Logik Conference on GEnie                     ==
===========================================================================

(C) 1994 by GEnie and the Soft-Logik Roundtable. May be reprinted only
with this notice intact. To sign up for GEnie service, call (with modem)
800-638-8369 (in Canada: 1-800-387-8330). Upon connection type HHH (and
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offer code prompt, enter PAJ528 (and then Return). Have a major credit
card ready. For more information in the United States or Canada, call
1-800-638-9636.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
                             OCTOBER 30, 1994
The following is a transcript of the real-time conference with Deron
Kazmaier, president of Soft-Logik Publishing Corporation, on GEnie. This
transcript has been edited only for spelling and clarity.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

<[Michael] SL-DEV> Welcome!  In conference with us tonight is SoftLogik
President Deron Kazmaier.  This conference will have two parts.  The
formal part of the conference will begin now and will be in listen-only
mode.  When you want to ask a question, you will have to 'raise your hand'
by typing /RAI and then pressing Return to get my attention.  Please
prepare your questions before your turn or keep them short.  After the
formal part of the conference there will be an informal segment where
everybody can talk freely.

<[Michael] SL-DEV> Remember that Deron isn't here in conference with us
very often.  Use this opportunity to ask him questions about the future of
Soft-Logik and PageStream, not when bug X will be fixed or what the
technical support phone number is.  I can answer those questions for you
at any time.

<[Michael] SL-DEV> I'm going to post a few words from Deron before we get
started...

"Thank you for coming to tonight's conference.  I'm glad to have this
opportunity to speak with you in person.  Tonight is my chance to share
with you our plans.  I know you all have a lot of questions, and I'll
answer them all in a minute.  First I would like to outline our directions
for the future.

"Our main priority at this time is PageStream3 for the Amiga.  We are
committed to finishing the unimplemented features, and fixing any problems
in the program.  We want to make it the best desktop publisher possible. 
I don't have anything new to announce for the Amiga at this time, and I
think most of our customers would be happiest if we'd concentrate on
finishing version 3.

"The answer to whether or not there will be a PageStream 3.0 for the Atari
is no.  I know that there are many people out there who love PageStream
and who would love to upgrade to 3.0; however, we have come to the
conclusion that it would not be profitable to do a new version.

"We don't think we could sell enough copies of a new Atari version to
justify the development expense.  We have analyzed it every possible
way---not writing an Atari specific manual, contracting the programming to
somebody else, etc---and it just doesn't make sense.  If it was at all
financially possible, we would do it.  We had hoped that Atari's success
with the Jaguar would lead to revitalized sales of their computers, but
that has not happened unfortunately.

"I hope that the Atari and Amiga users here who are thinking about
changing computers will continue to use PageStream into the future.  If
you've been wanting to buy a Macintosh or Windows computer but shudder at
the thought of leaving PageStream, I have good news for you.  There will
be PageStream for Macintosh and PageStream for Windows.

"I can't tell you when they will be available, but we have already begun
work on them.  The first version for each platform will be very similar to
the finished version of PageStream3 for the Amiga with just a few features
specific to each platform.  We will have a very affordable upgrade path
from the Amiga and Atari versions.  Subsequent versions will add support
for other machine specific features.  There will also be a Windows version
of TypeSmith, our font editor."

<[Michael] SL-DEV> That's the end of Deron's prepared words.  The floor is
now open to questions.  Remember to type /RAI to raise your hand to ask a
question.

<[Michael] SL-DEV> I'm going to cheat and put the room in talk mode, but
please, still type /RAI to raise your hand to talk.  It's just easier for
me to work this way.  I'll tell you when to speak.

Room is now in the talk mode.

<[ScottJ] S.CORLEY1> Deron, given the situation concerning Commodore, how
much longer will you be able to support the Amiga?  A related question,
what platform and OS is PageStream 3.0 being ported to?  PowerMac,
Windows, Windows NT, OS/2?

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Well, I won't lie and say forever.  I think it will be
for several more years to come.  The Atari basically stopped being
financially viable years ago.  The mac will require system 7 or above, and
the PC will be windows 3.1 or later, using win32s for 3.1, or native on NT
or later.

<[ScottJ] S.CORLEY1> Thanks, Deron.

<W.NEAR> Will there be a feature similar to the Art Board on PPage in PS3?

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Artboard in PageStream3?  We hope to make the white
area around the page a pasteboard where objects in that area will show on
any page.  GA

<R.LEVETIN> Even though there are many more IBM's and Mac's out there
there are also some heavey hitters already in the market.  Do you really
feel you can get enough of that market to make that financial viable when
you have abondoned the Atari market for financial reasons?

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Well, 1/10 of 1% of the windows market would do us
better than the Atari.  We have had more requests from x-atari users
asking for a windows version, than from atari users asking for an atari
version.  We may not become #1 or #2, or even #5, but we are used to
selling much less than they are ;-) GA

<R.LEVETIN> As of 6 months ago, Pacific seemed to still be selling the
Atari version at a steady clip.  And how many of those 1/10 of 1 % can you
actually guarantee will actually buy verses pirating?

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> I'm sorry.  I know bad news is hard to believe, but I
still have to put food on the table, and Atari is not doing that.  It has
been less than 3% or our sales for over 3 years (since before the last
release on the atari).

<[greenboy] D.GREEN25> When is an upgraded Art Expression going to be
available?  Oh, for a heavyweight-class EPS solution...Again, FOR THE
AMIGA.

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> BAD NEWS: we are not going to do a new version of AE.
GOOD NEWS: We will be doing a structured drawing extension that provides
similar functionality.  PGS3 already has arexx, fountain fills, etc. 
Selling you a new program would be cruel (but I can take your money twice
if you like :-) GA

<W.NEAR> Will PS3 have the ability to bend text on an arc and will it be
able to do a fit text to box like PPage4?

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Yes and Yes (not exactly the same but close).  In the
drawing extension only.  GA

<R.BROWN30> My question: will we see cross platform file compatibility,
and will we see drivers for the 560C and Stylus for new versions (plus
Atari?)

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> PageStream3 uses a very nice (IMHO) file format we
developed called IFF DOC.  It is very extensible, and will be used on all
of our future programs.  560C is 550C compatible (the 600x300 only works
in text mode, not graphics mode).  Stylus, yes we plan to add it.  GA

<[ScottJ] S.CORLEY1> Deron what about a version of PGS 3.0 for Unix? 
Especially the free/PD Unixes?  I've heard that FrameMaker is coming out
for Linux.  GA.  For the latecomers, here's a recap....

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Unix?  Not anytime soon.  GA

<[ScottJ] S.CORLEY1> Thanks.

<[Michael] SL-DEV> For those who arrived late, here's a news summary: 1st
priority is to finish the unimplemented features of PageStream3 Amiga and
to fix any bugs.  There will not be a new version of PageStream for Atari.
There will be versions of PageStream for Macintosh and Windows, and
TypeSmith for Windows.

<[Buzz] B.STRATTON> Will the drawing extension be a seperate program
included in the PgS package or part of the PgS program?

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> It's just a figment of our imagination right now :) We
plan to make it a seperate program that gets loaded just like a filter,
but will integrate itself seamlessly into the program.  GA

<[Buzz] B.STRATTON> Thanx

<[greenboy] D.GREEN25> Acrobat is a big deal in the world at large.  Can
we get it too?

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> One of the nice things about our new filter system is
that we can write doc loaders for just about anything, given time (which
we don't have much of these days :) We believe that acrobat will be a big
deal on the Mac and PC, and since the code is the same you'll get it on
the amiga.  GA

<C.PIPER2> I support SL's continued efforts with my checkbook.  I hate the
thought of switch platforms but I need a hassle free environment.  What
can we expect your efforts to produce in the end?

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Could you clarify? GA

<C.PIPER2> I mean what is it you are attempting to accomplish for the
Amiga in terms of DTP?

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> With app.library on each of the 3 platforms mentioned,
the core code will be shared, so as we develop new features to stay
competive on the mac and pc, you'll get them as well (for a fee ;) GA

<G.FUHRMAN> Gotta go now - Deron and Michael, I just wanted to say thanks
for your contributions to the Atari (& Amiga) world over the years - it
was fun while it lasted - and good luck in the Big Pond of MacWindows.

<W.NEAR> If Amiga survives will you stay with us or go like Gold Disk?

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> As long as the Amiga makes us enough money to cover
our expenses, we will support it.  Like I said before, I won't lie and say
forever.  I don't know what the future holds for Amiga or Soft-Logik (my
crystal ball is on backorder).  Like I said, it should be easy to develop
for the Amiga now that the OS specific stuff has been written, and I'm not
expecting to many new OS releases :(...

<[ScottJ] S.CORLEY1> Why was HotLinks dropped from PageStream 3.0? GA

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Scott: HotLinks was dropped in favor of a better
system.

<[ScottJ] S.CORLEY1> In what way is it better?

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> The file system notification allows us to do the same
things as hotlinks, and allow non-hotlinks applications to offer partial
support.  For example, if you take a picture in PGS and make it external,
if you take and load that picture in AdPro, modify it, and save it back
out, PGS will automatically update the document just like "hotlinks".  The
concept works the same, just with a different program.  Instead of a
program called "hotlinks", its the OS doing some of the work.  We have to
do more work in pagestream, but it's better.  GA

<KEVIN.D> What's the status of documentation of the IFF DOC format and
information for developers that might want to do extensions for PageStream
3.0?  Could you talk about its extensibility?  3rd party Printer drivers?

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> IFF DOC has been documented for a very long time.  We
used it inhouse so that Dan could write a program we call xray that
examines the contents of a document file to ensure everything is OK. 
However, I'm not anxious to release it since more than 1 person has asked
for it, and the reason was always something like "I want to import
pictures in pgs, so can I create a document that you can load".  However,
when we get the extensions documented (which requires a _lot_ since you
must use app.library) I'll release them so that if the extensions doesn't
cut it, you can use the doc.  GA

<R.RATCLIFFE> When do you think the full upgrade (the one you mail to
users) will be available?

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Do you really want a time from the man who said PGS
would ship in August of 93?  Our problem is that we have never done a
project so large (and the amiga has never seen one so large either).  We
are all working long hours to get it done, and it will be done asap.  GA

<[greenboy] D.GREEN25> Why not have Pageliner show the styles like
GoldDisk's AE?  That couldn't have that much overhead if they could do it.

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> it does in 3.0c.  Look at appendix B in your manual. 
That is them.  GA

<[Buzz] B.STRATTON> Uh, what's acrobat?  Short answer would be just fine.
GA

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Its kind of like EPS for documents, + the ability to
parse and edit them like adobe illustrator.  GA

<[STEVE] S.MARKOW> In regards to PgS 3.0 Atari, you mentioned for Amiga
"as long as you cover your expenses".  How much would it take to cover
expenses for an Atari 3.0, in terms of commitments from present users, and
if you won't, would you be willing to allow a third party to take it over
and get a 3.0 version out?

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> A year ago I contacted some people I thought might be
interested.  No one even nibbled.  It's even worse now.  GA

<R.BROWN30> To get a little more specific, will ATARI PgS file formats be
importable in the new Mac/Win PgS versions.  There's two Atari PgS pro
users here with 600 megs of files to consider!  Actually, _more_ than 600
megs...

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Well, pgs3 amiga loads pgs2 files, and the filters
will compile on any of the machines, so I expect that we will offer those
filters to those who are upgrading.  No extra effort on our part :-) GA

<[Bill] W.NEAR> About that fit text to box thing.  Will there be a button
that will just recalculate the point size until the text fits?

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> You can do it now with text objects and arexx in just
a few lines of code.  How about it mike?  GA

<[Michael] SL-DEV> Sure. :) How much is it worth to you? :)

<[Bill] W.NEAR> It should be included like it was with PPage. :-)

<[Michael] SL-DEV> W.NEAR: send me email with more detail on what you want
it to do.  I'll write it when I have a chance and upload it to the library
here.

<[Bill] W.NEAR> Thanks

<[ScottJ] S.CORLEY1> SL-Prez, any chance of SL releasing a word processor
based on PGS 3.0.  Or even releasing the filters PGS 3.0 uses to handle PC
& Mac wordprocessor file formats?  GA.

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Scott: I don't see a word processor coming from pgs3
code.  Just too different.  What about the filters?  I don't understand. 
GA

<[ScottJ] S.CORLEY1> No Amiga wordprocessos hcan handle PC/MAC file
formats, I was hoping you'd release the code to do that.

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Yes, again, on the PC and Mac, we will have to support
the native file formats, and when we write those filters, you'll get them
on the Amiga.  Going to those platforms really will breath life in the
Amiga version for years to come.  GA

<[Bruce] B.MAUGER1> I am a atari user and I'm sorry that you will not be
suporrting it!  however....just bout a PC and wondered it upgrade possible
from platform to platform

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Yes!  Basically, we will offer an upgrade from Atari
(and amiga) to either mac or pc (just as we do now from Atari to Amiga and
Amiga to Atari).  Our biggest hope to keep the pagestream family of users
as our customers for years to come.  GA

<KEVIN.D> Just a comment: one of the most frequent PageStream extensions
mentioned on the Internet is an article editor.  oops.  I mean equation
editor

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> The way objects are support in pgs3, it should be easy
to make tables, graphs, crossword puzzles and yes, even equation editors.
We will probably do a simple one and let others do it one better.  GA

<[greenboy] D.GREEN25> RIGHT-AMIGA-u is Undo everywhere else.  Why not
TypeSmith?  Is this a German thang?...  And what about that there
TypeSmith upgrade that has been mentioned?  I love this program---but I
would like to see a MONSTER...On the AMIGA!  If there were leading edge
programs on a platform earlier on, we wouldn't face the question of
"defection".

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> RIGHT-AMIGA-Z is _the_ standard for undo.  See made
147 of the Amiga style guide (published by commodore) as proof :) What was
your question about typesmith?  We have not annouced any major update to
it, unless your just talking about 2.5a.  GA

<[greenboy] D.GREEN25> right

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> 2.5a should be next week.  No comments have come back
from the beta to prevent it from being released, and shipping is getting
restless.  GA

<KEVIN.D> 2.5a looks fine here

<[STEVE] S.MARKOW> Deron, you still did not answer my entire question. 
#1) with enough $$ committed from users, would you do Atari 3.0 #2) If
yes, how much and #3) If a third party would "nibble", would you let them
do it?  (a 3.0 version)..GA

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Well, we once figured that an Atari version would cost
around 80k.  That doesn't count lost dev time, nor profit potential vs
other projects.  We have received less than 150 letter/faxes/ email.  That
works out to an upgrade price of $533 :) I know you don't like the news, I
don't either.  I've spent many years programming for the atari, and don't
like the idea of loosing that investment.  But sales for the Atari in the
last 3 years wouldn't pay the bills for a month.  GA

<[Bruce] B.MAUGER1> (as you see I need the spellchecker part hehe)
anyway..with all the Atari people here perhaps you will reconcider your
position.  I DO love your product.  I am not a programmer but...  I am
willing to find some who could do it!???  GA

<[ScottJ] S.CORLEY1> Soft-Logik, any thoughts on distributing PGS 3.0 on a
CD-ROM with lots of clipart?  GA

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> We did (heck, it would save us about 20% in COG), but
the 40 users would not be enough.  I'll keep it in mind.  Maybe CDROM is
more prevelant on the Amiga than I think it is.  GA

<[Dave] D.KNOELL1> Any ideas on scripting language support in Windows
version ala REXX?  The implementation in PgS3 is one of the unique things
seperating PgS from the "bunch".  :-)

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Well, we _have_ to support visual basic.  If we do an
OS2 version, we would definately support rexx there.  If IBMs version of
windows takes off we would support it as well.  The macro functionality
will _not_ go away!!!  GA

<[Buzz] B.STRATTON> From your point of view.  If the Amiga goes bye bye. 
Which platform do you like to work with the most as a user?  I'm talking
overall useability.

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> I'm on a mac write now ;) (my fears are that windows
will win).  Everyone in the office has a mac for database work.  Only 3
people have PCs :-) GA

<[Bill] W.NEAR> When using a text frame with more than one column is it
possible to resize one individual column within that frame?

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> no.  Its one object divided internally.  We might
allow different divisions in the future, but not short term.  However, you
will _never_ be able to flow 2 different articles into it.  Its main
purpose is to allow easy change for column format.  GA

<R.BROWN30> Well, now that it's posed, we'd like to place an order for PgS
Windows.  How soon can you deliver?  By the by, it looks like my new
Atari/Mac/DOS software concern will be pressing CD-ROMs ;) [We're frankly
concerned the Mac is dying, though]

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Good god.  You don't expect me to pin a date on
something like that?  We can't predict the mac and pc versions since it is
so new for us.  While some people here have "prior history", most don't.

<KEVIN.D> Another comment: OS/2 is approaching 10 million copies and OS/2
users really want native OS/2 apps.  That MAY be where the Amiga users
head if Amiga manufacturing never resumes.  I'm going OS/2 on my PC as
soon as Warp ships.

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> I must admit, OS/2 is #3 on our future list.  But we
don't have a single copy here, so don't hold your breath.  GA

<KEVIN.D> [turning blue]

<[Bruce] B.MAUGER1> Mike and Deron I would like to thank you for a great
product.  I understand your point and if you ever reconceder I will BUY
it!  thanks again.  GA

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Thank you.  Perhaps someday we will cross paths on the
Mac or PC.  See ya there!  GA

<[greenboy] D.GREEN25> Back to AE---we dealers have been calling in at
SoftLogik and told "out-of-stock but soon available" for months now on AE.
Be nice to see superb On-All-Fronts DTP Amiga.  Most developers stop at
Less-Than-Optimum for the auxillary programs (TypeSmith, AE?).  PgS3 might
be the giant it was touted as, but we need the whole ball of wax.  That is
what makes the main program work, Fonts and Art (well, text too).

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Well, "available soon" is a relative term :) However,
that "availability" is in the form of an extension.  We will probably sell
a PageStream3 bundle with the drawing extension, but I don't see a stand
alone ArtExpression in our near future.  GA

<AEO.MAG> As a buyer of the original Publishing Partner, I have to say
that I am dissapointed that there will not be a future version of your
terrific software for the Atari.  :-/ My question is, will tech support
for Ataris continue?  GA

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> As you know, tech support goes paid 90 days after your
first call after August 15(?) so we don't stand to loose much money. 
However, it won't be forever.  No final decision has been made, but no new
versions/updates will be released.  GA

<[Travis] AEO.MAG> I understand your decision, even though I am
dissapointed you had to make it.

<KEVIN.D> Once PageStream 3 is "finished", what's a reasonable amount of
RAM to run it in?  Has PageStream been tried with any of the virtual
memory programs like Gigamem?

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> I think we should bump min requirements to 4 meg.
BTW, 3.0c has gone down 50k :-) However, even if we add another 200k of
code, that won't make much difference.  Gigamem has been reported to work,
and others as well.  GA

<KEVIN.D> Will we be able to print in less ram than with the current
version?  I mean print quickly

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> yes, some day.  We hear the same cries in the night as
you do.  GA

<KEVIN.D> ;-)

<[Bill] W.NEAR> Will AE be avail.  to registered users of PS3 and for how
much?

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Bill, I don't understand your question.  AE is out of
stock (no manuals!) and we don't plan on reprinting.  If you mean the
extension, yes, and we don't have a price (cheap for those who already own
AE v1).  GA

<[Dave] D.KNOELL1> Deron, are you going to develop on a NT workstation?
I'm currently using DEC Alpha's (150MHz) and love 'em.  Windows NT (3.5
Daytona) ain't too bad either.

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Dave, we are using NT (now 3.5) on an Intel platform.
Let me know in email about your system.  We are spoiled around here when
it comes to hardware ;) GA

<[Bill] W.NEAR> OK thanks guys and keep supporting the Amiga!!!

<[Rick B.] R.BILONICK> Is the problem with moving objects fixed in 3.0c? 
they resize when moved

<[Michael] SL-DEV> Rick: I'm not sure what you mean.  Do you mean the grid
snap problem?

<[Rick B.] R.BILONICK> If I make an object exactly 3" by 3" and then move
it interactively.  It resizes to 3.01" by 3.01" (something like this).  I
have to use nudge to move objects so they don't resize (like when making a
table).

<[Michael] SL-DEV> Rick: I can't duplicate that right now (I just tried).
I'll look into it tomorrow.

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> This is news to us.  However, mike will check it out
and get back to you on that.  There is a problem in 3.0b or earlier where
objects get snapped wrong that is fixed in 3.0c.  But the size of the
object is not effected (unless your resizing :)

<[Rick B.] R.BILONICK> Also, I need to printout math symbols (like square
root, +/-, etc.) in Postscript.  Where can I get the fonts?  Unless there
is some option that I have set incorrectly.

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> You have it already. its called symbols. GA

<[Bill] W.NEAR> Will 3.0c be out Nov 1st as stated?

<[Michael] SL-DEV> 3.0c: probably, Deron's leaving for Germany.  :)
(Skipping out of the country...  :)

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> I'm done, just working on little things until I leave
while the rest finish there jobs.

<[Dave] D.KNOELL1> Deron.... have a cold one over there for me!!

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> I was going to drink my Framboise lambic, but it has a
cork in it!!!  I only have a bottle opener.  I had a Anchor porter
instead.  I brew my own, so beer is near and dear to my heart.  I just
wish I had more time for such hobbies...

<[Bill] W.NEAR> Thanks for PS3 guys, I look forward to bragging to my Mac
and IBM buddies!  :-)

<[Rick B.] R.BILONICK> Have you looked at the S-Plus eps clip I uploaded?
Can't get PgS3.0b to print them.

<[Michael] SL-DEV> Rick: no, but I have the file in my test directory to
look at when I have a chance.  I have lots of files to test out.  (I have
to finish the TypeSmith 2.5a master disk first.)

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Well, I think we are about done.  Lets talk about the
big stuff (just kidding).

<[Rick B.] R.BILONICK> Where can I get fonts with square root, +/- and
other math symbols that will print in Postscript?  I have tried Symbol
font.

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> symbol font has those things.  I just checked the
sample sheet for it.

<[Rick B.] R.BILONICK> But they will not print!

<[Michael] SL-DEV> They won't print: from 2.2 or 3.0?  PostScript or
non-PostScript?

<[Rick B.] R.BILONICK> They do not print in PgS3.0b in Postscript.  I have
tried numerous times.

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> You'll be happy with the 3.0c driver then.  I just
finished font reencoding, so that you get all kinds of goodies in the
normal fonts even (like TM and (R) from helvetica).  Something I've been
wanting to do for years...

<[Rick B.] R.BILONICK> You mean that the square root in Times will now
actually print in Postscript?

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> O_postscript times doesn't have such a character.  You
have to use symbol.  Reencoding just reveals characters found in the font,
doesn't make new ones!

<[ScottJ] S.CORLEY1> Thanks for holding the conference, Deron.

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> No problem.  Disappointed in attendance, but it did
last long.  I think we lost about half when we said no Atari.  Glad to be
here.  I get the messages through my mail, but don't get much a chance to
get online.  can you say ball and chain?  I knew you could.

<[ScottJ] S.CORLEY1> I noticed the dropoff in attendance when the dropping
of Atari support was announced.  I guess the big surprise that Mike Loader
mentioned in his post wasn't a good one for Atari owners.

<[Michael] SL-DEV> Scott: the big surprise was the announcement that we
were going to work on win and mac versions.  I can't believe the no atari
3.0 came as much of a surprise.

<[SL-PREZ] DERON.K> Mike beat me to the punch :)

<FRED.M> what will come first...mac or windows?

<[Michael] SL-DEV> Depends on which horse you're betting on.  :) We
started the windows version before the mac version, but the mac version is
going easier so you never know...
@endnode
@node P2-5 "Workbench Christmas List"
@toc P2

===========================================================================
==  Workbench Christmas List                       By: @{"Katherine Nelson" link P8-3}  ==
===========================================================================

What would YOU like to see in a new version of Workbench?  New icons, more
utilities, etc?  How about commercial software pack-ins?  Let me know!

By Christmas I hope to have a comprehensive list of suggestions for future
Workbench versions.  If you think anything is missing or could be better,
write to me at:

e-mail:  kati@cup.portal.com

                 or

postal:  Katherine Nelson
         35 W 852  Highland Ave.
         Elgin, IL 60123-5043
         USA

ALL recommendations will be put on a sort of "Wish List", and be sent to
whomever purchases the Amiga Technology.

I can definitely get it noticed at CEI if they win, and I will try my
damnedest to get C= UK to read it if they win.

Please send me your opinion, since the more input the new Amiga company
gets about the OS, the more they can improve upon it.

Katherine Nelson
Assistant Editor
@endnode
@node P3-1 "Review: CEI A1962 14 inch Monitor"
@toc P3

===========================================================================
==  Review: CEI A1962 14 inch Monitor                 By: @{"Jason Compton" link P8-1}  ==
===========================================================================

What does one do when the 1950 goes on the blink?

Well, if you're lucky enough to have a 3000, you can always settle for a
VGA monitor...it'll work.  But if you've also got an AGA machine (and I
have a CD32) you want something a bit more friendly...on the other hand, if
you're a 24-bit board user, you may want something with a bit more range to
it anyway.

Electrohome came up with a monitor to solve this problem, and CEI
commissioned their own line of them.  (Well, it's just CEI's sticker on an
Electrohome monitor, but the outcome is the same.) Enter the A1962.

In essence, it's intended to be a direct 1960 replacement.  It offers the
all-important 15khz range, and will scan up to some of the more impressive
modes (which, for lack of a 24-bit board in my current arsenal, I'm unable
to test.)

So, what's to say?  Picture quality is crisper than I'm used to on the
1950, although I found that I had to play with the contrast and brightness
a bit to get away from the "default" settings, which strike me as far too
dark.  Scan-changes snap very quickly and with an audible click from the
monitor.  HAM8 pictures look lovely, and regular operation is comfortable
to look at.

I was a bit disoriented at first by the monitor, as its tube curvature
seems more extreme than the 1950, but it actually seems to have less glare.
While vertical size and horizontal position knobs exist, there is no
vertical position or horizontal size, which is a bit upsetting.  (You would
think that if a 1950 has it, a newer, better monitor would...) The monitor
cable itself is somewhat shorter than the 1950's, which isn't a problem for
my 3000, but is a slight inconvenience for my CD32/SX-1, residing a few
feet away.  It still connects...barely.

Probably the weirdest thing about the monitor is that it comes, standard,
as a power lead designed to plug into the out-port on power supplies. 
Neat, but they don't include a cable if you happen to have, say, a 3000 and
don't have that beefy of a power supply, in which case you have to dig a
cable up...

The relatively few brands and numbers of monitors of this type have lead
them all to be rather expensive, and the A1962, which comes in around
US$500, is no exception.  If you've gotta have it, you've gotta have it,
but I'm also inclined to try to hang onto my fading 1950 for as long as I
can before dropping more money than it takes to buy two CD32s these days...

The upshot: A good monitor for the job it's intended for.  Shame about the
price, though, as with the rest of its kind these days.

Creative Equipment Int'l
5555 West Flagler St.
Miami, FL
USA
@endnode
@node P3-2 "Review: Conundrum"
@toc P3

===========================================================================
==  Review: Conundrum                                 By: @{"Jason Compton" link P8-1}  ==
===========================================================================

From the cellar of Pete Storonskij comes Conundrum, his latest offering to
the shareware game market.  You remember Pete "Mangled Fenders", don't
you?

He's a great guy.  Hell of a programmer, and quite creative.  Well,
actually, I don't know if he's a great guy, I'm only basing that on his
penchant to send me his games for free.

Anyway, Pete was inspired by hexagonal bathroom floor tile enough to write
Conundrum, which I suppose must be described as a puzzle game.  I've always
had mixed feelings about puzzle games.  I guess I just feel stupid when I'm
unable to do well at them.  Conundrum seems to be designed for people like
me...it has a VERY gentle learning curve.  The flip side of that is that
experienced players have to start at very high levels, but I'll get to
that.

The game is laid out on a flat hexagonal grid.  Levels start with a pattern
of tiles on the grid, with numbers ranging from 1-9.  You have to use your
tiles, which can be numbered from 1-9, to change all numbered tiles to
blank tiles.  When you put two tiles next to each other, they "negate"
based on who has what number.  If the numbers match, they're both negated.

Sounds easy?  Yeah, it is, when you get the hang of it.  Your only two
enemies are the clock (10 seconds to make each move-blow it, and the game's
over) and the possibility that you can "trap" numbered tiles entirely
inside of negated tiles.  Your only hope then is to blow them up, which is
something you can do when you start getting blow-up tiles in your arsenal.

This is fun.  I like it a lot.  After a while, the first 50 levels or so
are nearly no challenge, so it's a good thing he lets you start at 1 up to
100 in intervals of 10.

The most striking thing about the game is the way it plays...it's sharp,
snappy, and again, fun.  The least striking thing is the sound.  Bad, bad,
bad.  Please, audio artists, help Pete out in the future...

Incidentally, Pete is now selling his entire collection of games for a mere
US$10.  If he hadn't given them to me already, I'd buy them.  :) It's
really a good deal, breaking down to $2.00 per game, and the mileage on
them (especially Conundrum and Mangled Fenders) is considerable.

Conundrum is, in short, an enjoyable and reasonably laid-back puzzle game.
You won't get a head rush, but you won't get ulcers, either.

Pete W. Storonskij
200 'A' St.
Lincoln, Nebraska  68502
USA
@endnode
@node P3-3 "Review: Music MOD and Sound Effects CD"
@toc P3

===========================================================================
==  Review: Music MOD and Sound Effects CD            By: @{"Jason Compton" link P8-1}  ==
===========================================================================

Well, the name should pretty much remove all doubt.  This compilation of
almost 3000 mods and over 6000 sound effects is on CD-ROM, and that's it.

The CD is non-bootable, so you'll need either a regular Amiga or some way
to boot-and-switch on a CD32/CDTV.

Theoretically, anyone should be able to handle using the CD.  The layout
isn't elegant (basically, everything is alphabetical, so it's like
searching through a junk drawer) The selection, like any compilation, has
its bright spots and its clunkers, but GuitarSlinger is on there, which is
enough for me.  Dividing up the mods by style, or partitioning off some of
the more prolific artists would have been nice, but more time consuming for
Better Concepts, I'm sure.

The sound effects...well, if you like random sound effects, these are for
you.  The only specific divisions are for Beavis and Butthead (oh boy),
Speech, and Effects.  The speech directory contains quite a bit of random
babbling...

The selection ensures that your US$20 will keep you occupied for quite a
while, even if there is at least one 400k mod that is on there twice, once
with an extra space and once without...

If you're a Paula fan and have a CD-ROM drive that's anxious to spin away
merrily loading MODs up, you'll have a great time.

Better Concepts, Inc.
10 Mandon Terrace
New City, NY  10956
914-639-5095
@endnode
@node P3-4 "Hermes Hyper-Text Review 'NEWICONS'"

              ____________________________________________________
             |                                                    |
             |  H E R M E S'   H Y P E R - T E X T   R E V I E W  |
             |                                                    |
             |                        O F                         |
             |                                                    |
             |           * * * * N E W I C O N S * * * *          |
             |____________________________________________________|

 @{"       Program Info        " link H1} What it is and does!
 @{" Packaging & Installation  " link H2} What you get and how to get it there?
 @{"      Program Specs        " link H3} Configuration, Compatability
 @{" About NEWICONS' Author(s) " link H4} Who's Responsible?
 @{"      Program Cost         " link H5} Pay-Back Time!
 @{"         Where!            " link H6} Getting yer hands on this-here thing!
 @{"    Review / Opinion       " link H7} Just the Facts!
 @{"          Bugs             " link H8} If any?
 @{"    Review By Hermes       " link H9} The Dude that wrote this darn thing!
@endnode
@node H1 "Program Info 'NEWICONS'"
@toc P3-4

___________________________
 PROGRAM INFO / (NEWICONS)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

   "NewIcons" is not "just another set of icons".  NewIcons is a completely
new concept in revolutionizing Icon-Management within the Amiga.
   With the advent of Kickstart 3.0 (NewIcons runs on 2.1 as well),
Commodore took a bold first step towards retargetable Graphics.  There
isn't a device independent graphic engine yet, but there is a new pen
arbitration system which allows applications to obtain a given color, or
the one which is closest to it if there are not enough free pens.
   It's simply ridiculous that, on a system capable of displaying a 256
color Workbench screen, and with a pen arbitration system like the one
described above that icons are limited to 8 colors.  Now, various solutions
have been proposed, ranging from "use some colors and hope they are right"
to "allocate some pens and reserve them for icon display", but they all
miss the point, which is:

   · Why should I, the user, have to care about the icon palette?

   · Why should I set the system palette in a way decided by someone else
(the icon designer) and not the way _I_ like it?

   When you display a picture on the Workbench screen using MultiView, you
don't have to care about the palette: the system chooses it for you.  So
why should one care about the palette used by icons?  The system should
take care of it, not the user.
   Unfortunately, icons don't carry palette information.  Therefore,
NewIcons defines a new standard for icon files, and writes a system patch
to make the system recognize it. 

   · The new standard is backward compatible, that is, users not running
     the patch program should see the standard 4-color icons.

   · Manipulation of icons by users not running the patch program will not
     cause the new icon information to be lost.

   · Remapping of the icons to the Workbench palette is fast.

   · Icon data is compressed to reduce disk usage.

   · The patch works even on Kickstart 2.0 systems, with limited features.

   The new icon information gets stored in the ToolTypes, so it is
completely backwards compatible.  The "newicon.library," takes care of
reading and writing the imagery in the ToolTypes; it also hides away the
special ToolTypes so that when one asks for information about an icon only
the standard ToolTypes are shown.  A patch program supplied intercepts
calls to icon.library, redirecting them to newicon.library, so that
Workbench and all other applications transparently get the new icon
imagery.

(NOTE: The above taken from program documentation, with minor changes made)
@endnode
@node H2 "Packaging and Information 'NEWICONS'"
@toc P3-4

_________________________________________
 PACKAGING AND INSTALLATION / "NEWICONS"
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Supplied Stuff: "NewIcons.lha"

   · "newicons.library" library
   · "newicons" program 
   · "defIcons" program 
   · "patchopenwb" script (3.0 use only)
   · installation script and installer program
   · "newicons.guide" guide
   · Icons (lots and lots of um)
   · Icon utilities: "copy_new_icon," "copy_default_icon," "Kill_Icon,"
     "replaceImage", and "injectbrush."
   · 2.0 and 3.0 preset paletts (just to head you in the right direction)
   · Building Blocks (Templates for making your own NewIcon icons)
   · Screen IFF for seeing what it will look like 

   NewIcons comes with everything that you need to get started: Icons,
Library, Patches, and Programs.  An installation script takes care of the
installation of the programs and the writing of the new ToolTypes
information, into your existing icons.  The icons that the install script
missed, because they were non-standard icons not supplied from Commodore,
get changed by two easy to use point-N-click programs, "Copy_New_Icons" and
"Copy_Default_Icon."
   Now keep in mind that while all this icon changing is going on, none of
your original icon information is getting affected.  However, I did find
that on occasion, the "copy_default_icon" program did change the base icon
information, so I would suggest that you hold off using this program until
you are sure that you are going to continue using the system.  The
"kill_icon" program removes the icon information from the ToolTypes section
and returns your icon back to its original state.
   The "patchopenwb" program is intended to fix the WorkBench 3.1 bug of
the crashing that occurs when the Workbench screen is closed and then
reopened.  I could not verify if this patch worked because I have 2.1.  
However, a friend of mine who has 3.1 said that the "patchopenwb" program
did not fix the 3.1 problem, but the NewIcons package did seem to work well
regardless.
   The "replaceimage" program is supplied to change the ".info" information
into a small 1/4" cube.  You use this program on all of your icons if you
decide to keep NewIcons and reclaim some disk space.  The old ".info"
information is only needed for the positioning of the icon images and is no
longer used to display graphic information (as long as the icon has
"NewIcons" information in the ToolTypes.  Otherwise the system will use the
old ".info" file for icon display.)
   The "injectbrush" program takes two IFF's and turns them into a NewIcons
icon.  You can make your own from scratch or use the supplied templates
located in the "BuildingBlocks" drawer.
@endnode
@node H3 "Program Specs 'NEWICONS'"
@toc P3-4

___________________________
 PROGRAM SPECS / (NEWICONS)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 · Allows up to 256 color icons on an AGA machine. (!)

 · Icon colors are color correct on an AGA system no matter what your
    palette is set to.  They automatically appear in perfect color.

 · Default icons for dozens of file types automatically appear for files
    without icons FAST.  Recognizes file types in a very efficient manner.
    If you click on a "fake" icon, your appropriate user-defined default
    tool will appear in the "Execute command" text field automatically!

 · Make a brush, convert it to an icon.  It will appear on your workbench
    in the exact proper colors you created it in, no matter what your
    palette is set to.  Imagine making gorgeous icons from your digitized
    pics, in more than 16 colors!

 · Icon images are compressed to maximize disk space.  They are
    uncompressed faster than you can say "NewIcons"!

 · Also KS 2.04 compatible (16 color icon limitation).

 · Fix that ugly Cross-DOS icon to look like a standard NewIcon.

 · Unique icons for RAM-Disks and CD-ROM's that don't have icons.

 · A complete set of beautiful, standardized Workbench icons, drawn by
    artist Roger McVey.  And more on the way!

 · Comprehensive set of utilities to allow you to manipulate your NewIcons.

 · FREEWARE!  Why would anyone want to pay cash for icons?

 · Very stable.  Beta Tested/Updated for over a year.

(NOTE: The above taken from program documentation)

@endnode
@node H4 "Program Authors 'NEWICONS'"
@toc P3-4

______________________________
 PROGRAM AUTHORS / (NEWICONS)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 The programs and documentation were written by

   Nicola Salmoria
   Via Piemonte 11
   53100 Siena   ITALY

   E-Mail: MC6489@mclink.it

The icon artwork was done by

   Roger McVey

   E-Mail: r.mcvey@genie.geis.com

The installer script and documentation were written by

   Philip A. Vedovatti

   E-mail: vedovatt@u.washington.edu

(NOTE: The above taken from program documentation)
@endnode
@node H5 "Program Cost 'NEWICONS'"
@toc P3-4

___________________________
 PROGRAM COST / (NEWICONS)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

   The documentaing states that "The software is FreeWare.  It is freely
distributable as long as the archive remains intact, and only a nominal fee
is charged for its distribution." I'm not sure what a "distribution fee"
is, but if you like the program I would at least drop the authors a line or
a card telling them so.
@endnode
@node H6 "Where? 'NEWICONS'"
@toc P3-4

HOST NAME and DIRECTORY:

  Any Aminet site such as
   ftp.wustl.edu     under: /pub/aminet/util/wb
   ftp.netnet.net    under: /pub/aminet/util/wb
   src.doc.ic.ac.uk  under: /aminet/util/wb
@endnode
@node H7 "Review 'NEWICONS'"
@toc P3-4

_____________________
 REVIEW / (NEWICONS)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   At first glance, by looking at the supplied screen-shot, I was not
extremely impressed.  I said to myself "Oh just another set of icons!"
However, after going through the docs and actually installing the program,
I was quite impressed with the new look and operation.
   The icons look like icons and not like some battle-ship grey sigils,
trying to look real.  Over the past year, I've come to desire icons to look
like icons and not icons looking like the real thing, as many of the icons
out there are slated toward.  If I want the real thing, I'll go open up one
of my real dresser drawers.  Anyway, icons that look like stylized
representations of objects give the Amiga the high-tech appearance it truly
deserves.  Also, all of the icons are identical in size, depth, and feel,
which adds a ferment of precision to the bench.  And, then, there is color.
Not just color!  But COLOR!  With NewIcons I am not restricted to a mere 3
shades of grey, and a light pink thrown in for appeal.  I can have RED,
GREEN, YELLOW, VIOLET, whatever I want (256 whatever I wants with an AGA
machine).  And an icon still looks like an icon!  If I decide to change the
palette or the screen depth, I will not find bright violet colored drawers
jumping off the screen and into my retinas.  The program is intelligent
enough to look at the new palette and assign new colors to the ones that no
longer fit.  You don't even need to reboot to see the new color scheme.
All you have to do is close the window and reopen it for the changes to
take effect.
   As far as speed, the actual drawing of the icons onto the screen takes a
bit longer than usual, but it is tolerable.  I have a 25 megahertz 030
processor; so, a 7 megahertz 68000 may be a bit too slow for the impatient.
I'm not sure though.  This drawing-parameter is an individual taste kind-of
thing.
   The background processes are very system friendly and don't seem to hog
any CPU time that I can detect.  This parameter is important to me, as I
don't like greedy CPU programs, no matter how good they look or work. 
   The other thing that I found great was the addition of new pseudo-icons
for the many kinds of files that are out there.  Opening up a drawer now
gives me an immediate understanding of what kind of files are there and
what they do.  (i.e.  sound files have a different icon from iff's, text
file icons are different from amigaguide file icons, ect)
   I suggest that you try NewIcons.  All in all it is a great new addition
to the Amiga and the Workbench.  And if you really like the icons, Nichola
and Roger have a whole set of NewIcons backdrops to go with those
good-looking icons (available in a separate package).
   Many thanks to the creators of NewIcons, Nichola, Roger, and Philip for
taking my Amiga out of unintelligent grey and into intelligent COLOR!
@endnode
@node H8 "Bugs 'NEWICONS'"
@toc P3-4
___________________________
 PROGRAM BUGS / (NEWICONS)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

   The installation and programs seem to work fine and there is no apparent
conflict between with the NewIcons background processes and any other
programs that I run.  Also, I have not experienced any strange Gurus since
using NewIcons either.
   As I have said before, the "patchopenwb" patch for 3.1 does not seem to
work, though its use or non-use does not seem to affect the workings of
"NewIcons" on 3.1 machines.
   The program "copy_default_icon seems to alter the icon's ".info" file
and reset it to Commodore's default; however, I may have misunderstood the
purpose of this program as not effecting the ".info" file.
   If you do a clean-up of the window, the pseudo-icons seem to lose their
default project settings.  This is not a major problem as Commodore's
operating system does not even allow for such a thing.  It's just that you
very easily get used to double clicking on a pseudo-icon and seeing "more
mydoc.txt" or "display greatpix.iff" in the WorkBench execution panel.  So
when it's not there due to a clean up, you have to go do a backspace and
manually enter the parameter -- which is what you had to do anyway if you
didn't have NewIcons.
@endnode
@node H9 "About Hermes"
@toc P3-4

__________________
 REVIEW BY HERMES
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   Hermes Trismegistus
   E-mail: hermes@intercom.com

   I welcome your comments and suggestions about my review or if you just
want to say hi!  Please allow several days for me to get back to your
E-Mail.
@endnode
@node P3-5 "Review: GVP ioExtender"
@toc P3

===========================================================================
==  Review: GVP ioExtender                             By: William Near  ==
===========================================================================

HARDWARE:  GVP ioExtender

MANUFACTURER:  Great Valley Products Inc.
                                  657 Clark Ave.
                                  King of Prussia, PA  19406

                                  Tech Support:
                                  (215) 354-9495 (automated voice)
                                  (215) 337-9922 (fax)
                                  (215) 337-5815 (BBS)
                                  72662,51 (Email on CompuServe)

DESCRIPTION: High speed serial and parallel expansion for A2000/3000/4000
                  computers

PURCHASED FROM:  Software Hut
                                      313 Henderson Drive
                                      Sharon Hill, PA  19079
                                      (800) 93-AMIGA - orders
                                      (610) 586-5701 - info
                                      (610) 586-5706 -  fax

PRICE:  I paid $115 U.S. this includes $6 S&H

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:  Amiga 2000/3000/4000 running Workbench 1.3+

SYSTEM TESTED ON:  Amiga 2000 (Rev 4.4),
                   ECS chip set,
                   GForce '030 accelerator @ 50 MHz.,
                   2 megs CHIP + 6 megs FAST memory,
                   2 standard floppy drives,
                   Quantum LPS270S hard drive with Trumpcard Professional
                            controller,
                   Epson LQ-510 printer
                   DSS 8+ audio digitizer
                   SupraFAXModem V.32bis.

PACKAGING: The foam lined box contained the ioExtender board wrapped in a
static resistant bag, one floppy disk of software, and a manual with
registration card attached.

INSTALLATION: You must first configure the ioExtender board for the proper
configuration before installing it in the computer.  The parallel port on
the ioExtender can be set, by use of a jumper, to behave as either an Amiga
(with 5 volts supplied on Pin 14) or an IBM (with no power supplied)
standard parallel port.  Make sure that this jumper is set correctly as you
can damage peripherals connected to the parallel port that are not
expecting the voltage sent through the cable.  The ioExtender board's
serial port may be set, by use of two jumpers, to act as a Null Modem port
(this just switches the Transmit Data (TXD) and the Receive Data (RXD)
lines.  If you have purchased the optional second RS-232 serial port (I
didn't), connect its ribbon cable to the 10-pin header at the top of the
board (you must also set one jumper to tell the ioExtender that an
additional port is present.) Once the ioExtender board is configured
correctly, it easily installs in any empty Zorro slot in the computer.  If
you have the optional serial port attached you can just install it in an
adjacent, empty Zorro slot. 

Now you can attach your printer and/or modem cables to the ports on the
ioExtender.   The board's parallel port is a standard DB-25 port while the
serial port is a DB-9 configuration.  I only had a DB-25 to DB-25 cable for
my modem, so I had to purchase a DB-9 to DB-25 cable in order to connect my
modem to the serial port.

The software contained on the floppy disk uses the Commodore Installer
program which makes it a breeze to place the files on your hard drive.  The
ioExtender's files consist of: SetDevice (placed in the C directory), GVPio
(placed in the Expansion directory), GVPPortHandler (placed in the L
directory), GVPioControl and GVPSerial (both placed in the Prefs
directory), and finally one line is added to your User-Startup script.


SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION: There are three ways to make your software use the
ioExtender's ports.  The first, and best way, is to make your
communications software directly address the board's serial port by
replacing the serial.device with gvpser.device in the configuration area. 
I did this with GPFax v2.342 and TERM v4.1a and it works flawlessly in both
instances. 

The second method involves the use of two logical devices: GVPpar0: and
GVPser0:.   Some programs will allow you to specify a logical device as an
output device and this is also the preferred method when programming in
ARexx (according to the manual.)

The third method involves the intercepting of all calls to the Amiga's
parallel and serial ports and redirecting them to the ioExtender ports via
the GVPioControl software.

     GVPioControl: This is the GUI that controls the redirection of serial
and parallel port calls by setting conditions for the SetDevice program.
SetDevice is run each time your computer is turned on and it monitors the
Amiga's serial and parallel port activity. 

The GUI presents you with a series of rollover gadgets: Serial Port, Unit,
Mode, Parallel Port, and Unit.  Also included are: Save, Use, and Cancel
buttons. 

Serial Port - you may select either the Amiga's internal serial port or the
ioExtender's serial port as the default.

Unit - you may select a unit number for the serial port in the range of
0-11.  This makes it possible to control up to 12 optional serial ports on
your Amiga in addition to the one internal port. 

Mode - this option allows you to select one of the following for each unit
number: RS-232, MIDI, or AUX.  The RS-232 setting is the standard option
which makes use of the DB-9 serial port on the board.  The AUX setting uses
a 34-pin Option header which is reserved for future use.  The MIDI option
has a predefined setting for connecting MIDI devices to the ioExtender.

Parallel Port - you may select either the Amiga's internal parallel port or
the ioExtender's parallel port as the default.

Unit - you may select a unit number for the parallel port in the range of
0-5.  This makes it possible to control up to 6 optional parallel ports on
your Amiga in addition to the one internal port.

Save - this button is used to permanently save the new settings and exit
the GVPioControl program.

Use - this button will use the current settings and exit the GVPioControl
program, but it will not save the settings permanently.

Cancel - this button will exit the GVPioControl program and any changes
made will not be saved or used.

     GVPSerial Preferences: This is the GUI that allows you to control the
ioExtender's serial port(s).  The GUI presents you with the following
options: Baud Rate, Input Buffer Size, Handshaking, Parity, Bits/Char, Stop
Bits, and Unit Number.  Also included are: Save, Use, and Cancel buttons.

Baud Rate - the serial port on the ioExtender is capable of baud rates up
to 115,200 bps.  The range of slider settings is from 110 to 115,200 bps. 
The slider also has three settings that appear past the 115,200 setting,
they are: MIDI, CUSTOM, and MAXIMUM. 

     MIDI - this setting is used when a MIDI device is attached to the
ioExtender's serial port.  The typical MIDI setting is 31,250 bps.

     CUSTOM - this setting is used when you wish to enter a custom
transmission rate.   When you use this setting you must access the
Miscellaneous pulldown menu and select the Set Custom Baud Rate menu item.
A requestor will appear with a text field that may be used to enter your
own custom rate.  If you enter a value that the ioExtender is incapable of
delivering, you will see a display showing the actual baud rate achieved
and the percentage of variance from the entered rate.

     MAXIMUM - this setting will drive the ioExtender's serial port as fast
as it can.

Input Buffer Size - the serial port on the ioExtender has a 16 byte
hardware buffer for receiving and transmitting data.  This slider lets you
adjust the software buffer to be used as a cache for incoming data while
your program is doing other tasks.  The slider has a range of 512 to 65,536
bytes.  According to the manual, a 2 meg Amiga system can easily support a
16k serial buffer.

Handshaking - this radio button selection offers: XON/XOFF, RTS/CTS and
None protocols.

Parity - this radio button selection offers: NONE, EVEN, ODD, MARK, and
SPACE parity bits.

Bits/Char - this radio button selection offers: 5, 6, 7, or 8 Bits per
Character settings.

Stop Bits - this radio button selection offers 1 or 2 Stop Bit settings.

Unit Number - this gadget allows you to select which serial port you are
controlling by using the + and - buttons to select one of the twelve (range
of 0-11) possible choices.  As you cycle through the possible choices a
text line located below the selector will show the identity and location of
the selected port.

The GVPSerial Preferences program also contains three pulldown menus:
Project, Edit, and Miscellaneous.

     Project - this menu contains an Open choice for loading a predefined
settings file, a Save As menu choice for saving a settings file that does
not become the default settings file for the GVPSerial Preferences program,
and a Quit menu choice for exiting the program from the pulldown menu
instead of from the close gadget.

     Edit - this menu contains a Reset to Defaults choice for resetting the
preferences icon to the factory defaults, a Last Saved menu choice for
restoring the user-defined settings as contained in the preferences icon,
and a Restore menu choice for resetting the selected unit to its settings
which were in effect before the most recent changes were made.

     Miscellaneous - this menu contains the Set Custom Baud Rate choice as
described in the Baud Rate/CUSTOM section earlier in this review.

The GVPSerial Preferences GUI also contains the Save, Use, and Cancel
buttons which serve the same function as their counterparts in the
GVPioControl program described earlier in this review.


OTHER STUFF: The manual has a section that describes various modem and
printer setups.  According to the manual you could have five separate
ioExtenders with their optional serial ports attached, thus giving you the
capability to attach ten modems to your Amiga and a BBS package. 

Also, if you are using GVP's DSS 8 audio digitizer, you can attach it to
the Amiga's internal parallel port and it will function properly since it
bypasses the system-level operations and accesses the circuitry directly. 
I have a DSS 8+ audio digitizer and I have used it simultaneously with my
printer attached to the ioExtender's parallel port, both work flawlessly! 

At the end of the manual there is a trouble shooting section which
describes many common problems with setting up and using the ioExtender's
hardware and software.


SUMMARY: The ioExtender is an invaluable addition to your Amiga if you have
the need for additional high-speed serial and parallel ports.  It's really
nice to have my modem, printer, and audio digitizer all connected at the
same time.  No more turning the computer on and off to connect the printer
or audio digitizer to the Amiga's internal parallel port.  Also, I can now
play a MOD, print a file, and upload or download files at 14.4k without ANY
hardware overruns! 

I had originally purchased a MultiFaceCard III to serve the same purpose. 
I found that card's parallel port to be incompatible with Workbench 3.1 on
the A2000 and you could not access the Amiga's internal parallel and serial
ports when the MFC III was active.  I had to create two icons using ICONX,
one to redirect the output to the Amiga's internal ports and the other to
redirect output to the MFC III's ports.  This arrangement was very clumsy
and since the MFC III's parallel port didn't work under WB 3.1, I couldn't
attach my printer and audio digitizer at the same time.  This effectively
nullified any reasons for buying the MFC III in the first place!  For my
purposes, even though the GVP ioExtender was approximately $30 more it was
the better buy as compared to the MFC III.
@endnode
@node P3-6 "Review: Magitronic C-SV1500P Monitor"
@toc P3

===========================================================================
==  Review: Magitronic C-SV1500P Monitor               By: William Near  ==
===========================================================================

HARDWARE:  Magitronic C-SV1500P multisync monitor

MANUFACTURER:  Magitronic

               No address or phone numbers given.
               All support is supplied by the dealer.

DESCRIPTION:  15 inch multisync monitor with full digital controls

PURCHASED FROM:  Lake Erie Systems and Service Inc.
                 5321 Buffalo Road
                 Erie, PA  16510

                 (814) 898-0704 - voice (ask for Bob Lechner)
                 (814) 899-1384 - fax

PRICE:  $440 U.S. 

WARRANTY:  2 years parts and labor
           2 years on the tube

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:  Any Amiga capable of Horizontally syncing between
                      30 KHz. and 64 KHz.

SYSTEM TESTED ON:  Amiga 2000 (Rev 4.4),
                   ECS chip set,
                   GForce '030 accelerator @ 50 MHz.,
                   2 megs CHIP + 6 megs FAST memory,
                   2 standard floppy drives,
                   Quantum LPS270S hard drive with Trumpcard Professional
                            controller,
                   ICD Flicker Free Video 2 board  

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:  
                   Screen Size - 15 inch flat screen with non-glare, dark
                                 tinting
                   Dot Pitch - 0.28mm
                   Display Colors - Infinite
                   Resolution - 1280 x 1024 non-interlaced (max.)
                   Compatibility - All graphics modes with horizontal
                                   frequencies between 30 kHz. and 64 KHz.
                   Horizontal Sync. - 30 KHz. to 64 KHz.
                   Vertical Sync. - 55 Hz. to 90 Hz.
                   Bandwidth - 75 MHz.
                   Input Signal - Video: RGB Analog
                                  Sync: TTL Separate 
                   Signal Cable - 15-pin D-connector
                   Dimensions (HxWxD) - 14.25" x 14.5" x 15"
                   Radiation - Low radiation model meets MPR II 1990:10 
                               standards

FEATURES:  
     - The monitor is an off-white color and has a lighted power button and
a control panel door on the front.  There are no speakers included with the
monitor.

     - This monitor supports the Energy Star requirements for reducing
power consumption.  Since the Amiga doesn't output the proper control
signals, this feature doesn't work.  Sometimes, while rebooting into PAL
mode when using Degrader, the monitor would go into its power saving mode.
The only way I've found to recover from this is to reboot the computer.
This isn't a major problem since it doesn't occur very often. 

     - A tilt/swivel base is included with the monitor.

     - The power cord that was included with this monitor was the type that
is made to connect into the special monitor power connection on the back of
most PCs.  The dealer that I purchased the monitor from gave me a standard
3 prong power cord for use with the Amiga.

     - The signal cable is a hard-wired, 15-pin, D-shell connector.  I used
the 9-pin to 15-pin adapter that came with my Flicker Free Video 2 board to
connect the monitor to my Amiga.

     - Behind the control panel door are the following controls:
          * Degauss button

          * Memory Recall button - the monitor comes with 10 preset screen
            modes that are not very useful with an Amiga attached.  You can
            add additional presets to the monitor's memory for non-standard
            signals.  For some reason, the user-defined screen mode entries
            are mentioned in the manual, but the steps necessary to do this
            aren't covered in the manual.

          * Both the Horizontal and Vertical display size can be digitally
            controlled from a set of four buttons.  This feature is very
            handy for eliminating all ugly black borders on the Amiga's
            display area.  I can actually stretch the display too far in
            both directions!

          * Both the Horizontal and Vertical position of the display can be
            digitally controlled from a set of four buttons.  Again, this
            is a very nice feature for Amiga owners.  After you've
            stretched the screen to a desirable size, you can then center
            it on the display area.

          * The Brightness can be digitally controlled with two buttons.
            The Brightness control has a wide range of settings from too
            bright to too dark.

          * The Contrast can be digitally controlled with two buttons.  The
            Contrast control also has a wide range of settings.

          * By pressing the left and right screen positioning buttons
            simultaneously you can control the Pincushion/Barrel
            compensation of the monitor.

          * By pressing the left and right screen size buttons
            simultaneously you can control the Trapezoid compensation of
            the monitor.

COMMENTS: I must admit that I was a little concerned about the Magitronic
name, at first.  The dealer assured me that they had used many of these
monitors on clone systems with no problems whatsoever.  The two year
warranty, digital controls, 15 inch, .28 dot pitch screen, and the
unavailability of a good multisync monitor made specifically for the Amiga
at the time, all influenced my decision to purchase this monitor.

It's really nice to be able to resize the screen both horizontally and
vertically with the digital controls.  Also, the ability to center the
display on the screen in both horizontal and vertical directions is a nice
feature not found on many other monitors.  No more ugly black borders as
found when using many other clone-type monitors.

I did lose some of the Amiga's display modes when using this monitor even
though I am using a flicker fixer.  I lost DblNTSC and DblPAL under WB 3.1,
and Super72 modes.  The Super72 is no great loss, but it would have been
nice to use the higher resolution of the DblNTSC mode (since all of these
modes are 4 colors, it's not too much of a loss because I always run a 16
color Workbench.)

SUMMARY: This is a very nice monitor and it suits my needs quite well.  I
suppose the ability to sync lower than 30 KHz.  would have been nice
because then I could disable the flicker fixer and regain those lost screen
modes.  At any rate, I'm very happy with the monitor and would recommend it
to any Amiga user.
@endnode
@node P3-7 "Review: Transition V1.2"
@toc P3

===========================================================================
==  Review: Transition V1.2      By: @{"Jason Compton" link P8-1} and @{"Katherine Nelson" link P8-3}  ==
===========================================================================

Transition has but one purpose in life-converting images from one format
to another.  A few bells and whistles have been thrown in along the way,
but the primary focus is getting from one .extension to another.

What options do you have?  Well, you go from incoming IFF (several
formats, but some less popular ones are unsupported, like SHAM and PCHG),
GIF, JPEG, PCX, PBM+, or BMP formats, and go out to the same.  The primary
loss is that you can't output IFF EHB (64 color) pictures.  Too bad.

The entire program runs from a single custom screen loaded with buttons
and string gadgets.  Input/output file, output file selection and scaling
options (scaling can be done to any aspect, or with aspect ratio preserved
to that of the original).  You can delete the input file immediately upon
completion (nice!), greyscale, select ordered or Floyd-Steinberg
dithering, or use an embossing algorithm to give the pictures a 3D
look...the closest parallel is to say that they look like imprints in grey
sand.

Before we go on, let's just take stock of what's above-everything works
fine, except the aspect ratio selector.  According to the manual, with
Preserve Aspect Ratio selected, only one of width or height needs to be
input, and the other will be automatically computed.  This doesn't
happen...if you don't input both dimensions, you wind up with a file of
size zero.  Oops.  At the same time, even if you select "Normal", you
still need to enter the values.  If you leave them both at zero, it will
load the input file before telling you...this area looks to need some
work.

If JPEG is your output poison, you can go with a "quality" selection
(100-0, progressively worse as you go) and a "smoothing" selection (to
counter the effects of lower quality), and an option to optimize output,
which quite honestly didn't seem to do much but take up time.  But, it's
all up to the pleasure of the person doing the transitioning...

Color correction is in place in the form of gamma level and brightness
controls.  They work as you would expect.

Batch processing is available if you're working on massive projects.  The
relevant buttons are below the color correction.

At the bottom of the screen is a progress bar, which is designed to show
you how far along your transition is.  We've never seen it updated more
than 4 times, though, in trials lasting up to 2 minutes on a 4000/040.
Often, the bar will jump from 44% to completion.  The "convert" button
lives here, as well as "About", "Work Dir" (conversion requires a
temporary directory.  Hard drive is suggested, as the conversions can use
large amounts of space before they're complete.  A very helpful table is
included in the manual to give you an idea.), and "Quit".  That rounds it
up.

Transition does the job it's supposed to, with acceptable speeds.  (A
couple of trial runs Katie did are listed below.)  Besides the
aforementioned negatives, the program could certainly do with a cancel
option once transitioning has begun, and the requester slider bars turn
black against a black background when you click on them.  Weird.  A
built-in option to immediately view your converted work would be
appreciated-as it is, you need to use another program to do so.

For the current going rate of US$30, though, it's tough to say no.  After
all, Transition will basically work on any Amiga, although based on the
repeated warnings against using it on a 68000 system, you can imagine the
horror of trying.

Trial runs on a 4000/040:

152K GIF:

    -> iff

         Floyd-Steinberg  - 1 minute, 45 sec
         No dither - 50 sec

         249k

         No dither is a little lighter than F-S.

    -> jpeg

         75% qual, 10% smooth - 30 sec
         100% qual, 0% smooth - 30 sec

         51k

         75/10 looks more realistic than 100/0 (barely)

    ->   256 color PCX

         30 sec

         193K

          Little longer than original GIF
         No other difference.

*** It should be noted that this is Transition V1.2.  V1.0 is found on the
Micro R+D CD-ROM Vol. 1, but incurs bugs fixed and misses some features,
such as Floyd-Steinberg for ILBM, requester path fixes, a stray Enforcer
hit, and recoded assembly.

Transition V1.2 distributed by:
Better Concepts, Inc.
10 Mandon Terrace
New City, NY  10956
914-639-5095 voice
914-634-7097 fax
@endnode
@node P7-1 "On the Ball V1.30 demo"
@toc P7

TITLE
                           "On The Ball"
              Calendar/Addressbook/To-Do List/NotePad

VERSION
                            V1.30-demo
        Version V1.30 has over 50 improvements over V1.20.

COMPANY
              Pure Logic Software
              789 Butterfly Road
              Quincy, CA  95971
              205-802-7345  (Voice/Fax/Tech Support)

DESCRIPTION
         On The Ball gracefully binds four powerful applications in a
                     symmetrical multiwindow environment.
    Calendar:
      * View and print adjustable appointment schedules from eye-catching:
         week-at-a-glance, month-at-a-glance, or year-at-a-glance
         graphical views.
      * 11 Powerful repeat modes automatically re-schedule appointments:
         Selected day(s) of week, Bi-weekly, Monthly, or Yearly,
         Repeat on second Tuesday of each month, (example)  ...and more.
      * Can search forward and backward through all appointments.
      * Create shadow appointments to remind you days in advace.
      * Ability to review past appointments while the computer was off.

    Addressbook:
      * Sorts and searches by any field.
      * Mailing Labels: Print or copy to the clipboard all or selected records.
         Choose from many built-in generic label configurations or design your 
         own layout.
      * Attatch notes to records to associate as much personal or professional 
         information as you like to each record.
      * Dialer/Auto-redialer can automatically bring up your contact's note and
         append a new time-date stamp to help you automate transcripts of your 
         contacts.
      * Ability to print custom phone lists or address lists.

    To-Do List:
      * Prioritizes things you need to get done with optional due dates.
      * Print your daily agenda or a comprehensive to-do list.
      * Search To-Do List. 

    NotePad:
      * Jot down and organize stand-alone notes.
      * Load/Save feature makes NotePad a powerful and handy text editor.
      * Easily attatches notes to individual Calendar, ToDo List, and
         Addressbook entries.
      * Fast smooth-scrolling, resizable notes have standard editing
         features such as search and replace and cut-and-paste to the
         clipboard.

    Configurable:
      * Create your own colorized "Tags" (ie. "Personal", "Birthdays", 
         "Urgent", "Project X", etc.) to help you classify and prioritize
         information so you can focus on specfic categories of entries
         in all applications and all views.
      * Extensive Arexx support with sample routines provided on disk and in 
         manual.
      * Modular save files 

    Compatible:
      * For all Amigas: 500 through 4000,  WorkBench 1.3-3.x compatible.
      * Automatically takes advantage of many WB2.0+ features, if
         available. (ie. prints compugraphic fonts, font requester, etc.)
      * Multi-Lingual interface modules and interface for:
         English, German, French, Swedish, & Dutch.

     and MUCH more!

HOST NAME
     The new demo is available for anonymous FTP on Aminet, for example:
     wuarchive.wustl.edu
     The demo will also soon be available on Fred Fish and most BBS's.

DIRECTORY
     Currently in /pub/aminet/new.  Will be permanently moved to:
     /pub/aminet/biz/demo

FILE NAMES
     OnTheBall_V130.lha       221k
     OnTheBall_V130.readme    6k

DISTRIBUTABILITY
     On The Ball is not shareware, it is commercial.  The demo of On The
  Ball is a freely redistributable program under the condition that all
  accompanying files are included.  Users are granted a limited 30 day
  license to use this demo for the purpose of evaluation only.  After that
  time, you must send the $40 registration fee to:

                Pure Logic Software
                789 Butterfly Rd.
                Quincy, CA  95971  USA

     Registered users will receive the latest commercial version of the
  program, a professionally printed manual, and access to future upgrades
  at a negligible price.

     On The Ball is also available from most Amiga retaillers.

CONTACTING PURE LOGIC SOFTWARE

     1) Contact the 24hr Pure Logic Software phone line for:
          techinical help, order info, Dealer/distributor info.
          Fax retrieval, sending a FAX, requesting promotional material 
          for your user group.

     2) Questions and comments can also be emailed to:
        * Jason Freund, freund@cis.uab.edu,  205-802-7345
        * Gabe Dalbec, dalbec@cs.arizona.edu,  602-770-9561

OTHER 
     See our review featured in Amazing Computing, November, 1994.
@endnode
@node P7-2 "Wacom Driver 1.16"
@toc P7

[ Minor edits to improve the English.  -Dan ]

TITLE
     Wacom Digitizer Tablet driver for the Amiga.

VERSION
     Version 1.16

COMPANY
     Private developer.

AUTHOR
     Roland Schwingel
     Lilienthalstrasse 9
     92421 Schwandorf
     Germany

     Email: roland.schwingel@extern.uni-regensburg.de
     Phone: +49-(0)9431-5779

DESCRIPTION

     With this program you can use wireless tablets manufactured by Wacom
     with the Amiga.

     The tablet is connected to the serial port of your Amiga (Multi-I/O
     boards are also supported.) The driver is suitable for tablets of the
     SD, UD and KT series.  Both the pressure-sensitive and the non-
     pressure-sensitive modes are supported.

     The driver enables you to control the Amiga mouse pointer with your
     tablet.  Appropriate buttons on the tablet's input devices are mapped
     to the normal mouse buttons.  Therefore the driver can be used with
     (almost) any program.

     Also, a software interface is implemented which enables you to map
     unused buttons in your own applications and/or to use the pressure and
     coordinates in your own applications.  Some sample source in C is
     included to demonstrate the usage of the interface.

     Under AmigaOS 3.0 or better the tablet data is also directly used by
     Intuition and passed to every window where an application can use it.
     A small program with source in C is included to show how an
     application can get the data from intuition using the Commodore tablet
     interface.

     Driver settings are made using an intuitive graphics user interface
     (GUI).  Also, a German catalog file is supplied which you can use with
     Workbench 2.1 or later.

     German and English documentation included.

NEW FEATURES

     New in Version 1.16 (07. November 1994):

     * Now also supports the new KT series. (eg. ArtPad)

     * UD tablets with a ROM version 1.2 or greater can be driven with
       double resolution and double pressure range. This is also supported
       now.

     * The main window now also has menus.

     * The cycle and button gadgets with keyboard access are highlighted
       when the corresponding key is pressed.

     * The layout of checkbox gadget has changed. When running AmigaOS3.0
       or better they are looking much better with bigger fonts.

     * The requester which appears when the tablet is not switched on now
       has a retry-button for much easier reinitialising.

     * Revised tablet recognition. It is now more flexible when some of the
       internal tablet settings (DIP-switches or memory settings) are not
       set to factory settings. But please set your tablet to factory de-
       faults!

     * Revised SD-510C handling. There have been problems with a certain
       ROM-version of this tablet.

     There is a major new version (2.0) in preparation. It is planned to be
     released by the end of December or begining of January. This version
     will finally include an AREXX-Port and a completly new mouse emulation
     (likely to be faster than Amigamouse).

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

     * At least Kickstart and Workbench 2.04.
       On 2.1 or 3.x you can use german localization.

     * Wacom tablet of the SD, UD or KT series.

HOST NAME

     Available on servers in the aminet. e.g.:

     Scandinavia  ftp.luth.se            130.240.16.3
     Germany      ftp.uni-erlangen.de    131.188.1.43
     USA          ftp.wustl.edu          128.252.135.4
     ...          ...                    ...

DIRECTORY

     Aminet:      /pub/aminet/hard/drivr

FILE NAMES

     Wacom_116.lha ----- 204643 Bytes
     Wacom_116.reamde --   2054 Bytes

PRICE

     The program is shareware. Requested fee: US$20 (or 25DM)

DISTRIBUTABILITY

     May be distributed freely as long as all files remain complete
     and unmodified. Also refer to the program's documentation.

@endnode
@node P7-3 "Textfield Gadget 2.0"
@toc P7

TITLE
     textfield.gadget

VERSION
     2.0

AUTHOR
     Mark Thomas
     mthomas@cs.utexas.edu

DESCRIPTION
     The textfield.gadget is a BOOPSI gadget for text entry,
     supporting multiple lines, borders, two cursor types,
     an optional notepad look, font setting, style setting,
     and much more.

     The 2.0 version fixes some bugs and offers some new
     features: faster scrolling, true read-only mode, modified
     flag, accept/reject sets of characters, read line
     lengths, highlight text programmatically, IntuiText label
     support, and copy/copyall/cut/paste/erase/undo program-
     matically.

     A programmer who is familiar with BOOPSI can use this
     gadget by simply creating an instance, attach it to a
     window, then when needed, read the text from the gadget
     when necessary.  All the text entry is handled by the
     gadget itself.  When finished with the gadget it can
     simply be removed from the window and deleted.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
     The gadget requires OS 2.04 and up.  From the user's
     standpoint, for OS 2.04 and 2.1 the gadget must
     be placed in a drawer where application that uses it
     exists, and for OS 3.0 and up the gadget can be
     installed in SYS:Classes/Gadgets.

HOST NAME
     It is available on Aminet.  Aminet's main site is
     ftp.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4).

DIRECTORY
     /pub/aminet/dev/gui

FILE NAME
     textfield.lha

PRICE
     I do not require a fee to be paid by end users of the
     gadget, but the programs that use the gadget may
     require paying a fee of some sort, which should be
     directed to the author of that software, not me.

     The cost for using this gadget in a program is that I
     get a copy of the software package it is used in, at no
     cost to me.  The purpose of this requirement is that
     I will be able to evaluate future needs of the gadget.
     Also, there should be mention of the gadget and author
     in the programs and documentation of the programs that
     use the gadget.  In programs you can drop a short line
     in the About requester: textfield.gadget by Mark Thomas.
     The License file in the archive has more information.

DISTRIBUTABILITY
     The archive may be distributed only in its entirety to
     anywhere, such as ftp sites, a BBS, or a disk collection
     such as Fish disks.

     The textfield.gadget file itself, and portions of the
     documentation pertaining to editor keyboard sequences
     can be distributed with software packages that use the
     gadget.

OTHER
     Please send any bug reports or suggestions to me.  There
     is a fully working example program that uses the gadget
     in the archive.  There are normal and MUI examples.

     Enjoy!
@endnode
@node P7-4 "Serial Stratego 1.5"
@toc P7

TITLE
        Serial Stratego

VERSION
        1.5

AUTHOR
        Daniel Oberlin

        Current mailing address:
        3A Gaslight Village
        Ithaca, NY 14850

        Current Email:
        fkrj@crux2.cit.cornell.edu

DESCRIPTION
        Allows people to play Stratego, a popular board game, over a
        serial connection.  Gameplay can take place over a null modem
        connection, Modem, or while logged onto a remote host using
        Internet Relay Chat, talk, or write.  The program is unique in
        that it uses a robust packet sending algorithm which transmits
        and receives packets using standard printable characters, and
        filters out screen escape codes.  During game play, messages
        may be sent, and optionally played through the SPEAK: device. 
        Be sure to skim the documentation before trying the program.

        New Features added to this version:
                - Sound effects.
                - CRC Error detection.
                - Save game and recover after disconnections.
                - Some minor problems have been fixed.

DISTRIBUTABILITY
        May be distributed freely.  I would be honored to have this
        placed on a Fish Disk.  The program may not be sold to make
        a profit.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
        Runs on any OS.  Uses the SPEAK: device, but this is not a
        requirement.

DIRECTORY
        Found on aminet sites such as ftp.cdrom.com (192.216.191.11)
        in the directory pub/aminet/game/2play.

FILENAME
        SerStratego.lha 105804 bytes long.

PRICE
        Shareware, 5$.
@endnode
@node P7-5 "DoIcon 1.2"
@toc P7

[ Minor edits to improve the English.  -Dan ]

TITLE
         DoIcon

VERSION
         1.2

AUTHOR
         Lars 'SFX' Eilebrecht 
         Glueck-Auf-Strasrasse 23
         57223 Kreuztal (Germany)

         SFX@appl1.hrz.uni-siegen.de
         Shadowfox@IRC

DESCRIPTION
         DoIcon is an icon information and manipulation tool.
         It is designed for quick shell usage and can be used
         with programs like DirOpus.  Any option of DoIcon can
         be used with file patterns.

         Features:

           o Displaying of icon related values...
             Type, Defaulttool, Stacksize, Highlightmethod, Position,
             Dimensions, Tooltypes and number of bit-planes
           o Manipulation of the above listed values...
           o Manipulation of tooltypes 
             (add, change, toggle, delete, clear)
           o Strip number of bit-planes.
           o Converting icons to 8 bit-planes
             (For icons not displayed correctly on >8 color WBs)
           o Remapping icon colors (1.x style <-> 2.x/3.x style)
           o Remapping icon colors (MagicWB 8 color -> standard 4 color)
             (Two different remap-methods are available)
           o Deleting icons (with Workbench refresh)
           o Recursively deleting old 1.x ".info" drawer files
           o Converting icon image data to C source code
           o Calling of Workbench information requester from Shell
           o Search & replace of a specified default tool 
             (pattern support)
           o Search & replace of specified tooltypes (pattern support)
           o Search & delete of a specified tooltype (pattern support)
           o Checking of tooltype values for specified tooltypes
           o Support of file patterns and recusive directory scanning!
           o Full locale support, 
             you can use DoIcon in your preferred language
             (Currently english, german and finish are supported.)

FUTURE
         Simply tell the author what feature you need. :-)

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
         DoIcon needs at least Kick/WB 2.04.
         For locale support it needs WB 2.1+.
         The requester option needs Kick/WB 3.x.

HOST NAME
         DoIcon has been uploaded to the Aminet Site

         ftp.uni-paderborn.de (131.234.10.42)

         and should be available on all other Aminet sites.

DIRECTORY
         pub/aminet/util/cli

FILE NAME
         DoIcon12.lha

RELEASE DATE
         12. November 1994

PRICE
         DoIcon is FREEWARE!
         (But the author would like to get some mail if you use DoIcon.)

DISTRIBUTABILITY
         The DoIcon archive is freely distributable,
         but it is copright (c) 1994 by Lars Eilebrecht.

OTHER
         If you have access to IRC (Internet Relay Chat), you can
         get the latest DoIcon archive via "dcc".
         Just type "/ctcp Shadowfox doicon" and you will get a 
         dcc send request for DoIcon. 
         Accept the request with "/dcc get Shadowfox".
         (The authors IRC-client normally is reachable 24h/day!)
@endnode
@node P7-6 "ShadowStart 1.0"
@toc P7

TITLE
         ShadowStart

VERSION
         1.0

AUTHOR
         Lars 'SFX' Eilebrecht 
         Glueck-Auf-Strasse 23
         57223 Kreuztal (Germany)

         SFX@appl1.hrz.uni-siegen.de
         Shadowfox@IRC

DESCRIPTION
         ShadowStart is a small utility that should be called from 
         the startup-sequence.  If the space bar is pressed down a
         requester pops up, asking you if you want the WBStartup-drawer,
         the User-Startup script or both to be disabled.
         This means, you can bootup a "clean" Workbench, 
         without any programs in WBStartup or User-Startup executed!
         (source code is included.)

FUTURE
         Ideas and suggestions are always welcome!

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
         ShadowStart needs at least Kick/WB 3.0

HOST NAME
         ShadowStart has been uploaded to the Aminet Site

         ftp.uni-paderborn.de (131.234.10.42)

         and should be available on all other Aminet sites.

DIRECTORY
         pub/aminet/util/boot

FILE NAME
         ShadowStart10.lha

RELEASE DATE
         16. November 1994

PRICE
         ShadowStart is FREEWARE!
         (But the author would like to get some mail if you use it.)

DISTRIBUTABILITY
         The ShadowStart archive is freely distributable,
         but it is copright ) 1994 by Lars Eilebrecht.

OTHER
         If you have access to IRC (Internet Relay Chat), you can
         get the latest ShadowStart archive via "dcc".
         Just type "/ctcp Shadowfox shadowstart" and you will get a 
         dcc send request for it. 
         Accept the request with "/dcc get Shadowfox".
         (The authors IRC-client normally is reachable 24h/day!)
@endnode
@node P7-7 "PriMan 2.0"
@toc P7

TITLE
        PriMan, a configurable task priority manager

VERSION
        2.0

AUTHOR
        Barry McConnell
        Internet: bmccnnll@tcd.ie
        FidoNet:  2:263/150.2

DESCRIPTION
        PriMan is an easy-to-use, configurable, Style Guide-compliant
        utility to monitor the tasks running on your Amiga, and perform
        some actions on them, in a similar manner to TaskX (amongst others).

        Major new features since v1.1 include:

        - Totally revamped interface.  Now PriMan has menus, keyboard
          shortcuts for everything, and an improved settings window.
        - Can signal tasks with Ctrl-C/D/E/F, and also freeze them!
        - Can close screens as well as windows.
        - Menu to change a task's priority to preset values.
        - Works well with Virtual Memory and sysihack.
        - Can use SIMPLE or SMART refresh windows.
        - Can open on either the front screen or the default public screen,
          and follow you around screens when you press its hotkey.
        - Better support for Shell users.
        - Online help and AmigaGuide documentation.

FILENAME
        PriMan20.lha

LOCATION
        Available for FTP from any Aminet site, eg. ftp.cdrom.com.
        (192.216.191.11) Also FREQ'able from 2:263/150.  If you like,
        e-mail me and I'll send you it uuencoded.

DIRECTORY
        /pub/aminet/util/moni

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
        Any Amiga running Release 2 or greater.

DISTRIBUTABILITY
        FreeWare.
@endnode
@node P7-8 "EpsLab 1.02"
@toc P7

TITLE
        EpsLab

VERSION
        1.02

AUTHOR
        Alessandro Sala

        E-Mail:
                tser1500@cdc8g5.cdc.polimi.it
                or
                sala@aix1.cdc.polimi.it

        Regular mail:
                Via Grandi, 16
                20014 Nerviano (MI)
                ITALY

DESCRIPTION
        The main purpose of EpsLab is to add a preview image to
        Encapsulated PostScript (EPSF) files. The preview image allows
        for faster manipulation and better representation of EPSF images
        imported into many word processors, DTP systems, vector graphics
        programs etc.

        Also, EpsLab can also convert many single-page PostScript
        files to EPS files with preview image, by locating the position
        and extension of objects drawn on the page.
        The preview image can be provided by the user in the form of
        a TIFF or Windows MetaFile image, or it can be created by
        EpsLab by interpreting the PostScript code.
        The output of EpsLab can be either the MS-DOS binary EPSF format,
        which has a TIFF preview image appended, or the Encapsulated
        PostScript Interchange (EPSI) format, which has an embedded
        ASCII preview.

        EpsLab features:

                - Fully localized, font-sensitive GUI
                - Creation of either uncompressed or compressed TIFF
                  previews
                - Selectable density of the preview image
                - ASCII and AmigaGuide documentation

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
        The only basic requirement is AmigaOS 2.0 or better.

        Memory requirements depend on the size and complexity
        of the EPS/PostScript files you want to convert, but
        1 Mb of chip RAM and 1 MB of fast RAM will suffice in
        most cases.

        Creation of preview images is done using the included
        post.library by Adrian Aylward. Included is also a rather
        simple PostScript font (FunkyFont by Radical Eye Software),
        but you may want more fonts so you can get better previews.
        One good source is Post, a freely distributable PostScript
        interpreter, also by Adrian Aylward. You can find it on Aminet
        in /pub/aminet/text/print as Post186enh_bin.lha. With Post you
        can also find an optimized version of the post.library which takes
        advantage of the math coprocessor (FPU) if you have one.

        Localization requires AmigaOS 2.1 or better.

HOST NAME
        wuarchive.wustl.edu or any Aminet site

DIRECTORY
        /pub/aminet/util/conv

FILE NAME
        EpsLab_1.02.lha (151034 bytes)

PRICE
        Free.

DISTRIBUTABILITY
        EpsLab is Freeware, meaning that it can be freely copied and
        distributed for non-commercial purposes, but remains
        Copyright 1994 by Alessandro Sala.
@endnode
@node P7-9 "ImageFX 2.0 Demo Pictures"
@toc P7

TITLE
      IFX2Demo.LHA

AUTHOR
      Kermit Woodall of Nova Design, Inc.  (Kermit@cup.portal.com)

      Nova Design, Inc.
      1910 Byrd Avenue, Suite 214
      Richmond, VA  23230
      USA

      (804) 282-6528  Customer Support/Information
      (804) 282-3768  Fax
      (804) 282-1157  Upgrade Orders  (also 1-800-Image-69 US/Canada only)

DESCRIPTION
      This archive contains twenty images created solely using ImageFX 2.0
      on an Amiga 3000 with six megabytes of RAM and what few remaining 
      megabytes were left over on my 50 megabyte hard drive.

      All images are in a 1:1 aspect ratio with a 256x256 resolution.  All
      are stored in the JPEG format.

      The images demonstrate such effects as Lightning, texture, PaintFX,
      and much more.  

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
      You will need a viewer for your Amiga that supports JPEG.  ViewTEK
      or REND24 are recommended.

      [ Note:  ViewTEK is on Aminet in          ]
      [ /pub/aminet/gfx/show/ViewTEK21.lha -Dan ]

HOST
      Aminet FTP sites (ftp.luth.se [130.240.18.2],
      wuarchive.wustl.edu [128.252.135.4], etc).

FILENAME
      ifx2demo.lha              - 286346 bytes

PRICE
      Free - distribute as much as you like!

DISTRIBUTION
      Freely redistributable as long as archive is intact. All
      rights reserved. Not to be re-sold, except for duplication/disk
      or with express written consent from the author.
@endnode
@node P7-10 "Epson Stylus Color Driver"
@toc P7

TITLE
     Epson Stylus Color Driver

VERSION
     1.0

COMPANY
     Endicor Technologies, Inc.
     P.O. Box 29000 #355
     San Antonio, TX 78229
     USA

     Internet:  info@endicor.com, sales@endicor.com

     Voice: 1-210-650-4988
     Fax:   As above.

AUTHOR
     Ty Sarna

     Phone:    1-210-650-4988 x1
     Internet: tsarna@endicor.com

DESCRIPTION
     This is a standard ("Preferences") Amiga printer driver for Stylus
     Color inkjet printer from Epson. It features resolutions up to
     720x720 dpi, with optional MicroWeave printing (an Epson feature
     that uses overlapping passes to reduce banding). Resolutions are
     selected by the Preferences density setting:

        Density 1       180x180
        Density 2       360x180
        Denisty 3       360x360
        Denisty 4       360x360, MicroWeave
        Denisty 5       720x720
        Density 6       720x720, MicroWeave
        Density 7       720x720, MicroWeave (identical to Denisty 6)

     The driver implements horizontal and verical whitespace stripping,
     as well as Epson compression mode 2 ("TIFF v4.0 packbits mode") to
     minimize the amount of data that must be sent to the printer and
     improve printing speed. A beta tester reported speed on an Amiga
     3000 comperable to that of a 66MHz 486 with Epson's MS-Windows
     driver.

     The driver implements a very simple color correction for 720dpi
     modes to prevent them from printing excessively dark.  This gives
     results similar to other drivers on the same printer (for example,
     the PageStream 2.x LQ2550C driver).  We are investigating a future
     update with improved color correction, which will provide more
     accurate colors and better gradation.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
     - Workbench 1.3 or higher.
     - An Epson Stylus Color printer (of course).

PRICE
     The price is $44.95.  However, we are now offering a special
     introductory price of $34.95 for all orders received before January
     1, 1995. Texas residents add sales tax (6.25%). San Antonio
     residents add Texas and San Antonio sales tax (totals 7.75%).
     Shipping and handling is $2, or $4 for UPS Second Day Air.
     We can offer electronic delivery for orders prepaid by check or
     money order, in which case there is no shipping charge.
     We can accept payment by check, money order, or COD ($4 extra).
     Sorry, we cannot accept credit cards at this time.  We
     are looking for distributors who can.

     All prices in US funds. Please contact us by phone or email for
     international orders. You may wish to use electronic delivery to
     save on shipping.

     When ordering by mail, please include: Name, shipping address,
     postal address, phone number, and method of delivery. If you
     include an Internet or FidoNet email address, we can use it to
     notify you of updates rather than using traditional mail.

DISTRIBUTABILITY
     Copyright (C) 1994 Endicor Technologies, Inc.
     All Rights Reserved.

     This is commercial software.

OTHER
     The driver takes advantage of Stylus Color features not present
     on older ESC-P2 printers, such as compression mode 2 (packbits).
     Because of this it will not work on previous Stylus printer models.
@endnode
@node P7-11 "Plantation 1.0"
@toc P7

NOTE
        This announcement prepared by Chris Hurley, one of the
        program's authors and a principle of interVISUAL Software.

TITLE
        Plantation-Scalable Distributed Rendering for Lightwave 3d

VERSION
        Version 1.0

COMPANY
        interVISUAL Software
        1080 Horseshoe Rd.
        Augusta, GA 30906
        USA

        (706)793-4007
        chrish@shell.portal.com

DESCRIPTION
        Plantation is a distributed rendering solution for 
        Lightwave 3d.

        Plantation orchestrates the rendering of Lightwave scenes by
        multiple Lightwave-equipped Amigas on a network.  Working in 
        tandem, the networked computers spread the work of rendering
        an animation across the entire network, decreasing rendering
        time and increasing productivity.

FEATURES
        Plantation will manage the rendering of any number of scenes
        up to memory limitations.

        Plantation is flexible in the number of networked Amigas it
        will support:  any number up to the limit imposed by your 
        license and your network. Unattended rendering of multiple 
        scenes on a single machine is also supported.

        Plantation Supports the DPS-Personal Animation Recorder, with 
        no additional setup, or waiting.  Faster machines do not wait 
        on slower machines while rendering to the PAR.

        Plantation supports nearly any network that can provide shared 
        access to a drawer, including Enlan-DFS, Envoy, Parnet, 
        AmiTCP (with NFS). 

        Plantation features an upgradable license.  Start with a 
        two-user license, and upgrade to a 5, 10, or unlimited license
        with a simple phone call.  

        An attractive, easy-to-use Intuition interface makes Plantation
        a pleasure to use.

        An installation script for use with the Installer is included.

        Plantation was carefully tested with Enforcer to eliminate as
        many machine-crashing bugs as possible.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
        Lightwave-equipped machines running:

        Workbench 2.0 or later
        Network software and hardware supporting a shared drawer.

PRICE
        US Prices: 

        (license size determines the number of active machines)

                2 user                  $100.00
                5 user                  $150.00
                10 user                 $200.00
                20 user                 $300.00
                shipping/handling       $4.00

                Custom licenses and upgrades are available.

        Release date: Shipping November, 1994.

DISTRIBUTABILITY
        Plantation is a commercial product.

        Send check or money order to:

        interVISUAL Software
        1080 Horseshoe Rd.
        Augusta, GA 30906

        Dealer inquiries are welcome.

        Information sheets are available via fax-on-demand at
        phone number above.

OTHER
        Basic Knowledge of AmigaDOS may be required.
@endnode
@node P7-12 "Kill the Little Dudes"
@toc P7

TITLE
   Kill the Little Dudes

VERSION
   1.0

AUTHOR
   Craig Burlock
   Submitted by: Philip Mulholland n1pjmulh@aelmg.adelaide.edu.au
                (I have internet access, the author doesn't so he asked me 
                to upload the game and also to announce it.)

DESCRIPTION
   Action platform game involving collecting pods, little dudes and death.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
   1 MB Memory
   PAL Video
   Tested and works on WB 1.3, 2.0 & 3.0

DOWNLOAD
   Any Aminet site
     eg ftp.etsu.edu          192.43.199.20  

DIRECTORY
   pub/aminet/game/jump/

FILES
   KTLD.lha     126159
   KTLD.readme  239

PRICE
   Shareware donation $5 Australian or equivalent, or whatever is
   considered appropriate.

DISTRIBUTABILITY
   Freely Distributable   
@endnode
@node P5B-1 "Amiga Report Mailing List"
@toc P5B

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

If you have an internet mailing address, you can receive Amiga Report in
@{"UUENCODED" link P5B-1-1} form each week as soon as the issue is released.  To be put on
the list, send Email to jcompton@bbs.xnet.com and in the body of the
message ask nicely and briefly to be added to the list.

ie: Please add me to the mailing list for Amiga Report magazine.  My
     addresss is <your net address>.

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 P5B-1-1
@toc P5B

                            UUEncoding/Decoding
                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
             (thanks to Bob Tomasevich for the quick tutorial)

What is uuencoding and uudecoding?
----------------------------------
uuencoding is converting a binary file into text (ASCII) which can be sent
through mail or Usenet.  uudecoding is reversing the process (e.g.
converting the file back to binary).

Why would I want to do this?
----------------------------
You have to send a binary file to a user who does not have FTP access, or
the user is too lazy to FTP the file.

What is the normal procedure?
-----------------------------
1. Convert the binary file into ASCII, using uuencode.
2. Send the file, through email, to the user.
3. The person on the receiving end gets the email, which may be split into
   parts.  If the email is split into parts, the parts must be combined,
   in the order received, into one file.
4. Receiving person converts the file back into binary, using uudecode.

What does a uuencoded file look like?
-------------------------------------
The start always has:

    begin 644 <encoded file's name>

So, for the file happy-happy-joy-joy.txt, it would look like:

    begin 644 happy-happy-joy-joy.txt

The encoded file begins right after:

M1TE&.#=A@`+@`9<````$`*QB15=2.+&/@R(Y)XM8.=J]H+*%7BL6#8]F6EP_]
M*$=E5"L?L-Z8A-:#60\@$,9P27-4-YB#;4HY)U!L9KZNE\O"O["#;8]82SDF>
M&[%J4FI',.&:E`48#="4@SE41M61<R`@%R$\,9:.?&!Z=NWM_\V';H-D1TI`=

.. more lines like the above ..

M>(`)N(`-^(`1.($5>($9N($=^($A.((E>((IN((M^((Q.(,U>(,YN(,]^(-!+
&V"\"`@`[&
``
end              <-- the end of the encoded file
size 151341      <-- size of the original file

So, how would I do this on the Amiga?
-------------------------------------
There are many uuencode/decode variants out there, but most usually have
kept the old UNIX command line, which can be confusing to novices, or,
require you to remove all mail headers and other, non-uuencoded text.

Luckily, Asher Feldman took the time to write UUxt.

What is UUxT?
-------------
It is a program which performs both the uuencode/decode operations in one
executable, AND, can also pack/unpack LhA archives.

Tell me more.
-------------
The UUxT archive contains UUxT, the CLI version, and UUxtGUI, the Workbench
interface.  I will give a short summary of how to use both.  Detailed
instructions are included in the UUxT archive.

CLI Version:
------------

  Running UUxT without any options gives the following:

     UUxT Version 2.1a Copyright (c)1993 Asher Feldman
     USAGE: UUxT [option] [archive name] <LhA archive name> <file(s)>
     options: a - encode           l - LhAencode
              x - decode           u - LhAdecode

  showing the format of the command line and the valid options.

  Some example command lines:

  1. Normal encoding - UUxt a filename.uue filename-to-archive
  2. Normal decoding - UUxt x filename.uue
  3. LhA archiving and encoding -

            UUxT l filename.uue filename.lha file1 file2 ...

  4. Decoding and LhA unarchiving - UUxT u filename.uue

  For LhA encoding and decoding, you will need LhA by Stefan Boberg.

  Workbench (GUI) Version:
  ------------------------
  Below is a ASCII rendition of the UUxT-GUI window (from UUxtGUI doc):
         ____________________________________________________________
        |+| UUxT-GUI Frontend v1.0 (c)1993 Asher Feldman             |
        +------------------------------------------------------------+
        |   ______________________        ______________________     |
        |  |InFile |              |      |OutFile|              |    |
        |  +-------+--------------+      +-------+--------------+    |
        |    (1)          (2)               (3)         (4)          |
        |             ____________                 _____________     |
        |  Operation |@| Decode   |      Lha Name |             |    |
        |            +-+----------+               +-------------+    |
        |                  (5)                          (6)          |
        |                         _________                          |
        |                        |  START  |                         |
        |                        +---------+                         |
        |                            (7)                             |
        +------------------------------------------------------------+

  (1) Clicking on this brings up a requester to select the file you want to
         perform the operation shown in gadget (5).
  (2) You can manually type here the filename of the file affected by the
         operation indicated in gadget (5).
  (3) Used only for encoding, brings up a requester to select where the
         encoded file should go.  Selecting an existing file will cause the
         existing file to be replaced by the encoded file.  You can also
         use this requester to create directories.
  (4) You can manually type the filename of the file to be the encoded file.
  (5) The operation to perform on file shown in (2).  The operations are
         the four provided by UUxT (uuencode/uudecode/LhAEncode/LhADecode).
  (6) The name of the archive created with the LhAEncode option.  Ignored
         when any other operation is selected.
  (7) Does the encode/decode/LhAEncode/LhADecode and pops up a requester
         indicating if the operation was successful or not.

I need this!  Where can I get it?
---------------------------------
If you use the Internet from a local BBS, you may find it there.  If not
you can FTP it from wuarchive.wustl.edu, in the directory

                          pub/aminet/arc/UUxT.lha

It should also be on the Aminet mirrors.

Thanks for the explanation!  How can I reach you if I have questions?
---------------------------------------------------------------------

                                 Internet
                                 --------

                         bob.tomasevich@nezuld.com
                               bobt@ais.net

@endnode
@node P5-4 "Copyright Information"
@toc P5                         

===========================================================================
==                       _    _       __  ___    _                       ==
==                      /\\  |\\   /| || //  \  /\\                      ==
==                     /  \\ | \\ /|| ||(< __  /  \\                     ==
==                    /--- \\|  \/ || || \\_||/--- \\                    ==
==                   /______________________________\\                   ==
==                  /                                \\                  ==
==              Amiga Report International Online Magazine               ==
==                December 4, 1994        Issue No. 2.33                 ==
==                  Copyright  1994 SkyNet 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
STR Publications.  Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless
otherwise noted.  Reprints must, without exception, include the name of the
publication, date, issue number and the author's name.  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
acceptble, provided the original meaning is not altered.  Amiga Report may
be distributed on privately owned not-for-profit bulletin board systems
(fees to cover cost of operation are acceptable), and major online services
such as (but not limited to) Delphi and Portal.  Distribution on public
domain disks is acceptable provided proceeds are only to cover the cost of
the disk (e.g.  no more than $5 US).  Distribution on for-profit magazine
cover disks requires written permission from the editor or publisher. Amiga
Report is a not-for-profit publication.  Amiga Report, at the time of
publication, is believed reasonably accurate.  Amiga Report, its staff and
contributors are not and cannot be held responsible for the use or misuse
of information contained herein or the results obtained there from.  Amiga
Report is not affiliated with Commodore-Amiga, Inc., Commodore Business
Machines, Ltd., or any other Amiga publication in any way.  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 P6-1 "Editor's Choice"
@toc P6
===========================================================================
==                            Editor's Choice                            ==
===========================================================================

These are selected products, reviewed by myself, that I've liked.  So, I've
landed them and decided to sell them at the lowest price I'm authorized.

All prices are in $US.
                                 | Issue    | Approximate  | Amiga Report |
 Product                         | Reviewed | Retail Price | Reader Price |
---------------------------------|----------|--------------|--------------|
|                                |          |              |              |
|Swifty 3-button mouse           |   2.28   |    $39.95    |    $22.75    |
|                                |          |              |              |
|GPFax Amiga Fax Software        |   2.30   |   $100.00    |    $60.00    |
|    (Class 1 and 2)             |          |              |              |
|                                |          |              |              |
|Micro R+D CD-ROM Volume 1       |   2.25   |    $79.00    |    $53.95    |
|    (Includes Transition graphic|          |              |              |
|    converter and loads of      |          |              |              |
|    artwork)                    |          |              |              |
|                                |          |              |              |
|Micro R+D CD-ROM Volume 2       |   2.26   |    $99.00    |    $59.95    |
|    (Includes entire Nature's   |          |              |              |
|    Backdrop series)            |          |              |              |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Orders may be placed via check, money order, or postal cheque, made out to
Micro R+D.  Visa/Mastercard accepted via post or E-Mail.  No CODs.

Mail all orders to @{" Jason Compton " link P8-1}.  Orders will be
processed by Amiga Report and drop-shipped from Micro R+D.

In the US, add $5/$10/$20 for UPS shipping, ground/blue/red label,
respectively.  Overseas: It is recommended that you consider $20 to be the
minimum cost for shipping.  If you plan to order more than one item, E-mail
for shipping cost.

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

Sidewinder's Future Shock II CD is now available through Amiga Report.
Featuring 15 Amiga-generated tunes totalling 71 minutes, Eric Gieseke's
work is captured on an Amiga-independent media.

Available for US$12.00.  Please add $5 for shipping.

Make check or money order payable to @{" Jason Compton " link P8-1}.  Orders will be
drop-shipped from Sidewinder Productions.

For overseas orders, please contact through E-Mail before ordering.
@endnode
@node P6-2 "Area52 Price Listing"
@toc P6

             AREA52 Price Listing for September/October 1994.
             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Although many Amiga mail order companies and dealers are becoming harder to
locate, it only makes room for us smaller dealers to bring you the same
products at the same prices you would expect from the largest mail order
house around.  Over the summer we at AREA52 have been slowly expanding our
product line to contain hardware such as hard drives, monitors, and
accelerators, along with software from various smaller developers in the
area.  Here are some of our prices, but look for more in the October issue
of Video Toaster User.  We welcome you to compare prices!

    17" AOC SVGA monitor, digital controls, .28mm 1280x1024 NI     $625
    14" SVGA monitors, many brands, .28mm, 1024x768 NI              260
    Warp Engine 68040 for A4000, 0mhz, SCSI2                        750
    Cyberstorm 68040 for A4000, 0mhz                                750
    Personal Animation Recorder                                    1499
    Conner 540 megabyte IDE hard drive, PAR compatible              299
    Conner 810 megabyte IDE hard drive                              499
    Conner 1.0 gigabyte IDE hard drive, PAR compatible              625
    Micropolis 2210A 1.0 gigabyte hard drive, IDE, PAR compatible   699
    Micropolis 2217A 1.7 gigabyte hard drive, IDE, PAR compatible   950
    Micropolis 2210 1.0 gigabyte hard drive, SCSI2                  699
    Micropolis 2217 1.7 gigabyte hard drive, SCSI2                  950
    Micropolis 2217AV 1.7 gigabyte hard drive, SCSI2                999
    Fujitsu 530 megabyte SCSI hard drive                            350
    Fujitsu 1.0 gigabyte SCSI hard drive                            625
    Samsung 251 megabyte IDE hard drive                             199
    Samsung 426 megabyte IDE hard drive                             250
    Barracuda 2.1 gigabyte SCSI2 hard drive                        1350
    Barracuda 4.2 gigabyte SCSI2 hard drive                        2599
    Seagate 42 megabyte 2.5" IDE hard drive for A1200, A600         150
    Seagate 210 megabyte 2.5" IDE hard drive for A1200, A600        299
    Seagate 340 megabyte 2.5" IDE hard drive for A1200, A600        425
    Seagate 524 megabyte 2.5" IDE hard drive for A1200, A600        625
    External drive bays      1 drive bay $99. 2: $150, 4: $250, 8: $475

    Most drives are 2 year minimum to 5 year warranty on larger drives.
    MTBF of 23 years on all drives! Most drives are 3.5" half height.

Order (800) 730-0082, or FAX 24 hour orders to (516) 476-1615.  NY State
residents may order using (516) 476-1615.  NY State residents must add 8%
sales tax.  VISA and MasterCard accepted.  COD accepted by money order or
cash equivalent.  Prices subject to change.

@endnode
@node P6-4-1 "Delphi"
@toc P6-4

===========================================================================
==       Delphi Internet Services -- Your Connection to the World!       ==
===========================================================================

Amiga Report International Online Magazine and the Amiga Report Coverdisk
are available in the Amiga SIG on DELPHI.  Amiga Report readers are invited
to join DELPHI and become a part of the friendly community of Amiga
enthusiasts there.

                          SIGNING UP WITH DELPHI
                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

       Using a personal computer and modem, members worldwide access
                  DELPHI services via a local phone call

                              JOIN -- DELPHI
                              --------------

                Via modem, dial up DELPHI at 1-800-695-4002
                               then...
                When connected, press RETURN once or twice
                                and..
              At Username: type JOINDELPHI and press RETURN,
              At Password: type AMIGAUSER and press RETURN.

                        For more information, call
                 DELPHI Member Services at 1-800-695-4005

                             SPECIAL FEATURES
                             ----------------

  * Complete Internet connection -- Telnet, FTP, IRC, Gopher, E-Mail and
       more!   (Internet option is $3/month extra)
  * SIGs for all types of computers  -- Amiga, IBM, Macintosh, Atari, etc.
  * An active Amiga SIG hosting conferances, Usenet, Latest wares, and
       FTP Gopher coming soon
  * Large file databases!
  * SIGs for hobbies, video games, graphics, and more!
  * Business and world news, stock reports, etc.
  * Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia!

                DELPHI - It's getting better all the time!

@endnode
@node P6-4-2 "Portal"
@toc P6-4

===========================================================================
==                Portal:  A Great Place For Amiga Users                 ==
===========================================================================

                The Portal Information Network's Amiga Zone

          The AFFORDABLE alternative for online Amiga information
          -------------------------------------------------------

The Portal Online System is the home of acclaimed Amiga Zone, a full-
service online SIG (Special Interest Group) for Amiga owners and users.

You can dial into Portal to access the Amiga Zone in various ways: direct
dial to our San Jose, CA area banks of high-speed modems (you pay for the
phone call if it's not local), or though any SprintNet indial anywhere in
the USA, (with a small hourly fee) or via the World-wide Internet "telnet"
program to portal.com (no hourly fee).

Even Delphi and BIX users can Telnet into Portal for a flat $19.95 a month,
with *unlimited* use.

Portal is NOT just another shell account.  Its Online system is fully
menu-driven with on-screen commands and help and you can easily customize
it for your terminal program and screen size.

Some of Portal/Amiga Zone's amazing features include:

 * 2.5 GIGabytes of Amiga-specific file space - we have so much Amiga Stuff
      online, we've lost count!
 * The *entire* Fred Fish collection of freely distributable software,
       online.  ALL 1000 disks!
 * Fast, Batch Zmodem file transfer protocol. Download up to 100 files at
      once, of any size, with one command.
 * Twenty Amiga vendor areas with participants like AmigaWorld, Elastic
      Reality (ASDG), Soft-Logik, Apex Publishing, and others.
 * 38 "regular" Amiga libraries with over 10,000 files.  Hot new stuff
       arrives daily.
 * No upload/download "ratios" EVER. Download as much as you want, as
      often as you want, and never feel pressured doing it.
 * Live, interactive nightly chats with Amiga folks whose names you will
      recognize.  Special conferences.  Random chance prize contests.  We
      have given away thousands of bucks worth of Amiga prizes - more than
      any other online service.
 * Vast Message bases where you can ask questions about *anything* Amiga
      related and get quick replies from the experts.
 * Amiga Internet mailing lists for Imagine, DCTV, LightWave, EGS, Picasso,
      OpalVision & others feed right into the Zone message bases.  Read
      months worth of postings.  No need to clutter your mailbox with them.
 * FREE unlimited Internet Email with 5 meg of free storage.
 * A FREE UNIX Shell account with another 5 meg of free storage.
 * Portal has the Usenet.  Thousands of "newsgroups" in which you can read
      and post articles about virtually any subject you can possibly
      imagine.
 * Other Portal SIGs (Special Interest Groups) online for Mac, IBM, Sun,
      UNIX, Science Fiction, Disney, and dozens more.  ALL Portal SIGs are
      accessible to ALL Portal customers with NO surcharges ever. You
      never worry "Ooops... Am I paying for this area?" again!
 * The entire UPI/Clarinet/Newsbytes news hierarchy ($4/month extra)  An 
      entire general interest newspaper and computer news magazine.
 * Portal was THE FIRST online service to offer a full package of Internet
      features: IRC, FTP, TELNET, MUDS, LIBS.  And you get FREE unlimited
      usage of all of them.
 * Our exclusive PortalX by Steve Tibbett, the graphical "front end" for
      Portal which will let you automatically click'n'download your waiting
      email, messages, Usenet groups and binary files!  Reply to mail and
      messages offline using your favorite editor and your replies are sent
      automatically the next time you log into Portal.  (PortalX requires
      Workbench 2.04 or higher)
 * Portal does NOT stick it to high speed modem users. Whether you log in
      at 1200 or 2400 or 9600 or 14.4K you pay the same low price.

To join Portal or for more information call:

   1-800-433-6444 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time
   1-408-973-9111 (voice) 9a.m.-5p.m. Mon-Fri, Pacific Time
   
   1-408-725-0561 (modem 3/12/2400) 24 hours every day
   1-408-725-0560 (modem 96/14400) 24 hours every day

   or enter "C PORTAL" from any Sprintnet dial-in in the USA,
   or telnet to "portal.com" from anywhere.

Call and join today.  Tell the friendly Portal Customer Service
representative, "The Amiga Zone and Amiga Report sent me!"

[Editor's Note: Be sure to tell them that you are an Amiga user, so they
can notify the AmigaZone sysops to send their Welcome Letter and other
information!]

The Portal Information Network accepts MasterCard, Visa, or you can pre-pay
any amount by personal check or money order.  The Portal Online System is a
trademark of The Portal Information Network.  SLIP, UUCP and custom domain
accounts are also available.
@endnode
@node P6-4-3 "GEnie"
@toc P6-4

===========================================================================
==            GEnie: Internet access, online games, and more             ==
===========================================================================

* What is GEnie?

GEnie is a commercial on-line service that offers many services at a
reasonable monthly rate.  Some of the general services are:

     - Over 150,000 software files to download
     - Uploads to GEnie are free of any connect charges, so upload those
       Public Domain programs to add to the Starship Amiga Roundtable's
       vast selection of programs for free!
     - Real-time chat
     - Dozens of special-interest discussion areas
     - Challenging multi-player games with graphics (yes, there are Amiga
       front-ends)
     - Worldwide news, weather and sports
     - Electronic mail to and from the Internet
     - FTP Service which provides users with interactive access to any of
       the millions of files available for public access on the Internet
     - Usenet Newsgroups Service which allow users to participate in the
       global discussion areas collectively known as USENET
     - Outbound Telnet Service which enables users to connect to other host
       computers through the Internet
     - GEnie Mall with nearly 40 different vendors
     - Starship Amiga Roundtable which contains gigabytes of Amiga-only
       files
     - Commodore Roundtable for VIC-20, C-64, C-128 and other Commodore
       computers
     - Other Amiga software companies have their own Roundtables for
       customer support such as Soft-Logik where all the latest program
       patches and support files are available for their products
     - AmiAladdin Support Roundtable for getting the latest updates to the
       GEnie Aladdin software which is used to make maneuvering the GEnie
       menu system much easier and faster.  This is a specific area for the
       Amiga version of this software which is free of charge
     - Hundreds of other areas and services available

* How do I sigh up for GEnie?

You may sign up for GEnie service by one of two methods:

(1) Using your modem (8N1 half duplex 300/1200/2400 baud) dial
      1-800-638-8369.  Upon connection immediately enter HHH (Return),
      don't wait for any on-screen prompt.
    At the U#= prompt type SIGNUP (Return).
    You may use a major credit card account or your checking account (US
      only.)
(2) Call GEnie client services via voice at 1-800-638-9636 or
      1-301-251-6475 from outside the US and Canada.
@endnode
@node P5B-2 "Aminet"
@toc P5B

                                  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.  (ftp.cdrom.com
or ftp.wustl.edu are two sites)

@endnode
@node P5B-3 "World Wide Web"
@toc P5B

                              World Wide Web
                              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AR can also be read with Mosaic (in either AmigaGuide or html form). 
Reading AmigaReport with Mosaic removes the necessity to download it.  It
can also be read using programs found in UNIX sites such as LYNX.

Simply tell Mosaic to open the following URL:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/People/mjw/Computer/Amiga/News/AR/index.html

Or, for those in Europe, the Polish site is:
http://sun1000.ci.pwr.wroc.pl/AMIGA/AR/

Mosaic for the Amiga can be found on Aminet in directory comm/net, or
(using anonymous ftp) on max.physics.sunysb.edu

Mosaic for X, Macintosh(tm) and Microsoft Windows(tm) can be found on
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu

@endnode
@node P9-A1 "Omaha Amiganet"
@toc P5B-4A

                            * OMAHA AMIGANET *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                       * Running DLG Professional *
                           Andy Wasserman, Sysop
                              24 hrs - 7 days
                            FidoNet:  1:285/11
                           AmigaNet:  40:200/10
                      Line 1:  402-333-5110  V.32bis
                      Line 2:  402-691-0104  USR DS
                              Omaha, Nebraska

@endnode
@node P9-A2 "NOVA"
@toc P5B-4A

                               * NOVA BBS *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
              Support BBS of The Chattanooga Amiga Users Group
                         * Running MEBBSNet BBS *
                         Wayne Stonecipher, Sysop
                AmigaNet 40:210/10.0  40:210/1.0  40:210/0.0
                            FidoNet  1:362/508.0
                 An Amiga Software Distribution Site (ADS)
                 615-472-9748  USR DS 16.8  24hrs - 7 days
                           Cleveland, Tennessee

                     All AR back issues are kept online.
          All new users receive access to the AR on the first call.
             Any AR issue may be file requested with proper name.
                 To obtain the current issue you may FReq
                     Proper name, AR.LHA or simply AR

@endnode
@node P9-A3 "PIONEERS BBS"
@toc P5B-4A

                              * PIONEERS BBS *
                        ** A PREMIER GENEALOGY BBS **
              ** WEST COAST - Amiga Virus Busters Support BBS  **
                        ** CD32 REVIEW Support BBS **
                                   AND NOW
                    Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                         * Running EXCELSIOR! BBS *
                       Michael & Marthe Arends, Sysops
                            FidoNet:  1:343/54.0
             206-775-7983 Supra 14.4k v32.bis  24hrs - 7 days
                             EDMONDS, Washington

  New users can call and get ANY copy of Amiga Report. Just call using
  the Name "Long Distance" and the password "Longdistance"(without the
  quotes of course).  Users using this account will have full access to
  ALL past and present issues of AMIGA REPORT starting with the premier
  issue. The latest issue of Amiga Report can be Freq'ed (FileREQusted)
  from here as "AR.LHA", Freq's are valid at ANY time.


@endnode
@node P9-A4 "CIUA BBS"
@toc P5B-4A

                               * CIUA BBS*
             Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Portugal
               * Running Excelsior/Trapdoor/AmigaUUCP/AmiTCP *
                           Celso Martinho, Sysop
                             FidoNet  2:361/9
                        Internet: denise.ci.ua.pt
          +351-34-382080/382081 (V32bis soon V34) 24hrs - 7 days.

@endnode
@node P9-A5 "Amiga Junction 9"
@toc P5B-4A


                           * AMIGA JUNCTION 9 *
         Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- United Kingdom
                       * Running DLG Professional *
                          Stephen Anderson, Sysop
                Sysop Email:  sysadmin@junct9.demon.co.uk

      Line 1  +44 (0)372 271000  14400  V.32bis/HST   FidoNet 2:440/20
      Line 2  +44 (0)372 278000  14400  V.32bis only  FidoNet 2:440/21
      Line 3  +44 (0)372 279000  2400   V.42bis/MNP

      Voice:  +44 (0)956 348405  (24hrs)  Direct Sysop Voice Line

                   Internet:  user_name@junct9.royle.org

         Special Interest Areas: - Bjork / Sugarcubes Fan Club
                                 - Research of Lucid Dreaming
@endnode
@node P9-A6 "BitStream BBS"
@toc P5B-4A

                             * BITSTREAM BBS *
               The BBS of the Nelson (NZ) Amiga Users Group
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site

        BITSTREAM BBS is running on an Amiga 2000/030 with 7MB RAM
            800MB of Hard Drive Space and a 650MB CD-ROM Drive

   Line 1 : 24 hours, +64-(0)3-548-5321, SupraFaxModem 28k8 VFast Class
  Modem Supplied by Supra.  Hard Drive Controller Supplied by Micro World

            We use the XENOLINK Professional BBS Software v1.91

             Sysop: Glen Roberts       Co-Sysop: Peter Lowish

               FidoNET 3:771/850.0       MaxNET 90:301/150.0
                           AmigaNET 41:644/850.0
@endnode
@node P9-A7 "Realm of Twilight"
@toc P5B-4A

                         * REALM OF TWILIGHT BBS *
             Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Canada
                        * Running Excelsior! BBS *
                         Thorsten Schiller, Sysop
                    Usenet: realm.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca
                    UUCP:   ...!uunet.ca!tdkcs!realm
                             FIDO: 1:221/302
                             Fish: 33:33/8
                              24hrs - 7 days
                         519-748-9365  (2400 baud)
                         519-748-9026  (v.32bis)
                              Ontario, Canada


     Hardware: Amiga 3000, 105 Meg Quantum, 213 Meg Maxtor, 5 megs RAM


@endnode
@node P9-A8 "Metnet Triangle"
@toc P5B-4A

                          METNET TRIANGLE SYSTEM
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                          UK Support for Mebbsnet
                  * Running Mebbsnet and Starnet 1.02a *
                             Jon Witty, Sysop
                            FIDO:  2:252/129.0
                              24 hrs - 7 days
                     Line  1:   44-482-473871  16.8 DS HST
                     Lines 2-7: 44-482-442251  2400 (6 lines)
                     Line  8:   44-482-491744  2400
                     Line  9:   44-482-449028  2400
                Voice helpline  44-482-491752  (anytime)

                 Fully animated menus + normal menu sets.
                  500 megs HD - Usual software/messages
           Most doors online - Many Sigs - AMIGA AND PC SUPPORT
                Very active userbase and busy conference
             Precious days and MUD online. AMUL support site.

@endnode
@node P9-A9 "Amiga-Night-System"
@toc P5B-4A


                          * AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM *
             Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - Finland
                       * Running DLG Professional *
                            Janne Saarme, Sysop
                              24 hrs - 7 days
                     InterNet: luumu@fenix.fipnet.fi
                           FidoNet:  2:220/550.0
                          +358-0-675840  V.32bis
                             Helsinki, Finland

@endnode
@node P9-A10 "Ramses Amiga Flying"
@toc P5B-4A

                        * RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING *
             Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- France
                       * Running DLG Professional *
                            Eric Delord, Sysop
                         Philippe Brand, Co-Sysop
                        Stephane Legrand, Co-Sysop
                    Internet: user.name@ramses.gna.org
                            Fidonet: 2:320/104
                        +33-1-60037015 USR DS 16.8
                        +33-1-60037713 V.32bis
                        +33-1-60037716 1200-2400


Ramses The Amiga Flying BBS is an Amiga-dedicated BBS running DLG-Pro on a
Amiga 3000, 16MB RAM, 2GB Disk space, 3 lines.

We keep a dayly Aminet site mirroring, NetBSD-Amiga complete mirror site
from ftp.eunet.ch (main site), Amiga Report, GNU Amiga, Ramses is the
SAN/ADS/Amiganet French coordinator.

@endnode
@node P9-A11 "Gateway BBS"
@toc P5B-4A

                            * THE GATEWAY BBS *
                 Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                        * Running Excelsior! BBS *
                          Stace Cunningham, Sysop
                            Dan Butler, CoSysop
                              24 hrs - 7 days
                   InterNet: stace@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil
                           FidoNet:  1:3604/60.0
                    601-374-2697 Hayes Optina 28.8 V.FC
                            Biloxi, Mississippi

@endnode
@node P9-A12 "EMERALD KEEP BBS"
@toc P5B-4A

                         * Emerald Keep BBS *
               Official Amiga Report Distribation Site
                     * Running DLG Professional *
                       Michael mac Nessa, Sysop
                           24 hrs - 7 days
                           FidoNet: 1:2250/2
                          AmigaNet: 40:206/1
                      618-394-0065 USR 16.8k DS
                         Fairview Heights, IL

@endnode
@node P9-A13 "Amiga BBS"
@toc P5B-4A

                               * Amiga BBS *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                        * Running Excelsior! BBS *
                         Alejandro Kurczyn, Sysop
                             FidoNet  4:975/7
                         First Amiga BBS in Mexico
                        (5) 887-3080   9600 V32,MNP
                         Estado de Mexico,  Mexico

@endnode
@node P9-A14 "The Stygian Abyss"
@toc P5B-4A

                         * THE STYGIAN ABYSS BBS *
                    312-384-0616  14.4 USR Courier HST
                    312-384-6250  14.4 Supra V.32 bis (FREQ line)
                    312-384-0716  2400 USR Courier

  FIDONet-1:115/384.0    CLink-911:6200/2.0  NWNet-206:310/0.0--206:310/1.0
      PhantomNet Central States Cooridinator-11:2115/0.0--11:2115/1.0
      FaithNet Central States Cooridinator-700:6000/0.0--700:6000/1.0
                     AMINet Chicagoland HUB-559:2/5.0
                             Chicago, Illinois

     Over 4 GIGS of files  I  Over 3700 MODS  I  Over 120 On-Line Games
              Tons of digitized sounds  I  Over 15,000 GIFS
           Supporting:  Amiga  I  IBM  I  Macintosh  I C=64/128
              SIR SAMMY-SysOp     Enter.......If you dare!!

@endnode
@node P9-A15 "Amiga Do PC BBS"
@toc P5B-4A

                            * AMIGA DO PC BBS *
             Official Amiga Report Distribuition Site - Brazil
                       * Running Excelsior! v 1.18 *

                              +55-192-33-2260
                         Weekdays: 19-07 (-3 GMT)
                            Weekends: 24 hours
                            Fidonet:  4:801/44
                            RBT:      12:1212/1
                            Virinet:  70:101/17

                    Internet:  fimoraes@dcc.unicamp.br
                          Francisco Moraes, sysop
                               Campinas, SP

                Freq AREPORT for the newest issue avaiable.

@endnode
@node P9-A16 "Comm-Link BBS"
@toc P5B-4A

                             * COMM-LINK BBS *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                         * Running Excelsior Pro *
                         604-945-6192  USR DS 16.8
                              24 hrs - 7 days
                         Fido:        1:153/210.0
                        AmigaNet     40:800/9100.0
                        InterSports: 102:540/305.0
                        PussNet:     169:1000/305.0
               InterNet:  steve_hooper@comm.tfbbs.wimsey.com
                            Steve Hooper, Sysop
                        Port Coquitlam, B.C. Canada

@endnode
@node P9-A17 "Phantom's Lair"
@toc P5B-4A

                            * PHANTOM'S LAIR *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                           * Running CNET 3.0 *
                           FidoNet:  1:115/469.0
            Phantom Net Cooridinator:  11:1115/0.0-11:1115/1.0
                               708-469-9510
                               708-469-9520
                CD ROMS, Over 15511 Files Online @ 2586 meg
                            Peter Gawron, Sysop
                        Glendale Heights, Illinois

@endnode
@node P9-A18 "Tierra-Miga BBS"
@toc P5B-4A

                             Tierra-Miga  BBS
                              Software: CNet
                              Gib Gilbertson
                            24 hours -  7 days
                        FidoNet:       1:202/638.0
                        AmigaNet:      40:406/3.0
                        Internet:      torment.cts.com
                        Line #1:       619.292.0754 V32.bis
                        City:          San Diego, CA.
@endnode
@node P9-A19 "Moonlight Sonata DLG"
@toc P5B-4A

                  M O O N L I G H T   S O N A T A   D L G

                * Amiga Report Official Distribution Site *
                         * DAS ModPlayer Support *

                      2 Nodes *FREE PUBLIC* Amiga BBS
               MIDI-tunes, MIDI-utils, Modules, Amiga-files
                       Messages, Door-games, MUD...
                     Also patches for several synths!
                   (About 100MB of ProTracker Modules!)

              Node #1 - +358-18-161763 - ZyXEL V32b 19200
              Node #2 - +358-18-161862 - HST DS V32 14400
                           Fidonet: 2:221/112.0

                         Keyboards: Erno Tuomainen

                       Amiga3000 25MHz - 1.3Gigs HD
                      BBS Software: Dialog Pro BB/OS

@endnode
@node P9-A20 "Continental Drift"
@toc P5B-4A
*=====================================================================*

      /\                  C O N T I N E N T A L   D R I F T  B B S
     /  \                              (+61) 2 949 4256
    /    \______          Murray Chaffer * Andre Lackmann * Dale Cohen
   /     /      \
  /     /        \                   Amiga * IBM * Macintosh
 /     /          \ : : :
:\     \    /\     \ : : :800Mb+ Online - USENET News - Internet Mail
 :\     \  /  \     \ : : Local Mail - FIDOnet Mail - Shareware Regos
: :\     \/    \     \ : :Online Games -  Aminet, FISH, Euro  CD-ROMs
 : :\          /     /: :
: : :\        /     /: : :Amiga Report * CD-32 View * Frontier Consoles
      \      /     /             * Computer underground Digest *
       \    /\    /
        \  /  \  /             **Online shareware registrations**
         \/    \/              Files daily from Aminet * ADS/SAN

*=====================================================================*

@endnode
@node P9-A21 "Amiga Online Bs Heemstede"
@toc P5B-4A

                         Amiga Online Bs Heemstede

                   *  HeadQuarters of Online Products *

        Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- The Netherlands

                         * Running Xenolink 1.90 *

                       Your SysOp is Michiel Willems

                      24 hours a day - 7 days a week

                        Fidonet      : 2:280/464.0
                        DAN Host HQ  : 55:100/1.0
                        Amynet Host  : 39:151/1.0
                        NLA          : 14:102/203.0
                        BOSnet Hub   : 99:999/2.0
                        e-mail SysOp : michiel@aobh.xs4all.nl

                  Line 1 +31-23-282002 14400 v32bis Supra
                  Line 2 +31-23-470739 14400 v32bis Supra

               Heemstede, The Netherlands, Europe, The Earth

                             Very nice menu's
                   660 Megs HD online - ALOT of software
                  ALOT of messages - VERY fast BBS program
                   Point support - Lot's of doors online
           Just freq AR of AR.LHA for the latest issue available

The system is running on an Amiga 2000 with a HARMS-Prof-3000 030
turboboard at 29Mhz and a copro at 50Mhz, 7MB RAM, 660 Meg HD space
and soon 1 Gigabyte HD space.

Every issue from Amiga Report Magazine online as far as the first issue.

@endnode
@node P9-A22 "The Kobayashi Alternative BBS"
@toc P5B-4A
          T H E   K O B A Y A S H I   A L T E R N A T I V E   B B S
          -----   -----------------   ---------------------   -----
                    Supporting the Central Maine since 1985!

                     7 In-Dial lines (All 14.4 Compatable)
           Support for IBM/Windows, Amiga, MAC and CNet BBS Support
                            On-Line Games (over 100)
                      Internet Newsgroups and Usenet Mail
                   FidoNet Echo Areas   FidoNet: 1:326/404.0
                         (207)/784-2130 \   TKA
                         (207)/946-5665  \  Local
                         (207)/353-7224  /  Access
                         (207)/377-3214 /   Lines
@endnode
@node P9-A23 "Highway to Hell BBS"
@toc P5B-4A

                          * Highway to Hell BBS *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site

                     Sysop: Iain Black (iblack@dit.ie)
                   Cosysop: Damien Ryan (djryan@dit.ie)

                       Online from 22:00 - 08:00 GMT

                          Fidonet Node: 2:263/154
                              +353-1-847 5217
@endnode
@node P9-A24 "CUGI BBS"
@toc P5B-4A

                               * CUGI BBS *
              The BBS of the Commodore Users Group of Ireland
                Fidonet: 2:263/155 Phone: + 353 1 837 0204
                           Sysop: Matt Brookes.
                          V32bis/24 hours a day.
@endnode
@node P9-A25 "The Hell BBS"
@toc P5B-4A
                     -=-= T h e   H e l l   B B S =-=-
               -* Official Amiga Report Distribution Site *-

                       Running Xenolink BBS software
                Line #1 : +31-(0)70-3468783 (v32bis Supra)
                              24 hrs - 7 days

           Sysop : Robin Vermaat       Co-sysop : Tony Verschoor
                        GFX-sysop : Richard Willkomm
         Fido-Net : 2:281/418.0        NL Amiga-Net : 14:101/101.0
         e-mail : root@hell.xs4all.nl     Amiga-Net : 39:153/101.0
@endnode
@node P9-B2 "Freeland Mainframe"
@toc P5B-4B

                          * FREELAND MAINFRAME *
                   Offical Amiga Report Distribution Site
                       * Running DLG Progessional *
                           John Freeland, SysOp
                 206-438-1670  Supra 2400zi
                 206-438-2273  Telebit WorldBlazer(v.32bis)
                 206-456-6013  Supra v.32bis
                              24hrs - 7 days
                       Internet - freemf.eskimo.com
                            Olympia, Washington
@endnode
@node P9-B3 "LAHO"
@toc P5B-4B

                               * LAHO BBS *
             Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Finland
                             * Running MBBS *
                            Lenni Uitti, SysOp
                     Juha Mkinen, SysOp (Amiga-areas)
                      Tero Manninen, SysOp (PC-areas)
                        +358-64-414 1516, V.32bis/HST
                        +358-64-414 0400, V.32bis/HST
                        +358-64-414 6800, V.32/HST
                        +358-64-423 1300, V.32bis
                            Seinjoki, Finland

Our host machine is a 386/33 with 20MB of memory, 1GB harddisk and a CD-ROM
drive running in a Novell network.  The BBS software is a Norwegian origin
MBBS running in a DesqView windows.

We have now (26th March 1994) over 10000 files online (mostly for the
Commodore Amiga line of the personal computers.)

Every user has an access to download filelist (LAHOFIL.ZIP), list of the
Finnish 24-hour BBS's (BBSLIST.ZIP or BBSLIST.LHA) and every issue of the
Amiga Report Magazine (AR101.LHA-AR???.LHA) even on their first call.

@endnode
@node P9-B4 "Falling BBS"
@toc P5B-4B

                              * FALLING BBS *
             Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Norway
                             * Running ABBS *
                          Christopher Naas, Sysop
                   +47 69 256117  28.8k  24hrs - 7 days
                      EMail:   christon@powertech.no

@endnode
@node P9-B5 "Command Line BBS"
@toc P5B-4B

                           * COMMAND LINE BBS *
            Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Canada
                Canada's Amiga Graphics & Animation Source
                        * Running AmiExpress BBS *
                           Nick Poliwko, Sysop
                    416-533-8321  V.32  24hrs - 7 days
                             Toronto, Canada

@endnode
@node P9-B6 "Leguans Byte Channel"
@toc P5B-4B

                         * LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL *
            Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany
                         * Running EazyBBS V2.11 *
                           Andreas Geist, Sysop
                    Usenet: andreas@lbcmbx.in-berlin.de
                              24 hrs - 7 days
                    Line 1:  49-30-8110060  USR DS 16.8
                    Line 2:  49-30-8122442  USR DS 16.8

                 Login as User: "amiga", Passwd: "report"

@endnode
@node P9-B7 "Stingray Database BBS"
@toc P5B-4B

                          * STINGRAY  DATABASE *
            Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany
                           * Running FastCall *
                           Bernd Mienert, Sysop
                 EMail: sysop@sting-db.zer.sub.org.dbp.de
                  +49 208 496807 HST-Dual 24hrs - 7 days
                          Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany

@endnode
@node P9-B8 "T.B.P. Video Slate"
@toc P5B-4B
            _________________________________
           /  /                          /_ /\     * T.B.P. VIDEO SLATE *
          /  /                          //// /     Official Amiga Report
         /  /     AR Coverdisk         /  / /    CoverDisk Distribution Site
        /  /                          /  / /  An Amiga dedicated BBS for All
       /  /                          /  / /      * Running Skyline 1.3.2 *
      /  /                          /  / /         Mark E Davidson, Sysop
     /  /__________________________/  / /             24 hrs - 7 days
    /      _______________________   / /         201-586-3623  USR 14.4 HST
   /      /  ___          /      /  / /              Rockaway, New Jersey
  /      /  /  /         /      /  / /
 /      /  /__/         /      /  / /      Full Skypix  menus + normal and
/______/_______________/______/__/ /                 ansi menu sets.
\______\________________\______\_\/            Download on the first call.

       Hardware:  Amiga 500 Tower custom at 14 MHz, 350 Meg maxtor,
           125 Meg SCSI Maxtor, 345 Meg IDE Maxtor, 2 Double Speed CD rom,
                                  9 meg RAM

@endnode
@node P9-B9 "Amiga Central"
@toc P5B-4B

                            * AMIGA CENTRAL! *
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
                          CNet Amiga Support Site
                        * Running CNet Amiga BBS *
                            Carl Tashian, Sysop
                  Internet mail:  root@amicent.raider.net
                   615-383-9679  1200-14.4Kbps V.32bis
                             24 hours - 7 days
                           Nashville, Tennessee

Hardware: Amiga 3000 Tower 68030+882@25MHz, 105 meg Quantum, 225 meg
Seagate, Zoom 14.4k modem

@endnode
@node P9-B10 "Guru Meditation"
@toc P5B-4B

                            * GURU MEDITATION *
             Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Spain
                         * Running Remote Access *
                            Javier Frias, SysOp
                              +34-1-383-1317  V.32bis
                             24 hours - 7days
                                   Spain

@endnode
@node P9-B11 "LINKSystem LINK-CH1"
@toc P5B-4B

                        LINKSystem LINK-CH1
       Official Amiga Report Distribution Site - Switzerland
            in local newsgroup link-ch1.ml.amiga-report

                   Mails and News from/to UseNet

                contact: rleemann@link-ch1.aworld.de

                +41 61 3215643       V32bis/Zyx16800
                +41 61 3832007         ISDN X75/V110
                +41 61 3832008         ISDN X75/V110

@endnode
@node P9-B12 "Doom of Darkness"
@toc P5B-4B

                        * Doom of Darkness *
                          * Home of AmBoS *
         Official Amiga Report Distribution Site -- Germany

     Marc Doerre (Marc_Doerre), Sysop (BBS-Owner/AmBoS-Support)
        Bernd Petersen (TGM), Sysop (Amiga-Software-Support)
         Gerhard Luehning (Klaro), Co-Sysop (Aminet-Support)
      Kai Szymanski (Kai), Co-Sysop (AR-Support/AmBoS-Support)

                   Usenet:  user_name@doom.ping.de
            Line 1  +49 (0)4223 8355  19200  V.42bis/Zyx
            Line 2  +49 (0)4223 3256  16800  V.42bis/Zyx
            Line 3  +49 (0)4223 3313  16800  V.42bis/Zyx
               Sysop Email:  marc_doerre@doom.ping.de
                  AR-Infoservice : kai@doom.ping.de

@endnode
@node P9-B13 "RedEye BBS"
@toc P5B-4B
                               REDEYE BBS
                    * Running EXCELSIOR/UUCP/AFAX *
       "Official Amiga Report Distribution Site Germany/Europe"
                         Sysop: Thorsten Meyer
                Internet: sysop@redeye.muc.de
                Line 1: +49-89-5460535 (V.32b, Zyxel EG + / USR V.34)
                           24hrs - 7 days
                           Munich, Germany

                  Areas for Amiga, PCs, Amiga Report,
                  WAU Main Coordinator for Germany,
                  Game Byte, Graphic Stuff, 3D-Exchange,
                  3D-tools, 3D-objects, GUS, PAS, DOOM,
                  Online CD, Online Games, USENET, INTERNET,
                  FIDO ECHOS, Developer

@endnode
@node P9-B14 "Virtual Palace BBS"
@toc P5B-4B

                            * Virtual Palace BBS *

                  * Official Amiga Report Distribution Site *
                * Official Amiga Report Disk Distribution Site *

                                916-343-7420

                            300-14400 Baud  V.42bis
                          AmiExpress 2.40 700 Mbytes

                                 P.O. Box 5518
                            Chico, California 95927

                        Tibor G. Balogh (Tibor), Sysop
                     Sysop Email: tibor@ecst.csuchico.edu

                      Leland Whitlock (Leland), Co-Sysop

@endnode
@node P9-B15 "X-TReMe BBS"
@toc P5B-4B
                          -*+*/+ X-TReMe BBS +/*+*-
                              Pygor & The Doctor
                              +31-167064414 (24h)
                       Internet: u055231@vm.uci.kun.nl

 _______ .__ _____
/_ .__//_/ //.___/ Bitnet: u055231 at HNYKUN11
./ //.__ .//.___/  Internet: u055231@vm1.uci.kun.nl
/_//_/ /_//____/.  BBS: +31-1670-64414 (24h)
 . ___ .____ ______________ _____  .    .
. /  .\/ . // _ /_. __/ . //.__ .\    .
 / /  / / // /_. / /./ / // __ \ / .
/___//___//___/./_/ /___//_/. \_/

@endnode
@node P9-B16 "Vision Thing BBS"
@toc P5B-4B
             Vision Thing
             Infect East German HQ, Keks ASCII Design World HQ
             Running CNET 3.xx
             about 800 MB HD Space
             The Amiga Report downloader connects with
             Handle:    Amiga
              PW:       Report
             ++49(0)345 663914
             Speed up to 19200.

@endnode
@node P9-B17 "Amiga Professional BBS"
@toc P5B-4B

                          AMIGA PROFESSIONAL BBS

                              +(39)-49-604488
                              24h - 365 days
                        ZyXEL V42/42bis MNP5, 16.8K
                    Hardware Amiga 3000T 1GByte SCSI-HD
                          Software AmiExpress BBS
                SysOp Claudio Zanella, 35133 PADOVA - ITALY
                  Official board of Amy Professional Club
                    Official WAU point North East Italy
                        Official Italian Amos Club
                  Official Amiga Report Distribution Site
              AMIGA ONLY, development, gfx, musix, no piracy

@endnode
@node P9-B18 "The Belfry(!)"
@toc P5B-4B

                             * The Belfry(!) *

              Sysop: Jesse Erlbaum (stiggy@dorsai.dorsai.org

                 An East Coast distributor of Amiga Report
                      Amiga-run BBS since August 1989

                               718.793.4796
                               718.793.4905
@endnode
@node P9-B19 "OdySSEY BBS"
@toc P5B-4B
                           <-+- OdySSEY BBS -+->
                . Official AMIGA REPORT Distribution Site --- GREECE
                . Supporting Amiga Message/File Areas ONLY
                . Supporting the A-net ! (Amiga only NET!)
                . The 1st Amiga BBS in Greece

                    *** SysOp :   Konstantiniadis Manos ***
                            -->email: konem@hol.ath.forthnet.gr
                                      2:410/128.17@fidonet
                    *** CoSysOp : Aggelos Poulakis ***
                            -->email: poumas@hol.ath.forthnet.gr

                  Line 1: +++ 301-412-3502 (MNP5,v42bis)
         (*ONLY* after 23:00 local time,due to technical problems)
@endnode
@node P9-B20 "Amiga Server BBS"

                           * Amiga Server BBS *
                       Largest Amiga BBS in Mexico.

                            Sysop: Jose Estrada
                              Number: 5158736

                        Now with 17 cd's available

                  Soon: Link with the soon to come 3D BBS

@endnode
@node P6-3 "Dealer Directory"
@toc "menu"

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

                          Arranged by Continent:

                          @{"      Asia       ", link P6-3-1}

                          @{"     Europe      ", link P6-3-2}

                          @{"  North America  ", link P6-3-3}


          (Dealers: To have your name added, please send @{"Email", link P8-1}!)

@endnode
@node P6-3-1 "Dealers - Asia"
@toc P6-3

===========================================================================
==                            Dealers - Asia                             ==
===========================================================================

                           Grey Matter Ltd.
                             Amiga RuleZ!
                         1-22-3,Minami Magome
                      HillTop House 2F suite 201
                          Ota-ku,Tokyo 143
                                Japan
             Tel:+81 (0)3 5709-5549     Fax:+81 (0)3 5709-1907
               and of course the BEST Amiga BBS in Japan
       BBS:Grey Matter BBS +81 (0)3 5709-1907 (8N1 V32bis 24H )
               Email: nighty@gmatter.japan-online.or.jp

@endnode
@node P6-3-2 "Dealers - Europe"
@toc P6-3

===========================================================================
==                           Dealers - Europe                            ==
===========================================================================

                           Almathera Systems Ltd
                             Southerton House
                          Boundary Business Court
                             92-94 Church Road
                              Mitcham, Surrey
                              CR4 3TD England
            VOICE: (UK) 081 687 0040     FAX: (UK) 081 687 0490
 Sales: almathera@cix.compulink.co.uk     Tech: jralph@cix.compulink.co.uk

                           Amiga Center Alicante
                                Segura, 27
                              03004 Alicante
                                   Spain
                            Tel: (96) 514 37 34

                               Amiga Center
                               Argullós, 127
                              08016 Barcelona
                                   Spain
                Tel: (93) 276 38 06     Fax: (93) 276 30 80

                        Brian Fowler Computers Ltd
                                11 North St
                                  Exeter
                                   Devon
                                  EX4 3QS
                              United Kingdom
               Voice: (0392) 499 755     Fax: (0392) 423 480
                Internet: brian_fowler@cix.compulink.co.uk

                        Centro Informático Boadilla
                                Convento, 6
                     28660 Boadilla del Monte (Madrid)
                                   Spain
                Tel: (91) 632 27 65     Fax: (91) 632 10 99

                                Centro Mail
                                   Spain
                            Tel: (91) 380 28 92

                               CLICK!  N.V.
                            Boomsesteenweg 468
                        B-2610 Wilrijk - Antwerpen
                             Belgium - Europe
           VOICE: +32 (0)3 828.18.15     FAX: +32 (0)3 828.67.36
           INTERNET: vanhoutv@nbre.nfe.be      FIDO: 2:292/603.9

                                  C.R.E.
                             San Francisco, 85
                          48003 Bilbao (Vizcaya)
                                   Spain
                Tel: (94) 444 98 84     Fax: (94) 444 98 84

                                 CYNOSTIC
                Office O1, Little Heath Industrial Estate,
                             Old Church Road,
                                 Coventry.
                                  CV6 7NB
                              UNITED KINGDOM
             Tel: +44 (0)203 681687     Fax: +44 (0)203 638508
               David Cassidy email: bsupa@csv.warwick.ac.uk

                             DataKompaniet ANS
                             Pb 3187 Munkvoll
                             N-7002 Trondheim
                              Norway - Europe
                           VOICE/FAX: 72 555 149
                      Internet: torrunes@idt.unit.no

                              DataService Oy
                               P.O.  Box 50
                            Kuurinniityntie 30
                                02771 ESPOO
                              Finland, Europe
          Voice: +358 (9) 400 438 301     Fax: +358 (9) 0505 0037

                               Donosti Frame
                           Avda.  de Madrid, 15
                      20011 San Sebastián (Guipuzcoa)
                                   Spain
                Tel: (943) 42 07 45     Fax: (943) 42 45 88

                                 GaliFrame
                           Galerías Príncipe, 22
                             Vigo (Pontevedra)
                                   Spain
                Tel: (986) 22 89 94     Fax: (986) 22 89 94

                                 Invision
                             San Isidro, 12-18
                     28850 Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid)
                                   Spain
              Tel: (91) 676 20 56/59     Fax: (91) 656 10 04

                                 Invision
                               Salamanca, 53
                              46005 Valencia
                                   Spain
              Tel: (96) 395 02 43/44     Fax: (96) 395 02 44

                                  Norsoft
                                Bedoya, 4-6
                               32003 Orense
                                   Spain
                Tel: (988) 24 90 46     Fax: (988) 23 42 07

                                 PiXeLSOFT
                              Felipe II, 3bis
                              34004 Palencia
                                   Spain
                Tel: (979) 71 27 00     Fax: (979) 71 28 28

                                 Tu Amiga
                             Plaza Pedro IV, 3
                       08120 La LLagosta (Barcelona)
                                   Spain
                Tel: (93) 560 76 12     Fax: (93) 560 76 12

                                  vb soft
                               Provenza, 436
                              08025 Barcelona
                                   Spain
                Tel: (93) 456 15 45     Fax: (93) 456 15 45

                            VISAGE COMPUTERS
                            18 Station Road
                                Ilkeston
                               Derbyshire
                                DE7 8TD
                           UNITED KINGDOM
        Tel/Fax: +44 (0)602 444501     Internet: floyd@demon.co.uk
          Suppliers of Amiga Hardware, Software and Public Domain.

@endnode
@node P6-3-3 "Dealers - North America"
@toc P6-3

===========================================================================
==                        Dealers - North America                        ==
===========================================================================

                                AmegaByte!
                             5001 Garrett Ave.
                           Beltsville, MD 20705
                         INTERNET: amega@globe.net
              VOICE: (800) 834-7153   VOICE: (301) 937-1640
                            FAX: (301) 937-1658
                        A Computer Services Company

                           Amigability Computers
                               P.O.  Box 572
                           Plantsville, CT 06479
                            VOICE: 203-276-8175
               Internet: amiga@phantm.UUCP     BIX: jbasile
                    (E-mail to sub. to our mailing list)

                           Amiga Video Solutions
                           1568 Randolph Avenue
                            St.  Paul, MN 55105
                 Voice: 612-698-1175     Fax: 612-224-3823
           BBS: 612-698-1918     Net: wohno001@maroon.tc.umn.edu

                            Apogee Technologies
                          1851 University Parkway
                            Sarasota, FL 34243
                            VOICE: 813-355-6121
            Portal: Apogee     Internet: Apogee@cup.portal.com

                            Armadillo Brothers
                            753 East 3300 South
                           Salt Lake City, Utah
          VOICE: 801-484-2791     Internet: B.GRAY@genie.geis.com

                           Atlantis Kobetek Inc.
                           1496 Lower Water St.
                       Halifax, NS, Canada, B3J 1R9
               Phone: (902)-422-6556     Fax: (902)-423-9339
         BBS: (902)-492-1544     Internet: aperusse@fox.nstn.ns.ca

                               Computer Link
                         Your Amiga/PC connection.
                              6573 middlebelt
                           Garden City MI 48135
                 Voice: 313-522-6005     Fax: 313-522-3119
                         clink@m-net.arbornet.org

                           Computerology Direct
                             Powell River, BC
                              Canada V8A-4Z3
               Authorized Commodore, AT&T/NCR Systems Dealer
               Call 24 hrs.  orders/inquiries: 604/483-3679
          Amiga users ask for HEAD SALES REP for quicker response!

                       Computers International, Inc.
                             5415 Hixson Pike
                           Chattanooga, TN 37343
                            VOICE: 615-843-0630

                        Comspec Communications Inc
                  Serving your computing needs since 1976
                              74 Wingold Ave
                     Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6B 1P5
                      Computer Centre: (416) 785-8348
                Sales: (416) 785-3553     Fax: 416-785-3668
      Internet: bryanf@comcorp.comspec.com, bryanf@accesspt.north.net

                               Digital Arts
                            122 West 6th Street
                           Bloomington, IN 47404
                VOICE: (812)330-0124     FAX: (812)330-0126
                                BIX: msears

                           Finetastic Computers
                           721 Washington Street
                            Norwood, MA  02062
                 VOICE: 617-762-4166     BBS: 617-769-3172
              Fido: 1:101/322     Portal: FinetasticComputers
               Internet:  FinetasticComputers@cup.portal.com

                      HIGHLAND GREY CONSULTING, INC.
              Customer Service Centre            Head Office
              4704E - 49 Ave.                    R.R. 1
              Camrose, Alberta,                  Ohaton, Alberta
              Canada                             Canada
              T4V-3K9                            T0B-3P0
               VOICE: (403) 679-2242     FAX: (403) 672-0303
                  Sales and Service; Same Phone #'s!
             Apple, Amiga, IBM/Clone and Macintosh Systems

                               HT Electronics
                         275 North Mathilda Avenue
                           Sunnyvale, CA  94086
                 VOICE: 408-737-0900     FAX: 408-245-3109
    Portal: HT Electronics     Internet: HT Electronics@cup.portal.com

                           Industrial Video, Inc.
                           1601 North Ridge Rd.
                             Lorain, OH  44055
                    VOICE: 800-362-6150,  216-233-4000
                  Internet:  af741@cleveland.freenet.edu
                            Contact:  John Gray

                                Keizer Tech
                              3881 River Rd N
                             Keizer, OR 97303
                                    USA
                              Voice: 393-5472

                                Magic Page
                            3043 Luther Street
                          Winston-Salem, NC 27127
                          910-785-3695 voice/fax
                           Spiff@cup.portal.com

                                MicroSearch
                        9000 US 59 South, Suite 330
                              Houston, Texas
                 VOICE: 713-988-2818     FAX: 713-995-4994

                          Mr. Hardware Computers
                               P.O. Box 148
                              59 Storey Ave.
                          Central Islip, NY 11722
                 VOICE: 516-234-8110     FAX: 516-234-8110
                         A.M.U.G. BBS:  516-234-6046

                     MusicMart:  Media Sound & Vision
                            71 Wellington Road
                          London, Ontario, Canada
                 VOICE: 519-434-4162     FAX: 519-663-8074
                  BBS: 519-645-2144     FIDO: 1:2401/200
                  AmigaNet: 40:550/1     MaxNet: 90:204/1
                      InterNet: koops@gaul.csd.uwo.ca

                              PSI Animations
                         17924 SW Pilkington Road
                          Lake Oswego, OR  97035
                           VOICE:  503-624-8185
                     Internet:  PSIANIM@agora.rain.com

                           Software Plus Chicago
                         2945 W Peterson Suite 209
                             Chicago, Illinois
                           VOICE:  312-878-7800
               Software and Service in Chicago - Will ship.

                           Wonder Computers Inc.
                             1315 Richmond Rd.
                      Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2B 8J7
                 Voice: 613-596-2542     Fax: 613-596-9349
                            BBS:  613-829-0909

                                Zipperware
                            626 S. Washington
                           Seattle, WA  98104
                 VOICE: 206-223-1107     FAX: 206-223-9395
               E-Mail: Jon.Funfar@p0.f203.n138.z1.fidonet.org
                    "Seattle's Last (great) Amiga Store!"

@endnode
@node P1 "Editorial and Opinion"
@toc "menu"

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

@{"  compt.sys.editor.desk  " link P1-1} It's alive...

@{" Darkseid's Padded Cell  " link P1-2} We find the name appropriate.

@{"      Reality Check      " link P1-3} The secrets of the universe for $9.95?
@endnode
@node P2 "News and Features"
@toc "menu"

===========================================================================
==                           News and Features                           ==
===========================================================================

@{"         Press Releases        " link P2-1} Stuff people want you to know.

@{"    CEI Conference on IRC!     " link P2-3} The amazingly large conference.

@{"     Soft-Logik Conference     " link P2-4} PageStream 3.0 lowdown and more

@{"   Workbench Christmas List    " link P2-5} What changes would YOU like?

@{"     The Humor Department      " link P2-2} Just a couple of snicks

@endnode
@node P3 "Reviews"
@toc "menu"

===========================================================================
==                                Reviews                                ==
===========================================================================

@{"   CEI A1962 14 inch Monitor    " link P3-1} If you need 15khz...

@{"           Conundrum            " link P3-2} Bathroom tile puzzler

@{" Music MOD and Sound Effects CD " link P3-3} A boatload of audio

@{"           NewIcons             " link P3-4} Hermes' Hyper-Text Review

@{"         GVP ioExtender         " link P3-5} Port expansion...

@{"  Magitronic C-SV1500P Monitor  " link P3-6} High resolution, no 15khz...

@{"        Transition V1.2         " link P3-7} Picture transmutation

@endnode
@node P7 "FTP and Product Announcements"
@toc menu

===========================================================================
==                     FTP and Product Announcements                     ==
===========================================================================

@{"    On the Ball V1.30 demo     " link P7-1} Keep yourself organized.

@{" Wacom Digitizer Tablet Driver " link P7-2} Fairly self-explanatory.

@{"     Textfield Gadget 2.0      " link P7-3} If you're a BOOPSI fan...

@{"        Serial Stratego        " link P7-4} The board game, long-distance.

@{"          DoIcon 1.2           " link P7-5} .info file manipulations

@{"        ShadowStart 1.0        " link P7-6} Disable startup scripts

@{"          PriMan 2.0           " link P7-7} Task monitoring

@{"          EpsLab 1.02          " link P7-8} Mess with PostScript files

@{"   ImageFX 2.0 Demo Pictures   " link P7-9} You can peek...

@{"   Epson Stylus Color Driver   " link P7-10} Also self-explanatory

@{"         Plantation 1.0        " link P7-11} Manages networked LightWave machines

@{"     Kill the Little Dudes     " link P7-12} Apparently, a platformer...

| The 10 most downloaded files from Aminet during the week until 27-Nov-94
| Updated weekly. Most popular file on top.
|
|File               Dir        Size Description
|------------------ ---        ---- -----------
PGPAmi26ui.lha      util/crypt 624K+PGPAmiga 2.6ui
rhslip38.9_030.lha  comm/net    54K+Sana2 (c)slip.device, 030 version
Knights242.lha      game/2play 223K+Two-player violent dungeon bashing
NewIcons.lha        pix/icon    22K+Various 4 color icons
Yahzee.lha          game/2play  33K+French catalog included (still v1.3).
MUIBuilderV20.lha   dev/gui    528K+Interface Builder for MUI V2.2
apcd.lha            gfx/conv     5K+Convert PhotoCD picture to IFF
IITextures.lha      gfx/3d      20K+8 Imagine 3.0 Textures. 020+FP only.
AmiCDROM-1.15.lha   disk/cdrom 197K+CDROM disk filesystem (ISO-9660+RR+HFS)
AWS-15.lha          util/boot   55K+Shows config during boot.
@endnode
@node P2-2 "The Humor Department"
@toc P2

===========================================================================
==                         The Humor Department                          ==
===========================================================================

(We decided to bypass the Pentium jokes for now...)


50 WAYS TO CONFUSE, WORRY, OR JUST SCARE THE BEJEEZUS OUT OF PEOPLE IN THE
                               COMPUTER LAB

1.  Log on, wait a sec, then get a frightened look on your face and scream
    "Oh my God!  They've found me!" and bolt.

2.  Laugh uncontrollably for about 3 minutes & then suddenly stop and look
    suspiciously at everyone who looks at you.

3.  When your computer is turned off, complain to the monitor on duty that
    you can't get the damn thing to work.  After he/she's turned it on,
    wait 5 minutes,turn it off again, & repeat the process for a good half
    hour.

4.  Type frantically, often stopping to look at the person next to you
    evilly.

5.  Before anyone else is in the lab, connect each computer to different
    screen than the one it's set up with.

6.  Write a program that plays the "Smurfs" theme song and play it at the
    highest volume possible over & over again.

7.  Work normally for a while.  Suddenly look amazingly startled by
    something on the screen and crawl underneath the desk.

8.  Ask the person next to you if they know how to tap into top-secret
    Pentagon files.

9.  Use Interactive Send to make passes at people you don't know.

10. Make a small ritual sacrifice to the computer before you turn it on.

11. Bring a chainsaw, but don't use it.  If anyone asks why you have it,
    say "Just in case..." mysteriously.

12. Type on VAX for a while.  Suddenly start cursing for 3 minutes at
    everything bad about your life.  Then stop and continue typing.

13. Enter the lab,undress, and start staring at other people as if
    they're crazy while typing.

14. Light candles in a pentagram around your terminal before starting.

15. Ask around for a spare disk.  Offer $2.  Keep asking until someone
    agrees. Then, pull a disk out of your fly and say, "Oops, I forgot." 

16. Every time you press Return and there is processing time required,
    pray "Ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease," and scream "YES!" when it
    finishes.

17. "DISK FIGHT!!!" 

18. Start making out with the person at the terminal next to you (It helps
    if you know them, but this is also a great way to make new friends).

19. Put a straw in your mouth and put your hands in your pockets. Type by
    hitting the keys with the straw.

20. If you're sitting in a swivel chair, spin around singing "The Lion
    Sleeps Tonight" whenever there is processing time required.

21. Draw a pictue of a woman (or man) on a piece of paper, tape it
    to your monitor.  Try to seduce it.  Act like it hates you and then
    complain loudly that women (men) are worthless.

22. Try to stick a Ninetendo cartridge into the 3 1/2 disc drive, when it
    doesn't work, get the supervisor. 

23. When you are on an IBM, and when you turn it on, ask loudly where the
    smiling Apple face is when you turn on one of those.

24. Print out the complete works of Shakespeare, then when its all done
    (two days later) say that all you wanted was one line.

25. Sit and stare at the screen, biting your nails noisely.  After doing
    this for a while, spit them out at the feet of the person next to
    you.

26. Stare at the screen, grind your teeth, stop, look at the person
    next to grinding.  Repeat procedure, making sure you never provoke
    the person enough to let them blow up, as this releases tension,
    and it is far more effective to let them linger.

27. If you have long hair, take a typing break, look for split ends, cut
    them and deposit them on your neighbor's keyboard as you leave.

28. Put a large, gold-framed portrait of the British Royal Family on your
    desk and loudly proclaim that it inspires you.

29. Come to the lab wearing several layers of socks.  Remove shoes and
    place them of top of the monitor.  Remove socks layer by layer and
    drape them around the monitor.  Exclaim sudden haiku about the
    aesthetic beauty of cotton on plastic. 

30. Take the keyboard and sit under the computer.  Type up your paper
    like this.  Then go to the lab supervisor and complain about the bad
    working conditions.

31. Laugh hysterically, shout "You will all perish in flames!!!" and
    continue working.

32. Bring som dry ice & make it look like your computer is smoking.

33. Assign a musical note to every key (ie. the Delete key is A Flat,
    the B key is F sharp, etc.).  Whenever you hit a key, hum its note
    loudly. Write an entire pape this way.

34. Attempt to eat your computer's mouse.

35. Borrow someone else's keyboard by reaching over, saying "Excuse me,
    mind if I borrow this for a sec?", unplugging the keyboard & taking
    it.

36. Bring in a bunch of magnets and have fun.

37. When doing calculations, pull out an abacus and say that sometimes
    the old ways are best.

38. Play Pong for hours on the most powerful computer in the lab.

39. Make a loud noise of hitting the same key over and over again until
    you see that your neighbor is noticing (You can hit the space bar so
    your fill isn't affected).  Then look at your neighbor's keyboard.  Hit
    his/her delete key several times, erasing an entire word.  While you do
    this, ask: "Does *your* delete key work?" Shake your head, and resume
    hitting the space bar on your keyboard.  Keep doing this until you've
    deleted about a page of your neighbor's document.  Then, suddenly
    exclaim: "Well, whaddya know?  I've been hitting the space bar this
    whole time.  No wonder it wasn't deleting!  Ha!" Print out your
    document and leave.

40. Remove your disk from the drive and hide it.  Go to the lab monitor
    and complain that your computer ate your disk.  (For special effects,
    put some Elmer's Glue on or around the disk drive.  Claim that the
    computer is drooling.)

41. Stare at the person's next to your's screen, look really puzzled,
    burst out laughing, and say "You did that?" loudly.  Keep laughing,
    grab your stuff and leave, howling as you go.

42. Point at the screen.  Chant in a made up language while making
    elaborate hand gestures for a minute or two.  Press return or the
    mouse, then leap back and yell "COVEEEEERRRRRR!"  peek up from under
    the table, walk back to the computer and say.  "Oh, good.  It worked
    this time," and calmly start to type again.

43. Keep looking at invisible bugs and trying to swat them.

44. See who's online.  Send a total stranger a talk request.  Talk to
    them like you've known them all your lives.  Hangup before they geta
    chance to figure out you're a total stranger.

45. Bring an small tape player with a tape of really absurd sound
    effects.  Pretend it's the computer and look really lost.

46. Pull out a pencil.  Start writing on the screen.  Complain that the
    lead doesn't work.

47. Come into the computer lab wearing several endangered species of
    flowers in your hair.  Smile incessantly.  Type a sentence, then
    laugh happily, exclaim "You're such a marvel!!", and kiss the screen. 
    Repeat this after every sentence.  As your ecstasy mounts, also hug
    the keyboard.  Finally, hug your neighbor, then the computer
    assistant, and walk out.

48. Run into the computer lab, shout "Armageddon is here!!!!!", then
    calmly sit down and begin to type.

49. Quietly walk into the computer lab with a Black and Decker chainsaw,
    rev that baby up, and then walk up to the nearest person and say,
    "Give me that computer or you'll be feeding my pet crocodile for the
    next week". 

50. Two words:  Tesla Coil. 
@endnode
@node P5 "About AMIGA REPORT"
@toc "menu"

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

@{"        AR Staff         " link P5-1} The Editors and writers

@{"  Copyright Information  " link P5-4} The legal stuff

@endnode
@node P5-1 "The Staff"
@toc P5

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

               Editor:               @{" Jason Compton    " link P8-1}

               Senior Editor:        @{" Robert Niles     " link P8-2}

               Assistant Editor:     @{" Katherine Nelson " link P8-3}

               European Editor:      @{" Michael Wolf     " link P8-4}

               Contributing Editor:  @{" David Tiberio    " link P8-5}


                           Contributing Writers:
                           ---------------------

                              _William Near_
                           w.near@genie.geis.com

                           _Hermes Trismegistus_
                            hermes@intercom.com

                               _Roger Boal_
                          ckb426@ujvax.ulst.ac.uk

                            rbeekman@xs4all.nl
@endnode
@node P5B "Where to Get AR"
@toc "menu"

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

                         @{"   The AR Mailing List   " link P5B-1}

                         @{"         Aminet          " link P5B-2}

                         @{"     World Wide Web      " link P5B-3}

                         @{"   Distribution Sites    " link P5B-4}

                         @{"   Commercial Services   " link P6-4}

@endnode
@node P5B-4 "Distribution Sites"
@toc P5B

===========================================================================
==                      Where to find Amiga Report                       ==
===========================================================================

                          @{"   FidoNet Systems   " link P5B-4A}

                          @{" Non-FidoNet Systems " link P5B-4B}
 

@endnode
@node P5B-4A "FidoNet Distribution Sites"
@toc P5B-4

                             FidoNet Systems
                             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Click on the button of the BBS nearest you for information on that system.

  FREQ the filename "AR.LHA" for the most current issue of Amiga Report!

@{"     OMAHA AMIGANET      " link P9-A1} .................................Omaha, Nebraska
@{"          NOVA           " link P9-A2} ............................Cleveland, Tennessee
@{"      PIONEER'S BBS      " link P9-A3} .............................Edmonds, Washington
@{"        CIUA BBS         " link P9-A4} ........................................Portugal
@{"    AMIGA JUNCTION 9     " link P9-A5} ..................................United Kingdom
@{"     BITSTREAM BBS       " link P9-A6} .............................Nelson, New Zealand
@{"   REALM OF TWILIGHT     " link P9-A7} .................................Ontario, Canada
@{"    METNET TRIANGLE      " link P9-A8} .....................Kingston Upon Hull, England
@{"   AMIGA-NIGHT-SYSTEM    " link P9-A9} ...............................Helsinki, Finland
@{" RAMSES THE AMIGA FLYING " link P9-A10} ..........................................France
@{"      GATEWAY BBS        " link P9-A11} .............................Biloxi, Mississippi
@{"    EMERALD KEEP BBS     " link P9-A12} ........................................Illinois
@{"       AMIGA BBS         " link P9-A13} ........................Estado de Mexico, Mexico
@{"   THE STYGIAN ABYSS     " link P9-A14} ...............................Chicago, Illinois
@{"    AMIGA DO PC BSS      " link P9-A15} ................................Campinas, Brazil
@{"     COMM-LINK BBS       " link P9-A16} ......................Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada
@{"    PHANTOM'S  LAIR      " link P9-A17} ......................Glendale Heights, Illinois
@{"    Tierra-Miga BBS      " link P9-A18} ....................................SanDeigo, Ca
@{"  MOONLIGHT SONATA DLG   " link P9-A19} .........................................Finland
@{"   CONTINENTAL DRIFT     " link P9-A20} ...............................Sydney, Australia
@{" Amiga Online Bs H'stede " link P9-A21} .................................The Netherlands
@{"Kobayashi Alternative BBS" link P9-A22} ...........................................Maine
@{"   Highway to Hell BBS   " link P9-A23} .................................Dublin, Ireland
@{"        CUGI BBS         " link P9-A24} .........................................Ireland
@{"      The Hell BBS       " link P9-A25} ..........................The Hague, Netherlands

@endnode
@node P5B-4B "Non-FidoNet Distribution Sites"
@toc P5B-4

                           Non-FidoNet Systems
                           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Click on the button of the BBS nearest you for information on that system.

@{"   FREELAND MAINFRAME    " link P9-B2} .............................Olympia, Washington
@{"          LAHO           " link P9-B3} ..............................Seinajoki, Finland
@{"         FALLING         " link P9-B4} ..........................................Norway
@{"      COMMAND LINE       " link P9-B5} .................................Toronto, Canada
@{"  LEGUANS BYTE CHANNEL   " link P9-B6} .........................................Germany
@{"   STINGRAY DATABASE     " link P9-B7} ..........................Muelheim/Ruhr, Germany
@{"  T.B.P.  VIDEO SLATE    " link P9-B8} ............................Rockaway, New Jersey
@{"     AMIGA CENTRAL       " link P9-B9} ............................Nashville, Tennessee
@{"    GURU MEDITATION      " link P9-B10} ...........................................Spain
@{"   LINKSystem LINK-CH1   " link P9-B11} ..............................Basel, Switzerland
@{"    DOOM OF DARKNESS     " link P9-B12} .................................Bremen, Germany
@{"       REDEYE BBS        " link P9-B13} .................................Munich, Germany
@{"   Virtual Palace BBS    " link P9-B14} .......................................Chico, Ca
@{"      X-TReMe BBS        " link P9-B15} .................................Holland/Belgium
@{"    Vision Thing BBS     " link P9-B16} .........................................Germany
@{"  Amiga Professional BBS " link P9-B17} ...........................................Italy
@{"      The Belfry(!)      " link P9-B18} ....................................New York, NY
@{"       OdySSEY BBS       " link P9-B19} ..........................................Greece
@{"    Amiga Server BBS     " link P9-B20} ..........................................Mexico

@endnode
@node P6 "Commercial Products"
@toc "menu"

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

@{"       Editor's Choice      " link P6-1} Jason's picks

@{"    Area52 Price Listing    " link P6-2} Tiberio wants to sell you stuff.

@{" Commercial Online Services " link P6-4} Sign-Up Information

@endnode
@node P6-4 "Commercial Online Services"
@toc P6

===========================================================================
==                      Commercial Online Services                       ==
===========================================================================

   @{"   Delphi   " link P6-4-1}  Getting better all the time.

   @{"   Portal   " link P6-4-2}  A great place for Amiga users.

   @{"   GEnie    " link P6-4-3}  Internet access, online games, and more.
@endnode
 